Wildfires - Page 5

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a “state of emergency” on Saturday for brush clearance ahead of peak fire season — but months too late to save the devastated communities of Los Angeles from the Palisades and Eaton fires.

This year’s swag bags for Oscar nominees are valued over $200,000, with dozens of gifts ranging from liposuction vouchers to international resort stays — and in the wake of the historic Los Angeles wildfires, some of the freebies may help victims with repairing or rebuilding their properties or family members’ homes.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin writes: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proud to have completed the largest hazardous materials cleanup in its history—and we did so in record time.

Ambassador Ric Grenell said Tuesday that he had requested a meeting with the CEO of State Farm to discuss the Los Angeles fires, and the insurance company’s controversial response to the disaster.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is threatening to withhold aid from cities that do not follow his homeless policies — while arguing at the same time that it would be wrong for the federal government to withhold aid from California.

Few insurance companies are complying with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s request that they cover 100% of the personal property lost by policy holders in the Los Angeles fires by the February 28 deadline.

A report claims Los Angeles County possibly rushed a new alert system just before the devastating wildfires broke out, which may have caused the high number of deaths in West Altadena.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) sent a letter Friday to Congress asking for $40 billion in funding for fire relief — two weeks after signing $50 million in spending to fight the Trump administration on immigration and other policies.

Ambassador Ric Grenell, President Donald Trump’s envoy for special missions, says that there will be “strings” attached to federal aid to California for cleaning up after the devastating wildfires last month in Los Angeles.

State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has proposed legislation that would require insurance companies to cover 100% of the losses to personal property in fires without requiring customers to fill out details lists of possessions.

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been editing out the question-and-answer (Q and A) portion of many of her press conferences, limiting exposure of reporters’ questions about her handling of the Palisades Fire disaster.

ABC News is reporting that the transgender community in Los Angeles was the “hardest hit” by the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles, because of “the destruction of a safe space, built with love and care to support their healing.”

No new water storage infrastructure has been built in California, more than a decade after voters approved a $7.5 billion water bond in Proposition 1 of 2014.

Los Angeles County will test the soil for contaminants after the debris of burned homes and structures is removed, stepping in where federal and state authorities have not, according to a report Wednesday by the Pasadena Star-News.

Developer Rick Caruso’s non-profit organization, Steadfast L.A., is introducing free prefabricated homes for people to live in on their property in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, Altadena, and Pasadena if they cannot yet afford to rebuild.

The Los Angeles Times published text messages Wednesday between L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath that suggest Bass is failing to cooperate with other local government leaders.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Tuesday that she “wasn’t aware” of warnings about the extreme winds that led to the devastating Palisades Fire on January 7, but she posted those warnings on her official X account on January 6.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is blaming L.A. Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kirsten Crowley — again — for they city’s failure to prepare adequately for the extreme winds that spread the Palisades Fire on January 7.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara says that he is tired of being “white mansplained on how to do my job,” after facing criticism from elected representatives, including Democrats, over his recent job performance.

A former high school classmate of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has written to the L.A. Times to defend the mayor’s conduct during the Palisades Fire — which broke out when Bass was abroad at Ghana’s presidential inauguration.

California appears unlikely to follow Tennessee’s example of refunding the property taxes of victims of natural disasters — even though the failure of state and local services, including water and firefighting, caused their suffering.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) could have pre-deployed ten engines to the Pacific Palisades ahead of the deadly Palisades Fire on January 7, but chose not to, according to former fire chiefs quoted by the Los Angeles Times.

California, which failed to prevent the spread of wildfires in Los Angeles last month and is struggling to repair the damage, is set to spend nearly $10 billion on health care for illegal aliens, according to a nonpartisan state analyst.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has hired a top law firm to defend itself against lawsuits by residents who blame it for the spread of the Palisades Fire — especially as the Santa Ynez Reservoir was almost empty.

Mudflows in Malibu washed a firefighter, in his vehicle, from the Pacific Coast Highway and into the ocean on Thursday, as intense rains swept sheets of water over the hillsides and mountains scorched by the Palisades Fire last month.

The Eaton Fire, which burned through parts of Altadena and Pasadena, east of Los Angeles, last month, also saw fire hydrants lose water pressure — even though, unlike Pacific Palisades, there was no empty reservoir to blame.

Los Angeles residents are furious at an announcement by the Army Corps of Engineers that there will be no testing of local soil for toxins after the first six inches of topsoil are taken away during debris removal that began this week.

California is finally enjoying an abundance of rain, making this the third wet winter in a row — but the rainfall comes too late to save Southern California from the fires that burned large parts of Pacific Palisades, Altadena, and Malibu.

Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to stage a photo-op Tuesday afternoon to mark the start of debris removal after the Palisades Fire — even though the state government has little to do with it.

Steve Hagerty, the founder of Hagerty Consulting, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass chose behind closed doors to lead the city’s rebuilding effort, had a disastrous tenure as mayor of the liberal college town of Evanston, Illinois.

Developer Rick Caruso slammed the Los Angeles city government for an apparent delay in construction at a venue that is to be used during the 2028 Summer Olympics that officials are blaming on the recent Palisades Fire.

Two former disaster recovery experts at Hagerty Consulting, which L.A. Mayor Karen Bass appointed to lead rebuilding efforts after the recent wildfires, pleaded guilty in 2022 and 2023 to defrauding New York City of Hurricane Sandy relief funds.

Los Angeles Chief Recovery Officer Steve Soboroff once mocked Trump supporters as “all white” in a post on Twitter (now X) during the 2016 election, when he was on the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners. The post was then deleted.

Los Angeles “Chief Recovery Officer” Steve Soboroff said Saturday night that he would work for free, after coming under fire for earning $500,000 for three months of work, even though his salary was to have been paid privately.

A local mother whose neighborhood was destroyed in the Palisades Fire is fighting back after the New York Times smeared Pacific Palisades residents as the “rogue rich” who are exploiting the disaster to buy up the lots of their neighbors.