ReportWire

Tag: Fires

  • Man pleads not guilty to sparking deadly Palisades Fire in Los Angeles

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    LOS ANGELES — A 29-year-old man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges.

    Jonathan Rinderknecht appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon after arriving in Los Angeles from Florida earlier in the day, his attorney Steve Haney said. A judge ordered that he remain in custody ahead of his trial.

    Federal officials said Rinderknecht, who lived in the area, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through Pacific Palisades, home to many of Los Angeles’ rich and famous.

    The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.

    Haney told the judge he took issue with the fact that Rinderknecht was facing charges for the Palisades Fire when he allegedly started the smaller fire beforehand known as the Lachman Fire.

    “My client is being charged with a fire that started seven days after,” he said.

    Rinderknecht was staying at his sister’s house in Orlando when he was arrested by federal officials on Oct. 7. He made his first court appearance the next day in Florida on a charge of malicious destruction by means of a fire.

    A week later, a grand jury indicted him on additional charges including one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in federal prison.

    Rinderknecht’s trial is set for December 16.

    On Thursday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver wearing a white jumpsuit. His attorney argued that he should be released on bail, based on the evaluation of court officials in Florida.

    Rinderknecht has no documented history of mental health issues, drug use, or prior criminal activity, Haney said.

    However, the judge in Florida who ordered Rinderknecht to be detained said he had concerns about the Rinderknecht’s mental health and his ability to get to California for future court hearings.

    He appeared agitated when the judge in Los Anglees again ordered that he remain in jail, interjecting into the microphone, “Can I actually say something about detainment?”

    Haney said they planned to return to the judge with additional evidence for why Rinderknecht should be released on bail.

    “He’s a frustrated young man,” Haney said after the hearing. “He doesn’t know why he’s in jail right now.”

    Haney said they plan to argue that even if Rinderknecht was the cause of the initial smaller fire on New Year’s Day, there were several “intervening factors” in the week between that day and when the Palisades Fire ignited, mainly the Los Angeles Fire Department.

    Rinderknecht made several 911 calls to report the fire, according to a criminal complaint. Federal officials called the Palisades blaze a “holdover fire” from the Jan. 1 fire, which was not fully extinguished by firefighters, the complaint said.

    The city’s interim fire chief said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to over 6 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.

    “They had a duty to put the fire out,” Haney said. “I do think he’s a scapegoat.”

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  • A New Paradigm for Protecting Homes from Disastrous Fires

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    But the new paradigm for fighting these fires contains an inconvenient truth. Most people don’t live in new houses, and most building codes aren’t as strict as California’s. And so, for the large majority of the approximately fifty million U.S. homes in the WUI, fire prevention falls to individual homeowners—it’s voluntary and ad hoc. “The approach that has been taken for the last quarter century has been one of, ‘Hey, something is better than nothing,’ ” Maranghides told me. “And, from a fire perspective, that is absolutely not true. Fire doesn’t work that way.” A homeowner could complete eighty per cent of fire-protection measures, potentially spending many tens of thousands of dollars on retrofits, and lose their house because of the twenty per cent that remains unfinished—in no small part because of uncontrollable, unpredictable embers.

    This reality has led Maranghides to a position so logical that it reminded me of Spock, the ultra-rational character from “Star Trek.” For homes to survive fire disasters on their own, he said, people who live on the boundary with wildlands should not only clear sources of fuel from around their properties but also make a hundred per cent of potential home-hardening improvements. Even these extraordinary measures, he went on, are insufficient. No home is an island, and dense housing developments can protect themselves only if every neighbor does the same work. Such recommendations are so stringent that they may seem impossible; some of Maranghides’s colleagues in the fire-prevention world worry that the message will deter the public from trying. “You cannot pick and choose,” Maranghides told me. “The science tells us you have to do everything.”

    For much of the twentieth century, forest fires tended to threaten rural communities. Over time, a particular approach to fire prevention emerged: if your house sat on a spacious parcel in or near the woods, you could work to protect it by creating a buffer around it. In the sixties, a California law supported by the state’s fire agency advanced the foundational concept of defensible space, a zone of up to a hundred feet where fuels such as brush and trees are strategically trimmed back and managed. The U.S. Forest Service eventually recommended the practice. But, throughout the decades, housing developments crept toward wildlands, the climate warmed, and fires increasingly escalated into unstoppable urban conflagrations. In the past decade, California’s most destructive fires incinerated more than fifty-seven thousand homes, commercial properties, and other structures. And, when the nearest source of fuel is not the woods but, rather, the house next door, a broader strategy is needed. Houses had to be hardened to make them less likely to go up in flames.

    This past spring, I visited Maranghides at the National Fire Research Laboratory, which studies hardening strategies in a hulking, warehouse-like structure on NIST’s campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Enormous ventilation pipes were coiled like snakes on the roof of the building. Maranghides, bespectacled and in jeans, met me in the vestibule, where we grabbed white hard hats. From there, we entered a cavernous room with a reinforced concrete floor. A roughly fifty-square-foot air-exhaust hood—an industrial version of what one finds in home kitchens—hung from the ceiling.

    A dozen researchers were gathered around a mockup of a single-story dwelling. A beige façade made from cement fibreboard featured a double-pane slider window, an asphalt-composite shingle roof, and a metal gutter. It was designed to be highly fire-resistant, in keeping with Chapter 7A and the International Wildland-Urban Interface Code. (The house was like a stage set, with scaffolding where the other three walls would have been; sensors tracked metrics such as temperature and heat flux.) But all eyes were focussed on a small shed made from corrugated steel sitting five feet from the house. Its open door, facing the dwelling, revealed stacks of wood inside.

    “Stand by for ignition,” a voice announced through a loudspeaker. A man in firefighting gear approached the shed, used a propane torch to set a fire, and walked away. Within minutes, an incandescent blaze was shooting out the door toward the wall. We could hear loud crackling; embers flew about. Soon, orange-red flames began to lick the wall and the roof’s open eaves. Smoke spiralled upward. The window frame, which was made from white vinyl, started melting and then ignited. Around ten minutes into the experiment, the eaves were burning. A glass window pane fell to the ground.

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    Ingfei Chen

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  • Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s memoir is coming out in January

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has a book coming out in January, touching upon everything from his swift political rise to the trauma of his home being set on fire.

    Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Tuesday that “Where We Keep the Light: From a Life of Service,” will be released Jan. 27. Shapiro, 52, has become a prominent national Democrat since he was elected governor in 2022. He was on Kamala Harris’ shortlist as a running mate in last year’s presidential election and he has often been cited as a potential candidate for 2028.

    According to Harper, Shapiro “shares powerful stories about his family, his faith, and his career in public service.”

    “Gov. Shapiro reflects on what he has learned along his journey,” Tuesday’s announcement reads in part, “knocking on doors, serving his community, and bringing people together to tackle the tough problems we face.”

    In April, a man set fire to the governor’s mansion while Shapiro and his family were sleeping inside, according to authorities. The Shapiros, who hours earlier had hosted a gathering for the Jewish holiday of Passover, were awakened by state police and ushered to safety. Cody Balmer pleaded guilty last week to charges of arson and attempted murder, and was sentenced under a plea deal to 25 to 50 years in state prison.

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  • A fire aboard a gas tanker off the coast of Yemen kills 2 mariners

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A fire that erupted on a Cameroonian-flagged gas tanker traveling through the Gulf of Aden killed two mariners on board, authorities said Monday, as the ship remained adrift off the coast of Yemen.

    The blaze aboard the Falcon began on Saturday and appeared to be an accident, according to the U.S. Navy-overseen Joint Maritime Information Center. However, there were no other immediate details and the ship had been abandoned at sea, without any time for further investigation.

    “The incident resulted from an explosion deemed as an accident and not caused by external factor/influence,” the center said, citing the crew members. “Of the 26 crew onboard, 24 crew members were evacuated safely by responding vessels but two of the crew members have unfortunately passed away.”

    The ship’s crew was Indian with one Ukrainian abroad. Photos released by the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority showed the mariners had arrived in Djibouti.

    The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center initially reported the Falcon had been “hit by an unknown projectile” on Saturday, but later said it could not confirm what caused the blast.

    Satellite images from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by The Associated Press showed the ship ablaze off Yemen at 0750 GMT Saturday. Photographs released early Monday by the European Union’s Operation Aspides, which patrols the Red Sea corridor, showed flames burning and extensive damage to the piping on its deck, though the ship was not listing, meaning tilting to the side.

    The Falcon “remains on fire and adrift,” the EU force warned. It said a private firm would salvage the tanker.

    Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been carrying out attacks targeting ships traveling through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the waterways. The Iranian-backed Houthis have gained international prominence during the Israel-Hamas war over their attacks on shipping and Israel, which they said were aimed at forcing Israel to stop fighting.

    However, since the ceasefire in Gaza began on Oct. 10, no attacks have been claimed by the Yemeni rebels.

    The Falcon previously had been identified by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based pressure group, as operating allegedly in an Iranian “ghost fleet” of ships moving their oil products in the high seas despite international sanctions. The ship’s owners and operators, listed as being in India, could not be reached for comment.

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  • Plan to fire artillery over a California highway during JD Vance base visit irks governor

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    A plan to fire live artillery shells over a major Southern California highway as part of a military showcase attended by Vice President JD Vance has drawn strong objections from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said safety concerns forced him to close a 17-mile (27 kilometers) portion of the interstate.

    “The President is putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous.”

    Vance and U.S. Marine officials at Camp Pendleton have said there is nothing unsafe about the artillery exercise and no need to disrupt traffic on Interstate 5, which is the main highway along the Pacific coast between San Diego and Los Angeles.

    The Republican vice president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are visiting Camp Pendleton in North San Diego County to celebrate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary, and troops will put on a show of amphibious vehicles and aircraft with a beach landing demonstration.

    The state had considered closing the freeway earlier in the week, but the U.S. Marines said Thursday that the event would occur on approved training ranges and comport with established safety protocols.

    State transportation officials ultimately made the decision to close the freeway after practice firings over the freeway Friday evening and a request from event organizers for signage along the road stating “Overhead fire in progress.”

    California Highway Patrol said a stretch of the highway would be closed Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time, although travelers should expect delays before, during and after the event.

    “This is all because of the White House-directed military event, that for the safety of the public, we need to shut down the freeway since they’re sending live ordinances over the freeway,” California Department of Transportation spokesperson Matt Rocco said.

    The Associated Press has reached out to Vance’s office and the U.S. Marines for comment.

    In a statement to The New York Times, a spokesperson for Vance, William Martin, said Newsom is misleading the public about the safety risk. He said it was routine training.

    “If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Martin said.

    Rocco said the I-5 closure could cost up to another two hours of trip time for those commuting between San Diego and Los Angeles. The freeway carries with 80,000 travelers and $94 million in freight through the corridor daily, according to the governor’s office. Passenger rail services running parallel to the I-5 have also been canceled for the afternoon.

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  • Suspect in killing of elderly NYC couple also tried to drain bank accounts

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    NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The New York City man charged with killing an elderly couple and then setting their house on fire during a horrific home invasion last month had also attempted to drain their bank accounts before using their credit cards to go on a shopping spree, prosecutors said Tuesday.

    Jamel McGriff, a serial robbery suspect on parole, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple counts of murder, kidnapping and arson, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz’s office.

    The 42-year-old Bronx resident is charged in the Sept. 8 killings of Frank Olton, 76, and Maureen Olton, 77, in their home in the New York City borough of Queens.

    Prosecutors say McGriff had been going door-to-door asking residents if he could come in to charge his cellphone. They say he spoke with Frank Olton, who had offered to help, before McGriff forced his way into the couple’s home, where he remained for nearly five hours.

    Firefighters responding to a report of a house fire found Frank Olton’s body in the basement tied to a pole and with multiple stab wounds to his neck and chest. Maureen Olton’s badly burned body was found in the living room.

    Prosecutors in court Tuesday said McGriff had set the house on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence of the killings, the Daily News reports. They said Maureen Olton appears to have been tied to a chair and strangled to death.

    Prosecutors said McGriff also unsuccessfully attempted to transfer more than $10,000 from the couple’s accounts to his own.

    He took the couple’s credit cards as well, spending nearly $800 on clothes at a Macy’s in midtown Manhattan just hours after the killings, they said. McGriff was caught the following day after going to a movie in Times Square, prosecutors said in court Tuesday, the Daily News reports.

    The convicted felon, who was on parole after serving 16 years in prison, was ordered held until his next court date on Nov. 12. If convicted, McGriff faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    The Legal Aid Society, which is representing McGriff, said in a statement Tuesday that it is in the early stages of investigating the case and urged the public “not to draw any conclusions until all the facts are known.”

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  • Woman rescued, injured in San Francisco fire

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    Firefighters quickly contained a blaze in a two-story San Francisco home that left one person injured early Sunday morning.

    Crews responded to the 1600 block of 42nd Avenue around 5:58 a.m. after receiving a 911 call reporting a garage fire, San Francisco Fire Department said via social media.

    When firefighters arrived four minutes after receiving the report, they found heavy flames on the first floor of the structure and smoke coming from both the front and rear of the building.

    One woman was rescued from the backyard and treated for smoke inhalation. She was later transported to a hospital for further care, authorities said.

    Firefighters contained the blaze to the first floor, preventing it from spreading to the second story or attic.

    One person other person was displaced, firefighters said.

    PG&E was called to the scene to address gas and electrical concerns as part of post-fire safety checks.

    The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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    NBC Bay Area staff

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  • New California law aims to stabilize insurance for people who can’t get private coverage

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan bill Thursday that aims to prevent the state’s home insurer of last resort from running out of money following a natural disaster.

    The FAIR Plan is an insurance pool that provides policies to people who can’t get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure. The number of homeowners forced onto the FAIR Plan has skyrocketed. With high premiums and basic coverage, the plan is designed as a temporary option until homeowners can find permanent coverage.

    But more Californians are relying on it than ever as increasingly devastating and destructive fires spark across the state, including in densely populated areas. There were nearly 600,000 home policies on the FAIR Plan as of June. Leaders of the plan last year warned state lawmakers that it could go insolvent after a major wildfire or disaster.

    That reality came true earlier this year after wildfires swept through Los Angeles and destroyed more than 17,000 structures. The plan faced a loss of roughly $4 billion and needed a $1 billion bailout from private insurers to pay out claims. Half of that cost is expected to be passed onto all policyholders.

    The law Newsom signed allows the FAIR Plan to request state-backed loans and bonds and spread out claims payments over multiple years after a disaster. Insurance companies were previously required to pay the full bailout within 30 days. Supporters of the new law said it will prevent the need for future bailouts that raise rates for everyone.

    “The kinds of climate-fueled firestorms like we saw in January will only continue to worsen over time. That’s why we’re taking action now to continue strengthening California’s insurance market to be more resilient in the face of the climate crisis,” Newsom said in a statement.

    Republican state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil said the measure was a good step to help stabilize the FAIR Plan.

    “This bill doesn’t solve everything. But it does help to ensure that the FAIR Plan customers can rely on coverage in their time of greatest need,” she said in September during a floor debate.

    Newsom also signed another bill to expand the FAIR Plan board, which currently consists of nine voting insurers and four nonvoting members appointed by the governor. The new law adds two representatives from the Legislature to serve as non-voting members on the board.

    Supporters, including the state’s top insurance regulator, said the law adds a new layer of oversight and transparency. Opponents said it wouldn’t make a difference because the new members don’t have any voting power.

    California is undergoing a yearslong effort to stabilize its insurance market after several major insurance companies either paused or restricted new business in the state in 2023, which pushed hundreds of thousands of homeowners onto the FAIR Plan. Wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in California because of climate change, and insurers say that is making it difficult to truly price the risk on properties.

    Of the top 20 most destructive wildfires in state history, 15 have occurred since 2015, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

    The state now gives insurers more latitude to raise premiums in exchange for issuing more policies in high-risk areas. That includes regulations allowing insurers to consider climate change when setting their prices and allowing them pass on the costs of reinsurance to California consumers.

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  • Who is Jonathan Rinderknecht, Palisades Fire suspect accused of sparking deadly blaze?

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    Authorities have arrested 29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht, accusing him of purposefully igniting a New Year’s Day fire that smoldered for days and later exploded into the deadly Palisades Fire that devastated California.

    Rinderknecht, 29, of Melbourne, Florida, was arrested Tuesday on a federal charge of destruction of property by means of fire, Acting United States Attorney Bill Essayli announced during a Wednesday morning news conference. He was due to make his initial appearance in federal court in Florida on Wednesday.

    “The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” Essayli said. “While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy.”

    Jonathan Rinderknecht, 29, was charged Wednesday with igniting the blaze that eventually became the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. (USAttyEssayli/X)

    ARREST MADE IN CONNECTION TO DEADLY PACIFIC PALISADES FIRE, SOURCES SAY

    Essayli said there is evidence from Rinderknecht’s cell phone, false statements to law enforcement and his behavior following a separate fire that broke out shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day that led to his arrest. 

    Justice department officials said evidence collected from the suspect’s digital devices showed an image he generated on ChatGPT depicting a dystopian burning city. The Palisades fire destroyed tens of thousands of acres throughout the region, leaving many residents displaced, and claimed the lives of 12 people. 

    This tragedy will never be forgotten — lives were lost, families torn apart, and entire communities forever changed.

    — Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom

    From New Year’s Eve 2024 to New Year’s Day 2025, Rinderknecht worked as an Uber driver in Los Angeles. Federal authorities said two of his passengers told them “he appeared agitated and angry that night after dropping off a passenger in Pacific Palisades.”  

    He then allegedly parked his car and tried to contact a former friend. After he couldn’t get a hold of them, officials said he then proceeded to walk up a trail and took videos on his iPhone from a hilltop. According to the criminal complaint, Rinderknecht claims that he offered to help fight the fires, with the investigators noting that this is “highly unusual conduct.”

    READ THE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT – APP USERS, CLICK HERE

    At that time, investigators said he “listened to a rap song whose music video included objects being lit on fire.”

