The nearly four-decade-old volunteer hub launches its 2026 election-year home with a Saturday open house

A Pasadena political coalition that has organized Democratic volunteers since 1988 opens the doors of its new election-year headquarters on Saturday, inviting the public into a space on East Green Street that will serve as its base of operations through the November elections.

The United Democratic Headquarters, a coalition of eight local Democratic clubs, is hosting the free open house at 776 East Green Street from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The location is the organization’s hub for the 2026 midterm cycle — a year in which California voters will choose a new governor for the first time since 2018, along with filling congressional, state legislative, and U.S. Senate seats on the November 3 ballot.

The open house is casual, according to the event listing: light refreshments, a chance to meet the volunteer team, and postcards available for those who want to take part in the organization’s mail campaigns. The UDH’s current postcarding effort targets the North Carolina midterm election, according to the organization’s website.

The Green Street space is a new location for the coalition, which operated out of 400 South Lake Avenue during the 2024 presidential election cycle. The UDH’s website describes the headquarters, located one block east of Oak Knoll Avenue, as “your local volunteer hub for the 2026 elections.”

Founded in 1988, the UDH says it works on voter registration, phone banking, postcarding, and canvassing for Democratic candidates at the local, state, and national levels, according to its website.

Its member clubs include the Arroyo Democratic Club, Democrats of Pasadena Foothills, Foothill Community Democrats, Cañada Crescenta Democratic Club, Democratic Club of Claremont, and Northeast Democratic Club of Los Angeles, the website states.

Hoyt Hilsman, an author and former Pasadena City College trustee, serves as chair of the UDH Steering Committee, according to the organization’s website and his published writings.

The 2026 midterm features several contests of interest to local voters.

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, the Democrat whose 28th Congressional District includes Pasadena, is running for reelection. The governor’s race pits Democrat Xavier Becerra, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, against Republican Steve Hilton, after the two advanced from a crowded June 2 primary. ACT Pasadena, a sister organization to one of the UDH’s member clubs, states on its website that the 2026 UDH effort is focused on electing a new governor and working toward Democratic control of the U.S. House and Senate.

Need to Know: The United Democratic Headquarters Pasadena Open House takes place Saturday, August 1, 2026, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free. The event is at 776 East Green Street, Pasadena, one block east of Oak Knoll Avenue. Free two-hour parking is available on Oak Knoll Avenue south of Green Street. Metered parking on Green Street costs $2 for one hour. A city parking lot on Madison Avenue, behind Urth Cafe south of Colorado Boulevard and before Green Street, costs $1.25 per hour. For more information, email PasadenaUDH@gmail.com or visit www.pasadenademocrats.com.

[Updated]   The City said Thursday it intends to hold the Pasadena Unified School District accountable for any protected trees removed before the district exempted itself from the city’s tree protection ordinance, while continuing to challenge the district’s actions in court.

In a statement, Chief Communications Officer Lisa Derderian said the city repeatedly had asked PUSD to obtain tree removal permits before removing trees at campuses undergoing Eaton Fire recovery work. 

According to the city, PUSD proceeded without permits, prompting Pasadena to issue stop-work orders and obtain court-authorized inspection warrants to evaluate affected trees.

The City has now completed inspections at all campuses where work was expected to occur and, “to the greatest extent possible, intends to hold the District accountable for any protected trees that were damaged or removed before PUSD adopted its resolution [to exempt itself from the city ordinance].”

Following the city’s inspections, PUSD’s governing board adopted a resolution exempting the district from the city’s zoning regulations, including its Tree Protection Ordinance. 

State law allows a school district governing board to declare certain local zoning ordinances inapplicable to a proposed use of district property under certain conditions.

The City noted that the exemption remains the subject of ongoing litigation and said Los Angeles County Superior Court previously denied PUSD’s request for a broad injunction that would have prevented Pasadena from enforcing any of its laws against the district. The Court did so after the city indicated it would no longer enforce the stop-work orders for classroom facilities exempted from the City’s zoning ordinance subject to the Board-adopted Resolution 2896.

Because of PUSD’s action under state law, the city said it did not pursue enforcement of some stop-work orders, including at one site where the district had already completed all tree removals within its approved scope of work.

