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Port of Los Angeles Invests $4 Million in Battleship IOWA Freedom of the Seas Park and Pavilion

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Port of Los Angeles Invests $4 Million in Battleship IOWA Freedom of the Seas Park and Pavilion

LOS ANGELES — The Port of Los Angeles Aug. 31 announced it is investing $4 million toward development of the Pacific Battleship Center’s Freedom of the Seas Park and Pavilion, a new waterfront destination adjacent to the Battleship USS IOWA that will provide space for events, education, veterans and community gatherings.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the funding through a recent amendment to Battleship IOWA’s lease, supported through the port’s Public Access Investment Plan or PAIP, which is funded entirely through port revenues, with no tax-payer contributions.

The Freedom of the Seas Park and Pavilion will feature a 17,500-square-foot building that will serve as a multipurpose venue accommodating up to 550 people with meeting rooms and other resource spaces. The surrounding park will include gathering spaces, memorials, and public art.

The approximately $17 million project is being developed by Pacific Battleship Center, the non-profit organization that operates the Battleship USS IOWA. The initial phase will focus on completion of the pavilion building, followed by development of additional waterside features including Liberty Point and Freedom Plaza.

The pavilion will address a need for larger event and gathering space in San Pedro, providing new convening space for community organizations and expanded capacity for educational, veterans and community programming.

Port of Los Angeles reports that the project has received broad community support and was prioritized for PAIP funding following a community input process in 2025.

Established in 2015, the Port’s PAIP provides a sustainable source of funding for public access projects throughout the LA Waterfront. The program dedicates 10% of the port’s annual operating income to projects that enhance public access and create recreational, community and visitor-serving opportunities in San Pedro and Wilmington.

ICTF Joint Powers Authority Board to Meet Sept. 2

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ICTF Joint Powers Authority Board to Meet Sept. 2

The governing board of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility Joint Powers Authority will meet at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, at the Port Administration Building, Multipurpose Room, 415 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, in the Long Beach Civic Center. The meeting is open to the public and attendees are welcome to address the JPA Board. The meeting agenda is available on the JPA’s website.
The meeting will be webcast live via Webex (participants wishing to address the Board must appear in person) at https://polb.webex.com/polb/j.php?MTID=mef89f18349deca81b3562d5bd2fcbe60
Webinar number: 2481 449 1585
Webinar password: 12345 (12345 when dialing from a phone or video system)

The archived meeting will be available following the meeting at www.polb.com/webcast.

The ICTF serves to enhance the efficient flow of intermodal (truck and rail) cargo through the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. The 148-acre facility is located approximately five miles north of the ports, at the northern terminus of State Highway 103, and is operated by Union Pacific.

The ICTF JPA is a public entity created in 1983 to oversee the development and operation of the ICTF. The JPA is administered by a governing board that operates separately and apart from the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles.

Details: www.ICTF-JPA.org or contact Elena Flores at 562-283-7056.

Bill to Limit the Use of Military-Style Weapons in Protests and Immigration Enforcement Heads to Governor’s Desk

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Bill to Limit the Use of Military-Style Weapons in Protests and Immigration Enforcement Heads to Governor’s Desk

 

SACRAMENTO – On Aug. 26, Senator Lena Gonzalez’s (D-Long Beach) Senate Bill (SB) 937 passed the Legislature and now heads to the governor’s desk for a signature. SB 937 will limit the use of flash-bang devices for crowd control and prohibit the use of flash-bangs and explosive breaching charges for immigration enforcement.

Flash-bang devices, also known as stun grenades, are explosive pyrotechnic devices developed for military use that produce a blinding flash of light, loud noise, and in some cases disperse rubber shrapnel or balls. Explosive breaching devices are specialized tactical weapons containing explosives designed to rapidly breach doors, walls, and windows. Despite being dubbed “less-lethal,” flash-bangs have caused numerous serious injuries to both law enforcement officers and people targeted by these weapons.

