COURTROOM DRAMA: Starting this week, court officials...

COURTROOM DRAMA: Starting this week, court officials are assigning all new felony cases to Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch (B1). So what’s the big deal? . . . Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury had ordered prosecutors to disqualify Storch from hearing new criminal cases, contending that the judge is biased. Now the judges are fighting back. . . . “What they (prosecutors) expected was that they were going to just put Judge Storch out of business and tell us who to have sit on criminal cases,” defense attorney George Eskin said.

ACT OF VALOR: Oxnard officials today will honor policeman Joe Marino, who was recently named “Officer of the Year” by the American Legion of California. . . . The 14-year veteran was given the award for his role in chasing down the gunman who killed four people and wounded three others at an Oxnard unemployment office last year. It is the first time that a Ventura County officer has won the statewide award. . . . “We’re extremely proud of him,” Cmdr. Jamie Skeeters said. “It says a lot for this county and for this officer.”

ELBOW ROOM: Hoping to ease overcrowding, Pleasant Valley School District officials are about to open a badly needed elementary school on Camarillo’s east end (B1). . . . Starting next month, Tierra Linda School will house more than 700 students from kindergarten to third grade. . . . “This is going to be a great place to teach students and a great place for them to learn,” school board President Jan McDonald said.

PRIVATE LESSONS: Looking for a good college? You might want to check out private schools. . . . Some private universities and trade schools are boosting enrollment by carving out specialized academic or career programs in the education marketplace (Valley Business, Page 10). . . . “We tend to be chameleons to the marketplace,” said Michael Gould, president of Chatsworth-based Learning Tree University, which expanded to Thousand Oak in the early 1980s. “We’ll figure out what sells even in slow economic times.”