Monday, January 19, 2026

Altadena Author Michele Zack to Appear on ‘Pasadena Monthly with Justin Chapman’

STAFF REPORT

Pasadena Media’s award-winning local TV talk show “Pasadena Monthly with Justin Chapman” continues this Friday at 5 p.m., featuring guest Michele Zack, former Altadena Town Councilmember and author of Altadena: Between Wilderness and City. 

Zack is an award-winning historian, author, journalist, former Altadena Town Councilmember, and former chair of Altadena Heritage. 

As senior advisor to The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, she wrote federal grants and developed contextual programs to link local to national history and improve the teaching of American history. 

In the 1990s, she lived in Thailand working as an AsiaWeek correspondent and was a regular contributor to Far Eastern Economic Review. 

She authored a popular ethnography of the Lisu, a hill tribe in Southeast Asia, and was co-author of Fielding’s Guide to Thailand. Zack has written widely about Southeast Asia and worked as a speech writer for three Thai prime ministers and other officials,

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Area’s Longest-Running King Day Celebration Returns Monday With Message of Renewal

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Coalition president who lost home in the Eaton Fire drew on King’s example to continue organizing

Dr. Jackie Jacobs has moved four times since the Eaton Fire reduced her home to ashes one year ago. Undeterred by adversity, holding dear her personal memories of having met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and staying true to King’s teaching of staying strong and resolute, Jacobs organized Monday’s local King’s Day celebration in spite of her personal challenges.

The Coalition, which Jacobs founded in the 1980’s with her husband, David, will present the event at John Muir High School, continuing a tradition that has stretched more than three decades in this city.

The event is free, begins with a Teach-In at 8:30 a.m., and features a main program at 10 a.m. State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, the youngest member of the California State Senate, will deliver the keynote address.

The 2026 theme—”Resilience and Renewal: Social Justice, Equality, and Community Empowerment”—reflects current local realities.

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Three Pasadena- and Altadena-Based Nonprofits Earn Regional Recognition

Three nonprofit organizations based in Pasadena and Altadena were included among the 2025 “Nonprofits of the Year” honorees recognized across Los Angeles County, according to a published list of award recipients selected by state legislators.

The locally based honorees are Altadena Girls, a teen-focused nonprofit providing essentials, emotional support and community for teen girls, particularly during crisis, recovery and change; Door of Hope, a Pasadena-based nonprofit serving Los Angeles County that provides homelessness prevention and transitional housing with a focus on keeping families together in private units; and the Rotary Club of Altadena, a local service club that has supported school-based entrepreneurship education through Junior Achievement and has carried out local and international service projects.

Altadena Girls was honored by State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents Senate District 25. Door of Hope was selected by State Sen. Bob Archuleta of Senate District 30. The Rotary Club of Altadena was honored by Assemblymember John Harabedian, who represents Assembly District 41.

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Sunday’s MLK Scholarship Service Pulls Focus on Pasadena and Altadena Students

Annual Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance event will see Bishop Terry Turrentine preside

The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Greater Pasadena will host its annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Service on Sunday, Jan. 18. offering scholarship support to students from Pasadena and Altadena, according to an announcement from the organization.

The annual service honors the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and raises funds for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Program, through which IMA will award 10 scholarships to graduating high school seniors in the Class of 2026.

The service is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at First African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1700 N. Raymond Ave. in Pasadena.

This year’s scholarship service will feature Bishop Terry Turrentine, senior pastor of Tabernacle Community Church, as the keynote speaker. He is widely respected for his dynamic preaching, moral leadership and steadfast advocacy for justice, faith and community empowerment.

“The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Service is more than a commemoration—it is an investment in the future.

Sunday, January 18, 2026

Burned Altadena Trees Become Fender Guitars to Fund Home Rebuilding

Custom Shop Telecasters made from fire-salvaged cedar will be auctioned for San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity

The Deodar cedars that burned in Altadena are coming back—not as trees, but as Telecasters.

Fender’s Custom Shop in Corona is building four one-of-a-kind electric guitars from wood salvaged from trees damaged in the January 2025 Eaton Fire,

All auction proceeds will go to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes for displaced families, according to Guitar World.

The first instrument—dubbed the Altadena Telecaster—was debuted by Taylor Goldsmith of the rock band Dawes at A Concert for Altadena at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 7, the fire’s one-year anniversary. The sold-out benefit concert raised $450,000 for the Altadena Builds Back Foundation.

Angel City Lumber is handling the wood salvage operation, according to Guitar World. The guitar’s body was carved from a Deodar cedar damaged in the fire. The neckplate is engraved with “We Are All Altadena”

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Edison Sues Pasadena Water & Power, LA County, Alleging They Share Blame for Eaton Fire Destruction and Deaths

STAFF REPORT

The utility, which has acknowledged its equipment may have caused the blaze, faces nearly 1,000 lawsuits from fire victims

Southern California Edison is now suing the agencies that sued it.

