Long Beach Ca

On the unlikely stage of four artificial islands barely a quarter-mile off the Long Beach shore sit four oil-drilling platforms camouflaged by waterfalls, brightly colored cement towers and a landscape of shrubs and palm trees, all dramatically lighted at night. During the 1960s, a consortium of five oil companies commissioned the L.A. landscape planning firm of Linesch & Reynolds to brainstorm the theatrics into being. The firm collaborated with sculptor Herbert J.

After several bumpy years, the motorcycle industry is hoping for smoother roads ahead as the International Motorcycle Shows tour rolls into Long Beach this weekend. Since the economy began significantly losing ground in 2008, annual new-motorcycle sales in the United States have plunged by about half to some 300,000 units, as money-conscious consumers chose not to make the often-discretionary purchases. After falling 41% in 2009 and 14% last year, sales of new motorcycles are mostly flat this year, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine, and are likely to remain there as long as the economy remains stagnant.

Like every wacky story, the saga of the Spruce Goose--Howard Hughes' monstrous, eight-engine flying boat--contains a fair number of plot twists, some nearly lost in the broad outline of events. Consider the dome. It was created to house the historic plane when it went on public display in Long Beach in 1983. The dome was a big thing in its own right: It was billed as, and probably remains, the world's largest free-standing geodesic structure.

Long Beach-based Sea Launch Co., once a major part of Boeing Co.'s rocket launch ambitions, could emerge from bankruptcy protection with a Russian firm as its largest shareholder. Rocket engine maker Rocket & Space Corp. Energia, based in Moscow, has proposed investing $140 million to take an 85% stake in the unusual rocket venture that was founded by Chicago-based Boeing as a way to more efficiently launch satellites into space. The investment is part of a plan to bring the firm out of Chapter 11, possibly by August.

A 29-year-old Long Beach man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for the 1993 shooting death of a Cal State Long Beach graduate student. In a statement to the victim's family read to the court, Leif Taylor -- whose previous conviction in the case was overturned by an appeals court -- again denied that he had anything to do with the death of William Shadden, who was killed on Memorial Day 1993 in Belmont Shore.

Long Beach has been preening its oceanfront image for more than a decade by pouring money and support into a wealth of new projects on its shores: a $117-million aquarium, gleaming Miami Beach-style condominium towers, a waterfront shopping center with sea-themed eateries, such as Gladstone's and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. What's missing amid all this sea fever, some say, is a Southern California style seashore.

Debi So was putting her newborn daughter to sleep shortly after 12 a.m. on New Year's Day when she heard gunshots. "It was New Year's," she said. "You hear fireworks, you hear gunshots, but I didn't think anything of it." Minutes later So's aunt, who lives next door, banged on the family's apartment door. She told So to check on her sister, who was lying in the street near her car. "The car door was open, and I saw her in the light from inside," said So, 22.

After several bumpy years, the motorcycle industry is hoping for smoother roads ahead as the International Motorcycle Shows tour rolls into Long Beach this weekend. Since the economy began significantly losing ground in 2008, annual new-motorcycle sales in the United States have plunged by about half to some 300,000 units, as money-conscious consumers chose not to make the often-discretionary purchases. After falling 41% in 2009 and 14% last year, sales of new motorcycles are mostly flat this year, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine, and are likely to remain there as long as the economy remains stagnant.

A dozen notables mounted bikes outside the entrance to Long Beach City Hall late last year for the unveiling of a metallic bicycle sculpture with a lofty proclamation: "Long Beach, the most bicycle friendly city in America," it reads in bold steel lettering under the likeness of an antique bicycle. It was a little premature, leaders admit. "But we're striving for that," said City Manager Pat West, a longtime cyclist. While other cities spin their wheels, Long Beach is joining the ranks of places such as Portland, Ore., San Francisco and New York City that have made safe passage for bikes a priority, even at the expense of traffic lanes.

The story of how a man named Johnny Rhondo, the self-titled grand master of the Church of the Revelation, came to hold the charter to Long Beach's oldest Cambodian Buddhist temple is a curious one. The Buddhist wat on East 20th Street is the beloved, if dilapidated, nucleus for the nation's largest Cambodian community, co-founded by the late actor Haing S. Ngor and served by monks known to hew closely to ancient tradition.

Two dozen racing machines zoomed past the grandstands along Long Beach's Shoreline Drive on Sunday, showcasing more than enough horsepower to tow the nearby 91,000-ton Queen Mary out of its mooring. And in drawing about 170,000 fans to see star race car drivers such as Ryan Hunter-Reay and Danica Patrick, city officials are hoping the 36th annual Long Beach Grand Prix will inject some fuel into the sputtering local economy too. With a 13.5% unemployment rate in March, Long Beach is lagging behind most of Southern California in the race to economic recovery.

President Obama had his beer summit. The Founding Fathers nurtured the ideas behind the American Revolution in Colonial taverns. And in modern-day Long Beach, politicians and public officials are also swapping the podium for the pub during their campaigns. When City Hall lobbyist Mike Murchison chose to break his silence about taking junkets with the city's top development official, he shunned the standard news conference or face-to-face interview. Instead, he submitted to public questioning at a "Beer & Politics" get-together at a noisy Irish pub. Mike Clements, a scruffy, avuncular business banker who moderates the sudsy gathering every month or two, held a pint in one hand and a microphone in the other as he addressed the drink-sipping young professionals, gray-haired retirees and handful of city officials who had packed Gallagher's Pub & Grill for the occasion.

Richard Camp was hailed as a hero when he tackled a gunman suspected of trying to rob a Long Beach bank earlier this month. But these days, Camp feels more like a victim. The gunman shot him in the right thigh and his recovery will take months, Camp said. The 39-year-old general contractor said he is unable to work and worries about how to support his wife, Jean, and 3-year-old daughter, Aubrey. He initially thought that Farmers & Merchants Bank would offer him financial help.

David Jones was chatting with a manager at a Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach on Friday when a man wearing a red motorcycle helmet and a black leather outfit barreled through the door, pulled out a gun and started shooting. Jones froze. People began screaming and falling to the floor. In the chaos, Jones watched as another male customer grabbed the suspect and wrestled his gun away. Jones quickly realized the customer had been shot in the thigh, and the suspect was wiggling away, so he jumped on top of the man. His hand brushed against another gun underneath the suspect's jacket and he threw the weapon across the floor.

For sale: a mammoth four-engine plane that can haul 60-ton tanks, troops and medical gear across continents and still land on short, shoddy runways. Price: about $240 million; volume discounts are available. If interested, please contact Boeing Co. at your nearest air show. That's the sales pitch that Boeing officials have been making worldwide recently, in hopes of keeping its sprawling C-17 assembly line in Long Beach from closing in two years. The plant, adjacent to Long Beach Airport, employs about 5,000 people and is one of the last remaining aircraft plants in Southern California.

The child molestation case against the fired head of Napa State Hospital began with a chance meeting last September. A man, who as a boy in the early 1970s lived a few doors from Claude Edward Foulk in Long Beach, was visiting the hospital as part of his job as a vendor. He turned the corner of a hallway and made eye contact with Foulk, who ran the 1,200-patient facility that houses mentally ill criminals. The encounter triggered memories of alleged abuse by Foulk nearly four decades ago, his attorney told The Times.

Riding her bike throughout Long Beach, Carol Hillis became a frequent sight for residents. She was a local teacher for 25 years, subbing the last six, and she was an avid runner and cyclist. She would cycle along the San Gabriel River, through her Long Beach neighborhood and at El Dorado East Regional Park. When she died of cancer this summer at 61, nearly 700 people came to El Dorado -- where Hillis had spent so much of her time -- to celebrate her life. The Hillises chose El Dorado park because it was central to their community and it was accommodating.

A hit man has been convicted of stabbing a woman to death in her Long Beach home as police waited outside, hoping to catch the intruder who they mistakenly believed was a burglar. A Long Beach Superior Court jury deliberated just 30 minutes Tuesday before convicting Nicholas Harvey of first-degree murder for financial gain in the slaying of Lynn Schockner, 50. Harvey faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He will appeal the verdict, said his attorney, Anthony Patalano.

A half a dozen mourners gathered at Forest Lawn cemetery in Cypress on Friday to bid farewell to a woman they never knew. Jean Comstock died Sept. 24, a 79-year-old divorced woman without heirs. Comstock, a retired Long Beach city minute clerk, had wanted to be buried at Forest Lawn but couldn't afford it. Los Angeles County cremated her and stored the ashes at Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights. Eventually the ashes would have been buried in a pauper's grave with the rest of the county's unclaimed dead.

The executive director of Napa State Hospital, a Northern California mental institution that houses mentally ill criminals, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of molesting his adopted son for more than a decade, authorities said. Long Beach Police Department detectives took Claude Edward Foulk, 62, into custody Wednesday morning at the hospital after a lengthy investigation into alleged molestations both in Southern California and Northern California. Los Angeles County prosecutors have charged Foulk with 35 felony counts, including 22 counts of forcible oral copulation and 11 counts of sodomy by use of force.