Week of Aug. 13, 2026

From the editor’s desk

We’re finally getting some encouraging news about the wildfires raging north of Reno.

“Firefighters made significant progress yesterday on improving containment potential, particularly along the southern flank of the fire,” said this morning’s Southwest Area Incident Management Team daily update regarding the Bug Fire and the Stallion Fire. “With an increase in firefighter support and management resources, crews were able to adapt yesterday as disruptive weather moved in and rapidly changed conditions on the ground. Firefighters also responded to several small new lightning fire starts in the area and were able to successfully extinguish them.”

I hope with all my heart that the rain from today’s storm helps the firefighters—and that the lightning from this storm does not start any other serious blazes.

At some point in the coming days or weeks, Gov. Joe Lombardo may follow up on his Nevada state of emergency declaration with a request for a federal emergency declaration, which has to be approved by the president of the United States. Because Lombardo is a Republican, and because President Trump won Nevada in 2024, that request is more likely to be OK’d than a similar request from a “blue” state.

The Associated Press reported last month (via PBS News):

During his second term, Trump has denied a greater percentage of disaster requests than any president dating to 1989. Those denials have not been evenly distributed among states.

Trump has approved 80% of the disaster requests from Republican governors but only about 60% from Democratic governors, according to the AP’s analysis of FEMA data.

The discrepancy is even more apparent when analyzing major disaster declarations based on presidential elections. Trump has approved more than three-fourths of the requests from states that voted for him in the 2024 election but less than half the requests from states that did not. Although there are federal criteria for disaster aid, decisions ultimately are at the president’s discretion.

A batch of denials earlier this month included four Democratic states—Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island—seeking federal aid for a February snowstorm.

Regarding those snowstorm relief-aid denials, Politico reported on July 29:

President Donald Trump overruled his own agencies when he denied disaster aid for four Democratic-led states this month.

Emails between state and federal officials obtained by POLITICO along with more than 150 pages of documents submitted to FEMA by three states—New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island—provide new details about Trump’s low rate of approving disaster aid for his political adversaries. He also denied a request by New York after administration officials verified that it had met federal standards for approval, according to state officials.

Trump’s rejections came after regional offices of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and NOAA determined that the states met government thresholds for receiving aid following a record-breaking snowstorm in February. …

The emails and documents, which haven’t previously been reported, shed new light on Trump’s decisions to reject an overwhelming number of requests for disaster aid from Democratic-led states, even as he has approved nearly 90 percent of requests from states that are governed by members of his own party. The revelations also offer a fuller picture of Trump’s tenure over the most partisan distribution of FEMA aid since the agency was created in 1979.

Trump’s recent rejections involving snow diverge from the actions of other presidents, including Trump in his first term, who routinely approved similar requests from governors of opposing parties.

Federal declaration requests didn’t used to work this way—and they shouldn’t work this way.

In any major disaster—be it a wildfire, a severe storm, an earthquake or something else—the people who need help span party lines and political beliefs. Registered Democrats are harmed by disasters in “red” states, just as registered Republicans are harmed by disasters in “blue” states.

Even in cases when some sort of federal is approved, the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the second Trump administration is taking longer than ever to actually provide that aid. Here’s the lede to an April NPR piece:

Placerville, Calif., bears all the markers of a community at risk of a wildfire. The city’s rolling hillsides are dense with brush, which dries out during the hot summers. Older homes made of wood, which are more prone to igniting, are dotted throughout.

“It’s a perfect storm for devastation,” says Tanya Harlow, wildfire resilience officer for El Dorado County, where Placerville is located.

Local officials are trying to do something about it. The community is one of a handful piloting a program to help houses survive wildfires. Residents can get financial support to add fire-resistant building materials and to clear flammable brush around their homes. The program is largely funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

For three years, the county staff has been preparing to enroll more than 500 homes. But under the Trump administration, the project has been stalled for more than a year. The county needs FEMA to approve the project plan, but the agency hasn’t responded.

Placerville is one of hundreds of communities around the country waiting on a growing backlog at FEMA. States say that under the Trump administration, disaster funding payments have slowed to a trickle, delaying crucial projects that could help communities withstand wildfires, hurricanes and floods.

In all, FEMA owes communities almost $10 billion, according to internal agency documents obtained by NPR. Much of that funding would reimburse local governments for what they’ve already spent repairing infrastructure after major disasters.

By the way, Placerville is in El Dorado County, where Trump received 54.6 percent of the vote in 2024, compared to Kamala Harris’ 42.6 percent.

For updates on the Bug and Stallion fires, watch inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/nvccd-bug-stallion-fire and www.facebook.com/BugFredStallionFires2026. I also recommend downloading the WatchDuty app for updates on all area wildfires.

Cheers,

—Jimmy Boegle, publisher/executive editor