In a visit to Pacific Palisades on Wednesday, top White House officials vowed to take over and speed up building permitting, a core state and local function, for rebuilding after the Los Angeles wildfires.

Administrators for the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, and Small Business Administration, Kelly Loeffler, also held a discussion with Palisades fire victims and met with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger in a closed-door meeting about how to hasten rebuilding and address issues such as insurance payouts and wildfire prevention.

“Our conversations with Mayor Bass and Supervisor Barger about accelerating the rebuilding process in Los Angeles were productive,” Zeldin said. “Administrator Loeffler and I, on behalf of President Trump, asked these local elected officials to join us in this urgent effort, and I am hopeful great progress will be made in the days and weeks ahead.”

The visit followed a Jan. 27 executive order signed by President Trump to allow victims of the Eaton and Palisades fires to go around “unnecessary, duplicative, or obstructive” state and local permitting processes.

Instead of going through building departments, such as the city of Los Angeles for the Palisades, or the county for Altadena, builders can instead “self-certify” that they have complied with state and local health and safety standards, if they are using federal emergency funds to rebuild, the order says.

The Small Business Administration has already launched a self-certification tool online, available to applicants who have been waiting more than 60 days for a building permit.

Loeffler said the “check and balance” will come from city and county inspections that must happen before a property is certified for occupancy.

Neither official could immediately recall another instance of the federal government preempting state and local permitting processes for disaster recovery, with Zeldin noting that “nothing like [these wildfires] has ever happened before.”

The visit underscored diverging narratives about the rebuilding process in L.A. While Trump described it as a “nightmare of delay, uncertainty, and bureaucratic malaise” in his executive order, state and local officials said construction is underway and permitting is not the issue.

“Both administrators were engaged — sharing the President’s concerns while also listening to what I am seeing on the ground in Altadena,” Barger said in a statement to The Times. “I emphasized that 53% of impacted residents have taken no action to rebuild, not because of permitting delays, but because they lack the capital to move forward — an issue exacerbated by delayed insurance payouts. Many families have not submitted plans or entered the County’s rebuilding pipeline and are now facing a serious financial crisis.”

She added that the county’s current timeline for completing permit reviews is 31 business days.

Bass, who is facing renewed scrutiny after an analysis of the Palisades fire was watered down, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Wednesday’s meeting.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a post on X following the executive order, that hundreds of homes are under construction, and that permitting timelines are at least twice as fast as before the fires. He said the president continues to withhold a federal aid package that would help families rebuild.

“The Feds need to release funding, not take over local permit approval speed — the main obstacle is COMMUNITIES NOT HAVING THE MONEY TO REBUILD,” the governor said.

Last month, on the anniversary of the fires, a bipartisan delegation of California legislators also penned a letter to Trump calling for additional federal support.

A December analysis by The Times found that permitting has gained momentum after a slow start, with the pace slower than after some disasters in the state, and faster than others.

As of Wednesday, more than 3,170 rebuilding permits have been issued in the fire areas, according to city and county dashboards.

But Zeldin used the opportunity to take jabs at Newsom, describing his approach to federal funding requests as “flawed.”

“The whole ask has been completely stepped on by the governor’s effort to campaign for president — to try to lob 11 insults a day and somehow fit in an ask for tens of billions of dollars in the middle of it,” he said. “It’s just not a good strategy.”

He declined to say whether additional funding will come from Congress, or how much.

Some Palisades residents said they would welcome whatever support they can get. Among them was Abby Waldorf, whose parents both lost their homes in the Tahitian Terrace mobile home park during the Palisades fire.

Waldorf said mobile homes don’t qualify for many city and state recovery programs, such as mortgage relief and disaster recovery aid, so they are “most at risk of not coming back.”

“Our community is very supportive of anyone that will help us move back quickly,” she said, “and at this point we haven’t seen that happen at the city, county or state level yet, and so anyone who can come in and do the job is welcome.”

Casual conversation in Hollywood often drifted to a familiar question: “Will Bob extend his contract again?”

Walt Disney Co.’s board had initially set Chief Executive Bob Iger’s target retirement date for 2015. The board instead renewed his contract multiple times, then called him back in 2022 — nearly a year after he had retired — when the last leadership handoff famously unraveled.

Disney’s struggles with succession over the decades have become epic dramas filled with false starts, larger-than-life leaders reticent to go and allegations of hollow searches for a new CEO. Twenty-plus years ago, one candidate for the top job — former Ebay and Hewlett-Packard chief Meg Whitman — withdrew from the running, suggesting the fix was in.

Disney’s board at the time wanted to give Iger, a longtime ABC executive who had toiled years in the shadow of former Chief Executive Michael Eisner, a shot.

With all that history, Disney’s board recognized its imperative of choreographing a meticulous transition. Iger, 74, was ready to go, and the process to find his successor was certain to go under the microscope.

“We had to be open — we couldn’t be questioned on it,” Disney Chairman James Gorman told The Times in an interview to shed light on what, until this week, had been a closely guarded boardroom process. “We didn’t just want to have this as a rigged game.”

This week, Disney’s board unanimously approved the selection of 54-year-old parks chief Josh D’Amaro to succeed Iger on March 18 when the company holds its annual meeting with shareholders. The switch will mark the end of an era, as Iger has been a towering presence in Hollywood for more than 20 years.

Two years of planning led up to D’Amaro’s selection. When Iger’s last successor, Bob Chapek, was ousted in November 2022, Disney’s board announced that Iger would return to serve as CEO for just two years.

But a series of high-level executive departures had thinned Disney’s executive bench. The board later acknowledged it needed additional time to plan succession and Iger’s contract was extended again, this time to December 2026.

Gorman — a former chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley — joined Disney’s board in the fall of 2024. He became chairman in January 2025 and succession planning began in earnest. Unlike in early 2020, when Iger was in charge of the board that tapped Chapek, this time the board formed a succession committee comprised of current and former CEOs of different firms.

The committee, led by Gorman, included General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra, former CEO of Lululemon Athletica Calvin McDonald; and the former head of Britain’s Sky broadcasting, Sir Jeremy Darroch.

The search began with a list of about 100 potential candidates, Gorman said, including names provided by search firm Heidrick & Struggles. The group eventually culled the list to 30, he said, then narrowed it even more. They met with a few outsiders.

“We wanted to see what was out there … but it’s always difficult to go outside for any company,” Gorman said, adding that typically happens during a crisis, such as an abrupt CEO retirement due to illness or some other unforeseen event.

“You don’t take somebody from the industrials world and plop them in a media company,” he said. “That’s just too big a lift.”

Increasing the challenge, the 102-year-old company has a distinct corporate culture — one that still pays homage to founder Walt and instills in its employees (known internally as cast members) the need to serve as guardians of Disney’s treasured characters and brands.

Any outside pick would have been a risky bet.

Four Disney executives were under evaluation. D’Amaro, television and streaming chief Dana Walden, movie chief Alan Bergman and ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro were all viewed as contenders for the job.

The board spent months sizing up strengths and weaknesses of external and internal candidates. Candidates made presentations to the board, laid out their visions for Disney’s future, received mentoring from Iger and spent hours meeting with Gorman and other succession committee members as well as the full board.

Hopefuls were questioned on their visions for the company. They were quizzed about such topics as teamwork and corporate culture.

“We wanted to know that whomever we picked beat all comers,” Gorman said. “And our people stress-tested unbelievably well. Yes, the [Disney executives] were given a huge advantage because they understand the culture, it’s a very unique culture, but it wasn’t just that.

“They were capable and they were ready,” Gorman said.

The board increasingly became comfortable with D’Amaro — who joined the company 28 years ago in Disneyland’s accounting division. For the past six years, D’Amaro has run Disney’s parks and experiences division, which now is the company’s largest business unit amid the decline of traditional television.

