RLn 6-24-21

Specter of racism haunts SCIG railyard project p. 3 Buscaino and Sheriff turn Boardwalk into political circus p. 6 mike watt + the secondmen play a night of music in San Pedro p. 11 Sophy’s Cambodia Town offers a different path to South Asian cuisine p. 12

Lessons of War and Gain

Latino historian talks history, fatherhood and what it means to be an American

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

San Pedro Resident Helps Tiny, Furry Community Members

By Hunter Chase, Community News Reporter

1,247,899 total cases of COVID-19 reported since the beginning of the pandemic New deaths reported in LA County as of June 22: 5 • New cases reported as of June 22: 172

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Feral kittens at the 6th and Mesa parking lot. Photo by Chris Villanueva

[See Lessons, p. 4]

If Gina Lumbruno had been anyone else, she would have had a gun to her neck.

A Port Police officer told her this while she was attempting to show him the traps she uses to catch stray cats.

On Jan. 20, Lumbruno was confronted by Officer Aldo Morales and Officer Stacey Creech at lots E and F on the property of the Port of Los Angeles. She was feeding cats at the time and the officers tried to discourage her from doing so.

Lumbruno said that she doesn’t just feed them, she traps them as well. Morales asked to see the traps.

“I turned around to show him the traps in my car,” Lumbruno said. “I went to open the door, and the next thing I know, he comes rushing over, he’s like at the back of my neck. And he said to me, right in my neck, ‘You’re lucky that I don’t see you as a threat, because if you were anybody else, my gun would be in your neck.’”

[See Feral Cats, p. 7]

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

Quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2967, Carlos Portillo. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

When I met up with him at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2967 in Wilmington, Post Quartermaster Carlos Portillo showed me a document listing medal of honor recipients with Spanish surnames through all of the wars fought in U.S. history dating back to the Civil War. “There are 61 Latino or Hispanic, or whatever people want to label us, recipients of the Medal of Honor,” Portillo said. “They break it down by military service ...

Army, Marines and posthumously. Forty-one of them were honored in person, out of a total of 61 Medal of Honor recipients.”

Portillo is a second-generation veteran who served in the Vietnam War. His father served in World War II. Portillo reminded me that the last time I interviewed him, he was still a careerist, working as a facilities specialist while he was curating Hispanics in the American Civil War. That was back in 2005.

Since then, he joined the VFW and became the quartermaster at the Wilmington Post and is also a part of the San Pedro Battleship American Legion. To date, he’s been entertaining the notion of going back to the Drum Barracks and curating a refresher on Hispanics in the American Civil War exhibition.

Another reason I was intrigued by Portillo was because of my vague recollection that his family was five (now six) generations deep and happened to reside in one of San Pedro’s oldest French colonial style homes (built in 1929).

Portillo made sure I didn’t confuse my vague recollections for facts.

“Well, [you must] remember the original Sepulveda house ... real Dodson-Sepulveda house if you look at your history, that’s actually on 13th Street near Richard Dana Junior High School,” Mr. Portillo reminded me.

His wife and daughter turned their French colonial home into an event space, hosting weddings and other

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Juneteenth 400 in San Pedro

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

On June 19, celebrants of Juneteenth 400 in San Pedro joined the boat parade on a tallship on a day filled with fire boat water displays, tallship pageantry and fireworks in the Los Angeles harbor.

This celebration originated in Galveston, Texas on June 19, 1865. This date is commemorated as the anniversary date of the June 19, 1865 announcement by Union Army general Gordon Granger, when he proclaimed the end of slavery in Texas, the last remaining place where enslaved African Americans learned that their freedom had been purchased by the

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American Civil War. Event organizer Joe Gatlin, of the San Pedro/ Wilmington chapter of the NAACP, described this year’s celebration as a first of its kind event that will serve as a launching pad to sign up youth from traditionally disadvantaged communities to join the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s TopSail STEM Youth Program and acquire maritime and leadership-oriented skills.

This year’s celebration was made particularly memorable by President Joe Biden signing legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday on June 17. Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area Long Beach Extends Emergency Rental Assistance Deadline

Long Beach, for the second time, has extended by 30 days the deadline for residential landlords and tenants to apply for the Long Beach Emergency Rental Assistance Program or LB-ERAP. The new deadline for the program is now July 11, 2021.

All LB-ERAP applications can be submitted via the program’s online information and service portal at longbeach.gov/erap.

A second extension of the LB-ERAP application deadline is being provided as additional federal funding, which the city was expecting through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, recently became available. Additional funding of $21.4 million has increased the total program budget to $51.4 million, allowing the city to extend the application period to assist additional applicants.

Details: 833-358-5372; longbeach.gov/erap.

Emergency Tenant Protections Set to Expire June 30

On June 30, 2021, emergency tenant protections are set to expire. That means, unless the protections are extended, renters will have to go back to paying full rent on time each month to avoid eviction.

Lawmakers are considering an extension and may extend tenant protections past June 30, but it’s important for Los Angeles renters and landlords to know their rights and be prepared.

Details: www.dcba.lacounty.gov/newsroom/ emergency-tenant-protections

Long Beach Extends Emergency Rental Assistance Program

The City of Long Beach is again giving residential landlords and tenants more time to apply for its Emergency Rental Assistance program, this time by 30 days.

Details: www.longbeach.gov/press-releases/ emergency-rental-assistance

Lunch at the Library Returns to Select LA County Libraries

Los Angeles County Library’s annual Lunch at the Library program is back, providing free graband-go meals to children during the summer. This year, two healthy meals — reheatable lunch and breakfast — will be available daily for no-contact pickup on a first come, first served basis from June 14 to Aug. 6 (except July 5).

Details: https://lacountylibrary.org/SummerLunch

The Long Beach Bacolod Association and Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Community Advisory Council invite you to a drive-thru food distribution, June 26. Food is donated to the LASD Community Advisory Council by food banks Heart of Compassion and City of Refuge. During the food drive at St. Barnabas Parish, cars will be directed to a designated parking area and volunteers will bring one or two boxes of food to the car.

Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. June 26.

Details: 213-440-2707 Venue: St. Barnabas Catholic Church, 3996 Orange Ave., Long Beach

Every 10 Years, California Draws the Lines

During Summer 2021, the Citizens Redistricting Commission or CRC will conduct 10 public hearings, ensuring residents’ ability to participate from all five Supervisorial Districts. At these hear[See Announcements, p. 6]

The specter of environmental racism permeated the Port of Los Angeles’ June 15 public hearing on the Southern California International Gateway, also known as the SCIG project, just two days before Juneteenth was signed into law as a federal holiday.

The disconnect between the port’s plan (only partially discussed in its revised draft environmental impact report) and the new national holiday was staggering. A chorus of community members explicitly condemned the environmental racism involved, while representatives of the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, or AQMD, echoed their criticisms in more muted tones, focused specifically on formal failings in the EIR. “This project is racist,” said Paola Dela Cruz-Pérez, youth organizer with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “This project and your deliberate choices to continue bringing it back are oppressive and I’m here to tell you: Not today, oppressors. Not today.”

“We oppose this project for many reasons that have been described by many members of the community today,” said NRDC attorney Julia Jonas-Day. “First and foremost because it will disproportionately impact low income and communities of color already overburdened by pollution, as the revised draft EIR itself makes clear.”

That disproportionate impact was “the one thing you all have been truthful about,” said mark! Lopez, former head of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “That is literally the definition of environmental racism.

“Mayor Garcetti, this is your environmentally racist project. Gene Seroka, this is your environmentally racist project. Chris Cannon, this is your environmentally racist legacy.”

“SCIG is located in an environmental justice area heavily impacted by neighboring refineries, diesel truck traffic on the Terminal Island Freeway and the intermodal railyard north of SCIG,” said AQMD assistant deputy executive officer Ian MacMillan. “BNSF’s SCIG project will further exacerbate this burden.”

In MacMillan’s prepared remarks, he said, “SCIG project will generate significant localized air quality impacts and exceed the applicable significance thresholds for NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 by 325%, 518% and 47%, respectively.”

Local residents have been opposing the SCIG project in public meetings since it was initially proposed in the early 2000s, voicing similar concerns that have been sharply underscored by recent events.

“The past year-plus of the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter uprisings has been the most traumatizing and awakening period of recent American history,” Long Beach resident Elsa Tung said. “This SCIG project, as many, many others have mentioned, will disproportionately harm Black, indigenous communities of color that are already overburdened by pollution, disease and lower life expectancy.”

“We stand with the community, and echo the concerns that SCIG will increase pollution,

EYCEJ demonstrators protesting the Southern California Intermodal Gateway project in 2015. File photo

worsen public health, and exacerbate inequities in already overburdened communities of color,” said NRDC attorney Heather Kryczka. “We urge the port to reject this project.”

“Allowing SCIG to pass is like telling people, ‘If you can’t afford to live in an expensive neighborhood, you deserve to die of cancer, yeah.

Terminal asthma? Sure! Cardiovascular disease?

Why not!’” exclaimed East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice organizer Tiff Sanchez. “It’s racist. It’s environmental racism.”

“If you support this project, you are supporting the death of our neighbors,” Jessica [See Racism, p. 10]

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Summer Public Hearings

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

California must redraw the boundaries of its congressional, state Senate, state Assembly, and State Board of Equalization districts to reflect the new population data from the U.S. Census. The Voters FIRST Act gives this power to California citizens, ensuring that new and fair districts are drawn free of special interests, politics, or political influence.

In the spring and summer of 2021, the California Redistricting Commission will host meetings where you can provide input by phone during the meeting or electronically prior to the meeting.

Details: www.wedrawthelinesca.org/meetings

Specter of Racism Haunts SCIG Railyard Project

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

Drive Thru Food Distribution at St. Barnabas Parish

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

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[Lessons, from p. 1]

POLA Sets Western Hemisphere Record, Seroka Honored

SAN PEDRO — The Port of Los Angeles set a Western Hemisphere record on June 15, processing more than 10 million twenty-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, in the 12-month period that will end June 30 and the first time a Western Hemisphere port has handled more than 1 million TEUs in a month. It was the second Western Hemisphere record broken by POLA in as many months. In May, it processed 1,012,248 TEUs, a leap of 74% above its total in May 2020 and the busiest month in the port’s 114-year history. It marked the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year increases.

In May 2021 loaded imports reached 535,714 TEUs compared to the previous year, an increase of 75%. It was the most imports ever in one month at the port, eclipsing the previous record of 516,286 set in August of 2020.

Loaded exports increased 5.3% to 109,886 TEUs compared to the same period last year.

Empty containers climbed to 366,448 TEUs, a jump of 114% compared to last year due to the heavy demand in Asia. It was the most empties ever processed in a month at the port.

Five months into the year, overall cargo volume is 4,551,445 TEUs, an increase of 48.2% compared to 2020.

On June 16, Gene Seroka, POLA’s executive director, received a lifetime achievement award for excellence in supply chain and logistics management from the Inland Empire Economic Partnership.

Details: www.portoflosangeles.org/news/10million-teus

Councilmembers Call For the City of LA to Withdraw From LAHSA

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Councilmen Joe Buscaino and Paul Koretz June 18, introduced a motion for the City of Los Angeles to withdraw from the Los Angeles Homelessness Services Authority joint powers authority.

The motion also calls for recommendations on incorporating outreach, housing and all other homelessness service delivery programs within a city department, or a new stand-alone city agency.

Operating with an annual budget of nearly $1 billion provided by federal, state, county, and city funds, one of LAHSA’s core functions is street outreach to the homeless population, ensuring they receive resources, shelter and eventually permanent housing.

The city pays LAHSA nearly $300 million a year to perform this function on its behalf.

The motion will be heard in the city’s Homelessness and Poverty Committee at a forthcoming meeting.

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Carson Harnesses $65 Billion Housing Program for Affordable Luxury Housing

CARSON — The California Statewide Community Development Authority or CSCDA has issued more than $65 billion in bonds for more than 1,700 public benefit financings, including creating or preserving workforce housing for middle-income families. Carson is taking advantage of this program to attract employers who provide medium and high-wage jobs and to help Carson’s middle-income professionals find affordable luxury housing in the city.

In the Southern California rental market, even middle-income residents have difficulty affording rent and other necessities such as food, clothing and medical care, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, rents often consumed up to 50% of a family’s income.

[See News Briefs, p. 10]

Lessons Learned

special occasions there. Portillo noted that they chose the name “Sepulveda Home,” because it was on Sepulveda Street. The home was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2016.

