(The Center Square)–Three major wildfires continue to ravage Southern California as firefighters battle blazes spread by the dry, powerful Santa Ana winds that blow down the mountains toward the coast.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, as of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed, and at least five people have died. There have been nearly 13,926 total emergency responses, 92 wildfires and 29,053 acres burned, per the department.
Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency, and the National Guard has been deployed to assist the hundreds of firefighters – including many from other states – fighting the fires.
President Joe Biden has approved further federal assistance for Los Angeles County as the fires continue to raze homes, schools, businesses and other structures, in addition to scorching vegetation and wildlife in their wake.
“The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in Los Angeles County,” said a Wednesday statement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.”
The White House announced late Wednesday that Biden will not be making a scheduled trip to Italy this week so he can monitor the raging wildfires in Southern California.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday afternoon during a briefing on the fires, Biden said federal funding will cover debris removal, setting up temporary shelters, and paying first responders.
“I told the governor and local officials, spare no expense,” Biden said in noting he’s surging federal resources into Southern California, including 400 federal firefighters, 30 federal firefighting aircraft and other assets.
The president provided some moral support as well for those enduring the fires that have turned portions of Southern California into a hellscape.
“We are with you,” Biden said. “We’re not going anywhere. To the firefighters and first responders, you are heroes.”
There was at least a brief respite on Thursday morning as the Santa Ana winds lessened somewhat, but forecasters warned that critical fire weather conditions would continue over the next several days.
While winds aren’t expected to reach the extremes of Tuesday night – gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded – potentially damaging winds remain in the forecast into the next week.
“High winds and low relative humidity will continue to support critical fire weather conditions in southern California through Friday,” the National Weather Service said on its website as of Thursday afternoon. “Red Flag Warnings remain in effect.”
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
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Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
