The Brief

Many Pacific Palisades locals, current and former, have been following the Facebook feed of 56-year-old Kent Steffes. He lives in nearby Brentwood now and hasn’t lost his home, but perhaps that’s given him the emotional bandwidth to share more effectively with others what’s happened to their old neighborhood.

Overlooking the Pacific Ocean like its neighbors Malibu and Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades is an affluent neighborhood by any measure. It’s home to celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hanks. Median home values often exceed $3 million. Luxury homes sell for tens of millions. But many of the families who’ve lost their homes are not fabulously wealthy.

“What most people don’t know is that a lot of the homes are owned by people who can’t afford to live here anymore. They won’t be able to rebuild,” Steffes said. That’s because many family members can’t afford to buy the homes they own at the current market rate. “They couldn’t afford to get a mortgage on it.”

Along with his 20-year-old daughter, Katharine Steffes, who also attended Palisades High (partially burned), we toured the neighborhood as it lay smoking. “All my friends live here,” the sophomore at the University of Notre Dame said. “I don’t know if this place will ever be the same.”

Kent Steffes’ family moved to the Pacific Palisades highlands in 1973 when he was 5. His dad, an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Co., bought a home for $75,000, which would be around $533,000 in today’s dollars. The house had five bedrooms, although many homes built in “Pali” in the 1960s and ’70s featured two or three bedrooms.

“What most people don’t know is that a lot of the homes are owned by people who can’t afford to live here anymore. They won’t be able to rebuild,” said Kent Steffes, 56, who grew up in Pacific Palisades.

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Rachael Myrow

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“You were always outside biking or riding skateboards around town,” said Steffes, who grew up to win the inaugural beach volleyball gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. He works in finance now. “There was always someplace to explore and have fun and plenty of friends to do it with. We ran out of the house in the morning and didn’t come home until the street lights came on.”

But as the decades passed, the neighborhood grew wealthier. By the time Steffes was in his 30s, many modest three- to four-bedroom homes were giving way to “McMansions,” double the size, on the same small lots. Big or small, the original owners aged and died and passed on their homes to their children, as Kent Steffes’ parents did. “We just sold that home last year for $2.5 million.”

Because of Proposition 13, passed in 1978, family members who inherited properties were essentially given the original property tax rate. Steffes’ parents paid about $4,000 in property taxes. Steffes said the people who bought the house last year pay about $37,500.

In addition to the much higher tax rate, a lot of insurance plans cover only the value of the house as it is, not the cost to rebuild according to modern building codes.

“So they’ll say, ‘Hey, your house is worth $300,000,’” Steffes said hypothetically. “But it’ll cost you $1 million to rebuild that same thing.”

Nancy Wallace, a real estate professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, lost her own home to the Oakland Hills fire of 1991. She’s now considered an expert in price modeling and wildfire “mispricing,” as she puts it, in the insurance market.

Marquez Charter Elementary School was destroyed in the Palisades fire, erasing cherished childhood memories for countless individuals.

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“Insurance adjusters are not your friends,” she said. “They’re not there to sympathize. They’re there to minimize the payout of their company. It might be dressed up with nice words, but that is the challenge that you’re facing.”

Due in large part to climate-change-driven wildfires, hundreds of thousands of Californians have lost their insurance policies altogether in 2024. This has forced many homeowners to turn to the California FAIR Plan, a state-mandated insurance market of last resort, which often provides more expensive and limited coverage.

State Farm, the largest insurer group in California, announced a halt to new homeowner insurance policies in the state in 2023 and began canceling or non-renewing policies for tens of thousands of properties in 2024.

However, a spokesman told KQED State Farm still insures 250,000 homes and “as of Tuesday, Jan. 14, we’ve begun to process over 6,700 home and auto claims, already putting tens of millions of dollars back into customers’ hands. We are prepared to address the growing number of claims expected as residents return and assess damage.”

Allstate paused the sale of homeowners insurance policies for new customers in 2022. “We continue to offer coverage to most existing homeowners insurance customers,” an Allstate spokesperson wrote KQED.

Based on Wallace’s analysis, about 1 million California homes are in high- or very high-risk areas, with 2 million to 4.5 million more in vulnerable wildland-urban interface zones. The time it takes to rebuild a home after a wildfire varies significantly depending on the severity of the damage, availability of contractors, and compliance with updated building codes, but Wallace estimates it could take up to four years to rebuild a home destroyed by a wildfire.

“Four years is a lifetime for many people,” she said but noted the incentives in the current system are to rebuild, and for those with the money to rebuild, build back bigger and more expensively. That’s if they have insurance policies that will meet the demand now.

Given how expensive the Palisades Fire is expected to be, Wallace warned the California insurance market could fail because many insurance policies are too generous given the actual risks, and the state insurance commissioner’s office has only recently begun to allow the industry to adjust for the changing reality.

All these factors exacerbate the trend toward gentrification in Pacific Palisades and neighborhoods like it, meaning home ownership in those places is becoming infeasible for any but the most wealthy Californians.

Ultimately, Wallace said, many homeowners in Pacific Palisades will choose to do what she did after the Oakland Hills fire took her home: move out of the neighborhood.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta defended his settlement of an antitrust challenge to Paramount's $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, denying that pressure to keep the company in Hollywood drove the timing of the agreement.

Paramount had reportedly considered moving operations out of California as the legal battle continued. Asked on Morning Edition how much that possibility factored into the timing, Bonta said, "Not at all. We focused on our antitrust concerns in this case."

Bonta had sounded more ambivalent a day earlier, stressing that the settlement was "not a vote of support for this merger" even as he called it the "best course of action." On Tuesday, he was less equivocal: "We were making demands, and we were requiring that there be certain conditions and commitments," he said.

The settlement, which still needs a judge's approval, would resolve a lawsuit filed by 12 states to block the merger, a major legal obstacle to the deal. It also creates an editorial board intended to protect the independence of CNN and CBS News. It's one of the more closely watched provisions in the agreement.

"The state of California will have no input in it. No government entity will have any input into it," Bonta said. "It will consist of seasoned, experienced, hopefully trusted journalists who know the craft and know the need for independence and objectivity and fairness."

Bonta said the standards that would determine whether the people selected to the board meet the settlement requirements were negotiated as part of the settlement and were designed to keep the board independent. He also said an auditor would monitor compliance and that the states could return to court if Paramount failed to follow the consent decree.

The agreement has not quieted its critics. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said his state had pushed for the full divestiture of CNN and CBS News and was "deeply disappointed" the settlement did not go further. Others say it does too little to address media consolidation, potential job losses and whether the new editorial safeguards will hold.

Listen to the full interview by clicking the blue button above.

The digital story was edited by Suzanne Nuyen, with contributions from David Folkenflik.
Copyright 2026 NPR

As a potentially historic El Niño continues to build, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency on Monday ahead of winter storms and high tides that could wreak havoc on the state.

Forecasters predict that much of California could have above-average precipitation and temperatures this winter. The potential storms could pile on top of El Niño-induced higher sea levels and record-high king tides.

As a result, Newsom is directing state agencies to begin preparing vulnerable communities and roads, stage emergency supplies and work in at-risk areas to reduce flooding potential. He has also directed state agencies to fast-track permitting and cut red tape to ready the state for El Niño effects.

Cars drive on Highway 101 flooded by the “King Tides” on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, near Corte Madera in Marin County, California.

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Ethan Swope

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“We are preparing for this El Niño early because every Californian deserves to be safe in their home, connected to their community, and protected when severe weather comes,” Newsom said in a statement.

El Niño forms when tropical trade winds weaken or reverse, allowing warm ocean water near Asia to slosh toward the Pacific Coast. That warming can reshape the jet stream and bring stormier weather across California while disrupting the ocean’s nutrient-rich upwelling, heating coastal waters, raising sea levels and stressing marine life.

National forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that the natural climate phenomenon is strengthening, with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event and a 75% chance of a historic event this fall and winter.

Exactly what the weather will look like this fall and winter is — quite literally — still up in the air. But similar events in past El Niño years have brought torrential downpours, coastal flooding, mudslides, power outages and giant waves.

“Climate-driven El Niño conditions could mean months of dangerous weather, heavy rain, strong winds, deep mountain snow, flooding, and Californians should understand this clearly,” said Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the California Office of Emergency Services. “Storms are among the deadliest disasters we face here in California, and one of the greatest dangers is still people underestimating the power of water.”

To prepare for what might happen, the emergency proclamation mobilizes resources in support of the state’s flood-risk-reduction efforts. The California Department of Water Resources has staged 4.4 million sandbags, 400,000 tons of rock, 68 stockpile locations, eight warehouses and 211 flood material containers across the state. State leaders have not yet put a price tag on the flood work.

Laura Hollender, deputy director of the Department of Water Resources, stressed that Bay Area counties, like Marin, that deal with flooding issues should alert the public as soon as possible about the risk because “even without storms” coastal areas may see flooding this winter.

“I think early messaging and early preparation for those communities is going to be really important this year,” Hollender said.

Caltrans will also place traffic-control, road-closure and snow-removal equipment along the highways most at risk. The California National Guard will also be ready for things like flood response and search-and-rescue operations.

Plastic sheeting and sandbags are placed outside a home along Golden Hind Passage, as residents prepare for potential king tide flooding, in Corte Madera, on June 15, 2026.

