The Real Fight Against Fake News:
Project Censored’s Top 10 Censored Stories By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor Illustrations by Anson Stevens-Bollen, Santa Fe Reporter
[See Censored, p. 6]
New law secures major victory for port truckers against wage theft p. 4 Digital dystopia meets media madness in Danial Nord’s Cloud 9 p. 11
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
Fake news is not a new thing. With the return of its annual list of censored stories in Censored 2019: Fighting the Fake News Invasion, Project Censored’s vivid cover art recalls H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. The situation today may feel as desolate as the cover art suggests. “But Censored 2019 is a book about fighting fake news,” editors Andy Lee Roth and Mickey Huff observed in the book’s introduction. In the end, they argued that “critical media education — rather than censorship, blacklists, privatized fact-checkers, or legislative bans — is the best weapon for fighting the ongoing fake news invasion.” Project Censored’s annual list of 25 censored stories, which makes up the books lengthy first chapter, is one of the best resources one can have for such education. Censorship and fake news are “intertwined issues” they write. Project Censored has long been engaged in much more than just uncovering and
Coming attractions to the San Pedro dining scene p. 12 October 4 - 17, 2018
1
Community Announcements:
Harbor Area Sample Ballot Booklets Mailed
The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/ County Clerk began mailing Sample Ballot booklets to voters for the Nov. 6 General Election. Sample Ballot booklets contain election information, including candidates and measures that will appear on the ballot. The back cover of the booklet displays the location of the voter’s polling place and serves as a Vote by Mail request application. Residents must be registered to vote to receive a Sample Ballot booklet. Details: lavote.net; (800) 815-2666
Harbor LA Community Plans Update
Learn about the Harbor LA Community Plans and tell us about the opportunities and constraints you see and your vision for your community. Please join the event. Light refreshments will be provided. Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Oct. 13 Details: RSVP: (213) 340-4950; harborlaplans@gmail.com Venue: Harry Bridges Span School Auditorium, 1235 Broad Ave., Wilmington
KCET Online Voter Resource BALLOT BRIEF Returns
KCET, the independent public television station, announced the return of the online voter resource BALLOT BRIEF, a digital destination where Californians can find a selection of videos, articles and explanations that break down what voters can expect to find on their election ballots this season. Weekly, through Nov. 6, the explainers will post online in both Spanish and English at kcet.org/ballotbrief and KCRW.com.
League of Women Voters Long Beach Area
The League of Women Voters will be hosting a nonpartisan analysis of the Nov. 6 ballot. They will discuss what the measures do, who supports/ opposes them and more. Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Oct. 6 Details: (562) 481-4649 Venue: Los Altos Library, 5614 E. Britton Dr., Long Beach
Ecosystem Restoration Study Meeting
October 4 - 17, 2018
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
The six draft alternatives that will be included in the formal Integrated Feasibility Report for the East San Pedro Bay Ecosystem Restoration Study will be presented at this public meeting. As the environmental review process is just beginning, detailed information about environmental impacts are not available at this time. The City and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expect to complete the Integrated Feasibility Report process in 2019. Detailed information will be made available and a formal public comment period will open. Time: 5:30 p.m. Oct. 10 Details: www.longbeach.gov/citymanager/ tidelands/bay-ecosystem-study/ Venue: Bixby Park Community Center, 130 Cherry Ave., Long Beach
2
International Hackathon
The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Antwerp in Belgium will host an international “Hackathon.” The technology competition will take place Oct. 11 to 13, simultaneously in the two cities and involve participants from around the world. The initiative was launched in 2015 to digitally connect ports worldwide, share best practices for handling the largest container ships in the global fleet and boost efficiency within the global maritime supply chain. The Los Angeles chapter of the Hackathon will be take place at the USC Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management. The two ports are recruiting industry professionals, students and coaches to participate in the Hackathon. Details: www.chainporthack.com
Realizing a More Fair Global Food Supply Chain Labor rights and food justice activists and farmworkers from Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia and the United States will explore the centrality
[See Announcements, p. 4]
Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 30 Years
Union to City: ‘You Have Woken a United Giant!’ By Benjamin Garcia, RLn Reporter
On Sept. 19, the words “Mr. Mayor/ Back to Earth/ Pay your workers/ What they’re worth” and other chants were heard as marchers equipped with posters, buttons, noise-making tools and a one loud megaphone passed from Pepper Tree Plaza to the Port of Los Angeles as a response to: • A freeze on healthcare benefit contributions • Salaries that fail to keep pace with L.A.’s rising cost of living • Understaffed services resulting in close calls with serious accidents Gathering at noon, protesters affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) demonstrated the need for adequate compensation for public workers. Before the march began, Environmental Monitoring Division Senior Chemist Stacee Karnya said, “The City of Los Angeles is currently in negotiations with its employees (the coalition of city unions), we are out here today because the negotiations are at a stall.” She expanded on her statement saying that the city’s offer is unacceptable because it doesn’t account for the rate of inflation. The city is trying to “burden” the employees with healthcare costs. Karnya went into greater detail saying, “[There is already a cost associated with] whichever healthcare plan employees choose, but the city is trying to dump a 10 percent premium level; and they are trying to create a twotiered system where they treat new employees differently.” She wrapped up by adding that a lot of city workers run the largest port in North America; many goods come through the port; the coalition wants to keep it running and it wants to keep employees healthy and happy. Victor Cuevas, Communications Specialist at SEIU Local 721, stated that the Port of Los Angeles and the San Pedro waterfront area was chosen for the demonstration precisely because of its great importance to the City of Los Angeles and the regional economy. He added, “POLA, in particular, has a very diverse workforce that maintains its facilities and keep the port thriving. Today’s march included workers from POLA — engineers and architects, sanitation trash truck drivers and chemists who ensure our local waters stay clean.” Jose Franceschi, a city gardener and caretaker, who attended the rally described the energy of the demonstration as exciting. He added, “We needed something to impact the City of Los Angeles and let them know we’re serious.” He explained that he, along with the rest of the union, is serious about wanting a fair contract. “The City of Los Angeles and the city administrative officer are backing-up on their promises from when we first got hired,” Franceschi stated. Nearby, a friend and coworker, Salvador Chavez, added that he thinks it’s vital for the news media to pay attention. Franceschi concluded saying that all the union wants is to be treated with respect and to be given the opportunity to meet the costs of living. Union spokesperson, Coral Itzcalli, later told Random Lengths News that after the great recession took full effect in 2007, services in
The City of Los Angeles were drastically cut. According to the spokesperson, city workers did everything they could to help the financial stability of the city.
“Workers understood that their units and teams would be cut by a lot and people rolled up their sleeves and did what had to be done,” [See United, p. 3]
On Sept.19, members of SEIU Local 721 staged a demonstration outside the Port of Los Angeles administration building for better benefits package in their contract negotiations with the city and county of Los Angeles. Photo by Benjamin Garcia
Additional Suspect Charged in Crespo Murder By Melina Paris, Staff Reporter
SAN PEDRO — Random Lengths News learned that a second suspect was arrested on Aug. 4, in the murder case of San Pedro resident, Walter (Wally) Crespo who was fatally shot on June 11. The arrest was confirmed after weeks of stonewalling by the Los Angeles Police Department Harbor Area Homicide Detectives and after an accessory to the same crime, Carol Bodman, was arrested, June 28. The accused, Juan Martinez is charged with homicide. It was reported by LAPD Harbor Area Homicide Detectives that Martinez is an alleged Rancho San Pedro gang member. Preliminary hearings for both Martinez and Bodman, are scheduled for Oct. 25, at the Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse in Long Beach. Bodman is charged with a felony, accessory after the fact/ knowledge of a crime or murder. Both suspects are still in custody. During the time leading up to our July 25 story, RLN dove into the details of this case. After making repeated phone calls and doing online searches, on June 23 the Harbor Area LAPD told RLN they did not have any leads on who killed Wally. However, Wally’s mother said that they went to court July 10, and a suspect was brought out. The suspect was arrested for a felony, June 28. Wally’s mother, Cindy Hebert, said there were “no offers on the table.” They would return to court about one month after Wally died. As of July 19, a suspect was in custody with $1.04 million bail with a court date scheduled for Aug. 22. This paper first reported the homicide of
Wally Crespo on July 12, along with three other unrelated murders that occurred in San Pedro in June. Wally is survived by his mother and two daughters. With help from Wally’s mother and one of his best friends, Eddie Baca, RLN also followed up with a story about who Wally was in this community where so many people knew him. As previously reported, Wally’s mother and his sister now share the responsibility of taking care of Wally’s daughters. His friend, Baca said that Wally had high hopes and he pursued his goals. He was “a lifelong work in progress.” Wally had four years of sobriety and recently, he had acquired full custody of his 16-year-old daughter. Wally’s mother said that he was a compassionate son who always tried to meet her needs. She recalled receiving a card from a police officer who didn’t know her son personally, after Wally’s funeral services. However, the officer wrote, when he saw Wally, “He was picking up trash, he was concerned about things in his community and he was doing something almost every time he would see him.” Hebert said she was overwhelmed with people coming up to her. She didn’t realize Wally knew that many people. “I don’t even think he realized it,” she said. “He thought he was alone but he wasn’t. A lot of people reached out.” Wally was laid to rest on June 26, followed by a funeral service at McNerney’s Mortuary Chapel in San Pedro. Read more on Wally Crespo at http://www. randomlengthsnews.com/?s=Walter+Crespo
[United from p. 2]
United Giant
Itzcalli said, continuing, “All of this was done with the explicit understanding that the city staffing would be restored once the economy improved.” The economy didn’t improve as quickly as workers hoped; still, according to Itzcalli, a large amount of development took place in Los Angeles. What didn’t develop was the restoration of better staffing for the city and new positions. In 2015, the Los Angeles City Council passed a measure establishing a goal of adding 5,000 new workers by summer of 2018, as part of a legal settlement. However, former City Administrative Officer, Miguel Santana, has repeatedly said that the 5,000 hiring target is a goal, not a commitment or an obligation. Sylvia Alvarado, who went inside the Port of Los Angeles building with the letter to the mayor, said that service jobs being understaffed is bad for morale. “There are people doing three peoples’ jobs. The city keeps telling us, ‘Yes we are going to hire people.’ I’ve been here for seven years and I’m still waiting.”
She said that another objective of the protest was to not have medical bills eat into city employees’ paychecks. As a member of the bargaining team for SEIU, Alvarado stated, “A lot of us here in the City of Los Angeles already live paycheck-topaycheck. Paying 10 percent of our medical costs is going to set us back.” Alvarado shared that she has been impacted by medical issues, she is 56 years old and wants to make sure that her medical expenses will be taken care of. She added that city workers are injured often — citing emptying trash cans, trimming trees on ladders and beautifying parks takes “a lot of elbow grease.” She concluded, saying that the Harbor Department is her home. The city workers beautify parks, maintain streets and put on community events. They want a good contract to feel good living and working in San Pedro. Franceschi started saying “We want to tell the public that,” Chavez finished, saying “¡Si, se puede!” The Los Angeles County supervisors agreed to fully-paid health and dental, as well as a 10.75 percent salary increase (plus $1,000 bonus) across the board.
