Supervisor defended family after daughter was sued
Nick Gerda
is an accountability reporter who has covered local government in Southern California for more than a decade.
Published August 25, 2024 7:30 AM
O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 23, 2024.
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Nick Gerda
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LAist
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Topline:
Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, whose home was searched by FBI and IRS agents last week, directed millions of tax dollars that the county alleges were fraudulently diverted. He has declined to comment to English-language news outlets for months. But he did speak recently on a Vietnamese language radio broadcast, which LAist commissioned a translation of.
What did he say? In an Aug. 15 broadcast, a few hours after the county filed a fraud lawsuit against his daughter, Do spoke for 17 minutes criticizing what he called slander against his “whole family” and defending the nonprofit Viet America Society (VAS), and the group’s founder Peter Pham from allegations they misused millions of dollars meant to feed vulnerable seniors.
The backstory: Viet America Society is at the center of the lawsuit filed by Orange County, which followed months of investigative articles from LAist. Those articles were the first to report Do’s funding of VAS via several contracts he awarded to the nonprofit, including money earmarked for feeding seniors during the pandemic and building a Vietnam War memorial in Fountain Valley. Public records and the nonprofit’s filings with the state, county and federal government show that Supervisor Do’s daughter, Rhiannon Do, was listed in leading roles at Viet America Society on and off during the time her father directed millions to the group.
Were other homes searched? A Tustin home owned by Rhiannon Do was also searched this week by the IRS. Federal agents also searched the homes of other people with ties to VAS who the county has accused of involvement in the alleged fraud.
Keep reading… for full details on what Supervisor Do said during his radio broadcast.
Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, the central figure in an unfolding corruption scandal that saw his home searched by FBI and IRS agents last week, has for months declined to comment to English-language news outlets.
Last week, he spoke out on Vietnamese-language radio, according to a recording of the remarks that LAist had translated. The broadcast took place a few hours after LAist broke the news on Aug. 15 that county officials filed a fraud lawsuit against his daughter, Rhiannon Do, and others involved in a nonprofit she helped lead, according to two people who said they spoke with others who heard the broadcast live.
Supervisor Do directed more than $10 million in public funds to the nonprofit, Viet America Society (VAS), that have gone unaccounted for, despite O.C. officials’ repeated demands for answers about what happened to the money since February.
LAist reached out to Supervisor Do on Friday and Saturday and did not get a response. A county spokesperson declined to comment on the broadcast.
Supervisor Do has declined or not responded to dozens of LAist’s requests for comment since LAist first reported on millions in public funds he’d directed Viet America Society outside of public view.
The Aug. 15 broadcast on VietLink Radio is Supervisor Do’s first — and so far only — known public response to the controversy since the county filed suit alleging that millions of taxpayer dollars were misspent. It is being reported here in English for the first time.
VietLink Radio is owned by Supervisor Do’s former deputy chief of staff Nick Lecong, and broadcasts a few hours per week on 1480 AM from a transmitter in Santa Ana.
Supervisor Do calls recent allegations ‘a slander’
Supervisor Do spoke for 17 minutes on the VietLink Radio segment. He criticized fellow O.C. Republican Janet Nguyen, a state senator currently running for Do's seat, the media and others for what he called slander against his “whole family.” Supervisor Do also defended the Viet America Society, and Peter Pham, the nonprofit group’s founder, from allegations they misused millions of dollars meant to feed vulnerable seniors. He spoke on his own and was not interviewed.
State Sen. Janet Nguyen, a Huntington Beach Republican, votes during session at the state Capitol in Sacramento on Aug. 30, 2022.
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Rahul Lal
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CalMatters
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During his broadcast, Supervisor Do pointed to a financial review that he described as showing Viet America Society “is complying with the law,” according to the translation. He appeared to be referring to a financial review released last week by VAS’ new attorney, Mark Rosen.
Allegations that laws were broken are “just a wrongful accusation, a slander,” Supervisor Do added.
The number of people who have received meals from the group “is very high,” he said, adding that 400,000 meals have been served. Supervisor Do said that number was provided by Rosen.
Rosen first emerged publicly as VAS’ lawyer in an Aug. 12 letter to the county. VAS’ previous attorney, Sterling Scott Winchell, told the Orange County Register he no longer represented the group as of Aug. 13.
County officials recently issued findings that Viet America Society's meal numbers were “questionable” and that the nonprofit failed to prove it served the number of meals required in county contracts. It filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Aug. 15 — a few hours before Supervisor Do’s radio segment that night — based in large part on those findings. The case has been transferred to San Diego County Superior Court.
In his broadcast, Supervisor Do said that many people were helped by VAS.
