Last week union activists, hoisting giant cutouts of money bags and a cigar-smoking boss, announced a proposal to raise Los Angeles city taxes on companies with “overpaid” chief executives.
They rallied in front of a symbol of the uber rich: the futuristic, steel-covered Tesla Diner owned by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man.
Meanwhile, a “billionaire tax” proposal prompted some of the wealthiest Californians to consider fleeing the state, amid arguments that they would take their tax revenue — and the companies they run — with them, hurting the ordinary residents the proposal is designed to help.
More than 200 billionaires reside in California, more than any other state, according to a group of law and economics professors at UC Berkeley, UC Davis and the University of Missouri who helped draft the statewide billionaire tax proposal, which proponents are hoping to place on the November ballot.
And they are getting richer. The collective wealth of the state’s billionaires surged from $300 billion in 2011 to $2.2 trillion in October 2025, according to a December report by those professors. In Los Angeles, where the median sale price of $1 million puts home ownership out of reach for many residents, prominent billionaires include David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Magic Johnson.
One conspicuous billionaire is especially unpopular in California: President Trump, who, despite campaigning on bringing down the cost of living, recently called the word “affordability” a “con job” as he redecorated the White House in gold.
“In a deep blue state like California that has voted against Donald Trump by such large numbers in the last three elections, voters are even more predisposed to be suspicious of billionaires, because he’s now the person with whom they associate the status,” said Dan Schnur, a politics professor at USC, UC Berkeley and Pepperdine.
The state and local tax-the-billionaires proposals, he said, are “about retribution,” much like last year’s Proposition 50, which temporarily redraws the state’s congressional districts to favor Democrats as a counterweight to Trump’s efforts to increase Republican seats in Texas.
To get the statewide billionaire tax proposal on the November ballot, supporters need to collect nearly 875,000 signatures by June 24.
The measure would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on taxpayers and trusts with assets, such as businesses, art and intellectual property, valued at more than $1 billion. It would apply to billionaires who were residents of the state on Jan. 1, with the option of spreading the tax payment over five years.
Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, its main backer, said it will raise $100 billion. Most of those funds would be used for healthcare programs, with the remaining 10% going to food assistance and education programs, the union said.
Suzanne Jimenez, the union’s chief of staff, said Friday that “catastrophic” federal funding cuts stemming from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will force hospitals to close, eliminate healthcare jobs and cause insurance premiums to spike, leaving senior citizens and veterans with limited access to services.
The California Budget & Policy Center estimates that as many as 3.4 million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage and rural hospitals could close unless a new funding source is found.
Jimenez called the proposal “a modest tax” that “affects few people.”
But Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to stop the billionaire tax, arguing that California can’t isolate itself from the other 49 states.
“We’re in a competitive environment. People have this simple luxury, particularly people of that status, they already have two or three homes outside the state,” Newsom said at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last month. “It’s a simple issue. You’ve got to be pragmatic about it.”
The billionaire tax would temporarily increase revenues by tens of billions spread over several years, but if billionaires move away, the state could lose “hundreds of millions of dollars or more per year,” according to the nonpartisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Some of California’s wealthiest say they are indeed heading for the exits.
Andy Fang, the billionaire co-founder of DoorDash, wrote on social media: “I love California. Born and raised there. But stupid wealth tax proposals like this make it irresponsible for me not to plan leaving the state.”
Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, announced in December that his investment firm opened a new Miami office. He donated $3 million that month to a political action committee connected to the California Business Roundtable, which is fighting the measure.
State records show that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been cutting ties to California and moving business interests out of state.
Rick Caruso, the billionaire real estate developer who self-funded his losing 2022 L.A. mayoral campaign to the tune of more than $100 million, said in a statement that “the proposed 5% asset tax is a very bad policy. It will deliver nothing it promises and instead hurt California with lost jobs and hundreds of millions a year in lost revenue from existing income taxes.”
Ending months of speculation, Caruso announced Friday he will not challenge Mayor Karen Bass again, nor will he run for governor in a race that includes billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer.
In Los Angeles, supporters of the “Overpaid CEO Tax” announced outside the Tesla Diner that they must collect 140,000 signatures in the next 120 days to get the measure on the November ballot. The measure would raise taxes on companies whose CEOs make at least 50 times more than their median-paid employee. It would apply only to companies with 1,000 or more employees.
The Fair Games Coalition, a collection of labor groups including the Los Angeles teachers union, is sponsoring the measure, which would allocate 70% of the revenue to housing for working families, 20% to street and sidewalk repairs and 5% to after-school programs and access to fresh food.
Business groups have denounced it, saying it would drive companies out of the city.