Walt Disney Co.’s board named Josh D’Amaro, right, as the new chief executive. Dana Walden, left, who is co-chairman of Disney Entertainment, will step into the role as president and chief creative officer.

(Walt Disney Company)

The board also carved out a new role as president and chief creative officer for longtime television executive Walden, 61, who becomes the first woman to serve as Disney’s president.

Gorman said Walden, 61, was impressive.

“She’s a strong leader. She’s decisive. She’s got great creative chops,” Gorman said. “She’s worked well with Alan Bergman as co-chair of entertainment. The idea is to ensure we bring creativity to all parts of the company and in all corners of the world.”

“A new CEO is massively, positively enabled by having their team, if they’re capable,” Gorman said. “And we are blessed with [our team] in place.”

Netflix Inc. Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos pledged to maintain a 45-day theatrical window for Warner Bros. films during a Senate subcommittee hearing Tuesday.

Sarandos also tried to dampen concerns about potential job losses and U.S. production declines related to the companies’ proposed multibillion-dollar deal.

During a two-hour hearing before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, Sarandos told lawmakers the proposed merger would not run afoul of antitrust concerns and would, instead, “strengthen the American entertainment industry.”

About 80% of HBO Max subscribers also have Netflix subscriptions, which he said showed the two services were “complementary.” Netflix also plans to increase its film and television production spending to $26 billion this year, with a majority of that happening in the U.S., he said.

“We are doubling down, even as much of the industry has pulled back,” Sarandos said, according to a written transcript of his opening remarks. “With this deal, we’re going to increase, not reduce, production investments going forward, supported by a stronger combined business and balance sheet.”

Sarandos was joined at the hearing by Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell.

When asked by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) whether senators should expect a “round of layoffs” or consumer price increases as a result of the deal, Campbell said no. He pointed to Netflix’s lack of comparable film and TV studios, or the distribution infrastructure that Warner Bros. has.

“We believe, based on our discussions with them in the negotiation process, that they’re not only going to keep those operations intact, in fact, they’re going to invest in those operations and invest in continued production, including on our lots in Burbank and elsewhere,” Campbell said.

Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison was also invited to appear as a witness, but declined because he did not believe it would be useful or helpful since the company’s bid for Warner had been rejected, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said during the hearing. Ellison did, however, meet with him and other senators privately to answer questions, Booker said.

Sarandos also tried to assuage concerns about the deal’s potential effect on theatrical distribution.

“I know I’ve earned some skepticism over there over the years on this because I was talking a lot about Netflix’s business model, which was different from that,” he said. “We didn’t own a theatrical distributor before. We do now, and a great one.”

When asked if the 45-day window would be “self-enforced,” Sarandos agreed, saying that was an industry standard. He did, however, note the general caveat that “routinely, movies that underperform, the window moves a little bit” but is still referred to as a 45-day window.

And in a sign of the growing role politics has played in the perception of the deal, Sarandos tried to sidestep questions from Republican senators about perceived “woke” content on the streaming platform, as well as inquiries from Booker about President Trump’s involvement in the merger. Trump previously said he “would be involved” in his administration’s decision to approve any deal.

The hearing comes just two months after Netflix prevailed in a hotly contested bidding war for Warner Bros. The $72-billion deal would dramatically reshape the Hollywood landscape and give the streamer control over Warner Bros.’ storied Burbank film and TV studios, its lot, HBO and HBO Max.

Netflix also agreed to take on more than $10 billion in Warner Bros. debt, pushing the enterprise value of the transaction to $82.7 billion.

But Paramount has continued to pursue the company, fighting to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its cable networks.

The company, led by Ellison, has made a direct appeal to Warner shareholders to tender their shares in support of a Paramount deal. A deadline for that offer was recently extended to Feb. 20.

Paramount has also filed proxy materials to ask Warner shareholders to reject the Netflix deal at an upcoming shareholders meeting.