AP News in Brief at 9:04 p.m. EST
New LA-area fire prompts more evacuations as officials say over 10,000 structures have burned
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A new fire prompted evacuations Thursday in and around Los Angeles even as firefighters aided by calmer winds saw the first signs of successfully beating back the region´s deadly and devastating wildfires, while the enormity of the devastation started to emerge.
The fast-growing Kenneth Fire started in the late afternoon in the San Fernando Valley near the West Hills neighborhood and close to Ventura County. The evacuation order covered parts of Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
The orders came as Los Angeles County officials announced the Eaton Fire near Pasadena that started Tuesday night has burned more than 5,000 structures, a term that includes homes, apartment buildings, businesses, outbuildings and vehicles. To the west in Pacific Palisades, the largest of the fires burning in the LA area has destroyed over 5,300 structures. Between the Eaton and Palisades fires, more than 10,000 structures have burned.
All of the large fires that have broken out this week in the Los Angeles area are located in a roughly 25-mile band north of downtown.
The Kenneth blaze ignited less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the El Camino Real Charter High School, where people are sheltering from the fire in Palisades. The two fires are about 10 miles (18 kilometers) apart.
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Wildfires latest: Wildfires continuing to spark around Los Angeles force more evacuations
Firefighters battled Thursday to control a series of major fires in the Los Angeles area that have killed five people, ravaged communities from the Pacific Coast to Pasadena and sent thousands of people frantically fleeing their homes.
Ferocious winds that drove the flames and led to chaotic evacuations have calmed somewhat and were not expected to be as powerful during the day. That could allow firefighters to make progress reining in blazes that have hopscotched across the sprawling region, including massive ones in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Here's the latest:
Gov. Gavin Newsom in a social media post Thursday evening said 900 additional firefighters are now being deployed to battle the fast-moving Kenneth Fire near the West Hills and Calabasas.
The fire ballooned in size - charring over a square mile (2.6 square kilometers) - within hours of igniting.
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Supreme Court rejects Trump´s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money case
WASHINGTON (AP) - A sharply divided Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President-elect Donald Trump´s final bid to put his New York hush-money case on hold, clearing the way for him to be sentenced for felony crimes days before he returns to the presidency.
The court´s 5-4 order clears the way for Judge Juan M. Merchan to impose a sentence Friday on Trump, who was convicted in what prosecutors called an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied any liaison with Daniels or any wrongdoing.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with the court´s three liberals in rejecting his emergency motion.
The majority found his sentencing wouldn't be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since Merchan has indicated he won't give Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Trump's attorneys had asked the sentencing be delayed as he appeals the verdict, but the majority of justices found his arguments can be handled as part of the regular appeals process.
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Appeals court denies bid to block public release of special counsel's report on Trump Jan. 6 probe
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a bid to block the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a emergency challenge from Trump and his co-defendants in his classified documents case, who are fighting to keep the report under wraps because they say it's one-sided and prejudicial.
The report, however, will not immediately be released, and there's no guarantee it will as more legal wrangling is expected. A lower court ruling from Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon temporarily blocking the Justice Department from releasing the report remains in place for three days.
The defendants could also conceivably ask the conservative-dominated Supreme Court to intervene.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in a concurring opinion last summer to the landmark ruling conferring broad immunity on former presidents, signaled his deep misgivings about the authority of Justice Department special counsels.
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Far from wildfire flames, residents of sunny Los Angeles go about their lives in disquiet and fear
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Pedestrians shuffled by the famed Chateau Marmont hotel, customers queued up at Starbucks on Sunset Boulevard and car horns bleated at gridlocked intersections. But overhead, shadowing the usual bustling Los Angeles scene, a blackish dome of wildfire smoke turned daybreak into an eerie twilight.
Even beyond the reach of the flames from five wildfires, Los Angeles residents accustomed to radiant sunshine and balmy weather are living with disquiet and even fear. Across the city are reminders of nearby danger: Thumping helicopters overhead. Wildfire ash tumbling like snowflakes. A lingering whiff of smoke just about everywhere. The familiar crystalline sky turned ashen gray.
"It is otherworldly," said Lydia Thelwell, a bartender visiting a hair salon where wildfire smoke could be seen from the front window. "You know it´s happening, but we just go on with our day."
The sprawling, congested city of nearly 4 million has always been disjointed, what's been called dozens of separate cities in search of a unified whole. It's not uncommon for temperatures in different neighborhoods to vary by as much as 30 degrees, with cooler days at the beach and desert-like communities in the San Fernando Valley.
But nearly everywhere now is the sense of nearby danger from the fires, with smoke coiling for miles across the sky. L.A. hasn't seen fires like these, especially in winter months, any time in recent memory.
