Signs of the Times

Thousands Flee as Fierce Winds fan California Wildfires

YORBA LINDA, California — Walls of towering flames pushed by dry winds raged through Southern California hills early Sunday after destroying hundreds of homes and forcing thousands of residents to flee. Evacuees could only watch the wildfires from a distance and wait to learn the fate of their homes and possessions. Fires burned in Los Angeles County, to the east in Riverside and Orange counties, and to the northwest in Santa Barbara County, blackening a total of 26 square miles and burning more than 800 mobile homes, houses and apartments since Thursday night. The most threatening blaze early Sunday had scorched more than 9 square miles in Orange and Riverside counties after erupting Saturday and shooting through neighborhoods entwined with wilderness parklands. Containment was just 5%. Six firefighters from various agencies were injured in the blaze. A separate fire in the Orange County city of Brea destroyed the main building of a high school. Firefighters continued to make gains early Monday as ferocious Santa Ana winds finally abated.

The largest fire grew to more than 15 square miles in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley after destroying 500 mobile homes, nine single-family homes and 11 commercial buildings early Saturday. Containment was put at 20%. No deaths were reported at the park, but police Chief William Bratton said dogs would be brought in to search the rubble on Sunday to determine whether anyone perished. Northwest of Los Angeles, authorities raised the number of homes lost in a fire that began in the Santa Barbara County community of Montecito on Thursday night to 183 and said the final total could top 200. At least 13 people were injured in that fire. Early Saturday, the fire surrounded Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and caused an electricity outage, forcing officials to evacuate some 200 patients. The hospital's power and backup generators also failed, and emergency room staff had to keep critical patients alive with hand powered ventilators. A few babies were rushed out in ambulances to another hospital.

About 80 miles to the west, a blaze in the Santa Barbara community of Montecito had forced the evacuation of more than 5,400 homes since it started Thursday night. About 800 firefighters were battling the fire at the wealthy, celebrity-studded enclave. Several multimillion-dollar homes and a small Christian college received major damage from the blaze in Montecito The fire started Thursday evening and turned into an exploding inferno fueled by blistering winds, dry brush and vast stands of oil-rich eucalyptus trees. Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum said up to 200 homes may have been destroyed or damaged in his city.

ANAHEIM — As one of Southern California's major thoroughfares, it carries several names — the Riverside, Artesia or simply the 91. But this weekend, it might as well be called the Freeway of Flames On a 10 miles section through a narrow canyon, flames shot from both sides on the freeway. At one point, even the median was ablaze. And smoke was so dense during much of the corridor as to make it almost impassible at times. As the Los Angeles reeled from four major wildfires burning out of control, the region faced an almost unprecedented challenge of different sort: widespread freeway closures encircling the metropolis threatened to seal off the region to interstate —or even in-state — travel. The Orange Freeway also was shut and the critical Interstate 5 and San Diego Freeway, major routes to San Francisco, were also shut down at various times.

• JJ Commentary: In earlier “Signs of the Times” it was prophesied that California would bear the brunt of judgment as the nation’s most corrupt and immoral state. Now we see it coming to pass.

Iraq Approves Security Pact with U.S.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year, the government said. The agreement will be submitted to parliament later Sunday, but did not say when the 275-member legislature will vote on the document. The decision followed months of difficult negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, will remove a major point of contention between the two allies. The final draft of the agreement is designed to meet Iraqi concerns over its sovereignty and its security needs as it continues to grapple with a diminished but persistent insurgency. It provides for the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 and gives Iraq the right to try U.S. soldiers and defense contractors in the case of serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base. It also prohibits the U.S. from using Iraqi territory to attack Iraq's neighbors, like Syria and Iran. Neighboring Iran has bitterly opposed the pact on grounds that it enshrines the U.S. military presence in Iraq and threatens its security and regional influence.

