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slippinmickeys · 5 months

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Three Part Harmony (20/?)

“This is,” Rhonda said, looking at Scully with nervous apprehension over the console of her hatchback, “exactly what Assistant Director Skinner warned us not to do.”

Scully sighed from the passenger seat, lowering the binoculars she was using to watch the activity at the Sheriff’s station where Mulder was being held. They were parked a block and a half away, on the side of the street facing the department, and Scully had one of Rhonda’s winter hats pulled over her hair, a scarf muffled up, obscuring the bottom half of her face. From his car seat behind Rhonda, William babbled happily, cheered to be somewhere other than the cabin.

Skinner had given Rhonda the information on Mulder’s transfer, cautioning the woman that she and Scully should take William as far from Mulder as they could. He’d included the details–including mentioning that it would be done using a US Marshals attachment and SWAT-outfitted LLE escorts–as a warning, hoping to scare the women away. But Scully felt only emboldened by the information, enjoying the rare feeling of knowing exactly what she was up against.

“Skinner,” Scully said, looking Rhonda in the eye, “doesn’t know that we have more than just a couple of guns and our wits.”

It had taken Scully a full forty five minutes to explain the one part of their story that they had kept from Rhonda: William’s incredible gifts. And Scully had spent the last several days testing the limits of what she could do with his power. She was nowhere near to tapping his full potential–something she could sense was buried deep within him—but she was somewhat confident that what she could do would be enough to at least give them a chance of freeing Mulder. Maybe. They’d have to play their cards right. And Mulder would have to seize the opportunity when she gave it to him.

Rhonda barked a nervous laugh and Scully couldn’t help but smile back at her. “William the Conquerer,” Rhonda said ruefully, shaking her head.

Scully looked south, where the mountains beyond the low buildings of the town were wreathed in thick gray clouds. For once, she thought, foul weather might work in their favor.

Up ahead at the station, what looked like an armored van pulled up, cages around all the back windows, thick treaded tires rolling to a stop. In white on the side, US Marshals Service was emblazoned in block letters. Four agents tipped themselves out of the vehicle and headed into the department. Outside, two local cruisers pulled in as well, one ahead of the large van, and one behind.

Rhonda whistled.

“Geez,” she said. “You’d think they were transporting Dillinger. How are we gonna…?”

Scully looked the van over and sighed. “I’m still figuring that out.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at William in the back, probed him a little with her mind, seeking their connection until she could feel it thrum between them. Scully then leveled what she hoped was an honest look at Rhonda.

“I think we’re going to have to follow them at a safe distance. Nearly all the routes down into Utah are through some pretty sparse, mountainous country. I think we’ve got to hit them when we’re way out there. No access to backup or people that might get in our way.”

“...hit them?” Rhonda said, going pale.

“Metaphorically,” Scully said. “Probably,” she muttered, an afterthought.

“Either way,” she went on. “William will stay in the car with you. I can stay connected to him from a fair distance. A hundred yards or so.” She had been testing the limits of their connection. “I need you to keep him that far back. If anything happens to me or if things go badly…Leave. And take him.”

“Take him where?” Rhonda said, paling further.

“Do you still have that address I had you send the package to?”

Rhonda nodded, visibly swallowing.

“Take him to that man. John Doggett. He will help you.”

Several deputies bristling with paramilitary gear got out of their vehicles and congregated by the back door of the Sheriff’s station, where there seemed to be a fresh build up of activity. The deputies were in tactical vests, a couple with larger semi-automatic weapons. Scully felt a swell of raw, tingling nerves.

How she was going to get her partner was still largely a question mark, though she had a few ideas. The odds, however, appeared to be pretty stacked against them.

Oh, Mulder, she thought with a pang of worried apprehension. Mulder.

XxXxXxXxXxX

“Scully!”

Mulder sat bolt upright on the narrow mattress. The metal plank upon which he rested took up more than half of the cramped cell. Something had roused him, like an electric jolt to the brain, and he woke up disoriented and startled.

“‘Fraid not,” said a voice from the other side of the bars, and Mulder looked up to see Agent Bryson standing there in a dark wool suit with a navy FBI slicker pulled over it. There were four similarly dressed pasty-faced white men with the stars of the US Marshals Service stamped on their lapels milling around behind him.

A local deputy was at the door, sliding in a key and unlocking the cell. He was loaded for bear, so far as Mulder could tell, having been around the local deputies for a few days now; the man uncharacteristically outfitted in a full kevlar kit, a second pistol strapped to his leg.

“We’ll take it from here,” one of the suited men said to the local, who backed off respectfully.

“On your feet!” called out another, and Mulder was briskly pulled to his feet and two of the Marshals secured shackles to his wrists and ankles. He was marched out the door of his cell, his legs shuffling along with the too-short chains, on down the hallway and to the back door of the department. The two men holding his elbows pulled up short when they got to the door.

“We have the prisoner at the back door,” one of them spoke into his walkie. “Be advised. Prepare convoy.”

“Convoy is a go,” a voice came in over the radio, and then the back door was unlocked and Mulder was marched outside, the thin material of his orange prison jumper not much protection from the cold. The air was heavy, moist with unfallen snow, and there was a frigid wind that felt like needles along the skin of his cheeks.

He did not get much fresh air however, as he was escorted into a large, dark Econovan with caged windows, his shackles secured to a metal eyehook that was bolted to the floor. Three of the Marshals got in behind him, and the fourth, who held up a hand to Bryson as he attempted to get into the front passenger seat, turned the FBI agent away and got into the driver’s seat. There was a cage separating the cab of the van with the back where Mulder and the other Marshals were, with a small door the size of a video cassette through which items could be passed.

Mulder had his first smug moment of the day as he connected eyes with Bryson, who turned unhappily on his heel and made his way toward the lead car, sliding into the front seat of the sheriff’s cruiser that would be leading the small convoy.

“Marshal One ready for transport,” the driver said into his radio, and a moment later, a crackling buzz came through from the other cars.

“Local One ready.”

“Local Two ready.”

“Let’s roll,” the driver said, and dropped the walkie into the empty passenger’s seat.

The other Marshals secured their seatbelts as the cruiser in front pulled out onto the street, followed by the van and then one other cruiser bringing up the rear.

Mulder turned to the Marshal sitting nearest him. “I don’t get a seatbelt?” he asked. “Thought it was the law.”

“Hey fellas, this guy in a DOC suit and handcuffs is suddenly very worried about the law,” one of the Marshals announced. He then toed the eyehook Mulder’s shackles were locked to. “You’re not going anywhere,” he said without emotion, and turned to look out the windows of the van, scanning the streets around them as they passed.

