CRYING WOLF: Along with handling last year’s...

CRYING WOLF: Along with handling last year’s modest rise in crime (B1), county sheriff’s deputies responded to 13,284 burglar alarms. Of those, a mind-popping 13,000 or more were false alarms. . . . Two deputies responded to each, for a total loss of more than 12,000 hours of patrol time. . . . Only in Thousand Oaks does the owner of a faulty alarm have to pay for false calls, and then only after repeated incidents, Undersheriff Richard Bryce said.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?: It may sound like a cobbled square in some sun-washed Mexican village, but to the Camarillo City Council, Plaza de Flores lacked that certain ring. . . . The kind that goes ka-ching, like a cash register. . . . So the council voted to change the road’s name to something more, let’s say, literal: Factory Stores Drive. . . . “It’s a recognition factor,” says council member Mike Morgan, who offered a comparison: “When you say, ‘Flynn Road,’ you know what’s out there. You can identify Flynn Road with offices and industrial parks.”

ONE UP: The county’s hottest tennis-playing twins narrowly avoided facing one another for the title in the Easter Bowl National Junior Championships (C11) . . . Mike and Bob Bryan of Camarillo both made it to Friday’s semifinals in the 18-and-under category, but Mike fell to the nation’s top player, Mike Russell of Michigan. . . . Bob didn’t let wind up to 20 mph bother him. “You’ve just got to think that it’s your friend,” he said. . . . Bob faces Russell today for the championship.

EVERYWHERE A SIGN: For a complex that cost nearly $64 million, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza has skimped on signs. Visitors to the angular mound of planters and courtyards navigate using temporary paper markers. An advisory committee should release a report this month so the City Council can vote on a permanent sign package in May. . . . The past year of confusion will ensure that the new signs are perfect, said Assistant City Manager Maryjane Lazz. “It’s actually helpful that we waited.”