Long Beach, California

Once again, the Aquarium of the Pacific will be offering LA area families the chance to celebrate Halloween in a wholesome, kid-friendly fashion. The event is called the Scarium of the Pacific and it’s geared for those who don’t care for the blood-and-guts type of Halloween activity. Kids can get their competitive juices flowing with costume and coloring contests. There will also be magic shows, crafts, cool underwater exhibits and a creepy creature map to direct you to all the weird life forms of the sea.

The event will be held October 25 and 26 from 9am to 5pm. Regular admission charges apply ($20.95 for adults), but kids can get in free if they show up in costume with this flyer in hand. The Aquarium is located at 100 Aquarium Way in Long Beach.

If the Queen Mary truly is haunted, it’s probably the best place in Southern California to celebrate Halloween. Her Majesty’s Halloween Terror Fest is called Shipwreck, and it’s a haunted house of huge proportions. Six scary mazes wind around the ship and even outside on the dock, providing plenty of spooky fun.

Your admission to Shipwreck also gets you into the Boiler Room, where DJs spin dance music to get your mind off the ghosts and goblins. The Boiler Room Club, located inside the Queen Mary Exhibit Hall, is open to all ages.

Shipwreck opened on October 3 and runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through November 1. The gates open at 7pm and close at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and at 11pm on Sundays. Regular admission is $34 per person, but you can save $15 by picking up a coupon at Bally Fitness. You can also purchase hotel packages that include admission to Shipwreck. For more information, see www.queenmaryshipwreck.com .

The financial industry meltdown has hit home for Long Beach . The Press-Telegram reported today that the city bought about $20 million worth of Lehman-issued commercial paper on September 3. Less than two weeks later, Lehman filed for BK. Now, the city is a creditor of the failed company, which is only slightly better than being a stockholder of the failed company.

Lehman’s troubles over the past year have been well-documented. Back in June, Lehman reported a quarterly loss of $2.8 billion. In mid-August, rumors surfaced that the company was trying to unload its commercial real estate and securities portfolio to offset losses related to write-downs on mortgage-related assets. Reuters then reported that analysts expected Lehman to announce a second consecutive quarterly loss. The Wall Street Journal also reported that if the loss was big enough, Lehman could be in need of additional capital. That turned out to be an understatement.

Apparently the capital provided by the city of Long Beach just wasn’t enough to keep Lehman afloat! It’s ok, Long Beach, you weren’t the only one that got caught holding bad Lehman paper. Three money market funds managed by The Reserve experienced value losses because they thought Lehman would stay in business too—and those value losses prompted the feds to come up with a new guarantee program just to keep money fund investors from running scared. So Long Beach may be out $20 million or so, but at least the city only lost its own money, right?

Anyway, they’ve learned their lesson in Long Beach. Now they’re sticking with US Treasury securities. This puts a damper on the city budget, because apparently riskier stuff (like commercial paper issued by an over-leveraged financial institution) pays better. Who knew?

If your pooch is a ham, you’ll want to be in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore district on Sunday, October 26. That’s the day hundreds of costumed dogs will get dressed up to strut their stuff up and down East 2nd Street. Yes, it’s a Halloween costume contest for dogs. It’s called the Haute Dog Howl’oween Parade, and organizers say it’s the world’s largest Halloween event for pets.

The hautest costumed dog of the day wins a year’s supply of free dog food! To have your Fido compete, pick out a snazzy costume and pay the $15 advance entry fee (or $25 on the day of the parade). Dogs and their owners are to meet at Livingston Park on 4900 East Livingston Drive in Long Beach. The judges start checking out the competition around 2pm and the parade begins at 2:30pm. Expect the parade to last about an hour, and then leave some time to check out the vendor booths and pet adoption fair. You can learn more about the day’s festivities here .

In the event you do not have a closet full of doggy costumes, stop in to Wiskers Pet Beastro & Bowteek on 2nd Street. Wiskers carries costumes and a variety of other fun treats for those special dogs, cats and birds in your life. See www.wiskers.com for more information.

Laura Richardson, the Democratic representative for the 37th congressional district (which is essentially Long Beach and Compton), now finally has some competition. Richardson has received all sorts of media attention, and it’s the kind of attention that most people would consider embarrassing. According to the Press-Telegram, she failed to disclose a loan from a strip club owner when she was on the Long Beach City Council. More recently, she has had multiple mortgage problems, including a contested foreclosure sale on her home in Sacramento and delinquency on two other mortgages, one for a home in Long Beach and another in San Pedro. And yet still, Richardson has compiled a hefty list of supporters, including Congresswoman Maxine Waters and several labor unions.

Up until recently, Richardson was running unopposed for re-election. In August, however, Long Beach local Nick Dibs announced that he had gathered enough signatures to get his name on the ballet to challenge Richardson. Dibs is running as an independent candidate. Dibs’ platform focuses on improving the economy, creating jobs, bettering the public education system, pursuing fiscal responsibility and integrity, and creating a plan for U.S. energy independence.

Peter Mathews, who was defeated by Richardson in the Democratic primary is also running a write-in campaign.