Bad news filtered in from Washington, D.C. yesterday: Long Beach will get no federal funding this year for the long-debated breakwater reconnaissance study—a city-sponsored project already in the works as of this past June.
“I wish we had better news,” said Tom Modica, manager of government affairs for the Office of the City Manager, “but, the [...]

LEGAL EXPERTS SAY OFFICIALS FREE TO VOTE FOR THEIR LOVERS’ ISSUES
Turns out that it’s NOT illegal for elected officials to have intimate relationships with people, and then cast official votes in favor of the issues those people bring before the elected body. Not that I’m accusing anybody of doing such a thing.
According to Robert Stern, [...]

PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM
Mark your calendars in black ink: Acres of Books–Long Beach’s oldest, most thoroughly-, intriguingly-stocked store of used literature–will begin a discount sale of its stock this Thursday.
And how long will the sale go? “‘Til we run out of stuff to sell,” says Jackie Smith, who owns the store with her husband [...]

Suja Lowenthal answers questions about the sudden intrusion of her personal life on politics
Several hours after Thursday morning’s Press-Telegram reported the impending end of the marriage between Long Beach City Council member Suja Lowenthal and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Lowenthal, The District Weekly posed questions to the Second District’s representative about some official [...]

After sitting through two audits in three years, and hearing all about the Long Beach Museum of Art’s (LBMOA) financial troubles and missing art, we know you want to give ‘em a piece of your mind.
Well, now’s your chance–kind of.

It’s Independence Day, and the man who owns the Press-Telegram piggybacked the holiday to send employees a Fourth of July Eve memo full of gung-ho slogans and exclamation points, which is about as close as you can come to fireworks in print. But the upshot was shellshock: the three-page memo left most employees with the [...]

Another year, another city budget–this one made perhaps more interesting by what they’re now calling a projected $16.9 structural deficit in the 2009 Fiscal Year.
Otherwise, this afternoon’s Long Beach City Council budget workshop in Council Chambers veered from dry (four words: “Successful Refuse Nexus Study”) to, in Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal’s words, “draconian”

Homeland Neighborhood Cultural Center–that nondescript 1958 parks building at Anaheim Street and Gundry Avenue, where any day of the week you can catch crumpers, Hmong dancers, West African drummers, graffiti muralists and others doing their thing–has snagged one of the nation’s top parks awards.

Noted science fiction author Ray Bradbury plans to visit Acres of Books tomorrow at 1 p.m., his health permitting.
It’s not for sure, cautions publisher Craig Graham,

In memory of George Carlin, in tribute to perhaps his best-remembered bit—The Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV—and in utter amazement at the level of discourse from a mayorally appointed Long Beach community officer, we now present the “Seven Words and Phrases that Belmont Shore Parking Commissioner Kurt Schneiter Used to Insult Belmont Shore [...]