The officers were not a very talkative bunch, and for the most part ignored Mulder’s few probing questions. When he couldn’t get a straight answer on how long the journey might last, he leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes, letting himself doze and fall back into dreams where he might see Scully and William once again.

XxX

When he woke, it was to that odd electric feeling in his head, and he took a sharp breath and sat up. The van was rolling along through a high valley pass, and snow had begun falling in earnest. It wasn’t so thick that Mulder couldn’t make out the cruisers that were still in front and behind them, but the mountains they were passing were shrouded in thick whiteness, the van’s windshield wipers going at top speed, struggling to keep up with the deluge.

He looked to the other men in the vehicle with him, and could sense a tension that hadn’t been there when they’d pulled out of town. The Marshal sitting next to him was squinting through the window at the back of the van, then leaned forward to mumble something to the driver that Mulder couldn’t make out.

The driver sighed and reached for the walkie.

“Local Two,” the van’s driver said into his radio, one hand steadily on the top of the steering wheel.

“Local Two,” a voice answered.

“Two, there’s a late model, rust-colored hatchback that’s about a quarter of a mile behind us. Can you drop back and check it out?”

Mulder turned to look, but the weather was worsening, and it was now hard to make out anything much beyond headlights through the swirling snow.

“Copy, Marshal One,” the voice said. “Falling back.”

Mulder watched as the cruiser behind them slowed and eased back into the whiteness.

Several minutes later, the driver of their van, huffing a sigh of annoyance, picked up the walkie and opened the cab cage’s small pass-through door, handing the radio to the Marshal sitting next to Mulder.

“Get him back on the horn and get a report,” the driver instructed. “I need both hands to drive in this shit.”

The other Marshal nodded and gave the walkie two clicks before speaking into it.

“Local Two,” he said.

There was a crackle of static, but no response.

“Local Two, come back,” he said a little louder, turning to look out the back window. Mulder couldn’t help but do the same, but there was nothing to see now but snow coming down around them and the windy swirl of white crystals being kicked up behind their own tires.

When there wasn’t an answer, the Marshal sighed huffily and raised the walkie back to his mouth.

“Local One, radio check.”

“Local One receiving,” came Bryson’s voice through the walkie. “Do we have a problem?”

The Marshal holding the radio rolled his eyes. “This fucking guy,” he muttered, before pressing the speaking button. “Be advised, Local Two isn’t responding after the drop-back.”

The radio gave a low squawk. “I noticed. Can you see him back there?”

The Marshal turned, squinting through the back windshield. “I can’t see shit.”

“It’s probably the fuckin’ weather,” said the agent who was sitting in the far back bench seat of the van.

“I don’t like it,” came Bryson’s clipped voice.

“Advise we pull over to regroup,” said the Marshal holding the walkie. “Visibility is shit anyway.”

“This weather is the reason we told him to hold off another day on the transfer,” the back seat Marshal rumbled, clearly unhappy.

“No stopping!” came Bryson’s voice sharply. “We continue on as planned.”

“This isn’t his fucking op,” said the driver, who opened up the small pass-through again and reached a flailing hand back. “He’s lucky we let him ride along. Give me the walkie.”

The other Marshal passed it up to the driver, who snapped it quickly to his face, leaving the pass-through open. “That isn’t your call, Local One,” he said. “Pull over now. We regroup with Local Two and reassess. Over.”

With that, the driver tossed the walkie into the passenger seat once again and pulled off onto the shoulder of the highway, flicking on the van’s hazard lights.

They were in the middle of nowhere, Mulder realized. And not a single car had passed them since he’d woken up.

The cruiser in front of them, though parked no more than twenty yards ahead, was really only visible by the flashers on the light bar. A few moments later, a dark figure emerged from in front of them and Bryson was momentarily lit by the van’s headlights as he walked through them, making his way to the driver’s side window. He tapped on the glass angrily.

Mulder could hear the weary sigh that the driver huffed before he reached over and manually rolled the window down half-way.

“You need to take Local One back to get a visual on Local Two,” the driver told Bryson, whose head was shaking ‘no,’ before the man even finished talking.

“I’ll send him back, but I’m not leaving the prisoner,” Bryson said, flicking his eyes angrily to Mulder, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat, a cold wind cutting in through the window.

“Suit yourself,” the driver said, and rolled the window back up.

Bryson went back to the cruiser and reappeared a minute later as the police car initiated a three point turn and passed them, heading back in the direction they’d come.

“You gonna leave him out there?” The Marshal in the backseat asked, nodding at Bryson.

“I’d like to,” the driver said noncommittally.

The man to Mulder’s left snorted, the first sound Mulder had heard him utter all day.

“If you don’t let him in, he’s going to be an even bigger pain in the ass,” said the guy who had taken over radio duties.

The driver sighed in defeat and leaned over to the passenger door and threw the lock open. Bryson wasted no time swinging into the seat on a gust of subarctic air. He picked up the walkie that had been left in his seat and held it to his face.

“Local One, stay on the radio, please.”

“Roger that,” came the officer’s voice through the device. “Visibility is almost nothing,” the officer went on, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to–” on that, there was a burst of noise so intense that everyone in the car flung their hands to their ears. The walkie went sailing out of Bryson’s hand, and Mulder nearly took out his front teeth with the chains from his handcuffs as he raised them to muffle the sound.

The driver yelled something, but the noise continued, and finally, with a wince, he took one hand off an ear and swiped the walkie talkie from the floor and turned it off, leaving the van in a sudden and violent silence.

Everyone sat, dazed for a few moments before the driver turned to Mulder and spoke to him directly for the first time.

“I swear to God, if this is some breakout rescue attempt…”

Mulder, still shaken by the noise, could only gape at him.

“We’ve read your file,” said one of the other Marshals. “We know you had help escaping custody at Mount Weather.”

Mulder seriously doubted Alvin Kersh was out there in the snow, willfully breaking the law once again to save his least favorite erstwhile agent. And Scully didn’t have the resources to so much as attempt something like this, (plus he was confident Skinner would relay his message to stay far, far away from him).

The only explanation, Mulder thought, was that this was some kind of play by Bryson to get him out of official custody and into a much oogier unofficial custody in an attempt to get Mulder to give up where William was. However, Bryson–who had pulled his service weapon and was holding it and appeared to be sweating–was doing an admirable acting job if that was the case.

Whatever was going on, Mulder didn’t have the foggiest idea what it was.

“We need to-” whatever the Marshal was saying was cut off with a now-intense buzzing Mulder could feel in the back of his skull. When he darted his eyes to the other passengers, however, they seemed totally unaffected and the man who had been speaking was still moving his mouth, though Mulder couldn’t hear what he was saying.

