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Port Hueneme Lifeguards tried to intervene but McTaggart started “throwing punches” at them, according to officials. Police officers arrived at the scene shortly before 2 p.m. and found McTaggart involved in an altercation with the lifeguards in a parking lot on the east end of the waterfront, according to the department. When McTaggart saw the officers, he tried running away, but was ultimately taken into custody after a short chase, police said. The suspect was described by police as a registered sex offender and a transient from Oxnard, who lives in the homeless encampment on Ormond Beach. McTaggart had been...

PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- A Southern California port was closed off Monday afternoon while authorities investigated a possible terrorist threat on a cargo ship, a port official said. A dock worker at the Port of Hueneme in Ventura County discovered a possible threat written in the cargo hold of a ship carrying bananas from Guatemala, said Will Berg, the port's marketing director. Berg said the message, scrawled in marker on a metal pillar in the ship, read: "This nitro is for you Mr. George W. Bush and your Jewish cronies." Federal authorities, including the FBI, and local officials were investigating,...

<p>Adam Housley reports a ship from Guatemala had written in the hold "This Nitro is for you George Bush."</p>

POINT MUGU - Supporters of Naval Base Ventura County said Friday a new assessment of how many military jobs will be transferred from the Point Mugu base to China Lake shows losses in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Review of the final Base Realignment and Closure law indicates that 416 positions, rather than the 2,250 feared last year, will be reassigned from Point Mugu to China Lake, said Jack Dodd, the retired former vice commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center at Point Mugu. The announcement was made by members of the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century,...

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Facilities Engineering Command’s (NAVFAC) Mobile Utilities Support Equipment (MUSE) technicians deployed Aug. 31 to Gulfport, Miss., where they will assess damage and urgent utility needs for Naval Construction Battalion Center Gulfport. “We are proud to be able to do what we can to help,” said Chief Construction Electrician John “Matt” Smith, leader of the four-member team. NAVFAC MUSE division is tasked to provide emergency utility support to the base in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Two 800-kilowatt (kW) generators and one 2500-kilovolt-amp (kVA) substation are on their way to Gulfport...

PORT HUENEME, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 40 began deploying a detachment of 125 personnel to Gulfport, Miss., Sept. 1 to provide humanitarian assistance and conduct debris removal in the aftermath of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The detachment will lend support to the 22nd Seabee Readiness Group in disaster recovery operations. Twenty-seven NMCB 40 Seabees comprised the first group to deploy to the Gulf Coast, with the remaining Seabees scheduled to deploy sometime during the same week. NMCB 40 is currently at its homeport for a 10-month training period.

Navy Seabee Giovanni Perichi says "The Star-Spangled Banner" means a lot more to him now than it did before he served in Iraq. "Bombs bursting in the air -- I lived it," said the 24-year-old New Yorker, a construction electrician 3rd class for the Battalion 4 Seabees. "I have much more respect for the words." Builder 2nd Class Alejandro Gonzales says his experience in Iraq makes him even more proud to be a Seabee. "We just didn't go in and break things. We rebuilt Iraq," said Gonzales, 21, of Phoenix. "It means more to me to be a Seabee." Perichi...