National/international news by Daphne Khalida Kilea; local news by Chris O’Neal
The year 2017 brought with it uncertainty, as do most post-election years. If you thought 2016 was wild, nothing could have prepared you for the year of “fake news,” #metoo and Thomas the Destroyer.
January
On Jan. 1, it becomes illegal in California for drivers to hold and operate electronic devices while driving, unless the device is mounted. Any use of the mounted device is limited to one swipe or tap of the screen.
Following years of criticism and dwindling attendance, SeaWorld San Diego hosts its final killer whale performance on Jan. 8.
On Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States.
The Women’s March, a response to Trump’s inauguration, takes places in cities across the world on Jan. 21, becoming the largest single-day protest in American history and the largest worldwide protest in recent history.
For the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches 20,000 points on Jan. 25. It goes on to set a new record of 24,000 on Nov. 30.
After 14-year-old African American teen Emmett Till was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated, shot and his dead body sunk in a river in 1955, Carolyn Bryant, the woman who accused him of making verbal and physical advances on her, discloses in a 2007 interview that is released on Jan. 26 that she fabricated that part of her testimony.
February
On Feb. 3, Trump’s immigration ban is temporarily suspended for being “unlawful and unconstitutional.” A revised version of the ban is also stopped in March. Later, the Supreme Court reinstates its key provisions.
An emergency spillway failure at Oroville Dam on Feb. 12 causes nearly 200,000 people to be evacuated from the surrounding area.
On Feb. 14, it is reported that members of the Trump campaign and other associates had repetitive contact with Russian intelligence officials. On May 17, the U.S. Justice Department charges former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel with investigating the U.S. election meddling by Russia and the possible collusion with Trump’s campaign.
March
On March 15, The U.S. Federal Reserve raises interest rates from 0.75 percent to 1.0 percent, the first of what would be three increases (June 14 and Dec. 13) in 2017.
The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings on March 20 on the nomination of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States. He takes the oath of office on April 10.
The U.K. triggers article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on March 29, and begins negotiations for Brexit.
SpaceX, which is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, conducts the world's first re-flight of an orbital-class rocket on March 30. Later, on Dec. 22, SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifts off from SpaceLaunch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying the Iridium-4 mission to orbit.
April
On April 6, the U.S. military launches 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against an air base in Syria as a response to a suspected chemical weapons attack in the Middle Eastern nation by its government.
The U.S. drops the world’s largest nonnuclear weapon (the GBU-43/B MOAB) on April 13 at an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant/ Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) base in Afghanistan.
Twenty-one people are arrested in Berkeley, California, on April 15 when hundreds of Trump supporters clash with anti-Trump protesters.
After 38 days on the run, Tad Cummins is arrested on April 20 and 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas of Tennessee is found safe in Cecilville, California. Thomas was Cummins’ former student.
In support of science, more than 600 marches take place worldwide during the March for Science on April 22 (Earth Day).
May
On May 9, FBI Director James Comey is fired by Trump who admits on television to doing so because of the FBI’s ongoing Russia/Trump Campaign investigation. Christopher Wray is later named as his replacement. During his public hearing on June 8, Comey admits to leaking information to trigger the appointment of a Special Counsel.
Computers in at least 150 nations are affected by a ransomware cyberattack on May 12.
On May 17, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital grow human blood stem cells in a laboratory for the first time.
Trump makes his first foreign trip as president on May 20. A $110 billion arms deal he signs while in Saudi Arabia becomes the largest in U.S. history.
After 146 years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus hosts its last show on May 21 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
On May 23, a terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, kills 23 (including the bomber) and injures more than 500.
Legendary James Bond actor Sir Roger Moore, 89, passes away from cancer.
June
On June 1, Trump announces that the U.S. will withdraw from the nearly globally unanimous Paris climate agreement.
Batman actor and Family Guy’s voice of Mayor West, Adam West, 88, passes away from leukemia on June 10.
Student Otto Warmbier returns to the U.S. in a coma on June 12 after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison. He passes away on June 19.
During a Republican baseball practice in Virginia on June 14, a gunman opens fire and wounds four, including Congressman Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, during a congressional baseball practice.
More than 40 American Airlines planes are grounded on June 20 due to a severe heat wave.
