RLn 05-11-23

Sinclair Arrested on Liberty Hill!

Southern California ACLU was born on 4th and Beacon streets on the issues of free speech and striking workers in 1923

By Paul F. Irving

Following the intro below, we reprint the story of this incident from our June 1991 edition, which Upton Sinclair scholar Lauren Coodley called, “the most accurate reporting,” albeit 70 years after it happened.

— James Preston Allen, Publisher

When the soldiers came back from the Great War in Europe in November 1917, they not only brought back victory but also the Spanish Flu pandemic. As with the COVID-19 pandemic, bars, restaurants, churches, and other gatherings were closed down and masks were protested. As the pandemic subsided (it never really ended) the economy came back to life with what is called the Roaring Twenties. Women’s suffrage had passed, but also the prohibition of alcohol, and in San Pedro, bars and brothels became “speakeasies” and rum running became its own underground economy. Fortunes were made smuggling and selling contraband whiskey.

The war years had been a boom to the LA Harbor Area with fishing, shipbuilding, and cargo handling feeding the growing population of the region. But for the working-class dockworkers and many others wages were low, hours were long and child labor was rampant. Unions had few protections and organized meetings were outlawed. It was in this context that the Industrial Workers of the World, I.W.W. or Wobblies, arrived on the waterfront to organize the immigrant workers here as elsewhere.

Just like today, progressive reforms were also in

Cooking Up Poverty

Homeless workers are fast food’s glaring unpaid cost, new

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

The cook is on food stamps... The cashier is on Medi-Cal... The delivery driver lives in his car. This is the industry that brings you happy meals, according to a new report, “Hungry Cooks: Poverty Wages and Homelessness in the Fast Food Industry,” released by the Economic Roundtable on May 2, analyzing the fast food industry and workforce here in LA City and County, as well as statewide.

“I used to volunteer at a church handing out food on Saturday mornings, and now I have to go there to ask for food,” said Dilia Espana, a Wendy’s worker in Oakland featured in the report.

Each worker brings in $59 per hour in revenue, in an industry dominated by five companies in California which generated $14.5 billion in profit in 2021, and $12 billion in 2022, according to the report. And their franchises are concentrated as well. “It’s not a mom-

report finds

and-pop industry. It’s an industry of big players with big revenue,” the report’s co-author Dan Flaming told Random Lengths News. “Many top brands in California have a number of multi-unit, mega-franchisees that own dozens or even hundreds of locations,” the report explains. Yet workers are paid so poorly that a fifth are on food stamps and a third are on Medi-Cal — massive de facto public subsidies for companies too cheap to pay their workers what they’re worth.

“My goal is to have a place to sleep, even a little room so my kids know where I am and can come and visit me,” said Jose de la Torre, of Lynwood, another worker highlighted in the report. “Right now, I am homeless and live in my car because the money from delivering pizzas for Papa John’s didn’t cover my bills and I have no money for rent.” He’s one of almost 3,600 homeless fast food workers in LA County, according to the report.

More than 10,000 are homeless statewide.

“The big dog in terms of poverty employment is fast food,” Flaming said. “In California it has the largest share of workers in poverty and homeless.” A key problem is that “this is [a] part-time job,” he said. Less than half (45%) work at least 1,820 hours a year, compared to 69% for all other workers. The average is just 1,340 hours — equivalent to 26 hours a week.

And it’s not just part-time. “The scheduling is a big deal,” Flaming stressed. “It’s on demand and unpredictable, so it’s very hard to hold on [to] a second job.” As a result, “The pay is low, it’s very hard to pay rent, very hard to keep a roof over your head, a lot of them get food stamps at public expense, a lot of them get healthcare at public expense,” he said.

“My employer is retaliating against me for calling

Upton Sinclair, writer and political activist, who

sumiya

Harbor Area

Community Meeting to Discuss the LA County Sheriff’s Department

Meet commission leadership to discuss the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Share your experience with Sheriff’s deputies and how you feel about public safety in your community.

There are three ways to participate:

• In person: RSVP at: https://tinyurl. com/58u4zf53

• Via computer or mobile device: register for Webex here: https://tinyurl.com/LASD-community-meeting

• Facebook livestream at: https://tinyurl.com/ LASD-community-livestream

• Via phone

Submit written comments by completing this form: https://tinyurl.com/LASD-written-comments. Submissions will be accepted until 5 p.m. on the meeting date. For questions, email cocnotify@coc.lacounty.gov or call 213-253-5678.

Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: RSVP https://tinyurl.com/58u4zf53

Venue: Legacy Commons Auditorium, 930 E. Ave. Q-9, Palmdale

Small Business Rental Assistance

Applications are now open for round three of the City of Los Angeles Small Business Rental Assistance Grant Program. Grants of $2,500 up to $15,000 will be available to eligible businesses that need financial assistance to aid in their recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses must be located within the City of LA and use the grants to cover some or all of any outstanding location rental fees. The grant may be used for payments due that incurred on or after March 1, 2020 through April 30, 2023. Applications are due May 24.

Details: https://ewddlacity.com/index.php/recovery/rentassist

POLA Hosts Second Virtual Public Meeting on Air Quality Monitoring Program

The Port of Los Angeles will host an Air Quality Monitoring Program update on May 16 via Zoom. This public meeting will include a status update on the air monitoring network upgrade and annual air monitoring report. The first meeting was held in December 2022.

The port’s air monitoring program includes a network of four air monitoring stations that measure a comprehensive set of air pollutants within

the vicinity of Los Angeles Harbor, including San Pedro, Wilmington and Terminal Island.

Time: 3 to 4 p.m., May 16

Details: Participate here: https://tinyurl.com/ air-quality-meeting

Working Group Meeting #2

South Coast Air Quality Management District staff invites you to attend a working group Meeting for Proposed Rule 1435 – Control of Toxic Air Contaminant Emissions from Metal Heating Operations or PR 1435 via Zoom. The meeting will review results of the UC Riverside Center for Environmental Research and Technology or CE-CERT study on the formation of hexavalent chromium in metal heating furnaces. The meeting will provide stakeholders an opportunity to work with South Coast AQMD staff on proposed amended rule provisions and to discuss key issues or concerns. For more information, please contact: Yunnie Osias air quality specialist, 909-396-3219; yosias@aqmd.gov. For documents pertaining to the rule development for PR 1435, visit https://tinyurl.com/scaqmd-rule-book

Time: 9 a.m., May 18

Details: Remote meeting information Webinar link: https://scaqmd.zoom. us/j/96825066787, Webinar ID: 968 2506 6787

Dial-in: (669) 900-6833

The Good MindFest

More than 40 vendors with resources for the community, including family wellness workshops, mindfulness workshops, art workshops, a kids’ zone, raffles, food trucks, performances and giveaways.

Sponsored by the Do Good Daniels Fam-

Committed to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 40 Years

The Future is Blue at AltaSea

Ushering in a blue economy with the U.S.’s only offshore aquaculture farm

By Seth Meyer, Contributor

SAN PEDRO — It was “oohs” and “aahs” at AltaSea’s open house on April 29, after a new vessel was introduced promising the best seafood in town. It was attended by area high school students, the staffs of AltaSea and Pacific6, a relatively new partner of AltaSea that owns the vessel.

Company founder John Molina, formerly of Molina Healthcare, took over the recently bankrupt Catalina Sea Ranch, an offshore aquaculture company, in hopes of finding his own success in sustainable aquaculture. One step in the right direction was the hiring of Captain Nick Hajec, a veteran in the industry from New Zealand with the experience needed to bring these farms to the United States.

Molina and Hajec, the keynote speakers for the open house, said they needed a vessel that could handle the production of 66 tons of mussels per week. Mussels are typically benthic, or bottomdwelling, filter feeders, and require a lot of equipment to bring out to the open water and suspend them for optimal growth. The new vessel needs to be able to handle the deployment of anchor stakes and withstand the tensioning of the ropes the mussels grow on, harvesting and transporting them regardless of weather conditions. The Pacific Alliance was built and tested for that purpose and it arrived last month at the docks at AltaSea.

The main goal of this venture is to bring sustainable seafood consumption to the United States using safe, sustainable and scalable methods. Many of the partners at AltaSea’s campus have similar goals. That is one thing they say is the key to success. They currently house the researchers, the builders and the farmers under one roof, where they have the opportunity to collaborate and extend resources towards a common goal. And while all of this is happening, AltaSea is educating the younger generation to see this same goal, experience the steps to achieve it and prepare them for their eventual next steps to solve the planet’s problems.

The open house offered opportunities to other AltaSea partners to set up booths to pro mote their mission and recruit attendees to their causes. Some looked to engage, such as the Cal State University Long Beach Shark Lab, which taught about shark skin and teeth. Other booths looked to promote their programs, like WestCal Career Pathway Program, where students can take 16-week sessions learning and experiencing careers to help them decide on careers and pre pare them for the requirements.

Preparing students and the younger generation is a common goal shared by these organizations and AltaSea, but it is also a goal and the reason that Captain Hajec returned to the United States.

During his comments to the crowd of young people, Captain Hajec said living in New Zealand was a dream come true for him, but that at the end of the day, he wanted generations after his to have the same opportunities he had in his youth.

He concluded his remarks by exhorting the young people in the audience to volunteer in everything they possibly can, especially in ship husbandry, noting the skillsets in that occupation will be greatly needed in the future.

“The more jobs, the more money in the industry, the more need to keep sustainable seafood farms local to the United States. This all leads to safe, sustainable, and scalable seafood for us all to enjoy,” Captain Hajec said.

The open house also included the unveiling of signage dedicated to the region’s native peoples and their ancestors. Curated by Tina Calderon, a descendant of the Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme peoples, sang a traditional song three times after delivering brief remarks. Although usually sung four times, Calderon left the fourth verse for the three elders that died this year to sing in the spiri-

tual world.

The commonality of four refers to the directions, east, west, north and south, which symbolize many things like the seasons, elements, sunrise and sunset, and lastly the ancestors. Tina Calderon spoke of the ancestors as not just the elders but the past, the present, and nature.

Molina, referencing Calderon’s comments, reminded the audience that to get to the “blue” future, we may have to look to the past as AltaSea and their partners look for ways to combat climate change and cultivate sustainable food options.

Tongva: Still Here Mural Unveiled at AGCC

conclusion of an eight-week professional development workshop for the AGCC Teen Mural Club at San Pedro High School.

For eight weeks the students underwent professional training under the mentorship of Carlo and Ethel Zafranco of AQMNI Mural CO, pictured above. The Teen Mural Club students met with the local native community members, who shared their lived-experience and insights on Tongva and indigenous culture in order to plan their mural.

