Free Republic

LONG BEACH - A bill that would allow for additional onshore oil drilling in the Port of Long Beach and could potentially feed the cash-strapped city $130 million over 10 years cleared the state Assembly Sunday and headed to the governor's desk for his signature. Assembly Bill 2165 passed the Assembly with 57-0 vote after a 38-1 vote in the Senate on Saturday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can sign or veto the bill or do nothing and allow it to pass. The measure cleared the state Senate Saturday night after an intense lobbying effort by Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, who...

A coalition of consumer, immigrant and civil rights groups warned Tuesday that a Port of Long Beach loan program to help thousands of mostly low-income truck drivers replace old, polluting rigs with newer, cleaner-burning vehicles could plunge the truckers into debt. Port officials counter that the loans are a bargain and that truckers would not be able to afford new rigs without them. But the coalition foresees a wave of "foreclosures on wheels."

Marine biologist Milton Love drives a hybrid car, displays a banner of left-wing revolutionary Che Guevara on his laboratory wall - and has backing from Big Oil. The reason: his finding that oil platforms off California's central coast are a haven for species of fish whose numbers have been dramatically reduced by overfishing. That is good news to oil executives, who are looking for reasons not to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remove the platforms once the crude stops flowing. Environmentalists say oil companies are simply trying to escape their obligations. "Just because fish are there doesn't mean...

The city of Los Angeles had good reason to push a tough anti-graffiti bill through the Legislature, and Gov. Schwarzenegger wasted no time in signing it. L.A. pushed the bill not only because taggers did their dirty work at more than 650,000 locations in the fiscal year that ended June 30, they also were bragging about their work on Internet sites. How's this for a statistic: In the year ended June 30, taggers defaced nearly 32 million square feet of surfaces. And they weren't picky about what they defaced: murals, billboards, freeway signs, bus benches, walls everywhere and anywhere, buses,...

The latest on the triple-default, single-foreclosure Democratic congresswoman from Long Beach: "Rep. Laura Richardson initially failed to disclose economic interests -- including a loan from a strip club owner -- when she served on the Long Beach City Council, public records show," the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.

<p>The latest on the triple-default, single-foreclosure Democratic congresswoman from Long Beach: "Rep. Laura Richardson initially failed to disclose economic interests -- including a loan from a strip club owner -- when she served on the Long Beach City Council, public records show," the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.</p>

The saga of Rep. Laura Richardson's mismanaged personal finances continues to grow, as the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports that the freshman congresswoman failed to paid her car bills to one mechanic and abandoned her damaged car with another. After wrecking her own car, she grabbed a city-owed vehicle and proceeded to put more than 30,000 miles on the car in just over a year. City policy states that city-owned cars are not for personal use in member's part-time role on the council in the 50-square mile city.The car troubles come on the heels of news that Richardson lost her...

It seems congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-CA) has defaulted on the mortgages for her 3 homes. She wants us to feel bad for her. Let's take up a collection! http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_9363943?source=rss

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) ― Authorities at the Port of Long Beach investigated a cargo container marked with graffiti saying, "Anthrax a gift from Osama" Wednesday. Long Beach Fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes said a truck hauling the container was stopped at a terminal around 10:30 a.m. because of the spray-painted graffiti. The truck driver told authorities the container was picked up in nearby Wilmington and was empty. The container was moved to an isolated area of the port for inspection and hazardous materials crews wearing oxygen tanks and protective suits inspected it. So far no contaminates or hazardous materials...

The Richardson mess: She defaulted on three houses, report says U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson was in default this spring on three separate California houses, and lost one to foreclosure, according to a hard-hitting report in today's Daily Breeze. The Daily Breeze's Gene Maddaus: "Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost her Sacramento home in a recent foreclosure auction, has also defaulted on properties in Long Beach and San Pedro, records show." Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, has declined to answer detailed questions about her finances, but has blamed her financial woes in part on the distractions caused by her whirlwind political...

Rep. Laura Richardson made only a few payments on the Sacramento house she bought in 2007, failed to pay property taxes, defaulted on the mortgage, and lost the house to foreclosure. The Daily Breeze reports that Richardson's lender, Washington Mutual, took a loss of nearly $200,000 when it sold the house at a public auction on May 7. Further, the new owner, York, "assumed responsibility for Richardson's unpaid property tax bill of $8,950.79."

Rep. Laura Richardson lost her Sacramento home in a foreclosure auction two weeks ago and left behind nearly $9,000 in unpaid property taxes. Richardson, D-Long Beach, appears to have made only a few payments on the house, which she bought in January 2007 for $535,000. After buying the home, Richardson hardly had time to live in it. Three months later, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald died and Richardson - then a freshman member of the state Assembly - launched a campaign to replace her in Congress. Richardson won the election, pouring in $77,500 in personal loans to her own campaign. Around the...

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Witnesses and police gave conflicting accounts of the fatal shooting of a terminally ill, mentally disabled man by Long Beach police over the weekend, and the shooting remained under investigation Monday. Roketi Su'e, 46, was killed at about 7 p.m. Saturday in a cul-de-sac in the 3400 block of 67th Way in North Long Beach as he was walking home from a birthday party. Police said he fought with officers, but witnesses said he was shot as he lay unarmed on the sidewalk. "He had no shirt on. He didn't have a weapon. He never carried...

Note to mods-This is not about the murder offer by Pellicano in previous threads-this is about his work in getting a murder ruled an accident. A former Los Angeles Police officer who once worked for Anthony Pellicano is scheduled to testify today about the ex-private investigator's work in the acquittal of a man accused of murdering a woman in Long Beach. Ward is expected to testify that she saw the unauthorized background checks that then-LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson ran in August 2001 on Sandra Rodriguez, who plunged to her death from a Long Beach Hyatt balcony following a night of...

LOS ANGELES - Rescue crews responding to a wreck on a Los Angeles freeway found a driver fatally shot in the head early Sunday, while another driver was shot and wounded in a separate attack about 30 miles away, authorities said. The shootings were the latest in a string of attacks on Southern California freeways that have alarmed motorists and authorities. Investigators did not know what led to the fatal shooting on the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley on Sunday. The wreck snarled traffic for several hours near Van Nuys. "There's absolutely no witnesses at this time, no...

LONG BEACH (KABC) -- A man was kidnapped from his Long Beach business Thursday. A short time later, his family received a phone call demanding a large ransom. …It has now been just about 24 hours since that man was abducted from his auto repair shop. His kidnappers are asking for money for his safe return. … Police say at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, three Hispanic men came to the Mr. Auto Body Repair Shop on the border of North Long Beach and Paramount and ushered the owner into a car and drove off. Maurilio Robles, 47, was kidnapped. …...

Plans have been finalized by Mexico to develop Punta Colonet as a West Coast Mexican alternative to the U.S. ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The proposal includes a deep-water Pacific Ocean port on Mexico's Baja California peninsula about 150 miles south of Tijuana that could serve as a destination for the 30 million containers headed to North America from China and the Far East each year, according to a report published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times. The on-again, off-again plan to develop Punta Colonet has been discussed before as the number of containers from China grows and...

How many high-risk registered sex offenders should be allowed to live in the same apartment building? At 1149 E. 1st St. in Long Beach, where at the same time as many as 19 rapists and child molesters on parole have resided in an apartment building near two licensed day-care centers, the question, and its elusive answer, have become an emotionally charged issue.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Tuesday approved the final elements of a clean air initiative aimed at reducing pollution from trucks hauling cargo through the Port of Long Beach. The commissioner voted unanimously to adopt several facets of the so-called clean trucks program, which looks to replace and modernize older-model trucks with ones that spew fewer harmful emissions. An after-hours call to the California Trucking Association was not immediately returned. The program sets up a system for identifying and monitoring the trucks that enter the port so they can be monitored for compliance with security, maintenance and...

POLITICS: GOP candidate speaks to cheering crowd at L.B. Airport's Sky Harbor. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney rallied a crowd of hundreds at the Long Beach Airport's Daugherty Sky Harbor Monday night. "Something big is happening in California," Romney told the cheering crowd. "It's time for the politicians to go and for the citizens to take over," he said. When Romney took the podium with his grandson in his arms, locals chanted "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt" and waved large signs, cameras and cell phones in the air. "I came out to support and to hear firsthand what Mitt Romney had to...

