FRIGHTFUL FARE: Ventura residents will get their...

FRIGHTFUL FARE: Ventura residents will get their chance to say whether the city’s short-staffed libraries should benefit from a new tax on property owners (B1). . . . To fill in the gaps this summer, a handful of teen-agers volunteered to run a children’s reading program, Librarian Jenny Phelps said. . . . Favorite books? Anything scary: “Look at ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales,’ ” Phelps said. “They talk about kids’ deepest fears: death, abandonment, monsters. Kids today aren’t any different.”

COWBOYS AND INDIANS: The Janss Mall in Thousand Oaks is getting a new look (B5). . . . When work is finished, shoppers will browse among bronze sculptures of Chumash Indians shooting an arrow and canoeing over a waterfall. . . . A food court will feature a Western motif, based on the mall’s earlier life as a ranch and set for such television favorites as “Gunsmoke” and “The Rifleman,” mall Manager Bill Mendelsohn said. The idea is to keep shoppers in the mall--with pocketbooks open.

COUNTY TREASURES: Former Bank of A. Levy President Marshal Milligan has donated a 79-piece art collection to the Ventura County Museum of Art and History. . . . The works were created by artists who live in the county, Curator Tim Schiffer said. The donation jump-starts the museum’s effort to build a collection of locally produced artwork, he said. “It gives us a core of works that would have taken a lot of time and energy to form.”

TICKET TO PROSPERITY: For many immigrants, the United States is the place to get a good education (Life & Style, E1). . . . But with the nation’s current anti-immigration mood, many temporary residents are seeking citizenship, said Yvonne Dominguez of El Concilio in Oxnard. “They are afraid they won’t be able to send their children to school if the laws change,” she said. “And education is definitely a big reason for coming here.”