Headlines and more Headlines- Just News headlines all the time. This blog is for aggregating Head line news sources.
Aggregating, that is, adding together news items to make a nice old fashioned newspaper with a modern flair.
Update: As of 9:30 p.m. Friday, KESQ News Channel 3 learned Palm Springs released all but two of its fire crews to watch the fire situation over night. Fire loss so far is listed as "superficial": palm trees, some cars, and fencing. Update: As of 8:20 p.m. Friday, Palm Springs fire Chief Blake Goetz says the fire is holding at about 40 to 60 acres.t's about 60% contained. Goetz said that the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was shut down earlier in the day due to the fire. Right now, they're working on bringing the people down. No complete structures have been lost. Chief Goetz says this is a "miracle." At least 50 homes had potential to be damaged. The fire could have destroyed as many as 100 homes Friday night. With the way the winds are going, it's still something to watch. Update: residents will be allowed back into the area at 10pm PDT Update:Evacuation Information: Mandatory Evacuations in the neighborhoods of: Milo and Racquet Club in Palm Springs. About 70 people are now evacuated to this school. Another evacuation area was set up at the Palm Springs Police Training Center. Vista Del Monte Elementary School 2744 N. Via Miraleste Palm Springs Update: 50 acres, 60% contained. Local news reporting two homes on fire. ICs feel confident that the fire will be contained soon. Update: Fire is now reported at 10 acres. one structure lost and a high wind warning. CA-PSP-Tram Location: North Palm Springs near Tramway RoadChino Canyon near the Palm Springs aerial tramway. The fire started near Tramview road and burned south towards Racquet Club creating about an hour worth of "significant smoke" in the area. IA: 4:30 p.m., Friday evening - 5-10 acres, rapid rate of spread, structures threatened. Winds 40 mph gusting to 60. Evacuations in progress. Resources: Units from Palm Springs, RRU, and BDF are responding. CA-BDF resources (actual or ordered) remain at the scene and most will be released shortly. (E-52, E-34, E-32R, E-16, WT-56, Fuels Crew 1, and one CAL FIRE crew.) The requested helicopter could not fly due to wind conditions.
Breaking news: 04-03-09 20:30 hrs - Heavy U.S.C.G SAR OP's Northeast of Tracy, California, Low altitude USGC planes.
According to markings planes appear to be United States Coast Guard working into the evening search pattern seemed to be centered just west of the I205 I5 in the Paradise Cut area of San Joaquin County. At approximately 8:30 pm a helicopter was stationary positioned over the Paradise Cut area while Coast Guard plane orbited above the area, at times traveling at a very low altitude. Google Map - Link
Reward for information has grown to $22,165 thanks to donations from the public.
Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla has offered $10,000 for her safe return of Sandra by midnight Sunday, "no questions asked.".
Sandra is 4 feet tall and weighs 45 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings. She was reported missing at 7:53 p.m. Friday, and a search was started 15 minutes later. She was last seen around 4 p.m. Friday.
Update: 04-02-09 - Investigators will search Old River this afternoon to see if they can find anything that would help them find an 8-year-old Tracy girl missing now for nearly six full days. (Google map Old River - Link)
Meanwhile, Tracy police and volunteers will continue digging through the trash of everyone in the city through the weekend, and keep pursuing every one of the 569 leads that have come in since little Sandra Cantu went missing on Friday afternoon from her home in Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park.
Investigators refuse to say what sort of evidence they've found so far, but police said that what was found has helped narrow down the case.
"From videotapes to psychics, there is no single lead that is ignored until it is investigated," said Tracy police Lt. Jeremy Watney today at a morning press conference.
Update: 04-02-09 - Father interviewed by police, proclaims innocence, states he has had no contact with her in over a year Daniel Cantu, said today that he hasn't seen his daughter in a year.
"Did I take my daughter? No," Cantu said. "But I wish I did. I wish I had my daughter. At least I'd know she's warm … I'd know that she's fed … I'd know that she's okay."