For about an hour and 10 minutes, Mr. Portillo and I talked about the pandemic and the good that came from it; and war and the good and the bad that comes from that. We talked about civil rights and the fact that we’re back where we began. But our conversations started with the Californios.

In Portillo’s view, war and the COVID-19 pandemic are just a couple of more processes by which humanity evolves.

Every two months, the grandfather of six publishes a newsletter called Goosetown News.

He read from a piece he wrote in the latest publication about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: As we emerge from this pandemic that literally shut down the world, we must pause and give thanks to our creator, to the universe and to the scientists who are figuring out how to slow the destruction of humanity. And we must give thanks to ourselves for having faith, patience and the spirit to weather the storm. Humanity will be experiencing a new renaissance, a rebirth, rejuvenation and evolve into better human beings....

Portillo went on to note that while the pandemic has hurt the country economically and put a lot of people out of work, it has also really helped “homo sapiens” in this country to stop stealing.

“We were bullying ourselves ... we were bullying other people ... we were bullying the underserved classes,” Portillo said. “It is time that we all own up to it. How can we make this a better world? How can we share the planet?

We can’t hide anymore. We need to embrace Americanism. Because it’s all we have going.”

Portillo has three children, all of whom are grown and are parents to their own children. His oldest grandchild has just graduated from high school.

Portillo noted that his grandchildren are just learning how to survive the anxieties of growing up and deal with their hormones during the pandemic. It’s been a major challenge for every child, he said.

“We had to teach our kids this last year how to accept solitude ... how to accept boredom ... how to entertain yourself one day at a time without going nuts,” he said. “So, the pandemic has done more than parents can teach their kids.”

He offers the kind of guidance, support and advice to his children that comes with age and maturity.

“We mellow out as we get older and we share that with our kids,” Portillo said. “Take it easy.

Don’t sweat the small stuff; don’t let the large stuff bring you down.”

Portillo said the history as it pertains to California and the American Civil War was part of that evolution.

“These guys that had land and knew they were going to lose it, embraced Americanism,” he said, bluntly. “They had no choice. You can be on the winning side or be on the losing side; you’re not going to know which side you’re on; you’re going to lose some and hopefully keep some and that’s what happened here. That’s evolution. So do I look back at it and feel negative about it?

It’s reality.

“You have to remember, and this probably

Carlos Portillo curated the Hispanics in the Civil War exhibit at Banning Museum in 2005.

Photo by Arturo Garcia-Ayala

applies to a lot of Latino-Hispanic families during that era [...],” Portillo said. “A lot of these guys probably never heard about the American Civil War.” Look at some of the photographs from that time, Portillo pointed out.

“These guys were farmers,” Portillo said.

“These guys were cowboys, just out there trying to earn a day’s wage. Remember, the Civil War happened 15 years after the Mexican-American War, the war in which [Mexican President] Santa Ana gave away the whole store to save his ass. including Arizona, New Mexico, California and probably a few others on that list. Once the U.S. took over this territory, a lot of the Californios saw what was coming.”

He pointed to the big families — like those of Californio Gov. Pio Pico (who resided in early Los Angeles) and Californio Gen. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo in Northern California, which consisted of the Bay Area.

“A lot of the big-name families thought they were going to lose everything to the U.S.,” he said. “So, they did what they thought was in their business interest during the Civil War.” Portillo noted the Californio soldiers participated in the war on the side of the North and the South.

“They formed their own regiments of troops,” Portillo noted. “Some of these guys came up as lancers because they were cowboys and they basically only had lances. That’s how they came ready for battle. They marched down here, in Wilmington, to the drum barracks, to go East to join the Civil War. The only skirmishes they encountered were Indians in Arizona. But they were ready. They were in uniform and they were sworn in to protect the Union.

“Those in the South fought to save the Confederacy. So you had bands of troops with different titles. Their effort netted the average soldier a couple of meals a day and a fresh horse.

For the really wealthy ones, the Californios, they knew they were going to lose everything they had, unless they partook of the war effort. But they lost everything anyway.

“Look at the history here. This was all Rancho San Pedro. The Anglos who came in, married into the families. They did the right things and said ‘Hey, I got a beautiful rich daughter here.

But being an American, I already have points here, right? I’m gonna marry her’ and that’s how

the Dodsons got in and a lot of other families.”

Portillo is a historian and a keeper of this region’s stories. Ask him if he was always this way, a lover of history, he’ll tell you, “Not more than the average.”

Upon further reflection, he said, “You get curious about how your people got here, like, why are we still at the bottom rung?’

“With all of those challenges as you become an adult, you start asking, ‘What can I do as an individual to bring this up a notch or two?’”

Portillo said. “What I did ... I went to school. I went into the military like my father.”

A day before we hooked up for this interview, Cub Scouts and the Brownies placed 500 flags at the Civil War era cemetery. Portillo was among the war veterans to speak at the Memorial Day ceremony.

He talked about the Vietnam War and war itself.

“As much as I’d like to pray that there’s a future without war...” Portillo said. “Since the beginning of humanity, we’ve been warring to sustain liberty and democracy and all things that people cherish.

It’s taken wars to iron all of that out.”

Looking back in retrospect, he said that even though a lot of what has happened is not so pretty, all of it needed to happen to achieve a new evolution.

What does it mean to be a patriot?

In very basic terms, Portillo explained patriots follow the direction of their government, without regard to personal feelings, whether it’s right or wrong. He said he didn’t care one ounce for the previous president, and has no problem expressing it. But when he went to the VFW, he always checked his opinions at the door.

“A lot of the wars we’ve been in, the war I was in was a very wrong war, but I was there.

I didn’t question.... Like, ‘Why were we in Southeast Asia?’” he said. “Were we fighting for the rubber plantations? Were we fighting for their rice plantations? What were we fighting for? You know, my personal values, [I believed] it was the wrong war [to fight].”

Portillo said there are so many components to what makes an American.

“We are the home of the brave,” he said.

“That’s for sure. If you are a true American, then there’s going to be courage in your blood. If it’s [See Portillo, p. 5]

[Portillo, from p. 4]

Portillo

not there, then you need to build it up, because being an American, you’re not a coward. You have to fill that shoe, being an American. You don’t have to pretend to be something you’re not.

But being an American requires you to live with courage. When you see that red white and blue flag, you’re proud of it.”

Portillo said he tells his kids that the red stripes represent the blood that was shed. He recalled how as a teenager, when he was dating his girlfriend who later became his wife, he took a trip to Catalina Island. At 19, he was a veteran even then.

“I was already back from the military. I was wearing a red, white, blue jersey — problem colors. I guess the culture on the island was different from out here,” Portillo said. “Latinos were really suppressed back on that island. And these white kids, they saw me and they were on a trolley going in a different direction than us, so they could say what they wanted and I would never catch them. They made fun of me because of the jersey I was wearing. It wasn’t about my brown skin, but because of what I was wearing.

Not my brown face, but the red, white and blue.

So, being an American, means fighting for that flag, and being proud to fly it. And defend it.”

“If I go to Mexico, I’m told, ‘You’re not American.’” Portillo said. “‘Yes I am.’ ‘Well, am I Mexican?’ ‘You’re not a Mexican either.’

So I’m caught in between there. So you have to

stand and deliver what you believe in. I’m an American and I’ll fight until the end to defend it.

That is a part of being an American.”

Stand and Deliver

Portillo recounted that one of his first jobs was at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, which he acquired after joining an apprenticeship there.

“They would hire like 125 apprentices every two or three years and put them through good training,” he said. “The 125 positions were spread across several different shops including welding, rigging, pipefitting, electrical and refrigeration and air conditioning among others. Refrigeration and air conditioning was the smallest. There was only one apprenticeship opening for refrigeration and air conditioning. They had plenty of spots in the other trades.

“To get into this federal apprenticeship you have to take a civil service test and if you were a veteran, you get 5 points. If you were disabled veteran, which I am, you get 10 points,” Portillo said. “I was working down there as a pipefitter’s helper. That’s how I learned about the program.

So I studied for the test. I was planning on becoming a pipefitter apprentice. If I get into that ... it’s a great job.”

Portillo got picked up as one of the 125.

After the administrator and instructors of each apprenticeship from each trade explained the selection process they were sent out on a short coffee break. “‘When you come back, we’ll have your name on the board based on your score,’” he recalled.

After the coffee break, many of the new apprentices gathered around the refrigeration and air conditioning trade even though there was only one position.

“I kind of stood back, thinking, ‘I don’t have a chance,’” Portilo said. “He calls us up one at a time. He looks at my record and notices that I worked as a pipefitter, then says, ‘You want to be a pipefitter, don’t you?’”

“I said, ‘Well, sir, I did ... but since I’m No. 1 now, I’d like to take that experience and get into the refrigeration air conditioning trade.’ There was an instructor and one other guy. He brought the administrator of the apprenticeship program to discuss this guy, who wants to get into it. Let me tell you, I was the first non-Caucasian to get into that training. But I had to stand and deliver.

I had to convince them why. Well, you have experience as a pipefitter. But now that I’m No. 1, that’s what I want and I got in.

“Let me tell you, I had to fight my way

through because I broke that ceiling. And there were some really racist guys in that shop,” he recalled.

“They made it miserable for me and I could have easily caved in and lost my cool and said, ‘Screw this; it’s not worth it.’ But I fought and I stayed in there. Finally, they approached me one day and I asked, ‘Did you serve in the military?’ “‘No, I didn’t and I don’t have to,’ they said. “‘Well, I did. So I can say I’m more American than you because I risked my life for this country.

What have you done?’” Portillo recounted. “It hasn’t been an easy journey for me but that’s what being an American means. Especially when you’re the minority ... you’re underrepresented ... underserved. You have to be tough.”

Portillo says his upright style has often been interpreted as him having a chip on his shoulder.

“Sometimes you have to have that chip on your shoulder to show that you won’t be steamrolled,” Portillo retorted.

Life After Mother

Getting a Conservatorship Shouldn’t Be Like This

By Lyn Jensen, Columnist

June 24 - July 7, 2021

— weeks or months away. Then I’d have to go, too and hope any questions I asked about the patient’s inability to handle her own affairs weren’t met with hysteria (from the patient) and/or stonewalling about “patient confidentiality” (from the HMO). They often were.

According to the HMO, they couldn’t discuss my mother’s condition with me because my name wasn’t on her chart as someone to discuss her condition with. When I protested I was my mother’s next-of-kin, a staffer mansplained, “California has no next-of-kin law, do you understand?”

I told her, law or no law, I was my mother’s next of kin — and still got nowhere.

Trying to talk to my mother got either, “None of your business!” or else screaming that my name was there, although according to the HMO, it wasn’t.

After a wasted year someone coughed up a phone number for a senior case manager at the HMO. He said he’d flag my mother’s file for a “cap dec” (capacity declaration). She didn’t see her regular doctor again, though, until after she was placed in a nursing home in July 2019, two years after her dementia diagnosis. The doctor passed the buck, saying a neurologist would have to fill out the cap dec. First available neurology appointment? That’d be in November.

I was reluctant to go to random lawyers after the prior experiences, but I got an old-fashioned Orange County phone book and called lawyers, left messages. One message found a family-law lawyer who took the case. She pried a cap dec out of the HMO and a conservatorship out of the Orange County court system — a whole four days before my mother died.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

After my mother had a stroke and was diagnosed with dementia in 2017, I knew all the efforts of encouraging her to plan her estate were unsuccessful. Her dementia no longer allowed her to understand the situation and she was as unreasonable as ever.

When persuasion fails and family finances are at risk, a conservatorship may be the answer, but getting one took me two years, encountering obstacles whether I approached the situation as a legal or medical matter.

Lawndale, where my father once resided, had a senior advocate who was helpful with him, so I contacted that service for advice. The woman directed me to a legal-aid clinic that offered sporadic appointments at various Harbor Area senior centers. I went to one in Wilmington, where the legal “advice” consisted of a sales pitch for the clinic. Except the clinic practiced only in Los Angeles County — I needed someone who practiced in Orange County — they couldn’t help me there.

Neither Anaheim nor Orange County had a senior advocate similar to Lawndale, while Carson, where I resided, was useless, too. I paid for a referral from the Orange County bar and may have got the slimiest member they had. The guy jerked me around for a year, scoffing at the medical documents I produced and advising, “Talk to your mother some more,” before he all but ran me out of his office. He treated me like a greedy gold-digger, not someone who needed legal action.

