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As Texas Panhandle wildfires rage, what we know so far

As Texas Panhandle wildfires rage, what we know so far

The Texas Panhandle region of the state’s 26 northernmost counties is being ravaged by a series of what may soon become the state’s worst wildfires in recorded history. Here’s what we know so far about the wildfires, which have also spread to parts of Oklahoma, and are destroying homes and forcing residents to evacuate. When did the fires start and how have they spread? Multiple wildfires started on Monday afternoon and spread on Tuesday, raging through the Texas Panhandle region amid unusually warm, dry and windy weather. Despite the efforts of firefighters to contain them, the wildfires persisted and expanded on Wednesday. The worst among them is the Smokehouse Creek fire, which started on Monday at 20:20 GMT. Within 28 hours it had spread across 250,000 acres (101,171 hectares). So far, it has consumed more than 850,000 acres (344,000 hectares) of land. Observers noted that this is more than twice the size of London which is 159,000 hectares. This is more land than all of the state’s 2023 fires combined, and it is closing in on the largest fire on record in Texas: the East Amarillo Complex fire, which burned 907,245 acres (367,149 hectares) in 2006. According to local media reports, homes on the outskirts of Canadian, Texas, were also burned by the Smokehouse Creek fire. On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties. He directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to dispatch more than 95 firefighters and deployed personnel to close roads, control traffic, offer medical aid and provide livestock support. Where are the wildfires? The Smokehouse Creek fire started on Monday in Hutchinson County in the Texas Panhandle region. On Tuesday, the fire crossed into Oklahoma and on Wednesday, Amarillo, Texas. Texas and Oklahoma were at the epicentre of some of the most dangerous conditions. The Texas A&M Forest Service said only about three percent of the flames had been contained. The next largest was the Windy Deuce fire, which, as of Wednesday night, had raged across 142,000 acres (57,465 hectares) and was 30 percent contained. Windy Deuce crept to within a few miles of the US Energy Department’s Pantex Plant, the nation’s primary nuclear weapons assembly facility, located near Amarillo, prompting officials to evacuate non-essential personnel and suspend operations. The Grape Vine Creek fire spread across 30,000 acres (12,140 hectares) southeast of Pampa and was 60 percent contained. The Magenta fire was burning in Oldham County, and it is estimated to have burned 2,500 acres (1,011 hectares), while 65 percent was contained. The 687 Reamer fire burned in Hutchinson County, affecting 2,000 acres (809 hectares) and 10 percent of it has been contained. What happened at the nuclear weapon facility near Amarillo? The Pantex Plant, northeast of Amarillo, evacuated non-essential staff and said operations had “paused until further notice” on Tuesday night when the fire came within a few miles. Pantex added that “all weapons and special materials are safe and unaffected”. By Wednesday the plant had returned to normal operations. “There is no imminent wildfire threat to the plant at this time,” Pantex officials said. Pantex is one of six production facilities in the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Security Enterprise. The plant has been the main US site for assembling and disassembling atomic bombs since 1975. It produced its last new bomb in 1991 and has dismantled thousands of weapons retired from military stockpiles. Have there been any casualties? At least one person, an 83-year-old woman in Hutchinson County, was reported by local media to have died as a consequence of the Smokehouse Creek fire. She was identified by family members as Joyce Blankenship, a former substitute teacher. Her grandson, Lee Quesada, said he had posted in a community forum asking if anyone could try and locate her. Quesada said deputies told his uncle on Wednesday that they had found Blankenship’s remains in her burned home. Quesada said she had surprise him at times with funny little stories “about her more ornery days”. “Just talking to her was a joy,” he said, adding that “Joy” was a nickname of hers. Hemphill County Emergency Management Coordinator Bill Kendall described the charred terrain as being “like a moonscape. … It’s just all gone.” An 83-year-old grandmother has died in the massive Smokehouse Creek fire. Joyce Blankenship’s body was found in #Stinnett. She had lived in the Scotts Acres neighborhood & is the first confirmed fatality. 📸 by Nathan Blankenship [grandson]#Panhandle #SmokehouseCreekFire pic.twitter.com/y7jVT8SRSi — Tay Austin (@Jasamsdestiny) February 29, 2024 What has caused these wildfires? On Monday, unusually high temperatures were recorded reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) in Killeen, 93F (33C) in Dallas, and 82F in Amarillo (27C) – more than 20F higher than usual for February. This unprecedented heat is believed to have caused moisture to evaporate, depleting vegetation of humidity and making fuels susceptible to burn, according to local experts. As hot and dry winds swept in from the west, and Amarillo experienced gusts as strong as 62mph (100km/h) during the fires, the relative humidity plummeted to as low as 15 to 20 percent. Lower temperatures and a dip in wind speeds on Wednesday helped to slow the spread of the fires. Rain showers were forecast for Thursday which could help curb the fires further. However, higher temperatures and strong winds are expected to return at the weekend. The fact that we have had 132 February ALL-TIME RECORD HIGHS is just insane. pic.twitter.com/r6rj38FbhR — Jim Cantore (@JimCantore) February 28, 2024 What damage have the fires caused? More than 13,000 Texas homes and businesses were without power as of Wednesday morning, including more than 4,000 of those in the Panhandle region alone, according to data from PowerOutage. Hemphill County Judge Lisa Johnson said: “Homes have burned in almost every direction.” Meanwhile, farmland has been severely affected, with hundreds of dead cattle, a county official told the agricultural news publication, Farm Progress. “We’ve lost a lot of acres, a lot of cattle, and a lot of homes. So far, we