“Luxury for a few, while those who cook, who clean, who build, who teach, who write — the people who make the city prosperous — are stretched to the breaking point,” Kurt Petersen, co-president of the airport and hotel workers union Unite Here Local 11, said at Musk’s diner, describing it as an avatar for an unjust L.A. economy.
A similar effort to increase taxes on companies with disproportionately paid CEOs is underway in San Francisco, where voters already approved a levy on such businesses in 2020.
On Friday, Doug Herman, a spokesperson for Bass’ reelection campaign, said she has “not taken a position” on the state or city wealth tax proposals. But at her campaign launch last month, Bass framed the mayoral race as “a choice between working people and the billionaire class who treat public office as their next vanity project.”
Jeremy Padawer, a toy industry executive and animated TV producer who lost his home in the Palisades fire, said the mayor’s framing of the race as a battle against billionaires feels contrived, especially given the intense criticism of her handling of the fire.
Power is as relevant as money, and Bass is “the most powerful person in the room,” said Padawer, who organized the “They Let Us Burn” rally on the one-year anniversary of the fire.
“I know a lot of billionaires,” Padawer said. “And I think that billionaires have a propensity to do a lot of good, but they also have the propensity to do a lot of bad.”
Times staff writer Queenie Wong contributed to this report.
I screamed in glee on Monday when I spotted the smooth rock that forms a natural waterslide just off the Dawn Mine Trail north of Altadena. Water rushed into a deep pool where I’d swum with my dog, Maggie May, several times.
I hadn’t returned to the trail along Millard Creek since the Eaton fire last January, and I was eager to see how the area was doing. I was relieved to find lush California bay laurels growing amid thick sagebrush and other native plants. (And sure, there was a bit of mustard.)
The U.S. Forest Service updated its Eaton fire closure order last week, opening access back up to several beloved spots. That said, the reopening comes with multiple caveats.
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For one, Chaney Trail, the road that leads into Millard Canyon, remains closed by the L.A. County Department of Public Works. Elizabeth Vazquez, a public information officer with the county public works department, said workers are repairing guardrails damaged by the Eaton fire. The road is scheduled to reopen this spring once that work is complete. Until then, visitors can park outside the gate and trek inside to reach the trails.
That said, because multiple agencies have Millard Canyon gate keys, you might get lucky like your local outdoors reporter and find the gate open. (And hopefully you don’t get locked in.)
The sun blankets the mountains near the Mt. Lowe Motorway in a red light.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Additionally, Eaton Canyon Natural Area remains closed, regardless of what your hiking app says. (The app I use claims it is open!)
To add to the confusion, the Forest Service, which has seen massive job cuts under the Trump administration, hasn’t yet updated the Angeles National Forest website to reflect the recent reopenings. You will notice that discrepancy when you visit some of the links I’ve included below.
A view of sunset from the Mt. Lowe Motorway.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
That said, per the forest service’s order, these trails in and around the Eaton fire burn scar are open (albeit with some caveats that I will explain):
Millard Creek is flowing swiftly after January rains.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
Sun casts shadows through the trees along Millard Creek.
(Jaclyn Cosgrove / Los Angeles Times)
As a reminder for when you’re out exploring, State Route 2, including Angeles Crest Highway, through Angeles National Forest remains closed to vehicle traffic from 3.3 miles east of Newcomb’s Ranch to Big Pines Highway. The road was seriously damaged during the recent rainstorms, and there aren’t any estimates on when it will reopen.
🚨The following roads, trails and other areas remain closed, per the Eaton fire closure order: 🚫
Please use great care as you return to these trails. Although trail crews have donated hundreds of hours to their repair, not all work is complete. Along with swift river crossings, you might run into hazards like downed trees or washed-out trails. I like to tell myself when I’m frustrated over needing to turn around that, “The mountains will be there.” It is a reminder that I will almost certainly have another chance to try again.
A trail crew member of the Mt. Wilson Bicycling Assn. moves earth on the Valley Forge Trail during a work day last year.
(Jay Marion)
3 things to do
1. Complete trail work north of Altadena The Mt. Wilson Bicycling Assn. needs volunteers to work on the Mt. Lowe Railway Trail and Middle Sam Merrill from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Volunteers will hike or bike 2.75 miles to the staging area at Cape of Good Hope before hiking farther into the forest to perform trail work. RSVP at eventbrite.com.
2. Restore trails in Baldwin Hills The Nature Nexus Institute and Black Girl Environmentalist’s L.A. Hub will co-host a community habitat restoration event from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. Volunteers will learn about native plants and wildlife as they work. Some work might be off trail. Learn more, including how to RSVP, at the group’s Instagram page.
3. Spot the stars above South El Monte The Whittier Narrows Nature Center will host a stargazing event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday at 1000 N. Durfee Ave. in South El Monte. The free event will feature three telescopes, allowing guests to try to spot Jupiter and other planets. The event is free and open to all ages. Learn more at the center’s Instagram page.
The must-read
A park visitor explores the abundant wildflowers on Henderson Canyon Road in Borrego Springs in late December.
(Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)
When Times photo editor Raul Roa and a friend visited Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in late December, they were delighted to discover the desert floor blanketed with bright sunflowers, deep pink desert sand-verbena and basket evening primrose. Roa wrote that they even spotted the desert lily (Hesperocallis undulata), a native perennial herb known for its large, white, trumpet-shaped flowers. Could this early explosion of flowers mean we will have a superbloom this spring? Jennifer Koles, a nature enthusiast and former docent at Irvine Ranch Conservancy and Orange County Parks, said it’s not a guarantee, but that folks can see it as “an early delight in the desert.” She added, “It all comes down to precipitation.”
For regular updates, flower fans can visit the Anza-Borrego Foundation’s website or call the Wildflower Hotline at (760) 767-4684.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
I’ve gotten several emails from readers who want to know when trails in the Santa Monica Mountains will reopen after being closed because of the Palisades fire. At present, these trails and areas at Topanga State Park remain closed: Rogers Road Trail, Bent Arrow Trail, Josepho Spur Trail, Rustic Canyon Trail, Lower Topanga Day Use Area and Trails, Temescal Canyon Trail, Bienveneda Trail, and Temescal Ridge Trail between the El Medio Connector Trail. Trail crews are busy at work repairing these routes, which you can read more about in last week’s Wild. Dash Stolarz, a spokesperson at Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, told me that all MRCA parks that were affected by the Palisades fire are open except for Temescal Gateway Park. “I wish I knew when Temescal Gateway Park and its trails will open to the public again,” she said. “Soon, but not yet.” I will keep following up with park officials and report what I find in The Wild, as I know these trails are important to a lot of you too!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
Correction: In last week’s Wild, two photo captions listed the incorrect years that the Rubio Canyon Trail Crew completed its work. The photos were taken in December 2025.
A year ago, we were all glued to our phones, namely the Watch Duty app, as we watched fires rip through beloved neighborhoods and landscapes. We braced ourselves for the death toll, the number of homes lost and what was harmed in our beloved mountains.
The Eaton and Palisades fires were the beginning of a crushing year for L.A.
I don’t believe in closure or want to push the idea of resilience, concepts too often forced in these kind of post-disaster narratives. But I do believe in pausing to discern what we have learned over the past year.
I recently spoke with trail crew volunteers, including two who lost their houses in the fires, to get their takes.
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They each shared what’s helped them move through this past year, including what we can learn from the regrowth and recovery of our local forests. I left these conversations feeling inspired by both the natural and human spirit. I hope you will be too.
Lesson 1: Humans are adaptable like the trees and plants
After the devastating 2018 Woolsey fire, which burned much of the Santa Monica Mountains, photographer Jane Simpson made regular pilgrimages to Malibu Creek State Park to document the renewal process. She saw the hillsides start to green, and lupine and other flowers (and mustard) start to bloom.
It helped give her a baseline for what to expect when she started returning to the mountains scorched by the Palisades fire.
Simpson is a member of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter’s Santa Monica Mountains Task Force trail crew, known often by their nickname, the Trailies.
In November, Simpson worked alongside other Trailies on the Bienveneda and Leacock trails in Topanga State Park. The area was badly burned, but still Simpson noticed green sprouts peeking out of the ashy soil and from the branches of trees that the average passerby might assume were dead.
“I just want to think that the trees, the flowers, the [landscape] are not just responding blindly and dumbly — we know they’ve learned to adapt, and humans are learning to adapt as well,” said Simpson, who joined the Trailies in 2017.
Simpson has been forced to adapt. Her home in the Palisades Highlands was among thousands that burned in the Palisades fire, and she alongside her neighbors are grappling with whether to rebuild. Simpson grew up in Mandeville Canyon, and as a kid, she’d head out the door with a sack lunch and friends for a day of unsupervised adventures. It’s hard to imagine not living there.
Trail crew worker Jane Simpson observes a Humboldt’s lily in Santa Ynez Canyon last summer.
(Gaby Valensi)
Before the fire, Simpson could walk out her front door and quickly take one of about five nearby trailheads. She and a neighbor would often “just head out the door and go anywhere,” she said, like the many times they headed along Palisades Drive to Temescal Ridge Trail to Radio Peak, a local name for Temescal Peak.
