
After California bar exam mess in February, July's test will cost millions more, official says
May 7 (Reuters) - California's botched February bar exam will cost the State Bar of California almost $6 million more than expected in July, with millions in added expenses in the years to come, officials told state lawmakers on Wednesday.
The State Bar's decision to switch to its own bar exam, given both remotely and in person, was expected to save the state bar up to $3.8 million a year. But the problem-plagued February exam and its fallout are now a financial drain on the already cash-strapped state bar. February examinees faced unprecedented technical and logistical problems on the test and the state is returning to its traditional in-person exam in July.
The state bar expects to lose about $3 million in revenue because it is waiving the July testing fees for those who failed or withdrew from the February exam, executive director Leah Wilson told the state's Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on a bill, opens new tab that would mandate a state audit of the February test. Wilson said on Friday that she is stepping down from her state bar post in July, citing the faulty rollout of the new exam.
The bar will spend an additional $2 million to secure large testing sites for the July exam after the California Supreme Court ordered that test to be given only in person.
And returning to the Multistate Bar Exam — the 200 multiple-choice questions developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners — will cost the bar an additional $620,000 in July, Wilson said. The high court on Friday ordered the bar to return to the MBE for the July test after legal academics and test takers questioned the quality and development process of the multiple-choice questions that appeared on the February exam.
Additionally, the state bar must pay test prep company Kaplan Exam Services $6.1 million more before it can exit the five-year contract it entered into last year to provide multiple-choice questions for the bar exam, even if it does not use Kaplan-produced questions, Wilson told the committee. The state bar revealed two weeks ago that due to time constraints, a subset of the February multiple-choice questions were written by a separate contractor using ChatGPT.
On Monday, the state bar sued testing platform Meazure Learning for unspecified damages, claiming the company failed to live up to its promises that its systems could handle thousands of bar examinees. Meazure said on Tuesday that the state bar was trying to "shift the blame for its flawed development process for the February exam." The company declined to comment further on Wednesday.
State bar officials previously had said there would be added costs following the February bar's failure but had given significantly lower estimates.
The hearing also included testimony from four February bar takers, as well as several legal academics who said the development of the exam was rushed and that bar exam experts were excluded from that process.
'How do we make sure we never come back to this place?' said California's Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg, who sponsored the audit bill. 'It's important that we dig deep into this issue.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Army veteran joins anti-ICE protest in Dallas and ‘calls on conscience' of fellow service members
A uniformed U.S. Army veteran has provoked anger among MAGA conservatives by joining a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Dallas, Texas, on Monday. In a viral video recorded at the event, the soldier does not hold back in her criticism of President Donald Trump for activating 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to help police the anti-ICE demonstrations that have raged in Los Angeles for five days and have since spread to other major American cities. 'We are not pawns for Donald Trump's agenda,' the woman, wearing a camouflage uniform bearing the name tag 'Colado,' says in the video shared by left-leaning X account BreakThrough News. 'Why now?' she continues. 'It's because the military was called upon against the protesters. In our oath to serve, we serve the people of the United States, the Constitution. These constitutional rights are being stripped and just denied. 'And the military will not be pawns to that. That's why I'm calling on the conscience of military members who served previously and now. We have a conscience, we have a mind and we have a duty, a moral obligation to say no and resist.' The Independent has contacted the Pentagon for its response to her comments. Online, conservatives wasted no time in calling for the woman, subsequently identified as Carmen Colado, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, to be dishonorably discharged or court-martialled for publicly criticizing the commander-in-chief's orders. Some argued that her actions constituted a violation of the U.S. military's Uniform Code of Military Justice and called for Article 15 to be invoked against her, which empowers a commanding officer to order nonjudicial punishments less severe than a court-martial. These might include restrictions on duty, extra duty, forfeiture of pay, and, in some cases, confinement; however, since Colado appears to have left the service, it is unlikely to apply. She describes herself on Instagram as the 'proud daughter of an illegal immigrant hero who saved my life' and posts photos of friends and family, poetry, pencil drawings, and even a short film she has directed. Her posts also include an inspirational quote from Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green, who was censured for interrupting President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress earlier this year, on the occasion of a Dallas protest march calling for immigration reform. 'To protect liberty and justice for all – to protect government of the people, by the people, for the people – to protect what this country has in its great and noble ideals, we have to do what is necessary,' Green's quote reads.


The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Veterans are divided over the Army's big parade, being held on Trump's birthday
James McDonough served in the U.S. Army for 27 years, fighting in Vietnam and delivering humanitarian aid to Rwanda. For him, Saturday's military parade in Washington for the Army's 250th anniversary — coinciding with President Donald Trump 's birthday — is about the resilience of a vital institution and the nation it serves. 'The soldiers marching that day represent all of that history,' said McDonough, 78, of Crofton, Maryland. 'They don't represent a single day. They don't represent a single person. It's the American Army still standing straight, walking tall, ready to defend our country.' Christopher Purdy, an Army veteran who served in Iraq, called the parade a facade that paints over some of the Republican president's policies that have targeted military veterans and current service members, including cuts at the Department of Veterans Affairs and a ban on transgender troops. Purdy said the parade, long sought by Trump, will needlessly display U.S. military might on the president's 79th birthday. 'It's embarrassing,' said Purdy, 40, of Atlanta. 'It's expensive. And whatever his reasons are for doing it, I think it's entirely unnecessary.' Until recently, the Army's long-planned birthday celebration did not include a big parade. Added under the Trump administration, the event, featuring hundreds of military vehicles and aircraft and thousands of soldiers, has divided veterans. Some liken it to the military chest-pounding commonly seen in North Korea, a step toward authoritarianism or a perverse birthday party for Trump. Others see it as a once-in-a-lifetime accounting of the Army's achievements and the military service of millions of soldiers over centuries. The parade is not about Trump, they say, but the public seeing the faces of soldiers when so few Americans serve. The Army expects up to 200,000 people could attend and says the parade will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million. Trump, speaking at Fort Bragg this week, said Saturday would be 'a big day" and noted "we want to show off a little bit." 'We're going to celebrate our greatness and our achievements," he said. "This week, we honor 250 years of valor and glory and triumph by the greatest fighting force ever to walk the face of the Earth: the United States Army.' 'Divisive politics have ruined it' For Edmundo Eugenio Martinez Jr., an Army veteran who fought in Iraq, the parade is a missed opportunity to honor generations of veterans, many of whom paid a steep price and came home to little fanfare. 'Sadly, the timing and the optics and divisive politics have ruined it,' said Martinez, 48, of Katy, Texas. 'And I'm not picking one side or the other. Both sides are guilty.' 'It's just suspicious' Joe Plenzler, a retired Marine who fought in Iraq, said Trump wants to see troops saluting him on his birthday as tanks roll past. 'It's just suspicious," the 53-year-old from Middletown, Virginia, said of the timing. 'I absolutely love the Army from the bottom of my cold black Marine heart,' he said. 'But if the Army's birthday was a day later, we probably wouldn't be doing it. I'd rather see that $50 million take care of the men and women who went off to war and came back with missing arms, legs and eyeballs, and with damaged brains.' 'Part of American culture' Joe Kmiech, who served in the Army and Minnesota National Guard from 1989 to 1998, supports the parade because the Army is "part of American culture and our fabric.' He notes the Army's pioneering contributions to engineering and medicine, from dams to new surgical techniques. Like many veterans, he has a strong familial connection: His father served in the Army, and so did his maternal grandfather, who fought in World War II. 'I didn't vote for President Trump, but the commander in chief is going to be part of that celebration,' said Kmiech, 54, of Roberts, Wisconsin. 'The distinction needs to be made that the parade is a celebration of our Army, not of a person.' 'Stroking Trump's ego' For Gulf War Army veteran Paul Sullivan, Trump and the parade are inextricably linked. 'This Trump tank travesty is all about stroking Trump's ego,' said Sullivan, 62, who lives outside Charlottesville, Virginia. 'If Trump truly cared about our service members, he would sit down with them quietly and say, 'What can we do with $50 million or $100 million to make your lives better?' He's not.' 'We are a great nation' McDonough, the veteran from Crofton, Maryland, disagrees that the parade is about Trump or too costly. He said the U.S. held a grand celebration in New York after World War II when the nation was deeply in debt. 