“--der,” he heard, in what was unmistakably Scully’s voice. But he didn’t hear her voice with his ears, but rather in his head, where the buzzing was emanating. It was remarkably similar to when he could hear others’ thoughts, pushed into what bordered on madness by an alien craft. But this didn’t feel like lunacy; it was warm and euphoric.

“Mulder,” he heard again in Scully’s voice, this time more clear, the buzzing lessening. “Is that you?”

“Scully,” he thought. “What are–”

“There’s no time for explanations,” she said in his head. “I need you to look around. Show me what you see.”

Though his mind was racing with thoughts and questions and alarm, he instinctively turned his head and looked around the van. The Marshals were getting agitated, all of them pulling their own weapons, and Scully’s voice tuned in and out, interspersed with the angry voices of the other men in the vehicle. His head was turning more and more into a confusing jumble.

“--we need to–”

“--this is not your fucking op–”

“--call it in–”

“--get down–”

It was the last voice–Scully’s–that Mulder instinctively heeded, leaning sideways and down as far as he could in his awkward, chained position as all of the weapons from every officer in the car went flying out of hands, some through the open pass-through of the cab cage, to form a ball of glistening steel that hovered in the air between the driver and Bryson. And then, just as quickly, the windshield of the van blew out and the guns went with it, leaving a momentarily stunned silence with only the backdrop of the howling wind blowing icy flakes of snow in through the gaping gap at the front of the vehicle.

And there, now standing in the dull cones of the van’s headlights stood Scully, dark hair whipping around her face.

Mulder stared at her in awe.

Just as the other men in the car were getting over their shock, all four of the US Marshals were pulled violently back as the seatbelts, which they all were still wearing, tightened around them with a startling whip of hissing nylon. Sparks then flew from the ignition and the van’s engine died.

Bryson began shouting, but the Marshals were all pulling at the straps and jamming the buckle release buttons which refused to disengage.

“Lean back!” came Scully’s voice, no longer in his head, and Mulder just had time to obey as the eyehook that held his shackles was wrenched from the floor of the van with an ear-splitting groan of metal.

The sliding door slid open on its own and Mulder wasted no time, diving past a Marshal who was still tearing at his restraints and out into the snow. The van’s door whipped closed behind him and Mulder spun in time to see all of the van’s door handles simultaneously collapse on themselves, like a tin can crushed beneath a boot.

Behind them came the rumble of an engine, and Rhonda’s old Datsun puttered up beside them, slowing to a stop next to the disabled van.

“Get in the car, Mulder!” Scully shouted, already opening the passenger door and disappearing into the back seat, where Mulder could see the handle of William’s car seat sticking up from behind Rhonda.

Mulder swung into the passenger seat and the second his door was closed, Rhonda goosed the gas, and they were off into the snowy beyond.

The last thing Mulder saw of the van before it was swallowed by a squall, was Bryson crawling out of the hole where the windshield used to be and turning to watch as the old Datsun drove away.

#fanfic #my fic #the x-files #msr #wip

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ralith · 4 months

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Hellooo

I'd love to hear more about the wild west au because Ratchet helplessly in love with Ironhide, thinking he has no chance at all, only for Hide to come back and profess his love verbally and physically ? Your ingenuity knows no bounds

I may have posted some ideas about the old west au a bit ago, but I don't think I ever tagged them properly. It's not very developed, and is separate from the retired trio au. This au is strictly IronRatch.

Backgrounds: Ratchet is a doctor from back east (the NYC tri-state region). He is getting older and seeing less patients. The medical schools are churning out new doctors faster than ever, and the competition for patients is fierce.

Ratchet receives a letter from his old mentor Que who now lives out west (think Nevada/Utah region). Que is looking to retire and invites Ratchet to inherit his clinic. He had plenty of patients now due to the local mining industry. So Ratchet closes up shop and moves out west.

Ironhide is a former soldier who became disillusioned with the cause. His last act before abandoning the service was to protect the innocent settlement that his column was about to attack. He fired on them, killing some of his former colleagues. This cemented him as a traitor. Ironhide has had to move from location to location, always running due to the bounty on his head.

One day Ironhide doesn't get out of town as quickly as he should have. He takes off on horseback and leads his assailants on a chase that lasts for several days. He hides in the bushes along the way, knowing that his attackers are near. He doesn't sleep. So it comes to the end of the chase as Ironhide is nearing a medium-sized city. He thinks he may be able to lose them. But he's exhausted and moving slow. His horse is exhausted. He eventually finds himself about a mile outside town and surrounded. He is gunned down by six attackers. His former colleagues. Ironhide lays in the dirt, bleeding from multiple wounds. His horse has run away, unharmed, but scared by the attack.

Ratchet receives word of a man found outside the city, badly injured and on death's doorstep. He rushes out and treats the man as best he can where he lay. Then he loads the man onto a cart and has him transported back to the clinic. All the while Ironhide is slipping in and out of consciousness, barely able to make out the shape of the man healing him, but thinking he's died and being handled by an angel.

Ironhide recovers gradually and reveals his situation to Ratchet. The doctor allows Ironhide to reside at his clinic in a spare room with a small bed, but it's the best thing Ironhide has had in months. Ratchet doesn't worry about future attacks on Ironhide's life. They believe Ironhide is dead. To earn his keep, Ironhide volunteers to take care of the clinics everyday needs, cleaning, running errands, picking things up at the store for Ratchet. Even cooking, which he's very good at and Ironhides meals are the best thing at the end of a long day.

Months go by and they grow closer, even Que makes comments on how close the two seem. He sees how they look at each other and even tells Ratchet he should make his move, that Ironhide wants him just as bad. But Ratchet refuses to believe Que. Ironhide is handsome, a tank of a man, a damn stallion and he wouldn't want some mediocre medic dragging him down.

One quiet night, Ironhide is more restless than usual. He remarks to Ratchet that he could "use some action" and that he's craving a "beautiful blonde for the night". Ratchet reads the situation all wrong, not realizing Ironhide is addressing him. Also Ironhide is kinda terrible at flirting.

This cements in Ratchet's head that Ironhide doesn't want him. So Ratchet suggests they head to the saloon for a drink and meal. The place doubles as a brothel, so he thinks they can find a good match for Ironhide.

Towards the end of their meal, one of the soiled doves comes over and starts hitting up Ironhide. She is flirting him up good. That's when Ratchet abruptly gets up, surprising Ironhide. He says he's heading home early and the door will be open for Ironhide once he's had his fun.

At home (which is above the clinic), Ratchet crawls into bed. His throat and eyes burn. He wants to cry. Ironhide could never be his. But he stuffs it down and picks up a book to distract himself.

