The Brief

A Los Angeles Metro contractor hired a man with an open sexual assault case against him to be a transit ambassador, the green-polo wearing personnel that the countywide transportation agency brands as a friendly presence on its trains and buses.

The ambassador, Fernando Vinicio Chavez, met his next alleged victim while working on Metro’s system, according to police.

In August 2023, four months after he was hired, Santa Monica police arrested Chavez for assault to commit rape, according to a public information bulletin the department published.

“Chavez met the victim while working in Downtown Los Angeles and the victim agreed to meet after Chavez ended his shift,” according to the bulletin. The bulletin said the two went to the beach in Santa Monica.

He was arrested while wearing a green Metro-branded polo, a spokesperson for the Santa Monica Police Department said.

Metro’s ambassador program, which is managed by two third-party vendors, was established to place easily identifiable helping hands on the system that riders could rely on. The answer to how a potentially dangerous person was hired to help carry out this duty comes down to an imperfect backgrounding process.

An executive at Strive Well-Being, the vendor that hired Chavez, said the check the San Diego-based wellness company ran on him did not surface his pending sexual assault charges or anything else of concern. The company, which has a $30 million contract with Metro, has since adopted a “more comprehensive” background check, the executive said.

Metro will continue to rely on its vendors to facilitate the program until the ambassadors are brought into the agency’s in-house public safety department, which is in its early stages.

Details on the case

In June 2022, the Orange Police Department arrested Chavez. He was charged with forced sexual penetration by a foreign object and assault with intent to commit a sexual offense originating from an incident in October 2021.

Chavez was working as a ride-share driver at the time, and the victim was his passenger, a spokesperson for the Orange Police Department said.

Chavez posted bail for $100,000 in August through a bail bonds company after he was charged and originally pleaded not guilty to both counts. The office of the Orange County public defender did not respond to a request for comment from Chavez or the attorney who represented him.

Strive Well-Being hired Chavez in April 2023 to work as a transit ambassador while he was on bail awaiting trial.

Sanjay Sangani, the president of Strive Well-Being, said his company conducted a pre-employment criminal background check that searched for felony and misdemeanor records over a seven-year period.

Sangani and Metro cited the state’s Fair Chance Act as the reason Chavez’s legal history slipped through the cracks.

The law, which went into effect in 2018, prohibits most employers from asking about conviction history before making a job offer or considering arrests that don’t result in convictions in their decision to hire someone.

The law, however, does not prevent an employer from asking about “an arrest for which the employee or applicant is out on bail,” according to state labor code. 

When asked about this exemption, Sangani said Strive Well-Being would consider pending charges in its hiring decision.

“However, [the] Ambassador has to disclose that voluntarily to us or it must show up in the pre-employment background check report we receive,” Sangani said.

LAist has reached out to the company that Strive Well-Being used to conduct its background check and will update this article if it hears back.

A judge in Orange County placed Chavez back in custody in August 2023 after the Santa Monica arrest. Sangani told LAist Chavez was fired three days after his arrest.

In May 2024, Chavez pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit a sexual offense in Orange County. The other charge from that case was dropped.

A judge sentenced him to four years in state prison. He was admitted to the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security prison in Riverside County sometimes called “Norco,” in June 2024, according to the state’s inmate search portal.

The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue charges from the alleged Santa Monica assault. When asked why a case wasn’t filed, the office referred LAist to its public records request process.

Through that process, LAist obtained a charge evaluation worksheet in which the District Attorney’s Office said there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue a case.

“Victim alleged that Suspect attempted to sexually assault her on the beach,” the charge evaluation worksheet stated. “Suspect said that he was ‘just chilling’ with Victim and never made a move on her. Due to lack of corroboration the case is declined for insufficient evidence.”

How did Metro and Strive handle the case?

Metro said that in the days following the 2023 arrest, it investigated the case with Strive Well-Being and worked with both contractors to “tighten background checks going forward.”

The augmented background still covers a span of seven years. It considers a total of 10 counties of residence of potential hires, up from the five county search that Chavez was subject to, and looks for applicant names on “multi-state” sex offender registries, Sangani of Strive Well-Being said. Originally, the background check considered only the national and California state sex offender registries.

Metro said it requested Strive Well-Being re-run the wider-reaching background check on Chavez and other ambassadors.

The charges against Chavez in Orange County didn’t show up on the more comprehensive background check, Sangani told LAist.

In October 2023, just two months after Chavez was arrested in Santa Monica, Metro recommended that the program be moved under the agency’s control. The move was pitched as a way to improve retention, efficiency and “uniformity in … pre-employment background checks,” according to the presentation staff presented to the Metro Board Operations, Safety and Customer Experience committee.

Metro said the decision to move the program in house wasn’t motivated by Chavez’s case. Instead, Metro said the move would offer ambassadors the job security that comes with union representation, a rich benefit package and a career path.

The ambassador program

Following the nationwide reckoning with police brutality and the murder of George Floyd, Metro, along with security and police forces across the country, reevaluated its approach to public safety.

A Metro Ambassador helps a person at Union Station in Los Angeles on this April.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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In 2022, Metro entered into agreements with two companies to “develop, operate, and manage a cohesive unit of qualified and effective public-facing personnel,” according to a presentation agency staff delivered to board members.

The Metro Board agreed to pay security firm RMI International more than $55 million to oversee 244 personnel and Strive Well-Being nearly $16 million for its 55 personnel.

In 2024, the Metro Board voted to increase Strive Well-Being’s contract since the original agreement to continue its services and account for additional ambassadors that were added under the wellness company’s purview. Strive Well-Being’s contract with Metro now totals more than $30 million.

Metro officially launched its transit ambassador program in March 2023. The agency now deploys 220 people on an average day across the system to help with wayfinding, direct riders to helpful resources and report wrongdoing.

Ambassadors engaged with Metro riders nearly 70,000 times per month on average last year. They also administered naloxone, the opioid-overdose reversing drug, around 11 times per month, according to an LAist analysis of Metro data.

According to a 2023 customer survey, more than 60% of respondents who had seen ambassadors on the system said that they help them feel safe.

The agency announced in May that outgoing San Francisco police chief Bill Scott will lead the new public safety department, which will bring the ambassadors together with law enforcement officers, security that enforces the system code of conduct and social service-oriented teams, like homeless outreach and crisis intervention specialists.

Metro cited lack of central accountability as one of the reasons for the new public safety department.

As part of its vision for a multilayered public safety department, Metro wants to increase the average daily deployment of ambassadors by 60%.

That means that once the new public safety department is fully stood up later this decade, there will be more than 360 ambassadors patrolling Metro trains and buses per day.

Metro said that once the ambassadors are brought in-house, they’ll be subject to the agency’s “stringent background checks.”

“Metro is authorized by the Department of Justice to access state and local criminal history records as well as subsequent arrest notifications for all personnel,” the agency said.

In the more than two months since the Department of Justice released its latest batch of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors have not brought any new charges based on the documents, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.

The more than 3 million pages of documents include accusations by alleged victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's abuse and thousands of emails and photos showing Epstein associated with prominent figures. The files indicate that many of these people maintained contact with the disgraced financier long after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to sex crimes that involved minors. Appearing in the files is not necessarily an indication of criminal wrongdoing.

The release of the Epstein files came after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to make public all documents it held related to Epstein.

Epstein died in prison about a month after a 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted on sex-trafficking charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Since the release of the files in 2025 and 2026, there have been no related arrests in the U.S. However, the disclosures have led to some resignations and other reputational repercussions for some high-ranking Americans.

The lack of arrests in the U.S. contrasts to the fallout in the U.K., where investigators have pursued charges related to corruption, not sexual abuse, in their dealings with Epstein. Two former government officials — former Prince Andrew and ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson — were arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has denied wrongdoing and has not been formally charged. Mandelson has also not been charged, and lawyers for Mandelson have said that the arrest was prompted by a "baseless suggestion."

