The Brief

Two years ago, 11-year-old Soma joined a long legacy of Venice Beach surfers.

He’s progressed from riding on his stomach to standing upright and has set his sights on a bigger goal— getting barreled.

“If it comes — a giant wave — I wanna surf not on top, but… in the wave,” Soma said.

On a recent Saturday, Soma, who has autism, was one of 20 kids in the lineup as part of the PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic.

The program is part of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks’ effort to expand opportunities for youths with disabilities.

“We've seen the benefits of kids who've been told, ‘You can't do this,'” said Kelly Caldwell,  principal recreation supervisor for the Play LA program. “Giving them a place to play, it just, it changes their world.”

Soma’s mom Fumi Suzuki signed him up, in part because her husband read that children with autism are at higher risk of drowning than their peers. Suzuki said she’s seen her son become more confident and she’s bonded with the other parents standing on the shore.

“I [feel] really grateful for this community,” Fumi Suzuki said. “It's like a family.”

How adaptive surf came to LA

After Los Angeles agreed nearly a decade ago to host the 2028 Olympics, organizers committed $160 million to local youth sports. LA28 has contributed $60 million to PlayLA since 2018. The International Olympic Committee also chipped in, according to Recreation and Parks.

Los Angeles Recreation and Parks staff use a beach wheelchair to help Penny Pedersen move from the beach to her surfboard.

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Greta Pederson, left, and sister Penny Pedersen, right, catch a wave at Venice Beach.

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The money helps subsidize programs for low-income families, and pays for staffing and equipment for new sports, including table tennis, fencing and archery.

The funding has also helped expand the city’s programs for youths with disabilities. Adaptive youth sports include swimming, volleyball, skateboarding, blind soccer and track and field.

Three years ago, the city partnered with the Challenged Athletes Foundation to host the first surf clinics for youths with disabilities.

“The goal of this program is to make sure that everyone has access,” said Adaptive Sports Facility Director Erika Luna Diaz. “We want to make sure that there [are] no limitations.”

Each participant in the PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic is paired with at least one instructor. The kids rotate in and out of the surf over the four-hour duration of each session.

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Native Hawaiians brought surfing to California in the late 19th century, but the sport has not always been accessible to all.

Segregation limited access to beaches and pools for communities of color. Early surfing competitions marginalized women and territorial locals harassed and intimidated newcomers.

While the sport has become more inclusive, there are still challenges, including polluted beaches and a lack of accessible beach parking.

Bringing stoke and safety to all

The first goal, explained instructor Evan MacCarthy, is that the surfers are safe. Participants learn to never turn their back on the ocean and protect their head in the surf.

“A very close second goal is stoke,” MacCarthy said.

Surf instructor Alexander Lewin lets go of the board as Henry Pedersen catches a wave.

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The city pays for all the required equipment, including surfboards, wetsuits to insulate participants against the cold and brightly colored rashguards that help identify the kids in the water. Families are not required to disclose their child’s disability, but if they choose to do so, it can help the program plan for their individual needs. For example, there’s a wheelchair with puffy inflated tires to move kids with limited mobility from their personal chair to their boards.

While the program is free to families, between staff and equipment, it costs the city about $291 for each child to participate.

The ratio of instructors to students in the city’s surf program for youths without disabilities is 1 to 5, but in the para surf clinic, there’s at least one instructor assigned to every participant. Additional staff, called “water watchers,” help monitor the kids in the surf.

“Everybody has their own specific needs and wants,” said instructor Alexander Lewin. “I think here it's our job to kind of match up that need and want with an instructor who can fulfill that.”

“I love bringing stoke to the place, so that's my job here,” Lewin added.

A day at the beach 

The PlayLA Adaptive Para Surf Clinic sets up at the end of Venice Beach's access mat, a mesh net that provides a firmer surface for wheelchairs and other mobility aids.

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The Rec and Parks crew arrives at 6:30 a.m. to set up tents, breakfast and lay down plastic track to help wheelchair users reach the shore.

