China's declining trade numbers have been exacerbated by a trade war with the u.s. But more from structural problems with its own economy that's N.P.R.'s Emily Fang reporting funerals for some of the 9 Americans gunned down in Mexico continue today yesterday armed escorts accompany hundreds of mourners as 3 of the victims were laid to rest in northern Mexico a cartel ambush is blamed for Monday's attack that left 3 women and 6 children dead President Trump said the u.s. Stands ready to help Mexico quote wage war on the drug cartels you're listening to n.p.r. News. For the 1st time health officials are confirming the could cases originated in Europe and P.R.'s Ping-Pong reports several people were infected this summer in the south of France 3 cases as the give Iris were found in the seaside city of yeah on the French Riviera the European c.d.c. Says the infections are the 1st time seek a virus has been caught from mosquitoes in Europe they give Iris is especially dangerous for people who are pregnant it's known to cause birth defects like small heads and babies Jimmy Whitworth who teaches at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says the risk has passed for now it's now November it's getting cold. They're going to be dying off I'd be surprised if there was any more transmission that you could this year he says experts don't know how the mosquitoes got the virus so they don't know if the girl will be back next year but the mosquitoes that carry them are probably there to stay pain long n.p.r. News Secretary of State Mike Pompei Oh it's in Germany marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall speaking today in Berlin he said it's important for Democratic allies to work together and he defended Trump administration policies that have been wedge issues with allies including tariffs and NATO spending the island nation of Cyprus is revoking so-called golden passports from dozens of wealthy foreign investors saying mistakes may have been made under the program Cyprus grants citizenship to those who've invested more than $2000000.00 in the country but the e.u. Has expressed concern saying you could open the door for outside criminals to set up shop within the block I mean he held in Washington and you're listening to n.p.r. News support for n.p.r. Comes from new a personalized weight loss program based on a cognitive behavioral approach with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at Milman and 000 m. Dot com and listeners like you who donated this is n.p.r. Station. Or the to the to the Emu the into the into. The into the in. The into the in the. From n.p.r. And w.b. You are I'm Peter O'Dowd I'm Jeremy Hobson It's here and now House Democrats continue the impeachment inquiry today they had ordered White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify but he was a no show as other Trump administration officials have been the public hearings in the inquiry start next Wednesday and Republicans would like the Ukraine whistleblower to be among those testifying the whistleblower was the one who back in August filed a complaint that they had information that President Trump was using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 presidential election many of the details in that complaint which was shared with Congress in September have been corroborated by other witnesses testifying under oath Joining us now is Representative Rob Woodall of Georgia he's a Republican who sits on the House Rules Committee Congressman thanks for joining us here ma'am happy to do it when your colleague a Republican Jim Jordan who's the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee says Republicans intend to subpoena the whistleblower to testify and you previously said the administration should absolutely follow the whistleblower process and you called on it to do exactly that are you concerned about protections for the whistleblower if he or she is subpoenaed Well I'm concerned about the long term impact the Puts of lower statutes and we do little while whistleblowers we count on folks who see things that don't seem quite right to report that up the chain of command and the chain of command wants to suppress it we need an opportunity to find out about it as both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill we have an obligation to do oversight on the administration it turns out it's fairly easy to do oversight on it to ministration of a different party it's doing oversight of the administration of your own party that the challenges of members on both sides of the aisle we all need to be better about that but it's a different case than what I have seen historically and again I do serve on the on the Rules Committee where. Process Committee Jim Jordan is serving on a on a substance Committee they're on on Judiciary but we don't usually see whistleblower complaints that are 2nd and 3rd hand information and so I do think there's a legitimate question in the name of protecting the whistleblower statute to be able to distinguish between those whistleblowers who are doing exactly what we have asked them to do their self interests aside and do something for the larger common good and those whistleblowers who are trying to hide under the whistleblower name but who may actually be spur suing a political partisan personal agendas are you putting exactly are you putting this whistleblower in that 2nd category putting Jim Jordan's concerns in that category this whistleblower is incredibly important there's no doubt about that but protecting whistleblowers next year or next decade I would argue from a process perspective on the Rules Committee even more important because we won't have access to information if we don't get this right so are you saying