In the U.S., top Justice Department officials have said that they found no evidence compelling enough to pursue further charges related to Epstein, and that the public can make their own assessments based on the disclosed documents.

In a statement to NPR, Justice Department spokesperson Katie Kenlein said that "there have not been additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell because there has not been credible evidence that their activities extended to Epstein's network. However, if prosecutable evidence comes forward, the Department of Justice will of course act on it as we do every day in sexual trafficking and assault cases across the count[r]y."

On Thursday, President Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out of the top job at the Justice Department, following bipartisan criticism over her handling of the Epstein files.

NPR asked four former prosecutors and one former law enforcement officer why there may not have been enough evidence to levy additional charges. Here's what they said.

Prosecutors must prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt"

Prosecutors must prove to a jury that a person committed a crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," according to Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

"One of the biggest misconceptions people have is how difficult it is to charge and convict somebody for a criminal case," said McQuade, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

A prosecutor's ethical responsibility is to charge cases only if they believe there is enough evidence for a conviction, McQuade said. Documents, including emails, jokes, and even plane itineraries, can be a place to start, but, alone, they are not enough to prove guilt, McQuade said.

"What you would need [is] rock solid evidence," McQuade said. "You can't charge someone for a crime without sufficient evidence, and I have yet to see evidence of a crime involving an Epstein associate that has gone uncharged."

Based on his understanding of the case, Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law, said he agreed that prosecutors who investigated Epstein's alleged associates "may have believed that they couldn't persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt." He said problems with witness credibility or certain forensic evidence can prevent a case from moving forward.

The U.K. cases are focused on corruption 

In the U.K., the two people arrested are being investigated on suspicion of "misconduct in public office." McQuade said the U.S. does not have a single equivalent federal law. Instead, the U.S. prosecutes public corruption through statutes that focus specifically on crimes such as bribery and extortion.

After the release of the latest files, British police began investigating Andrew's correspondence with Epstein when Andrew was a U.K. trade envoy. At that time, Andrew allegedly shared government itineraries, investment plans and notes from official foreign trips with Epstein. The information may have been covered by the United Kingdom's Official Secrets Act.

Similarly, Mandelson has been accused of passing confidential government information to the late sex offender when Mandelson was a U.K. Cabinet minister.

Meeting the burden of proof is especially challenging for sex crime cases

Victim statements are essential for establishing basic elements, such as the timeframe of events, required to build sexual assault cases, said Diane Goldstein, a retired police lieutenant from California and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. But a victim may be reluctant to come forward because of a fear of retaliation, not believing the police can help, believing it is a personal matter, or not wanting to get the perpetrator in trouble.

McQuade noted that in some sex trafficking cases, especially those in which a perpetrator is in a position of power, victims may experience intimidation or threats that prevent them from speaking out.

Victims also may be hesitant to move forward with allegations because they fear having to testify at trials where defense attorneys may attempt to poke holes in their allegations, McQuade said.

Goldstein said that for sex crime cases to advance, investigators need to follow certain policies and procedures. "If you don't have a legitimate police investigation to start, you're not going to get any type of criminal filing," Goldstein said.

Other potential charges are also a difficult path

Prosecutors may have considered pursuing charges of criminal conspiracy related to sex trafficking against people associated with Epstein, said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law. FBI documents in the files relating to its investigation into Epstein's crimes identify certain people as "co-conspirators."

But Ankush Khardori, a senior writer and columnist at Politico magazine who worked as a federal prosecutor on financial fraud cases, told NPR those identifiers are not "formal accusation[s]" and are simply part of "interim documents."

"The FBI does not determine who is a co-conspirator," Khardori said. "That is a legal judgment that prosecutors make."

But for those conspiracy cases, "criminal intent," in particular, is difficult to establish, said Roth, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. Criminal conspiracy charges "would require knowledge and intent on the part of each individual who was charged," Roth said. If a person who communicated with Epstein had some suspicion that he was engaged in illegal activity, that alone would not be sufficient evidence to press charges, she said.