My mother’s health insurance was part of her pension. She had to use the bureaucratic health maintenance organization, or HMO, that came with it. I couldn’t just call my mother’s HMO and talk. The patient had to have an appointment

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Buscaino and Sheriff Turn Boardwalk into Political Circus

By John Seeley, Venice Reporter

The Venice Boardwalk, long viewed by some visitors as a low-key freak show, transformed in June into a full-fledged three-ring political circus when a long-shot, would-be mayor, a troubled sheriff and foes of the Westside’s city councilman kicked off their 2022 campaigns a year early, drafting Venice’s beachside tent-dwellers as the menace or symbols of “anarchy” they will run against.

District 15’s Los Angeles city councilman,

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area ings, the CRC will present an overview of the redistricting process, legal considerations, outreach efforts, public access plan, and a timeline.

Public input is valuable. These hearings are important for receiving public comments and input from communities of interest. Members of the public are welcome to make live comments at the public hearings or submit public comments ahead of time at, www.docs.google.com/forms/publiccomments You can attend more than one public hearing.

If you are unable to attend the scheduled public hearing for your area, please attend another or submit a written comment.

To attend or participate virtually: www.us02web.zoom.us#success To listen only, call 669-900-9128, enter: 827 2606 0927# To view via web on YouTube: www.youtube. com/LACountyRedistricting To submit written comments: www.writtenforms/comments For members of the public who would like to submit any attachments, please email to the Clerk (Thai Le) at tle@crc.lacounty.gov To review agenda and submitted materials: www.redistricting.lacounty.gov/virtual-meetings In-person sites: Slated for August, 2021, on – locations to be announced Details: www.redistricting.lacounty.gov/publichearings

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Opportunities for Empowerment: Creating LGBTQ+ Inclusive Workplaces

To commemorate Pride Month, Controller Ron Galperin is hosting a discussion in his Conversations with the Controller series featuring civic, business and nonprofit leaders in the LGBTQ+ community.

Scheduled for June 24, the event will highlight how the different sectors have worked to uplift LGBTQ+ employees and eliminate barriers to advancement, while also recognizing the important and practical work that remains to be done.

Time: 5 p.m. June 24 Details: www.us02web.zoom.us/meeting/ register/conversations

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Families Should Expect Child Tax Credit Monthly Payments Beginning in July

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán encourages all Los Angeles County families to be on the lookout for advance monthly payments of the Child Tax Credit of up to $300 per month per child, beginning July 15th and continuing through December.

Nearly all families should get their monthly payments automatically, beginning July 15, with no further action required. Families who did not file a tax return for 2019 or 2020 and who did not use the IRS Non-filers tool last year to sign up for the Economic Impact Payments should go online and use the IRS Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign-up Tool at www.irs. gov/child-tax-credit-non-filer-sign-up-tool.

To determine eligibility or check the status of payments and more check at www.IRS.gov/ childtaxcredit2021 later this month.

ex-policeman, Joe Buscaino of San Pedro, chose the Boardwalk as the site for an early launch of his run for Los Angeles mayor on June 7. Buscaino used the locals as props as he announced his plan for a “safer Los Angeles” that would build more housing but also “must engage every measure available” — including arrests — to clear the homeless from parks and other public spaces.

He cited two recent incidents of nearby violence, although the perpetrators had not been identified as boardwalk residents, and urged the shutdown of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, better known as LAHSA, whose policies had, in his view, failed badly. His press conference was attended by dozens of indignant locals holding

Walk, promising holiday fireworks by clearing the boardwalk by July 4. In tweetwars and other heated exchanges with Bonin and County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl — neither of whom were notified of his appearance or plans — he condemned their oversight and asserted his right, as top local law enforcement authority, to substitute his own forces for a “handcuffed” LAPD. While Venice homelessness will be a continuing problem for Bonin and an ongoing talking point for Buscaino, Villanueva has set himself a shorter timeline for resolving problems, which may be self-defeating, considering the host of obstacles he faces.

Among the practical obstacles are a lack of interface with local service agencies that unhoused people know, some of them are openly hostile to what they consider “grandstanding.”

Venice Family Clinic CEO Elizabeth Forer told KCRW June 14 that the sheriff isn’t trying to solve the issue — he’s “trying to score political

15th District City Councilman Joe Buscaino’s fans asking the councilman to save them on the Venice Boardwalk. Photo by Brittany Murray

“SAVE US JOE” signs, and much amplified in the media when an unhoused 19-year-old woman who dropped a hunting knife at the periphery of the gathering was detained by Buscaino’s security detail and arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department.

“I am grateful for my safety, the safety of the public,” said Buscaino later that day after being whisked away; “I am convinced now, more than ever, that bold action is needed to make our city safer for everyone.”

The young woman, charged with possessing an illegal dagger and released that evening, said she carried it for defense against rapists, and had no idea who Buscaino was.

Within the Buscaino rally was a preview of Ring Two, the recall campaign against Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, who is detested by many Venice residents and businesses for supporting a “bridge home” blocks from the beach.

Recall proponents were there in force, but Bonin was not served with formal recall papers until June 15, eight days later.

Later on June 7, the Big Top opened when Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva — facing shaky prospects for a second term after a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, or LASD, killing of an unarmed Latino teenager, refusal to meet with the Oversight Committee and feuds with the inspector general and county supervisors — suddenly appeared for a photo op on Ocean Front

points … stirring up people,” and “just popping up …without coordinating with anybody.”

Six other community groups joined the clinic in a joint “Get-lost” statement. (Others, including Venice Neighborhood Council members and the Venice Chamber of Commerce, countered with a statement backing the sheriff, but these groups have little sway among the tent-dwellers.)

In lieu of local partners, LASD opened their contacts with the unhoused through flyers promoting SHARE! Collaborative Housing, offering “A Solution, Starting at $550” [per month] for room-sharing in private homes. SHARE! does offer a range of supportive services for people with mental health challenges, substance use issues, and peer counseling, say its program director Jason Robison and outreach worker Tom Haberkorn, but they have only two homes in the Westside area. While there will be openings elsewhere in the county, many spaces are committed to locals, and expecting much aid from SHARE!

by July 4 would be “a really heavy lift,” says Robison.

The following week, LASD had less to say about SHARE! Instead, a woman using a wheelchair and a 20ish young man were sent to Salvation Army shelters in faraway City of Bell, while another man was placed in a rehab facility.

A majority of the tent residents I met in Week 2 had not spoken with deputies, some avoiding encounters, others simply refusing to talk.

By June 17, the military tone of Villanueva’s debut strutting had softened, and LASD troops evolved into a pizza posse, dispensing lunches with or without pepperoni; conversations on housing was also optional. At an adjacent free haircut service in the same parking lot, a persistent deputy sealed the deal during his trim with a young tent-dweller, who agreed to relocate to a Salvation Army shelter 20-some miles away in Bell. The posse’s half-day harvest was only three campers, even though two dozen deputies and other outreach personnel were on duty. Next week, said Lt. Geff Deedrick, his LASD outreach team will be on the beach three mornings, but at this week’s rate of progress, the homeless census wouldn’t change much.

The sheriff also faces challenges from activists, including StreetWatch and People’s City Council, who demonstrated against the park closure and evictions at Echo Park Lake, plus members of the Venice Justice Committee, all of whom have been handing out “know your rights” flyers and discouraging divulging information to deputies. A Twitter storm was launched June 18 with hashtags #VillanuevaOutof Venice and #VillanuevaMustGo. Activist coalitions sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors the same day demanding they defund the sheriff’s HOST program and transfer resources to community services.

Beyond passive resistance, there may be legal action pending. While the sheriff’s authority may trump that of the LAPD, he is as vulnerable as the City of Los Angeles to limits imposed by the U.S. District Court, 9th Circuit, whose 2018 Martin v. Boise decision holds that anti-camping ordinances aren’t enforceable, if adequate shelter beds aren’t available for those displaced.

Villanueva may have handed opponents additional ammo in his June 9 comments that out-ofstate beach residents were special targets: “We’re coming for you,” he said on his Facebook chat. “You do not belong here in LA County … you need to pack up your bags and head back to the state you came from.”

This statement has echoes of the Depression era, when another local lawman, LAPD Chief James “Two-gun” Davis, erected a “bum blockade” on the state border in 1936 to turn back “Okies” in their jalopies seeking refuge from the Dust Bowl. That was ruled unlawful by the state’s attorney general’s office. Courts, attorneys say, would recognize no distinction between the rights of destitute locals and those from other states, or any authority to deport “alien” Nebraskans or New Yorkers.

Whatever happens by July 4, the homelessness issue will continue as a key factor for the political fortunes of Bonin, Buscaino and Villanueva. But recent polling suggests that the latter two may have misread public opinion on homelessness. An April survey commissioned

by AIDS Healthcare Foundation found the issue at the top of voters’ minds – 79% considered it “very serious” — but that doesn’t mean they favor sweeping the unhoused away. Most Los Angeles voters ( Black and Latino voters strongly) also show compassion towards the unhoused, with 54% blaming rising rents and inadequate wages over poor personal choices (31%) as the primary cause of homelessness.

A survey of 2000 Los Angeles County residents by Loyola Marymount University’s StudyLA project early this year found that people are against — by 61 to 39% — clearing encampments unless substitute shelter is offered. Two out of three respondents would endorse supportive housing for the homeless in their neighborhood, a finding perhaps related to the fact that [See Buscaino, p. 7]

[Feral Cats, from p. 1]

Feral Cat Troubles Lumbruno said that Creech told her this was how people got shot by police, by going to get guns from their cars. Lumbruno said she does not own a gun.

Morales continued to argue with Lumbruno for several minutes, and before he and Creech left, he said that he would give her a ticket if he saw her feeding the cats again.

[Buscaino, from p. 6]

Buscaino

Life Mission

Lumbruno began caring for stray cats about two years ago, but in that time has re-homed hundreds of cats. She also feeds them and traps them so that she can bring them to the vet for neutering, or any other medical care they require.

“I do the best I can,” Lumbruno said. “Everything comes out of my own pocket, my time … it’s like a life mission. It’s kind of a love-hate thing, it really is a lot of work.”

Lumbruno’s involvement with strays started when she found a severely injured cat in her parking lot. She brought it to the vet and found out about other people who helped cats.

“I couldn’t find where it came from,” Lumbruno said. “But I did find a couple people that were taking care of cat colonies that looked like my cat, so that’s kind of how I got involved.”

Despite her encounter with Port Police, Lumbruno still feeds three

Gina Lumbruno preparing to trap area cats, so she can bring them to the vet for spaying or neutering. Photo by Chris Villanueva

cats that live in lots E and F. It’s a large, open space without many human visitors, with lots of thick, tall grass that hides them well. There used to be seven cats; Lumbruno found homes for four of them, but these were simply too wild.

Lumbruno isn’t the only person overseeing the well being of San Pedro’s feral felines. She said she is among about 10 people who have taken on this responsibility, but emphasized that they do not operate as a formal group.

“We all have our little areas that we work on,” Lumbruno said. “And we’ll help each other out. And if somebody’s sick, or on vacation or whatever, we’ll feed [their cats]. And we also help trap, because it’s hard to trap by yourself.”

Lumbruno gets some funding from a nonprofit called Healing Arts Haven for Animals, which pays when the cats need

vet visits, including neutering. Everything else comes out of her own pocket.

“I pay for all the food, and whatever else they need,” Lumbruno said.

“And they eat a lot, because when they’re out there running around … they burn up a lot of calories.”

Lumbruno also feeds two cats that live around The Whale & Ale parking lot, as well as a group of seven cats in the parking lot of Kalaveras — two of the seven have already been fixed.

Lumbruno can tell because the tip of one ear has been clipped in both, which is a way of marking strays that are fixed. They are part of something Lumbruno calls a colony.

“A colony is usually one or two cats that have either been dumped, or came from another area,” Lumbruno

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

57% worry that someone in their household may face homelessness.

For the central players in the drama, the days since June 7 have had mixed results. Buscaino scored a small plus with the introduction of his dump LAHSA resolution to city council, co-sponsored by retiring Councilman Paul Koretz. Bonin suffered a setback with the service of the recall petition.

