Thursday, April 23, 2026

Wildfire Risk Bills Move Forward with Bipartisan Support

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Two measures aimed at reducing wildfire risk across Southern California are expected to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee in the coming weeks following unanimous, bipartisan approval in an earlier committee.

State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, said Senate Bills 894 and 1297 are designed to improve both community-scale fire prevention efforts and individual home hardening.

“Too many lives are being lost, homes destroyed, and public resources wasted to more frequent and destructive fires over recent years,” Allen said in a statement. “The fire risk we face is driving an affordability crisis through rising insurance premiums and utility bills. It’s clear we need a more holistic approach to building community resilience.”

Allen said home hardening and defensible space improvements can reduce a structure’s fire risk by nearly 50% when implemented together, but the cost of such upgrades has limited participation.

SB 894 would provide low-interest loans to homeowners and small businesses to help finance those improvements,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

ACLU Hits Back at ‘Retaliatory’ Arrest of Pasadena Man Who is Plaintiff in Class Action ICE Raids Lawsuit

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A civil rights group Wednesday hit back at what it calls the Trump administration’s “retaliatory” arrest last week of a Pasadena plaintiff involved in a class action lawsuit challenging the government’s illegal immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Isaac Villegas was detained last week during a scheduled check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Los Angeles.

Villegas is a plaintiff in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, a closely watched lawsuit filed in L.A. federal court challenging the raids. The Pasadena day laborer sued the federal government in June 2025, after he and two other workers were arrested by immigration agents as they waited at a bus stop.

An immigration judge ordered Villegas, who is from Panama, released on a $5,000 bond the following month and he’s been checking in with ICE since then, according to his attorney, Stacy Tolchin.

Last week, ICE arrested Villegas as he was attending a scheduled immigration check-in and jailed him again despite the judge’s order granting his release.

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Supervisor Barger Touts ‘Positive Talks’ with President Trump to Hold Insurers Accountable

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger and City of Los Angekes city Karen Bass had “very positive” talks with President Donald Trump Wednesday amid efforts to support fire victims and hold insurers accountable.

Barger and Bass are in Washington D.C to advocate for families who lost everything due to the January 2025 wildfires. The pair of elected officials met with Trump and administration officials Wednesday afternoon.

“We had a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds as well as the support of the president to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe — and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on L.A. families,” Barger and Bass said in a joint statement, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Our job is to fight for our communities. When it comes to this recovery, our federal partners are essential, and we are grateful for the support of the president,”

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Pasadena Appeals Court Blocks Law Banning Masks for Federal Agents

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A Pasadena appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a law limiting when federal agents can wear masks.

The No Vigilantes Act, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year, came in response to the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Southern California over the summer, during which masked, unidentified federal officers detained people as part of the president’s mass deportation program.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals determined that the state’s attempt to regulate federal law enforcement violates the Constitution.

“We conclude that the No Vigilantes Act attempts to directly regulate the United States in its performance of governmental functions,” Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, wrote in the court’s opinion. “The Supremacy Clause forbids the state from enforcing such legislation. The United States is therefore likely to succeed on the merits of its Supremacy Clause claim, and the other preliminary injunction factors also weigh in its favor.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Pasadena Teachers Union, School District Report No Movement on Salary, Class Size After Eighth Bargaining Session

Both sides plan to return to the table May 22 as layoffs of more than 160 certificated positions move forward

The Pasadena Unified School District and United Teachers of Pasadena met April 17 for what PUSD described as the eighth bargaining session of the 2025-2026 cycle, and in separate written statements issued afterward, both sides reported no movement on salary or class size.

UTP introduced a new proposal at the session requesting a 5% ongoing salary increase beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, according to both sides’ bargaining updates.

The negotiations are occurring as the district implements layoffs of 161.35 full-time equivalent certificated positions approved by the Board of Education on Feb. 26 to address a structural budget deficit of more than $30 million, according to prior district actions and coverage.

PUSD’s positions in this article are drawn from the district’s April 17 written bargaining update. PUSD was not interviewed for this story. UTP President Jonathan Gardner provided additional comments in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Volunteers Break Ground on New Home for Uninsured Eaton Fire Survivors

A Pasadena-based nonprofit begins building the first of 100 houses it plans to construct at no cost to displaced Altadena homeowners

Hope Crisis Response Network is set to break ground Wednesday morning at 2968 N. Fair Oaks Ave. on the first of 100 homes it plans to build over five years for Altadena homeowners who were uninsured or underinsured when the fire struck on January 7, 2025.

