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Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
Bunch of EPA employees are about to get fired.

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Originally posted by trapper189:
The EPA isn’t the problem in the video, it’s the NIMBYs fighting the EPA. Without the EPA, the NIMBYs win and the people whose homes burned down are screwed.

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Originally posted by slosig:

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Originally posted by trapper189:
The EPA isn’t the problem in the video, it’s the NIMBYs fighting the EPA. Without the EPA, the NIMBYs win and the people whose homes burned down are screwed.

I guess I’m not sure why they can’t setup a processing site in the area that burned. I certainly wouldn’t be excited about the feds hauling contaminated debris into my backyard and processing it there, exposing my kids, my neighbors, and me to who know what. Sort and remediate in place, then haul it off.

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Peter Akemann, the former president of Skydance Interactive, has pleaded guilty to flying the drone that collided with and subsequently grounded a Canadian Super Scooper firefighting plane as the Palisades fires raged on Jan. 9.

Akemann, who worked with Skydance’s video game and virtual reality arm starting in 2016 and recently left his role, agreed to a guilty plea of one count of unsafe operation of an unmanned aircraft. The charge, a misdemeanor, could result in a sentence of up to one year in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced on Friday.

The Jan. 9 collision of a DJI Mini 3 Pro with a firefighting aircraft provided by the government of Quebec to help L.A. battle its destructive wildfires made national headlines. The crash damaged a wing of the Canadair CL-415 Super Scooper, so called because it can fly low over water sources and ladle over one thousand gallons of water to dump on a fire, and grounded the plane for days.

Per the plea agreement, Akemann launched the drone from the top floor of a parking garage near Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade on Jan. 9 in an attempt to survey the fire ravaging the Pacific Palisades. But he lost track of the drone once he had flown it more than a mile and a half away from its starting point, after which it collided with the Canadian aircraft being manned by two crew members.

By this point, Federal Aviation Administration temporary flight restrictions barring drones from flying near the ongoing L.A.-area wildfires were already in effect. Akemann had already left his Skydance role at the time.

“This defendant recklessly flew an aircraft into airspace where first responders were risking their lives in an attempt to protect lives and property,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement on Friday. “This damage caused to the Super Scooper is a stark reminder that flying drones during times of emergency poses an extreme threat to personnel trying to help people and compromises the overall ability of police and fire to conduct operations. As this case demonstrates, we will track down drone operators who violate the law and interfere with the critical work of our first responders.”

Akemann’s defense attorneys, Glen T. Jonas and Vicki Podberesky, said he is “deeply sorry” for the incident in a statement. “He accepts responsibility for his grave error in judgment, and is cooperating with the government in effort to make amends,” the statement reads. “There are a number of mitigating factors that will come to light during the court proceedings including Mr. Akemann’s reliance on the DJI Drone’s geo fencing safeguard feature and the failure of that feature.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office notes that the damage to the aircraft’s wing cost the Quebec government and an aircraft repairs company at least $65,169. As part of the plea agreement, Akemann agreed to cover those costs and complete 150 hours of community service to help aid Southern California wildfire relief efforts.

Akemann, a graduate of the University of California San Diego who holds a PhD from the University of California Berkeley, co-founded the video game developer Treyarch (which worked on Spider-Man and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, among other titles) and The Workshop Entertainment (behind Sorcery and Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage). He joined Skydance in 2016 after the entertainment company acquired The Workshop and launched an interactive division that has since produced titles like Skydance’s Behemoth and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.

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The American Red Cross is searching for new shelter accommodations after the Pasadena Convention Center requested the removal of victims of the Los Angeles wildfires in order to return to its normal filming schedule this week.

The convention center is currently sheltering some 300 people who lost their homes in the Eaton fire, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Red Cross says it will continue to shelter the victims until more permanent housing is secured.

