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Long Beach health department reports first case of clade I mpox

Long Beach’s Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed the city’s first case of clade I mpox — a different strain of the disease that typically causes more severe illness.
The case was confirmed in a Long Beach resident with no recent travel history, the health department said in a Tuesday, Oct. 14, news release. While the infected person required hospitalization, they’re now recovering at home.
“The risk to the public remains low and the health department is conducting a thorough pu...
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USWNT legends Julie Foudy, Abby Wambach create community for women’s sports at Long Beach bar

Two titans of women’s soccer, Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach, recently made a trip to Long Beach — to celebrate the launch of their new podcast, which will also feature frequent appearances from another hometown legend — at a recently opened, one-of-a-kind local sports bar.
The pair visited Watch Me! Sports Bar, located on Pacific Coast Highway across the street from the 2nd & PCH shopping center, on Friday, Oct. 11. The sports bar celebrated its grand opening — and the start of a new kind of spor...
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Potential World War II-era explosive removed from Port of Long Beach

Cargo operations at one Port of Long Beach terminal were temporarily halted on Wednesday evening, Oct. 8, after a potential World War II-era explosive was discovered in the ground.
The explosive device was discovered at Pier G early Wednesday evening during construction work, according to a port spokesperson. By 9 p.m., the device had been removed and operations at the terminal had returned to normal.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Bomb Squad, alongside a U.S. Marine Corps unit, responded...
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Scary Stories Contest: There’s still time to terrify us with your stories and artwork

It’s officially October and that means it’s time for students across Long Beach to scare us silly with their terrifying tales and  artwork — but time is already running out.
The Press-Telegram’s annual Scary Stories Contest is back, and we’re accepting submissions until 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 13. This chilling challenge asks students to explore the cadaverous caverns of their own imaginations, and deliver us with the most dreadful drawings and morbid myths they can conjure up.
The contest is ope...
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ICE conducts operations in San Pedro, threatens to arrest LA County staff, Supervisor Hahn says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested three people in San Pedro on Wednesday, Oct. 8 — and apparently threatened to arrest staff from the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation who responded to the scene, according to Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.
A local community group and San Pedro’s representative on the Los Angeles City Council also said several others were arrested elsewhere in the port town on Wednesday.
“Today has been a difficult day in the Harbor Ar...
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After 2 years of fundraising, Long Beach’s Art Theatre finally gets 4K projector and screen

It’s been a long time coming — and it’s finally here.
That is, The Art Theatre of Long Beach is finally about to get its new 4K digital projector and screen, which will bring all new quality and crystal clear images to the city’s oldest and last independent cinema.
The theater, which originally opened in 1924, has been working to raise money for the major upgrade for two years. The nonprofit even participated in Long Beach Gives — a citywide online fundraising campaign for local organizations —...
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Supervisor Hahn makes waves to rally support for Olympic water taxi proposal

As the 2028 Olympic Games, to be hosted in Los Angeles and throughout the region, gets closer, government officials are working to bolster the region’s infrastructure and transportation to prepare for the major summer event.
That includes one proposal from Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who represents the fourth district, calling for the creation of a new water taxi that would run between San Pedro and Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor. Hahn originally proposed the earlier this year.
The p...
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With Chevron fire extinguished, recovery in El Segundo gets underway

In the aftermath of the massive blaze at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery, which broke out on Thursday evening, Oct. 2, and burned overnight, company officials — alongside officials from various regulators — are embarking on the journey to discover what went wrong.
The fire was extinguished on Friday morning, Oct. 3, hours after the initial blaze sparked at around 9:30 p.m. the day before. Emergency personnel from the El Segundo, Chevron, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Los Angeles County fire d...
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Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero to retire at the end of 2025

The Port of Long Beach’s longtime CEO, Mario Cordero, will retire at the end of the year.
The announcement, made on Thursday, Oct. 2, hailed Cordero for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, major modernization efforts, and the port’s work to be more environmentally friendly.
Cordero has held the role as the port’s top executive since 2017 — but has worked for the Port of Long Beach for decades. He was originally appointed to the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners in 2003, and later...
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MemorialCare kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with giant human ribbon

Dozens of doctors, staffers and survivors gathered at MemorialCare’s Long Beach Medical Center to kick off the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month by forming a giant human ribbon on Wednesday, Oct. 1.
“MemorialCare kicks off Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October through this event,” the hospital said in a news release, “and lights up the large ribbon of hope on the side of the Todd Cancer Pavilion in pink every night in October.”
About one in eight women will develop breast cancer duri...
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Rep. Robert Garcia, survivor Annie Farmer call for full Epstein files release in Long Beach

A group of elected officials gathered at the Long Beach Civic Center on Monday, Sept. 29, to call for the federal government to release the Epstein files in their entirety.
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, who is also the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has been leading the charge to hold the Department of Justice and the Trump administration accountable for their promises to make the case files on the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffery Epstein pu...
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Long Beach Towne Center sold to CenterCal Properties, DRA Advisors for $143 million

The Long Beach Towne Center officially has new owners, who have big plans to reimagine and enhance one of the largest shopping centers in Los Angeles County.
CenterCal Properties — who also own the 2ND & PCH shopping center and several other properties throughout California, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, and Washington — acquired the existing ground lease for the 870,000-square-foot property with partners DRA Advisors, a private equity real estate firm.
The companies announced their acquisition of the Lo...
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Long Beach Health Department to shut down resource line on Sept. 30

