The Brief

Former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do was ordered Monday to pay $878,230.80 in restitution for his involvement in a bribery scheme that saw millions in taxpayer dollars diverted from feeding needy seniors, leading authorities to label him a “Robin Hood in reverse.”

Federal prosecutors had asked the judge to order Do to pay back the roughly $878,000 amount, while Orange County was seeking the return of millions more. Kevin Dunn, an attorney for Orange County, had asked the judge for the higher amount "to restore the full measure of the damage to the county." The judge ultimately sided with prosecutors.

Do did not attend Monday's hearing. His attorney told the court Do was preparing to turn himself in by Friday to begin serving a five-year federal prison term.

Monday’s order brings the total taxpayer money expected to be recovered from the scheme to roughly $6 million. The roughly $878,000 in restitution from Do would be on top of an estimated $5 million in previously forfeited property and bank accounts. Ultimately, it will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi whether the roughly $5 million in forfeited assets will actually go to Orange County or another recipient, authorities said.

By contrast, the restitution ordered today is expected to go directly to Orange County taxpayers. Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, who remarked “I'm not surprised he didn't show up,” said the money recovered will first be used to reimburse the county for out-of-pocket costs and then the rest will go into the county's General Fund.

Do has a net worth of $1.5 million, according to a June memo from the judge. "He has the ability to pay a fine," Selna wrote in the memo.

What happens next?

O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer said Do would be required to pay $250,000 of the total restitution amount within 30 days. He also told LAist that authorities are continuing to pursue the recovery of additional dollars from the scheme.

“We’re not done,” Spitzer said. “This does not prohibit us in any way from collecting restitution with respect to charged and potentially uncharged defendants."

"I have been committed to making the county as whole as possible from day one. That’s always been my goal," Spitzer added. "I didn’t anticipate it would all come from Andrew Do. There obviously are other people who are financial responsible.”

He added. “There’s a chapter that’s now closed. But we still have many more chapters to write.”

Elsewhere, the reaction to the ruling was immediate — and mostly reflected disappointment that the number wasn't higher to better reflect Do's misdeeds.

He admitted in his plea deal that about $8 million was diverted from feeding needy seniors. His plea deal does not cover an additional $3 million he directed to another nonprofit group, Hand to Hand Relief Organization, whose leader is now being prosecuted in connection with the meal money scheme.

What was the reaction to the judge's order?

Foley said she was "disappointed" as the county is still out around $10 million from the schemes.

Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who replaced Do on the Board of Supervisors, said "I’m disappointed in the judge’s ruling, however there is a process to obtain $5 million in funds seized from bank accounts and the sales of homes belonging to Andrew Do’s daughter and businesses associated with his scheme. We will work with the U.S. Attorney to obtain these funds to return to the residents he stole from."

Margaret Carrigan, a former employee of the O.C. Health Care Agency, was at the hearing on Monday and said the decision "diminishes my belief in the justice system. This defendant took advantage of poor people in a time of crisis and made decisions that benefited himself and his family, and he knew full well what he was doing, and it's hard for me to see people like that, that we trust and vote into office, that they can do that to their constituents."

Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento said he was not surprised by the ruling.

"The remainder of the funds, taken from vulnerable seniors during a crisis, needs to be returned. The county should continue to pursue every avenue to recover these funds from all parties involved in the former Supervisor’s scheme," he said in a written statement.

Why the county asked for millions more

Dunn, the county’s attorney, told the judge ahead of the sentencing that Do should have to pay the full $10 million-plus in contracts back to the county because it was foreseeable the money was being diverted from its intended target of feeding the needy.

Dunn said that as a sophisticated person — a former public defender, DA prosecutor, and a then-elected official — Do would have been aware that when he gave county dollars to a group that was then providing bribes to him, “it is then completely foreseeable that they may not be spending the rest of that money in a proper manner.”

He also pointed to Do’s admission in the plea deal that he kept awarding the money “in reckless disregard” for whether they were actually going to meals:

Dunn added that the victims in the case are “actually the hungry residents of Orange County who suffered.”

