California
Park Fire: California man sees home burn for second time
Getty ImagesRick Pero was working in southern Mexico when the evacuation alerts started going off on his phone.
A wildfire was threatening his California neighbourhood. Again.
Back home – roughly 2,800 miles (4,500km) away – a man at a popular swimming hole shoved a burning car down into a dry, grassy ravine. Almost instantly, the area ignited and those enjoying the summer day started to panic. The flames, about 15 miles (24km) from Mr Pero’s home, were spreading fast in the tinder dry brush.
“Uh oh, this is not looking good,” Mr Pero thought as he watched the blaze’s growth from his phone.
Within hours, the Park Fire had consumed more than 6,000 acres and residents in the area were forced to evacuate. With them, the suspected arsonist who police say blended into the worried crowd and fled the area.
Mr Pero, glued to his phone, packed his bags. He told his cat sitter to get his two felines and leave before it was too late. He knew the danger after surviving the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history in 2018 – which razed the town of Paradise and took 85 lives. His home was incinerated.
Mr Pero rebuilt his life in Forest Ranch, another small community about nine miles (14km) north of Paradise. He thought he was safe – his new “silver lining” home had stunning views and was much more fire resistant. But once again, a fire tore through his home and everything inside of it – possibly also stealing one of his cats that couldn’t be lured out of the house.
The metal disfigured shells of two vehicles remain where his garage once stood. Piles of charred metal debris lay in piles. The foundations of the home aren’t even apparent anymore but some bricks from what appears to be a fireplace are stacked. The colourful sunset views over the wooded area behind his home now looks out on hundreds of scorched – and still smoking – pine trees.
“The big sadness is we have a very close-knit neighbourhood,” he said. “I’m again, so, so grateful that they were able to save all of my neighbours, almost all my neighbours, houses.”
Wildfires are becoming more intense and more frequent.
The Park Fire, which started 24 July in a park in Chico, grew to more than 71,000 acres in just 24 hours. It’s now the fourth largest wildfire in California history after tearing through more than 400,000 acres and like Paradise, it spread at a shockingly fast and hot pace.
Getty ImagesAbout 12 hours after the blaze started, the person authorities say is responsible was arrested. Police say Ronnie Dean Stout II was spotted starting the fire and blending into the crowd as people rushed to flee. Witnesses said he acted erratically and may have been intoxicated.
Authorities found him at a nearby mobile home park and charged him with arson. He has not entered a plea but reportedly told authorities his burning car rolled down the 60-foot embankment and it was an accident. He fled the area afterwards because he was afraid, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey said.
The blaze has consumed land in four counties, scorching an area larger than the size of greater Los Angeles or London. Although most of the land is uninhabited by humans, hundreds of homes have been lost in the blaze and experts worry it could take months before it’s fully extinguished.
The area is a frequent target of destructive wildfires. The region in northern California “has had four of the largest 10 fires” in the state’s history, Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said at a news conference
Eight of the 10 largest wildfires in California history have happened in the last five years. Scientists say the impacts from wildfires and other extreme weather events have worsened due to climate change. And undoubtedly, this new fire will reinvigorate debates about where and how we live and rebuild in an increasingly hot and dry Western United States.
Escape from Paradise
Last time he evacuated, in 2018, Mr Pero was home with his wife in Paradise. They had just 20 minutes to flee – but it was enough time to grab their photo albums, phones, computers, cars and cats.
That fire ripped through Paradise at a truly unprecedented speed and heat – catching everyone off guard with its ferocity. Of the 85 people who perished, many died in their cars, trying to escape on the rural town’s windy, mountain roads.
Paradise Police Sgt Rob Nichols was one of the many quick-thinking heroes that day. As fire engulfed the town, propane tanks exploded and power lines and burned-out cars blocked the road. His wife and young children got out safely, but Sgt Nichols stayed to help.
