PrairiePundit

 Newsmax: Two of the largest wildfires in California, which burned thousands of acres and forced mass evacuations, have been fully contained after more than three weeks, officials confirmed late Friday, The Hill reported . The Palisades Fire, which ignited on Jan. 7, scorched over 23,000 acres and destroyed more than 6,800 structures. The Eaton Fire, which started in Altadena, burned just over 14,000 acres and destroyed more than 9,000 structures, according to CalFire. Officials confirmed overnight that both fires had reached 100% containment, meaning firefighters had secured the perimeter and prevented further spread. ... Hopefully, Calfornia can recover from this devastation and get back to work. 

 The Hill: President Trump directed U.S. government agencies to override California’s water policies as needed — slamming the state’s handling of the Los Angeles region’s wildfires in an executive order this weekend. “Firefighters were unable to fight the blaze due to dry hydrants, empty reservoirs, and inadequate water infrastructure,” the order stated . “It is in the Nation’s interest to ensure that California has what it needs to prevent and fight these fires and others in the future.” Writing that “it is the policy of the United States to provide Southern California with necessary water resources,” the order directed federal officials to “immediately take actions to override existing activities that unduly burden efforts to maximize water deliveries.” The order follows comments Trump made Friday prior to visiting Los Angeles, at which time he said he would condition federal wildfire assistance on both voter identification mandates and a release of more water from Northern Cali...

 Red State: If you can believe it, the catastrophic Palisades fire that ignited on January 7 and destroyed huge swaths of the beautiful Pacific Palisades area, leaving 11 dead, is still burning . It has burned over 23,400 acres, and according to the excellent app Watch Duty , it’s 70 percent contained. Meanwhile, the Eaton fire that torched Altadena and burned 14,021 acres, taking the lives of 17 people, is also still going, though it’s now listed at 95 percent contained. Are we out of the woods yet? Unfortunately, no, as yet another huge fire started Wednesday and is currently raging around Castaic Lake to the Northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It grew extraordinarily quickly, and it is now at 9,457 acres with only five percent containment. The crucial Interstate 5 had to be closed in both directions for a period, but it's currently open again. As with the other fires, the scenes are absolutely apocalyptic: Luckily, no structures have been burned so far, nor injuries reported. Rai...

 Matt Margolis: The devastating wildfires raging through Los Angeles County have laid bare chronic failures in disaster preparedness and environmental policy at both the state and local levels. Critics have cited L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for their poor handling of the crisis. The scrutiny of Newsom and Bass, both of whom have faced repeated criticism for California’s poor track record on wildfire management, has only intensified. Over the past week, we’ve been reporting on the systemic issues that have compounded the crisis, everything from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s wasting millions on DEI programs to state environmental policies to budget cuts at the state and local level. Even LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley admitted that the agency was ill-equipped to manage the disaster, underscoring failures by local officials to prioritize adequate funding and preparation. Sadly, Democrats and the media are turning a blind eye to the problems and are blaming c...

 Red State: Billionaire Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso is the man behind iconic  high-end retail and residential properties  like The Grove, LA Live, The Americana at Brand, The Commons at Calabasas, and more. He ran for mayor of LA in 2022 but  sadly lost  to current Mayor Karen Bass. You see how that’s going. One question a lot of people have been asking: how is it that, as the Pacific Palisades continues to burn to the ground, Caruso’s outdoor shopping and dining destination, Palisades Village, still stands? The answer: he  used private firefighters . Caruso used a private firefighting service to fight the fire at the mall, and was able to save it. Caruso understood fire risks, having served decades earlier as Commissioner for the L.A. Department of Water and Power. And he also understood the limitations of the city’s public fire services, whose budget was cut nearly $20 million last year by Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council. Fire crews for hire r...

 Blaze: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) blasted a reporter Thursday for her apparent desire, and that of the broader media, to attack President-elect Donald Trump and give blameworthy Democratic leaders a pass in their coverage of the Golden State's devastating fires. A day after holding a closed-door meeting in Washington, D.C., with Republican senators, Trump hosted a dinner for 22 of America's 27 Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago, where he discussed various matters, including manufacturing concerns, the possible purchase of Greenland, the late President Jimmy Carter's funeral, and the fires in California. Following the dinner, DeSantis and several of his peers fielded questions from the press. One reporter asked whether it was "appropriate" for a president or president-elect to criticize Newsom at this time. The reporter was apparently prickled by Trump's commentary this week on Truth Social. In a post on Wednesday, the president-elect said , "Gavin ...

 Fox News: Government mismanagement, not climate change, is to blame for California's destructive wildfires Politicians are trying to shift the blame for California's wildfires onto climate change, instead of their own policies See also:   Woman Confronts Newsom About Lack of Water in Hydrants And:   As Los Angeles Burns, DeSantis Shows Leadership That Newsom Can’t Match And:   While LA Goes Up in Smoke, Another Democrat-Run City Is in Crisis Mode As Its Aged Infrastructure Fails And:   The Press and Democrats Mocked Trump Over Wildfires, Now the Receipts Loom Large And:   LA Officials Explain Why Fire Hydrants Ran Out of Water And:  Gay Choirs, Trans Cafes And Social Justice Art: What LA Spent Money On While Cutting Its Fire Budget And:   LA Already Shipped Firefighting Equipment To Ukraine, And Now Biden Is Planning Another Handout As California Burns And: LA Mayor Karen Bass refuses to answer questions on catastrophic wildfires And:   Bide...

 Blaze: Los Angeles is in flames , fire hydrants have run dry, and California's government has been absent. As the devastating fires continue to rage on in the Pacific Palisades, President-elect Donald Trump pointed the finger at none other than California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump called Newsom's handling of the fires a "true disaster," citing the lack of proper infrastructure and leadership. As of Wednesday afternoon, the wildfire has decimated over 10,600 acres of land, forcing tens of thousands of residents to vacate. "As of this moment, Gavin Newscum and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly ZERO percent of the fire. It is burning at levels that even surpass last night," Trump said in a Wednesday post on Truth Social. "This is not Government. I can’t wait till January 20th!" Newsom flew to Los Angeles on Tuesday, calling for "all hands on deck." President Joe Biden also joined Newsom on Wednesday. Despite the...

 Daily Mail: Officials in  Texas  are urging residents to flee their homes after a massive wildfire broke out north of Houston.  According to the Walker County Office of Emergency Management, a major fire erupted Friday afternoon in a wooded area along Lost Indian Camp Road. The latest update from officials said that the fire had stretched to encompass 100 acres and had been contained by five percent.  Just hours previously, the fire was estimated to be spread out across 500 acres, which has prompted officials to ask those living in the area to flee. ... Footage taken from the air shows just how large the wildfire has managed to stretch to in such a short time.  +6 View gallery The fire is several miles away from my location I have not noticed any smoke from it. It is pretty dry around here. We have had no rain in months.

 Reuters: Carbon offsets generated from forests to counteract future climate-warming emissions from California's big polluters are rapidly being depleted as trees are ravaged by wildfire and disease, new research published on Friday suggests. One of California's key policy tools to combat climate change may be falling far short of its goals, the researchers said - raising questions about similar carbon offset programs around the world. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, was conducted by CarbonPlan, a San Francisco-based non-profit that researches the integrity of programs designed to offset carbon emissions. The group's research has questioned the value of the California forest carbon offset program in fighting climate change in the past. ... The researchers also projected potential losses associated with the disease sudden oak death, which has killed millions of trees in California and Oregon in the last two decades. Widespread tree...

NY Times: After Years of Political Gridlock, Oregon’s Fire Disaster Brings ‘New Reality’ Early this year, lawmakers considered legislation to thin forests, hire firefighters and increase building standards to prepare for wildfires. But a dispute over how to address climate change doomed the proposals. Assuming you believe climate change is a problem, it is not an immediate problem when it comes to stopping wildfires.  Let the loggers thin the forest to produce lumber and wood for furniture and reduce the fire hazard at the same time.  To put off things you can do to deal with the immediate problem because of a fear of climate change is a mistake.

Epoch Times: Deputies in a single county in  Oregon  have made 21 arrests this month alone in zones under evacuation notice due to  wildfires . Suspects face charges including criminal trespass, burglary, possession of stolen property, felon in possession of a restricted weapon, and drug possession, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said. The suspects were caught in evacuation Level 2 and 3 fire zones between Sept. 8 and Sept. 21. Fifty-four criminal reports were taken in the zone, from 743 activity calls, including calls for traffic stops and suspicious vehicle stops. In one case, a resident of Estacada called 911 just before 11 a.m. on Sept. 10 to report a maroon SUV with three passengers in his driveway. The subjects fled the scene but deputies tracked the vehicle down. The driver said the group had been camping but there was no camping gear in the vehicle. Deputies found the driver had a suspended license and one passenger had a warrant out fo...

NY Times: Fires Scorch a Way of Life That Still Grows From the Trees Oregon’s fate has always been intertwined with the forests that blanket the state. Now millions of trees are charred, and those who live from them face a future full of uncertainty. I live on several wooded acres of land in Texas, and I understand the affinity for trees.  I also have made several rooms full of furniture from wood from this acreage and others in Texas and enjoy dealing with the variety to make specific pieces.  I have made sofas, chairs, tables, beds, lamps, desks, and entertainment centers using mainly Texas hardwood.  I also like using antique wood salvaged from old buildings,  I made some unique tables from salvaged treated pine that turned out beautiful. The Antifa and other leftwing arsonists on the West Coast need to be brought to justice for their attempt to use the forests as a means of pushing their "climate change" agenda.  So do the careless that are responsi...

Legal Insurrection: Biden Calls Trump a ‘Climate Arsonist’ as Media Suppresses Arson News for ‘Climate Change’ As social media giants suppress news of arsonists, Trump & California forest experts say poor land management is root cause of huge fires. The suppression of the news about arsonists responsible for the fires is for political reasons to benefit the Democrats.

NY Times: Hurricane Sally Is a Slow-Moving Threat. Climate Change Might Be Why. Scientists say that climate change, which has also contributed to the wildfires on the West Coast, helped intensify a storm that is unleashing a deluge in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. Sally appears to be a mid-strength hurricane like most have been recently and little different from hurricanes of the past.  The wildfires appear to be the results of poor forest management and leftist pyromaniacs who are setting them on fire for the most part.  If the environmental wackos would allow harvesting of trees to be used to make furniture and housing instead of keeping them as fuel for fires and not clearing the underbrush the risk could be greatly reduced.  This is another example of liberals making poor decisions and blaming others for the results of those decisions. If the wildfires were the results of "climate change" why aren't their huge fires in Canada and Mexico.   Why...

NY Times: Wildfire Smoke Chokes Canada’s Western Skies Residents retreated indoors after smoke from wildfires in the U.S. descended on Vancouver and other communities in British Columbia.  The question that should be asked is why have there not been any fires in Canada or Mexico if this is caused by "climate change"?  I suspect that one of the reasons is that there are fewer Democrat arsonists in Canada and Mexico.  While there have been some fires caused by lightning strikes associated with weather systems in California, we are also hearing of cases where man-made fires have contributed to the deluge.  I suspect the refusal of Democrats to prosecute the pyromaniacs has contributed to the problems, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

NY Times: Jerry Brown on a California Exodus: ‘Tell Me: Where Are You Going to Go?’ From his ranch, the former California governor is experiencing the same smoky air wafting through much of the state. “We are causing this,” he declared in an interview. While much of the left would prefer to blame California's problems on global warming or climate change, what is happening there is not happening in Canada or Mexico or most other states.  It is happening there because of poor forest management .  They have blocked the loggers from taking out trees and thinning the fuel for the fires.  They have failed to clear the underbrush.  They have not done enough to go after the pyromaniacs of BLM and Antifa. Washington Post: The California Dream has become the California Compromise The realities of flooding, drought, wildfires and high costs are weighing on a weary public. For the first time in a decade, more people left California last year than arrived. ...

Power Line: Churchill once defined a fanatic as “someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject,” so it was entirely predictable that the climatistas would declare the massive wildfires raging in the west right now are  proof  that the climate change debate is  over . Shut up, they explained. Governor Gruesome Newsom says so, so there! Also the  Los Angeles Times  today: The real reason for the large fires is the overloading of our western forests over the last several decades, which can be laid at the feet of excessive and misguided fire suppression starting almost a century ago, and environmentalist opposition to any pro-active forest management on public lands. Environmentalists without fail run to the courthouse to block every Forest Service forest thinning plans, delaying and sometime blocking sensible forest management. This morning I updated my old time-series of total acres burned in the U.S. since 1930 that I used to include in ...

Chuck Devore: Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his political allies claim climate change is driving California’s increasingly intense and deadly wildfires. That’s nearly true. Climate change assumptions drive the state’s energy and environmental policies. This has resulted in people being killed in terrible wildfires, electrical blackouts to millions of people causing $5 billion so far in lost economic activity, all while diverting limited resources to a fool’s errand. For instance, California’s large and heavily regulated public utilities—PG&E, SDG&E, and SCE—prioritize wind and solar power, leaving little for powerline maintenance and upgrades. Simply put, the utilities are doing exactly what the regulators tell them to do. They make money for their investors on wind and solar; they don’t on powerline maintenance. Examining California’s determined push to decarbonize its economy shows a policy unsupported by logic, and shaky on fact. First is the matter o...

Fox News: As Californians on Tuesday were forced to once again confront the dual threats of wildfires and forced blackouts, the apparent new normal is proving to be too much for some residents. The nation's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., will turn off the power for a third time this year to prevent powerful winds from damaging its equipment, which can lead to a blaze igniting. Up to 605,000 customers -- about 1.5 million people -- in 29 Northern California counties will be affected by this latest round of power cuts starting Tuesday. That means people who had the power go out Saturday and were still just getting the lights back on Monday are now faced with the prospect of being in the dark again for several days. The power cuts come as fire crews continue to battle the Kincade Fire in the state's wine country, a blaze that's destroyed 57 homes and damaged another dozen, with 90,000 homes and other buildings considered threatened. About 156,000 peop...