Bonin called the campaign “a thinly disguised attempt to derail my efforts to provide real solutions to our homelessness crisis, and the latest in a series of recall attempts to silence strong progressive voices.” (One was also filed against fellow progressive Nithya Raman, the co-sponsor of the softer, service-oriented approach to homeless sweeps the council adopted unanimously in April.)

Villanueva took a major hit when the Los Angeles County Democratic Party that put him in office voted by a 10-1 margin for his resignation, citing the shot-in-the-back LASD killing of security guard Andres Guadardo as well as long-standing management problems. Whether this inhibits Villanueva, or convinces him he has nothing to lose, remains to be seen.

As for the unhoused Boardwalk residents, little has changed, and most are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

“Got nowhere to go,” said army vet Jack on Thursday — “I’ll hang in as long as I can.”

“I’m out there trying to help, you know, help the hopeless, these poor animals,” Lumbruno said.

“It’s just so sad. And here, the Port Police are giving out tickets and they’re calling it littering because there is no ticket for feeding cats.”

Lumbruno confronted Creech about it at the June 15 meeting of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council.

“There was no one ever in danger of getting shot in the neck,” Creech said.

Lumbruno recorded the conversation, but did not issue a formal complaint with the Port Police until June. Since then, the Port Police have interviewed her multiple times about the incident. The Port Police are conducting an internal investigation based on her complaint, said Lt. Philip Heem.

said. “They’ve either gotten run out by another colony of cats, or they’re dumped, or lost, and they just kind of establish a little living area.”

Oftentimes another cat will join and have kittens with the existing cats.

Then those kittens grow up and have their own kittens, and their kittens will reproduce as well.

“It’s terrible; it’s a vicious cycle,” Lumbruno said. “It’s from us; it’s from humans. … They’re not wild animals, they’re not out there by themselves.

They’re out there because they were either dumped or lost.”

Lumbruno uses a three-step process called trap, neuter and return, or TNR, for feral cats. After capturing a cat, Lumbruno and others will assess how tame it is. If it is really feral, it would not be able to live as a pet.

“Sometimes we just have to put them back in the area,” Lumbruno said. “Like the ones in The Whale & Ale parking lot; I have not been able to find a spot for those two.”

There are places that will care for feral cats, but they tend to be very expensive, costing about $3,500 to $4,000 per cat. The money covers food and medical bills for the rest of the cat’s life.

She usually has no trouble finding homes for kittens. Even if they are born feral, if they are caught young, they are easily domesticated.

Not everyone Lumbruno has encountered while taking care of cats has been supportive.

“A lot of people hate cats,” Lumbruno said. “They hate that you feed the feral cats and they just want it to go away, and they don’t care.”

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What the Headlines Don’t Explain About Racism

By James Preston Allen, Publisher

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

With Juneteenth just now being made a federal holiday, one would think that America is making great strides in being less racist — systemically or otherwise. And as much of a milestone as this appears to be and as much as the recent recognition of the Tulsa massacre is — making Juneteenth into a federal holiday will no more cure racism in America than Veterans Day stops us from going to war again.

You see, since the Civil War and the passage of the 14th Amendment, the battle ground has been and continues to be about voting rights — as in who gets to vote and who doesn’t.

What most high school history books don’t mention are the means by which the South resisted Reconstruction following the Civil War. History books don’t delve very deeply into the racially-based violence perpetrated against African Americans at that time. Terrorism was used to end Reconstruction and suppress the Black vote and install an aparthied system that we have colloquial called Jim Crow. Through the intervening years, the argument over voting rights has mostly been an argument between powerful white men over whether Black people, women and other people of color should have the same rights as they do. Frequently, challenges to white supremacy were met with violence, extra judicial lynchings and murders by white people. If you have any doubts about this, just search history of race riots in America and educate yourself.

Immediately following the Civil War, political pressure from the North called for the full abolition of slavery. The South’s lack of voting power led to the passing of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments, which in theory granted Black-Americans and other minority males equality and voting rights. Although federal troops remained in the South to protect these new freedoms, this protection was withdrawn as a compromise to ensure the election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President in 1877.

By the time this compromise was made, the North had lost its political will to protect voting rights in the name of reconciliation with the South. The continued existence of the Black Codes and the emergence of segregation helped erase most of the freedoms guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments.

It took nearly another 100 years of struggle to restore full voting rights to all Americans.

For the majority of Americans (60.7% non-hispanic white) this history has been ignored, purged or not taken into account as

8

it doesn’t seem to reflect their history. In other words we can’t be held liable for what our ancestors may or may not have done to your ancestors. I can tell you that when I was growing up in Southern California and going to a nearly all white high school, nothing was taught about racism even as civil rights issues were on the news nightly. If not for my parents’ political activism, reading Soul On Ice by Black Panther leader, Eldridge Cleaver and an unfortunate trip to Washington, D.C. on the very night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, I too, might have been oblivious to the plight of communities of color.

Like many of my generation, my consciousness was born of this era. The Watts insurrection, the Vietnam War demonstrations, the flagrant police abuse and the criminalization of drugs all amounted to a systemic oppression that is still embedded in our laws and institutions today.

These are the issues that the Black Lives Matter demonstrations confront. This is what Critical Race Theory analyses and Stacy Abrams in Georgia exposes. This is what Fox News, Ted Cruz and others on the far right try to deny.

As I watched from afar last summer, memories of another time came back to haunt me like a ghost from the past, whispering in my ear “the past isn’t dead. It’s not even the past.” A new generation has emerged, and they have ripped the rag off the faces of the old white guys who continue to stand in the way of progress. The times are still a changin’ Mr. Dylan, but “the wheel’s still in spin.”

So don’t try to fool yourselves about the current struggles over voter suppression in many states, the Arizona recount supporting the “Big Lie,” and the filibuster of voting rights legislation in the U.S. Senate this week are all attempts at resurrecting Jim Crow. That we here in Southern California have remained ignorant to much of this history was only revealed by the recent recognition of the tragedy of Bruce’s Beach. Our story, in this regard, is not so unique.

Here in the San Pedro Harbor Area, whose chapter of the Ku Klux Klan violently attacked ethnic dock workers attempting to strike for better conditions under the Wobbly banner — those dockworkers adopted the motto, “An injury to one is an injury to all.” This motto was later adopted by the International Longshore Workers Union a decade after the mass incarceration of the IWW unionists and the arrest of noted author Upton

“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. XLII : No. 13

Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.

Sinclair at San Pedro’s Liberty Hill in 1923. This history is memorialized at the monument of the same name near 5th Street and Harbor Boulevard.

The building, which housed the KKK headquarters, still stands on 10th Street — a silent reminder of our forgotten history. Yet, here we are left with this uncomfortable legacy and the statue of Stephen M. White down by Cabrillo Beach.

For many in Los Angeles, there will be this faint sense of regret for the past without any recognition of the present as they protest the homeless camps on the Venice Boardwalk or at Echo

Park. The thing is, the past is still hiding in plain view, right in front of us, as we drive past the unsheltered encampments here in the wealthiest state in the union.

What the homeless stats attest to is that some 34% of the 64,000 living on our streets are African American. This, in a county where the total population of African Americans is 7.9%. Just let that sink in for a moment.

The causes of homelessness are many and the answers are few. Providing shelter will end homelessness. It won’t cure racism.

Should America Outlaw Homelessness?

“Housing First” is the solution that has been embraced by countries around the world. Time to repudiate the failed Reaganomics experiment and take it seriously again here in America

By Thom Hartmann

America has a massive homelessness problem. We could solve it in a decade or less with a simple solution that has worked very well in Japan, Denmark, Singapore and even parts of Canada.

Simply outlaw homelessness.

Not as in “make homeless people outlaws”: we’ve already done that. It hasn’t worked particularly well.

What I mean is to mandate the federal government end homelessness. And the easiest way to do that is to house the homeless and insure that others don’t fall into homelessness because of health or economic crises.

Homelessness, after all, simply means people

Columnists/Reporters Publisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen Melina Paris Staff Reporter james@randomlengthsnews.com Hunter Chase Staff Reporter Send Calendar Items to: Assoc. Publisher/Production 14days@randomlengthsnews.com Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya Photographers Arturo Garcia-Ayala, Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor Raphael Richardson, Chris Villanueva Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Contributors Richard Foss, Mark Friedman, Thom Senior Editor Hartmann, Lyn Jensen, John Seeley Paul Rosenberg paul.rosenberg@ Cartoonists randomlengthsnews.com Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Matt Wuerker Internship Program Director Zamná Àvila

without homes. The solution? Give them a place to live.

Anyone old enough to remember can tell you that before Ronald Reagan cut funding for public housing and Section 8 subsidies by half in the first year of his first term, there wasn’t much of a homelessness problem in America. Reagan justified this and subsequent cuts in a speech saying that homelessness in America was a choice.

But, prior to Reagan, homelessness was so rare in the US that, as Henry Graber noted for Slate: A 1976 history of low-income housing in America made the impossibly foreign [See Homelessness, p. 9]

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Random Lengths News presents issues from an alternative perspective. We welcome articles and opinions from all people in the Harbor Area. While we may not agree with the opinions of contributing writers, we respect and support their 1st Amendment right. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627).

All contents Copyright 2021 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.

RANDOMLetters DC Dems need to learn a lesson from Texas progressives

When the Texas GOP majority attempted to ram a racist and unAmerican voter theft bill through the Texas House, it was the Democratic minority who dramatically walked out of the capitol to stop the bill from passing.

Many of the leaders of that group were Our Revolution-endorsed candidates, and we couldn’t be prouder. This victory is a great example of why our grassroots organizing is so damn important — to take on the GOP’s growing extremism, we need bold progressives, not corporate Democrats.

Washington D.C. Democrats should take note of the courage of what we just pulled off in Texas.

Even with a minority, we showed a heck of a lot more spine than the corporate Democrats allowing the filibuster to block all progress.

Jim Hightower, Austin, Texas

Trump Attacked Me Constantly

Throughout much of his presidency, Donald Trump attacked me constantly — literally hundreds of times on Twitter, in interviews, even during meetings with foreign heads of state. He accused me of treason, said I should be investigated, and that someone needed to “do something” about me.

I always wondered whether his constant badgering of his Attorneys General to go after me would cause them to do so. I never imagined I would need to be concerned about such things in this country — that was the stuff of petty dictatorships, not the United States of America.

But last month, I learned that Trump’s Justice Department secretly subpoenaed records from Apple that pertained to me, one of my colleagues on the Intelligence Committee, members of my staff, and family members, even a minor child. Then they got a gag order so

[Homelessness, from p. 8]

Homelessness

Almost a decade ago, Occupy Wall Street appeared on the scene.

It quickly adopted class language and pointed out that the top 1% had tripled its income over the past three decades while most everybody else’s remained stagnant.

US Uncut activist and professor Paul Bucheit sent out letters to conservative economists asking them to either defend, explain or justify this. He received one response (from Thomas Sowell).

Perhaps with ProPublica’s recent discovery that America’s richest 25 people paid paltry or no taxes over the past 20 we should start asking them to justify, defend or explain why Michael Bloomberg and ditch diggers are at the same tax rate.

And let’s not stop there. According to another recent piece on Truthout, the amount Big Pharma has paid to its shareholders during the pandemic is enough to buy vaccines for the entire population of Africa. This is an industry that benefits handsomely from government research. Why is this happening? We deserve answers.

Steve Varalyay Torrance

As you know, The Beacon House Association of San Pedro is a long-term residential recovery program for men seeking to end their addiction to drugs and alcohol. In addition to evidencedbased clinical treatment we follow the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous as well as offer career and social skills development programs. All of this comes at no charge to our residents or their families. We do not require insurance.

We understand the complexity of homelessness and the diverse set of needs required to move toward a solution. Beacon House offers any man the time he needs to build a foundation of sobriety and to develop the career and social skills to find purposeful work. Beacon House is not the answer for every man, nor do we claim to be the end all and be all for men living on the streets.

Our door is always open.

We have residents from across all of LA City and have had men from 39 states, two U.S. territories, and two foreign countries find their way to Beacon House.

Our phone number is 310-5144940x880 for intake.

Mitch Harmatz Executive Director, The Beacon House Association of San Pedro

Community Alert

Department of Labor Announces Proposal to Protect Tipped Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On June 21, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to limit the amount of non-tip producing work that a tipped employee can perform when an employer is taking a tip credit.

The proposed rule clarifies when an employee is working in a tipped occupation and when a worker has performed such a substantial amount of non-tipped labor that an employer can no longer take a tip credit and must pay the full federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour to the worker.