“People came to Phước Lộc Thọ to eat every day, to be helped by Peter Pham's Society,” Supervisor Do said about VAS. Phước Lộc Thọ is the Vietnamese name for the Asian Garden Mall, where Pham’s restaurant Perfume River is located.
An LAist review of VAS’ internal financial ledgers provided to the county and obtained by a public records request, found that VAS paid $1.7 million to Perfume River, the majority of money it received from the county to provide meals to needy seniors in 2021 and 2022.
The payments to Perfume River are labeled as “Food Supplies,” with no further information.
In early April, LAist sent questions to the county and to Viet America Society leaders about those large-scale transfers of funds from the nonprofit to the restaurant. Neither entity has provided answers. A county spokesperson told LAist that the county has not received any details or invoices it has requested from VAS about the restaurant payments.
County officials now say it’s unclear what happened to the taxpayer money that was forwarded to the restaurant. They issued findings, cited in their lawsuit against VAS, that the nonprofit has refused to provide the county with an explanation or documentation about what the funds were used for.
In his Aug. 15 broadcast on VietLink Radio, Supervisor Do said he and his family are victims of a smear campaign by the media and Janet Nguyen, the state senator and a former longtime ally turned political foe. Nguyen, a Republican, had mentored Supervisor Do, a fellow Republican. He served as her chief of staff when she was a county supervisor before they had a bitter falling out. She is currently a candidate to replace him as supervisor in the Nov. 5 election. (Do was termed out of office.)
Supervisor Do also said during the broadcast that slander from the media and “factions that follow” Nguyen are why his wife Cheri Pham — the number two judge in Orange County Superior Court — recently decided not to seek the top judgeship.
“They kept insinuating that there is something dark, something that discredits us and our families, not only is related to us but even with my wife. It slanders our whole family and therefore my wife no longer wants to be the…chief justice of Orange County,” Supervisor Do said on the broadcast.
“Our community has lost an opportunity [for] the first time in the history of the United States since the Vietnamese were refugees, a Chief Justice of such ability, prestige and dignity as my wife has to turn down that position because of a completely unacceptable manner of conduct in our community.”
O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do (center left) in December 2023 with his daughter Rhiannon Do (right) and wife Cheri Pham (between them). Pham is the assistant presiding judge of Orange County Superior Court.
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Screenshot of a public video posted by Do’s official YouTube channel
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Through a court spokesperson, Cheri Pham declined to comment on her husband’s description of why she decided not to seek the presiding judge position.
She is currently the assistant presiding judge for a two-year period ending in December. Typically, people in that position run for presiding judge for the next term and win the election among the court’s judges, according to an LAist review of court announcements for the last 14 years.
In the Aug. 15 radio broadcast, Supervisor Do also said he believes there are people who want to make sure he doesn’t try for elective office again.
“They want to make sure that they have to defame Andrew Do so that he can’t become a candidate who they must fear in the future,” Do said in his broadcast.
Asked for her response, Nguyen, the state senator, said Do has only himself to blame for his troubles. She also reiterated calls she has made for him to resign.
“This is classic Andrew Do, lying to the Vietnamese community in their own language to create divide. Meanwhile, he has been completely silent to the rest of our community,” Nguyen wrote in a statement.
“The reality is that Andrew is solely responsible for ruining his wife’s, Judge Cheri [Pham’s], career. Andrew is solely responsible for his daughter’s [alleged] fraudulent activities. Most importantly, he single-handedly stripped resources for our most vulnerable communities to benefit himself,” she added.
“It’s time he looks in the mirror and takes accountability for his actions.”
Nguyen is running against Frances Marquez, a city council member in Cypress and Democrat for Orange County’s first supervisorial district.
Marquez called for Supervisor Do to resign in a statement to LAist on Saturday.
“Anyone who violates the principles of ethics and betrays the public trust is not fit for holding office,” she wrote. “He had a duty to be honest and transparent with the residents of District 1 and failed us.”
Earlier this year, Supervisor Do endorsed his then co-chief of staff, Van Tran, for his seat, but Tran placed third in the March primary and did not make it to the runoff.
As a two-term supervisor, Do, himself, cannot run for supervisor again.
About the county’s lawsuit
The county’s lawsuit, which followed months of investigative articles from LAist on Supervisor Do’s funding of VAS, alleges his daughter and other leaders of the nonprofit “brazenly plundered” up to $10.4 million Supervisor Do had given them between early 2021 and fall 2023 to build a Vietnam War memorial and feed seniors and people with disabilities during the pandemic.
The lawsuit claims Rhiannon Do and her associates at the nonprofit refused to show how they spent those millions of dollars in public funds, which the county received from the federal government to help respond to the public’s needs during the coronavirus pandemic.