'We certainly need to bring our debt down, and we certainly need to take care of our veterans,' he said. 'But it's a false dichotomy. It's like saying if we bought two less aircraft carriers, we could do so much better to take care of our poor.' And McDonough said soldiers' oath is to the Constitution, not to Trump. The president 'understands the importance of doing this, not only for the Army, but for the nation,' McDonough said. 'A real dark turn' Purdy, the veteran from Atlanta, said the parade's brazen flex of military strength is not an American tradition, particularly absent a recent victory. 'I'm not saying we shouldn't celebrate the country," he said. 'But for us to be projecting this type of hard power, in such a real in-your-face way, that's just not who we are.' Trump is brushing aside old alliances and foreign aid that have helped maintain peace for decades, Purdy asserted. 'It signals a real dark turn if we're just going to roll out the tanks," Purdy said. 'People are the Army' Michael Nardotti, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said military hardware has long been in American parades, which can help recruitment. More important, he said, is the tremendous value in the public seeing soldiers' faces in a parade when active-duty troops make up less than 1% of the population. ''People are the Army,'' said Nardotti, 78, of Aldie, Virginia, quoting a former Army chief of staff. Nardotti said he'll listen carefully to Trump's speech. 'I hope it sends the right message,' he said.


Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking moment British photographer films himself getting shot in the head by LA riot cops
Shocking footage has captured the moment LA police shot a British photographer in the head with a rubber bullet as the city was rocked by violent riots on Sunday evening. Father-of-two Toby Canham, who was on assignment for the New York Post, was filming videos of the chaos from an elevated level when a California Highway Patrol officer suddenly fired at him, leaving him with a severe head wound. Disturbing footage taken by Canham captured the moment he was struck in the forehead, which caused him to fall to the ground. 'F**k, f**k, I just got shot in the head!' the photographer can be heard screaming from behind the camera. Just moments before he was struck, Canham's video showed a police officer positioning himself behind a pillar. It is unclear why Canham was hit. The LA-based photographer, who had previously served for the British Army, was treated in hospital for whiplash and neck pain. Images show the bloody red wound he was left with on his forehead. Speaking about his harrowing ordeal, Canham said: 'When I got whacked, to my best recollection it was just me filming with my cameras on and then I got shot,' said Canham. 'Where I was hit, I was the only person overlooking the freeway. I wasn't surrounded so I was an easy target.' Seconds before he was hit with the rubber bullet, a flashbang initially exploded a few feet from him, causing shrapnel to kick up and leave two holes in his pants. Los Angeles is currently in its fifth day of protests against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Demonstrations have spread to other cities nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a local emergency and said a curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday. 'We reached a tipping point' after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said during a news conference. The curfew covers a 1 square mile section of downtown that includes the area where protests have occurred since Friday. Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the U.S. to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It's one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a U.S. president. The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles as part of his crackdown on immigration. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of 4 million. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids Despite the protests, immigration enforcement activity has continued throughout the county, with city leaders and community groups reporting ICE present at libraries, car washes and Home Depots. School graduations in Los Angeles have increased security over fears of ICE action and some have offered parents the option to watch on Zoom. McDonnell said that police had made 197 arrests on Tuesday, including 67 who were taken into custody for unlawfully occupying part of the 101 freeway. Several businesses were broken into Monday, though authorities didn't say if the looting was tied to the protests.