Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Chu Joins Federal Announcement on Medical Care for Immigrants in ICE Custody

The announcement comes 13 days after a U.S. district judge ordered an overhaul of conditions at the Adelanto detention center

A federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to overhaul medical care at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center 13 days ago. On Wednesday afternoon, four Southern California Democrats will hold a news conference and announce legislation on the same subject.

One of them is Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, whose 28th Congressional District takes in both Pasadena and Altadena. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, is convening it. A media advisory describes the measure as legislation intended to improve access to medical care for immigrants detained in ICE detention centers. Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina, and Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, will also take part.

In Chu’s district, the issue already has a case attached to it. Masuma Khan, a 64-year-old Altadena resident and Eaton Fire survivor, was detained at a routine immigration check-in on October 6, 2025, and held at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County,

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Barger Motion Turns to Dr. Lucy Jones, Caltech, UCLA for County Earthquake Review

Unincorporated Altadena depends on the county emergency office that would carry out the assessment, working with Caltech and UCLA

Los Angeles County wants to know how ready it is for the next major earthquake. Under a motion from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, part of the answer would come from Pasadena.

Barger introduced the motion on Tuesday. It calls for a comprehensive review of County earthquake preparedness and directs County emergency officials to engage Dr. Lucy Jones, along with experts from Caltech and UCLA, to help shape readiness for the next major quake.

Jones is a visiting associate in geophysics at Caltech and founder of a Pasadena-based science center. Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory, where she has held an appointment since 1984, sits on East California Boulevard. 

Under the motion, that office would return to the Board of Supervisors on September 29, 2026 with a comprehensive assessment, the release said, evaluating County facilities, emergency personnel, continuity of government operations and critical infrastructure,

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

JPL’s Chief Scientist Brings the Search for Life to a Live Audience

Caltech alumnus Jonathan Lunine will discuss the Perseverance rover’s biosignature discovery and Europa Clipper’s voyage in a free Aug. 25 livestream

The rock that may hold the strongest evidence of ancient life on Mars was drilled from an old riverbed by a robot built in Pasadena. The scientist now leading the laboratory that built it will explain what comes next — live, from the room where mission controllers talk to spacecraft billions of miles away.

Jonathan Lunine, chief scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor of planetary science at Caltech, will headline a free public livestream on Tuesday, August 25, at 12:00 p.m. Billed as a fireside chat and broadcast from JPL’s Space Flight Operations Facility — the nerve center known internally as the Center of the Universe — the 75-minute conversation will trace the missions driving the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth, from a single Mars rock sample to an ocean hidden beneath the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Altadena Nonprofit Launches Program to Help Eaton Fire Survivors Bridge Rebuilding Costs

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

A nonprofit founded by Eaton Fire survivors has launched a new program aimed at helping Altadena homeowners overcome one of the biggest obstacles to rebuilding after the January 2025 wildfire: the gap between insurance payouts and the actual cost of reconstruction.

Altadena Land Initiatives (ALI), a nonprofit established by longtime Altadena residents and Eaton Fire survivors Ursula Hyman and Manny Abascal, announced the launch of its Gap Rebuild Program, which combines zero-interest construction financing with a network of pre-selected builders to help eligible homeowners return to their properties.

The organization said many homeowners face rebuilding shortfalls of 40% to 50% after insurance proceeds are exhausted, leaving families unable to afford reconstruction despite receiving settlements.

The program provides zero-interest construction gap loans through Cathay Bank while simplifying the rebuilding process by connecting homeowners with builders vetted for experience, pricing, availability and commitment to Altadena’s recovery. According to the nonprofit, it also offers administrative assistance,

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

SoCal Seismic Network Manager Says Global Quake Cluster Has Not Raised Pasadena’s Earthquake Risk

By THERESE EDU

Allen Husker, who manages the Southern California Seismic Network from Caltech, says the local faults beneath Pasadena would deliver the sharpest shaking here

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake collapsed buildings, buckled a section of expressway and started fires in southwestern Japan on Tuesday, the latest large quake in a month that also saw major earthquakes in Venezuela and southern Mexico.

