Special Projects

This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into the 2025 California wildfires. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here. This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic […]

When driving through the streets of Pacific Palisades, Latino workers are seen sifting through debris in search of anything salvageable. Trying to clear the properties to prepare for the demolition and rebuilding process for their employers, people are seen at work throughout the neighborhood. In the distance, the crashing of the waves, the whistling of […]

Santa Monica resident Susan Suntree stood on the beach in Santa Monica. Five miles from the burn zone, the environmental impact could still be seen and felt. The once picturesque beach was covered in a thick layer of ash and debris, turning the golden sand black. “I wanted to take my dog but they’re saying […]

Environmental journalist Ray Ford is based in Santa Barbara, California, and has been there his whole life. When he first got on the phone, Ford wanted the reporter to have a mental picture of the area in which they were traveling. He described the geology of the land, the ways the mountains don’t only move […]

Elvis Santiago moved to Los Angeles from Mexico in 2001 when he was 21 and after two years was able to start his landscaping business. He was able to branch out his business to Pacific Palisades where he has worked ever since. Unfortunately, due to the impacts caused by the fires, work for Santiago has […]

Malibu’s Reel Inn was more than a seafood restaurant. No one knows that better than Teddy Leonard, the Inn’s co-owner. “It seemed to be appreciated by many,” said Leonard. “I mean, we would have surfers in line with actors, in line with homeless people, in line with movie executives. You had families, you had everybody. […]

On a day that started like any other, Peter Lamden, owner of “Peter Lamden Salon” in the Pacific Palisades, noticed smoke billowing on the horizon just minutes after receiving emergency alerts. Having grown up in the area, he instantly recognized the danger. He reached out to his childhood best friend, whose home became the first […]

Business and community leaders in Pacific Palisades and Malibu have a deep love for their small towns. It’s inspired them to lead the charge for recovery after the Palisades Fire. This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into the 2025 California wildfires. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the […]

This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into the 2025 California wildfires. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available here. This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic […]

Lying on a hill, a 185-acre state park sits surrounded by the neighborhoods and the mountains that tower behind it. Charred Eucalyptus trees dot the mountain terrain, leaving traces of the bright green they once brought. Ashy wind blows the faces of workers traversing the now barren landscape. Debris-filled holes take the place of what […]

The air is muggy and dense in downtown Pacific Palisades – more accurately, what’s left of it. A once-bustling Sunset Boulevard is now eerily vacant, with only a few charred buildings spared from destruction. Along the side of a parking lot that used to serve a now-ravaged Ralph’s grocery store, half-a-dozen food trucks line the […]

Joshua Simpson lost years upon years of photography work when his home went up in flames. Negatives, prints and equipment were lost, but those things are not what he thinks about the most. “The thing I think about a lot is I had my grandfather’s and grandmother’s Bibles, like their Bibles they had for the […]