Monday, August 17, 2026

PUSD Kicks Off the 2026-27 School Year With Guidance on Free Transit, Free Meals and Expanded Learning

Free rides, no-cost breakfast and lunch, and after-school programs greet students in Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre as classes begin.

As students and families across Pasadena and Altadena head into the 2026-27 academic year on Monday, the Pasadena Unified School District is offering updated guidance to ensure a more successful start. The district serves Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre. 

To ensure punctuality and a smooth start to the day, the district recommends families carefully plan routes to school, whether walking, driving or using Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority public transit.

For students who ride public transit, Metro continues to offer free rides through its Student GoPass program — no longer a temporary pilot. In April 2024, the Metro Board of Directors voted to make the Student GoPass program permanent, expanding on what had originally launched as the fareless system initiative referenced in years past.

All eligible K-12 and community college students across participating districts,

Monday, August 17, 2026

County Supervisors Go Dark for Two Weeks Beginning Tuesday

The Board of Supervisors has cancelled its August 18 and August 25 meetings, pushing county business into September

Anyone planning to address the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday should stay home. There is no meeting.

The Board has cancelled both its August 18 and August 25 sessions, leaving a two-week gap in the county’s legislative calendar before supervisors reconvene in September.

The Board normally meets Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. in Hearing Room 381B at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. The last regular meeting of each month is reserved largely for legally required public hearings on zoning matters, fee increases, special district proceedings and property transactions. Both cancelled sessions fall inside that pattern; August 25 would have been the month’s hearing date.

The gap carries particular weight for Altadena, which is unincorporated and has no city council of its own. The five-member Board is its governing body, and county departments are the agencies rebuilding it after the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

Monday, August 17, 2026

A Fleetwood Mac Tribute Closes Altadena’s 29th Summer of Free Concerts

Stevie Nicks Illusion plays the lower lawn at Loma Alta Park on Saturday, the season’s last night

The Rotary Club of Altadena has put free music in a park on summer Saturdays since 1997. It has missed exactly one season — 2020, when the pandemic canceled it. It did not miss the summer after the Eaton Fire.

The 29th season, staged in partnership with Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, ends Saturday at 7 p.m. with Stevie Nicks Illusion, a Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks tribute act presented by GigRoster.com, on the lower lawn at Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Ave. Admission is free. The Rotary Club sells beer and wine.

Where the concerts happen is itself part of the story. The series spent years at Farnsworth Park, which the January 2025 fire damaged. Loma Alta Park also closed after the fire and reopened on May 17, 2025, following a $3.4 million renovation — the first county park to reopen after the Eaton Fire,

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Pasadena Unified Superintendent Welcomes Students in Back-to-School Email

Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco welcomed the district community back to school in an Aug. 14 email, telling recipients the 2026-27 year begins with PUSD’s graduation rate risen to 91%, exceeding the state average.

Classes begin Monday, Aug. 17. Teachers and staff are already back at schools preparing classrooms and campuses, Blanco said.

Preliminary results also show promising increases in math and science achievement across the district, Blanco said, crediting the work of students and the educators and staff who support them.

The district’s theme for the year is “The Power of Us: Forward Together,” which Blanco said reflects what the district can achieve by moving forward with shared purpose, belief in its students and a clear vision for the future.

Over the past year, the community has continued recovering from the Eaton Fire while navigating significant change across PUSD, Blanco said. Summer work to prepare campuses included adding new fencing and playgrounds, extensive cleaning at all schools and environmental work at several sites,

Sunday, August 16, 2026

The County Comes to Altadena to Talk About Wires

A Los Angeles County Public Works official briefs the Town Council Tuesday, August 18, on undergrounding now under way

Since February, the Altadena Town Council’s meetings have circled the same subject: what happens to the utility lines running above and below the streets of a community still rebuilding.

On Tuesday, August 18, the council meets at 7 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, and undergrounding is on the agenda again. Ciara Barnett, an assistant deputy director at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, will give a special presentation on the undergrounding work currently in progress.

The topic has generated sustained friction. Southern California Edison is prioritizing roughly 63 circuit miles of distribution lines for undergrounding in Altadena and surrounding areas affected by the 2025 Eaton Fire, part of a rebuilding effort the utility has valued at $860 million to $925 million across Altadena and Malibu. About 40 of those miles fall within the High Fire Risk Area.

Residents have pressed the council on what the program costs them.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

A Cello Learns to Sing in a Language Built for Other Instruments

Absolute Focus and Chris Votek bring a rare Hindustani pairing to Sierra Madre Playhouse

The cello does not belong in a Hindustani raga. It has no traditional seat there, no centuries of repertoire, no established vocabulary of ornament. On Sunday afternoon at Sierra Madre Playhouse, one will take that seat anyway — wedged between a santoor and a pair of tabla and asked to hold its own.

