Tuesday, May 26, 2026

California Judges Are Testing A New AI Clerk, and You Won’t Know If It’s Looking At Your Case

By Cayla Mihalovich and Khari Johnson, CALMATTERS

Two of California’s largest courts are testing an AI tool that can draft orders and produce research memos.

Judges so far are using it primarily for civil cases, but documents obtained by CalMatters indicate the possibility of expanded applications in criminal cases, where people’s freedom and access to justice are on the line.

The Los Angeles County Superior Court began a pilot program in February to test a tool created by the company Learned Hand. Other courts may follow, according to Learned Hand founder and chief executive officer Shlomo Klapper.

Learned Hand uses a combination of language models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google to act as an AI clerk for judges. The company says it tests for bias and accuracy, but it has not yet published results.

In Riverside County, which has a $10,000 agreement with the company to test the program, civil and probate attorneys are primarily using the tool to draft research memos that help judges reach their decisions.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Michelle Huneven Returns to Altadena to Talk About the Town That Shapes Her Fiction

Friday’s “Altadena Revealed” lecture brings the novelist together with historian Michele Zack at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory

The novelist Michelle Huneven lost two Altadena homes in the Eaton Fire last January. Her sixth novel, “Bug Hollow,” published last June with a dedication that reads simply “To Altadena,” instantly seduced reviewers and readers. On Friday, May 29, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., Huneven returns to her hometown for a conversation about both the book and the place, in conversation with her longtime friend, journalist and historian Michele Zack.

The event is the latest in the Altadena Revealed Lecture Series, presented by the Foothill Catalog Foundation in collaboration with Pasadena Heritage, Altadena Heritage, the Bungalow Heaven Landmark District and the Altadena Historical Society. The talk is titled “Writing Underfoot — Or, why Michelle Huneven sets her novels in Altadena.”

“Bug Hollow” follows the Samuelsons, a middle-class Altadena family, across five decades. Reviewers in The New York Times and the Washington Post praised its “lovely,

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Take Dad Onto the Rose Bowl Field

So your father knows exactly who played the 1957 Rose Bowl — Oregon State versus Iowa, thanks for asking — and he has Opinions about Myron Hunt’s original 1922 design every time he spots the stadium on television.

He’s earned this one.

Enter Pasadena Heritage’s Father’s Day Tour of the Rose Bowl, a Sunday-only deep cut into the parts of the stadium most ticket holders never see. The locker rooms. The corridors behind the corridors. The field itself — yes, you can walk it, and yes, the tour promises the chance to kick a football on it. Docents handle the anecdotes; your dad handles the trivia he’s been saving since Reagan was president.

Two tours, June 21: one at 10 a.m., one at 2 p.m. Tickets are $65 a head and won’t last — Pasadena Heritage members get a discount code via Nick@pasadenaheritage.org. Bring the dad who already knows every team and concert that’s rolled through since 1922, and let the docents tell him three things he doesn’t.

Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Octavia’s Bookshelf Hosts the Author of a New Octavia Butler Biography

Susana M. Morris brings “Positive Obsession” home to the Pasadena bookstore named for her subject

There is a particular kind of full-circle moment built into Wednesday’s event at Octavia’s Bookshelf: Susana M. Morris will read from her new biography of Octavia E. Butler at the Pasadena bookstore that opened in 2023 in Butler’s honor, in the city where Butler grew up.

The conversation and reading runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 27. Morris’s book, “Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler,” released last year, traces Butler’s path from Pasadena schoolgirl to MacArthur Fellow — the first science fiction writer to win the “genius” award — while situating her work within the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, women’s liberation and the political turbulence that shaped her speculative fiction.

Morris is an associate professor of literature, media and communication at Georgia Tech and a co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective. Her scholarship centers Black women’s stories and experiences,

Monday, May 25, 2026

Supervisor Barger Honors Fallen Servicemembers in Memorial Day Statement

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Pasadena and Altadena on the Board of Supervisors, issued a statement Monday honoring military servicemembers who died in defense of the country.

“On Memorial Day, we pause to honor the brave men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation,” Barger said. “Answering the call to defend our country is among the noblest acts of selflessness and courage a person can make.”

Barger, a member of the five-member Board of Supervisors since 2016, represents the Fifth Supervisorial District, the county’s largest, spanning approximately 2,785 square miles and including Pasadena, Altadena, and dozens of other communities across the San Gabriel, Antelope, Santa Clarita, and San Fernando Valleys.

“Freedom is not free,” Barger said. “It comes at a deep cost, carried by those who willingly put themselves in harm’s way to protect the freedoms we too often take for granted. Today, we remember and give thanks to our fallen heroes.”

The statement also extended recognition to Gold Star families and other military families.