The Pasadena organization said it will construct the homes at no cost to the families, using volunteer labor and licensed trade subcontractors, according to the nonprofit.

The ceremony included a ribbon-cutting for new construction equipment funded by partner organizations. HCRN, as the group is known, is a licensed general contractor in California and will oversee all building and inspections, according to its website.

The groundbreaking marks a shift for HCRN’s Altadena operation. In its first phase of fire response, the nonprofit cleaned and repaired more than 100 smoke-damaged homes in Los Angeles County for residents who lacked insurance coverage,

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Man Charged in 2020 Fatal Stabbing of Altadena Resident Returns to Pasadena Court Wednesday

Enrique Real faces a murder count in the death of Christopher Flores, who was killed in a CVS parking lot more than five years ago

More than five years after a 30-year-old Altadena man was fatally stabbed in a Pasadena CVS parking lot, the murder case against the man accused of killing him remains in pretrial proceedings.

Enrique Real appeared Wednesday in Department F of the Pasadena Courthouse for a pretrial hearing in the case. Real, of Baldwin Park, faces one count of murder in the death of Christopher Flores, who was stabbed on the evening of September 11, 2020, in the parking lot of the CVS pharmacy at 20 E. Orange Grove Boulevard, at the intersection with Fair Oaks Avenue. Real was 19 at the time. He has been held in custody on $2.02 million bail since his arrest.

Police responded to multiple calls that evening reporting the attack. Officers found Flores on the ground bleeding and he was taken to Huntington Hospital,

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Two Mortgage Relief Bills by Pasadena Assemblymember Clear Committee Hurdle

Legislation would triple forbearance for Eaton and Palisades fire survivors and create statewide protections for future disasters

Two mortgage relief bills authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian advanced through the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee on Tuesday, extending a legislative campaign that began when the Eaton Fire swept through his district 15 months ago.

AB 1847 would extend mortgage forbearance from 12 months to 36 months for homeowners affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires and push the deadline to request relief to January 7, 2029. Its companion measure, AB 1842 — the California Emergency Mortgage Relief Act — would create a statewide framework allowing homeowners to pause mortgage payments whenever a state of emergency is declared, covering wildfires, floods, earthquakes and other disasters, according to a press release from Harabedian’s office.

Both bills build on AB 238, the Mortgage Forbearance Act, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed on September 22, 2025. That law requires mortgage servicers to offer up to 12 months of forbearance,

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Senator Pérez Hosts Altadena Fire Survivors in Sacramento In Move to Force a Vote on Insurance Reform

Three Senate bills targeting claim delays, low-ball estimates, and coverage denials for fire-safe homes face a committee vote today

Claire Thompson paid insurance premiums for nearly a decade. After the Eaton Fire damaged her home, her insurer told her the building needed to come down to the studs — then quietly changed its mind and slashed the estimate to an amount that made rebuilding impossible.

“The fire damage to my house did not change,” Thompson said. “But the loss estimate did, and it was reduced to an amount that made recovery impossible.”

She is among thousands of Altadena and Pasadena fire survivors now counting on Sacramento to change the rules.

Senator Sasha Renée Pérez, who represents both communities as part of the 25th Senate District, is leading a press conference today at the State Capitol to push three insurance reform bills through the Senate Insurance Committee — bills she authored in direct response to accounts like Thompson’s.

The three measures — SB 877,

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Pasadena Transit and Dial-A-Ride Go Fare-Free for Earth Day

All 11 city bus routes and the paratransit service covering Altadena are free to ride Wednesday as part of a region-wide free-transit initiative across Southern California

Every one of Pasadena’s 11 transit routes is free to ride Wednesday — and so is the Dial-A-Ride paratransit service that connects seniors and residents with disabilities across Altadena and San Marino to the rest of the city.

The no-cost rides come on Earth Day, April 22, as the City of Pasadena Department of Transportation observes one of its designated fare-free days throughout the year — a program in place since at least 2019.

The timing is also notable for what it reflects about the system’s direction: Pasadena is in the middle of a $150 million-plus transition to zero-emission transit, with a council-authorized order for 17 hydrogen fuel cell buses already in place.

On Wednesday, in the meantime, no fare, no TAP card, and no payment of any kind is required — riders simply board.