Los Angeles County is burning. Here’s what you need to know.

Summary

Apple News Today: January 9, 2025 – Los Angeles County is Burning. Here’s What You Need to Know

Hosted by Gideon Resnick for Shumita Basu

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1. Devastating Wildfires Ravage Los Angeles County

Overview: On January 9, 2025, Los Angeles County faced a catastrophic series of wildfires that devastated multiple neighborhoods, destroyed over 1,000 homes and buildings, and resulted in numerous fatalities and injuries. The fires, fueled by unprecedented windstorms and a severe winter drought, prompted large-scale evacuations and strained firefighting resources.

Key Details:

• Initial Outbreaks: The first fire ignited in Pacific Palisades, a neighborhood of approximately 23,000 residents nestled between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Subsequent fires erupted near Altadena by the San Gabriel Mountains and in the San Fernando Valley. An additional fire near Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills, a densely populated and popular hiking area, further exacerbated the crisis.

• Human and Economic Toll: The wildfires led to multiple fatalities and injuries, particularly among those who did not evacuate in time. Over 1,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, with estimated total damage reaching $10 billion. High-value properties in areas like Pacific Palisades, where homes average $3.5 million, were significantly impacted. Insurers, already retreating from the California market due to recurring natural disasters, faced increased strain from this latest catastrophe.

Notable Quotes:

• James Franklin: “[The entire town as we've known it for decades is gone.]” (00:36)

• Brenda Simonian, LA County Fire Department Battalion Chief: “We were running down. You could see palm trees, just like random palm trees on fire. So I'm sure leaves are burning and falling down, and it's literally apocalyptic.” (00:41)

• Hoda Kotb: “This is the worst fire I've ever encountered.” (00:50)

Challenges in Firefighting: Fire Chief Anthony Maroney highlighted the arrival of firefighting resources from neighboring states, including Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. Despite this, local Fire Chief Kristen Crowley emphasized the critical need for residents to heed evacuation orders promptly. The rapid spread of the fires was largely due to wind gusts reaching up to 100 miles per hour, enabling embers to ignite new areas swiftly. Additionally, the ongoing winter drought left fire hydrants dry or with insufficient water pressure, severely hindering firefighting efforts.

Brenda Simonian on Firefighting Struggles: “We're losing water pressure up here. We have a lack of resources. The wind, as you see, is pushing it very violently and the lack of water is a huge, huge hurdle that we're trying to overcome so we can save as much as we can. All the hydrants have run dry.” (03:15)

Future Outlook: Meteorologists and fire officials suggested that winds might subside, potentially easing firefighting operations. However, the dry conditions continue to pose significant risks, making even moderate winds dangerous. The Los Angeles Unified School District responded by closing all schools, with two elementary schools in Pacific Palisades being entirely destroyed.

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2. Reflecting on Jimmy Carter’s Legacy of Honesty

Overview: The nation mourned the passing of former President Jimmy Carter, with a state funeral held in Washington before transporting him to his hometown of Plains, Georgia. Carter's unwavering commitment to honesty in politics remains a significant aspect of his legacy, though it also contributed to political challenges during his presidency.

Key Insights:

• Commitment to Truth: Carter’s promise to “never tell a lie” was a defining trait that earned him both admiration and political difficulties. Historian Mark Fisher emphasized, “I would not tell a lie, I would not mislead the American people, and I would not betray your trust.” (04:40)

• Political Downfall: Despite his integrity, Carter faced severe crises, including the Iran hostage situation, rampant inflation, and high gas prices. His transparent acknowledgment of these issues, exemplified in his infamous "Malaise speech," led to a decline in public support. He stated, “I'm going to level with you. I'm going to tell you that things are bad. I'm going to tell you that there's no easy. There's a lot of difficult time ahead of us.” (05:17)

Comparative Analysis with Modern Politics:

• Public Expectation vs. Reality: While Americans express a desire for honesty in their leaders, as evidenced by a YouGov poll where honesty ranked among the top three presidential qualities (06:04), the reality often diverges. The election of Donald Trump, who made over 30,000 false statements during his first term (06:20), illustrates a complex relationship between public ideals and political behavior.

• Erosion of Trust: Fire Chief Anthony Maroney discussed the erosion of traditional trust in institutions and leaders, noting, “You know, we talk a lot about how trust has collapsed and people don't trust their doctors or their religious leaders or their political leaders... And across all of the traditional measures of trust, it's fallen off a cliff.” (07:47) However, he also pointed out that trust is being redefined, with new forms of trust emerging in areas like technology.

