Two organizations dedicated to military personnel are locked in conflict over a Bible display dedicated to POWs and service members missing in action.
The Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New Hampshire featured the Bible, which belonged to a prisoner of war in WWII, as part of a memorial called The Missing Man Table. The medical center removed the Bible in response to a complaint from Military Religious Freedom Foundation claiming that it constituted government preference of one religion over another, but the bible’s new placement in a nearby display case angered the organization even more. (RELATED: Navy Investigates Complaints Of Christian Evangelization In Military Hospital)
“That is still a Christian Bible. It is still promoting — particularly in the surrounding aspect of the POW-MIA remembrance, one of the most sacred things you could do in the military — one faith over another faith,” organization spokesman Mikey Weinstein told WMUR9.
A concerned veteran of the Manchester VA Medical Center reported to FFRF that the center’s “missing man” table display honoring POW/MIA soldiers included a bible. FFRF took action to ensure that non-Christian service members were being equally honored. https://t.co/OSicvjUl9Jpic.twitter.com/LkAzhDCje9
Paul Martin of The Northeast POW-MIA Network, which constructed The Missing Man Table in 2018, countered that the Bible is a historic artifact symbolic of the WWII POW’s strength of faith and hope that he would return home. Martin said the Bible is not a government establishment of religion and that his organization hopes to return it to the memorial display under a protective casing to prevent damage and theft.
“That Bible is not just a religious artifact. That some people would say they’re stuffing religion down my throat. What it means is this guy held on to a lot of faith and hope, family and trust in this nation that they would do everything they possibly could to bring him home,” Martin said.
Get your game on at the grand opening festivities at Code Ninjas Thousand Oaks, Wednesday, March 6 from 4:00pm to 5:00pm, featuring celebrity guest Rolland Williams, NFL Legend and Rams Super Bowl Champion. Free event.
Celebrate an amazing new learning center where kids ages 7-14 learn to code by building games they love to play. They write the rules and develop skills while discovering the world of digital technology.
At Code Ninjas Thousand Oaks, boys and girls can build and play video games alongside their friends, all-the-while learning to code. Coding is “the new literacy of the 21st Century.” Best of all, they are doing what they love and it’s fun! Kids gain problem solving skills, develop logical thinking processes, build leadership skills, and grow their self-confidence.
Guided by “Senseis” (instructors), “ninjas” embark on an immersive journey through the world of digital technology that also includes “STEM” stations (Science; Technology; Engineering; Math), laying the foundation for a lifelong learning track in the STEM field. Ninjas learn to write code for a variety of games; some of which they are already playing at home like Roblox and Minecraft. Levels of ninja mastery mirror those of the martial arts ascension to black belt. Once a ninja has proven that they have what it takes to become a black belt, the ninja will have conceptualized, designed, built and published their own app on the App Store.
“Growing up as a techie guy always interested in computers, I wish there was a place like this for me to go when I was young,” says Scott Matalon who purchased the Code Ninjas franchise. “I want to give youngsters in the community a jump-start in the job market of the future. Think about this: Gen Z’s (kids born from 1996 on) have never known life without the internet, social media, or smartphones. Their entire world involves some form of technology. Code Ninjas gives these kids an avenue to explore their world, their passions.”
Kids look forward to being at the center and parents love being able to log into their parent portal to see what their child has created. Fridays offer “Parents Night Out” and special events include birthday parties, and summer camps, just to name a few. Phone: 805-492-CODE (2633)
Mar 15, 7:15-9 p.m. “Ultra-Luminous X-Ray Sources.” Dr Omer Blaes of UCSB will show us the “brightest” x-ray sources in our universe and discuss what is known about these mysterious phenomena. Moorpark College Forum – Moorpark College Forum, 7075 campus Dr. Admission and parking are free. www.VCAS.org
PSA for Ventura County Astronomical Society – Fri Mar 15 2019
7:15 – 9 pm, Moorpark College Forum
7075 Campus Rd, Moorpark 93021
Federal Non-Profit # 95-3162618
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San Luis Obispo, Calif. – Businesses can meet resource partners and learn strategies to become more competitive in cybersecurity-related opportunities at the free Tri-County Defense Supply Chain and Business Resource Fair, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., April 26, at the California Cybersecurity Institute (CCI) at Camp San Luis Obispo, 10 Sonoma Ave, San Luis Obispo. All businesses interested or already participating in government contracting are welcome. Defense contractors or subcontractors are especially encouraged to attend.