then that it's important in the interest of the long term aspect of the Whistleblower Protection Act and whistleblowers going forward that the identity of this whistleblower be kept secret No I'm saying that the whistleblower protection of the entire panoply of protections are not available for folks who are pursuing a personal or political agenda they are available for folks who are pursuing that higher common good that we discuss it is incumbent as we talk about whistleblower protections to decide which category a whistleblower falls into those committees of jurisdiction are burdened with that I want to ask you about process as you said you said on the Rules Committee you opposed the resolution that laid out the rules for the impeachment inquiry moving forward as did all of your Republican. Colleagues and many Republicans have argued that the proceedings are secretive and partisan but both Clinton and Nixon investigations have closed door phases do you believe that no part of an investigation into a President should be conducted behind closed doors no I don't believe that that is the conclusion of course there are times where you have to have a conversation behind closed doors I can tell you when you're dealing with the simplest of public policies and sometimes conversations and need to happen without the the spotlight being on that's not my concern my concern is those things that are unlike the investigation those things that are unlike the next investigation and that list is is very long it's not lost on me that the process moves forward in a bipartisan way we didn't see that kind of thoughtfulness go into a terrific 60 last week we did not see any consultation between the majority and the minority I I said on the committee of jurisdiction there I didn't even get wind of what the language would look like until 24 hours before the proceeding began and I certainly wasn't consulted in any way nor was the ranking member on the Rules Committee isn't that what happens when you're in the minority Generally you don't have the same rights as the party that's in the majority when you make exactly the correct point in the house if you're in the majority you can jam through anything that you want to jam through there's no need to oppress minority rights and what the rules committee did was reject the bipartisan processes of the Nixon inquiry reject the bipartisan process is of the Clinton inquiry and craft a brand new never before seen even the more partisan. Process finally Congressman I want to ask you and pointing out that you are not seeking reelection this year is there anything that you have seen in all the testimony that has come out so far about the president asking Ukraine to do him a favor and investigate a political opponent is there anything that you've seen so far that causes concern for you Jeremy out I've seen things from day one that caused concerns for me I'm an article one legislator my job is to be concerned about overreach at the executive branch level the response to concerns of the executive branch is not an impeachment inquiry at least it hasn't been historically perhaps that's where we're headed that impeachment inquiries will become the new norm elections are supposed to become the new norm and and 12 months from now we're going to have exactly that all the worth pointing out that the founders did set up this process so that you know Congress could step in when needed I am glad the house has this power I think it's important as a check and balance but this power is useless useless to the nation if it is exercised as a partisan election notification it has to be used in a bipartisan way for the 1st time ever the Democrats have said if we decide we don't like the way the president I hate We're going to shut him out of the process altogether. That is Congressman Rob Wood all Georgia Republican who sits on the House Rules Committee Congressman thanks for joining us there live thank you now to Africa where the continent is dealing with extreme weather conditions So Haron Africa is enduring its worst drought in decades 45000000 people are at risk of starvation and to the north there's far too much rain in Somalia hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by flooding the B.B.C.'s Bella Hassan joins us now from Mogadishu Bella welcome and tell us more how bad is it I'm saying to you for having me and to me 230-0000 people including approximately 160000 children in un region or somebody being forced to flee their home sits in the town but it's been a central Somalia situation could get wrong and experts have seen to morning that the truck becomes strong the young are expected to make landfall in Britain and some other land with a strong means winds and possible flash flooding and it's not just Somalia is that we see that hundreds of thousands of people had to flee their homes in South Sudan and thousands more in Kenya fleeing to higher ground what's happened to the people who were displaced by these floods were they living now so money the government is supporting the affected communities and Argent international cool to lose you sources to support displeased children and families if they are trying to take them to a plane which seems more than their homes and our mobile clinics are urgently needed too many chips the end is to be dismissed out of pique it's also to some of the flooding it's also appealed to court you need to know actions to address the current crisis in between and the so well being in a yes but increasingly source is so uncertain 1st effected communities and we see the. Unicef has said that people are in dire need of clean water food supplies you mentioned the outbreak of disease but what are the conditions that people are living in now the situation that the people are going through now is really very horrible situation the summit 2 conditions in between is really poor but it's no saline water and in addition of that people don't have shelter and also there is fear also gives even treated like malaria in what's in the forecast more rain to come yes the rainfall forecast for the coming weeks shows an increase in many parts of Somalia according to the fruit and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a result of the cut into Harlem River levels and flash flooding expected to continue into the coming week so let's have killed at least 25 people and injured go to 7 evidence as you see the winds continue in Somalia according to the World Health Organization but the B.B.C.'s Bella Hassan speaking with us from Mogadishu in Somalia Bella thanks so much thank you and you're listening to here and now. 30 years after the Berlin Wall came down some dividing lines persist in Germany influx of refugees from the Middle East has bolstered anti immigrant feelings I was in shock coffee shop once I just told me go back to a country that's why we check in with a Syrian refugee living in Germany this afternoon on All Things Considered from n.p.r. News. Today House committees released new transcripts of administration officials testimony in the impeachment inquiry they released hundreds of pages of testimony from Fiona Hill a former White House adviser and from Lieutenant Colonel Alexander from men an army officer assigned to the National Security Council and the c.d.c. Says it has made a breakthrough in discovering a likely cause of a being related long injuries federal health officials have identified vitamin e. Acetate in the lung fluids of 29 people in the outbreak the outbreak has made more than 2000 people sick and killed at least 39 people. Reporting record ridership in revenue figures for the fiscal year that ended September 30th and total operating revenue rose more than 3 percent of the smallest operating loss in its 49 year history you are listening to here now. Funding for here and now comes from the listeners of w.b. You are Boston and from indeed used by over 3000000 businesses for hiring where employers can post jobs and use greener questions to build their shortlist of preferred candidates learn more at Indy dot com slash higher this is here and now we're going to spend some time now with people who will be among the youngest voters in next year's election 3 high school seniors from Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City 17 year old Nathaniel black 17 year old Jamie King and 18 year old Jessica Jones welcome to all of you thank you it's great to be here you know it's such a great opportunity for sharing so there's an election in less than a year from now are all of you planning to vote I'll start with you Nathaniel Absolutely and Jamie Yes Jessica Absolutely and do you know who you want to vote for at this point Jessica I'm really thinking the people who judge is probably the candidate of looked at the most and Jamie what about you. I'm still on the fence about who to vote for I'm looking at toll c. Or Donald Trump Ok And what about you know the thing you know. Right now the people have narrowed it down to it's such a close call but right now I've been thinking of Julian Castro or Tulsi Gabbard Well interestingly 2 of you said Telson Gabbert So what is it that appeals to you about her one of my biggest key points is caring for the environment and I think that she does a very good job at promoting this idea that we all need to pitch in and help and really just be mindful of our carbon footprint and what about you Jamie I watched a few clips from the Democratic debate and she just really stood out to me as very civil and intelligent well so maybe yelling and screaming at her she will come back with an intelligent fact and also some things about foreign policy how she handled all that when you also mentioned that you might vote for President Trump What do you like about President sharp right now I like that he is really helping our economy he is a businessman and he has reconfigured many deals like the Canadian pipeline deal he made sure we were getting a better deal out of that and what about you Jessica what what what appeals to you about people to judge. Well actually I'm really interested in his ideas about required military service I listen to him talk about how he thinks that that would impact the greater social issue rather than merely the symptoms of what's going on right now as for like the divisiveness of our society and I think that's a really interesting progressive idea do you guys talk a lot about politics these days with the impeachment definitely I'd say I mean government is a required class so of course there's a lot of discussion that happens there honestly I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it's not discussed nearly as much as it should be for losers all of us are not just as students but people today we all just take politics at its surface level whether it's in the media or a lot of what we discuss unless we take action or responsibility and actually look into who are interested in what topics matter the most to us and really nothing's going to get done as effectively as it could be well outside of your government class what kind of media are each of you consuming I'll start with you Jessica where you get your news well I mean you like to watch a lot of in mess in d.c. But I also I like to consider sources from both sides because I think it's a very interesting note to examine the bias as for the impeachment I've received news from in this in b.c.c. And then I really like Business Insider but as well as things like I mean I even examined Fox News and The Washington Times and what about you Jamie I get a lot of my information from c.n.n. And also Fox News and just the plain Internet just surfing through it if I am really looking into something like the impeachment process right now I will consider many many new sources and what about unit they know so. It comes to what I read and where I read it usually my phone will just send me relevant topics and depending on the topic they'll send me to different sources like a.b.c. N.b.c. C.b.s. P.b.s. N.p.r. Even a b.b.c. And it really varies but when it comes to what I want to know other people are saying as surprising as it sounds I like to look on social media because that is the probably the biggest platform when it comes to communication and how politics affects that today especially for kids my age based on what you know at this point do you think that President Trump should be impeached and even removed from office I'll start with you Nathaniel when it comes to if he should be impeached I think it is our responsibility to look into these kinds of things that are happening because I mean if you look at the whistleblower report there was obviously something that was going down that we as citizens have the right to know especially considering the fact that after that phone call went down multiple White House officials and the White House lawyers were doing many different things to cover it up which raises some eyebrows and questions about it but when it comes down to the impeachment itself Riya citizens have the right to know what our president is doing and how it's affecting us on a day to day basis as for his removal it might be a little too early to determine whether or not he should be removed completely but hopefully through the political process we can find out if it is justifiable and complete grounds for removal What about you Jimi what do you think it's hard to tell right now like nothing else because there's so many things coming out right now at this moment but I do believe that there should be a questioning of him like every other president there should be if something does come up especially since it is has been hidden like both Danielson lawyers that I don't know about removal of office. And what about you Jessica just from my knowledge as a citizen currently I think it is absolutely the morally correct thing to do to proceed with impeachment but I know that it might not be the most strategic option for the Democratic Party ultimately I don't know that he would be removed in the Senate and that would kind of come off as an exoneration when in fact I think it really just shows kind of the the partisanship and I don't know most overlooking of of certain Maybe moral obligations Ok I just want to ask each of you now about a few other things just because I'm curious honestly it's taken a long time for us to be able to assemble a group of high school students to ask them about what life is like right now as a 17 or 18 year old I want to 1st start with the fact that you were all born around the time of the $911.00 attacks but obviously you didn't experience them how much do you know about what happened. I grew up with it being a very hush hush thing not in a bad way but just trying to recover Yeah you know when you're respectful Yes top landing respect always trying to be respectful of it yeah I think in the environment especially directly after that we were raised in. It's definitely a difference in privacy for sure I've definitely noticed that our generation is more accepting of certain limits on privacy for the benefit of safety and I notice that that's something that other generations are somewhat unhappy with and I guess that's maybe a result of that well and the u.s. Has been at war for your entire lives you know you know do you do you feel that yourselves you have family in the military I have 2 uncles in the military they're not very close to me personally because they have been moved around so much so I never really got to grow up with them but it has kind of affected me when I did good to go see them and just seeing my cousins dealing with having to see their dad leave constantly over and over again so I has kind of affected me in a way that I can see how it affects families. Different topic what social media are you using right now. As of right now I use Instagram and Snap Chat mostly Yeah I'd say probably primarily Instagram I am primarily snapchat I do use Instagram sometimes but that is it but not Facebook No actually I can I occasionally browse through Facebook but not as often as Instagram or snapshot and what about they think this is a big thing going on right now in high schools across America are you are you guys papers no no no no. And why is that well the thing is whenever vapor was 1st introduced there was so little that we knew about the long term effects of it and I was just really skeptical about that and obviously there are laws saying that I shouldn't be doing that and so I didn't want to really subject myself to something like I grew up in a house with that least 5 smokers around me all times hearing as an alternative to smoking it never interest me I am against smoking because I grew up as a little child in a room full of 5 smokers with no ventilation in my lungs have been very much impacted by that Ok let me ask you each one more question which is what is the one place on earth that you'd like to visit. I would definitely love to visit France or Russia we hear about things but on social media it looks like a beautiful place and like just a snowy Wonderland. Nathanial I was thinking of Antarctica because I think it be really interesting to see a place so barren that has minimal direct interaction with humans and personally I'm just a fan of the cold