Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, June 8, 2019

6

Mountain View News Saturday, June 8, 2019 


City Releases 
Cannabis 
Application 
Results

Humane Society Selects 
New President and CEO

 
Pasadena Humane 
Society Board of Directors 
announced Tuesday that 
Dia DuVernet has been 
chosen as the new president 
and CEO of the Pasadena 
Humane Society & SPCA. 
DuVernet is set to begin 
Monday.

 According to Humane 
Society officials, DuVernet 
brings more than a decade 
of experience leading 
nonprofit organizations. She 
has an extensive background 
in organizations dedicated 
to improving the quality of 
life for the most vulnerable 
communities, most recently 
serving as Virginia Beach 
SPCA (VSPSCA) president 
and CEO and previously 
as vice president at The Up 
Center, a Virginia nonprofit 
organization improving the 
quality of life for children 
and families.

 DuVernet grew up in 
Albany, GA, the youngest of 
five girls. An animal lover 
from an early age, she grew 
up with a German Shepherd 
mix named Moses, a 
Pekingese called Missy and 
Puff the cat.

 “We are excited to have 
Dia join our PHS family,” 
said PHS Board Chair 
Steve Johnson. “Her caring 
demeanor and depth of 
knowledge in mission-
driven nonprofit leadership 
will surely advance and 
support our mission of 
kindness, compassion and 
care for our animal friends.”

 The Board also thanked 
Ruthie Hughes for her 
leadership in serving as PHS’ 
interim president and CEO 
over the past nine months. 
“The executive team, 
under Hughes’ direction, 
has accomplished much 
in a short period of time.” 
They also said the board 
is confident that under 
DuVernet’s leadership, the 
PHS staff will continue to 
build on that momentum 
to improve and expand 
the shelter’s programs and 
services, and to be known 
as the finest animal welfare 
organization in the region.

 Pasadena Humane Society 
has been the preeminent 
animal welfare organization 
in the San Gabriel Valley 
since 1903. An open-door 
shelter, it serves 11 cities in 
the area, including Pasadena 
and Glendale, taking in 
over 12,000 animals each 
year and providing a variety 
of services and programs, 
including spay and neuter, 
wildlife management, 
mobile adoption events, 
wellness clinics and training 
classes.

 City of Pasadena officials 
announced they have 
completed the review and 
scoring of applications 
received for commercial 
cannabis retailer permits. 
The following are the six top-
scoring applicants:

Integral Associates Dena, 
LLC; Tony Fong; The Atrium 
Group, LLC; Harvest of 
Pasadena, LLC; SweetFlower 
Pasadena, LLC and MME 
Pasadena Retail, LLC’

 “We would like to recognize 
and congratulate the six 
top-scoring applicants 
who completed a very 
comprehensive process,” states 
City Manager Steve Mermell. 
Mr. Mermell added that future 
retail dispensaries will have 
appropriate design review and 
conditions to guard against 
impacts on surrounding 
uses and added, “I was 
pleased with the high-level 
of sophistication, experience 
and expertise demonstrated 
by the top-scoring applicants 
and look forward to a positive 
relationship between future 
permitted dispensaries and 
our community.”

 Applications for all three 
categories of commercial 
cannabis permits—retailers, 
testing laboratories and 
cultivators—were accepted 
from January 1 until January 
31. Of the 128 applications 
received, 122 applications 
were for the ‘Retailer’ category. 
Applications were thoroughly 
reviewed by Hinderliter, de 
Llamas and Associates (HdL), 
an independent municipal 
consulting group offering 
cannabis consulting services. 
Applications were scored by 
HdL according to the City 
of Pasadena Commercial 
Cannabis Permit Application 
Review Criteria, which consist 
of four primary categories 
with a total of 28 specific 
sub-criteria. There is a link to 
the complete list of all retail 
applicants and their scores, 
which will be maintained 
by the City for a period of 
12 months and may be used 
to identify potential future 
operators.

 The adopted marijuana 
regulations allow up to 
a maximum of six retail 
operators. The next steps 
for the top-scoring retail 
applicants are to submit 
a Conditional Use Permit 
(CUP) application and 
supplemental commercial 
cannabis information, 
including verification of a 
lease or ownership location 
that complies with the 
required distance separation 
requirements of the City’s 
commercial cannabis 
ordinance, a security plan 
and community benefits 
plan. The CUP applications 
will be evaluated and 
reviewed by the Planning 
Commission. The City 
continues to proactively deter 
unpermitted dispensaries 
through a multi-departmental 
enforcement effort comprised 
of the City Attorney/City 
Prosecutor Office, the 
Pasadena Police Department, 
Code Compliance and the 
California Department of Tax 
and Fee Administration. To 
date, the City has closed over 
20 dispensaries, 11 in the last 
year.

