California

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      What to Know About the Park Fire, the 4th Largest in California History

      by

      The rapidly spreading fire has consumed over 426,000 acres since it started burning in late July. The Park fire, the largest wildfire currently burning in the United States, has torn through over 426,000 acres in Northern California in recent weeks and has destroyed hundreds of homes and other structures.The fire ballooned in size in a matter of days, and it is the largest blaze in California so far this year. Thousands of firefighters and other personnel, some from as far as Utah and Texas, are battling the fire, which was 34 percent contained as of Wednesday.The hot and dry weather has made it difficult for firefighters to suppress the blaze, which is spreading northeast within Lassen National Forest and “ascending slopes with critically dry fuel,” according to Cal Fire. But forecasters say the coming days could bring lower temperatures and higher humidity levels in the fire zone. Current unseasonably warm temperatures are expected to steadily fade and give way to highs in the 70s next week.“It’s not a dramatic change, it’s slow. But each day is getting a little better,” said Eric Kurth, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Sacramento. “That’s certainly helpful.”Here’s what to know about the fire.The Park fire has burned more than 426,000 acres.Loren Elliott for The New York TimesWhen and how did the fire start?The fire ignited on July 24 near Chico, a college town in Butte County, north of Sacramento. After igniting, the fire exploded to more than 120,000 acres by the next day and then nearly doubled in size the night after that. Officials said the cause of the fire was arson.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      San Bernadino Fire Destroys Homes and Forces Evacuations in California

      by

      A blaze in San Bernardino burned suburban homes and threatened others nearby, adding to an already intense California fire season.A fast-moving brush fire burned homes and forced evacuations in the inland California city of San Bernardino on Monday afternoon. Shocking views of the fire tearing across a residential hillside stoked fears that an already dangerous fire season could threaten the more populated parts of the state.The fire in the Southern California city, about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, has grown to 100 acres and burned multiple buildings, said Eric Sherwin, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department. Residents of dozens of homes in the Shandin Hills neighborhood are under evacuation orders, and the county has set up an evacuation center at a nearby elementary school.Multiple suburban houses with tile roofs could be seen on live TV engulfed in flames on Monday afternoon.The fire was first reported at 2:40 p.m. in a northern San Bernardino neighborhood, where firefighters found a grass fire spreading quickly. Very dry weather and temperatures approaching 110 degrees conspired to “allow this fire to move at a ridiculously rapid clip,” Mr. Sherwin said.The fire, which has been named the Edgehill fire, is zero percent contained, and 200 firefighters from various agencies are battling the blaze.In San Bernardino, gusty winds coming from the southwest on Monday were helping to push the fire up a hill where many of the homes were perched, said Sam Zuber, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in San Diego, which provides forecasts for the San Bernardino region.“That’s probably why it’s been so difficult for them to get containment,” Ms. Zuber said, adding that low humidity and high temperatures were further fueling the fire. “It’s the perfect conditions for it to spread right up to the ridge top.”California has had a particularly bad fire season so far after scorching temperatures this summer parched the heavy vegetation that grew over the two past wet winters. Those dry grasses and brush have turned into abundant fuel.Hundreds of miles to the north, the Park fire began nearly two weeks ago near Chico and has ballooned into the fourth-largest fire in California history, spreading more than 403,000 acres. The fire, which is 34 percent contained, is expected to keep expanding, though its growth has slowed over the past week.That fire alone has burned more acres than all of the fires in California did last year combined, according to Cal Fire. This year, more than 778,000 acres have burned statewide, compared with roughly 325,000 acres in all of 2023, and the peak of the fire season has not yet arrived. More

    • 113 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Doug Emhoff, Husband of Kamala Harris, Acknowledges Long-Ago Affair

      by

      Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, said on Saturday that he had an extramarital affair during his first marriage, years before he met Ms. Harris.The acknowledgment, which was released in a statement, came hours after a British tabloid reported that Mr. Emhoff had a previously undisclosed relationship with a teacher who worked at the elementary school his children attended in Culver City, Calif., approximately 15 years ago.At the time, Mr. Emhoff, an entertainment lawyer, was married to Kerstin Emhoff, a film producer, with whom he had two children. The couple filed for divorce in 2009. Mr. Emhoff met Ms. Harris in 2013, and they married the following year.“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions,” Mr. Emhoff said in the statement. “I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side.”The Biden campaign was aware of the affair before it decided to tap Ms. Harris as vice president in 2020, according to a person familiar with the vetting process, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In addition, this person said that Ms. Harris knew of the affair before she married Mr. Emhoff in 2014.According to an article published by The Daily Mail on Saturday, Mr. Emhoff had the relationship with a woman who at the time worked as a teacher at The Willows Community School, a private school in west Los Angeles.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      Tulsa Creates Commission on Reparations for Race Massacre

      by

      The NewsThe mayor of Tulsa, Okla., announced on Thursday the creation of a commission tasked with developing a plan for reparations for the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history. The commission will study how reparations can be made to survivors of the massacre and their descendants, as well as residents of North Tulsa.Community members, activists, city leaders, clergy and children prayed in 2019 beside two grave markers for victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.Joseph Rushmore for The New York TimesWhy It MattersDuring the 1921 massacre, white mobs burned Greenwood, a prosperous neighborhood known as Black Wall Street, to the ground. As many as 300 Black people were killed, hundreds more were injured, and thousands were left homeless. City officials, historians and the courts acknowledge that the massacre has led to generations of racial inequity in Tulsa.Calls for reparations in Tulsa are longstanding and have resulted in apologies, a scholarship program and other actions, but not direct financial redress.The last two known survivors of the massacre, now centenarians, have pursued reparations through the courts, but the Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed their case in June.Two reports — one from a commission created by the State Legislature in 2001 and one by a group of Tulsa residents in 2023 — recommended reparations, including financial compensation. The commission announced Thursday, named the Beyond Apology Commission, follows the 2023 report’s calls for the city to create a group to examine and carry out a reparations program.Mayor G.T. Bynum, a Republican, has signaled that he wants this body to make recommendations that would result in tangible action. He wrote a social media post this week that the commission is not intended to be merely a “study group.”He also noted that part of the group’s mission is to produce a plan for a housing equity program by the end of November. (The mayor, who created the commission by executive order, is not seeking re-election, and his term will end in December.)Funds that could be used for that program have already been approved by voters, the mayor said.The debate over reparations has at times divided the city. In 2021, a dispute over who should compensate the survivors and their descendants preceded the sudden cancellation of an event commemorating the 100th anniversary of the massacre.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Passenger Who Tried to Open Cockpit Gets 19 Months in Prison

      by

      Juan Rivas, who threatened flight attendants with a champagne bottle and a plastic knife, tried to open an exit door of an American Airlines plane, prosecutors said.A California man who tried to intimidate flight attendants on an American Airlines flight using plastic silverware from a service cart and a glass champagne bottle, and then tried unsuccessfully to open an exit door and the cockpit, was sentenced on Wednesday to 19 months in prison.The man, Juan Remberto Rivas, 52, was arrested and charged with interfering with flight crew members on Feb. 13, 2022, after a flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.During the flight, Mr. Rivas, who, according to court records, admitted to using methamphetamines before the flight, began to panic and told flight attendants that the plane was not moving and that his family was in danger, court records said.His behavior led to a physical struggle that forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Mo.Mr. Rivas, who pleaded guilty in January, had faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison but prosecutors sought a sentence of 41 to 51 months despite him threatening to “bring down the plane,” court records and the attorney’s office said.“The government believes that the defendant’s actions were reckless because of his use of methamphetamine, rather than an intentional effort to bring down the aircraft,” the prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul S. Becker, argued in a sentencing memorandum.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Elections

      ‘I Was a Childless Cat Lady’: Women Respond to JD Vance

      by

      More from our inbox:Clearing Homeless EncampmentsFood and Gas PricesThe Roger Maris FireThe selection of Senator JD Vance of Ohio as former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate was supposed to appeal to women, voters of color and blue-collar voters, but a stream of years-old comments has threatened to undermine that.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Past Comments Fluster Vance as Democrats Go on Offense” (front page, July 29):JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said in 2021, “We’re effectively run, in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”I would say this to Mr. Vance:I was a childless cat lady: three cats, no kids.I thought fertility was a given. There was no medical reason I couldn’t have children. Yet it did not happen. Three cats. A great career. No kids.I was, in effect at 38, a “childless cat lady.”I pursued fertility treatments. Treatments that many Republicans want to ban.I had painful tests, surgeries, running to the lab — five vials of blood drawn every day at 6 a.m. — then rushing to work for a minimum 12-hour day.Childless cat lady lawyer. Meow.I had one fabulous child at 38 with I.V.F. She was a triplet, but I lost my daughter’s siblings.I was pregnant three other times. I lost two other babies at four months. I needed a D and C: same procedure as an abortion. If I didn’t have the surgery, I would have died.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Lithium Battery Fire Traps Drivers in Sweltering Heat on California Highway

      by

      Traffic was at a standstill for hours on a portion of I-15 near Baker, Calif., after a truck carrying lithium batteries overturned and caught fire.Drivers were stuck in traffic in 109-degree heat on a California highway on Saturday for hours as the authorities struggled to extinguish a fire involving a truck carrying lithium ion batteries that had overturned on Friday.Emergency services received calls around 6:30 a.m. local time about a truck that had crashed near Baker, Calif., in the northbound lanes of I-15, a major highway that leads travelers to Las Vegas.The northbound lanes were closed beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the southbound lanes at 9 a.m. The southbound lanes reopened shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the California Highway Patrol.The northbound lanes remained closed as of 5 p.m. on Saturday, according to the California Department of Transportation.The California Highway Patrol said it had cleared the backlog of stuck vehicles on the closed highway by rerouting them to I-40. But that, in turn, had caused “extremely heavy” traffic on that highway, which the agency described as “the only alternative” because of the location of the closure on I-15.“Multiple attempts were made to move the container from the freeway shoulder to open land using heavy equipment,” the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District said on social media on Saturday. “However, the container’s weight, exceeding 75,000 pounds, has made these efforts unsuccessful so far.”The fire district said it was monitoring the air quality “due to the hazardous materials and chemicals involved.”Emergency responders were checking for hydrogen cyanide, chlorine and sulfur dioxide, the district said, adding, “These chemicals pose significant health risks at elevated levels, with hydrogen cyanide and chlorine being particularly dangerous even at low concentrations.”Lithium ion batteries, which are used in many electronic devices, including e-bikes and electric cars, contain highly flammable materials. If ignited, the batteries burn hot and are very difficult to put out.The fire district noted on social media that lithium ion battery fires “can escalate to thermal runaway, needing massive amounts of water to extinguish.”Videos posted on social media from drivers on the highway traveling in the opposite direction showed long lines of vehicles at a complete stop.The California Highway Patrol did not provide an estimate of how long drivers had been stuck on I-15, noting that travel patterns vary, nor was it clear how many drivers had been stranded.But some on social media said they had been stopped in traffic for six hours and expressed concern about running out of gas or electric cars running out of charge.“The closure of the northbound side was moved further south,” the California Highway Patrol said in an email, adding that this move “allowed motorists to utilize alternate routes.”Saturday was an exceptionally hot day in Baker, with temperatures reaching the triple digits.The fire district, which could not be immediately reached for comment, advised people to travel with plenty of water and to “ensure you have enough supplies, fuel and charge in your vehicle.” More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      Clear Encampments? Mind Your Own Business, Los Angeles Says.

      by

      In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declaration urging cities to clear homeless camps met its strongest opposition in Los Angeles.Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared this week wearing work gloves and Ray-Ban sunglasses as he hauled a garbage bag from under a freeway overpass in California. His message was obvious: He wanted state and local officials to clear out homeless encampments, just as he was doing, and he had signed an executive order to spur them into action.“There are no longer any excuses,” Mr. Newsom said in a video statement that was released Thursday and filmed at an encampment where everything from a box fan to a plastic kiddie pool had been stashed.Hours later, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, responded with her own set of visuals from a different encampment cleanup in the nation’s second-largest city. Ms. Bass pointedly emphasized that 15 residents whom the city had displaced from this particular encampment had been “brought inside.”The clearing of encampments has long been framed as a partisan issue, with Democrats on one side reluctant to remove homeless people and Republicans on the other demanding citations and arrests. But in California, where Democrats dominate the state government and run its largest cities, the matter has become an intraparty dispute, especially after a Supreme Court decision last month gave local officials greater authority to crack down on encampments.Nowhere was Mr. Newsom’s executive order met Thursday with more scorn than in Los Angeles, where the public defenders who serve homeless clients called his move “completely unconscionable.” Los Angeles County supervisors, who represent nearly 10 million people, intend to make it clear next week that the county’s jails will not serve as makeshift shelters for homeless people.And Ms. Bass’s retort served as a statement that Los Angeles leaders believe they can handle the homelessness crisis in their city just fine, thank you, without interference from Mr. Newsom.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More