Among those who suffered at the hands of an improperly deployed flash-bang was Sergio Espejo, a young man in Los Angeles who was struck directly by a grenade. Mr. Espejo underwent emergency surgery and had his finger amputated. In a separate incident in Huntington Park, federal agents used an explosive breaching charge to blow open a door and window on a home while a mother was inside with her two young children. No person inside the home was armed or posed any threat to the officers on-scene.

As federal immigration enforcement continues in communities across the state, reported uses of these military-style weapons continue to grow, spreading fear and putting California families in danger. SB 937 would restrict the use of flash-bang grenades and explosive breaching charges by law enforcement, including during immigration enforcement operations, while establishing stronger safety, training, and accountability standards for their use. It would also require any deployment of a flash-bang grenade for crowd control to be documented and made public on the Department of Justice’s use-of-force database.

SB 937 is a California Legislative Latino Caucus priority bill and is supported by a broad coalition of community-based organizations, immigrant and civil rights advocates, and legal service providers.

Gov. Newsom has until September 30, 2026 to sign legislation.

Details: bit.ly/SB937-FactSheet

 

The California Crime Story You’re Not Hearing: Rates Are at Record Lows

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The California Crime Story You’re Not Hearing: Rates Are at Record Lows

 

SACRAMENTO — Here’s a California public safety story you may not see on the news – crime is way down. California just recorded its lowest homicide rate in state history, while every major statewide crime category declined in 2025.

That did not happen by accident. Every major statewide crime rate declined in 2025 and California’s homicide rate is now 3.5 per 100,000 — the lowest recorded since statewide reporting began nearly six decades ago.

That progress reflects a sustained, whole-of-government approach to public safety: putting more law enforcement officers on the ground, giving state and local agencies better tools, disrupting organized criminal networks, keeping guns out of dangerous hands, taking deadly drugs out of circulation and investing in prevention and intervention.

“Some people have built a business out of telling Californians that their state is falling apart,” said Gov. Newsom. The facts tell a different story. Crime is down across the board. Homicides are at a historic low.”

Since 2024, California saw double-digit declines in every major crime category tracked, including:

  • Homicide: ↓ 18.6%
  • Robbery: ↓ 19.9%
  • Property crime: ↓ 14.3%
  • Motor vehicle theft: ↓ 25.8%
  • Violent crime: ↓ 10.2%

California’s homicide rate is now 3.5 per 100,000 — the lowest rate since statewide reporting began in 1966.

Details: https://tinyurl.com/Crime-at-historic-lows

Amid budget-related service reductions, is City Hall spending over $10K per year on bottled water?

Greggory Moore
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Amid budget-related service reductions, is City Hall spending over $10K per year on bottled water?

On July 30, the City of Long Beach held a press conference to address how they propose to address structural budget shortfalls of $85 million over the next two years. Proposed cuts include library hours, police overtime, homeless services, and roughly 200 layoffs.

But as Mayor Rex Richardson, City Manager Tom Modica, and City Budget Manager Rebecca Bernstorff addressed themselves to the hard choices the City must make in order to make ends meet, there was an irony hiding in plain sight. Over the course of the two-hour event, the trio consumed four bottles of water, despite the fact that every drinking fountain in City Hall — including two within 100 feet of where they sat — has a dispenser for refilling canteens.

What’s the big deal, you ask? Four measly bottles?

Putting aside the fact that bad behavior (like unnecessarily contributing to environmental damage when eco alternatives are easily available) is bad behavior regardless of scale or whether the herd normalizes it, the point here is that every dollar spent in one area is money that can’t be used elsewhere. And while Long Beach leaders are telling us that we’re in dire financial straits and every dollar counts, it seems they may be prioritizing buying bottled water for staff — who could easily get their water from City Hall’s two dozen refill stations — over minimizing service cuts.

