"Grass fire damaged 230 homes at base
FAIRFIELD - The military says a wind-whipped fire at a California air base damaged more vacant homes than previously thought - at least 230. Air Force Major Vanessa Hillman said yesterday that the 190 homes and 40 duplexes burned in the fire at Travis Air Force Base were slated for demolition anyway. The blaze started as a grass fire Saturday and quickly spread to the housing. Officials had said at least 80 vacant homes burned. The blaze scorched more than 10 acres of the base, which is about 40 miles southwest of Sacramento (AP)."
Meanwhile, look what gets a full spread on the National page:
"Shorebirds are squawk of small Calif. town; Waste, feathers, noise a nuisance" by Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times | August 18, 2008
WILLOWS, Calif. - Memorial Park, a square-block stretch of green near the center of town, is encircled with yellow police tape and is off-limits to normal use. More than 1,000 birds, mainly snowy egrets and some black-crested night herons, are nesting there, turning patches of lawn a lunar gray and showering the grass with broken shells and feathers. Officials say the excrement is slowly killing 60-foot-tall redwoods and pines.
In the park and on bordering streets, county crews have picked up more than 1,200 dead chicks that fell from their nests. Neighbors complain about stench and flies, and half-digested crayfish raining down on them as they try to dine outdoors.
With the birds protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, some people see the closed park as an example of well-intended government regulation run amok. The law prevents Glenn County, which owns the land, from chasing the creatures out during breeding and nesting - a period that started in April and won't end until sometime in September.
"The rights of birds are outweighing the rights of humans," said Jane Foster, a mother of six who lives near the park and is reluctant to let her children play in the yard. "I tried to plant a garden, but I didn't get far because of the smell. I'm just tired of the whole thing."
Earlier this year, a proposal to thwart the birds by cutting down the trees stirred outrage, partly because they might just have lighted somewhere nearby. Before nesting began in earnest, county employees tried to scare them off with air horns, but the wailing disrupted court hearings. "We had some success, but a judge said if we did it one more time he'd have everyone arrested," said Bobbe Lewis, the Glenn County official who oversees the park.
As more birds flocked to Memorial Park last spring, the human tide receded. Ordinarily it's a quiet spot for picnics, weddings, and evening strolls. Veterans have been welcomed home there. Jurors would amble over from the courthouse during breaks, and county employees would eat their lunch on a picnic table now shrouded in white.
The city and county plan to collaborate next year on the sort of "hazing" measures used to combat bird invasions elsewhere. The trees in Memorial Park will be pruned and this year's nests dismantled. Deputies will fire blasts at dawn and dusk with the kind of cannon used to steer birds away from vineyards and airports. There's talk of strobe lights.
"It will be a continuous effort for several weeks," said Scott Gruendl, director of the Glenn County Health Services Agency. The plan calls for residents to be instructed on crafting their own noisemakers so the birds can be steered out of town to a wooded creek or some out-of-the-way eucalyptus grove.
All that residents can do now is wait until the birds fly off next month and the government rolls into its move-'em-out campaign next year.Yeah, let's wait for the GOVERNMENT to SOLVE the problem!!!
Don't do ANYTHING YOURSELVES, American sheeple!
--more--"
Also see: California's Prickly Problem
See why I am so despondent about the selective choices the Boston Globe makes, readers?
It truly is a shit rag now.
