The Brief

A booming industry that charges veterans for help in obtaining the benefits they earned through military service must shut down or dramatically change its business model in California by the end of the year under a new law Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday.

The law prohibits unaccredited private companies from billing former military service members for help with their Department of Veterans Affairs claims.

Technically, it was already illegal under federal law to charge veterans for that work, but Congress 20 years ago removed criminal penalties for violations, and scores of private companies emerged, offering to speed up and maximize benefit claims.

“We owe our veteran community a debt of gratitude — for their years of service and sacrifice," Newsom said in a written statement. "By signing this bill into law, we are ensuring veterans and service members get to keep more money in their pockets, and not line the coffers of predatory actors. We are closing this federal fraud loophole for good.”

Critics call the private companies “claim sharks” because their fees are often five times the monthly benefit increase veterans obtain after using their services. CalMatters in September, for instance, interviewed a Vietnam-era veteran who was billed $5,500 after receiving benefits that would pay him $1,100 a month.

Depending on a disability rating, a claim consulting fee under that model could easily hit $10,000 or more.

“We owe it to our veterans to stand with them and to protect them from being taken advantage of while navigating the benefits they've earned,” said Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat representing Norwalk. Archuleta, a former Army officer, carried the legislation. “This is not about politics; it's about doing what's right. Making millions of dollars on the back of our veterans is wrong. They've earned their benefits. They deserve their benefits.”

California’s new law is part of a tug-of-war over how to regulate claims consulting companies. Congress for several years has been at a stalemate on whether to ban them outright, allow them to operate as they are or regulate them in some other way.

California is among 11 states that have moved to put the companies out of business, while another group of mostly Republican-led states has legalized them, according to reporting by the veteran news organization The War Horse.

That split in some ways reflects the different ways veterans themselves view the companies. The bill had overwhelming support from organizations that help veterans file benefits claims at no cost, such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, as well as from Democratic Party leaders, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

But the VA’s claims process can take months and sow uncertainty among applicants. Several of the claims consulting companies say they have helped tens of thousands of veterans across the country, and that they have hundreds of employees.

Those trends led some lawmakers to vote against the measure, including Democrats with military backgrounds.

“We're going to say to you, ‘Veteran, you know what, I don't know if you are too stupid or too vulnerable or your judgment is so poor you can't choose yourself,'” said Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat and former Army colonel, during a debate over the measure last month.

The new law was such a close call for lawmakers that nine of 40 senators did not vote on it when it passed that chamber last month, which counts the same as a “no” vote but avoids offending a constituency that the lawmaker wants to keep.

It was also one of the 10 most-debated measures to go before the Legislature last year, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database. Lawmakers spent 4 hours and 39 minutes on the bill at public hearings in 2025 and heard testimony from 99 speakers.

Two claims consulting companies spent significant sums hiring lobbyists as they fought the bill, according to state records. They were Veterans Guardian, a North Carolina-based company that spent $150,000 on California lobbyists over the past two years; and Veterans Benefit Guide, a Nevada-based company that spent $371,821 lobbying on Archuleta’s bill and a similar measure that failed in 2024.

Those companies view laws like California’s as an existential threat. Both have founders with military backgrounds. Veterans Benefit Guide sued to block New Jersey’s law prohibiting fees for veterans claim consulting, and a federal appeals court sided with the company last year.

"This was the hardest bill I’ve had to work on since I’ve been in the Legislature," said Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo, a Santa Clarita Democrat who supported the law. "We know why that is, because there was so much money on the other side."

Charlotte Autolino, who organizes job fairs for former military service members as the chairperson of the Veterans Employment Committee of San Diego, criticized Newsom’s decision to sign the law. She spoke to CalMatters on behalf of Veterans Benefit Guide.

“The veterans lose,” she said. They lose the option. You’re taking an option away from them and you’re putting all of the veterans into one box, and that to me is wrong.”

