South Bay Pipeline

Maldonado named Lt. Gov.: Good news for Hahn

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:48:22 -0800

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger went on the Jay Leno Show today to name Sen. Abel Maldonado his lieutenant governor.

For our purposes in the South Bay, this is important largely because Maldonado is not Bob Hertzberg. Had Hertzberg gotten the nod, he might well have been the instant favorite in the Democratic primary. That would have been bad news for L.A. Councilwoman Janice Hahn, whose only competition for the nomination at this point is Sen. Dean Florez.

If he chooses to run next year, Maldonado, a moderate Republican, may have some trouble winning his party's nomination due to his vote in favor of the tax-hiking budget deal last February.

Another South Bay note: Maldonado picked a fight earlier this year with Controller John Chiang, who lives in Torrance, over some new office furniture. At the time it looked like Maldonado might have been setting the stage for a run against Chiang next year, but so far the only Republican who has expressed an interest in the race is Bill Leonard.

Port of L.A. sees record cruise travelers Sunday

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:57:45 -0800

Despite high unemployment figures and a sagging economy, more than
17,000 travelers passed through the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise
Center on Sunday, breaking the previous record by about 2,500 people.

The Golden Princess and the Star Princess, each capable of holding
2,700 passengers, dropped off and picked up passengers bound for
Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. The Mariner of the Seas, capable
of holding 3,150 passengers, dropped off and picked up travelers
headed to the Mexican Riviera.

Here are some photos from the port:

South Bay, hello: It's Nov. 23

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:46:13 -0800

Readers, let's roll:

A teenage boy was killed in San Pedro after a fight this weekend. Check out pictures of the scene afterward.

Nearly 30 years after buying some coastal land from its school district, Rancho Palos Verdes is finally getting ready to build a park that isn't sitting so well with neighbors.

South Bay unemployment rates stayed mostly stable in October, bucking a downward trend across the county and state. Poor Torrance was the only city in the area to see an increase in the statistics released last week.

Local nonprofits are gearing up for record holiday needs, beginning with a massive food drive that starts Tuesday. Meantime, one San Pedro-based group is working on its first effort to give Thanksgiving baskets to families who have lost children to violent crimes.

What's that stench coming from the Walteria Sump in Torrance?

Rancho Palos Verdes city officials ponder why its hotel tax increase failed at the polls earlier this month, and what the possible ramifications could be.

Three former Hermosa Beach surf buddies are busy brewing beer.

Harman for... Senate?

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:46:14 -0800

S.F. Chronicle columnists Matier & Ross toy with the possibility that Dianne Feinstein will retire in 2012. And as long as they're speculating, why not float some names of potential replacements:

Those said to be looking include Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Jane Harman of Venice (Los Angeles County), Controller John Chiang and Secretary of State Debra Bowen.

Note that the South Bay is well represented on this list. There's Harman, of course; but Bowen was a longtime South Bay lawmaker; and Chiang lives in Torrance when he is not predicting the state's imminent demise at the hands of its creditors from his offices in Sacramento.

As to Harman, Matier & Ross may want to check in with their colleague, Willie Brown, who had her running for governor a few weeks ago.

M&R note that Feinstein is 76, and may not want to commit to serving through her 85th birthday. (Though it hasn't deterred Robert Byrd or either senator from Hawaii.)

South Bay jobs numbers

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:47:34 -0800

In keeping with the tradition of releasing bad news on a Friday, state officials put out the monthly jobs report today. The headline is that California's unemployment rate ticked up to 12.5%.

But the state also put out a bunch of data for local cities. Here, then, are the unemployment rates for the cities of the South Bay. As with many things, it gets worse the farther you get from the ocean.

- Carson: 12.7%
- El Segundo: 5.9%
- Gardena: 11.8%
- Hawthorne: 16.3%
- Hermosa Beach: 5.3%
- Inglewood: 15.7%
- Lawndale: 12.5%
- Lomita: 8.7%
- Los Angeles: 13.9%
- Manhattan Beach: 4.5%
- Palos Verdes Estates: 2.6%
- Rancho Palos Verdes: 4.4%
- Redondo Beach: 6.8%
- Rolling Hills: 1.2%
- Rolling Hills Estates: 3.4%
- Torrance: 6.4%

These numbers are based on a monthly federal survey of 5,500 Californians, so there's probably a pretty high margin of error when you get down to the city-by-city data. There's also some odd quirks in there, such as the purported fact that Rolling Hills has zero unemployed people, but an unemployment rate of 1.2%. Huh?

Steve Bradford gets committee assignments

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:30:31 -0800

Steve Bradford, Sacramento's newest legislator, was given his committee assignments this week.

Like his predecessor, Curren Price, he will chair the Assembly Select Committee on Procurement. The committee is responsible for helping small and "disadvantaged" businesses to compete for state contracts.

Here's a statement from Bradford, which was released through the office of Speaker Karen Bass:

"A small business owner may not be aware of the process necessary to compete for state government contracts. I hope that we can make that process more transparent and readily understandable."

Bradford was also appointed to serve on committees for Appropriations, Housing and Community Development, Insurance, and Governmental Organization.

Janice Hahn lured to hotel room for interview

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:38:15 -0800

L.A. Councilwoman Janice Hahn is gearing up to run for lieutenant governor, which means broadening her appeal beyond Los Angeles. She recently met (in what appears to be a hotel room somewhere in the San Diego area) with the folks at the state politics site Calitics, who came away impressed with her liberal positions on a range of state issues:

Ultimately I think she is a very compelling candidate - not just for this office, but for California Democrats as a whole. Whereas Jerry Brown isn't willing to offer a clear progressive path forward for the state, it seems Janice Hahn is very much interested in doing that.

The video, which Hahn's campaign has placed on her Web site, lacks a certain something in the way of production values. But here it is:

Rohrabacher: I backed the surge, but we were doing the wrong thing

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:22:58 -0800

South Bay Reps. Jane Harman and Dana Rohrabacher have something in common these days: Both are sounding very skeptical about sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Harman returned yesterday from a trip to the region in a very pessimistic mood. Rohrabacher, who famously hung out with the mujahideen back in the 1980s, is sounding more and more like he thinks this is a lost cause.

In a recent speech on the House floor, Rohrabacher said he does not blame President Obama for taking his time to think about things. He also put much of the blame for the current situation on President Bush. He noted that while he supported the surge in Iraq, he believed the strategy was wrong:

I tried to be supportive but we were obviously doing the wrong thing. We obviously used the wrong strategy. The competence of the last administration in carrying out that war and building the peace was abysmal.

The video, as captured by Media Matters:

South Bay, good morning: It's Nov. 19

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:16:52 -0800

Readers, coming at ya:

A proposal to build a light rail line through the Crenshaw corridor that would also improve South Bay mass transit made it through a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee Wednesday.

Remember the owners of Hermosa Beach's Club Sushi who were on the lam for allegedly absconding with investors' cash? Turns out, they quietly turned themselves in at the Torrance courthouse last week.

El Segundo has finally approved revisions to its filming regulations this week.

Looks like Redondo Beach dog owners will face an uphill battle in getting the city to overturn a ban on pooches in city parks.

Our South Bay History blog recalls when residents at a Torrance apartment complex had a, um, swinging good time.

West High's Dan Henggeler says he's a bruiser on the football field. Check out pictures of the running back.

Harman also dovish with Blitzer

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:04:51 -0800

Rep. Jane Harman's tone earlier today on MSNBC echoed this afternoon over on CNN, where she chatted with Wolf Blitzer about her recent trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Rather than sending 30,000 to 40,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, the president should use his "leverage" to get the Karzai government to clean up its "rampant corruption," the El Segundo-based Democrat said.

"This kind of corruption is intolerable," Harman said.

Blitzer asked a couple times about when the government should pull out U.S. troops, but Harman avoided suggesting any deadline.

As an aside, the pair also talked a bit about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the alleged Ft. Hood gunman. Harman was reluctant to call him a terrorist, but said Hasan's alleged crime was an "act of terrorism."

When I can find some video, I'll post it.

Harman returns from Af-Pak trip in a dovish mood

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:10:33 -0800

Rep. Jane Harman has returned from a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan with a fresh dose of what Washington calls "ground truth."

She went on Andrea Mitchell's show on MSBNC today and sounded a very pessimistic note, explicitly siding with Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who has warned against sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Her bottom line: "I'm very, very skeptical that anything like the (Gen. Stanley) McChrystal recommendations make any sense in Afghanistan... I'm not for leaving Afghanistan, but what I am against ... is sending another 30,000 to 40,000 troops."