Cantu, 37, is a Tracy native who attended Tracy High School has lived in Mexicali, Mexico, for the past year. He works as a saw operator for the National Beef Packing Company in Brawley, about two hours east of San Diego. The company declined to talk about Cantu. Cantu was in town over the weekend, left, and said he has been in Tracy since Tuesday. Tracy police questioned him Wednesday at the police department, where a friend dropped him off. Source: Tracy Press - Link Update: 04-02-09 - Family and friends of Sandra Cantu have given police some recent photos of her — from her March birthday, Christmas and the Fourth of July 2008.
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Courtesy photo of Sandra Cantu, missing since March 27
Source: Tracy Press - Link Youtube video - Tracy Police PIO interview Update: Tracy Police Sgt. Tony Shenemen, leading the investigation into Sandra's disappearance feels they have received credible tips that will ultimately lead to her whereabouts; and she will be found alive.
Arrest at searched house not directly connected to Sandra's disappearance. Police searched four mobile homes in the park, a building in Tracy and another in Oakdale, police announced. What they found remains undisclosed, and the FBI is analyzing evidence, Sheneman said. Orchard Estates resident Christian Sinclair, 49, was taken to the Tracy police department, arrested, fingerprinted, photographed, cited and released on the misdemeanor charge, said Sgt. Tony Sheneman, police spokesman. Sheneman said Sinclair verbally badgered agents and officers as they searched a mobile home. His arrest is "unrelated to the investigation" of the girl's disappearance, the spokesman said.
Investigators are tracking down more than 150 tips that have come in from the public.
Police say there is no evidence Sandra was abducted or the victim of foul play.
She was last seen on surveillance video Friday afternoon in the mobile home park where her family lives. Last seen wearing Pink " Hello Kitty" shirt and Black leggings
Information about the case should be directed to the Tracy Police Department at 831-6847. Tips may be called in to 831-4550 or to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.
Man who kissed missing girl questioned - Tracy Press - Link FBI Joins Search for Missing 8-Year-Old California Girl - Fox News - Link Hundreds crowd multipurpose room - Tracy Press - Link CERT - Trained volunteers spring into action - Tracy Press - Link 6 Homes searched - Two men questioned, now termed "persons of interest," in missing girl case. - AP - Link Missing Child: Tracy, Ca - Missing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu
With $150 million in the bank, why is fire authority axing firefighters?
The Orange County Fire Authority does have an "unreserved fund balance" of $149 million, according to its latest audit.
the Fire Authority had 1,019 employees in 1999, and 1,122 in 2008. (So, not that many more people.)
But its spending more than doubled over that period of time - from $119.3 million to $247.6 million.
The Fire Authority has plans for most of this money - including setting $66.3 million aside for capital projects, $28 million for its workers compensation self-insurance program, and $8.7 million to pay off debt, said Assistant Chief Lori Zeller (as she patiently walked us through the numbers).
So, Zeller says, the Fire Authority's operating fund really only has $24.5 million at its disposal. And it won't be tapped to smooth out the rough edges right now.
Zeller stresses that the Fire Authority is not eliminating this particular $1.7 million crew, but rather deferring its implementation. "Public safety is our number one priority so we are currently looking at alternatives such as using our reserve hand crew, using inmate crews, and mutual aid from our neighboring agencies," she wrote in an email. "The full-time hand crew will be re-instated once it is economically feasible and we work through the same fiscal challenges everyone is facing." Info from: OC Register - Full story at Link -------------------------------------------
Money troubles cut into firefighting resources
Despite recommendations to increase staff to fight wildfires, O.C. agencies find themselves having to cut back.
By KIMBERLY EDDS
The Orange County Register
Prospective members of the Orange County Fire Authority's new full-time 22-man hand crew – a rough-and-tumble crowd willing to do the backbreaking work of cutting fire lines – showed up to the department's Irvine headquarters in pressed suits and shined shoes for their oral board interviews.
The required written test was a distant memory. But instead of job offers last week, those who passed the interview got an economics lesson. The money just isn't there.
