Latest News

When the starting gun sounded at the June 29 2024 USA Track and Field Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, nine of the country’s best female sprinters set off to join an elite club: the United States Olympic Team, with the top three finishers in the 200 meter event heading to Paris for the Summer Olympic Games. Among the extraordinary athletes was Brittany Brown, a 2013 Claremont High School graduate hoping to qualify for her first Olympics. Brown more than rose to the occasion, finishing second with a personal best time of 21.90. Photo/by Taylor Sims

Los Angeles is famously teeming with great guitarists of every stripe, but when you separate out those who are also master songwriters and compelling performers, the pool gets much less congested. Among these rare few are Rick Shea and Tony Gilkyson, veteran singer-songwriters and guitarists who have teamed up for what amounts to an artistry rich “two-fer” show at the Folk Music Center, 220 Yale Ave., Claremont, on Saturday, March 23. Photo/courtesy of Rick Shea

It was winter, and though nighttime temperatures dropped to -10F, we only had summer clothes. My father caught a cold and had a high fever. My mother and I sewed jackets for my children and father from blankets. The bathrooms were very dirty, the food barely edible. In the first 24 hours, I ate only a boiled egg. After five days and nights, we boarded a plane headed to America. Forty-eight hours later we arrived at Philadelphia International Airport. It was August 30, 2021. Exhausted and hungry, we were ready to start our new lives. Photo/courtesy of Nabila Painda

Longtime Claremont resident and University of La Verne professor Richard Rose is about to take a big idea to South Africa’s 2024 Ubuntu Festival, a four-day global conference held in conjunction with South Africa’s Human Rights Day. Rose, 64, and his daughter Rochelle will show a video they made, “Building the beloved community,” at the festival on March 22. The video describes a curriculum he is building, “the beloved course.” Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

The Claremont City Council approved a motion Tuesday to enter into a joint legal defense agreement with neighboring La Verne. The move allows the cities’ shared general liability insurance carrier to retain a law firm to represent them in the claims process and any potential lawsuits resulting from groundwater seepage in the Stone Canyon neighborhood in April 2023. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

Though it didn’t end as he’d hoped, six-year Claremont City Council member Jed Leano is nonetheless grateful for the lessons learned and coalitions built during his yearlong campaign to represent District 41 in the California Assembly. “It was amazing,” Leano said about the campaign. “It was remarkably beautiful.” Leano finished fourth in last week’s Super Tuesday Democratic primary election, which was won by John Harabedian, who will face Republican Michelle Del Rosario Martinez in the November 5 general election. Courier photo/Peter Weingberger

The grandmother related how the granddaughter had attended very conservative schools, where she was told such “lifestyles” were sinful. As a gay man who came out in the 1990s when same-sex relationships were beginning to be accepted and same-sex marriage was about to be a hotly contested issue here in loosey-goosey California, I could relate. As a severely disabled person used to being stared at and sometimes made fun of, and who people constantly make the wrong assumptions about, I could relate. A bit. At least enough so that my eyes began to well up.

Ramadan is a special month for Muslims around the world in which prayer, fasting, and charitable giving are paramount. Each day of fasting begins with sunrise and concludes with sunset. It is a holy month and one in which some Muslims come together joyfully at sunset to break the fast (iftar) at the local mosque and to pray communally and recite/read the Qur’an. The Prophet Muhammad set a precedent when he nibbled on dates to break his daily fast, and Muslims everywhere follow that today. Photo/courtesy of CGU

Claremont Graduate University president Len Jessup announced this week that he will retire on or about June 30. In an email to the Claremont Graduate University community Jessup sung the praises of current and past students, faculty, staff, trustees, donors, and partners. Jessup took over as CGU’s 12th president in summer 2018. More info is at cgu.edu/news. The Courier will follow up on Jessup’s retirement, and CGU’s plans for his replacement, in a future edition. Courier photo/Steven Felschundneff

Bamboo Dart Press, a Claremont-based publishing collaboration between Pelekinesis and Shrimper Records, is being honored Sunday, March 17 at Mt. San Antonio Gardens, 900 Harrison Ave., Pomona. The event, in conjunction with the Gardens’ “For the Love of Books” program, is sold out. Authors Margot Hover, Brown Lethem, and Allen Callaci will be reading, and Bamboo Dart Press impresarios Dennis Callaci and Mark Givens will speak about local literature.

Claremont Courier event calendar: March 15-23, 2024

Tomato varieties such as better boy, early girl, green zebra, Cherokee purple, and many more will go on sale Saturday, March 16, at Cal Poly Pomona Farm Store, 4102 S. University Dr., as part of the school’s annual “tomatozania” sale.

St. Patrick’s Day isn’t celebrated for the same reasons it once was. Times change, and holidays take on different meanings.

Some 40 Claremont Colleges students, local residents, and religious leaders took part in a demonstration in support of a cease-fire in Gaza at Shelton Park on Sunday. The action, organized by Claremont Community for Palestine, included a vigil honoring the more than 30,000 Palestinians killed in the conflict, and U.S. Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell, who died February 25 after proclaiming he could “no longer be complicit in genocide” and setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

With partly sunny skies and high temperatures in the 60s Sunday, Claremonters were not the only ones enjoying the day at Shelton Park. Squirrels roamed around the grass making their […]

This was a time when the older, historic homes of the Village were not as desirable and much more affordable. Many had not been maintained and people had moved to newer neighborhoods for homes with more modern conveniences. This was prior to the historic preservation movement in Claremont and before the creation and placement of properties on the local historic register. Things have changed. The historic homes of Claremont are some of the most desirable in the city. Today, historic homes appreciate at higher rates than properties elsewhere. Photo/courtesy of John Neiuber

Before last week, the last time I covered a city council meeting was in 1993, when I was a young reporter in my first full-time job in journalism at the long gone North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, in Incline Village, Nevada.