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Fire News, Wildfire News, Forest Fire News, Firefighter News |
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Rudolph Giuliani firefighter controversy 
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Search Fire News: News Search <Fire> in: <Fire News> <Wildfire News> <Forest Fire News> <Firefighter News>
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Labor
- Fire
Fighters - 
Corporations
- Elections
- 
Illinois
- 
Iowa
- 
New
York
- 
North
Carolina - John
Edwards
- 
Election
2008 - "Labor
still has clout in political arena." ... "Union households
make up roughly a quarter of the electorate in most elections." ... "Seven
of the 2008 [election] Democratic presidential contenders will gather Tuesday
night at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, to try to woo that support."
... "Former [Democratic Senator] Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, called
for "smart and safe" trade policies that would put workers' jobs and wages
ahead of benefits for corporations in a speech Monday to a union in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa." ... "[Democratic Senator] Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois,
joined the picket line at Chicago's Congress Hotel, where workers have
been striking for more than four years. Obama promised to come back, even
as president." ... "[New York Democratic Senator Hillary] Clinton called
collective bargaining "absolutely essential to the way America works" in
a March speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters." ...
"[AFL-CIO President John Sweeney explained,] "There's no question that
John Edwards has been raising the issues that are very close to the hearts
of workers and has been I think motivating some of the debate that's going
on, on those issues, but we have other candidates that are articulating
well on those issues that are important to workers. But it's safe to say
that any one of the seven candidates would be a hell of a lot better than
the present occupant of the White House."" -By Sasha
Johnson with contributions by Candy Crowley
-CNN
Idaho
- 
Nevada
- 
Utah
- Wildfire
- Plants
- Animals
- 
Politics
- "Western
governors blame cheatgrass for 2007 wildfire woes."
... "Four Western governors declared war Monday on cheatgrass, a nonnative
weedy grass they blame for filling the West's open spaces with flammable
fuels feeding this summer's massive wildfires." ... "Still, their efforts
could be complicated by a shortage of seeds of other grasses needed to
restore the charred landscape before cheatgrass takes hold. In fact, some
of the federal Bureau of Land Management territory where such seeds are
collected has been burned." ... "And environmentalists are leery about
the plans for replanting, fearing they'll concentrate on grasses that provide
forage for livestock rather than native vegetation that helps wildlife
such as sage grouse." ... "So far this year, wildfires in Idaho, Nevada
and Utah have burned thousands of square miles, including the giant Murphy
Complex fires on the Idaho-Nevada border that torched an area as large
as Rhode Island." -By John Miller
-AP via -SeattlePI
Minnesota
- I-35W
Bridge Collapse - Disaster
- 
Water
- 
Sheriff
- Fire
Department - "Divers
work in a dark, dangerous world." ... "Divers searching
in the murky Mississippi River for victims of the [Minneapolis, Minnesota
I-35W] bridge collapse work in a hazardous world where a mistake can cost
them their lives." ... "Underwater debris swirls the river's already powerful
currents into whirlpools of fast-moving water that can endanger divers,
authorities said." ... "And the water is a potentially lethal stew of fuel,
broken glass, jagged car parts, and concrete and rebar from the fallen
bridge." ... ""Conditions on the river are even more treacherous than yesterday,"
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said Friday. "The divers will be taking
extreme caution. We will be slow and methodical during our search operations
today." ... "Visibility in parts of the river is less than a foot, said
one diver, Capt. Shanna Hanson of the Minneapolis Fire Department.""
-CNN
Texas
- Industrial
- Manufacturing
- Safety
- "Explosions
raise questions about Dallas' industrial safety."
... "The spectacular fire and explosions that launched flaming gas cylinders
high over Dallas [Texas] on Wednesday have touched off a federal investigation
and raised concerns about the safety of the city's industrial plants."
... "Dallas officials said they had no record of safety violations at Southwest
Industrial Gases, which supplies acetylene, used in welding, and other
gases. They also said the city had not inspected the company in at least
the last 5 ½ years — but that's not an unusual or troubling interval,
Dallas officials and one independent safety expert said." ... "Although
the explosions rocked an area along the Trinity River zoned for industrial
manufacturing, they also pointed toward potential chemical dangers near
where people work and live. Dallas' trend toward urban living, especially
in neighborhoods transitioning from industrial to residential, could make
such problems more likely." ... "The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation
Board sent a team of five federal investigators and board member William
B. Wark to Dallas from Washington, D.C., for a preliminary look at the
incident, which apparently began while workers loaded gases into canisters
on a truck." ... "The chemical safety board, similar to the National Transportation
Safety Board, investigates industrial accidents and makes recommendations
but has no enforcement powers. Last year, it completed an investigation
into a similar fire and explosion in St. Louis [Misssouri] that sent burning
gas canisters into a surrounding neighborhood, setting numerous fires."
