Chris Hedges's Blog, page 418

Amazon’s Billion-Dollar Shakedown of America’s Cities

If one required reminding of the Democratic Party’s complete capitulation to corporate interests, to say nothing of the country’s as a whole, he or she need only have listened to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s address on Tuesday. “One of the biggest companies on earth next to the biggest public housing development in the United States,” he told reporters during a joint press conference with Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “The synergy is going to be extraordinary.”

The company in question is Amazon, which confirmed earlier that morning that Long Island City, Queens, will become the site of its second headquarters (a third headquarters will be located in northern Virginia). The announcement ends a 13-month pageant that saw 238 cities and their elected officials prostrate to CEO Jeff Bezos, only for the multibillionaire to move his company into two of the wealthiest metropolises in the country (New York and Washington, D.C.) and likely displace countless working people. And for this privilege, the state of New York will reward Amazon with more than $1.5 billion in incentives, while the city provides property-tax abatements for the next 25 years—this as it faces public transportation and affordable-housing crises. Amazon, meanwhile, stands to save upward of $1 billion over the next decade.

As Derek Thompson argues in The Atlantic, moves like these are not merely outrageous. They should be outlawed.

“Every year, American cities and states spend up to $90 billion in tax breaks and cash grants to urge companies to move among states,” he writes. “That’s more than the federal government spends on housing, education, or infrastructure. And since cities and states can’t print money or run steep deficits, these deals take scarce resources from everything local governments would otherwise pay for, such as schools, roads, police, and prisons.”

Maddeningly, this corporate welfare seldom results in the kind of economic stimulus promised. Thompson points to the $3 billion in subsidies that Gov. Scott Walker used to attract Foxconn to Wisconsin—an investment that was supposed to generate 13,000 manufacturing jobs in Racine. Instead, the Taiwanese multinational has hired a fraction of that number, automating most of its assembly work. Thompson continues: “Even when the incentives aren’t redundant, and even when companies do hold up their end of the bargain, it’s still ludicrous for Americans to collectively pay tens of billions of dollars for huge corporations to relocate within the United States.”

So what is the solution? If these corporate behemoths are loyal only to their shareholders, what is to prevent this same travesty from repeating itself in cities across the country? For Splinter’s Hamilton Nolan, the answer is simple: federal regulation.

“The only way for public—you and me and every other taxpayer and city and state government who all have much more pressing things to spend money on than bribes to Fortune 500 companies—to win this game is not to play,” he writes. “Nobody can play. The way to accomplish this is simple: We need a federal law banning these sorts of subsidies. Without a federal law, there will always be an incentive for one desperate city or state to start the bidding wars. By banning this insulting robbery of the public till outright, business will continue building, and investing, and locating, and relocating. They do all those things in order to make more money. Companies create jobs because they need work done in order to make money. They are not charitable activities. They do not need a bribe. They are playing on the desperation of desperate places in order to rip us all off. That should not be legal.”

Read Thompson’s piece at The Atlantic here and Nolan’s piece at Splinter here.

CNN Sues Trump Over Barring of White House Reporter

NEW YORK—CNN took its access battle against the Trump administration to court on Tuesday, demanding the reinstatement of correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House credentials because their revocation violates the right of freedom of the press.

Besides seeking an injunction to let Acosta return immediately, CNN is launching a case that will test the ability of government officials anywhere to freeze out a reporter who displeases them.

The White House, never shy about picking a fight with CNN, says bring it on.

“This is just more grandstanding from CNN, and we will vigorously defend against this lawsuit,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

The administration stripped Acosta of his pass following President Donald Trump’s contentious news conference last week, during which Acosta refused to give up a microphone when the president said he didn’t want to hear anything more from him.

Sanders initially explained the decision by accusing Acosta of making improper physical contact with the intern seeking to grab the microphone. But that rationale disappeared after witnesses backed Acosta’s account that he was just trying to keep the mic, and Sanders distributed a doctored video that made it appear Acosta was more aggressive than he actually was.

Trump called Acosta a “rude, terrible person,” and Sanders on Tuesday accused Acosta of being unprofessional by trying to dominate the questioning at the news conference.

For its part, CNN believes the White House is trying to silence a reporter.

Trump has made CNN and its reporters a particular target of his denunciation of “fake news” and characterization of the media as an enemy of the people. CNN CEO Jeff Zucker, in a letter to White House chief of staff John Kelly, called Trump’s attitude toward CNN a “pattern of targeted harassment.”

“Mr. Acosta’s press credentials must be restored so that all members of the press know they will remain free to ask tough questions, challenge government officials and report the business of the nation to the American people,” said Theodore Olson, former U.S. solicitor general and one of CNN’s lawyers on the case.

The White House Correspondents’ Association backed the lawsuit, filed in Washington, D.C., district court.

“The president of the United States should not be in the business of arbitrarily picking the men and women who cover him,” said Olivier Knox, president of the correspondents’ group.

CNN would seem to be on strong legal ground, said Katie Fallow, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. During the Nixon administration in the 1970s, the Secret Service tried to deny credentials to a reporter from the Nation magazine because he had been involved in physical altercations, but was overruled by the D.C. circuit court, she said.