and so clearly. Yeah what about you Jessica. Well actually I've always been very interested in Japan I think the public transportation initiatives that Japan is working on is extremely interesting and so I've always been interested and also just the culture is extremely in gauging for me what I want to thank you all for taking some time out of your schedule to join us today that is the thing you know black Jamie King and Jessica Jones all seniors at Putnam City High School in Oklahoma thanks a lot thank you thank you and by the way the voter turnout for people aged 18 to 29 was 36 percent in 2018 from 20 percent in 2014 it's here in the. Funding for here and now comes from the listeners of w.b. You are Boston and your n.p.r. Station from Home Advisor matching home owners of Home Improvement professionals for a variety of home projects for minor repairs to major remodels. Reviews of local pros and book appointments online at Home Advisor dot com babble teaching new languages with the spaced repetition method of 15 minute lessons using simulated conversations that are voiced by native speakers are a babble b. a B. B. Dot com. This is here now from n.p.r. And you are I'm Jeremy Hobson after the warmest October ever recorded Globally we are just days into November and much of the u.s. Is facing bitter cold and bracing for even more next week joining us now is John Carr fag no meteorologist and host of m h Q at the Weather Channel She's in Atlanta hi Jen Hi Jeremy good to talk to you Will good to have them here in Atlanta actually all the way to the south the cold air is on the move it seems rather early I must say people are already feeling cold but it is about to get even more brutal how bad and how soon and where Well exactly so this cold we're talking about is coming in and 2 rounds around one works in today you're feeling it in the Northeast are feeling it all the way into the Deep South but by the middle of next week we're talking about not just below average numbers but getting below freezing all the way down to the Gulf Coast and that's going to be for more than 200000000 people and that's a big deal because we're talking January level cold and November well in the National Weather Service is forecasting that next week's Arctic cold front could break $170.00 records across the u.s. How unusual is it to have this kind of cold weather in November. You know what's really interesting is just the fact that we're having this record cold because you talked about October being record warm globally and when we look at record highs versus record lows we just don't set a lot of record lows anymore record highs outpaced the record lows 2 to one so just the act of breaking records is a big deal for us these days because it doesn't happen as often but that kind of temperatures that we're seeing it's just early to see these types of readings well and a lot of people will look at this and say more evidence of climate change whether it's to the high or to the low we're seeing things more extreme than they have been in the past well that's exactly right and we are getting the extreme cold across the lower 48 is really just the eastern 2 thirds of the country because in the West we will be above average next week so are you expecting a lot of snow next week. That's the other piece of this whenever you have a cold arctic air mass coming south through the front that brings that air that's the leading edge of the cold air that comes south and so there will be running ahead of it how quickly does the cold air come in and does it get in quick enough to meet up with the moisture some places yes it will not will happen in parts of the Ohio Valley down through Kentucky will it reach the Tennessee Valley that's a big forecast challenge and of course any brief mention of a snowflake in the forecast with everyone stocking the pantry and you know the bread and milk etc and there is some chances of snow but this does not look like a big snowfall event the real headline for this 2nd round of cold coming in next week is the fact that it's going to be that cold it will have an impact on crops it will have an impact on people because this is early for people to winterize their houses all the way into the south that may not be ready for them right and pull out those winter coats already and probably keep them out for some time does this tell you anything about what kind of winter this is going to be like. There's an old adage goes winter will remember what happened in November and so you know some will say yes if it's a cold November then the rest of the winter will be that way and there is literally no scientific proof of that happening but people will still say it but as we look at the pattern we can you see this pretty locked in for the next 2 weeks or so and then you know after that we'll continue to fine tune the forecast you can't predict winter based on starting a member perfect just in hopes of you with the weather channel Jen thank you. Gerri great to talk to you and you're listening to here in the. This week we met up at a diner in South Bend Indiana with the mayor who's running for president vetoed a judge criticizes the Medicare for old proposal the reality is all these beautiful proposals will put forward their impacts it's going to multiply by 0 if you can actually get it through Congress more of a conversation with just close all the latest news Saturday and Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News. I'm Sharon protein House investigators in the impeachment inquiry today released transcripts of depositions from 2 national security officials Lieutenant Colonel Alexander found many Ukraine expert who listened to President Trump's July call with the Ukrainian president testified that