Emily Jashinsky

Coming up, a California wildlife bridge drawing backlash over soaring costs and construction delays.

New reporting surfacing past social media posts tied to New York City Mayor Zohra Mamdani's wife praising terrorists and using offensive slurs.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, facing criticism over a costly state infrastructure project now dubbed a bridge to nowhere.

City Journal reporting on a wildlife crossing over the 101 freeway in Southern California designed to allow cougars, butterflies and other animals to safely pass over one of the busiest highways in the country.

The project breaking ground in 2022, with Governor Newsom announcing $54 million in state funding at the time and suggesting it could be completed for roughly $10 million more.

But the timeline's slipping, the original completion date passing last year, and costs continuing to climb.

According to City Journal, the total price tag now reaching $114 million, about $21 million over previous estimates, with approximately $77 million coming from state funds.

Photos of the site showing a landscaped structure spanning the freeway, but no ramps yet for animals to access it.

Beth Pratt, a member of the project's leadership team, attributing the overruns to inflation, tariffs, and rising construction costs, and issuing pleas to the public on social media for donations to help finish the project.

When we started stage one and we're waiting to start stage two, the world changed beneath us, though.

This spring, construction costs increased considerably.

And although we were holding reserves to finish construction,

All those are exhausted at this point because of tariffs, inflation, and so many other factors impacting construction projects, not just ours.

So we need your help one more time to get us to the finish line and help us build back those reserves so that we can ensure that we finalize construction by November.

Please donate today to Save LA Cougars, and we're going to complete this together, this dream that we started.

Thank you for being a part of it.

Supporters argue the crossing is critical to preventing deadly vehicle collisions and preserving the region's endangered cougar population.

City Journal pointing out the state could pursue the lower-cost alternative of importing cougars to bolster the population.

Governor Newsom's office pushing back on the reporting on X, quote, MAGA's outrage over a project that literally saves lives tells you everything.

This freeway project, grounded in decades of research, restores a critical wildlife corridor and reduces deadly collisions on one of the busiest highways in the country.