Saturday, March 14, 2026

High School Law Academy Students Tour Pasadena Courthouse, Police Headquarters

More than three dozen students met with judges and Chief Harris as part of the school’s four-year career preparatory program

More than three dozen Pasadena High School students enrolled in the school’s Law and Public Service Academy toured the Pasadena Courthouse and Police Department Headquarters on March 4.

The visit gave students in the four-year college preparatory program direct exposure to the professionals and institutions of the local justice system. The academy prepares students for careers in law, government, and public service, according to the Pasadena Unified School District.

At police headquarters on North Garfield Avenue, students toured the community relations, detective, and emergency communications divisions, the City Manager’s office said. The tour highlighted both sworn and professional career opportunities within the department.

Pasadena Police Chief Gene Harris shared insights about leadership, public safety, and the responsibilities of serving the community, according to the newsletter. Harris, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, became Pasadena’s police chief in January 2023 after serving as San Gabriel’s police chief since 2016.

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Five Altadena Business Owners Take the Stage Tonight for Mariposa Night’s Return

A smaller venue and a sharper focus mark the storytelling series’ second installment, 14 months after the Eaton Fire

Five Altadena business owners will share personal stories of community and recovery Saturday evening at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory, as the Mariposa Night storytelling series returns in a smaller format than its 600-person debut last summer.

The storytellers are Adriana Molina, owner of Sidecca, which the Altadena Chamber of Commerce named its 2024 Business of the Year; Steve Salinas, owner of Steve’s Bike Shop; Scott Uriu of Uriu Architecture; Alfred Haymond of Observational Photography; and Joey Galloway of Summit Enterprises, whose family has owned the Mariposa Junction building for more than 40 years.

Mariposa Night 2 is free and produced by Leadership Pasadena, a Pasadena-based nonprofit, with sponsorship from the Altadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with dinner catered by Fair Oaks Burger for the first 150 registered guests, live music from the Rhythms of the Village Family Band,

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Indigenous Poets Take the Stage at Altadena’s Post-Fire Healing Gathering

Academy-funded laureate program centers voices tied to ancestral land in free Loma Alta Park event

Altadena’s Poets Laureate will host a free outdoor poetry gathering centered on Indigenous voices on Saturday, March 28, at Loma Alta Park, continuing a nationally funded initiative to help the community heal through creative expression more than a year after the Eaton Fire.

The event, titled “When We Gather, We Heal: Indigenous Voices in Poetry,” is part of “After the Fires: Healing from Histories,” a project backed by $50,000 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships awarded to co-laureates Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon. The initiative prioritizes participation by Altadena residents who experienced displacement or loss from the fire, which began January 7, 2025, killed at least 19 people and destroyed more than 9,000 buildings.

The gathering will include a poetry reading and open mic at Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave. A specific start time had not been posted as of Saturday; details are available at altadenapoetryreview.com.

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Pasadena Appellate Panel Rules Elementary Schoolers Have Free Speech Rights

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A federal appeals court in Pasadena has ruled that elementary students have First Amendment free-speech rights in school, reviving the lawsuit of a first-grader who alleges she was punished for giving a drawing referencing the Black Lives Matter movement, and suggesting that “any life” matters, to a Black classmate, according to court papers obtained Friday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s grant of early judgment for Capistrano Unified School District and Jesus Becerra, the principal at Viejo Elementary School. The defendants had argued that the drawing was not protected by the First Amendment.

The episode began with a 2021 class lesson about Martin Luther King Jr., when the girl identified in court papers as B.B. drew a picture of herself and her friends holding hands, writing “Black Lives Mater” (sic) and “any life” on the drawing. She gave it to a classmate as a gesture of friendship,

Friday, March 13, 2026

Verdugo Dispatch Center To Receive $1.3 Million Federal Upgrade

By EDDIE RIVERA

Pasadena and regional fire agencies to benefit from federal investment in emergency communications

A regional emergency dispatch center in Glendale which plays a key role in coordinating fire and emergency medical responses for Pasadena and a dozen neighboring cities will receive a major technology upgrade following the announcement Thursday of a new $1.3 million federal grant, secured by U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman.

Speaking at a press conference at the Oak Street fire station in Glendale, where the Dispatch center is housed, Friedman announced the $1,031,000 federal investment to modernize the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, a centralized system that coordinates emergency response across 13 cities in Los Angeles County, including Pasadena.

“The Verdugo Fire Communication Center is the nerve center for emergency response across 31 cities in L.A. County,” Friedman said. “Today I’m announcing a major federal investment to bring this center into the 21st century while making life more affordable for the people of Los Angeles.”

