Southwest monsoon finally arrives, with a chaotic mix of dust and rain
(NYT) — Moisture-laden air spreading across the Southwest in recent days has brought much-needed rain to drought-ridden areas, while also unleashing thunderstorms, dust storms, strong winds and flooding. This seasonal weather pattern, known as the monsoon, has led to some spectacular — albeit disruptive and even dangerous — weather.
In the Nevada desert, winds toppled tents and briefly shut down the entry gates to the Burning Man festival this weekend. In Phoenix on Monday, a wall of dust moved through the city and grounded flights at the airport. By Wednesday, waterfalls at Yosemite National Park that are typically dry at this time of year had started flowing.
The monsoon affects the West every summer, though its duration and strength vary annually. It occurs when the prevailing winds shift from the west to the south, transporting moisture into the Southwest from the Sierra Madre ranges in Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean.
Its effects are usually strongest in Arizona and New Mexico, where heavy thunderstorms can bring cooler weather on hot days, but the moisture can spread across the region, as far north as Colorado and Northern California.
The onset of the monsoon varies every year, but it generally begins to affect the Southwest in July and runs into September. This season it came late — “about as late as it can get,” said Mike Kaplan, professor emeritus at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada.
The delay meant that Arizona and New Mexico had been unusually dry this year. The Dragon Bravo fire exploded in Grand Canyon National Park in July, in part, because the landscape was more parched and vegetation more flammable from a lack of monsoon rains.
Prosecutors fail to indict man who threw sandwich at federal agent
(NYT) — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday were unable to secure a felony assault indictment against a man who threw a sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of Washington this month, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The remarkable failure by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington was the second time in recent days that it was unable to persuade grand jurors to bring an indictment in a felony assault case against a federal agent. And it amounted to a sharp rebuke by ordinary citizens against the team of prosecutors who are dealing with the fallout from President Donald Trump’s move to send National Guard troops and federal agents into the city on patrol.
The rejection by grand jurors was particularly noteworthy given the attention paid to the case. Video of the episode went viral on social media, senior officials talked about the case, and the administration posted footage of a large group of heavily armed law enforcement officers going to the apartment of the man, Sean C. Dunn, to arrest him.
Dunn was initially charged on Aug. 13 in a criminal complaint accusing him of throwing a submarine sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer who was on patrol with other federal agents near the corner of 14th and U streets in the northwest section of the capital, a popular part of the city filled with bars and restaurants.
Before he threw the sandwich, the complaint asserts, Dunn stood within inches of the officer, calling him and his colleagues “fascists” and shouting, “I don’t want you in my city!”