“I think it’s important, particularly as the president continues to push back on the role of an independent press, to stake out the legal rules that should govern this and not let the president block people from speaking based on their viewpoint,” Fallow said.

CNN said Acosta was given no warning of the action, and no recourse to appeal it. Acosta traveled to Paris to cover Trump’s visit there this weekend and, although given permission by the French government to cover a news event, the Secret Service denied him entrance, the company said.

Because of this, CNN also has a strong argument to overturn the White House stance based on due process grounds, said Jeff Robbins, a lawyer who focuses on media issues for the firm of Saul, Ewing, Arstein & Lehr in Boston.

“Pick your poison — it’s the Fifth Amendment or the First Amendment,” Robbins said.

Legalities aside, the president has never been afraid to fight the media, believing the stance resonates with his supporters.

And Acosta is one of the reporters they dislike the most. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked for President George W. Bush, last week dismissed the supposed physical contact with an intern as a reason for banishing Acosta, but said he doesn’t belong in the press room because he’s essentially like an opinion columnist instead of a journalist.

Acosta is a “left-wing activist” more interested in disrupting the president than in asking serious questions, said Brent Bozell, president of the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center.

“No one reporter has a constitutional right to access the press briefing room,” Bozell said. “It’s the prerogative of the White House to decide who gets a pass and who does not.

Sanders noted that nearly 50 other people from CNN have White House passes.

Acosta has been a polarizing figure even beyond the distaste that Trump and his supporters have for him. The Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, editorialized last week that Acosta’s encounter with Trump at the news conference “was less about asking questions and more about making statements. In doing so, the CNN White House reporter gave President Donald Trump room to critique Acosta’s professionalism.”

Homeland Security Chief May Be on Trump’s Chopping Block

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is weighing an administration-wide shakeup as he looks to prepare his White House for divided government, with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen expected to be among the next to go, perhaps as soon as this week.

Trump has soured on Nielsen and White House chief of staff John Kelly, in part over frustration that his administration is not doing more to address what he has called a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people with knowledge of the issue. But the scope of the contemplated changes is far broader, as Trump gears up for a wave of Democratic oversight requests and to devote more effort to his own re-election campaign.

According to people familiar with the situation, Trump is discussing replacing Kelly with Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers. Kelly, a retired Marine general, has been credited with bringing order and process to a chaotic West Wing, but he has fallen out of favor with the president as well as presidential daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Ayers, a seasoned campaign operative, would restore a political-mindset to the role, but he faces stiff opposition from some corners of the West Wing, with some aides lobbying Trump directly against the move.

Others changes are afoot, as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke are being discussed for replacement. And in an extraordinary move Tuesday, first lady Melania Trump’s office called publicly for the firing of Trump’s deputy national security adviser, Mira Ricardel.

For all of the talk of churn, Trump often expresses frustration with aides and then does not take action. Talk of Kelly’s exit has percolated for months and he remains in place.

Nielsen had hoped to complete one year in the job and leave in December, but it appeared unlikely she would last that long, said two sources. Both people who had knowledge of the debate spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Curbing illegal immigration is Trump’s signature issue — and one he returns to as a way to rally his most loyal supporters.

But anyone who takes over at Homeland Security is likely to run up against the same problems that Nielsen faced. The administration has already tried to clamp down at the border but those efforts have been largely thwarted or watered down due to legal challenges.

Trump also told allies that he never fully trusted Nielsen, whom he associated with President George W. Bush, a longtime foe. And he told those close to him that he felt, at times, that her loyalty was more toward her longtime mentor — Kelly — than to the president.

Zinke, who faces several ethics investigations, said in interview with The Associated Press on Monday that he has spoken in recent days with Trump, Pence and Kelly about probes into his leadership and they remain supportive. He denied any wrongdoing.

Questions about Nielsen’s job security are not new. Earlier this year, she pushed back on a New York Times report that she drafted a resignation letter but did not submit it, after Trump scolded her at a Cabinet meeting.

Nielsen has led the sprawling post-9/11 federal agency since December. She had been chief of staff to Kelly when he was Trump’s first Homeland Security secretary. A DHS spokesman would not comment on whether she was leaving.

“The secretary is honored to lead the men and women of DHS and is committed to implementing the president’s security-focused agenda to protect Americans from all threats and will continue to do so,” spokesman Tyler Houlton said.

Nielsen advocated for strong cybersecurity defense, and often said she believed the next terror major attack would occur online — not by planes or bombs. She was tasked with helping states secure elections following interference by Russians during the 2016 election.

She pushed Trump’s immigration policies, including funding for his border wall and defended the administration’s practice of separating children from parents, telling a Senate committee that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens “in the United States every day.” But she was also instrumental in stopping the separations.

Just last week, the administration announced that migrants would be denied asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border if they crossed illegally, creating regulations that circumvent immigration laws stating anyone can claim asylum no matter how they arrive to the country. The decision would affect about 70,000 people annually and was immediately challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Nielsen also moved to abandon longstanding regulations that dictate how long children are allowed to be held in immigration detention, and requested bed space from the U.S. military for some 12,000 people in an effort to detain all families who cross the border. Right now there is space for about 3,000 families and they are at capacity.