But David West, a Marine veteran who is Nevada County’s veterans service officer, commended Newsom. West was one of the main advocates for the new law.

“The veterans of California are going to know that when (Newsom) says he’s taking care of everybody, he’s including us; that he values those 18- and 19-year-olds who are raising their hands, writing a blank check in the form of their lives; to then ensure that they aren’t writing checks to access their benefits,” West said.

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

James Van Der Beek — best known for his role as Dawson Leery in the hit late 1990s and early aughts show Dawson's Creek — has died. He was 48. Van Der Beek announced his diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer in November 2024.

His family wrote on Instagram on Wednesday, "Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend."

Van Der Beek started acting when he was 13 in Cheshire, Conn., after a football injury kept him off the field. He played the lead in a school production of Grease, got involved with local theater, and fell in love with performing. A few years later, he and his mother went to New York City to sign the then-16 year old actor with an agent.

But Van Der Beek didn't break out as a star until he was 21, when he landed the lead role of 15-year-old Dawson Leery, an aspiring filmmaker, in Dawson's Creek.

Van Der Beek's life changed forever with this role. The teen coming-of-age show was a huge hit, with millions of weekly viewers over 6 seasons. It helped both establish the fledgling WB network and the boom of teen-centered dramas, says Lori Bindig Yousman, a media professor at Sacred Heart University and the author of Dawson's Creek: A Critical Understanding.

"Dawson's really came on the scene and felt different, looked different," Bindig Yousman says.

It was different, she points out, from other popular teen shows at the time such as Beverly Hills, 90210. "It wasn't these rich kids. It was supposed to be normal kids, but they were a little bit more intelligent and aware of the world around them … It was attainable in some way. It was reflective."

The Dawson's drama centered around love, hardships, relationships, school and sex — sometimes pushing the boundaries when it came to teens discussing sex. Van Der Beek's character Dawson was a moody, earnest dreamer, sometimes so earnest he came across as a "sad sack," says Bindig Yousman. He had a seasons long on-again off-again on-screen relationship with his best friend Joey, played by Katie Holmes. Bindig Yousman says Van Der Beek quickly became seen as a heartthrob.

"I think he was very safe for a lot of tweens, and that's when we started to get the tween marketing," she says, referring to the attention paid to him by magazines like Teen People and Teen Celebrity. "And so because he wasn't a bad guy, he was conventionally attractive … He definitely appealed to the masses."

Dawson's Creek launched the careers of not just of James Van Der Beek, but his costars Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams. All went on to have successful careers in the entertainment industry.

Despite his success, Van Der Beek didn't land many roles that rose to that same level of fame he enjoyed in Dawson's Creek. Perhaps because audiences associated him so much with Dawson Leery, it was difficult to separate him from that character.

Still, he starred in the 1999 coming of age film Varsity Blues, as a high school football player who wants to be more than just a jock. In 2002's Rules of Attraction, he played a toxic college drug dealer.

And he actually parodied himself in the sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. In it, he's a self-obsessed actor unsuccessfully trying to get people to see him as someone other than the celebrity from Dawson's Creek. In an episode where he decides to teach an acting class, the students ignore the lesson and instead pester him to perform a monologue from the show.

In real life as well, the floppy blond-haired Dawson Leery is the one that stole fans' hearts, but Bindig Yousman says Van Der Beek still enjoyed a strong fanbase that followed him to other shows, even when they were only smaller cameos.

In the 2024 Instagram post about his cancer, Van Der Beek said "Each year, approximately 2 billion people around the world receive this diagnosis ... I am one of them." He leaves behind six children.

The cast of Dawson's Creek reunited to raise money for the nonprofit F Cancer, which focuses on prevention, detection and support for people affected by cancer. They read the pilot episode at a Broadway theater in New York City in September 2025. His former co-star Michelle Williams organized the reunion. James Van Der Beek was unable to perform, due to his illness, but contributed an emotional video that was shown onstage. In it, he thanked his crew and castmates, and the Dawson's Creek fans for being "the best fans in the world."

