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Now the finger pointing
With the fires claiming at least 1,165 homes in Southern California, some firefighters are saying the region wasn't prepared. "It is an absolute fact, had we had more air resources we would have been able to control this fire," Orange County fire chief Chip Prather told reporters. LAT, AP
Is it the biggest evacuation in California history?
The stat has been embraced by the media, but the Times seems unsure whether it's true: "The deaths brought a grim human focus to the disruption caused by the evacuations, which are being called the largest in California history. No one knows how many people heeded the orders or where they might have gone." LAT
Long Beach gets the dregs
Though it sits 40 miles from the closest fire, the city of Long Beach gets the smoke and ash and this week suffered some of the region's highest levels of airborne particulates. LAT
Long Beach sits at the neck of a wind "funnel" that, during strong Santa Ana conditions, carries smoke and ash to the coast from fires in distant mountain and desert areas.
Times reporter gets married — and a fire scare
Janet Wilson lives in Orange County's Modjeska Canyon and returned from her New Hampshire wedding to find the canyon burning but her home still there. Since so many have lost their homes, the paper had the good sense to keep her first-person story short. LAT
Helping out
KQED in San Francisco and The California Report are lending reporter Tamara Keith to San Diego to help FM station KPBS cover the fires.
Ex-Timesman makes very good
Columnist Rick Reilly, who toiled in the LAT sports department long ago, left Sports Illustrated for a five-year, $10-million deal with ESPN. "It's tough leaving SI after 23 years, but I just had this itch I had to scratch," he said, speaking of his urge to do TV. NY Post
Luke Ford quits porn biz again
The blogger has put his blog that covers the adult biz up for sale and says he will stop writing about porn. "I feel like my life is stuck in a rut and I need to shake things up and go in a new direction," Ford said. "I'm 41. Never been married. I am unlikely to marry a nice Jewish girl while I'm stuck in this porn rut." Xbiz, Luke Ford.net
Speaking of porn...
Zócalo has scheduled a new event Nov. 28 called "Should the Porn Industry Be Saved?" Daily News columnist Mariel Garza moderates a panel that includes former actors former actors Nina Hartley and Ira Levine, economist Jack Kyser, and Sharon Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundations. Zócalo
New venture at LANG
The Los Angeles Newspaper Group is looking for an editor to be "responsible for setting the editorial mission for a new home and lifestyle magazine for Southern California and building commitment and support for achieving its goals....Solid experience in the home/garden/lifestyle magazine category and related web publication is necessary." Mediabistro jobs
Sure to get reviewed at KPCC
Actor Steve Buscemi has joined the cast of John Rabe, a film that will tell the true story of a Nazi businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38. Ulrich Tukur plays the role of Rabe, no relation to the anchor of "Off-Ramp" on KPCC. Movie Web
New hire at LAT
Ken Bensinger, banking reporter at SmartMoney, has left to become an automotive staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. He will begin in November. Bensinger previously was with the Wall Street Journal.