“To the extent PUSD has elected to move forward with tree removals, they are relying on state law to do so and have elected to pursue this path over the objections of the City and the community,” the statement said.

The City said it will continue defending its position in court.

“The City of Pasadena will continue to represent the interests of the City in this matter and reserves its rights to make further arguments before the court,” the statement said.

The dispute stems from PUSD’s efforts to remove trees and excavate fire-contaminated soil at several campuses following the Eaton Fire. City officials contend the district was required to comply with Pasadena’s Tree Protection Ordinance before invoking its exemption under state law, while PUSD maintains the work is necessary to facilitate environmental cleanup and the reopening of schools.

Construction workers build a home to replace one of the 6,000 destroyed in the 2025 Eaton Fire in Altadena on March 19, 2026. Photo by David McNew, Getty Images

If you live in California, chances are you’ve seen the ads that say “Home insurance rates skyrocket” and “The FAIR Plan is broken.”

They urge you to contact your state representative to ask them to “fix our wildfire problem to make California more affordable.”

Those ads are connected to what Los Angeles fire survivors, consumer advocacy groups and the insurance industry say is a secretive, last-minute attempt by Gov. Gavin Newsom to help utilities reduce how much they pay for wildfires they cause.

With the legislative session set to resume next week and run through the end of the month, the governor’s staff has been talking with state lawmakers about addressing challenges around wildfire recovery and rising catastrophic risk in California, a spokesperson for his office confirmed.

Lawmakers have not released the text of the proposals. Newsom spokesperson Anthony Martinez would not say whether the legislation will do the following, as alleged by fire survivors and a consumer advocacy group:

• Limit compensation for fire victims’ pain and suffering.
• Eliminate insurance companies’ right to recover wildfire costs from utilities or other corporations.
• Cap attorneys’ fees, making it harder for fire survivors to get representation.

Every Fire Survivors Network, a group started by survivors of last year’s Eaton Fire, and Consumer Watchdog, a consumer advocacy group that focuses on insurance and other issues, say the bills would shift recovery costs from utility companies to insurance policyholders. Insurance industry representatives agree. The strange bedfellows are calling out the late political maneuvering known as “gut-and-amend,” which lawmakers use to create bills by gutting other pending bills and replacing their language for a different purpose and are meant to be fast-tracked.

The groups are speaking out against the purported bill package, which appears to align with the goals of Wildfire Survivors First, a campaign funded by utilities that, despite its name, has no wildfire survivors groups among its supporters.

“Californians deserve a government that works in the open, not behind closed doors,” said Joy Chen, leader of the Every Fire Survivors Network, in a press conference last week. She urged the governor to “choose democracy over corporate special interests.”

In an open letter to the governor, Chen laid out how she said Newsom has, over the years, already helped utilities shift responsibility for wildfires they cause.

The state’s three major utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, have tremendous influence in California. They have what seems to be an unlimited number of names, entities and affiliates; donate to campaigns by Democrats and Republicans; and together employ hundreds of lobbyists who advocate for hundreds of bills every session. In the 2025-26 session, their donations to sitting legislators totaled more than $1.2 million, according to CalMatters’ Digital Democracy Database.

Martinez said the discussions between the governor’s office and California lawmakers are informed by a report released in April by the California Earthquake Authority, which under Senate Bill 254 was tasked with studying how the state should “responsibly and equitably allocate the burdens from natural catastrophes.”

That bill — rewritten so late last year that it required the Legislature to extend its session — also allows utilities to shift additional wildfire costs to consumers if their costs exceed a wildfire fund created in 2019 through legislation also backed by the governor. The three major utilities paid half of the $21 billion fund. Californians paid the other half through monthly surcharges on their electric bills. Eaton Fire survivors have sued Edison over what they say is negligence that led to the fire; the cost of claims from the fire are expected to exceed what’s in the fund.

Among the April report’s many recommendations is to put more money in the wildfire fund by increasing the surcharge on utility customers by $8.50 a month, bringing the total to $11 a month.

Nathan Click, a spokesperson for Wildfire Survivors First, said the campaign is calling on lawmakers to “urgently implement” many of the conclusions in the SB 254 report, which he said “highlighted how payouts to financial middlemen — like trial attorneys, hedge funds and insurance companies — are often paid out before wildfire victims receive a single dollar for rebuilding.”

