Thursday, October 2, 2025

California’s Insurer Of Last Resort Was Meant To Cover ‘Riot-Prone Areas,’ Not Climate Disasters

By Bench Ansfield, CALMATTERS

Today, most think of the California FAIR plan as a safeguard against wildfire risk. Few are aware that the state’s insurance provider of last resort was created as a band-aid response to a very different L.A. conflagration: the Watts uprising of 1965.

Sixty years later, as climate change triggers a new crisis for insurance markets, firms and policymakers can draw an important lesson from the program’s first decades, when it not only allowed the wounds of injustice to fester, but ultimately stood in the way of transformative change.

By continuing to lean on insurance-based solutions to deep-seated societal problems, California has put itself on a path toward repeating the mistakes of the past.

The proximate spark for the Watts rebellion, which began on Aug. 11, 1965, was the violent arrest of a Black motorist. But the kindling for the six days of unrest had been laid by decades of racist policing and discrimination in housing,

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Shop Local Pasadena Launches Open Rewards Pilot Program

Pasadena introduces digital cash back initiative to support small businesses and encourage local shopping

Pasadena has launched a Shop Local Pasadena powered by Open Rewards pilot program, a new initiative offering 5% cash back on purchases at participating local businesses.

The program is designed to incentivize residents, visitors, and workers to shop locally, strengthening Pasadena’s small business community and stimulating economic activity.

Running from Oct. 1 through March 31, the pilot aims to make shopping and saving easier than ever for local consumers.

“We’re excited to bring Open Rewards to Pasadena as a fresh, innovative way to support our small business community. This launch marks the next chapter in our Shop Local efforts, and we can’t wait to see how the program brings people together and drives economic activity,” said David Klug, Economic Development Director.

To participate, individuals download the Open Rewards app, select Pasadena as their community, and link a secure payment method.

Pasadena is home to more than 1,600 retail businesses and over 700 restaurants that fuel the local economy. 

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Famed Primatologist Jane Goodall, Scheduled to Speak in Pasadena This Morning, Dies at Age 91

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Famed primatologist Jane Goodall, who was scheduled to appear at an event Wednesday Pasadena, has died at age 91 from natural causes.

According to the Jane Goodall Institute, she “passed away due to natural causes.”

Goodall had been scheduled to speak at a late-morning event at EF Academy in Pasadena to announce a student-led effort to plant more than 5,000 trees in the fire-ravaged Pacific Palisades and Altadena communities over the next three to five years.

“I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. I just talked to her on the phone a few hours ago,” said longtime associate Margarita Pagliai, head of school for Seven Arrows Elementary School and Little Dolphins Pre-School in Santa Monica, who was at the Pasadena event.

Pagliai was preparing to introduce Goodall at the tree planting event just before a representative of the Jane Goodall Institute announced her passing.

“She will always be here with us,

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Local Congresswoman Blames GOP as Federal Shutdown Impacts Nation

Judy Chu calls out Republican leadership as federal closure disrupts services and raises health care stakes

Judy Chu criticized Congressional Republicans for triggering a federal government shutdown, urging GOP leaders to consider the health and economic security of Americans. The shutdown, the first in nearly seven years, resulted from a deadlock over health care funding, leaving hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed.

“Republicans own this shutdown. They control the House, the Senate, and the White House and yet they chose to shut down the government rather than protect affordable health care for millions of Americans,” Chu said in a statement.

“After forcing through a partisan spending bill that failed in the Senate, Republicans then blocked House Democrats from bringing up a commonsense bill that would have kept the government open, canceled health care cuts, lowered out-of-pocket costs, and protected the affordable care that working families rely on.”

“This shutdown makes Donald Trump and Republicans’ priorities clear. First, they passed their Big Ugly Law,

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

The Clock Is Ticking For Those Hoping To Be California’s Next Governor

By Dan Walters, CALMATTERS

Over the last half-century or so, California has had six elections for governor when the office was being vacated.

Understandably, such incumbent-free elections to run the nation’s most populous and economically powerful state have drawn serious candidates, mostly holders of other high-profile offices who declared themselves as soon as decorum would allow.

When, for example, Republican Ronald Reagan’s two terms as governor were ending in 1974, the Democratic secretary of state, Jerry Brown, narrowly defeated the Republican state controller, Houston Flournoy.

This bit of political history is offered because the end of Gavin Newsom’s governorship is approaching rapidly. In scarcely a year, California voters will choose a new governor. The June 2 primary, which will determine the two finalists, is just eight months away.

Yet the field of would-be governors remains very unsettled.