Copyright 2026 NPR

L.A. Olympics chief Casey Wasserman will remain at the helm of the 2028 Games, despite public outrage over his appearance in the Epstein files, the board of directors said Wednesday.

Wasserman has faced growing scrutiny in recent weeks after a trove of Justice Department documents included a series of flirty emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, from 2003.

The emails prompted five Los Angeles City Council members, two county supervisors and the city controller to call for Wasserman to step aside. Then, celebrities started dropping Wasserman's talent agency, including Chappell Roan and soccer star Abby Wambach.

The board of directors for LA28 — the private nonprofit organizing the L.A. Olympics — issued its first public response Wednesday morning.

The statement from the board's executive committee said that it had brought in outside counsel to review Wasserman's past interactions with both Maxwell and Epstein, and that Wasserman had cooperated with the review.

"We found Mr. Wasserman's relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented," the statement reads in part.

"The Executive Committee of the Board has determined that based on these facts, as well as the strong leadership he has exhibited over the past ten years, Mr. Wasserman should continue to lead LA28 and deliver a safe and successful Games,” the statement continued.

Wasserman's connections to Epstein and Maxwell date back to 2002, when he went on a humanitarian trip to Africa arranged by former president Bill Clinton. According to LA28, "this was his single interaction with Epstein."

The emails between Maxwell and Wasserman came after that trip, in 2003. They include an exchange in which Wasserman writes to Maxwell, "I think of you all the time…So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?"

Wasserman was married at the time.

In a statement provided to other media outlets after those documents were released, Wasserman said he was "terribly sorry" for his association with Epstein and Maxwell.

This story will be updated. Check back for details.

Hiring grew a little warmer last month after a chilly year in 2025.

A report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Wednesday showed U.S. employers added a better-than-expected 130,000 jobs in January — but an annual update shows hiring last year was much weaker than initially reported.

The news comes amid worries that the nation's jobs engine has been sputtering. Employment gains for November and December were revised down by a total of 17,000 jobs.

Once a year, the Labor Department updates its jobs tally with more accurate but less timely information drawn from unemployment tax records. Wednesday's revision shows there were nearly 900,000 fewer jobs in the economy last March than originally counted. On average, employers added only 15,000 jobs a month in 2025.
"This does not remotely look like a healthy labor market," Federal Reserve governor Chris Waller said in a statement anticipating the revision.
Waller urged his central bank colleagues to cut their benchmark interest rate last month in an effort to prop up the sagging job market. But most Fed policymakers voted to hold rates steady in January, after three rate cuts last year.

Healthcare and construction led way

Healthcare and construction were among the few industries that saw significant job gains in January. The warehouses and transportation industry lost jobs, and the federal government continued to shed workers. Manufacturing added 5,000 jobs while hospitality added just 1,000.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3% from 4.4% the month before. That's quite low by historical standards. The unemployment rate among African Americans also fell, but remains elevated at 7.2%.

Some of the weakness in job growth last year may reflect a drop in the number of available workers. The Trump administration has slammed the door on most people trying to enter the country, while aggressively deporting immigrants who have been living in the U.S. illegally. At the same time, many native born baby boomers are reaching retirement age and leaving the workforce.

But Waller says that explains only part of what's weighing on the job market.

"Employers are reluctant to fire workers, but also very reluctant to hire," Waller said in is statement. "This indicates to me that there is considerable doubt about future employment growth and suggests that a substantial deterioration in the labor market is a significant risk."

A few years ago, there were two job openings for every unemployed worker. By December, that had dropped to less than one. That slack in the job market means employers don't have to pay as much to attract and keep workers. Average wages in January were up 3.7%, compared to a 3.8% gain in December.

The monthly jobs tally is usually released on the first Friday of the following month, but the January count was delayed a few days because of last week's government shutdown.

Copyright 2026 NPR