The approximately 25 members include surf instructors and a dedicated lifeguard.

Families arrive a couple hours later. After the youths sign in, they wriggle into wetsuits with the help of a staff member.

Alex, 10, doesn’t like the feel of the neoprene against his skin, so instead he wears the rashguard over his swimtrunks.

Alex, like others with autism, can become overwhelmed with certain sensations, sounds and visuals. For example, the whistling and yelling common in other youth sports programs.

“It's like an alarm that goes off in his head and he can't think logically and he's looking at you, but he can't hear and process the instructions,” said his mom, Artemis D. LAist agreed not the publish the family's last name to protect their privacy.

Here she doesn’t have to explain why her son needs an alternative — it’s freely offered.

“That's the kind of thing that I'm so thankful for,” she said.

A PlayLA staff member fits Anna with a wetsuit for the first time.

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Next, the kids pair off with a surf instructor and at least one other person who keeps an eye on the participants in the water.

For first-timers, like 9-year-old Anna, the lessons start on the sand.

Instructor Sophie Holdorff shows her how to lay on the board on her belly, and windmill her arms with cupped hands to paddle through the water.

Surf instructor Sophie Holdorff teaches Anna the basics of riding a surf board. "I do this work to make sure that people know how to be safe and comfortable and confident in the ocean," Holdorff said. "All of that builds stoke and empowerment and courage."

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Her mom, Kristine, saw the clinic posted online several months ago.

“ I couldn't believe my eyes,” Kristine said. “I always thought surfing is for, you know, special people, athletes.”

LAist agreed not to use Kristine and Anna’s last time to protect their privacy. Kristine said her daughter struggles with developmental challenges and post traumatic stress disorder.

“Things like [surfing] are gonna bring her joy,” Kristine said. “Maybe bring her back to normalcy and hopefully help her feel better and catch up with her peers emotionally and physically.”

Anna catches her first wave within half an hour of arriving at the beach.

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Less than 10 minutes later, Anna walks into the water holding Sophie’s hand.

“It's nerve wracking for me, but I'm getting used to it,” Kristine said.

Kristine watched as the instructors encouraged Anna to widen her stance on the board.

“Anna is actually following directions, which is something that she normally has a problem with,” Kristine said. “I see that sometimes she is getting sidetracked, but they bring her back to where she needs to be.”

Anna stands up for the first time. Holdorff, left, later helps her widen her stance and open up her hips to better balance on the board.

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When Anna returns to the shore, her instructor Holdorff shows her how to dig for sandcrabs as the water recedes from the sand.

Anna’s eyes scan the ground for the v-shaped indents in the sand.

“I love them,” Anna gasped as she holds up the squirming, gray crustacean. “Can I take them home?”

Anna’s preoccupation with the surf and the sandcrabs also gave Kristine, and her mother, a rare moment of calm.

“For her to do one thing for such a long period of time without getting distracted and running — it's running away mostly — it's awesome,” Kristine said.

Anna, right, also learns how to find sand crabs (Emerita Analoga) beneath v-shaped marks in the sand. Her first reaction? "So cute."

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Physical and social benefits of ‘surf therapy’

Research shows that youths with disabilities who participate in surf programs can improve their balance, coordination, strength and endurance.

But there are also social benefits, said University of Rhode Island education professor Emily Clapham. She’s studied the outcomes of youths with disabilities who participate in surf programs for the last 16 years.

Surfing as a group creates the camaraderie of team sports without the competition.

“There's no winner, there's no loser,” Clapham said. ”Everybody's participating and trying the best they can. Everybody has a different goal in mind and surfing really enables that to happen.”

Penny, left in the red wetsuit, Greta, and Henry Pedersen, right, catch a wave together. Los Angeles Recreation and Parks hosted eight para surf clinics between June and September 2025.

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For example, at Venice Beach, one child works on overcoming his fear of the water while another gets tips on their stance.

“You really want the child or individual to be able to do as much as they can independently,” Clapham said. “Because that's really where that empowerment comes from.”

