Second wildfire
Thousands of people were ordered out of their homes in Sylmar, California, early Saturday, November 15 as a fast-spreading wildfire burned along on the northern boundary of Los Angeles. The flames erupted late Friday in the steep terrain of the Angeles National Forest on the outskirts of Sylmar, about 20 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The fire covered 1,500 acres just three hours after it was first reported, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Armando Hogan. A fire official said firefighters first learned of the blaze after it was spotted by CNN affiliate KTLA-TV's helicopter crew.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/15/california.wildfires/?iref=mpstoryview

Third fire erupted suddenly in Orange County on Saturday
The flames destroyed hundreds of homes and forced more than 10,000 people along the southern coast to evacuate. The third fire began in Corona, about 50 miles inland from Los Angeles, on Saturday afternoon, forcing evacuations in Corona, Yorba Linda and Anaheim. The Corona blaze, named the Freeway Complex fire, had burned more than 2,000 acres and damaged 94 homes by Saturday night.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/us/17calif.html?ref=us

Sundowner winds of Santa Barbara
Sundowners frequently occur in the late afternoon or evening hours–hence the name. Light sundowners create irregular rises in temperature downtown with gentle offshore breezes. Stronger sundowners, occurring two or three times a year, can create sharp temperature rises, local gale force winds, and significant weather-related problems. Rarely, probably about a half dozen times in a century, an “explosive” sundowner occurs.
http://www.wildfirelessons.net/documents/SUNDOWNER_WINDS_S_CA.pdf

Senate Banking Committee Hearing: Oversight of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act: Examining Financial Institution Use of Funding Under the Capital Purchase Program, November 13, 2008
Opening Statement of Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, “Oversight of the EESA: Examining Financial Institution Use of Funding Under the Capital Purchase Program” - "...five trillion dollars have been committed in several forms, including: the guarantee of all non-interest bearing deposit accounts at federally insured banks and thrifts...The Fed alone has committed up to one trillion in tax dollars so far to the recovery effort...I think I speak for many members of the Committee and the Senate in saying that we want to see more progress from our friends in the financial sector – more progress in foreclosure mitigation, in affordable lending, and in curbing excessive compensation."
Washington Post: Bailout Lacks Oversight Despite Billions Pledged "In the six weeks since lawmakers approved the Treasury's massive bailout of financial firms, the government has poured money into the country's largest banks, recruited smaller banks into the program and repeatedly widened its scope to cover yet other types of businesses, from insurers to consumer lenders...Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste."
Treasury news release: "Today's story in the Washington Post leaves out critical steps taken by Treasury to ensure that there is strong oversight in place as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is implemented."
Reuters, Commentary: TARP and Fed facilities unravel "The twin pillars of the rescue program are the multiplicity of liquidity and lending programs being offered by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Both programs are now in deep trouble. In fact the various rescue packages risk becoming a textbook example of how poorly designed programs can fail to achieve their objectives."
Joint Letter of Concern to Secretary Paulson After His Announcement to the Change Intent of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, November 13, 2008
Related postings on financial system

On November 13, the Republican National Committee (RNC) filed lawsuits claiming that provisions in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, which was sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), are unconstitutional. In a suit filed in the District of Columbia, the RNC is challenging the law's ban on the use of soft money, or campaign contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions and advocacy groups that are not regulated by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) because they are not donated to a particular candidate but for "party building" activities.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7013033366

Two groups of astronomers have taken the first pictures of what they say—and other astronomers agree—are most likely planets going around other stars. Christian Marois of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia is the leader of a team that recorded three planets circling a star known as HR 8799 that is 130 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. The other team, led by Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley, found a planet orbiting the star Fomalhaut, only 25 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/science/space/14planet.html?bl&ex=1226898000&en=034c0d653216eb42&ei=5087%0A

November 16 is the birthday of the "First Lady of Radio," mostly forgotten today, Mary Margaret McBride, born in Paris, Missouri (1899). She was one of the first radio interviewers to bring the techniques of newspaper journalism to the airwaves, and in the first 20 years of her syndicated program, she interviewed more than 30,000 guests from the world of politics, literature, arts, and entertainment. In the late 1940s, she had 6 million daily listeners. She never announced in advance the name of the guests who would appear on the show, so people tuned in each day not knowing whom to expect.
November 17 is the birthday of a young man who became a best-selling author as a teenager, Christopher Paolini, (books by this author) born in California (1983) and raised near Paradise Valley, Montana. He was homeschooled, and when he finished high school at age 15, he had a lot of time on his hands, so he decided to write a fantasy novel. He began Eragon, finished it a year later, at age 16. He spent a second year revising that draft, and then gave it to his parents. They loved it, and in 2002 Eragon was self-published through the family company. The Paolini family embarked on an exhausting tour to promote Christopher's book. They went to 135 promotional events that first year, dressed in red and black medieval costumes. Paolini got offers from both Random House and Scholastic, and in August of 2003—when Paolini was still 19—the book was published by a division of Random House/Knopf. The Writer’s Almanac