April 2010 Archives

Los Angeles city and school district officials will be giving away -- that's like, fer free -- a whopping 30,000 organic seedling Saturday morning San Pedro. More here.

A 51-year-old man used his cellular telephone to call for help Friday when he capsized while kayaking about two miles from the Redondo Beach shoreline.

Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol officials and county lifeguards rescued the man, who had been in the water about 45 minutes without a wetsuit and unable to return to land by himself, firefighters said.

Firefighters received a call from the man at 1:20 p.m. Rescuers arrived in 11 minutes and found him in the water suffering from hypothermia, Redondo Beach fire Division Chief Rob Rappaport said.

The wind was blowing at 17 to 29 mph and waves were 7- to 9-feet, Rappaport said.
Rescuers took the man by boat to Redondo Beach, where firefighters took him to a hospital.

A small craft warning was in effect when the man was in the water.

"Check the weather before going out," Rappaport said. "It has to do with the conditions and your experience level. It's pretty rough conditions right now."

Former Redondo Beach residents Susette and Bill Manassero, who founded an orphanage in Haiti eight years ago, will be featured in a CNN documentary to air at 5 p.m. on May 8.

The Manassero's sold their home and moved to the impoverished Carribean country to manage the Lighthouse Orphanage in Port-au-Prince (See article in the Daily Breeze: http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_14202137?IADID=Search-www.dailybreeze.com-www.dailybreeze.com).

After the devastating 7.0 earthquake struck in January, CNN's Soledad O'Brien began chronicling the plight of the country's 380,000 orphans. The documentary, called "Rescued," will focus on two orphans who live at the Manassero's facility: Cendy Jeune, 6, and Marc Kenson, a former child slave.

As part of the country's growing and controversial orphanage network, the Manasseros are also a prominent focus of the documentary. Their Christian facility provides kids with food, shelter, job training, education and technical skills.

Their orphanage sustained serious damage after the earthquake, but the couple and orphans escaped without injury. The documentary also looks at the challenge of rebuilding the country, and what the future may hold for those already in poverty.

 For information, visit www.CNN.com/Haiti/.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will address a sold-out tech conference set for early June at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes.

"D: All Things Digital," hosted by the Wall Street Journal, will take place June 1-3. Jobs' slot as opening night speaker was announced Tuesday.

He'll be in good company, though his fellow speakers might not have the cult-like following Jobs gets.

Also appearing are: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft; "Avatar" director James Cameron;  Steve Case, CEO of Revolution and co-founder of AOL; Carly Fiorina, U.S. Senate candidate and former CEO of HP; FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks; Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford; and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The much-anticipated Trader Joe's at Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive West opened this morning.

More than 200 customers showed up before doors opened at 8 a.m., a TJs rep said.

The 11,000 square-foot store replaces the Golden Lotus restaurant within the Golden Cove Center, at the corner of Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive West.

Joining a location on Western Avenue, the new store is the second Rancho Palos Verdes branch for the Southern California-based chain.

The opening comes after a bit of political kerfuffle in 2008 when the shopping center's developer withdrew his application for the popular grocery store after being asked to perform a series of revisions on his plans.

Some residents blamed the City Council, though it had never acted on the application. New plans were submitted several months later, earning approval.

On Friday, Mayor Steve Wolowicz and other officials participated in a ceremonial lei-cutting in homage to Trader Joe's Hawaiian theme.

The store will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A reader sent over a photo he took after a car crashed into a fire hydrant in Lawndale and knocked it over.
The crash happened at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 15000 block of Hawthorne Boulevard near Marine Avenue.
Here's the pic, courtesy of Chuck Myers:

Hey South Bay political junkies (what, there's a dozen of you out there? I kid, I jest, calm down):

Check out this account of a conflict between South Bay Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) and her challenger Marcy Winograd, head of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles.

According to an observer, Harman was booed and heckled by the hostile [progressive] caucus audience, which was unhappy with her vote authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq and some of her pro-Israel stands.

Winograd joined in the ridicule, questioning Harman's Democratic credentials. Harman warned the progressives that they were pigeonholing themselves.

