HELPING HAND: U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown,...

HELPING HAND: U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, confirmed dead after his plane crashed in Croatia (A1), “was certainly very important to Ventura County” after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, former Supervisor Vicky Howard says. . . . One visit to Fillmore about three weeks after the quake, to personally deliver several checks, was somewhat of a media event. But that wasn’t his only visit. “We met with him several times,” Howard said. “He was very responsive to the problems that we had.”

MAKING MOVIES: An effort to launch a countywide film commission is continuing, organizer John Lockhart says, with a forum to gauge interest planned for May. . . . One of the goals, Lockhart said, is to persuade the movie unions to expand their core zone, so employees would not have to be paid extra to report to work in western Ventura County. . . . Extra pay or not, filmmakers are turning up all over the city of Ventura lately (B1).

RETIRING DOG: After 6 1/2 years with the Santa Paula Police Department, canine cop Marlo will spend the rest of his days romping with two bassets also owned by handler Carlos Juarez. . . . Marlo collared 35 suspects and was involved in several vehicle pursuits during his career, but at the equivalent of age 63 in human years is ready for a quieter life. “That’s like my grandpa running around chasing bad guys,” Sgt. Juarez said. “I can see he’s not as strong as he used to be. I would kind of hate to see him get hurt.”

HOT DOGS: How hot are Jack Russell terriers these days (E1)? “I can’t carry them because they’re so popular no one will sell them to me,” said Tracy Fredericks at the Animal House in Thousand Oaks. . . . But John Koesterer, manager of the Ventura Animal House store, says Old English bulldogs are the happening pups there. “We had to have security escort somebody out because we had a fight over who was going to get the one bulldog in the store.”