The utility filed cross-complaints Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court naming Los Angeles County, Pasadena Water & Power, five other water agencies, and Southern California Gas, alleging their failures contributed to the deaths of 19 people and the destruction of more than 9,400 structures in the Eaton Fire. Edison itself faces 998 lawsuits from victims and government entities claiming its equipment started the blaze.

Edison has acknowledged that circumstantial evidence suggests one of its idled high-voltage transmission lines may have ignited the fire amid winds that topped 100 mph on the night of January 7, 2025. The official cause remains under investigation by Cal Fire and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The City of Pasadena rejected Edison’s claims.

“The City recently received and is reviewing the cross complaint Southern California Edison Company and Edison International filed this afternoon,”

Saturday, January 17, 2026

PUSD Academy Showcase Offers Families Final Look at Career Pathways Before Enrollment Deadline

Event on January 21 highlights nine-plus programs with paid internships; lottery applications close January 28

A week before the enrollment lottery closes, Pasadena Unified School District will open the doors of McKinley School Gymnasium so families can see what its career academies actually look like from the inside.

The Academy Showcase on Wednesday, January 21, at 4:30 p.m. gives families a chance to meet representatives from more than nine specialized programs—health careers, engineering, law, storytelling, arts and media—before they decide where to submit their lottery applications. Many of the academies, according to the district, offer paid summer internships for students between their junior and senior years.

The timing matters. PUSD’s open enrollment lottery window runs from January 14 through January 28 at 4 p.m., with results posted online February 11. Families who attend the showcase will have one week to apply for the academies they’ve just explored.

PUSD’s College & Career Academies are four-year programs housed at the district’s four comprehensive high schools.

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Landlords Have Less Than a Week to Apply for County Rent Relief Tied to Eaton Fire

County program offers grants up to $15,000 per unit; deadline is 4:59 p.m. Thursday

The January 2025 Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures in this foothill community. Now, with fewer than seven days remaining, landlords and displaced homeowners affected by that devastation have a shrinking window in which to apply for County rent relief.

Los Angeles County’s Emergency Rent Relief Program, which provides grants of up to $15,000 per rental unit to cover unpaid rent, closes its application portal at 4:59 p.m. on Thursday, January 23. The program specifically targets property owners dealing with rent arrears tied to the Eaton Fire, the Palisades Fire, and other emergency financial hardships.

Tenants cannot apply directly. Landlords must submit applications, and all grant funds are paid to property owners to clear eligible rental debt. Tenants who are behind on rent can refer their landlords to the program through an online interest form at lacountyrentrelief.com.

The program prioritizes small landlords who own four or fewer rental units and those whose household income is at or below 80 percent of the Los Angeles County Area Median Income.

Saturday, January 17, 2026

ArtCenter Will Open Hillside Campus for Poppy Planting to Honor Eaton Fire Anniversary

The free community event connects the college to Altadena’s grassroots effort to restore the state flower to fire-scarred land

A Pasadena art institution is inviting the community to help spread a blanket of bright poppies throughout the foothills of West Pasadena.

ArtCenter College of Design will host a free poppy-planting event on Saturday, January 24, where attendees will scatter California poppy seeds across the college’s Hillside Campus in the San Rafael hills. The gathering, called “Planting Seeds: Remembering the LA Fires,” will remember the first anniversaries of the massively destructive Eaton and Palisades wildfires.

It’s part of the Great Altadena Poppy Project, a grassroots effort led by longtime Altadena resident René Amy to sow 250 million poppy seeds across fire-impacted properties.

Amy, who lost his home and his wildflower seed business in the fire, launched the project in November.

“Folks need hope these days; I know that I do,” Amy said in an earlier interview. “California poppies exemplify beauty,

Saturday, January 17, 2026

Kaiser Workers Set Open-Ended Strike Starting Jan. 26

Union representing 31,000 nurses and health professionals says negotiations have stalled for over a month

Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers are likely heading back to the picket lines, and this time they haven’t set an end date.

The union representing 31,000 nurses, pharmacists, and other health professionals issued a strike notice Wednesday, with an open-ended walkout scheduled to begin January 26 at Kaiser hospitals and clinics across California and Hawaii.

Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California regional headquarters is located in Pasadena.

The action follows a five-day strike in October that ended without a new contract—and negotiations that have remained stalled since mid-December.

Pasadena-area Kaiser members who need hospital services typically use the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center or Baldwin Park Medical Center. Both are on the list of picket locations.

“We’re not going on strike to make noise,” said Charmaine S. Morales, a registered nurse and president of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals.