California Agency Took Nine Years to Create Fire Map

The California state agency charged with overseeing utility companies took nine years to develop a consistent statewide map designating areas at high risk for destructive power-line fires.

Seven of those years took place during outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown's time in office and six were during the tenure of a president of a key state agency who resigned after a series of leadership scandals.

Longtime critics of the utility companies and their role in sparking some of the state's worst wildfires are voicing new concerns after reports that PG&E's transmission line malfunctioned minutes before the start of the Camp Fire, the deadliest, most destructive fire in the state's history.

Others are calling for the creation of a new independent body to oversee the utilities, complaining that the companies and their legions of lobbyists have too much sway over the existing California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC.

"We were the only city in the state to participate in the fire-mapping process. It's a very slow-moving and bureaucratic and byzantine process dominated by the utility companies," Bob Whalen, a city council member from the fire-prone Southern California city of Laguna Beach, told the Washington Free Beacon.

The rule-making process was largely controlled by utility-related representatives, he said.

"Any suggestion we made was typically voted down 31 to 1," he said.

"To me, what would really take the fire mitigation analysis to a higher level is if you have an independent body of experts involved," he added. "The utilities are so familiar with the process and so involved in the day to day of it, they really dominate the proceedings."

The CPUC is the state government agency charged with protecting consumers safeguarding the environment and assuring "Californians' access to safe and reliable utility infrastructure and services," according to its website.

"What [the CPUC] hasn't done a good job at is requiring the utilities to follow good safety practices," said Chico attorney Ken Roye, a resident of fire-ravaged Butte County who has litigated eight fire-related cases. "They're all in bed together. The [CPUC] hasn't done anything to alleviate the problem, and it's been going on for over 30 years."

"All eight [cases] that I've litigated have all involved vegetation-management issues—every single one," he said.

https://freebeacon.com/issues/california-agency-took-nine-years-create-fire-map/

>>4005821

Camp Fire is deadliest U.S. wildfire in 100 years; eerily similar to 1918 inferno that killed 453

With the death toll at 83 and counting, the Camp Fire in Butte County ranks as the deadliest wildfire anywhere in the United States in 100 years.

But the last time a wildfire killed this many people in America, many of the circumstances were eerily similar: Parched forests. Strong winds. Terrified townspeople killed while fleeing in their cars. Towns wiped off the map. A nation stunned.

It happened in 1918 in northern Minnesota, near Duluth.

“Our photos are black and white,” said Rachel Martin, executive director of the Carlton County Historical Society in Cloquet, a town of 12,000 people. “The images from California’s fire are in color. But they look similar. When I heard Jerry Brown on TV, I thought he could be talking about this area. All the conditions were the same.”

Scores were killed as they tried to flee in Model T cars, which crashed and burned along the rural roadways as flames overtook them. When it was over, more than 4,000 houses and 41 schools were destroyed, 249,000 acres blackened and 453 people were dead. Many bodies were never found. It was the worst disaster in the United States since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

https://www.chicoer.com/2018/11/23/paradise-camp-fire-is-deadliest-u-s-wildfire-in-100-years-eerily-similar-to-1918-inferno-that-killed-453/

Prominent Scientologist buys up $16 million worth of downtown Clearwater property

CLEARWATER — A company run by Moises Agami, developer of the Skyview condo tower and part of a family that is one of the Church of Scientology's largest donors, recently purchased $16.4 million of property on and around Cleveland Street, putting him in control of a major swath of downtown.

Agami's company CBW Management bought nearly all the downtown holdings of longtime owners Terry and Anna Tsfatinos on Nov. 16, according to Pinellas County property records. Almost all of Agami's purchase borders the nine-story, all glass Atrium office tower at 601 Cleveland St., one of a half-dozen downtown properties Scientology leader David Miscavige bought last year for a retail project he later rescinded.

In early 2017 Miscavige bought six downtown properties and two vacant blocks on nearby Myrtle Avenue totaling $27 million through limited liability companies, transactions first made public by the Tampa Bay Times. The Times revealed Miscavige hired consultants to recruit high-end retail to empty storefronts and was working to either own all property in the downtown core or have the cooperation of private landlords to implement an outdoor mall type development. Miscavige later told the City Council he would pay to renovate the facades of Cleveland Street storefronts and was planning an entertainment complex on the Myrtle Avenue strip with actor and Scientologist Tom Cruise.

http://www.tampabay.com/clearwater/prominent-scientologist-buys-up-16-million-worth-of-downtown-clearwater-property-20181123/