A large, enthusiastic crowd gathered on extremely short notice for a last minute Long Beach, California stop for Romney tonight. I talked to the get-out-the-vote staffer who was heading back to Sacramento and the headquarters even as Romney took off for West Virginia and that state's Super Tuesday convention. The Romney team is wired, the sort of energy that can be faked but only flows from conviction that the political wind is at your back. Similar reprots are arriving from Colorado and Georgia. Romney clearly has momentum in California, and a win here will send the campaign into a month...

Long Beach - Groups of gunmen attacked two separate parties during the night in the Los Angeles area, killing two teenagers and wounding at least nine other people, authorities said on Sunday. There were no immediate arrests in either shooting, police said. The first shooting happened late on Saturday in Long Beach, where several gang members apparently crashed a birthday party and started a fight, said police sergeant Dina Zapalski. A 17-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl died of gunshot wounds, said Zapalski. Another 17-year-old boy suffered injuries that were not life-threatening. Early on Sunday, four or five men turned...

LONG BEACH - Days after port authorities approved a $35 environmental fee on containers shipped through Southern California's harbors, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that he would support a similar fee at the state level. Schwarzenegger, who previously said container fees would hurt the economy, now considers them an option to help fund trade-related infrastructure and environmental programs. "I think fees are good; we just have to work it out with the various stakeholders," Schwarzenegger said during a visit with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. "It's extremely important that we find a way to create economic development and increase...

Jim Gilchrist was scheduled to speak at my school, Long Beach City College (LBCC) this afternoon today, 26 Nov but the president of the school supposedly could not get security into the building to ensure his safety, citing that he was too "controversial". If he is too controversial, why was he invited in the first place? I told him that it's too bad some people don't have first amendment rights on college campuses. He just told me "whatever". Next to us and next to the podium where he was going to speak was a display case promoting Aztlan. For some...

The Port of Long Beach's Board of Harbor Commissioners was scheduled to vote Monday on a proposal to sharply reduce pollution at the nation's busiest port complex by banning an aging fleet of diesel trucks. The proposal calls for replacing about 16,000 trucks serving the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles by 2012. The trucks, which regulators said are a leading cause of unhealthy air around the ports, could also be retrofitted to meet more stringent emissions standards. If approved, it would move a step closer to becoming the first action taken by Long Beach and Los Angeles under...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   California: Long Beach Crafting Ammo Registration Ordinance!   Thursday, October 11, 2007   The City of Long Beach is in the preliminary stages of crafting an ordinance requiring ammunition sales to be logged by all Federal Firearm Licensees (FFL’s) and electronically sent to law enforcement.  Under this possible ordinance, it is likely that purchasers will be forced to present identification and submit to fingerprinting simply to purchase a box of ammunition to hunt or go to the range.  It has been transferred to the Public Safety Advisory Committee and the Public...

LOS ANGELES — A man accused of stealing three endangered iguanas from a nature preserve in Fiji and smuggling them into the United States in his prosthetic leg has been indicted. Jereme James, 33, of Long Beach, faces a single count of smuggling, according to a federal indictment returned Friday in Los Angeles. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Prosecutors say James stole the Fiji Island banded iguanas while visiting the South Pacific island in September 2002. He then brought the reptiles to the U.S. by hiding them in a special compartment he had constructed...

Southern California's water woes -- caused by record dry weather combined with a court ruling likely to limit water deliveries from Northern California -- hit home Thursday as Long Beach imposed the region's most severe water restrictions in years. The measures, which took effect immediately after the city declared a water emergency, will force residents and businesses to change their behavior, including when they water lawns and how restaurants serve water to diners. Regional water officials said Long Beach's action could be a precursor for other communities around Southern California as they grapple with the drought and a federal judge's...

FURTHER UPDATE TO FLASH WITH ADDED INFO ON LB CITY HALL FINANCIAL OUTCOME: At 11:54 a.m. today in an auction in a packed U.S. Bankruptcy courtroom in downtown Los Angeles, Save the Queen, LLC was awarded the contractual rights previously held by QSDI, including development rights to nearly 50 acres of prime property surrounding the Queen Mary for $43 million...the amount of its initial overbid without the need to bid further. The outcome came after initial bidder O & S Holdings tried and failed to have the Court disqualify Save the Queen (on grounds it failed to strictly comply with...

