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The Trump administration’s war on children By Eli Hager, ProPublica
that they’re fully decimating is the kid one,” referring to Trump’s goal of shuttering the Department of Education. Already, some 2,000 staffers there have lost or left their jobs. The impact of these cuts will be felt far beyond Washington, rippling out to thousands of state and local agencies serving children See War on children Page 03
See Andrew Do Page 28
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Delinquency Prevention. In part because of their obscurity, the slashing has gone relatively overlooked. “Everyone’s been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one seems to be talking about how, in a lot of ways, it’s been an assault on kids,” said Bruce Lesley, president of advocacy group First Focus on Children. He added that “the one cabinet agency
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range County supervisors Tuesday approved a resolution asking federal prosecutors to review the plea deal for former Supervisor Andrew Do, who pleaded guilty to bribery and is awaiting sentencing. The board voted 4-1 in favor, with Supervisor Don Wagner the dissenting vote, for the resolution sponsored by Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who replaced Do on the board. Do once worked as Nguyen’s chief of staff until the two had a falling out, and they have clashed politically in the past. The board delayed voting on the measure two weeks ago by the same vote with Vice Chairwoman Katrina Foley voting no because she wanted to vote for it then and not put it on hold. The resolution the board voted on Tuesday was revised. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the resolution. Do’s attorney, Paul Meyer, said, “This blatant attempt to assert political influence in a federal matter is reprehensible.” Do is scheduled to be sentenced June 9. On April 14, U.S. District Judge James Selna approved a forfeiture order for Do that includes the former supervisor paying $1,702,640.86 from one bank account and $724,749.10
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billions of dollars in funding for things like school meals and school safety. These stark reductions have been centered in littleknown children’s services offices housed within behemoth agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, offices with names like the Children’s Bureau, the Office of Family Assistance and the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Orange County supervisors seek review of Andrew Do plea deal By Paul Anderson, City News Service
This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. he clear-cutting across the federal government under President Donald Trump has been dramatic, with mass terminations, the suspension of decades-old programs and the neutering of entire agencies. But this spectacle has obscured a series of moves by the administration that could profoundly harm some of the most vulnerable people in the U.S.: children. Consider: The staff of a program that helps millions of poor families keep the electricity on, in part so that babies don’t die from extreme heat or cold, have all been fired. The federal office that oversees the enforcement of child support payments has been hollowed out. Head Start preschools, which teach toddlers their ABCs and feed them healthy meals, will likely be forced to shut down en masse, some as soon as May 1. And funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children; responding to reports of missing children; and preventing youth violence has been withdrawn indefinitely. The administration has laid off thousands of workers from coast to coast who had supervised education, child care, child support and child protective services systems, and it has blocked or delayed
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from another as well as giving up property at 14732 Candeda Place in Tustin and another property at 2410 W. 17th St. in Santa Ana. Do pleaded guilty to a felony federal bribery conspiracy charge on Oct. 31. His attorney worked out a deal that puts a five-year lid on Do’s time behind bars. Do admitted in his plea agreement that in exchange for more than $550,000 in bribes, he cast votes starting in 2020 that directed more than $10 million in COVIDrelief funds to the Viet America Society, where his daughter Rhiannon worked, according to federal prosecutors. Do faces up to five years in prison and his daughter, Rhiannon Do, will be placed in a diversion program as part of the plea deal. “A federal prosecutor who looks at the totality of the evidence will hopefully come to the same conclusion as the general public: Andrew Do is getting a special deal because he was a public official,” Nguyen said. “I want to see justice in this case. Five years in prison is not punishment. Andrew Do will be out of custody in the blink of an eye.” Part of the reason the board wants a review of the case stems from the discovery that Do continued to receive
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