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A federal appeals court panel on Tuesday stayed a permanent injunction to throw out the Texas law requiring voters to present an accepted photo identification card.

By a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel in New Orleans left in the injunction’s place a previous order by U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos. That order allows those without an accepted ID to vote by signing a sworn declaration stating they have a reasonable impediment to obtaining one.

Gonzales Ramos had issued the permanent injunction against a subsequent voter ID law on Aug. 23, calling it a “poll tax” on minority voters. The stay suspends that order until the appeals court can hear the merits for and against the state’s appeal.

The U.S. Justice Department participated in the fight to dispose of the law until President Donald Trump took office this year, when it reversed position and supported the Texas voter ID law.

In the six-page majority opinion, Circuit Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod suggested the state’s showing was strong enough that they appeared likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.

“A temporary stay here, while the court can consider arguments on the merits, will minimize confusion among both voters and trained election officials,” the majority opinion stated.

In his five-page dissent, Circuit Judge James Graves Jr. argued that any stay “should be comprehensive. In other words, the correct approach would be to stay both the district court’s order and the new (voter ID) legislation.”

The new law makes permanent the “reasonable impediment” declaration procedure and imposes stiff penalties for violations.

Graves also disagreed that the state has shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.

 
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Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the end of DACA, the immigration program whose full title is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, on Tuesday. President Donald Trump’s administration decided to rescind the program despite appeals from those affected. VOA’s Ramon Taylor talked to DACA recipients who said they will fight for permission to stay in the U.S.
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They grew up in America and are working or going to school here. Some are building businesses or raising families of their own. Many have no memory of the country where they were born.

Now, almost 800,000 young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or overstayed their visas could see their lives upended after the Trump administration announced Tuesday it is ending the Obama-era program that protected them from deportation.

“We are Americans in heart, mind and soul. We just don’t have the correct documentation that states we’re American,” said Jose Rivas, 27, who is studying for a master’s in counseling at the University of Wyoming.

Came to America at age 6

Rivas’ grandmother brought him to this country from Mexico when he was 6. He wants to become a school counselor in America but lamented: “Everything is up in the air at this point.”

The news that the government is phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was met with shock, anger and a sense of betrayal by its beneficiaries, often called “Dreamers.”

Demonstrations broke out in New York City, where police handcuffed and removed over a dozen immigration activists who briefly blocked Trump Tower, and in other cities, including Salt Lake City, Denver, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. Students walked out of class in protest in several cities including Phoenix and Albuquerque.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said DACA, started by President Barack Obama in 2012, was an unconstitutional exercise of executive power. The Trump administration and other DACA opponents argue that it is up to Congress to decide how to deal with such immigrants.

‘American lives matter’

At a Los Angeles rally, handyman John Willis carried a sign saying “American lives matter” and criticized the DACA program as an “unlawful tyrannical executive order that our previous president thrust upon us.”

“I don’t wish these kids to be sent back to Mexico or anything like that, but I don’t believe we should have two sets of laws,” he said. “We have one set of laws, we should follow them. Congress needs to get up off the pot and enact some legislation to take care of this mess.”

Attorneys general for several states threatened to sue to protect the DACA beneficiaries. “We stand ready to take all appropriate legal action to protect Oregon’s Dreamers,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum tweeted.

Helping as volunteer in Houston

Ricardo Ortiz, who was brought to the U.S. from Monterrey, Mexico, at age 3, has been volunteering at the downtown Houston convention center that sheltered thousands of Hurricane Harvey victims.

Ortiz, a 21-year-old student at the University of Houston, said he doesn’t know what he will do if DACA is ended or he is forced to leave the country.

“It’s crazy that people really think that we don’t belong here when we’ve been here all of our lives,” he said.

Amid fears of a greater immigration crackdown, Oscar Belanger, vice principal at Nellie Muir Elementary School in the predominantly Latino town of Woodburn, Oregon, greeted students in English and Spanish on their first day of class.

He told a reporter the school would refuse to turn over students’ information to immigration agents, noting that Oregon law prohibits that. He said administrators and teachers want Washington to stand by the DACA beneficiaries. Only those who are at least 15 can apply for the program.

Trump is right, to deport children is wrong

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican and an early Trump supporter, said the president has every right to end DACA. But he added that it would be unconscionable to deport those who benefited from the program.

“These children grew up believing they are American and so many of them have lived lives of which America can be proud,” Reyes said.

In Miami, Paola Martinez, 23, who is from Bogota, Colombia, sobbed as she attended a rally of about 100 immigrants, and said she will feel helpless without DACA. She recently graduated with a civil engineering degree from Florida International University.

‘A step backwards’ 

“Instead of going a step forward, we are going a step backwards. We are hiding in the shadows again after my work (permit) expires. It’s just sadness,” Martinez said. “You just feel like you are empty. There is no support anymore.”

Martinez said she is not able to renew her permit because it expires in 2019, so she is hoping her employer or another company sponsors her so she can stay and help support her parents, who depend on her for rides and household expenses. In Florida, immigrants who are illegally in the country cannot get driver’s licenses.

Karen Marin, a 26-year-old from New York whose parents brought her to the U.S. from Mexico before she was a year old, was in physics class at Bronx Community College when Sessions made the announcement.

“I honestly I can’t even process it right now. I’m still trying to get myself together,” Marin said. “I just hope that they do change their mind and they realize what they’re doing is wrong.”

‘In limbo right now’

Carla Chavarria, 24, is a Phoenix entrepreneur who owns a digital marketing firm and a fitness apparel line. She came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 7.

Her permit expires in November and she is waiting for her renewal to be processed. She is set to close on the purchase of a home later this month.

“It’s hard being a business owner as it is, especially with being young and being a woman and someone who’s an immigrant. It’s already hard as it is. Now having DACA being taken away,” she said.

“I’m sort of like in limbo right now.”
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One wants to be the first female governor of North Dakota. One is a half-blind baton twirler who performed at a Super Bowl. Another wants to chase tornadoes.

One wants to run an alpaca farm, another is a former NFL cheerleader, yet another wants to sing the National Anthem at a Boston Red Sox game, and there is another who wants to be a criminal profiler for the FBI.

The 51 women vying to become the next Miss America have a wide range of interests, dreams and backgrounds, which they’ll be sharing with the nation this week in the run-up to Sunday’s nationally televised finale of the scholarship pageant.

“I really want to be a real-life Miss Congeniality,” says Miss Nevada, Andrea Martinez. Unlike the movie in which FBI agent Sandra Bullock enters a national pageant to prevent a crime, Martinez is trying it in reverse order: Become Miss America, THEN become an FBI agent.

Law enforcement career can wait

She was in the process of becoming a police officer in Las Vegas when she won her state title, delaying the start of a law enforcement career she hopes will culminate with her becoming a criminal profiler for the FBI. Her pageant platform involves bringing police departments and local communities together to lessen tensions and foster mutual respect.

“Being a minority and being expected to have a certain view of law enforcement, I actually saw both sides and helped expose both sides to each other,” she said.  

Miss Colorado, Meredith Winnefeld, has been blind in her right eye since birth. Her platform is on vision care for young children.

Her visual disability made it harder, but not impossible, to pursue her love — baton twirling.

“I had to teach myself and take the time to know I’d be able to do it,” she said.

She won a national championship at age 11, and performed at the 2015 Super Bowl. Her dream is to twirl at another one — but this time, it will be won by the Denver Broncos.

‘Women’s perspective’ needed

Miss North Dakota, Cara Mund, wants to be the first woman elected governor of her state. She wants to see more women elected to all levels of government.

“It’s important to have a woman’s perspective,” said Mund, who had an internship in the U.S. Senate. “In health care and on reproductive rights, it’s predominantly men making those decisions.”

Miss Maine, Katie Elliot, has similar ambitions. Her platform encourages female leadership in American government, with the acronym “FLAG.” She’s been interested in politics and government since winning an election to be seventh grade class president.

“I’m a huge admirer of democracy, but what I noticed is a huge disparity between the number of men and women,” she said, adding she wants to encourage more women to see elected public service as a viable career path.

Time studying in the Middle East and Africa got Miss Oregon, Harley Emery, deeply interested in the refugee crisis. She founded a group at the University of Oregon called “No Lost Generation” that helps teach resettled refugees English and find them jobs. She befriended refugees from Syria and Iraq, among others.

Other interesting contestants facts:

— Miss California, Jillian Smith, is one of seven granddaughters in her family to have competed in a Miss America feeder pageant.

— Miss District of Columbia, Briana Kinsey’s, secret dream is to be a contestant on “Survivor,” lasting more than one day, while the dream of Miss Georgia, Alyssa Beasley, is “to be the last person standing in a horror film.”

— Miss Indiana, Haley Begay, hopes to own an alpaca farm somewhere in the south.

— Miss Louisiana, Laryssa Bonacquisti’s dream is “to chase a tornado.”

— Miss Michigan, Heather Kendrick, appeared last season on “America’s Got Talent” with the electro-pop violin group “Nuclassica.”

— Miss New Mexico, Taylor Rey, wants to be a voice actor for cartoons, and Miss New York, Gabrielle Walter, wants to argue a high-profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

— Miss Rhode island, Nicolette Peloquin, wants to be a New England Patriots cheerleader; Miss South Carolina, Suzi Roberts, actually was an NFL cheerleader for the Atlanta Falcons; Miss Virginia, Cecili Weber, wants to play lead guitar for an all-female rock band, and Miss Washington state, Nicole Renard, wants to go to the moon.

 
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Members of the U.S. Congress return from a month-long summer recess Tuesday facing an impending deadline to keep the government funded and the fresh task of approving money to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Lawmakers will consider a $7.9 billion aid package in response to the storm that flooded Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city, with record rains.

On a larger scale, Congress has until the end of the month to raise the debt ceiling, or the maximum amount of money the government is allowed to borrow, so that it can pay its bills.

The U.S. fiscal year also ends at the end of September, and with no budget for next year yet in place lawmakers will either need to approve one or pass a temporary measure that allows government operations to continue and avoid a shutdown.

President Donald Trump has launched a push to reform the nation’s tax code, an effort that will be the subject of a meeting at the White House Tuesday with Congressional leaders.

Adding to the workload is the Trump administration’s expected announcement Tuesday of his decision to end a program that has shielded undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children from deportation. That plan would come with a six-month delay to give Congress time to take its own action on the issue.

There are also deadlines at the end of September for renewing the nation’s flood insurance program as well as a children’s health insurance program.
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One couple displaced by Harvey managed to get a hotel room, but got kicked out after one night for lacking state identification that was lost to the flooding. A man whose cellphone was wrecked by floodwater is staying at a convention center, waiting for government offices to reopen Tuesday.  

While the number of evacuees seeking refuge in Houston’s emergency shelters has dwindled, many thousands of people are still in dire need of housing. Some returned to complexes inundated with sewage and mud. Others are staying with family and friends.

More than 50,000 went to government-paid hotels, some far away from homes and schools.

“You can’t just pick the hotel,” said D’Ona Spears, who has no way of getting her children to school when it resumes next week. “You have to go further out, further out, further out.”

Without ID, couple forced to move

Spears and Brandon Polson had gotten a government-funded hotel room near downtown, but without ID they had to leave. After going to the Toyota Center, the basketball arena that’s also housing evacuees, they were taken to a motel in Humble, about 20 miles (32.19 kilometers) away. Spears said she wished the family could return to the convention center.

At the George R. Brown Convention Center, about 1,500 people remain and several said they were homeless, disabled or from public housing. About 2,800 were at the NRG Center, another convention center that opened after George R. Brown reached double its original capacity.

Morris Mack, who arrived at the convention center Aug. 30, sat outside the main entrance, sharing a cigarette. He hasn’t been able to re-enter his home in a public housing development in northwest Houston, and he didn’t know whether it’d be flooded.

While he registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for assistance, Mack’s cellphone was damaged by floodwaters, and he didn’t have a working email address, making it difficult for the agency to get in touch with him or send him a check. He was hoping that once government offices reopen, he could get a government assistance card, which he could then use to get a cellphone to communicate with FEMA.

“I’m just trying. I can only wait now,” Mack said.

Over 50,000 residents in hotels

Harvey struck Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, but brought the worst flooding to Houston and other areas as a tropical storm. The rain totalled nearly 52 inches (1.3 meters) in some spots, and the storm is blamed for at least 60 deaths.

FEMA said about 560,000 families are registered for its housing assistance program. It said 53,630 residents displaced by Harvey are currently in government-funded hotel rooms.

The temporary housing has been provided for 18,732 households, said FEMA spokesman Bob Howard. Once people are granted the assistance, there is a minimum allotment of 14 days, but that can be extended if necessary.

FEMA officials also are weighing other options, such as mobile homes, should the need arise.

Mobile homes have troubled past

After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, FEMA bought thousands of mobile homes for people left homeless, but the program was plagued by problems. Some flood victims who lived in the homes were exposed to high levels of formaldehyde, which was used in building materials.

Some people choosing to go back to their homes after Harvey were trying to make do the best they could.

But at the Clayton Homes, some apartments were filled with water and floors caked in mud and sewage. Clayton Homes residents were among the first to arrive at the convention center last weekend, many riding in the back of city dump trucks. The complex is bounded on one side by Buffalo Bayou, the muddy waterway that jumped its banks and sent water rushing into homes.

Piles of garbage and soggy furniture sat next to the gnarled remains of a fence separating the bayou from the complex. The rotting stench was present in parts of the complex.

Fear for her possessions

Rosie Carmouche spent two days at George R. Brown with her two children. But she didn’t want to stay too long, fearing for her possessions.

“They made you feel as comfortable as they possibly can. I will give them that,” Carmouche said. “But when your mind is — you know what kind of community you live in? It’s hard.”

Laquinna Russell used bleach to scrub out the bottom floor of their two-story home, but is worried about mold and invisible bacteria, so her family is sleeping on their second floor.

“We didn’t have anywhere to go but back here,” she said.
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The White House is expected to announce a decision about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on Tuesday, with early media reports indicating the president will end the program that has shielded hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation for the last five years.

Officials who described the move to journalists said it would come with a six-month delay meant to give Congress time to address the issue. Lawmakers were not involved in instituting the program, which was created through an executive order by former President Barack Obama.

A protest is planned Tuesday morning in front of the White House in support of DACA and its recipients — some 800,000 people across the country, brought to the United States as children. Demonstrations are also expected in other cities across the United States.

President Donald Trump came into office with a promise to eliminate DACA, but at times seems to ease up on that rhetoric; since his inauguration, however, the president has prioritized bolstering the country’s deportation system, calling for thousands more immigration and border agents to be hired.

“DACA is not legislation, it’s executive action and the president could rightfully abandon it altogether or piece by piece,” said David Abraham, professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Miami School of Law.

Unclear Monday was what would happen if Congress did not take any action before the six-month window ended, or what happens to someone whose work permit comes up for renewal during that period.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and several other Republican lawmakers are urging the president not to cancel the program. Ryan says he believes Congress should come up with a way of protecting people now in the DACA program.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has asked Ryan to work with Democrats this week to find a legislative solution for the people sometimes referred to as “Dreamers.”

Arguments for, against

There are DACA supporters on both sides of the political aisle in the U.S., but key members of Trump’s inner circle — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions — and many Republican members of Congress are vocal opponents who have criticized the program’s creation as executive overreach.

The Obama administration began the program in 2012 to allow young undocumented immigrants who met the requirements to lawfully remain in the country to work and study, in a semi-legal status that has to be renewed every two years. It does not provide a path to citizenship, however.

The majority of DACA-eligible people are from Mexico, followed by Guatemala, El Salvador, South Korea, Honduras and China.

Supporters of the program argue that since applicants came as children, they often have little connection to their home country, and have grown up in the U.S., where they have family and friends, work and school — years of building a life. The average age that DACA recipients arrived to the U.S. was 6.5 years old, according to data collected by Tom K. Wong, associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego.

The program requires applicants to have lived continuously in the United States since 2007, were under the age of 16 when they arrived, and under the age of 31 as of 2012. There are also education and security requirements — they cannot have a significant criminal record and must be enrolled in school, or have graduated from high school in the United States, or have a GED, or have been honorably discharged from the U.S. military.

An estimated 800,000 of the 1.7 million people eligible for DACA have registered. Some who would have met the requirements feared handing over such personal information to the government, including details about close relatives who may also be in the U.S. illegally.

“They provided the government with all personal information about themselves, including of course their residences, all of which information could be used now to find and deport them if the government so choose chooses,” Abraham said.

When announcing the program in 2012, Obama emphasized that it was not a permanent solution.

“This is a temporary stopgap measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people,” he said at a news conference on June 15, 2012.

‘Standing for our families’

Congress has not passed any law since that would replace DACA, and lawmakers have struggled for years to push immigration reform through.

For years, younger members of the undocumented community and their supporters have cultivated a grass-roots movement to push for immigration reform that would formalize their legal status. Cesar Vargas, codirector of the DREAM Action Coalition, said at a rally in New York last week that he and other activists will keep fighting to stay in the country.

“We’re not just taking the fights in courts, and state capitals, or Congress, but we are taking the fights here in our street, where our community is, where the immigrant families live, and we are going to show that we are not afraid, that whatever happens with DACA, we are going to continue to demonstrate that we are standing for our families,” said Vargas, who came to the United States when he was 5 years old.

“We are going to continue to go to school, we are going to continue to really contribute to the country that we call home.”

VOA News Center reporter Bill Gallo, associate producer Elizabeth Cherneff, and writer Chris Hannas contributed from Washington; News Center reporter Ramon Taylor contributed from New York.
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China has attacked U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to halt trade with any country doing business with North Korea after its latest nuclear test, saying it endangered vast trade relations between Washington and Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Monday, “What is definitely unacceptable to us is that on the one hand we work so hard to peacefully resolve this issue [of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development], but on the other hand our own interests are subject to sanctions and jeopardized. This is neither objective nor fair.”

Trade impact

After Pyongyang detonated its biggest nuclear bomb in an underground test Sunday, Trump said he was considering several options in response, including cutting off trade with countries that do business with North Korea. That could quickly hinder the nearly $650 billion in annual trade between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies, because Beijing is North Korea’s sole major ally and its biggest trading partner.

Whether Trump plans to carry out his economic threat is unclear as the United States and its allies press the U.N. Security Council to take new action against Pyongyang.

Nikki Haley, the American ambassador to the U.N., told the council Monday, “The time has come to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it’s too late. We must now adopt the strongest possible measures.”

Geng declined to say what measures Beijing might support against Pyongyang, saying it would depend on discussions among council members. He said China, as one of five permanent Security Council members with power to veto U.N. actions, would participate in a “responsible and constructive way.”

Australia also criticized

Geng also voiced frustration at Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s remark that Beijing had a responsibility to influence North Korea because it is North Korea’s main trading partner.

“We keep stressing that we cannot solely rely on China to resolve this issue,” Geng said. “We need all parties to work in the same direction.”

At the United Nations, Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi urged North Korea to “stop taking actions that are wrong.” Beijing said North Korea is “deteriorating the situation and not in line with its own interests either.” He said Pyongyang should “truly return to the track of resolving the issue through dialogue.”

Liu said all parties should “seriously consider” Beijing’s proposal for a joint suspension of Pyongyang’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs and military drills by the United States and South Korea. The United States has rejected an end to the military exercises.

 
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U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter following North Korea’s strongest-ever nuclear test explosion to criticize both Koreas and China. But his tweets will get as much attention in Asia for what’s missing as for their tough words.

Following the clearest sign yet that North Korea is fast approaching a viable arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, Trump again skipped what for decades has been the bedrock of U.S. policy on the Korean Peninsula: A firm assurance that the United States would defend South Korea against any attack.

This feeds a growing worry that has many in South Korea and Japan asking a startling question. Could Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un want the same thing, namely a separation, or “decoupling,” of the decades-old security alliance between the United States and its top Asian allies, South Korea and Japan?

The White House has occasionally issued statements in which Trump has repeated what past presidents regularly declared about the U.S. commitment to defend its Asian allies. But his public comments on the alliance have more often reflected deep skepticism – and skipped any security reassurance.

Trump, for instance, previously questioned the expensive stationing of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, and suggested that Seoul and Tokyo pursue nukes themselves, instead of relying on the so-called U.S. nuclear umbrella. Trump also appears to be taking a shot at another pillar of the U.S.-South Korean alliance, a hard-fought free trade deal, by considering triggering a withdrawal from the agreement, a U.S. business lobbying group said over the weekend.

Then came Trump’s five tweets after the nuclear test which criticized North Korea’s main ally and aid provider, China, for failing to contain the North; South Korea’s liberal president for “talk of appeasement” (despite what many see as a consistent hard line toward the North’s weapons tests) and, of course, “rogue” North Korea.

Nowhere did he seek to reassure a frazzled South Korea that the United States would have its back if attacked.

This matters because North Korea’s relentless pursuit of nukes is seen by many analysts less as a way to beat the United States in a war than as a way to separate Washington from its Asian allies. The goal is to cause the United States to seriously consider whether it’s worthwhile to fulfill its treaty obligations by treating an attack on Seoul as it would an attack on San Francisco.

Ironclad U.S. vows of protection were easier before North Korea’s recent demonstrations that it may be very close to actually being able to hit San Francisco and other parts of the United States with nuclear missiles.

“What people in South Korea worry about most is whether the United States will defend South Korea at a time when the U.S. mainland is under threat (by North Korean missiles). If you look at what Trump said now, the answer seems to be no,” said Shin Hee-Seok, a graduate student in international law at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “While it still remains a fringe opinion, some South Koreans are wondering if we should now build our own nuclear deterrent. If the U.S. is not a reliable ally, South Korea may have to think about Plan B.”

The possibility of losing the free trade deal seemed for some here yet another hit to the alliance.

“The United States now is not the United States we used to know,” the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest daily newspaper, said in an editorial. “The president prioritizes dollars over the alliance.”

Some see a not-too-distant future where North Korea’s possession of dozens of nuclear-tipped ICBMs allows it to attack Seoul or Tokyo without U.S. intervention because of American fears that North Korean retaliation could kill millions in American cities.

“I’m worried about whether the U.S. is really serious about defending its ally, South Korea, or if it’s putting its own national interest first,” said Woo Young-soo, a law lecturer at a university in Seoul. “As a true ally, I wish Trump would have a defense policy that is truly meant for South Korea.”

Others believe North Korea can still be checked with firm statements from Washington that make clear how strongly the United States will respond if its allies are attacked. Because Kim Jong Un cares deeply about keeping power, this argument goes, he won’t risk an attack if an overwhelming U.S. response seems more likely than not.

Trump’s experienced lieutenants have sought to signal this. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said all the right things after the test when he repeated what Seoul and Tokyo long to hear – that Washington’s commitment to them is unshakeable.

“A lot of reassurance comes down to trust,” Colin Kahl, a Georgetown University professor and former Obama administration national security official, said in a Twitter thread. “Our allies have to ‘believe’ we would trade San Francisco for Seoul or Toledo for Tokyo if push comes to shove. Yet instead of reassuring our democratic allies in East Asia, Trump has done the opposite.”

“Undermining alliance solidarity at this moment is dumb and dangerous. It emboldens Pyongyang, increases the risk of (North Korean) miscalculation (and) potentially incentivizes (South Korea) and Japan to seek their own independent nuclear arsenals,” Kahl wrote.
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Authorities launched a controlled burn Sunday at a chemical plant damaged by Harvey, sending small flames and gray smoke into the sky, and said the highly unstable compounds that had exploded earlier needed to be neutralized.

Officials said the “proactive measures” to ignite the six remaining trailers at the Arkema plant in Crosby, outside Houston, wouldn’t pose any additional risk to the community. People living within a mile and a half of the site are still evacuated.

Small flames burning in charred structures could be seen at the plant, with a limited amount of light gray smoke. John Rull, who lives close by, told the Houston Chronicle he heard four booms. He said the explosions were louder than one he heard Friday when two containers burned and that there was much more smoke.

Sam Mannan, a chemical safety expert at Texas A&M University, said the latest burn was emitting gray smoke, which indicated a more complete burn with fewer harmful chemicals remaining.

“There are ways to accelerate the process or create more efficient or complete burning,” Mannan said.

Three trailers containing unstable compounds had already caught fire at the plant after backup generators were engulfed by Harvey’s floodwaters, which knocked out the refrigeration necessary to keep them from degrading and catching fire.

Some Houston officials stressed that the recovery from Harvey was beginning, and Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed America’s fourth-largest city “open for business.” But the on-the-ground reality varied by place.

Utility crews went door-to-door shutting off power and warning those still in some waterlogged homes in western parts of the city that still more flooding could be heading their way – not from rain but from releases of water in overtaxed reservoirs. Thousands of Houston dwellings were under new, mandatory evacuation orders, though about 300 people were thought to be refusing to leave.

Some homes in the area, which included brick two-story and ranch homes with manicured lawns bordering Buffalo Bayou, remained evacuated but people briefly returned Sunday to try to salvage valuables like family photos.

“I called 911 for 15 minutes; no one answered. My neighbor had a canoe and saved us,” said Gaston Kirby, who evacuated Aug. 27 with his two young children. When they left, he said, their home had about 2 inches of water and got another 2 feet from Harvey. But the reservoir releases added at least another 3 feet.

Contradictions could be seen as well in some people taking a break from their cleanup efforts in the sweltering heat to worship on a “National Day of Prayer,” while others worried about thefts in storm-ravaged neighborhoods.

Harvey slammed into Texas on Aug. 25 as a Category 4 hurricane, but brought the worst flooding to Houston and other areas as a tropical storm. The rain totaled nearly 52 inches (1.3 meters) in some spots, and the storm is blamed for at least 44 deaths.

President Donald Trump has asked Congress for a $7.9 billion down payment toward Harvey relief and recovery efforts. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested the cost of recovery could be as much as $180 billion.

Turner insisted, however, that much of the city was hoping to get back on track after Labor Day.

“Anyone who was planning on a conference or a convention or a sporting event or a concert coming to this city, you can still come,” the mayor said on the CBS show “Face the Nation.” ”We can do multiple things at the same time.”

In the southwest Bellaire neighborhood, police received reports of scavengers picking through water-damaged possessions and urged those cleaning up to keep anything left outside to dry closer to their homes and separate from what was considered a total loss. In the suburb of Dickinson, one homeowner used orange spray paint on a sheet of dirty plywood to warn: “Looters Will B Shot.”

Robert Lockey, a 48-year-old school district bus monitor, worked to clean up his flooded home in Spring, Texas, outside Houston, in the 94-degree heat. A pile of wooden doors lay in his yard next to ripped-out drywall.

“They’re sweating to death,” Lockey said, looking at his neighbors and their similar piles of debris. Added his roommate, Elizabeth Hallman: “This definitely is not fun.”

Meanwhile, repairs continued on the water treatment plant in Beaumont, about 85 miles from Houston, which failed after the swollen Neches River inundated the main intake system and backup pumps halted. In the nearby town of Vidor, Pat Lawrence and her fiancé, Jim Frasier, hopped on a tractor, the only way they could make it to services at the Pine Forest Baptist Church.

“You can’t hardly comprehend all the water that’s around,” Lawrence said. “I’ve been in my house since last Saturday.”

Sunday was declared a day of prayer in Texas and across the nation. At St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in the Gulf Coast city of Port Aransas, the clergy set out holy water and bug spray, and many anointed themselves with both.

“We will remember the destruction of this uninvited guest but we will never stop being a people of hospitality” the Rev. Kris Bauta told about 50 worshippers. Harvey’s storm surge ended just three feet from the building.

Outside the town of Liberty, about 45 miles from Houston, dozens of people were still cut off by the swollen Trinity River. Maggie King and her two children greeted a Texas National Guard helicopter that landed at the local fire department with pallets of drinking water.

“It’s so far from over,” King said. “There’s so much more that has to be repaired from here.” 
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Smoke filled the sky and ash rained down across Los Angeles Sunday from a destructive wildfire that the mayor said was the largest in city history — one of several blazes that sent thousands fleeing homes across the U.S. West during a blistering holiday weekend heat wave.

In Oregon, crews were rescuing about 140 hikers forced to spend the night in the woods after fire broke out along the popular Columbia River Gorge trail. Search and rescue crews air-dropped supplies on Saturday as flames prevented the hikers’ escape. Wildfires also burned in a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia trees near Yosemite National Park, forced evacuations in Glacier National Park and drove people from homes in parts of the West struggling with blazing temperatures.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declared an emergency and asked the governor to do the same after the wildfire destroyed three homes and threatened hillside neighborhoods. More than a thousand firefighters battled flames that chewed through nearly 8 square miles (20 kilometers) of brush-covered mountains as authorities issued evacuation orders for homes in Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.

Temperatures were in the mid-to-high 90s but crews got a break from increased humidity and winds that calmed to less than 5 mph, Los Angeles Fire Capt. Ralph Terrazas said.

“That can change in a moment’s notice and the winds can accelerate very quickly,” he told reporters Sunday. “There is a lot of fuel out there left to burn,” he said.

Burbank resident George Grair was not in the evacuation zone but watched uneasily as flames blackened a hillside in the near distance.

“It’s very difficult to feel safe. I’ve got kids in the house,” he told KABC-TV. “I probably slept two hours all night.”

San Francisco residents, meanwhile, stifled under a third day of a rare heat wave in the coastal city, although highs in the San Francisco Bay Area fell Sunday from all-time records set the previous two days.

“I went to Home Depot, Walgreens, Office Depot, Target. They were sold out!” downtown office worker Alganesh Ucbayonas said Sunday, detailing her unsuccessful search for a fan. “CVS!” she remembered.

On Sunday, Ucbayonas sat at her desk in a building lobby squarely between two fans, both scrounged from her office building’s storage and trained straight at her face.

“I have never seen any heat like this in 10 years in the Bay Area,” she said.

Fires burning up and down California’s Sierra Nevada and further to the northwest cast an eerie yellow and gray haze over much of California, and much of the state was under alerts because of poor air quality.

California authorities ordered evacuation for a third small town Sunday in one of the wildfires, a blaze that has burned 9-square-miles (23 square kilometers) near Yosemite National Park.

Firefighters battling that blaze were making it a priority to safeguard a 2,700-year-old grove of giant sequoia and a pair of historic cabins at the grove, fire spokeswoman Anne Grandy said. Fire crews had wrapped the two 19th-century cabins and an outhouse in shiny, fire-resistant material to protect them from the flames that had entered the Nelder Grove, Grandy said.

The flames were consuming old brush and dead wood on the forest floor, but had not burned the giant sequoia, some of which top 20 stories in height, she said. The millennia-old trees already had “survived thousands of fires,” she said.

California crews are also protecting homes from a fast-moving wildfire that forced evacuations in Riverside County.

In the Pacific Northwest, high temperatures and a lack of rain this summer have dried out vegetation that fed on winter snow and springtime rain. Officials warned of wildfire danger as hot, dry, smoky days were forecast across Oregon and Washington over the holiday weekend. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee proclaimed a state of emergency across all counties as three major fires closed recreation areas and prompted evacuations.

Flames in Montana’s Glacier National Park prompted officials to evacuate all residents, campers and tourists from one of the most popular areas of the park. The order Sunday affects the Lake McDonald area, the western side of the dizzying Going-to-the Sun Road and some of the most visited trails in the area. The Lake McDonald Lodge, built in 1913, closed last week due to heavy smoke in the area.

Forecasters said more heat could be expected when remnants of Tropical Storm Lidia move north from Mexico’s Baja California during the weekend.

 
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U.S. President Donald Trump responded Sunday with strong words to Pyongyang’s most recent nuclear test, calling North Korea a rogue nation that has become a great threat. Many wonder what steps Trump will take in reaction to the new development. VOA’s Marcus Harton has more from Washington.
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