Pier

In response to the horrific massacre in Newtown, Conn., CNN's Piers Morgan devoted his Friday broadcast to coverage of the tragedy and to a discussion - make that a shouting match - about gun control. Joining him were Steve Dulan of the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Dan Gross of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and gun-rights advocate John Lott. The conversation got heated when Morgan asked “why on Earth” anyone would advocate for more guns, given the unspeakable carnage at Sandy Hook.

Jordan and Stephanie Martinez planned to celebrate their one-month wedding anniversary with a night out at their favorite Thai restaurant. But what's a date without fishing? So first, they drove in from Alhambra for a little pole time at Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier in Long Beach. Carrying folding camp chairs and tackle boxes, the Martinezes joined a handful of lone fishermen and families staking out spots along the pier's metal railing and dropping their lines. From Vietnamese, Filipino, Mexican and African American backgrounds, they shared bait, admired each other's catches flopping around in plastic buckets of ice, and traded fish stories.

A pair of otherworldly photos from Superstorm Sandy will be forever etched in my memory of the historic hurricane. The first photo showed up in much of the mainstream media coverage and became a symbol of the storm: A seemingly intact roller coaster poking out of the Atlantic Ocean off the Jersey Shore like the skeleton of a sea serpent. The second image ricocheted around the Internet via social media sites and became a symbol of vulnerability and resilience following the storm: An undamaged carousel inside an eerily lit enclosure completely surrounded by water that looked like a glowing jewelry box floating off the New York City coast.

PHILADELPHIA - For a man who lives on a pier that juts into the rapidly rising Delaware River, Cain Carducci was remarkably calm Monday afternoon. Carducci, 23, planned to spend the night inside his condominium on Pier 3, a former municipal produce pier on the Delaware. He was not overly worried that Hurricane Sandy, forecast as possibly the most destructive and treacherous storm in modern Philadelphia history, would propel the river's roiling gray waters into his living room. "This building is all steel and concrete," Carducci, a respiratory therapist, said as the river pitched and roared below his second-floor condo.

Southern Californians can strike a blow against poverty in Africa and Asia by joining Sunday in the 18th annual Partnership Walk. The event, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Santa Monica Pier, is held in 10 major U.S. cities each year. Money raised goes to reduce global poverty and its close companions: hunger, illiteracy and poor health. Last year's Los Angeles area walk raised more than $400,000, according to Rafiq Ghaswala, a spokesman for the Aga Khan Foundation USA, which established the Partnership Walk.

When you get dumped, not only do you lose the person you loved, you also lose the places where that love played out. Spots that once welcomed you become enemy territory - collateral damage that takes years to repair. I met Nicky in 2005 when she was a sophomore at Pepperdine, triple-majoring in international relations, German and success. I was a budding F. Scott Fitzgerald shelving books at a library in Temple City. Because of her ambitious schedule, I made the 100-mile round trip to Malibu every weekend in my old Chevy.

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details. When your name is Alex Cuba and you were born and raised on a certain island 90 miles south of Florida, people naturally expect you to make Cuban music. But the Cuban-Canadian singer-songwriter isn't a big fan of preconceived expectations. The winner of the 2010 Latin Grammy for new artist, Cuba swings among various hybrids of jazz, funk, pop and traditional Caribbean boleros and sones , playing guitar and bass and singing in both Spanish and English with a gentle sincerity that never subsides into stickiness.

Rep. Todd Akin is living proof that there is such a thing as bad publicity, at least if you're running for office. A few days ago, few people outside of Missouri or Washington, D.C., knew anything about the GOP senatorial candidate. Now, thanks to a few spectacularly ill-informed sentences about “legitimate rape,” Akin has become one of the most talked-about people in America - and the bane of the Republican Party. You can add Piers Morgan to the growing list of Akin's detractors.

Little things can make you feel more comfortable when you're on the road, but what exactly are those things? DoubleTree by Hilton thinks it knows. The hotel brand launched a marketing campaign called the Little Things Project in January to go to 50 cities to push the brand and dispense "little things" to anyone who shows up at its tent. Next stop: the Santa Monica Pier from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday (as in today). Visitors can pick up freebies such as wristbands for rides on the pier, discounts at local attractions and one of the hotel's signature chocolate chip cookies.

At the edge of San Pedro Bay, home of North America's largest cargo complex, they're building new piers, wharves and rail yards at a furious pace to further dwarf the competition. So much construction is underway that the new facilities by themselves would move more freight than the entire port of Savannah, Ga., which ranks No. 4 among the continent's ports. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, first and second in the cargo-movement hierarchy, respectively, are hauling in so much dirt, they would have enough land to build a twin of Universal Studios Hollywood with enough left over to fill 100 football stadiums with 20 inches of muck.