WCTB

At least 20 homes were destroyed between Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach, California due to a brush fire that spread rapidly amid strong winds.

Crews continued to fight the flames of the blaze on Thursday, called the Coastal Fire, which broke out Wednesday afternoon near a water treatment plant and quickly grew in size. At a Thursday morning press conference, fire officials said the fire had burned approximately 200 acres.

While the cause of the fire remains under investigation, Southern California Edison said it sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission to inform them of “circuit activity” around the time the fire was reported. Some 900 homes remained under mandatory evacuation orders. Assistant Fire Chief TJ McGovern said: “We did have wind, which is a normal wind condition for this area. Since it started at the bottom of the drainage, it started running up-canyon and upslope. Throwing some wind on that, and the terrain — the steepness of it, was a bad recipe.” McGovern said one firefighter was injured Wednesday and was taken to the hospital. All of the details on their condition were not released, but the firefighter is listed in stable condition.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing a grant to California that will secure additional resources and financial assistance for battling the fire, according to the governor’s office.

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The Senate failed to advance a Democratic-led bill that would protect abortion access nationwide in a vote on Wednesday. The Women’s Health Protection Act was triggered by a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that indicates Roe v. Wade is likely to be overturned.  The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion may not be the final ruling, and it would have no force of law until it was issued. But it has been widely expected that the court would overturn Roe v. Wade and the subsequent ‘Planned Parenthood v. Casey’ decision, which upheld a constitutional right to abortion.

The bill passed the House with 49 votes, but fell short of the 60 senators needed to break a filibuster. All 50 Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin voted against proceeding to debate with a vote of 49-51.  Biden said in a statement after the vote:  “Republicans in Congress — not one of whom voted for this bill — have chosen to stand in the way of Americans’ rights to make the most personal decisions about their own bodies, families and lives. To protect the right to choose, voters need to elect more pro-choice senators this November, and return a pro-choice majority to the House. If they do, Congress can pass this bill in January, and put it on my desk, so I can sign it into law.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was “one of the most consequential” votes the Senate has held in decades, adding in a floor speech, “for MAGA Republicans, this has always been about making abortion illegal everywhere.”  After the vote, Schumer said Democrats are “going to continue to highlight this issue relentlessly and strongly between now and November because it is so important.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the bill “extreme” and “radical” and added in a floor speech:  “Our Democrat colleagues want to vote for abortion on demand through all nine months, until the moment before the baby is born — a failed show vote that will only prove their own extremism.”

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On Wednesday, President Biden visited farmers in Kankakee, Ill., to speak on the impact of the Russian-Ukraine war on the economy, and the White House’s efforts to lower food prices in the face of rising inflation.  Said Biden: “America’s fighting on two fronts. At home, it’s inflation and rising prices. Abroad, it’s helping Ukrainians defending their democracy. Putin’s war has cut off critical sources of food.”

Biden said efforts will be made at the upcoming G7 meeting to both provide food to the world, and to lower prices – something that the war in Ukraine is preventing from getting to market. Said Biden: “They’re going to see what action we can take to increase fertilizer supplies globally and identify how we can work together to prevent export restrictions on food and bring more global production to market, which will stabilize prices [and] bring more certainty to our farmers and keep people from dying of hunger.”  He added that his administration is working to “drive down the costs to farmers and prices to consumers,” and that the market has been distorted by lack of competition, which increases prices.

The White House said in a statement earlier Wednesday: “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine has cut off a critical source of wheat, corn, barley, oilseeds and cooking oil. It has also disrupted global supply chains for fertilizer, which farmers depend on to maximize yields. These and other actions, combined with the ongoing pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, have put pressure on food prices, with global food prices increasing nearly 13% following Putin’s invasion.”

Earlier Wednesday, the Labor Department said that consumer prices rose by 0.3% during the month of April — slightly more than most economists projected. In particular, the report said that food prices increased almost 1% last month.

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