Thursday, April 23, 2026

‘We’re Not Just Rebuilding, We’re Dreaming Big’ PUSD Board President Tells Community at 2026 State of the Schools

Full text of Tina Fredericks’ address included below

Pasadena Unified School District leaders told families, educators and civic officials that the District is rebuilding after a year marked by the Eaton Fire, community concerns over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and a $30 million budget-reduction plan, during the 2026 State of the Schools ceremony held Wednesday evening — Earth Day — at Mary W. Jackson STEAM Multilingual Magnet Elementary in Altadena. The full text of Board President Tina Fredericks’ address is reproduced below.

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco reported that the District’s graduation rate has increased to 91%, that early literacy is improving under newly adopted programs, and that Pasadena High School is ranked among the top three California public high schools for UCLA acceptance rates. Blanco said all four Pasadena Unified School District comprehensive high schools — Pasadena High School, Marshall, Muir and Blair — have exceeded projected university acceptance rates this year, and that 12 John Muir High School students will graduate with their associate in arts degrees and high school diplomas,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Pasadena Group at Center of TPS Fight Brings Protests to Local Courthouse Steps

For a second straight week, TPS holders and advocates rally outside the Ninth Circuit on South Grand Avenue as the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments six days away

The lawyers who have been fighting in federal court to protect the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants work out of an office on South Arroyo Parkway. The courthouse where much of that fight has played out is on South Grand Avenue. And for the second consecutive week, the people those lawyers represent have gathered on its steps.

Six days before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments that could determine whether the federal government can strip legal status from approximately 1.3 million immigrants, TPS holders and advocates staged a second week of demonstrations Wednesday at the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit at 125 S. Grand Ave. in Pasadena.

The rallies are organized by a coalition that includes the National Day Laborer Organizing Network — headquartered at 1030 S.

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Bonta Issues Reminder to California Schools on Student Safety Obligations

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A month after reaching an agreement mandating new student safety measures in a Los Angeles County school district, California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued an alert Wednesday reminding K-12 schools across the state of their legal obligation to prevent and address sexual harassment and abuse in education programs and activities.

Bonta also launched a new web page and Know Your Rights alert in six languages reminding California families and students of their rights under California law, encouraging them to immediately report incidents of sexual harassment, assault and abuse, and providing information on what to expect in addressing such complaints.

“Sexual harassment, assault and abuse in schools is far too common and completely unacceptable,” Bonta said in a statement. “Every student has a right to a safe learning environment, and it is the duty of our school districts — along with a moral obligation — to step off the sidelines and be a part of the solution.”

According to recent data,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

LA County Stormwater Capture Jumps to 120 Billion Gallons

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Los Angeles County captured more than 120 billion gallons of stormwater during the 2025-26 storm season, a sharp increase from the previous year that will significantly boost the region’s groundwater supply, officials announced Wednesday.

The total of 120.3 billion gallons collected between October and April 15 marks a dramatic rise from the 11.9 billion gallons captured during the prior storm season, according to county officials.

The water is expected to recharge aquifers with enough supply to meet the needs of about 3 million people for a year.

Downtown Los Angeles recorded 16.9 inches of rainfall during the season, about 110% of its annual average, according to county officials. By comparison, the previous year brought just 6.6 inches, less than half the typical annual total of 15.4 inches.

Officials said stormwater captured in reservoirs and spreading grounds reached 185% of average for this time of year.

“Capturing more stormwater here in Los Angeles County is one of the most powerful opportunities we have right now to strengthen our local water supply,”

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Financing Cited as Primary Hurdle to Housing Growth in LA County

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Financing, rather than local opposition, is the primary barrier to building affordable housing at scale, the Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency said Wednesday, citing overwhelming demand in its first round of project funding.

The agency reported that 127 applications were submitted seeking a combined $1.5 billion to build 11,625 housing units — more than double initial projections and exceeding recent levels of affordable housing production in the region.

“These results challenge a long-standing assumption about what’s holding back affordable housing in Los Angeles County,” Rex Richardson, mayor of Long Beach and chair of the agency’s board, said in a statement. “The challenge isn’t a lack of sites, developers, or community will. The challenge is financing and operational support.”

Following an initial review, 79 applications requesting $954 million advanced for further evaluation, officials said. The agency has authorized up to $250 million for the inaugural funding round, including $100 million already awarded to 10 projects,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

California Dreaming, or California Drowning?