Tongva: Still Here will remain on display for the public during park hours daily in perpetuity at Angels Gate Cultural Center. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

A new vessel unveiled at AltaSea called the Pacific Alliance, which is designed to collect 66 tons of mussels per week for study. Photo by Seth Meyer

Vincent Thomas Bridge Proposed to Close in 2025 for Repairs

The public only have until May 26 to comment on the potential closure

By Hunter Chase, Community News Reporter

If you regularly use the Vincent Thomas Bridge, you’re probably going to have to take a different route for a while — but not until 2025.

Representatives from Caltrans are planning a partial or complete shutdown of the bridge, which connects San Pedro to Long Beach, Terminal Island and the ports. Caltrans representatives spoke about this at a virtual meeting held on May 4.

At the beginning, Brad Jensen, the meeting facilitator, said that the public comment period began April 13, and would end on May 12. However, many commentators at the meeting said they had only heard about this project that day, and asked for the public comment period to be extended. Because of the outcry, Osama Megalla, chief of the office of project management at Caltrans, announced at the end of the meeting that the public comment period would be extended two weeks, until May 26.

The purpose of the shutdown is to replace the deck of the bridge, and extend the bridge’s lifespan. The bridge has had repairs before, with Caltrans maintenance crews replacing damage on the bridge with concrete patches.

“The patches cover about 15% of the total bridge area,” said Rimma Tebeleva, project manager for the project.

The bridge has been in service for 60 years, and is rapidly deteriorating because of heavy truck traffic, Tebeleva said. About 53,000 vehicles cross the bridge every day, about 4,600 of which are trucks.

“If this condition is not addressed, it will affect the structural integrity of the deck, and ultimately the safety of the traveling public,” Tebeleva said.

In addition, the railings and median concrete barrier are not up to current safety standards and will also be replaced if the project is approved.

If Caltrans shuts down the bridge completely, it will take about nine months to a year to complete construction. If Caltrans does not shut down the bridge completely, and just keeps one lane open, it will take from 18 months to two years to finish construction, Tebeleva said. The bridge normally has two lanes in each direction, and will shut down three if this option is taken. It will need to have night and weekend closures, or construction will take up to two and a half years. Another option is to keep two lanes open. This could last two to two and half years, and could take up to three years without night and weekend closures.

Or it could just do nothing.

“Under the no build alternative, no work will be done, and the life of the Vincent Thomas Bridge will not be extended,” Tebeleva said.

The project is currently in its environmental review and project approval phase, which will end in May 2024. The design phase will follow, and should be completed in July 2025, with construction expected to begin in October 2025.

“We plan to open [the] bridge for traffic by end of March of 2027,” Tebeleva said.

Jinrong Wang, senior bridge engineer with Caltrans, said that while shutting down the bridge completely will cause traffic problems, the deck will have less joints, and the deck integrity will be better. Caltrans will remove the old deck, and

place the new deck.

Jason Roach, senior environmental planner at Caltrans, said that the environmental review he is working on is about the impact of redirecting traffic in the surrounding areas.

“We’re doing an in-depth traffic study as we speak to show the best possible routes to detour traffic during these long-term closures,” Roach said.

Denis Katayama, senior transportation engineer of traffic operations, gave a list of detours that could be used if the bridge is closed, either a full-time closure or just on nights and weekends. One is Harry Bridges Boulevard to Alameda Street, then to Anaheim Street, then to Henry Ford Avenue, and onto to the route 47 Terminal Island freeway. An alternative would be to reroute traffic from Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH, to Alameda Street, then to Henry Ford Avenue, and from there to Route 47 Terminal Island Freeway.

Ashley Hernandez, a Wilmington resident and organizer with Communities for a Better Environment, said that increasing truck traffic on PCH and Anaheim would be very dangerous.

“I’m not hyperbolizing when I say people will die,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said that Anaheim is down to one lane on both sides in Wilmington, and that increasing truck traffic would be detrimental to

[See Closure, p. 4]

Harbor Area Bridge Closure

ily Foundation, Richard Dana Middle School, Boys and Girls Club and the Port of Los Angeles.

Time: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 20

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/good-mind-fest

Location: Port of LA Boys and Girls Club, 100 W. 5th Street, San Pedro

Lomita Seeking Volunteers for General Plan Advisory Committee

The Lomita City Council has begun the process of updating the city’s general plan — the guiding document that lays out long term programs, policies and decisions that will shape Lomita in the next 20 to 30 years.

Members of the General Plan Advisory Committee will serve as the sounding board for the community’s input and an advisory board to the city council in crafting elements of the updated general plan document.

Details: https://lomitacity.com/general-plan-advisory-committee/, email L.Abbott@lomitacity.com, or visit City Hall, 24300 Narbonne Ave. during business hours by May 24.

Share Feedback on the Design Guidelines for Two Downtown LB Parks

The City of Long Beach is in the process of updating the design guidelines for Santa Cruz Park and Victory Park in Downtown Long Beach for the first time since 1989. The new guidelines will establish a design vision for both parks. The public is invited to attend a community event hosted by the Development Services Department planning bureau, to learn about the guidelines and opportunities to provide feedback on the draft guidelines.

Time: 9 to 11 a.m., May 20

Details: RSVP https://tinyurl.com/pop-up-in-thepark

Venue: Victory Park, 150 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

people crossing the street, including children. She said that every street trucks pass over, there are holes.

“Trucks are going to fall into those holes,” Hernandez said. “People are going to tip into those holes.”

Magali Sanchez-Hall, an environmental jus tice activist, said that Wilmington cannot con tinue to carry the burden of environmental pol lution. She spoke of the many trucks that pass by on PCH, and said that while there is plenty of public space, none of the children use it.

“The kids are not outside, and guess why?” Sanchez-Hall said. “Because our kids on the east side of Wilmington have asthma and you see the parks empty because no kid can go out there and play.”

Roach said that an initial environmental re port will be released in December 2023, which people can comment on, and a final report will be released in winter 2024. He said that winter 2024 is when the final decision for the project will be made.

Luke Klipp, senior transportation deputy for Supervisor Janice Hahn, said it wasn’t clear what people were commenting on at what time.

“There’s comment now until, as we’ve just learned, May 26,” Klipp said. “And then com ment again at the end of the year when there’s a draft environmental document.”

Wilmington resident Valerie Rodriguez, who was one of the attendees who only heard of the meeting that day, criticized the project for its lack of Spanish outreach to Wilmington residents.

“Our community, it’s not all about social

“They’re very old-fashioned, so we need some kind of outreach so our community can know what’s going on.”

Roach said there were 87 people at the virtual meeting, and that a prior in-person meeting about the project only had about a third as many people.

James Campeau, activist and San Pedro resident, said that Caltrans should shut down the bridge completely for a year.

“You’ve got to do it in a one year time-span, because it’s just going to be three years of traffic instead of one year of traffic detours,” Campeau said.

Details of proposed alternate routes for the Vincent Thomas Bridge’s closure, which Caltrans has proposed to close in 2025. Image courtesy of Caltrans

Serving Up Poverty

in sick with a knee injury and asking for paid sick leave,” said Edith Navarro, a Carl’s Jr. worker quoted in the report. “They cut my work hours by more than half and transferred me to a store in Whittier, so far from my home in Wilmington that I have to drive two hours to get there,” she said. “The shifts are so short it is hardly worth the cost of gas. I have fallen behind on my rent and my light and water bills.”

Many like Navarro could become homeless, like de la Torre. “Low-income households that spend over half of their income on housing are

And he’s not alone. “The chief executive named David Gibbs for Yum Yum Brands — that’s Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut — earns 1,603 times as much as the median worker at his company,” Flaming said. “So, he’s gonna earn more in an hour than the median worker does in a year. And I’m sure Mr. Gibbs is as smart as all get out, but is he really worth 1,603 times as much as somebody who’s making the food for us when we walk in the door?”

Wage theft is a problem, too, as it often is for low-wage work. “As far as I can tell, wage theft is built into the way Papa John’s operates. It has to do with how the computer system works,” de la Torre said. “My coworkers and I filed a wage theft complaint. Mine was for $45,000. The manager

on the cusp of homelessness. These workers are choosing between paying for household necessities such as food and clothing, and paying their rent,” the report explains. A whopping 24% of LA City frontline workers spend this much, and “This includes 13 percent who spend over 70% of their income on housing,” the report notes. Statewide, frontline workers bear extreme housing costs at roughly twice the rate of workers outside the fast food industry.

But even more are precariously housed in a different way: “43% of folks in the Los Angeles area frontline workers live in overcrowded housing,” Flaming said. “So maybe somebody’s bedroom is the couch, maybe multiple people share a bedroom, there’s inadequate privacy, there’s inadequate living space per person, but you get by because it’s a way you can get shelter.”

“One-fifth of frontline fast food workers in Los Angeles receive food stamps and one-third receive health care through Medi-Cal,” the report notes. Both figures are twice that of workers in other industries. And their needs are even greater, as they’re more likely to be parents, by 9% statewide, 10% countywide and 11% citywide. This is despite the fact they’re also younger as a whole: 48% are under 25 statewide, compared to 13% in other industries. Citywide it’s “only” 38% compared to 12% — more than three times as many.

On top of the costs of food stamps and Medi-Cal is the public costs of homelessness — an average of $15,000 per year, according to Flaming. That’s a cost incurred without solving the problem — unlike preventing it in the first place. “You and I and our fellow taxpayers are shouldering costs for the industry, not just when we buy a hamburger, but when we pay taxes,” he said. “So, the public has a stake in having the industry be sustainable and equitable and the industry can afford it.”

Indeed, McDonald’s made $6.1 billion in profits in 2022, while its CEO, Christopher Kempczinski, made $17.77 million — 1,224 times as much as the average frontline worker.

also made me work off the clock and do favors for him, driving his wife and kids around and buying him lunch every day, and I was not allowed to take meal breaks and rest breaks.” The multiple forms of wage theft aren’t unusual, either.

The franchise structure and its rules are a big part of the problem. For example, “I work double

Graphic by Terelle Jerricks [See Poverty, p. 15]

A Farewell to Brother Art

The Story Behind the Name

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

Over the years I have had many people ask about the meaning of the name of this newspaper. I once even had a young woman who comically told me in all earnestness, “That’s so Random.” This then is the story behind the name and my farewell to the friend who helped name it.

It was a warm afternoon across from Point Fermin Park at the home of Carlin Soule in the summer of 1979. Carlin regularly hosted garden parties there next to Walker’s Cafe where he would try out his latest recipes of varying cuisines on an assortment of friends — his day job was teaching English at Jordan High School in LA but his heart was into cooking long before “pop up cuisine” was a thing. He was ahead of his time and the area along Paseo del Mar hadn’t yet been discovered. You could still buy a house for under $50,000.

Walker’s Cafe was a low brow biker hangout where Bessie Walker ruled with a gruff demeanor and a cast iron skillet if things got out of hand. It was a quiet place for a beer and a burger (mostly) and it was one of only two places to get a meal in that part of town. So, Carlin’s place was almost a restaurant when he got around to cooking, all of the neighbors who were involved showed up. This is where I met Arthur Almeida and his wife Irene.

