Jill Replogle
covers public corruption, debates over our voting system, culture war battles — and more.
Published October 30, 2023 5:00 AM
A ewe from the Wheeler Ridge herd southwest of Bishop.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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LAist
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Topline:
Half of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep appear to have died during this year's record-breaking winter, according to researchers interviewed by LAist. There are now an estimated 360 sheep left. The changing climate and decades of conflict with mountain lions has made their future uncertain.
How did the bighorn sheep die? Some were trapped in avalanches, some died of starvation, and some were killed by mountain lions when the sheep were forced to move to lower elevations to look for food. Some herds, including two of the three living in Yosemite National Park, have been mostly or perhaps entirely wiped out.
What's being done? Data from the tough winter are still being collected and will help inform future recovery efforts. Wildlife experts say this is the biggest die-off since the species was listed as endangered nearly 25 years ago.
"When you think you have it figured out, you'll get a curveball thrown at you like a winter as extreme as the one we just had," said Tom Stephenson, who heads the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program.
Half of the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep tracked by scientists died during last season’s record-breaking winter, according to researchers interviewed by LAist.
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LISTEN: California's Big Snow Year Decimated Endangered Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep
Some sheep got trapped in avalanches, some died of starvation, and some were killed by mountain lions when the sheep were forced to move to lower elevations to look for food.
The population is now estimated at 360 sheep, a 40% decline from a year ago, according to Tom Stephenson, who heads the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program. That estimate includes new lambs that were born in the spring.
Some herds, including two of the three living in Yosemite National Park, have been mostly or perhaps entirely wiped out.
During their summer field surveys, researchers found just one live ewe, the term for adult female bighorns, from Yosemite's Mount Gibbs herd. Last year there were 20.
Why bighorn sheep matter
Bighorn sheep have been an integral part of the Sierra Nevada food chain for hundreds of thousands of years. Predators, including mountain lions, coyotes and wolves, eat bighorn sheep.
High-elevation scavengers, like the endangered Sierra Nevada red fox and, in the past, wolverines also scavenge the remains of bighorn sheep that have died. Losing these large animals can disrupt the balance of the alpine ecosystem.
Naturalists and ecologists also see bighorn sheep as emblematic of the Sierra Nevada wilderness. "In Yosemite, we have this ideal of wilderness as being a place that's wild and free," Stock said. "And to me, having studied the bighorn sheep for almost two decades, they really epitomize that."
They found no live ewes from Yosemite's Cathedral Range herd, which they say leaves little chance the herd can recover naturally.
"It's frustrating," Stephenson said. "I've spent a lot of my career trying to get this animal to recovery. And when you think you have it figured out, you'll get a curveball thrown at you like a winter as extreme as the one we just had."
The extent of the devastation is evident in the field notes recorded since the beginning of 2023 and posted on the recovery program's website:
Taboose Creek herd, Feb. 1: "All collared ewes are believed to be dead from heavy snows this winter."
Mount Williamson herd, Feb. 23:"4 bighorn have been killed by lion predation since January, and as many as 6 others may have died due to heavy snows this winter."
Sawmill Canyon herd, April 16: "7 bighorn are known to have been killed by lions in Sawmill Canyon since January, including a ewe that was captured 4 days prior to lion predation."
Laurel Creek herd, May 27: "All collared animals are believed to have died this past winter and spring during heavy snows."
Big Arroyo herd, May 27: "All collared animals are believed to have died this winter, during heavy snows."
State and federal wildlife officials have managed Sierra bighorn herds since the 1970s in an effort to re-establish a healthy population. The sheep were listed as an endangered species in 1999.
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Courtesy: Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program
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CA Department of Fish & Wildlife
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Other Sierra Nevada herds fared better, including Yosemite's Mount Warren herd. In the Mount Baxter herd, which is the largest, near the eastern Sierra town of Independence, researchers observed 75 sheep over the summer.
Researchers try to keep tracking collars on about one-third of all female ewes in order to gauge a herd's health and ability to reproduce. They generally collar fewer rams. Half of the collared animals died over the winter.
The bighorn recovery team also does winter and summer surveys of the areas occupied by the 14 bighorn herds they monitor, but some sheep territory is difficult to access. Researchers say it’s possible some sheep in the hardest-hit herds survived and simply couldn't be found.
"I don't want to let go of this idea that there still might be sheep out there," said Sarah Stock, a Yosemite National Park wildlife ecologist, referring to the decimated Cathedral Range herd. "But I am also realistic at the same time."
Brief history of the Sierra Nevada bighorn
The Sierra Nevada bighorn broke off from their desert bighorn cousins to form a distinct subspecies some 600,000 years ago, according to John Wehausen, who has been studying the Sierra sheep for close to 50 years. Wehausen now heads the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Foundation.
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep often feed in meadows at the bottom of rocky slopes and snowfields. Then, they'll work their way back up the slopes to spend the night at high elevations among the boulders.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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Up until European settlers came in the 1700s and 1800s, thousands of bighorn sheep are thought to have occupied the Sierra Nevada, from the Yosemite region south to Mount Whitney and the high slopes of Sequoia National Park.
But European settlement was devastating for the sheep, mostly because imported domestic sheep passed on bacteria to the native bighorns that caused fatal respiratory diseases. The bighorns had no immunity.
That led to many decades of decline. By the mid-1990s, there were only about 100 Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep left. Conservationists ramped up efforts to save the species, and they were listed as endangered by the state and federal government in 1999.
Since then, state and federal wildlife officials have tried to carefully manage the herds. They’ve transported ewes and rams from healthy herds to augment smaller ones, and started new herds in other parts of the sheep's historic range.
Bighorn sheep once occupied a large swath of the Sierra Nevada, from the Yosemite region south to Mount Whitney and the high slopes of Sequoia National Park.
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Courtesy: Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program
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CA Department of Fish & Wildlife
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In March 2015, for example, in a celebrated event, 10 ewes and three rams were airlifted to Yosemite's Cathedral Range to start a herd there. (Stock, the Yosemite wildlife ecologist, gave a passionate TEDx Talk about the release in 2016.)
At that time, in 2016, the Sierra Nevada bighorn population numbered over 600 animals — healthy enough for Stephenson to think the animal might be downlisted from endangered to threatened within the next five years.
Now, that seems like a distant goal.
In a recent talk for the Yosemite Forum lecture series, Wehausen noted that after 37 years of trying to re-establish a healthy bighorn sheep population in the Yosemite area, "we are exactly where we started," he said. "It seems like it's a juncture and we should ask some hard questions about what we're doing here."
Why did the bighorn have such a tough winter?
The naturalist John Muir wrote in 1894 that bighorn sheep "ranks highest among the animal mountaineers of the Sierra."
Wheeler Ridge, where one of the bighorn herds lives, during the heavy 2022-2023 winter.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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The padding on their hooves grips surfaces like a rock climbing shoe. Their ultra-powerful legs can propel them up near-vertical slopes at high speed. Their keen eyesight helps them spot food and predators across the vast expanses of the Sierra.
First off, the amount of snow was exceptional, at least in recent history. "Last winter was the largest in 23 years," said Karl Rittger, a research scientist at the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
A total of 11 atmospheric rivers hit California, dumping two to four times the average precipitation in the central and southern Sierra Nevada mountains, according to the institute's data.
Researchers had documented heavy losses of bighorn in the winter of 2016-2017 and, to a lesser extent, 2018-2019. But deaths this year were the highest since species recovery efforts began.
Stephenson said the Sierra Nevada had likely experienced storms of similar intensity at some point in history, and the bighorn species persisted. But because the population is now so small, it's difficult to sustain major losses.
"This is a good example of how much effort needs to go into recovering an endangered species once a population declines," he said.
A smaller population also means less genetic diversity that might help sheep weather future storms, said Dani Berger, a Ph.D student at Utah State University who studies the way Sierra Nevada bighorns handle snow.
"This is a game of small numbers and in small numbers you're vulnerable to things like unexpected changes in the environment," she said.
Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep rely on their excellent eyesight to spot approaching predators and sources of fodder.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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LAist
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Migration routes disrupted
Another potential reason the Sierra bighorns fared so poorly this year is because they lack generational knowledge of migration routes that might've helped them find food and escape avalanche-prone areas. Some of the herds that experienced the biggest losses this year were relatively new to their area — within the last 10 years — either because they moved there on their own or because researchers transported them there.
"Those historic migration patterns would have given them many more opportunities to move to lower elevations where they would be much less impacted by these severe winters," Stephenson said.
Still, Berger noted, in many parts of the Sierra, the winter was so snowy, including at lower elevations, that the sheep had no good options.
"If you stay up high, you might die in an avalanche and might not have food. Or you can come down to lower elevations and risk being eaten by a mountain lion," Berger said. "It's hard to say which is the bigger threat, but it seems this winter, snow was definitely the bigger threat."
Mountain lions threaten recovery
In late August, the Los Angeles Times reported on the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Recovery Program’s failed effort several years ago to relocate two male mountain lions to a desert mountain range to prevent them from preying on the bighorn sheep.
One of the lions had killed more than 10 Sierra bighorns, Stephenson said, "so we really couldn't just let it remain within the recovery area and continue to eat bighorn sheep."
Mating season for bighorn sheep takes place in the fall. Rams compete to mate with the females, including by slamming their heads together.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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The hope, Stephenson said, was that moving the lions to a mountain range in the Mojave National Preserve — with a large stretch of desert between them and the Sierra Nevada — would prevent the lions from trying to return.
But they did try. One starved to death in the desert while the other was so emaciated that it had to be euthanized. Mountain lion advocates, referenced in the L.A. Times piece, said the effort caused the animals unnecessary suffering.
After the L.A. Times and several other media outlets published articles, Stephenson said he got threats from angered readers and calls for his resignation.
Stephenson said he felt the story failed to explain the dire straits faced by Sierra bighorn and his program's longer-term efforts to manage the directly competing interests of the sheep and lions.
When the Sierra bighorns were listed as endangered, mountain lions were recognized as a major threat to their recovery. In the early years of the recovery program, mountain lions known to target bighorn sheep were regularly euthanized — sometimes several of them each year, he said.
Stephenson said the program has since shifted toward relocating mountain lions to areas where they have abundant deer and other prey. They've learned that it's much easier to relocate female lions than males "because [males] have such a strong homing instinct and they want to return," he said.
"We're obviously trying to run this recovery program as responsibly as possible and we aren't trying to eliminate lions from the eastern Sierra," Stephenson said. He added that the local mountain lion population "is still incredibly healthy."
The wild sheep ranks highest among the animal mountaineers of the Sierra. Possessed of keen sight and scent, and strong limbs, he dwells secure amid the loftiest summits, leaping unscathed from crag to crag, up and down the fronts of giddy precipices, crossing foaming torrents and slopes of frozen snow, exposed to the wildest storms, yet maintaining a brave, warm life, and developing from generation to generation in perfect strength and beauty.
— John Muir, "The Mountains of California," 1894
Historically, grizzly bears and wolves that once lived in the Sierra Nevada might have kept the mountain lion population in check.
"We know that wolves preyed on mountain lions," Stock said. "So our predator-prey system is kind of out of whack. And that could be part of the issue that we're seeing play out right now."
Wehausen sees a glimmer of hope in a new pack of gray wolves that made an appearance this summer in Sequoia National Forest.
What climate change might mean for Sierra bighorn
The upside of all that winter precipitation was plentiful summer forage for the surviving sheep and their new lambs. LAist joined researchers on a recent hike to look for bighorn on the backside of Wheeler Ridge, northwest of Bishop. A group of around 10 sheep — ewes, rams and yearlings — nibbled grass at the bottom of a snowfield.
Two of the rams occasionally butted heads, a sign that mating season is starting.
Tom Stephenson has headed up the Sierra bighorn recovery program since 2008.
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Bernd Zeugswetter
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Some of the sheep wore tracking collars with a colored tag to make them easier to spot among the tan and beige boulders that provide near perfect camouflage. Almost all had bulging bellies.
Whether that translates to healthier herd numbers next year might depend on whether the sheep face another harsh winter.
As the climate changes, the Sierra Nevada is expected to experience less snow, on average, but also more intense storms. If temperatures are warmer, more water makes its way into the atmosphere through a process called evapotranspiration, Rittger, the snow expert, explained.
"There's more water in the atmosphere for it to sort of drop onto the Sierra Nevada so you can get these big, extreme storms and we just happened to get a bunch of those last year," Rittger said.
How to spot bighorn sheep, responsibly
Two distinct subspecies of bighorn sheep live in California. Sierra Nevada bighorns live in the central and southern part of the mountain range.
You're most likely to see them on, or at the base of, steep, rocky slopes where they can easily get away from predators.
Spotting them requires patience, silence and good eyes. Good binoculars or a spotting scope also help a lot.
Dogs can scare away bighorns so it's best to leave them at home or keep them on a leash in bighorn territory. Some areas where bighorn sheep live prohibit pets so please follow the local rules.
More intense storms could be especially hard on herds that live in the typically snowiest parts of the Sierra Nevada and where it's harder to find paths down and out of the snow. This includes the northern herds around Yosemite.
Wehausen told LAist that during his decades of work trying to recover bighorn sheep, he's "been surprised at lots of things that slapped us in the face," including last season’s devastating winter.
He has come to think that saving the species will require much longer-term thinking — figuring out how best to help them withstand the still-uncertain future climate.
"They're really a magnificent animal living in a magnificent mountain range," Wehausen said. "I think it's worth the effort to get them to the next glacial period."
Rene Lynch
is a senior editor for Orange County, including food trends, politics — and whatever else the news gods have in store.
Published February 11, 2026 5:25 PM
Record winter rains led to this colorful explosion near the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve back in April 2023.
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George Rose
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Getty Images
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Topline
This on-and-off rain is looking like good news ... for wildflower lovers.
Why now: We talked to Katie Tilford, a wildflowers expert at the Theodore Payne Foundation here in L.A., which is dedicated to native plants in California. And she is holding out hope that the rains this week and next will be just what we need to see California poppies and more bloom big in the upcoming weeks.
The wildflower forecast: "A little more rain would be nice," she said, "Then I think we’ll have a really good bloom this year. Either way, I think there’s going to be some flowers for sure … but a little more rain would really just kick things up a notch.”
How good might it get? And as for the question we always ask this time of year … will it be a superbloom kind of year? Only Mother Nature knows for sure. But Tilford says she’s already seeing signs there will be plenty of wildflowers to enjoy in the coming weeks, so you might want to make a plan to get out there.
This on-and-off rain is looking like good news ... for wildflower lovers.
We talked to Katie Tilford, our go-to wildflowers expert at the Theodore Payne Foundation here in L.A., which is dedicated to native plants and wildflowers in Southern California.
And she is holding out hope the rains this week and next will be just what we need to see California poppies and more bloom big in the upcoming weeks.
"A little more rain would be nice," she said, "Then I think we’ll have a really good bloom this year. Either way, I think there’s going to be some flowers for sure … but a little more rain would really just kick things up a notch.”
And as for the question we always ask this time of year … will it be a superbloom kind of year?
Only Mother Nature knows for sure. We plant nerds also know that that the term superbloom gets thrown around with regularity during wildflower season, even though it refers to very specific conditions created by a potent cocktail of early rains, cool temps, hot temps, and late rains. So, we repeat: Stay tuned.
But Tilford says she’s already seeing signs there will be plenty of wildflowers to enjoy in the coming weeks, so you might want to make a plan to get out there.
Another great resource is also the wildflower hotline hosted by Theodore Payne. Starting in March, it will be updated each Friday with the latest wildflower news and tips on where to see it all. Call: 818 768-1802, Ext. 7.
Frank Stoltze
is a veteran reporter who covers local politics and examines how democracy is and, at times, is not working.
Published February 11, 2026 5:06 PM
A fallen tree on the sidewalk at the intersection of Olympic Boulevard and Hope Street in Los Angeles on April 21, 2025.
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Kavish Harjai
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LAist
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Topline:
A man who sparked outrage in downtown Los Angeles last year after using a chainsaw to cut down about a dozen streetside trees was sentenced to two years in prison.
Why now: Samuel Patrick Groft, 45, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading no contest to nine felony counts of vandalism and two misdemeanor counts of vandalism in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The case against him: Groft sometimes hacked away at large, decades-old trees in the middle of the night, and for others, he wielded a cordless power saw on busy sidewalks in broad daylight, according to surveillance videos reviewed by the Los Angeles Police Department. Neighborhood outrage continued to grow as the destruction continued over the course of at least five days beginning April 17 until his arrest April 22 — Earth Day.
The damage caused: LAist’s media partner CBS LA reported that witnesses at trial estimated there was nearly $350,000 in damage caused to city- and privately owned trees. At the time, Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, described the incident as “truly beyond comprehension.”
What's next: Groft was ordered to pay restitution, a hearing for which is set for April 15.
Keep up with LAist.
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An annual meeting of the nation's governors that has long served as a rare bipartisan gathering is unraveling after President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governors from White House events.
More details: The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional dinner at the White House.
Why it matters: The governors' group, which is scheduled to meet from Feb. 19-21, is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump has "discretion to invite anyone he wants to the White House."
Read on... for what this means for the group and what happened last year at the White House meeting.
An annual meeting of the nation's governors that has long served as a rare bipartisan gathering is unraveling after President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governors from White House events.
The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors are scheduled to convene in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional dinner at the White House.
"If the reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year," the Democrats wrote. "Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and make life better for people in our states."
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors in a letter on Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association's annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only.
"Because NGA's mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association is no longer serving as the facilitator for that event, and it is no longer included in our official program," Stitt wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The governors' group, which is scheduled to meet from Feb. 19-21, is one of the few remaining venues where political leaders from both major parties gather to discuss the top issues facing their communities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday that Trump has "discretion to invite anyone he wants to the White House."
"It's the people's house," she said. "It's also the president's home, so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House."
Representatives for Sitt and the NGA didn't comment on the letter. Brandon Tatum, the NGA's CEO, said in a statement last week that the White House meeting is an "important tradition" and said the organization was "disappointed in the administration's decision to make it a partisan occasion this year."
In his letter to other governors, Stitt encouraged the group to unite around common goals.
"We cannot allow one divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us," he wrote. "The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. America's governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington grows distracted by politics."
Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Maine's Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs.
Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, "We'll see you in court."
Trump then predicted that Mills' political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.
The back-and-forth had a lasting impact on last year's conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Gov. Gavin Newsom answers questions at the California Department of Veterans Affairs after signing a bill that prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their claims, in Sacramento on Feb. 10, 2026.
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Penny Collins
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NurPhoto via AP
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Topline:
Many veterans turn to private companies for help filing disability claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs and then face bills that run well into the thousands of dollars.
About the new law: A booming industry that charges veterans for help in obtaining the benefits they earned through military service must shut down or dramatically change its business model in California by the end of the year under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday. The law prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their Department of Veterans Affairs claims.
The backstory: Technically, it was already illegal under federal law to charge veterans for that work, but Congress 20 years ago removed criminal penalties for violations, and scores of private companies emerged, offering to speed up and maximize benefit claims.
Read on... for more about the new law.
A booming industry that charges veterans for help in obtaining the benefits they earned through military service must shut down or dramatically change its business model in California by the end of the year under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday.
The law prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their Department of Veterans Affairs claims.
