The Antonov 124 is a large, Russian-made aircraft, usually white with blue markings, and will be noticeable as it passes overhead, the airport statement says. The noise footprint of the aircraft is similar to a C-17.

Should be pretty cool to watch, too.

According to the report, the drivers have not received expected grant money from regional air quality regulators to help pay for the exhaust retrofits - which cost $11,000 to $20,000 each.

"More than 100 drivers showed up at a meeting at the Port of Oakland last week to ask for more grant money," Cunningham noted. "The Port of Oakland contributed $5 million toward the $22 million pot of funds that the (Bay Area Air Quality Management District) used for the grants. The drivers also asked for more time to retrofit their rigs. Neither request was granted."

The report kind of underscores the argument being made by the Port of Los Angeles, which is seeking concession deals requiring trucking companies gradually take ownership of the rigs dispatched to its waterfront.

L.A. argues most drivers don't earn enough to properly pay for, maintain and insure new rigs without continual financial assistance, while companies are well-capitalized to handle the burden - now and in the future.

Not surprisingly, the L.A. plan is being sued in federal court, where trucking companies, retailers and shippers - who publicly bash the port as a lackey of organized labor - are arguing that contract drivers, who comprise more than 90 percent of the truck workforce in the harbor, should be permitted to shoulder the expense for new rigs required under the Long Beach-Los Angeles Clean Truck Plan.

The coveted endorsement by one of Long Beach's most popular politicians makes Gonzalez Stenberg a strong contender in the field of five candidates seeking to replace former board member Michael Shane Ellis, who resigned in September. The special school board election is scheduled for Dec. 29.

Gonzalez Stenberg has also been endorsed by three of the district's four current school board members -- Mary Stanton, Jon Meyer and Felton Williams. Other endorsements include 6th District City Councilman Dee Andrews and former 7th District Councilman Mike Donelon. Gonzalez Stenberg's greatest opponent may be Richard Lewis, who has been endorsed by several council members and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.

Gonzalez Stenberg, 66, recently retired from her family's sheet metal fabrication business. She is a 42-year Long Beach resident and a past PTA president of Newcomb Academy and Millikan High School.

Agents said it's illegal to import, build or sell such paraphenalia, frequently used to smoke marijuana and widely available at tobacco shops throughout the Southland.

Read the full story here...http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_13825210?nclick_check=1.

The commission meets at 4 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, 2640 N. Lakewood Blvd., in the Redondo Board Room on the 12th floor, not in the commission's normal meeting place at Skylinks Municipal Golf Course.

This grant, which is being awarded through the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is intended to support the generation of electric, mechanical or thermal energy from renewable resources and create and preserve jobs in the construction and operational stages of the project.

The proposals now needs approval from the California Department of Fish and Game Commission. The restrictions are designed to protect underwater marine life as part of the 1999 state law known as the Marine Life Protection Act, or MLPA.

Information is also available at http://www.marinemap.org/marinemap/.

To read the full story, visit http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_13621894. The adopted proposal is a mix of the three maps depicted in the story, with expanded restrictions around Catalina, Laguna Beach and less restrictions (as depicted in Map 2) at Rocky Point off Palos Verdes Peninsula - a popular spot for local commercial and recreational anglers.

Lewis seems to be the chosen one for this seat to replace Michael Shane Ellis, who resigned. Council members Robert Garcia, Suja Lowenthal and Val Lerch, and the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce have also endorsed Lewis in the Dec. 29 special election.

Lewis, a financial controller, is a member of the Downtown Long Beach Associates' executive board and president of the East Village Association.

In another example of just how much things have changed for local port authorities since President Obama's inauguration, the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission dropped by L.A. on Tuesday to check out first-hand the progress being made in ridding the nation's largest seaport of some 16,000 polluting big rigs - an effort previous FMC executives under the Bush administration had denounced as anti-competitive and illegal.

The visit by FMC Chairman Richard Lidinsky, appointed by Obama in May, comes just months after the agency, which oversees the nation's shipping laws, dropped a lawsuit and investigative probe into the ports' Clean Truck Plan, which under Bush had claimed could lead to serious disruptions in service and price increase in the movement of goods through Long Beach-Los Angeles. Together, the ports handle about $1 billion in cargo daily.

As it turned out, those fears were unfounded, as the FMC noted in dropping its probes and lawsuits in June and August, respectively.

Noting the previously acrimonious relationship between the parties, Lidinsky said that instead of lawsuits and investigations, the agency now hopes to act as a partner to help America's other major seaports emulate the Los Angeles truck turnover plan.

