The Brief

Todd Nelson could feel it coming on. And he began to run. He was going dark again, retreating to a place where he would curl into a fetal position with his thumb in his mouth, watching from behind closed eyes as his personal reel of horror unspooled. Sights and sounds from three decades of firefighting cued up — shrieks from behind an impenetrable wall of flame, limbs severed in car accidents and the eyes of the terrified and the dead he was meant to save.

Nelson was running on the Foresthill Bridge, the highest in California , fleeing cops and firefighters after his wife reported that he was suicidal. He hurdled a concrete barrier and straddled the railing of the bridge in the Sierra Nevada foothills, staring down at a large rock 730 feet below. As the rescuers closed in, Nelson leaned precariously over the chasm. His strategy — making the fatal plunge appear accidental, allowing his family to collect his life insurance.

It was not Nelson’s first suicide attempt — the former Cal Fire captain had tried to take his life many times before. But that 2021 ordeal, which led to an involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold, something in him shifted. He was ready to admit that he had a problem and seek medical help.

The incident began the firefighter’s arduous, years-long journey toward wellness, threaded through a bureaucratic labyrinth strewn with more obstacles than he’d ever encountered on a California wildfire: finding qualified medical help, battling an insurance company to pay for it and navigating the tangled morass of California’s workers’ comp. All without going broke or returning to his dark place.

No one tracks how many of Cal Fire’s 12,000 firefighters and other employees suffer from mental health problems, but department leaders say post traumatic stress disorder and suicidal thoughts have become a silent epidemic  at the agency responsible for fighting California’s increasingly erratic and destructive wildfires . In an online survey of wildland firefighters nationwide, about a third reported considering suicide and nearly 40% said they had colleagues who had committed suicide; many also reported depression and anxiety.

California’s workers’ comp — which is supposed to help people get medical treatment for workplace illnesses and injuries — can be a nightmare for firefighters and other first responders with PTSD.

Claims filed by firefighters and law enforcement officers are more likely to involve PTSD than claims by the average worker in California — and they have been denied more often than claims for other medical conditions , according to the research institute RAND.

From 2008 to 2019 in California, workers’ comp officials denied PTSD claims filed by firefighters and other first responders at more than twice the rate of their other work-related conditions, such as back injuries and pneumonia, RAND reported. About a quarter of firefighters’ 1,000 PTSD claims were denied, a higher rate than for PTSD claims from other California workers.

“It’s a fail-first system. You have to get a broken leg to show you are in need of support. With mental illness, we are constantly having to prove to everybody why we were ill. You have to get to the point of suicide,” said Jessica Cruz, the California chief executive officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness .

Jennifer Alexander, Nelson’s therapist, said patients in acute crisis simply don’t have the mental capacity to ride herd on stubborn workers’ comp claims. Alexander said she was once on hold for more than six hours with Cal Fire’s mental health provider attempting to get one of her bills paid, and she has waited years to get paid for treating firefighters.  

“People give up. It’s a battle… They are not fully functional,” said Alexander, who for 21 years has specialized in treating first responders with trauma and PTSD and has spent an estimated 25,000 hours treating them. “You are not talking about healthy individuals who can sit on the phone for hours.”

Cal Fire firefighters and other workers also have trouble finding qualified therapists, especially outside major cities in rural areas, where many are based. In 2021, less than half of people with a mental illness in the U.S. were able to access timely care. Therapists are reluctant to take workers’ comp , or sometimes any type of insurance. because they often have to wait months or years to be reimbursed.

Therapist Jennifer Alexander listens to Nelson during a treatment session. She called workers’ comp a “total system breakdown.”

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Michael Dworsky, a senior economist at the research institute RAND and one of the study’s project leaders, called workers’ comp “challenging and bureaucratic.”

“Even if the claim is accepted, there can be disputes about the medical necessity of individual bills. Just because your claim is accepted, doesn’t mean you are done fighting with the insurance company,” he said.

A presumption of pain but still a tangled web

Employers in California must provide workers’ comp insurance that will pay for medical costs when a worker is injured on the job. But in reality, workers’ comp, which serves 16 million Californians, can be ungainly, confusing and, sometimes, no help at all. The system, administered by the state Department of Industrial Relations, is massive: In 2022 almost 750,000 workers’ comp claims were filed statewide.

When a firefighter requests coverage for medical treatment, insurance adjusters review the case to determine if it’s medically necessary. If the claim is denied, delayed or modified, a patient may request an independent medical review by so-called “ghost doctors” who review the case.

Systemwide in California, patients who appeal their denied workers’ comp claims, don’t fare well: Last year 3,238 appeals for mental health claims were filed, but workers’ comp officials rejected three-quarters of them, about the same as the 10-year average, according to data from the Department of Industrial Relations requested by CalMatters. (Agency officials said they could not provide data on claims from first responders.)

For decades, the California Legislature has wrestled with how to fix workers’ comp — in one year alone lawmakers proposed nearly two dozen bills.

In 2020 lawmakers took a major step, adding a legal  shortcut or “presumption” to the state labor code, stipulating that firefighters and other first responders are considered at high risk for PTSD in the course of doing their job.

That means first responders no longer carry the burden of proving their illness is work-related. However, a claims adjuster can still question the diagnosis or assert that the trauma was caused by other factors, such as military service or family events. A law enacted last year extended the presumption to 2029 .

As a kid growing up in Las Vegas, Cleto Escobedo and his best friend delighted in playing pranks together.

"We kind of had the same sense of humor," he recalled in a 2022 oral history interview with Texas Tech University . "We'd mess with people on the Strip, and if it'd rain, maybe we'd go splash people with puddles in my car when I was a teenager."

And they watched a lot of comedy. "We were big David Letterman fans when we were kids," he said.

Just like their idol, his friend, Jimmy Kimmel, grew up to host a late-night TV show. And Kimmel delivered a heartfelt monologue Tuesday night paying tribute to Escobedo.

"Late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special, who was much too young to go," Kimmel said, near tears. He did not disclose the cause of Escobedo's death, but thanked doctors and nurses at UCLA Medical Center for taking care of his friend.

"Cleto was a phenomenal saxophone player from a very young age," Kimmel said. "He was a child prodigy. He would get standing ovations in junior high school, if you can imagine that."

Escobedo grew up in a musical household. His father worked for years as a professional musician, and the younger Escobedo first started studying saxophone in sixth grade, because his father already had an instrument at home. He enrolled at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, played in bar bands — "anything from country to Phil Collins," he said in the oral history — and in 1990, successfully auditioned to tour with superstar Paul Abdul.

"Through her, I got a record deal with Virgin Records," he said. "It was kind of a Latin-y, pop, R&B record. It was kind of like the Latin Explosion record a little too early. I did some stuff in Spanglish, but it was more like a pop, funk-y kind of stuff."

Although the album did not lead to a solo career, Escobedo worked steadily, performing with musicians such as Luis Miguel and Marc Anthony. Kimmel hired Escobedo's band, Cleto and the Cletones, to back him up when ABC launched Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003. The band included Escobedo's father, and the two, Kimmel said, were particularly proud to be what they believed to be the only father-son team performing together on late night television.

"Everyone loves Cleto," Kimmel said in his monologue. "Everyone here in this show is devastated by this. It's just not fair. He was the nicest, most humble, kind and always funny person."

Kimmel expressed sympathy for Escobedo's surviving family members, including his parents, wife and two children. He signed off with the words: "Cherish your friends."
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Long Beach will look for ways to boost police presence in Belmont Shore and better regulate alcohol-sellers citywide, but officials will not seek to impose a yearlong midnight curfew on Second Street bars.

The decision came after a lengthy discussion at a City Council meeting Tuesday night, where Belmont Shore residents said something must be done about intoxicated, unruly crowds that spill over into their neighborhood.

In the past two years, resident Mike Anderson said, a drunk driver crashed through the brick wall guarding his front yard, and both of his adult children had their parked cars damaged by hit-and-run drivers.

In another case, Anderson said he walked out to a car parked in front of his house that was blaring music, and when he asked the two men in the car if they could lower the volume, one flashed a gun and told Anderson to mind his own business.

He was one of more than 20 neighbors and business owners who demanded action from the City Council. The push for a crackdown came after the killing of 32-year-old Jeremy Spears , who police said was in an altercation at a bar before his death. It was the third killing in two years on or near Second Street.

Brandon Webb is seated next to a memorial on La Verne Avenue for his cousin, Jermey Spears, who was shot and killed near Second Street over the weekend in Long Beach, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.

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Long Beach Post

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In response, the area’s City Councilmember, Kristina Duggan, proposed exploring a temporary midnight curfew for bars, boosting DUI enforcement, studying the cost of reestablishing a Belmont Shore police substation, and targeting public drinking and street vending, which she said encourages people to linger after last call.

