RLn 2-18-21

The Dark Propaganda Strategy of Epoch Times Progenitor of fake news delivers to local doorsteps

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

Last month, many local residents were amongst the thousands of Southern Californians who received a copy of The Epoch Times in their mail boxes — the newspaper “freedom loving people wanting news without spin prefer to read.”

What The Epoch Times doesn’t tell you is that it’s connected to and has the same function as the long-running Chinese performing arts show, Shen Yun. You probably recognize the show from the ubiquitous billboards promoting the show. Shen Yun is the public relations — some say propaganda — arm of Falun Gong, a controversial spiritual movement which has been banned in China.

Online, at least up until recently, if you had the misfortune of forgetting to hit the commercial skip button after four seconds while watching a YouTube video, you probably would have seen part of the long Epoch Times’ commercial featuring Roman Balmakov peering out from behind a copy of the newspaper. While some journalists have described Balmakov as a Peter Parker/Spider-Man casting reject, he is in fact the online visage of The Epoch Times.

“Hey, I just read an unbelievable article in The Epoch Times,” he says. Then he splays the paper on a table, showcasing a news story headlined “The Mysterious Origins of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Virus,” a variation of former President Donald Trump’s term: the “China virus.”

The headline suggested that the pathogen could have emerged, maybe purposefully, from a lab in Wuhan, China. This has become a common rightwing claim. It’s important to keep in mind that most scientists believe that the virus jumped naturally from animals to humans but the most recent report from the World Health Organization is inconclusive. Alternatively, the outlet was suggesting that the virus was a divine Real News, Real People, Really Effective

[See Epoch Times, p. 5]

Roman Balmakov, the online visage of The Epoch Times and performers from Shen Yun, the dance troupe that also serves as propaganda for Falun Gong.

Proposed Park Would Remove Red Car Line p. 2

A debate: Should schools re-open before teacher vaccinations?

By Mark Friedman, Columnist

“political theater that opportunistically feeds off of people’s frustrations.” UTLA went onto accuse the councilman of pandering to the business community’s desire to accelerate employees’ return to work even as COVID-19 outbreaks at workplaces have soared dramatically.

“This push for unsafe reopenings is harmful to all of Los Angeles, but particularly the Black and brown communities these two (Buscaino and Cedillo) are supposed to represent.”

In a letter signed by more than 800 educators, parents, students and community members in Buscaino’s district, his motion was condemned for political grandstanding. In the letter, Buscaino was called to focus his efforts instead on reinvesting in schools to make them genuinely safe.

“Calling for a safe reopening of schools should include a comprehensive plan to vaccinate educators and the families of our most vulnerable students,” the

February 18 - March 3, 2021

LOS ANGELES — On Feb. 10, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer rejected District 15 Councilman Joe Buscaino and District 1 Councilman Gil Cedillo’s motion to sue the Los Angeles Unified School District to force the unsafe reopening of school campuses (“inperson instruction immediately”) even as more variants are found spreading in the community that are far more contagious than the original coronavirus.

In a released statement, the United Teachers of Los Angeles saluted Feuer’s action, calling the motion

Judas and the Black Messiah film changes a false narrative p. 9

City Attorney Opposes Buscaino’s Motion to Sue LAUSD

[See City Opposes, p. 4]

COVID-19 Cases in the U.S. as of Feb. 17, 2021: 28,431,808 • Deaths: 501,736 Los Angeles County Cases: 1,169,550 • Deaths: 19,215 • For up-to-date stats: www.randomlengthsnews.com

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

Proposed Park Would Remove Red Car Line Neighborhood Councils Strongly Oppose

By Hunter Chase, Reporter

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

The Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles released proposed plans for the complete redevelopment of the Rancho San Pedro public housing, called One San Pedro. The plan calls for one-on-one replacement of the original 425 units and then adds an additional 975 units. This was expected.

What was unexpected was the proposal for a new playground on Port of Los Angeles property along Harbor Boulevard between 2nd and 3rd streets. The playground would eliminate the right of way of the rail on Harbor Boulevard, said Frank Anderson, chair of the Port Relations Committee of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council at its Jan. 19 meeting.

The council voted 9-1 with one abstention at that same meeting to oppose the development of the park. Eugenia Bulanova was the only member who did not vote to oppose the park, and Board President Carrie Scoville abstained.

Planning for Rancho’s redevelopment has been ongoing for more than four years, but it was only in the past few months that anyone outside of port knew this was on the table.

The Battleship USS IOWA Museum also proposed a park nearby within a thousand feet of this proposed HACLA park also on land owned by the port. The two projects are unrelated and neither proponent had heard of the

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Rendering of the entrance to the proposed One San Pedro sports facility and transit stop at the corner of 1st and Centre streets. Courtesy of OSP.

other’s proposal until recently at a joint land use committee.

“There’s a number of problems with this development, besides the fact that it was developed in a completely opaque way,” Anderson said. “They propose spending two plus million dollars to do it.”

Anderson argued that the most serious effect

of the park would be the way it would tear out the tracks for the Red Car line, which could be reestablished in the future otherwise. In addition, any Metro lines or Metro system would need this right of way.

The Waterfront Red Car line was an attraction that ran in San Pedro from 2003 to 2015, using part of a defunct commercial rail line that has

been in existence for over 100 years. However, there were plans to expand the line to serve as more practical public transit going into other parts of Los Angeles. The track was shut down for construction in 2015, and has yet to reopen.

“I can’t understand why they would really tear out the tracks,” Anderson said. “It seems like a short-sighted thing, just to have a small play area for children.”

Anderson said this would mean children would be playing along a heavily travelled street, while minimum barriers have been proposed.

“I have a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old, and between Bandini Park, Peck Park and Reina Park … it just doesn’t make sense to me to put a park down there at Harbor Boulevard,” said Matthew Quiocho, member of the CSPNC. “I don’t see myself ever taking my kids down that way, given the other options that are currently available.”

Board member Linda Alexander wondered if the port wants to build the park for the principal purpose of destroying the rail’s track.

“I can’t imagine how you’re going to get across, how a kid, say an 8-year-old kid, wants to go play in the park, is going to go across Harbor Blvd., particularly as the development increases and there’ll be so much more traffic,” Alexander said. “It’s a very poorly placed idea.”

The Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council also opposed the development of the park, for similar reasons. They did so unanimously on [See Park, p. 15]

Heart of Ida Announces Rental Assistance Program

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area Nanette Diaz Barragán’s Office Announces Local Vaccination Sites Thousands more appointments became available this week. Please continue to check the site frequently and let others know when you see openings: http://vaccinatelacounty.com Dignity Health has announced that COVID-19 vaccinations are available in Carson by appointment until Feb. 19. Make an appointment here: https:// www.eventbrite.com/o/dignity-health-appointments

Webinar and Q&A update on the West Harbor and LA Waterfront Updates on the West Harbor project will be presented by Alan and Lauren Johnson of Jericho Development Inc. The webinar is open to the public with advance registration. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information about joining the webinar.

Time: 1 p.m. Feb. 20 Details: https://tinyurl.com/WestHarbor LAWaterfront

Applications for Neighborhood Grants Accepted Now

Purpose

The Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council is announcing grant applications for programs with an emphasis on COVID-19 assistance and relief are now being accepted. Applications must be received no later than March 31.

Details: www.tinyurl.com/2dbfgzwt

Applications for LB Port Sponsorship

Nonprofit organizations are invited to apply for the Port of Long Beach’s Community Sponsorship Program to fund community events and activities that help inform residents about the port. Applications are judged on how the proposed events can help the port inform the community of its critical role as an economic engine and job creator.

Time: March 1 through 5 p.m. March 31 Details: www.polb.com/sponsorship

Thanks to a generous donation from the Long Beach Community Action Partnership, this program offers a one time payment of $1,000 to qualifying renters’ landlords.

To qualify, you must be a low income older adult, 65 plus, a Long Beach resident and not live in subsidized housing.

Details: 562-570-3548; heartofida@gmail.com

YMCA Food Distribution Needs Community Help

The YWCA of the Harbor Area has a new free food distribution program. The free food distribution has had a lot of success in simultaneously feeding those in need and diverting harmful waste from the landfills. It has been going well, but the YMCA needs community help to continue to provide this essential service.

