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DeSantis leaves campaign trail and returns to Florida amid crises | CNN Politics

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With a tropical storm intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida’s largest city reeling from a racially motivated attack that left three Black people dead, Gov. Ron DeSantis left the campaign trail Sunday and returned to his state to navigate the crises.

DeSantis spoke Sunday afternoon from the state’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee to brace Florida’s gulf coast for Tropical Storm Idalia, which could make landfall as a hurricane as early as Wednesday.

Before speaking on the storm, DeSantis read a statement addressing the attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville. The White gunman, who DeSantis called “a deranged scumbag,” used racial slurs, left behind a racist screed and drew swastikas on his firearm, authorities said.

“Perpetrating violence of this kind is unacceptable,” DeSantis said. “And targeting people due to their race has no place in the state of Florida.”

Saturday’s tragedy and the looming potential for devastation from another storm will test how DeSantis balances his official duties with his political ambitions. The Republican has spent much of the past three months on the road as he seeks to win the GOP nomination over a large field of contenders, including former President Donald Trump, whose own response to disasters became fodder for Democrats at election time.

DeSantis’ campaign did not immediately provide an update on his future political travel, but he told reporters Sunday that he was “locked in on this” storm and “we’re gonna get the job done.” DeSantis canceled a town hall scheduled for Monday morning in South Carolina, as well as his keynote address at South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan’s 12th annual Faith & Freedom BBQ. His wife, Casey, will attend in his place, campaign press secretary Bryan Griffin said in a statement on X.

Asked where he planned to be this week, DeSantis responded: “I’m here. I am here.”

DeSantis provided updates on Idalia’s trajectory as it gained strength between Cuba and Mexico. The storm has maximum sustained wind speeds of 40 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, and it could become a hurricane by Tuesday afternoon. DeSantis warned that the Gulf of Mexico, experiencing record warm sea surface temperatures, could quickly turn this storm more powerful.

“Please just heed the warnings of your local officials (and) continue to watch the news,” he said.

The remarks came during one of DeSantis’ first public appearances in his home state since he entered the race for president in May. He returned to Florida from Iowa, where he spent the weekend following the first Republican presidential primary debate touring the Hawkeye State for the fifth time in the last seven weeks. On Saturday evening, the governor’s office shared a video of DeSantis from Iowa condemning the violence as “totally unacceptable” and called the shooter “cowardly” for taking his own life.

Until now, DeSantis has not felt the need to come back to Florida to publicly address a handful of other emergencies his administration has faced this summer, including outbreaks of leprosy and malaria, a deadly spree of flesh-eating bacteria, record-breaking temperatures off Florida’s shore that have threatened delicate coastal ecosystems and a teetering property insurance market.

DeSantis’ return to Florida to manage two high-profile crises comes as he has intensified his criticism of President Joe Biden’s response to the Maui wildfires. Republicans have seized upon a five-day period of silence from when Biden first commented on the deadly fires to when he next spoke publicly about the devastation there.

“Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering. He was asked about it and he said no comment. Are you kidding me?” DeSantis said at Wednesday’s GOP debate in Milwaukee. “As somebody that’s handled disasters in Florida, you’ve got to be activated. You’ve got to be there. You’ve got to be present. You’ve got to be helping people who are doing this.”

DeSantis, though, has also faced blowback at home for his own handling of events that preceded the challenges he is now confronting upon arrival in Florida.

Democrats have accused DeSantis of not speaking out forcefully enough against pervasive demonstrations of neo-Nazism in Florida. A string of antisemitic demonstrations have rocked Florida in recent years, especially in Jacksonville, where hateful messages were displayed in public, including a stadium during a Florida-Georgia college football game DeSantis attended.

In January 2022, DeSantis lashed out at those who called on him to condemn neo-Nazi demonstrations that had taken place near Orlando, accusing his political opponents of trying to “smear me as if I had something to do with it.” During a visit to Israel this year, DeSantis signed a bill into law that prohibited antisemitic displays onto buildings.

“Ron DeSantis repeatedly refused to condemn numerous Nazis rallys (sic) across Florida. Some even flew DeSantis flags alongside swastikas,” former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith wrote on social media after Saturday’s deadly shooting.

The Florida governor was interrupted by crowd members Sunday evening when he began to speak at a vigil for the Jacksonville shooting victims. As DeSantis was interrupted, Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman took the microphone and addressed the crowd, telling everyone to put parties aside.

As for Idalia, storms often put Florida executives in a leadership crucible that test their responsiveness and ability to console during periods of tremendous devastation.

DeSantis was elected in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, a powerful, destructive storm that ripped through the Florida panhandle. DeSantis as governor has overseen the recovery of the region, which is still ongoing.

Last year, DeSantis commanded the state’s response to Hurricane Ian by holding regular news conferences that offered detailed and matter-of-fact updates on the logistics going into the rescue and recovery missions. He put aside his political rivalry with Biden during a joint appearance where the two assured local residents that their administrations were working in harmony.

Ian’s destruction killed dozens of people who failed to leave their gulf coast homes in time, forcing DeSantis to defend the timing of evacuation orders from local officials and the efforts by his department of emergency management to warn people about the storm’s potential surge.

Asked Sunday if Ian altered how the state prepares for evacuations, DeSantis again stood by the county response and said evacuation orders would continue to come from local officials.

“That’s the way it’s always been,” he said. “That’s the way it’s going to be.”

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August 27, 2023
Students, professors report chaos as semester begins at New College of Florida | CNN

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Sarasota, Florida
CNN
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Months after what critics have decried as a conservative takeover at New College of Florida, students and professors say a sense of confusion and anxiety looms over the start of fall semester in Sarasota, Florida.

Amy Reid, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, said course options have dwindled after nearly 40% of faculty members have resigned.

Reid said the situation is quickly becoming “untenable.”

“Just before I came to this meeting, I received word that one more faculty member in biology is leaving,” she told CNN. “That’s going to make a challenge for students to complete their areas of studies here.”

Classes are scheduled to begin on August 28, but Chai Leffler is already struggling to navigate his fourth year at the school.

Leffler is an urban studies major, but he said most of his professors have resigned.

In order to graduate, Leffler said he has asked faculty in other subject areas to sponsor his thesis.

“It’s a little messy, kind of like a dumpster fire right now in terms of administration,” Leffler said. “At the end of the day, I want to get my degree.”

Once heralded as a progressive liberal arts school, New College of Florida has found itself at the center of the state’s culture war over education.

In January, Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced six of the 13 members on the college’s Board of Trustees. New members include Christopher Rufo, who who has been at the forefront of the conservative movement against critical race theory.

See college president’s frosty reception after appointment from DeSantis-backed board members

In May, Gov. DeSantis signed a series of higher education bills on the campus of New College, aimed at ending critical race theory and curbing diversity spending in higher education.

At a press conference following the bill signing, Rufo called the changes “the most significant higher education reform in a half-century.”

The new board has since voted to abolish diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and replaced the college’s former president with Richard Corcoran, the state’s former education commissioner.

“The New College Board of Trustees is succeeding in its mission to eliminate indoctrination and re-focus higher education on its classical mission,” DeSantis said earlier this month in a press release.

The governor also pointed to concerns about enrollment numbers and test scores at the school.

“If it was a private school making those choices, then fine, I mean what are you going to do?” DeSantis said. “But this is being paid for by your tax dollars.”

Earlier this year, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said state officials wanted New College of Florida to “become Florida’s classical college, more along the lines of a Hillsdale of the South.”

Hillsdale College is a private conservative Christian college in southern Michigan.

Some students told CNN they chose to attend New College for its progressive values and because the school offered an environment where LGBTQ+ students could freely express themselves.

Earlier this month, the Board of Trustees began the process to eliminate the school’s gender studies program. The move prompted one gender studies professor, Nicholas Clarkson, to quit.

In his resignation letter, Clarkson described Florida as “the state where learning goes to die.”

“When you start banning terms and banning fields of study and arguing that the state has the right to tell faculty what they can and can’t say in the classroom that really hampers the learning environment,” Clarkson told CNN.

New College Trustee Matthew Spalding, who is also a dean at Hillsdale College in Michigan, disagreed. At a board meeting earlier this month Spalding said the gender studies program was “more of an ideological movement than academic discipline.”

In February, Florida legislators approved $15 million in funding for New College to increase faculty recruiting and fund new scholarships. Officials at New College said recruitment efforts are ongoing and more classes could soon be offered.

Hear Florida student protesters’ message to DeSantis following statewide walkouts

Ryan Terry, a spokesperson for the college, pointed to an increase in fall enrollment as a sign the school is appealing to more students.

Terry confirmed that there are 341 incoming freshman this year compared to 277 in the fall of 2022. The school has a total enrollment of about 800 students, he said.

It’s not just administrative issues complicating the return to school, students are also struggling to find on-campus housing. New College said in a press release that it is currently housing some students in Sarasota-area hotels after a recent engineering report cited air quality concerns in the Pei residential complex.

“Out of an abundance of caution, and for the health and safety of the NCF community, Interim President Corcoran has made the decision to shutter all of the Pei dorms,” the press release said.

Terry confirmed the school is now using other dorms to house the incoming class of freshmen, while returning students are being housed in hotels.

New College senior Galen Rydzik said the move to hotels was poorly planned.

“It’s more of a challenge for the students that were told last minute because a lot of them are not being housed here,” Rydzik said.

Despite the chaos, Leffler said he is determined to try to preserve the “unique student culture” at New College. Last year, students organized their own graduation ceremony to protest the governor’s changes at the school. Leffler said he is hopeful students will be able to do the same in the spring.

“We’re willing to do what it takes to keep the culture alive at this school,” Leffler said. “We are really focusing on just the students, the administration is out of my control.”

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August 27, 2023
Jacksonville gunman was turned away from historically Black university before killing 3 in racist shooting at nearby store, authorities say | CNN

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CNN
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The gunman who killed three people Saturday at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in what authorities said was a racist attack against Black people had earlier been turned away from the campus of a nearby historically Black university.

The shooter, described by police as a White man in his early 20s, first went to the campus of Edward Waters University, where he refused to identify himself to an on-campus security officer and was asked to leave, the university stated in a news release.

“The individual returned to their car and left campus without incident. The encounter was reported to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office by EWU security,” the school said.

The suspect put on a bulletproof vest and mask while still on campus, and then went to the nearby Dollar General, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters told CNN’s Jim Acosta. Armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun, the gunman opened fire outside the store and then again inside, fatally shooting the three victims before killing himself, according to Waters.

The three victims killed, two males and one female, were all Black, the sheriff said.

The university, which is in a historically Black neighborhood, went into lockdown Saturday and students living on campus were told to stay in their residence halls.

The attack clearly targeted Black people, Waters said. The suspect used racial slurs and left behind writings to his parents, the media and federal agents outlining his “disgusting ideology of hate,” the sheriff told reporters.

“This shooting was racially motivated, and he hated Black people,” Waters said at a news conference Saturday evening.

