The number of confirmed deaths from the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires jumped to 24 on Sunday evening.
Eight of the fire victims died in the Palisades fire and 16 in the Eaton fire in Altadena, according to The LA Times citing a news release from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
A day after making some progress containing the Eaton fires and protecting Brentwood and Encino from the Palisades fire, firefighters across Los Angeles County were bracing for another round of powerful winds that could threaten new communities and hamper efforts to contain the firestorms.
“There will be the potential — especially late Monday night through Wednesday — for explosive fire growth as those winds pick back up,” said Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Oxnard. “In the case of an evacuation order being issued, you have to follow that immediately. Seconds could save your life.”
Gusts of 50 to 65 mph are expected Monday, with the strongest winds arriving before dawn Tuesday and peaking through Wednesday. Areas north of the fire line from Point Dume to Glendale will be particularly at risk, Cohen said. The brewing wind conditions are generally expected to push existing fires at a south and westward angle.
Although these winds will not be as powerful as those that fueled last week’s fires, Cohen emphasized that they still presented “an extremely dangerous situation.”
The fires have claimed at least 24 lives and burned more than 12,000 structures, making them probably the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history. In the Eaton fire alone, more than 39,400 structures are still under threat.
More than 105,000 residents in the county remain under evacuation orders as of Sunday morning, and an additional 87,000 residents are under evacuation warnings.
Evacuation orders and warnings also remain in place for areas devastated by the Eaton and Palisades fires, frustrating many residents who have been anxious to get past police checkpoints so that they can grab medications and check on what personal items might be left.
When fire hydrants ran dry during the Pacific Palisades fire, it sparked a wave of anger and even misinformation.
Dry fire hydrants in LA aren't typically a concern, but last week's wildfires have highlighted issues with the city's water supply infrastructure. During the Pacific Palisades fires, multiple hydrants ran dry due to extremely high water demand and local infrastructure problems.
Normally, fire hydrants in LA are part of the municipal water system, which is designed to meet daily needs like showers and gardening. However, these systems aren't equipped to handle the massive water demand required to fight large-scale wildfires.
Here’s how L.A.’s water system works and what we know about why the hydrants ran out.
In areas where traditional hydrants aren't feasible, dry hydrants can be used as an alternative. Dry hydrants are non-pressurized pipes that draw water from nearby sources like lakes, ponds, or streams ⁴. However, it appears that dry hydrants aren't commonly used in LA, and the focus is on addressing the infrastructure issues that led to the recent hydrant failures.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom sparked fierce outrage for soliciting donations to victims of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires via his super PAC, which pushed users to add their personal information to a Democratic fundraising site.
The NY Post reports Newsom, 57, posted a link on X to californiafirefacts.com, a website set up by his campaign committee, in response to what he claimed was misinformation on the wildfires.
But the site urges users to give money to the California Fire Foundation and links them to a module from ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s fundraising platform. The ActBlue donation box says the money is being raised by Campaign for Democracy, Newsom’s super PAC.
“Your donation will go directly towards supporting firefighters and the communities they serve, including direct financial support to impacted residents,” the site says.
Gov Newsom
The California Fire Foundation, which helps firefighters, their families and victims, allows users to donate directly without relying on a service like ActBlue to make those transactions.
Users who donate via Newsom’s fundraising appeal are also automatically signing up for text messages from his super PAC, if they provide their phone numbers.
“Not a cent of these donations go to Gavin Newsom or his PAC. Gov. Newsom is proud to have raised $450,000 for the Fire Foundation in small-dollar contributions during these fires and is grateful for the people across the nation who have come together to help Californians in their time of need,” a spokesperson for Newsom told The Post.
Observers online also quickly pointed out that ActBlue takes a portion of all donations as a processing fee. ActBlue claims to “charge a flat rate of 3.95% on each donation” to “cover the processing cost.” The Post has contacted ActBlue for comment.
ActBlue is a controversial platform. Last year, congressional Republicans flagged that scores of transactions on ActBlue had been flagged as potentially suspicious or fraudulent.
Jacob Soboroff, a national correspondent for NBC News with deep roots in the community, showed viewers the remains of his family’s former home on Frontera Drive in Pacific Palisades.