Details: sbaker@ywcaharbor.org; www.donorbox. org/ywca-harbor-area-south-bay-donations

No-Cost COVID-19 Vaccines for Veterans

Qualified veterans can get vaccines at various locations; availability is limited.

Details: 310-268-4900; www.va.gov/healthcare/apply/application/introduction

Why Healthy Air Matters

The WHAM Program is South Coast AQMD’s middle school and high school air quality education program.

Through the WHAM Program, South Coast AQMD hopes to increase awareness of air quality issues within the South Coast Basin and empower youth to drive positive change during a time when they are developing and forming their own habits.

The WHAM Program utilizes Kids Making Sense®, a science, technology, engineering and math-based educational curriculum that teaches students about air quality issues. The curriculum, which was created by Sonoma Technology Inc., meets Next Generation Science Standards and was developed by air quality scientists and educators.

Details: 909-396-2342; https://tinyurl. com/1ver4uy8

Life After Mother

No Will, No Way

By Lyn Jensen, Columnist

My mother and father both made what they considered wills and no one could tell them otherwise. What they did was print out simple statements on their home computers, signed the papers and that was all they bothered to do about their hard-earned property. My father never stopped his profane tirades about lawyers and money and how he didn’t have to do all that.

At least his signed and dated printout listed his accounts and such.

My mother, a lifelong procrastinator, simply evaded the subject until her mind was incapable of handling it. Only after her death did I find she’d made a printout, too, dated 2013. She never shared or discussed it, not with me anyway — maybe it went down her mind’s memory hole.

The first sentence said she’d leave everything to me, provided I take care of — she named her cats, without explaining they were her cats.

“If she does not wish to do this the estate should be held in trustee to pay for their care” was the second and last sentence. Who would hold the “trustee” and disburse the money and care for the cats wasn’t explained.

You can’t set up a “trustee” that way. Under California law, if you want to write, sign and date what you call a will and stash it away, to be valid it has to be handwritten entirely by you, not even marked by a witness and not altered by so much as a staple pull. My parents couldn’t even get their acts together that basically.

If my father had written his so-called will in his own hand, I might have been able to stop

some women from plundering his property while he lay dying. When I tried to recover the property after his death, I learned that, lacking any valid will, I had no case.

My father left perhaps $35,000, counting up every car, every item of value, most of it in two credit union accounts, minus what those women took. I just had to deal with the credit unions and dispose of his personal property.

My mother left a house real estate agents beg for, its rooms crammed with valuables (and/ or junk). She also left a number of accounts — banks, credit unions, common stocks, dividend stocks and I’m not sure if that exhausts the inventory. There could be bonds or insurance — somewhere. I’m still discovering various financial accounts, each of which has to be dealt with separately, all because she didn’t write out by hand and sign what she wanted for me — and her cats.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

February 18 - March 3, 2021

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[City Opposes, from p. 1]

City Opposes Buscaino’s Plan to Sue letter (https://tinyurl.com/3swcfd33) read in part.

“A safe reopening should include discussions with our labor unions, district leaders, and low-income Black and brown families whose children attend our schools. A safe reopening should include advocating for more funding and resources for your community, not shifting our already-limited resources to a legal battle over our health and safety.”

On Feb. 8, Buscaino asked his colleagues on the Los Angeles City Council to request the city attorney to file suit against the LAUSD. “Join me and Councilmember Gil Cedillo on behalf of the nearly 600,000 LAUSD students who have gone nearly a year without classroom learning to work together with the teacher’s union, the county and the state to reopen LAUSD campuses safely,” Buscaino said.

To bolster their argument, they cited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and 1,500 pediatricians from the Southern California Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics who support opening schools as long as “safety protocols are followed, using social distancing, masks, hand-washing and facilities modifications.”

In response to the motion, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health presented to the council their requisites for school reopenings, explaining: • Once adjusted case rate is below 25 per 100,000 for five consecutive days, all elementary schools can reopen if compliant with state and county directives.

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

• If a school has not been approved for a waiver, it cannot reopen until the county case rate is below 25 per 100,000 for five consecutive days.

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UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz’s Feb. 5 weekly Facebook Live update explained teacher’s concerns in a presentation entitled, “We must take politics out of the pandemic. Let’s listen to scientists.”

Myart-Cruz blasted Buscaino and Cedillo’s call to immediately reopen schools for in-person instruction as being motivated by politics rather than science.

“When Gov. Gavin Newsom says schools are safe to reopen without vaccines, he should also tell us what he believes a safe number of deaths associated with that would be,” Myart-Cruz said.

“People are willfully ignoring the science and facts to score political points or, let’s be honest, to try to knock educators and unions down a peg.

We will not allow this.”

Myart-Cruz noted that at no point since school buildings were closed this past March has Los Angeles County been out of the purple tier — purple tiers means there’s still widespread COVID-19 transmission in the county and that nearly all businesses have to keep indoor operations closed or severely limited.

This past November, Newsom said it was unsafe to reopen schools and that all teachers should be vaccinated. Now, in February, infection rates are six times higher than they were in November but Newsom has changed his tune and now says schools are safe to reopen without vaccines for educators.

Studies show that schools are safe if community transmission is under control and mitigation measures are in place. That’s not the case in Los Angeles County.

Myart-Cruz noted that children have a higher rate of asymptomatic infection. In LAUSD (the only school district in the state to offer widespread COVID testing) 1 in 3 children have tested positive for COVID-19.

The teacher’s union leader went on to blast politicians and those who minimize the impact of COVID-19 on working class families.

“Saying the temporary trauma from Crisis Distance Learning is greater than the illness and death of family members minimizes the reality that COVID-19 disproportionately impacts poor, Black, Latino, and Pacific Islander families in Los Angeles,” Myart-Cruz said. “It is the workingclass families of LA who suffer the most, our elected county and state officials have made the decision to let this disease run rampant.”

Myart-Cruz called on Buscaino to stop the divisive rhetoric.

“Instead, we want to know what will he and other local and state officials do in these next crucial weeks to get the virus under control in order to save lives and reopen schools?” MyartCruz said.

The leader of UTLA called for, “Vaccines for school educators and staff, in addition to mitigation strategies, such as vaccination, physical distancing, use of masks, hand hygiene, and isolation and quarantine and low community transmission rates. That is the path based on science and the path that puts the health and safety of our school staff, our students, and their families before politics.”

Long Beach is already vaccinating teachers to speed up school openings. At the same time, within LA County, private schools such as Wesley in North Hollywood are open after having received vaccines for their teachers and staff.

[Epoch Times, from p. 1]

Epoch Times’ Dark Propaganda instrument designed to punish the CCP and its supposed allies.

Balmakov was born, raised and educated in Ohio. Both he and his wife are Falun Gong adherents.

“It’s not just that,” Balmakov said, turning the page. “Look: an investigation into how the countries that have been most affected are the same ones that have been the most deeply infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party.”

According to the investigation, Washington State’s early COVID-19 outbreak can be partly explained by the fact that Seattle was the first U.S. port to welcome Communist Chinese cargo ships, in the 1970s.

In April 2020, the Canadian postal union filed a special request to stop postal workers from delivering the newspaper, that called COVID-19 the “CCP virus” on its cover — arguing that it promoted Sinophobia and could put Asian letter carriers at risk. The Canadian government declined to take action. In May 2020, Balmakov appeared in a new ad again accusing the Chinese government of being responsible for COVID-19.

No one has been ballsy enough to try this yet in the United States.

Despite the locally disseminated paper being printed in El Monte, CA, The Epoch Times is not a local newspaper. It doesn’t even pretend to be.

Its content is largely supplied by writers in every other part of the country but California. And despite its claims that its content has “no spin,” the world it depicts in its pages is upside down, emblematic of a Trumpian-worldview.

Random Lengths News signed up for its daily newsletters to get the gist of the kind of

Promotional poster for a performance of Shen Yun. The dance troupe has advertised and toured extensively throughout the U.S. in pre-pandemic times.

headlines that would cross our newsfeed if the paper existed in the same media universe.

On Feb. 13, there was “Hypocrisy: Trump Team Shows Videos of Democrat Lawmakers During Impeachment Trial.” This story is referring to former President Donald Trump’s defense team attempting to make the case that Trump was engaging in “constitutionally protected speech” when he spoke at a rally that immediately preceded the Jan. 6 violence. Five people died as a result of events that day.

The Trump defense team called the impeachment trial a “witch hunt” and railed at Democrats for elevating “cancel culture” to the halls of Congress. In a case of false equivalence, they even suggested Democrats

were hypocrites for impeaching Trump after some had previously voiced support for racial justice marches and criminal justice reform this past summer, none of which were aimed at overthrowing the government.

On Feb. 12, there was “White House Reassures Gun Control Groups It Will Fulfill ‘Ambitious’ Gun Control Agenda.”

This is referring to President Joe Biden’s call for common sense gun control that includes background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets in a released statement. All these measures enjoy broad popular support.

Other headlines are either from opinion pieces reiterating pro-Trump talking points or more “news” stories that misrepresent factual reporting.

The one thing The Epoch Times does well is marketing itself. The Epoch Media Group spent $11 million on Facebook ads in 2019. In August 2019, Facebook banned The Epoch Times from advertising on its platform after finding that the newspaper broke Facebook’s political transparency rules. As Facebook banned it from advertising, the newspaper shifted its spending to YouTube, where it has spent more than $1.8 million on ads, some promoting conspiracy theories, since May 2018.

The news organization was founded with the aim of attacking China’s Communist government in support of the Falun Gong movement. As the government ramped up its repressive efforts against the movement, the movement started looking for allies wherever it could find them — perhaps thinking the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This led to the movement linking arms with far-right groups around the world particularly in Europe and the United States and participating in the manufacture and dissemination of the kind of fake news you’re likely to see in online forums and fake-news websites, except it’s putting it in print. The publication is funded by several nonprofit organizations that are not transparent as to who is supporting them.

Random Lengths News reached out to Nolen Higdon, one of the authors of The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education, to gain insight to organizations like The Epoch Times and the One America Network. These are by far not the only progenitors of fake news nor are they all rooted in the far right ideological spectrum, which Higdon makes abundantly clear.

One of the fascinating things that kind of contextualizes the reach of something like The Epoch [See Epoch Times, p. 8]

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

February 18 - March 3, 2021

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Grand Old Party of Law and Order Gets caught red handed breaking the law James Preston Allen, Publisher

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

As far back as I can recall, Republicans have branded their party as “anti-communist” and a party “for law and order.” This was President Richard M. Nixon’s first “dirty trick” when he ran against Congressman Jerry Voorhees in 1947.

Nixon won that race by inferring that his opponent had been ineffective as a representative and suggested that a Voorhees’s endorsement by a group linked to Communists meant that Voorhees himself had “radical views.” Nixon later sat on the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, HUAC, which promoted the “Red Scare” and went on a “witch hunt” for commies in every level of our nation. He later became the U.S. Senator from California. This of course was the beginning of the post-World War II, Cold War era.

Nixon subsequently became Vice President under Dwight Eisenhower and later ran for president three times, losing the first one to John F. Kennedy in 1960. None of this somewhat ancient history would matter except that Nixon ran on the old “law and order/anti-communism” platform, the same as Donald Trump did in 2020. Nixon got elected the first time by violating the federal law known as the Logan Act to stop President Lyndon B. Johnson from ending the Vietnam War with a peace treaty before the 1968 elections. The Logan Act is the 1799 United States federal law that criminalizes negotiations by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government’s position.

In 1973, Spiro T. Agnew, Nixon’s vice president was investigated by the United States attorney for the District of Maryland on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, bribery, extortion and tax fraud. Agnew took kickbacks from contractors during his time as Baltimore County executive and governor of Maryland. This had nothing to do with the Watergate scandal, in which he was not implicated. After months of maintaining his innocence, Agnew pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of tax evasion and resigned from office. Most of Nixon’s diehard supporters will point to his creating the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Water Act and his opening up trade with China before admitting to his high crime of the Watergate scandal that nearly got him impeached.

He resigned instead and was pardoned by his successor Gerald Ford.

Along the way he instituted the War on Drugs and allowed for J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI

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COINTELPRO political suppression program to continue unabated. Both of these programs broke fundamental laws in the name of keeping America safe from “radicals and communists” while violating people’s civil rights. Some of these issues of injustice are only now being reconsidered and reversed. Read more of this in our article this issue on Judas and the Black Messiah. So much for being the party of law and order.

But don’t stop there, another of the “Great” GOP leaders President (and former California Gov.] Ronald Reagan came to power during the Iranian hostage crisis. And how exactly did that crisis end you might well ask? By Reagan sending an envoy before he was elected to negotiate with the Iranians not to release the hostages before he got elected! This became known as the October Surprise in an article by Bob Woodward and Walter Pincus in the Nov. 29, 1986 edition of the Washington Post that said U.S. officials tied to Reagan, well before the Iran Contra affair, considered an initiative to sell U.S.-made military parts to Iran in exchange for the hostages held there. A clear violation of the Logan Act. By extension, what became known later was that without the consent of Congress the Reagan administration sold anti-tank missiles through a third party to Iran breaking the arms embargo and transferring the proceeds to purchase weapons for the Contras who were attempting to overthrow the elected leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Some of those weapons ended up on the streets of South Los Angeles in the 1980’s as protection for the cocaine trade that fueled money back to the Contra effort and gave rise to gang warfare in LA. Journalist Gary Webb in his 1998 book, Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion, exposed these crimes.

In March 1987, Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (DTx) introduced articles of impeachment against President Reagan, leading to the joint hearings that dominated the summer. A long line of Reagan’s administration were indicted, including Col. Oliver North, some convicted but later pardoned by his successor and former vice president George Bush Sr., the 41st president.

Republicans will always refer to President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary when arguing about corruption in government. Indeed, Bill Clinton was impeached but not convicted for lying under oath about getting a blowjob from a White House intern. Hardly a high crime.

However, this pales in comparison to what we all just witnessed on Jan. 6 with President DonPublisher/Executive Editor James Preston Allen james@randomlengthsnews.com Assoc. Publisher/Production Coordinator Suzanne Matsumiya

“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do something about it.”

—Mark Twain Vol. XLII : No. 4

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

Managing Editor Terelle Jerricks editor@randomlengthsnews.com Senior Editor Paul Rosenberg paul.rosenberg@ randomlengthsnews.com Internship Program Director Zamná Àvila

ald J. Trump inspired an insurrection to invade the U.S. Capitol building, disrupting the certification of votes for the peaceful transfer of power. His “stop the steal” campaign appears now to be more about Republicans attempting to steal the election by whatever means necessary and Trump breaking multiple state and federal laws along the way. This was the cause for his impeachment and justifiably so. All of this while he campaigned over the last year that he is the most “law and order president ever” and that once again the “Democrats are all socialists.”

Now I don’t know about you, but all of this law and order, anti-communist rhetoric is wearing mighty thin at this point. And clearly, the Grand Ol’ Party of Lincoln has a very loose grasp of American laws and even less of an understanding of his-

tory since they still seem to be fighting the Cold War against enemies who long ago exchanged their communist ideology for capitalist economics. China, after Nixon opened trade relations, may still call itself communist, but it is now beating us at our own game while violating the human rights of its own citizens. As for Russia, it has become one of the most corrupt totalitarian nations and still an adversarial threat to our national security.

There have been at least four Republican presidents who should have been impeached and convicted, then removed from office. Yet, here we are again with a guy who clearly is a criminal that the “law and order” GOP can’t convict or remove.

This makes me question what exactly conservatives actually mean by the very term they so often speak but then ignore.

The Keyword is ‘Majority’ on Trump Impeachment Vote

By Lanny Davis

Most of the media understandably is focused on the number, 67 — a vote by two-thirds of the 100 U.S. senators required to convict and remove an impeached president under the U.S. Constitution.

The more important number, however, is that Donald Trump was repudiated by a majority of the U.S. Senate by 57-43, meaning that some members of his own Republican Party voted to convict him and then, potentially, to bar him forevermore from running again for president or any other public office. Since the framers of the Constitution correctly regarded impeachment and conviction as a political decision, not a legal

Columnists/Reporters Melina Paris Staff Reporter Hunter Chase Staff Reporter Send Calendar Items to: 14days@randomlengthsnews.com Photographers Arturo Garcia-Ayala, Terelle Jerricks, Raphael Richardson, Chris Villanueva Contributors Bob Barr, Lanny Davis, Mark Friedman, Lyn Jensen, Robert Lee Johnson, Ari LeVaux Cartoonists Andy Singer, Jan Sorensen, Matt Wuerker

one, that makes sense: We are a democracy and “majority” is the key word and principle in a democracy, not two-thirds.

We know that a majority of Republicans were committed to avoid voting on whether or not the president committed incitement to insurrection.

If this vote were done by secret ballot, it seems likely a larger number of Republican senators would have voted to convict the former president. Instead, they used a change-the-subject argument that the Senate does not have jurisdiction to vote for impeachment once a president leaves office. No one can reasonably doubt that this is [See Majority, p. 7]

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RANDOMLetters Open Letter to Councilmember Buscaino

Delivered on Feb. 8 We are deeply concerned by yesterday’s news that you intend to take steps to sue our local school district to reopen school campuses. As educators, parents, and community members, we want to express our disappointment that you would disregard the health and safety of your constituents and our children at this time.

Los Angeles Unified School District is one of the poorest in the nation, with over 80% of our students receiving free or reduced lunch — a measurement of poverty that doesn’t even take the economic impact of COVID-19 into account. Over 70% of our LAUSD students come from Latinx backgrounds. Due to a variety of systemic factors, these families and communities have experienced a 1000% increase in deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our state consistently ranks in the bottom for per pupil spending, which voters chose not to rectify with the defeat of Prop 15 this past November. Our superintendent, our parents, and our union all agree that reopening LAUSD campuses is not safe.

We want you to know we are working longer hours and harder than ever before. We pivoted in a matter of days to completely adapt an entire institution to a new situation. Tens of thousands

of educators and hundreds of thousands of students log on to platforms daily — despite systemic gaps in funding for devices, internet access, and even electricity. We have provided meals, instruction, extracurricular activities, parent and family workshops, and grief counseling to those who have lost loved ones to the virus — while struggling to bring our own families through this crisis. Suggesting that we return to campuses in the current circumstances demonstrates a lack of empathy, compassion, and understanding for your constituents.

The hybrid plans to return to campus are insufficient to guarantee health and safety.

We can see examples of this in surrounding school districts and other cities and states — which have opened and closed without consistent messaging or support — leaving students, teachers, and families scrambling to plan and find consistent routines during an already stressful time.

Calling for a safe reopening of schools should include a comprehensive plan to vaccinate educators and the families of our most vulnerable students. A safe reopening should include discussions with our labor unions, district leaders, and low-income Black and brown families whose children attend our schools. A safe reopening should include advocating for more funding and

[Majority, from p. 6]

Majority

Editor’s note: More than 800 teachers from schools through the 15th Council District signed on to this letter.

The Enemy is Within

Is the pro-pandemic, genocidal GOP still the party of the defeated, deranged racist traitor Donald Trump? Or is the Republican Party now following the fanatical footsteps of that other infamous homicidal American politician Dan White, the crazy ex-cop who murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk?

Actually, FOX News’ favorite fresh fascist face Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) appears to conveniently enough be the political combination of Donald Trump and Dan White — a pathologically dishonest, crackpot QAnon conspiracy theorist whose hatred is clearly putting her on the path of political assassination and domestic terrorism. Marjorie is a violent psycho!

But the tangerine tyrant Trump says Greene is “a future Republican Star.” Here’s a suggestion for you neo-Nazi Republicans: next time you attempt a domestic terrorist takeover, hijacking the federal government with hateful hillbillies is probably not the most effective approach. No “Twinkie defense” for Trump.

Jake Pickering Arcata, CA

2. Most Americans in many polls today believe Trump is guilty of incitement of insurrection and should be barred from holding public office ever again. Never was there a majority of Americans in any major poll who supported convicting Clinton in 1999.

3. When a majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump, which by definition meant at last some Republicans voted against a former president from their own party, which contrasted with House Republicans’ humiliating failure in 1999 to win an impeachment majority within their own party. Because Trump was found guilty by a majority vote of the Senate, it represents an indelible shame for the rest of his life — an indelible, historic stain for all time.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

It is a fact that a majority of the Senate, including members from his own party, have concluded that Donald Trump is: • Guilty of inciting mob violence resulting in five deaths which, if not for his lies and incitement, would not have occurred.

That is a shame, which Trump cannot escape in the pages of U.S. history.

February 18 - March 3, 2021

• Guilty of lying about fraud in the election.

an excuse for many of these senators to avoid voting what is undeniable — that, but for Trump, there would have been no mob insurrection or deaths at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Yet, if a majority of the Senate — some Republicans as well as all Democrats — found that Trump incited an insurrection against the U.S. government to prevent ratification of the Electoral College’s 2020 election results on Jan. 6, which is a significant political fact.

Here are three other facts that should have been given primary attention by the media and by the American people as a way of assessing the results of the Senate’s vote on impeachment: 1. In 1999, when the Republican-controlled House of Representatives presented two impeachment counts against then-President Bill Clinton for a verdict by the Senate, the Senate had a majority of 55 Republicans.

Then-Rep. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, a key House impeachment manager, failed to convince even 51 of the 55 Republican senators — a Senate majority — to vote “guilty” on either of the two House counts of impeachment against Clinton.

Five Republican senators voted “no” on perjury, leaving the vote 50-50 and, thus, no majority. And, 10 Republican senators voted “no” on obstruction, or against the House Republicans’ impeachment. Graham, now a U.S. senator, and his fellow House managers were humiliated then (and must still be embarrassed now).

Their case was so weak that they couldn’t get a majority, even starting out with 55 fellow Republicans in the Senate.

resources for your community, not shifting our already-limited resources to a legal battle over our health and safety.

• Guilty of inciting insurrection.

Lanny Davis is a partner and founder of the Washington law firm of Davis Goldberg & Galper and the strategic media firm of Trident DMG. He is a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton and a member of President George W. Bush’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. He is the author of several books on history, politics and crisis management.

7

[Epoch Times, from p. 5]

Epoch Times

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

Times, Higdon explained, is the fact that so many people are turning against legacy media. And I don’t just mean they’re choosing other options. There are a lot of studies that clearly show people no longer trust legacy media. By legacy media, Higdon is referring to news outlets that were once family owned companies going back several generations like the Times Mirror Company [owner of the Los Angeles Times], which was gobbled up by even bigger and older company, the Tribune Company.

“On the one hand, you know [fake news] is pretty poisonous for democracy. But on the other hand, a lot of the legacy media, through their fixation on profit models and garnering audiences through hyperpolarized content have actually done a disservice to themselves as journalists,” Higdon explained.

Higdon asked us to consider the cataclysmic failures like the allegations that weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq in 2003, the financial reporting around the Great Recession in 2009, or political reporting around the election in 2016.

“When things like Russia-gate [Higdon is referring to the mainstream media’s rush to assign blame for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss to Russian interference instead of the true culprit of vote suppression in key states] and things like that, a lot of people lost a lot of faith in legacy media,” Higdon said. “So that part is somewhat understandable. But ... people are looking for something new, something different. The statistics are pretty clear that people have turned to online spaces, but not online news media.”

Higdon noted that social media platforms and search engines have added another layer of complexity because their business model is predicated

8

Nolen Higdon, one of the authors of The Anatomy of Fake News: A Critical News Literacy Education.

File photo

on keeping you glued to the screen on your phone so they can keep collecting and selling your data.

The way this model keeps you on your screen is by confirming your views. As a result, search engines and social media platforms reinforce the beliefs or perspectives a user already has regardless of whether these beliefs are false or true. Higdon argues that an environment like this is ripe for an organization like The Epoch Times to succeed because they’re different from legacy media.

“With the right type of sensationalistic, clickbaity headlines, [outlets like The Epoch Times] could build quite a vast global audience for relatively cheap compared to legacy media 20 or 30 years ago,” Higdon said. “I think in The Epoch Times example makes perfect sense in this environment for why they’re resonating the way they are.”

The real interesting thing here is that in this particular moment The Epoch Times is able to portray itself as a victim of censorship and standard bearer of free speech.

Higdon said anybody who is censored or has content removed is a victim at that point, so The Epoch Times may be one of many. But making The Epoch Times the sole issue, or right-leaning victims more broadly, is a real distortion of reality, Higdon argues.

It should be noted here that Higdon does not believe publications like The Epoch Times should be censored, nor do the journalists and researchers affiliated with Project Censored. The solution, they argue, lies in educating the American public in media literacy.

Higdon thinks it’s really important to take a step back.