The shooter did not appear to know the victims and it is believed he acted alone, he said.

“This is a dark day in Jacksonville’s history,” the sheriff said. “Any loss of life is tragic, but the hate that motivated the shooter’s killing spree adds an additional layer of heartbreak.”

The FBI has launched a federal civil rights investigation into the shooting and “will pursue this incident as a hate crime,” said Sherri Onks, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville office.

The Jacksonville attack was one of several shootings reported in the US over two days, including one near a parade in Massachusetts and another at a high school football game in Oklahoma, underscoring the everyday presence of gun violence in American life.

There have been at least 472 mass shootings in the US so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which, like CNN, defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are wounded or killed, not including the shooter. It is almost two mass shootings for each day of the year so far. The nation surpassed the 400 mark in July, the earliest month such a high number has been recorded since 2013, the group said.

The shooter, who lived in Clay County with his parents, left his home around 11:39 a.m. Saturday and headed to Jacksonville in neighboring Duval County, Waters told CNN.

At 1:18 p.m., the gunman texted his father and told him to check his computer, according to Waters, who did not provide details on what was on the computer.

At 1:53 p.m., the father called the Clay County Sheriff’s office, the sheriff said.

“By that time, he had began his shooting spree inside the Dollar General,” Waters said of the gunman.

Officers responded to the scene as the gunman was exiting the building. The gunman saw the officers, retreated into an office inside the building and shot himself, Waters said.

Photos of the weapons the gunman had were shown by authorities, including one firearm with swastikas drawn on it. While it remains under investigation whether the gunman purchased the guns legally, the sheriff said they did not belong to the parents.

“Those were not his parents’ guns,” Waters told reporters Saturday. “I can’t say that he owned them but I know his parents didn’t – his parents didn’t want them in their house.”

“The suspect’s family, they didn’t do this. They’re not responsible for this. This is his decision, his decision alone,” the sheriff later told CNN.

Gunman’s history and access to guns being probed

The shooter was the subject of a 2017 law enforcement call under the state’s Baker Act, which allows people to be involuntarily detained and subject to an examination for up to 72 hours during a mental health crisis.

Waters did not provide details on what led to the Baker Act call in that case, but said normally a person who has been detained under the act is not eligible to purchase firearms.

“If there is a Baker Act situation, they’re prohibited from getting guns,” he told CNN. “We don’t know if that Baker Act was recorded properly, whether it was considered a full Baker Act.”

The shooter’s writings indicated he was aware of a mass shooting at a Jacksonville gaming event where two people were killed exactly five years earlier, and may have chosen the date of his attack to coincide with the anniversary, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Saturday condemned the shooting and called the gunman a “scumbag.”

“He was targeting people based on their race. That is totally unacceptable. This guy killed himself rather than face the music and accept responsibility for his actions, and so he took the coward’s way out. But we condemn what happened in the strongest possible terms,” DeSantis said, according to a video statement sent to CNN by the governor’s office.

The US Department of Homeland Security is “closely monitoring the situation,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement on Saturday.

“Too many Americans – in Jacksonville and across our country – have lost a loved one because of racially-motivated violence. The Department of Homeland Security is committed to working with our state and local partners to help prevent another such abhorrent, tragic event from occurring,” he said.

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August 27, 2023
3 people dead in ‘racially motivated’ shooting at Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida, officials say | CNN

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CNN
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[Breaking news update, published at 6:50 p.m. ET]

Three people were shot and killed Saturday at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, in what law enforcement described as a racially motivated incident.

“This shooting was racially motivated and he hated Black people,” Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said at a news conference. He said the shooter, who is White and shot himself after the attack, left behind evidence that outlined his “disgusting ideology of hate” and his motive in the attack.

All three victims were Black.

The shooting happened blocks away from Edward Waters University, a historically Black school where students living on campus were told to stay in their residence halls.

[Original story, published at 6:35 p.m. ET]

The person suspected of opening fire and killing multiple people in a “racially motivated” attack at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday afternoon is dead, officials said.

The suspected shooter was barricaded in the store after opening fire and leaving “multiple fatalities,” Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said. State Sen. Tracie Davis told CNN the suspect is now dead.

The circumstances surrounding the shooter’s death are unclear. It was not immediately clear if victims were shot inside or outside the store.

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department spokesperson Eric Prosswimmer told CNN the department was “on standby” to treat victims but could not share any information about how many people were hurt.

Jacksonville is located in northeast Florida, about 35 miles south of the Georgia border.

The area near the Dollar General store features several churches and an apartment building across the street.

Edward Waters University, a historically Black private Christian school that is located less than a mile southeast of the store, issued campus-wide stay-in-place order. The warning said students, faculty and staff don’t appear to be involved, according to preliminary reports.

“Our campus police have secured all campus facilities. Students are being kept in their residence halls through the afternoon until the scene is cleared,” the alert said.

Davis, whose district includes Jacksonville, called the shooting a “tragic day” for the city in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I’m offering prayers to the families of the victims and am on my way to meet with (Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters) for answers,” Davis posted Saturday.

“This type of violence is unacceptable in our communities,” Davis added.

There have been at least 470 mass shootings in the United States so far in 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting in which four or more people are injured and or killed, not including the shooter. The nation surpassed the 400 mark in July, – the earliest month such a high number has been recorded since 2013, the group said.

The gun violence in Jacksonville marked one of several reported shooting incidents in the US over two days, including in Massachusetts and Oklahoma. Shots rang out across several cities, bringing a startling halt to normal summertime activities like high school football games and weekend shopping.

In Boston, at least seven people were injured Saturday morning in a shooting that interrupted a popular parade, police said. A high school football game in Choctaw, Oklahoma, took a deadly turn Friday night after a possible argument led to three people being shot, authorities say. One of them – a 16-year-old boy – died. And Four people, including a 17-year-old, were killed at an apartment in Joppatowne, Maryland, Saturday morning, officials said.

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August 26, 2023
As hundreds remain missing in Maui, electric company admits evidence to determine how wildfires started may have been compromised | CNN

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CNN
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Hundreds of people are still listed as unaccounted for after this month’s devastating wildfires on Maui – a number that’s expected to change as the FBI continues vetting names.

The “validated list” curated by the FBI currently includes 388 names, Maui County said Thursday, as cell phone data is now being used to try to pinpoint where victims may have been when the deadliest US wildfire disaster in more than 100 years tore through the Hawaiian island. At least 115 people are confirmed dead, though authorities say that number is likely to change.

The FBI on Friday acknowledged the list of names was “a subset of a larger list” of people who are believed to be missing. Steven Merrill, the bureau’s special agent in charge in Hawaii, said those currently on the list are people who authorities had more complete information about. Since the list was released, they’ve gotten “at least 100 people that have notified us that a certain person shouldn’t be on the list,” Merrill said – so the number of those still unaccounted for is expected to change.

As the race to identify the lost continues, the state’s main electrical utility stands accused of compromising evidence in the fire investigation, and Maui County officials have followed others in suing the company over responsibility for the fire. First responders also are pressing for answers about why they weren’t better prepared after a similar ruinous fire five years ago.

The updated list of the missing was released with hopes of confirming anyone who’s not truly still lost, officials said.

“We’re releasing this list of names today because we know that it will help with the investigation,” Police Chief John Pelletier said in the release. “We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.”

Pelletier said Friday that since the names were released, authorities have received hundreds of calls. Authorities would like to do a weekly update on the list of missing people to help notify the public, he said.

The FBI has worked with agencies “to unduplicate people that have been reported missing,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said earlier Thursday in a social media post. Some 800 to 1,200 people have been listed as unaccounted for since the fires, he said.

The grim search for those believed missing began shortly after wind-whipped flames tore through the island on August 8. Much of the western Maui community of Lahaina – once a lively economic and cultural hub – was left in ruins, with entire neighborhoods and businesses reduced to ash. Some residents were forced to jump into the ocean to survive as flames overtook the town.

Search crews and cadaver dogs have searched 100% of single-story homes in the disaster area, Maui County officials said Tuesday. They are now going through multistory homes and commercial properties.

And an FBI team that specializes in using cell phone data has launched in Maui to help identify potential fire victims, a law enforcement source told CNN. The Cellular Analysis Survey Team was on the island working with local law enforcement, the official said.

The team can get and analyze cell phone company subscriber records and cellular tower registration data, which could prove useful to the search efforts by geolocating the last known area where a victim’s cell phone was operating.

The team in the past has used information obtained through court orders to help with terrorism, kidnapping and criminal investigations.

“Cellular telephone analysis” is among the resources being provided by the bureau, Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Hawaii, said during news conference Tuesday without giving specifics.

Additionally, Maui County has named a new interim administrator of the Maui Emergency Management Agency after its prior chief resigned from the post August 17.

In announcing Darryl Oliveira’s hiring Friday, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said he has a track record of “invaluable experience and skill during challenging times.”

Oliveira, who previously served as the administrator of the Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency, is expected to begin leading the county’s emergency agency Monday.

In pictures: The deadly Maui wildfires

As the human toll of the fire comes into focus, investigators also are trying to determine what sparked the flames, and while no official cause has been announced, the Hawaiian Electric Company is facing scrutiny over its actions before and after the fires broke out.

Some evidence potentially vital in determining the cause of the deadly fire in Lahaina may have been compromised, Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) acknowledged in an exchange with attorneys included in court documents obtained by CNN.

The company said fallen power poles, power lines and other equipment were moved during firefighting efforts and as officials worked to make the area safe for residents, according to letters part of a class action lawsuit. The company told attorneys, who are representing Lahaina residents in the class action suit, that it was “possible, even likely” that evidence that “relate(s) to the cause of the fire” might be lost, correspondence obtained by CNN shows.

The equipment was removed from the area around the Lahaina substation – which is thought to be where the blaze started – before federal investigators arrived.

Those actions could have violated national guidelines, which say the fire scenes should be heavily preserved for investigators and any and all evidence should be secured and not removed from the site without documentation, court documents filed by attorneys say.

The ATF said on August 17 that its National Response Team was being deployed to Hawaii to help determine the cause and origin of the deadly fire – days after the utility company acknowledged equipment and evidence had likely been moved or lost.

On August 10 – two days after the wildfire devastated the town of Lahaina, a group of attorneys notified the utility of anticipated litigation and requested that all electrical equipment that may relate to the origin of the fire – including power poles, lines and conductors – be preserved.

An attorney for Hawaiian Electric responded on August 11 that some potential evidence may have already been compromised during the firefight, not by the utility itself, but by others.

John Moore, an attorney for the utility wrote to attorneys for the families on August 11 that the company’s main focus was the safety of first responders and displaced residents and restoring power.

The company also noted it was taking steps to preserve property but local, state and federal agencies were on the ground and it was possible “that the actions of these third parties, whose actions Hawaiian Electric does not control, may result in the loss of property or other items that relate to the cause of the fire.”

The families’ attorneys then submitted a request for a temporary restraining order to stop Hawaiian Electric from altering the scene where it’s believed the Lahaina fire started, court documents show.

A judge signed an interim discovery order on August 18, detailing how the company should handle evidence around the scene, including preserving and protecting all physical evidence within a defined area and refraining from destructive testing.

The order also specified that it was not making any findings of any wrongdoing at this time.

The class action lawsuit was filed several days after the fires ignited alleging Hawaiian Electric failed to deenergize power lines ahead of the fire despite high wind and red flag warnings. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. It is believed to have ignited near a power substation where “where authorities reported a downed power line early on August 8, 2023,” the complaint says.

Hawaiian Electric vice president Jim Kelly previously told CNN that, “as has always been our policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation.”

“At this early stage, the cause of the fire has not been determined and we will work with the state and county as they conduct their review,” he said.

Hawaiian Electric has been “in regular communication with ATF and local authorities and are cooperating to provide them, as well as attorneys representing people affected by the wildfires, with inventories and access to the removed equipment, which we have carefully photographed, documented and stored,” spokesman Darren Pai told The Washington Post.

CNN has requested further comment on the potentially compromised evidence.

The ATF’s National Response Team, which is investigating the cause of the fire, declined to comment.

While the investigation continues, Maui County officials made their position clear in a lawsuit filed Thursday, claiming “the negligence, carelessness, and recklessness, and/or unlawfulness” of Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries is directly responsible for the fires.

The utility, known as HECO, “inexcusably kept their power lines energized” in early August, despite the National Weather Service issuing a High Wind Watch and a Fire Warning, the lawsuit alleges. The warnings cautioned that strong winds could knock down power lines and ignite a fire that would spread quickly due to dry conditions, the lawsuit indicated.

Maui County is seeking damages from HECO that may total tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, said John Fiske, an attorney representing the county in the suit.

“Our primary focus in the wake of this unimaginable tragedy has been to do everything we can to support not just the people of Maui, but also Maui County. We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding,” a spokesperson from Hawaiian Electric told CNN in a statement.

Hawaiian Electric Company serves 95% of the state’s customer base.

As of Thursday, officials still were tracking at least three active fires on Maui, including the Lahaina fire, which was 90% contained after burning more than 2,170 acres. The Olinda fire, which has burned an estimated 1,081 acres, was 85% contained, and the Kula fire was also 85% contained, with just over 200 acres burned, county officials said.

And even as fire crews work to find and contain hot spots, a Hawaii police union official said firefighters “were set up for failure” ahead of the outbreak.

Following a destructive wildfire that broke out in 2018 under similar conditions in the same area, no wildfire management or other preventative methods were taken to mitigate future disasters, Nicholas Krau, the Maui Chapter Chair for the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers, told CNN.

“We all knew this was going to happen again. While no one could have predicted this much destruction or loss of life, we all knew there would be another destructive fire that would threaten these same businesses and homes again,” Krau said. “I don’t know who’s responsible for preventing wildland fires and managing the private owned land where the fire started, but they should definitely answer for it.”

More than 2,000 acres burned and 20 homes were damaged in the 2018 fire, county officials have said.

Many police officers who helped with evacuations this month suffered smoke inhalation because they didn’t have proper respiratory protection, even after it was requested following previous fires, Krau said.

“If someone needs help, (the police) are going to rush in and do everything they can to help. But the department and county of Maui have the obligation to properly equip them,” he said.

CNN has reached out to Maui County and the Maui Police Department for comment on Krau’s claims.

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August 26, 2023
‘Unprecedented’ wildfires across Louisiana force multiple evacuations amid extreme drought | CNN

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CNN
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Louisiana has recorded an unprecedented 441 wildfires in August, forcing multiple southwestern towns to evacuate Thursday and the state to implement a burn ban.

The state is experiencing severe heat and drought conditions. In an email to CNN, Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry spokesperson Jennifer Finely said 441 fires have burned from August 1 to August 24.

Finley said 8,385.73 acres have burned from August 1 to August 25, adding the number of acreage does not include the still-burning fire on Tiger Island, estimated to be more than 20,000 acres. “Tiger Island will not be known until it is out,” she said.

As of Friday evening, there were at least six fires burning in Livingston, Sabine, Vernon and Beauregard Parishes.

Gov. John Bel Edwards met with state and local officials Friday to assess the numerous wildfires burning throughout the state. At a Friday news conference in Beauregard Parish, where numerous communities are under mandatory evacuation, Edwards said officials are not dealing with one fire but fires all over the state “in a way that is very alarming.”

According to CNN Weather, drought conditions have erupted quickly in southwest Louisiana, leaving 6% of the state in exceptional drought conditions. Nearly 50% of the state is in extreme conditions or worse. Around 77% of the state is in a severe drought or worse. In mid-July, there was no extreme drought in Louisiana.

“Nobody alive in Louisiana has ever seen these conditions,” Edwards said. “It’s never been this hot, this dry, for this long.”

“To have these fires burning the way they are and jumping fire lines, and when the wind picks up to have the fires burning in the crowns of trees rather than on the ground and low where they can be more easily contained, makes for a very difficult and dangerous situation,” the governor said.

Edwards urged citizens to adhere to the statewide burn ban.

“You should not be lighting a barbecue grill anywhere in the state of Louisiana today,” Edwards said.

He added the National Guard is assisting in the efforts and the state has requested federal assistance and has looked to other states to help combat the flames.

Speaking in Beauregard Parish, he governor said, “Louisiana National Guard has right at 100 soldiers active in this area in the firefight. They’re authorized to go up to 300 as they need to do that.”

According to Edwards, as of Friday morning, helicopters have moved 348 loads of water, and close to 161,000 gallons have been dropped on the affected areas. No fatalities have been reported, the governor said.

The Beauregard Parish Sheriff’s Office issued an evacuation order for the town of Merryville Thursday evening, saying the fire could reach the town limits within hours, according to Louisiana State Police. On Friday, the sheriff’s office issued further evacuation orders for Bancroft, the Ragle Road area, and the Junction community.

“It is of the utmost importance to get out now,” the Beauregard Sheriff’s office urged in an order sent to Bancroft residents.

Earlier Friday, the sheriff’s office said utilities had turned off services to the residents of Merryville. “All water should be conserved at all cost we need water to fight fires,” the agency said in a Facebook post.

During a time of year when Louisiana is typically preparing for hurricanes and tropical storms, the state is instead dealing with a growing wildfire threat.

Earlier this week there were almost 350 wildfires burning in the state, according to Mike Steele, communications director at the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Every parish in the state is under a red flag warning, according to the National Weather Service.

State emergency operations centers were activated Wednesday morning to help battle the blazes.

“This time, this year obviously we’re dealing with a different type of weather situation that requires everybody to be aware of the burn ban and to do their part to reduce the likelihood that we would have anything that could potentially start a fire,” the office’s director, Casey Tingle, said in a news conference Wednesday.

Tingle says they’re stretching their resources thin as Louisiana has been under a burn ban since August 7.

“When it comes to this time of year, typically, we’re talking about hurricanes, tropical storms, rain, flooding that sort of thing,” Tingle said, “Our public is very attuned to those type of messages and always does a great job of helping us as a state respond and recover from those events when they happen.”

“We desperately need everyone’s help in adhering to this (burn ban) order,” he said.

And there’s no relief in sight: The upcoming forecast for the area and the state is expected to be dry and hot, Tingle added.

State Fire Marshal Deputy Chief Felicia Cooper also said: “This situation is dangerous for every single one of us.”

The area of Beauregard Parish experiencing the wildfires is in severe to extreme drought. Around 77% of the state is experiencing some level of drought, which is up from 7% of the state just three months ago, according to CNN Weather.

Lake Charles, around 40 miles southeast of Merryville, has seen temperatures over 100 degrees every day since August 18 and temperatures over 95 degrees since June 29.

“Our state has never been this hot and dry and we have never had this many fires,” Edwards posted on social media Thursday. “We need you and your neighbors to help keep our communities and first responders safe. Adhere to the statewide burn ban. Don’t burn anything.”

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August 25, 2023
Savannah renames historic square after Black woman who taught emancipated slaves to read and write | CNN

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The city council of Savannah, Georgia, voted Thursday to rename a downtown square after Susie King Taylor, a Black woman who once taught slaves to read and write.

The change marks the first time a Savannah square has been specifically named after a woman and a person of color.

“It’s one thing to make history, it’s another thing to make sense, and in this case, we’re making both,” Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II said during Thursday’s city council meeting.

Susie King Taylor was born to enslaved parents in 1848. She moved to Savannah when she was seven to live with her grandmother, who arranged for her to receive clandestine schooling due to Georgia’s severe restrictions on education, according to the Library of Congress.

During the Civil War, she became an Army nurse and organized a school to teach emancipated slaves to read and write. She later opened more schools for Black students and wrote a memoir about her experience during the war as an African American woman.

The town square that will now bear her name is a popular tourist attraction in Georgia’s oldest city in the state. The square was originally named after John C. Calhoun, a former vice president of the United States who owned slaves and defended the institution of slavery.

“What he stood for is not what Savannah stands for,” Johnson said.

The effort to change the square’s name began in 2021, according to the Coalition to Rename Calhoun Square. The council voted to rename the square last year and considered 300 name submissions before choosing Taylor.

In 2020, a statue of Calhoun was removed from a square in Charleston, South Carolina. Clemson University also removed his name from its honors college, CNN previously reported. The university was built on Calhoun’s plantation.

Johnson said the city will be installing signage not only about Taylor’s accomplishments but Calhoun’s history and the reason why his name was replaced.

“It’s important that we don’t erase history, it’s important that people who come long after us understand the time that we are in today,” Johnson said.

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August 25, 2023
Staff at Florida colleges can now be fired if they use a restroom that doesn’t correspond with their gender assigned at birth, new rules say | CNN

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Florida education officials on Wednesday unanimously approved harsher penalties against state college employees who violate a new law barring them and students from using restrooms or changing facilities for a gender other than the one assigned at birth.

The move by the state board of education comes as LGBTQ advocates have criticized the law as a larger effort to erase them from Florida schools and society.

Under the new rules approved Wednesday, staff and faculty at Florida colleges can be fired if they use a restroom for a gender that does not correspond with their gender assigned at birth.

Employees may also face a verbal and written warning and suspension without pay as penalty for a first offense. Colleges will be forced to fire employees after a second offense, according to the new rule’s text.

“Institutions must investigate each complaint regarding violations of (the rule) and must have an established procedure for such investigations,” the new rule text says.

The new rule also requires violations to be documented, including the name of the person who violated the rule as well as the person who asked that person to leave the restroom. The complaint must also include “the circumstances of the event sufficient to establish a violation,” according to the new rule.

The restrictions also apply to college-run student housing. Additionally, colleges have the option of providing a single-occupancy, unisex restroom or changing facility.

Florida’s college system consists of 28 public community and state colleges—and it operates as a separate entity from the state’s university system.

