Emily Jashinsky

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.

protecting both drivers and animals.

The Post going on to blame rising construction costs due to tariffs and inflation and weather delays for project extensions, noting, quote, five years of work is far from a boondoggle.

Online critics pointing to similar projects in other states completed at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time, including a roughly $15 million wildlife crossing over Interstate 25 in Colorado completed in just one year.

The Washington Free Beacon uncovering social media accounts tied to New York City Mayor Zohra Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji, featuring posts praising Palestinian terrorists and using racist and homophobic slurs.

In one 2017 Tumblr post, Duwaji, now 28 years old,

sharing a picture of Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled with her quote, If it does good for my cause, I'll be happy to accept death.

Khaled, a member of the U.S.-designated terror organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, praised by her supporters as the first woman to hijack a plane.