Along with firefighters and volunteers, they smashed the windows of an empty building that had a large parking lot – a barrier that could prevent the building from burning – and hustled about 200 people inside as they watched in horror as their beloved mountain town burned. Sgt Nichols lost everything he owned.
He still works in Paradise but he resettled with his family in Chico, about a mile from where the Park Fire ignited. Chico was where many of the Paradise evacuees headed in 2018 – many sleeping in tents around a Walmart or in camper vans until they could resettle elsewhere.
Sgt Nichols was on vacation – 135 miles (217km) away in Lake Siskiyou – when he started hearing news that a wildfire was threatening his home. Again.
“On our last evening up there, we couldn’t rest not knowing what was going on and how close it was to the home,” he said. “So we came home.”
Sgt Nichols didn’t anticipate how scary it would be for his children, ages 12 and 13, as they arrived home and saw flames taking over an area on the ridge above their neighbourhood.
“That was kind of a big trigger for them,” he said.
Fortunately, their house was spared. The wind sent the blaze in the opposite direction.
But it was close. He sometimes thinks about moving to a less fire prone area.
“My wife has a lot of family here,” he said, noting the ties that have kept them in the area. “And, you know, we lost seven homes. Her family lost seven homes in the Camp Fire. And so we don’t want to go too far.”
Paradise is likely safer now than most places, he argues, because there just isn’t much left to burn. He’d like to rebuild there, but building costs have skyrocketed and insurance is prohibitively expensive due to wildfires.
Now Sgt Nichols is patrolling around Chico – on loan from Paradise police – to help deter looters or opportunists who attempt to raid communities after an evacuation order.
Fire resistant
Mr Pero saw his Forest Ranch house as a paradise away from Paradise because of its natural beauty and how close it kept him and his wife to the community they’d grown to love.
He became serious, maybe obsessed, about fire safety and was in charge of his neighbourhood’s fire mitigation. He says it’s “ironic” his home burned. He had about 50 yards of cleared space behind his house, a barrier he hoped would stop any potential blaze from continuing toward his oasis.
“It had 60,000-gallon water tanks. It also had fire hydrants on the street,” he said. “And the big part, it was also about a one-minute route to get evacuated out on Highway 32 versus nine hours in Paradise.”
Every year, they brought in hundreds of goats to clear brush, which can be like kindling for any fire, throughout the community. He urged his neighbours to make their homes fire safe by trimming trees and clearing brush.
He’s hoping his lost cat – a striped grey and black feline named CatMandu – made it out alive. Mr Pero has been leaving out food and searching for him around the wreckage.
But the charred remains of his home are still too toxic to walk around – he needs a special mask and suit to search for any sign of the cat or any belongings that survived the blaze.
“I tried to look from the edges,” he said. “Didn’t see anything.”
Three other homes on his street also burned to the ground. They were owned by Paradise fire survivors, he says.
He and his wife loved their time in Forest Ranch. But he doubts they will rebuild there. He says he doesn’t know if they can start over again in such a fire-prone area. They’re thinking maybe somewhere coastal – near water. Somewhere less dry. Somewhere safer.
He knows people who have relocated to the rain-prone state of Oregon and the often-rainy Ireland.
“We’re kind of wide open now.”
Thousands of immigrant drivers whose commercial driver’s licenses are set to expire next month were left bewildered and disappointed when news spread that California was planning on reissuing the licenses — only to learn federal regulators had not authorized doing so.
Amarjit Singh, a trucker and owner of a trucking company in the Bay Area, said he and other drivers were hopeful when word of California’s intentions reached them.
“We were happy [the California Department of Motor Vehicles] was going to reissue them,” he said. “But now, things aren’t so clear and it feels like we’re in the dark.”
Singh said he doesn’t know whether he should renew his insurance and permits that allow him to operate in different states.
“I don’t know if I’m going to have to look for another job,” he said. “I’m stuck.”
Singh is one of 17,000 drivers who were given 60-day cancellation notices on Nov. 6 following a federal audit of California’s non-domiciled commercial driver’s license program, which became a political flashpoint after an undocumented truck driver was accused of making an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.
