ePilot, Vol. II,Number 6, March 2016

“Nothing is more important than day to day navigation.”

Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan engages in spirited conversation at the Transportation Summit

Bruce Stenslie, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County (EDC-VC) kicked off the recent transportation summit by asserting that “Nothing is more important than day to day navigation.”

Hosted by the Chambers of Commerce Alliance of Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties along with Mobility 21, it was obvious from the gathering of business as well as political types that transportation funding is an important priority for Ventura County.

Congessmember Julia Brownley, appearing on video from Washington, DC, emphasized that “Ventura County is the only county in SCAG [Southern California Association of Governments] without a dedicated transportation tax. Tax money generated by local residents and buisinesses is not coming back toVentura County.” Since most Federal and state funding requires a local match, the result is that “we’re spending our hard earned money on projects outside our county.”

As an example, Darren Kettle, Executive Director on the Ventura County Transportation Commission, pointed out over $45 million in needed access improvements to Naval Base Ventura County, the Port of Hueneme and numerous railroad crossings and bridges. In order to receive the funding, however, there would need to be a local match of $8 million. Although the money is designated for Ventura County, without local funds, it will likely go elsewhere.

Jim Frazier, the Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, stated that “the days of looking to the Feds or the State are over.”

Lucy Dunn, Chair of the California Transportation Commission and President/CEO of the Orange County Business Council, led the effort to pass a transportation tax in Orange County that received over 70% of the vote.  Ms. Dunn emphasized the necessity of identifying specific projects so that the electorate knows what they’re voting for. “Promises made, promises kept,” she avowed.

Hamid Bahadori of the Automobile Club of Southern California agreed. “Identify the problems,” he said. Mr. Bahadori emphasized the need for compromise.  Rather than fight over spending formulas, he urged everyone to remember that “100% of nothing is zero.”

— Ed.

Greg Hart of the Santa Barbara Association of Governments addresses the summit.

Keep Ventura County Moving

What does Ventura County need to keep traffic flowing, people moving and the economy growing? KeepVCMoving.org, a new website launched today, invites you to weigh in on this question.

Visit the Site
KeepVCMoving.org delves into Ventura County’s transportation challenges and outlines a draft plan to solve them.  The site explores the idea of a half-cent sales tax as a way to raise billions of dollars for local mobility. It also describes the projects and programs that could repair, preserve and improve our community, if such a tax is approved by voters this November 2016.

Most importantly, the site invites YOU to join the conversation.

The future of Ventura County transportation is in your hands. Visitwww.keepVCmoving.org. Explore the site, review the plan and share your thought and opinions.

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“What we do Matters.”

RADM. Brian K. Corey addresses the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century

Rear Admiral Brian K. Corey, Commander, Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Dicision recently addressed the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century, giving an overview of challenges both global and local.

Stating that Adm. John Richardson, the Chief of Naval Operations has placed an emphasis on “toughness”, he expressed the need to strengthen naval power “at and from the sea”.  “We’ve been in some form of conflict for over fifteen years now,” the Admiral stated, pointing out the toll on personnel and equipment.

“Nobody wonders, ‘Is my Sumatra Blend coffee going to make it through theStrait of Malacca?'”  While we may take that for granted, the Admiral pointed out that “throughout history there have been people who underestimated the United States.”  China, for example is “right up front. They intend to challenge the US Navy.”

In a rapidly changing world, Adm. Corey pointed out some of the difficulties in keeping up with new technologies and global challenges. “When I started out it was the Department of Defense that was leading technology. Today technology is moving at such a fast pace that the military just can’t keep up.”  Now the Navy’s emphasis is “how to put capability out faster and cheaper.” 

Decrying an outdated acquisitions process, the Admiral complained about the “handcuffs put on our workers.”  “We have PhD’s who spend half their time just trying to get funding. We’re going to fix that,” he promised.

Budget cuts have had an effect on readiness. “We’ve been failing to explain that we have a huge readiness problem,” he said. “If we have to fight the Soviets in 1985, we’re ready. If we have to fight someone else in 2020, we are not.”

Citing the F-18 which is expected to have a 20 year service life, Adm. Corey spoke of the problems getting ten thousand hours on an aircraft that was designed for a 6000 hour life. “Our number one task is to figure out how to get more of our airplanes back in service.”

In response, “We’ve been on an aggressive hiring spree,” said the Admiral. “We have more work than we can do. Period.”

NAWC-WD has 7000 civilian employees. Adm. Corey had nothing but praise for his workers. “When they walk through that door every day they know what they do matters. What we do matters.”

—Ed.

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History by the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to kelley@callutheran.edu.

 

So why was “Grandpa” choSo pped down after 375 years?  Western cedar bark beetles, about the size of a grain of rice, are reddish black and shiny, with minuscule teeth on their wing covers and black heads are the villains in this tale.  The adult version often bore into Cypress twigs to feed before burrowing beneath the bark to lay their eggs.  The tiny white larvae resemble miniature grubs and are found beneath the bark, tunneling around inside the soft inner layers of wood and destroying the tree from the inside out.
 
Felling the tree was no easy decision for city officials.  While some of the arborphiles in town claimed that the hard-hearted bureaucrats were solely motivated by an intense allergy to potential lawsuits, they couldn’t deny that “Grandpa” had lost one limb after another to the beetles.  In fact, eight years of intensive care by the city had failed to revive the diseased and parasite-ridden tree. 
 
The Public Works Department even removed a portion of Market Street in 1991 in a last ditch effort to save “Grandpa.”  But eventually officials were forced to deem the treasured tree, which stood next to the Chamber of Commerce building and the city’s museum, “a liability and safety hazard.”
 
On August 4, 1997, City Manager Dick Velthoen hired arborist Jon Cook to climb 100 feet up the trunk (which had grown to a staggering 19 feet in circumference) and employ his chain saw to dismember the landmark tree, cut by cut.

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Brick Wahl

Come the revolution

When I was a college kid in the seventies, surrounded by intellectuals of radical or wanna be radical temperament, there were a lot of Revolution jokes. Come the revolution this, come the revolution that. Come the revolution, you will no longer have to wait in line at the falafel stand. Come the revolution, we will not pay the landlord, that landlord will pay us. Knock knock. Who’s there. The revolution. The revolution who. The revolution will not be televised.

No one said they were funny. But everyone said them.

Just now a buddy sent me a wikipedia article on the orientation of toilet paper. Over or under. Several hundred words that probably began as a parody but then, once wiki edited, you can’t quite be sure. Anyway, it was funny.

It’s was sent via an email — you’re supposed to respond wittily. Come the revolution, I began, then stopped cold. The revolution is now a presidential election. No one gets lined up against the wall. No one gets shot for their bourgeois reactionary toilet paper orientation. An entire genre of jokes rendered instantly meaningless. A lifetime of generally unfunny come the revolution jokes I’d instinctively uttered the way a really irritating person can’t shut up with the knock knock jokes, and now no longer are they unfunny, they aren’t even ironic.

