Thursday, October 30, 2025
spot_img
spot_img
Home Blog Page 871

Long Beach Agrees to Pension Deals with Three Unions

Reporters Desk
-
0
Long Beach Agrees to Pension Deals with Three Unions

Long Beach — On Oct. 22, the Long Beach City Council agreed to pension reforms with three unions.

The deals did not include paying more toward retirement costs.

Contract with City Manager Pat West and other city management still are in limbo. The city council voted 5-4, councilmen Robert Garcia, Steven Neal, Dee Andrews and Al Austin opposed, to holdup on those deals for a couple of weeks.

Engineers and lifeguards will get 15 percent compensation increases in the two fiscal years that follow in a 7-2 vote, with councilmen Gary DeLong and James Johnson, opposed. Confidential employees will get 12 percent raises.

The unions agreed to increase their pension contributions to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System from 2 to 8 percent of their salaries. So, the 6 percent of the first year’s raise will be paying for their share of pension costs.

The four unions that that dealt with the council Oct. 22 were working with expired contracts. The raises are retroactive to Oct. 1, when the fiscal year began.

The Oct. 22 negotiations expected to cost the general fund $800,000 in 2014 and $1.8 million in the years that follow.

LA Provides City Finance Information

Reporters Desk
-
0
LA Provides City Finance Information

Los Angeles — On Oct. 23, Los Angeles Controller Ron Galperin announced the launch of Control Panel LA, which posts a variety of data so that taxpayers can see where their money goes.

Much of the data, such as employee salaries, already are obtainable but this consolidates the information into a centralized location. Some information such as as background on lawsuits filed against the city and listing the names of workers adjacent to their salaries still is not available on the site.

Mayor Eric Garcetti is planning to launch a separate site for the public to weigh in on spending priorities, which he wants to incorporate information from the Department of Water and Power, the Port of Los Angeles and the Department of Airports on.

Ursua LB Community College District Board of Trustees Candidacy

Reporters Desk
-
0
Ursua LB Community College District Board of Trustees Candidacy

Local business owner Stella Ursua officially announced her candidacy, Oct. 24, for the District 3 Board of Trustees seat at the Long Beach Community College District.

Ursua, who has been Long Beach resident for 15 years, is running for Mark Bowen’s seat in the board of trustees.

Ursua says she is running because Long Beach City College needs to be affordable and accessible to all residents and wants to seek opportunities with the Local Control Funding Formula (2013-2014 Budget Act) and from Proposition 39-CA Clean Energy Jobs Act to be utilized to reinvest in college-prep and vocational programs.

Mayor Issues Executive Directive for Great Streets Initiative

Reporters Desk
-
0
Mayor Issues Executive Directive for Great Streets Initiative

LOS ANGELES—Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced the implementation of the Great Streets Program.

The program focuses on specific improvements to defined corridors throughout Los Angeles.

The Great Streets Program is created through an executive directive, which creates a working group composed of the following departments: Department of City Planning; Department of Cultural Affairs; Department of Transportation; Department of Public Works; Economic and Workforce Development Department.

The Great Streets workgroup will be tasked with criteria and strategy for identifying streets to be included in the Great Streets program, compose a candidate list of 40 potential streets, conduct a comprehensive matrix of project elements and associated costs, come up with a strategy for the coordination of city services to Great Streets, give a time table for the implementation of the project, strategize for funding and implement metrics and benchmarks to evaluate and track project impacts.

Long Beach Receives Grant Terminal Island Freeway

Reporters Desk
-
0
Long Beach Receives Grant Terminal Island Freeway

LONG BEACH— On, Oct. 22, Caltrans awarded the City of Long Beach a $225,000 environmental justice grant to begin developing a vision for transforming the Terminal Island Freeway into a local-serving road with an adjacent landscape buffer.

The landscape buffer would separate port and industrial uses from the residential and neighborhood uses, between Pacific Coast Highway and West Willow Street.

A series of public workshops and meetings will be scheduled to solicit input and help identify a comprehensive vision for the re-purposing of the Terminal Island freeway.

Avenue Q: Message within Joke

Reporters Desk
-
0
Avenue Q: Message within Joke

By John Farrell, Curtain Call Writer

If you don’t get the fun inAvenue Q, then you probably haven’t seen television for about 40 years or so.

But if you are of the generation that was reared on Sesame Street or reared children or grandchildren on Miss Piggy (she has to be mentioned first, it’s in her contract), on Kermit the Frog, Elmo and the Cookie Monster, then you’ll understand all the jokes.

And, unless you are one of those very few who don’t love puppets and muppets (and who don’t remember Gary Coleman at all, you’ll love Avenue Q, either because you’ve always wondered what life on another street in that same imaginary New York was really like, or (for the mean-spirited) because you’ve had a secret hankering to see those characters brought down to real-life, sex and housing problems and all.

Continue

A Syrian Among Us: A Refugee Struggles as His Homeland Disintegrates

Greggory Moore
-
0
A Syrian Among Us: A Refugee Struggles as His Homeland Disintegrates

“Syrian Regime Chokes Off Food To Town That Was Gassed.” This title from an October 3rd Wall Street Journal article typifies the horror that Americans have heard coming out of the faraway land of Syria for the past couple of years.

