Eaton Fire: Some Altadena residents say they feel ignored by the county
Some Altadena residents told FOX 11 that the Eaton Fire is being overshadowed by the Palisades. They point out that the Eaton Fire claimed more lives and homes, but the county response is not getting the same scrutiny that the City of LA's response has. And they believe that needs to change.
"It looks like a war zone. I've been out there, block after block, it looks like a bomb hit it," said Paula Boyd who lost her fourplex in the fire.
She attended a recentLA County Board of Supervisors meeting with suggestions and questions.
"Why they didn't have water in the fire hydrants? Why there weren't firemen in the area? The firemen did a great job, and I understand they are stretched thin," Boyd said.
RELATED:Eaton Fire cause: New video appears to show origin of deadly blaze, attorneys say
She didn't get her questions answered, but the Board of Supervisors did approve a proposal to create a Fire Recovery Fund to provide direct cash aid to wildfire victims, with an initial bankroll of $32.2 million.
The fund will provide "direct cash aid to homeowners, renters, business owners, workers, and other community members impacted by the fire events," according to the motion by Supervisors Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger. "The fund will provide immediate, temporary assistance to impacted residents until longer term state and federal recovery resources become available."
RELATED: 'Selma' actor Henry G. Sanders hoping to rebuild after losing home in Eaton Fire
"Altadena's future must be shaped by those who call it home, not by external parties who do not understand its history, its heart, or the incredible, unique character of this community," Barger said during the meeting.
Gov. Gavin Newsomis also pledging his support.
RELATED:Dodgers, sports executives donating up to $100M for Newsom's 'LA Rises' initiative
"The city has a more traditional function, the county more broadly defined, and that's exactly where we want to come in and help sort of smooth over that because many different cities within that county have been impacted. And then how that county overlay works in a way where we can leverage our support," Newsom said Tuesday during a press conference announcing the initiative LA Rises.
Boyd just hopes county leaders will find emergency housing for Altadena's displaced seniors… saying they're being priced out of the community they built.
"We cannot have 90-year-olds and 80-year-olds who are homeless," she added.
Many residents in the area FOX 11 spoke to say they did not receive an alert to evacuate, even those who lost their homes. And they're wondering why that was.
The county Board of Supervisors does have a proposal to commission an after-action report to answer those questions. But they postponed the vote on that until next month.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
26 minutes ago
- The Hill
Here are the Republicans targeted by California's proposed redistricting
Democrats have proposed a new congressional map for California that could offset Republican efforts to redistrict in Texas, giving the party a chance at five new Democratic House seats in the Golden State. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is leading a charge to put a redistricting ballot measure before voters in a special election this fall, a play to bypass California's independent redistricting commission and redraw lines mid-decade. State lawmakers introduced related legislation on Monday, and are expected to move quickly to set the plan in motion. The map, proposed by the Democrats' House campaign arm, needs to work its way through the legislature — then survive legal challenges and get the green light from voters. But in its current form, it's expected to endanger five House Republicans and give Democrats a boost in some competitive seats. The GOP currently holds just nine of California's 52 House seats. Here are the Republicans at risk in the new proposal: Rep. Kevin Kiley, 3rd Congressional District Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Newsom's redistricting plan, and he would be one of the lawmakers most impacted if the proposed maps move forward. Kiley's 3rd Congressional District would pick up some of the blue Sacramento while losing Death Valley, according to analysis from Cook Political Report, changing the seat from one that went to President Trump by 4 points to one that sided with ex-Vice President Harris by 10 points. 