Los Angeles Times - 31.10.2019

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Buffeted by unusually

strong winds, brush fires

broke out across Southern

California on Wednesday,

sending thousands of people

fleeing, closing major free-

ways and threatening the

Ronald Reagan Presidential

Library.

The cycle of fire began

Wednesday morning when

flames surrounded the li-

brary and museum in Simi

Valley and stalked nearby

neighborhoods as it swiftly

scorched hundreds of acres

in Ventura County. As the

day wore on and the winds

howled, more than a dozen

other smaller fires erupted

in communities including

Riverside, Santa Clarita,

Brea, Whittier, Lancaster,

Calabasas, Long Beach,

Nuevo and Jurupa Valley.

The outlook was brighter

in Northern California,

where thousands of evacu-

ees began to return home as

firefighters started to gain

the upper hand on the wine

country blaze that has

scorched more than 76,

acres and burned dozens of

homes.

The biggest battle

Wednesday was in Ventura

County, where 800 firefight-

ers trying to control the

wind-whipped fire sur-

rounding the presidential li-

brary were stymied by in-

tense gusts that sent embers

flying far beyond the body of

the blaze. Helicopters re-

peatedly dropped loads of

water around the Reagan

complex, which is perched

atop a hill blanketed in

dense brush, amid 60-mph

winds that were strong

enough to knock a person off

balance.

The Easy fire began near

Easy Street and Madera

THE EASY FIREin Simi Valley is seen from inside the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as a helicopter prepares for a water drop.

Wally SkalijLos Angeles Times

Winds whip explosive fires

Simi Valley blaze scorches hundreds of acres amid ‘extreme’ weather event

By Richard Winton,

Jaclyn Cosgrove,

Leila Miller

and Hannah Fry

[SeeWildfires,A8]

HORSESare evacuated from Castle Rock Farms in Simi Valley on Wednesday. The Easy fire was the largest

of more than a dozen fires that broke out in Southern California amid unusually strong Santa Ana winds.

Brian van der BrugLos Angeles Times

ROCK HILL, S.C. —
Laura and Lamont Williams
live in a house divided.
Laura is crazy for Pete
Buttigieg, the young politi-
cal phenom. “He just speaks
to my heart,” she said after
cheering the Indiana mayor
at a rally that bulged beyond
the capacity of the city’s red-
brick amphitheater.
Lamont is undecided in
the presidential race, but
leaning toward Joe Biden,
the septuagenarian sitting
uneasily atop the Demo-
cratic field. “My important
issue right now is winning,”
he said, as his wife offered an
indulgent smile. “Somebody
who can beat Trump.”
Laura Williams, 42, is
white, like the overwhelming
majority of Buttigieg back-
ers.
Lamont Williams, 46, is
black, like the voters who
form the bedrock of Biden’s
support.
Standing alongside his
wife at last weekend’s out-
door rally — wearing a “Pete
2020” sticker, like a good hus-
band — Williams was con-
spicuous as one of only
about two dozen African
Americans in the crowd of
more than 1,500.
The scarcity reflects a

Buttigieg

struggles

for black

support

‘Mayor Pete’ strives

to connect with

African American

voters, who tend

to favor Joe Biden.

By Mark Z. Barabak

[SeeButtigieg,A12]

CHICAGO — As he fights
extradition to the U.S., a
Ukranian tycoon and al-
leged “upper-echelon” asso-
ciate of the Russian mafia
has aligned his defense
closely with President
Trump: He has hired law-
yers who travel in the presi-
dent’s inner circle and is
pushing theories that he is
being targeted for political
reasons.
Dmytri Firtash — who is
under house arrest in Aus-
tria after posting a $174-mil-
lion all-cash bond — has
spent nearly six years trying
to avoid prosecution in the
U.S. on bribery charges tied
to mining rights in India.
In that effort, he has as-
sembled a cast of characters
familiar to anyone tracking
the presidential impeach-
ment drama and special
counsel Robert S. Mueller
III’s inquiry into Russia’s in-
terference in the 2016 elec-
tion.
In previous administra-
tions, the oligarch’s strategy
of linking himself to a U.S.

Indicted

oligarch

embraces

Trump

By Del Quentin Wilber
and Sabra Ayres

[SeeOligarch, A6]

MORE COVERAGE

Outages threaten

clean energy shift

Shut-offs cast doubt

on the grid’s reliability,

complicating the state’s

move toward cleaner

electricity. BUSINESS, C

Recipe for danger

Southland’s strongest

gusts in a decade and

ultra-low humidity drive

new fires. CALIFORNIA, B

A

s has happened so often

in her life, Mayela Ville-

gas once again faced

the threat of violence.

It was a late after-

noon in September and she was

alone. Hundreds of other asylum

seekers camped at the foot of the

U.S.-Mexico border bridge were

resting before volunteers arrived

with dinner.

Suddenly, a fellow Central

American migrant appeared at her

tent, growling threats.

“I don’t want any problems,”

said Villegas, a slight figure with

long brown hair and red lipstick.

“What problems?” the woman

said. “The only problem would be

how to take a knife and gut you.

You wouldn’t be the first or the last.

You’re worthless — annoying. You’ll

never compare to me because I

have a vagina and you don’t.”

Villegas is transgender. She had

stayed at the bridge in hopes of

obtaining asylum in the United

States to escape such threats.

The Honduran woman threat-

ening her was dating a member of a

Mexican drug cartel. Villegas tried

to appease the woman by acknowl-

edging she had powerful friends,

even as Villegas secretly recorded

their encounter on a cellphone.

“Yes,” the woman snarled before

leaving for her nearby tent. “You

COLUMN ONE

For transgender migrants, asylum’s a crapshoot

MAYELAVillegas says she didn’t consider dressing like a man

when she felt unsafe. “I’m a woman. I can’t give up what I am.”

Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times

[SeeMigrants,A4]

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske

reporting from matamoros, mexico

Weather

Sunny.

L.A. Basin: 79/51. B

BODEGA BAY, Calif. —

Rob Lawrentz and Angel

Brown, a retired couple from

West Virginia, were on their

dream vacation, cruising the

California coast on Highway

1. She had never seen the Pa-
   cific Ocean. He wore a shirt
   that said, “Almost Heaven.”
   On Tuesday afternoon,
   after a four-hour drive north
   from Monterey, they pulled

into Bodega Bay, the little

fishing town where Alfred

Hitchcock’s “The Birds” was

filmed. It was deserted, and

the lights were off at Bodega

Harbor Inn, where they’d

booked a room weeks ago.

“We pulled in, and it was

like, ‘uh-oh,’ ” Brown said.

“It’s usually a bad sign

when there’s no cars,”

Lawrentz added.

The vacationers were 40

miles from the Kincade fire

burning in the Mayacamas

Mountains northeast of

Healdsburg. But Bodega

Bay had been vacated.

The couple had driven

straight into what could be-

come a new normal: a mega-

evacuation zone.

California wildfires over

the past two years have left

unprecedented destruction

and loss of life, leveling thou-

sands of homes and killing

dozens. The death toll left

communities like Paradise

and Santa Rosa stunned

and exposed major weak-

Playing it safe or overkill?

Evacuations 40 miles from Kincade fire questioned

By Hailey

Branson-Potts

[SeeEvacuation,A9]

Governor’s role

Columnist George Skel-

ton writes on how Gavin

Newsom has handled the

blackouts and fires the

state faces. CALIFORNIA, B

ELECTION 2020

■■■■■■

Who’s who in

Ukraine inquiry

A look at 11 men who
could pose a headache for
President Trump in the
impeachment investiga-
tion. BACK STORY, A