Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivor Walt Butler Named Grand Marshal of Pasadena’s Black History Festival

The 83-year-old former PCC track champion lost his Altadena home of 60 years but vowed to help rebuild his community

Walt Butler spent six decades helping his neighbors in Altadena, donating shoes to kids who needed them, mentoring youth, assisting seniors and the unhoused. In January 2025, the Eaton Fire took his home. On February 21, his community will honor him.

The City of Pasadena and the Black History Planning Committee announced this week that Butler, 83, will serve as Grand Marshal of the 2026 Black History Festival. The former Pasadena City College track and field athlete and coach won the state championship in the 120-yard high hurdles in 1962 and later helped guide three consecutive PCC state champions.

“We are honored to have Walt Butler as our Grand Marshal for the 2026 Festival,” said Pixie Boyden, Co-Chair of the Black History Planning Committee, in a statement released by the city.

“He is a shining example of who we are as residents of Pasadena,

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

South Pasadena Memorial to Honor Leader Who Helped Stop 710 Freeway Extension Into Area

FROM THE SOUTH PASADENAN

Public gathering on February 28 celebrates Joanne Nuckols, whose decades of civic work shaped Pasadena area neighborhoods

A public memorial gathering will be held Saturday, February 28, at the South Pasadena War Memorial Building to honor Joanne Nuckols, a longtime civic leader whose work helped stop the 710 Freeway extension from carving through South Pasadena, Pasadena, and El Sereno.

Nuckols, who died August 19, 2025, at her South Pasadena home, was among the key figures in what became one of the longest transportation land-use disputes in American history. The proposed freeway would have displaced thousands of homes and divided historic neighborhoods across multiple cities.

The gathering, organized by members of the South Pasadena civic and preservation community, begins with doors opening at 10 a.m. A formal program with speakers runs from 11 a.m. to noon, followed by a light lunch and informal fellowship until 1 p.m. The event is open to the public and does not require an RSVP.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Pauli Murray Documentary to Screen at All Saints Church

Pasadena’s Racial Justice and LGBTQ+ Ministries collaborate on Black History Month film series

The first African-American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest will come to life on screen at All Saints Church on Friday, February 6, when the church screens “My Name is Pauli Murray,” a documentary about the trailblazing civil rights lawyer now honored as an Episcopal saint.

The screening is the opening event of “February Freedom Film Fridays,” a collaboration between the church’s Racial Justice and LGBTQ+ Ministries that examines the intersection of queer and racial liberation during Black History Month. That Murray’s story is being told at an Episcopal church—the same denomination where Murray made history in 1977—adds particular resonance to the evening.

Murray, who died in 1985, was a legal scholar whose work shaped landmark civil rights law. Thurgood Marshall called Murray’s book on segregation laws “the bible of the civil rights movement,” and Ruth Bader Ginsburg listed Murray as a co-author on a legal brief she presented to the Supreme Court.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

SoCal Groundhog Day: Six More Weeks of Balmy Weather?

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The summery Southern California weather may have been omitted from the forecast of the prognosticating Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction Monday when he called for six more weeks of winter in his annual Groundhog Day prognosis.

The rodent was pulled out of his  burrow around 7:30 a.m. local time, Pennsylvania and the president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club said that Phil saw his shadow – which means six more weeks of winter are ahead.

In the Los Angeles area, temperatures were expected to by in the 70s on Monday and hit around 80 degrees by Wednesday, but for much of the rest of the U.S., parts of  which have been buried in recent snows that have left a swath of sometimes deadly devastation while delaying thousands of flights, winter has already been brutal.

In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where Phil and his handlers conduct an annual ritual known the world over, temperatures were in the single  digits as a crowd danced,

Monday, February 2, 2026

Guest Opinion | Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: The Killing of Citizens and the Erosion of Democratic Norms

The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis — coming just weeks after the killing of another U.S. citizen, Renée Good, by an ICE agent — is not merely an act of violence but part of a wider pattern that threatens the moral foundations of American civic life.

Pretti, an ICU nurse known affectionately by colleagues and family, was involved in protests against federal immigration enforcement when he was shot and killed. While the Department of Homeland Security asserts that he displayed a weapon, bystander video and accounts from family and community members raise questions about what truly happened — concerns that have fueled outrage and deep mistrust in public institutions.

