Serving Bixby Knolls, California Heights, Los Cerritos, Wrigley and Signal Hill with 30,000 issues every Friday
VOL. XLII NO. 28
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
www.signaltribune.com
Lena Gonzalez’s Broadband For All bill passes out of Senate floor
In this issue CULTURE
Long Beach Shakespeare Company to offer live theatre, virtually
Karla Enriquez Digital Editor
Page 4
News
Photos by XXXXXXXXX | Signal Tribune
Protesters marched down Pine Avenue in Long Beach on Thursday, July 2, to demand justice for Bililfo Fernandez and other street vendors who have been assaulted while working. Fernandez was violently assaulted and robbed on Monday, June 27 while selling corn on 14th Street and Locust Ave.
Local street vendor assaulted and robbed at gunpoint, LBPD seeks help finding suspects Karla Enriquez
City of Long Beach to provide “Emergency Rental Assistance” based off of a “lottery pool” Page 2 COMMENTARY
Digital Editor
Kristen Farrah Naeem Staff Writer
Bililfo Fernandez, a local street vendor, was selling elotes also known as “corn on the cob” to help support his family when he was robbed and assaulted at gunpoint by two individuals on June 29, 2020. “We had to take him to the
Emergency Room so that they could help him and treat him because his injuries were pretty severe,” Erika Fernandez, Bililfo’s daughter, wrote on the family’s GoFundMe campaign page. “His nose and head were busted open with a gun.” There is video evidence of the crime, caught by a nearby camera in which one of the two male perpetrators can be seen pointing a gun multiple times at Fernandez
and a woman who attempts to intervene to help. Both men can be seen assaulting Fernandez, who tried to defend himself but was eventually overwhelmed. The attack occurred at 14th and Locust Avenue near the Washington neighborhood in Long Beach. Two GoFundMe campaigns were made, one by his daughter Erika and another by a witness see VENDOR page 7
Rally and march for Black LGBTQ lives, remembers Stonewall anniversary, denounces police brutality Kristen Farrah Naeem Staff Writer
California bars must close again Page 4
July 3, 2020
In honor of the 51st anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, Queer Pride 4 Black Life organized a pride event in Bixby Park to both celebrate Black gay, transgender and queer lives and denounce their killings at the hands of police on Sunday, June 28.
“Being Black and gay is not separate from just being Black,” Audrena Redmond of Black Lives Matter Long Beach told the crowd, “Being Black and trans is not separate from just being Black, because when the police come for you, when they come for us, they just see Black. They don’t care if you’re a woman or man or trans or gay
or a lesbian or a dyke or a butch or whatever you call yourself. They don’t care.” A photo of one of Stonewall’s leading activists, Marsha P. Johnson, was placed at the top of a memorial set up in Bixby Park to honor Black transgender individuals who have been murdered. Johnson’s body was see STONEWALL page 5
33rd District Senator and former Long Beach Councilmember, Lena Gonzalez’s “Broadband For All” bill passed out of the Senate floor on Friday, June 26. The senator’s first bill, SB 1130, passed on a 30-9 vote. The bill aims to bridge the digital divide by ensuring equal access to high speed, reliable and “open-access digital infrastructure” for rural and urban communities, according to Senator Gonzalez. “I am thrilled that SB 1130 passed out of the Senate with bi-partisan support […],” Senator Gonzalez said in a written statement to the Signal Tribune. “The current development of broadband in our communities is happening at a slow pace with often outdated infrastructure.” She continued, “This critical legislation will foster the development of futureproofed high-speed broadband projects throughout all parts of California including urban, suburban, and rural communities. SB 1130 seeks to provide high-speed internet to all Californians, and I am excited to continue moving this legislation forward in the Assembly.” In an Instagram post announcing the bill’s passage out of the Senate floor, see BROADBAND page 7