Flashes wrestling season is upon us. The Flashes Girls Wrestling Team have a tournament coming up either this Saturday I believe. The following Saturday is the first complete team tournament. I'll let everyone know the when/where of it all. If you haven't seen a High School Wrestling tournament you're really missing out on some great competition. The Flashes are Coached by Bob Calderon and Manuel Ponce. I've been going to the Flashes wrestling matches for four years now and I'm hooked. Talk about giving to the community. Coach Calderon doesn't even live in Fillmore and he's driven to Fillmore every day of practice from Camarillo I think to coach our kids. No payment, no stipend that I'm aware of. He does it for the love of the sport and our kids. Coach is highly respected and could coach just about anywhere but he coaches in Fillmore.

Some have said that I'm not involved in other sports in town. I say that the critics aren't involved in the town enough to know what I'm involved in. Is everyone aware that Fillmore Middle School was the first school in California to introduce skateboarding into Phys Ed? Dave McDonald was instrumental and led the way on that one. I think it's great that kids have options. Anyone aware that a Skate Team has been formed which hopes to compete in the National High School Skate Association? True. While it's not officially recognized with the school the team all attends Fillmore High School.

The point of this post is Fillmore has great kids doing great things in school and in sports. Come on out and show your support or better yet put in the time and coach a team.

Steve Conaway

It has been at least four days now since any one person has made any new comments. I hate to be the one to break the ice! Has the Thanksgiving feasts taken that much of a toll on everybody...including this poster? Well, after recovering from the feast and the leftover cold sandwiches and miscellaneous hot plates, I decided to take my four vehicles, separately, one at a time, of course, to our local Shell service station in Tumauini to fill up their tanks. The two cars and the two motorcycles all take Super Premium, 98+ octane. The price for this high-test gas here is averaging about P37.00 pesos per liter. One gallon is equaling 3.7854 liters (liquid measure). For about 1 gallon of Super Premium gasoline here, averages to be P140.06 pesos per gallon. We are at an exchange rate of 47:1 ($1.00 US = 47 Philippine pesos); so, Super Premium cost me $2.98 per gallon. Still expensive. I just took a look at the gasoline prices in the Fillmore area, and the Shell (highest among the polls or other stations like Chevron, USA, etc), averaged about $2.20; and this pricing fluctuates. Not everybody is driving around here because their gasoline prices are still very high to these indigenous people on the local economy level. In the US, it is another story. I could live with the Super Premium gas going at about $2.20 cents a gallon. But, ever notice the pre-heating season, pre-shopping season, the pre-holiday travel season, and the pre-summer vacation travel seasons gasoline price panics? It sems obvious that we all panic, but when these "seasons" actually come, so strange as it is, how the gasoline and heating fuel prices suddenly subside to levels that we "can live with?" The part I don't understand is when the prices suddenly go up, say, at summer vacation travel season, Christmas holiday season, etc. Even the airlines and rail system passenger services are affected. The shock and awe of it is when the gasoline prices reach double the now $2.20...to $4,40 or even higher for our cars, trucks and cycles! The US has advantages. There is the Atlantic coast to the east, the west coast has the Pacific, the Gulf coast has the Gulf of Mexico, and then, there is the Mississippi River almost in between, intersecting the US mainland. Gasoline comes in via ship to many ports along all these waterways and coastal areas. Then once the fuel products are piped into reservation areas, it is again transported by large tanker trucks or rail systems to other fuel sub-depots. Refineries natural to the US, simply transport their products in much the same manner. The fuels should be priced, once it reaches the service stations tanks, almost across the board; but they are not, even due to the average transport miles considered from POE or "port-of-entry". Could it be the after-market refining if the gasoline comes in to the US ports as "crude"...the transportation costs...the union or/and workforces' local economic levels which vary across the country where fuels are brought to, refined, or distributed? What about all the impositions of taxes all along the way, as well? What are the "shares" everyone plus the federal and state governments receive along the way? Not only these thoughts, but what about the money actually taken in by the foreign oil corporations and their governments as well, when the US companies purchase foreign oil on foreign soil? I justify and accept gas prices, just as I have to accept prices of goods sold and other consumer goods, services, homes, and products, domestic or foreign in nature. But, let's pray that what happened to gas and fuel pricing in mid 2008 does not happen again. It affects almost everything, not just the gas and oil we buy.