 :We anticipate concluding 
the review, scoring and 
identification of the top-
scoring applicants for 
the categories of ‘Testing 
Laboratories’ and ‘Cultivators’ 
within the next few weeks." 

 for more information go to: 
cityofpasadena.net/planning/
marijuana-regulations/.

Space Tech Expo Lands in Pasadena

By Dean Lee

 From virtual and augmented 
reality to black holes this year’s 
Space Tech Expo at the Pasadena 
Convention Center showcased 
space-related technologies and 
innovations in high tech for 
civil, military and commercial 
space applications.

 Some of the companies 
featured technology at the expo, 
May 18 through May 20, strait 
from video gaming including 
Microsoft’s new HoloLens 2 
developer edition, Oculus Rift 
S PC-Powered VR Gaming 
Headset and HTC Vive. But 
the expo’s similarities to video 
games ended there.

 Former longtime Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory design lead, user 
interface and user research, in 
the Ops Lab, Matthew Clausen, 
founded a new Holographic 
Prototyping company 
Clarvoyant in Los Angeles. 

 “They [JPL] hired me at the 
very beginning, using the 
[Microsoft] Kinect, we did a 
video game that was the Mars 
Rover Landing,” Clausen said. 
“Based on the 6 minutes of 
terror. That was one of the first 
Xbox 360 Kinect games.”

 Clausen said they founded 
Clarvoyant based on 
collaboration tools originally 
built at NASA / JPL to enable 
early-stage spacecraft design.

 Clausen said the big difference 
in HoloLens 2 is it has more 
cameras, sensors and a wider 
field of view. Both versions 
of the HoloLens are based on 
Kinect technology he said.

 “This will allow you to also 
see a hologram below you,” 
Clausen said adding that the 
operating system and controls 
are improved “This new one, 
you look at your wrist and there 
is a little Microsoft logo and you 
tap that to control things.”

 Clausen also the HoloLens 2 
lets you virtually grab object in 
the air. He said the new headset 
is still based on the Windows 
operating system. 

 Clausen said that the core 
idea and future of Clarvoyant is 
commercializing the work they 
had started at JPL. 

 “We want to use it for every 
industry where they are making 
a physical object and it starts in 
3D. “ he said. “That’s aerospace, 
that’s automotive, its energy, 
defense , etc. We have focused 
on aerospace because we know 
it so well.” 

 He said they give companies the 
opportunity, though augmented 
reality AR, to build things faster, 
cheaper, safer and “reducing 
risk, by seeing specially what 
your going to create physically 
first, that’s not physical, that 
gives people the opportunity 
to uncover problems that they 
might run into.”

 Another company, out of 
France, NucleusVR uses mixed 
reality AR and VR for remote 
collaboration. NucleusVR 
CEO Alexander Bolton said 
“We want to make it easer 
between engineers, astronauts 
and specialists for the design, 
evaluation and the activities 
of human space exploration, 
including on the International 
Space Station. 

 Not really a company but a 
concept design, local artist 
and user experience designer, 
Suzan Oslin created “Immersive 
Exoplanet Telescope” using VR 
and showed it off at the expo. 

 “I was at the NASA Space 
Apps Hackathon, we build 
this project with the NASA 
data... and because I have a 
passion for space, I’m able to do 
development, I took the project 
and continued working on it,” 
she said.

 Her vision is through VR, 
you visit different star systems, 
beyond our own, to learn about 
them, using comparable data, 
and what makes life on earth 
possible. Oslin is using the 
data and virtually mapping 
exoplanets in the habitable zone.

 Outside of Virtual reality, 
Digicom Electronics, based in 
Oakland, showcased advanced 
high-speed customized circuit 
boards used for the first-ever 
image of a black hole. General 
Manager Mo Ohady said 
the project was a worldwide 
scientific collaboration.

 “These exact boxes collected 
the data for them,” Ohady 
said pointing to a rack mount 
computer board displayed in 
their booth. “They did this for 
a number of years and finally 
[May 9] they published their 
results.”

 Pictured, Clarvoyant CEO, 
Matthew Clausen, Photo by 
D. Lee/MVNews


Altadena

Town Hall 
Safety 
Summit

Mural to Feature First African 
American Woman Astronaut

 Join the Altadena Sheriff’s 
Station for an informative 
evening this Monday starting 
at 6:00 p.m. and ending at 7:30 
p.m. The meeting will be at the 
Altadena Community Center 
located at 730 E. Altadena 
Drive. 

