Evacuation orders lifted at Yosemite fire

Updated 11:17 PM ET

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. Evacuation orders and advisories were lifted Tuesday for several Sierra Nevada communities once threatened by a raging wildfire in and around Yosemite National Park.

Officials said they still are investigating the cause of the blaze, which started 18 days ago in an isolated area of the Stanislaus National Forest and has burned nearly 370 square miles — the fourth biggest recorded wildfire in California.

18 Photos

With higher humidity and lower temperatures, the fire reached 80 percent containment, prompting the sheriff's offices in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties to lift evacuation advisories for communities with several thousand structures in the fire's path.

Officials said 111 structures, including 11 homes, have been destroyed. More than 4,300 firefighters are still battling the blaze.

Although no cause has been announced, one local fire chief speculated the fire might have ignited in an illegal marijuana grow.

Play Video

Chief Todd McNeal of the Twain Harte Fire Department told a community group recently that there was no lightning in the area, so the fire must have been caused by humans.

"We don't know the exact cause," he said in a talk that was posted Aug. 23 on YouTube. "Highly suspect it might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing, but it doesn't really matter at this point."

The video was first reported Saturday by the San Jose Mercury News.

Officials overseeing the fire suppression effort would not comment on the statement and would only say that the cause is still under investigation.

"There has been some progress but there are no additional details at this time," said Rena Escobedo, a spokeswoman with the Rim Fire incident command team. The U.S. Forest Service is leading the investigation.

McNeal could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Whether a marijuana grow or something else was the cause of the fire will take a long time to determine, said Doug Allen, a retired division chief in charge of law enforcement for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Southern California.

Allen said investigators generally follow char marks on trees and rocks to help find the fire's point of origin, then mark off the territory into grids that are searched for clues. A lightning strike, for example, might have melted sand into glass.

"Everything will have carbon stains that will tell them which direction it came from," Allen said. "You won't find the point of origin on every fire. Maybe a bulldozer has driven over where it started and you're out of luck."

Illegal marijuana grows in national parks and forests have tormented federal land managers for years. Growers hike into remote canyons with poisons and irrigation lines and set up camp for months. The poisons kill wildlife and seep into streams and creeks. The growers leave tons of garbage behind.

The three top causes of wildfire in California are equipment use, such as a lawnmower blade hitting a rock or a vehicle's malfunctioning catalytic converter, plus debris burning and arson.

View the original article here

Evacuation orders lifted at Yosemite fire

Updated 11:17 PM ET

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. Evacuation orders and advisories were lifted Tuesday for several Sierra Nevada communities once threatened by a raging wildfire in and around Yosemite National Park.

Officials said they still are investigating the cause of the blaze, which started 18 days ago in an isolated area of the Stanislaus National Forest and has burned nearly 370 square miles — the fourth biggest recorded wildfire in California.

18 Photos

With higher humidity and lower temperatures, the fire reached 80 percent containment, prompting the sheriff's offices in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties to lift evacuation advisories for communities with several thousand structures in the fire's path.

Officials said 111 structures, including 11 homes, have been destroyed. More than 4,300 firefighters are still battling the blaze.

Although no cause has been announced, one local fire chief speculated the fire might have ignited in an illegal marijuana grow.

Play Video

Chief Todd McNeal of the Twain Harte Fire Department told a community group recently that there was no lightning in the area, so the fire must have been caused by humans.

"We don't know the exact cause," he said in a talk that was posted Aug. 23 on YouTube. "Highly suspect it might have been some sort of illicit grove, a marijuana-grow-type thing, but it doesn't really matter at this point."

The video was first reported Saturday by the San Jose Mercury News.

Officials overseeing the fire suppression effort would not comment on the statement and would only say that the cause is still under investigation.

"There has been some progress but there are no additional details at this time," said Rena Escobedo, a spokeswoman with the Rim Fire incident command team. The U.S. Forest Service is leading the investigation.

McNeal could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Whether a marijuana grow or something else was the cause of the fire will take a long time to determine, said Doug Allen, a retired division chief in charge of law enforcement for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Southern California.

Allen said investigators generally follow char marks on trees and rocks to help find the fire's point of origin, then mark off the territory into grids that are searched for clues. A lightning strike, for example, might have melted sand into glass.

