Appeal sought

As promised, attorneys for the city have asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss an oil company’s $500 million breach-of-contract lawsuit.

The city attorneys have filed a petition for a hearing before the high court, at which they would ask justices to partially overturn a recent ruling by a state appeals court.

City Attorney Michael Jenkins has said only 5 percent of such requests win a hearing before the Supreme Court. If the city is rejected, the case would be sent back to a lower court to determine whether the city acted legally when it canceled a contract held by Macpherson Oil Company for a drilling project on city land.

The oil company planned to slant-drill under the Pacific Ocean from land at Valley Drive and Sixth Street, until Hermosa voters weighed in against the project and an earlier City Council declared the contract canceled, touching off a 12-year lawsuit.

If the Supreme Court leaves the appeals court ruling intact, the city would try to convince a jury that the drilling project was too risky to nearby residents to be allowed.

Armed holdup

Two men in a pickup truck with tinted windows brandished a handgun in the area of 34th Street and Manhattan Avenue 4:30 p.m. Sunday, stole two purses and a cell phone from two women, then fled. The women flagged a passing motorist who called police.

Paddy wagon

Police logged a busy St. Patrick’s Day with more than 35 calls for service in the afternoon and several fight calls throughout the evening.

Ace of hearts

Annie’s Texas Hold-Em Poker Tournament, with poker celebrity Annie Duke, will benefit the Hermosa-based 1736 House with 100 percent of its proceeds, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 3 at the Bicycle Club Casino in Torrance.

Buy-in is $350 with $100 re-buys available for the first hour. First prize is $10,000 and second prize is a private poker lesson with Duke.

Buy-Ins or donations can be sent to 1736 Family Crisis Center, 2116 Arlington Ave., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90018, Attn: Poker Tournament. Buy-ins or spectator admissions can be purchased at 1736fcc.org or thebike.com.

Seeing dots

The Leadership Hermosa Beach class of 2010 hosts a fundraiser 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 25 at Blue 32, located at 1332 Hermosa Ave., for the Blue Dots Project to install or replace the dots in the roadways that help firefighters find fire hydrants at night.

Fire Chief David Lantzer called it a “very important project” that would have “remained unfinished for the foreseeable future without the leadership of Leadership Hermosa Beach.” The city, he said, “does not have the resources to accomplish this project on its own, especially the time it takes to survey every fire hydrant in the city to determine whether or not it has a blue dot identifier.”

Blue 32 will donate proceeds from select drinks the class project, and other businesses will contribute raffle items.

For more see leadershiphermosa.org. ER

Comments:

comments so far. Comments posted to EasyReaderNews.com may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.