The fire threat across the U.S. West will rise Friday and remain dangerous through Saturday for many areas, including Northern California, as lightning strikes risk igniting dry vegetation.
Critical fire weather conditions and dry lightning will prevail across the western U.S., with the “Four Corners” region where Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona come together under the greatest threat, the Storm Prediction Center said. There are red flag fire warnings across Northern California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, according to the National Weather Service.
“Abundant lightning on dry fuels will likely create new ignitions across the region,” the weather service said in an advisory issued in southern Oregon. “Any fires that develop could spread rapidly. Numerous new fire starts could overwhelm the initial attack.”
Wind gusts in the western mountains are forecast to be as strong as 55 miles (89 kilometers) per hour.
The largest blaze in California is the Lost Fire in Kern County that has burned 4,324 acres and is only 5% contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. It is more or less about halfway between Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo in southern California.
One June 2, the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court, upheld both a jury order requiring him to repay $4.3 million in damages to the NRA and a court order prohibiting him from holding any fiduciary position as an officer or director of the NRA or any NRA entity for 10 years.
LaPierre, the former executive vice president of the NRA, had argued in his appeal that the jury could not order him to pay monetary damages as part of the law requiring him to “account for” his conduct; rather he could only be required to explain his conduct. But the appellate court disagreed. The court said LaPierre misconstrued the scope and language of the statute and that the phrase “account for” is not so limited, as it also encompasses a “reckoning of funds and holding the violating officer responsible for the harm caused.” Thus, the court upheld the judgment that he repay $4.3 million of the total $5.4 million in harm he caused to the NRA, as he had already paid back about $1.1 million.
LaPierre also tried to argue that his resignation from his position on the eve of trial, which was effective four weeks into the jury trial, invalidated the court’s injunctive relief that keeps him from any fiduciary role in the NRA for 10 years. Again, the appellate court disagreed, finding that it is well settled that “voluntary cessation of allegedly illegal conduct does not deprive the tribunal of power to hear and determine the case, i.e., does not make the case moot,” since the “defendant is free to return to his old ways.”