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Law enforcement authorities fanned out across the city early Tuesday in a huge sweep of gang members aimed at taking down violent offenders. More than 400 federal agents and local police officers took part in the campaign that started at around 4 a.m., said Mike Campbell, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The raids would be conducted throughout the day, Campbell said. He said the operation was one of the largest he had seen. The effort was part of a wider crackdown that has taken place in recent months in...

Another abandoned backpack I'm guessing. Feel free to pull this - as I'm sure we're now averaging several of these a day.

Two accused in beating plead guilty to assault; hate crime charge dropped By Tracy Manzer, Staff writer Article Launched: 05/10/2007 12:27:53 PM PDT INGLEWOOD - Two Long Beach boys accused in the beating of three young white women by a mob of black youths last Halloween pleaded guilty Thursday to felony assault for their part in the attack, but a hate crime charge was dropped. Both 15-year-old students at Jordan High School face three months in the Los Angeles County Probation-run camp system when they return for sentencing, or disposition as it's called in Juvenile Court, on June 15. "The...

Long Beach teens face hate crime charges By Hector Becerra, November 22, 2006 Los Angeles County prosecutors today filed hate crimes charges against eight black teenagers accused of beating up three white women on Halloween night in a case that has startled and divided Long Beach. Authorities said they took the action after concluding that the teens attacked and beat the women in the upscale Bixby Knolls area because they were white. The case has been the subject of a wrenching public dialogue over the last few weeks in the racially diverse city of 460,000, with civil rights groups like...

LONG BEACH – Angering one victim's family, a judge yesterday sentenced four black youths to probation with 60 days of home detention in the racially motivated Halloween beatings of three white women. The sentences by Juvenile Court Judge Gibson Lee touched off another series of bitter words in a case that seems to spark outrage at every step. For the past few months, it has tested the harmony of this coastal city of 475,000, which touts its diversity. “The juvenile system is a joke,” said Barbara Schneider, as her 19-year-old daughter, Laura, sobbed on her shoulder. Her comments outside court...

America's long battle with racism has taken a nasty new twist on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Peter Huck reports. It was a Halloween fright fest that went horribly wrong for three young women. Shortly after they left a "haunted house" in a middle class area of Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, on October 31, a teenage mob set upon the women. Even by the savage conditions that often prevail on Los Angeles's mean streets, what followed was a vicious assault. The women were surrounded by a group of kicking and punching teenagers. One victim suffered multiple fractures...

9 convicted in Long Beach hate crime beatings New, 3 p.m. Witnesses to Halloween mob melee said several of those in crowd that attacked three white women yelled racial slurs. A 12-year-old girl is cleared. By Tracy Manzer Staff Writer A juvenile court judge today convicted nine of 10 local black youths accused in the hate crime beating of three young white women during a mob melee on Halloween. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee also handed down "true findings," the equivalent of guilty verdicts in juvenile proceedings, on hate crime charges against eight of the youths. The one...

LONG BEACH - True findings, the equivalent of guilty verdicts in juvenile court, were returned Friday against nine of 10 local black youths accused in the hate crime beating of three young white women during a mob melee on Halloween. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee also found that eight of the youths had committed a hate crime. The one minor who was cleared of the charges was a 12-year-old girl. Lee announced the verdicts Friday afternoon, finding the petition, or charge, against nine of the 10 accused minors was true, the equivalent of a guilty verdict in juvenile...

Beijing, China (AHN) - China confirmed Tuesday that it had tested anti-satellite weapon. However, it added that the nation does not have intentions of an arms race in space. Beijing said it had officially told the governments of the U.S., and Japan about the missile test. The Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said China was interested only in "peaceful development of outer space." The satellite intercept test is said to be the first of its kind in well over 20 years and there are concerns that it may give rise to a space arms race. An article in the American...

The parents of the 10 black youths on trial for allegedly battering three white women on Halloween spoke out for the first time at a community forum and said prosecutors had failed to prove their case. About 100 people gathered Saturday at the California Recreation Community Center in Long Beach, just days before the defense was to finish its closing arguments. Some of the parents said their children were good students or athletes with promising futures and had no criminal records. They assailed what they called a rush to judgment. "They've been presumed guilty," said Allene Seymore, the mother of...

