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The article reports the social impact of the occurrence of wildfires in California, which in fact have increased the problem of housing crisis which the state is undergoing by rendering several people homeless.

The article discusses an investigation related to the cause of wildfire in California's Napa Valley as determining the causes of fire could have huge financial implications for insurance companies and presents the views of Ron Eldridge, the deputy chief of law enforcement for Cal Fire, on the same.

The article reports on wildfire damage across Northern California that had destroyed many residential buildings. It presents personal experience of different wildfire victims. Topics include evacuation of neighbors by police officer, house safety involving goats eating grass, and the explosion of propane tanks within the vicinity.

The article reports on various comments of the policy voted by the national board of American youth organization Boy Scouts of America in 2013 allowing openly gay scouts to participate in scouting but excludes gay leaders age 18 and over. It states that the decision was a compromise intended to offer the organization time to figure out its proceedings. It notes the policy in California where judges could be bared from involvement in the organization under the proposed rule changes.

The article focuses on fire management policy in California. Experts state the wildfires in southern California in October, 2007 demonstrate the failure of the current policy of suppressing all fires. This leads to an accumulation of fuel that creates huge fires which pose a far greater threat. It is acknowledged that the expansion of the state's population into areas most at risk of fire make a change in current policy politically impossible.

The article reports that firefighters in southern California made progress against the wide outbreak of wildfires in the region, aided by lower temperatures and declining winds. Fire officials were pleased at the low loss of life from the disaster. Some public officials and firefighters are unhappy the state government did not implement all the recommendations of a panel which investigated a wildfire outbreak in 2003, especially its call for the purchase of more equipment.

Looks at how Hurricane Katrina effected the lives of musicians in New Orleans. Reports on how musicians fled the storm and headed to Texas, California, Chicago, New York and Atlanta; Discussion of how many musicians have chose to relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana; Question of what will come of the dispersal of New Orleans' artistic life and whether the thousands of musical transients will become transplants.

The article reports on the Valley Fire, a wildfire that blew up in California on September 12, 2015 and on the animals left behind by the evacuated residents.

DENVER -- Oh say, can you see across the Grand Canyon? Not as well as you used to on some days. The question of how clean the air is in the American West has never been an easy one to answer, strange to say. And now scientists say it is getting harder, with implications that ripple out in surprising ways, from the kitchen faucets of Los Angeles to public health clinics in canyon-land Utah to the economics of tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

LOS ANGELES -- While Occupy protesters in other cities have been rousted from their tents in early-morning police raids or doused with pepper spray, the tent encampment encircling City Hall in Los Angeles has so far been allowed to stay. This week, after a series of discussions with Occupy Los Angeles organizers, city leaders offered protesters a number of incentives to move their operations elsewhere, including downtown office space they could rent for $1 a year, some plots of land for community gardening and additional shelter for the homeless who make up a large portion of the encampment's residents. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

NEDERLAND, Colo. -- Millions of Americans expressed their feelings about marijuana last week. In Colorado, 24 communities voted to ban or restrict shops selling legal medical marijuana. In California, voters wrestled with the question of legalization for recreational use -- with issues of health, crime and taxes all coming into play -- then voted no. But here in Nederland, it was just another beautiful day high in the mountains. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Western states that were among the first to feel the pain of the housing bubble's collapse, especially Arizona, California and Nevada, continued to lead the nation's downward spiral, as measured by falling state tax collections in the last three months of 2008, according to an analysis of state budgets released Tuesday. The report, by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, did not conclude that the recession was vastly worse in the West: indeed, of the 10 states that out-performed the national economy from October through December, all were west of the Mississippi River, led by the energy-producing economies of Alaska and Wyoming. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Less than two weeks before Election Day, the chief strategist behind a ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California called an emergency meeting here. ''We're going to lose this campaign if we don't get more money,'' the strategist, Frank Schubert, recalled telling leaders of Protect Marriage, the main group behind the ban. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As fire season arrives in the West, there are growing doubts about the region's ability to attack the kind of sweeping blazes that devastated parts of California last year. The cost of fuel in fire trucks, a scramble to hire new firefighters and new budget constraints have sowed anxiety as a persistent drought worsens in California and elsewhere, even as heavy rains cause flooding in other parts of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Comments on environmentalism and the Arrow Reuse Center for Building Materials in Long Island City in the Queens borough of New York City. Discussion of the idea of urban ecology in recycling building materials; Background on Nicole Tai who founded the nonprofit company; Effort of Spencer Evans to introduce the reuse concept to the Broadway theater market; Views of Tai and Evans on conservation of resources; Description of building insulation made of blue denim which was made by Bonded Logic, a company in Arizona, and distributed by a Bronx company, ECO New York; Indication that Urban Ore in Berkeley, California is a profitable business.

The article reports that wildfires across large areas of southern California continued to expand, causing the forced evacuation of some 500,000 people from their homes. High temperatures and strong winds from the desert have helped fire consume some 400 square miles from north of Los Angeles to the Mexican border. Well over 1000 buildings have been destroyed, and at least two deaths were attributed to the fires.

The bureau chiefs and national correspondents of The New York Times work from offices in 14 cities across the country, and report from all 50 states. The work requires a great deal of driving. The reporters have bureau cars with extra rations packed into the trunks in case they have to stay where they are going for a while. They carry water bottles and spare batteries and extra notebooks and underwear, energy bars and a suit in case there's a chance to meet a governor. They drive and they observe and they eat and they buy and they report. Then they drive again. These are some of their favorite stretches of road. -- SAM SIFTON, National Editor California Route 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LOS ANGELES -- The deficit reduction deal reached in Washington produced some relief across the country on Monday, as the nation appeared to have avoided default. But it also produced a sharp wave of anxiety among governors and mayors worried about how the cuts might hurt already beleaguered states and cities, and it sowed anger and cynicism among many Americans about leaders in Washington. Few people -- from government officials struggling to figure out the details of a moving target to Americans appalled at the partisan drama -- seemed surprised that a deal had been reached at the last moment. But it came at what appears to be a high cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on death of people in the wind-driven wildfires that ravaged the Northern California area. It highlights the common elements to the tragedy and the various tales of survivors on the quickness of the incident. The confirmed death toll in Santa Rosa marked the deadliest wildfire outbreak in the state of California.