He's surprised when the door creaks open not long after and there's a knock at his bedroom door, followed by Ironhide's voice. He allows the warrior to enter, and Ironhide takes a seat on the edge of the bed. Ratchet questions what happened, and Ironhide says he turned her down. He wanted to make sure the doctor was okay. Ratchet guffaws, asking how he could turn down someone so beautiful, to which Ironhide replies that there was a more beautiful individual waiting for him at home. Cue the confession, the shock and disbelief and elation from Ratchet. Ironhide climbs onto the bed, straddling Ratchets hips, handling Ratchet with a tenderness the doctor didn't know the other possessed.

He's not sleeping alone tonight. Or any night thereafter.

#IronRatch old west au #ralith answers asks

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usafphantom2 · 8 months

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F-35 fighters leave the Middle East after deployment to deter Iran and Russia

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 10/07/2023 - 14:44 in Military, War Zones

The U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters, sent to the Middle East to prevent Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf and react to Russian intimidation in the Syrian skies, have left the region, according to service officials.

"What the F-35s did was give us additional capacity," said the commander of the Air Force Central (AFCENT), Lieutenant General Alexus G. Grynkewich, to reporters on October 4 at a Defense Writers Group event.

The deployment was completed in late September, according to the 388ª Fighter Wing at Hill Air Base, Utah. All aircraft have left the Middle East and are "in transit home," according to a spokesman for the 388th Fighter Wing.

Operating as the 421º Air Expeditionary Squadron, the F-35 were first deployed on July 26, when fifth-generation fighters were rushed to the region by the Pentagon after Iranian attacks on commercial ships around the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic bottleneck between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which 20% of the world's oil flows.

Additional U.S. Navy ships, led by the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group with thousands of Marines, followed the F-35. The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan brought more air power to the region with a squadron of short or vertical takeoff and landing Harriers (V/STOL).

The US still has the F-16 and A-10 in the region. However, the stealthy F-35 provided more advanced capabilities.

The F-35 allowed the U.S. to “continue to carry out the missions we were carrying out in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere in the region, and to increase what we were doing in support of the Navy, basically doing air combat patrols over the Strait of Hormuz,” said Grynkewich, who added that the Navy's detachment was particularly important.

“This increase in surface ships combined with our air power has dissuaded Iran from taking any action against maritime transport,” he said.

In addition to their mission in the Gulf, the F-35 were useful in discouraging Russian warplanes from chasing American aircraft in Syria. The F-35 also joined the U.S. allies in Syria, including flying with French Rafale fighters.

Russia's aggressive tactics emerged as a major concern in July, when Russian fighters launched flags that damaged U.S. MQ-9 drones that were carrying out missions against Islamic State militants.

After the U.S. released the video of Russian harassment and deployed the F-35, Russia moderated its tactics and became less aggressive.

"They still fly in airspace, but not directly above our forces, so I welcome this change in behavior," Grynkewich said. "With the flags being released on our MQ-9, we no longer see this behavior."

The U.S. military presence in the region is very modest compared to the years when Americans fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. But U.S. air operations over Syria were also reinforced by coalition partners, including the French and British.

“We are still at risk of terrorist attacks in our capitals or on our lands,” General Stéphane Mille, head of the French Air and Space Force, told journalists in September. "We are flying together."

Not all the challenges that the U.S. has faced come from opponents. Turkey, also a member of NATO, has been attacking Kurdish groups in northern Syria, which is responsible for a bomb attack in the capital Ankara on October 1, in operations that may put American troops at risk.

On the morning of October 5, a Turkish drone hit targets within a restrictive operating zone (ROZ) declared by the U.S. military, according to the Pentagon. The attacks reached one kilometer from U.S. forces, forcing them to protect themselves in bunkers.

When a Turkish drone returned to the area about four hours later and headed for U.S. forces, it was shot down by a U.S. F-16 half a kilometer away from U.S. personnel in an act of self-defense, according to U.S. authorities.

On October 6, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs minimized the episode in a statement, saying that its drone “was lost due to different technical evaluations in the conflict resolution mechanism with third parties”.

The biggest concern, however, remains Iran. Despite the departure of the F-35, which Grynkewich observed has always been planned to be “temporary”, the U.S. is prepared to flex forces for the region.

“My opinion is that the deterrence is temporal,” Grynkewich said of Iran. “We have increased strength in response to a specific threat. This shows the American commitment to the region. This shows that our American strategy has been, with our posture being less than before, we demonstrate the commitment to bring strength to great exercises for guarantee purposes or when a threat required it. And we certainly did that in this case."

Source: Air Force & Space Magazine

Tags: Military AviationF-35 Lightning IIUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air ForceWar Zones - Middle East

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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beardedmrbean · 9 months

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Ruby Franke, the Utah mom behind the now-defunct family YouTube channel "8 Passengers," was arrested Wednesday on child abuse charges after authorities found a malnourished minor with open wounds and duct tape on their extremities, officials announced.

Franke's business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, was also arrested on the same charges. The two regularly collaborate on relationship and parenting advice videos for Hildebrandt's life counseling service ConneXions. ConneXions has been criticized in the past for its teachings about parenting, including prioritizing the organization's "principles of truth" over a person's children.

The Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department said in a press release Thursday that it received a report about a juvenile in need of help at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday morning.

The juvenile was described as "emaciated and malnourished, with open wounds and duct tape around the extremities."

"The condition of the juvenile was so severe that they were seen by Santa Clara-Ivins EMS and transported to a local area hospital," the press release said.

Evidence led officers to a nearby home where another juvenile was found in similar condition and taken to a local hospital for treatment, the release said. Four minors were taken into the care of the Department of Child and Family Services following a search of the home where the emaciated juveniles were found.

Franke and Hildebrandt were then arrested in connection with the incident, the release said. The two are still in custody, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.

Representatives for Franke and Hildebrandt did not immediately respond to NBC News requests for comment. The Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department and Washington County Sheriff’s Department also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Franke rose to prominence in 2015 through the 8 Passengers YouTube channel, which featured her husband Kevin and six children. The channel had a following of nearly 2.3 million subscribers before it was taken down earlier this year. It’s unclear why the channel was removed from YouTube.

The Frankes' strict parenting style has led some viewers to report them to authorities. In June 2020, some viewers called local child protective services on the parents after their then-15-year-old son Chad said in a video that he had slept on a beanbag for seven months, according to Insider. Ruby Franke told the outlet at the time that the sleeping arrangement was Chad's "choice" after being removed from his shared room with his younger brother for behavioral issues.

Ruby Franke has also faced backlash for videos in which she refused to bring her then-6-year-old lunch after the child forgot to pack food and threatened to throw away her children's prized possessions.

