I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.
Protesters have torched vehicles and buildings, hurled petrol bombs at police stations and trains, dropped debris from bridges on to traffic below and vandalized shopping malls and campuses, raising questions about how and when more than five months of unrest can be brought to an end.
Off-shoots of the group that advocates peaceful protest as a way to pile on pressure to curb global warming are sprouting from Beirut to Doha, as activists in the oil-rich region want governments to ditch fossil fuels for renewable energy sources.
The LA county public health department reported this week that 1,047 homeless people died last year, a number that has steadily increased every year since 2013, when 536 people died. The leading causes of death were coronary heart disease, which accounted for 22% of deaths, followed by alcohol and drug overdose at 21%, transportation-related injuries at 9%, homicides at 6% and suicides at 5%.
The move would leave the US as the only country outside the accord, a decision President Trump promised early in his term to unfetter America’s domestic oil, gas and coal industries. “What we won’t do is punish the American people while enriching foreign polluters,” Trump said at a shale gas industry conference in Pennsylvania on Oct. 23, referring to his planned withdrawal from the agreement.
Kim Yong Chol said in a statement there has been no progress in U.S.-North Korea relations. He warned that the cordial relationship between dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump wouldn't be enough to prevent nuclear diplomacy from failing, threatening that "there could be the exchange of fire at any moment."
The cycle of fire began Wednesday morning when flames surrounded the library and museum in Simi Valley and stalked nearby neighborhoods as it swiftly scorched hundreds of acres in Ventura County. As the day wore on and the winds howled, more than a dozen other smaller fires erupted in communities including Riverside, Santa Clarita, Brea, Whittier, Lancaster, Calabasas, Long Beach, Nuevo and Jurupa Valley. The outlook was brighter in Northern California, where thousands of evacuees began to return home as firefighters started to gain the upper hand on the wine country blaze that has scorched more than 76,000 acres and burned dozens of homes. The biggest battle Wednesday was in Ventura County, where 800 firefighters trying to control the wind-whipped fire surrounding the presidential library were stymied by intense gusts that sent embers flying far beyond the body of the blaze. Helicopters repeatedly dropped loads of water around the Reagan complex, which is perched atop a hill blanketed in dense brush, amid 60-mph winds that were strong enough to knock a person off balance.
The Getty fire broke out shortly after 1:30 a.m. along the 405 Freeway near the Getty Center and spread to the south and west, rapidly burning more than 600 acres and sending people fleeing from their homes in the dark. About 10,000 structures have been placed under mandatory evacuation orders.
