Local TV station, KEYT, is updating this link continuously. The latest update is from 7:30PM PDT:

•8,700 acres burned
•40% contained
•Damage assessment in progress – initial estimate of 33 homes destroyed and 47 homes damaged.
•Approximately 12,204 properties evacuated (mandatory evacuation orders); affects approx. 30,500 people
•More than 11,524 properties under evacuation warning; approx. 29,000 people affected
•Residences threatened – 3,500; commercial properties threatened – 100
•4,300 personnel on scene: 499 engines, 101 crews
•11 air tankers and 13 helicopters
•13 firefighter injuries to date
•Cause under investigation: Tip line – 805-686-5074
•Air quality warning downgraded to Air quality watch
•Estimated costs to date $4.2 million

The LA Times is changing their story link every day, but the map link is updated constantly.

Via Jill, the Enplan Wildfire Viewer. Just click on the Jesusita link on the sidebar to see the locations of the fire’s hotspots.

The good guys made a lot of progress today as cold upwelling off the coast generated cool, humid weather with light winds. So much progress was made that some people have been allowed to return to their homes.

Yesterday started off with a call from my Mother to evict kittens from her car. The situation escalated beyond the spray bottle to the Supersoaker, but stopped just short of the hose. The “Pump House Gang” was ready to make a stand, but they really didn’t like getting wet.

I have been working on a data base for a client. It is something I do every year, and it gets worst every year, because the people who own the data base are outsourcing the data input and obviously are spending no money on quality control.

In the middle of doing several extended searches to find the correct answer for what was obviously a corrupted entry, I got a phone call, and, I admit, I got rude with the caller.

The caller was from the NRA, and started by saying that the current Congress is the most anti-gun government we have ever had. I interrupted her and unloaded. I essentially told her that in my opinion the NRA propaganda was responsible for the deaths of several police officers recently as it feeds into the paranoia of unbalanced people in this country, and that everyone associated with the organization should look to the welfare of their souls for their guilt in the deaths. I stopped just short of quoting Scripture and hung up.

I’m sick of the propaganda, the spite, and the hate. They didn’t say a thing when Bush’s DHS decided they had the right to disarm the residents any time they felt like it, but, based on nothing more than having a Democrat in the White House, not a single bill in Congress that even talks about guns, these people start a fear campaign. The NRA is starting to look a lot like a terrorist organization, in the original sense of the word.

The Pensacola News Journal reports Judge: Prayer ban OK

A federal judge on Friday approved a consent decree that calls for Santa Rosa County School District officials to stop promoting their religious beliefs in schools.

School officials now are prohibited from promoting or endorsing prayers during school functions and from organizing school functions at religious venues. The consent decree must be distributed to all employees.
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District officials admitted the allegations. Board members signed a consent decree in March that listed steps the district will take to end the violations.

School Board Chairman Ed Gray said they intend to abide by the judge’s order.
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