SAFE CYCLING: Recent bicycle accidents involving children...

SAFE CYCLING: Recent bicycle accidents involving children have set Simi Valley officials on a course to increase bike safety awareness (B3) . . . Across Ventura County last year, 365 people were injured in bicycle-related accidents. Of those, only 52 were wearing helmets. . . . Starting in January, authorities will begin issuing fines to cyclists under age 18 caught riding without helmets. But the message may already be getting through. “Everyone slowly but surely is starting to wear them,” Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Berg said.

WINDING DOWN: Take courage, Ventura County voters--the finish line is finally in sight as candidates hunker down for the last day of the frenzied election season. . . . Local candidates--including the four contestants for two seats on the county’s Board of Supervisors--spent the weekend knocking on doors and beating the bushes for votes before residents go to the polls Tuesday (B1).

JUST SAY NO: One candidate for the Thousand Oaks City Council has handed out a decidedly different sort of literature. . . . Chuck Morsa--who wants Thousand Oaks to remove pornographic material from news racks in front of the city’s post offices--distributed to the council at last week’s meeting some unblushing examples of just the kind of literature he wants excised. . . . Despite council members’ looks of disdain, Morsa said later that he hopes they got the message. “The point is to get rid of this stuff,” he said.

SHIP COMES IN: The Port of Hueneme was not yet finished, but this week marks the anniversary of the first ship’s entry into the harbor in 1939. . . . The U. S. Coast Guard ship Calhoun chugged into port Nov. 10 of that year. . . . But it would be another year before construction of the harbor was completed and the port officially dedicated, in July of 1940--just in time for the U. S. Navy to take over near the onset of World War II.

Cycling Injuries

Hundreds of Ventura County residents are injured each year in bicycle-related traffic accidents. Here are the numbers for 1993: Oxnard: 85 Ventura: 61 Thousand Oaks: 59 Simi Valley: 53 Camarillo: 23 Port Hueneme: 15 Santa Paula: 11 Fillmore: 9 Moorpark: 8 Ojai: 5 Source: California Highway Patrol