-By Randy Lee Loftis, Michael Grabell, and Dave Levinthal
with contributions by Holly Yan and Holly K. Hacker
-DallasNews.com
Police
- Fire
- Emergency
- 
Communications
- Money
- Politics
- "US
Works to Fix Emergency Communications." ... "The
government will distribute nearly $1 billion to states and cities to fix
communications problems that still hamper police and fire departments six
years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks." ... "A total of $968 million
for interoperable communications grants was announced Wednesday by the
heads of the departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, after a review
earlier this year found that of 75 major U.S. cities, only six received
a top grade in emergency communications." ... "The money, said Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, will answer "the urgent need for firefighters,
police and other first responders to be able to communicate effectively
with one another."" ... "Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said
the money should get the entire country up to a basic standard of effective
emergency communication by 2009 -- but only if the local authorities coordinate
with each other and avoid turf fights." -By Devlin
Barrett -AP
via -Salon
Government
- Workers
- 
California
- Los
Angeles - 
Environment
- "Forest
Service Short of Firefighters." ... "Weeks into a
wildfire season that has already burned parts of Catalina Island, Los Angeles
and Lake Tahoe, swaths of California's flammable national forests are some
days protected by nothing more than luck." ... "On any given day, about
40 of 271 U.S. Forest Service engines remain in firehouses rather than
on patrol, idled by a shortage of supervisors. Meanwhile, the combined
effects of sustained drought, last winter's freeze and a searing heat wave
has dramatically raised fire danger levels this season." ... "An exodus
of highly trained mid- and upper-level firefighters from the career ranks
of the federal agency is at least partly to blame for the fact that 13
percent of the service's 3,600 full-time positions in California are vacant."
... "Nationally, fire planners from all five federal agencies that handle
firefighting are dealing with the departure of a generation of top managers
hired during a firefighting expansion in the late 1970s. That has left
behind too few career firefighters qualified to run engines, oversee forests
or command large fire operations." -ByAllison Hoffman
-AP via
-TIME.com
SC
- 
People
- "Nation's
Firefighters Mourn Their Own: Charleston, S.C., Memorial
Service For 9 Firemen Killed In Furniture Store Blaze." ... "Nine caskets
lined the front of a coliseum as thousands of firefighters from across
the nation, their hats in their hands as bagpipes played, honored nine
colleagues who died battling a furniture store blaze." ... "Monday night's
fire created the single largest loss of firefighters' lives since the Sept.
11 terror attacks." (1, 2)
-AP via -CBSNews
Rudolph
Giuliani
- 2008
Election - 
Terrorism
- Money
- New
York
- Firefighter
- Workers
- "Among
Firefighters in New York, Mixed Views on Giuliani."
... "Interviews with more than 50 firefighters and department officers
show a mix of admiration and disdain for the former mayor [of New York
City, New York, now a 2008 election Republican Presidential candidate Rudolph
Giuliani]. Many firefighters praise his years in office, citing his success
in reducing crime and his leadership after the terrorist attacks. Others
harbor a resentment for what they describe as his poor treatment of the
department before and after Sept. 11." ... "Some still speak bitterly about
a contract that left firefighters without a raise for two years. Some also
say Mr. Giuliani has exaggerated the role he played after the terrorist
attacks, casting himself as a hero for political gain. The harshest sentiments
stem from Mr. Giuliani’s decision nearly two months after 9/11 to reduce
the number of firefighters who were allowed to search for colleagues in
the rubble — a move that he partially reversed but that still infuriates
many firefighters." ... "The International Association of Fire Fighters,
an umbrella union based in Washington, spoke out against Mr. Giuliani in
March. The group is also preparing a short DVD outlining its grievances
that it plans to send to fire departments across the country. Meanwhile,
a small group of Sept. 11 family members and firefighters has been protesting
outside many of Mr. Giuliani’s campaign appearances." ... "One of those
protesters, Deputy Chief Jim Riches, who lost his firefighter son that
day, said Mr. Giuliani did nothing on Sept. 11 to warrant hero status.
“He’s making a million dollars a month with his speeches,” said Chief Riches,
55. “It’s blood money.”" ... "Among those firefighters who criticized Mr.
