Oxnard Ca

Dawn Boldrin took note when a subdued Larry King showed up for her class at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard dressed in his school uniform without the flashy boots and makeup. The teacher heard he'd been roughed up the day before by boys put off by his effeminate manner. So, as she walked her eighth-graders to the computer lab on Feb. 12, 2008, she pulled him aside.

Backers of an anti-traffic initiative in Thousand Oaks cheered the news this week that their growth-control measure had qualified for a special election in June, while a similar proposal in Oxnard failed to make the November ballot. "What a thrill!" said Nino DeFranco, one of two Thousand Oaks residents leading the campaign for the local initiative. "I was very excited. I know we'll win if people show up to vote."

Hundreds of parents filled an Oxnard gymnasium Tuesday night to ask hard questions about why school officials didn't intervene more aggressively in an escalating feud between two students, which ended last week with the shooting death of 15-year-old student Lawrence King. In orderly fashion, one parent after another asked for metal detectors on campus, more programs dealing with bullying and for stricter enforcement of the district's uniform policy.

The father-and-son owners of an Oxnard auto body shop were arrested Thursday on suspicion of running a human smuggling ring that outfitted vehicles with hidden compartments and used them to transport illegal immigrants into the United States. Eduardo Aceves-Murillo, 45, and Edgar "Chucky" Eduardo Aceves, 26, both of Oxnard, and four co-defendants were indicted on charges of conspiring to transport migrants for financial gain, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

At a memorial attended by more than 500 people in Port Hueneme, Lawrence "Larry" King was remembered Friday as a sensitive child who liked to draw, paint and crochet. One Christmas, he helped his mother crochet hundreds of scarves so that U.S. troops in Afghanistan wouldn't be without a holiday gift, said the Rev. Dan Birchfield.

A 28-year-old man died early Saturday after he was run down on the street by a man he had asked moments earlier to stop urinating in public, authorities said. Richard Zarate, 28, of Oxnard was leaving a bar in unincorporated Orange County near Anaheim with his girlfriend when he argued with a man about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino.

For years, the Wagon Wheel Restaurant and Motel stood as a roadside landmark in Ventura County. Its western facade and neon sign depicting a whip-cracking wagon driver were a throwback to 1950s-era California. The property was part of a strip of businesses near California Highway 1 that were a favorite stop for families, tourists and an occasional movie star on trips to Santa Barbara.

As debate rages over two proposed liquefied natural gas terminals off the Oxnard coast, Southern California Edison has announced plans to build a third power station in this seaside city to help prevent blackouts during peak summer demand. The 45-megawatt generator would be in place by August at Mandalay Bay near two bigger power plants, officials said. It would provide enough power for 29,250 households, much of that for use in Ventura County.

Frustrated that the new owner of contaminated beachfront property in Oxnard is moving too slowly with cleanup plans, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun its own emergency stabilization of a massive waste pile next to sensitive wetlands. The 43-acre Ormond Beach property, once controlled by metal recycler Halaco Engineering Co., was purchased and leased last September by Chickadee Remediation Co. The firm intends to restore the property for residential development.