GETTING WIRED: Caltrans plans to build its...

GETTING WIRED: Caltrans plans to build its first on-ramp to the Information Superhighway in Thousand Oaks (B4). . . . The state’s road builders are tired of playing catch-up with congestion. So Caltrans has an idea straight out of the Information Age: persuade commuters to pound the keyboard instead of the pavement. Once built, the city’s $1.2-million Advanced Telecommunication Center could keep commuters off the road by offering rooms for teleconferences and other ways to travel by modem.

BIRTHDAY BLUES: Poor Oxnard. Today is its 91st birthday, but the city has no plans for celebration. . . . With Johnny Carson off the air, Oxnard doesn’t catch as much grief about its name--which comes from Henry Oxnard, a turn-of-the-century sugar beet king who built a factory in town. “Up until the founding of Oxnard, all of this area was called La Colonia,” said Madeline Miedema, the city’s unofficial historian. The territory now called La Colonia has shrunk to one poor Latino neighborhood.

ON THE RUN: Ventura County Hash House Harriers claims to be a running club. It’s true, every three weeks, members set off on a footrace. But they don’t care if you run fast, or slow. Or if you cheat on the course. . . . It’s all part of the zany Hash, practiced by devotees worldwide (Ventura County Life, Page 8). Though they exhibit bursts of jogging, fitness is not a prerequisite for membership. The club’s charter lauds the regenerative powers of the Hash, namely through “acquiring a good thirst and satisfying it in beer.”

TOUGH CUTS: Wrestling with a $330,000 shortfall in Fillmore’s budget, Assistant City Manager/Finance Director Allan Coates decided the city should eliminate four jobs, including his own. “My theory is that, if we get a little bit better organized, the city can run without my position,” he said. . . . Don’t feel too sorry for him. Coates will be able to retire next year. And under his proposal to the City Council, he could retire and be eligible for a new part-time job included in the budget.