For months voters, political media and potential campaign financiers waited for former Vice President Kamala Harris to decide whether,

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Barger Warns of Fiscal Strain as L.A. County Approves $52.5 Billion Supplemental Budget

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $52.5 billion supplemental budget for fiscal year 2025–2026, marking what Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena and Pasadena, described as the final phase of the County’s annual budget process. In a statement, Barger warned of severe fiscal constraints and called for responsible stewardship amid mounting legal and financial pressures.

“The County’s $52.5 billion budget may sound vast, but the majority of funding is restricted to program-specific revenues, legal obligations, or one-time funds,” Barger said. She cited extraordinary financial burdens, including a $4 billion sexual abuse legal settlement, nearly $800 million in wildfire recovery costs, and federal funding cuts that are reshaping County services.

Barger linked the legal settlement directly to AB 218, the state law funding childhood sexual assault claims. “AB 218’s fiscal pressures are resulting in our County’s budget being headed to life support,” she said. “Almost a quarter of our budget is spent funding health and welfare services for some of our most indigent and vulnerable residents.

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

After Report on Fire Response, LA County Looks to Bolster Emergency Management

CITY NEWS SERVICE

In a sometimes-emotional and occasionally testy hearing, members of the county Board of Supervisors pressed for answers Tuesday about a delay in evacuation orders for residents in western Altadena during January’s Eaton Fire, while also calling for a report on expanding and streamlining the county Office of Emergency Management. 

The board on Tuesday received a detailed presentation on an after-action report released last week that pointed to a series of outdated policies, weaknesses and systemic vulnerabilities that hampered emergency notifications and evacuation orders during the deadly Eaton and Palisades wildfires that erupted Jan. 7. 

The “Independent After-Action Report” was commissioned by the Board of Supervisors and produced by McChrystal Group, a consulting firm led by retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The firm was charged with conducting “an independent after-action review of alerts and evacuations” to provide “a comprehensive picture of actions taken during the catastrophic January wildfires along with recommendations to help guide future Los Angeles County responses.” 

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Altadena Residents Call for State Investigation into County’s Fire Response

By JOSE HERRERA, City News Service

Standing near the site of a destroyed home, a group of fire-impacted Altadenans and local organizations called on state Attorney General Rob Bonta Tuesday to investigate Los Angeles County’s response to January’s Eaton Fire, including delays in evacuation orders being issued to residents in the western Altadena area.

The group, Altadena for Accountability, urged Bonta to “compel testimony, examine withheld data and records and hold public agencies accountable for their failures before, during and after the fire.” The move comes in the wake of the county-commissioned “Independent After-Action Report” by the McChrystal Group that identified systemic failures in emergency notification and evacuation order procedures during the January fires.

“It shouldn’t be controversial to insist that we have an honest independent commission to examine the issues that wiped out this entire town and killed 20 people,” Cora Bella, an Altadena fire survivor, said.

According to the community group, the McChrystal report failed to answer key questions on evacuation notifications,

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

UCLA Forecast: Weakened California Economy Reflects Recession Worries

CITY NEWS SERVICE

California’s economy, traditionally hailed for growing faster than the United States as a whole, has continued weakening, with key sectors either falling stagnant or contracting and the unemployment rate remaining elevated, according to a UCLA forecast released Wednesday.

Key California economic sectors such as tech, manufacturing, entertainment and logistics have been faltering, leading to the state’s economy growing at only half the rate of the nation, UCLA Anderson Forecast Director Jerry Nickelsburg wrote in his report on the state’s economy.

“California’s unemployment rate has been over 5% during the 19 months ending August 2025, and as of August 2025, it is at 5.5%,” Nickelsburg wrote. “In the first eight months of this year, there has been a decline of 21,200 payroll jobs, the first sustained decline in payroll jobs since the pandemic.”

Nickelsburg wrote that another measure of employment, the survey of households, which includes independent contractors and gig workers, shows an increase in employment,

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Kaiser Permanente Subsidized Health Coverage Now Available

Kaiser Permanente Southern California is now accepting applications for its Community Health Coverage Program (CHCP), an initiative providing subsidized high-quality health care to individuals and families who lack access to other forms of coverage.

To qualify for the program, individuals and families must live in one of Kaiser Permanente’s service areas; live in a household with an income limited to up to 300% of the federal poverty level; and being ineligible for other public or private health coverage such as Medi-Cal, Medicare, cannot be enrolled in a job-based health plan, or receiving financial assistance through Covered California.

“At Kaiser Permanente, we believe everyone deserves access to high quality affordable health care regardless of their circumstances,” said Sandra E. Silva, senior director of Community Health at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “Through charitable health coverage programs like CHCP, we’re working to break down barriers and support the health of individuals and families across the diverse communities we serve.”

Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, the CHCP subsidy will become a one-time benefit for adults aged 21 and older,