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State agencies are also preparing for the adverse effects of too much precipitation, flooding, landslides and debris flows by fast-tracking permitting and identifying other ways to cut red tape.

“The emergency order is very clear that we are to exercise whatever emergency authorities we have and our entities within our agencies have to enable this work to happen quickly and efficiently to be in place for when this fall weather could come this winter,” said Wade Crowfoot, California Secretary of Natural Resources.

Newsom’s order also directs the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to expand multilingual messaging about preparedness, power outages, extreme weather, evacuation and alerts.

State leaders are also prepared to ask the federal government for assistance if needed.

“We remain hopeful that they will be responsive when we do have the need, if we were to get an incident that rose to the level of needing a federal declaration,” Thomas Jacobs said.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

When a school suddenly loses its name, what should the new one represent? At the Long Beach campus formerly known as César Chávez Elementary, students and parents had a clear-eyed answer: It should represent them.

Long Beach Unified is kicking off an official renaming process for the school, and at Thursday’s back-to-school night families came ready with their suggestions.

Sea Lion Elementary (a nod to the school’s mascot) and Long Beach Elementary have proven popular choices among students, according to one Chávez teacher. 

Many suggestions from parents converged around themes of unity, community and place. Dimarrie Price, who has three daughters at Chávez, suggested “Third Street Elementary” while Elicia Duran, whose daughter is in second grade, suggested “Golden Elementary,” each inspired by the streets bordering the school. 

Other parents said they hoped a new name could emphasize inclusion and togetherness. Johanna O. suggested Our School, and S. Kennedy — who asked not to have their full names printed — proposed The Family School. “It’s important to unify people by utilizing words that connect people,” Kennedy said.  

Long Beach Unified removed the school’s original name after revelations surfaced in March that Chávez had sexually abused girls and women. Since then, the school community has been using makeshift monikers and DIY-ing their school spirit wear to avoid invoking the labor activist.

“We just say ‘school,’” said Chávez parent Natalia Bermudez, an approach other parents said they’ve adopted in the vacuum of a new name. At back-to-school night, Laura Martinez sported a T-shirt adorned with patches that obscured Chávez’s name. New apparel featuring Sea Lion Scholars was also available.

A 2019 event celebrated Cesar Chavez Day at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

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Calls for LBUSD to adopt a new name have mounted as other schools, parks and monuments named for the political activist have had their names taken down. In the last six months, the district has removed murals depicting Chávez, unveiled new art and removed signs with the school’s name, priming the campus and community for a new identity. 

In the meantime, parents have been talking to their kids about the upcoming change, attempting to tailor the message to young children. 

Martinez’s daughter, a current Chávez student, heard about her school in the news, prompting Martinez to explain the situation. “There’s people in this world that do good things that are for good causes, but do bad things to people,” she said she told her daughter. “Just because they’ve done something right doesn’t make them a good person inside.”

Some Chávez parents explained that once more information had surfaced, they could no longer honor Chávez as they had previously — and that they had a responsibility to course correct. “We find out things and we do our best to correct what we can control,” Elicia Duran said she told her second grader. 

Now, the school community is being invited into the district’s process, and on Thursday, students and parents began submitting their suggestions

Though the district nomination form says that proposed names may fall into one of three categories — place, idea or person — one parent shied away from selecting a person’s name in case negative information comes to light in the future, she said. 

She said she wished the renaming process had occurred over the summer. Now, she said she hopes the process is completed by the end of the school year so that her fifth-grade daughter’s promotion certificate will say “anything but Chávez.” 

Proposed school names will be accepted through Friday, Sept. 25, and students, families, staff and members of the school community can submit names through an online Google form, at a community meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23, or in the Chávez front office, according to a letter from the school’s principal, Brenda Ocampo, to the Chávez community. 

After that, the submissions will be reviewed and narrowed by an advisory committee, including parent representatives and Lucy Salazar, the director of engagement for LBUSD. On November 4, “a recommended school name will be brought forward for consideration by the LBUSD Board of Education,” according to another letter from Ocampo. 

“It’s been healing for us,” Ocampo said of the renaming process.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

From the outside, the Gothic architecture of Masjid At-Thohir does not immediately announce itself as a neighborhood mosque.

The white facade, arched windows and steep roofline are now home to an Islamic community of Indonesians in Pico Union. 

For years, Indonesian Muslims in Southern California gathered at the Indonesian Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard for prayer. The congregation transformed a diplomatic space into a temporary spiritual refuge. The arrangement worked, but there was always a longing for home. 

“The idea is you want to have a space where you belong, be someone who is regular, and have a safe space. Those are things where you can grow as an individual,” said Honest Qashidi, 33, who serves as the resident Imam at Masjid At-Thohir. 

