Monday, July 6, 2026

FEMA Pushes Back Housing Aid Deadline for Eaton Fire Survivors to 2027

Homeowners get another year of rental assistance; renters get three more months, after monthslong pressure from state officials

Homeowners displaced by last year’s Eaton Fire will now have until July 9, 2027, to keep receiving federal rental assistance, after the Federal Emergency Management Agency extended a deadline that had been set to expire this Thursday.

FEMA approved the extension June 24, according to a statement from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, following requests from the governor, California’s congressional delegation and local officials who argued that many fire survivors still face obstacles beyond their control. Eligible renters received a shorter extension, through October 9, 2026.

The change affects households working through FEMA’s Continued Temporary Housing Assistance program, which had covered rent and utility costs for people whose homes were destroyed or made unsafe by the January 2025 wildfires. The Eaton Fire alone destroyed more than 9,000 structures in Altadena. Under the prior timeline, that housing aid was set to run out 18 months after the disaster was declared — July 9,

Sunday, July 5, 2026

Area Under Air Quality Alert Sunday as Fireworks Smoke Raises Health Risk

The National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert for Pasadena and the rest of the San Gabriel Valley, warning of harmful fine particle pollution from fireworks that is expected to last until 3 p.m. Sunday, July 5.

The alert, based on a South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) advisory, covers most of Los Angeles County.

Particle pollution levels can vary by time and location depending on emissions and local weather conditions, meaning some areas of Pasadena and surrounding communities could see worse air quality than others during the alert period.

Fine particle pollution can get deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems, including heart attacks, bronchitis, asthma attacks and difficulty breathing, the alert states.

Health officials say everyone can be affected, but sensitive groups face greater risk. Those groups include people with lung or heart disease, older adults, people who are pregnant, children and anyone who spends significant time outdoors.

The AQMD outlined precautionary guidance based on the Air Quality Index (AQI),

Sunday, July 5, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivors Who Maxed Out FEMA Aid May Qualify for a State Grant of Up to $10,000

Altadena residents who exhausted their federal disaster aid after the Eaton Fire may be eligible for an additional state grant of up to $10,000, the Altadena Chamber of Commerce said Friday, July 3.

The money comes through California’s State Supplemental Grant Program, a state-funded program administered by the California Department of Social Services that helps disaster survivors who have received the maximum grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Individuals and Households Program but still have unmet, disaster-related losses.

There is no separate application. Once a household reaches the FEMA maximum, FEMA automatically forwards the case to the state program, which bases its award on the same FEMA inspection. The grant does not have to be repaid and is considered assistance of last resort, meaning it will not duplicate other aid.

While the program’s ceiling is $10,000, most awards are considerably smaller — historically between $200 and $2,000, according to the state. The funds are restricted to specific disaster-related needs such as rental assistance,

Sunday, July 5, 2026

Judge Shoots Down Trump’s Homeless Funding Shift: ‘The Hallmark of Unreasoned Decision Making’

By Marisa Kendall, CALMATTERS

California scored another win against the Trump administration in their battle over how to address the homelessness crisis here and nationwide.

A federal judge this week shot down the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2025 attempt to divert money away from permanent housing and instead fund temporary shelters and programs that require sobriety. But the judge stopped short of banning the Trump administration from making such changes in the future.

“The federal court’s decision to reject the Trump-Vance Administration’s attempt to disrupt essential housing services for people experiencing homelessness, including families, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, is both appropriate and just,” Renee Willis, chief executive of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, wrote in a news release.

In November, the Department of Housing and Urban Development said jurisdictions applying for about $4 billion in federal Continuum of Care funding can’t spend more than 30% of it on permanent housing – a move that would result in a significant cut to the type of long-term housing that for years has been a cornerstone of the fight against homelessness.

Sunday, July 5, 2026

Public Can Weigh In July 8 on L.A. County’s Measure G Government Overhaul

Los Angeles County residents will have another chance on Wednesday, July 8 to weigh in on the biggest restructuring of county government in more than a century, when the panel overseeing those changes holds a public meeting in San Fernando.

The Governance Reform Task Force will meet at 5 p.m. at the San Fernando Recreational Park and Aquatic Center, 300 Park Avenue, with public comment accepted in person and online, the Altadena Chamber of Commerce announced.

The 13-member Task Force advisory body has been deliberately holding meetings around the county — its last session, on June 24, was at the Altadena Community Center — to reach residents far from downtown Los Angeles.

The task force advises the Board of Supervisors on carrying out Measure G, the charter amendment county voters approved in November 2024. It is the first major change to the county’s governing charter since 1912, when the county’s population was roughly 500,000; today it is close to 10 million, spread across the most populous county in the nation.