The law the new rule stems from was signed in May by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who also cemented new restrictions on gender-affirming treatments for minors, which pronouns can be used in schools and drag shows.

DeSantis, who is currently fighting to be the Republican front-runner for president among 12 others, has signed contentious bills aimed at curtailing LGBTQ rights.

One of the bills signed into law by DeSantis prohibits transgender children from receiving gender-affirming treatments, including prescriptions that block puberty hormones or sex-reassignment surgeries. Under the law, a court could intervene to temporarily remove a child from their home if they receive gender-affirming treatments or procedures, and it treats such health care options, which are supported by the American Medical Association, the same as it would a case of child abuse.

Under a provision DeSantis signed into law, teachers, faculty and students would be restricted from using the pronouns of their choice in public schools. That bill declares that it must be the policy of all schools that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false” to use a pronoun other than the sex on a person’s birth certificate. That bill also affirmed that sexual orientation and gender identity cannot be taught in schools through eighth grade, codifying a state Board of Education decision to block such topics in all K-12 grades.

The law underpinning the state Board of Education’s policies enacted Wednesday prohibits transgender people from using a bathroom or changing room that matches their gender identity while in government buildings, including in places like public schools and prisons as well as at state universities.

“A woman should not be in a locker room, having to worry about someone from the opposite sex being in their locker room,” DeSantis said previously.

The bill defines female as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing eggs” and male as “a person belonging, at birth, to the biological sex which has the specific reproductive role of producing sperm.”

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August 24, 2023
Fact check: The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election | CNN Politics
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Republican presidential candidates delivered a smattering of false and misleading claims at the first debate of the 2024 election – though none of the eight candidates on stage in Milwaukee delivered anything close to the bombardment of false statements that typically characterized the debate performances of former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who skipped the Wednesday event.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina inaccurately described the state of the economy in early 2021 and repeated a long-ago-debunked false claim about the Biden-era Justice Department. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie misstated the sentence attached to a gun law relevant to the investigation into the president’s son Hunter Biden. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis misled about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, omitting mention of his early pandemic restrictions.

Below is a fact check of those claims and various others from the debate, some of which left out key context. In addition, below is a brief fact check of some of Trump’s claims from a pre-taped interview he did with Tucker Carlson, which was posted online shortly before the debate aired. Trump made a variety of statements that were not true.

DeSantis and the pandemic

DeSantis criticized the federal government for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming it had locked down the economy, and then said: “In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown, and we kept our state free and open.”

Facts First: DeSantis’s claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later into 2020. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start.

DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions. For example, DeSantis:
Closed Florida’s schools, first with a short-term closure in March 2020 and then, in April 2020, with a shutdown through the end of the school year. (In June 2020, he announced a plan for schools to reopen for the next school year that began in August. By October 2020, he was publicly denouncing school closures, calling them a major mistake and saying all the information hadn’t been available that March.)

On March 14, 2020, announced a ban on most visits to nursing homes. (He lifted the ban in September 2020.)

On March 17, 2020, ordered bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days and restaurants to operate at half-capacity. (He later approved a phased reopening plan that took effect in May 2020, then issued an order in September 2020 allowing these establishments to operate at full capacity.)

On March 17, 2020, ordered gatherings on public beaches to be limited to a maximum of 10 people staying at least six feet apart, then, three days later, ordered a shutdown of public beaches in two populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach. (He permitted those counties’ beaches to reopen by the last half of May.)

On March 20, 2020, prohibited “any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency” medical procedures. (The prohibition was lifted in early May 2020.)

On March 23, 2020, ordered that anyone flying to Florida from an area with “substantial community spread” of the virus, “to include the New York Tri-State Area (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York),” isolate or quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay in Florida, whichever was shorter, or face possible jail time or a fine. Later that week, he added Louisiana to the list. (He lifted the Louisiana restriction in June 2020 and the rest in August 2020.)

On April 3, 2020, imposed a statewide stay-home order that temporarily required people in Florida to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” (Beginning in May 2020, the state switched to a phased reopening plan that, for months, included major restrictions on the operations of businesses and other entities; DeSantis described it at the time as a “very slow and methodical approach” to reopening.)
-From CNN’s Daniel Dale

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”

Facts First: Haley’s figure is accurate. The total public debt stood at about $19.9 trillion on the day Trump took office in 2017 and then increased by about $7.8 trillion over Trump’s four years, to about $27.8 trillion on the day he left office in 2021.

It’s worth noting, however, that the increase in the debt during any president’s tenure is not the fault of that president alone. A significant amount of spending under any president is the result of decisions made by their predecessors – such as the creation of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid decades ago – and by circumstances out of a president’s control, notably including the global Covid-19 pandemic under Trump; the debt spiked in 2020 after Trump approved trillions in emergency pandemic relief spending that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

Still, Trump did choose to approve that spending. And his 2017 tax cuts, unanimously opposed by congressional Democrats, were another major contributor to the debt spike.

-From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Katie Lobosco

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum claimed that Biden’s signature climate bill costs $1.2 trillion dollars and is “just subsidizing China.”

Facts First: This claim needs context. The clean energy pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act – Democrats’ climate bill – passed with an initial price tag of nearly $370 billion. However, since that bill is made up of tax incentives, that price tag could go up depending on how many consumers take advantage of tax credits to buy electric vehicles and put solar panels on their homes, and how many businesses use the subsidies to install new utility scale wind and solar in the United States.

Burgum’s figure comes from a Goldman Sachs report, which estimated the IRA could provide $1.2 trillion in clean energy tax incentives by 2032 – about a decade from now.

On Burgum’s claim that Biden’s clean energy agenda will be a boon to China, the IRA was specifically written to move the manufacturing supply chain for clean energy technology like solar panels and EV batteries away from China and to the United States.

In the year since it was passed, the IRA has spurred 83 new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the US, and close to 30,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs, according to a tally from trade group American Clean Power.

-From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

With the economy as one of the main topics on the forefront of voters’ minds, Scott aimed to make a case for Republican policies, misleadingly suggesting they left the US economy in record shape before Biden took office.

“There is no doubt that during the Trump administration, when we were dealing with the COVID virus, we spent more money,” Scott said. “But here’s what happened at the end of our time in the majority: we had low unemployment, record low unemployment, 3.5% for the majority of the population, and a 70-year low for women. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians had an all-time low.”

Facts First: This is false. Scott’s claims don’t accurately reflect the state of the US economy at the end of the Republican majority in the Senate. And in some cases, his exaggerations echo what Trump himself frequently touted about the economy under his leadership.

By the time Trump left office and the Republicans lost the Senate majority in January 2021, US unemployment was not at a record low. The US unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5% in September 2019, the country’s lowest in 50 years. While it hovered around that level for five months, Scott’s assertion ignores the coronavirus pandemic-induced economic destruction that followed. In April 2020, the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% — the highest level since monthly records began in 1948. As of December 2020, the unemployment rate was at 6.7%.

Nor was the unemployment rate for women at a 70-year low by the end of Trump’s time in office. It reached a 66-year low during certain months of 2019, at 3.4% in April and 3.6% in August, but by December 2020, unemployment for women was at 6.7%.

The unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians were also not at all-time lows at the end of 2020, but they did reach record lows during Trump’s tenure as president.

-From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam

Scott said that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden is targeting “parents that show up at school board meetings. They are called, under this DOJ, they’re called domestic terrorists.”

Facts First: It is false that the Justice Department referred to parents as domestic terrorists. The claim has been debunked several times – during the uproar at school boards over Covid-19 restrictions and anti-racism curriculums; after Kevin McCarthy claimed Republicans would investigate Merrick Garland with a majority in the House; and even by a federal judge. The Justice Department never called parents terrorists for attending or wanting to attend school board meetings.

The claim stems from a 2021 letter from The National School Boards Associations asking the Justice Department to “deal with” the uptick in threats against education officials and saying that “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” could be classified as “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” In response, Garland released a memo encouraging federal and local authorities to work together against the harassment campaigns levied at schools, but never endorsed the “domestic terrorism” notion.

A federal judge even threw out a lawsuit over the accusation, ruling that Garland’s memo did little more than announce a “series of measures” that directed federal authorities to address increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other school employees.

-From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, said the US is spending “less than three and a half percent of our defense budget” on Ukraine aid, and that in terms of financial aid relative to GDP, “11 of the European countries have given more than the US.”

Facts First: This is partly true. Haley’s claim regarding the US aid to Ukraine compared to the total defense budget is slightly under the actual percentage, but it is accurate that 11 European countries have given more aid to Ukraine as a percentage of their total GDP than the US.

As of August 14, the US has committed more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, according to the Defense Department. In comparison, the Fiscal Year 2023 defense budget was $858 billion – making aid to Ukraine just over 5% of the total US defense budget.

As of May 2023, according to a Council of Foreign Relations tracker, 11 countries were providing a higher share in aid to Ukraine relative to their GDP than the US – led by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

-From CNN’s Haley Britzky

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that the Trump administration “spent funding to backfill on the military cuts of the Obama administration.”

Facts First: This is misleading. While military spending decreased under the Obama administration, it was largely due to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which received Republican support and resulted in automatic spending cuts to the defense budget.

Mike Pence, a senator at the time, voted in favor of the Budget Control Act.

-From CNN’s Haley Britzky

Christie said President Biden’s son Hunter Biden was “facing a 10-year mandatory minimum” for lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018.

Facts First: Christie, a former federal prosecutor, clearly misstated the law. This crime can lead to a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, but it doesn’t have a 10-year mandatory minimum.

These comments are related to the highly scrutinized Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden, which is currently ongoing after a plea deal fell apart earlier this summer.

As part of the now-defunct deal, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enter into a “diversion agreement” with prosecutors, who would drop the gun possession charge in two years if he consistently stayed out of legal trouble and passed drug tests.

The law in question makes it a crime to purchase a firearm while using or addicted to illegal drugs. Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time, and admitted at a court hearing and in court papers that he violated this law by signing the form.

The US Sentencing Commission says, “The statutory maximum penalty for the offense is ten years of imprisonment.” There isn’t a mandatory 10-year punishment, as Christie claimed.

During his answer, Christie also criticized the Justice Department for agreeing to a deal in June where Hunter Biden could avoid prosecution on the felony gun offense. That deal was negotiated by special counsel David Weiss, who was first appointed to the Justice Department by former President Donald Trump.

-From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

Burgum and Scott got into a back and forth over IRS staffing with Burgum saying that the “Biden administration wanted to put 87,000 people in the IRS,” and Scott suggesting they “fire the 87,000 IRS agents.”

Facts First: This figure needs context.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year without any Republican votes, authorized $80 billion in new funding for the IRS to be delivered over the course of a decade.

The 87,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees with a nearly $80 billion investment over 10 years.

While the funding may well allow for the hiring of tens of thousands of IRS employees over time, far from all of these employees will be IRS agents conducting audits and investigations.

