The Rotary Club of Altadena is offering a grand prize of up to $5,000 to the winner of the Dan Stover Memorial Music Contest, a high school senior who displays outstanding musical ability.

The contest is open to all high school seniors who either live or attend school (including home school) within the Rotary District 5300 area (essentially the San Gabriel Valley to southern Nevada).  Contestants can play virtually any musical instrument,

• Bikeways up for approval:  the county Regional Planning Commission will be asked to approve a county Bicycle Master Plan, which includes a five mile “bike boulevard” for Altadena as well as a new bike path that will start at Eaton Canyon and follow the Eaton Wash. The meeting will be Wed., Jan. 11, at the Department of Regional Planning, 320 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. 

Residents of the Layton Vista area are invited to a rescheduled meeting to discuss the street light improvement project planned by the county Department of Public Works.

The previous meeting, scheduled for Dec. 7, was cancelled due to the windstorm.  The new meeting will be this coming Thurs.,

Elliot Gold, co-founder of ACONA, tells us that the meeting] will feature speakers who will address how we can get better cellular coverage in Altadena.

Ted Tsagris, Senior Manager Development Construction for T-Mobile will not only explain it, but demonstrate it for ACONA members.

A public meeting about the consolidation of the Mack Robinson mail handling facility drew a full house at Robinson Park in Pasadena Tuesday.  The young man addressing the crowd claimed to be from Occupy LA,  and raised objections to the plan.  Photo courtesy of Deb Halberstadt, HalfCity Productions

by Timothy Rutt

A U.S. Postal Service official says that the Altadena post office will not close —

Yes, it’s getting to be that time again: the Altadena Library’s  annual Art on Millionaire’s Row will start taking applications from local artists for both the festival and the salon shows starting Mon., Jan. 16.

Application fee to the festival (outside in the parking lot) is $50, and to the juried salon is $25 (can submit up to three pieces).  Deadline for submission is April 27.

Applications are available here.

OK, maybe not UFOs, but unusual aircraft nonetheless: Skywatcher Chris Considine shares these photos of objects in the sky on Jan. 2.  Above, the B2 bomber takes a route through the moon as it flies over the Rose Parade. Below, the Goodyear Blimp against the clouds as the setting sun colors the sky.

by Jane Brackman
President, Altadena Historical Society

The Altadena Historical Society announces its new Mystery Photo Blog. We have over 1000 photographs that give us the big picture of our community’s history. But sometimes we’re stymied by the little details in the picture. On our new blog, we post photographs that are missing important parts of their stories. We’re appealing to Altadenablog readers to help us out.

This is a picture from the Col.

Nada Jones, an Altadena resident, has launched a publishing company for entrepreneurial women called ltd365 and is hosting her second women's conference in Pasadena on Wed., Feb. 1, and Thurs., Feb. 2, ltdLIVE.

The conference will kick off Tues., Jan. 31, at 6:30 PM with a special screening of “Miss Representation” and a Q&A with filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

The Altadena Chamber of Commerce will hold a semi-formal cocktail reception on Fri., Jan. 27, at the Altadena Town & Country Club, to install new officers and honor its Citizen and Business of the Year.

Citizen of the Year for 2011 is Bill Westphal.  Altadenablog is the Chamber’s first Business of the Year.

TIckets are $50 each, or $200 for five.  Invitations are to be available at the Altadena Community Center,

Donations from Hollywood production companies and homeowners whose property was used in film shoots put $4,000 into the coffers of Altadena-based charities and organizations in 2011.

Russ Fega, whose Altadena firm Home Shoot Home (Altadenablog sponsor) keeps a roster of buildings that can be used by production companies, established the charitable Altadena Community Chest last year. The Chest solicits donations from the production companies that shoot films,

Time for the return of the weekend — and keep checking in as we add more!

Sat. Jan. 14

• Yard sale at 111 W. Manor, Altadena, 9 AM-1:30 PM.  A variety of quality items, serving ware, glass and crystal, picture frames, small kitchen appliances, briefcases and computer cases,

Two disabled Altadena women had the water shut off in their new apartments, but their headaches may just be beginning.

by Timothy Rutt

On Monday, Jan. 9, Marjorie McNary and Mary O’Conner’s water was shut off.  On Wednesday, Jan. 12, it was turned on again. If they can’t come up with $500 by Tuesday, Jan. 17, it’ll be shut off again.

