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News in Claremont, CA

Daily Hampshire Gazette · Claremont, CA

Albey Reiner

Claremont, CA – Albey M Reiner died on October 15, 2026 at the age of 85 in his home in Claremont, California. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Albey attended Princeton University (B.S.E ’62) as an undergraduate, then spent time at Oxford University, the University of Wisconsin, Harvard University (PhD ’68), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and UC Berkeley before landing a position in the Microbiology Department at UMass Amherst, where he worked as a professor for 34 years before retiring in the spring of 2005.Albey liked to be called by his first name by his students, and was best known for his enormously popular Biology of Cancer (later Biology of Cancer and AIDS) course, in which he introduced thousands of students (more than 30,000 all told) to new ideas about disease, healing, and spirituality, while maintaining rigorous academic standards and keeping up with the latest developments in cancer and AIDS research.

The Student Life · Claremont, CA

Diwali lights up McKenna Auditorium

Last Sunday, students danced their hearts out in elaborate traditional outfits of various bright colors for Diwali, one of the few festivals where the Desi community at the 5Cs comes together to bring a familiar cultural tradition to life in Claremont. On the evening of Nov. 8, students from across the 5Cs celebrated Diwali at McKenna Auditorium. The event was hosted by the Claremont Hindu Society in partnership with the South Asian mentorship program and the 5C Bollywood dance club Claremont Tamasha. It was also co-sponsored by The Claremont Colleges Services’ Religious and Spiritual Life office, which brought interfaith chaplains from the McAlister Center as well as a new partner from the Bay Area, the Hindu Spiritual Care Institute. For many students far from their families, the celebration offered a piece of home at the 5Cs. Diwali, or the Festival of Lights, celebrates the spiritual victory of light over darkness, though the specific victory being referenced varies by region.

The Student Life · Claremont, CA

At 2026 FestivArts, Claremont arts community provides color to a rainy afternoon

Gray clouds loomed over the San Gabriel Mountains, slowly passing over their peaks late in the morning. Warm amber bulbs strewn around the trunks of olive trees at Padua Hills Theatre became shrouded with the encroaching haze of sprinkling rain. But as artists began to open their booths and people poured inside, the venue quickly flooded with soul, color and curiosity. The Claremont Lewis Museum of Art (CLMA) hosted its 22nd annual FestivArts showcase on Nov. 1 at the Padua Hills Theatre, bringing 44 artists to the foothills of Claremont. Among them were 5C staff and longtime Claremont artists, and for many in attendance, the festival was a reminder of how deeply the city’s art scene connects to the Claremont Colleges — a legacy stretching back to Scripps College art department head Millard Sheets. “They made [Claremont] into a mecca for culture,” Shearer said. “The colleges, Pomona and Scripps, have a lot to do with it.

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Long Beach Post · La Puente, CA

Nearby: La Puente, CA

This new horror-themed coffee shop isn’t a gimmick. For the owner, it’s deeply personal

After Sabrina Arellano opened Coffinated Coffee in La Puente in October 2022, the coffee shop’s Instagram account gained 41,000 followers. Coffinated Coffee has a menu of drinks inspired by quintessential horror movies, games, TV shows and books. It was Arellano’s grandmother who first turned her onto all things horror. On Saturday, Arellano opened the shop’s second location on First Street in Downtown Long Beach. The Long Beach Post sat down with Arellano to learn more about Coffinated Coffee and its spooky menu. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. How did Coffinated Coffee come to be? My grandma and I grew up loving everything horror and spooky-related. We were really close, so I get a lot of the demented, dark humor from her. I love it, but she got really sick – she had cancer – and so I [put everything] on pause to take care of her. In 2021, she passed at home.

Fortress of Solitude · Arcadia, CA

Nearby: Arcadia, CA

Rena Sofer Left General Hospital Twice, Remarried Her Ex-Husband After 7 Years Apart — and Now Sells Handmade Ceramics

While she’s best known for her role as Lois Cerullo on General Hospital (which won her a Daytime Emmy in 1995), Rena Sofer is also remembered for playing Heidi Petrelli on Heroes and Quinn Fuller on The Bold and the Beautiful. After leaving General Hospital for the second time in 2025, the 57-year-old actress has been focusing on a quieter life in the Hudson Valley. But how did she break into the world of entertainment? And what else is keeping her busy in 2026? Rena Sofer’s Early Life: How She Broke Into Acting Image Credit: Walt Disney Television, Selmur Productions Born on December 2, 1968, in Arcadia, California, Rena Sofer’s childhood was characterized by her Jewish upbringing. Following her parents’ divorce, she moved to New Jersey with her rabbi father and her brother. At 15, Rena was approached by a talent scout while hanging out on the streets of Greenwich Village. Her modeling career was rather short-lived, with her later stating: “It just never really worked for me.

The Hechinger Report · Fullerton, CA

Nearby: Fullerton, CA

TEACHER VOICE: The future of personalized learning cannot be built on technology alone

By the time many of my high schoolers enter my algebra classroom, they already know what their school thinks they are bad at. They carry labels before they ever open a notebook: “remedial,” “unmotivated,” “low-performing.” Too often, personalized learning begins with those labels. We start with a low score or what we believe students cannot do — a missing skill or an academic gap — and then build instruction around fixing it. I think we should start somewhere else: with what students care about, what they want to become and what already makes sense to them. The starting point matters because personalized learning is supposed to do more than respond to academic gaps. Personalized learning is supposed to tailor instruction and learning experiences to support a student’s individual strengths, needs, interests, goals and pace. But whether it fulfills that promise depends on the information we choose to prioritize.

Daily Hampshire Gazette · Pasadena, CA

Nearby: Pasadena, CA

Janice Button Shafer

Pasadena, CA – The Shafer family is deeply saddened to announce the death of Janice Button Shafer on October 13, 2026, one month after her 95th birthday. She died peacefully from natural causes in the presence of family in Pasadena, CA. She was an amazing woman and a powerful force who impressed everyone she met. We will miss her energy and hearing all her stories, but she will never be forgotten.Janice was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 13, 1931, with her twin sister Judy Button Harmon, to mother Anita Wolever and father Charles T. Button. Inspired by her engineer father, she studied Engineering Physics at Cornell University at a time when there was one woman student for every 500 men in engineering.