Tuesday, February 3, 2026

626-Area Native Launches Her Adult Fiction Debut at Vroman’s on the Book’s Publication Day

Christina Hammonds Reed, whose YA bestseller explored the 1992 LA riots, returns to Pasadena with a supernatural family saga

Christina Hammonds Reed grew up in the suburbs of the 626 area code. On Tuesday, she returns to discuss her adult fiction debut at Southern California’s oldest independent bookstore, on the day the book hits shelves.

Reed will sign and discuss “The Johnson Four” at Vroman’s Bookstore at 7 p.m. The novel follows three brothers and a ghost as they chase musical stardom in the 1960s, a story that spans decades and roves from the music industry’s exploitation to the war in Vietnam to the corridors of a mental institution. Reed’s debut YA novel, “The Black Kids,” was a New York Times bestseller, a William C. Morris Award finalist, and a California Book Award Silver Medalist.

Author Kelly McWilliams will lead the conversation. McWilliams, whose own novels include “Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay” and “Mirror Girls,” also writes about Black American history.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Pacific Oaks, Los Angeles County Partner to Train Teachers from Underserved Communities

By THERESE EDU

Three-year, $800,000 partnership targets first-generation college students already working in early childhood settings

They already know the children. They know the neighborhoods, the families, and the particular challenges of teaching in underserved communities. What they lack are the credentials and completed Bachelor’s degree.

This spring, 18 working adults employed in early childhood settings across Los Angeles County will begin a new pathway to becoming credentialed transitional kindergarten teachers. Most are first-generation college students. Many come from the same historically underserved neighborhoods where they hope to build careers.

“Most of the educators who are going through this program are actually the first person in their immediate family to go to college – first-generation students,” said Dr. Breeda McGrath, president of Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School. “There are folks, many of whom are coming from historically underserved communities.”

The three-year partnership between Pacific Oaks College and the Los Angeles County Office of Education, valued at $800,000 according to LACOE records,

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.