The Economic Development Collaborative (EDC), in partnership with the California Community Colleges Doing What Matters for Small Business, the San Diego East County Economic Development Council and the Employment Training Panel are hosting this event to help connect businesses to government procurement opportunities as part of the California Advanced Supply Chain Analysis and Diversification Effort (CASCADE) initiative. Businesses will have the opportunity to attend workshops and connect with resources to be more competitive and become more resilient in cybersecurity.
“EDC and its Small Business Development Center serve as a hub for businesses throughout the Tri-County Region, including those interested in serving the aerospace and defense supply chain,” said Bruce Stenslie, EDC president and CEO. “This informative free event will help small businesses learn how to be competitive in the government market and find out which government agencies buy what they are already selling.”
The event will feature a series of workshops, networking with presenters and attendees and presentations by industry experts including Chris Buthe, manager of Cyber Physical Security Services, Elizabeth Liddell, program manager with the East County Economic Development Council, Jo Marie Diamond, president and CEO of the San Diego East County Economic Development Council and Gayla Jurevich, deputy sector navigator for the Small Business South Central Region and director at the Cuesta College Business and Entrepreneurship Center, among others. Lunch and light breakfast will be provided.
EDC is a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a business-to-government liaison to assist businesses in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties by offering programs that enhance the economic vitality of the region. For more information about the Small Business Development Center, loan programs, manufacturing outreach and international trade programs, or other services available to small businesses through EDC, contact Bruce Stenslie at 805-384-1800 ext. 24 or [email protected]. Or visit www.edcollaborative.com.
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Several states are considering cutting taxes and putting money aside to protect themselves during future recessions as state economies continue to boom since President Donald Trump took office.
Many U.S. states are experiencing thriving economies; more than 40 will meet or exceed revenue expectations, according to a survey from The National Conference of State Legislatures, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
“States have come off of a strong last fiscal year, and the economy is strong so they’re expecting it to continue,” Tax Policy Center senior fellow Kim Rueben said. “It could mean more spending or cutting taxes.”
Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson slashed the state’s top income tax rate to 5.9 percent from 6.9 percent over two years, starting in 2020.
“As we attract more business, we will create more jobs, and higher-paying jobs, which will lead to higher salaries and an improved quality of life for all Arkansans,” Hutchinson said after signing the bill, according to Banner News.
“This reduction enhances Arkansas’s reputation as one of the most business-friendly states in the region,” he added.
Arkansas has a long-term reserve fund balance of $125 million, according to TheWSJ.
South Carolina is considering providing a tax rebate to all persons who file tax returns. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster is seeking to give $200 million back to taxpayers, TheWSJ reported. The state boasts $1 billion in surplus revenue acquired from a two-year net surplus.
Wisconsin lawmakers voted in favor of tax cuts after the state is expected to report a revenue surplus of over $600 million, according to TheWSJ. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the measure.
State reserve funds are also increasing significantly as states set aside more money to draw from during recessions. Reserve funds grew close to $33 billion in total between fiscal year 2010 and 2018, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Some states, like Illinois and Connecticut, face large deficits. New York is also expected to fall short of its expected revenue, according to TheWSJ.
President Donald Trump took a moment to honor a real hero during a pit stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) Thursday.