 The Sheriff’s department will 
have an hour long presentation 
with several highly qualified 
presenters and a 30 minute 
question and answer session.

Topics discussed:

Internet security, scams

Elder abuse warning signs

Hiking safety for new and 
experienced persons

Update on recent attack on 
hiker

Current crime trends

The following speakers are 
presenting:

Deputy Dan Paige Search 
and Rescue Coordinator L.A. 
County Sheriff’s Department, 
Altadena Station.

Jeremiah Small -Director 
of engineering at Soliant 
Consulting, Inc.

Jacquelyn Paige, MSN, RN, 
AGACNP-BC. Private practice 
forensic nurse. 

 The meeting comes it light 
of Altadena Sheriff’s deputies 
last week arresting a man for 
assault with a deadly weapon 
after allegedly stabbing 
another man Wednesday night 
on a hiking trail in Altadena. 

 For more information 
contact, Sgt. Steve Busch 626-
296-2107, email: sdbusch@
lasd.org. 

 
This year’s 27th annual 
Pasadena Chalk Festival 
will feature a unique STEM-
focused mural created by 
a team of scientific experts 
from NASA’s Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory (JPL). The mural, 
which will be located in front 
of the Pasadena Convention 
Center, will celebrate science, 
space missions and astronauts. 
In fact, one astronaut - Mae 
Jemison [pictured right] - will 
be featured in the corner of the 
mural as a tribute to her work.

 Jemison is an inspiration 
to many people. As the first 
African-American woman 
to become an astronaut, she 
is an engineer, a physician, a 
professor, a charismatic public 
speaker and the principal 
of the “100 Year Starship” 
organization, a joint U.S. 
Defense Advanced Research 
Projects Agency (DARPA) 
and National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration (NASA) 
grant project working to 
create a business plan to foster 
the research and technology 
needed for interstellar travel 
within 100 years.

 The mural itself will depict 
several planets and moons 
including Earth, our moon, 
Mars, Jupiter and Europa. The 
purpose of the mural is to 
link the history of humanity’s 
exploration of space to the 
future of that quest, celebrating 
the beauty and wonder of our 
universe while inspiring people 
to join NASA to “dare mighty 
things.”

 This mural will provide an 
exceptional opportunity to 
talk about the importance of 
STEM education, and to meet 
and interview one or more of a 
host scientific experts, each of 
whom will be contributing to 
the mural’s creation, including: 

Sarah Flores, Software Engineer

Shayena Khandker, Electrical 
Engineer

Wing Sze Lui, Staff Assistant

Irena Li, Mission Operations 
Engineer

Luz Maria Martinez Sierra, 
Nuclear Engineer

Ocean McIntyre, Science 
Assistant to the Europa Clipper 
Mission

 The festival will take place 
on Father’s Day weekend at 
the Paseo, an open-air lifestyle 
shopping center in downtown 
Pasadena. 

PASADENA CITY MEETINGS

Regular City Council Meeting

 

NEXT CITY COUNCIL MONDAY JUNE 10

Public Meeting 6:30 P.M. 

Council Chamber, Pasadena City Hall

100 North Garfield Avenue, Room S249 

FINANCE COMMITTEE (Chair Mayor Terry Tornek, Victor Gordo, John J. Kennedy, Margaret McAustin)

Meets June 10 (Special Joint City Council/Finance Committee Meeting to commence at 2:30 p.m.)., 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Room 
S249 (City Hall Council Chamber, 2nd floor)

MUNICIPAL SERVICES COMMITTEE (Chair Margaret McAustin, Tyron Hampton, Terry Tornek, Andy Wilson)

Meets June 11 at 4:00 p.m., Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Room S249 (Council Chamber, 2nd Floor)'

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE (Chair Victor Gordo, Tyron Hampton, Steve Madison, Andy 
Wilson) 

Meets June 18, at 5:30 p.m. Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Room S245/S246 (Council Conference Room, 2nd Floor)

PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE (Chair John J. Kennedy, Tyron Hampton, Steve Madison, Gene Masuda) 

Meets June 19 at 6 p.m. Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Room S249 (Council Chamber, 2nd Floor)

LEGISLATIVE POLICY COMMITTEE (Chair Terry Tornek, Steve Madison, Gene Masuda)

Meets June 25 at 6:00 p.m., Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Avenue, Room S245/S246 (Council Conference Room, 2nd Floor)


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