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  • U.S. seeks to assert its control over Venezuelan oil with tanker seizures and sales worldwide

    U.S. seeks to assert its control over Venezuelan oil with tanker seizures and sales worldwide

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday sought to assert its control over Venezuelan oil, seizing a pair of sanctioned tankers transporting petroleum and announcing plans to relax some sanctions so the U.S. can oversee the sale of Venezuela’s petroleum worldwide.

    Trump’s administration intends to control the distribution of Venezuela’s oil products globally following its ouster of President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid. Besides the United States enforcing an existing oil embargo, the Energy Department says the “only oil transported in and out of Venezuela” will be through approved channels consistent with U.S. law and national security interests.

    That level of control over the world’s largest proven reserves of crude oil could give the Trump administration a broader hold on oil supplies globally in ways that could enable it to influence prices. Both moves reflect the Republican administration’s determination to make good on its effort to control the next steps in Venezuela through its vast oil resources after Trump pledged the U.S. will “run” the country.

    Vice President JD Vance said in an interview the U.S. can “control” Venezuela’s “purse strings” by dictating where its oil can be sold.

    “We control the energy resources, and we tell the regime, you’re allowed to sell the oil so long as you serve America’s national interest,” Vance said in an interview to air on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime.”

    The vice president added, “And that’s how we exert incredible pressure on that country without wasting a single American life.”

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that the oil taken from the sanctioned vessels seized in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea would be sold as part of the deal announced by Trump on Tuesday under which Venezuela would provide up to 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S.

    Venezuela’s interim authorities “want that oil that was seized to be part of this deal,” Rubio told reporters after briefing lawmakers Wednesday about the Maduro operation. “They understand that the only way they can move oil and generate revenue and not have economic collapse is if they cooperate and work with the United States.”

    Seizing 2 more vessels

    U.S. European Command said on social media that the merchant vessel Bella 1 was seized in the North Atlantic for “violations of U.S. sanctions.” The U.S. had been pursuing the tanker since last month after it tried to evade a blockade on sanctioned oil vessels around Venezuela.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed U.S. forces also took control of the M Sophia in the Caribbean Sea. Noem said on social media that both ships were “either last docked in Venezuela or en route to it.”

    The two ships join at least two others that were taken by U.S. forces last month — the Skipper and the Centuries.

    The Bella 1 had been cruising across the Atlantic nearing the Caribbean on Dec. 15 when it abruptly turned and headed north, toward Europe. The change in direction came days after the first U.S. tanker seizure of a ship on Dec. 10 after it had left Venezuela carrying oil.

    When the U.S. Coast Guard tried to board the Bella 1, it fled. U.S. European Command said a Coast Guard vessel had tracked the ship “pursuant to a warrant issued by a U.S. federal court.”

    As the U.S. pursued it, the Bella 1 was renamed Marinera and flagged to Russia, shipping databases show. A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, said the ship’s crew had painted a Russian flag on the side of the hull.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had information about Russian nationals among the Marinera’s crew and, in a statement carried by Russia’s state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti, demanded that “the American side ensure humane and dignified treatment of them, strictly respect their rights and interests, and not hinder their speedy return to their homeland.”

    Separately, a senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Klishas, decried the U.S. action as “blatant piracy.”

    The Justice Department is investigating crew members of the Bella 1 vessel for failing to obey Coast Guard orders and “criminal charges will be pursued against all culpable actors,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

    “The Department of Justice is monitoring several other vessels for similar enforcement action — anyone on any vessel who fails to obey instructions of the Coast Guard or other federal officials will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Bondi said on X.

    The ship had been sanctioned by the U.S. in 2024 on allegations of smuggling cargo for a company linked to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

    Easing some sanctions to sell Venezuela’s oil

    The Trump administration, meanwhile, is “selectively” removing sanctions to enable the shipping and sale of Venezuelan oil to markets worldwide, according to an outline of the policies published Wednesday by the Energy Department.

    The sales are slated to begin immediately with 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil. The U.S. government said the sales “will continue indefinitely,” with the proceeds settling in U.S.-controlled accounts at “globally recognized banks.” The money would be disbursed to the U.S. and Venezuelan populations at the “discretion” of Trump’s government.

    Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA said it is in negotiations with the U.S. government for the sale of crude oil.

    “This process is developed under schemes similar to those in force with international companies, such as Chevron, and is based on a strictly commercial transaction, with criteria of legality, transparency and benefit for both parties,” the company said in the statement.

    The U.S. plans to authorize the importation of oil field equipment, parts and services to increase Venezuela’s oil production, which has been roughly 1 million barrels a day.

    The Trump administration has indicated it also will invest in the electricity grid to increase production and the quality of life for people in Venezuela, whose economy has been unraveling amid changes to foreign aid and cuts to state subsidies, making necessities, including food, unaffordable to millions.

    Meanwhile, Trump abruptly changed his tone about Colombian President Gustavo Petro. Trump said Wednesday that they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he had invited the leader of the South American country to the White House. Trump had said earlier this week that “Colombia is very sick too” and accused Petro of “making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”

    Ships said to be part of a shadow fleet

    Noem said both seized ships were part of a shadow fleet of rusting oil tankers that smuggle oil for countries facing sanctions, such as Venezuela, Russia and Iran.

    After the seizure of the now-named Marinera, which open-source maritime tracking sites showed was between Scotland and Iceland earlier Wednesday, the U.K. defense ministry said Britain’s military provided support, including surveillance aircraft.

    “This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fueling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine,” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said.

