Here's how I started the column:

Food stamps have been in the news lately after Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich called Barack Obama the "food stamp president."

Gingrich was taking a swipe at the president by saying Obama's policies were causing people to depend on food stamps. The insult carried an added dig because of the negative connotation of food stamps as a vehicle for mooching off the public dime.

With that thought in mind, I spent part of Thursday morning with John and Rose Bossi, a San Pedro couple who recently became food stamp recipients.

Read more of Business Casual.

(Reuters) - Prices of Mattel Inc toys like Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars have gone up as the company tries to compensate for increasing costs for materials like resin and rising wages in China.

The world's largest toy company, which sees input, labor and transportation costs rising in 2012, said on Tuesday that it had raised prices at a mid-single-digit rate on January 1 with the goal of keeping gross margins at around 50 percent.

Read more on Mattel.

Read about my adventures in owning a restaurant in this week's Business Casual.

Here's an excerpt of the column:

Dressed in a miniskirt, the sales lady was as friendly as could be. She left her cellphone number and told me to call any time for any reason.

She would help us with a problem even if she happened to leave the company for another job. Now that's what I call dedication.

Here's an excerpt from my column on the new business. Obviously, I had to hold back a bit since we're a family newspaper.

Mistress Cyan explained that even dungeons are suffering in these tough economic times, especially if it's a new establishment like hers.

"We are not the type of business that is a necessity. We are more of a luxury," she said. "Instead of spending an hour's time, they'll come in and spend half an hour."

Read all of Business Casual.

Here's SpaceX's announcement.

A Mattel rep tells TheWrap the company does not comment on product rumors, but a series of tweets between Kim Kardashian and the official Twitter account of Barbie suggests Kardashian dolls will be a real thing this year.

"Merry Christmas Barbs @BarbieStyle! Long time no see! What did Ken get you for Christmas? Miss you doll!" Kardashian tweeted on Dec. 25.

Read more on Mattel and Kim Kardashian.

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Boeing Co's defense unit is bracing for the "worst case scenario" -- a trillion-dollar U.S. defense budget reduction over 10 years, the chief executive of the company's Defense Space and Security business said on Thursday.

Speaking on a webcast of a Bank of America Merrill Lynch forum, Dennis Muilenburg said the company must be realistic about the budget outlook.

Read more on Boeing and military spending.

(FloridaToday.com) CAPE CANAVERAL -- SpaceX's next demonstration flight for NASA is likely to slip to next year, the company says.

The launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and unmanned Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station had been targeted for Nov. 30.

Read more on SpaceX.

(Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge dismissed on Thursday the first scheduled bellwether case in nationwide litigation alleging Toyota Motor Corp made defective vehicles that accelerated unexpectedly.

In the ruling, Judge James Selna said his court lacked jurisdiction over the case, and that the proper forum for it is Utah state court. Selna's court, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana, is overseeing hundreds of lawsuits against Toyota for alleged safety defects.

Read more on Toyota.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp is considering shifting production of South Korea-bound Camry autos to the United States from Japan to help lower export costs of the sedan, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday.

Read more about Toyota's Camry production.

I stopped by to check on things, but didn't stay for a story. An investigator told me they are going through a number of prosecution witnesses providing testimony about DNA. I'll check back tomorrow to see how things are progressing.

This video was made by Branimir Kvartuc, Buscaino's communications director.

*Update: This gentleman was found in Long Beach and was returned to his family.

Detectives are seeking the public's help to find a missing elderly Carson man.

Luis Martinez was last seen at 1 p.m. Monday leaving his home in the 200 block of East 211^th Street. He suffers from Alzheimer's disease and high blood pressure.

Martinez is Latino, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 160 pounds. He speaks Spanish only and is missing his two lower front teeth.

He was last seen wearing a long sleeve black and brown shirt and brown pants.

Anyone with information should call their local police department or the missing persons unit at the Sheriff's Department's homicide bureau at 323-890-5500.

CALIFORNIA SEAFOOD CORPORATION SENTENCED TO PAY $1 MILLION FOR FALSE LABELING OF SEAFOOD PRODUCTS

LOS ANGELES - Seafood Solutions Inc., a Torrance-based corporation, was sentenced today to pay $1 million in fines and community service payments for its role in the false labeling of frozen fish fillets.

The corporation was fined $700,000 and ordered to make a community service donation of $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The money is to be used to fund projects related to methodologies, databases and other research into the identification of marine organisms. In addition, the company was sentenced to three years of probation, was ordered to forfeit all remaining inventory of the falsely labeled fish and to develop and implement a corporate compliance plan.

The sentence stemmed from the conviction of Seafood Solutions on July 25, 2011, on a single count of trafficking in fish knowing that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the U.S. Lacey Act. Specifically, the fish was Pangasius hypophthalmus, a species in the catfish family that were misleadingly labeled as "Paradise Grouper" and "Falcon Baie Grouper." Seafood Solutions was one of three defendants named in the same charging document. Co-defendants Chau-Shing (Duke) Lin, and Christopher Ragone also entered guilty pleas on July 25, 2011, according to plea agreements.

Duke Lin, 64, of Rancho Palos Verdes, pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in fish when in the exercise of due care he should have known that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the Lacey Act. Duke Lin also pleaded guilty to one count of misbranding food. Christopher Ragone, 50, of Santa Ana, pleaded guilty to two counts of misbranding food. Lin and Ragone are scheduled to be sentenced on February 13.

According to the plea agreements, in approximately June 2004, Seafood Solutions began to sell a fish it declared to customs as "ponga." The fish being imported as ponga was Pangasius hypophthalmus, a species in the catfish family. The fish was then sold under the brand names, and in boxes labeled in part as, "Paradise Grouper" and "Falcon Baie Grouper."

Between July 2005 and February 2006, a wholesale distributor that had purchased this product returned approximately $411,194 worth of the product labeled as "Paradise Grouper" and "ponga" or "Falcon Baie Grouper" and "ponga" because the wholesale distributor's customer mistakenly believed that the fish product was grouper. Seafood Solutions agreed to be invoiced for and received the returned product, knowing that it had been inaccurately labeled. Defendants Lin, Ragone and Seafood Solutions knowingly again sold and transported the fish in interstate commerce even after its return from the customer, knowing that it was misleadingly labeled. From February 2006 to April 2006, Defendant Ragone sold approximately $2 million worth of Pangasius fillets knowing that the product bore the "Paradise Grouper" and "ponga" labels and was thus misleadingly labeled.

The case was investigated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Law Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The case is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

The local contact on this matter is Assistant United States Attorney Joseph O. Johns, chief of the Environment Crimes Section in the U.S. Attorney's Office, (213) 894-4536.

Here I am unable to sleep for the second night due to all this craziness.

I had put a little story on Facebook regarding this. I couldn't just sit there and not have an opinion of my own little town.

See, growing up here you have three things that keeps Wilmington in the news.

1) The Port
2) The Refineries
3) The violence

I've always said that our town needs to be funded to have more activities. It's sad to say our community is not as involved and our Mayor is never present. Things were quiet and all of sudden since this girl's death things are popping up.

I prayed heavily last night because this little town is all we're left to, so thank you for answering them and letting me know more will be done.

Our town never had like a town meeting and I wouldn't even know where to start but I do believe we all need to come together and do more besides being on the map for the 3 main things I told you about.

I think that Wilmington should do the same think that Redondo Beach did in 1995 with the Redondo Beach Project. They basically set in place an injunction on everyone and didn't allow them to enter a 24 block radius. RBPD enforced this to the fullest. Along with the RB citizens Redondo is now a great place to live. I think that Harbor Division should make a much stronger version of this.

Wilmington has the potential to be more. We need to nurture our youth, instill a confidence that allows them to do right by themselves and others, If we instill this in the formative years there will be no need to worry when adults because the foundation had been place.

My heart breaks watching these young boys self destruct, following a path paved by lost hopes and dreams. My little brother-in-law is serving a few months for weapon charges. When you ask him why he carried a semi automatic, he with cold eyes will reply, "For protection. Watching my dad and brother get shot in front of my house would change anyone and I am no different. If no one will protect me then I will."

Now how is this right. His dreams shattered because of our failures; our community's failures. His childhood gone; washed away with each blood soaked block.

Wilmington is covered corner to corner with candles, crosses and carnations. The constant reminder of death. Mobs of photographed tee's baring the names of loved ones lost. Friends losing their brothers and sister, children losing their parents and mothers placing their children in plots intended for themselves.

And this is Life in Wilmington....not a life to live....

All greatness overshadowed. What beauty this city carries is fading with each article printed in the crime section.

Time to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and take back their city. The blood shed needs to stop. Police need to enforce laws and stop this war among the children.

The Redondo Beach Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on Friday, January 27, 2012 at an undisclosed location within the city limits between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.

The single vehicle accident occurred at about 2:40 p.m. in the 4000 block of Palos Verdes Drive South, which is near Trump National Golf Club.

Two tow trucks arrived on the scene about 4:15 p.m. to remove the truck, which is completely blocking the westbound lane.

City officials hope the truck can be removed by 4:45 p.m.

"Only the east bound lane is open and traffic is moving very slowly in that direction," city officials said in an email alert." Motorists should continue to avoid the area and use alternate routes, if at all possible."

The unidentified driver sustained minor injuries, authorities said.

Updated 5:45 p.m.
"This afternoon's accident on Palos Verdes Drive South between Conqueror Drive and Schooner Drive has been cleared," the city of RPV said in an email. "All lanes of traffic are now open. Thank you for your patience! "

Power remains out at the intersection as of 2 p.m. Southern California Edison is estimating power restoration will occur between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

In addition, Torrance Police said about 700 homes are without power in the same area.

********************************

Four motorcycle officers are directing traffic at the busy intersection that's often clogged during rush hour.

Power went out around 8 a.m. and by 9 a.m. there was no estimated time of arrival on the scene for Southern California Edison crews to restore power, a Torrance Police Department spokesman said.

Motorists should avoid the area.

Power company crews are backed up with problems throughout Southern California, especially in places like hard-hit Pasadena where authorities have closed schools and are urging people to stay home. The number of live power lines and trees down on streets have made many roads impassable, officials said.

By comparison, a check of South Bay cities this morning showed relatively few problems outside of a few spot power outages.

Police and animal control officers removed 13 dogs from a home in Hawthorne Friday night, and placed an elderly woman living at the home in protective custody.

The condition of the woman is not yet known. She was taken to a hospital, and placed in under care of the county due to suspected elder abuse.

According to the SPCA, the dogs were being kept in cramped cramped crates or were tethered in rooms. The animals have been transported to the Los Angeles County Animal Shelter in Carson.

Madeline Bernstein, president of the spcaLA, said in a statement that the Los Angeles Department of Animal Control will investigate to determine whether animal cruelty charges should be filed.

"The relationship between domestic violence, elder abuse and animal cruelty is uncontested and must be seen as a whole," she said. "That is why animal welfare officers are also mandatory child and elder abuse reporters."

The exact location of the home is not yet known. Stay tuned for more details ...  

AMC Theaters no longer runs its $1 "Summer Movie Camp".

However, the Promenade Stadium 13 in Rolling Hills Estates participates in Regal Cinema's "Summer Movie Express." Every Tuesday and Wednesday during the program, selected G and PG movies are $1 at 10 a.m. for kids and their parents. Here's the movie schedule:

June 21-22: Monsters v. Aliens
The Spy Next Door

June 28-29: Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Tale of Desperaux

July 5-6: Charlotte's Web
Yogi Bear

July 12-13: Marmaduke
Megamind

July 19-20: Cats and Dogs: Revenge
Shrek Forever After

July 26-27: Astro Boy
Furry Vengeance

Aug. 2-3: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Gulliver's Travels

Aug. 9-10: How to Train your Dragon
Nanny McPhee Returns

Family-friendly films outdoors


The City of Torrance screens family movies in some city parks for free on Saturday evenings during the summer. Bring your own popcorn, lawn chairs and blankets and see a flick under the stars. Follow the links for more info. Here's what's showing:
June 25: How to Train your Dragon (Hickory Park)
July 30: Over the Hedge (Greenwood Park)
Aug. 27: The Love Bug (La Romeria Park)

Redondo Beach also sponsors a similar Outdoor Family Classic Film Festival. Here's the line-up:
Aug. 5: Roman Holiday
Aug. 12: The Maltese Falcon
Aug. 19: Stagecoach
Aug. 26: The Thin Man

There will also be family-friendly films at Seaside Lagoon this year. Admission is free, and the window at Ruby's will be open for snacks. Here's what's showing:

July 8: Air Bud
July 15: Born to Bee Wild
July 22: Grease
July 29: Megamind

RELATED LINKS:
Database of fun stuff to do with kids in the South Bay
Database of South Bay restaurants with kids eat free deals
Calendar listings for family-friendly South Bay events

Del Amo Fashion Center
310-542-8525

Santa will be at the mall during business hours through Dec. 24.
Those hours are:
Mon to Sat: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 to 2 p.m.
Sun: 12 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Galleria at South Bay
310-371-7546

Santa will be there through Dec. 24.
Dec. 5: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Dec. 6 to Dec. 10: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pet photos from 7 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 6.
Dec. 11: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dec. 12: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Dec. 13 to Dec. 17: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pet photos from 7 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 13.
Dec. 18: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Dec. 19: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Dec. 20 to Dec. 23: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Dec 24: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Web site also has a detailed list of photo packages and prices.

Manhattan Village Mall
310-546-5555

Santa stays until Dec. 24.
Mon to Sat: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., breaks from 1 to 2 p.m. and 4:15 to 4:45 p.m.
Sun: 12 a.m. to 6 p.m., breaks from 2 to 3 p.m.
The Web site has a list of packages and prices.

Promenade on the Peninsula
310-541-0688

Find Santa on Dec. 11 from 10 to 11 a.m. and Dec. 18 from 12 to 4 p.m.

Santa's main focus while he's at the Promenade is to spread the holiday cheer, so please bring your own camera so you can get your holiday pictures for free. Free pictures may be especially popular this year, so bring a candy cane snack and be prepared to wait your turn.

South Bay Pavilion at Carson
310-366-6636

Santa will be here on Dec. 11 from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Dec. 12 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

RELATED:
Giving new life to gift wrap
Track Santa online
Helping hands for Secret Santas
Take Christmas photos like a pro

AMC Theaters runs $1 movies during its "Summer Movie Camp" every Tuesday at 10 a.m. The Southbay Galleria 16 in Redondo Beach and the Del Amo 18 and Rolling Hills 20 in Torrance are participating this year. Here's the schedule:

June 15: Shrek The Third
June 22: Imagine That
June 29: Monsters vs. Aliens
July 6: Madagascar
July 13: Madagascar 2: Escape 2 Africa
July 20: Hotel for Dogs
July 27: Kung Fu Panda
Aug. 3: The Spiderwick Chronicles
Aug. 10: Surprise Mystery Title!

