June 2011 Archives

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn is continuing her quest to define Republican rival Craig Huey with the release of a television spot accusing him of using "junk-mail scams" to aid business clients who later ran into legal trouble.

The 30-second spot by the Democrat is scheduled to be released Thursday and begin airing this weekend on cable channels across the 36th Congressional District.

Huey, the owner of a Torrance marketing agency, responded Wednesday by saying the actions by and against the parties mentioned in the ad have "nothing to do" with him.

"I've had over 600 clients, and you're going to find someone with something that's negative," said Huey.

The commercial, entitled "Scam," is aimed at seniors and references Huey client Donald H. Rowe, who wrote Wall Street Digest, a Sarasota, Fla.-based investment newsletter.

Last year, Rowe was sued for millions of dollars in federal court after allegations surfaced that he took money to promote hedge funds that turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.

Hahn's ad also mentions two direct-mail companies - Huey patrons as well - that were charged with violating federal law for claiming their products could cure Alzheimer's disease, among other maladies.

The companies, G.B. Data and Gero Vito International, were parties to a $605,000 settlement in June 2005 with the FTC.

Huey acknowledged he worked on two projects for those clients.

He also accused Hahn of dirty politics.

"Going out and looking for a client that may have had some type of problem with somebody is so unethical, so wrong and so misleading," Huey said.

Hahn campaign manager Dave Jacobson disagreed.

"The reality is, Craig Huey makes his money off of scams and false advertising direct mail," Jacobson said. "It's important for voters to know how he makes his money and how he can afford to pump $500,000 into his primary campaign."

Huey loaned $500,000 to his campaign to fund his primary efforts, earning second place behind Hahn in a 16-candidate May primary that included veteran Democrat Debra Bowen, California's secretary of state.

Hahn and Huey face off in the July 12 runoff.

The script of the television spot:

NARRATOR: Junk mail scams target seniors, and direct-mail marketer Craig Huey knew what he was doing.

Huey promoted a Wall Street newsletter that was sued by victims as a Ponzi scheme. Seniors lost millions.

Huey promoted two direct-mail nutrition companies that had to pay huge fines for scams that bilked seniors with phony cures for Alzheimer's.

Now Huey is running for Congress with a plan to end Medicare as we know it.

Scam artist? Or extremist?

Seniors can't trust Craig Huey.

JANICE HAHN: I'm Janice Hahn and I approved this message.

Officials are blaming the "downturned" economy.

These signs are on the doors of the sports center at Wilson Park.

Julia Hernandez, 17, served as manager of her swim team in San Pedro, cheered for her school's basketball team dressed as a zoo animal and is now applying to college.

She will be able to put one more thing on her resume: This week, she was named one of five ambassadors in 2011 for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, one of the nation's largest grant-giving giving organizations for childhood cancer research.

Hernandez was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in February 2010, and completed her final round of chemotherapy in September at Miller Children's Hospital in Long Beach.

Her remission from cancer was celebrated by her entire school at their annual Walk for Life event, and she recently attended a St. Baldrick's fundraiser in Redondo Beach.

The five nationwide ambassadors -- the others live in Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico and Philadelphia (a 3-year-old who died from cancer) -- will tell their stories (or their families) and encourage other kids to continue on in their fight.  

This year St. Baldrick's volunteers have helped raise more than $25.7 million by shaving more than 43,400 heads at more than 970 events across the world. The Foundation's letsCONQUER movement is further raising awareness with the help of volunteers, supporters, actors, researchers, athletes and public figures who have added their voices to the cause. 

 

MBS Media Campus. Photo courtesy of Brad Graverson/Staff Photographer 

 

About 700, to be more exact.

That's what Jon Landau, co-producer of the 2009 3-D epic Avatar, recently told Fox News.

 

The revelation comes about three months after Avatar director James Cameron signed a five-year deal to lease space at Manhattan Beach Studios Media Campus to film the next two installments of the series. The sprawling facility is also HQ for Marvel Studios.

 

The two follow-ups to the original film are expected to be released in Dec. 2014 and Dec. 2015, Hollie McKay of Fox News reports. It was initially believed that the move would create about 200 jobs in the South Bay. Many of the new jobs will go to visual effects artists.

