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Posts published in “Day: July 23, 2007”

Where the fires are

 

 

Showing location of all the current "large incident" fires in the United States/NIFC

Driving around the Northwest week before last, we were struck by the amount of smoke in the air. And got to see one substantial-size burn, south of I-84 in the Irrigon-Hermiston area. A hot summer, and dry around the region until the last few days, the fires have had little to tamp them down.

The latest run of showers around the western part of the Northwest seems to have helped. But not everywhere. The National Interagency Fire Center says fires now have become concentrated heavily around Idaho - this map certainly confirms as much. As does the Idaho governor's office, which has declared fire emergencies in five counties. Such emergency declarations aren't commonplace in Idaho.

As does the Spokesman-Review's Betsy Russell, on Boise's air quality at the moment.

The dynamics of what might work

The Joel Connelly column today on the political significance of advisors - name-checking the Bush Administration, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Washington Governor Chris Gregoire and her prospective challenger Dino Rossi - prompts a somewhat related train of thought.

The column focused on advisors to Gregoire and Rossi as they move toward open combat, and mentioned Lisa Grove, a pollster at Portland working for Gregoire, and who worked for Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski in his race last year.

The thought was that the recent Oregon experience of gubernatorial races might be instructive for Washingtonians.

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