Finally, (with smiles all over my face), I have uncovered the mystery of the "point" system. Now, everyone should be happy with this. The points on the 'Blogs and Forums' division/section of the Fillmore Gazette's newspaper web site, are constructed by those bloggers who are most 'active' on their system. The 'points' are calculated through 'submittals (comments), stories, and new topics!'

This is what many of us bloggers thought in the first place. We do not need 'time on our hands' to think up stories, make comments on these articles or website divisions such as Editorials, Politics & Government, Blogs & Forums, Letters, Schools, History, and the rest. Just open up and introduce your comments. You know, on a lot of web sites, especially those in the confines of local or state news, many people are quite interested on the activities of their local events and what others have to say. The downside of this is when some folks tend to use bad taste and diversions to the actual point on the subject. Don't worry about that, as we can simply disregard (ignore) these comments, and have ways to flag them if they are too obnoxious. Remember, the Fillmore Gazette virtually owns this website, we do not, but the operators of the Gazette want and welcome comments from EVERYONE, no matter how controversal the subject happens to be.

Just as long as good taste in language (without vile words) and follow the criteria for good reading is our main and central purpose, this will become a viable web site. For example, just today, 'Jewel' an unknown in Fillmore to this site, made a brief comment, and that comment held weight! This is what I think the Fillmore Gazette wants and we enjoy reading! Please keep it coming! (This is a personal message, not paid for by the blogger).

The Flashes advance to round 2 of the CIF Southern Section Eastern Division with their win over Desert last Friday. The next game is set for Friday 11/28/08, 7:30 Kick-off time at Flashes field against Brentwood.
Come on out and support the Flashes.

Steve Conaway

I do not want to detract from those other important articles in this thread, but I was wondering about something about Thanksgiving I heard just a little while ago. I had a visitor at my home today, a relative from Manila who is visiting her family home in the city I live in. She is taking up world history and proposes to be a future teacher (doctorate degree) of history at a local university. We got into discussing the "real Thanksgiving" back in America; the first one. She said there are books written on this subject, American history, to be exact, that she has in the University of the Philippines library. I do not have much book material on this subject, but I will do Internet research later when I get my project over with. She said that the very first Thanksgiving, and those months leading up to it, and those years beyond it, were sparked with turmoil, death, fighting, disorders and other unrests between the new-coming Pilgrims and the indigenous Indians of the time, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. We already know about Roanoke, Virginia episodes. In fact, she said, during that first Thanksgiving food-fest, there were drunkenness, fighting, a few Indians were killed, and a few Pilgrims were injured that day. The Indians blamed the Pilgrims on their own losses of tribal and family members, as the Pilgrims brought with them, diseases the Indians never had previously to the 'landing' at Plymouth Rock. Even the Pilgrims blamed the Indians on the losses of their own, during this time. Until matters straightened out, some years thereafter, the very first Thanksgiving was a complete roustabout, it is said. Is this really true?

Does anyone know of volunteer opportunities in Fillmore?

The City conducted a Housing Element Workshop last night which was attended by approximately 25 citizens. The focus was on the city effort to update the Housing Element. Of particular interest was the RHNA numbers for affordable housing to be planned within the community. Specific interest was shown by some regarding the recent land use desires of the community and may or may not be consistent with the Housing Element. The audience included citizens, advocates for Measure H & I and advocates for Affordable Housing and several council members and one council member elect. Carl Morehouse, our Representative at SCAG, made an insightful presentation on "the numbers", followed by Lloyd Zola who explained what a Housing Element is and the process for public input.
Much can be said about the meeting, and hopefully will. If you were present you may have observed the first volley in what I predict will be tough and expensive fight for our city.