By EDDIE RIVERA

Erratic White House policies and global instability are conspiring to keep California’s housing market in a suffocating holding pattern

The economic mood in America has grown as unpredictable as the administration setting the tone, and California’s housing market is absorbing the punishment in real time. According to a new report from the California Association of Realtors, the state’s real estate sector stumbled through March with neither the momentum its stakeholders had hoped for nor the clarity they desperately need.

Existing home sales dropped 3.5% from February and fell 2.5% compared to the same month last year — the third consecutive year-over-year decline and the steepest in eight months. The total sales figure of 265,320 units marks the 42nd straight month the market has failed to crack the 300,000-unit threshold, a benchmark that once seemed routine but now feels aspirational.

Prospective buyers have not vanished — they have simply gone quiet, paralyzed by job market anxieties,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Two Historians Bring Blackface and Baseball to Vroman’s

The hidden legacy of minstrelsy and the cultural life of America’s pastime converge in a joint author event Thursday in Pasadena

A Princeton historian who spent 20 years tracking blackface minstrelsy through American attics, sealed archives and forgotten photo albums will share a stage Thursday night with a UC Berkeley professor who uses baseball as a lens on modern American culture. The pairing is no accident: the two authors blurbed each other’s books, and both treat popular entertainment as a window into the nation’s deeper history.

Rhae Lynn Barnes and David M. Henkin will discuss and sign their new books — “Darkology: Blackface and the American Way of Entertainment” and “Out of the Ballpark: How to Think About Baseball” — at 7 p.m. April 23 at Vroman’s Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd. The event is free, and a book purchase from Vroman’s is appreciated, according to the bookstore’s event listing.

Barnes, an assistant professor of American cultural history at Princeton,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

UCLA Health Survey Adds Armenian Language Option

CITY NEWS SERVICE

UCLA’s California Health Interview Survey is now being offered in Armenian for the first time, expanding the state’s largest health survey to better capture data from one of California’s largest ethnic communities, officials announced Wednesday.

The CHIS survey, administered by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research since 2001, is the largest population-representative state health survey in the nation, according to the university.

Officials said the 2026 survey will be conducted in seven languages — English, Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog and now Armenian — as part of an effort to improve representation among underserved communities.

“CHIS is an important snapshot of what policies are working, who might be getting left behind, and where there’s room for improvement,” Ninez A. Ponce, director of the UCLA CHPR, said in a statement. “We’re proud to now offer CHIS in Armenian, which will allow us to capture a more complete picture.”

California is home to roughly 250,000 people of Armenian descent,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Wildfire Risk Bills Move Forward with Bipartisan Support

CITY NEWS SERVICE

Two measures aimed at reducing wildfire risk across Southern California are expected to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee in the coming weeks following unanimous, bipartisan approval in an earlier committee.

State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, said Senate Bills 894 and 1297 are designed to improve both community-scale fire prevention efforts and individual home hardening.

“Too many lives are being lost, homes destroyed, and public resources wasted to more frequent and destructive fires over recent years,” Allen said in a statement. “The fire risk we face is driving an affordability crisis through rising insurance premiums and utility bills. It’s clear we need a more holistic approach to building community resilience.”

Allen said home hardening and defensible space improvements can reduce a structure’s fire risk by nearly 50% when implemented together, but the cost of such upgrades has limited participation.

SB 894 would provide low-interest loans to homeowners and small businesses to help finance those improvements,

Thursday, April 23, 2026

ACLU Hits Back at ‘Retaliatory’ Arrest of Pasadena Man Who is Plaintiff in Class Action ICE Raids Lawsuit

CITY NEWS SERVICE

A civil rights group Wednesday hit back at what it calls the Trump administration’s “retaliatory” arrest last week of a Pasadena plaintiff involved in a class action lawsuit challenging the government’s illegal immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Isaac Villegas was detained last week during a scheduled check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in downtown Los Angeles.

Villegas is a plaintiff in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin, a closely watched lawsuit filed in L.A. federal court challenging the raids. The Pasadena day laborer sued the federal government in June 2025, after he and two other workers were arrested by immigration agents as they waited at a bus stop.

An immigration judge ordered Villegas, who is from Panama, released on a $5,000 bond the following month and he’s been checking in with ICE since then, according to his attorney, Stacy Tolchin.

Last week, ICE arrested Villegas as he was attending a scheduled immigration check-in and jailed him again despite the judge’s order granting his release.