Eldest daughter Shari Franke, 20, posted about her mother's arrest to her Instagram Story on Wednesday night. Shari Franke, who previously posted that she was not in contact with her immediate family, shared an image of police officers with the caption, "Finally."

In another Instagram Story post, Shari Franke wrote, “Hi all. Today has been a big day. Me and my family are so glad justice is being served. We’ve been trying to tell the police and CPS for years about this, and so glad they finally decided to step up."

"Kids are safe, but there's a long road ahead," she continued in her post. "Please keep them in your prayers and also respect their privacy."

She also posted a request to her followers to share "any questionable or concerning ConneXions or 8Passengers videos" with her on Thursday. Shari Franke did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Elle Mechem, Julie Griffiths Deru and Bonnie Hoellein, three women who say they are Ruby Franke’s sisters and who are also family influencers, shared a joint Instagram post saying her arrest “needed to happen.”

“For the past 3 years, we have kept quiet on the subject of our sister Ruby Franke for the sake of her children,” the post read. “Behind the public scene we have done everything we could to try and make sure the kids were safe.”

Mechem, Deru and Hoellein did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In Utah, aggravated child abuse is defined as an act that "inflicts upon a child serious physical injury" or "causes or permits another to inflict serious physical injury upon a child."

CORRECTION (Aug. 31, 2023, 3:45 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated the name of an agency. It is the Santa Clara-Ivins Public Safety Department, not Santa Clara-Ivans Public Safety Department. _________________

Finally, now to go after the rest of the people doing this crap

#nunyas news #cw: child abuse

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mariacallous · 8 months

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This is the time of year when the U.S. Census Bureau publishes its latest data on poverty in the United States, and headlines are presenting a mixed picture. One set of survey results found that the overall number of people living in poverty in 2022 was relatively unchanged from the last two years. In contrast, another survey found that America’s child poverty rate doubled between 2021 and 2022, largely due to the post-pandemic expiration of an expanded child tax credit. The divergent results reflect the fact that the Census Bureau measures poverty in more than one way.

Neither of these results, however, sheds much light on where poverty is rising, falling, or staying the same, and who is most affected. Ten years ago, our book, “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America,” chronicled the rapid rise of poverty in the nation’s suburbs during the 2000s. We showed the challenges the shifting geography of poverty posed for low-income Americans’ ability to access safety net services, transportation, and jobs.

Now, the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey (ACS)—another set of data that often flies under the public radar—offers an updated look at the landscape of poverty in 2022. After a long run of economic growth in the 2010s and more than two years into a post-pandemic economic recovery, what does the geography of poverty in America look like today?

The nation’s suburbs accounted for the majority of increases in the poor population following the onset of the pandemic

Of that 1.5 million person increase in Americans living below the poverty line, more than 60% occurred in suburbs. The U.S. is a suburban nation—more people live in suburbs (47%) than in cities (21%), small and midsized metro areas (18%), or rural areas (14%).1 And between 2019 and 2022, the poor population in major metropolitan suburbs grew three times as fast as in major cities (6% versus 2%). Major metro areas in the West (e.g., Ogden, Utah and San Francisco), South (e.g., Washington, D.C. and Houston), and Midwest (e.g., St. Louis and Minneapolis-Saint Paul) posted double-digit percentage increases in their suburban poor populations over this period. (See the appendix for detailed data.)

Fewer suburbs experienced falling poverty rates than cities

As urban and suburban poor populations increased, so did poverty rates (the share of the total population living below the poverty line) in both large cities and their surrounding suburbs. In 2022, roughly one in 10 suburban residents lived in poverty (9.6%), compared to about one in six in primary cities (16.2%). Those rates represented increases of less than half a percentage point over 2019 (0.3 percentage points for suburbs and 0.4 percentage points for large cities).

Over this same period, 25 major metro areas posted statistically significant increases in their suburban poverty rates, and 25 saw significant increases in their urban poverty rates. Only six metro areas had increases in both their urban and suburban poverty rates: Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New York, Ogden, Utah, and San Francisco. As our colleague William H. Frey has shown, several of these metro areas shed both city and suburban population during the 2019-2022 pandemic period.

In contrast, 19 major metro areas saw their urban poverty rates decline between 2019 and 2022, led by Grand Rapids, Mich., Buffalo, N.Y., and Knoxville, Tenn. But only 12 major metro areas posted statistically significant declines in their suburban poverty rates following the pandemic. By and large, those declines reflected overall (non-poor) population growth rather than declines in the number of people living in poverty; no major metro area registered a statistically significant decline in its suburban poor population over this period. For example, the total number of residents in Provo, Utah’s suburbs grew by 13% between 2019 and 2022. That rapid population growth, even as the region’s poor population remained statistically unchanged, led Provo’s suburban poverty rate to fall by 2.2 percentage points.

America continues to confront suburban poverty

A year after the release of “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America,” we wrote that recovery from the Great Recession “did not hit the reset button” on the landscape of poverty. By 2014, the worst effects of the recession had receded, yet the shift of poverty toward the nation’s suburbs had not. The same remains true in the wake of the pandemic recession. Whatever trajectory U.S. poverty follows in the coming years, it’s increasingly clear that the “new geography of poverty” we chronicled a decade ago is here to stay.

Much of our book detailed the challenges of addressing this geography of poverty when so much key infrastructure—such as policies targeted to low-income communities, the social service capacity for deploying key work supports, and the transportation networks that shape access to employment opportunities—historically has been concentrated in urban areas. We articulated the need for more cross-jurisdictional strategies that could grapple with the regional scale at which major metropolitan labor and housing markets function.

For all the economic pain it wrought, the COVID-19 pandemic also induced a massive federal response to alleviate need at the local level. Counties, cities, and towns of all sizes—including thousands in suburban America—received direct aid to help workers, households, and students whose lives the pandemic upended. While that aid was time-limited, it surely opened more suburban leaders’ eyes to the hardships many of their residents continue to face even after the emergency has subsided.

Sustaining efforts to address economic hardship once pandemic-era federal funding runs dry will take creativity, collaboration, and commitment in the face of competing priorities. But as the latest data makes clear, American poverty remains a growing suburban challenge, and solutions to overcome it must take root there as well.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 2 years

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Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery, Sony, Meta and more media companies have confirmed they will cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Disney reached out to employees on Friday to stress that they recognize the “impact” of the Supreme Court’s decision and “remain committed to providing comprehensive access to quality and affordable care” for all Disney employees and their families, which includes family planning and reproductive care, “no matter where they live,” an internal source told Variety. For Disney employees unable to access a medical service, including abortions, in one location, they have a travel benefit that allows for “affordable coverage for receiving similar levels of care in another location.”