The crew, part of a series of recommendations approved after the 2007 Santiago fire to make the county's largest firefighting force better equipped for monster wildfires, is being put on hold to save $1.7 million in next year's budget. The part-time crew was disbanded earlier this year, leaving OCFA without a hand crew to call on.
A plan to bolster wildland engine crews from three to four firefighters is being delayed, even though the increase is recommend as minimum staffing levels by the National Fire Protection Association and touted by the Fire Authority as increasing firefighter safety and helping crews to snuff out fires before they rage out of control.
"We won't be able to respond as efficiently as we would be able to if we didn't defer those," OCFA Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion said.
At a time when America's police forces are literally counting bullets to save a buck, firefighters are tightening the belts on their turnouts as they try to ride out the roughest economic times since the 1970s.
The New York City Fire Department was making ends meet by closing several engine companies overnight, but as money has become even more limited, the department is considering closing 16 fire companies entirely, along with mothballing 30 ambulances. Volunteer fire departments make up the lion's share of America's firefighting force, but many, including those in Stamford, Conn., are flirting with bankruptcy.
A total of 1.4 million acres of California wildland transformed into scorched earth in 2008 as firestorms raged, chewing through nearly a quarter of all the acres burned in the United States last year.
Firefighting costs for the 2008 season have topped $1 billion. The population of California has more than tripled since 1950, with more than half of new homes being built in severe fire danger zones.
Massive firestorms that chase thousands from their homes and tax already weary firefighters are becoming the rule rather than the exception as more people move next to wilderness areas.
Harsh realities of the 2007 Santiago fire during which crews had to go it largely alone for hours if not days were met by the OCFA with 26 aggressive recommendations for $14.1 million in staffing and equipment, in addition to two new helicopters to replace their two Vietnam-era helicopters. "We're putting our money where our mouth is," said Concepcion in March 2008. The department fast-tracked ordering two Bell 412 helicopters at $21.6 million.
But before many of the recommendations were rolled out, the Freeway Complex fire ripped through Orange County last November, destroying 114 homes and 30,305 acres. Two years after the recommendations, unforgiving economics have forced OCFA department heads to cut 10 percent of their budgets. Positions have been frozen.
Janice Beasley, whose home near the mouth of Modjeska Canyon was destroyed in the Santiago Fire in October 2007, was displeased at news of the cutbacks.
"The help needs to go to our fire department," she said. "We didn't have enough help to begin with, and now this?"
The Santiago fire destroyed 15 homes in the canyon communities of Modjeska and Trabuco. Like many victims, the Beasleys have rebuilt or still are in the process of doing so. The family's 3-acre horse property on Santiago Canyon Road was destroyed by the arson-set Santiago fire.
For more than a year, the Beasleys have been living out of a trailer. They lost most of their possessions and relied on friends and neighbors for handouts.
Budget crisis or not, Beasley's anger at the cutbacks spilled out to include the announced closing of nearby Silverado Elementary School and other things see sees as community necessities.
"They need to cut the money at the top, from the salaries of the senators and the other politicians who continue to get raises," Beasley said. "My husband took a pay cut because of the poor economy – why not these people?"
The necessity of having a well-funded firefighting organization usually only is recognized when disaster strikes and immediately afterward, when the disaster still is fresh in the headlines, says Beasley.
"I'm doing everything I can, spending my own money, to make my home more fireproof," Beasley said. "But nothing is really fireproof. What we need are more firefighters. This doesn't make any sense to me."
In Santa Ana, a city of nearly 338,000, the Fire Department has chipped $2.7 million from its $54 million budget, pushing back training, holding vacant firefighting positions open and pulling firefighters from desk jobs and sending them back into the field. Six firefighters scheduled to go to paramedic school next month were told they would have to wait until next year. Overtime is being used to fill in for vacant spots, which saves money in benefits, but consecutive shifts can wear on firefighters. Santa Ana limits its firefighters to working 96 hours in a row.
"My biggest worry is overloading the firefighters," Fire Chief Mark Martin said. "I know they like the overtime, but I want to make sure they are able to do their job."