The proposed rule also clarifies that an employer may only take a tip credit when tipped employees perform labor that is part of their tipped occupation. It also clarifies that if an employee performs work that directly supports tip-producing work for a substantial amount of time that worker is no longer performing labor that is part of the tipped occupation.

The department invites comments from the public on the proposed rule at www. regulations.gov. The comment period closes Aug. 23.

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Thom Hartmann is the #1 progressive radio talk show host in the U.S. and a New York Times bestselling author. He publishes the Hartmann Report, an independent daily podcast.

Tax Rates And big Pharma Profits

Beacon House Always Open For those In Need

yards or breaking into their houses in search of food or things that can be sold to acquire food.

This isn’t rocket science.

Just give people housing. And run our economy in ways that working people at the bottom of the economic ladder are making enough money to be able to afford to live in the communities where they work.

Wealthier democracies around the world have largely done it by purchasing or building those homes and apartments and providing housing to people who have none.

We did it here in the 1960s with LBJ’s Great Society programs that cut poverty in this country about in half in a decade. Until Reagan destroyed them.

We talk about homelessness in America as if it’s a normal state of nature or the predictable outcome of the human condition. It is neither.

Homelessness is the consequence of greed, pure and simple. Greedy wealthy people who the Supreme Court allowed to own politicians and then refuse to pay their fair share of taxes.

If we could just get past that Republican obstacle, we could end homelessness here in the U.S., too.

People who are homeless because they are mentally ill or addicted need a place to live and mental health services. People who are homeless because of poverty need housing and either a good job or a reasonable subsidy.

Yes, it may involve directing money and resources to a few people who are “unwilling to work“ and thus would be deemed by Republicans as “parasites.” A healthy society can afford a few such people; the quality of life for everybody else will improve so much it’s actually a great investment, as the Finns have shown.

“House the homeless” and “Make sure working people can afford a place to live.”

It’s a simple solution that has been embraced by countries all around the world. Time to repudiate the failed Reaganomics experiment and take it seriously again here in America.

to you. For your support. For your faith. And for your help during those terrible four years and since.

Adam Schiff, Congressman 28th District, Calif.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

observation that “the housing industry trades on the knowledge that no Western country can politically afford to permit its citizens to sleep in the streets.” The word homeless, in those days, was used mainly to describe persons displaced by war or natural disasters.

Reagan famously cut taxes on rich people (the top 74% income tax bracket dropped to 35%) and homelessness exploded. And the taxes haven’t gone back up, and homelessness has gotten worse.

Today a third of homeless people in New York City, for example, are families with children.

One-in-three of those homeless families include an adult who has a job.

Finland just declared they intend to end all homeless in that country over the next six years.

They’re giving rooms, apartments and homes to homeless people — without preconditions that they get a job, get sober, or anything else. They just get a home. Everything else follows that.

It’s an international movement, in fact, called Housing First, kicked off in the 1980s

by Canadian psychologist Sam Tsemberis, that has been adopted in cities and towns on three continents.

The Finns estimate that simply giving homeless people housing will cost the country 15,000 Euros per year per homeless person less than the current cost of jails, emergency medical services, courts, crime, etc.

Housing the homeless in America will require building or acquiring housing for homeless people who are capable of taking care of themselves, and providing mental health services and institutions for those who are so impaired they can’t care for themselves.

The problem here is that having government house the homeless involves the government spending money, which means we’d have to raise that money by increasing taxes, which means that the billionaires who control the political systems of most of America loudly object.

Morbidly rich people, after all, don’t have to interact with homeless people on the streets or worry about homeless people peeing in their

that we would not know. This is unprecedented.

Already, the Department has agreed to an Inspector General investigation into what appears to have been a partisan effort to go after vocal critics of the president and using the Justice Department to do so.

It is shocking and appalling, and yet, not at all surprising.

For years, first Jeff Sessions and then Bill Barr badly politicized the Department, to the point where the former president could call for his allies, like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, to have their sentences reduced or their cases dismissed entirely, and the Justice Department would do so. He also wanted to use the Department to go after his perceived political enemies.

The harm Trump did to the Justice Department, where I served with pride for six years, will last more than a decade. We must do a full assessment of the damage, and develop stronger guardrails to protect the Department’s independence in the future.

But this week’s revelations also remind me just how grateful I am

9

[Racism, from p. 3]

Racism Haunts SCIG Project Prieto, another East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice organizer said.

Carlos Ovalle, vice president of the River Park Coalition, also called it “the embodiment of environmental racism,” going on to say: In the nearly 50 years since I moved to Long Beach I’ve seen my friends, neighbors and family members suffer the consequences of pollution resulting mostly from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Please end this project. My mother passed away in my arms vomiting blood running from the inside out because of two different types of cancer.

Please end this project. My father passed away in my arms desperately gasping for air, asphyxiating slowly like a fish out of water from pulmonary fibrosis. Please end this project. My four younger brothers and myself suffer from leukemia, brain cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, asthma, endocrinological and neurological disorders. None of this is hereditary. It is due specifically to environmental damage from the pollution due to shipping and transportation.

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

There was one lone voice who spoke in support of the SCIG, Chris Wilson with Los Angeles County Business Federation.

“Our ports have seen significant measurable increase in trade activity during the pandemic that underscores the crucial need for infrastructure improvements, [specifically, the SCIG],” he argued.

But Ovalle disagreed.

“Please end this project,” Ovalle said. “It exists only to facilitate shipping and commerce that in the

10

Paola Dela Cruz-Pérez, youth organizer with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. File photo

end has but one purpose: to create exorbitant profits for the few at the cost of our health and our life.”

Missing and Outdated Data

Both NRDC and AQMD drew attention to outdated data in the revised draft EIR, as did Andrea Hricko, a retired professor at the USC Keck School of Medicine, who has commented at SCIG public meetings since the 2000s. And Jesse Marquez, founder and executive director of Coalition For A Safe Environment, drew

attention to absent emissions data about the full work cycle of trucks servicing the SCIG. “You are using your models and not actually identifying all the sources that we have identified in the past public comment periods over the past seven or eight years,” Marquez said. “For example, your project emissions baselines are underestimated and they did not include the 1,000plus truck trips a day coming from their point of origin. They are leaving all over Los Angeles County, Orange County and wherever they’re coming from, and those distances and those emissions were not included.”

Additional trips to get fuel and pick up empty chassis are also ignored.

“There are in Wilmington, for example, over 100 container storage yards and many of the storage yards also store chassis,” he noted. “Many of those containers must also be fumigated.”

This adds even more mileage that has never been included in POLA’s models. But overlooked changes drew even more attention.

“We note that changes in the circumstances under which the SCIG project was analyzed in the 2013 Final EIR have occurred, and new information is available and should be analyzed,” AQMD’s MacMillan said.

“The port attempts to correct its earlier CEQA violations by providing an ‘updated’ ambient air quality analysis and cumulative impacts analysis.

But both are unreliable and misleading because they rely on out-of-date information and are not supported by common sense,” NRDC’s Jonas-Day said.

“First, the air quality analysis relies on baseline data from 2010, eleven years ago. This is illogical and results in misleading conclusions,” she explained. “Many changes have occurred since 2010 that are relevant to the analysis — from changes in the entities operating at the project site to changes in regulations affecting air quality. For example, the 2010 baseline conditions include significant emissions from the operation of Cal Cartage at the proposed project site, even though Cal Cartage is no longer in operation there.”

Hricko went into this analytic lapse in greater detail.

“In 2019, POLA issued a lease to the Toll Group, which was to employ only one third of the workers Cal Cartage was to have, meaning fewer truck trucks and less emissions,” Hricko said. “I sent emails today to dozens of Port of Los Angeles staff asking if the Toll Group was actually in full operation at the old Cal Cartage site and how many employees it currently has. I got no responses except for one POLA staff person telling me I should file a formal California Public Records Act request to get that information. Without knowing today’s situation, we cannot know if truck counts and initiated action are still correct 10 years later.”

This isn’t the only example of crucial missing data Hricko cited.

“It’s relevant to the port’s honesty to note that in late April, the port suspended one of its monitoring sites,” Hricko stated. “Suspiciously, it was the one that the port admits has the highest emissions at the port. I’ve been stonewalled by port staff asking why it’s suddenly depriving the public of this critical emissions information. What is the port trying to hide from the public, anyway?”

Jonas-Day cited further data problems as well.

“Second, the revised air quality analysis attempts to provide more detailed information about the timeline of ambient air pollution impacts in the surrounding community by using six ‘benchmark years,’”she said. “But this fails a common-sense test because two of the six ‘benchmark years’ for which the agency predicts expected air pollution effects from the SCIG project have already passed.

The port should revise its analysis to reflect the [See Racism, p. 18]

[News Briefs, from p. 4]

To help address the problem of affordable housing, Standard Communities has partnered with the City of Carson and CSCDA to bring broader affordability to the Union South Bay Apartments. Under a state program, the rent levels for these units will be set at 35% of household income at 80% to 120% area median income levels making the units accessible to working professionals.

At 615 E. Carson Street in Carson, the Union South Bay Apartments were completed in 2020. It comprises two five-story buildings on an approximately five-acre site and has 357 units. In addition, the mixed-use community features more than 28,000 square feet of commercial space.

Details: www.ci.carson.ca.us/content/files/ pdfs/housing/ LA County May Keep Dining Al Fresco LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said that outdoor (or al fresco) dining should be one of the things restaurant-goers hold on to after the pandemic subsides. Supervisors Hahn and Kathryn Barger co-authored a motion to support two state bills: one on outdoor dining and the other to expand liquor licenses.

The Supervisors voted June 8, to support state bills SB 314 and AB 61, expanding outdoor dining in California and making expanded liquor licenses permanent, respectively.

The board will also be developing guidelines for a permanent outdoor dining program in Los Angeles County. Barger and Solis also offered a second motion directing the county’s CEO to come up with guidelines for expanding outdoor dining options and helping restaurant owners transition to permanent plans.

LA County Expands Mental Health Crisis Response Teams LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors June 8, passed a proposal by Supervisor Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Kathryn Barger to expand the county’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team or PMRT program.

Los Angeles County’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams are teams of unarmed mental health professionals who respond directly to a person experiencing a mental health crisis. Twenty-five Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams operate across the county, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and 12 teams operate between the hours of 5 p.m. and 2 a.m. and on weekends. The average response time is often two hours and the teams are not available to respond between the hours of 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. — limiting their ability to be a viable alternative to law enforcement.

The motion does two things to expand the county’s Psychiatric Mobile Response Team network.

First, it asks the county to develop a plan to expand PMRTs to be available 24/7 before 2022.

Second, it asks the county for a plan to use new federal funding available through the American Rescue Plan to expand and improve the PMRT network to respond to crises across the county faster.

The effort to expand these teams comes just one year before the first nationwide mental health crisis hotline, 9-8-8, launches in summer 2022. Dialing 9-8-8 will be an alternative to 9-1-1 and will connect people with the Psychiatric Mobile Response Teams when necessary.

Details: www.ile.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/ supdocs/pmrt

Mike Watt and DAVE WIDOW Play a Night Of Music in San Pedro Melina Paris, Assistant Editor San Pedro is having a night of music July 1, with the perfect musician to set the night off right: Mike Watt + the secondmen will perform live at 6 p.m. on the corner of 6th Street and Mesa along with Dave Widow & the Line Up in the first of six performances to occur in downtown San Pedro within the next several weeks Watt, known as one of the best bassists of all time, said, music is life for him.

“I’ve recorded every ... day,” he said. “I have it well set up here. The Internet’s not all bad, you can decide to spread BS or you can trade files with people and you don’t even have to be in the same room.”

Luckily, Watt had already been doing that for 20 years. He said it’s just like being in a band when you have to be in the room with the cats, but it’s still a way of making music. Making music never stopped for him through the pandemic. In fact, it increased. He also has a weekly show on the Internet called The Watt from Pedro Show. He did one show a week except when he was touring. Since November, he’s started doing five shows a week. When I remarked that’s almost a full-time job he said it’s not so much a job but a payback for the movement.

“Up in Hollywood, back in the day, there was a scene where they would actually let you get on stage and play and we got involved in the movement,” Watt said. “People were open-minded, musically. It was a rare time … Why can’t them ethics survive?”

By getting that kind of exposure on the stage, trying out and using music as a form of expression, Watt said his way to pay back is with a music show.

He plays music that’s not being played elsewhere, and listens to people’s personal journeys. He said maybe other people hear that and get inspired thinking, “If he did it, I can.” The bassist noted that that worked for him many times.

“Remember the days of the mixtape?” he asked. “Your friend gave you a cassette that had all the shit you never heard before. That’s how you got turned onto Real People, Real News, Really Effective

[See Watt and Widow, p. 15]

June 24 - July 7, 2021

11

F

ood fads are a strange and sometimes cruel phenomenon. Some cuisines go from obscure to wildly popular in almost no time, propelled by pop culture shifts — the sale of Japanese food exploded after a TV mini-series set there debuted in 1980. At other times a charismatic chef’s cooking show or hip restaurant creates an opening. The popularity of Thai food in America may be credited to media-savvy restaurateur Tommy Tang, who exploited his connections among LA’s rock stars and screen royalty to make Bangkok’s bites the hip thing. Tang was doing more than working his phone book, because he also created hybrid dishes for an American palate and wrote a menu that tantalized diners to explore the new experience.

Cambodian food hasn’t found its Tommy Tang yet, and as yet no movies set in that culture have caught the popular imagination the way the Shogun series mesmerized audiences 40 years ago. Interest was sparked in the early 2000s when LA band, Dengue Fever, which rocks out on psychedelia with vocals in the Khmer language, released several albums and that’s when I first visited Long Beach’s Cambodia Town. We went to a cavernous nightclub and filled the middle of the table with noodles, stirfries, and other delights before the band came on. When they did we were transfixed as they started playing traditional tunes for an audience that joined in stately and graceful circle dances.

As the evening went on the music got louder, faster, and more modern, the dancing more freeform and we listened and watched from early evening until the last note.

That restaurant eventually closed and we

Celebrate the Fourth with

BBQ Ribs, Chicken Nuggets Rotisserie & Fried Chicken

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Cooked or Ready- to-Grill

12

Cevapcici

Plus more picnic favorites

The Different South Asian Cuisine Sophy’s Cambodia Town is the gathering place for an overlooked but fascinating community

By Richard Foss, Dining Columnist

little of it went a long found a new favorite way, but if you dipped – Sophy’s Cambodia just a bit on the beef and Town, which I recently followed it with the one revisited. Sophy’s has of the vegetables, it was discontinued live music bracing but enjoyable. for the moment, but I should mention that the food is enough of I was alone in this a draw to be worth the evaluation, and I got to trip. It has relationships Top, a server at Sophy’s Cambodia Town. Above, take a fair amount of it to both Vietnamese beef ribeye with anchovy sauce served with raw home. and Thai food because vegetables. Photos by Arturo Garcia-Ayala My companions the Cambodian were much more enthusiastic about another beef Khmer empire once ruled the majority of dish, the Cambodian-style jerky. This isn’t much both countries, but there are subtle shifts like American jerky, as thick rolls of beef are in even familiar dishes. The menu here is seasoned and slow-cooked so most of the fat huge, and when ordering we let our server be melts out, then deep-fried just before serving. our guide, asking him to select a balance of It’s slightly leathery outside, tender inside, and traditional dishes. He steered us away from amazingly good when dipped into the sauce of some that use pungent fermented fish and rice vinegar, sesame, pepper, garlic and sugar. shrimp paste, ingredients Cambodians adore My friends were equally enthusiastic about but most Californians don’t, but I ordered one deliberately. The beef ribeye with anchovy sauce the shrimp and squid salad, an item that isn’t on the menu but is always available — they was a large salad of artfully cut raw vegetables list this salad with shrimp or squid, but will alongside sliced grilled ribeye and a bowl of garlicky, peppery fish sauce. I like robust Caesar salads, but this took concentrated fish flavor to another level, salty, funky and challenging. A

combine them if you ask. The seafood is tossed in a complex dressing that has a gentle heat from chili, ginger, pepper, garlic, citrus and who knows what else. Even the person at our table who usually picks around the squid was eating it cheerfully. Another popular item was the Banh Cheo, a crisp fried crepe filled with ground chicken, shrimp, bean sprouts and onion.

This was served with leafy vegetables and mint, and is very similar to the Vietnamese crepe with an almost identical name. It’s good, but not essential to get an idea of Cambodian flavors.

Neither are their chicken wings, which are conventional but saved by an array of dipping sauces that range from mild and fruity to one that is spicy enough that I momentarily lost the power of speech after tasting it.

Our server had warned me about that sauce but I had to try it, and after doing so I was delighted that we had ordered Cambodian beers from Ankgor Brewing. The lager was decent, the stout excellent and slightly fruity, and if you enjoy a good brew with Asian food, it’s a must. We ordered an extra one to share to finish the meal, and took a fair amount of it home because the portions were generous. Dinner for three with beer ran just over $100, and was well worth it.

Long Beach’s Cambodia Town boasts many excellent restaurants like Sophy’s but hasn’t become a tourist attraction the way that Los Angeles’ Thai Town has. This may be due to several factors, including the fact that one is spread out, the other compact — they have about the same number of restaurants, but Thai Town is six blocks long, Cambodia Town is over a mile. It’s also more focused on serving the community than arranged around tourist traffic, so there’s less neon and faux-Asian architecture. Menus items may be sparsely explained and you may end up eating something quite different from what you expected. The plus side is that the welcomes are warm and genuine, servers are used to helping guide outsiders through the intricacies of the menu, and the prices are quite modest. Sophy’s and places like it are ambassadors of an ancient and interesting culture and though they don’t have the music back yet, the day may come when people dance the old dances for their pleasure and you watch for yours.

Sophy’s Cambodia Town is at 3240 Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. Open daily 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. for indoor and outdoor dining.

There is a parking lot in the rear. Reservations accepted for six or more, call 562-494-1763.

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

June 24 - July 7, 2021

13

Dayramir Gonzalez Representing the next generation of Afro-Cuban jazz, Dayramir González brings together a unique blend of original and traditional compositions rooted in Latin jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms.

Time: 8 to 10 p.m. July 1 Cost: Free Details: www.facebook.com/ events/dayramir-gonzalez Venue: Online

June 24 - july 7 • 2021 & BEYOND MUSIC June 25

80s Night With Knyght Ryder Enjoy live music with Knyght Ryder, your favorite ‘80s tribute band.

Time: 8 p.m. June 25 Cost: $15 Details: 562-596-4718; https://tinyurl.com/80s-KnightRyder Venue: Gaslamp Long Beach, 6251 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach

June 26

Break The Siege: Medical Relief for Gaza An A-list of internationally renowned musicians and speakers have been assembled for this online event. Artists confirmed to date are Ronnie Malley, Wanees Zarour, Hani Dahshan, James Falzone, Micheal Miles, Carlo Basile, George Crotty, Omar Offendum, Michael Ibrahim, Kayem and others.

Time: 7 to 9 p.m. June 26 and restream June 27.

Cost: Free Details: https://tinyurl.com/breakthe-siege

Blues For All Live blues music event for the Long Beach community, featuring The Disciples, Shy But Flyy & the Long Beach Blues Society Allstars.

Time: 3 to 5 p.m. June 26, July 31, Aug. 28 Cost: Free Details: www.bit.ly/LBBSFORALL Venue: Cesar Chavez Park, 401 Golden Ave., Long Beach The Rattle Rollers Derricks on Atlantic is happy to have back this awesome group.

They are a 1950s style rock ’n’ roll and rhythm and blues band.

Time: 4 to 7 p.m. June 26 Cost: Free Details: https://derricksonatlantic. com Venue: Derricks on Atlantic, 3502 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach

June 27

Bond and the Blues Guys If you missed them the first time, here is your chance. This performance includes Chicago blues, R&B, and a little bit of country. Artists will use guitar, bass, drums and harmonica.

Time: 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. June 27

Cost: Free Details: https://derricksonatlantic. com Venue: Derricks on Atlantic, 3502 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach

June 29

Valdivia X Eclectic, energetic and excellent are three words to describe this exciting local act.

Sign-ups start at 7:30, open mic, music and comedy starts at 8 p.m., feature act goes on at 9:30, at 10:30 until closing, there will be more open mic.

Time: 7:30 p.m. June 29 Cost: Free Details: 562-522-8488 Venue: Roscoes Seabird Lounge, 730 E. Broadway, Long Beach

July 1

mike watt + the secondmen Also featuring Dave Widow and the Line Up. Enjoy a variety of ive, free music throughout the downtown area.

Time: 6 p.m., July 1 Cost: Free Venue: Corner of 6th and Mesa streets, San Pedro

July 2

Tribute To Enanitos Verdes & More Come Celebrate Independence Day early in Rock It Ultra Lounge.

This event is 21 and older.

Time: 7 p.m. to midnight July 2 Cost: $10 Venue: View Lounge, 1431 W. Knox St., Torrance

July 3

The LA All Stars of Funk Featuring an all-star lineup of amazingly talented musicians who have performed alongside Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Prince and Earth Wind & Fire. Dinners must be pre-ordered by 12 p.m June 28.

Time: 7 p.m. July 3 Cost: $32 and up Details: www.TOCA/ LAFunkAllStars#/events

July 9

Ethio Cali Ethio Cali pays homage to the Golden Age of Ethiopian Jazz and Soul, with collaborations with DJs Rani de Leon and Cut Chemist.

Ethio Cali is a Los Angeles-based Ethio-Jazz ensemble. Its sublime sound is inspired by the golden age of Ethiopian music of the 1960s and ‘70s, filtered through a uniquely Los Angeles lens.

Time: 7 p.m. July 9 Cost: Free Details: www.grandperformances. org Venue: Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

July 11

South Bay New Orleans Jazz Club Session This is a traditional jazz session which is free to performing musicians. There is a $12 cover for non-performing guests. There will be room for dancing.

Time: 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. July 11 Cost: $12 Details: 310-377-2441 Venue: Alvas Showroom. 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

July 16

Katalyst Nine-piece band and artist collective Katalyst connects the past and future of West Coast jazz.

Time: 7 to 9 p.m. July 16 Cost: Free Details: Watch on Grand Performances Facebook Venue: Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

June 24 - July 7, 2021

July 27

14

Dennis Lockett & Denis McKee Long Beach singer/songwriter Dennis Lockett teams up with Denis Mckee of Mckee brothers fame to perform at the Seabird Lounge.

Time: 8 p.m., July 27 Cost: Free Details: https://tinyurl.com/ dennis-and-denis Venue: Roscoes Seabird Lounge, 730 E. Broadway, Long Beach

THEATER June 25

Rise Up Like Starlight Join a premiere of a new media arts project. Encounter each of the 10 characters through theatrical

performances based on their real lives in the foster care system.

The event includes both live and pre-recorded video elements. This will be an emotional and powerful event that is sure to provide a deeper understanding of the challenges facing foster youth.

The event includes: DJ Scotty B and a Q&A discussion and concluding statements.

Time: 7 to 9:30 p.m. June 25 Cost: $10 and up Details: https://tinyurl.com/riseup-like-starlight

July 16

Richard III Richard of Gloucester uses manipulation, deceit and charm to ascend to the throne. He’s backstabbing and murderous, yet so mesmerizing that you dare not look away.

Time: 8 p.m. July 16, 17, 23 and 24, and 7 p.m. July 18, 25 Cost: Free Details: 310-217-7596; info@shakespearebythesea.org Venue: Point Fermin Park, 807 W. Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro

FILM

June 24

The Jihadist The latest documentary film from Scott Anger, The Jihadist, began streaming June 1, on PBS Frontline. The film tells the story of Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, whose life has been a roadmap of Islamist militancy in Iraq and Syria. In his first interview with an American journalist, the former Al Qaeda commander tells Frontline correspondent Martin Smith that his fight is with Syrian President Assad, not the United States.

Angels Gate Cultural Center studio artist Scott Anger, the director of photography and coproducer, and Smith travelled to Syria’s Idlib province to film with al-Jolani in February.

Details: www.pbs.org/wgbh/ frontline/film/the-jihadist

June 26

The Wizard of Oz Screening and Costume Contest Join in a benefit for The LGBTQ Center Long Beach. Dress up as your favorite character and win prizes. All guests will receive a bag of props to interact with the film. Pack a picnic and blankets, pillows or low chairs. Tall chairs aren’t allowed.