A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: “Netflix offers a travel reimbursement coverage for full-time U.S. employees and their dependents who need to travel for cancer treatment, transplants, gender affirming care, or abortion — through our U.S. health plans. This is a $10,000 lifetime allowance per employee and/or their dependents per service.”

In light of the Supreme Court decision, Warner Bros. Discovery has expanded its “healthcare benefits options to cover transportation expenses for employees and their covered family members who need to travel to access abortion and reproductive care,” a spokesperson said. The company’s chief people and culture officer, Adria Alpert Romm, said in a memo: “Our number one priority is the wellbeing, health and safety of our employees.”

Variety has confirmed that Comcast has a travel benefit that covers Comcast and NBC Universal employees’ medical services and procedures that aren’t available near an employee’s home.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and Chief People Officer Nancy Phillips sent a memo to staff on Friday, obtained by Variety, confirming the company’s intentions to cover travel costs for employees seeking abortions, writing, “Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.”

A Meta spokesperson said: “We intend to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need them to access out-of-state health care and reproductive services. We are in the process of assessing how best to do so given the legal complexities involved.”

Sony employees in the U.S. receive reimbursement for travel if it’s required to access healthcare services available under its health plan, which includes reproductive healthcare, a source has confirmed. "Sony Music Group and Live Nation are known to have insurance policies that provide reimbursement for travel if it is required to access healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare services."

The Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Institute, which are based in Utah, announced several weeks ago that they augmented its healthcare benefits to include covering travel expenses for services not available where they reside. Utah is one of the states expected to implement abortion bans following the Court decision.

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti told staffers: “Effective immediately, we will provide a stipend for anyone residing in the 13 states with triggering abortion ending laws to cover the cost for travel and expenses required for access to safe abortion. The process around this will be completely confidential.”

Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch said in a note to his staff on Friday that the company has “made enhancements to our U.S. health benefits to assist covered employees and their covered dependents in obtaining access to reproductive care regardless of where they reside. Employees who need abortion, infertility or gender-affirming services who cannot obtain that care locally are now eligible for reimbursement on travel and lodging.”

Earlier Friday, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively ending federal protections of abortion rights. The final opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, fully repudiates the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights. It also effectively strikes down the 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that largely maintained the right established in Roe.

Variety has reached out to additional Hollywood studios and media companies, but has not yet heard back. Some companies who did respond to a request for comment, such as Amazon and Lionsgate, said they did not have a statement at this time.

Here’s the Paramount Global memo in full:

Team,

We know that many of us have been closely following the news regarding the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, which struck down Roe v. Wade and repealed constitutional protections for abortion. Across the country, we have entered a moment of profound uncertainty – from a legal and a policy perspective, as states pursue different paths regarding reproductive rights, but also on a personal level, as we try to understand what services will be accessible, when, where, and to whom.

In the face of this uncertainty, we want to be very clear about what will not change at Paramount.

First, as a community: wherever we stand on this or any other difficult issue, we will continue to treat one another with empathy and respect.

And second, as a company: Paramount will support – as we always have – the choices our employees make about their own health care. This includes the reproductive health and family-building benefits* that help make our company a welcoming place to work. A few benefits I’d like to highlight include:

Reproductive health care through company-sponsored health insurance, including coverage for birth control, elective abortion care, miscarriage care and certain related travel expenses if the covered health service, such as abortion, is prohibited in your area.

Fertility and family building support through Progyny including coverage for IVF, egg freezing and other fertility treatments and services and reimbursement of up to $30,000 for adoption or surrogacy expenses.

Free access to Health Advocate, a confidential service to help you and your family find medical providers, resolve health insurance issues and navigate the healthcare system.

Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave for a delivering parent (includes 6 weeks of Short Term Disability), up to 12 weeks of paid leave for adoption care or foster care and up to 10 days of paid bereavement leave including pregnancy loss.

24/7 lactation support, including milk shipping for traveling employees, through LifeCare.

Free access to a dedicated behavior expert for support raising children with developmental disabilities or learning, social or behavioral challenges.

We encourage you to visit the Paramount Total Rewards portal for additional details, including parenting information on the Family Planning Resources page. If you have questions about your benefit eligibility, please email the Paramount HR Employee Support Team at [email protected].

We also understand that some reproductive health care events and decisions can be particularly challenging, so we want to remind everyone of our professional counseling and other mental health services, available 24/7, through our CCA Employee Assistance Program (Company Code: paramount).

All these resources are here for you and your loved ones. We encourage you to explore your options and take advantage of what’s available in order to make the medical decisions that best suit your needs. As ever, we are here to support all members of our community––and will give you and others the space to process this news.

Best,

Bob & Nancy

*Please note that you must be in an eligible employee classification for each of the benefits noted; employees whose employment is governed by a collective bargaining agreement are eligible for benefits under that agreement.

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unwelcome-ozian · 1 year

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I've seen a lot of things online about stalkers posting live feeds and media of targeted individuals to secret areas of the internet and dark web as well as putting bids on things to interact with them or the like. It does happen to victims of gangstalking or by stalkers for sure. Was just wondering if you had any info about it but still loved your response. We appreciate you! I'm sure it is quite the heavy load keeping up with the Asks.

There is a difference between an individual stalking someone and gang-stalking. Single stalkers will post on websites.

For example this single stalker: “In October 2020, Baltierra hired an unknown third party through an instant messaging mobile application to create multiple photoshopped nude images of the victim that placed her face onto pornographic images. From November 2020 to March 2022, Baltierra posted the photoshopped nude images to multiple pornographic websites and internet forums. He also sent the images to the victim’s friends and family. Baltierra also posted links to the images on various social media websites and told others online to search for the victim’s name to see naked pictures of her.” Source

This single stalker: In Utah, Loren Okamura was accused of tormenting Walt Gilmore and his adult daughter online for over a year. He sent threatening messages to the daughter and posted her address online. He also sent over 500 people to their home for unwanted services that included tow trucks, food delivery, and prostitutes. Okamura was indicted in October 2019 on charges including cyberstalking and interstate threats, as well as transporting people for prostitution. Source

These are cases of individual stalkers using the internet as a weapon. Those who look at the posts are a part of the weapon but not the stalker and they aren’t gang stalking. Those who visit the sites are most likely unaware of the source and intent of the pictures.

The question was: “Do you know anything about the gangstalkers publishing feeds of targeted individuals to the dark web?”

I’ve seen a lot of things on social media as well about gang stalking and people sharing their beliefs and experiences.

Interviews

Gang Stalking: Real-Life Harassment or Textbook Paranoia?

Complaints of group-stalking ('gang-stalking'): an exploratory study of their nature and impact on complainants.

Court case Court case

Targeted Justice

Gang stalking takes place 24 hours a day seven days a week and for years. This in itself is not sustainable.

#answers to questions #gangstalking #stalking

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heavyhaultransport · 2 years

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Flatbed Transportation Service: Best Way to Move Your Bulky Cargo

Flatbed transportation offers the most secure and efficient way to move your cargo. Flatbeds are trucks with an open bed, which allows you to load and unload your cargo directly onto the truck. This eliminates the need for a loading dock, which can save you time and money. Also, they can accommodate large and heavy items, which makes them ideal for moving large cargo.

What Is Flatbed Transportation?

Flatbed Transportation Service is a specific type of freight shipping that involves the transportation of goods on a platform that is level with the ground. This type of transportation is often used for oversized or heavy cargo, as it is easier to load and unload than other methods.

A flatbed truck consists of a platform located at the rear end of the vehicle. These trucks have a maximum capacity of 20 tons and are often referred to as 20-ton trucks. They are commonly used to transport heavy objects over long distances. Flatbed trucks are best suited for carrying goods such as cars, furniture, refrigerators, and other items that do not require much space.

Benefits Of Flatbed Trucking Over Conventional Shipping Methods

Flatbed transportation is also a common choice for shipping fragile or sensitive items, as there is less risk of damage during transit. There are a few reasons why flatbed transportation might be the best option for your shipment. Flatbeds are perfect for large, heavy, or awkwardly-shaped items, as there is plenty of space on the truck to accommodate them.

Also, Flatbed Hauling Companies Near Me offer a fast, safe, and reliable way to transport your goods, which can be especially important for time-sensitive shipments. The flatbed transportation process is a simple one. The truck driver will back up to the loading dock at the warehouse and use a forklift to load the pallets onto the truck.

The truck driver will then drive to the customer’s location and use a forklift to unload the pallets. However, remember, not all Flatbed Hauling Companies Near Me are created equal, and you want to be sure you are working with a reputable, reliable company that will deliver on its promises.

What Are The Risks Of Using Flatbed Transportation?

There are a few risks associated with using Flatbed Transportation Service. One is that the cargo may be damaged during transport. This can be because it is not secured properly or because of the rough road conditions.

Another risk is that the cargo may fall off the truck. This could happen if the truck makes a sharp turn or if the truck is not well-maintained by the Flatbed Hauling Companies Near Me. Finally, there is the risk of theft. Cargo that is not properly secured can be easy for thieves to steal.

For more details visit our website heavyhaultransporting.com

#Heavy hauling trucking companies #Heavy haul trucking companies in Utah #Heavy haul trucking companies in Nevada #Heavy equipment transport companies #Heavy equipment moving companies #Flatbed transportation service #Flatbed trucks near me #Flatbed transportation #Heavy haul trucking companies in Wyoming #Heavy haul trucking companies in Alaska #Flatbed trucking services #Flatbed truck company #Heavy haul trucking companies near me #Heavy haul transportation companies near me #Heavy haul transportation companies #Heavy haul equipment movers #Heavy haul oversized companies #Heavy haul oversize trucking #Heavy haul companies near me

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reblogthiscrapkay · 11 months

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Travel Tips

In talking to people I realize that I have some really specific things I do while traveling that make my life easier that people don’t seem to know about. Here’s a list of those things. Planning: Plug everything into Google Maps beforehand. Whether you’re driving, walking, or taking public transport, when you plan a daily itinerary, always check how long it’s going to take to get from place to place. You may have vastly overestimated how much you can actually do in the time you have. Leave a little space. I’m a habitual overplanner so I frequently have to remind myself that I should make sure that after I have the couple things I really want to do properly fit into the day, I should just leave some wiggle room. This is especially true if you are doing anything involving nature. Maybe you’ll not want to rush off the beach. Maybe you’ll take a little detour on your hike that seems fun. Have backups for weather. Depending on the trip, the weather can really mess with your plans. On a recent Nevada/Utah trip, our plans to see Bryce Canyon full of snow were thwarted by thick fog. Thankfully, we were leaving out of Vegas and we had plenty we could do there instead. Always have an alternative.

Food: Buy a little extra food with breakfast. I suggested to students on my DC trip that when we went to Dunkin’ in the morning they didn’t just think about what they needed right there, but also that they pick up an extra bagel or doughnut for when they need a snack before or after lunch. Apparently this was genius. Act like restaurants will all be closed by 6PM and plan accordingly. I recently messed up on this one and arrived at 8:30PM in a town in Nevada with two restaurants that both close at 8. Needlessly to say, breakfast was incredible. This is less important if you are going to a big city on a day that isn’t Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday but still worth considering. Just bring some bars. Granola, Clif, Luna, whatever. Just bring a few for emergencies. Packing: Don’t overpack!!! Everyone always does but I’m so serious about this. If your trip is 1-3 nights, you just need a backpack. If it’s a week, you can take something more like a duffel. You only need a small suitcase if it’s over a week, and if you crawl into your suitcase you better be going somewhere for over a month. Create a standard packing list. To save myself the stress of creating a new one each time and also to make sure I can cull things or add things with experience, I have one standard list. It has the categories of “toiletries” and “technology” which are universal for any overnight, “cold weather” and “hot weather” depending on the time, and a section called “circumstantial” which has some generic items I may need depending on the trip (like a book, a bathing suit, or feminine hygiene products) and two subcategories of “international” and “car travel” for if I’m going overseas or if I’m road tripping in my own car. Even in confusing situations like Iceland in the summer where I needed both a bathing suit and a rain jacket, it’s super helpful. If road tripping, bring an empty backpack. One of the more brilliant tactics I have came from a four week long road trip across the west and southwest. Obviously I needed a full suitcase for the journey but we were staying at different hotels almost every night. Instead of bringing in the suitcase every day, I could just keep my toiletries, chargers, and PJs in the backpack and add a new outfit every day. Then in the morning, I would put my old clothes in my dirty clothes bag in the suitcase and replace the outfit with tomorrow’s. Do laundry. I don’t even mean pay for laundry services. When I did a Greece and Turkey trip that lasted three weeks I only packed half that amount in clothes and just washed things in the hotel sinks. I got so sweaty every day anyway that I did it almost daily. Travel size shampoo, conditioner, and soap are necessary for international travel. Unless you are staying in nice accommodations (and I often am not), bringing little bottles of these things is really good to have as they are not always provided. I also steal them from nicer hotels I stay at to have a little supply at home.

