The Brief

Federal agents on Thursday searched the family home of O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do and his wife — O.C. Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham — as well as a home owned by their daughter Rhiannon Do and multiple properties connected to an LAist investigation into millions of tax dollars that have gone unaccounted for.

A spokesperson for the IRS Criminal Investigation division confirmed they were involved in the searches along with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The search warrants were executed for Rhiannon Do’s Tustin home; a North Tustin family home that real estate records show is owned by Cheri Pham and Supervisor Do; a Garden Grove home that public records show is owned by Peter Pham, the founder of Viet America Society (VAS); and a Fountain Valley home that government filings show is the business address for VAS — the nonprofit Orange County officials sued earlier this month for alleged fraud.

A neighbor told an LAist reporter on the scene that over a dozen black cars were parked on the street around the North Tustin house of Supervisor Do and Cheri Pham at the time of the raid.

A federal agent at the family home of O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do and his wife, O.C. Superior Court Assistant Presiding Judge Cheri Pham, on Aug. 22, 2024.

(

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez

/

LAist

)

A spokesperson for the FBI confirmed they served search warrants at the homes. “The affidavit in support of the search warrant is under seal and so we’re prohibited from commenting as to the nature of the case. No arrests planned,” Laura Eimiller said.

Rhiannon Do’s Tustin home was named in the fraud lawsuit filed last week by Orange County officials, calling on VAS to return millions in taxpayer dollars. The lawsuit alleges that a fraud scheme involving Rhiannon Do, other VAS leaders, Aloha Financial Investment and its president Thu Thao Thi Vu, who owns the Fountain Valley home raided Thursday.

Vu’s name also appears on the grant deed for Rhiannon Do’s home purchase, as someone who should receive a copy once it’s officially recorded. Financial records obtained by LAist show that a large portion of county funds sent to VAS were routed to Perfume River Restaurant in Westminster, which is owned by Vu’s company, Aloha Financial Investment. Two VAS leaders have also held leadership roles at Aloha, according to records LAist obtained.

Shoppers pass Perfume River Restaurant & Lounge, which appeared closed, inside of the Asian Garden shopping mall, also known as Phước Lộc Thọ, in Westminster in April 2024.

(

Brian Feinzimer

/

LAist

)

The FBI confirmed that it was involved in the raid on the Perfume River Restaurant, located in the Asian Garden Mall in Westminster. An IRS spokesperson, however, said the agency did not join in that operation.

Rhiannon Do and Peter Pham are among those accused in the county’s lawsuit of a fraud scheme to divert funds intended to feed needy seniors and build a war memorial, to instead pay for million-dollar homes and improvements to the homes.

Requests for comment were not returned by Supervisor Do, Rhiannon Do or Peter Pham. Peter Pham told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that the situation was a "misunderstanding" and that he "didn't do anything wrong."

An O.C. Superior Court spokesperson said Cheri Pham is unable to comment due to California judicial ethics rules barring judges from commenting on law enforcement actions or pending court cases.

On Friday, David Wiechert, an attorney who said he had been retained to represent Rhiannon Do, told LAist Rhiannon Do is a "very honest, law-abiding, hardworking young woman."

"It’s our intention to demonstrate to the government the error of their ways if they think she’s done something wrong,” he said.

The raid of Rhiannon Do’s home in Tustin

An LAist reporter saw at least six law enforcement officers outside Rhiannon Do’s home and around the front doorway Thursday morning. Around 11:20 a.m., an LAist reporter at the scene overheard a law enforcement agent say Rhiannon Do was inside the home. Law enforcement officers were inside at the time as well. A neighbor told LAist that he saw Rhiannon Do come in with the agents when they first entered the house earlier this morning.

Law enforcement at a house purchased by Rhiannon Do in Tustin.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

The IRS’ criminal division was involved in the raid on Rhiannon Do’s house. Most of the agents observed by LAist wore black shirts with "POLICE IRS-CI" printed on the back. An LAist reporter also overheard an agent telling a private investigator that they were with IRS' criminal investigation division.

A spokesperson for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office confirmed they were involved in the raids but declined to comment further.

Rhiannon Do purchased the home last year for $1.035 million, according to Zillow and real estate records reviewed by LAist.

Law enforcement near a Tustin house that Rhiannon Do, the daughter of O.C. Supervisor Andrew Do, purchased.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

Larry Thomas, who lives next door to the house, told LAist around 9:45 a.m. that officers were standing guard outside. He said he was hearing what he described as “slamming and quite a bit of noise” from inside the house.

