As reported by the Press-Telegram, LBReport.com and the Los Angeles Times, here’s what’s been said thus far about the burglary suspect who died in police custody Saturday night.
He was Deshoun Kenyon Torrence, 18, of Victorville–and according to the Times‘ Victoria Kim, he “reportedly screamed for help as he was being detained by neighbors,” who allegedly [...]

Antony and Cleopatra needs a chemistry set
Shakespeare by the Sea’s Antony and Cleopatra may look like a middle-aged Romeo and Juliet (give or take one asp), but beneath its stormy surface is an equally tempest-tossed tale of politics and the mêlée between duty and desire.

Mayor Bob Foster is expected to say more this morning about his $570 million plans to rebuild streets, sidewalks and alleys–plus the more bureaucratic-sounding storm water management systems–but already we know more than we did about what’s in store.
In this morning’s Press-Telegram, Paul Eakins reports on a 102-page streets audit City Auditor Laura Doud released [...]

Douglas Dollarhide, who became Compton’s first black mayor in 1969, has died at age 85, the Los Angeles Times and Press-Telegram report this morning.
The classical music lover first won election to Compton City Council in 1963, by a mere 75 votes. His ascent to mayor six years later “symbolized the demographic transformation of what was [...]

No, they’re not actually cooking yet at Johnie’s Broiler–AKA Harvey’s Broiler, the authentic 1950s Downey drive-in that was illegally demolished a year and a half ago.
But as Samantha Gonzaga writes in this morning’s Press-Telegram, crews are finally out there sifting through the rubble, saving what’s left to be saved, and getting it ready to become [...]

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.

What should become of 61-year-old Bellflower truck driver Jerry Cress?
As John Canalis writes in this morning’s Press-Telegram, Cress is charged with one count of murder–and three additional felony counts: being a felon in possession of a firearm, being a felon in possession of ammunition and marijuana cultivation–in the Jan. 21, 2007 death of Jacob T. [...]

Not sure what this says about the French–or about us–but Collobrières, a village of 1,600 souls in Provence, has started using the franc again, according to this recent piece in the New York Times.
The franc retired, of course, in 2002–when the euro arrived to build, as NYT reporter Steven Erlanger says, “a united Europe.”
And maybe [...]

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”

Okay, we shouldn’t be saying this because they’re the competition and all, but here’s a perfect example of how to make us read–or not read–the Press-Telegram.
You may have seen it: a story by Kelly Puente with the headline “Driver arrested after vehicle plows into Norwalk liquor store.” That’s boring. The story’s okay–but the headline puts [...]