HOLDING OFFICE: San Diego County Dist. Atty....

HOLDING OFFICE: San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin L. Miller Jr., the dean of California prosecutors, faces stiff competition this election after his office bungled a high-profile case . . . . If he’s toppled this year, Ventura County’s Michael D. Bradbury would become California’s longest-serving D.A. in a major county. As in the past three elections, Bradbury has no opponent. “I’m beginning to think I’m the only one dumb enough to want this job,” Bradbury said. “Seriously, I think it is the best job in the world.”

DIRTY JOB: Wielding a three-handled shovel, Simi Valley leaders on Thursday symbolically broke ground on the city’s long-awaited Cultural Arts Center . . . . If all goes as planned, the old Community Methodist Episcopal Church on Los Angeles Avenue will be transformed into a 290-seat theater with an art gallery by next February. And, construction costs will peak at $2.5 million. Work began on the site a few days before the official groundbreaking, Deputy City Manager Bob Heitzman said. “We needed some soft dirt to turn, so we had to do some grading first.”

POWERHOUSE: At 6-foot-1 and about 285 pounds, Dolores Tuimoloau stands out in more than one sport at Oxnard’s Channel Islands High School. But the attentions lavished on the 18-year-old senior by college recruiters focus on the local records she has shattered in the shotput (C12). “She has had so many calls from so many schools,” Coach Myra Beemis says. “I lost track.” And the shotput is her off-season sport. Dolores’ heart belongs to basketball. A center, she intimidates opponents with her size.

INSULT TO INJURY: Imagine being in a car accident. You’re unconscious and being wheeled into the hospital emergency room on a gurney. And a hospital clerk picks your pocket . . . . That happened to several patients at St. John’s Regional Medical Center before authorities arrested Michelle Elaine Peralta of Oxnard. Peralta got 90 days in jail for going on a shopping spree with credit cards swiped from emergency-room patients (B1).