MISSING PERSONS: Police and friends have been...

MISSING PERSONS: Police and friends have been searching for Kathy Silveri of Oxnard, who disappeared two weeks ago after leaving work (B1), but they have few leads. . . . The search is also still on for Philip Taylor Kramer of Thousand Oaks, who disappeared last Feb. 12. His story will be aired again on NBC’s “Unsolved Mysteries” on Wednesday, and his family has established an Internet site on his disappearance. The address is https://www.cris.com/amci/taylor.shtml.

KILLER TOMATOES? A new course at Ventura College will teach budding farmers how to tweak plants to get better-tasting and better-looking varieties. But fears about the process are valid, says Peter Tolley, lab manager for Twyford Plant Lab in Santa Paula. . . . “The big scare is that we are going to create plants like the tomato that ate Cincinnati,” says Tolley, whose company is donating materials for the class. “It’s widely understood that there are some problems with it, but a lot of companies are now being more responsible.”

MONEY MAN: J. Handel Evans, the former San Jose State University president named acting president of a Ventura County Cal State campus, will spend the next few months looking for money to build a campus. . . . One funding source Evans will be pushing is a statewide March bond measure. Says Evans: “Education deserves looking after. We set aside money for a child’s Christmas present. Don’t we all believe that a child’s mind is worth investing in, too?”

REALLY SMOKING: Discount tobacco outlets are proliferating around the state. (A1) In Ventura County, the first Cigarettes Cheaper! store was launched Sept. 8 in Camarillo and the latest opened Thursday in Moorpark. There are also two outlets in Ventura, two in Oxnard and one in Simi Valley. . . . Margie Kranzler, manager of the Camarillo store, says her shop averages 110 to 150 customers a day. Kranzler doesn’t smoke anymore: She quit after she began working at the store.