Politics
Column: He lost everything in a wildfire. Here's one city councilman's practical advice
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Jeff Okrepkie wants to make one thing perfectly clear.
Yes, his home burned to the ground after he fled a galloping wall of flames with his wife, their toddler, two dogs and the few items they managed to cram into their cars. But no, Okrepkie insisted, he is not a fire victim.
“I’m a survivor,” he said. “It seems kind of ticky-tacky, but it helps with my mental state to think of myself that way … I survived something that many people haven’t.”
Okrepkie and his wife lost their home and virtually everything they owned in the 2017 Tubbs fire, which turned a wide swath of the Wine Country — including Santa Rosa’s middle-class Coffey Park neighborhood — into a heap of cinder and ash. At the time, it was the most destructive wildfire in California history. Soon, it may rank a mere third, with the still-blazing Los Angeles County inferno topping the list.
Okrepkie, 45, a commercial real estate agent, was displaced through ill fortune. He was elected years later to the Santa Rosa City Council by popular vote. He became an advocate for wildfire survivors, their champion and a clearinghouse of recovery tips by choice and his lived experience.
“How can you have all this information and not share it?” he said during a conversation this week a few blocks from City Hall and a short drive from the subdivision where he returned nearly 2½ years after fire chased him out. “It’s almost seems selfish not to.”
The October weekend that forever changed Okrepkie’s life began in what now seems like blessed normalcy.
He and his wife, Stephanie, attended a wedding on Saturday, a welcome bit of alone time in adult company. Their son was nearly 2 years old and had lately “started scaling the walls,” so Sunday was spent converting his crib into “a big-boy bed.” After it was made up, Okrelie took a picture because they were all so excited.
The rest transpired in a flash.
Reports of a fire breaking out in Napa, 40 miles away. His wife nodding off in front of the TV news. Okrepkie falling asleep. His sister calling and waking him with word of another fire, in Calistoga, 16 miles distant and spreading on powerful winds.
Not much later, the flames leapt Highway 101 and its six lanes and bore down on Coffey Park. Stephanie Okrepkie drove away with her son, the family’s black Lab mix and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Jeff stayed behind, grabbing what he could, until a giant ember landed at his feet, spitting sparks. He took off.
Santa Rosa City Councilman Jeff Okrepkie
(Mark Z. Barabak)
He dispenses his wildfire wisdom in two parts, before and after disaster strikes.
Okrepkie suggested starting with a list of things to grab before you’re forced to go. Figure out what you can get your hands on in five minutes or less and start there, beginning with “the things that are crucial to your life” — passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, insurance policies, wills, trusts. Expand the list to items you can conceivably gather in 10, 15 and 30 minutes.
Focus, Okrepkie said, on things that are irreplaceable — “an urn with your parents remains, wedding rings” — or that have sentimental value. Clothes, shoes, underwear, pet food; those types of things can be purchased later.
Okrepkie particularly regrets leaving behind a photo of his grandparents, which his late grandmother carried with her everywhere. His wife lost the military fatigues her father wore when he was killed in Iraq, though the couple recovered his dog tags and “challenge coin.”
If you lose your home, Okrepkie went on, don’t wait to find temporary housing. “As soon as you get stabilized somewhere,” he advised, “start calling apartments.” And if it’s unfurnished, make do with used or donated items. “When you get back into your house,” Okrepke said, “that’s when you start spending on the dining room table … that looks nice in your home.”
Beyond that, he counseled patience.
Take as much time as you need to catalog your losses for insurance purposes. If you can collect, say, up to $700,000 and devote 10 hours to compiling a thorough list, that works out to $70,000-an-hour. “That’s a pretty well-paying job,” Okrepkie said. “Think of it that way.”
Also, he said, carefully document every interaction with your insurance company. You’re likely to deal with a number of adjusters, some of whom will move on before your claim is settled. It’s important to have written proof of what was said or promised, so you don’t have to start each time with someone new.
When it comes to rebuilding — if that’s your plan — don’t hurry. Yes, Okrepkie said, there’s an understandable urge to return home as quickly as possible. But he warned against making decisions in haste — in part because rules and regulations can change, affecting what and how you’re able to rebuild. “If you’re rushing, you could be doing something to fit into a box that all of a sudden just became bigger three weeks later.”
He was glad he purchased his new home from a “mass builder” — a developer that goes through the permitting and legal process, then offers buyers a range of floor plans and options — rather than going it alone with an individual architect and builder.
“Most people have never built a house,” Okrepkie said. “They just bought a house that already exists. And so they don’t know what goes together” — carpets, countertops, cabinets, tiles and on. “Whereas these guys were like, ‘Yep, we have this and this and this and this and this.’ It’s a lot easier to comprehend when you have limited choices.”
Through it all, Okrepkie said, building and nurturing a sense of community was vital.
“I can sit here and tell you my entire fire story,” he said over lunch at a cantina in downtown Santa Rosa, “and you’ll empathize with it.” But even the most caring and compassionate person can’t relate “in the same way as someone who’s going through what you’re going though.”