Click did not answer CalMatters’ question about why there are no fire survivors groups on the list of more than 200 organizations that support the effort. Most are local chambers of commerce or business groups.

CalMatters contacted nearly a dozen of the organizations. Ten did not respond or would not make their executives available for an interview.

But the chief executive of one of them, Jennifer Gray Thompson, said she changed her mind about participating once she realized the coalition did not include fire victims groups. Her organization, After the Fire, which helps support leaders in communities around the country that have experienced mega fires, was briefly on the list but was removed promptly at her request, she said.

“I’m from Sonoma,” Thompson told CalMatters. “I’m a national advocate for fire victims. I’m definitely not on their side,” she added. Former state Sen. Bill Dodd, a Democrat whom she said did a lot of good for fire survivors when he was in office, was among those who contacted her to solicit her group’s support for the effort, according to emails she shared with CalMatters.

Dodd did not return a phone call and text message from CalMatters.

The Bay Area Council, another supporter, counts PG&E among its member businesses. Spokesperson Rufus Jeffris said the council “generally supports sensible policies and investments that reduce wildfire risk and increase community wildfire resilience and balance the diverse needs of business, consumers and residents.”

A Consumer Watchdog analysis of utilities’ required financial disclosures shows that 66% of the non-governmental organizations on the list have received utility-industry contributions, grants, sponsorships and more worth about $7.3 million from 2023 to 2025.

Click called Consumer Watchdog a “shadow lobby firm for trial attorneys” and said “it should come as no surprise that they are trying to protect a system that prioritizes trial attorneys over wildfire victims.”

Spokespeople for PG&E, Edison and SDG&E referred CalMatters to the Wildfire Victims First campaign regarding the campaign and the legislative proposal.

What state lawmakers are saying or not saying

Sen. Ben Allen, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area whose constituents include survivors of the Palisades Fire, attended the Friday press conference.

“Any solutions that we have have to (hold) the responsible parties accountable,” Allen said in a room full of fire survivors.

Who’s responsible for the costs of wildfire recovery is important to both Allen’s current job and possibly his future one: He is chair of the Senate energy and utilities committee, and is running for insurance commissioner.

Allen’s spokesperson, Ben Cheever, said the senator was not available for an interview about the specifics of the legislative package.

But he sent the following statement from Allen: “I will carefully review any proposal put forth to ensure we hold responsible parties accountable while meaningfully reducing risk to improve affordability. We should not simply shift around the costs consumers pay without addressing this more holistically.”

Fellow Democrat Sen. Sasha Renee Perez, who represents Eaton Fire survivors, said in an interview with CalMatters that if a legislative package contains the proposals fire survivors suspect they do, she would have a “tremendous issue” with them being presented at the last minute. She also said she has talked with other members of the Legislature who “are very upset with what’s taking place.”

Perez said she would oppose any proposal that limits non-economic damages for fire survivors: “I represent Altadena. I have a friend who lost his sister in the fire. How do you put a price tag on losing your sibling?”

The senator also said she was “so frustrated and shocked” that SB 254, which started off as a bill intended to reduce profits for investor-owned utilities, ended up helping utilities instead during the last three days of last year’s session.

“That’s not the way government should work,” she said.

CalMatters also contacted several other lawmakers or their offices, especially ones who lead related committees. The following Democratic lawmakers’ offices did not respond: Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas; Assemblymember Lisa Calderon, who leads the insurance committee; and Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, who leads the utilities and energy committee.

Spokespeople for Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limon and Sen. Josh Becker responded with emailed statements similar to that sent by Newsom spokesperson Martinez: “The current system is unsustainable and not working for fire survivors, utility customers, or insurance policyholders.”

The insurance industry’s concerns

Insurance industry representatives say if insurance companies can’t recover wildfire costs from utilities, also known as subrogation, they will inevitably raise premiums.

“We don’t think it’s fair to make insurance policyholders pay more to bail out utility shareholders,” said Denni Ritter, a vice president at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

Ritter also pushed back against the assertion by the utilities’ campaign that insurance companies usually recover their costs from utilities before paying out claims to their policyholders: “It’s not like AAA goes, ‘OK, we’ll pay you once we’ve recovered from the utilities’.”