    “He then used his iPhone to take videos at a nearby hilltop area and listened to a rap song – to which he had listened repeatedly in previous days – whose music video included things being lit on fire,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

    According to the criminal complaint, Rinderknecht was listening to the French rap song “Un Zder, Un Thé” by Josman, which is about isolation, exhaustion, and escapism.

    Background and Identity

    According to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Rinderknecht is also known by the aliases “Jonathan Rinder” and “Jon Rinder.” 

    According to the criminal complaint, Rinderknecht had previously lived in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, California, near the site of the initial “Lachman Fire,” and was familiar with the local trails and hillside terrain where the fire began. Investigators noted that he had formerly resided in a house roughly one block from the trailhead and had hiked the nearby Temescal Ridge Trail numerous times. After leaving California, Rinderknecht relocated to Melbourne, Florida, where he was arrested by federal agents on October 8.

    In the complaint, Special Agent William Schry noted that Rinderknecht “admitted he was fluent in French; he grew up in France.” 

    A map where the Palisades and Lachman fires originated in California

    A map from the criminal complaint outlining where Jonathan Rinderknechht allegedly started the fires from. (Department of Justice)

    JUDGE’S WATERFRONT MANSION BURNS IN POSSIBLE ARSON AS FIRST RESPONDERS USE KAYAKS FOR DRAMATIC RESCUE

    Timeline of Key Events

    A sequence of events leading up to Rinderknecht’s arrest on Oct. 8, according to the criminal complaint.

    • July 11: Asked ChatGPT to generate a “dystopian painting” showing a burning forest and the rich watching the world burn.
    • Nov. 1: Told ChatGPT, “I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing.”

    Dec. 31:

    • Video from his iPhone showed a green barbecue-style lighter in his apartment; the same lighter (with his DNA) was later found in his car.
    • Rinderknecht was working as an Uber driver in Pacific Palisades.
    • Two passengers later described him as agitated and angry.

    Around 11:28 p.m., he listened to the French song “Un Zder, Un Thé” by Josman.

    11:34 p.m.: Dropped off a passenger on Palisades Drive, then drove alone toward the Skull Rock Trailhead, near where he had once lived. He was captured on surveillance footage, according to the complaint.

    A map of the trail that Rinderknechht allegedly used to walk up to the Hidden Buddha clearing.

    A map of the trail that Rinderknechht allegedly used to walk up to the Hidden Buddha clearing. (Department of Justice)

    11:38 p.m. – 11:47 p.m.: Parked at the Skull Rock Trailhead and walked up the Temescal Ridge Trail to the “Hidden Buddha” clearing where he took two videos; no fire visible.

    11:54 p.m.: Played “Un Zder, Un Thé” again.

    Jan. 1:

    12:12 a.m.:

    • The first glow of fire was detected by wildfire cameras near the hillside.
    • Rinderknecht attempted to call 911 multiple times, with GPS data placing him directly below the Hidden Buddha clearing.
    • Cameras captured the Lachman Fire igniting and spreading while he remained at that spot for over a minute.

    12:17 a.m.:

    • Successfully connected to 911 near the bottom of the trail to report the fire.
    • During the call, he typed into ChatGPT: “Are you at fault if a fire is lift [sic] because of your cigarettes?” ChatGPT, according to the complaint, responded with “Yes,” along with an explanation.

    12:20 a.m.:

    • Rinderknecht gets into his car and drives away from the fire. On his way down, he passes fire trucks responding to the scene.

    1:02 a.m.: Took four iPhone videos of firefighters battling the blaze.

    Jan. 2:

    • Firefighters suppressed the Lachman Fire.
    Aftermath of the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles

    Paula Tapia hugs Katja Schmolka, who lost her home in the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood, in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Jan. 10, 2025.  (REUTERS/David Ryder)

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Jan. 7:

    • Heavy winds reignited underground embers from the original site, sparking the Palisades Fire, which spread widely through federal and state land.

    Jan. 31:

    • Palisades fire is fully contained.

    Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a U.S. Writer at Fox News Digital. 

    You can follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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  • Uber Driver Who Allegedly Caused the Palisades Fire Used ChatGPT to Imagine a Forest Burning

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    Federal authorities announced the arrest of a 29-year-old Uber driver in Florida on Wednesday who is charged with starting a blaze that eventually grew into the Palisades Fire just north of Los Angeles on New Year’s Day 2025. The fire destroyed over 23,000 acres, killed 12 people, and destroyed almost 7,000 structures over the following weeks.

    Authorities allege Jonathan Rinderknecht, who previously lived in the Pacific Palisades, was working as an Uber driver in the area on New Year’s Eve and picked up at least two rides that night before starting a fire that would become known as the Lachman Fire, according to the criminal complaint filed in California.

    The Lachman Fire was thought to be extinguished a few hours later, but the dry conditions allowed it to smolder undetected for a week before high winds caused it to become the Palisades Fire, which would burn for weeks before officially being fully contained on Jan. 31.

    Rinderknecht took videos of the area around the time that the Lachman Fire started and tried to call 911 several times but failed for technical reasons, according to the complaint. GPS data for those attempted calls was logged and placed him in the area. He was successful in getting through to 911 at 12:17 a.m. on Jan. 1, though the fire had already been reported by a local resident at that point, according to the complaint.

    Rinderknecht, who reportedly speaks French, also listened to a song by French artist Josman called “Un Zder, Un The” on YouTube several times. The charging document says Google records show he listened to the song nine times in four days, and it includes themes of “despair and bitterness.” The video features a couple of shots where fake money is set on fire.

    The charging documents also allege that Rinderknecht’s car was captured by home security cameras in the area, and he passed fire engines responding to the fire before turning around and following them.

    The charging documents note that Rinderknecht was interviewed by the authorities on Jan. 24, though it’s not clear why it took so long to arrest and charge the suspect. The documents also contain alleged excerpts from his conversations with ChatGPT, which authorities are clearly trying to suggest provide some kind of motive for the alleged arson.

    One conversation that allegedly happened with the AI chatbot on Nov. 1, 2024, a couple of months before the fire started:

    “I am 28 years old. And… I basically… This just happened. Maybe like… I don’t know, maybe like 3 months ago or something. Like, the realization of all this. I literally burnt the Bible that I had. It felt amazing. I felt so liberated.”

