Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Metro Offers Up to $600 to Drive Less, Expands Driving Reduction Program

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Metro Wednesday was expanding its One Car Challenge pilot program countywide, offering Los Angeles County households up to $600 to reduce driving and use alternative forms of transportation.

The second phase of the program builds on a 2023 pilot in Santa Monica and will expand participation from 300 households to as many as 2,000 households across L.A. County, according to Metro.

Participants who keep at least one household vehicle parked at home for five weeks while using public transit, walking, bicycling, carpooling or other transportation options can earn up to $600, or as much as $120 per week, the agency said.

Metro officials said participants will use the GoCarma smartphone app to track odometer readings and travel behavior during the program.

“The pilot showed a significant behavioral shift away from solo car trips, with the most notable increases seen in walking and micromobility,” Metro said in a statement. “Data tracked during the initial phase revealed that participants were 2.6 times more likely to avoid driving an extra vehicle,

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

County Supervisors Approve $20,000 Reward for Information Leading to Jewish Center Mural Vandals

CITY NEWS SERVICE

County supervisors Tuesday approved a $20,000 reward offer for information leading to the person or people responsible for vandalizing a mural at the site of the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center that burned in last year’s Eaton Fire.

The mural in the 1400 block of North Altadena Drive was vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti sometime on July 24, according to the county sheriff’s department.

The mural, depicting an orange poppy as a symbol of hope, was produced by artist Miriam Hellmann, the Art Over Hate Collective, the Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund and religious school students, volunteers and community members. It was created earlier this year in response to an act of vandalism in which antisemitic graffiti was painted on a wall of the fire-damaged center.

“An attack motivated by hate against one community is an attack against us all,” Barger said in a statement after introducing her reward motion last week. “The antisemitic vandalism at the Pasadena Jewish Temple &

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

An Altadena Library Van Sets Up in Pasadena Friday, Issuing Cards Free to Any Californian

The weekly stop at Kidspace Children’s Museum runs from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., and opening a card takes $3 off museum admission for up to four guests

The library pulling into Brookside Park on Friday afternoon is not Pasadena’s. It will sign up Pasadena residents anyway.

The Altadena Library District parks its Curiosity Connection Vol. 2 mobile library outside Kidspace Children’s Museum every Friday, and the card it issues is free to any California resident, according to the district’s borrowing policy. The district is running the stop while its own Main Library, at 600 East Mariposa Street, sits closed for renovation. The visit, listed as Altadena Libraries’ Mobile Library at Kidspace, runs Friday, August 7, 2026, from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 480 North Arroyo Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91103 — inside Pasadena city limits, though the district that operates the van is not.

The two institutions co-present the visit as a community and family activity, and organizer information lists it as included with museum admission.

Wednesday, August 5, 2026

Pasadena Humane Brings Its Longer-Stay Dogs to a Hastings Ranch Store

A quiet room inside PetSmart lets animals that may not show well in kennels meet visitors somewhere calmer, the shelter says

The dogs Pasadena Humane takes to a Hastings Ranch pet store on Wednesday evenings are the ones nobody has taken home yet.

Pasadena Humane, a nonprofit, lists the event as the Hidden Gems Pop-Up Dog Adoption Event, and the next one runs Wednesday, August 5, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at PetSmart Hastings Ranch on East Foothill Boulevard. Its listing describes the animals as “dogs who have been at the shelter longer than most other pups,” brought out each week by the organization’s mobile adoption team. The pool it draws from includes dogs that arrived during the Eaton Fire and were never reclaimed.

The program began in mid-October 2025. In a column published by Pasadena Humane and previously in the Pasadena Star-News, President and Chief Executive Officer Chris Ramon wrote that the idea came from Iri Di Vincenzo, then the shelter’s mobile adoptions manager,

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

LA County to Conduct Earthquake Preparedness Review

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The county Board of Supervisors directed its staff Tuesday to conduct a thorough review of the county’s preparedness for a major earthquake, and to create a public outreach campaign to provide quake-readiness information to residents and businesses.

Without discussion, the board unanimously approved a motion by Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who cited recent studies showing that strain on portions of the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems has reached the highest point in at least 1,000 years.

The motion directs the county’s Office of Emergency Management to report back to the board on Sept. 29 with a comprehensive review of the county’s earthquake preparedness. That report, conducted in conjunction with Southland earthquake guru Lucy Jones, is expected to include a review of readiness at major county facilities — including medical centers — and infrastructure, along with preparedness to ensure continued government operations following a major quake.