Cellist Chris Votek joins Absolute Focus, the husband-and-wife duo of santoor player Kamaljeet Ahluwalia and tabla player Jas Ahluwalia, at 4 p.m. for a program of traditional Hindustani raga. The presenter describes the instrumental combination as one rarely heard together in the form.

Kamaljeet Ahluwalia began training at seven under sitar maestro Dharambir Singh and later studied with santoor maestro Harjinderpal Singh. Her most formative period came under the late Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. The santoor is a hammered dulcimer whose shimmering resonance is central to the Hindustani tradition. Jas Ahluwalia studied tabla under Ustad Tari Khan.

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Rep. Chu Honors Local Leaders at 2026 Congressional Leadership of the Year Awards Ceremony

On Saturday, August 15, Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-28) hosted her annual Congressional Leadership of the Year Awards Ceremony, honoring ten remarkable individuals and organizations from across California’s 28th Congressional District for their outstanding service and contributions to their communities.

“This year’s honorees are our everyday leaders, the educators, volunteers, activists, and small business owners who have made a real difference in the San Gabriel Valley,” said Rep. Chu. “I’m proud to recognize them all, not only for their accomplishments, but for the lasting impact they make every single day. Their service reminds us of the importance of community, showing up for others, and the difference one person can make.”

This year’s honorees include:

Otis Triplett – Volunteer of the Year (Pasadena & Altadena): Otis Triplett was recognized for his nearly three decades of serving the Pasadena community through volunteerism, mentorship, and civic leadership. An 88-year-old U.S. Army veteran and successful business owner, he continues to volunteer with the Pasadena Police Department’s Community Assisting Pasadena Police (CAPP) program,

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Pasadena Unified’s Scott Harden Says Recall Against Him Is Framed Around ‘Personal Vendettas’

Trustee calls allegations unproven a day after county ok’s recall petitions for circulation; proponents need 3,543 Trustee Area 4 signatures by Dec. 11

Pasadena Unified School District board member Scott Harden rejected the recall campaign against him Friday, calling the allegations behind it unproven, saying his words had been taken out of context, and describing the effort as a recall framed around personal vendettas and organized by outside special interests.

Harden said in a written statement that he is aware the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk has approved a recall petition against him for circulation. The county cleared petitions against Harden and Board of Education President Tina Fredericks on Aug. 13.

The recall campaigns trace to internal district emails and text messages obtained through public records requests by G. Warren Bleeker, a Pasadena Unified parent who lives in Trustee Area 2 and opposes closing public schools. Bleeker contends the records show Harden, Fredericks, and School Board members Kimberly Kenne and Dr. Yarma Velázquez deliberated privately about a school closure resolution and had a premeditated plan to close schools while publicly saying otherwise.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Altadena’s Walk Club Returns Sunday for Its Monthly Neighborhood Stroll

A free, unhurried walk born after the Eaton Fire gathers again at a Lincoln Avenue café

On the third Sunday of each month, a crowd forms outside a coffee roaster on Lincoln Avenue, laces up, and sets off at an easy pace through the neighborhood. No entry fee, no sign-up, no one keeping time.

That gathering is the Altadena Walk Club, and its organizers say the next walk is set for Sunday, Aug. 16, at 9:30 a.m., meeting at Unincorporated Coffee, 3045 Lincoln Avenue. The club was founded earlier this year by Mathew Rahban, a former crisis counselor who worked with Los Angeles fire survivors, and it grew directly out of the recovery that followed the Eaton Fire. It leans more toward conversation than exercise.

The fire began Jan. 7, 2025, destroying more than 9,000 structures and killing 19 people, according to Pasadena Weekly. Altadena — an unincorporated community just north of Pasadena — has spent the months since rebuilding under financial and emotional strain.

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Back-to-School Giveaway Returns Saturday to a Rebuilding Altadena

The Woodbury Road storefront that took on smoke and water when the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena will spend Saturday handing out free backpacks and school supplies instead. 

The distribution is the Altadena date of the sixth annual Back to School Giveaway, run by Darden Leadership & Career Academy and Simply Divine Academy. The academies held a first date in 

Monrovia on Aug. 8, at 301 West Huntington Drive, Monrovia, and set a second date on Aug. 15 at Simply Divine’s Altadena location at 421 East Woodbury Road.

Registration is required and limited to one day per family, and is available online, the city said. On their event flyer, the organizers name Altadena Rising as giving out free laptops, with students required to register and apply while supplies last, and say food will be provided. Which organization of that name is involved was not independently confirmed, and the laptop, hours and food details appear on the organizers’ promotional materials rather than the city’s.