Though maybe “come the revolution, Bernie will….” jokes. Nah. For one thing they aren’t that funny. For another I would get angry responses from very serious people. You and your establishment humor, they’d say. It’s a shame, though, my last connection to sixties radicalism, ruined by a revival of sixties radicalism.

Knock knock. Who’s there?

No, really, someone’s at the door.

Read more Brick Wahl at brickwahl.com

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Briefs

Army Leaders Highlight Readiness Shortfall, Need for BRAC Round

Overhead costs eating up the budget.

http://defensecommunities.org/blog/congress-dod/army-leaders-highlight-readiness-shortfall-need-for-brac-round/

 

Congress Doubles Tax Incentive for Those Taking Public Transportation

Ride the bus and save.

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dfa1af016ae742e21a1024c34&id=6643593b0b&e=5539c27a20

 

How Riding the Rails Can Change Cities and Lives

Joe Mathews channels Henry George and imagines what the future might be like.

http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2016/03/how-riding-the-rails-can-change-cities-and-lives/

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AN EVENING WITH CATHY SEGAL-GARCIA, BEVAN MANSON AND PHILLIP STRANGE

Saturday, March 12, 2016 from 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM (PST) Don Harper/Sessions at the Loft 2465 Ventura Blvd. Camarillo, CA 93010 Saturday, March 12th at 7:30pm — Join 3 extraordinary jazz artists, pianist Bevan Manson, pianist and producer Phillip Strange, and vocalist Cathy Segal-Garcia, as they play with great subtlety and joy for your listening and observing pleasure! **Appetizers provided. Bring your own beverage – wine is encouraged! The brilliance, subtlety, and warmth of pianists Bevan Manson and Phillip Strange are displayed in a combination that stems out of classical and jazz. Bevan is a jazz pianist, an active classical composer, an arranger and producer for many jazz vocalists; a composer of jazz tunes and scores for several independent films. His work in the L.A. studios includes frequent on-camera appearances as a jazz pianist in TV and film. Phillip, just relocating to L.A. from living in Osaka, Japan for the last 25 years, has been a highly active jazz pianist, composer and music educator, using tasteful and adventurous harmonic play, space, and a total presence in the moment…be prepared for anything, for anything might happen! Add to this the warmth and versatility of jazz vocalist Cathy Segal-Garcia…whose reputation is that of a “musician’s singer” amongst musicians, and amongst critics “a subtle yet captivating retro-hippy chick feel that transcends the normal expectations of jazz vocals by blending popular tunes with tremendous jazz sensibilities and creating a very specific and dynamic artist voice…The vibe of artistic integrity coupled with honest emotion for a captivating experience.” Find out more at www.cathysegalgarcia.com http://www.phillipstrange.net http://www.bevanmanson.com

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Hidden Track: Gene Harris — “Eleanor Rigby“

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

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ePilot, Vol. II, Number 5, February 2016

 

“We’re a Part of the Community”

Capt. Chris Janke explains operations at NBVC

In a recent address to the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce, Capt. Chris Janke, Commodore of Naval Base Ventura County, emphasized the activity and community impact of our local Navy base.

With over 80 tenants, three warfare centers, three active SeaBee battalions plus reserves, 19 miles of railway, 2100 acres of environmentally sensitive salt marsh, over $1.9 billion per year of economic impact, and, oh yeah, four Army boats,  there is no question that NBVC is one of the more important facilities on the West Coast.

“My mission is to support our tennants with their missions,” Capt. Janke explained.

The challenge of operating and maintaining a facility that extends from Port Hueneme to Point Mugu, to San Nicolas Island, and “over the horizon” to thePacific Test Range is obvious.  Even on San Miguel Island the Navy has been working with the National Park Service to clear remnants of unexploded ordnance.

There is a great push to make San Nicolas Island more more energy independent.  “Owning an island is expensive,” the Captain said.  All supplies have to be brought in either by boat or aircraft.  Consequently, the Navy is using SNI as an example of self-sufficiency by demonstrating advances in alternative energy, and sea water treatment.

However, there won’t be any solar electricity production.  In response to a question by Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan, the Capt. Janke explained that the reflection from solar panels interferes with the vision of pilots trying to land at the island’s airstrip. On the other hand, the Navy is working hard on battery technology that will smooth the transition when it’s necessary to switch from wind to diesel generation.

As might be expected in a facility that dates from WW II, aging infrastructure consumes much of the Captain’s attention. Officer housing, including the Captain’s residence, occupies much of the old gas mask training area – an area in need of toxic clean up. 

The challenges of running a facility such as NBVC often revolve around issues of money. Every new mission requires support. Dangers in the world today require more security. The one question Capt. Janke always asks when requested to take on an additional task is “Does it come with more funding?” 

—Ed.

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“There’s a Lot of Hyperbole Out There”

Kristin Decas and COO John Demers answer questions

Oxnard Harbor District Chief Executive Officer Kristin Decas recently addressed the Surfside IV Homeowners’ Association in a meeting that was billed as a presentation on the Harbor District’s plans for the Ventura County Railroadwhich runs through several residential neighborhoods in Port Hueneme.

Claiming a $1.1 billion impact to the county as a whole, Ms. Decas asserted that, “The Port doesn’t exist to get rich, it exists to enrich the county.”

Facing a skeptical audience, the CEO explained that the Ventura County Railroad was not actually owned by the Oxnard Harbor District, but rather by a Limited Liability Corporation with the Harbor Commissioners serving as a Board of Directors and Ms. Decas as Chief Executive Officer.

The trains themselves are run by a contractor, Genessee and Wyoming, a company that operates railroads worldwide.  G&W has an “option to buy” the tracks and right of way.

As reported exclusively in ePilot No. 10, Ms. Decas once again asserted that “the operator has a right to use [the railroad].”

Despite assertions that operations on the Surfside line would be only about four trains per year, several homeowners expressed concerns about noise, pollution, and vibrations.

“It’s literally in my backyard,” complained one owner. “Vibration cracks slabs, it cracks walls. Who’s got the responsibility?” he asked.

“My property loss will be 50%,” another owner said.

“There’s been a lot of hyperbole out there,” Ms. Decas responded and suggested that “no run” times and limits on the length of trains could be imposed.  Many of the neighbors’ concerns were “questions for the operator,” she said.

In addition to the Surfside line, VCRR also operates the Patterson line that crosses Channel Islands Blvd. 

When asked if OHD could guarantee that only four trains per year would use the tracks, Ms. Decas admitted that the number could be as high as 17.  “I don’t see anything happening, but I can’t say it will never happen,” she said.

—Ed.

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Emergency Call Takers Get High Marks

edical professionals from the regularly review medical calls from each agency in the county.   They specifically track cardiac care cases and survival rates from first ring to a call transfer, dispatch, care on scene, transport to hospital and through the patients release from medical care.  Their ultimate goal is to save more lives by paring down the time frame of each step in the process of rendering aid.       

