Dear CalMatters reader,

Wage theft costs California workers $2 billion a year. Now it may cost a construction company more than $2.6 million, along with potential criminal penalties.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed 31 felony charges against the construction firm US Framing West and two of its top officials. Bonta said the company cheated workers on a housing project in Cathedral City out of $40,000 in wages and skipped more than $2.5 million in state payroll taxes. 

“California has some of the strongest worker protections in the country, but there are still too many who are willing to skirt the law to make an extra buck,” Bonta said in a statement. “My office will not stand by when businesses — or the individuals who run them — steal from workers and defraud the state.

You can read the full story in CalMatters. 

The case started in 2019, when the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council tipped off the state Department of Justice to potential wage theft violations at an Oakland construction project. That led the Justice Department to investigate US Framing West’s work throughout the state. 

Bonta said the state found violations in Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Contra Costa Counties, including grand theft, payroll tax evasion, prevailing wage theft, and filing false documents with the state. Bonta filed the criminal complaint in August, and the two defendants surrendered this month. 

The complaint says the company stole wages from 19 workers in Riverside County in 2021 and 2022. Under California’s penal code, employers can face grand theft charges for stealing more than $950 in wages or tips from one employee, or a total $2,350 if stealing from two or more employees within a year. 

Wage theft happens when employers don’t pay employees for all the hours they worked, or don’t pay them at a legal rate. Think of a boss who requires overtime but doesn’t pay it, makes people work on breaks, or changes timesheets to reflect less time than employees actually worked. It tends to happen to low-wage workers who lack the resources to defend their pay, or who fear losing their job if they complain. 

When people do file wage claims with the state and win them, they often struggle and wait years to collect their awards. CalMatters ran a series of stories about the problem. 

Democratic Assemblymember Sabrina Cervantes moved up the legislative ladder when she won a state Senate seat in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. Her sister, Democrat Clarissa Cervantes, had hoped to succeed her in the Assembly seat but fell behind — by about 400 votes —  Republican Leticia Castillo, with 99% of the vote counted.

Sabrina Cervantes has represented the 58th Assembly District since 2016, and will move into the newly redrawn 31st Senate District, which includes Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Perris, San Jacinto and parts of Corona, Fontana, Hemet, Menifee, and Riverside.

Palm Springs Councilmember and Democrat Christy Holstege conceded her race for the 47th Assembly District, after narrowly losing to the Republican incumbent, Greg Wallis. She was one of a trio of Coachella Valley Democrats — along with congressional candidate Will Rollins and state Senate candidate Lisa Middleton —  who gave incumbent Republicans a run for their money. “Our campaign showed ... that a Democrat could compete in a district once considered unwinnable,” Holstege said in a statement.  

California Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering endangered species status for a long-legged, little owl that nests underground.

Burrowing owls have moon-like yellow eyes and curious bobbing dances and live in tunnels dug by ground squirrels. They’re found in farm fields or grasslands in Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial Counties, but are declining as urban sprawl and ecological changes wipe out much of their habitat.

Biologists are trying to reintroduce them to open lands in parts of San Diego County, but conservation advocates have argued they need wider protection. Last month Fish and Wildlife agreed to consider listing them an endangered species, and this month the department asked for public comment on that proposal. While that decision is underway the owls will have the same protection as existing threatened or endangered species.

While you are here, please sign up for the Inland Empire newsletter and let me know what kinds of stories you’d love to read.

And please add my email to your contacts:  inlandempire@calmatters.org

Thanks for reading,