    The capture of the M Sophia, on the U.S. sanctions list for moving illicit cargos of oil from Russia, in the Caribbean was much less prolonged.

    The ship had been “running dark,” not having transmitted location data since July. Tankers involved in smuggling often turn off their transponders or broadcast inaccurate data to hide their locations.

    Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document that at least 16 tankers had left the Venezuelan coast since Saturday, after the U.S. captured Maduro.

    The M Sophia was among them, Madani said, citing a recent photo showing it in the waters near Jose Terminal, Venezuela’s main oil export hub.

    Windward, a maritime intelligence firm that tracks such vessels, said in a briefing to reporters the M Sophia loaded at the terminal on Dec. 26 and was carrying about 1.8 million barrels of crude oil — a cargo that would be worth about $108 million at current price of about $60 a barrel.

  • Warner Bros rejects Paramount takeover again and tells shareholders to stick with Netflix bid

    Warner Bros rejects Paramount takeover again and tells shareholders to stick with Netflix bid

    NEW YORK — Warner Bros. again rejected a takeover bid from Paramount and told shareholders Wednesday to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.

    Warner’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Skydance-owned Paramount’s overtures — and urged shareholders just weeks ago to back the sale of its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount, meanwhile, has made efforts to sweeten its $77.9 billion hostile offer for the entire company.

    Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday that its board determined Paramount’s offer is not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. It again recommended shareholders support the Netflix deal.

    “Paramount’s offer continues to provide insufficient value, including terms such as an extraordinary amount of debt financing that create risks to close and lack of protections for our shareholders if a transaction is not completed,” Warner Bros. Discovery Chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. said in a statement. In contrast, he added, the company’s agreement with Netflix “will offer superior value at greater levels of certainty.”

    Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s hostile bid is still on the table. Warner shareholders currently have until Jan. 21 to “tender” their shares.

    Late last month, Paramount announced an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Oracle founder Larry Ellison — who is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — to back $40.4 billion in equity financing for the company’s offer. Paramount also increased its promised payout to shareholders to $5.8 billion if the deal is blocked by regulators, matching Netflix’s breakup fee.

    In its Wednesday letter to shareholders, Warner expressed concerns about a potential deal with Paramount. Warner said it essentially considers the offer a leveraged buyout, which includes a lot of debt, and also pointed to operating restrictions that it said were imposed by Paramount’s offer and could “hamper WBD’s ability to perform” throughout a transaction.

    The battle for Warner and the value of each offer grows complicated because Netflix and Paramount want different things. Netflix’s proposed acquisition includes only Warner’s studio and streaming business, including its legacy TV and movie production arms and platforms like HBO Max. But Paramount wants the entire company — which, beyond studio and streaming, includes networks like CNN and Discovery.

    If Netflix is successful, Warner’s news and cable operations would be spun off into their own company, under a previously-announced separation.

    A merger with either company could take over a year to close — and will attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny along the way. Due to its size and potential impact, it will almost certainly trigger a review by the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue to block the transaction or request changes. Other countries and regulators overseas may also challenge the merger. And politics are expected to come into play under President Donald Trump, who has made unprecedented suggestions about his personal involvement on whether a deal will go through.

    Trade groups across the entertainment industry have continued to sound the alarm about both deals.

    In a statement addressed to a Congressional antitrust subcommittee on Wednesday, Cinema United — which represents more than 60,000 movie screens worldwide — reiterated it was “deeply concerned” that Netflix’s acquisition could harm both moviegoers and people who work in theaters, pointing to the streaming giant’s past reliance on its online platform. The group said its concerns were “no less serious” for Paramount’s bid — warning of consequences of further consolidation overall, which it said could result in job losses and less diversity in filmmaking.

  • Trump invites Colombian president to White House after threatening his country with military strike

    Trump invites Colombian president to White House after threatening his country with military strike

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump abruptly changed his tone Wednesday about his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, saying they had exchanged a friendly phone call and he’d even invited the leader of the South American country to the White House.

    “It was a Great Honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had,” Trump posted on his social media site. “I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future.”

    He wrote that the upcoming meeting would take place at the White House.

    That came mere days after Trump said in the wake of the U.S. operation to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend that “Colombia is very sick too” and accused Petro of “making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”

    In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump added of Petro, “He’s not going to be doing it very long, let me tell you.” Asked whether U.S. intervention was possible, Trump responded, ”Sounds good to me.”

    Trump now suddenly warming to Petro is especially surprising since Colombia’s president called the U.S. operation in Venezuela an “abhorrent” violation of Latin American sovereignty. He also suggested it was committed by “enslavers” and constituted a “spectacle of death” comparable to Nazi Germany’s 1937 carpet bombing of Guernica, Spain.

    Colombia has long been among America’s staunchest Latin American allies, a pillar of Washington’s counternarcotics strategy abroad. For three decades, the U.S. has worked closely with Colombia, the world’s largest producer of cocaine, to arrest drug traffickers, fend off rebel groups and boost economic development in rural areas.

    Still, before Trump’s conciliatory post, tensions had been rising between the U.S. and Colombia for months.

    The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicenter of the world’s cocaine trade.

    Trump began his monthslong pressure campaign on Maduro by ordering dozens of lethal strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats launched from Venezuela in the Caribbean. He eventually expanded the operations to also target suspected vessels in the eastern Pacific that came from Colombia.

    The U.S. in September added Colombia, the top recipient of American assistance in the region, to a list of nations failing to cooperate in the drug war for the first time in almost 30 years. The designation led to a slashing of U.S. assistance to the country.