Reporting comes from Jack Chang of the Sacramento Bee.

A brief news article in Tuesday's paper incorrectly said that residential trash rates in Gardena are about to take a major hike.
The mistake, which came because I misread a city staff report, caused a small firestorm for city staff and politicians, who were barraged with complaints from residents who do not want their trash rates to change.
Mayor Paul Tanaka fired back at the Daily Breeze angrily at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.
He said he was "dismayed at this morning's irresponsible and inaccurate of this absurd increase of residential rates that was reported erroneously by the Daily Breeze."
Tanaka went on to say:
"We here in the city of Gardena are at the much lower end of the residential trash hauling rates of the surrounding and like cities. In addition, what we are discussing here tonight ... has in actuality nothing to do with the residential rates."
The council then voted 4-0 to increase commercial trash rates by 13.5 percent beginning on July 1.

There was an interesting and provocative letter to the editor in today's Daily Breeze.

Reader Paula Petrotta suggested that a Rancho Palos Verdes City Council that included more women and/or people of color would have reached a different decision on the contentious debate over Marymount College's planned expansion.

Calling the current council "a group of white men making arbitrary decisions for everyone else," Petrotta wrote:

I can't help but wonder if a woman, minority or a person of color would have seen things differently - someone who had met challenges in their own life. Someone not afraid of lawsuits but more afraid of losing something dear to them.

Later, she added:

I hope in the future that we elect people who have more guts - maybe a woman, minority or person of color.

Petrotta, who lives next to the college and has spoken against the project at public meetings (and written previous letters to the Breeze on the subject), is the former executive director of the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women and was apparently former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley's legislative advocate for women's issues in Washington and Sacramento. She's also on the board of the Mediterranea Homeowner's Association, which represents residents that live in a development adjacent to Marymount.

As far as I know, neither race nor gender has not come up in the contentious Marymount debate. You probably already know that the City Council approved most of the college's plans at a meeting late last month.

Certainly, Petrotta is correct that the current council is composed of white men. The city has had numerous female electeds in the past, and two female former mayors have backed the Marymount project. I can't say for certain that all former elected officials are/were white, but I believe that's correct.

According to the most recent available U.S. Census data, 64.5 percent of city residents are white, followed by 27.4 percent Asian. Latinos of any race make up 8.4 percent, and African Americans account for about 2.4 percent of the population.

What's always intrigued me is how politically not present the Asian American population is, but that's another story.

Anyway, you can share your own thoughts about race, gender and Marymount here on the blog, or on the Topix forum for letters to the editor.

Hermosa Beach resident Nicholas Rice is back in Nepal for his 10th 8,000-meter Himalayan expedition.

Rice successfuly climbed Manaslu in 2009, and has now heading up the treacherous Annapurna I, the 10th highest mountain in the world, his publicist, Rebecca Rice, said.

Annapurna is rarely climbed, according to Rice's publicist, because of its fierce reputation.
It is second only to K2 in terms of the ratio of summiters dying on descent. Annapurna his known for its avalanche-prone north face and the technical south and north-west faces.

Rice survived a climb on K2 a couple years ago when a number of other climbers died.

Rice is attempting to become one of few climbers in the world to summit the world's 14 highest mountains without oxygen or Sherpa support.

If you want to read dispatches, go to his Web site.

Photo from Nick Rice's Web site.

Then here's your chance.
The Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro is currently experiencing a huge influx of sick marine mammals and volunteers are needed to help nurse them back to health.
The center just scheduled two volunteer orientation dates for those interested in helping. To do so, you can go to the center either at 1 p.m. on Sunday April 18 or at 1 p.m. on April 19 to learn how to help.
It's located at 3601 S. Gaffey St. in San Pedro.
Here's a blog post we wrote last week about the problem, and here's the center's Web site: http://www.marinemammalcare.org/

It's not every day you see an obituary that makes you smile. But we found one in Thursday's Daily Breeze.

Here's how it starts:

Hi, it's me Virg, aka White Head, Cotton Ball Head, Q-tip and whatever else my daughter called me. I'm guessing you all know what happened to me by now. Don't feel bad. It was my time."

And it goes like on like that for a few hundred more words.