Art and Irene were part of the founding members along with Soule to establish the San Pedro Bay Historical Society. I remember that I had seen Art before at some meeting or another but this was the first chance we had to really talk and engage in an in-depth conversation about Pedro’s

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

goings-on. Even then, Art was always talking about the waterfront, labor unions and history. He had an infectious smile that always came with his laugh. This was the time and the place that I announced to him that, “What this town needs is a newspaper that isn’t a rightwing screed for the establishment.” I and a few of my friends who had been talking this “idea” up started to explain what we thought was needed. A paper that represented the working people, that addressed their concerns, their perspectives and was pro-labor, and progressive.

Art thought for some time about it and told us the history of the old lumber schooners that used to frequent the waterfront in

the old days. They brought the lumber down the coast from Mendocino and Oregon in logs cut in various sizes that would be milled at San Pedro into standard 2x4 or 4x4s — in the lumber trade “it was called random lengths and widths,” he said. And this is still a term used in the lumber trade to this very day — but the lumber is no longer milled to size here anymore.

Art proffered that this was the perfect metaphor for what we were suggesting — the newspaper was like that schooner but instead of wood it was words and ideas. The idea seemed to resonate and in the end after much discussion, we whittled it down to just Random Lengths. When the first edition came out in December of that year he wanted to know why the “widths” had been left out, but he was proud to have contributed to the naming just the same. And after four decades he never tired of telling people his role in naming San Pedro’s only locally-owned newspaper and was a loyal subscriber until near the end of his life.

As most of you know Arthur Anthony Almeida passed away April 12 and his passing felt like the end of something that I haven’t quite processed yet.

Is this the end of an era that included Dave Arian, John and Muriel Olguin, Father Art Bartlett, Greg Smith, Goldie Otters and Bill Samaras and more? People who were leaders in labor, environment, marine science and the arts? The ones who always stood up for this town. Much of their legacies are hidden in plain view around here like Angels Gate Cultural Center, the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the Beacon House recovery program. Who will replace them?

I’m thinking at this point all the greats who I’ve had the honor to meet here in Pedro who should be honored with a commemorative mural that tells the story of this part of the metropolis that has remained unique and authentic. All we need is a wall long enough to tell the story, someplace that won’t be torn down to build another monstrosity that is so completely out of context that it makes this community look like anywhere else but here. It is said that if you forget your past you can’t understand your future.

Farewell Brother Art, may the seas be calm and the wind at your back.

Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com

Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya

May 1124, 2023

A New Republican Assault on Children: Overturning Labor Laws

By Sonali Kolhatkar

Two recent exposés about child labor in the United States highlight how prevalent the onceoutlawed practice has become. In February, the New York Times published an extensive investigative report by Hannah Dreier about scores of undocumented Central American children who were found to be working in food processing plants, construction projects, big farms, garment factories, and other job sites in 20 states around the country. Some were working 12 hours a day and many were not attending school.

A second story, revealed in a press release in early May by the U.S. Department of Labor, found more than 300 children working for three McDonald’s franchises operating dozens of restaurants in Kentucky. The children were working longer hours than legally permitted and tasked with jobs that were prohibited. Some were as young as 10 years old.

If such stories are becoming increasingly common, it is not because there is more attention being paid. An Economic Policy Institute (EPI) analysis found a nearly fourfold increase in labor violations involving children from 2015 to 2022.

While this says volumes about existing loopholes in labor law and enforcement, and about the state of the U.S. capitalist economy more broadly, there is another, even more disturbing dimension to child labor in the U.S. Lawmakers, mostly Republican ones, increasingly want to deregulate laws governing children in the workplace. According to EPI, “at least 10 states introduced or passed laws rolling back child labor

protections in the past two years.”

Among them is Arkansas, whose GOP governor is the former White House press secretary under Donald Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In March, Sanders signed a new bill removing employer requirements to verify the age of children as young as 14 before hiring them, calling such protections “burdensome and obsolete.” Her Republican colleagues in Iowa and Wisconsin have passed similar laws. In Ohio, one Democrat even joined in to loosen the state’s child labor laws.

Republicans are invoking such benign jobs as babysitting or lifeguarding to claim that deregulation will help kids earn money to save up for a car or prom dress. But children’s well-being is not driving their desires to ease child labor laws. These lawmakers are hardly concerned about making it easier for teens to deliver newspapers or wash cars during summer vacation. We would be hard-pressed to imagine their 16-year-old children or grandchildren serving alcohol for six hours a day at a bar past 9 p.m. on a school night and letting the bar owner off the hook if that child gets injured on the job — which is what Iowa Republicans have now legalized.

What they appear to care about is businesses having a larger pool of vulnerable workers to exploit at a time when worker demands for higher wages and better working conditions are rising and strike activity has increased. Who’s more vulnerable than children, particularly undocumented and low-income ones?

[continued on following page]

“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. XLIIII : No. 10

Random Lengths News is a publication of Beacon Light Press, LLC

Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach.

Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com

Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg paul.rosenberg@ randomlengthsnews.com

Internship Program Director Zamná Àvila

Columnists/Reporters Melina Paris Assistant Editor/Arts Hunter Chase Community News Reporter Fabiola Esqueda Visual Journalist/ Social Media Director Photographers Arturo Garcia-Ayala, Harry Bugarin, Chris Villanueva

Contributors Paul F. Irving, Sonali Kolhatkar, Ari LeVaux, Seth Meyer, Greggory Moore, Garrick Rawlings, Cartoonists Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Matt Wuerker

Design/Production Suzanne Matsumiya, Adrian Gonzalez

Advertising Sales Richard Vaughn Reads@RandomLengthsNews.com

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ton and 27th Street?

Frustrated in Pedro

Let me say a few words about your paper because I know you have good intentions. I am absolutely sure you wonder why Random Lengths is never becoming a truly great source of information. To be great YOU must stir the hearts and minds of readers, and give them a sting or shock that may adjust their thinking on events which truly affect them; not just BS! If it were me, I’d spend my time focusing on the intrusion affecting normal, common sense alteration to our community for the bad or evil, your choice because it really is happening, and it’s nothing to do with gay, trans, Jews, liberal, bad language or smoking pot. Instead of blabbing about how terrible everything in life and the world is, why not be an ignition point to STOP the insanity going on right now in our community!

Just look out your window on Pacific Ave. Once two lanes of traffic, now reduced to delayed travel, and confusion, because there is only one lane. This WAS not improvement but stupidity. Bikers? Come on! The Safe Streets Act? Give me a break! Does this sound

like safe streets? 100 pedestrian deaths from speeders unable to navigate from congestion and you make it worse?

WRITE ABOUT: In 2012 Janice Hahn said: Paseo del Mar must be returned to use to benefit the community.” If it is a designated service road designed to tie North and South Cabrillo Beach together for emergency lifesaving, why is the road remaining abandoned; even though throughout California similar counties repaired their fractured landslides on Highway 101 in less than six weeks? We had federal infrastructure money available in 2020.

Ms. Hahn didn’t react! In a matter of hours her staff could have forwarded a request for the money, and by day’s end had paperwork signed and $14 million in the LA County General fund earmarked for our community!

Why didn’t you object? You talked recently about bad politics. Why not about this? The neighborhood of redirected traffic above has encountered needless suffering. It never stops! Do you realize how many accidents take place at Pat-

Child Labor Laws

The idea to undo labor laws protecting children goes back at least a decade when conservatives began dreaming about reviving the good old days of children being able to legally work tough jobs. The Cato Institute, a right-wing think tank that ought to be credited with saying the unthinkable out loud, published an essay in 2014 unironically titled, “A Case Against Child Labor Prohibitions.” In it, writer Benjamin Powell invokes an idea couched in the world of Charles Dickens’s dystopian literature: “Families who send their children to work in sweatshops do so because they are poor and it is the best available alternative open to them.” He added that the type of labor restrictions that protect children “only limits their options further and throws them into worse alternatives,” and that apparently “sweatshops play an important role” in the economic growth of societies.

Another right-wing think tank called the Acton Institute, one that obscures its agenda in religious thought, declared in 2016 that “Work is a gift our kids can handle.” The story is accompanied by a photo of a smiling, well-dressed, young white boy tending horses on a farm — a wholesome fantasy that is at odds with the abuse that Human Rights Watch researcher Margaret Wurth documented in a report on child labor in the U.S.: “a 17-year-old boy who had two fingers sliced off in an accident with a mowing machine. A 13-yearold girl felt so faint working 12-hour shifts in the heat that she had to hold herself up with a tobacco plant. An eighth grader said his eyes itched and burned when a farmer sprayed pesticides in a field near his worksite.” Wurth points out the “racist impacts” of labor law loopholes particularly on “Latinx children and families.”

The conservative organization Foundation for Government Accountability has also played a central role, taking the lead in convincing GOP lawmakers to loosen child labor laws. A Washington Post report credits the group for helping push through Arkansas’ new law and for lobbying Iowa and other states to do the same.

Dear Mr. Frustrated,

Bruce

Bacon San Pedro

Contrary to your accusation about our choice of coverage, there seems to be quite a growing need for the kind of reporting we do here that connects the local issues to national ones. After all, we are at the epicenter of global trade on the West Coast, which affects air quality and labor issues, and in turn, impacts the local economy and quality of life.

Regarding your timeline on the Paseo del Mar landslide, I should remind you that this is a city street, not a federal or county highway. Thus, the responsibility for it falls on the local city council member who, until recently was Joe Buscaino, not Janice Hahn. She hasn’t been in that office for over a decade. And the current CD15 representative, Tim McOsker, is looking into how to repair this street. My suggestion is that you lobby the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council and the councilman’s office with your complaints. My understanding is that some residents of this area are just fine with the street being closed and others are not.

James Preston Allen, Publisher

Now, advocates of fair labor standards are aghast, watching in horror at the Republicanled rollback of laws protecting children. Charlie Wishman, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO, told the Guardian newspaper, “It’s just crazy to me that we are re-litigating a lot of things that seem to have been settled 100, 120, or 140 years ago.”

Garnering less attention were the loopholes in U.S. federal law allowing for child labor in the agricultural industry where hundreds of thousands of mostly immigrant children were found to be working on tobacco farms and elsewhere.

Rather than close these loopholes, like Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin wants to do with her newly introduced Child Labor Prevention Act, Republicans want to throw them wide open.

Debra Cronmiller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, said, “The notion that we would be solving some economic turmoil by allowing the expansion of child labor hours, is at best, ridiculous, and at worst, very detrimental to young people.” There is no labor shortage. There is simply an unwillingness on the part of profit-seeking companies to pay workers enough.

