The Brief

California beaches have been the site of some ghastly scenes this year. Dying sea lions, dolphins, seagulls, pelicans and even a minke whale have washed up on the sands from San Diego to Santa Barbara.

But lately, beachgoers have been treated to a beautiful marine life wonder: Hundreds of thousands of glittering Velella velella, also known as by-the-wind sailors, sea rafts, purple sails and little sails, have washed ashore up and down the California coast.

The small creatures look like oval mini-sailboats that can grow up to 4 inches long. Their gelatinous bases can range in color from vibrant blue to deep purple, and they have transparent triangular "sail" on top. It's what allows them to be blown across the surface of the open sea where they typically live — and with strong enough winds, onto coastal sands.

"They looked like blue diamonds strewn across the beach. It was like these gems, and they're so brilliant blue," Emily Scher gushed over a phone interview with NPR.

Scher, a professional photographer, lives in Malibu and recently came upon tens of thousands of velella while on a sunset bike ride from Zuma to Broad beaches — a stretch of more than a dozen miles. She captured the little beauties with her camera.

"It was like a carpet. I've never seen so many. And so I thought, wouldn't it be cool to get a shot with Point Doom in the distance? So I took one of those," she said.

Indeed, the photo, a close-up of a single velella gently cupped in Scher's hand, is cool.

"It almost looks like a fingerprint when you look at it up close," Scher said of the Velella's, plastic-like sail.

Emily Scher told NPR she was delighted to see the return of velellas in Malibu.

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Though they may be new to some, it's expected for rafts of the floating creatures to show up on the shore at this time of year.

It's part of the spring transition, Matthew Bracken, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, told NPR.

In the winter months, the wind along the U.S. west coast typically blows from the south, but in April, the prevailing wind direction shifts from northward to southward, and that shift leaves huge numbers of Velella beached along the shoreline, Bracken explained.

"It's almost like a wave that starts in the north and moves toward the south as the system transitions to predominantly onshore-type winds. And when that happens they get blown and then they get stranded," Bracken said.

Velellas are related to sea anemones, corals, hydroids and jellyfish. But unlike the latter, they can't swim and don't have enough propulsive ability to control their direction, Bracken said.

They are also closely related to, and often mistaken for, Portuguese man o' war because of their bright blue color. But velellas are nowhere near as dangerous to humans as their larger cousins. While both use dangling tentacles to feast on their prey, the velella's stinging cells (called nematocysts) are harmless to humans, though they can be irritating.

Bracken suggests avoiding touching your face or eyes after handling them because the stinging cells can transfer to your hands. "And if you were to rub one in a really sensitive area, that could potentially cause itching or burning," he cautioned.

(When asked about her own reaction to holding velellas, Scher said she didn't experience any discomfort.

"It just feels like you're just picking up something a little bit gooey," she said.)

Bracken noted that the "wild thing" about velella is that what is perceived as a single animal is actually a "large colony [of hydrozoa] with a whole bunch of individuals, each specialized to a different purpose."

"Some of them are feeding individuals, some of them form the sail" others are in charge of reproduction, Bracken said.

Once they wash up, beachcombers only have a few hours to enjoy their colorful display. They begin to dry out and decompose as soon as they're out of the water. Their vivid hues disappear, leaving behind piles of plastic-like, crunchy remnants.<br>

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Once they wash up, beachcombers only have a few hours to enjoy their colorful display. They begin to dry out and decompose as soon as they're out of the water. Their vivid hues disappear, leaving behind piles of plastic-like, crunchy remnants.

Bracken is intrigued by recent research suggesting that there could be a connection between the mass strandings of velella and the ocean's rising temperatures.

"There are records of these strandings stretching back as long as people have been walking and poking along the shoreline," he said. "Some years are big years. Some years we don't see as many of them. But when we take a step back and look at the long-term pattern, there seems to be a relationship between stranding events and sea-surface temperatures during the previous winter."

Emily Scher said that after posting her photos to her Facebook page, several people remarked that the velella's appearance was a harbinger of global warming. But after living in Malibu for more than 20 years, she views this year's arrival of the iridescent creatures as a good thing.

"People were saying this means that they're dying because of the [algae] toxins," that have been killing marine mammals and birds, Scher said. "But I think it just means there's a giant crop of them that were thriving and doing great."
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LEILA FADEL, HOST:

President Trump has repeatedly said that in enforcing immigration policy, he would deport criminals, rapists and the worst of the worst. But new data reveals that in the first nine months of the president's second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 74,000 people with no criminal record. That's more than a third of the total ICE arrests in that period. Those numbers were provided by ICE to the Deportation Data Project, a joint initiative of UCLA and UC Berkeley Law and analyzed by NPR. For more, I spoke to Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. And I started by asking him what this says about the Trump administration's approach to immigration enforcement.

ARIEL RUIZ SOTO: Well, at first, it contradicts the earlier messaging from the Trump administration that it's focused on the worst to the worst and targeting criminal convictions. However, recently, the administration has also said that anybody here in the United States without legal status will be subject to deportation in the future.

FADEL: Well, let's get to what is a crime and what's not. We hear from the administration not just the claims that they're arresting rapists and gang members, but also, they say that anyone in the country without proper paperwork is a criminal. Is that true that being undocumented means you've committed a crime?

RUIZ SOTO: Under immigration law, entering the country without proper authorization is a lower offense compared to those that we colloquially think are criminal convictions in a more criminal system, meaning, for example, murder, rape, drug abuse or something else like that that could get it to be higher.

FADEL: What do we know about the other two-thirds of these arrests? Do they all have criminal histories?

RUIZ SOTO: No. Among the other two-thirds, about half of those are actually people with a criminal pending charge but not yet proven guilty. Of those that do have a criminal conviction, we know from previous reports from ICE and experience that we've done research on that the majority of those criminal convictions tend to be traffic violations or lower-level offenses.

FADEL: Was that surprising to you?

RUIZ SOTO: I didn't think it was surprising because it's been happening over months. I think the visibility has been surprising. And perhaps the other aspect of this that has been also not transparent is this is just for ICE arrests. We don't know yet how many arrests are being made by Border Patrol across the different cities they're now targeting to consider the full impact of this new enforcement.

FADEL: What has this meant for immigrant communities, mixed-status communities and families when it comes to their presence in the United States and their relationship with law enforcement and the government?

RUIZ SOTO: Well, the direct impact is on those people that are here without status. Many of them are not going outside their homes. But I think the bigger impact here is that mixed-status families are also affected. The fact, for example, that families may forgo seeking benefits that are eligible for their U.S. citizen children because they're afraid of potentially being detained or arrested, that actually has implications for U.S. citizens and many of these citizens. In fact, 5.3 million U.S. citizen children have one parent who is undocumented in the United States, and that could actually make a significant difference in their separation.

FADEL: What would you say to people listening who say, well, I mean, people should not have entered without status, and this is the consequence?

RUIZ SOTO: Well, it's clear that migrants who are here without status are subject to deportation and arrest, but people have access to due process. They need to have an opportunity to present their claims to why they should stay in the United States. And if in the end of that litigation, it is determined that the person has to leave the United States, and that should be the case.

FADEL: Ariel Ruiz Soto is a senior policy analyst with the Migration Policy Institute. Thank you so much for your time.

RUIZ SOTO: Thank you.

FADEL: We reached out to ICE for comment and have not heard back. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

On Monday, Los Angeles travels back in time. Well, sort of.

The Varnish, the famed speakeasy hidden behind a secret door at the back of Cole’s French Dip, will be reconstituted for one night only as part of a special pop-up at Firstborn in Chinatown.

(Meanwhile, Cole's itself will be open through the holiday season, with its last night of regular service planned for Dec. 31.)

The iconic bar, which shuttered in 2024 after a 15-year run, holds a special place in the hearts of many Angelenos, who believe it's where L.A.’s modern cocktail revival truly began. The event reunites three bartenders who all came up through The Varnish’s famously exacting school of cocktail-making. Kenzo Han (recently named Esquire’s Bartender of the Year) cut his teeth there before moving into roles that established him as one of L.A.’s most respected classic-cocktail technicians. Wolf Alexander and Miles Caballes emerged from the same pipeline.

One night only

Kenzo Han, bar director at Firstborn and former Varnish bartender, is hosting two fellow Varnish alumni for the Monday pop-up.

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Ron De Angelis

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Han is now Firstborn’s bar director, where he leads a tight, classics-leaning bar program. The restaurant sits inside Mandarin Plaza, where chef Anthony Wang turns out playful comfort dishes with Chinese and American influences. It’s a lively, unfussy neighborhood hangout just off Broadway, surrounded by neon, noodle shops and family-style restaurants.

The Varnish connection

All three bartenders trace their lineage back to Sasha Petraske, who, in 2009, co-founded The Varnish with Eric Alperin and Cedd Moses, the owner of Cole’s French Dip.

Petraske traded '90s flash for pre-Prohibition craft: fresh citrus over sour mix, precise technique over bottle tricks, elevating cocktails from party fuel to art form.

Miles Caballes brings his Varnish training back to the bar for one night.

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Wolf Alexander, another Varnish alum, demonstrates the precise technique that defined the speakeasy's approach.

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The Varnish became the city’s clearest expression of Petraske’s cocktail philosophy, where his playbook of precision, restraint and quiet hospitality took root on the West Coast. (Petraske passed in 2015.)

Han, Alexander and Caballes all trained in that environment, absorbing the Petraske rules of clean builds, tight technique and no-nonsense cocktails.

What to expect

For one night only, from 6-10 p.m., the trio will channel that tradition through a Varnish-style menu: curated classics only, no custom builds, with all cocktails priced at $20. Two featured drinks nod directly to the bar's lineage. The Spring Blossom — created at The Varnish — combines mezcal, French aperitifs, including Suze and Lillet Blanc, mole bitters and a grapefruit twist. Death & Taxes features scotch, gin, sweet vermouth, Benedictine (a herbal liqueur), Angostura and orange bitters, finished with a lemon twist.

On the food side, chef Anthony Wang is reviving his cult-favorite Blood Orange Chicken Sando ($20), served with radicchio, alongside a limited run of his Shanghainese-style McRib ($24) — a playful, sweet-and-sour riff built around tender ribs and “all the stuff” that made the original such a guilty pleasure.

The blood orange chicken sandwich at Firstborn from chef Anthony Wang.

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Expect a casual, walk-in-only atmosphere where guests can grab a seat at the bar and let the cocktail nostalgia wash over them.

Whether you were a Varnish regular or only heard the stories, this pop-up is a rare chance to see that style alive again — familiar faces, bespoke cocktails and the kind of muscle-memory bartending that defined an era of L.A. drinking culture. For newer drinkers, it’s a glimpse of the cocktail philosophy that shaped the city as we know it.

It’ll likely get busy early, and the food specials may run out fast — but that’s part of the charm. The Varnish’s legacy has always been about small rooms, sharp precision and moments you catch only if you’re paying attention.

In the city of Los Angeles, neighbors or homeowner groups who choose to fight approvals of new housing are required to pay a fee when filing an appeal.

Right now, that fee is $178 — about 1% of the amount the city says it costs to process the appeal. But that fee soon will go up.

On Wednesday, the L.A. City Council voted to increase the fee to $229 but rejected a proposal by the city administrative officer that would have raised the cost for appellants to more than $22,800, or 100% of the cost.

Some advocates for making housing easier to build argued the city should have adopted the higher fee.

“Appeals of approved projects create delays that make it harder to build housing and disincentivize future housing from being proposed,” said Jacob Pierce, a policy associate with the group Abundant Housing L.A.

At a time when L.A.’s budget is strained, Pierce said, if someone thinks a project was wrongly approved, “They should put their money where their mouth is and pay the full fee."

The City Council unanimously approved another new fee structure put forward by the city’s Planning Department.

While fees will remain relatively low for housing project opponents, developers will have to pay $22,453 to appeal projects that previously had been denied.

A November report from the city administrative officer said setting fees higher to recover the full cost of processing would have aligned with the city’s financial policies. Generally, fees are set higher when applicants are asking for a service that benefits them alone.

“When a service or activity benefits the public at large, there is generally little to no recommended fee amount,” the report said.

Pierce said he hoped a City Council committee would reconsider the higher fee proposal next year. With the city falling far short of its goal to create nearly a half-million new homes by 2029, he said the city needs to discourage obstruction of new housing.

“Slowing down the construction of housing is expensive for all of us,” Pierce said.

Los Angeles could become the first city in the U.S. to ban ink cartridges that can be used only once.

The L.A. City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to approve the creation of an ordinance that prohibits their sale. The move comes after more than a year of debate over the terms.

Why the potential ban

This builds upon the city’s effort to reach zero waste, including phasing out single-use plastics. You’re likely familiar with some of those efforts — such as only getting plastic foodware by request and banning single-use carryout bags at stores. Multiple plastic bans have been suggested, like for single-use vapes and bag clips, but now it’s ink’s turn.

The cartridges are tough to dispose of because of the plastic, metal and chemicals inside, according to the city. They’re also classified as regulated waste in the state because they can leach toxic substances into the environment, such as volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.

That poses a problem. L.A.’s curbside recycling program can’t recycle the cartridges, and while its hazardous waste program can take them, a significant portion end up in landfills.

Major printer manufacturers and some ink retailers have take-back programs for used cartridges so they can get refilled. However, L.A. Sanitation says there are certain single-use cartridges that don’t have recovery programs. These are usually cartridges that work with a printer but aren’t name brand.

How outlawing them could work

LASAN has spent months figuring out what a ban would cover — and it hasn’t been without pushback. The city’s energy and environment committee pressed the department back in September on how effective a ban would be.

Ultimately, the committee moved it forward with a promise that LASAN would come back with more details, including environmental groups’ stance, concrete data to back up the need and a public education plan.

The department’s current recommendation is that the ordinance should prohibit retail and online establishments from selling any single-use ink cartridge, whether sold separately or with a printer, to people in the city. Retailers that don’t follow the rules would get fined.

So what does single-use mean here? The ban would affect a printer cartridge that:

• is not collected or recovered through a take-back program
• cannot be remanufactured, refilled or reused
• infringes upon intellectual property rights or violates any applicable local, state or federal law

Any cartridges that meet one of these points would fall under the ban, though you still could get them outside L.A.

The proposed ordinance will go to the committee first while LASAN works on a public education plan.

If it ends up getting approved by the full council, the ban likely would go into full effect 12 months later.