Time: 7 p.m. June 26 Cost: Free Venue: Harvey Milk Promenade Park, 185 E. 3rd St., Long Beach

June 27

Plastic Bag Store: The Film See the film and join a postshow discussion with the artist immediately following the screening. Recommended for ages 12 plus due to current health protocols. Advanced tickets required.

Time: 7 p.m. June 27 Cost: $17 Details: www.ucla.evenue.net/ plastic-bag-store-the-film Venue: Aquarium of the Pacific, 100 Aquarium Way, Long Beach

DANCE June 27

Evolution of African Dance Presented in a docu-series style and narrated by WACO Theater Center’s co-artistic directors, Richard Lawson and Tina Knowles Lawson, our journey will connect African dance evolution to contemporary dance, from breaking and its origins to the power of dance in the TikTok era.

Time: 5 p.m. June 27 Cost: Free Details: https://tinyurl.com/

wacotheater Venue: Online

July 18

Dance Baby Dance Dance Baby Dance is a family friendly event filled with live acts, dancing, great music, art activities and fun-filled retro DJ sets that will provide entertainment for the entire family.

Time: 12 to 5 p.m. July 18 Cost: Free Details: Watch on Grand Performances Facebook Venue: Grand Performances, 350 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

July 31

Outdoor Line Dancing Party This is line dancing in an outdoor setting every other Saturday.

Time: 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. July 31 Cost: Free Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ outdoor-line-dancing-party Venue: Southbay Pavilion, 20700 S. Avalon Blvd., Carson

COMEDY June 30

Trademark Comedy Night Host Reid Clark (Netflix, BET, Prime Video) carefully curates a comedy show at Trademark Brewing. Comedians featured include: Jacob Rosalez (Vet TV. Ontario Improv); Willie Simon (Hollywood Improv); Jamel Dotson (Hollywood Improv); Mary Becquet (Oxygen); Mateen Stewart (Laugh Factory).

Time: 7 p.m. June 30 Cost: $10 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ trademark-comedy-night Venue: Trademark Brewing Co., 233 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

ART

July 1

Armchair Artwalk Tour; Independence The San Pedro Waterfront Arts District Armchair ArtWalk Tour will be held on Zoom July 1. Armchair ArtWalk, in honor of July 4, celebrates the independent spirit of local artists and their drive to create art. Featured this month will be conversations with Eric Johnson, Karena Massengill, Ben Jackel and Chad Bishop. Register in advance for a one-hour virtual, interactive tour.

Time: 6 p.m. July 1 Cost: Free Details: www.us02web.zoom.us/ meeting/register/independance

July 10

Multiples Multiples presents works by a group of artists that share a strategy of building meaning from the multiple, from iterative or serial works, the use of standardized prefabricated materials, to the accumulation of images. These works challenge expectations of uniformity and predictability.

Time: July 10 through Sept. 11 Cost: Free Details: www.angelsgateart.org; 310-519-0936 Venue: Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro

July 11

More Art, Less Plastic Join an online conversation with innovative environmental activists about art, education, and singleuse plastics.

Time: June 30 to July 11 Cost: Free Details: www.ucla.evenue.net/ cap-ucla

[See Fun Guide, p. 16]

everybody’s town [sometimes] you got to play with a ... fever. Life’s a classroom … but I think it’s a new way of being healthy; watch out with the ... hands.”

Watt tours every fall and spring. He said recordings are documents, so people can hear you when you’re gone but they’re also flyers for your gigs so, “you always want to keep recording and put stuff on people,” he said.

Watt has been on both major and independent labels. He said he’s met good people by doing that, but he posited maybe now the paradigm is more like Vaudeville, playing in front of people, working the room.

“It’s a very legitimate tradition to come from,” he said. “It’s an old word opportunity.

But you got to get healthy to do that shit. That’s how that came about. I was just a pragmatist. I had no idea that this was coming down.

Watt noted, on the other hand, music is a lifeline. If things get rough, go to music, do more shows, more records and use the Internet as a conduit.

“In fact, music got me through this, because I never thought things were going to be canceled, just postponed,” he said. “That’s where my faith was. I always thought the vaccine was the way.

“This is the way I’m going to start doing gigs again.”

Watt said his first gig back will be July 1.

“In the old days here, me and D. Boone got our first guitars at the pawn shops that used to be there, they weren’t on Pacific Avenue, for $10,” he said. “I’m most grateful to James

[Watt and Widow, from p. 11]

Watt and widow

things. That’s the ethic that I’m trying to [carry on].”

When it comes to music, Watt said he’s matured and this idea of genres is bullshit; music is music … a righteous thing humans can do to connect.

“I believe music is art,” Watt said. “There is no separation between a painter and a bass player.

That’s what I did in this period. I have enough material for over a dozen albums with these cats I never even met who I’ve collaborated with ... trading files on the Internet in the last 14 months.”

Watt, who is in his early 60s, said they had to be careful, he couldn’t be in the room with the person.

“We had to be safe,” he said. “I tour, that’s how I make my living.”

Watt has done 67 tours but said, “the bungee cord yanks me back to Pedro.” He explained a strange feeling he had. He was on a 45-day tour and did all the driving. This was immediately prior to COVID. Something told Watt he couldn’t get sick at the beginning of the tour.

So instead of shaking anybody’s hand, “They’re going to get elbow or knuckle,” he said.

“It’s just weird, not that I could even suggest that I got a premonition or can read the future,” he said. “I didn’t know that two months later [COVID] was going to come down. After 40 years of recording and rolling through

[Preston Allen] for that. It’s bitchin’ and Dave Widow is a good cat.

Watt has local gigs lined up now that things are opening up, people are getting vaccinated and we’re taking care, he said. Watt + the secondmen

featuring Pete Mazich and Jerry Trebotic will play for Todd Concgelliere at Sardines on Pacific and 11th Street for a three-day festival, Aug. 13 to 15. Watt plays on Aug. 14.

Details: www.mikewatt.com

July 1 Downtown san pedro Free music

Mike Watt + the secondmen and Dave Widow & the Line Up Time: 6 p.m. July 1 Location: 6th St. and Mesa streets

Public Works Improv Presents “Pop Up” Storyphile With host: Lee Boek Featuring: Greg Palast, James Preston Allen, Mike Watt + the secondmen performing. File photo Jack Landron, Anna Venue: Collage Gallery, 731 Pacific Ave., Broome, Matt Sedillo The Glass Family Electric Band Camille Jacob, Paul Fleisher, Peter Coca Psychedelic music from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m. July 1 Time: 7:45 p.m.

Venue: Sacred Grounds, 468 W. 6th St. Venue: JDC Record Store, 447 W. 6th St. Architecture And Music Ken O’Malley, Irish folk singer.

Enjoy “Classics to Cabaret” with Christina Time: 8:45 p.m. July 1 Linhardt and Paul Pezzone. Virtuoso pianist Venue: The Whale & Ale, 327 W. 7th St., Pezzone will play while Linhardt sings in English, German and Italian.

Haywood Nighttrain and the GTX will Time: 7 p.m. July 1 perform at the San Pedro Brewery Co. Details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Time: 9 p.m. July 1 Christina_Linhardt and http://www.

Details: 310-831-5663 circussanctuary.com Venue: San Pedro Brew Co., 331 W. 6th St.,

e

New Venu

COLLAGE 7:00

7:45

7:45

Lee Boek

SPOKEN WORD 447 W. 6th St.

Plus Accoustic Music

468 W. 6th St.

The Whale SP Brew Co 9:00 & Ale 8:45

HAYWOOD Ken O’Malley NIGHTTRAIN and the Irish Folk Singer

GOOD TIMES EXPRESS

327 W. 7th St.

331 W. 6th St.

Live Music at Godmother’s Saloon • ACME 5 Gallery • Grand openings of Roots Clothing and Coastline All venues are to follow health guidelines and require masks if you are unvaccinated.

June 24 - July 7, 2021

with Christina Linhardt and Bryan Pezzone 731 S. Pacific Ave.

Sacred Grounds

“Classics to Cabaret”

JDC Records

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

First Night of Live Music throughout DTSP

15

June 24 - july 7 • 2021 & BEYOND

[Fun Guide, from p. 14]

LITERATURE June 26

Annex Authors Night The Grand Annex will host authors, Dr. Michael Datcher and Noel Alumit, recipients of the City of Los Angeles ‘21 Individual Artist Fellowship grant. Join to hear a sample of both authors’ new works. A Q&A will follow the readings.

Time: 8 p.m. June 26 Cost: $10 Details: www.grandvision.org/ authors-night Venue: Grand Annex, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

COMMUNITY June 25

Queer Zines 2.0 with Ellie Cota Join in-person or on Zoom with artist Ellie Cota for a fun, easy

zine workshop. Attendees will discuss the history of radical self-publishing and produce a completed zine at the end of the workshop. This workshop is for ages 15 and up and requires no prior knowledge of zines or zinemaking. To register to attend this event in person, email hcrawford@ artlab21.org with ‘Queer Zines 2.0’ in the subject line. Please include name and personal pronouns.

Time: 6 to 7:30 p.m. June 25 Details: www.us02web.zoom.us/ meeting/register/queer-zines Venue: ESMoA, 208 Main St.. El Segundo

Palos Verdes Art Center ANNUAL STUDENT ART EXHIBITION

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

June 26

SouthBay Festival of the Arts TOCA’s SouthBay Festival of the Arts has become a premiere arts event in Southern California.

This year, the fundraising event is going online.

Palos Verdes Art Center/Beverly G. Alpay Center for Ar ts Education presents its Annual Student Art Exhibition featuring works by Palos Verdes Peninsula students. The exhibition highlights this year’s artistic creations from Palos Verdes Art Landscape, Isaiah T., 1st grade, Vista Grand C e n te r s c h o o l - Elementary School. based outreach program Art At Your Fingertips. Run completely by parent volunteers, AAYF’s paramount objective is to help every child feel comfortable using art as a means of communication and expression­. This year, the program was delivered online and through Zoom to the students. The virtual exhibition, curated by Gail Phinney, community engagement director and Aaron Sheppard, curator, is online through June 28.

Details: Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes, (310) 541-2479, www.pvartcenter.org

Details: arts-fest

https://tinyurl.com/sb-

June 27

Torrance Antique Street Faire Join the hunt for vintage treasures when 150 sellers transform the streets of downtown Torrance into an eclectic open-air antiques market. There will be an antique appraisal booth which charges $3 per item.

Time: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 27 Cost: Free Details: 310-328-6107 Location: 1317 Sartori Ave., Torrance 2ND & PCH Makers Market Come to Seaport Way to support local makers. There will be family fun for everyone. There will be photos by Sunny Bunny Balloons, children’s activities and live music.

Time: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 27 Cost: Free

Michael Stearns Studio@The Loft ANNE OLSEN DAUB: RECENT WORK At times the process of creating art directs Anne Olsen Daub and sparks inspiration, other times she is directly inspired by way of a metaphor from external cultural sources that lead her to discover a deeper meaning and understanding. Her recent work in cardboard was inspired by the seven deadly sins and evolved into The Land of Oz. The gallery will be open for the First Thursday Art Walk. The exhibition runs through July 12.

Michael Stearns Studio@The Loft, 401 S. Mesa St., San Pedro.

Enter at the loading dock on 4th St. Details: 562-400-0544

Ko-Ryu Ramen 362 W. 6th St. San Pedro 90731 310-935-2886

June 24 - July 7, 2021

koryuramen.com

16

Koi Ramen

Details: 424-217-2337; www.2ndandpch.com Venue: 2nd St and Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach

July 4

Celebrate Liberty Hill on the 4th of July Join San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice for a speech

by Greg Mitre, Head of ILWU Southern California Pensioners Group with songs by James Preston Allen and others. Learn the history of the San Pedro waterfront. Liberty Hill is the site where noted author and activist Upton Sinclair was arrested in 1923 for reading the Bill of Rights to striking longshoremen.

Time: 12 p.m. July 4 Cost: Free Details: 310-567-3332 Location: Harbor Blvd. and 5th St. San Pedro

July 11

Soil Mixtures and Watering Schedules Maria Capaldo, Mike Short, Laurel Woodley and Gary Duke will discuss the soil mixtures they use and their watering schedules for both summer and winter growers.

This event takes place via Zoom.

The link is on the events page.

Time: 1:30 p.m. July 11 Details: southcoastcss.org

ONGOING

Programs for Families, Teens and Seniors Beginning June 21, LB Parks Recreation and Marine offers 10 weeks of free and low-cost recreation programs for families, teens and older adults. Classes are being added continuously.