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Port Truckers Gain Major Victory with Law Holding Retailers Accountable for Wage Theft By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
A landmark bill authored by State Senator Ricardo Lara and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 22, may finally signal the end of systematic wage theft and related violations in the port trucking industry by making retailers jointly liable for port trucker wage theft violations, along with the trucking companies directly responsible. “Gov. Brown’s signing of SB 1402 will allow port truck drivers to share in the benefits from California’s leading role in global trade,” said Lara, whose district includes the Port of Long Beach. “Retailers using their power to end exploitation and restore good jobs for workers at our ports will mean port truckers are left behind no more!” SB 1402 goes into effect Jan. 1, but port truckers aren’t waiting until then, as they went out on a three-day strike against two of the worst offenders, XPO Logistics Inc. and NFI Industries. It was the 16th such strike mounted by the Teamsters union over the last five years. The last day strikers focused on immigration issues — specifically Trump’s revocation of Temporary Protective Status, which could leave many port drivers exposed for deportation. They joined with other labor and progressive groups for a demonstration at Wilmington Waterfront Park. This comes on the heels of a Sept. 13 U.S. Department of Labor announcement that NFIowned California Cartage must pay $3,573,074 to more than 1,400 employees at its Carson
warehouse. It violated federal contract provisions by failing to pay prevailing wages, as well as health and welfare benefits. “This company steals wages from drivers and warehouse workers every day,” said California Cartage driver Juan Lara. “NFI/California Cartage has shown that they don’t care about the law,” said warehouse worker Jose Rodriguez. “We will continue to stand up and take action until Cal Cartage follows the law and respects our rights.” The Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved a new lease agreement with California Cartage earlier this month, only to have the City Council intervene, with a unanimous vote to review the decision on Sept. 28. Earlier this year, the City Council overrode a Harbor Commission vote to to extend a Foreign Trade Zone Operating Agreement with California Cartage. Truckers have been winning wage theft judgments for years, including more than $45 million due to 400 drivers. But with inadequate enforcement, the practice has continued unabated, putting law-abiding companies at a distinct disadvantage, while depriving government of revenue for workers’ compensation, Social Security and Medicare. By making retailers jointly liable when they hire port trucking companies with unpaid final judgments, SB 1402 is expected to dramatically alter the incentive structure. It will push the
Sen. Ricardo Lara at a rally supporting Senate Bill 1402 in April 2018. File photo
vast majority of port trucking companies into compliance and putting to an end rampant wage theft and the misclassification of workers. “For far too long, we have been filing claims with the State Labor Commissioner in order to fight our misclassification and to seek lost wages that the companies we work for have been pocketing,” said Domingo Avalos, an XPO driver. “We know the value of our hard work, and that our communities depend on the commerce
Community Announcements:
Harbor Area
October 4 - 17, 2018
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
[Announcements from p. 2]
4
of agriculture workers to building more fair global food supply chains — and a comprehensive food justice movement. This daylong conference will highlight farmworkers’ experience and their worker rights activism as a foundation to envision and implement more dynamic, interconnected strategies to improve the way our food moves from field to dinner table. Reception to follow. Agenda forthcoming Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Oct. 11 Details: information@solidaritycenter.org; www.foodchainworkers.com Venue: UCLA Downtown Labor Center, 675 S. Park View St., Los Angeles
Harbor City Job Fair
Harbor Gateway Worksource Center will be hosting this job fair. Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 12 Cost: Free
we move. It’s high time companies stop turning a blind eye to the indignities we’ve endured for years. We’re hopeful that retailers will get off the sidelines and stand with us in this fight.” SB 1402 was sponsored by the Teamsters Public Affairs Council and the California Labor Federation, with support from the Natural Resources Defense Council and numerous community and social justice groups, as well as the mayors of L.A., Long Beach and Oakland. Details: (562) 570-4526 Venue: Harbor City Recreation Center, 24901 Frampton Ave., Harbor City
Red Cross: Blood, Platelet Donations Needed in Hurricane Wake
The American Red Cross urges individuals outside the affected hurricane areas to help by giving blood or platelets to care for patients in the storm’s path and across the country. Hurricane Florence’s wrath left catastrophic damage behind and took affected blood and platelet donations. Nearly 200 Red Cross blood drives in the Southeast were forced to cancel, resulting in more than 5,200 uncollected blood and platelet donations. Time: 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m Oct. 5, 12 Time: 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 6, 13 Time: 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m Oct. 7, 14 Time: 12:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m Oct. 8, 9,10 Time: 10:45 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. Oct. 11 Time: 12:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m Oct. 15 Venue: American Red Cross Greater Long Beach Chapter, 3150 E. 29th St., Long Beach Details: RedCrossBlood.org; 1-800-RED CROSS 1-800-733-2767
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Governor’s Signatures End 40 Years of Police Performance Secrecy By Terry Francke, General Counsel
As reported in the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, Gov. Jerry Brown signed, without comment, two bills in a move representing a revolution in law enforcement transparency after four decades of secrecy blanketing police and correctional officer performance in violent situations. Co-sponsored by the California News Publishers Association (CNPA) and the ACLU, SB 1421 and AB 748 will for the first time require public access to records, including video recordings, of officer involvement in violent encounters with suspects and others they deal with. CNPA announced the legislative milestone to its members thus: The new laws will help news reporters cover serious incidents involving law enforcement in their communities, including police shootings, and will allow the public at large to demand access to 911 calls, surveillance footage gathered as evidence, body and dash camera footage, and other video and audio footage related to a shooting or serious use of force that causes injury to a citizen.
Gov. Jerry Brown signs his last bill as California’s governor. File photo
officer. • “An incident in which the use of force by a peace officer or custodial officer against a person resulted in death, or in great bodily injury. • “(A)n incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency or oversight agency that a peace officer or custodial officer engaged in sexual assault involving a member of the public.”
More specifically disclosure will include: • All investigative reports; • Photographic, audio, and video evidence; • Transcripts or recordings of interviews; autopsy reports; • All materials compiled and presented for review to the district attorney or to any person or body charged with determining whether to file criminal charges against an officer in connection with an incident, or whether the officer’s action was consistent with law and agency policy for purposes of discipline or administrative action, or what discipline to impose or corrective action to take; • Documents setting forth findings or recommended findings; and copies of disciplinary records relating to the incident, including any letters of intent to impose discipline, any documents reflecting modifications of discipline due to the Skelly or grievance process, and letters
Records so disclosed could be redacted only • To remove personal data or information such as a home address, telephone number, or identities of family members, other than the names and work-related information of peace officers and custodial officers, • To preserve the anonymity of complainants and witnesses, or • To protect confidential medical, financial, or other information in which disclosure “would cause an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy that clearly outweighs the strong public interest in records about misconduct by peace officers and custodial officers,” or • “Where there is a specific, particularized reason to believe that disclosure would pose a significant danger to the physical safety of the peace officer, custodial officer, or others.” The law will allow the delay of disclosure of records relating to an open investigation or court proceeding, subject to certain limitations. And a provision that might reduce the rate of disclosure under the bill states: “A record of a civilian complaint, or the investigations, findings, or dispositions of that complaint, shall not be released pursuant to this section if the complaint is frivolous … or if the complaint is unfounded.” AB 748 will require a video or audio recording that relates to an incident involving a peace officer’s use of force, or involving a violation of law or agency policy by a peace officer, to be made public, but withheld for 45 calendar days, subject to extensions, if
It is the hope that this marks the beginning of the end of union-demanded rules allowing and even requiring the employers of California peace officers — police and sheriff’s departments and less obvious state and local agencies with sworn officers — to keep all law enforcement personnel records secret until and unless the employer is sued or the officer is prosecuted. This secrecy in effect protects the most unfit, corrupt and downright dangerous public safety agents from public scrutiny, and correspondingly shields those responsible for their hiring and retention from public accountability. The overwhelming majority who deserve their badges and our trust may well be quietly welcoming this news, even if they dare not celebrate it.
Terry Francke previously served 14 years as executive director and general counsel to the California First Amendment Coalition, after a 10-year post as legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association. He has served as an advisory panel member to the National Center on Courts and the Media; taught journalism law at the Department of Communication at Stanford University; and served as an expert contributor to the 1994 major revisions to the Ralph M. Brown Act and the 2004 ballot proposition making open government a basic right of citizens under the California Constitution.
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
The new laws also require police agencies to release documents in a police officer’s personnel record to help the public determine how the agency investigated a critical incident and disciplined the officer, if warranted. These new laws will benefit public defenders and prosecutors who must rely on police testimony in court in convicting individuals, improving the integrity of the criminal justice system in the state. SB 1421 will require, “notwithstanding any other law,” disclosure of, in the words of the Legislative Counsel’s Digest, “certain peace officer or custodial officer personnel records and records relating to specified incidents, complaints, and investigations involving peace officers and custodial officers to be made available for public inspection pursuant to the California Public Records Act.” That information will include a record “relating to the report, investigation, or findings of any of the following: • “An incident involving the discharge of a firearm at a person by a peace officer or custodial
indicating final imposition of discipline or other documentation reflecting implementation of corrective action.
disclosure would substantially interfere with an active investigation. It will also allow the recording to be withheld if the public interest in withholding the video or audio recording clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure because the release of the recording would, based on the facts and circumstances depicted in the recording, violate the reasonable expectation of privacy of a person depicted in the recording, in which case the bill will allow the recording to be redacted to protect that interest. If the agency demonstrates that the depicted person’s reasonable expectation of privacy cannot not adequately be protected through redaction, the bill will require that the recording be promptly disclosed to a subject in the recording or his or her immediate family, if deceased.
October 4 - 17, 2018
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Four California Men Charged with Conspiracy to Violate Federal Riots Statute
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — Four California men, who flew from the West Coast for the August 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville to engage in violent behavior, have been arrested on federal criminal complaints and charged with violating the federal riots statute and conspiracy. United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen and Assistant Special Agent in Charge Thomas Chadwick of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Richmond Division made the announcement. Early Oct. 2, federal agents in California arrested Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, of Redondo Beach, Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, of Redondo Beach, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, of Lawndale, and Cole Evan White, 24, of Clayton, Calif. All four defendants have been charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the federal riots statute and one count of violating the federal riots statute. The criminal complaint and accompanying affidavit filed with the court Oct. 2 reports Daley, Gillen, Miselis, White and others are members or associates of the Rise Above Movement, a militant white supremacist organization based in Southern California. The four defendants traveled to Charlottesville for the August 2017 Unite the Right Rally with the intent to encourage, promote, incite, participate in and commit violent acts in furtherance of a riot. The investigation of the case was conducted by the FBI and the Virginia State Police. United States Attorney Cullen and Assistant United States Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh are prosecuting the case for the United States.
Harbor Interfaith Receives Million Dollar Gift
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
SAN PEDRO — Harbor Interfaith Services received a $1 million gift from Mr. Kurt Oetiker, a private donor long-associated with the agency. He gave the gift in honor of his wife, Ilse J. Oetiker, an agency volunteer. She introduced him to the agency 40 years ago when she dedicated herself to serving the homeless and working poor in San Pedro. She passed away in 2008. The gift is the largest from a private individual the agency has received since it began operations in 1975. Harbor Interfaith Services empowers the homeless and working poor to achieve selfsufficiency by providing support services. It is the county’s official lead service provider for the Coordinated Entry System in the South Bay. Last year, it served 9,600 individuals of all ages. Oetiker’s gift will endow the newlyrenamed Ilse J. Oetiker Accelerated Learning and Living program, a transitional housing program for homeless families. The program has an 85 percent success rate. Details: www.HarborInterfaith.org
October 4 - 17, 2018
Two Possible Route Alternatives for South Bay Green Line Extension
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LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn voted in her capacity as a Metro Director to authorize Metro to move forward in studying two alternative routes to extend the Green Line to Torrance. The Metro Board voted to move forward on two alternatives—alternative’s one and three. Alternative one would run along the Harbor Subdivision rail’s right-of-way while alternative three would run down Hawthorne Boulevard. Alternative one is estimated to cost $893 million while alternative three is estimated to cost between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. Both routes would end at the site of the Torrance Transit Center, which is already under construction.
Project Censored:
The Real Fight Against Fake News publicizing stories kept down and out of the corporate media. Over the years its added new analytical categories: sensationalist and titillating Junk Food News stories. Through it all, the list of censored stories remains central to Project Censored’s mission, which, the editors point out, can be read in two different ways, “as a critique of the shortcomings of U.S. corporate news media for their failure to adequately cover these stories, or as a celebration of independent news media, without which we would remain either uninformed or misinformed about these crucial stories and issues.” The cover art theme works at two levels, as the editors explain, which makes things more complex than might appear at first glance. First, the famous Orson Wells radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds on Oct. 30, 1938, used a number of dramatic devices to present the drama as though it were an actual crisis in progress. It became an example of the potential power of fake news in the radio media era. “The broadcast became legendary for allegedly leading to widespread panic throughout the United States,” the editors of Project Censored noted. That narrative about widespread panic is actually a more long-term form of fake news, as Jefferson Pooley and Michael J. Socolow have documented in a series of articles over the past decade. Both the audience size and degree of panic have been significantly inflated, they explained. They cited two main factors: newspaper editors, who saw radio as challenging their media dominance, and an influential media study, whose topline conclusions were at odds with some of its data.
Global Decline in Rule of Law as Basic Human Rights Diminish The World Justice Project Rule of Law Index 2017-2018, released in January 2018, a striking worldwide decline in basic human rights has driven an overall decline in the rule of law since, October 2016, the month before Trump’s election. Fundamental rights — one of eight categories measured — declined in 71 out of 113 nations surveyed. Overall, 34 percent of countries’ scores declined, while just 29 percent improved. The United States ranked 19th, down one from 2016, with declines in checks on government powers and deepening discrimination. Fundamental rights include absence of discrimination, right to life and security, due process, freedom of expression and religion, right to privacy, freedom of association and labor rights. “All signs point to a crisis not just for human rights, but for the human rights movement,” Yale professor of history and law Samuel Moyn told The Guardian the day the index was released. “Within many nations, these fundamental rights are falling prey to the backlash against a globalising economy in which the rich are winning. But human rights movements have not historically set out to name or shame inequality.” This reflects the thesis of Moyn’s most recent book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World.
Constraints on government powers, which measures the extent to which those who govern are bound by law, saw the second greatest declines (64 countries out of 113 dropped). This is where the United States saw the greatest deterioration, World Justice Project stated in a press release. The United States also scored notably poorly on several measurements of discrimination. “With scores of .50 for equal treatment and absence of discrimination (on a scale of 0 to 1), .48 for discrimination in the civil justice system, and .37 for discrimination in the criminal justice system, the U.S. finds itself ranked 78 out of 113 countries on all three subfactors,” World Justice Project stated. The four Nordic countries — Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden — remained in the top four positions. New Zealand, Canada and Australia were the only top 10 countries outside of Europe. “The WJP’s 2017–2018 Rule of Law Index received scant attention from U.S. corporate media,” Project Censored noted. The only coverage they found was a Newsweek article drawing on The Guardian’s coverage. This pattern of ignoring international comparisons, across all subject matter, is pervasive in the corporate media. It severely cripples our capacity for objective self-reflection and self-improvement as a nation.
“Open-Source” Intelligence Secrets Sold to Highest Bidders In March 2017, WikiLeaks released Vault 7, a trove of 8,761 leaked confidential CIA files about its global hacking programs, which WikiLeaks described as the “largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency.” It drew significant media attention. But almost no one noticed what George Eliason of OpEdNews pointed out. “Sure, the CIA has all these tools available,” Eliason pointed out. “Yes, they are used on the public. The important part is [that] it’s not the CIA that’s using them. That’s the part that needs to frighten you.” As Eliason went on to explain, the CIA’s mission prevents it from using the tools, especially on Americans. “All the tools are unclassified, open-source, and can be used by anyone,” Eliason explained. “It makes them not exactly usable for secret agent work. That’s what makes it impossible for them to use Vault 7 tools directly.” Drawing heavily on more than a decade of reporting by Tim Shorrock for Mother Jones and The Nation, Eliason’s OpEdNews series reported on the explosive growth of private contractors in the intelligence community, which allows the CIA and other agencies to gain access to intelligence gathered by methods they’re prohibited from using. In a 2016, report for The Nation, Shorrock estimated that 80 percent of an estimated 58,000 private intelligence contractors worked for the five largest companies. He concluded that “not only has intelligence been privatized to an unimaginable degree, but an unprecedented consolidation of corporate power inside U.S. intelligence has left the country dangerously
dependent on a handful of companies for its spying and surveillance needs.” Eliason reported how private contractors pioneered open-source intelligence by circulating or selling the information they gathered before the agency employing them had reviewed and classified it, therefore, “no one broke any laws.” As a result, according to Eliason’s second article, “People with no security clearances and radical political agendas have state sized cyber tools at their disposal, [which they can use] for their own political agendas, private business, and personal vendettas.” Corporate media reporting on Vault 7 sometimes noted, but failed to focus on dangerous role of private contractors, Project Censored pointed out. This came with the notable exception of a The Washington Post op-ed in which Shorrock reviewed his previous reporting and concluded that overreliance on private intelligence contractors was “a liability built into our system that intelligence officials have long known about and done nothing to correct.”
World’s Richest One Percent Continue to Become Wealthier In November 2017, Credit Suisse released its 8th Annual Global Wealth Report which The Guardian reported on under the headline, Richest 1 Percent Own Half the World’s Wealth, study finds. The wealth share of the world’s richest people increased “from 42.5 percent at the height of the 2008 financial crisis to 50.1 percent in 2017, or $140tn (£106tn),” The Guardian reported, adding that “The biggest losers … are young people who should not expect to become as rich as their parents.” “No other part of the wealth pyramid has been transformed as much since 2000 as the millionaire and ultra-high net worth individual (known as UHNWI) segments,” the report said. “The number of millionaires has increased by 170 percent, while the number of UHNWIs (individuals with net worth of USD 50 million or more) has risen five-fold, making them by far the fastest-growing group of wealth holders.” There were of 2.3 million new dollar millionaires this year, taking the total to 36 million. “At the other end of the spectrum, the world’s 3.5 billion poorest adults each have assets of less than $10,000,” The Guardian reported. “Collectively these people, who account for 70 percent of the world’s working age population, account for just 2.7 percent of global wealth.” “Tremendous concentration of wealth and the extreme poverty that results from it are problems that affect everyone in the world, but wealth inequalities do not receive nearly as much attention as they should in the establishment press,” Project Censored noted. “The few corporate news reports that have addressed this issue — including an August 2017 Bloomberg article and a July 2016 report for CBS’s MoneyWatch — focused exclusively on wealth inequality within the United States. As Project Censored has previously reported, corporate [continued on following page]
news consistently covers the world’s billionaires while ignoring millions of humans who live in poverty.”
including Trump’s escalating crackdown on undocumented immigrants (1.3 percent of coverage); Obamacare repeal (3.8 percent); the legal battle over Trump’s Muslim ban (5.6 percent), a surge of anti-GOP activism and town halls since Trump took office (5.8 percent), and Trump administration scandals and stumbles (11 percent).”
How Big Wireless Convinced Us Cell Phones and Wi-Fi are Safe
Washington Post Bans Employees from Using Social Media to Criticize Sponsors
October 4 - 17, 2018
On May 1, 2017, The Washington Post introduced a policy prohibiting its employees from criticizing its advertisers and business partners, and encouraging them to snitch on one another. “A new social-media policy at The Washington Post prohibits conduct on social media that ‘adversely affects the Post’s customers, advertisers, subscribers, vendors, suppliers or partners,” Andrew Beaujon reported in The Washingtonian the next month. “In such cases, Post management reserves the right to take disciplinary action ‘up to and including termination of employment.’” Beaujon also cited “A clause that encourages employees to snitch on one another: ‘If you have any reason to believe that an employee may be in violation of the Post’s Social Media Policy … you should contact the Post’s Human Resources Department.’” At the time, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which represents the Post’s employees, was protesting the policy and was seeking removal of the controversial parts in a new labor agreement. A follow-up report by Whitney Webb for MintPress News highlighted the broader possible censorship effects, as prohibiting social media criticism could spill over into reporting as well. “Among The Washington Post’s advertisers are corporate giants like GlaxoSmithKline, Bank of America and Koch Industries,” Webb wrote. “With the new policy, social media posts criticizing GlaxoSmithKline’s habit of making false and misleading claims about its products, inflating prices and withholding crucial drug safety information from the government will no longer be made by Post employees.”
“The wireless industry has ‘war-gamed’ science by playing offense as well as defense, actively sponsoring studies that result in published findings supportive of the industry, while aiming to discredit competing research that raises questions about the safety of cellular devices and other wireless technologies,” Project Censored summarized. “When studies have linked wireless radiation to cancer or genetic damage, industry
spokespeople have pointed out that the findings are disputed by other researchers.” While some local media have covered the findings of a few selected studies, Project Censored noted, “the norm for corporate media is to report the telecom industry line — that is, that evidence linking Wi-Fi and cell phone radiation to health issues, including cancer and other medical problems, is either inconclusive or disputed.”
Well and good. But is this propaganda? At Truthdig, Norman Solomon wrote: “As the cable news network most trusted by Democrats as a liberal beacon, MSNBC plays a special role in fueling rage among progressive-minded viewers toward Russia’s ‘attack on our democracy’ that is somehow deemed more sinister Ilustrations by Anson Stevens-Bollen, Santa Fe Reporter and newsworthy than corporate dominance of American politics (including Beyond that, Webb suggested it could protect Democrats), racist voter suppression, the CIA, which has $600 million contract with gerrymandering and many other U.S. electoral Amazon Web Services. Amazon CEO, Jeff defects all put together.” Bezos, purchased the Post four months after that contract was signed. On the other hand, the censorship of “While criticism of the CIA is not technically alternative journalistic voices is far more clearcut prohibited by the new policy, former Post and straightforward. reporters have suggested that making such In a report for Fairness and Accuracy criticisms could endanger one’s career,” Webb In Reporting, Robin Andersen examined noted. Russiagate-inspired censorship moves by Jeremy Iggers’ 1998 book, Good News, Bad Twitter, Google and others. A key initial target News: Journalism Ethics and the Public Interest. was Russia Today. Iggers argued that journalism ethics focused on “RT’s reporting bears striking similarities to individual reporters completely missed the larger alternative and independent media content, and issue of corporate conflicts whose systemic that is why letting the charges against RT stand effects fundamentally undermined journalism’s unexamined is so dangerous,” Andersen noted. role in a democracy. In fact, the government’s intelligence report on RT included its reporting on the dangers of Russiagate: Twofracking as part of its suspect activity. Beyond that, the spill-over suppression was dramatic: Headed Monster “Yet in the battle against fake news, much of of Propaganda and the best, most accurate independent reporting is Censorship disappearing from Google searches,” Anderson Is Russiagate a censored said. “The World Socialist Web Site (8/2/17) story? This entry seems to reflect a well- reported that Google’s new search protocol intentioned effort to critically examine fake is restricting access to leading independent, news-related issues within a “censored story” left-wing, progressive, anti-war and framework. It’s important that these issues be democratic rights websites. The estimated raised — which is one reason why I suggested declines in traffic generated by Google above that Project Censored add “fake news” as searches for news sites are striking.” a new analytical category to examine annually Further, in Rolling Stone Matt Taibbi along with its censored stories list, “junk food pointed to much broader stifling of alternative news,” and “news abuse.” What Project Censored views: “We’ve jumped straight past debating calls attention to is important: “Corporate media the efficacy of democracy to just reflexively coverage of Russiagate has created a two-headed identifying most anti-establishment monster of propaganda and censorship. By sentiment as illegitimate, treasonous and saturating news coverage with a sensationalized foreign in nature.” narrative, Russiagate has superseded other “Many people suffer when lies are important, newsworthy stories.” As a frustrated reported as facts, but it seems that corporate journalist with omnivorous interests, I heartily media are the only ones that profit when they concur — but what’s involved is too complex to reinforce blind hostility—against not only simply be labelled “propaganda.” On the other Russia but also legitimate domestic dissent,” hand, the censorship of alternative journalistic Project Censored noted. voices is a classic, well-defined Project Censored story, which suffers from the attempt to fit both Regenerative together. Agriculture as In April 2017, Aaron Maté reported for The “Next Stage” of Intercept on a quantitative study of MSNBC’s Civilization The Rachel Maddow Show from February 20 to March 31, 2017 which found that “RussiaThe world’s agricultural focused segments accounted for 53 percent of and degraded soils have the capacity to these broadcasts.” Maté wrote: recover 50 to 66 percent of the historic “Maddow’s Russia coverage has carbon loss to the atmosphere, according dwarfed the time devoted to other top issues, [See Censored, p. 10] 7
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
Cell phones and other wireless devices may not be as safe as we’ve been led to believe. In a March 2018 investigation on decades of buried research, for [The Nation], Mark Hertsgaard and Mark Dowie reported “the wireless industry not only made the same moral choices that the tobacco and fossil-fuel industries did, it also borrowed from the same public relations playbook those industries pioneered.” “Like their tobacco and fossil-fuel brethren, wireless executives have chosen not to publicize what their own scientists have said about the risks of their products…. On the contrary, the industry — in America, Europe, and Asia — has spent untold millions of dollars in the past 25 years proclaiming that science is on its side, that the critics are quack, and that consumers have nothing to fear.” Their report comes at the same time as several new developments are bringing the issue to the fore, including a Kaiser Permanente study (published December 2017 in Scientific Reports) finding much higher risks of miscarriage, a study in the October 2017 American Journal of Epidemiology, finding increased risk for glioma (a type of brain tumor), and a disclosure by the National Frequency Agency of France that nine out of ten cell phones exceed government radiation safety limits when tested in the way they are actually used, next to the human body. As the The Nation reported, George Carlo was a scientist hired by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association in 1993 to research cell-phone safety and allay public fears, heading up the industry-financed Wireless Technology Research project. But he was unceremoniously fired and publicly attacked by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association in 1999, after uncovering disturbing evidence of danger: Carlo urged the CEOs to do the right thing and give consumers the information they need to make an informed judgment about how much of this unknown risk they wish to assume, especially since some in the industry had repeatedly and falsely claimed that wireless phones are safe for all consumers “including children.”
America, Good or Great This is my street and you’re sleeping on it! By James Preston Allen, Publisher
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
Some years ago, I was having a drink down at Ante’s bar on Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro when one of the older patrons went off on what makes America the greatest country in the world. “Capitalism! That’s what makes us free,” he said. I thought for a moment and started slowly asking him just how he arrived at this conclusion and at the bar that day. “In my car of course,” he replied. “And you drove that car here on a public street?” “Yes. How else?” he asked. “And you had to cross the sidewalk when you got out of the car?” He was certain of this also and I then asked where he went to high school. “Pedro High and proud of it,” he said. This went on for a while longer. “So what’s the point?” he asked. I then explained to him that all of these things I was asking him about, including the ice in his cocktail were a part of the public domain — the part that “we the people” own or are run for the benefit of the general public — rather than for the benefit of private corporations. Still not quite getting it, he says, “So what?” Then I explained that when the government owns things like the ports, the Department of Water and Power, the schools and the streets — this is not capitalism. Curious, he then asked, if this is not capitalism, then what is it? “Well, you’re not going to like the answer but it’s actually a form of socialism,” I told him. “And, if you include the U.S. Defense budget (which is the largest part of government spending), it makes up some 30 percent of our economy. So strictly speaking, America isn’t just a ‘capitalist’ country.” The patron proved my prediction right. He didn’t like this answer and our discussion got rather heated. The regular longshoremen sitting at the bar nodded in slow agreement but said nothing and the bartender listened intently while pretending to wash glasses. “In fact,” I went on, “the U.S. military is the largest socialized spending program in our country as it provides health care, food, housing, education and work for every service member and their families.” Only recently during the Iraq War did significant portions of these get “outsourced” to private enterprise.
