Tag: wildfires

New Details Suggest the California ‘FireAid’ Fundraiser Scandal is Even Worse Than People Thought

After the wildfires of California earlier this year, leaders in the state joined with a number of Hollywood celebrities and famous musicians and did a fundraiser event called ‘FireAid’ that managed to raise $100 million which they claimed would go directly to the victims.

Several weeks ago, an independent journalist did a deep dive into the funds and found that none of the victims had seen a dime of the money. Based on her research, she found that the money had gone to a number of non-profit organizations.

Now, the Washington Free Beacon has done an even deeper dive into the issue and it looks even worse. Some of the non-profits that received this money have absolutely nothing to do with the issue of fire recovery or even base their assistance on race.

From the Free Beacon:

FireAid announced in February that it would distribute the money it raised “equitably,” a promise it appears to have kept. Greenline Housing Foundation, for instance, received funds from a $4.8 million pool dedicated to health and housing. It noted on its website that no whites need apply.

“In order to qualify for a grant through Greenline Housing Foundation, applicants must be a Black or Hispanic person,” the group stated…

The same is true for the Black Freedom Fund, a Black Lives Matter-era nonprofit dedicated to fighting “systemic racism” and promoting “Black power-building.” The organization—which received money from a $7.6 million pool dedicated to “disaster relief”—stated in a 2023 grant proposal document that it would only assist groups “led and controlled by Black people” and “primarily serving Black people.”

My Tribe Rise, which also received cash from that pool, has a similar mission. Founded in 2019, the organization states that its mission is “to take the stigma out of gangs and to educate people about the positive changes that are possible when people come together to end violence and meet the needs of Black and Brown communities.”

Other groups that have received money through FireAid offer assistance to illegal aliens within California.

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Now Comes the California Fire Sale: China-Based Company Is Buying Up Land Incinerated by Firestorms

If foreign corporations want to buy burned-out properties, can those sales be stopped? Should they be stopped? 

When the feared firestorm hit Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena in Southern California last January, the Los Angeles mayor was MIA, the “public safety” guy in charge—the vice mayor—was on home confinement for making an anti-Israel bomb threat on city hall, fire fighters were not pre-deployed, there was no water in the reservoir, and fire hydrants went dry in the Palisades. 

Soon came vows by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and elected officials in Malibu, Altadena, and the Palisades to streamline the rebuilding and permitting, which turned out to be a joke. Now, amid bad leadership, virtue signaling masquerading as help, incinerated FireAid money, and promises in name only, comes the fire sale. 

In early August came word from an exclusive story in Realtor.com that foreign investors were buying up prime lots in the burned-out area of an iconic Malibu beach.

Now, a foreign investor has been secretly scooping up many of the burned lots on the oceanfront side of the PCH—with the vision of rebuilding the mansions that dotted the coastline in the iconic beach town.

‘Once this beach is built back and it’s all brand-new construction, I think it’s going to be a very desirable spot for a lot of wealthy people to try to buy a beach house,’ Weston Littlefield with the Weston James Group tells Realtor.com®.

The luxury real estate agent and his colleague Alex Howe have been working with the investor who has, so far, purchased nine lots worth more than $65 million—but the process isn’t random.

The strip of homes nestled between the Pacific Coast Highway and the Pacific Ocean is the storied La Costa Beach.

Nine of the most desirable lots have been sold by people who can’t wait or can’t afford to rebuild.

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Why Don’t We Know What Caused the L.A. Fires?

It’s been eight months since the California wildfires incinerated hundreds of homes and left charred scars stretching for miles in Pacific Palisades, Malibu, and Altadena. The natives are getting restless, however. Angelenos want to know what officially caused these fires, which led to homelessness and despair and contributed to a corrosive and abiding distrust of local and state government competence.

What’s the holdup? 

We’re getting closer to finding out the cause, ironically, not from the state’s congressional delegation and its two troubled senators, but rather because a Florida senator is demanding answers. 

Senator Rick Scott, at the bidding of desperate Palisades fire victims, answered their pleas to get answers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF took command of the investigation less than a week after the Palisades fire sparked at 10:30 a.m on Tuesday, January 7.

Scott met with Palisades fire victims, including Spencer Pratt, a cast member from the MTV show “The Hills,” who lost his home in the fire. Pratt has become a leading spokesman for fire victims. He arranged a meeting with Scott in the Palisades, where the senator promised to get a briefing from the ATF for fire victims. 

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California’s Fraudulent “Disaster Recovery” Is A Land Grab

Remember Gavin Newsom’s first visit to the sites of devastating fires last January in Los Angeles, when he vowed to streamline California’s paralytic regulations so people could quickly rebuild their homes?

