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Authors discuss role of culture and race in horror genre at MOLAA panel

Three authors gathered at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach on Sunday, March 22, to discuss the role the mystery, horror and science fiction genres play in representing various cultures and racial identities.
The panel took place on World Poetry Day and was hosted in collaboration with El Martillo Press. It featured three authors with new releases: Naomi Hirahara, Pedro Iniguez and David A. Romero.
Hirahara, an Edgar Award winner, is the author of multiple mystery series and noir sh...
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Japanese skateboarding show Kasso makes US debut in Long Beach

Kasso, a Japanese skateboarding competition, made its United States debut in Long Beach over the weekend.
The Long Beach event, taking place at Lincoln Park and the old City Hall Plaza, 333 W. Ocean Blvd., is produced by Red Bull. But the show’s origins date back to 2024 in Japan, when the competition launched as a TV skateboarding challenge show.
“By launching in a city with deep roots in skate and surf culture,” Red Bull said in a news release, “Kasso is tapping into an audience that lives at...
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MemorialCare names Lara Khouri first CEO for Long Beach children’s hospital

MemorialCare’s Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital in Long Beach, which oversees care for nearly 13,000 youngsters in the region each year, has a new leader.
Lara Khouri, who was previously president and chief operating officer of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, has stepped into the role as CEO for Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital — a first for the institution.
“We previously had executives,” MemorialCare’s vice president of communications and public relations, Richele Steele, said in a Th...
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LA County awards over $36M for parks, coastal projects in South Bay, Long Beach

Several cities across a portion of Los Angeles County have received funding to pay for various parks, beach access and open space projects — thanks to Measure A funding allocations for Supervisorial District 4.
LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s Fourth District covers a large swath of the county, including Long Beach, a majority of the South Bay and various parts of Southeast LA, including Huntington Park, Bellflower, Artesia, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, among others.
Hahn’s office announced th...
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Long Beach begins work on large fence to enclose Billie Jean King Main Library terrace

Long Beach’s Department of Public Works has begun construction on a large fence around the Billie Jean King Main Library in downtown, which officials say is necessary to create a safer space for the community.
Construction on the project began Monday, March 16, and the project is expected to take an additional six to eight weeks to complete, Public Works spokesperson Jocelin Padilla-Razo said on Wednesday, March 18, notwithstanding bad weather or other complications.
The project, which will cost...
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LA County DA recognizes 2 Long Beach residents with Courage Awards

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman visited Long Beach on Wednesday, March 18, to pay tribute to local residents.
The Courage Awards, given out by the DA’s office each year, honor individuals who have “shown tremendous courage in extraordinary moments of crisis,” according to a news release from the DA’s office.
This year’s award ceremony took place at The Grand, 4101 E. Willow St. The honorees included Daniel Edwards, who witnessed a mobile home arson and helped apprehend the su...
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Cinephiles celebrate 2026 Oscars at Art Theatre of Long Beach red carpet gala

Movie lovers from across Long Beach descended on the Art Theatre to celebrate the independent cinema’s 101st year in operation — and watch the 2026 Academy Awards — on Sunday.
Each year, the nonprofit Art Theatre hosts a red carpet gala aligned with the Oscars to raise money for its operations. The yearly event is crucial to keeping the doors of the city’s oldest and last remaining independent cinema open, Art Theatre board President Kirk Jordan said previously.
For the first time, this year’s r...
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Thousands celebrate 53rd annual Pow Wow at CSULB

Thousands gathered at Cal State Long Beach over the weekend to celebrate the 53rd annual Pow Wow, the longest-running and largest American Indian social celebration of its kind in Southern California.
The two-day event, which began on Saturday, March 14, and ends on Sunday, featured traditional dancing, singing and drumming at Puvungna, a site that is sacred to many Indigenous tribes in Southern California.
Puvungna is located on the shared ancestral territories of the Juaneño Band of Mission In...
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Long Beach Tech and Innovation Department head announces departure

Lea Eriksen, the longtime director of the Long Beach Department of Technology and Innovation, will soon exit her role with the city.
That department is tasked with overseeing all of Long Beach’s technological needs, from the Go Long Beach app to permit management software and everything in between, according to the city’s website.
Eriksen’s career with the city has been long. She initially joined Long Beach in 2014 as a budget manager in the Financial Management Department and later moved up to...
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‘Fearless and Free’: Long Beach Pride Parade and Festival returns in May

The Long Beach Pride Parade and Festival, a celebration of the city’s vibrant LGBTQ+ community, will return to Marina Green Park for the 43rd year in May.
The iconic celebration, a fixture in Long Beach for decades, has undergone some changes in recent years. Most notably, the city has taken over organizing the parade from Long Beach Pride, the nonprofit that historically handled both the parade and festival since their founding in 1984.
That change was first announced in 2024, when Long Beach P...
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African American Cultural Center opens new exhibit honoring legacy of Doris Topsy-Elvord

The African American Cultural Center Long Beach on Sunday celebrated the launch of a new exhibit honoring the life and legacy of Doris Topsy-Elvord, also known as “Mother Doris,” an icon revered for her community work in the city.
Topsy-Elvord, the namesake of Houghton Park’s Community Center in North Long Beach, died in 2021 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 90.
She was the first African American woman elected to the Long Beach City Council in 1992, representing the city’s...
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Kings of Chaos to headline Long Beach Grand Prix’s Saturday night concert

Kings of Chaos, a collective of legendary rock figures founded by Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum, will headline the 2026 Grand Prix of Long Beach’s Saturday night concert, according to a Thursday, March 5, announcement.
This year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will take place in the city’s downtown from April 17-19, offering three days of high-speed fun for racing fans from across the world. The 2025 Grand Prix, celebrating the event’s 50th anniversary, drew around 197,000 spectators to the...
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6-year-old deaf child deported without due process, medical devices, State Superintendent says

