Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, February 20, 2021

5


Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 20, 2021 

Local Area 
News Brief


Gordo to Host First Virtual 
State of the City Address

 Boy Shot Multiple 
Times in Northwest 
Pasadena 

 Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo 
(pictured) will hold his first 
annual State of the City address 
virtually on Wednesday on 
KPAS TV. The event starting at 
7 p.m. will also be livestreamed 
online at pasadenamedia.org/
kpas.

 The State of the City address 
will reflect on the challenges 
the community has faced 
over the last year, highlight 
accomplishments included 
in the city’s 2020 Annual 
Report, and look ahead to 
the future of Pasadena. The 
city’s 2020 Annual Report 
will be available for review 
online at cityofpasadena.net/
city-manager/annual-reports 
starting Feb. 24. The address 
will also include a special video 
presentation, and Mayor Gordo 
will respond to questions 
from community members 
submitted via video. The city 
will also provide Spanish 
translation.

 During this year’s State of 
the City, the community 
is encouraged to support 
local businesses by ordering 
takeout or delivery from one 
of Pasadena’s restaurants. The 
city, in collaboration with the 
Pasadena Convention and 
Visitors Bureau, launched an 
online directory of restaurants 
that have remained open during 
the pandemic. The directory is 
categorized for easy access and 
ordering. View the directory at 
visitpasadena.com/covid-19-
resources/pasadenabusinesses.

 “These have been trying times 
for all of us. To help support 
our local restaurants, I am 
inviting you to order takeout 
and join me from the comfort 
of your home as I deliver my 
first State of the City address 
directly from my home. Thank 
you for the honor and privilege 
of serving as your mayor,” said 
Mayor Gordo.

 For more information visit: 
cityofpasadena.net.

 
Pasadena police are 
asking for the public’s help 
find three suspects wanted 
in connection with the 
shooting of a 10-year-old 
boy Sunday in Northwest 
Pasadena.

 Mario Ramirez, identified 
by his parents, was shot 
multiple time at around 3 
p.m. as he was playing in
front of his house in the
300 block of Parke Street.

 According to police, the 
suspects exited a vehicle 
and fired multiple bullets, 
striking Ramirez. The 
suspect then re-entered 
their vehicle and fled the 
area in what is described 
as a late model, light 
colored four-door sedan. 
Additional evidence is 
being examined in an 
attempt to determine the 
suspects descriptions they 
said.

 According to news reports 
Ramirez was shot in the 
chest, left wrist and right 
ankle. He was in stable 
condition after undergoing 
surgeries on Sunday and 
Wednesday. 

 Police said they do not 
believe Ramirez was the 
intended target. 

 The shooting was also part 
of a discussion during an 
online District 5 Town Hall 
meeting Thursday night. 
Pasadena Police Chief 
John Perez said a wave of 
shootings in the area are 
related to poverty, young 
people getting out of jail 
sooner and criminals not 
going to jail for possession 
of handguns or any other 
type of crimes he said. 

 Pasadena Police is urging 
anyone with information 
about this case to call the 
Pasadena Police at (626) 
744-4241 or anonymously
at (800) 222-TIPS (8477).

Perseverance Rover Lands on Red Planet


By Dean Lee 

and Staff Reports 

 NASA Scientists at the 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
confirmed Thursday that the 
Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover 
successful touchdown down 
at Jezero Crater on the Red 
Planet, after a 203 day journey 
traversing 293 million miles. 
The landing was announced in 
JPL mission control at 12:55 
p.m. to an overjoyed team.

 “Touchdown confirmed,” 
the control team announced. 
“Perseverance is safely on the 
surface of Mars, ready to begin 
seeking the signs of past life.” 

 Loaded with groundbreaking 
technology, including Mars 
Helicopter Ingenuity, the Mars 
2020 mission launched July 30 
from Cape Canaveral Space 
Force Station in Florida. The 
Perseverance rover mission 
marks a first step in the effort to 
collect Mars samples and return 
them to Earth team scientists 
said. 

 “Landing on Mars is always 
an incredibly difficult task 
and we are proud to continue 
building on our past success,” 
JPL Director Michael Watkins 
said. “But, while Perseverance 
advances that success, this rover 
is also blazing its own path and 
daring new challenges in the 
surface mission. We built the 
rover not just to land but to find 
and collect the best scientific 
samples for return to Earth, and 
its incredibly complex sampling 
system and autonomy not only 
enable that mission, they set 
the stage for future robotic and 
crewed missions.

 According to a press 
statement, about the size 
of a car, Perseverance, a 
2,263-pound robotic geologist 
and astrobiologist will undergo 
several weeks of testing before 
it begins its two-year science 
investigation of Mars’ Jezero 
Crater. While the rover will 
investigate the rock and 
sediment of Jezero’s ancient 
lakebed and river delta to 
characterize the region’s 
geology and past climate, a 
fundamental part of its mission 
is astrobiology, including the 
search for signs of ancient 
microbial life. To that end, the 
Mars Sample Return campaign, 
being planned by NASA and 
ESA (European Space Agency), 
will allow scientists on Earth 
to study samples collected by 
Perseverance to search for 
definitive signs of past life 
using instruments too large 
and complex to send to the Red 
Planet.

 “Because of today’s [Thursday] 
exciting events, the first 
pristine samples from carefully 
documented locations on 
another planet are another 
step closer to being returned to 
Earth,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, 
associate administrator for 
science at NASA. “Perseverance 
is the first step in bringing back 
rock and regolith from Mars. 
We don’t know what these 
pristine samples from Mars will 
tell us. But what they could tell 
us is monumental – including 
that life might have once existed 
beyond Earth.”

 Some 28 miles (45 kilometers) 
wide, Jezero Crater sits on the 
western edge of Isidis Planitia, a 
giant impact basin just north of 
the Martian equator. Scientists 
have determined that 3.5 billion 
years ago the crater had its own 
river delta and was filled with 
water.

 Attached to the bottom of 
Perseverance, the Ingenuity 
Mars Helicopter will also 
attempt the first powered 
controlled flight on another 
planet the statement reads.

 Project engineers and 
scientists will put Perseverance 
through its paces, testing 
every instrument, subsystem, 
and subroutine over the next 
month or two. Only then will 
they deploy the helicopter to 
the surface for the flight test 
phase. If successful, Ingenuity 
could add an aerial dimension 
to exploration of the Red Planet 
in which such helicopters serve 
as a scouts or make deliveries 
for future astronauts away from 
their base.

 Once Ingenuity’s test flights are 
complete, the rover’s search for 
evidence of ancient microbial 
life will begin in earnest they 
said.

 “Perseverance is more than 
a rover, and more than this 
amazing collection of men and 
women that built it and got us 
here,” said John McNamee, 
project manager of the Mars 
2020 Perseverance rover 
mission at JPL. “It is even more 
than the 10.9 million people 
who signed up to be part of our 
mission. This mission is about 
what humans can achieve when 
they persevere. We made it this 
far. Now, watch us go.”

 For full disclosure, the 
reporter of this story is one of 
the 10,932,295 people with a 
boarding pass, to ride aboard 
the rover, as part of the “Send 
Your Name to Mars” campaign. 

 The names were put onto three 
fingernail-sized silicon chips 
along with essays of NASA’s 
“Name the Rover” contest.

Regarding Paul R. Williams: 
A Photographer’s View

Photos: Top, JPL mission control. Above, Rover's first image. 
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Live over Zoom

February 28 | 2:00 PM

 After the live presentation on 
February 28, a recording of this 
program will be available to 
ticket purchasers until March 
28.

 Regarding Paul R. Williams 
is a photographic exploration 
of the work of the first Black 
member of the American 
Institute of Architects. Known 
as the “architect to the stars,” 
Paul Revere Williams was a 
Los Angeles native who built a 
wildly successful architectural 
practice decades before the 
Civil Rights Movement. He 
designed municipal buildings 
and private homes as well as 
banks, churches, hospitals, and 
university halls. He designed 
public housing projects and 
mansions for celebrities like 
Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball. 
In 2017, nearly forty years after 
his death, he became the first 
black recipient of the AIA Gold 
Medal.

 In her book, artist Janna 
Ireland explores the work and 
legacy of Williams through a 
series of intimate black-and-
white photographs. Ireland 
gives the reader a vision of 
Williams that is both universal 
and highly personal. More 
than a book of architectural 
photographs, Regarding Paul 
R.Williams is the result of one
artist’s encounter with another,
connecting across different
generations within the same
city.

 Janna Ireland was born in 
Philadelphia, but has chosen 
Los Angeles as her home. 
She holds an MFA from the 
UCLA Department of Art and 
a BFA from the Department 
of Photography and Imaging 
at NYU. Her work has been 
shown in solo and group 
exhibitions across the United 
States and internationally. Her 
photographs have appeared 
in numerous publications, 
including Aperture, The 
New Yorker, Harper’s, Frieze, 
Camera Austria, the Los 
Angeles Times, and The New 
York Times Magazine. Her 
book, Regarding Paul R. 
Williams: A Photographer’s 
View, was published in 2020 
and shortlisted for the Paris 
Photo–Aperture Foundation 
First PhotoBook award.

 Attendees will be entered to 
win one of three Regarding Paul 
R.Williams: A Photographer’s
View books during the live
zoom presentation. For
more or to buy tickets visit:
angelcitypress.com/products/
will.

Other upcoming Pasadena
Heritage events

February 6 - February 28 -
Recording of Old Pasadena
Virtual Tour featuring Black
History tickets available.

March 13 - Julia Morgan and
Her Legacy, a presentation
on the life and work of this
ground-breaking architect by
Professor Emerita, Cal Poly
Pomona, Ana Maria Whitaker
with an update on the future of
Pasadena’s own Julia Morgan
building, the former YWCA.

Spring Home Tours - A
3-part series of virtual tours
of exceptional residential
architecture in Pasadena in
April, May, and June.

 Naked Suspect 
Steals, Crashes PCC 
Police Vehicle 

 A naked man crashed 
a Pasadena City College 
police curser into a building 
Thursday night after he 
allegedly attacked his 
girlfriend and then led police 
on a chase, possibly under the 
influence of PCP.

 According to police, they 
arrested Shawn Aguilar 
shortly before 11 p.m. after 
he led police on a chase that 
ended with Aguilar slamming 
the SUV into a building in 
the 1200 block of East Green 
Street badly damaging the 
stolen PCC police SUV.

 According to PCC officers, 
they observed a truck driving 
the wrong way on Green 
Street. After catching up 
to the truck in the parking 
lot of the Office Depot on 
Colorado Boulevard, Aguilar 
got agitated with officers and 
took off his clothes. Officers 
used pepper spray to subdue 
him, Aguilar was able to force 
his way into the PCC police 
vehicle and drive away. 

 The unidentified girlfriend 
told police Aguilar had 
smoked PCP that night. 

 He was taken to a nearby 
hospital because of his erratic 
behavior police said. 

 Aguilar faces charges of 
grand theft auto and felony 
evading arrest.

Jungle Drum 
Circle with 
Chazz Ross

 
Pasadena Public Library is 
celebrating Black History 
Month with a Jungle Drum 
Circle performance for 
families by Chazz Ross, 
drawing on 40 years of 
experience in African 
music and dance, Monday, 
Feb. 22 at 2:00 p.m. on 
Zoom. Enjoy an amazing 
percussion show with 
African Djembe drums 
and learn about their 
history. To attend, sign 
up at: cityofpasadena.net/
library or contact Jennifer 
Driscoll at jdriscoll@
cityofpasadena.net for 
more information. 


Libraries Curbside to Resume

 The Altadena libraries are set 
to reopen with curbside picked 
staring March 2 for checkout 
of physical items including 
Laptops and WiFi hotspots, 
Oculus Quest virtual reality 
headsets, Sewing Machines, 
Telescopes, Musical Exploration 
Kits for Children, Tarot card 
decks and books. 

 Library staff will return to the 
library buildings the week of 
March 1, socially distanced and 
in staggered shifts to reduce the 
risk of exposure. Upon staff’s 
return, preparation for curbside 
services will commence. 

Curbside appointments will 
resume on Tuesday, March 2.

Main Library: Monday - 
Saturday, 11:00am - 1:00pm, 
4:00 - 5:45pm

Bob Lucas Memorial Library: 
Monday - Friday, 10:00am - 
5:00pm

 Library users must wear face 
coverings at all times and 
remain at least 6 feet apart.

For more information visit: 
altadenalibrary.org.


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