McNary lives in the house in the front of the property at 2817 Casitas Ave.,

by Bill Kisliuk
Pasadena Sun

Local officials have not demonstrated that the ferocious windstorm that ripped through the region Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 did enough damage to qualify as a federal disaster, and they are asking agencies to provide more information to meet the federal threshold.

by Bill Kisliuk
Pasadena Sun

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) will host a Jan. 12 forum in Pasadena to examine the response to the windstorm that did tens of millions of dollars worth of damage to Pasadena and surrounding cities on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

Schiff has asked representatives from 

by Timothy Rutt

Athens Services is continuing to pick up green waste from the big windstorm, route supervisor Luis Sanchez told the Altadena Town Council Tuesday night, even though the amount of green waste has almost tripled since then.

Sanchez told the council that Athens usually collects 36 tons of green waste a day,

by Joe Piasecki
Pasadena Sun

Two John Muir High School students involved in a Sept. 28 scuffle with football coach Ken Howard are facing juvenile court charges for their roles in the incident.

Howard was charged by city prosecutors with misdemeanor assault in November and is awaiting arraignment.

by Adolfo Flores
Pasadena Sun

Karen Tinsley arose in the middle of the night on Nov. 30 to see burning embers floating toward her Mentor Avenue home. She grabbed her Maltese, Rocky, and bolted across the street at the height of the windstorm.

by Bill Kisliuk
Pasadena Sun

Saying U.S. Forest Service workers may have broken the law by taping phone conversations in the early stages of the 2009 Station fire, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) pushed Friday for a definitive finding from federal investigators.

Andre Coleman at the Pasadena Weekly says that there will be a moratorium on plans to shut down three post offices — the Altadena post office, the Mack Robinson facility at Orange Grove and Lincoln in Pasadena, and the Orangewood post office at California and Pasadena Ave.  Originally planned to close at the end of the year,

On Christmas Eve, Altadena deputies don ties as they remember one of their own, who died 70 years ago Saturday.

From left, Deputy David Larimer’s grandson, David Burwell and wife Dolores with Altadena Sheriff Lieutenants Roosevelt Johnson and Joe Dempsey at the Mountain View Cemetery next to Larimer’s grave on Christmas Eve,

Webster's Fine Stationers, 2450 N. Lake Ave., tells us they're hosting an "Ugly Sweater" party today.  Sip some hot apple cider or festive champagne (grown ups only on that one!) and sample some chocolate treats.

Also: save on seasonal gifts: 20% off selected items,

Now every year about this time,
some children’s minds do race!
And back and forth their thoughts will go —
they have NO fireplace!

For in that story–true as gold,
a fireplace is found.
YES —  down that chimney Santa came,
and he “came with a bound.”

The Pasadena Unified School District redistricting task force is holding meetings for public input in January and February.

The task force is charged with making recommendations for an amendment to the City of Pasadena charter language related to PUSD, and drawing new sub-regional districts for board members.  PUSD is planning to change from an “at large” system for board members to a format where board members each represent a specific geographic district.

by Timothy Rutt

Very happy news this Christmas Eve day.

We published a story yesterday: Jane Brackman was hiking through Eaton Canyon Friday morning and found two families looking for their missing dogs:  Roscoe, a Rhodesian ridgeback who went missing in the canyon the day before;

A couple of pictures to close the day from Altadena Sheriff Station Sgt. John Stanley:  the sheriff’s radio car stopped at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Lotus Avenue early this evening, 70 years to the hour in tribute to Altadena Station deputy David Larimer, who was killed at that location while on duty , Dec. 24, 1941. 

Below, Altadena Capt. Steven McLean at Larimer’s grave at Mountain View Cemetery earlier today.

Our column for the Valley Sun is up; the story of Deputy David Larimer.

Our traditional Christmas picture is a Flemish painting by an unknown artist, c. 1515, “Adoration of the Christ Child,” which is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Several years ago, psychiatrist Andrew Levitas and geneticist Cheryl Reid made a discovery: the angel closest to Mary, and possibly one of the shepherds in the back,

Mary Roper took this smartphone picture of the Scott house aflame this afternoon before firefighters arrived.

Welcome, Altadena Patch and Pasadena Sun readers!

by Timothy Rutt

A Christmas afternoon fire engulfed the home of Jack Scott, California Community Colleges chancellor and former state senator, and his wife Lacreta.  The Scotts and their family members who lived in the house were returning from a Christmas Day church service,