The conversation drifted on into the evening with the man not convinced. I paid my tab and left through the classic wood doors out onto the sidewalk only to see a homeless man camped across the street. Years later, after the bar and restaurant owner Tony Perkov died, the restaurant closed and the property was sold. This address became ground zero for San Pedro’s homeless crisis. Ante’s restaurant may be one of the next historic buildings in old San Pedro to be gentrified out of existence and its history erased.
The sidewalk as public domain
For the past several years, as the population of people without shelter has become more visible, our neighbors have taken refuge near our only federal building — the U.S. Post Office. Robert Nizich, a local lawyer who rents the corner office upstairs, has made it his weekly duty to assess and comment on the population obstructing the public domain of the park and sidewalks surrounding the post office, not even a block from Ante’s. His continued complaints are directed at the San Pedro City Hall just one block north of his office and to the current city councilman Joe Buscaino, whom he blames (among others) for “doing nothing” about the homeless obstructing the sidewalks. In reality, Buscaino’s office has spent huge sums chasing around his district people without shelter with the help of the Los Angeles Police Department, the L.A. Sanitation Department and L.A. Homeless Services Authority. His efforts have born little fruit as of the last Homeless Services Authority count. The official homeless count only decreased in San Pedro by what might be considered the margin of error. And, only when Mayor Eric Garcetti announced his “Bridge Home” initiative earlier this year, and after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the City of Boise, Idaho, did Buscaino change course. The Ninth Circuit Court panel held that, as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter. So, clearly the police cannot arrest their way out of the homeless crisis, the L.A. Sanitation Department can’t sweep it under the rug or haul it away and Robert Nizich and his followers are still demanding a solution. The city still doesn’t have enough shelter beds, while the numerous
October 4 - 17, 2018
Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com
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Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya
“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it.” —Mark Twain Vol. XXXIX : No. 20 Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.
Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg
municipal anti-vagrancy laws throughout the state of California have been ruled unconstitutional. The City of Los Angeles has been wringing its hands over this problem ever since the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council passed a resolution endorsing the building of tiny homes. The backlash and uproar caused a reverberation far and wide, and motivated the county and the city to pass two bond measures worth a couple of billion dollars to build and provide support services. While bond measures and homeless initiatives are steps forward, what matters most are real actions.
A small first step
As of the homeless count at the beginning of this year, the number of people living in their cars just in San Pedro is about the same as those living on our sidewalks and parks. The city has yet to address this issue by opening up any of its many publicly owned parking lots and new shelters in the 15th Council District. Quietly and without
fanfare the good people of faith up at Temple Beth El in the Weymouth Corners neighborhood of San Pedro have voted to open up their parking lot overnight. This is just a small start to actually doing something rather than talking about doing something. While this is a small first step “pilot project” for less than 10 cars, it is supported by the L.A. County Supervisor’s office with some initial funding. I endorse and support the leadership at Temple Beth El for their courage in turning their beliefs into action and hope that more in the local faith community reflect on this example and follow suit. As to the question of what makes America good or “Great,” I believe the difference is made by good people finding the courage to do small things that turn out great.
LA City Council to Ban Future Speech as Disruptive By Stephen Rohde At a time when freedom of speech and the right to protest are under unrelenting attack by the President of the United States, the last thing we need is for the Los Angeles City Council to adopt an unprecedented prior restraint banning outspoken critics from attending future meetings. Under the proposed ordinance, anyone who “disrupts” and is removed from two Council or committee meetings within three days can be “excluded from attending” all Council and
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committee meetings for the following three business days. And if the individual “disrupts” another meeting within three days, they can be excluded from all City meetings for the following six business days. These persons would be banned from attending all City meetings of any kind, listening to the proceedings and speaking during the public comment periods, even if they did so peaceably and without disruption. [See Disruptive, p. 9] Random Lengths News editorial office is located at 1300 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731. Address correspondence regarding news items and tips to Random Lengths News, P.O. Box 731, San Pedro, CA 90733-0731, or email: editor@randomlengthsnews. com. Send Letters to the Editor to james@randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, letters must be signed with address and phone number (for verification purposes) and be about 250 words. For advertising inquiries or to submit advertising copy, email: rlnsales@randomlengthsnews.com. Annual subscription is $36 for 27 issues. Back issues are available for $3/copy while supplies last. Random Lengths News presents issues from an alternative perspective. We welcome articles and opinions from all people in the Harbor Area. While we may not agree with the opinions of contributing writers, we respect and support their 1st Amendment right. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627). All contents Copyright 2018 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.
[Disruptive from p. 8]
Disruptive
Without a trial or any judicial review, regardless of any past violations, it would impose an unlawful gag order denying in advance their constitutional rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition their government for redress of grievances. The proposed ordinance clearly runs afoul of one of the oldest forms of government censorship — the prohibition of speech before it is even uttered. Beginning in the 16th century with the advent of printing, popes and kings demanded that all printing presses be registered, and all books and pamphlets be approved in advance. One legal scholar called such prior restraints “a potent and unnecessary mechanism of government that can smother free communications.” In his authoritative Commentaries (17651769), William Blackstone wrote that “liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state” and that “no previous restraints upon publications” should be imposed. “Every free man has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press.” The oppressive nature of prior restraints was a prime reason the Founders adopted the First Amendment prohibiting laws that abridge freedom of speech and freedom of the press. A 1931 landmark Supreme Court decision struck down a Minnesota law which was used to enjoin The Saturday Press from publishing “malicious, scandalous, and defamatory” material in future issues. The Court rejected the injunction regardless of the fact that the newspaper had previously published nine issues filled with antiSemitic attacks on city officials. And in 1971, the Supreme Court rejected President Richard Nixon’s attempt to prevent the publication of the Pentagon Papers finding that such a prior restraint bears a “heavy presumption against its constitutional validity.” The proponents of the new L.A. ordinance claim they need stronger weapons to punish
outspoken critics who disrupt council and committee meetings shouting outrageous statements and engaging in disorderly behavior. But the city has already been admonished for using the vague notion of “disruption” to censor free speech. In 2013, a federal court found that, in violation of the First Amendment, the city had repeatedly banned two critics from speaking, not because they had actually disrupted meetings but because the city used the pretext of “disruption” to silence their harsh criticism of city policies and individual councilmembers. The court did so even though the critics used highly inflammatory rhetoric and profanity, at one point telling the council that their policies were “fucked up.” The Court found that in the context of political debate, the profanity was a legitimate “intensifier.” “Actual disruption means actual disruption. It does not mean constructive disruption, technical disruption, virtual disruption, nunc pro tunc disruption, or imaginary disruption,” the Court held. “The Supreme Court long ago explained that ‘in our system, undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression.’” The Court went to great lengths to explain its reasoning. It is “unconstitutional to restrict speakers from making personal attacks in city council meetings; it chills speech critical of elected officials, which is speech at the heart of the First Amendment. In one of the largest cities in the world, it is to be expected that some inhabitants will sometimes use language that does not conform to conventions of civility and decorum, including offensive language and swear words. As an elected official, a city council member will be the subject of personal attacks in such language. It is asking much of city council members, who have given themselves to public service, to tolerate profanities and personal attacks, but that is what is required by the First Amendment. While the City Council has a right to keep its meetings on topic and moving forward, it cannot sacrifice
political speech to a formula of civility.” A critic, the court wrote, “may be a gadfly to those with views contrary to [their] own, but First Amendment jurisprudence is clear that the way to oppose offensive speech is by more speech, not censorship, enforced silence or eviction from legitimately occupied public space.” Citing Plato, the court warned that a “city that silences a critic will injure itself as much as it injures the critic, for the gadfly’s task is to stir into life the massive beast of the city, to “rouse each and every one of you, to persuade and reproach you all day long.” The city has been warned and it should take these lessons to heart. Stephen Rohde is a civil liberties lawyer and author of American Words of Freedom and Freedom of Assembly. He represented the plaintiffs in the federal case discussed in this essay.
Real News, Real People, Really Effective October 4 - 17, 2018
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[Censored from p. 7]
Top Ten Censored Stories
October 4 - 17, 2018
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to a 2004 paper in Science, actually reversing the processes driving global warming. A set of practices known as “regenerative agriculture” could play a major role in accomplishing that, while substantially increasing crop yields as well, according to information compiled and published by Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association in May 2017. “We can’t really solve the climate crisis (and the related soil, environmental, and public health crisis) without simultaneously solving the food and farming crisis,” Cummings wrote. “We need to stop putting greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere (by moving to 100 percent renewable energy), but we also need to move away from chemical-intensive, energy-intensive food, factory farming and land use, as soon as possible.” In addition to global warming, there are profound economic and social justice concerns involved. “Out-of-touch and out-of-control governments of the world now take our tax money and spend $500 billion ... a year mainly subsidizing 50 million industrial farmers to do the wrong thing,” Cummins wrote. “Meanwhile, 700 million small family farms and herders, comprising the 3 billion people who produce 70 percent of the world’s food on just 25 percent of the world’s acreage, struggle to make ends meet…. The basic menu for a Regeneration Revolution is to unite the world’s 3 billion rural farmers, ranchers and herders with several billion health, environmental and justiceminded consumers to overturn ‘business as usual’ and embark on a global campaign of cooperation, solidarity and regeneration.” If you’ve never heard of it before, don’t be surprised. “Regenerative agriculture has received limited attention in the establishment press, highlighted by only two recent, substantive reports in the New York Times Magazine and Salon,” Project Censored wrote.
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Congress Passes Intrusive Data Sharing Law Under Cover of Spending Bill
On March 21, House Republicans released a 2,232-page omnibus spending bill. It passed both houses and was signed into law in two days. Attached to the spending provisions that made it urgent “must-pass” legislation was the completely unrelated Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act of 2018, also known as the CLOUD Act. “The CLOUD Act enables the U.S. government to acquire data across international borders regardless of other nations’ data privacy laws and without the need for warrants,” Project Censored summarized. It also significantly weakens protections against foreign government actions. “It was never reviewed or marked up by any committee in either the House or the Senate,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s David Ruiz wrote. “It never received a hearing…. It was robbed of a stand-alone floor vote because Congressional leadership decided, behind closed doors, to attach this unvetted, unrelated data bill to the $1.3 trillion government spending bill.” Congressional leadership failed to listen to citizen concerns, Ruiz wrote, with devastating
consequences.” “Because of this failure, U.S. and foreign police will have new mechanisms to seize data across the globe. Because of this failure, your private emails, your online chats, your Facebook, Google, Flickr photos, your Snapchat videos, your private lives online, your moments shared digitally between only those you trust, will be open to foreign law enforcement without a warrant and with few restrictions on using and sharing your information, privacy and human rights,” concluded Robyn Greene, who reported for Just Security. “The little corporate news coverage that the CLOUD Act received tended to put a positive spin on it,” Project Censored noted. “[A glowing Washington Post op-ed] made no mention of potential risks to the privacy of citizens’ personal data, [and a CNET report that] highlighted the liberties that the CLOUD Act would provide corporations by simplifying legal issues concerning overseas servers.” Because of this failure, U.S. laws will be bypassed on U.S. soil. Greene noted that the CLOUD Act negates protections of two interrelated existing laws. It creates an exception to the Stored Communications Act that allows certified foreign governments to request personal data directly from U.S. companies. “This exception enables those countries to bypass the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty process, which protects human rights by requiring foreign governments to work with the Department of Justice to obtain warrants from U.S. judges before they can access that data for their criminal investigations,” Greene explained. “The version of the bill that was included in the omnibus does include some improvements over the earlier version to help to mitigate the risks of bypassing the MLAT process … two changes [that] are important improvements … many of the other changes to the bill are only partial or ineffective fixes to problems privacy advocates, human rights advocates, and even a former high-ranking official at the U.S. State Department have raised…. Several other concerns have been left entirely unaddressed.” “While the bill’s sponsors did try to address some of the concerns that have been raised, the improvements are not enough to shift the balance so that the CLOUD Act will be a boon, rather than a threat, to privacy and human rights,” Greene concluded.
Indigenous Communities Around World Helping to Win Legal Rights of Nature
In March 2017, the government of New Zealand ended a 140-year dispute with an indigenous Maori tribe by enacting a law that officially recognized the Whanganui River, which the tribe considers their ancestor, as a living entity with rights. The Guardian reported it as “a worldfirst,” although the surrounding Te Urewera National Park had been similarly recognized in a 2014 law, and the U.S. Supreme Court came within one vote of potentially recognizing such a right in the 1972 case Sierra Club v. Morton, expressed in a dissent by Justice William O. Douglas. In addition, the broader idea of ‘rights of nature’ has been adopted in Ecuador, Bolivia [See Censored, p. 19]
Installation view of Danial Nord’s Cloud 9 at Torrance Art Musem. Photo by Gene Ogami
Digital Dystopia Meets Media Madness on Danial Nord’s Cloud 9 In the interest of transparency, I must confess. Like many children of my generation, I was hopelessly in love with The Visible Man. I won’t deny a nervous fascination with that vague lump. But it was the sheer schematic orderliness of him that I found most dreamy.