She got into heated discussions with Trump and White House aides several times over immigration policy, as she sought to explain the complicated legal challenges behind immigration law and pushed for a more diplomatic approach.

It’s unclear who would replace her. The job requires Senate confirmation and there is no deputy secretary. Under Secretary for Management Claire Grady would be the acting head if Nielsen left.

___

Associated Press Writer Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.

The Vote Counting Will Continue in Georgia

Two just-issued federal court rulings will mean potentially thousands of additional votes will be counted in Georgia’s hotly contested elections, possibly affecting the outcomes of races ranging from the high-profile governor’s race to seats for state legislature.

Late Monday, a U.S. District Court ordered the state to count provisional ballots that were previously rejected—because the voters’ names weren’t in precinct pollbooks due to shoddy state record keeping—and to extend the vote counting period through this Friday afternoon. On Tuesday, another federal district court judge ordered the state to count absentee ballots that had been rejected because voters didn’t fill in their date of birth when signing their mail-in ballot envelopes.

“The rulings from last night and this morning were wins for Georgians’ fundamental right—the right to cast a ballot,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ campaign manager.

As of midday Tuesday, it was not clear if the state would appeal the two federal court orders. On Monday, Georgia’s new Secretary of State, Robyn Crittenden, issued new instructions to counties on processing provisional and absentee ballots, but they do not include the court’s latest directives.

Vote Counting Extended and Expanded

The 56-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg issued late on Monday means that vote counting by Georgia’s 159 counties would not end Tuesday, when county election boards were slated to report totals to the state.

“The Court grants modest relief,” the District Court said, in response to a lawsuit filed by Common Cause Georgia against Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, who last week resigned as Secretary of State after saying he won—despite thousands of pending uncounted votes.

The ruling doesn’t discuss the 2018 governor’s race, where Abrams and the Democratic Party filed another federal suit Sunday, seeking Georgia’s new Secretary of State to extend vote-counting through Wednesday (the order pushed that deadline to this Friday—beyond what Abrams sought).

The governor’s race is a battle of vote count attrition. As of Sunday, Abrams needed 19,000 more votes to trigger a recount, and 21,000 votes to trigger a December runoff, Groh-Wargo said. (Groh-Wargo estimated there were 26,000 uncounted ballots: from polls; mail-in votes; and provisional ballots issued at polls to those not on precinct lists. That 26,000-ballot figure does not include 2,000-plus overseas and military votes still arriving.)

What’s most significant about Judge Totenberg’s ruling is that it addresses a key contention made by Democrats in their Sunday suit—that, as the Court held, these voters’ provisional ballots were rejected “through no fault of their own.”

The Common Cause suit cited voters who had updated their registration information while getting or renewing state driver’s licenses. That updated information never migrated into the state’s voter database (even though Georgia has had automatic voter registration for drivers since 2016, and has offered voter registration to drivers for more than 20 years).

“It would be nonsensical to prioritize the state’s self-imposed voter registration deadlines over the right to vote under circumstances where the aspiring voters, through no fault of their own, would be barred from registering to vote,” the Court ruling said.

In short, the Court told counties to help people who were given provisional ballots to take steps to recheck registrations and to count more votes.

“The Court ORDERS the Secretary of State’s Office to immediately establish and publicize on its website a secure and free-access hotline or website for provisional ballot voters to access to determine whether their provisional ballots were counted and if not, the reason why. The Court further ORDERS the Secretary of State to direct each of the 159 county election superintendents to similarly publicize the availability of the hotline or secure website on the county and county election websites,” the ruling said, adding that it extends the vote counting period to Friday, and the official certification of 2018’s winner to Tuesday, November 20.

The 17-page ruling by U.S. District Court Leigh Martin May addressed the voiding of absentee ballots where voters did not fill in their date of birth when signing their ballot envelope.

“The Court simply agrees with Plaintiffs that the burden of counting a set number of legally cast ballots is clearly outweighed by the harm eligible voters will suffer if their votes are not counted based on an incorrect or missing birth year,” her ruling said. “As this Court has already explained, ‘the public interest is best served by allowing qualified absentee voters to vote and have their votes counted.’”

On Sunday, Groh-Wargo said there were slightly more than 5,000 rejected absentee ballots due to signature and signing issues, according to the state’s website—which hasn’t updated rejected absentee ballot figures for days.

An Opening, Not a New Governor’s Race

There will be many news reports that point out how these rulings, which may yet be appealed, are self-afflicted wounds to Kemp and Georgia’s GOP for their many efforts to complicate voting and obstruct voters.

Common Cause’s suit cited lapses in the state’s cybersecurity surrounding voter rolls that could have invited hacking, which the federal court noted by referring to how Secretary Kemp’s “knowing maintenance of an unsecure, unreliable voter registration database increased the risk that eligible voters have been and will be unlawfully removed from the State’s voter registration database or will have their voter registration information unlawfully manipulated or mismanaged in a manner that prevents them from casting a regular ballot.”

But what may be more relevant with the provisional ballot rejections—and has been seen in other states (and subject to federal court rulings in Arizona and Missouri)—is the state’s motor vehicle agency did not, for whatever reasons, export the latest identifying information for voter registration purposes to statewide and county election agencies.