The president was en route to the White House — following the abrupt end of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — when he stopped off at JBER to speak with the troops. (RELATED: Sarah Sanders Shares Video Of Troops Cheering Trump)
WATCH:
After speaking briefly about planned advancements for the military, Trump turned his attention to Sgt. Sean Rogers, who was recently awarded a Bronze Star.
“Among those with us is sergeant John Rogers who a few weeks ago received the Bronze Star for valor,” Trump said. “Where is Sean, where is Sean, Sergeant Sean? Around here someplace … where are you?”
“Handsome devil, come up here, come up … should I bring him up?” Trump continued as the crowd cheered. “I won’t bring up the generals. I won’t bring the generals up, but come on, Sean, get up here. Don’t worry about Secret Service. You can take them, Sean.”
Trump then turned to the audience, joking, “Secret Service immediately runs up …”
The president greeted Sgt. Rogers as he stepped onto the stage, and asked whether he’d like to say anything. “No, sir. Just thank you, I guess,” was all Rogers replied.
Trump went on to describe in harrowing detail how exactly Rogers had earned his Bronze Star. “Brave guy,” he said. “He rushed into the enemy fire to rescue a member of his team.”
By Stephen Frank, California Political News and Views
How do you destroy religion and Faith in California—make Pastors, Rabbi’s and Priest “stoolies” for government. Make them snitches.
“Bill 360, introduced by Democrat state Sen. Jerry Hill, would “delete that exception for a penitential communication, thereby requiring clergy to make a mandated report even if they acquired the knowledge or reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.” This is an egregious overreach of secular authority, stepping into sacred religious rites, and will not protect children or stem the tide of child abuse.
It’s not hard to understand the climate spawning this bill. Constant scandals of sexual abuse within churches, internally investigated and covered up, sometimes for decades, have left a bad taste in the mouths of many. Yet this is an overreaction—a pendulum swing too far—and will only hurt more people.
Once this portion of the relationship between congregant and religious leader has ended, how do you trust them with any secret. Imagine the Catholic Church without a confessional? This is how Socialist/Democrats kill religion. Ready for secret societies like they had one thousand years ago.
Stephen Frank: Is the the publisher and editor of the California Political News and Views. Mr. Frank speaks all over California and appears as a guest on several radio shows each week. He has also served as a guest host on radio talk shows and is a full time political consultant. http://capoliticalnews.com/
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The illegal effort to destroy the 2016 Trump campaign by Hillary Clinton campaign’s use of funds to create, disseminate among court media, and then salt among high Obama administration officials, a fabricated, opposition smear dossier failed.
So has the second special prosecutor phase of the coup to abort the Trump presidency failed. There are many elements to what in time likely will become recognized as the greatest scandal in American political history, marking the first occasion in which U.S. government bureaucrats sought to overturn an election and to remove a sitting U.S. president.
Preparing the Battlefield No palace coup can take place without the perception of popular anger at a president.
The deep state is by nature cowardly. It does not move unless it feels it can disguise its subterranean efforts or that, if revealed, those efforts will be seen as popular and necessary—as expressed in tell-all book titles such as fired FBI Directors James Comey’s Higher Loyalty or in disgraced Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s psychodramatic The Threat.
In candidate and President Trump’s case that prepping of the battlefield translated into a coordinated effort among the media, political progressives and celebrities to so demonize Trump that his imminent removal likely would appear a relief to the people. Anything was justified that led to that end.
All through the 2016 campaign and during the first two years of the Trump presidency the media’s treatment, according to liberal adjudicators of press coverage, ran about 90 percent negative toward Trump—a landmark bias that continues today.
Journalists themselves consulted with the Clinton campaign to coordinate attacks. From the Wikileaks trove, journalistic grandees such as John Harwood, Mark Leibovich, Dana Milbank, and Glenn Thrush often communicated (and even post factum were unapologetic about doing so) with John Podesta’s staff to construct various anti-Trump themes and have the Clinton campaign review or even audit them in advance.