Republicans claim they care about protecting children. But their actions speak louder than words: they have made it easier for mass shooters to kill children in schools, and they have attacked the rights of LGBTQ children to play sports, to use the bathrooms of their choice, to access gender-affirming care, and to learn about their community. They have barred children from learning accurate history about racism and white supremacy and unleashed police into schools in spite of evidence that school cops are targeting Black and brown children.

Seen as part of this larger trend, the push to overturn laws protecting labor abuses of children is perfectly in line with the GOP’s agenda to harm kids.

Sonali Kolhatkar is an award-winning multimedia journalist. She is the founder, host, and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a weekly television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. Her forthcoming book is Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (City Lights Books, 2023).

Liberty Hill

the air with the election of Hiram Johnson as governor and the socialist Job Harriman almost winning the 1910 election for mayor of Los Angeles. And similarly, the countervailing forces resisted, often under color of law by the police, the mayor, and the power of the shipping companies who ran the dispatch hall on the waterfront.

The similarities between then and now are too many to list fully, but it was in this context that the Wobblies went on strike, idling some 100 ships in San Pedro Bay and bringing the full force of the Los Angeles Police Department down to the harbor to stop Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, from speaking to a gathering of thousands protesting at Liberty Hill on May 15, 1923.

YZ

RLn, June, 1991 on Upton Sinclair and Liberty Hill—

From coast to coast, civil liberties have been put to the test and defended in the U.S. and the city of San Pedro has played a considerable role in these annals. An important occasion was on May 15, 1923, when famed novelist and social activist Upton Sinclair came to San Pedro to address striking longshoremen. Sinclair, together with Hunter S. Kimbrough, his brother-in-law, Prince Hopkins, and Hugh Hardyman were arrested for reading from the “Bill of Rights” of the U.S. Constitution at a place called “Liberty Hill,” presently thought to have been located near 4th and Beacon streets.

Throughout the country in the 1920s, the “Red Scare” was on. The Bolsheviks had taken control of the Russian Revolution, and in 1919, the American Communist Party had formed. Socialists, under the

leadership of Eugene Debs, held various political offices.

And to the public, the word socialism became synonymous with communism, and communism, an earlier Christian belief, became synonymous with totalitarianism. Many state governments reacted by passing criminal syndicalism laws which were applied to the I.W.W. and those who were against the war.

“Although most states stopped enforcing them [syndicalism laws] by 1921, California continued to use its law aggressively.”

The waterfront was tense when the strike was called. The employers’ fear of unions and eagerness to cut back on union gains made during the war, was set against keen union interest not to lose benefits and to continue the fight for better pay and working conditions. As Walker says, “Strikers filled the jails and the remnants of the I.W.W. joined the fight...”

Events leading to the 1923 strike

But, as Samuel Walker states, in his recently published, In Defense of American Liberties, A History of the A.C.L.U., wills across this nation, Europe was preparing to wage the great war, and the feudal reign of the Czar in Russia was about to be overthrown, shiploads of Europe’s poor were sailing for this promised land, migrating here from the other Americas as well. Foreign-speaking people fanned out across the U.S. The living and working conditions for the “great unwashed of the world” were deplorable. Poor pay, fear, intimidation, and kickbacks were the order of the day. The working man and woman competed for the meager jobs, queuing up, afraid to say a word about bad conditions and unsafe practices, lest the hungry worker, in the line behind, takes their place.

At the turn of the century, when the robber barons had played their hands and forged their

In 1904, a young Sinclair chronicled the misery of poor people in a fictional account of work and filth in the Chicago slaughterhouses and meat packing plants. Poet Carl Sandburg wrote of Chicago:

Hog butcher for the world Tool maker, stacker of wheat Player with railroads and the nation’s Freight handler Stormy, husky, brawling City of the big shoulders...

The Chicago that Sinclair wrote about in The Jungle shocked the world. President Theodore Roosevelt called for federal action and the Pure Food and Drug Act was born. Sinclair the “muckraker” came into national prominence. “I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident, I hit it in the stomach,” he wrote.

In 1905, the I.W.W. was formed in Chicago. The labor union was radical and opposed to the conservatism of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), an affiliation of craft and trades unions. As San Pedro labor historian Art Almeida points out, the I.W.W. was a union for the “pick-and-shovel guy, the mine and forestry, the factory worker... little, young kids exposed to hazardous conditions.” It was a union established for all the workers without regard for skill trade or color, rapidly increasing its ranks and finally coming out West.

By the end of World War I, Los Angeles and the harbor were experiencing an economic boom and the harbor was expanding at a phenomenal rate. Unions had made gains to facilitate the war effort, but now the drive was on to cut back on wages and benefits. Shipping firms and stevedore companies had set up the Sea Service Bureau, a hiring hall to facilitate open shop registration of seamen and waterfront workers. It also served to check the infiltration of I.W.W. members into the workforce. Employers could select the workers they wanted. On the waterfront, the bureau was

better known as “Fink Hall.”

Almeida’s article, “Pedro Waterfront/ Center of Post WWI Union Activity,” appearing in the first issue of Random Lengths News (Vol. 1, No. 1, 1979), points out that, “The 1923 strike came about as a result of the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce’s clamor to extend open shop conditions and rid the waterfront of union influence.” The Chamber was backed by the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association, the Shipowners’ Association, and the Southern Pacific, Salt Lake, and Pacific Electric Railroads.

On April 25, 1923, the strike was called, “A History of the Los Angeles Labor Movement.” Louis B. and Richard S. Perry write that Police quickly started to round up known I.W.W. agitators. Four-hundred Wobblies ended up in jail. Leon Harris, in his biography of Upton Sinclair, The American Rebel, states that strikers “were being brutally repressed by the police at the command of the Los Angeles Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association. The police were said to be taking orders from A.B. Hammond, the president of Hammond Lumber Company, who was one of the leading members of the Shipowners Association and a strong opponent of unions.

The event

On the evening of May 15, 1923, Sinclair and his entourage arrived in town. The next day, the San Pedro Daily Pilot, under a frontpage headline, “Parlor Pinks Invade San Pedro,” reported that “Shortly after arriving here, [Sinclair, Kimbrough, Hopkins, and Hardyman] went into a conference with Chief of Police Louis Oaks and Captain Plummer. At this meeting, they were told that an emergency existed in this city and public meetings were prohibited.” The paper went on to say that Sinclair and the others “persisted in their demands that they be allowed the right to address a gathering but were firmly told by the police chief that no meeting would be allowed under any circumstances and that their arrest would follow any attempt to hold a meeting.’ [Sinclair], retiring to a conclave with his lawyers and other members of his group... again visited Capt. Plummer stated that they had decided to go ahead with their plans to speak. ‘But we’re in no hurry to get arrested,’ Sinclair told newspapermen.” After a delay of about an hour, Sinclair’s party moved to the public arena.

A large crowd gathers in San Pedro to hear Upton Sinclair read from the U.S. Constitution in protest of dock workers’ mistreatment in 1923. Photo courtesy of the Industrial Workers of the World archives

Iggy Pop came to town and I couldn’t resist. I thought I attended my last concert at a large venue years ago, but for the love of Iggy, I dealt with the indignity and expense of a show even at the modestly sized and historically prized venue, The Hollywood Palladium. I was a ‘concert kid,’I’ve attended hundreds of shows in the Midwest and West Coast since I was a teenager and eventually became dismayed as ticket prices soared along with parking and concessions. I learned long ago there are so many great artists, both famed and unknown, who perform amazing shows in neighborhood bars, clubs, theaters, churches, house and backyard concerts, where I prefer the intimacy, the sound and the artistic communal experience. Magic still happens at the large venues from time to time, I occasionally attend, but only when it’s gratis per industry friend, coercion, or when I’m getting paid as a journalist. The larger point is, you can get the real

thing most every week in a venue near your home, without the financial and logistical strain and further insult of preentry airport TSA-like security-stripdown checkpoints, if you look for it. The priority of live music events has largely devolved into a soulless drill down of greed, a ritual of retail commerce rather than any righteous, spiritual rock and roll or otherwise experience. This is old news of course, although it seems to be peaking with the advent of dynamic ticket pricing, where the promoters constantly adjust the price “according to demand,” based on the model that is prevalent in the airline and hotel industry, reducing live music to a commodity rather than an event, like $5,000 Bruce Springsteen tickets on Broadway. In other words, when ticket sales open for a show, they price them at whatever ridiculously high price they decide upon, marketing to the type of fans that will go for it, both to the well-heeled, and more predatorial, to the gullible fans who believe they will attain status by being first in line, or they fear

missing out on a quick sellout, which does happen, but not as often as feared. What happens is, once the initial rush of purchases declines, they systematically decrease the prices, ever so slowly to suck every dollar out of the fans as possible, as the show date nears.

On top of that they ever-so-mysteri- ously add “convenience or ticketing fees” which immediately jack up the price to ridiculous levels, sometimes as much or more than the face value of the ticket. Thankfully, just last week the U.S. Sen- ate introduced the Junk Fee Preven- tion Act, hopefully bringing transpar- ency to this long-standing insidious money-grab that has increased for far too long.

There was a time when venues operated their own box offices where one could go directly to purchase a ticket for an upcom- ing show, but now they choose what ticket company they use, a la Ticketmaster, and funnel all their customers to these 2nd and even 3rd party middle-

man’s respective websites, min- ing your data for profit all along the way, while marketing it as a “for your convenience” experience. (Stay tuned for my crazy experience chasing down a ticket to the MC5 show at The Roxy in LA last year.) Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino recently defended and attempted to explain the fees recently on the Bob Lefsetz Podcast. According to Rapino, the venue sets the fees and determines how much the ticketing vendor receives, therefore the ticket company is help- less regarding negotiating ticket fees. Another insulting aspect of this greed- driven system is the higher the ticket price, the higher the “fees” are for the simple task of issuing a ticket where there is no more labor involved re- gardless of the price. Rapino went on to explain there are credit card fees, facility fees, ordering fees… yep. Here’s what I went through to purchase my ticket for Iggy: I went

[See Last Concert, p. 13]

By Garrick Rawlings, Music Writer

Iggy Pop and The Losers. Photo by Jake Talley

hen Zeus was a newborn, his father wanted to eat him, so the future king of gods fled to a secret chamber beneath Mt. Ida on the Isle of Crete.

There, baby Zeus drank the milk of a nymph goat named Almathea, which means “nurturing goddess” in ancient Greek. He became so strong on this diet that he accidentally broke off one of Almathea’s horns while they played. She filled the broken horn with herbs and fruit and gave it to Zeus. The food in Almathea’s horn never ran out.

This myth is widely believed to be the origin of “cornucopia.” The word is based on the ancient Greek cornu for horn and copiae for copious, which together means “horn of plenty.” Throughout the ages the cornucopia has often been portrayed as a horn or horn shaped basket, sack or other vessel overflowing with fruit, grains, flowers and other foods. Depictions of this abundance adorn the state flags of Wisconsin and Idaho, and the national flag of Peru. Animal horns have appeared elsewhere throughout history as drinking vessels for children, including bronze age “drinking horn” vessels found in the graves of infants excavated in the Carpathian mountains of Hungary.

