Ojai

Andy Behar knows the Net. In fact, the Ojai resident and film director recently created an Internet home page boasting his city's charms and posted it on the World Wide Web. The Ojai home page features a prominent picture of the Topa Topa Mountains, and provides information on art, music, recreation, real estate, schools, government, and updates on the activities of local environmental groups.

The family of an Ohio man stabbed to death over the summer has filed a $500,000 claim against Ventura County, the Sheriff's Department and the city of Ojai, alleging that negligent officer training contributed to the man's death. Jasper Fitzgerald, 19, of Columbus was stabbed to death with an ice pick May 14 after a weekend party in Ojai. The victim, who spent part of his boyhood in Ojai, was on vacation from school when he was killed.

Merchants in the city of Ojai could be forced to hide or lock up their spray-paint cans and other "implements" of graffiti used by taggers on public or private property. Under a proposal being considered at tonight's City Council meeting, Ojai would adopt a law similar to a model ordinance drafted in the city of San Diego, said City Manager Andrew Belknap. "That's the main change here," he said.

UC Irvine singles players Bruce Man Son Hing and Darren Yates each won two matches Thursday in the first day of the Ojai tournament. Man Son Hing defeated Westmont's Greg Nations, 6-4, 6-2, and UC San Diego's John Mapes, 7-5, 6-2. Yates defeated Westmont's Jim Sephans, 6-4, 7-6, and Redlands' John Flagg, 6-4, 6-2. Man Son Hing will meet San Jose State's Mark Murphy today in the second day of the four-day tournament, and Yates will play Fresno State's Jean LeClerq.

Authorities have arrested a 14-year-old on suspicion of stabbing a 16-year-old to death at a party in Ojai, Ventura County Sheriff's Department officials said Monday. The county coroner's office identified the slain teen as Seth Scarminach of Ojai, who died about 2:30 a.m. Sunday of stab wounds to the neck and chest. Sheriff's deputies were called to a house party in the 2400 block of Maricopa Highway about 2 a.m. They found about 30 people, most of them teenagers, who were beginning to disperse.

Alberta Fins scrunches up her face at the thought of being considered an "Ojai artist." Fins is an artist who lives in Ojai, but she says she has little in common with many of that fair town's artistic community--at least that contingent of Ojai artists intent on making pretty pictures. That much is obvious to anyone who has visited Fins' mixed-media show, "Immersed," at the Momentum Gallery in Ventura.

Ojai for almost a century has been a place of refuge for people seeking to escape the stress of the urban environment. Like the "hill stations" of India, which provided folks in oppressively humid Bombay a summer getaway, Ojai has evolved in the minds of Southern Californians as a synonym for "safety valve"--something you employ just at the moment when your system can't cope anymore.

Hearing the news of Mother Teresa's death Friday, Judith Bowles recalled a commencement speech the Nobel Prize-winning nun delivered 15 years ago in Ventura County. "Her whole message was about love and that everyone should do charitable things," said Bowles, who was business manager of Thomas Aquinas College in 1982. "She was to speak at Harvard the next day and someone asked her why she was speaking at such a little place and then going to such an international place," Bowles said.

Ever wondered what the food's like at one of those "health spas" you see advertised? I mean, we're talking a bunch of overweight yuppies running around in sweat suits and munching on carrots and yogurt, right? Dinner would be a big deal, with three shrimp relaxing on a plate next to a couple of undercooked spears of asparagus. Imagine, then, my surprise when I ended up feeling both full and virtuous after consuming fewer than 1,000 calories in three meals at a Spa Day at The Oaks at Ojai.