Rex Frazier is president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, which represents the largest insurers operating in the state. He said this campaign is the latest attempt by utilities to chip away at their industry’s possible liability for wildfires. Sometimes, the insurance industry has had conversations with utilities, he said. That’s not happening this time, he said.

Now he, like other Californians, is seeing the ads from the Wildfire Victims First campaign, whose website says it’s funded by PG&E, SDG&E and SCE shareholders and three other organizations.

“We’re trying to understand why they’re talking about the insurance market,” Frazier said. “We can’t get a clear answer about what they have in mind.”

Jeanne Kuang contributed reporting.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

The announcement comes 13 days after a U.S. district judge ordered an overhaul of conditions at the Adelanto detention center

A federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to overhaul medical care at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center 13 days ago. On Wednesday afternoon, four Southern California Democrats will hold a news conference and announce legislation on the same subject.

One of them is Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, whose 28th Congressional District takes in both Pasadena and Altadena. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, is convening it. A media advisory describes the measure as legislation intended to improve access to medical care for immigrants detained in ICE detention centers. Reps. Gil Cisneros, D-Covina, and Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, will also take part.

In Chu’s district, the issue already has a case attached to it. Masuma Khan, a 64-year-old Altadena resident and Eaton Fire survivor, was detained at a routine immigration check-in on October 6, 2025, and held at the California City Detention Facility in Kern County, a site operated by CoreCivic. Khan said she was denied medications she takes for asthma, high blood pressure and other chronic conditions.

“While I was detained at Core Civic’s California City facility, I experienced fear and lasting trauma that no one should have to experience,” Khan said in a March press release from the office of state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena.

A federal judge ordered her release in the fall of 2025. Pérez, whose 25th Senate District also covers Pasadena and Altadena, authored Senate Bill 995, the Masuma Khan Justice Act, which passed the California Senate 39-0 and moved to the Assembly, where it stood as of a May 28 release from her office.

The federal announcement follows a July 16 ruling by U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes. According to a July 17 press release from Chu’s office, Sykes ordered the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to immediately overhaul conditions at Adelanto, gave the agency 14 days to submit a remedial plan for medical care, and installed two independent, court-appointed monitors.

“Today’s ruling affirms what we have known all along,” Chu said in that release. “Detainees held at Adelanto have been suffering and dying in unacceptably cruel and inhumane conditions.”

Adelanto, in San Bernardino County, is run by the private contractor GEO Group. Chu’s release states that, as of July 17, five people have died in ICE custody there or shortly after transfer since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

Kamlager-Dove visited Adelanto in late May and spoke on the House floor July 23 about a constituent, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was shot during an immigration enforcement operation last October. “His hand was purple. His fingers were atrophied,” she said, in remarks posted by her office.

Federal officials have defended the agency’s care. DHS acting chief medical officer Sean Conley has said it is both policy and longstanding practice for detained immigrants to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody, according to KFF Health News.

The National Immigration Project reports that ICE recorded 33 deaths in custody during calendar year 2025 — which the group describes as the highest annual total in more than two decades — and counted at least 22 more through July 15.

Unincorporated Altadena depends on the county emergency office that would carry out the assessment, working with Caltech and UCLA

Los Angeles County wants to know how ready it is for the next major earthquake. Under a motion from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, part of the answer would come from Pasadena.

Barger introduced the motion on Tuesday. It calls for a comprehensive review of County earthquake preparedness and directs County emergency officials to engage Dr. Lucy Jones, along with experts from Caltech and UCLA, to help shape readiness for the next major quake.

Jones is a visiting associate in geophysics at Caltech and founder of a Pasadena-based science center. Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory, where she has held an appointment since 1984, sits on East California Boulevard. 

Under the motion, that office would return to the Board of Supervisors on September 29, 2026 with a comprehensive assessment, the release said, evaluating County facilities, emergency personnel, continuity of government operations and critical infrastructure, and identifying gaps that must be addressed before a catastrophic seismic event. It would work with Jones and representatives from Caltech and UCLA so County planning reflects the latest seismic research and preparedness practices.

The release said the motion follows new scientific findings that tectonic strain along portions of the San Andreas and San Jacinto fault systems near the Cajon Pass has reached its highest level in at least 1,000 years, according to the statement frm Barger’s office.