Details: 562-570-3150; www.LBparks.org.

CLASSIFIED ADS & DBA FILINGS RLNews is looking for freelance food and music writers who are knowledgeable about San Pedro and Long Beach area restaurants, culture and music scenes. Experienced writers preferred, but will consider aspiring bloggers. We are looking for writers who have a curiosity for a wide range of cuisines or music in the greater LA / Long Beach Harbor Area.

Committment to writing to deadline is a must. Having a strong social media following and bi-lingual skills is a plus.

Submit inquiries and any links to your writing to editor@ randomlengthsnews.com or call 310-519-1442 weekdays.

ARE YOU BEHIND $10k OR MORE ON YOUR TAXES? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 855-955-0702 (Hours: MonFri 7am-5pm PST) (AAN CAN)

HOME & GARDEN B AT H R O O M R E N O VA TIONS. EASY, ONE DAY updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Beautiful new walk-in showers with no slip flooring. Also, grab bars and seated showers available. Call for a free in-home consultation: 844-242-1100.

(AAN CAN)

Never Pay For Covered Home Repairs Again! Complete Care Home Warranty COVERS ALL MAJOR SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES. 30 DAY RISK FREE. $200.00 OFF + 2 FREE Months! 1-877673-0511 | Hours Mon-Thu, Sun: 9:30 am to 8:00 pm Fri: 9:30 am to 2:00 pm (all times Eastern) LONG DISTANCE MOVING: White-Glove Service from America’s Top Movers. Fully insured and bonded. Let us take the stress out of your out of state move. FREE QUOTES! Call: 888-841-0629 (AAN CAN)

HEALTH Still paying too much for your MEDICATION? Save up to 90% on RX refill! Order today and receive free shipping on 1st order - prescription required. Call 1-855-750-1612 (AAN CAN)

SAVE UP TO 80% ON YOUR MEDICATION. Eliquis, Xarelto, Viagra, Cialis and more.

Licensed and Certified. Lowest Price Guaranteed. Call 855-750-1612 and get free shipping on your first order.

(Open M-F) (AAN CAN)

AUTOS

CASH FOR CARS! We buy all cars! Junk, high-end, totaled – it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash! NEWER MODELS too!

Call 866-535-9689 (AAN CAN) DONATE YOUR CAR TO KIDS. Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s, too!

Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response Maximum Tax Donation – Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN)

PETS PEDRO PET PALS is the only group that raises funds for the City Animal Shelter and FREE vaccines and spay or neuter for our community.

310-991-0012.

MISC. HughesNet Satellite Internet – Finally, no hard data limits!

Call Today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/ mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844-416-7147 (AAN CAN) Cable Price Increase Again?

Switch To DIRECTV & Save + get a $100 visa gift card!

Get More Channels For Less Money. Restrictions apply.

Call Now! 877-693-0625 (AAN CAN)

4G LTE Home Internet Now Available! Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/mo! 1-888-519-0171 (AAN CAN)

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print and distribute your work internationally. We do the work…

You reap the Rewards! Call for a FREE Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836.

(AAN CAN)

DISH TV $64.99 For 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply. Promo Expires 7/21/21. 1-855-3802501

PERSONALS Well-to-do businesswoman seeking good man, 60 to 70.

310-809-0105

DBAs $ 140 310-519-1442

Bulletin Board Serving the South Bay

DIVORCE • TRUST BANKRUPTCY $99 Down•Low Cost Attorney Assisted Law

(310) 781-2823

ADULT PULL-UP DIAPERS Xlarge case of 60 $30 VINYL EXAM GLOVES powder-free, small size box of 100 $20

310-719-8884

Don Marshall CPA, Inc. (310) 833-8977

PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET! *In any condition. We will wash and mend.

06/10/21, 06/24/21, 07/08/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2022021104268 The following person is doing business as: (1) RITO RESTORATION, 1840 S Gaffey Street #414, San Pedro, CA 90731. Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Jorge A Espinoza, 202 N Bandini, San Pedro, Ca 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual.

The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/.

Jorge A Espinoza, Owner.

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

MKT-P0253

[continued on p. 18]

“Well, Sorta” — partway there.

06/10/21, 06/24/21, 07/08/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021111890 The following person is doing business as: (1) PATRICIA’S SKIN CARE, 1622 S Gaffey Street #202, San Pedro, CA 90731. Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Patricia Elaine Bondon, 873 W. 18th Street #2, San Pedro, Ca 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 07/2020. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.)

S/. Patricia Elaine Bondon, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 05/06/21.

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 expire 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. 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

ACROSS

1 “We’re calling with an urgent message about your car’s warranty,” e.g.

5 Creator of Pudd’nhead Wilson 10 “Right now” 13 Care Bear ___ 14 “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” band 15 Debtor’s letters 16 Hotel heiress who popularized “That’s hot” 18 Hurricane heading, sometimes 19 Affirmative vote 20 It may be doffed 21 Bad movie rating 23 Actress Seehorn of “Better Call Saul” 25 Torn ___ (athlete’s knee injury) 27 Crafty 28 Gear seen frequently in 1980s court matches 33 Districts 34 Organization 35 Australian outlaw Kelly 36 Satirical “Prize” given by the Annals of Improbable Research 39 Patty Hearst’s kidnappers, for short 42 Californie et Colorado 43 Septet plus one 45 He plays Thor

49 French islands 50 Truth, in Chinese philosophy 51 39-Down, for one 52 Roommate of Frylock and Master Shake on “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” 56 John’s “The Office” character 58 “Groove Is in the Heart” DJ/producer Towa ___ 59 Bud 60 Title for the Pope or the Dalai Lama 63 Rhinitis-treating M.D. 64 “Damn Yankees” composer Richard 65 Big name in thesauruses 66 Suffix meaning “sorta” (found in the theme answers) 67 Conditions’ partner 68 English horn’s cousin

DOWN

1 “Don’t move” 2 Lurched and swerved 3 Former White House press secretary Fleischer 4 Fit snugly 5 Ninja’s platform 6 Actor/blogger Wheaton 7 Choral voice range 8 Graphic representation 9 Not a bit 10 Cobbler’s container 11 Scrooge’s nephew

12 Search engine input 13 Austere 17 “Witness” actor Lukas 22 Bartering result 24 “SNL” alum Gasteyer 26 Millennium Falcon in 7,500 pieces, e.g.

29 “Lord, ___?” (Last Supper question) 30 NYSE trader 31 Anonymous Jane 32 Claus von ___ (“Reversal of Fortune” character) 37 Station’s supply 38 To the ___ degree 39 It’s played on a 10x10 board 40 “Hmmm ...”

41 One beyond belief?

42 Lead-in to “while” 44 Gear component 45 Disinfects 46 Wellness 47 University focuses 48 Garden store supply 49 Louvre Pyramid architect 53 “Beg pardon?”

54 Delegation member 55 High-end camera type 57 Artist Joan 61 Bottom of a pant leg 62 San Francisco’s ___ Hill

June 24 - July 7, 2021

PLEASE HELP!

The 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

1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 05/27/21,

Don Marshall, MBA, CPA

Specializing in small businesses CPA quality service at very reasonable rates www.donmarshallcpa.com

Remember to renew your DBA every 5 years

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 05/17/21.

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 expire 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.

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

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

Filing & Publishing

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021104264 The following person is doing business as: (1) FUNERAL COACH PLUS, 118 Gaviota Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802. Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Ronnie Grubbs, 118 Gaviota Ave, Long Beach, CA 90802. This Business is conducted by an individual.

The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 07/2020. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/. Ronnie Grubbs, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 05/06/21.

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 expire 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.

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 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 05/27/21,

© 2021 MATT JONES, Jonesin’ Crosswords

FINANCIAL

For answers go to: www.randomlengthsnews.com

JOBS

17

[Racism, from p. 10]

Racism

DBA FILINGS & NOTICES [from p. 17] (see section 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 05/27/21, 06/10/21, 06/24/21, 07/08/21

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021122657 The following person is doing business as: (1) LEXSERVICE, (2) LEXERVICE, 735 Pacific Coast Hwy, Harbor City, CA 90710. Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Stephen Haddad, 735 Pacific Coast Hwy, Harbor City, CA 90710. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 09/1994. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information

18

which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/.

Stephen Haddad, Owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 06/01/21.

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 expire 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. 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 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 06/10/21, 06/24/21, 07/08/21, 07/22/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021122655 The following person is doing business as: (1) WEEDTIME APPARELL COMPANY, 1419 South Mesa Street, San Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: Filippo Salvato, 1419 South Mesa Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. Stephanie Salvato, 1419 South Mesa Street, San Pedro, CA 90731. This Business is conducted by a married couple. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/A. I declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (A registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) S/.

Filippo Salvato, Husband.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 02/25/20.

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 expire 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.

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 1411 ET SEQ., Business and Professions code).

Original filing: 06/24/21,

07/08/21, 07/22/21, 08/05/21

PUBLIC SALE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the undersigned intends to sell Miscellaneous business and/or personal property described below to enforce a Lien Imposed on said property pursuant to section 21700-21716 of the business & professions code, section 2328 of the UCC, section 535 of the Penal code and provisions of the Civil Code.

The undersigned will sell items at a public sale by competitive bidding on 07/07/ 2021 at 9am on the premises where said property has been stored and which are located at Plaza Self Storage 630 S. Pacific Ave. San Pedro, Ca. 90731 The following: Kim Brent

#251

Purchases must be paid for at the time of purchase in cash only. All purchased items are sold as is and must be removed at the time of sale. Sale is administered

by James O’Brien’s Auction Services, Bond number 14663730099, phone number (909) 681-4113

DBAs $ 140 Filing & Publishing

310-519-1442

Remember to renew your DBA every 5 years

project’s current proposed timeline.”

Indeed, a third ‘benchmark year,’ 2023, will surely pass before the project even begins to operate, meaning that half of them are utterly meaningless.

A Broader View

But NRDC’s Kryczka approached the changed circumstances from a broader perspective. “The Revised Draft EIR fails as an informational document because it relies on outdated, inaccurate assumptions, and fails to account for nearly a decade of developments that have occurred since the original EIR was drafted,” she said, going on to cite four broad ways in which “circumstances have changed dramatically since the port considered SCIG in 2013.”

“First, the purpose and need for SCIG has changed as Southern California’s rail capacity has developed over the last decade,” Kryczka noted.

“The ports have invested in significant build-out of new on-dock rail facilities, and cargo projections have shifted.”

“Second, new state and local policies promote environmental justice, and call for transitioning our goods movement system to zeroemissions,” she said. “SCIG threatens to undermine these policies, including the 2017 Clean Air Action Plan Update, the mayor’s Green New Deal, and the governor’s recent executive order calling for all drayage trucks in the state to transition to zero emissions.”

Marquez and others have repeatedly stressed POLA’s policy disconnect as well.

“Third, new technologies exist to reduce and eliminate emissions from the trains, trucks, and cargo handling

equipment proposed to serve the SCIG facility,” Kryczka pointed out. “The Revised Draft EIR confirms that SCIG will have significant air quality impacts, but fails to consider technology that is now available to mitigate those impacts.”

Fourth, and finally, Kryczka said, “New residential developments have been built at the Century Villages at Cabrillo — including hundreds of new housing units, and plans for future expansions.

If built today, SCIG would directly impact an even greater number of residents, including veterans, families and children.”

Another widely-expressed complaint was the lack of adequate opportunity for public comment. At the beginning of the meeting, Chris Cannon announced that the comment period had been extended three weeks, to July 30, 2021, but AQMD requested an extension of “at least one month, if not more,” due to a month-long delay in receiving modeling files for the EIR from POLA, while community members asked for extensions of 120 days or more, and for the opportunity for an in-person public comment meeting.

“Many of my friends and peers who live in Long Beach and Carson and areas surrounding the prospective project area were not notified,” said Long Beach resident Robert Bagalawis. “In addition, people are disadvantaged at this time from speaking their opinion, because not everyone has Internet access, or has knowledge utilizing room and other platforms.”

For a project with a 50-year projected lifespan, it only seems fair to give those most affected a reasonable chance to be heard. Or perhaps what’s fair is what Carlos Ovalle concluded with: “Please kill this project, before it kills more of us.”

Real People, Real News, Really Effective

June 24 - July 7, 2021

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20

June 24 - July 7, 2021

Real People, Real News, Totally Relevant