 
In their review of calls from the first six months of last year, Port Hueneme received a perfect score.  Each call was quickly answered, jurisdiction determined and transferred to the proper agency.  The reviewers, a seasoned doctor and nurse, meticulously dissected every aspect of every call, finding no errors.  

The call takers reviewed were:  SSDM Hanely,  Sergeant Graham, Dispatcher Galvan, Dispatcher Cerda and Dispatcher (now Officer) Montelongo.  

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History by the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to kelley@callutheran.edu.

“Grandpa” was a skinny sapling in 1622.  The tree sprouted 79 years after Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo died on Christmas Day on Santa Catalina Island (which he called “San Salvador”) but 250 years before Thomas Bard laid out the town he called “Hueneme” (from the Chumash word for “resting place”) because it was located halfway between the two large Chumash settlements at Mugu and Ventura.
 
When Grandpa was still a seedling, the Chumash lived in over 150 independent villages along the central coast.  They spoke variations of the same language and much of their culture consisted of basketry, bead manufacturing and trading, cuisine of local abalone and clams, herbalism to produce teas and medical reliefs, rock art, and the sacred scorpion tree.
 
Nearly 400 years later, on August 4, 1997, a steady stream of Port Hueneme residents filed past “Grandpa” to reminisce, mourn, and pay their last respects to the Friendly City by the Sea’s oldest citizen.  “Grandpa” had finally succumbed to an evil colony of bark beetles that had taken advantage of the frailty that comes with old age.  The following day, 80 people attended a “wake” for the tree.  They held lighted candles aloft as members of the Chumash tribe burned sage and gave thanks to the tree.

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Brick Wahl

I blame the English

OK, the flu morphed into a cold, cut with hay fever and a laryngitis that leaves me sounding like Mr. Peterson on the Bob Newhart Show.

Best part is having to repeat everything as I’m so inaudible, or not being heard when I say something and having to say it again, and again. So this is what it’s like to be a schlemiel, a wall flower, Jackie Gleason’s poor soul. Anyway, for a rigorously practicing unhyperchondriac, this is pushing my stoicism to the limit.

I’ve become one of those aging big guys who sits around the fire with other aging big guys, bemoaning our aches, pains, and general creakiness. Lo how the gnarliest man can be rendered squeaky and sniffling. February is the ickiest month, said the poet, sort of, breeding germs out of the stale air, fever and dry cough, mucus with dull pains. I thought winter was supposed to keep us warm. Cough. Cough. Hack.

Maybe I’m just tired of sleeping on the couch. A month on a loveseat, coughing away, while she stretches long in our perfect bed, deep asleep, healthy. Indians never get colds. Never get flus. Never get anything. The 90% of them who did catch colds and flus died of them long ago, the Spaniards saw to that, and the remaining ten per cent are super men and super women, a race of people to whom a cold is nothing, a mere virus, a little packet of DNA to be breathed in and coughed out, laughing.

Meanwhile my Irish half, stuck since the Stone Age on an island at the far edge of Eurasia, is susceptible to everything. It was that damn Cromwell, sneezing.

I blame the English.

–Read more Brick Wahl at brickwahl.com

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Briefs:

GAO QUESTIONS ACCURACY OF BRAC 2005 IMPLEMENTATION COSTS

How much does it cost to save money?

https://21stcenturypartnership.com/gao-questions-accuracy-of-brac-2005-implementation-costs/

 

Climate Change and Maple Syrup

Are we heading toward a sticky situation?

http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/studying-climate-change-impact-maple-syrup

 

A Bold Vision for Oxnard

The Congress for the New Urbanism comes to town. Here’s the result.

http://files.ctctcdn.com/d0fd5567001/bc0b9e4e-9b11-4832-95f9-eb5d7af6f9ca.pdf

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Support Live Music!

Serena Foster sings at the Waterside with John Foster on guitar

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Hidden Track: Tank and the Bangas — “The Rhythm of Life”

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

ePilot Vol II, No. 4, February 2016

Mardi Gras in Port Hueneme

Not the French Quarter, but voulez les bontemps roulez anyway!

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Home on the Range

Capt. Hineline address the Regional Defense Partnership

“Nowhere in the world can you do what we do here.”

Capt. James H. Hineline III, Military Director for NAVAIR Ranges, recently gave an upbeat assesment of the Point Mugu Test Range to the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century.  

“Nowhere in the world can you do what we do here,” he asserted. Touting the geographical advantages of the 36,000 square mile test range, he cited such programs as the rail gun, laser weapons, cyber warfare, and the F-35 as systems that require the unique attributes of our local test range.

The rail gun, for example, is a “hundred mile weapon. Where else are you going to shoot that?” he asked. Likewise, laser weapons, “This is the only place you can do it. The only place that has the dimensions.”

Consequently, the range is busier than ever. “We’re doing more things than we’ve ever done” while working “incredible amounts of overtime,” Capt. Hineline explained.

The Test Range presently employs over 500 civilians and is looking to hire 60 more in each of the next two years.

“Warfare is so complex that it’s impossible to bring together all the assets” in one place. Hence future test scenarios will involve more virtual simulation and connections with other bases. Working with Vandenberg Air Force Base, will expand the capabilities of the range. “Shoot north, shoot south,” as Capt. Hineline put it.

—Ed.

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“This Feels Like Home”

Photo by Jeffrey Scarberry

Gale force winds buffeted Hueneme Beach on January 31st, the sixteenth anniversary of the Flight 261 tragedy. Consequently, services were moved indoors to a local hotel.

Jim Ryan, one of the family organizers, reminded those in attendance that out of their loss came some positive changes in cockpit and airline procedures. “We came up with a list of 39 recommendation to the National Transportation Safety Board. 36 of them were adopted.”

Steve Campbell, who was Port Hueneme Police Chief at the time of the crash, subsequently moved to Washington State and became involved in the family group. Mr. Ryan acknowledged the leadership role Mr. Campbell played in presenting the safety recommendations to Federal authorities and securing their adoption.

Although the family group has diminished in number and grown older over the years, their affection for the people and the City of Port Hueneme has not dimmed.  “This feels like home,” one woman remarked. “Everyone here has been so friendly and kind.”

—Ed

Steve Campbell holds a memorial rose

Meanwhile a desolate scene at the Memorial

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History by the Minute

Beverly M. Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to kelley@callutheran.edu.

Didn’t your mother used to tell you “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all?” But when the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters” experimented with the power of words, nice or otherwise, on plants, they proved the opposite was true.  Not only do plants do poorly when you ignore them, but they also thrive when you choose to use a little sweet talk from day to day.
 
