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☆ An ‘Unimaginable’ Death Toll Among Anchorage’s Homeless Residents
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-13 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The arrival of frigid temperatures and heavy snow in recent days has contributed to a spate of deaths of homeless people in Anchorage, Alaska, adding to a toll that had already left political leaders scrambling for new solutions. One woman died when fire consumed her makeshift shelter in the woods. A running tally of homeless deaths kept by the city’s largest newspaper, The Anchorage Daily News, is now up to 49 — more than double last year’s toll. “It is fairly depressing, just unimaginable, the number of deaths we have been having,” said Felix Rivera, a member of the Anchorage Assembly who leads the Housing and Homelessness Committee. The harsh winters in Alaska have long brought dangers for those sleeping outside.

Persons: ”, Felix Rivera Organizations: Anchorage Daily, Housing, Homelessness Committee Locations: Anchorage , Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska

☆ ‘Is This Hell?’ The Pilot Accused of Trying to Crash a Plane Tells His Story.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Upon landing, police officers took Mr. Emerson, 44, into custody, and Multnomah County prosecutors charged him with 83 counts of attempted murder — one for every passenger and crew member he was accused of trying to kill. Separately, federal prosecutors accused him of interfering with a flight crew. Prosecutors did not discuss the case beyond the charging documents. Mr. Emerson, who has pleaded not guilty, said he had no intention of hurting anyone that day. It was a loss that had plunged him into deep grief and triggered a search for help with what he realized were longstanding mental health issues.

Persons: Emerson, ” Organizations: Prosecutors Locations: Portland, Multnomah County

The average salary for a Portland teacher is $87,000, according to Portland Public Schools, slightly above the area median income for a single person and below the median for a family of four. Portland Public Schools has offered raises of 4.5 percent for the first year, and 3 percent in subsequent years of the contract. The strike in Portland may set the tone for other districts in Oregon that are also struggling to finalize new labor agreements. The union has encouraged parents to make plans for child care while 81 schools in the district are closed. Portland Public Schools is making meals available for pick up at certain schools.

Persons: ”, Angela Bonilla, Tina Kotek, “, Long Organizations: Portland Association of Teachers, Portland Public Schools, Gov, Democrat Locations: Portland, Oregon, Salem

☆ A New Era of Psychedelics in Oregon
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a carpeted office suite, Alex Beck settled onto a mattress and, under the watch of a trained guide, began chomping through a handful of “Pumpkin Hillbilly” mushrooms. Now he was ready for a different kind of journey, a psychedelic trip through the nether regions of his own mind. As he felt his thoughts starting to spin, his “facilitator,” Josh Goldstein, urged him to surrender and let the mushrooms guide him. Stigmatized in law and medicine for the past half-century, psychedelics are in the midst of a sudden revival, with a growing body of research suggesting that the mind-altering compounds could upend psychiatric care. Governments in several places have cautiously started to open access, and as Oregon voters approved a broad drug decriminalization plan in 2020, they also backed an initiative to allow the use of mushrooms as therapy.

Persons: Alex Beck, Beck, Josh Goldstein, “, ” Organizations: Marine Corps Locations: nether, Oregon

As the blaze began moving into the neighborhood below, some residents began evacuating on their own. Image The Maui Emergency Management Agency sent a wireless evacuation alert for portions of Lahaina at 4:16 p.m. Credit... Lani PohaikealohaRecords show that it was only at 4:16 p.m., after the fire had begun moving through town, that the county sent an emergency cellphone alert. It was sent to a portion of the town’s residential area east of the commercial district. She went back in the house and flipped through television stations but saw no sign of trouble. The county has said it did not activate its audible warning sirens, fearing that people would think a tsunami was coming.

Persons: Lani Pohaikealoha, Matthews Organizations: Maui Emergency Management Agency, Lani Pohaikealoha Records Locations: Maui, Lahaina

Firefighters spent hours dousing the blaze with water and carving boundaries around the burning fields with heavy machinery. They managed to keep the fire away from nearby homes, containing it to some empty plots of land. Then came what could prove to be one of the key turning points in a disaster that became the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. With hurricane-force gusts still blowing over the fire site and the surrounding arid shrubbery, crews left the neighborhood. The death toll has reached at least 115, and more than 2,000 structures were destroyed.

