California continues to be a man-caused disaster zone.

Six months ago, wildfires roared through swaths of the greater Los Angeles area. The last time I reported on the area’s recovery efforts, only four rebuilding permits had been issued. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass also led a delegation to Sacramento to request nearly $2 billion in state funding to aid the city amid a projected $1 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year.

According to Team Bass, the budget crisis is primarily due to January’s wildfires but is also coupled with lower-than-anticipated tax revenues and rising costs associated with new labor contracts.

California Governor Gavin Newsom publicly rejected the idea shortly after it was presented. In fact, the request was deemed a “nonstarter.”