The county’s lawsuit accuses them of spending part of the money to buy million-dollar properties for themselves — but does not cite proof. Three of the six properties cited in the county’s lawsuit were among those that federal agents searched this week.
Rosen, the lawyer for VAS, has disputed the county’s allegations, saying the lawsuit is riddled with errors, “a disgrace” and a “hatchet job.”
FBI officers and Craig Wilke, who identified as O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do's lawyer, at Supervisor Do's house in Orange County the day it was searched.
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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
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LAist
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On Thursday, a little less than a week after the radio broadcast, Supervisor Do and Cheri Pham’s house was searched by the FBI. Federal officials also searched a house purchased by Rhiannon Do; another purchased by Peter Pham, who is often listed in public records as the chief executive of VAS; other properties owned by people connected to VAS; and the Perfume River restaurant.
Rhiannon Do and Peter Pham deny wrongdoing
Rhiannon Do and Peter Pham have denied doing anything wrong.
In an April email replying to LAist’s inquiries about the county’s payments to VAS, Rhiannon Do said there was nothing improper about how Viet America Society’s funding was used.
Rhiannon Do in a YouTube video posted in August 2021 by the Steinberg Institute where she was an intern.
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Screenshot via YouTube
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The “insinuation that there was something untoward with the use of VAS funds is fabricated” and a “false narrative,” she wrote. A lawyer who said he’s representing Rhiannon Do told LAist on Friday that she’s a "very honest, law-abiding, hardworking young woman."
Following the federal search on his house, Peter Pham told the Los Angeles Times that the situation was a "misunderstanding" and that he "didn't do anything wrong."
About VietLink Radio
Nick Lecong, VietLink Radio’s owner, worked for Supervisor Do as his deputy chief of staff from February 2015 to September 2017.
He was then hired as a translation contractor for Do’s county office through his company T&T Consulting, and was paid $72,000 per year for several years through contracts that did not go through a competitive bidding process.
According to county records, VietLink Radio directly received $89,000 in county funds for public service announcements during the pandemic, plus an unknown portion of $150,000 the county paid vendors that have close ties to VAS leaders.
That money made its way to ads on VietLink through private firms associated with VAS leaders Peter Pham, Le Dan Hua, Dinh Mai, and a woman who has lived at the same address as Peter Pham — Thu Thao Thi Vu — according to county invoice records obtained by LAist.
In the second half of 2020, the county paid $75,000 each to Aloha Financial Investment and Hua Development — two companies that have shared leaders with VAS — to fund COVID-19 public service ads on broadcast outlets that included “Vietlink Radio and Vietlink Television,” according to the invoices.
Aloha Financial Investment described itself as an “investments” business in a state filing last year. Hua Development is Peter Pham and Hua’s building contractor business.
The ad payments were in addition to $60,000 the county directly paid VietLink Radio during the same period — also for pandemic public service ads, according to a county contract obtained by LAist. Those ads were supposed to run in newspapers, according to the contract.
County spokesperson Molly Nichelson, who is listed in county records as requesting the Aloha Financial Investment and Hua Development purchase orders, said Friday she was looking into LAist’s questions about the ad payments.
Lecong's ties to earlier investigation of Supervisor Do
Lecong was mentioned in a previous investigation of Supervisor Do by the state Fair Political Practices Commission. That investigation found that Supervisor Do and Lecong used a different nonprofit as a “holding company” to pay for construction of statues of war heroes and former President Ronald Reagan at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley in 2015 and 2016.
A statue of General Tran Hung Dao in Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley. The statue was cited in an investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
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Mary Plummer
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LAist
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State investigators concluded that he and Lecong controlled that foundation even though they were not its named leaders.
The foundation used donated funds, raised by Supervisor Do, to pay two men who would later become involved with VAS. The two men — VAS founder Peter Pham and Hua, his partner in a general contracting business — were described by the Orange County Register at the time as project managers for the statues’ construction, and were paid $20,800.
Peter Pham went on to found VAS in June 2020, days after Supervisor Do and other county supervisors voted to create the pandemic meals program. Hua — Peter Pham’s business partner — has served as VAS’ president on and off since its founding, according to tax filings and other government documents. Rhiannon Do also has appeared on contracts and other government filings, variously as the group’s president, vice president, executive director, officer and director.
She told LAist, via email in April, that she never served in those roles. Rhiannon Do never responded to follow-up questions about why her name appears in at least nine public titles in top leadership roles at the nonprofit.
Catch up on LAist's investigation
In November 2023, LAist began investigating how millions in public taxpayer dollars were spent. In total, LAist has uncovered over $13 million in public money was approved to a little-known nonprofit that records state was led on and off by Rhiannon Do, the now 23-year-old daughter of Supervisor Do. Most of that money was directed to the group by Supervisor Do outside of the public’s view and never appeared on public meeting agendas. He did not publicly disclose his family ties.
