Thursday, March 12, 2026

ArtNight Closeup: PUSD Students Build Their Own Gallery for ArtNight’s 21st No Boundaries Show

Rose City High School teens curate more than 300 works — and some young artists won’t know they’ve won scholarships until they walk in Friday night

For the 21st consecutive year, Pasadena Unified School District students will display their artwork in a professional gallery during ArtNight Pasadena — but the students who built the exhibition won’t be the only ones surprised by what they find on the walls.

Before the public arrives Friday afternoon at The Paseo, representatives from ArtCenter College of Design, Armory Center for the Arts, and the City of Pasadena Arts Commissioners will walk the gallery and place small stickers on selected artwork labels. The student artists will not know they have received scholarship awards or recognition until they arrive that evening, according to Karen Anderson, Arts and Enrichment Coordinator for Pasadena Unified School District.

“When the kids come for No Boundaries, they see, ‘Oh my gosh, why does it say ArtCenter next to my piece?’ And then they find out that they won an award for a scholarship to the ArtCenter,”

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Pasadena Unified Committee Removes Nine Schools From Closure Consideration, Leaving 14 Under Review

First polling round narrows the list as financially strapped District weighs consolidation options

A Pasadena Unified School District advisory committee has removed nine schools from the list of campuses being considered for potential closure or consolidation, the first concrete narrowing in a process that could reshape the District’s footprint as it confronts a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.

The Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee conducted its first in a series of polls on March 9 to identify schools to remove from the list of sites under consideration, Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco announced in an email to the school community on March 11.

The schools removed span all levels. John Muir High School and Pasadena High School are off the list, as are Octavia E Butler Magnet and Sierra Madre Middle School. Three elementary campuses were removed: Mary W. Jackson Steam, Madison Elementary, and Sierra Madre Elementary. Two alternative schools, CIS Academy and Rose City High School, were also taken off the list.

The 14 schools that remain under review include two secondary campuses — Blair School and Thurgood Marshall Secondary School — along with Eliot Arts Magnet middle school and McKinley School,

Thursday, March 12, 2026

‘We’re Talking About People’s Lives:’ California Lawmakers Grill DMV Director On Deadly Failures

By Lauren Hepler and Robert Lewis, CALMATTERS

The man in charge of California’s Department of Motor Vehicles finally had to face tough questions Tuesday about what his agency is doing to address an increase in road deaths in recent years.

Though he didn’t provide many answers.

DMV Director Steve Gordon told lawmakers that he didn’t know if his agency had the ability to speed up license suspensions, didn’t know if he could get data for lawmakers on how often the agency takes action against dangerous drivers, and wasn’t familiar with numbers – that his agency provided CalMatters just last week – showing the DMV rarely investigates motorists who get in crashes seriously injuring or killing people.

Gordon did, however, assure lawmakers at various times that the seeming lack of details or direct response to questions was because the DMV’s operations are “complex,” “very inside baseball,” and “extremely nuanced.”

“I can follow up in detail with your office,” he told one senator.

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Native Plants Take Root at New Eaton Canyon Center Built to Restore Altadena’s Parks

The nursery hub, funded by nearly $3 million in grants, will grow trees and shrubs for seven fire-damaged sites across the community

Los Angeles County opened a nursery and restoration center at Eaton Canyon on Saturday dedicated to growing the native plants that will restore seven parks destroyed or damaged by the Eaton Fire.

The Landscape Recovery Center at Eaton Canyon, located at 1456 East Mendocino Street near Altadena Golf Course, will cultivate native trees and shrubs to support long-term habitat regeneration across six Altadena parks and Castaic Lake State Recreation Area, county officials said at a ceremony marking the facility’s launch.

Assemblymember John Harabedian, D-Pasadena, announced a total of $21.7 million in state investment in Altadena’s park and green-space recovery at the event, according to his office.

The center itself is funded by nearly $3 million in grants — $1 million from the Regional Park and Open Space District, governed by the LA County Board of Supervisors, and $1.87 million from the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy,

Thursday, March 12, 2026

Housing Market Clouds Gather as Economic Turmoil Deepens

By EDDIE RIVERA

Conflict in the Middle East, job losses and policy uncertainty add pressure to a fragile housing recovery

The U.S. housing market entered 2026 hoping for a modest recovery. Instead, it now faces a deepening fog of economic uncertainty fueled by geopolitical conflict, slowing job growth and volatile policy signals that are rippling through financial markets and the broader economy.

New data released by the California Association of Realtors (CAR) suggests the nation’s housing sector is once again confronting the same headwinds that stalled activity for much of the past two years: stubbornly high borrowing costs, weakening consumer demand and mounting economic anxiety.

Those pressures have intensified as conflict in the Middle East threatens to drive energy prices higher and prolong inflation—developments that economists warn could keep mortgage rates elevated and push the U.S. economy toward a period of stagflation.

