Politics
Project 2025 plan calls for demolition of NOAA and National Weather Service
Among its many sweeping calls for change in American government, a conservative platform document known as Project 2025 urges the demolition of some of the nation’s most dependable resources for tracking weather, combating climate change and protecting the public from environmental hazards.
“Break up NOAA,” the document says, referring to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its six main offices, including the 154-year-old National Weather Service.
“Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity,” the document says.
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The call to dismantle a vital federal department has raised the hackles of experts who say NOAA provides not only important free data, such as weather forecasts and satellite observations, but also life-saving information about hurricanes, heat waves, atmospheric rivers and other extreme events — many of which have been shown, through myriad studies, to be worsening due to global warming.
“The National Weather Service, and NOAA more generally, is a key agency in tracking what’s happening with our climate — and in particular the ways in which humans are changing the climate,” said Matthew Sanders, a lecturer at Stanford Law School and the acting deputy director of the Environmental Law Clinic.
“To propose undercutting, breaking up and quote-unquote streamlining NOAA is really an effort to block and make less available information about climate change in order to serve an agenda of climate change denial,” he said.
The 922-page document was published by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
Among its arguments for dismantling NOAA are concerns about the agency’s mission as well as its size. It notes that NOAA is the largest agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce, uses about half of the department’s $12 billion annual operational budget in a typical year, and contains more than half of its personnel.
“This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable,” the document says. “That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized.”
Satellite imagery of a California storm from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
(NOAA / National Weather Service)
The plan also states that forecasts provided by private companies such as AccuWeather are more accurate than those provided by the National Weather Service, and so it recommends that the NWS “fully commercialize its forecasting operations,” or enter partnerships to sell its data.
In a statement, AccuWeather’s chief executive Steven R. Smith said the company has not suggested that the NWS commercialize its operations, nor does it agree with the view outlined in the plan. AccuWeather relies on NOAA’s weather data as one of 190 sources in its forecast engine, and also partners with NOAA and dozens of other government agencies to share life-saving weather alerts with the public, Smith said.
“AccuWeather is extremely proud of our track record of superior accuracy, but it has never been our goal to take over the provision of all weather information,” he said.
In fact, AccuWeather is only one of many agencies and research institutions that depend on NOAA’s ground instruments, satellites, balloons, weather models and forecasts to aid in their own outlooks and analyses, according to Robert Rohde, chief scientist at Berkeley Earth, a nonprofit organization focused on environmental data science.
“Lots of people rely on the information that NOAA has collected and provides, and NOAA in turn has provided one of the most comprehensive weather monitoring systems in the world,” Rohde said.
Breaking up the agency would not only be detrimental to the American public, it would also be harmful to the advancement of science, according to Rohde. Blaming NOAA for climate change alarmism is akin to wanting to “shoot the messenger,” he said.
“NOAA has been a key resource in the federal government in providing information about climate change and communicating the risks, and they do so in a very responsible way,” Rohde said. “I don’t think they hype it up — they’re not saying the world is ending. But it is a risk on the horizon that has impacts, and the world is changing, and I think we need to face that with open eyes.”
Scott Smullen, deputy director of communications with NOAA, declined to comment on Project 2025, saying “we don’t speculate on what might or might not happen with the agency.”
A woman holds a Project 2025 fan at the Iowa State Fair, in Des Moines, recently.
(Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press)
The section of Project 2025 pertaining to NOAA was authored by Thomas Gilman, who served as assistant secretary of commerce and chief financial officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce during Donald Trump’s presidential administration.
Prior to that appointment, Gilman was chief executive of Chrysler Financial and spent more than four decades in the global automotive industry, a sector closely tied to oil and gas interests. Gilman is currently director of ACLJ Action, an advocacy organization “dedicated to liberty, constitutional government and religious freedom,” according to its website. He is also chairman of Torngat Metals, a rare earth development company.
The Heritage Foundation did not respond to a request to speak with Gilman for this article.
