A community is frustrated by the lack of empathy for the five victims shot at an event in an affluent San Francisco Bay area city
Five days after a mass shooting at an Airbnb in a small, wealthy community left five people dead, residents across California’s Bay Area are frustrated by the response from law enforcement and news media and their focus on Airbnb policies rather than the victims of the killing.
Continue reading...Thousands of firefighters have been battling wildfires across California, after warm temperatures, strong winds and low humidity turned the state into a 'tinderbox'. So is this the new normal?
A station employee saved a passenger who had fallen on to the tracks just before a train was about to hit him. John O’Connor was making sure passengers stayed away from the yellow safety strip when the man accidentally fell on to the tracks as the southbound train was approaching the Coliseum station in Oakland, California, on Sunday. Speaking after the incident, O’Connor said he would ‘like to think anybody else standing there would have done the same thing’
Continue reading...As authorities lifted all evacuation orders imposed by a wildfire that caused thousands to flee their homes north-west of Los Angeles, Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding for aid during the kind of blazes that have hit California hard this fall.
Related: ‘Not our mission’: private fire crews protect the insured, not the public
Continue reading...Airbnb’s CEO said the company ‘must do better’ after five people were killed at a party in San Francisco
Airbnb’s chief executive has said the company will ban “party houses” following a deadly shooting at a Halloween party held at an Airbnb rental home in California.
In a series of tweets, Brian Chesky said on Saturday that the San Francisco-based company would expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations and remove guests who fail to comply with policies banning parties at Airbnb rental homes.
Continue reading...A new brush fire in Ventura county, north of Los Angeles, has rapidly grown to more than 11 square miles. The latest blaze, called the Maria fire, erupted on Thursday evening as crews in northern and southern California continued to try to put out multiple fires that have burned hundreds of acres and prompted thousands of residents to flee their homes
Continue reading...New blazes in southern California on Thursday burned homes and forced residents to flee, as strong Santa Ana winds of up to 60mph fueled a ring of wildfires around the Los Angeles area.
In San Bernardino, a city of just over 200,000 people, a new wildfire that broke out in the early hours of Thursday torched several homes and forced evacuations. Less than 20 miles away in Riverside county, evacuations were issued after a fire in the city of Jurupa Valley started shortly after midnight, spreading to 300 acres.
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Early reports indicate that a new blaze has broken out in Fullerton in Orange County, one of roughly a dozen new fires that have ignited today alone. Cal Fire hasn’t yet posted details on Fullerton fire, but we’ll bring you new details as they emerge.
A brush fire has started in the Brea Dam area of Fullerton. FULLERTON FIRE, Orange County Fire Authority Air Ops, and Fullerton PD are all on-scene. Updates to follow. AVOID THE AREA. pic.twitter.com/fMuEXVtIDJ
The terror of a wildfire tearing through communities, consuming homes, is likely unimaginable for anyone who hasn’t lived through, or fled from one. And in the wake of a blaze, those stories abound.
But every once in a while a picture of humanity will emerge from the ashes — a kind of happy ending against a backdrop of destruction. We’ve seen a few of those this week already, as fires ignited up and down the state.
“She had a really gorgeous, beautiful, straightforward birth,” said Bee Lauher, a licensed midwife, who delivered the baby along with Napa Valley Midwives partners Heather Hilton and Kristina Parks, as first reported by the Napa Valley Register....
This isn’t the first time the Napa Valley Midwives have worked in a hotel during a crisis. In 2017, they delivered a baby at the Westin Verasa Napa with the Wine Country fires burning close by.
The equestrian community has consistently come together during fires. Volunteers often find people who need help through word-of-mouth or on social media, especially through a Facebook group called Southern California Equine Emergency Evacuation.
“People come from all over to help out,” Perera said.
This man just showed up to save these alpacas. He’s trying to herd them out and push them across the road #KincadeFire.
Still on Chalk Hill Road. The man, who wouldn’t give his name, lives in a ranch across from these guys. He moved them all over to his place. pic.twitter.com/JDqERpLXpT
Omg I could cry pic.twitter.com/IAvWpX9EAZ
Continue reading...Firefighters in California have been battling wildfires across the state as winds are expected to pick up again. The Kincade fire in Sonoma county, in the north of the US state, had destroyed 124 homes and other structures by Tuesday morning and was threatening 90,000 structures. Crews were also working to control a fire near the Getty Museum in Los Angeles that had prompted evacuations on Monday
Continue reading...NSO Group’s spyware allegedly used in cyber-attacks on lawyers and journalists
WhatsApp has launched an unprecedented lawsuit against a cyber weapons firm which it has accused of being behind secret attacks on more than 100 human rights activists, lawyers, journalists, and academics in just two weeks earlier this year.
