Wednesday, April 29, 2026

LA County Launches $2.1 Million Eviction Diversion Pilot Program

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Landlords and tenants in parts of Los Angeles County Tuesday can access a $2.1 million pilot program aimed at helping resolve rent disputes and avoid evictions before cases reach court.

The Eviction Diversion Pilot Program began Monday and will serve eligible households in the Compton Courthouse service area, offering free mediation and up to $10,000 in rental assistance for unpaid rent, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA).

The program was developed in partnership with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County and will be administered with Community Legal Aid SoCal and FORWARD Program Management.

“This program is about supporting property owners and their tenants in reaching an agreement for rent-related issues before the matter goes before a judge, saving time and money for everybody,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell said in a statement.

Officials said the program is voluntary and requires both landlords and tenants to agree to participate in mediation.

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Average LA, Orange County Gas Prices Rise To Highest Amounts Since 2023

By STEVEN HERBERT, City News Service

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County rose Tuesday to its highest amount since Oct. 6, 2023, increasing 1.8 cents to $6.059.

The average price has risen six consecutive days, increasing 13.9 cents, including six-tenths of a cent Monday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. The streak of increases follows a 14-day streak of decreases totaling 12.8 cents.

The average price is 13.7 cents more than one week ago, 8.8 cents higher than one month ago and $1.268 above what it was one year ago. It is 43.5 cents less than the record $6.494 set on Oct. 5, 2022.

The streak of rising prices began one day after the end of a run of 12 decreases in 13 days totaling 13.2 cents. The Orange County average price is 10.8 cents more than one month ago and $1.275 higher than one year ago.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Altadena Renters Can Apply for $36,000 in Fire Recovery Cash Starting May 11

Tenant-led program offers two years of unrestricted monthly payments; only 30 Altadena households can be funded now

More than 15 months after the Eaton Fire burned through Altadena, a new privately organized cash assistance program is offering something most fire-relief efforts have not reached: unrestricted monthly payments to displaced renters and tenants, sustained for two years.

The program — called Direct Cash for Altadena Fire Recovery, and led by the Altadena Tenants Union, the Altadena Community Land Trust, and the National Council of Jewish Women Los Angeles — will provide $36,000 to each of 30 income-eligible renter households selected by lottery, according to the groups’ announcement.

Applications open May 11 and close May 25. The organizing groups say they have assembled $1.5 million in funding and intend to expand to at least 300 families as additional funding is secured.

Each selected household will receive $2,000 per month for the first six months, $1,500 per month for the following 12 months,

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Supreme Court Weighs Whether Federal Law Shields Bayer From Roundup Cancer Lawsuits

By ANDRÈ COLEMAN, Managing Editor

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a closely watched case that could determine whether Bayer can be held liable under state law for failing to warn that its Roundup weed killer may cause cancer.

At issue is whether federal pesticide regulations preempt thousands of state lawsuits alleging that Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma and that the company failed to provide adequate warnings.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors banned the controversial spray in 2019 after it was revealed it was being used near a heliport in unincorporated Pasadena, adjacent to District 4.

Later it was discovered that county crews were also using Roundup as part of the sediment removal project at Devil’s Gate Dam, raising fears of local water supply contamination.

In July 2019, it was revealed that a landscaper had used a generic version of the weed killer in a playground and courtyard at a Caltech graduate housing complex,

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

LA County Pilot Offers Landlords and Tenants $10,000 and Free Mediation Before Eviction Trials

The $2.1 million program, developed with the Superior Court, launches at the Compton Courthouse as the county agency marks 50 years of service — including in Altadena

Before a judge hears the case, before a tenant loses the apartment, before a landlord absorbs another month of unpaid rent, Los Angeles County wants to put both parties in a room with a mediator and a check.

The Department of Consumer and Business Affairs launched its Eviction Diversion Pilot Program on Monday, a $2.1 million initiative offering free mediation and up to $10,000 per household in rental assistance for unpaid back rent. The program, which DCBA developed with the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, targets the narrow window after an eviction filing but before trial — a period when both landlords and tenants stand to lose time and money, according to a DCBA press release announcing the program.

The pilot begins at the Compton Courthouse, where eligible landlords and tenants can register for services.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Altadena Nonprofit Says It Put More Than $60,000 in Direct Cash Into Fire Survivors’ Hands

My TRIBE Rise’s grassroots grant programs provide bridge financing to residents facing displacement more than a year after the Eaton Fire

The money arrives where the need is sharpest — in rent payments, in mortgage checks, in the emergency costs that pile up when a home burns and the insurance doesn’t cover it all.

