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Since 1994, this is the 1598th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 26 January 2025: Inferno | Copyright ©2025 https://thisistrue.com |
Every Kid Wants to Be a Firefighter: A Los Angeles P.D. officer patrolling California’s Palisades Fire evacuation area — the fire is still ongoing — reported a firetruck to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department as suspicious. Deputies found it and pulled it over. The two people inside, a man and a woman, were dressed in full firefighter regalia, and said they were from the “Roaring River Fire Department” in Oregon. That confirmed suspicions: the truck bore a California license plate, and there is no such fire department in Oregon. Dustin Nehl, 31, and Jennifer Nehl, 44, a married couple, are apparently not firefighters. Dustin, in fact, served 5 years in anOregon prison — for an arson spree. The fire truck? It was retired 30 years ago, and sold at auction. Both Nehls were arrested for impersonating a firefighter, unauthorized use of badges, and false representation. Their truck was impounded. Jennifer was released, but Dustin is being held on $30,000 bond due to his criminal record. (RC/KCAL Los Angeles) ...Having watched “Emergency!” doesn’t make someone a paramedic, either.
Why He’s the Chief: Brian Fennessy is the Chief of the Orange County (Calif.) Fire Authority. He grew up in Altadena, where his brother was still living. When a fire sparked in Eaton Canyon, according to Fennessy, “I told them, ‘You’re fine.’ That they have nothing to worry about.” He was wrong: a few hours later, driven by 100-mph winds, the fire reached his brother’s neighborhood. His brother and family escaped, but “I was already up there and I thought, well, I could at least gocheck on his house,” Fennessy said. The neighborhood was fully engulfed, but his brother’s house, and a nearby neighbor’s house, were still standing. Knowing that the fire department couldn’t arrive in time, the nearly 50-year veteran sprang into action, moving fuel away from the house. He tried using a hose to cool down the gas meters, which were melting, but there was no water. “I thought, ‘I’ll check the refrigerator,’ and all that was in there was some milk and a couple beers.” So he dousedthe meters in milk and beer. It was enough: the two houses are the only ones left standing on the block. (MS/KABC Los Angeles) ...Who knew fire is lactose intolerant?
As Comfortable as Airpods Pro ...for about the cost of Airpods’ AppleCare.
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Missed It By That Much ...so there’s an ad. It takes 5 upgrades, or renewals of lapsed upgrades, to cancel an ad. Both options pay the bills for this edition. The full edition has a minimum of 10 stories (usually more), the full text of the Honorary Unsubscribe, and Premium subscriptions fund 95 percent of True’s budget. Upgrade here and thanks! I’m confident we’ll hit it for next week, but it takes yourhelp.
The Price of Admission: Capital One Arena seats 20,000 people, but the Washington, D.C., venue that hosted the public viewing event forPresident Donald Trump’s inauguration still wasn’t big enough to accommodate everyone with a ticket. (Inaugurations are usually an outdoor event, but it turned out it was going to be really cold.) People lined up for blocks, some even overnight. And some brought bags. Capital One Arena, however, has banned bags, with narrow exceptions, and makes it clear it has no ability to store bags. In the afternoon of Inauguration Day, a journalist observed “a pile of abandoned bags and purses from peopleentering the area around Capital One Arena.” A Secret Service agent thought they included bags that sell for more than $6,000; another journalist spotted what appeared to be Louis Vuitton bags. And not everyone even took their cash and credit cards out of their bags before leaving them. What will happen to the bags? That’s unclear. (AC/WUSA Washington, WTTG Washington) ...It’s usually a lot harder for people to abandon the baggage they bring to Washington.
Lasting Impression: In Colorado, it’s not required by law that a couple be married by a judge, a preacher, or any other officiant. In fact, it’s not even required thatthere are witnesses, though of course most couples prefer to have one. Randy and Alexandria Eckhart of Brighton planned to be married in New Mexico, but their dog’s vet had news that altered those plans: their beloved dog had two cancerous tumors; a specialist in Fort Collins might be Bella Rose’s only hope. The trip to New Mexico was scrubbed, but not the wedding. With the encouragement of the staff, the couple had the wedding in the vet’s office. They brought non-toxic ink so Bella Rose could“sign” their Marriage Certificate as a witness with a paw print. “She was a really big part of our lives,” Alexandria said, “and having her in our wedding was really important to us.” (RC/KMGH Denver) ...Sit! Stay. Good couple.
You Don’t Need a Whole News Story to Say ‘Wash Your Damned Hands’
How to Protect Yourself from Norovirus, COVID-19, Flu and RSV During the Winter Surge
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Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.
This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited at sea on our way through the Straits of Magellan and around Cape Horn, where there are rains driven by 50-kn winds, on our way to the south end of Argentina.
One of the Volunteer Editors asked, why couldn’t the LAPD cop deal with the fake firefighters? I looked at about 10 stories about this case, and many of the details were very unclear. Here’s my guess based on my years as a first responder, including as a California sheriff deputy: the LAPD unit was out of its usual jurisdiction, on loan to the county to help during a significant emergency.
When there’s an actual situation to be handled that isn’t in itself an emergency, standard procedure is very likely to be that they call in the police agency whose jurisdiction it’s actually in to take action. In this case, that would be the L.A. County Sheriff. It is possible the LAPD unit detained the fake firefighters while they waited for the deputy to arrive, but none of the sources (nor the LASD press release) covered that detail.
That one is the Story of the Week, which means you’re welcome to share it from Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, Threads, (new, still testing) Pixelfed, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
In November, a long-time buddy (and Premium subscriber) and former co-worker at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a photo on Facebook of a church sign he spotted near his house. The sign read, “Kind Atheists Are Closer to Jesus than Mean Christians”. I asked David if I could put it out on my own social media channels to give it a wider audience, and he kindly gave me the go-ahead.
It got pretty good attention on Facebook, but it went viral on Threads, which is run by Instagram, which is run byMeta, which runs Facebook. So, I guess, Facebook’s grand nephew? Dave still lives very near JPL ...in Altadena. Happily, his house was spared, though many others in the neighborhood lost theirs to the fire. But last night Dave sent me a new photo of the church — or really, what’s left of it, which isn’t much. Yep, it was destroyed by the fire.
Several of my former co-workers have lost their homes. It breaks my heart to see the devastation of my old stomping grounds, and know they will all have some hard times ahead, even if their homes are still standing. Dave and his wife, for instance, still can’t move home: they don’t have running water yet, though their power and Internet are back on. The recovery from such a disaster takes a long time, and a lot of money, much of which isn’t covered by insurance.
Ten Years Ago in True: Fake D’oh!.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: I’m taken to task for calling out a Black politician for being racist. When is Racism OK? from 2004.
This Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Loretta Ford. A nurse, Ford figured out a way for rural people to get healthcare. The idea was so good it’s spreading around the world. The story in about 3 minutes.
- And So Long to Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer. He died from congestive heart failure at his New York home on January 17, at 95. [Amazon Books Link *]
- Honorary Unsubscribe Archive.
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Copyright ©2025 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved.All broadcast, publication, retransmission to email lists, web site or social media posting, or any other copying or storage,in any medium, online or not, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the author. Manual forwardingby email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on topthrough the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any oneperson — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.
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