Much of the known funding came from federal coronavirus relief money.
Since we started reporting, we’ve also uncovered the group was two years overdue in completing a required audit into whether the meal funds were spent appropriately.
And we found the amount of taxpayer money directed to the nonprofit was much larger than initially known. It totals at least $13.5 million in county funding — tallied from government records obtained and published by LAist.
After our reporting, O.C. officials wrote demand letters to the nonprofit saying millions in funding were unaccounted for. They warned it could be forced to repay the funds.
And, we found the nonprofit missed a deadline set by county officials to provide proof about how funding for meals were spent.
On Aug. 2, LAist reported O.C. officials were demanding the refund of more than $3 million in public funds awarded by Do to VAS and another nonprofit, Hand to Hand.
Six days later, LAist reported Orange County officials had expanded demands for refunds of millions in tax dollars from the nonprofits and threatened legal action.
Then, on Aug. 19, LAist reported O.C. officials had announced a second lawsuit against Hand to Hand and its CEO to recover millions of taxpayer dollars that were directed by Supervisor Do.
LAist broke the news on Aug. 22 that federal agents were searching Rhiannon Do's home in Tustin. Later that day, Supervisor Do's home, and other properties, were also raided.
How to watchdog local government
One of the best things you can do to hold officials accountable is pay attention.
Your city council, board of supervisors, school board and more all hold public meetings that anybody can attend. These are times you can talk to your elected officials directly and hear about the policies they’re voting on that affect your community.
CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts.
CBS Radio history: When it went on the air in September 1927, the service was the precursor to the entire network, giving a youthful William S. Paley a start in the business. Famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow's rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II kept Americans listening anxiously.
Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday.
Cuts are part of larger layoff: It was unclear how many people will lose their jobs because of the radio shutdown. CBS News was cutting about 6% of its workforce, or more than 60 people, on Friday. It's not the end of turmoil at the network, as parent company Paramount Global is likely to absorb CNN as part of its announced purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
NEW YORK — CBS News said Friday it will shut down its storied radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, ending an era and blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts. Said longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "It's another piece of America that is gone."
When it went on the air in September 1927, the service was the precursor to the entire network, giving a youthful William S. Paley a start in the business. Famed broadcaster Edward R. Murrow's rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II kept Americans listening anxiously.
Today, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the country and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said Friday.
The CBS Broadcast Center on 57th Street in New York on April 20, 2023.
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Ted Shaffrey
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AP
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"Radio is woven into the fabric of CBS News and that's always going to be part of our history," CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss said in delivering the news to the staff. "I want you to know that we did everything we could, including before I joined the company, to try and find a viable solution to sustain the radio operation."
But with the radical changes in the media industry, she said, "we just could not find a way to make that possible."
Not the first radio cuts at CBS
CBS News cut some of its radio programming late last year, including its "Weekend Roundup" and "World News Roundup Late Edition," in an attempt to keep the service going.
It was unclear how many people will lose their jobs because of the radio shutdown. CBS News was cutting about 6% of its workforce, or more than 60 people, on Friday. It's not the end of turmoil at the network, as parent company Paramount Global is likely to absorb CNN as part of its announced purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.
"Given the way things are going, I was saddened but I wasn't surprised by it," said Rather, who succeeded network legend Walter Cronkite in 1981 and anchored for 25 years.
When Rather covered the civil rights era for CBS News during the 1960s, he said he would file reports as frequently as a dozen times a day. Cronkite told America on television that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated; Rather relayed the news for radio.
"Radio was considered an equal responsibility to television," Rather, now 94, said in an interview.
Along with newspapers, radio was the dominant medium in how Americans got their news from shortly after the dawn of commercial radio in 1920 through the 1940s, with people in their living rooms listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" during the Depression. CBS News Radio's broadcast about Germany's invasion of Austria in 1938, the first time Murrow was heard on the air, was an historic marker for the service.
Edward R. Murrow, a CBS correspondent who made his name from the front lines of World War II and from confronting Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s Red Scare, during a speaking engagement.
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Washington State University/The Columbian
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AP
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Broadcasters like Douglas Edwards, Dallas Townsend and Christopher Glenn were familiar voices on CBS News Radio. The beginning of the television era in the 1950s began a long slide for radio, often an afterthought today with the world online and on phones. Those seeking audio often turn to podcasts before radio.
"This is another part of the landscape that has fallen off into the sea," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade publication for radio talk shows. "It's a shame. It's a loss for the country and for the industry."
