Utility scrutinized as California wildfire victims sue

Northern California homeowners allege in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Pacific Gas & Electric Co. failed to adequately protect its power lines before the region's deadly wildfires, a theory that state investigators are considering as they try to determine the cause.

Melania Trump Issues PSA for Hurricane Relief

First lady Melania Trump is encouraging Americans to take action in a new public service announcement following the devastating damage of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. "The President and I have witnessed firsthand the compassion and commitment of Americans as friends, neighbors, and strangers continue to volunteer time and money to help one another following the recent hurricanes," Trump said in the video, which was recorded last week in the White House library.

Trump says he could jettison drug czar pick

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would review a report that his nominee for drug czar championed a law that weakened the government's ability to fight the nation's opioid epidemic, and said he could consider jettisoning the pick. Asked if the report had undercut his confidence in his nominee to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Representative Tom Marino, Trump said: "I have not spoken to him, but I will speak to him, and I'll make that determination.

Little has happened in 2 months since Trump declared opioid crisis an “emergency”

On the mid-August day when President Donald Trump first called the nation's opioid epidemic a "national emergency," plaudits from the state's congressional delegation were quick to follow. Sen. Sherrod Brown, DOhio, said the designation was overdue.

Smoke smolders from a wildfire-ravaged home Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017, in Sonoma, Calif.

Newly released body camera footage shows a sheriff's deputy braving flames to rescue a disabled woman and get people to flee from a lethal wildfire that was about to devour a Northern California community. Sonoma County announced Saturday evening that its coroner had confirmed two more deaths, taking the total in the county to 22 and the overall count to 40. A residence in the hills above Sonoma, Calif., has a posted sign alerting people to an available pool if needed to shelter from wildfires Friday, Oct. 13, 2017.

California wildfire death toll approaches 40, hundreds still missing

Fast-moving fires spread by shifting winds forced thousands more Californians to evacuate their homes on Saturday as the death toll from the deadliest blaze recorded in the state's history rose to at least 38, with hundreds of people still missing. About 10,000 firefighters supported by air tankers and helicopters overhead were battling 16 major wildfires, some encompassing several smaller merged blazes, in areas north of San Francisco that have consumed nearly 214,000 acres over seven days, or roughly 334 square miles - an area larger than New York City.

The Latest: Phone companies told save evidence tied to fires

A helicopter flies through the smokey sky to drop a load of water on a wildfire Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017, in Sonoma, Calif. Officials say progress is being made in some of the largest wildfires burning in Northern California but that the death toll is almost sure to surge.

Claim: warmer oceans will boost hurricane losses 70%

From the UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT and the "data to date says otherwise, so why trust a model" department If oceans warm at a rate predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nation-sponsored group that assesses climate change research and issues periodic reports, expected financial losses caused by hurricanes could increase more than 70 percent by 2100, according to a study just published in the journal Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure . The finding is based on the panel's most severe potential climate change - and resulting increased sea surface temperature - scenario and is predicted at an 80 percent confidence level.

Hurricane-Battered Flood Insurance Program In Need of Funding

The U.S. National Flood Insurance Program, struggling with the costs of this year's record hurricane season, will run out of money as early as Oct. 23 unless Congress takes action. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which runs the taxpayer-subsidized flood insurance program, "estimates potentially exhausting available NFIP funds the week of October 23," the agency said in a statement.

Trump lashes out at Puerto Rico as House passes aid package

President Donald Trump lashed out at hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico on Thursday, insisting in tweets that the federal government can't keep sending help "forever" and suggesting the U.S. territory was to blame for its financial struggles. His broadsides triggered an outcry from Democrats in Washington and officials on the island, which has been reeling since Hurricane Maria struck three weeks ago, leaving death and destruction in an unparalleled humanitarian crisis.

Ecological imbalance: Why wildfires are increasing in US rangelands

Wild Horse Fire Brigade Plan instigator Bill Simpson outlines his full Natural Wildfire Abatement and Forest Protection Plan, which has been The nature and characteristics of wildfires in America have changed dramatically over the past decades as a result of several factors including a warmer climate cycle. Excessive amounts of ground fuels , which act as the kindling needed to ignite other forest debris such as dead and dying timber and previous fire-damaged trees have accumulated in and around most forests and present a new risk.

Trump warns Puerto Rico: ‘We cannot keep FEMA, the Military &…

During a visit to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico on Oct. 3, President Trump delivered aid supplies at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo. President Trump served notice Thursday that he may pull back federal relief workers from Puerto Rico, effectively threatening to abandon the U.S. territory amid a staggering humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

‘An Inferno Like You’ve Never Seen’: Deadly Wildfires Ravage Northern California

A firefighter walks near a pool as a neighboring home burns in the Napa wine region in California on Monday, as multiple wind-driven fires continue to whip through the region. More than ten people have been killed, thousands have been left without power, and tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate as more than a dozen wildfires tore through Northern California overnight Monday, forcing Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency in eight counties.

Magnitude 6.3 earthquake strikes Chile

PanARMENIAN.Net - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck northern Chile near the Peruvian border, the US Geological Survey says, according to The Daily Mail. The quake, which was moderately deep at 51 miles , struck the Tarapaca region of Chile at 3.32am local time on Tuesday, October 10. The epicenter was 45 miles east of the port city of Arica, and 54 miles southeast of the larger Peruvian city of Tacna.