The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services will shut down its resource line, which has connected residents to various services over the past five years, on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
The resource line was established with various temporary funding sources including COVID-19 pandemic emergency dollars from the federal government, according to a Wednesday, Sept. 24 city news release.
“While originally established in response to the pandemic, over the last five years, the program expanded to su...
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Citizen scientists, pros alike working to help Pacific green sea turtles in the San Gabriel River

Just around the corner from Long Beach’s Edison Park, and about a two-mile walk down the banks of the San Gabriel River, is a little-known oasis — one that’s teeming with wildlife.
Most notably, this section of the San Gabriel River — which empties out into the Pacific Ocean just a few miles downriver in Seal Beach — has become popular with Pacific green sea turtles.
The creatures’ presence in the river, in turn, has sparked a yearslong effort to monitor, study and help conserve the endangered s...
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Long Beach Gives has already raised more than $1M for nonprofits — but there’s still time to donate

The seventh iteration of Long Beach Gives is well underway — but there’s still time to help local nonprofits meet their fundraising goals this year.
Long Beach Gives is an annual online fundraising campaign dedicated to helping nonprofits and community organizations across the city raise money for their programs and services.
The official day of giving is Thursday, Sept. 18, and the campaign is already off to a running start thanks to its weeklong early giving period, which kicked off a week ago...
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Hundreds test their strength at Plane Pull fundraiser for Special Olympics Southern California

Hundreds of people came together at the Long Beach Airport on Saturday, Sept. 13, to help raise money for the Special Olympics Southern California — by putting all their strength together to pull an entire plane.
The annual event, fittingly dubbed the Plane Pull, is an annual team competition that challenges groups of 25 people to see who can pull a 124,000-pound, or 62-ton, UPS jet the fastest.
After an opening ceremony in the morning, teams took turns every five minutes to see who could comple...
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Kindness 2025: Aquarium of the Pacific scholarship program works to make sciences more diverse

The Aquarium of the Pacific has plenty of educational programs aimed at bringing the community into the wonderful world of science — but during this year’s Long Beach Gives campaign, the institution is hoping to raise money for one specific scholarship program.
Dubbed the CELP (Community, Equity, Learning and Persistence) Scholar Program, the initiative provides $10,000 scholarships to local college students from minority groups in an effort to increase diversity in science.
The CELP program (wh...
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Kindness 2025: This organization has been spotlighting women writers — since 1982

Literary Women, a nonprofit with decades of experience spotlighting and supporting female writers in Long Beach, is a beloved local group for just that reason.
It was established in 1982 by Harriet Williams and Virginia Laddey, who, after realizing that local high school reading lists had a massive dearth of works by women writers, decided to do something about it.
“They founded this organization that was just so grassroots to feature women writers, and our very first festival was in 1983,” Moni...
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Kindness 2025: LB Community Compost is working to make the city’s soil healthier

Long Beach Community Compost, a primarily volunteer-run organization with a mission to transform waste into soil, is hoping to raise some money to support its community work and programming.
Since it was established in 2020, the organization has, among other sustainability initiatives, collected and processed more than 80 tons — or about 161,686 pounds — of food scraps from all around Long Beach, which they’ve processed and turned back into soil that’s distributed to local gardeners, school and...
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LBUSD to implement new restrictions on phone use during school in 2026

Students at the Long Beach Unified School District will no longer be allowed to use their phones during school starting next year, when new limitations on device usage are scheduled to go into effect.
The policy, dubbed “Reclaiming Attention: Limiting Distractions, Supporting Wellness,” received unanimous approval from LBUSD’s Board of Education last week and is expected to take effect on Jan. 26 — with some pilot schools scheduled to implement the policy this month, according to a district news...
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City of Long Beach disagrees with audit that found $22 million in lost revenue over stagnant development fees

Long Beach has lost out on about $22 million in potential revenue because it hasn’t adjusted its development impact fees to keep up with inflation and other rising costs, according to a recent audit — though city management has disputed some of the report’s findings.
City Auditor Laura Doud’s office released the audit analyzing the city’s development impact fees — which are one-time charges collected from developers that are constructing new buildings to fund a variety of public improvements, su...
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Rapper Cardi B is coming to Long Beach’s Fingerprints Music for a meet-and-greet

Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B will visit a beloved Long Beach music store later this month to promote her latest album, “Am I The Drama?” — which will come out next week.
Cardi B, known for hits like “Up” and “I Like It,” will visit Fingerprints Music on Thursday, Sept. 25, according to an announcement from the store, for a meet-and-greet and photo opportunity with fans.
Her first studio album, “Invasion of Privacy,”  was released in 2018 was met with critical acclaim from fans and the ind...
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Reagan Foundation cancels Ben Shapiro speaking event, after fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley has canceled an event with conservative political commentator and activist Ben Shapiro — which was scheduled for the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 10 — after learning that fellow conservative activist Charlie Kirk had been fatally shot earlier in the day.
Shapiro was set to appear at the library to discuss his new book, “Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics),” on Wednesday night.
The Reagan Presidential Foundation an...
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Long Beach Gives, online fundraiser for local nonprofits, returns for 7th year

Long Beach Gives, an annual online fundraising campaign that helps nonprofits raise money for their programs and services, will soon return for its seventh year — with early giving getting underway on Thursday, Sept. 11.
The official day of giving will happen a week later on Thursday, Sept. 18.
Over the past six years, Long Beach Gives has raised about $10.8 million for hundreds of local organizations supporting numerous causes, from homeless services to environmental advocacy and just about eve...
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