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Ammunition update in California & What You Can Do! Please read and see how this will apply to all of us. Long Beach City Council to Vote on Ammunition Registration TuesdayMarch 24 Please Make Your Opposition Heard! On Tuesday, March 24, the Long Beach City Council is set to vote on whether to draft an ordinance to force ammunition sellers in Long Beach to record the identity of all ammunition purchasers, as well as other details of the sales transaction. These records would then be collected and used by the Long Beach Police Department to identify purchasers who are legally...

<p>A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a judge to reconsider her refusal to block portions of a clean-truck program at the nation's busiest port complex.</p> <p>In an opinion that dismayed environmentalists and labor leaders, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco ruled that U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder should grant all or part of the American Trucking Assn.'s request for an injunction halting the implementation of new rules that apply to truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.</p>

Trade valued annually at more than $100 billion moves through The Port of Long Beach, making it the second-busiest seaport in the United States. Everything from clothing and shoes to toys, furniture and consumer electronics arrives at the Port before making its way to store shelves throughout the country. Specialized terminals also move petroleum, automobiles, cement, lumber, steel and other products. A major economic force, the Port supports more than 30,000 jobs in Long Beach, 316,000 jobs throughout Southern California and 1.4 million jobs throughout the United States. It generates about $16 billion in annual trade-related wages statewide.Port of Long BeachLatest MonthContainer...

February loaded oceangoing cargoes at the side-by-side ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 36.6 percent from the previous February, the two ports showed in separate reports. The slowdown for February is much more pronounced than it was in January, when the year-on-year decrease in cargo traffic at the two Southern California ports was 18.7 percent. The ports are the two busiest in the United States, handling more than 40 percent of imported consumer goods. The two ports showed inbound cargoes down 38.8 percent and outbound cargoes down 32.2 percent in February 2009 from February 2008. The traffic fell...

Obama will be arriving at Long Beach Airport today at 3pm. "Air Force One is scheduled to land at Long Beach Airport at 3 p.m. Wednesday, the White House announced this morning. "

A 2-year old Long Beach girl was hospitalized Tuesday after she was bitten in the face by the family's dog, authorities said. The attack at a home at the 1800 block of Gardenia Avenue in Long Beach was reported around 11:30 p.m. Monday, Long Beach Department of Animal Control Officer Jaime Precado told reporters at the scene.

February imports fall 18.1% in L.A. and Long Beach. Other West Coast harbors see even worse declines. The international trade business is foundering faster than ever seen before, with some U.S. seaports watching cargo traffic fall by more than a third. It's gotten so bad that Los Angeles and Long Beach are slashing cargo rates to keep old customers and lure new business. Oakland's port has laid off 12% of its staff and canceled free tours for the public. The number of ships idled around the world is approaching three times the number that were out of work during the...

Heavy rain and mountain snows will shift southward over California Monday as a strong winter storm drifts toward shore. The focus for drenching rain Monday will be in Southern California, from greater Los Angeles to San Diego. Amounts through Monday here will be a widespread 1-2 inches, with rainfall to 4 inches inundating the mountains and foothills, particularly the southward-facing slopes. Flooding is likely with this event, and mudslides possible, especially in recent burn areas. Some roads may become blocked with debris or completely washed out, and drivers should exercise caution. Gusty winds will further complicate matters, downing trees...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://denver.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/explosivethreats021009.htm February 10, 2009 LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA MAN INDICTED FOR TWO BANK ROBBERIES AS WELL AS THREATENING TO USE EXPLOSIVE DEVICES DENVER – Scott Shawn Kosterow, age 38, of Long Beach, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver late yesterday on charges of threatening to use explosive devices and bank robbery, Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette and FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis announced today. Kosterow will likely make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court tomorrow, where he will be advised by a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the...

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times. For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property. And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning...

LONG BEACH - A 31-year-old mother convicted last month of murder for the stabbing death of her son's 13-year-old gang rival was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison Tuesday. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Arthur Jean denied a motion by Eva Daley's defense attorney for a new trial and shot down a request to consider probation for Eva Daley, citing her as the catalyst that led to the death of the boy. "Your client put in motion the death of a 13-year-old boy who was no paragon of virtue, but who didn't deserve to be stabbed to death...

(Editor’s Note: For the complete text of the bishop’s speech, see related story in today’s edition, “It is sinful.”) When two Catholics from Southern California learned that Sacramento Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto was to be the keynote speaker at the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference in Long Beach on Sept. 18, they decided to attend themselves to see and hear the talk in person. They say what they witnessed was a bishop who “courageously but gently” gave a clear presentation of Church teaching on sexuality. After California Catholic Daily reported on Bishop Soto’s plans to...

California environmentalists are in tizzy this week, accusing Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of telling their governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, how to do his job. At issue is a letter Palin sent to Schwarzenegger last month, asking him to veto a bill that would raise shipping container fees to pay for pollution-reduction programs at three major California ports. The letter, which Palin sent to Schwarzenegger a day before she was announced as John McCain’s running mate, began circling on the Web on Thursday.

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...