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NORFOLK, Va. >> Hermine continued Monday to twist hundreds of miles off shore in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to keep swimmers and surfers out of beach waters because of its dangerous waves and rip currents on the last day of the long holiday weekend. “We’re not looking at a landfall,” said Deis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center on Sunday, adding Hermine is just sitting and pushing the water up along the coast making storm surge a great conce. It was expected to stall over the water before weakening again. Goveors all along the Easte Seaboard aounced emergency preparations. A tropical storm waing was in effect from New York’s Long Island to Massachusetts. Tropical storm-...

Chef Arthur Gonzalez said he is weeks away from realizing his goal of opening a new seafood place, called Roe Restaurant, in Belmont Shore after experiencing so many challenges there that he ended up opening an entirely different restaurant since his first attempt four years ago. “We’re starting to come down to crunch time,” Gonzalez said. Late last week, the future home of Roe Restaurant was still a dusty construction site in the space next to its sister enterprise Roe Xpress, a fish market selling dishes prepared from the likes of salmon, mahi mahi, yellowtail and octopus, as well as a place where clam “chowdah” is spelled with Boston accent even though Hatch chiles are part of the recipe....

Long Beach’s Plaing Commission will decide Thursday whether to allow plans and permitting for the Belmont Beach and Aquatic Center to move forward. If all the approvals are granted, the $103 million project would move on to the City Council, then the state Coastal Commission. The center is designed to replace the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, which was to down after engineers determined the natatorium was in danger of collapse in the event of an earthquake. The proposed replacement, designed by architect Michael Rotondi, includes two Olympic-sized pools (one inside a structure, the other outside), an indoor diving well, a recreational pool and other amenities. If approved, a transparent oval ...

Hamstrung by strict limits on political contributions, Califoia lawmakers have found a way to continue to extract large sums from some of Sacramento’s most powerful special interests. Increasingly, they’re using “ballot measure committees,” little-known and barely regulated accounts that are supposed to promote or oppose state and local initiatives but in practice are paying for consultants and polling firms, new suits and trips to Mexico. And the money for the politicians’ perks comes in the form of five-figure donations from the same special interests that state rules were intended to curtail. An analysis by Digital First Media, which includes this news organization, shows that the number...

Organizers behind the inaugural Music Tastes Good festival pledged that they will try to solve potential problems relating to parking and business owners’ abilities to serve their customers while the event takes place over the course of three late September days in the East Village area of Long Beach. “No one is going to be blocked out of their home or business,” event organizer Josh Fischel said Thursday moing, during the first of two plaed meetings between festival plaers and conceed members of the public. Materials handed out during the meeting reported that Music Tastes Good plaers will foot the parking bills for anyone who loses access to a paid parking space while street closures are ...

The findings of a $100,000 parking study in Belmont Shore will be revealed on Sept. 1 at a meeting with the consultants performing the work. Third District Councilwoman Suzie Price originally scheduled the public meeting for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Bay Shore Community Congregational Church, 5100 The Toledo. But the Plaing Commission study session on the Southeast Area Specific Plan (SEASP) is at 5 p.m. the same night, so the parking meeting has moved to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept 1. It still will be at the Bay Shore church. The City Council originally requested the parking study in 2014, after the Belmont Shore Parking and Business Improvement Advisory Commission aounced it was considering buy...

PARAMOUNT >>The Paramount Unified School District will ask voters in November to approve a $106 million bond measure to help fund upgrades and repairs across its 19-campus system, officials said Wednesday. Superintendent Ruth Perez said many of the 15,500 students enrolled in the district attend campuses equipped with aging facilities, some built over 50 years ago. While many campuses are in need of repairs and upgrades, she said, top priorities include replacing outdated portable buildings at Paramount High School and other large campuses, upgrading school security systems and facilitating access for disabled students and faculty. “Our local schools need basic safety improvements,” P...

The flames chewing at vegetation in the San Beardino Mountains have grown to cover 6,963 acres as of Tuesday moing, and firefighters say they still have the blaze about 6 percent contained. Nobody has been injured, and no structures have been lost in the Pilot fire, said San Beardino County Fire Battalion Chief Marc Peebles. The number of firefighters at the blaze has also grown from 843 Monday night to 934, Peebles said. • Photos: Fight against Pilot fire continues on Day 2 as acreage grows • Photos: ...

SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS >> Some 4,700 people have been told to evacuate as the Pilot fire flared Monday afteoon in the San Beardino Mountains. The fire, which started Sunday between Silverwood Lake and Lake Arrowhead, is buing in two directions, said Capt. Liz Brown, a Cal Fire spokeswoman: north toward Hesperia, and northeast toward a mountain area known as the Piacles. • Live Coverage: What we know about the Pilot fire so far It had bued 4,500 acres by Monday moing and was 5 percent contained; no new numbers have been released since then, but the fire has cle...

A wildfire that ignited in the San Beardino Mountains on Sunday continued to bu thousands of acres Monday moing. The 4,500-acre Pilot fire ignited just after noon east of Highway 138 and south of Hesperia. • PHOTOS: Fight against Pilot fire continues on Day 2 as acreage grows to 4,500 • PHOTOS: 400 firefighters battle Pilot fire on Day 1 in San Beardino Mountains • VIDEO: Pilot fire smolders in a bu area in Summit Valley right off Highway 173 • VIDEO: A bulldozer moves after cutting fire breaks all night in Pilot fire fight • VIDEO: Hand crews hit Pilot fire hotspots Firefighters estimated the fire covered about 1,500 acres Sunday evening. The dramatic jump, they say, could be due to inaccu...

