Month: July 2021

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is asked residents to voluntarily cut water usage by 15% amid record temperatures and a drought in the state.  On Thursday, Newsom added nine more counties to the state’s drought emergency declaration, which now covers 50 of California’s 58 counties, adding that the water conservation request was not mandatory.

The governor suggested Californians cut water usage by taking shorter showers, only running appliances such as the dishwasher and washing machine when they are full, limiting outdoor water use and using recycled water for outdoor projects. He added that reducing water usage by 15% would save 850,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply over 1.7 million households for one year. Newsom’s office said: “The hots are getting hotter and the dries are getting drier — that is the reality of climate change. During the last drought, we made water conservation a way of life and we can do it again.”

President Biden promised on Thursday that he won’t “send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan,” saying the United States’ military mission will end by Aug. 31. The update comes just a couple days after the Pentagon said the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is about 90% complete.

Biden spoke in the East Room of the White House, taking questions from reporters and defending his administration’s decision to fully withdraw.  Said Biden: “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. How many more, how many more thousands of America’s daughters and sons are you willing to risk? How long would you have them stay? It’s up to the Afghans to make decisions about the future of their country.”

Biden’s remarks come amid renewed peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Iran. The Taliban have taken control of more territory in Afghanistan recently and stepped up attacks against government forces. Some fear that the Taliban could again seize control of the country from the current government in as little as six months, a situation that existed before U.S. forces arrived in 2001. However, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that while the United States aims for a “negotiated peaceful, political settlement,” it has the ability to support the Afghan military without a formal presence there.

Emergency workers shifted efforts at the site of the Surfside condominium tower collapse in Florida from rescue to recovery, following an increase in the death toll on Wednesday with 18 more victims discovered. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a news conference Wednesday evening that it was an “extremely difficult decision” to halt the rescue efforts after two weeks of searching as the death toll rose to 54, adding, “at this point, we have truly exhausted every option available to us in the search and rescue mission.”

Officials announced Wednesday morning that 10 additional bodies had been discovered with eight more found by the evening and as many as 94 people unaccounted for and believed to be lost in the debris of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla. Miami-Dade Assistant Fire Chief Ray Jadallah held a private briefing with families Wednesday afternoon where he informed them rescue dogs and sound devices would be removed but emergency crews would continue to search the rubble for the remains of their relatives. A group of more than 200 rescuers has been working almost continuously to find victims and survivors since the building partially collapsed on June 24, but crews said they were seeing no signs of survivors.

Three undercover law enforcement officers were shot and wounded Wednesday morning while driving onto an expressway on Chicago’s South Side.  Police said the shooting occurred at 5:50 a.m. near the 22nd District police station in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood. The three were in an unmarked undercover vehicle on their way to an assignment when they were shot.

Chicago police Superintendent David Brown told reporters two of the officers are agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and one is a Chicago officer. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening. No arrests have been reported. Including Wednesday’s shooting, 36 Chicago officers have been shot or shot at this year, Brown said.

The shooting comes the same day as a scheduled visit to suburban Crystal Lake, Illinois, by President Joe Biden, and a day after police reported that 100 people were shot in Chicago — including two police officers who were wounded while trying to break up a crowd — over the long Fourth of July weekend. The holiday weekend shootings included 18 homicides.

Editorial credit: Roberto Galan / Shutterstock.com

The Biden administration extended eligibility deportation relief for Yemeni nationals on Tuesday. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended and re-designated Yemen for 18 months of Temporary Protected Status from Sept. 4 through March 3, 2023.  The extension allows approximately 1,700 Yemenis currently benefiting from TPS to retain their protection through March 2023 and allows an additional 480 Yemini nationals, or people who have no nationality but last resided in Yemen, to apply for protection.

Mayorkas made the decision to re-designate Yemen for TPS protection in response to the six-year civil war and issues such as lack of food, water and healthcare, large-scale destruction of infrastructure, population displacement, a cholera outbreak that has been ongoing since 2016, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayorkas said: “Yemen continues to experience worsening humanitarian and economic conditions that prevent individuals from safely returning to their homes. Therefore, I have decided to extend and re-designate Yemen for Temporary Protected Status. We will continue to protect and offer these individuals a place of residency temporarily in the United States.”

Elsa regained hurricane strength as it moved toward Tampa up along the southwestern coast of Florida.  The National Hurricane Center said on Tuesday evening that Elsa had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, making it a Category 1 hurricane once again, and was moving north at 14 mph. Elsa had previously been categorized as a hurricane late last week as it neared the Caribbean before weakening into a tropical storm.

The NHC said in its update. “On Wednesday morning, Elsa is forecast to make landfall along the north Florida Gulf coast and then move across the southeastern United States through Thursday. Slow strengthening is forecast through tonight, and Elsa could be near hurricane strength before it makes landfall in Florida.” The NHC noted in its updated tropical storm-force winds and heavy rainfall in the Florida Keys.

Elsa was forecast to produce between 3-5 inches of rain through Wednesday across the Florida Keys and into southwest and western portions of the peninsula, with the rest of the state expected to receive between 2-4 inches. The NHC said there’s also a tornado threat in Elsa’s path, adding that the threat will continue into Wednesday across north Florida, southeast Georgia and parts of South Carolina.