STALKER CASE: Ventura County’s first felony stalking...

STALKER CASE: Ventura County’s first felony stalking case ended in a two-year prison term for an Oak View man who refused to quit harassing his ex-girlfriend (B1). . . . A judge sent Harold Owen Edwards to prison because he was “too great of a risk to be put on probation.” Edwards twice broke into the woman’s home, ransacked her bedroom, shredded her lingerie and made repeated threats on her life, court records showed. He even told her that her unhappiness was “worth going to prison for.”

CYBER SPACE: Federal rule-makers have opened two more lanes on the information superhighway. And both of them promise to transform how we communicate and watch television (D1). . . . The Federal Communications Commission has approved interactive video that will allow viewers to respond to broadcasts on their television sets such as home shopping channels. The FCC is also opening up two-way paging and cellular phone technology that will soon resemble Dick Tracy’s wristwatch radio. Says Jim Jouett, a Ventura cellular phone dealer: “It’s a whole new ballpark.”

NIGHT MOVES: Ventura County takes on a completely different look in the wee hours of the morning (Ventura County Life, Page 30). . . . Streets that bustle by day become lonely outposts awash in the warm glow of street lamps. Most restaurants close by 9 p.m., leaving few public places for nighthawks to strut their stuff. An avowed night owl takes a nocturnal journey through a patch of suburbia known for rolling up its sidewalks within a few hours of nightfall.

CAPITALIST WAYS: Russian businesswoman Marina Rudkovskaya is spending two weeks living with Ventura County Supervisor Maggie Kildee and working as a clerk and saleswoman in Bob Kildee’s Shop for Men. She hopes total immersion into American-style capitalism during her internship will leave a lasting impression. What has she noticed so far? “In my country, it is a seller’s market and so the sellers don’t pay much attention to their customers.” Rudkovskaya said. “In your stores, it is different.”