Free Republic

Tensions are becoming dangerously high on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as increasingly desperate Haitians search for food and water while tons of supplies remain stuck at the country's airport. "What's going on? We can't even breathe! Who is helping us?" a man cried out today to an ABC News camera crew. Wearing a yellow bandana over his face and surrounded by other young and angry men, he said, "It takes one night to get the U.S. troops here, you know. It takes just a second for the military to get here."

Here I sit, looking down at lovely Lake Tahoe, but also looking down the hill at the fir forest growing ever thicker and more deadly. Fires always burn uphill. If a fire ever starts at the bottom of our hill, we'll have 10 minutes to escape before the one road out is cut off by the fire. Behind my home, it's nearly impossible to hike off trail because you have to wade through knee-deep piles of dead branches. The forest is ready to explode. We have too many trees, but no one dares do anything about it. Plenty of ingredients...

Tree-cutters have removed dead and dying trees from 30,000 acres near Idyllwild, but plenty of fuel remains on the 70,000 acres that haven't been cleared, officials said. Limited resources for tree cutting have been concentrated on clearing hazards near highways and in populated areas and on building firebreaks. "We've tried to do everything we can with the money we have to protect the towns of Idyllwild and Pine Cove," said Bob Sommer, a vegetation management specialist with the Forest Service. Since Thursday, the Esperanza Fire has consumed more than 40,000 acres of dry vegetation in the San Jacinto Mountains. Three...

LA tinderbox fears violent new spark (Filed: 29/04/2002) TEN years after the murderous Rodney King riots, Oliver Poole reports on the lost opportunities in deprived South Central. Sitting with her cooling latte in the new Starbucks in South Central, 37-year-old Maxine Keys recalls the days when looters ruled the streets and smoke from burning buildings obscured the sky. "Sitting here now all seems so normal: the sofas, people reading newspapers, drinking coffee," she said. "But I was driving past here when I saw people picking through stores as if it was Christmas, neighbours I knew running down the street with...