Some contract “journalists” apparently were paid directly by Fusion GPS—created by former reporters Glen Simpson of the Wall Street Journal and Susan Schmidt of the Washington Post—to spread lurid stories from the dossier. Others more refined like Christiane Amanpour and James Rutenberg had argued for a new journalistic ethos that partisan coverage was certainly justified in the age of Trump, given his assumed existential threat to The Truth. Or as Rutenberg put it in 2016: “If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. That’s uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, non-opinion journalist I’ve ever known, and by normal standards, untenable. But the question that everyone is grappling with is: Do normal standards apply? And if they don’t, what should take their place?”
I suppose Rutenberg never considered that half the country might have considered the Hillary Clinton presidency “potentially dangerous,” and yet did not expect the evening news, in 90 percent of its coverage, to reflect such suspicions.
The Democratic National Committee’s appendages often helped to massage CNN news coverage—such as Donna Brazile’s primary debate tip-off to the Clinton campaign or CNN’s consultation with the DNC about forming talking points for a scheduled Trump interview.
So-called “bombshell,” “watershed,” “turning-point,” and “walls closing in” fake news aired in 24-hour news bulletin cycles. The media went from fabrications about Trump’s supposed removal of the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office, to the mythologies in the Steele dossier, to lies about the Trump Tower meeting, to assurances that Michael Cohen would testify to Trump’s suborning perjury, and on and on.
CNN soon proved that it is no longer a news organization at all—as reporters like Gloria Borger, Chris Cuomo, Eric Lichtblau, Manu Raju, Brian Rokus, Jake Tapper, Jeff Zeleny, and teams such as Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen as well as Thomas Frank, and Lex Harris all trafficked in false rumors and unproven gossip detrimental to Trump, while hosts and guest hosts such as Reza Aslan, the late Anthony Bourdain, and Anderson Cooper stooped to obscenity and grossness to attack Trump.
Both politicos and celebrities tried to drive Trump’s numbers down to facilitate some sort of popular ratification for his removal. Hollywood and the coastal corridor punditry exhausted public expressions of assassinating or injuring the president, as the likes of Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Robert de Niro, Peter Fonda, Kathy Griffin, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and a host of others vied rhetorically to slice apart, shoot, beat up, cage, behead, and blow up the president.
Left wing social media and mainstream journalism spread sensational lies about supposed maniacal Trump supporters in MAGA hats. They constructed fantasies that veritable white racists were now liberated to run amuck insulting and beating up people of color as they taunted the poor and victimized minorities with vicious Trump sloganeering—even as the Covington farce and now the even more embarrassing Jussie Smollett charade evaporated without apologies from the media and progressive merchants of such hate.
At the same time, liberal attorneys, foundations, Democratic politicians, and progressive activists variously sued to overturn the election on false charges of rigged voting machines. They sought to subvert the Electoral College. They introduced articles of impeachment. They sued to remove Trump under the Emoluments Clause. They attempted to invoke the 25th Amendment. And they even resurrected the ossified Logan Act—before focusing on the appointment of a special counsel to discredit the Trump presidency. Waiting for the 2020 election was seen as too quaint.
Weaponizing the Deep State During the 2016 election, the Obama Department of Justice warped the Clinton email scandal investigation, from Bill Clinton’s secret meeting on an airport tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, to unethical immunity given to the unveracious Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, to James Comey’s convoluted predetermined treatment of “likely winner” Clinton, and to DOJ’s Bruce Ohr’s flagrant conflict of interests in relation to Fusion GPS.
About a dozen FBI and DOJ grandees have now resigned, retired, been fired, or reassigned for unethical and likely illegal behavior—and yet have not faced criminal indictments. The reputation of the FBI as venerable agency is all but wrecked. Its administrators variously have libeled the Trump voters, expressed hatred for Trump, talked of “insurance policies” in ending the Trump candidacy, and inserted informants into the Trump campaign.
