CLOSE TO HOME: They may be half...

CLOSE TO HOME: They may be half a world away, but members of Ventura County’s Jewish community have been hit hard by recent violence in Israel (B5). . . . Some are hit harder than others: Fred Grund’s daughter is in college in Tel Aviv and was a block away during the latest bombing. “My wife went absolutely crazy,” Grund said. “We knew she was in the neighborhood there, and the phones were all tied up. . . . This is not peace when they are allowed to kill innocent people.”

CYBERSTAR: When last we left Thumper the Cybercat, he was pulling in lots of e-mail, thanks to his World Wide Web listing as an occupant of the Chestnut Street Law Center. . . . But there’s more hoopla since his puss hit The Times. He’s been picked up on television news programs around the state and beyond, attorney Edward T. Buckle says. He says he’s careful not to overload his feline office-mate with TV types. “If they’re going to come out here with one camera and no lights, that’s OK. But I don’t want them to stress the cat out.”

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!: It was a literary love-fest when about 400 Ventura elementary school students were treated to readings of 35 books written and illustrated by Ventura High School students (B1), including sophomore Courtney Garmon, one of the authors of “A Day in the Life of Happy Bug.” . . . Ventura Unified School District trustee Diane Harriman said the event offered lessons for both the younger and older students: “This is what education is all about.”

SHIFT CHANGE: With the shutdown of a decades-old food-processing plant in Oxnard, the city is suffering the loss of its 20th-largest employer (B1). The plant turned out vinegar and Grey Poupon mustard, providing jobs for about 670 workers. . . . Nestle, which bought the plant from Nabisco last year, is the second of the Oxnard-Port Hueneme area’s Top 20 employers to pull up stakes. But in the other case--that of the fourth-largest Martin V. Smith & Associates--most of the employees were hired by its new owner.