MCNEILL, R. Eugene

Peacefully with his family by his side at the Provincial Palliative Care Centre on Friday, August 3, 2018 of

James M. “Jim” MacDonald of Charlottetown age 68 years. Beloved husband of Sandra (nee Chandler) MacDonald and dear father of Sherri Lynn Whalen (Michael), and Richard (Jennifer). Brother of Doreen Phillips (Harold), Blair (Janet), Paula Woodland (John) and brother-in-law of Corrie and Gail. Jim was predeceased by his parents John and Adele (Gallant) MacDonald, and brothers Louie and Urban. A celebration of Jim’s life will be held at the Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home on Tuesday, August 7th from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. All are welcome to come and share in this celebration. On-line condolences may be made at www.islandowned.ca

Peacefully with his family by his side at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on Saturday, August 4, 2018 of Eugene McNeill of Charlottetown age 91 years. Beloved husband of the late Dolores (Dowling)

McNeill and dear father of

Donald “Sugar

Bear”, Kent “Cagey”, Michael (Linda),

Sandy (Gordie) McConnell, Mary Teresa “M. T.”(Ron) Young, Scott (Andrea) and Shawn. He is also lovingly remembered by his grandchildren; Michelle Young (Jessie Santos), Jenna Young, Melissa Frankfurth (Nathan) Diana Hatt, Greg McConnell (Kate) Brianna Flood (Cody), Karina McNeill, great grandchildren; Theo Young, Jackson Santos, Ellison and Luke Hatt, Harlow and Beckham Flood and his sister Stephanie MacNeill. He was predeceased by his son Richard Wayne, parents Albert and Mary (MacLeod) McNeill, brothers Clifford and Willie, sisters Frances Nelson (Pete), Elthea Larter (Elmer), Levina Green (George), Eudora “Dodi” Keller (Joe) and Catherine Kennedy (John) and grandchildren Emma and Olivia McNeill. Resting at the Hennessey Cutcliffe Charlottetown Funeral Home until Tuesday, then transferred to St. Dunstan’s Basilica for funeral mass at 10 a.m. Interment will follow in the Roman Catholic Cemetery, Charlottetown. Visiting hours will be held on Monday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Charlottetown Branch #1 of the Royal Canadian Legion will hold a tribute service at the funeral home on Monday at 6:45 p.m. If so desired memorial contributions may be made to the Diabetes Association (PEI) or the Alzheimer Society of PEI. Online condolences may be made at www.islandowned.ca.

H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, who made a $1 billion fortune in the cable industry and gave almost all of it away, supporting schools, museums, journalism and the arts in Philadelphia and beyond, died Sunday, a family spokesman said.

Gerry Lenfest was 88. He was taken Sunday from his Rittenhouse Square home to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead of complications from chronic illness, said Fred Stein. Stein will handle a memorial service planned in Philadelphia in September.

“There is likely not an organization or charity in Philadelphia that didn’t benefit from the Lenfest family’s generosity in some way,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. “Gerry was a great human being and an even better citizen.”

Lenfest and his wife, Marguerite, made about $1.2 billion when they sold Suburban Cable to Comcast Corp. in 2000. The Lenfests immediately set out to give away the fortune. By 2014, as he stepped in to help Philadelphia’s ailing newspapers, Gerry Lenfest estimated he had given away $1.1 billion.

“Money is a responsibility when you have that kind of wealth. I’ve tried to do right by it. Perhaps the greatest opportunity came with the ownership of these newspapers,” Lenfest said in 2016 when he donated the newspapers to a newly created non-profit. “What would this city be without the Inquirer and Daily News?”

The Lenfests also gave to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Barnes Foundation, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and Lenfest’s alma maters: Mercersburg Academy, Washington and Lee University and Columbia University. Wilson College, Marguerite’s alma mater, also received funds. Lenfest also gave $50 million to champion the new Museum of the American Revolution, which opened in April 2017 and, he felt, provided the “missing link” to tie together the city’s historic sites.

Their three children didn’t need the money - they were given stakes in Lenfest’s cable company when it wasn’t worth much - and Gerry Lenfest said he feared a permanent foundation would do more to perpetuate itself than help others.

“During your lifetime, you can direct how your wealth is spent for the most good. But after your death, it is problematic. You don’t have the control,” Lenfest told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2004.

Within four years, the Lenfests had given away $325 million and dropped off Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans. Nearly half that money - $150 million - went to a foundation named for them that must spend its last penny within 20 years of the last spouse’s death.

At age 84, Lenfest unexpectedly became the sole owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and the website Philly.com. His business partner, Lewis Katz, had died in a plane crash in June 2014 just days after they paid $88 million to buy the company from rival co-owner George Norcross.

A utility worker was killed near a Northern California wildfire as crews working in sweltering conditions battled multiple blazes, including twin fires that exploded in size and forced hundreds more to evacuate rural communities, officials said Sunday.

The Pacific Gas and Electric employee was fatally injured in a vehicle-related accident Saturday on the western edge of the Carr Fire in Shasta County, said utility spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin. Jairus Ayeta, who was in his 20s, worked as an apprentice lineman and was part of a PG&E crew working in “dangerous terrain” to restore power, she said.

Ayeta is the seventh person to die in the immense blaze that has been burning for two weeks near Redding, where armies of firefighters and fleets of aircraft continue battling the flames about 100 miles (160 kilometres) south of the Oregon state line. Two firefighters and four residents, including two children, were also killed. The fire was more than 40 per cent contained Sunday.

Meanwhile to the south, new evacuations were ordered Saturday evening near twin fires burning in Mendocino and Lake counties across wilderness on both sides of Clear Lake. Dry, hot winds fueled both blazes, which have collectively charred nearly 400 square miles (1,036 square kilometres) of brush and timber. The entire so-called Mendocino Complex Fire is now one of the largest on record in the state, officials said.

The Ranch Fire was just 22 per cent contained and the River Fire was 50 per cent contained. New evacuations were ordered in neighbouring Glenn and Colusa counties, including an area just east of the boundary of Mendocino National Forest.

Some 15,000 structures were threatened, 68 homes have been destroyed and at least a dozen are damaged, officials said.

The fire remained several miles from the evacuated communities along the eastern shore of the lake, but “it looks like there’s dicey weather on the way,” California Department of Forestry

A small hole in a wall has caused a big rift between a small North Dakota tourist town on the edge of a national park and state historic preservation officials.

The State Historical Society in April paid a contractor more than $66,000 to cut a 10-foot entrance in a sandstone wall around a quarter-acre public park in downtown Medora, just outside the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the western North Dakota badlands.

The work was done at the request of the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, a non-profit that promotes the community named for the wife of French nobleman Marquis de Mores, a larger-than-life businessman in the little town’s storied history. The wall built by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the Great Depression with locally mined stone surrounds De Mores Memorial Park, which includes a bronze statue of him. and Fire Protection spokeswoman Jane LaBoa said.

Meteorologist Steve Anderson said wind gusts could reach 25 mph (40 kph) during the day Sunday. Temperatures will remain hot all week across much of the state including Southern California, where red flag warnings for increased fire danger are in place.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday toured Redding neighbourhoods wiped out by flames and called on President Donald Trump to help California fight and recover from the devastating wildfire season.

“The president has been pretty good on helping us in disasters, so I’m hopeful,” said Brown, a Democrat. “Tragedies bring people together.”

Some areas on the fire’s southeastern flank were reopened to relieved residents.

The Carr Fire, which incinerated 1,067 homes, started with sparks from the steel wheel of a towed-trailer’s flat tire, Department of Agriculture and Fire Prevention officials said.

The fire burned slowly for days before winds suddenly whipped it up last week and drove it quickly through dry brush and trees.

It burned so furiously on July 26 that it created what is called a fire whirl. The twirling tower of flame reached speeds of 143 mph (230 kph), which rivaled some of the most destructive Midwest tornados, National Weather Service meteorologist Duane Dykema said. The whirl uprooted trees and tore roofs from homes, Dykema said.

There are at least 18 major fires burning throughout California, authorities said. In all, they have destroyed hundreds of homes, killed eight people - including two firefighters assisting in a wildfire near Yosemite National Park.

Hundreds of colleagues, family and friends attended a memorial service Saturday in Fresno for National Forest Service Capt. Brian Hughes. He was killed July 29 by a falling tree while fighting the blaze that has closed Yosemite at the height of tourist season.

Firefighters have achieved more than 40 per cent containment of that fire, which had reached into remote areas of the country’s third-oldest national park.

Foundation President Randy Hatzenbuhler said the project created a second entrance to the park and allows easier access for food and beverage carts serving events there. And he said the spot was chosen to be as unobtrusive as possible.

But dozens of residents think the opening in the wall damages the historical integrity of the park in the town built with a distinct Old West atmosphere. City officials say the State Historical Society didn’t notify them of the project and didn’t get a permit.

“This thing kind of happened right under our noses,” said Derwin Zuroff, who owns a gift shop with his wife.

“It’s offensive to me that people we trust to take care of these parks for us and not allow these kinds of things to happen were the people behind it happening.”

In a town of barely more than 100 people, residents submitted a petition with 38 signatures to the Historical Society asking for the wall to be restored.