In that interview, while undulating his shoulders in a weird shimmy that will undoubtedly come back to haunt him as he ramps up his presidential campaigning, Newsom also promised to “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices.”

It’s hard to say which promise has been more thoroughly violated. As celebrity author Adam Carolla posted on 7/14, there is virtually no work going on along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, where hundreds of homes burned down to the sand.

This is typical.

The Palisades Fire, with a burn area that included Malibu, destroyed over 6,000 homes. So far, 161 permits have been issued by the City of Los Angeles. The community of Altadena, which was consumed by the Eaton Fire, lost over 9,000 homes. So far, 84 rebuilding permits have been issued.

Instead of streamlining the process to get permits to rebuild, if anything, the city has made it harder. In a July 14 interview with the local ABC affiliate, one dispossessed homeowner claimed the city is adding new requirements and deadlines, saying, “They’re now requiring you to submit an itemized list with pricing, which is nearly impossible in a home that’s been owned for over 40, 50 years.”

But whether it’s California Governor Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the playbook is not designed to help people rebuild their homes and move back into the neighborhoods where their families have lived for generations. New regulations did not replace old regulations. They added as much as they removed, with the new ones being unfamiliar even to veteran builders. All of them, of course, came delivered with the rhetoric of streamlining, while in fact only adding complexity.

Newsom, a tool of corporatist special interests, and Bass, a socialist darling of public sector union bosses, were never playing a game intended to help anyone living in a “single-family detached home.” The new regulations, sold as a way to expedite permitting, were in fact a way to make rebuilding impossible for all but the wealthiest homeowners. And Newsom’s executive order that would “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices” was actually a move calculated to limit the options of homeowners while the special interests—including the government itself—lined up to purchase these properties.

This isn’t speculation. In late June, Los Angeles County’s “Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery” issued its “draft action plan” for “The Resilient and Sustainable Rebuilding of Los Angeles County.” This document is a textbook example of what corporate socialist elites have in store for those normal citizens who, to date, still maintain a modicum of financial independence.

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Sorry, L.A. Fire Victims, the NGO Borg Ate Your FireAid Money

We thought it was a betrayal of Los Angeles fire victims that the local government slow-rolled the building permit process to wait out property owners so the state could replace their homes with “low-income” apartments. It turns out, however, that the betrayal has just gotten worse.

We learn this week, thanks to the great work of a lone reporter at a small Southern California publication called Circling the News, that a whopping $100 million donated to help fire victims isn’t making its way to actual fire victims. 

In the fires that started on January 7, 2025, about 6,800 homes were destroyed in the Pacific Palisades. Not all were mansions but all were on very valuable property in a tony section of Los Angeles that is close to Malibu and Santa Monica. In Altadena, a neighborhood close to leafy Pasadena, 9,400 homes and structures were destroyed in the fires. 

Only a few weeks later, the biggest names in show business would come together to selflessly give their talents and time to put on a show that raised $100 million. 

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Questions Surround $100 Million in ‘Fire Aid’ for Los Angeles

Questions are being raised about how the roughly $100 million raised by “Fire Aid” concerts in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires earlier this year is being spent — with some claiming victims are receiving nothing.

The star-studded bill for the benefit concert, held on two separate stages, raised a massive sum. But many residents of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu (Palisades Fire), and of Altadena and Pasadena (Eaton Fire), say they have not benefited.

There have been two significant local investigations by local news outlets, each of which came to different — though not necessarily contradictory — conclusions about Fire Aid’s money.

The first, by ABC affiliate KABC-7, concluded that the money was being well-spent — on organizations:

Roughly 120 organizations split $50 million when the first round of FireAid funds was released in February. 7 On Your Side tried reaching out to every single one of them, and heard back from more than 50 to find out how the money is being used.

…

The Pasadena Humane Society used $250,000 from FireAid to treat and house pets burned and left homeless by the flames.

Heal the Bay received $100,000 and used it to test for contaminants along our coast.

However, Circling the News, as highlighted by local Fox affiliate KTTV,  found that few victims had benefited.

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Kristi Noem claims 1 in 6 survivors of Lahaina wildfires were forced to trade sexual favors for supplies

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed one in six survivors of the Lahaina wildfires in Hawaii had to trade sexual and other favors to get basic supplies.

The comments were seemingly in reference to a report on female Filipino survivors, which one of the authors called a “gross manipulation” of the report, according to Politico.

At a review meeting for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday, Noem said, ​​“After the wildfires in Maui, residents voiced concerns that every FEMA employee that they spoke with had different answers.”

“None of them had conversations that resulted in getting assistance that was helpful or any clarity in their situations,” she added. “The situation in Lahaina was so bad that one in six survivors were forced to trade sexual favors, other favors for just basic supplies.”

