California
Intense California wildfire has spawned its own mini weather system — including lightning strikes
A raging wildfire spreading across southern California has sparked its own destructive weather, including thunderstorms that brought a series of devastating lightning bolts, according to weather experts.
As the fire near the San Bernardino National Forest has rapidly grown in size over the weekend and forced thousands to flee their homes, the powerful blaze has created its own tiny weather system hampering efforts to control the inferno.
“The fire itself helped spawn its own thunderstorms,” meteorologist Dave Munyan, of the National Weather Service, told the New York Times.
“Most of the aviation-based fire tactics had to be suspended yesterday due to the lightning.”
The incredible natural phenomenon is called pyrocumulonimbus, which in simpler terms means a fire-generated storm.
The intense heat from the wildfire – which has reportedly burned more than 17,000 acres — rises into the air, and when combined with enough moisture can lead to thunderstorms, Munyan told the Times.
Officials said there were reports of more than 1,100 lighting strikes in the area from the smoke that has formed into thunderstorm clouds, CBS News reported.
The mini weather system can also result in gusty winds that could help spread the fire.
More than 11,000 people have been issued evacuation orders, the Times reported – as more than 35,000 homes and buildings are threatened by the fire.
The so-called Line Fire was originally reported in the area of Baseline Street and Aplin Street last Thursday, but with “critically dry” vegetation and temperatures reaching more than 100 degrees, the inferno quickly grew larger, according to Cal Fire.
More than 600 firefighters are battling the blaze, but so far none of it is contained.
There are no reported fatalities, but three firefighters have been injured so far.
It’s not known what started the wildfire.
With Post wires
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California’s high-speed rail authority sued the Trump administration Thursday over its cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California by state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, comes one day after the Federal Railroad Administration pulled $4 billion from the project that was intended for construction in the Central Valley. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief and challenges the legality of the decision.
The lawsuit calls the administration’s actions “arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, and contrary to law, and threatens to wreak significant economic damage on the Central Valley, the State, and the Nation.” It names Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and acting FRA Administrator Drew Feeley as defendants and details President Trump’s “personal animus” toward the project and long-standing criticism of it. Trump previously pulled funding from the train during his first term.
The suit calls the president’s past statements over the project’s budget as untrue. The project is about $100 billion over budget from its original proposal of $33 billion. Trump previously said it was “hundreds of billions of dollars” more.
“Trump’s termination of federal grants for California high-speed rail reeks of politics.” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Thursday. “It’s yet another political stunt to punish California. In reality, this is just a heartless attack on the Central Valley that will put real jobs and livelihoods on the line. We’re suing to stop Trump from derailing America’s only high-speed rail actively under construction.”
The fast train to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles was originally expected to be completed in 2020. But while the entire route was environmentally cleared last year, no portion of the line has been finished and construction has been underway only in the Central Valley. The Trump administration initiated a compliance review in February after Republican lawmakers called for an investigation into the project and demanded that it be defunded.
The 310-page review found significant failures in the project, citing budget shortfalls and missed deadlines in its assessment, and found “no viable path” forward. In two letters disputing the findings, Ian Choudri, chief executive of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said the review was filled with inaccuracies that misrepresented the project’s progress.
In early July, Choudri asked that the Federal Railroad Administration delay its decision and requested another meeting. Less than two weeks later, the Trump administration canceled the funds instead.
California
Army veteran and US citizen arrested in California immigration raid warns it could happen to anyone
A U.S. Army veteran who was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm last week said Wednesday he was sprayed with tear gas and pepper spray before being dragged from his vehicle and pinned down by federal agents who arrested him.
George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, said he was arriving to work on July 10 when several federal agents surrounded his car and — despite him identifying himself as a U.S. citizen — broke his window, peppered sprayed him and dragged him out.
”It took two officers to nail my back and then one on my neck to arrest me even though my hands were already behind my back,” Retes said.
He was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles where he said he was put in a special cell on suicide watch and checked on each day after he became emotionally distraught over his ordeal and missing his 3-year-old daughter’s birthday party Saturday.
He said federal agents never told him why he was arrested or allowed him to contact a lawyer or his family during his three-day detention. Authorities never let him shower or change clothes despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, Retes said, adding that his hands burned throughout the first night he spent in custody.
On Sunday, an officer had him sign a paper and walked him out of the detention center. He said he was told he faced no charges.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed Retes’ arrest but didn’t say on what charges.
”George Retes was arrested and has been released,” she said. “He has not been charged. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is reviewing his case, along with dozens of others, for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.”
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