Researchers stress that does not mean a major earthquake is imminent, the release added, but noted that accumulated seismic energy is released only through large earthquakes.

The study, published in June in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, was led by Liliane Burkhard of the University of Bern and the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology. It describes Cajon Pass, in San Bernardino County, as an “earthquake gate” that may stop a rupture or let it cross both fault systems at once. Burkhard told CNN that a joint rupture at Cajon Pass could approach magnitude 7.4 to 7.8. 

Those faults are not the ones beneath Pasadena and Altadena, which sit above the Raymond and Sierra Madre fault systems.

“Science is sending us a clear warning and we have a responsibility to listen,” Barger said in the release. “No one can predict when the next major earthquake will occur, but we know with certainty that one will happen. Los Angeles County must engage the best scientific expertise available–including Dr. Lucy Jones–so that we’re not simply reacting after a disaster but preparing before lives, homes, and critical infrastructure are impacted.”

The county has not seen a large-scale, damaging earthquake since Northridge in 1994, the release said, describing it as claiming approximately 60 lives, injuring more than 9,000 people, displacing 20,000 residents and causing tens of billions of dollars in damage and economic losses. 

The motion also calls for a countywide earthquake preparedness initiative: an online “Know Your Risk” portal, a multilingual public education campaign leading up to The Great ShakeOut on October 15, and recommendations for sustained, year-round outreach to residents, businesses, schools and community organizations.

An attorney speaks at the California Supreme Court in San Francisco on May 8, 2024. Photo by Jeff Chiu, AP Photo

A new California Supreme Court ruling on retirement pay for public employees centered on a small amount of money — just one week’s salary for a retired attorney — but it had the potential to be a much costlier decision for government agencies and taxpayers.

The question: How much accrued vacation time can retiring public employees cash out at the end of their careers in ways that boost their pensions? Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown took aim at that perk, among others, in his 2013 pension reform law, but it was unsettled in courts until now.

The California Supreme Court’s answer: Under Brown’s law, employees can count toward their pension formula whatever amount of vacation their contract allows them to cash out in a single calendar year.

That sounds simple, but some California government workers end their careers with two months or more worth of accrued vacation time — enough to cash out in increments over several years and increase their retirement pension by hundreds of dollars a month.

The case that reached the state Supreme Court turned on retired Ventura County Counsel Leroy Smith, who designated October 2019 to October 2020 as his final year of civil service and cashed out 240 hours of accrued time off over that period.

His contract allowed him to cash out only 200 hours a year and his pension plan, the Ventura County Employees’ Retirement System, would not count the extra 40 hours toward his retirement formula.

Smith and other retired Ventura County employees argued Brown’s law did not specify that the hours had to be in a single calendar year, and they should have been able to count leave cashed out over any 12-month period.

A state appeals court ruled against them two years ago. Two public safety unions appealed that decision, bringing the case to the high court. They argued that Brown’s pension law does not refer to a calendar year when it discusses cashouts.

“If the Legislature intended to restrict annual leave cashouts to a calendar year, it would have used the term ‘calendar year’ instead of ‘each 12-month period,’” attorneys for Ventura County attorneys and sheriff’s deputies wrote in a briefing to the court.

But the Supreme Court found otherwise, pointing to what justices described as the common meaning of a 12-month period and the broader context of what Brown and lawmakers were trying to accomplish when they passed the pension reform law.

At the time, California’s major pension funds were recovering from two successive blows — first the dot-com bust and then the Great Recession. The law Brown signed trimmed benefits, compelled employees to work longer to earn a full retirement and required them to kick in more money from their paychecks to fund their pensions.

The Supreme Court ruling conceded that Smith wanted just 40 additional hours to count toward his pension, but the justices noted that other employees could go much further if California allowed workers to “straddle” a calendar year with vacation cashouts. They could effectively double the pensionable cashout if they timed it correctly.

The justices wrote that it would be “perhaps not so inconceivable as to rank as absurd” to think the Legislature intended for that kind of pension boost in the pension reform law.

The new decision applies to workers and retirees enrolled in California’s county-run pension plans. They operate outside of the statewide pension funds, which are the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System.

A group of county pension funds wrote a brief to the court urging judges to limit pensionable cashouts to a single calendar rather than a movable 12-month period. They wrote it would be expensive for them to revise retiree benefits if the rules change.