The Port Hueneme Historical Society has no way of knowing whether the first residents of the Hueneme area spoke words of love, so soft and tender, as they strolled under the canopy of Monterey Cypress trees on what is now Market Street.  We do know that the last remaining tree, later christened “Grandpa” by the municipal workers who tended to its needs, reached the ripe old age of 375 years.  At its demise, the tree was acknowledged as the “second oldest Cypress in California.”

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Brick Wahl

Neocons doing bad things

I‘d actually never heard of the Pentagon’s Task Force for Business and Stability Operations in Afghanistan, but it was the heart and soul of Neocon philosophy. It was the office that was in charge of changing Afghanistan into a modern, democratic nation. The idea was simple enough: given enough investment, one could kickstart a free enterprise economy, free of government regulation and control, out of which would come a natural stability and the formation of a democratic system.

It was almost a magic trick, taking an economy and society that had not changed appreciably in centuries and with a few hundred million dollars turning it into a market for computers and cars and hamburgers and western concepts of democratic government.

Eight hundred million dollars disappeared into thin air and Afghanistan’s ancient ways are still there.

I suppose we should feel lucky they spent only $800 million, since the Neocons spent vastly more trying to kickstart the Iraqi economy after the US conquest.

According to The Guardian, “in the year after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 nearly 281 million notes, weighing 363 tonnes, were sent from New York to Baghdad for disbursement to Iraqi ministries and US contractors. Using C-130 planes, the deliveries took place once or twice a month with the biggest of $2,401,600,000 on June 22 2004….”

This cash was driven into town and dispensed by the tens of millions and disappeared almost immediately. Without a trace, an official told the BBC. Twelve billion US dollars gone in a flash.

“Our top priority was to get the economy moving again” potentate Paul Bremerexplained to a Congressional committee. “The first step was to get money into the hands of the Iraqi people as quickly as possible.” So they almost literally threw money at people–bosses, bureaucrats, officials, whomever. What they did with the money no one seems to know. It was unauditable.

“The numbers are so large that it doesn’t seem possible that they’re true,” said Congressman Henry Waxman, “Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone?”

The Iraqi economy did not kickstart. So they tried billions more in investment, in capital, in construction, in whatever it is that creates economies where defeat was overwhelming and the government destroyed and chaos reigned. Twelve billion dollars worth in a year’s time, also unauditable. A Neoconservative Marshall Plan, though more pure, as if we’d dropped money from B-17s onto a ruined Europe. Money and copies of Adam Smith‘s Wealth of Nations, translated.

Whatever. We know the result. The Neocons were wrong. Wrong in Iraq, and wrong in Afghanistan, just as the Soviets had been wrong with their centrally controlled socialist Afghan state a couple decades before. They left a mess, as did we.

I’m not saying we haven’t done good things. There are schools there now, and there are rights for women. But the Russians built schools too, and gave rights to women. When they left the economy and society returned to its old ways, as it always does, amid the wreckage of unfinished Five Year Plans and unread copies of Das Kapital. And now traditional Afghan society is coming down from the mountains again, overwhelming our schools and our sophisticated ideas about market economies.

 Fundamental change doesn’t come from invasions and bombs and re-education. Well, it can, if you repress people enough, at least for a while. But if you want real, permanent change, change not born of repression but acceptance, not by the sword but by logic, then perhaps that change has to come from within.

It did in Europe, but it took two hundred years, three waves of revolution, several civil wars, innumerable massacres, fascism, Stalinism, industrial level genocide, two world wars and the sudden collapse of communism to get there.

I think the people who look at the Arab Spring and shake their heads have forgotten that. Europe seems so peaceful now. So social democratic. So enlightened. And they see Egypt and call the Revolution a failure. They look at Syria and see nothing but violence and refugees. They look at ISIS and are justifiably terrified.

But change takes time. Civilizations don’t progress instantly. The Arab Spring could be where Europe was in 1789 at the dawn of the French Revolution. Or it could be where Europe was when revolution swept it stem to stern before being crushed in 1848.

The Task Force for Business and Stability Operations could be just another costly and ridiculous misstep on the way to something better. Change — that is truly profound change — will take longer than any of our lifetimes. These are matters of generations. None of us today will see how this will all turn out in the long run, not even if you are twenty years old and live to be a hundred.

But we can look at Tunisia and hope.

Read More Brick Wahl at http://brickwahl.com/

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Hueneme Chamber Announces Awards

Celebrates 76th Anniversary with Community Awards Dinner at Historic Bard Mansion

The Hueneme Chamber of Commerce will celebrate its 76th anniversary hosting its annual Community Awards Dinner at the Historic Bard Mansion on Friday, March 11, 2016.   Top honors will be awarded to the 2015 Citizen of the Year and Business Person of the Year.

 
Citizen of the Year honors will be presented to Ms. Jonnie Lisman of Port Hueneme.  Jonnie volunteers for many organizations including the Friends of the Ray D. Preuter Library, US Naval Sea Cadets, American Red Cross and the Port Hueneme Police Department.  Catherine Penprase, who submitted the nomination, cited her as “never being one to brag about her tireless dedication to helping others, [she] doesn’t do it for the credit or glory.  She sees a need and tries to fill it.”
 
Ms. Bonnie Mercadante of Softouch Photography will be honored as the Business Person of the Year.  Since joining the Chamber in 2013, Bonnie has been an active member within the Chamber and business community.  Her most notable contributions have been in supporting the Chamber’s Annual Holly Day Tree Lighting event where she dedicates her time and resources providing FREE Santa portraits to the families of our community.
 
Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long, Third District will be presented with the Chairman’s Award.  Supervisor Long, currently serving her fifth term as County Supervisor, has been an advocate for the residents and business community in Port Hueneme for nearly two decades.  “County Supervisor Kathy Long has roots in the chamber world, and her comprehensive knowledge and achievements as a public servant are widely admired. We are pleased to recognize her with this honor,” said Hueneme Chamber CEO Tracy Sisson Phillips.   Supervisor Kathy Long announced in May 2015 she will retire at the end of her term in 2016.
 
The Chamber will also recognize several public servants from the community as well as military service members from Naval Base Ventura County:  Police Officer of the Year – Officer Chris Gunter; Military Persons of the Year from NBVC – UT1 Johnathon Hankey and MA1 Roberto Rodriguez, Jr.; NBVC Firefighter of the Year – Engineer Torrey Anderson; Ventura County Firefighter of the Year – Firefighter Duncan Shuler; Educator of the Year – Kris Neske of Hollywood Beach Elementary School; and City of Port Hueneme Employee of the Year- Mr. Peter Alcantar.
 
Tickets are on sale now online at www.huenemechamber.com.  For more information, email chamberinfo@huenemechamber.com or call 805-488-2023.

 
About the Hueneme Chamber of Commerce
 
Incorporation of the Port Hueneme Chamber of Commerce took place in 1940, and its original Board of Directors was the driving force behind the incorporation of the City of Port Hueneme in 1948. The mission of the Hueneme Chamber of Commerce is to be a dynamic business organization striving to promote growth, prosperity and a quality of life for our members and surrounding community.  For more information, please visitwww.huenemechamber.com.