Those trips helped them learn the local plants and how they changed with the seasons, like how the ceanothus would blossom with blue blooms in early spring. And in Santa Ynez Canyon, Simpson loved spotting the Humboldt’s lilies, knowing the perennials would come back every year.
Even after the devastation of the Palisades fire, she’s seen those lilies return to the same spot they’ve always been.
“A fire-scarred landscape may look dead, but spotting a familiar flower is like seeing old friends,” she said. “It’s reassurance — that some kind of normal is possible. Of course, when it is your own property, there is no normal there, but there is reassurance that for the earth, the wildlife, plants, things will go on, even if I don’t return.”
Lesson 2: We have our own ecological role to play
Trailie crew member Ron Dean is drawn to trail work for creativity. Every 10 minutes, there’s seemingly a new problem the trail crew faces, like, “Where should we put the trail? Should we put the rocks over here? Does this need a drain? How can we move this thing out of the way? It’s wonderful,” he said.
When I asked Dean, who joined the crew 12 years ago, to describe his relationship with the Santa Monica Mountains, he was quick to answer.
“When I’m out in the mountains, I feel like I’m hanging out with my best friend,” Dean said.
A Trailies volunteer works on the Leacock Trail in 2019.
(Jane Simpson)
Dean moved from Wisconsin to L.A. in 1970 for a job and stayed for the climate and landscape. Every Sunday for the past several years, Dean and his son Josh would hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, leaving Dean’s home in the Palisades and often hitting a loop trail to Goat Peak, also referred to by some locals as High Point. After the hike, they’d have brunch and watch football.
That home, which was built in 1951, burned in the Palisades fire. Similar to how he approaches trail work, Dean is looking at how to create a better home for today’s climate, adding solar panels, backup batteries, water recycling and a heat pump system.
Dean is comfortable tackling problems that seemingly have no end. He’s known among his fellow Trailies as the “mustard man” because whenever he sees invasive black mustard — the yellow flowers that cover L.A.’s hillsides in the spring before drying into quick-burning brown twigs — he yanks it out. “Will I win? Of course not,” Dean said.
A member of the Trailies works on Leacock Trail in 2019.
(Jane Simpson)
This is the kind of acceptance Dean has learned from our local mountains — that we can all do our part for as long as we’re here.
Lesson 3: Restoration is a form of reciprocity
In 2012, Rubio Canyon Trail Crew member Sean Green made it his personal mission to restore the Lone Tree Trail in Rubio Canyon. The path, built more than 100 years ago, was constructed so that workers from a municipal water company could reach the utility’s water intakes far into the canyon, Green said.
The trail had been abandoned for decades, but was rediscovered after the 1993 Kinneloa fire ripped through the area. “I decided I loved that trail and I restored it,” Green said.
The Rubio Canyon Trail Crew removes a landslide from the Gooseberry Motorway in 1997.
(Sean Green)
The trail crew’s work is part of a long history of give and take between humans and the canyon.
The lush landscape of chaparral, coast sage scrubs and creek beds was once a stop on the Mount Lowe Railway. The “railway climbed the steep Lake Avenue and crossed the poppy fields into the Rubio Canyon,” according to a local history website. “This part of the trip was called the Mountain Division. At this juncture stood the Rubio Pavilion, a small 12-room hotel. From there the passengers transferred to a cable car funicular which climbed the Great Incline to the top of the Echo Mountain promontory.”
The Rubio Cañon Land and Water Assn. has pulled water from the canyon since the 1880s, delivering it to nearby residents in Altadena. But in the late ’90s, in a still-debated controversy, the water company completed a construction project that sent thousands of yards of debris into the canyon, burying at least three waterfalls.
“Whether by nature’s hand or man’s, with time or with money, Rubio Canyon’s waterfalls will return,” Pasadena Star-News journalist Becky Oskin wrote at the time.
It appears that time has finally come.
Green said heavy rains pushed debris away from the once-covered Maidenhair Falls, a 30-foot cascade named after the Maidenhair ferns that once surrounded it.
The Rubio Canyon Trail Crew, which has worked in the area for more than 25 years, is busy bringing the rest of the canyon’s trails back too.
Claus Boettger, Phil Fujii and Jason Trevor backfill a new retaining wall along the Gooseberry Motorway in 2005. The original road was built in 1923 by Southern California Edison to install electric towers along the foothill ridges. It is now a single-track trail.
(Sean Green)
The Eaton fire ripped through the Rubio Canyon Preserve, seriously damaging the canyon’s chaparral, coast sage scrub and riparian habitats.