Clapham said there’s a child in her program who enjoys sitting on the board backwards to watch the wave break behind him.

“Who are we to say that's not the correct way to surf?” Clapham said. ”It's really a beautiful thing to see all the different variations.”

Clapham has noticed the rhythmic motion of the waves and white noise of the waves soothes children with autism who can get overwhelmed by sensations, sounds and sights.

“It really helps them to calm down and to be able to bring your body down to a relaxed state,” Clapham said. “Now your brain is open, you can learn because you're not in a state of survival mode.”

Though there’s no count of surfing programs for people with disabilities nationwide, Clapham said she’s seen an increase in recent years and there’s now an international organization dedicated to surf therapy research and professional development.

Austen Ramirez demonstrates another way to ride the waves.

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"These kids are, are so much more, their ability is so much more than, than what I think society assumes," said surf instructor Evan MacCarthy, right.

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Meeting kids where they’re at

The vast majority of the participants smile nonstop while in the water, but there are a few meltdowns throughout the morning.

On his first wave, Alex jumps off his surfboard in shallow water and tweaks his knee.

His mom, Artemis D., the clinic staff and a lifeguard don’t see signs of a more serious injury, but Alex refuses to get back in the water.

The instructors tell Alex he can come back when he’s ready.

“They don't stress him out,” Artemis said. “They don't make him feel more overwhelmed than the world already feels.”

Alex, 10, shows off a sand crab he caught while taking a break from surfing.

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Alex flips over several of the sand crabs to check for the masses of orange eggs that some females carry.

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She said in other recreation programs and at school her son’s behavior can be misunderstood as defiance rather than overwhelm.

“He gets in trouble a lot,” Artemis said. “Sometimes he doesn't even know what he's doing wrong. If someone would take the time to explain, maybe he would learn.”

Students with disabilities are often disciplined for defiant, disruptive or disorderly behavior at higher rates than their peers. An analysis from the Hechinger Report found in California the rate of suspensions for these infractions is twice as high for students with disabilities than those without.

“We finally found an activity he could do and not get kicked out of or yelled at, or feel different,” Artemis said of the surfing program.

“We just want these kids to have the absolute best time of their lives today,” said instructor Alexander Lewin. “It ranges different for each kid. Some kids, it's literally just get in the wave and ride it on your stomach and some of these kids, they are fully into popping up and almost going sideways on a wave. It's just all the levels in between.”

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Alex tells his mom he wants to go home, but is distracted when a French bulldog, his favorite for their squishy faces, walks by and lets him scratch his head.

He hunts for sand crabs, rolls around in the sand and talks to his friend Soma, who attended his birthday the week before. They met through the surf clinic. Another friendly French bulldog walks by.

Artemis said she isn’t worried about judgment from the other families.

“The kids don't stop and stare because it's like, ‘OK, well I know what he's feeling because that happens to me sometimes,’” she said.

Less than an hour before the program ends for the day, Alex gets back in the water to test out a tandem surfboard.

“It was good to see him not give up today,” said his instructor, Patrick Caldwell. “I think that it was a moment of growth for him.”

Two of the three hikers found dead last week at Mt. Baldy have been identified.

They are Juan Sarat Lopez, 37, and Bayron Pedro Ramos Garcia, 36, according to authorities on Saturday. Both men are Guatemalan nationals living in Los Angeles.

Investigators believe the two fell from the Devil’s Backbone Trail the same day they were found.

Their bodies were discovered when a search-and-rescue crew was dispatched to search for another missing hiker, who was reported to have fallen 500 feet near Devil’s Backbone Trail.

That person was identified later as Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, 19, of Seal Beach.

Trails still closed

Hiking trails on and around Mount Baldy have been closed by authorities after the deceased hikers were found, until 11:59 p.m. Jan. 7.

“Our primary responsibility is the preservation of life,” Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in a social media message sent on New Year's Eve. “Closing these trails is a necessary step to mitigate ongoing risks. We urge the community to respect these boundaries.”

