Neighbors
They’ve got Brian’s back
By Dawn Megli
dawn@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
For the past 2½ years, Thousand Oaks has rallied around Borderline. Now it’s rallying around Brian Hynes, the co-owner of the dance hall that was the site of the mass...
BRIEFS
The Acorn Staff | May 6, 2021
Water-wise webinar on Wednesday Triunfo Water and Sanitation District will sponsor a free Water Wise Wednesday online class on fire-wise landscaping at 7 p.m. Wed., May 12. The class is...
Artists are scholarship worthy
By Allison Montroy
allison@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
If 18-year-old Daniel Bae could travel back to the beginning of the school year, the violinist said, he would only tell himself one thing: “Daniel, you did it. You did...
Cowboys ride the range to keep ranching heritage alive
By Dawn Megli
dawn@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
Wild sage swayed in a gentle, easterly breeze as a train whistle blew in the distance in the oak-dotted Santa Susana foothills north of Simi Valley. Just after 10 in...
War wounds: Doctor pens memoir on Fallujah
By Dawn Megli
dawn@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
Today, Dr. Donnelly Wilkes treats patients while wearing a white physician’s coat at his office in Thousand Oaks. But in 2004 he was in Iraq wearing body armor, dodging roadside...
Family
Artistic reflections
| April 8, 2021
Agoura High School leads all competitors with six finalists in the 2021 Reflections art and music competition. AHS had more finalists than any other high school in a region that includes eight other school districts. Each year more than 10,000 student entries into the artistic...
Tooth be told: dental health
| April 8, 2021
Regular dental cleanings for kids are one of many aspects of people’s lives that have been interrupted over the past year. However, instilling good dental hygiene habits early is still critical in helping ensure long-lasting oral health for a child. Most dental plans cover children...
Squirrel of the Month
| December 3, 2020
OUT OF HIS GOURD— Diane Lind submitted this photo on behalf of her 13-year-old daughter Zoe, an eighth-grader at Lindero Canyon Middle School. Zoe took the picture in the family’s backyard in Agoura Hills. The critter discovered the Halloween jack-o’-lanterns and began feasting on them....
Health
Biotech startup gets cash infusion for gene therapy
By Kyle Jorrey
tonewstip@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
High-profile venture capitalist Beth Seidenberg, recently named to Barron’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, is putting some of her firm’s millions to work right here in the Conejo Valley. Newbury Park-based biotech startup Capsida...
Westminster Free Clinic provides necessities for those in need
By Dawn Megli
dawn@theacorn.com | April 29, 2021
On a recent Wednesday, they started lining up under a gray spring sky at the makeshift medical clinic. Some came one by one. Some came two by two. Others walked up with their arms linked. As volunteers in blue and burgundy scrubs performed intake interviews...
Telehealth doctor visits: here to stay?
By Becca Whitnall
becca@theacorn.com | April 22, 2021
Changes that have come about out of necessity during the pandemic could stay in place for reasons of convenience or economics even after the health crisis passes. Some businesses have said they’ll continue to allow employees to work from home. Even with vaccinations up and...
Healthy sport, big win
| April 22, 2021
CHAMPS—Team Venom, a U-14 club basketball team with players from Calabasas and Agoura Hills, won the 11th annual Kyree R. Brown Memorial Basketball Tournament held at The Map Sports Facility in Garden Grove. After going undefeated in pool play, Venom beat Team Nucleus from Anaheim...
Sports
Row, row, row your boat
By Eliav Appelbaum
eliav@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
Seven rowers walk into a boat. . . . Is that how it starts? Seven athletes from Acorn country, who train with Channel Islands Rowing...
Agoura’s Jed Miller scores 62 points at Calabasas
| May 6, 2021
Jed Miller really is the Steph Curry of Acorn country. Miller, a superstar senior point guard for the Agoura High boys’ basketball team, scored an...
Short and bittersweet
FOOTBALL /// The All-Acorn Team
By Eliav Appelbaum
eliav@theacorn.com | April 29, 2021
The high school football season came and went like a tornado ripping through a cauldron of giant vampire bats interrupting a chain saw breakfast. Sounds...
Schools
Civic-minded Calabasas High senior engages the community
By Ian Bradley
ianbradley@theacorn.com | April 22, 2021
The COVID-19 lockdown was a difficult time for everyone, but teens faced a particular challenge in dealing with distance learning. One Calabasas High School student...
Pool rewarded with $5K NHS scholarship
| April 22, 2021
Katelyn Pool was selected to win a $5,625 National Honor Society scholarship. She was chosen from nearly 10,000 applicants. Pool was elected vice chair of...