[See Cloud 9, p. 16]
October 4 - 17, 2018
Nord conceptualized and built expressly for Torrance Art Museum’s Gallery Two space. For starters, Nord invented the custom electronics system he has used to transform social and mass media video into the malleable and life giving illumination that pulsates in his figures’ innards. A process that begins with Nord algorithmically selecting videos for each character which are then converted into pulsing light-signals via computer-driven LEDs. In effect, upcycling public material and current events into individualized interior motivation. “I’m interested in what video can do that’s not representation and not narrative,” Nord explains, before going on to make the connection between message and medium. “Since 2010 I’ve been working on a system to build structures and forms that radiate the light and energy of
Stepping through the curtain into Danial Nord’s newest sculptural media installation, Cloud 9 you are thrust into a face-to-face encounter with life-sized, translucent humanoid figures, suspended in the dark, their bodies activated by pulsating feeds of online video and social media emanating from clutched smartphones. Strange and yet strangely familiar, each of these luminous beings embodies a news-based persona dominating the contemporary zeitgeist — Businessman, Gunman, Mother, Alien, Illegal, Angel. Networked together, but detached from one another, these radiant, data-fueled zombies create a haunting portrait of 21st century hyperculture and social disintegration. Nord, a San Pedro-based interdisciplinary artist, left the east coast and a successful career in the entertainment industry behind long ago, but not so the technological prowess and media mindfulness he extracted from the experience. Both are on brilliant display in Cloud 9, which
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
By Leslie Belt, Contributing Writer
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Coming Attractions to the San Pedro Dining Scene By Richard Foss, Food and Culture Writer
A
s you walk, bike or drive around downtown San Pedro, you’ll see evidence that new restaurants are in the works. The curious local diner who tries to find out what is going on often has difficulty, because the new owners aren’t usually present until the late stages and the construction workers often don’t know or care what they’re building. Their job is to get a floor resurfaced or some new booths installed, then pick up their checks, not to answer questions about the new menu. There are several new restaurants in progress around town, so we’re happy to sate your curiosity with a sneak peek at three of them. They’re in various stages of development, so we’ll start with the one that is most likely to open first.
Sebastian’s Mediterranean Restaurant
The space at 309 W. 7th St. has been several restaurants, most recently a Hungarian strudel bakery and a Cuban café. The space will soon be Sebastian’s, a restaurant owned by Nima
Karimi. Nima was formerly the Executive Chef at Avenue Italy in Palos Verdes, but his restaurant will not have the style or menu of that rather formal establishment. “We’ll be serving Mediterranean food — a little Greek and Lebanese, but also Moroccan and Italian food, though we won’t be serving pizza. We may get a wine and beer license later, but we won’t even be deciding that for at least six months.” Their space was extensively remodeled and upgraded by previous tenants and won’t be changing much, and Nima says the only barrier to opening now is bureaucratic rather than practical. “Any restaurant closed for more than 90 days has to be recertified, and that takes a little time. Right now we’re waiting for the final papers, and we hope to be open by the end of October.” Next to open will be a French restaurant, the first in San Pedro in recent memory. The location at 335 W. 7th St. was most recently
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BIG NICK’S PIZZA
Tradition, variety and fast delivery—you get it all at Big Nick’s Pizza. The best selection of Italian specialties include hearty calzones, an array of pastas and our amazing selection of signature pizzas. We offer a wide selection of appetizers, salads, beer and wine. Call for fast delivery. Hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sun.-Thurs.; 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. Big Nicks’ Pizza, 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 732-5800 www.bignickspizzasp.com
BRITE SPOT MEXICAN RESTAURANT
No matter when your day begins, you can always get a hearty breakfast at a great price at Brite Spot. Breakfast is served all day long. We serve freshly prepared, authentic Mexican food. We offer all the family favorites, from tacos to tamales, from caldo to chile, fresh seafood and much more. Brite Spot Mexican Restaurant is your late-night spot for when you want a night out on the town. Hours: 7 a.m. to midnight, daily. Brite Spot, 615 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro • (310) 833-2599 www.britespotsanpedro.com
October 4 - 17, 2018
BUONO’S AUTHENTIC PIZZERIA
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A San Pedro landmark for over 44 years, famous for exceptional award-winning pizza baked in brick ovens. Buono’s also offers classic Italian dishes and sauces based on tried-and-true family recipes and handselected ingredients that are prepared fresh. Dine-in, take-out and catering. There are two locations in Long Beach. Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Buono’s Pizzeria, 1432 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 547-0655 www.buonospizza.com
[continued on following page]
La Buvette Bistro restaurateur, Thomas Compagnon, outside his San Pedro location. Photo by Terelle Jerricks
THE CHORI-MAN
Fourth-generation artisanal chorizo and meats. Purchase chorizo by the pound or try our burritos and tacos! Menu specials change weekly. Open Thurs., 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Fri. - Sun., 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. For catering email: info@thechoriman.com for catering and special orders. The Chori-Man, 2309 S. Alma St., San Pedro • (424) 287-2414
HAPPY DINER AND HAPPY DELI
The Happy Diner isn’t your average diner. It’s the idea of fresh creative dishes in two San Pedro locations, and now a third—the Happy Deli. The selections range from Italianand Mexican-influenced entrées to American Continental. Happy Diner chefs are always creating something new—take your pick of grilled salmon over pasta or tilapia and vegetables prepared any way you like. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner: Happy Diner #1, 617 S. Centre St., San Pedro • (310) 241-0917 • Happy Diner #2, 1931 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 935-2933 • Open for breakfast and lunch: Happy Deli, 530 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro, (424) 364-0319
SAN PEDRO BREWING COMPANY
A micro brewery and American grill, SPBC features handcrafted award-winning ales and lagers served with creative pastas, BBQ, sandwiches, salads and burgers. A full bar with madefrom-scratch margaritas and a martini menu all add fun to the warm and friendly atmosphere. Live music. Open from 11:30 a.m., daily. San Pedro Brewing Company, 331 W. 6th St., San Pedro, (310) 831-5663, www. sanpedrobrewing.com
SONNY’S BISTRO AND THINK CAFE
Sonny and Carly Ramirez are the husband and wife team behind Sonny’s Bistro and Think Café. Their hands-on attention to detail makes the restaurants successful, in both quality and service. Sonny’s Bistro’s lunch and dinner menus feature locally-sourced and handselected meats, seafood and seasonal vegetables. Try the $10 lunch menu served Mon.-Fri. Think Café serves breakfast in addition to lunch and dinner with egg dishes, omelettes and griddle cakes. Both restaurants have a selection of fine wines and beers. Sonny’s Bistro, 1420 W. 25th St., San Pedro. Hours: Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sat. and Sun. from 4 p.m. • (310) 548-4797. Think Cafe, 302 W. 5th St., San Pedro. Hours: Mon.-Sat., 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. • (310) 519-3662.
TAXCO MEXICAN RESTAURANT
We are proud to serve our community for almost three decades. Generous plates of traditional Mexican fare are the draw at this homey, family-friendly restaurant. For a limited time: Combos #1-12—buy one, get the second for half off (of equal or lesser value, expires 10-31-18). Catering for every occasion, beer, wine and margaritas to your taste. Tony and Vini Moreno welcome you. Open Sun. and Mon. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tues.-Sat., 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Taxco Mexican Restaurant, 29050 S. Western Ave., Rancho Palos Verdes • (310) 547-4554 www.taxcorestaurantpv.com
THE WHALE & ALE ENGLISH RESTAURANT & PUB
The Victorian oak panels & elegant brass fittings will make you feel like you’ve crossed the Atlantic. Featuring popular pub fare such as Fish & Chips, Shepherd’s Pie & entrées of Choice Steaks, Roast Prime Rib,
Beef Wellington & Roast Rack of Lamb. Seafood selections include Chilean Sea Bass, Atlantic Salmon, Jumbo Tiger Shrimp & Sand Dabs. International draft beers & ales, as well as domestic craft beers on tap. Full bar; free, gated parking lot. Happy hour five days a week. Hours: Mon. 5 to 9 p.m., Tues.-Thurs. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sat. 1 to 10 p.m., Sun. 1 to 9 p.m. The Whale & Ale, 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro (310) 832-0363, www.whaleandale.com
Jackson’s Place, but is being transformed into a wine bistro by someone with impeccable credentials.
will be designed in urban chic modern Italian, decorated with vintage photography featuring our heritage and San Pedro’s heritage. We may paint some Italian proverbs on the walls… it’s going to have a mix of ancient and modern.” The menu will expand dramatically and they plan an unusual strategy of varying the style of service depending on the time of day. “We will feature the family-style pizzas we’re famous for, along with Neapolitan pizzas baked in an 800-degree oven, the way they do in Naples. Those light, thin crust pizzas are popular as an appetizer or an individual meal. We’ll also be the only restaurant in town offering a quick-service lunch buffet with pizza, salad bar, three gourmet pastas and a protein like sausage and peppers or meatballs. We’ll
La Buvette Bistro
Thomas Compagnon has a vision: build a casual restaurant and wine bar that reflects the culture of the region where he grew up in France. “Buvette means roadside refreshment stand. I’m going to create the kind of small French neighborhood bistro of the kind also called a bouchon. That concept began in Lyon as a place where silk workers could get around a table and share food and wine, like a French gastropub,” Compagnon said. Thomas worked in restaurants in France and England for almost 10 years before moving to the U.S., and he has been the sommelier at the Trump country club for almost 18 years (but don’t hold that against him). He moved from Redondo Beach to San Pedro only six months ago, having decided that this was where he wanted both to live and work. “At the Trump Golf Course I met a lot of people who visited from San Pedro, and a lot of my co-workers lived here. I looked at various places, Torrance, Redondo and Gardena among them, but I was never really happy with any of them. Finally, the landlord here approached me and after she showed me the space I decided that was it.” La Buvette will offer country French food with an extensive selection of wines by the glass, many French but also Southern European and Californian. He looks forward to selecting all of those, but for the moment is occupied with the remodeling. The previous occupants in this space had a tiny food preparation area without an oven, which limited their food service. “I’m not close to opening yet, because I’m building a new kitchen where there never was one before. It is a question mark about when we will open. I want to be open by December 1st, but it depends on getting all of the permits.” (Which is a common refrain for every restaurant that’s ever opened in the Los Angeles side of the bay.) The final in this week’s survey is a longtime
be express service from 11 to 5 and full table service after that. We’ll rotate our offerings to keep people coming back for new and interesting stuff. My family came from the island of Ischia in the bay of Naples, and we will have some Ischian items on our rotating menu.” If that sounds so interesting to you that you’re ready to book a table right now, you probably should hold off. Construction will get underway in January, with a planned opening in spring of 2019. And there’s more coming soon to San Pedro’s vintage and historic arts district. Stay tuned for more updates as we get the information.
Veteran San Pedro restaurateur Frank Buono will be expanding Buono’s presence into downtown San Pedro.
hangout that is moving and transforming beyond all recognition. Only one thing about the new location will be recognizable from the old one — the pizza they’ve been serving for 45 years.
Buono’s Pizzeria
Frank Buono has sentimental ties to the old location on Gaffey St., but he says the business needs room to grow. “Before we were a pizza restaurant in 1973 we were an Italian deli and market started by my dad in 1967. We’re famous as the landmark pizza restaurant in San Pedro, but we’re limited to being a pickup place, and parking is a pain. We couldn’t grow there, we couldn’t offer wine or beer.” Parking won’t be a problem at their new location at the corner of 6th and Centre streets, because the new space is attached to a parking structure. There also won’t be a problem with insufficient seating. “The new location will be 2,700 square feet with around a thousand square feet of wraparound patio. The restaurant will be fun, it
featuring
$10 Lunch Menu
& Early Bird Specials 1420 W. 25th St. (25th & Western) San Pedro • (310) 548-4797
Lunch & Dinner—Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sat. & Sun. from 4 p.m.