    “He has cocaine mills and cocaine factories,” Trump said of Petro on Sunday. ”He’s not going to be doing it.”

  • Eagles will again rely on Jalen Hurts’ ‘clutch gene’ as they embark on another playoff run

    Eagles will again rely on Jalen Hurts’ ‘clutch gene’ as they embark on another playoff run

    As Champagne showered behind him in the Eagles’ postgame locker room following their Super Bowl LIX victory, Jeffrey Lurie raved to reporters about Jalen Hurts’ “clutch gene.”

    Hurts, then 26, dazzled under the bright lights of the Superdome, earning Super Bowl MVP honors after he totaled 293 yards (221 passing, 72 rushing) and three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing). Lurie, the Eagles’ owner, noted that his quarterback seemed to amp up his play when the stakes were the highest.

    That so-called clutch gene, according to Hurts, is truly inherent.

    “Some things are in you,“ Hurts explained Wednesday.

    Hurts will have an opportunity to flaunt that trait again on Sunday when the Eagles return to the playoffs after last year’s Super Bowl win. They will start from the beginning once more in the wild-card round against the San Francisco 49ers, a team they have not faced since 2023.

    Nakobe Dean’s last Eagles playoff game ended with him on a cart. On Sunday, he wants to soak it all in.

    The opponent may be relatively unfamiliar, but the postseason is a familiar stage to Hurts. In his fifth season as the Eagles’ starter, he is tied for the best playoff win percentage (6-3; 66.7%) among postseason quarterbacks with the 49ers’ Brock Purdy (4-2; 66.7%).

    Hurts has more overall playoff experience than Purdy and a Lombardi Trophy to his name. That experience, Hurts said, informs his approach to the postseason.

    “I think experience is the biggest teacher,” Hurts said. “So a lot of moments you can lean on experience in itself. So just being able to reflect on, not always someone else’s opinions but your own experiences, that’s valuable.”

    Jalen Hurts and the Eagles last played the Niners in 2023.

    Hurts has experience playing against the Kyle Shanahan-led 49ers, too. Hurts has started at quarterback against San Francisco three times in his career from 2021-23, including the NFC championship victory that punched their ticket to Super Bowl LVII in the 2022-23 season.

    Shanahan isn’t calling the defense, though. Hurts has yet to face a 49ers defense led by Robert Saleh, who rejoined the staff as defensive coordinator this year. Despite his lack of direct experience with Saleh’s 49ers, he is familiar with their physical brand of football.

    “I think any time we’ve matched up against this team, it’s been a very physical, fast, and intense game,” Hurts said. “So we’ve got a lot of respect for this opponent and how they play ball and the mentality that they have. That’s something that we have a lot of respect for.”

    Eagles vs. 49ers: These numbers and trends could impact Sunday’s result

    But the 49ers defense of late isn’t the same group that throttled the Eagles, 42-19, two seasons ago. For one, Dre Greenlaw, who got into it with Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro on the sideline in that game, is no longer on the team.

    That isn’t the only difference, nor the most notable. Injuries have ravaged Saleh’s unit this season, with inside linebacker Fred Warner and defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams sustaining long-term injuries that will prevent them from suiting up on Sunday.

    The San Francisco inside linebacker corps has experienced the most turnover of any position. All five linebackers who made the 49ers’ initial 53-man roster out of training camp are injured, including projected starter Dee Winters, who did not practice on Wednesday due to an ankle ailment.

    The 49ers will be missing defensive end Nick Bosa (center) and linebacker Fred Warner (right) for Sunday’s wild-card matchup.

    The Eagles, meanwhile, are potentially getting healthier. Lane Johnson returned to practice on Wednesday for the first time since he sustained a Lisfranc foot injury in the Nov. 16 win over the Detroit Lions. His status for Sunday’s game remains in question, as he was a limited participant in Wednesday’s practice.

    Hurts is healthy, too, and fresh off a week of rest, luxuries the Eagles haven’t always had in the postseason. His good health seemingly correlates with his career-low as a starter in rushing attempts this season (105). But Hurts pushed back on the notion that the decrease in carries was intended to keep him out of harm’s way.

    “I think the season just kind of going the way it has, the approach this year and how the games have been called with this coordinator, with coach KP [Kevin Patullo],” Hurts said. “It’s just kind of going that way. Just kind of taking it in stride and tried to give my best, whatever position I’ve been put in.”

    Hurts has been put in all kinds of positions this season, whether he handed the ball off to Saquon Barkley or dropped back more to pass. The Eagles have shown flashes of an identity at times throughout the season, especially when to establish the run game and build passing concepts off those looks. But their overall performance as a group has been characterized by inconsistency.

    Sielski: Eagles-49ers is really a matchup of Nick Sirianni and Kyle Shanahan, savants in their own ways

    Still, winning in multiple ways, according to Hurts, isn’t necessarily bad.

    “I think it depends on what perspective you look at, half empty or half full,” Hurts said. “I think being able to evolve and change as much as we have and still find ways to win, maybe gives off this perspective of, ‘Well, what are they going to do? Who are they?’ I do definitely think that is a way that you can look at it.

    “Also, at the end of the day, we’re not going to be judged off how it got done. We’re going to be judged off if we did it or not. So my focus is on doing it.”

    Hurts and his clutch gene have done it before in the playoffs. Doing it again hinges on whether he can help the offense, as listless as it has been at times this season, find a new gear.

