MEDFLY EMERGENCY: As the count climbed for...

MEDFLY EMERGENCY: As the count climbed for the number of Medflies found in Camarillo, Ventura County authorities declared a state of emergency and farmers braced for a quarantine (B1). . . . The county is still recovering from its last emergency, declared after the Jan. 17 earthquake. . . . Farmers weren’t widely affected by that disaster. “We’ve been lucky up to this point,” Deputy Agriculture Commissioner David Buettner said. “Our luck just finally ran out.”

THICK SKIN: He’s not taking it personally, but Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has been slighted twice recently by Democrats. . . . First, a letter from Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown to the congressman about the Ojai weather radar tower began: “Dear Congresswoman.” Then Gallegly got a letter from the White House about the GATT agreement--but it was unsigned. . . . “There’s no question that there’s a lot of confusion in the White House these days,” Gallegly said.

MAMMOTH TV: Coming to a small screen near you, thousands of years in the making--it’s the Channel Islands very own pygmy mammoth. . . . The skeletal remains of the Ice Age creature with the oxymoronic name were unearthed after being buried for up to 75,000 years on Santa Rosa Island. The mammoth’s excavation will be recounted tonight in a KCET documentary at 7:30 p.m. “It’ll take people right to the site,” said Carol Spears, spokeswoman for Channel Islands National Park.

SWEPT AWAY: The last time that Oxnard was hit with one was around 1812. . . . So after a warning from state officials that a tsunami--triggered by a deadly earthquake in Japan--could be headed their way (B1), officials activated the city’s Emergency Operations Center. . . . Department heads huddled to come up with a readiness plan, including evacuations and shelters. Luckily, the threat petered out. . . . It was a new drill for Police Chief Harold Hurtt, formerly of Arizona. “We didn’t have too many of these in Phoenix,” he said.