The following trails will be closed:

• Forest System Trail No. 7W12 - Mount Baldy Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W02 - Mount Baldy Bowl Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W05 - Devil’s Backbone Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W06 - Three T’s Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W07 - Icehouse Canyon Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W07A - Chapman Trail
• Forest System Trail No. 7W08 - Ontario Peak Trail

Hours after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, President Trump made it clear that the U.S. operation is about — at least in part — control of Venezuela's oil.

"We're going to have our very large U.S. oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country," Trump said during a press conference Saturday.

The capture of Maduro and Trump's comments comes at a time when even a country like Venezuela — with one of the biggest oil resources in the world — isn't a sure bet for attracting major oil companies.

Many oil companies have been bruised by their past experiences operating in the country. The global oil market is currently facing an oversupply. Oil prices are below $60 a barrel, and long-term projections for oil demand are unclear as the world shifts to more electric vehicles.

Trump promises to "run the country" and make way for U.S. oil companies in Venezuela. However, there's a long history of U.S. interventions in Latin America and the Middle East not going well, oil experts tell NPR.

Here's what you need to know about Venezuela's oil.

Venezuela has huge oil reserves, but now produces a fraction of what it used to

Venezuela was once one of the biggest global oil producers and was one of the main founders of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a group of some of the world's biggest oil producers, whose decisions help determine global oil prices. Venezuela has the largest proven reserves of oil in the world, according to OPEC.

But while the country was producing more than 3 million barrels a day a few decades ago, today Venezuela produces only about a million barrels a day, or roughly 1% of global oil output. The U.S. produces about 13 million barrels a day.

Much of Venezuela's oil went to refineries in the U.S. Now much of it goes to China.

Not all crude oil is the same — some oil is physically lighter and easier for refineries to process. Venezuela's oil is heavy and dense, and requires special refineries. Burning any type of oil contributes to climate change, but Venezuela's oil is "among the dirtiest oils in the world to produce when it comes to global warming," says Paasha Mahdavi, associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The El Palito refinery rises above Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025.

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Venezuela owes some U.S. oil companies billions

U.S. oil companies like Chevron began drilling in Venezuela about one hundred years ago and played a key role in developing the country's oil sector.

But around 2004 to 2007, then-President Hugo Chávez "basically forcefully renegotiated contracts" with international oil companies, says Francisco Monaldi, director of the Latin America Energy Program at the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University.

ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips left the country in 2007 and then took the Venezuelan government to international arbitration courts. The courts ordered Venezuela to pay ConocoPhillips over $10 billion and ExxonMobil over $1 billion. Venezuela has only paid a fraction of those sums to ExxonMobil and to ConocoPhillips.

Chevron, however, stayed in Venezuela — although " they didn't like it," says Gerald Kepes, president of Competitive Energy Strategies, an energy consultancy in Washington, D.C.

Chevron today produces about a quarter of Venezuela's oil.

In response to the news of Maduro's capture, Chevron spokesperson Bill Turenne said in an email, "Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations."

Trump has said that Venezuela has "stolen" U.S. investment in the country's energy sector.

Will U.S. oil companies return?

Venezuela is what the oil industry calls a "brownfield" — meaning it's well established, and oil companies have a fairly good idea of what they will find when they drill. For companies like ConocoPhillips, returning to Venezuela could be an opportunity to recoup some of the billions owed to them by the government, Monaldi says.

In an email, ConocoPhillips spokesperson Dennis Nuss wrote, "ConocoPhillips is monitoring developments in Venezuela and their potential implications for global energy supply and stability. It would be premature to speculate on any future business activities or investments."

ExxonMobil did not respond to a request for comment.

Still, this isn't the best time to add to the global oil supply, Monaldi says. There's currently a worldwide glut of oil. Also, because Venezuela's oil is particularly bad for the climate, that makes it less attractive for European oil companies with climate goals, Monaldi says.

Aerial view of a ship at the Demerara river in Georgetown, Guyana on August 29, 2025.