  • A snow record is officially on the books in New Jersey … 30 years later

    A snow record is officially on the books in New Jersey … 30 years later

    NOAA announced this week that a New Jersey weather station set a state record for seasonal snowfall.

    It just took awhile to confirm. The season in question was the eventful winter of 1995-96.

    What took so long?

    “There’s nothing nefarious about it,” said David Robinson, the longtime state climatologist. “You can blame me.”

    Robinson, a Rutgers University professor and snow expert, said he was aware at the time of the 122-inch total measured at High Point in North Jersey during the eventful winter of 1995-96.

    The High Point total finally was confirmed in March 2022 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s State Climate Extremes Committee, of which Robinson is a member and whose mission it is to validate records, a sometimes complicated process.

    The findings, released Tuesday, were published in a 60-page memorandum authored by Chris Stachelski, an official with the National Weather Service’s Eastern Regional Headquarters.

    The report included several pages of images and discussion of the 1995-96 winter during which Philadelphia experienced its biggest snow in its 140-year period of record.

    As state climatologist, Robinson said he long had intended to vet the 122-inch figure.

    He said he was well familiar with the observer who was measuring all that snow and that he is “someone who is meticulous.”

    Robinson said one might ask why he didn’t seek to verify the record sooner.

    “I didn’t. It was too far on the back burner for far too long.”

    Robinson said the impetus was a national effort a few years back to assemble snowfall records for every state, and that prompted him to look again at the High Point record.

    He said the weather service ultimately took the lead in the investigation, and after a meeting with Stachelski, the committee decided 10 feet of snow truly fell upon High Point that winter.

  • Nakobe Dean’s last Eagles playoff game ended with him on a cart. On Sunday, he wants to soak it all in.

    Nakobe Dean’s last Eagles playoff game ended with him on a cart. On Sunday, he wants to soak it all in.

    Monday is an anniversary of sorts for Nakobe Dean, but not one to celebrate. When the linebacker takes the field for the Eagles on Sunday — yes, he will play — it will be 364 days after he was knocked from the Eagles’ wild-card playoff victory over the Green Bay Packers.

    Dean watched the Eagles win the Super Bowl from the sideline. He danced in place with the help of crutches while streams of Champagne and beer flew around the championship locker room until there was no more alcohol to soak in.

    Then, a long rehabilitation from a patellar tendon tear in his left knee began. There were long days of training, and the 25-year-old even dipped his toes in ballet classes to improve his flexibility. But while Dean recovered, the Eagles also drafted his eventual replacement, Jihaad Campbell, in the first round. Then he started the 2025 season on the physically unable to perform list and didn’t debut until Week 6.

    Patellar tendon tears are difficult injuries to come back from, but Dean has barely missed a beat. He overtook Campbell and returned to his starting role next to Zack Baun by Week 8. Dean has been one of the best blitzing linebackers in the NFL since he returned. He has four sacks in 10 games after having three sacks in 15 games last season. He has been solid in coverage, too. All eyes will be on Dean and Baun on Sunday as the Eagles face a talented San Francisco offense built around running back Christian McCaffrey and tight end George Kittle.

    Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean is helped off of the field during the second quarter of last year’s wild-card playoff game against the Packers.

    There are the on-field elements on Dean’s mind. The 49ers, he said, do things no other team does with their use of the fullback and their dynamic schemes. The Eagles will need to have “good eyes,” Dean said, and focus on their footwork and technique while making sure to be physical. But there’s the personal element, too. Dean said football is always personal to him, but Sunday, almost a year to the day from the sport being temporarily taken from him, will have extra significance.

    “It’s always personal,” Dean said Wednesday. “You got a timeline to play this game of football that you love.”

    Dean has learned that the hard way a few times. The 2022 third-round pick, among the first wave of Georgia Bulldogs to the Eagles’ defense, had his 2023 season ended after five games because of a foot injury. Then the knee injury in the playoffs last year forced him to be a spectator during what would have been some of the biggest games of his career. Then, even as he helped the Eagles’ playoff push this season, he was again forced to the sideline after suffering a hamstring injury against Washington in Week 16.

    Eagles vs. 49ers: These numbers and trends could impact Sunday’s result

    Dean said he probably could have played through the hamstring injury, but the rest served him well.

    “They want me in the playoffs the best I can be,” Dean said of the Eagles’ decision to sit him down for a couple of weeks.

    Dean thinks he’s a better player today than he was a year ago as he prepared for the playoff run. “The more ball I play, the better I see it, the more I understand it,” he said. He’s said he’s not surprised he came back from his devastating injury in this manner.

    Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean (center) suffered a hamstring injury during a Week 16 win over the Commanders.

    “When you’re going through an injury, and I got a goal that I set for myself, I’m going to come back and be the best,” Dean said. “I’m not shooting to just get to where I was before. No, I’m shooting to get better and get better every day.

    “I’m a human. I have emotions. But I never lost faith that everything would be great. I never lost confidence in myself.”

    Dean said the journey helped him grow as a person and football player.

    “Everything I talk about, or I’ve talked about in the past before I hurt my knee, I had to stand on it,” he said. “I had to stand on being that positive person who’s taking a day at a time, who puts one foot in front of the other. The message hasn’t changed for me. But I had to stand on what I believed in and what I talked about.”

    He has spent part of this week providing perspective to younger players like Campbell and fellow rookie Smael Mondon on what it means to be in the postseason — “a lot of people want to be where we’re at,” he said — and what to expect from the atmosphere at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. (“It’s like someone talking about an amusement park that they’ve never been to before and I’ve been,” he said.)

