Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Town Council Members Find No Record of Altadena Public Input on License Plate Cameras as New Flock Contract Is Negotiated

Data retention policy still undetermined; chair announces community meeting on the cameras

An Altadena Town Council member said Tuesday he and a colleague found no record of public input on license plate reader cameras gifted to the community by camera vendor Flock, as a new contract is being negotiated.

Council member Anton Anderson presented findings from work he and Council member Isis Moulden, who both represent Census Tract 4610, did in response to concerns from residents of their tract. He described the presentation at the council’s Sept. 15 meeting as a “work in progress” report, not one from a standing committee. Anderson said the data retention policy for the cameras is still being worked out. He also said the cameras have no current Altadena-specific oversight.

Town Council Chair Nic Arnzen announced that a community meeting on the cameras will be held. Arnzen said the meeting is still being shaped, and that the captain of the Altadena Sheriff’s Station is open to it,

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

PUSD Working on Year-End Homecoming Game After Turkey Tussle Cancellation

Superintendent’s statement follows Pasadena High’s decision to end its varsity football season after player injuries and offseason transfers

Pasadena Unified School District is working to create a year-end football game to celebrate the homecoming tradition shared by John Muir and Pasadena high schools, PUSD Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Blanco said in an email to the school community Tuesday. Blanco’s email follows Pasadena High School’s decision to finish its season as a junior varsity team, which ended prospects for the cherished Turkey Tussle tradition this year.

“However, we are working to create a year-end game that celebrates the annual homecoming that means so much to our students, families, and alumni,” Blanco wrote.

Blanco acknowledged a difficult moment for the Muir and Pasadena High School communities. She wrote that the tradition has brought the community together since 1947 and that she knows the community will rally around the students to ensure it remains a memorable celebration.

Blanco did not give a date, location or format for the game.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Millions in CalKIDS Scholarships Available to Local Students

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Los Angeles County students will be able to claim a share of $489 million in state scholarship funds this month, with more than 71% of public-school students in grades 2-12 eligible for up to $1,500.

The California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program is launching the first CalKIDS Scholarship Month in September, partnering with county offices of education and school districts across the state.

Throughout the month, participating school districts and campuses will host designated CalKIDS Scholarship claiming events where students and families can check eligibility and claim their scholarships on-site.

“CalKIDS Scholarship Month is about meeting students where they are and making it easier for them to access resources that can help support their education after high school,” California Treasurer Fiona Ma said. “By bringing CalKIDS directly onto school campuses throughout California, we can help more students take this important step and claim their scholarship funds.”

For students in grades 9-12, information is available to high school administrators through WebGrants for Institutions,

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Chalk Festival Fills Brookside Park With More Than 500 Artists Sept. 26-27

More than 500 artists from Los Angeles and Southern California will cover more than two football fields of Brookside Park pavement in chalk on Sept. 26 and 27, when the Pasadena Chalk Festival stages its 33rd year beside Kidspace Children’s Museum near the Rose Bowl.

It is the first time the festival has been held at the park, after a May relocation that moved it off Father’s Day weekend. Admission is free.

The 200 murals will span animation, masterpiece renderings, fantasy, humorous and inspirational art, icons of popular culture and three-dimensional illusionary art — work that has earned the festival the nickname “A Museum without Walls,” Light Bringer Project said in a news release. The Pasadena nonprofit expects thousands of visitors.

Artist Simón Estrada will bring his monster art and an interactive mural to the children’s chalking zone, the organizer said. Altadena Girls, the nonprofit formed after the Eaton Fire, will share resources for teen girls, and the Reid Gorecki Foundation will sell art and clothing to benefit youth mental health.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Red Hen Press Publishes Michelle Sacks’ Century-Spanning Berlin Stories

Red Hen Press, the Pasadena nonprofit literary publisher, released Michelle Sacks’ “Dancing at the End of the World,” a book of linked stories that follows Berlin from 1933 to the present, on Sept. 15.

Advance reviews have split: Kirkus Reviews found the book ambitious but its characters drawn too simply, while Booklist praised the stories’ complexity, according to the two reviews.

The book opens as fascism rises and the Weimar Republic collapses, and it introduces Klara von Arnsberg, the aristocratic daughter of a prominent industrialist, according to the publisher. Her life runs through the Holocaust, the postwar years, the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later stories take in Turkish guest workers in the 1960s and Syrian refugees in this century, all linked to Klara, the press said.

Kirkus, in a review posted Aug. 3, said Klara’s role as a stand-in for the past and the author’s tendency toward simple binaries in her characters weaken the book. Booklist said the stories would stay with readers after they finish,

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Altadena Soils Showed More Hexavalent Chromium Than the Palisades, Study Finds

A graduate study becoming public Tuesday reports a median of 0.22 milligrams per kilogram in Altadena, and some already-scraped lots still sat above California’s residential screening level

Soil sampled in Altadena neighborhoods burned in the Eaton Fire carried nearly twice the hexavalent chromium measured in the Palisades burn area, according to a University of California, Los Angeles study to be publicly released Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The study reports a median hexavalent chromium concentration of 0.22 milligrams per kilogram in Altadena and 0.12 milligrams per kilogram in the Palisades area. Both figures sit below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency residential soil screening level of 0.95 milligrams per kilogram, which the researcher cites for carcinogens at a risk factor of one in one million.

Soil at some individual properties exceeded California’s more stringent residential screening level of 0.3 milligrams per kilogram. Those exceedances appeared around standing homes, around the perimeters of burned homes, and in some soils that had already been scraped.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Altadena-Founded Survivor Network Opens Insurance Survey to Build a Public Record of How Insurers Performed

The 15-minute questionnaire is meant to produce an open dataset and an insurer-by-insurer report on the Eaton and Palisades recoveries

The Altadena-founded Every Fire Survivor’s Network opened a survey Monday asking Eaton and Palisades fire survivors to document how their insurers handled their claims, with results to be published insurer by insurer.

The survey lands in the middle of an active fight. The California Department of Insurance filed legal action against State Farm General Insurance Co. on May 4 citing 398 violations found in an examination of 220 sampled claims, Los Angeles County sued the insurer on Aug. 31, and State Farm has denied wrongdoing.

The network, which describes the effort on its own site as the nation’s first open-data survey of wildfire insurance behaviors by insurer, says the questionnaire takes about 15 minutes and adapts to each household, going deeper on underinsurance, smoke damage and the FAIR Plan while skipping questions that do not apply. It is offered in English,

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Altadena Town Council Faces Brimming Agenda Tonight

County Public Works presents on the license plate reader network as the council weighs letters on federal relief, wildfire smoke standards and construction hours

The Altadena Town Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday to consider a range of important issues.

The Council will hear a presentation on the Flock license plate cameras installed across the community and to vote on three letters.

The cameras reach the council at a moment when automated license plate readers are under sustained scrutiny across Los Angeles County, and after residents in Altadena organized against the devices installed there following the Eaton Fire. The meeting is at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, directly west of the Altadena Sheriff’s Station.

Dominic Osmena of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and Anton Anderson, who represents Census Tract 4610 on the council, are scheduled to give the Flock presentation. It is one of two special presentations on the agenda, alongside a legislative update from Chair Nic Arnzen and Treasurer Darlene Greene.

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

County Launches ‘Know Your Rights’ Campaign for Youth in Pasadena, Altadena and Across L.A. County

A new toolkit tells young people what to do at a protest, during a walkout, and when stopped by police, school security or immigration agents

Los Angeles County launched a countywide campaign Monday giving young people in Pasadena, Altadena and across the county a guide to their rights during protests, walkouts and encounters with law enforcement or immigration agents.

The campaign, called “LA Youth: Know Your Rights,” was announced by the county’s Department of Youth Development. Its centerpiece is a youth-facing toolkit covering three areas: protesting safely and understanding First Amendment rights; what to do if stopped by police, school security or federal immigration agents; and legal protections, emergency planning and local resources for undocumented and mixed-status youth and families, according to the department’s announcement.

The department’s own site invites young people to learn about their civic engagement rights and how to take action safely, and points them to legal support and emergency contacts. Its resource page lists the county Office of Immigrant Affairs,

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

A Noise Within Opens Its Teen Monologue Festival, and the First Deadline Is October 5

Ten winners will perform on the Redmond Stage in Pasadena November 3 at 6 p.m. Getting there starts with picking a play written before 2010

A Noise Within has opened submissions for its annual Teen Monologue Festival, a competitive acting program that asks high school students to research the classic theater canon and perform a monologue drawn from it, according to information the Pasadena theater company posted on its website.

The festival is open to students in grades 9-12 in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas, a range that includes Pasadena and Altadena, the company said in its festival flyer. From all submissions, 10 winners will be chosen to perform live on the A Noise Within Redmond Stage on Tuesday, November 3 at 6 p.m. There is no fee to enter, according to the flyer.

Applications follow a three-step calendar. Actors submit their proposed monologue playwright and play title by Monday, October 5. Upon approval, they submit a self-tape audition by Thursday,