The social media firm is suing NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance company, saying it is responsible for a series of highly sophisticated cyber-attacks which it claims violated American law in an “unmistakeable pattern of abuse”.
Continue reading...Millions of Californians prepared for days of darkness as the United States’ largest utility once again said it was switching off power to prevent powerful winds from damaging its equipment and sparking more fires.
Meanwhile, firefighters were battling wildfires across the state on Tuesday, as winds were expected to pick up again. The Kincade fire in Sonoma county, in the north, had destroyed 124 homes and other structures by Tuesday morning and was threatening 90,000 structures. Crews were also working to control a fierce fire near the Getty Museum in Los Angeles that had prompted evacuations on Monday.
Continue reading...Creek beds are bone dry and once-gushing springs are reduced to trickles as fights play out around the nation over control of nation’s freshwater supply
The network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.
Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.
Continue reading...Two million still without power after weekend shutoffs as wine country fire scorches 66,000 acres
California firefighters raced against time on Monday to bring a raging wine country wildfire under control amid a lull in the weather, with warnings that the extreme winds fueling fires across the state could pick up again soon.
Violent winds of up to 100mph helped the Kincade fire, currently the largest burning in the state, to double in size over the weekend. The fire has scorched more than 66,000 acres, destroyed nearly 100 structures, and forced an unprecedented evacuation of more than 185,000 people in the area.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of people in California have been ordered to evacuate their homes as wildfires spread over the weekend. The Kincade fire in Sonoma County doubled in size on Sunday because of high winds, and wildfires broke out in Los Angeles near the J Paul Getty Museum. About 200,000 people are under evacuation orders across the state and millions are without power.
Continue reading...Thousands of firefighters in northern California battled to control wildfires fueled by howling el diablo winds, the largest of which forced at least 185,000 people to evacuate their homes.
Meanwhile, more than 2 million people were left without power as the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), shut off power in an attempt to keep wind-toppled electrical wires from sparking additional fires.
Continue reading...A doorbell camera captured residents evacuating the Santa Clarita neighbourhood in California as a wildfire loomed near their homes on Thursday. The footage showed the Ibarra family loading belongings into their car, before another man nearby warned residents to evacuate. Ben Ibarra told Reuters in a message that his family had safely evacuated to a hotel while he remained behind to keep an eye on things. An estimated 50,000 people were displaced by evacuation orders in and around Santa Clarita
Thousands of people have been ordered to evacuate as dry, windy conditions fuel fires across the state
That does it for me here today as we shut down the blog on this Friday evening. It’s been a busy day, with firefighters battling blazes from wine country to northern Mexico.
As we head into the weekend, it’s worth noting that the confluence of weather elements, combined with potentially having to evacuate residents in the face of a power outage, could make for a pretty hairy few days. Winds are expected to pick up starting Saturday night, with speeds that some estimate could reach up to 80mph. In short, it’s a weather event that meteorologists are calling unprecedented.
The lights are back on for 99% of the customers who lost power in the latest planned power shutdown, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) reports.
As of 5pm, the only customers who remained in the dark are those living in Sonoma county, where the Kincade fire has been burning since Wednesday night. PG&E says about 178,000 customers were impacted by the shutdown, including the Sierra Foothills, North Bay, San Mateo and Kern counties.
#BREAKING : I just shot this timelapse video showing a huge flareup developing at the #KincadeFire . I was the only reporter allowed this far up Pine Flat Road because I was just returning from the frontlines when the flareup happened. @kron4news pic.twitter.com/eMrcCbPPsy
Continue reading...Dry, windy conditions have fueled fires across California and thousands have been ordered to evacuate as firefighters battle the blazes
Continue reading...Footage of Fresno, California, incident follows police claims that killing of unarmed Isiah Murrietta-Golding, 16, was justified
Newly released video shows a Fresno, California, police officer shooting a fleeing, unarmed 16-year-old in the back of the head and then handcuffing the boy as he lies motionless on the ground.
Surveillance footage of the 14 April 2017 killing of Isiah Murrietta-Golding, released this week by the family’s attorney, has spread across the US, with critics calling it another example of extreme police brutality and unjustified lethal force that would have received little attention if lawyers hadn’t published the video.
Continue reading...A wind-driven wildfire has forced evacuations north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. The blaze near Geyserville had grown to 15 sq miles (39 sq km) by early Thursday, according to the state firefighting agency Cal Fire. Winds around the county's highest areas were blowing at speeds of up to 70mph, and elsewhere in the region between 30mph and 50mph, the National Weather Service said
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