A photo obtained by LAist shows what appears to be an evidence marker in front of a small structure on the property. The white rectangular sign states “ROOM P.” An LAist reporter overheard an agent next to the home say, "Remember, you’re looking for documents.” An agent also noted finding a large amount of Christmas decorations.

Farzin Noohi, a private investigator, who said he was working with Rhiannon Do's lawyer, speaks to law enforcement in Tustin as the raid was underway.

(

Jill Replogle

/

LAist

)

Shortly before 1:30 p.m., an agent exited the house with two large rectangular boxes and drove away.

Federal agents were at the Tustin home for nearly eight hours.

At one point, agents came out and put a file folder, three file boxes and a black trash bag, half full, into a car.

Shortly after 5 p.m. an LAist reporter saw five agents exit the home and leave in five separate vehicles.

Supervisor Do and Rhiannon Do have been in and out of the house in recent days, Thomas told LAist on Wednesday. Rhiannon in particular, he said, has been in and out of the house more in the last 48 hours than in the year-plus since buying it.

Earlier this week, Thomas told LAist that there have been no signs anyone ever moved into the home, in the year or so since Rhiannon Do bought it.

He said that in the first few months after the purchase, a significant amount of work appeared to be done on the house, including the sound of electric saws.

“You could hear, every day, hammers and saws and heavy equipment,” Thomas said.

The backstory

LAist revealed last December that the nonprofit, Viet America Society, had failed to account for what happened with millions of dollars in taxpayer money Do had provided the group.

Rhiannon Do in a YouTube video posted in August 2021 by the Steinberg Institute where she was an intern.

(

Screenshot via YouTube

)

In response to LAist’s questions in April about the funding her father directed to the nonprofit and the home purchase, Rhiannon Do did not answer if any county funds provided to her nonprofit were used to purchase the home. She denied that anything improper took place and said she worked hard for her home.

After the county gave the nonprofit months of opportunities this year to provide required proof, it ended up filing a lawsuit last week alleging a sweeping fraud scheme to divert money that was meant to feed vulnerable seniors during the pandemic. Among the county’s allegations are that funding was illegally diverted to buying multiple homes, including Rhiannon Do’s home in Tustin.

Supervisor Do has not responded to LAist’s requests for comment over the last nine months. He has denied any wrongdoing in interviews with other media. State law does not require the disclosure of his family tie to the nonprofit he funded with taxpayer money. The state Legislature is advancing a bill that would change that.

Responses to the searches

Santa Ana City Councilmember Thai Viet Phan, the first Vietnamese American elected to the council, called for the “immediate resignation” of Supervisor Do.

“While innocent until proven guilty, Supervisor Do has lost the trust of our community and should not retain power over a $9.3 billion budget,” Phan said.

Community organizations VietRISE and Harbor Institute for Immigrant & Economic Justice also called for the resignation of Supervisor Andrew Do.

“Residents continue to face skyrocketing rents, evictions, and homelessness, yet Supervisor Do used his position to divert taxpayer dollars towards million-dollar properties for his own family and friends,” the statement from both organizations said. “Supervisor Do has failed the residents of his own District, including the working-class immigrants and refugees of Little Saigon.”

State Sen. Dave Min issued a statement saying he was glad federal authorities were investigating allegations of public corruption in Orange County.

“For too long, Orange County has been seen as a place where corruption and abuse of the public trust are part of the political culture,” he said.

Min’s Rebuilding Public Trust Act, which was inspired by LAist’s reporting, is currently awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature and would require elected officials to recuse themselves from votes that would award government contracts to their family members. He said he hoped the raids would be motivation for the governor to sign the legislation.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said she anticipates the raids will “uncover additional evidence that proves the brazen criminal conspiracy by these individuals who stole millions to enrich themselves instead of feeding hungry, disabled seniors.”

Meeting coming up next week

The O.C. Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet Tuesday for their regularly scheduled meeting.

Among the items Supervisor Do and other supervisors are being asked to decide is whether to increase funding for real estate fraud prosecutions by the DA’s office.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 27.

Here’s how you can follow along:

• Attend in person: The Board of Supervisors meets in the County Administration North, Board Hearing Room, First Floor, 400 W Civic Center Dr, Santa Ana.
• Listen to the meeting via phone: Call (866) 590-5055. Access code: 4138489
• Watch the live broadcast

To submit a comment, you can attend in person, dial in or submit a comment via email to response@ocgov.com.

Catch up on the 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.

