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The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

EchoEs of NAfTA :

Keystone Pipeline Lawsuit Portends Anti-Democratic Decisions

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

n Jan. 7, TransCanada, the company behind the recently-rejected Keystone XL pipeline, filed two lawsuits—one in federal court, the other seeking $15 billion in damages under the North American Free Trade Agreement’s Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions.

“A powerful legal tool designed to protect foreign investors could undermine commitments made in Paris last month to reign in climate

warming emissions,” wrote Brian Bienkowski for The Daily Climate. “The tool [Investor-State Dispute Settlement] is tucked into two pending trade deals President [Barack] Obama wants to finalize this year…. The language is de rigueur for trade agreements and is designed to protect against what’s known as ‘loss of expected profits.’”

TransCanada’s lawsuit exposed a fundamental contradiction between Obama’s global warming activism and the trade agenda he continues to pursue. This despite intense opposition from environmentalists, labor activists and others in the Democratic Party, who’ve opposed similar deals all the way back to NAFTA in 1993.

Environmentalists’ condemnations came quickly. “This isn’t going to get the pipeline built, and it is going to remind Americans how

many of our rights these agreements give away,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, the leading organizer of the global grassroots climate change movement.

“These destructive provisions that wrongly empower corporations to attack our safeguards show exactly why NAFTA was wrong and why the dangerous and far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is worse and must be stopped in its tracks,” added Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune.

“This case, hopefully, is like the canary in the coal mine letting us know what we’d be getting into,” Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach said on Democracy Now! “The TPP would give 9,500 more companies—big multinationals from Japan, in banking, in manufacturing, mining firms from Australia—the right to do this.”

oAt People’s Yoga Health and Dance

By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

Jan Kain’s People’s Yoga and Dance Studio gives

clients a reason to get into shape and dance. For the past four years, Kain has been hosting Swing Peedro, a dance social where

you get to dress up and swing dance to live music from the 1930s and 1940s.

Swing dancing includes a variety of dances, requiring high energy, cardiovascular endurance and little bit of strength that

allow you to safely swing your partner into the air and not get hurt.

Swing Peedro is also just one of Kain’s efforts to get more people, and men in particular, dancing.

“Without men dancing, you won’t have anybody dancing,” Kain said, in reference to the lack of men getting their workouts at a dance studio and why.

“A lot of men are worried about how they look;

Jan Kain of People’s Yoga in San Pedro. Photo by Ashley Wright.

The tar sands of north-ern Alberta, Canada. Photo by Jiri Rezac.

[See Swing, page 2] [See Echoes, page 6]

Football and CTE: The Game Isn’t Just a Game, Anymore p. 3Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia Delivers the State of the City p. 5Chef Roy Choi’s LocoL and Sirens Are Open for Business p. 13

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Health

Kain recalled students who initially joined her fitness classes but would shy away from the dance classes until they took one. Aside from meeting their fitness goals, they donned a new more confident attitude. And, at least one couple who became students went from beginning dance to learning and performing a dance at their wedding.

Yoga is one of Kain’s more popular classes. Her classes are occasionally filled primarily with men.

“These guys [who are in my yoga classes] aren’t macho or in their 20s with muscles,” she said. “They were definitely dealing [with] flexibility issues and yoga was recommended by their doctors.”

People’s Yoga Health and Dance studio is boutique studio where clients get individualized instruction. Kain describes her studio as small compared to other chain-gyms offering similar services.

Her studio also teaches a variety of yoga disciplines, as well as other spin-off classes such as Pilates, Tai Chi, mind and body classes and meditation. Dance related classes that are dance related exercise.

She also included a yoga-based fusion class called koga that combines kickboxing with yoga and another class called piya an exercise with Pilates and yoga inspired moves.

Kain, as a licensed personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise, provides health assessments to help clients reach their goals. Though Kain doesn’t prefer to use gym equipment, she has incorporated some equipment to assist individual workouts.

“If working out in a class is not your thing, then [you] can work out on your own with some gym equipment such as cycles, punching bag, free weights, balls and tubes,” Kain said.

Born and raised in New York, Kain has been dancing since she was 10 years old. She attended the prestigious Professional Children’s School and the Quintanos Young Professional High School.

Her background is in ballet and jazz. She was

involved in theater too, allowing her to dance with the New York City ballet and appear in a number of Broadway and off-Broadway shows as a teenager.

She ultimately decided to follow her parents’ advice and study nursing to ensure she would have a profession when she graduated.

She moved to California and got back into fitness after she graduated, got married and started her family. She became a dance instructor while raising her children and she earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in public health.

“My platform has always been health, wellness and prevention,” Kain said.

“I just thought it was a good idea and moving your body and dancing is fun. It’s also great exercise.”

Kain fused health, wellness and medicine with movement and created several programs.

“Once you get sick, it’s too late. You may as well do the health and exercise and enjoy it and turn it into a lifestyle,” she said.

Kain has taught and provided consulting and training at large companies such as Bally’s, where she worked as a master trainer—a position where she trained many of the company’s trainers and instructors.

This experience gives credence to Kain’s boast: “I’m more qualified than the Joe Schmoe at LA Fitness who will just put [you] on a machine.”

If nothing else, Peoples’ Yoga Health and Dance is a place to achieve the “best you” you can be and some tools for living life more fully. In the end, like jazz great Duke Ellington said, “It don’t mean a thing if you ain’t got that swing.”

This year, Swing Peedro lands on the day before Valentine’s Day, on Feb. 13. Advance tickets are $20 and tickets at the door are $30.

Details: www.swingpeedro.com and www.peoplespalacesp.comVenue: People’s Yoga, Health and Dance, 365 W. 6th St., San Pedro

San Pedro Relay for Life’s 3rd Annual Purple Ball

The American Cancer Society is hosting its third annual “Purple Ball” in San Pedro, featuring food, dancing, an opportunity drawing and a silent auction. The drawing will include gift certificates, items retailing for $25, $50, $100 and more and silent auction items will include gift certificates, jewelry, services and vacation getaways.Time: 6 to 11 p.m. Jan. 23 Details: (310) 753-3334; Purple4Relay@aol.comCost: $80Venue: 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro

Complimentary Community Health Lectures

Learn about what’s happening to the body when it feels muscle pain—and what to do about it—with the help of Romina Ghassemi. RSVP required.Time: 7 p.m. Jan. 27Details: (310) 548-5656Venue: San Pedro Chiropractic and Posture, 1534 W. 125th St., San Pedro

The Many Dimensions of Dementia This is a free workshop for anyone who has

a family member with dementia, Alzheimer’s or memory loss. Don’t wait—most family caregivers experience caregiver burnout long before considering home care, dementia care or seeking professional help.Time: 6:30 p.m. Cost: FreeDetails: (310) 383-1877 Venue: 3210 W. Sepulveda Blvd., Torrance

they’re worried about whether they can keep up; they want to be macho and lift big weights, jump big ropes and throw tires down the street,” Kain said.

“But then they get hurt, because they don’t know what they’re doing, and then they do nothing.

Though People’s Yoga and Dance accept clients of all ages, Kain’s clientele are largely adults.

Kain also has a weight loss and weight management program called FitStar, a five-point program focused on nutrition, cardiovascular exercise, strength and resistance training, flexibility and balance training.

The Jan Kain Line Dance Blast was rolled out Jan. 12—partly as a hook that could draw more men. Line dancing doesn’t require a partner nor do you have to know how to lead. The Line Dance Blast provides a complete cardio workout similar to Zumba, but instead you learn line dances. The Line Dance Blast started Jan. 12 and is on Tuesday nights.

INTO SHAPE IN 2016

Jan Kain leading the Line Dance Blast at People’s Yoga, Health and Dance. Photo by Ashley Wright

[Swing, from page 1]

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The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

The recent release of NFL Hall-of-Famer Frank Gifford’s autopsy and the timely premiere of the movie Concussion has many people taking a second look at the game that millions love.

The results of post-mortem brain studies of former football players have blindsided many, yielding frightening facts about contact sports, specifically NFL football. The sport has replaced 23 Sundays of the year for many throughout the world.

Football players didn’t just begin getting concussions during the past decade. Concussions have always been a consequence of contact sports. Recent advances in medicine have yielded the discovery of a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.

CTE is a degenerative disease found in people who have sustained numerous concussions and blows to the head. People diagnosed with CTE often end up dealing with dementia,

memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression. Sometimes, it even ends with a person with CTE taking his or her own life. CTE, for the time being, can only be diagnosed in patients post-mortem. It has been found in 87 former NFL players during in the past 10 years. Players are now dealing with serious effects of the game they played their whole life.

The National Football League has promised to fight to make the

game safer.But there is evidence that

the NFL has known more—and done less—about CTE and other mentally or physically debilitation conditions than it has let on. The league feared it would be in danger once players began finding out about the permanent, adverse reactions that years of blows to the head caused. In 2013, the league settled with several former players for damages they sustained during

their playing days. The settlement was not only for injuries sustained, but the information the league withheld from these players.

Players or their survivors were paid a combined total of $765 million. 18,000

players are eligible for this settlement. Former athletes representing the most severe cases of Parkinson’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease and CTE will receive between $1 and $5 million. Those with moderate cases

A boatload of bills signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown were enacted this month. In Jan. 7 edition of Random Lengths, we published six new laws covering the Affordable Care Act and medicinal marijuana. The following are four more laws that were enacted as of Jan. 1. 2016:

Assembly Bill 1163 aims to protect insurance brokers from last-minute changes to their contracts with health plans. Certified agents also are required to help individuals enroll in Medi-Cal regardless of compensation under their contracts with the exchange.

Under AB 1163, by Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona), insurers will be required to provide brokers with 45 days’ notice before making major changes to their contracts.

This bill is considered a big win for agents. Agents have this protection in property or casualty, but not in health care.

AB 1321 directs the state’s Department of Food and Agriculture to obtain federal funding to provide incentives for food stamp recipients to shop at farmers’ markets. The federal farm bill of 2014 set aside $100 million to encourage the purchase and consumption of fresh grown produce through the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive program. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are more than 3,000 farmers markets that accept food stamps.

The bill’s author, California State Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), noted at a Sept. 4, 2015, news conference that other states, such as Washington and Massachusetts, have taken leadership roles in obtaining these funds for their residents.

AB 187 temporarily protects California Children’s

Services, a longstanding public health program that serves children with chronic, life-threatening and disabling conditions—a program that state health officials have recently sought to dismantle. The California Department of Health Care Services has for months faced significant backlash over its overhaul proposal.

The overhaul would have meant that low-income children with very serious conditions would no longer have had a state program coordinating their care and instead would have had health insurance organizations overseeing their health care and treatment plans.

Critics of the plan, including a coalition of children’s hospitals and local county health officials, had argued that this reorganization could have fatal consequences by limiting the services medically fragile children receive. Health advocates have feared that, under the proposal, patients who currently rely on a statewide system of doctors would have struggled to access specialty providers outside of the managed healthcare plans’ more limited networks.

AB 187 preserves California Children’s Services in its current form until January 2017. DHCS still intends to move forward with efforts to transition children into managed care—starting in 2017.

AB 775, also known as The Reproductive FACT Act, ensures that all women have access to reproductive health services regardless of income. AB 775 requires all California licensed and unlicensed facilities to distribute information to their clients about comprehensive family planning services including contraception, abortion and prenatal care. That also goes for faith-based pregnancy centers whose philosophies and beliefs condone abortion.

It Isn’t Just a Game, AnymoreBy Joseph Baroud, Contributing Reporter

Health-Related Laws for 2016By Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

[See Game, page 4]

An autopsy report of NFL Hall-of- Famer Frank Gifford revealed startling findings on CTE. File photo.

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718 S. Weymouth Ave., San Pedro 310.521.9555 • www.yoga-bindu.com

FREE 30-minute Yoga classes every hour from12-5pm

Opportunities to win Yoga class passes!

Rosie Good

New Year Open HouseSunday, Jan. 31, 12-5pm • Yoga, Food & Fun

such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia would receive $190,000.