My TRIBE Rise, a grassroots nonprofit co-founded in West Altadena in 2019, says it has distributed more than $60,000 in direct cash grants to Altadena residents who lost homes or face displacement from the Eaton Fire, according to a report by the Pasadena Black Pages.

The grants, distributed through the organization’s Eaton Fire Relief Grants and Adopt A Survivor Bridge Financing Program, provide funding to cover rent, mortgage payments, and emergency costs for working-class, elderly, and disabled residents, according to the organization’s website.

More than 15 months after the Eaton Fire, My TRIBE Rise co-founder and executive director Heavenly Hughes says the recovery is far from over.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Pasadena’s Congresswoman Talks Faith and Civic Power at All Saints Church

Rep. Judy Chu to address how congregations can advocate on justice issues, with re-election off the table

Rep. Judy Chu will step away from Capitol Hill and into a church learning center on Saturday  May 2 to talk about something that doesn’t usually make the congressional calendar: how faith becomes civic action.

Chu, who represents Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley in Congress, will speak at All Saints Church on May 2 as part of The Women’s Community’s Brunch & Learn series, according to the church. The talk will focus on how communities of faith can use their collective voice to advocate on issues of love, justice, and compassion — and Chu has been invited to share her own path into politics, from growing up in Los Angeles to her election as the first Chinese American woman in Congress.

All Saints Church sits just east of Pasadena City Hall at 132 North Euclid Avenue — a location that has served as more than geography for the Episcopal congregation,

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Altadena Organizers Push for Black Cultural District as Displacement Pressures Mount

A May 13 gathering will bring together Black communities from across California to launch a formal preservation effort in the fire-scarred community

Sixteen months after the Eaton Fire tore through West Altadena, burning a path through neighborhoods where Black families have owned homes for generations, a coalition of community organizations is pursuing a structural remedy: a formal Black Cultural District designation for the unincorporated community.

The effort’s next step is a public gathering called “Shared Futures and Sacred Spaces,” scheduled for Wednesday, May 13, from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. at a location in West Altadena to be disclosed upon RSVP.

The event, organized by Collective UNBound, a Los Angeles-based architecture and community design firm, intends to convene representatives from Black communities across California — including South Los Angeles, which in December 2025 became the state’s first formally designated Black Cultural District — to discuss what such a designation could mean for Altadena.

Altadena was historically one of the few places in Los Angeles County where Black families could purchase homes during the era of redlining and restrictive covenants.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

‘A Betrayal:’ California to Share Data On Immigrant Drivers Nationally

by Khari Johnson and Wendy Fry, CALMATTERS

California is preparing to share with an outside organization detailed information about driver license holders, including immigrants who do not have legal authorization to live in the U.S.

That breaks a promise the state made a decade ago when it began issuing licenses to unauthorized immigrants, advocates say, and it means more than 1 million people may face higher risk of deportation.

But if state officials don’t turn over the data, the Department of Homeland Security may refuse to accept California licenses and IDs at airports, the advocates believe, following a briefing with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month. State authorities confirmed they plan to share the data to comply with the Real ID Act of 2005, which set requirements for accepting state identification in federal facilities like airports.

Representatives from four advocacy groups who participated in the briefing told CalMatters the shared information will show whether a person has a Social Security number,

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Seven ArtCenter MFA Artists Turn the Recent Past Into New Work

Free Pasadena exhibition draws on pop culture and fading technology to explore how yesterday shapes today

The 1970s motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has found an unlikely second act at ArtCenter College of Design, reimagined in new work by graduating Master of Fine Arts student and artist Milan Aguirre as part of a group exhibition that treats the recent cultural past as raw material for the present.

“Days of Future Past,” the Pasadena college’s annual Graduate Art MFA thesis exhibition, opens May 1 at the South Campus on Raymond Avenue and runs through May 22. The free show features work by seven graduating artists whose pieces range from Aguirre’s reinterpretation of Knievel to Jessie Edelstein’s installations built from near-obsolete digital content, according to an ArtCenter press release.

The exhibition takes its name from the 2014 X-Men film in which characters rewrite the future by acting on the past. Curator Hyesoo Christina Valentine, ArtCenter’s associate director and curator of exhibitions, organized the show around what the press release describes as a loosely shared throughline: the artists examine the recent past not with nostalgia but with curiosity,