Rep. Maxine Waters gives a speech on Black history during a food drive mixed with a Black History Month celebration at Hawthorne City Hall, on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (Photo by Raphael Richardson, Contributing Photographer) A man is handed a bag of food by a volunteer at a food drive mixed with a Black History Month celebration at Hawthorne City Hall, on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (Photo by Raphael Richardson, Contributing Photographer) Hawthorne City Hall was host to a food drive mixed with a Black History Month celebration, on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023. (Photo by Raphael Richardson ..read more

A friend called recently to lament that, while on a road trip with his son, his pilgrimage to a legendary roadside diner had been a dreadful failure when it turned out that the old diner had been converted into a food court, housing a sundry chain burger, taco and chicken stands. Whatever became, he wondered, of the great American diners of yesteryear? And so, to prove his obituary for a classic style a tad premature, I had him meet me at one of our finest survivors from the great age of Googie design – the 1950s-era café Chips on Hawthorne Boulevard, in Hawthorne. Chips is so iconic it’s hono ..read more

LOS ANGELES — A former official in Los Angeles County’s real estate division who was involved in awarding contracts to developers and contractors was sentenced Monday to two years probation for lying to FBI agents and filing a false tax return in an effort to cover up his receipt of bribes in connection with the Hawthorne Plaza mall in Torrance. Thomas M. Shepos, 72, of Palmdale, was also ordered to pay $110,021 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Shepos pleaded guilty in November 2018 to felony charges of making false statements in which he ..read more

Hawthorne-based SpaceX fired a new GPS satellite into orbit on behalf of the US military on Wednesday, Jan. 18, continuing an effort to bolster the constellation of global positioning and navigation satellites that underpin smartphone apps, wartime operations and more. The GPS satellite launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 7:24 a.m. ET from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. SpaceX confirmed the satellite had been deployed in a subsequent tweet featuring video of the moment. Deployment of the GPS III Space Vehicle 06 confirmed! pic.twitter.com/ACoHueuGqH — SpaceX (@Spac ..read more

A 13-year-old boy was killed when a car hit him and his father as they crossed a street in front of their Hawthorne apartment building on Sunday, police said. The boy, his father and his younger sister were walking across El Segundo Boulevard near Truro Avenue before 8:35 p.m. when a car headed westbound approached them, travelling in one of the leftmost lanes, said Lt. Joel Romero of the Hawthorne Police Department. The girl saw the vehicle coming and was able to get out of the way, but boy was struck and was thrown some distance away. The father was also hit but escaped serious injury. The b ..read more

The holiday season is upon us. That means festivities and fun — but also a lack of available services. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are both on Sundays this year, meaning government agencies will observe the holidays on the following Mondays. Here is a general look at what you can expect to be open and closed, and what services will operate, in the South Bay during the holidays. For a complete and specific list of holiday closures, go to your city’s website. Open on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day: Fire stations and lifeguard stations. All parks and trails. Closed on Christmas Day and N ..read more

The Daily Breeze Ball Drive still needs some help — a lot of help, actually. With numbers lower than earlier thought — we have about 2,200 balls, according to the Boys & Girls Clubs of the LA Harbor Area — Tuesday’s looming (and final) deadline feels awfully close. The goal this year was 4,000. “Our best calculation is the number is probably around 2,200,” said Mike Lansing, CEO of the clubs, “so a lot less than we anticipated.” Several days ago, it was thought the drive had taken in about 3,000 balls. “But there was a little bit of a mixup,” Lansing said, and those numbers were overestima ..read more

The Daily Breeze Ball Drive, just shy of its goal of 4,000 sports balls for the Boys & Girls Clubs of LA Harbor, will extend the deadline to donate one final time — to Tuesday, Dec. 20. As of earlier this week, we remained about 1,000 balls short of this year’s goal. The last-minute push to get over the line isn’t unique to this year. Many folks rush to donate balls in the last few days. But with a record number of balls as the benchmark for the 2022 holiday collection — coupled with inflation and a generally uncertain economy that’s made shoppers a bit more cautious about spending — this ..read more

A real estate developer was sentenced to four years in federal prison Thursday, Dec. 15, for bribing a Los Angeles County official in exchange for steering the county to enter into a $45 million agreement to lease space at the derelict Hawthorne Plaza mall. The developer, Arman Gabaee, 61, of Beverly Hills, sometimes known as Arman Gabay, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery in May and has been ordered to pay a fine of $1,149,000. Gabaee is the co-founder and co-managing partner of the Charles Co., a Hollywood-based commercial and residential real estate firm that bought the mall in 1999. Fr ..read more

The clock ticking, with only days remaining to meet the goal of 4,000 balls set for this year’s Daily Breeze Ball Drive to benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of the LA Harbor. The deadline, which was extended by one week, is Monday, Dec. 12. But there’s some added help coming from a couple of sources: Tony Altamura, frosh/soph head coach at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, called to say they’d be collecting balls on Monday, when several levels of sports teams will compete. Altamura has donated personally to the drive for many years and decided to bring some others along for the effo ..read more