How much is the City spending on bottled water? Full disclosure: I don’t know. In response to a previous request for pertinent public records, the City claimed that “we have no reasonable way of searching for those individual purchases, as we do not keep financial records distinguishable by that criteria,” and so “the documents you requested cannot be produced because the City does not use specific vendors to provide these products, nor do we keep financial records that distinguish these products by their accounting sub-object code.”

Among the design considerations for Long Beach's new City Hall, which opened in 2019, was equipping all drinking fountains with refill stations so that staff could eschew bottled water.
Among the design considerations for Long Beach’s new City Hall, which opened in 2019, was equipping all drinking fountains with refill stations so that staff could eschew bottled water.

It’s within the realm of theoretical possibility that every plastic bottle we see staff sucking on at city council (etc.) meetings was bought and brought by the sucking staffer. But maybe it’s something more like this: say that for every 10 onsite employees, City Hall doles out four bottles per day (in other words, each employee consumes two per week). With City Hall open 250 days per year, if we price the water at 10 cents per bottle, we wind up with an approximate expenditure of $10,000 per year.

The actual expenditure may be significantly higher: City Hall is not the only place City employees — over 80% of whom work offsite — consume bottled water while on the clock; presumably City employees average more than 0.4 bottles a day per capita (remember that Richardson, Modica, and Bernstorff went through four in two hours); and while 10 cents per bottle is an approximate price for the cheapest brands bought in bulk, more expensive brands like Fiji — which accounted for two of the four bottles consumed at the budget press conference — can run over $1 apiece even in bulk.

But put all that aside and say the total expenditure is (“only”) $10,000 per year. Although pay rates vary by position and tenure, if that $10,000 were applied to next year’s budget shortfall rather than to bottled water, it could restore somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 hours of police overtime cuts. Or 200 hours of homeless services. Or lessen a $110,000 cut to the Emergency Communications Division — which the City admits will end up “resulting in adverse impacts on training and recruitment efforts” — by 9%.

Considering that everyone at City Hall has a drinking fountain with a canteen refill station right down the hall from their desk, could there ever be an easier budget cut than bottled water at City Hall?

A less straightforward question is why Long Beach’s electeds seem so committed to doing the wrong thing environmentally, adding to the problem of plastic pollution and maintaining our overdependence on oil, that they might prioritize their bottled water over preserving > $10,000 worth of services that residents will lose in 2027.

(Note: Richardson and Modica did not reply to multiple queries for this article.)

The Next Dark Pattern

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The Next Dark Pattern

Generative AI is quietly turning everyday user experiences into hyper-personalized surveillance advertising.

Aug.20, by Lily Minh Wass

https://www.projectcensored.org/the-next-dark-pattern/

There’s a saying that goes, “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.” The digital platforms we rely on daily have built brand identities of convenience: Google for search, Meta for social connection—each touted as a “free” service. What these platforms demand of their users is more often left unsaid.

Although most users often think of them as social infrastructure, platforms primarily make money from advertising, which accounts for 98 percent of Meta’s revenue. The same company has also estimated that 10 percent of its ad revenues come from fraudulent advertisements, some $16 billion a year. It’s a lucrative strategy that directly exploits users, including those most vulnerable to deception, like seniors.

Putting a price on our online data is challenging, but the Web3 Foundation estimates that in the United States, one person’s lifetime of browsing is worth more than $830,000 in commercial value after adjusting for inflation.

With staggering amounts of advertiser investment and platform revenue shaping what we encounter online, the internet seems more like a marketplace than a space to “give people the power to build community,” per Facebook’s mission statement. It wasn’t always like this.

Part of the early-2000s techno-optimism was that the internet would be a great equalizer, dislodging corporate behemoths by giving anyone a seat at the digital table. Local businesses and independent creators could suddenly reach vast audiences—what would’ve once required a million-dollar ad campaign. There was hope that we could divest from mass-produced narratives to finally build our own.

