Dogs' water bowl may be cause of fire

Scary. Sad.

When prosecuting the 'war on terror', the administration doesn't let niggling details like whether what they are doing is legal or constitutional (or moral or proper for that matter) slow them down. But when it comes to investigating private guards suddenly they have to be sure there really is a law that covers these guys before they can do a thing.

Quoted: Agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians found that all but three of the shootings were unjustified, officials said.

who pays for a fire?

Quoted: A study issued by the parent agency of the Forest Service concluded that communities and landowners should pay for more of their own fire protection.

A rare step forward on the environment..

Quoted: A federal judge in California reinstated Clinton-era protections against logging and mining in forests.

The entire Pasayten Wilderness has been closed due to the
Tripod and Tatoosh Wildfires

The Tripod Fire is aggressively burning the eastern portion of the Wilderness in the Horseshoe Basin, and reached the Chewuch and Tungsten Rivers on September 4th. The Tatoosh Fire is burning the western portion of the Wilderness, in the Pasayten River and Lost River drainages. Extreme fire behavior is pushing the fire towards the Pacific Crest Trail, and farther into Canada.

Interesting article on debugging an automobile.

Quoted: Investigators installed damaged cruise control switches in Ford vehicles and then waited for them to cause fire. The result was a phenomenon never seen before.

A very cool map of the Tripod Complex fire in north central Washington. It is color-coded by date so that you can see the fire's progress. It is currently only about 6 miles NE of both Winthrop and Twisp but has made almost no movement in that direction since prevaling winds are from the WSW. The smoke has been terrible I hear.

Satellite photo of the Tripod Complex Fire -- northeast of the Methow Valley. This photo shows the prevaling wind direction (SW) which shows why there isn't a huge risk of the fire hitting Wintrhop or Twisp. (BTW, we have a place near Twisp.)