ISIS destroys the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq, on June 21.
On June 25, the World Health Organization estimates that Yemen has over 200,000 cases of cholera.
July
On July 7, 122 of the 193 U.N. member states vote for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Husband and wife Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin are found buried in a glacier in the Swiss Alps on July 13, 75 years after they went missing.
Mosul, Iraq, is declared fully liberated from ISIS on July 10.
A Senate GOP bill presented on July 18 to repeal and replace large portions of Obamacare lacks the support to pass. Later, second (“straight” repeal) and third (“skinny” repeal) attempts also failed.
Embattled former football star O.J. Simpson is granted parole on July 20 after nine years in a Nevada prison. He is released on Oct. 1.
Trump tweets on July 26 that transgender people cannot serve in "any capacity" in the U.S. military. On Aug. 25, he signs a directive that bans transgender military recruits.
Reince Priebus is dismissed as White House chief of staff on July 28 and Trump names Gen. John Kelly as his replacement. Priebus joins 2017’s previously resigned or fired Trump administration officials, including Sally Yates, Michael Flynn, Katie Walsh, Preet Bharara, Angella Reid, Michael Dubke, Walter Shaub, Sean Spicer and Michael Short. Following Priebus’s exit, Anthony Scaramucci, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Steve Bannon, George Sifakis, Sebastian Gorka, Tom Price, Dina Powell and Omarosa Manigault Newman also depart.
August
Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli is found guilty of three counts of securities fraud on Aug. 4. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
After North Korea conducts missile tests, the U.N. Security Council unanimously approves new sanctions against it on Aug. 5.
Alt-right groups gather in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12 protesting the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, and chanting “Jews will not replace us.” Three people die in related events and Trump’s subsequent statements receive widespread criticism for seemingly backpedaling and condemning both the white supremacists and the protesters.
After multiple members resign because of his handling of the Charlottesville incident, Trump disbands two of his business councils on Aug. 16. On the same day, former President Barack Obama’s Twitter response to said event becomes the most “liked” tweet ever. Former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush call upon Trump to “reject racial bigotry, anti-semitism and hatred in all forms.” Due to his response on Charlottesville, the entire Committee on the Arts and Humanities department resigns on Aug. 18 and the science envoy for the State Department, Daniel Kammen, quits on Aug. 23.
Younes Abouyaaqoub, 22, drives a van into pedestrians on La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain, on Aug. 17. Fourteen people are killed and over 100 are injured. Police shoot and kill Abouyaaqoub days later.
In the U.S., a total solar eclipse (“The Great American Eclipse”) passes from coast to coast on Aug. 21, and for the first time since 1979, it is visible across the entire contiguous U.S.
On Aug. 24, a woman from Chicopee, Massachusetts, wins $758.7 million in Powerball, the largest jackpot in North American history.
Joe Arpaio, Arizona’s former Maricopa County sheriff who had previously been convicted of disobeying a court order that traffic patrols stop using racial profiling, is pardoned on Aug. 25 by Trump.
Houston, Texas, is struck on Aug. 25 by Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane, which continues until Aug. 30, causing more than 80 deaths and $180 billion in damages.
The U.S. government orders the closure of Russian consulate facilities in San Francisco, D.C. and New York City on Aug. 30.
September
On Sept. 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin expels 755 diplomats from Russia in response to U.S. sanctions.
North Korea conducts its sixth and seemingly most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, and says it was a hydrogen bomb.
The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy is revoked on Sept. 5. The president allows Congress until March 2018 to find a solution before the repeal is fully effective.
Irma, a Category 5 hurricane, hits the Caribbean and the U.S. from Sept. 6 to Sept. 10, the strongest Atlantic basin hurricane ever recorded.
On Sept. 13, the International Olympic Committee simultaneously name Paris, France, and Los Angeles, California, as the hosts of the 2024 and 2028 Summer Games.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.1 strikes Central Mexico on Sept. 19, killing more than 300 people and injuring thousands.
Maria makes landfall on Sept. 19 as a Category 5 hurricane in Dominica and Category 4 in Puerto Rico, obliterating agricultural sources, tainting water and cutting off power to all or most of the affected islands.
