The Brief

MOREHEAD, Ky. — The summer after ninth grade, Zoey Griffith found herself in an unfamiliar setting: a dorm on the Morehead State University campus.

There, she'd spend the months before her sophomore year taking classes in core subjects like math and biology, as well as electives like oil painting.

For Griffith, it was an opportunity, but a scary one. "It was a big deal for me to live on campus at the age of 14," she said. Morehead State is about an hour from her hometown of Maysville. "I was nervous, and I remember that I cried the first time that my dad left me on move-in day."

Her mother became a parent as a teenager and urged her daughter to avoid the same experience. Griffith's father works as a mechanic, and he frowns upon the idea of higher education, she said.

And so college back then seemed a distant and unlikely dream.

But Griffith's stepsister had introduced her to a federal program called Upward Bound. It places high school students in college dorms during the summer, where they can take classes and participate in workshops on preparing for the SAT and financial literacy. During the school year, students get tutoring and work on what are called "individual success plans."

It's part of a group of federal programs, known as TRIO, aimed at helping low-income and first-generation students earn a college degree, often becoming the first in their families to do so.

So thanks to that advice from her stepsister, Kirsty Beckett, who's now 27 and pursuing a doctorate in psychology, Griffith signed up and found herself in that summer program at Morehead State. Now, Griffith is enrolled at Maysville Community and Technical College, with plans to become an ultrasound technician.

TRIO, once a group of three programs — giving it a name that stuck — is now the umbrella over eight, some dating back to 1965. Together they serve roughly 870,000 students nationwide a year.

It has worked with millions of students and has bipartisan support in Congress. Now, some in this part of the Appalachian region of Kentucky and across the country worry about students who won't get the same assistance if President Trump ends federal spending on the program.

A White House budget proposal would eliminate spending on TRIO. The document says "access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means," and it puts the onus on colleges to recruit and support students.

Advocates note that the programs, which cost roughly $1.2 billion each year, have a proven track record. Students in Upward Bound, for example, are more than twice as likely to earn a bachelor's degree by age 24 than other students from some of the United States' poorest households, according to the Council for Opportunity in Education. COE is a nonprofit that represents TRIO programs nationwide and advocates for expanded opportunities for first-generation, low-income students.

For the high school class of 2022, 74% of Upward Bound students enrolled immediately in college — compared with only 56% of high school graduates in the bottom income quartile.

Students Zoey Griffith (left) and Aniyah Caldwell say the Upward Bound program has been life-changing for them. Upward Bound is one of eight federal programs under the TRIO umbrella.

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Upward Bound is for high school students. Another TRIO program, Talent Search, helps middle and high school students, without the residential component. One program called Student Support Services (SSS) provides tutoring, advising and other assistance to at-risk college students. Another program prepares students for graduate school and doctoral degrees, and yet another trains TRIO staff.

A 2019 study found that after four years of college, students in SSS were 48% more likely to complete an associate's degree or certificate, or transfer to a four-year institution, than a comparable group of students with similar backgrounds and similar levels of high school achievement who were not in the program.

"TRIO has been around for 60 years," said Kimberly Jones, the president of COE. "We've produced millions of college graduates. We know it works."

Yet Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the White House refer to the programs as a "relic of the past."

Jones countered that census data shows that "students from the poorest families still earn college degrees at rates far below that of students from the highest-income families," demonstrating continued need for TRIO.

McMahon is challenging that and pushing for further study of those TRIO success rates. In 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that even though the Education Department collects data on TRIO participants, the agency "has gaps in its evidence on program effectiveness." The GAO criticized the Education Department for having "outdated" studies on some TRIO programs and no studies at all for others. Since then, the department has expanded its evaluations of TRIO.

During a Senate subcommittee hearing in June, McMahon acknowledged that "there is some effectiveness of the programs, in many circumstances."

Still, she said there is not enough research to justify TRIO's total cost. "That's a real drawback in these programs," McMahon said.

Now, she is asking lawmakers to eliminate TRIO spending after this year and has already canceled some previously approved TRIO grants.