    Eagles-49ers is really a matchup of Nick Sirianni and Kyle Shanahan, savants in their own ways

    It’s the playoffs, and every game could be the last. For Dean, that reality is especially true. This is the final year of his contract, and his future with the Eagles certainly is up in the air. The Eagles have a lot invested in Campbell, and Dean has played well enough after returning from his injury to earn a decent contract, one that could come from another team. It is a thought that Dean said has crossed his mind after the Eagles won their Week 17 game in Buffalo.

    Dean then reminded himself that he needed to be present. Sunday will mark his first playoff game since he was carted off the Eagles’ sideline last January. He wants to enjoy what’s in front of him.

    “I got to live in the moment,” Dean said. “I got a lot of guys that I played with in college. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just enjoying every second, every moment with them, with Zack and my linebacker room, everybody in the locker room. Just living in the moment and not even thinking about it.”

    It is, after all, time for “playoff ball,” Dean said.

    “It’s time to get to it, time to turn it up a notch.”

  • Fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt a year after being burned down in LA-area wildfires

    Fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt a year after being burned down in LA-area wildfires

    LOS ANGELES — On the first anniversary of the most destructive wildfires in the LA area, the scant home construction projects stand out among the still mostly flattened landscapes.

    Fewer than a dozen homes have been rebuilt in Los Angeles County since the Jan. 7, 2025, Palisades and Eaton fires erupted, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes and other residential properties. The fires burned for more than three weeks and clean-up efforts took about seven months.

    For those who had insurance, it’s often not enough to cover the costs of construction. Relief organizations are stepping in to help, but progress is slow.

    Among the exceptions is Ted Koerner, whose Altadena home was reduced to ash and two chimneys. With his insurance payout tied up, the 67-year-old liquidated about 80% of his retirement holdings, secured contractors quickly, and moved decisively through the rebuilding process.

    Shortly before Thanksgiving, Koerner was among the first to finish a rebuild in the aftermath of the fires, which were fueled by drought and hurricane-force winds.

    But most do not have options like Koerner.

    The streets of the coastal community of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, a community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, remain lined with dirt lots. In the seaside city of Malibu, foundations and concrete piles rising out of the sand are all that’s left of beachfront homes that once butted against crashing ocean waves.

    Neighborhoods are pitch black at night, with few streetlamps replaced. Even many homes that survived are not inhabited as families struggle to clear them of the fire’s toxic contaminants.

    Koerner was driven in part by fear that his beloved golden retriever, Daisy Mae, now 13 years old, might not live long enough to move into a new home, given the many months it can take to build even under the best circumstances.

    He also did not have to wait for his insurance payout to start construction.

    “That’s the only way we were going to get it done before all of a sudden my dog starts having labored breathing or something else happens,” Koerner said.

    Once construction began, his home was completed in just over four months.

    Daisy Mae is back lying in her favorite spot in the yard under a 175-year-old Heritage Oak. Koerner said he enjoys his morning coffee while watching her and it brings tears to his eyes.

    “We made it,” he said.

    Many fear they can’t afford to rebuild

    About 900 homes are under construction, potentially on pace to be completed later this year.

    Still, many homeowners are stuck as they figure out whether they can pay for the rebuilding process.

    Scores of residents have left their communities for good. More than 600 properties where a single-family home was destroyed in the wildfires have been sold, according to real estate data tracker Cotality.

    “We’re seeing huge gaps between the money insurance is paying out, to the extent we have insurance, and what it will actually cost to rebuild and/or remediate our homes,” said Joy Chen, executive director of the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, a group of 10,000 fire survivors mostly from Altadena.

    By December, less than 20% of people who experienced total home loss had closed out their insurance claims, according to a survey by the Department of Angels, a nonprofit that formed after the disaster to advocate for recovery efforts.

    About one-third of insured respondents had policies with State Farm, the state’s largest private insurer, or the California FAIR plan, the insurer of last resort. They reported high rates of dissatisfaction with both, citing burdensome requirements, lowball estimates, and dealing with multiple adjusters.

    In November, Los Angeles County opened a civil investigation into State Farm’s practices and potential violations of the state’s Unfair Competition law. Chen said the group has seen a flurry of substantial payouts since then.

    State Farm spokesperson Tom Hartman said in an email to the Associated Press on Wednesday that the company has addressed more than 13,500 claims and issued more than $5 billion in payments. He called the investigation a “distraction” and said the company is committed to helping.

    Without answers from insurance, households can’t commit to rebuilding projects that can easily exceed $1 million.

    “They’re worried about getting started and running out of money,” Chen said.

    An uncertain future

    Jessica Rogers discovered only after the Palisades fire destroyed her home that her coverage had been canceled.

    The mother of two’s fallback was a low-interest loan from the Small Business Administration, but the application process was grueling. After losing her job because of the fire and then having her identity stolen, her approval for $550,000 came through last month.

    She is still weighing how she’ll cover the remaining costs and says she wonders: “Do I empty out my 401(k) and start counting every penny in a penny jar around the apartment?”

    Rogers — now executive director of the Pacific Palisades Long Term Recovery Group — estimates there are hundreds like her in Pacific Palisades who are “stuck dealing with FEMA and SBA and figuring out if we could piecemeal something together to build our homes.”

    Also struggling to return home are the community’s renters, condo owners, and mobile homeowners. Meanwhile, many are also dealing with their trauma.

    “It’s not what people talk about, but it is incredibly apparent and very real,” said Rogers, who still finds herself crying at unexpected moments.