“As bad as The Epoch Times is and as dangerous as their intentions are, if we don’t look at structural changes, then we’re just going to be playing whacka-mole for the rest of our lives,” Higdon said.

“We can’t keep going after The Epoch Times and Fox news, then OAN and then this party or that party. Fake news has and always will exist,” Higdon said.

Higdon noted that one of the attributes humanity has acquired via evolution is that we’re able to believe falsehoods, citing Yuval Noah Harari’s book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. In it, Harari talks about how you could never convince a monkey to give you all of its bananas with the promise of more bananas in the afterlife. But humans have the ability to believe in myth. So you’re never going to get rid of that out of the society.

“Our best hope is to really train people to be able to discern fact from fiction,” Higdon said. “So when they see something like an ad from The Epoch Times or one of their sensationalistic headlines, rather than react they try and investigate.

“The thing that concerns me about a lot of these conversations about these media outlets is that we fixate on how disgusting their false content is,” Hig-

don said. “We don’t look at the larger environment, which is the social media companies that are amplifying these messages and then there’s a citizenry that’s not trained with critical thinking skills to discern fact from fiction.”

“It would take a lot more time and a lot more effort,” Higdon said. “But I think it’s worth it because the other options on the table include censorship. So, yes. It’s going to take a lot of effort but the short-sighted fixes that we’re attempting now, [are]going to create way more damage.”

Higdon’s solution sounds like a process that would require a great deal of education, time and political uplift in order to make that happen. But also, I can’t help but be reminded of Ron Suskinds’ 2004 New York Times piece about the Bush presidency in which he quotes a senior advisor saying: People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore.

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you are studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.

Protecting American democracy and ensuring that reality is moored by facts and science won’t wait for the exposure of every bit of fake news or until every American achieves media literacy. The world in which we live today is vastly different from the one inherited by the Trump administration.

Review

The Destruction of Myth

Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield from Judas and the Black Messiah.

By Robert Lee Johnson, Contributor

T

Panther Party. Out of 295 COINTELPRO operations as revealed by the 1975 Sen. Frank Church committee hearings, 233 were directed at the Black Panther Party. Jesse Premons, who depicts Special Agent Roy Mitchell, effectively illustrates the FBI tactic of using informants to cast suspicion on innocent party members as informants. In one scene, Mitchell is disturbed to find the FBI turning a blind eye to the fact that their own informant, George Sams, tortured and killed Black Panther Party member Alex Rackley, after accusing him of being an informant. Sams was the FBI’s key witness against Bobby Seale when he went on trial with Ericka Huggins in New Haven, Connecticut for the murder of Alex Rackley.

Black Messiah makes clear that Fred Hampton was a victim of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program and that his assassination was ordered by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover himself. At the time of the making of this film, Hoover’s involvement in Fred Hampton’s murder was not proven. But recently released documents have directly linked Director Hoover in Hampton’s assassination.

While watching this film, it’s easy to forget that the average age of a typical Black Panther Party member was 19 years old. Many were as young as 16. Fred Hampton was only 21 years old. How did a 21-year[See Messiah, p. 10]

February 18 - March 3, 2021

The film flashes further back in time to the late 1960s, when William O’Neal is a petty car thief posing as an FBI agent, until he is actually caught by real FBI agents and is offered a deal he could not refuse. Law enforcement’s usage of such strong arm tactics was common in the Black community, and was intended to cultivate confidential informants with the threat of prison time.

It has been reported that FBI Special Agent Roy Mitchell, O’Neal’s handler, had also cultivated nine other informants inside of the Chicago office of the Black Panther Party. But this movie only focuses on O’Neal’s activities and how he helped the federal government assassinate a 21-year-old charismatic community leader just a year and eight months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; less than a year after the UCLA murders of two charismatic and effective Southern California chapter Black Panther Party leaders, Al Prentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Jerome Huggins.

In 1969, there was a huge leap in the number of confrontations between the Black Panther Party and local police agencies and their surrogates. These confrontations resulted in the death, imprisonment, or exile of party members across the United States, most notably in Los Angeles and Chicago.

The movie makes the direct link between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his counterintelligence program COINTELPRO, whose mission was to “disrupt, discredit and destroy” progressive organizations including the Black

he American media has attempted to define the Black Panther Party as a terrorist Black racist organization hell-bent on killing police officers and “Getting Whitey!” Judas and the Black Messiah destroys that intentional distortion created by the status quo that ignored the assassination, the false imprisonment and the show trials brought about by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s COINTELPRO program. This is all embodied in the tragic murder of Fred Hampton, brilliantly portrayed by Daniel Kaluuya in this film under the nuanced direction of Shaka King.

The movie opens with a 1989 Interview from the documentary Eyes On The Prize of an obviously deluded William O’Neal, former Security Captain of the Illinois State chapter of the Black Panther Party and a paid FBI Informant. It seemed like he was coming to grips for the first time with his role in the murder of Deputy Chairman of the Illinois State Chapter of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton.

This was his first television interview on the subject after entering the FBI’s witness protection program.

He appeared conflicted when asked how he would explain to his young son his activities on behalf of the federal government that led to Hampton’s assassination. Actor LaKeith Stanfield brilliantly captures O’Neal’s inner turmoil.

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Judas and the Black Messiah film changes a false narrative

9

“A

rt is good when it springs from necessity. This kind of origin is the guarantee of its value; there is no other.” –– Neal Cassidy

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

In the middle of the night, partway through a cross-country drive, I unfolded myself from the driver’s seat at another random gas station.

Someone special was waiting at the east end of Interstate 90, but the rig and I both needed fuel.

As sure as diesel hum at a truck stop, there is a chocolate muffin in the store. It’s wrapped in clear cellophane and called “Double Chocolate Muffin,” or “Chocolate-ChocolateChunk Muffin,” or something along those lines, depending on which semi-local bakery made it.

A gas station chocolate muffin can be hard to find. There is no one place where you can count on it being. But like love, you can find it if you look hard enough, or if you lower the bar enough, all the way down to Hostess if necessary. Not the cream-filled cupcakes; the

10

Chocolate on Steroids

By Ari LeVaux, Flash in the Pan Columnist

chocolate muffin.

Anywhere else, the gas station chocolate muffin might be as forgettable as one highway mile after the last.

But our expectations are low at the gas station, and our needs are specific. Enjoyed with a steaming cup of gas station coffee, that dark, chemically moist and shiny chocolate muffin keeps us truckin all the way to the next pit stop. And the muffin, in turn, elevates that mediocre coffee into something like an artisan cup brewed by a beard in a flannel shirt.

The gas station chocolate muffin and coffee don’t just improve one another’s A chocolate muffin, made with Kwik Trip’s recipe. Photo by Ari LeVaux flavor. They combine their allows new lovers to talk for hours. Studies have pharmacological forces in turning you into a shown most phenylalanine in chocolate gets well-oiled driving machine. Both bittersweet delicacies contain caffeine, of which only coffee broken down by enzymes before it has a chance to release those endorphins, but true Cupids contains grown-up levels, while cocoa is rich know some of those biochemical arrows will hit in a similar molecule, also a stimulant, called their marks. theobromine, which translates from Latin to Chocolate also contains endocannabinoids, “food of God.” which human brain cells have special Not as powerful a stimulant as caffeine, receptors to receive. And what discussion of it lasts longer, and eases the jittery feelings euphoria would be complete without good old that caffeine alone can give. There is evidence sugar, which triggers the release of yet more theobromine improves cognitive function, endorphins, plus giving you a sugar high, while while reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and dulling the bitter flavors of both chocolate and cardiovascular diseases. coffee. Luckily, theobromine also protects Cacao famously contains high levels of against tooth decay. phenylalanine, which releases dopamine and I got off I90 in Newton, Mass., and drove norepinephrine, the endorphins responsible for through the outskirts of Boston to my mom’s the ecstasy of falling in love, and the energy that apartment. A few days later we headed for Montana, cup holders full of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee, and Dunkin’ chocolate muffins in the console, which I incorrectly presumed would be our last best road muffins.

At the Clifton Springs travel plaza in Upstate New York, I got a Starbucks muffin and a double Americano, and figured I’d hit peak crunk. Then came Chicago, in broad daylight. I needed a coffee and chocolate muffin IV, because I could not let go of the steering wheel with even one hand. And both feet were on the gas.

