If you’ve ever hiked in the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village/Agoura Hills area, chances are it was on a trail managed by the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency. While these trails are most accessible to the residents of the Thousand Oaks area, they are also fairly close to the San Fernando Valley and Ventura. more ›

Akio Takahashi, 69, and his son, Yugo, 25, have been running a family business that the Ventura County Sheriff's Department worked for several months to bring down. The Thousand Oaks father-son duo were arrested this week for allegedly running an illegal marijuana storefront and engaging in money laundering, says the VCSD. more ›

Griffen Kramer, a backup quarterback for Thousand Oaks High School and son of former NFL quarterback Erik Kramer, was found dead on Sunday morning in Agoura Hills. The cause of death is still under investigation, but officials believe the 18-year-old football player may have died from alcohol poisoning. more ›

Remember Steven Slater? He was the JetBlue flight attendant who caught the world's attention when he made a very dramatic exit from his job with the airline in August 2010. Now the ex-employee has been ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to JetBlue, and says he may move home to Thousand Oaks. more ›

FBI are looking looking for a man they're calling the Mr. Magoo bandit, who has been linked to 12 robberies from San Francisco to San Diego. Like the cartoon character, the balding man with prescription glasses has a calm, cool demeanor no matter what's going on. He thanks the tellers for the money, and he doesn't even rush or seem nervous once he has the money in his hand. more ›

The FBI and local authorities are searching Sunday for suspects wanted in connection with two separate robbery incidents within four days of each other at the same Thousand Oaks bank. Chase Bank at 148 W. Hillcrest Drive was robbed first on May 4 and again on May 7, according to the Thousand Oaks Police Department, reports CBS Local. more ›

A small earthquake rumbled near Malibu last night, and was reported as felt by residents in Thousand Oaks. The earthquake had a 3.3 magnitude, and struck at 11:26 p.m. Monday, according to data from the USGS. "A dispatcher at Los Angeles County Sheriff's station said they received "several calls" from people in the Malibu area claiming their heard two sonic booms," reports NBC Los Angeles. more ›

Persistent heavy rain has overloaded Southern California sewage systems causing it to barf sewage in three locations around the region. Long Beach closed its beaches on Monday after 250,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the Los Angeles River near Studio City, an overflow that occurred on Sunday, says the Los Angeles County Bureau of Sanitation, notes the Long Beach Press-Telegram. more ›

An 800-mile Tour de France-style road race tailored for California will be back next May and include two stages in the Los Angeles region, race officials announced today. The Tour of California is scheduled for May 15 through 22 and will hold stages between Claremont & Mount Baldy and Santa Clarita & Thousand Oaks, home to the sponsoring company Amgen. more ›

More than 75 firefighters are fighting a 2 or so-acre blaze in Thousand Oaks this hot, hot, hot afternoon. First reported around 2:12 p.m., the fire is burning light to medium brush on a hillside across the 101 Freeway from the Performing Arts Center and city hall, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. Two helicopters and dozers have been deployed. Updated: Acreage has been upped to fifteen acres. more ›

Authorities in Thousand Oaks are calling swastikas and other "racist graffiti" found in Thousand Oaks yesterday a "hate crime," reports the Ventura County Star. According to Sheriff’s Capt. Frank O’Hanlon, residents in one neighborhood "discovered swastikas and the words “white power” spray painted on several garage doors, cars and electrical transformers," in the area Tuesday morning. A crew was called in to begin erasing the vandals' marks as the investigation was underway. more ›

All of the Department of Motor Vehicle's field offices will be closing down for one day apiece during August or September in order for them to receive technical upgrades, reminds abc7. This is in addition to the "furlough Friday" closures that will find all the DMV offices shut down on Friday August 27th, as part of the state's cost-cutting measures. more ›

JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater has shown the world one heck of a way to quit. On Monday morning a dispute between him and a passenger was the last straw. Sitting on the tarmac in New York, the Queens resident cursed out a passenger on the loudspeaker, grabbed some beer and inflated plane’s emergency chute to slide down it and walk to his car and drive home. Talk about drama... in that sort of amazing way. more ›

After many weeks of struggling with problematic equipment on board the Wild Eyes, 16-year-old Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks announced she will be making a much-needed stop in Cape Town, South Africa, which will bring to an end her attempt to be the youngest person to complete a non-stop, unassisted solo-circumnavigation of the globe by sea. more ›

Karl Rove's Courage and Consequences book tour wasn't safe from protestors in Southern California yesterday when he visited Thousand Oaks and Beverly Hills. The day began in Ventura County at a Borders where a handful of protestors remained outside on the sidewalk. A couple of them made it inside and one apparently ripped the book front of Rove before he was "dragged" away from the Senior Advisor to Former President George Bush. The police were called, but no arrests apparently made (video above). more ›

