Sunday, June 14, 2026

On Tuesday, Two Local Legislators and Edison Are On the Altadena Town Council’s Agenda

The two California legislators whose bills now govern how Altadena rebuilds after the Eaton Fire will appear before residents Tuesday evening — and a Southern California Edison representative will take the microphone after them at the Altadena Town Council.

State Senator Sasha Renee Perez and Assemblymember John Harabedian, joined by Los Angeles County Deputy Supervisor for Planning and Development Anish Saraiya, are scheduled to brief the Altadena Town Council on Senate Bills 9 and 1090, the legislation the agenda describes as governing key aspects of the community’s ongoing rebuilding efforts. The public will be permitted to comment when they finish.

Then Edison takes its turn. A company representative is slated to present on customer savings programs and related utility matters. Public comment will follow that presentation as well.

The meeting convenes at 7:00 p.m. at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive, with a live broadcast on Pasadena Media’s YouTube channel.

The rest of the agenda reads less like a town council’s monthly business and more like the standing order of a community still running on recovery time.

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Route 66 Centennial Anchors Pasadena’s 140th Birthday Celebration Today

The free Pasadena Museum of History celebration runs noon to 4 p.m. on the Fényes Estate campus and marks the city’s 140th, Route 66’s centennial and Colorado Boulevard’s 150th anniversary

The Pasadena Museum of History and the City of Pasadena will throw the city its annual birthday party on Sunday, June 14, with a free, all-ages celebration that doubles this year as a tribute to two highway milestones — the centennial of Route 66 and the 150th anniversary of Colorado Boulevard.

Billed as “Happy Birthday Pasadena: Highway to Adventure!”, the event runs from noon to 4 p.m. on the museum’s Fényes Estate campus at 470 W. Walnut St. and marks Pasadena’s 140th birthday alongside the two road anniversaries. Admission and parking are free, and no reservations are required.

Mayor Victor Gordo and special guests are scheduled to cut a three-tiered birthday cake at 2 p.m., according to the museum’s event page, with cake, lemonade and popcorn served throughout the afternoon.

The museum’s event page lists a road-trip-themed lineup across the two-acre campus: vintage automobiles and motorcycles staged for photo opportunities by local collectors and clubs,

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Bill Would Pause Density Laws in Fire-Scarred Altadena

State Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez this week unveiled new amendments to a wildfire recovery bill that would temporarily block California’s marquee housing density laws in fire-scarred Altadena, escalating a local fight over real estate speculation after the Eaton Fire.

SB 1090, known as the “Keep Altadena Land in Altadena Hands Act,” would impose a five-year moratorium on the ministerial approvals required by Senate Bills 9 and 1123 for projects in Altadena ZIP codes 91001 and 91003, covering applications filed from Jan. 7, 2025 through Jan. 7, 2030. The measure cleared the state Senate late last month and on June 11 was re-referred to Assembly housing and local government committees for hearings expected in the coming weeks.

Pérez, a Pasadena Democrat whose district includes Altadena, said the bill responds to reports that corporate investors are using SB 9 and SB 1123 to buy fire-damaged lots from distressed Eaton Fire survivors and pursue higher-density projects that could overwhelm local infrastructure. “Allowing up to ten homes to be rebuilt on a single-family lot will overwhelm the existing infrastructure and destabilize this special community as it works to recover,” Pérez said in a statement announcing the bill.

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Human Shield Planned Along Woodbury Road to Protect Altadena’s Rebuild Workers

A year after immigration raids reached Pasadena, organizers say roughly a thousand people will line Woodbury Road from Lincoln Avenue to Lake Avenue on Saturday

The day laborers who hauled away ash and framed new walls across Altadena after last year’s fire plan to return to the same streets on Saturday — this time not to work, but to stand shoulder to shoulder.

Hundreds are expected b organizers to link arms Saturday morning in a human chain along Woodbury Road, from Lincoln Avenue to Lake Avenue, in an action the National Day Laborer Organizing Network calls “La Muralla Humana,” the Human Shield.

The Pasadena-based network timed the event to one year after immigration raids swept the Los Angeles region, and it says the chain is meant to protect the immigrant workers who rebuilt after the Eaton Fire and who now labor under the threat of detention.

In the weeks that followed the Eaton Fire, day laborers organized through NDLON and its Pasadena Community Job Center became early responders,

Saturday, June 13, 2026

California Legislature in Standoff with DMV Over Sharing Driver License Data with Other States

By Khari Johnson and Wendy Fry, CALMATTERS

The California Legislature wants to stall plans to share information about California drivers — including more than 1 million immigrant license holders who lack federal authorization to live in the U.S. — with a little-known nonprofit agency made up of motor vehicle administrators across the nation.

The Assembly and Senate’s budget agreement, released Thursday night, withholds $55 million in funding for the California Department of Motor Vehicles to link to a database that would begin fulfilling requests for information from other states about California drivers early next year.

