WILD SURF: Ventura County will miss the...

WILD SURF: Ventura County will miss the brunt of the storm pounding Northern California (B1), but it will be lashed by big waves. Forecasters project surf cresting 10 feet or more today on county beaches (see graphic, B2). . . . The huge west swell was kicked up by the storm as it marched across the Pacific, with the biggest breakers pummeling Northern California. Says forecaster Rea Strange: “It has to qualify for one of the bigger wave events of the century.”

VOTER DRIVE: Latino activists are set Thursday to launch a voter registration campaign aimed at luring newly sworn-in citizens to the polls next year. . . . The nonpartisan campaign, sponsored by El Concilio del Condado de Ventura and the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, also will focus on getting out the vote in south Oxnard. . . . “We’ve done voter registration in the past,” said Francisco Dominguez, El Concilio’s executive director. “But we’re trying to tap areas that we have not tapped into in the past.”

TITLE RACE: Avenging a string of losses to her longtime rival, Thousand Oaks High School’s Kim Mortensen won the national cross country championship over the weekend (C6). . . . Mortensen beat Santa Rosa junior Julia Stamps, the defending national champ. . . . “There were times during races when my legs were tired and she was out in front of me that I thought she was unbeatable,” Mortensen said. “But I always told myself in practice that you never know what could happen in a race.”

USER-FRIENDLY: Ventura County Cablevision is giving 1,000 subscribers in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County the opportunity to direct news coverage. . . . For subscribers participating in a six-month test of interactive programming, ACTV Inc. and CNN have launched an interactive news program, Prime News. . . . The program will open with the presentation of the days headline stories. On-screen prompts will allow viewers to choose more in-depth coverage or move on to other news features.