LA Wildfires 'Were Arson'
THE TELEGRAPH: The huge wildfires burning in the foothills above Los Angeles were started by arson and will be investigated as a homicide after two firemen died tackling the blaze, according to the authorities.

A firefighter monitors a fire in the suburb of Glendale on the outskirts of Los Angeles city. Photo: The Telegraph
Investigators found evidence of arson at the point of origin for the largest of eight fires burning in the county, which has blackened an area the size of Chicago.

"Arson investigators from the US Forest Service [and other agencies] ... have concluded that the Station Fire was the result of an arson," Forest Service Commander Rita Wears told reporters at a press conference. >>> Alex Spillius, in Washington | Friday, September 04, 2009

L'incendie double de volume et menace Los Angeles
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: CALIFORNIE | Après avoir doublé de volume en l’espace de 24 heures, le violent incendie de forêt qui fait rage dans la banlieue nord-est de Los Angeles continue, tôt ce mardi matin, de menacer la métropole elle-même.

Les flammes ont déjà détruit 53 maisons et en menacent 12.000 autres alors que quelques habitants ont commencé à regagner leurs maisons rendues à l’état de cendres.

Pour l’heure, le manque de vent empêche le feu de progresser vers les banlieues densément peuplée du nord-est de Los Angeles, selon les services forestiers américains. «Je ne suis pas très optimiste mais nos pompiers vont faire tout ce qu’ils pourront pour empêcher ce feu de provoquer davantage de destruction», a dit lundi soir le commandant Mike Dietrich, du Service des forêts. Zoo évacué >>> AP | Mardi 01 Septembre 2009

Station Fire Claims 18 Homes and Two Firefighters
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Crews struggle to contain a 42,500-acre blaze that's 'still very much out of control.' The flames have continued to spread despite relatively low winds, and continuing heat will keep them going.

Los Angeles wildfires. Photo: Los Angeles Times
The giant fire in Angeles National Forest continued its slow-motion rampage through the mountains Sunday, causing the deaths of two firefighters as it bore down on the semirural community of Acton and threatened to overrun Mt. Wilson.

The two firefighters were killed when they drove off the side of a treacherous road in the Mt. Gleason area, south of Acton, around 2:30 p.m., said Los Angeles County Deputy Fire Chief Mike Bryant. They were later identified as Arnaldo Quinones, 35, of Palmdale and Tedmund Hall, 47, of San Bernardino County.

"This accident is tragic," Bryant said, choking up as he spoke Sunday evening. "This is a very difficult time for L.A. County Fire Department and the men and women that serve day in, day out."

The fire had churned through more than 42,500 acres of chaparral and forest, from the edge of metropolitan Los Angeles up to pine-clad ridges and down toward the Mojave desert. More than 12,500 homes were threatened and 6,600 were under mandatory evacuation orders Sunday night. Eighteen residences have been destroyed, fire officials said, mostly in the Big Tujunga Canyon area.

The fire was 5% contained, officials said, and at least temporarily eased off the foothill communities from La Cañada Flintridge to Altadena.

Much of Sunday turned into a blistering-hot waiting game for firefighters, who were trying to determine where the fire would move next. Rather than battling the flames in the sheer granite canyons of the interior, with heavy vegetation more than 40 years old in many areas, they cut fire lines near threatened neighborhoods.

"In this rugged, steep terrain, with this brush as thick as it is, we are having difficulties establishing containment lines where we can make a stand," said Capt. Mark Savage, spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "This fire is still very much out of control." >>> By Jessica Garrison, Alexandra Zavis and Joe Mozingo | Monday, August 31, 2009

Obama Joker Artist Unmasked: A Fellow Chicagoan
Firas Alkhateeb. Photo: Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES TIMES: When cryptic posters portraying President Obama as the Joker from "Batman" began popping up around Los Angeles and other cities, the question many asked was, Who is behind the image?

Was it an ultra-conservative grassroots group or a disgruntled street artist going against the grain?

Nope, it turns out, just a 20-year-old college student from Chicago.

Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.

Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it.

Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.

On Jan. 18, Alkhateeb uploaded the image to photo-sharing site Flickr (shown at right). Over the next two months, he amassed just a couple thousand hits, he said.

Then the counter exploded after a still-anonymous rogue famously found his image, digitally removed the references to Time Magazine, captioned the picture with the word "socialism" and hung printed copies around L.A., making headlines.

Alkhateeb's original Flickr page surpassed 20,000 views. The Times found his Flickr site last week thanks to a tip left by a loyal reader of The Ticket. By Friday, the page had been taken down.

On Alkhateeb's page, a manipulated image condemning fellow Chicagoan and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel (captioned "epic fail") was mixed in with parodies of the "Guitar Hero" game franchises -- dubbed Quran Hero -- and of Napoleon riding a motorcycle (pictured after the jump).

Flickr had removed the Joker image due to copyright-infringement concerns, Alkhateeb says the company told him in an e-mail. A Flickr spokeswoman declined to comment due to a company policy that bars discussing inquiries about individual users.

Alkhateeb says he wasn't actively trying to cover his tracks, but he did want to lay low. He initially had concerns about ... ... connecting his name with anything critical of the president -- especially living in Chicago, where people are "very, very liberal," he said.

"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."

"I abstained from voting in November," he wrote in an e-mail. "Living in Illinois, my vote means close to nothing as there was no chance Obama would not win the state." If he had to choose a politician to support, Alkhateeb said, it would be Ohio Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich. >>> Mark Milian | Monday, August 17, 2009

Obama the Joker. Photo: Los Angeles Times

Tough Times: Mobile Homes for Pilots
Jobs with an airline used to be among the most respected and envied but now at Los Angeles International Airport about a hundred airline employees - ranging from mechanics to pilots - are living in mobile homes parked just yards from one of the busiest runways in the world. Watch BBC video here

Freedom for Iran
Watch Journeyman Pictires video: Good Morning Tehran! >>>