The former Obama directors of the CIA and National Intelligence, with security clearances intact, hit the television airways as paid “consultants” and almost daily accused the sitting president of Russian collusion and treason—without cross-examination or notice that both previously had lied under oath to Congress (and did so without subsequent legal exposure), and both were likely knee-deep in the dissemination of the Steele dossier among Obama administration officials.
John Brennan’s CIA likely helped to spread the Fusion GPS dossier among elected and administrative state officials. Some in the NSC in massive and unprecedented fashion requested the unmasking of surveilled names of Trump subordinates, and then illegally leaked them to the press.
The FISA courts, fairly or not, are now mostly discredited, given they either were willingly or naively hoodwinked by FBI and DOJ officials who submitted as chief evidence for surveillance on American citizens, an unverified dossier—without disclosure that the bought campaign hit-piece was paid for by Hillary Clinton, authored by a discredited has-been British agent, relied on murky purchased Russian sources, and used in circular fashion to seed news accounts of supposed Trump misbehavior.
The Mueller Investigation The Crown Jewel in the coup was the appointment of special counsel Robert Muller to discover supposed 2016 Trump-Russian election collusion. Never has any special investigation been so ill-starred from its conception.
Mueller’s appointment was a result of his own friend James Comey’s bitter stunt of releasing secret, confidential and even classified memos of presidential conversations. Acting DOJ Attorney Rod Rosenstein appointed a former colleague Mueller—although as a veteran himself of the Clinton email scandal investigations and the FISA fraudulent writ requests, Rosenstein was far more conflicted than was the recused Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Mueller then packed his investigative team with lots of Clinton donors and partisans, some of whom had legally represented Clinton subordinates and even the Clinton Foundation or voiced support for anti-Trump movements.
Mueller himself and Andrew Weissmann have had a long record of investigatory and prosecutorial overreach that had on occasion resulted in government liability and court mandated federal restitution. In such polarized times, neither should have involved in such an investigation. Two subordinate FBI investigators were caught earlier on conducting an affair over their FBI-issued cell phones, and during the election cycle they slurred the object of their subsequent investigation, ridiculed Trump voters, and bragged that Trump would never be elected. Mueller later staggered, and then hid for weeks the reasons for, their respective firings.
The team soon discovered there was no Trump-Russian 2016 election collusion—and yet went ahead to leverage Trump campaign subordinates on process crimes in hopes of finding some culpability in Trump’s past 50-year business, legal, and tax records. The point was not to find who colluded with whom (if it had been, then Hillary Clinton would be now indicted for illegally hiring with campaign funds a foreign national to buy foreign fabrications to discredit her opponent), but to find the proper mechanism to destroy the presumed guilty Donald Trump.
The Mueller probe has now failed in that gambit of proving “collusion” (as even progressive investigative reporters and some FBI investigators had predicted), but succeeded brilliantly in two ways.
The “counterintelligence” investigation subverted two years of the Trump presidency by constant leaks that Trump soon would be indicted, jailed, disgraced, or impeached. As a result, Trump’s stellar economic and foreign policy record would never earn fifty percent of public support.
Second, Mueller’s preemptive attacks offered an effective offensive defense for the likely felonious behavior of John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Peter Strzok, and a host of others. While the Mueller lawyers threatened to destroy the lives of bit players like Jerome Corsi, George Papadopoulos, and Roger Stone, they de facto provided exemption to a host of the Washington hierarchy who had lied under oath, obstructed justice, illegally leaked to the press, unmasked and leaked names of surveilled Americans, and misled federal courts under the guise of a “higher loyalty” to the cause of destroying Donald J. Trump.
The Palace Coup All of the above came to a head with the firing of the chronic leaker FBI Director James Comey (who would lie to the president about his not being a target of an FBI investigation, lie to House investigatory committees by pleading amnesia and ignorance on 245 occasions, and repeatedly lie to his own FBI bureaucrats).