Gay-Marriage Supporters Rally over California Ban

SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of supporters of gay marriage – including gay, straight and many families with children – gathered in dozens of cities across the country, braving heat in the West and rain in the East to demonstrate against new laws that ban gay marriage, especially Proposition 8 in California. They listened to speeches, chanted and shouted. But they were also peaceful; there was no counter demonstration. The protests were organized over email, social networking sites such as Facebook and through blogs and websites. Since Proposition 8 passed 52.2% to 47.8%, opponents have filed three separate lawsuits in California State Supreme Court, speaking out in favor of gay marriage and against those who supported gay marriage bans. Close to 2,000 people gathered in Phoenix to protest the recently adopted Prop. 102, a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in Arizona. Nearly 1,000 people demonstrated in downtown Tucson on Friday night.

• JJ Commentary: While the votes in California, Arizona and Florida were encouraging for opponents of gay marriage, these were really last gasp victories. The slide of the USA into ungodliness is accelerating and the end-time “lawlessness” prophesied in the Bible is well underway.

PepsiCo Gives $500,000 to Promote the Gay Agenda in Workplace

AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION — Pepsi has given Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) a half-million dollars to help push the homosexual agenda in the workplace. PFLAG is a political advocacy group that promotes radical homosexual political causes like same-sex marriage, hate-crime laws, and gay adoption. Pepsi has a long tradition of financial support for homosexual groups. According to Jacqueline Millan, director of PepsiCo Corporate Contributions, "We are delighted to continue our partnership with PFLAG...(in) promoting the necessary message of inclusion to untapped groups...and that is a crucial step toward building a healthy working environment." AFA wrote Pepsi on October 14 and again on October 29 asking the company to remain neutral in the culture war. Pepsi didn't care enough to respond to the AFA letters. Pepsi's lack of response indicates the company plans to continue support for the homosexual agenda.

Opponents Brace for End of Stem Cell Ban

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama could reignite an emotional national debate over the promise and the perils of medical research using cells taken from human embryos. Like previous presidents, Obama is expected to issue a flurry of executive orders after he takes office Jan. 20. Some could reverse Bush administration policies; others could promote his own. Ending a ban on government funding for research using embryonic stem cells would be among the most controversial. Samuel Casey of Advocates International, a Christian law firm that opposes abortion rights, says a change in the Bush policy "would give a green light to the kind of eugenic human experiments that people think of when they talk about cloning." Scientists say cells taken from human embryos offer the most promise of being used to develop therapies for Parkinson's, diabetes and other diseases. Some scientists have found cells taken from adults also have lifesaving potential.

• JJ Commentary: What scientists hush up and the media doesn’t talk about is that adult stem cells have actually shown the most promise and eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells.

World Leaders Agree on New Regulations to Strengthen Global Markets

WASHINGTON — Amid the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression, international leaders agreed Saturday to develop new regulations to strengthen global markets. The leaders directed their finance ministers to draft specifics by March 31. Those recommendations will be discussed at a second summit by April 30 to include the next U.S. president, Barack Obama. Among the proposals that need to be fleshed out: a way to give more countries a say in the operations of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Both institutions were created after the last financial summit of this type, the 1944 conference at Bretton Woods, N.H. In a joint declaration after Saturday's sessions, the participants agreed in principle to an early warning system advocated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others that would detect red flags such as the mortgage problems that contributed to the U.S. financial woes. The leaders also directed their finance ministers to develop global accounting standards, especially for complex securities, and ways to review executive compensation. President Bush praised the talks as a successful beginning, in part because world leaders reaffirmed their support for "pro-growth" capitalist policies and free trade.

• JJ Commentary: Despite President Bush’s praise, this summit only serves to emphasize the inexorable march toward the end-time one-world government prophesied in Revelation 13.

Credit Crisis Sends Economic Forecasters' Views Downhill Fast

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — Forecasters' views of the economy are deteriorating rapidly, with economists now expecting job losses to be deeper and last longer and consumers to cut back spending at a far more rapid pace than earlier thought. The U.S. economy is contracting at a 2.6% annual rate in the last three months of the year and will fall at a 1.3% pace in the January-March quarter, according to a survey of 50 members of the National Association for Business Economics taken Oct. 28-Nov. 7 and released Monday. That is a big change from the survey conducted in mid-September, when the economists said the economy would grow, albeit at a slow pace, during the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009. The economy contracted at a 0.3% pace in the July-September period.

