‘Botched’ new exam format, AI controversy build pressure on California State Bar

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

• The California State Bar’s exam debacle.
• Take a rare glimpse inside the mountain tunnel that carries water to Southern California.
• How Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ‘elevated his game to another level’ in his second year.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

The State Bar of California is facing its own high-pressure examination

California has nearly 270,000 lawyers, and they’ve all cleared the difficult final hurdle to securing a license to practice law: passing the bar exam.

The licensing exam is administered twice a year in California, and while it is usually a source of anxiety and stress for fresh law school graduates and their families, the test is usually not a source of controversy or front-page news.

Until this year.

For its test in February, the State Bar of California — the agency that licenses and disciplines attorneys — opted to create its own exam as a way to save some much-needed money rather than rely on a national testing system for exam questions.

The new format also allowed aspiring lawyers to take the exam remotely, as opposed to the typical in-person test.

But the rollout of that test was marked by glitches and chaos that led some test takers to file a lawsuit against the State Bar.

An exterior of the California State Bar headquarters building downtown.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

As Times national correspondent Jenny Jarvie reports, there are growing calls from law school leaders and an influential state legislator to return to the test developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which California had used since 1972.

Such a move “would be a major retreat for the embattled State Bar,” Jenny wrote. “The Supreme Court has yet to direct the State Bar to return to the NCBE system, even though test takers complained that some of the multiple-choice questions in the new test included typos and questions with more than two correct answers and left out important facts.”

Last week, deans of more than a dozen major law schools in the Golden State wrote a letter to California Supreme Court Justice Patricia Guerrero, expressing “serious concerns about the exam’s fairness and validity.”

Sen. Thomas J. Umberg (D-Santa Ana), chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, has also urged the State Bar to abandon its own test.

“Given the catastrophe of the February bar, I think that going back to the methods that have been used for the last 50 years — until we can adequately test what new methods may be employed — is the appropriate way to go,” Umberg told Jenny.

Last week, the State Bar faced another round of outrage after admitting that artificial intelligence was used to develop some multiple-choice questions on its new exam. Jenny reported that neither the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners nor the California Supreme Court was aware that AI had some role in generating the exam questions until after the test was administered.

The State Bar could soon face more scrutiny. Umberg filed legislation that would launch an independent review of the exam by the California State Auditor.

“That bill is slated to be reviewed at a May 6 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, along with Senate Bill 253, the State Bar’s annual license fee authorization bill, which gives lawmakers leverage to push the State Bar to make improvements,” Jenny explained.

You can read more of her reporting here.

Today’s top stories

John Bednarski, assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, walks in a water tunnel near the end point of the larger San Jacinto Tunnel, which carries Colorado River water to the region.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

Take a rare glimpse inside the mountain tunnel that carries water to Southern California.

• “Thousands of feet below the snowy summit of Mt. San Jacinto, a formidable feat of engineering and grit makes life as we know it in Southern California possible,” Times reporter Ian James writes.
• The tunnel, completed in 1939, helps deliver as much as 1 billion gallons of Colorado River water per day.

Fear and anxiety reign as burglary soars in post-fire Altadena

• Residential burglaries are up about 450% in the Altadena area compared with last year as thieves target homes that survived the Eaton fire, according to law enforcement data.
• Burglaries spiked in both the Palisades and Eaton fire evacuation zones in the first few days of the January firestorm. But crime is no longer surging in Pacific Palisades, LAPD figures show.

What else is going on

• Kamala Harris plans a scathing critique of Trump in her first major speech since leaving office.
• California’s primary care shortage persists despite ambitious moves to close gap.
• Mudslide shuts down Pacific Coast Highway section amid weekend rain.
• How serious is L.A. City Hall about layoffs? The messages have been mixed.
• Tesla could benefit most from new rules on reporting of self-driving car crashes.
• Robber who escaped L.A. County reentry facility is captured in Las Vegas.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

• The government’s pronatalism warps family values, argues Times columnist Robin Abcarian.
• Letters to the Editor: What history can teach us about President Trump’s tariffs.
• Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach returns from El Salvador with a sliver of hope for deported gay hairdresser, writes Times columnist Anita Chabria.

This morning’s must reads

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws to the plate during the first inning of Friday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was good in his rookie season with L.A. “Great at times, even,” Times sportswriter Jack Harris noted. Now in Year 2, the Japanese-born star is surpassing expectations, Jack writes, thanks to “a few simple things: more confidence in himself, more comfort in his surroundings and more conviction on the mound.”

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

(Elana Marie / De Los; Photos by Des Willie / Lucasfilm Ltd.)

Staying in

• 📺 In the second season of ‘Andor,’ undocumented agricultural workers are given visibility.
• 🥗 Here’s a recipe for blood orange and olive salad.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... your photo of the day

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times staff photograher Allen J. Schaben: Yolanda Rubio, parent and teachers aid, plays with a child in the Early Head Start program at Pacific Clinics’ Early Head Start Center in Pasadena on April 18.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Matt Hamilton, staff writer, California team

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