In May 2017, acting FBI director Andrew McCabe took over from the fired Comey. His candidate wife recently had been a recipient of huge Clinton-related campaign PAC donations shortly before he began investigating the Clinton email scandal. McCabe would soon be cited by the Inspector General for lying to federal investigators on numerous occasions—cynically stooping even to lie to his own New York FBI subordinates to invest scarce resources to hunt for their own nonexistent leaks as a mechanism for disguising his own quite real and illegal leaking.
The newly promoted McCabe apparently felt that it was his moment to become famous for taking out a now President Trump. Thus, he assembled a FBI and DOJ cadre to open a counterintelligence investigation of the sitting president on no other grounds but the fumes of an evaporating Clinton opposition dossier and perceived anger among the FBI that their director had just been fired. In addition, apparently now posing as Andrew McCabe, MD, he informally head counted how many of Trump’s own cabinet members could be convinced by McCabe’s own apparent medical expertise to help remove the president on grounds of physical and mental incapacity under the 25th Amendment. This was an attempted, albeit pathetic, coup against an elected president and the first really in the history of the United States.
At one point, McCabe claims that the acting Attorney General of the United States Rod Rosenstein volunteered to wear a wire to entrap his boss President Trump—in the manner of Trump’s own attorney Michael Cohen’s entrapment of Trump, in the manner of James Comey taking entrapment notes on confidential Trump one-on-one meetings and leaking them to the press, and in the manner of the Department of Justice surveilling Trump subordinates through FISA and other court authorizations.
McCabe was iconic of an utterly corrupt FBI Washington hierarchy, which we now know from the behavior of its disgraced and departed leadership. They posed as patriotic scouts, but in reality proved themselves arrogant, smug, and incompetent. They harbored such a sense of superiority that they were convinced they could act outside the law in reifying an “insurance policy” that would end the Trump presidency.
The thinking of the conspirators initially had been predicated on three assumptions thematic during this three-year long government effort to destroy Trump:
One, during 2016, Hillary Clinton would certainly win the election and FBI and DOJ unethical and illegal behavior would be forgotten if not rewarded, given the Clintons’ own signature transgressions and proven indifference to the law;
Two, Trump was so controversial and the fabricated dossier was so vile and salacious, that seeded rumors of Trump’s faked perversity gave them de facto exemptions to do whatever they damned pleased;
Three, Trump’s low polls, his controversial reset of American policy, and the general contempt in which he was held by the bipartisan coastal elite, celebrities, and the deep state, meant that even illegal means to continue the campaign-era effort to destroy Trump and now abort his presidency were felt to be moral and heroic acts without legal consequences, and the media would see the conspirators as heroes.
In sum, the Left and the administrative state, in concert with the media, after failing to stop the Trump campaign, regrouped. They ginned up a media-induced public hysteria, with the residue of the Hillary Clinton campaign’s illegal opposition research, and manipulated it to put in place a special counsel, stocked with partisans.
Then, not thugs in sunglasses and epaulettes, not oligarchs in private jets, not shaggy would-be Marxists, but sanctimonious arrogant bureaucrats in suits and ties used their government agencies to seek to overturn the 2016 election, abort a presidency, and subvert the U.S. Constitution. And they did all that and more on the premise that they were our moral superiors and had uniquely divine rights to destroy a presidency that they loathed.
Shame on all these failed conspirators and their abettors, and may these immoral people finally earn a long deserved legal and moral reckoning.
Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services…. READ MORE
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The Thousand Oaks Police Department continues to promote traffic safety within the community. In an effort to recognize certain hazards while driving, the Traffic Bureau will continue a monthly traffic awareness reminder program, addressing a traffic topic each month. While we focus on a specific topic each month, it’s always imperative to constantly strive to follow all rules of the road. The month of March is dedicated to “Bicycle Safety”.
Each year, hundreds of bicyclists in California are involved in a collision with a motor vehicle. Most of the time, the bicyclist is the one who will receive the most injuries. With that in mind, we all need to know the importance of sharing the road with one another. Motorists and bicyclists both need to do their part in keeping each other safe.
Here are some important facts you should know:
California vehicle code section 21202(a) states: Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at the same time shall ride as close as practicable to the right – hand curb or edge of the roadway.
A bicycle ridden at night must be equipped with a lamp emitting a white There must also be a red reflector on the rear of the bicycle that must be visible from 500 feet when directly in front of a motor vehicle whose headlights are on.
Riders under the age of 18 must wear a helmet at all times. We suggest all riders regardless of age, wear a helmet at all times to reduce
No person shall drive a motor vehicle in a bicycle lane established on a roadway except to
Park where parking is permitted, to enter or leave the roadway, or to prepare for a turn within a distance of 200 feet from the
Bicyclists must travel on the right side of the roadway in the direction of traffic, except when passing, making a legal left turn, riding on a one-way street, riding on a road that is too narrow, or when the right side of the road is closed due to road construction CVC 21650.
Handlebars must not be higher than the rider’s shoulders CVC 21201(b).
A driver of a motor vehicle shall not overtake or pass a bicycle proceeding in the same direction on a highway at a distance of less than three feet between any part of the motor vehicle and any part of the bicycle or its operator. CVC 21760(c).
Bicyclists obey the rules of the road because they travel along the roadway with other motorists. It is important to note drivers and bicyclists must share the road. When making turning movements in a car or on a bike, use caution, be seen (appropriate lighting after dark) and be predictable.
The Thousand Oaks Traffic Bureau urges citizens to drive their cars and ride their bicycles responsibly. Wear equipment to protect you and make you more visible to others, like a bike helmet, bright clothing (during the day), reflective gear, and a white front light and red rear light and reflectors on your bike (at night, or when visibility is poor). Plan your route if driving as a vehicle on the road; choose routes with less traffic and slower speeds. Your safest route may be away from traffic altogether, in a bike lane or on a bike path.
Recently, Santa Paula Mayor Clint Garman and several City Officials met with representatives of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association (VCTA) to discuss a development impact fee known as the water resource in lieu fee. This fee is paid by developers and used to generate additional water resources or water rights through, among others, the purchase of water rights, construction of projects to import state water or other water, construction of projects to increase groundwater recharge, and construction of projects to use reclaimed water. As part of the City’s 2018-2019 operating budget, the City appropriated a portion of these fees toward its water replenishment charges. In a recent article authored by the VCTA, it questioned the budget appropriation using words like “gimmick,” “shortchanged,” and “misuse” in an apparent effort to imply a nefarious intent to the City’s budget process. Nothing can be further from the truth.
While City staff never agreed that the appropriation violated the water resource in lieu fee ordinance or the Government Code to use water-in-lieu fees to pay city water bills or for any general operating expense as asserted by the VCTA, the City did agree to reallocate the budget appropriation to the water operations fund. To date, the budgeted line item has not been expended for water replenishment or any other purpose.
It should be noted that water replenishment charges are paid for out of the water operations budget, not the general fund as indicated in the VCTA article. Both the water replenishment charges and the in-lieu water fees charged for new development all are part of the water operations and water capital improvement budgets and have nothing to do with general fund monies. All of the water funds in the City budget are based on fees paid by each utility user of water – or fees for service – charged for a specific service.
As always, our mission as a City government is to provide the best possible service for the most economical cost for the large array of services the City provides, including police patrol and 911 dispatch, police investigations, code enforcement, graffiti abatement, fire protection, engineering services, water and sewer operations, street maintenance, parks and recreation classes and sports programming, park and building maintenance, , planning review, building inspections, special events such as parades and festivals, and all the support services to implement the core services such as information technology services, human resources and risk management, finance, payroll, budgeting and accounting, city attorney, city council and the city manager’s office which also includes public information and economic development.
It is the City’s desire to continue to work with the VCTA on any and all matters that need to be addressed in the most transparent manner as possible. We look forward to discussing the next City Budget (Fiscal Year 2019/20 Budget) in the coming months with the community.
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