We’d heard the rumors that State Senator Alan Lowenthal was considering a run for Long Beach Mayor in 2010. In fact, we’d passed them along [click here and check out the sixth paragraph] – complete with our own political musical-chairs scenario that had Second District City Councilwoman Suja Lowenthal running for her father-in-law’s senatorial seat and current Mayor Bob Foster running for [...]

People finally seem to have had it up to here with the Port of Long Beach, which has been excreting toxins into the local environment with ever-more-tragic consequences for decades. Lately, they are counterattacking from every direction that the pollution spews.
Today it’s from the air. Two environmental groups have written a 12-page letter [to read it, click here] to [...]

Bill Pearl of LBReport.com breaks the news of a ballot proposal by Council member Gerrie Schipske – agendized for the Jan 22 council meeting — that would revolutionize the financial relationship between the City of Long Beach and the Port of Long Beach.
Citizens have had to bear ever-worsening health and quality-of-life consequences of the Port — which spews deadly air and [...]

Police make three arrests in Long Beach’s first 2008 shooting
Eight days after three people were shot and a fourth–25-year-old Jonathan Fernandez–
was fatally wounded at a New Year’s Eve party, Long Beach police announced three arrests Wednesday.

Gerrie Schipske, Long Beach’s bloggin’ councilwoman, presents her predictions for 2008, and most of them sound pretty probable — even that part about Bill Pearl of LBreport.com getting to most of the best local stories first … although watch out for the resourceful Theo Douglas. I’m warning you.

Robert Garcia and Shaun Lumachi, important players in downtown Long Beach politics who have operated the for-profit website LBPost.com for about a year, finally have a Long Beach business license, according to a story posted today by Bill Pearl on LBReport.com
It was a week ago (Dec. 21) that Pearl broke the story that LBPost.com had been [...]

LB gets federal money; LBPost.com gets a business license; and the color of the year
Yes, 2008 is almost here, which means lots of 2007 contemplation–plus some things you probably won’t see until 2008, and which may or may not ever make a difference in your life. But here you go!

Aviles sisters’ aunt is shot and wounded near their burned-out garage
If you drove through the intersection of Tenth Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue yesterday, you might have seen a car wash in progress. It was a fundraiser for the funeral of Stephanie Aviles, 6, Jocelin Aviles, 7, and Jasmine Aviles, 10–all of whom [...]

Two weeks after the Long Beach City Council took away the public’s right to pull items from its Consent Calendar Agenda — typically, a couple dozen issues supposedly so routine that they can be grouped together and approved with one vote — Bill Pearl of LBreport.com has discovered that a major spending provision has been quietly [...]