The Promenade Stadium 13 in Rolling Hills Estates participates in Regal Cinema's "Free Family Film Festival." Every Tuesday and Wednesday during the program, movies are free at 10 a.m. for kids and their parents. Here's the movie schedule:

June 22-23: Hotel for Dogs (PG)
Planet 51 (PG)

June 29-30: Tale of Desperaux (G)
The Spy Next Door (PG)

July 6-7: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (PG)
The Waterhorse (PG)

July 13-14: Charlotte's Web (G)
Imagine That (PG)

July 20-21: Madagascar 2 (PG)
Where the Wild Things Are (PG)

July 27-28: Paul Blart: Mall Cop (PG)
Surf's Up (PG)

Aug. 3-4: Curious George (G)
Monsters vs. Aliens (PG)

Aug. 10-11: Doogal (G)
Night at the Museum II (PG)

Pacific Theaters don't have a kids program, but they do have Monday Morning Mommy Movies at the El Segundo theater each week at 11 a.m. Movie prices and themes are for grown-ups. Here's the spiel:

Moms, Dads and Caregivers - here's your chance to see a first run adult-themed movie...with your baby! No one will mind if your baby cries, everyone will have a baby and all babies cry. So pack up your diaper bag and stroller, and we'll see you at the movies!

June 7: Sex and the City 2
June 14: Killers
June 21: Toy Story 3
June 28: Knight and Day

Family-friendly films outdoors


The City of Torrance screens family movies in some city parks for free on Saturday evenings during the summer. Bring your own popcorn, lawn chairs and blankets and see a flick under the stars. Follow the links for more info. Here's what's showing:
June 26: Shrek (Paradise Park)
July 31: E.T. (Hickory Park)
Aug. 28: Cars (Victor Park)

Redondo Beach also sponsors a similar Outdoor Family Classic Film Festival. Here's the line-up:
July 23: An American in Paris
July 30: Rebecca
Aug. 6: Run Silent, Run Deep
Aug. 13: His Girl Friday

There will also be family-friendly films at Seaside Lagoon this year. Admission is free, and the window at Ruby's will be open for snacks. Here's what's showing:

July 23: Back to the future
July 30: Surf's Up
Aug. 6: The Sandlot
Aug. 13: School of Rock

RELATED LINKS:
Database of fun stuff to do with kids in the South Bay
Database of South Bay restaurants with kids eat free deals
Calendar listings for family-friendly South Bay events

-- The Associated Press

Del Amo Fashion Center
310-542-8525

Santa will be at the mall during business hours through Dec. 24.
Those hours are:
Mon to Fri: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Sat: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Breaks from 1 to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Sun: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Breaks from 2 to 3 p.m.

Galleria at South Bay
310-371-7546

Santa will be there through Dec. 24.
Nov. 24 and Nov. 25: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Nov. 27 and Nov. 28: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Nov. 29: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Breaks from 2 to 3 p.m.
Nov. 30 to Dec. 4: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 5: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 6 to Dec. 11: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 12: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 13: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 14 to Dec. 20: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 21 to Dec. 23: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 5:15 to 6 p.m.
Dec. 24: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Breaks from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The Web site also has a detailed list of photo packages and prices.

Manhattan Village Mall
310-546-5555

Santa arrives Nov. 27 and stays until Dec. 24.
Mon to Sat: 11a.m. to 8 p.m., breaks at 1-2 p.m. and 4:15-4:45 p.m.
Sun: Noon to 6 p.m., breaks from 2 to 3 p.m.
The Web site has a list of packages and prices.

Promenade on the Peninsula
310-541-0688

Pictures with Santa, on two Saturdays only: Nov. 28 and Dec. 19, 1-4 p.m. each day.

Santa's main focus while he's at the Promenade is to spread the holiday cheer, so please bring your own camera so you can get your holiday pictures for free. Free pictures may be especially popular this year, so bring a candy cane snack and be prepared to wait your turn.

Plaza El Segundo
310-647-3431

Santa will park his sleigh next to Toy Jungle for one day only.
Nov. 27: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

South Bay Pavilion at Carson
310-366-6636

Santa arrives on Nov. 27 and will hang around until Dec. 24.
Mon to Sat: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Sun: Noon to 5 p.m.

RELATED:
Giving new life to gift wrap
Track Santa online
Helping hands for Secret Santas
Take Christmas photos like a pro

The nonprofit Iemanya Oceanica announced last week that a team including several South Bay residents had successfully tagged three whale sharks, bringing the group's family of trackable sharks to 10.

The new additions -- a type of shark with mouths so big "you could drive a Volkswagen into" them, Iemanya board member Patty Civalleri has said, and that is particularly vulnerable to boat collisions and overfishing -- were found during Iemanya's inaugural tagging expedition, in Bahia de Los Angeles, Mexico.

"We opened up 20 seats on this expedition to the public," said Civalleri, a Manhattan Beach resident, "and because of the assistance from the media, we were able to fill those seats quickly with volunteers who came to us with various levels of water skills and a general knowledge of nature and the ocean. We couldn't have asked for a better group."

That group worked with researchers to attach tags to the sharks' dorsal fins. Through those tags -- and satellite transmission -- Iemanya will learn air and water temperatures, diving patterns, daily and seasonal movement and calving and feeding habits.

And it's sharing it all with you.

"People can now go online and adopt a shark as an educational gift," said Laleh Mohajerani, Iemanya's executive director. "Then every day they can track the movement of their shark," she added.

Get yours. And read Staff Writer Andrea Woodhouse's original Daily Breeze story about the Iemanya tagging expedition.

The online registration will begin at 9 a.m. Monday and end at 9 p.m. Sept. 20.

Only 700 bleacher seats are available for the March 7 event.

In early October, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will notify the winners, who will then be required to submit additional information for security information and final approval.

According to the academy, as many as 20,000 people have applied online in past years for a shot at the coveted seats.

In addition to sitting along the red carpet prior to the Oscars, winners will also be invited to watch the telecast at a nearby private location, according to the academy.

Besides cable, satellite, DVRs, DVDs and now Hulu, there's a different way to watch TV: Take your favorite show and "reverse engineer" it into constituent parts.

TV Tropes is a Wiki that shows how a program is built together out of "atoms" of character, dialogue and plot devices -- some plausible, others mostly serviceable for the sake of getting on with the show.

On the main page, it says "tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations."

For instance, take any episode from the "Law & Order" franchise. Every week, buddy cops go on a reverse whodunit to find the freak of the week based on a true crime story. In the hour, the squad must connect the deaths while being hampered by the suspect's amoral attorney and jurisdiction friction. The shows then end with variants on courtroom antics.

Click on each link to go to TV Tropes and find out what they mean and where and when they are used. Warning: Some entries contain obscenities.

David Anderson has mounted seven cameras and built an underwater viewing pod on his 50-foot high-tech, high-speed catamaran and will take anyone along for a virtual ride.

Anderson, a documentary filmmaker whose "Wild Dolphins and Whales of Southern California" was a winner at the Wildscreen Film Festival, wanted his latest venture to be more than a webcam.

"It's like a reality show. We have mikes on the captain and crew. You will hear things even the passengers don't hear. My crew was not real keen on this and there is a little friction but they understand why we are doing it," he said.

When the boat is out, the cameras are on, the mikes are connected and the action is live.

If you sign up on his Web site in the morning, he will Tweet you when the boat is approaching a group of whales or a pod of dolphins. That lets you log on for the best of each trip. Recaps will also be available on the Web site each night, he said.

It took more than a year to get Coast Guard approval for the viewing pod on Anderson's boat, the Manute'a. The viewing pod, made of 36 square feet of bulletproof glass, holds just a couple of people at a time and they can find themselves very intimate with the dolphins.

The Web site aims to provide the mentors of today's soccer-playing future with tools that assess players' skills as well as technical training videos for players of all skill levels.

"Knowing what to teach and how to teach it has always been a real challenge for youth soccer coaches, many of whom are well-meaning parent volunteers who lack formal training," says iSoccer founder Scott Leber.

If iSoccer is able to produce results similar to what Leber has achieved, the investment may be worth it. He was the Gatorade High School Player of the Year, and played NCAA Division 1 soccer at Stanford, where he studied industrial engineering. Before developing iSoccer, he started an East Coast youth soccer training business.

Leber's program tailors training guides to a player's current abilities. The cost of an individual session ranges from about $7 to $12 (you get a better rate when buying a package of sessions), and a session can include anywhere from nine to 22 exercises.

Covered topics and skills include laces, passing and aerial control, and each installment can be downloaded to an iPod and taken to the field. There, players practicing on their own or with their teams can watch the skill demonstrations and try out what they've learned on the spot.

Some questions and answers about whether it makes financial sense to leave your clunker behind.

Q: What factors should I consider?

A: Although the $3,500 or $4,500 you'll save through the government's cash-for-clunkers program seems very enticing, be sure to look at all the other costs associated with owning a new car.

The most obvious cost is your new car payment. But even if you've already factored this in -- say, if you were already planning to buy a new car before this program came along -- don't forget that a new car will likely also increase your insurance premium and annual licensing fees.

Of course, the new car likely will save you money on gas and maintenance costs.
How will the numbers balance out?

Try this online calculator, which allows you to compare all the costs of your old car with those of a new car to see how your situation adds up.

You might also want to plug a used car you might consider buying into the calculator and compare its cost with that of the new one with the rebate.

And keep in mind another cost associated only with new cars: depreciation.

Q: How can I assess the cost of keeping my older car, to figure out whether it's a good idea to trade it in?

A: The cost of owning a car includes more factors than you might think. Edmunds.com, an auto consumer Web site, has identified eight components: depreciation, interest on financing, taxes and fees, insurance premiums, fuel, maintenance, repairs and any federal tax credit.

A Web calculator on the Edmunds site will help you figure the true cost of owning a car.

Find out which events take place where and when here including the Dwight Crum Pier-to-Pier swim and the Velzy-Stevens Pier-to-Pier Paddleboard Championship. The site also has photos and results from past events.

There's help. Weplay.com, a Web site that helps parents and coaches organize their kids' sports calendars, has a new video library just in time for the fall youth sports season.

The site offers free training videos from star athletes like Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees; 2006 MLB MVP Ryan Howard; 2008 NFL MVP Peyton Manning; USA Softball superstar and Olympic gold medalist pitcher Jennie Finch; gold medal winning soccer star Brandi Chastain; and dozens of other professional athletes. The videos provide everything from basic skills and drills to unique insights into how the pros prepare for the sports they play.
Here's what it's got:
Baseball Drills
Basketball Drills
Cheerleading Drills
Football Drills
Soccer Drills
Softball Drills

From the time we (me and 6 friends) walked in the door until the time you leave (about 3 ½ hours), everything is handled with the utmost attention to detail, with only satisfaction of the customer the main concern of every person on the staff.

The servers have to go through years of training at various positions before they can serve tables and this preparation shows.  Every item on the menu is explained in detail and the menu provides the most information I have ever seen.  As soon as our server could tell I was interested in pairing wine with each course, he was extremely informative about the why this would go with that, but also provided more information on brand names that he felt I could find in most wine shops, just in case I wanted to acquire some more at a later date.

All the entrees come with soup, salad, cheese toast.  Seafood is flow in fresh daily, meats are aged and the steaks are prepared over a "smoked hickory" flavored flame!  The "lightly applied" garlic butter is recommended on steaks, but I decided to go without, just to see if the steak could live up to it's billing, without extra flavoring.  The "hickory" flavor made for a unique "out-doorsey" natural accompaniment to the aged beef.  Please check out www.bernssteakhouse.com and download the menu.  That should give you an indication of how serious they take the quality of the food they are serving. 

When finished with the main meal, 4 of us took the offered tour of the kitchen and wine cellar, with a tour guide providing full commentary on the food preparation, as well as the "Cheese Cave" for those who are serious about their "fromage". The wine cellar adds even more information and intrigue to the evening.  The on-site cellar contains approximately 100,000 bottles and they have a 3 story cellar located in an adjacent building next door, to complete what our guide told us was the largest privately owned cellar in the world.

The experience is not over yet as Bern's offers something I have never experienced in another restaurant, a separate dessert dining room upstairs (the actual area upstairs is bigger then the area in the main restaurant).  This change of location completely changes the mood and encourages you to relax and re-hash the epic meal,taking as long as you want to finish up.  The list of dessert wines goes on and on, just like to regular wine list, but it is more the dark, quiet, elegant surroundings go a long way to help you "wind down" and finish off an phenomenal dining experience.

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Please use the nline to go to my Facebook page for photos!

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The Kings travel via charter on custom fitted "Air Canada" planes.

We are served the same food as the players.

The meals are catered from local restaurants and then prepared by our outstanding Air Canada Crew.

Appetizers are available as soon as we board.  Main entrees are served during flights.  Sandwiches, salads, fruit/nuts are available at any time.

Here is the menu from our flight home from Philadelphia.  As we go along, photos will be included!  Thanks for your pateince!

Gourmet Cheese Steak...and...Lemon Riosemary Chicken!

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No Cheese Steaks here-great idea at McCormick & Schmick's (Philadelphia)-Seafood Combination-Good sized portion-nice to sample a few things-I went with the Shrimp, Cod and Crab Cakes and was very happy with it!

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  Going way back to pre-game meal at New Jersey 101311-Salad-Chicken Tenders-Pulled Pork-Mac and Cheese-Carrot Cake-Velvet Red Cake-Very simple preparation and presentation...a lot of work needed to get this to the league average!  The "Devil" made me eat it...

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Before we get to the travel around the NHL, I had a chance to sample the Suite and Lexus Club menu at STAPLES Center.  You won't find this at the concession stand, but if you ever get the chance, give it a try!

• Baby Back Rib Sampler
• Beer Braised Short Ribs
• Chicken Flatbread Sandwich
• Italian Chopped Salad
• Meatball Bar
• Quesadilla Duo (Ancho-Marinated Chicken/Carne Asada)
• Sausage Sampler
• Steakhouse Grill

Even threw in a look at the Kings video room at STAPLES Center and what would you do without a "skate sharpener"!

Check out my Facebook link for more photos!!!

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Many people have inquired about the day-to-day routine and of course, where and what we eat "on the road", as well as STAPLES Center and I will try to keep you up-to-date on our travels.  This will include:

• Meals we are served on our "Air Canada Charter Flights"
• Pre-game "Media Meals", which are served at the arena before each game.
• The restaurants we visit along the way. Some will be well known to you and some will be favorites we have developed along the way

I will try to provide reviews when possible, with the understanding that I don't get the chance to try everything, so I use the opinions given to me by others in our traveling group.