A 9-year-old boy was left injured when he was trying to cross a Thousand Oaks street yesterday afternoon, according to the Thousand Oaks Police Department this morning. Luckily, he was left with minor injuries. The suspect fled the scene immediately in a green, full size pick up with silver trim. He is described as a Hispanic male, 40 to 50 years old, 5’5” to 5’10”, heavy set, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a mustache. Anyone with information about the vehicle or the identity of the driver is encouraged to contact the Thousand Oaks Police Department’s Traffic Bureau at (805) 494-8271. more ›

Citing injuries from his solo car crash on Friday, Tiger Woods has bowed out of the 2009 Chevron World Challenge, an event that benefits his namesake charity and scheduled to begin tomorrow in Thousand Oaks. Friday's incident was the lynchpin for a series of news about Woods' personal life, something he rather keep private. more ›

Evacuation enters have already been established as the fast-moving Guiberson Fire burns through brush in eastern Ventura County between Moorpark and Fillmore. "Affected person can go to the Goebal Senior Center at 1385 Janss Road in Thousand Oaks for shelter," according to a Ventura County Sheriff's Department advisory. more ›

Yesterday evening, a mother walked into her Thousand Oaks apartment shortly before 6 p.m., finding her son, daughter and husband dead in what police are calling "a gruesome scene." Police say that there is "no reason to believe" that there is a murder suspect on the loose, but would not specifically say it was a murder-suicide. The family lived on the 2700 block of White Ridge Place. The son was 12 years old, the daughter, 7, and the father, who neighbors believe shot his kids before turning a gun on himself, was 52. more ›

Save for the first photo here--probably chock full of code violations and, ahem, maybe some missing bodies--most of these apartments entered into a dirtiest apartment contest just seemed cluttered. more ›

David Crown, 30, was arrested yesterday in Reseda for allegedly having repeat sexual encounters with a 14-year-old boy from Thousand Oaks. Sgt. Don Aguilar told the Associated Press that "Crown has known the teenager for about a year and has taken the boy to his San Fernando Valley home 'for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts.'" more ›

There's some great news for pizza fans coming from Pizza Fusion, an all-organic, environmentally friendly pizza franchise: they're setting out to expand throughout California this year, starting with an LEED-certified location in San Diego and moving up through Santa Monica and Thousand Oaks. Why is this cool? Well, the company is setting trends and blazing trails in the sustainability business:

Pizza Fusion, whose motto is 'Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time,' practices an eco-friendly approach to their entire existence, including their restaurants' buildout, service and overall operations. Through building only LEED certified restaurants, delivering their food in company owned hybrid vehicles, and offsetting 100% of their power consumption with the purchase of renewable energy certificates (among many other things), Pizza Fusion is setting the standard for sustainable restaurant practices as the most eco-friendly restaurant in America.

Photo by C-Monster via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

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The Geminid Meteor showers are set to peak this week, especially on Thursday and Friday. Um, great date night, anybody? Astronomers studying the phenomenon, David Levy and Stephen Edberg, are terribly enthused: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor.' Those guys are serious!!! "The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing... more ›

This week five fresh&easy grocery stores er, "neighborhood markets," opened in metro Los Angeles. We visited the Glassell Park store located in a gutted Albertson's on Eagle Rock Blvd (map) for our first impression of UK-based Tesco's (the world's third-largest grocer) attempt to hook finicky West Coast consumers. more ›

It certainly doesn’t sound like a musical from the 50s. Among other things, it includes kidnapping, a dance-off, literal shotgun weddings, one woman moving in with seven men, and an opening number in which the main character expresses thanks for an unknown woman’s beautiful "hide." more ›

Bloc Party, Justice, Satellite Party, Kinky, Comedians of Comedy, Turbonegro, Teddybears, The Raveonettes, Shout Out Louds, Autolux, Celebrity Skin, others @ Detour Festival Dengue Fever, Mia Doi Todd, Chuchito Valdes, The Pity Party, others @ Eagle Rock Music Festival Kenny Burrell, The Pete Escovedo Family Orchestra (with Sheila E.), others @ Jazz at Drew Natalie Cole, Sheryl Lee Ralph, RuPaul, Linda Hopkins, Loretta Devine, Ann Nesby, Deniece Williams, Jennifer Holliday, others @ Divas Simply... more ›

Tambuco Percussion Ensemble Free at Grand Performances in Downtown LA From contemporary percussion chamber music to world rhythms, this Mexico City based quartet is a staple of the percussion scene . While they do their own thing, you may see the three time grammy nominated ensemble collaborate with the likes of Kronos Quartet and the locally based Southwest Chamber Music. Check out the tunes "Hook" and "Metro Chabacano" on their MySpace page for two... more ›

Trevor Corson discusses and signs The Zen of Fish 7pm @ Vroman's more ›