The NFL Players Association has advocated heavily on the side of their own, especially those whose conditions have left them incapable of doing so.

“Football, in general, would have us believe that we could make the game safe,” said Dr. Lawrence Genen, a psychiatrist with The Genen Group. “But the reality is that evidence shows that repetitive blows to the head will ultimately lead to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.”

The NFL will have a tough time making its game safe, and regardless, the likelihood of developing something like CTE can’t even be slimmed down, Genen said.

“It’s very difficult to imagine a way in which you’re truly going to significantly decrease the risk of developing CTE,” Genen said. “I appreciate that they’re making attempts to make the game safer by making an effort to eliminate helmet-to-helmet hits, but the feedback is that

those hits still do occur and even good tackles often result in blows to the head.”

Not only are the professionals susceptible to diseases caused from repetitive head trauma, Pop Warner, high school and collegiate level players are also susceptible. “I’ve talked to some trainers, particularly with the YMCA, and they feel the younger athletes are at a higher risk,” said Dr. Harley Deere, a neurologist with Dignity Health at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Long Beach. “‘[They] should play flag football until they get into high school.”

Younger players are at risk because they’re still learning how to tackle and specialists believe that adolescent players are more vulnerable to developing CTE from multiple head blows over a period of time.

A smart mouth-guard, which transmits real-time information via bluetooth in order to

stop the direct blow to the brain is the problem,” Deere said. “The brain is inside your skull and the helmet is good, it protects your skull, but it doesn’t protect the blow to the brain, because the brain moves inside the skull.

“I think it comes down to the people who are administering the program, whether it be the schools, the people pushing these programs, they [should be] held responsible to make sure the kids are protected.”

Genen cited a New York Times article regarding helmetless practices. The article suggested that not using a helmet forces players to tackle using their arms and bodies, placing an emphasis on proper technique.

The article referred to a study featuring the University of New Hampshire football team. Half of the team practiced twice a week without wearing helmets. During the regular season, players wore helmets equipped with sensors that kept track of the number of impacts and the force of those impacts to the head. By season’s end, the half of the team that participated in those helmetless practices were hitting their head about 30 percent less than the half that didn’t.

Putting specialists on the sidelines to help evaluate injuries was also recommended.

“It would be great to see almost every team in all sports have an orthopedic surgeon as part of their coterie of team physicians,” Genen said. “Having a team psychiatrist makes sense on multiple levels.”

The National Institute of Health is working with the NFL to find the closest thing to a resolution. The NFL promised to donate $30 million to the NIH for traumatic head injury research. The NFL would hold on to the money and allocate the necessary amount for each project the NIH presents and is approved. Even though the NFL said the money would come with no strings attached, it vetoed an NIH proposal.

NIH announced a 7-year, $16 million research initiative that it wanted the NFL to fund with the money the league promised. However, when the NIH selected the leader of their research team, the NFL reneged on this specific project, forcing the NIH to fund it itself.

The future of football might be not in the hands of those who catch it, but with the doctors and researchers involved with the NIH and this situation.

Dr. Robert Stern, a prominent researcher from Boston University, was selected by the NIH to head the research group in charge of the 7-year study. Stern has been critical of the league in the past, saying commissioner Roger Goodell inherited a cover-up from his predecessor Paul Taglibue. He also wrote a critical 61-page report opposing the league’s settlement with the players, claiming many players who were affected would not be eligible to receive any award from it.

The study, which the NIH will fund, will consist of 50 researchers at 17 different institutions. Hundreds of former NFL and collegiate players also volunteered to participate as studies.

The aim is to detect, define and measure the progression of CTE.

pinpoint the exact location and direction of a head injury, is one of many precautionary tools being developed. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, known as fMRI, also helps by showing how the affected area is functioning, as opposed to a regular MRI, which only reveals the structure. But a helmet can only help guard the exterior of the head.

“[That] the helmet doesn’t

CTE, Not Just A Game[Game, from page 3]

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The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

Community Announcements:

Harbor AreaCommitted to Independent Journalism in the Greater LA/LB Harbor Area for More Than 30 Years

LA County Dept. of Parks and Recreation Community Engagement Meeting

The county and all 88 cities are taking stock of all green spaces, from parks and recreation facilities to open space to cultural and performing arts venues. Department heads are looking for community responses to questions such as What is the condition of your local park and what would it cost to get it into good shape? Do residents have a park within a 10-minute walk? Is the park used beyond capacity, need improvement or different amenities? Bring your answers to one of these meetings:6:30 p.m. Jan. 21Peck Park Recreation Center, 560 N. Western Avenue, San Pedro6:30 p.m. Jan. 21Bixby Park, 130 Cherry Avenue, Long Beach6:30 p.m. Jan. 25Whaley Park Community Center, 5620 E. Atherton Street, Long Beach

10 a.m. Jan. 30Harbor UCLA Hospital--Assembly Room1000 W. Carson Street, Torrance

Coffee with Lowenthal, O’Donnell and Austin

Councilman Al Austin, state Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell and Rep. Alan Lowenthal invite their constituents to a casual conversation about federal, state and local legislative issues over a cup of coffee.Time: 9 to 10:30 a.m. Jan. 23Venue: Expo Arts Center, 4321 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach

Los Angeles Forum on CrimeCouncilman Joe Buscaino is hosting a forum on

the 20 percent rise in violent crime and 10 percent rise in property crime in Los Angeles. In the Harbor Division, overall violent crime was up 34 percent, while property crimes were up by 17 percent. All 21 Los Angeles Police Department divisions reported crime increases this year.

The featured speakers will be LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, LAPD Commission President Matthew Johnson, and Assistant Commanding Officer of South Bureau Phillip Tingirides. Time: 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 4Venue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

PVAC Seeks SubmissionsStudents and recent graduates from leading

Southern California art programs are invited to mine the cultural landscape of Los Angeles for inspiration leading to the submission of dynamic new work to be showcased in Palos Verdes Art Center’s second biennial Alpay Scholarship University student juried exhibition, Now Trending. Submission deadline is Feb. 22.

All media will be considered—and new media is encouraged. Each artist is limited to three submissions. There is no submission fee.

The winning submission will be awarded the $2,000 Alpay Purchase Prize and a $10,000

Garcia Talks Economics, Education, CrimeBy Zamná Ávila, Assistant Editor

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia painted a rose colored picture over a gloomy forecast at his Jan. 13 state of the city address.

Speaking to a full house at the Terrace Theatre Mayor Garcia focused on successes in economic development, education and action on crime reduction.

The 28th mayor of Long Beach emphasized themes of fiscal restraint and responsibility for the city’s balanced budget and modest surplus this year.

Included in the highlights of Garcia’s address:

• Unemployment at 6.5 percent, the lowest since 2007.

• Workforce Development Department served more than 3,000 job seekers and permanently placed more than 1,900 into jobs in 2015

Garcia also touted the latest tenants to occupy the newly renovated Pike, including the H&M, The Gap, Forever 21, Converse and Nike. He also noted that Virgin Galactic, Mercedes-Benz USA and Shimadzu Instruments have also recently found a home in Long Beach.

The last Boeing C-17 cargo plane left Long Beach this past November. Garcia put a positive spin on a sad event. Garcia noted that the city received $4 billion to repurpose the Boeing C-17 site and retrain workers.

“Aerospace is alive and well in Long Beach!” Garcia said. “I am confident that Long Beach—the birthplace of the commercial aircraft industry—is becoming a center of commercial space industry.

He also cited thriving occupancy rates at local hotels and months-long advanced booking at the Long Beach Convention Center.

Garcia articulated a long-term vision of poverty reduction as he touted the city’s efforts in expanding access to preschool education and internships for local students in local industries.

“In just 18 months, we have increased internship by more than 50 percent, adding more than 750 internships to 1,500 already being offered,” said Garcia, thanking Long Beach CALL, the Pacific Workforce Investment Network, Long Beach Unified School District and Long Beach City College.

He noted that LBUSD has added more than 800 new preschool seats, and is expected to open a preschool center in north Long Beach in 2017.

“Helping our neighbors requires a focus on education, retraining, jobs, and yes, fair wages,” he said.

In 2014, the city joined LBUSD, Long Beach City College and Cal State University Long Beach as a full partner in the Long Beach College Promise, which provides guaranteed admission to CSULB, and early outreach and intensive support.

Long Beach City College is now offering a full year of tuition-free for every LBUSD graduate in good standing.

Garcia endorsed the city’s Economic Development Commission’s recommendation to raise the minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2019 rather than the $15 that has been passed by both the city and the county of Los Angeles.

A week after the State of the City address, the Long Beach City Council passed the $13 per hour minimum with a “pathway” to a $15 minimum wage by 2021.

The commission also recommended giving small businesses and nonprofits an extra year to comply with the new minimum wage.

Garcia also touted the preservation or construction of 1,500 affordable housing units for families, workers, seniors and veterans; and that chronic veteran homelessness is officially ended and that he’s seeking federal certification for the feat.

The mayor, like other elected officials, did not define affordable housing, saying only that his office is holding meetings with housing advocates and developers to discuss possible affordable housing policies.

Although he never mentioned the occupancy level at downtown residential units, he set a goal to construct 4,000 new residential units in the 10 years that follow. About 224 units are under construction and 1,700 more are entitled for construction. Whether these units successfully will be sold and occupied remains to be seen.

The mayor also congratulated the Long Beach City Council for moving forward with the controversial Civic Center. While the project is expected to create 8,000 jobs, provide and expanded Lincoln Park, a more accessible library, residences, a new city hall and headquarters for the Port of Long Beach, some people question the motive and need to move forward with that project.

Garcia took the time to tout some of the port’s

accomplishments for the year.• 3,000 new jobs created as a result of

construction projects at the port, including the $1.5 billion Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project.

• 5.4 percent increase in cargo volume • 21 percent decrease in greenhouse emissions

over 10 years.

Public SafetyAlthough he did not mention the number of

officer-involved shootings this past year, Garcia did say that public safety must be supported by working with the city’s police, rather than against them.

He outlined six things the city is doing to improve its police force:

• Funding expansion for the city’s police academy

• Fighting human trafficking• Maintaining positive community relation-

ships• Implementing a body camera program• Developing mental health diversion

programs• Enhancing officer training to assist

homeless or mentally ill peopleHe said those are approaches are working

by minimizing response times to 4.9 minutes and answering 93 percent of emergency calls within 10 seconds.

While crime has increased in the city and across the country, he noted that 2015’s numbers were similar to 2011—the lowest crime level in a generation.

Garcia said he is confident that the city will meet the many challenges of the present and the future.

“The most important reason we will do this is our people,” he said. “It’s the people in Long Beach that make this city great and keep us moving forward.”

[See Announcements, page 10]

In his state of the city address, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia focused on the city’s successes in 2015, such as a 6.5 percent unem-ployment rate, the lowest since befor the recession. Photo courtesy of the Ctiy of Long Beach.

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Although various commentators offered different assessments, the $15 billion claim is objectively dubious. Plummeting oil prices could render the entire project unprofitable (Shell recently gave up on Arctic exploration, taking a $7 billion loss after nine years, partly because of this). At best, it’s much less certain than originally expected. (Prices peaked at more than $140 per barrel in 2008, and were still more than $100 as recently as May 2014, but are now under $30 per barrel.) Objective reality has almost nothing to do with the trade deal framework, which operates in a world of its own.

The federal lawsuit seems far-fetched according to reporting by Reuters, which noted TransCanada’s claim that the decision was “unconstitutional.” In contrast, they cited James Rubin, an environmental regulatory lawyer with Dorsey & Whitney, who called the federal suit “challenging.” Reuters explained, “He noted that courts have considered cross-border pipeline decisions before and have generally found they fall within the president’s discretion.

But international trade law is radically different—Sharia law for CEOs, crafted in secret for years by governments and corporations, with no public input at all, until hasty up-or-down votes on final bills. The NAFTA suit will be heard by a secret, private 3-person arbitration panel of the exact same kind that’s included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, TPP. Win or lose in the long run—expected to take years—the lawsuit’s filing drew sharp attention to how the TPP could effectively cripple efforts to cut

greenhouse gas emissions, just weeks after a landmark international agreement of almost 200 countries seemed to have signaled a new era of serious commitment to fight climate change.