Nevada’s secretary of state says lawyers who fill poll worker gap should earn continuing education credits

Nevada’s secretary of state says lawyers who fill poll worker gap should earn continuing education credits

With Nevada counties struggling to find poll workers in a pivotal election year, the top election official in the Western swing state is taking a page from his counterparts elsewhere and is asking the legal community to help fill the gap. Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar wants lawyers who volunteer at the polls to be able to earn continuing education credits to fulfill annual requirements set by the State Bar of Nevada. It’s a signal of how lawyers are increasingly seen as ideal candidates for stepping in as poll workers, as the positions have grown harder to fill as once-obscure county election departments have been thrust into the spotlight. DUELING REPUBLICAN CONTESTS: TRUMP TO ROMP IN NEVADA GOP CAUCUS AFTER HALEY LOSES PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Aguilar likens it to how doctors and nurses stepped up during the pandemic. “Everybody needed medical care during the time of COVID. … And this is a time when we need poll workers,” Aguilar told The Associated Press. “That legal community can stand up and protect the Constitution.” From swing states like Michigan to conservative strongholds like Tennessee and Iowa, election officials have been tapping lawyers and law students as they struggle to fill poll worker spots — a challenge that has become more difficult amid changing procedures and hostility stemming from former President Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020. AFTER TRUMP ROMPS IN NEVADA, GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE MOVES TO HALEY’S HOME STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA Other recruiting campaigns have focused on veterans and librarians. In 2020, LeBron James helped spearhead an initiative to help turnout in critical swing states and combat Black voter suppression, in no small part by recruiting poll workers. Poll workers are on the front lines of increasingly contentious environments — ushering people in, answering technical questions and using a handful of training hours to essentially act as guides for a process where disagreements and misinformation can stir up strong emotions. Since 2020, eight states have adopted policies to allow poll working duties to count toward credits needed to maintain a law license, and national advocates hope more are on the way. After pitching the idea at a conference earlier this month, a group of bar association presidents now is tailoring the initiative to individual county election offices, rather than blanket approval from the bar associations for entire states. “Lawyers are careful, and I respect that. I’m one of them, and it takes a while to process,” said Jason Kaune, chair of the American Bar Association’s standing committee on election law, of getting the initiative approved by state bar associations. “This is just a quicker way to get some real results on the ground.” For Aguilar, his proposal in Nevada — where turnover has ravaged local election departments since 2020 — is part of a wider plan to protect election workers, whom he refers to as “heroes of democracy.” Since defeating a Republican election denier in the 2022 midterms, Aguilar has sought to create a better environment for election employees. Last year, he pushed a bill signed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo that made it a felony to harass, intimidate or use force on election workers performing their duties in Nevada. Aguilar also hopes that this latest initiative will strengthen the pipeline of full-time election workers with those already well-versed in the law. Aguilar had hoped the State Bar of Nevada would have implemented his proposal before Nevada’s Feb. 6 presidential preference primary, but the secretary of state’s office has yet to make a formal request for the association to consider, per the State Bar. During Nevada’s first-in-the-West presidential preference primaries, many election departments scrambled to find poll workers up until the last minute — particularly in rural areas. In the state’s two most populous counties — Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, and Washoe County, which includes Reno — all poll worker slots were fully staffed by the start of early voting, according to county and state election offices. But they’ll need more before the June primary and November general elections. In rural Douglas County, officials recruited 46 poll workers — far short of the 120 needed, clerk-treasurer Amy Burgans said. Lyon County also came up short with 32 of 45 poll workers needed, clerk-treasurer Staci Lindberg said. Nevada’s concentrated educational landscape could make it difficult for lawyers and law students to spread across many of the state’s far-flung counties, which are some of the largest yet least populated in the country. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas is home to the state’s only law school. And of the 12,000 attorneys licensed to practice law in Nevada, half are in Clark County, about 14% are in Washoe County and just under 3% are located in the state’s rural counties outside the state capital, according to data from the State Bar of Nevada. Burgans said she doesn’t know if any lawyers in Douglas County — which borders a large chunk of Lake Tahoe — would take up the offer to earn credit by working at the polls. “But I will tell you that anything that Secretary Aguilar can do to assist us is appreciated by me and the clerks across the state,” she said. Poll workers have been particularly difficult to find in Douglas County, partly because it has an abundance of part-time residents and there was widespread confusion recently over a state-run primary happening two days before a Nevada GOP-run caucus. Burgans also noted there’s some fear around becoming an election worker. For the first time, she had to set up training after letters containing fentanyl were mailed to election officials in several states including Nevada. With a background in law enforcement, Burgans also set up active shooter training. Like election officials across the state, she received emails and calls from voters frustrated about dueling Republican nominating processes earlier this month but said there had been no direct threats. WHY NEVADA’S HOLDING DUELING GOP PRIMARY AND CAUCUS WITH TRUMP AND HALEY ON SEPARATE BALLOTS Humboldt County Clerk

Lloyd Austin to face grilling from lawmakers over secret hospital visits

Lloyd Austin to face grilling from lawmakers over secret hospital visits

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will face a grilling from lawmakers in his first appearance before Congress since his secretive hospital visits in January. Austin will appear before the GOP-controlled House Armed Services Committee. Several lawmakers on the committee have blasted the secretary both for not informing Congress of his days-long hospital visit, but also for keeping President Biden in the dark. Lawmakers are concerned the secretive move could have caused a breakdown in the chain of command stretching from the White House to the Pentagon. While Austin insists he transferred authority to a secretary during his hospital visit, concerns remain given he informed none of his superiors of the move. Austin’s frequent hospital visits come thanks to a prostate cancer diagnosis, which he received in December. The offending hospital visit came on January 1, when he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center via ambulance. He was soon transferred to intensive care. FATHERS, UNCLE OF MARINES KILLED IN CALIFORNIA HELICOPTER CRASH SPEAK OUT: ‘SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED’ MARINE KILLED IN CAMP PENDLETON TRAINING EXERCISE IDENTIFIED The Pentagon came under a barrage of criticism Monday following the release of an internal review of its handling of Austin’s hospitalization. The review, carried out by Austin’s subordinates, largely absolves anyone of wrongdoing for the secrecy surrounding the incident. The review states flatly that there was “no indication of ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate.” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that Secretary Austin’s staff decided to transfer authority to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on January 2 as he was in the ICU. He said the secretary was never unconscious, though it remained unclear why his staff made that call.  DOJ SAYS MERRICK GARLAND TO TRANSFER POWER DURING UPCOMING BACK SURGERY AFTER BIDEN DEFENSE DEPT CONTROVERSY Hicks, meanwhile, was on vacation in Puerto Rico and did not learn of Austin’s hospitalization until three days later, after he was transported to the ICU. Austin’s remarks before the House Committee are likely to mirror the public apology he gave over the incident in early February. He said he personally apologized to Biden as well. “I want to be crystal clear. We did not handle this right and I did not handle this right,” Austin said at the time. “I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility. I apologize to my teammates and to the American people.”