Sunday, July 5, 2026

A Revolutionary Document, 250 Years On, Sparks a Conversation at The Huntington

Scholars trace how news of the Declaration of Independence reached California — and why it still resonates

When the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, there was no telegraph, no railroad and no California statehood. So how did word of the American experiment travel across a continent and around the world? That question anchors “American Landmarks: Declaration of Independence,” a panel and community conversation at The Huntington on Wednesday, July 8.

The evening centers on The Huntington’s own holdings, including two July 1776 printings of the Declaration now on view in the “This Land Is …” exhibition. A short panel — moderated by Susan Juster, the W.M. Keck Foundation Director of Research — features UC Riverside historian Steven Hackel alongside Huntington curators Olga Tsapina and Diego Godoy. After the discussion, attendees are invited to weigh the Declaration’s revolutionary promises against later, more contemporary declarations of emancipation.

The program is part of the American Landmarks series, presented with the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute as part of the LA2026 project marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Sunday, July 5, 2026

400 Vendors, One Sunday, Zero Excuses

Are Sunday plans still a question mark? Let’s fix that. Pasadena City College turns its campus into a full-blown flea market this weekend — the kind of sprawling, sun-up-to-mid-afternoon affair that swallows an entire morning without you noticing. Enter the PCC Flea Market, back on July 5th with more than 400 vendors setting up shop across campus. That’s not a typo — four hundred — which puts this squarely in the category of events you plan an entire Sunday around, not squeeze in on the way to somewhere else.

Doors — or rather, tables — open at 8 a.m. and run until 3 p.m., which is plenty of time to circle the whole thing twice before committing to anything. Seven hours is a generous window by flea-market standards, and with a vendor count this size, you’ll want it. Early birds get first crack at whatever’s freshest on the tables; stick around toward 3 p.m. and you’ll find sellers more willing to talk price rather than pack everything back into the car.

Saturday, July 4, 2026

Neighborhood Traditions, Safety Warnings Shape Independence Day in Pasadena and Altadena

Pasadena, Altadena and nearby communities are set for a busy Independence Day on Saturday, with neighborhood parades, patriotic breakfasts, civic gatherings, a major Rose Bowl festival and drone show, and at least one scheduled political demonstration marking the nation’s 250th birthday.

The day’s local events begin early, with the Pasadena Farmers’ Market at Victory Park, a historical gathering at Owen Brown’s gravesite in Altadena, and the Pasadena Senior Center’s America’s 250th Birthday Breakfast. By late morning, several neighborhood traditions will be underway, including the Pepper Drive Parade in Altadena, the Historic Highlands celebration near the Pasadena-Altadena border, and the Madison Heights Fourth of July Parade and Picnic in Pasadena.

Old Pasadena will also see a July 4 edition of the “Save U.S. Saturdays” demonstration at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue, where organizers say participants will combine a holiday observance with a protest focused on defending American democracy. Later in the day, the Rose Bowl will host the FoodieLand Food Festival, with food vendors,

Saturday, July 4, 2026

Pasadena Writer and Radio Host Remembers Producing Tupac’s Last Concert, July 4, 1996

James Farr, who now reports on Altadena’s recovery from the Eaton fire, was 22 when he helped stage the House of Blues show that became the rapper’s final performance

James Farr, a Pasadena-based writer and radio host who now spends much of his time documenting Altadena’s uneven recovery from the Eaton fire, is marking an unlikely anniversary this Independence Day: 30 years since he helped stage what became Tupac Shakur’s final concert.

The performance took place on July 4, 1996, at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Farr was 22 at the time. He produced the show.

What he remembers, he said in the statement, was not a sense of history in the making.

“At the time, it wasn’t history,” Farr rembers. “It was load-in, credentials, production calls, making sure everything and everyone was where they needed to be. You don’t know what moments will carry forward.”

The concert has since been widely documented as Shakur’s last.

Saturday, July 4, 2026

Foodieland Turns the Rose Bowl Into a Parking Lot Buffet

By EDDIE RIVERA

No fireworks, but vendors, drones and dumplings define a new kind of Fourth of July

The parking lot at the Rose Bowl does not usually smell like garlic noodles and fried lumpia, but for three days this Fourth of July weekend, it does. Foodieland, the touring food festival that organizers call the nation’s largest, set up shop at the Arroyo Seco landmark through July 5, trading the usual fireworks-intensive chaos of the holiday for something a little more edible.

More than 200 vendors line the grounds, their banners stacked three deep in places, competing for attention with oversized inflatable mascots and hand-painted menu boards. At Lumpia Bucket, servers piled golden rolls into red-and-white checkered pails big enough to share, or not. Nearby, Big Baby Bottle has real fruit juice in comically oversized baby bottles, pink caps and all, a photo opportunity as much as a beverage. All Dat Noodle kept a steady line for its soup dumplings and chili garlic noodles.