COSTLY CAMPAIGN: Leaders of a group fighting...

COSTLY CAMPAIGN: Leaders of a group fighting expansion of Buenaventura Mall have admitted that their effort is being at least 80% funded by owners of The Esplanade in Oxnard (B1). . . . Expansion supporters say that means that the battle against Ventura’s Measure S, which would outlaw tax trade-offs like the one approved for the mall expansion, is likely to be expensive. “Our goal is to have at least as effective a campaign as they do,” said John Walters, who supports the tax-rebate deal.

BUSINESS AS USUAL: Upscale clothier Barney’s Inc. has joined the growing list of businesses restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws (D1). But life apparently won’t change for employees of the chain’s Camarillo outlet, which opened shortly before Christmas at the factory stores mall. . . . “We’re not closing our doors,” a manager there said before referring questions to the firm’s New York headquarters. The word from the Big Apple: “It doesn’t affect any of the stores at all.”

SPLITTING HAIRS: Brandon Jackson, a senior running back for Thousand Oaks High, has worn his hair long since the eighth grade. He’s one high school athlete whose coach allows hairstyle leeway. But some coaches don’t (C8). . . . Brandon says he would cut his hair if his coach required him to. “I’d go along with it. I’m just fortunate enough to be on a team where it isn’t a problem.”

PHONE TAP: After reading stories in The Times citing the cellular phone bills run up by public employees in Los Angeles, Camarillo City Councilwoman Charlotte Craven thought that it would be a good idea to check out who’s calling whom on her town’s cell phones. “We seem to want to control everything else,” she told the council. “It would seem appropriate to control that.” . . . But Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said the city is already on top of things. “Personal calls are permitted” on the city’s seven cell phones, he said, “but they must be reimbursed to the city.”