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DEKLE BEACH, Fla. >> Tropical Storm Hermine was intensifying Saturday as it moved slowly up the Atlantic Coast with heavy rains, wind and storm surges making a mess of the holiday. Hermine (her-MEEN) already caused 2 deaths, damaged homes and businesses and left hundreds of thousands without electricity from Florida to Virginia. “This is not a beach weekend for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic to the northeast,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami. At 2 p.m. Saturday, Hermine was centered 90 miles east of Duck, North Carolina, with top sustained winds of 70 mph (110 kph), moving east at 10 mph (17 kph). Tropical Storm Waings were in effect as fa...

A group of students at Rim of the World High School in Lake Arrowhead have created a stir for displaying Confederate flags, staked into the beds of their pickup trucks, in the school parking lot. On Friday, two Ford pickups, parked side-by-side, sat parked in the school parking lot, one Confederate flag and one American flag displayed in the bed of each truck. The black pickup also sported stickers from Patriot Alliance, an online retailer of clothing, National Rifle Association, and Donald Trump campaign signs. Also on Friday, Ruing Springs resident Jeifer Celise-Reyes, whose daughter began her freshman year at the high school last month, said she sent emails to school board president Cind...

The mother of Syed Rizwan Farook has denied in a court document that she had any knowledge and did not participate in the San Beardino Dec. 2 terrorist attack by Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik that killed 14 people and wounded 22. Neither Rafia Farook nor her daughter Saira Khan took took part “in any way with the tragic attack,” the court document said. The statement was included in a claim of interest filed Wednesday in federal court for the $280,756.17 in life insurance benefits left behind by Syed Farook, who died with Malik in a shootout with law enforcement a few hours after the deadly, Islamic State-inspired attack. The disputed money has not been paid out. It is in the custody of th...

The fire buing in the Cherry Valley area was slightly bigger and further contained Wednesday moing, but firefighters remain conceed that winds and dry fuel could cause the blaze to explode. • PHOTOS: The Bogart fire bus brush in Cherry Valley “With any hot spots, that wind change is always a conce,” said Cal Fire Capt. Liz Brown adding that 20-mph wind gusts are expected throughout the day. Most of the vegetation buing is a combination of chaparral and short grasses, and it’s those tinder-dry grasses that are worrisome for fire officials. The Bogart fire, named for the park it started in, covered 1,250 acres and was about 20 percent contained by sunrise, officials said. Evacuations southeas...

Thirty years ago today was a Sunday, the heart of the Labor Day weekend, and just as two planes were about to collide a mile and a half above the young city of Cerritos, things in the suburban town were quiet, as you’d expect. That’s how many people described the day up until 11:56 a.m.: quiet. If anyone had any plans for the day, they weren’t ambitious. Some residents were in church, some were shopping for groceries for backyard barbecues. Then-Plaing Commissioner George Ray, who today is the mayor of Cerritos, was doing some work at home on his dining room table. Ray, an executive for a Santa Fe Springs-based manufacturing firm that makes parts for airplanes and the space program, heard wh...

An estimated 75,000 students will retu to classes in Long Beach Unified today, and police are urging motorists and pedestrians to be safe out on the road. Drivers, police say: Yield the right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks, do not pass cars that are stopped for pedestrians, obey speed limits, stop for school buses with red lights flashing and don’t drive distracted. Pedestrians: Yield to vehicles if you are outside the crosswalk, and do not cross between intersections controlled by traffic signals. And finally, parents: Do not double park in front of school, follow school drop-off procedures, and teach your child to always cross the street at a crosswalk. It is equally important for pe...

Seven southe Los Angeles County cities are suing Metro over its proposed half-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 8 ballot, arguing the language is misleading and the agency didn’t specify most of the transportation projects it would fund. The ballot description takes a kitchen-sink approach, saying Measure M is needed “to improve freeway traffic flow/safety; repair potholes/sidewalks; repave local streets; earthquake retrofit bridges; synchronize signals; keep senior/disabled/student fares affordable; expand rail/subway/bus systems/ improve jobs/school/airport coections; and create jobs ...” But it doesn’t mention that the vast majority of transportation improvements won’t touch the southe...

EXPOSITION PARK >> There were big crowds once again for the final day of the 13th aual FYF Fest at Exposition Park to see more than 20 acts close out the eclectic festival. The vibe at the Sunday concert was relatively relaxed and chill with the day headlined by LCD Soundsystem, the electronic dance rock collective who reunited to play the festival circuit. Also on the bill for the last day was 68-year-old Grace Jones, Blood Orange, which consists of singer-guitarists Dev Hynes, and young hip hop acts Rae Sremmurd and Young Thug. While Saturday’s event saw long lines both inside the event grounds and to get into the main gate, on Sunday the line to get into Exposition Park ran a littl...

May 2014: The Teachers Association of Long Beach distributed surveys to its members to determine how many classrooms in Long Beach Unified experience stifling heat. TALB received 200 responses from teachers with mixed results. September 2014: The district asked schools to curtail physical activity and canceled all nonleague and league competition for two days. Additionally, Long Beach Unified communicated with parents about “hot weather precautions, including the need to stay hydrated.” Parents, meanwhile, attend a school board meeting, pleading with the district to do something about the lack of air conditioning in older buildings across the district, which they say creates an unhealthy lea...

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 ...

EXPOSITION PARK >> Kendrick Lamar celebrated a homecoming of sorts at the FYF Fest on Saturday, headlining the main stage just a few miles north of his hometown of Compton and, over the course of a terrifically compelling set, underscoring his standing as one of the top rappers in the game today. Lamar, alone on stage for most of his performance, his band positioned in the wings, offered all the things for which the 29-year-old hip-hop artist has been rightly celebrated during his rapid ascent in the past two or three years. Passionate poetry both personal and political that flows smoothly from the mic. A deep understanding of the soul and jazz and funk that predates hip-hop and inspir...

ISTANBUL >> One Turkish soldier was killed and eight others wounded in two separate blasts Sunday in the country’s Kurdish-dominated southeast, and Kurdish militants launched a rocket-propelled grenade at a civilian airport, officials and the state-run news agency said. The Anadolu Agency said one soldier was killed and three were wounded after a roadside bomb was triggered remotely by rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in the Hakkari province. In another attack, five civilian village guards were wounded in Siirt province after their van hit an improvised explosive device on a road, the news agency said, blaming PKK for the blast. Earlier Sunday, Kurdish rebels, ap...

For many people heading to the 13th aual FYF Fest at Exposition Park, the train was the way to go. The Metro Expo trains coming from Santa Monica were ruing about five minutes apart as they headed to the concert today. And that was a nice surprise for Westside residents like Emily Diaz and Tony Lopez, who were coming from Palms. • Related: This is the best way to get to FYF Fest They missed one train as they bought their one way tickets but were surprised by how quickly another arrived shortly “That’s pretty awesome that they’re coming this fast, that’s probably why they’re not packed,” she said as she boarded the train shortly after an aouncement from Metro over the speakers at the station...

EXPOSITION PARK >> The 13th aual FYF Fest got started this year under cool temperatures as thousands of music fans came to Exposition Park to see more than 30 bands perform on several stages during day one of the festival. Saturday’s headliner was Long Beach native Kendrick Lamar who was joined on the eclectic bill by fellow hip hop artist Vince Staples and the psychedelic Australian band Tame Impala. • Photos: Inside day one of FYF Fest 2016 The festival, which started in 2004 as a cluster of punk-rock-oriented shows at various venues in Echo Park, has grown into one of the most popular area music events and the Saturday crowd seemed to be into the mix of well-known acts and up-and-co...

PIGEON PASS >> Want to know what it cost to buy more than two-dozen acres for the DonkeyLand wild-burro rescue operation in Reche Canyon? It’s no trick question. Just ask Bob Barker. The former “Price is Right” host donated $400,000 from his DJ&T Foundation to help the small animal-rescue operation run by Amber Levoe and her father, Phil Saavedra, acquire land of its own. The two work tirelessly on behalf of DonkeyLand, an organization they and others founded about five years ago on rented land, in a secluded area north of Moreno Valley, with no identifying sign. When orphaned baby burros are brought to them, and Saavedra, 67, stays up all night, feeding them a special milk-replac...

Detectives have waed the public of a sudden increase in tire and wheel thefts from late model Chevrolet trucks in the Harbor Area, releasing a photograph of a man in a ski mask captured as he loaded stolen wheels into a van. Residents have reported 12 crimes in the last month in Wilmington, San Pedro, Harbor City, and Harbor Gateway, Los Angeles police Detective Carmine Sasso said. “They kind of made their rounds,” Sasso said. “It’s just crazy.” Thieves primarily targeted Chevrolet trucks parked on the street. Using cinder blocks, bricks or wood blocks to prop up the vehicle, they take all four wheels and tires. “A good crew can prop them up on cinder blocks and remove all four tires and wh...

As part of a wide-ranging bust focused on mail-related crimes in Southe Califoia, federal officials said Friday that they’d charged 33 people — including one from Long Beach and one from Lakewood — with committing crimes including stealing cellphones from a mail-processing center and hoarding almost 50,000 pieces of undelivered mail. The charges span 28 separate criminal cases, according to the U.S. Attoey’s Office in Los Angeles. Authorities have so far issued arrest warrants for six of the 33 defendants. Most of the suspects are U.S. Postal Service employees or contractors. About half are facing charges for mail theft or possession of stolen mail, but other cases include charges of conspi...

AMATRICE, Italy — Rescue crews aided by sniffer dogs dug through crumbled homes Thursday looking for earthquake survivors as Italy again anguished over how to secure its ancient towns and mode cities from the country’s highly seismic terrain. After a night of uninterrupted, flood-lit search efforts, firefighters and rescue crews worked in teams around the hard-hit area in central Italy, pulling chunks of cement, rock and metal from mounds of rubble where homes once stood, searching for signs of life. Authorities say at least 241 people were killed and hundreds injured in the quake that struck at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday. At least 470 aftershocks have since rattled the area — one as strong as mag...

GORMAN — A search continued outside Califoia today for a couple wanted in coection with the shooting death of a Fresno mother as Los Angeles Sheriff’s detectives work to determine the motive for her slaying and the subsequent kidnapping of her children. The three children of 26-year-old Kimberly Harvill, whose body was found two weeks ago in unincorporated Lebec in Ke County, were found safe Wednesday in a motel outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the care of a good Samaritan who notified local law enforcement, said Deputy Kimberly Alexander of the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Information Bureau. Their alleged kidnappers, Harvill’s 22-year-old sister, Brittany Humphrey, and her friend, 27-y...

Los Angeles, San Feando Valley, Santa Monica area American Cinematheque at the Aero: Jerry Lewis Movies: “The Nutty Professor” (1963) and “The Ladies Man” (1961), 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26; “The King of Comedy” (1982) and “Fuy Bones” (1995), 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27; “Artists and Models” (1955) and “Hollywood or Bust” (1956), 7:30 p.m. Aug. 28. “My Inteship in Canada” (2015), 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29. Most tickets $11; $9 seniors and students. 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica. 323-466-3456. www.americancinematheque.com Beverly Cinema: “The Knack...and How to Get It” (1965), 7:30, with “Petulia” (1968), 9:25 p.m. Aug. 26-27. “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” (2004), 11:59 p.m. Aug. 26. Kiddie Matinee: “Safety Last!” (1923), 2 p...