By Alessandra Freitas, CNN

(CNN) — At first, all Miiyah Paavola could see was a thick wall of smoke.

From her home in Namaygoosisagagun First Nation, northwestern Ontario, the smoke appeared close.

But the remote Indigenous community says that on that Monday, July 13, they were told by the Ministry of Natural Resources there was no immediate danger.

Within hours, they were fleeing for their lives.

“It was all very fast-paced. There was not really much time to think about what was happening,” Paavola told CNN.

She grabbed a wet towel before squeezing aboard a small aluminum boat with five other people, three dogs and a cat. The isolated community, also known as Collins First Nation, has no road access, only a railway line and Collins Lake.

Paavola couldn’t fully grasp the scope of the danger until her boat pulled away.

“All you could see was orange and gray and it was very dark,” she said. But as they sailed away, she could finally see just how close they’d been to the fires. “When I was going across maybe about the second island, that’s when I watched it. I could just barely see the flames reach the shoreline. And it was a very thick wall of smoke that followed it very quickly.”

“If we had waited any longer, we would have been dead.”

Only 25 of the community’s roughly 60 members were in Collins when the fire arrived. Residents say that likely saved lives, as people crowded into aging 12- and 14-foot aluminum boats powered by decades-old motors. Many had to leave their pets behind.

The fires that devastated Collins are part of a wider wildfire emergency unfolding across Canada, where 889 active fires were spreading as of Thursday night, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. Of those, 163 active wildfires are in Ontario, according to the province’s Ministry of Natural Resources.

‘All I could think was my children were gone’

Miiyah remembers the escape itself being just as terrifying as the fire.

“It was very scary,” she said. “There were quite a few times I felt like we were about to tip.”

Their boat faced strong waves during the roughly 40 minutes it took to sail from the northern to the southern part of Collins Lake. Shortly after leaving the shore, they struck a rock and nearly flipped.

Miiyah’s mother, Chief Helen Paavola, wasn’t in the village when the fire broke out. She said a fire official had told her earlier that there was no immediate danger, insisting the smoke residents were seeing came from a smoldering fire farther away.

Chief Paavola remembers the moments of agony when she couldn’t reach members of the community during the evacuation, including her daughter and two sons.

“All I could think was … they’re gone. My children are gone. My community is gone,” she told CNN. “There are no words to explain the relief that I felt when I knew everybody was out.”

But just like all other houses in Collins First Nation, her home was completely destroyed by the fires.

At a press conference with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, government officials said that the fire had started unusually close to the community in Collins, leaving little time to respond. The government said that it would review its response to the situation.

A community turned to ash

The destruction of Collins has become one of the starkest examples of the devastation caused by this week’s fires.

According to Linda Debassige, Grand Council Chief of the Anishinabek Nation in Ontario, more than 30 homes were lost, along with the administration office, school, community center, storage buildings, vehicles and essential community equipment.

“If they waited for an emergency response,” she said, “we would all be on a re

By Kasha Patel, Chiara Negrello, CNN

Scardovari, Italy (CNN) — As the sun was rising, two fisherwomen dragged their boat through the Scardovari lagoon in northeastern Italy. Oscarina Soncin stood in one of the largest clam-harvesting sites in Europe — the frigid water lapping against her knees as she scraped the seafloor with a metal rake. The motion kicked mud, sand and the region’s famous delectable Manila clams into her net. Her fishing partner Giovanna Pizzo sorted the clams from the debris.

For more than two decades, the duo hauled in more than 4 pounds of clams each morning from the lagoon in the Po River Delta — upending the notion that women were unsuited for such a rigorous job. Their enterprise drew international attention, inspiring a profile by National Geographic in 2021. The two enjoyed a reliable income and the feeling of freedom on the water.

Then, in 2023, they started picking up broken shells with no clams inside. They had to stay on the water longer to collect their quota but weren’t always successful.

A competitor had emerged and was lurking nearby: the Atlantic blue crab. The crustacean — a prized seafood in Maryland, elsewhere along the US eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico — had overrun the Po Delta, devouring the cultural staple that once provided a livelihood for generations of clammers.

Manila clams are woven into Italian cuisine, tossed in pasta or served steamed. Italy is the second-largest producer of the Manila clams after China — with many Po Delta lagoons at the heart of the country’s industry.

Yet within three years, the Atlantic crabs have transformed the fishery. Annual clam harvests in the Scardovari lagoon, where Soncin and Pizzo worked, fell by 93%. Some clam beds have no survivors.

Scientists say the delta’s naturally nutrient-rich waters provide a great buffet for the crabs and other marine life. But a warming planet has increased ocean temperatures and created milder winters — allowing the crabs to multiply rapidly and feast on the clams.

“My experience has taught me that anything can happen in nature,” Soncin said. “The sea can give a lot, but it can also take everything away, and that is exactly what happened to me.”

Like Soncin and Pizzo, more than 600 fishers — 40% of the members in the local consortium — have quit, according to the group. Many turned in their licenses and pivoted to new careers. Others refused to let go of the trade and are attempting to adapt to the massive ecological shift.

The predator that found paradise

Blue crabs swarmed quietly for decades around the Po Delta lagoons. No one knows all the factors behind the population’s recent boom, although researchers point to recent extreme weather events and climate change, perhaps compounded with a rise in shipping traffic over recent decades.

