Free Republic

Filiberto Cervantes has already separated from his wife and kids, lost his car, moved into his truck and says he subsists largely on a diet of $1 cheese burritos. But Jan. 1 looms like a date with the grim reaper himself. ... Cervantes is among thousands of truckers servicing the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex who are facing a day of reckoning this New Year's. That's because Jan. 1 is the day new clean-air guidelines go into effect at the ports, banning all pre-1994 trucks -- as well as 1994-2003 rigs that have not been retrofitted with costly diesel particulate...

LOS ANGELES, Oct 20 - Foreman Danny Miranda remembers the days when the Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, ports were so jammed that ships waited in line to unload. Now the lingering recession has longshoremen waiting in line for work. After a year of grappling with fewer shifts and falling wages, Miranda and other union port workers hope a surprise jump in September retail sales will fuel a late-season bump in holiday cargo. "Out of seven days, only two we see work. The last quarter it would be four days out of the seven," said Miranda, a veteran port...

Container Trade in TEUs* 2009 Year-to-Date*TEUs: 20-foot equivalent units or 20-foot-long cargo container **Preliminary estimate   Loaded Inbound Loaded Outbound Empties Total Containers January 200,588 88,510 110,197 399,295 February 149,299 92,781 75,962 318,042 March 186,450 117,674 70,007 374,131 April 199,051 112,976 96,678 408,705 May 208,591 121,064 89,900 419,555 June 206,358 114,107 92,882 413,347 July 221,719 108,420 102,874 433,013 August 249,920 130,623 112,796 493,339 September 224,924 109,337 106,103 440,364 October November December Year-to-Date 1,846,900 995,492 857,399 3,699,791 YTD % Change -23.8% -26.3% -24.2% -24.6%

At the end of this past July, one of the largest ports in America, Long Beach, reported that the 20% year-over-year cargo business decline is among the sharpest since the Great Depression. This is not a trend specific to Long Beach. “It’s phenomenal how much things fell away even since December,” said Paul Bingham, managing director of global trade and transportation for IHS Global Insight, the business research firm that monitors North America’s biggest ports for the National Retail Federation. As of September 4, 2009, shadowstats.com reported that unemployment in the US is now near 21% and is showing no...

Rep. Richardson's Sacramento home is focus of House ethics probe U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson bought the house in the tree-lined upper-middle-class Curtis Park neighborhood for $535,000 in early 2007 after she was elected to the Assembly. She already owned two houses, one in her Long Beach district and the other in San Pedro. She has defaulted six times on both homes. The Office of Congressional Ethics has interviewed an investor who bought the house in foreclosure last year, as well as neighbors. The city declared the structure a public nuisance. By Jeff Gottlieb July 29, 2009 U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson's...

MISSION VIEJO, Calif.—Cyndi Orel worked as a police officer for 25 years and never caught a bank robber. She was apparently saving that hobby for retirement. The retired Long Beach police officer foiled a bank robbery at a grocery store Saturday when she put a 220-pound bank robber in a chokehold until he passed out. Orel is about 5 feet 7 inches and 128 pounds

Several cats have suddenly gone missing in one north Long Beach neighborhood and its feared coyotes may be to blame. Lisa Kamieniecki says she watched a coyote kill her 14-year-old cat named "Bear" around 4 a.m. Saturday morning. The coyote dropped the cat's body when her husband scared it off, Kamieniecki said. She says two coyotes returned minutes later. Kamieniecki called Animal Control, who told her that coyotes commonly feed at that time. But, if the animals make a daytime appearance or don't seem to fear humans or cars, that's something Animal Control would investigate, according to John Keisler, Manager...

Slaying of Deputy Jerry Ortiz triggered four-year investigation HAWAIIAN GARDENS - Almost 1,400 law enforcement officials converged on Hawaiian Gardens in a series of pre-dawn raids Thursday as part of the largest federal indictment against a street gang in United States history. Varrio Hawaiian Gardens, Hawaiian Gardens' oldest and most notorious gang, waged a racist campaign to eliminate black people from the community via attempted murders and other crimes, according to the federal racketeering indictments that werei unsealed Thursday. A total of five indictments charged 147 members and associates of the gang, and federal, state and local law enforcement officials...

