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Powerful California blizzard shuts Tahoe, Mammoth roads; 190 mph winds reported

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The most powerful California blizzard of the winter sent gusts of up to 190 mph to the Sierra Nevada, and heavy snow and strong winds forced officials to shut some roads in the Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Mountain areas.

Roads that were forced to shut overnight into Saturday morning included a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 80 between Drum Forebay and the Nevada state line and a 50-mile stretch of Highway 395 north of Mammoth Lakes to Bridgeport.

Highway 395 between Mammoth Lakes and Southern California remained open as of Saturday morning, but weather conditions were dicey because of strong winds, as well as heavy rain in some areas. On Friday afternoon, a truck tipped over because of high winds in the Olancha area of Inyo County, the California Highway Patrol said.

On Interstate 80 over the Sierra on Friday, multiple vehicles spun out and a big rig jackknifed.

A gust of 190 mph was detected Friday night at Palisades Tahoe at an elevation of 8,700 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters warned of extreme avalanche danger across the greater Tahoe region in the Sierra backcountry through Sunday afternoon.

Around Mammoth Mountain in Mono County, peak winds clocked in at 114 mph Friday afternoon.

The record in California for the fastest wind gust verified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was 199 mph on Feb. 20, 2017, at Ward Mountain, also known as Ward Peak, at Palisades Tahoe.

Forecasters urged people to stay where they are unless there’s an emergency, and warned that it could take time for plows to dig out communities. Meteorologists say the storm, which may dump up to 12 feet of snowfall in the highest elevations of California’s mightiest mountain range by Sunday, could result in one of the top 10 snowiest days of the central Sierra since 1970.

The crest of the Sierra overall is expected to get 6 to 10 feet of snow; Mammoth Lakes, 2 to 4 feet; and the Tahoe Basin, 3 to 6 feet. Snow could be falling at a rate of 1 to 6 inches per hour, the weather service said.

Mammoth’s ski resort forecast a high of 15 degrees Saturday and, besides the blizzard, forecast “thundersnow,” in which lightning can occur within a snowstorm.

“Light, fluffy snow will be easily blown around, creating whiteout conditions with near-zero visibility at times,” the weather service office in Reno said. For those who do venture out, “pack an emergency kit and prepare to be stranded in your vehicle for an extended period of time.”

Sierra ski resorts reported Friday being forced to close at least some sections of their mountains, or had to shut operations entirely, because of the intensity of the blizzard. It will take time to dig out chair lifts, they said.

Life-threatening blizzard conditions were expected through Saturday morning, according to the National Weather Service office in Reno, which issued a rare blizzard warning for this storm that will last through Sunday morning. The blizzard warning extends from Lassen Volcanic National Park in Shasta County to Kings Canyon National Park in Fresno County.

Blizzard warnings for the Sierra Nevada are issued only either once annually or once every other year.

Snow showers in the Sierra are expected to continue through Sunday and Monday, and there are more chances of snow on Wednesday.

“That break that we were expecting on Tuesday may not be so much of a break for the Sierra,” the weather service office in Reno said. “The Sierra could see up to 6 inches of snow in the valleys, and up to another foot near the crest, between Tuesday and Wednesday.” After that, “drier weather appears to return by Thursday and into the weekend,” the weather service said.

Hundreds of customers in the Tahoe area were without power for at least some period of time late Friday and early Saturday, according to the Truckee Donner Public Utility District and Liberty Utilities.

Other areas of California are also forecast to be affected by the strong winter storm. A stretch of Interstate 5 in Siskiyou County, near the Oregon border, could get more than 1 foot of snow.

And Highway 101 in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties could see snowfall. Highway 101 at Ridgewood Summit in Mendocino County could get up to 1 foot of snow; at Prairie Creek Summit in Humboldt County, up to 1.5 feet; and south of Crescent City in Del Norte County, about half a foot of snow.

Yosemite National Park was ordered shut down starting Friday and its visitors told to leave by noon. The park will remain closed at least through noon Sunday, and its closure could be extended.

Some 6 to 12 inches of snow could fall in Yosemite Valley — the most popular part of Yosemite National Park, the National Weather Service office in Hanford said. A winter storm warning will take effect there between Saturday morning through Sunday morning.

A more intense blizzard warning was already in effect for the rest of Yosemite National Park outside of Yosemite Valley, which will last through Sunday morning.

Some 2 to 3 feet of snow could fall at the Big Oak Flat entrance to Yosemite National Park along Highway 120, a route often taken by travelers from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Along Highway 41, a route to the park often taken by those from Fresno and Southern California, 3 to 5 feet of snow could fall at the entrance to the park, around Mariposa Grove. At the historic Victorian-era Wawona Hotel, 3 to 6 feet of snow could fall.

In the Sacramento Valley, gusty winds could result in power outages and falling trees through early Saturday.

The winter storm was expected to be more mild for Southern California. The wettest period of the weekend was expected on Saturday, but there’s still a chance of rain that exists on Sunday.

Still, there could be “isolated and brief bursts of heavy rain likely through Saturday night,” mainly in the foothills and coastal slopes, the weather service office in Oxnard said. There is the potential for mudslides and rockslides on canyon roads and below steep hillsides, and ongoing land movement in recent landslide areas.

For the weekend storm, downtown L.A. could get 0.6 inches of rain; Long Beach, 0.44 inches; Pomona, 0.74 inches; Pasadena, 1.33 inches; Santa Clarita, 0.77 inches; Oxnard, 0.65 inches; and Santa Barbara, 0.92 inches.

San Diego could get up to 0.2 inches; Irvine, San Clemente and Riverside could get up to 0.3 inches; Anaheim, up to 0.4 inches; Ontario and Temecula, up to 0.7 inches; and San Bernardino, up to 1 inch.

The San Francisco Bay Area was facing thunderstorms Friday night, which were expected to continue Saturday, with increasing winds. Gusts of up to 50 mph are possible through Saturday morning. Cities in the Bay Area were generally forecast to get between 1 and 1.5 inches of rain through Sunday.

Four people were hurt in San Francisco on Friday evening after a tree fell on their car at Golden Gate Avenue and Laguna Street, firefighters said.





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For sale: A piece of California’s country music history

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The famed Buck Owens Crystal Palace, where music legends including Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, Garth Brooks and a young Taylor Swift have played, is up for sale, with the foundation that runs the Bakersfield venue planning to list it for $7 million on Monday.

The nightclub, museum and steakhouse was owned by its namesake Buck Owens, the country music trailblazer who bucked the slick commercial melodies of Nashville for a distinctly West Coast twang. Owens opened the Crystal Palace in 1996, watching it become a premier venue for the biggest names in country music, including himself. Buck and the Buckaroos played there every Friday and Saturday night until his death in 2006.

Jim Shaw, a member of the Buckaroos and a director of the Buck Owens Private Foundation, said that after 28 years of running the famed venue, the Owens family plans to step back and find new owners amid a challenging business climate. The foundation said in a statement that “since Buck’s passing in 2006, we’ve tried to maintain the excellence that he expected, even as it became more and more difficult during these challenging times of increasing food and labor costs.”

The venue is not closing and scheduled events will continue as planned, Shaw said.

“It’s business as usual for now,” Shaw said. “Ideally, someone who wants to keep it exactly as it is will come forward.”

Owens’ youngest son, Johnny Owens, wrote on Facebook that the family’s hope “is that a buyer steps forward with a vision for the future and a reverence” for his father and the Bakersfield Sound.

The Crystal Palace, located on Buck Owens Boulevard, is a major tourism staple for Bakersfield. The 18,000-square-foot venue is next to the city’s downtown entrance.

“It’s the No. 1 tourist attraction in Bakersfield,” Shaw said. “There are people stepping forward and we are waiting to see what happens. I am getting a lot of phone calls. I’m anxious to see what happens.”



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2nd local radio host says they were given questions ahead of Biden interview

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A second local radio host on Saturday told ABC News that he was provided a list of questions in advance of his interview with President Joe Biden this week.

“Yes, I was given some questions for Biden,” Earl Ingram of CivicMedia told ABC News. Ingram, a prominent host of a Wisconsin radio station, interviewed Biden this week in the wake of his debate performance.

Ingram said he was given five questions and ended up asking four of them.

“I didn’t get a chance to ask him all the things I wanted to ask,” he said.

Ingram is the second interviewer who now says they were provided questions by Biden aides to ask the president this week. Earlier today, another local radio host who interviewed Biden this week told CNN she was given questions to ask Biden before the interview.

PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.  (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

PHOTO: President Joe Biden speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School, on July 5, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners,” the Biden campaign told ABC News on Saturday.

Ingram told ABC he didn’t see anything necessarily wrong with the practice. “To think that I was gonna get an opportunity to ask any question to the President of the United States, I think, is a bit more than anybody should expect,” he said.

He continued that he was grateful for the opportunity to interview Biden at all.

“Certainly the fact that they gave me this opportunity … meant a lot to me,” Ingram said.

MORE: Wealthy Democratic donors sound alarm over Biden staying in race

On CNN earlier today, Andrea Lawful-Sanders, the host of WURD’s “The Source,” said Biden officials provided her with a list of eight questions ahead of their interview with Biden.

“The questions were sent to me for approval; I approved of them,” she said.

“I got several questions — eight of them,” she continued. “And the four that were chosen were the ones that I approved.”

Responding to Lawful-Sanders, Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said in a statement that it’s not “uncommon” for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. She noted that Lawful-Sanders was “free” to ask any questions she saw fit. She also noted that it was the campaign who sent over the questions and not the White House as other reports claim.

Lawful-Sanders did note in her interview with CNN that she ultimately “approved” the questions provided.

“It’s not at all an uncommon practice for interviewees to share topics they would prefer. These questions were relevant to news of the day – the president was asked about this debate performance as well as what he’d delivered for black Americans,” the statement said.

“We do not condition interviews on acceptance of these questions, and hosts are always free to ask the questions they think will best inform their listeners. In addition to these interviews, the President also participated in a press gaggle yesterday as well as an interview with ABC. Americans have had several opportunities to see him unscripted since the debate.”

A source familiar with the Biden booking operation told ABC News that moving forward they will “refrain” from offering suggested questions to interviewers.

“While interview hosts have always been free to ask whatever questions they please, moving forward we will refrain from offering suggested questions.”

2nd local radio host says they were given questions ahead of Biden interview originally appeared on abcnews.go.com



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President George W. Bush turns 78 years old

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George W. Bush, born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, was the 43rd President of the United States.

Bush was born to parents Barbara Bush and former President George H. W. Bush. He has five siblings; Jeb Bush, Marvin Bush, Neil Bush, Dorothy Bush Koch and Pauline Robinson Bush. Pauline was diagnosed with leukemia and passed away at age three.

He was formerly the Republican Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

WHY FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH IS WINNING … THE POST-PRESIDENCY

Bush was first elected to the White House in November 2000, and officially began his first term as president in January 2001, after he defeated Democrat Al Gore during the presidential election. Bush was reelected to his second term as the incumbent in November 2004, when he prevailed over Democrat John Kerry, and led the United States until January 2009 before handing over his torch to former President Barack Obama.

Bush married Laura Bush on November 5, 1977, the day after her 31st birthday, in her hometown of Midland, Texas. The couple were engaged in September 1977, and married less than two months later in a Methodist church. Bush and Laura met at a barbecue, and he took her to play mini-golf on their first date. 

The Bush’s share twin daughters, Barbara Pierce Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, born on November 25, 1981. Today, the couple also share four grandchildren; Mila, Poppy, Hal and Cora.

GEORGE BUSH, FORMER FIRST LADY ISSUE STATEMENT ON AFGHANISTAN WITH MESSAGE TO US TROOPS, VETERANS

During his presidency, Bush cared for his English springer spaniel, Spot Fetcher, who accompanied him to meetings in the Oval Office and on adventures throughout the White House. The dog was born to his parent’s dog, Millie.

On September 11, 2001, less than one year into Bush’s presidency, the Twin Towers in New York City were attacked by terrorists when airplanes hit both buildings, causing a collapse and thousands of lives lost. At the time, Bush was reading to elementary-aged children at a school in Sarasota, Florida. He was calmly and quietly advised of the attacks and quickly returned to Washington, where he was briefed alongside Vice President Dick Cheney.

Bush was regarded highly for his poise while learning of the attacks and for his demonstration of patriotism and leadership in the uncertain days and weeks following the hijackings of multiple planes on the day that shook America to her core.

SADDAM CAPTURED ‘LIKE A RAT’ IN RAID

On December 30, 2003, during Bush’s first term as POTUS, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader and executor of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., was captured by the American military

In the early morning of December 30, 2006, during Bush’s presidency, Hussein was hanged and executed for his crimes against humanity. Americans across the nation celebrated the death of Hussein and applauded Bush for promising the country he would take him out and following through.

While Bush was regarded for his dealings with the terrorist attacks, the signing of No Child Left Behind Act and the Patriot Act and the creation of the United States Department of Homeland Security, many Americans were unhappy with the sanctions of interrogation techniques, the war in Iraq and taxes while he was president.

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