In recent weeks, Trump has distanced himself from the plan — stating on social media that he knows nothing about Project 2025 and that he has “no idea who is behind it.”
However, the plan includes contributions from other members of his Republican administration, including former budget director Russell Vought; former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn; former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson; and former chief of staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mandy Gunasekara. Trump’s name is mentioned in the document more than 300 times.
Project 2025 isn’t solely focused on weather. Its sweeping recommendations include plans to restrict abortion and contraceptives, cut social security, outlaw pornography, end marriage equality, end student loan relief efforts and eliminate other federal agencies such as the Department of Education.
On the environment, it calls for increased Arctic drilling, the deregulation of the oil industry, the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act — President Biden’s landmark climate legislation — and withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, among other recommendations.
Rohde, of Berkeley Earth, said moving away from international goals to reduce fossil fuel emissions “will necessarily lead to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and higher temperatures in the future.” The planet just recorded its hottest-ever daily global temperature, and has experienced a record 12 consecutive months of warming above 1.5 degrees Celsius, an international limit established under the Paris agreement.
Rohde also cautioned that privatizing or commercializing NOAA would lead to less available data for scientific researchers. Such outcomes have already been seen in other countries that have tried similar models, such as France, which only recently committed to making more of its weather archives public, he said.
“You really talk about throwing away the baby with the bathwater if you cut off the access to those measurement programs and those monitoring programs by making them commercial so that only a few organizations will have them,” he said.
A National Weather Service meteorologist in Oxnard helps to monitor Hurricane Hilary in August 2023.
(Ringo Chiu/For The Los Angeles Times)
Project 2025 also calls for the repeal of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s America the Beautiful Initiative. That plan, sometimes referred to as 30×30, seeks to conserve at least 30% of the U.S.’s land and waters by 2030, and has been hailed by environmental groups as a critical step for reversing habitat and species loss and ensuring access to nature for future generations.
Project 2025 says the initiative is being used to “advance an agenda to close vast areas of the ocean to commercial activities, including fishing, while rapidly advancing offshore wind energy development to the detriment of fisheries and other existing ocean-based industries.”
But the 30×30 initiative builds on existing legal authorities to achieve the benefits of conservation, including prudent efforts to avoid over-extracting land and water resources, according to Sanders, of Stanford, who also served as an attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s environment and natural resources division. Withdrawing from such an effort is “not a good idea,” he said.
“I think we find that every time we use one of these authorities to set aside an area for conservation, whether on a short-term or a longer-term basis, we look back at that decision as being enlightened, meaning that it was an exercise in wisdom to promote benefits that benefit humanity long term,” Sanders said.
Those conservation efforts, as well as the services provided by NOAA and the NWS, are deeply familiar to most Californians.
The agency is often the first to foresee potentially dangerous events — such as atmospheric rivers, extreme heat waves, fire weather conditions or even a rare West Coast hurricane — and disseminate information to the public.
And while Trump has publicly shied away from Project 2025, the former president’s first administration included efforts to roll back more than 100 environmental regulations and pare down the functions of some federal agencies. Trump also appointed climate change deniers to senior posts in the Department of the Interior, the EPA and other departments.
Many Californians may recall a tense 2020 exchange between Trump and Wade Crowfoot, the state’s natural resources secretary, over explosive wildfires and record-breaking temperatures that plagued the state that year.
“It’ll start getting cooler — you just watch,” Trump told Crowfoot at the time.
“I wish science agreed with you,” Crowfoot countered.
“I don’t think science knows,” Trump said.
To break up NOAA and dismantle the National Weather Service would be like a return to those years “on steroids,” Sanders said, as such efforts would severely hamper the federal government’s ability to understand or take action on climate change.
It would also shift the onus of gathering and distributing critical climate and weather information onto state and local agencies, who are not singularly equipped to handle the magnitude of the challenge.
“That’s inherently less efficient and that handicaps informed decision-making — particularly when you’re dealing with something like climate change, which is not a local issue,” Sanders said. “It has local impacts, but it’s a national and international issue, so you need agencies that have the resources and the focus of tracking that kind of problem at a more national level.”