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Venezuela's neighbor is a rising oil star

Next door to Venezuela is Guyana — a country that recently discovered over 10 billion barrels of oil and is a key emerging player in the international oil industry.

Guyana's oil is lighter than Venezuela's, less polluting, and has lower taxes than Venezuela, Monaldi says. There's also no national oil company in Guyana, as there is in Venezuela.

"All that makes for Guyana to be one of the most attractive oil places in the world," Monaldi says.

While ExxonMobil is no longer in Venezuela, it is a major player in Guyana.

For years, Venezuela and Guyana have had a territorial dispute that has also been related to oil rights. Last March, Venezuelan vessels entered Guyanese territorial waters approaching offshore oil vessels belonging to ExxonMobil.

"Without a doubt, with a changing regime, Guyana should feel more secure," Monaldi says.

Lack of political stability could be a deal breaker 

Some increase in Venezuela's oil production could happen fairly quickly with more financial support and improved management, according to an analysis by Wood Mackenzie, an energy consultancy.

But Mahdavi says the Trump administration's plans to jumpstart the industry will be difficult. He notes that it took nearly two decades to revitalize Iraq's oil industry after the U.S. invasion, though corruption and mismanagement remain pervasive.

And ultimately, notes Kepes, if it's unclear who is in charge in Venezuela, oil companies will have concerns about the long-term viability of their contracts. "No one's going to start investing on the ground in a place where there's no legal contract and viable permission to operate or if there's concerns about political stability and violence," he says.

Copyright 2026 NPR

The Palisadian-Post, the community paper that’s been covering the Pacific Palisades for nearly 100 years, printed its final issue on Christmas Day.

After January’s fires, subscriptions basically fell to zero, as did advertisers, according to a memo announcing the paper's closure from owner Alan Smolinisky.

But its end brings with it nearly a century of memories.

The Post remembered

The seaside community of Pacific Palisades was founded by members of the Methodist church in 1922. Six years later, the first issue of what would become the Pali-Post was published to document town life.

“ A little 12-point, 12-page tabloid, they called the Palisadian” said Bill Bruns, a former editor of the Palisadian-Post from 1993 to 2013, and member of the Pacific Palisades Historical Society. Before he was editor, Bruns was a loyal reader of the paper.

In 1934, the paper was purchased by Clifford Clearwater, one of the first settlers of the Palisades. Bruns said Clearwater had been an ambulance driver in World War I, and was the Palisades's original postal carrier where he would deliver mail by horseback.

He wasn’t trained as a journalist, but his life experiences gave him the confidence to keep publishing the paper, serving as its photographer and editor until his death in 1956.

“He had a friend who had a little plane and he would take Cliff up and Cliff would shoot these great aerial pictures of the town growing, hanging out of this little plane,” Bruns said.

Over the years, Clearwater took about 3,000 aerial photos of the community as it developed and grew. All of those pictures survived the Palisades Fire and are stored at the Santa Monica Library for the public to see.

In 1950, a rival paper — the Pacific Palisades Post — came on the scene and by the end of the next decade, the two papers would merge to become the Pali-Post that most people think of today.

Bill Bruns (back right) poses for a picture with the rest of the "Palisadian-Post" staff in 2013.

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A 'heyday' for community news

The paper changed hands again in 1981 and a little over a decade later, Bruns began as editor.

With an average of about 30 pages to fill every week, he said what readers appreciated most was the focus on local news. Reporters went in person to cover stories and were often seen at local meetings, sports events and businesses.

“So they knew that they were getting firsthand coverage of what was happening in the town,” Bruns said.

Readers like Sue Kohl who lived in the Palisades for 32 years, respected the breadth of its coverage.

The Post covered school sports her children participated in. She said it featured plenty of advertisements from neighborhood businesses, including her own real estate agency. She especially liked the small town bulletin feel of the paper.

“They talked about local issues. They talked about local residents, whether they were famous or not famous,” Kohl said.

One of her favorite sections to read was the “Two Cents” column, stray thoughts and opinions from Palisadians. She also appreciated the in-depth obituaries.

