Saturday, June 6, 2026

Altadena Pride Turns Five Next Week, Will March Through a Community Still Rebuilding

The free, daylong festival on June 13 moves to the Altadena Community Center and winds past fire-recovery landmarks

Four Junes ago, Nic Arnzen started walking through his neighborhood with a handful of pride flags. On June 13, hundreds will walk with him again — past empty lots, past rebuilding homes, past a fire-recovery hub where displaced residents are still learning how to come back.

Altadena Pride, the free annual festival Arnzen founded in 2021, returns for its fifth year with a daylong series of events that begins and ends at the Altadena Community Center, 730 East Altadena Drive. It is the first time the festival has been based at the community center, a shift from its previous home at the Altadena Library. The move places the celebration squarely in the civic heart of the unincorporated foothill community — and within blocks of neighborhoods still scarred by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, which destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 19 people.

Arnzen,

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Altadena Homeowners Can Meet Manufacturers Monday Ahead of Rebuild Push

The showcase gives homeowners direct access to manufacturers and suppliers as construction work nears

Homeowners rebuilding after the Eaton Fire are being invited Monday evening to a materials showcase that puts them, for two hours, in the same room as the manufacturers and suppliers whose products are vying to go into their next houses.

The event, scheduled from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 409 East Woodbury Road, is co-hosted by Alta Design Works, a community-design group that opened the Woodbury Road hub last September, and LA Fire Justice, the post-fire legal coalition led by the former Pasadena mayor Chris Holden.

It was announced Friday by the Altadena Coalition, the grassroots network founded by Freddy Sayegh that has organized rebuild-resource programming since shortly after the January fire.

Organizers said the showcase is meant as a rebuilding resource rather than a sales presentation, and that attendees would be able to compare materials side by side and ask manufacturers about cost,

Saturday, June 6, 2026

Altadena Library Kicks Off Its Summer Challenge Saturday With Friendship Bracelets, Crafts and a Tiny Horse

The Bob Lucas Memorial Library — reopened last August after a 16-month renovation — hosts the District’s Summer Challenge Kickoff Party

The Bob Lucas Memorial Library reopened in August after a 16-month renovation that added 1,000 square feet of new space, including a children’s area, a literacy center, an outdoor reading garden and full accessibility upgrades. On Saturday afternoon, the West Altadena branch puts that expanded space to work for one of its busiest events of the year: the Altadena Library District’s Summer Challenge Kickoff Party.

The kickoff begins at 1 p.m. and gathers families to sign up for the District’s annual Summer Challenge — a reading-and-activity program that runs through the summer months. Activities at the party include friendship-bracelet making, button-making, food, crafts and seed planting. Children can also read aloud to a tiny horse, which will visit from 1 to 3 p.m. as part of the program.

The Bob Lucas Memorial branch is named for Robert “Bob” Lucas, an Altadena resident who advocated to reopen library service on the west side of the community after a previous branch had closed.

Saturday, June 6, 2026

ALTA Arts Collective Returns to the Eagles Hall for Its Second Altadena Arts Fair

A daylong celebration of painters, photographers, sculptors and ceramicists who have spent the past year rebuilding alongside their neighborhood

The ALTA Arts Collective opened its first Altadena Arts Fair at the Fraternal Order of Eagles #719 last October, just nine months after the Eaton Fire tore through the community where most of its artists live and work. The collective described that first gathering as “a meaningful moment of reconnection.” On Saturday, ALTA returns to the same hall on Woodbury Road for the second edition of the fair, expanded and refined for a community that is still finding its footing.

The Altadena Arts Fair 2026 will gather painters, photographers, sculptors, ceramicists and other artisans for a juried daylong showcase. Live music, food vendors and interactive art activities round out the program, organizers said in a press release. Admission is free, and the event is open to all ages. The Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall has operated on Woodbury Road since the 1950s and has hosted multiple post-fire community gatherings.

Saturday, June 6, 2026

LA County Hosts a Saturday Open House at the Altadena Community Center for Residents Still Rebuilding

The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs invites neighbors to learn about programs, services and continued recovery resources

The Altadena Community Center has had a difficult first 18 months under the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs. The county agency assumed management of the facility on January 1, 2025; six days later, the Eaton Fire damaged the center along with much of the surrounding neighborhood. On Saturday afternoon, with repairs continuing and a long-term reimagining underway, the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs is hosting an open house at the center to connect residents with county and partner-agency resources.

The open house runs from noon to 4 p.m. and is designed to bring residents, families and community partners together for a day of connection and support. Attendees will be able to learn about local programs, services and continued recovery resources available to the community. Department staff and representatives from partner agencies are expected to be on hand to answer questions and accept input from residents on the center’s future programming.

