Saturday, January 31, 2026

Pasadena Area State Senator Rebukes LAPD Chief’s Comments on Anti-Masking Law

Pasadena-area State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez on Friday criticized Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell’s remarks implying the LAPD will not enforce California’s anti-masking law, SB 627. Pérez, who represents Pasadena and Altadena in the 25th Senate District, released the statement from Sacramento.

“LAPD Chief McDonnell’s apparent decision to not enforce California’s, SB 627, the No Secret Police Act, by stating it ‘does not make sense’ is alarming and signals a disregard for his legal obligation to uphold our state laws,” Pérez said in the statement. “A Police Chief does not get to pick and choose which laws will be enforced and which will go ignored.”

She said the stance “squarely contradicts the Chief’s own claim at the same press conference that public safety is the government’s foremost responsibility and, without it, everything else fails.” Pérez added that “public safety does not exist when immigration raids with masked agents directly destabilize communities and erode trust.”

“Statements like this create a broader ripple effect that undermine consistent enforcement of our laws and feed into the current federal administration’s arbitrary behaviors,” she said.

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Altadena Library to Help Lead $1.2 Million Countywide Effort to Preserve Wildfire Memories

BASED ON A REPORT BY CITY NEWS SERVICE

A new $1.2 million Mellon Foundation grant will help Los Angeles County preserve the memories and artworks of communities impacted by the January 2025 wildfires, with Altadena included among the communities the project aims to serve, officials announced Friday.

The funding supports a multi-agency initiative titled “LA County Cultural Climate Commons: Community Memory Lab and Living Archive,” involving L.A. County Library, the Department of Arts and Culture, the Los Angeles Public Library, the Altadena Library District and their respective foundations. Grant recipients began the project in January, and it is expected to span through June 2028.

The project aims to preserve the lived experiences, cultural heritage and collective memories of the Altadena and Pacific Palisades communities, which were burned down in January 2025. Funding was intended to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the devastating wildfires.

Key components include a Mobile Memory Lab organized by L.A. County Library, an artist/archivist-in-residence program,

Friday, January 30, 2026

Exhibit Transforms Eaton Fire Survivors’ Stories Into Immersive Experience

Stunning, immersive experience opens on display Saturday

Forty-nine people who lived through the Eaton Fire will have their stories told in an unusual way beginning Saturday: not on a screen to be watched, but in an immersive installation to be walked through, reflected upon, and felt.

The free exhibit, called “Ashes and Echoes: Voices of the Eaton Fire,” opens January 31 at the Pasadena Convention Center and runs through February 3.

Revolving around concepts of home and hope, the exhibition is anchored by massive projections of oral history narratives by Project Director Hrag Yedalian and cinematographer Emrys Roberts where survivors of the Eaton fires share their intimate stories of survival and hope in dramatic clips.

Large-scale photographs by curator and photographer Ara Oshagan expand the visual narrative in haunting portraits of survivors, their survivor objects and stories. Connecting these threads is an innovative installation by artist Gegham Sarksyan, “The House that Hope Built”, that speaks to home and resilience and hope.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Altadena Library District Seeks Two Poets Laureate to Lead 20-Year Literary Tradition

Applications due February 15 for volunteer positions that include fire-recovery poetry initiative

The Altadena Library District is searching for two poets to continue a literary tradition that began with a simple question at the reference desk more than two decades ago.

Applications are open through February 15 for the library’s 2026-2028 Poets Laureate—volunteer positions that require organizing readings, workshops, and the Altadena Literary Review publication. The roles come as current laureates Lester Graves Lennon and Sehba Sarwar finish a term that earned them 2025 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships and launched a poetry initiative to help residents heal from the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

The program traces its origins to March 2003, when library patron Ralph Lane asked whether the library ever hosted poetry readings. That question led to the first Poetry & Cookies event, an annual anthology, and, in 2006, the appointment of Lane as the library’s first Poet Laureate. The tradition has continued uninterrupted since, with the Altadena Literary Review now featuring work from more than 120 poets and writers.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Climate Disclosure Conference Comes to Pasadena Ahead of California’s First Greenhouse Gas Reporting Deadline

The two-day forum at the Westin offers sustainability professionals guidance as state law requires thousands of companies to report emissions

Months before California companies face their first mandatory greenhouse gas reporting deadline, a national climate conference is bringing compliance guidance to Pasadena.

The Climate Registry will host its Carbon Disclosure and Decarbonization Forum at the Westin Pasadena on March 19-20, 2026. The two-day conference offers expert panels, practical workshops, and cross-sector discussions aimed at sustainability professionals navigating an evolving regulatory landscape—including California’s SB 253, which requires companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue to report their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by August 10, 2026.