COLLEGE STANDOUTS
| April 22, 2021
Emma Williams of Oak Park made the fall 2020 dean’s list at San Francisco State University. Amanda Bonavida of Agoura Hills made the fall 2020...
Local school districts grapple with return to standardized testing
By Christina Cox
christina@theacorn.com | April 15, 2021
As students adjust to the return of in-person learning, many will also be asked to sit down and take standardized tests for the first time...
Private academy offers post-pandemic assistance
| April 15, 2021
River Oaks Academy in Westlake Village is offering free pandemic academic recovery to high school students. The summer academy will run from July 1 through...
On the Town
A cappella group is driven to sing
By Cary Ginell
originjazz@aol.com | May 6, 2021
Whether you call it “car-cappella” or “carbershop quartet,” the Agoura Hills Harmony Chorus hasn’t let the pandemic stop them from congregating to sing their favorite tunes. The all-female a cappella singing group is one organization that has found a Zoom-free method of rehearsing together, and...
Family-owned Mexican restaurant punches through pandemic plus loss of mother
By Ela Lindsay
eLindsay@theacorn.com | April 29, 2021
The Lopez family has owned and operated their authentic, home-style Mexican restaurant for over 20 years—and that includes surviving the pandemic—barely. Money Pancho has been a fascinating success story since its earliest days, when papa Jorge Lopez, then a young chef at a restaurant in...
YAE rolls a lucky seven with musical
By Cary Ginell
originjazz@aol.com | April 22, 2021
Imagine that you are a performer in a stage musical. You’re restricted to an area the size of a small closet. You have to sing to a prerecorded music track, and you can’t see the other actors. That’s what the intrepid performers in Young Artists...
Youth plays ‘heal through art’
| April 22, 2021
Moorpark College theater arts department and the Ventura Youth Correctional Facility are collaborating on the presentation of student one-act plays, which are produced every semester. On Fri., April 30 this term’s production will feature two oneact plays written and performed by students from the correctional...
Faith
Passover marks a nation under God
By Brian Goldenfeld
Special to The Acorn | March 25, 2021
Passover begins Saturday night March 27 and ends Sun., April 4, but what is Passover? This holiday commemorates the departure of the nation of Israel from Egypt. Pesach marks the...
A faith perspective on good mental health during pandemic
By Christina Cox
christina@theacorn.com | March 25, 2021
From canceled birthday parties to the closure of small businesses, the devastation of the pandemic shaped every aspect of life over the past year. It especially worsened people’s mental health,...
Business
Amgen asks to rezone old welcome center
By Becca Whitnall
becca@theacorn.com | May 6, 2021
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen, whose mission is to develop medicines to help people live, is taking...
Services available to reuse and recycle inkjet printer cartridges
By David Goldstein
Special to the Acorn | April 29, 2021
When Costco Inc. recently closed in-store photo shops, taking the company’s photo development business entirely...
Columns
Wish list for post-COVID senior housing
Andrea Gallagher | April 22, 2021
When asked, I tell friends that if I outlive my husband and have difficulty living independently, I want to move to an assisted-living facility. I’m a person who thrives in the company of others, and a socially isolated life would be lonely and depressing for...
Finding special surprises along the way
Gloria Glasser | April 1, 2021
It’s often said that it’s the little things in life that matter, and living in the age of a big pandemic, it’s a comfort to appreciate those things. I discovered this while visiting my old neighborhood, Westlake Hills in the Westlake portion of Thousand Oaks....
Authors, aging experts share life lessons
Andrea Gallagher | April 1, 2021
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the book “Live Smart After 50: The Experts’ Guide to Life Planning for Uncertain Times” that I co-edited and co-authored with 32 other experts in the field of aging. It was a passion project for a few members...
Shedding off the old burial cloths for new Easter garments
Sally Carpenter | April 1, 2021
It’s the detail in Bible stories that make them fascinating and describe great truths. On Sunday morning, Peter and the beloved disciple ran to Jesus’ tomb. “Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen...
Taking a spring stroll renews the spirit, brings hope
Gloria Glasser | March 25, 2021
In autumn, folks flock to see the fall foliage display, an array of intensely vivid colors that flare gloriously for weeks then drop to the ground, leaving bare, empty, spidery silhouettes. It’s kind of surprising that now that it’s spring, as deciduous trees begin to...
Crime
SHERIFF’S BLOTTER
| May 6, 2021
Agoura Hills Someone broke into a car parked on Trailway Lane on April 23 by smashing the front passenger window,...
