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African American Cultural Center opens new exhibit honoring legacy of Doris Topsy-Elvord

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some Cal State Long Beach students who attended college but weren’t able to finish their bachelor’s degrees may be getting some help from the state with the introduction of a new bill.
The bill, introduced by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, hopes to address certain gaps in the higher education system impacting millions of students across California, according to a Thursday, Feb. 12, news release from the assemblymember’s office.
Lowenthal represents California’s 69th Assembly Distri...
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CSULB to host 2026 commencement on campus for 1st time in 5 years

Cal State Long Beach graduates will celebrate commencement on campus in 2026, marking the ceremonies’ first return to the school in five years.
This year’s commencement festivities will take place at George Allen Field from May 17 to 21, according to an announcement from the university. Since 2021, graduates have celebrated their achievements at Angel Stadium in Anaheim.
The change in venue to Angel Stadium was originally made in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The outdoor stadium’s large cap...
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OC Coastkeeper sues U.S. Coast Guard for information about 2025 Port of Long Beach container spill

Orange County Coastkeeper, a nonprofit focused on maintaining the health of regional watersheds, has sued the federal government in hopes of getting more information about the environmental impacts of a recent container spill at the Port of Long Beach.
Around 75 shipping containers fell from a vessel berthed at the port’s Pier G in September. In the wake of the incident, a unified command consisting of various federal, state and local agencies was also established to recover the fallen cargo con...
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Rep. Waters reintroduces bill to ban toxic chemical used at Torrance, Wilmington refineries

Rep. Maxine Waters, alongside other California federal representatives, is restarting her effort to ban a toxic chemical used to refine high-octane gasoline at two Southern California refineries, an effort local activists have been working toward for more than a decade.
Waters, D-Hawthorne, announced the reintroduction of her bill, the Preventing Mass Casualties From Release of Hydrofluoric Acid at Refineries Act, during a Saturday event at North High School in Torrance marking the 11th annivers...
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Arts Council of Long Beach names Lisa DeSmidt interim executive director

The Arts Council of Long Beach has a new executive director — on an interim basis.
Lisa DeSmidt, who has worked with the nonprofit for a decade, most recently as its director of programs, took over the role on Monday. She takes the helm from Griselda Suarez, who announced her departure from the Arts Council last week.
DeSmidt is both a local artist and business owner, according to the Arts Council’s Monday announcement. She has helped shape the Arts Council’s programs, people and approach to ser...
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LBCC celebrates record enrollment and more during 2026 State of the College event

Long Beach City College leaders, faculty and staffers recently gathered to celebrate some of the school’s key achievements — including record-high enrollment in the most recent academic year — during its 2026 State of the College event.
The State of the College event took place on Thursday at LBCC’s Ellis Auditorium, featuring remarks from Superintendent-President Mike Muñoz and Board of Trustees President Uduak-Joe Ntuk. The event also included a performance by students in LBCC’s new mariachi p...
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Protests and closures are planned around Southern California in opposition to ICE, the Trump administration

Protests, boycotts, walkouts, social media posts.
These various demonstrations, and more, are planned for Friday, as part of a nationwide day of action to show opposition to the Trump administration‘s ongoing immigration enforcement efforts and in solidarity with Minneapolis, where two people were fatally shot by immigration officers over the course of two weeks.
Friday, activists said, is a day of “no work, no school and no shopping” with calls to stop funding the U.S. Immigration and Customs E...
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CSULB announces Loren Blanchard as new president

Cal State Long Beach will soon have a new leader.
The California State University system has tapped Loren Blanchard, the current leader of University of Houston-Downtown, to be the next CSULB president — succeeding Jane Close Conoley, who announced her retirement in November 2024 after a decade at the Long Beach school’s helm.
Cal State Long Beach announced the appointment on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
As of the fall 2023 semester, Cal State Long Beach was the second largest of the 23 California State...
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Griselda Suarez departing Arts Council to join Long Beach as 1st cultural affairs officer

Griselda Suarez, the longtime executive director of the Arts Council for Long Beach, will soon depart the nonprofit to take on a new role with the local government.
Suarez has served at the helm of the Arts Council since 2015, according to an announcement from the organization. Under her leadership, the nonprofit, which administers various programs and services aimed at supporting the arts in Long Beach, has continued thriving throughout years of growth and challenges.
Besides helping expand the...
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Defense company Anduril Industries announces plans for major new campus in Long Beach

Space Beach will soon get a new resident.
Anduril Industries, a defense company headquartered in Costa Mesa, announced plans on Thursday, Jan. 22, to open a major new campus in Long Beach. The facility will be at Douglas Park, the former home to Boeing’s C-17 production compound, near the Long Beach Airport, according to company spokesperson Shannon Prior.
The company’s new campus, its announcement said, will house six buildings across 1.18 million square feet. About 435,000 square feet of the c...
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ICE detains 2 men, including potential U.S. citizen, in East Long Beach

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained another two people in Long Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 20 — including one who may be an American citizen — sparking concern among residents and local government representatives.
Two workers were doing lawn work on homes in East Long Beach, just a few blocks away from Kettering Elementary School, on Tuesday, when federal immigration agents showed up in the neighborhood.
In videos of the incident posted to social media, a group of five federal ag...
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