Firefighters said injured in Station fire
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- There were reports of injuries to firefighters Sunday when flames approached an operations camp in the battle against the Station fire north of Los Angeles.
KCBS 2 reported the flames overran camp 16 atop Mount Gleason. The TV station aired an image of what appeared -- through thick smoke and haze -- to be an overturned vehicle.
Authorities said the Station fire, which broke out Tuesday in Angeles National Forest, appeared headed Sunday evening toward the historic solar observatory and broadcast transmission towers on Mount Wilson, the Los Angeles Times said. Transmitters for all major LA TV stations are housed at the communication towers.
Fire authorities assigned crews to clear brush around the structures but there was some question how long the crews could remain because of limited escape routes. Bob Shindelar, operations branch director of California Incident Management Team 5 told the Los Angeles Times it was not clear whether the observatory could be saved.
"We're doing everything in our power," he said. "But I wouldn't be surprised if it is impacted by fire today or tomorrow."
KCBS 2 advised viewers they would be able to receive television signals if they have cable or satellite but over-the-air transmission could be disrupted in the fire reaches the transmitters on Mount Wilson.
Winds picked up Sunday afternoon and drove the Station fire down canyons, threatening Acton, where authorities issued new evacuation orders for the small community. At the same time, evacuation orders were lifted for La Canada-Flintridge and part of Glendale, the Times reported.
The wildfire has burned 35,000 acres. Fixed-wing aircraft and a DC-10 were dropping water and flame retardant on the fire Sunday afternoon.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Sunday urged people in evacuation areas to take evacuation advisories seriously.
"There will be people who don't listen," he said at a news conference. "Move as soon as (firefighters) say to move."
A new fire broke out Sunday afternoon in Yucaipa, east of San Bernardino, Calif. It ha already burned at least 200 acres and some evacuations were reported.
Temperatures in the region remained in the upper 90s, with reports of some triple-digit temperatures. The forecast called for some cooling during the news few days.
Damage from the Station fire topped $1.3 million and even with an estimated 2,000 personnel battling the blaze, officials said it would likely not be contained before Sept. 8.
Category 4 Hurricane Jimena strengthens
MIAMI, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Hurricane Jimena gathered strength in the Pacific Ocean Sunday, approaching Mexico's Baja California with 140 mph winds, weather officials said.
The Category 4 hurricane at 2 p.m. PDT was located about 270 miles south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico, and about 480 miles south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported. It was moving west-northwest at 8 mph and is expected to cross Baja California sometime early Tuesday.
"There's a good chance this system could be a Category 5 in the next 24 hours," Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, told CNN.
Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific hurricane season.
"It started out kind of slow for the Pacific," Robbie Berg, another specialist at the hurricane center, told the U.S. broadcaster. "But actually August, now we've had seven named storms form, and that's pretty busy for August. We haven't seen that -- I think it's been a couple decades since we've seen that many storms in August."
Cheney: CIA torture probe 'political'
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney says probes of harsh interrogations of terrorism detainees are politically motivated.
Referring to the appointment of a special prosecutor by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a preliminary inquiry to investigate whether CIA treatment of the detainees amounted to illegal torture, Cheney told "Fox News Sunday" the move is based on politics and will damage U.S. morale.
Asserting that interrogators during the Bush administration had "specific legal authority from the Justice Department" to carry out harsh questioning, Cheney said of Holder's move, "It's clearly a political move. I mean, there's no other rationale for why they're doing this."
Cheney said the current Justice Department's actions will deter American efforts to fight terrorism and invite further attacks.
"If (CIA interrogators) are now going to be subject to being investigated and prosecuted by the next administration, nobody's going to sign up for those kinds of missions," he said. "It's a very, very devastating, I think, effect that it has on morale inside the intelligence community."
McCain says CIA torture probe 'a mistake'
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., says that although he opposes harsh interrogation tactics, a Justice Department probe of CIA torture allegations is a mistake.
The former Republican presidential nominee, speaking Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," said he vehemently opposed the "enhanced" interrogation techniques used by the Bush administration on captured terrorism suspects. But McCain also said a move by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether they amounted to illegal torture was "a serious mistake."
"I was radically opposed to (harsh interrogations)," he said. "I think it harmed us. I think torturing harmed us. I have a number of anecdotes that could substantiate that. And I think it harmed our image in the world, but for us now to go back, I think would be a serious mistake."
McCain asserted that President Barack Obama, instead of focusing on the actions of his predecessor, "ought to go forward and not back.
"I worry about the morale and effectiveness of the CIA," he said. "I worry about this thing getting out of control and us harming our ability to carry on the struggle that we're in with radical Islamic extremism."
