POLB Cargo Numbers Decrease in June: RL NEWS Briefs July 17, 2015

POLB Cargo Numbers Decrease in June

LONG BEACH — Container cargo volume dipped in June at the Port of Long Beach, decreasing 4.4 percent compared to the same month this past year.
A total of 583,621 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) were moved through POLB in June. Imports were recorded at 297,189 TEUs, a 6 percent decrease. Exports decreased 8.4 percent to 128,223 TEUs. Empty containers rose 2.4 percent with 158,209 TEUs. With imports exceeding exports, empty containers are sent back overseas to be refilled with consumer goods.
June 2014, the month against which June 2015 is being compared, was particularly busy, as shippers prepared for the expiration of the longshore labor contract.
Through the first six months of 2015, Long Beach cargo numbers are essentially flat compared to the same period last year, up 0.1 percent overall.
For all the latest monthly cargo numbers, click here.
For more details on the cargo numbers, please visit www.polb.com/stats.

Garcetti, Army Corps Announce Milestone for LA River Restoration

LOS ANGELES — On July 16, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles District Commander Col. Kim Colloton announced that the plan to restore the Los Angeles River the Civil Works Review Board of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C. was unanimously approved.

The Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration project proposes restoration measures in and along an 11-mile stretch of the river to reestablish scarce riparian strand, freshwater marsh, and aquatic habitat, while maintaining existing levels of flood risk management. Habitat connections will be reestablished at major tributaries within the river’s historic floodplain, and to regional habitat zones of the Santa Monica, San Gabriel and Verdugo mountains. The plan will restore about 719 acres by widening the river in key areas by terracing and restructuring channel banks to support vegetation, creating side channels and off-channel marsh, daylighting small streams, and removing invasive vegetation. Associated recreation features include trails, vista points, educational amenities, and pedestrian bridges.
Garcetti, accompanied by a project team comprised of long-standing river stakeholders from Los Angeles, traveled to Washington to express support for the project to the Civil Works Review Board. After presentations by South Pacific Division Comdr. Brig. Gen. Mark Toy, Colloton, and Garcetti, the board approved the project which will now be released for state and agency review. Upon review from the agencies, Army Corps Chief of Engineers Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick will evaluate the study and forward his recommendation to the assistant secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy for administrative review and transmittal to Congress, expected in early 2016. Congress must authorize the project in a Water Resources Development Act and appropriate funds in order for the Corps and the city to begin construction.

Brown Appoints Eight to Los Angeles County Superior Court

SACRAMENTO – On July 16, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced the appointment of Julian C. Recana, Songhai D. Miguda-Armstead, Timothy P. Dillon, Ronald F. Frank, Lawrence P. Riff, Laura A. Seigle, Natalie P. Stone and Lisa K. Sepe-Wiesenfeld to judgeships in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Recana, 45, of Signal Hill, has served as a deputy district attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office since 1999. He was a contract lawyer at Early, Maslach, Price and Baukol in 1999. Recana earned a juris doctor degree from Loyola Law School Los Angeles and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California Berkeley. He fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. Recana is a Democrat.

Frank, 57, of Manhattan Beach, has been a partner at Burke, Williams and Sorensen since 2008. He was a partner at Bannan, Frank and Terzian LLP from 1995 to 2008 and an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft in 1989, at Adams, Duque and Hazeltine from 1983 to 1995 and at Geary, Stahl and Spencer in 1983. He earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree from Bucknell University. Frank fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. He is registered without party preference.

Sepe-Wiesenfeld, 59, of Santa Monica, has been a managing lawyer at Farmers Insurance Group since 2015, where she has worked in several positions since 2008. Sepe-Wiesenfeld was national managing attorney at Coast National Insurance Company-Bristol West from 1997 to 2008 and a senior associate at Haight, Brown and Bonesteel from 1986 to 1997. She earned a juris doctor degree from the Pepperdine University School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California Los Angeles. Sepe-Wiesenfeld fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. She is a Democrat.

Riff, 59, of Glendale, has been a partner at Steptoe and Johnson LLP since 1997. He was a partner at Lane Powell PC from 1989 to 1997, where he was an associate from 1986 to 1989, and a trial attorney at the Southern Pacific Transportation Company from 1982 to 1985. Riff earned a juris doctor degree from the University of Oregon School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan. He fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. Riff is a Democrat.

Seigle, 48, of Los Angeles, has been a partner at Irell and Manella LLP since 2001, where she was an associate from 1994 to 2000. She served as a law clerk for the Honorable Diarmuid O’Scannlain at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1993 to 1994. Seigle earned a juris doctor degree from Yale Law School and a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard University. She fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. Seigle is a Democrat.

Stone, 44, of Los Angeles, has served as an appellate judicial attorney at the California Court of Appeal, Second District since 2010. She was an associate at Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP from 1999 to 2010. Stone served as a law clerk for the Honorable A. Wallace Tashima at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1998 to 1999. She earned a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree from Duke University. Stone fills the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Brian M. Hoffstadt to the Court of Appeal. Stone is a Democrat.

Miguda-Armstead, 39, of View Park-Windsor Hills, has been a supervising deputy city attorney at the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office since 2008, where she has served in several positions since 2003. She earned a juris doctor degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Law and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Nevada Reno. Miguda-Armstead fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. She is a Democrat.

Dillon, 59, of Los Angeles, has been an attorney in private practice since 2000. He was a partner at Shernoff, Bidart, Echeverria and Bentley from 1993 to 2000 and at Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen and Shapiro LLP from 1988 to 1993. Dillon was an associate at Wyman, Bautzer, Kuchel and Silbert from 1986 to 1988 and at Golenbock and Barell in New York City, NY from 1981 to 1986. He earned a juris doctor degree from the College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law and a bachelor of science degree from the State University of New York at Albany. Dillon fills the vacancy created by the conversion of a court commissioner position on July 1, 2014. He is registered without party preference.

The compensation for each of these positions is $184,610