Hard quake shakes

Earthquake in southern California. Felt it pretty good in Fullerton

Seal Beach Daily 10:24 pm | May 02, 2009 CA confirms CSULB flu case is H1N1 From the Contra Costa Times: "The State of California today confirmed that the one probable case of swine flu identified earlier this week in a student at California State University, Long Beach has been diagnosed as swine flu (H1N1). This confirmation was provided by the State’s Public Health Laboratory, and is the first confirmed case of swine flu in Long Beach." Read more at contracostatimes.com KABC Channel 7 News and Associated Press 1st confirmed swine flu case in LA County Saturday, May 02,...

Ex-gang member shows no reaction when he gets maximum for tying couple to anchor, throwing them overboard. SANTA ANA A former Long Beach gang member-turned-youth-minister showed no emotion today when he was sentenced to death for his role in the murders-at-sea of a Newport Beach couple who were tied to an anchor and thrown overboard. The presidentially-named John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 43, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by an Orange County jury in January for the Nov. 15, 2004 deaths of Thomas and Jackie Hawks. The jury also found that he committed multiple murders for financial gain, which...

A Cal State Long Beach student received a “probable positive” test result for swine flu. The Long Beach Health Department informed the university of the affected student late Tuesday, and early Wednesday morning CSULB Beach President F. King Alexander sent a campus-wide e-mail with information about the student, symptoms of swine flu and a hotline for anyone to call if they have any questions specific to swine flu. The student who may have been infected lived in the Los Alamitos residence hall. The roommate of the possibly infected student has been moved to a different room where he or she...

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A hospital worker shot and killed two employees and then killed himself at a medical center Thursday, sending panicked people fleeing, police and witnesses said. The gunman was identified as Mario Ramirez, 50, of Alhambra, who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. The victims were Hugo Bustamante, 46, of Cypress, who died at the scene, and Kelly Hales, 56, of Redondo Beach, who was taken to the hospital's emergency room in critical condition and died several hours later.

Police: 2 Dead, 1 Hurt in Calif. Hospital Shooting LONG BEACH, Calif.-- A hospital employee shot another employee to death, critically wounded another and then killed himself Thursday, police said. Police Chief Anthony Batts said the gunfire erupted just before noon at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. Batts would not identify those involved but said all were male. He said the motive remained under investigation but noted the violence came amid a flurry of recent shootings in the country. ''This is a trend of active shooters that you have seen nationwide,'' Batts said at a news conference. ''This is becoming...

<p>A federal judge in Washington refused Wednesday to halt the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach's clean-truck program, which aims to phase out 17,000 polluting big rigs that shuttle freight to and from rail terminals and other transport hubs.</p>

Ammunition update in California & What You Can Do! Please read and see how this will apply to all of us. Long Beach City Council to Vote on Ammunition Registration TuesdayMarch 24 Please Make Your Opposition Heard! On Tuesday, March 24, the Long Beach City Council is set to vote on whether to draft an ordinance to force ammunition sellers in Long Beach to record the identity of all ammunition purchasers, as well as other details of the sales transaction. These records would then be collected and used by the Long Beach Police Department to identify purchasers who are legally...

<p>A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a judge to reconsider her refusal to block portions of a clean-truck program at the nation's busiest port complex.</p> <p>In an opinion that dismayed environmentalists and labor leaders, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco ruled that U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder should grant all or part of the American Trucking Assn.'s request for an injunction halting the implementation of new rules that apply to truck drivers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.</p>

Trade valued annually at more than $100 billion moves through The Port of Long Beach, making it the second-busiest seaport in the United States. Everything from clothing and shoes to toys, furniture and consumer electronics arrives at the Port before making its way to store shelves throughout the country. Specialized terminals also move petroleum, automobiles, cement, lumber, steel and other products. A major economic force, the Port supports more than 30,000 jobs in Long Beach, 316,000 jobs throughout Southern California and 1.4 million jobs throughout the United States. It generates about $16 billion in annual trade-related wages statewide.Port of Long BeachLatest MonthContainer...

February loaded oceangoing cargoes at the side-by-side ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell 36.6 percent from the previous February, the two ports showed in separate reports. The slowdown for February is much more pronounced than it was in January, when the year-on-year decrease in cargo traffic at the two Southern California ports was 18.7 percent. The ports are the two busiest in the United States, handling more than 40 percent of imported consumer goods. The two ports showed inbound cargoes down 38.8 percent and outbound cargoes down 32.2 percent in February 2009 from February 2008. The traffic fell...