Steve Conaway

Whenever we go someplace, we always remember the surroundings, people, events, feelings and tempo of that place we were once at. I have been many places in my life. This episode of the "Blogs and Forums" is dissimilar to the normal flow of the articles on this division, and deals with exactly what I described; we reminisce. My first experience with Fillmore began with driving down 126 from, I think the intersection is Castaic, where Roy Rogers once worked on the roadways there before he became famous as a singing cowboy in the movies, north of Magic Mountain. After driving for about 18 hours through the mountains and deserts in a new 1981 Buick Park Avenue, I finally reached Fillmore, just at sunset. I was not surprised by the wonderful little city I had just driven into. It was all I expected. The smell of the orange groves, the sand, the mountain air and a wisp of the Pacific Ocean to the west gradually eased me into a home-feeling, comfortable and cozy-like. Settling into the house I resided in on Sespe Avenue, neighbors were always greeting me and explaining all the nice things about Fillmore folks, places to eat, things to do, go shopping at, clubs, events, barbers, and how far it was to the beach, and other places. I'm a natural beach bum by nature. Having been "forced" every summer for a whole month of August since I was born until I reached the age of 16, to go to beaches with my mom and dad (I have no sisters or brothers) such as Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and beaches along the Florida coast, North Carolina and Virginia coast; but there is nothing like the coastal beaches of California. When I first stepped my toes into the waters of San Diego some years before I landed in Fillmore, it was like I was accomplishing something personal. But in Fillmore, so many folks there were wonderful to me. They invited me to eat dinner at their home, drink a little with the neighbors in the backyards after a fantastic BBQ or fabulous Mexican cuisine dinner! They invited me to share their family events and cultural events as well. Enjoying the climate, and the people, it was akin to the vividness of color degrees against black and white. This went on for awhile. I left, reluctantly, but returned once again, to find Fillmore even more comforting than the first time I arrived. Nothing changed. I thanked Heaven for that. Now, longing for Fillmore once again, I blog because it's my only contact with a loved and respected place I once lived in, and whose population I once knew and interfaced with. Time does "march on". So do we, in our lives, it seems. But the smells, atmosphere, culture, beauty of Fillmore, coupled with the radiant attitude of the Fillmoreites will never leave my senses, nor my heart. No words printed here in this comment can describe my feelings totally in such an affirmative or upbeat manner!

I was just scanning through The Gazette's web pages and noticed something. Most of the comments on the Home Page on the right side column were all mine! I was shocked. Well, not really. Let me explain something. Last August I went into "semi-retirement". I work only 6 months out of the year now. When next August 30th rolls around in 2009, I will retire completely. At this time, all I do mostly is polish my BMW or the two Honda motorcycles I have, listen to music from the 1950's through the 1990's on my outside stereo speakers, log around in the pool, tip a few scotch and sodas or a few beers now and then, eat BBQ and tacos, listen to my wife yakking about wanting this or that, listening to my 15-year old son wanting this or that, and looking at my bank account and wishing I had "this or that" in it! One of the bloggers just, well, kind'a "criticized" me for being "King of the Blog". Sorry. I did not mean to be with so much verbosity! As I lived in Fillmore for a year previously, I grew to really love the place, and having said that, it is nice to "reach out and touch it" somehow. When you retire, it is nice to contact your friends and see what is happening in other places and with those whom are instrumental in making those places so great. What I would love to see is that as in most other webs I visit, there are just a certain number of bloggers making their comments. There are a population of observers visiting the site as well, but appear like they are at a record hop, standing on the sidelines in the auditorium appearing like the statues on Easter Island, observing, static and without life, everyone enjoying the dance. I would love to see these observers getting in on the blogging. We need more comments from others. even the teachers at the local schools can instigate the students to become part of the responses, or initiate their own subjects. Why not? Seems a "silent majority" should be heard from schools in the Fillmore area, just as well as us adults have the right to use this blog, as long as the rules of the Gazette blog policies are followed. Even the Senior Citizens should join in, with their wealth of wisdom and experience; they should also get involved. How about it?