Thus, when Georgians who believed they legally registered showed up to vote, they were not listed on precinct rolls and not given a regular ballot. Instead, they received a provisional ballot, which subsequently had to be validated—by local officials using incomplete and outdated state data.

The District Court noted there were 21,190 provisional ballots issued in the state’s November 6 election. That’s several thousand more than the number issued in 2016 and 2014. Citing three races for the state’s lower legislative chamber where the margins between candidates ranged from 145 to 246 votes, the Court said, “there is a reasonable likelihood that the provisional ballots yet to be counted could be outcome-determinative in each of the races.” (The absentee ballot ruling contained no vote count figures.)

How these rulings will impact the governor’s race remains to be seen. It appears the ruling will force hundreds, if not several thousands, of previously rejected ballots to be added to the vote totals. The counties cited in both rulings were in the metro Atlanta area, favoring Abrams.

“Given the confusion sowed by the Secretary of State’s office last week and the number of voters who experienced irregularities regarding their registration status, these victories were necessary steps in the fight to count every eligible vote in Georgia,” Groh-Wargo said. “We remain grateful to groups like Common Cause who know this is about more than just one campaign—it is about committing to a fairer, more democratic system.”

This article was produced by Voting Booth , a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Facebook Let Smartphone Companies Access Your Private Data

In April, the world learned that Cambridge Analytica, the Trump-allied data firm, gained access to data from 50 million Facebook users without their permission. It did so, as Kurt Wagner explains in Recode, through a targeted advertising program that sells advertisers “access to your News Feed, and uses that data to show you specific ads it thinks you’re likely to enjoy or click on.” Such data-sharing, The New York Times reports, wasn’t limited to advertisers and Cambridge Analytica, but extended to the makers of smartphones, which many people use to access Facebook.

The Times reports that lawmakers learned that “Facebook failed to closely monitor device makers after granting them access to the personal data of hundreds of millions of people, according to a previously unreported disclosure to Congress last month.” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., provided the Times with a letter from Facebook explaining the nature of the deals.

By 2013, Facebook developed partnerships with seven companies, including BlackBerry, to provide what it called “ ‘the Facebook experience’, custom-built software, typically, that gave those manufacturers’ customers access to Facebook on their phones.” The partnerships fell under a Federal Trade Commission consent decree that required a government-appointed monitor to provide oversight.

But, as the Times article notes, Facebook handpicked its own privacy monitor, in this case, a team from PwC (the brand name for PricewaterhouseCoopers). When the team conducted its first assessment in 2013, it examined Facebook’s partnerships with Microsoft and Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry. For both companies, “PricewaterhouseCoopers found only ‘limited evidence’ that Facebook had monitored or checked its partners’ compliance with its data use policies. That finding was redacted from a public version of PricewaterhouseCoopers’s report released by the F.T.C. in June.”

The letter from Facebook was written in response to Wyden’s questions during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing in September. That hearing, the Times reports, “was held just weeks after The Times reported that Facebook had struck data-sharing deals with dozens of phone and tablet manufacturers, including Microsoft, BlackBerry and Amazon.”

As Wyden told the Times, “Facebook claimed that its data-sharing partnerships with smartphone manufacturers were on the up and up. … But Facebook’s own, handpicked auditors said the company wasn’t monitoring what smartphone manufacturers did with Americans’ personal information, or making sure these manufacturers were following Facebook’s own policies.”

PwC conducted additional assessments, but Facebook largely dictated the scope and terms, a common practice. America doesn’t have general consumer privacy laws, and the FTC consent decrees, however limited, are the only regulatory tool available.

A member of Wyden’s staff told the Times that they don’t believe Facebook ever addressed the issue. Unfortunately for consumers concerned about whether phone manufacturers have access to their private data, “It remains unclear whether Facebook has ever scrutinized how its partner companies handled personal data.” Facebook spokespeople would not answer the Times’ questions about it.

Read the full article here.

 

 

Should We Do Away With Veterans Day Altogether?

This piece originally appeared on anti-war.com.

Veterans’ Day – maybe we ought to drop the whole charade. Don’t get me wrong, there will be celebrations a plenty: the NFL will roll out the ubiquitous stadium-sized flags and march uniformed service members in front of the cameras; cities across the nation will hold parades; and millions of Americans will take a moment to go through the motions and “thank” the nation’s soldiers. Sure, the gestures are sometimes genuine and certainly preferable to the alternative. Still, all this martial spectacle misses the salient point hidden just below the surface: the American people are absolutely not engaged with U.S. foreign policy. Most could hardly name the seven countries its military actively bombing, let alone find them on a map.

Worse still, hardly anyone even talks about America’s wars these days – not the mainstream media, not the president of the United States, not the Congress. Veterans’ Day just happens to fall about a week after the midterm elections – which both President Trump and Barack Obama each told their supporters was “the most consequential of our lifetimes” – but the truth is that foreign policy was hardly even on the agenda this past Tuesday. Americans argued about healthcare, taxes, immigration, and Mr. Trump’s personality, but ignored our supposedly adulated soldiers.