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Jimmy Carter lauded for humility and service in Washington before being laid to rest in Georgia
WASHINGTON (AP) - Jimmy Carter was celebrated Thursday for his personal humility and public service before, during and after his presidency in a funeral at Washington National Cathedral featuring the kind of pageantry the 39th U.S. president typically eschewed. It was followed by an intimate hometown funeral near where he was born a century ago.
All of Carter's living successors attended in Washington, with President Joe Biden, who was the first sitting senator to endorse his 1976 run for the White House, eulogizing his longtime friend. Biden and others took turns in the morning praising Carter's record - which many historians have appraised more favorably since he lost his bid for a second term in 1980 - and extolling his character.
The dual ceremonies in Washington and Plains, Georgia, provided a moment of national comity in a notably partisan era and offered a striking portrait of a president who was once judged a political failure, only for his life ultimately to be recognized as having lasting national and global impact.
"He built houses for people who needed homes," said Joshua Carter, a grandson who recalled how Carter regularly taught Sunday school in Plains after leaving the White House. "He eliminated diseases in forgotten places. He waged peace anywhere in the world, wherever he saw a chance. He loved people."
Jason Carter, another grandson, wryly noted his grandparents' frugality, such as washing and reusing Ziploc bags, and his grandfather's struggles with his cellphone.
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Senate Democrats join Republicans in voting to advance bill to detain migrants accused of crimes
WASHINGTON (AP) - Newly in the minority, Democrats voted with Republicans on Thursday to advance legislation that would require federal authorities to detain unauthorized immigrants who have been accused of certain crimes - signaling that they will try and find spots to work with President-elect Donald Trump while simultaneously trying to block much of his agenda.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and most other Democrats voted to proceed with the legislation, advancing the bill 84-9. Trump and Republicans have pushed the bill and made it a priority since Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was killed last year by a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.
Still, Schumer hasn´t promised to vote for the final bill - and he made clear that Democrats want Republicans to work with them on bipartisan amendments. Thursday´s procedural vote will allow that process to begin.
On the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Schumer said that new Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., "has said he wants to make the Senate a place where all members should have a chance to make their voices heard. This bill would be a fine place to start."
Schumer´s support for the bill comes after Democrats lost the Senate and the presidency in the November elections and are trying to thoughtfully pick their battles against Trump while still trying to block much of his agenda. Republicans will need seven Democratic votes to pass most major policy items in the 53-47 Senate, and Schumer has said repeatedly that Thune will have to work with them to get things done.
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Venezuela's opposition leader defies Maduro to lead protests that end in confusing arrest claims
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado's aides said she was detained on Thursday, followed moments later by official denials of her arrest, in a confusing episode that capped a day of protests seeking to block President Nicolás Maduro from clinging to power.
It remained unclear what exactly happened after Machado bid farewell to hundreds of supporters, hopped on a motorcycle and raced with her security convoy down a main Caracas avenue.
At 3:21 p.m. local time, Machado´s press team said in a social media post that security forces "violently intercepted" her convoy. Her aides later told The Associated Press that she had been detained, and international condemnation poured in from leaders in Latin America and beyond, demanding her release.
But about an hour later, a proof-of-life, 20-second video of Machado emerged online in which she says she was followed after leaving the "wonderful" rally and had dropped her purse. Her aides later claimed in a social media post that the video message had been coerced, and that after recording it, she was freed. They said she would provide details of her "kidnapping" later.
In recent years, the word kidnapping has been associated with the government practice of detaining real or perceived opponents without following the law. It's seen as part of a campaign to repress anti-government protests that broke out after the election results were announced.
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NFL moves Vikings-Rams playoff game to Arizona after days of devastating wildfires in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The NFL has moved the Rams' wild-card playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings to Arizona after days of devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
The game will be played Monday night at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals, in suburban Glendale, Arizona.
The league announced the decision Thursday, a few hours after yet another fire broke out in an area several miles from the Rams' training complex in the Woodland Hills neighborhood. The Rams canceled the post-practice media availability for their players to allow everyone to get home quickly.
In a brief statement, the league said the decision was made "in the interest of public safety."
Los Angeles has been besieged by multiple wildfires all week following two days of extraordinary wind across the vast metropolitan area. The newest fire triggered an evacuation order in West Hills, a suburban neighborhood directly northwest of the Rams' complex.
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Alec Baldwin sues for malicious prosecution after judge dismissed case of fatal 'Rust' set shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Actor Alec Baldwin has filed a civil lawsuit for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie "Rust."
The lawsuit was filed Thursday at state district court in Santa Fe, where a judge in July dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Baldwin also alleges defamation in the suit, saying that prosecutors and investigators intentionally mishandled evidence as they pursued the case.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, along with investigators from the Santa Fe County sheriff's office.
"Defendants sought at every turn to scapegoat Baldwin for the acts and omissions of others, regardless of the evidence or the law," the lawsuit states.