Many other employees will be hired for the non-agent roles, from customer service to information technology, that make up most of the IRS workforce. And a significant number of the hires are expected to fill the vacant posts left by retirements and other attrition, not take newly created positions.

The IRS has not said precisely how many new “agents” will be hired with the funding. But it is already clear that the total won’t approach 87,000. And it’s worth noting that the IRS may not receive all of the $80 billion after Republicans were able to claw back $20 billion of the new funding as part of a deal to address the debt ceiling made earlier this year.

-From CNN’s Katie Lobosco

Trump repeated a frequent claim during his interview with Carlson that streamed during the GOP debate that his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House was “covered” under the Presidential Records Act and that he is “allowed to do exactly that.”

Facts First: This is false. The Presidential Records Act says the exact opposite – that the moment presidents leave office, all presidential records are to be turned over to the federal government. Keeping documents at Mar-a-Lago after his presidency concluded was in clear contravention of that law.

According to the Presidential Records Act, “upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”

The sentence makes clear that a president has no authority to keep documents after leaving the White House.

The National Archives even released a statement refuting the notion that Trump’s retention of documents was covered by the Presidential Records Act, writing in a June news release that “the PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations.”

-From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

While discussing electric vehicles, Trump claimed that California “is in a big brownout because their grid is a disaster,” adding that the state’s ambitious electric vehicle goals won’t work with the grid in such shape.

Facts First: Trump’s claim that California’s grid is currently in a “big brownout” and is a “disaster” isn’t true. California’s grid suffered rolling blackouts in 2020, but it has performed quite well in the face of extreme heat this summer, owing in large part to a massive influx of renewable energy including battery storage. These big batteries keep energy from wind and solar running when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining. (Batteries are also being deployed at a rapid rate in Texas, a red state.)

Another reason California’s grid has stayed stable this year even during extreme temperature spikes is the fact that a deluge of snow and rain this winter and spring has refilled reservoirs that generate electricity using hydropower.

As Trump insinuated, there are real questions about how well the state’s grid will hold up as California’s drivers shift to electric vehicles by the millions by 2035 – the same year it will phase out selling new gas-powered cars. California state officials say they are preparing by adding new capacity to the grid and urging more people to charge their vehicles overnight and during times of the day when fewer people are using energy. But independent experts say the state needs to exponentially increase its clean energy while also building out huge amounts of new EV chargers to achieve its goals.

-From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

Trump and the border wall

Trump claimed to Carlson, “I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. You know, they’d like to say, ‘Oh, was it less?’ No, I built 500 miles. In fact, if you check with the authorities on the border, we built almost 500 miles of wall.”

Facts First: This needs context. Trump and his critics are talking about different things when they use different figures for how much border wall was built during his presidency. Trump is referring to all of the wall built on the southern border during his administration, even in areas that already had some sort of barrier before. His critics are only counting the Trump-era wall that was built in parts of the border that did not have any previous barrier.

A total of 458 miles of southern border wall was built under Trump, according to a federal report written two days after Trump left office and obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez. That is 52 miles of “primary” wall built where no barriers previously existed, plus 33 miles of “secondary” wall that was built in spots where no barriers previously existed, plus another 373 miles of primary and secondary wall that was built to replace previous barriers the federal government says had become “dilapidated and/or outdated.”

Some of Trump’s rival candidates, such DeSantis and Christie, have used figures around 50 miles while criticizing Trump for failing to finish the wall – counting only the primary wall built where no barriers previously existed.

While some Trump critics have scoffed at the replacement wall, the Trump-era construction was generally much more formidable than the older barriers it replaced, which were often designed to deter vehicles rather than people on foot. Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff tweeted in 2020: “As someone who has spent a lot of time lately in the shadow of the border wall, I need to puncture this notion that ‘replacement’ sections are ‘not new.’ There is really no comparison between vehicle barriers made from old rail ties and 30-foot bollards.”

Ideally, both Trump and his opponents would be clearer about what they are talking about: Trump that he is including replacement barriers, his opponents that they are excluding those barriers.

-From CNN’s Daniel Dale
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August 23, 2023
A 7-year-old boy and his relatives are among the dozens killed in the Maui wildfires. Here’s what we know about some of the 115 lives lost | CNN

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The apocalyptic wildfires that raced across Maui have claimed at least 115 lives – a devastating number that’s expected to grow.

Many of the victims died while trying to escape the flames – including a 7-year-old boy and three members of his family who were found “in a burned-out car near their home,” according to a verified GoFundMe page.

“On behalf of our family, we bid aloha to our beloved parents, Faaso and Malui Fonua Tone, as well as our dear sister Salote Takafua and her son, Tony Takafua,” the family said in a statement to CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.

“The magnitude of our grief is indescribable, and their memories will forever remain etched in our hearts.”

The mass tragedy is expected to intensify as search crews keep sifting through the ashes of the “many hundreds of homes” destroyed by the infernos that began August 8. As of August 22, 87% of the burn area had been searched for remains, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told Hawaii News Now.

“Every single structure or area that’s been damaged by the fire is being and will be searched for human remains so that we can recover our loved ones,” Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said during a news conference August 22. “We are going to do this right. We’re not going to do it fast. We cannot be in a rush to judgment. We’ve got one chance.”

Authorities have lists with over 1,000 people named as unaccounted for as of August 22, though investigators still are trying to determine the list’s accuracy, Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu office, said.

Meanwhile, work is underway to identify those killed in the fire using DNA samples provided by family members.

As the identities of more victims emerge, so do poignant tales about their lives. These are some of their stories:

A grandfather and musician who toured with Santana

Buddy Jantoc, 79, was living at a senior housing complex when flames swept through Lahaina, CNN affiliate KITV reported.

Jantoc was one of the first two victims that Maui County officials publicly identified.

“My papa was older, but for him to be taken from us that way,” his granddaughter Keshia Alaka’i told KITV. “I think that’s what’s the hardest to come to terms with.”

Jantoc sang, played the guitar and drums and even toured with Carlos Santana’s band, his granddaughter said. Most recently, he played music for local hula halls.

Alaka’i spoke with her grandfather often and will miss their phone calls – including “his calls for the silly stuff,” she told KITV.

“Buying things for him, ordering online because he didn’t know how to work it or, you know, fighting with his iPhone because I had bought him a new one he didn’t know how to work that,” she fondly recalled.

Iola Balubar, a hula instructor who performed with Jantoc, told KITV he was “a good man, a good grandpa.”

“Whatever time he had with his family, he treasured it,” she said.

Franklin “Frankie” Trejos, 68, lived in the historic town of Lahaina for three decades before the inferno consumed his neighborhood, niece Kika Perez Grant said.

Trejos’ longtime friend and roommate told the family he and Trejos tried to save their property before the flames overwhelmed them, Perez Grant said.

The roommate suffered burns but managed to escape the chaotic scene. But Trejos was nowhere to be found.

Hours later, the roommate called Trejos’ family again “to tell us he had found Uncle Frankie’s remains,” Perez Grant said. Trejos’ remains were found blocks away from his home on top of his roommate’s dog, whom he loved, his niece said.

“Uncle Frankie was a kind man, a nature lover, an animal lover and he loved his friends and his families with this whole heart,” his niece said.

“He loved adventure and was a free spirit.”

Carole Hartley, who lived in downtown Lahaina, died while trying to flee, her sister told CNN.

As Hartley and her partner, Charles Paxton, tried to escape the flames, they were separated by thick, black smoke that engulfed them, Donna Gardner Hartley said.

The powerful winds whipped by Hurricane Dora moved quickly and “kept changing,” Gardner Hartley wrote in a Facebook post.

Paxton “said they were inside a dark smoke (that) felt like a tornado and they could not see nothing they kept calling each others name,” she wrote.

“He was screaming … ‘Run run run Carole run.’ He eventually could not hear her anymore.”

Hartley’s partner was eventually found by his friends and treated for burn injuries, Gardner Hartley wrote.

He then organized a search group to look for Hartley. The group discovered her remains on the couple’s property over the weekend, Gardner Hartley told CNN.

Paxton believes Hartley turned back to help someone before she died, Gardner Hartley said in a statement.

A verified GoFundMe account has been established to support Paxton during his grief.

“This week has been the worse days of our life,” Gardner Hartley said in her statement. “It takes your breath away when you receive the call that your little sister’s remains were found on her property and that they are still waiting for DNA verification.”

Gardner Hartley remembered her sister as a special, loving person from a young age. The two would talk often, she said, and were always “a phone call away.”

Hartley had lived on the island for 36 years, her sister said.

“My little sister has always looked for the good in people and always helped others,” Gardner Hartley said. “She will be missed by all that knew her for her fun personality, her smile and adventures.”

A beloved grandmother who tried to flee

The last time Melva Benjamin’s family heard from her, the 71-year-old grandmother was evacuating to a shelter with her partner on August 8, her granddaughter said.

After days of frantic searching, the family learned she had died in the fire, granddaughter Tufalei Makua shared on Facebook.

“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart, we announce the loss of Melva Benjamin. We were informed this afternoon, Tuesday, Aug 15, 2023, that she perished in the Lahaina fires,” Makua wrote.

“We appreciate the love and support that everyone has shown us during this difficult time. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we remember and honor her. We love you all.”

Donna Gomes of Lahaina perished in the fire, officials said. Her granddaughter, Tehani Kuhaulu, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that Gomes was the backbone of the family.

The 71-year-old was a retired Maui Police Department public safety aide. She had plans to visit Las Vegas to celebrate her upcoming birthday, her granddaughter said.

“She loved to play poker and gamble,” Kuhaulu said. “Her self-care was going to Las Vegas, any casino.”

She leaves behind two daughters, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Alfredo Galinato of Lahaina perished in the Maui fires, according to county officials. His sons spoke to KITV and said the 79-year-old tried to save their family home that he built.

“With all his heart I know that he was trying to fight the fire to save our home,” his son Joshua Galinato told KITV. “So we can come back to our home as a whole family.”

Galinato’s sons searched for him and shared images of him on social media in the days after the fire, trying to find anyone who might know his whereabouts. But the family was later contacted by officials with devastating news.

“I miss everything about my dad right now. His personality is just straight funny. I mean he just makes us smile every day with his jokes,” Joshua said. “I just miss him.”

“The get-togethers, we’ll be missing that,” Galinato’s son John told KITV. “Gatherings. He takes care of us a lot of times. He’s retired, but he just helps all the family. We’ll be missing him, seeing his face, his smile, everything – all the moments.”

A verified GoFundMe account has been established by the family.

The arduous task of identifying remains has been especially difficult because they’re largely unrecognizable and fingerprints are rarely found, the governor said.

Maui County confirmed the first group of victims’ names about a week after the catastrophic Lahaina fire started torching the historic town.

They included Benjamin, Galinato and Jantoc, as well as Virginia Dofa, 90; and Robert Dyckman, 74. All five lived in Lahaina.