A friend started a gathering that jokingly came to be called “Whine Wednesdays,” where survivors got together — at first on camping chairs set amid the ruins — to drink beer and wine “and just talk to each other,” Okrepkie said. “Not bitching and complaining. Just having conversations.”
His activism on behalf of the burned-out neighborhood led to a seat on the city Planning Commission, which in turn led to Okrepkie’s election in 2022 to the Santa Rosa City Council.
As someone with experience on both sides of disaster — as a wildfire survivor as well as a government official dealing with its aftermath — he offered several suggestions for those in public office.
“Be careful with your messaging, because people can take things very personally,” Okrepkie said. “Don’t call people homeless … We have a home. It burnt.”
Be patient. Very patient. Even as months and years pass and the initial trauma has faded, you’re facing people still grappling with perhaps the worst experience of their life. “Be careful about being too dismissive,” Okrepie said, or coming across as unfeeling.
Don’t be afraid to act boldly if your action can hasten the recovery, he continued. “With electeds there’s always a fear of, ‘Am I going to piss off too many people?’ I don’t think there’s a more altruistic thing you can do than put your neck on the line for people that lost everything.”
Not least, don’t treat survivors as though they’re seeking anything more than they had before.
“We’re not asking to build mansions,” Okrepkie said over his taco salad. “If you have a car you really like and someone hits it, you’re not going to be like, ‘I want a Maserati.’ Just give me what I had … I’m not trying to game the system. There always bad apples that will try to. But most are good people in a crap situation.”
It’s pretty straightforward, he suggested. Be caring. Be kind.
Politics
Hochul endorses legislation to allow New Yorkers to sue ICE agents: ‘Power does not justify abuse’
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting legislation that would allow state residents to sue ICE agents for violating their constitutional rights.
The governor said on Tuesday during her State of the State address that she wants to allow New Yorkers to “hold ICE agents accountable in court when they act outside the scope of their duties.”
“This doesn’t interfere with lawful enforcement or public safety,” Hochul said. “It simply affirms a core truth: Power does not justify abuse. And if someone’s constitutional rights are violated here in the state of New York, I say they deserve their day in court.”
Last year, New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Micah Lasher proposed measures to allow private citizens to file lawsuits against federal officials who violate their constitutional rights.
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is backing legislation that would allow state residents to sue ICE agents for violating their constitutional rights. (Julia Nikhinson/AP Photo)
Lasher’s version cites Title 42, Section 1983 of the U.S. Code, which allows people to sue state and local officials for violating their rights. The proposal highlights that New York does not have a law in place allowing citizens to sue federal officials.
“Every day, ICE is terrorizing our communities & violating our civil rights. We must be able to hold them accountable,” Lasher, who is running for Congress, wrote on X, adding that he is glad Hochul is taking up his legislation.
Multiple states, including California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, have implemented similar laws allowing residents to sue federal officials.
Hochul also proposed other immigration guardrails, including a measure to require judicial warrants before ICE can conduct raids in sensitive locations like schools, churches and hospitals.
People march during a protest after the killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Getty Images)
Earlier this year, the Trump administration reversed a Biden administration policy barring immigration arrests in these sensitive locations.
The governor also announced that New York “will not allow the use of state resources to assist in federal immigration raids on people who have not committed serious crimes.”
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin alleged in a statement to The Hill that Hochul “continues to smear law enforcement who are simply enforcing the rule of law and are putting their lives on the line to remove violent criminals from New York.”
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Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minnesota. (Getty Images)
McLaughlin also argued that there has been an increase in threats against federal law enforcement officers who she purports have shown “incredible restraint and professionalism in exhausting all options before any kind of non-lethal force is used.”
This debate has intensified after a recent incident in Minneapoliss, where Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during an enforcement action. Protests followed in multiple cities, and Democrats and local residents have condemned the shooting and urged charges against the agent.
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The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have defended the incident by arguing that it was a justified shooting.
Officials are also investigating a second ICE-involved shooting that happened in Minneapolis on Wednesday, as the mayor continues to demand that the agency leave the city and state.
A group of Los Angeles labor unions is proposing a ballot measure they say would combat income inequality in the city by raising taxes on companies whose chief executive officers make at least 50 times more than their median-paid employee.
The so-called Overpaid CEO Tax initiative was announced Wednesday at a rally outside Elon Musk’s Tesla Diner in West Hollywood, and featured union workers holding signs that read “Taxing greed to pay for what we need,” and a cartoon cutout of a boss carrying money bags and puffing a fat cigar.
“It’s high time the rich paid more taxes,” said Kurt Petersen, the co-president of Unite Here Local 11, which represents airport and hotel employees.
Sister Diane Smith of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice joins the Fair Games Coalition at a rally in West Hollywood on Wednesday.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The proposal is sponsored by the Fair Games Coalition, a collection of labor groups that includes the Los Angeles teachers union, and comes on the heels of a statewide ballot proposal for a one-time 5% wealth tax on California billionaires that would raise money for healthcare for the most vulnerable.
Revenues raised by the CEO tax would be earmarked for specific purposes and not go directly to the city’s general fund.
According to proponents, 70% would go to the Working Families Housing Fund; 20% would go to the Street and Sidewalk Repairs Programs and 5% would go both to the After-School Programs Fund and the Fresh Food Access Fund.
In order to place the measure on the November ballot, supporters must collect 140,000 signatures in the next 120 days.
Critics say the proposal is misguided and would drive business away from the city.
“It would encourage companies that have minimal contact and business in Los Angeles to completely pull out,” said Stuart Waldman, head of the Valley Industry & Commerce Assn. “You’ll never see another hotel built in Los Angeles. It’s just one more thing that will drive business away.”
He added that $350 million for affordable housing would create about 350 units of affordable housing per year, which would not do much to affect the city’s housing crisis.
“That does nothing to help people. But on the contrary, that tax would do more to hurt people by pushing businesses out of Los Angeles and pushing jobs out of Los Angeles,” he said.
United Teachers-Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz said teachers support the proposal because it would not only raise money for after-school programs, but also help teachers find housing in L.A.
“They can’t live where we teach, because the prices are out of reach,” Myart-Cruz said.
Supporters argue that the tax will not chase businesses out of Los Angeles.
Kurt Petersen, co-president of Unite Here Local 11, speaks in favor of a measure that would increase taxes on companies whose chief executive officers make at least 50 times more than their median paid employee.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“Sure if they want to leave the second largest market in the country, go for it. But no one’s leaving that,” Petersen said.
The ordinance, if passed by voters, would impose an additional tax of up to 10 times the company’s regular business tax, based on the pay difference between the highest-paid employee at the company and the lowest, the initiative said.
According to the coalition, the current city business tax is between 0.1% and 0.425% of gross receipts.
If a top manager at a company makes between 50 and 100 times the median employee, the company will pay an “Overpaid CEO tax” equal to the business tax otherwise paid by the company. If the top manager makes greater than 500 times the median employee, the business would be required to pay an additional tax of 10 times the business tax otherwise owed.
“The bigger the gap, the higher the tax,” Petersen said.
Politics
Republicans light cigars, cigarettes on burning photos of Khamenei to show support for Iranian protesters
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Republican lawmakers are jumping on a social media trend to show their support for the anti-regime protesters in Iran.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., posted photos of themselves using burning photos of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light up a cigarette and a cigar respectively. Both lawmakers used the caption “Smoke ’em if you got ’em.”
The lawmaker’s images mirror a social media trend in which people are using burning photos of Khamenei to light cigarettes and cigars. The trend emerged as the people of Iran hold increasingly intense protests against the Islamic regime. The movement against the regime has seen increasing support from abroad as world leaders back the people of Iran.
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People gather during a protest on Jan. 8, 2026, in Tehran, Iran. (Anonymous/Getty Images)
Khamenei’s regime has started to crack down on protests and even instituted a sweeping internet blackout to try to quell the unrest. Some have posited that the internet blackout was also meant to impede the spreading of information about and visuals of abuses committed against protesters by regime-backed forces.
Recently, exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi has publicly urged President Donald Trump and the U.S. to back protesters in Iran as they fight the decades-old regime.
Sheehy told Fox News Digital that he takes the issue personally, saying that Iran has participated in the torturing, kidnapping and killing of Americans across the globe, “including friends of mine.”
“The Iranian regime are a bunch of murderous b——- who have been chanting ‘death to America’ for the past 46 years. They have backed up this chant by kidnapping, torturing, and killing thousands of Americans all over the world, including friends of mine. For me, it’s personal; it’s time to take out the trash,” Sheehy said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital via email.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., showed his solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigarette. (Courtesy of Sen. Tim Sheehy’s Office)
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The senator also expressed his solidarity with the people of Iran and encouraged them to keep fighting the regime.
“To the Iranian people — we applaud your courage, keep fighting, and know we fully support your brave efforts to topple this evil regime,” he added.
Tenney’s office also spoke with Fox News Digital about the congresswoman’s post, praising the bravery of the people of Iran for standing up to the regime. Additionally, Tenney’s office expressed the congresswoman’s solidarity with the Iranian people.
“The bravery of the Iranian people in the face of decades of oppression by a brutal, extremist regime is extraordinary. Men and women across Iran are risking their lives to stand up to authoritarian mullahs who have denied them basic freedoms for generations,” Tenney’s office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., showed her solidarity with the people of Iran by hopping on a social media trend in which she used a burning photo of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to light a cigar. (Courtesy of Rep. Claudia Tenney’s Office)
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“The congresswoman stands firmly with the Iranian people and their demand for dignity and self-determination, and believes their courage must be recognized and amplified. Today, the Iranian people finally have an ally in the White House, President Trump, who has made clear that the United States stands with those fighting for freedom against tyranny,” Tenney’s office added.
Trump has been vocal about his support for the people of Iran and has warned that the U.S. would be ready to step in if the regime used violence against protesters.
“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Jan. 10. “The USA stands ready to help!!!”
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