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California Faces Its 2nd-Biggest Fire This Year—Forcing Evacuations

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California Faces Its 2nd-Biggest Fire This Year—Forcing Evacuations


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The Smith River Complex wildfire on the California-Oregon border grew to more than 47,000 acres on Wednesday, forcing residents in both states to evacuate as California sees its second biggest wildfire of the 2023 season, even after the southern part of the state was slammed with heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hilary.

Key Facts

The fire remains 0% contained as of Wednesday morning, according to a state incident report, while more than 1,200 personnel are fighting the fire, including around the small town of Gasquet, which has been fully evacuated.

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Northeast winds are expected to push the fire to the southwest, after it combined with two others—the Kelly fire and Holiday fire—that had merged into one fire on Monday.

The fire started on August 15 as a section of forest was struck by roughly 150 lightning strikes, causing more than 27 fires, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

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Despite heavy rain from Hilary, the Smith Complex fire is still “burning pretty hot,” and moisture from the tropical storm might not make much of an impact to quash the fires, National Weather Service meteorologist Merl Herlein told local ABC affiliate KRCR.

Officials in California’s Del Norte County (population 27,082) upgraded their evacuation order to level three, urging residents to leave immediately, while a level two evacuation notice is in effect in parts of Josephine County, Oregon (population 87,730), meaning residents should be ready to leave their homes.

Surprising Fact

California, which had been in the midst of a “megadrought” last year, has been spared from drought conditions after a parade of so-called atmospheric rivers dumped heavy rain and historic snow on the Golden State over the winter. Just over 25% of the state is in a state of drought as of last week, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. Drought Monitor—compared to 100% of the state at this time last year.

Big Number

93,078. That’s how many acres the state’s York fire grew to earlier this summer (more than 145 square miles) according to a state incident report, making it California’s biggest fire since August 2021. The Smith River Complex fire is the second-largest so far this season. The York fire, which started near the Nevada border, wiped out vast swaths of the Mojave National Preserve, which had been parched amid an early summer heat wave, creating a “ready ignition source” that allowed it to spread, according to officials. The fire devastated California’s famed Joshua trees, though no residents were forced to evacuate.

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Tangent

The Smith River Complex fire comes amid a less active fire season in California, though fires in Canada have devastated the country from British Columbia to the Northwest Territories, burning an area larger than the state of Alabama in the country’s worst fire season on record. Nearly 20,000 people were evacuated from the city of Yellowknife—the capital of the Northwest Territories—over the weekend, while officials in British Columbia declared a province-wide state of emergency on Friday as the McDougall fire spread outside the city of Kelowna, home to more than 132,000 people. Fires have also devastated parts of Europe, with more than 200 active fires wreaking havoc this week in Greece, including some that have spread into neighboring Turkey and another threatening Athens, forcing thousands of people to evacuate, according to multiple reports. The Spanish island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, was also engulfed in flames this week, prompting authorities to issue widespread evacuation orders affecting more than 26,000 people.

Further Reading

California’s York Fire Spreads Over 94,000 Acres—Biggest This Year In Golden State (Forbes)

Canada Wildfire Latest: British Columbia Declares State Of Emergency, Yellowknife Fire Approaches City (Forbes)

Greece Wildfires: More Than 200 Fires Blazing As Devastation Spreads To Turkey (Forbes)



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Eagles’ Don Henley Files Lawsuit for Return of Handwritten ‘Hotel California’ Lyrics

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Eagles’ Don Henley Files Lawsuit for Return of Handwritten ‘Hotel California’ Lyrics


Eagles singer Don Henley filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday (June 28) seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s 1976 album Hotel California.

The civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court comes after prosecutors in March abruptly dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of scheming to sell the documents.

The Eagles co-founder has maintained the pages were stolen and had vowed to pursue a lawsuit when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.

“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,” Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday.

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According to the lawsuit, the handwritten pages remain in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which declined to comment Friday on the litigation.

Lawyers for Kosinski and Inciardi dismissed the legal action as baseless, noting the criminal case was dropped after it was determined that Henley misled prosecutors by withholding critical information.

“Don Henley is desperate to rewrite history,” Shawn Crowley, Kosinski’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to litigating this case and bringing a lawsuit against Henley to hold him accountable for his repeated lies and misuse of the justice system.”

Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, said in a separate statement that the lawsuit attempts to “bully” and “perpetuate a false narrative.”

A lawyer for Horowitz, who isn’t named as a defendant as he doesn’t claim ownership of the materials, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.

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During the trial, the men’s lawyers argued that Henley gave the lyrics pages decades ago to a writer who worked on a never-published Eagles biography and later sold the handwritten sheets to Horowitz. He, in turn, sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, who started putting some of the pages up for auction in 2012.

The criminal case was abruptly dropped after prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates.

Prosecutors and the defense said they received the material only after Henley and his lawyers made a last-minute decision to waive their attorney-client privilege shielding legal discussions.