“There was nothing unusual about the proposed pipeline or the oil it was intended to carry,” TransCanada argued in its NAFTA compliant, pointing to earlier pipeline permits that had been granted, before grassroots opposition gained traction. “Environmental activists, however, turned opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline into a litmus test for politicians—including U.S. President Barack Obama—to prove their environmental credentials…. The activists’ strategy succeeded.”

Thus, TransCanada’s claim is that democratic responsiveness violates NAFTA—and, by extension TPP. But it also ignores how falling oil prices and other factors may have changed the assessment. It’s now widely realized that vast fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground, in order to protect our future. This wasn’t yet recognized when the Keystone proposal was submitted in 2008. As with terminal building and expansion projects locally, the default practice of piecemeal analysis, neglecting or minimizing cumulative impacts, may well be “traditional,” but does not reflect reality, nor protect public health and welfare. In this instance, if rejecting Keystone were vital to securing widespread buy-in by other countries reducing carbon emissions, the cumulative impact of the project would be far larger than originally assumed. Thus, the Obama administration decision to reject the pipeline

would be very sound public policy—but could still be seriously attacked under NAFTA, or the proposed TPP.

“The idea that some trade agreement should force us to overheat the planet’s atmosphere is, quite simply, insane,” McKibben commented.

But it wouldn’t be the first time an Investor-State Dispute Settlement provision has been used to protect life-threatening corporate behavior, as it’s already being used to fight a cigarette packaging law in Australia under a similar system. Here in the United States, a meat-packaging law, passed partly in response to mad cow disease, was recently repealed after the World Trade Organization ruled against it, authorizing

retaliatory tariffs of more than $1 billion.Despite the clear threat signaled by the

lawsuit, the following Tuesday, Jan. 12, Obama pushed for passage of the TPP in his State of the Union speech, calling it “the right thing to do,” just two paragraphs before touting “the most ambitious agreement in history to fight climate change” that it threatens to undermine.

The disconnect in Obama’s speech is not

new in Democratic Party politics, but it also reflects a deep disconnect in the much broader global policy world, as well, pointed out by Ilana Solomon, head of the Sierra Club’s Responsible

EchoEs of NAfTA

Union members and working people unite behind the candidate that working families need—a President who will answer to the 99 Percent.

Stand With Bernie• Rebuild crumbling infrastructure—create 13 million good paying jobs• Reverse climate change—lead in Green energy industries and create millions of sustainable jobs • Grow the Union Movement• Pay equity and raise the minimum wage—end working class poverty• Fair Trade—end disastrous trade policies • Take on Wall Street—break up Too Big To Fail banks• Make college affordable—free tuition at public colleges• Single-payer Medicare for All health care system• Demilitarize police forces—reorient law enforcement training with input from community leaders, organizations like Black Lives Matter

To learn more visit www.BernieSanders.comPaid for by the readers of this newspaper. Send your contributions to RLNews, P.O. 731, San Pedro, CA 90733, note: Bernie 2016, or with paypal at www.randomlengthsnews.com

[Echoes, from page 1]

[continued on following page]

President Obama, flanked by Secretary of State John Kerry (right) and Vice President Joe Biden, announced the Keystone XL pipeline decision Nov. 6, 2015 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. File photo

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The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

Trade Program.

“In the halls of power where the [Paris] deal was being crafted there was very little discussion of trade and there’s a real challenge that these two issues—climate and trade—are operating in separate silos,” Solomon said. “In the trade negotiations, climate change is totally absent from the discussions…. If we’re really serious about taking on the climate crisis, we have to stop entering into trade agreements that constrain our ability to do so.”

Philip Morris Asia (headquartered in Hong Kong) used a similar Investor-State Dispute Settlement provision to try to block a 2012 Australian law which required cigarettes to be sold in plain, logo-free brown packages, with prominent health warnings. After losing in

“It took 50 years for us consumer groups to actually get mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat,” Lori Wallach of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch told Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! on Jan. 7.

It finally became law in 2008, a belated response to the mad cow flare-up in the early 2000s.

“The polling shows 90 percent of Americans love that law,” Wallach said.

Domestic courts in Canada and the United States refused to strike it down, but then industry groups brought it to the World Trade Organization—and won.

Industry groups “cheered the ruling” according to a report by The Hill, which covers Congress, which quoted a press release from the North

in the coming months before we have a long discussion around further trade negotiations.

But the unspoken premise here is that NAFTA

is good for the economy, and disrupting it would be risky. Nothing could be further from the truth. A detailed analysis from the Economic Policy Institute in May 2011, found that “As of 2010,

U.S. trade deficits with Mexico totaling $97.2 billion had displaced 682,900 U.S. jobs.”

The report broke down job losses by state and congressional district. Instead of trade surpluses and job growth promised when NAFTA was passed, the U.S. trade balance had gone from a slight surplus ($1.6 billion) to the aforementioned $97.2 billion deficit. Most of the

Environmental activists, however, turned opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline into a litmus test for politicians—including U.S. President Barack Obama…”

—TransCanada’s NAFTA complaint

The idea that some trade agreement should force us to overheat the planet’s atmosphere is, quite simply, insane,”

—Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org

Australian court, the tobacco giant turned to Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions under a 1993 trade agreement between Australia and Hong Kong. The case is still pending.

“ I . S . D . S . provisions have been a common part of trade agreements for 50 years, and they were originally intended to protect companies against foreign governments expropriating their assets or discriminating against them in favor of domestic competitors,” James Surowiecki explained in the New Yorker this past October.

But the once-rare Investor-State Dispute Settlement lawsuits have become increasingly common, and with expanded reach “against regulations they perceive as unfair” such as Australia’s cigarette packaging law. And Surowiecki also pointed out that “Canada was successfully sued for not granting a permit to a mining company on environmental grounds.”

Which is one reason the TPP is so worrying. It actually includes a carve-out provision barring tobacco companies from suing under its Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions, “unquestionably a good thing,” as Surowiecki noted. “But creating a carve-out only for tobacco underscores the basic problem with I.S.D.S.”

If it’s a bad idea to let tobacco companies wield that weapon against the common good, it’s even worse to let fossil fuel companies do the same. Tobacco companies kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. Fossil fuel companies threaten modern society as we know it, putting hundreds of millions, if not billions of lives at risk in the decades ahead. Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions are a powerful weapon for them to use in blocking governments from acting to help save us.

This past May, speaking at Nike in Beaverton, Oregon, Obama flat-out denied the existence of any such threat.

“Critics warn that parts of this deal would undermine American regulation, food safety, worker safety, even financial regulations,” Obama said. “This—they’re making this stuff up…. This is just not true. No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws.”

But that very same month, that’s exactly what happened—or at least started to. The World Trade Organization ruled against a U.S. appeal to keep its country-of-origin labeling regulation for imported cuts of beef and pork.

American Meat Institute, saying, “If there ever was any question that mandatory country-of-origin labeling is a trade barrier that violates our international agreements, the

WTO ruling against the United States today should lay those doubts to rest.”

The Hill went on to report that “NAMI said it will work with Congress to repeal COOL once and for all.”

Then, in early December, the World Trade Organization ruled that Canada and Mexico could impose retaliatory tariffs of $1.1 billion (Canadian) and $227.8 million (United States),

respectively. Shortly after that, Congress repealed the regu- lation.

But Obama’s claim that no trade agreement would force a change in

U.S. laws wasn’t the only questionable thing he said at Nike that day. He also sought to discredit critics of TPP who point to disastrous results of NAFTA:

When you ask folks, specifically, “What do you oppose about this trade deal?” they just say, “NAFTA.” NAFTA was passed 20 years ago. That was a different agreement. And in fact, this agreement fixes some of what was wrong with NAFTA by making labor and environmental provisions actually enforceable.

But far less has changed than Obama then claimed, now that TPP’s text has been released.

“The actual language that TransCanada is using in this case, because they filed a brief, is the same language that, word for word, is replicated in TPP,” Walloch said. “There are bells and whistles that have been changed” between NAFTA and TPP, but, “In many ways, actually, TPP expands investor-state [claims]. It allows more kinds of challenges.”

It’s not the first time Obama promised to improve on NAFTA, and failed to deliver. He promised to renegotiate NAFTA several different times during the 2008 election campaign, but changed his mind after the election. On Aug. 11, 2009, Democracy Now! reported on Obama’s first summit meeting with leaders from NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico, where he gave the following excuse for reversing himself:

At a time when the economy has been shrinking drastically and trade has been shrinking around the world … we probably want to make the economy more stabilized

“

“

[See NAFTA, to page 10]

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“A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad enough to do some-

thing about it.”

Columnists/ReportersLyn Jensen Carson ReporterB. Noel Barr Music DudeLori Lynn Hirsch-Stokoe Food WriterGina Ruccione Restaurant Reviewer Andrea Serna Arts WriterMelina Paris Culture Writer

Publisher/Executive EditorJames Preston Allenjames@randomlengthsnews.comAssoc. Publisher/Production CoordinatorSuzanne MatsumiyaManaging EditorTerelle Jerrickseditor@randomlengthsnews.com

Senior EditorPaul RosenbergAssistant EditorZamná Ávilazamna@randomlengthsnews.com

Calendar 14days@randomlengthsnews.comPhotographersTerelle Jerricks, Phillip Cooke, Tommy Kishimoto, Slobodan Dimitrov

Contributors Katrina Guevara, Ari LaVaux, Greggory

CartoonistsAnn Cleaves, Andy Singer, Matt WuerkerDesign/ProductionSuzanne Matsumiya, Ashley WrightAdvertising RepresentativesDavid Johnsonrlnsales@randomlengthsnews.comAshley Wrightreads@randomlengthsnews.comEditorial InternsMike Botica, Arlo Tinsman-KongshaugDisplay advertising (310) 519-1442www.randomlengthsnews.com

—Mark TwainVol. XXXVII : No. 2

Published every two weeks for the Harbor Area communities of San Pedro, RPV, Lomita, Harbor City, Wilmington, Carson and Long Beach. Distributed at

over 350 locations throughout the Harbor Area.

Moore, Ian Ruskin Random Lengths News editorial office is located at 1300 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731, (310) 519-1016. Address correspondence regarding news items and news tips only to Random Lengths News, P.O. Box 731, San Pedro, CA 90733-0731, or email to editor @randomlengthsnews.com.Send Letters to the Editor or requests for subscription information to james @randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, all Letters to the Editor should be typewritten, must be signed, with address and phone number included (these will not be published, but for verification only) and be kept to about 250 words. To submit advertising copy email rlnsales@randomelengthsnews.com or reads@randomlengthsnews.com.Extra copies and back issues are available by mail for $3 per copy while supplies last. Subscriptions are available for $36 per year for 27 issues.Random Lengths News presents issues from an alternative perspective. We wel-come articles and opinions from all people in the Harbor Area. While we may not agree with the opinions of contributing writers, we respect and support their 1st Amendment right to express those opinions. Random Lengths News is a member of Standard Rates and Data Reporting Services and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. (ISN #0891-6627). All contents Copyright 2016 Random Lengths News. All rights reserved.

Haskell Wexler, a man who touched so many lives through his work as a filmmaker and as a committed activist, has gone. He died in his sleep on Dec. 27, at age 93, and he will not be replaced.

I was lucky enough to have him as my director and cinematographer twice (and if you are not aware of his truly extraordinary body of work, visit his profile on IMDB.com. It will amaze you.

Above all, Haskell was a storyteller, and a storyteller of radical figures of American history.

In March 2015 Haskell was the director of photography for the filming of my one-man

play, To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine, his last theatrical shoot, because he had a great admiration for Paine, the one truly radical founding Father. We met at noon, shot in front of an audience from 7:30 until 10 p.m. and then Haskell spent an hour interviewing the audience as they left, laughing and telling his own stories at the same time.

