SWEET TALK: Congressional leaders often find fault...

SWEET TALK: Congressional leaders often find fault with the United Nations. Some grow impatient with its painstaking efforts to reach agreement among nations before acting. . . . Tonight, Michael Stopford will offer a different view at a meeting of the county’s World Affairs Council in Camarillo. As director of the United Nations Information Center, Stopford is the U. N.’s liaison to Congress. “Congress constantly has some peeve with something we are doing,” he said. The subject of his talk: “Peacekeeping and the Limits of Intervention.”

MIDAS TOUCH: Golden Systems Inc. doesn’t have the technical prowess of some start-up computer companies. But the Simi Valley-based firm has carved its niche making computer power supplies, undercutting the prices of rivals in Taiwan and Hong Kong (Valley Business, Page 4). . . . Jay Tandon gets the credit. He’s the company’s president and a member of a family from India. Golden Systems does all its manufacturing there, using some of the lowest-cost technically skilled labor in the world.

TOURIST TRAP: Before the turn of the century, descriptive writings of New York journalist Charles Nordhoff lured Easterners to the Ojai Valley. . . . A century later, Ojai continues to draw tourists--a matter that enrages some locals and enriches others. Now, city leaders want to raise the town’s bed tax to defray the cost of policing its streets (B1). But some city leaders fear that price hikes may discourage tourism. So they suggest marketing the town, sort of. . . . They want to entice tourist dollars, without becoming overrun by tourist hordes.

AIR APPARENT: Those occasional days of unhealthful air, like Simi Valley had over the weekend, would come to an end under a federal plan to crack down on polluters. But the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan would cripple some businesses in the county, industry leaders say. So business boosters released their own plan Monday (B1). . . . Highlights: Fees on motorists who drive the most, and fewer regulations on pesticides.