Posts by Mark McDermott
El Segundo police officer saves the life of a 22-year old crash victim [VIDEO]
The call went out via police dispatch a little after 6 p.m. on September 29. A four-door sedan had collided with a power pole on Aviation Boulevard, just north of El Segundo Boulevard. ESPD Officer Armando Rodriguez was the first on the scene. As he pulled up in his patrol car, he saw the sedan…
Read MoreChef Tin’s House: Little Sister opens in Manhattan Beach
When Little Sister opened in downtown Manhattan Beach two months ago, the ambitious 55-seat restaurant seemed to arrive naturally as part of the South Bay’s increasingly elevated culinary scene. Across the street, MB Post and its sister restaurant FWD recently helped put the city on Southern California’s fine dining road map. A block away, Strand…
Read MoreFrom Hawaii, with love and fire: Hapa comes to Redondo Beach
This article originally appeared in 2011. Hapa returns to the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center this Saturday, Oct. 12. The story of Hapa begins with a house burning down. Near the end of the 1970s, New Jersey native Barry Flanagan joined a mass exodus of young folks from Bergen County to Boulder, Colorado. He…
Read MoreMan dies in two-car collision on Aviation Boulevard in Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach Police tonight released the following statement regarding a fatal traffic accident on Aviation Boulevard: “On October 9, 2013 at approximately 5:35 p.m., a multi-vehicle traffic collision occurred 3300 block of Aviation Boulevard in the City of Redondo Beach. A 62 year old male was killed in the collision. The decedent’s name is being…
Read MoreBlueZaPalooza: the Blue Zones Project celebrates three years
An unusual celebration will occur Saturday afternoon and early evening at the Hermosa Beach Community Center, one that will feature bountiful food, an array of creative healthy living ideas and tools, and a few of the finest and most well-travelled motivational speakers on the planet. The “BlueZaPalooza” LiveWell Expo and Speaker series, organized by the…
Read MoreHermosa Beach firefighters remember a fallen brother, Carlos Lopez [VIDEO]
The Hermosa Beach Fire Department this week released a video tribute to their fallen brother, Carlos Lopez. Funeral services for Lopez, who was 36, will be held Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Saint Catherine Church, 3846 Redondo Beach Blvd., Torrance. Firefighter Combat Challenge – Carlos Lopez Tribute Run – Hermosa Beach Firefighters from Aaron Bush…
Read MoreResidents assail proposed TopGolf at The Lakes in El Segundo
TopGolf was nowhere on the City Council’s agenda Tuesday night, nor was the council anywhere near a decision on the proposed $20 million high-tech driving range and lounge proposed a year ago at The Lakes in El Segundo municipal golf course. But a line of nearly three dozen residents reached from the podium all the…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor, Sept. 19 edition
Pulling a Bobko Dear ER: In the world of spin and PR, there is a tactic known as the non-apology-apology. When a public figure is faced with an inescapable embarrassment, that person is instructed to make a statement that sounds like an apology but falls short of an actual apology. Hermosa Beach Mayor Kit Bobko…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor, September 5 edition
Regarding “Faith Less” Dear ER: I’m joining this thread sort of late, but I’d sure like to add my two cents worth [regarding 11-year old J.E. Morris’ argument against God in the 8/8/13 ER Writing Contest]. If young J. E. Morris had not come forward himself [ER 8/26], I would have chided Richard Smith’s rebuttal…
Read MoreThis is his brain on music – Daniel Levitin, world-renowned neuroscientist and author of the acclaimed “This Is Your Brain on Music”
The first two sets of stereo speakers Daniel Levitin ever owned landed him in big trouble. The first he played so loudly they drew the ire of his father, the second he played so loudly they caught on fire in his college dorm room. Both incidents indirectly led Levitin to one of the most unusual…
Read MorePower line sparks fire near Redondo Beach substation
A line above Southern California Edison’s Topaz substation caught fire early Saturday morning, causing a power outage and closing down streets near the intersection for several hours. According to witnesses in the neighborhood, the high voltage lines leading into the substation near the intersection of Knob Hill and Prospect Avenue began making loud hissing noises…
Read MoreCitizen Parsons: Influential former Redondo Beach councilman dies
John Parsons’ civic omnipresence came to an abrupt end last week. Friends and family remember him as one of Redondo Beach’s most engaged citizens.
Read MoreLetters to the Editor – August 22 edition — for and against God, oil in Hermosa Beach, and spandex-clad scufflaws
A brief history of religion A brief history of religion Dear ER: Richard Smith asks, in his cowardly attack on the 11-year old J.E. Morris [Letters to the Editor 8/15/13], what our alternatives to religion are. I’m happy to oblige him and his hilarious Hope Chapel fairybook version of history. First, though, about the alternative…
Read MorePolice arrest couple after fight, firearm discharge in Redondo Beach
A shooting occurred on The Esplanade in Redondo Beach earlier today that resulted in the arrest of a man and a woman. The Redondo Beach Police Department released the following: Redondo Beach Police were summoned to an apartment unit in the 500 block of Esplanade regarding a firearm being discharged inside the residence at about 12:50…
Read MoreFormer Redondo Beach councilman John Parsons suffers stroke
John Parsons long took pride in the fact that he had not missed a City Council meeting since the 1980s, first as concerned citizen, later as a city commissioner, and then as two-term councilman. Parsons was at Tuesday night’s meeting, at his station as one of the most civically engaged citizens in Redondo Beach history.…
Read MoreRegarding “Faith less” — reader responses to 11-year-old J.E. Morris’s essay questioning the existence of God
The 43rd Annual Easy Reader Writing and Photograph Contest elicited many fine entries this year, ranging from brilliantly imagined short stories to powerfully evocative remembrances of people, places, and times past to an incredibly wide-ranging and well-executed array of photography. But no entry generated more of a stir than “Faith less,” an essay by an…
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