Thursday, February 26, 2026

Altadena Business Owners Get Another Shot at Recovery Guidance Tonight

A Pasadena-based wildfire law firm hosts a roundtable for entrepreneurs still navigating the Eaton Fire’s aftermath

More than 13 months after the Eaton Fire wiped out roughly half of this community’s businesses, a Pasadena-based plaintiff law consortium is holding a roundtable tonight aimed at helping surviving business owners understand their recovery options.

LA Fire Justice — a consortium of wildfire attorneys that has filed lawsuits against Southern California Edison on behalf of Eaton Fire survivors — is hosting the Business Roundtable from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Altadena Design Works Resource Center, 409 E. Woodbury Rd. According to the organization’s website, all guidance will be educational and non-legal, and no direct negotiation or communication with insurers will take place at the event.

The Altadena Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1924, is promoting the event through its social media and events calendar, listing LA Fire Justice as a chamber member. Chamber posts on February 21 described it as “LA Fire Justice presents Business Roundtable.”

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Eaton Fire Displaced Eliot Arts Students Raise Funds for Broadway Trip

A GoFundMe campaign seeks $15,000 in scholarships so no student misses out on seeing three shows in New York

Thirteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed their school campus, theater students at Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School are raising money to experience Broadway in New York City — a dream that began when the students performed their spring musical on one of Los Angeles’ most prominent stages.

Drama teacher Mollie Lief and dance teacher Billy Rugh launched a GoFundMe campaign on Feb. 10 seeking $15,000 to fund scholarships for the trip, called Eliot Arts Broadway Bound. Sixty students are set to go to Manhattan, where they would see three Broadway shows, attend workshops and explore the city, according to the campaign page.

As of Thursday, the campaign had raised $5,271 from 73 donors.

The funds will go to families who cannot afford the full cost of the trip, according to the GoFundMe page. For many of the students,

Thursday, February 26, 2026

Pasadena School Closures: A District at a Crossroads

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is scheduled to vote Thursday on the guiding principles for a committee that could recommend the closure of several schools, a move driven by a severe financial crisis and years of declining student enrollment. This vote represents a critical juncture for the district, which is grappling with a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, the devastating aftermath of the 2025 Eaton Fire, and a history of contentious school closures.

The immediate decision before the board is the approval of “Desired Outcomes and Factors” that will steer the newly formed Superintendent’s School Consolidation Advisory Committee (SCAC).

This committee, which held its first meeting on February 23, is working with an external consultant, Total School Solutions, under a $233,300 contract. It is tasked with analyzing the district’s landscape and presenting potential school consolidation scenarios to the board by May 2026, with a final board vote on any closures scheduled for June 25, 2026.

Pasadena Unified is facing a difficult financial situation,

Thursday, February 26, 2026

PUSD Audit Reveals $33.3 Million in Fire Losses as District Faces Layoff Vote

Insurance recoveries of $133 million mask an underlying operating deficit; classroom teacher spending falls to 42 percent, far below the state-required 55 percent

The Eaton Fire destroyed $33.3 million worth of buildings and equipment at five Pasadena Unified School District campuses, but $133 million in insurance recoveries preserved the district’s finances during the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to an annual audit report set to be presented to the Board of Education Thursday night.

The audit, conducted by CliftonLarsonAllen and covering the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, also flagged five findings — two of them repeat problems CLA said the district has failed to fix — and revealed that the share of spending devoted to classroom teacher salaries dropped to 41.97 percent, well below the 55 percent required by state law. 

The board will consider accepting the report at its regular meeting at 4:30 p.m. in the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room at 351 S. Hudson Ave., Pasadena.

The presentation comes on the same night the board is expected to formalize more than 160 employee layoffs as part of a plan to address a $30 million structural deficit.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Edison Parent Reports $4.46 Billion Profit as Altadena Wildfire Litigation Proceeds

Wildfire litigator criticizes ‘misplaced priorities’

Edison International, the parent company of Southern California Edison, reported $4.459 billion in net income for 2025 — more than triple its $1.284 billion profit the previous year — according to financial results released Feb. 18 during an investor call outlining the company’s performance and shareholder returns.

The disclosure has drawn criticism from an attorney representing plaintiffs in litigation related to the Eaton Fire, which burned through parts of Altadena.

Richard Bridgford, whose firm Bridgford, Gleason and Artinian filed the first case in the Eaton Fires, and is handling the lead Gursey case against the utility, said in a public statement that the earnings highlight what he described as misplaced priorities.

“While families in Altadena are still grieving the loss of homes, memories, and loved ones, Southern California Edison announced $4.5 billion in profits — nearly triple last year — boosted in part by a 9% rate increase approved by the California Public Utilities Commission,”

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

PUSD Bond Watchdog Finds Proper Spending but Flags Staffing Risks

District’s oversight committee tells board the bond program lacked adequate personnel after an outside manager was let go

An independent audit found the Pasadena Unified School District properly spent money from its two voter-approved school construction bonds during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, but the citizens’ committee that monitors that spending warned the district exposed itself to risk by trying to manage the program without enough staff.

The Citizens’ Oversight Committee’s annual report, which covers Measures TT and O — bonds worth a combined $866.3 million approved by voters in 2008 and 2020 — goes before the Board of Education at its regular meeting Thursday at the Elbie J. Hickambottom Board Room, 351 S. Hudson Ave.

Auditing firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP concluded that “in all significant respects, the District has properly expended the funds held in the Measure TT and Measure O Bond Building Funds on authorized bond projects,” according to the report. The auditors presented their findings to the board on March 27,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

California Democrats Back Establishment Candidates Despite Progressive Pushback

By Maya C. Miller, CALMATTERS

The California Democratic Party is betting that a tried-and-true playbook and standard-bearer candidates offer their best chance to take back the U.S. House in November’s midterms rather than fresh faces and more populist policy planks.

The country’s largest state Democratic party endorsed a slate of aging congressional incumbents at its convention in San Francisco after a weekend that illustrated the high stakes in this year’s midterms. In congressional districts without an incumbent, the party gave the nod to a handful of current state lawmakers who, while younger, are party insiders compared to the grassroots political outsiders who are running as Democrats in contested races.

Among the incumbents who sailed to endorsements were Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, 74, who’s running for his 15th term, and Rep. Brad Sherman of the San Fernando Valley, 71, seeking a 16th term.

In the open race to succeed the late Republican Rep.

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Pasadena Unified to Vote Thursday on Eliminating Hundreds of Positions Amid Budget Shortfall

The combined total of more than 411 positions would represent the largest proposed single-year workforce reduction in the district’s modern history

The Pasadena Unified School District Board of Education is set to vote Thursday on two resolutions that could eliminate more than 250 classified staff positions and reduce certificated services by 161.35 full-time equivalents, the largest workforce reductions in recent district history. 

Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco has addressed the district’s financial situation and layoff prospects in several recent emails to the school community. 

“Reduction-in-force resolutions must be submitted to LACOE in March 2026. These actions are among the most difficult decisions any school system can face. They reflect careful, deliberate efforts, both at the central office and school sites, to preserve teaching and learning while maintaining financial stability,” Dr. Blanco wrote last week. 

United Teachers of Pasadena President Jonathan Gardner, in a Feb. 22 guest opinion published by Pasadena Now, said the planned reductions would affect school social workers,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

Free Expert Panel Brings Small Business Recovery Resources Directly to Altadena

Four specialists in lending, disaster preparedness, and county economic development will field questions from fire-affected entrepreneurs on Wednesday

A free panel on small business recovery and resilience will be held Wednesday at a women-owned Altadena event venue, bringing experts in disaster preparedness, county resources, commercial lending, and impact investing to the community still rebuilding 13 months after the Eaton Fire.

TMC Community Capital and Comerica Bank will host “Beyond the Hustle Live” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 409 Woodbury, 409 E. Woodbury Rd., according to the event’s Eventbrite listing.

The panel features four specialists: Lily Bui, director of climate and disaster preparedness and resilience at SoCal Grantmakers; Theresa Saguinsin, vice president and district manager at Comerica Bank; Leila Lee, assistant director at the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity; and Aben Hill, chief lending officer at Pacific Community Ventures, according to event promotional materials.

The event will include time for questions and discussion, information on resources available to small business owners,

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

School District Reports Mixed Progress on Midyear Academic Goals; 8th Grade Math Targets Exceeded

Pasadena Unified School District students are showing gains in reading and math at midyear, though the district fell short of several interim targets for Black and Hispanic students in literacy, according to a presentation scheduled for the Board of Education’s Thursday meeting.

The 48-slide report covers the district’s progress on academic goals adopted by the board in three areas: literacy, mathematics and college and career readiness, as measured primarily by the iReady diagnostic assessment administered this winter. The goals are interim benchmarks on the way to longer-term targets the board set for 2030: 75% of third graders proficient in English Language Arts on the CAASPP state test, 70% of fifth graders and 60% of eighth graders proficient in math, and 75% of graduates qualifying as prepared on the College Career Indicator.

In reading, the district reported a nine percentage point increase in students placing into on-level placements — defined as mid or above grade level combined with early on grade level — between fall and winter of the 2025-26 school year,