CHINO >> Torbjo Correll stepped into the lobby of Southe Califoia Edison’s aircraft operations — but he’d rather be in the air. “It’s boring being on the ground,” said the director of the little-known aircraft division for the electric utility company. As SCE’s chief pilot, his earthly home base is a 46,000-square-foot building, which includes a hanger and maintenance facility, tucked away on the southwest end of Chinou2009Airport. “If the grid is dead, (aircraft operations) have to support that when it breaks,” says Correll, who goes by “TC,” in his Swedish accent. He oversees training and regulations for his flight division, which operates a fleet of EC135s, AS350 B3s, and a B205 A1...

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA >> Malaysia acknowledged for the first time that one of the pilots of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 had plotted a course on his home flight simulator to the southe Indian Ocean, where the missing jet is believed to have crashed. Australian officials overseeing the search for the plane last month said data recovered from Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah’s simulator included a flight path to the southe Indian Ocean. Malaysian officials at the time refused to confirm the findings. On Thursday, Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai told local joualists that the flight path was found on the simulator. He also cautioned there were “thousands” of destinations on the simulator and no...

Long Beach voters now have three marijuana-related ballot measures to decide on come November. Adding to an already lengthy statewide general election ballot, the City Council on Tuesday voted to add a tax measure that City Clerk Maria de la Luz Garcia said would help fund public safety, police officers, emergency response, homelessness and general city services should voters pass ballot measures proposed at the local and state level. The two initiatives facing voters are: Proposition 64, a statewide initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana for those 21 and older; and a local initiative that aims to allow as many as 32 medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the city. The cit...

LOS ANGELES — Pitbull was sued by a former manager who alleges he is owed commissions for helping the rapper jump-start his career. Charles Chavez is the CEO of Latium Entertainment Inc. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court lists the company as the plaintiff. • PHOTOS: Pitbull picks up a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame The suit alleges breach of an oral agreement. It also seeks a court order directing the rapper to pay Latium 10 percent of all recording and publishing income from six albums recorded from 2007-13 to provide an accounting to determine how much money Pitbull owes the company. The suit also seeks more than $1 million in damages. A representative for the 35...

The development company that brought a Dunkin’ Donut franchise to Long Beach may acquire former redevelopment agency parcels on the city’s north end. Frontier Real Estate Investments, a Newport Beach company, may spend $2.1 million to obtain city-owned land near the northeast coer of the Artesia Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue intersection. The 93,230-square-foot property is currently vacant, according to a city staff report. That report also reveals that Frontier Real Estate Investments may develop a bank and restaurant space at the site. Dan Almquist, one of the firms’ managing partners, said the firm has yet to nail down future tenants and has yet to begin marketing its plans to other busin...

TWENTYNINE PALMS >> A Miramar-based Marine aviator assigned to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing died Thursday when his F/A 18C Hoet crashed in the desert near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms. The crash happened during training maneuvers about 10:30 p.m., according to a Marine Corps news release. The name of the pilot is being withheld until next of kin has been notified. The crash is under investigation. This crash happens on the heels of a another recent crash off the coast of North Carolina. In May, two F/A 18 Super Hoets based at the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virgina had “in-flight” mishaps forcing the aircraft to crash in the ocean, according to the Dep...

LOS ANGELES — The path to Easy Street can be as close as your neighborhood convenience store tonight, as the multi-state Powerball game holds a drawing that could deliver a $422 million jackpot. Tonight’s drawing takes place at 8 p.m., but ticket sales are cut off at 7 p.m. No tickets were sold with all six numbers in Saturday’s drawing of the multi-state lottery game. The drawing was the 22nd since the last time a ticket with all six numbers was sold. A ticket with five numbers, but missing the Powerball number, would have been worth about $1.16 million, but no such ticket was sold either, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association, which conducts the game. The numbers drawn Saturday...

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted today to rescind last week’s vote to put a marijuana tax on the November ballot to fund the fight against homelessness. Supervisor Sheila Kuehl recommended backing away from the tax proposal, saying she was conceed by a lack of support among homeless advocates. Kuehl said it would take about $3 million to successfully mount a campaign for the measure, making it important to be sure “everyone is with you.” The board itself was divided on the measure, with Supervisor Mark Ridley- Thomas pushing hard last week for a quarter-cent general sales tax rather than a gross receipts tax on marijuana businesses. But Ridley-Thomas failed to...

Protracted policy questions. Big-money battles. Contradictory proposals that are difficult to disce. It’s shaping up to be an all-too-typical fall election, once again confronting Califoia voters with an unwieldy ballot. This wasn’t supposed to happen. After polls confirmed that Califoia voters were frustrated by ballot overload, lawmakers two years ago made changes aimed at pre-empting at least some initiatives from landing on the ballot and improving those that do. One change gave the Legislature extra time to hold hearings to try to compromise with interest groups pitching complex issues. “We’re taking an important step to modeize and strengthen direct democracy,” Gov. Jerry Brown said a...

Six months after a $1.6 billion Powerball lottery jackpot set records, the holder of the wiing ticket bought at a Chino Hills 7-Eleven has finally come forward. Marvin and Mae Acosta were aounced as the wiers in a tweet from the Califoia Lottery Tuesday moing. Their home town was not revealed, but a property search and neighbors confirmed they lived in Eastvale — until last week. The couple wants “to remain as private as possible,” the tweet says. The drawing Jan. 13 set off a nationwide frenzy, with three tickets poised to share the jackpot, or $528.8 million apiece. When word got out that Califoia’s wiing ticket was sold at the 7-Eleven at 4092 Chino Hills Parkway, owned by Balbir Atwal, t...