Green said his crew has almost finished restoring the Loma Alta Trail and has put in several hours on the Gooseberry Motorway, which takes hikers up and over a ridgeline, eventually into Angeles National Forest. The motorway was originally built by Southern California Edison to install electrical towers, Green said.
The crew has started seeing wildflowers, trees and wildlife all return to the canyon.
“The land is recovering,” Green said. “The Eaton fire caused a lot of damage, burning many houses down and burning the vegetation, but nature is very resilient and it will come back. … The canyon itself is going to take awhile to look like a vegetated canyon bottom because of all the debris that came down, but the rest of Rubio Canyon is going to regrow. It’s going to look pretty, and we’re going to get the trails in shape.”
Lesson 4: Hard work pays off
Lowelifes founder Rob Pettersen repairs a trail in Angeles National Forest.
(Erik Hillard, Lowelifes RCC)
The hiking trails of Angeles National Forest, as a whole, are in far better shape than they were 10 years ago. In spite of repeated wildfires — the Bobcat fire in 2020, the Bridge fire in 2024, the Eaton fire last year — and heavy rains, the trails remain.
I was so focused on the damage of the past year from the Eaton fire and heavy rainfall, I hadn’t zoomed out to consider the bigger picture until I spoke to Rob Pettersen, a founding board member of the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club.
The Lowelifes are among a dedicated coalition of trail crews that dedicate hundreds of hours every year to reestablishing damaged trails by lugging out fallen and dead trees, moving soil and rock, and more.
“We are moving forward, but Mother Nature has other ideas sometimes,” Pettersen said. “There’s no silver bullet for fixing these trails. They just need constant attention. It’s just the nature of our geology.”
Pettersen has volunteered on trail work crews off and on for the past 20 years, most consistently after Lowelifes was founded in 2019. Pettersen enjoys living in Los Feliz, but like most of us, is drawn to the solace and peace that the mountains provide.
After the 2020 Bobcat fire, which burned through Big Santa Anita Canyon and several other beloved places, the Lowelifes focused several months on restoring the Idlehour Trail, a six-mile jaunt through lush woodland.
“This time last year, Idlehour was in some of the best shape it’s ever been — and then it got melted” in the Eaton fire, Pettersen said. “It’s a very popular [and] special place for Lowelifes folks individually, and the fact we had just completed a lot of work there is kind of brutal.”
This ebb and flow of fire and flood, exacerbated by human-caused climate change, he said, is why the Lowelifes focus on restoring trails to a quality that can withstand harsh conditions.
“Even though we’ve had multiple years now where we’ve done a bunch of trail restoration work and then got hit by several inches of rain in 12 hours,” Pettersen said, “the vast majority of the trail mileage holds up because we do good work so the trail isn’t gone. But the trouble spots — the heavy drainages, the cliffy areas — those are always impacted by debris flow. So it’s a bummer, but it also feels good to be making a difference and doing good work for the community.”
Rob Pettersen cuts through a downed log during a Lowelifes work day on trails in Angeles National Forest.
(Matt Baffert, Lowelifes RCC)
Several Lowelife crew members lost their homes or livelihood in the Eaton fire, including Lowelifes president Matt Baffert. Additionally, the fire also burned up the crew’s tools, which were stored at Baffert’s home.
A year later, though, Baffert and others are rebuilding and moving back, Pettersen said.
That’s in large part because the community rallied behind the Lowelifes. The group received several grants and donations, and the Lowelifes as a nonprofit came out of the fire more financially secure than before. Pettersen said so many volunteers showed up to help that the Lowelifes had to turn people away because they couldn’t safely fit everyone who showed up on the trails to work.
“It’s amazing seeing how many people care about our Lowelifes individually and about our trails and our Angeles National Forest,” Pettersen said. “People care about trails, people care about public lands; that’s been positive and we want to keep building on that.”
This month, the Lowelifes plan — rain and snow permitting — to head back to the Idlehour trail.
The work continues.
3 things to do
Hikers with Hearts for Sight and the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter trek along a path together.
(Joan Schipper, Hearts For Sight)
1. Volunteer as a hiker guide in L.A. Hearts For Sight and the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter will host their monthly White Cane Hike at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 18 in Griffith Park. Volunteers are needed to guide blind and visually-impaired hikers on a gentle hike from Franklin’s Cafe & Market to a heliport in the park. The hike is free, and lunch is provided. To register, call Hearts for Sight at (818) 457-1482.
2. Make new friends hiking in Elysian Park LA for the Culture Hiking Club will host a beginner-friendly, free community hike at noon Saturday in Elysian Park. The group will meet at the Grace E. Simons Lodge parking lot before heading onto the Elysian Park West Loop, which offers stunning views of the city. Register at eventbrite.com.
3. Commune with nature and a notebook near Calabasas California State Parks and Santa Monica Mountains Nature Journal Club will host a nature journaling meetup from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Malibu Creek State Park. Participants who are new to nature journaling are invited to take a free introductory course while experienced nature journalers can head into the park. The group will reconvene at noon to share their experiences. Guests are invited to bring a potluck dish to share. Register at eventbrite.com.
The must-read
(Mary Forgione / Los Angeles Times)
One of the first places I go to research a trail is The Times archives because we’ve been writing about the trails and campgrounds of Angeles National Forest for more than 100 years. In all that time, we haven’t slowed down enough to write a comprehensive guide of the forest — until now. I spent the past few months researching and writing what is a part love letter/part guide to help you explore every corner of the 700,000-acre national forest playground that sits right in our backyard. I hope you save this guide and use it for many of your future adventures! I know I will.
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
After the recent rain and snowfall, there are new and serious hazards on our local trails that you must consider before heading out. We have already lost at least three hikers locally this winter. As I’ve written previously, you often need crampons and an ice axe, equipment you need to be experienced using, before heading into a snow hike with elevation gain. I have seen several images on social media of hikers celebrating at the snow-covered Mt. Baldy summit, the highest point in the San Gabriel Mountains, but anyone headed up Baldy needs to understand how dangerous the hike is in winter conditions. As Kyle Fordham, a 36-year-old experienced hiker, told my colleagues, the Devil’s Backbone trail is typically considered the easier option, but it becomes “a death slide” in the winter. “It basically becomes a giant ice cliff,” Fordham said. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can very easily die on it.” If you do run into a fellow hiker in need, please help however you can. It can sometimes be the kindness of a stranger that saves a life. Stay safe out there, friends!
For more insider tips on Southern California’s beaches, trails and parks, check out past editions of The Wild. And to view this newsletter in your browser, click here.
WASHINGTON — President Trump has made broad but vague assertions that the United States is going to “run” Venezuela after the ouster of Nicolás Maduro but has offered almost no details about how it will do so, raising questions among some lawmakers and former officials about the administration’s level of planning for the country after Maduro was gone.
Seemingly contradictory statements from Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have suggested at once that the U.S. now controls the levers of Venezuelan power or that the U.S. has no intention of assuming day-to-day governance and will allow Maduro’s subordinates to remain in leadership positions for now.
Rubio said the U.S. would rely on existing sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector and criminal gangs to wield leverage with Maduro’s successors.
The uncertainty on definitive next steps in Venezuela contrasts with the years of discussions and planning that went into U.S. military interventions that deposed other autocratic leaders, notably in Iraq in 2003, which still did not often lead to the hoped-for outcomes.
‘Disagreement about how to proceed’
The discrepancy between what Trump and Rubio have said publicly has not sat well with some former diplomats.
“It strikes me that we have no idea whatsoever as to what’s next,” said Dan Fried, a retired career diplomat, former assistant secretary of state and sanctions coordinator who served under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“For good operational reasons, there were very few people who knew about the raid, but Trump’s remarks about running the country and Rubio’s uncomfortable walk back suggests that even within that small group of people, there is disagreement about how to proceed,” said Fried who is now with the Atlantic Council think tank.
Supporters of the operation, meanwhile, believe there is little confusion over the U.S. goal.
“The president speaks in big headlines and euphemisms,” said Rich Goldberg, a sanctions proponent who worked in the National Energy Dominance Council at the White House until last year and is now a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish think tank.
Goldberg does not see Rubio becoming “the superintendent of schools” but “effectively, the U.S. will be calling the shots.”
“There are people at the top who can make what we want happen or not, and we right now control their purse strings and their lives,” he said. “The president thinks it’s enough and the secretary thinks it’s enough, and if it’s not enough, we’ll know very soon and we’ll deal with it.”
If planning for the U.S. “to run” Venezuela existed prior to Maduro’s arrest and extradition to face federal drug charges, it was confined to a small group of Trump political allies, according to current U.S. officials, who note that Trump relies on a very small circle of advisers and has tossed aside much of the traditional decision-making apparatus.
These officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their understanding of internal deliberations, said they were not aware of any preparations for either a military occupation or an interim civilian governing authority, which has been a priority for previous administrations when they contemplated going to war to oust a specific leader or government. The White House and the State Department’s press office did not return messages seeking comment.
Long discussion among agencies in previous interventions
Previous military actions that deposed autocratic leaders, notably in Panama in 1989 and Iraq in 2003, were preceded by months, if not years, of interagency discussion and debate over how best to deal with power vacuums caused by the ousters of their leaders. The State Department, White House National Security Council, the Pentagon and the intelligence community all participated in that planning.
In Panama, the George H.W. Bush administration had nearly a full year of preparations to launch the invasion that ousted Panama’s leader Manuel Noriega. Panama, however, is exponentially smaller than Venezuela, it had long experience as a de facto American territory, and the U.S. occupation was never intended to retake territory or natural resources.
By contrast, Venezuela is vastly larger in size and population and has a decadeslong history of animosity toward the United States.
“Panama was not successful because it was supported internationally because it wasn’t,” Fried said. “It was a success because it led to a quick, smooth transfer to a democratic government. That would be a success here, but on the first day out, we trashed someone who had those credentials, and that strikes me as daft.”
He was referring to Trump’s apparent dismissal of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose party is widely believed to have won elections in 2024, results that Maduro refused to accept. Trump said Saturday that Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to be a credible leader and suggested he would be OK with Maduro’s No. 2, Delcy Rodríguez, remaining in power as long as she works with the U.S.
Hoped-for outcomes didn’t happen in Iraq and Afghanistan
Meanwhile, best-case scenarios like those predicted by the George W. Bush administration for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq that it would be a beacon of democracy in the Middle East and hopes for a democratic and stable Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taliban died painfully slow deaths at the tremendous expense of American money and lives after initial euphoria over military victories.
“Venezuela looks nothing like Libya, it looks nothing like Iraq, it looks nothing like Afghanistan. It looks nothing like the Middle East,” Rubio said this weekend of Venezuela and its neighbors. “These are Western countries with long traditions at a people-to-people and cultural level, and ties to the United States, so it’s nothing like that.”
The lack of clarity on Venezuela has been even more pronounced because Trump campaigned on a platform of extricating the U.S. from foreign wars and entanglements, a position backed by his “Make America Great Again” supporters, many of whom are seeking explanations about what the president has in mind for Venezuela.
“Wake up MAGA,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has bucked much of his party’s lockstep agreement with Trump, posted on X after the operation. “VENEZUELA is not about drugs; it’s about OIL and REGIME CHANGE. This is not what we voted for.”
Sen. Rand Paul, also a Kentucky Republican, who often criticizes military interventions, said “time will tell if regime change in Venezuela is successful without significant monetary or human cost.”
“Easy enough to argue such policy when the action is short, swift and effective but glaringly less so when that unitary power drains of us trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, such as occurred in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam,” he wrote on social media.
In addition to the Venezuela operation, Trump is preparing to take the helm of an as-yet unformed Board of Peace to run postwar Gaza, involving the United States in yet another Mideast engagement for possibly decades to come.
And yet, as both the Iraq and Afghanistan experiences ultimately proved, no amount of planning guarantees success.
In an uneven year that saw two billion-dollar hits and a viral “chicken jockey” craze, but also a disastrous first quarter and a nearly 30-year-low at the October box office, the end of December was the last chance for theaters to make up ground.
But even James Cameron and the Na’vi — the latest “Avatar” film has already grossed more than $472 million globally — couldn’t save 2025 from a disappointing conclusion.
Box-office revenue in the U.S. and Canada is expected to total $8.87 billion for the year, up just 1.5% from last year’s disappointing $8.74 billion tally, according to movie data firm Comscore. More troubling is that 2025’s domestic box-office haul is projected to be down more than 20% compared with 2019, before the pandemic changed audiences’ movie-going habits and turbocharged streaming in ways that the exhibition industry is still grappling with.
The problem: Fewer people are buying movie tickets. Theatrical attendance is running below last year’s levels, with an estimated 760 million tickets sold as of Dec. 25, according to media and entertainment data firm EntTelligence. Last year, total ticket sales for 2024 exceeded 800 million.
Part of the explanation for the falloff in cinema revenue and admissions lies in the movies themselves.
Industry experts and theater owners say the quality and frequency of releases led to dips in the calendar that put extra pressure on the other movies to perform. Once-reliable genres such as comedies and dramas are facing a much tougher time in theaters, and female moviegoers — who came out in droves in 2023 for “Barbie” — were underserved in a year that largely skewed toward male-leaning blockbusters.
“It’s fair to say that 2025 didn’t quite reach the levels many of us expected at the start of the year,” Eduardo Acuna, chief executive of Regal Cineworld, said in a statement. “A big part of that comes down to a lack of depth in the release schedule, and the struggle of many smaller titles to break through.”
