In The
News
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1. Fun weekend: Fake quakes, other disasters
By John
Weeks, SB Sun
03/23/2007
I'm trying not to be superstitious about it, but there certainly seems
to be a lot of disaster preparedness going on this weekend.
Does someone know something I don't?
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2. As insurers reap big profits, consumers complain of shoddy
treatment
By EILEEN ALT POWELL, Associated Press
03/28/2007
NEW YORK (AP) — The headline numbers were eye-popping: Allstate
reported a record $5 billion profit for 2006. State Farm Insurance's profit
climbed 65 percent for the year. St. Paul Travelers' earnings rose sixfold in
the fourth quarter, American International Group's rose eightfold.
A year and a half after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast,
profits at the nation's major property-casualty insurance companies soared — and
are expected to be strong again in 2007, according to estimates by the A.M. Best
Co. rating agency.
Critics charge that the insurers are doing well financially by shorting the
people who bought their products — including hundreds of consumers who still
haven't gotten settlements for their Katrina claims. The industry, in turn,
denies taking advantage of consumers, crediting its growing profitability
instead to fewer storms last year and improved business procedures.
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3. A good ol' boy bets on a dream
Mike Adkinson, a
colorful developer, hopes to build a brand new city from scratch in Mississippi
for thousands of Katrina refugees.
By Richard Fausset, LA Times Staff
Writer
April 19, 2007
McHenry, Miss. — MIKE ADKINSON is a chain-smoking, fast-talking
multimillionaire in sneakers and a golf shirt. If there were a World Series of
Real Estate Gamblers, he'd be a serious contender.
Adkinson, 58, has known boom and bust, wealth and want. He has managed the
Texas investments of Kuwaiti royalty and built thousands of homes in Florida. He
has spent time in jail over a savings and loan scandal, won an appeal and walked
free.
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4. Flood control work to save residents on insurance
premiums
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise
As many as 10,000 property owners from Redlands to Colton could save
hundreds of dollars a year in flood insurance premiums this summer when federal
officials recognize completion of a seven-mile improvement project along the San
Timoteo Creek Flood Control Channel.
San Bernardino County officials submitted paperwork to the Federal
Emergency Management Agency in February declaring the $90 million construction
project complete, said David Lovell, assistant chief for federal projects of the
county Public Works Department.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/lomalinda/stories/PE_News_Local_B_bflood25.4167455.html
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5. In case of emergency... Survivor Expo provides
ideas
Mona Shadia, SB Sun Staff Writer
04/26/2007
Billie Thorson had blood on the left side of her face.
The visual
aide was all part of Banning's second annual Survivor Expo held April 21 at the
National Guard Armory.
Thorson, 30, a Banning resident who had never been to a natural disaster or
an emergency preparation workshop, said she heard about the event and wanted to
see what it had to offer.
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6. Jury finds for Allstate in fire-related insurance
case
Julian couple had alleged they were underinsured
4-27-2007 North County Times
By: SCOTT MARSHALL - Staff Writer
SAN DIEGO -- A Superior Court jury has sided with a large insurance company
in what is believed to have been the first trial in San Diego County over
allegations that people who lost their homes in wildfires of 2003 did not have
enough insurance coverage to rebuild.
Hundreds of lawsuits were filed throughout the state alleging
underinsurance in the aftermath of the wildfires, which included the Cedar fire
in San Diego County.
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7. U.S. extends Katrina housing program
Payments
will continue until March 2009, but residents will have to pay some of their
rent.
By Ann M. Simmons, Times Staff Writer
April 27, 2007
NEW ORLEANS — The federal government will extend housing assistance
payments to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita for 18 more months, officials
announced Thursday, but residents will be required to pay a portion of their
rent for part of that period.
Almost two years after the 2005 hurricanes, more than 100,000 Gulf Coast
households remain dependent on government housing aid, according to figures from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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8. Movie keeps San Bernardino Mountains flavor
intact
Friday, April 27, 2007
The Press Enterprise
Residents of the San Bernardino Mountains, particularly those in
Crestline and Running Springs, will be pleased to know they didn't wind up on
the cutting room floor.