The Climate Registry, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit founded in 2007, operates what it describes as North America’s most trusted voluntary greenhouse gas reporting program. The organization is governed by U.S. states and Canadian provinces and has published six sector-specific reporting protocols used by corporations, utilities, universities, and government agencies.

The forum is designed for sustainability professionals at all experience levels,

Friday, January 30, 2026

Metro to Local Pasadena Community Meetings on North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit Line

A 19-mile rapid bus line connecting to the Gold Line aims to open before the 2028 Olympics

Metro will hold two community meetings in Pasadena next week to present design plans for the local segment of the North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project, with full construction set to begin in the coming months.

The meetings, scheduled for Wednesday, February 4, and Saturday, February 7, will cover the route through Pasadena, station locations, design concepts, and the project timeline. Both sessions run from 6:00 p.m to 8:00 p.m. The first will be held at Pasadena City College’s Creveling Lounge, and the second at the Pasadena Senior Center at 85 East Holly Street.

The 19-mile BRT corridor will connect the Metro B and G Lines in North Hollywood to Pasadena City College, which will serve as the line’s eastern terminus, according to Metro. The project includes 22 enhanced stations and will use zero-emission electric buses operating in dedicated lanes along most of the route.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Vroman’s Stays Open Friday as Free Community Space During National Strike

Pasadena bookstore offers story time, free books and donates to Minneapolis booksellers

Vroman’s Bookstore will stay open Friday during the nationwide general strike, offering its event space as a free gathering place with story time at 11:00 a.m., free books, children’s activities and refreshments.

The 130-year-old bookstore said it chose to remain open rather than close in solidarity with the strike, which was called to protest federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Many bookstores across the country announced closures for Friday’s “National Shutdown.”

“Vroman’s has always defined ourselves as a place for our community to come together as a refuge and place for information, so we will stay open,” the bookstore said in a statement posted to Facebook. “We want to be here for you.”

The store said visitors may use the event space to read, rest, gather and connect with no expectation to spend money. Free advance reader copies will be available while supplies last. Story time and crafts begin at 11 a.m.

Friday, January 30, 2026

Pasadena Unified Superintendent Says Schools Will Remain Open During Today’s National Shutdown Protests, Addresses Immigration Concerns

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco reaffirms district policies protecting student information and barring immigration agents from campuses without court orders

Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco released a statement Thursday addressing concerns about immigration enforcement and its impact on students and families, telling the school community that “your well-being matters deeply to us.”

The statement, sent by email to the PUSD community on Jan. 29, comes as the district prepares for a planned “National Shutdown” on Friday and a potential student walkout scheduled for Feb. 6. Blanco said all district schools will remain open on both days.

“Recent local and national news regarding immigration operations has understandably brought worry, fear, and uncertainty to some of our students, families, and employees,” Blanco wrote. “Please know that we see you, we hear you, and your well-being matters deeply to us.”

In the statement, Blanco outlined several district policies aligned with Board Policy and state guidance: PUSD does not collect or share information about the immigration status of students or their families,

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Pasadena’s Historic Jewish Temple Sues Edison Over Eaton Fire Destruction

The 104-year-old congregation lost its sanctuary, preschool and community buildings in the blaze

The Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, a century-old congregation that lost its sanctuary, preschool and community buildings in the Eaton Fire, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Southern California Edison alleging the utility’s negligence caused the blaze that destroyed its two-acre campus, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claims Edison failed to de-energize its transmission lines despite red flag warnings and left in place a decommissioned line that had not carried electricity for decades. The complaint cites Edison’s maintenance backlog and alleges the utility’s electrical infrastructure “was improperly inspected, maintained, repaired, and otherwise operated, which foreseeably led to the Eaton Fire’s ignition.”

The fire destroyed the only Conservative Jewish synagogue in the western San Gabriel Valley. Congregation members who raced to save what they could on the night of January 7, 2025, were able to rescue the temple’s sacred Torah scrolls.

Thursday, January 29, 2026

State Senator Urges Pasadena Residents to Join National Shutdown Friday

Sasha Renée Pérez calls for “no work, no school, no shopping” to protest ICE enforcement

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez is calling on Pasadena residents to stay home from work, skip school, and avoid shopping on Friday as part of a nationwide economic protest against federal immigration enforcement.

The “National Shutdown,” scheduled for January 30, has gained momentum following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on January 24 — the second U.S. citizen killed by federal immigration officers in that city this month.

Organizers want to pressure the federal government to scale back Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“I do believe this will be effective and I do believe that this is how we will get the federal government to stop its violence against American citizens,” Pérez said in a FOX 11 interview Monday.

Pasadena-area residents have been mobilizing for weeks. More than 800 people gathered locally on Tuesday to train in community defense tactics.