Judge Curtis Farber, who presided over the nonjury trial that opened in late February, said witnesses and their lawyers used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging” and that prosecutors “were apparently manipulated.”



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Lancaster is California’s most desirable Fourth of July destination, Airbnb says

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Lancaster is California’s most desirable Fourth of July destination, Airbnb says


When thinking about vacations in Southern California, destinations such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs may come to mind. 

However, according to Airbnb, none of the three – or maybe any SoCal city you are thinking of – ranked among their top ten trending destinations for this year’s Fourth of July weekend. 

That would be Lancaster. 

The short and long-term rental service’s list of trending July 4 weekend destinations includes locations renowned for scenic landscapes (such as Cle Elum, Washington and Saratoga Springs, New York) and others known for significant Fourth of July celebrations (Marshfield, Massachusetts and Sanibel Island, Florida) in addition to desirable locations as picked by potential renters themselves. 

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An Airbnb listing in Joshua Tree, California. (Photo courtesy Airbnb)

Airbnb’s top ten trending destinations for Fourth of July 2024 are: 

  • Pocono Township, Pennsylvania
  • Saratoga Springs, New York
  • Marshfield, Massachusetts
  • Leadville, Colorado
  • Bangor, Maine
  • Lancaster, California
  • Cle Elum, Washington
  • Wenatchee, Washington
  • Sanibel-Sanibel Island, Florida
  • Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Breaking it down further, Airbnb found the “most wishlisted” home in each state; California’s was the Invisible House, located within Joshua Tree National Park.

A one-night stay at the Invisible House from July 7 to July 8 will cost $2,934 before taxes.

To view Airbnb’s list of trending towns and “most wishlisted” homes, click here.



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California cities dominate list of places with worst commutes

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California cities dominate list of places with worst commutes


(NEXSTAR) – If you’re stuck in traffic every morning and every evening, is it comforting to know you’re not alone? The average American adult spends 219 hours a year – or more than nine full days – commuting every year, a new analysis by MoneyGeek found.

The personal finance site used data from the Census, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, TomTom, plus gas prices to determine where residents have the best and worst commutes.

Six of the 10 worst places for commuters are in California, MoneyGeek found.

It’s not just that drivers in Vallejo, San Jose, Stockton, Modesto and other California cities have to sit in traffic for a long time – though they do – but they have to pay out the nose to do so. Gas prices are high all around California, and residents in further suburbs (like Vallejo and Fairfield) are often driving longer distances to get into the office. (MoneyGeek factored in the cost of gas, but not the cost of public transit, in its report.)

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To make matters even worse, commuters who drive to work risk damage to their car – or their own safety – every time they get behind the wheel. Crash rates weren’t highest in California cities, however. Drivers in Jacksonville, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and San Antonio, Texas, were more likely to experience a crash during their commute, MoneyGeek found.

The study combined these factors – commute time, rush-hour speed, crash rates and gas costs – to give of the country’s 124 largest metro areas a score. The 20 worst communities for commuters are:

Rank Metro area Score Avg. 1-way commute (minutes) Avg. rush-hour speed (mph) Morning commute crash rate Annual gas cost
1. Vallejo-Fairfield, CA 0.0 34 28 0.31 $1,792
2. Stockton-Lodi, CA 5.2 35 28 0.20 $1,791
3. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 14.3 32 27 0.32 $1,099
4. Modesto, CA 15.0 31 28 0.18 $1,582
5. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA 15.5 35 31 0.12 $1,931
6. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 19.5 28 26 0.27 $1,367
7. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA 20.1 32 18 0.16 $1,042
8. Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 21.3 28 31 0.35 $1,243
9. Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL 21.6 33 27 0.15 $1,133
10. Jacksonville, FL 23.0 28 34 0.54 $1,202
11. San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 24.9 29 30 0.45 $1,015
12. Birmingham-Hoover, AL 25.1 29 32 0.25 $1,161
13. Baton Rouge, LA 25.3 29 29 0.48 $1,028
14. Charleston-North Charleston, SC 25.6 30 26 0.36 $941
15. Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX 27.5 33 23 0.21 $918
16. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT 28.1 33 30 0.06 $1,492
17. Albuquerque, NM 28.4 27 34 0.45 $1,167
18. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 28.5 31 20 0.10 $1,066
19. Worcester, MA-CT 28.8 31 29 0.10 $1,239
20. Port St. Lucie, FL 29.1 31 27 0.15 $1,078
(Source: MoneyGeek)

If you’re looking for someone to be jealous of, look no further than Madison, Wisconsin. Drivers there benefit from low gas prices, rare crashes and short commute times, earning it the No. 1 spot for best commutes in the ranking.

The shortest average commute time overall was found in Wichita, Kansas. Meanwhile, drivers in the McAllen, Texas, metro area pay the least for gas every year. The award for fewest crashes was a three-way tie between Boulder, Colorado; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Trenton, New Jersey.

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