When he was a mere 81, he directed the filming of my play From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, here, in San Pedro. We filmed at the Warner Grand in front of about 1,000 mainly longshoremen and women who came to hear

Haskell Wexler, a Man of Our TimesBy Ian Ruskin, Guest Contributor

[See Wexler, page 19]

Recently, I attended the 24th Annual Empowerment Congress Summit at USC sponsored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas of the Second District.

He is the first politician, either black or white, to call the “homeless crisis” not only the challenge of our time, not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a “civil rights” issue. He is perhaps uniquely positioned to voice this perspective, as some 47 percent of the homeless living in the county are black, out of a general population of 9 percent.

Ridley-Thomas’ address to the Empowerment Congress took on the sing-song quality of a sermon by a Baptist preacher, reminiscent of Dr. Martin Luther King, as he outlined the challenges of homelessness in Los Angeles County.

“With more than 44,000 homeless [people] on any given night and many more perhaps just one day away from homelessness, Los Angeles County is mired in a crisis of massive proportions,” he said. “Compounding this problem is the fact that there is a local shortage of 500,000 affordable housing units. The combination of surging housing costs, plunging incomes and diminished opportunities has left one in four Angelinos living in poverty with few

the beginning of the El Niño winter season. Leadership demands a critical response to

residents and business owners who object to encampments littering the streets and sidewalks of our communities—other than temporary enforcement of a municipal code that has

been repeatedly challenged on constitutional grounds.

Leadership demands swift action not repeated closed-door discussion of the facts and data of the homeless problem or the oft-repeated narrative that the majority of the people living on the streets are “shelter resistant.”

The facts are that we have 44,000 homeless people in the county and the Los Angeles County Grand Jury claims there are just 2,772 shelter

beds. What leadership demands is the opening of emergency shelters.

In the greater Los Angeles Harbor Area, there is just one emergency shelter—the Long Beach Rescue Mission. There are no emergency shelters in San Pedro, Harbor City, Lomita, Harbor Gateway or, God forbid, in Rancho Palos Verdes. Wilmington’s Beacon Light Mission, with its combined total of 20 beds for men and 20 beds for women for seven days, is not considered emergency shelter. There are nonprofits that provide assisted housing like Harbor Interfaith Services and Harbor View House if a potential client qualifies under their program guidelines. But most of our 1,500 destitute neighbors in the 15th District without shelter don’t qualify for one reason or another. The causes are many, but the solutions are few.

Everyone who has read the City of Los Angeles’ report on homelessness, or looked at the statistics, knows how daunting a problem this is. However, our political leaders also know how and have the power to act in a crisis.

Locally, the California National Guard Armory on 13th Street has historically been used as an emergency shelter. I don’t understand why the council office has not acted to open it at this time.

Moreover, there have to be hundreds of vacant or underutilized government owned properties throughout this district, if not the city and county of Los Angeles that could be commandeered by executive action to

prospects of a better life.”The county has only recently completed

some 1,900 low-income units regionally.Clearly, Ridley-Thomas’ view of the

problem is a more holistic one compared to some of the members of the Los Angeles City Council. They are more focused on implementing and enforcing anti-vagrancy laws.

Councilman Joe Buscaino of the 15th District, by contrast, as emphasized enforcing the onerous Municipal Code 56.11 rather than working on increasing the number of available emergency shelter beds in either the city or his district.

His leadership has been about as effective as his cleanup of the homeless encampment surrounding the San Pedro Post Office on Beacon Street on Christmas Eve.

Leadership in this context demands action, not more excuses for why we still have homeless people living on the streets at

immediately address this crisis.These temporary emergency shelters would

address the suffering of the homeless on the streets, and immediately redress the blight and complaints of the community, while giving social service workers a focal point to start addressing the underlying causes and conditions of homelessness.

If this were any other kind of crisis, like an earthquake or a tsunami, there would have been an instantaneous “all hands on deck” response. Emergency resources of the city would have been triggered, the Red Cross would have been activated and the National Guard would be called up—something would be done.

Yet, what we have here is a political

bureaucratic stalemate of elected leadership arguing over the shape of the problem, the terms of the solutions and the enormity of the costs. This is one of the great moral conflicts of our time and it not only takes great courage but true leadership to command real solutions. Both of which seem to be truly lacking in some parts of Los Angeles. And, homelessness is a problem the LAPD can’t arrest its way out of.,

And in honor of one of our greatest moral leaders whose birthday was celebrated this week, I’ll leave you with this one last thought:

“The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”—Martin Luther King Jr.

True Leadership Demands Action in a CrisisBy James Preston Allen, Publisher

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that the edifice, which produces beggars, needs restructuring.”

—Martin Luther King, Jr.

9

The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

RANDOMLettersShelter Still Lacking to Protect

Homeless from El NiñoBy Terelle Jerricks, Managing Editor

For months, homeless advocates have been sounding the alarm about the potential devastating impact El Niño would have on the region’s homeless populations.

The Los Angeles County Supervisors put together a civil grand jury to review county and city efforts to alleviate the misery that would be caused by historic rainfall.

It urged the county and cities to stockpile supplies and enough equipment to provide at least minimal sheltering for homeless people who are not able to get into a shelter.

The grand jury counted a total of 2,772 shelter and surge capacity beds in a county with 29,000 unsheltered homeless people. In Los Angeles, the unsheltered homeless population numbers totals almost 18,000.

The City of Los Angeles released the comprehensive strategy a week after the Civil Grand Jury’s report, but it’s silent on the lack of shelter beds ahead of this current El Niño. The grand jury further noted that it received information indicating that current planning by individual cities will not adequately supplement the emergency shelters. Among the recommendations of the Civil Grand Jury:

• The County of Los Angeles and its cities should immediately locate buildings that could be used to shelter about 29,000 homeless people who will not be accommodated by the plans known to the grand jury.

• Determine what additional supplies and equipment need to be relocated to the buildings identified above to provide for the basic human needs of the people housed in those buildings.

• Immediately take steps to reasonably modify ordinances and regulations that would impede the sheltering of people in public structures and facilities during the El Niño event, by relaxing restrictions in health, fire and other safety standards applicable to non-catastrophic times.

The following are the locations of shelter beds in the Metro and South Bay areas of Los Angeles County:

Testimonial Community Love Center (60-bed program)5701 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles (30 beds)5615 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles (30 beds) (323) 291-6753Shelter operates through March 31.Transportation pick-up point: At 5 p.m. at Ted Watkins Memorial Park, 1335 E. 103rd St, Los AngelesAt 5:20 p.m. at Jesse Owens Park, 9651 S. Western Ave., Los AngelesAt 5:40 p.m. at Leimert Park, 4395 Leimert Blvd., Los AngelesAt 5:50 p.m. at Martin Luther King Park, 3916 S. WesternAve., Los AngelesGuests will be picked up in a white, Ford van.

Long Beach Rescue Mission (144 bed program)6845 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, (562) 423-2500Shelter operates through March 31Transportation pick-up point:At 4:15 p.m. at Channel Street Park and Ride 110 Underpass and Channel Street in San Pedro, At 4:45 p.m. at the Long Beach Multi-Service Center (Monday through Friday only—excluding holidays), 1301 W. 12th St., Long BeachAt 5:15 and 6:15 p.m. at 9 Magnolia Avenue—Parking Lot (clients are to leave parking lot grounds immediately) on Magnolia north of Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach No walk-ups will be allowed.Participants must use transportation to arrive.

First to Serve Inglewood Armory (100-bed program)111 Grosvenor Ave., Inglewood, (323)758-4670Shelter operates through March 31.The armory will be closed on Feb. 5 and 6, March 2 through 6 and 31, and April 1 through 3. Pick-ups may not happen. Please call number to confirm.Transportation pick-up point:At 4:30 p.m. at Jesse Owens Park, 9651 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles At 5:15 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Center 10217 S. Inglewood Ave., InglewoodAt 5:30 p.m. at Hawthorne Memorial Park, on the corner of El Segundo and Prairie Ave. in Hawthorne. No walk-ups will be allowed.Guests will be only allowed to bring one small bag into the shelter.

Thank YouThanks for 35 years of

perseverance in promoting the truth. It’s so hard to find it. We are so naive or biased. You have been seekers of the truth. Truth will always win, even though 50 percent of it is negative, while 50 percent of it is positive (well, I admit there’s that messy gray area, too). Keep up the good work.

Tom SteersRancho Palos Verdes

San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Report

According to the MTA Strategic Planning, the San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Report goes before MTA board sometime “in January.” Current indications are, however, that a great further community input, insisting on reviving and expanding of the Waterfront Red Car, is critically required right now. This is to avoid completion of the ongoing, but covert exit strategy from the red cars now in progress, which no elected will take credit for. Saving the existing line the red cars run on is the last chance for electric rail serving San Pedro in our lifetimes.

Insist to MTA all of this is mere preliminary to the ultimate connection of high-platform red cars with high-platform green line cars, on the first electric line into San Pedro. This Gaffey corridor is after all the very first red car route into San Pedro, opening in January 1903, as the California pacific subsidiary of LA traction in downtown LA. This eventually became part of the Pacific Electric Railway’s “Red Car” system.

MTA’s CEO can be reached at:Phil A. Washington, CEOLos Angeles County MetropolitanTransportation AuthorityOne Gateway PlazaLos Angeles, CA 90012

Since the traditional regular interurban red car service did not venture south of the stations at Sixth St. anyway, it is appropriate to retain and expand the use of the existing fine historical red cars for services northwards from Sixth St. The potential use of surplus Chicago “El” cars for instant fleet expansion should be carefully studied. Near term Metrolink service with idle surplus equipment from LAX, Bob Hope Airport, and Union Station, to the former American President Lines Cruise Terminal should be implemented with the possible use of existing tracks still in place on the dock.

Greater LA and the world should not be deprived of the real “Red Car” experience—this is the only real chance to fix that in an authentic setting! On that basis it is justified, and it “rates” to restart the San Pedro Waterfront Red Car right NOW (No Outrageous Waiting). It is way too special and unique culturally! “Cutting to the chase”….tell Mayor Garcetti to finally grab the chain of his dog

POLA and firmly yank!James Henry Washington Jr.

Long Beach

RE: The Real Threat to America

As you often state in your “At Length” writings, the following opinions expressed are mine and honestly my thoughts of trying to find a way to “DUMP TRUMP”!

I’ve thought for years that he worst president in my lifetime (of 71 yrs.) was George “W,” but if Trump gets in, he’ll take the

No. 1 spot away from that Texan. Trump’s baseball cap stating “Make America Great Again” is the same rhetoric stated by his forefather Hitler, who stated the same wording about his Germany being made “Great Again.” Trump’s bombastic and pompous statements he’s made of Mexicans and Muslims, and more than likely, you could be his next target.

In my opinion, if Congress doesn’t agree with him, he would override them, and do as he pleases by not following the Constitution and our checks and balances of our way of governing. If and when he could be our president—he’d more than likely have the USA under

martial law, and the “Hail Trump” sign would be a daily duty by all citizens under his rule.

“With Trump as President—we’d be under martial law.”

Allen Ray DurayTorrance

Send Letters to the Editor to: let-ters @randomlengthsnews.com. To be considered for publication, all Letters to the Editor must in-clude your name with address and phone number included (these will not be published, but are for verification only) and be kept to about 250 words.

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scholarship from the Beverly G. Alpay Memorial Education Fund in support of the creation of new artwork to be exhibited in a 2017 solo exhibition.• Submission deadline, Feb. 22 • Exhibition dates: March 17 to April 17 Details: (310) 541-2479; www.pvartcenter.org City of Los Angeles Sand Bags Available

With rain in the forecast, the Los Angeles Fire Department is offering free sandbags and/or sand at the following stations in District 15:

Banning Park, 1331 Eubank St., Wilmington, (310) 548-7538 (bags only, call to confirm availability)

Harbor City Recreational Center, 24801 Frampton Ave., Harbor City, (310) 548-7585 (call to confirm availability)

Peck Park, 560 N. Western Ave., San Pedro, (310) 548-7580 - Dept. of Recs. & Parks (sand only; call to confirm availability)

444 S. Harbor Blvd., Berth 86, San Pedro, (310) 548-7542 (bags only, call to confirm)

18030 S. Vermont Ave., Harbor Gateway, (310) 548-7579 (bags only, call to confirm availability)

Reporting storm-related emergenciesReport storm-related emergencies such

as trees down, landslides, potholes, and road erosion, by calling 3-1-1 operator. For TDD, please call (213) 473-3231. You can also use your smartphone, with the city’s MyLA 311 app, available for both iPhone and Android, or the Bureau’s LABSS app, available only for Android.