Another seven Lahaina residents were identified August 20-21. They were Conchita Sagudang, 75, Danilo Sagudang, 55, Rodolfo Rocutan, 76, Jonathan Somaoang, 76, Angelita Vasquez, 88, Douglas Gloege, 59, and Juan Deleon, 45, Maui officials said.

On August 22, authorities identified seven other victims from Lahaina: Clyde Wakida, 74, Todd Yamafuji, 68, Antonia Molina, 64, Freeman Tam Lung, 59, Joseph Schilling, 67, Narciso Baylosis Jr., 67, Vanessa Baylosis, 67, according to Maui County officials.

A California resident, Theresa Cook, 72, was also identified as one of the victims on August 22.

Two Mexican nationals died in the Maui wildfires, Mexico Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said.

“Consular staff is providing assistance and accompaniment to their families,” she said. “We express our deepest condolences in this tragic situation.”

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August 22, 2023
New York Red Bull tickets usually cost $46. Here’s what they cost now that Messi is playing | CNN Business

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Seeing superstar soccer player Leo Messi’s debut in the New York area could cost you as much as a steak dinner at Peter Luger.

Saturday’s Inter Miami CF match marks Messi’s first regular season Major League Soccer game, and demand to see it is sending ticket prices nearly 1,000% higher than they usually are for the New York Red Bulls.

Ticket reseller VividSeats told CNN that the average price for this weekend’s game is averaging $483. That’s well above the usual $46 it costs to snag a ticket to the MLS team, which plays in Harrison, New Jersey (a half hour away from Manhattan).

A search on VividSeats reveals that some seats are costing as much as $3,600 for the first-row, but you have to buy all four, totaling nearly $15,000. Of course, there are plenty of cheaper seats, with some as “low” as $345.

For the New York Red Bulls, Messi’s appearance is “trending as the Red Bull’s hottest ticket in over a decade,” a VividSeats spokesperson told CNN. The second costliest game for a ticket was a friendly with FC Barcelona in July 2022, when a ticket cost about $270.

Prices for MLS games where Messi is playing have surged since the 36-year-old entered American competition. He’s also been on a hot streak since his American arrival last month. Last weekend, he helped Inter Miami capture the Leagues Cup title and scored the club’s first trophy. The Leagues Cup is an annual tournament between MLS and Mexico’s Liga MX.

The pressure is only intensified for Messi this weekend, when Inter Miami tries to climb out of last place in the MLS standings and possibly into playoff contention as the season nears its ending in October.

“Messi mania” extends beyond the pitch, too. Apple said that subscriptions to its soccer streaming package have soared since Messi joined in July. And Adidas said that demand for Messi’s jersey has been “truly unprecedented,” sparking an order backlog until October.

Retailer Soccer.com told CNN on Tuesday that top eight-selling jerseys on its website are Messi related, including his Argentina kit and Inter Miami shirt. The Florida team is now the top-selling MLS club kit in all US states, except Vermont. Previous to him joining, the Inter Miami jersey was the only top-selling jersey in Florida.

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August 22, 2023
8 candidates qualify for first 2024 Republican presidential debate | CNN Politics

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Eight Republicans have qualified for the party’s first 2024 presidential primary debate Wednesday night, the Republican National Committee announced Monday evening.

The list includes North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Former President Donald Trump – the clear front-runner in national and early state polls – has said he would skip the debate in Milwaukee and called on his rivals to drop out.

To make the first debate stage, the RNC required candidates to draw at least 40,000 individual donors and register at least 1% support in three national polls or in two national and two early state polls that met the RNC’s criteria. The candidates were also required to sign a pledge to back the eventual winner of the GOP primary, no matter who it is. It’s not clear whether Trump, like those who will be onstage Wednesday, has signed that pledge.

“The RNC is excited to showcase our diverse candidate field and the conservative vision to beat Joe Biden on the debate stage Wednesday night,” RNC chair Ronna McDaniel said in Monday night’s statement.

Here’s a look at who’s in and who’s out of the first GOP debate of the 2024 presidential primary.

Ron DeSantis

The Florida governor could wear the biggest target Wednesday night, as the top-polling candidate onstage in Trump’s absence. DeSantis has downsized and reshuffled his campaign in recent weeks after failing to make progress toward unseating Trump as the GOP’s standard-bearer in the primary’s early months. His turn in the national spotlight Wednesday could become a turning point in the party’s primary – either launching DeSantis forward or displacing him as the top Trump alternative.

Vivek Ramaswamy

The tech entrepreneur posted a video of himself shirtless, practicing tennis, on Monday in a tweet he described as his debate prep. He has also made appearances on the sorts of liberal media programs that many Republican contenders skip, such as a podcast with HBO host Bill Maher. A memo by a pro-DeSantis super PAC made public last week advised the Florida governor to attack Ramaswamy, an indication of the 38-year-old’s rise in the race.

Mike Pence

The former vice president faced more difficulties than some of his rivals in reaching the 40,000 donor threshold but did so with two weeks to spare. He suggested he had looked forward to a showdown with his former ticket mate. Criticizing Trump’s decision to skip the debate, Pence said Sunday on ABC News that every candidate who qualified “ought to be on the stage willing to square off and answer those tough questions.”

Nikki Haley

The former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump offered a glimpse of how Republicans onstage could be more focused on chipping away at their lower-polling rivals’ support than on taking on Trump directly. On Monday, she criticized Ramaswamy, saying on social media that “his foreign policies have a common theme: they make America less safe.”

Tim Scott

The South Carolina senator has sought to offer a more positive contrast to rivals such as Trump and DeSantis – and he could be on a collision course with the Florida governor as they vie to become the top choice of those seeking to move on from the former president.

Chris Christie

The former New Jersey governor is perhaps the biggest wild card on Wednesday night’s stage. As a presidential contender in 2016, he all but ended Marco Rubio’s presidential hopes in a debate when he relentlessly mocked the Florida senator for delivering a “memorized 25-second speech.” Christie has positioned himself as a fierce Trump critic, but he won’t get a head-to-head showdown with Trump skipping the debate.

Doug Burgum

The North Dakota governor, who attracted donors with a gift-card scheme – $20 in exchange for $1 donations – has described himself as the least-known contender on Wednesday night’s stage. He said Sunday on NBC that he’ll have succeeded in the debate “if we get a chance to explain who we are, what we’re about and why we’re running.”

Asa Hutchinson

The former Arkansas governor has also positioned himself as a Trump critic. He previously complained about the RNC’s loyalty pledge requirement but told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on Sunday that he was signing the pledge because he was “confident that Donald Trump’s not going to be the nominee.”

Donald Trump

The former president made official Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social what he’d hinted at for months: He is skipping the first debate. Trump pointed to his sizable leads in Republican primary polls and said Americans are already familiar with his record after four years in the White House.

Still, Trump’s campaign is attempting to seize some of the spotlight in Milwaukee. The former president has taped an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that is expected to be used as counterprogramming during the debate.

Perry Johnson

The Michigan businessman fell short of the RNC’s polling requirements despite a series of unusual schemes his campaign employed to rack up the minimum 40,000 donors necessary to qualify. It sold “I Stand with Tucker” T-shirts defending the former Fox News host after his firing. It also offered tickets to a concert by country duo Big & Rich to anyone who donated. And it handed out $10 gas cards to anyone willing to make a $1 contribution.

Perry insisted after the RNC announced the debate participants that he had met the committee’s qualification requirements. “The debate process has been corrupted, plain and simple,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Francis Suarez

The Miami mayor, who had told Fox News it was “critical” for his 2024 chances to qualify for the debate, said he had exceeded the donor threshold, but he did not meet the RNC’s polling requirements. Suarez said in a statement Tuesday that he was “sorry” the event would not include his “perspectives,” but that he respects “the rules and process set forth by the RNC.”

His absence could be a break for DeSantis, who has faced sharp criticism from his fellow Florida Republican.

Will Hurd

The former Texas congressman is one of the most outspoken Trump critics in the race – and has faced backlash for it, such as when he was booed at the Iowa GOP’s Lincoln Dinner in July after telling the Des Moines crowd that the former president was “running to stay out of prison.”

Hurd on Tuesday criticized the RNC for its “unacceptable process” for determining the debate participants. He accused the committee of disregarding polls that included independents and Democrats who would have backed a Republican candidate. He previously said he wouldn’t sign the RNC pledge, but he appeared to have shifted his position last week when he said he was “confident” he would be onstage in Milwaukee.

Larry Elder

The conservative California talk radio host, who was the leading GOP candidate in the state’s 2021 gubernatorial recall, has sharply criticized the RNC’s debate qualification requirements. He said Tuesday on X that he intended sue the RNC to “halt” Wednesday’s proceedings, asserting that officials were “afraid of having my voice on the debate stage.”

Elder had attempted to meet the 40,000 donor threshold with a radio blitz Monday, but, according to CNN’s count, was also short of the polling requirements.

Ryan Binkley

The little-known Texas pastor and entrepreneur got a spot in the Iowa GOP Lincoln Dinner’s speaking lineup. He tweeted Sunday that he had more than 45,000 donors. But he has not made waves in primary polling.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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August 22, 2023
Hilary moves through Southwest with historic amount of rainfall | CNN

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Hilary has triggered deadly flooding, heavy rains and powerful gusts across parts of the southwest and Mexico, transforming streets into raging rivers and forcing some residents to flee, and leaving others in need of rescue, even after the storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone.

More rain is expected to fall throughout Monday and Tuesday as officials clean up the aftermath. After hitting Southern California on Sunday as a tropical storm – the state’s first since 1997 – Hilary headed into Nevada as its first-ever recorded tropical storm. As Hilary moves across the southwest, the storm has brought power outages, life-threatening flooding and calls for residents to evacuate or shelter in place.

Live updates: Hilary brings major flood risk to California

The storm broke rainfall records across Southern California: Palm Springs got nearly a year’s worth of rain with 4.3 inches in 24 hours, one of its rainiest days ever. Death Valley nearly set a record with 1.68 inches, and the Furnace Creek area, which usually gets about two-tenths of an inch in August, got 0.63 inches.

And the storm is the rainiest tropical storm system in Nevada’s history, nearly doubling the state’s 116-year-old all-time record, according to preliminary data from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center. Hilary has released 8.7 inches of rain on Lee Canyon, Nevada, smashing the previous record of 4.36 inches in 1906.

Watch: Massive mudslide sends firefighters scrambling to safety

More rain is expected to cause dangerous flash, urban and arroyo flooding in some places, including landslides, mudslides and debris flows. Localized flooding is expected into Tuesday morning across northern portions of the Intermountain West.

In Palm Springs, a section of Interstate 10 is shut down while road crews clear away mud left behind by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Hilary, but other routes in and out of the desert oasis near Joshua Tree National Park are open.

In addition, many freeway off-ramps are limited because of mud, and CalTrans crews are working to clear those in an effort to ease accessibility.

Emergency telephone service, which had been down since midmorning, has been restored, the police department said, but an outage continues to affect other areas of the Coachella Valley.