Opening a door into a broader world

"What are we supposed to do, especially here in eastern Kentucky?" asks David Green, a former Upward Bound participant who is now marketing director for a pair of Kentucky hospitals.

East Main Street in Morehead, Ky., just outside Morehead State University's campus.

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Green lives in a region that has some of the nation's highest rates of unemployment, cancer and opioid addiction. "I mean, these people have big hearts — they want to grow," he adds. Cutting these programs amounts to "stifling us even more than we're already stifled."

Green described his experience with TRIO at Morehead State in the mid-1980s as "one of the best things that ever happened to me."

He grew up in a home without running water in Maysville, a city of about 8,000 people. It was on a TRIO trip to Washington, D.C., he recalled, that he stayed in a hotel for the first time. Green remembers bringing two suitcases so he could pack a pillow, sheets and a comforter — unaware the hotel room would have its own.

He met students from other towns and with different backgrounds. Some became lifelong friends. Green learned table manners, the kind of thing often required in business settings. After college, he was so grateful for TRIO that he became one of its tutors, working with the next generation of students.

Uncertain future in Congress

Jones, of the Council for Opportunity in Education, said she is cautiously optimistic that Congress will continue funding TRIO, despite the Trump administration's request. The programs serve students in all 50 states. According to the COE, about 34% are white, 32% are Black, 23% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian and 3% are Native American.

In May, Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, called TRIO "one of the most effective programs in the federal government," which, he said, is supported by "many, many members of Congress."

In June, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, a Republican from West Virginia and a former TRIO employee, spoke about its importance to her state. TRIO helps "a student that really needs the extra push, the camaraderie, the community," she said. "I've gone to their graduations, and been their speaker, and it's really quite delightful to see how far they've come in a short period of time."

TRIO survived, with its funding intact, when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its budget last month. The House is expected to take up its version of the annual appropriations bill for education in early September. Both chambers ultimately have to agree on federal spending, a process that could drag on until December, leaving TRIO's fate in Congress uncertain.

While lawmakers debate its future, the Trump administration could also delay or halt TRIO funding on its own. This year, the administration took the unprecedented step of unilaterally canceling about 20 previously approved new and continuing TRIO grants.

A big impact on young lives

At Morehead State, leaders there say the university and the region it serves need the boost received from TRIO: While roughly 38% of American adults have earned at least a bachelor's degree, in Kentucky that figure is only 16%. And locally, it's 7%, according to Summer Fawn Bryant, the director of TRIO's Talent Search programs at the university.

TRIO works to counter the stigma of attending college that still exists in parts of eastern Kentucky, Bryant said, where a student from a humble background who is considering college might be scolded with the phrase: Don't get above your raisin'.

"A parent may say it," Bryant said. "A teacher may say it."

She added that she's seen time and again how these programs can turn around the lives of young students from poor families.

Students like Beth Cockrell, an Upward Bound alum from Pineville, Ky., who said her mom struggled with parenting. "Upward Bound stepped in as that kind of co-parent and helped me decide what my major was going to be."

Cockrell went on to earn three degrees at Morehead State and has worked as a teacher for the past 19 years. She now works with students at her alma mater and teaches third grade at Conkwright Elementary School, about an hour away.

Long-term benefits 

Sherry Adkins, an eastern Kentucky native who attended TRIO more than 50 years ago and went on to become a registered nurse, said efforts to cut TRIO spending ignore the long-term benefits. "Do you want all of these people that are disadvantaged to continue like that? Where they're taking money from society? Or do you want to help prepare us to become successful people who pay lots of taxes?"

As Washington considers TRIO's future, program directors like Bryant, at Morehead State, press forward. She has saved a text message that a former student sent her two years ago to remind her of what's at stake.

After finishing college, the student was attending a conference on child abuse when a presenter showed a slide that included the quote: "Every child who winds up doing well has had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive adult."

"Forever thankful," the student texted Bryant, "that you were that supportive adult for me."

This story about TRIO was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. 
Copyright 2025 Hechinger Report

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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Bill Bruns

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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.