    The documents also include a prompt Rinderknecht allegedly gave ChatGPT to produce AI-generated images of fires on July 11, 2024.

    “A dystopian painting divided into distinct parts that blend together seamlessly. On the far left, there is a burning forest. Next to it, a crowd of people is running away from the fire, leading to the middle. In the middle, hundreds of thousands of people in poverty are trying to get past a gigantic gate with a big dollar sign on it. On the other side of the gate and the entire wall is a conglomerate of the richest people. They are chilling, watching the world burn down, and watching the people struggle. They are laughing, enjoying themselves, and dancing. The scene is detailed and impactful, highlighting the stark contrast and the direct connection between the different parts of the world.”

    The images have that characteristically cartoony vibe that was much more common among AI-generated visual media a year ago.

    Images created by ChatGPT included in court documents alleging Jonathan Rinderknecht started the blaze that would eventually become the Palisades Fire in Jan. 2025. Image: ChatGPT / Court documents

    The Palisades Fire drew national attention and attracted the typical self-promoters that pop up during any national tragedy. Elon Musk tried to suggest he saved “thousands” of lives from the Palisades Fire, along with the Eaton Fire, which also killed 19 people. The cause of the Eaton Fire is still unclear.

    Dozens of beachfront homes in Malibu, CA were destroyed overnight in the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, January 8, 2025.
    Dozens of beachfront homes in Malibu, CA were destroyed in the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Photo by David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images

    Musk’s platform X is currently spreading misinformation about the arrest of Rinderknecht, a white man. As New York Times reporter Kate Conger noted on Bluesky, the X news summary showed a photo of a Black man.

    Rinderknecht has also gone by the names “Jonathan Rinder” and “Jon Rinder,” according to the complaint, and his first appearance in court is scheduled for Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET in U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida. The ATF took the lead in the investigation.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a news conference on Wednesday that Rinderknecht has been charged with destruction of property by means of fire, but further charges, including murder, could be added.

    “The complaint alleges that a single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen, resulting in death and widespread destruction in Pacific Palisades,” Essayli said in a press release.

    “While we cannot bring back what victims lost, we hope this criminal case brings some measure of justice to those affected by this horrific tragedy.”

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    Matt Novak

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  • Defendant’s DNA found on gas can in failed arson of news van in Utah, prosecutors say

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    SALT LAKE CITY — SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man’s DNA was found on a gasoline can that was placed under a news vehicle in a failed arson attempt in Salt Lake City, federal prosecutors allege in court documents.

    Christopher Solomon Proctor, 45, lit a fuse attached to the 2.5 gallon (9.5 liter) plastic gas container that he had put under a news vehicle owned by the local Fox affiliate, KSTU-TV, that was parked outside of a building on Sept. 12, according to the filings. The fuse went out before the gas ignited.

    Proctor has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted arson and possession of an unregistered destructive device. His attorney, Richard Sorenson, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

    During a hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead ordered Proctor, who was arrested Sept. 29, to remain in jail until his trial. Pead said there was evidence that Proctor had planned to repeat the attempt, despite family and friends insisting that Proctor posed no danger to others, according to court documents.

    A license plate reader recorded Proctor’s vehicle near the scene within minutes of the crime, and investigators found items in Proctor’s home similar to those used to carry out the attempted arson, including black boots, a different gas can that also had a hole carved in the top, and a portion of fuse, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Thorpe wrote.

    According to prosecutors, Proctor bought more fuse days after the failed attempt and returned to the crime scene a week later. Proctor “had mentioned burning Fox News on previous occasions” to others, and told an acquaintance that he lit a fuse under a “fox news” vehicle but it did not blow up, Thorpe wrote.

    “That purchase, the presence of another gas-can at his residence and the deliberate resurveilling of the news station lead to an inference that the defendant may not have been satisfied with his failed attempt,” Thorpe wrote.

    The day after the alleged arson attempt, two men were arrested on suspicion of placing a makeshift bomb under the KSTU-TV news vehicle. Investigators searched their home and found two sticks of inactive dynamite that the men claimed were real, according to court documents. They were charged in state court with crimes including possessing hoax explosives. However, the men are not being prosecuted for crimes related to the gas can found under the vehicle.

    Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Tuesday that the charges were based on the information presented to the office and referred questions regarding the news vehicle to federal authorities.

    The federal court documents make no mention of the two men.

    The incident happened two days after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City. Thorpe said at Monday’s hearing that there is no evidence linking the alleged arson attempt to Kirk’s death, KSTU-TV reported.

    ___

    The story was updated to correct that the vehicle belongs to the local Fox affiliate, not Fox News.

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  • Fears of massive battery fires spark local opposition to energy storage projects

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    More and more, big arrays of lithium-ion batteries are being hooked up to electrical grids around the U.S. to store power that can be discharged in times of high demand.

    But as more energy storage is added, residents in some places are pushing back due to fears that the systems will go up in flames, as a massive facility in California did earlier this year.

    Proponents maintain that state-of-the-art battery energy storage systems are safe, but more localities are enacting moratoriums.

    “We’re not guinea pigs for anybody … we are not going to experiment, we’re not going to take risk,” said Michael McGinty, the mayor of Island Park, New York, which passed a moratorium in July after a storage system was proposed near the village line.

    At least a few dozen localities around the United States have moved to temporarily block development of big battery systems in recent years.

    Long Island, where the power grid could get a boost in the next few years as offshore wind farms come online, has been a hotbed of activism, even drawing attention recently from the Trump administration. Opponents there got a boost in August when Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited New York to complain that the state was rushing approvals of sites in order to meet “delusional” green power goals — a claim state officials deny.

    Battery energy storage systems that suck up cheap power during periods of low demand, then discharge it at a profit during periods of high demand, are considered critical with the rise of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar.

    Known by the acronym BESS, the systems can make grids more reliable and have been credited with reducing blackouts. A large battery system might consist of rows of shipping containers in a fenced lot, with the containers holding hundreds of thousands of cells.

    China and the United States lead the world in rapidly adding battery storage energy systems. However, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Netherlands, Chile, Canada and the U.K. have commissioned or started construction on large projects since 2024, too, according to research from BloombergNEF.