Elements of both communities get prominent play in "Next," the new action
thriller starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore and Jessica Biel, which opened
Friday.
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9. Trees planted by the thousands in Old Fire
footprint
Andrew Silva, SB Sun Staff Writer
04/29/2007
RIMFOREST - When the Old Fire tore through the San Bernardino Mountains
in October 2003, sections of the forest suffered almost irreparable damage.
After a fire that hot, pine trees might not come back for hundreds of
years, if ever.
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10. Quake insurance: Is it worth buying?
Coverage isn't
cheap. But Southern California is overdue for the Big One. Consider what you've
got to lose, then decide.
By Kathy M. Kristof, LA Times Staff Writer
April
29, 2007
Few know the risk of living in earthquake country quite like Susan
Hough.
The 46-year-old seismologist heads the U.S. Geological Survey's Pasadena
office, which monitors earthquakes statewide. She also has written a book about
Charles Richter, who invented the scale for measuring the magnitude of quakes.
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11. Wildfire threat extra-high this summer, report
says
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
By BEN GOAD
The Press-Enterprise
Historic dry conditions have set the stage for another potentially severe
fire season -- one that could begin earlier than usual this summer in Southern
California, according to a report released Tuesday.
The region, along with other areas of the West and Southeast, faces an
above-average wildfire threat between now and August, according to the report
issued by the National Interagency Fire Center, a Boise, Idaho-based collection
of representatives from federal agencies working together to address fire
threat.
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12. Allstate in probe on Katrina claims
From the
Associated Press
May 4, 2007
The Department of Homeland Security intends to subpoena Allstate Corp.
as part of an investigation into Hurricane Katrina claims, the insurer said.
The agency is investigating insurers that sell policies under the National
Flood Insurance Program, the company said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-briefs4.1may04,1,1905101.story
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13. Engineers look for lessons in collapse
By Michelle
Locke, The Associated Press
05/05/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT
OAKLAND - Engineers are analyzing bent steel and broken concrete from
this week's fiery highway collapse in hopes of learning someday how to build a
better highway, capable of withstanding flames that can twist girders like
taffy.
Realistically, innovations gleaned from the debris might not be
reflected in the anatomy of the replacement overpass, which is being rebuilt as
soon as possible. But ultimately, scientists hope to apply what they learn.
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14. Governors worry about depleted National Guard
By
Mitch Stacy, The Associated Press
05/11/2007
TAMPA, Fla. - With repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan leaving
state National Guards without nearly half of their required equipment, some
governors are loudly questioning whether they will be able to handle the next
hurricane, wildfire or terrorist attack at home.
"We are not going to be able to continue to rely on the National Guard
as a full-time operational force," North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said.
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15. Allstate stopping new California polices
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Associated Press
Allstate Corp. will stop writing new homeowners policies in California
beginning in July, the company said Thursday.
An Allstate spokesman said the move was to help control its catastrophe
exposure in the state, which is prone to wildfires and earthquakes.
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16. City to repair fire damage in Griffith
Park
Officials will allocate $50million to replant and reseed
charred hillsides, fearing rains will bring landslides.
By Ashraf
Khalil, LA Times Staff Writer
May 11, 2007
Los Angeles officials today will unveil a $50-million emergency repair
campaign for a large swath of Griffith Park ravaged by this week's brush
fire.
Park rangers said they want to immediately begin replanting and reseeding
the burned hillsides and canyons, fearing major rains this fall could cause
massive landslides, threatening park facilities and homes in Los Feliz.
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17. Reminded of our impermanence here
We had a lot
to think about as the Griffith Park wildfire roared close to architectural
treasures.
By Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times Staff Writer
May 11,
2007
An urban fire doesn't really exist, as such, until it burns a building:
until it uses architecture as fuel. At least that's how politicians and news
anchors chose to reassure us Tuesday night as flames raced across Griffith Park.
Since the only structure known to be lost as evening fell was in the middle of
the park, they kept telling us, the fire couldn't be quite as dire as it looked
on screen or from our frontyards. That structure, we learned later, was not even
a building but an "equestrian bridge" — a bit of architectural terminology new
to many of us but somehow reassuringly, distantly pastoral.
Still, because the fire roared so close to the newly expanded Griffith
Observatory, and because its drama grew as it threatened to jump out of the park
and into residential neighborhoods, it produced a number of memorable images
combining architecture and flames. They join a very long list of such pictures —
some artistic, some journalistic — already fixed in our collective
consciousness. You remember Joan Didion's line: "The city burning is Los
Angeles' deepest image of itself."
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18. Water district VP jailed
Negrete suspected of
contractor fraud
Joe Nelson, SB Sun Staff Writer
05/12/2007
Since 1993, Edward "Steve" Negrete has fostered a respectable
reputation as a member of the board of the Highland-based East Valley Water
District and has served as its vice president for more than a year.
He's been active in researching water wells contaminated with
perchlorate throughout the San Bernardino Valley and has developed a solid
reputation in those endeavors, said Robert Martin, district general manager.
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19. Wildfire preparation event today
Andrew Silva, SB
Sun Staff Writer
05/12/2007
WRIGHTWOOD - How to prepare for and survive wildfire will be the
subject of Wildfire and Disaster Awareness Day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today.
With a near-record dry rainy season wrapping up, authorities are
encouraging residents to clear vegetation around their properties and be ready
to evacuate if the call goes out.
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20. Hemet event puts focus on fire safety
By DIANE A.
RHODES
Special to The Press-Enterprise
Saturday, May 12, 2007
"Why 100 feet?"
That was the question posed to hundreds of visitors at the Wildfire
Awareness Event at Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base in Hemet on Saturday.
Fire personnel and volunteers stressed the importance of maintaining 100
feet of defensible space around structures during speeches, in literature and at
information booths.
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21. Far from island, some can only wait in the
dark
Residents and tourists spend a sleepless night in a high
school gym.
By Ashley Powers, LA Times Staff Writer
May 12, 2007
- Catalina fire lays siege to Avalon
She had forgotten her
white-gold senior class ring and quinceañera video but had pocketed mascara and
a cellphone charger before flames chased her from Santa Catalina Island. But as
dawn began to loom Friday, 18-year-old Daisy Saldana began to catalog things
that were tougher to grasp: whether the 2 a.m. ferry had docked in Long Beach
with her boyfriend on board, whether her childhood home in Avalon was torched.
She leaned on a bleacher in a gym at Cabrillo High School in Long Beach,
the harsh indoor light a stark contrast to the video she played on her phone. On
the tiny screen, the island was blackened; flames crested its hills. Saldana
tapped the image. "That's my home," she said.
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22. Bureau's director keen on new role
Austin
excited by job in hometown
Robert Rogers, SB Sun Staff
Writer
05/13/2007
SAN BERNARDINO - The way someone with the benefit of hindsight views
their own performance in a crisis can tell you something about them.
In the case of Wayne Austin, the new president and CEO of the San
Bernardino Convention and Visitors Bureau, his anecdote about his greatest
performance evokes visions of a humble leader.
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23. Calm, and commerce, returning to the island
As
crews get a handle on the Catalina fire, shops begin to reopen.
By
Susannah Rosenblatt, Joel Rubin and Kimi Yoshino, LA Times Staff Writers
May
13, 2007
The fire still smoldered Saturday, but even then, the phones at
Catalina Island Vacation Rentals kept ringing. Not with cancellations but with
reservations.
In two weeks, Memorial Day will launch the unofficial start of peak season
on Santa Catalina, when the island crawls with boaters, campers and day-trippers
who pour millions into its tourism-reliant economy.