 Contact:

Tracy Sisson Phillips
President/CEO
Hueneme Chamber of Commerce
805-488-2023
chamberinfo@huenemechamber.com
www.huenemechamber.com

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Briefs

Little Known Pentagon Office Key to US Military Competition

Re-imagining  weapons systems for a dangerous new world.

http://news.usni.org/2016/02/02/little-known-pentagon-office-key-to-u-s-military-competition-with-china-russia

 

Last Chance for Justice?

Phil Angelides calls for holding Wall St. execs accountable.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/phil-angelides/last-chance-for-justice_1_b_9135572.html

 

More Testing for F-35?

Decreasing testing in order to meet deadlines will put “readiness … at significant risk,” says Pentagon’s testing chief.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/regret-looks-pentagon-032341164.html

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AN EVENING WITH SALLY STEVENS & FRIENDS

Friday, February 19, 2016 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PST)
Don Harper/Sessions at the Loft
2465 Ventura Blvd.
Camarillo, CA 93010

Come join us Friday, February 19th at 7pm for a humorous evening filled with spoken word and song! Tickets cost $20 and are limited, so get your tickets soon! Appetizers and drinks provided.

**Caution: This show may include some material not suitable for children under the age of 13

Sally Stevens is a singer and vocal contractor who’s worked in film, TV, commercials and sound recordings for a number of decades. She also has run off to the writing workshops at University of Iowa where she pretends to be a serious writer for a couple of weeks every summer.  Meanwhile, she’s written lyrics for film, television and recording projects with composers Burt Bacharach, Dave Grusin, Don Ellis, Dominic Frontieri and others, and produced a CD of her own songs, “Things I Should Have Told You,” available on iTunes and amazon.com. She has had flash fiction pieces published in the Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal (July 2014 Issue), and one of her poems will be included in the inaugural edition of Mockingheart Review, (January 2016 edition).

Gary Stockdale is a 2-time EMMY-nominated composer, who has composed music for television shows such as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch; To Tell the Truth; Comedy Central’s Last Laugh; Cowboy U; The Independent Spirit Awards; A Home for the Holidays (CBS), and 8 seasons of Showtime’s award-winning Penn & Teller: BULLSHIT! Gary’s well-known theme for that show garnered him an EMMY nomination. Gary studied under Oscar-winning composer, Henry Mancini, and began his film-music composing career working for the legendary director/producer Roger Corman, scoring Corman’s first “art” film (entered in the 1989 Los Angeles Film Festival), Dance of the Damned.

Singer/Songwriter, Dick Wells, delivers down home vocals with finger-picking guitar.  Autobiographical songs from growing up in Texas to his early days in Los Angeles take the listener on a musical journey.  Dick is a L.A. Session Singer veteran of TV and Film.

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Hidden Track:  Mother Earth — “Without Love“

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

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ePilot Vol II, No. 3, January 2016

King Remembered

MLK March Founder, Bedford Pinkard addresses the Crowd

Mariachis Inlakech greet the Marchers

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Service Center Opens

Board Chair Doug Breeze addresses the crowd while General Manager Steve Brown looks on.

The Gold Coast Transit District opened a new Customer Service Center at theOxnard Transportation Center.  Replacing an inefficient and outdated facility, the new Service Center provides a professional and safe environment for the customer service representatives.

Board Chair Doug Breeze cut the ribbon, saying, “Being here is an honor for me.”

Gold Coast provides over four million passenger trips annually on bus routes throughout the West County.

—Ed.

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Air District Provides Information on Gas Leak

Ventura County Air Pollution Control Officer Mike Villegas announced that the county Air Pollution Control District would provide updates on the Aliso Canyon gas leak.

“In response to questions from County residents, we have added information to our website regarding the Aliso Canyon (Porter Ranch) gas leak (see link below).  Just scroll down on our home page.  Be sure to click on the map,” he announced in a release.

The information can be found at http://www.vcapcd.org/

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History by the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to kelley@callutheran.edu.

 

Lucy Levy, the bride Achille brought back from Paris in 1881, was totally unimpressed with the modest clapboard house Achille shared with Moise Wolff (and an occasional clerk or two).  Bear in mind she had just gone through the awful experience of descending the Conejo Grade in a stagecoach.  
 
To be totally truthful, she was forced to walk down the muddy, rutted road in her beautiful French gown and silk shoes since the horses couldn’t handle the steep decline with passengers on board.  Achille had employed one of the most expensive matchmakers in Paris to find him a wife, so Lucy, expecting to be the wife of a rich man, was shocked when she first set her eyes on the yet-to-be-civilized Wynema where her husband had chosen to live.
 
Lucy quickly made friends with Mollie Bard, the wife of Thomas Bard—who had built the wharf that brought ships from all over the world to her doorstep as well as founding the Bank of Hueneme.  The two women had a great deal in common.  They were only separated by five years in age, with Lucy being the older.  
 
They both grew up with culture, comfort, and the convenience of servants in cosmopolitan cities (Paris and San Francisco).  Both were, at the age of 18, plucked out of a pampered existence and compelled to adapt to a dirty little wharf town once they agreed to wed their entrepreneurial husbands, who each held different but compatible visions for the future of Ventura County.  
 
Both had voyaged across the Atlantic (Mollie and Thomas had honeymooned in Paris), both women’s brothers were invited to Wynema to become part of the family businesses, and Mollie and Lucy teamed up to work on the Women’s Improvement Club, to establish the Hueneme library, to plant trees and establish a social life in the burgeoning community.

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Brick Wahl

National Hug Day

 

It’s National Hug Day? Really?

I’ve always gotten a lot of hugs, though I never got more hugs than I did when I was writing for the LA Weekly.

Apparently being a jazz critic means lots of hugs. I don’t know why, but then I never did understand jazz.

And in a jazz bar, it’d be open season on me, hugs came in waves, big smooshy hugs, a lady’s entire anatomy pressed into mine. Sometimes I couldn’t make my way across the floor to the bar without a series of powerhouse hugs.

After a while I took to staying seated and ordering from the waitress, and after she gave me a big hug, she’d take my drink order. But sitting down didn’t entirely work, the hugs would still come, just in a more cumbersome fashion.

One time, sitting down, I took a lady’s iron clad bra right in my eye. I could feel the mesh, like medieval mail, jabbing my eyeball. I saw stars as she said how glad she was to see me. I said I was glad to see her, though I couldn’t see at all. I was wondering if I was going to get a shiner. I didn’t. Didn’t the next time either from a different lady, I believe steel plated. More stars, more pain. Again, no shiner.

But I learned quickly, and when a lady approached with the gleam of a hug in her eye, I stood up, quite genteel, and took it like a man.

Still, I’m staying home today.

