Monday, September 21, 2026

County District Attorney to Join Town Hall on Fraud, Crime Against Eaton Fire Survivors

The county’s top prosecutor joins a Pasadena NAACP community meeting on protecting Eaton Fire survivors during the recovery

Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman will join a town hall in Altadena on Tuesday, Sept. 22, hosted by the Pasadena branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, aimed at helping Eaton Fire survivors guard against the fraud and crime that can follow a disaster.

The meeting will focus not on the fire but on those the District Attorney’s Office says have tried to profit illegally from it. The branch’s announcement says the crimes that can target survivors during recovery and rebuilding include contractor fraud, financial elder abuse, vandalism, looting and rent gouging.

The appearance follows more than a year of enforcement Hochman’s office has pursued in the burn zone.

The town hall runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at The Collaboratory, 540 W. Woodbury Road in Altadena, a space that opened in October 2025 as a centralized recovery hub for fire survivors.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Newsom Cites Pension Crisis as He Vetoes Bill to Enhance Retirement for Police and Firefighters

By Adam Ashton, CALMATTERS

Unions for California police and firefighters came close to sweetening retirement benefits for their members, but the memory of California’s pension crisis ultimately was too much for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom on Sunday vetoed a bill that would have enhanced retirement perks for police and firefighters despite near-unanimous support from state lawmakers and heavy pressure from public safety unions.

Newsom in his veto message wrote the bill would partly reverse a 2012 law that former Gov. Jerry Brown championed when California’s major funds were spiraling from Great Recession losses.

Brown’s law, the Public Employees Pension Reform Act (PEPRA), required civil servants to work longer to earn a full retirement and pay more money from their own paychecks toward their pensions.

“I still recall — before PEPRA’s passage in 2012 — the alarming forecasts, the fierce criticism of public employees, and the growing pressure to eliminate defined benefit plans all together,” Newsom wrote.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Pasadena Unified Takes Its Roosevelt Housing Plan to Brookside Tuesday Evening

A drop-in open house at the golf club’s Arroyo Room covers the district’s proposed 110 units for teachers and staff

Pasadena Unified School District will spend two hours Tuesday evening at Brookside Golf Club taking questions about housing it wants to build for its own employees. The open house runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Arroyo Room. There is no formal presentation, and attendees may join at any point.

The proposal puts 110 rental units for the district’s teachers and staff on the five-acre site of the former Roosevelt Elementary School at 315 N. Pasadena Ave., which closed in 2020. All the units would be offered at below-market rental rates, in a mix of apartments and townhomes — 31% one bedroom, 44% two bedrooms, 19% three bedrooms and 6% four bedrooms, according to the district’s project page.

Half of the units would be reserved as affordable housing for income-qualifying district employees, the project page says. Revenue from the project would support maintenance and repair of school facilities.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Six La Viña Families to Mark Completed Eaton Fire Rebuilds at Altadena Ribbon-Cutting

Six Altadena families who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire will mark the completion of their rebuilt houses at a 1 p.m. ribbon-cutting Monday for the Kang family’s new home at 3658 Giddings Ranch Road, in the La Viña neighborhood.

Homeowners Richard and Julie Kang, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena, and Brookfield Residential President and Chief Executive Officer Adrian Foley are scheduled to attend, along with other families.

The ceremony closes a coordinated rebuild of six homes that Brookfield Residential announced March 17, when trenching and early site work were underway on all six lots and the company said the families expected to return in fall 2026. It comes about 20 months after the fire that destroyed 52 homes in the gated neighborhood the company developed between 1997 and 2003.

The homeowners chose from turnkey designs matched to their lots. Brookfield Residential said the shared approach moved them through planning, permitting and construction more quickly than pursuing each rebuild separately.

Monday, September 21, 2026

A Medicare and Medi-Cal Walk-Through Comes to the Bob Lucas Library Monday

A representative from the Center for Health Care Rights covers costs, coverage and coordination in the Reading Court at 11 a.m.

The Bob Lucas Memorial Library and Literacy Center gives over an hour on Monday morning to Medicare and Medi-Cal. A representative from the Center for Health Care Rights gives the presentation, and it runs from 11 a.m. to noon in the Bob Lucas Reading Court.

The session is one of a series of workshops the branch holds with the Center for Health Care Rights. The library, part of the Altadena Library District, lists the program under workshops and classes, health and wellness, educational and community, and sets it for adults 19 or older.

It is not the only thing on the branch calendar that day. English as a Second Language classes meet Monday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and an AI Essentials workshop with Bridge the Digital Divide runs the same evening at 6 p.m. The branch is open 10 a.m.

