The Brief

A proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to kill roughly half a million barred owls to protect the spotted owl has conservationists and animal welfare advocates debating the moral issue of killing one species to protect another.

The proposal, published in November, garnered attention in recent days after dozens of wildlife protection and animal welfare organizations signed a letter opposing the plan.

In a March 25 letter responding to the proposal, a group of 75 organizations urged Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, to scrap what it calls a "reckless" plan. "Non-lethal management actions to protect spotted owls and their habitats should be made the priority action," it read.

But the USFWS says if no action is taken to cull the barred owl population, the northern spotted owl faces extinction.

The barred owl is crowding out its less aggressive relative, the northern spotted owl, in the Northwestern states, according to the USFWS. To ensure the survival of the northern spotted owl, a threatened species, the service is proposing the mass removal of over 470,000 barred owls across California, Washington and Oregon over a three-decade span. The proposed action will also help prevent declines in the California spotted owls, another species facing competition from barred owls, it said.

Animal rights advocates say the proposal is unsustainable

Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Human Economy and its lobbying arm, Animal Wellness Action, who co-authored the letter, called the plan "unworkable." He says it's doubtful that the government's plan can be successfully executed across such a long time frame.

"If you don't do it dutifully and religiously every single year for 30 years, it has no chance of succeeding," Pacelle told NPR.

He argues that lethal management programs often succeed on closed ecosystems such as islands, but a management plan covering such a vast region wouldn't be as effective.

Cameron Barrows, a retired emeritus researcher at the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of California-Riverside, says that without a barred owl management strategy, spotted owls will disappear.

"If nothing is done to slow the encroachment of barred owls, you will lose spotted owls," he said. "There aren't a lot of choices left."

To him, the letter opposing the proposal effectively "means 'We'd rather have barred owls than spotted owls,' " he said.

A conservation organization in Washington also supports the proposed action. Birds Connect Seattle published a letter in January citing "preventing extinction" as one of its priorities.

"We are not celebrating this management plan in issuing our support," said Claire Catania, the executive director of Birds Connect Seattle. But, she says, her organization recognizes its necessity.

How far should people go to remedy a human-created problem?

Conservation experts who support the proposal say it's a difficult but necessary plan that will help solve a problem that humans helped create.

In 1990, the northern spotted owl was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act after environmentalists fought to protect the bird's habitat from the logging industry. The threatened designation also means the Fish and Wildlife Service is legally required to protect the northern spotted owl.

But around the same time, the barred owl, originally native to the Eastern U.S., emerged as another threat as it moved West, encroaching on spotted owl territory. Human-driven habitat destruction spurred the barred owls to expand across the country, Catania says. Their move west has since displaced their "smaller, less aggressive cousins," the spotted owl, according to Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

The spotted owl's habitat — old-growth forests — has become "very patchy" due to deforestation and are accessible to the more adaptable barred owl, says Barrows, the UC Riverside conservation researcher.

"This is a problem that humans have created. This wasn't nature happening on its own," Barrows said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's proposal, outlined in a draft report assessing its environmental impact, is the latest attempt in a more than two-decade effort to save the spotted owl from extinction. A decade ago, the FWS began a four-year experiment to kill up to 3,600 barred owls in the northwest. According to Barrows, this strategy "slowed down but didn't stop" the barred owl invasion.

The public comment period for the proposal closed in January. A final proposal is expected in this spring or summer, NBC News reported.

The U.S. Justice Department has issued subpoenas to California officials in an escalation of its scrutiny of local election administration.

The Associated Press obtained copies of three subpoenas sent Oct. 21 to employees of the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, ordering them to appear in court on Nov. 4, the day after the election. The documents request any records, documents and communications related to letters sent in July and October by federal officials to state election officials outlining allegations of noncitizens on the state’s voter rolls. The subpoenas also seek information relating to the office’s “methods for screening for unlawful voting by aliens” and anything about efforts to prevent noncitizen votes from being counted.

The subpoenas were being issued by all four U.S. attorneys in California, according to a person familiar with the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar, said, “threats and intimidated have no place in elections.”

Subpoenas come amid ongoing court battle

The Trump administration has sued to force California to set aside up to 20,000 ballots it suspects went to noncitizens and not count them until citizenship can be verified. A district court judge on Tuesday rejected that request, then on Thursday appointed a special master to evaluate the administration’s claims.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter did not specify the exact scope of special master Daniel B. Garrie’s responsibilities, but said he would be tasked with “developing the factual record” for the court.

In a Tuesday court hearing, Carter said he wanted to vet the federal government’s list of over 20,000 alleged noncitizen voters since there has been extensive debate over its reliability and both sides have agreed that it includes an unspecified number of citizens.

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Carter also said at the hearing that a special master could investigate California’s claims that it cannot logistically separate the ballots in time for the county election certification deadline on Dec. 3. The federal government has contested that assertion.