The judge ultimately did not agree to the county’s request for $10-plus million, instead siding with the federal prosecutors’ request for around $878,000 in restitution — an amount limited to the bribes Do admitted to taking through his daughters.

Where was Andrew Do?

The hearing on Monday was paused before it could get underway. Do was not in attendance, and the judge wanted to know why attorneys for Do hadn't filed a waiver from Do giving up his right to appear, as would be required for such hearings. Do's attorney's said he was preparing to turn himself in for his prison sentence. The judge then called a recess, adding that the hearing was not just a "mere technicality."

After almost an hour, proceedings resumed once the waiver was filed.

Carrigan, the former county employee, said Do's failure to show was disrespectful. " I don't believe that there was any reason that he shouldn't have been here."

Outside of court, Paul Meyer, Andrew Do's attorney, told LAist that the "the court's ruling says it all." He did not comment further.

What's the backstory

Do pleaded guilty last year to a federal bribery charge for accepting kickbacks from the over $10 million in federal COVID relief dollars he directed to a nonprofit, Viet America Society. Federal prosecutors said only around 15% of that money went where it was intended: to feed hungry seniors in need during the pandemic.

The criminal probe was launched in response to an LAist investigation of the money Do awarded the group, and the failure to account for it.

Do has been ordered to turn himself in to serve a five-year federal prison term by Friday.

Following the money

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, county officials filed a request seeking over $10 million in restitution. They based their request on the amounts Do directed to the nonprofit as supervisor.

“The county’s entitlement to restitution ... is not limited to the amount that [Do] personally gained through bribes but should be based on the county’s actual losses that was caused by [Do’s] criminal conduct,” an attorney for the county wrote in the request.

But federal prosecutors asked for a much lower amount — the nearly $900,000 in bribes they say Do received from the nonprofit through an elaborate scheme, which saw the kickbacks channeled through his daughters to cover the trail. And so they asked that restitution be set at $878,230.80 and said that there was not enough evidence to prove fraud beyond the bribes.

Do’s attorneys had their own request — they wanted the federal prosecutor’s amount to closer to $800,000 — discounted by the amount he said his daughter Rhiannon Do earned by working what he estimated to be 40 hours a week for a group connected to the nonprofit while she was in law school.

Supervisor Foley noted one grim upside to the scandal: "I'll be happy when we can kind of close this chapter in the county’s history book, we've learned a lot of lessons from this,” she said, adding “We have a lot more public corruption protections in place than we had prior, so that's a good thing for the taxpayers.”

Los Angeles County will begin sending mail-in ballots starting this Thursday ahead of the Nov. 3 elections. Counties across the state have until next Monday, Oct. 5, to begin mailing out ballots.

In the June primary, nearly 82% of the total ballots cast in L.A. County were through vote-by-mail ballots.

State and local officials are encouraging people to vote early.

When can I turn in my ballot?

L.A. County elections officials say voters can turn in their ballots by mail as soon as they receive them. No postage is necessary.

They can also turn them in starting this week at official dropboxes across the county, which are often found at parks, community centers or libraries.

Voters can also turn them in or vote in person at the county’s Vote Centers, which L.A. County officials say will start to open on Oct. 24. Officials say all Vote Centers will be open by Halloween.

What about in Orange County?

Orange County officials say U.S. Postal Service officials are scheduled to pick up about 1.9 million ballots from the county elections office on Saturday and start delivering them on Monday, Oct. 5.

The Trump administration has tried to restrict mail-in ballots. Will my ballot be affected?

The California Secretary of State’s office says nothing has currently changed. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month issued an injunction on President Trump’s executive order requiring states to turn in lists of voters and ordering the USPS to send mail-in ballots to the people on the approved lists.

"Voters will be able to cast their ballots without uncertainty, without hesitation, and without fear that their voices will be questioned or their ballots rejected," said Secretary of State Shirley Weber.

Los Angeles County is reporting the highest number of rabid bats on record, a to-date total of 69, officials said.