The obit was for a woman named Virginia Kuzman. And looking at her picture, you can see why was called all those names. She had a puff of white hair that indeed resembled a cotton ball.

I spoke with Virginia's daughter Teri and asked her about the obit. She told me that she and her mother -- a Redondo Beach resident -- worked on it together before mom died, and that she finished it after.

She was a woman who obviously enjoyed her life and she didn't want people to feel bad about her passing.

Hopefully the next part of my journey will be as peaceful and beautiful as people say. I certainly won't be alone. I outlived 4 sisters, 4 brothers, my dear son George and, oh, let's not forget about my ex-husband too!

Virginia must have had many friends, so if you knew her, she's going to have what her obit calls a "going-away party" here in Torrance and in Ohio.

Here's how she wrote about it:

Come for some wonderful words ... . Sit back and enjoy some singing, guitar playing and partake of a nutrient or two. Here is the key part people ... no tears. This is to be fun. And there is a dress code. Casual!!! Jeans, t-shirts, tennish shoes."

The event will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 18 at Unity Church of South Bay, 2545 W. 237th St., Torrance.

My own father died two months ago and he was a man who really loved life. So I especially appreciated what Virginia and Teri came up with. I wish I had thought of writing something like that for his obit.

Here's how the obit ends.

Enjoy your life and have FUN!

Couldn't have said it better Virg. Wish I had met you. You sould like a remarkable person. 

State Senator Rod Wright made a "top ten" list for the most independent campaign contributions issued this week by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.

His No. 5 place on the list isn't meant as a badge of honor. The commission highlights the state politicians who reap money from sources that aren't subject to limits or disclosure mandated by Proposition 34, passed in 2000.

Wright, a Democrat who represents Inglewood, Gardena, Lawndale, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro and Westchester, took in $1.486 million from undisclosed sources for his successful senate race in 2008.

These contributions, which have grown significantly in the last eight years, are typically made to "independent" political organizations that then support various candidates. These organizations are usually backed by unions, businesses and other high-stake groups who are limited in how much they can give directly to candidates.

Former Orange County Supervisor Lou Correa took in the most of any state candidate from independent sources. Correa, who won election to the 34th Senate District in 2006, received $2.389 million.  

 

The Marine Mammal Care Center in San Pedro is seeking volunteer help with a recent large influx of sick sea lions.
The rehabilitation center is currently housing nearly 200 sick and injured seals and sea lions, according to Jill Romano, the center's spokeswoman.
"These numbers are tremendous and this is beyond what our animal care team has ever experienced," Romano said. "I am reaching out to friends in the community to see if they know of anyone that might want to lend a hand."
The center is seeking volunteers to clean, wash dishes and prepare fish, among other things.
Romano said donations of Karo light corn syrup and safflower oil are needed. The supplements are used as a source of fat and sugar for weaker animals, she said. Lunches and bottled drinks are also needed for volunteers.
The Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur is located at 3601 S. Gaffey Street in San Pedro.
To help, contact Romano at 310-548-5677 or jromano@marinemammalcare.org.

Here is a picture of a sick Harbor seal pup that arrived recently at the center:

Not sure how this one will go over, but Heal the Bay is encouraging supporters to "trash" their friends' Web pages and Facebook pages as an April Fool's Day joke in support of the environment.

The Santa Monica-based advocacy organization wants people to download an e-mail tease to send to friends and others from Heal the Bay. When recipients click on a link in the message, the page they are viewing will immediately fill with images of floating, single-use plastic bags.

(To see slide show of sample "trashed" pages and email links, click here.) 

The organization says the initiative is designed to raise awareness about about the danger of plastic bags, which are "choking marine life, crippling regional economies and diminishing quality of life along California shorelines," according to a Heal the Bay press release.

Heal the Bay president Mark Gold describes it as a "fun way to bring attention to marine debris," though he notes that "the effects that plastic bags have on our oceans and economy are no joke." 

Los Angeles ad agency DDB came up with the gag, designed by production company The Famous Group, pro bono.

It remains to be seen how would-be supporters will react to the prank, especially after the initial scare of their Web pages being hacked.