'Newsom is so desperate to get rid of me he's gerrymandered my district in the shape of an elephant. The 'trunk' captures as many Democrat voters as possible,' Kiley said on X. 'Like all his attempts, this will fail. We'll keep beating him at the ballot box and the Capitol.' Kiley has proposed federal legislation that would ban mid-decade redistricting nationwide and nullify any new maps that are approved before the 2030 census. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, 1st Congressional District Rep. Doug LaMalfa's (R-Calif.) 1st Congressional District would make a similarly drastic shift, jumping from a district Trump won by double digits to one that would have gone to Harris by more than 10 points, according to Cook Political Report. By shifting Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman's 2nd Congressional District in Marin County to take on more of California's northern border, LaMalfa's district would pick up parts of blue Santa Rosa. The seats held by Kiley and LaMalfa would both become 'likely' or even 'safe' Democratic seats, 'depending on the candidates and campaigns,' analysis from Sabato's Crystal Ball predicts. 'If you want to know what's wrong with these maps – just take a look at them. How on earth does Modoc County on the Nevada and Oregon Border have any common interest with Marin County and the Golden Gate Bridge?' LaMalfa wrote on X. The congressman, who has held his seat for more than a decade, also sounded alarms that Newsom's efforts in California will 'set off a series of retaliation in other states across the country,' pointing to mid-decade chatter about redistricting in red Florida, Missouri and Indiana. Rep. Ken Calvert, 41st Congressional District Rep. Ken Calvert's (R-Calif.) 41st Congressional District in Riverside County, which went to Trump by 6 points last fall, could be effectively replaced with a new seat in central Los Angeles County. The new Latino-majority seat would make for another solid Democratic pickup opportunity in the midterms — though Sabato's Crystal Ball notes that it may be less so in future cycles, if Hispanic voters continue the rightward shift seen in the last election. Calvert, who has represented California in Congress for more than three decades, has stressed the popularity of California's existing independent redistricting commission, which voters approved in 2008 and 2010, as he pushes back on the Democrats' effort. 'A bipartisan majority of Californians oppose efforts to eliminate our Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. It only adds insult to injury to ask taxpayers to pay hundreds of millions of dollars on a special election power grab that would wipeout the Commission's work,' Calvert has said on X. Newsom has stressed that the redistricting measure would bypass the commission for the '26, '28 and '30 elections, before reverting back to the commission's typical redraw timelines after each census. Rep. Darrell Issa, 48th Congressional District Democrats have long targeted Rep. Darrell Issa's (R-Calif.) 48th Congressional District, where the incumbent won by double digits in November. Issa retired from Congress in 2018 but returned with a win in 2020. Under the map proposal, parts of Issa's district would shift to nearby Democrats and pick up some of Palm Springs. That would flip his seat blue, according to Cook Political Report, from one that went to Trump by 15 points to one that would have gone to Harris by three. Sabato's Crystal Ball suggests that Issa's seats would 'probably' become a toss-up if the map takes effect, along with Rep. David Valadao's (R-Calif.) seat. Analysis from CalMatters, citing registration data in the district, dubs it 'the biggest reach' for Democrats. Rep. David Valadao, 22nd Congressional District Valadao, one of the two remaining House Republicans to have voted for Trump's impeachment after Jan. 6, would see his already competitive 22nd Congressional District in Central Valley get even more so under the new maps. Cook Political Report forecasts that Valadao's would shift from its current 'lean Republican' rating to 'toss-up' territory — from a district that went to Trump by six points to one that would have favored Trump by a single digit — becoming 'the most tenuous for Democrats to flip' among the targeted districts. 'Neither political party should have the authority to rig maps to protect their own power,' Valadao said in a statement late last month, calling Newsom's effort a 'blatant power grab.'
