Friday, June 19, 2026

Norton Simon Museum to Host Free Tour of South and Southeast Asian Art Galleries Saturday

A docent-led walk through one of the museum’s signature collections returns to the Pasadena institution’s regular weekend programming

The Norton Simon Museum will offer a free docent-led tour of its South and Southeast Asian art galleries on Saturday, June 27, at 1 p.m., according to the museum’s online calendar.

The hour-long tour, titled “Art of South and Southeast Asia,” is a recurring program in the museum’s Tours and Talks series. According to the museum’s descriptor for prior identical sessions, the tour examines “intricate works from India, Cambodia, Vietnam and more” and explores “the history, imagery and symbolism” found in the museum’s South and Southeast Asian collection.

The museum, at 411 W. Colorado Blvd., houses one of the country’s most extensive permanent displays of art from the region. Sculptures from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia and Thailand are on permanent view, along with selected works from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), China, Vietnam and Indonesia. The collection spans more than 2,000 years and includes monumental stone sculpture from the Kushan and Gupta periods and a group of Chola bronzes from southern India.

Friday, June 19, 2026

Pasadena Museum Shows the Friendships Behind a Modernist Movement

A Norton Simon focus exhibition drawn from a 1953 Pasadena archive traces the letters and portraits behind Galka Scheyer’s mission to bring the Blue Four to America

A focus exhibition currently at the Norton Simon Museum offers a closer look at the woman whose archive helped make Pasadena an unlikely home for European modernism, and visitors have just over a month left to see it.

“Dear Little Friend: Impressions of Galka Scheyer,” organized by museum curator Gloria Williams Sander, runs through July 20. The show is drawn from a collection of 450 works and 800 documents entrusted in 1953 to the Pasadena Art Institute — which later became the Pasadena Art Museum and, after Norton Simon took over the institution in 1974, the Norton Simon Museum. Rather than display the Blue Four paintings for which the collection is known, the show turns to the portraits artists made of Scheyer and the letters they wrote her.

The Blue Four — Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee,

Friday, June 19, 2026

Pan-Asian Myth Meets Immigrant Story in 12-Room Exhibition at USC Pacific Asia Museum

“Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry,” curated by Korean American artist Dave Young Kim, is on view in Pasadena through September

A museum-wide exhibition that uses dragons, guardian spirits and a gold Jin Chan frog that dispenses coins as a vocabulary for the immigrant experience is on view at USC Pacific Asia Museum through Sept. 6.

Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry, a 12-room immersive show conceived and curated by Los Angeles-based Korean American artist and muralist Dave Young Kim, opened Feb. 14 in the museum’s East West Bank Galleries at the historic Grace Nicholson Building at 46 N. Los Robles Ave. According to materials issued by USC Pacific Asia Museum, the exhibition pairs approximately 100 objects from the museum’s permanent collection — which spans more than 5,000 years and includes art from East Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, and the Pacific Islands and their diasporas — with works by 24 contemporary artists, most commissioned for the show.

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Eaton Fire Survivors Credit E-Central With Providing Financial Assistance During Rebuilding Efforts

Several victims of the Eaton Fire say assistance from E-Central Credit Union helped them navigate financial challenges as they began rebuilding after losing their homes, according to information provided by the credit union.

The credit union highlighted the experiences of two members who were affected by the fire and described financial assistance and guidance provided during the recovery process.

Cassandra Sellers, who lost her home in the fire, said E-Central waived fees associated with financial transactions following the disaster.

“E-Central waived all service charges related to the disaster, including wire fees and other transactional costs,” Sellers said in a statement provided by the credit union.

Sellers also said she worked with Timothy Melton, a new accounts representative at E-Central with more than 30 years of experience in real estate and construction lending, as she began the rebuilding process.

According to Sellers, Melton provided guidance and support during the recovery effort and remained available after normal business hours when questions arose during the rebuilding process.

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Woman Who Falsely Claimed to Be Pasadena Resident Sentenced to Prison in LA for Wildfire, COVID Relief Fraud

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A Texas woman was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles to 21 months behind bars for fraudulently obtaining more than $28,000 in federal disaster relief money by falsely claiming she was a Pasadena resident living in a property damaged by the Eaton Fire, and for falsely obtaining more than $54,000 in jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joyce Turner, 57, of Rosharon, Texas, was also ordered to pay restitution of $82,555.

Turner pleaded guilty in federal court last year to one count of fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits and one count of mail fraud.

According to her plea agreement, Turner submitted a fraudulent disaster benefits application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, falsely claiming she lived in Pasadena in a rental property that had been damaged by the Eaton Fire. In fact, Turner did not live in California and did not qualify for the benefits.