Here's what Cameron told the news outlet about his future plans for Avatar:

"We're shooting two films back-to-back, so I'm writing two scripts, not one, which will complete a free-film story arc - not really a trilogy, but just an overall character arc so I'm pretty excited about that," Cameron told FOX411's Pop Tarts ahead of he and his wife Suzy Amis being honored for their philanthropic work in helping homeless youth at the recent Covenant House Gala in Los Angeles. "We're doing a lot of preliminary work right now on new software and new animation techniques and so on. We're creating a new facility in Manhattan Beach so everybody that's not already dead is coming back."

 

Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, will lease more than 115,000 feet of sound stage and office space at the MBS Media Campus, a 22-acre production lot owned by the Carlyle Group and managed by Raleigh Studios.

"Another thing the Manhattan Beach studio affords us is the ability to expand. Should we need to pick up and do a live-action shoot, should we need more space, they have it," Landau told Fox News.

Shortly after the deal was made public, Manhattan Beach Mayor Richard Montgomery said he was excited about the prospect of more jobs coming to the area.

"In this economy, we appreciate both the honor and economic impact of having ( Cameron ) locate Lightstorm here in Manhattan Beach for the foreseeable future," Montgomery said.

Lightstorm Entertainment was previously based in Santa Monica, although much of the original "Avatar " film was produced in Playa Vista and shot in New Zealand.

 

 

MBS Media Campus. Daily Breeze File Photo

This one is a tear-jerker.

Rachael Mitchell, 25, was 14 weeks pregnant when she learned she had Stage 2 breast cancer. Doctors recommended she abort the pregnancy and begin chemo immediately; she declined.

Mitchell, who has three other children, gave birth to the baby six weeks early in January. She immediately had bilteral mastectomies and chemotherapy, and will need to have her ovaries removed in the future, according to friends and family.

A Lomita chiropractic clinic is offering free exams, any needed x-rays and a follow-up visit in exchange for at least a $30 donation to Mitchell's medical bills.  

For details, call the Pommerenck Chiropractic & Wellness Clinic at 310-530-7335, or visit www.southbaydc.com.

 

Have you seen the new video produced by San Pedro filmmaker Jack Baric?

It's the talk of the town -- which, by the way, looks and sounds like an absolutely amazing place in this "Discover San Pedro" clip that's making the rounds on websites and cable television (with ads sponsored by the town's Property Owners Business Improvement District):

Tonight's meeting comes less than week after the City Council publicly voiced opposition to an initiative that would dramatically hike business license fees for the city's bars and restaruants if approved by voters in November.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. and is hosted by the Hermosa Beach Business License Tax Committee, a group comprised of Mayor Pete Tucker, Councilman Kit Bobko and business owners Thomas Brodie, Andrea Jacobsson and Brittny Tacker.

Residents and other Hermosa business owners are encouraged to attend the meeting to receive information and discuss proposed changes to the city's business license tax. According to a press release issued by the city, proposed changes could result in increase or decreased tax for local businesses.

If the committee's proposal is approved by the council, it will also appear a measure on the November ballot.

A second tax proposal, pushed by activist Jim Lissner, is already headed for a vote in November. The controversial initiative would dramatically increase the business license fees for restaurants and bars in the beach town, in one case by as much as 40,000 percent. Lissner has said the increased fees from those establishments is needed to pay for the city's emergency costs, including policing Pier Plaza.

 

Lissner's measure would bring in an estimated $4.7 million in additional revenue for Hermosa Beach.

If the two items appear together on the November ballot, the measure recieving the most votes would win.

Copies of the committee's proposal will be made available at the meeting, at the city manager's office in City Hall and on the city's website, www.hermosabch.org.

 

The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. Hermosa Beach City Council Chambers are located at 1315 Valley Drive.

For more information, contact Steve Burrell at 310-318-0216.

 

The 10-minute presentation will be followed by a 10-minute Q&A session. The awards themselves will be handed out late Friday afternoon.

Retired Gardena police Officer William Kist, who mentored thousands of police explorers during his career, died Tuesday at his Torrance home. He was 71.

Kist served as a police officer in Gardena from 1965 to 1994. He continued as a reserve until 1998.