• Read the story that launched the investigation here.
• 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.
• On Aug. 15, LAist reported O.C. officials sued VAS and its key officers and associated businesses, including Rhiannon Do. The lawsuit alleges that county money was illegally used to purchase five homes and was converted into cash through ATM transactions. 
• 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.
  

In a last-minute move, state legislators added language to a bill on Friday evening that street safety advocates say would threaten a long-planned project to slow speeding cars on Forest Lawn Drive near Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

The proposal, which would amend a larger bill if approved, targets projects that would reduce lanes on roads that provide access to “two or more adjacent cemeteries” in cities with populations over 2 million. Los Angeles is the only city in California large enough to meet that requirement.

Since 2022, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the city council office of Nithya Raman, who is running for mayor, have studied and planned to reduce the number of lanes along a one-mile stretch of Forest Lawn Drive. The proposal would cut the number of lanes to three — two through-lanes and one center turn lane.

The stretch of road is the point of entry for Forest Lawn’s Hollywood Hills location and Mount Sinai Memorial Park. The cemeteries are home to the graves of famous actors such as Debbie Reynolds and Brittany Murphy, at Forest Lawn, and comedians Don Rickles and Bob Saget at Mount Sinai.

Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks and Mortuaries, which operates a chain of cemeteries including the Hollywood Hills location, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying against the project at the state and local levels, according to an LAist review of lobbying activity. Mount Sinai has also advocated against the project.

“After years of work to finally make this street safer, Sacramento is threatening that progress because powerful interests objected,” Michael Schneider, CEO of Streets for All, said in a post on the street advocacy group’s website condemning the bill’s language. 

The project

According to the L.A. Department of Transportation, Forest Lawn Drive has seen more than 95 collisions, resulting in four deaths, since 2013. Earlier this month, a driver died on the road after their "vehicle collided into a tree and became engulfed in flames,” according to the LAPD.

In response to concerns about speed and safety, the Department of Transportation proposed reducing the number of lanes. The project would also install plastic posts to separate vehicular traffic from cyclists.

Both cemeteries along the affected portion of Forest Lawn Drive have opposed the project from the start, saying the reduction in lanes would “create severe gridlock.”

The city’s analysis of how traffic could be impacted show that the lane reduction would result in a driving delay of about 15 seconds during weekday evening rush hour and by a little more than a minute and a half during weekend peak hours, when traffic is heavier.

The project was set to break ground earlier this summer before state legislators and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass requested city departments to pause work, citing "significant community opposition."

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass during a talk with LAist's public affairs show AirTalk.

(

Courtesy of Loyola Marymount University

)

Bass is facing Raman in a runoff race for the L.A. mayor’s seat this November. The project has become a heated campaign issue with Bass wanting to block the work and Raman supporting the project.

“This last minute amendment to the legislation is clearly meant to stop one road safety project in my district, which is designed to save lives while keeping travel times nearly unchanged for commuters,” Raman said in a statement shared by her campaign.

L.A. Councilmember and mayoral candidate Nithya Raman at a press conference to speak in support of safety updates following a fatal crash that occurred on Forest Lawn Drive, on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.

(

Christina House/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

/

Los Angeles Times

)

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment

The bill

If the added language is approved, State Senate and Assembly bills 194 would require Los Angeles to get approval from the City Council and the mayor and hold a public hearing before reducing “the number of vehicle travel lanes on a street that provides the only access to two or more adjacent cemeteries.”

The proposed bill change comes at the tail end of the legislative session, meaning lawmakers would have until midnight on Aug. 31 to either advance or reject the legislation.

A joint statement from Forest Lawn and Mount Sinai cemeteries said the legislation, if passed, would represent a “momentous victory.”

“The proposed legislation places important safeguards around any future effort to reduce vehicle lanes on the only street providing access to these adjacent cemeteries,” the statement reads.

Lobbying money

Records held by the California Secretary of State show that Forest Lawn Memorial Parks and Mortuaries paid a lobbying firm $125,000 between April and June to advocate the governor’s office and state legislature regarding “transportation issues.” No additional details are available.

Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who represents the project area, confirmed to LAist that he heard from Governmental Advocates, Inc., the lobbying firm retained by the cemetery. Zbur said the firm and other stakeholders reached out to his office about “the harmful impact of the proposed projects on access to the cemeteries and the surrounding area.”

According to city records, lobbyist Rick Taylor and Associates received $360,000 from a law firm working on behalf of the cemetery between 2025 and 2026. Reports filed with the L.A. City Ethics Commission about the lobbying activity list opposition to the Forest Lawn Drive transportation project as the subject.