The battle over President-elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet choices will escalate this week with Senate confirmation hearings set for more than a dozen prospective nominees, who will face a barrage of questions from Democrats hoping to enlist Republicans in knocking at least a few out of contention.
The most high-profile and potentially contentious hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, when the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to consider the expected nomination of Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News personality and combat veteran, for secretary of defense. Senate committees have also set public reviews for the choice for attorney general and those tapped to run the State, Treasury, Homeland Security, Energy, Interior, Transportation and Veterans Affairs Departments and the C.I.A., among others.
Despite criticism of the backgrounds and experience of some of his picks, Mr. Trump has urged Senate Republicans to stay united and quickly deliver the team he has selected in the opening days of the administration. How the G.O.P. responds will provide an early test in the relationship.
Mr. Trump and his Republican allies in the Senate would like to be have at least some officials in place within hours of his swearing-in next Monday, but while top Republicans say they are committed to rapidly advancing his picks, the chances of more than a few being ready for votes on Inauguration Day are low.
“The president ought to have his team in place early, especially his national security team,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Sunday. “If Democrats try to drag out the process, the Republican Conference is ready to work around the clock, including weekends and nights, to get them in place.”
Mr. Hegseth has faced intense scrutiny because of accusations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking, as well as his acknowledgment of reaching a financial settlement with a woman who accused him of sexual assault at a conservative convention in 2017. He has also faced criticism for comments about limiting the role of women in the military and will be pressed about his handling of two veterans advocacy groups that ran into financial trouble.
“Your past behavior and rhetoric indicates your inability to effectively lead this organization and properly support our service members,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on the committee, wrote to Mr. Hegseth last week in a 33-page letter with more than 70 questions for Mr. Hegseth.
After some initial unease, Senate Republicans have become more confident about Mr. Hegseth’s chances for confirmation as he has made personal visits to Senate offices to address Republican concerns.
“As people hear him, I think they will gain more confidence in his abilities,” said Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota.
But Democrats on the panel are already raising alarm that they have not been able to view an F.B.I. background check on Mr. Hegseth — information that so far has been shared only with the panel’s chairman and senior Democrat — and may not receive complete information about his past.
Though confirmation hearings can produce drama, it is rare for nominees to be defeated on the floor. Just one has been rejected in the last 36 years, when John Tower, a former Republican senator from Texas, fell short of the votes for secretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Senators traditionally tend to give presidents deference in their top administration choices, and those who run into trouble typically withdraw before a vote.
Democrats intend to use the hearings to press the nominees on how they will follow through on G.O.P. campaign pledges to help the working class while showcasing serious issues with the candidates in hopes of chipping away at Republican support.
“We want to show who they really are,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said in an interview. “Some of them carry a lot of baggage.”
While past presidents were able to get at least some cabinet members on board on Day 1, Democratic resistance and the Senate’s byzantine rules will make winning immediate confirmation of members of Mr. Trump’s team very difficult. Changes in confirmation procedures and intensifying partisanship over nominees have significantly diminished chances for first-day approval even of those in the national security realm.
For instance, President Barack Obama saw six cabinet nominees confirmed on Jan. 20, 2009, while Robert M. Gates was carried over as secretary of defense. A handful of others, including Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, were confirmed within a few days. At that time, nominees were theoretically subject to a 60-vote threshold, forcing Mr. Obama and his predecessors to make selections more able to clear that hurdle.
In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules so that nominees for administration slots and judicial seats could be confirmed on a straight majority vote with no threat of a 60-vote requirement, allowing presidents to name candidates who could prevail on party-line votes but increasing the chances for partisan division.
In 2021, Mr. Trump was able to win two cabinet confirmations on Jan. 20, filling the top defense and homeland security posts, as Democrats cooperated in filling key national security slots for the new administration with military generals boasting significant experience.