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Two Great Choices for Dining
Follow us at Think Cafe San Pedro and Sonny’s Bistro San Pedro @thinkcafesonny @sonnys_bistro
302 W. 5th St., San Pedro (310) 519-3662
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Mon.-Sat. 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. • Sun. 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
October 4 - 17, 2018
Banquet Room up to 50 guests Heated Patio Dining
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OCT 4 - 17 • 2018 and Entertainment Center, 300 Ocean Blvd,. Long Beach
ENTERTAINMENT Oct 5
Fortnight Concert Series, Chuck Alvarez Acoustic Trio This is a series of four concerts a fortnight apart, taking place midway through a 100-year old access tunnel leading to the Leary gun battery, affording a uniquely intimate space performs. Time: 7 p.m. Oct. 5 and 19 Cost: $30 or $100 for full series Details: (310) 518-0936; www.angelsgateart.org Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro
October 4 - 17, 2018
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José Antonio Rodríguez One of Spain’s leading flamenco guitarists, José Antonio Rodríguez is a remarkable guitarist acclaimed for his powerful and evocative renditions of contemporary flamenco. Time: 8 p.m. Oct. 5 Cost: $20 Details: www.alvasshowroom. tix.com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1413 W. 8th St., San Pedro
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Violinist Ken Aiso and Pianist Valeria Morgovskaya Trained at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and now based in Los Angeles, Ken Aiso as well as Pianist Valeria Morgovskaya will be performing. Time: 12:15 p.m. Oct. 5 Details: (310) 316-5574; www.palosverdes.com/Classical Crossroads/FirstFridays.htm Venue: First Lutheran Church and School, 2900 W. Carson St., Torrance
Oct 6
Mike Watt & The Secondmen Hosted by ARE YOU A COP, performances for the night include: Upper Downer, ARE YOU A COP, Mike Watt & The Secondmen, A Broken Line Time: 9 p.m.Oct.6 Details: (310) 832-5503 Venue: Harold’s Place, 1908 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro A Tribute to Motown Long Beach Symphony POPS presents a night of classic Motown sounds Time: 8 p.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $49 to $99 Details: (562) 436-3203 Venue: Long Beach Convention
Oct 12
Honey Whiskey Trio The trio delivers haunting folk melodies and rowdy ballads with masterful harmonies, body percussion, and a captivating onstage vitality. Time: 8 p.m. Oct. 12 Cost: $20 to $30 Details: www.grandvision.secure. force.com/ticket Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St. ,San Pedro
Oct 13
Alex Snydman Quartet Join the live album recording featuring Josh Nelson, Danny Janklow, and Jonathan Richards. This group brings a modern jazz sensibility to both original music and standards, always with a regard towards emotional content and sensitivity Time: 8 to 10 p.m. Oct. 13 Cost: $20 Details: www.alvasshowroom.tix. com Venue: Alvas Showroom,1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro
Oct 14
Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro One of Portugal’s foremost artists,
Portugal’s Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is considered a “poet of the piano.” Time: 2 p.m. Oct. 14 Cost: Free Details: (310) 336- 5574; www.palosverdes.com/Classical Crossroads/FirstFridays.htm Venue: Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, 26438 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates Lose Your Illusion The most authentic Guns N’ Roses tribute band takes you back to a time when the band was at its prime. Time: 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 14 Cost: $10 Details: alvasshowroom.com Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro Just Desserts: Singin’ About My Friends Join for an evening of beloved songs about friendship by multiple artists you know and love. Time: 7 p.m. Oct. 14 Cost: $25 Details: (310) 781-7171; www.lcmasterchorale.com Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
THEATER Oct 4
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club Set in the heart of London in a windowless house where Europe’s most powerful men gather to play a murderous game, on this particular night, the club welcomes a new member, Sherlock Holmes. Time: Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. Sundays 2 p.m. Oct. 4 through Oct. 20 Cost: $14 to $24 Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.org Venue: The Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach On Clover Road At an abandoned motel on a desolate American road, a mother meets with a cult deprogrammer, believing she will be reunited with her runaway daughter. What happens instead – in this smart, edge-of-your-seat thriller – is something that will shock her to her core. Time: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sunday Oct. 14, Oct. 4 through Oct. 20 Cost: $27 Details: www.shakespearebythe sea.secure.force.com Venue: Little Fish Theatre, 777 S. Centre St., San Pedro Bloody Poetry It’s 1816 at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva, and the scandalous summer menage of the Shelleys; the “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” Byron, and Claire Clairmont are in residence. Time: 2 p.m. Oct. 7 and 8 p.m. Oct. 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18 Cost: $25 to $27 Details: www.shakespearebythe sea.secure.force.com Venue: Little Fish Theatre, 777 S. Centre St., San Pedro
Oct 6
Gene Kelly: The Legacy Attend an evening with the wife of Gene Kelly, Patricia Ward
Kelly. Legendary dancer, director and choreographer Gene Kelly brought grace and athleticism to the screen. His wife and biographer tells the story, taking audiences behind the scenes and presenting an intimate portrait of this innovative artist. Time: 2 to 8 p.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $30 to $40 Details: (310) 781-7171 Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
Oct 12 Undocumented To open theatrical production of the 2018-19 season, the California State University, Dominguez Hills’ production examines the tragic impact of America’s immigration crisis with an immersive, multimedia portrayal of the many facets of the story. Time: 8 p.m. Oct. 12, 13, 18, 19, 20 and 2 p.m. Oct. 14 and 21 Cost: $13 to $18 Details: www.csudh.edu/theatre/ tickets Venue: University Theatre, California State University, Dominguez Hills University, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson Broadway Performance Partner Series This Tony-winning tale is about a starry-eyed dancer named Peggy Sawyer, from Allentown, Pennsylvania, who heads to New York City to audition for the Broadway musical Pretty Lady. Time: 8 p.m. Oct.12, 13 19, 20, 26 and 27 and 2 and 8 p.m. Oct.14, 21 and 28 at 2:00 p.m.; and Oct.25 at 7:30 p.m. Cost: $45 and up Details: (562) 916-8500; www.cerritoscenter.com Venue: Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 18000 Park Plaza Drive, Cerritos
Oct 13
Assassins In this thought-provoking musical, Stephen Sondheim and playwright John Weidman bend time and space to allow the nation’s nine successful and would-be assassins to meet, interact, and inspire each other to try to make their mark in the American history books. Time: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 13 through Nov. 17. Cost: $14 to $24 Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.org Venue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach
Oct 20 From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks Spread the word to your family, friends and colleagues, we all need a story about a great union victory. A reception follows the performance. Time: 8 p.m. Oct 20 Cost: $25 Details: http://theatrewest.org Venue: Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles
ARTS Oct 4
William Turtle: An Undiscovered Legacy Located at its new annex space, ViCA/Pedro, this is a comprehensive exhibition of an important artist who practiced various forms of art, from geometric assemblage to metal and wood sculpture, to collage and found object derived works ranging from strongly causebased to abstract. Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Oct.4 Cost: Free Details: (310) 521-637; (310) 957-7037; juri@veniceica.org Venue: The Loft, 401 S. Mesa St., San Pedro Aaron Sheppard: Dichotomous Imaginarium An installation incorporating performance, collage and sound. Schizophrenic Street Fighter, in which good and evil battle it out inside the mind with complete manifestation in the body as if documented by a seismometer Time: Oct. 4 to Oct. 14 Details: www.pvartcenter. org and aaronsheppard.com/ dichotomous-imaginarium Venue: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 W. Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes An Exhibition of Works Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe For the month of October Gallery Azul will have an art show inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Thursdays and 2 to 6 p.m. Saturdays, Oct. 4 through 20 Details: www.galleryazul.com Venue: Gallery Azul, 520 W. 8th St., San Pedro San Pedro Chamber of Commerce Free ArtWalk Tour visits three galleries and studios and is a one hour introduction to the diverse art scene in San Pedro. Time: 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4 Details: (310) 832-7272; www.sanpedrochamber.com Venue: Boardroom Gallery, 390 W. 7th St., San Pedro
Oct 6 C Gallery Grand Opening Celebration Join in a celebration for the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony of C Gallery on Broadway, the East Village’s newest art gallery. Music by Roman Street. Time: 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 6 Details: (562) 619-6084; www.cgalleryonbroadway.com Venue: C Gallery on Broadway, 441 E. Broadway, Long Beach PHOTOPROGRAM In annual partnership with the Arts Council for Long Beach, Port of Long Beach staff shared photographic techniques and gave local professionals and amateurs a chance to apply what they learned on a harbor tour. Time: 12:30 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Oct. 6 to 28 Details: www.polb.com/photo program and www.artslb.org Venues: Modica’s, 455 E. Ocean Blvd., District Wine, 144 Linden Ave., Bob the Chiropractor, 416 E. Broadway, Shine Your Heart, 433
E. Broadway, Long Beach
Oct 13 Coming Into Being: Gathering the Elder in Me An exhibition and installation by multimedia artist Laurie Steelink draws on her Native American ancestry. Time: 12 to 3 p.m. Oct 13 to Dec. 8 Details: (310) 519-0936; www.angelsgateart.org Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. LB Open Studio Tour In celebration of Long Beach’s Arts Month as well as the National Arts and Humanities Month, your local artists will be opening up their studios to visitors for the LB Open Studio This is free, self-guided and at your own pace. Time: 12 to 5 p.m. Oct. 13,14, 20, 21 and 27, 28 Cost: Free Details: http://lbopenstudiotour. com
Ongoing 2018 Art and Design Faculty Exhibition at CSUDH’s Art Gallery Investigating a range of subject matters and approaches to artmaking, the exhibition demonstrates the span of the media and materials used by these teaching artists in their personal practices. Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Monday through Thursday, through Oct. 10 Details: (310) 243-2001; www.csudh.edu. Venue: CSUDH University Art Gallery, Room A-107, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson.
FILM Oct 5
Oct 7
Fireworks, Should We See it From the Side or the Bottom Fireworks tells the simple story of adolescent longing that taps deep wells of young emotions. It’s the tale of youthful wistfulness, missed opportunities and long ago dreams, of the urgency of young lovers and the desire to create a separate universe where they can be together. Time: 2 p.m. Oct. 7 Cost: Free Details: (310) 781-7171 Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
Oct 11 ReelAbilities Film Festival: Los Angeles 2018 The ReelAbilities Film Festival will take place at locations throughout Los Angeles. Postscreening discussions and other engaging programs bring together the community to explore, discuss, embrace, and celebrate the diversity of our shared human experience. Time: Various, check website for Oct. 11 through 14 Cost: $10 Details: www.tinyurl.com/reel abilitiesfilm-com
Oct 13 Splendors of Peru: A Tribute to Cusco 2018 Splendors of Peru celebrates the music, dance and traditions of Peru, highlighting the unique folk dance and music from the city of Cuzco. Time: 7 to 9 p.m. Oct. 13 Cost: $30 to $45 Details: (310) 781-7171 Venue: James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
Oct 18 Silent Film Series The Exhibition Room and the Long Beach Heritage Museum host these jewels of history, hidden behind a phone booth in a California Heights speakeasy. The event features a tasting and presentation of fine spirits, paired with hors d’ouerves Time: 8 to 10 p.m. Oct. 18 Cost: $40 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ silent-film-series-tickets Venue: The Exhibition Room, 1117 E. Wardlow Rd., Long Beach
DANCE Oct 11
2018 Variance Dance Concert The 4th annual Variance concert presents the work of guest artist Kevin Williamson, faculty member Keith Johnson, and BFA choreographers Catalina Eddy, Nancy Fernanda Rivera Gomez, and a collaboration between Sarah Culotta and Allie Miks. Time: 8 to 10 p.m. Oct. 11, 12 and 13 and 2 p.m. Oct. 13 Cost: $20 Details: (562) 985-7000;
COMMUNITY Oct 4
Dark Harbor Southern California’s most terrifyingly authentic haunt will once again rise from the depths for 23 nights of terror through Nov. 2 with six reimagined mazes, an entirely new park footprint, along with interactive alternate paths, live entertainment and, four new secret bars to discover. Time: 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Oct. 4 through Nov. 2 Cost: $29 to $99 Details: (800) 437-2934; www.queenmary.com Venue: The Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Hwy., Long Beach
Lots of Questions, No Satisfying Answers By Greggory Moore, Curtain Call Columnist
Four years ago, 13-year-old Jessie disappeared. Whether she was kidnapped or ran away, she’s now a member of the 5th House Center for the Awakening Mind, an apparent cult. Kate (Renee O’Connor) has hired Stine (Richard Perloff) to abduct and deprogram her daughter. In a rattrap motel room on Clover Road they plan for how they’re going to bring Jessie back home both physically and mentally. But whose plan is really being carried out?
AFS 4th Annual Hike the Hill The AIDS Food Store is hosting their fourth annual Hike the Hill event. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m and the Hike begins at 10 am. You will receive a free t-shirt and all proceeds to benefit Time: 9:30 a.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $25 Details: www.aidsfoodstore.org Venue: 2175 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill
Fish’s execution are solid in that first of the three scenes that comprise this 80-minute, intermissionless play, things go downhill quickly. Early in Scene 2 Dietz’s dialog groans under the weight of both too much exposition and his failed attempts to wax poetic. “It’s awful, isn’t it?” asks Kate to the girl (Sara Freedland) who may or may not be Jessie. “It’s like in this room is the place they invented misery.” Huh? On the performance side, I can’t begin to guess why Kate pours a thirsty alleged-Jessie about literally one drop of water from a thermos as opposed to a cupful. There’s
[See Curtain Call p. 16]
Sunnyside Cemetery Cinema: Night of the Living Dead Festival Obscura and Sunnyside Cemetery are proud to present, for its 50th anniversary the 1968 horror classic, Night of the Living Dead. Time: 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $13 to $15 Details: www.FestivalObscura. com and www.EventBrite.com. Venue: Sunnyside Cemetery, 1095 E. Willow St., Long Beach Battle of Dominguez Hill Join in commemorating the 172nd anniversary of the Battle of Dominguez Hill. Visitors will have an opportunity to experience living history military encampments, live period music, and educational activities for the whole family. Time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 6 and 7 Details: (310) 603-0088 Venue: Dominguez Rancho Adobe Museum, 18127 S. Alameda St., Rancho Dominguez
Oct 6
Chef’s Table Dinner Join an exclusive Chef’s Table Dinner featuring gourmet seafood prepared by Chicken of the Sea Corporate Chef John DaLoia. This event preceeds the Sustainable Seafood Expo Oct. 7. Time: 6:30 to 9: 30 p.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $175 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ chefs-table-dinner-tickets Venue: Cabrillo Beach Bath House, 3800 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro
Oct 7
Sustainable Seafood Expo The Annual Sustainable Seafood Expo teaches consumers how to choose the right fish for their dish. The event will feature a dozen ocean-related nonprofit groups, seafood sampling, seafoodrelated talks and music. Time: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 7 Cost: Free Details: www.cabrillomarine aquarium.org Venue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Dr., San Pedro
The Girl (Sara Freedland) and Kate (Reneé O’Connor) try to re-connect as Stine (Richard Perloff) watches over them, in On Clover Road. Photo by Mickey Elliot.