Women pray inside the mosque.

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For Indonesian Muslims living across Los Angeles, it has become a kind of third space somewhere between the private world of home and the demands of work and public life. 

That distinction matters in Los Angeles, where the Indonesian community is substantial but geographically dispersed. Unlike communities with a concentrated ethnic neighborhood, Indonesian Angelenos do not have a single “Indonesia Town” around which daily life revolves, Qashidi said. The mosque on Kenmore Avenue is that constant for the community.

“For the elders, it’s where they find their nostalgia. It’s a home away from home. But folks that grew up here, and trying to make sense of what it means to belong in a place; that is the aim of what I am trying to do in this space,” Qashidi said. 

A gift to a father and community

Built in 1920, the building once served as the place of worship for the Los Angeles Samoan Community Christian church.

When that congregation left the neighborhood, the church’s pastor negotiated a deal in 2017 to sell the building to the Indonesia Muslim Foundation, the nonprofit group that coordinates activities in Los Angeles for the Indonesian Muslim community.

The nonprofit purchased the building for approximately $1.8 million, according to Qashidi.

Today, the historic structure is home to what many Indonesian Muslims in Los Angeles had long been missing: a mosque of their own.

A devotee praying from the Quran in the almost empty hall after the main prayer is over.

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Qashidi said, “The pastor wanted this space, if it were to be passed down, it would still stay a space of worship.”

The sale and conversion of the building was made possible by Indonesian billionaire Garibaldi Thohir, former CEO of Alamtri Resources Indonesia, one of the world’s top coal exporters. Garibaldi studied at USC and his brother, Erick Thohir, was also educated in Southern California.

The doors at the mosque officially opened in March 2022 after several delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The mosque was named “At-Thohir” to honor their late father, Mochamad Thohir.

 “When we were studying in Los Angeles around 2015–2016, my father often visited,” Garibaldi said at the mosque’s opening, according to reporting from Indonesian media. “When he was going to Friday prayers, he often complained about the lack of a mosque nearby owned by the Indonesian community. That’s why we promised to make it happen.” 

‘I will make food every single Friday’

Calling At-Thohir simply a mosque misses the spectrum of events inside. Located not too far from Pico Boulevard, the mosque shares the neighborhood with other religious institutions like the Sae Han Korean Church and the Pico Union Shalom Ministries. 

Food is a big part of the social life, turning prayer gatherings into opportunities to linger over familiar flavors. Every Friday, after the prayer, lunch is served in the backyard. Home-cooked Indonesian food items like bakwan, satay, soto ayam, perkedel, tahu kuning, telur balado and tempeh. 

Lola Kamelia, left, Resy Ismail, Raninta Nailah and Lily Yulani serve lunch on a Friday after prayer.

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Lily Yulani, 53, one of the women who helps with food every week, joked about her teenage son’s pronunciation of perkedel, a simple mashed potato patty dish. 

“My son cannot pronounce P-E-R-K-E-D-E-L yet, so he calls it C-R-O-C-O-D-I-L-E,” Yulani giggled. 

Resy Ismail, 65, the woman in charge of serving and preparing food on Fridays, said that much of the food is donated, but she will not let that stop her from giving back to the community. 

“Whether there is a donation or not, I will make food every single Friday,” Ismail said. 

Ismail is a rantang chef and brings the food from her home in stacked, metal containers. She is proud to serve the community and initiated the meal system in the mosque and continues to coordinate with whoever wants to contribute to the weekly food distribution. Together, they bring different home-cooked items to put together a meal for the visitors at the mosque. 

Imam Qashidi said that in a multicultural setting food becomes a gateway to culture. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he attended high school in Jakarta, Indonesia, completed his undergraduate degree in Egypt and is currently pursuing a degree in Islamic Studies from Bayan Islamic Graduate School.

“When you are in America, and you grew up with whatever background you have, the starting point is just food,” Qashidi said. 

The lunch is served to the guests at the mosque.

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Avidha Raha

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Third space

Apart from food being the most visible marker of community within the diaspora, there are regular Islamic studies classes on weekends taught by Qashidi. There are also workshops on calligraphy, immigration rights, digital literacy and Canva. 

Additionally, there are also dance and music classes that do not happen inside the mosque, but in the adjoining auditorium.

People can enroll in a traditional plate dance, or musical performances like Angklung and the Bedug, a large drum traditionally associated with communities in Indonesia.

Raninta Nailah, 13, a Pico Union resident and food distribution volunteer, tries to come to the mosque whenever she’s not in school. 

“It’s very close to my community and I feel safe,” Nailah said. “I come to Saturday school here for social studies and I feel good because I have been learning new stuff.”