By Lil Nickelson The Harlem School of the Arts located at 645 St. Nicholas Avenue was the location chosen by the Harlem Cultural Festival Foundation (“HCFF”) for the “55 Years Soul 1969 – 2024,” legacy tribute reception and dinner. Major sponsors of the reception were the Harlem Community Development Corporation and PB Brasserie Steakhouse. The…
Modern industrial workspaces and laboratories are often characterized by the utilization of a wide range of substances, many of which pose varying degrees of risk to personnel, infrastructure, and the environment. The management of hazardous materials is not only a concern for health and safety but also a regulatory imperative. As such, proper storage solutions,…
Selecting the right roof style is essential when building or renovating a home. Not only does it enhance a home’s appearance, but it also affects durability and energy efficiency. Athens homeowners have multiple options, from classic designs to more modern choices. Each style offers unique benefits that can fit the region’s climate and aesthetic. Not…
Every day, many incidents arise and after they do, the ones worried are normally left with a few shape of damage or a monetary or emotional burden. Damages related to non-public damage law are warranted for the ones who have sustained accidents via the negligence of some other person. For example, inside the kingdom of…
By HWM: The second presidency of Donald Trump is expected to begin on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Trump was elected after the 2024 presidential election. Upon taking office, he will become the second president in U.S. history to serve non-consecutive terms after Grover Cleveland in 1893, the oldest individual to assume the…
Traveling is an exciting adventure that everyone should experience. But without the right essentials, the journey can quickly turn from delightful to disastrous. Men in particular are often guilty of either packing too much or not enough when it comes to clothing. So, what are the perfect travel attire essentials every man should have? Well,…
In the quick-evolving world of cutting-edge office layout, the conventional idea of cubicles and high-rise partitions is being redefined. Companies are increasingly adopting flexible, collaborative, and aesthetically appealing office layouts that inspire creativity, verbal exchange, and a feel of community. The consciousness has shifted from simply dividing area to creating environments that sell productiveness and…
As climate action on a federal level is now all but impossible and New York City recovers once again from being cloaked by wildfire smoke, New Yorkers will call on Governor Kathy Hochul to lead the way and build 15 gigawatts(GW) of renewable energy. New Yorkers will rally directly before a public hearing being held…
BRICK, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s governor declared a drought warning. Black Hawk helicopters scooped water from a lake to dump on a burning forest in New York state. A park in Manhattan caught fire. And authorities in two states revealed criminal charges Wednesday against people accused of setting some of the wildfires that have plagued the northeast U.S. in recent weeks.
The actions came as conditions in some northeast states are the driest they’ve been in nearly 120 years as numerous wildfires continue to burn in places that haven’t seen significant rain since August. Meanwhile, dry conditions from coast to coast were contributing to the spread of wildfires, particularly in Southern California.
The drought declaration by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy asked people to take voluntary conservation steps, like shorter showers, turning the faucet off while brushing teeth, and waiting until the dishwasher is full to run it. But it stopped short of mandatory water usage restrictions, which would be included in the event of a drought emergency, the highest alert the government can impose.
New Jersey is not yet at the point where communities are in danger of running out of water for drinking or fighting fires. And the state wants to prevent things from reaching that point.
“Please take this seriously,” Murphy said. “We have a very dry winter ahead of us.”
The dry weather has brought a spate of brush and woodland fires to a part of the country that rarely has to deal with them on this level.
Firefighting crews continued efforts to contain a wildfire in a woodland on the New Jersey-New York border that has burned around 5,000 acres (7.8 square miles) in the two states.
No homes have been damaged, but Greg McLaughlin, an administrator with the New Jersey Forest Fire Service, said rugged hill terrain, coupled with few road access points, were making it difficult to fight the blaze from the ground. Water-dropping helicopters were being used in both states. And firefighters in New York took advantage of changing wind directions Wednesday by starting a controlled line of fires to burn away underbrush and leaves that could serve as fuel.
Around 30 miles (50 kilometers) away in New York City, a brush fire broke out in a park on the northern tip of Manhattan, sending smoke billowing across the Big Apple. The city’s fire department has responded to a record number of brush fires over the past two weeks.
“Due to a significant lack of rainfall, the threat of fast spreading brush fires fueled by dry vegetation and windy conditions pose a real threat to our members and our city,” Fire Commissioner Robert S. Tucker said in a statement.
Late Wednesday, police in the Philadelphia suburb of Evesham Township said they had charged a juvenile with deliberately setting an Oct. 30 fire that burned less than a tenth of a square mile. The youth, whose age was not released, was arrested Nov. 7 and taken to a juvenile detention center.
On New York’s Long Island, a 20-year-old volunteer firefighter was charged with intentionally setting a brush fire Tuesday that wound up damaging a parked car, the Suffolk County Police Department said in a news release.
Dry conditions from coast to coast were contributing to the spread of wildfires.
Across the country, California made good progress against a major wildfire in Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles, that broke out a week ago and quickly exploded in size because of dry Santa Ana winds. The Mountain fire was 60% contained on Wednesday.
