Posts by Mark McDermott
Blue whales still feeding in local waters
Our hungry blue visitors have stayed at least a while longer. An estimated 50 to 80 blue whales that arrived unexpectedly in local waters a little more than two weeks ago are still feeding heartily just off the coast. The whales are an endangered species – only 10,000 to 16,000 exist worldwide – and have…
Read MoreBeach Cities likely Vitality City pick
The Beach Cities Health District’s bid to enroll the community in the cutting-edge Vitality City public health program has apparently been successful. A delegation of officials from the Blue Zones Vitality City project paid the Beach Cities a final visit this week prior to a BCHD Board of Directors meeting next Wednesday at which the…
Read MoreAbout Town
Biggs moves on Redondo Beach Assistant City Manager David Biggs today was appointed to the City Manager position for the City of Tustin. The Tustin City Council approved a five-year employment agreement with Biggs to serve as their City Manager replacing retired City Manager William Huston. Tustin is a City of 74,000 population located in…
Read MoreLagoon again threatened with closure
The Seaside Lagoon is once again in dire straits after the regulatory agency overseeing the facility’s water outflow quality indicated that it may impose new, more stringent standards and require the city to fund a new set of tests in order to continue operation. The Los Angeles Regional Water Control Board this week told city…
Read MoreBeach Cities likely to be Vitality City pick
The Beach Cities Health District’s bid to enroll the community in the cutting-edge Vitality City public health program has apparently been successful. A delegation of officials from the Blue Zones Vitality City project paid the Beach Cities a final visit this week prior to a BCHD Board of Directors meeting next Wednesday at which the…
Read MoreRedondo schools take another API leap
Redondo Beach schools took another significant leap forward in standardized testing scores, jumping ten points in the Academic Performance Index, a composite measure of student testing results released by the California Department of Education on Monday. The district raised its overall score from 858 to 868, well above the state-mandated goal of 800 for each…
Read MoreBlue Wonder: more blue whale [PHOTOS]
Blue Wonder: more blue whale photos. You may also like our blue whale video.
Read MoreBlue Wonder: more blue whale [VIDEO]
Richard Attenburough on blue whales: “Tarzan” Smith and Mike Vaughan whale whispering: An SUP expedition:
Read MoreA Scotsman’s last ride at the rodeo
Tom MacLear has been on a wild wander. It started the day that the Roger Wagoner Chorale came to Bozeman, Montana. His parents, William and Mary MacLear, were singers and actors, and they didn’t believe in missing gigs, pregnant or not. “It was kind of a medium light opera, somewhere between the Mormon Tabernacle Choir…
Read MoreCouncilman Bill Brand leads protest against power plant
Councilman Bill Brand led a rally Friday afternoon that sought to send a message to local, state, and AES Corporation officials: power plant, be gone. About 30 protesters lined the intersection between Pacific Coast Highway, Catalina Avenue and Herondo Street – with the AES power plant looming in the background – and waved signs in…
Read MoreBlue wonder – Local biologists, whale watchers, paddlers and boaters are experiencing a rare up-close look at the world’s largest animal
Craig Stanton was sitting on the deck of his condo overlooking King Harbor in Redondo Beach a little more than two weeks ago when something in the ocean caught his eye. A white plume rose from the blue water not far from the harbor’s entrance. Stanton, a 100-ton captain and longtime harbor hand, was puzzled.…
Read MoreRedondo schools take another API leap
Redondo Beach schools took another significant leap forward in standardized testing scores, jumping ten points in the Academic Performance Index, a composite measure of student testing results released by the California Department of Education on Monday. The district raised its overall score from 858 to 868, well above the state-mandated goal of 800 for each…
Read MoreBrand leads protest against power plant
Councilman Bill Brand led a rally Friday afternoon that sought to send a message to local, state, and AES Corporation officials: power plant, be gone. About 30 protesters lined the intersection between Pacific Coast Highway, Catalina Avenue and Herondo Street – with the AES power plant looming in the background – and waved signs in…
Read MoreBlue whales feeding in local waters [PHOTOS]
Rock n’ roll’s bastard child
Elviss Simmons and a genetic experiment gone awry Even by the unusual standards of rock n’ roll, Elviss Simmons has an unusual backstory. He was born, so the story goes, after a drunken argument in a Vegas casino between rogue scientists over genetic theory and music. They decided to test their theories and simultaneously save…
Read MoreBeachbum Burt’s will live again
Paris had the 1930s and its cafes. San Francisco had the 1960s and Haight Ashbury. Redondo Beach had the mid-1970s and Beachbum Burt’s. A successful restaurateur named Burt Hixson, who had launched trendy Warehouse restaurant in Marina Del Rey, in 1974 attempted to duplicate his success in King Harbor. As legend has it, Hixson had…
Read More