Improved conditions help in battle against fire near Lake Tahoe
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Better weather Thursday helped the battle against a huge California wildfire threatening communities around Lake Tahoe, but fire commanders warned firefighters to be prepared for ongoing dangers.
Strong winds and dry conditions that drove the Caldor Fire east through high elevations of the Sierra Nevada for days faded after the hub of a Northern California gem known the world over threatened to burn down. Thousands were forced to flee the region’s largest city, South Lake Tahoe.
“I feel like we are truly the luckiest community in the entire world right now. I’m so incredibly happy,” said Mayor Tamara Wallace, who evacuated to Truckee, California.
But wind gusts were likely in some areas, and the forest was still extremely dry, officials warned.
Still, the mood was one of optimism, given the speed with which the fire grew earlier in the week. Flames raced so quickly toward the resort city that officials ordered a mass evacuation of all 22,000 residents on Monday before ordering those across the state line in Douglas County, Nevada, to leave a day later.
The Caldor Fire spanned more than 328 square miles and was 25% contained Thursday. Its northeast tip was about 3 miles south of South Lake Tahoe and nearing the California-nevada border, where visitors like to hit the casinos in Stateline.
There was no timeline for when residents might return.
US traffic deaths: U.S. traffic deaths in the first quarter of 2021 rose by 10.5% over last year, even as driving has declined, the government’s road safety agency reported Thursday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 8,730 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes from January through March, compared with the 7,900 fatalities from the same period in 2020.
The increase in traffic fatalities is a continuation of a trend that started in 2020. In June, the NHTSA reported that traffic deaths rose 7% last year to 38,680, the most since 2007. That increase came even as the number of miles traveled by vehicle fell 13% from 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Preliminary data from the Federal Highway Administration shows that vehicle miles traveled fell 2.1% — roughly 14.9 billion miles — in the first three months of 2021. The agency estimates that there were 1.26 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in the first quarter this year, compared to a rate of 1.12 deaths for the same period in 2020.
Neither the data from 2020 nor 2021 is final.
Rioter returns to jail: A federal judge Thursday ordered a prominent participant in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to return to jail after he was caught accessing the internet to watch false conspiracy theories about the presidential election.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said that Doug Jensen, 42, of Des Moines, Iowa, had violated the strict conditions that were set when he released Jensen from jail July 13, including prohibitions on accessing the internet and using a cellphone.
Kelly ordered marshals at the federal courthouse in Des Moines, where Jensen attended Thursday’s hearing, to immediately take him into custody as he awaits trial. Prosecutors had moved to revoke Jensen’s pretrial release Aug. 19, days after a federal officer found Jensen in his garage using an iphone to watch news from Rumble, a streaming platform popular with conservatives.
Jensen acknowledged that he had earlier watched two days of the cyber symposium sponsored by Mypillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who used the event to push false theories that the presidential election’s outcome was changed by Chinese hackers.
Virgin Galactic: The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that Virgin Galactic cannot launch anyone into space again until an investigation is complete into a mishap that occurred during July’s flight with founder Richard Branson.
The ban came as Virgin Galactic announced plans to launch three Italian researchers to the edge of space in a few weeks.
The FAA said the rocketship carrying Branson and five Virgin Galactic employees veered off course during its descent back to New Mexico on July 11. The deviation put the ship outside the air traffic control clearance area. The FAA is overseeing the probe; it’s responsible for protecting the public during commercial launches and re-entries. Crew safety, on the other hand, is outside its jurisdiction. Virgin Galactic insisted Thursday that Branson and everyone else on board were never in any added danger.
Schools in France: Twelve million children in France went back to school Thursday for the new academic year, wearing face masks as part of rules aimed at slowing down the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
In France as in other European countries, many fear the end of the summer break will see a new surge in COVID19 infections fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. French media cite the example of Scotland and Germany where reports of new cases increased after schools reopened.
Visiting a primary school in the southern city of Marseille, French President Emmanuel Macron praised as “a victory” being able to open schools.
Macron was greeted with a fist bump by children and teachers, all wearing masks, which are mandatory indoors starting from age 6.
Children are also required to wash their hands often, and classrooms must be regularly ventilated. Contact sports have been banned from schools.
France’s virus situation has slightly improved in recent weeks, with about 17,000 confirmed cases of infection each day on average, down from more than 23,000 around mid-august.
China TV crackdown: China’s government banned effeminate men on TV and told broadcasters Thursday to promote “revolutionary culture,” broadening a campaign to tighten control over business and society and enforce official morality.
President Xi Jinping has called for a “national rejuvenation,” with tighter Communist Party control of business, education, culture and religion. Companies and the public are under increasing pressure to align with its vision for a more powerful China and healthier society.
The party has reduced children’s access to online games and is trying to discourage what it sees as unhealthy attention to celebrities. Broadcasters must “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,” the TV regulator said, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men —
or literally, “girlie guns.”