More recently the cornucopia has become associated with the fall harvest and Thanksgiving holiday. But given its history, I think it’s a meaningful way to celebrate Mother’s Day. The cornucopia also honors the fertility and abundance of our mother earth, which awakens in spring.

Our Mother’s Day cornucopia employs a chocolate-covered ice cream cone as a horn. Since ice cream cones are small, we can make these cones in bunches, a veritable cornucopia of cornucopium, overflowing with strawberry

A Mother’s Day Cone-ucopia

By Ari LeVaux, Flash In the Pan Columnist

Mother’s Day Events

RLn has gathered a variety of Mother’s Day events to treat your mom, or any special woman in your life. From San Pedro to Carson, Long Beach and Los Angeles, find varied events to make Mother’s Day 2023 a memorable one.

ricotta filling.

Chocolate, strawberries and cream seemed like a fitting combination of flavors for Mother’s Day, and when I fed a sample to a room of mothers and mother lovers at a Mother’s Day pre-party, it was a hit.

The filling is based on the filling of a Sicilian cannoli, and the symbolism is just as rich. Using a horn full of milk as a baby bottle isn’t too different from from giving a kid an ice cream cone. A fitting treat for mama mia, or anyone else you want to pamper.

Chocolate Strawberry Crème Cornucopia

Pro tip: you don’t have to wait around for Mother’s Day to serve this creamy, conical indulgence. Makes 10 Copious Cones

2 cups ricotta cheese

½ tablespoon of butter

1 4-ounce chocolate bar

3 tablespoons of chocolate hazelnut paste, like Nutella

2 teaspoons vanilla

¼ cup powdered sugar (optional)

10 strawberries, washed and diced

10 ice cream cones

Mint, for garnish

Poki sticks or other long, thin cookies for garnish

Set aside the ricotta to drain in a mesh strainer. In a saucepan on low, melt and stir the butter, chocolate bar and chocolate hazelnut paste. When

it’s completely melted and mixed, dip the cones one by one, getting chocolate on both sides of the rim. Find a way to support the cones upright, perhaps in small cups, and place them in the fridge to harden.

In a bowl, mix the strained ricotta, vanilla, half the strawberries and sugar. Pack this mixture into the chocolate-dipped cones, and top with more strawberries and a sprig of mint.

LAMI Mother’s Day Sail

Sail the San Pedro Bay and watch the sunset from the deck of a Brigantine. You can sit back and relax or become part of the crew.

Time: 5:30 to 8 p.m., May 13

Cost: $30 to $60

Details: https://tinyurl.com/mothers-day-sail

Location: Los Angeles Maritime Institute Berth 78, 1142 Nagoya Way (Next to San Pedro Fish Market) San Pedro

Mothers Day Volunteer Event

Let mom sleep or join the rest of the family planting native wildflowers, removing invasive weeds, watering native plants, grooming trails and more at White Point Nature Preserve with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy.

Time: 9 a.m., May 14

Cost: Free

Details: pvplc.volunteerhub.com

Venue: White Point Nature Preserve, 1600 West Paseo del Mar, San Pedro

Peppino D’Agostino at Collage

Peppino D’Agostino went from street musician to international recording artist in 1988 when he released two groundbreaking albums. This is a rare chance to see a master of acoustic guitar in an intimate venue.

Time: 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., May 14

Cost: $10 to $25

Details: https://tinyurl.com/peppino-dagostinoin-concert

Venue: Collage, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro

[continued on following page]

Chocolate strawberry crème cornucopia. Photo by Ari LeVaux

Mothers & Makers Type Slam: A Letterpress Workshop

In this four-hour workshop, you will learn some history of letterpress printing, how to select wood type from the museum’s collection, lock up a form in a chase, ink and print. Students are invited to print custom posters with your mom, as a gift to a mother figure in your life or just for fun. At the end of the class there will be a print exchange, in which you will take away a portfolio of prints made during the workshop. This workshop is hands-on and very active. All levels are welcome.

Time: 12 to 4 p.m., May 14

Cost: $75

Details: https://tinyurl.com/mothers-and-makers

Venue: International Printing Museum, 315 W. Torrance Blvd., Carson

Run for the Rose — 5K, 10K, 15K and Half Marathon

Celebrate Mother’s Day by running for your mom or with your mom. All moms will receive a rose at the finish. This family-friendly event is perfect for runners of all levels, whether you’re

an experienced racer or just starting out.

Time: 2 to 6 p.m., May 14

Cost: $24.99 to $38.99

Details: https://tinyurl.com/run-for-the-rose

Venue: 5400 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

Perspectives — A Fiber Art Exhibition

Long Beach Modern Quilt Guild will return during the month of May at the Zena and Pauline Gatov Gallery in the Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach. This is a great opportunity to view a collection of modern quilts and textile art by Southern California creators in person.

Time: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., May 14

Cost: Free

Details: https://artslb.org/event/perspectives-afiber-art-exhibition

Venue: Alpert Jewish Community Center, 3801 E. Willow St., Long Beach

Afro-Atlantic Histories

Afro-Atlantic Histories charts the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies in the African diaspora. Through a series of dialogues across time, the exhibition features artworks

produced in Africa, Europe, and the Americas in the last four centuries to reexamine — from a global perspective — histories and stories of enslavement, resilience, and the struggle for liberation.

Time: 10 to 7 p.m., May 14

Cost: Free with museum admission

Details: www.lacma.org/event/gallery-tour-afroatlantic-histories-51

Venue: Los Angeles County Museum Of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

The Pepper Moons

The Pepper Moons featuring Eva Mikhailovna are heating up the SoCal vintage music scene. Focusing on the elegant, pre-bop styles from the glamorous days of the Swing Era, the group is fronted by acclaimed singer/songwriter Eva Mikhailovna and backed by a top-shelf quintet consisting of LA’s finest jazz musicians.

Time: 7:30 p.m., May 14

Cost: Advance discount price: $20

Details: https://tinyurl.com/the-pepper-moons

Venue: The Cicada Club, James Oviatt Building, 617 S. Olive St., Los Angeles

BIG NICK’S PIZZA

Tradition, variety and fast delivery or takeout—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 are taking all safety precautions to protect our diners and staff. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay updated on new developments. Call for fast delivery or to place a pick up order. Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon.-Thurs.; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fri.-Sun. Big Nicks’ Pizza, 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 310-732-5800, www.bignickspizza.com

1111 BISTRO AT LA HARBOR COLLEGE

Come experience the French flair at 1111 Bistro at Los Angeles Harbor College.

Open Tuesday and Thursday for lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. starting Feb. 23 through March 2. The Bistro is run by students serving à la cart and 3-course meals.

1111 Bistro on the LA Harbor College campus, 1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington, culinaryreservations@ lahc.edu

BUONO’S AUTHENTIC PIZZERIA

Family owned and operated since 1965, Buono’s is famous for award-winning brick oven baked pizza.

Buono’s also offers classic Italian dishes and sauces based on tried-andtrue family recipes and hand-selected fresh ingredients. All you can eat Trip to Italy Lunch Buffet is back. Dine-in and patio service, takeout and delivery.

Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Buono’s Pizzeria, corner of 6th and Centre sts., Little Italy San Pedro, 310-547-0655, www.buonospizza.com

HAPPY DINER #1

The Happy Diner #1 in Downtown San Pedro isn’t your average diner. The selections range from Italian- and 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. Dine in or al fresco or call for takeout. Hours: Mon.-Wed. 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thurs.-Sat. 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Diner #1, 617 S. Centre St., San Pedro, 310-241-0917, www.happydinersp.com

HAPPY DINER #2

Built on the success of Happy Diner #1, Happy Diner #2 offers American favorites like omelets and burgers, fresh salads, plus pasta and Mexican dishes

are served. Order online for delivery or call for pickup.

Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Diner #2, 1931 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 310-935-2933, www.happydinersp.com

HAPPY DELI

The Happy Deli is a small place with a big menu. Food is made-to-order using the freshest ingredients. Breakfast burritos and breakfast sandwiches include a small coffee. For lunch or dinner select from fresh salads, wraps, buffalo wings, cold and hot sandwiches, burgers and dogs. Order online or call for takeout or delivery. Hours: Mon. - Sat. 6 am. to 8 p.m., Sun. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Happy Deli, 530 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro, 424-364-0319, www. happydelisp.com

KO-RYU RAMEN SAN PEDRO

Serving Japanese dishes and signature ramen bowls. Or order your ramen to fit your taste buds perfectly by customizing your own bowl. Order as many toppings as you want and add just the level of heat to suit your taste. Now serving sake and Sopporo beer. Hours: Mon. - Thurs. 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sun. 12 to 9 p.m. Ko-Ryu Ramen, 362 W. 6th St., San Pedro, 310-935-2886, www.koryuramen.com

PINA’S MEXICAN RESTAURANT

Pina’s

Mexican Restaurant serves traditonal Mexican food from Michoacan for breakfast through dinner, and is known for specialty enchiladas, burritos, tacos and mariscos served in a comfortable, casual dining atmosphere. Pina’s now has a full bar and outside dining, so come on by for a real margarita! Party trays for any occasion. Hours: Sun. - Wed. 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Thurs. - Sat. 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pina’s Mexican Restaurant, 1430 W. 25th St., San Pedro, 310-547-4621, www.pinasmexicanrestaurant.com

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. Order your growlers, house drafts and cocktails to go (with food purchase)! Open daily 12 to 8 p.m. for indoor or al fresco dining, takeout and delivery.. San Pedro Brewing Company, 331 W. 6th St., San Pedro, 310-831-5663, www.sanpedrobrewing.com

MUSIC May 12

One Shot Deal Plays Zappa

Formerly called Zappa Plays Zappa, the Grammy award winning band performs a half and half mixture of instrumental and vocal tunes representing highlights of Frank Zappa’s career.

Time: 8 p.m., May 12

Cost: $35

Details: https://tinyurl.com/OneShot-Deal-plays-Zappa

Venue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

May 13

Long Beach Camerata Singers

This event features the talents of individual singers in the group, as they perform solos, duets, and small ensemble numbers.

Time: 4:30 p.m., May 13

Cost: $40 to $65

Details: https://tinyurl.com/LBcamerata

Venue: Wilson High School Auditorium, 4400 E. 10th St., Long Beach

May 14

David Benoit Leads Pacific Vision Youth Symphony

Benoit leads the diverse, multitalented Pacific Vision Youth Symphony through a varied program, performing a musically demanding and diverse repertoire.

Time: 7 p.m., May 13

Cost: $25 to $45

Details: https://torrancearts.org/ show/a-retrospective-with-pacificvision-youth-symphony/

Venue: TOCA, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance

Steven Vanhauwaert and Friends

Consummate ensemble artist, recitalist, concerto soloist and Second Sundays at Two artistic director, Vanhauwaert and his friends share their passion for chamber music.

Time: 2 p.m., May 14

Cost: Free

Details: 310-316-5574; classicalcrossroads@earthlink. net

Venue: Rolling Hills United Methodist Church, 26438 Crenshaw Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates

May 19

Bella & Rudy

Both born and raised in San Pedro, the duo is gaining attention for its acoustic and indie-inspired music.

Time: 8 p.m., May 19

Cost: $25

Details: https://grandvision. org/event/bella-rudy

Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

May 20

Symphonic Rock Dance

Party Symphonic Rock will complete the 22-23 Pops Series season. Conductor Susie Seiter leads this rock band and Long Beach Symphony as audiences sing along to rock’s greatest hits.

Time: 8 p.m., May 20

Cost: $30 to $180

Details: 562-436-3203; LongBeachSymphony.org

Venue: Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Ave., Long Beach

ENTERTAINMENT

May 16

Tuesday Night Drag Shows

Hamburger Mary’s has nightly drag queen dinner shows with different themes each week and no cover Tuesday nights. All drag show performances are 18 and older only.

Time: 7 p.m., May 16

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/Tuesday-drag

Venue: Hamburger Mary’s, 330 Pine Ave., Long Beach

THEATER

May 12

In My Bones

Two very different women are forced to become friends when they are held prisoner in an immigration detention center. One is a West African teenage girl with a horrendous history and the other is a straight-laced botany professor with her own secrets.

Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, May 12 through May 28

Cost: $20 to $30

Details: https://www.panndoraproductions.com/

Venue: The Garage Theatre: 251 E. 7th St., Long Beach

May 13

The Addams Family

The Act Out Theatre Company presents The Addams Family, a comical show that embraces the wackiness in every family. Performances will be May 12, 13 and 14.

Time: Friday, Saturday, 7 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.

Cost: $14

Details: https://www.actoutlb. com/tickets

Venue: Hughes Auditorium, 3846 California Ave., Long Beach

LA Opera Presents Otello

You’re invited to a free night at the opera as LA Opera presents Verdi’s Otello, broadcast live from the stage to Cal State University Dominguez Hills and the Santa Monica Pier. LA Opera artist in residence Russell Thomas stars in the title role, with Verdi specialist James Conlon conducting.

Time: Gates open at 5:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30 p.m., May 13.

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/OtelloCSUDH and https://tinyurl.com/ Otello-Santa-Monica

Venue: CSUDH North Lawn, 1000

E. Victoria St., Carson; 200 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica

ARTS

May 11

CSULB Open Studios

The California State University Long Beach School of Art graduate students will open their studios for an evening of student work from a wide range of media, including animation, ceramics, fiber, illustration, painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking and metals. Find a map of the campus: https://tinyurl. com/4z9e68tf

Time: 6 to 8 p.m., May 11

Cost: Free

Details: https://www.csulb.edu/ school-of-art/news

Venue: CSULB, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach

Sublimation

This is an art show for mental health practitioners who are artists.

Time: 6 to 9 p.m. through June 1

Cost: Free

Details: https://www.galleryazul. com

Venue: Gallery Azul, 520 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Michael Davis: Perception

Each rare earth artwork includes an archival image of a specific mine rendered in classic 3D (anaglyph) off-registration referencing mid-century exuberant optimism, geo-political history, cultural signifiers, symbolic design patterns and phenomena.

Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; artist reception 6 to 9 p.m., June 10

Cost: Free

Details: 310-541-2479; pvartcenter.org

Venue: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes

Washed Ashore – Art to Save the Sea

The exhibit features 16 beautiful large-scale sculptures made from beach waste. Washed Ashore –Art to Save the Sea is a nonprofit organization committed to combating plastic pollution through art and education.

Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., ongoing

Cost: Free with garden admission of $0 to $15, or adventure package for $29

Details: 424-452-0920; https://tinyurl.com/washed-ashore

Venue: South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Peninsula

May 13

MINGLE MANGLE

The exhibition is curated by FLOOD and kicks-off soundpedro2023. Responding to the concept of sound intake, these artists work in a variety of media including various printmaking techniques, sculpture, video, assemblage, handmade instruments, built ecosystems and sound media. The exhibition runs through June 17.

Time: 1 to 3:30 p.m., May 13 opening reception

Cost: Free

Details: soundpedro.org

Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

May 16

El Camino College Student Exhibition

The campus reception opens May 16 followed by a public reception and open mic night, May 20. The exhibition will include daily workshops and artist conversations.

Time: 1 to 4 p.m., May 16, 2 to 5 p.m., May 20 followed by an open mic, 6 to 9 p.m.

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/ElCamino-student-exhibit

Venue: El Camino College art gallery, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance

May 18

Navigating Identities: A Conversation with River Garza

Tongva artist River Garza and Brian De Los Santos discuss the ways in which their cultural identities shape and inform how they show up in the world. They’ll explore how they keep traditions alive, honor their past and how that makes them who they are today.

Time: 7:30 p.m., May 18

Cost: $15

Details: https://tinyurl.com/navigating-identities

Venue: Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles

blockbuster, classic, or world cinema film. This month’s film is Elvis (2022).

Time: 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., May 25

Cost: Free

Details: www.pvld.org

Venue: Peninsula Center Library

Community Room, 701 Silver Spur Road, Rolling Hills Estates

COMMUNITY

May 13

On the Record: Vinyl Fair

FOOD

May 13

Homesĭtē Culinary Performance Community members will have the opportunity to share a story and/or demonstrate the recipe of a dish that means home to them and share a taste of the prepared food.

Time: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/homesite-culinary-performance

Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

Fold and Roll

Master the art of origami with an expert from the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden and roll your own sushi with guest instructor Andrew Anderson. All materials will be included.

Time: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., May 13

Cost: $65 to $85

Details: https://www.rancholosalamitos.com/events.html

Venue: Rancho Los Alamitos, 6400 E. Bixby Hill Road, Long Beach

Tea by the Sea

The event returns at the historic Point Fermin Lighthouse and park. Call for new details for this year’s tea. Enjoy a craft boutique from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Time: 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., May 13

Cost: $20

Details: 310-241-0684

Venue: Point Fermin Park, 807 W. Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro

May 21

South Bay Beer and Wine Festival

Enjoy food, craft beer and wines from prestigious makers while raising funds for improving lives in the South Bay and Harbor Are. There are 100 participating breweries, wineries and restaurants with unlimited tastings.

Time: 1 to 5 p.m., May 21

Cost: $95 to $165

Details: https://www.sbbeerwinefest.com/tickets

Venue: Ernie Howlett Park, 25851 Hawthorne Blvd., Rolling Hills Estates

LITERATURE

May 11

The Man Behind the Monsters

Join a special evening to celebrate the legacy of one of Hollywood’s most influential film producers: Carl Laemmle, Jr., with special guest Julian David Stone, author of the new novel, It’s Alive!

Time: 7:30 to 10 p.m., May 11

Cost: $10 to $20

Details: www.hollywoodheritage. org/event-details/the-man-behindthe-monsters Venue: Los Angeles, 2100 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles

May 25

Movies at the Library

Enjoy a free film at the library. Each month will feature either a

Join a one-day festivity showcasing the discovery and love of vinyl records. The event features more than a dozen vendors selling records from a variety of music genres, workshop demos, dance performances, live DJs and more.

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: RSVP https://tinyurl.com/ vinyl-fest-Los-Angeles

Venue: Jerry Moss Plaza at The Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

Outdoor Volunteer Day at Alta

Vicente Reserve

Come help restore habitat on the 22-acre restoration site to create a home for rare cactus wrens and gnatcatchers with beautiful views of Catalina Island.

Time: 9 a.m., to 12 p.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: https://pvplc.volunteerhub.com/

Venue: Alta Vicente Reserve, 30940 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes

Guided Nature Walk

Experience a 28-acre nature preserve with blooming native plants. This restored habitat is home to the endangered Palos Verdes blue butterfly. The walk is moderate. The preserve is adjacent to Rolling Hills Little League Field parking lot at 3011 Palos Verdes Drive North.

Time: 9 a.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: pvplc.org/calendar

Venue: Linden H. Chandler Preserve, Rolling Hills Estates

I Dig Long Beach Tree Planting

Join a team of neighbors, city staff and volunteers to plant trees, reduce greenhouse gasses, provide habitat and reduce cooling costs. All tools and supplies will be provided.

Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., May 13

Cost: Free

Details: 562-570-6866.

Venue: Heart Church Ministries of Los Angeles, 1401 W. Spring St., Long Beach

May 19

Liberty Hill Centennial

The 100th anniversary of the arrest of author-activist Upton Sinclair during the 1923 labor strike will be commemorated with a candlelight vigil at the historic site.

Time: 6 p.m., May 14

Cost: Free

Location: Liberty Hill Plaza, 100 W. 5th St., San Pedro

May 19

A New Free Queer Festival

Join LB Proud Fest, the new queer festival in Long Beach with live music, local talent, vendors and interactive activities. The event kicks off with a night market along the Broadway corridor.

Time: 6 p.m., May 19 to May 21

Cost: Free

Details: lbproud.com

Venue: Bixby Park at First Street and Jupiter Avenue, Long Beach

The Art and Science of White Abalone

Oriana Poindexter, marine scientist and photographer, will share her up-close-and-personal images of white abalone; Melissa Neuman, endangered species re-

covery coordinator for NOAA, will share updates on white abalone recovery efforts.

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/CMAendangered-species-day

Venue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro

Celebration of Cambodian Music and Dance

Join a showcase that highlights Cambodian music and dance for Older Americans Month and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Time: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., May 19

Cost: Free

Details: 562-570-1605

Venue: McBride Park, 1550 MLK Jr. Blvd., Long Beach

May 20

Abalone Book Talk and Signing

Join a book talk and signing featuring Ann Vileisis, award-winning author of the highly acclaimed book, Abalone

Time: 1 p.m., May 20

Cost: Free

Details: https://tinyurl.com/CMAendangered-species-day

Venue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro

Beach Streets Downtown Long Beach Beach Streets Open Street event will span neighborhoods from Pine Avenue to Cherry Avenue, providing safe, open areas for people to walk, bike and socialize.

Time: 11 to 5 p.m., May 20

Cost: Free

Details: beachstreets@longbeach.gov

Venue: Pine Ave., E. Broadway, Cherry Ave., 4th St., Long Beach

Los Angeles In The Civil War Mark the 160th anniversary of the Civil War and the role Phineas Banning played in it, with a lecture by the director of the Drum Barracks, Civil War Museum.

