Los Angeles Time - 08.08.2019

B4 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 S LATIMES.COM

apeake Bay, nutria have bur-

rowed through levees, de-

stroyed crops and trans-

formed vast swaths of

vibrant wetlands into mud

flats and open water. Fe-

males have up to three litters

a year and can mate within

48 hours of giving birth.

California’s latest infes-

tation was discovered in

early 2017. State and federal

agencies have warned that

explosive population growth

combined with the state’s

reliance on expansive water-

ways connected to the Sac-

ramento-San Joaquin River

Delta make California espe-

cially vulnerable.

The brain center for the

state’s fledgling nutria erad-

ication program is a rural

Los Banos outpost of the

California Department of

Fish and Wildlife. Inside is a

“war room” papered with

maps of the Central Valley

and watercolor paintings of

the rodent, gifted by one em-

ployee’s wife.

On a visit to the facility

Friday, Harder studied the

maps, dotted with tiny pink

stickers indicating con-

firmed nutria sightings —

there have been nearly 700

caught in the state.

“If we don’t eradicate in

five years, 10 years, this is go-

ing to be overrun by nutria,

right?” the congressman

asked.

Program manager Val-

erie Cook nodded. Failure to

get rid of them, she added,

could mean devastated wet-

lands, interrupted flight

paths for migratory birds

and weakened infrastruc-

With the August congres-
sional recess in full swing,
Harder and other vulnera-
ble California freshmen are
back in their districts high-
lighting local issues that
they hope will help them
court their constituents and
avoid partisan bickering in
Washington. Rep. Katie Hill
(D-Agua Dulce) helped pass
additional funding for wild-
fire prevention efforts, and
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San
Juan Capistrano) held a
field hearing on the closed
San Onofre nuclear plant
and what to do about its
waste.
For his part, Harder has
focused much of his first
year in office on local issues
such as water storage and
the effects of almond tariffs
on Central Valley farmers.
Now he is training his atten-
tion on the nutria, a semi-
aquatic rodent that has
drawn the ire of environmen-
talists, farmers and local
officials alike.
Somewhere between the
size of a sewer rat and a bea-
ver, with a tail resembling
that of an opossum and pro-
truding, nacho cheese-col-
ored teeth, the nutria is both
impressively unattractive
and highly destructive.
Originally bred for a fur
trade that collapsed in the
1940s, feral nutria popula-
tions have since spread to at
least 16 states including Cali-
fornia, which declared the
rodent eradicated in the
1970s.
In places including Loui-
siana and Maryland’s Ches-

ture crucial to agriculture

and flood control.

“This is really like the tri-

fecta of damage even far be-

yond what’s felt within the

other states,” Cook said.

Louisiana pays hunters

$6 a nutria tail to keep the

population under control,

with no hope of permanently

removing the rodents. The

Chesapeake Bay project,

which is nearing eradication

stages, is going on 20 years,

with crucial funding coming

from federal coffers.

Recently approved funds

in California’s budget and a

grant from the state Delta

Conservancy will help offi-

cials here get up and run-

ning, allowing them to stop

seeking assistance from

state wildlife employees who

are working on other crucial

tasks. But the money runs

out in three years. “If there’s

anything I want to stress to-

day, it’s how critical it is to

have that long-term sup-

port,” Cook said.

Harder has introduced a

bill in Congress that would

provide $7 million in funding

a year for six years to help

California detect, trap and

kill nutria before they can ir-

reversibly entrench them-

selves.

The funds would help

state officials expand proj-

ect staff to 16, run a second

field office in Stockton and

move forward with plans to

acquire and train nutria-

sniffing dogs and implement

a “Judas nutria” program in

which live animals are steri-

lized and released into the

wild with tracking collars to

help pinpoint other colonies.

“If you care about the

food that we eat, and you

care about going to the

supermarket and buying al-

monds or buying milk, then

you need to care about what

we can do to make sure that

agriculture in California

continues to be strong, and

that requires us to actually

eradicate nutria,” Harder

said after his wetlands tour.