Status of the project

According to an Aug. 24 statement from the mayor’s office received before the proposed state language was introduced, alternative plans that preserve the four lanes of traffic and include protected bike lanes “are being reviewed.”

The mayor’s office said the project will break ground following additional community outreach.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

After Inglewood systematically violated state law, a judge reminded the city it was required to release records on police misconduct and use of force — but rolled back an earlier ruling that would have required the records to be posted online.

Barring an appeal, the decision brings five years of legal wrangling between the city and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California closer to a conclusion.

Inglewood won’t face serious consequences for the pattern of breaking California public records law, but the city must pay attorney fees for the ACLU and Trisha Shanklin, who joined the ACLU’s 2021 lawsuit. Inglewood police fatally shot Shanklin’s sister, Kisha Michael, and Marquintan Sandlin in 2016.

LA Superior Court Judge Amy Carter said the city will not have to proactively post the records online, which another judge had previously ordered the city to do for the next three years. Carter said during a Wednesday hearing that such a requirement would have to come from state legislators, not a judge.

Over the last decade, California lawmakers have expanded the public’s right to access police misconduct and use-of-force records, but Inglewood has thrown up a series of obstacles to that access.

The Inglewood City Council voted to destroy decades of internal affairs records in 2018 just weeks before one law went into effect, though Mayor James Butts denied the move was intended to thwart the law, according to LAist. The LA Times reported that the city nearly did it again in 2021 before being blocked by a judge.

This week’s court ruling found the city has routinely violated the law since then, missing deadlines, sharing incomplete records, and at times, failing to provide any documents at all.

Tiffany Bailey, an ACLU attorney, celebrated the decision and said it streamlines the civil rights group’s ability to get police records from the city in the future.

David Loy, an attorney with the First Amendment Coalition, said the case was a great win for the ACLU.

“These kinds of (public records) delays are not uncommon throughout the state,” Loy said. “I hope and believe this is a signal to other cities to get their house in order.”

Attorneys for the city declined to comment on the ruling, and Mayor James Butts did not immediately reply to written questions from The LA Local.

CalMatters maintains a searchable database of police misconduct and use-of-force records called the Police Records Access Project that includes records from the Inglewood Police Department.

The universe is a strange place — filled with exploding stars, ancient galaxies, and unseen worlds. Now, astronomers are about to get a brand new tool to explore it.

The $4.3 billion Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled for launch Aug. 30. Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, the observatory is expected to reveal new information about the expansion of the universe and discover multitudes of planets orbiting distant stars.

Roman, as it is known to its friends, has an unusual history. About 15 years ago NASA was making plans to build a space telescope that could, among other things, search for exploding stars known as Type 1A supernovas. These supernovas were used as a kind of cosmological measuring stick to uncover a mysterious force called dark energy that was causing the universe to expand — a discovery that earned the Nobel Prize in 2011.

Cosmologist Daniel Scolnic at Duke University says finding more of them would be key to better understanding that expansion.

As NASA was developing plans for this new telescope, a call came in from the government office in charge of surveillance satellites.

"The National Reconnaissance Office reached out to NASA," Scolnic says, "saying, 'We have this amazing satellite sitting in a hangar that we're not using. And what what do you guys think about instead of pointing downwards, we point upwards, and you guys use it?'"

NASA said yes. It took some substantial modifications, but now that old satellite is set to become NASA's next major space observatory.

Scolnic says that the new observatory could fundamentally change the scientific model that astronomers use to understand our universe.

"In the last few years, there have been measurements saying that model might be wrong — and that's something that Roman will absolutely nail, whether the model's right or wrong," he says.

Another goal of the telescope is to spend a month surveying all the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Julie McEnery is Roman's project scientist. She says even though Roman has broadly the same sensitivity and sharpness of vision as the currently orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, its design lets it do things much faster.

"That one month of observations to survey our Milky Way galaxy would take about a century with Hubble," says McEnery.

Instead of focusing on a single object, Roman is designed to make catalogs of large swaths of the sky, and McEnery says these catalogs will be available to everyone, not just academics.

"You can be a teacher in a high school in Kentucky and your students have the opportunity to see Roman data at the same time as a professor in Princeton," she says.

One professor eager to get his hands on Roman data is Scott Gaudi at The Ohio State University. Along with colleagues, Gaudi developed a technique for detecting planets around distant stars. It's called gravitational microlensing, and it measures the way those planets bend the starlight that passes them by.