The Po Delta is a haven for marine life, said Massimiliano Costa, director of the Po Delta Park that helps conserve and manage the local environment. As Italy’s longest river, the Po delivers plenty of nutrients to the lagoons — both from natural sources and from human activities like farming — that provide a surplus of food for sea critters, including blue crabs. Incoming tides from the Adriatic Sea continually replenish oxygen and bring in saltwater that the females need to reproduce. The crabs also burrow in the muddy seafloor to hide from predators and better withstand winter temperatures.

“The introduction of eggs and larvae through maritime transport has likely occurred continuously over several decades,” Viviana Carli, a technician with the Po Delta Park field team, said. “What seems to have changed were the environmental conditions, which became much more favorable for the species, al

Lynette Niebla

CONDADO IMPERIAL, California (KYMA) – El fiscal general de California, Rob Bonta, presentó una demanda contra la Ciudad de Calexico, esta acción en conjunto con el Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Comunitario de California y la administración del gobernador Gavin Newsom, al señalar que la ciudad de Calexico habría incumplido con la ley del elemento de vivienda de California. 

De acuerdo con la Oficina del Fiscal General, esta ley exige que todas las ciudades y condados actualicen su plan de vivienda cada ocho años para cumplir con su asignación regional de necesidades de viviendas, es decir, la cantidad de viviendas que les corresponde planificar para satisfacer las necesidades regionales y estatales.

El Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Comunitario identificó a 15 gobiernos locales que permanecían fuera de cumplimiento con la ley.

Aunque alrededor de dos tercios de esos gobiernos lograron regularizarse, cinco jurisdicciones, entre ellas Calexico.

The post Demandan a la ciudad de Calexico por incumplir ley de vivienda appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Oswaldo Rivas

Vuelve la Regla de Carga Publica para los solicitantes de Green Cards

The post Vuelve la Regla de Carga Pública para los solicitantes de Green Cards appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Kasha Patel, CNN

Se espera que los incendios forestales lleven aire insalubre a más de 120 millones de personas este fin de semana, pero el humo y sus partículas tóxicas no siempre son claramente visibles. En algunos lugares, el horizonte queda cubierto por evidentes tonos anaranjados anormales y un tenue olor a quemado. En otros, el cielo puede no mostrar ninguna señal visible de que algo anda mal en la atmósfera, pero eso no significa necesariamente que el aire sea seguro.

“El hecho de que hoy el cielo se vea un poco menos marrón o anaranjado no significa necesariamente que el humo ya no esté ahí”, dijo Dan Westervelt, científico atmosférico de la Universidad de Columbia.

La visibilidad del humo puede verse afectada por varios factores, entre ellos los compuestos químicos y las partículas que contiene, el tiempo que la columna de humo ha permanecido en la atmósfera, las condiciones meteorológicas y el ángulo del Sol.

Aunque el ojo humano no siempre puede percibir el peligro, los monitores de calidad del aire pueden medir con precisión la cantidad de contaminantes presentes en la atmósfera. Por eso es importante seguir las recomendaciones de seguridad de las autoridades locales —como permanecer en interiores, utilizar filtros de aire y usar una mascarilla N95— incluso si el cielo parece despejado.

Los científicos afirman que el humo de los incendios forestales es mucho más de lo que se puede ver a simple vista y que aquello que no se puede observar también puede causar daños.

Cuando un árbol arde, el calor descompone el material vegetal y libera gases inflamables. Algunos de esos gases reaccionan con el oxígeno y se convierten en dióxido de carbono y vapor de agua. Sin embargo, si el incendio no dispone de suficiente oxígeno para quemarlos por completo, puede producir un humo más denso, cargado de incontables partículas diminutas y compuestos químicos.

El característico color amarillo, anaranjado y marrón del humo de los incendios forestales proviene de un grupo de contaminantes conocido como “carbono marrón”, un término que engloba miles de compuestos, explicó Westervelt. Estos contaminantes tiñen el cielo porque absorben la luz solar en longitudes de onda más cortas —las responsables de los tonos azules y la radiación ultravioleta— y permiten que las longitudes de onda más largas, asociadas con los colores rojo, amarillo y naranja, atraviesen la atmósfera y lleguen a nuestros ojos.

El carbono marrón forma parte de una categoría de contaminantes conocida como material particulado 2,5 (PM2,5), llamado así porque sus partículas miden aproximadamente 2,5 micrómetros de diámetro, unas 30 veces menos que el grosor de un cabello humano. Estas partículas finas pueden evadir las defensas naturales del organismo y penetrar profundamente en los pulmones, lo que puede provocar problemas respiratorios o cardiovasculares.

Las partículas PM2,5 representan una de las amenazas más graves para la salud, de ahí las advertencias para permanecer en interiores con sistemas adecuados de filtración de aire. Además, pueden desplazarse cientos de kilómetros y permanecer suspendidas en la atmósfera durante días o incluso semanas.

Los incendios forestales también liberan gases de hidrocarburos como benceno, tolueno, xilenos y etilbenceno, que “son contaminantes atmosféricos peligrosos por sí mismos”, señaló Westervelt. Sin embargo, explicó que esos gases pueden experimentar transformaciones químicas adicionales en la atmósfera y convertirse en carbono marrón y partículas PM2,5.

El humo también contiene una categoría más grande de contaminantes conocida como material particulado 10 (PM10), cuyas partículas son aproximadamente siete veces más pequeñas que el grosor de un cabello humano. Aunque siguen siendo microscópicas y también pueden atravesar la nariz y la garganta para afectar el sistema respiratorio y cardiovascular, estas partículas caen al