Last week, Soboroff visited the site of a nearby playground where he romped as a child. His father, longtime civic leader Steve Soboroff, had led the effort to renovate the recreation facility after it fell into disrepair. It was gone. The home of his pregnant sister’s in-laws, where she was staying during her own home’s renovation, was also leveled.
Soboroff no longer lives in Pacific Palisades. But he knows its now-unrecognizable streets as well as if he had a Google map in his head, he told The LA Times.
Often the biggest challenge for the L.A.-based journalists, who worked around the clock since the blazes broke out, was coping with their own emotions, fears and feelings of loss as they reported on their home city’s transformation into scenes that resembled war zones.
Fox News Jonathan Hunt
Fox News correspondent Jonathan Hunt reported on the flames that encroached Palisades Charter High School, where his 17-year-old daughter is a student. While informing viewers about the threat, he privately worried she would be back to remote learning after losing a year in the classroom during the pandemic.
Hunt was relieved that the school “was largely OK,” but local landmarks where he spent time with his children were wiped out.
Longtime CNN correspondent Nick Watt told viewers on Wednesday how after he finished his reporting he was headed to his home in Santa Monica to hose it down, hoping it would deter embers from starting a blaze.
“It’s extraordinary to cover something like this in your own community,” he said. “I’ve been covering fires for a long time. You have sympathy for people. Now I have empathy.”
Correspondents said they were deluged by West Coast-based colleagues, friends and strangers asking them to check if their homes were still standing.
Audacy's has moved to dismiss challenges to its emergence from bankruptcy is based on its claim that its level of foreign ownership is now below the FCC’s threshold.
Initially, the FCC had temporarily waived its 25% cap on foreign ownership for broadcast companies to approve Audacy's bankruptcy plan1. However, after transfers of stock, foreign entities now control 20.2% of its equity and 24.5% of the voting interest, which is below the FCC’s threshold.
Critics have raised concerns about foreign influence and potential liberal bias in Audacy's content, accusing the commission of giving the plan a “Soros shortcut” for political reasons. Supporters argue that the FCC has granted foreign influence waivers in the past without issues and that the commission has no role in regulating the political leanings of a broadcast company1.
The FCC approved Audacy’s reorganization plan with a 3–2 party-line vote last fall.
Laurel Tree Opportunities Corp., an investment firm tied to George Soros and Soros Fund Management, has become the largest shareholder in Audacy, holding an estimated 40% stake. The company purchased up to $400 million of Audacy debt and was repaid with stock in the restructured media company1.
Critics, including the Media Research Center (MRC), argue that Soros and his affiliated businesses aim to control these radio stations to advance their activism. Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr voted against the plan, criticizing the commission for adopting a "special shortcut" to approve it1. Carr has indicated that the decision will receive fresh scrutiny
Before Megyn Kelly's faced a contentious exit from NBC News in 2018, Billy Bush was unceremoniously forced out at the network in 2016 after a 10-year-old tape of him and Donald Trump was leaked.
The so-called ‘Access Hollywood tape’ was from a 2005 interview Bush did with Trump on the set of Days of Our Lives in which The Apprentice host bragged about “grabbing women by the pussy” in a hot mic moment. The footage, in which Bush could be heard laughing, was leaked to The Washington Post just weeks before the 2016 election. And Bush lost his job at the Today show soon after.
In many ways, Megyn’s rocky tenure at NBC mirrored what Bush experienced. On last Tuesday’s show, the Hot Mics with Billy Bush host joined her to discuss parting ways with the network and who they have yet to make amends with.
Kelly's podcast blog provides behind-the-scene insights:
➤Bush’s Experience
While Bush admitted that he struggled in the aftermath of losing his job at a network he had worked at for so many years on both Access Hollywood and Today, he said he has come to forgive all but one person for what happened.
The lone holdout is Andy Lack, the former chairman of NBC News and MSNBC, who Bush called a “lethal little snake” for his behavior. “He never apologized to me. I called him once, and… [he] was so dismissive. He talked to me for like seven seconds on the phone and was like, ‘I can’t help you. I don’t care,'” Bush recalled. “We’re imperfect people. Good people are capable of doing bad things… But if you own up and you apologize, you’re good by me because I’m the most imperfect.”
