Trump, Biden differ on wildfires

By OC Tribune Staff on September 14, 2020 • ( Leave a comment )

THE GOLDEN GATE Bridge in San Francisco backlit by the flames and smoke from Northern California wildfires (Flickr/Christopher Michel).

President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival for the White House are offering very different views of the reason for the wave of wildfires that are raging across the Pacific Coast.

Trump placed the blame on the people who have authority over the region’s many forests and wooded parks. “Please remember the words, very simple, forest management,” he said. Forests owned by the public are managed in some cases by the federal government and in some cases by states. As for whether climate scientists had the right idea for what caused this month’s firestorms, the president said, “I don’t think science knows, actually.”

Biden responded by citing climate change as a chief culprit. “The West is literally fire and he blames the people whose homes and communities are burning,” he said. The death toll in California is put at 25 in California by United Press International, with 10 more believed dead in Oregon and one child in Washington state.

Rochester mayor fires police chief

The mayor of Rochester, New York today fired the city’s chief of police over the handling of the asphyxiation death of a Black man in police custody.

According to Reuters, Mayor Lovely Warren discharged chief of police La’Ron Singletary and suspended two other city officials in the wake of the incident in which police hooded and restrained Daniel Prude, 41, who died soon after. The medical examiner concluded that the cause was a “homicide by asphyxiation,” complicated by the presence of the drug PCP in Prude’s system, according to Reuters.

The news: Stocks rebound, T-day “virtual” parade

Wall Street on Monday bounced back from a scary week with a modestly strong performance. The Dow Jones Average climbed 327.69 points, and the S&P rose 42.57. Nasdaq had a good day, too, increasing by 203.11 points. • The 94th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will be held, but only in a virtual fashion. The parade will be broadcast-only and filmed over two days in the area of the department store, then broadcast on Nov. 26 via NBC-TV. • The number of total global coronavirus cases is at 29,182,198, according to Johns Hopkins University. The nation with the most cases is the United States with 6,553,303, followed by India with 4,846,427 and Brazil with 4,345,610. Global deaths are at 927,015, with the U.S. reporting 194,489 fatalities, followed by Brazil with 132,006 and India with 79,722.

Weather: It’s not London fog, actually

The haze that’s been cutting the sunshine for the past several days, largely because of the many wildfires, should continue Tuesday with a high of 88 and an overnight low of 66. By Wednesday, the skies should be sunny and clear with a high of 88, and an overnight low of 66 with increasing clouds. According to the National Weather Service, mostly sunny conditions will prevail with a high on Thursday of 86 and 83 on Friday during the day.