It’s unclear whether

Harder’s bill will earn pas-

sage. So far three Democrats

from California have signed

on as co-sponsors: Reps.

John Garamendi (D-Walnut

Grove), Jim Costa (D-

Fresno) and fellow freshman

TJ Cox (D-Fresno).

Some locals said it meant

a lot to them that Harder is

out in the community learn-

ing more about the issue.

“Just talking to farmers

in general about what can be

done to help the community

and help California, just

making his presence known

it’s important,” said Aaron

Silva, a sweet potato farmer

whose family farm, Doreva

Produce, has donated thou-

sands of pounds of sweet po-

tatoes to be used as nutria

bait.

Silva says he doesn’t like

to get involved in politics.

But he says he appreciates

any politician who takes

an interest in addressing is-

sues that business owners

face.

“It always seems like Cali-

fornia is against the farmer

and all the problems we’re

facing,” said Silva, who is not

registered with a political

party. “This is a positive

process.”

Congressman’s

newest battle is

on swamp rats

VALERIE COOK,left, a state wildlife employee, explains that nutria can devas-

tate wetlands, disturb migratory birds’ flight paths and weaken infrastructure.

Tomas OvalleFor The Times

[Swamp rats,from B1]

Authorities are searching

for a driver who hit a 15-year-

old boy, dragging him more

than 1,000 feet in South Los

Angeles before fleeing the

scene late Tuesday.

The teen was struck

about 9 p.m. as he rode his

bike through a crosswalk in

the area of Maple Avenue

and 37th Street in the His-

toric South-Central neigh-

borhood, said Det. Moses

Castillo of the Los Angeles

Police Department. The boy

was stuck under the vehicle

and dragged down the block,

Castillo said.

The teen, who has not

been identified, finally be-

came dislodged from under-

neath the car at Martin Lu-

ther King Jr. Boulevard. Sev-

eral passersby chased the

vehicle in an effort to get the

driver to stop, but the mo-

torist drove away, Castillo

said.

The boy was taken to a

hospital and was in critical

condition early Wednesday.

“His family is by his side,”

Castillo told reporters late

Tuesday. “We’re praying and

hoping for the best, but it

looks pretty grave.”

Authorities have offered

a $25,000 reward for informa-

tion leading to the arrest of

the driver. The car was de-

scribed as a 2007 or 2008

dark green or blue Honda

Accord with tinted windows.

The vehicle likely has exten-

sive damage to the front end,

Castillo said.

Driver

leaves

boy badly

injured

By Hannah Fry

“This female employee
was very brave; this guy was
armed with knives,” Whitney
said. “She fought as best as
she could against this armed
suspect and sustained mul-
tiple stab wounds.”
The woman was taken to
a hospital and is expected to
survive.
Next, about 6:10 p.m., the
man pulled up to a gas sta-
tion at Harbor Boulevard
and Banner Drive in Garden
Grove and attacked a man
pumping gas, stabbing him
in the back and almost cut-
ting off the man’s nose, po-
lice said. The victim was tak-
en to a hospital and is ex-
pected to survive.
The man then drove
south on Harbor Boulevard,
stopping at a Subway sand-
wich shop in Santa Ana,
where he killed a man, au-
thorities said.
He then went across the
street and attacked a securi-
ty guard at the 7-Eleven,
stabbing and killing him.
The man took the security
guard’s gun and walked
outside, where he was ar-
rested.
“I’ve been a police officer
for 30 years, and this is the
first time I’ve ever seen a sus-
pect kill four people and stab
others,” Whitney said. “It’s
pure evil.”

The Associated Press
contributed to this report.

Four killed, two hurt in O.C. stabbings

POLICEoutside a Subway shop in Santa Ana, where one man was killed. Officers arrested a suspect, whom they have not identified.

“These were random acts of violence — our suspect was not involved with any of the victims,” Garden Grove Police Lt. Carl Whitney said.

Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times

[Stabbings, from B1]

practices and to preserve
the existing housing stock.”
In all, California received
$410 million in the 2012 na-
tional settlement with the
nation’s five largest mort-
gage servicers: Ally (for-
merly known as GMAC),
Bank of America, Citigroup,
J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells
Fargo.
The companies were
charged with a number of
federal law violations and ul-
timately agreed to pay more
than $20 billion directly to
homeowners affected by the
mortgage crisis. Those com-
panies then made a separate
payment to state govern-
ments totaling $2.5 billion,
with California receiving
$410 million of that.
But most of that money,
$331 million, was used by
then-Gov. Jerry Brown and
legislators to repay housing
bonds, some of which were

sold a decade before the 2012

national settlement with

mortgage lenders.

It took five years and a se-

ries of court challenges for a

coalition of groups to force

the state to repay those

funds.

In 2018, the Legislature

tried to block a California

appeals court ruling requir-

ing the state to replenish the

mortgage settlement funds.

Lawmakers passed legisla-

tion to “abrogate,” or effec-

tively revoke, the court deci-

sion.

Last month, the Califor-

nia Supreme Court refused

the state’s request to recon-

sider the ruling, leaving in

place the appeals court or-

der to repay the money.

Martha Castro, a Public

Counsel client, said at

Wednesday’s event that she

was the victim of a predatory

lending scheme in which she

almost lost her home.

She said her monthly

mortgage payments more

than doubled, and without

the legal help, she would

have lost her home. “I

though that I would end up

homeless and have nowhere

else to turn for help,” Castro

said through a translator.

Public Counsel lawyers

removed several liens from

her home and helped her re-

gain her financial footing.

Newsom pointed to Castro’s

story and said the proposed

fund could help protect rent-

ers and homeowners. He

added that there hadn’t

been enough regulatory

oversight of lenders and that

the state needs to do more.

“We can’t rely on city at-

torneys, we can’t rely on lo-

cal government or the fed-

eral government to do the

job, and, respectfully, the

state is not doing enough,”

the governor said.

While plaintiffs in the

case applauded new help for

homeowners, they were dis-

appointed that Newsom did

not ask for their input in

crafting a way to spend the

money they fought to have

the state pay back.

“We fought so hard for

five years and now we have to

fight again for where the

money will go,” said Faith

Bautista, president and

chief executive of the Na-

tional Asian American Co-

alition. “This has to be im-

pactful.”

An outline provided by

the Newsom administration

says the new trust fund will

pay not only for legal assist-

ance, but renter and home-

owner education efforts and

programs to stop evictions

and foreclosures. Those ide-

as mirror some of the lan-

guage in the California pro-

visions of the original con-

sent decree agreed to by

lenders and attorneys gen-

eral in 49 states.

But the decree also pro-

posed grants be made di-

rectly to Californians af-

fected by the controversial

lending practices.

Bautista, whose group is

headquartered in the San

Francisco Bay Area and

works with homeowners

across the state, said there’s

much more the money can

do to provide relief to those

caught in the recession-era

mortgage crisis.

She said collection agen-

cies are demanding pay-

ments from some homeown-

ers with second mortgages

who could have used legal

help years ago to negotiate

down the debt if state law-

makers hadn’t diverted the

money.

Rep. Katie Porter (D-

Irvine), who worked on the

mortgage settlement as an

attorney under then-Califor-

nia Atty. Gen. Kamala Har-

ris, said Newsom’s proposal

goes a long way toward

meeting the agreement’s

goals.

“The problem is, nobody

holds those cheaters and

scammers — big companies

and small companies alike —

nobody holds their feet to

the fire,” she said. “Nobody

holds them to account, and

that’s what this will do.”

Newsom said Wednesday

that there’s room for more

discussion as he submits his

framework to the Legisla-

ture. Bautista, whose coali-

tion of community groups

plans to lobby lawmakers

when they return from sum-

mer recess, said homeown-

ers who lost everything need

assurances that state offi-

cials are serious about pro-

viding relief.

“For this to be impactful,

there needs to be account-

ability of every penny,” she

said.

Some wary of plan for mortgage settlement funds

[Legal aid, from B1]