BIG BROTHER: Ventura County’s food-stamp program is...

BIG BROTHER: Ventura County’s food-stamp program is going high-tech. . . . Under a computerized system set to go on-line later this year, welfare recipients will get computer identification cards that will enable them to go to Ventura, Oxnard or Simi Valley to pick up stamps. Currently, they’re assigned to one site. “They could go to Los Angeles County if they wanted,” said Barbara Fitzpatrick, chief deputy of the county’s social services agency. “But we would know.”

SHEDDING LIGHT: As Pope John Paul II issues a sweeping document detailing church guidelines on a range of issues (A1), some Ventura County residents are commemorating the Pope’s 1987 visit to Southern California. . . . A luminous photograph of Moorpark minister Jose Cardiel, now 83--taken one day after he took communion with the Pope--went on display at the Simi Valley Library. “Lights were shooting out of him,” said his friend, J. R. Rolly, who took the picture. “It was hard to believe.” After the picture’s Simi Valley showing, Rolly will send it to the Vatican.

STILL MISSING: Philip (Taylor) Kramer, founder of a Thousand Oaks multimedia firm and former bass player for the rock band Iron Butterfly, vanished 47 days ago. But family and friends hope that he will resurface safe and sound (Ventura County Life, Page 8). . . . Despite purported sightings, there are few clues to his whereabouts and police do not suspect foul play. Said private investigator Chuck Carter: “Whatever happened . . . I’ve got a feeling we’ll learn from Kramer himself.”

BRONZE WINNER: Fernandos Vargas of Oxnard returned from the Pan American Games in Argentina with a bronze medal (C8) . . . but the Channel Islands High student admits to some disappointment. Fernandos, 17, didn’t even stick around for the medal ceremony, believing that the judges’ decision was unfair. “It was a bummer for him,” Coach Tom Mustin said. But Vargas is already looking ahead: The U. S. amateur boxing championships start next week in Colorado.