The Brief

Some seasonal employees at Yosemite National Park worked for as long as six weeks without pay this spring and summer as park supervisors scrambled to manage hiring amid federal budget cuts, workers told NPR. The employees said they are now receiving hourly wages but have not been paid for the work they were asked to do as volunteers while they waited to be put on the federal payroll.  

Some of the workers said they feel exploited.

"It's definitely taking advantage of people who love their jobs and don't want the park to suffer," said one of the employees, who said they volunteered for three weeks before being hired.

NPR spoke with four seasonal and two full-time workers employed by the National Park Service who described the situation. NPR has agreed not to publish the names of the employees because they are not permitted to speak publicly and feared retribution.

Yosemite depends on seasonal workers to perform a variety of jobs from May through October, when the park receives most of the more than 4
million visitors who typically enter the grounds. The Northern California national park is one of the most visited in America.

At Yosemite, seasonal workers do "anything from campgrounds operations, to wilderness permitting for backpackers, to the seasonal interpretive rangers, seasonal maintenance staff," said Jesse Chakrin, the executive director of the Fund for People in Parks, a nonprofit that advocates for national parks. The National Park Service hires thousands of seasonal workers a year across America. More than 100 are typically hired annually at Yosemite early in the busy season, Chakrin said.

But 2025 was no typical year. On Feb. 14, 10 full-time federal employees at Yosemite were fired when the federal government terminated about 1,000 newly hired employees throughout the National Park Service. In the weeks that followed, additional experienced workers left the park service voluntarily. Since January, the amount of permanent staff across the service has declined by 24%, according to data analyzed in July by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that defends parks.

Then, after staff members were fired in February, some were hired back. That meant the park service's already straining Human Resources division had to take on additional work to bring those people into the workforce again, federal workers told NPR. Around late spring, when more visitors started entering the park and seasonal workers began arriving at Yosemite to start their jobs, Human Resources wasn't able to onboard all the seasonal staff, Yosemite employees said.

"We had the firing of probationary employees in February and then the rehiring, and this was a huge, huge burden on Human Resources to try to get people in and out," said Emily Thompson, the executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, a nonprofit that supports workers at parks. "And seasonal hiring was delayed."

But Yosemite still needed seasonal workers. An April order from the Department of the Interior, the agency that oversees the National Park Service, said all parks should stay open as usual in 2025, with changes to operating hours requiring special approval.

Seasonal workers needed the jobs too. Many count on their employment at the park to provide them with housing. Because some parts of Yosemite are dozens of miles from the nearest city, accommodations at the park are typically offered to people who work there, for a fee.

"They're dependent upon their job to have a home," said Chakrin.

On May 18, visitors took photos at a viewing point above Vernal Fall, a waterfall at Yosemite National Park.

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In other parks, seasonal employees weren't hired at all. As of July, only about 4,500 of the people expected to fill 8,000 seasonal positions across the Park Service were working in seasonal roles, according to the data from the National Parks Conservation Association. But in late April, supervisors at Yosemite started offering some of the prospective seasonal workers a different option. If they volunteered for at least 32 hours a week at the park, they could stay in Yosemite housing for free until the federal government was able to onboard and start paying them, emails reviewed by NPR reveal.

"My supervisors were emailing people week after week saying, 'Hey, the update is there's no updates and we understand you guys need housing and you're relying on this and we're relying on you. And we don't know what's going on, but one option is to volunteer,'" said one Yosemite worker.

NPR requested an interview with a representative at Yosemite and sent questions regarding how and when seasonal workers were hired this year. The park declined to answer the questions or speak with NPR.

"We are not conducting interviews about staffing levels," said the park's public affairs officer, Scott Gediman.

Gediman recommended that NPR email the National Park Service instead. No one at the service responded to NPR's questions or request for an interview.

But workers at Yosemite told NPR they estimate that more than 50 seasonal workers volunteered for the park service in Yosemite before they were paid later in the summer. Of the four people NPR spoke with who were asked to work for no pay until they could be onboarded, one declined and did not work at Yosemite this season. The other three agreed to volunteer and wait. The workers said they signed volunteer service agreements with the federal government, some of which NPR reviewed.

The three who volunteered said they were assigned a role in a different division than the one they had originally committed to work for. The park service prohibits seasonal employees from volunteering for positions "similar to their paid work" outside of the season. That sort of policy is to prevent the federal government from exploiting workers, the park service's reference manual indicates, and to ensure the park complies with federal labor laws.

"The NPS does not allow an NPS employee to serve as a volunteer in a manner that takes advantage of an employee's willingness to perform their paid work without pay," the manual states.

The federal government also assures people that they can expect competitive pay if they choose to work in public service. But seasonal workers said that's not what they received when they worked for free for weeks. Some believe the federal government did take advantage of them.

"We're here because we need housing," one said. "And there was this urgency to have a place to go, so we did it."

The sun rises over tall granite cliffs that rise from Yosemite Valley.

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It was 'offensive' to work without pay, one worker said

For weeks, before they started being paid by the park in June, the seasonal workers spent hundreds of volunteer hours doing tasks like educating visitors and maintaining trails, they told NPR.

While the employees said they were grateful to have a place to live and understood that their supervisors at Yosemite may not have had control over hiring delays at the federal level, they thought it was unfair not to be paid for their labor.

"The idea of volunteering for the job that we already don't get paid enough to do was offensive," said one of the workers.

A few weeks into the busy season, some prospective seasonal workers were hired and paid by the Great Basin Institute, a nonprofit that promotes conservation and has partnered with national parks on projects before.

"They reached out and said, 'Hey, we've got needs,'" said Peter Woodruff, the nonprofit's chief executive, referring to staff at the Park Service. "So they turned to us for that support during a time of uncertainty."

The institute paid fewer than 30 seasonal workers at Yosemite for a few weeks, said Woodruff. But not all seasonal workers were offered the opportunity. Of the three people NPR spoke with who volunteered, only one received payment from the Great Basin Institute in between volunteering and their employment with the federal government.

Another worker labored without pay for six weeks, from early May until the end of June, before they were onboarded, the employee told NPR. During that time, they stayed in a shared room owned by the federal government that was valued at under $500 a month, their housing agreement reviewed by NPR shows.

The park ultimately onboarded the three workers at different times, from early to late June. After they started being paid by the park, from that point forward, the workers said they earned between $19 and $23 an hour. But none were paid back for the weeks they volunteered, they said, and none were promised back pay.

By asking volunteers to work in different jobs than the ones they were later paid to do, the park service may not have violated federal labor laws, said Kevin Owen, an employment lawyer who represents federal workers. Still, Owen said that the requests to volunteer could harm the park. Since experienced workers might be less likely to agree to work without pay, fewer of them may have accepted the proposal, he said.

"It will lead to either stories of long lines at national parks or stories of missing campers who can't be found when they otherwise should have been," Owen said.

Chakrin, the director of the parks nonprofit, said that parks are currently under strain and struggling with staffing across the West. But he has never heard of seasonal workers being asked to work without pay for weeks because a park couldn't onboard them on time.

"The unprecedented part that I have never seen is, in mass, having seasonals have onboarding dates that are delayed indefinitely and up to three pay periods," he said. "It's just a whole lot of a season when your season is six months long."

Copyright 2025 NPR

We hope you’ve gotten used to the hot weather, because it’s going to be here for a while.

The National Weather Service has issued yet another heat advisory for much of Southern California, less than a week after other high-temperature warnings were lifted.

This week’s advisory will be in place from 10 a.m. Wednesday through Monday. Forecasters expect temperatures to climb steadily over the course of Wednesday and Thursday.

The San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and other inland areas in L.A., as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will likely see highs ranging from the mid-90s to about 105 degrees. Areas closer to the coast, including downtown Los Angeles and much of Orange County, will hit the 90s. Beaches will hover mostly in the upper 70s.