Time: 10 a.m., May 20

Cost: $5 for non-members

Details: RSVP 310-548-2005

Venue: Banning Museum Historic Barn, 401 E. “M” St., Wilmington

May 21

Annual California Turkish Festival Culture, history and food will be showcased along with Turkish coffee, traditional folk dancing, and live music.

Time: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., May 21

Cost: Free Details: https://tinyurl.com/California-Turkish-festival

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

Baja California: End to End Duke Benadon, author of Superb Succulents and former director of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America will be sharing his adventures in Baja California.

Time: 1 p.m., May 21

Cost: Free admission with park entry, $15

Details: southcoastcss.org

Venue: South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Peninsula

May 25

Fleet Week Welcome Party

Welcome the service men and women and enjoy a beer and wine garden, live music, swing dancers and a free photo booth.

Time: 5 to 9 p.m., May 25

Cost: Free

Details: https://www.discoversanpedro.org

Venue: 6th Street between Mesa and Centre streets, San Pedro

Last Concert

directly to the Palladium’s website and clicked the button to purchase a single ticket. That took me to a place called Ticket Squeeze, not even directly to Ticketmaster or Live Nation. I click on the general admission ticket choice for $76, which of course turns into $93.55 after the random, mysterious and nefarious “Service Fees” are added.

If that isn’t bad enough, in order to retrieve my ticket, I was directed to the Ticketmaster site where it requires one to open an account on their website whether you wish to or not — this is another well-designed drill down of greed to mine more of your personal data. There is no way around this, I tried. Once I got through that insulting inconvenience, I learned that you do not even receive a ticket code to print out or save on your device, you literally have to have your phone (or whatever) with you at the venue to access the code on their live website. This infuriated me as I never take my phone into venues. Also, what if the internet goes down that day or your battery dies/phone breaks or gets lost; what if it’s a show where the artist is against phones at the show and you’re required to lock it up via whatever system the venue uses to deal with that — and you’d rather not bring in your phone/ device for that reason? All along the way they market it as “for your convenience.”

So what happens if you don’t have a smartphone/device? For the sake of the argument, I sent almost a dozen emails, made several phone calls to every ‘contact help’ option I could find to obtain the ticket to the show in any other way that I already paid for. Every person I spoke with or emailed told me that I couldn’t get in without it, save for one who generously offered to refund the “convenience” fees but not the price of the ticket. When I explained how awful that was, they condescendingly said as if I was being unreasonable, “it’s better than nothing,” as if they were being generous! Astonishingly, the last person I spoke to before I was to give up on this effort informed me that in this case, as long as I had photo ID and the ticket code numbers, I could go to the box office early, the night of the show, and they would let me in without a device. Not one other representative along the way offered up this option.

Similar but crazily different, proving the absolute randomness of this game, in May of last year I decided to purchase an advance ticket for Brother Wayne Kramer’s “We Are All MC5” tour date at The Roxy on the Sunset Strip. On The Roxy’s website, I clicked ‘purchase tickets’ for a reasonable $30, pleasant surprise — then the fun began. The first option presented is for an additional $6 I could purchase via the credit card of my choice — or — sign up for some online wallet option and pay that way for $0 additional, again driving customers into feeding more data mining info into the system in order to save $6, which I decline. The next click takes you to the AXS (another ticket service company) adding a $29.99 ‘convenience fee’ — so in two clicks the $30 face value ticket becomes $65.99! In this day and age, that is ‘reasonable’ but it immediately made me not want to go, but for the love of Brother Wayne and the legacy of the MC5 (Motor City 5), I soldiered on.

Here’s where it gets crazy. I was still curious about all this and while poking around The Roxy’s website, buried deep in the middle of their FAQ page, I found and clicked “Where Can I Purchase Tickets?” where it states, with a link, that you can purchase tickets at the Shrine Auditorium Box Office in downtown LA. When

you click on that it says that the box office is open on Thursdays; 12 to 5 p.m. only. For several days I tried, in vain, to reach The Shrine directly via the scant phone numbers and contact email offered on their website. Meanwhile, I notice the $29.99 ‘convenience fee’ on the Roxy website has been reduced to $10.99 a week later.

Thursday rolled around and I decided to go see for myself if there was an open box office at The Shrine Auditorium. The bank of old-school box offices were dark and looked closed, there was no signage of any kind. Accepting defeat, I turned to walk away and out of the corner of my

Liberty Hill

At that time, there were still portions of the bluffs adjacent to the bay in the old downtown district of San Pedro that had not yet been excavated, and one high place was being used by union people as a public meeting ground. This was Liberty Hill. The parcel was owned by Minnie Davis, a wealthy sympathizer who gave her permission to Sinclair to speak to the strikers and inform them of their rights. The strikers were longshoremen belonging to the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union 510, a local of the I.W.W.

Sinclair’s party moved towards Liberty Hill, climbing the steep path to the top. The San Pedro Daily Pilot reported that “Sinclair was greeted affably by a score of policemen that formed a blurred rim against the lights of the harbor below.”

“I will read Article One of the Amendment of the Constitution of the United States,” Sinclair began. “It says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”

Officer Henry stepped out of the circle of semi-darkness.

“You’re under arrest,” he said, firmly but courteously.

“I thank you,” replied Sinclair. And so it went when each of the others tried to speak. They were taken one by one down the slope to waiting police cars.

The San Pedro Daily Pilot reported that, “Chief Oaks in a formal statement to newspapermen today said, ‘I hope Sinclair goes to jail if convicted. He is rich and a fine would mean nothing to him. I would rather deal with 4,000 I.W.W. than one man like Sinclair, who is what I consider one of the worst types of radicals. He will not be allowed to read the Constitution or speak at a public gathering against the law if he carries a copy of the Constitution in every pocket. If he believes the rights of the I.W.W. and the striking element were being imposed upon, he should have availed himself of legal methods of redress.’”

It was announced that Sinclair and the others would be taken to Los Angeles, but according to Sinclair’s autobiography, they were taken around to several police stations and held “incommunicado” overnight and into the late afternoon of the next day. They were denied their legal rights to communicate with their lawyers and obtain bail. The idea was to bring Sinclair to court at the last moment, have the judge appoint defense lawyers, sentence Sinclair to jail without bail, and then hide him away in a cell. But someone on the force tipped off his wife, Mary Craig, who had attorneys present a writ when Sinclair arrived in court. So much for Chief Oak’s legal

eye I saw a young woman peacefully reading a book in one lone window on the left flank of the main bank of windows. Startling her when I tapped on the window, asking if I could in fact purchase a ticket to the Roxy show there, she confirmed it was true to the tune of $30 + a scant $3 fee! Even though this was lovely, who the hell has the time and wherewithal to delineate all this crap and then drive downtown to The Shrine (12 miles and 40 minutes from the venue where the show takes place) during the five-hour window that it’s open only one day a week? I imagine everyone who attended the show paid far more

methods of redress.”

The founding of the ACLU

On May 17, the New York Times reported on the incident in San Pedro and stated that “Sinclair declared his arrest resulted from his activities as a member of the American Civil Liberties Union of New York. He said the purpose of the ACLU

was to defend civil rights and make citizens acquainted with their rights...” He went on to say that, “the reason for the reading was because Southern California was building a ‘bullpen,’ evidently referring to plans for constructing a stockade ... to house arrested Industrial Workers of the World.”

Sinclair says in his autobiography, “When I got out of jail, I wrote a letter to Louis D. Oaks, chief of police in Los Angeles. It was printed as a leaflet and widely circulated in Los Angeles. It was also printed in The Nation of June 6, 1923, along with an editorial note.”

In another letter, found in Sinclair’s My Lifetime in Letters, Bertrand Russell, English philosopher and mathematician, asked Sinclair, “Is it true you have got yourself into trouble with the authorities because they take the same view of the Declaration of Independence as George II took?”

For Sinclair, this episode was the catalyst for his forming the very first affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union here in Southern California. He wrote in his autobiography that, “A Congregational minister, Reverend Clinton J. Taft, resigned from his pulpit and served as director [of the ACLU] for the next 20 years or so.”

Singing Jailbirds, a play Sinclair wrote in 1924, recounts his experiences in San Pedro with the I.W.W. The drama centers around the incarcerated Wobblies. In the play, there is much singing of Wobbly songs, many written by the famous Wobbly martyr, Joe Hill, a waterfront worker whose own I.W.W. union card was issued to him by the San Pedro local. The first chapters of Sinclair’s The Goslings are also about the Wobblies in San Pedro.

In a postscript to Singing Jailbirds, an account is given about a conference called by the thennew chief of police of Los Angeles to discuss the increase in crime with his captains. A committee from the ACLU was invited to consult with them. Sinclair says that at the end of the conference, Police Captain Plummer stood up and stated, “Policemen have been made the tools of big business interests of this town who want to run things. I’m ashamed of myself for consenting to do their dirty work.” A few days after the conference, a mob of 300 men, including policemen, seamen,

than the $33 I spent! What a racket.

As disgusting as the overtly greedy money grab it is, it’s not surprising, everyone’s on the take. What is more disturbing is how many folks in our culture today have become so sheep-like and consistently lay down and accept this. This is the only reason the industry continues to get away with it, at an increasingly alarming rate with increasingly extravagant ploys to soak us; their success is our shame.

I digress… Iggy & Co. made me smile like a real wild child for the entire 90 minutes. Thanks Mr. Osterberg, I needed it.

and out-of-uniform Ku Klux Klaners, raided the I.W.W. hall at 12th and Centre streets in San Pedro. Family members were beaten and union men were tarred and feathered. (The building that currently stands on the southeast corner is believed to be this very same hall.)

In the end, the story returns to that day in May when Sinclair was arrested in San Pedro,

to his initial meeting with Los Angeles Mayor George E. Cryer. The Los Angeles Times reported, “A delegation of well-to-do radicals

from Pasadena, headed by Sinclair, called on Mayor Cryer to protest against the arrest of I.W.W. strikers and agitators at Los Angeles Harbor...[and] to obtain authority to hold a meeting at the harbor.” “Nothing doing” was Cryer’s answer. “Too many of the foreigners who come here yap about their constitutional rights and forget their constitutional duties.” That’s when Sinclair and the others headed for San Pedro and Liberty Hill, with a clear idea about constitutional duties.

No longer is there a well-worn pathway leading to Liberty Hill. But in the shadow of the Harbor Department, there is ground that has been consecrated by a struggle for civil liberties. And the memory of a patriotic protest and the songs of the Wobblies linger heavily in the morning mist.

Postscript

Since this article first appeared in 1991, the monument at Liberty Hill was erected, the site was officially recognized by the State of California as historical and a bronze relief dedicated to I.W.W. songwriter and organizer Joe Hill was placed there. In December 2019, the donor plaques were stolen and a committee is fundraising to replace them with a ceremony this September. Art Almeida, the father of the Liberty Hill monument, died on April 12, 2023, and the memory of this incident persists in the very fabric of this town.

