Calif. wildfire is 40% contained
PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) — Smelling smoke, Scott Reader watched and waited for hours as a huge plume drew ever closer to his home in the rural community of Lake Hughes in northern Los Angeles County.
It didn’t take much for him to decide when it was time to get out.
“We saw flames and that was it,” Reader said. “That’s all we needed to see.”
He packed some belongings into a trailer, loaded up the dogs, and he and his girlfriend drove to a Red Cross shelter in nearby Palmdale on Saturday.
They were still there on Monday along with dozens of other people who fled a vast wildfire that chewed through more than 46 square miles of old chaparral and threatened two hamlets at the edge of Angeles National Forest.
Firefighters had doubled containment of the blaze to 40 percent by Monday, as cool, moist air moved in to replace torrid weather. The flames moved out of rugged mountains and onto the floor of the high desert Antelope Valley, where the fire became easier to fight.
With only widely scattered homes in the area, firefighters were able to work more on attacking flames than on structure protection, he said.
At least six houses have been destroyed by the fire, nine more were damaged, and 2,800 people fled 700 homes in Lake Hughes and Lake Elizabeth, 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
Bill blocks closing
of Guantanamo
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rebuffing President Barack Obama’s latest plea, House Republicans on Monday proposed keeping open the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by barring the administration from transferring its terror suspects to the United States or a foreign country such as Yemen.
The provisions dealing with the fate of the remaining 166 prisoners are part of a defense policy bill drafted by Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif. The chairman released the bill Monday, two days before Republicans and Democrats on the committee will vote on it.
Overall, the bill would authorize $638 billion for the military in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, including $86 billion for war costs.
The committee responded to concerns that the military was headed toward a readiness crisis due to automatic spending cuts by adding nearly $5 billion beyond the president’s budget request for training programs, equipment maintenance, spare parts and more.
Stocks up amid weak reports
NEW YORK (AP) — For now, bad news is good for the stock market.
Investors judged that the latest weak economic reports will make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will continue to stimulate the economy and support a rally on Wall Street.
On Monday, a measure of U.S. manufacturing fell in May to its lowest level since June 2009 as overseas economies slumped and weak business spending reduced new orders to factories.
That helped convince investors that the Fed will hold off from slowing down its $85 billion bond-buying program. Speculation that the central bank was set to ease that stimulus, a major support for this year’s rally in stocks, has caused trading to become volatile in the last two weeks.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell in the morning after the manufacturing report was published at 10 a.m. It moved between gains and losses for much of the day.
Shooting suspect will grill victims
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — A soldier shot seven times in the 2009 Fort Hood rampage says he’s upset that the Army psychiatrist charged in the attack will represent himself at trial and get to question all the wounded soldiers.
Retired Staff Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford said Monday that he expects Maj. Nidal Hasan will try to intimidate the more than two dozen soldiers wounded that day.
But Lunsford says he believes the soldiers will win in what he called a battle of wits.
A military judge ruled earlier Monday that Hasan could represent himself at trial, but said he must follow all court rules, including being courteous to witnesses and not getting personal.
Hasan faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder.
