Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Cracks Between Newsom and Frustrated Lawmakers Show in First Budget Hearings

By Dan Walters, CALMATTERS

Gavin Newsom is officially a lame-duck governor, and his final year in office seems increasingly focused on an almost certain campaign for the White House.

Meanwhile, however, he must spend at least some of his time governing California and dealing with a Legislature dominated by his fellow Democrats but increasingly less willing to cater to his whims.

Newsom’s relationship with legislators has always been more transactional than collaborative. He has even used the annual budget process to force them to adopt major policy changes with little or no scrutiny. Legislators often grumbled about being squeezed by Newsom, but felt compelled — not always but most of the time — to go along.

However, their annoyance is becoming more public, as indicated during legislative hearings on his final budget last week.

Newsom’s initial $349 billion budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year is, as administration officials acknowledge, merely a placeholder.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Altadena Job Center Hosts Weekly Sessions to Enroll Fire Survivors in County Workforce Program

Popups every Thursday offer in-person help accessing paid temporary positions for workers displaced by the Eaton Fire

Workers displaced by the January 2025 wildfires can visit the Altadena Job Center every Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. for one-on-one help enrolling in a LA County program that offers paid temporary employment with departments involved in recovery and rebuilding.

The weekly recruitment popups, hosted by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity, provide in-person eligibility screening and enrollment assistance for the Fire Recovery and Resilience Workforce Program. The program offers three-to-five months of paid work at $20 to $27 per hour with benefits, according to the department, with positions available in County departments including Public Works, Parks and Recreation, and Beaches and Harbors.

The Altadena Job Center, at 464 W. Woodbury Rd., Suite 210, was opened in September 2025 specifically to serve Eaton Fire survivors. The center is co-located at the LA County Department of Public Works’ Altadena One-Stop Permit Center.

“The Altadena Job Center reflects a deep commitment to meeting our community needs at the right level and at the right location,”

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Fire Survivors Face Up to $40,000 to Connect to Edison’s New Underground Lines

Costs have apparently grown since April, and no funding has been secured to help homeowners who lost everything

Altadena residents trying to rebuild are encountering a new financial obstacle: connecting to Southern California Edison’s underground power lines could cost them $20,000 to $40,000, according to residents affected by the work.

The connection costs are not covered by homeowner insurance, and neither the utility nor any government agency has secured funding to help offset the expense.

The figure is significantly higher than what Edison’s chief executive estimated in April 2025, when he told Governor Gavin Newsom that homeowners could face $8,000 to $10,000 to connect.

“They’re going to put a transmission line in the middle of my driveway and it’s going to be my job to figure out how to get power to it at my expense,” Conner Cipolla, the corresponding secretary of the Altadena Town Council, told KTLA 5 TV news. Cipolla has been displaced from his home since the fire.

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Free Laundry Service Launches at Pasadena School

Mobile nonprofit brings fourth trailer to Madison Elementary, funded by Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal

A mobile laundry nonprofit that has served unhoused residents and fire survivors across Los Angeles County will launch its fourth trailer Tuesday at Madison Elementary School, which houses Pasadena Unified’s homeless education program.

The Laundry Truck LA will hold a ribbon cutting at 7:30 a.m. at the Pasadena campus, where families can drop off clothing during morning drop-off and pick it up washed, dried, and folded by the end of the school day. The fourth trailer was funded by Anthem Blue Cross Medi-Cal, according to event organizers.

Statistics indicate that Madison Elementary serves a high-need population: 90% of its 409 students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The campus also houses PUSD’s Families in Transition program, the district’s office that supports students experiencing homelessness. Nearly 300 homeless students were enrolled in PUSD during the 2024-25 school year, according to state data.

The launch comes 20 days after the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire,

Monday, January 26, 2026

Guest Opinion | Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater: The Masked Enforcement of Fear: Authoritarian Tendencies in Plain Sight

The deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents into U.S. cities, including our own — often operating in plainclothes or masks, with vague mandates and limited local oversight — resembles practices more common to authoritarian regimes than to a constitutional republic. Recent events in Minneapolis, including the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by U.S. Border Patrol agents during an immigration enforcement operation, illustrate a dangerous slide toward normalized, anonymous force. Political leaders, religious leaders, and citizens have been saying this for months. We must not be cowed into silence, or gaslighted into doubting what we are seeing, which is precisely what tyranny seeks.

These agents appear out of nowhere, brandish weapons, don’t read any Miranda Rights, and don’t often have proof of wrongdoing. But as these operations unfold, the lines between immigration enforcement and militarized police actions have blurred, leading to lethal force being used against people exercising their constitutional rights to protest.