“An escalation of conflict in the Middle East raises the risk of higher oil prices and therefore higher inflation,” said Mark Zandi,

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Weekly Job Pop-Ups Offer Eaton Fire Survivors Paid Work and Free Training

Altadena’s job center is among 18 county sites where displaced workers can get screened for temporary positions every Thursday

Eaton Fire survivors who lost work can walk into an America’s Job Center of California any Thursday afternoon and get immediate help landing a temporary paid job with Los Angeles County, according to a statement from Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office.

The weekly events, called Fire Recovery Thursdays, run from 1 to 4 p.m. at all 18 AJCC locations countywide, including the Altadena Job Center at 464 W. Woodbury Rd., Suite 210. Organized by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity, the pop-ups connect wildfire-displaced workers with paid positions, no-cost training, and supportive services — more than 14 months after the January 2025 fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures across Altadena and surrounding communities.

At each session, AJCC staff sit down one-on-one with job seekers to review career options and screen them for the Fire Recovery and Resilience Workforce Program, according to the press release.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Fire Survivors’ Contamination Testing Bill Clears First Legislative Hurdle in Sacramento

Altadena-born measure would create California’s first uniform standards for post-wildfire home safety

More than a year after the Eaton Fire, a bill that would require California to set science-based standards for testing and cleaning toxic contamination in homes, schools and workplaces after wildfires passed its first Assembly policy committee, according to  Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena).

AB 1642, the Wildfire Environmental Safety and Testing Act, would direct the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt emergency regulations by July 1, 2027, specifying how contamination should be investigated, tested and removed in residential areas after a wildfire. California currently has no uniform statewide framework for determining when a home is safe to reoccupy after a fire, according to the bill’s text. The measure was introduced following feedback from Eaton Fire survivors and experts who encountered confusion and conflicting guidance when trying to determine whether their homes were safe.

The bill cleared the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials — its first and only Assembly policy committee,

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Eight PUSD Campuses Stage Spring Musicals From March Through May

Student performers across Pasadena and Altadena will present shows ranging from Fiddler on the Roof to Ride the Cyclone

Every middle and high school in the Pasadena Unified School District will stage a full musical this spring, with eight productions running from March 19 through mid-May across campuses in Pasadena and Sierra Madre. The district serves students from Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre.

The season opens next week at Thurgood Marshall Secondary School with Alice By Heart, running March 19–21, and continues through May 15 when Octavia E. Butler Middle School closes the schedule with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr. The lineup spans classic and contemporary titles, according to a PUSD district announcement.

The full schedule, according to the district:

Thurgood Marshall Secondary School presents Alice By Heart, March 19–21. Eliot Arts Magnet stages Bring It On!, March 26–28. John Muir High School performs Ride the Cyclone,

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

ArtNight Closeup: Pasadena Taiko Ensemble Brings 27 Years of Drumming to Friday Performances

Makoto Taiko performs four free sets Friday at the Shumei Arts Council on East Colorado Boulevard

Makoto Taiko, a Japanese drumming ensemble that has been based in Pasadena since 1999, performs four sets Friday night, March 13, at the Shumei Arts Council during ArtNight Pasadena, the city’s biannual free cultural open house.

The nonprofit ensemble, which began as a private youth group within the Shumei America Spiritual Organization and opened its doors to the broader public in 2009, plays a three-piece program at 6:15, 7:15, 8:15, and 9:15 p.m. at Shumei Hall, 2430 East Colorado Blvd. It is one of 19 venues participating in the event, which runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with free admission and free shuttle service. No tickets or reservations are required.

Artistic Director Hunter Loyd designed the ArtNight program as a three-piece set. The set opens with “Sakura Fubuki” — cherry blossom blizzard — a composition Loyd wrote for the ensemble.

“This piece begins by evoking a gentle breeze among Sakura trees and blossoms,

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Sierra Madre Little League Opened Biggest Season With 400 Players Headed to Face Pasadena, Altadena Rivals

Record enrollment launches a spring schedule that connects foothill communities on the diamond

More than 400 young baseball players paraded down Sierra Madre Boulevard on Saturday morning, riding decorated vehicles from Taylor’s Ol’ Fashioned Market to Heasley Field to open what the league says is its largest spring season ever.

Sierra Madre Little League launched its 2026 season on February 28 with its annual opening day festivities — a parade led by the city’s fire and police departments and four city council members, followed by ceremonies, games, treats, and music at Heasley Field. Throughout the spring, Sierra Madre’s teams will travel beyond city limits to compete against Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, and Santa Anita Little League programs, according to the league’s schedule.

The parade began shortly after 7 a.m. at the parking lot of Taylor’s Ol’ Fashioned Market on Sierra Madre Boulevard, where each team decorated a vehicle in its team colors. Sierra Chevrolet of Monrovia provided additional vehicles for several teams, according to a league press release.