Community Announcements:

Harbor Area

displaced jobs (60.8 percent—415,000 jobs) were in manufacturing industries, with computer and electronic parts (22 percent—150,300 jobs) and motor vehicles and parts (15.8 percent—108,000 jobs) leading the way.

Two years after Economic Policy Institute’s report, as NAFTA turned 20, Economic Policy Institute co-founder Jeff Faux wrote a critical overview, published by Foreign Policy In Focus, in which he called NAFTA “a template for neoliberal globalization,” that impacted American workers in four main ways:

First, it caused the loss of some 700,000 jobs as companies moved their production to Mexico,

where labor was cheaper…Second, NAFTA strengthened the ability

of U.S. employers to force workers to accept lower wages and benefits…

Third, NAFTA drove several million Mexican workers and their families out of the agriculture and small business sectors, which could not compete with the flood of products—often subsidized—from U.S. producers. This dislocation was a major cause of the dramatic increase of undocumented workers in the United States…

Fourth, and ultimately most importantly, NAFTA created a template for the rules of the emerging global economy, in which the benefits would flow to capital and the costs to labor. Among other things, NAFTA granted corporations extraordinary protections

against national labor laws that might threaten profits…The same corporate protections block

consumer and environmental-protection laws. Since workers are also consumers, who live in the environment, they suffer a triple blow under NAFTA and all later agreements based on the NAFTA template.

“In U.S. politics, the passage of NAFTA under President Bill Clinton signaled that the elites of the Democratic Party—the ‘progressive’ major party—had accepted the reactionary economic ideology of Ronald Reagan,” Faux wrote.

Although Faux didn’t mention it, the consequences were dire. NAFTA passed the Senate 61-38, and passed the House 234-200. But Republicans supported it roughly 3-1 in both chambers, while Democrats split 27-26 in the Senate, and rejected it strongly in the House, 156-102. (Bernie Sanders, the sole independent, voted against it.) Intense White House lobbying was crucial to its passage in the House. Yet, this effort was a major contributor to the Democrats landslide losses in 1994. It turned Perot and his voters against the Democrats, while also helping to depress the Democratic base vote.

The story is told in detail in Three’s A Crowd: The Dynamic of Third Parties, Ross Perot, and Republican Resurgence by Ronald Rapoport and Walter Stone, but political elites are in deep denial over such matters, blaming a wide range of other things instead.

Perhaps that helps explain why Obama remains firmly committed to trying to pass TPP, but as a candidate, Hillary Clinton is much more wary about repeating her husband’s mistake, and she’s joined Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley in a united front of Democratic candidates opposed to the deal. While the media now has largely chosen to ignore TransCanada’s suit, the underlying issue is a ticking time bomb as we head toward the election in November.

[Echoes, from page 7]

Echoes of Nafta

[Announcements, from page 3]

TransCanada President and Chief Executive Officer, Russ Girling. File Photo

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[See Epic Homecoming, page 15]

20 Eyes Looks Forward to the Future

20 Eyes Looks Forward to the Future

Article and photo by Mike Botica, Editorial Intern

The Dec. 21 renaming of the intersection of Pacific Avenue and 13th Street after Ameri-can Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland was a homecoming celebration, that coincided with a gift-wrapped opportu-nity for San Pedro band, 20 Eyes.

The band’s performance of their song Wait for Me was aired on live television and written up in the Los Angeles Times.

“I’ve played it once or twice acoustically at small shows and stuff,” said Wolf Bradley, 20 Eyes’ lead vocalist and guitarist “So to play it and then have that many people there watch-ing [and] to get written up about it in the LA Times was really exciting, because that’s as big of a debut as we could’ve hoped for.”

To have the debut coincide with Cope-land’s return to San Pedro made it extra spe-cial. Bradley, keyboardist Chance Famighetti and drummer Andrew Macatrao were chil-dren 20 years ago, when Bradley’s mom San-dra took the teenaged Copeland under her wing and guided her into the world of ballet.

Bradley said Copeland has become like a sister to him, no matter the demands of their careers.

“She’s never seen me perform as a band,” Bradley said. “We did like a little secret im-promptu acoustic show for her. It was super cool,” he said.

20 Eyes isn’t Bradley’s first run at celebrity. Random Lengths wrote about him and his four-

piece band, Last Day Off, in 2009. Only Bradley and Macatrao remain from that band. With a few weeks to reflect on the late-December whirlwind of attention, it seemed time for an update.

Mike Botica: Are there any unexpected influences that you guys took from growing up in the ballet scene?

Wolf Bradley: For me, it’s been performing. I’ve been performing since I was three. An-drew and I met 10 years ago. He was perform-ing in ballet even before we started the band. Also, listening to such classical and classic great music like The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, or

[See 20 EyEs, page 14]

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(310) 519-1442

As is tradition, the Little Fish Theatre opened its 14th season with “Pick of the Vine,” an hors d’oeuvres platter of very short plays before the coming 10-course meal of full-lengths they will stage in 2016.

Members of the company say it may be their regular patrons’ favorite show. Judging by the audience reaction in the sold-out theatre on opening night, it seems Little Fish knows its core demographic.

It’s probably no coincidence that most ev-ery example of short theatrical performances you can think of—vaudeville, Saturday Night Live, etc.—are comedic rather than dramatic. Perhaps numer-ous separate bits of drama would be too heavy to ingest in one sitting, while a sketch can be swal-lowed without making you too full to consume more. Whatever the rationale, this is the ethos that dominates “Pick of the Vine.” Of the 10 shorts on the menu, only two-and-a-half are not over-the-top comedies. If you like your funny

subtle, “Pick of the Vine” is not the show

for you—and it’s not what they’re going for.In fact, there’s such a consistency of tone that

you would think a single author wrote at least half of these plays, if you didn’t know from the program that each is by a different author. For example, in How Nice of You to Ask (a college research assistant conducting a sex survey has the tables turned on him by his septuagenarian interview subject), The Temp (an office staff is a little too unfazed by the death of a temp recently in their midst), What You Don’t Know (two Cal-trans-type workers decide how best to deal with

a bit of roadkill with an identi-fication tag), and Reston (a pair of Ivy League alums are bound and d e t e r m i n e d that their prog-eny get in a preschool so selective that there are DNA requirements), just about ev-ery single joke is written and

delivered with everything but a neon sign that reads “LAUGH HERE.” That is a particular style of comedy, and — like all styles of comedy — whether it’s funny, is a matter of taste. Considering that the auvdience laughed perhaps

every time laughs were solicited, as mentioned above, Little Fish knows its patrons’ taste.

The most interesting pieces were the ones meant for a different part of the palate. Ten Picnics, a survey of the first four decades or so in the life of Frank as he revisits the same picnic spot with a series of women (first his mother, then vari-ous dates, and eventu-ally his wife and their own child), is a com-pelling idea, although ultimately it’s too am-bitious for the brevity of each vignette, which makes the whole piece come off as too slight. Develop this one into a full-length play, and playwright Mark Har-vey Levine may really have something.

George D. Mor-gan’s The Wiggle Room seems both more successful and more of a missed opportu-nity. Morgan’s play is a fictionalized ver-sion of a real-life con-ference call that took place on the eve of the doomed 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger mission between NASA employees and managers at aerospace and manu-facturing corporation Morton Thiokol. Per-haps being a fly on the wall for the call, in which NASA successfully inveigles Morton Thiokol to sign off on the pending launch even though they know that the temperature is such that O-rings are projected to fail (which they did, causing the in-flight explo-sion), is interesting enough, but what makes The Wiggle Room particularly compelling as a piece of theatre is that mono-maniacal bureau-cracy that is the lifeblood of Morgan’s NASA company men is funny. Ultimately, The Wiggle Room turns predictably somber, which almost comes off as a failure of nerve on Morgan’s part (although no doubt it would be a neat trick to make a play about a real-life corporate failure that cost seven people their lives funny from start to tragic finish).

The best of the non-comedic works is M. Rowan Meyer’s Cancelled, which concerns a couple coping with the death of their would-be adopted son just days before they were to travel

to Nigeria to bring him home. Director Branda Lock manages to keep the proceedings from running off the rails into melodrama, as well as orchestrating the night’s most effective block-ing.

The best of the comedies is David MacGregor’s Small Talk. On paper this tale of a

young lawyer (Patrick Rafferty) dragging his girlfriend (Kathryn Farren) to pre-mar-riage counseling be-cause she is incapable of making small talk — essential to the de-velopment of his future career — shouldn’t be as funny as it is, but the four-person cast’s various attempts (both real and role-playing) at conversation, more than a little of it cen-tering on cheese, are golden. Rhythm is ev-erything in Small Talk, and director Branda Lock once again does excellent work with her cast.

The many, many roles in “Pick of the

Vine” are handled by just nine actors, often called upon to play totally dispa-rate roles in back-to-back scenes, and on occasion even to

portray more than one character within a single piece. It’s quite an acting exercise, and without fail all of the cast members show themselves to be in good shape.

It would be too much to say that “Pick of the Vine” has something for everybody, or even that it’s a repast with much of a varied menu. But for most people there’s not much here that will get stuck in your craw, and if you’re in the mood for some lite snacks with a few meatier morsels thrown in for good measure, “Pick of the Vine” is likely to hit the spot.

Time: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 13Cost: $38 to $48Details: littlefishtheatre.orgVenue: Little Fish Theatre, 777 Centre St., San Pedro

Little Fish Theatre’s “Pick of the Vine”: Lite, Palatable Fare

By Greggory Moore, Contributing Writer

Annie Vest, Perry Shields (standing), and Patrick Rafferty find themselves in a real life sitcom in Binged There, Done That by Ken Preuss – one of 10 short plays that comprise the 14th Sea-son of Pick of the Vine at Little Fish Theatre. Photo by Mickey Elliot.

Come visit Us at our

new location:680 S. Centre St, Suite G(corner of 7th & Centre St.)We want to add a special thanks to ILWU for their part in the relocation of our business and allowing us to have a place to “start again”.

Rennie and I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has been here for us as we were blindsided by this devas-tating fire. Words will never be enough to express our gratitude to all of you. That store was home to us for seventeen years but now, thanks to all of you we are calling 680 Centre Street home. Please come by and see what your generosity has done.

-the Nunez Family

David Kieran, Perry Shields and Patrick Raf-ferty in The Wiggle Room by George D. Morgan – at

Little Fish Theatre. Photo by Mickey Elliot.

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FREE January 21 - February 3, 2016Roy Choi and

Daniel Patterson open healthy,

affordable fast food in Watts

By: Katrina Guevara, Contributing Writer

First come food trucks, then come restau-rants, then affordable and healthy food marry. C-U-I-S-I-N-E.

That is the love story of chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson from the ground up. The duo have joined forces to open their first fast food restaurant, called LocoL in Watts, on Martin Lu-ther King Jr. Day. More branches are tentatively targeted for the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and East Oakland.

“It’s two concepts together,” said Choi when describing the meaning behind the restaurant name at last August’s MAD4 festival. “Loco, like we’re fucking crazy to be doing this; And then, local.”

Their mission statement on their LocoL IndieGogo page is to have “Revolutionary fast food made with real ingredients to nourish the body, soul and community.” Choi and Patterson are on a quest to feed everyone deli-cious, healthy and affordable meals, especially in low-income neighbor-hoods. They are also collaborat-ing with world-renowned chefs Rene Redzepi (Noma) and Chad Robertson (Tartine Bakery) to revolu-tionize food tech-nology. Patterson has collaborated with Tartine bakery on whole grain burger buns technology by using rice flour as an ingredient. They aim to change supply lines in order to make efficient and deli-cious food to bring to other areas, said Patterson in the LocoL introduction video. Choi said he wants to put chefs rather than the suits back into the food game.

Choi and Patterson announced the restaurant concept at last year’s MAD4, the annual Copen-hagen gathering for chefs, cooks and farmers founded by Redzepi. Choi’s big question was where to start with social change. So, he started by applying the Danish ergonomics of practical, minimal and high-minded style into food culture. Choi does not like the idea of fast food trapping children with unhealthy options. He wanted a restaurant to have flow, so his first concept for LocoL was to have an open kitchen.

Patterson said no chefs have gone into the fast food sector. Since chefs ultimately feed people, they can perhaps be a solution to hunger.

The LocoL Instagram (@welocol) account showcases the makings of the fast-food joint. The restaurant started its job fair in mid-December for a staff entirely local to Watts. The social me-dia account previews the development of menu items ranging from a pressed burger to nuggets. From the MAD4 symposium, Choi said a $5 to $9 burger is a huge valley. The recently posted

LocoL menu offers “Burgs” at $4. “The Fried Chicken Burger” has slaw, buttermilk mayo and hot sauce. “Foldies” at $2 are a combination of a taco, quesadilla and pupusa. “The Bulgar Lan-guage” for $4 is a bowl that comes with green goddess creamy dressing and croutons. The ap-petizers are $1 each, along with comparatively

affordable items like bowls, burri-tos, soft serve ice cream, agua fres-cas and breakfast items.

The massive open kitchen is the sight of the minimal restau-rant with “We Are Here” lettering at the main door.

LocoL is Watts’ first sit-down res-taurant in years, said Councilman Joe Buscaino from a video of the soft opening on Jan. 16.

The original IndieGogo campaign to fund the fast food restaurant reached its goal of $100,000 by March 19, 2015. More than 1,366 backers donated a total of $128,103 for both restaurant locations.

The concept started a few years ago with Patterson founding The Cooking Project to teach children how to cook at home. Patterson said there is no cooking problem, just a tasting problem in the na-tion. Choi volunteered at A Place Called Home in South Cen-tral Los Angeles to empower the youth to open their food-based business through cooking.

LocoL is now the latest addition to the densely popu-lated 2.1 square mile neighborhood of Watts. The Los Angeles Times re-ports 45 percent of food places in South Central are fast food chains. The United

States has the biggest fast food industry, making $200 billion annually. On the contrary, the me-dian resident age of Watts is 21 years old, which is younger than most of the county and country. The neighborhood has the highest rate of single parent families at 2,818 families out of a popula-tion of 41,028 population in 2008 based on Los Angeles Department of City Planning estimates.

Choi is the owner of local restaurants Chego!, Sunny Spot, A-Frame, Pot, 3 Worlds Café, Alibi Room, Commissary at the Line Hotel and the infamous Kogi truck. Daniel is the founder and owner of Daniel Patterson Group, which in-cludes restaurants Coi, Alta, Plum, Plum Bar and Haven.

Fast food has quickly changed in the last two generations. Choi believes it can be changed in another two generations. With Choi dubbed as one of the godfathers of the food truck move-ment, he along with self-taught chef Patterson are forces to be reckoned with.

Details: (310) 123-4567; www.welocol.comVenue: LocoL1950 E 103rd St., Los Angeles

Chef Roy Choi with film director of Chef, Jon Favreau, at the grand

opening of LocoL. Photo by Phillip Cooke

Foodies, elected officials and Watts residents crowded the doorstep of LocoL..

Chef Roy Choi stands with LocoL grand opening celebration attendees.

Photo by Phillip Cooke

Local children enjoy the food of LocoL.

Photo by Phillip Cooke

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Big Nick’s PizzaTradition, variety and fast delivery — you get it all at Big Nick’s Pizza. The best selection of Italian specialties

include hearty calzones, an array of pastas and, of course, our amazing selection of s i g n a t u r e pizzas, each piled high with the freshest t o p p i n g s . Like wings or greens? We

also offer an excellent selection of appetizers, salads, beer and wine. Call for fast delivery. Hours: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Sun.-Thurs., 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat. Big Nick’s Pizza • 1110 N. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 732-5800 • www.facebook.com/BigNicks

BuoNo’s autheNtic PizzeriaA San Pedro landmark for over 40 years, famous for exceptional award-winning pizza baked in brick ovens. Buono’s also offers classic Italian

dishes and s a u c e s based on tr ied-and-true family r e c i p e s and hand-s e l e c t e d ingredients that are

prepared fresh. You can dine-in or take-out. Delivery and catering are also provided. Additionally, there are two locations in Long Beach. Hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. • Buono’s Pizzeria • 1432 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro • (310) 547-0655 • www.buonospizza.com

haPPy DiNerThe Happy Diner isn’t your average diner. If you pay attention to its

special menu on blackboards, it’s almost a certainty you’re going to find something new each week. The cuisine runs the gamut of Italian and Mexican

to American continental. The Happy Diner chefs are always creating something new. They believe that if an item is good, its reputation will get around by word of mouth. You can even find items normally found at curbside lunch trucks. You can take your pick of grilled salmon over pasta or tilapia and vegetables, prepared any way you like. Try their chicken enchiladas soup made from scratch. Happy Diner • (310) 241-0917 • 617 S. Centre St., san Pedro

Niko’s PizzeriaOne of downtown San Pedro’s signature

restaurants features a full Italian menu, huge selection of pizzas, Greek spec ia l t ies and a beer and wine

bar featuring a wide selection of beers on tap and by the bottle. Watch sporting events on plasma TV screens throughout the restaurant. Delivery service to all of San Pedro, Port locations and hotels. 399 W. 6th St., San Pedro (at the corner of Mesa and 6th sts.) • (310) 241-1400

PhiLie B’s oN siXthOwner Philie Buscemi welcomes you

to Philie B’s on Sixth, where New York–style pizza, Sicilian rice balls and pizza by-the-slice are the specialties. Fresh hot or cold s a n d w i c h e s , gourmet pizzas and fresh salads are also served. Try the “white

pizza” with smooth ricotta, mozzarella and sharp Pecorino-Romano cheeses topped with torn fresh basil. Extended hours accommodate San Pedro’s unique lifestyle and work schedules. Catering and fast, free local delivery ($15 min.) available. Philie B’s On Sixth • 347 W. 6th Street, San Pedro (310) 514-2500 •www.philiebsonsixth.com

SaN PeDrO BreWiNG COMPaNyA microbrewery and American grill, SPBC features handcrafted award-winning ales and lagers served with creative pastas, bbq, sandwiches,

salads and burgers. A full bar with made-from-scratch margaritas and a martini

menu all add fun to the warm and friendly atmosphere. Wi-Fi bar connected for Web surfing and email—bring your laptop. Live music on Saturdays. Hours: From 11:30 a.m., daily. san Pedro Brewing Company • 331 W. 6th St.,

San Pedro • (310) 831-5663 • www.sanpedrobrewing.com

Beach city griLLLet the culinary adventure begin anew—Beach City Grill has reopened featuring your favorites along with soon-to-be favorite new additions. Now serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday

Brunch. Famous for Caribbean, Cajun specials, fresh seafood, salads, vegetarian and World Cuisine. Be sure to try the award-winning desserts by Chef Larry Hodgson. Beach City Grill, 376 W. 6th St., San Pedro. (424) 287-

0645 • www.beachcitygrill.net

striPe caféStripe Café Executive Chef Brett Hickey’s focus is on plant-based fare, with farm-to-table option highlighting his conscious cuisine. The quality food is fresh, organic and natural. Everything is made in-house and brings the seasons in, while having good prices. Hickey’s menu is full of delightful surprises: salmon smoked

each day, Nutella latte, l a v e n d e r -infused olive oil cake topped with lemon curd, and daily fresh soups. The café

is open for lunch, but pop-up dinners have already become highly anticipated special events. Reservations for October 8, 9, 10 dinners being taken now. Stripe Café • 5504 Crestridge road, rancho Palos Verdes • Mon-Sat 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., • (310) 541.2479

Include Your Restaurant in the Dining Guide In Print & Online • (310) 519-1442

Waterfront DiningBOarDWalk Grill

Casual waterfront dining at its finest! Famous for slabs of Chicago-style baby back ribs, fish-n-chips, rich clam chowder, cold beer on tap

and wine. Full lunch menu also includes salads, sandwiches and burgers. Indoor and outdoor patio dining available. Proudly pouring Starbucks coffee. Open 7 days a week. Free Parking. Boardwalk Grill • 1199 Nagoya Way, la Harbor - Berth 77, San Pedro • (310) 519-7551

POrTS O’ Call WaTerFrONT DiNiNGSince 1961 they’ve extended a hearty welcome to visitors from every corner of the globe. Delight in an awe-inspiring view of the dynamic L.A. Harbor while

enjoying exquisite coastal California cuisine and varietals. Relax in the plank bar or outdoor patio for the best happy hour on the waterfront. With the award-winning Sunday champagne brunch, receive the first Spirit Cruises harbor cruise of the day free. Open 7 days, lunch and dinner. Free Parking. Ports O’Call Waterfront Dining • 1199 Nagoya Way, la Harbor - Berth 76, San Pedro • (310) 833-3553 www.Portsocalldining.com

sPirit cruisesAn instant party! Complete with all you need to relax and enjoy while the majesty of the harbor slips by. Their three

yachts and seasoned staff provide an exquisite excursion every time, and all-inclusive pricing makes party planning easy! Dinner cruise features a three course meal, full bar, unlimited cocktails and starlight dancing. Offering the ultimate excursion for any occasion. Free parking. Spirit Cruises • 1199 Nagoya Way, la Harbor - Berth 77, San Pedro • (310) 548-8080, (562) 495-5884 • www.spiritmarine.com

[from 20 Eyes, from page 11]

[See 20 Eyes, on page 15]

things like that. It’s like the pop music of that era — super catchy, but very full of art and creativity.

Andrew Macatrao: They both have a lot to do with staying in time, they just go hand in hand.

WB: I feel like I forget how weird it is that we do ballet to some people. Well, not “weird” in a bad way, but just like “in-teresting,” because I’ve grown up with ballet and we’ve all taken ballet for a while … the most that it’s helped us per-formance-wise is being so comfortable performing on stage, because that’s where we like to be.

But Misty and Wolf aren’t the only art-ists from their household. Wolf’s mother, Cindy, was in a punk band called The Whigs, and played shows from San Di-ego to Los Angeles before the band eventually found their way onto KROQ. Now the former punk rocker runs the San Pedro Ballet School, but Wolf is well aware of her past life.

MB: Wolf, your mother was in a rock band in the ‘80s. Tell me more about that.

WB: She was in a band called The Whigs, and lived in San Diego for a while, but then all their shows kept getting shut down by the cops, so they moved to San Pedro. And then they started play-ing around LA a lot, and they got really big in LA for a little bit. This guy named Rodney Bingenheimer, who used to be huge on KROQ, he had a show called Rodney on the Roq, and he was the first person to play her on the radio. And he really took a liking to my mom and they were playing (her music) all the time. My mom’s favorite band is Blondie, and he knew Blondie (Deborah Harry), and they talked on the phone. I have a lot of their music, and it’s so weird to think about her as a singer and as a “punk” person, be-cause she’s so conscientious and careful now being a mom, because I’m sure she was different back then. Going crazy… (he laughed).

Cindy introduced Wolf to ballet at a young age, and it was through the bal-let school in San Pedro that Wolf met up with Chance and Andrew, later forming their first band together. Andrew and Wolf first started Last Day Off as a way to play the kind of music that they loved as children, but soon their hobby grew into something more.

MB: When did Last Day Off end and 20 Eyes start?

WB: Andrew and I started the band [Last Day Off].

AM: … in 2007 (continued) and 20 Eyes began in 2011.

WB: We were originally called, The Ballerhinos. I was 14, and we kinda just wanted to do Blink-182 songs and just write fun pop-punk songs. Then we got a little more serious about it and changed our name to Last Day Off, switched

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ENTERTAINMENTJan. 22

Don AdlerDon Alder’s music is a unique combination of deeply textured melody and story. Lyri-cal and compelling, his original songs are notes of exploration – some passionate and haunting, some hard-driven, others light and teasing. In quiet pieces or pushing right to the edge, Don’s phenomenal finger style playing and rich voice captivate. His style of playing incorporates finger-picking with simultaneous percussion to create a wall of sound. 40 per cent of his show includes vo-cal and he only does original material. His music ranges from jazz to folk to blues to world music.Time: 8 p.m. Jan. 22Cost: $20Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Jan. 23

OHMOHM is the brainchild of Chris Poland (gui-tar: ex Megadeth, Damn the Machine, oth-ers) and Robertino Pagliari (bass: ex New Yorkers, others), and Nick Menza (drums:ex-Megadeth).OHM has been making top-shelf rock and jazz music since 1998.Time: 8 p.m. Jan. 23Cost: $30Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Jan. 23

Burns’ NightEnjoy a night of bagpipes and a Scottish menu with haggis in honor of Robert Burns, Scotland’s renowned poet.Time: 6 to 10 p.m. Jan. 23Cost: FreeDetails: www.whaleandale.comVenue: The Whale & Ale, 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro

Jan. 23

Itzkoff, Melik-Adamyan Perform The In-terludes Concert SeriesClassical Crossroads’ The Interludes con-cert series present Beverly Hills National Auditions winners, amicus duo, cellist Cole-man Itzkoff and pianist Alin Melik-Adamyan, and the Sakura cello quintet.Time: 3 p.m. Jan. 23Cost: FreeDetails: (310) 316-5574; http://tinyurl.com/TheInterludesVenue: First Lutheran Church and School, 2900 W. Carson St., Torrance

Jan. 24

San Gabriel 7Experience a collection of Brazilian with horn driven jazz-funk.Time: 4 p.m. Jan. 24

Cost: $15 and $20Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Jan. 24

A Night of Modern Acoustic GuitarEnjoy a night of acoustic finger-style mu-sic played by guitarists from all over North America. The next generation of acoustic players, these musicians incorporate per-cussive and harmonic techniques that are considered to be the avant garde of acous-tic music.Time: 8 p.m. Jan. 24Cost: $25Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Jan. 29

The Sea ShantiesThe Sea Shanties have come ashore and will be in The Whale & Ale’s private dining room singing all of the favorite tunesTime: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29Cost: FreeDetails: www.whaleandale.comVenue: The Whale & Ale, 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro

Jan. 30

TriFectaTriFecta is always a good bet.Time: 8 p.m. Jan. 30Cost: $20Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

Jan. 30

The Bird DogsThe Bird Dogs, real life brothers Dylan and Zachary Zmed, bring a genuine and youth-ful Everly Brothers experience to the stage. The Zmeds deliver the same luminous harmonies originally sung by Don and Phil Everly..Time: 8 p.m. Cost: $25 to $140Details: http://tinyurl.com/hcyag94Venue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Jan. 31

HomenajeBe part of an afternoon of homage to Cuban and African-influenced jazz.Time: 4 p.m. Cost: $10Details: (310) 519-1314; http://alvasshow-room.comVenue: Alvas Showroom, 1417 W. 8th St., San Pedro

out some members, and we were still just playing pop-punk stuff. I feel like if we hadn’t done Last Day Off, 20 Eyes wouldn’t be as — what we think is good — as it is now. It really prepared us to be on stage all the time musically. But 20 Eyes started because it was time for a change. We didn’t want to play music that we were writing when we were 15 or 16, and we decided to change the name, change the style a little bit, and we’re constantly changing; there’s al-ways room for evolution in music.

Wolf says the band is demoing more than 50 new songs, hoping to further refine them through performing, and eventually put out a full-length debut al-bum as 20 Eyes. The band is also working on a TV pilot, a comedy show based in San Pedro about the band’s strange en-counters with fans and musicians while on the road and playing at venues.

MB: How do you see the future of 20 Eyes?

WB: I’d like to get the songs out there, because we have a lot of songs that we’re very passionate about that we love a lot that we play all the time, but it’s all just a matter of getting it to a wider audience. Because we have songs that I think are deserving of an audience and constantly gonna get better and better, so ... we can grow along with our fan base that we already have and turn that into something, touring more, start to get more real radio play here, and things like that.

AM: To put out a full-length album would be amazing [and] do a lot more touring.

WB: That’s what I love about being in a band. Performing is half of it, and writ-ing is half of it, and I love writing so much. Just doing that, writing new songs. Hope-fully put out another new song soon. It’s happening very organically, too, be-cause we haven’t paid anybody to get our song out there. People have just been globbing onto it and spreading it by themselves, and I think that’s really exciting.

MB: Who are some of your favorite

[from 20 Eyes, from page 14] artists? AM: Blink-182 was one of the first art-

ists that I was inspired by, Travis Barker’s drumming. Of course, Green Day. A few ska bands that my brothers listened to, Reel Big Fish. No Doubt, they have one of my favorite drummers.

WB: When I was really young, I just lis-tened to whatever my dad listened to, and my dad was more of a disco guy, which was really random because be-fore that he was more of a metal guy, so I really liked Metallica. My mom liked a lot of punk stuff, so I really like The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Clash, and all those really quintessential punk bands, Buzzcocks. But then when I discovered music I was in like 6th or 7th grade, Green Day came out with American Idiot, and I was like, “That’s what I love. That’s the thing.” My first concert was Green Day, and from then on in, they were my fa-vorite band ever. But I love The Beastie Boys. And, it’s horrible to say it, but I love Kanye West and I love hip-hop. We listen to, like, everything now. I love Grouplo-ve and Foster the People and Young the Giant, all those kinda indie bands that came out in like 2011 and 2012.

Chance Famighetti: My dad was al-ways into blues, and that got me into playing the piano. I started the piano when I was four, and since then I’ve been really into that kinda stuff. And then, early on, I got into really poppy rock, like Maroon 5. That was always my favorite. And now I’m super into hip-hop, as Wolf said, and we’re all into alternative stuff.

WB: Oh, I think the best band that’s come out in the last 10 years is Cage the Elephant. I love Cage the Elephant, their songs are always good. And Da-vid Bowie, which is crazy that he’s dead now. My mom, that was like her favorite person besides Debbie Harry. So when I was younger, Ziggy Stardust, that whole album and that era was really cool to me.

Check the band’s Facebook at www.facebook.com/20eyesmusic and Twitter at https://twitter.com/20eyesband, for live dates and upcoming shows.

Victorian Christmas at Banning Museum

[see Calendar, page 16]

Harbor area shenanigans

L to R: Keyboardist Chance Famighetti, Lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Wolf Bradley, and drummer Andrew Macatrao, at the Korean Bell, San Pedro. Photo by Mike Botica

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[Calendar, continued from page 15]

Feb. 4

Albert McNeil Jubilee SingersCal State University Dominguez Hills pres-ents Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers performing spirituals and other African-American music as part of Watts Rebellion Commemoration and Black History Month.The group is a critically acclaimed choral en-semble founded in 1968 by Albert McNeil, a long-time Los Angeles-based conductor and music instructor who sought to bring attention to the vast body of folk music termed ‘African American,’ particularly music known as ‘Ne-gro Spirituals.’ The singers’ rich and moving renditions of traditional African-American mu-sic, from spirituals to theater music, a cappel-la to choral have been enjoyed by audiences across the United States and in more than 70 countries.Time: 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 4Cost: FreeDetails: (310) 243-3337; http://tinyurl.com/Albert-McNeil-Jubilee-SingersVenue: University Theatre, CSUDH, 1000 E. Victoria St., Carson

Feb. 5

Andy and Renee with Hard RainAndy Hill and Renee Safier’s folk-driven rock performances draw loyal fans and high-ener-gy sell-out crowds.Time: 8 p.m. Feb. 5Cost: $25 to $35Details:www.grandvision.orgVenue: Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Feb. 5

Godspeed You! Black EmperorGodspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock collective from Montreal, QuebecTime: 8 p.m.Cost: $35 Details: ticketmaster.comVenue: Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro

COMMUNITYJan. 22

Creation StationParticipate in hands-on craft activities that are appropriate for all ages.Time: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jan. 22 through 24Cost: FreeDetails: (310) 732-1270; www.CraftedPort-LA.comVenue: Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles, 112 E. 22nd St., San Pedro

Jan. 23

Pet ParadeBreak out the top hats and tiaras for the Port of Long Beach’s 2016 pet parade.Time: 9 to 10 a.m. Jan. 23Cost: FreeDetails: www.portoflosangeles.org

Venue: Downtown Harbor, 6th Street at Harbor Boulevard, San Pedro

Jan. 23

The Great San Pedro Crab FeedThe Harbor Area Chapter of the Rotary Club is hosting The Great San Pedro Crab Feed, a family-style dinner. This event is sold out.Time: 5 to 9 p.m. Jan. 23Cost: $60Details: (310) 210-8577; arlenedickey@gmail.comVenue: Cabrillo Youth Center3000 Shoshonean Road, San Pedro

Jan. 23

San Pedro Relay for Life’s Purple BallSupport the American Cancer Society at the San Pedro Relay for Life’s Purple BallTime: 6 p.m. Jan. 23Cost: $80Details: (310) 753-3334; Purple4Relay@aol.comVenue: DoubleTree by Hilton Port of Los Angeles Hotel, 2800 Via Cabrillo Marina, San Pedro

Jan. 24

Sandy BanksThe Friends of San Pedro Library are present-ing Sandy Banks, a CNN, PBS and NPR com-mentator and celebrated speaker and former columnist for the Los Angeles Times. She will discuss the future of print journalism and the Times.Time: 2 p.m. Jan. 24Cost: $15Details: www.friendsspl.orgVenue: 434 W. 6th St., San Pedro

Jan. 27

Join SEA ClubThird to sixth grade students enrolled in Ca-brillo Marine Aquarium’s SEA Club (Science Education Afternoons) will learn while having fun exploring the local marine environment. The club will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on four consecutive Wednesdays, Feb. 3 through 24. Preregistration is required; deadline to register is Jan. 27.Time: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Wednesdays, Feb. 3 through 24Cost: $30Details: (310) 548-7562; www.cabrillo-marineaquarium.orgVenue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro Venue: L StrJan. 31

45th Annual Whale FiestaThis fun-filled family event, co-sponsored by Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the Los Ange-les Chapter of the American Cetacean So-ciety, celebrates marine mammals, and the beginning of the migration of the Pacific gray whales along Southern California.More than, 20 marine life organizations will exhibit and provide information about their

efforts to bring awareness and protection to these animals. Throughout the day our expert Cabrillo Whale watch naturalists will give talks on various marine mammals.Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 31Cost: FreeDetails: www.cabrillomarineaquarium.orgVenue: Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White, San Pedro

Feb. 4

Farmers MarketEnjoy Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center’s Farmers Market.Time: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 4Cost: FreeVenue: Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center, 1300 W. 7th St., San Pedro

THEATERJan. 22

Those Sketchy PeopleDigested Disney is a high-speed, audience interactive, improvisational, sketch parody of all the Disney animated films performed by two fanatics in 90 minutes. It contains sud-den drops of references and lots of twists and turns of phrase and is not recommended for those terrified of happiness.Time: 8 p.m. Jan. 22 and 23Cost: $10Details: lbplayhouse.orgVenue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach

Jan. 22

The MousetrapMysterious twists and thrilling turns abound when a group of strangers stranded in a guest house during a snowstorm discover that a murderer is in their midst.Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 13Cost: $14 to $24Details: (562) 494-1014; www.lbplayhouse.orgVenue: Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E Anaheim St., Long Beach

Jan. 22

The NerdAn unexpected visit from a socially inept nerd upends a man’s life in Larry Shue’s inventive comedy, The Nerd.Time: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Jan. 31;Cost: $48 to $58Details: (310) 544-0403; www.palos-verdesperformingarts.comVenue: Norris Theatre, 27570 Norris Cen-ter Drive, Rolling Hills Estates

Dining NewsSirens OpensSirens Java and Tea in the old News Pilot building in downtown San Pedro finally and officially opened its doors Jan. 9.