Read More Brick Wahl at http://brickwahl.com/

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Briefs

Nuclear Power Vulnerable to Cyberassault

Twenty Nations Lack Minimal Protection.

http://tdworld.com/news/nuclear-power-vulnerable-cyberassault?NL=TDW-14&Issue=TDW-14_20160121_TDW-14_166&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_3_b&utm_rid=CPG04000000040557&utm_campaign=6227&utm_medium=email&elq2=bac54f19a05142e280dad1ec3339f390

Navy Bases Falling Behind on Maintenance

Budget constraints create growing backlog of needed repairs.

http://defensecommunities.org/blog/congress-dod/navy-bases-falling-behind-growing-maintenance-workload-senior-officials-say/

When U.S. Air Force discovered the flaw of averages

There’s no such thing as an “average” pilot. How a young lieutenant discovered a fatal flaw in cockpit design.

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/01/16/when-us-air-force-discovered-the-flaw-of-averages.html

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DOWNTOWN VISION PLAN

The City of Oxnard in conjunction with the Congress for the New Urbanism has announced a five day visioning process for Downtown Oxnard.

Public Charrette, Walking Tour, and New Urbanism Film Festival

With your participation and local knowledge, the Congress for the New Urbanism California Chapter will conduct a five-day visioning charrette to test new ideas to revitalize downtown Oxnard.

The charrette will be held on the Plaza at the former Social SecurityAdministration Offices and is open to the public during the events listed here. Space is limited and participation is on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Film Festival, is limited to 75 seats, so please RSVP by emailinginfo@cnucalifornia.org or calling the City of Oxnard Economic Development Department (805) 385-7407 to ensure your seat. Economic Developmentwww.CityofOxnard.org

JAN 29 FRIDAY-FEB 02 TUESDAY KICK OFF EVENT

FRI. JAN 29 • 5:30PM

315-327 N FIFTH STREET
NEW URBAN FILM FESTIVAL

SAT. JAN 30 • 5:30 PM

PLAZA CINEMAS 14
255 W 5TH STREET
WALKING TOUR
SUN. JAN 31 • 10:30 AM
PLAZA PARK PAGODA
500 SOUTH C STREET

DESIGN PIN-UP

MON. FEB 1 • 5:30PM
315-327 N. FIFTH STREET
CHARRETTE LOCATION:
315-327 North 5th Street
Former Social Security Admin Offices
– Near Plaza Park

 

(805)385-7407 City of Oxnard
info@cnucalifornia.org

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New Route and Service Changes Take Effect Sunday, January 24th!

Effective Sunday, January 24, 2016, service adjustments are being made on Gold Coast Transit’s (GCT) fixed-route bus service. GCT is making minor schedule adjustments to help improve overall schedule reliability and performance.

ALL routes (except 9 & 11) have new schedules and departure times.

Route 22 continues to provide a direct and faster connection between East Ventura and Oxnard.  It runs from Wells Center to St. John’s Medical Center and Nyeland Acres.

The improved Route 17 continues to connect South Oxnard and Riverpark with a more direct trip.

CLICK HERE to view all of the updated routes and schedules.

Visit our Website to Learn More!

• Routes and Schedules
• Google Trip Planner
• Fare Information
• ACCESS Paratransit Service
• Detours and Bus Stop Closures
• Career Opportunities
• …Much More!

If don’t already, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for live updates!

Pick up your
NEW BUS BOOK today!

Free Bus Books are now available on every GCT bus and at the Customer Service Center at the Oxnard Transit Center.

_________________________________

Need trip planning assistance?

Please contact Customer Service at:
805-487-4222
Monday – Friday from 7 AM to 7 PM.

Trip Planning powered by Google Transit and NextBus Real-Time arrival information is also available online at www.GoldCoastTransit.org.

_________________________________

About Gold Coast Transit District

GCTD provides safe, responsive, convenient, efficient, and environmentally responsible fixed-route bus and paratransit public transportation that serves the diverse needs of the cities of Ojai, Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Ventura, and in the unincorporated County areas between the cities. Utilizing a fleet of 56 clean-fueled buses, GCTD carries nearly 4 million passengers annually on its 19 bus routes. GCTD is governed by a Board of Directors made up of an elected official from each member jurisdiction.

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Hidden Track: John Cale —”If You Were Still Around“

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

ePilot Vol. II, No.2 January 2016

 

Tall Ships Return

The Hawaiian Chieftan Makes Way out of Channel Islands Harbor

The Lady Washington and the Hawaiin Chieftan will be visiting Ventura Harbor until February 8. More information at historicalseaport.org

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“The Base Is Growing”

Capt. Janke addresses base support group

In a recent talk to the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century (RDP-21) Captain Chris D. Janke, Commanding Officer, Naval Base Ventura County, left no doubt about the importance of NBVC to Ventura County.

With over 80 tenant commands, three warfare centers, and 19,000 employees (66% civilians), the base is the largest employer in the county. That adds up to a $1.9 billion impact to the local community.

NBVC is uniquely positioned for testing and training. 67% of National Military Airspace is in the Southwest. All air carrier wings train in the Southwest.  Military airspace directly abuts the shoreline at Point Mugu, making operations in the Test Range much simpler than other locations in the Continental United States.

San Nicolas Island is an important strategic asset in the middle of the Test Range providing an observation and support base 65 miles offshore.

“Everything about island life is difficult,” the Captain cautioned. “Logistically, it’s a challenge.”

Supplies for the 200 or so workers on the island are brought in by barge — unless the water is too rough. Otherwise SNI is supplied by C-130 aircraft.

Capt. Janke was sanguine about the future of NBVC. “The base is growing,” he said, citing an extra E-2D squadron, and the arrival of a Coast Guard helicopter detachment which will be constructing a new hanger.  A reserve Seabee unit is also on the way.  Addtional testing for the Triton and Firescout programs should bring more work to the test range as well.

Nonetheless, there are challenges. “I’m not afraid of what I can see,” the Captain warned, “I’m afraid of what I can’t see — utilities and infrastucture.”  From a new marine barracks at Port Hueneme to El Niño preparations at Point Mugu, there is much work that is needed.

Unexpectedly, guard rail improvements on Channel Islands Boulevard also made the list when a section of fence was knocked down by an out of control vehicle.
“A gentleman installed a remote control driving device on his van. It didn’t work,” deadpanned the Captain.

Captian Janke concluded by emphasizing his desire to strengthen partnerships throughout the community citing a new relationship with the National Park Service devloped over the issue of unexploded ordnance on San Miguel Island.  “That’s forced me to have a lot of discussions with the Park District. We’ve built a really good relationship.”

Although still closed to vistors, Captain Janke was pleased to announce that San Miguel “will open again soon.”

—Ed.

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Mike Morgan Campaigns in PH

Mike Morgan answers questions from Larry and Roberta Downing

Mike Morgan, the Mayor of Camarillo, has announced his candidacy for 3rd District Supervisor, the seat presently held by the retiring Kathy Long.