“There is no reason to cause this confusion and undue burden to the (county retirement) systems,” they wrote.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Antisemitic graffiti, including multiple swastikas and the message “Zionism is not welcome,” defaces a community mural at Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena on Friday, July 24, 2026. The mural, which reads “We are all responsible for each other,” was painted in response to an earlier antisemitic attack at the site. [PJTC photo]

The mural in the 1400 block of North Altadena Drive was vandalized with swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti sometime Friday, according to the county sheriff’s department.

The mural, depicting an orange poppy as a symbol of hope, was produced by artist Miriam Hellmann, the Art over Hate Collective, the Sparks of Kindness Youth Fund and religious school students, volunteers and community members. It was created earlier this year in response to an act of vandalism in which antisemitic graffiti was painted on a wall of the fire-damaged center.

“An attack motivated by hate against one community is an attack against us all,” Barger said in a statement after introducing her reward motion, which will be heard by the board next week. “The antisemitic vandalism at the Pasadena Jewish Temple & Center has no place in Los Angeles County. This congregation has already endured the devastation of the Eaton Fire and is working to rebuild. They should not have to face hateful acts intended to intimidate them. Those responsible must be held fully accountable.”‘

She said her proposed reward will apply to information leading to convictions in either or both of the acts of vandalism at the center.

Officials at the center wrote on social media over the weekend that the mural is a “symbol of hope, resilience, and solidarity — not just for PJTC, but for the entire Altadena community.”

“Today, we are deeply saddened and outraged by this act, but we refuse to let it define our community,” the congregation said. “We are working closely with law enforcement and our security partners as the incident is investigated and as we determine the next steps to restore the mural.”

The temple posted another message Sunday thanking the community for its support.

“We simply want to say thank you to everyone who reached out with messages of care, solidarity, and support since antisemitic graffiti was discovered on our mural on Friday. Your care and kindness reminded us that we are not facing this alone,” the temple posted on social media Sunday.

“… We’re also deeply grateful to local officials for standing with us, and the local and national media who helped shine a light on what happened. Sharing these stories matters. It raises awareness, confronts antisemitism, and reminds our wider community that hate has no place here.”

[Rep. Judy Chu via Facebook]

Roughly 50 people gathered at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue on Saturday morning; day laborers held a second memorial that afternoon on East Walnut Street

Shortly before noon on Saturday, an organizer lifted a megaphone at Colorado Boulevard and Fair Oaks Avenue and began reading the names of the dead.

There were dozens. Some were not names at all — an unidentified man, four unidentified women.

About 50 people stood with her, according to the Los Angeles Times, part of a national day of action held July 25 to mark deaths in immigration custody and during enforcement operations. They are members of San Gabriel Foothills Indivisible.

A second gathering followed that afternoon: according to a July 23 media advisory from the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which is headquartered in Pasadena, day laborers and faith leaders convened at 2:15 p.m. at the Home Depot at 2881 East Walnut Street.

In a statement released by her office after the weekend, Rep. Judy Chu — whose 28th Congressional District covers much of Pasadena — commended the peaceful demonstrations and named both men killed during ICE operations this month.

“I stand in solidarity with everyone in our community who gathered this weekend to demand justice for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, and every person who has lost their life during an ICE operation or while in ICE custody,” the statement said.

Chu called it “abhorrent, unconscionable, and utterly indefensible” that another family is in mourning each week, and said the administration and congressional Republicans have handed the agency hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to expand operations she described as terrorizing immigrant communities. She is among nearly 200 members who signed a July 16 letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and ICE Acting Director Venturella seeking independent investigations into both deaths, according to a press release from Rep. John Garamendi’s office.

Salgado Araujo, 52, a father of three U.S. citizens who had lived in the country 35 years, was stopped by officers in an unmarked ICE vehicle on July 7 while driving his construction crew to a Houston job site, and was fatally shot. He was not the target of the operation, according to Chu’s office. The agent who fired alleged he had “weaponized” his vehicle; Chu’s office said neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security has substantiated that claim with publicly released evidence. DHS said in a statement that the officer fired after Salgado Araujo ignored commands and tried to ram him.

