Via Atrios, a New York Times business piece: Owner of Orange County Register May File for Bankruptcy

Freedom Communications, owner of The Orange County Register and 30 other daily newspapers, is expected to file for bankruptcy this week under a plan that will hand its publications to its lenders, people briefed on the matter said on Sunday.
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The majority of Freedom is still owned by the Hoiles family, whose patriarch, R. C. Hoiles, founded the company seven decades ago as an outlet for his libertarian philosophy…

Among the papers published by Freedom Communications are: the Santa Rosa Press Gazette, the Crestview News Bulletin, the Northwest Florida Daily News [AKA Local Puppy Trainer], the Destin Log, the Walton Sun, the Washington County News, the Holmes County Times Advertiser, the Panama City News Herald, the Port St. Joe Star, and the Apalachicola Times. With the exception of the Gannett-owned Pensacola News Journal, that is pretty much every newspaper on the Panhandle in the Central Time Zone. If you look at a map of Florida, it is the western section South of Alabama.

And people wonder why people in this part of the state seem so “uniformly uninformed”.

Update: They filed today 9/01/09.

Update from the KTLA link:

“Two Los Angeles County firefighters were killed Sunday fighting the “Station Fire” in a car accident near Mt. Gleason, just south of Acton.”

The Station Fire in the Angeles National Forest has now burned about 42,500 acres, destroyed at least 18 structures, and is 5% contained.

The fire started off Angeles Crest Highway (SR 2) about one mile above Angeles Crest Fire Station around 3:30pm [PDT], Wednesday August 26, 2009.

There have been 3 civilians burned in the fire so far, and one firefighter treated for heat exhaustion.

Currently there are 124 engines, 20 bulldozers, 8 air tankers, 12 helicopters, and 2,200 total personnel assigned to the fire.

Among the aircraft is at least one DC-10, capable of 12,000 gallon drops.

InciWeb notes:

Very heavy fuels of ceanothus, chamise, scrub oak and manzanita across the entire fire area, 15 to 20 feet in height with Big Cone Douglas Fir in the drainage bottoms. Fuels have not experienced any significant large fire activity in the past 40 years.
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Fire behavior was extremely active with rapid rates of spread and flame lengths up to 80 feet.
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Mandatory Evacuations are in effect for over 10,000 homes. The fire is threatening the Mount Wilson Communications Facilities and Observatory and may reach these locations this burning period.

Links: InciWeb, LA Times, KTLA, and Pasadena Star-News

Maps: LA Times fire map and the Enplan Wildfire Viewer

[For more information go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Fires” for all of the posts related to wildfires on this site.]

Position: 17.0 N 107.2 W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [305°] near 7 mph [11 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 145 mph [230 kph].
Wind Gusts: 180 mph [290 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 25 miles [40 km].
Minimum central pressure: 940 mb ↓.

It is 445 miles [715 km] South-Southeast of Cabo San Lucas Mexico.

The government of Mexico has issued a Hurricane Watch for the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula. The watch extends southward from Bahia Magdalena on the West Coast around the southern tip of the peninsula and northward to San Evaristo on the East Coast.

This a small, intense storm in the Pacific, that might produce some rain for Southern California, but will be a major problem for the people of Baja.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]