Investigators may have considered charges related to criminal tax violations, McQuade said. But the statute of limitations has likely ended on those cases, she said, meaning that prosecutors can no longer bring charges.

The current evidence lacks context

Legal experts say the haphazard way the documents were released and redacted makes it difficult for the public to understand why no additional charges have been filed.

Roth, the Cardozo law professor, said the information is in "isolation," without the appropriate context. "We'll see an individual photograph that looks perhaps incriminating. We'll see an email that looks incriminating, but we don't necessarily have everything that was said before and after that email and that exchange," Roth said.

One document that could explain why no charges were pursued, according to Butler, is a heavily redacted DOJ memo naming "potential co-conspirators" of Epstein. "The parts that should indicate why the department declined prosecution on any alleged co-conspirators other than Ghislaine Maxwell [are] redacted," said Butler, the Georgetown law professor and a former federal prosecutor.

Butler said those redactions are "unusual" because they do not appear to follow the permissible reasons for redactions in the Epstein documents. Those reasons include confidentiality for Epstein's alleged victims, or anything that would compromise an ongoing investigation, Butler said.

"When the Justice Department grudgingly releases information when pressed by politics or forced by Congress, it also creates the impression that they have something to hide," Butler said. "That there is some cover-up going on."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Nearly 30% more students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness from 2022-23 to 2023-24, making it the county’s highest rate in the past five years and far outpacing the rate of homelessness across the state in the same timeframe, as the resources to identify and support this student population have decreased.

The UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools published two reports on Wednesday on the state of student homelessness in the county: “Rising Numbers, Fading Resources: Students Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County” and “Hidden in Plain Sight: Fear, Underidentification, and Funding Gaps for Housing-Insecure Students in Los Angeles County.”

Researchers found that Norwalk-La Mirada Elementary Unified School District had the highest rate of student homelessness in the county — 1 in 3 students, meaning that over 4,700 students were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2023-24 school year out of a total cumulative enrollment of about 15,600.

The city of Norwalk, where the district is located in the eastern region of the county, was sued by the state in 2024 for banning emergency shelters and other support services for people experiencing homelessness. Last year, the state reached a settlement with the city, which was forced to overturn the ban and put $250,000 toward building affordable housing.

Student homelessness is defined differently under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that requires every public school to count the number of students who are living on the street, in shelters, in motels, in cars, doubled up with other families, or moving between friends’ and relatives’ homes.

As a result of this expanded definition, McKinney-Vento includes doubled-up students in the count of homelessness. Doubled-up is a term used to describe children and youth ages 21 and under living in shared housing, such as with another family or friends, due to various crises.

There were a few other patterns seen in the L.A. County data analyzed by the UCLA researchers:

• Latino students were disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness: they represent 65% of the county’s student population, but 75.5% of student homelessness
• A third of homeless students were in high school
• Many districts with the highest rates of homelessness had higher school instability but lower dropout rates

While McKinney-Vento has an expanded definition that includes more types of homelessness than several other definitions, identifying students remains difficult.

The second report from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools focuses on the lack of dedicated funding for school staff to identify and support homeless students. Students and families facing homelessness do not always self-identify, whether due to fear, shame or being unaware that their housing situation is considered homelessness under McKinney-Vento.

“A lot of these young people are dealing with a lot of trauma, so they don’t want to be identified. They don’t want to be pointed out; sometimes it’s scary for them, because they think we’re going to report them to the Department of Children and Family Services,” said L.A. County Office of Education staff interviewed for this report.

School staff, known as homeless liaisons, who work with homeless students received a historic influx of federal funds during the Covid-19 pandemic — $98.76 million for California, out of $800 million nationwide, from the American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth.

That funding has since ended, and there is no other dedicated, ongoing state funding set aside solely for the rising number of homeless students. This has led districts in California to “heavily depend on highly competitive and unstable federal streams,” the UCLA researchers wrote. Those federal streams have become increasingly precarious as the federal administration last year sought policy changes that would shift how they are structured.