there was no doubt that President Trump was seeking political investigations of the Trump's own political rivals u.s. Health officials are reporting a breakthrough in their investigation into the cause of a fatal outbreak of illnesses associated with a ping a government lab found the same chemical compound in long fluid from 29 patients and vitamin e. Acetate was previously found invading fluid used by many of those who became sick Kurdish forces in the Syria war monitoring group are reporting a death of a Syrian protester they say those killed when a Turkish military vehicle ran him over today you're listening to hear him now. Funding for here and now comes from the listeners of w.v. You are Boston and your n.p.r. Station from New Math offering a personalized weight loss program that uses psychology and small goals to change habits with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for good learn more at Newnham and o.m. Dot com and read it and w.b. You are presenting endless thread of podcast that bring stories discovered on Reddit to you each week a wide range of tales told with intelligence and humor and with threat of a double on Apple podcasts this is here and now one year ago today the camp fire tore through Paradise California $86.00 people died and 90 percent of the town was burned to the ground it is the deadliest wildfire in modern California history our co-host Tanya Moseley has been reporting in paradise this week and she's here with us now Tonya welcome How are you I am well thank you pm and how's it going there I can imagine this is this is probably it's up to. It really is a hard day a lot of folks we spoke with really just want to get all of the memorials and commemoration ceremonies out of the way because the big focus is getting their lives back together I actually met a mom is going to have her son's 30th birthday party today and they're all focused on that intentionally because they're really wanting to move forward it's just an example of how people are really focused on the present and also being prepared for the next fire which really is the new normal here let's talk about that because I know the town is trying to rebuild we see the residents of applied for 450 permits to rebuild their homes but only 11 have actually done so why is that are people finding it hard to come back into town and to move on there are so many things money is really the biggest hurdle about 20 percent of Butte County residents actually live in poverty here and a significant portion of those folks do not have homeowners or renters insurance and then there are still hundreds of people living in these Fema housing in trailers across the county and they have to repeatedly reapply and show that they need the housing and you can imagine how exhausting that can be but to the money issue once you receive your permit you have one year to build and a lot of people are still trying to earn enough money to rebuild on their properties and a lot 'd of folks are even struggling to qualify for some of the government and nonprofit assistance programs we actually spoke to a woman named in this Salinas she lives in Concow which is a rule community right next to paradise and was actually hit by the fire 1st and she feels that because she was living off the grid and not relying on the electric company p.g. And e. She is less able to access housing and one of the people who fall through like the cracks I didn't have insurance the property I was living on didn't have a physical address I had no paper trail that's part of living off grid for me so I don't qualify for the long term recovery for most a program. You know as now lives in a tiny house with her 3 year old daughter is part of a program here and there is reportedly a wait list of 500 people for those homes she happened to be one of the 1st ones to to get one yesterday you introduce us to some families who are trying their hardest to rebuild must be they're trying to get this done absolutely and people really are just at the starting line and the challenges that I mentioned are the ones that are really visible then they're the ones that you can't see like the loss of the people you love it's a struggle 51 year old Sky said make deals with every day she lost her father John Christopher said wake in the campfire was author a musician astrologists log or a nurse he was many things that he was my dad and he carried out his duty as Father right up until the end he instead lived together on a plot of land that has been in the family for generations on the morning of the camp fire I woke up November 8th and I died. Pounding on my door my bedroom door saying. Get up Sky get out. This fire coming up over the ridge you sounded very matter of fact there was nothing like my dad was a former part volunteer fireman there was nothing like super alarming in his voice it was just a matter of fact there's a fire coming over the ridge sky did what she was told gathered a few things and then turned to her father as a god what are you going to do and he said I'm going to stay here for now and I think I have as a dad and he just gave me that stubborn ass look and he gave me directions on which way he wanted me to walk from the house so he gave. It a big price and I followed it and I walked through the woods when I walked through the woods at that point there were embers. Large numbers. I was carrying was one of the scariest times of my life Sky's father stayed behind and tried to save their home and later that night at 82 years old he went out to help a crew put out a fire at a local favorite called the depot so he was down there trying to save this historic building and. The pine the sugar pines caught fire. And the fire crew was told to retreat and that fireman specifically asked my dad to please come with us and my dad said no I want to go. But he died and he rose absolutely my father John Christoffersen. Sky now lives in a fema trailer 45 minutes away from Paradise and the town of Gridley but she can only stay there until May Meanwhile she's waiting on the soil on her property to be tested to see if it's safe for her to return home she'll then get a trailer on that property and live there until she can save up enough money to build a house it's a beautiful piece of property it's the smell of stage and Serpentina and me. And. My father. That's the 1st warning sign. And. There there are tremendous hurdles renters and homeowners like I have to jump through if they want to return to Paradise in the surrounding areas for renters there just aren't enough apartments and houses and for those who want to build there are more than a dozen permits needed and a lot of those permits have to do with building in a way that is fire resistant so many of the homes that caught fire last year are made of wood Mayor Joe Di Jones who also lost her home in the fire says the issue of affordability is also heavy on her mind so many people were attracted to living here because it's one of the last affordable places in California and we've kind of walk this fine line between what are the requirements for rebuilding going to be and affordability you don't want to put so many requirements on people that they can't afford to build rebuild their homes the city is taking over an old bank building over the next few weeks and bringing in experts in insurance housing in financial services to help folks going through the rebuilding process and then there's the task of luring back businesses earlier this week the last of the debris was hauled out of Paradise $3000000.00 tons over the last year but early still standing are fast food and gas station signs next to empty lots The mayor says there's so much to think about we need a new emergency notification system that we've applied for a grant for that we've applied for grants for the roadways. We're working on a sewer system because our downtown did not have one before the fire and it's been very limiting so for to bring business in the back we need to get that sewer. 63 year old Lance Watts says he's gotten used to traveling a few miles up the road to Chico to do things like eat and shop but what he misses most are his neighbors and mess everybody all my friends or all the people that I know in this town and God They bring really brings tears to my heart I'm telling I'm about to cry right now because I didn't realize how important all these folks were in my life I want my town back so I'm trying to raise money to help those folks which is probably 75 percent of the folks here who didn't have the crime insurance they need help or they're overcome of that they are Jones can't help but be optimistic that with enough support people will return she can't wait for this anniversary date to be over so they can all look to the future were pioneers who are building an entire town pretty much from scratch and there are a lot of challenges to that rebuild process it's not easy it's pretty stressful and arduous and people are up for it they want to do it and they look at themselves as the next generation of pioneers here on the red. Lance Watts ponders that idea of being pioneers he likes it and he plans to live out the rest of his days in paradise but with so many other wildfires burning in the state there's also something else on his mind well people always watched the most recent thing. And I hate to say it but in reality it were competing with the latest disaster in history near his plea and that of thousands of others who still call this place home please don't forget about paradise for here and now I'm Tanya Paradise California. Funding for here and now comes from the listeners of w b u r Boston from Landmark college serving neuro diverse students offering associate and bachelor's degrees and a bridge experience for students to gain strategies for success in college classes start January 28th more at l.d. Bridge dot org And indeed used by over 3000000 businesses for hiring where employers can post jobs and use screener questions to build their shortlist of preferred candidates learn more at Indy dot com slash higher. This is here and now on Monday morning mercury will cross in front of the sun like a tiny speck of dust floating across the sun's face so let's turn our telescope now to Kelly Beatty senior editor at Sky and Telescope Hi Kelly a germy So this is pretty rare it's somewhat rare it's not uncommon the last one was in 2016 but the next one won't be until 2032 so yes we want to take advantage of this one if we can and what exactly is happening that makes Mercury cross in front of the sun to our eyes now you know the mercury circles the sun in 88 days so you think this would happen all the time but it's orbit is tipped with respect to ours by 7 degrees so the geometry has to be right for this to sync up and these transits as we call them can only happen in May and November so we're we've got this one lined up and it's allowing us to watch mercury as a silhouette see it will be passing between us and the sun and it's not going to be visible by I just didn't look at the sun when I was going to say we don't want you looking at the sun anyway this is the kind of thing that you're going to need a decent backyard telescope to see so who's going to be able to see it ah so this will be visible all across the United States and in fact on the East Coast will see the entire 5 and a half hour event that's how long it takes mercury to scrawl across the face of the sun on the West Coast the sun will rise with mercury already part