WHAT STRIKE? Baseball strike or no (A1),...

WHAT STRIKE? Baseball strike or no (A1), business is in full swing at some Ventura County sports bars, where spectators are finding no shortage of other games to watch. The NFL preseason has already started, and bar owners say football fans who frequent local watering holes outnumber baseball fans anyway. “The only time you get interest in baseball is during the World Series,” said John Vanderwall, owner of the Tree House Sports Bar & Grill in Simi Valley. As for the strike, he said: “It won’t hurt my business at all.”

IT’S THE PRINCIPLE: State Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) has received the 1994 Integrity Award from California Common Cause for “adhering to ethical principles.” Hart shares the award with Republican state Sen. Marian Bergeson of Newport Beach. . . . The honor has been bestowed only once before, in 1992, when the watchdog group started the awards program. Hart “exemplifies what a public servant should be,” said Executive Director Ruth Holton.

ROAD WORK: Ventura County construction crews are moving forward with the final phase of a construction project on Santa Rosa Road, based on findings that most of the artifacts at a Chumash burial site there were removed years ago (B1). . . . Work on a portion of the project was halted last year after bone fragments were discovered. “All in all, we’re happy with the way things are going,” said county official W. Butch Britt. “The end result will be a better and safer road.”

HARD AT PLAY: A fierce game of Scrabble is not for the faint of heart. Just ask Joyce Frasco of Moorpark, who will compete this weekend in the National Scrabble Championships at Universal City. . . . Frasco, 64, once ranked at the expert level in competition, but is playing fewer games these days and has dropped down a notch. Top-ranked Scrabblers play at least 10 games a week and spend hours memorizing word lists. Bluffing and cagey strategy also come in handy. “It’s not a casual game,” Frasco said.