Obama will be arriving at Long Beach Airport today at 3pm. "Air Force One is scheduled to land at Long Beach Airport at 3 p.m. Wednesday, the White House announced this morning. "

A 2-year old Long Beach girl was hospitalized Tuesday after she was bitten in the face by the family's dog, authorities said. The attack at a home at the 1800 block of Gardenia Avenue in Long Beach was reported around 11:30 p.m. Monday, Long Beach Department of Animal Control Officer Jaime Precado told reporters at the scene.

February imports fall 18.1% in L.A. and Long Beach. Other West Coast harbors see even worse declines. The international trade business is foundering faster than ever seen before, with some U.S. seaports watching cargo traffic fall by more than a third. It's gotten so bad that Los Angeles and Long Beach are slashing cargo rates to keep old customers and lure new business. Oakland's port has laid off 12% of its staff and canceled free tours for the public. The number of ships idled around the world is approaching three times the number that were out of work during the...

Heavy rain and mountain snows will shift southward over California Monday as a strong winter storm drifts toward shore. The focus for drenching rain Monday will be in Southern California, from greater Los Angeles to San Diego. Amounts through Monday here will be a widespread 1-2 inches, with rainfall to 4 inches inundating the mountains and foothills, particularly the southward-facing slopes. Flooding is likely with this event, and mudslides possible, especially in recent burn areas. Some roads may become blocked with debris or completely washed out, and drivers should exercise caution. Gusty winds will further complicate matters, downing trees...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://denver.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/explosivethreats021009.htm February 10, 2009 LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA MAN INDICTED FOR TWO BANK ROBBERIES AS WELL AS THREATENING TO USE EXPLOSIVE DEVICES DENVER – Scott Shawn Kosterow, age 38, of Long Beach, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver late yesterday on charges of threatening to use explosive devices and bank robbery, Acting U.S. Attorney David Gaouette and FBI Special Agent in Charge James Davis announced today. Kosterow will likely make his initial appearance in U.S. District Court tomorrow, where he will be advised by a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the...

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Gleaming new Mercedes cars roll one by one out of a huge container ship here and onto a pier. Ordinarily the cars would be loaded on trucks within hours, destined for dealerships around the country. But these are not ordinary times. For now, the port itself is the destination. Unwelcome by dealers and buyers, thousands of cars worth tens of millions of dollars are being warehoused on increasingly crowded port property. And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning...

LONG BEACH - A 31-year-old mother convicted last month of murder for the stabbing death of her son's 13-year-old gang rival was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison Tuesday. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Arthur Jean denied a motion by Eva Daley's defense attorney for a new trial and shot down a request to consider probation for Eva Daley, citing her as the catalyst that led to the death of the boy. "Your client put in motion the death of a 13-year-old boy who was no paragon of virtue, but who didn't deserve to be stabbed to death...

(Editor’s Note: For the complete text of the bishop’s speech, see related story in today’s edition, “It is sinful.”) When two Catholics from Southern California learned that Sacramento Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto was to be the keynote speaker at the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference in Long Beach on Sept. 18, they decided to attend themselves to see and hear the talk in person. They say what they witnessed was a bishop who “courageously but gently” gave a clear presentation of Church teaching on sexuality. After California Catholic Daily reported on Bishop Soto’s plans to...

California environmentalists are in tizzy this week, accusing Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of telling their governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, how to do his job. At issue is a letter Palin sent to Schwarzenegger last month, asking him to veto a bill that would raise shipping container fees to pay for pollution-reduction programs at three major California ports. The letter, which Palin sent to Schwarzenegger a day before she was announced as John McCain’s running mate, began circling on the Web on Thursday.

LONG BEACH - A bill that would allow for additional onshore oil drilling in the Port of Long Beach and could potentially feed the cash-strapped city $130 million over 10 years cleared the state Assembly Sunday and headed to the governor's desk for his signature. Assembly Bill 2165 passed the Assembly with 57-0 vote after a 38-1 vote in the Senate on Saturday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can sign or veto the bill or do nothing and allow it to pass. The measure cleared the state Senate Saturday night after an intense lobbying effort by Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, who...