Meeting with voters at a Port Hueneme eatery, he handled numerous tough questions on subjects ranging from finance to SOAR to county politics.

“My main focus is water,” he said. “Thirty years ago when I was first starting out, I predicted that water would be the number one issue in Ventura County.”

With long experience on the Camarillo City Council, Mayor Morgan was instrumental in the effort to build Camarillo’s water reclamation plant.  An advocate of treating more local groundwater, he explained, “We’ve worked to build a desalination facility to collect and purify the brine water that sits underground.”

“My job as a Supervisor will be to represent your interests,” he concluded.

—Ed.

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County Unaffected by Gas Leak

 

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board recently heard a report on the Aliso Canyon gas leak in Los Angeles County.

Air Pollution Control Officer Mike Villegas reported that there had been no reported effects from the leak in Ventura County.  Even in Simi Valley, the county city closest to the leak, Mr. Villegas asserted that it was “not likely” that there would be any impact.

Colby Morrell of the Southern California Gas Company told the Board that the Aliso Canyon well was the largest gas storage facility in the Western United States, and rendering it unusable would have major impacts on the supply of gas in this part of the country.

In operation since 1973, Ms. Morrell described the leak as an “unprecedented event,”  and promised that the Gas Company was “committed to mitigating the effects”.  Such mitigation could take the form of carbon dioxide reduction in other locations.

Subject to yearly inspection, the Aliso Canyon leak occurred shortly before its annual inspection was due.  In an effort to “drain” the well, Ms. Morrell explained that the Gas Company was “not withdrawing from any other facility”.

In contrast to other utility failures where ratepayers were stuck with the bill, Ms. Morrell stated that it was “most likely that shareholder dollars would be used” for repair and mitigation.

The sheer size of the leak has outweighed a great deal of the greenhouse gas reduction achieved on the state level. Mr. Villegas lamented, “It’s one step forward, one step back. This balances out everything California has done so far.”

More information is available at alisoupdates.com 

—Ed.

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History by the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Market Street or send your questions via email to Kelley@callutheran.edu.

Even though the Bank of Hueneme, which opened its doors on August 6, 1889, was bigger ($100,000 in capitalization) and grander (housed in Hueneme’s first brick building), for Achille Levy, it was business as usual.  He was allowed to co-mingle his brokerage accounts with bank funds as well as his own personal assets as he saw fit—totally unhampered by present day banking industry standards.  Yet not one single person ever claimed that Levy cheated him—something that bankers today can hardly contend, despite the astronomical number of federal and state regulations.
 
Levy lived on Main Street in Hueneme with his wife Lucy and six children until 1912.  His public service to the Friendly City by the Sea included an early stint as postmaster, membership on the Hueneme School Board, supporting the Hueneme Club (the forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce), and as Ventura County Supervisor during the contentious time that the sorely needed Santa Clara River bridge was being proposed and built.
 
Levy entertained the idea of running for State Assembly but a falling out with Thomas Bard—when Levy favored the railroad over Bard’s Wharf for transporting perishable produce to market—-may have dried up Levy’s support.  Historians have also suggested that a move to Sacramento would have interfered with Levy’s attention to family and customers—two top priorities for the banker—and which may have caused him to withdraw his name as well.

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Brick Wahl

Giant Inflatable Robots

I love Hollywood & Highland. Inside is that trippy interior courtyard with theIntolerance elephants overhead and tourists everywhere, shuffling and staring and wearing stupid tee shirts they picked up on the Boulevard.

It can be surprisingly blissful in there though, and sometimes they have jazz concerts, and sometimes it’s just full of people chatting or reading or napping. Yet just a hundred or so feet away, out on Hollywood Boulevard, it is utter madness, with demented superheroes and people who will never wash their hands again after touching John Wayne’s boot prints.

You never know what will be happening out there.

One night a few years ago we left the courtyard after a concert and nearly walked into the path of a police chase at 5 mph. A hundred police cars with lights flashing proceeding ever so slowly down Hollywood Boulevard and the lady they were chasing ran out of gas right there and coasted to a stop right in front of the Chinese Theatre. You couldn’t imagine anything more cinematically perfect.

The throng of tourists, like extras, rushed into the street to touch her car as she emerged. The cops pleaded through bullhorns for the people to stay clear of the vehicle, the suspect might be armed. But it was Day of the Locust, baby, and nothing could stop grandma from getting that selfie. The suspect emerged from her little car, unarmed and exhausted and infinitely sad.

She laid down on the pavement. A zillion cell phone cameras flashed. A man in a Superman get-up rushed into the street to pose in front of the scene.  A Michael Jackson impersonator moonwalked past.  Spiderman watched, then slunk into the shot.  The cops waved him off, and he slunk away.

I’ve always wondered what ever happened to that car chase lady. It was the most pathetic car chase I ever saw.  I mean you could have pushed that car faster, with all four tires punctured, and running out of gas right there in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard.  It was a scene from a Buster Keaton silent.

Just a week before, though, in the very same spot, giant inflatable robots stood for some movie premiere. Every premiere ever it seems has taken place there with crowds and limos and red carpets, but this one had giant robot balloons too.

That was different.

I remember we came out onto Hollywood Blvd after one of the Tuesday night jazz gigs in the courtyard and saw them, those giant balloons, looming. Then, as we maneuvered around the premier on side streets, heading home, we came upon another giant inflatable robot balloon held in reserve, looming in an empty parking lot, just in case.

Just in case what I’ll never know.

As we stopped at a light I watched that extra giant robot in the rear view mirror, and it looked both spectacular and idiotic, like the coolest stupidest thing you ever saw. I can’t remember what the movie was that was premiering, it sank without a trace. But somewhere, somebody has three giant deflated robot balloons, and not a clue what to do with them.

Read More Brick Wahl at http://brickwahl.com/

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Briefs

Mugu Weapons Center gets More Milage from old Targets

What if you could rip the engine out of your 1979 grocery-getter and make it run like a sports car?

http://www.aerotechnews.com/blog/2016/01/11/nawcwd-threattargets-team-recycles-upgrades-brings-knowledge-home/

 

Springtime for Stalin?

With all his faults, they love him still.

http://en.delfi.lt/lithuania/foreign-affairs/stalins-popularity-rising-in-russia-says-poll.d?id=70099152

Algorithm Identifies Humorous Pictures

Could a self-driving cab tell you a joke?

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/545316/ai-algorithm-identifies-humorous-pictures/

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher

 

 

ePilot Vol. II, No. 1, January 2016

 

Chinese Officials Visit APCD

Oxnard Mayor pro Tem Carmen Ramirez shares a moment with Chinese delegation

A delegation from the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau has been touring California and recently payed a visit to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. 

Deputy Director Liu Xin and Principle Staff Member Zeng Jinghai met with APCD boardmembers and received a tour from Air Pollution  Control Officer Mike Villegas.

