12.27.18

PW OPINION PW NEWS PW LIFE PW ARTS
LIFE AS IT HAPPENED
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14
Colleen Dunn Bates
Nazis, and Interim Police Chief Perez says he wants the chief’s job full
time. Arlene and Robert Oltman talk about the closure of their dream,
the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and officials note that the city’s
senior homeless population just keeps growing. The city holds public
hearings on police chief recruitment, Colleen Dunn Bates shows her
love for Pasadena with the latest edition of “Hometown Pasadena,” and
the council unanimously adopts Africa’s Dakar-Plateau as Pasadena’s
sixth sister city.
SEPTEMBER
Attorneys accuse Altadena Library Board members of violating state open meeting law
via email in trying to fire Library Director Mindy Kittay, the Old Pasadena Management
District hires a homeless outreach specialist, another suicide attempt from the Colorado
Street Bridge prompts City Manager Steve Mermell to increase fencing
around the iconic structure, and Pasadena’s Miriam Pawel discusses
her book on the Brown Family’s political legacy in California. Local
filmmaker Pablo Miralles’ documentary on the segregation of Muir High
receives community praise, the Altadena Library Board president admits
to Brown Act violations, former Pasadena police Lt. Vasken Gourdikian
learns he faces 2.5 to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced in February
Charles Rappleye
for illegally selling firearms over the Internet, disgraced former LA
County Sheriff Lee Baca appeals his corruption conviction to the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals, Pasadena native Sally Field finds her true voice
in the memoir “In Pieces,” legendary blind trainer Canto Robledo is posthumously inducted
into West Coast Boxing Hall of Fame, and former LA Weekly News Editor Charles Rappleye, a
mentor and friend of this writer, dies after a valiant battle with cancer at age 62.
OCTOBER
Pasadena teacher and coach Victor Reyna, husband of Pasadena author and publisher
Thelma Reyna, succumbs during routine surgical procedure. He was 74. Frances Arnold
becomes first woman at Caltech to win Nobel Prize, the city Health
Department warns that typhus is on the rise, and the local school district
reveals plans to close three schools and eliminate sports at Blair High
School. In the upcoming election, Proposition 10 would open the door for
local governments to enact their own rent control laws, Pulitzer Prizewinning
New York Times reporter C.J. Chivers tells the story of America’s
longest wars through the eyes of “The Fighters: Americans in Combat in
Afghanistan and Iraq,” the City Council votes to end the contentious trafficcalming
Orange Grove Boulevard “road diet,” and the county’s “Big Dig”
Victor Reyna
sediment removal project at Devil’s Gate Dam draws the ire of residents
and activists alike.
NOVEMBER
A report by Alternet’s Alex Henderson finds many states had devised devious ways to keep
minorities from voting, Jennipha-Lauren Nielsen, aka Queen Classy and Sassy, is chosen as
Queen of the 2018 Doo Dah Parade, and in commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the end
of World War I PW looks back at Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing, who mixed war and romance
before, during and after “The War to End All Wars.” In election news, Propositions 6 and 10 both
lose, but Measure I, the quarter-cent sales tax increase, and Measure J, an
advisory measure asking whether a third of those funds should be used to
help public schools, both pass. Danny Wooten, an evangelical minister and
former Pasadena Public Works Department analyst who embezzled $6.4
million from the city, is convicted on 53 criminal counts, and white power
signs are found posted at South Pasadena High. Local firefighters are
called on to help battle fight the lethal Woolsey fire, advocates say rewards
outweigh risks in adopting foster children, and National Geographic
Lionel Rolfe photographer Charlie Hamilton James talks at Caltech about the Amazon,
Africa and tribes isolated from the world. An expert on use of force claims
officers used reasonable force in the Ballew incident, and dear friend and
veteran Los Angeles journalist and PW contributor Lionel Rolfe dies at the age of 76.
DECEMBER
The county and Glendale freeze rents while both craft ways to combat oppressive monthly
payments, Pasadena officials decriminalize street vending to conform with state law, All Saints
Church holds a memorial service to acknowledge lives of people who died while homeless,
and Pasadena officials announce that they will soon be accepting permit
applications for commercial cannabis businesses. The Amgen Tour
announces it will again finish the statewide bike race in Pasadena, and
an ad hoc group is formed to figure out how Measure I funds will be
distributed to the Pasadena school district.
As noted from the outset, a new union movement, one representing
freelance writers, is taking off in New York and Los Angeles. For more on
that story, pick up the Jan. 3 edition of the Pasadena Weekly at your local
street rack or newsstand.
Happy New Year, Everyone.
Enjoy Mr. Freeny’s parade, the theme of which is “The Melody of Life”
featuring Chaka Khan, serving as grand marshal. It should be a ball.
As for the game, being a native Pennsylvania and a lifelong Penn State fan, all I can say is, Go
Huskies! n
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