The report will also identify gaps in need of addressing before a large temblor.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

LA County Fire Department: SoCal Edison Electrical Tower Sparked Deadly Eaton Fire

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Fire Department concluded in reports released Tuesday that electrical arcing on an out-of-service Southern California Edison transmission tower sparked the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

Fueled by fierce Santa Ana winds, the Eaton Fire killed at least 19 people in the Altadena area, while destroying roughly 9,000 structures as it raged over more than 14,000 acres.

SCE power lines have long been suspected as the source of the fire, with numerous lawsuits already filed against the utility. SCE officials have acknowledged in previous filings with state regulators that its equipment was a likely ignition source for the blaze.

“Our hearts are with the Altadena community, and we continue to support them as they recover and rebuild through our Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program,” SCE spokesman David Eisenhauer told City News Service Tuesday. “We received the L.A. County Fire report and are reviewing it. We have taken our potential role in the start of this fire seriously from the beginning.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivors’ Nonprofit Opens Zero-Interest Rebuild Financing to More Altadena Homeowners

Founders of Altadena Land Initiatives will take questions Tuesday at The Collaboratory as the Gap Rebuild Program widens beyond its pilot families

Altadena Land Initiatives will host a launch mixer for its Gap Rebuild Program, a zero-interest financing program for homeowners rebuilding after the Eaton Fire, at 4 p.m. Tuesday at The Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury Road, according to a media advisory from the nonprofit.

Co-founders Ursula Hyman and Manny Abascal, Eaton Fire survivors and longtime Altadena residents, are scheduled to speak, followed by media interviews.

The program is aimed at a shortfall that has kept many families from breaking ground: after insurance proceeds, many homeowners still face a gap of 40% to 50% of their rebuild costs, often hundreds of thousands of dollars, that FEMA assistance, SBA loans and other recovery resources cannot close, ALI said in materials announcing the program.

Without affordable financing, families are left choosing between high-interest debt, selling, or walking away from the community,

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Eaton Fire Burglary Case Reaches Its 19th Month in Pasadena Court

Rudy Salazar, accused with a co-defendant of entering two evacuated Altadena homes as the January 2025 wildfire burned, is scheduled before a judge in Department B on Tuesday morning

Rudy Salazar is scheduled to appear in a Pasadena courtroom Tuesday morning at 21 years old, facing allegations in two felony counts from an afternoon in Altadena when he was 19, and the Eaton Fire was burning.

Salazar and co-defendant Lucia Jilrara Perez, 37, each are charged with two counts of first-degree residential burglary.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office alleges the two entered a pair of Altadena homes at approximately 2:30 p.m. on January 8, 2025, while mandatory evacuation orders were in effect, and took property.

Both pleaded not guilty at their arraignment two days later.

The pair were apprehended while allegedly attempting to enter a third residence, the district attorney’s office said. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated the case.

First-degree residential burglary is a felony in California.

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Deals To Watch As CA Lawmakers Make Final Sprint

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

State lawmakers are returning to Sacramento today for the final month of session, which ends on Aug. 31. In the next few weeks, Democratic legislative leaders will attempt to hammer out deals between themselves, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other stakeholders on bills related to climate policy, speeding up urban development, wildfires and more, write CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu and Maya C. Miller.

Major deals we’re keeping tabs on include:

• Climate funding: By the June state budget deadline, legislators and Newsom failed to agree on how to spend the state’s main climate fund. The parties last year reauthorized the state’s carbon market, which finances climate programs by charging companies that pollute. But that money, which was estimated to generate $4 billion a year, could shrink by half under new rules the Newsom administration adopted this year — putting money for various legislative priorities at risk.

• California Forever: The real estate development group,

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

A Home Built, Faith Vindicated, In Altadena

By EDDIE RIVERA

A church community’s eighteen-month commitment gives a widow a brand-new home to replace the one she lost

Alice Jean McFerguson stood on Terrace Avenue in Altadena and watched her home burn to the ground before dawn on January 7, 2025. Her pastor, Bishop Christopher Milton of Holy Assembly Church of God in Christ, was beside her.

“We took her from that point,” Milton said, at a Monday party celebrating her rebuilt home. “We provided places for her to temporarily stay. We fostered with her insurance company, which was a whole parallel pivot business for her.”

McFerguson, 82, is a widow. A neighbor pulled her from her house the night the fire broke out. The next morning, Milton drove her back to check on the property. They arrived in time to see it collapse.

What followed was eighteen months of displacement. McFerguson, unlike other fire victims, moved only twice,