The Brief

From the glittery bling of its name, the golden mussel sounds like it could be California’s state bivalve.

Unfortunately, the creature’s only connection to the Golden State is the fact that it is California’s most recently identified invasive species — and it’s a bad one, with the capacity to clog major water supply pipes.

On Oct. 17, the tiny freshwater mollusks, which have already laid siege to waterways of southern South America, were found at Rough and Ready Island, near Stockton. Since then, state officials said, it has been in at least one other location, O’Neill Forebay, in Merced County.

Its appearance in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the mussel’s first confirmed detection in North America, according to a news release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

It’s also very possibly just the beginning of a long battle ahead to slow its spread. The top concerns at the moment include potential impacts to the environment and to the Delta pumping stations that send water to 30 million people and millions of acres of farmland.

Unless it is contained and eliminated immediately, said UC Davis biologist Peter Moyle, there might be no getting rid of it.

“If we’re lucky, and we stage a real eradication effort in the area where it’s presently found, it might not be too costly and would be worth it,” he said.

But if such efforts fail, it could become a major problem for native species that the mussels outcompete for food.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is already considering these worst-case outcomes.

“The species poses a significant immediate threat to the ecological health of the Delta and all waters of the state, water conveyance systems, infrastructure and water quality,” staff officials wrote.

The Department of Water Resources is already conducting vessel inspections in the hopes of preventing spread of the mussels. In the San Luis State Recreation Area, officials have been inspecting watercraft exiting O’Neill Forebay, San Luis Reservoir, and Los Banos Creek Reservoir, said Tanya Veldhuizen, the department’s special projects section manager. The inspections are to “ensure all water is drained from livewells and bilges to prevent spread of invasive species to other water bodies.”

The department, she said, is also taking heightened measures to protect the State Water Project — the system of pumps, pipes, and canals that exports water south from the Delta. This enhanced vigilance to mitigate “mussel biofouling,” she said, requires more frequent inspections, as well as cleaning and flushing. The mussels, she said, are likely to build up in screens, strainers, and trashracks.

A native of China and Southeast Asia, the golden mussel — taxonomically Limnoperna fortunei — fixes itself to underwater surfaces, forming thick “reefs” built of millions of the animals. They feed by filtering nutrients and plankton from the water and, by this passive action, can have devastating impacts. Essentially, they filter the nutrition out of the native food web. In Argentina and southern Brazil, where golden mussels appeared in the 1990s, they have pushed out other species and smothered river beaches and native vegetation. Scientists have watched them spread north as rapidly as 150 miles per year, and they fear the invaders will find their way into the world’s largest river system and the hottest hotspot of biodiversity on Earth, the Amazon basin.

They’ve also wreaked mayhem with underwater infrastructure, from hydroelectric plants to water supply systems. The mussels, for example, reportedly clogged the intake pipes of an urban water supply system in Brazil’s Lake Guaíba.

No one can be certain how the mussels got to California, but sources suspect they arrived the same way they are believed to have traveled to South America — in the bowels of commercial ships, where ballast water used to stabilize vessels at sea is often drained in the port of arrival.

Not everyone is particularly surprised, either. Moyle, for one, said he’s been expecting the golden mussel to arrive in the state for years. The California Delta, he noted, has been described as one of the most invaded estuaries in the world. It has been colonized by at least 185 foreign species, from Himalayan blackberries and fig trees to black bass, striped bass, and water hyacinth. According to one estimate, invasive species account for an astounding 95% or more of the estuary’s total biomass . The nutria — a large water-loving rodent from South America — has spread through the estuary in recent years amid concerns that it could, among other things, damage levees with its burrows.

There are even some Asian bivalves already living in the Bay and Delta. The Eurasian overbite clam , for one, spread through the waterway in the 1980s . Biologists say the species has likely played a role in the downfall of native fishes by absorbing the tiny food particles that they depend on. The failed recovery of the Delta smelt, for example, has been linked to the spread of these clams.

Now, scientists fear the golden mussel could add to these pressures.

But not necessarily. Moyle said the Delta is so heavily impacted already, and its food resources already claimed, by other species — notably the filter-feeding clams — that there may be no room for the golden mussel to move in.

“The invasive clams take up a lot of niche space,” he said.

On the other hand, Moyle said, “it could be a super-invader” — an invasive species so adaptable and persistent that it replaces other invaders that came before it. The Delta’s average range of water temperatures and salinity, he said, are just right for the golden mussel.

But in such an ecologically ransacked place as the Delta, not everyone is concerned about another bump in the road. Brett Baker, a water attorney with the Central Delta Water Agency and a sixth-generation resident on Sutter Island — and a former biology student of Moyle — isn’t fazed by the golden mussel’s appearance.

“I’ve heard alarms all my life about quagga mussels, zebra mussels, mitten crabs, and nutria,” he said. “I just don’t think there’s enough slack in the system, or enough niche space, particularly for a species that isn’t evolved to live here … I’m pretty sure we won’t be talking about the golden mussel in 20 years, but I could be wrong.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, and four co-conspirators were indicted Wednesday on 23 counts of bank and wire fraud, allegedly committed from 2022 to 2024, during her time working for the governor.

The indictment alleges that Williamson, a longtime Democratic strategist, worked with Greg Campbell, a prominent Sacramento lobbyist, and Sean McCluskie, the former chief of staff to former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, as well as two other unnamed co-conspirators to steal $225,000 from an unnamed former official’s dormant campaign account for McCluskie’s personal use.

“Collectively, they funneled the money through various business entities and disguised it as pay for what was, in reality, a no-show job,” FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel said in a news release.

Prosecutors allege that Williamson and one of the unnamed co-conspirators, described only as a former California public official who owned a political consulting firm, used their political strategy firms to funnel money out of a campaign account, believed to be Becerra’s, into an account controlled by McCluskie. They allegedly disguised the funds as payments for McCluskie’s spouse, who was described in the indictment as a stay-at-home parent.

Williamson is also accused of falsely claiming more than $1.7 million in business expenses on her taxes. She used the funds to purchase luxury handbags, chartered jets and a nearly $170,000 birthday trip to Mexico, the indictment alleges.

Williamson, who previously held a high-level position in Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration, was well known for her negotiating ability. When she left his office, Newsom said in a statement that he would miss her "insight, tenacity and big heart.”

The indictment indicated that Becerra had no knowledge of the scheme, and he confirmed as much Wednesday afternoon in a written statement via his spokesperson, Owen Kilmer.

“The news today of formal accusations of impropriety by a long-serving trusted advisor are a gut punch,” said Becerra, a prominent candidate to succeed Newsom in next year’s gubernatorial election. He added that he had fully cooperated with the U.S. Justice Department and would continue to do so.

“As California’s former Attorney General, I fully comprehend the importance of allowing this investigation and legal process to run its course through our justice system.”

Williamson was scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Newsom distanced the governor from his former top aide.

“While we are still learning details of the allegations, the governor expects all public servants to uphold the highest standards of integrity,” said Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s spokesperson, in a written statement.

“At a time when the president is openly calling for his Attorney General to investigate his political enemies, it is especially important to honor the American principle of being innocent until proven guilty in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers,” the statement said.

Patel, the special agent in charge, said in a news release that the charges were “the result of three years of relentless investigative work.”

“The FBI will remain vigilant in its efforts to uncover fraud and corruption, ensuring our government systems are held to the highest standards.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

After more than two years of discussion and debate, the Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to significantly lower annual rent increases in most of the city’s apartments.

L.A.’s current rent control rules guarantee landlords the right to raise rents at least 3% every year. Increases can be as high as 10% in some apartments during periods of high inflation.