In LaCrosse, Wis., I discovered the gas station chocolate muffin of my dreams, at a gas station chain called Kwik Trip. The Kwik Trip muffins are baked in the LaCrosse-based Kwikery and distributed throughout stations in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Instead of being hard to find, their muffins are displayed in welllit cases, and you can also buy 4-packs. I was in love, but alas, I was also in a hurry. I hit as many Kwik Trips as possible before I crossed the South Dakota line.

In Murdo, S.D., sometime after midnight, the mask-free convenience store attendant insisted there wasn’t a chocolate muffin. I checked by the coffee, and then the refrigerated case where the sandwiches are, and then over by the doughnuts, in front of the corn dogs, and kept going until I finally found that elusive, theobromine-laced asset on the Hostess rack.

Not the creme-filled cupcake. The chocolate muffin. When you’re in limbo, you don’t worry about lowering the bar a little.

She managed to ring me up and take my money without acknowledging me or my chocolate muffin, most likely annoyed that I’d

raided her stash. No matter. I had what I needed to plow through another tank of gas, all the way through that COVID-laced wasteland and into the world’s greatest state, while my Valentine slept safely in the passenger seat.

When I got back to Montana, I reached out to the good folks at Kwik Trip. It’s quite the operation, vertically integrated to the point of having its own dairy, the fresh milk of which is sold at every Kwik Trip. And they were kind enough to provide their muffin recipe. With this muffin, and a cup of coffee, anything is possible.

For the recipe, follow the link: https://arilevaux.com/cocoa-power/ [Messiah, from p. 9]

Messiah

old become a first-rate orator, community organizer and effective leader of the Illinois State Chapter of the Black Panther Party? We know that he had been a NAACP youth leader in nearby Maywood, Ill. But what got him involved in politics? The radicalizing event for a whole generation of Black youth took place in 1955 with the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi.

The murderers, two white racists, were found not guilty by an all-white jury with the excuse that they did not believe that the body that Mrs. Till buried was the body of her son, but a corpse that she had dug up and that her son was alive in Detroit. It’s hard to imagine people can be so brazen. But then again, there are people today who believe Donald Trump is secretly fighting a criminal network of Hollywood elitists and Democratic Party members who are pedophiles and Satan worshipers who kidnap children and drink their blood and eat them to gain immortality.

A few weeks after their acquittal, the two white racists, sold their story about how they killed Emmett Till to a national magazine where they all but boasted about their role in his murder. This murder not only shocked the nation but devastated the Black community in Chicago. Fred Hampton’s mother had babysat Emmett Till. This might explain Fred Hampton’s early involvement with the NAACP in Maywood, which acted as a training ground for his activities with the Black Panther Party. As Dr. Huey P. Newton once said, “Without the NAACP there would have never been a Black Panther Party.”

But Hampton does not do this all by himself. The personalities of Bobby Rush and Ronald “Doc” Satchel should have been developed more. After Hampton’s assassination, Rush led the chapter for many years. The People’s Free Breakfast Program, The Jake Winters People’s Free Medical Clinic, the formation of the Rainbow Coalition that eventually led to the election of President Barack Obama, are all legacies of not only Fred Hampton’s leadership, but of the many people who worked, sacrificed and risked their lives as members of the Black Panther Party.

Party members became servants of the people in order to fight for a better life in unity against a white supremacist status quo that keeps us fighting each other over scraps and viciously attacks us when we move toward unity. Black Messiah accurately depicts Fred Hampton as a visionary who saw something better for all people and worked in unity for a better place in this world. The film gives a more realistic understanding of the Black Panther Party’s ideology, rather than the myths and hearsay that’s out there. And certainly [See Myth, p. 11]

[Myth, from p. 10]

Myth Destroyed

more realistic than the “police version” of events.

Black Messiah was well acted and well-written. Some of the interior shots were too dark for my taste, but I guess they were trying to set the mood. The tight editing and the music score created a stylized depiction that seemed to catch the feel of the community that Hampton was trying to build as he reached out to other communities to show them that we have a common struggle and that we can win if we fight together.

The movie also showed love and respect for the party’s work in our Black community — ­ organizing and uniting us to work together to feed our children, to provide access to medical clinics and to realize the power of the people in unity. The party believed that people learn from example. That theory came with

Palos Verdes Art Center

PVAC90: PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE

PVAC’s Art for Fun(d)s Sake event at Marineland of the Pacific

At the end of the film, we return to William O’Neal’s interview with Eyes On the Prize as he tries to avoid the obvious. His role in the Black Liberation Movement was that of a “rat” working for the FBI as its instrument to assassinate Fred Hampton. When Eyes On the Prize aired nationally on Martin Luther King’s birthday, William O’Neal committed suicide. I imagine that that was the first time he actually saw himself. It appears he couldn’t stand what he saw and what his son was going to see — a personal myth destroyed.

Robert Lee Johnson is the author of Notable Southern Californians in Black History. He was formerly a leading member of the Compton branch of the Black Panther Party, a founding member of the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) in the 1970s. Johnson was a named plaintiff in CAPA v. Gates, a lawsuit filed against the LAPD on First Amendment grounds, exposing unlawful harassment, surveillance and infiltration of the progressive movement by LAPD agents.

Studio Gallery 345

BEARLY IMPRESSIONS Out of an abundance of caution, Studio 345 has been closed during the pandemic. But viewers can walk by the studio’s storefront windows and see Bearly Impressions, a new installation of illustrations and paintings by Pat Woolley.

345 W. 7th St., San Pedro.

Take a virtual tour of Pat Woolley and Gloria Lee’s works at www.randomlengthsnews.com/art/firstthursday

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

Pat Woolley

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

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PVAC90 is year-long 90th anniversary exhibition celebrating the achievements made by Palos Verdes Art Center since its beginnings in 1931. It provides an opportunity to reflect on moving forward while remaining a valuable resource to our local community by collaborating with the world at large. Programming will be updated regularly at www. pvartcenter.org with additional galleries, event notifications and educational material. Curated by Aaron Sheppard.

practice — not talk. We didn’t talk about hungry children in our community. We organized a breakfast program to feed hungry children in our community and showed the community that they could do this themselves.

This fact about the Black Panther Party was beautifully depicted in the scenes in which Bobby Rush rallies party members to rebuild their office that had been destroyed by the Chicago Police Department and community members come out to help. The movie tears apart the myth of the Black Panther Party as merely a Black nationalist-hate-white-people group. Or as Special Agent Mitchell says of the Panthers in the film, “they’re just like the Klan” — a false equivalency used by right-wingers and police to demonize the Black Panther Party and sow mistrust and confusion. Former members of the Black Panther Party that I’ve talked to enjoyed these points of authenticity, as did I.

koryuramen.com Koi Ramen

February 18 - March 3, 2021

11

FEB 18 - MAR 3 • 2021 MUSIC Feb. 18

Natural Science Rush tribute band Natural Science will perform a livestream show, where it will play the album Permanent Waves in its entirety.

Time: 7 p.m. Feb. 18 Cost: Free Details: tinyurl.com/NaturalSciencePermanent

Feb. 20

Trevor Berens Join a classical piano performance featuring Trevor Berens.

Registration is required.

Time: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Feb. 20 Details: https://pvld.evanced.info/ signup/virtual-winter-concert Your Musical Family Tree Jazz musician and composer Paul Cornish will teach participants how to explore their family lineage through music. Learn to sketch

family trees and use them as inspiration to create music. This workshop will be in English with Spanish translation.

Time: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Feb. 20 Cost: Free Details: tinyurl.com/MusicalFamTree Psytrance Superfriends Livestream Gathered from cosmic reaches of the universe, these powerful forces for good have gathered for the third round of justice. This event is streaming free on Twitch and features the talents of Triceradrops from BMSS and Pharmacy; Primordial Ooze from Purple Hexagon and Samaa Records; and Alchimyst from Alteza Records.

Time: 2 p.m. Feb. 20 to 12:30 p.m. Feb. 22 Cost: Free Details: tinyurl.com/4mfcg5h8

Feb. 27

Feb. 20

Joachim Cooder and Amythyst Kiah This virtual concert will be played live from the Skirball’s Taper Courtyard as well as in East Tennessee. Joachim Cooder will play indie-infused folk with his father Ry Cooder. They will perform original compositions and modern arrangements of Uncle Dave Macon’s old-time country tunes.