A major radio player for many decades
CBS News Radio was a major force for generations of Americans. "Its heyday spanned decades," Harrison said. "It was quality on every level. It sounded good. Its coverage was as objective as possible within the realm of human nature. Its resources were extensive. It had a very high trust factor that was considered the standard of the day."
The front page of CBS News' website did not immediately carry news of the demise.
Weiss, founder of the Free Press website and without broadcast news experience before being hired by CBS parent Paramount's new management, has quickly become a headline-maker and polarizing figure in journalism. She held a "60 Minutes" story critical of President Donald Trump's deportation policy from being broadcast for a month and has critics watching to see if she's moving the network in a Trump-friendly direction.
Addressing her staff in January, three months into her job as CBS News boss, she invoked Cronkite's name as a symbol of old thinking and said that if the network continues with its current strategy, "we're toast." She announced the hiring of 18 new contributors and said CBS News needs to do stories that will "surprise and provoke — including inside our own newsroom."
Copyright 2026 NPR
Cato Hernández
covers important issues that affect the everyday lives of Southern Californians.
Published March 20, 2026 4:34 PM
Prices for gas at an Exxon gas station.
Topline:
Gas prices are draining wallets right now. The spike is hitting Southern California especially hard, so how can you save money at the pump? We looked into it.
Why now: Gas prices are rising because of the U.S.’s war in Iran, but our state is feeling it more than others. California’s switch to the summer blend of gas is here, which is more expensive to make, and we’ve got those high gas taxes.
Avoid expensive gas: You can save by avoiding convenience. Stations in busy areas, like downtowns or by freeways, like to charge more. Even the layout and positioning on the street corner can impact the price.
Make your tank last: Caring for your car in between fill-ups is another to cut down your costs. That can look like keeping your tires properly inflated and making sure the trunk isn’t too heavy.
Read on … to see where to find top 10 lists for cheap gas near you.
Drivers know it really, really sucks to get gas right now.
California is (unfortunately) leading the nation in this gas surge, according to the American Automobile Association, which tracks fuel price trends.
And with prices in Southern California hovering around $5.75 (and beyond) — just for regular-grade fuel — it can feel like almost every station is trying to compete for the most notoriously priced gas.
What gives? And more importantly, how can you save on gas right now? We looked into it.
Why is our gas so expensive?
Prices at the pump have been skyrocketing since the start of the U.S. war in Iran last month because oil shipments are being bottlenecked along the Strait of Hormuz, a key supply route in the Middle East.
California feels this pain especially hard as the state imports a decent chunk of its oil from the region. Plus, that’s happening at the same time the state is doing its annual switch to the summer blend of fuel. So both of those things, coupled with our high gas tax, means the spike hits us hard.
If you zero in more to hubs like Los Angeles and Orange County, it gets worse. Kandace Redd, a spokesperson for AAA, said that’s tied to gas stations’ higher rent, wages and operating costs.
“That is often passed on to the drivers,” she said. “ So simply put, the higher the cost of living, the higher the price you’re likely to pay at the pump.”
Some relief could be on the way, but it’s unclear when that could happen.
How to save at the pump
Don’t wait to fill up
During normal times, one subtle way you could save would be to fill up on certain days of the week. This is because California is one of the states that shows a predictable pattern at the pump, called price-cycling.
According to a GasBuddy study that analyzed weekly price changes, they found that the best day to get gas in California was Sunday, and the worst Tuesday. But that’s when things are relatively stable.
“During periods of rapidly rising prices … prices tend to keep increasing, not decrease, so filling up sooner is often best,” Redd said.
So if you know you need gas, don’t try waiting a few days for prices to drop until the situation changes. L.A.’s average gas price jumped 30 cents over the last week.
If you have a AAA membership, the mobile app also shows cheap gas nearby.
Avoid stations in certain areas
If you want to pay less, stay away from stations in popular areas, like airports, tourist hubs or freeways. Neighborhoods with fewer gas stations can cost you more money, so finding a place that’s ripe with competition can also be better for your wallet.
Even position on the street corner matters. Redd said gas stations can charge more when they’re on a side with heavier traffic or when they’re more accessible.
“ Stations that are easier for drivers to enter, fill up and exit often attract more customers and may even charge a little bit more than that,” she said.
Stretch your gas tank by taking care of your car
You can save on gas beyond the pump, Redd said, by managing how your car is using fuel. For example, combining your trips or avoiding stop-and-go traffic times can cut down on consumption. It’s all about how you care for and use your car:
Reduce your load. That means clear out that trunk and take off that top rack when it’s not in use. When your car is heavier, it burns fuel faster to account for the load.