This will be the first time my family attends the carnival tonight. Can anyone let me know what type of events are going on tonight and how much they cost? My son is 2 and I'm wondering if it is something he will enjoy.

Thanks

What a sad state of affairs the newspaper business is in when an editorial such as this weeks Realities could find it's way to the printed page. It's been many years since I've read such a shameful example of bigotry, intolerance and hatred.

Perhaps the editor ( who claims to be a Christian )could set aside some of his Fox news worship time and try reading say, the Sermon on the Mount. A word of caution, the greatness of the words in this sermon have lasted thousands of years. Thankfully no one will remember the editors words after this week.

This Friday the oldest rivalry in Ventura County adds one more notch on the old game belt. This will be the 98th match up between the Fillmore Flashes and Santa Paula Cardnials. This is the most anticipated game of the year for both teams. Regardless of the teams final season record this is the game that is talked about for the remainder of the players lives. The Flashes Field will be filled to overflowing capacity. Arrive early for best seats.
Kick off times are 4:30 for JV and 7:30 for Varsity. Presale tickets are available at the Fillmore High School Student Store.
As Don Burroughs said, "When you play Santa Paula you just tighten up that belt one extra notch and GO GO GO!"

Come out an support the Home Team, The Fillmore Flashes Friday night. See you there.

Steve Conaway

Gayle Washburn, the candidate behind the flawed measures "H" and "I" seems to be on a roll with her lack of common sense and judgment. She stated many times publicly that she would have picked PERC, an inexperienced company using unproven technology, to build our state required sewer plant. Santa Paula council members must have made the mistake of listening to her and the problems are already starting. See this article at The Santa Paula Times. http://www.santapaulatimes.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/17138/Labor_violat...

Please don't vote for Gayle or any candidate that supported the flawed measures "H" and "I". This isn't the kind of leadership our city needs.

Absent Jamey Brooks, the City Council Candidates forum was a real eye-opener for me. Royce Davis, Jr. pretty much lied his way through the questions, especially when it came to the part where he stated that he has lived in North Fillmore ALL his life. Royce, you need to refresh your memory before you go on public television. For a lot of years you lived on upper 4th street with your wife's parents. You also lived on Foothill Drive, which is in no way anywhere near North Fillmore. You also stated that as a firefighter, you would not want to find yourself putting out a fire in a 3-story building here in Fillmore. Also how would you know what the traffic is like taking children to school, when everyone who knows you knows that it is your WIFE NOT YOU who takes HER children to school while YOUR children are driven to school by their MOTHER and NOT YOU. So if you can lie in front of citizens of Fillmore, that tells me that you certainly cannot be trusted as a member of the City Council because your word to me as a registered voter is NO GOOD. I think that the citizens should be allowed to see the candidates statements so we can really see what these candidates are about. A firefighter with ties to a fire chief under investigation by the District Attorney, and whose temper is notorious on the Raiders football fields tells me that this is not anyone I would elect to the City Council.

As the community discusses Measure H & I the issue of legal challenges has repeatedly entered the dialog. Drafters of the Measure downplay the risk of legal challenges to their cause. Today in the Ventura County Star I found an interesting news piece on Ballot Box Planning efforts which might help inform Fillmore voters as they approach the polls November 4th. While citizens have the right to use the Referendum / Initiative Process the cost to defend poorly worded or illegal Measures can be costly. Fillmore may have been placed in the same position as Ojai with one of the measures. In my opinion Fillmore will have to spend your tax dollars due the poorly drafted and possibly illegal Measures, regardless of who is elected. Sadly the only winner in these type of issues is the Attorney.
I've supplied the link for reference.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/oct/22/2-ojai-initiatives-rul...

