The core of downtown Long Beach will become a little bit more of a ghost town when Z Gallerie abandons the century-old Masonic Temple it has called home since the mid-1990s, according to a story by Press-Telegram reporter Karen Robes Meeks [CLICK HERE], and it might not have happened if city officials hadn’t been snoozing—or something—instead of returning the [...]

Some people make things with their hands. The rest of us–well, we just buy stuff.
But a recent New York Times piece on crafters delivers one of the more motivated makers I’ve heard about recently: Faythe Levine of Milwaukee, who–as reporter Penelope Green tells it–started with “some sock monkeys and a handstitched felt owl.”
Sock puppets–Homer Simpson’s [...]

Robert “Bob” Morey, whose father started Morey’s Music Store in 1924–in Long Beach–is dead at age 80, the Press-Telegram reports.
“He was a human computer when it came to music,” Martha Morey, his wife of 56 years, told reporter Brenda Duran. Not at first, though.
One of six Morey sons, Bob Morey came to work in his [...]

There’s good news in this morning’s Los Angeles Times for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to reporter Ronald D. White.
“For the longest time, we used to joke that our biggest export was our fine California air,” Eric Caris, assistant director of marketing for the Port of Los Angeles, told White. Not [...]

Sen. John McCain (R-Grampa) of Arizona has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate on the eve of the Republican National Convention where he will officially be nominated to run for U.S. President against Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Looks like a well-calculated move—selecting the first woman ever on a Republican presidential ticket the [...]

Of course, that penny along with the 99 others equals a buck, and once that happens the sky is the limit for the whole concept of the first and last of the under-a-dollar stores. The Los Angeles Times business section reports today that tough economic times are forcing the 99 Cents Only chain to reconsider the pricing strategy that has [...]

There’s some interesting background emerging today on the proposed sale of City Hall East–the building at the northeast corner of First Street and Long Beach Boulevard, where Long Beach Police Department relocated a few years ago while its longtime downtown home was remodeled.
According to today’s Press-Telegram, Long Beach City Council on Tuesday will consider selling [...]

Collectors live among us–everywhere–whether they’re interested in bicycles or … in Napoleon’s wedding tackle.
That’s according to the New York Times, which was once ringside for the story of the men who are arguably New York’s most famous collectors, the Collyer brothers.
Now, we have the story of Evan Lattimer, whose father, the late urologist Dr. John [...]

You can tell the latest Gene Maddaus story on Congresswoman Laura Richardson’s Sacramento house is a, well, intriguing development from the howls of protest on the Press-Telegram’s website.
(Full disclosure: Maddaus is a reporter for The Daily Breeze in Torrance, whose stories are picked up by the P-T, which is part of the same newspaper chain.)
Perhaps [...]

It’s officially not official yet. Despite hearing from Mayor Bob Foster, and devoting considerable discussion to the topic, Long Beach Chamber of Commerce hasn’t decided how it feels about Hizzoner’s proposed $571 million infrastructure bond–which will be in our hands and on our ballots in November.
And it may not know how it feels until some [...]