“We are not used to this level of precipitation, generally – certainly not in the middle of summer,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told CNN on Sunday.

“With what we’re expecting, it may overwhelm us.”

Here’s the latest:

• Heavy rains and some flooding may continue Tuesday morning in parts of the Intermountain West, according to the National Hurricane Center. The rain will cause “mostly localized areas of flash flooding,” the National Weather Service Prediction Center said. Flood watches remain in place across eight Western states.

• Strong and gusty winds will blow in Nevada, western Utah, southern Idaho and southwest Montana, the hurricane center said. Coastal tropical storm warnings have been discontinued.

• Some portions of Southern California lost power during the storm but electricity was mostly restored by Monday evening. A total of about 41,000 customers in Los Angeles were without power at one point, Marty Adams, general manager and chief engineer at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, said Monday.

• People in parts of Southern California should not travel unless they are fleeing an area under flooding or under an evacuation order, the National Weather Service has warned.

• Flooding, mudslides and downed trees and wires were widely reported across Southern California on Sunday and Monday. At least nine people were rescued Sunday in a San Diego riverbed, San Diego Fire-Rescue said, with water rescues also reported in Ventura County and Palm Springs.

• In Mexico, where the storm first landed, power has been restored to 80% of customers in the three states affected by Hilary, according to the national power company. “379,850 users have been affected, and electricity supply has been restored to 302,134, equivalent to 80%,” said the Federal Electricity Commission in a statement Monday.

To the west, Los Angeles and Ventura counties saw “considerable damage” Sunday night amid reports of dangerous flash flooding, and rock and mudslides, the National Weather Service said, adding up to half an inch of rain could fall per hour.

Cars were stuck in floodwaters in the Spanish Hills area, the National Weather Service reported.

Crowley urged residents to take precautions on the roads.

“A relatively small amount of water can sweep a vehicle away,” she said.

In Los Angeles, the worst of the storm was over as of Monday morning, according to officials. All weather warnings in the city were canceled. “We are past the brunt of the impact,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ariel Cohen.

Schools in San Diego and Los Angeles are set to reopen Tuesday after closing Monday in anticipation of the storm. Officials canceled classes for the more than 121,000 students in the San Diego Unified School District.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the nation, also shut down Monday. The district spans about 700 square miles, meaning the impact of the storm varied for its students.

Schools in the Los Angeles district will reopen on Tuesday, according to superintendent Alberto Carvalho.

“Our teams have been scouring our schools, and so far, conditions are pretty good,” Carvalho said. A couple dozen schools have lost phone and internet service, and one school has been impacted by a minor mudslide.

“It would have been reckless for us to make a different decision,” Carvalho said of the decision to close schools Monday.

“Los Angeles was tested but we came through it and we came through it with minimal impacts, considering what we endured,” said Los Angeles City Council President Paul Krekorian.

The Nye County School District in Nevada also canceled classes Monday, with plans to reopen Tuesday.

Cars stranded in roads deluged with mud and water

Once a hurricane, Hilary weakened as it made landfall Sunday in Mexico – where at least one person died – then crossed into the Golden State. The storm’s center was roughly 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles around 8 p.m. local time Sunday, moving north with weakened 45-mph winds, according to the hurricane center.

The Los Angeles Fire Department fielded more than 4,000 emergency calls on Sunday and responded to about 1,800 incidents, Chief Kristin Crowley said in a news conference on Monday. The calls included a request for help for five cars stranded in a flooded intersection of Sun Valley. One person was safely rescued and no one was injured in the Sun Valley incident, Crowley said.

Flood water affected an underground power vault, leading to an outage for about 6,000 customers in the Beverly Grove area, with other outages reported in Hollywood, Hyde Park and Brentwood. The vast majority of city power customers remain unaffected by the storm, according to Los Angeles officials.

As the storm barreled through, covering roadways with debris and water, roads were blocked across Southern California by Sunday night. A section of Interstate 8 in Imperial County, east of San Diego, was closed Sunday after boulders came loose from an adjoining slope and fell into the road.

In San Bernardino County, a stretch of State Route 127 covered in floodwaters was closed, while a section of Interstate 15 was shuttered in Barstow because of downed power lines after a lightning strike, authorities said.

Crews across the region Sunday evening rescued people caught in the storm, including at least nine in a riverbed area in San Diego. “Crews are still looking for more people who may need help. #riverrescue,” San Diego Fire-Rescue said.

And Ventura County firefighters searched the Santa Clara River for people trapped in the waters on Sunday night, videos show.

The storm led to other disruptions across Southern California, with many parks, beaches and other locations closed as officials called on residents to stay indoors.

And Hilary continued to cause damage as it moved into Nevada. In Mt. Charleston, Nevada, the storm brought significant flooding on Monday morning, washing out the roadways. Residents are sheltering in place, the power is shut off, and the Nevada National Guard is on its way to assist, according to a Facebook post from Clark County.

West of Las Vegas, rushing water is flowing like a river down Echo Road, leaving vehicles stranded from Mary Jane Trailheads and Trail Canyon, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Emergency crews are evaluating and ask for people to stay out of the area, the service said.

California had been preparing for difficult conditions, positioning first responders across Southern California to brace for water rescues in flood-prone areas like wildfire burn scars and deserts amid fears areas unaccustomed to rain could suddenly receive a year’s worth or more, triggering flash floods and landslides.

Rainfall totals have been significant:

Daily and monthly rainfall records were broken Sunday, with 1.53 inches falling in downtown Los Angeles, 1.56 inches in Long Beach and 2.95 inches in Palmdale, according to the weather service.

At least three swift water rescues were conducted in Palm Springs, police department Lt. Gustavo Araiza told CNN.

In Cathedral City, a desert community roughly a 110-mile drive east of Los Angeles, at least 14 people were rescued from a senior boarding care facility Monday afternoon after “a blockade” of mud trapped them inside, city spokesperson Ryan Hunt said.

All of the people rescued are doing well, Hunt said.

The fire department had to borrow a dozer truck from a recycling center so they could carry out the rescue, Hunt said. The department had firefighters sit in the dozer and then had those being rescued sit on top to be brought out of the structure, he added.

Despite the “unorthodox method,” everyone stayed calm, he said.

Santa Clarita, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, experienced steady rain for about 10 hours, with the storm dropping well over four inches of rain on the valley. Parts of Sand Canyon Road could be seen falling into rushing water.

ATTN DRIVERS: State Route 127 is now closed between Baker Blvd. in Baker (San Bernardino County) and Tecopa Hot Springs Road (Inyo County) due to flooding. @Caltrans9 maintenance crews are on scene. pic.twitter.com/fvcI9Vhss3

— Caltrans District 9 (@Caltrans9) August 21, 2023

As the storm continues to affect the West, officials with Oregon’s emergency management are bracing for possible flooding across portions of the state.

“At this point, we’re concerned about the substantial rainfall and the potential for fast-moving water and flooding. Flood watches have been issued for areas of Central and Eastern Oregon,” Oregon Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Chris Crabb told CNN Monday afternoon.

“We have reports of minor flooding currently and communities using sandbags to mitigate the impacts, but there have been no requests for state support at this point,” Crabb went on.

According to Crabb, the office is working with county and tribal partners.

Portions of Oregon are under a flood watch through Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.

“The remnants of Hurricane Hilary will bring periods of moderate to heavy rain to portions of northeastern Oregon through Tuesday,” the weather service said in a forecast message.

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August 21, 2023
Hurricane Hilary prompts historic tropical storm warning for California as Southwest braces for dangerous rain, flooding | CNN

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Residents in the Southwest are bracing for heavy rains and potentially catastrophic flooding as Hurricane Hilary is expected to pummel the region as a rare tropical storm beginning Sunday and lasting into next week.

Hilary remains a Category 4 hurricane as it marches toward the coast of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula with sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. Its core is expected to pass close to the peninsula Saturday night and then weaken into a tropical storm as it crosses into the US and Southern California.

The threat has triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning extending from the state’s southern border to just north of Los Angeles.

The Southwest is forecast to see heavy rainfall through early next week – with the most intense conditions on Sunday and Monday – as Hilary advances. The deluges could bring more than a year’s worth of rain to parts of California, Nevada and Arizona.

Parts of Southern California and Nevada could see 3 to 6 inches of rain and as many as 10 inches in some places, the center said. Elsewhere, amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast.

While Hilary’s core will pack a powerful punch, the NHC warned that strong winds and rain will begin far in advance of its arrival.

“Preparations for the impacts of flooding from rainfall should be completed as soon as possible, as heavy rain will increase ahead of the center on Saturday,” the hurricane center said.

In anticipation of the storm, officials across the region have begun to prepare for perilous road conditions, downed power infrastructure and dangerous flood conditions.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Friday that 100 state National Guard troops will be deployed to southern Nevada, which may see significant flooding.

President Joe Biden said in a Friday news conference that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has preemptively positioned personnel and supplies to respond in Southern California or other parts of the region, if needed.

If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it would be the first such storm to do so in the state in nearly 84 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Parts of Southern California face a high risk for excessive rainfall – also the first Level 4 of 4 threat to be issued for the area. This level of risk is exceptionally rare. From 2010 to 2020, high risks were issued on fewer than 4% of days per year on average, but were responsible for 83% of all flood-related damage and 39% of all flood-related deaths, research from the Weather Prediction Center shows.

Due to the significant threat, the state has prepared water rescue teams, California National Guard personnel and flood fighting equipment ahead of Hilary’s arrival, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said Friday.

Highway maintenance crews will also be staffed around-the-clock in order to aid in roadway safety, the governor’s office said.

Electricity utility Southern California Edison – which serves more than 15 million people in the region – said Thursday that Hilary is on track to impact much of its service area. The company said it is preparing to respond to outages but urged residents to gather supplies including flashlights, external battery chargers and ice chests.

As the homeless community is particularly at risk for flooding dangers, officials in both Los Angeles and San Diego say they are performing outreach and offering temporary shelter. The LA County Sheriff’s Department said it is also mapping out at-risk encampments and making aerial announcements about the storm.

“We hope that the storm does not cause any damage, and more importantly there is no loss of life,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a Friday news conference. “But we will prepare for a worst-case scenario, not only to assist people here in our county, but if we are not impacted or affected, we will become a resource to other neighboring counties as needed.”

San Diego has also spent the last several days cleaning storm drains, clearing streets and readying equipment, Mayor Todd Gloria said Friday.

The storm threat also prompted Major League Baseball to overhaul its weekend schedule in the region, moving Sunday games hosted by the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres to instead be split doubleheaders on Saturday.

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August 18, 2023
Hurricane Hilary expected to strengthen to Category 4 before weakening, dumping rain over California and Southwest US this weekend | CNN

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Hurricane Hilary is expected to intensify into a lashing Category 4 storm as it nears Mexico’s Baja Peninsula on Friday and then weaken over the weekend, bringing rain and flooding to parts of the Southwest US.