Notable Quotes:

• Mark Fisher: “The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.” (05:40)

• Anthony Maroney: “There are very few Jimmy Carter type characters in our politics today. The humility that Carter pervaded, that we just don't see in our politics these days.” (06:30)

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3. Historic Milestone in College Football: Black Coaches at the Forefront

Overview: In a groundbreaking moment for college football, Marcus Freeman of Notre Dame and James Franklin of Penn State became the first black coaches to advance to the Orange Bowl, setting the stage for a potential historic national championship.

Key Insights:

• Breaking Barriers: Despite college football's long history, black coaches have been underrepresented, especially in top-tier programs. Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal highlighted that while half of college football players are black, only 12% of head coaches in major programs are black. However, there has been a significant increase in the hiring of black position coaches, rising from 38% in 2009 to 57% in 2022.

• Inspiring Representation: Both Freeman and Franklin recognize the broader implications of their achievements. Their success serves as an inspiration for aspiring black coaches and represents a slow but steady shift towards diversity in college athletics leadership.

Notable Quotes:

• James Franklin: “I don't take it lightly. I really don't. I've gotten a ton of messages from people all over the country that I've worked with or know. But ultimately, it's about Penn State and it's about Notre Dame and our teams going out in the field and competing and representing our schools and our conference.” (09:36)

Future Implications: The potential matchup between Freeman’s Notre Dame and Franklin’s Penn State in the national championship underscores a pivotal moment for diversity in sports leadership. Should either coach secure the title, it would mark the first time a black coach leads a team to a national championship in college football history.

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4. Additional Headlines

• Justice Department Report on Trump: The Department of Justice announced the release of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report concerning President-elect Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. However, details about Trump’s alleged retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago remain undisclosed. Following Trump’s election victory, federal charges related to these cases were dropped.

• Norovirus Outbreak: An uptick in norovirus cases, characterized by symptoms like vomiting, gastrointestinal distress, fever, and body aches, has been reported. The CDC advises maintaining cleanliness and frequent handwashing with soap and water, as alcohol-based sanitizers are ineffective against norovirus.

• Hoda Kotb’s Departure from Today Show: After 17 years as a beloved host, Hoda Kotb announced her departure from the Today show to focus on her family. She shared heartfelt reasons for her decision during an interview with Jimmy Fallon, expressing a desire to spend more time with her young daughters. Craig Melvin will replace her as a Today anchor.

  Notable Quotes:

  • Hoda Kotb: “I was telling them, you know, mommy is gonna be able to take you to school... Probably, you know, somewhere January, February, February.” (11:32)

  • Hoda Kotb: “I might as well like continue working forever for them. It’s the end.” (11:47)

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Conclusion

Today's episode of Apple News Today delivered comprehensive coverage of the urgent wildfires engulfing Los Angeles County, reflecting on political integrity through the lens of Jimmy Carter’s legacy, and celebrating a significant milestone for black coaches in college football. Additional stories provided updates on national legal proceedings, public health advisories, and media personnel changes, ensuring a well-rounded briefing for listeners.

For the latest updates and in-depth articles, refer to the Apple News app.

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Notable Timestamped Quotes Included:

• James Franklin: (00:36)
• Brenda Simonian: (00:41)
• Hoda Kotb: (00:50)
• Brenda Simonian: (03:15)
• Mark Fisher: (04:40)
• Anthony Maroney: (04:59, 05:08, 05:17, 06:04, 06:20, 06:30, 07:10, 07:17)
• James Franklin: (09:36)
• Hoda Kotb: (11:32, 11:47)

Transcript

[Gideon Resnick]

Good morning. It's Thursday, January 9th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shamit Debassu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, the legacy of Jimmy Carter's promise to never tell a lie, the two coaches who are making college football history. And the Today show prepares to say goodbye to Hoda Kotb. But first, to the devastating scenes in Los Angeles, where multiple uncontrolled wildfires have destroyed homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate.

[James Franklin]

The entire town as we've known it for decades is gone.

[Brenda Simonian]

We were running down. You could see palm trees, just like random palm trees on fire. So I'm sure leaves are burning and falling down, and it's literally apocalyptic.

[Hoda Kotb]

This is the worst fire I've ever encountered.