    A slow start

    That so few homes have been rebuilt a year after the wildfires echoes the recovery pattern of a December 2021 blaze that erupted south of Boulder, Colo., destroying more than 1,000 homes.

    “At the one-year mark, many lots had been cleared of debris and many residents had applied for building permits, said Andrew Rumbach, co-lead of the Climate and Communities Program at Urban Institute. “Around the 18-month mark is when you start to see really significant progress in terms of going from handfuls to hundreds” of homes rebuilt.

    Time will bring the scope of problems into focus.

    “You’re going to start to see some real inequality start to emerge where certain neighborhoods, certain types of people, certain types of properties are just lagging way far behind, and that becomes the really important question in the second year of a recovery: Who’s doing well and who is really struggling and why?” Rumbach said.

    That’s a key concern in Altadena, which for decades drew aspiring Black homeowners who otherwise faced redlining and other forms of racial discrimination when they sought to buy a home in other LA-area communities. In 2024, 81% of Black households in Altadena owned their homes, nearly twice the national Black homeownership rate.

    But recent research by UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Institute found that, as of August, 7 in 10 Altadena homeowners whose property was severely damaged in last year’s wildfire had not begun taking steps to rebuild or sell their home. Among these, Black homeowners were 73% more likely than others to have taken no action.

    Al and Charlotte Bailey, who lost their home in the Eaton Fire, have been living in an RV parked on the property where their house once stood in Altadena, Calif.

    Determined to rebuild

    Al and Charlotte Bailey have been living in an RV parked on the empty lot where their home once stood.

    The Baileys are paying for their rebuild with funds from their insurance payout and a loan. They’re also hoping to receive money from Southern California Edison. Several lawsuits claim its equipmentsparked the wildfire in Altadena.

    “We had been here for 41 years and raised our family here, and in one night it was all gone,” said Al Bailey, 77. “We decided that, whatever it’s going to cost, this is our community.”

  • House takes step toward extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, overpowering GOP leadership

    House takes step toward extending Affordable Care Act subsidies, overpowering GOP leadership

    WASHINGTON — Overpowering Speaker Mike Johnson, a bipartisan coalition in the House voted Wednesday to push forward a measure that would revive an enhanced pandemic-era subsidy that lowered health insurance costs for roughly 22 million people, but that had expired last month.

    The tally of 221-205 was a key test before passage of the bill, which is expected Thursday. And it came about because four GOP centrist lawmakers joined with Democrats in signing a so-called discharge petition to force the vote. After last year’s government shutdown failed to resolve the issue, they said doing nothing was not an option as many of their constituents faced soaring health insurance premiums beginning this month.

    Rep. Mike Lawler (R., N.Y.), one of the Republicans who crossed party lines to back the Democratic proposal, portrayed it as a vehicle senators could use to reach a compromise.

    “No matter the issue, if the House puts forward relatively strong, bipartisan support, it makes it easier for the senators to get there,” Lawler said.

    Republicans go around their leaders

    If ultimately successful in the House this week, the voting would show there is bipartisan support for a proposed three-year extension of the tax credits that are available for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The action forcing a vote has been an affront to Johnson and GOP leaders who essentially lost control of their House majority as the renegade lawmakers joined Democrats for the workaround.

    But the Senate is under no requirement to take up the bill.

    Instead, a small group of members from both parties are working on an alternative plan that could find support in both chambers and become law. One proposal would be to shorten the extension of the subsidy to two years and make changes to the program.

    Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) said any plan passing muster in the Senate will need to have income limits to ensure that it’s focused on those who most need the help and that beneficiaries would have to at least pay a nominal amount for their coverage.

    That way, he said, “insurance companies can’t game the system and auto-enroll people.” Finally, Thune said there would need to be some expansion of health savings accounts, which allow people to save money and withdraw it tax-free as long as the money is spent on qualified medical expenses.

    Democrats are pressing the issue

    It’s unclear the negotiations will yield a bill that the Senate will take up. Democrats are making clear that the higher health insurance costs many Americans are facing will be a political centerpiece of their efforts to retake the majority in the House and Senate in the fall elections.

    Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who led his party’s effort to push the healthcare issue forward, particularly challenged Republicans in competitive congressional districts to join if they really wanted to prevent steep premium increases for their constituents. Before Wednesday’s vote, he called on colleagues to “address the healthcare crisis in this country and make sure that tens of millions of people have the ability to go see a doctor when they need one.”

    Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Robert Bresnahan, and Ryan Mackenzie, all from Pennsylvania, and Lawler signed the Democrats’ petition, pushing it to the magic number of 218 needed to force a House vote. All four represent key swing districts whose races will help determine which party takes charge of the House next year.

    Johnson (R., La.) had discussed allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on bills that would temporarily extend the subsidies while also adding changes such as income caps for beneficiaries. But after days of discussions, the leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the party’s conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed program.

    Lawmakers turn to discharge petitions to show support for an action and potentially force a vote on the House floor, but they are rarely successful. This session of Congress has proven an exception.

    A vote requiring the Department of Justice to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, for instance, occurred after Reps. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R. Ky.) introduced a petition on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The signature effort was backed by all House Democrats and four Republicans.

  • Flyers takeaways: Trevor Zegras’ knack for the big moment and three other reasons this team has staying power

    Flyers takeaways: Trevor Zegras’ knack for the big moment and three other reasons this team has staying power

    The Flyers beat the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, 5-2.

    But hockey is all about the details. So, as the Flyers hit the halfway mark with a 21-12-7 record, let’s take a look at why the small details from Tuesday night matter in the big picture.