You might have seen the signs in bold let-tering down by the waterfront, “Do you hear the sirens?” Or spread across the downtown trolley, “The sirens are coming!” The signs have come to rest at a permanent location: Sirens Java and Tea on west 7th Street.

The focus of owners Raymond and Yo-landa Regalado is on in-house coffee roast-ing and tasty pastries made by Harbor Col-lege culinary students.

The name Sirens draws from the Regala-do family history with law enforcement and fire-fighting. But the name is a double enten-dre referring to both public service person-nel as well as the sirens in Greek mythology that enchanted sailors to wreck their ships on their island.

Robert Burns Night at the Whale and AleThe Whale & Ale is hosting its annual Burns Supper, Jan. 23, in celebration of Scotland’s most important and beloved export to the world—its national poet, Robert Burns.

The Burns Banquet menu will include: cock-a-leekie soup (chicken and leek soup); haggis with bashed neeps and tatties (hag-gis, mashed potatoes, and mashed turnips), carved roast leg of lamb, whole turkey or roast prime rib of beef au jus with all the trimmings. Tipsy Laird which is Scotch Whiskey Cake—a dish similar to trifle with Scotch whiskey instead of sherry). Tassie (a cup) of coffee with a dram (shot) of Dram-buie on the side.

Burns was born a son of a poor but hard-working farmer in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1759.

He attended school for a time, studying literature and the traditions of Scotland and was always sensitive to nature. For Burns and his family, moving from one master’s land to another, the very act of living was a daily act of survival.

It’s not surprising that Burns’ writings in-spired the founders of liberalism and social-ism in the 19th century. His prose and poetry commented on the world through the eyes of an educated peasant just before the dawn of the industrial age.

Details: (310) 832-0363; www.whaleandale.comVenue: Whale and Ale, 327 W. 7th St., San Pedro

[Calendar, from page 15]

Harbor area shenanigans (Continued)

The Grand opening of Sirens Java and Tea on Jan. 9. Photo by James Allen

[from Calendar, page 15]

17

Arts • Cuisine •

Entertainment >> IN

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FREE January 21 - February 3, 2016

Studio Gallery 345nEw works on papEr and CanvasPat Woolley and Gloria D Lee continue showing new work including watercolors depicting village scenes and country landscapes from their extensive travels in France, abstracts, figures and still lifes. Pat is also a children’s book illustrator, and you can see her children’s books, as well as unique jewelry and other small gifts from France. Open 6-9 pm on First Thursday and by appointment. For more information, call Gloria at (310) 545-0832 or Pat at (310) 374-8055, artsail@roadrunner.com 345 W. 7th St., San Pedro patwoolleyart.com

Michael Stearns Studio 347prIMaL pondAll art tells a story or conveys a message. By using organic materials such as sticks, twigs, leaves, stones, branches, feathers and shells, I tap into the source of narrative to chronicle it while honoring its offering. I collect what nature has chosen to discard, and if they have not been discarded, I will ask permission. The Primal Pond series addresses the original source of life force in the beginnings of the microscopic primordial soup or at the macroscopic level of the entire universe. Open during First Thursday Art Walk and by appointment drop-ins are always welcome. Michael Stearns Studio 347 is located at 347 W. 7th St., San Pedro. www.michaelstearnsstudio.com

a r t o p E n I n g s | o p E n s t U d I o s | F I n E d I n I n g | L I v E M U s I C | s p E C I a L p E r F o r M a n C E s | F o o d t r U C k s

South Bay Contemporary at the LofttHaILand: grown UpSouth Bay Contemporary at the Loft is pleased to present the works of three artists—Thai artist Sudrak Khongpuang showing oil paintings of the Thai countryside, Matthew Thomas, showing his drawings, and Scott Trimble, from Hermosa Beach showing a selection of his work, as part of SBC featured artist program. Shows are curated by Peggy Zask. Hours: 1-5pm, Thurs.-Sat. or by appt. The show runs through Feb. 14. South Bay Contemporary at the LOFT, 401 S. Mesa St,, 3rd floor, San Pedro, (310) 429- 0973. www.southbaycontemporary.com

Michael Stearns, Primal Pond #3, acrylic on canvasSudrak Kuongpuang, One Find Day with Friends, oil on canvas Detail.

Feb. 4

Piece from Studio 345, acrylic on canvas. Detail.

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THeATer WriTers WANTeD

Random Lengths News is seeking freelance writers to cover theater and film.

Candidates must have a strong command of the English language and be knowledgeable about litera-ture and have experience in writing about theater. The successful candidate will be required to arrange his or her own transportation to cover stories.

The successful candidate needs to have a thorough knowledge of what’s hap-pening in the theater and film scene, particularly in the harbor area. at least two years experience writing for print or online media required.in addition, the successful candidate should have:

The ability to write with flairExcellent organizational skillsStrong initiativeGreat time manage-ment skills

Working hours are flex-ible, but you will be encour-aged to attend biweekly edi-torial meetings. send your resume and a few samples of your writing to Managing Edi-tor Terelle Jerricks, at editor@randomlengthsnews.com or drop by the office at 1300 S. Pacific Ave. in San Pedro.

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CArsON repOrTer WANTeD

Random Lengths News is seeking a free-lance reporter to cover issues in the City of Car-son.

Cand idates must have strong command of the English language, and knowledge or interest of

Fictitious Business Name statement

File No. 2015288975The following person is do-ing business as: 1. rADD, 2. radd Auto parts 3. r.A.D.D. 4. r.A.D.D. Auto parts, 5. r.A.D.D. sales 6. radd sales, 7. rafael Alex Desi Distribu-tion 9. rafael and Desi Dis-count Auto parts, 10. rafael and Desi Distributors, 22108 s. Vermont, suite 107, Tor-rance, Ca 9502. los angeles County. registered owners: rafael ruvalcaba, 664 1/2 21st street, san Pedro, Ca 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: N/a. i declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (a registrant who declares as true informa-tion which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) s/. rafael ruvalcaba, owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles on dec. 1, 2015. Notice--in ac-cordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET sEQ., Business and Professions code).Original filing: 12/10/2015, 12/24/2015, 01/07/16, 01/28/2016

Fictitious Business Name statement

File No. 201532443The following person is doing business as: lenchner glass Company, 7708 Chimineas avenue, reseda, Ca 91335, los angeles County. regis-tered owners: lenchner steven Elliot, 7708 Chimineas av-enue, reseda, Ca 91335. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business name or names listed above: 12/02/2010. i declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (a registrant who declares as true informa-tion which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) s/. lenchner steven Elliot, owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles on dec. 29, 2015. Notice--in ac-cordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET sEQ., Business and Professions code).Original filing: 01/07/2016, 01/21/2016, 02/04/2016, 02/18/2016

Fictitious Business Name statement

File No. 2015319103The following person is doing

community issues and politics in Carson. The successful candidate will be required to arrange his or her own trans-portation to cover stories.

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Working hours are flex-ible. Writers are encouraged to attend biweekly meetings. send work samples to Man-aging Editor Terelle Jerricks at editor@randomlength-snews.com or drop by the office at 1300 S. Pacific Ave. in san Pedro.

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19

The Local Publication You Actually Read January 21 - February 3, 2016

business as: leeward Bay Ma-rina, 611 henry Ford avenue, #1, Wilmington, Ca 90744, los angeles County. registered owners: leeward Bay Marina inc., 1001 Casiano road, los angeles, Ca 90049, registered in California, lWB Marina, inc. 1145 s. W. sunset drive, Cor-vallis, or 97332, registered in California. This Business is conducted by corporationsl. The date registrant started to transact business under the fic-titious business name or names listed above: 12/15/1995. i de-clare that all information in this

DBA/LEgAL FILIngSfrom previous page statement is true and correct.

(a registrant who declares as true information which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) s/. robert Perel, President. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles on dec. 21, 2015. Notice--in accordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name state-ment generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920. were to expires 40 days after any change in the

facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET sEQ., Business and Professions code).Original filing: 01/07/2016, 01/21/2016, 02/04/2016, 02/18/2016

Fictitious Business Name statement

File No. 2016000132The following person is doing business as: (1) elite Connec-tion, (2) platinum reporters & interpreter, 302 W. 5th st., suite 303, san Pedro, Ca 90731. Mailing address: P.o. Box 6070, San Pedro, CA 90734. los angeles County. registered owners: Ghada Young, 6612 via siena, rancho Palos Verdes, Ca 90275. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fictitious business

This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles on dec. 9, 2015. Notice--in ac-cordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920 where it expires 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the statement pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a registered owner. A new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration.The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET sEQ., Business and Professions code).Original filing: 01/21/16, 02/04/16, 02/18/16, 03//04/16

name or names listed above: 01/01/2016. i declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (a registrant who declares as true informa-tion which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) s/. rand denina relatores, owner. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of los angeles on Jan. 4, 2016. Notice--in ac-cordance with subdivision (a) of section 17920. A fictitious name statement generally expires at the end of five years from the date on which it was filed in the office of the county clerk, except as provided in subdivision (b) of section 17920 where it expire 40 days after any change in the facts set forth in the state-ment pursuant to section 17913 other than a change in the residence address of a regis-tered owner. a new fictitious business name statement must be filed before the expiration. The filing of this statement does not of itself authorize the use in this state of a fictitious business

name in violation of the rights of another under federal, state, or common law (see section 1411 ET sEQ., Business and Professions code).original filing: 01/21/16, 02/04/16, 02/18/16, 03//04/16

Fictitious Business Name statement

File No. 2016000132The following person is doing business as: (1) roys Toys, 539 shepard, san Pedro, Ca 90731. los angeles County. registered owners: leroy Foughty, 539 shepard, san Pe-dro, Ca 90731. This Business is conducted by an individual. The date registrant started to transact business under the fic-titious business name or names listed above: N/a . i declare that all information in this statement is true and correct. (a registrant who declares as true informa-tion which he or she knows to be false is guilty of a crime.) s/. rand denina relatores, owner.

Wexler[Wexler, from page 8]

the story about their own Harry Bridges. And then, the next morning, Haskell was really in his element, in the ILWU Memorial Hall at 231 C St. He wanted to film three re-enactments from 1934, 1948 and 1963 to cut into the film. We had about 50 Local 13 members, with three sets of hats and jackets to suggest the time periods, and we filmed shots of Harry being cheered and booed, both of which happened to him during his 40 years as president of the ILWU. But it was in between the set pieces we were filming, that was when I watched Haskell wandering around the Hall, with his camera, going up to the guys and interviewing them: “So, why are you in a union?” “What was great about Harry Bridges?” “Do you still have to fight for your rights?” Haskell knew

all the answers to these questions, but he wanted the guys to talk about them on film. Because, aside from his body of work, his Oscars and endless awards, he wanted to tell the stories of regular people, and of people who struggle, who have no voice. THAT is what Haskell wanted to capture with his camera.

He was born into wealth in Chicago, road the rails to San Francisco, stayed at “Mildred’s” hotel, two bits a night with a slanted floor and a big “Mildred’s” sign flashing on and off outside all night. He saw longshoremen deal with scabs none too delicately and observed the underbelly of the “City by the Bay” leading up to World War II. He joined the National Maritime Union and spent time

as a merchant marine, including a shipwreck. In fact, on a “scouting” day in San Pedro to check out the Warner Grand, we went into the Maritime Museum and he was like a child in a toy shop, so excited to see ships’ equipment and explain things to me.

It is impossible to overstate his influence on filmmaking, but also his dedication to truth and justice. He searched out injustice and shone a big light on it whenever and wherever he could. While I miss him, whenever I think about him now, I smile. He lived a long, good, big, eventful life—doing what he loved to do. We should all be so lucky, except, of course, that it had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with the spirit of one amazing man.

Ian Ruskin is the founder of the Harry Bridges Project and is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Ian has worked extensively in theater, television and film. He first portrayed Bridges in Citizenship: The Harry Bridges Story at an ILWU convention in Los Angeles.

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