[Gideon Resnick]

The first fire broke out in Pacific Palisades. That's a neighborhood of roughly 23,000 people tucked between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. There's another on the opposite side of the city near Altadena by the San Gabriel Mountains. And two more fires in the San Fernando Valley. Additional fires broke out on Wednesday, including one near Runyon Canyon in the Hollywood Hills. That's a popular hiking area in a densely populated part of the city. There are now multiple fatalities and more than 1,000 homes and buildings have burned. Authorities also say there are a high number of injuries to people who chose not to evacuate. Lots of people have lost power at some point, and there are air quality advisories in effect, with many saying it's hard and even dangerous to breathe. The LA Times warns that the tiny particulate matter in the air can travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream. The LA County Fire Chief, Anthony Maroney, said at a press briefing yesterday evening that firefighters and resources from other states, including Arizona, Oregon and Washington, had arrived to help fight the fires. And LA City Fire Chief Kristen Crowley said at the same briefing that citizens should stay informed through trusted channels and that people living near wildland areas need to be prepared to follow all evacuation orders as soon as they are given.

[Rachel Bachman]

We are not out of danger. You can see the active fires that are burning with strong winds that are going to continue throughout the night. I can tell you and assure you that firefighters and first responders remain focused on protecting lives and property.

[Gideon Resnick]

All Los Angeles Unified Schools are closed today as a result of the fires. And officials say that two elementary schools that serve more than 700 students in the Pacific Palisades area were completely destroyed. And there's a reason that the fires got so bad so fast. There's been an unprecedented windstorm with gusts reportedly reaching up to 100 miles per hour. Embers can travel for miles on a gust of wind. According to meteorologists, California is also in the middle of an unusual winter drought. This is usually the rainiest season, but according to the LA Times, the last time the city received more than a tenth of an inch of rain was last May. Firefighters have struggled to contain the blazes because fire hydrants in the area are reportedly running dry or have weak water pressure. Fire officials say they were drawing water faster than tanks could be refilled. Here's LA County Fire Department Battalion Chief Brenda Simonian, who spoke with KCAL while she and her team tried to extinguish flames that were tearing through a senior center.

[Brenda Simonian]

We're losing water pressure up here. We have a lack of resources. The wind, as you see, is pushing it very violently and the lack of water is a huge, huge hurdle that we're trying to overcome so we can save as much as we can. All the hydrants have run dry.

[Gideon Resnick]

In addition to the human toll, the economic impact on Los Angeles is expected to be massive. Insurers were already pulling out of California in recent years because of the high risks of natural disasters like these fires. And this disaster could create an even bigger strain. Homes in the Pacific Palisades are worth on average $3.5 million, and preliminary estimates put the total cost of damage of all the fires at $10 billion. Officials say winds should die down today, which could provide some respite for firefighters. But because conditions are so dry, even moderate winds can still be dangerous. This is a rapidly moving story. You can follow the latest in the Apple News app. We're going to include a link in our show Notes to an article with a list of organizations working on the ground to help the state funeral service for President Jimmy Carter is today in Washington, after which the former president will be transported to his beloved hometown of Plains, Georgia, to be laid to rest next to his wife, Rosalynn. As the nation reflects on his legacy, there's one word you'll hear, honesty. It was the cornerstone of Carter's commitment to the American people when he took office.

[Mark Fisher]

I would not tell a lie, I would not mislead the American people, and I would not betray your trust.

[Gideon Resnick]

Mark Fisher recently wrote about Carter's legacy with honesty for the Washington Post, and he spoke to historians who say that Carter largely delivered on his promise to never tell a lie.

[Anthony Maroney]

I think you'd have to give him at least an A minus. He certainly made that effort in a way that most of the presidents have never seen. Reason to do so.

[Gideon Resnick]

In fact, Fisher writes that Carter's commitment to honesty may have also been his downfall as he dealt with everything from the Iran hostage crisis to rampant inflation and high gas prices.

[Anthony Maroney]

He's got one crisis after another to deal with, and he insists on leveling with the American people. And he infamously gives a speech that later became known as the Malaise speech, even though he never used that word. And in that speech, he says, look, I'm going to level with you. I'm going to tell you that things are bad. I'm going to tell you that there's no easy. There's a lot of difficult time ahead of us.

[Mark Fisher]

The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.

[Anthony Maroney]

And, boy, did Americans not want to hear that. And so his numbers just collapsed after.

[Gideon Resnick]

That speech, which is why politics is so complicated. In polls, Americans consistently say they want their politicians to tell the truth. In fact, in a poll last summer by YouGov, a research group, Americans said that honesty was one of the top three qualities they care about most in a president.

[Anthony Maroney]

And I think it's clear that while people say they want to hear the unvarnished truth, they really don't.

[Gideon Resnick]

There's no better proof of that than the election of Donald Trump. The Washington Post ran the numbers, and in his first term, Trump said things that weren't true more than 30,000 times. That's an average of 21 false statements a day. Still, that didn't seem decisive in how voters made their choice in this election. And because Trump has found that his style works with American voters, that is starting at some level to become normalized in our politics.