This year’s rabid bat count has already matched 2025’s total, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health, which released the count Monday, marking World Rabies Day.

Health officials emphasized that rabid bats have been found all over the county "from suburban areas such as the San Fernando Valley to urban areas like downtown Los Angeles, in office buildings, parks, schools, businesses, and residential backyards."

That said, a large share of rabid bats — 68% of the 69 found so far — were in the Santa Clarita Valley, and they were mainly canyon bats, which are common in California.

When to be on high alert

Officials warned that a third of human encounters with rabid bats happened indoors, where the risk of exposure to the virus is higher.

Bat bites are small and can be hard to detect. Rabies can also be spread through scratches or other transfers of saliva.

“If you find a bat indoors or think you may have had contact with one, contact your medical provider or Public Health right away,” Dr. Muntu Davis, a Los Angeles County Health officer, said in a statement. “And remember, never touch a bat or any wild animals. Immediately report any bat found indoors, or outdoors if it appears sick, active during the day, unable to fly, or dead, to your local animal control.”

Who to call

Veterinary Public Health

Phone: 213-288-7060
Email: vet@ph.lacounty.gov
Website: publichealth.lacounty.gov/vet

*Call 211 to find your local animal control

What to know about rabies

Rabies in humans is treatable with a series of vaccines. Rabies is always fatal in animals, the county said in a release, so vaccinate your pets.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Sunday that tightens building rules for sites that store explosive chemicals, responding to an Orange County chemical incident that forced thousands of residents to evacuate Memorial Day weekend.

The law also adds the chemical methyl methacrylate to a state program that aims to prevent chemical disasters.

In May, CalMatters reported that California’s toughest accidental-release prevention rules do not cover the chemical in the tank at GKN Aerospace, a company that makes cockpits and windshields in Garden Grove. Weeks later Democratic state Sen. Tom Umberg of Santa Ana amended an existing bill with language that addressed that gap. Assembly committee and floor analyses noted CalMatters’ reporting. 

Had the chemical exploded, it “would have been perhaps the greatest catastrophe, certainly in the last several decades in California,” Umberg said at a June Assembly hearing.

Umberg’s original proposal would have set stronger standards for more types of explosive chemicals, but legislators narrowed it significantly in last-minute negotiations.

The final law bars building new facilities near homes and schools and requires backup cooling systems. It also strips an exemption from environmental review that facilities storing methyl methacrylate previously qualified for.

Garden Grove advocates call the bill a good step, but say it offers the community little immediate recourse, especially with GKN Aerospace planning to reopen by the end of September.

The law’s siting requirements apply to new facilities, not to existing ones like GKN’s Garden Grove plant.

Mai Do, research and policy manager for the Orange County advocacy group Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice, said she hopes the state will do more to address the threat of toxic chemicals at existing facilities.

“This is a much larger fight than just what's happened in Garden Grove,” Do said. “What we see in terms of the Lineage fire and other industrial crises is that this is a problem that is affecting a lot of different communities”

In an interview with CalMatters, Umberg said the bill reflected a balancing act. “This is a net benefit for the state, a net benefit for the community,” he said.

Stronger rules for new facilities, not existing ones

Over Memorial Day weekend, residents learned of a problem with a tank storing methyl methacrylate at the GKN Aerospace facility. A crack in the tank released pressure and, along with efforts by emergency responders, averted disaster, but questions remained about what went wrong.

CalMatters reported in May that methyl methacrylate and other chemicals that could explode under certain conditions falls outside the California Accidental Release Program, which requires facilities to maintain detailed plans for preventing or responding to chemical leaks or explosions.

Rachel Tochterman, a spokesperson for Sen. Umberg, said the senator took note and initially proposed incorporating a broader category of reactive chemicals into the program.

But industry groups opposed the plan, arguing it was too broad without clearer evidence.

Dawn Koepke, a lobbyist for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association and the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance, said she does not believe a regulatory gap exists that would justify incorporating more chemicals into the state’s accidental release regimen.

