“Nothing there but the chimney.” L.A. evacuees return to rubble.
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What are the latest updates on the L.A. wildfires?
Good morning. It's Monday, January 13th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Biden's legacy on domestic policy, how to safely recycle your old electronics, and why people are tipping less in restaurants. But first, to Los Angeles, where crews continue to battle wildfires that have killed at least 24 people and burned more than 12,000 homes and structures. The Los Angeles County Sheriff says reports of missing people are rising and that the death toll is likely to go up. Heavy winds are expected to pick back up in the first few days of this week, coupled with ongoing dry conditions. Authorities worry that could slow down containment efforts and threaten new communities.
A more complete picture of the devastation for residents of Los Angeles is also starting to emerge. More than 100,000 people are under evacuation orders, and for some, there isn't much to go back to.
It was surreal. It's like stuff happened so fast.
What are the personal stories of wildfire survivors?
That's an Altadena resident named Les talking to Fox 11 Los Angeles.
Our home is nothing there but the chimney. I hope we bounce back. It's gonna be a hard process, a slow process, but it's just gonna take time.
A man named Dale, who's 91 years old, lost his home in the Pasadena area where he'd been living for 60 years. He spoke to KCAL News after sitting outside and watching the smoking remnants of where his house stood.
Entire history is in the house. I'm going to break down again. That's what I feel. It's my whole life. I'm okay. I'll be okay. I'm tough. And even though I'm 91 years old, I'll start over again.
One woman in Altadena described to KCAL how she and her family escaped the fire.
We were having dinner. I told my three-year-old and my one-year-old that I told them that we're having a fancy candlelight dinner because the power went out. And then we looked outside, we saw a huge fire and we just packed whatever we can and we ran out. It was chaos.
She's now struggling with how to explain to her child what's going on.
I'm trying to figure out how to tell my three-year-old that we don't have a home.
It's been an exhausting few days for evacuees and for the firefighters trying to contain the fires and save people's homes. But even as conditions remain difficult, the community is letting those firefighters know they're appreciated. At one California In-N-Out Burger restaurant, a group of firefighters who stopped in for a meal were met with cheers and a standing ovation from people. If you would like to help, KQED has a list of organizations and how you can contribute. We'll link to that in our show notes page. Now to Washington, where it is President Biden's final week in office. And all week long, we'll be digging into different parts of his legacy. Today, we look at his domestic agenda. When Biden took office, it was the height of the pandemic.
And one of his first moves was to announce the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 billion economic stimulus package.
It's not hard to see that we're in the middle of the once-in-several-generations economic crisis. with a once in several generations public health crisis. The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight There's no time to waste.
Biden's plan greenlit the third round of direct relief payments sent to people during COVID. The first two rounds were approved under Trump. But Biden's plan was not popular with Republicans, who felt the federal government had already spent too much money on COVID response and were concerned more government spending would contribute to inflation. Biden also signed into law a major bipartisan infrastructure bill. It put over a trillion dollars toward American bridges, airports, roads, highways. And he oversaw the Chips and Signs Act, which helped move more manufacturing for semiconductors to the U.S. to make American industries less reliant on China and other countries for critical computer chips.
Arguably his greatest legislative achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act, incentivized businesses to invest around $500 billion in low-carbon energy and manufacturing, with a lot of that money going to red states. Now, as Biden gets ready to leave office, unemployment is at historic lows. The economy added more than 250,000 jobs in December, far outpacing expectations.
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