Things might have seemed like that for a while. But our clicking online was quietly creating a new trove of data. Never before have consumers been so explicit about their wants and needs as in a search bar, offering advertisers a new way to match users to products. What began as auctioning off keywords, which advertisers bought to show their products in relevant searches, has evolved into a panopticon surveillance system monitoring our behavior within the infinite scroll.

Today, internet access depends heavily on integrated platforms controlled by a select few. Six billionaires run nine out of the ten most popular social media companies, while three AI companies command 90 percent of the generative chatbot market. Whether you’re messaging friends, looking something up, consulting a large language model (LLM), or browsing social media, you’re most likely exchanging information with the same consolidated powers.

Of these, Meta has been found to track user activity on at least 30 percent of the most popular webpages online, an estimated 5.8 million sites, using code called Pixel. This compiles what we click on, purchase, or enter into forms, including information from non-social-media users. Dozens of lawsuits have accused healthcare providers, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and other AI companies of sharing sensitive personal information with Meta via Pixel, occasionally resulting in million-dollar settlements.

Now, as Big Tech accelerates promoting AI, it faces a public with a deeper understanding of what privacy abuse and manipulative platforms look like.

Amid growing negative sentiment, CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg are trying to recreate the naive hopefulness that the early internet inspired. On top of feigning ignorance of the genuine reservations people have about AI, Zuckerberg recently asserted, “I expect the economy will become more entrepreneurial with a greater number of people working at small businesses rather than larger companies,” in a commentary for the Wall Street Journal titled “The AI Future Is for Everyone.” Wielding a monopoly over the means of communication, Big Tech has the financial resources and platform space to capture public attention with claims just like that. Someone like Zuckerberg can be an opinion leader of their own network, while paying to artificially augment the discourse.

In the first half of 2026, US-based generative AI brands spent a record $1.3 billion on digital ads. These brands understand that Americans rely on social media to form opinions, which has become their main source of news. They offer influencers hundreds of thousands of dollars to create content vouching for their tech. Meta’s enlisting of the sixth-most-followed person on Instagram, Kylie Jenner, to promote its AI Glasses is a prime example. The product has faced backlash for its growing use to harass women and potentially surveil using facial recognition.

This effort goes beyond mere brand deals. Leading the Future (LTF) is a Super PAC funded by tech executives at OpenAI and Palantir, among others. Through the registered non-profit Build American AI, LTF contracts influencers to regurgitate claims of an AI arms race. Sample messaging obtained by WIRED suggests making content like: “I just learned that China is trying really hard to beat the US in AI. If they do, it could mean that China gets personal data from me and my kids, and take jobs that should be here in the US.”

These posts fail to disclose funding sources, reflecting the blurred lines between marketing and organic media through “partnerships.” Meta similarly has replaced the “sponsored” label with “ad,” a smaller disclosure that what you see is paid for.

The results of AI-funded media are tangible. In the past year since its inception, LTF has raised at least $75 million. Across the country, twenty-five of the twenty-eight LTF-backed candidates just won their primary elections.

The final piece of this marketing toolkit could soon be generative models themselves. While CEOs and influencer campaigns take liberties in describing AI as a “superintelligent” solution, or not defining it at all, the end-user experience is already following the trajectory of social media: a surveillance advertising system in disguise.

On the same day Zoë Hitzig left her research position at OpenAI over its decision to start running ads in ChatGPT, she wrote an op-ed for the New York Times sharing her concerns: “ChatGPT users have generated an archive of human candor that has no precedent, in part because people believed they were talking to something that had no ulterior agenda. … Advertising built on that archive creates a potential for manipulating users in ways we don’t have the tools to understand, let alone prevent.”

Her worries are substantiated. Researchers have found that chatbot responses with hidden ads can go undetected and that users even preferred them. Conversational assistants that double as marketing agents already exist. Ads have been part of Microsoft’s Copilot since 2023, and Google has similarly experimented with integration. Last fall, Meta announced user conversations with Meta AI would be used to recommend content on Facebook and Instagram.