Kist worked a variety of assignments with Gardena, but will be remembered for the years he coordinated the South Bay Regional Law Enforcement Explorer Academy, Gardena police Lt. Steve Prendergast said.

"Officer Kist had been a mentor and coach to thousands of police explorers throughout his years of dedication to the Explorer Program," Prendergast said. "Many of those who he taught are active police officers currently serving the South Bay community."

Services are pending.

Lamar Odom, the Los Angeles Laker who recently took home the NBA's sixth man of the year award, will be trading his seaside digs in Manhattan Beach for a luxury spread in Tarzana.

The Laker forward's 5th Street complex has been on and off the market since 2009 and is once again available for those with a few extra million dollars in their pocket.

He's been shacking up in Tarzana with his new wife Khloe Kardashian. According to NBC New York, the couple bought the Tarzana place in Dec. 2009 for $3.95 million.

The celebrity couple star in their own television reality show, Khloe and Lamar.

Odom helped guide the Lakers to the Western Conference Semifinals, where they got thoroughly handled by the Dallas Mavericks.

NBC New York has more:

The NBA hoopster's bachelor pad is a five bedroom, six bathroom home that is ideally located on 5th Street in the perpetually sunny SoCal beach enclave of Manhattan Beach. The bachelor pad features a large living room with a custom wet bar, a pool, spa, built-in BBQ area with a gas fire pit, three fireplaces, and soaring ceilings and hardwood floors throughout. The home has been on and off the market, for both rent and purchase, for the last two years. It's now listed for a cool $2.199 million.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lakers Assistant General Manager Ronnie Lester, 52, sold his Manhattan Beach home for $1.65 million.

The five-bedroom house was built in 2002 and includes a guest suite, a two-story high living room and a back lawn. The listing agent was Edward Kaminsky of Shorewood Realtors, Manhattan Beach, and Brittny Burford of Shorewood Realtors, Hermosa Beach, represented the buyer, according to the paper.

Lester played for the Lakers in 1985 and retired in 1986. A former scout for the team, Lester was the Lakers assistant GM for the last 10 years and his contract expires at the end of June. He is credited by some for first discovering Andrew Bynum when the Laker star was a junior at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, New Jersey.

Lester purchased the Manhattan Beach property in 2002 for $1.3 million, the Los Angeles Times reported.

KCET's SoCal Focus blog has a pretty interesting post on historical photos of Southern California beaches, including many from the South Bay.

The funeral for Hawthorne police Officer Andrew Garton on Friday will be streamed live on the Internet.

The 12:30 p.m. service at Seacoast Grace Church and 3 p.m. burial at Forest Lawn Memorial Park can be viewed at  http://www.seacoastgrace.org/gartonmemorial.

A link to that URL also will be available on the "City News" ticker located on the city of Hawthorne website, http://www.cityofhawthorne.com.

Members of the Hawthorne Police Department also will update the department's Twitter and Facebook sites during the day.

They can be followed on http://www.facebook.com/hawthornepolice and twitter.com/hawthornepd.

The motorcycle officer was killed May 30 in Torrance in a collision with an El Segundo police motorcycle sergeant while escorting a funeral procession for a Manhattan Beach officer who died of cancer.

Garton was the first officer killed in the line of duty in the 89 year history of the Hawthorne Police Department.

Check out tonight's First Thursday Artwalk festivities in downtown San Pedro where organizers will be bringing in some of the region's most popular and trendy gourmet food trucks. The lineup:

• Waffles de Liege will be at the Treehouse Gallery, 341 W. Seventh St.
• Me So Hungry: Treehouse Gallery
• Gringos Tacos / Rosa's Bella Cucina, Sixth Street (between Pacific and Mesa)
• Lobsta Truck
• The Grilled Cheese Truck: 356 W. Seventh St.
• Krazy BBQ: Sixth and Pacific

First Thursday, which runs from 5:30 to 10 p.m., offers open art galleries, entertainment and shopping in San Pedro's historic shopping district each month. This is the first time  organizers have coordinated bringing in some of L.A.'s hottest food trucks as well.

So get there early, wear your walking (and best standing-in-line) shoes -- and bring an appetite.

Read more about the booming food truck movement.

Want to find your favorite L.A. food truck? Go here.