An illegal immigrant who had been deported from the United States several times but returned each time and now was being sought for wounding two police officers in Long Beach, Calif., has died in a shooting with officers who tracked him to a taco stand in Santa Ana, authorities have confirmed. Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said Oscar Gabriel Gallegos, wanted for the shooting of Long Beach officers Abram Yap and Roy Wade Jr. as they sat in their squad car Dec. 22, died while trying to shoot three of his officers with a .40-caliber Glock equipped with a...

Unexpected news comes after city offers reward. By Mira Jang, Staff writer Article Launched:  10:58:27 PM PST Police Chief Anthony Batts, Deputy Chief Robert Luna, and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster announce that Oscar Gabriel Gallegos was likely the man killed in a confrontation with Santa Ana police officers Wednesday afternoon in a parking lot on E. Warner Avenue. Gallegos is suspected of shooting Long Beach Police Officer Abe Yap and Rookie Roy Wade Jr. on Friday. (Stephen Carr / Press-Telegram) LONG BEACH - After exchanging several rounds of gunshots, Santa Ana police officers on Wednesday shot and killed...

LONG BEACH - After exchanging several rounds of gunshots, Santa Ana police officers on Wednesday shot and killed the man they suspected of shooting and critically wounding two Long Beach police officers. Police officials say they believe the man is Oscar Gabriel Gallegos, 33, but his identity cannot be officially confirmed until after a coroner's inspection this morning. "We do believe it's him based on the information we have, but it's not 100 percent," said Victor Standke, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department. The fatal shooting occurred when three SAPD officers followed the man believed to be Gallegos...

LONG BEACH -- Police sought the public's help Saturday as they searched for a "known thug" who shot two police officers during a traffic stop Friday on a bustling downtown street. Police Chief Anthony Batts identified the suspect as Oscar Manuel Gallegos, a 36- or 37-year-old Long Beach resident with a lengthy criminal record that includes arrests for drugs, terrorist threats and assault. Batts urged members of Gallegos' family, some of whom live in Long Beach, to cooperate with police, and had another message for the suspect at a press conference late Saturday. "Turn yourself in because we are coming...

LONG BEACH, Calif. Police have identified the suspect in the shooting of a veteran officer and his rookie partner who were shot multiple times during a during a routine traffic stop in downtown Long Beach Friday. At a late-night news conference this evening, Police Chief Anthony Batts called 33-year-old Oscar Gallegos a "thug." Batts gave this advice to Gallegos whose long rap sheet includes arrests on drug charges, terrorist threats and assault with a deadly weapon. He said, "Turn yourself in because we are coming for you. We are going to track you down. You cannot run far enough or...

CHP, LA County Sheriffs, all responding.....2 officers shot at Long Beach Blvd and 6th street in Long Beach...suspect had a lot of tattoos

LONG BEACH - Memories of the beating of three white women by a mob of black youths caused a good Samaritan to break down in tears several times on the witness stand Tuesday. The 35-year-old father and husband described how he ran screaming at the crowd, waving his hands for them to stop and then used his body to shield one victim from further blows. "I pulled her to my body, that's all I could do for her," he said, breaking into sobs. "That's all I could do was move their hands ... and pull her down." The man, whom...

Los Angeles County prosecutors today filed hate crimes charges against eight black teenagers accused of beating up three white women on Halloween night in a case that has startled and divided Long Beach. Authorities said they took the action after concluding that the teens attacked and beat the women in the upscale Bixby Knolls area because they were white. The case has been the subject of a wrenching public dialogue over the last few weeks in the racially diverse city of 460,000, with civil rights groups like the NAACP condemning the teenagers' alleged actions and the city holding a public...

Thousands struggle in the shadow of affluence The signs of poverty are everywhere in Long Beach, if you care to look. By Greg Mellen, Staff writer LONG BEACH - Take a walk in Long Beach and what do you see? Stray from the palm-lined streets by the ocean shore, the bustling hubs at Pine Avenue, the Pike or Belmont Shore; leave the manicured lawns of the Virginia Country Club area or the Bixby neighborhoods, and there's another Long Beach. It is the Long Beach that struggles daily to make the rent, rather than the one that plops down a fortune...