See, that’s the point. Election Day, not Veterans’ Day, was the genuine opportunity to honor the nation’s veterans – many of whom are still deployed in the perpetual combat zones of the Greater Middle East. Only as expected, the American people let their veterans down. In the 24/7 media and political conversation surrounding the mid-term elections, no one, and I mean no one, took the time to ask the questions that really matter to veterans: what are they being asked to accomplish in the world? Are they achieving their missions? Are those missions even achievable? What is the end-state, or, you know, will these eternal wars ever end? No, Americans didn’t demand an answer to these questions and their elected representatives were just as happy not to engage with such complex issues.

Apathy is the name of the American game when it comes to foreign policy, war, and “peace” – whatever that means anymore. The public – utterly detached from an all-volunteer military consisting of fewer than 1% of Americans – and the Congress like it that way. It’s far easier – and strangely comforting, it seems – to throw a yellow ribbon on a car, pick up a soldier’s check, or loudly belt out the Star Spangled Banner at some sporting event, rather than actually follow US foreign policy and demand accountability. Attending an antiwar march or calling one’s representatives to discuss America’s wars, well, that’s hard! So much easier is it to “like” a sentimental meme on Facebook or briefly thank a stranger in the airport.

This author recognizes how cynical this all sounds. Truth is, though, it’s not meant to be offensive. Many of those thanking vets genuinely mean well. It’s just that all of that adulation isn’t helping to extract America’s troopers from the longest – and probably least decisive – wars in the nation’s history. We, the veterans and active duty soldiers who’ve served tour after ambiguous tour, deserve an engaged populace. We deserve a citizenry that demands answers to the real question before us: what, precisely, is the US accomplishing in the Greater Middle East? The short answer, for the few of us who seriously study this, is almost nothing.

The results of America’s ongoing wars are visible and publicly available. US military interventionism has cost 7,000 soldiers’ lives, upwards of half a million local deaths, $5.6 trillion (and counting), 10 million refugees, and an entire region in worse shape than we found it. Veterans are regularly touted as having “defended” the People and the country; only, there’s little evidence to bolster this vacuous argument. US State Department data has long demonstrated that worldwide terror attacks have increased dramatically since 2001 (even if there was a slight dip from 2016-17). Furthermore, even counterinsurgency gurus in the military and civilian policy machines recognize that US bombing, drone strikes, raids, and military occupations tend only to further enflame anti-American sentiment and often create new crops of “terrorists.” The whole enterprise is nothing if not counterproductive.

Which brings us back to the Veterans’ Day masquerade, and this veteran’s plea: please get engaged in US foreign policy. Even if you or your family members do not directly serve in the Armed Forces, commit yourselves, on this holiday weekend, to education and interest in the ongoing American wars. Remember, the executive branch, whether led by Trump “conservatives” or Obama “liberals,” counts on your apathy in order to wage unilateral global combat without congressional oversight or citizen protest. Refuse to acquiesce to this absurdity – it is killing what’s left of the republic.

So this year, on this day, try something truly brave, and different: be a citizen. Thank a veteran in your local community, sure, but then head home and open a credible periodical. Turn to the foreign policy section and start reading. Think; ask tough questions. Only then will you have genuinely honored millions of American vets.

Returning Winds Have Southern California Firefighters Wary

MALIBU, Calif.—With Santa Ana winds returning and hundreds of homes in ashes, firefighters were struggling to corral a devastating Southern California wildfire that has ravaged scenic canyons and celebrity enclaves near the ocean.

Crews taking advantage of a weekend lull in the winds had the immense Woolsey blaze about 30 percent contained. But at least 435 buildings had burned — most of them homes — and the hot embers smoldering there could become the sparks for more devastation, fire officials said.

The fire, which stretches from north of Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean, was only 30 percent contained — although that was significant progress from only a few days earlier thanks to a weekend lull in Santa Ana winds.

Fire crews had to stamp out two new blazes on Monday while still working to corral the hot western and eastern sides of the fire, which had burned its way through drought-stricken canyonlands in and around Malibu, burning celebrity houses along with modest mobile homes.

The hot, dry gusty winds were expected to blow through Wednesday, although not quite as furiously as last week. Winds, coupled with higher average annual temperatures, tinder-dry brush and a lack of rain in recent years, make the “perfect ingredients” for explosive fire growth around the state, said Chris Anthony, a division chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“I’ve been doing this job for 31 years and probably in the last five, maybe seven years, every year seems to get worse,” California Fire Chief Scott Jalbert told The Associated Press.

The fire has burned more than 80 percent of National Parks Service land in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, officials said.

Fire officials lifted some evacuation orders Monday in Los Angeles County while warning Southern California residents to remain vigilant as strong winds fanned new fires. While some returned home, others were told to leave. As one major freeway reopened, another was closed.

The return to normal for some was juxtaposed with the arrival of chaos for others, illustrating how quickly conditions can turn. At least 57,000 homes were still considered threatened, state fire officials said, and more than 200,000 people remained under evacuation orders.

Relief and heartache awaited those who were allowed to return home Monday. Paul Rasmussen, his pregnant wife and 6-year-old daughter fled their mountainside Malibu home Friday for what they thought would be the last time.

Paul Rasmussen gasped Monday as he rounded corners on the road home that revealed the extent of damage with more than a dozen nearby houses reduced to rubble. But their home survived. His next-door neighbor, Randy Berkeley, protected his home and the Rasmussens’ house.