    Trevor Zegras is a lightning rod

    The Flyers forward conceded postgame that he was downplaying how important the game was to him when he spoke to the media earlier in the day.

    “It was a tough ending with my time there, and I’ve been thinking about this game for a long time,” said Zegras, who was acquired by the Flyers from the Ducks in June. “It was one that meant a lot to me, and it was cool to get one and then, obviously, two.”

    Trevor Zegras scores twice against his old team in the Flyers’ 5-2 win over the Ducks

    “Playing against your old team, that kind of shoved you out the door, that third one would have been pretty cool,” he added. “But we got the win, so that’s what matters.”

    Despite coming out hard, the Flyers trailed 1-0 after public enemy No. 1, Cutter Gauthier, scored a power-play goal. They needed a boost and got it with Zegras scoring not once, but twice, each via a one-timer from beneath the right circle that coach Rick Tocchet said “looked a little [Leon] Draisaitl-ish.” Indeed.

    Zegras is the game-breaker the Flyers have been craving for years. He is someone who can change the course of a game in an instant, pressuring and creating turnovers with his deftness and quick footwork, setting up his teammates with his creativity, or having the drive to find the back of the net.

    He’s never played a Stanley Cup playoff game, but that doesn’t mean Zegras has not starred on some of hockey’s biggest stages. The New York native — who said Philly “is home for me” on Tuesday — helped USA Hockey defeat Canada to win gold at World Juniors. He is back to being the guy who dazzled fans when he entered the NHL, and it’s clear he is someone who won’t shy away from strapping the Flyers to his back and carrying them when it matters — maybe in late April?

    The Flyers can play a heavy game

    The Flyers have one of the NHL’s youngest teams, and they might not be giants, but it is clear that they are up to the task of playing the heavy game that successful teams tend to deploy in the postseason.

    Typically, a heavy game is described as a physical one in which teams are aggressive on the forecheck, lay big hits, win puck battles, and consistently pressure. Tocchet equates a heavy game to good body positioning and being tough to play against.

    If the NHL provided the information on zone time for individual games, the ice would have noticeably been tilted in favor of the Flyers. They outshot the Ducks 39-18, limiting them five shots in each of the first two periods.

    And, unlike the Ducks, who seemed to be head-hunting the whole game, the Flyers delivered clean, hard checks.

    In the last few games, Owen Tippett has played like a true power forward by using his speed, skill, and 210-pound body to throw huge checks and create time and space for scoring opportunities. He had 10 shot attempts (four shots on goal and five that missed the net) and three hits.

    But the player who stood out the most was Garnet Hathaway, who showed why he has been a hot commodity at past trade deadlines when teams want to bulk up for the postseason.

    The forward, who was playing in his second game since being a healthy scratch for six, and doesn’t have a point thus far this season, threw several bone-crunching — but legal — hits. He had six hits, including ones on Olen Zellweger and Ian Moore that could be heard vividly in Xfinity Mobile Arena.

    Reevaluating the Flyers-Ducks trades involving Cutter Gauthier, Trevor Zegras, and Jamie Drysdale

    “Garny laying two huge hits,” Cam York said. “That’s playoff hockey, and we feel like we’re a playoff team.”

    “[Hathaway] dragged a lot of people in the fight with us,” Tocchet added.

    Hathaway ended up dropping the gloves with former Flyers defenseman Radko Gudas after his hit on Moore, and Noah Cates — Noah Cates! — had a tilt of his own with Jansen Harkins after the latter’s high hit on Bobby Brink in the opening minutes. Brink ended up leaving the game with an upper-body injury.

    “I don’t know, just kind of, I guess, maybe, speaks to the confidence and strength I kind of put on and different things like that,” said Cates, who joked that the one fight HockeyFights.com has him listed as having, which was in juniors, wasn’t really a fight.

    “But, just wanted to defend a teammate. With Bobby [it] looked like a bad hit [but] wasn’t a penalty. … But I think the boys respect it, and it’s kind of a necessary thing in the game.”

    The bench boss liked what he saw Tuesday and if the Flyers play as they did against Anaheim, good things should happen.

    Rick Tocchet has raved about Travis Konecny’s development as a leader and key locker room voice.

    Focus and unity

    Whether skating as a five-man unit or going to bat for one another, the Flyers are united. They cheered when Hathaway and Cates dropped the gloves.

    They chirped at Gauthier, who didn’t want to play for the Flyers, and got in his face any chance they could. Aside from Cates going after Harkins, they tried to get at Jacob Trouba and Ross Johnston after they threw high, dirty hits.

    And they checked on one another. Travis Konecny was seen going up to Denver Barkey, appearing to ask if he was OK, as he got on the ice for a power play. The power play happened after Trouba went headhunting on him.

    Flyers fans still don’t like Cutter Gauthier. Trevor Zegras has made it sting a little less.

    Konecny, 28, has become a true leader in every sense of the word for the Flyers.

    “I love the kid. I can understand how [John Tortorella] loves him, too, in the sense of — what did he call him, a wing nut?” Tocchet said. “For me, he does some stuff that you go, ‘What are you doing?’ And then he does some stuff like, wow. So, there’s a balance there.

    “But he’s an unreal guy in the room. This is a close team, and I think he’s one of the reasons why, whether it’s a football pool or whether it’s a dinner, he’s leading the brigade, or whether it’s, hey, unacceptable first period, he’s saying it.”

    Home-ice advantage

    The Flyers are now 12-5-4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena and, for the second straight game, sold out the building.

