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 [...]

Let’s remember who wants school board trustee Michael Ellis to resign
Depending upon your perspective, there’s either a Who’s Who or a rogues’ gallery of local media this morning covering last night’s Long Beach school board meeting–and the fact that embattled trustee Michael Shane Ellis is refusing to resign.
(We’d call it a Rogues’ Who–only because, as [...]

THIS JUST IN (the Press-Telegram, that is): “Critics of Councilman Gary DeLong have launched a Web site that implies a recall vote could be in the making.”
Another one?
No, the same one (www.solongdelong.com) that The District revealed in its Writing Shotgun column last Saturday and that LBreport.com followed with quotes from DeLong (and journalistically responsible props to The [...]

Long Beach City Council changes its policy on public comment

After much discussion and comments from a dozen members of the public–the largest number of audience members to comment on any item on last night’s city council agenda–Long Beach City Council voted 5-3 last night to change, and very likely restrict, the public’s ability to open [...]

Assistant City Auditor ogles new gig
As reported over the weekend by LBReport.com, and today by the Press-Telegram, one of the guys I toiled with 20 years ago at Poly High, the affable Alex Cherin–your 2004 candidate in the Seventh District city council race–may become the Port of Long Beach’s new executive officer to the board.

City may dig into Jergins Tunnel; college cops seek attacker
After languishing for a generation, the Jergins Tunnel–the underground pedestrian walkway that once gave amusement park visitors a traffic-free passage from the Jergins building to the Pike–inches closer to being saved.

New owners, almost all smiles
In case you haven’t been following along at home, here’s coverage of yesterday’s joint press conference by Save the Queen officials–the development consortium which bought the lease to operate the Queen Mary and 64 acres of surrounding land–and the City of Long Beach.