Will President Biden take executive action at the border? Dem lawmaker says it ‘may be the only option’

Will President Biden take executive action at the border? Dem lawmaker says it ‘may be the only option’

Senators weighed in on whether President Biden should take executive action at the southern border to address the ongoing migrant surge, with some lawmakers saying it’s Congress’ responsibility to pass legislation.  “The president needs to address the most pressing national security issue we have in the country today, which is the southern border,” Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican, told Fox News. “I would hope he would change his current policies, which have created this catastrophe at our southern border, and do something. He’s got the powers at his disposable to do it.” WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE  But Sen. Ben Cardin said Congress, not the president, must solve the border crisis. “We need to pass the legislation that was worked out between Sen. [James] Lankford and Sen. [Chris] Murphy,” the Maryland Democrat said. “Congress needs to act. It’s our responsibility. I want to see that bill passed.” Republicans aggressively criticized a border security deal when it was released earlier this month, leading it to die in the Senate. The long-awaited bill would have allotted $20 billion to immigration enforcement to hire asylum claim officers and Border Patrol agents, provided millions toward border wall reinforcement and given more authority to the president and the administration to close the border. The failure to pass the deal led Biden to consider executive action to tackle the ongoing border crisis. ‘HE’S DELUSIONAL’: BIDEN’S BORDER COMMENTS SPARK STIFF REBUKE ON CAPITOL HILL FROM SOME LAWMAKERS “The Republicans are being obstinate, obdurate, in their opposition to legislation passing,” Sen. Ed Markey told Fox News. “That’s sad.” “To the extent to which now the president has to contemplate actions that he can take using his inherent authority, then I await what proposal that he has, but it’s only reluctantly, in the absence of a bipartisan approach that the president wanted to see put in place in the first place,” the Massachusetts Democrat said.  MIGRANTS EXPLOITING BORDER WALL GAPS CONTAMINATE CROPS, THREATEN NATION’S FOOD SECURITY, ARIZONA FARMERS SAY But Sen. Roger Wicker said Biden should have taken action to solve the border crisis long ago.  “I think the president should enforce the law, and he has not been doing that,” the Mississippi Republican said. “He’s been allowing people in by the millions.” The southern border has faced record numbers of migrant encounters under the Biden administration, including over 2.4 million encounters during fiscal 2023, a sharp uptick from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to Customs and Border Protection data. In December, encounters skyrocketed to a record 302,000. “President Biden’s committed to doing what we have to do to both protect national security and reform our broken immigration system,” Sen. Chris Coons told Fox News. The Delaware Democrat added that he was disappointed the bipartisan border security deal failed, but said Biden should step in.  HOUSE MEMBER SAYS ‘EULOGY HAS ALREADY BEEN READ’ ON BORDER BILL AS BIDEN BLAMES TRUMP FOR STALEMATE Executive action “may be the only option that President Biden has,” he said. “It will not have a strong legal standing. It may be immediately suspended in the courts, but we have to do something to make sure we do not have a national security threat at our southern border.” On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden had no plans to issue executive action during his Thursday visit to Brownsville, Texas. She said the best solution to fix the “broken immigration system” would have been if Republicans had “moved forward with the bipartisan deal that came out of the Senate.” ARIZONA BORDER RANCHER FEARS CARTELS INTENTIONALLY OVERWHELM BORDER PATROL AS ‘DIVERSIONARY TACTIC’  Sen. John Fetterman similarly criticized Republicans. “Our party showed up to support [the deal] and address the border and one party walked away from it,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said. “I do believe we have a crisis at the border.” He said he didn’t know whether Biden should take executive action. “We need a deal, and I know the president believes as I do that we need to address the border,” Fetterman said. “We are going to address it.”