Media Meals:

Each building provides meals for the media before each game and we are charged around $10 for each meal.  This is a great value!

Reviews will include but are not limited to the following elements:

• Food quality
• Proper preparation/Food Display (Usually buffet/all-you-can-eat)
• Utensils provided (paper, plastic or silverware)
• Cleanliness of the media room, including room layout

"Air Canada Charter Flights":

The Kings travel via charter during the NHL season and we are served the same food as the players.  The meals are catered from local restaurants and then prepared by our outstanding Air Canada Crew.

• Appetizers are available as soon as we board.
• Main entrees are served during flights.
• Sandwiches, salads, fruit/nuts are available at any time

Restaurants "On the Road"

Usually we get a chance to sample restaurants the night before games or on off days while traveling.  In many cities, we have our favorites that we have been visiting for many years, but I also hope to get your recommendations for restaurants in NHL cities.

I will try to included photos where possible, but the best way to see all of the photos is to click on the links provided, which will take you to my Facebook page which, at times, may provide even more detail.  You will need a Facebook account and logged in to get to these links!

I will go back to the beginning of the season and try to make my way chronologically through the season.

Thanks and please offer any suggestions re making the posts more informative or as mentioned earlier, any suggestions that you have for restaurants!

• Wine country farmers have a huge problem with California Wild Pigs, and people up there hunt them with bows and arrows. They're hairy, tusked, have no natural predators, and they love grapes.
• Francis Ford Coppola was partially named after Henry Ford (he was born in Detroit).
• Fried balls of risotto are heavenly.
• People who work at vineyards say things like "mouth taste" very seriously.
• Some wine makers use diatomaceous earth (fossilized remains of an ancient hard-shelled algae) to clarify their beverage.
  

Also featured during the event at the corner of Avenue I and Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach will be two electric cars that are part of an experimental Local Use Vehicle demonstration project in Redondo. The vehicles will offer residents alternatives to conventional short-haul car trips.

The Sierra Club contends that inflated permit costs and long wait times, which are the norm in many cities in Southern California, are hindering solar power development. Solar panels can help reduce greenhouse gases and our dependence on pollution-spewing sources of energy.

Here is the full report, where Los Angeles-area residents can look up solar permit costs in their own cities.

The Netbook, developed by a Spanish company, is a solar-powered portable computer weighing 1.5 pounds and costing around $200. The body of the computer is made of bioplastics and biodegradable materials such as starch and cellulose, so it's easily recyclable.

But it's not for gamers or video makers. The Gyy runs on Linux rather than Windows and features only 128 MB of Ram. It does, however, boast 64 GB of storage space, three USB ports, ethernet and WiFi.

It's supposed to be in stores by July.

Those interested in learning about the benefits of installing solar panels on their homes can register for the session online or by calling 866-970-9221.

SCE is now offering rebates to homeowners as part of the California Solar Initiative.

But even so, the American Public Transportation Association reported this week that Americans took 2.6 billion trips on public transit during the first quarter of 2009. That represented only a small 1.2 percent decline over the same period a year earlier.

But the L.A. region fared much better than the nation as a whole in terms of attracting more transit riders. Among its transit systems classified as light rail, L.A. was one of four regions with double-digit increases in ridership during the first quarter compared to the same period in 2008. L.A.'s increase was 18 percent.

As for heavy-rail lines and subways, the L.A. region recorded one of the five highest ridership increases nationwide, at 6.4 percent.

Such statistics are causing transit advocates to call on Congress to put more funds into public transit as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, expand transportation options and help revitalize the nation's infrastructure.

Here's a link to a related editorial on Tuesday's Daily Breeze's Editorial page.

The event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will include displays on green home improvements, energy-efficient appliances, hybrid cars, electric vehicles, scooters, bicycles, natural landscaping techniques and water conservation.

The federal government is now taking a more intensive look at the problem and how to reduce risks to human health and marine life. The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a series of public meetings on the Palos Verdes Shelf, where polluted sediment extends about 9 miles, from Point Fermin in the southeast to Redondo Canyon in the northwest.

The EPA favors an interim remedy that features "institutional controls, monitored natural recovery and a containment cap," an agency press release states. Once approved, the plan will take three years to complete and cost an estimated $36 million.

The EPA is inviting the public to the following public meetings: 2 to 5 p.m. June 23 at the Cabrillo Beach House, 3800 Stephen M. White Drive in San Pedro; 6 to 9 p.m. June 24 at Banning's Landing, 100 E. Water St. in Wilmington; and 6 to 9 p.m. June 25 at the Palos Verdes Library, 701 Silver Spur Road in Rolling Hills Estates.

The Pew Charitable Trusts study, which was released Wednesday, says that U.S. renewable energy industries, including solar and wind-power companies, expanded their work force by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007. The nation's average job growth for all industries was 3.7 percent for the same time period.

California was tops in the number of green jobs within its borders, coming in at 125,390. Its percentage increase, however, lagged behind the national average, at 7.7 percent.

In its Los Angeles Greenprint Report, the environmental advocacy group hailed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Green L.A. and Solar L.A. initiatives, saying such "smart policy will unleash a green job boom."

The study concluded that 2,200 businesses throughout California are likely to grow as the state transitions to a low-carbon economy.Los Angeles County has the greatest concentration of those green companies, with 400.

The expo, which will feature specialists who provide environmentally friendly products and services, will take place from 11 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. June 12 at the Torrance Marriott South Bay, 3635 Fashion Way in Torrance.

A luncheon presentation is scheduled from noon to 1:30 p.m. It will feature a welcome by Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto and speakers Andre Villasenor of the Environmental Protection Agency; Marilyn Lyon, program manager, South Bay Environmental Services Center; Randal Smith, vice president of marketing, Virco Manufacturing Corp.; and Dan Wieten, a manager for Toyota.

The cost $30 for chamber members and $35 for visitors.

The transit agency projects that discounted fares would lure 3,000 drivers onto public transit on smoggy days, thereby reducing the amount of car emissions that irritate eyes and throats, not to mention how the pollution worsens heart and lung ailments.

The agency is adding another carrot by promising to donate the equivalent of what 5,000 bus riders would save on fares during smog alerts to a Montreal environmental group.

The event takes place on World Environment Day, which was begun by the United Nations in 1972 to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environment and sustainable development practices. The theme for this year's event is "Your Planet Needs You -- UNite to Combat Climate Change."

When Heal the Bay released its annual report cards on beach pollution in Southern California, readers may have gotten the impression that there was little to celebrate. Indeed, the water quality in Los Angeles County was the worst since 2004-05, and during the rainy season 81 percent of county beaches received "D" or "F" grades.

Even during the summer season, when most South Bay beaches fared well, Dockweiler State Beach at the mouth of Ballona Creek received an "F" as a result of high  bacterial levels. The same grade went to Cabrillo Beach at the restrooms and lifeguard tower. Same story for Avalon Beach on Catalina Island.

But there is some good news. Heal the Bay also included an honor roll of beaches in Los Angeles County that did not exceed state standards for bacteria concentrations during dry weather. The list included several stretches of South Bay beaches: Dockweiler at the North Westchester storm drain and Imperial Highway; Manhattan Beach, at the pier and at 40th Street; Malaga Cove and Palos Verdes Cove in Palos Verdes Estates; and Long Point and Portuguese Bend in Rancho Palos Verdes.

A new study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based nonprofit, compares greenhouse gas emissions for households of central cities versus suburban areas. The results for the Los Angeles area are shown in the map above.

The center examined emissions of carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas, created by household vehicle travel in 55 U.S. metropolitan areas. It found that per household, the transportation-related emissions of people living in cities and compact neighborhoods can be nearly 70 percent less than those living in suburbs.

The map shows that in areas further from job centers in the center of the L.A. basin, such as the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the Inland Empire, the amount of CO2 created per household rises sharply when compared to those who live closer to the center of activity.

Red areas produce 8.6 metric tons or more of CO2 per household annually, while yellowish areas produce 6.5 metric tons or less.

 "Cities are more location-efficient -- meaning key destinations are closer to where people live and work," said Scott Bernstein, the center's president. "They require less time, money, fuel and greenhouse gas emissions for residents to meet their everyday travel needs. People can walk, bike, car-share, take public transit. So residents of cities and compact communities generate less CO2 per household than people who live in more dispersed communities, like many suburbs and outlying areas.

"If you're deciding where to live, consider moving to an urban area. You'll help fight global warming by emitting less CO2. And you're likely to drive less, so you'll spend less on transportation, saving up to $5,000 annually."

The Fox Theater in Redondo Beach, ca. 1956. Daily Breeze file photo.

When the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach opened on Friday, Feb. 22, 1929, it was the premier movie showplace in the South Bay. Only San Pedro's Warner Grand, opened in 1931, could rival its splendor. Built at an estimated cost of $300,000 at 103 W. Diamond Street, it had all concrete construction, a state-of-the-art sound and projection system and a large pipe organ.

The architect was John Paxton Perrine, who designed six other movie theaters in the Southern California area. The Fox Theater was built on the site of an earlier theater, the Art Theater, a Paramount theater which had been built in 1912 and torn down in 1928. Fox's movie theater arm West Coast Theatres acquired the Art Theater in 1920.

The Fox Theater's opening night was headlined by a showing of the new Fox film "The Ghost Talks," starring actress Helen Twelvetrees, shown at left in a publicity photo. The comic farce was only the second talkie ever produced by Fox. It was well reviewed by the New York Times, but unfortunately is now considered lost, with no prints known to have survived.

Twelvetrees was in attendance at the Fox Theater screening of "The Ghost Talks," which also included a second feature, a Fox Movietone newsreel, and five live vaudeville acts to round out the evening. In fact, the Fox was built to accommodate not only the screening of films, but also the staging of vaudeville shows.

The Fox Theater in Redondo Beach stands in isolation as the King Harbor redevelopment project goes on all around it in this March 31, 1961 Daily Breeze file photo. Walt Disney's original "101 Dalmatians" is advertised on the marquee.

The sturdily built theater remained a moviegoing landmark for 44 years. When redevelopment came to the Redondo Beach harbor area with the construction of King Harbor in the early 1960s, the Fox Theater was one of the few structures to survive. Though built right on the ocean, it was strong enough to withstand the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake as well as the occasional violent storms that rocked the area.

Fox Theater manager Hugo L. Holbach and Redondo Beach Mayor William Czuleger, center, pose inside the theater with rock 'n' roller Bobby Fuller, leader of the Bobby Fuller Four, before the band's August 1965 concert at the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach. Fuller and Czuleger hold a copy of the band's then-hit 45, "Let Her Dance." Daily Breeze file photo.

In addition to showing films, it would occasionally host other events. One such instance came in 1965, when the Fox Theater presented a live rock 'n' roll concert featuring the Bobby Fuller Four. The El Paso group had relocated to Los Angeles, where it became popular in the city's clubs. Its Redondo appearance came on the heels of its first big local hit, "Let Her Dance." The group would later record an even bigger hit, "I Fought the Law." Fuller's career ended suddenly with his mysterious death on July 18, 1966. He was found dead in his car but how and why it happened still remains a mystery. He was 23. (Watch for Fuller expert Miriam Linna's definitive biography of the rocker, "I Fought the Law, The Life and Strange Death of Bobby Fuller 1942-1966," co-written with Fuller's brother Randy and due out in Summer 2012.)

Redevelopment eventually did claim the Fox. One of its economic problems was lack of parking. Though it was built to accommodate both films and vaudeville acts, it was not built to accommodate automobile parking, and it became economically unfeasible to add it after the fact. The theater was purchased by the Redondo Redevelopment Agency for $201,000 in 1972, which planned to tear it down for new development.

The Fox Theater screened its last film, "Woodstock," on Dec. 5, 1972. Daily Breeze file photo.

A group of students from El Camino College staged a mini-protest before the Redondo Beach City Council the night before the Fox Theater showed its final feature on Dec. 5, 1972, but to no avail.

The theater wanted to get "The Last Picture Show" as its final feature, but it was unavailable, so they settled for a showing of "Woodstock." Operating the curtain that night was J.E. (Jim) McGinnis, the same man who operated the projection booth on the theater's opening night in 1929 when it showed "The Ghost Talks."

The wrecking ball brings down the wall at the Fox Theater in Redondo Beach in this March 1973 file photo.

Demolition of the Fox Redondo began on Feb. 26, 1973. A hotel had been planned for the site when demolition was completed later that spring, but it never was built, and the site currently is a parking lot.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

"The Fox Theater: This Gem of Our History was Part of Our Lives," By Kathy McLeod, Redondo Beach Historical Society website, http://www.redondobeachhistorical.org/fox.html.

Los Angeles Movie Palaces website, http://sites.google.com/site/losangelesmoviepalaces/redondo.

Torrance Herald files.

Traffic streams through the Sepulveda Tunnel under the south runway at LAX. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

When a set of water pumps in the Sepulveda Tunnel under LAX malfunctioned during rainstorms in mid-November 2011, a lot of drivers learned how vital this transportation link can be. The tunnel flooded, leading to massive traffic jams in the area that lasted for hours. The pumps were repaired a few days later, shortly before the busy Thanksgiving travel period.

Sepulveda Boulevard didn't always run under LAX's south runway. For years, motorists on Sepulveda had to use a bypass road 1500 feet west of Sepulveda to detour around the airstrip.

Funded by a half-and-half combination of a 1945 airport bond issue and a special federal grant, construction on the estimated $3.5 million (unadjusted for inflation) tunnel project began in October 1949.

It was an impressive engineering feat. The structure had to be strong enough to withstand airplanes landing on the runway above it. Complex lighting, ventilation and drainage systems had to be built, and the tunnel needed its own power plant to operate them.

The Sepulveda Tunnel in 1953, shortly after its completion. Photo: Flight Path Learning Center and Museum, LAX.

At the time of its completion in March 1953, the six-lane, 1909-foot-long divided tunnel was the only traffic tunnel under a large  airport runway in the United States.

The tunnel's grand opening was held on April 21, 1953. L.A. Mayor Fletcher Bowron cut the ribbon (presumably with one of those giant pairs of scissors), and the LAPD band provided entertainment during the ceremony.

After the first 100 cars traveled through the tunnel, their drivers received mementoes of the aviation industry from stewardesses (flight attendants)  who were stationed at the intersections of Sepulveda with Imperial Highway and Century Boulevard.