President Biden was able to win the confirmation of just one top official on Jan. 20, 2021, when Avril D. Haines was approved as director of national intelligence. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin III was confirmed two days later and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Jan. 26. Democrats say the nominee they are most inclined to clear the way for this year is Senator Marco Rubio, their Republican colleague from Florida, for secretary of state.
Part of the issue is that nominations cannot become official until the president takes office, meaning Mr. Trump can submit formal paperwork only after he is sworn in. The Senate is allowed to hold hearings, but clearing prospective nominees for the floor requires some Democratic cooperation.
Democrats would be highly unlikely to provide much help for nominees such as Mr. Hegseth. Republicans would then have to hold committee votes and follow floor procedures that will consume time, as well. Hearings for other contentious nominees such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary and Tulsi Gabbard for intelligence director are pending.
In the run-up to the hearings, Democrats and some Republicans have objected to proceeding because not all the traditional ethics and financial paperwork has been available. They have also pressed for access to F.B.I. background reports. Republicans have said that they expect most of the requirements to be met before any votes and that they intend to fulfill their duty of providing advice and consent.
“I think there is a real desire to move these through as quickly as possible,” Mr. Rounds said. “But we are going to do our job, too.”
Politics
Trudeau says 51st state is distraction from Trump tariff threat, acknowledges facing 'successful negotiator'
Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested that President-elect Trump’s suggestion that Canada become America’s “51st state” was a distraction from the tariff threat.
“I know that as a successful negotiator, he likes to keep people a little off balance. The 51st state, that’s not going to happen,” Trudeau told MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday. “It’s just a non-starter. Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. But people are now talking about that, as opposed to talking about what impact 25% tariffs [has] on steel and aluminum coming into the United States, on energy, whether it’s oil and gas or electricity.”
“No American wants to pay 25% more for electricity or oil and gas coming in from Canada,” Trudeau said in the interview with Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary. “That’s something I think people need to pay a little more attention to. And perhaps the idea of a 51st state is distracting a little bit from a very real question that will increase the cost of living for Americans and harm a trading relationship that works extremely well.”
Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports. The president-elect also said that if Canada merged with the U.S., taxes would decrease and there would be no tariffs.
The president-elect has also taken shots at Trudeau, referring to him as the “governor” of Canada. Last Monday, Trudeau announced that he would resign as Canada’s prime minister once his Liberal Party chooses a new leader on March 9.
GROWING CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT IN CANADA IS FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ‘CALIFORNIA ON STEROIDS,’ SAYS STRATEGIST
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his upcoming resignation to the media outside Rideau Cottage on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Ottawa. (AP/Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)
“From my very first conversations with him back in 2016, he told me how much he admires Canada, how much he appreciates and likes us, so there is a certain amount of flattery in this that he thinks that we are as great as we are,” Trudeau said of Trump on Sunday. “He’s right, we are great. We’re also very, very proud of being Canadian. If you talk to any Canadian, you ask them to define what it is to be Canadian, they’ll talk about all sorts of different things, but one of the things we will point out is, ‘and we’re not Americans.’”
On Trudeau’s trip to Mar-a-Lago in November, the Canadian prime minister said the topic of the U.S. annexing Canada did come up, but Trudeau said once he joked that Canada could annex Vermont or California as a sort of trade, Trump “immediately decided it was not that funny anymore, and we moved on to a different conversation.”
“This isn’t out of the blue that he’s doing this, but my focus has to be not on something that he’s talking about that will not ever happen, but more on something that might well happen, that if he does choose to go forward with tariffs that raise the costs of just about everything for American citizens, that on top of that, we’re going to have a robust response to that,” Trudeau said.
“We are ready to respond with tariffs as necessary,” Trudeau said.