But under the reforms passed by 12 of the council’s 15 members, rent increases would be capped at 4% annually, and an additional 2% increase for landlords who cover utilities would be eliminated. The exact rate each year would be equal to 90% of the change in the region’s consumer price index, a government measure of economic inflation.

“We need to make a change to this formula,” said Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee ahead of the vote. “Extraordinary rent increases are driving people out of the city.”

The rules passed by the majority of councilmembers would set a new floor of 1% in years of low inflation. Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and John Lee voted against the changes, and Councilmember Curren Price recused himself from the vote because he is a landlord.

This is the first overhaul of the city’s rent increase formula since 1985. Tenant groups have long argued that the current rules increase costs faster than incomes for many renters, pushing some toward eviction and potential homelessness.

Landlord groups decried the changes, saying the city is further clamping down on their ability to keep up with skyrocketing insurance premiums and steep maintenance costs.

Before the new rules take effect, they still need to be drafted by the City Attorney’s Office and returned to the council for a final vote.

‘We would end up homeless’

The changes represent a step toward but not a full adoption of the demands for a 3% cap at 60% of inflation from tenant groups. Humberto Altamira, an unemployed cook living with his wife in L.A.’s downtown Fashion District, said his family’s rent went up about $50 per month earlier this year, and they would struggle to afford another increase of 3% or more.

“We would end up homeless and living on the street,” Altamira said, speaking in Spanish.

Humberto Altamira and his wife stand in front of L.A. City Hall ahead of a City Council vote on rent control.

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David Wagner/LAist

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the city banned increases for nearly four years . The new cap, while comparable to caps in many other Southern California cities, does not reflect the rising costs property owners face, said California Apartment Association spokesperson Fred Sutton.

“Reject arbitrary magic numbers,” Sutton said. “These changes will not create a single new home, but they’ll make it even harder to build, making the housing crisis worse for everyone.”

Where LA rent control applies

The city’s rent control rules generally cover apartments built before October 1978, as well as new units that replace demolished rent-controlled units or are attached to older buildings.

Nearly two-thirds of L.A.’s residents live in rental housing. And because most of them live in older properties, the city’s rent control rules affect about 42% of all L.A. households.

Some councilmembers, including John Lee, said stricter rules would run counter to other local policies to spur housing development, such as Mayor Karen Bass’ executive directive to speed up the approval of affordable housing projects.

“Just as we are gaining momentum, we are considering a change,” Lee said. “This sends the message, ‘Do not build here. Do not invest in Los Angeles.’”

Other councilmembers said getting rental costs under control is key to addressing homelessness. At last count , about 43,500 people lack housing in the city.

“We have an eviction-to-homelessness pipeline,” Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said. “We get calls constantly from property owners about people experiencing homelessness around their buildings.

“We are struggling to deal with that crisis,” Hernandez continued. “We can’t house the number of people every year that are falling into homelessness. And a majority of that is because they can’t afford it.”

To build or not to build?

Renters and landlords crowded into City Council chambers to give public comment ahead of Wednesday’s vote.

Megan Briceño, who owns eight rent-controlled apartments, told LAist she has building permits to construct an accessory dwelling unit on her four-unit property in Mid-City L.A. Because the unit will be rent-controlled, she said the city’s changes could halt her building plans.

“I don't know how much longer I can continue to do business in a city that constantly feels like I'm fighting for my basic property rights, for a basic fair return,” Briceño said.

The process of reforming L.A.’s rent control ordinance was kickstarted in October 2023, when councilmembers Hugo Soto-Martinez and Bob Blumenfield asked for an in-depth review of the city’s rules.

LAist obtained the city-commissioned report produced in that process and was the first to publish it in September 2024.

Among other observations and recommendations, the report argued for eliminating an additional 2% annual increase landlords can impose if they pay for a tenant’s electricity and gas service. The report found that over time those increases can eclipse the entire cost of providing those utilities.

The reforms passed Wednesday include the elimination of this utility bump.