Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivors Head to Sacramento to Press State Leaders for Recovery Funds

By EDDIE RIVERA

More than 100 residents and advocates make two-day trip seeking $25 million for CARE Fund

More than 100 Eaton Fire survivors, residents, workers and community advocates headed to Sacramento Tuesday for a two-day campaign urging state leaders to provide $25 million for a recovery fund aimed at helping displaced Altadena residents return and rebuild.

Before boarding buses at the Pasadena Community Job Center Tuesday morning, survivors and leaders of the Dena Rise Up Coalition held a press conference outlining their demands and describing the financial and housing pressures still facing residents more than a year and a half after the January 2025 fire.

The coalition is seeking $25 million for the proposed Community Aid for Rebuilding Equity, or CARE, Fund, which would provide rebuilding-gap assistance for lower-income homeowners and help preserve and expand affordable housing for renters and working families.

“Recovery cannot be measured by promises. It must be measured by whether families can come home,” coalition spokesperson Florence Annang said.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Third Eaton Fire Senior Summit Brings Rebuilding and Insurance Guidance to Pasadena Thursday

A six-hour forum on rebuilding after the Eaton fire meets Thursday, Aug. 20, in Pasadena. The third Eaton Fire Senior Summit runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Pasadena Hilton, 168 S. Los Robles Ave.

Community Women Vital Voices and BMO Bank present the summit under the title “Rebuilding with Confidence.” The organizers describe it as a community forum for seniors, families and community leaders.

Three subjects are on the program. They are contractors and rebuilding, insurance claims, and consumer protection and fraud prevention.

Community Women Vital Voices is a Pasadena-based nonprofit led by Lena Louise Kennedy. The organization says it works with Black women, families and seniors across Pasadena and Altadena. It works to carry forward the legacy of Councilmember John J. Kennedy.

The group says its fire recovery work has included earlier senior summits and the distribution of resource guides. It also says it organized a public forum with Southern California Edison to press for compensation for fire victims.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

New County Authority Can Press Edison to Reduce Undergrounding Charges, But Not Compel It

County undergrounding aid, if approved, wouldn’t reach Altadena until late 2027 — and wouldn’t cover work already done

Los Angeles County’s plan to help Altadena homeowners pay to underground their utility connections has not been funded, would not pay out until late 2027 and would not reimburse work already completed, a county official told the Altadena Town Council on Tuesday.

Ciara Barnett, an assistant deputy director with county Public Works who said she is serving in a new role with the county’s Rebuild Authority, told the council that Public Works and the Rebuild Authority filed an application in March 2026 for FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money that would offset private-property undergrounding costs for fire survivors.

The county is working with Cal OES to secure the funding from FEMA, she said. The application has been received and deemed eligible, but a decision is not expected until the end of 2027.

“The funding is not secured,” Barnett said.

If awarded,

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Weekly Fire Recovery Job Session Returns to the Altadena Job Center Thursday

Los Angeles County holds its weekly Fire Recovery Thursdays employment session from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 20, at the Altadena job center, 464 W. Woodbury Road, Suite 210.

The pop-ups are run by the county Department of Economic Opportunity and its America’s Job Centers of California for workers and job seekers affected by the January 2025 wildfires and windstorms. They run at all 18 county job centers.

Services are free for wildfire-affected youth and adults 14 and older. They include career planning, job-readiness support, job training, paid work experience and direct connections to employers hiring.

“These Fire Recovery Thursday pop-ups can be a lifeline,” Supervisor Kathryn Barger said of the program.

The Altadena center is operated by Managed Career Solutions. Other locations are listed at https://www.ajcc.lacounty.gov/ajcc, or by calling (888) 226-6300.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Altadena Library Cancels Both Thursday Bookmobile Stops as Heat Advisory Runs Its Final Day

The Altadena Library District has canceled both of its Curiosity Connection mobile library stops for Thursday, Aug. 20.

The morning stop at Altadena Triangle Park, 800 E. Altadena Drive, set for 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and the afternoon stop at Prime Pizza, set for 2:30 to 5 p.m., are both off.

Thursday is the final day of a National Weather Service heat advisory covering the San Gabriel Valley, which expires at 8 p.m. Highs of 95 to 105 degrees are forecast across the valleys, 4 to 8 degrees above normal.

Two Altadena Library programs remain scheduled Thursday: English as a Second Language classes from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Center, 2659 Lincoln Ave., and free notary service from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory.