On Sept. 26, Saudi Arabia lifts its ban, finally allowing women to drive when the royal decree is implemented in June 2018. Later, it’s revealed that its 35-year ban on movie theatres has also been lifted. Saudi Arabia continues to face criticism, especially regarding women’s rights.
Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, 91, dies on Sept. 27.
October
On Oct. 1, Stephen Paddock opens fire on concertgoers in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing 58 and injuring more than 500. This becomes the deadliest mass shooting by a lone gunman in U.S. history.
On Oct. 5, the New York Times publishes an exposé accusing well-known film producer Harvey Weinstein of serial sexual harassment over decades. Additional allegations of harassment and assault against him arise; and soon after, the #MeToo movement, offering a voice and support to victims of sexual transgressions, is launched. The entertainment industry, politics, sports and media are among the fields that are so far affected by the movement, with actor Kevin Spacey, comedian Louis C.K., Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, former U.S. Senator John Conyers, D-Michigan, longstanding PBS and CBS host Charlie Rose, NPR chief editor Michael Oreskes and chef Mario Batali among a few of the many that are credibly accused.
Wildfires begin rampaging through Northern California on Oct. 8, killing 42 people, causing 100,000 to evacuate and destroying more than 8,000 structures.
On Oct. 12, the U.S. withdraws from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), citing anti-Israeli bias by the organization.
When a truck bomb explodes on Oct. 14 in Mogadishu, Somalia, more than 500 are killed and over 300 are injured.
Raqqa, Syria, is declared fully liberated from ISIS on Oct. 17.
It’s announced on Oct. 17 that Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has achieved the world’s first 5G mobile connection.
Files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are released on Oct. 26 as determined by a 1992 law. Trump, however, orders some files withheld due to national security concerns.
On Oct. 27, special counsel Robert Mueller files the first charges related to the investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, are charged with money laundering and tax fraud, among other things. It is also revealed that former Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. and was cooperating with investigators. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn later pleads guilty to lying to the FBI.
The World Meteorological Organization reports on Oct. 30 that concentrations of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere reached a record high of 403.3 parts per million in 2016.
November
On Nov. 7, Danica Roem, a Virginia Democrat, becomes the first openly transgender person to win an election to a state legislature.
The FDA approves Abilify MyCite on Nov. 13, the first drug in the U.S. with a digital ingestion tracking system that records when the medication was taken via a sensor embedded in the pill.
On Nov. 13, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology release the redefined guidelines for blood pressure.
A Leonardo da Vinci painting, Salvator Mundi, sets a new record price for any work of art when it sells for $450 million in New York on Nov. 15.
The U.K. loses its seat on the International Court of Justice on Nov. 21, the first time since the conception of the legal body in 1946.
President Robert Mugabe resigns on Nov. 21 after 37 years of rule in Zimbabwe. Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in on Nov. 24 as the third president of Zimbabwe.
On Nov. 24, an attack aimed at a mosque in Sinai, Egypt, kills more than 300 and injures hundreds more, becoming the deadliest terrorist attack in the African nation’s modern history.
The U.K.’s Prince Harry, on Nov. 27, announces his engagement to American actress Meghan Markle. The couple faces both support and criticism because Markle is biracial and a divorcée.
December
On Dec. 2, the Senate passes the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and sends it back to the House of Representatives to approve its changes. This is projected to be the biggest change to the U.S. tax code since the Reagan era.
Wildfires begin to consume Southern California on Dec. 4, starting with the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, which has ultimately spread into Santa Barbara County and consumed a total of more than 281,000 acres; the Creek Fire near Sylmar, which burned at least 15,619 acres; the 422-acre Skirball Fire near Mulholland Drive, which caused temporary closure of the 405 freeway; the 6,049-acre Rye Fire in Valencia; and San Diego’s 4,100-acre Lilac Fire, which destroyed more than 150 structures. On Dec. 8 Gov. Jerry Brown declares a state of emergency.
Following an investigation into state-sponsored doping, the International Olympic Committee on Dec. 5 bans Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics.
On Dec. 6, Trump announces that the U.S. officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Protests erupt in Arab nations across the globe.
Australia's Parliament votes on Dec. 7 to legalize same-sex marriage.