 
Almost immediately, complaints about dangers stemming from the dim lighting in the tunnel became commonplace, but it took until 1965 for money to be approved to overhaul the lighting system.

Lighting in the tunnel has continued to be an issue. Plans to replace the current conventional lighting with LED lights that will not burn out as quickly are scheduled to be implemented by 2012.

The current lighting in the Sepulveda Tunnel is expected to be replaced by an LED lighting system in 2012. December 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files, especially "Tunnel At Airport Nears Completion," by Charles Hillinger, Oct. 26, 1952, Page B1.

The laying of the cornerstone at the partially built El Segundo High School administration building occurred on June 18, 1927. Photo: El Segundo Historical Committee of the Friends of the El Segundo Public Library.

For the first few years of El Segundo's existence - the city was incorporated in 1917 - high school students attended Inglewood High.

But the growing city, which began to thrive with the arrival of the Standard Oil (now Chevron) refinery in 1911, knew that it needed a first-class high school to serve its population.

The cornerstone for El Segundo High School was laid on June 18, 1927. Los Angeles architects Alfred W. Rea and Charles E. Garstang designed the building in a neo-Romanesque style meant to evoke the classic design of buildings at East Coast Ivy League schools.

A $500,000 bond measure to finance construction of the core campus buildings passed in December 1925. Construction of the school began in February 1927, and the dedication of the new campus was held on Dec. 13, 1927, with State Superintendent of Schools John Cooper giving the keynote speech at the ceremony. El Segundo High's first 124 students began classes at the new school on Jan. 3, 1928.

The motto above the main entrance to El Segundo High's administration building reads, "Enter to Learn -- Go Forth for Service." November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

In addition to traditional high school educational requirements, El Segundo High also had a strong shop program. So much so, that female students petitioned for and were granted classes in millinery, dressmaking, and, in 1934, dance, to help make up the emphasis on male-oriented class offerings.

Because of a change in the state educational code allowing districts to be formed that included elementary as well as high schools, El Segundo became one of the first cities in California to form its own unified school district in 1936.

After renovations following the 1933 earthquake, the school's auditorium became an in-demand facility for all kinds of productions. South Bay History blog readers might remember it as one of the South Bay sites where the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theater Project presented the play "Help Yourself" in 1937.

In 1940, a new swimming pool was constructed. In 1973, it would be renamed the Urho Saari Swim Stadium after the Finnish swim coach who won many championships and coached U.S. Olympic teams during a decades-long successful career at the school.

El Segundo High has become one of the South Bay's most highly regarded public high schools, with a reputation for academic as well as athletic excellence. Baseball coach John Stevenson became a legend during the course of a 50-year career with the school, during which he worked with such future major leaguers as Orioles pitcher Scott MacGregor and Hall of Famer George Brett.

Because of its picturesque location and classic architecture, El Segundo High has been used extensively over the years as a film location. The list of films that used the location is extensive, from "A Yank at Eton" (1942) to "Blackboard Jungle" (1955) and "Rock 'n' Roll High School" (1979). The school recently got extensive exposure in "90210," the revival of the popular 1980s television series "Beverly Hills 90210."

The school's buildings are employed so often by Hollywood that restrictions on the number of days when filming could take place were imposed in 2009, though the ordinance was modified later to help make up for revenue losses caused by the restrictions.

  The picturesque El Segundo High School campus has been a favorite location for films and television. November 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

El Segundo: Seventy-Five Years: A Pictorial History of El Segundo, California, by Eileen Curry Hunter, H2 Limited Publishers, 1991.

The El Ja Arms, "The Perfect Hotel," near the corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue in 1924. Daily Breeze file photo. Note the Red Car coming down the middle of Diamond Street.

The El Ja Arms Hotel was the second hotel to be built in Redondo Beach, though it was nowhere near as large as the city's first, the Hotel Redondo. Located on the southeast corner of Diamond Street and Pacific Avenue, The El Ja Arms had 24 apartments and 20 sleeping rooms.

Built by Louis J. Baumbeck for $50,000, the three-story structure opened on July 4, 1915.

From the first, the El Ja Arms carved out a niche as a luxury destination. Its rooms overlooked the El Paseo area of seaside Redondo, with its pier, saltwater plunge and the Pavilion with its dance hall. The lobby of the El Ja had a Victorian elegance, with murals, mirrors and a large crystal chandelier that was still there in 1970.

The crystal chandelier still stands in the lobby of the El Ja Arms in this Jan. 8, 1970 Daily Breeze file photo.

The hotel also had a dance hall upstairs that was converted into suites  in the early 1940s, as well as its own restaurant, The Sea Gull Inn, which had sailing motifs throughout. All this and an elevator, too!

The El Ja became a favorite among movie stars and celebrities. Its guests during its heyday included Charlie Chaplin, Ramon Navarro, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Roy Rogers and many others.

Baumbeck operated the hotel until his death in 1938, when it was inherited by Mrs. Barbara Fitzgerald and her husband, who operated it for the next three decades.

Its grandeur faded somewhat over the years, and in the late 1960s, it fell victim to the redevelopment of the area, in which Pacific Avenue and environs were bulldozed to make way for King Harbor and associated developments.

The exterior of the El Ja Arms in January 1970, shortly before it was demolished. Sign in window says, "Furniture for Sale." Daily Breeze file photo.

The Redondo Beach Redevelopment Agency gained title to the property in June 1969. The hotel was vacated by March 1970.

The El Ja Arms was torn down in May 1970 to make way for the Redondo Plaza Project, a $52 million project that included the massive The Village at Redondo Beach condominium complex, which stands on the site today.

Diamond Avenue now ends at Catalina Avenue. Eventually, Pacific Avenue, which also was the home of the Daily Breeze before its move to Torrance Boulevard in the 1960s, ceased to exist, and the seaside glamour of the El Ja Arms became just a memory.

Only one wall of the El Ja Arms still stands in this May 1970 Daily Breeze file photo taken during its demolition.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files, especially "Historic Hotel Era Nears End," by Jerry Reynolds, Jan. 19, 1970.

Sheriff's deputies Lt. Jack Norris, left, and Sgt. A.J. Sully examine the abandoned mine shafts on the Great Lakes Carbon Corp. site in Torrance in this May 1964 Daily Breeze photo.

In the early 1900s, the Dicalite Company began mining diatomaceous earth in the South Bay.

Diatoms are single-cell organisms that settle to the bottom of the ocean, which at one point covered much of the region. After millions of years of heat and compression, diatomaceous earth is formed. The pumice-like substance can be used for everything from water filters to toothpaste, pest control, insulation and even kitty litter.

Dicalite's operations included an area of the Palos Verdes Peninsula that was turned into an open-pit mine when Great Lakes Carbon Corp. bought Dicalite and the rights to the operation in 1944. After the Crenshaw Boulevard operation shut down, part of it became the South Coast Botanic Garden and another portion remains the still-undeveloped former Palos Verdes Landfill.

As a part of the Dicalite Company's earlier operations, a series of mine shafts and tunnels were built in Torrance. At the time, Madison Street dead-ended in undeveloped land just west of what would become the Lomita Flight Strip and, eventually, Torrance Municipal airport.

A tunnel extending at least a half-mile from that point towards Palos Verdes was dug in the early 1900s. It was wide enough to accommodate mule teams that would bring out the earth, and had several side shafts and a large side branch with room for storage and supplies.

Dicalite abandoned the mine in 1933, after a worker was killed there during the Long Beach earthquake.

The Dec. 11, 1941 Torrance Herald suggested the abandoned mine could have served as an ideal civil defense shelter during wartime with the addition of lighting, ventilation and toilet facilities, though this idea never was pursued.

A mine shaft descends into the earth at the Torrance abandoned mine site in the May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.

Over the years, the abandoned shafts and tunnels became a favorite place for kids to explore.

After 1944, ownership of the part of the site went to Great Lakes Carbon when it acquired Dicalite, with the rest of the land belonging to Los Angeles County.
Attempts were made to close off the dangerous playplace, but the area proved irresistible to youthful explorers. When a 14-year-old doing some digging of his own was trapped in a cave-in inside the mine in the fall of 1963, efforts to close off the mine shafts became more serious.

The boy survived, but the incident "scared us to death," said W.R. Smittle, Great Lakes Carbon's chief chemist at the time.

County officials and the company debated methods to close off the shafts. The county wanted to pour cement in the holes, but Smittle had found that resourceful explorers could either break parts of the concrete off, or just dig around it. So concrete chunks were dropped into the holes, with cement poured on top of those and dirt packed in on top of that.

Kids loved exploring the abandoned Torrance mines near the Torrance Municipal Airport. Here, a ladder descends to the floor of the mine in this May 1964 Daily Breeze file photo.

The fill-in operation began on May 12, 1964. The company had to post guards to keep trespassers away while the cement had a chance to set. A guard remained at the property afterwards to discourage future interlopers.

The problem went away permanently when that section of Madison Street was extended to Pacific Coast Highway and the entire mine shaft area was removed for projects such as the Skypark Development Project in the 1970s. But the half-mile long tunnel was never filled in, as it would have taken an estimated one million yards of earth to do so.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Torrance Herald files.

 This undated Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce postcard shows the original wooden pier built in 1904. Photo: Hermosa Beach Historical Society.

The first Hermosa Beach Pier was built in 1904, two years before the city officially incorporated. Constructed out of wood, the 500-foot-long pier broke up and much of it floated out to sea during a violent storm in 1913. The strength of such winter storms along the west-facing South Bay beaches was the undoing of many such structures over the years, including various incarnations of the Redondo Beach pier, and had much to do with San Pedro's victory in winning the battle to become Los Angeles' official port in 1907.

Crowds gather on the new concrete Hermosa Beach pier for its dedication in 1914. Photo: Hermosa Beach Historical Society.

The city rebuilt its pier almost immediately, opening a new 1000-foot-long concrete version in

 

High surf lashes the pier in February 2001. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The current pier has not been impervious to the ocean's movements. A three-phase, $9 million renovation project begun in 1998 was completed in 2005. As a part of that renovation, the building housing a bait shop, snack bar and restrooms at the end of the pier was removed.

The remodeling also included structural strengthening of the pier and its pilings, improvements to the decks, lighting and railings and the construction of Schumacher Plaza at the head of the pier. The plaza, which includes a sculpture of surfing pioneer Tim Kelly, is named after the deceased twin brother of longtime Hermosa Beach resident David Schumacher, who donated $1 million to the pier renovation project.

The pier has been closed for repairs periodically in more recent times, most notably in December 2009 and during parts of 2010, to repair cracked pilings and other structural issues.

A curious crowd gathers at the Hermosa Beach pier in March 2011 to look for signs of a tsunami that failed to materialize. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

The pier also has remained central to Hermosa Beach's surf culture over the years. On March 29, 2003, the city dedicated its Surfers Walk of Fame. Plaques were installed on the pier honoring its first seven inductees, Greg Noll, Hap Jacobs, Dewey Weber, Mike Purpus, Dale Velzy, Bing Copeland and Mike Stoner. Induction ceremonies are held annually for past and present surfing luminaries.

Surfer Donald Craig poses with his new plaque on the Hermosa Beach Pier Surfers Walk of Fame in 2009. Daily Breeze file photo.

 

In October 2011, the Hermosa Beach City Council passed an ordinance banning smoking in most public places, including on the pier.

 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

 

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The newly built U.S.S. Mississippi is launched at the Newport News, Va. shipyard on Jan. 25, 1917. Photo: Library of Congress.

The U.S.S. Mississippi battleship was ordered for the U.S. Navy on June 30, 1914. She was launched from its construction berth at the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Virginia on Jan. 25, 1917 and commissioned for service in December of that year.

The Mississippi didn't see action during World War I, but was used for training stateside and for patrolling along the East Coast.

Following the war, the Mississippi was used for training. On June 12, 1924, while stationed at the Port of Los Angeles, the Mississippi, the U.S.S. Tennessee, U.S.S. Idaho and U.S.S. California set out to participate in maneuvers being held in the naval training area near San Clemente Island south of Catalina.

The U.S.S. Mississippi off the coast of Panama in 1923, with gun turrets at front left configured as they would have been at the time of the June 1924 explosion. Photo: U.S. Naval Historical Center.

About 45 miles from the Port, a series of explosions ripped through the Mississippi's Gun Turret No. 2 while it was being reloaded after firing. The exploding gunpowder charges were powerful enough to seal the metal doorways and passageways shut, asphyxiating men who were trapped inside. Inside the the turret and in the surrounding area, 44 men were killed.

Rescue crews knew immediately that there were casualties, but they had to open hatches sealed by the blast with acetylene torches to reach the area where they could see the full extent of the casualties.

The bodies still were being pulled out as the ship reached the entrance to the Port. Suddenly, gunpowder remaining in Gun No. 5, one of the guns in Turret No. 2, also exploded, killing four members of the rescue squad. In all, 48 men died in the blasts, 3 officers and 45 enlisted men in what was, at that time, one of the Navy's deadliest peace-time disasters.

Five days later, a memorial service was held at Trona Field at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro. About 5,000 servicemen and thousands more spectators paid tribute to the men who had lost their lives on the Mississippi. In 1940, a memorial tablet would be placed at the spots where the caskets were placed during the 1924 ceremonies.

Military personnel line up in position on Trona Field in San Pedro on June 17, 1924, for the memorial service honoring the victims of the U.S.S. Mississippi explosion as spectators look on.

Though the accident had taken its toll in human lives, it did not end the Mississippi's service. The ship continued to be used for training, and received a major modernization from 1931-1933. After Pearl Harbor, she joined the Pacific Fleet and took part in many of the major battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

In a chilling reprise of the 1924 disaster, another turret explosion occurred on Nov. 29, 1943 near Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands, killing 43 men. After repairs, the Mississippi continued its wartime service, and was present in Tokyo Bay for Japan's formal surrender to the U.S. on Sept. 2, 1945.

The ship was used for a variety of operations following World War II, including the launch of the Navy's first surface-to-air guided missile. In September 1956, the Mississippi was decommissioned, and was scrapped at Portsmouth, Va., in November 1956 after nearly 40 years of service.

A reunion and dinner attended by 175 people was held at the Fleet Reserve Clubhouse in San Pedro on the the occasion of the Mississippi's decommissioning in Septemeber 1956. It was the ninth annual reunion of those who had served on the ship, and included not only those who reminisced about her wartime exploits, but also some old-timers who recalled the 1924 explosion.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files, especially "Flames and Gas Spread Death in Mississippi Gun Turret," June 13, 1924, Page 1.

Port of Los Angeles: An Illustrated History from 1850-1945, by Ernest Marquez and Veronique de Turenne, Angel City Press, 2007.

"USS Mississippi (BB-41, later AG-128), 1917-1956," Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-m/bb41.htm.

Theodore Van de Kamp and his brother-in-law Lawrence Frank began selling potato chips, then known as Saratoga chips, in a tiny storefront at 236 1/2 Spring Street downtown. Van de Kamp's wife Marion and Frank's wife Henrietta acted as saleswomen at the store, which sold out its first batch of chips in two hours.

A potato famine caused the pair to diversify their product line into baked goods - pretzels and macaroons - in 1916. They renamed their store Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Store, opening their first full-fledged branch in 1921. Their wives designed the trademark blue Dutch maid costumes that would be worn by a generation of Van de Kamp's workers.

By 1929, the original store had grown into a chain with 95 outlets in the L.A. area. The operation had grown large enough for the company to need a central production facility to supply its stores. They built such a plant at 2945 Fletcher Drive in Glassell Park, near San Fernando Road.

This 1940s-era postcard shows a typical free-standing Van de Kamp's retail store in Los Angeles, location not specified.

 

In addition to its free-standing bakery stores, Van de Kamp's also signed agreements in the

1930s and 1940s with markets to sell its bakery products in special areas inside the grocery stores. The grand opening of such a store was held on Friday, Oct. 21, 1935 in downtown Torrance, inside the Quality Super Market at 1325 Sartori Avenue. Children got a free windmill toy and bag of cookies at the festivities.
The bakery's products proved popular enough for the company to open a full-fledged store, complete with operating windmill, at El Prado and Cravens Avenue in downtown Torrance, on Feb. 21, 1941. (See Torrance Herald ad from Feb. 20, 1941 at left.) The blue store with the turning windmill became a local landmark.
The prosperous company changed hands in 1956, when Theodore Van de Kamp died, and Lawrence Frank began devoting more of his energies to the Lawry's Food Manufacuring business which had grown out of the Lawry's the Prime Rib restaurant the brothers had opened on La Cienega Boulevard in 1938.
The Van de Kamp's operation, which had grown to include coffee shops as well as free-standing and in-store bakeries, was sold to General Baking Co., which later became General Host Corp. (A 1950s-era menu can be seen at left, courtesy the Los Angeles Public Library menus collection.) The new owner kept bakery operations the same for several years, but diversified the company in 1959 by starting a frozen-foods line to make available some of its coffee-shop specialties to consumers, including frozen fish dishes such as its popular fish sticks.
Faced with falling revenues, General Host sold off the coffee shops to Tiny Naylors in 1973, and officially split the bakery and frozen foods divisions in 1977.  The Van de Kamp's name still is found in supermarket frozen food sections; Pillsbury Co. bought the Long Beach-based offshoot of the baking company in September 1984, building it into a national brand.
Though the free-standing bakeries began to disappear in the 1960s and 1970s, the bakery operation in Glassell Park continued to thrive under a succession of owners (General Host sold its interest in the bakery operations in 1978) until 1985, when East Coast competitor Entenmann's made  strong push into the California market. Entenmann's built a more modern plant that produced a smaller product line than Van de Kamp's and began winning the supermarket in-store war.
In September 1990, Van de Kamp's Holland Dutch Bakeries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Glasell Park plant closed, with 500 employees losing their jobs. It would never reopen. The building was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument by the city of L.A. on May 12, 1992. It underwent a $72 million renovation in the mid-2000s by the Los Angeles Community College District, which planned to make it a satellite campus of Los Angeles City College. As of this writing, the buildings on the 4 acre site have been used only lightly, and the lack of progress in making it a full-fledged campus has rankled nearby residents.
The Van de Kamp name remains visible, and not just in supermarkets. Former L.A. District Attorney and California Attorney General John Van de Kamp is Theodore Van de Kamp's grandson.
A Denny's restaurant now occupies the only remaining Van de Kamp's windmill restaurant building in Southern California, at the corner of Huntington Drive and Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia near the Santa Anita Park racetrack.

 

The Van de Kamp's bakery location in downtown Torrance can be seen, sort of, at the far left of this parade photo from 1948. Credit: Torrance Historical Society.

 

Sources:

"Bakery Flourished After Crisis: Van de Kamp Firm Spurred by Crop Failure," by Denise Haddix-Niemiec, Los Angeles Daily News, Oct. 26, 1989, Page WG2.

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

Torrance Herald files.

 

 

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Exhaust rising from the Pacific Light and Power Corp. forms a cloud above the building in about 1912. The plant began operation in 1907. Daily Breeze file photo.

The story of Redondo Beach's electric power plants begins with Henry Huntington.
In 1902, the Red Car and real estate magnate organized the Pacific Light and Power Company. It was set up to provide steam-generated electricity to Huntington's Los Angeles Railway Company.

The growth of the railroad, and the resulting growth in the area's population created a demand for more power.

In March 1906, a contract was awarded for the construction of a large $1.25 million steam-generated electric power plant in Redondo Beach.

At the time, it was described as the largest steam-power plant to be built west of Chicago.
The plant had enough capacity to supply not only Huntington's railroad, but also the residential customer base in the Redondo area.

Construction began in May 1906, and the plant came online early in 1907.

Electricity demands from the growing area led to the plant led to a large expansion project in 1910, only three years after the plant opened. In addition to electric power, the plant also brought150  jobs and increased economic stability to Redondo Beach.

In 1913, however, work was completed in a large hydroelectric plant at Big Creek, near Fresno, a Huntington project. Plans that had been made to import that electric power to Los Angeles were sped up after a burst water pipe flooded the Redondo steam plant in November 1913, bringing many of the city's streetcars to a halt. The decision was made to go to the new system of bringing power in from Big Creek, and it worked like a charm.

The Redondo Beach plant became far less important, and was placed on standby as Huntington changed his company's emphasis from steam to hydroelectric power.

In 1917, Southern California Edison purchased the Pacific Light and Power Co. from Huntington, including the Redondo Beach plant. Ultimately, though, Edison only used the plant as a backup for use in power emergencies. The steam plant was shut down and abandoned in 1933. Its machinery was dismantled in 1935, and the building and its smokestacks stood empty and unused for more than a decade after that.

The original Redondo steam plant stands abandoned in this undated 1940s Daily Breeze file photo.

In 1946, Edison announced that it would build a modern, $38 million plant on the site. The building and its three chimneys were torn down in August 1946, and construction by the Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. began on the new plant.

The first power unit at the new Edison plant became operational on Feb. 26, 1948, with two additional units coming online in April and August of that year. A fourth unit was added in October 1949.

Smokestacks for the first two units have been installed in this Daily Breeze file photo taken during construction of the Redondo Beach Edison Plant, circa 1947.

Units 5 and 6 were completed in 1956, and units 7 and 8 were added in 1968.

On Dec. 16, 1997, the California Public Utilities Commission approved Southern California Edison's sale of the Redondo Beach plant to Virginia-based AES Corp. The utility's plants in Huntington Beach and Alamitos also were part of the $781 million deal.

In December 1998, AES signed an agreement with the city of Redondo Beach to downsize the plant, and make use of much of its land for mixed-use development. All but two units were to be dismantled, and the first smokestacks began coming down in April 1999.

All eight of the smokestacks are present in this Daily Breeze file photo of the Redondo Beach Edison plant from January 1990.

City officials and activists began floating a variety of ideas for developing the land. Among these were plans to build a large hotel, parks, a theater-retail complex, a high-tech office center, and an urban village mixing residential and commercial structures.

Three smokestacks eventually were removed, and five of them still remain.

In the spring of 2011, AES filed plans to raze the existing structures and build a brand new power plant that would be cleaner, more efficient and one-third the size of the current facility. In Daily Breeze reporter Douglas Morino's Oct. 1, 2011 story on the plant, AES Southland President Eric Pendergraft says the company hopes to file its application to rebuild with the California Energy Commision by mid-2012.

Community activists, including the nonprofit group Building a Better Redondo, oppose the plan and would like to see the plant removed and replaced by a combination of commercial space, art facilities and parkland.

The AES power plant in Redondo Beach. January 2007 Daily Breeze file photo.

Sources:

City of Redondo Beach Historic Context Statement, by Marguerite Duncan-Abrams and Barbara Milkovich, Ph.D, Historical Resources Management, 1995.

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files.

This undated postcard shows the Don Hotel in Wilmington in the late 1940s.

When the Don Hotel held its gala opening in Wilmington on July 2, 1929, it was described as the largest and most modern hotel in the harbor district.

Its name came from Los Angeles investor Don Hundredmark, the hotel's owner. The Wilmington construction firm A.M. McLellan began building the hotel on Dec. 26, 1928.

The four-story brick structure was located just up the street from the Wilmington harbor at the corner of Avalon Boulevard and I Street (its addresss is 105 E. I Street). It had 135 rooms, each with private bath, as well as a spacious lobby, a large basement ballroom, a cafe and several stores.

Hundredmark intended for the hotel to cater to tourists going to and from Catalina Island on ships such as the S.S. Avalon and the S.S. Catalina, the Great White Steamship, that had begun ferrying passengers to Catalina from its Catalina Terminal at Banning's Landing in Wilmington.

During the hotel's heyday in the 1930s, publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst had his own suite reserved, and crooner Bing Crosby was a frequent guest. In addition to Catalinia tourists, the Don also drew guests whose yachts were docked at the Wilmington harbor at the foot of Avalon Boulevard.

Avalon Boulevard had been renamed in December 1926 after the S.S. Avalon after existing for 75 years as Canal Street. Canal Street was literally a canal in Wilmington's early years, before being filled in with dirt and becoming a regular road. (Apparently no pictures of Canal Street as a canal have survived.)

The Don Hotel's central location made it an important part of community life, with many meetings and social events scheduled there over the decades.

The hotel began to fall on hard times over the years, and its owners failed to keep up its elegance.

By the 1980s, its clientele had changed from the prestigious to the homeless, who were allowed to stay there under an L.A. County welfare voucher program.

Its owner, Cesar Lopez, had trouble coming up with funds to make the structure earthquake-safe. In July 1988, he put the hotel on the market for $5.5 million, with potential buyers looking to tear down the hotel and develop the land. New owners were accused of being slumlords in December 1995, though they denied the charges.

The entrance to the Don Senior Apartments on I Street in Wilmington. September 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

Another option for the hotel other than selling it and tearing it down turned out to be its salvation. In June 1997, the City of Los Angeles approved a plan to convert it into a senior housing facility.

Following a $2.7 million renovation, the city began accepting tenants for the Don Senior Apartments in November 1999.

The venerable Don Hotel sign atop the building's roof was taken down, and a restored sign with the same lettering that reads just "The Don" was erected in its place in February 2000.
As of this writing, the once-splendid hotel continues to function in its second incarnation as a senior housing complex.

The Don Senior Apartments, formerly the Don Hotel, in Wilmington. September 2011 Daily Breeze photo.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Los Angeles Times files, especially "Don Decays: End May be Near for Storied Wilmington Hotel, Now a 'Rattrap," by Sheryl Stolberg, July 29, 1988, and "Wilmington's New Hotel Opens in May," April 7, 1929, Page E9.

"Images of America: Wilmington," Simie Seaman and Hank and Jane Ousterhoudt of the Wilmington Historical Society, Susan Ogle of the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum and Michael Sanborn of the Banning Residence Museum, Arcadia Publishing, 2008.

The 28-mile thoroughfare is one of the longest streets in Los Angeles County. (Some say Sepulveda Boulevard is the longest at 42.8 miles from the north Valley to the Long Beach border; the two roads intersect at Torrance's eastern border with Harbor City.)

A surveyor named Henry Washington first plotted the street in 1853, and it got its name because it was then considered to be on the far western border of the Los Angeles pueblo.

In its early days, plans were made to extend Western north, so that it could meet up with the Western Avenue in the city of Glendale, but that never came to pass.

Instead, the roadway eventually would connect downtown L.A. with myriad neighborhoods and communities stretching southward from Los Angeles to San Pedro.

Plans to complete the southern section of Western, from Torrance to San Pedro, had been discussed in the 1920s. Serious attention began to be devoted to the project in the mid-1930s. The County Board of Supervisors ordered a survey of possible routes and rights-of-way issues in April 1937.

At that point in time, the San Pedro section that connected Western between 1st and 25th streets ran along residential streets such as Dodson Avenue. City and county officials realized that cutting a 100-foot wide swath through this corridor would result in major upheaval to the residents, and sought instead to develop the street along unoccupied land west of the affected streets.

Western Avenue near 1st Street in San Pedro is a two-lane road in this undated 1950s file photo. Photo: San Pedro Bay Historical Society.

At roughly the same time, the section of Western between Torrance Boulevard and Anaheim Avenue began to undergo major widening and other improvements.

Both of these projects would take years to come to fruition. World War II intervened, placing them on hold for several years.

By July 1947, 75 percent of the rights-of-way needed to finish the Torrance-to-Lomita development of Western had been secured.

By December 1949, the Western Avenue project had progressed to the point where its builders, the Warren Southwest Construction Co., had completed two 12-foot concrete lanes running from Torrance through to the San Pedro section.

The four-mile section between Torrance Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway in Lomita ended up being the final link to the completion of Western from Hollywood to San Pedro. It was opened in April 1950.

The section through San Pedro finally was completed as a direct thoroughfare all the way to the coast late in 1958, when work on the final segment between 9th and 19th streets was finished.

It would take many more years of improvements until the roadway began to resemble the major thoroughfare we know today.

Thanks to the persistence of Democratic Assemblyman Vincent Thomas, the California Highway Commission designated the section of Western from the San Diego (405) Freeway south  to 25th Street in San Pedro as California State Highway 213 on Sept. 21, 1967. The segment north of the freeway remains a regular city street. A very long one.

Near The Skating Edge ice rink in Harbor City. September 2011 Daily Breeze photo. 

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

Five-part front page series on Western Avenue by Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, July 7, 1985 - Aug. 4, 1985.

San Pedro: A Pictorial History, By Henry P. Silka, San Pedro Bay Historical Society, 1993.

Torrance Herald files, especially "Western Extension Gains Impetus," April 15, 1937, Page 1, and "Western Avenue Extension Takes Shape With New Concrete Lanes," Dec. 8, 1949, Page 12.

Dockweiler worked as a bookkeeper and then a surveyor before being admitted to the state bar as a lawyer in 1889. He married his wife Gertrude in 1891 in San Francisco.

He remained a devout Catholic his whole life. In 1924, he was named one of the Knights of St. Gregory by Pope Pius XI. He and Gertrude had eleven children together, several of whom became attorneys and judges.

