Sunday, September 13, 2026

New Federal Law Excludes Qualifying Eaton Fire Payments to Survivors From Federal Income Tax

H.R. 5366, signed Friday, applies to payments received in tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025

Local residents who receive compensation for Eaton Fire losses, including qualifying payments from Southern California Edison, may exclude those amounts from their federal taxable income under a law President Donald Trump signed Friday.

The measure, H.R. 5366, is titled the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act. 

The exclusion is not unlimited. Under the law, a qualifying payment must be received by or on behalf of an individual, must compensate covered losses, expenses or damages resulting from a qualifying wildfire disaster, and is excluded only to the extent that insurance or another source did not already compensate the same loss. 

The new provision, added to the Internal Revenue Code by Section 3 of the act as Section 139M, applies to payments received in taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2025. The underlying fire must be a federally declared disaster resulting from a forest or range fire,

Sunday, September 13, 2026

Displaced Altadena Church to Convene Rebuilding Funders Sunday, Says Partners Will Launch Recovery Platform

Organizers say four funding entities will work on site with an estimated 200 underinsured homeowners and that recovery funding has been allocated for more than 100 residences

A displaced Altadena church and its rebuilding partners are set to launch a centralized recovery platform Sunday and connect underinsured Eaton Fire homeowners with funding and legal help, less than three weeks before a disaster case-management program that survivor advocates say serves more than 1,500 people is scheduled to shut down.

LIFT International Church, an Altadena congregation displaced by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, is hosting the event, which organizers call “Come Back Home.”

The planned two-hour press conference and community gathering is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1757 N. Lake Ave., near the Pasadena-Altadena boundary.

Organizers say the initiative targets the financial, administrative and technical barriers that continue to keep Eaton Fire households from rebuilding. Four funding entities are expected to work on site with at least 200 underinsured homeowners.

Saturday, September 12, 2026

County’s Second Eaton Fire Review Reports 26 Altadena Recovery Findings; Supervisors to Review It Tuesday

The McChrystal Group study covers the county’s recovery and repopulation work in Altadena from Jan. 7 through March 31, 2025, and carries 25 recommendations. It leaves the fire’s cause, its behavior and the initial suppression effort to other reviews

Los Angeles County on Friday, Sept. 11, released its second independent after-action review of the Eaton and Palisades fires, a McChrystal Group study of recovery and repopulation after the Altadena disaster, with 26 findings and 25 recommendations.

The review covers Jan. 7 through March 31, 2025, and the county says it focuses on short-term recovery and repopulation rather than the fire’s cause and ignition, its behavior or the initial suppression effort. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the findings and recommendations at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, and the full report, a findings and recommendations document and a set of frequently asked questions are posted at lacounty.gov/aar.

The findings are grouped into six areas, according to the county’s announcement: communications;

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Pasadena’s Assemblymember Harabedian Calls Allegations Against Dave Regan, Labor Leader Behind Billionaire Tax, “Abhorrent”

Union president Dave Regan denies the assault allegation detailed in union-commissioned investigations; his union calls the reports a politically motivated attack on Proposition 40

Pasadena’s Assemblymember John Harabedian said Friday, Sept. 11, that the “substantiated allegations” that Dave Regan, the labor leader behind California’s billionaire tax, harassed and intimidated women are “abhorrent,” after the Associated Press reported on a union-commissioned investigation.

The statement puts the Democrat, a former Sierra Madre mayor whose 41st Assembly District includes Pasadena, on record against the president of the Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers West. It comes less than two months before Proposition 40 — the one-time, 5% tax on the state’s billionaires that Regan’s union is backing — goes before voters in November. Regan has denied the physical assault allegation, and his union has called the reports a “misinformation campaign,” the Associated Press and Politico reported.

The allegations against Regan are detailed in an investigative report commissioned by SEIU California and obtained Sept. 11 by the Associated Press.

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Ahead of October Bills, Assessor Tells Property Owners Why Assessed Value Isn’t Market Value and Draws a Wildfire Lesson on Deeds

The office’s September newsletter repeats that decline-in-value reviews are open through Nov. 30 and pushes its free Homeowner Alert against deed fraud

October property tax bills will rest on assessed values that may sit below market value, the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office told Pasadena and Altadena owners Friday, drawing a records lesson from last year’s wildfires.

Under Proposition 13, a property’s assessed value is generally the lower of its factored base-year value, set when it last changed hands and raised by no more than 2 percent a year, or its market value as of Jan. 1, the office said in its monthly newsletter, which is why a long-held Pasadena home can carry an assessed value well under what it would sell for. The bills are mailed each October by the Treasurer and Tax Collector.