Humidity will also add to the discomfort. Even though it’s decreasing slightly, it makes cooling down harder, especially at night.

People who work outdoors or do not have air conditioning are especially at risk from the heat and humidity, along with people over 65, young children and other sensitive populations.

Fire risk

Forecasters are warning that conditions are ripe for fires, driven by a combination of wind and dry vegetation.

Southern California hasn’t seen much rain recently, despite the humidity, leaving plants with little moisture and turning them into the perfect fuel.

“Even though the air feels kind of moist, we're in the time of season where it doesn't matter. The fuels are dry and they're ready to go,” said NWS meteorologist Ryan Kittell.

Kittel said people should take extra care with anything that could create a spark, and residents in fire-prone areas should remain aware of their surroundings in case a fire starts.

The fire risk is likely to be concentrated in a few specific areas that will experience higher winds than others, including parts of the 5 Freeway corridor in northern L.A. County, especially around the Grapevine, and in southern Santa Barbara County.

For most of the region, though, winds should stay fairly mild.

Dangerous beach conditions

Southern Californians also have to contend with some ocean-specific risks this week.

Forecasters expect dangerously large waves and strong rip currents to hit the coastline at a time when the heat may drive more people to the beach. The conditions are expected to persist through the weekend.

If you decide to head to the beach, it’s a good idea to ask a lifeguard for advice on the conditions before entering the water. It’s also recommended to swim only near occupied lifeguard stands, stay off of rock jetties and avoid turning your back to the waves.

South-facing stretches of coastline will bear the brunt of the swell, which is being driven by two tropical storms churning hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean.

“Those two systems generated the winds and the waves locally that are pushing towards us, and so that's creating elevated surf and some stronger currents than normal,” Kittel said.

The swell is not expected to cause significant coastal flooding as high tides remain relatively low.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Free transportation to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area swim beach will be available this week as East LA families continue to seek relief from another heat wave and the aftermath of the Lineage warehouse fire.

Los Angeles County is offering complimentary transportation Wednesday through Saturday at select Eastside parks so residents can enjoy a day at the lake at no cost.

More than a month after the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire, many residents continue to report persistent odors from rotting food and cleanup efforts. Because of the ongoing air quality concerns and community complaints, Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation has canceled its local aquatic programming.

To ensure families still have access to summer recreational activities, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis directed resources toward providing the “beach bus” program to Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area Swim Beach in Irwindale.

Read below for more information on the free shuttle services, schedules and more. 

Pickup locations

Belvedere Aquatic Center

5035 1st St. East Los Angeles, CA 90022

Obregon Park Pool

4021 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90063

Salazar Park Pool 

3864 Whittier Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90023

City Terrace Park Pool

1126 N. Hazard Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90063

Shuttle dates and times 

• Wednesday, July 22
• Thursday, July 23
• Friday, July 24
• Saturday, July 25

Morning trip: 

• Check in at 8:30 a.m. 
• The bus departs East LA at 9 a.m. 
• The bus leaves Santa Fe Dam to go back to East LA at 12 p.m.

Afternoon trip: 

• Check in at 12:30 p.m. 
• The bus departs East LA at 1 p.m. 
• The bus leaves Santa Fe Dam to go back to East LA at 4 p.m. 

What to know

No registration or proof of address is required, but children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your own food and drinks. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

An outgoing California State University president, one of two administrators at the center of a multi-million dollar discrimination lawsuit, may transfer to a different Cal State job while the university pays his salary and benefits. The Cal State Board of Trustees will review the transition plan and decide whether to approve the president’s emeritus status Wednesday.

The proposed new job and salary for Cal State San Bernardino President Tomás Morales will be announced at the Wednesday meeting, according to Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith. Morales received $655,626 in pay and benefits in 2024, the most recent figure available from TransparentCalifornia.

Cal State recently spent $12 million settling the lawsuit in which two female employees at Cal State San Bernardino said they were harassed and discriminated against based on their gender by two male university administrators: Morales and former Palm Desert campus dean Jake Zhu. Cal State continues to deny any wrongdoing. Zhu is an emeritus faculty member, a title given as a gesture of appreciation for service contributed to the university, and Morales remains in good standing with the university.

Morales resigned at the end of the school year and, because of his good standing, is eligible to receive a coveted executive transition package with faculty retreat rights. That means he can continue to work as a university faculty member.

This Wednesday, a Cal State Board of Trustees committee will view a presentation on Morales’ transition plan. Later that day, the full board will discuss Chancellor Mildred Garcia’s recommendation to grant him the title of president emeritus.

A ‘cesspool of gender harassment and discrimination’

The two women, Clare Weber and Anissa Rogers, both formerly worked as high-ranking administrators at Cal State San Bernardino. Weber was appointed deputy provost and vice provost of Academic Affairs on the main campus in 2017, and Rogers served as associate dean at the satellite campus in Palm Desert starting in 2019. During the 2021-22 school year, Weber and Rogers each confronted their male supervisors with what they believed was strong evidence of a gender pay gap and sex-based bullying in their workplaces. Both were pressured to resign almost immediately, they alleged in a 2023 lawsuit that calls the Cal State system a “cesspool of gender harassment and discrimination.”

Rogers, then-associate dean at Palm Desert working under Zhu, was terrified a firing would ruin her reputation and career prospects, and agreed to resign. Weber, then-vice provost of academic affairs, refused and was fired.

In their joint lawsuit, they sued the Cal State Board of Trustees, Zhu and Morales.

“The lawsuit shows systemic, sexist bullying,” Weber said in an interview. “It was primarily from President Morales.”

Bentley-Smith said the university system has already thoroughly reviewed all of the lawsuit’s allegations and resolved the matter through the settlement.

Weber and Rogers have submitted a public comment to the board of trustees imploring them to scrutinize Morales’ “good standing” before approving the proposed transition plan.

Cal State president accused of berating women

The lawsuit alleged Morales was notorious for routinely harassing and acting aggressively toward female Cal State employees. He ranted at women, excessively criticized and undermined them, attempted to intimidate them, and held women to higher standards than men, the suit complaint read.

But faculty concerns about Morales began years before the lawsuit. A 2016 survey revealed that over 60% of Cal State San Bernardino employees felt the campus climate had worsened under Morales’ tenure. The faculty senate wrote in a 2017 resolution of “no confidence” in Morales’ performance that the survey results indicated an environment of toxicity, fear and distrust had formed under Morales’ tenure, which they added was rife with bullying, favoritism and retaliation.

Two months before his appointment as Cal State San Bernardino’s president in 2012, while Morales served as president of the College of Staten Island, more than half of that college’s senators also approved a resolution of “no confidence” in his leadership.

“It was a ‘his way or the highway’ vibe, particularly for women. I was berated and put down and yelled at. I had other colleagues that experienced the same thing,” Weber said.

Walking on eggshells around Morales caused her stress and made it difficult to do her job, Weber said.

“Sometimes I got to feeling isolated, like I was the only one, and I think probably other women did too,” Weber said.

In late May 2022, a California State University Employees Union study demonstrated that white male Cal State employees earn about 3% more than men of color, 5% more than white women and 7% more than women of color.

Weber wanted to see if a similar pattern applied to her job. She conducted research, consulted a compensation specialist in the campus’ human resources office, and determined that she was the lowest-paid female vice provost in the Cal State system. She also found that, with the exception of one female, and one male who made about $3,000 less than Weber, every female Cal State vice provost made less than every male vice provost.

Weber met with her boss, then-interim Provost Rafik Mohamed, in June 2022, where she planned to discuss her concerns over the pay gap she’d identified.

“I was scared,” she said. “I had my data, I had notes ahead of time. I wrote little encouraging messages to myself before I was in the meeting.”

At the same time, she felt she had reason to be hopeful. She’d just spearheaded and secured the university’s regional accreditation, kicked off a new strategic plan, and, only a few weeks before, earned the highest possible score on a mid-year performance review: “exceptional leadership.”

At the meeting, Mohamed attempted to assign her additional job duties, the suit alleged. In response, Weber asked for a 12% equity raise and suggested there was a pay disparity among genders at the university.

Mohamed told her he would pass the concerns along. Weber also emailed the university president, Morales, with the same raise request. Four weeks later, Mohamed told Weber she would have to resign, with Mohamed stating he “could not” work with Weber, the suit alleged.

Weber wrote an email to Morales protesting.

“I explicitly raised concerns that these female Vice Provosts were being paid less because of their gender,” she wrote. “I have been shocked and saddened that CSU’s response to my complaints was to subject me to unprecedented and unwarranted criticism and then – just a month later – ask me to ‘resign’ from my position. This is highly offensive and totally discriminatory, and retaliatory.”

She asked Morales to rescind the resignation request and open an investigation into the pay equity concerns.

Weber was fired the next day, she said. She retreated to a faculty position as required by her original appointment letter.

Mohamed did not respond to CalMatters’ request for comment.

Morales’ office referred CalMatters to the Cal State San Bernardino Office of Marketing and Communications, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Discrimination also alleged at Palm Desert campus

Cal State San Bernardino hired Rogers in 2019 as an associate dean — her dream job.

“When I interviewed, it was perfect,” Rogers said. “Then I quickly realized that I had just been immersed in hell.”

From day one, Rogers said she perceived the culture at San Bernardino’s Palm Desert campus as male-driven and discriminatory. The campus dean, Zhu, stuck out to her in particular with his penchant for screaming at people, especially women.

Men who worked for him would model his behaviors in his presence and at staff meetings, even those who were normally kind and supportive, Rogers said. Women struggled to speak up in meetings without being interrupted, yelled at, called “too emotional” and “sensitive,” or belittled, she said. By contrast, men were always treated with respect, she said. Eventually, Rogers said she gave up presenting her own ideas and began sneaking them in through a male colleague, from whom the ideas were often accepted.

In addition, several employees declared in the lawsuit under penalty of perjury that Zhu would publicly treat Rogers like a secretary or assistant, though she was the second-highest ranking employee on the satellite campus.

“It was awful,” Rogers said. “I hated going to work every day. My anxiety increased. I was constantly on guard.”

Tensions boiled over at an informal meeting with the dean and several of Rogers’ colleagues in October 2021, at which Rogers was not present. According to various attendees who reported back to Rogers during the meeting via text and later that day in person, several men ganged up on a female interim associate dean, interrogating her for around 25 minutes about her preparations for an upcoming campus visit with a Cal State trustee. Zhu watched the verbal onslaught and did not act, various female employees who walked out of the meeting in protest alleged.

That same day, Rogers approached Zhu in his office and told him Cal State needed to do a better job at disrupting sexism. Zhu told her she could train the men to behave differently, the suit states, though the male employees involved reported to the dean. Zhu told a different faculty member who complained to him about the meeting, social work department chair Deirdre Lanesskog, that the men were probably just trying to impress him, the suit alleged.

An employee said under penalty of perjury in the lawsuit that Jolene Koester, who served as Cal State’s interim chancellor from 2022 to 2023, worked for Cal State to “coach” Zhu in late October 2021. A few days after approaching Zhu, Rogers also reported to Koester that Zhu exhibited sexist conduct and bullying.

In November 2021, Mohamed instructed Rogers to tell colleagues she was resigning, citing a “leadership issue” he did not elaborate on, according to the lawsuit. He told her that was her only option if she hoped for career advancement, the suit states. On January 1, 2022, she resigned and retreated to faculty.

“I call it fired,” Rogers said. “They told me, ‘Either leave or you will be fired.’”