Being involuntarily forced to adopt AI applications, narratives, and the products they are now shilling is the next evolution of dark patterns: online architecture that pressures users to accept terms of use against their best interests, such as by hiding opt-out options or burying privacy agreements. AI-funded super PACs, influencers, and media reflect the current spillover of dark patterns into how we form opinions and make political choices that govern our own livelihoods.

Just as increasing reliance on chatbots can lead to cognitive offloading, turning the internet into an advertising ecosystem that forces its users’ hands is another form of disempowerment, threatening our agency over how we govern this unbridled system. Major online platforms were not designed to liberate the public and have never been truly free. Recognizing this is the first step to imagining what digital empowerment might look like: a world where people and their susceptibility to influence is not the product being sold.

Lily Minh Wass is a public health researcher, independent journalist, and creative writer. She has held positions at Cornell University, CUNY School of Public Health, and The Vaccine Confidence Project. Her work explores the psychology of disinformation and the algorithmic spread of ideas, which she writes about for Repro Uncensored.

It’s Hot! Harbor Area Library Cooling Centers Are Open for You

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It’s Hot! Harbor Area Library Cooling Centers Are Open for You

 

When temperatures increase, the heat can be unpleasant and at times dangerous. Find relief from the heat at a nearby cooling center. For additional locations and more resources, visit Ready LA County | Excessive Heat.

San Pedro Regional Branch Library

Hours: Thursday, 10 a.m. tp 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday, 89:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday 1 to 5 p.m., Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Location: 931 S. Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731

Phone: 310-548-7779

 

Lomita Library Hours: Tuesday to Wednesday 12 to 8 p.m., Thursday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday, Sunday – Closed

Location: 24200 Narbonne Ave., Lomita

 

Harbor City – Harbor Gateway Branch Library

Hours: Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday 12 to 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday – Closed

Address: 24000 S Western Ave, Harbor City, CA 90710

 

Wilmington Branch Library

Hours: Sunday: Closed, Monday: 10 am to 8 p.m., Tuesday: 12 to 8 p.m., Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday: 12 to 8 p.m., Friday: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday: 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Location: 1300 N Avalon Blvd, Wilmington, CA 90744

 

Peninsula Center Library

Hours: Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m., Monday to Thursday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday: 2 to 6 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: 701 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates, CA, US, 90274

Phone: 310-377-9584

 

It’s Time for the New Blues Festival 2026 Aug. 29, 30

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It’s Time for the New Blues Festival 2026 Aug. 29, 30

 

The 10th Anniversary New Blues Festival returns to Long Beach for two full days dedicated to the rich sounds and spirit of blues and jazz. The festival features a mix of national headliners, regional favorites, and local rising stars, offering a powerful mix of headliners, rising stars, and homegrown talent.

Time: 12 p.m., Aug. 29, 30

Cost: $48.76 and up

Details: https://newbluesfestival.com/

Venue: Shoreline Aquatic Park, 200 Aquarium Way, Long Beach

Palos Verdes Peninsula Cities Secure Federal Approval of Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan

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Palos Verdes Peninsula Cities Secure Federal Approval of Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan

 

PALOS VERDES PENINSULA — The cities of Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Rolling Hills, and Palos Verdes Estates Aug. 27 announced their multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan earned approval by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ensuring the Palos Verdes Peninsula remains eligible for state and federal funding to reduce long-term risk from natural hazards.

FEMA approved the plan in June following a more than year-long effort that included robust public outreach, engagement with community stakeholders, and multi-agency coordination. The plan addresses threats from potential natural hazards the peninsula is vulnerable to—such as earthquakes, heat waves, landslides, strong wind events, and wildfires—and identifies possible strategies to reduce their impacts. The planning process was spearheaded by the City of Rolling Hills Estates and supported by consultant Black & Veatch. FEMA’s approval of the plan ensures funding eligibility for the next five years at a time when the City of Rancho Palos Verdes has several federal hazard mitigation grants pending.