The nationwide program allows immigrants authorized to work in the country to obtain commercial driver’s licenses. But officials said the federal audit found that the California Department of Motor Vehicles had issued thousands of licenses with expiration dates that extended beyond the work permits, prompting federal officials to halt the program until the state was in compliance.
This week, the San Francisco Chronicle obtained a letter dated Dec. 10 from DMV Director Steve Gordon to the U.S Department of Transportation stating that the state agency had met federal guidelines and would begin reissuing the licenses.
In a statement to The Times, DMV officials confirmed that they had notified regulators and were planning to issue the licenses on Wednesday, but federal authorities told them Tuesday that they could not proceed.
DMV officials said they met with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which oversees issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses, to seek clarification about what issues remain unresolved.
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation, which oversees the FMCSA, would only say that it was continuing to work with the state to ensure compliance.
The DMV is hopeful the federal government will allow California to move ahead, said agency spokesperson Eva Spiegel.
“Commercial drivers are an important part of our economy — our supply chains don’t move and our communities don’t stay connected without them,” Spiegel said. “DMV stands ready to resume issuing commercial driver’s licenses, including corrected licenses to eligible drivers. Given we are in compliance with federal regulations and state law, this delay by the federal government not only hurts our trucking industry, but it also leaves eligible drivers in the cold without any resolution during this holiday season.”
Bhupinder Kaur — director of operations at UNITED SIKHS, a national human and civil rights organization — said the looming cancellations will disproportionately impact Sikh, Punjabi, Latino and other immigrant drivers who are essential to California’s freight economy.
“I’ve spoken to truckers who have delayed weddings. I’ve spoken to truckers who have closed their trucking companies. I’ve spoken to truckers who are in this weird limbo of not knowing how to support their families,” Kaur said. “I myself come from a trucker family. We’re all facing the effects of this.”
Despite hitting a speed bump this week, Kaur said the Sikh trucking community remains hopeful.
“The Sikh sentiment is always to remain optimistic,” she said. “We’re not going to accept it — we’re just gonna continue to fight.”
Two Republican candidates are leading the latest poll in California’s gubernatorial race amid concerns that Democrats could be locked out of the general election in the solidly blue state.
Newsweek reached out to the California Democratic and Republican parties for comment via email.
Why It Matters
California is a solidly Democratic state that rarely elects Republicans to statewide office. However, Democrats are facing a potential challenge in next year’s gubernatorial race. The Golden State uses a unique “jungle primary” system where all candidates, regardless of their party, appear on the same ballot and the two candidates who receive the most votes advance to the general election. This means there is a possible, even if unlikely, scenario where two Republicans could advance to the general election and lock Democrats out of the race.
A string of recent polls suggests that could be a possibility in the race next year to replace retiring Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who cannot run for a third term due to term limits.
What To Know
California’s gubernatorial race has drawn the interest of several well-known Democrats in the state including Representative Eric Swalwell, former Representative Katie Porter, former Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra, businessman Tom Steyer, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and former Controller Betty Yee.
By contrast, two well-known Republicans—Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and commentator Steve Hilton—are in the race.
The math problem for Democrats would be if the high number of Democrats split the vote in a way that allows Bianco and Hilton to narrowly advance to the general election. Early polls show that as a possibility, though there is still time for Democratic voters to coalesce around specific candidates before June’s primary.
On Thursday, pollster Civic Lens Research released a survey showing Bianco and Hilton advancing to the general election. Hilton led with just under 18 percent of the vote, while Bianco followed with about 14 percent.
Swalwell placed third with about 12 percent support, while Porter and Steyer followed with 9 and 7 percent support, respectively. Still, many voters are still unsure of who they are going to support—and could be decisive in the race. Thirty-one percent said they were undecided in the poll.
The poll surveyed 400 likely California primary voters via a web questionnaire sent by text message between December 14 and 16.