The governor’s office and DMV want to share that information with the State-to-State system and SPEX platform, which lets states check for duplicate licenses and is operated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

Because the system records the last five digits of a driver’s Social Security number and uses a placeholder such as “99999” for people without one, opponents of the plan warned it could easily flag drivers who lack a Social Security number.

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Pasadena Hosts Fifth Annual Pride Celebration Tonight at City Hall

Drag performances, live music, and family activities cap the city’s five-year tradition of Pride Month observances

The City of Pasadena will hold its fifth annual Pride Month celebration tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. at City Hall, continuing a tradition of city-sponsored LGBTQIA+ gatherings that began in 2022.

The free event features drag performances by Los Angeles-based 2 Hot 2 Handle, headlined by Rock M. Sakura, who competed on the 12th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, along with live music by singer-songwriter Virr, according to a city press release. Arts-and-crafts activities, dance contests, inflatables, food trucks, and a photo display by Gilbert B. Weingourt titled “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” round out the evening’s lineup.

“Pasadena Pride brings our community together to honor and support our LGBTQIA+ neighbors, friends, and family members while creating a space where everyone feels welcome and valued,” Koko Panossian, director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, said in the press release.

Saturday, June 13, 2026

Google and Active Minds Launch $5 Million National Mental Health Initiative at Altadena Event

By EDDIE RIVERA

Students from fire-affected communities help shape program to expand peer support and digital resilience to 100,000 teens

Active Minds and Google.org on Thursday announced a $5 million initiative to expand youth mental health programming to 100,000 students nationwide, launching the effort in Altadena alongside high school students still navigating the aftermath of the Eaton Fire.

Assemblymember John Harabedian, who represents the Pasadena area in Sacramento, said the mental health consequences of the Eaton Fire have been the most persistent issue his constituents have raised.

“Our youth are particularly affected by the day-to-day struggles of recovering from a wildfire,” he said. “And beyond that, they live in a world that is more stressful than the world that we grew up in.”

The partnership will bring Active Minds programming to 154 high schools across the country at no cost to participating schools, with funding designed to remove financial barriers that have historically kept mental health resources out of under-resourced districts.

Friday, June 12, 2026

PUSD Rejects Brown Act Challenge to Vote That Set Stage for School Closures

District legal counsel concluded trustees did not violate California’s open-meeting law in adopting Resolution 2852 — a finding that answers a formal demand from a member of the public and likely forces critics to decide whether to sue

The Pasadena Unified School District said Friday that its legal counsel has concluded members of the Board of Education did not violate California’s open-meeting law in connection with the board’s December 11, 2025, approval of Resolution 2852, the measure that established enrollment guidelines for district schools.

That resolution plays a key role in possible school consolidation proposals.

The district announcement, emailed to the public school community Friday morning, discloses the district’s response to a “cure and correct” request — the step state law requires before a lawsuit seeking to void a public agency’s action.

“On May 15, 2026, a member of the public submitted a request to cure and correct, alleging Brown Act violations, culminating in the December 11, 2025 approval of Resolution 2852,”

Friday, June 12, 2026

Students Step Into Altadena’s Fire Recovery Hub to Champion Mental Health

A free morning program at The Collaboratory invites PUSD high schoolers to join advocacy workshops and pitch mental health ideas to their state assemblymember

Seventeen months after the Eaton Fire leveled their neighborhoods, Pasadena and Altadena high school students are being asked to walk into the building where their community has been putting itself back together — and this time, to lead.

Youth Mental Health Advocacy Day, a free three-hour program branded “WE MIND,” is set to take place on Friday at The Collaboratory, the Woodbury Road recovery hub that houses dozens of nonprofits, a county mental health walk-in center, and the daily work of rebuilding after a fire that destroyed more than 9,400 structures and killed 19 people.

The event, a partnership between the Eaton Fire Collaborative, Google.org, and nonprofit Active Minds, runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon and is open to Pasadena Unified School District students in grades 9 through 12.

The program invites students to participate in interactive mental health workshops,

Friday, June 12, 2026

Facing a Brown Act Lawsuit Deadline, School Board Takes No Action to Rescind Controversial Resolution

Trustees voted 4-3 to release a public statement on open-meeting allegations and terminated their school-closure consultant — but took no action to rescind the resolution an attorney has demanded they repeal by June 14 to avoid a lawsuit

Three days before a deadline to rescind a contested school-consolidation resolution or face litigation, the Pasadena Unified School District’s governing board divided 4-3 on a narrower question: whether to say anything publicly about the open-meeting allegations at all.

The vote was taken behind closed doors and announced when the board returned to public session on Thursday, June 11. It authorized the release of “a media statement regarding allegations of Brown Act violations by a community member,” the board’s presiding officer said. But it did not address the demand at the center of the dispute — that the board repeal the resolution that set the district’s school-closure process in motion.

The allegations concern California’s open-meeting law, the Ralph M. Brown Act, and they have been pressed by Warren Bleeker,