Watch the video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Why Torrico and Nava may have avoided AG forum

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:49:22 -0800

Ted Lieu's one-man debate on Monday night, hosted by the Asian American Action Fund, was billed as a forum for all attorney general candidates.

But there was another element that may explain why the other candidates stayed away: the straw poll.

After Lieu debated himself for about a half hour, the guests -- an assortment of attorneys and API political hacks -- voted on their favorite candidate. The results are here. Lieu got 54 of 57 votes. Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, who had RSVP'd before backing out at the last minute, got 2 votes. San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris (who, by the way, is the favorite) got 1 vote.

In other words, it was a pro-Lieu crowd. From the perspective of Torrico and Assemblyman Pedro Nava, who also RSVP'd before bailing out, it probably looked like an ambush.

What have we learned? That Lieu is capable of a certain amount of organization and guile, I suppose. Whether that will be enough to win this thing... well. It's a long way to June.

Redondo's dog debate

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:28:33 -0800

Redondo Beach dog owners are probably going to have an uphill battle getting the City Council to overturn a longtime ban on canines in parks.

City Councilman Bill Brand and Mayor Mike Gin raised the issue Tuesday night in response to two citizens' petitions calling for a change to a city ordinance that dates to 1979.

Even though Redondo has a popular off-leash dog run near Flagler Lane and 190th Street, at Dominguez Park, Brand said the area doesn't suit everyone and that he sees a "huge demand to allow dogs in parks."

The mayor and Brand, who represents District 2, suggested the city's Parks and Recreation Commission first consider a change for Czuleger Park, an open space area in his coastal district that sits near the densely populated Village condominiums.

And while the proposal ended up passing on a 4-1 vote -- with Councilman Pat Aust dissenting -- dog owners who want their pets to be permitted in parks citywide will have some heavy lobbying to do before the issue returns to the council early next year.

Although Councilmen Steve Aspel and Matt Kilroy indicated some support for a change only at Czuleger Park, they were opposed to opening other areas around town to dogs, as was Aust. Complaints focused on the owners not picking up after their pets and letting them either run loose or walk too far ahead on retractable leashes.

"Someone's leaving a thousand terds a day on top of the Esplanade. Ask our public works department," Aspel said.

"Parks are for people and kids," said Aust. "Zoos are for animals."

The council's response Tuesday angered one resident who wants dogs to be permitted in all city parks. Sydnee Singer, who said she's gathered signatures from 400 people who feel the same way, vowed not to give up.

Some councilmen have let their individual opinions about dogs supersede the desires of their constituents, she said.

"This is just disrespectful," Singer said afterward. "I will do what it takes to overturn that law."

South Bay, howdy: It's Nov. 18

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:59:35 -0800

Readers, we have so much news this fine autumn morning:

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors enacted sweeping measures in hopes of curbing obesity and smoking, and cashing in on stimulus funds, but stopped at banning soda at county venues.

A psychiatrist told a Los Angeles County Superior Court that William Sadowski was insane when he killed an LAX police officer by dragging him with his own car about four years ago.

A relatively controversial statue unveiled in San Pedro but boxed away in storage ever since, has found a new home on the city's waterfront.

Poor Gardena and San Pedro high schools: The schools drew significantly less interest from charters or outside groups in running them under Los Angeles Unified School District's Public School Choice Plan than the other three dozen or so schools open under the pitch.

Check out these cute pictures of Special Olympics athletes playing at Mattel in El Segundo yesterday.

A South Bay-based firm won a $10 million contract with the European planemaker Airbus.

Mira Costa High's girl volleyball team lost again for the second time this season to Los Alamitos on Tuesday. See pictures.

Torrico: Scheduling conflicts kept me from debate

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:51:17 -0800

Here's a statement from the campaign of Alberto Torrico, who didn't show up at last night's AAAF forum, leaving Ted Lieu to debate himself:

"The Assemblyman regrets scheduling conflicts required him to return to
Sacramento rather than attending the straw poll," says consultant Eric Jaye. "He appreciates the invitation and he hopes to find the opportunity to meet with the sponsors in the future."

But here's some video of Torrico talking about his support for the Assembly prison reform bill, which both Lieu and Pedro Nava voted against: