Jessica Koslow

Shira Lazar thinks big. She is the founder and CEO of What’s Trending, a multiplatform digital media brand, and a content creator. It is because of what she does that she started Creators 4 Mental Health (C4MH), which offers well-being tools to the creator economy through education, events and research. Many of her events are held in Venice, such as The Kinn.

This month, Lazar traveled to Dubai, where she emcee’d the creator economy stage the 1 Billion Followers Summit, and flew back to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 15 to meet with California Representative Ro Khanna, who was introducing the Creator Bill of Rights, a resolution supporting fairer treatment, economic security and transparency for creators and digital workers in the modern platform-based economy.

According to the Creator Bill’s press release, the creator economy is worth $250 billion globally and is expected to reach $480 billion by 2027. It provides income for 12% of U.S. adults and has emerged as a full-time job for more than 10 million Americans. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Because Antonio Manning had lived in Altadena since 1991, the Eaton Fire was personal. Like many of his neighbors, he experienced a total loss. As a business person with 30-plus years in the banking finance world, specifically working with nonprofits, he became interested in the recovery process. In late summer 2025, he started attending the Eaton Fire Collaborative meetings at the Pasadena Elks Lodge.

The Eaton Fire Collaborative has been meeting weekly since Jan. 14, 2025. The group brings together community groups, local nonprofits and city, county and state officials dedicated to supporting the rebuilding and recovery of Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre. Soon, Manning assumed the role of chair of the Eaton Fire Collaborative Long-Term Recovery Group.

As Chair, the first order of business, according to Manning, was to bring a more formal structure to the group and its processes. The first steps were to get the leadership team in place and adopt bylaws. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

When Albert Zakhor rented a building 30 years ago for $350/month on the corner of Maple Avenue and East 9th Street, he was following in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his father, uncles and grandfather: buying and selling buttons.

Since the age of 1, his family was in the button business, eventually owning a button-making factory in Iran. After the Iranian Revolution ended in 1979 and the factory was confiscated, the family relocated to Los Angeles.

“Buttons are very strange merchandise,” said Zakhor. “It’s not food; it’s not building material. But dresses need a button and a zipper to close it. Nobody believes that the button is important, but it’s very important, and it’s very unique.” . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Although she has been working in jazz radio for 50 years, Rhonda Hamilton was still surprised to receive a call from the National Endowment for the Arts informing her that she was the recipient of the 2026 A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz Advocacy.

“That came as a big surprise,” Hamilton, who joined KJAZZ 88.1 in October 2021, shared. “I never expected that at all. When you’re working every day, you just do it. I’m not thinking about the impact that this has had. I started when I was in college in 1975. So here we are: This is 50 years, and when I think about that, my goodness, it’s a long time.”

When she first got the message to call somebody from the NEA, she thought, “That’s interesting, maybe they’re asking me to recommend somebody?” . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Like millions of people around the world, Nicole Blaine, owner of The Crow comedy club, has an affinity for the 2006 bestseller “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. Before she had even heard of it, its magic was working for her in mysterious ways.

“I have had the honor and the privilege of getting to witness miracles,” she said. 

One of the first ones was a chance meeting with her now-husband, Mickey, who was her then-high school crush. When Blaine saw Mickey playing the role of Kenickie in Santa Monica High School’s production of “Grease,” she fell hard. Thinking he was out of her league, Blaine dated his best friend instead. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

When Victoria Mehrnia and her husband moved to Playa Vista two years ago, one of the first things she noticed was that she had not seen any merchandise with the community’s name on it. Malibu and Marina del Rey had merchandise, so why not Playa Vista?

“I thought it could be a cool opportunity,” Mehrnia said, “and so I have been making hats myself just in our house. I played around with a couple of different ideas and came up with the name, Playa Vista Beach Club.”

The hat company is Mehrnia’s passion project, which she launched about four months ago. While she was browsing the Wednesday night summer market and year-round Saturday farmers market, she saw space for Playa Vista-branded merch. Most of her customers so far have been residents who discover her via Instagram. She meets them at The Resort, which is a community center, for the handoff. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

When the fires erupted in Altadena on Jan. 7, the flames destroyed many businesses. But the ashes could not erase the memories or hopes to rebuild.

On that day, Two Dragons Martial Arts burned to the ground, and in an instant, Sipoo Shelene Hearring lost the business she had run for 30 years. When the dust settled, Hearring wasn’t sure she could buy the land at 2490 Lake Avenue on the corner of Mariposa. With the community’s support, she launched a GoFundMe campaign and waited with bated breath as other offers came in to develop the land.

“What goes here will dictate how that part of the community will move forward,” wrote Brooke Iva Lohman in an email explaining the desperate situation of this local business on a quest to rebuild in the same location. “It poses the risk of altering the character and vibe of Altadena as a whole.” . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.

It’s not easy to guess what Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) does. Those who know, know. For everyone else, it is the first arts organization in Skid Row, founded 40 years ago by performance artist, director and activist John Malpede, who continues to direct, perform and engineer arts projects.

According to its website, LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people and the first arts program of any kind for homeless people in LA. Today, it is best known for its Festival for All Skid Row Artists, which celebrated its 16th year this past October at Gladys/General Jeff Park, and Walk the Talk, a biennial parade-performance led by a New Orleans-style brass band scheduled for May 2026.

Like other organizations around the country, LAPD is facing a shortfall of funds due to federal cuts and changed priorities by previously reliable sources. Malpede and his team are especially concerned because it happened so abruptly. . . .

Read the entire article at LA Downtown News.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so when Dr. Carmen Dones, Dean of Academic Affairs at West Los Angeles College, was meeting with the 19 community colleges that make up the Los Angeles Regional Consortium to learn about the needs of the healthcare industry, it became clear that the answer was more licensed vocational nurses (LVN).

The meeting consisted of industry leaders, hospital and medical professionals, and organizations such as Kaiser Permanente. Its agenda corresponded to the mission of the Los Angeles Regional Consortium: To connect college and career readiness and, as its website states, to bridge the gap between workforce preparedness and the employers fueling LA’s cutting-edge economy.

What resulted from the meeting was a new Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) Certificate Program, which is approved by the CA Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians (BVNPT) and prepares students for entry into the vital and growing field of vocational nursing. . . .

Read the entire article at The Argonaut.

Before the Eaton Fire in January 2025, there was considerably more naturally occurring affordable housing in Altadena.

Post-fire, according to the Altadena Builds Back Foundation (ABBF), the community faces a deep shortage of rental housing, with many renters still unable to find affordable replacement housing. A recent survey from the Eaton Fire Collaborative shared that 72% of surveyed renters are still in need of housing, and 68% experienced a total loss of their home. 

Last month, ABBF announced its largest grant to date — and the largest given through ABBF’s umbrella organization, Pasadena Community Foundation — which will support the rebuild of 14 units of affordable housing for very low-income renters in Altadena, prioritizing displaced fire survivors. . . .

Read the entire article at Pasadena Weekly.