Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Weekly Job Pop-Ups Offer Eaton Fire Survivors Paid Work and Free Training

Altadena’s job center is among 18 county sites where displaced workers can get screened for temporary positions every Thursday

Eaton Fire survivors who lost work can walk into an America’s Job Center of California any Thursday afternoon and get immediate help landing a temporary paid job with Los Angeles County, according to a statement from Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office.

The weekly events, called Fire Recovery Thursdays, run from 1 to 4 p.m. at all 18 AJCC locations countywide, including the Altadena Job Center at 464 W. Woodbury Rd., Suite 210. Organized by the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity, the pop-ups connect wildfire-displaced workers with paid positions, no-cost training, and supportive services — more than 14 months after the January 2025 fire destroyed more than 9,000 structures across Altadena and surrounding communities.

At each session, AJCC staff sit down one-on-one with job seekers to review career options and screen them for the Fire Recovery and Resilience Workforce Program, according to the press release.

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Fire Survivors’ Contamination Testing Bill Clears First Legislative Hurdle in Sacramento

Altadena-born measure would create California’s first uniform standards for post-wildfire home safety

More than a year after the Eaton Fire, a bill that would require California to set science-based standards for testing and cleaning toxic contamination in homes, schools and workplaces after wildfires passed its first Assembly policy committee, according to  Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena).

AB 1642, the Wildfire Environmental Safety and Testing Act, would direct the Department of Toxic Substances Control to adopt emergency regulations by July 1, 2027, specifying how contamination should be investigated, tested and removed in residential areas after a wildfire. California currently has no uniform statewide framework for determining when a home is safe to reoccupy after a fire, according to the bill’s text. The measure was introduced following feedback from Eaton Fire survivors and experts who encountered confusion and conflicting guidance when trying to determine whether their homes were safe.

The bill cleared the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials — its first and only Assembly policy committee,

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Eight PUSD Campuses Stage Spring Musicals From March Through May

Student performers across Pasadena and Altadena will present shows ranging from Fiddler on the Roof to Ride the Cyclone

Every middle and high school in the Pasadena Unified School District will stage a full musical this spring, with eight productions running from March 19 through mid-May across campuses in Pasadena and Sierra Madre. The district serves students from Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre.

The season opens next week at Thurgood Marshall Secondary School with Alice By Heart, running March 19–21, and continues through May 15 when Octavia E. Butler Middle School closes the schedule with Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr. The lineup spans classic and contemporary titles, according to a PUSD district announcement.

The full schedule, according to the district:

Thurgood Marshall Secondary School presents Alice By Heart, March 19–21. Eliot Arts Magnet stages Bring It On!, March 26–28. John Muir High School performs Ride the Cyclone,

Wednesday, March 11, 2026

ArtNight Closeup: Pasadena Taiko Ensemble Brings 27 Years of Drumming to Friday Performances

Makoto Taiko performs four free sets Friday at the Shumei Arts Council on East Colorado Boulevard

Makoto Taiko, a Japanese drumming ensemble that has been based in Pasadena since 1999, performs four sets Friday night, March 13, at the Shumei Arts Council during ArtNight Pasadena, the city’s biannual free cultural open house.

The nonprofit ensemble, which began as a private youth group within the Shumei America Spiritual Organization and opened its doors to the broader public in 2009, plays a three-piece program at 6:15, 7:15, 8:15, and 9:15 p.m. at Shumei Hall, 2430 East Colorado Blvd. It is one of 19 venues participating in the event, which runs from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with free admission and free shuttle service. No tickets or reservations are required.

Artistic Director Hunter Loyd designed the ArtNight program as a three-piece set. The set opens with “Sakura Fubuki” — cherry blossom blizzard — a composition Loyd wrote for the ensemble.

“This piece begins by evoking a gentle breeze among Sakura trees and blossoms,

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Sierra Madre Little League Opened Biggest Season With 400 Players Headed to Face Pasadena, Altadena Rivals

Record enrollment launches a spring schedule that connects foothill communities on the diamond

More than 400 young baseball players paraded down Sierra Madre Boulevard on Saturday morning, riding decorated vehicles from Taylor’s Ol’ Fashioned Market to Heasley Field to open what the league says is its largest spring season ever.

Sierra Madre Little League launched its 2026 season on February 28 with its annual opening day festivities — a parade led by the city’s fire and police departments and four city council members, followed by ceremonies, games, treats, and music at Heasley Field. Throughout the spring, Sierra Madre’s teams will travel beyond city limits to compete against Pasadena, Altadena, Arcadia, and Santa Anita Little League programs, according to the league’s schedule.

The parade began shortly after 7 a.m. at the parking lot of Taylor’s Ol’ Fashioned Market on Sierra Madre Boulevard, where each team decorated a vehicle in its team colors. Sierra Chevrolet of Monrovia provided additional vehicles for several teams, according to a league press release.

