News

Authorities have announced plans for a crackdown on a growing homeless camping problem at a South Coast beach. Oxnard, and Port Hueneme Police contacted people in about 30 camps in the Ormond Beach area, and notified them they would have to leave.

More than 3,000 marijuana plants were seized in an illegal growing operation on the Central Coast that authorities think was the work of a Mexican drug ring. The plants were in a rural area of San Luis Obispo County, near Hi Mountain Road close to Lake Lopez.

An actress known for her roles in the TV shows “Melrose Place” and “Spin City” apparently won’t be going to jail for charges she faced for a confrontation with Ventura County Sheriff’s deputies. Heather Locklear entered no contest pleas to eight misdemeanor counts stemming from a pair of incidents involving first responders.

The latest statistics show a slight rise in unemployment for the Central and South Coasts, but a brighter picture statewide. In Ventura County, the jobless rate went from 3.6% in June to 3.9% in July. Santa Barbara County’s unemployment rate climbed from 3.4% to 3.7%. And, in San Luis Obispo County the percentage of people out of work went from an even 3% in June to 3.2% in July.

The Coast Guard made an unusual recovery from the ocean off of Southern California, in the form of dozens of bales of marijuana. 43 bales of marijuana worth about a million dollars were recovered from the water near Catalina. The bales had been wrapped in plastic to protect them marijuana from the ocean.

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s detectives say a number of people in the county have been hit by a scam which literally stinks. Some people have been going door to door in the county selling fertilizer services for lawns. But, investigators say scammers have dumped huge piles of manure on the lawns, and then demanded much more money than was included in the original estimate.