Friday, June 5, 2026

Pasadena Unified Sends Off Class of 2026 in Five Ceremonies at Civic Auditorium

Five ceremonies across two days at the Civic Auditorium sent off seniors from every district high school

The seniors who walked across the stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium this week were juniors when the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena and took five of their district’s campuses with it.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the Pasadena Unified School District held five commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2026, graduating seniors from the Center for Independent Study, Rose City High School, Blair High School, John Muir High School, Thurgood Marshall Secondary School, and Pasadena High School. The ceremonies came less than 18 months after the January 7, 2025, fire destroyed five PUSD campuses in Altadena, closed schools for weeks, and displaced thousands of students across the district.

The two-day schedule began Wednesday, June 3, with a combined ceremony for the Center for Independent Study and Rose City High School at 2:00 p.m., followed by Blair High School at 6:00 p.m. Three more followed on Thursday,

Friday, June 5, 2026

Some Medi-Cal Dental Patients in Pasadena Face Coverage Loss on July 1

A state budget cut eliminates routine dental benefits for adults without satisfactory immigration status; emergency care will remain

Starting July 1, California will eliminate full-scope dental coverage for Medi-Cal members aged 19 and older who do not meet federal immigration requirements, according to the California Department of Health Care Services.

The cut, enacted as part of the state’s 2025–26 budget, will leave affected adults with coverage only for emergency dental procedures — treatment for severe pain, infections, and extractions. Routine preventive and restorative care will no longer be covered.

The Pasadena Public Health Department and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services have posted notices on social media alerting residents to the change and urging those affected to use their remaining benefits before the deadline.

The change applies to adults classified as having “unsatisfactory immigration status,” a category that includes undocumented individuals, green card holders with fewer than five years of residency, DACA recipients, holders of Temporary Protected Status,

Friday, June 5, 2026

Wells Fargo Extends Mortgage Forbearance to 27 Months for Eaton Fire Homeowners

Altadena residents with Wells Fargo mortgages can request the extension by contacting their servicer

Wells Fargo will extend mortgage forbearance to a total of 27 months for customers directly impacted by the January 2025 Eaton Fire, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced June 3 — offering Altadena homeowners up to 12 months of additional relief beyond what California law currently requires.

The extension means qualifying Wells Fargo customers who are still paying mortgages on fire-destroyed properties can pause those payments for a total of 27 months from the date of their original request. Homeowners must contact their Wells Fargo servicer to request the additional time. No forms are required, according to the EPA announcement.

Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, welcomed the move in a statement issued the same day. “The extension of mortgage forbearance for wildfire survivors is welcome news for families who continue to navigate the long and difficult road to recovery following the Eaton Fire,”

Friday, June 5, 2026

California’s Population is Stagnating as Immigration and Birth Rates Decline

By Dan Walters, CALMATTERS

California’s population exploded during and immediately after World War II, from 6.9 million in 1940 to 19.9 million in 1970, thanks to waves of migrants from other states drawn to California’s surging economy and the famous postwar baby boom.

California absorbed its 13 million new residents by expanding its public infrastructure of schools, colleges, highways, parks and water systems and by welcoming immense private investment in new housing, new retail complexes, new factories and new office buildings.

Population growth slowed in the 1970s in the aftermath of the baby boom and as an economic evolution, from manufacturing to technology and services, changed the job market. The leading politician of the decade, Gov. Jerry Brown, declared that California had entered “an era of limits” and major infrastructure expansion was no longer needed.

However, the 1980s saw a new population surge, driven by immigration from other countries and a new baby boom. California’s population jumped by 6 million — 5-plus million of them babies — during the decade,

Friday, June 5, 2026

Dinosaurs Built From Bark and Branches Arrive at Descanso Gardens

The La Cañada Flintridge botanical garden opens a new installation of Cretaceous Period sculptures alongside its prehistoric plant collections

The dinosaurs have arrived at Descanso Gardens, and they are made of plants.

Life-sized sculptures of Cretaceous Period dinosaurs and early mammals — crafted from natural materials by the Kentucky-based studio Applied Imagination — went on display this week in the Train Garden and Ancient Forest at the 150-acre botanical garden in La Cañada Flintridge, about five miles from Pasadena. A three-day opening weekend running Friday through Sunday features fossil discovery tables, dinosaur puppet demonstrations from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and hands-on activities for children, all included with regular garden admission.

The sculptures will remain on display through the end of the year, according to the gardens’ event listing. But the opening weekend’s special programming — the puppet performances, the fossil tables, the Little Explorers children’s activities — runs only through Sunday.

Applied Imagination, which has been building what it calls “botanical architecture”