Fires in Southern California proceed to burn as individuals in elements of Los Angeles and Ventura counties stay below pink flag warnings. Dry circumstances are anticipated to final via at the moment, in line with Cal Hearth, however this weekend is predicted to convey “calmer and more humid weather.”
Thus far, the dying toll has climbed to at the very least 25 individuals and greater than 12,000 constructions are estimated to be broken or destroyed. As public officers and utility corporations come below sharp scrutiny, residents face the lengthy highway forward of restoring their houses and lives.
Extra information concerning the Southern California fires:
Blazes spur new payments: Legislators have launched a handful of latest proposals, writes CalMatters’ Yue Stella Yu. These embody payments to require mortgage servicers to halt mortgage funds for fireplace victims; permit owners to create a “catastrophe savings account” to cowl insurance coverage deductibles; and allow residents to voluntarily contribute to a “wildfire management tax contribution fund” via their tax returns.
Dangerous houses: To quicken the tempo of reconstructing houses in L.A. County, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an govt order that waives sure necessities within the state’s landmark environmental regulation. However whereas California has traditionally rebuilt neighborhoods after wildfires, it does increase an vital query: Why can we maintain constructing (and rebuilding) in fire-prone areas?
As CalMatters’ Ben Christopher explains, between 1990 and 2020, practically 45% of houses in-built California have been in “wildland urban” areas the place residential buildings butt up towards the state’s forests and scrublands. These areas make up lower than 7% of all of the land within the state, however greater than 80% of all constructions destroyed by a wildfire between 1985 and 2013 have been in these zones.
Given California’s housing disaster, some argue the state doesn’t have the luxurious to go away these high-risk areas undeveloped. However to really shield the general public, complete neighborhoods have to be fire-hardened — which could be too pricey for many communities.
How will a second Trump presidency have an effect on your nook of California? As we method Inauguration Day, CalMatters is working with public radio companions to collect views throughout the state. Share your ideas right here.
Wildfire e-newsletter: CalMatters is teaming up with PBS SoCal, LAist and KCRW to supply a free e-newsletter that delivers new and correct details about the Southern California fires. Learn the newest version right here.
Different Tales You Ought to Know
Staff prone to job automation
As know-how corporations promise a neater and extra productive life via using synthetic intelligence, California staff are organizing to make sure their jobs are protected below this industry-disrupting know-how, reviews CalMatters’ Khari Johnson.
Earlier this 12 months, the UCLA Latino Coverage and Politics Institute revealed a report that discovered that 4.5 million Californians are in 20 industries which might be at “high risk of job loss due to automation,” with greater than half of staff at excessive danger being Latino.
To guard staff from doubtlessly exploitative know-how, labor teams got here collectively at a convention in Sacramento this week to debate job elimination stemming from AI and different tech, and strategize for upcoming labor disputes.
Union leaders urged staff, for instance, to barter using AI within the office when bargaining, and to require administration to debate tech with staff earlier than implementation.
- Duncan Crabtree-Eirechief organizer at SAG-AFTRA union: “We’re up against the biggest corporate interests and the biggest political interests that you can imagine, and working together in unity is absolutely where our power comes from.”
Censorship impedes schooling
To adjust to federal regulation, practically all colleges within the U.S. use some kind of internet filter to dam children from accessing obscene content material on-line.
However knowledge launched this week by the Heart for Democracy & Know-how exhibits simply how frequent content material filtering occurs nationwide — and the way irritating it may be for each lecturers and college studentswrites CalMatters’ Tara García Mathewson.
In its annual survey, the digital rights advocacy group discovered that 70% of lecturers and college students this 12 months stated internet filters impede college students’ means to complete assignments. One-third of lecturers stated their colleges block content material associated to the LGBTQ+ group, and half stated details about reproductive well being and sexual orientation is blocked.
The findings mirror what Aleeza Siddique, a 15-year-old Northern California highschool scholar, skilled after filters blocked her from accessing the Spanish-language information outlet Telemundo for an in-class exercise.
- Aleeza: “The amount that they’re policing is actively interfering with our ability to have an education. … We should have a right to know what we’re being protected from.”
And lastly: Denied by insurance coverage
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: The Southern California wildfires will add extra to the state’s finances woes by decreasing financial exercise and growing strain for restoration assist.
The state stands to learn from the dissolution of the U.S. Division of Schooling, and California Democrats ought to get on board with Trump’s pledges to close it down, writes Lance Christensenvice chairman of presidency affairs and schooling coverage on the California Coverage Heart.
Different issues value your time:
For LA water pointsmisinformation spreads as quick because the wildfires // AP Information
Armed owners defying the principles of LA’s burn zones // The Wall Avenue Journal
A fair larger menace is looming behind CA’s fires // Vox
Kim Kardashian needs inmate firefighter raises. A CA lawmaker agrees // Politico
GOP US Rep. asks Trump to deal with wildfire assist first, politics second // The Orange County Register
LA-based Farmers Insurance coverage tops CA survey of declining probably the most claims // Los Angeles Instances
New CA legal guidelines that might have an effect on your well being and medical care // San Francisco Chronicle
CA bans poultry, dairy at county gala’s because of fowl flu // The Modesto Bee
Silicon Valley’s largest water company endorses $20B Delta tunnel plan // The Mercury Information
San Jose State transgender athletes in jeopardy after federal ruling // San Jose Highlight
