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news Panther Prowler • Sept. 18, 2020
Ventura County Youth Coalition interviews elected officials Sera Mohammed Staff Writer There are numerous upcoming elections, including the presidential election in November and the CVUSD Board elections. The Ventura County Youth Coalition is a newly established organization whose goal is to increase the amount of youth involvement and civic engagement in Ventura County. They plan to make a change by introducing candidate forums and voter registration events to encourage youth to vote for their future. The coalition is led by Catherine Xu and Keira Pender, both juniors at Westlake High School. “[Keira and I] were involved in Diversify Our Narrative, so after talking to a lot of community members and…learning more about Thousand Oaks history and youth involvement, we realized that this is something that needs to happen because there has never been a youth candidate forum before,” Xu said. The Sept. 10 forum featured City Council and School Board Candidates and was co-sponsored by CVUSD Diversify Our Narrative, Justice in the Classroom and Westlake High School Junior State of America. At the forum, Xu and Pender questioned each of the school board and city council candidates Engage Engage- Catherine Xu (left) and Keira Pender (right) are both juniors at Westlake High School and about current issues in the district and gave them two co-founders to the Ventura County Youth Coalition, an organization meant to increase youth voting participation. Keira Pender/With Permission. minutes each to respond to the question. One such question was: “Some people in our
community say that we do have traffic problems, so what do you think about this and how would you mitigate these concerns or change the situation?” Danny Chulack, a candidate for city council, responded by saying, “Thousand Oaks is not built to be a walkable city. In order to mitigate current and future traffic concerns, we need to create a community that doesn’t rely solely on cars to get around.” He goes on to explain that not only will public transportation decrease traffic once it is reopened and back in use, it will also lessen our carbon footprint. Riley Goodnight, one of the people in the audience, asked about the high prices with regards to housing in the area and what the candidates plan to do to lower them. Frank Enderle, a city council candidate, responded, “There’s an economic wall that’s been built up over the city over the years; I want to bring that wall down so housing is more accessible for people.” Enderle went on to explain that he is working on “the Kmart Project” to create a place for young people to congregate and live. Some other issues touched on at the forum include minority representation and racial discrimination, as well as how the city council plans to attack these issues.
Fires scorch through Northern California Allison Nguyen Staff Writer Hayden Meixner Staff Writer
Blaze incredible amount of smoke has caused the air quality surrounding areas to be unhealthy. Kent Nishimura/sfchronicle.com
Wildfire season began much earlier than normal this year, leaving over 3.1 million Californian acres in ashes, with the major source of this destruction being The August Lightning Siege. This event started on Aug. 15 and is still raging on. A combination of dry, 100-degree weather and lightning storms has sparked over 7,800 fires so far, with more starting every day. Many believe that these raging flames are being ignited due to climate change. With the increase in air pollution in large cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, wildfire rates have escalated dramatically these past few decades. Usage of locomotives and vehicles have played a major role in decreasing the air quality around the state. California has a long history and pattern of large waves and high degrees from the summer through fall season. Global warming only increases the chances for disasters like wildfires to occur. This devastating event has left almost 7,000 California residents homeless and caused 12,400 to evacuate their homes as a safety precaution. Wealthy homeowners who live away from central cities have been hiring firefighters to help protect their properties. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a state of emergency due to wildfires on Aug. 18. In the official proclamation statement, Newsom noted that the state of emergency was issued because of the immense tree die-off our state
experienced. Over 17,400 firefighters from all over the state have been sent out to fight against the flames. As of Sept. 16, the largest fire, August Complex, is burning almost 840,000 acres of land in Northern California. This fire began on Aug. 16 and is currently only 30% contained. The National Weather Service has canceled the red flag warning in the San Francisco Bay Area, though there is still a very high chance of dry thunderstorms. The El Dorado fire, which was started by a malfunction in a pyrotechnic device used for a gender reveal, has burned about 18,500 acres throughout San Bernardino and Riverside counties. This fire was ignited on Sept. 5 and is currently 63 percent contained. Many residents in the surrounding areas have been ordered to evacuate. Due to mass evacuations and over 877,477 properties already destroyed, the safety of workers and property for different companies and stores are at risk, especially impacting small businesses. According to Alert Media, companies that are in need of transportation using roads and vehicles could be majorly affected by the wildfires.With many roads closing to ensure the safety of employees, places that depend on shipments and deliveries to get products to customers can be affected, causing concerns about financial stability for smaller businesses.
