California Fire

Would California bill AB 1955 ban schools and teachers from notifying parents if their child modifies their gender identity? No, that's not true: The bill prevents teachers from being forced to notify parents of their child's preferred pronouns, the state senator who co-authored the bill told Lead Stories. According to the bill, teachers can notify the parents with the student's…

Are 97 percent of the guns in the United States located in areas that account for only three percent of gun violence? No, that's not true: Gun violence experts told Lead Stories that different statistics demonstrate a correlation: In regions where gun ownership is more prevalent, there is a corresponding increase in gun-related fatalities. This is supported by data from…

Was the mechanism of the background check conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to screen potential gun owners changed in a way that now allows undocumented residents to buy and possess guns in the United States? No, that's not true: On December 27, 2023, the bureau, abbreviated as the ATF, categorically denied such a change. The…

Was a snow-covered jet frozen on an airport runway in Germany when it was meant to be headed to a "Dubai global warming conference"? No, that's not true: The plane was not scheduled to fly anywhere in the days before or after a massive snowstorm hit Munich, Germany. The jet apparently tipped over due to the weight of the snow…

Were the 2023 Maui wildfires started because the island holds 120 million tons of lithium? No, that's not true: A U.S. Geological Survey representative and an associate professor emeritus of geology both said there is no evidence that there is that much lithium in Maui or throughout the Hawaiian islands. Lithium is mainly found in Australia, South America and Nevada,…

Is this a video of the Vermont Beverly metro station in Los Angeles flooding due to the August 20, 2023, "hurriquake"? No, that's not true: This video is of a tram tour/amusement park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. The tour simulates what an earthquake would feel like if the person was in an underground subway car. In multiple videos of…

Did a laser beam from a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) blast Hawaii just before the wildfires started in August 2023? No, that's not true: This is not a photo of a DEW laser hitting Hawaii. It shows a time-lapse image of a SpaceX rocket launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on May 22, 2018. A post (archived here)…

Does a video show a laser beam from the sky, or a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), cause an explosion in a city, or spark the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii? No, that's not true: This viral video predates the August 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. It shows an electrical transformer exploding in the Santiago commune of Macul, Chile, which was first posted…

Was the deadly wildfire that began the evening of August 8, 2023, on the Hawaiian island of Maui caused by a "direct energy weapon assault"? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to support that assertion. Instead, natural factors, not a direct energy weapon, are the likely cause of the wildfires. The claim appeared in a post and video on…

Does a widely shared video of still-standing trees prove that the Maui wildfires were false flag operations? No, that's not true: Social media users who reposted the clip pointed out that some plants survived fires, but that does not support the assertion in question -- plants growing in fire-prone ecosystems naturally evolve with features that allow them to withstand fires.…