• JJ Commentary: Economists have been behind the curve all the way down this slippery slope. This crisis is beyond their forecasting models capabilities because there is no precedent and therefore no prior data to analyze. Conditions are sufficiently different than the Great Depression to render direct comparisons invalid.

FDIC Proposes to Modify 2.2M Mortgages to Fight Foreclosures

WASHINGTON — Publicly breaking with the Bush administration's official stance, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed Friday to use $24 billion in government financing to modify 2.2 million mortgage loans and help a projected 1.5 million American households avoid foreclosure. The FDIC posted the plan on its website two days after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson rejected the idea of using money from the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry to pay for such a proposal.

Post Office $2.8 Billion in the Red

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service ended its fiscal year $2.8 billion in the red, battered by a faltering economy that cut the amount of mail being sent. Postmaster General John Potter said the agency is making sharp cuts in hours and overtime, but added there are no plans for layoffs. The mail being sent dropped by 9.5 billion items. By cutting back on spending the post office had a net operating income of $2.7 billion in 2008, but still ended up in the red because of the requirement for a $5.6 billion payment to a health benefit fund for retirees. Even so, the $2.8 billion loss was well short of last year's $5.1 billion postal deficit.

More Business Declines/Layoffs/etc.

BOSTON (AP) — Fidelity Investments will eliminate 1,700 jobs early next year in a second round of cuts at the nation's largest mutual fund company, which has seen its money management fees decline along with the markets. Combined with 1,300 cuts that Fidelity announced last week, the second round disclosed Friday will eliminate about 7% of the company's workforce of about 44,400.

NEW YORK — Citigroup said Monday that it plans to cut about 50,000 jobs as souring economies and global credit conditions cause the U.S. bank with the farthest reach worldwide to retrench. The cuts are expected in the near-term and are on top of roughly 23,000 jobs eliminated by the second-largest U.S. bank between January and September. This would leave Citigroup with about 300,000 jobs worldwide, down 20% from the end of 2007.

DETROIT FREE PRESS — As Detroit's crumbling auto industry asks Congress for a bailout, Chrysler is in the awkward position of paying about $30 million in retention bonuses to keep top executives while the company cuts thousands of jobs. Chrysler owes the bonuses under its contracts with about 50 executives, based on a retention incentive plan crafted early last year by former German parent DaimlerChrysler, when it was preparing to sell the Chrysler unit. Retention bonus plans are fairly common in volatile times and at troubled companies that are straining to attract and retain top talent.

NEW YORK TIMES — The technology industry, which resisted the economy’s growing weakness over the last year as customers kept buying laptops and iPhones, has finally succumbed to the slowdown. In the span of just a few weeks, orders for both business and consumer tech products have collapsed, and technology companies have begun laying off workers. The plunge is so severe that some executives are comparing it with the dot-com bust in 2000, when hundreds of companies disappeared and Silicon Valley lost nearly a fifth of its jobs. Tech companies directly account for about 4 percent of the nation’s employment. But the industry’s importance to the world economy is larger than its size might suggest. Technology has fueled many of the productivity gains of the last two decades. And about half of the capital spending by corporations goes toward technology products.

USA TODAY — The long knives are coming out in the mutual fund industry. Faced with a soul-searing bear market and record outflows, funds are starting to lay off workers. And, although few have been sent packing lately, many mutual fund managers will be scanning the want ads soon, too. The Dow Jones industrial average has plunged 36% this year, and staggering losses have sent investors fleeing from mutual funds. Funds make their money by charging a percentage of assets, so the less money they manage, the less the management company earns. Already, some fund companies are announcing layoffs.

