February 2010 Archives

Spoiler AlertL

Racing from Chile into Argentina, Joe and Heidi Wang of El Segundo finished fourth in the field this week and are still alive.

A 2.7 magnitude earthquake centered off Rancho Palos Verdes struck Sunday morning, authorities said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake occurred at 8 a.m. The epicenter was 15 miles south-southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes and 15 miles north-northwest of Avalon.

People reported feeling it in Westchester, Gardena and Long Beach, the USGS Web site said.
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That is, he's getting married. At Terranea.

It's supposed to rain, which is really too bad for Jason Mesnick -- last year's Bachelor -- and former contestant Molly Malaney, the runner-up for whom he ditched finalist Melissa Rycroft.

Seriously, people, I do not watch this show. I learned about this from a Google alert.

Anyway, I'm sure the folks at the upscale Rancho Palos Verdes resort will have a minor celebrity media circus on hand Saturday. Maybe, just maybe, a lucky Daily Breeze reporter will get to join in the frenzy.

It will certainly bring some attention to Terranea, which has lovely wedding facilities but has faced financial difficulties since it opened last June. Next month, we can watch a two-hour special on the wedding.

There is just so much good stuff that happens in the South Bay.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works issued a call for bids Thursday to solicit construction and project managers to renovate and erect new buildings at Martin Luther King, Jr.-Harbor Hospital -- the first step in a long project.

For companies with a good service record that promise to create jobs, the deal would be lucrative: The county has approved $208 million to renovate the existing inpatient tower at the Willowbrook facility, and another $145.3 million to construct a new ancillary services building.

The inpatient tower will house 120 patient beds, an emergency department, inpatient pharmacy, radiology and operating rooms. The ancillary clinic will include a surgical center, outpatient services and other medical services such as orthropedics and pharmacy.

County officials are hoping the hospital will reopen to inpatient care in December 2012. It will be run by a nonprofit organization, consisting of county officials and physicians from the University of California system.

The hospital closed to inpatient care in August 2007 after a string of embarrassing medical lapses, including one incident in which a woman died on the floor of the emergency room while workers walked by. The federal government eventually withdrew its funding, a rare and serious move.

  

The 2010 Nesquik Cupcake Challenge in Hollywood named the best cupcakes in Los Angeles and Orange counties today. Three South Bay-based bakeries were in the running but didn't place.
The winners are: Big Man Bakes of Los Angeles for "Best Traditional Cupcake"; Jus Minis Cupcakes of Riverside won "Best Overall" for their caramel banana cupcake; and My Delight Cupcakery of Ontario took "Best Original" for their breakfast cake.
We had an article about a Manhattan Beach bakery that entered the contest. Click here to read that.
The three local bakeries that competed among 20 area cupcake makers for the title are: BabyCakes Baking Co. of Torrance, Little Laura's Sweets of Hermosa Beach, and Cupcake Couture of Manhattan Beach.

From City News Service

Manhattan Beach Fire Chief Scott Ferguson has been named as the new chief of the Santa Monica Fire Department.

Ferguson succeeds Jim Hone, who retired this month, said Santa Monica City Manager Rod
Gould.

Ferguson -- who takes the helm March 29 -- and his wife, Maria, will be introduced by Gould
at the March 9 city council meeting.

Before serving as chief in Manhattan Beach, Ferguson served on fire departments in Vancouver, Wash., from 1988 to 2002; and in Peoria, Ariz., from 2002 to 2007.

"The experience I've gained throughout my career has prepared me for this new challenge,"
Ferguson said in a statement. "The Santa Monica Fire Department serves a dream
community. I look forward to developing lasting partnerships to build on the strong foundation
laid by Chief Hone so that together we can hold the community's pride and resources well in
hand."

Ferguson received a master's degree in management from Wayland Baptist University in
Phoenix. He and his wife have two grown children.

As chief in Santa Monica, Ferguson will receive a base salary of $198,168. The appointment
followed a nationwide recruitment that attracted ore than 67 candidates and interviews with 20
finalists over the past month, Gould said.

*Updated with video.

El Segundo residents Joe and Heidi Wang are still in "The Amazing Race," finishing second on tonight's episode.

The show continued on buses and boats in Chile, where Heidi milked a cow along the way.

Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum signed autographs for fans at Comerica Bank in Torrance today.

That's the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy next to him for the 2008-2009 championship.

Two hundred fans, many of whom arrived before dawn, lined up to see Bynum.

Comerica Bank is donating $10,000 to the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation.

Good to know, huh?

Here's the city's help wanted ad: The City of Lomita, population 21,000, is seeking a team oriented professional with solid local government experience. The ideal candidate will be an effective communicator/leader with unquestionable ethics and integrity.

The incoming City Manager will oversee a full-time staff of 48 and an operating budget of $13.7 million. Lomita is a contract city. The new City Manager should be a collaborative problem solver and straight forward in dealing with both the public and the council.

A Bachelor's Degree in Public Administration, Business Administration or a closely related field is required. A Master's Degree is preferred. The salary for the City Manager is open depending upon qualifications and experience. The City also offers an attractive benefits package including 2.5@ 55 PERS retirement.

If you are interested in this outstanding opportunity, please submit confidential resume with three references to City of Lomita, City Manager Recruitment, P.O. Box 339, Lomita, CA, 90717. Please contact (310) 325-7110, should you have any questions.

 

After a harrowing few months, a toddler adopted by a Torrance family from Haiti is recovering well in her new home, the family reports.

