From William Bing, the director of the Caltech Bands, the 12th Annual Caltech Jazz Festival will be held at Gates Patio on Sat., April 14, from noon to 6 PM.

Featured artist is Altadena’s Bennie Maupin, who has recorded and performed with such artists as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Marion Brown, Chick Corea, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Jack DeJohnette,

by Timothy Rutt

Dave Jurasevich, superintendent of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, will speak at the Forest Committee meeting of the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club on Wednesday night at Eaton Canyon Nature Center.

Jurasevich will highlight the many accomplishments of the Observatory since it was established more than a century ago by astronomer George Ellery Hale.

The bloggers of the San Gabriel Valley and environs met for our annual Primavera in Altadena Potluck PIcnic on Saturday.  It was the place to be for good conversation, good people, and more bloggers than you can safely handle in one place!

Here, Susan Carrier (on the right) shows Pasadena Public Information Officer Ann Erdman the “wishing bush,” a forsythia generously donated by Lincoln Avenue Nursery.  

Masha Ashaz Dean, 27, was convicted today of an Altadena murder, kidnapping, and child endangerment following a Superior Court trial in downtown Los Angeles.

Dean was charged with killing Monroe Miles, Jr., in Altadena in 2007.  According to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Dean faces a possible state prison term of life with possibility of parole.

According to the district attorney,

by Timothy Rutt

Sheriffs are seeking a suspect in a March 6 residential burglary who is apparently trying to pass as a workman to gain access.

According to Virginia Cordova, crime analyst at the Altadena Sheriff's Station,the suspect was described as a slightly heavy-set Hispanic male in his late 20's-early 30's,

by Timothy Rutt

When we woke up Wednesday morning in Altadena, we didn't expect to go to sleep in Sacramento, but that's how it seemed to shake out.

Our son is participating in a treatment trial at UC-Davis, and due to various circumstances, we had to get him there immediately. So we'll be in the clinic most of the day today and tomorrow,

… and will be thru the day, and all is going well — hope to be back in fabulous Altadena tomorrow!

Jack Scott announced that he will retire as  chancellor of the California Community Colleges on Sept. 1.

In a statement sent to community colleges statewide, Scott said, "I have greatly enjoyed my work since becoming chancellor on January 1, 2009. It is true that it has been a tough time for community colleges because of the financial difficulties of the state of California.

The 2012 season of the Sheriff’s Support Group’s 16th annual concert series in Farnsworth Park is locked in, with a selection of returning acts and a couple of newcomers for your summer enjoyment.

All concerts are on Saturdays, starting at 7 PM.

July 7:  The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Pride Dancers
July 14: Downbeat Express featuring Jennifer Gates (big band)
July 21: Wreck N Sow (Americana/Folk)
July 28: Susie Hansen Latin Band
Aug.

by Adolfo Flores
Pasadena Sun

The Pasadena City Council is expected to go forward next week with an environmental study for temporarily hosting an NFL team at the Rose Bowl.

The study would determine the traffic and other impacts of allowing an NFL team to use the Rose Bowl as a home stadium for five years while another stadium is built elsewhere in the region.

Altadena Sheriff’s Station’s CERT Program and its CERT Management Team invite you to come learn more about what we’re doing to get Altadena organized and ready for the next catastrophic event.

Come meet your CERT trained neighbors, find out what Zone you’re in, help us begin to prepare a disaster management plan for Altadena, figure out where safe areas in your Zone might be.

• Hunger Walk:  Maurice Bloem, deputy director of Church World Service, has been walking 1000 miles this week to publicize CROP Hunger Walks in the area.  Friday, he stopped in Altadena  and James Figueroa of PSN has the story.
• For your Altadena lifestyle: KSwiss has introduced a new line of its Altadena shoe for women (which means it doesn’t come in men’s size 12, darn it …)  to go with your Altadena bag,

… yes, everything seems grotesquely early — it's because Daylight Savings Time has just started, so set the clocks an hour ahead (yawwwn)!