FEMA, relying on Turner’s false and fraudulent claim,

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Altadena’s Oldest Historical Group Marks Juneteenth With Fire Survivors’ Voices, Scholarships

The stories that burned in January are being told again — not on paper, but aloud, by the people whose families lived them.

When the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena in January 2025, it took more than 9,400 structures. It also took family photographs, heirlooms and history that no insurance claim could replace. On Friday, the Altadena Historical Society will debut recordings from survivors who are putting that vanished history back on the record, one voice at a time.

The organization’s annual Juneteenth celebration and scholarship luncheon begins at 12:00 p.m. June 19 at Loma Alta Park. 

The event, which the society’s programs page lists as its fifth annual Juneteenth celebration, will feature the Altadena Oral History Project presentation — documenting stories of resilience from the African American community devastated by the Eaton Fire — along with the Ellen Garrison Clark Scholarship Award ceremony for graduating seniors, a Juneteenth photography exhibit curated by documentarian photographer Alfred Haymond and a display of handcrafted quilts by local master quilters,

Thursday, June 18, 2026

State Workers Fight Newsom’s Return-to-Office Mandate

By Lynn La, CALMATTERS

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate for state workers to return to the office four days a week is back on, and many public employees are fighting to stop it with little time to spare.

Dozens of them showed up at a Senate hearing Wednesday to support a bill that would strengthen telework standards for state agencies and — they hope — result in more flexibility than Newsom would allow.

The Senate’s committee on labor, public employment and retirement advanced the proposal in a 4-1 vote. The measure itself would not stop the governor’s July 1 mandate, which Newsom argues would increase accountability, revitalize downtown Sacramento and improve government services.

Instead, the bill would enable agencies to shape their own policies. Citing a 2024 state audit, Assemblymember Alex Lee, the bill’s author, said that allowing state workers to work remotely would save the state money, reduce pollution and boost productivity and employee morale.

Thursday, June 18, 2026

AB 1847 Mortgage Relief for Fire Survivors Clears State Senate Committee

Pasadena lawmaker’s bill would extend forbearance to three years for Altadena and Palisades homeowners, and now advances to a second Senate panel

A bill that would let Eaton and Palisades fire survivors pause their mortgage payments for up to three years cleared the California Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on Wednesday, advancing legislation written by the Pasadena assemblymember whose district absorbed the worst of the Eaton Fire.

AB 1847, authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian, a Pasadena Democrat, would extend mortgage forbearance for fire survivors from the current 12 months to as much as 36 months and let borrowers defer the paused payments to the end of their loans, according to the bill text. The measure now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee. For Altadena — where the Eaton Fire destroyed 9,418 structures, according to Cal Fire’s final report — the bill speaks to households still carrying mortgages on homes they cannot live in.

The bill builds on AB 238,

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Fire Survivor Homeowners’ Mortgage-Pause Bill Clears Key Senate Committee

A measure by Pasadena Assemblymember John Harabedian would let disaster survivors statewide halt payments on uninhabitable homes

A bill that would give homeowners across California a clear path to pause mortgage payments after a declared disaster cleared the state Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on Wednesday, advancing legislation written by an Assemblymember whose own district was gutted by the Eaton Fire.

The committee voted 7-0 to approve AB 1842, the California Emergency Mortgage Relief Act, with amendments, and sent it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill is not yet law.

AB 1842 was authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena), whose 41st District includes Altadena, where the January 2025 Eaton Fire destroyed 9,418 structures, according to Cal Fire. State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), who represents Pasadena and Altadena, is among the bill’s co-authors.

The measure would require a mortgage servicer to offer forbearance for an initial 180 days when the Governor or the federal government declares a state of emergency and a home is made uninhabitable.

Thursday, June 18, 2026

Peace Deal Won’t Completely Fix What Ails the American Economy

By EDDIE RIVERA

Easing of U.S.-Iran tensions may cool energy prices, but housing costs, regulatory burdens, and the Fed’s stubborn rates are keeping the economic squeeze on American households

The agreement to end the US-Israel imposed Iran war brought sighs of relief across financial markets and kitchen tables from coast to coast. Energy prices, which had been grinding household budgets and distorting inflation data for months, may finally find room to fall. But for millions of Americans still priced out of homeownership, strapped by elevated borrowing costs, and watching their neighborhoods lose affordable housing stock, the cease-fire changes little. 

The war also came with a significant price tag—$300 billion“ for the reconstruction and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” 

That message, embedded in the latest economic assessment from the California Association of Realtors (CAR), acknowledges the improved geopolitical picture while recognizing structural economic problems that no peace deal can quickly undo. 

“Conditions have improved,”