Dockweiler also had an aptitude for politics. He ran for  Lieutenant Governor in 1902, was a delegate to two national Democratic conventions and a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1916 to 1932. He served on the Board of U.S. Indian Commissioners under President Woodrow Wilson.

He also played a key role in the development of the Los Angeles Public Library, serving as its president from 1901-1911.

Later in life, Dockweiler became active in improving Los Angeles' public park system. He served as chairman of the Los Angeles County Parks Committee, which was formed in early 1940 "to obtain funds for parks and recreations purposes, preserve beaches for public uses and aid in regional planning for development of this area."

The group's first action after forming was to propose the formation of a huge 1,800-acre park in Palos Verdes. The proposed recreational area would have stretched from the present-day Royal Palms County Beach/white Point Park northwest across the inside edge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Hills to the southern edge of Torrance.

Dockweiler and his committee enivisoned developing the park in a way that would remind visitors of Hyde Park in London or Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the County Board of Supervisors nixed the plan, deciding that the Committee's strategy to finance the acquisition of the land was "not legally feasible," and the proposed park never came to fruition.

Dockweiler died at St. Vincent's Hospital while being prepped for minor kidney surgery on Feb. 6, 1947. He was 79.

Hundreds of friends and admirers attended Dockweiler's funeral on Feb. 10, including Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, County Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz and actor Leo Carrillo. (Carrillo co-starred as Pancho in the television series "The Cisco Kid," and had a beach park near Malibu named in his honor for his years of service on the state beaches and parks commission.) Archbishop John J. Cantwell presided over the service, with Bishop (and future Cardinal) Timothy Manning paying tribute to Dockweiler during his sermon.

On Jan. 27, 1955, the State Park Commission changed the name of the Venice-Hyperion Beach State Park to the Isidore B. Dockweiler Beach State Park in his honor.
A plaque honoring Dockweiler was placed at the beach in June 1955, following its presentation at a St. Vincent's College reunion dinner on June 6, 1955, headlined by Jimmy Durante.

Dockweiler State Beach was renamed in 1955. Daily Breeze photo, September 2011.

Dockweiler State Beach has become known over the years for several distinctive features. Located underneath the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport, it's also one of the few L.A.-area beaches with fire pits. Recreational vehicles have used a special parking lot for years as a long-term camping spot.

The long-term RV parking lot at Dockweiler State Beach can be seen at left center of this September 2011 Daily Breeze file photo.

 

Hang gliders also have taken off from the bluffs overlooking the beach for decades. Following a 13-year period during which hang-gliding was banned for liability reasons, the Dockweiler State Beach Hang Gliding Park was opened in 1999.

In June 2005, a State Senate committee turned down a plan to open a dog park on a portion of Dockweiler. In January 2008, construction began on the Dockweiler Youth Center, which opened in October 2009. The center is used both for training youths in aquatic sports and safety, and as a community recreational facility.

Sources:

Daily Breeze files.

"Dockweiler Family History," Loyola Marymount University Special Collections Dept., http://library.lmu.edu/Collections/specialcollections/CSLA_Research_Collection/CSLA_Research_Collection__Dockweiler_Family_Collection/Dockweiler_Family_History.htm.

Los Angeles Times archive stories, especiallly "Isidore B. Dockweiler, Dean of Lawyers, Dies," Feb. 7, 1947, Page 1, "Park Project Move Looms," Apr. 22, 1940, Pge A2, "County Park Deal Blocked," May 9, 1940, Page A2.

 

 

 

 

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Tickets for the 37th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach go on sale Tuesday. Long Beach's largest event takes place from April 15-17 next year and will again feature the stars of the IZOD IndyCar Series including 2010 champion Dario Franchitti, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Danica Patrick and Scott Dixon.

Ticket prices for the three-day event range from $26 for Friday General Admission to $130 for a three-day ticket that includes Saturday and Sunday reserved seating in the grandstand upper levels. Pre-paid parking packages also are available, along with handicapped seating, IZOD IndyCar Paddock passes, Super Photo tickets and a variety of Hospitality Club packages.

The Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series and the 35th Annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race will take center stage on Saturday followed by four races Sunday including the IndyCars, Firestone Indy Lights and the Team Drifting finals.

Festivities also include free Friday and Saturday night Tecate Light concerts, the Lifestyle Expo with an expanded Family Fun Zone, the Green Power Prix-View and action sports demonstrations.

For credit card orders call 888-82-SPEED, or visit www.gplb.com. The website includes updates on Grand Prix news, ticket information and announcements of special race week activities.

A printed ticket brochure that includes a circuit map, ticket prices, order form and other race weekend information can be obtained by calling the hotline. ]]> http://www.insidesocal.com/grandprix/2010/10/grand-prix-tickets-go-on-sale.html http://www.insidesocal.com/grandprix/2010/10/grand-prix-tickets-go-on-sale.html Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:34:28 -0800 More than 280 people entered a contest to guess the number of dots on Lamont Whiting's dry erase board artwork.

The first place winner, who guessed 102,000 dots, won two free tickets to the Wanda Sykes Show and a meet-and-greet with Sykes after the show.

The second-place winner guessed 100,000 to win a $100 gift certificate to Gladstone's in Long Beach.

The final total number of dots? 105,375.

Visit www.artbylamont.com for more. 

AP Sports Writer

LONG BEACH - Ryan Hunter-Reay took advantage of an early mistake by Will Power and was never really challenged, cruising to his second career Indy Racing League title at the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday.

Hunter-Reay started second and took the lead on the 18 th lap when Power, the pole sitter, slowed and had to pull to the outside.

A part-time driver for Andretti Autosport, Hunter-Reay lost the lead after his two pit stops, but quickly regained it both times on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street course through downtown Long Beach. He led 64 of 85 laps.

Justin Wilson finished second, despite a collision with Alex Lloyd on Lap 53, Power ended up third and Scott Dixon was fourth.

Team Penske won the season's first three races - the first two by Power - but Hunter-Reay ended the run with an easy-looking win over a difficult course that left drivers breathless during qualifying sessions.

He patiently waited to lap Greg Lloyd midway through the race and quickly increased his lead after the race's only caution - on a collision between Mario Romancini and Graham Rahal on Lap 60 - bunched the cars up.

Hunter-Reay won the race by a cruise-across-the-line 5.6 seconds and was congratulated by new Andretti teammate Tony Kanaan, who nearly climbed into his cockpit for a hug after finishing fifth.

It's been a vagabond journey to the podium.

The 29-year-old from Boca Raton, Fla., got his start in the Champ Car Series and won a race in 2003 with American Spirit Team Johanson. Next year, his ride was gone because of funding.

RHR then moved to HVM Racing, a team that had been in open-wheel racing for years. He won another race, but that ride fizzled due to infighting within the family that owned the team.

Rocketsports Racing was the next stop in 2005. The team was run on a shoestring budget, leading to another ride-one-year, gone-the-next stop.

After that, Hunter-Reay's career went piecemeal: Grand Am, Rolex Sports Car Series, NASCAR and Daytona Prototype testing, among others.

Hunter-Reay joined Rahal Letterman Racing in 2007, winning at Watkins Glen for his first IRL victory, only to lose that ride to ... yep, another sponsorship issue. Last season was another jump-around, starting with Vision Racing, ending with A.J. Foyt Racing.

But just when Hunter-Reay was wondering if he'd ever be able to set his feet, in stepped IndyCar giant Andretti Autosport.

The team had been eyeing for Hunter-Reay for several years and offered him a part-time ride this season with plans to go full-time if a sponsor could be found. He still doesn't have a sponsor, but likely upped his chances with Sunday's win and a second in the season opener in Brazil.

Will Power, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Justin Wilson, Helio Castroneves, Ryan Briscoe and Tony Kanaan were the top six Indy qualifiers Saturday. 

The drivers spoke at length about the challenges of navigating the Long Beach track in this segment from the following above press conference.

From the press release

"Ever since I was a kid, the two cartoonists who have had the biggest influence on me have been Carl Barks and E.C. Segar, so getting a chance to write Popeye is quite a thrill," said Langridge. "I'm especially pleased that IDW have decided to go with a Segar-flavored interpretation. As much as I like some of the later versions of the character, for me, it's those early strips where the magic really happened. Just as well Segar drew everybody with big feet, because Bruce and I have some enormous shoes to fill!"

Autocracy features the stunning TRANSFORMERS writing debut of Chris Metzen - SVP, Story and Franchise Development at Blizzard Entertainment and one of the main creative minds behind the company's Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes. Metzen is joined by co-writer Flint Dille, a fan-favorite for his work on the original TRANSFORMERS animated series.

"This project is a dream come true for me," said Metzen. "I've loved the TRANSFORMERS brand all my life - and the chance to take these characters for a drive with my good friend Flint has been an incredible privilege. But I think it's Livio Ramondelli's gritty, cinematic vision that really brings this story to life."

The Universal action drama film starring Mark Wahlberg as a reformed smuggler debuted above expectations at No. 1 with $24 million, while Disney's 3-D rerelease of "Beauty and the Beast" waltzed into the No. 2 position with $18.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Both films helped boost Hollywood's business after a sluggish holiday season.

"It's great to have an uptick in the total box office, and Universal is thrilled that 'Contraband' was the driving force behind that," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for the studio. "I think it's combination of a great marketing campaign, audiences love Mark Wahlberg and (producer) Working Title made a terrific movie, particularly for the cost."

"Joyful Noise," the Warner Bros.' musical comedy starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, opened below expectations with $11.3 million in the No. 4 spot behind Paramount's "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," which earned $11.5 million in its fifth week, bringing the total haul of the fourth installment of the Tom Cruise action franchise to $186.7 million.

"The Devil Inside," Paramount's horror film that scared up a massive $33.7 million debut last weekend, experienced a steep 77 percent drop in its second weekend, coming in at No. 6 with $7.9 million. Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said the film's terrifying plunge didn't matter because the independently produced movie already made a huge profit.

"Horror movies typically drop big, but that is a huge drop," said Dergarabedian. "It doesn't matter because 'Devil Inside' is a profit-making machine. If your budget is low enough, who cares if it drops big and you're making money? It's already one of the most profitable films of the past year, so there's nothing really to complain about there."

Overall domestic revenues totaled $114.5 million, on par with the same weekend last year, when "The Green Hornet" led with $33.5 million and the box office totaled $115 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Contraband," $24 million.

2. "Beauty and the Beast," $18.5 million.

3. "Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol," $11.5 million.

4. "Joyful Noise," $11.3 million.

5. "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," $8.4 million.

6. "The Devil Inside," $7.9 million.

7. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," $6.8 million.

8. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked," $5.8 million.

9. "War Horse," $5.6 million.

10. "The Iron Lady," $5.3 million.

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

2. West Torrance 18-8, 7-3

4. Mira Costa 17-9, 4-6

5. Redondo 10-16, 2-8

6. Palos Verdes 6-21, 0-10

3. Carson          18-9, 7-5

3. Narbonne      13-15, 7-5

5. San Pedro     14-13, 6-6

6. Gardena         11-17, 2-10

7. King-Drew      3-22, 0-12

3. Gardena 9-11-1, 6-4

4. San Pedro 7-9-4, 4-4-2

5. Carson 4-8-1, 4-5-1

6. Washington 0-11, 0-10

3. West Torrance 15-4-4, 5-3-2

4. Mira Costa 9-9-7, 3-5-2

5. Peninsula 6-12-2, 2-8

6. Redondo 8-12-2, 2-8

1. South Torrance  7-0-3

2. North Torrance   5-1-4

3. El Segundo         4-4-2

4. Lawndale            3-4-3

5. Centennial          3-7

6. Torrance             1-7-2

IIAA: Inglewood 14th
IIA: Leuzinger 4th, North Torrance 8th, Peninsula 13th, Mira Costa 14th
IIIAAA: West Torrance 7th, Lawndale 11th
IIIAA: South Torrance 2nd, Torrance 3rd, Palos Verdes 16th
IVAA: Serra 1st, Bishop Montgomery 3rd, Morningside 15th
VAA: St. Bernard 1st
VA: Rolling Hills Prep tied for 2nd

1. Banning (11-4-1, 7-1)
2. Narbonne  (11-6-4, 5-2-1)
3. Gardena (8-10-1, 5-3)
4. Carson (3-7-1, 3-4-1)
5. San Pedro (5-9-4, 2-4-2)
6. Washington (0-8 in league)

Notes: The biggest game left is Banning at Narbonne on Wednesday afternoon. Narbonne needs a win to have a chance at first and keep Gardena off its  tail. Narbonne is on a hot streak at home and Banning star Peter Velazquez's availability (ankle injury) is a question mark. Banning finishes at  Gardena on Friday in another dangerous game. Carson and San  Pedro are fighting for fourth place and a possible playoff berth. The L.A. City Section usually  takes three to four Marine League  teams. Fourth place may or may not be good enough.

1. Washington (17-10, 9-0): Only Narbonne has played Washington close, losing 57-54 in the first meeting between the teams. Otherwise no team has lost by fewer than double digits. It's Washington's title again.
2. Banning (15-8, 7-2): The real battle for Banning is for second place.  Banning hosts  Narbonne on Wednesday with second place on the line.
3. Narbonne (12-13, 6-3): Big week for the Gauchos, who host San Pedro on Monday and play at Banning on Wednesday and at Carson on Friday. Second place is not out of reach.
4. Carson (16-9, 5-5): Colts finish at  King-Drew on Wednesday and at Banning on Friday with a good chance to finish over .500 in league.
5. San  Pedro (13-12, 5-5): Tough loss against Banning last Friday, San Pedro could use a bounce-back win at Narbonne on Monday to improve L.A. City Section Division II playoff seeding.
6. Gardena (10-16, 1-9): Only league win is against King-Drew. Gardena looks to finish with two league wins, as it plays at King-Drew on Monday.
7. King-Drew (2-19, 0-9): King-Drew's best chance to garner a Marine League win is at home on Monday against Gardena. King-Drew lost to Gardena the  first time around by just 8.

1. Leuzinger (18-5-1, 6-1), at Mira Costa, Friday, 3 p.m.
2. Palos Verdes (19-2-3, 6-1), hosts Peninsula, Friday, 3 p.m.
3. West Torrance (12-4-4, 2-3-2), at Redondo, Friday, 3 p.m.
4. Mira Costa (8-7-7, 2-3-2)
5. Redondo (6-9-2, 2-5)
6. Peninsula (7-10-2, 1-6)

Notes: Who will blink first between the Sea Kings and the Olympians with three regular-season games left? A tie could be enough for one of them to slip out of first place, and no team in the Bay League is an easy opponent ... Either Redondo or Peninsula could play spoiler ...  Leuzinger gets a big test on Friday at Mira Costa ... Leuzinger slipped past Mira Costa in overtime in the first meeting ... Palos Verdes looking to capture back-to-back Bay  League titles ... West and Mira Costa in a tight race for third place ...

Notes: West Torrance has to get through host Redondo Friday night to earn its shot at Leuzinger on Tuesday at West High ... Crazy that West -- unheralded coming into the season -- has a shot at the title with three games left, but indeed it does ... Mira Costa is at  Peninsula on Tuesday in what likely is a battle for third place ...

Deasy said LAUSD is a "victim" of policies that hurt the poor, the types of government and corporate actions that the Occupy movement is protesting across the country and around the world.

Deasy said Occupy LAUSD is "both misinformed and contrary to the spirit and intent of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA, and the other laudable movements for economic justice that have sprung up around the country and the world over the last month."

The full statement is after the jump. It's followed by Deasy's statement earlier today condemning anti-semitic comments made at Occupy LA over the weekend by an LAUSD substitute teacher, who has since been fired. A district spokeswoman said the teacher had been subbing since 2005 but, because she was not a permanent employee, there's not a record available of where she worked.

As I reported in a story that ran yesterday, a group of educators led in part by former South Bay congressional candidate Marcy Winograd has teamed up to march today. With partial backing from the teachers union (a vote for UTLA endorsement is set for tomorrow), Occupy LAUSD is focused on "privatization" of public schools and the growth of charters.

Writer Melinda Burns paints a picture of admirable teamwork at Wilmington Middle, which was the one of the subjects last year of a study on professional learning communities done by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future.

The school divides instructors into teaching teams that meet after school three times per month.

... Sandra Martinez, a seventh-grade math teacher, said teamwork made all the difference in what can be a very stressful job. It is draining, she said, to teach 130 students every day, including "the ones who can make you miserable." The support from colleagues, the chance to learn on the job and the satisfaction of "seeing the bar going up" -- all this makes her work easier and more fun, Martinez said.

"I'm so comfortable here," she said. "My group is really good. We follow the same strategies and pretty much are on the same lesson at the same time. We even do a script and quote what we're going to say. If it works for our audience, we keep it.

"I don't believe anything will change in our profession until we get teachers who want to be teachers. If you are truly committed to this profession, if you want to be stimulated and move forward, then collaboration is what you do."

I've contacted Principal Myrna Brutti to see if the same practices will be taking place this year, considering budget cuts LAUSD campuses have been dealing with.

A San Pedro native who was an LAUSD teacher and magnet coordinator at South Shores Magnet School, Kooper has worked with Vladovic since his election in 2007. Vladovic, himself a former LAUSD administrator, was re-elected this year and will be sworn in Friday, the same day that Kooper takes on his new job.

Local District 8 Superintendent Mike Romero called Kooper an innovator and an instructional leader, saying he's a good fit for Gulf Avenue, which is one of the local district's three remaining year-round schools. Classes at the campus start July 5.

"The wealth of experiences serving as Vladovic's chief of staff over the past few years will pay great dividends at Gulf Avenue," Romero said.

Kooper said he was excited for the opportunity. Asked if spoke Spanish, Kooper replied: "Claro que sí." The school is overwhelmingly Latino.

The news of his new position was made public in Vladovic's blog. Vladovic announced Kooper's departure with "sadness." *

Nora Armenta, who's been principal at Gulf Avenue since 2007, earlier this month became director of early education programs across the district, Romero said. She's now based at the district's downtown Beaudry Avenue offices.

* Vladovic may have been especially emotional, because he apparently vented at today's school board meeting on the new Cameron Diaz film "Bad Teacher," according to the LA Times. Vladovic took issue with the movie's depiction of a potty-mouthed teacher who cares little about her students' academic success.

The deal between Gov. Brown and Democrats in the Legislature is dependent on an upswing in revenues to the state. If that money doesn't materialize, there will be mid-year cuts to schools. That could mean seven to 10 additional furlough days for educators.

Optimists - if any are left - can take comfort in knowing that K-12 schools will be spared from any additional cuts if at least $2 billion of the $4 billion comes through. But if there is less than $2 billion, K-12 schools will bear the brunt of the cuts. And they could be as much as $1.9 billion, mostly in end-of-the-year furlough days, if the shortfall reaches as much as $4 billion.

Community colleges, along with Cal State and UC campuses, are going to be smarting regardless of the revenue scenario. But it could get worse for them too, with midyear cuts meaning a loss of 35,000 students for community colleges, Fensterwald reports. Some 130,000 won't be able to take classes thanks to cuts already agreed upon.

Deb Amlen, writer of the Times' blog Wordplay, joked in an entry that 14 1/2-year-old Steinberg was failing to measure up, seeing that the youngest-ever puzzle-maker was just 14 when his construction was published back in 1976.

It makes me wonder what Mr. Steinberg has been doing with his time that has been causing him to slack off so much.

All kidding aside, Steinberg's Thursday puzzle impressed Amlen, who said most first-timers go easier on the Times' audience of crossword fans.

Mr. Steinberg dives right into the deep end with a Thursday theme that sets us a very clever task: Find the four-letter words (no, not that kind) that surreptitiously clue us in to a code that needs to be broken. Once you get that, there's one more job. You will need to understand what Mr. Steinberg is saying to you in order to understand the gibberish in the center of the grid at 39 Across. I love code-breaking games, so this was fun, fun, fun for me.

Steinberg will start in fall at top-achieving Palos Verdes Peninsula High in Rolling Hills Estates. He's currently living in Seattle and is moving down to the South Bay this summer after a five-week session at Google. His mom, Karen Steinberg, let the Breeze know about his unusual accomplishment this month.

The teenager says he spends most of his time constructing and solving crosswords -- a passion he developed when he was 12. He has submitted 35 puzzles to the Times, but finds time for interest in Latin, robotics, computer programming and ping pong.

Highest on the list is Palos Verdes Peninsula High, which ranked 60th. Highlights for that school include a graduation rate of 100 percent and an average SAT score of 1817. Clocking in at 236th is the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson (known as "CAMS"), where 93 percent of the grads are college-bound.

Not far behind was Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy in Wilmington, which ranked 272. The average SAT for that school is 1363. South High School in Torrance came in at No. 320; and Redondo Union, 405.

It should be noted that only 1,100 high schools applied for the distinction -- a relatively small fraction of the roughly 24,000 public high schools in the United States.

The magazine this year revamped its criteria in an attempt to honor schools with a well rounded set of characteristics. Whereas in prior years the benchmark was based entirely on AP tests taken per graduate, this year the criteria was expanded to include other metrics. They are: graduation rate (25 percent), college matriculation rate (25 percent), AP tests taken per graduate (25 percent), average ACT/SAT scores (10 percent), average International Baccalaureate scores (10 percent), and AP courses offered per graduate (5 percent).

Noticeably absent from the criteria is the success of the schools in preparing disadvantaged students for college. That metric is included in the list compiled by the U.S. News & World Report. That magazine claims to review more than 21,000 schools nationwide.

On that list, local high schools serving low-income students do indeed fare better. CAMS ranks No. 22; Animo Leadership Charter High in Inglewood, No. 23; Lennox Math, Science & Technology Academy, No. 25; and Hawthorne Math and Science Academy, No. 54.

*Jay Mathews, the creator of Newsweek's original ranking before the magazine was bought from the Washinton Post Co. (which now publishes Mathews' new ranking), responds to the Newsweek list. He's critical that the magazine's methodology ends up privileging schools with higher-income students.

The average portion of low-income students for the 45 schools on the Newsweek list for which that data is available is 19.6 percent. The comparable portion on my list for the 48 schools that gave me poverty data is 31.8 percent.

Such differences produce interesting and useful conversations about what makes a great school. We school rating scoundrels have a good time when we get together to talk about this. I think the new Newsweek listmakers, almost none of whom I know, will enjoy reviewing their data and seeing if there are other measures they want to include.

Mathews also notes that a short deadline for schools to apply likely affected the outcome.

The index should be updated later this week, and Pen High will be somewhere around 192nd rank, making it the top school from the South Bay and Harbor Area, and placing it within the top 1 percent nationwide.

Here's part of an emailed apology from Post columnist Jay Mathews to Peninsula High:

The Post erred in failing to place Palos Verdes Peninsula High School on our 2011 High School Challenge rankings of the nation's high schools. It is entirely my fault. I expect that great school--one of the first I visited when I conceived this project 15 years ago--will be added to the list this week, along with other schools we missed in the first version of the list. Every year since this list began in 1998, we have had a second updated version to make sure we include every school, including those who failed to notify us of their numbers and those, like PVPHS, whose paperwork I lost somewhere on my desk.

PVPHS will be ranked in the top 200, somewhere around 192, which puts it in the top one percent of US public schools measured this way. Its line on the list will read as follows:

Palos Verdes Peninsula Rolling Hills Estates CA 73.00 2.10 3.489

Those three numbers are, in order, the percentage of seniors who had at least one passing grade on an AP exam while in high school, the percentage of students qualified for federal lunch subsidies, and the school's Challenge Index rating (the number of AP test in 2010 divided by the number of graduating seniors.)

Kaplan says, in her post on KCET's SoCal Connected blog, that she felt a bit confused by her friend's triumphant announcement of having finally received a transfer permit.

We're in Inglewood. For months, Christina and her husband had been trying to enroll their teenage kids in El Segundo High School; El Segundo is not far west of us, but it's essentially another universe. A very pleasant town that, ethnically speaking, is about as hermetically sealed as they come in Southern California. I've been there countless times (just to visit, of course) and can count the number of black faces I've seen on two hands (and they were probably visiting too). I could count the number Asians and Latinos on maybe three. It was kind of astounding.

According to state figures, the 3,200-student district this year had just 109 black students, or about 3.4 percent. Still, it's not as monochromatic as Kaplan suggests. The district is only about 55 percent white and more than 22 percent Latino.

But that's the school district, which welcomes students from outside its boundaries. The city population itself is whiter, with about 78 percent of residents identified as white, according to U.S. Census data.

Anyway, Kaplan's friend Christina struggled with a bureacratic transfer process but ultimately got spots in El Segundo High for her children, whom Kaplan describes as "exactly the kind of students the community at large needs to thrive as a community."

What does this loss mean for Inglewood schools?

I applauded her triumph, gave her a fist pump. But after I got home and thought about it, the triumph felt hollow. My garden looked less lovely. It was the old paradox of integration that was best expressed by a black oldtimer from the Eastside who put it this way after racial housing covenants were struck down in 1948: we got what we wanted, but lost what we had. We're still losing.

Read it.

It's the result of a study of about 1,500 teachers done by the D.C.-based National Council on Teacher Quality. The LAUSD Board of Education is receiving a presentation on the report this afternoon.

Daily News writer Connie Llanos reports on some of the recommendations, including changes to teacher evaluations, and that tenure not be granted until a teacher has worked with the district for four years, instead of two. Those issues are of course bound to draw union fire.

Education blogger John Fensterwald has a detailed breakdown of the report's recommendations, along with the required legislative action that would be needed to implement changes to the Education Code.

*After the jump is a statement from LAUSD on the report, and from board member Yolie Flores Aguilar.

Now called the High School Challenge, the ranking was started by WaPo education columnist Jay Mathews in 1998 and long published in Newsweek. This year it includes 11 secondary campuses from the South Bay and Harbor Area. They're not the ones you might think.

That's because Mathews' formula is this "simple" one: the number of AP, IB or other college level tests given by the school in 2010 divided by the number of graduating seniors. That is, the average number of AP tests (in our schools' case) per grad.

Mathews acknowledges this might give some unexpected results, and in various blog posts he calls his method "contrarian," and writes that he welcomes the competition from Newsweek in a forthcoming best-schools list.

While not a measure of the overall quality of the school, the rating can reveal the level of a high school's commitment to preparing average students for college.

An FAQ goes into more detail on why Mathews believes the number of college-level tests given -- and not how well students do on those tests -- is a good measure of a school's quality. He writes:

The Challenge Index is designed to identify schools that have done the best job in persuading average students to take college level courses and tests. It does not work with schools that have no, or almost no, average students. The idea is to create a list that measures how good schools are in challenging all students, and not just how high their students' test scores are. 

Here are the rankings for local schools on the list of 1,900:

• 197. Harbor Teacher Preparation Academy
• 305. Palos Verdes High
• 611. Redondo Union High
• 456. Hawthorne Math & Science Academy
• 1047. California Academy of Math & Science 
• 1168. Animo Inglewood Charter High
• 1262. Carson High
• 1457. Animo Leadership Charter High
• 1525. Narbonne High
• 1534. El Segundo High
• 1721. Banning High

Obviously, it's most notable that a number of troubled LAUSD schools are on the list, including Carson High, which the district has put up for bid by outside operators under the unusual Public School Choice initiative.

At the same time, top-achieving schools like Peninsula* and Mira Costa High didn't make the cut.

Here's a 2009 blog post I wrote on Mathews' rankings. There are a few differences: Peninsula and Mira Costa were on that list, as was Westchester High. The other schools that remain in the 2011 list are in different order, generally speaking.

*Update: The omission of Peninsula High was an error that will be fixed, Mathews said in an email to administrators. The school will be ranked somewhere around 192nd, making it the top campus locally.

It's a topic that creates controversy in education circles because there are such great disparities -- and because it's all based on a locked-in, byzantine funding system created by in the wake of a 1971 court ruling on state education spending, Serrano v. Priest.

Here's the crux of the issue:

The Supreme Court ruled that differences in the basic amount spent per student - so-called "revenue limit" funding - had to be within $100 across all districts. Taking inflation into account, the permissible difference is now $350 per student. Although larger differences remain among some districts, disparities in the basic amount districts receive from the state have been substantially reduced.

But that reduction has been wiped out by local, state and federal funds for close to a hundred different programs. A large part of the money is based on formulas established in the 1970s for meals, transportation and other services that often have little connection to current student needs.

The inequities the court sought to alleviate with its Serrano ruling persist. About two-thirds of districts now spend at least $500 above or below the state average, according to California Watch's analysis.

Here's a surprising result of the research:

The analysis found there was virtually no correlation between funding and (API) scores that could explain the wide variation across the state in per-pupil spending in districts.

California Watch also looked at correlations between expenditures and student backgrounds, including their race and ethnicity and whether they are poor enough to receive a free or reduced lunch. The analysis also did not find any significant correlations among these variables.

Their database shows some surprising results locally. I know officials in some of the districts in affluent areas -- including Manhattan Beach and the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- are prone to emphasizing their comparative lack of per-pupil funding. But this is pretty stark in terms of more cash going to districts that educate lower-income student bodies.