When law enforcement appears unmarked, when agents avoid clear identification, and when the public is left to piece together competing official and eyewitness accounts of shootings,

Monday, January 26, 2026

Kaiser Permanente Faces Open-Ended Strike as 31,000 Healthcare Workers Walk Off the Job

The walkout, which began Monday morning, follows the longest negotiations in the company’s national bargaining history and leaves the region’s dominant healthcare provider scrambling to maintain services.

Nearly 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers walked off the job Monday morning in an open-ended strike against the health system’s Pasadena regional headquarters, in what union leaders called a last resort after more than seven months of failed contract negotiations — the longest bargaining effort in the company’s national history.

The strike, which began at 7 a.m. at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across California and Hawaii, represents one of the largest healthcare labor actions in the state in recent years. The vast majority of striking workers — approximately 27,000 — are employed in Southern California, where Kaiser Permanente’s regional operations are headquartered on Walnut Street in Pasadena’s  civic center.

Unlike typical healthcare strikes, which are often limited to a few days to minimize patient disruption, this walkout has no predetermined end date.

Monday, January 26, 2026

Edison’s New Co-Defendants Join Eaton Fire Legal Battle in Court Today

Utility’s cross-complaints name Los Angeles County, Pasadena Water & Power, and SoCalGas as sharing blame for the deadly blaze

Attorneys in the consolidated Eaton Fire litigation return to court today for a status conference that will address discovery procedures following Southern California Edison’s sweeping cross-complaints against more than a dozen local agencies and utilities.

The 10 a.m. hearing before Judge Laura A. Seigle at the Spring Street Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles comes 10 days after Edison filed claims against Los Angeles County, Pasadena Water & Power, five other water agencies, SoCalGas, and the County’s emergency alert contractor, Genasys.

The filings allege these entities share responsibility for the deaths and destruction caused by the January fire that killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures in Altadena.

Edison acknowledges its equipment may have ignited the blaze. But the utility argues accountability should extend to agencies it says failed to issue timely evacuation warnings, provide adequate water for firefighting,

Monday, January 26, 2026

Fresh Produce Distribution Set for Altadena as Food Coalition Continues Fire Recovery Support

Hollywood nonprofit plans to distribute free fruits and vegetables at Altadena library parking lot Wednesday

The Hollywood Food Coalition plans to hand out free bags of fresh produce to Altadena residents on Wednesday, January 28, at the Altadena Main Library parking lot, continuing a food assistance program that has brought 16 distributions to the fire-scarred community since June 2025.

The giveaway runs from 11 a.m. to noon at 600 E. Mariposa St. Supplies are limited and distributed first-come, first-served. Residents are asked to bring their own bags.

While many wildfire-related emergency food programs offer canned goods and shelf-stable items, the Hollywood Food Coalition provides fresh organic produce — bananas, peaches, potatoes, celery, peppers and onions among the typical offerings.

“The idea is to support the Altadena community with healthy food, to take one thing off their plate of concerns and help them with their bottom line,” said Linda Pianigiani, associate director of development and communications for the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Sunday, January 25, 2026

SBA Disaster Loan Services Return to Area This Week

In-person assistance resumes Tuesday at the Collaboratory, more than a month after previous location closed

The Small Business Administration is reopening in-person disaster loan assistance in Altadena on Tuesday, returning federal help to the community more than a month after its previous location closed.

Representatives will be stationed at the Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury Road, starting at 1 p.m. on January 27. The site will offer walk-in service Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The SBA has approved more than $3.2 billion in disaster loans for Los Angeles County wildfire survivors, according to the agency, though permitting delays have allowed fewer than 15% of destroyed homes to receive rebuild approvals.

The Collaboratory has served as the central hub for fire recovery services since opening in October 2025. The space—a former Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility—houses the Eaton Fire Collaborative, a coalition of more than 200 community groups, nonprofits, and government partners working on long-term recovery.

“The Collaboratory represents an important and visible milestone in the collaborative’s mission to unify precious resources,

Sunday, January 25, 2026

New Documentary Chronicles What West Altadena’s Black Community Lost—and How It’s Rebuilding

“Beneath the Ashes” premieres Feb. 1 at Pasadena screening featuring fire survivors and relatives of Jackie and Mack Robinson

Before the Eaton Fire swept through West Altadena last January, approximately 75 percent of African Americans in the community owned their homes—nearly double the national rate, according to census data cited by LAist. That remarkable figure was no accident: after mid-20th-century redlining policies in Pasadena and other nearby cities restricted Black families from purchasing property, Altadena became one of the few places where they could buy homes and build generational wealth.

A new documentary premiering less than a month after the fire’s one-year anniversary captures what that community lost—and how it is working to rebuild.

“Beneath the Ashes: the Past Reimagined,” directed by Hrag Yedalian and produced by Brandon D. Lamar, president of the NAACP Pasadena Branch, will screen free to the public on Sunday, February 1, at the AGBU Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Cultural Center in Pasadena. The film features homeowners who lost everything,