It’s a promising premise, and after the opening scene it seems like On Clover Road might deliver the goods. The interplay between Perloff and O’Connor is taut. He baits her at every turn, and her resentment is palpable. “I’m a pig, by the way,” Stine says, advising her that disliking him will increase their chance of success. But how her disliking him might help is merely the first of many questions that go unanswered, and ultimately whatever is effective about On Clover Road collapses into a sinkhole of logical inconsistency in both writing and delivery. While both playwright Steven Dietz’s script and Little
October 4 - 17, 2018
San Pedro International Film Festival Film screening and Q&A with filmmakers Bonné de Bod and Susan Scott of the awardwinning documentary film STROOP Journey Into the Rhino Horn War. Time: 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6 Cost: $5 Details: www.spiffest.org
Coco at Wilmington Waterfront Park Enjoy a free outdoor showing of Coco at Wilmington Waterfront Park. Bring a blanket and chair and settle in — no food or beverages will be provided Time: 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 6 Details: www.lawaterfront.org Venue: Wilmington Waterfront Park, 1000 W. C St., Wilmington
Curtain Call:
Wildlife Photographer of the Year The museum’s just-opened temporary exhibition is a showcase of the world’s best nature photography. The annual competition challenges participants to submit imaginative and technically courageous images that capture the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Time: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, through Jan. 6 Cost: $8 to $24 Details: www.NHM.org/wildlife Venue: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles
Oct 6
https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/ pe.c/10312943 Venue: Martha B. Knoebel Dance Theater, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach
Real News, Real People, Really Effective
Reading and Writing Essentials of the 19th Century Take a look at the writing life in a time well before computers or ebooks. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, a variety of objects were used to complement the activities of reading and writing. Time: 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, through Nov. 1. Details: (562) 206-2040; www.rancholoscerritos.org Venue: Rancho Los Cerritos, 4600 Virginia Road, Long Beach
Venue: SPIFF, 464 W. 6th St., San Pedro
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Over the course of 14 months, 10 dedicated Port of Los Angeles High School drama students raised $50,000 to attend the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with instructors, Caitlin Bradac and Elspeth Cardenstern. The students presented the Bradley Hayward play, Outside the Box, in a five performance series at the festival. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe began in 1947, when eight theatre groups arrived uninvited to perform at the new Edinburgh International Festival—a festival founded in the post war period to celebrate and enrich European cultural life. With the “official” festival using the city’s major venues, these companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their productions staging their shows on the fringe of the Festival, coining the name — the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Today both festivals exist. For three weeks in August, the Festival Fringe features more than 50,000 performances of 3,000 shows in 300 venues, including theatre, comedy, dance, circus, cabaret, musicals and opera. “I could not be prouder of these students,” Bradac said. “Getting up on stage and performing is challenging, but being able to do it multiple times in a foreign country is much more challenging and inspiring. These students performed their hearts out every night and supported the other high school students from the United States and Canada.”
POLA HS Performs at Edinburgh Fringe By Melina Paris, Music and Culture Columnist
“I wanted them to experience different cultures and see different types of theatre that would push their knowledge and understanding of theatre,” Bradac said. Bradac, Cardenstern and the students raised $51,306. They held near 20 various types of fundraisers from the typical garage sales, car washes, and donations to recycling (they picked up bottles everyday during lunch and after school), a GoFundMe page, selling Christmas trees and performing a comedy show, Romeo and Juliet and the show they took to Scotland, Outside the Box.
[Curtain Call from p. 15]
Curtain Call
October 4 - 17, 2018
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
no contextual logic for this; it’s simply a performance choice that makes zero sense. The rest of the play follows this pattern, as logical flaws in the writing alternate with logical flaws in the staging. SCRIPT: “If you weren’t kidnapped, [the police] won’t go looking for you,” Kate laments to allegedJessie. Really? On what planet don’t police look for missing 13-year-olds even when it’s certain they weren’t kidnapped? And how would they know whether a missing 13-yearold was kidnapped or not? She’s missing! EXECUTION: Kate hangs up a smartphone the way we used to hang up landline receivers in their cradles, rather than pushing the little disconnect button on the little smartphone screen. SCRIPT and/or EXECUTION: Despite dialog referring to “the rope that binds her to this chair,” not only is the supposedly bound person not convincingly bound in general, but she stands up over a half-dozen times as if to demonstrate the fact that clearly she is not bound to this chair. That’s the long and the short of it. On Clover Road is a puzzle, but not in the sense it’s supposed to be. The play’s resolution is unconvincing, even if it does close on a reasonably affecting moment that is passably well conceived and executed. Perhaps if both playwright and theatre company had given us more prior to that moment—more detail, more meat, more of an effort to keep it real—we might be able to invest in the convolutions of this mystery-cum-caper. But as it is, we’re left to wonder why about the wrong things. Time: 8 p.m. Friday through Saturday. The show runs through Oct. 20 Cost: $15-$27 Details: (310) 512-6030; www.littlefishtheatre.org 16 Venue: 777 S. Centre St., San Pedro
Port of Los Angeles High School drama students traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland this past summer to perform at the American High School Theatre Festival, held concurrent with the Festival Fringe. Right, they gave a five-performance series of Outside the Box at the festival.
Bradac replied through email that the drama students were invited to apply after an unknown source nominated them to participate in the American High School Theatre Festival [Cloud 9 from p. 11]
in Edinburgh, which runs in conjunction with Festival Fringe. Bradac had previously been to a Festival Fringe and she knew it would be a life changing experience for her students.
Digital Dystopia on Cloud 9
mass media, without direct narrative or the use of traditional monitors and projectors.” To create the eerie, translucent sculptural bodies that inhabit Cloud 9, Nord once again relied on artistic processes that are uniquely his own. Working on his hands and knees on South Bay beaches, Nord innovated a method of fire-casting clear polycarbonate sheets onto hand-built sand molds, like coarse vacuforms. Resulting in the light transmitting, highly detailed and textured body parts that make up each of nine distinct figures found in the installation. Nord favors sand citing its simplicity, affordability and earthy qualities. But is quick to note that silica (purified to silicon) is also the foundation of his computer-driven technologies. Cloud 9 is a complex fusion of custom electronics and experimental processes. Coastal flotsam and jetsam and sticks and stones are integrated in surprising ways with sophisticated plastics and advanced electronics. The resulting dialogue between these high and low-tech elements and techniques resonates, like a beating heart, throughout the entire installation. Cloud 9 is on view at Torrance Art Museum through Nov. 10. On Oct. 13, at 3 p.m., Torrance Art Museum will host an intimate walk-through of Cloud 9 with the artist, Danial Nord, who will be discussing this work and its history, as well as his overall practice. This event is free to the public Danial Nord is an interdisciplinary artist who reinterprets the familiar language and trappings of mass communication. Nord’s provocative
based fashion designer, and as a scenic and prop artist for film, television and theater. His agile manipulation of color, light, form, moving image, and sound catches viewers in a cycle of seduction and confrontation. Nord’s recent projects include commissioned installations for the Beall Center for Art and Technology at University of California Irvine, and the UC Santa Barbara Public Arts Research Lab in conjunction with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission. His largescale media-driven sculptures were featured in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and in the 2013 California-Pacific Triennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. He lives and works in San Pedro. Time: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Exhibit runs through Nov. 10 Cost: Free Details: (310) 618-6388; torranceartmuseum@torranceca. One of the figures by Danial Nord in Cloud 9. Photo by Gene Ogami. gov installations draw from his accomplishments Venue: Torrance Art Museum, 3320 Civic as an award winning designer-animator in the Center Dr., Torrance entertainment industry, as an internationally
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DBA & LEGAL FILINGS NOTICE INVITING BIDS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the City of Long Beach, California, acting by and through the City’s Board of Harbor Commissioners (“City”) will receive, before the Bid Deadline established below, Bids for the following Work: PIER E TERMINAL ADMINISTRATION BUILDING at LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA AS DESCRIBED IN SPECIFICATION NO. HD-S2381 Bid Deadline:
available at h t t p : / / w w w. p o l b . c o m / economics/contractors/ forms_permits/default.asp. NIB - 2 Pre-Bid Questions. All questions, including requests for interpretation or correction, or comments regarding the Contract Documents, must be submitted no later than October 30, 2018, at 5 p.m. Questions received after the pre-Bid question deadline will not be accepted. Questions must be submit-
Prior to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Bids shall be submitted electronically via the Port of Long Beach PlanetBids (PB) System prior to 2:00 p.m.
Bid Opening:
Contract Documents Available:
Electronic Bid (eBid) results shall be viewable online in the PB System immediately after the Bid Deadline. Download Contract Documents from the Port of Long Beach PB System Vendor Portal: www.polb.com/sbe Click on the POLB Vendor Portal 1. Register and Log In 2. Click “Bid Opportunities” 3. Double-click on respective bid Project Title 4. Click on Document Attachments tab 5. Double-Click on Title of Electronic Attachment 6. Click “Download Now” 7. Repeat for each attachment For assistance in downloading these documents please contact Port of Long Beach Plans and Specs Desk at 562-283-7353.
