TV News LIES

Dozens of wildfires raged across North and South Carolina on Sunday, prompting officials to issue evacuation orders and open emergency shelters as both states and much of the Eastern Seaboard contended with dry conditions and gusty winds.

In South Carolina, 175 wildfires burned across the state, scorching over 4,200 acres of land and straining firefighting resources, according to the state fire marshal's office. Response operations were ongoing in various areas, including Horry, Spartanburg, Union, Oconee, and Pickens counties.

The largest of the brush fires erupted Saturday in Carolina Forest, a community west of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The fire exploded in size overnight, forcing residents in at least a half dozen neighborhoods to flee their homes, officials said.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began the process of firing hundreds of probationary workers Thursday, the latest mass job cuts within federal agencies, multiple sources with knowledge of internal operations told The Hill.

The cuts, which are said to affect between 560 and 1,830 workers at the agency, were planned for at least a week, contingent upon the confirmation of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who oversees the agency. NOAA reported a permanent workforce of 11,758 in fiscal 2023, meaning the cuts could affect more than 10 percent of employees. One source who asked to speak on background told The Hill the firings began Thursday and will continue Friday.

Much of the US faced another round of biting winter weather on Sunday, with torrential rains causing intense flooding in Kentucky and resulting in multiple deaths.

The Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, on Sunday said at least eight people were dead amid the inundation, with the number possibly increasing.

Beshear said most of the deaths, including a mother and seven-year-old child, were caused by cars getting stuck in high water.

The mother and child were swept away on Saturday night in Kentucky’s Bonnieville community, Hart county coroner Tony Roberts said. In south-eastern Kentucky, a 73-year-old man was found dead in floodwaters in Clay county, county emergency management deputy director, Revelle Berry, said. There were a total of four deaths in Hart county, Beshear said.

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Residents of a southern California mountain community near the Eaton fire burn scar dug out of roads submerged in sludge on Friday after the strongest storm of the year swept through the area, unleashing debris flows and muddy messes in several neighborhoods recently torched by wildfires.

Water, debris and boulders rushed down the mountain in the city of Sierra Madre on Thursday night, trapping at least one car in the mud and damaging several home garages with mud and debris. Bulldozers on Friday were cleaning up the mud-covered streets in the city of 10,000 people.

January 2025 was officially the hottest January ever recorded globally, according to new data released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of the federal agencies tasked with keeping track of the world's weather and climate.

Both 2023 and 2024 shattered previous temperature records, hovering near or above 1.5 Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the Earth's temperature in the late 1800s, a time before humans began burning vast amounts of fossil fuels that have inexorably heated up the planet.

But the forecast was projected to ease slightly, primarily because a strong El Niño — a part of a natural climate cycle that had contributed to the intense heat — had faded by late last year. During El Niño's, the planet is often warmer than usual. But during the other half of the cycle, called a La Niña, it usually cools down. Earth flipped into the La Niña phase last year.

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Plastic straws, high flow toilets and incandescent light bulbs could make comebacks as President Donald Trump works to end previous environmental standards.

Trump called for "common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS" on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday, and said he was instructing Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately change the requirements.

The same posting called for new standards pertaining to showers, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers.

High-efficiency toilet standards were first set in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush. They required that new toilets not exceed 1.6 gallons of water used per flush. At the same time faucets and showers were capped at 2.5 gallons per minute.

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