Even big-name stars such as Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Dwayne Johnson and Sydney Sweeney couldn’t prop up attendance for films such as Sony Pictures’ “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey,” A24’s “The Smashing Machine” and Black Bear Pictures’ “Christy,” all of which flopped.
And despite the critical acclaim and stacked cast list for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” the film has stalled domestically at $71 million, with a global total of $205 million.
“One Battle After Another” had a budget of about $130 million, while “The Smashing Machine” reportedly cost $50 million and has grossed just $21 million worldwide.
“The challenge facing Hollywood is how to reconcile the budgets of these films with how much they can earn in theaters and down the road, eventually, in streaming,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore.
Universal Pictures’ “Wicked: For Good” hauled in more than $324 million, but it was one of few big blockbusters targeted to women. (Taylor Swift’s “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” which brought in $50 million globally, was another.)
Though the summer was marked by a number of big films, including Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios’ “Superman,” Universal’s “Jurassic World Rebirth” and Apple’s “F1 The Movie,” most were geared toward male audiences.
Female-focused films are “are few and far between,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations, an entertainment data and research firm. “There should be something for everyone playing most of the time, and that isn’t the case.”
To be sure, there were some bright spots for the industry, including success from young audiences.
Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” was the highest-grossing domestic film this year, with $423.9 million. Close behind was Walt Disney Co.’s live-action adaptation “Lilo & Stitch,” which collected $423.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and a total of $1 billion worldwide.
Counting those two, five of the year’s top 10 domestic-grossing films had PG ratings, including “Wicked: For Good,” Disney’s animated “Zootopia 2” and Universal’s live-action “How to Train Your Dragon.”
“In general, the good news about the year is that most of the big hits involved young audiences,” said Tom Rothman, chair and CEO chief executive of Sony Pictures’ motion picture group. “There is a bit of a youth-quake.”
Disney capitalized on the big year for family-friendly fare.
The Burbank entertainment giant recently crossed $6 billion at the global box office for the year, powered by billion-dollar hits such as “Lilo & Stitch” and “Zootopia 2,” and marking the company’s biggest year since 2019. (Though it wasn’t all sunny for Disney this year, as Pixar’s original animated film “Elio” misfired, as did the live-action film, “Snow White,” which was mired in controversy.)
Another notable youth driver was “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle” from Sony Pictures in partnership with its anime banner, Crunchyroll. The film had a massive opening weekend haul of $70 million in July on its way to a domestic gross of $134 million and a global total of $715 million, highlighting the increasing popularity of anime.
“The mainstreaming of anime at the theatrical box office is a really significant part of what happened this year and a really good sign,” Rothman said. “You’re bringing in young audiences.”
Not surprisingly, established intellectual property — whether video games, known franchises, novels or comic books — still topped the charts this year, with nine of the top 10 domestic films tied to an existing title.
That familiarity at the box office counts when moviegoers, particularly families, are looking for movies to watch. Viewers can be choosy about how they spend their cash and time, and may not always want to gamble on a movie they’ve never heard of.
“Meaningful IP still has an advantage in getting people to come to the theater, though it’s not the only way to do it,” said Adam Fogelson, chair of Lionsgate’s motion picture group, which saw success this year with an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel “The Long Walk,” as well as franchise film “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.”
Horror flicks also scared up plenty of business in 2025. Warner Bros., in particular, had a string of wins in fearful films, including Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” and “Final Destination Bloodlines.”
In one notable exception, Blumhouse had a rare miss with “M3GAN 2.0,” the follow-up to the 2022 cult favorite. In an interview on “The Town” podcast, Blumhouse Productions Chief Executive Jason Blum blamed the sequel’s shortcomings on a change in genre from the original.
As 2025 draws to a close, industry insiders and theater owners are more optimistic about next year’s box office prospects.
Several big films are set to release in 2026, including Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated “The Odyssey,” Disney and Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Doomsday,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” as well as Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” from Universal, Nintendo and Illumination Entertainment.
That anticipation is also clouded by the uncertainty of the impending Warner Bros. deal and what that will mean for movie releases.
Many cinema owners fear that a takeover by Netflix will limit or eliminate the theatrical exclusivity of Warner Bros. films, though Netflix executives have said they will honor the company’s current and future commitments to the big screen. And if Paramount were to buy the company, theatrical exhibitors fear that the number of films would decrease, leaving them with less content to show. (Paramount CEO David Ellison has said the company did not plan to release fewer movies.)
Any deal is expected to take at least a year to complete.
In the meantime, Hollywood will wait to see how strong the 2026 slate truly is.
“There are a lot of great titles out there, and that’s why people have been calling 2026 a return to form,” said Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “Even though 2026 is very promising, can Hollywood keep delivering year-in and year-out?”