This is the region’s first hazard mitigation plan encompassing all four cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, which work closely on emergency planning efforts. The plan also includes the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District and Klondike Canyon Landslide Abatement District, which each perform landslide mitigation work within their boundaries in the City of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Details: The final multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan and more information about the planning effort are available on the peninsula’s emergency information website, PVPready.gov.

RPV Landslide Briefs: Update on Re-Energization and Revising Landslide Insurance Pool

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RPV Landslide Briefs: Update on Re-Energization and Revising Landslide Insurance Pool

RPV Seeks Update from SCE on Re-Energization Plans

It’s been almost two years since Southern California Edison or SCE announced the first power shutoffs in the landslide area due to accelerated ground movement that peaked at nearly 1 foot per week that summer. The land movement went on to slow dramatically, today averaging 1.1 inches per week. While impacted residents in Seaview and Portuguese Bend Beach Club have had their service restored, the Portuguese Bend Community Association (PBCA) neighborhood remains de-energized, with residents still relying on solar power or generators.

The city, too, continues to be impacted by the shutoffs. Every month, RPV spends about $53,000 to rent and fuel generators that power the deep dewatering wells at the toe of the Portuguese Bend Landslide. The wells have removed over half a billion gallons of groundwater since fall 2024 — enough to cover 58 footballs fields with 10 feet of water. The city’s geologist believes the wells have contributed to the significant slowdown. The city spends another roughly $12,000 a month to rent and fuel the generators that run the sewer system serving the PBCA neighborhood.

In January 2025, SCE informed the city that a continued and sustained reduction in land movement near its electrical infrastructure to less than 1 inch per week would be necessary to consider re-energizing the Portuguese Bend area. Like many residents, the city feels the tremendous reduction in land movement warrants a renewed discussion. That’s why last week, city manager Ara Mihranian sent a letter to SCE President and CEO Steven D. Powell requesting an in-person meeting to discuss the restoration and long-term reliability of electrical service in the landslide area.

Re-energizing Portuguese Bend when it is safe to do so is critical for not only the residents who are going on two years without SCE service, but for the city to continue the very landslide remediation work believed to have helped reverse the acceleration. The city’s estimated $150 million comprehensive landslide remediation plan includes additional groundwater extraction and stabilization measures. Reliable electrical service will be essential to operating the system and preventing future re-acceleration.

RPV is seeking to meet with SCE to review the latest land movement data, discuss re-energization criteria, and identify a path toward safely restoring and maintaining reliable electrical service for the affected community while supporting the city’s long-term remediation efforts.

Mr. Powell responded that SCE is reviewing the information with its leadership, engineering, and operational teams, and will coordinate setting up a discussion in the near future.

Read the City’s letter (PDF), and Mr. Powell’s response letter (PDF), on the city website.

 

City Council to Revisit Proposed Landslide Insurance Pool

On Sept. 1, the city council will receive an informational report from city staff exploring the feasibility of developing a joint powers authority or JPA to provide landslide insurance coverage to individuals.

Because land movement-related damages are not usually covered by most homeowners insurance policies, the council previously requested city staff look into whether a JPA or other form of insurance program may address this gap. Staff determined that while JPAs come with constraints — among them, the fact that they are not authorized to provide residential insurance to private property owners — a more viable path forward may be pursuing the creation of an alternate insurance model similar to the California Earthquake Authority or CEA or the California FAIR Plan Association or FAIR Plan.

The council will consider sending a letter to state legislators and the California insurance commissioner asking them to consider creating similar program to provide individuals with basic landslide insurance.

A staff report (PDF) with more information is available on the city website.

 

Meeting Info

The city council meeting will take place on Sept. 1, at 7 p.m. in McTaggart Hall at Hesse Park and via Zoom. Watch live on RPVtv’s YouTube channel, at rpvca.gov, or on Cox 33/FiOS 38. To participate in public comment during the meeting in person or virtually, complete a form at rpvca.gov/participate. Email your comments on agenda items to cc@rpvca.gov.

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