Albert Einstein described the idea in 1936 but thought it would be impractical. New technology has proven him wrong — and Gaudi expects Roman will find tons of planets that way.

"We're looking for planets that are just completely undetectable by any other method," Gaudi says. That includes planets at the center of our galaxy, "that are very analogous to our own solar system planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune."

In addition to new planets, Roman should also reveal new galaxies, helping astronomers to get a better idea of the large-scale structure of the universe.

But predicting what will be Roman's greatest accomplishments over the course of its five-year mission is a tricky business.

"The history of astronomy really has shown that when you get a new capability, and especially a survey capability, you learn something new, something unexpected," says Wendy Freedman, an astronomer at the University of Chicago. "Often that turns out to be the most exciting part of a new facility. So I am completely open to what this telescope will find."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Over the Linda Lindas’ career, talk about the band has often centered around how young they are.

They broke through as tweens and teens when a 2021 performance at the library in Cypress Park went viral after it was posted online, in part because they sounded so commanding for their age. The drummer, Mila de la Garza, was 10 at the time.

Five years and several albums later — Gotta Get Out, their third album and major label debut, just dropped yesterday — the Linda Lindas are outgrowing their old image.

“I do think people still hear 'kid band' when they think of the Linda Lindas,” said Lucia de la Garza, Mila’s older sister and one of the guitarists. “It's like we're not actually really that young anymore.”

Eloise Wong and Bela Salazar of The Linda Lindas perform during Riot Fest at Douglass Park last year in Chicago.

(

Barry Brecheisen

/

Getty Images

)

It’s been eight years since the sisters joined cousin Eloise Wong and family friend Bela Salazar to play a local music fest. What was a one-off gig turned into a real band that always seemed to have homework to do.

“We'll play a show and then go backstage and finish an essay,” Lucia said.

“Almost like we're Hannah Montana,” Mila said.

“Without the secret identity,” laughed Lucia.

Then came the library video, a record deal with punk label Epitaph and their 2022 debut album Growing Up. 

They started touring the world opening for their heroes like Green Day and Paramore. (Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams is featured on the single “Closer.”)

And as of this summer, more big leaps: They signed with Warner’s Reprise imprint, and all but Mila have graduated high school.

As they’ve grown, so has their songwriting.

Where they used to write individually, for their new album, they holed up in L.A., Long Beach and Palm Springs to write in the same room from the beginning. No phones allowed. Just riffing.

“We believe in each other and each other's ideas so much that we were kind of just pushing each other to go for it,” Lucia said. “What if we added synth here? What if the drums dropped out?”

By the end of the sessions, they had amassed about 30 songs and the 12 tracks on the album were split evenly between the three writing locations, produced by the sisters’ dad, Carlos de la Garza, who’s worked with Paramore, Bad Religion and Best Coast. (He actually started working with Best Coast after meeting them when the duo came to a Linda Lindas rehearsal in the family's backyard, according to Lucia.)

The album moves beyond straight-ahead punk, dipping into new wave, power pop and hardcore.

That range tracks with the members’ own eclectic listening habits. Lucia has been listening to indie artists Blondshell, Francis of Delirium and Indigo De Souza. Mila cited Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, while Eloise, who plays bass, has been digging into local hardcore punk like Special Forces from San Luis Obispo, not to mention the Heated Rivalry soundtrack. Guitarist Bela has been listening to pop from Hollis and Mexico's Belanova.

Meanwhile, their lyrics tackle the issues staring down their generation, from climate change to fascism and economic injustice.

On “Blood on Our Hands," Eloise belts out an indictment of not just the government but the complicity of bystanders.

Eloise said the song isn’t just about calling people out about the state of the world, but “making everyone think about all of the little things that we can do to try and make it better, you know, and make it more sustainable, and make sure that people can live.”

Mila de la Garza of The Linda Lindas performs during the Bumbershoot Arts and Music Festival in Seattle last year.

(

Mat Hayward

/

Getty Images

)

Elsewhere on the album, like on the single “Burning Out,” the band reflects on that strange space between youth and adulthood and seeing friends move into new stages of life while wondering if they’re being left behind.

Whatever uncertainty they may be feeling, the Linda Lindas say one thing is for sure: It’s all about their music now.

Next month, they head out on their biggest tour yet as headliners with dates across the U.S. and Canada.

For a band whose early years involved squeezing in homework between soundchecks, life has simplified in at least one respect.

“It's pretty much all about the band,” Eloise said.