In a letter sent to APCD, Mary Nichols, the Chair of the California Air Resources Board, expressed her appreciation to Mr. Villegas, staff, and the Air Pollution Control Board.  “The responses we have heard from the staff are that the visit has been interesting and useful. This is a good outcome for the long training visit, and would not have been possible without your contributions. Last week’s announcement that Beijing had called its first “red alert” for smog underscored the necessity and timeliness of the program.  Ventura County Air Pollution Control District is on the front lines protecting public health here in California. Your willingness to arrange visits to unique sources you work with is invaluable and much appreciated.” 

—Ed.

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Perello to Helm County Board

Oxnard City Councilmember Bert Perello has been named Chair of the Ventura

Regional Sanitation District Board of Directors for 2016.

“My first experience with this organization was dealing with some serious impacts in my neighborhood,” he said. “In my time on the board, I have come to appreciate the hard work and openness of District staff. This is truly an honor.”

—Ed.

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History By the Minute

Beverly Merrill Kelley

Let’s face it, we’re all busy people.  We’d love to learn more about our hometown but who has the time?  This column will feature highlights that can be read in a minute or two.  And rest assured, the information comes from the considerable resources of the Port Hueneme Historical Society.  If your interest is piqued to learn more, visit the museum on Main Street or send your questions via email to Kelley@callutheran.edu.

 Despite most bankers being targeted by the muckrakers and editorial cartoonists as lazy hogs greedily sucking up the efforts of hardworking farmers during the late 1800s, Achille Levy was a notable exception.  His reputation as an honest man remained unscathed and he headed up Thomas Bard’s list of partners when it came time to incorporate a bank in Hueneme.
 
It wasn’t difficult for Bard to convince Levy and other leading merchants that their best interests would be served by a much larger local bank.  The only other financial institution in Ventura County was the bank of William Collins and Sons which was opened in 1887 but was located in San Buenaventura.
 
Bard argued that trade at the wharf had expanded beyond private banking limits and that traveling all the way to Buenaventura to transact banking business was hazardous to one’s health.  Not only could robbers waylay merchants and relieve them of their gold but the local newspapers were frequently filled with tragic tales of possessions, animals, and human being lost to quicksand or seasonal flooding.

 

In front of the Wolff and Levy Store

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Brick Wahl

Happy New Year

I don’t wish everyone a Happy New Year, I don’t pray for peace, I don’t share Facebook’s photos of me for the year.

Instead I turn on the Rose Parade, dig the marching bands playing like their lives depended on it, engage in one sided repartee with Bob and Stephanie (I always win), while eating the leftover onion dip and salsa and chips.

There wasn’t any leftover dip and salsa this year so I tossed a tortilla in the skillet and made a quesadilla.

The Gibbsville cheddar softened and melted perfectly, just enough, and I diced up so much tomato, mushrooms, cebolla and serrano pepper they spilled out all over the plate in a healthy mess. Tapatio splashed over everything only added to the perfection.

The NHL Winter Classic is on now, and with all of the U.S. and Canada watching the Boston Bruins failing as men on the ice. Miserable.

I fix a Christmas glass full of eggnog, whiskey (a good scotch, a Christmas present from my groovy new sister-in-law Dina), and ice leftover from the Xmas party, and swizzle it with a miniature hockey stick.

Montreal scores again, a real beauty of a goal, and I take a deep glug. A Bruin pulls an idiot slow motion cross check that even the blind can see and I shake the swizzle stick at him in admonition.

Still, Boston is putting up just enough of a fight to make it exciting, and the Canadiens look brilliant. It’s all very nostalgic.

Indeed, if it weren’t for the lousy bands they have in the period breaks–can’t the NHL get a good hard rock band some day?–all would be perfect.

Fyl normally sleeps in on New Years Day. She’s up early this year, silently watching the traditions roll out in a Sioux silence, broken only by deadpanned smartassery. I wish her a Happy New Year. She pats me on the head.

May it be this good all year.

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Briefs

Navy Aims to Equip Hundreds of Ships With Drones

Forward deployment on small ships may obviate the need for aircraft carriers.Could mean more business for Mugu test range.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/06/politics/drones-aircraft-carriers-small-navy-ships/index.html

Could Electric Utilities Become “Zombies”?

“We need utilities to think about new revenues and profits – not just rate base,”says New York’s energy czar.

http://tdworld.com/news/zombie-utilities?NL=TDW-14&Issue=TDW-14_20151229_TDW-14_649&sfvc4enews=42

Navy Considers Enlarging NAS Lemoore

F-18’s and F-35’s on the way.

http://defensecommunities.org/blog/active-base-issues/navy-considers-enlarging-nas-lemoore/

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Everything you ever wanted to know about the Natural Resources on
Naval Base of Ventura County!

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Dear Friends:

As we experience the first offerings of what El Nino is expected to bring to our area, I thought it would be prudent to send along some information which will help you protect yourself and your home in case of a water-related emergency. As we witnessed this week, just one heavy storm can have a big impact. And this year’s El Nino event has tied, in terms of intensity, with the strongest previous El Nino on record, which produced the storm season of 1997-98.

In a storm event, please be aware of your surroundings. Construction, erosion and loss of vegetation due to wildfires can cause flooding in areas where it was not previously present. According to the Ventura County Office of Emergency Services, if flooding occurs, you are safer in your home if it is not being affected by floodwaters, mud or debris. If asked to evacuate, do so immediately. Don’t take chances! Even six inches of water can knock you off your feet and it takes only two feet of water to carry away a passenger vehicle.

For El Nino preparedness tips: Go to storms.ca.gov for statewide information. If you live in Ventura County, go tohttp://www.readyventuracounty.org/, If you live in Los Angeles County, go towww.elninola.com

For live weather updates: Please visit the National Weather Service Forecast Office site for a list of watches, warnings and advisories.http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/lox/?mystation+KCMA. This page also has a tab for surf advisories. Our coastal communities, especially those on west-facing beaches, are vulnerable in high-surf events. Stay off of jetties and rock walls. Inexperienced swimmers should stay out of the water.

To receive emergency alerts on your phone: If you live in Ventura County, sign up at www.vcalert.org. If you live in Los Angeles County, go tohttps://www.lacounty.gov/emergency/alert-la.

If you are in need of sandbags: A limited supply is available at your nearest fire station. They can also be purchased at many home improvement stores. Properly placed sandbags will redirect water, mud and debris, but will not completely seal out water.

In drought-plagued California, we welcome these much-needed rains. In fact, the Sierra snowpack is now at 103 percent of normal, which is great news. But with extreme weather, comes challenges. Please be careful out there.

Best,

Senator Pavley

Fran Pavley
State Senator, 27th District

 

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Hidden Track: SOB — Nathaniel Rateliffe  

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Copyright 2016 The Hueneme Pilot  All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:

editor@huenemepilot.org

516 Island View Circle
Port Hueneme, California 93041

J. Sharkey, Editor and Publisher