Philosopher John Stuart Mill wisely wrote that “A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction.” When a government allows lethal force to be used without clear accountability, it commits a moral injury to the public it is sworn to protect. The fact that at least two U.S.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Altadena Pastor Who Saved His Church While His Home Burned Gets Community Thank-You

Pastor Kenebrew saved his church while his home burned. Last week, a grateful community thanked him for his sacrifice

Pastor G. LaKeith Kenebrew made seven trips into the Eaton Fire zone on the night of January 7, 2025, fighting to save Hillside Tabernacle City of Faith while his own home burned less than a mile away. On Friday, January 30, his community publicly thanked him for putting their needs first.

Kenebrew lost his home in the fire that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures across Altadena. But the 58-year-old church at 2561 N. Fair Oaks Ave. survived—and became a distribution hub for emergency supplies.

Thirteen months after the fire, Kenebrew’s congregation and community acknowledged his sacrifice at a recognition event, and the church has been rebuilt.

“I thought about my church family,” Kenebrew told KNX News reporter Karen Adams. “I thought about the church members, and I thought about what my wife and I lost, but it was,

Monday, February 2, 2026

Local Residents Included in Mandatory No-Burn Order for West San Gabriel Valley on Monday

A mandatory residential No Burn Day is in effect Monday for Pasadena and the wider West San Gabriel Valley, according to a notice issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The alert prohibits residents from burning wood, pellets or manufactured fire logs in any indoor or outdoor wood-burning device, and bans burning charcoal except in cooking devices. The No Burn Day applies to the South Coast Air Basin, which includes large areas of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with the exception of the High Desert and the Coachella Valley.

Information on AQMD’s “Check Before You Burn” program is available at www.aqmd.gov/cbyb, and residents can sign up to receive e-mail alerts at www.AirAlerts.org..

According to AQMD, No-Burn Day alerts are mandatory in order to protect public health when levels of fine particle pollution or ozone are forecast to be high anywhere in the South Coast Air Basin. Particles in smoke can get deep into the lungs and cause health problems,

Monday, February 2, 2026

CA Groups Seek Local Taxes to Offset Federal Health Care Cuts

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

Would raising a county sales tax help local residents stave off federal health care cuts? A coalition of health care organizations and workers say yes.

As CalMatters’ Ana B. Ibarra explains, Restore Healthcare for Angelenos is pushing to place a measure on the June ballot that would ask Los Angeles County voters to decide whether the county could impose a half-cent sales tax through 2031. The money would go toward helping residents pay for primary and emergency care, as well as behavioral health needs for people who have lost their Medi-Cal coverage.

The coalition says the proposal would raise about $1 billion a year, and it’s working with Supervisor Holly Mitchell to present the motion to the county.

• Mitchell, in an emailed statement: “This option is on the table because what’s at stake are safety net services unraveling for millions of residents. … This is a last resort option for the times we’re facing.”

The board is expected to vote on the proposal next month.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Alleged Unlicensed Contractors Charged in Eaton Fire Zone Set for Pasadena Hearing Monday

Defendants charged with offering services without licenses in Altadena are among the first prosecuted under felony disaster-zone statute

Three men charged with suspicion of working as unlicensed contractors in the Eaton Fire disaster zone are scheduled to appear Monday in Pasadena Courthouse to have a preliminary hearing date set in their felony cases.

Edgar Geovanni Lopez Revolorio, 42, of Arleta; Guillermo Ramirez, 54, of Pomona; and Melvin Hairon Mejia Ordonez, 41, of Los Angeles are among five defendants charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in December for allegedly offering contractor services without licenses in Altadena. The cases are among the first felony prosecutions targeting contractors accused of preying on fire survivors as they rebuild from the January 2025 blaze that destroyed more than 9,000 structures.

All three defendants pleaded not guilty at their arraignments in December and were released on their own recognizance.

Monday’s proceeding in Department D, scheduled for the courthouse at 300 E.

Monday, February 2, 2026

Young Eaton Fire Survivors Tell Their Stories in Free Pasadena Theatre Production

In Other People’s Shoes Productions stages verbatim testimonies from anonymous youth, with therapist-led discussion to follow

A year after the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures in Altadena, a Pasadena theatre company is putting young survivors’ voices on stage—using their exact words.

The Fire Stories Project, a free staged reading at Lineage Performing Arts Center on Monday at 7 p.m., features the verbatim testimonies of young people who experienced the January 2025 fire.

Professional actors will perform the script, which was edited from interviews conducted by In Other People’s Shoes Productions in partnership with therapists from Pacific Clinics. The young people remain anonymous.

“We wanted to give young people the opportunity to have their voices heard, and to share their experiences of a very defining event in our community,” said Mireya Hepner, founder of In Other People’s Shoes Productions and co-creator of the project, in a statement.

The performance marks the final of three readings commemorating the fire’s one-year anniversary.