    In the U.S., California and Texas have been leaders in battery storage. But other states are moving quickly, often with privately developed systems. While the Trump administration has been unsupportive or even hostile to renewable energy, key tax credits for energy storage projects were maintained in the recently approved federal budget for qualified projects that begin construction in the next eight years.

    Developers added 4,908 megawatts of battery storage capacity in the second quarter of 2025, with Arizona, California and Texas accounting for about three-quarters of that new capacity, according to a report from American Clean Power Association, an industry group. That’s enough to power nearly 1.7 million households.

    New York has an ambitious goal to add 6,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030, half of it large-scale systems.

    Opposition to the storage systems usually focuses on the possibility of thermal runaway, a chain reaction of uncontrolled heating that can lead to fire or an explosion. Opponents point to past fires and ask: What if that happens in my neighborhood?

    A battery storage system in Moss Landing, California caught fire in January, sending plumes of toxic smoke into the atmosphere and forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 people..

    Experts in the field say battery systems have become safer over the years. Ofodike Ezekoye, a combustion expert and professor of mechanical engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, notes that failures are relatively infrequent, but also that no engineered system is 100% foolproof.

    “This is a relatively immature technology that is maturing quickly, so I think that there are a lot of really thoughtful researchers and other stakeholders who are trying to improve the overall safety of these systems,” Ezekoye said.

    Battery storage proponents say a facility like Moss Landing, where batteries were stored indoors, would not be allowed in New York, which has adopted fire codes that require modular enclosure design with required minimum spacing to keep fires from spreading.

    People who live near proposed sites are not always assured.

    In Washington state, the city of Maple Valley approved a six-month moratorium in July as a way “to protect us until we know more,” said city manager Laura Philpot.

    Voters in Halstead, Kansas, which has a moratorium, will be asked this Election Day whether they want to prohibit larger battery storage systems inside the city limits, according to Mayor Dennis Travis. He hopes the city can one day host a safely designed storage system, and said local opponents wrongly fixate on the California fire.

    The number of localities passing moratoriums began rising in 2023 and 2024, mirroring trends in battery storage deployment, with a notable cluster in New York, according to a presentation last year by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

    Winnie Sokolowski is among area residents against a proposed 250-megawatt lithium-ion storage system in the Town of Ulster, New York, contending it is too close to schools and homes.

    “They’re banking on nothing happening, but I don’t think you can place it where they’re proposing and assume nothing’s going to happen,” Sokolowski said. “It’s just too risky if it does.”

    The developer, Terra-Gen, said the design will keep a fire from spreading and that the system “poses no credible, scientific-based threat to neighbors, the public or the environment.”

    New York State Energy Research and Development Authority President Doreen Harris said she’s confident the state has the right safety rules in place, and that scaling up the use of battery storage systems will “strengthen and modernize our grid.”

    She noted there also were local concerns in the early stages of siting solar farms, which have since proven their benefits.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

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  • LA City Hall evacuated after car crashes into building’s steps

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles’s City Hall was evacuated after a car crashed into the steps of the building on Friday afternoon and the driver was later taken into police custody, officials said.

    About two hours after the crash, the driver could be seen getting out of the car and walking with his arms raised toward a line of police and fire vehicles. He was then handcuffed.

    There were no immediate reports of injuries, according to police. LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a post on the social platform X that the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad had arrived at the crash site, though she also said the situation had been “safely resolved.”

    She previously said City Hall was being evacuated “out of an abundance of caution.”

    Police responded to reports just after 4 p.m. about a traffic collision, according to Charles Miller, a spokesperson for the LAPD. They then worked to make contact with the driver. The circumstances that led up to the crash were not immediately clear.

    Video taken from news helicopters soon after the crash shows the driver in the front seat and a cardboard sign in the window that reads, “I need ur help” and makes a reference to President Donald Trump.

    “Thank you to all of the brave first responders who safely resolved this situation with compassion and urgency,” Bass said on X.

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  • Massive fire erupts at Chevron refinery just outside of Los Angeles

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    EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — A fire broke out at a Chevron oil refinery just outside Los Angeles on Thursday night, sending towering flames into the air that were visible for miles.

    Officials in El Segundo, California, urged people to stay indoors. By early Friday, the fire was contained and there was no threat to public safety, the city said in a statement. No evacuations had been ordered.

    “There is still an active fire and road closures remain in place,” it said.

    Residents near the Chevron El Segundo Refinery described feeling a rumble, then they saw the flames.

    “Pretty much the whole sky was orange,” said Sam Daugherty, who told KABC-TV he lives 10 blocks away and began packing a bag in a panic.

    There were no injuries at the refinery and all personnel were accounted for, the company said in a statement late Thursday, adding that a monitoring system indicated the fire did not move beyond the facility’s fence line. The statement did not say what caused the fire.

    The El Segundo police and fire departments did not immediately comment on the fire, which appeared to have erupted suddenly.

    LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell told KCAL-TV that fire crews had contained the blaze to one section of the refinery.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said it was monitoring the situation and coordinating with state and local authorities to protect the surrounding community.

    El Segundo is a beachside city located about a mile (1.6 kilometers) south of Los Angeles International Airport. LA Mayor Karen Bass wrote in a post on X that there was no known impact to the airport.

    “LAFD stands at the ready to assist with any mutual aid request,” she said.

    A shelter-in-place order for nearby Manhattan Beach south of El Segundo was lifted Friday.

    No immediate air pollution problems were detected. An air quality index map Friday showed good levels for the Los Angeles area, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

    The refinery covers roughly 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers) and has more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) of pipelines, according to the company’s website. The refinery, which has been in operation since 1911, can refine up to 290,000 barrels of crude oil per day, including gasoline, jet and diesel fuels, according to the company’s website.

    ___

    Golden reported from Seattle.

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  • Parents of woman killed in Tesla crash allege design flaw trapped her in burning car

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    The parents of a college student killed in a Tesla crash say she was trapped in the car as it burst into flames because of a design flaw that made it nearly impossible for her to open the door, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

    The parents of Krysta Tsukahara allege that the company that helped Elon Musk become the world’s richest man knew about the flaw for years and could have moved fast to fix the problem but did not, leaving the 19-year-old arts student trapped amid flames and smoke that eventually killed her.

    Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

    The new legal threat to Tesla filed in Alameda County Superior Court comes just weeks after federal regulators opened an investigation into complaints by Tesla drivers of stuck-door problems. The probe and suit come at a delicate time for the company as it seeks to convince Americans that its cars will soon be safe enough to ride in without anyone in the driver’s seat.

    Tsukahara was in the back of a Cybertruck when the driver who was drunk and had taken drugs smashed into a tree in a suburb of San Francisco, according to the suit. Three of the four people in the car, including the driver, died. A fourth was pulled from the car after a rescuer smashed a window and reached in.

    The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times.

    Tesla doors have been at the center of several crash cases because the battery powering the unlocking mechanism can be destroyed in a fire and the manual releases that override that system are difficult to find.

    The lawsuit follows several others that have claimed various safety problems with Tesla cars. In August, a Florida jury decided that the family of another dead college student, this one killed by a runaway Tesla years ago, should be awarded more than $240 million in damages.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which opened its stuck-door investigation last month, is looking into complaints by drivers that after exiting their cars, they couldn’t open back doors to get their children out and, in some cases, had to break the window to reach them.

    ___

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  • Study shows the world is far more ablaze now with damaging fires than in the 1980s

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    WASHINGTON — Earth’s nastiest and costliest wildfires are blazing four times more often now than they did in the 1980s because of human-caused climate change and people moving closer to wildlands, a new study found.

    A study in the journal Science looks at global wildfires, not by acres burned which is the most common measuring stick, but by the harder to calculate economic and human damage they cause. The study concluded there has been a “climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires.”

    A team of Australian, American and German fire scientists calculated the 200 most damaging fires since 1980 based on the percentage of damage to the country’s Gross Domestic Product at the time, taking inflation into account. The frequency of these events has increased about 4.4 times from 1980 to 2023, said study lead author Calum Cunningham, a pyrogeographer at the Fire Centre at the University of Tasmania in Australia.

    “It shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that we do have a major wildfire crisis on our hands,” Cunningham said.

    About 43% of the 200 most damaging fires occurred in the last 10 years of the study. In the 1980s, the globe averaged two of these catastrophic fires a year and a few times hit four a year. From 2014 to 2023, the world averaged nearly nine a year, including 13 in 2021. It noted that the count of these devastating infernos sharply increased in 2015, which “coincided with increasingly extreme climatic conditions.” Though the study date ended in 2023, the last two years have been even more extreme, Cunningham said.

    Europe and North America lead in the number of these economically damaging fires. It’s especially worse in the Mediterranean around Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal and in the Western United States around California, because of the climate prone to sudden dryness, worsened by global warming, Cunningham said.

    The researchers also found a tripling in how often a single fire killed at least 10 people, such as 2018’s Paradise fire, 2023’s Lahaina fire and those in Los Angeles in 2025.

    Cunningham said often researchers look at how many acres a fire burns as a measuring stick, but he called that flawed because it really doesn’t show the effect on people, with area not mattering as much as economics and lives. Hawaii’s Lahaina fire wasn’t big, but it burned a lot of buildings and killed a lot of people so it was more meaningful than one in sparsely populated regions, he said.

    “We need to be targeting the fires that matter. And those are the fires that cause major ecological destruction because they’re burning too intensely,” Cunningham said.

    But economic data is difficult to get with many countries keeping that information private, preventing global trends and totals from being calculated. So Cunningham and colleagues were able to get more than 40 years of global economic date from insurance giant Munich Re and then combine it with the public database from International Disaster Database, which isn’t as complete but is collected by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

    The study looked at “fire weather” which is hot, dry and windy conditions that make extreme fires more likely and more dangerous and found that those conditions are increasing, creating a connection to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

    “We’ve firstly got that connection that all the disasters by and large occurred during extreme weather. We’ve also got a strong trend of those conditions becoming more common as a result of climate change. That’s indisputable,” Cunningham said. “So that’s a line of evidence there to say that climate change is having a significant effect on at least creating the conditions that are suitable for a major fire disaster.”

    If there was no human-caused climate change, the world would still have devastating fires, but not as many, he said: “We’re loading the dice in a sense by increasing temperatures.”

    There are other factors. People are moving closer to fire-prone areas, called the wildland-urban interface, Cunningham said. And society is not getting a handle on dead foliage that becomes fuel, he said. But those factors are harder to quantify compared to climate change, he said.

    “This is an innovative study in terms of the data sources employed, and it mostly confirms common sense expectations: fires causing major fatalities and economic damage tend to be those in densely populated areas and to occur during the extreme fire weather conditions that are becoming more common due to climate change,” said Jacob Bendix, a geography and environment professor at Syracuse University who studies fires, but wasn’t part of this research team.

    Not only does the study makes sense, but it’s a bad sign for the future, said Mike Flannigan, a fire researcher at Thompson Rivers University in Canada. Flannigan, who wasn’t part of research, said: “As the frequency and intensity of extreme fire weather and drought increases the likelihood of disastrous fires increases so we need to do more to be better prepared.”

    ____

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Federal safety board tells Philadelphia’s mass transit agency to shelve railcars implicated in fires

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. — Federal transportation safety officials told Philadelphia’s mass transit agency this week that it should shelve an aging electric railcar model that is heavily used in its regional rail fleet until it figures out how to stop them from catching fire.

    The recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board came after it investigated five fires this year involving the Silverliner IV passenger railcars used by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA.

    In addition to suspending operation of the Silverliner IV fleet until it can fix the cause, the agency said SEPTA should fast-track the replacement of the Silverliner IV fleet or retrofit cars to meet modern fire safety standards and add systems to give the train crew detailed information on when dynamic brakes or other electrical systems aren’t functioning normally.

    All five fires forced everyone aboard to evacuate — in one case, as many as 350 passengers — with a few minor injuries reported. One railcar was involved in two of the fires, and two other railcars were destroyed, the NTSB said.

    SEPTA is one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies, carrying 800,000 daily riders on buses, trolleys and rail.

    The recommendation comes at a time when SEPTA and major transit agencies around the U.S. are fighting for more public funding as they struggle with rising costs and lagging ridership.