Bruns said the obit section was always appreciated by the families since the paper didn’t charge for them.

“ Because we didn't charge, people would write nice obituaries because they weren't worried about the cost and they would give us a picture and we ran those,” Bruns said.

The old "Pacific-Palisades Post" newsroom from Bruns' time as editor. After 2013, it was converted into a real estate office by the new owner, which was subsequently lost to the fire.

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The paper was known for its responsiveness to the community. The staff took pitches from readers, Bruns said, and put the spotlight on Palisadians themselves.

There was a “golden couples” column for anybody married for 50 years or more; a “young Palisadians” column for enterprising youngsters and a “people on the move” column for the movers and shakers.

The paper also announced the first birth in the community each year.

“It was kind of a cool thing to be the first baby in the Palisades. They gave them prizes like baby gifts and things. Very local, community driven, small town emphasis,” Kohl said.

More than a paper

That small town emphasis remained a constant. Gabriella Bock was a reporter at the Pali-Post from 2016 to 2018. She said it her first real newsroom experience.

Gabriella Bock's old desk at the Pali-Post office on Alma Real.

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“ We were a small, tight-knit news team of myself, a sports reporter and one other staff reporter,” Bock said. “So I was able to be taken under their wing and learn a lot in a short period of time.”

Gabirella Bock's former media pass from 2017.

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But the paper was more than just a place to work. When Bock got married, her fellow reporters wrote a marriage announcement in the paper. When she was pregnant, they threw her a baby shower.

When she heard about the paper closing its doors, she said it was heartbreaking. To Bock it’s not about being nostalgic or sentimental about a former workplace. She sees the giant hole the disappearance of another local newsroom can leave people with.

“It's how people learn what's happening on their block, in their schools, in their city, and when that disappears, people oftentimes will lose a reason to stay engaged at all,” said Bock.

Gabriella Bock works the line at the Gracias Senor food truck for a Pali-Post story. The food truck often parked outside of the Ralph's grocery store on Alma Real.

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Bruns echoes Bock’s sentiment. He saw the paper as a unifier of the community in his two-decade tenure.

“It just made people feel more like they really liked their town, and the Palisades Post was a crucial element in that whole spirit of community,” Bruns said.

After Bill Bruns (left) retired in 2013 he received a commendation from former LA City Councilman Mike Bonin (right) for his years of service in local journalism.

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Kohl, whose home is more than halfway rebuilt, hopes that the spirit will return one day.

Last time she drove through her old neighborhood of The Alphabet Streets she saw several homes in the process of coming back up.

“I have faith that we will all come back, and I hope that the newspaper finds that as well,” said Kohl.

Sue Kohl and her dog Maisie stand in the construction site of her home being rebuilt in the Pacific Palisades.

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President Donald Trump launched a military strike against Venezuela overnight, resulting in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

In a news conference this morning, Trump said the U.S. is going to "run" that country, until a proper transition is in place.

California lawmakers are reacting to the attacks.

"Nicolás Maduro was a thug and an illegitimate leader of Venezuela, terrorizing and oppressing its people for far too long and forcing many to leave the country. But starting a war to remove Maduro doesn’t just continue Donald Trump’s trampling of the Constitution, it further erodes America’s standing on the world stage and risks our adversaries mirroring this brazen illegal escalation," says Sen. Adam Schiff, a democrat.

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa, who represents areas including Murrieta and the Temecula Valley, says President Trump, "has taken strong action to protect America’s homeland from neighboring threats of narcoterrorism and the scourge of deadly narcotics. The Trump administration has my full support."

Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla says, "Let’s be absolutely clear: Trump’s military action in Venezuela is unlawful without approval from Congress."

California Governor Gavin Newsom did not directly response to the attacks. He zeroed in on a comment Trump made about the L.A. fires during the news conference.

"Unless Trump is finally delivering the federal aid survivors need to rebuild after the horrific fires — nearly a year after California first requested it — he should keep Los Angeles out of his mouth," Newsom's office says on social.