Monday, September 21, 2026

County Sets Sept. 22 Comment Deadline on Altadena Rebuild Permit at 2761 Grandeur

Los Angeles County has set 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22, as the deadline for written opposition to a disaster-recovery rebuild permit for a home at 2761 Grandeur Avenue in Altadena.

The application seeks to modify development standards for the non-like-for-like rebuild of a 1,178-square-foot, one-story single-family home and an attached 938-square-foot accessory dwelling unit. The requested changes would allow a front porch, the house and the unit to encroach into required front- and side-yard setbacks.

The county classifies the application as a Disaster Recovery Permit, part of Altadena’s rebuilding after the January 2025 Eaton Fire.

Written opposition may be sent to the county’s Director of Regional Planning; the case contact is Norman Ornelas Jr. at (213) 974-6411 or nornelas@planning.lacounty.gov, and all correspondence becomes a public record.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Metro to Hold Two Low-Income Fare Sign-Up Sessions in Pasadena on September 22

Two listings at the same East Foothill Boulevard address show different start times, and the free-fare program behind them is open to qualifying residents countywide, including in Altadena

Metro’s Low-Income Fare is Easy program, known as LIFE, will enroll eligible low-income riders in free- and reduced-fare transit benefits at 2550 E. Foothill Blvd. in Pasadena on Tuesday, Sept. 22, according to event listings published by Metro.

Metro has posted two separate listings for that date and address. One runs from 10 a.m. to noon and the other from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., as of Sept. 21. Both are listed at no cost, and both identify the site as the Pacific Clinic Workshop.

That address matches the Pacific Clinics behavioral health office on East Foothill Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles County service locator. Metro’s listings do not state whether the two entries describe one enrollment session or two.

The program is open to qualifying Los Angeles County residents,

Sunday, September 20, 2026

Yom Kippur, Judaism’s Holiest Day, Begins at Sundown

By STEVEN HERBERT, City News Service

Yom Kippur begins at sundown, with observant Jews fasting and seeking forgiveness for their sins on Judaism’s most solemn day of the year.

According to Jewish tradition, Yom Kippur is the day Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the second set of commandment tablets — he had smashed the first — and announced God’s pardon to the people for worshipping a golden calf.

Observant Jews believe that God inscribes the names of the righteous in the Book of Life on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and seals the book on Yom Kippur, 10 days later. For that reason, the traditional greeting among Jews on Yom Kippur is Gemar Chatima Tova, which means “good final sealing” and conveys the wish: “May your name be sealed in the book of life.”

Yom Kippur services begin with the Kol Nidre, an ancient prayer that literally means “all vows” or “all promises.” The last service of the day ends with the sounding of a ram’s horn called a shofar.

Saturday, September 19, 2026

LA County Superior Court Announces Voluntary Separation Program

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles County Superior Court announced a Voluntary Separation Incentive Program Friday to give court employees the option to leave court service as part of an effort to reduce staff positions and lower expenses amid ongoing budgetary constraints.

The court will offer a $35,000 payment to current full-time employees with five or more years of continuous service who elect to resign. Vacated positions will be eliminated outright, in the effort to produce budget savings rather than one-time relief, the court said in a statement.

Court users should expect reduced or delayed service due to the staffing reductions and other operational cuts, including longer wait times at service windows, slower call center response and delays in legal document processing.

“Just as Los Angeles County residents are struggling to keep pace with rising gas and grocery prices, the court finds itself in a similar bind — our operational costs continue to outpace our budget resources,” Presiding Judge Sergio C.

Saturday, September 19, 2026

Fire Department Swaps Aging Medications With Huntington Hospital Pharmacy

The trade mirrors the stewardship rule behind the department’s new field blood program, where unused units go back to the hospital

Pasadena firefighter-paramedics are trading medications nearing their expiration dates to Huntington Hospital Pharmacy in exchange for stock with longer shelf life, an arrangement the City of Pasadena says reduces replacement costs and keeps drugs from going unused or wasted.

Medications approaching expiration go to the hospital pharmacy, where they can be used more quickly, and the fire department receives units dated further out, according to the city. The pharmacy also supplies narcotics and other emergency medical services medications that the city said can be difficult to obtain elsewhere.

The exchange runs alongside a second, larger arrangement with the same hospital system. In August the Pasadena Fire Department joined LA-DROP, the Los Angeles Prehospital Blood Transfusion Program, in partnership with Huntington Health, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai, and the Houchin Community Blood Bank.

Under that program, the department carries low-titer O-positive whole blood on two Battalion Chief vehicles,