Maintain your vehicle. If you can afford it, keep the check engine light off and your tires properly inflated. This can help make sure you're using gas at your car’s intended rate. Underinflated tires are more resistant to movement, which can reduce the miles per gallon you get.
Watch your speed. Your car uses more gas at higher speeds, so you really want to be sure to also avoid any sort of hard acceleration. If your car has an economy mode, that could also help by making your car run more efficiently.
Turn off your engine when your car is parked or stopped for a long period of time. Blasting the air conditioning can also impact gas usage, though it’s a smaller margin.
Keep up with LAist.
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An aerial view of Lake Shasta and the dam in Shasta County, on May 9, 2024. On this date, the reservoir storage was 4,380,600 acre-feet (AF), 96% of the total capacity.
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Sara Nevis
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California Department of Water Resources
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Topline:
A record-baking heat wave is scalding California, with major consequences for the state’s most important reservoir: its snowpack. Providing about a third of the state’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is a vital source of spring and summer runoff that refills reservoirs when the state needs the water most.
Why it matters: A warm wet storm followed February’s snow, and now, March temperatures are shattering records — prompting warnings of rapid snowmelt and swift rivers. Historically, the snowpack is at its deepest in April. But climate change is shifting runoff earlier, leaving less water trickling down the mountains in warmer months for homes, farms, fish, hydropower and forests. This year’s snowpack is rapidly approaching the worst five on record for April 1st, state climatologist Michael Anderson said — and it’s likely to worsen still as temperatures climb. From early to mid-March, the snowpack has been disappearing at a rate of roughly 1% per day.
Smaller snowpack leaves a gap: Even as California suffers record heat and early snowmelt, the state is better prepared than in the past. Major reservoirs are already above historic averages, and early season storms soaked the soil beneath the snowpack, making it less likely to swallow the runoff. But the season’s early melt may still leave a gap. “It's going to get us through this year just fine,” Johnson said. “But it's not as ideal as having that additional snow reservoir ready to run off through summer, and replenish what we're going to be releasing.”
A record-baking heat wave is scalding California, with major consequences for the state’s most important reservoir: its snowpack.
Providing about a third of the state’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is a vital source of spring and summer runoff that refills reservoirs when the state needs the water most.
But a warm wet storm followed February’s snow, and now, March temperatures are shattering records — prompting warnings of rapid snowmelt and swift rivers.
“In an ideal world, you'd have your reservoir full right now, and this additional huge snowpack reservoir that we know will help replenish and provide more water supply,” said Levi Johnson, operations manager for the Central Valley Project, the massive federal water system that funnels northern California river water to the Central Valley and parts of the Bay Area.
This year, he said, “we're not going to have that.”
It’s not yet the worst snowpack on record: that distinction belongs to 2015, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown stood on brown, barren slopes of the Sierra Nevada to watch scientists measure the most meager snowpack in history.
But this year’s snowpack is rapidly approaching the worst five on record for April 1st, state climatologist Michael Anderson said — and it’s likely to worsen still as temperatures climb. From early to mid-March, the snowpack has been disappearing at a rate of roughly 1% per day.
It’s a sharp departure from the near-average conditions of last year, and presents both a challenge and a glimpse of the future for reservoir operators in the state.
Conflicting roles for reservoirs
Many of California’s reservoirs serve a dual role: stoppering flood flows and storing water for drier times ahead.
Those roles sometimes conflict — as they did at Lake Mendocino, which dried to a mud puddle during the 2012–16 drought. Rigid federal operating rules forced the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release vital water supplies from the dam to make room for winter floods that didn’t come.
The dire water shortages that followed spurred an experimental partnership called Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, between the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes and state, federal and local agencies.
The program incorporates advanced forecasting and weather observations into reservoir release decisions at Lake Mendocino. It prevented the reservoir from going dry during the most recent drought, according to Don Seymour, deputy director of engineering at Sonoma Water, which co-manages the reservoir.
Now, 165 miles away in the Sierra Foothills, Yuba Water Agency is eyeing adopting the same program for New Bullards Bar, a reservoir roughly eight times bigger than Lake Mendocino that’s fed by Sierra snowmelt on the North Yuba River.
The reservoir supplies water to more than 60,000 acres of farmland in Yuba County as well as users south of the Delta. But early snowmelt is complicating efforts to store that water.
“We're seeing snowmelt conditions in mid-March that we normally don't see until at least mid-May,” said general manager Willie Whittlesey. “It's pretty obvious that this is the runoff — this is the snowmelt — and it's just happening about two months early.”
But when snowmelt arrives early, the agency can’t catch it once the reservoir reaches a certain level — even when no storms are in the immediate forecast. Federal rules require Yuba Water to maintain a certain amount of empty space until June to absorb potential floodwaters, according to Whittlesey.
Yuba Water is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to update this decades-old rulebook, Whittlesey said, but until then it must request special permission to store the extra water.
Though the agency has received permission in the past, this year it’s also contending with a rupture in a major pipe to one of its hydropower facilities, which is forcing the agency to hold back more water behind the dam.
Whittlesey said he suspects that the combination of flood-control requirements and damage control after the pipe failure is likely costing them tens of thousands of acre-feet of snowmelt.
The California Department of Water Resources, which manages Lake Oroville — the state’s second-largest reservoir — told CalMatters that it’s storing water beyond its normal flood control limits, with permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In the Bay Area, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, California’s second-largest urban water supplier, owns and operates the Camanche and Pardee reservoirs in the Central Sierra foothills.
“We're working to save every drop in light of the warm temperatures that we are experiencing now, and in light of all the zeros that we are seeing in terms of a rain or snow forecast,” said spokesperson Andrea Pook. “The last time that we had run off this early was in 2015.”
Pook said the district is releasing less water from its reservoirs now, in order to preserve more for the fall when salmon migrate upriver to spawn.
“We're tracking to not necessarily be in a drought situation. But I am not convinced that we're going to fill our reservoirs by July 1st, which is our usual goal,” Pook said.
Improved forecasts after a major miss
Even as California suffers record heat and early snowmelt, the state is better prepared than in the past.
Five years ago, state forecasters badly missed their runoff predictions — overestimating the snowmelt expected to refill reservoirs by up to 68%. Dry soils and a parched atmosphere drank up the runoff before it could flow into storage. Farms and cities scrambled in the middle of a drought as supplies fell far short of expectations.
This year is different. Major reservoirs are already above historic averages, and early season storms soaked the soil beneath the snowpack, making it less likely to swallow the runoff.
The state has also been working on better forecasts.
“Things have substantially improved,” said Andrew Schwartz, Director of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, in an email to CalMatters.
Johnson, at the federal Central Valley Project, said that the state and federal water delivery systems are in a better spot than five years ago, and that forecasts haven’t made a major miss since.
But the season’s early melt may still leave a gap.
“It's going to get us through this year just fine,” Johnson said. “But it's not as ideal as having that additional snow reservoir ready to run off through summer, and replenish what we're going to be releasing.”
Improved snowpack modeling and soil moisture estimates, experimental temperature measurements at different snow depths, university collaborations and incorporating weather outlooks are helping, according to the Department of Water Resources.
Still, between state budget shortfalls and federal cuts, challenges remain, Anderson said.
Efforts to install more soil moisture sensors in national forests have run into permitting slowdowns at the U.S. Forest Service, which has shed thousands of employees under President Donald Trump.
“You wait in line a lot longer,” Anderson said. “That's been the biggest limitation of late. There just isn't anybody there.”
The fasting period for millions of Muslims ends this weekend with Eid al-Fitr — the “festival of breaking the fast” — marking the end of Ramadan.
Topline:
The fasting period for millions of Muslims ends this weekend with Eid al-Fitr — the “festival of breaking the fast” — marking the end of Ramadan.
What to expect: The holiday, which lasts three days, centers on prayer, charity and time spent with family and community. And with it comes a wave of joyful celebrations, feasts and family events. Across Los Angeles, that spirit is reflected in a range of events.
Read on... from Eid-themed picnics in Ladera Heights to comedy shows in Westlake to a 5K run through Boyle Heights, here are some of the best ways to commemorate the end of Ramadan.
The fasting period for millions of Muslims ends this weekend with Eid al-Fitr — the “festival of breaking the fast” — marking the end of Ramadan.
The holiday, which lasts three days, centers on prayer, charity and time spent with family and community.
And with it comes a wave of joyful celebrations, feasts and family events.
These gatherings arrive after a stretch of difficult years marked by global conflict, including wars in Iran, Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan, and many other ongoing conflicts worldwide.
For many, those events have cast a shadow over recent Ramadans, making the spirit of the holy month feel harder to fully hold onto, especially for those watching the violence unfold from afar.
Still, Eid offers a moment of grounding, with events showing how that sense of togetherness endures — a chance to gather with loved ones, give thanks and find meaning in community.
And across Los Angeles, that spirit is reflected in a range of events. From Eid-themed picnics in Ladera Heights to comedy shows in Westlake to a 5K run through Boyle Heights, here are some of the best ways to commemorate the end of Ramadan.
Chand Raat Mela at Islamic Center of South Bay–LA
South Bay 25816 Walnut St. Lomita Date: Thursday, March 19 Time: 6 to 11 p.m. More info here.
Grab some food, browse outfits and jewelry, get your mehndi (henna) done and soak up the pre‑Eid buzz with families from all over.