Sunday, May 24, 2026

A Cemetery the Eaton Fire Failed to Destroy Will Honor Its Civil War Dead

On Monday, the Pasadena Civil War Round Table revives an old Decoration Day tradition among the graves of hundreds of Union and Confederate soldiers buried in Altadena

On a green rise below the San Gabriel Mountains that the Eaton Fire threatened to destroy but was stopped by firefighters and cemetery staff, more than 600 Civil War soldiers — Union and Confederate — lie in the same Altadena ground. On Monday afternoon, visitors will walk among their graves.

The Pasadena Civil War Round Table will hold its annual Memorial Day ceremony at 2 p.m. Monday, May 25, at Mountain View Cemetery, 2400 N. Fair Oaks Ave. The event is free and open to the public, and centers on walking tours led by the group’s president, Nick Smith, who tells the stories of individual soldiers buried there.

The Round Table has held the ceremony for many years, according to its announcement, and this year it falls as the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence.

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Altadena Heritage’s Golden Poppy Awards Return to a 1915 Craftsman Garden

The annual ceremony honoring the community’s front yards comes back today after a year without celebration

For more than two decades, members of Altadena Heritage have walked every street in town each spring, looking for the front gardens that give something back to the neighborhood. Today, for the first time since the Eaton Fire, they will gather to announce what they found.

The 2026 Golden Poppy Awards & Garden Party takes place today, Sunday, May 24, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at 280 W. Crosby St., a single-story Craftsman courtyard house built in 1915 for the Ruth family, according to Altadena Heritage’s records. The home was designed by Edgar Dorr, who had worked for the Heineman Brothers architecture firm. The property, which sits on nearly an acre of land, has previously hosted Altadena Heritage events, including the organization’s annual holiday gathering. The event includes food, drinks, live entertainment, winners of the organization’s Springtime in Altadena Phone Photo Contest, and a classic car showcase,

Sunday, May 24, 2026

League of Women Voters Pasadena Area Operates Voter Hotline Ahead of June 2 Primary

Pasadena and Altadena voters can dial a nonpartisan hotline staffed by trained volunteers for help with the June 2 California Statewide Direct Primary Election, the League of Women Voters – Pasadena Area announced this week. The number is (626) 798-0965.

The Hotline Hours will be daily 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. through May 31; 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 8 .m. on June 1; and 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. on Election Day (June 2).

With vote-by-mail ballots already in voters’ hands and conditional registration still open through Election Day, the hotline gives residents a direct line to volunteers who can answer questions about voter registration, voting options, and polling locations ahead of a primary ballot that includes the California Governor’s race, three Pasadena City Councilmember seats, and Los Angeles County Measure ER.

According to the League, volunteers will answer the hotline daily from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. from May 22 through May 31.

Pasadena City Council Races

Pasadena voters in Districts 3,

Sunday, May 24, 2026

Defy Gravity for Altadena Tonight

Fifteen months is a long time between curtains.

When the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena last January, it took the Charles S. Farnsworth Park Amphitheater with it — along with the neighborhood that surrounded it. The open-air stage had been the home of Altadena Music Theatre, the company Sarah and Oliver Azcarate had spent four years building from a pandemic-era hunch into a full professional season. Their house went too.

Tonight, the company makes its move back. Enter Stephen Schwartz, the three-time Academy Award winner behind Wicked, Pippin, and Godspell, headlining a benefit gala at the AGBU Manoukian Performing Arts Center in Pasadena. He’ll share the stage with Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block, The Voice winner Alisan Porter, Vintage Trouble’s Ty Taylor, and original-Broadway-cast Wicked alum Brian Justin Crum.

Some context on the headliner: three Academy Awards, four Grammys, and a back catalog — Wicked, Pippin, Godspell — that has held Broadway stages for the better part of five decades.

Saturday, May 23, 2026

Whooping Cough Spreads Through Pasadena Schools, Hitting a Third Campus With Six New Cases

The Pasadena Public Health Department is investigating an outbreak of six confirmed pertussis cases at Sequoyah School’s high school campus, the third school cluster of whooping cough confirmed in the city since late April.

The Sequoyah outbreak extends a citywide pertussis surge, with the department reporting 17 confirmed cases identified in Pasadena since the start of 2026, compared with an annual average of about three.

“Pertussis is a serious and highly contagious illness,” said Manuel Carmona, director of public health. “Staying home when sick is the key to stopping the spread of this preventable illness in our community. Parents should be on the alert for persistent or unusual coughs and seek medical care promptly if symptoms arise.”

Health Officer Parveen Kaur urged clinicians to confirm suspected cases with laboratory testing.

“Timely testing and treatment is essential for stopping the spread of pertussis,” Kaur said. “Healthcare providers who suspect pertussis should conduct confirmatory testing using a nasal swab for a PCR test and follow proper treatment guidelines.