Berkeley and his wife, Robyn Berkeley, choked back tears as they recounted their ordeal holding back a 100-foot wall of flames and then repeatedly beating back hot spots that continued to flare up throughout the night and next day.

The couple and their 25-year-old son, Colin, used hoses, buckets of water and chain saws to battle flames and cut back brush as the fire kept coming to life.

“Just when you think everything is dying down, everything keeps coming back,” Randy Berkeley said.

The death toll stood at two, a pair of adults found last week in a car overtaken by flames a couple miles from Rasmussen’s house. Those fatalities added to California’s growing wildfire-related death toll.

At least 42 people were confirmed dead in the wildfire that obliterated the Northern California town of Paradise, making it the deadliest wildfire in recorded state history. The search for bodies continued.

The cause of the Southern California fires remained under investigation.

Southern California Edison reported to the California Public Utilities Commission “out of an abundance of caution” that there was an outage on an electrical circuit near where the fire started Thursday. The report said there was no indication its equipment was involved in the fire reported two minutes after the outage.

Downed powerlines and blown transformers have been blamed for several of the deadly fires that have burned in recent years.

Georgia’s Gubernatorial Race Is Far From Over

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign Sunday filed a federal lawsuit to extend counting ballots by a day—to Wednesday—and to reexamine thousands of ballots that have been rejected for arcane technicalities.

“Our legal strategy is simple—count every vote,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams’ campaign manager.

The campaign and Georgia Democratic Party is pursuing a two-prong legal strategy to possibly force a run-off election with Republican Brian Kemp, who resigned last week as Secretary of State and leads by 59,000 votes. That runoff would occur if Kemp falls below 50 percent of votes cast.

The litigation’s first prong is to extend the vote counting period by one day, as votes keep coming in despite reports by counties that they had completed their count. Currently, all counties are to report their results to the state on Tuesday, which, in turn, planned to announce the official winners on Wednesday. Abrams’ lawsuit hopes to delay that process by 24 hours.

The legal strategy’s second prong is forcing county election officials to re-examine two categories of votes. First are provisional ballots issued to voters whose names were not in precinct poll books—for many reasons, such as the state’s voter registration database did not use the most recent addresses submitted by those voters when updating their state drivers’ licenses. (Under federal law, those addresses are to be used for voter registration). The second category is mailed-in absentee ballots that had been rejected due to how envelopes were signed and dated by registered voters.

Increasing the pool of votes to be counted could prompt a gubernatorial recount or runoff. In the past two days, Abrams has seen the distance between her and Kemp shrink. On Friday, Groh-Wargo said Abrams needed to pick up 26,000 more votes to trigger a runoff and 23,000 additional votes for a recount. But by Sunday, those thresholds were 21,000 more votes for a runoff and 19,000 for a recount.

Those shrinking margins come from several ballot categories, the campaign manager explained, saying the campaign believed that there were 26,000 outstanding uncounted ballots—in addition to 2,684 military and overseas ballots sent out and not yet added to unofficial totals (the number returned may be less), and 5,000 or more rejected absentee envelopes with uncounted votes inside.

“It’s additional Election Day, early votes and mail votes,” said Groh-Wargo, speaking of the 26,000 uncounted figure. “That’s what came through yesterday [Saturday]. There were almost 6,000 new votes that were reported yesterday. Of those new votes, the majority were additional votes from places that we had thought were 100 percent reported.”

“So there’s this just unknown X-number of votes that the counties may have rushed through on Election Night; that they are still counting and moving in [to unofficial totals]. And 1,000 came out of Fulton County, for example,” she said. “That’s sort of the unknown number that continues to surprise us that came through yesterday.”

Groh-Wargo also said there may be more than 5,000 ballots to count in the rejected absentee ballot category, which their federal lawsuit hopes to reactivate.

“We have data from SOS [the Secretary of State office] of rejected ballots,” she said. “They have not continued to update it for many days. And we don’t think their data is 100 percent reliable. But it’s 5,147 [rejected ballots] as of the eighth [of November].”

All told, these figures suggest that as more votes are counted the margin that separates Abrams and Kemp will continue to narrow. Beyond the litigation, Abrams has been making selective appearances with thwarted voters—to emphasize the human dimensions of voter suppression in her state.

“I am fighting to make sure our democracy works for and represents everyone who has ever put their faith in it. I am fighting for every Georgian who cast a ballot with the promise that their vote would count,” she said on Facebook, highlighting her meeting with the suppressed voters who told their stories at a Friday press conference. (Their testimonials were posted below Abrams’ statement).

“I met with Tate, Cassandra, Nedghie, Angel, Surabhi, Delaney, Cazembe, Amari, and Arnaud – Georgia voters from all walks of life who experienced difficulty casting their ballots or helped those who were having trouble,” Abrams said. “Whether they were first time voters, volunteers, or elected officials, they all felt dismayed and disillusioned by a democracy whose hurdles and failures made it nearly impossible to vote. Some were only able to vote through tenacity and sheer force of will. Many were left voiceless.”

