The East Troublesome Fire is the second-largest wildfire in Colorado state history (Fox News)

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Snow hits Cameron Peak fire, should move to East Troublesome fire Sunday afternoon

The northern parts of the Cameron Peak fire saw between three and five inches of snow

By SHELLY BRADBURY | sbradbury@denverpost.com | The Denver Post

Snow started falling on Colorado’s two biggest wildfires Sunday in a much-needed storm that is expected to dampen the fires and slow their ferocious spread for at least a few days.

The northern parts of the Cameron Peak fire saw between three and five inches of snow by Sunday morning, while the southern parts of the fire saw about two to four inches, incident meteorologist Dan Byrd said in a morning update.

The snow hadn’t reached Estes Park by 9 a.m., he said, and temperatures around the East Troublesome fire remained in the 40s early Sunday morning.

However, the cold front will move to the south as the day goes on, Byrd said, and the area around the East Troublesome fire should see temperatures drop by Sunday afternoon, and then see some snow in the afternoon and evening.

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The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract.

By BEN LEFEBVRE, Politico

The French government stepped in to force a domestic company to delay signing a potential $7 billion deal with a U.S. liquefied natural gas company last month over concerns that its U.S. shale gas was too dirty, two people familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

The incident was first reported by a French news site but independently confirmed to POLITICO by two people with direct knowledge. The delay highlights a growing concern among some U.S. natural gas exporters that the regulatory rollbacks pushed by the Trump administration, especially those easing Obama-era limits on the potent greenhouse gas methane, plus the industry’s overall failure to rein in emissions, are making it more difficult to sell their product overseas as a cleaner alternative to oil or coal.

The French trading firm Engie had been poised to sign the $7 billion, 20-year contract to buy LNG to be delivered from Next Decade’s planned Rio Grande export facility in Brownsville, Texas, one person with knowledge of the discussions said. That deal would be a boon for NextDecade, which has been trying to line up customers to take at least 11 million tons of LNG a year before it makes a final decision to build the plant.

The French government, which is a part owner of Engie, stepped in to tell Engie’s board of directors to delay, if not outright cancel, any deal because of concerns that U.S. natural gas producers emit too much methane at the West Texas oil and gas fields that will supply gas to the NextDecade plant, said Lorette Philippot, head of private finance campaigns for French environmental group Les Amis de la Terre,a French affiliate of the green group Friends of the Earth that met with French government officials to oppose the deal.

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By REBECCA BOONE and DAVID CRARY Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. coronavirus caseload has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day, the latest ominous sign of the disease’s grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge.

The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, has grown to 223,995, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins University. The total U.S. caseload reported on the site Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16.

The impact is being felt in every section of the country — a lockdown starting Friday at the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s reservation in South Dakota, a plea by a Florida health official for a halt to children’s birthday parties, dire warnings from Utah’s governor, and an increasingly desperate situation at a hospital in northern Idaho, which is running out of space for patients and considering airlifts to Seattle or Portland, Oregon.

“We’ve essentially shut down an entire floor of our hospital. We’ve had to double rooms. We’ve bought more hospital beds,” said Dr. Robert Scoggins, a pulmonologist at the Kootenai Health hospital in Coeur d’Alene. “Our hospital is not built for a pandemic.”

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And, from the New York Times

• A resurgent virus attacks the heartland, just before the election.
• UnitedHealth will ship 200,000 coronavirus and flu kits to stem a ‘twindemic.’
• A soaring number of Covid-19 cases brings back ragged memories of mid-July.
• After pausing for safety concerns, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have resumed their U.S. vaccine trials.
• The C.D.C. offers tips for voting safely during a pandemic.

By The Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday on a key concern surrounding an avalanche of mailed ballots, prohibiting counties from rejecting them if the voter’s signature on it does not resemble the signature on the voter’s registration form.

Two Republican justices joined five Democratic justices in the decision.

The verdict was a victory for the state’s top election official, Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat who had asked the court to back her up in a legal dispute with President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican lawmakers.

“County boards of elections are prohibited from rejecting absentee or mail-in ballots based on signature comparison conducted by county election officials or employees, or as the result of third-party challenges based on signature analysis and comparisons,” the justices wrote.

Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are locked in a battle to win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes. With Democrats voting by mail at an almost 3-to-1 rate over Republicans, the prospect of disqualified ballots poses a greater threat to Biden’s candidacy.

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