You think it’s hot here? Shortly after 11 last night, the mercury was still north of 100 degrees at the Barker Ranch in Death Valley–one-time vacation destination of TV reality show stars the Munster family–where KNBC’s Patrick Healy brandished a thermometer the size of a dinner plate as proof.
Why was Healy out there? To cover [...]

The District has learned that Joseph Prevratil and Howard Bell, former kingpins of the Queen Mary who got rich while sinking Long Beach’s floating icon into bankruptcy, are expected to relinquish their million-dollar condo in Hawaii to settle a lawsuit filed against them in February by the Queen Mary’s bankruptcy trustee Howard Ehrenberg and the [...]

You can hear Mayor Bob Foster for free Tuesday nights at Long Beach City Council meetings, on all but the last Tuesday of the month–but then, of course, he’s a little more limited in what he can say.
But at noon tomorrow at Frenchie’s Bistro, 4137 E. Anaheim St., Foster will talk economy over lunch–and maybe [...]

Where are we supposed to go to get our arty post-industrial post-apocalyptic photos?
Last November we ran a story about security at the Port of Long Beach; specifically, my ability to meander through restricted areas and openly photograph bridge supports and chemical storage tanks. Not only that, my ability to do it day after day [...]

In an announcement that only seemed to be timed to coincide with this weekend’s 25th anniversary of the Long Beach Pride Festival, the California Supreme Court today ruled that same-sex couples should be permitted to marry, rejecting current state marriage laws as discriminatory.
The 4-3 decision isn’t likely to end the controversy over so-called gay marriage, [...]

The City Council’s overzealous approval in 2006 of a backassward environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed Home Depot design center on the edge of the Los Cerritos Wetlands–a document that was ultimately rejected for its many inadequacies by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge in February of this year–may have saved Long Beach from [...]

If you didn’t know any better, the Dominguez Gap Wetlands might strike you as some of Mother Nature’s handiwork–a narrow valley swathed in colorful native wildflowers, alive with birds and bees and gently swirling currents of water. And if it weren’t for the press release that was handed out when the Dominguez Gap Wetlands were dedicated Thursday morning, I [...]

Calling Michael Shane Ellis a good-for-nothing, drinking-and-driving, hitting-and-running, all-around no account member of the Long Beach school board is simply not right. Not anymore. Not the good-for-nothing part, anyway.
A month after the re-election of two school board incumbents supported by the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, the organization’s CEO and president acknowledges that Ellis’s [...]

An all-star roots-rock cast sings the late musician Chris Gaffney to his rest

PHOTO by DANIEL DE BOOM
It should go without saying that yesterday’s roots-rock legend-laden Chris Gaffney memorial service at The Cellar was a tough show. The 57-year-old roots musician died of liver cancer April 17, mere months after being stricken.
But really, when is the [...]

You can kill the Assemblyman’s rail yards bill, but his heart will go on … talking air quality

It was 10 a.m. Tuesday morning and eighteen hours earlier, Assembly Bill 2332–fledgling 55th District Assemblyman Warren Furutani’s (D-Long Beach) try at banning construction of new or expanded railyards within a quarter-mile of schools–had rather quietly burned to [...]