Budget Reductions Threaten Firefighting in California

Last week, the Getty Center was evacuated because of a brushfire. Today, another blaze closed northbound lanes on Interstate 5 near Pyramid Lake. It's that season again--but budget reductions have closed fire stations and cut services all over the state. On top of that, the state's resort to paying bills with IOU's is a threat to the system of mutual aid, which has helped to control and extinguish some of the most dangerous conflagrations of recent years.