It is not clear what would happen if a special master did find a substantial number of noncitizen voters on the federal government’s list or whether it would affect the certification of California’s election results. The 20,000 people on the DOJ’s list constitute only a small fraction of California’s 23 million voters.

Trump administration appeals to higher court

Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked a federal appeals court to quickly weigh in.

The Justice Department said in a late Wednesday filing that it’s essential the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issue a ruling as soon as possible due to “irreversible ballot processing occurring on an ongoing basis.”

Carter’s decision was the latest legal setback for President Donald Trump in his efforts to expand federal control over state-run elections in the midterms that will decide control of Congress for the rest of his term. The Justice Department has made similar demands in other states, including Washington. Noncitizen voting has been a central focus of Trump’s political messaging for years, although available data indicates it is exceedingly rare.

Trump blasted Carter’s ruling against the federal government on Thursday morning before heading to a campaign rally in South Carolina.

“California is very corrupt. The elections are extremely corrupt. The judge should not have done that but we’ll appeal that, of course,” he told reporters. Trump added without evidence that there are “hundreds of thousands” and then amended it to “millions, in my opinion” of “bad ballots” in California.

Carter, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, argued that the Justice Department’s demands were a clear violation of the National Voter Registration Act, which prohibits changes to voter rolls or election procedure within 90 days of an election.

A number of US citizens were included in the Justice Department’s list of names

Both sides agree that an unspecified number of citizens were inadvertently included. Carter argued that separating the ballots at this point would risk disenfranchising citizens and “wreak havoc” on the election certification process.

Over 500,000 votes have already been processed in Los Angeles County alone, according to court filings. The system also protects voter privacy: Once a vote is processed, it cannot be traced back to the person who cast it.

Carter is to rule on the government’s renewed request for a preliminary injunction, which would bar the state from counting the ballots until the litigation is resolved. He said he will do so after a Nov. 13 evidentiary hearing with input from the special master.

He said that if the federal government suspected noncitizens were voting, it could continue to prosecute those cases criminally. Federal authorities have charged over two dozen foreign nationals in California as part of a statewide sweep targeting people officials allege have illegally registered or voted in U.S. elections.

Appeals panel judges have said they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots this close to midterms

The appeal will be the second time that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will consider the case.

The first time was just last week when the Justice Department argued before an appeals court panel that a fast ruling on its request was needed to stop any counting of the ballots.

Although the panel ruled it was premature for an appeals court to get involved before a lower-court ruling, two of the three judges wrote separate concurrences making it clear they wouldn’t support setting aside ballots at this late date. They questioned the accuracy of the federal government’s list of alleged noncitizen voters and argued that to set aside votes risks disenfranchising citizens.

One judge dissented, arguing that federal law bars noncitizens from voting and requires California to vet the potentially illegal ballots before counting them. The failure to do so, he wrote, would cause irreparable harm to the election.

A group representing garment workers in Los Angeles is asking Olympic organizing committee LA28 to invest in the local garment industry, as it prepares to spend on contracts for apparel and linens for the 2028 Games.

The Garment Worker Center launched its “Wear LA” campaign Thursday at its office, which sits south of the Fashion District, where thousands of workers labor daily in the city’s garment factories, and east of the Coliseum, one of the main sites for Olympic and Paralympic competition.

“In the past, contracts have gone almost exclusively to giant multinational brands,” said Marissa Nuncio, executive director of the workers center, referencing past mega-events in Los Angeles. “It's overdue to start sharing these contracts with the businesses that make up the fabric of L.A.”

LA28 already has a raft of high-profile corporate deals, including with Skims, Ralph Lauren and Nike to produce Olympics apparel, but it is planning to purchase sheets, sports uniforms and towels starting next year, according to its procurement plans. LAist reached out to LA28 for comment, but did not hear back ahead of publication.

Olympics organizers will spend billions on goods and services during the Games, and have set a target of 75% local procurement, defining local as anywhere within Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The Garment Worker Center is the latest group to ask LA28 to tighten that definition by restricting apparel manufacturing to the city of Los Angeles. L.A. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson is pushing a motion at City Hall asking Olympics organizers to commit to giving some contracts to businesses in the city specifically.

LA28 has not budged on its procurement plans. A spokesperson for the organizing committee responded to a request for comment by pointing to its “Made for Two Eight” program which allows businesses to apply to use the LA28 emblem on locally-made products.

The center also wants LA28 to commit to sourcing goods from manufacturers that pay $25 an hour and have no outstanding wage claims. Wage theft is rampant in the garment industry.

The new campaign also takes aim at the city of Los Angeles, asking city leaders to establish a position within the Community Investment Department focused on the garment industry and develop a “Made in LA” program to give city apparel contracts to local ethical manufacturers. L.A. County is currently working on developing a similar pilot program, and the Garment Worker Center is asking the city to follow suit.