    In its report, the NTSB was critical of SEPTA’s maintenance and operating practices.

    That, combined with the outdated design of the Silverliner IV railcars, “represents an immediate and unacceptable safety risk because of the incidence and severity of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments,” the NTSB said.

    The NTSB traced the fires to different components, including electrical components associated with the train’s propulsion system, the dynamic brakes and a traction motor.

    SEPTA did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would or could comply with the recommendations.

    In its budget report issued earlier this year, SEPTA reported that ballooning material, manufacturing and construction costs has made it more expensive for it to replace the Silverliner IV fleet.

    Still, it said the replacements are “long-overdue investments” and “can no longer be delayed.”

    It put the price tag at nearly $1 billion to replace its 230 Silverliner IV cars built by General Electric in the 1970s.

    However, SEPTA also projected that the design, procurement and construction timeline for the replacement would stretch until 2036.

    ___

    Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter

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  • Amazon unveils new generation of AI-powered Kindle and other devices

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    NEW YORK — Online juggernaut Amazon Inc. unveiled its next generation of Kindle, Ring and Echo devices, among other gadgets, that are all powered by artificial intelligence and connected to Alexa+, its AI-infused personal assistant, which made its debut in February.

    The lineup, announced at a presentation and showcase in New York, includes new cameras for its Ring video monitoring device with a new AI facial recognition feature that allows users to register friends and family and notify them who is at the front door.

    Amazon unveiled four new Echo devices revamped with Alexa+ that serve up personalized insights like whether the user left the front door unlocked after midnight. The Seattle-based company also announced a series of Alexa+-infused Fire TVs that offer more personalized searches like finding a specific scene in a movie or getting commentary about last night’s football game.

    The presentation Tuesday was the first big product event for Panos Panay, who joined Amazon in 2023 to head up the company’s devices and services teams after a 19-year career at Microsoft where he served as chief product officer.

    Panay told the audience of several hundred journalists and bloggers that Alexa+ and artificial intelligence are allowing technology to work “in the background when you don’t.”

    “Products creating subtle shifts in all our behavior, driven by AI, integrated into the hardware,” Panay said. “And flowing natural through the products themselves. Whether it’s a camera catching what you missed. Or your Fire TV updating you on a game. Or your Kindle remembering exactly where you left off.”

    The new lineup comes as Amazon has faced pressure from investors to cater to the new AI era.

    PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore wrote in a note Tuesday that the offerings were “a much needed refresh to the lineup, as it was starting to look a bit dated.”

    “Attention to detail may not grab headlines, but it should not be overlooked, especially how the products look and feel, ” he wrote.”The latest generation of devices is designed to blend into users’ lives without them realizing they exist … Alexa+ is clearly the glue that holds the stack together…”

    Here are some highlights:

    Amazon has been expanding its home security features since the company bought Wi-Fi-connected cameras and doorbell maker Ring in 2018. Amazon said Tuesday that it’s infusing the device with more technology and upgraded cameras that will transform the device into a doorbell attendant and community tool for pet owners among other new uses.

    Amazon said the ring cameras with retinal vision now come with 2K resolution for sharper detail and 4K resolution video. Amazon’s new AI facial recognition feature called “Familiar Faces,” allows the user to register friends and family. The smart doorbell, infused with Alexa+, will also be able to manage deliveries and provide instructions for delivery workers among other tasks.

    For pet owners, Amazon has a new feature that helps owners reunite lost dogs with their families. It works like this: a neighbor reports a lost dog in the Ring app, which would notify people nearby with a Ring camera The cameras would then use AI to look for a possible match with the lost dog

    Ring Wired Doorbell Pro, priced at $249.99 and wired doorbell plus, priced at $179.99, among other Ring cameras, will be available for pre-order on Tuesday, Amazon said. Ring’s “Search Party” for dogs will begin rolling out in November, followed by cats and other pets. And Alexa+ Greetings and Familiar Faces will be offered in December.

    Amazon unveiled new versions of the Kindle Scribe that the company touts as lighter and faster and features an AI-powered notebook search. One of them includes a color screen.

    The new Scribes feature larger 11-inch, glare-free E Ink screens — up from 10.2 inches previously. They now weigh 400 grams compared to 433 grams for last year’s version, the company said. Executives noted that at 5.4 millimeters thick, these new versions are thinner than the iPhone Air, which measure 5.6 millimeters.

    The new versions of Scribes will allow users to access documents stored on Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive, the company said.

    Amazon said that later this year in the U.S., Kindle Scribe will be available starting at $499.99 and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft will be offered starting at $629.99.

    Amazon unveiled four new Echo loud speaker devices — the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11— that are specifically for Alexa+ and allow for more personalized experiences.

    The new offering, which starts at $99.99, comes as Amazon reports that those customers with early Alexa+ are engaging with the personal assistant twice as much and relying on it to do tasks like booking reservations and controlling smart home devices.

    The new features recognize users and churns out personalized insights such as an analysis of how they slept last night.

    The company said that all four new Echo devices are available for pre-order starting Tuesday.

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  • 2 dead, 8 wounded in shooting, fire at Mich. church

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    GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A gunman opened fire inside a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Michigan during a Sunday service and set the building ablaze, killing at least two people and injuring eight others before police shot him, authorities said.

    Hundreds of people were inside the church in Grand Blanc Township when a man rammed a four-door pickup with two American flags in the truck bed through the front door, then got out of the vehicle and started shooting, Police Chief William Renye told reporters. Investigators believe he “deliberately” set the building on fire, Renye said.


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    By ISABELLA VOLMERT and COREY WILLIAMS – Associated Press

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  • Michigan church shooting leaves multiple victims; police say shooter ‘down’

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    A gunman was “down” after shooting multiple people at a Michigan church that was also engulfed in flames on Sunday, authorities said.

    The active shooter situation unfolded just before 11 a.m. local time at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, the Grand Blanc Township Police Department said in a post on social media.

    “There are multiple victims and the shooter is down,” police said. “There is NO threat to the public at this time. The church is actively on fire.”

    Police said multiple people were shot at at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, on Sunday, Sept. 28, 2025. (FOX2 Detroit WJBK)

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