Afterwards, Grammy-nominated Amythyst Kiah will play her own blend of rock, country and blues.

Time: 8 p.m. Feb. 27 Cost: Free Details: tinyurl.com/CooderandKiah

Broadway Day with the Elphabas of Wicked This one-day virtual workshop includes a dance workshop by understudy Hannah Shankman, who will talk about what it’s like to rehearse for Wicked. Afterwards there will be a Q&A with Jessica Vosk and Eden Espinosa, both of whom played the famous green witch.

Time: 12 to 2 p.m. Feb. 20 Cost: $35 Details: tinyurl.com/BroadwayDayWicked

THEATER Feb. 18

Odyssey — Race and Racism Levy Lee takes a few stories from his memoir, Odyssey Towards the Light, and performs them in spoken word and theatrical style. He addresses race and racism in his own life as Black man in the 20th and 21st century.

Time: 6 p.m. to 8 pm. Feb. 18 Price: Free Details: tinyurl.com/OdysseyRace

Black Broadway History Enjoy free history classes, hosted

by Stevi Meredith and streaming live on Musical Theatre West’s Facebook and YouTube platforms, at 7 p.m. each Saturday in February. Donations encouraged. All donations go directly to the teaching artists.

Feb. 20 - TBA; Feb. 27 - Grasan Kingsberry - Celebrating the work of George Faison (The Wiz, Don’t Bother Me I Can’t Cope, The Josephine Baker Story) Time: 7 p.m. each Saturday Details: www.musical.org/ celebrate

ART

Feb. 18

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant

Couriers of Hope Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum participated in Couriers of Hope, a collaboratively curated exhibition organized by the Port City Creative Guild. Curator Kristina Newhouse invited many Long Beach artists to submit work made on envelopes to the mail art project. Over 80 local artists in total participated.

Time: Through Feb. 28 Details: www./portcitycreativeguild.org/exhibition/couriers-ofhope Venue: Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, 228 E. Broadway, Long Beach Borderline This group show explores the notion of the border — both as a metaphor for our lived experience and as a tool to undermine the certainty of the territories it defines.

Details: www.angelsgateart.org/ otw_pm_portfolio/borderline-2

Feb. 21

MoLAA Sculpture Garden Tour Join a virtual tour of the Robert Gumbiner Events and Sculpture garden. Live narration will be provided by a Museum of Latin American Art docent who will guide you through the outdoor exhibitions of sculptures by Latinx artists and

the drought resistant plants found in the garden.

Time: 2 to 3 p.m. Feb. 21 Details: https://tinyurl. com/5mw4zcfa

Feb. 27

GIF Culture Join artist Evelyn Contreras for GIF Culture, a talk on the cultural renaissance of the GIF followed by a GIF-making workshop. Attendees must have digital images saved on their computers to participate in the workshop portion.

No special software is required.

GIF Culture is a free, online workshop. Registration is required at Eventbrite.

Time: 2 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 27 Details: www.eventbrite.com/e/ gif-culture-lecture-workshop-tickets

FILM

Feb. 19

The Drive-In At Exposition Park February brings films on a celebration of Black love and sisterhood. More films continue through February like Amazing Grace, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella for family screenings. DJs and a host of other experiences make each visit a unique and unexpected event.

Time: Various times, Feb. 19 to 28 Cost: $50 per car with two people Details: www.eventbrite.com/o/ wuti-the-drive-in-at-expositionpark and www.wutiatthedrivein. com

Feb. 23

My Name Is Pedro This award-winning film explores the seemingly impossible journey of South Bronx Latino educator and maverick, Pedro Santana, a former “special ed” student, whose mantra is every kid can learn despite their circumstances.

Releasing on VOD and DVD on Feb. 23 in US, Canada and UK. Details: https://www.mynameispedro.com

COMMUNITY Feb. 18

Afro-Latinx Festival 2021 Celebrate cultural diversity and the African influence in Latin America at MOLAA’s Afro-Latinx Festival.

Learn about the many ways in which the African influence has permeated Latin America and experience these first-hand through lectures, artistic presentations, music, dance, food and even martial arts online. Presented by the Port of Long Beach.

Time: Online event through Feb. 28 Details: www.molaa.org/ events/2021/2/16/afro-latinxfestival-2021

Black Power: Selections from the Gerth Archives at CSUDH The exhibit traces the roots of the Black Power movement through facsimiles of more than 50 various newspapers, letters, flyers, pamphlets and other materials created by or regarding the Black Panther Party, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Committee to Aid the Monroe Defendants, and the Congress of Racial Equality. Exhibition curated

by Allison Ransom.

Time: Tues. through Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. through June Cost: Free Details: 562-588-7075 Venue: Page Against The Machine, 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach Just Draw: Creating Light for Photography Join Mark Knight and explore and play with different light techniques to “create” photographs with light.

You will need a digital camera — phones are fine; any kind of fruit or vegetable, a dark fabric (e.g. a black t-shirt), and an extra light source (e.g. flashlight, lamp, etc.).

Just Draw is for ages 18 and older.

Time: 10 to 11 a.m. Feb. 19 Cost: Free Details: https://tinyurl.com/justdrawcreatinglight, https://zoom. us/j/632542879 Venue: Zoom

Feb. 24

Voices for Justice This new speaker series explores systemic racism, social justice, activism, equality and the arts through CSULB faculty-moderated conversations. The series begins with Tamika D. Mallory, social activist, co-founder of Until Freedom, and co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March, in conversation with CSULB faculty member Dr. Amber Johnson. All events in the series are live streamed online and free to attend with registration. A student-centered Q & A will follow most presentations.

Time: 5 p.m. Feb. 24 Cost: Free Details: https://www.carpenterarts.org/voices-for-justice-equityarts-series

Feb. 27

Friends of the Library Book Donation Day Peninsula Friends of the Library is now accepting donations. Donations will be accepted on the last Saturday of every month. Stop by the parking garage and a volunteer will be available to assist you.

Time: 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Feb. 27 Venue: 701 Silver Spur Rd. Rolling Hills Estates Details: www.pvld.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=friends-ofthe-library; 310-921-7505

February 18 - March 3, 2021

Free Speech Facing Extinction

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After 61 years of independent and community-based media, our financial circumstances continue to slide into the abyss of uncertainty. We may have to think the unthinkable; we may be forced to shut down.

Show your your support for KPFK today!

Donate: www.KPFK.org • 818-985-KPFK

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

February 18 - March 3, 2021

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CLASSIFIED ADS & DBA FILINGS

JOBS

RLN SEEKING SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR Responsibilities include: • Advertising sales— print and digital • Developing and maintaining social media Requirements: • 2-plus years of advertising or marketing experience • Reliable transportation Send resumé to james@randomlengthsnews.com or drop by the office at 1300 S. Pacific Ave. in San Pedro.

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

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PERSONALS Well-to-do lady seeks a good man age 62 to 80 to travel and have a good life with. I’ll pay my own expenses, you pay yours. (310) 684-1448.

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.

DBAs $ 140 Filing & Publishing

310-519-1442 Remember to renew your DBA every five years

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020223575 The following person is doing business as:(1) Girls in Focus, 2039 Trudie Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: Girls in Focus, 2039 Trudie Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275,. This Business is conducted by a corporation.

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/. Dunja Merell Djordjevic, President.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 12/22/20.

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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21,

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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21, 02/03/21, 02/17/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020213812 The following person is doing business as: Blady’s

Local Handyman, 242 W 11th StreetSan Pedro, CA 90731, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: Bladimir Olando Diego Garcia, 242 W 11th StreetSan 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/.

Bladimir Olando Diego Garcia, Owner This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 11/10/20.

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

02/03/21, 02/17/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021004790 The following person is doing business as: (1) TL On Time Delivery Corp., 452 W. 21st Street, San Pedro, CA 907361-5510, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: TL On Time Delivery Corp., 452 W. 21st Street,

[continued on p. 15]

“Must Be ‘21 to Enter” -- happy new year to you!

02/03/21, 02/17/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2020213812 The following person is doing business as: (1) Livid Media, 29505 S Western Ave, Suite #104, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, Los Angeles County. Registered owners: Kenneth Roy Brewer, 924 Wycliff Ave, San Pedro, CA 90732. Meri Gyetvay, 524 W Hamilton Ave., San Pedro, Ca 90731.

