• Santa Barbara County hosted a special ceremony commemorating the 21st anniversary of 9/11 at the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunken Gardens, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Undersheriff Craig Bonner, along with the Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard, joined local dignitaries and representatives from area fire departments and other agencies for the second annual 9/11 Flag of Honor Across America Memorial. The Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Teen Court program was selected as one of 60 participants across the United States to lead this National 9/11 Day Remembrance Project. “Ceremonies in the selected 60 communities [joined] together to never forget the 2,983 women, men, and children who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the Feb. 26, 1983, World Trade Center Bombing,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Each of the 60 inaugural communities [remembered] 50 of the souls by reading their names and short biography information for each.” During the ceremony, the teen court program presented the official 9/11 Flag of Honor, which includes all the names of the victims who lost their lives.
• As the Western United States faces a record-breaking and historic heatwave, and as multiple wildfires actively burn across the state, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) highlighted the need to ensure Americans have access to clean air during a September hearing to examine several pieces of air quality-related legislation. In 2021, Padilla co-sponsored the Smoke Planning and Research Act and the Wildfire Smoke Emergency Declaration Act, bills that aimed to ensure that California has the federal resources it needs to protect communities impacted by wildfire smoke. During the hearing, the senator spoke with Dr. Cassandra Moseley, vice provost for Academic Operation and Strategy at the University of Oregon, about the critical need to enact wildfire smoke protection legislation. He also spoke with John Walke, director of the Clean Air Project, about California’s environmental leadership as the top agricultural state and the critical role that farmers and ranchers play in feeding the nation and in reducing methane emissions and ensuring clean air for all Americans. “California is also the largest agricultural state, home to a $50 billion agricultural economy and the largest dairy industry in the country. California’s farmers and ranchers know better than most that our ability to feed the nation and to support family farmers and farmworkers alike relies on clean air and clean water,” Padilla said in a statement. “That’s why California is working to cut methane emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030, in partnership with farmers and ranchers as they transition to more sustainable manure management and emission reduction practices.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help ensure the availability of vital resources to suppress the Fairview Fire burning in Riverside County, according to a Sept. 6 statement from the governor’s office. Driven by temperatures in excess of 110 degrees, wind gusts, and drought conditions, the Fairview Fire has burned more than 28,000 acres as of Sept. 10, and was 40 percent contained. The grant, which is provided through the president’s Disaster Relief Fund on a cost-share basis, will enable local, state, and tribal agencies responding to the fire to apply for 75 percent reimbursement of their eligible fire suppression costs. The program, which is administered through the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, provides rapid financial assistance to communities impacted by fires. The Office of Emergency Services fire and rescue and CalFire personnel are working in concert with state and local agencies in response to the rapidly moving fire. The State Operations Center is actively coordinating the state’s fire response, dispatching mutual aid, and addressing emergency management needs.
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2022.