Category: Human Interest

BY DONNA WESTFALL   On Friday, January 25, 2013, my husband, Doug, and I spent 45 minutes discussing the issues surrounding homelessness in our County with Director Mike Justice and his assistant, Daphne Cortese-Dean of OUR DAILY BREAD MINISTRIES and learned about the first death of this winter season. A woman.  She had alcohol problems.  She…

BY KATHERINE KELLY I’m not a huge fan of mice. Usually we try and get rid of them. But I don’t kill things, anything, if I can avoid it. Our former neighbors were hoarders and when they left  they also left a large amount of rodents behind. Houses on both sides became deluged with mice.…

A CARDBOARD BOX © 11-20-11 by Vickey Stamps The place was a large town and one of many. It was modern with a mixture of people of all cultures and ages. It held busy cars, towering buildings and stress filled faces wearing out the concrete with their rushing feet hurrying from work, and others to…

BY MARK SPRINGER   Did you know that a discount, canned goods store originated in Berkeley, California in 1947?  That ‘s part of the Grocery Outlet chain today.  It has expanded to include everything a modern grocery store would have, and some they may not, like fresh potting plants, flowers in seed and planters, fruit…

BY DONNA WESTFALL   Larry Hagman  played the extraordinary villain J.R. Ewing on “Dallas,” and love interest on “I Dream Of Jeanie” opposite actress Barbara Eden.   Hagman, 81, died of  complications of throat cancer in a Dallas hospital. Larry Hagman lived in Upper Ojai of Southern California.  We met him in the ’90’s after…