Organizations: Firefighters Locations: Lahaina, Maui

Hours before the wildfire became an inferno that wiped out the historic Hawaiian town of Lahaina, officials at the West Maui Land Company reached out to the state with an urgent request. The company, a real estate developer that supplies water to areas southeast of Lahaina, took note of the dangerous combination of high winds and drought-parched grasses Maui was facing. It asked for permission to fill up one of its private reservoirs in case firefighters needed it. In the interim, a brush fire that had been contained that morning flared up once again and swept through Lahaina, burning everything in its path. It is unlikely that filling up the private reservoir would have changed the course of the Lahaina wildfire, state officials say, and winds were so high that day that helicopter crews would have been unable to reach it.

Organizations: Maui Land Company Locations: Lahaina, Maui

☆ Judge Rules in Favor of Montana Youths in Landmark Climate Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A judge in Montana ruled on Monday that young people in the state have a constitutional right to a healthful environment, finding in a landmark case that the state’s failure to consider climate change when evaluating new projects was causing harm. The case, brought by a group of young Montana residents ranging in age from 5 to 22, is the first of its kind to go to trial in the United States. In her ruling, Kathy Seeley, a district court judge, found that the state’s emissions “have been proven to be a substantial factor” in affecting the climate. Laws that limited the ability of regulators to consider climate effects were unconstitutional, she ruled. “This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy and for our climate,” said Julia Olson, the executive director of Our Children’s Trust, which brought the case.

Persons: Kathy Seeley, ”, Julia Olson Organizations: Montana Locations: Montana, United States

These two firefighters declined to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the emergency effort. The water pressure was a continuing problem, he said. At one point, the crew found a hydrant further north that seemed to have more water, and they doused a commercial building. They left the scene, he said, hoping that the water they had applied to the structure would be enough to keep it safe. “I thought it had a chance,” Mr. Ho said.

Persons: Ho, Mr, ” Organizations: Hawaii Fire Fighters Association Locations: Maui, Lahaina

Along the empty streets of Lahaina, the warped shells of vehicles sit as if frozen in time, some of them still in the middle of the road, pointed toward escapes that were cut short. Others stand in driveways next to houses that are now piles of ash, many still smoldering with acrid smoke. A few agitated myna birds chirp from their perches on palm trees that have been singed into matchsticks, the carcasses of other birds and several cats scattered below them in the streets. Across the town that was once home to 13,000 people, residents are slowly returning and sifting through the debris of their homes, some of them in tears, finding little to salvage. They considered themselves lucky to have made it out at all: A man just up the hill did not survive, and neighbors told them that several children who had ventured outside to get a look when the fire was approaching were now missing.

Persons: Shelly, Avi Ronen Locations: Lahaina, driveways, matchsticks

☆ A School Bus Crosses the Nation, Connecting Mass Shooting Families
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Mike Baker | More About Mike Baker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Manuel and Patricia Oliver had already been on the road for more than a week when they pulled their school bus bearing an American flag into a city park in Uvalde, Texas. They were unsure of just how many people would greet them on that sweltering day. Parents, grandparents, siblings and other kin of some of the 22 people killed last year at Robb Elementary streamed into the park, embracing the Olivers and each other. So, too, did a woman who lost her daughter at a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, where 10 people were killed in 2018. “I’m looking to help and also to receive help,” Mr. Oliver said.

Persons: Manuel, Patricia Oliver, Joaquin, Marjory Stoneman, “, ” Mr, Oliver Organizations: Robb, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Locations: Uvalde , Texas, Santa Fe , Texas, Parkland, Fla, Texas

At the house where four University of Idaho students were murdered last year, sheets of plywood cover the windows. A temporary fence surrounds the yard. Security guards, posted in a blue trailer, keep watch 24 hours a day. University officials hope to demolish it before a new class of students arrives in August. They have pressed the university to hold off on any demolition.

Persons: ” Steve Goncalves, Kaylee Goncalves Organizations: of Idaho, Security, University

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