Duggan said she was on Second Street from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. last Friday and saw “at least 20” people with open alcohol containers. She pressed Long Beach Police Chief Wally Hebeish on why his officers didn’t cite people for public drinking that night.

Hebeish promised to look into it, but said officers cite at their own discretion.

Duggan said the widespread pubic drinking, unregulated street vending and prevalence of people blaring loud music have led to “unmanaged crowds of intoxicated people in public spaces for extended periods, creating opportunities for conflict.”

She proposed a yearlong curfew for any businesses that sell alcohol along Second Street while the city works out a longer-term plan, but she agreed to scrap that idea when it received pushback. City staff, she said, told her it would take months to implement, and several City Council members said any plan needed to apply citywide, not just on Second Street.

“You’re right — and your residents have shared here — Belmont shore is a special place, but the truth is our entire city is also a special place,” District 8 Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk said.

She said gun violence was not isolated to Belmont Shore, pointing out that there have been 11 homicides in the city’s northern police division this year compared to one in its eastern division.

“Our response to this can’t be piecemeal,” she said. “We can not be siloed in how we respond.”

Ultimately, the City Council voted unanimously, directing City Manager Tom Modica to report back to the City Council in 45 days on the feasibility of increased DUI patrols, adding more police officers during high-traffic hours and increased enforcement against public drinking and unpermitted street vendors.

Modica will also return in 90 days with the findings of how the city can better regulate alcohol-related establishments and smoke shops citywide.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Duggan said she was “disappointed” by the changes; she hoped to focus on the specific issues along Second Street, which presents a unique regulatory challenge because many of its longstanding bars are grandfathered in under old rules that give them more leeway.

Meanwhile, the four bars in Belmont Shore that currently stay open until 2 a.m. — Shannon’s Bayshore Saloon, Dogz Bar & Grill, Legends Restaurant & Sports Bar and Panama Joe’s — have agreed to voluntarily close each night at midnight.

The bars plan to resume “normal operations” after Dec. 7, said John Edmond, a spokesman hired by the bars. Their owners are exploring implementing universal safety measures and staggered closing times to mitigate some of the safety concerns, Edmond said.

The House of Representatives is expected to approve a funding bill on Wednesday that would bring an end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The measure, which extends funding levels for much of the government through Jan. 30, also includes a trio of appropriation bills that would fully fund some federal programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through Sept. 30, 2026. Payments for SNAP, which provides food assistance to nearly 42 million people, have been locked in a court fight as a result of the shutdown.

The Senate approved the legislation late Monday , with seven Democrats and one Independent joining most Republicans. The bill includes a provision to reverse the layoffs the Trump administration imposed during the shutdown.

Most Democrats on Capitol Hill angrily denounced the deal because it failed to address the central issue prompting the standoff — how to address health care subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year.

As part of the compromise, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., agreed to hold a vote by mid-December on legislation Democrats will craft to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Some Republicans agree Congress needs to do something to head off steep premium increases for those relying on the subsidies, but it's unclear there are enough GOP votes to pass a bill through the chamber. Even if a deal comes together in the next few weeks, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has declined to guarantee a vote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., attends a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday.

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New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a moderate who helped broker the deal with Thune, told reporters on Monday that the shutdown increased political pressure on the GOP to negotiate some solution on health care.

"If the Republicans don't come to the table, if Donald Trump, who claims he can make a deal, is not willing to say to Speaker Johnson, 'you need to have a vote, you need to get something done,' then come next election, in the midterms, the American people are going to hold them accountable and we are going to continue to make this an issue."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., panned the deal shortly before the Senate passed it, and urged House Democrats to vote no.

"We're not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of the American people," Jeffries said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference Monday on Capitol Hill.

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Jeffries and other opponents of the deal argue the results of last week's elections , which featured big Democratic wins in gubernatorial contests and other local elections, sent a signal that voters backed the shutdown strategy, and wanted action on health care.

Hill Republicans maintain that flight delays due to staffing shortages and disruption in government services over several weeks will harm Democrats who blocked bills to reopen the government. But President Trump suggested after GOP candidates were defeated last week that the shutdown harmed the party.

With the midterm elections a year away it's unclear just how far the longest shutdown on record will factor into voters' decisions, especially if concerns about the economy persist.
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