[Anthony Maroney]

There are very few Jimmy Carter type characters in our politics today. The humility that Carter pervaded, that we just don't see in our politics these days. And that's partly Trump's influence, but it's partly the mood of the country fundamentally.

[Gideon Resnick]

Fisher told us he thinks we're in a moment where Americans trust in just about everything, from politics to institutions is being redefined.

[Anthony Maroney]

You know, we talk a lot about how trust has collapsed and people don't trust their doctors or their religious leaders or their political leaders. And across all of the traditional measures of trust, it's fallen off a cliff. And yet we live in a moment where people are trusting things that they would never have trusted before. We're trusting driverless cars. So it's not that trust is gone, it's that we're redefining it and we're thinking about who we trust in very different ways. And a new generation is saying we just define trust differently than you do. And that's interesting and exciting and scary all at once. And so in our politics, we haven't figured out what to trust. And the reelection of Donald Trump is the ultimate expression of that.

[Gideon Resnick]

Now to college football, where Penn State and Notre Dame will make history before they even step on the field tonight in the Orange Bowl. And it's because of their coaches, Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame and James Franklin at Penn State.

[Rachel Bachman]

They are the first two black coaches to get this far in the college football championship race.

[Gideon Resnick]

That's Rachel Bachman, a senior sports reporter with the Wall Street Journal. She told us about one big reason that we've never seen a black coach win a national title in the history of college football.

[Rachel Bachman]

College football has been slower to diversify its top ranks, even though about half the players in college football are black and more like two thirds are non white.

[Gideon Resnick]

College football has been around for over a century now, but we didn't see a black coach lead a school from one of the five major conferences until 1981, when Northwestern University hired Dennis Green. Over the last decade, the number of black head coaches of major college football programs has remained pretty stagnant, holding steady at 12%. But in recent years, we've seen a surge in hiring at the position level. In 2009, around 38% of position specialist coaches were Black. By 2022, that number jumped to 57%. Bachmann told us that Freeman, the coach at Notre Dame, and Franklin, the coach at Penn State, both understand just how big the stakes are in tonight's game, not only for their teams, but for all of the black coaches inspired to follow in their footsteps. Yesterday they were asked about this at a press conference. Here's Franklin.

[James Franklin]

I don't take it lightly. I really don't. I've gotten a ton of messages from people all over the country that I've worked with or know. But ultimately, but ultimately, it's about Penn State and it's about Notre Dame and our teams going out in the field and competing and representing our schools and our conference.

[Gideon Resnick]

Whoever comes out on top will face the winner of Friday's Cotton bowl, either the University of Texas or Ohio State, later this month in the national championship. Before we let you go, here are a few other stories we're following today. The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that it plans to release Special counsel Jack Smith's report on President elect Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, though a separate part of the report pertaining to Trump's alleged retainment of classified documents at Mar A Lago will not be publicly released at this time. After Trump won this election, federal charges on both of those cases were dropped. Chances are that someone you know is sick right now with COVID the flu or a particularly nasty outbreak of norovirus going around. That's the viral stomach bug, typically accompanied by vomiting, GI distress, fever and body aches. And according to the cdc, norovirus cases are way up compared to this time last year. Vox has some tips on how you and your family can stay healthy. One thing to know is it takes very little exposure to get sick, so keep those surfaces clean. And this one might be obvious, but wash your hands. Alcohol based sanitizers don't really do a great job of killing norovirus, so you'll want to stick with soap and water. And finally, for 17 years, Hoda Kotb has greeted Americans every morning on the Today show. She's been one of the nation's most beloved hosts and media personalities, and tomorrow she steps down from her role to spend more time with her young daughters. She spoke with Jimmy Fallon about why she made this decision a few months ago.

[Hoda Kotb]

I was telling them, you know, mommy is gonna be able to take you to school. And they go, Wednesday. I go, no honey, not Wednesday. Yeah, next week. I go, no, honey, not next week. Probably, you know, somewhere January, February, February.

[Anthony Maroney]

I mean, I might feel like you're ruining this moment.

[Hoda Kotb]

I might as well like continue working forever for them. It's the end.

[Gideon Resnick]

Craig Melvin, another Today anchor, will replace her. And as for Kotb, she'll finally be able to turn off that 3am alarm that she's been using for years, though with two young kids, getting more sleep might still be a challenge. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now we have a narrated article coming up next. Bloomberg businessweek examines the popularity of Zinn and concerns the nicotine pouches are hooking young people. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News plus narrative to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.