Facilities storing toxic chemicals are already heavily regulated under other federal and state laws, she said, including a requirement for plans to protect people from chemical releases.

Koepke said she worried that "jumping to conclusions and over-regulating" could affect "a wider array of facilities."

Tim Shestek, a lobbyist representing the American Chemistry Council and other groups, said in an email that Umberg’s original proposal would have affected “far more facilities, substances and sectors than were in the original scope.”

After amendments on the next-to-last day of the legislative session, nine industry groups stopped lobbying against the bill.

Most provisions of the law only apply to methyl methacrylate — the chemical involved in the Garden Grove incident. The bill adds it to the state’s accidental release program, requires facilities to maintain prevention and emergency-response plans, and closes the environmental-review exemption for new sites where the chemical is present.

Scrapped from the bill: a requirement to map reactive-chemical sites in CalEnviroScreen, a state program that identifies polluted communities.

GKN Aerospace plans to reopen 

Steve Carlin, senior vice president for GKN Aerospace programs, said the company has been working with regulators and independent experts “to safely reset the remainder of the facility with the appropriate oversight” work that has included inspections, upgrades to safety equipment, and additional monitoring. The company plans to reopen in the next few days.

The company also announced an additional $100 million program to pay residents and businesses that lost money during evacuations.

Lisa Fu, director of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, a worker-safety group, wants California to regulate hazardous chemicals more broadly.

“It's just unfortunate that it's a piecemeal thing,” said Lisa Fu, director of the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative. “Is it worth it to go piece by piece in terms of trying to ban certain chemicals? It makes the work harder for us, and you can see who's benefiting and who's not.”

Newsom also signed a pair of bills in response to the Lineage fire, a June cold storage fire in Los Angeles. The fire briefly prompted a shelter-in-place order over fears that toxic anhydrous ammonia had been released into the air.

The new laws raise the fines agencies can levy on companies that endanger health and safety. They also bar building permits for cold storage facilities that lack contingency funds or insurance to help communities in emergencies.

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

California is now the second state to recognize the two main Muslim holidays as state holidays.

Eid ul Fitr is the festival marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and Eid ul Adha is the festival honoring Abraham or Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son as a mark of his devotion to God. They join a state holiday list that also includes Lunar New Year and Diwali.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the change into law Monday. Washington first recognized the holidays in 2025.

Oussama Mokeddem, legislative and government affairs director at the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told LAist the signing day is  “an exciting day for the California Muslim community and a big day for the American Muslim community at large.”

Muslims follow the lunar calendar, so the dates of the two festivals vary each year. Next year, Eid ul Fitr will likely fall on March 10 and Eid ul Adha on May 17.

Why it's important to Californians

The holiday recognition comes at a time when the community is facing “unwarranted and unjustified criticism,” Mokeddem said, which he cited as a reason for a May 2026 attack at the Islamic Center of San Diego. A recent Pew study also found that 42% of Americans believe Muslim Americans have a negative impact on the country.

Adam Khaja, an 11th grader at Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District, said the holiday recognition signals that  "you don't have to give up an important part of your identity to fully participate in Californian society."

" For a long time, immigrant and minority communities have sometimes felt pressure to leave parts of their identity at home in order to fit into American educational or industrial institutions," he said.

What does the holiday recognition mean?

California is home to more than 1 million Muslims, and with this law, state employees can use existing paid time off to celebrate the two holidays.

And for students in K-12 public schools, Mokeddem said the law does not mandate statewide time off, but local school districts can declare a district-wide day off if enough community members bring it up as a need.

He added that students can also cite state law when they are absent from school to celebrate the holiday.

Khaja said he will be advocating for his school district to give a district-wide day off.

"Eid has always been a huge part of our lives, but I think that the school calendar and district policies haven't always reflected that," he said.

He hopes his students will not be put in a situation now "to choose between going to school or fully participating in one of the most important days of their faith."

Muslim Women Professionals, a nonprofit, has templates on how to advocate for time off to celebrate Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Adha.