The testimonials support the basic legal argument that eligible and legal voters did what they believed was required to vote, but state actions, for whatever reason, blocked them from voting or their votes from being counted.

“We heard stories from voters who took time off work to vote, only to be turned away at their assigned polling precinct and every polling place they visited,” Abrams said. “Students and military service members who requested absentee ballots, but their ballots never arrived or their completed ballots were ‘lost in the mail.’ First time voters and long-time voters whose names were ‘no longer on the list.’ Their voices deserve to be heard. They deserve justice. And that is why we will continue this fight.”

This article was produced by  Voting Booth , a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Democrat Is Declared Winner of Senate Seat in Arizona

PHOENIX — Democrat Kyrsten Sinema won Arizona’s open U.S. Senate seat Monday in a race that was among the most closely watched in the nation, beating Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the battle to replace GOP Sen. Jeff Flake.

The three-term congresswoman won after a slow vote count that dragged on for nearly a week after voters went to the polls on Nov. 6. She becomes Arizona’s first Democratic U.S. senator since 1994. Her win cemented Arizona as a swing state after years of Republican dominance.

Sinema portrayed herself as a moderate who works across the aisle to get things done. Sinema first came to prominence as an openly bisexual Green Party activist in Phoenix.

McSally, a former Air Force pilot who embraced President Donald Trump after opposing him during the 2016 elections, had claimed that Sinema’s anti-war protests 15 years ago disqualified her and said one protest amounted to what she called “treason.”

Sinema and supporters rushed to a Scottsdale resort Monday night after the latest batch of ballots showed her lead to be insurmountable.

“Arizona rejected what has been far too common in our country – name calling, petty, personal attacks and doing and saying what it takes to get elected,” Sinema said as scores of backers waved her purple-and-yellow campaign sign. “But Arizona proved that there is a better way forward.”

McSally posted a video message to twitter. “I just called Kyrsten Sinema and congratulated her on becoming Arizona’s first female senator after a hard-fought battle,” McSally said in the video, her pet golden retriever by her side. “I wish her all success as she represents Arizona in the Senate.”

During her six years in Congress, Sinema built one of most centrist records in the Democratic caucus, and she voted for bills backed by Trump more than 60 percent of the time. She backed legislation increasing penalties against people in the country illegally who commit crimes.

McSally’s attacks on Sinema reached back more than 15 years, when Sinema was a Green Party spokeswoman and liberal activist.

McSally backed Trump’s tax cut, border security and the Affordable Care Act repeal agenda as she survived a three-way GOP primary in August, defeating two conservative challengers who claimed her support for Trump was fake. McSally also campaigned on her military record and support for the Armed Forces.

Sinema attacked McSally’s leadership of last year’s failed Affordable Care Act repeal effort as a sign that she would not protect Arizona residents with preexisting medical conditions. McSally argued that she would protect patients, despite her vote on the bill that would have removed many of those protections.

The contest drew more than $90 million in spending, including more than $58 million by outside groups, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Attack ads by both sides clogged the airwaves for months.

Sinema, 42, has a law degree, worked as a social worker and was a political activist in her 20s, running as an independent Green Party candidate for the Arizona House. She then became a Democrat and served several terms in the state Legislature. Sinema started as an overt liberal but developed a reputation for compromise among her Republican peers, laying the groundwork to tack to the center.

When the 9th Congressional District was created after the 2010 Census, Sinema ran for the Phoenix-area seat as a centrist and won the 2012 election.

McSally, 52, was the first female Air Force pilot to fly in combat, flying A-10 attack jets. She also was the first woman to command a fighter squadron, again in A-10s.

McSally lost her first race in Arizona’s 2nd congressional district in 2012, when she was narrowly defeated by Democratic Rep. Ron Barber, who replaced Rep. Gabby Giffords after she was wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt. But McSally came back to win the 2014 election, beating Barber by a narrow margin. She was re-elected in 2016.

There’s still a chance McSally becomes a senator soon. One of her political mentors, Jon Kyl, was appointed in September to fill John McCain’s seat after Arizona’s senior senator died following a struggle against brain cancer.

Kyl said he’d only serve through Jan. 3, which would mean the state’s Republican governor, Doug Ducey, would get to select another senator. That person would run for re-election in 2020. Ducey campaigned with McSally often last month.

Flake was an outspoken critic of Trump and announced in 2017 that he would not seek re-election, acknowledging he could not win a GOP primary in the current political climate. His support of the president’s initiatives, however, was mixed. He strongly backed last year’s tax cut bill but criticized Trump’s positions on free trade.

Israel, Hamas Trade Heavy Fire After Deadly Incursion

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian militants bombarded Israel with dozens of rockets and mortar shells Monday, while Israeli warplanes struck targets throughout the Gaza Strip in what appeared to be the most intense exchange of fire since a 2014 war.

Palestinian officials said at least three people, including two militants, were killed by Israeli fire and nine were wounded, and an Israeli airstrike destroyed the ruling Hamas group’s TV station. In Israel, the national rescue service said at least 20 people were wounded, including a 19-year-old soldier and a 60-year-old woman who were in critical condition.

The fighting cast doubt over recent understandings brokered by Egypt and U.N. officials to reduce tensions. Just a day earlier, Israel’s prime minister had defended those understandings, saying he was doing everything possible to avoid another war.

The United Nations said it was working with Egypt to broker a halt in the violence. “Rockets must STOP, restraint must be shown by all!” the U.N. Mideast envoy’s office tweeted.

The rocket fire was triggered by a botched Israeli military raid in Gaza on Sunday. Undercover troops, apparently on a reconnaissance mission, were discovered inside Gaza on Sunday, setting off a battle that left seven militants, including a Hamas commander, and an Israeli military officer dead.

Around sundown on Monday, militants launched some 100 rockets in less than an hour, the most intense barrage since the 50-day war four years ago. The outgoing rockets, which continued into the evening, lit up the skies of Gaza and set off air raid sirens throughout southern Israel.

The military said warplanes, helicopters and tanks had struck over 70 militant targets, including military compounds, observation posts and weapons facilities. It also said it targeted a squad that was launching rockets.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the army had sent additional infantry troops, rocket defense systems and intelligence units to the Gaza frontier.

“We continue to strike and retaliate against the military targets belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, and as for our intentions we will enhance these efforts as needed,” he told reporters.

Late Monday, an airstrike destroyed the Gaza City headquarters of Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV station. Israel had fired warning shots ahead of the airstrike, prompting the station to halt programming and replace it with a logo. Minutes later, the airstrike flattened the three-story building and the station went black.

Workers had evacuated the building after the warning shots, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the bombing as “a barbaric, brazen aggression.” Ten minutes later, the station resumed broadcasts, airing prerecorded national songs.

Israel said the station “broadcasts violent propaganda” and provides “operational messaging” to militants. A five-story office building that housed Hamas media offices and another building used by Hamas’ internal security service were also destroyed. No casualties were reported.

Hamas and the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad said the rocket fire was revenge for Sunday night’s Israeli incursion. Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shehab said the groups wanted “the occupation and its supporters know that the lives of our sons come with a price.”

In all, well over 300 rockets were fired into Israel by midnight, the army said. The Israeli military said it intercepted 70 rockets, and most of the others fell in open spaces. But rockets landed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, setting off a large fire near a shopping center. Several homes were hit in southern towns, including one that was destroyed in Ashkelon. Around midnight, a rocket struck another building in Ashkelon, wounding at least 10 people, including one woman in critical condition, according to police and rescue workers.

Earlier, a bus was struck by an anti-tank missile, critically wounding a 19-year-old soldier. The strike set the bus on fire, sending a large plume of black smoke over the area. Gaza militants released a video of what they said was the attack, showing a bus pulling up to an open area before going up in flames. The video, with ominous music playing, showed Israeli soldiers milling about the area.

Michael Oren, an Israeli Cabinet minister, said Israel “will do whatever it takes” to defend itself. “We expect the world to stand with us,” he said.

The EU’s ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret, called for a halt in “indiscriminate” rocket fire toward civilians. “Everyone must step back from the brink,” he said.

Earlier Monday, thousands of Palestinian mourners buried the seven militants killed in Sunday’s incursion. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh led a funeral as masked gunmen in uniforms carried coffins and mourners chanted “revenge.”

Hamas set up checkpoints across Gaza in a show of force. It also restricted movement through crossings with Israel, preventing foreign journalists, local businessmen and some aid workers from leaving the territory.

Hamas also canceled a weekly beach protest in northwestern Gaza along the border with Israel. The organizers cited “the ongoing security situation.”

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza from the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007. In the most recent war, over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, more than half of them civilians, and tens of thousands were left homeless. Seventy-three people were killed on the Israeli side.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza since the Hamas takeover. The blockade has devastated Gaza’s economy.

For over seven months, Hamas has been leading protests along the Israeli border aimed in large part at breaking the blockade. More than 170 Palestinians, most unarmed, have been killed by Israeli fire during the protests. Israel says it is defending its border against militant infiltration attempts.

In recent weeks, Egyptian and U.N. mediators had appeared to make progress in brokering informal understandings aimed at quieting the situation.

Last week, Israel allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million to Gaza to allow cash-strapped Hamas to pay the salaries of thousands of government workers. At the same time, Hamas has lowered the intensity of the border protests in recent weeks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a visit to Paris because of the flare-up and returned to Israel on Monday for consultations with top security officials.

The Hamas military wing said that in Sunday’s incursion, Israeli undercover forces drove about 3 kilometers (2 miles) into southeastern Gaza and shot and killed a mid-level commander in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Hamas militants discovered the car and chased it, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed several people, the group said.

The military provided few details about Sunday’s raid. The Israeli military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, said a “special force” carried out “a very meaningful operation to Israel’s security,” without elaborating.

In a tweet after his arrival back home, Netanyahu praised the slain officer, whose identity was kept confidential for security reasons, and said “our forces acted courageously.” The officer’s funeral was held Monday.

On Sunday, Netanyahu defended his decision to allow through the Qatari cash to Gaza as a way to avert an “unnecessary war,” maintain quiet for residents of southern Israel and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the impoverished Gaza Strip.

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Associated Press writer Fares Akram reported in Gaza City and AP writer Josef Federman reported from Jerusalem. AP writer Isabel DeBre in Jerusalem contributed to this report.