PUBLIC PRESSURE: Health experts Monday joined a...

PUBLIC PRESSURE: Health experts Monday joined a growing list of Ventura County officials opposed to a ballot measure aimed at slowing the tide of illegal immigration (B1). . . . But Steve Frank, who heads the county campaign in support of Proposition 187, said he recalls the last time a measure created such a stir: It was 1978, and the measure was the anti-tax initiative Proposition 13. . . . “Every government agency, every school board, every library group, every religious leader opposed Prop. 13,” Frank said. “And you know what? It passed 2-to-1.”

BABY BONANZA: Talk about practicing what you preach. Four nurses at the Women’s Unit at Simi Valley Hospital are pregnant and due to have babies by year’s end. . . . The other nurses in the maternity ward will throw a baby shower today for their pregnant counterparts. A few other nurses are due in late spring. . . . “We’re going to be running around like crazy after they all deliver,” labor and delivery nurse Sharon Martin said. “We’re thinking about wearing roller blades just to keep up.”

KEEPING SECRETS: So much for the high-tech gadgetry that Amgen uses to protect company secrets. . . . Last year, when a laboratory worker hatched a scheme to cart Amgen’s secrets off to the pharmaceutical black market, it was an anonymous letter, undoubtedly mailed by an alert employee, that thwarted the piracy scheme (Valley Business, Page 4). . . . “Your employees are your best line of defense,” said Bill Boni, Amgen’s chief of security.

VIDEO VENTURE: The Cops And Jocks program has wrapped up filming for an anti-gang video set to be shown in every Ventura County high school this year. . . . “We’re trying to encourage kids to make the right choices,” Cops And Jocks spokesman Rich Randolph said. The program, run by the Santa Paula Police Department, enables officers to adopt high school football teams throughout the county. . . . “Kids in high school these days don’t like police officers,” Randolph said. “We’re bridging that gap.”