Maine Democrats seek comprehensive gun control measures following state’s deadliest shooting

Maine Democrats seek comprehensive gun control measures following state’s deadliest shooting

Democrats in the Maine Legislature unveiled sweeping gun violence measures on Wednesday including a 72-hour waiting period for most gun purchases, adding to firearm bills and mental health spending already proposed by the governor after the deadliest shooting in the state history. Senate President Troy Jackson said lawmakers are not interested in taking away guns but they do want to seek consensus on ways to prevent gun violence following the shooting that claimed 18 lives. “There has to be a way for level-headed people to come together and figure out a way that could possibly stop, or make it harder, for anything like this to happen again,” he said. MAINE’S DEMOCRAT GOVERNOR WANTS TO TACKLE GUN CONTROL AND MENTAL HEALTH IN WAKE OF MASS SHOOTING The suite of bills would expand spending on mental health, create mobile crisis centers and give 911 callers the option of connecting with mental health crisis workers as well as law enforcement. They would also ban bump stocks or other physical modifications that can transform a semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun. Some of the proposals received a frosty reception from Republicans — especially the mandatory waiting period for gun purchases. Republicans tried unsuccessfully Wednesday to block it, noting that a similar bill was rejected last year. Sen. Matt Harrington, R-York, accused Democrats of trying to ram through proposals that previously failed. “These bills are here year after year after year. They get defeated. Now here we are dealing with them again because they don’t want to let the crisis in Lewiston go to waste,” he said. Gun control has proven tricky in the past in a state that has a strong hunting tradition. But there seemed to be broad support for expanding mental health treatment with a goal of preventing gun violence and suicides. That’s something Harrington and many other Republicans agree with. A bill sponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross would spend $17.5 million to create six crisis receiving centers, form an office of violence prevention in the Department of Health and Human Services, expand mobile crisis response teams and provide suicide prevention materials to be distributed by gun dealers. Her bill would also create a statewide notification procedure for mass shootings, addressing concerns from the deaf community that some people had trouble getting information as the tragedy unfolded in Lewiston. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills already proposed background checks for advertised private sales, construction of a network of mental health crisis centers and bigger penalties for reckless private sales to prohibited people. She also wants to allow police officers to go directly to a judge to start the process of removing guns from someone in a psychiatric crisis. MAINE LAWMAKERS CONVENE TO HONOR LEWISTON SHOOTING VICTIMS, ADDRESS GUN SAFETY REFORMS The proposals follow the tragedy that unfolded when an Army reservist opened fire in October at a bowling alley and at bar in Lewiston. Thirteen people were injured, in addition to the 18 deaths. The gunman, 40-year-old Robert Card, died by suicide. Addressing lawmakers last month, Mills urged lawmakers not to give in to the cynical view that it’s pointless to try to change gun laws because the laws will simply be broken. “For the sake of the communities, individuals and families now suffering immeasurable pain, for the sake of our state, doing nothing is not an option,” the governor said, bringing lawmakers to their feet. An independent investigative commission appointed by the governor and attorney general may release preliminary findings as early as next month to help inform lawmakers’ decisions. The Legislature is due to wrap up its work in April.