By Anissa Rivera and Kristy Hutchings, Southern California News Group, and Robert Solanga, Bay Area News Group 
A 6-year-old deaf boy who attended the California School for the Deaf at Fremont, alongside his mother and brother, have been detained and deported by federal immigration agents, according to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
At a Friday, March 6 news conference at the Diagnostic Center on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles, Thurmond demanded the immediate...
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Former LB mayor Bob Foster to be posthumously inducted to Motorsports Walk of Fame

Bob Foster, the former mayor of Long Beach who died late last year, will be posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Walk of Fame just before this year’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Foster served as the 27th mayor of Long Beach from 2006 to 2014, and was regarded for championing fiscal responsibility during the Great Recession, public safety and environmental stewardship.
His work directly led to the creation of the new Long Beach Civic Center and the Billie Jean King Main Library in downt...
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Porkchop, the three-flippered sea turtle, returns to the wild after major rehab

After nearly a year of recovery, Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific has returned Porkchop — a green sea turtle with just three flippers — back into the wild.
It’s been a long journey for Porkchop, whose sex and exact age is unknown, after the turtle was rescued from the San Gabriel River in March.
A group of dedicated volunteers participating in the aquarium’s Green Sea Turtle Monitoring Project — which gathers crucial data that’s used to build out scientists’ understanding of the species’ beh...
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LBCC unveils new building on Trades, Technology & Community Learning Campus

Long Beach City College has unveiled a new building — aimed at supporting certain career pathways and bolstering the city’s Space Beach industry — on its Trades, Technology and Community Learning Campus.
Leaders from the college gathered on the campus, 1305 E. Pacific Coast Highway, to unveil the new Building MM on Wednesday.
The project was completed in two phases, according to LBCC. The original facility, built in the 1950s, was demolished and later completely rebuilt to afford students a full...
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FBI searches LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home and office

Law enforcement officers served a search warrant Wednesday at the home and office of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, according to several law enforcement sources.
The Department of Justice confirmed that a search was being carried out. Other law enforcement sources said the searches took place at Carvalho’s Los Angeles office and San Pedro home.
When asked about searches at Carvalho’s home and office, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Ciaran McEvoy confirms th...
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Long Beach’s waterfront Juneteenth celebration canceled for forseeable future, organizer says

Long Beach’s waterfront Juneteenth celebration, which has drawn thousands to celebrate Black culture and heritage for the past five years, has been canceled for the foreseeable future, according to the event’s organizers.
Juneteenth commemorates the date — June 19, 1865 — when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to the last enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.
Black Americans have celebrated Juneteenth for generatio...
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‘Grave situtation’: LBUSD to layoff hundreds of employees amid budget crisis

Hundreds of contracted workers, alongside 54 classified employees, will be laid off from their Long Beach Unified School District jobs after the Board of Education OK’d the action during its Wednesday, Feb. 18, meeting.
For the past few years, the Long Beach Unified School District has been grappling with immense budgetary pressures, including an operating deficit. In 2024, for the first time, the district had to dip into its reserves to clear up a projected $44 million budget shortfall — caused...
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Long Beach Airport signs on as professional baseball club’s first founding partner

The Long Beach Baseball Club, the city’s first professional baseball team, which is getting ready to launch its inaugural season in May, has its first major partner.
The Long Beach Airport has signed on as the team’s first founding partner, according to a Thursday, Feb. 19, news release, marking a major milestone for LBBC, otherwise known as Long Beach Coast.
LGB will be the official airport of the Long Beach Coast and will sponsor the team’s jerseys, the news release said.
“From the very beginn...
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Long Beach closes fiscal year with $40M deficit; larger structural shortfall looms

Long Beach city leaders are grappling with how to handle its worsening financial position as external economic forces, including federal and state funding cuts and declining tax revenue, put pressure on the city’s fiscal future.
The city ended fiscal year 2025 with a gaping $40 million deficit in its general fund, representing a major increase in Long Beach’s original projection of a $20.3 million structural shortfall when the budget was adopted in September 2024.
Since May, officials had been w...
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Couples tie the knot with $14 ceremonies on Valentine’s Day at Long Beach chapel

Some couples had an extra special Valentine’s Day this year.
Dozens of duos arrived at The Cute Little Wedding Chapel, 3740 Atlantic Ave., in Long Beach on Saturday to get married.
Each year, the chapel offers $14 wedding ceremonies (marriage license fees not included) to couples hoping to tie the knot. The back-to-back ceremonies took place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, officiated by Alan Katz donning a Cupid costume.
Katz is known for his appearances on TLC’s “90-Day Fiancé” and “T...
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Long Beach to partner with LA Galaxy for 2026 World Cup fan experiences

Long Beach will partner with the Los Angeles Galaxy, Metro and the Downtown Long Beach Alliance to host multiple fan experiences and more to celebrate the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The city announced the new partnership on Friday with various events planned to take place throughout the entire tournament, from the first group stage matches starting on June 11 all the way through the World Cup final on July 19.
“From major downtown programming to youth soccer clinics and park activations across our nei...
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New bill would establish program to give associate degrees to some former CSULB students

Some Cal State Long Beach students who attended college but weren’t able to finish their bachelor’s degrees may be getting some help from the state with the introduction of a new bill.
The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, hopes to address certain gaps in the higher education system impacting millions of students across California, according to a Thursday, Feb. 12, news release from the assemblymember’s office.
Lowenthal represents California’s 69th Assembly Distri...
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