And the department's maintenance staff has been cut in half, leaving one man responsible for keeping all the fire trucks and engines running, along with all the tools, equipment and turnouts for more than 200 firefighters. "That's a lot for one person," Martin said, who just approved bringing in a firefighter on overtime to help out.
Fullerton is under a hiring freeze for all positions paid out of the general fund. To cut 3 percent from its $18 million budget, the city's fire department is delaying nonmandatory training and putting off replacing fire vehicles and building maintenance, Fullerton Fire Marshall Julie Kunze said.
And departments are taking suggestions.
"We're looking at every cost-cutting measure," Concepcion said. "We're going to consider everything."
Tsunami Message: At 11:02 AM Pacific Daylight Time on April 3, an earthquake with preliminary magnitude 3.6 occurred 55 miles/89 Km southwest of Eureka, California.
The magnitude is such that a tsunami WILL NOT be generated. This will be the only WCATWC message issued for this event.
The Tulare man linked to the death of a Air Attack pilot and a Cal Fire Battalion Chief in the Sierra 2 1/2 years ago was sentenced today to 15 years in state prison.
Patrick Ryan Courtney, 31, had pleaded no contest to four felony counts and special allegation connected with the four fires believed started Sept. 3, 2006.
Three days later, a reconnaisance plane checking the spread of the fires crashed, killing Cal Fire Battalion Chief Rob Stone, 36, of Exeter, and the pilot, Sandy Willett, 52, of Hanford.
The Tulare County District Attorney's office said Courtney admitted starting two fires to keep himself warm. He denied setting any others, although fire officials said four had been set.
Patrick Ryan Courtney Sentenced to 15 Years for arson Fires, Deaths of two Firefighters
By: John Heil, Public Affairs, U.S. Forest Service
VALLEJO, Calif., April 2, 2009 - The Honorable Judge James Hollman today sentenced Patrick Ryan Courtney, 31, from Tulare, to 15 years in prison for starting fires on National Forest System land.
Courtney previously entered a No Contest plea to four separate counts of Unlawfully Causing a Wildfire. Additionally, Courtney admitted to two special allegations under Penal Code section 452.1 in which he admitted to causing great bodily injury or death to a firefighter and causing a great bodily injury to more than one victim. Along with these charges, Courtney admitted to having a prior conviction of attempted murder in 1995 and having served a prison term for that offense.
On September 3, 2006, the defendant walked into the Bear Creek Drainage near the Balch Park Campground on the Sequoia National Forest. On the evening of September 3, 2006 firefighters began battling a wildland fire located in the lower end of the Bear Creek Drainage, and the suppression efforts continued into the next day. The next morning of September 4, the Defendant walked into the Mountain Home conservation camp located about 1.5 miles from where he entered and just downstream from where the fire suppression efforts where ongoing. When questioned about the wildland fire, the Defendant initially admitted to lighting one fire, then later admitted to lighting a second as well. Prior to entering his pleas in the case, the Defendant denied starting any other fires.
Over the course of the next few days, firefighters continued to battle separate fires, all of which were contained in the Bear Creek Drainage. In an effort to determine the origin of these additional fires as well as locate any possible other fires, CAL FIRE officers utilized a reconnaissance style airplane (Air Attack 410). During the reconnaissance flight of the canyon on September 6, 2006, Air Attack 410 crashed, killing the pilot, Sandy Willett, 52, and Battalion Fire Chief Rob Stone, 36. A total of four fires were located and all were determined to be of human origin and not accidental.
The case was prosecuted by Supervising Attorney Timothy Ward along with Investigator Domingo Flores from the District Attorney's Bureau of Investigations. The U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE jointly investigated into the origin of the fires as well as the deaths of Willett and Stone.
"Fighting fire is inherently dangerous work," said Regional Forester Randy Moore. "We feel for the families who lost loved ones, and we're pleased that the responsible individual is being held accountable for fires that resulted in two firefighter deaths and an overall increase in risks our firefighters face."
"CAL FIRE lost two extraordinary men," said CAL FIRE Director Del Walters. "The devastation and loss caused by this heinous act has had a profound effect on so many of us."
The fires burned about six acres of federal lands.
