Electioneering always looks like more fun in the movies–and it’s never looked better than in this 1940 sequence from Paramount Pictures’ Preston Sturges-directed “The Great McGinty.”
Preston Sturges? He’s the guy who brought you “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” and of course “Sullivan’s Travels”–this last, the tale of a noted comedy director who has to be [...]

Thanks to the research of city staffers and the memories of two organizers, we’re learning about the field trips to Washington, D.C. which Congresswoman Laura Richardson spearheaded back when she was Long Beach’s Sixth District Councilwoman.

Help us remember the winners of the essay contest that Congresswoman Laura Richardson forgot
Here’s what we know:
Before she was a congresswoman, Laura Richardson was a state Assemblywoman, and before that she represented LB’s Sixth District–and there she helped organize essay contests for the city’s kids, including one offering a fabulous prize for the winners: [...]

Vector Control 2007
As author of ‘Vector Control,’ the question I hear most often is, “Will you ever get back with Liza?” That seems an odd sort of question and is probably the reason I don’t get you people. Apparently, you don’t always get me or “Vector,” because the other question I hear a lot [...]

Tues | Dec 4 The Long Beach School Board votes 3-2 to ask board member Michael Ellis to resign immediately. Now, Ellis has his faults: He missed two of the last four meetings, got popped in August for a DUI and I’m not crazy about his goatee, but this is one of those deals when [...]

With three Democrats to choose from–and no Republican candidate–we still don’t have a winner in the 55th Assembly District race
Local website LBPost.com asked an interesting question on its website yesterday, as voters headed off to cast their ballots in the 55th Assembly District race:
“Could Republicans Make the Difference in the 55th?”

Furutani for State Assembly, Randy Gordon vs. Michael Ellis gather, expel steam
Maybe it’s not quite accurate to call 55th Assembly District candidate Warren Furutani’s campaign a juggernaut–after all, this time last year he ran exactly the same race against then-Sixth District Councilwoman Laura Richardson and was sent packing. (That was a juggernaut.)

Why was the City Auditor asked to investigate the Martin Luther King Celebration? Maybe because Laura Richardson tried to use General Fund money to pay for it

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
Why was the City Auditor’s office asked to look into the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration—the city’s annual salute to the civil rights pioneer, and the [...]

THURS. NOV. 22: MMM, JUDI DENCH
Tues | Nov 20 Federal agents raid a medicinal marijuana facility on Fourth Street and get a bunch of cannabis and the comforting feeling that they are torturing the sick and dying—E Pluribus Unum, boys! The facility, which had the head shop-sounding name “Compassionate Caregivers,” is one of the facilities [...]

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration isn’t always a time to remember the civil rights pioneer. Sometimes it reflects the ambitions of the councilmember organizing it

ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
This week, while you consider whether it was worth getting up at 4:30 to be the first through the doors at Mervyns, or if the [...]