October 4 - 17, 2018
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant
Mandatory Pre-Bid Meeting:
18
Project Contact Person:
Date/Time: October 16, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. Location: Port of Long Beach Maintenance Facility 1st Floor Meeting Room 725 Harbor Plaza Long Beach, CA 90802 Monique Aguilar, Monique. aguilar@polb.com
Please refer to the Port of Long Beach PB System for the most current information. NIB - 1 Contract Documents. Contract Documents may be downloaded, at no cost, from the Port of Long Beach PB System Vendor Portal website. Bidders must first register as a vendor on the Port of Long Beach PB System website in order to view and download the Contract Documents, to be added to the prospective bidders list, and to receive addendum notifications when issued. For the link to the Port of Long Beach PB System and for information on this Project and other upcoming Port projects, you may view the Port website at http://www.polb. com/economics/contractors/ default.asp. Copies of all Port insurance endorsement forms, SBE/ VSBE Program forms, Harbor Development Permit Applications and other Port forms are
ted electronically through the PB System. Emails, phone calls, and faxes will not be accepted. Questions submitted to City staff will not be addressed and Bidder will be directed to the PB System. NIB - 3 Mandatory Pre-Bid Meeting and Site Visit. The engineering staff of the City’s Harbor Department will conduct a pre-bid meeting at 9:00 a.m., on October 16, 2018, in the 1st Floor Meeting Room, of the Port of Long Beach Maintenance Facility, 725 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, CA 90802. Attendance is mandatory for the Contractors. It is not mandatory for Subcontractors but highly recommended. Each Bidder shall attend the mandatory Pre-bid meeting and the mandatory Site Visit, inspect and examine the
Project Site and perform any observations and measurements to further document existing conditions and may use photography and/or video to aid in preparation of Bid Documents. The City makes no guarantee that existing construction and site conditions matches construction depicted on record reference documents. It shall be the Bidder’s responsibility to identify existing conditions during the Site Visit. Each Bidder must have a valid picture identification card (driver’s license or TWIC card), hard hat, steel-toed boots, and safety traffic vest to attend the Site Visit. Should a Bidder elect not to attend the pre-bid meeting, the Bidder shall not be relieved of its sole responsibility to inform itself of all conditions at the Project Site and the content of the Contract Documents. EACH BIDDER MUST ATTEND THE MANDATORY PRE-BID MEETING. FAILURE TO ATTEND THE MANDATORY PRE-BID MEETING SHALL DISQUALIFY YOUR BID. Bidders are encouraged to RSVP for the Pre-Bid Meeting through the PB System; located under the “RSVP” tab of the Prospective Bidder Detail. Following the meeting a list of Pre-Bid Meeting signed-in attendees will be available on the PB System. NIB - 4 Summary Description of the Work. The Work required by this Contract includes, but is not limited to, the following: Construct the LEED GOLD two-story Administration Building with roof viewing deck approximately 21,000 sf, including pile supported foundation, parking lot, roadway, utilities, solar carport structure, landscaping and walkways, monument sign, and security gates and fencing. NIB - 5 Contract Time and Liquidated Damages. The Contractor shall achieve Affidavit of Final Completion of the Project within 510 calendar days as provided in Paragraph SC - 6.1 of the Special Conditions, from a date specified in a written “Notice to Proceed” issued by the City and subject to adjustment as provided in Section 8.2 of the General Conditions. FAILURE OF THE CONTRACTOR TO COMPLETE THE WORK WITHIN THE CONTRACT TIME AND OTHER MILESTONES SET FORTH IN SPECIAL CONDITIONS SC-6.3, INCLUDING THE ENGINEER’S APPROVAL OF AFFIDAVIT OF FINAL COMPLETION, WILL RESULT IN ASSESSMENT OF LIQUIDATED DAMAGES IN THE AMOUNTS ESTABLISHED IN THE SPECIAL CONDITIONS 6.4. NIB - 6 Contractor’s License. The Bidder shall hold a current and valid Class “A” or Class “B” California Contractor’s License to construct this project. NIB - 7 Contractor Performed Work. The Contractor shall perform, with its own employees, Contract Work amounting to at least 30% of the Contract Price, except that
any designated “Specialty Items” may be performed by subcontract. The amount of any such “Specialty Items” so performed may be deducted from the Contract Price before computing the amount required to be performed by the Contractor with its own employees. “Specialty Items” will be identified by the City on the Schedule of Bid Items. The bid price of any materials or equipment rental costs from vendors who are solely furnishing materials or rental equipment and are not performing Work as a licensed subcontractor on this project shall also be deducted from the Contract Price before computing the amount required to be performed by the Contractor with its own employees. NIB -8 Mandatory SBE/ VSBE Participation. This project is subject to the Port of Long Beach (POLB) Small Business Enterprises (SBE)/ Very Small Business Enterprises (VSBE) Program. The combined SBE/VSBE mandatory participation requirement for this project is thirty-five percent (35%), of which a minimum of five percent (5%) must be allocated to VSBEs. POLB expects all Bidders to achieve the combined SBE/VSBE participation requirements. Responsiveness of the bid will be conditioned on the Bidder submitting an SBE-2C Commitment Plan demonstrating the Bidder’s intent to meet the combined SBE/VSBE participation requirement. If the Bidder’s Commitment Plan does not demonstrate intent to meet the combined requirements, the Bid will be deemed nonresponsive. The Port’s SBE Program staff is available to provide information on the program requirements, including SBE certification assistance. Please contact the SBE Office at (562) 283-7598 or sbeprogram@polb.com. You may also view the Port’s SBE program requirements at www.polb.com/sbe. NIB -9 Prevailing Wage Requirements per Department of Industrial Relations. This Project is a public work Contract as defined in Labor Code Section 1720. The Contractor receiving award of the Contract and Subcontractors of any tier shall pay not less than the prevailing wage rates to all workers employed in execution of the Contract. The Director of Industrial Relations of the State of California has determined the general prevailing rates of wages in the locality in which the Work is to be performed. The rate schedules are available on the internet at http://www.dir. ca.gov/dlsr/DPreWageDetermination.htm and on file at the City, available upon request. Bidders are directed to Article 15 of the General Conditions for requirements concerning payment of prevailing wages, payroll records, hours of work and employment of apprentices. This Project is subject to compliance monitoring and
enforcement by the Department of Industrial Relations. No Contractor or Subcontractor may be listed on a bid proposal for a public works project unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5 (with limited exceptions from this requirement for bid purposes only under Labor Code Section 1771.1(a)). No Contractor or Subcontractor may be awarded a contract for public work on a public works project unless registered with the Department of Industrial Relations pursuant to Labor Code Section 1725.5. Contractors and Subcontractors must furnish electronic Certified Payroll Records (CPRs) to the Labor Commissioner’s Office, and in addition, hardcopies or electronic copies shall be furnished to the Port of Long Beach. NIB -10 P r o j e c t L a b o r Agreement. This project is subject to the requirements of a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), included as Appendix AA. The Contractor and all tier subcontractors must sign a Letter of Assent before commencement of construction and be bound by each and every provision of the PLA, including, but not limited to: payment of prevailing wages; payment of fringe benefit contributions to union trust funds on behalf of workers; use of union hiring halls as a source for workers; follow alternating referral procedures if employing Core Workers; and Local, Disadvantaged, and Veteran worker utilization goals. Per the Department of Industrial Relations, projects covered by a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) are exempt from the requirement to submit electronic CPRs directly to the Labor Commissioner’s Office. In lieu, the Contractor and all Subcontractors will be required to submit electronic or hardcopies of CPRs and labor compliance documentation to the Port of Long Beach.
NIB -11 Tr a d e N a m e s and Substitution of Equals. With the exception of any sole source determination that may be identified in this paragraph, Bidders wishing to obtain City’s authorization for substitution of equivalent material, product, or equipment, are required to submit a written request for an Or Equal Substitution using the form included in Appendix A together with data substantiating Bidder’s representation that the non-specified item is of equal quality to the item specified, no later than fourteen (14) calendar days after City’s issuance of Notice to Proceed (NTP). Authorization of a substitution is solely within the discretion of the City. NIB -12
NOT USED.
NIB -13 B i d S e c u r i t y, Signed Contract, Insurance and Bonds. Each Bid shall be accompanied by a satisfactory Bidder’s Bond or other acceptable Bid Security in an amount not less than ten percent (10%) of the Base Bid as a guarantee that the Bidder will, if Conditionally Awarded a Contract by the Board, within thirty (30) calendar days after the Contract is conditionally awarded to the Contractor by the City, execute and deliver such Contract to the Chief Harbor Engineer together with all required documents including insurance forms, a Payment Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price, and a Performance Bond for one hundred percent (100%) of the Contract Price. All Bonds shall be on forms provided by the City. NIB -14 C o n d i t i o n a l Award of Contract and Reservation of Rights. The Board, acting through the Executive Director, reserves the right at any time before the execution of the Contract by the City, to reject any or all Bids, and to waive any informality or irregularity. The Conditional Award of the Contract, if any, will be to the responsible Bidder submitting the lowest responsive
and responsible Bid. If the lowest responsive responsible Bidder fails to submit the required documents including insurance forms, bonds and signed Contract within thirty (30) calendar days after Conditional Award of Contract, the Board reserves the right to rescind the Conditional Award and Conditionally Award the Contract to the next lowest responsive and responsible Bidder. NIB -15 Period of Bid Irrevocability. Bids shall remain open and valid and Bidder’s Bonds and other acceptable Bid Security shall be guaranteed and valid for ninety (90) calendar days after the Bid Deadline or until the Executive Director executes a Contract, whichever occurs first. NIB -16 Substitution of Securities. Substitution of Securities for retainage is permitted in accordance with Section 22300 of the Public Contract Code. NIB -17 I r a n C o n tracting Act of 2010. In accordance with Public Contract Code sections 2200-2208, every person who submits a bid or proposal for entering into or renewing contracts with the City for goods or services estimated at $1,000,000 or more are required to complete, sign, and submit the “Iran Contracting Act of 2010 Compliance Affidavit.” Issued at Long Beach, California, this 25th day of June, 2018. Mario Cordero, Executive Director of the Harbor Department, City of Long Beach, California Note: For project updates after Bid Opening, please contact plans. specs@polb.com.
[Censored from p. 10]
Project Censored and by some American communities, noted Mihnea Tanasescu, writing for The Conversation. The tribe’s perspective was explained to The Guardian by its lead negotiator, Gerrard Albert. “We consider the river an ancestor and always have,” Albert said. “We
have fought to find an approximation in law so that all others can understand that from our perspective treating the river as a living entity is the correct way to approach it, as in indivisible whole, instead of the traditional model for the last 100 years of treating it from a perspective of ownership and
management.” But that could be just the beginning. “It is a critical precedent for acknowledging the Rights of Nature in legal systems around the world,” Kayla DeVault reported for YES! Magazine. Others are advancing this perspective, DeVault wrote: “In response to the Standing Rock Sioux battle against the Dakota Access pipeline, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin
DBA & LEGAL FILINGS Illustration by Anson Stevens-Bollen, Santa Fe Reporter
PUBLIC NOTICE Notice of Availability (NOA) of Draft Initial Study/Environmental Assessment [IS/EA] and Notice of Public Hearing for the State Route-‐47/Vincent Thomas Bridge and Front Street/Harbor Boulevard Interchange Reconfiguration Project
Caltrans has studied the effects that the proposed project may have on the environment and community. The results of these studies are contained in an environmental document known as a Draft Initial Study/Environmental Assessment (IS/EA). The purpose of this notice is to inform the public of its completion and availability to any interested individuals.
WHAT’S AVAILABLE?
The Draft Initial Study/Environmental Assessment [IS/EA] is available for viewing and download at http://www.dot.ca.gov/d7/env-‐docs/. The Draft IS/EA is also available for review at the Caltrans District 7 office (100 S. Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012) and the San Pedro Regional Library (931 S. Gaffey Street, San Pedro, CA 90731) during normal business hours.
WHERE YOU COME IN / CONTACTS
Have the potential impacts been addressed? Do you have information that should be included? Would you care to make any other comments on the project? Please submit your comments in writing no later than 5:00PM on October 30, 2018 to: Mr. Ron Kosinski, Deputy District Director California Department of Transportation Division of Environmental Planning 100 S. Main Street, MS-‐16A Los Angeles, CA 90012 A public hearing will be held to allow any interested individuals an opportunity to discuss the project with Caltrans staff. The public hearing will be held on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 at the Harbor Department Administration Building, 425 S Palos Verdes St, San Pedro, CA 90731 from 6:00PM to 8:00PM. Individuals who require special accommodations are requested to contact Caltrans’ Public Affairs Office at (213) 897-‐3656 at least 21 days in advance prior to the scheduled hearing date.
Thank you for your interest in this transportation project!
“Provide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance California’s economy and livability”
FBI Racially Profiling “Black Identity Extremists”
At the same time that white supremacists were preparing for the “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville, which resulted in the murder of Heather Heyer in August 2017. The
October 4 - 17, 2018
WHEN AND WHERE?
WHY THIS NOTICE?
“[If the New Zealand Whanganui River settlement] was able to correct the gap in Western and indigenous paradigms in New Zealand, surely a similar effort to protect the Missouri River could be produced for the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Nations by the American government,” DeVault wrote. The same could be done with a wide range of other environmental justice disputes involving Native American tribes. Tanasescu described the broader sweep of recent developments in the “rights of nature,” noting that significant problems have resulted from the lack of specific guardianship provisions, which are integral to the Whanganui River law. “By granting natural entities personhood one by one and assigning them specific guardians, over time New Zealand could drastically change an ossified legal system that still sees oceans, mountains and forests primarily as property, guaranteeing nature its day in court,” Tanasescu concluded. “A few corporate media outlets have covered the New Zealand case and subsequent decisions in India,” Project Censored noted. “However, these reports have not provided the depth of coverage found in the independent press or addressed how legal decisions in other countries might provide models for the United States.”
FBI’s counterterrorism division produced an intelligence assessment warning of a very different — though actually non-existent threat: “Black Identity Extremists.” The report appeared to be the first time the term had been used to identify a movement, according to Foreign Policy magazine, which broke the story. “But former government officials and legal experts said no such movement exists, and some expressed concern that the term is part of a politically motivated effort to find an equivalent threat to white supremacists,” Foreign Policy reported. “The use of terms like ‘black identity extremists’ is part of a longstanding FBI attempt to define a movement where none exists,” said former FBI agent Mike German, who now works for the Brennan Center for Justice. “Basically, it’s black people who scare them.” “It’s classic Hoover-style labeling with little bit of maliciousness and euphemism wrapped up together,” said William Maxwell, a Washington University professor working on a book about FBI monitoring of black writers. “The language — black identity extremist — strikes me as weird and really a continuation of the worst of Hoover’s past.” “There is a long tradition of the FBI targeting black activists and this is not surprising,” Black Lives Matter activist, DeRay McKesson, told Foreign Policy. A former homeland security official said that carelessly connecting unrelated groups will make it harder for law enforcement to identify real threats. “It’s so convoluted — it’s compromising officer safety,” the former official said. “The corporate media [has] covered the FBI report on ‘black identity extremists’ in narrow or misleading ways,” Project Censored noted, citing examples from the New York Times, Fox News and NBC News. “Coverage like this both draws focus away from the active white supremacist movement and feeds the hate and fear on which such a movement thrives.” 19 Real News, Real People, Really Effective
WHAT IS BEING PLANNED?
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in cooperation with the City of Los Angeles Harbor Department (Harbor Department), proposes to reconfigure the existing interchange at State Route 47 (SR-‐47)/Vincent Thomas Bridge and Harbor Boulevard/Front Street. The project limits on SR-‐47 extend from approximately Post Mile [PM] 0.3 to PM 0.8 (SR-‐47 from west of Harker Street to east of North Front Street) in the City of Los Angeles in Los Angeles County, California. The purpose of the proposed project is to: (1) improve safety, access, and the efficient operation of the SR-‐47/Vincent Thomas Bridge and Front Street/Harbor Boulevard interchange; and (2) improve goods movement and traffic circulation in the area in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of the local community. Caltrans is the lead agency under both the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A No-‐Build Alternative and a Build Alternative are proposed for the project. The Build Alternative proposes to reconfigure the existing interchange at SR-‐47/Vincent Thomas Bridge and Front Street/Harbor Boulevard. The proposed improvements would eliminate a bottleneck condition at the shared off-‐ramp terminus by creating a new, separate terminus for the westbound ramps.
amended its constitution to include the Rights of Nature. This is the first time a North American tribe has used a Western legal framework to adopt such laws. Some American municipalities have protected their watersheds against fracking by invoking Rights of Nature.”
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October 4 - 17, 2018
Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant