L.A. fires kill 5. Death toll expected to rise as several blazes rage unabated
Washington Post, January 9, 2025 at 2:44 p.m.
Out-of-control wildfires are raging across greater Los Angeles, killing at least five people, devouring neighborhoods and forcing the evacuation of about 180,000 people as the blazes enter their third day. An additional 200,000 people are under evacuation warnings.
L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said he expects the death toll to rise. There are now five active wildfires burning in Los Angeles County, according to Cal Fire; some areas “look like a bomb was dropped on them,” Luna said.
The Palisades Fire, which has burned 17,234 acres, is “one of the most destructive fires in the history of Los Angeles,” Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said. The Eaton Fire, at 10,600 acres, remains uncontained. The Sunset Fire has burned 60 acres since it started Wednesday in the Hollywood Hills. High wind speeds, which fueled the blazes, decreased overnight, but another wind surge is forecast for late Thursday into Friday, with gusts up to 60 mph.
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** Updated ** The links to bills are updated and active
The New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee will meet at 11 a.m. January 13, in Committee Room 6. on the first floor of the State House Annex. The following bills will be considered:
S1029 (Greenstein/Smith) – Prohibits sale, distribution, import, export or propagation of certain invasive species without permit from Department of Agriculture; establishes NJ Invasive Species Council.
S1033 (Greenstein) – Requires DEP to study indoor air quality at public schools, develop list of common indoor air contaminants at public schools, and establish guidance regarding potential mitigation measures.
S2840 (Singer) – Directs DEP to lift conservation restrictions imposed as condition of CAFRA permit under certain conditions.
S3287 (Smith/McKeon) – Provides gross income tax deduction for amounts paid to taxpayers for sale of certain real property interests for conservation purposes.
S3737 (Zwicker) – Revises requirements for certain greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and reporting activities.
(The public may address comments and questions to Christina Denney, Eric Hansen, Committee Aides, or make bill status and scheduling inquiries to Stephanie Cenneno, Secretary, at 609-847-3855, fax 609-292-0561, or e-mail: OLSAideSEN@njleg.org. Written and electronic comments, questions and testimony submitted to the committee by the public, as well as recordings and transcripts, if any, of oral testimony, are government records and will be available to the public upon request.)
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Over the past few years, Elon Musk has expanded his footprint in Texas, moving his companies from California and building offices, warehouses and manufacturing plants across a growing number of Texas counties.
Now Mr. Musk is trying to do something that few, if any, titans of industry have done in a century: create his own company town.
Mr. Musk has long talked about his desire to make a new town — which he hopes to call Starbase — in coastal South Texas, where his rocket launch company, SpaceX, is based.
For years, the plan did not appear to be moving forward in any official way, in part because creating a new municipality in Texas requires a certain number of residents and support from a majority of voters.
But in that time, SpaceX employees have packed into newly refurbished midcentury homes and temporary housing — some of it in the form of silver Airstream trailers — in the shadow of the company’s rockets.
Then this month, company employees who live around its offices and launch site took the first major step toward incorporating a town, gathering signatures and filing an official petition to hold an election.
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By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor, from combined news sources
Los Angeles is grappling with a wildfire crisis of unprecedented scale, with multiple blazes consuming vast stretches of land, destroying homes, and leaving communities reeling. Driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, record drought conditions, and a plunging jet stream, these winter wildfires have upended expectations and sparked fears of what the future holds for climate-vulnerable regions.
The Scope of the Devastation
The fires—most notably the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, and Hurst fires—have collectively burned more than 30,000 acres and forced over 70,000 residents to evacuate. The Pacific Palisades Fire alone, now the most destructive in Los Angeles history, has torched 1,000 homes across 18 square miles. Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire near Pasadena has claimed two lives, injured several others, and destroyed 100 structures. Tragically, the wildfire death toll has climbed to five, with conditions worsening by the hour.
State-backed insurance plans, such as California’s FAIR Plan, offer limited reprieve but are themselves under strain. Experts warn that as disasters grow more frequent and intense, these systems could collapse under financial pressure, leaving homeowners without a safety net.
