(Sept. 10, 2016, 9:50 p.m., photo gallery added Sept. 11, 8:58 a.m.) -- Over a thousand Long Beach residents came to see the opening of the city's long awaited new North Long Beach library, named by the City Council -- after some controversy -- the "Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library." LBREPORT.com provides extended VIDEO coverage of today's (Sept. 10) remarks by city officials at this link, and VIDEO of the interior of the impressive new facility at this link.
But part of the City Council motion to name the library for Ms. Obama included the following text: "...Direct the City Manager to work with the White House to invite the First Lady to the city of Long Beach for a naming dedication ceremony..." KESQ-TV, Palm Springs is reporting that there are reasons to believe First Lady Michelle Obama is in the Coachella Valley this weekend. That would put her roughly 120 miles from Long Beach (only minutes away by the First Lady's White House jet, which KESQ reports is parked at a Palm Springs area airport.) For KESQ.com's independent coverage of the Coachella Valley aspect to this story, click here LBREPORT.com presumes that Long Beach city officials did extend an invitation to the First Lady. We don't know the details (yet) and city officials haven't volunteered what happened...but we do plan to pursue this story and report what happened for you. [Scroll down for further.] |
Our curiosity grew when Vice Mayor/9th dist. Councilman Rex Richardson (who led efforts to name the library for Ms. Obama) didn't respond to an email inquiry from us early last night (Sept. 9) asking him, in the interest of transparency, to confirm if Ms. Obama had declined the City's invitation. We also asked him if he knew where Ms. Obama would be on Saturday morning Sept. 10 during the time of the dedication ceremony. Likewise less than transparent was the White House press office yesterday (Sept. 9) when an intake person told us to email our inquiry (which we declined to do and asked to speak to a live person; that request sent us to a voice mail extension where we left a message that wasn't returned.) We became even more curious when during today's event, no officials read any response or statement on behalf of the First Lady, and neither LB's Mayor nor Vice Mayor mentioned that the Council had directed the City to work with the White House to invite Ms. Obama to attend the dedication ceremony. We presume the invitation was made on behalf of the City and we intend to find out what followed. Below are links to VIDEO coverage of today's event, followed by a photo gallery.
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