The bookmobile returns to both stops Thursday, Aug. 27.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Free Notary and Federal Disaster Loan Help Share One Altadena Address Thursday

Two free services for Altadena residents run Thursday, Aug. 20, at the same address on West Woodbury Road: notary appointments from the Altadena Library District and help from representatives of the U.S. Small Business Administration for survivors still working through disaster loan applications.

The Small Business Administration’s Disaster Loan Outreach Center at the Eaton Fire Collaborative, 540 W. Woodbury Road, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The filing deadline for this disaster has passed, and the center is focused on survivors who have already applied and need help completing an application or moving it forward. New applications may be accepted case by case in extraordinary circumstances.

That distinction matters for anyone who has not yet filed. The center is not an intake site for new claims, and residents in that position would be relying on an exception rather than the ordinary process.

The agency’s disaster assistance covers homeowners, renters, nonprofits and businesses of all sizes affected by the January 2025 wildfires and windstorms,

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

No Court Reporter? Record The Hearing, California Supreme Court Rules

By Ryan Sabalow, CALMATTERS

In a blow to court reporter unions, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday that courts must allow electronic recordings of hearings when a certified professional reporter is not available.

The justices found that a California law forbidding electronic recordings in most cases unfairly trampled on the rights of residents who could not afford to hire a certified reporter.

Reporters unions have been battling for years to ban or severely restrict recording in all but a few types of court cases. They argue that having certified professionals in a courtroom ensures accurate court transcripts that are vital to how the justice system functions.

But, as CalMatters reported last year, a massive shortage of reporters has resulted in millions of hearings without a written record of the proceedings. A transcript is usually needed to appeal a case. Recordings give parties in a legal dispute the option of later having a hearing transcribed by a certified professional.

Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Guest Opinion | Calmatters’ Dan Walters: How California’s Midterm Election Could Shape National Political Conflicts

By Dan Walters, CALMATTERS

When a professional political operative describes an election as “nationalized,” it means the outcome could have consequences far beyond the locality in which it occurs and therefore is drawing outside attention and resources.

This year’s congressional elections in California are a prime example, with two distinct and unusual aspects.

First and most obviously, Democrats are hoping to gain as many as five California seats in the House of Representatives due to a partisan gerrymander of the state’s 52 districts last year. Thus the outcome in California could determine whether their party regains control of the House, where Republicans now hold a paper-thin majority.

Meanwhile, outside the five districts that Democrats hope to switch, there are safely Democratic districts where progressive candidates are jousting with mainstream rivals, a subset of the national party’s ideological conflict.

One example is the duel between progressive state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, president of the Bay Area Regional Transit board,

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Pasadena Schools Open With ‘The Power of Us’

By EDDIE RIVERA

Nearly 14,000 students walked onto 23 campuses across the Pasadena Unified School District Monday morning, the start of a school year built around a single line: “This is the Power of Us: Forward Together.”

PUSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco spent the morning moving between two campuses, beginning at Washington Elementary STEM Magnet School shortly after 7:30, where students filed into classrooms already stocked for a new year of lessons. The visit doubled as a preview of facilities upgrades planned for the school in the years ahead.

In Ana Vasquez’s first-grade classroom at Washington, students were already making first-day introductions and sharing fun facts about themselves with their new classmates. 

By 8:45, Blanco had made her way to John Muir Early College Magnet High School, where the district’s annual welcome turned the walkway into something closer to a parade route. ‘Rampage,’ the LA Rams mascot, PUSD Board members, alumni and civic leaders lined the path into campus,

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Pasadena Unified Acknowledges Unfinished Cleaning at San Rafael Elementary as Students Return

District says areas open to students are safe after families reported dust and dirt on the first day of the school year

Pasadena Unified School District acknowledged Monday night that some of the final general campus cleaning and restoration work at San Rafael Elementary School had not been finished before students returned for the first day of classes, hours after parents contacted Pasadena Now to report airborne dust and dirt in areas used by children.

In a message to San Rafael families at 7:20 p.m., Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco and Michael Dunning, the district’s director of facilities, maintenance, operations and transportation, wrote that parts of the campus did not look or feel as finished as families reasonably expected on the first day of school.

“The playground structure was dusty, portions of the front walkway were covered with dirt, and restoration work remains visibly incomplete in several areas,” they wrote.

The underlying remediation and safety work, they wrote, has been completed or secured where necessary.