Mayor Ed Lee of San Francisco, 65, dies of a heart attack on Dec. 12. He was the first Asian-American to hold the office. Also, on Dec. 12, Republican Roy Moore, accused pedophile, loses election for Alabama U.S. Senate seat to Democrat Doug Jones.
The Federal Communications Commission votes to essentially repeal net neutrality on Dec. 14.
On Dec. 16, the California Department of Public Health releases guidelines to avoid cellphone radiation.
Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, abruptly resigns on Dec. 18 amid a growing number of sexual harassment accusers and a recently opened misconduct inquiry.
Ventura County
By the stroke of midnight, Jan. 1, 2017, the plans had already been set: massive demonstrations to show disapproval over the election of President Donald J. Trump scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 19, inauguration day. Not surprising, considering California’s 2016 rejection of Trump. Los Angeles hosted one of the largest anti-Trump marches outside of Washington, D.C., drawing many from Ventura County. Here, however, marches were held as well.
In Oxnard, The Inauguration Day March Against Hate took place on Friday, Jan. 20. Students from area high schools took to the streets with demonstrators hoisting signs in opposition to the new president’s election and promised agenda.
In Ventura, Justice for All’s March for Justice began at 10 a.m. downtown at Plaza Park, making its way downtown. Hundreds joined in the walk, many women wearing pink in solidarity.
The planned protests were just a few; many unplanned protests broke out downtown Ventura and elsewhere in the county for the entirety of the month of January.
A series of storms beginning on Jan. 19 brought record rainfall to much of drought-parched Ventura County. The area remained in the severe drought category even after the rains, which all but disappeared for the rest of the year.
Following the passage of Prop 64 in 2016, medical marijuana received a mixed welcome countywide. Port Hueneme, dubbed “Pot Hueneme” by some, has welcomed medical marijuana businesses with open arms, and Oxnard approved the delivery of medical marijuana. Thousand Oaks and Santa Paula have expressed an interest in allowing some form of activity. The city of Ventura has taken no action as yet.
An algae bloom affected a large number of birds, seals and other sea life by via domoic acid poisoning off Ventura coast in March. In other environmental news, a total eclipse of the moon was visible from much of the nation in August — but only a partial eclipse can be seen from Ventura County.
In October, a mass shooting took the lives of six Ventura County residents. Fifty-nine people, including the gunman, were killed, and over 500 injured on Sunday, Oct. 1, at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On Monday, Dec. 4, at approximately 6:28 p.m., the Thomas Fire began as a brushfire north west of Santa Paula. By Tuesday, Dec. 19, the fire had grown to 271,500 acres in size, making it the third largest fire in California history. Cal Fire Engineer Cory Iverson, 32, of Escondido, died while fighting the fire near Fillmore on Thursday, Dec. 14. A procession was held on Sunday, Dec. 17, as Iverson was taken from Ventura County back to his home. As of Wednesday, Dec. 27, the Thomas Fire has burned 281,620 acres, destroying 1,063 structures, and is 88 percent contained. The Thomas Fire became the largest in state history on Dec. 22.
Camarillo
In September, the city’s school for children with autism was forced to seek a new home. Triton Academy was asked to vacate the premises by the end of the 2017-2018 school year by the Ventura County Office of Education, which owns the location. Students from the third through 12th grades attend Triton, which has a current enrollment of 81 students from 13 different districts in Ventura County.
In October, residents of Camarillo and anyone traveling along Highway 101 spotted the big white tent off of Santa Rosa Road. Cavalia Odysseo, from a producer of the world-famous Cirque du Soleil, features dozens of horses and acrobats. The show hosts performances in the city through January 2018.
Fillmore
The City Council voted against a repeal of a ban on marijuana businesses within the city, a move that gives the boot to Coast to Coast Collective, a Canoga Park medical marijuana dispensary with hopes of building an indoor farm.
Ojai
Ojai Indivisible, a local chapter of a new national organization that sprang up after the election of Donald Trump, hosts an Ojai and Ventura Countywide March for Science protest to coincide with the national event held in Washington D.C. on April 22, Earth Day.
Jeffrey Kroll, 66, arrested in April 2016, facing multiple felony charges, including conspiracy to sell marijuana and manufacturing concentrated cannabis, in addition to four counts of failing to file a tax return and three counts of filing false returns, had all charges dropped against him in July. Kroll, owner of Shangri-La Care Cooperative, had been the subject of several no-knock warrant searches, with many personal belongings, including cash and computers, confiscated over the course of the investigation.