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Pasadena High Schoolers Measure Seismic Waves at Weeknd Concerts — and Present Their Findings to Scientists

Caltech’s free Earthquake Fellows program, now recruiting for 2026, produced research that last summer’s cohort took to a professional conference in Palm Springs

A research team that included Pasadena-area high school students deployed seismometers near SoFi Stadium during The Weeknd’s June concert series last summer, recorded the vibrations that tens of thousands of fans generated, and presented their findings at a professional earthquake science conference in Palm Springs — alongside hundreds of researchers from across the state.

The students are part of the Caltech Earthquake Fellows program, a free research fellowship at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory that selects about a dozen local sophomores and juniors each summer for roughly 130 hours of seismology immersion on the Pasadena campus. The program is now accepting applications for its 2026 cohort through March 31.

The 2025 cohort — 12 fellows chosen from 53 eligible applicants — produced a poster titled “On the origin of seismic signals from concerts and its potential use to monitor stadium health,” according to the abstract published on the Statewide California Earthquake Center’s website.

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Pasadena Education Network Offers Free Workshop on Fundraising for Pasadena Elementary Schools

The session at McKinley School covers donor strategy and fundraising equity as district budgets tighten

The Pasadena Education Network will host a free workshop Wednesday evening on fundraising for elementary schools, aimed at PTA leaders and parent volunteers looking to raise money for programs that district budgets may no longer cover.

The two-hour session, scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. March 11 at the McKinley School library, 325 S. Oak Knoll Ave., covers the practical mechanics of parent-driven fundraising: who can raise money for what, how to set priorities and goals as a school community, how to solicit donations, and what fundraising can look like at schools where families have limited capacity to give, according to PEN’s event listing. The workshop will also include examples of successful campaigns.

PEN, a nonprofit founded in 2006 by parents to promote family involvement in Pasadena Unified School District schools, describes the workshop as geared toward elementary school PTA board members, fundraising chairs, Annual Fund committee members,

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Pasadena Nonprofit Invites Seniors to Learn About Peer-Run Aging-in-Place Community

A Pasadena nonprofit where older adults help each other age in their own homes will open its doors Thursday to anyone interested in joining, offering coffee, bagels and a firsthand look at a community that has grown from 50 charter members to more than 200 in just over a decade.

Pasadena Village, a 501(c)(3) founded in 2012, holds “Meet Me At The Village!” on the second Thursday of each month at its office at 236 W. Mountain St., Suite 113. The March 12 gathering, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., is free and open to all. Members and staff host the session, which the organization describes on its website as “a casual information session to learn more about Pasadena Village.”

What newcomers find is not a senior center or a service provider but a member-run organization where adults over 55 plan and lead their own activities, according to the organization’s website. Members drive each other to medical appointments, help with grocery shopping, troubleshoot technology problems and provide household assistance — a peer-to-peer model in which,

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Kidspace Marks 30 Years of Butterfly Season With Free ArtNight Launch

The Pasadena children’s museum opens its spring tradition on March 13, featuring art installations, nature activities, and caterpillar adoptions through May

Kidspace Children’s Museum will open its 30th annual Butterfly Season on Friday, March 13, with free admission that evening as part of ArtNight Pasadena, the city’s twice-yearly cultural open house.

The season runs through May 17 at the museum’s 3.5-acre campus in Brookside Park. This year’s edition brings back Los Trompos, an interactive art installation of brightly colored spinning structures designed by Mexican designers Héctor Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena. The work, inspired by vintage Mexican toy tops, was first commissioned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in 2015 and invites visitors to hop on and spin together.

Inside Roberts Pavilion, a display of handmade Monarch butterflies crafted from upcycled waste-stream materials by artist Christopher Lutter will fill the space. Lutter, a Kidspace artist-in-residence, built the original kinetic sculpture using recycled wire and plastic utensils in collaboration with museum visitors and community volunteers,

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Story Lead Turns Her Lens on Los Angeles in New Essay Collection

The former Disney Imagineer examines how the city’s streets and neighborhoods shape identity, including reflections on the wildfires

The woman who helped write the story of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge has turned her attention to a real city — one that reinvents itself as relentlessly as any fictional planet.

Margaret Chandra Kerrison, the former Walt Disney Imagineer who served as story lead for the Star Wars-themed land, will discuss and sign her new book, “Los Angeles Lost and Found: Essays on Identity, Place, and Belonging,” tonight at Vroman’s Bookstore. The collection applies what Kerrison calls narrative placemaking — the framework she used to build immersive theme park worlds — to Los Angeles itself, examining how the city’s streets, neighborhoods, and landmarks shape who its residents become. The book, published March 3 by ORO Editions, includes reflections on the recent LA wildfires, according to the publisher.

Kerrison was an Imagineer from 2014 to 2021. Her portfolio includes Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance,