Friday, March 13, 2026

Verdugo Dispatch Center To Receive $1.3 Million Federal Upgrade

By EDDIE RIVERA

Pasadena and regional fire agencies to benefit from federal investment in emergency communications

A regional emergency dispatch center in Glendale which plays a key role in coordinating fire and emergency medical responses for Pasadena and a dozen neighboring cities will receive a major technology upgrade following the announcement Thursday of a new $1.3 million federal grant, secured by U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman.

Speaking at a press conference at the Oak Street fire station in Glendale, where the Dispatch center is housed, Friedman announced the $1,031,000 federal investment to modernize the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, a centralized system that coordinates emergency response across 13 cities in Los Angeles County, including Pasadena.

“The Verdugo Fire Communication Center is the nerve center for emergency response across 31 cities in L.A. County,” Friedman said. “Today I’m announcing a major federal investment to bring this center into the 21st century while making life more affordable for the people of Los Angeles.”

The center serves more than 944,000 residents across a 150-square-mile region and coordinates response for 140 frontline emergency vehicles across 49 fire stations.

Friday, March 13, 2026

Turnkey Rebuild Summit Offers Eaton Fire Survivors One-Stop Path Home

A free event brings vetted builders and housing professionals to Altadena for residents still navigating the rebuilding process

Fourteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures across Altadena, a free summit on Sunday will give survivors a single destination to meet vetted turnkey builders and explore streamlined options for getting back into their homes.

The Altadena Turnkey Rebuild Summit, scheduled for March 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Loma Alta Park’s gym, is designed for fire survivors who are underfunded or overwhelmed by the complexity of rebuilding, according to a press release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office. Attendees will be able to meet home builders and housing professionals, attend speaker presentations, and participate in workshops aimed at simplifying the decisions that come with rebuilding after a disaster.

“The road to recovery after a disaster can feel overwhelming,” Barger said in the statement. “Even though it’s been over a year since the wildfires,

Friday, March 13, 2026

Pasadena Unified Again Certifies “Positive” Budget but Officials Warn Financial Pressures Remain

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday certified the district’s second interim financial report as “positive,” indicating that the district can meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and the following two years, even as administrators cautioned that the system remains financially fragile.

District officials said the report reflects that Pasadena Unified is projected to meet its financial obligations for the 2025-26 fiscal year and the two subsequent fiscal years. Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the certification during a special board meeting Thursday evening.

However, administrators and board members said the district’s financial position still depends on a delicate balance of recent budget reductions, uncertain state funding and enrollment trends that continue to affect school revenue.

The report reflects the district’s financial position as of Jan. 31, officials said, and does not include several actions and potential revenues that have emerged since that date.

For example, district officials said the additional reductions approved by the board on Feb.

Friday, March 13, 2026

Get Ready for California’s 2026 Pimary. Your Questions About Voting, Answered

By CalMatters Staff

Where do I vote? Am I registered to vote? Does everyone get a ballot in the mail? Get the answers to your election day questions ahead of California’s June 2 primary election.

Be prepared for California’s primary: Sign up for our free election newsletter and be the first to know when we update the CalMatters 2026 Voter Guide with information on key primary races.

How do I vote?

• Does everyone get a ballot in the mail?
• When will I receive my mail-in-ballot?
• How do I return my mail-in ballot?
• Can I vote in person? Where is my polling place or vote center?

How do I register to vote?

• Am I registered to vote?
• How do I register?
• What happens if I miss the voter registration deadline?

Friday, March 13, 2026

County Proposes Temporary RV Living Option for Eaton Fire Survivors in Altadena

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

The Altadena Town Council will hear a proposal on March 17 that would allow some fire survivors to temporarily live in recreational vehicles parked in public rights of way

The Altadena Town Council meeting on March 17 is scheduled to hear a proposal that would allow some Eaton Fire survivors in Altadena to temporarily live in recreational vehicles parked in public rights of way while rebuilding their homes.

The proposal, detailed in a memo prepared by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and several partner agencies, comes in response to a policy motion introduced last month by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Public Works worked alongside the County’s departments of Regional Planning, Public Health, Fire, the Sheriff’s Department and County Counsel to develop a framework intended to provide displaced residents with a temporary housing option when placing an RV on their own property is not feasible.

Under the proposed guidelines,

Friday, March 13, 2026

PUSD Governance Workshop Exposes Board’s Uncertainty Over Its Own Rules

A Pasadena Unified Board of Education workshop intended to sharpen meeting procedure instead laid bare deeper uncertainty over how the board governs itself, as trustees openly disputed rules, questioned prior interpretations and asked for legal follow-up on several core practices.

What began as a training session on meeting discipline repeatedly turned into a debate over whether the board’s own protocols are clear, workable or even consistently followed.

The Thursday evening study session, led by facilitator Marisol Avalos, Ed.D., a registered parliamentarian, was designed around scripted role-playing exercises meant to help the board practice enforcing its meeting protocols. Trustees were told the session was “not a critique of individuals” and that past disagreements would not be revisited.

Instead, the facilitator said, the goal was to “build fluency and shared responsibility around how meetings are conducted.”

But the exercises quickly surfaced fundamental disagreements — about the superintendent’s right to speak during board deliberation, about whether information items allow any trustee discussion at all,

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Coalition Launches Bilingual Campaign to Shield Altadena’s Latino Fire Survivors From Fraud

Four organizations and political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz gather in Pasadena to help families navigate legal, insurance and rebuilding challenges 14 months after the Eaton Fire

A coalition of Latino-serving organizations launches a bilingual “Know Your Rights” campaign Thursday aimed at helping families affected by the Eaton Fire navigate legal claims, insurance disputes and rebuilding fraud — issues that have mounted in the 14 months since the blaze destroyed more than 9,000 structures in Altadena and surrounding communities.

The campaign, called “Know Your Rights/Conoce Tus Derechos,” is organized by the Viva Altadena Collaborative and scheduled for 2 p.m. at Monarca Sol, a Chicana Indigenous-owned cultural boutique at Paseo Colorado, 300 E. Colorado Blvd., No. 139, according to an announcement from the organizers.

Representatives from the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, LA Fire Justice, Alliance for a Better Community and political cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz are expected to participate.

The effort comes as research from UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute has documented widening disparities in Altadena’s recovery.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Civil Rights Attorneys Crump, Douglas File Records Request Targeting LA County’s Eaton Fire Response in West Altadena

The civil rights attorneys say they are seeking county documents on evacuation delays in the historically Black community where 18 of 19 fire deaths occurred

Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Carl Douglas announced Thursday the filing of a California Public Records Act request seeking documents from Los Angeles County about the emergency response to the January 2025 Eaton Fire in West Altadena, where 18 of the 19 people killed in the blaze lived.

The request, announced at a news conference at Douglas Hicks Law in Los Angeles, is part of what the attorneys described as an effort to examine whether residents of the historically Black community received delayed evacuation warnings and unequal emergency response, and to explore potential federal civil rights claims concerning whether race played a role in the county’s actions before and during the fire, according to a press release issued by Ben Crump Law.

The filing adds a private legal channel to accountability efforts already underway. In February,

Thursday, March 12, 2026

PUSD Board to Consider Second ‘Positive’ Budget Certification

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education will consider certifying the district’s financial condition as “Positive” Thursday evening, a required state designation that says PUSD can meet its obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years, through 2027-28.

The certification, contained in the district’s Second Interim Budget Report, must be filed with the Los Angeles County Office of Education by March 16.

The district’s own financial data, presented in Board Report No. 120-B, reveals that without one-time insurance revenue, the district is running a deficit. Insurance revenue of $164.65 million from PRISM, the district’s insurer, following the January Eaton Fire flows through the unrestricted General Fund, producing a one-time $66.6 million surplus for 2025-26. Strip out fire-related revenue and expenditures, and the district is running a $16.9 million deficit in the current year, according to the report.

The gap between the two pictures is stark. With fire insurance revenue included, the unrestricted General Fund’s ending balance stands at $173.3 million.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

ArtNight Closeup: PUSD Students Build Their Own Gallery for ArtNight’s 21st No Boundaries Show

Rose City High School teens curate more than 300 works — and some young artists won’t know they’ve won scholarships until they walk in Friday night

For the 21st consecutive year, Pasadena Unified School District students will display their artwork in a professional gallery during ArtNight Pasadena — but the students who built the exhibition won’t be the only ones surprised by what they find on the walls.

Before the public arrives Friday afternoon at The Paseo, representatives from ArtCenter College of Design, Armory Center for the Arts, and the City of Pasadena Arts Commissioners will walk the gallery and place small stickers on selected artwork labels. The student artists will not know they have received scholarship awards or recognition until they arrive that evening, according to Karen Anderson, Arts and Enrichment Coordinator for Pasadena Unified School District.

“When the kids come for No Boundaries, they see, ‘Oh my gosh, why does it say ArtCenter next to my piece?’ And then they find out that they won an award for a scholarship to the ArtCenter,”