[Liberty Hill, from p. 8]

The state historic marker plaque was installed at the site of Liberty Hill in 1998. The bronze plaque was stolen in 2019. A community effort is underway to replace it.

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT

File No. 2023057413

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: PAW CHAKRA, 437 W. 6th St SAN PEDRO, CA 90731 County of LOS ANGELES. Mailing

Address: 255 W 5TH ST 1106, SAN PEDRO, CA 90731.

Registered owner(s): PAW CHAKRA LLC, 255 W 5th St UNIT1106, SAN PEDRO, CA 90731; State of Incorporation: CA This business is conducted by a limited liability company.

The registrant(s) started doing business on N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions code that the registrant knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000)).

PAW CHAKRA LLC S/ KAYLEIGH GEOGHEGAN, CEO

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on 03/15/2023.

NOTICE-In accordance with Subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except, as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. Effective January 1, 2014, the Fictitious Business Name Statement must be accompanied by the Affidavit of Identity form. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State, or common law (See Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions Code). 03/30/23, 04/13/23, 04/27/23, 05/11/23

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS

NAME STATEMENT

File No. 2023083245

The following person(s) is (are) doing business as: 94ANDMORE, 3333 PACIFIC PLACE APT # 623, LONG BEACH, CA 90806 County of LOS ANGELES

Registered owner(s): MARVIN CUMMINGS, 3333 PACIFIC PLACE, APT # 623, LONG BEACH, CA 90806

This business is conducted by an Individual. The registrant(s) started doing business on N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true any material matter pursuant to Section 17913 of the Business and Professions code that the registrant knows to be false is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed one

thousand dollars ($1,000)).

S/ MARVIN CUMMINGS, OWNER

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles County on 04/14/2023.

NOTICE-In accordance with

Subdivision (a) of Section 17920, a Fictitious Name Statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the County Clerk, except, as provided in Subdivision (b) of Section 17920, where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to Section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner.

A new Fictitious Business Name Statement must be filed before the expiration. Effective January 1, 2014, the Fictitious Business Name Statement must be accompanied by the

Affidavit of Identity form. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a Fictitious Business Name in violation of the rights of another under Federal, State, or common law (See Section 14411 et seq., Business and Professions Code). 4/27, 5/11, 5/28, 6/6/23

PLEASE HELP!

Animals at the Harbor Animal Shelter have ongoing need for used blankets, comforters, pet beds.* Drop off at Harbor Animal Shelter 957 N. Gaffey St.,San Pedro • 888-452-7381, x 143

PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET!

*In any condition. We will wash and mend.

FREEDOM. TO BE YOU.

If you think oxygen therapy means slowing down, it’s time for a welcome breath of fresh air.

1-888-887-3816

ACROSS

1. “Don’t hassle the ___”

5. Pine for

9. Red Sea parter

14. Stuff in lotions

15. Aqueduct feature

16. “The Jetsons” dog

17. MVP of Super Bowl XXIII (23)

19. “Like, run, ___!”

20. Moving day vehicle

21. Source of vibranium in the Marvel universe

23. ___ Martin (007’s auto)

26. Contented murmurs

28. Replaceable oboe part

29. Early 1900s “King of Broadway” whose musical “Little Johnny Jones” is credited with popularizing “23 skidoo”

32. “Baker Street” instrument

33. Movie with Blu the macaw

34. Accelerator particles

37. His jersey #23 was retired by two NBA teams (even though he never played for one of them)

42. Swindle

43. Part of TTYL

44. Talk too much

46. “Quiz Show” actor whose character reels off “23”-based facts before a pivotal scene

51. World Golf Hall of Famer

___ Aoki

54. Heady beverage

55. Tennis player Naomi

56. Infomercial line

58. “What ___ we going to do?”

59. Arthouse film, usually

60. Comedian and star of the 2007

thriller “The Number 23”

66. Idyllic settings

67. Leave off

68. Council Bluffs’ state

69. Olympic flag feature

70. Cellphone signal “measurement”

71. Not easily understood

DOWN

1. “The ___” (1984 Leon Uris novel)

2. Flamenco dance cheer

3. Supporting

4. Zeal

5. Raise a red flag

6. Jackie O’s second husband

7. ___-1701 (“Star Trek” vehicle marking)

8. “Pinball Wizard” group

9. Piece of hockey equipment

10. Hope of many December movie releases

11. Skipping rock

12. Reduce bit by bit

13. “I need this win ___ I can taste it”

18. Bowen of “SNL”

22. “Pokemon” protagonist

23. Merrick Garland and predecessors

24. Baseball stitching

25. Type of masculinity that needs to be called out

26. Parisian’s confidante

27. Priest’s assistant

30. Victorian or Edwardian, e.g.

31. Tire inflater

35. Parminder ___ of “ER” and “Bend It Like Beckham”

36. Bit of sarcasm

38. Sweet-talking

39. Patient care gp.

40. Soup du ___

41. “___ Flag Means Death”

45. Squeezy snake

47. Cable network with a 50th anniversary last year

48. It may start with orientation

49. Afghanistan’s ___ Bora region

50. Common log-in requirement

51. Less welcoming

52. “QI” and former “Bake-Off” host Toksvig

53. Pilgrim in a Longfellow poem

57. “Queer Eye” star Jonathan Van ___

58. Talent show lineup

61. Britney Spears’s “___ Slave

4 U”

62. Space station that orbited

Earth from 1986 to 2001

63. Spreadable sturgeon

64. Ma who baas

65. Talk too much

“23 and Me”— welcome to the new year!

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 D BERTHS 32-34

QUAY WALL REPAIR at 601 PIER D AVE LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

AS DESCRIBED IN SPECIFICATION NO. HD-S3125

LEGAL NOTICES

other upcoming Port projects, you may view the Port website at www.polb.com/business/ business-opportunities

Copies of all Port insurance endorsement forms, SBE/ VSBE Program forms, Harbor Development Permit Applications and other Port forms are available at www.polb.com/ business/permits.

conduct a virtual pre-bid meeting at 10:00 AM, on May 23, 2023, via Microsoft TEAMS at the link provided above. Attendance is optional.

Bid Deadline: Prior to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

Bids shall be submitted electronically via the Port of Long Beach PlanetBids (PB) System prior to 2:00 p.m.

Bid Opening: Electronic Bid (eBid) results shall be viewable online in the PB System immediately after the Bid Deadline.

Contract Documents Available:

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. Click on respective bid Project Title

4. Click on Documents tab

5. For each attachment, click “Download”

For assistance in downloading these documents please contact Port of Long Beach Plans and Specs Desk at 562-283-7353.

NonMandatory Pre-Bid Meeting:

Date/Time: May 23, 2023 at 10:00 AM

Location: Microsoft TEAMS (virtual) Click here to join the meeting Meeting ID: 278 504 581 880

Passcode: CFR5qd Or call in (audio only) +1 323-451-1087,,918865454# United States, Los Angeles Phone Conference ID: 918 865 454#

Project Contact Person:

Victor Sagredo, victor.sagredo@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

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 June 13, 2023, at 5 p.m. Questions received after the pre-Bid question deadline will not be accepted.

Questions must be submitted 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 Non-Mandatory PreBid Meeting and Site Visit. The engineering staff of the City’s Harbor Department will

Site images are provided with the documents for reference. Any site photographs, videos or maps included in the Contract Documents do not constitute a complete visual depiction of the site and should neither be considered nor are warranted as such. 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. Note that downloading the photo images document(s) can be used to satisfy a portion of a Bidder’s good faith efforts to meet the SBE/VSBE participation goals listed below.

NIB -4 Summary Description of the Work. The Work required by this Contract includes, but is not limited to, the following: Waterside repair of the quay wall at Berths D32 to D34 at the Port of Long Beach. Work includes above water concrete spall repair and filling large underwater wall voids. Voids repairs involve closing individual voids and pumping resulting cavity with flowable fill. All void repair work to be performed underwater. See Section 01 11 00, Summary of Work in the Technical Specifications.

NIB -5 Contract Time and Liquidated Damages. The Contractor shall achieve Substantial Completion of Work within 199 calendar days and Affidavit of Final Completion of the Project within 304 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 THE SPECIAL CONDITIONS, 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.

NIB -6 Contractor’s License. The Bidder shall hold a current and valid Class “A”, California Contractor’s License to construct this project.

NIB -7 Contractor Per -

formed 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 SBE/VSBE. 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 participation goal for this Project is sixteen percent (16%) of total bid value. The combined SBE/VSBE participation goal shall include a minimum five percent (5%) of total bid value as VSBE.

POLB expects all Bidders to achieve the combined SBE/ VSBE participation goal.

Award of the Contract will be conditioned on the Bidder submitting an SBE-2C Commitment Plan demonstrating the Bidder’s intent to meet the combined SBE/VSBE participation goal. If the Bidder’s Commitment Plan does not demonstrate intent to meet the combined goal, the Bidder shall demonstrate that it made an adequate good faith effort to do so, as specified in the Instructions to Bidders. 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.

In addition to providing Certified Payroll Records (CPRs) and labor compliance documentation to the Port of Long Beach, Contractors and Subcontractors must furnish electronic CPRs to the Labor Commissioner’s Office.

NIB -10 Project Labor Agreement. This project is not covered by a PLA.

NIB -11 Trade Names and Substitution of Equals. With the exception of any sole source determination that may be identified in this paragraph, a written request for an Or Equal Substitution using the form included in Appendix A together with data substantiating that the non-specified item is of equal quality to the item specified, may be submitted after Conditional Award and 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 Bid Security, 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 Conditional 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 Iran Contracting 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 23 day of January 2023.

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

Poverty Wages

shifts at two Subway stores, with no overtime pay because they say one store is owned by the father and the other store is owned by the son, so they say it is different companies,” said Gloria Gonzalez Garcia, of San Jose. But the larger problem is systemic. “The corporate agreements with the franchisees give the corporation first dibs on the money that comes in. So one of the ways the franchise operators have of trying to make profits is to minimize labor costs,” Flaming said. “And so the problem of low pay and poverty among homeless workers in the industry has origins in these corporate contracts with the franchisees. We need to ensure equitable job conditions.”

Solutions are possible. In fact, California already has one — in theory. In 2022, Assembly Bill 257 was signed into law, which would establish a council of state health and labor officials, along with representatives of industry and workers to “promulgate minimum standards” for wages and working conditions, including protections for workers who exercise their rights. It was set to go into effect at the beginning of this year, but it’s been put on hold by an industry-backed referendum that will be on the ballot in November 2024.

[Poverty, from p. 5]

The Lane Victory Maritime Center is a nonprofit organization and is able to operate through member support, generous donations and an all-volunteer crew

Photo by Lee Uran