We spent several HOURS at the Apple Store yesterday with the new computer, where the Genius Bar types were saying, "Gee, we've never seen THAT happen before!"   So we're piling things up — will play catch-up today (at least until we have to run to our next Genius Bar appointment, because we haven't solved the problem yet …)

The Altadena Crest Trail Restoration Working Group (ACTWRWG) meets today at 7 PM at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Dr.

Items of interest on the agenda include an update on the proposed fence/gate project at the Cobb Estate; La Vina litigation update and trail planning; update on the locked PInerest Gate; Hahamongna Watershed EIR scoping meetings,

from gloriana casey

Now budget fiends, I say to  you
of things you want to cut.
This cutting off the MARS project?
A sword to nation’s gut!

For JOBS we need, and here’s the point
in REAL “Trickle Down,”
From NASA space technology
inventions do abound!

One  dollar spent exploring space,
in eight or nine comes back.

We are sending this email to let everyone know that we are done with taking down the lights for the year. 

Thanks to the hard work from students from South Pasadena High School, Pasadena High School, and Flintridge Preparatory, as well as the hard work from the Cool Kids Care from Saint Mark’s School. Plus people from as far away as Arcadia and Los Angles as well as people from all over Altadena —

by Carolyn Seitz
cmseitz@mindspring.com

As you know, the Commander of the Altadena Sheriff's Station, Steven M. McLean announced his retirement, effective March 31, 2012.

Come help us celebrate Steve as he closes one great chapter in his life and opens the next.

Here are the details:

Date:   

Jane Brackman, Ph.D., aka Dr. Barkman, our expert in all things canid, has re-launched her dog blog, which she describes as “all dogs all the time.  Basically it’s just shameless self promotion …”

It includes:

• links to the all time funniest dog videos (if you have some please send so I can post),
• dog science
• links to my articles and the magazines and websites  where I publish
• parts of my collection of vintage photos of dogs and the people who love them
• vintage photos of breeds (the way they looked a hundred years ago and how they look now)
• photos and information about street and stray dogs in foreign places
• The book my sister and I wrote (“The Dog in the Picture”)
• Stuff about guide dogs
• and links to good dog sites (some sites are about bad dogs)

Check it out at http://doctorbarkman.blogspot.com/

NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) and the ISS National Laboratory provide unparalleled opportunities for informal and formal educators to connect students and other audiences directly to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

The Blinn House Foundation, a Pasadena non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the historic Edmund Blinn House, has selected its 2012 recipients for the 9th Annual Dr. Robert Winter award, named after the famous Pasadena architectural historian and author.

The award winners are John Frederick Merritt of Berkeley,

This inaugural fundraising event is scheduled for Sunday, April 15, from 3– 5 PM. at Breakthru Fitness, 345 So. Lake Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105. There are one hour time slots available for cyclists to choose from (3 – 4pm and 4 – 5pm).

Thursday, March 15, is “pink slip” day at the Pasadena Unified School District,  where teachers will get their lay-off notices.  (In years past. not all teachers who got notices were actually laid off — but if they’re in danger of losing their jobs, the notice has to go out this week).

Altadena Elementary School isn’t taking it lying down:  it’s joining about 50 other schools around the state with a “Don’t Blow It”

Yep, St. Patrick’s Day, another Day of Enforced Joytm is this Saturday, and you probably need to be three people to take in everything:

• The Rancho Bar (Altadenablog sponsor), 2485 N. Lake Ave., turns Irish for a day:  it opens at 11 AM with corned beef and cabbage, Guinness on tap, and shamrock mixed drink specials all day.
• Another member of the sponsor team, the Altadena Ale &

UPDATE 3/15: LitFest has been cancelled due to the threat of heavy rain — it has been rescheduled to May 12.

by Timothy Rutt

LitFest Pasadena, the area’s first community-wide book festival, may be taking place in central Pasadena, but it has an Altadena sensibility.

Or at least a lot of Altadena authors, says Michele Zack, who is one of them, and has been heavily involved in pulling the March 17 event together.