The center serves more than 944,000 residents across a 150-square-mile region and coordinates response for 140 frontline emergency vehicles across 49 fire stations.

Friday, March 13, 2026

Turnkey Rebuild Summit Offers Eaton Fire Survivors One-Stop Path Home

A free event brings vetted builders and housing professionals to Altadena for residents still navigating the rebuilding process

Fourteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures across Altadena, a free summit on Sunday will give survivors a single destination to meet vetted turnkey builders and explore streamlined options for getting back into their homes.

The Altadena Turnkey Rebuild Summit, scheduled for March 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Loma Alta Park’s gym, is designed for fire survivors who are underfunded or overwhelmed by the complexity of rebuilding, according to a press release from Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office. Attendees will be able to meet home builders and housing professionals, attend speaker presentations, and participate in workshops aimed at simplifying the decisions that come with rebuilding after a disaster.

“The road to recovery after a disaster can feel overwhelming,” Barger said in the statement. “Even though it’s been over a year since the wildfires,

Friday, March 13, 2026

Pasadena Unified Again Certifies “Positive” Budget but Officials Warn Financial Pressures Remain

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education on Thursday certified the district’s second interim financial report as “positive,” indicating that the district can meet its financial obligations for the current fiscal year and the following two years, even as administrators cautioned that the system remains financially fragile.

District officials said the report reflects that Pasadena Unified is projected to meet its financial obligations for the 2025-26 fiscal year and the two subsequent fiscal years. Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the certification during a special board meeting Thursday evening.

However, administrators and board members said the district’s financial position still depends on a delicate balance of recent budget reductions, uncertain state funding and enrollment trends that continue to affect school revenue.

The report reflects the district’s financial position as of Jan. 31, officials said, and does not include several actions and potential revenues that have emerged since that date.

For example, district officials said the additional reductions approved by the board on Feb.

Friday, March 13, 2026

Get Ready for California’s 2026 Pimary. Your Questions About Voting, Answered

By CalMatters Staff

Where do I vote? Am I registered to vote? Does everyone get a ballot in the mail? Get the answers to your election day questions ahead of California’s June 2 primary election.

Be prepared for California’s primary: Sign up for our free election newsletter and be the first to know when we update the CalMatters 2026 Voter Guide with information on key primary races.

How do I vote?

• Does everyone get a ballot in the mail?
• When will I receive my mail-in-ballot?
• How do I return my mail-in ballot?
• Can I vote in person? Where is my polling place or vote center?

How do I register to vote?

• Am I registered to vote?
• How do I register?
• What happens if I miss the voter registration deadline?

Friday, March 13, 2026

County Proposes Temporary RV Living Option for Eaton Fire Survivors in Altadena

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

The Altadena Town Council will hear a proposal on March 17 that would allow some fire survivors to temporarily live in recreational vehicles parked in public rights of way

The Altadena Town Council meeting on March 17 is scheduled to hear a proposal that would allow some Eaton Fire survivors in Altadena to temporarily live in recreational vehicles parked in public rights of way while rebuilding their homes.

The proposal, detailed in a memo prepared by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and several partner agencies, comes in response to a policy motion introduced last month by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Public Works worked alongside the County’s departments of Regional Planning, Public Health, Fire, the Sheriff’s Department and County Counsel to develop a framework intended to provide displaced residents with a temporary housing option when placing an RV on their own property is not feasible.

Under the proposed guidelines,

Friday, March 13, 2026

PUSD Governance Workshop Exposes Board’s Uncertainty Over Its Own Rules

A Pasadena Unified Board of Education workshop intended to sharpen meeting procedure instead laid bare deeper uncertainty over how the board governs itself, as trustees openly disputed rules, questioned prior interpretations and asked for legal follow-up on several core practices.

What began as a training session on meeting discipline repeatedly turned into a debate over whether the board’s own protocols are clear, workable or even consistently followed.

The Thursday evening study session, led by facilitator Marisol Avalos, Ed.D., a registered parliamentarian, was designed around scripted role-playing exercises meant to help the board practice enforcing its meeting protocols. Trustees were told the session was “not a critique of individuals” and that past disagreements would not be revisited.

Instead, the facilitator said, the goal was to “build fluency and shared responsibility around how meetings are conducted.”

But the exercises quickly surfaced fundamental disagreements — about the superintendent’s right to speak during board deliberation, about whether information items allow any trustee discussion at all,