15-Nation Euro-Zone and Japan in Recession

BRUSSELS — The 15 countries that use the euro are in a recession, the European Union said Friday, as their combined economies shrank for a second straight quarter because of the world financial crisis and sinking demand. The euro zone shrank 0.2% in both the third and second quarters from the quarter before, further stoking expectations the European Central Bank will cut interest rates to limit the economic damage. Two successive quarters of economic contraction is one shorthand definition of a recession. The spending slowdown and tight credit conditions have industry hurting across the continent. The worry is that the sharp reining in of personal spending will push unemployment much higher in months to come. So far, euro-zone economies — with 16% of world output and 319 million people — have not seen unemployment surge, though the EU executive Commission estimates it will rise steadily.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan fell into a recession in the third quarter for the first time since 2001, as the impact of the global slowdown took its toll on the world's No. 2 economy. Japan's gross domestic product, or the total value of the nation's goods and services, dropped at an annual pace of 0.4% in the July-Septebmer period as companies sharply curtailed spending, the government said Monday. But the worst may be yet to come, economists say, especially with dramatic falls in demand overseas for trademark Japanese products like cars and gadgets. As a result, major exporters including Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have slashed their profit forecasts and sales projections for the full year.

Transition a Tangle of Ties to Lobbying

NEW YORK TIMES — President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers. Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.

Pakistan: $7.6 billion IMF loan OK'd

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan has agreed to borrow $7.6 billion from the International Monetary Fund to avoid adding an economic crisis to its struggle against Islamic militants, an official said Saturday. Finance chief Shaukat Tareen said the IMF had agreed "in principle" to the bailout after vetting government plans to tackle Pakistan's yawning budget and trade deficits. The loan will top up Pakistan's foreign currency reserves, whose rapid rundown had raised the prospect of a run on the rupee and a default on the country's international debt. That risk has already eroded confidence in Pakistan's government and economy, deterring badly needed foreign investment at a time of slowing economic growth and runaway inflation.

Palestinian Rockets fly Deep into Israel

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel on Monday, causing no injuries but casting a shadow over a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, unleashing their most powerful weapons yet in a week of tit-for-tat fighting that threatens to destroy a five-month-old cease-fire. Both Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers held out hope the calm would be restored, and Israeli leaders late Friday decided against any immediate major military action. But the sides also vowed to strike hard at each other if violence persisted. The cease-fire has mostly held, but began to deteriorate last week after an Israeli military raid on what the army said was a tunnel that militants planned to use for a cross-border raid. Eleven militants have been killed, and some 140 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza at Israel. Israel also has shut Gaza's vital border crossings, blocking the entrance of food, humanitarian goods and fuel into the impoverished area. Gazans seeking food aid walked away empty-handed from locked United Nations distribution centers Saturday after a strict Israeli border closure depleted U.N. food reserves.

Fighting in Congo Goes on Despite Rebel Promises to U.N.

RWINDI, Congo (AP) — Congo's army clashed with rebels in some of the worst fighting in a week despite the rebel leader's promise to support a cease-fire, the United Nations and witnesses said Monday. The two sides battled Sunday night in Rwindi, about 75 miles north of the eastern provincial capital of Goma. About 150 people took refuge outside a U.N. peacekeeping base. Heavy fighting also broke out Sunday in Ndeko, about 55 miles north of Goma. The Central African nation has the world's largest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with some 17,000 troops, but the peacekeepers have been unable to either stop the fighting or protect civilians caught in the way.

Powerful Indonesia Quake Kills 4, Crumples Homes

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful earthquake jolted eastern Indonesia early Monday, killing at least four people, damaging hundreds of homes and briefly triggering a region-wide tsunami warning, officials said as they surveyed the damage. The 7.5-magnitude quake struck off the coast of SulawesiGorantalo and was centered 16 miles beneath the sea. Two strong aftershocks followed, one measuring 5.5 and the other 5.1. island in the middle of the night, sending thousands fleeing homes, hotels and even hospitals. The U.S. Geological Survey said the temblor hit 85 miles from the nearest city of

Violent Storms in East Australia

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A series of violent storms tore across Australia's east coast, sweeping one man down a storm drain to his death, blowing roofs off houses and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of buildings. Sunday's storms dumped golf ball-sized hail and torrential rains, causing flash flooding and knocking out power to more than 230,000 homes and businesses along a 112-mile stretch of southeast Queensland state coastline. More than 58,000 customers still had no electricity Monday, energy supplier Energex said.