Giuliani, almost every one of them said they were still angry about the
mayor’s decision several weeks after the attacks to reduce the number of
firefighters allowed to search for remains at ground zero, where 343 firefighters
died." -By Michael Wilson with contributions by Kate
Hammer, Trymaine Lee and Matthew Sweeney -NYTimes
Rudolph
Giuliani - Election
2008 - New
York
- Emergency
- Police
- Firefighter
- Workers
- 
Air
- 
Health
- Terrorism
- 
Families
- "Mystique
of 'America's Mayor' Tarnished: 9/11 Firefighters,
Families Protest Giuliani's Rise." ... "The mystique of "America's mayor"
shows signs of fraying." ... "The nation's largest firefighters' union
is planning to send out 280,000 videotapes attacking former New York Republican
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani [and 2008 election Presidential candidate] and his
pre-9/11 record -- including his decision to place New York City's emergency
operations center in the World Trade Center before Sept. 11, 2001." ...
"In recent months, families of 9/11 victims have planted themselves outside
Giuliani fundraisers, and several critical books and documentaries have
been released." ... "Reports have emerged sharply questioning Giuliani's
response to the 9/11 attacks, with critics portraying a bullying mayor
who, in his zeal for a quick cleanup, brushed aside health concerns about
the air at ground zero." ... "And Giuliani's former emergency management
director, Jerome Hauer, is now a prominent Giuliani critic, questioning
the former mayor's handling of the turf wars that divided the police and
fire departments before 9/11." ... ""In terms of preparedness, response
and leadership, Rudy fell down," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International
Association of Fire Fighters, which is preparing the video for distribution
to its members." ... ""Rudy has created an image of himself that he likes
to expand upon: that he's the hero of 9/11," Zack said. "And it's not true,
especially from the point of view of the firefighters who lived through
that day and the families of those who died on that day."" (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Rick Klein -ABCNEWS.com
New
York
- Terrorism
- Air
- Environment
- Police
- Firefighters
- Workers
- 
Lawsuit
- "For
the First Time, New York Links a Death to 9/11 Dust."
... "New York City’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, has
for the first time directly linked a death to exposure to dust from the
destruction of the World Trade Center." ... "In a letter made public yesterday,
Dr. Hirsch said that he was certain “beyond a reasonable doubt” that dust
from the twin towers contributed to the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones, 42,
a civil rights lawyer who was engulfed on Sept. 11 as she ran from her
office a block away from the trade center." ... "She later developed a
serious cough and had trouble breathing, and she died five months after
the terrorist attack." ... "Her name will be added to the official list
of World Trade Center victims, and the official number of people who died
as a result of the attack on the twin towers will be increased to 2,750."
... "The medical examiner’s decision also could be cited as supporting
evidence in the federal lawsuits filed against the city by thousands of
firefighters, police officers and recovery workers who say they were injured
by breathing the dust during the 10-month cleanup." -By
Anthony DePalma -NYTimes
Rudolph
Giuliani - Election
2008 - Politician
- New
York
- Terrorism
- Disaster
- Money
- Government
- Construction
- Firefighters
- Workers
- Air- Environment
- 
Science
- Health
- 
Safety
- Enforcement
- Lawsuit
- "Ground
Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani’s Legacy." ... "[2008
election Republican Presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani] Administration documents and thousands of pages of legal
testimony filed in a lawsuit against New York City [New York], along with
more than two dozen interviews with people involved in the events of the
last four months of Mr. Giuliani’s administration, show that while the
city had a safety plan for workers, it never meaningfully enforced federal
requirements that those at the site wear respirators [at the World Trade
Center cleanup]." ... "At the same time, the administration warned companies
working on the pile that they would face penalties or be fired if work
slowed. And according to public hearing transcripts and unpublished administration
records, officials also on some occasions gave flawed public representations
of the nature of the health threat, even as they privately worried about
exposure to lawsuits by sickened workers." ... "“The city ran a generally
slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental
concerns,” said David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York
Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group." ... "City
officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust
and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace. More than
2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory
problems. Seventy percent of nearly 10,000 recovery workers screened at
Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing. City officials estimate
that health care costs related to the air at ground zero have already run
into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows whether other
illnesses, like cancers, will emerge." ... "From the beginning, there was
no doubt that Mr. Giuliani and his team ruled the hellish disaster site.
Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps
of Engineers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, all
with extensive disaster response experience, arrived almost immediately,
only to be placed on the sideline. One Army Corps official said Mr. Giuliani
acted like a “benevolent dictator.”" ... "Despite the presence of those
federal experts, Mr. Giuliani assigned the ground zero cleanup to a largely
unknown city agency, the Department of Design and Construction. Kenneth
Holden, the department’s commissioner until January 2004, said in a deposition
in the federal lawsuit against the city that he initially expected FEMA
or the Army Corps to try to take over the cleanup operation. Mr. Giuliani
never let them." ... "Records show that the city was aware of the danger
in the ground zero dust from the start. In a federal court deposition,
Kelly R. McKinney, associate commissioner at the city’s health department
in 2001, said the agency issued an advisory on the night of Sept. 11 stating
that asbestos in the air made the site hazardous and that everyone should
wear masks." ... "Much has been said and written about Christie Whitman,
then the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and her statement
a week after the towers fell that the air in New York was safe. But even
then, the air above the debris pile was known to be more dangerous than
the air in the rest of Lower Manhattan." ... "Whatever they were saying
publicly about the safety of the air, Mr. Giuliani and his staff were privately
worried. A memo to Deputy Mayor Robert M. Harding from his assistant in
early October said that the city faced as many as 10,000 liability claims
connected to 9/11, “including toxic tort cases that might arise in the
next few decades.”" ... "The warning did not lead to a crackdown on workers
without respirators. Rather, a month later, Mr. Giuliani wrote to members
of the city’s Congressional delegation urging passage of a bill that capped
the city’s liability at $350 million." (1, 2,
3)
-By Anthony DePalma -NYTimes
New
York
- Terrorism
- Emergency
- Firefighter
- Workers
- 2008
Election - "Firefighters
Claim Giuliani Ignored Needs After 9/11 (Update2)."
... "[New York Republican] Rudy Giuliani, who has parlayed his identity
as the hero of Sept. 11 into a front-running presidential candidacy [2008
Election], was attacked by the nation's firefighters union for rushing
to remove debris at New York's World Trade Center site before many remains
had been recovered." ... "The International Association of Fire Fighters
union said it wants its 260,000 U.S. members to know the ``real story''
of the former New York mayor, contending that Giuliani sought to curtail
search-and-recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site after the attacks
on Sept. 11, 2001, that claimed the lives of 2,752 people, including 343
union fire fighters." ... "``Mayor Giuliani's actions meant that fire fighters
and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever,
with no closure for families, or be removed like garbage and deposited
at the Fresh Kills Landfill,'' said union President Harold Schaitberger
in a draft letter to affiliates." -By Kim Chipman
-Bloomberg
Firefighter
- Workers
- 2008
Election - New
York
- Terrorism
- Emergency
- Money
- "Firefighters
union assails Giuliani." ... "One of the nation's
largest firefighters' unions has accused Republican presidential contender
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, of committing "egregious
acts" against firefighters who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks."
... "In a letter to its members Friday, the International Association of
Fire Fighters excoriated Giuliani for his November 2001 decision to cut
back the number of firefighters searching the rubble of Ground Zero for
the remains of some 300 fallen comrades." ... "The 280,000-member union
accused him of carelessly expediting the cleanup process with a "scoop-and-dump"
operation after the recovery of millions of dollars in gold, silver and
other assets from the Bank of Nova Scotia that had been buried."
-AP via -CNN
New
York
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcers - Firefighters
- Transit
- Workers
- "Major
health study finds 70% of WTC recovery workers suffered lung problems."
... "Nearly 70% of recovery workers who responded to the attacks on the
World Trade Center [New York] suffered lung problems during or after their
work at ground zero, a new health study released Tuesday shows." ... "Less
than a week before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Mount Sinai Medical Center issued the results of the largest study on related
health effects." ... "It found, among other things, that illnesses tended
to be worst among those who arrived first at the site, and that high rates
of lung "abnormalities" continued years later." ... "The findings are based
on medical exams conducted between July 2002 and April 2004 on 9,500 ground
zero workers, including construction workers, law enforcers, firefighters,
transit workers, volunteers and others." -AP
via -USATODAY
Montana
- 2006
Election - Terrorism
- US
Immigration - Law
- Firefighting
- Workers
- "Montana
Senator Does It Again: Conrad Burns: Terrorists Drive
Taxis By Day, "Kill At Night"." ... "[Montana] Republican Sen. Conrad Burns,
whose recent comments have stirred controversy, says the United States
is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who "drive taxi cabs in the
daytime and kill at night."" ... "He has drawn criticism in recent weeks
for calling his house painter a "nice little Guatemalan man" during a June
speech. Burns, whose [2006] re-election campaign is pressing for tighter
immigration controls, also suggested that the man might be an illegal immigrant.
