🌱 Admiral Kidd Playground Shortfall + Trio Robs 5 Smoke Shops

Get on up, Long Beach! Let's get you started this Thursday with everything you need to know going on around Long Beach today.

The ambitious December 1 fundraising goal for the playground replacement fell short of expected donations. Also, there’s a trio of 20-somethings robbing smoke and vape shops. Finally, an off-duty LBPD sergeant was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

First, today's weather:

Rain; cool. High: 60 Low: 56.

Here are the top five stories in Long Beach today:

1. The Admiral Kidd Park playground may need the City’s help after all. The playground burned down in July. In September, Partners of Parks began a fundraising campaign with the goal of $1 million by December 1. Rebuilding the playground costs between $750,000 and $1 million. However, as of Tuesday, the organization only managed to raise $340,000. A new fundraising goal is now $500,000 by January. The City has the option of funding the remainder with its budget surplus. (LB Post)
2. On Tuesday, three 20-something armed men robbed five smoke and vape shops. Their spree took them to Artesia, Norwalk, Bellflower, and Lakewood. In Norwalk, they wounded a store clerk when they shot at him. In Artesia, they also took a customer’s jewelry. (CBS)
3. On Friday, an off-duty sergeant from the LBPD was placed under arrest and booked into the Signal Hill jail on suspicion of DUI. The traffic stop happened near Coronado Avenue and East 8th Street. The 50-year-old officer was released “on his own recognizance” in the early morning on Sunday. The LBPD explains that it selected the Signal Hill jail to “avoid conflicts of interest.” Critics claim that this practice kept the sergeant’s name off the “publicly distributed arrest logs.” (LB Post)
4. The Aquarium of the Pacific has a new resident! A 14-week-old orphaned baby sea otter was rescued off Pismo Beach earlier in the month. The Aquarium staff members took it in, fed it, and worked with it to teach the little one how to live as an otter in the wild. It is a little-known fact that the facility operates a Sea Otter Surrogacy program. If you want to visit the rapidly growing otter, it will join the others in the Aquarium habitat on Tuesday. (Cal Coast News)
5. California State University students, staff members, and faculty must receive a vaccine booster to be considered fully vaccinated. The school announced Wednesday that boosters have “to be received by February 28, 2022 or six months after an individual received the final dose of the original vaccination, whichever is later.” The school is now finalizing its policy for implementation. (Cal State)

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Today in Long Beach:

• Merry Tiki at Roxanne's (12 PM to 5 PM)
• NA Meeting at the Tarzana Treatment Centers (12:30 PM)
• Technology Is The Way Forward! by KW Command Pro Training (1 PM)
• Holi-Date Nights (Under the Lights) at The Pike Outlets (6 PM to 9 PM)
• Strive Joins Collaborative Athletes for the Neon Christmas Lights Night Swim at Bayshore Aquatic Park Playground (6 PM)

From my notebook:

• The LB Police Department is hiring police cadets! (Facebook)
• LB Airport personnel remind travelers to arrive at the airport two hours before a flight. (Instagram)
• The City has issued a RAIN ADVISORY because a series of storms is expected to bring rain through the holiday weekend. Do you know where your sandbags are? (Facebook)
• Can you give our MacArthur Park neighbor recommendations for where to buy men's gold jewelry like a cross or pendant for a gold chain? (Nextdoor)
• Our Grant neighbor lost their dog. They last saw it by Grant Elementary School. It is brown. (Nextdoor)
• A Los Cerritos neighbor found a young kitten, an orange tabby, on 12/21/2021 at the corner of Country Club Drive and Terrylynn Pl. (Nextdoor)
• Tori Hoffman, Patch Staff: The season of giving is upon us. Is there a local nonprofit organization in Long Beach you go out of your way to support during the holiday season? Tell us about it. https://patch.com/compose (Patch)

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Alrighty, you're all good for today. I'll see you around!

— Sylvia Cochran

About me: Sylvia Cochran works out of sunny Southern California and has been freelance writing full-time since 2005. She loves dogs, cats, books, plays Best Fiends (don't judge), embraces social justice, and tries to live out Micah 6:8.