Six days later, ICE fatally shot Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian national, in Biddeford, Maine. He was a father, and he was authorized to work in the United States. He was not the target of the enforcement operation and was shot after attempting to flee in a vehicle. An ICE spokesperson told ABC News that the officer discharged his weapon fearing for public safety. 

Chu’s statement pointed to her decade-long effort to close the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, citing medical neglect, retaliation against detainees and preventable deaths. She said she has also demanded investigations into fatal ICE shootings and fought to stop Congress from writing what she called blank checks for an agency operating without transparency or accountability.

“We will not look away. We will not be intimidated into silence. And we will never stop fighting until every family can live without fear that an encounter with ICE could end in detention, tragedy, or death,” the statement said.

The group at Colorado and Fair Oaks has held that corner every Saturday since March. 

U.S. Representative Judy Chu at the “No Kings” 2 demonstration in Pasadena on Saturday, October 18, 2025. [Paul Takizawa/Pasadena Now]

The Ways and Means Committee member takes questions Friday morning at the Maxwell House in Pasadena.

The Altadena Chamber of Commerce launches its Legislative & Government Affairs 2026 Speaker Series on Friday with the member of Congress whose district has absorbed the region’s hardest year. Congresswoman Judy Chu speaks from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Maxwell House in Pasadena.

Chu represents California’s 28th Congressional District, which covers Pasadena and the west San Gabriel Valley. Elected in July 2009, she was the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, and she serves on the House Ways and Means Committee — with jurisdiction over taxes, revenues, Social Security and Medicare — as well as the House Budget Committee. Her subcommittee assignments include Health, and Worker and Family Support.

Her recent local work has run through Eaton Fire recovery. Chu convened a roundtable at the Altadena Library with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, where a dozen organizations serving fire survivors pressed for expanded housing assistance. She has also co-introduced legislation to help incarcerated firefighters move into professional firefighting careers after release.

The venue carries its own history. Built in 1929 by East Coast litigator and philanthropist George H. Maxwell, the 13,000-square-foot Mediterranean Italianate house was designed by architects Marston and Maybury on the grounds of the old Vista del Arroyo Hotel. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now serves as headquarters of the Western Justice Center, the conflict-resolution nonprofit founded in 1987 by Ninth Circuit Judge Dorothy W. Nelson.

Organizers ask attendees to reserve a spot in advance.

The Altadena Chamber of Commerce Legislative & Government Affairs 2026 Speaker Series with Judy Chu will be held Friday, July 31 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Maxwell House, 55 S. Grand Ave. in Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 794-3988 or visit altadenachamber.org. Reservations requested.

Sunday is the deadline for residents to apply to serve on Los Angeles County’s first-ever independent Ethics Commission.

Residents across the county have until Sunday to file an application at measureg.lacounty.gov/ethics-commission-application. The county also has a website where interested parties can find out more about the commission, responsibilities and other information.

The commission is one of the earliest changes to take effect under Measure G, the governance overhaul county voters approved in 2024.

The county is looking for a diverse range of members, including community leaders, and people with both traditional and non-traditional expertise. At least one member of the seven-member commission will be a resident of an unincorporated community.

Members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a proposed ordinance last Tuesday to place a measure on the November ballot for the creation and operation of the commission and Office of Ethics Compliance. A second and final vote on the matter is set for this Tuesday.

The Los Angeles County Governance Reform Task Force previously approved technical changes to the draft ordinance. It also approved a letter to the Board of Supervisors detailing the panel’s work.

Nicholas Heirdorn, a consultant for the task force and assistant professor of law and public policy at the University of the Pacific, highlighted that the proposal would allow the commission to hire, fire and set the salary for its compliance officer, as well as enable in-house legal services. Additionally, the proposal would allow the ethics commission to be able to refer measures to the ballot.

The proposal would also authorize the future commission to enforce state laws related to governing ethics and campaign finance.

In its deliberations, the task force clarified evidentiary standards in enforcement proceeding, the commission’s jurisdiction to impose fines for violations of ethics laws and procedures related to charter conflicts, among other things.

The proposed ordinance is expected to lay out the role, responsibilities, duties and procedures of the ethics commission.

Measure G, among other broader governance reforms, also mandates the expansion of the Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, and an elected county chief executive officer.