Daily Business Report: Jan. 16, 2025
A week from hell: See how LA fires destroyed neighborhoods from coast to foothills
CalMatters
Charred skeletons of beloved homes. Desperate homeowners endangering their lives as they hose down their burning roofs. Emergency workers carefully carrying a body bag out of the rubble. An American flag in blackened tatters.
The images arriving in the wake of the wind-driven wildfires in Los Angeles County are haunting, giving all of us a window into the pain, grief and devastation facing hundreds of thousands of people.
CalMatters contributing photographers Ted Soqui and Jules Hotz were dispatched to Pacific Palisades and Malibu, along the Los Angeles coast, and Altadena, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, to chronicle the impact of one of the worst disasters in California history.
As of Sunday, an estimated 12,000 houses, businesses, schools and other structures have been damaged or destroyed, at least 24 people have died and about 150,000 people were ordered or warned to evacuate.
As LA wildfires burn, a corruption probe left the Senate’s insurance committee chair vacant
By RyanSabalow | CalMatters
A person matching Democratic Sen. Susan Rubio’s description is accused in federal court documents of soliciting bribes and illegal campaign contributions. Rubio, who’s not been charged with a crime, denies the allegations, but she’s no longer chair of the Senate Insurance Committee as investigations continue
California and exacerbate the state’s insurance crisis, the California Senate has no one in charge of its Insurance Committee due to questions surrounding a federal corruption investigation.
Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said he is waiting to hear from federal prosecutors about Sen. Susan Rubio, who’s been questioned in a federal corruption probe, before making a decision about reappointing her to her previous position as chair of the Senate Insurance Committee.
“We have requested and are awaiting additional information from the U.S. Attorney’s Office before finalizing any decisions,” McGuire’s office told CalMatters in an email.
Rubio, a Democrat from Baldwin Park, said she’s “currently not involved” in the federal corruption investigation that has already ensnared a handful of other officials in San Bernardino County, Compton, Commerce and Baldwin Park.
Federal officials have not identified Rubio by name in the case. However, there is nobody else matching the description of “Person 20,” who is accused in recently released federal court documents of asking for $240,000 in bribes from a cannabis company and accepting $30,000 in illegal campaign contributions. The allegations stem from when Rubio was a member of the Baldwin Park City Council.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles is overseeing the case. A spokesperson declined to comment about who Person 20 is or say when – or if – charges would be filed against them.
Experts in federal corruption cases suggest that McGuire is right to be concerned.
At CalMatters’ request, three former federal prosecutors reviewed the court documents.
The prosecutors – one of them a former U.S. Attorney – said there’s no way the U.S. Department of Justice would make public that much identifying information about a suspect in a corruption investigation if they didn’t think they could convince a jury of his or her guilt.
“If federal prosecutors are putting that level of detail — especially in a public corruption matter — into a public-facing document, they are fairly confident that information is 120% correct,” said Carrie H. Cohen, a former assistant U.S. Attorney in New York and former chief of the public integrity bureau at the New York State Attorney General’s Office.