But the horror is far less remote for one Long Beach resident. Not only is he Syrian, but because of his efforts to aid villages targeted in such a way by the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, he is a young man who cannot return home.

Continue

3rd Annual Brown and Out Festival Has Changed for the Better

Reporters Desk
-
0
3rd Annual Brown and Out Festival Has Changed for the Better

By John Farrell, Curtain Call Writer

Eight original short plays featured at the 3rd annual Brown & Out Festival reflect the Supreme Court decision that made marriage equality for same-sex couples legal in California.

Instead of angst from the inability to wed, a couple of the eight new plays featured at the festival looked complications coming from marriage, — a refreshing change.

The eight performances, which opened Oct. 11, are playing at Casa 101 Theater in BoyleHeights.

LGBTQ,written by Arriola and Uvaldo Baltazar is directed by Martin Morales; Sunday Brunch, written by Rosa Maria Rodriguez, also is directed Morales; Whittier Blvd(CQ), written by Michael Patrick Spillers, is again directed by Morales; Los Novios,written by Jaime Mayorquin, is directed by Nina Harada;Prom, written by Monica Palacios, also is directed by Harada,Safe, written by Miguel Garcia, also is directed by Harada; Happy and Gay, writtenby Mary Steelsmith, is directed by Morales; andCrazy, written by Natalia Camunas, is directed by Harada. They run from the predictable (LGBTQis a mildly funny Star Trekparody) to the deeply moving (and musical)Whittier Blvd.

There is a lot of energy behind this show: nine actors take on roles varying from an immortal being to a would-be prom queen. Nine playwrights (as many as actors) have a hand in the productions, which fit into the sparsely decorated but more than adequate stage space.

Some of these plays are about subjects that have long been part of the gay discussion:Sunday Brunch, for instance, is about that gay right of passage, telling a parent just what you are.Promcreates a straw man (the actually frightening MJ Silva) to give the protagonist, Karina Noelle, someone to fight against.

Los Noviosis a comedy about a wedding, with a curious and humorous twist, gay marriage and more.Happy and Gaylets two church woman, Miriam Peniche and Monica O’Malley de Castillo, who find love while preparing for a wedding reception.

Best of the eight isWhittier Blvd, where Will (Jose A. Garcia) and Vic (Masha Mendieta) come to an understanding about Vic’s gay lifestyle, while enjoying the music of the Midniters, the first “real’” East Los Angeles band.

The audience on Oct. 12 cheered wildly for ever revelation and gave the actor’s a standing ovation at the end. You may find these plays less exciting than that, but you will appreciate the bright energy that went into them.

Tickets are $20, $15 for students, seniors and veterans, and $12 for BoyleHeights residents. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 5 p.m. through Nov. 3.

Details:(323) 263-7684;www.casa0101.org
Venue: Casa 0101 Theater
Location: 2102 E. First St., BoyleHeights

 

When the Cirque Comes to Town

Reporters Desk
-
0

Proving the value of the arts in public-port venues

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

Over the course of many years, we have criticized the Port of Los Angeles on a range of issues. And we have done so again in this issue with our reporting on the TraPac terminal expansion and its cost overrun of $146 million. It would seem as though Mayor Garcetti’s office also had concerns with this “miscalculation” of costs considering that both Deputy Director of Port Operations John Holmes and the Port’s Executive Director Geraldine Knatz resigned or retired after the matter came to light.

I have been told by some who would know that the Mayor had serious misgivings about this cost overrun and the financial position it has put the Harbor Department in. I am not going to belabor the point, as our reporter has done an adequate job of explaining it elsewhere in this edition.
I will, however, shock some on the Fifth Floor of 428 South Beacon Street by giving them a standing ovation for bringing Cirque du Soleil’s Totem to San Pedro. Everyone knows we have our own kind of three ring politics in this town complete with clowns and ringmasters. But Totem was really extraordinary. To have these incredibly talented, world class performers performing an inspiring, transformative piece in this town was extraordinary. If you’ve never seen a Cirque du Soleil performance before, it is unlike any other circus you’ll experience! This is the kind of event that puts San Pedro on the cultural map of California.

Continue

Project Censored 2014:

Reporters Desk
-
1
Project Censored 2014:

Read About the News that Didn’t Make the News in 2012-2013

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

On Oct. 1, media watchdog, Project Censored, released its annual list of most censored stories in 2013 – a list that included stories about the widening wealth gap to the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers.

Among the storylines included on this year’s list was Pfc. Bradley Manning’s trial for leaking classified documents and Monsanto’s drive to insert GMO grown food in the United States food supply by any means necessary.

To avid news consumers —televised and otherwise— the inclusion of these stories lines in Project Censored would seem odd given the dearth of coverage these stories received in the past year. Thousands of column inches have been published on these story lines. In fact, various facets of these story lines have appeared in Random Lengths.

Continue

1...870871872...945Page 871 of 945

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY

ABOUT US

Real people. Real news. Random Lengths is the Los Angeles harbor area's remaining independently owned progressive news magazine. We cover news in Carson, Wilmington, Long Beach, Lomita, Torrance, Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro.

Contact us: letters@randomlengthsnews.com

FOLLOW US

© Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv