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12/31/2009 - CAMP UR, Iraq (AFNS) -- Firefighters from the 407th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron are bringing the goal of independent Iraqi operations to reality at Camp Ur, Iraq. In December, Ali Base firefighters assisted their Iraqi counterparts toward self-sufficiency through numerous training sessions and skills tests. With the assistance of Air Force Logistics Military Advisory Team personnel, Airmen from the 407th ECES Fire Department visited firefighters at Camp Ur throughout the month training them in the latest firefighting techniques and proper driving, care and maintenance of a new 46,000 pound fire truck, recently provided to them. The Iraqis are...

Memo to children — and adults for that matter — everywhere: Don’t try to emulate Flick from "A Christmas Story." Ever. Your tongue will get stuck to a metal pole when the temperature is -2. Boise fire officials were able to help a boy whose tongue was stuck to a metal fence pole... Firefighters didn't ask him his age but said he was probably 10. The boy is OK... The boy’s tongue was bleeding a little bit but there was no visible tearing. When Boise firefighters arrived, they found the boy standing by the 8 foot tall chain link fence...

A controversial Merry Christmas sign has returned to its traditional spot outside the Main Street fire station, after the town reversed an earlier decision to take it down. The decision to put the homemade sign back on display was made this afternoon, after residents protested its removal this morning outside Town Hall. "The townspeople have spoken," Selectman Richard Nardella said. Firefighters put the sign back up around 4 p.m.

New Haven's Board of Fire Commissioners has approved the promotions of 14 city firefighters who won a reverse discrimination case in a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. A formal promotion ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 10. Matt Marcarelli, who earned the top score on the captain's exam in 2003 and assumed his new rank on Tuesday, says the action by the board was historic. The board approved the promotions after another city board certified the results of the 2003 exam that was at the center of the legal dispute. Thirteen white city firefighters and one Hispanic firefighter were...

NORTH ANDOVER — An annual "Merry Christmas" sign on a North Andover fire station has been ordered removed. Town officials told firefighters last week to take down the homemade sign after they said people complained. Fire Chief William Martineau said Monday that the sign was made by firefighters about 50 years ago and never had been an issue before.

New Haven, Conn. (AP) -- A group of black Connecticut firefighters hopes to block promotions for white firefighters who won a discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The black New Haven firefighters argue in papers filed Monday that they still have a right to challenge the validity of the promotional exam.

he city of New Haven, Connecticut, will promote 14 firefighters who were involved in a workplace discrimination case that worked its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The firefighters were among the New Haven 20 -- one Hispanic and 19 white firefighters -- who fought the city after it threw out the results of a 2003 firefighter promotion exam that left too few minorities qualified for promotions. A U.S. District Court issued a judgment finding the city violated the civil rights of a group of the white firefighters when it threw out the exams in 2004, according to Jessica Mayorga,...

Detroit may be trying to repair it's public image by calling Devil's Night Angel's night but the fact is Detroit is infamous for the arson spree taking place on Halloween night. Firefighters will face another night of it on Saturday and though the fires now don't burn like they did in the 80's and 90's the danger is still there. Right now, as this post is typed, Detroit firefighters are operating on a heavily invloved structure on Casper Street. It's nothing new to Detroit. Fire activity has been high for 35 years as Detroit has gone from a city to...

A Pennslyvania firefighter was suspended without pay for refusing to remove an American flag sticker from his locker, Myfoxphilly.com reported. James Krapf of Chester, Pa., violated a department policy that states personal items can only be posted inside employee lockers when he stuck the flag on the outside. According to Myfoxphilly.com, the firefighters' union warned 11 others to remove personal items or face similar suspensions, all without pay.

Remembering is sacred. Yet Congress has created a National Day of Service and Remembrance to remember 9/11, an act that has shifted the emphasis from memory to activism. Painting park benches or tutoring in schools is not a worthwhile tribute to those lost on 9/11.

On the anniversary of its darkest day, the FDNY is launching a state-of-the-art boat designed to quickly respond should the unthinkable happen again. The boat "343," named after the number of Fire Department members killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, will be christened Friday in Florida and soon after move to the forefront of a fleet of boats charged with patrolling the 562 miles of city coastline. The primary mission of the $27-million boat was born eight years ago, when the older FDNY Marine 1 - the John D. McKean - raced to the burning Trade Center and evacuated...

Here is a video of a firetruck in Valley Village, CA that has been partially swallowed by a sinkhole. (Watch Video)

As the fire and homicide investigation continues, officials say several firefighters were exposed to cyanide gas in two separate incidents as they were mopping up hot spots near the small city of Acton on the northern edge of the massive blaze. The poisonous cyanide fumes are suspected in acute breathing problems suffered by Los Angeles firefighters battling the Station Fire in the Aliso Canyon. One firefighters suffered life-threatening respiratory arrest and remains in hospital after she was knocked out by noxious fumes on Sept. 1 near Acton. Two days later, six firefighters suffered severe breathing difficulties in another part of...

LAKE VIEW TERRACE, Calif. (KABC) -- It was an emotional tribute for the 1,200 to 1,500 firefighters that gathered early Friday morning to say their personal goodbyes to the two firefighters killed in the Station Fire. Capt. Ted Hall and firefighters Arnie Quinones both died Sunday afternoon when their vehicle went over the side of a mountain. ..."It was just important to bring closure," said Paul Lowenthal from the Santa Rosa Fire Department. "It's not only a family within your own station. It's a family across the state, across the country, so we all look out for one another, and...

As the roaring wall of flame raged through the Angeles National Forest, firefighters Ted Hall and Arnie Quinones worked feverishly to protect their fire-crew camp, made up mostly of prison inmates. But all too suddenly, the fire invaded the campsite. Hall and Quinones shepherded 55 inmates and several corrections and fire personnel into a cinderblock dining hall to shelter them from the blaze. The fire burned through the camp, leaving it in ruins. The dining hall provided adequate shelter for now, but Hall and Quinones knew they had to get everyone to safety. So they jumped in an engine truck...

LOS ANGELES — Firefighters tried to hold back a massive wildfire from consuming thousands of homes and an essential communications center in Los Angeles County as they mourned two of their own who were killed when their vehicle was overrun by fast-moving flames and rolled down a mountain side. About 12,000 homes, as well as crucial communications and astronomy centers atop Mount Wilson, were threatened the fire. On the blaze's northwestern front, two firefighters were killed Sunday on Mount Gleason near the city of Acton.

Aug 30, 2009 2 Firefighters Killed As Station Fire Grows Station Fire Threatens Thousands Of Homes Fire crews struggled to contain the Station fire, which has already burned 35,000 acres and was threatening thousands of homes. L.A. County Coroner's officials have confirmed that two firefighters were killed when their vehicle overturned on Mount Wilson Sunday, where fire crews anxiously worked to contain the monstrous Station fire. The 35,000-acre fire threatened over 10,000 homes, 500 commercial properties and 2,000 other structures and rained ash on cars as far away as downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, spreading in all directions in hot,...

PALMER: Destructive thieves take everything that's not nailed down and then some at headquarters. Daniel Skriloff, an Alaska wildfire fighter, had just come off the line, battling the oppressive heat and smoke of the 12,000-acre Hardluck Creek blaze near Fairbanks, when he got the bad news. Back at the Palmer-based headquarters for the Pioneer Peak Hotshots, thieves -- as part of a storm of theft and destruction -- broke into and stole his Subaru Legacy from the gated parking lot. "It sucks," said the third-year firefighter, who was back in Palmer dealing with insurance forms on Tuesday. "You name it,...

LOS ANGELES -- David Gerboth is a captain in the San Diego Fire Department, but he spent most of last summer crisscrossing California putting out wildfires. There were the 16 days battling a fire in Hayfork, 720 miles to the north. Then he spent 21 days fighting other blazes that burned 86,500 acres. As California's wildfires consume more land each year, the state is increasingly relying on firefighters like Mr. Gerboth. Under state mutual-aid agreements, he and thousands of other local firefighters are organized into teams that can be quickly dispatched to fight a fire in a neighboring county --...

Legislation: Still believe in post-racial politics? Read the health care bill. It's affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color. President Obama is on the record as being officially opposed to reparations for slavery. But as with other issues, you have to sift through his eloquent rhetoric and go beyond the teleprompter to get at what he really means.

Here is video of a Long Beach, California firefighter rescuing a window washer who was dangling by a rope near the top of a 14-story building. The window washer's scaffolding appears to have broken free leaving the man hanging by the ropes or cords he was tied off from. The job that firefighters, police, and other resuce workers do is truly amazing! . . . . . (Watch Video)

Legislation: Still believe in post-racial politics? Read the health care bill. It's affirmative action on steroids, deciding everything from who becomes a doctor to who gets treatment on the basis of skin color.President Obama is on the record as being officially opposed to reparations for slavery. But as with other issues, you have to sift through his eloquent rhetoric and go beyond the teleprompter to get at what he really means. His opposition to reparations is based on the fact they don't go far enough. In a 2004 questionnaire, he told the NAACP, "I fear that reparations would be an...

Lindsey Graham is going to feel awful lonely on the Republican side of the Judiciary Committee dais during next week's Sonia Sotomayor confirmation vote. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who admitted he was very conflicted over his vote, has just declared that he will oppose Sotomayor's confirmation. None of these Republican "no" votes will make a difference, as Sotomayor still may get upwards of 70 votes for confirmation before the full Senate. Hatch just issued a long statement, but here's the key passage: "After thoroughly reviewing Judge Sotomayor’s record and being able to hear her testimony and responses during the hearing...

Here is dramatic video from Milwaukee showing two off-duty firefighter brothers leading the way in rescuing a family from their overturned and burning SUV. A mother and one child were first pulled from the burning vehicle, but a four year old was still inside and eventually pulled out alive by the firefighters. The four-year-old was badly burned, and is listed in critical condition this morning. The video captures the whole scence and is dramatic as well as graphic. An interview with the two firefighter brothers is on the video after the footage of the rescue. Both firefighters had their hands...

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWSJuly 16, 2009 – 5:42 p.m. Firefighters to Senatos: ‘We Were Devastated’ By Seth Stern, CQ Staff Two firefighters whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sonia Sotomayor criticized her handling of the sensitive case on Thursday.“Americans have the right to go into our federal courts and have their cases judged based on the Constitution and our laws, not on politics and personal feelings,” said Frank Ricci, the lead plaintiff in the case, Ricci v. DeStefano, at Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Ricci was joined at the Senate Judiciary Committee witness table by Ben Vargas, both whom...

Here is video of New Haven, Connecticut firefighter Frank Ricci, of the Ricci Supreme Court Case, beginning his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor ruled against Ricci in a lower court decision that was recently overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. . . . . . (Watch Video)

No doubt the liberal Journo List of bloggers, reporters, and columnists thought this up. It's just their speed - smearing a private citizen who gets in the way of their agenda. In this case, the victim is firefighter Frank Ricci from New Haven, CT who sued after he was denied promotion when test results were thrown out because no minority fire fighter passed. This case was going to be a prime topic of testimony during the upcoming Sotomayor confirmation hearings and the liberals want to make sure that Ricci can't damage the far left judge's chances.

People for the American Way, the left-wing smear machine, is (In the words of McClatchy press service) quietly targeting Frank Ricci, the Connecticut firefighter whose successful lawsuit for racial discrimination has proven to be so inconvenient for Judge Sotomayor. Specifically, People for the American Way, along with other such drive-by hit artists, is urging reporters to scrutinize Ricci's allegedly "troubled and litigious work history." So far, the lefty blogosphere, at least, has taken up the call. Ricci is on the list of witnesses Republican Senators will call at Sotomayor's confirmation hearing. But does this make his "litigious work history" an...

The Supreme Court tweaked the edges of discrimination law in its New Haven firefighters decision last week, but otherwise left the evasions and euphemisms of that hoary edifice largely intact. This is probably as it should be. It is not for the Court to deconstruct our official legal discourse about race unless it is explicitly asked to do so. But the political branches need not be so constrained. Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s upcoming confirmation hearings are the perfect occasion to question the assumptions that underlie the race industry, since Sotomayor, with her history of launching racism accusations, has been, and promises...

In its editorial marking the 233rd year since the founding of our nation, The Washington Post notes; “The men who produced the Constitution were preoccupied with the abuse of power. They talked in terms of restraint, division of powers, limits on government. They were ever mindful of the ways in which a majority could impose its will on a minority.” But as Ricci v. DeStefano demonstrates, sometimes the abuse of power occurs when the government seeks to impose its will on a majority.

NEW HAVEN — The two dozen firefighters who packed into Humphrey’s East Restaurant were celebrating a coming marriage, drinking and jawboning in the boisterous style of large men with risky jobs, but Lt. Ben Vargas spent the evening trying to escape the tension surrounding his presence. During a trip to the bathroom, he found himself facing another man. Without warning, the first punch landed. When Lieutenant Vargas awoke, bloodied and splayed on the grimy floor, he was taken to the hospital. Lieutenant Vargas believes the attack, five years ago, was orchestrated by a black firefighter in retaliation for his having...

On Monday’s Newsroom program, CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin couldn’t find a consistent argument about the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of New Haven firefighters who accused their city of reverse discrimination. Toobin first reported that Justice Kennedy, “the swing vote in this case, as in so many others,” wrote the decision, but minutes later, he labeled it as a ruling by “the five conservatives on the Court.”

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge. New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities. The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which...

The United States Supreme Court Has Overturned Sotomayor Once Again In Ricci V. Destefano SOTOMAYOR HAS NOW HAD SEVEN OF HER DECISIONS GO BEFORE THE HIGH COURT, AND THE COURT AGREED WITH HER REASONING ONLY ONCE   Ricci v. Destefano 530 F.3d 87 (2008) - Reversed 5-4Riverkeeper, Inc. v. EPA, 475 F.3d 83 (2007) -- Reversed 6-3 (Dissenting: Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg) Knight v. Commissioner, 467 F.3d 149 (2006) -- Upheld, But Reasoning Was Unanimously Faulted Dabit v. Merrill Lynch, 395 F.3d 25 (2005) -- Reversed 8-0 Empire Healthchoice Assurance, Inc. v. Mcveigh, 396 F.3d 136 (2005) - Upheld 5-4 (Dissenting: Breyer,...

COURT OVERTURNS SOTOMAYOR; SIDES WITH WHITE FIREFIGHTERS

WASHINGTON – A closely watched discrimination lawsuit by white firefighters who say they have unfairly been denied promotions is one of three remaining Supreme Court cases awaiting resolution Monday.The court also will say goodbye to Justice David Souter who has announced he will retire "when the court rises for the summer recess." The court intends to finish its work for the summer that day, Chief Justice John Roberts said. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to take Souter's place, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that officials in New Haven, Conn., acted properly in throwing out firefighters' promotions exams because...

A few months ago, David Frum wrote a cover article for the leftist magazine Newsweek smearing the most prominent conservative in America, Rush Limbaugh, as some kind of sinister McCarthyite hater who should "shut up." The message was that conservatives should shut up and surrender to liberalism. Now Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor of National Review, has followed in Frum's footsteps, writing an op-ed for the leftist New York Times in which he attacks conservatives as hypocrites for supporting the plaintiffs in the Ricci anti-white discrimination case. Here's his reasoning: Mr. Ricci probably deserved his promotion and had a right...

A convicted arsonist was sentenced to death Friday for setting a Southern California wildfire that killed five federal firefighters struggling to defend a rural home from raging, wind-driven flames.

A bilingual, bicultural advisor with the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade instructs members of the Basrah International Airport fire department during a Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation class as part of a four week refresher training hosted by the Baghdad International Airport fire department. Photo by Staff Sgt. Luke Koladish, 114th Public Affairs Detachment. BASRAH — Fifteen members of the Basrah International Airport fire department conducted Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation training last week at the Baghdad International Airport in an effort to have the two airports certified by the International Civil Aviation Organization. "The ICAO requires the departments have certain standards; response times, the quality of...

KIRKUK — Ten Iraqi firefighters assigned to this city's unexploded ordnance (UXO) facility received certificates of appreciation for their "outstanding support" to the 506th Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Flight and Weapons Intelligence Team 11 mission, and words of honor from the U.S. base commander, at a ceremony here Sunday. Coalition forces EOD technicians are training Iraqi firefighters charged with the responsibility of identifying and handling UXOs on what to look for, how to handle what they find, reporting procedures, and when to just call for help. "We're recognizing them for the job that they do," said Capt. Jennifer Davenport, 506th...

"First Latina Picked for Supreme Court; GOP Faces Delicate Task in Opposition," blared the four-column headline on the front page of the May 27 Washington Post. Leave aside the Post's odd failure to put in the headline the name of the person nominated--itself a nice example of the de-individualizing effect of identity politics. Consider instead the even odder decision to highlight neither the nominee's potential influence on the Court, nor the president who picked her, but the "delicate task" faced by an opposition party powerless to block her. It was a theme the White House and much of the media...

... It is the 134-word summary order in Ricci v. DeStefano, which upheld the decision of New Haven, Conn., to throw out the promotion test it had given city firefighters when no African Americans and two Hispanics qualified for advancement. The case is under review by the Supreme Court that Sotomayor would join. If the decision is reversed -- which, from the tone of oral arguments in April, seems a distinct possibility -- the high court's ruling will probably come at the end of June, just as the Senate and the nation begin to consider Sotomayor's qualifications. The White House,...

With a single paragraph, Judge Sonia Sotomayor and two colleagues dashed the hopes of firefighters here who believed they'd scored high enough on exams to win a promotion. The three federal appeals judges said last year the city had the right to reject the results of two tests because no black firefighters scored high enough. The ruling is now turning into perhaps the most contentious of the 4,000 Judge Sotomayor made in 17 years on the federal bench, and it is likely to come up in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The justices whom she may soon join on the...

WASHINGTON -- Sonia Sotomayor has a classic American story. So does Frank Ricci. Ricci is a New Haven firefighter stationed seven blocks from where Sotomayor went to law school (Yale). Raised in blue-collar Wallingford, Conn., Ricci struggled as a C and D student in public schools ill-prepared to address his serious learning disabilities. Nonetheless he persevered, becoming a junior firefighter and Connecticut's youngest certified EMT. After studying fire science at a community college, he became a New Haven "truckie," the guy who puts up ladders and breaks holes in burning buildings. When his department announced exams for promotions, he spent...

The New Haven firefighter case is one of the most controversial rulings in Sotomayor's record, and one that will no doubt be a prime source of criticism from conservatives. The case, Ricci vs. DeStefano, was brought by Frank Ricci and a group of his firefighting colleagues (all non-black including one Hispanic man). The men were denied promotion after an examination to determine their eligibility to move up yielded no successful black candidates. As a result, the New Haven authority decided to discard the exam results and grant no promotions. Ricci and his colleagues argued they'd been discriminated against, but their...

Two Houston firefighters died early Easter morning trying to save an elderly couple from their blazing home. Capt. James Harlow, 50, and rookie firefighter Damion Hobbs, 30, didn’t know the homeowners had already escaped. The couple, both in their 80s, were safely down the street by the time firefighters arrived. The fallen firefighters never made it out of the sprawling one-story, 4,170-square-foot home on Oak Vista. They missed roll call after the rest of their colleagues from Fire Station 26 in southeast Houston were ordered out of the blazing home. “Unfortunately, there are inherent dangers in our profession,” said Jeff...

NEW HAVEN — Frank Ricci has been a firefighter here for 11 years, and he would do just about anything to advance to lieutenant. The last time the city offered a promotional exam, he said in a sworn statement, he gave up a second job and studied up to 13 hours a day. Mr. Ricci, who is dyslexic, paid an acquaintance more than $1,000 to read textbooks onto audiotapes. He made flashcards, took practice tests, worked with a study group and participated in mock interviews. Mr. Ricci did well, he said, coming in sixth among the 77 candidates who took...

Frank Ricci -- a firefighter in New Haven, Conn. -- spent months listening to study tapes as he drove to work and in the evenings, preparing for a promotional test. It was a once-a-decade chance to move up to a command rank in the fire department. Ricci earned a top score but no promotion. The city had coded the test takers by race, and of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white and one was Latino. Since there were only 15 vacancies, it looked as though no blacks would be promoted. After a racially charged debate that stretched over four...

Pop into the firestation and the chances are there'd be a group of reassuringly burly men in there waiting for the call out, with uniforms and firefighting suits tailored for their use alone. The one or two women among them would have to make do with ill-fitting adaptations of the men's outfits while the handful of Muslim women in the service would be wearing their own head scarfs. But, with the fire service anxious to attract recruits of all sexes and backgrounds, it was decided that something had to be done. So yesterday the results were uneveiled, including full-length skirts,...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-Vice-President-Biden-at-the-21st-Annual-National-Fire-and-Emergency-Services-Dinner/ THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Vice President ___________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release April 2, 2009 REMARKS BY THE VICE PRESIDENT AT THE 21ST ANNUAL NATIONAL FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES DINNER Hilton Washington Washington, DC 7:12 P.M. EDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you. (Applause.) It's an honor to be back with you. (Applause.) It's a genuine honor to be back with you. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, please -- please sit down. I'm not used to these standing ovations, I'm a Vice President. (Laughter.) Anyone from Delaware in the...