Firefighters continue to battle 13 large wind-driven fires in southern California. More than 40,000 residents near San Bernardino have been evacuated from their homes as firefighters try to get the upper hand on this critical situation. To date, more than 1,100 structures have been destroyed by these fires.
Four new large fires were reported yesterday, one in New Mexico and three in California. Firefighter were able to contain one fire in northern California and one in Utah.
A red flag warning was posted for most of northern California, west of the Sierra/Cascade crest, for low relative humidity and moderate easterly winds. The Santa Ana winds should diminish today as high pressure moves away from the west coast. A strong cold front will drop into the Pacific Northwest and northern Great Basin today. Winds ahead of the system will switch to the west and increase, especially across northern California and northern Great Basin. The onshore winds will push into southern California on Wednesday and Thursday.
U.S. National Fire News:
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
LAWMAKERS PLAY POLITICS WITH FIRE BILL; THREATEN INDIAN RIGHTS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -- Native American leaders today denounced language that has been inserted in a House-Senate conference committee on funding wildfire fighting programs as a blatant attempt to deny them their hard-fought court victories and delay further the long-awaited accounting of their trust fund monies.
"This is a cynical and shocking development to Native people," said Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a seven-year-old lawsuit that has forced the Interior Department to give a full accounting of funds it holds for them in trust accounts. The accounts date from 1887 and their mismanagement by government officials has been well documented and acknowledged by Interior officials.
"For seven years we have played by the rules of the court and have won for thousands of Native people, a full and complete accounting of their funds," said Mrs. Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe. "Now that we've secured that fundamental right, some members of Congress are seeking to delay the accounting so the Interior Department can once again appeal the district court's clarification of a judgment that had been unanimously upheld by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia more than 2 1/2 years ago."
Mrs. Cobell said she was encouraged to learn that the move by the conference committee was strongly opposed by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif. In a letter to Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Pombo warned that the proposed language was inserted in the so-called "fire fighters bill" funding the federal government's forest fire fighting programs and Interior Department projects without his committee's knowledge.
If approved it will "delay the resolution of the Indian trust fund accounting problem and the court case for years," Pombo said. "It removes any incentive for the Department of Interior to go forward with an accounting or settlement while Native Americans will wait years more for their monies."
Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund, also warned that the bill could place urgently needed fire-fighting funds in jeopardy "because they have added a controversial provision that is not even within their jurisdiction."
"It is a poison pill," added Dennis M. Gingold, the lead attorney for the Indians in the Cobell lawsuit. "They should remove it now. Taking advantage of the catastrophic fires in California and Arizona to sneak in this provision is disgraceful and unconscionable."
"Congress doesn't have to 'burn' Native American trust beneficiaries in order to fight fires," he said.
To view the latest information concerning this case, please go to: http://www.indiantrust.com
Please also see:
Native American Leader Cited by Women's Leadership Group while Unconstitutional Move Threatens Resolution of Indian Trust Case: http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1137&blz=1
Four new large fires were reported yesterday, one in New Mexico and three in California. Firefighter were able to contain one fire in northern California and one in Utah.
A red flag warning was posted for most of northern California, west of the Sierra/Cascade crest, for low relative humidity and moderate easterly winds. The Santa Ana winds should diminish today as high pressure moves away from the west coast. A strong cold front will drop into the Pacific Northwest and northern Great Basin today. Winds ahead of the system will switch to the west and increase, especially across northern California and northern Great Basin. The onshore winds will push into southern California on Wednesday and Thursday.
U.S. National Fire News:
http://www.nifc.gov/fireinfo/nfn.html
LAWMAKERS PLAY POLITICS WITH FIRE BILL; THREATEN INDIAN RIGHTS
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -- Native American leaders today denounced language that has been inserted in a House-Senate conference committee on funding wildfire fighting programs as a blatant attempt to deny them their hard-fought court victories and delay further the long-awaited accounting of their trust fund monies.
"This is a cynical and shocking development to Native people," said Elouise Cobell, lead plaintiff in a seven-year-old lawsuit that has forced the Interior Department to give a full accounting of funds it holds for them in trust accounts. The accounts date from 1887 and their mismanagement by government officials has been well documented and acknowledged by Interior officials.
"For seven years we have played by the rules of the court and have won for thousands of Native people, a full and complete accounting of their funds," said Mrs. Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe. "Now that we've secured that fundamental right, some members of Congress are seeking to delay the accounting so the Interior Department can once again appeal the district court's clarification of a judgment that had been unanimously upheld by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia more than 2 1/2 years ago."
Mrs. Cobell said she was encouraged to learn that the move by the conference committee was strongly opposed by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-Calif. In a letter to Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Pombo warned that the proposed language was inserted in the so-called "fire fighters bill" funding the federal government's forest fire fighting programs and Interior Department projects without his committee's knowledge.
If approved it will "delay the resolution of the Indian trust fund accounting problem and the court case for years," Pombo said. "It removes any incentive for the Department of Interior to go forward with an accounting or settlement while Native Americans will wait years more for their monies."
Keith Harper, a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund, also warned that the bill could place urgently needed fire-fighting funds in jeopardy "because they have added a controversial provision that is not even within their jurisdiction."
"It is a poison pill," added Dennis M. Gingold, the lead attorney for the Indians in the Cobell lawsuit. "They should remove it now. Taking advantage of the catastrophic fires in California and Arizona to sneak in this provision is disgraceful and unconscionable."
"Congress doesn't have to 'burn' Native American trust beneficiaries in order to fight fires," he said.
To view the latest information concerning this case, please go to: http://www.indiantrust.com
Please also see:
Native American Leader Cited by Women's Leadership Group while Unconstitutional Move Threatens Resolution of Indian Trust Case: http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1137&blz=1