A coalition of consumer, immigrant and civil rights groups warned Tuesday that a Port of Long Beach loan program to help thousands of mostly low-income truck drivers replace old, polluting rigs with newer, cleaner-burning vehicles could plunge the truckers into debt. Port officials counter that the loans are a bargain and that truckers would not be able to afford new rigs without them. But the coalition foresees a wave of "foreclosures on wheels."

Marine biologist Milton Love drives a hybrid car, displays a banner of left-wing revolutionary Che Guevara on his laboratory wall - and has backing from Big Oil. The reason: his finding that oil platforms off California's central coast are a haven for species of fish whose numbers have been dramatically reduced by overfishing. That is good news to oil executives, who are looking for reasons not to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to remove the platforms once the crude stops flowing. Environmentalists say oil companies are simply trying to escape their obligations. "Just because fish are there doesn't mean...

The city of Los Angeles had good reason to push a tough anti-graffiti bill through the Legislature, and Gov. Schwarzenegger wasted no time in signing it. L.A. pushed the bill not only because taggers did their dirty work at more than 650,000 locations in the fiscal year that ended June 30, they also were bragging about their work on Internet sites. How's this for a statistic: In the year ended June 30, taggers defaced nearly 32 million square feet of surfaces. And they weren't picky about what they defaced: murals, billboards, freeway signs, bus benches, walls everywhere and anywhere, buses,...

The latest on the triple-default, single-foreclosure Democratic congresswoman from Long Beach: "Rep. Laura Richardson initially failed to disclose economic interests -- including a loan from a strip club owner -- when she served on the Long Beach City Council, public records show," the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.

<p>The latest on the triple-default, single-foreclosure Democratic congresswoman from Long Beach: "Rep. Laura Richardson initially failed to disclose economic interests -- including a loan from a strip club owner -- when she served on the Long Beach City Council, public records show," the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.</p>

The saga of Rep. Laura Richardson's mismanaged personal finances continues to grow, as the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports that the freshman congresswoman failed to paid her car bills to one mechanic and abandoned her damaged car with another. After wrecking her own car, she grabbed a city-owed vehicle and proceeded to put more than 30,000 miles on the car in just over a year. City policy states that city-owned cars are not for personal use in member's part-time role on the council in the 50-square mile city.The car troubles come on the heels of news that Richardson lost her...

It seems congresswoman Laura Richardson (D-CA) has defaulted on the mortgages for her 3 homes. She wants us to feel bad for her. Let's take up a collection! http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_9363943?source=rss

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) ― Authorities at the Port of Long Beach investigated a cargo container marked with graffiti saying, "Anthrax a gift from Osama" Wednesday. Long Beach Fire Battalion Chief Frank Hayes said a truck hauling the container was stopped at a terminal around 10:30 a.m. because of the spray-painted graffiti. The truck driver told authorities the container was picked up in nearby Wilmington and was empty. The container was moved to an isolated area of the port for inspection and hazardous materials crews wearing oxygen tanks and protective suits inspected it. So far no contaminates or hazardous materials...

The Richardson mess: She defaulted on three houses, report says U.S. Rep. Laura Richardson was in default this spring on three separate California houses, and lost one to foreclosure, according to a hard-hitting report in today's Daily Breeze. The Daily Breeze's Gene Maddaus: "Rep. Laura Richardson, who lost her Sacramento home in a recent foreclosure auction, has also defaulted on properties in Long Beach and San Pedro, records show." Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, has declined to answer detailed questions about her finances, but has blamed her financial woes in part on the distractions caused by her whirlwind political...

Rep. Laura Richardson made only a few payments on the Sacramento house she bought in 2007, failed to pay property taxes, defaulted on the mortgage, and lost the house to foreclosure. The Daily Breeze reports that Richardson's lender, Washington Mutual, took a loss of nearly $200,000 when it sold the house at a public auction on May 7. Further, the new owner, York, "assumed responsibility for Richardson's unpaid property tax bill of $8,950.79."

Rep. Laura Richardson lost her Sacramento home in a foreclosure auction two weeks ago and left behind nearly $9,000 in unpaid property taxes. Richardson, D-Long Beach, appears to have made only a few payments on the house, which she bought in January 2007 for $535,000. After buying the home, Richardson hardly had time to live in it. Three months later, Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald died and Richardson - then a freshman member of the state Assembly - launched a campaign to replace her in Congress. Richardson won the election, pouring in $77,500 in personal loans to her own campaign. Around the...