When a property is purchased, the office determines its market value as of the change in ownership, and in many cases the purchase price becomes the Proposition 13 base-year value,

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Fire-Displaced Altadena Church to Convene Rebuilding Funders in Pasadena Sunday

Organizers say four funding entities will meet with underinsured Altadena homeowners whose rebuilds have not started

Lift International Church, the Altadena congregation that lost its building in the Eaton Fire, plans to gather funders, gap-assistance grants and legal help in Pasadena on Sunday for households whose rebuilds have not started.

Organizers said four funding entities are expected on site to work with at least 200 underinsured homeowners, and that more than 160 families supported by the church during the past 20 months have been invited.

Recent assessments put the number of parcels without rebuilding applications on file at approximately 2,222, organizers said. Los Angeles County figures reported Sept. 8 put the total higher, at more than 2,300 of the 5,858 Altadena parcels where homes were destroyed, or about 40%.

The initiative, called Come Back Home, is built to clear financial, administrative and technical obstacles to rebuilding, organizers said. Partners will also launch a centralized platform connecting survivors with state and municipal resources and grants,

Friday, September 11, 2026

‘Delay Is Not a Financial Strategy,’ Pasadena School Board Trustee Tells Colleagues

Velázquez says consolidation opponents have offered no alternative; board president rules remarks out of order

Trustee Yarma Velázquez used Thursday’s Pasadena Unified School District year-end financial presentation to say colleagues opposing school consolidation have proposed no alternative, before Board President Tina Fredericks ruled the remarks out of order.

Velázquez spoke again later in the meeting, during discussion of an action item, saying “criticism alone, it’s not a substitute of policy.” Fredericks said those remarks were “also out of order,” and another trustee objected to what she called “backhanded criticisms of people on this dais.”

“Over the last year, the members who have opposed consolidation in this board have not proposed a single policy for consideration or even a resolution that provides an alternative path to the financial conditions of this district,” Velázquez said during the presentation item. “Consolidation may be a tool, but it doesn’t have to be the only tool.”

Velázquez did not name the trustees she was referring to.

Friday, September 11, 2026

Fourth Year in a Row, Pasadena Unified Seeks a Pass on a State Classroom-Pay Rule

Pasadena Unified School District trustees voted Thursday to seek an exemption from California’s 55% classroom-pay minimum, which one trustee said the District also missed in two years without Eaton Fire costs.

The vote lets staff prepare the Fiscal Year 2025-26 waiver application. Chief Business Officer Arik Avanesyans said it cannot be filed with the Los Angeles County Office of Education until the 2025-26 audit issues a finding, expected in late November or early December.

A similar 2024-25 request remains unapproved, he said.

Including fire spending, the District reached 50.452% on the requirement, which counts classroom teacher and instructional aide salaries and benefits.

Avanesyans initially said removing fire costs would have brought the District to 55%.

Questioned by Trustee Kimberly Kenne, he agreed that removing fire costs alone would still fall short without also excluding about $3 million in other grant money. Kenne said this is the fourth request in four years and that two of those years had no fire costs.

Friday, September 11, 2026

Five Acres Fall Festival Brings Free Family Fun to Altadena’s Loma Alta Park Oct. 10

Five Acres will host a free Fall Festival at Loma Alta Park in Altadena on Saturday, Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the children’s services nonprofit said in its September newsletter.

The festival will feature hands-on crafts, games, a pumpkin patch, a scavenger hunt, a petting zoo, local firefighters and family wellness resources, according to Five Acres, and is free and open to the community.

Five Acres, headquartered at 760 W. Mountain View St. in Altadena, is a nonprofit that has provided foster care, adoption, mental health and family-support services to children and families across Southern California since 1888.

The Fall Festival will be held at Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave., Altadena.

Friday, September 11, 2026

Whooping Cough Cases in Pasadena Climbed Well Past the City’s Yearly Average in 2026

Health officials reported three school outbreaks since late April and are urging Pasadena families to check their vaccine records

In a normal year, this city records about three cases of whooping cough. In 2026, it has counted many times that — and much of it arrived in a spring surge that struck three local schools.

Pasadena has confirmed 17 cases of pertussis, the bacterial illness better known as whooping cough, since the start of 2026, according to the Pasadena Public Health Department. That figure, reported as of late May, reflects what the department calls elevated activity across the community, and it dwarfs the roughly three cases the city sees in an average year.

The rise came in clusters. Health officials confirmed four cases at Don Benito Fundamental School, near Eaton Canyon, in late April. Three more followed at Blair Middle School in mid-May. Days later, the department confirmed six at Sequoyah School’s high school campus — the third school outbreak in under a month.