The study on Filipino female survivors was conducted by Tagnawa, which states that it is a “Filipino feminist disaster response organization” in Hawaii. The review included responses from 70 female Filipino fire survivors and found that 16 percent had engaged in “survival sex in exchange for basic necessities post-disaster,” with “a landlord, an employer, family members, friends and acquaintances.”

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AND THERE IT IS: California Governor Gavin Newsom Announces Funding for New ‘Multifamily Rental Housing’ After LA Wildfires

This week, we learned that less than 100 building permits have been issued in Los Angeles, six months after the destructive wildfires that destroyed entire neighborhoods like the Pacific Palisades.

Now California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced $101 million in funding for new ‘multifamily rental housing’ as a solution for housing displaced residents in the area. It almost seems like this was the goal all along.

Who could have predicted such a thing?

From the governor’s website:

Governor Newsom commits $101 million to jumpstart critical rebuilding efforts after LA Fires

Los Angeles, California – Six months after the LA Fires, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) announced the release of $101 million to help rapidly rebuild critically needed, affordable multifamily rental housing in the fire-devastated Los Angeles region. Thousands of families are still displaced by the wildfires that raged through the Greater Los Angeles Region in January 2025, placing an incredible strain on an already tight rental market.

Tomiquia Moss, Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency: “The State’s special Multifamily Finance Super NOFA will galvanize the collective public-private response to the wildfires in Los Angeles County, expediting and expanding opportunities to build affordable housing for low-income residents. By prioritizing affordable housing projects that are ready to go, these funds will accelerate household stability, climate and health outcomes in communities.”

No one seems very surprised by this.

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Six Months After California Wildfires, Less Than 100 Building Permits Have Been Issued in Los Angeles

The wildfires that ravaged southern California and destroyed thousands of homes in the Pacific Palisades and other neighborhoods happened six months ago, and yet, less than 100 building permits have been issued.

Adam Carolla’s predictions from January are coming true.

The rebuilding process has been so slow that many people in the area have decided to sell their destroyed homes rather than try to rebuild.

How is it even possible that so little has been done?

From KTLA News:

It’s been six months since wildfires devastated Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other parts of Southern California, and a prominent local figure has called out political leaders for what he sees as a lack of action.

Developer Rick Caruso took to social media on Monday to lambast local government officials for “endless red tape” causing what he calls a lack of progress in rebuilding after the fires. Caruso challenged Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for that position in 2022.

“Thousands of homes were destroyed, and yet fewer than 100 building permits have been issued after six months,” he wrote alongside a video promoting his nonprofit Steadfast LA. “Does anyone believe this is rapid rebuilding?”

Caruso does cite some progress — power lines will be rebuilt underground, for instance — though he also criticizes officials for a focus on “lofty rhetoric” instead of answers for fire victims and tangible action on the ground.

It looks like nothing has been done, other than clearing some debris.

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SoCal Police to Use Drones to Catch Illegal Fireworks on July 4

Police in fire-ravaged Southern California, plan to use drones to catch people who use illegal fireworks on and around the Fourth of July celebrations.

While many, even in California, might ordinarily balk at the use of drones for surveillance and law enforcement, the fact that recent Los Angeles wildfires could have been sparked by illegal fireworks means that many communities are on edge entering Independence Day week.

The Pasadena Star-News reports:

Revelers who once could illegally ignite fireworks and scatter before police officers arrive or who suffer from collective amnesia when questioned about who lit the fuse may still find themselves lighter in the wallet. For the first time in parts of Southern California, stealthy aerial surveillance will attempt to nab them in the act.

Riverside, Hemet and Brea, and possibly other cities, will launch drones to film illegal activity as municipalities increasingly marry new technology with old-fashioned legislation to prevent injuries and the type of fast-moving fires that devastated the region in January.

Offenders or their landlords will then receive a surprise: Those cities are mailing citations to property owners, in some cases without ever first contacting them, regardless of whether they were present when the fireworks sparkled, smoked or skyrocketed.

While the Eaton Fire, which erupted in Pasadena and Altadena on January 7, was likely caused by faulty power lines, the Palisades Fire on the other side of town was likely caused by a reignited fire that originally started on New Year’s Day due to illegal fireworks, local residents believe.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s office issued a warning: “The sale, transport, or use of fireworks without the ‘Office of the State Fire Marshal Safe and Sane’ seal is illegal, as is possessing or using any fireworks in communities where they are not allowed. Violators face potential fines up to $50,000 as well as a year in jail.”

The governor’s office said that 600,000 pounds of illegal fireworks had been seized in 2025 thus far.

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