This is a developing story and will be updated. For the most up-to-date information about the fire you can check:

• CalFire incident page
• Latest evacuation map
• For more updates, follow the Riverside County Fire Department.

Multiple evacuation orders are in place for residents near the Springs Fire burning in east of Moreno Valley in Riverside County. The fire was first reported around 11 a.m.

As of this afternoon, the fire has reached over 2,800 acres.

West of the Springs Fire, a separate bush fire near Acton also began Friday afternoon. The Crown Fire has burned 280 acres and is 20% contained.

The basics

• Acreage: 2,848 acres as of Friday afternoon
• Containment: 0%
• Structures destroyed: None reported
• Deaths: None
• Injuries: 0
• Personnel working on fire: 105
  
  • 2 helicopters
  • 23 engines
  • 2 dozers
  • 2 crews

Evacuation map and orders

The Moreno Valley College campus closed Friday afternoon due to air quality and evacuated all students and staff.

Evacuation orders have been issued by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department for the following areas:

• MOE-0507
• MOE-0747
• MOE-0745
• MOE-0641
• MOE-0746
• MOE-0744
• RVC-0748
• RVC-0826
• RVC-0825

Evacuation warnings

Authorities say those who require additional time to evacuate and those with pets and livestock should leave immediately.

• MOE-0504
• MOE-0505
• MOE-0506
• MOE-0633
• MOE-0636
• MOE-0637
• MOE-0638
• MOE-0639
• MOE-0640
• MOE-0743
• MOE-0822
• MOE-0823

Evacuation shelters

Valley View High School
13135 Nason St.
Moreno Valley, 92555

Animal Shelter

San Jacinto Animal Shelter
581 S. Grand Ave. San Jacinto 92582

Road closures

Gilman Springs Road is closed from Alessandro Road to Bridge Street, according to Cal Fire.

What we know so far

The Springs Fire was first reported around 11 a.m. Friday near Gilman Springs Road as a 5-acre fire that grew to 1,000 acres by 1:45 p.m.

Conditions are fairly windy and dry in that area, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts reached 20 to 30 mph from the east. The Santa Ana wind event is expected to last into tomorrow.

Listen to our Big Burn podcast

Fire resources and tips

Check out LAist's wildfire recovery guide

If you have to evacuate:

• Why fire officials don't want you to stay and defend your home
• How to get packed up
• How to leave your house
• What evacuation terms mean and how to sign up for alerts

Navigating fire conditions:

• How to drive in high winds and fire danger
• How to prep for power outages
• How to navigate poor air quality

How to help yourself and others:

• Resources for fire victims, evacuees and first responders
• If you want to help fire victims, resist the urge to volunteer
• How to help find lost pets

How to start the recovery process:

• What to do — and not do — when you get home after a wildfire
• How to make an insurance claim
• How to safely clean up wildfire ash

What to do for your kids:

• How to talk to children about wildfires and losing a home
• What parents should know about wildfire air quality

Prepare for the next disaster:

• Every day is now fire season. Let's get you ready for the next wildfire
• Yes, wildfires are getting worse. The history that got us to this moment

The Trump administration did not include funding in its federal budget proposal for Los Angeles Metro’s key plan to use thousands of buses to transport fans to scattered venues hosting the 2028 Games.

L.A. Metro’s Board and California Democrats have repeatedly appealed to the administration to provide federal dollars for the region’s "transit-first" Games. The president’s budget request released Friday didn’t provide a dime of the $2 billion the countywide transportation agency is seeking.

The 92-page document is a signal of the administration’s priorities for the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Ultimately, the U.S. Congress decides how federal dollars are spent.

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who represents Culver City and parts of Los Angeles, wrote a letter with her California Democratic colleagues to the administration in February calling this budget process the “final opportunity” to secure Metro’s funding request.

U.S. Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove is one of the California Democrats leading advocacy in Washington, D.C., to secure L.A. Metro's $2 billion federal funding request.

