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2011年4月10日星期日

Fire can be worse in the history of Texas

Midland wildfire prompt evacuationsNEW: all six new fires reported Sunday are under control, the Texas Forest Service, saidNEW: , several brands involving more than 130 acres are uncontrolledNEW: The National Weather Service issues "red flag warnings" for parts of six States

Dallas (cnn) - once feared one of the worst days in the history of the State for the fight against forest fires firefighters of Texas has the upper hand on several Sunday to size a place while others have remained beyond their control.

Six fires again reported Sunday, in the counties of different, were relatively small and quickly brought under control, the Texas Forest Service said in a statement.

The most damage - a vacant mobile home, trailer mounted and another building - occurred over 1 acre in the County of Newton, but as the fire is controlled.

Eleven structures were threatened and a camper has lost more than 129 acres in Angelina County, the Agency added State.

Still, despite the success of dispelling these flames, authorities are struggling to manage other, significantly more roughly to size a place. This challenge, and the weather forecast, had led the Forest Service said that "conditions Sunday could shape up to be among the worst in the history of Texas."

Tornadoes in Iowa. Flooding in the upper Midwest

The largest fire not yet under control continues Sunday in 71 000 acres in Stonewall, Knox, and King counties. Air resources, bulldozers, fire engines and other tools and staff have been used in that fight forest Service, said.

Another of the most difficult slogs can be in the County of Presidio, where none of the 60 000 acres at risk was considered to be contained Sunday. The Forest Service has deployed three tankers air, 60 firefighters, bulldozers and other equipment and staff, and a host of other resources to State and local, focused on the blaze.

Already, 30 to 40 houses in Fort Davis was lost due to this fire, according to the Forest Service.

Another 34 homes were burned in Midland County, due to fire the State Agency Sunday described as "very active" and any content. A Red Cross shelter was created to the Midland College for the displaced or otherwise affected by this fire.

There were no evacuations still not related to an another 60,000 acres blaze, Potter and Moore counties near the city of Masterson. That fire is 50% contained and is still considered a threat to the towns of Dumas and Sunray.

Texas is not only, as wildfires is combustion in large areas of the Southwest and Midwest, fuelled in part by the dry, hot and windy.

The National Weather Service has issued "red flag warnings" through Sunday evening - indicative of what he calls "weather conditions fire critic" - in New-Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.

Governor of Oklahoma Mary Fallin Sunday extended a State of emergency for seven counties. The designation allows the agencies of the State to the purchase of emergency needed to rapidly provide resources to local governments, said the State emergency operations center. The National Weather Service posted warnings of fire for the Western two-thirds of the State.

On Saturday, a fire of grass just combustion South of Cleveland, Oklahoma, has prompted evacuations.

Up to 70 firefighters were involved in the response, and three helicopters, said Terry Dennis, a spokesman with the firefighters in Cleveland. Twelve families checked into a Red Cross shelter, but more have been evacuated, he said.

Dennis said Saturday that no there was no report of injuries.

In Texas, the fear is that relentless heavy winds dry weather could spawn a rash of wildfires similar to those that swept the Southern Plains States, April 9, 2009. These fires scorched 147,924 acres, destroyed 111 homes and killed four people, the Texas Forest Service said on its Web site.CNN Mariano Castillo and Kara Devlin contributed to this report

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2011年4月9日星期六

After years of price reductions, Texas is trying to find more

AUSTIN, Texas - it is difficult to overstate the fury of budget cuts which reign in the legislators in the capital, where the Republicans who control the legislature and the offices of the State of Minnesota believe voters sent a battleship mandate year last to reduce the size of the Government.

But the Texas Government was already a relatively lean operation after years of conservative fiscal policies. Thus, when the Texas House adopted its draft budget last weekend, the depth of the need for the Republican majority to stick to its promise PAS new taxes cuts became clearer. It was not a pretty picture.

The Bill would slash 23 billion at the current level of the State and federal spending during the next cycle of two years budget - increasing population of 12.3% reduction does not account for the price increase to meet the needs of Texas.

In a party line vote, the House shot dozens of sacred cows. The budget bill makes huge cuts to the education of the public, the homes of nursing and healthcare for the poor. It reduces funding for highways, prisons and state parks. It eliminates the reductions in pre-school, day teacher incentive pay and reduced scholarships for students of the College by two-thirds.

"You reduce bone in the State of Texas," said State representative Sylvester Turner, a Democrat from Houston. "The Republican game is:" we want smaller government, and we will do what was needed by all means necessary, regardless of the cost. "".?”

On Wednesday, the Conservatives and Tea Party supporters held a rally on the steps of the Capitol calling on Parliament to reduce even more deeply in certain programs, while thousands of State workers marching to protest against spending plan House.

What irritates the employees of the State and many liberals in the State is the refusal of Governor Rick Perry and his allies of the House for some of the pain in buffer drawing on more than 6 billion in emergency fundfueled by taxes for oil production. (Last month, the House approved using the Fund $ 3 billion to fill a gap in the current budget for two years).

But the Republican leaders in the House say the State's live with reduced revenues. Increasing taxes would hurt the economy, they say, and soaking in the Rainy Day Fund is unwise, given the prospect of cuts by the Federal Government.

"This is the hand, we have treated," said State representative Larry Taylor of the Houston area, the Chairman of the Republican Party Caucus. "This is how much money we have." We have no choice in Texas. We cannot print money. We cannot go into debt. ?

The depth of the cuts, however, has caused divisions within the party. Some Republicans in the Senate are to follow orders large cuts in money for public education and healthcare for the poor, as a short-sighted. "Children go no further," said State Senator Robert f. Deuell, a Greenville Republican and physician. "If you build a school, or you can build a prison."

The Senate is currently establishing its own draft budget, and Republican leaders say that it will contain approximately $ 10 billion more than the version of the House, especially for the public schools and Medicaid. Republican Senate seek various ways to raise revenue without calling the tax increases, as the acceleration of the collections of the tax and the Elimination of certain exemptions.

In a normal year, the Senate and the House in Texas begin negotiations and split the difference between the proposals. The President of the Chamber, Joe Straus, said in an interview that he saw Bill in house as the beginning of a long negotiation. "We are not blind to the questions that are ignored," he said.

But this year, the two rooms are so far apart, and public opinion here is so hostile to anything that looks like a tax increase, it is not known how the two houses will fill their differences. The House is not likely to accept any increase in income; the Senate is not likely to go hand in hand with deep cuts in education and health care.

Veteran legislators on both sides, said that they suffered from the reaction of the public against federal spending and the deficit in Washington even if the State has little debt. In the Texas House, 31 freshman Republicans are scanned on the tide Tea Party on a platform of small-government, and they are not in the mood to compromise on the tax increase.


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