    It’s a major step for a team that hasn’t packed the barn consistently for a while. And from the moment the puck dropped Tuesday, the faithful were into the game.

    The fans at Xfinity Mobile Arena were up to the task on Tuesday, something the Flyers players hope to see consistently as they push for the playoffs.

    A lot of the attention was directed at Gauthier, but that didn’t stop them from cheering and booing other aspects.

    “The fans were just electric all night,” Christian Dvorak said. “It was a lot of fun.”

    “The crowd was outstanding,” said Tocchet, who is in the Flyers Hall of Fame as a player. “I just remember the days when I played; that’s a loud building tonight. They were awesome. I think they really gave our team some juice.”

    York said it felt like a playoff atmosphere and that he would “wish it [would] maybe happen more than once a year.” Well, if the Flyers keep playing the way they’re playing, it should.

    Flyers’ Bobby Brink, Jamie Drysdale ‘still getting evaluated’ after injuries

    It did give the players a look into what could be the future. Most of the Flyers have not played in a playoff game, and only Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and Sean Couturier were on the roster the last time Philly made the postseason in the 2020 bubble.

    “We don’t want to be satisfied here,” Couturier said after the game. “We’ve got to keep pushing, take it to another level. It’s going to be tight till the end of the year. Look at the standings, doesn’t matter if you win one or you lose one, it’s so tight. So we’ve got to focus one game at a time.”

    Before the Olympic break, the Flyers play 15 more games. That leaves 26 when the schedule picks back up at the end of February. Forty-one games down. Forty-one to go. It’ll be an interesting journey.

  • Driver shot in Minneapolis is at least the fifth person killed in U.S. immigration crackdown

    Driver shot in Minneapolis is at least the fifth person killed in U.S. immigration crackdown

    The fatal shooting Wednesday of a woman by an immigration officer in Minneapolis was at least the fifth death to result from the aggressive U.S. immigration crackdown the Trump administration launched last year.

    The Department of Homeland Security said the officer fired in self-defense as the woman tried to run down officers with her vehicle. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said video of the incident showed it was reckless and unnecessary. It occurred as the federal agency escalates immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota by deploying an anticipated 2,000 agents and officers.

    Last September, Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot and killed another person outside Chicago. Two people have died after being struck by vehicles while fleeing immigration authorities. And a California farmworker fell from a greenhouse and broke his neck during an ICE raid last July.

    No officers or agents have been charged in the deaths.

    Cook from Mexico shot during a traffic stop

    ICE agents fatally shot Silverio Villegas González during a traffic stop Sept. 12 in suburban Chicago. Relatives said the 38-year-old line cook from Mexico had dropped off one of his children at day care that morning.

    At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said federal agents were pursuing a man with a history of reckless driving who entered the country illegally. They alleged Villegas González evaded arrest and dragged an officer with his vehicle.

    Homeland Security said the officer opened fire fearing for his life and was hospitalized for “serious injuries.” However, local police body camera videos showed the agent who shot Villegas González walking around afterward and dismissing his own injuries as “nothing major.”

    Homeland Security has said the death remains under investigation.

    Another shooting, this one nonfatal, occurred in Chicago last fall. Marimar Martinez survived being shot five times by a Border Patrol agent but was charged with a felony after Homeland Security officials accused her of trying to ram agents with her vehicle. The case was dismissed after videos emerged that Martinez’s attorneys said showed an agent steering his vehicle into Martinez’s truck.

    Farmworker fell from greenhouse roof during ICE raid

    Immigration authorities were rounding up dozens of farmworkers July 10 at Glass House Farms in southern California when Jaime Alanis fell from the roof of a greenhouse and broke his neck. The 57-year-old laborer from Mexico died at a hospital two days later.

    Relatives said Alanis had spent a decade working at the farm, a licensed cannabis grower that also produces tomatoes and cucumbers, located in Camarillo about an hour east of Los Angeles. They said he would send his earnings to his wife and daughter in Mexico.

    During the raid, Alanis called family to say he was hiding. Officials said he fell about 30 feet from the greenhouse roof.

    The Department of Homeland Security said Alanis was never in custody and was not being chased by immigration authorities when he climbed onto the greenhouse.

    Man struck on California freeway after running from Home Depot

    A man running away from immigration authorities outside a Home Depot store in southern California died after being hit by an SUV while he tried to cross a nearby freeway on Aug. 14.

    Police in Monrovia northeast of Los Angeles said ICE agents were conducting enforcement operations when the man fled on foot to Interstate 210. He was running across the freeway’s eastbound lanes when an SUV hit him while traveling 50 or 60 mph. He died at a hospital.

    The man killed was later identified by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network as 52-year-old Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez of Guatemala.

    The Department of Homeland Security said Montoya Valdez wasn’t being pursued by immigration authorities when he ran.

    Gardener from Honduras killed on Virginia interstate

    A pickup truck fatally struck Josué Castro Rivera on a highway in Norfolk, Virginia, as he tried to escape immigration authorities during a traffic stop Oct. 23.

    Castro Rivera, 24, of Honduras, was heading to a gardening job with three passengers when ICE officers pulled over his vehicle, according to his brother, Henry Castro.

    State and federal authorities said Castro Rivera ran away on foot and was hit by a pickup truck on Interstate 264.

    The Department of Homeland Security said Castro Rivera’s vehicle was stopped as part of a “targeted, intelligence-based” operation and that Castro Rivera had “resisted heavily and fled.”

    His brother said Castro Rivera came to the U.S. four years earlier and worked to send money to family in Honduras.