This Business is conducted by a general partnership.

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/.

Kenneth Roy Brewer, General Partner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 12/11/20.

Notice--In accordance with subdivision (a) of section

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: 01/07/21, 01/21/21,

© 2021 MATT JONES, Jonesin’ Crosswords

Wanted part time massage therapist for San Pedro Clinic.

New graduates welcomed.

Must be proficient in therapeutic and deep tissue massage. Must be reliable, complete patient charting and a graduate from a professional massage school with certificate. Send resumes to sphealingarts@sbcglobal.net

utes. Average savings of $444/year! Call 844-7126153! (M-F 8am-8pm Central)

For answers go to: www.randomlengthsnews.com

WANTED

ACROSS

1 “21 ___” (2003 Sean Penn film) 6 Go on and on 10 1982 movie with a 2010 sequel 14 Quick text that’s usually abbreviated even more 15 Pilot’s prefix 16 Mandlikova of tennis 17 “Raging Bull” boxer Jake La ___ 18 Person, place, or thing, in grammar 19 One of many for “Game of Thrones” 20 Band whose album “No Need to Argue” features the track “Twenty One” (followed by their biggest hit, “Zombie”) 23 ___ de los Muertos 24 Largest continent 25 Trivia locale, once (and hopefully in the future) 28 “Frozen” snowman 31 “Great British Bake Off” fixtures 35 Ending for suburban 36 Rattled 38 Actress Falco of “The Sopranos” 39 1950s news involving Charles Van Doren and “Twenty-One”

43 Primal calling 44 Holiday spread 45 Kind of wind or will 46 Opposite combatant 48 “Live!” cohost for 20+ years 49 1994 and 1997 U.S. Open winner Ernie 50 Icicle lights locale 53 “Skyfall” actor Rapace 55 Place to play Twenty-One 62 Penguins’ milieu 63 Former “Whose Line” host Carey 64 “Spunk” author Zora ___ Hurston 66 Present prefix 67 “Rondo ___ Turca” (Mozart piece) 68 Casual goodbyes 69 Calamities 70 Bigfoot’s Tibetan cousin 71 Singer with the Grammy-winning album “21”

DOWN

1 Workout facility 2 Square or cube follower 3 Short story-writer?

4 Inaudible on Zoom, maybe 5 Full of legroom 6 “Munich” star Eric 7 Florida explorer Ponce de ___ 8 Caribbean island near Venezuela 9 Skeletal makeup 10 Poem with the line “Darkness there and nothing more”

11 “Mr. Robot” actor Malek 12 “The joke’s ___!”

13 Some House votes 21 “Lord of the Flies” leader 22 2014 World Cup final city 25 Irritated state 26 Half a 360 27 Neutral, blah color 29 Starting on 30 Less numerous 32 Murphy of 2021’s “Coming 2 America” 33 Former One Direction member Horan 34 Markets successfully 37 Public TV chef Ming ___ 40 “Back to the Future” director Robert 41 $100 bill, in old slang 42 Fleet-footed heroine of Greek myth 47 It’s milked in Tibet 51 Truman declaration of 9/2/45 52 Country-blues guitarist Steve 54 Draw ___ on (take aim at) 55 Waxing target 56 Chauffeur-driven vehicle 57 Rice who writes of vampires 58 Ancient British Isles settler 59 “The Bridge on the River ___” 60 Hurrying, maybe 61 Airline to Jerusalem 65 Language suffix

DBA FILINGS [from p. 14] San Pedro, CA 907361-551.

This Business is conducted by a corporation. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 03/2020.

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/. Thomas R. Lassiter, President. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 01/07/21. 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: 01/21/21, 02/03/21, 02/17/21, 03/04/21

Fictitious Business Name Statement File No. 2021004783 The following person is doing business as: (1) Thats My Desi Life Shop, 850 E Ocean Blvd.,

Long Beach Ca 90802. Unit 1204, Los Angeles County.

Registered owners: (1) Shiksha Arun Mahtani., 850 E Ocean Blvd., Long Beach Ca 90802.

(2) Simran Arun Mahtani, 850 E Ocean Blvd., Long Beach Ca 90802. This Business is conducted by a copartners. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 09/2020. 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/.

Simran Arun Mahtani, owner.

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on 01/07/21. 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: 01/21/21, 02/03/21, 02/17/21, 03/04/21

Ed Pearl 1932 - 2021

The founder of the 1960s iconic music venue The Ash Grove, Ed Pearl died on Feb. 7 from complications of COVID-19 and pneumonia. He had been living in an assisted living facility for about a year. Ed Pearl was 88.

The Ash Grove was the focal point in Los Angeles for folk, blues, and ethnic music through the ‘60s into the early ‘70s. This unique venue located on Melrose (now a comedy club) was the home in Southern California for many traveling bluesmen and folk artists as well as more popular musicians. Among those who graced the boards of The Ash Grove were artists such as Johnny Cash, Jim Croce, The Byrds, Zydeco star Clifton Chenier, bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins and the Chamber Brothers.

The Ash Grove was the place where young people would go and literally sit at the feet of this incredible array of artists. Actress/singer Katy Segal would climb out her window of her parents’ home to go to The Ash Grove. Brothers Phil and Dave Alvin would hitchhike from Downey to the Melrose night club. Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and Ry Cooder would be among many soon to

become famous musicians who would frequent the venue.

The seeds for The Ash Grove began when Pearl, a student at UCLA, and his fraternity were denied the ability to present a folk concert featuring Pete Seeger on campus. This was at the tail end of the House Un-American Activities, where Seeger had been branded a Communist threat. The university would have none of that influence on school grounds so Ed went next door to the large Presbyterian church just off campus and filled the huge church in Westwood. In that move, he

Ed was a softspoken man, of strong convictions. He was a political activist who was involved in the Civil Rights struggle by organizing locally the Freedom Riders trip to the South. He continued to be very involved in politics and the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

Ed is survived by his daughter Jolie Ed Pearl, founder of The Ash Grove, died Feb. Pearl, granddaughter 7.

Ari Pearl Butler as saved Pete’s career and set him well as brothers Bernie, Stanley on his path as a music producer, and Sherman. promoter and venue operator.

—By Bob Barr

[Park, from p. 2]

Park Opposed

Real News, Real People, Really Effective

Feb. 8. This was not the first time members of the council tried to interfere, as Board President Ray Regalado sent a letter to Gene Seroka asking him to reconsider eliminating the right of way in October 2020. Regalado has not received a response from the port.

Regalado said he doesn’t see why the port would have any reason to not bring the Red Car line back, but that it might not fit their plans, including the development of the West Harbor project.

Regalado said the park could be beneficial to residents of Rancho San Pedro, especially since it would bring more greenspace. However, he wondered if it is in the most safe and accessible place, and if there are better options. He said it was very necessary for the developers to listen to community input.

The necessary approvals for the park and other development at Rancho San Pedro have already been approved, said Alison Becker, CAC chairwoman for Council District 15 at the Feb. 3 meeting of the Rancho San Pedro Community Advisory Committee meeting. In addition, the team working on the project had already spoken with local stakeholders.

“We certainly understand the longstanding interest and concerns that Red Car advocates have about the right of way,” Becker said. “What we have heard is that, both from local folks and also from transportation experts, is that the future

of mobility is flexible and not fixed.”

Becker said that as construction continues in San Pedro, multiple modes of transportation will be considered.

Anderson said that if the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council had known about the project earlier, they would have asked representatives from the project to speak to the council.

“It was my understanding that they had started working on it in October of last year,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but the plans seemed to be very well developed for something just coming up.

“It directly affects the central tenet of the Public Access Investment Plan, which is connectivity with the downtown to the port,” Anderson said.

“Once you abandon the rail right of way, it’s going to be very difficult to get it back.”

Anderson argued that removing it could prevent future transit opportunities that might be needed — especially when you factor in the West Harbor Development project, which is intended to attract a lot of people.

“Those people have to have ways to get there, not just traffic, not just cars,” Anderson said.

When the Red Car was active, it attracted both tourists and locals, and was hard to get onto on weekends because it was very crowded.

“I don’t know why the port would want to preclude that development,” Anderson said.

“I just can’t see it, unless they’re thinking of [Port] economics, but their economics have really improved.”

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February 18 - March 3, 2021

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February 18 - March 3, 2021

Real News, Real People, Totally Relevant