The Thomas Fire that ravaged much of the city of Ventura made its way to Ojai, surrounding the entirety of the city just days after it began on Monday, Dec. 4. Firefighters from across the state and around the country fought to protect the valley hamlet. As Santa Ana winds propelled the flames, many homes in the Upper Ojai valley were lost; Rose Valley remained under threat for much of the second week of the fire.
Oxnard
The Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project, known simply as MICOP, launched its indigenous language radio station, Radio Indigena, at 94.1 FM, in February from Oxnard.
The city of Oxnard is presented with troubling information regarding its red-light camera system: several of its cameras issued tickets erroneously based on wrong timing information, and further, the system, which continued to accrue debt, had been sitting idle since Jan. 31 over contract negotiations with RedFlex, the camera operator.
Aaron Star, former-Oxnard City Council candidate, called for a recall of four current councilmembers over a wastewater rate increase approved by the council on Tuesday, May. 16. Mayor Tim Flynn and council members Carmen Ramirez, Bert Perello and Oscar Madrigal were all subjects of the recall as Starr announced his intention to gather signatures, which, if successful, would force a special election to replace the councilmembers.
Also in May, a string of homicides left the city on edge with three shootings resulting in the seventh, eighth and ninth murders in the city.
To further paranoia in the city, a second string of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids took place in May targeting both LA and Ventura counties. Of the 188 arrested around the southland, 17 in total were arrested from Ventura County, with 10 in Oxnard.
In September, President Trump’s announcement that he would be ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, whose recipients are often referred to as Dreamers, spurred protests in the city.
October saw good news for those opposed to the proposed Puente Power Plant at Oxnard Shores, as the Energy Commission Committee of the California Energy Commission assigned to the project released a statement relaying that the Commission would deny the proposed 262 megawatt plant due to clean energy alternatives’ ability to supply power to the area. NRG Energy suspended its plans to build the power plant in November for six months in turn.
Following in the footsteps of Ventura, Oxnard City Council decided to scrape its at-large voting and move to district-based elections as well. The move is one sweeping cities since the passage of the California Voting Rights Act in 2001.
The city of Oxnard may have been out of the path of the Thomas Fire, but it, too, was affected, as local schools closed their doors in response for a week at the onset. The abatement of the Halaco Superfund Site, which had become a mini-camp for the area homeless population, was postponed due to the county’s winter warming shelter being used as an emergency staging location for the National Guard.
On Dec. 12, City Manager Greg Nyhoff announced his intent to resign, with his final day being Jan. 5, 2018. Police Chief Scott Whitney will be sitting in as interim City Manager.
Port Hueneme
The city embraces the idea of being dubbed “Pot Hueneme” by welcoming medical marijuana-centric businesses to set up operation, bucking the trend of cities in Ventura County rejecting such permitting. The city approved two dispensaries in 2017, set to open in the new year. City Councilman Jim Hensley sues for violating his free speech rights while former Housing Authority director Joseph Gately won a $1.5 million settlement after being fired when he revealed HUD monies were not being properly allocated.
Santa Paula
On May 13, a homeless man was lit aflame while sleeping on a bench in Veteran’s Park. Jorge Chavez, 36, was arrested later the next day and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and later, charged with first-degree murder after the victim passed away May 23.
The Wishtoyo Foundation filed a motion on June 9 to intervene in proceedings regarding a proposed natural-gas power plant in the Santa Clara River Valley. The plant, dubbed the Mission Rock Energy Center (MREC), would sit to the east of Santa Paula. The project, which was proposed in December 2015, has been opposed by Santa Paula residents and the Santa Paula City Council, which questioned the need for the power plant and issued a formal objection to the plant in October 2016, raising environmental and social concerns.
Limoneira officials and county representatives break ground on Wednesday, Nov. 8, on the master planned community Harvest at Limoneira. Built on Limoneira Company’s East Area 1 property, the development will span 500 acres and will host 1,500 new homes; new schools; community facilities for health care; new commercial spaces; a sports park; an amphitheater and hiking trails.