Los Angeles Times
33 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Newsom's redistricting move isn't pretty. California GOP leaders are uglier
King Gavin is at it again! That's the cry coming from Republicans across California as Newsom pushes the state Legislature to approve a November special election like none this state has ever seen. Voters would have the chance to approve a congressional map drawn by Democrats hoping to wipe out GOP-held seats and counter Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's Trump-driven redistricting. The president 'doesn't play by a different set of rules — he doesn't believe in the rules,' the governor told a roaring crowd packed with Democratic heavyweights last week at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. 'And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. It's not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. ... We have got to meet fire with fire.' California Republicans are responding to this the way a kid reacts if you take away their Pikachu. 'An absolutely ridiculous gerrymander!' whined Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the state's rural northeast corner, on social media. Under the Democratic plan, his district would swing all the way down to ultra-liberal Marin County. The California Republican Party deemed the new maps a 'MASTERCLASS IN CORRUPTION' (Trumpian caps in the original). National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Christian Martinez said 'Newscum' was giving 'a giant middle finger to every Californian.' Intelligent minds can disagree on whether countering an extreme political move with an extreme political move is the right thing. The new maps would supersede the ones devised just four years ago by an independent redistricting commission established to keep politics out of the process, which typically occurs once a decade after the latest census. Good government types, from the League of Women Voters to Charles Munger Jr. — the billionaire who bankrolled the 2010 proposition that created independent redistricting for California congressional races — have criticized Newsom's so-called Election Rigging Response Act. So has former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a fierce Trump critic who posted a photo of himself on social media working out in a T-shirt that read, 'F*** the Politicians / Terminate Gerrymandering.' I'm not fully convinced that Newsom's plan is the MAGA killer he thinks it is. If the economy somehow rebounds next year, Republicans would most likely keep Congress anyway, and Newsom would have upended California politics for nothing. I also don't discount the moderate streak in California voters that pops up from time to time to quash what seem like liberal gimmes, like the failed attempt via ballot measure to repeal affirmative action in 2020 and the passage last year of Proposition 36, which increased penalties for theft and drug crimes. Nearly two-thirds of California voters want to keep redistricting away from the Legislature, according to a POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll released last week. If Californians reject Newsom's plan, that would torpedo his presidential ambitions and leave egg on the face of state Democratic leaders for years, if not a generation. For now, though, I'm going to enjoy all the tears that California Republicans are shedding. As they face the prospect of even fewer congressional seats than the paltry nine they now hold, they suddenly care about rescuing American democracy? Where were they during Trump's fusillade of lawsuits and threats against California? When he sent the National Guard and Marines to occupy parts of Los Angeles this summer after protests against his deportation deluge? When his underlings spew hate about the Golden State on Fox News and social media? Now they care about political decency? What about when LaMalfa and fellow California GOP House members Ken Calvert and Darrell Issa — whose seats the Newsom maps would also eliminate — voted against certifying Joe Biden's 2020 victory? When the state Republican Party backed a ridiculous recall against Newsom that cost taxpayers $200 million? Or when the Republican congressional delegation unanimously voted to pass Trump's Big Bloated Bill, even though it's expected to gut healthcare and food programs for millions of Californians in red counties? Or even when Trump first pushed Abbott to pursue the very gerrymandering Newsom is now emulating? We're supposed to believe them when they proclaim Newsom is a pompadoured potentate who threatens all Californians, just because he wants to redo congressional maps? Pot, meet black hole. If these GOPers had even an iota of decency or genuine care for the Golden State, they would back a bill by one of their own that I actually support. Rep. Kevin Kiley, whose seat is also targeted for elimination by the Newsom maps, wants to ban all mid-decade congressional redistricting. He stated via a press release that this would 'stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.' That's an effort that any believer in liberty can and should back. But Kiley's bill has no co-sponsors so far. And Kevin: Why can't you say that your man Trump created this fiasco in the first place? We live in scary times for our democracy. If you don't believe it, consider that a bunch of masked Border Patrol agents just happened to show up outside the Japanese American National Museum — situated on a historic site where citizens of Japanese ancestry boarded buses to incarceration camps during World War II — at the same time Newsom was delivering his redistricting remarks. Sector Chief Gregory Bovino was there, migra cameramen documenting his every smirk, including when he told a reporter that his agents were there to make 'Los Angeles a safer place, since we won't have politicians that'll do that, we do that ourselves.' The show of force was so obviously an authoritarian flex that Newsom filed a Freedom of Information Act request demanding to know who authorized what and why. Meanwhile, referring to Trump, he described the action on X as 'an attempt to advance a playbook from the despots he admires in Russia and North Korea.' Newsom is not everyone's cup of horchata, myself included. Whether you support it or not, watching him rip up the California Constitution's redistricting section and assuring us it's OK, because he's the one doing it, is discomfiting. But you know what's worse? Trump anything. And even worse? The California GOP leaders who have loudly cheered him on, damn the consequences to the state they supposedly love. History will castigate their cultish devotion to Trump far worse than any of Newsom's attempts to counter that scourge.
Newsweek
6 hours ago
- Newsweek
Gavin Newsom Surges in 2028 Presidential Primary Poll
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Support for California Governor Gavin Newsom as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 has surged over the past four months, a new poll shows. Newsweek tried to contact Newsom via email for comment after normal business hours. Why It Matters The poll indicates support for the more aggressive position Newsom has taken in standing up to President Donald Trump, particularly over a plan by Republicans in Texas to redraw their state's congressional seat map in the hopes of winning more seats in midterm elections next year. The battle to become the 2028 presidential election candidate will likely set the new direction for the Democratic Party as it struggles with net favorability at what one recent poll showed to be a three-year low. Newsom has not formally announced his candidacy. What To Know The new poll, conducted by Echelon Insights, has Newsom in second place among potential Democratic candidates with 13 percent support, behind former Vice President Kamala Harris with 26 percent. The survey was taken from August 14 to August 18 with a 3.6 percent margin of error among 1,057 registered voters. A poll published by Echelon Insights in April had Newsom only in sixth place with 4 percent, behind former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, both on 7 percent. Harris was again in first place with 28 percent. In the new poll, Buttigieg was in third place with 11 percent and Ocasio-Cortez in fourth place with 6 percent. The California governor has been punching back at Trump over the past few weeks, particularly in the war of words over redistricting. Meanwhile, his press office has turned its social media feed into a stream of all-caps posts, pop culture parodies and AI-edited meme content, aimed squarely at mocking Trump in style while countering Republican initiatives. California Governor Gavin Newsom holds a news conference at Downey Memorial Christian Church in Downey, California, on July 16, 2025. California Governor Gavin Newsom holds a news conference at Downey Memorial Christian Church in Downey, California, on July 16, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP/Getty Images Meena Bose, the executive dean of Hofstra University's Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs, told Newsweek last month that polls this far out from a primary were "informative but not necessarily instructive," largely indicating name recognition or reflecting a stated interest in running in 2028. Newsom and Buttigieg both have public visibility but a more solid idea of who is running – and who is leading – will develop after the midterms and change after debates and early contests, Bose said, adding that whether Ocasio-Cortez is a viable candidate will be seen after the midterms. There is also a big question over whether Harris will stand after her loss to Trump last year. In her first interview since she left office on January 20, she told Stephen Colbert that she would not run for California governor in 2026, but denied it was so that she could run for a "different office" — the implication being another run for the presidency. Newsom has already been on the ascent since February in early 2028 polling in the aftermath of the deadly Los Angeles County fires. Online betting website Polymarket said this week that his chances of beating Ocasio-Cortez to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 are increasing. The site showed Newsom on 21 percent and leading Ocasio Cortez by 7 percentage points in a hypothetical matchup that also includes other high-profile Democrats. This is 3 percentage points more than earlier this month, when Newsom was 4 percentage points ahead of Ocasio-Cortez. Polymarket showed Harris on only 5 percent. Ocasio-Cortez has also not formally announced her candidacy for the 2028 race. What People Are Saying Strategist Mike Madrid, a political consultant and co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee, previously told Newsweek about Newsom: "People thought his career was over. Now, he's in the top three in every poll." "Democrats are looking for a fighter. It's not about ideology anymore. You can be centrist or progressive — what matters is that you stand up and hit back. The more aggressive Newsom gets, the more support he builds." Trump told reporters in June: "He's done a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom. He's a nice guy but he's grossly incompetent, everybody knows." What Happens Next Typically, most candidates do not begin announcing presidential runs until after the midterm elections.
