State leaders are predicting an extremely challenging wildfire season this year with drier conditions and limited help from the feds and other states because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, they said during a telebriefing with reporters Thursday. Fire departments and fire districts are already making changes to their approach.
- PUB DATE: 5/15/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIMA-TV CBS Yakima

A mother, her daughter and their three pets escaped injury Wednesday afternoon when a fire of unknown origin severely damaged a home in the 800 block of Mayberry Street. Firecrackers exploded during the blaze, making Forks-area Fire District 1 Chief Bill Paul first suspect that ammunition was going off.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 1:37:10 PM - SOURCE: Port Angeles Peninsula Daily News - Metered Site

When the first U.S. case of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, was confirmed on Jan. 21, it appeared to be contained — the patient was a man living near Seattle who had recently returned from Wuhan, China and immediately isolated himself, and the local health department had conducted contact tracing to make sure that anyone he had encountered was now quarantining at home.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: People

Police Chief Eric Clifford fears the city could again become addled by gangs, drugs and double-digit homicides if the department is forced to lay off about 40 cops because of a deepening fiscal crisis brought on by the coronavirus. “Quite frankly, we go to the bare bones minimum of what we do – protect life and property – and we have to start scaling back on what we do as a department,” he said.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Albany Times-Union - Metered Site

Minneapolis’ police officers and firefighters deserve a “significant portion” of emergency federal COVID-19 aid, union officials said, arguing that an infusion of potentially millions of dollars is needed to avoid cutbacks or layoffs. In a letter to lawmakers, the unions made their pitch for a bigger cut of funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act — with Minnesota receiving $2.
- PUB DATE: 5/14/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Star Tribune