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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 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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Rep. Waters reintroduces bill to ban toxic chemical used at Torrance, Wilmington refineries

Rep. Maxine Waters, alongside other California federal representatives, is restarting her effort to ban a toxic chemical used to refine high-octane gasoline at two Southern California refineries, an effort local activists have been working toward for more than a decade.
Waters, D-Hawthorne, announced the reintroduction of her bill, the Preventing Mass Casualties From Release of Hydrofluoric Acid at Refineries Act, during a Saturday event at North High School in Torrance marking the 11th annivers...
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Long Beach Transit suspends pilot program after ICE recruitment ad ran on 7 buses

Long Beach Transit has suspended a pilot program featuring digital advertisements on their buses after U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement recruitment ads ran on several of their vehicles over the weekend.
A photo of an ICE recruitment ad, which showed a federal agent and the slogan, “Defend the homeland, join ICE today,” was posted to social media on Saturday, Dec. 6, and quickly gained traction online.
Long Beach Transit, the same day, posted a statement on its Instagram apologizing and p...
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ICE detains at least 9 people in Long Beach; ramps up activity in Harbor Area

Several community members, local watchdog groups, and government representatives reported an uptick in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in both Long Beach and San Pedro on Thursday, Nov. 20.
In Long Beach, Órale — a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for immigrants’ rights and justice, which has served as a rapid response organization for those impacted by ICE raids since they began in June — confirmed that ICE conducted operations at at least six different locations around the c...
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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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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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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’s longstanding Olympics history to be on display at new Historical Society exhibit

If you’ve ever been curious about how the Olympic Games have shaped Long Beach — from its infrastructure and economy to cultural relevance on the global stage — the Historical Society of Long Beach has something in store to scratch that intellectual itch.
The Historical Society, 4260 Atlantic Ave., will celebrate the launch of its newest exhibit, “Olympics on the Golden Shore,” on Thursday, Aug. 21. The exhibit features hundreds of artifacts, photos, Olympic ephemera and more, all of which docum...
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Environmentalists sue EPA to ban toxic chemical at refineries, including in Torrance, Wilmington

Efforts to more strictly regulate a toxic chemical used to make high-octane gasoline at refineries across the nation — including at PBF Energy’s Torrance Refinery and the Valero Refinery in Wilmington — are once again ramping up.
This time, several environmental organizations — including the National Resources Defense Council, Communities for a Better Environment and the Philadelphia Clean Air Council — have sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over its regulation of the chemical, hydro...
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Faith leaders decry ICE operation in Downey Memorial Christian Church parking lot

Faith leaders gathered at Downey Memorial Christian Church on Wednesday, June 11, to decry the detention of an unidentified man on their property earlier that day.
The man, described as a dark-skinned man with dark hair who only spoke Spanish, was taken into custody by law enforcement dressed in plainclothes who refused to identify themselves or produce a warrant for the man’s arrest on Wednesday, according to church leaders.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees U.S. Immigration a...
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Hundreds gather at Long Beach Civic Center to protest ICE, urge more money for Justice Fund

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the Long Beach Civic Center on Tuesday, June 10, to protest recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the Los Angeles area and to ask the City Council to allocate additional money to a local fund supporting legal services for immigrants.
The gathering began with about 100 people at Harvey Milk Park in downtown Long Beach, where demonstrators gathered before marching to the Civic Center, just a few blocks down the road.
Robert Marquez, with...
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California’s political leaders call for end to federal immigration action in LA

Political leaders representing Los Angeles County and other jurisdictions across California asked President Donald Trump on Monday, June 9, to put an end to federal immigration action in and around the L.A. area.
Representatives from the California State Assembly, including Speaker Robert Rivas and Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, D-Inglewood, said the administration’s federalizing of the National Guard in L.A., among other recent actions, are unconstitutional.
“What we are seeing — raids without c...
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Officials working to reduce high levels of toxic pesticide in West Long Beach

After discovering high levels of a toxic pesticide in West Long Beach, city officials — alongside several state and federal regulatory agencies — are working to limit the chemical’s presence in the area.
The pesticide, methyl bromide, is used by companies to kill harmful pests on imported fruits and vegetables that arrive through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, according to a Thursday, April 22, city report.
Though the use of methyl bromide was globally banned under the Montreal Agreeme...
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Here’s a deeper dive into spcaLA’s lawsuit against Long Beach after lease termination

With Long Beach and spcaLA’s dispute over the city ending their 26-year partnership officially in litigation, additional details about the events leading to that decision have come to light — from the latter party’s perspective.Tension between Long Beach Animal Care Services and the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had been brewing for several years before the city terminated spcaLA’s lease in late February, giving the charity a month to relocate its operations from t...
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10 years after Torrance Refinery explosion, pressure for a ban on MHF builds

As the South Bay community marks the 10th anniversary of an explosion at Torrance Refinery, advocates and elected officials are renewing their efforts to ban modified hydrofluoric acid at the facility — including via federal legislation.The 2015 explosion at the Torrance Refinery, which registered as a small earthquake, left four workers injured and covered the surrounding communities in catalytic dust. But it also ignited a movement against the use of modified hydrofluoric acid, at both the Tor...
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