After surviving the 7.0 earthquake on Jan. 12 in her native country, Lovely's arrival to the United States was hampered by red tape, miscues and chaos on the ground in Haiti.

Her adoptive father, Bryan Benedict of Torrance, said in an e-mail that she is adjusting well to her new home.

"She seems so comfortable and natural, and loves to play with her siblings!" he wrote. "It's as if she's always been here."

The 2-year-old, who lived in an orphanage near Port-au-Prince, is severely malnourished, but is under care of local pediatricians. They say she should do fine now that she's getting proper care.

The girl arrived home last week. She flew from Haiti to Miami, where Janelle and Bryan Benedict met her and flew home. The family was greeted by roughly three dozen friends and family members, along with media and officials from Mattel Corporation, where Bryan works as a Hot Wheels designer.

The family is now trying to keep things quiet and stable for the little girl in hopes of making her transition calm and smooth.

The final campaign finance reports are in from last November's seven-way Rancho Palos Verdes City Council race. As reported at the time, those who spent the most earned the most votes.

But what's surprising is that the pattern holds the whole way down the list of candidates, so that the spending amounts line up exactly with the vote tallies.

Here are the campaign spending totals, paired with the vote percentages:

Candidate              Total spent   Percent of votes earned
Anthony Misetich    $41,827        22.62%
Brian Campbell       $27,903        18.52%
John McTaggart      $18,516        13.59%
Craig Mueller          $11,172        13.29%
Paul Tetreault         $10,292        11.68%     
Jim Knight              $9,379          11.16%
Jeff Lewis               $6,999          9.13%

By RPV standards, it was a pretty expensive election -- at least on the part of now-Councilmen Misetich and Campbell.

All the candidates spent their own money on the race, which turned out to be a bit more contentious in the end than expected.
 
Misetich loaned himself $25,086. McTaggart -- who died the day after the election -- had loaned his campaign $15,000. Campbell also gave himself a decent chunk of change - nearly $7,000. The other candidates had all loaned about $4,000 or $5,000 to themselves, except Lewis, who gave $1,438 to his campaign. (Some candidates have repaid portions of the amounts they loaned themselves.)

Maybe this means candidates in 2011 will treat RPV voters to another barrage of fun mailers. Next year, three seats will be up for grabs and Misetich and Campbell will be the senior elected officials in the city.

Spoiler Alert, if you recorded it...

El Segundo residents Joe and Heidi Wang finished fifth of the 11 teams on the first leg of The Amazing Race on Sunday night. The episode took them to Valparaiso, Chile, where Joe had to make his way across a tightrope 120 feet in the air and the length of a football field.

Meet the competition:

Along the way, they apparently didn't win any friends.

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Carson politics got a national attention Saturday, when the
investigation of Mayor Jim Dear's alleged misuse of the mute button
to control public comments became a question on NPR's "Wait, Wait
Don't Tell Me." The question was part of the show's lightning round,
when the panelists are asked questions from the week's news. The
program will be repeated at 11 a.m. on Sunday on KPCC-89.3. 

Reporter Sandy Mazza covered the story for the Breeze last week. 

Yes, you read that right.

Municipal crews have used 26 tons of asphalt to fill 3,500-square-feet of potholes on the 847 lane miles of roadway the city maintains since the recent rains began, Public Works Director Rob Beste said.

A young, 15-foot-long female gray whale was found dead near shore on Terminal Island this week.
The whale appears to have died from a wound inflicted by a large boat or small ship, said Cabrillo Marine Aquarium Project Coordinator Diane Alps.
The whale likely died more than a week ago, and was stuck on the rocks for several days before someone notified local marine animal experts.
"It looks like the fatal blow was probably the one facing away from us in the photo, on the tail stock area," Alps said. "The other injuries seem to be post-mortem."
Skin samples were collected Thursday by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, with extra tissue to be supplied to National Marine Fisheries Service for testing, Alps said.
The whale was expected to be towed out to sea today. This photo was taken by Diane Alps:

I wrote a story on Tuesday about the good work a group of firefighters performed in Haiti. The Firefighters for Christ group spent 10 days in Haiti assisting people following the earthquake.

Dan Rodriguez, a member of the group, sent along these photographs. The second one is the man mentioned in the story that they found dying in the street.

Lawndale city union employees voted this week in favor of ousting City Manager Keith Breskin, claiming he unfairly yells and harasses employees. The final vote on Tuesday was 36 to 11 against Breskin.
While this action reveals a large rift between Breskin and some employees, it does not guarantee that Breskin's job, which he has held for 5 years, will be affected. The City Council is in charge of hiring and firing the city manager.
No-confidence votes have historically received mixed reactions. Here are a few examples:

• Last April, Ed Boks, the head of Los Angeles Animal Services received a no-confidence vote from the Los Angeles City Council. Boks resigned shortly after the vote.
  
• Nearly 80 percent of California Faculty Association members issued a vote of no confidence for California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed last July. Reed remains chancellor of the statewide system, which has a location in Carson.
  
• Former Hermosa Beach Fire Chief Russell Tingley received a no-confidence vote from firefighters in 2005, who claimed he was incapable of leadership, management, decision-making and strategic planning. He stayed with the department for two more years before retiring in 2007.
  
• In 2003, Hobart Cress, then-principal of Taper Avenue Elementary School in San Pedro, asked for -- and was granted -- a transfer to another school. The request came about a week after the Taper school site council took a vote of no confidence in Cress.