News & Current Events

The Hawk Fire ignited northwest of Reno on August 22 and reached 10,523 acres by that evening with 0% containment, prompting Gov. Joe Lombardo to declare a state of emergency in Washoe County. Mandatory evacuation orders affected approximately 1,000 homes in the Somersett area and along U.S. 395, with the Reno-Sparks Convention Center opened as an overflow shelter after the primary site filled. Officials confirmed structure losses but had not released a count of destroyed buildings, and key figures including final acreage, containment progress, and casualty totals remained unconfirmed as of August 23.

The French Bar Creek wildfire west of Clinton, British Columbia, expanded by more than 4,600 hectares in a single day to reach 59,507.6 hectares as of August 23, 2026, and remains out of control. The Thompson-Nicola Regional District added two Watson Bar Road properties to its evacuation order on August 22, bringing the total under mandatory evacuation to approximately 12 properties. The fire is part of the broader Big Bar complex, which also includes the larger Pear Lake wildfire at 164,740 hectares; British Columbia's provincial state of emergency, declared August 8, has been extended through August 29.

Donald Ray McCray, 67, was convicted by a Dallas federal jury on April 15, 2026, after roughly one hour of deliberation, on three counts of mailing threatening communications to federal judges and one count of sending a hoax biological weapon to the Fort Worth federal courthouse. McCray sent the white-powder letters from a Texas state prison in March 2025, triggering a HAZMAT response at the Fort Worth location. He faces up to 35 years in combined statutory maximum sentences, with sentencing scheduled before Judge Brantley Starr on August 19, 2026.