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Assembleymember Sydney Kamlager Facebook Page

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In a statement to LAist, Kamlager-Dove said she was “incredibly disappointed” that Metro was excluded in the president’s budget request.

“At the end of the day, Congress has the power to appropriate money,” she said. “Despite the president’s lack of foresight, I will continue to advocate to ensure this funding is included so L.A. Metro has what they need to succeed.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar, who has a seat on the Congressional subcommittee overseeing federal transportation appropriations, said President Donald Trump has talked about the Olympics “time and time again,” pointing to the most recent State of the Union as an example.

“Our charge is to ensure that they adequately fund this and that they put the resources behind it so they aren't just using it as a talking point, but they're actually leaning in,” Aguilar told LAist in an interview before the president’s proposed budget request was released.

What would the money be used for?

Metro plans to essentially double its bus fleet for the 2028 Games by temporarily acquiring, operating and storing nearly 1,750 additional buses for spectators. The agency says that will cost about $1 billion. The remainder of the appropriations request would be for pedestrian improvements and designing a network of roads for Games vehicles, among other uses.

Seleta Reynolds, Metro’s chief of innovation and Games mobility planning, said at a January Metro Board meeting that finding and preparing the real estate where the buses will be staged involves a lead time of two years, meaning the agency would need a “chunk of funding available by this summer.”

Initially, Metro had asked for $3.2 billion to support a plan to temporarily use 2,700 buses. Metro reduced the estimate for the number of buses needed after LA28, the Games organizing committee, refined the venues and schedule for events.

That reduction, plus other federal funding that Metro has received to partially support station and light rail improvements, brought the total amount of money in the federal appropriations request down to $2 billion, the countywide transportation agency said.

“Without the full level of funding requested, the complete scope of the [Games Enhanced Transit System] would not be feasible, as the cost of operating this temporary system exceeds Metro’s available operating resources,” the agency said in its statement.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, told LAist in a statement before the president released his budget request that the organizing committee was supporting partners in Congress and the administration, who are leading the budget and appropriations process.

"With the full support of federal transit money for the games, we can collectively create a positive commuting experience," Prieto Lopez said.

Success with buses during LA84

A bus system similar to the one Metro is planning for 2028 was critical to the success of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Metro's predecessor, Southern California Rapid Transit District, deployed 550 additional buses, hundreds of new drivers and 24 routes to move people around the city for the Olympics.

A view of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum during the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, 12th August 1984.

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In the run-up to those Games, one California Highway Patrol official warned the L.A. Times that congestion around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum would be so extreme that drivers would abandon their cars on the freeway. Headlines warned of "traffic woes."

Instead, the Olympics offered a surprising reprieve from L.A.'s typical traffic. More than 1 million passengers took buses to the Games.

Rich Perelman, who led press operations for the 1984 Olympics and edited the official report on the Games, told LAist that in 1984, no public funds were used for the additional bus fleet. Bus tickets and some donations and corporate sponsorships covered the cost.

Perelman said organizers pulled off the bus system by staying focused on the areas where parking was sparse, such as the Coliseum. According to the official report, nearly 80% of rides on the bus system were to Exposition Park.

" It was a transit-smart approach," Perelman said. " If there was plenty of parking, we didn't say you have to take the bus. We didn't make any nonsensical claims of 'no-car Games' or 'transit only Games.’"

Security funding from the federal government 

Transportation funding is just one bucket that the federal government is expected to contribute for the Olympics.

The budget released by the Trump administration Friday contained major increases for the Department of Homeland Security, including some linked to Olympics preparations. It asks for additional funding for the FBI and Secret Service, which leads security planning for the Games.

Last year, Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" allocated $1 billion for Olympics security costs.

But exactly how that money will be distributed has yet to be determined — and L.A. politicians have expressed concern that the funds may come with strings attached that the city of L.A. will find hard to swallow.

It's also possible that money could face delays that could disrupt Olympics planning. The federal government was late in awarding hundreds of millions of dollars that it promised for security for the World Cup this year — a delay the Trump administration attributed to the Homeland Security shutdown.