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Witnesses and police gave conflicting accounts of the fatal shooting of a terminally ill, mentally disabled man by Long Beach police over the weekend, and the shooting remained under investigation Monday. Roketi Su'e, 46, was killed at about 7 p.m. Saturday in a cul-de-sac in the 3400 block of 67th Way in North Long Beach as he was walking home from a birthday party. Police said he fought with officers, but witnesses said he was shot as he lay unarmed on the sidewalk. "He had no shirt on. He didn't have a weapon. He never carried...

Note to mods-This is not about the murder offer by Pellicano in previous threads-this is about his work in getting a murder ruled an accident. A former Los Angeles Police officer who once worked for Anthony Pellicano is scheduled to testify today about the ex-private investigator's work in the acquittal of a man accused of murdering a woman in Long Beach. Ward is expected to testify that she saw the unauthorized background checks that then-LAPD Sgt. Mark Arneson ran in August 2001 on Sandra Rodriguez, who plunged to her death from a Long Beach Hyatt balcony following a night of...

LOS ANGELES - Rescue crews responding to a wreck on a Los Angeles freeway found a driver fatally shot in the head early Sunday, while another driver was shot and wounded in a separate attack about 30 miles away, authorities said. The shootings were the latest in a string of attacks on Southern California freeways that have alarmed motorists and authorities. Investigators did not know what led to the fatal shooting on the 101 Freeway in the San Fernando Valley on Sunday. The wreck snarled traffic for several hours near Van Nuys. "There's absolutely no witnesses at this time, no...

LONG BEACH (KABC) -- A man was kidnapped from his Long Beach business Thursday. A short time later, his family received a phone call demanding a large ransom. …It has now been just about 24 hours since that man was abducted from his auto repair shop. His kidnappers are asking for money for his safe return. … Police say at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, three Hispanic men came to the Mr. Auto Body Repair Shop on the border of North Long Beach and Paramount and ushered the owner into a car and drove off. Maurilio Robles, 47, was kidnapped. …...

Plans have been finalized by Mexico to develop Punta Colonet as a West Coast Mexican alternative to the U.S. ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The proposal includes a deep-water Pacific Ocean port on Mexico's Baja California peninsula about 150 miles south of Tijuana that could serve as a destination for the 30 million containers headed to North America from China and the Far East each year, according to a report published Tuesday in the Los Angeles Times. The on-again, off-again plan to develop Punta Colonet has been discussed before as the number of containers from China grows and...

How many high-risk registered sex offenders should be allowed to live in the same apartment building? At 1149 E. 1st St. in Long Beach, where at the same time as many as 19 rapists and child molesters on parole have resided in an apartment building near two licensed day-care centers, the question, and its elusive answer, have become an emotionally charged issue.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Tuesday approved the final elements of a clean air initiative aimed at reducing pollution from trucks hauling cargo through the Port of Long Beach. The commissioner voted unanimously to adopt several facets of the so-called clean trucks program, which looks to replace and modernize older-model trucks with ones that spew fewer harmful emissions. An after-hours call to the California Trucking Association was not immediately returned. The program sets up a system for identifying and monitoring the trucks that enter the port so they can be monitored for compliance with security, maintenance and...

POLITICS: GOP candidate speaks to cheering crowd at L.B. Airport's Sky Harbor. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney rallied a crowd of hundreds at the Long Beach Airport's Daugherty Sky Harbor Monday night. "Something big is happening in California," Romney told the cheering crowd. "It's time for the politicians to go and for the citizens to take over," he said. When Romney took the podium with his grandson in his arms, locals chanted "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt" and waved large signs, cameras and cell phones in the air. "I came out to support and to hear firsthand what Mitt Romney had to...

A large, enthusiastic crowd gathered on extremely short notice for a last minute Long Beach, California stop for Romney tonight. I talked to the get-out-the-vote staffer who was heading back to Sacramento and the headquarters even as Romney took off for West Virginia and that state's Super Tuesday convention. The Romney team is wired, the sort of energy that can be faked but only flows from conviction that the political wind is at your back. Similar reprots are arriving from Colorado and Georgia. Romney clearly has momentum in California, and a win here will send the campaign into a month...