"Everything will have carbon stains that will tell them which direction it came from," Allen said. "You won't find the point of origin on every fire. Maybe a bulldozer has driven over where it started and you're out of luck."

Illegal marijuana grows in national parks and forests have tormented federal land managers for years. Growers hike into remote canyons with poisons and irrigation lines and set up camp for months. The poisons kill wildlife and seep into streams and creeks. The growers leave tons of garbage behind.

The three top causes of wildfire in California are equipment use, such as a lawnmower blade hitting a rock or a vehicle's malfunctioning catalytic converter, plus debris burning and arson.

View the original article here

Intel chief to publish numbers of secret spying orders

WASHINGTON The nation's top intelligence official said Thursday that he'll now release figures every year on how many new top secret court orders and national security letters are issued and how many people are targeted because of them.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper said in a statement that the number of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders and national security letters authorizing spying will be published on a website established to show the American people how U.S. spy agencies work. The court orders and letters are tools authorized by the USA Patriot Act to pursue suspects related to terrorism and espionage.

Publishing the numbers is part of President Barack Obama's edict to provide more transparency and to try to convince Americans that they are not being spied on, after leaks by former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden revealed the NSA annually gathers millions of U.S. phone and Internet records and has scooped up thousands of U.S. emails mixed with those of terror suspects.

Several lawmakers have called for the court orders to be declassified, and have drafted at least 19 bills aimed at trimming the NSA's spying authority.

The NSA made public three formerly secret court opinions last week which revealed the agency was ordered in 2011 to stop collecting thousands of Internet communications from Americans with no connection to terrorism -- a practice it says was an unintended consequence when it gathered bundles of Internet traffic connected to terror suspects.

A judge had ordered the NSA to publish one of the court orders; the other two released showed the agency had changed its processes and received a legal sign-off by the secret court on a procedure to limit how long the mixed emails may be stored and how the data may be accessed when it is likely to include U.S. citizens' emails.

View the original article here

Judge orders early release of '63 Ala. bombing victim's dad

Updated 11:42 PM ET

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. A judge sided with the Obama administration Thursday and ordered the early release from prison of a former Alabama politician whose daughter died in a racist church bombing in 1963.

U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith approved the release of Chris McNair after the Justice Department sought McNair's freedom on grounds of compassion.

The judge said the 87-year-old should be freed because of his advanced age and deteriorating health.

Play Video

McNair, incarcerated at a federal prison medical center in Rochester, Minn., should be released as soon as his health allows and travel arrangements can be made, Smith wrote.

Peggy Sanford is a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Birmingham. She said that McNair was released from prison hours after Smith issued her ruling.

McNair was part of the scandal-plagued Jefferson County Commission that made deals resulting in a then-record municipal bankruptcy over more than $4 billion in debts.

The administration's request for leniency asked a judge to reduce McNair's five-year sentence to the time he has served since entering prison in 2011.

The request said McNair's "serious and declining health problems are extraordinary and compelling reasons" warranting his release, but it did not mention his link to one of the most infamous crimes of the civil rights era.

McNair is the father of Denise McNair, one of the four black girls killed when Ku Klux Klansmen bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. A bell from the landmark church was rung at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday during commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Lisa McNair, Denise's younger sister and her father's main caregiver before his imprisonment, declined comment on the chances of his early release.

A lawyer for McNair, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. Jones prosecuted the last two Klansmen sent to prison for the bombing, then went on to represent McNair during his criminal trial.

Chris McNair became one of the Alabama Legislature's first black members since Reconstruction when he was elected as a state representative in 1973. He never mentioned his daughter's death during the campaign.

He later served 15 years on the Jefferson County Commission before resigning in 2001.

McNair was among 21 people convicted in corruption cases linked to a more than $3 billion sewer project in Alabama's most populous county.

Citing more than $4 billion debts in all, the county filed what was then the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in 2011. County leaders are still trying to emerge from bankruptcy.

McNair's commission duties included overseeing the sewer project, and prosecutors said evidence showed he collected bribes from contractors in return for government work.

McNair was convicted of bribery and conspiracy to solicit bribes in April 2006, and he later pleaded guilty to soliciting $140,000 in more bribes.

McNair entered prison after losing a bid to remain free because of his age and health.

View the original article here