Long Beach Seen

Long Beach State's Casper Ware (22) keeps his head in the game against Pepperdine during their pre-season game in Malibu, Calif. See 21 pictures>>

Melody Ross' parents, Vanareth Ross, center, and Chantha Ross, left, grieve over their daughter's casket during a funeral service at Rose HIlls in Whittier, Calif. on November 14, 2009. Ross was shot and killed after the homecoming game at WIlson High School in Long Beach, Calif. on October 30, 2009. See more pictures>>

Lakewood's Todd Barr (41), Justin Utupo (8) and Rahim Cassell (9) carry the Moore League trophy after defeating Wilson 42-6 in Long Beach, Calif. on November 13, 2009. See more pictures>>

LONG BEACH, CALIF. -- Los Alamitos' Griffin Hewitt (51) burns an ace of spades after their win over Fountain Valley in Long Beach, Calif. on November 12, 2009. See more pictures>>

Long Beach Poly head football coach Raul Lara presents a decal to the Wilson High football team to remember Melody Ross on Thursday, November 6, 2009. The WIlson and Poly teams will wear the stickers on their helmets. Ross was shot and killed last Friday after Wilson played Poly.

Artist Patrick Vogel, center, and Kris Kunard, guide a stainless steal representation of a DC-8 vertical stabilizer on to its concrete base at the entrance to Douglas Park in Long Beach, Calif. on November 5, 2009. The business park is located at the former home of McDonnell Douglas Aircraft. Each of the six structures are almost 24 feet tall and weigh 400 pounds each. Three were installed today and the rest will be installed over the next few days. See more pictures>>

Vanareth Ross, left, and Chantha Ross, parents of shooting victim Melody Ross, hold a pictures of their daughter during a press conference where Long Beach (Calif.) police announce they have arrested a suspect Tuesday, November 4, 2009, in Long Beach, Calif. Melody Ross was shot after a the homecoming football game Friday night. At 10 p.m. Friday, police responded to a call reporting gunshots at Ximeno Avenue and 10th Street. When officers arrived, they found three wounded people. Ross had been hit in the torso. Two men, one 18 and the other 20, suffered from non-life-threatening wounds. The three victims were taken to a hospital, where Ross died. The 20-year-old was treated and released, and the 18-year-old is recovering in the hospital. See pictures from the press conference>>

Chantha Ross, left, and Vanareth Ross, parents of shooting victim Melody Ross, thank students and faculty during a candle light vigil at Wilson High School on Tuesday, November 4, 2009, in Long Beach, Calif. Melody Ross was shot after a the homecoming football game last Friday night. At 10 p.m. Friday, police responded to a call reporting gunshots at Ximeno Avenue and 10th Street. When officers arrived, they found three wounded people. Ross had been hit in the torso. Two men, one 18 and the other 20, suffered from non-life-threatening wounds. The three victims were taken to a hospital, where Ross died. The 20-year-old was treated and released, and the 18-year-old is recovering in the hospital. See more pictures of the candlelight vigil>>

Apparently, if you want to talk to the Long Beach City Council you have to push the red 'botton'

Banning High Social Studies teacher Matt Seanlon brought some of his students to join a protester during the Long Beach (Calif.) City Council meeting Tuesday, November 3, 2009. The protesters are asking councilmembers to protest the settlement between the Long Beach port and the American Trucking Association (a deal signed last week that extracts Long Beach from a federal court case scheduled for December). The contingent will also delived a letter protesting the port's decision to City Council. See more pictures>>

Wilson went in to this game undefeated in league play and Poly was coming off their worst losing streak in 15 years, actually, their only losing streak in 15 years. They had not lost a league game since 1994, that is, until two weeks ago when they lost to Lakewood... then last week they lost to Millikan. So, if the headline is Poly defeats Wilson.. OR.. Wilson loses to Poly - either way, Wilson failed to take advantage of Poly's worst season in memory. See more pictures>>

The Lakewood sheriff station is haunted... well, at least it was today. The L.A. County Sheriffs that work at the station turned the cells in to a haunted prison for the public. The inmates were transfered to the Cerritos station for the day.

TOP: View looking north from the Pine Ave. pier in 1925 in Long Beach, Calif. The Breakers Hotel can be seen on the right and the Security Building in in the center, to the right of the pier.

BOTTOM: View looking north from the South Pine Ave. on in 2009 in Long Beach, Calif. The entire area south of Ocean Blvd. was filled in in various stages in the past 70 years.

The Press-Telegram got a little respect on the red (if you can call that red) Carpet at the Women's Conference.

I'm not really sure what Maria Shriver is doing here... but none the less. she did a pretty good job hosting the Minerva Awards. See more pictures here>>

Fellow Press-Telegram photojournalist Diandra Jay takes a nap at the L.A. Times booth during a long day at the Women's Conference.

On a clear day, standing atop Signal HIll, Calif., you can see Downtown Los Angeles... even at night.