Steve Conaway

I have known Jamey Brooks and his family for almost 2 decades since they relocated from Guadalupe Ca. Jamey is THE candidate for city council. When his family first relocated to Fillmore he worked hard to re-establish the Fillmore Foursquare Church which was small in number but has had noted success. In that time he befriended other church leaders in Fillmore and helped foster relationships across the board. He and his wife Lynne have raised 4 children who are examples of their parents devotion and hard work. Even though Jamey & I have different personal opinions I can't think of a finer example of a person to be honest, forthright, committed and dilligent to the process.

Unless we, as United States citizens and taxpayers, two of the things that may never go away, take this entire, complete and whole issue of the state of our country (which is in total self-destruction), and take the state of our presidential candidates (which is in total self-destruction), and take the state of the complete campaign debacles run by each of the candidates of "choice" (which is in total self-destruction), and the world view has of the United States right now (which is in total self-destruction), and putting a dead-stop (estoppel) to this whole mess right here and now, we are heading for more total self-destruction. If the campaign situation is stopped by injunction or better yet, by a restraining order issued to the US Government on this election, due to the fact we have "No Confidence" on either party candidate...we may find ways to elect someone we can actually feel comfortable with! But, this may not occur, because the wheel and the engine of our government does not listen to the people anymore, it seems. What will happen is this; and here is the "Fearless Forecast":
Hillary Clinton will "open up" a fullisade of remarks, along with her husband, Bill Clinton, against Obama...which may virtually end his career as we know it to be. These remarks will be honest and truthful...something the Clinton's oftentimes don't manage to purvey. The FBI is now investigating the Democratic party, Obama, and ACORN for issuing false documented names, literally hundreds of thousands of them, to be fraudulently added to the votes in two weeks, when only about 13,500 actual names were added to the Democratic new-voter lists. We see that enough is enough of this bullcrap of Obama's reputation, historics and unmeaningful purposes,...and someone is going to break the Democratic candidate and election hopes to smithereens, and it will be done in a short time from now. Hillary Clinton is a write-in candidate for the DNC. She "conceded" to Obama...but even if the delegate state votes were totally counted, Obama would not have held enough vote counts to secure the nomination of Democratic Convention nominee. Hillary ws breathing down his neck all the time...even now...as if nobody noticed...the Clinton's are very much present on radio, television talk shows, news papers...everything and watch them suddenly bloom like roses in the sun very soon. Hillary will, as well, be a "write-in" candidate once again on the nomination for President in two weeks on the final ballot...shoving McCain and Palin right off the wharf into the water without effort. Obama, too, will feel her sting, as Hillary might...just might this time...pull off the Presidential election all unto herself. What a way to "get there from here"...Hillary. We have noplace left to go but "up".
Now, I know this may not be actually what will happen. I'am not a fortune-teller, or can predict the future...but this feeling came over me today. I had to put pen to paper and let you know. What can I lose?

Hello, Im not sure if any one can guide me? but i am a single mother looking for a two bedroom house or appartment for me and my daughter to call home!, if anyone can advise me of where people post rentals for the area in town besides here in the realestate paert of the gazette I would appretiate it!

I still have a residence in a border state back in the USA. That means I also pay taxes, and high taxes at that, considering the cost of my house. But, what bothers me is what apparently is bothering many of the millions of people living under legal immigration residency in the US, and those who are native citizens of the US. The issue is that of the approximate number of the 12,000,00 "illegal immigranats" in the US currently? These "illegals" are not only Mexicans, but South Americans, Transcaucasians, and Central Asians, and including some from Central Europe, and the Middle Eastern countries; and we do not know how many of them are criminals, terrorists or whatever. I think President Bushs' thought process not to get involved with the "illegal immigration issue" a couple of years ago, was because he was becoming a lame duck president, there were other pressing issues to deal with, and that he lives in Texas. A border state. I remember when the last time I was in the US, in 2001 (arrived in June and departed in October that year), I interviewed (reluctantly, although I was returning to the Philippines, anyway), for a nice job position that could have turned into a permanent job on a 5-year contract. I did not get the job because the job was offered to someone from Belarus - a former republic of the USSR; and the guy getting the job could not speak a word of english! Government "requirements" I was told by the State of Washingtron Job Service. Ok. So, back further in time, I had a contract job at Alamogordo, NM. When the job was complete, I packed the Cadillac, and left New Mexico on I-10. 25 miles west of El Paso, at 3:00am, I had to make a screeching stop as the pickup in front of me stopped without signals. In piled 15 or more people coming from the desert into the truck, (two obviously carrying AK-47's) and five or six tried to get in my car at the same time; that was until I cocked my .45 and pointed it at them, did they back away, swearing at me in Mexican. There are immigration and DEA roadstops along some routes, but as these examples point out, and by reports coming from a Meg Adams, a reporter for a northeast newspaper, the deserts are still loaded with people from Mexico coming across the border all the time, and filtering into the US society, without much being done by US border agents. One opinion should be to stop these illegals, is to fine employers heavily for the first three offenses, ($10,000.00) then double-fine them ($20,000.00) along with jail terms for the fourth offense consecutively from there. The income will help the US economy somewhat, wouldn't it? It is not the illegal immigrants' fault for getting jobs, the responsibility falls on the employers. I do not buy the story about ID's and the such...everything needs to be verified through the US governmental process for verifications. Someone told me, "Oh, you just cannot deport 12,000,000 illegals"...and I said, "why not?" Silence. If we did the same in other countries, certainly we would get that treatment. So, apparently the US has "shelved", for now, the illegal immigration and border-control issues to let it fall into the already-tired hands of the next incoming administration. The financial crisis is one thing in itself, and with additional weight on the backs of the tax-supporters of the US, is enough to be enough someday?

With so much oil drilling seemingly being the only mindset on getting the US out of "oil dependency" on "foreign oil"...I doubt if this will ever get done. On either point, it seems just a band-aid effect. True, oil drilling offshore of the US, would "ease" burdens on the dependency factor, temporarily, and presumably lessen the price paid at the pump for gasoline, and home heating fuels. The US is again creating false senses of security in thinking the people in fuel-need areas are going to rely on wood pellets, wood, and other forms or fuel. They all have a pollutant factor. Although in the area I reside in (Asia, in the Philippines), large crops of rainforests here as well as in other subtropical countries are being destroyed in order to grow palm trees (a variant) to make palm oil, which is a great substitute for fuels as we know it today. Everything has it's price. There goes the jungle; there goes the CO2. I have just purchased, and have delivered a "1000", 155-foot tall, 3-bladed wind turbine generator, from a company in Japan. I have the base set (concrete), and the installers will be here in Tumauini, Isabela, Luzon at my home next week to install it. It will operate all my electric needs. Storage, should last three weeks, they say, when the batteries are at capacity operating my five TV sets (including 2 home theater systems HDILA's), 16 ceiling fans, satellite TV and broadband radio systems, 4 refrigerators, 2 water coolers, three computers, and all the lights necessary to operate my home. No more "brownouts"...power losses we occasionally get here...unannounced, and usually last for a day! No. We need to get established on alternate fuel sources...soon. Even cars...auto corporations must set deadline's, to re-engineer cars to operate on alternate, pollution-free, cost-saving fuels. Why do we need to change the darned styles...keep them the same designs we enjoy...not to change them into giant duck eggs! Alternate fuels, and alternate energy should come faster than ten years...and don't be fooled, gas prices will not go down again.