The Brief

The state is moving forward with licensing two dozen nursing homes whose primary owner’s companies have a lengthy track record of problems — as uncovered by a CalMatters investigation — despite a new law designed to provide better oversight of the facilities.

The nursing homes in question are owned by Los Angeles businessman Shlomo Rechnitz, who owns dozens of California facilities through a web of companies.

One of his main companies, Brius Healthcare, has been scrutinized for poor quality care and inadequate staffing, according to federal and state inspection reports, plaintiffs’ attorneys and press accounts. By 2015, government regulators decertified or threatened to decertify three of Rechnitz’s companies’ California nursing homes, a rare penalty that strips facilities of crucial Medicare and Medi-Cal funding.

One of those facilities, Wish-I-Ah Healthcare & Wellness Centre near Fresno, was closed following the death of a 75-year-old resident from a blood infection after staff left behind in her body a foam sponge used in dressing her mastectomy wound. Investigators also found toilets brimming with fecal matter and other serious problems, according to the state’s accusation.

The State Auditor’s office in a May 2018 report spotlighted Brius for its higher rate of federal deficiencies and state citations, compared to the rest of the industry in the state.

It was via bankruptcy court that Rechnitz scooped up 18 Country Villa-branded nursing homes in 2014. Per state law, he then filed change-of-ownership applications seeking licenses to run those homes. The state didn’t approve or deny them, instead leaving them pending. In the meantime, Rechnitz continued to run the nursing homes for years without a formal license in his name – which isn’t technically illegal.

A new law was supposed to close that loophole. But that law, co-authored by Democratic Assemblymembers Al Muratsuchi of Los Angeles and Jim Wood of Santa Rosa, doesn’t go into effect until July 1 — and it focuses on new license applications, rather than those that have been operating in the legal gray area for years.

The California Department of Public Health, which oversees the state’s nursing homes, defended the new licensing settlement with Rechnitz, which includes tools for the state to monitor the nursing homes’ performance. The department noted the settlement allows the nursing homes to continue operating, instead of closing and forcing hundreds of residents from their homes.

“This settlement resolves longstanding issues we have had with this provider and provides our department stronger enforcement tools to ensure the provider is delivering reasonable and appropriate care to its residents,” Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the Department of Public Health, said in an emailed statement. “With this settlement, we will continue to monitor the facilities involved with a focus on maintaining that level of care.”

Under the settlement announced this week, the state health department agreed to approve license applications for 24 skilled nursing facilities owned by Rechnitz – once the department receives all necessary documents to complete the process.

The settlement includes some oversight provisions, including a two-year monitoring period. The health department is to meet with each facility every six months to review the quality of care residents are receiving, and each facility is to provide a slew of documents before the meetings. Deficiencies in care are to result in heightened oversight, including daily phone calls. Failing to comply with those parameters is to result in a fine of $10,000 per failure.

An attorney representing Rechnitz’s company Brius did not respond to a phone call or an emailed request for comment.

Tony Chicotel, a staff attorney for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, called the state’s move to license Rechnitz’s nursing homes “sad.”

“There’s been longstanding, systematic problems in nursing homes run by this chain,” he said. “We think this is a message to residents of nursing homes in California that their welfare just isn’t all that concerning to the state.”

Not all of Rechnitz’s applications had been left pending – some were denied outright. In denying his licensing application for Windsor Healthcare Center of Oakland in 2016, the Department of Public Health said staff at the facility neglected to treat the skin ulcers and pain of six different residents — including a paralyzed resident who was left covered in feces and then hospitalized for sepsis.

That facility is now one of the 24 the state is moving toward licensing under the new settlement. The two-dozen facilities also include 13 of the 18 Country Villa properties Rechnitz purchased in 2014.

Another one of Rechnitz’s nursing homes was in hot water recently. Alta Vista Healthcare & Wellness Centre in Riverside, owned by Rechnitz, and its management company, Rockport Healthcare Services, agreed to pay the state and federal government some $3.8 million over allegations they provided kickbacks to doctors. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Alta Vista gave doctors extravagant gifts – including expensive dinners, limousine rides and massages – in exchange for referring patients to their nursing home between 2009 and 2019.

That facility is not included in the new licensing agreement.

Chicotel said he’s “disappointed but not surprised” the state is moving to license Rechnitz’s facilities. It was clear that the law taking effect July 1, which he opposed because he said it lacked teeth, would not take existing facilities away from bad operators, he said.

Assemblymember Wood’s spokesperson, Cathy Mudge, said he was not aware of the settlement and would not be able to comment on it yet. “This is an important issue to him and he will be asking CDPH for more information,” she said in an email.

Assemblymember Muratsuchi’s office did not respond to an email seeking an interview.

The new law still has value going forward because it will apply to new cases, said Dr. Michael Wasserman, a geriatrician and chair of public policy for the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

“I think (it) was meant to keep the type of licensing issues that have occurred in the past from ever happening again,” he said.

As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.

Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.

The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.

The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”

Would it make much of a difference? 

Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.

“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”

Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.

Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.

“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”

What’s next for the proposal? 

The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.

The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.

The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.

Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.

Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.

"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.

The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.

"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.

Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.

"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."

Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.

"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.

Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.

Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.

Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.

"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."

If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.

Claudia Grisales contributed reporting.
Copyright 2026 NPR

California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.

It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.

Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.

But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.

On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.

“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”

State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs.

Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.

“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.

“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”

‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’ 

In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.

“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”

Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.

“That means we can get more work done,” he said.

It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.

Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.

“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”

‘A haystack fire’

Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.

Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”

“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.

Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.

But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.

How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.

“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”

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