In descending order, here are Cal Watch's figures for per-pupil spending in local districts:

• LAUSD $10,015
• Lennox $9,759
• Centinela Valley $9,366
• Inglewood $8,931
• California average $8,452
• Lawndale $8,390
• Redondo Beach $7,991
• Palos Verdes $7,812
• Hawthorne $7,806
• El Segundo $7,733
• Hermosa Beach $7,527
• Torrance $7,505
• Manhattan Beach $7,467
• Wiseburn $6,884

Wiseburn, the high-achieving K-8 district in Hawthorne, is clearly the curveball here.

Here's an important component of Cal Watch's story on these figures:

The disconnect between money and academic performance is at the heart of an ongoing debate among educators and researchers.

"Money may be necessary for school improvement, but it doesn't guarantee that improvement takes place," concluded UC Berkeley education professor W. Norton Grubb in his recent book "The Money Myth," after conducting an intensive review on the subject.

In particular, he found that urban schools tended to spend inefficiently for a variety of reasons, including high staff and student turnover and conflicts over how to teach struggling students. At the same time, he said, urban districts often have extra expenses for needs such as security, dropout prevention, or for teaching students who are not proficient in English.

Here's a Q&A with some more info.

Only one hundred of California's nearly 2,500 high schools account for nearly half of the state's dropouts.

Wow. Based on a speed-read, I'm not sure where this statistic comes from, but just: wow.

The report uses census data to look at health, education, and living standards, not surprisingly revealing wide disparities in the Golden State.

The feel-good column is about twentysomethings giving back to the neighborhood that raised them. Tobar dubs it "renaissance by the refineries."

He writes about 24-year-old Kat Madrigal, who started a blog called the Wilmington Wire, and Robert Jones, a 21-year-old CSU Dominguez Hills student who teaches at the Wilmington Empowerment Project. Jones wants to return to Banning High to teach. Also mentioned is artist Oscar Duarte, who helped start the Wilmington Enrichment Community Artist Network, or WECAN.

The column points out the disparity made evident by Wilmington's proximity to the affluent Palos Verdes Peninsula:

From just about anywhere in Wilmington and the communities that surround it, you can look up and see the hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, an island of prosperity floating in the distance and a constant reminder to locals of where they stand in the world.

Sumiko Braun, a Carson native and actress, recently took a group of Wilmington and Long Beach teenagers up to Palos Verdes as part of a "reality tour" organized by members of the One Imagination collective. It was her way of sharing with neighborhood young people some of the lessons she'd learned in college.

"We started off in Wilmington, by the refineries, and went up to PV ... and then back down to South L.A. and Watts," Braun told me. They compared the schools, medical facilities and grocery stores and looked at other measures of social health. "The differences were drastic and extreme," she said. "When we were done, a lot of the students got emotional about it, because they didn't realize until that moment how this city works."

The map shows the estimated losses per student -- in each school district or state Assembly or Senate district -- under dramatic education spending reductions that would be part of an all-cuts state budget. The tool uses projected cuts of $764 per pupil. In some districts, it shows the number of pink slips that have gone out.

Torrance Unified, our biggest local district after LAUSD, is facing the largest loss: $18.4 million in cuts, according to the tool. Inglewood follows with a possible $11.7 million loss. Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified comes next with nearly $9 million in cuts.

Los Angeles Unified faces cuts of $498 million, according to the site.

The site, on the K-12 News Network, was developed as a volunteer project by two California parents. It's a collaboration with the with Parents for Great Education, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit.

As Howard Blume writes in the LA Times, there's a reason for putting this data together.

The effort behind it is ostensibly nonpartisan, but one reason for the new reference tool is to increase pressure on a handful of Republican legislators to allow a statewide vote on tax extensions that, if approved, would ease budget shortfalls on school districts.

SNP LA provides spay neuter services that are affordable and accessible to all pet owners in the Los Angeles area in an effort to create an environment in which animal shelters no longer rely on euthanizing animals as a way of controlling pet population.

Fumble, a young Chihuahua/terrier mix from the spcaLA in Long Beach, has just scored in the big time.

The puppy is set to make his television debut as part of the starting lineup on Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VIII show - aired during Sunday's Super Bowl game.

--Photo courtesy of spcaLA

TOP DOG. Fumble, who came from the spcaLA, will be playing in Sunday's 7th annual Puppy Bowl.

Ana Bustilloz, who is the director of communications and marketing for spcaLA, decided last year that Long Beach needed to find a cute, furry football player to star in the annual Puppy Bowl.

"I asked our wonderful staff to recommend some puppies," Bustilloz said. "Cuteness was a major factor, but the puppy would also need to handle a long plane ride to New York City... We saw Fumble, and he is just so cute. He was a good size and a beautiful puppy."

"We're all sheepdogs looking for wolves, and my job is to keep my flock safe," Lieutenant (John) Pappas said.

New Dog Park in Pacific Heights alongside WPNP Bluff Trail

Tierra Vista, who manages the military housing for the Air Force has begun constructing a dog park that will be 150 feet by 75 feet near the north west side of the White Point Nature Preserve fence - for Pacific Heights and Pacific Crest Air Force Housing residents only.

According to Molly Markel, Community Manager, the fencing will be 5 feet tall and black to match the color of the existing fence. Tierra Vista will be installing irrigation to grow grass to an area of 50 feet by 100 feet. Another path will be installed, made of crushed rock to mimic the existing landscape. The surrounding landscape, will be left the same - not disturbing the natural look of the area.

The hours of operation for the dog park will be 7 days a week, but only from dawn till dusk to respect neighbor's privacy - namely on Hamilton and Silvius. Landscapers will be responsible to keep the area aesthetically pleasing as part of their contract.

We often need their help. Now they want ours.

The firefighters at Fire Station 1 in Redondo Beach have entered a nationwide contest to win a new kitchen.

The Rescue Remodel contest pits firehouses from around the country against each other, and the station with the most votes will receive a kitchen renovation valued at $25,000. The contest is sponsored by Ikea, the Swedish home furnishing giant, and The Family Handyman, a home improvement magazine.

Votes can be cast by visiting rescueremodel.com and be made until Feb. 28. There are five firehouses competing and by Tuesday afternoon the Redondo Beach station was in third place with 20,310 votes. Palos Fire Protection District Station #1 in Palos Park, Illinois ,was in the lead with more than 53,800 votes.

But support for the Redondo Beach station has been building thanks, in part, to social media. Links to a video the firefighters put together - a rendition of Rihanna's "We Found Love" called "We cook our food in a hopeless place" - have been posted on Facebook and Twitter.

In a letter posted on the Rescue Remodel website, Steve Hyink, Fire Division Chief of Operations, said the kitchen was there when he was assigned to the station 28 years ago. It has survived leaky roofs and floods. Each time firefighters save up enough money for a remodel, something more important needs to be fixed, or more life-saving equipment needs to be bought. Redondo Beach Fire Station Number 1 was built in the early 1950s and designed to last 40 years, Hyink wrote.

"We don't like to ask for help, but it would really be appreciated if we could just get some cabinets and a new counter," Hyink added.

The
Redondo Beach Fire Department has three stations, including the
harbor patrol facility in King Harbor.

Councilman Buscaino's motion to decrease the parking meter rates in San Pedro and Wilmington by 50 percent is meant to provide immediate relief to businesses who are suffering from tough economic times and are concerned that the current rates will deter customers form patronizing their businesses.

Former Councilwoman Janice Hahn's motion to remove the meters is still in committee. Buscaino is working on identifying additional funding that can replace the more than $500,000 in revenue when the meters are removed.

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Sorry, but the merchants I talked to today do not find Joe Buscaino's proposal to lower parking to 50 cents acceptable. They want the meters out and the two-hour limit strictly enforced. Best December in years under those conditions. Might just work for the long term.

By the way, it might be good to let Joe Buscaino know how you feel about his flip flop on the parking issue. Most effective means is by telephone. The numbers are: Downtown City Hall (213)473-7015
Harbor District Office (310) 732-4515

So is Buscaino's honeymoon over? Already?

We're awaiting the response from the council office and will post it when we have it.

Our questions: Will city officials really allow the meters to be completely removed? Won't other smaller communities in the sprawling metropolis then only demand the same? What are the chances of a parking structure being built anytime soon to relieve some of the pressure anticipated with the coming waterfront developments and the arrival of the USS Iowa?   

Meter rates in downtown San Pedro spiked in 2009 as part of a citywide budget measure, increasing the hourly rates from 25 cents to $1. It's been a thorn in the side of merchants and customers alike ever since.

"I was pleased the President addressed the end of the Iraq war and how we should use that money to invest here at home. The President did an excellent job of describing an American economy that provides equal opportunity while asking for shared responsibility. As he explained, an economy in which a few reap vast wealth while everyone else struggles isn't a country built to last.

"The President also reminded Congress that we have to work together to get things done. I had the pleasure of sitting with my Republican friend Ted Poe last night. Together we have started the bipartisan PORTS caucus which will advocate for safer and more economically vibrant ports which are crucial to creating jobs here in San Pedro and across the country."

Republican Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) had this perspective:

"The American people should be disappointed that instead of conducting a serious discussion with the nation, President Obama instead demonstrated his political agility by taking a stand on both sides of every major issue.

"He profusely praised the military yet he is the strongest advocate for cutting the military. He pledged himself to an 'all of the above' policy to make America energy independent but just a few days ago nixed the Keystone Pipeline, one of the country's most important energy projects. He bragged about bailouts early in the speech and by the end of the speech proclaimed there should be no more bailouts. He puffed out his chest on Iran yet was demonstrably absent when not too long ago the Iranian people marched for democracy in the streets of Tehran.

"The fact the president's speech was filled with new agenda items is certainly reason for skepticism. Although he'd like us to, we should not forget, in his first two years as President, the Democrat party controlled both houses of Congress when he could have enacted any of the agenda items he advocated this evening. Yet he chooses to skirt responsibility and place blame everywhere else but on himself for his policy failures.

"Perhaps most disturbing was the President's attempt to pit Americans against each other along economic lines. President Obama has put the American people $5 trillion more in debt even while there's been a shameless enrichment of political cronies under this administration. It's enough to make Ulysses S. Grant blush.

"This speech was a missed opportunity. The country needs leadership and statesmanship and tonight we got political posturing."

Motorists are encouraged to use alternate travel routes.

"I thought, 'history is happening right before our eyes, and I need to let our kids know about it,'" Chiodo said. "I thought that we could find a way to perhaps donate some money -- do a good deed for a great cause as a way of 'paying it forward.'"

Abby Rusher, 5, of Des Moines drops coins into a bucket at the USS Iowa battleship display at Cornell Elementary. WHO radio's Van and Bonnie will broadcast from the school Wednesday to help the students raise money for the ship's restoration. / Holly McQueen/The Register

"I don't want to put a dollar amount on how much we'd like to raise, as these are little kids we're dealing with and I don't want them to feel bad if we set an amount and don't reach it," (the principal) said. "But I can see us raising $1,000. This is a great school community and a great community overall, and very generous."

Jensen was on her way back from the market on Dec. 23 when her motorcycle collided with a driver making a U-Turn on Sepulveda Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. She was taken to Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, where she died a short time later.

Jensen was a single mother and lived with her two sons in North Redondo Beach. Shaun, 23, is a full-time student and cares for his older brother Alex, 25, who is mentally disabled. They have no other family members to rely on.

Jensen worked as a nurse for many years, but went on disability after a bad motorcycle accident several years ago. She had no life insurance, and the brothers are now struggling to pay bills and the rent.

But good Samaritans from across the South Bay have come to their aid. A story in today's Daily Breeze spotlighted the relationship Shaun and a local business owner who lost his son two years ago have forged since Jensen's death.

And for those who may have read about the Jensen brothers and are interested in helping, you can send an e-mail to Pam Drake at HelpJensGuys@gmail.com. Drake is a close friend of the Jensen family and is working to organize a benefit BBQ and motorcycle run.

A fundraiser dinner at the Shade Hotel in Manhattan Beach is also being planned. We'll have more information when it becomes available.

Here's a sample of the comments:

As a business owner in the downtown Torrance area I read your article with great interest. Over a year ago I spoke to Mayor Scotto regarding the parking problem and I was told that there was no parking problem. I invited him to come sit at my shop and see for himself what the businesses were dealing with regarding the lack of parking. He never showed up. Every time they add another restaurant with no parking lots they refer to the abundant parking in the underground parking structure. If the Mayor had to drive around for 10 minutes before he could find a place to park, why didn't he park in the underground structure that he wants all of us to park in? I know I speak for other business owners that parking meters are not wanted and would kill whatever business we have now. I have asked customers if they would continue to come to Torrance if parking meters were installed and they all said no. If they would enforce the existing parking laws that would help.

Incidentally, it should be noted the mayor deliberately drove around to see just how long it would take him find a spot.

Here's another:

I read with interest your article in the Daily Breeze today regarding the parking dilemma in Old Torrance. Instead of going through the effort and expense of parking meters, why not ticket the parties parking beyond two hours? This would also eliminate the smokescreen if revenue was really at issue.

By the way, I received another email from a property and business owner in San Pedro who said merchants and their employees park in prime street spots there - but only in December when metered parking is free.

So what's the solution?

Have your say in our poll here (scroll down to see it).

And feel free to leave a comment.

On Saturday members of two South Bay families along with dozens of others help decorate the Donate Life Rose Parade float.

The locals participating were:

*Tammy Rusznak of Torrance, a kidney recipient who received the organ from her sister, San Antonio, Texas resident Tracy Meinert on July 16, 1986.

*The Arellano family of Carson, who honored their late son and brother, Eddie Arellano. The family donated his organs - the donation helped four people who needed transplants - after he died.

Eddie's mom Clementina Arellano, dad Emiliano Arellano, sister Ana Arellano Binder and brother Victor Arellano helped decorate a floragraph on the float honoring him.

The float includes 72 floragraphs of organ donors like Eddie.

More about the parade is here.

Here's more on the film from Warren Miller & Co:

Narrated by California native and Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley, Like There's No Tomorrow follows more than a dozen professional skiers and snowboarders to exotic locations on five continents. Watch as world-class athletes hit the slopes of some of the world's most inspiring snowy landscapes; from the striking Himalayas in Gulmarg, India to the southern hemisphere's highest peak in Portillo, Chile to the legendary powder of Squaw Valley, Calif.

Tickets are $20.50 apiece. After the film, moviegoers can use their ticket stub toward a buy one, get one lift ticket offer at participating mountain resorts and discounts at Sport Chalet. For tickets, call (1-800) 523-7117

Torrance is one of 240 cities nationwide where the film will be screened.

Check out the trailer: