Maui wildfires kill dozens, a winner for the Mega Millions is finally chosen, and more top news from the week

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah man accused of making threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president was expected to land in the state Wednesday, authorities said.

Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said in a statement.

Biden is scheduled to fly to Utah late Wednesday. The shooting is under review by the FBI.

Court documents allege Robertson referenced a “presidential assassination” and also allege threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Attorney General Merrick Garland and New York AG Letitia James.

“The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” authorities say Robertson wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post included in the filings. No attorney was immediately listed for Robertson in court documents.

Biden is in the middle of a trip to the Western United States. He spent Wednesday in New Mexico, where he spoke at a factory that will produce wind towers, and is scheduled to fly to Utah later in the day.

On Thursday, he’s expected to visit a Veterans Affairs hospital to talk about the PACT Act, which expanded veterans benefits, and hold a reelection fundraiser.

Get updates here:

National

Utah man suspected of threatening President Joe Biden shot and killed as FBI served warrant

• By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and SAM METZ - Associated Press

How Biden's approval rating compares to other major world leaders

How Biden's approval rating compares to other major world leaders

#20. Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea

#19. Karl Nehammer, Austria

#18. Mark Rutte, Netherlands

#17. Jonas Gahr Store, Norway

#16. Leo Varadkar, Ireland

#15. Olaf Scholz, Germany

#14. Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland

#13. Rishi Sunak, United Kingdom

#12. Ulf Kristersson, Sweden

#11. Fumio Kishida, Japan

#10. Pedro Sánchez, Spain

#9. Alexander De Croo, Belgium

#8. Joe Biden, United States

#7. Justin Trudeau, Canada

#6. Giorgia Meloni, Italy

#5. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil

#4. Anthony Albanese, Australia

#3. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico

#2. Alain Berset, Switzerland

#1. Narendra Modi, India

Seeley Oblander and her fiancé woke up to their dog Mazzy going nuts Thursday morning. 

“We brushed it off,” she said. They live in the country and figured the dog was just harassing a raccoon or a skunk.

But the dog wouldn’t quit. This was different.

It was about 3 a.m. when Seeley’s partner Tom Bolkcom finally walked downstairs to see what was going on.

“Tom looked behind him and five feet away in the living room was a black bear. They stood face to face for about five seconds,” Seeley said. The bear had broken in through a window of the home about 15 miles from Red Lodge.

The bear started making noises like he owned the place and wasn’t leaving. And, because the bear was between Tom and the door, there was no way to show him out.

Tom ran for his gun and shot the bear, who then ran from room to room with Tom after him.

“Tom shot him three or four more times until it was done,” Seeley said, whose role in the episode was “to hide downstairs and let Tom handle it.”

The couple had been up with family until about midnight that morning. They were preparing to travel to Arizona where Seeley had a bachelorette party planned with friends.

With a dead bear in their sun room and a trail of blood around the house, the couple called a game warden to come and sort it out.

“We wanted it out of our house, the bear smelled awful, and he really made a mess,” Seeley said.

The warden said shooting the bear was probably the best thing to do. Once they get in your house they usually come back and want to get in again, she said.

The couple still had to leave at 6 a.m. to make their flight in Billings, so they called family to come and get the bear out of the house and tidy up. They rolled it onto a tarp and tugged it out into the yard. They figured it weighed from 250 to 300 pounds. 

And, they don’t get to keep the bear, to maybe make into a rug as a warning to other bears.

“It was a hectic morning, I can tell you that,” Seeley said.

***

Wanna go for a hike? 5 tips for safe trekking with your dog

Know your breed

The amount of physical activity your dog needs is heavily influenced by their breed. A high-energy breed, like a border collie, may have a much easier time on a hike than a lower energy breed. The exercise limits of your dog are an important factor to keep in mind before heading out on an adventure. Research your breed and check with your veterinarian to make sure your plans are in line with your dog’s physical limits.

Carry water for the dog

Hiking can be exhausting for dogs, too, so it’s important to keep them hydrated. Make sure you bring water and offer your dog a drink every half hour. A collapsible bowl or dog travel bottle is an easy way to carry everything you need for hydration.

Always have a leash

Many hiking trails require dogs to be on leash. Even if your trail doesn’t have a leash requirement, it’s a good idea to have one with you. Keeping your dog on a leash will help if you need to steer him away from anything along the trail, like poisonous plants or other animals.

Clean up after your dog

Always bring waste bags with you to clean up after your dog even if you don’t think you’ll be out that long. Your dog will eventually need a bathroom break and it is better to be prepared with a cleanup bag.

Remember a first aid kit

It is best to always have some medical essentials with you, like a small tube of antibiotic cream for minor cuts, roll-on bandages and a clean bandana to use as a tourniquet in case of major bleeding or bone fractures.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday he has appointed a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe, deepening the investigation of the president's son ahead of the 2024 election.

Garland said he was naming David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware who has been probing the financial and business dealings of President Joe Biden's son, as the special counsel. It comes as plea deal talks in Hunter Biden's case hit an impasse.

The attorney general noted the “extraordinary circumstances” of the matter in making the announcement at the Justice Department.

Garland said that Weiss asked to be appointed to the position and told him that “in his judgment, his investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel."

“Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel,” Garland said.

Hunter Biden’s attorney did not immediately return messages seeking comment on Friday.

The announcement of a special counsel is a momentous development from the typically cautious Garland and comes amid a pair of sweeping Justice Department probes into former President Donald Trump, who's Joe Biden's chief rival in next year's election.

It also comes as House Republicans are mounting their own investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The Republicans are struggling to connect the son's work to his father, and so far they have not been able to produce evidence to show any wrongdoing.

Justice officials did not explain what prompted the sudden move after years of investigating Hunter Biden, who used drugs and whose personal entanglements have trailed his father's political career.

Legal proceedings are dramatically shaping the 2024 presidential race in an unprecedented way. Garland has now named special counsels to investigate Trump's handling of classified records and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as well as Friday's announcement into Biden's son.

Read more:

Government-politics

Attorney General Merrick Garland appoints a special counsel in the Hunter Biden probe

• By LINDSAY WHITEHURST - Associated Press

Photos: Hunter Biden through the years

Robbie Robertson, The Band's lead guitarist and songwriter who in such classics as “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" mined and helped reshape American music, has died at 80.

Robertson died surrounded by family, a statement from his manager said.

From their years as Bob Dylan's masterful backing group to their own stardom as embodiments of old-fashioned community and virtuosity, The Band profoundly influenced popular music in the 1960s and '70s, first by literally amplifying Dylan’s polarizing transition from folk artist to rock star and then by absorbing the works of Dylan and Dylan's influences as they fashioned a new sound immersed in the American past.

The Canadian-born Robertson was a high school dropout and one-man melting pot — part-Jewish, part-Mohawk and Cayuga — who fell in love with the seemingly limitless sounds and byways of his adopted country and wrote out of a sense of amazement and discovery at a time when the Vietnam War had alienated millions of young Americans. His life had a “Candide”-like quality as he found himself among many of the giants of the rock era — getting guitar tips from Buddy Holly, taking in early performances by Aretha Franklin and by the Velvet Underground, smoking pot with the Beatles, watching the songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller develop material, chatting with Jimi Hendrix when he was a struggling musician calling himself Jimmy James.

The Band began as supporting players for rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins in the early 1960s and through their years together in bars and juke joints forged a depth and versatility that opened them to virtually any kind of music in any kind of setting. Besides Robertson, the group featured Arkansan drummer-singer Levon Helm and three other Canadians: bassist-singer-songwriter Rick Danko, keyboardist singer-songwriter Richard Manuel and all-around musical wizard Garth Hudson. They were originally called the Hawks, but ended up as The Band — a conceit their fans would say they earned — because people would point to them when they were with Dylan and refer to them as “the band.”

They remain defined by their first two albums, “Music from Big Pink” and “The Band,” both released in the late 1960s. The rock scene was turning away from the psychedelic extravagances of the Beatles' “Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” and a wave of sound effects, long jams and lysergic lyrics. "Music from Big Pink,” named for the old house near Woodstock, New York, where Band members lived and gathered, was for many the sound of coming home. The mood was intimate, the lyrics alternately playful, cryptic and yearning, drawn from blues, gospel, folk and country music. The Band itself seemed to stand for selflessness and a shared and vital history, with all five members making distinctive contributions and appearing in publicity photos in plain, dark clothes.

Through the “Basement Tapes” they had made with Dylan in 1967 and through their own albums, The Band has been widely credited as a founding source for Americana or roots music. Fans and peers would speak of their lives being changed. Eric Clapton broke up with his British supergroup Cream and journeyed to Woodstock in hopes he could join The Band, which influenced albums ranging from The Grateful Dead’s “Workingman's Dead” to Elton John's “Tumbleweed Connection.” The Band's songs were covered by Franklin, Joan Baez, the Staple Singers and many others. During a television performance by the Beatles of “Hey Jude,” Paul McCartney shouted out lyrics from “The Weight.”

Like Dylan, Robertson was a self-taught musicologist and storyteller who absorbed everything American from the novels of William Faulkner to the scorching blues of Howlin' Wolf to the gospel harmonies of the Swan Silvertones. At times his songs sounded not just created, but unearthed. In “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” he imagined the Civil War through the eyes of a defeated Confederate. In “The Weight,” with its lead vocals passed around among group members like a communal wine glass, he evoked a pilgrim's arrival to a town where nothing seems impossible:

“I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead / I just need some place where I can lay my head / Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed? / He just grinned and shook my hand, ‘No,’ was all he said.”

The Band played at the 1969 Woodstock festival, not far from where they lived, and became newsworthy enough to appear on the cover of Time magazine. But the spirit behind their best work was already dissolving. Albums such as “Stage Fright” and “Cahoots” were disappointing even for Robertson, who would acknowledge that he was struggling to find fresh ideas. While Manuel and Danko were both frequent contributors to songs during their “Basement Tapes” days, by the time “Cahoots” was released in 1971, Robertson was the dominant writer.

They toured frequently, recording the acclaimed live album “Rock of Ages” at Madison Square Garden and joining Dylan for 1974 shows that led to another highly praised concert release, “Before the Flood.” But in 1976, after Manuel broke his neck in a boating accident, Robertson decided he needed a break from the road and organized rock's ultimate sendoff, an all-star gathering at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom that included Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Muddy Waters and many others. The concert was filmed by Martin Scorsese and the basis for his celebrated documentary “The Last Waltz,” released in 1978.

Robertson had intended The Band to continue recording together but “The Last Waltz” helped permanently sever his friendship with Helm, whom he had once looked to as an older brother. In interviews and in his 1993 memoir “Wheel on Fire,” Helm accused of Robertson of greed and outsized ego, noting that Robertson had ended up owning their musical catalog and calling “The Last Waltz” a vanity project designed to glorify Robertson. In response, Robertson contended that he had taken control of the group because the others — excepting Hudson — were too burdened by drug and alcohol problems to make decisions on their own.

“It hit me hard that in a band like ours, if we weren't operating on all cylinders, it threw the whole machine off course,” Robertson wrote in his memoir “Testimony,” published in 2016.

The Band regrouped without Robertson in the early 1980s, and Robertson went on to a long career as a solo artist and soundtrack composer. His self-titled 1987 album was certified gold and featured the hit single “Show Down at Big Sky” and the ballad “Fallen Angel,” a tribute to Manuel, who was found dead in 1986 in what was ruled a suicide (Danko died of heart failure in 1999, and Helm of cancer in 2012).

Robertson, who moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s while the others stayed near Woodstock, remained close to Scorsese and helped oversee the soundtracks for “The Color of Money,” “The King of Comedy,” “The Departed” and “The Irishman” among others. He also produced the Neil Diamond album “Beautiful Noise” and explored his heritage through such albums as “Music for the Native Americans” and “Contact from the Underworld of Redboy.”

The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994; Robertson attended, Helm did not. In 2020, Robertson looked back and mourned in the documentary “Once Were Brothers” and in the title ballad, on which Robertson sang “When the light goes out and you can’t go on / You miss your brothers, but now they’re gone.”

Robertson married the Canadian journalist Dominique Bourgeois in 1967. They had three children before divorcing.

Jaime Royal Robertson was born in Toronto and spent summers at the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve where his mother Rosemarie Dolly Chrysler grew up. He never met his father, Alexander David Klegerman, who died before he was born and whose existence Robertson only learned of years later. His mother had since married a factory worker, James Robertson, whom Robbie Robertson at first believed was his biological parent.

Music was an escape from what he remembered as a violent and abusive household; his parents separated when he was in his early teens. He would watch relatives play guitar and sing at the Six Nations reserve, and became “mesmerized” by how absorbed they were in their own performances. Robertson was soon practicing guitar himself and was playing in bands and writing songs in his teens.

He had a knack for impressing his elders. When he was 15, his group opened for Hawkins at a club in Toronto. After overhearing Hawkins say he was in need of new material, Robertson hurried home, worked up a couple of songs and brought them over to his hotel. Hawkins recorded both of them, “Someone Like You,” and “Hey Boba Lu,” and Robertson would soon find himself on a train to Hawkins' home base in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Over the next few years, he toured with Hawkins in the U.S. and Canada as members left and the performers who eventually became The Band were brought in. By 1963, Robertson and the others had grown apart from Hawkins and were ready to work on their own, recording a handful of singles as the Canadian Squires and stepping into rock history when mutual acquaintances suggested they should tour behind Dylan, then rebelling against his image as folk troubadour and infuriating fans who thought he had sold out.

In 1965-66, they were Dylan's co-adventurers in some of rock's most momentous shows, with Dylan playing an acoustic opening set, then joined by the Hawks for an electric set that was booed so fiercely, Helm dropped out and was replaced on the road by Mickey Jones. As captured in audio recordings and in footage by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker seen decades later in the Dylan documentary “No Direction Home,” the music on stage for such Dylan songs as “Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues” and “Ballad of a Thin Man” more than equaled the fury of its detractors, culminating in a May 1966 show at Manchester, England, when one fan screamed out “Judas!”

“I don't belieeeeve you," Dylan snarled in response. “You're a liar!” Calling on the Hawks to ”play f----ing loud," he led them through an all-out finale, “Like a Rolling Stone.”

“A kind of madness was percolating,” Robertson wrote in his memoir. “The whole atmosphere was heightened. I adjusted the strap on my Telecaster so I could release it with a quick thumb movement and use the guitar as a weapon. The concerts were starting to feel that unpredictable.”

Later in 1966, Dylan was badly injured in a motorcycle accident and recuperated in the Woodstock area, where The Band also soon settled. Under no contractual obligations or any sort of deadlines, Dylan and his fellow musicians stepped out of time altogether. They jammed on old country and Appalachian songs and worked on such originals as “Tears of Rage” and “I Shall Be Released” that were originally intended as demo recordings for other artists. “The Basement Tapes,” as they were eventually called, were among rock's first bootlegs before being released officially — in part in 1975, and in a full six-CD set in 2014.

Working and writing with Dylan encouraged The Band to try an album of its own. “Music from Big Pink” featured the Dylan-Danko collaboration “This Wheel's On Fire” and Dylan-Manuel's “Tears of Rage,” along with such Band originals as Manuel's “In a Station” and Robertson's “Caledonia Mission.”

In his memoir, Robertson remembered the first time their old boss listened to “Music from Big Pink.”

“After each song, Bob looked at ‘his’ band with proud eyes. When ‘The Weight’ came on, he said, ‘This is fantastic. Who wrote that song?’" he wrote. "‘Me,’ I answered. He shook his head, slapped me on the arm, and said, ‘Damn! You wrote that song?’"

Photos: Those we've lost in 2023

Tina Turner

Raquel Welch

Jim Brown

Harry Belafonte

Lisa Marie Presley

David Crosby

Lance Reddick

Richard Belzer

Cindy Williams

Alan Arkin

Gordon Lightfoot

Jeff Beck

Bobby Caldwell

Gary Rossington

Wayne Shorter

Jerry Springer

Jacklyn Zeman

John Beasley

Michael Lerner

Tom Sizemore

Charles Kimbrough

Julian Sands

Cynthia Weil

Sheldon Harnick

Barrett Strong

Willis Reed

Tim McCarver

Billy Packer

The Iron Sheik

Treat Williams

Daniel Ellsberg

Pat Robertson

Robert Blake

Ted Kaczynski

Lloyd Morrisett

Chaim Topol

Len Goodman

Burt Bacharach

Stella Stevens

Barry Humphries

Annie Wersching

Dave Hollis

Christine King Farris

David Jude Jolicoeur

Robbie Knievel

Gina Lollobrigida

Lynette Hardaway ("Diamond")

Adam Rich

Bobby Hull

Charles White

Jerry Richardson

Sister André

Tatjana Patitz

Russell Banks

Cardinal George Pell

Ken Block

Walter Cunningham

Anton Walkes

Pat Schroeder

Seymour Stein

Klaus Teuber

Ginnie Newhart

Vida Blue

Martin Amis

Doyle Brunson

Hodding Carter III

Ray Stevenson

Astrud Gilberto

Tori Bowie

Silvio Berlusconi

John Goodenough

Coco Lee

Jane Birkin

Tony Bennett

Sinéad O’Connor

Angus Cloud

LAHAINA, Hawaii — A search of the wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighborhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition, as the death toll rose to at least 53 and survivors told harrowing tales of narrow escapes with only the clothes on their backs.

A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighborhoods that had been a vibrant vision of color and island life reduced to gray ash. Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbor were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.

“Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press. More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that were still burning, he said.

The death toll will likely rise as search and rescue operations continue, Green added, and officials expect it will become the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1961 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island.

“We are heartsick,” Green said.

Tiffany Kidder Winn's gift store Whaler's Locker, which is one of the town’s oldest shops, was among the many businesses destroyed. As she assessed the damage Thursday, she came upon a line of burned-out vehicles, some with charred bodies inside them.

“It looked like they were trying to get out, but were stuck in traffic and couldn’t get off Front Street,” she said. She later spotted a body leaning against a seawall.

Winn said the destruction was so widespread, “I couldn’t even tell where I was because all the landmarks were gone.”

Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the fire started Tuesday and took Maui by surprise, racing through parched growth covering the island and then feasting on homes and anything else that lay in its path.

Weather

Wildfire devastates Hawaii's Lahaina, historic city and onetime capital of former kingdom

• MARK THIESSEN and AUDREY McAVOY Associated Press

The official death toll stood at 53 late Thursday, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise. The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been inaccessible due to the three ongoing fires, including the one in Lahaina that was 80% contained on Thursday, according to a Maui County news release. More than 1,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed, and dozens of people have been injured, including some critically.

“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” said Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

Search and rescue teams still won't be able to access certain areas until the fire lines are secure and they’re sure they'll be able to get to those areas safely, Weintraub added.

The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean. A Lahaina man, Bosco Bae, posted video on Facebook from Tuesday night that showed fire burning nearly every building on a street as sirens blared and windblown sparks raced by. Bae, who said he was one of the last people to leave the town, was evacuated to the island's main airport and was waiting to be allowed to return home.

Marlon Vasquez, a 31-year-old cook from Guatamala who came to the U.S. in January 2022, said that when he heard the fire alarms, it was already too late to flee in his car.

“I opened the door and the fire was almost on top of us," he told The Associated Press on Thursday from an evacuation center at a gymnasium. “We ran and ran. We ran almost the whole night and into the next day, because the fire didn’t stop."

Vasquez and his brother Eduardo escaped via roads that were clogged with vehicles full of people. The smoke was so toxic that he vomited. He said he's not sure his roommates and neighbors made it to safety.

Nation & World

Ring by ring, majestic banyan tree in heart of fire-scorched Lahaina chronicles 150 years of history

• BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and JENNIFER McDERMOTT Associated Press

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah on Thursday, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.” Biden promised to streamline requests for assistance and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “surging emergency personnel” on the island.

Read the full story: 

National

53 people have died from the Maui wildfires, governor says, and historic Lahaina has burned down

• By TY O'NEIL, CLAIRE RUSH, JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER and CHRISTOPHER WEBER - Associated Press

For live updates: 

National

Death toll in Maui rises to 93 with 2,200 structures destroyed or damaged. Follow live updates

• By REBECCA BOONE - Associated Press

Photos show Lahaina before and after wildfire devastation

HONOLULU — Wildfires in Hawaii fanned by strong winds burned multiple structures in areas including historic Lahaina town, forcing evacuations and closing schools in several communities Wednesday, and rescuers pulled a dozen people escaping smoke and flames from the ocean.

The U.S. Coast Guard responded to areas where people went into the ocean to escape the fire and smoky conditions, the County of Maui said in a statement. The Coast Guard tweeted that a crew rescued 12 people from the water off Lahaina.

The county tweeted that multiple roads in Lahaina were closed with a warning: "Do NOT go to Lahaina town."

Fire was widespread in Lahaina, including Front Street, an area of the town popular with tourists, County of Maui spokesperson Mahina Martin said in a phone interview early Wednesday. Traffic has been very heavy as people try to evacuate and officials asked people who weren't in an evacuation area to shelter in place to avoid adding to the traffic, she said.

The National Weather Service said Hurricane Dora, which was passing to the south of the island chain at a safe distance of 500 miles (805 kilometers), was partly to blame for gusts above 60 mph (97 kph) that knocked out power as night fell, rattled homes and grounded firefighting helicopters. Dangerous fire conditions created by strong winds and low humidity were expected to last through Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said.

Acting Gov. Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation on behalf of Gov. Josh Green, who is traveling, and activated the Hawaii National Guard.

Officials were not aware of any deaths and knew of only one injury, a firefighter who was in stable condition at a hospital after experiencing smoke inhalation, Martin said There's no count available for the number of structures affected by the fires or the number of people affected by evacuations, but Martin said there are four shelters open, with more than 1,000 people at the largest.

Nation & World

Hawaii wildfires burn homes and force evacuations, while strong winds complicate the fight

• By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER - Associated Press

"This is so unprecedented," Martin said, noting that multiple districts were affected. An emergency in the night is terrifying, she said, and the darkness makes it hard to gauge the extent of the damage.

"Right now it is all-hands-on-deck and we are anxious for daybreak," she said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a disaster declaration to provide assistance with a fire that threatened about 200 homes in and around Kohala Ranch, a rural community with a population of more than 500 on the Big Island, according to the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency. When the request was made, the fire had burned more than 600 acres (243 hectares) and was uncontained. Much of Hawaii was under a red flag warning that continued Wednesday, and two other uncontrolled fires were burning on the Big Island and Maui, officials said.

Fire crews on Maui were battling multiple blazes concentrated in two areas: the popular tourist destination of West Maui and an inland, mountainous region. In west Maui 911 service was not available and residents were directed to call the police department.

Because of the wind gusts, helicopters weren't able to dump water on the fires from the sky — or gauge more precise fire sizes — and firefighters were encountering roads blocked by downed trees and power lines as they worked the inland fires, Martin said.

About 14,500 customers in Maui were without power early Wednesday, according to poweroutage.us.

"It's definitely one of the more challenging days for our island given that it's multiple fires, multiple evacuations in the different district areas," Martin said.

Winds were recorded at 80 mph (129 kph) in inland Maui and one fire that was believed to be contained earlier Tuesday flared up hours later with the big winds, she added.

"The fire can be a mile or more from your house, but in a minute or two, it can be at your house," Fire Assistant Chief Jeff Giesea said.

In the Kula area of Maui, at least two homes were destroyed in a fire that engulfed about 1.7 square miles (4.5 square kilometers), Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said. About 80 people were evacuated from 40 homes, he said.

"We're trying to protect homes in the community," Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said of evacuating about 400 homes in four communities in the northern part of the island. As of Tuesday, the roof of one house caught on fire, he said.

Fires in Hawaii are unlike many of those burning in the U.S. West. They tend to break out in large grasslands on the dry sides of the islands and are generally much smaller than mainland fires.

Fires were rare in Hawaii and on other tropical islands before humans arrived, and native ecosystems evolved without them. This means great environmental damage can occur when fires erupt. For example, fires remove vegetation. When a fire is followed by heavy rainfall, the rain can carry loose soil into the ocean, where it can smother coral reefs.

A major fire on the Big Island in 2021 burned homes and forced thousands to evacuate.

The island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located, also was dealing with power outages, downed power lines and traffic problems, said Adam Weintraub, communication director for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

___

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge sentenced rapper Tory Lanez to 10 years in prison Tuesday for shooting and wounding hip-hop superstar Megan Thee Stallion.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Herriford handed down the sentence to the 31-year-old Lanez, who was convicted in December of three felonies: assault with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.

The sentence brings an end to a dramatic trial that created a cultural firestorm in the hip-hop community, churning up issues including the reluctance of Black victims to speak to police, gender politics in hip-hop, online toxicity, protecting Black women and the ramifications of misogynoir, a particular brand of misogyny Black women experience.

Herriford said it was “difficult to reconcile” the kind, charitable person and good father many people described Lanez as being during the sentencing hearing with the person who fired the gun at Megan.

“Sometimes good people do bad things,” Herriford said. “Actions have consequences, and there are no winners in this case.”

Megan testified that Lanez fired the gun at the back of her feet and shouted for her to dance as she walked away from an SUV in which they had been riding in July 2020, after leaving a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s Hollywood Hills home. She had to have surgery to remove bullet fragments.

“Since I was viciously shot by the defendant, I have not experienced a single day of peace,” Megan said in a statement read by a prosecutor on Monday. “Slowly but surely, I’m healing and coming back, but I will never be the same.”

Lanez asked Herriford for mercy just before the judge delivered his sentence. Lanez requested either probation or a minimal prison sentence.

“If I could turn back the series of events that night and change them,” I would, Lanez continued. “The victim was my friend. The victim is someone I still care for to this day.”

He added, “Everything I did wrong that night, I take full responsibility for.”

Lanez appeared stunned while the sentence was read, but had no audible reaction. His family and fans in the courtroom also remained quiet after the sentence.

The rapper was given about 10 months of credit for time he’s served since his conviction in December.

“We’re extremely disappointed,” Lanez’s lead attorney Jose Baez said outside the courthouse. “I have seen vehicular homicide and other cases where there’s death, and the defendant still gets less than 10 years.”

Baez called the sentence “really just another example of someone being punished for their celebrity status and someone being utilized to set an example. And he’s not an example. He’s a human being.”

Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete, was repeatedly praised by prosecutors for her bravery in testifying during the case and enduring online campaigns of hatred directed at her.

“I hope that Miss Pete’s bravery gives hope to those who feel helpless,” said Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón of Megan at a news conference after the sentencing.

During Monday's session, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, choked back tears as he talked about how the rapper’s mother died when he was 11, just days after she first showed symptoms of the rare blood disorder that would lead to her death.

“I don’t think anybody ever gets over that,” he said of their youngest child, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson. “But his music became his outlet.”

Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and saw a steady rise in popularity, moving on to major-label albums. His last two reached the top 10 on Billboard’s charts.

Megan Thee Stallion, now 28, was already a major rising star at the time of the shooting, and her prominence has surged since. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles with “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”

The elder Peterson, who is a Christian minister, was one of several people who gave statements on Lanez’s character and charitable giving — as did the mother of Lanez’s young son, who spoke in court about his qualities as a father. Dozens more wrote letters to Herriford, including rapper Iggy Azalea, who asked the judge to hand down a sentence that was “transformative, not life-destroying.”

Herriford said Lanez’s son, who is about 6 years old, also sent in a handwritten letter, but the judge did not describe it further.

Lanez’s family and supporters have packed the courtroom; during the trial, they contended his prosecution was unjustly brought on by Megan and powerful figures in music. After the verdict was read in December, Lanez’s father denounced the “wicked system” that led to his son’s conviction; on Monday, Sonstar Peterson apologized to Herriford for the outburst.

Lanez has been jailed since his conviction. A chaplain from Los Angeles County jail said Monday in court that Lanez has led daily prayer groups that have eased tensions in the protective custody unit where he has been held.

Herriford denied a motion from Lanez’s defense attorneys for a new trial on May 9. Such motions immediately following a conviction are common and rarely succeed. Attorneys for Lanez had argued that there was insufficient evidence to convict him, and some of the evidence presented to jurors should not have been allowed.

The lawyers argued Megan’s testimony that Lanez urged her not to go to police because he was on parole and would be in serious trouble was both untrue and an improper allowance of prior bad acts. And they said DNA evidence that prosecutors used to argue Lanez was the likely shooter fell well short of industry standards.

Lawyers for Lanez plan to appeal the conviction.

Herriford found earlier Monday that Megan was an especially vulnerable victim when she was shot, but that Lanez was not especially cruel or callous in firing at her.

“She has permanent scarring, physically,” Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott said in court. “And she certainly will have emotional scarring for the rest of her life.”

Photos: The best of the 2023 BET Awards