Monday, May 4, 2026

Help Filing Eaton Fire Paperwork: County Mental Health Brings One-on-One Sessions to Loma Alta Park This Week

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health offers walk-in support all day at the Altadena Library satellite branch inside the recently rebuilt park

Sixteen months into the Eaton Fire recovery, the volume of paperwork falling on survivors has not eased: insurance claims under review, FEMA appeals, SCE Wildfire Recovery Compensation Program offers, contractor estimates, county debris programs and rebuild permits all crowded into the same kitchen tables.

On Saturday, May 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health will offer free one-on-one technical assistance with post-fire paperwork at the Altadena Library satellite branch inside Loma Alta Park.

No advance appointments are required for the Saturday sessions. Survivors can simply walk in. The location, Loma Alta Park, reopened last May as a so-called super park after sustaining damage in the fire, with a satellite Altadena Library, satellite senior center, mental health clinicians, after-school programming and youth employment hubs all built in as part of the park’s expanded role in the community’s recovery.

Monday, May 4, 2026

A $7 Cheeseburger Reopened Debate Over Bail in California. Here’s What the Supreme Court Found

By Nigel Duara, CALMATTERS

The California Supreme Court held Thursday that judges should take someone’s financial circumstances into account when setting bail, a ruling that gives courts some flexibility to jail indigent defendants before trial.

The case turned on a $7 cheeseburger purchased with another person’s credit card. The person charged with theft spent six months in jail on a bail he couldn’t afford.

While his case was resolved long ago, the court decided to take up the constitutional questions arising from his incarceration and inability to pay his way out.

Two articles in the California Constitution were potentially in conflict: a defendant’s right to be released on bail except for certain violent or sexual crimes, and a separate article created by the 2008 ballot measure that instructs judges that “public safety and the safety of the victim shall be the primary considerations” in setting bail amounts. The question before the high court was whether they could harmonize.

Monday, May 4, 2026

Nonprofit Walks Eaton Fire Survivors Through the Hidden Traps of Rebuilding

The free Zoom session tackles contractor disputes, insurance shortfalls, and construction scams that have already surfaced across the burn zone

Sixteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed more than 9,400 structures across Altadena and surrounding foothill communities, property owners who are ready to rebuild face a second gauntlet — one made of contracts, change orders, and insurance math that rarely adds up on the first try.

United Policyholders, a nonprofit consumer organization founded in 1991 that accepts no funding from insurance companies, will host a free Zoom webinar on Thursday, May 21, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. titled “Avoiding and Solving Problems During a Post-Wildfire Rebuild.”

The session is aimed at property owners whose homes were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires and is part of the organization’s Roadmap to Recovery program, a long-running educational effort the nonprofit activates after every major disaster, according to the organization’s website.

The webinar’s subject matter reflects what previous Eaton Fire survivor sessions have identified as the stage where recoveries most often stall: the rebuild itself.

Monday, May 4, 2026

Pasadena Students Trade Textbooks for Batting Cages at Dodgers STEM Field Day

More than 500 pupils from four school districts, including Pasadena Unified, use baseball to learn geometry, physics and sustainability at a Compton ballpark honoring Jackie Robinson

Pasadena students measured strike zones, calculated wind resistance on the base paths and studied the waste a ballpark produces — all on fields named for a man who once played shortstop at John Muir High School in their own city.

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation is hosting its annual STEM Field Day on Monday, May 4, bringing more than 500 Dodgers Dreamteam participants and students from the Pasadena, Los Angeles, Hawthorne, and Inglewood unified school districts to Gonzales Park for hands-on activities connecting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to baseball and softball.

The event is planned for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Dodgers Dreamfields Nos. 52–54 on Rachel Robinson Field, Jackie Robinson Stadium and Field 42 — a complex honoring the baseball legend who grew up on Pepper Street in Pasadena and starred at Muir before breaking the sport’s color barrier in 1947.

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Netflix Comedy Festival Brings Free Marketplace and Surprise Lineups to Altadena Eagles Lodge

Five nights of sold-out stand-up shows and an open-air vendor market aim to support Eaton Fire recovery, with half of all tickets going directly to fire victims

For five nights this week, the parking lot of the Fraternal Order of Eagles 719 will become an open-air marketplace of Black-owned businesses, food vendors, and live music — free to anyone who walks in.

The marketplace is the public face of “Comedy for the Community: Supporting Altadena Eaton Fire Relief,” a series of nightly comedy shows running Monday, May 4, through Friday, May 8, at the Eagles hall at 455 E. Woodbury Road as part of the 2026 Netflix Is A Joke Fest, the week-long comedy festival taking over venues across Los Angeles from May 4 through May 10. The indoor shows, hosted by comedian and actor Deon Cole and featuring surprise lineups, are sold out, according to the festival’s website.

But residents don’t need a ticket to take part. A free outdoor marketplace will operate in the Eagles parking lot each evening from 6:00 to 10:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Pasadena-Area Democratic Coalition Raises Funds for New Campaign Headquarters

A spring fundraiser at a South Pasadena estate aims to open the office before the 2026 midterms

The United Democratic Headquarters, a coalition of eight Democratic clubs that has organized in the Pasadena area for nearly four decades, is holding a fundraiser Saturday to bankroll a new campaign office it expects to open in late June or early July.

The event, called the Spring Soiree, begins at 2 p.m. at a private estate in South Pasadena. The address is provided upon RSVP. Tickets are available through ActBlue by clicking here.

The organization is also billing the event as “Taking Back America,” according to its website.

The coalition, known as UDH, has opened campaign offices in the Pasadena area during election years since the late 1980s. In 2024, it operated out of an office at 400 South Lake Avenue in Pasadena, where volunteers phone-banked, wrote postcards, and canvassed for Democratic candidates. The new headquarters would serve a similar function ahead of the 2026 midterm elections,

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Cyclists Offered Discounts at 13 Local Businesses on National Ride a Bike Day

City of Pasadena Department of Transportation marks the day as the centerpiece of a month-long Bike Month program

Cyclists Offered Discounts at 13 Local Businesses on National Ride a Bike Day

Thirteen Pasadena and Altadena businesses are offering discounts to customers who arrive by bicycle on Sunday, May 3, as the City of Pasadena Department of Transportation marks National Ride a Bike Day, the centerpiece of its month-long Pasadena Bike Month program.

The all-day event runs from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. and has no fixed route, according to the official event page operated by the city, the nonprofit Day One and the Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition.

Riders can travel any route they choose and stop at participating businesses to claim same-day deals listed on the organizers’ public roster.

Salt & Straw, at 39 W. Colorado Blvd., is offering a buy-one, get-one free deal for bike riders.
Prince Street Pizza, at 49 E. Colorado Blvd., is selling $5 slices.

Saturday, May 2, 2026

LitFest Continues Saturday in Pasadena With 35-Plus Panels and Readings

A free literary festival serving Pasadena and Altadena returns for its main public day with 100-plus authors

LitFest in the Dena, the extraordinary free literary festival serving Pasadena and Altadena, holds its full Saturday program today from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, with panels, workshops and readings built around the 2026 theme “Books That Changed the Public Narrative.”

The two-day festival, now in its 14th year, runs at 585 E. Colorado Blvd. The Saturday session carries the bulk of the schedule, which the festival lists as more than 35 panels, workshops and readings across the weekend, featuring more than 100 authors. Admission is free and no registration is required, according to organizers.

The festival is presented by Light Bringer Project, a Pasadena-based nonprofit founded in 1990, and the literary journal Locavore Lit LA. Festival materials list the 2026 theme as a focus on books that have shifted public conversations — citing works such as “Silent Spring,”

Saturday, May 2, 2026

RAND Study Highlights Success of LA County Reentry Housing Program

CITY NEWS SERVICE

An evaluation by the RAND Corporation finds Los Angeles County’s Breaking Barriers program is helping justice-involved people secure and maintain housing while building long-term stability, officials announced Friday.

The program, operated by the county’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department (JCOD), provides rental subsidies, case management and employment services to people exiting the justice system who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

According to the evaluation, 83% of participants receiving housing subsidies remained housed after one year, exceeding the program’s retention goal, while 56% of 460 participants studied obtained subsidies and secured housing.

“The RAND evaluation confirms what we see every day — when people have stable housing, consistent coordinated support, structure, and access to living-wage employment, they generally commit to the provided opportunities and rebuild their lives,” JCOD Director Songhai Armstead said in a statement.

Among participants who exited the program after receiving subsidies, 61% achieved positive outcomes such as taking over their own rent,

Friday, May 1, 2026

LitFest in the Dena Opens Tonight With 200 Authors and an Immigration Discussion Panel

The free Pasadena festival, born in Altadena and displaced by fire, returns for its 14th year

An immigration enforcement discussion panel will open LitFest in the Dena tonight at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, launching two days of readings, panels, and workshops built around the question of how books reshape the way a society thinks.

The free literary festival, now in its 14th year, brings approximately 200 authors to 585 E. Colorado Blvd. for programming themed “Books That Changed the Public Narrative,” according to a press release from the organizers. Founded in Altadena in 2012 and historically held at the Mountain View Mausoleum, the festival relocated to the Pasadena church after the January 2025 Eaton Fire led to the mausoleum site being used for Army Corps of Engineers recovery operations.

The opening panel, “Speaking Truth to Power: Humanizing Immigrant Communities in the Time of ICE,” features Daniel Olivas, a California Department of Justice attorney and speculative fiction author who lives in Pasadena;