Downey's Haley Courtney (14) celebrates a point with teammates Camille Valenzuela (27), Staci Rodriguez (7), Heather Schnars (4) and Megan Kirkpatrick (15) against Warren during their game in Downey, Calif. See more pictures>>

Long Beach City College's Daveon Barner (21) dives in to the endzone for a touchdown as Saddleback's Cameron Chadwick (21) chases him during their game at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, Calif. See more pictures>>

LWilson's Rebecca Strehlow (15) celebrates a point with teammate Kellie Woolever (16) against Lakewood in Long Beach, Calif. See more pictures>>

Eli Rodriguez (4105) passes Jason Gutierrez (1322) during the 25th. Long Beach (Calif.) International City Bank Marathon on Sunday, October 11, 2009. Gutierrez led the race until mile 23.5. See more pictures>>

This time-lapse video of the start of the 2009 Long Beach Marathon is made from 510 images shot over 32 minutes from the top floor of the Arco Towers.

The last time Poly football lost a Moore League game Bill Clinton was president, O.J. Simpson was running from the police and few people had email addresses - the year was 1994 and it was Jordan that defeated Poly. Today it was Lakewood. The Lancers handed the Jackrabbits their first league loss, ending their streak at 80 games. Lakewood defeated Poly 21 to 14. See more pictures>>

TOP: A new Security First National Bank near Fourth St. and Chery Ave. in Long Beach, Calif. in the 1920s. On September 1, 1868, Isaias Hellman and Francisco Temple formed the banking house of Hellman, Temple & Co., a small bank in Los Angeles that would become Security First National Bank. In 1967, Security First National Bank bought Pacific National Bank and became Security Pacific National Bank.

BOTTOM:
The Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach, also known as The Center, on August 26, 2009. In 1985 The Center purchased the 7500 square-foot building.The building was renovated and opened in 1986 as One in Long Beach. In 1997, One in Long Beach became the Gay and Lesbian Center of Greater Long Beach.

Cerritos College's Michael Willie (2) tries, but fails, to catch a pass intended for him against Chaffey Colleg during their game at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif. See more pictures>>

Comic book wrtier Stan Lee cuts the ribbon to open Comic Con at the Long Beach (Calif.) Convention Center on October 2, 2009. Lee created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and many others. See more pictures>>

Los Alamitos' Shaquille Richardson (2) manages to escape the clutches of La Habra's Mike Sparling (20) during a touchdown run in the first quarter in Cerritos, Calif. See more pictures>>

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Long Beach (Calif.) Mayor Bob Foster listen as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa speaks in the Port of Long Beach on Thursday, October 1, 2009.
Gov. Schwarzenegger joined U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to announce the awarding of over $26.5 million in clean-air grants for Southern California as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The money is soposed to help California speed its efforts to promote clean vehicles and green job growth - this funding will be used to retrofit and replace diesel engines in construction vehicles, cargo handling equipment, school buses, heavy-duty trucks and locomotives in the Southern California air basin, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. See more pictures>>

A floral display depicting a car and and trees along the north side of the San Diego (405) Freeway near Orange Ave. was completed toady in Long Beach, Calif.
The display is part of the California Department of Transportation's Enhanced Landscape Planting Demonstration Project (ELP). The program modeled after the Caltrans Adopt-A-Highway Program provides the opportunity for sponsors to install and maintain highly detailed and themed plantings of drought tolerant shrubs, ground cover and annual and perennial flowers on up to one-half acre along highway roadsides.

ELP sponsors are required to maintain a minimum of three acres of the existing landscape around the floral display at no cost to Caltrans. This display is sponsored by Toyota as are six are locations in Los Angeles County.

Other spots are;
• Westbound Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) Lincoln Avenue off-ramp, just south of the gore point, in the city of Santa Monica.

•Eastbound Santa Monica Freeway (I-10) National Boulevard/Overland Drive on-ramp right shoulder.

•Eastbound Foothill Freeway (I-210) Marengo Avenue/Los Robles Avenue on-ramp right shoulder, in the city of Pasadena.

•Westbound Ventura Freeway (US 101) just south of the Louise Avenue bridge in the city of Los Angeles.

•Westbound Pomona Freeway (SR-60) just west of the Lorena Street bridge in the city of Los Angeles.

QUEEN MARY -- C-17 manager Jean Chamberlain speaks to the Rotary Club Wednesday, September 30, 2009, aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif. She talked about the Senate debate on funding of the C-17 program, which supports some 5,000 workers at the plant in Long Beach and another 25,000 at supplier companies across the globe.

A hole in the street where a water main broke at the corner of Stevely Ave. and Bacarro St, in Long Beach, Calif. on September 30, 2009. he pipe broke at 3:55 in the morning flooding the street. No property was damaged. According to Matt Vehh, acting director of Govt. Affairs at the Water Department, Twenty-one homes are currently without water service, but it should be restored later today.

The pipe was 8 inch cast iron and installed in 1954.

Veeh said, "The water department has a very aggressive cast iron pipe replacement program." They have replaced 2400 linear feet of cast iron pipe his year. Also, they have had a record low number of water main breaks this year - only 26. Their year for keeping track of breaks ends today. Last year there were 29 breaks.

Fala Toailoa outside his Long Beach, Calif. home on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. Toailoa has several relatives were killed and others who are missing after a magnitude 8.0 earthquake near American Samoa caused a tsunami. see more photos>>

Ron Sok puts pins a map showing where certian demographics are in a 'hard to count' area during the Cambodian Complete Count committee's regular meeting in Long Beach, Calif. on Tuesday, September 29, 2009. The committee's is trying to come up with a slogan, among other things. Poverty numbers were revealed showing Long Beach has a poverty rate of 21.3 percent among Asian residents. See more pictures>>

Long Beach Wilson took on Los Alamitos at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif. today. See the pictures>>

The Lancers' Adrian Gonzales (24) chases Paramount's Anthony Downing, Jr (2) at Excelsior Memorial Stadium on Thursday, September 24, 2009, in Norwalk, Calif. See more photos>>

Just thought I'd share the massacre in my backyard - hope PETA isn't made at me... actually, I hope they are!

TOP: Original caption published in the Press-Telegram on June 24, 1951.
READY FOR FALL - Construction of Alice M. Birney School, Maine Ave. and Spring St., is expected to be completed in time for student occupancy when the fall term starts. Six other schools are under construction while working plans are being prepared for two more. The new schools will house 5000 students.

BOTTOM:
Alice M. Birney Elementary School at Spring Street and Maine Ave in Long Beach, Calif. on August 6, 2009. The school's namesake started as organization called the National Congress of Mothers. The first meeting was held in Washington D.C. in 1897. Over two thousand mothers from all over the country attended the three-day meeting. Birney was the first president of her organization. In 1925, the National Congress of Mothers became the National Congress of Parents and Teachers. The local units of the National Congress of Parents and Teachers are called Parent-Teachers Associations or PTA's.

Here is the San Diego Freeway looking south near the Long Beach Airport. The Scheimpflug principle is a geometric rule that describes the orientation of the plane of focus of an optical system when the lens plane is not parallel to the image plane. Another name for this is 'Tilt-shift photography'. Using the Scheimpflug principle can give common scenes a very unique perspective - the image often looks fake or like a model. But rest assured, its all real.

After loosing their first two games, Poly finally won. They beat Narbonne 28-14. See the pictures>>

Los Alamitos' Mason Pau'u (99) celebrate his touchdown with teammate Haven Fielding (14) against Fremont at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Thursday, September 17, 2009, in Long Beach, Calif. See more pictures>>

Not only is Ashley Standish the captain of her team, but she is clearly one of the most enthusiastic players on the Los Alamitos squad. After almost every point she cheered, pumped her fists or jumped in the air. She, and the rest of her team had good reason to celebrate - they were down 2 gams to 0 in the championship of the Gahr Tournament and came back to win 3-2 in Cerritos, Calif. on Wednesday, September 16, 2009. See more pictures>>

Long Beach State goalie Derek Wiebe-Bailey spent alot of time reacting to missed blocks during the 49ers 12-3 loss to USC in Long Beach, Calif. on Saturday, September 12, 2009. See more pictures>>

The inaugural Latin American Parade headed south on Pine Avenue today, but for me, the focus was where the parade started - the former home of the Press-Telegram. The building, at the corner of Sixth and Pine, was a real newspaper building. It was dirty, there were presses and the only toilet in the newsroom was for men. The PT's parent company sold it, and almost the entire block, in 2006. The plan was to turn the unofficially historic building in to lofts. That plan stalled, but not before workers had time to destroy the interior of the building. If you want to see pictures of the parade, click here>>

Lakewood's Kevin Anderson (19) manages to escape from Peninsula's Abraham Ridge (1) to score their first of four touchdown on Friday, September 11, 2009, in Lakewood, Calif. See more pictures>>

Cerritos College's Salvador Melendrez (16), center, celebrates his goal with teammates during their 1-0 defeat of Goldenwest College on Friday, September 11, 2009, in Norwalk, Calif. See more pictures>>

The picture above is now history, it is a postmark from the last day that parcels sent from Long Beach were stamped "Long Beach". As of September 8, 2009 letters sent from the city no longer bear its name. All mail from zips starting with 906, 907 or 908 are being sent to Orange County and will be stamped "Santa Ana". Postal customers can request a special hand stamp if they must have the LBC on their letters.

Long Beach Wilson's David Lowe (16) reacts as Edison rolled to a 35-6 victory over the visiting Bruins on Thursday, September 10, 2009, in Huntington Beach, Calif. See more pictures>>

Sometimes its better to be lucky than good. Today was one of those days. I was driving south on Cherry Ave. when I saw thick, black smoke. Thinking it was coming from the oil wells west of Cherry Ave in Signal Hill I parked my car on Burnett Street and looked down the hill. I saw the smoke was two-block below me. I ran down the hill, jump a small stucco fence, scraped my arm, and arrived at the fully-engulfed building before the fire department. See the pictures>>