The joint lawsuit by Weber and Rogers split into two trial proceedings. A jury awarded Rogers $6 million in damages in October 2025 and Weber settled for $6 million in lieu of a trial. In court, Zhu defended his leadership techniques and said he treated everybody in the same way.

“I raised voices to make a point, to change the tones, not in the malicious way or discriminatory way,” he said according to court transcripts.

While testifying, Mohamed admitted that he did not report various complaints regarding Zhu’s alleged gender mistreatment because he saw the accusations as “low-grade bias,” despite being a mandated reporter of sexual harassment under Cal State policy.

“Everybody has bias. We all harbor biases that are just ingrained in us from how we’re socialized, how we are brought up, the environments that we were reared in,” Mohamed said. “The allegation of bias in and of itself, in my view, does not require a reporting of bias, an alleged bias to Title IX. It’s the action on that bias that triggers that requirement to report.”

Mohamed did not reply to a request for comment on his role in either of Rogers’ and Webers’ departures. Mohamed announced his retirement on July 16 in an internal email to faculty reviewed by CalMatters.

Zhu did not respond to CalMatters’ request for comment.

Executive transition package up for approval

After Zhu retired in June 2023, he retreated to faculty and is now an emeritus faculty member.

Morales is slated to get an executive transition package that would enable him to retreat to faculty and stay on the university’s payroll until he starts another Cal State job. All university executives who complete this program must remain in good standing at the start and throughout the transition assignment, according to a 2022 trustee agenda item.

Executives are rendered ineligible if it is found that they violated university policy or engaged in serious misconduct, per the item.

San Bernardino’s chapter of the California Faculty Association urged the board of trustees not to approve executive transition benefits for Morales in a May statement.

The lawsuit “raises serious questions about whether President Morales should be regarded in good standing for those benefits,” said Thomas Corrigan, a communication and media professor and the union chapter’s communications coordinator. “Dr. Rogers’ and Dr. Weber’s case really stands out as a moral outrage with exceptional financial, reputational and human costs.”

After Weber and Rogers filed their joint lawsuit in March 2023, Weber said, Cal State finally kickstarted its investigation into her 2022 pay gap complaint. The university system sent her a pay analysis two months later, stating there were seven vice provosts who earn a lower salary than Weber, including four men.

The university’s analysis, Weber said, was a “sham.”

“They had a male vice provost listed as earning zero pay. They had people that were at a lower rank than me in the comparison, people that would report to me,” Weber said.

Weber said that Jeanne Durr, former interim associate vice president of Human Resources at Cal State San Bernardino, conducted the analysis; Durr did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In July 2023, the California State Auditor published a report assessing how the Cal State system responds to sexual harassment allegations. The auditor found several campuses closed sexual harassment cases without providing a reason, and did not consistently discipline perpetrators. The report listed 16 recommended reforms for the Cal State system, including developing standardized guidelines for sexual harassment investigations, regularly reviewing compliance with sexual harassment policy, and universalizing the case management system used by each campus.

In 2024, a new law, Assembly Bill 1790, set a legal requirement for Cal State to follow the recommendations by July 1, 2026. As of July 2026, one recommendation has not been carried out: establishing a system to collect and analyze sexual harassment data from all campuses. The Chancellors’ Office plans to complete this by June 2027.

Weber taught sociology for an additional four years at Cal State San Bernardino until she stepped down as agreed upon in the lawsuit settlement.

“My faculty colleagues were wonderful,” Weber said. But “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid when I went to campus. I had numerous panic attacks. I chartered my route around campus so that I wouldn’t run into any of the administrators that harmed me.”

Rogers left her faculty position at the university within about two years.

“In the end, it killed any desire I had to ever move forward in my career. I have absolutely zero interest, which is too bad. I was hoping to be at least a dean in my career trajectory, (but) I won’t touch that,” Rogers said. “I’ve lost faith in systems.”

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