Canadian officials say that if Trump follows through with his threat of punishing tariffs, Canada would consider slapping retaliatory tariffs on American orange juice, toilets and some steel products.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaves his hotel as he heads to meet President-elect Donald Trump, in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 29, 2024. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
MAGAFEST DESTINY? TRUMP FLEXES HIS MUSCLES WITH REPEATED TALK OF AMERICAN EXPANSIONISM
Trudeau recalled that Trump previously put tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum during his first term, and Canada responded by putting tariffs on bourbon, Harley Davidson motorcycles, orange juice, playing cards and other such items that Trudeau argued Canadians could easily find replacements for.
“It ended up causing a lot of loss in American businesses for whom Canada is their number one export partner. We are the number one export partner for about 35 different U.S. states, and anything that thickens the border between us ends up costing American citizens and American jobs. That’s not what President Trump got elected to do,” Trudeau said. “I know he got elected to try and make life easier for all Americans, to support American workers. These are things that are going to hurt them.”
Justin Trudeau during the funeral service of late former President Jimmy Carter at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump said last week that the U.S. does not need oil – or anything else – from Canada, but almost a quarter of the oil that the U.S. consumes each day comes from Canada. The energy-rich western province of Alberta exports 4.3 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S., according to the Associated Press. Data from the United States Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels a day, and produces about 13.2 million barrels a day.
Canada, a founding partner of NATO and home to more than 40 million people, is also the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $2.7 billion worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Trump has said that he would reconsider his tariff threat if Canada made improvements in managing security at the Canada-U.S. border, which he and his advisers see as a potential entry point for illegal immigrants.
Trudeau has said that less than 1% of illegal immigrants and fentanyl cross into the U.S. from Canada.
Nevertheless, after his meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Trudeau announced an increase in spending on border security, expressing willingness to address Trump’s concerns in hopes that he would reconsider his tariff threat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The granite steps leading up to the old federal courthouse in downtown L.A. are sturdy and regal. But something disturbing dotted them Friday that I never would have expected:
Ash.
The Eaton fire 15 miles to the northeast was still raging. Downtown was eerily empty. The lunchtime sun was bright, tinting everything in a sickly golden tone.
I was there to interview U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada, who is expected to announce Monday that he will step down Friday as head of the Central District of California, which prosecutes federal crimes in coastal counties from San Luis Obispo to Orange.
He was supposed to make his plans public early last week. But he delayed as the most destructive wildfires in L.A. history put a sad coda on his 2½ years as Southern California’s top federal prosecutor.
Members of his team have lost homes in Pacific Palisades and Altadena. More had to evacuate. Drones messing with firefighting efforts — a federal crime — meant his prosecutors were ready to press charges if necessary. Scammers were already preying on victims — crimes that Estrada’s office prosecuted in the wake of the 2023 Monterey Park mass shooting and other local tragedies.
“If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t be leaving, especially at a time of crisis,” Estrada said from a large table at his 12th-story office. Two computer screens at a stand-up desk behind him glowed. “I don’t like leaving things undone. But I don’t really have my choice here, so I got to go.”
Even if he doesn’t resign from a job he described as a “labor of love,” his days are numbered, with Donald Trump soon assuming the presidency.
It’s customary for U.S. attorneys to tender their resignations when a new president enters office. They know the incoming commander in chief usually wants a fresh start and prefers to appoint people from his own crew. That’s why Estrada wanted to talk to me.
A Democrat and the first U.S. attorney of Guatemalan heritage, he has emphasized diversity in his office and profession and made it a point to speak in both English and Spanish during news conferences. He was the type of U.S. attorney who invited civil rights icon Dolores Huerta to speak to his team — she led them in cries of “¡Sí se puede!” — and regularly spoke to inner-city kids about the importance of people like them in positions such as his.
That mentality is anathema to the incoming Trump administration, and Estrada acknowledged that politics in Washington are more “partisan” that ever.
“There’s so much fear in the community, concern about this next administration — what may happen, what may not happen,” said the son of Guatemalan immigrants. “But it’s important for people to know that this good work will continue.”
U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada at his office in the old federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles in 2024.