The 32-square-mile (83-square-kilometer) fire forced thousands of residents to flee and has destroyed more than 215 structures, most of them houses, and damaged at least 210.
The fires in the Northeast haven’t caused major evacuations, but a Connecticut firefighter died battling a wildfire last month and the blaze on the New York-New Jersey border claimed the life of an 18-year-old New York state parks employee who was assisting firefighters last weekend.
Dry conditions in the northeast U.S. are a growing concern, not only for firefighting efforts but for the continued availability of drinking water.
Two major reservoirs in New Jersey were at 51% and 45% of capacity on Wednesday, enough to keep the taps flowing, but low enough to cause concern for what might happen with additional weeks or months of low rainfall. One river that is a supplemental source of drinking water was at 14% of normal.
September and October were the driest two-month period ever recorded in New Jersey. Since August, the state has received 2 inches (5 cm) of rain when it should have gotten a foot (0.3 meters). No significant rainfall was in the foreseeable forecast, officials said.
New York City issued a drought watch last week. Mayor Eric Adams mayor urged residents to take shorter showers, fix dripping faucets and otherwise conserve water.
Just 0.01 inches (0.02 centimeters) of rain fell last month on the city’s Central Park, where October normally brings about 4.4 inches (11.2 centimeters) of precipitation. New York says it was the driest October in over 150 years.
Massachusetts declared a drought Tuesday after more than a month of decreased rainfall.
The ground is also bone-dry, McLaughlin added. This makes wildfires even more dangerous in that they can burn downward through dry soil and root systems, and endure for months.
On a ground dryness scale in which 800 is the highest possible score, New Jersey is at 748, meaning that the soil is dry almost 8 inches (20 centimeters) below the surface. That level had never before been reached, McLaughlin said.
A wildfire that broke out July 4 in New Jersey’s Wharton State Forest by someone using illegal fireworks has long been considered contained. But it has been smoldering underground for four months and could reignite above ground, McLaughlin said.
___
Associated Press writers Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed to this report.
In several races that were still too close to call a week out, Republicans were projected to keep majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives and did this Wednesday.
As of Wed., Nov. 13, House Democrats had 207 seats and House Republicans maintained 217 seats. A party needs 218 seats to determine which one wins control of the House for the next four years of Trump’s term. Most estimates were leaning in favor of Republicans by Wednesday afternoon.
“In an adverse electoral climate, House Democrats overperformed the national political environment, re-electing at least 27 of our 31 Frontline incumbents, with one race too close to call, holding four competitive open districts and flipping at least eight Republican-held seats this year,” said Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black person to hold that position, in a statement.
Jeffries clinched his re-election in New York’s 8th Congressional District with no real opposition. He scored 74.61% of the votes while his Republican opponent, John J. Delaney, got 22.05%, according to the New York City Board of Elections (BOE) unofficial Election Night results.
With Jeffries’s victory secured, all eyes turned to a cluster of House races in various states, including in California, Alaska, Maine, Ohio, Arizona, Oregon, and Iowa. Republicans were defending their narrowest House majority in decades, and Democrats only needed to flip four seats to take back control of the chamber.
“House Democrats gave it our all, running aggressive, forward-looking and people-centered campaigns,” said Jeffries. “While we will not regain control of the Congress in January, falling just a few seats short, House Democrats will hold Republicans to a razor-thin majority. That is unprecedented in a so-called presidential wave election.”
Jeffries said he was especially proud of the effort fellow New York Democrats put into flipping three House seats, two of which had been lost to Republicans in the 2022 midterm elections. Those races include the 22nd Congressional District up in Syracuse, where John Mannion beat incumbent Brandon Williams; the 19th Congressional District in the Hudson Valley, where Josh Riley beat out Mark Molinaro; and out in Long Island’s 4th congressional district, where Laura Gillen won over Anthony D’Esposito.
“My deepest gratitude to DCCC Chairwoman Suzan DelBene, DCCC Executive Director Julie Merz, campaign staff across the country, our grassroots supporters, incredible donors and the hundreds of thousands of volunteers who knocked doors, made phone calls and signed postcards,” said Jeffries.
Regardless of the state wins, Jeffries said that it cannot be ignored that President-elect Donald Trump did better than “almost any other Republican presidential candidate in modern political history” in New York State.
Republicans had already usurped control of the U.S Senate, with 53 seats to Democrats’ 47. They needed 50 in total.
Jeffries had concluded that electeds have to focus on the issues that Americans, especially Black and Brown people, have said they care about throughout this election: inflation and affordability, the broken immigration system, securing the border, and the economy.
“Thanks to the extraordinary work of our incumbents, candidates and supporters, the nationwide Trump surge did not materialize in the House,” said Jeffries. “Moving forward, House Democrats will engage in a clear-eyed, candid and comprehensive family conversation about how and where to build upon the foundation that has been laid and improve on our efforts. It is a discussion that we embrace.”
He added that in the new Congress, House Democrats will continue to seek bipartisan common ground on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, while pushing back against far right extremism whenever necessary.
Lastly, he congratulated House Speaker Mike Johnson and the House Republican Conference.deliver real results.”