of the way across and I mention the next one being 2032 the next time this happens with the u.s. In view of it will be 2049 that's 30 years from now but I think we should take advantage of this one was Ok so how do people do that how can our listeners actually watch this happen yeah I don't want you dragging that dusty telescope either your closet that you haven't used for 10 years and try to do this if you are going to use a telescope you need a safe solar filter across the front of it and those you might have left over from the eclipse of the sun that happened you know 3 years ago but. But another way to do it is to take that telescope and to not look through it but let the light from the sun stream through onto through the eyepiece and onto a white card place where your eye would otherwise be and you get a really nice white disc of the sun that should be able to pick up mercury you can even do this with binoculars if you mount them on top of a camera tripod and just let ones I go through I can just imagine somebody trying to do this and saying I can't tell is that it my looking at the right thing Ordinarily it would be challenging because the sun would be full of spots itself all of which are about the size of mercury or even bigger but as luck would have it right now there are no sunspots on the sun whatsoever out and so I'm hopeful that mercury will stand out you know it will be going roughly across the middle of the disk so the midpoint time if you were going to look for and needed to know where to look because it's going to be tiny Mercury will be almost in the center of the sun at 10 20 am Eastern time 7 20 am Pacific time and you know just time zones accordingly Ok And meanwhile what else are you looking forward to in the sky over why so this is kind of a dull drums of the time of year for us you know there's this meteor shower called the Leonids right which in the late 1990 s. Was gangbusters but it is dwindled to just practically nothing right now I think the next best opportunity to see something dramatic in the sky will be November 22nd when you can see Jupiter and Venus close together in the low in the southwest after sunset and then the 2nd week of December the Geminid meteor shower which is one of the best all around the year showers throughout the year Kelly I just want to ask you out of curiosity a question I've thought of in my life which is what do you think it would do to us as human beings if let's say Mars was so close to the earth that you could see it every single night bigger than the moon right there. Well one of the things we would see is that unlike the moon Mars would show us all of that size we'd see the entire thing we only see half of the moon because of a gravitational locking that's gone we would see that Mars like the earth goes through seasons and so if you think speculation about life on Mars has been you know heavy to this point it would be rampant interesting sidelight in a bar in 1900 the French Academy of Sciences offered a big prize 100000 francs for the 1st person who could establish communication with aliens on another planet except to Mars because that was considered too easy to easy to do but we still haven't been able to do it no and you know there the last time the United States and the spacecraft to Mars to search for life was the mid 1970 s. Now we've got another one waiting in the wings that will do that being watched next year but really it's an open book as to whether Mars has life or ever has had life and right now the probes that they said they're looking for other things looking for water and stuff like that that's right so in the case of curiosity which is a rover on the surface right now its main task is not biological but to look for chemical changes that have occurred over Martian history at one time Mars was a much wetter much more clement place with a thick atmosphere and babbling brooks you know and since then years it's become a deep freeze world with really inhospitable conditions and we want to know what caused it to get from point a to point b. That is Kelly Beatty senior editor at Sky and Telescope and again you can check out mercury crossing in front of the Sun on Monday morning East Coast time earlier in the morning on the west coast Kelly thank you my pleasure Jeremy. So the nice thing Peter about having experts on the show you can ask them anything you want that interview took a fascinating certain. Period as a production of n.p.r. In association with the b.b.c. World Service is called mercury by the way Jeremy Hobson And I'm Peter O'Dowd it's here no. Funding for here and now comes from w.v.u. Our Boston and Home Advisor matching homeowners with home improvement professionals for a variety of home projects from minor repairs to major remodels homeowners can read reviews of local pros and book appointments online at Home Advisor dot com We've got a scheme we just so I'm Peter O'Dowd Kanye West is jumping into gospel music with his new album Jesus is King but he's not the 1st artist to cross over I do think you start them a little inclined so once we point to Kanye and say he did this just because they don't remember a time when it wasn't uncommon That's next time that no one everybody want you to strike at the minute she thinking. Off a day and thank you for listening to. Your source for n.p.r. News and music discovery. And. I'm Jeremy Hobson It's here and now. Coming up White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney is the latest Trump official to skip his testimony in the impeachment inquiry former Republican senator and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel weighs in we are a nation of laws and we are all answerable to a constitution but I and I don't see any other way to.