For 35 years Random Lengths News has covered the L.A. Harbor Area, an area that has been overlooked by publications such as the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Breeze.
A recent Al Jazeera commentary piece by Random Lengths News senior editor Paul Rosenberg has provoked a discussion on "Dominionism" and the rise of the religious right.
On April 28, the California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) filed a legal complaint against Los Angeles after the council refused to "cure and correct" an inadequately noticed Feb. 18 agenda item that called for 4,000 city workers and positions to be cut. This complaint follows a letter sent by Random Lengths News publisher James Preston Allen to City Council president Garcetti and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich protesting what his paper believes to be a violation of the Brown Act. After Garcetti and Trutanich failed to respond, Allen contacted CFAC, which decided to file suit.
"To the uninitiated, Random Lengths News may appear to be a leftist journalistic exercise carried on by a deluded few, but it is a vital news source for an increasingly frustrated constituency," Julia Murphy writes in a profile of the San Pedro, Calif., alt-weekly that appeared in a recent edition of Swindle magazine (not available online). "There is an essential nexus between Main Street business, progressive politics and the well-being of the communities we serve," publisher James Allen says. "The locals trust [our paper] even if they don't agree with it."
The local peace group San Pedro Neighbors for Peace & Justice has named James Preston Allen 2008 Peacemaker of the Year "in recognition of the consistent coverage by his paper of the peace community, for his critical editorials and for the newspaper's hard hitting exposes of the lies and war profiteering of the war on Iraq and Afghanistan," according to a press release.