Other polls have also showed a Democratic lockout as a possibility. An Emerson College poll, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters from December 1-2, showed Bianco leading with 13 percent, while Hilton and Swalwell were tied at 12 percent. An FM3 poll showed Hilton lead with 18 percent, followed by Bianco and Swalwell at 17 percent. It surveyed 821 likely voters from November 30 to December 7 and had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Zev Yaroslavsky, a former member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Newsweek polls are “largely reflecting name identification and party identification.”
“Voters are not focused on the June primary yet,” he said. “With only two Republicans in the mix along with half a dozen or more well-known Democrats, it is not surprising that most of the candidates are bunched up.”
Democratic and undecided voters are likely to “consolidate behind one or two prominent candidates” by the spring, Yaroslavsky said, noting that other candidates will either drop out or “just be relegated to electoral irrelevancy.”
“The top Democrat will assuredly receive far more than 13% in June. Republicans have a ceiling of what they can hope to get in California, and when Democratic and independent voters coalesce around on or two candidates, at least one of the leading Democratic candidates will come in first or second and advance to the general election. At that point, it’s the Democrats’ to lose,” he said.
What People Are Saying
Corrin Rankin, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, told Newsweek in November: “Poll after poll shows Californians are tired of the decades of failure and corruption by Democrats, and they are turning to Republicans for real solutions and leadership on issues like affordability, public safety, and homelessness.”
Rusty Hicks, chair of the California Democratic Party, told Newsweek in November: “We look forward to electing another Democrat as California’s next Governor in 2026.”
What Happens Next?
The primary is set for June 2, 2026, so candidates will spend the first half of next year making their case to voters to convince them they are the best option to lead the nation’s most populous state.
California
California orders Tahoe Truckee schools to leave Nevada sports over transgender athlete dispute
The California Department of Education is requiring the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to follow state law in another clash over transgender athletes in youth sports in the state.
Currently, student-athletes in Tahoe Truckee Unified play sports in Nevada because of how close they are. But Nevada now bans transgender athletes in girls’ sports, which is against California state law.
So after decades of playing in Nevada, California’s Department of Education is requiring the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to compete in California to comply with state laws that allow student athletes to compete based on their gender identity.
David Mack is the co-founder of Tahoe Pride and describes the new youth sports divide in the Tahoe region.
“So no one’s happy, it’s really sad, it’s quite tragic in that way,” Mack said. “People feel really upset that the school moved so fast on this. They feel blindsided, they feel not listened to, and then other people, like the trans kids, are getting steamrolled over like they’re not recognized in this argument.”
Nevada state lawmakers passed a law in April requiring a mandatory physical signed by a doctor to deem the athlete male or female based on their birth sex.
“This is a politically manufactured issue to try to divide people,” Mack said.
The Tahoe Truckee Unified School District is responding to the California Department of Education with a solution that the district legally join the California Interscholastic Federation in 2026, but continue to play in the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association through 2028.
When asked if transgender athletes would be able to compete while operating in the NIAA, the district said it’s “still in the early stages of this transition, and many details are still being developed.”
In an October letter addressed to the California Department of Education, the school district’s attorney, Matthew Juhl-Darlington, said the Tahoe Truckee Unified is “not aware of any transgender youth who have expressed interest in participating in its 2025-2026 athletic programs.”
“While the NIAA recently updated its polices to define ‘male’ and ‘female’ based on sex assigned at birth and not as reflected in an individual’s gender identity, as required under California law, the District is interpreting and implementing this policy in a manner consistent with California’s legal requirements,” Juhl-Darlington said in the letter.
California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley is opposed to the state order, arguing the weather conditions in Tahoe need to be considered.
“So in order to compete in a California league, you have to deal with this snowy weather and the travel dangers and so forth,” Kiley said.
The school board was expected to explain its solution to both join California’s CIF while playing in the NIAA through 2028 to parents and students Wednesday night at a board meeting.
So far, the California Department of Education has not said if it will accept this as a solution.
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