The campaign later said the worker is legal." ... "Burns, 71, also had
to apologize after confronting members of a firefighting team at the Billings
[Montana] airport and telling them they had done a "piss-poor job," according
to a state report. In July, the Hotshot crew had traveled 2,000 miles from
Staunton, Va., to help dig fire lines for about a week around a 143-square-mile
wildfire east of Billings." -AP
via -CBSNews
California
- 
Elderly
- Disaster
- 
Energy
- 
Food
- Work
- Water
- Animal
- 
Oregon
- Wildfire
- "At
least 132 deaths likely linked to heat Calif. heat wave."
... "At least 132 deaths, mostly elderly residents, were likely linked
to a nearly two-week heat wave in California, county coroner's offices
reported Friday." ... "Both Northern and Southern California had been gripped
by triple-digit temperatures since July 16, with the Central Valley suffering
the most with temperatures as high as 115." ... "Before this week, the
utility's highest peak energy use was recorded at 5,661 megawatts. The
heat wave created a demand of 6,165 megawatts — shocking officials who
predicted usage wouldn't top 6,100 megawatts for another four years." ...
"In Northern California, a wildfire near the Oregon state line was threatening
major power transmission lines between California and the Pacific Northwest."
... "Farmers have been struggling as well, trying get work crews into the
fields in the early mornings to avoid the worst of the heat and running
water misters to keep cattle from dying. Vegetables, fruit and even wine
grapes could be affected." -By Olivia Munoz
-AP via -SFGate.com
New
Hampshire - 2002
Election - Firefighters
- Union
- Phone
- Corporate
- Marketing
- Prison
- "Convicted
phone-jammer helping host GOP candidate workshop."
... "The Republican operative who came up with the idea of jamming Democratic
Party and union get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002 is back
in the political swim." ... "Charles McGee, vice president of political
and corporate communications at Spectrum Monthly & Printing Inc., sent
out an e-mail recently inviting Republican candidates to a free "GOP Campaign
School" hosted by the company, which publishes Republican mailers and fliers,
the New Hampshire Union Leader reported." ... "A flier about the class
calls it a "nuts and bolts boot camp" to give participants "all the tools
you need to win."" ... "Hundreds of hang-up calls placed by a telemarketing
firm tied up phone lines set up by the [New Hampshire] state Democratic
Party and the Manchester firefighters union for more than an hour the morning
of Election Day 2002, when then-U.S. [Republican] Rep. John Sununu defeated
Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in a tight U.S. Senate race." ... "McGee,
the former executive director of the state Republican Party, pleaded guilty
to conspiracy in the phone-jamming scheme and served seven months in prison."
-AP via -BostonGlobe
US
- 
Iraq
- Emergencies
- 
Weather
- Water
- Wind
- Fire
- "Bush
Policies Are Weakening National Guard, Governors Say."
... "Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies
were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to
respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies."
... "In a recent report, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative
arm of Congress, said that "extensive use of the Guard's equipment overseas
has significantly reduced the amount of equipment available to governors
for domestic needs."" ... "Since 2003, the report said, the Army National
Guard has left more than 64,000 pieces of equipment, valued at more than
$1.2 billion, in Iraq. The Army has not kept track of most of this equipment
and has no firm plans to replace it, the report said." -By
Robert Pear -NYTimes
Texas
- 
Oklahoma
- 
Homes
- Disaster
- "Five
die in wildfires sweeping US: At least five people
have died in the wildfires which have swept across parts of the US states
of Texas and Oklahoma." ... "The fires, fanned by strong winds and dry
weather, have destroyed nearly 200 homes and scorched thousands of acres
of land in the past two days." ... "An estimated 124 homes were destroyed
in Texas and 50 in the neighbouring state of Oklahoma." ... "Worst hit
was the central Texan town of Cross Plains, where the fires forced its
1,000 inhabitants to leave."-BBC
/News
UK
- Oil
- Disaster
- Water
- Environment
- "UK
oil depot fire 'largest of kind'." ... "Firefighters
are battling blazes at three tanks still burning after Sunday's massive
explosions at a fuel depot north of London while investigators search for
clues as to what caused powerful explosions that started the blaze." ...
"Using fire suppressant foam and water, the firefighters successfully put
down fires in 10 other tanks at Buncefield Oil Depot near Hemel Hempstead
and kept the flames away fro
