5 Things for October 10: California Wildfires, Las Vegas Shooting
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 10/10/2017, 9:15 a.m.
By Doug Criss, CNN
(CNN) -- Catalonia may declare independence from Spain today. Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. California wildfires
Fifteen wildfires scorched Northern California and left at least 10 people dead in blazes that also burned through the state's beloved wine country. The wildfires -- which started Sunday night and were aided by both dry conditions and high winds -- burned over 119,000 acres and torched more than 1,500 homes and businesses. More than 20,000 people were evacuated. The hardest-hit area seemed to be Santa Rosa, where seven of the deaths were reported. And officials warn the death toll is likely to rise: one county alone received more than 100 missing person reports.
2. Las Vegas shooting
Police have made a pretty big change to the known timeline of events in the shooting. They now say a security guard was shot six minutes before gunman Stephen Paddock began shooting concertgoers from his Mandalay Bay hotel room on the 32nd floor. Jesus Campos, who was investigating an alarm in another room on the same floor, was shot at 9:59 p.m. Paddock started his nearly 11-minute shooting rampage at 10:05 p.m.
This change is significant because police originally thought Campos was shot as the attack was already underway. They had believed Paddock stopped shooting because Campos diverted his attention when he neared the gunman's room. Now they don't know what made Paddock stop shooting, an attack that left 58 people dead and hundreds injured.
3. Russia investigation
An attorney for the Russian billionaire who allegedly pushed for the June 2016 meeting between senior members of Trump's team and a Russian lawyer says he has documents showing the meeting wasn't really about dirt on Hillary Clinton.
An email exchange and talking points provided to CNN are the latest indication of how some of the meeting participants plan to make their case about why the meeting with Donald Trump Jr. did not amount to collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. The new information stands in contrast with the initial email pitching the meeting to Trump Jr., which promised damaging information on Clinton.
4. Environmental Protection Agency
The Trump administration is taking down another part of Barack Obama's legacy. This time it's the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA plans to repeal the plan, which requires states to meet specific carbon emission reduction standards based on their individual energy consumption. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said the rule is bureaucratic overreach and will cost jobs. Environmental groups vowed a fight over this in the courts.
5. Tropical Storm Ophelia
The remnants of Hurricane Nate barely had time to exit the weather stage before Tropical Storm Ophelia formed. Ophelia, the 15th named storm of this active hurricane season, is churning away hundreds of miles west of the Azores Islands, but forecasters say at this point, the storm is not a threat to land. Ophelia will strengthen, though, and become a hurricane on Friday, making it the 10th hurricane of 2017.
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