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LA Fires Raise Questions About Why We Build Homes In Fire-Prone Areas

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Surviving Palisades homes and wilderness burn areas. (Saul Gonzalez/The California Report)

Here are the morning’s top stories on Wednesday, January 22, 2025…

  • This month’s devastating wildfires in the L.A. area have once again raised questions in California about the wisdom of building homes and entire communities close to mountainous wilderness areas that burned so easily and tragically in dry conditions.
  • California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing the Trump Administration to block a presidential executive order looking to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
  • In one of the first acts of his presidency, Donald Trump ordered the cut off of access to the CPB One app for migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
  • A new executive order from President Donald Trump on gender identity could complicate travel and employment for California’s transgender and non-binary individuals.

Why Do We Keep Building Houses In Places That Burn Down?

It’s a real estate paradox: the most desirable places to live are also among the most susceptible to wildfires. Mansions in the Santa Monica Mountains, tiny cabins tucked into the Angeles National Forest, and houses at the very edge of subdivisions are all beautiful because they’re surrounded by undeveloped land. But what makes them beautiful is also what makes them dangerous. That nearby wild land is highly flammable.

Every year in California, there seems to be a biggermore intensemore destructive wildfire. But every year, new houses go up in their path. And it’s not just some houses, but thousands of houses — over 85,000 new houses in high fire risk areas in L.A. County alone, between 1990 and 2010.

Branden Brough’s family home was spared in the Palisades Fire. “The takeaway for me is,  as humans we think we can be masters of nature, and therefore we can put a home or a structure anywhere we want. And I think (we need) a certain amount of humility and a certain amount of recognition that sometimes nature is going to push back,” he said. “I think that we think about building homes in fire areas. We think about building homes in flood areas or what have you. But I don’t know that there’s a safe place if you want to avoid natural disaster, full stop.”

California Takes Aim At Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order In New Lawsuit

California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday morning filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s plan to stop recognizing birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.

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The lawsuit asks the court for a preliminary injunction to immediately block Trump’s executive order from taking effect, Bonta said at a press conference in San Francisco, saying the order flouts over 125 years of settled legal precedent. It is also being led by the attorneys general from Massachusetts and New Jersey, and is joined by those from 15 other states and Washington, as well as the city attorney of San Francisco.

It marks the first lawsuit filed against the new Trump administration by California, which has promised to serve as a bulwark against actions that state officials see as unconstitutional.

Migrants Stranded When Thousands Of Appointments To Enter The US Are Canceled

They came from Haiti, Venezuela and around the world, pulling small rolling suitcases crammed with clothing and stuffed animals to occupy their children. They clutched cellphones showing that after months of waiting they had appointments — finally — to legally enter the United States.

Now outside a series of north Mexico border crossings where mazes of concrete barriers and thick fencing eventually spill into the U.S., hope and excitement evaporated into despair and disbelief moments after President Donald Trump took office. U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Monday that the CBP One app that worked as recently as that morning would no longer be used to admit migrants after facilitating entry for nearly 1 million people since January 2023.

Trump Says US Will Honor ‘Only Two Genders’ After Anti-Trans Campaign Rhetoric

An executive order that President Trump plans to sign Monday could overturn federal protections for transgender people and youth, a move that is likely to spur local and state efforts to step up safeguards.

“It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said during his inauguration speech on Monday.

The changes will not affect state-issued IDs such as driver’s licenses. California added “X” as a third gender option in 2019.

 

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