Technically, it was already illegal under federal law to charge veterans for that work, but Congress 20 years ago removed criminal penalties for violations, and scores of private companies emerged, offering to speed up and maximize benefit claims.
“We owe our veteran community a debt of gratitude — for their years of service and sacrifice," Newsom said in a written statement. "By signing this bill into law, we are ensuring veterans and service members get to keep more money in their pockets, and not line the coffers of predatory actors. We are closing this federal fraud loophole for good.”
Critics call the private companies “claim sharks” because their fees are often five times the monthly benefit increase veterans obtain after using their services. CalMatters in September, for instance, interviewed a Vietnam-era veteran who was billed $5,500 after receiving benefits that would pay him $1,100 a month.
Depending on a disability rating, a claim consulting fee under that model could easily hit $10,000 or more.
“We owe it to our veterans to stand with them and to protect them from being taken advantage of while navigating the benefits they've earned,” said Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat representing Norwalk. Archuleta, a former Army officer, carried the legislation. “This is not about politics; it's about doing what's right. Making millions of dollars on the back of our veterans is wrong. They've earned their benefits. They deserve their benefits.”
California’s new law is part of a tug-of-war over how to regulate claims consulting companies. Congress for several years has been at a stalemate on whether to ban them outright, allow them to operate as they are or regulate them in some other way.
California is among 11 states that have moved to put the companies out of business, while another group of mostly Republican-led states has legalized them, according to reporting by the veteran news organization The War Horse.
That split in some ways reflects the different ways veterans themselves view the companies. The bill had overwhelming support from organizations that help veterans file benefits claims at no cost, such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as from Democratic Party leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.
But the VA’s claims process can take months and sow uncertainty among applicants. Several of the claims consulting companies say they have helped tens of thousands of veterans across the country, and that they have hundreds of employees.
Those trends led some lawmakers to vote against the measure, including Democrats with military backgrounds.
“We're going to say to you, ‘Veteran, you know what, I don't know if you are too stupid or too vulnerable or your judgment is so poor you can't choose yourself,'” said Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat and former Army colonel, during a debate over the measure last month.
The new law was such a close call for lawmakers that nine of 40 senators did not vote on it when it passed that chamber last month, which counts the same as a “no” vote but avoids offending a constituency that the lawmaker wants to keep.
It was also one of the 10 most-debated measures to go before the Legislature last year, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. Lawmakers spent 4 hours and 39 minutes on the bill at public hearings in 2025 and heard testimony from 99 speakers.
Two claims consulting companies spent significant sums hiring lobbyists as they fought the bill, according to state records. They were Veterans Guardian, a North Carolina-based company that spent $150,000 on California lobbyists over the past two years; and Veterans Benefit Guide, a Nevada-based company that spent $371,821 lobbying on Archuleta’s bill and a similar measure that failed in 2024.
Those companies view laws like California’s as an existential threat. Both have founders with military backgrounds. Veterans Benefit Guide sued to block New Jersey’s law prohibiting fees for veterans claim consulting, and a federal appeals court sided with the company last year.
"This was the hardest bill I’ve had to work on since I’ve been in the Legislature," said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Santa Clarita Democrat who supported the law. "We know why that is, because there was so much money on the other side."
Charlotte Autolino, who organizes job fairs for former military service members as the chairperson of the Veterans Employment Committee of San Diego, criticized Newsom’s decision to sign the law. She spoke to CalMatters on behalf of Veterans Benefit Guide.
“The veterans lose,” she said. They lose the option. You’re taking an option away from them and you’re putting all of the veterans into one box, and that to me is wrong.”
But David West, a Marine veteran who is Nevada County’s veterans service officer, commended Newsom. West was one of the main advocates for the new law.
“The veterans of California are going to know that when (Newsom) says he’s taking care of everybody, he’s including us; that he values those 18- and 19-year-olds who are raising their hands, writing a blank check in the form of their lives; to then ensure that they aren’t writing checks to access their benefits,” West said.
