Fire Station 24 opened this week near the Port of Long Beach. It is the first fire station built in Long Beach in over 20 years.
It is modern and most importantly has the needed sleeping quarters that provide privacy for male and female firefighters.
I wish it had been built to LEED specifications so that it […]

The Los Angeles Times ran a story on Thursday, April 3 entitled: “Harbor Reaches Pollution Accord.”
Sadly, the story wasn’t about “our” harbor — it was about the Los Angeles Harbor.
And here’s what is being done: the Port of LA have agreed to pay $12 millin over the next year on pollution reduction initiatives in adjacent […]

I just received my copy of the “Public Law Journal” which is an official publication of the State Bar of California Public Law Section. There were a couple of articles that are extremely timely to what has been occuring at Long Beach City Council:

 ”Public official Communication Under the Brown Act: It is Not Necessarily a […]

Over the 7 years I taught at CSULB, I always stressed to my students — “check your facts before you go off on somebody and tell them they are wrong.” That’s usually a good rule in life and especially if you practice law.
That’s why I was shocked at the treatment I received at City Council […]

I promise not to go on about the outrage that has been visited upon me by one of the local press outlets because I dared bring to a open City Council meeting the idea that the Council owed it to our residents to discuss the possibility of transferring a higher percentage of profits from the Harbor […]

Following the underwhelming support I received last Tuesday night to refer to the Council Committee on Economic Development for “discussion” the issue of increasing the amount of profits transferred from the Harbor Department…a department of the City… I went home and watched my favorite (actually second favorite) surreal Tuesday night show — “Boston Legal” and […]

Ooooo. The cold breezes were a blowing off the port tonite.
A chilly wind hit me right in the face as I dared suggest that this Council discuss the support of  legislation to remove the partial exemption of the sales use tax on the dirtiest fuel available — bunker fuel.
Not only is there no political will […]

Don’t take my word for it. Look at the front pages of the Press Telegram and the Los Angeles Times today and read how pollution from the ports is harming and killing (via cancer and respiratory illness) Long Beach.  Then click on to this file and read Health Impact of Bunker Fuel . You might also recall […]

If you count the number of hot dogs and hamburgers cooked and given out yesterday, 1,000 people attended the first Annual Good Neighbor Festival and Picnic at El Dorado Park near the Senior Center. (Thanks to the Long Beach Police Officers Association for cooking hamburgers — and then going to get more when they ran […]

Thursday evening more than 80 constituents and I set sail on a brief cruise of the Port of Long Beach. The evening was perfect. The weather spectacular. The food tasty.
The purpose of the event was to introduce 5th District residents to the Port of Long Beach and to give them a guided tour (courtesy of […]