Eleven days earlier, with that run of quakes already drawing attention, a Caltech geophysicist who manages a seismic network monitoring Southern California’s faults told Pasadena Now that widespread seismic activity has not made a damaging earthquake here any more likely.

“So the short answer is no, it hasn’t gone up,” Allen Husker said of the risk that the activity had increased the odds of ‘The Big One’.

Husker, a research professor of geophysics at Caltech and manager of both the Southern California Earthquake Data Center and the Southern California Seismic Network, said the increase is largely a matter of appearance.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

California Pension Ruling Limits How Many Vacation Hours Workers Can Count For Retirement

By Adam Ashton, CALMATTERS

A new California Supreme Court ruling on retirement pay for public employees centered on a small amount of money — just one week’s salary for a retired attorney — but it had the potential to be a much costlier decision for government agencies and taxpayers.

The question: How much accrued vacation time can retiring public employees cash out at the end of their careers in ways that boost their pensions? Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown took aim at that perk, among others, in his 2013 pension reform law, but it was unsettled in courts until now.

The California Supreme Court’s answer: Under Brown’s law, employees can count toward their pension formula whatever amount of vacation their contract allows them to cash out in a single calendar year.

That sounds simple, but some California government workers end their careers with two months or more worth of accrued vacation time — enough to cash out in increments over several years and increase their retirement pension by hundreds of dollars a month.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Southland to Face Dangerous Heat After Brief Break

CITY NEWS SERVICE

This week’s slight cooldown will be short-lived, with forecasters warning Tuesday that widespread dangerous heat is expected to return to the Southland by the weekend.

While temperatures are expected to ease by a couple of degrees Tuesday through Thursday, the National Weather Service said residents should use the break to prepare for another prolonged stretch of triple-digit heat beginning Friday.

“Have a plan to stay cool, especially if work or other activities take you outside mid-morning to mid-evening hours or do not have access to air conditioning,” the NWS said.

Widespread moderate to high heat risk is expected Friday through the weekend, when temperatures are forecast to climb into the mid-90s to 105 degrees across most inland communities.

In the western San Gabriel Mountains and the 5 and 14 Freeway corridors, a heat advisory will take effect at 10 a.m. Thursday, with triple- digit temperatures anticipated, but it will be replaced by a more severe extreme heat warning at 10 a.m.

Wednesday, July 29, 2026

Supervisor Proposes $20,000 Reward for Info Leading to Jewish Center Mural Vandals

CITY NEWS SERVICE

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger introduced a motion Tuesday calling on the county to offer a $20,000 reward 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 the Eaton Fire last year.

The mural in the 1400 block of North Altadena Drive was vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti sometime Friday, 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,

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Powerball Winner Buys 15 Fire-Ravaged Altadena Lots, Plans Homes for Families to Rebuild

Two of Castro’s houses are under construction, but permits for the remaining lots have not been filed

Edwin Castro, the Altadena native who won a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot in 2022, has spent roughly $10 million purchasing 15 fire-damaged lots in his hometown, with plans to build single-family homes for owner-occupants rather than rental investors, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.

Two of Castro’s houses were under construction as of May 2026, but he had not yet applied for permits on any of the remaining lots, the Los Angeles Times reported. Castro is the second-largest investor buying vacant lots in Altadena, behind Ocean Development Inc., according to the Times. Castro purchased his winning lottery ticket in November 2022 at an Altadena gas station that survived the January Eaton Fire largely untouched. The fire, part of a broader Southern California fire event that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings,

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Pasadena Congresswoman Issues Demand for ICE Investigations

Roughly 50 people gathered at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue on Saturday morning; day laborers held a second memorial that afternoon on East Walnut Street

Shortly before noon on Saturday, an organizer lifted a megaphone at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue and began reading the names of the dead.

There were dozens. Some were not names at all — an unidentified man, four unidentified women.

About 50 people stood with her, according to the Los Angeles Times, part of a national day of action held July 25 to mark deaths in immigration custody and during enforcement operations. They are members of San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible.

A second gathering followed that afternoon: according to a July 23 media advisory from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which is headquartered in Pasadena, day laborers and faith leaders convened at 2:15 p.m. at the Home Depot at 2881 East Walnut Street.

In a statement released by her office after the weekend,