#i should be packing for morocco right now but I accidentally set a fire and now I'm at the library while the smoke clears #personal #travel #life hacks

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aqsaa8685 · 1 year

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Utah 'optimistic' to receive grants to study rail service from Salt Lake to Boise, Las Vegas

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Transit Authority officials say they are “pretty optimistic” about Utah’s ability to receive federal funding that will help state transportation officials study the possibility of restoring commuter rail service to Idaho and Nevada in the near future. Jay Fox, the agency’s director, told a joint KSL-Deseret News editorial board Monday that he…

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turtlesandfrogs · 2 years

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From Sept. 2022:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A record-setting heat wave made life miserable in much of the West on Tuesday, with California stretching into its second week of excessive heat that taxed the state's power supply and threatened power shortages that could prompt blackouts while people were desperately trying to stay cool.

The California Independent System Operator, the entity that oversees the state's electrical grid, said there could be "rotating power outages" Tuesday evening when demand for power could reach an all-time high.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged residents to conserve, warning in a video message that "the risk for outages is real and it's immediate."

"This heat wave is on track to be both the hottest and the longest on record for the state and many parts of the West for the month of September," Newsom said. "Everyone has to do their part to help step up for just a few more days."

California's state capital of Sacramento tied a record Tuesday with its 41st day of temperatures reaching at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). And there was a chance the city would break its all-time high temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) set in 1925, according to the National Weather Service.

Sacramento native Debbie Chang was out walking in Capitol Park on Tuesday morning, pulling a wagon of Pop-Tarts and water to hand out to homeless people. She lives in an old house that relies on wall-mounted units that she says don't work so well. The temperature reached 91 degrees (33 C) in her house Monday night.

"The past few years in California, it's really rough," she said. "I really love this state. And growing up I never imagined I'd exactly want to live outside of California, unless maybe internationally. But this is very difficult."

In neighboring Nevada, Reno set a record of 102 degrees (39 C) on Monday while in Utah's Salt Lake City temperatures were about 20 degrees higher than normal, hitting 105 degrees (40.5 C) on Tuesday, the hottest September day recorded going back to 1874.

Scientists say climate change has made the West warmer and drier over the last three decades and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. In the last five years, California has experienced the largest and most destructive fires in state history.

A wildfire that started Friday in the Northern California community of Weed killed two people and one that erupted Monday and spread rapidly in the Hemet area of Southern California also killed two people. Authorities said they were found in the same area and apparently died while trying to flee the flames.

Though the heat wave was likely to peak in most places on Tuesday, extremely high temperatures are expected to continue for several more days.

"It is a genuinely dangerous event from a human health perspective," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles Institute for Environment and Sustainability

Sacramento County officials were using the air-conditioned lobbies of some of their public buildings as cooling centers for people with nowhere else to go and offering free transportation for people who could not get there. Officials even handed out motel vouchers to some homeless people through a program they normally reserve for the winter, according to county spokeswoman Janna Haynes.

"While a lot of people can stay home, a lot of people do not have a home to stay in," Haynes said.

In state office buildings, thermostats were being set at 85 degrees (29 C) at 5 p.m. to conserve electricity.

Sacramento native Ariana Clark said she couldn't remember it ever being this hot for this long before. She said she turned her air conditioner off in the afternoons to conserve energy and kept her 9-month old son, Benito, cool by filling up a bucket for him to play in outside.

"As long as he's keeping cool that's all that matters," Clark said.

Juliana Hinch, who moved to Sacramento from San Diego 2 1/2 years ago said she has never seen heat like this before. She said some wetlands by her house have mostly dried up, so she leaves water in her front yard "for other random animals," including cats, squirrels and coyotes.

Hinch said she once lived in Washington state but moved away because it was too cold. Now, she said "that sounds like a good problem to have."

California and the West broil in record-setting heat wave https://www.npr.org/2022/09/06/1121403326/california-and-the-west-broil-in-record-setting-heat-wave

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kp777 · 2 years

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by Sammy Herdman

MongaBay

3 October 2022

The Uinta Basin is home to a diverse set of creatures from endangered black-footed ferrets to plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, such as the Uinta Basin hookless cactus and Graham’s beardtongue.

But the basin also sits atop pockets of crude oil and natural gas, which are being extracted: to transport these fossil fuels to the Gulf Coast, local governments and oil companies are planning to invest up to $4.5 billion to construct a new railway through it.

Although the project has been approved, construction hasn’t begun and it’s not too late for U.S. President Biden to keep his climate pledges and stop the new railway, a new op-ed argues.

This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

The Uinta Basin, named after the Ute Tribe, is located in Northeast Utah and Western Colorado, about 200 miles from Salt Lake City. Streams from the Uinta mountains roll through the basin into a tributary of the Colorado River – supplying 40 million people with water throughout the drought-ridden West. Plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world, such as the Uinta Basin hookless cactus and Graham’s beardtongue, flourish in the Uinta Basin. The ecosystem also harbors endangered species such as the sage grouse and black-footed ferret.

By all accounts, the Uinta Basin is a beautiful ecological haven. Unfortunately, however, it sits atop pockets of crude oil and natural gas, which are being extracted. To transport crude oil to the Gulf Coast where it will be refined, local governments and oil companies are planning to invest $1.5 to $4.5 billion to construct a new railway through the basin.

The Uinta Basin Railway is a proposed 88-mile stretch of train tracks that will blast through mountains, reroute 443 streams, bulldoze through endangered sage grouse habitat, appropriate private property and even fragment a roadless area in the Ashley National Forest. According to the U.S. Forest Service Chief, ��a railway does not constitute a road.” The railway is projected to quadruple the region’s oil extraction from 85,000 up to 350,000 barrels of oil per day – resulting in an increase in air pollution, noise pollution, habitat degradation and a greater risk of water pollution, train derailments and wildfires. The region already suffers from chronic air pollution, falling below federal standards for ozone pollution set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

By quadrupling fossil fuel extraction in the Uinta Basin, construction of the railway is projected to increase U.S. carbon emissions by 1%. Escalating climate change will bring more wildfires and more drought to the region – at a time when the Biden administration should be actively trying to reduce carbon emissions to prevent further climate change-fueled catastrophes.

Uinta Basin is freckled with small cities and towns such as Vernal, Duchesne and Jensen. The region’s economic history can be summarized as a series of boom and bust cycles due to its reliance on fossil fuels. The whims of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the fluctuations of oil prices determine the quality of life for many people in the Uinta Basin. These fluctuations often send communities into periods of growth and stretches of economic depression that threaten small business and family security.

Proponents of the Uinta Basin Railway claim that its construction will diversify the economy of the region by connecting it to the global market. However, there is little evidence that the railway will be used to transport anything but oil to or from the region, especially because at least 130,000 barrels of oil per day will have to be transported to recoup the cost of construction. This will only cause harm and exacerbate boom and bust cycles.

#uinta basin railway #fossil fuels #climate change #environment

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