Why These Fires Escalated So Quickly
A perfect storm of conditions has fueled this week’s devastation. Hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds, gusting up to 100 mph, have spread embers with deadly efficiency. Unseasonable winter droughts, preceded by vegetation-boosting rains, left vast amounts of dry, flammable fuel in their wake. Power lines snapped by high winds added to the chaos, leaving 1.5 million customers without electricity and sparking additional blazes.
These weather patterns—amplified by climate change—underscore the increasing unpredictability of wildfire seasons. “It’s not just a fire season anymore. It’s a fire year,” one expert remarked.
An Insurance Crisis Amid the Flames
For many residents, the devastation is compounded by the lack of insurance. Pacific Palisades, which bore the brunt of insurance non-renewals last year, is emblematic of a growing crisis in climate-exposed regions. Major insurers like State Farm have increasingly withdrawn coverage, citing rising risks from wildfires and other climate-driven disasters.
In 2023, California recorded the nation’s fourth-highest rate of insurance non-renewals, with other disaster-prone states like Florida and Louisiana facing similar challenges. This “signal of market distress,” as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse described it, highlights the broader instability in housing and insurance markets as climate risks mount.
Senator Whitehouse, a vocal advocate for addressing the climate-insurance nexus, called the situation a “shock to the system” and a harbinger of a deeper crisis. His December report warned that insurance market instability could ripple into the housing market, eroding property values and triggering economic fallout akin to the 2008 financial crisis.
The solution, Whitehouse argues, lies in aggressively combating climate change. While federal programs like FEMA and state-backed insurance plans offer short-term relief, they do little to address the root causes of these disasters. Proposed legislation from Senator Ron Wyden aims to streamline federal support for disaster-resistant infrastructure, but the road to implementation is fraught with challenges.
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Federal transportation regulators are investigating about 2.6 million Tesla vehicles over a vehicle-summoning feature that failed to recognize posts or parked vehicles, leading to accidents.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had received one complaint alleging a crash when the “Actually Smart Summon” feature was enabled, and is reviewing media reports of three other incidents.
NHTSA “is aware of multiple crash allegations, involving both Smart Summon and Actually Smart Summon, where the user had too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement,” the agency said Tuesday in a notice announcing the investigation.
Tesla’s Actually Smart Summon allows vehicle owners to remotely move their vehicle using a smartphone app. It replaced the more limited Smart Summon, which was the subject of 12 separate customer complaints, NHTSA said.
NHTSA said Tesla had not reported any of the crashes despite rules requiring manufacturers to report crashes involving automated driving systems.
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President-elect Donald J. Trump is trying to expunge his conviction before he is inaugurated. He would be the first felon elected to the Oval Office.
After being indicted four times in four jurisdictions, Donald Trump leaned heavily on a strategy of delay, making a variety of appeals and other filings to run out the clock until Election Day.Credit…Dave Sanders for The New York Times
A New York appellate court on Tuesday declined to halt President-elect Donald J. Trump’s criminal sentencing, dealing a significant setback to his hopes of shutting down the case before returning to the White House.
Mr. Trump, who is scheduled to face sentencing on Friday, 10 days before being sworn in for a second presidential term, had asked the appeals court to intervene and freeze the proceeding. His lawyers argued that Mr. Trump was entitled to full immunity from prosecution, and even sentencing, now that he was the president-elect.
The emergency application fell to a single appellate court judge, Ellen Gesmer, who held a brief hearing on Tuesday before denying Mr. Trump’s request within a half-hour.
At the hearing, Justice Gesmer appeared highly skeptical of Mr. Trump’s arguments, grilling Mr. Trump’s lawyer about whether he had “any support for a notion that presidential immunity extends to president-elects?”
The lawyer, Todd Blanche, conceded that he did not, saying: “There has never been a case like this before.”
And when Mr. Blanche argued that Justice Gesmer’s decision hinged on the immunity of a sitting president, she cut him off with a correction, noting that Mr. Trump was currently the president-elect.
Yet Justice Gesmer might not have the final word. Mr. Trump can now race to federal court in hopes of staving off the sentencing, and if that fails, could ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
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