➤Megyn’s Experience
Bush may have been willing to bury the hatchet, but Megyn said her experience with certain talent at the Peacock network has made it hard to do so. “I can definitely get past negative encounters with somebody and get past adversarial experiences with somebody,” she explained. “But I just felt like what they did at NBC was so disgusting and so ruthless that I don’t forgive them.”
Longtime Today host Al Roker and soon-to-be co-anchor Craig Melvin are among those Megyn does not forgive. “Eff Craig Melvin and eff Al Roker,” she said. “Craig Melvin is not a good guy. Screw him. I can’t stand that guy.”
Megyn referred to Roker as a “slithering snake of a man” and said, generally speaking, the sunny disposition of morning show hosts that the public sees rarely matches what goes on when the cameras turn off. “[They] are out there so cheery and so sweet to start your day with,” she said. “Behind the scenes, what they care about is their money and their fame.”
Mark Lazarus, the prospective Chief Executive Officer of “SpinCo,” Comcast’s planned spin-off of select cable television networks, has announced additional appointments to the future senior leadership team of SpinCo. SpinCo will be a leading independent publicly traded media company comprised of USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel along with complementary digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine.
The team, which will be led by Mr. Lazarus and Anand Kini, prospective Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, is focused on developing SpinCo’s independent strategy as a modern multimedia company.
Appointments to the SpinCo leadership team include:
Val Boreland as President of Entertainment
Keith Cocozza as Chief Communications Officer
Brian Dorfler as Chief Human Resources Officer
Jeff Mayzurk as President, Operations & Technology
Kristin Newkirk as Chief Financial Officer, TV Nets
David Pietrycha as Chief Revenue and Business Officer
Greg Wright as Chief Accounting Officer and Controller.
There will be additional executive announcements in the coming weeks as the company continues to build out the management team.
“As we embark on this journey to build a one-of-a-kind company, I am thrilled to be joined by such a talented group of leaders with the experience and expertise needed to make SpinCo a leading multimedia company from day one,” said Mark Lazarus. “Together, we will capitalize upon our iconic media assets, chart a course for growth and continue to attract additional talent as we build momentum toward the completion of the spin-off.”
Upon completion of the spin-off from Comcast Corporation, SpinCo will be an industry-leading news, sports and entertainment business with a defined strategic growth strategy, dedicated management team and stable of marquee brands that will reach approximately 70 million U.S. households.
A photo shared by Vice President Kamala Harris from Jimmy Carter's funeral is gaining attention for the exclusion of a certain former and incoming president.
While President-elect Donald Trump attended the Washington, D.C. funeral Thursday alongside the other four living presidents, he was not present in Harris' post. The image shows Harris, President Joe Biden and former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama placing their hands over their hearts at the ceremony.
Trump and incoming first lady Melania Trump, who were seated next to Obama, were both left out of the photo posted Saturday.
"President Jimmy Carter loved our country. He lived his faith, served the people, and left the world better than he found it," the social media caption on the VP's official accounts reads. "President Carter’s many contributions will echo for generations to come."
While it was not clear if Trump's exclusion was intentional, Instagram followers were quick to notice his absence after the two went head-to-head in the 2024 presidential election."Best photo crop of the decade," reads one comment.
"I immediately laughed when I saw this image. I love a good cropped photo," another user wrote.
The Carter Center, founded in 1982 by the former president and first lady Rosalynn Carter, also excluded the Trumps in a series of photos from the funeral shared on X Thursday.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Harris, Trump and the Carter Center for comment.
➦In 1905..."Scientific America" published an advertisement for the "Telimco", a device guaranteed to received signals for as far as one mile. It cost $7.50.