"I am pleased to see firsthand the promising results of the Clean Truck Program and am encouraged to hear that all parties in our maritime transportation chain are moving ahead and putting past adversarial relationships behind them since all of us want the same goals of public and economic health for these and other ports," Lidinsky said."We want to be a positive force for them as they recover from the worst maritime economic crisis since the Great Depression by restoring and creating new jobs, and we will stand side by side with ports as they use their expertise to fashion responses to the 21^st Century's environmental and public health challenges."

The only remaining legal challenge against the Clean Truck Plan is a lawsuit filed by the American Trucking Associations against Los Angeles, which wants trucking firms doing business on port and state property to own and maintain the fleets of new, cleaner rigs that will be dispatched to the waterfront in years to come. The case is expected to begin in February.

Long Beach was dropped from the lawsuit when it sided with the trucking industry in October by agreeing to ditch the requirement that companies own rigs - leaving the burden of new truck purchase, maintenanace, fuel costs, insurance and upkeep on contract drivers, which now comprise 95 percent of the harbor truck driver workforce.

Two medical marijuana groups are threatening to sue the city of Los Angeles if the City Council passes an ordinance that bans the sale of medical marijuana.

Read the full story here.

Last week, the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce announced endorsements in two races, supporting 9th District Councilman Val Lerch and 3rd District Councilman Gary DeLong for re-election. Before that, 7th District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga was endorsed by the city's largest employee association, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

While the 7th District and 9th District races have had a slate of contenders for several months, a second challenger who is likely to shake things up recently joined in the 3rd District race. Tom Marchese, an attorney who is vice president of the University Park Estates Neighborhood Association and a board member for the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, is running against DeLong. Marchese has been an outspoken critic of the DeLong and city plans such as the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Swap. Another vocal critic, former Redevelopment Agency board member Terry Jensen, has been considering a run against DeLong since last month. I don't know whether these two will split the vote against DeLong, but I think they have potential to make a serious run for the 3rd District seat.

Now, things are starting to get intriguing, and Election Day is still five months away. This election may be one of the most significant ones for Long Beach in recent memory, as the city battles budget deficits, dwindling resources and a growing demand for serious reform at City Hall. The winners will have their work cut out for them. But first they have to get there, and that in itself won't be an easy task, even for many of the incumbents.

The Chamber's Political Action Committee chose the endorsements, although only 10 of the 14 PAC members were able to attend candidate interviews, according to Chamber President and CEO Randy Gordon. Gordon said that PAC members are chosen by the existing PAC based on interviews with the Chamber members who are interested in joining.

Following is the list of the PAC members who were involved in the endorsement process, as provided by Gordon:

• Matt Kinley (Co-chairman of the PAC) - attorney with Tredway, Lumsdaine & Doyle, LLP
• David Neary (Co-chairman of the PAC) - president of WestLand Construction
• Randy Gordon (PAC secretary) - president and CEO of the Chamber
• Joanne Davis - president of Davis Group political consulting firm
• Lori Lofstrom - attorney for Holmes Lofstrom, PC
• Trini Jimenez - director of government affairs for Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co.
• Jerry Miller - managing consultant for IMC Municipal Consulting and former Long Beach city manager
• Joshua Owen - president of Ability/Tri-Modal, a trucking, warehousing and distribution company
• Jay Davis - president of Universal Healthcare Insurance Agency
• Nancy Ahlswede - executive director, Apartment Association, California Southern Cities

While the PAC membership includes a few notable names, the one that jumps out at me is Jerry Miller, former city manager and now lobbyist. Miller was (perhaps still is) working for Los Cerritos Wetlands owner Tom Dean to convince the City Council to engage in a deal to exchange the wetlands for several city properties. The still-unresolved deal is highly controversial and faced criticism from fiscal conservatives and environmentalists alike.

What's interesting is that council members Val Lerch and Gary DeLong both voted for the deal, and now the PAC of which Miller is a member has unanimously endorsed both of them. Meanwhile, Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga, who was one of four council members to vote against the land exchange, didn't receive the Chamber PAC's endorsement, which instead chose to stay neutral in the 7th District race.

Is there a connection? It's hard to say. To be fair, the Chamber has endorsed DeLong and Lerch in the past, but has never endorsed Uranga. One could also argue that Miller's experience as city manager makes him an ideal PAC member to opine who should lead Long Beach. Still, DeLong also happens to be running against two vocal critics of the wetlands deal, Tom Marchese and Terry Jensen. I can't imagine Tom Dean would be too happy if he learned that Miller had endorsed one of them.