In October, Thomas Aquinas College, a Catholic college, won an exemption from the Health and Human Services Contraceptive Mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
Simi Valley
In November, it was revealed that several lawsuits are pending, while others are in the process of being filed, against the El Rancho Simi Pioneer Cemetery District alleging it and its former manager Barbara Scroggins mishandled human remains, fraud and breach of contract, after discovering that the body of the deceased Helen Gallick had not been buried where the family had been told she was in 2015. To date, an attorney representing one of plaintiffs said that there are perhaps over 20 affected by the fraudulent burials.
Thousand Oaks
California’s first water-market launched in June at California Lutheran University, a market that allows farmers to sell unused groundwater allocations to other farmers.
In November, Conejo Valley Unified School District teachers and students protested a new policy that could dramatically change what students read as a part of their curriculum. The proposal, passed during the late hours of Tuesday, Nov. 14, will require instructors to receive permission from parents before proceeding with book assignments, creating syllabi and providing written and oral warnings if said book contains adult material. Board Member Sandee Everett introduced the policy on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
Ventura
In January, an arrest was made in connection to suspected arson that displaced 43 residents of the Leewood Hotel on the 700 block of East Santa Clara Street in Ventura, forcing it to be deemed uninhabitable. The suspect, Juan Turner, 34, was arrested, but the former residents, many of whom were living on a fixed-income. Many were displaced and thrown into the county’s already at-capacity homeless shelters.
In February, the Ventura Harbor became the focal point of a proposal that could turn Ventura into Mussel City USA. The Ventura Shellfish Enterprise, a multiparty project that would allow for 20 100-acre plots for growing mussels in state waters within the Santa Barbara Channel near Ventura Harbor, was announced by the Ventura Port District, Coastal Marine Biolabs, The Cultured Abalone Farm in Goleta and Ventura-based Ashworth Leininger Group. The group has a long permitting process to go through before the dream can be realized, however.
The long-awaited Kellogg Park on the city’s west side broke ground in March with an expected completion date in 2018. A bidding war over proposed projects for Ventura Harbor came to a head, with two proposals up for grabs, featuring hotels, dining and more. The beloved parade pig Sham Hock deflated during the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and was pronounced dead at the scene.
For the first time in nearly three decades, the Aloha Beach Festival was not held in April due to rising costs associated with event permitting. The City Council created a committee to research rising costs of events on April 10, asking stakeholders to offer opinions on best practices.
On Sunday, May 28, 20-year-old Baylee Gatlin of Ventura died while attending the 14th annual Lightning in a Bottle festival held in Monterey County.
In June, the 75-year old Avenue staple Ventura Hardware closed for good.
August saw a decision made for a massive undertaking at the Ventura Harbor: H. Parker Hospitality proposed a boutique hotel, Harbor Cove Inn, for the end of Spinnaker Drive, while an “adventure lodge” hybrid hostel is proposed for the adjacent property.
Also in August, Ventura-based Patagonia, Inc., joined with many other environmentally-minded businesses in penning a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke in opposition to shrinking the Carizo Plains National Monument, part of which sits in Ventura County.
In August, the trial for Hermin Martin Henderson, 52, of Ventura, began. Henderson was charged with felony hit and run for a collision that led to the death of Jonathan Hernandez, 14, on Feb. 18, 2016, in Ventura. The Hernandez family filed a civil suit against Henderson and his company, Double R Towing.
Tragedy struck in October when one of the remaining iconic Two Trees fell over in high winds.
Ventura scrapped at-large voting in November, choosing instead to go district-based, after a September threat of legal action claiming that the city’s current methods underrepresented minority groups.
Of course, in December, came the Thomas Fire. On Monday, Dec. 4, Ventura got a brand new look when the hillsides burned from the east to the west. In Ventura alone, over 500 homes were destroyed by the fire, including the Hawaiian Village Apartments and part of the Harbor View Apartment complex on Kalorama. The Ondulando and Clearpoint neighborhoods were devastated. On Tuesday, Dec. 19, mandatory evacuation orders for the two neighborhoods were finally lifted.
On the same night as the fire began, an off-duty California Highway Patrolman was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon after shooting the victim twice in the back after a dispute.
Air quality due to the Thomas Fire forces school closures in Ventura through well into January of 2018.