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FOXNEWS>COM: Los Angeles wildfire czar's $500K paycheck for 90 days of work draws swift blowback, mayor reverses course

Los Angeles experiencing 'crisis of leadership' after wildfires, one Pacific Palisades resident says

Danielle Wallace By Danielle Wallace Fox News
Published February 9, 2025 2:18pm EST

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass backtracked on Saturday amid reports that her wildfire recovery czar, Steve Soboroff, would be compensated $500,000 for 90 days of work.

The Los Angeles Times first reported Saturday morning that Soboroff, a real estate developer and longtime civic official, would be paid $500,000 over the course of three months for working as the city's "chief recovery officer."

His compensation was to come from charity organizations, but Bass, who first tapped Soboroff for the job on Jan. 17, quickly reversed course by Saturday evening. She said Soboroff would now manage the rebuilding of the city free of charge.

"Steve is always there for LA. I spoke to him today and asked him to modify his agreement and work for free. He said yes," Bass said, according to the Times. "We agree that we don’t need anything distracting from the recovery work we’re doing."

Another person, longtime real estate executive Randy Johnson, was to be compensated $250,000 from philanthropic groups for assisting Soboroff, but he too would now do the job for free, Bass said.

On Johnson, Bass said she was "grateful for his generosity and expertise," but the mayor's office declined to name the charity organizations or clarify how the funding was raised, according to the Times.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, a member of the five-person committee tasked with recovery, told the Times it was "infuriating" that philanthropic groups would pay two people $750,000, calling the amount "obscene."

"He’s getting paid $500,000 for 3 months of work?" President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Ric Grenell, wrote on X of Soboroff. "And they call this a charity. Gross. Offensive."

Grenell, who was seated next to Trump during a round table discussion in the Pacific Palisades last month, added: "I’m getting paid $0 – as are many people. It’s a good thing there will be strings on the Federal money for California."

Larry Vein, a Pacific Palisades resident whose home suffered smoke damage, condemned Soboroff's reported $500,000 compensation, saying no one should handle recovery efforts for "financial gain."

Steve Danton, who resides in a temporary apartment in Marina del Rey after his home was destroyed in the Palisades Fire, said Soboroff’s compensation is a "money grab," adding that the city is experiencing a "crisis of leadership."

Soboroff, who previously served in volunteer roles on the Board of Police Commissioners and on the commission that oversees the Department of Recreation and Parks, defended the $500,000 amount to the Times earlier Saturday.

He said he has specialized expertise, is taking on sweeping responsibilities, including communicating with federal agencies, and is giving up other real estate and environmental consulting work to become the wildfire recovery czar.

"I’ve been doing this for 35 years for free on some of the biggest civic projects for the city of Los Angeles. But nobody ever asked me to drop everything. This time they did," Soboroff told the Times. "And I said OK, under the condition that my pay not be taken out of city money, or from any wildfire survivors who would otherwise benefit from that money."

Soboroff said he has taken questions from "thousands of residents," made recommendations on the city permitting process and advised the mayor to hire an outside project manager to lead city agencies in replacing damaged infrastructure.

"At the end of the day, I’m doing the stuff that all these other people are just studying," he said. "I’m implementing to help people reach their goals of getting back in their houses and getting their jobs back."

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California Fair Plan, the fire insurance of last resort is broke and the taxpayers of California get to pick up a as-of-now $500M shortfall.

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“Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles’ public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief,” Mayor Bass said. “We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch. Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal. The heroism of our firefighters – during the Palisades fire and every single day – is without question. Bringing new leadership to the Fire Department is what our city needs.”

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Earlier this week, Bass claimed that Chief Crowley did not give her adequate warning about the risk of a major fire, though Bass herself had posted on social media about the risk. Bass was overseas in Ghana at the time of the fire.

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Originally posted by rizzle:
California governor requests $40 billion for fire aid, Washington Post reportsFeb 21 (Reuters) - California Governor Gavin Newsom is asking Congress for nearly $40 billion in disaster funding to help Los Angeles recover and rebuild areas scorched by last month's devastating wildfires, the Washington Post reported on Friday citing a letter.