Prayer at Masjid Umar Ibn Al Khattab
Exposition Park 1025 W Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20, Time: 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. More info here.
Join a packed Eid congregation across from USC, with early‑morning prayer, and complimentary coffee, tea and snacks such as donuts, cookies, sandwiches, nachos and hot dogs.
Prayer at Masjid Al-Zahra
Southeast LA 8152 Seville Ave, South Gate Date: Friday, March 20 Time: 7:30 am More info here.
Masjid Al-Zahra is offering prayers followed by a breakfast.
Prayer at the Islamic Center of Southern California
Koreatown 434 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 Time: Take beerat at 7 a.m. with prayer at 7:30 a.m.; Take beerat at 9 a.m. with prayer at 9:30 a.m. More info here.
Mark a historic Eid as Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC) hosts prayers at its Vermont Avenue campus, offering multiple morning prayer times and easy access to Koreatown eats afterward.
Eid Picnic at Kenneth Hahn
Ladera Heights 4100 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 Time: 2 to 7 p.m. More info here.
Join the fun with BBQ on the grill, kids getting soaked in water games, and friendly basketball and soccer showdowns.
Eid in the City at Ladera Park
Ladera Heights 6027 Ladera Park Ave., Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 Time: 3 p.m. More info here.
Pack a blanket, round up the crew and hang out at this potluck in the park.
Wellness as Resistance at InnerCity
Boyle Heights 3467 Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. More info here.
Gaby Alcala from Luminous Body Therapy is offering a free, grounding community sound bath at InnerCity Struggle’s Youth and Community Center.
Nowruz 2026
Highland Park 5541 York Blvd., Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 Time: 7 p.m. More info here.
Celebrate the arrival of spring with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, featuring live Persian music.
“Beetlejuice” at the Pantages
Hollywood 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 Time: Various More info here.
The cult‑favorite musical adaptation of “Beetlejuice” delivers big spectacle, singalong moments right on Hollywood Boulevard.
Immanuel Wilkins at Blue Note
Hollywood 6372 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles Date: Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 Time: Various More info here.
Saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins brings cutting‑edge jazz to Blue Note for an ideal date night.
Beautify your community
East LA 4025 City Terrace Drive, Los Angeles Date: Saturday, March 21 Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. More info here.
Connect with your neighbors at a street cleanup hosted by Visión City Terrace and the Maravilla Community Advisory Committee at City Terrace Library.
Goats & Totes
Westside 8840 National Blvd., Culver City Date: Saturday, March 21 Time: 11 a.m.More info here.
Take the family to meet and pet some goats at Ivy Station.
DOLORES at Plaza de la Raza
Lincoln Heights 3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles Date: Saturday, March 21 Time: 3 p.m. More info here.
Explore the legacy of Dolores Huerta with a screening, art exhibit, opening reception and panel conversation at the Plaza de la Raza Boathouse Gallery as part of a special exhibition on view through April 12, 2026.
Andrew Callaghan at The Wiltern
Westlake 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles Date: Saturday, March 21 Time: 7:30 p.m. More info here.
Andrew Callaghan brings his popular “Channel 5” world to the stage for a one‑night carnival of live bits, interviews and typically internet-native chaos.
“Vertigo” in Concert with the LA Phil
Downtown 111 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Date: Saturday, March 21 Time: 8 p.m. More info here.
See Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” on the big screen while the LA Phil performs Bernard Herrmann’s iconic score live at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Beautify your community
East LA 2609 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave., Los Angeles Date: Sunday, March 22 Time: 7:30 a.m. More info here.
Join Healing in Spanglish and Acurrúcame Cafe for a 5K run or 2-mile walk through Boyle Heights. Stay for the post-run cafecito. The first 50 cars will get access to free parking at 345 N. Fickett St.
Dorsey High School Eid Al‑Fitr Festival 2026
Crenshaw 3537 Farmdale Ave., Los Angeles Date: Sunday, March 22 Time: 12 to 4 p.m. More info here.
Spend the afternoon roaming food stalls, checking out vendors and just hanging out. Adults pay a small entry fee, kids get in free.
Butterfly Pavilion
Exposition Park 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles Date: Sunday, March 22 Time: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. More info here.
Starting Sunday, you can take the kids to walk among hundreds of beautiful butterflies at the Natural History Museum. Reservations are required. The pavilion runs through the summer.
New Horizon School Eid Breakfast
San Gabriel Valley 651 N. Orange Grove Blvd., Pasadena Date: Monday, March 30 Time: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. More info here.
Roll up with the family for a laid‑back breakfast, kids’ activities and plenty of time to catch up with friends between coffee refills.