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Estrada sounded earnest, even mawkish, befitting his trim frame and boyish looks. I also know to not underestimate his insight. This is the person, after all, whose record against criminals of all stripes speaks for itself. His prosecutors won a conviction against L.A. political powerhouse Mark Ridley-Thomas on corruption charges (Ridley-Thomas is appealing) and got guilty pleas from former L.A. Councilmember Jose Huizar and former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do. Estrada praised his team for going after white supremacist gangs, fentanyl dealers, environmental polluters and other miscreants while favoring no party and no ideology.
“So I really think the work will continue, because we’ve done it and shot right down the middle,” he said.
Would the 47-year-old stay in his role if Trump asked him to?
“Yes, I would,” he responded without hesitation. “But it’s clear, based on where the politics are in D.C., that it’s not in the cards.”
Does that upset him?
“I went through different administrations, Republican and Democrat,” Estrada said. “I see what people go through. So I truly believe that the culture here is one of doing the right thing for the right reasons. My hope is that the new administration looks at what’s been going on, sees the work that’s been done and says, ‘I agree, we got to support this.’”
Any advice for his successor?
“See the work that’s been done, listen to the community and see the needs this community has. And I think that will lead you to a similar path to what I have done.”
After a few weeks off to indulge in his passions of running and cycling, Estrada plans to return to private practice, where he worked for eight years before President Biden appointed him in 2022. Before that, he was a prosecutor in the office he now leads. Going forward, he wants to focus on civil rights cases because “it’s in my blood — like, I can’t not do that.”
For now, there’s one last week of work. He teased a “big announcement” on a case that he declined to elaborate on, save for a smile.
“My philosophy has always been like running,” Estrada said. “I’ve always been a racer. Finish to the tape.”
He glanced at public affairs officer Ciaran McEvoy, who had silently looked on throughout our half-hour conversation.
“They’re going to be happy to see me go,” he said of his staff. “I was like the Energizer Bunny.”
He and McEvoy have known each other since the fourth grade at St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Costa Mesa.
“No one would ever accuse Martin of laziness,” McEvoy deadpanned, drawing a chuckle from his boss.
“We accomplished a lot,” Estrada replied. “I’d like to be there to help continue to develop some of the more junior lawyers and make sure they get on the right path. But I’m confident they’ll get there.”
U.S. Atty. E. Martin Estrada prepares to announce criminal charges against Ippei Mizuhara, a former interpreter for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, at the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles in 2024.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
I looked at all the mementos that hadn’t been put in boxes yet and asked which would best exemplify his time as U.S. attorney. He pointed to a trio of photos of him with Huerta, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas and Biden.
Estrada eventually focused on a framed letter from students at Utah Street Span School in Boyle Heights, which he’s visited for years. It featured their signatures, a smiling flower and a note of thanks and congratulations.
“That’s what matters to me — not just my personal legacy, not just what people write about me, but having a real impact in people’s lives,” he said. “I truly believe the work in this office has an impact on people’s lives.”
He brought up the Conception case. In 2019, a dive boat caught fire off Santa Cruz Island, killing 34 people in the deadliest maritime disaster in modern California history. In 2023, federal prosecutors won a conviction from a federal jury, which found boat captain Jerry Boylan guilty of gross negligence. A judge sentenced Boylan to four years in prison (he remains free on appeal).
Estrada met with the family members of the victims “over half a dozen times” and particularly remembers a mother who spoke only Spanish.
“I talked to her about the loss of her daughter so many times,” he said. “I looked to hire people who reflect the diversity of this area. And that is the kind of impact that I hope will last for many years.”
We shook hands. The sky outside seemed even smokier than before. Estrada brought up the wildfires again and how they’re coloring his last weeks in a way that makes him proud of the people he’s worked with and will leave behind.
“They’ve have really come together. They’ve told their affected colleagues, ‘Come stay with me’ or ‘What do you need?’ It’s a reminder: Our folks are not moguls,” he said. “They’re community members, like the people they serve. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Southern California’s U.S. attorney for the next five days excused himself and went back to work at his stand-up desk.
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