Hilary was churning about 430 miles south of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Thursday night with sustained winds of near 125 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in an overnight advisory.

The storm strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane Thursday evening and is likely to build into a powerful Category 4 on Friday, the advisory said. It is then expected to begin weakening as it continues north on Saturday.

Hilary’s center is on track to approach the Baja Peninsula on Friday and over the weekend, prompting Mexican officials to issue a hurricane watch and tropical storm watches and warnings for parts of Baja California Sur, the hurricane center said.

There remains a wide range of outcomes for the heaviest rain and strongest winds in the US as the storm moves north over the next couple of days along Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Small deviations in the hurricane’s track could change the forecast for the most intense rain and wind.

The storm is expected to substantially weaken before reaching Southern California and parts of the Southwest but there’s an increasing chance the regions will be significantly impacted by heavy rain and flooding.

Heavy rainfall is expected to begin impacting the Southwest on Friday and through early next week, with the most intense downpours likely on Sunday and Monday, according to forecasters.

Southern swaths of California and Nevada could see 3 to 5 inches of rain with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches. Smaller amounts of 1 to 3 inches are expected across central parts of those states as well as across western Arizona and southwest Utah.

If Hilary makes landfall in California as a tropical storm, it will be a rare occurrence – the first such storm there in nearly 84 years and would be only the third tropical storm or stronger to do so on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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August 17, 2023
Trump reacts to Georgia indictment for first time on camera: ‘I have four of them now’ | CNN Politics

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Former President Donald Trump on Thursday reacted for the first time on camera to the Georgia indictment that accuses him of being the head of a “criminal enterprise” to overturn the 2020 election, dismissing the criminal charges as a “witch hunt” and a “horrible thing for the country.”

“I have four of them now, if you look. I mean, this is not even possible,” Trump said on Fox Business. “Four, over the next, last couple of months. And frankly, it discredits everything. And they’re all very similar in the sense that they’re, there’s no basis for them.”

The former president also called on members of his party “to be tough,” saying that “the Republicans are great in many ways, but they don’t fight as hard for this stuff. And they have to get a lot tougher. And if they don’t they’re not going to have much of a Republican Party.”

After the 41-count Georgia indictment was unsealed Monday, Trump railed against the state charges on social media and announced plans to hold a “news conference” regarding his baseless claims of election fraud.

Thursday evening, however, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the event was “no longer necessary” because his legal team would present the evidence to support his claims in court.

In a post, Trump said, “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment by a publicity & campaign finance seeking D.A., who sadly presides over a record breaking Murder & Violent Crime area, Atlanta. Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!”

Earlier Thursday, multiple sources familiar with the planning told CNN that the “news conference” was unlikely to go forward in any substantive capacity, if it were to happen at all.

Trump had informed a few of his advisers about the press event he announced for Monday at 11 a.m. at his Bedminster golf club. In the days since that post, Trump has been advised against holding one and cautioned that it could complicate his ongoing legal issues, one person told CNN.

Trump has made false claims about election fraud for nearly three years without proof. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have both reiterated the election there was not “stolen.”

The former president’s comments about holding a “news conference” caught several members of his team off guard as his legal team focused on the details of his required surrender at a jailhouse in Georgia by next Friday. Liz Harrington, an aide to Trump, had prepared a report but it remains to be seen whether that document will still be released next week.

Harrington has been a serial promoter of lies about the 2020 election, as CNN has reported.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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August 17, 2023
Dual citizen of France and Canada who mailed ricin to Trump sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison | CNN Politics

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A dual citizen of France and Canada who sent letters containing homemade ricin to then-President Donald Trump and eight Texas law enforcement officials was sentenced Thursday to nearly 22 years in prison.

Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier sent threatening letters containing the poison in September 2020, according to the federal plea agreement filed earlier this year.

According to the agreement, Ferrier made ricin at her home in Quebec, Canada, and put the poison in letters addressed to Trump at the White House and the Texas officials.

US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich sentenced Ferrier to 262 months in prison and imposed a lifetime sentence of supervised release. As part of the sentence, Ferrier will be permanently deported from the US after she completes her prison term.

Ferrier, who appeared at the hearing in an orange prison jumpsuit and sporting a short haircut, at one point addressed the court, reading a winding statement in which she expressed no remorse for her actions and instead cast herself as a “peaceful person.”

“I consider myself to be an activist, not a terrorist,” she said. “Activists are constructive, terrorists are destructive.”

“The only regret I have is that it didn’t work and that I couldn’t stop Trump,” Ferrier said.

In considering the sentencing guidelines for Ferrier’s offenses, Friedrich had to take into account prosecutors’ argument that the defendant’s conduct “involved, or was intended to promote, a federal crime of terrorism,” which would allow the judge to add additional time to the prison term.

“There is absolutely no place for politically motivated violence in the United States of America,” assistant US attorney Michael Friedman told Friedrich.

The judge agreed. “This was potentially deadly,” Friedrich told Ferrier. “It’s harmful to you, harmful to society, harmful to the potential victims.”

The letters included references to a “special gift” and said that, “If it doesn’t work, I will find a better recipe for another poison,” according to the plea agreement. In several letters, Ferrier wrote that she “might use my gun when I will be able to come.”

In her letter to Trump, Ferrier wrote, “You ruin USA and lead them to disaster. I have US cousins, then I don’t want the next 4 years with you as President. Give up and remove your application for this election!”

Ferrier had previously been detained in Texas for several weeks in 2019 and chose to send letters containing ricin to law enforcement officials she thought were involved in her detention, the agreement says.

After sending the letters from Canada, Ferrier was arrested when trying to cross the border into the US with a loaded gun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and several other weapons, according to the department.

Ferrier told border officials that she was wanted by the FBI for the letters, the agreement says.

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August 17, 2023
Texas woman charged with threatening to kill judge overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case | CNN Politics

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CNN
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A Texas woman has been charged with threatening in a voicemail to kill the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s criminal case in Washington, DC, over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Abigail Jo Shry called the chambers of Judge Tanya Chutkan on August 5, and left a voicemail message threatening to “kill anyone who went after former President Trump,” according to a criminal complaint.

The death threats also allegedly included racist comment against Chutkan, who is Black. Prosecutors said in court filings that Shry called the judge a “stupid slave n***er” in the voicemail.

Shry is charged with Transmission in Interstate or Foreign Commerce of any Communication Containing a Threat to Injure the Person of Another. She is being held in detention pending trial, according to court documents, and a bond hearing has been set for September 13.

“If Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b*tch,” Shry said in the message, according to the complaint. “You are in our sights, we want to kill you.”

Investigators said in the complaint that Shry continued her threats in the recording, saying: “You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”

On August 8, Shry admitted to Department of Homeland Security special agents that she made the call to Chutkan’s chambers but that she “had no plans to travel to Washington, DC or Houston to carry out anything she stated,” the complaint said.

CNN has reached out to the public defender’s office in Houston that is representing Shry.

CNN has also reached out to a representative for Chutkan. As previously reported, security for the district judge had been increased in the federal courthouse in Washington, DC.

Shry, according to the complaint, also made “a direct threat to kill Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee, all democrats in Washington D.C. and all people in the LGBTQ community.”

CNN has reached out to the office of the Texas Democrat for comment.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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August 17, 2023
Jay-Z-themed library cards spark increase in Brooklyn Public Library memberships | CNN

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CNN
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If anyone can make a trip to the library feel like a party, it’s Jay-Z, apparently.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the Brooklyn Public Library and Roc Nation have released 13 limited-edition library cards with artwork from Jay-Z albums. The initiative, which ends later this month, has already resulted in 14,000 new library accounts, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn Public Library told CNN.

The library cards are tied to a Brooklyn’s Central Library exhibit that explores Jay-Z’s career through rare photos, original recordings, videos and other artifacts.

“The community’s enthusiastic response to this exhibition is a testament to Jay-Z’s immense impact,” Linda E. Johnson, President and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, told CNN.

The Jay-Z-themed library cards are available for free for New York State residents. New Yorkers can collect all 13 versions – but only one will be activated to a New York Public library account to check out resources, according to a library spokesperson.

Though some people are trying to sell the limited-edition cards online, a library employee told CNN they represent only a small fraction of the thousands who have signed up for a new card.

Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter grew up in the Marcy Homes, a public housing complex, in the Brooklyn neighborhood Bedford Stuyvesant, more commonly known as “Bed Stuy” or “the Stuy.” His rise to music fame came in the early ’90s as a performer and later a record label owner and entrepreneur. He became the first billionaire hip-hop artist, selling more than 140 million records and winning 24 Grammy Awards – the most any rapper has received.

New York City’s other library systems have also released distinct cards for the hip-hop anniversary, as has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). In collaboration with Universal Music Enterprises, 80,000 MetroCards featuring LL Cool J, Pop Smoke, Rakim and Cam’ron have been made available at various stations on a first come, first serve basis.

“From standing on top of the Empire State Building to grabbing a slice at the corner pizza shop, NYC creates iconic moments that are recognized around the world,” Rakim said in a news release for the collaboration. “It’s an honor to be celebrating the 50th Anniversary on the streets… and now below them… of the city where hip-hop was born.”

A South Bronx house party in 1973 is credited as the birthplace of hip-hop, when DJ Kool Herc found a way to isolate the percussion and repeat the “break” on the vinyl he was spinning, according to the New York Public Library.

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August 15, 2023
Dozens of news organizations condemn police raid on Kansas newspaper and call for seized materials to be returned | CNN Business

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Dozens of news organizations on Sunday condemned a police raid on a Kansas newspaper and its publisher’s home, sending a letter to the local police department’s chief urging him to immediately return all seized materials.

The four-page letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, was signed by 34 news and press freedom organizations, including CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and others.

“Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public,” the letter said.

The Marion County Record’s co-owner and publisher, Eric Meyer, believes Friday’s raid was prompted by a story published Wednesday about a local business owner. Authorities countered they are investigating what they called “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers,” according to a search warrant.

“Based on public reporting, the search warrant that has been published online, and your public statements to the press, there appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search —particularly when other investigative steps may have been available — and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state, and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches,” the letter said.

Computers, cell phones, and other materials were seized during the raid at the Marion County Record, Meyer confirmed to CNN. The search warrant identified a list of items law enforcement officials were allowed to seize, including “documents and records pertaining to Kari Newell,” the business owner who was the subject of the story, Meyer said.

Newell told CNN the Marion County Record unlawfully used her credentials to get information that was available only to law enforcement, private investigators and insurance agencies.

Chief Cody was not able to provide details on Friday’s raid, saying it remains an ongoing criminal investigation – but offered a justification.

“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Cody told CNN in a statement. “I appreciate all the assistance from all the state and local investigators along with the entire judicial process thus far.”

But the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said the police department should give back the items to the paper and its reporters.

“We urge you to immediately return the seized material to the Record, to purge any records that may already have been accessed, and to initiate a full independent and transparent review of your department’s actions.”

– CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report

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August 13, 2023