The Telimco system included a battery-operated spark transmitter, shown on the left, plus a tapping-coherer receiver, also battery operated, shown on the right. (The use of a spark transmitter and tapping-coherer receiver meant it could only be used to send and receive telegraphic dots-and-dashes, and not full audio.) This small ad--which measured just 2-1/4 inches wide by 1-1/8 inches high (60 by 28 millimeters)--appeared on the back pages of the magazine, mixed in with the advertisements for sundry offering by numerous other small firms. It is generally believed that this was the first-ever advertisement run by a company selling complete radio systems to the general public.
The Telimco brand name was a contraction of The Electro Importing Co. In addition to Telimco Wireless Telegraph Outfits, you could also buy Telimco Experimental X-Ray Outfits, Telimco-meters, Telimphones, etc.
➦In 1910...Opera was first aired during an experimental broadcast, courtesy of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
The first public radio broadcast consisted of performances of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Riccardo Martin performed as Turridu, Emmy Destinn as Santuzza, and Enrico Caruso as Canio. The conductor was Egisto Tango. This wireless radio transmission event of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso of a concert from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City is regarded as the birth of public radio broadcasting.
The New York Times reported on January 14, 1910,
"Opera broadcast in part from the stage of the New York City Metropolitan Opera Company was heard on January 13, 1910, when Enrico Caruso and Emmy Destinn sang arias from Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliacci, which were "trapped and magnified by the dictograph directly from the stage and borne by wireless Hertzian waves over the turbulent waters of the sea to transcontinental and coastwise ships and over the mountainous peaks and undulating valleys of the country." The microphone was connected by telephone wire to the laboratory of Dr. Lee De Forest. ”
The few radio receivers able to pick up this first-ever "outside broadcast" were those at the De Forest Radio Laboratory, on board ships in New York Harbor, in large hotels on Times Square and at New York city locations where members of the press were stationed at receiving sets. Public receivers with earphones had been set up in several well-advertised locations throughout New York City. There were members of the press stationed at various receiving sets throughout the city and the general public was invited to listen to the broadcast.
The experiment was considered mostly unsuccessful. The microphones of the day were of poor quality and couldn't pick up most of the singing done on stage. Only off-stage singers singing directly into a microphone could be heard clearly. The New York Times reported the next day that static and interference kept the homeless song waves from finding themselves.
➦In 1913...producer/host Ralph Edwards was born near Merino Colorado. Best known as producer/host of TV’s This is Your Life, he came to prominence as the host of radio’s zany Truth or Consequences, a game show which ran for 38 years on radio & TV. As producer he brought to the airwaves TV’s The People’s Court, still on the air 25 years later. He died of congestive heart failure Nov. 25 1997 at age 84.
➦In 1918...actor Steve Dunne was born in Northampton Mass. He succeeded Howard Duff on radio as the star of The Adventures of Sam Spade. On TV he starred in the series Professional Father & The Brothers Brannigan, and appeared repeatedly on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Brady Bunch, The Millionaire & Lux Video Theatre. He died Sept. 2 1977 at age 59.
➦In 1922...WHA 970 AM in Madison, Wisconsin began broadcasting.
WHA's history dates back to 1914 when Professor Edward Bennett started using the call sign 9XM. A year later, the call sign was transferred to the University of Wisconsin and used for many experiments in the physics department. Professor Earle M. Terry managed many of these tests, and he eventually decided that the station should start making regular weather broadcasts. From December 4, 1916 onward, the station transmitted regular reports in Morse code.
While most early radio stations in the United States were shut down when the country entered World War I, 9XM's early transmissions were considered important enough to continue, spending much of the war broadcasting weather information to ships sailing on the Great Lakes.
Regularly scheduled audio broadcasts began in February 1920. A six-day-per-week schedule began on January 3, 1921, notable for the introduction of the first radio broadcast of a weather forecast. The station received its WHA call sign on January 13, 1922.
➦In 1928… Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television at Schenectady NY, using a perforated scanning disk and high-frequency neon lamps.The first public demonstration of television was given by Ernst F. W. Alexanderson.
➦In 1934...a comedy-variety hit of early radio The Al Pearce Show debuted on NBC Blue, after 5 successful years on KFRC San Francisco.
➦In 1958...St. Louis radio station KWK (now KXFN 1380 AM) declared Rock n’ Roll dead. After giving their rock records a final play, the station staff broke them.
