Park Fire Still Burns, New Storm Problems; SAG-AFTRA Video Games Actor Go On Strike – Aug. 2

Good evening everyone. Welcome to NTD Tonight. I'm David Zhang. Here are today's top stories. Favorable weather conditions are helping California firefighters gain ground on the Park Fire, but approaching thunderstorms could cause new fires in the area. A dad has won physical custody over his four-year-old son. The father says Sawyer was allegedly forced to be a non-binary First responders rescue a toddler who was trapped inside a PVC pipe. First, an update on the Park Fire in California. Favorable weather conditions are helping firefighters gain ground on the blaze. It's now at about 22% contained after igniting over a week ago. While conditions have allowed firefighters to make progress, approaching thunderstorms could cause new fires in the area. Here's that story. The weather around the Park Fire has improved over the past few days, creating better conditions for the thousands battling California's fifth largest wildfire ever. So the lighter winds, relatively cooler temperatures, meaning mainly in the 80s, the smoke is actually thick enough that it can kind of cool the temperatures and raise the humidity levels a little bit. So for most of this week, the fire weather conditions have been pretty benign in terms of temperatures, humidity, and wind. But an approaching storm system could cause problems. By Friday afternoon, we expect a push of monsoonal moisture into the region, and that'll bring us at least a chance for some thunderstorms as we get into Friday evening and into Saturday morning. The concern with thunderstorm is any gusty outflow winds that would push the fire itself or create some new fire ignitions within the vicinity of the Park Fire. Officials warn there's still plenty of time left in California's wildfire season. So it's only August 1st today, and as we look forward in time, we're really just entering the peak of fire season in California. A group of dedicated volunteers is going around the Park Fire area to check on animals whose owners had to flee to safety. In addition to feeding and watering animals, the volunteers provide another valuable service. Besides just taking care of the animals, a lot of times we will fix fencing because the fencing will be knocked down, and if we just make a little repair and kind of prop something up, we can keep the animals where we want them and not let them get away. So we do that whenever possible. The Park Fire has burned over 393,000 acres. A suspect has been charged with reckless arson related to the wildfire. The fire has destroyed more than 480 structures and caused thousands to evacuate. No injuries or deaths have been reported. Almost 100 large fires are raging across the West. New large fires were reported in Idaho, Montana and Texas. Harrison Tinsley has gained custody of his four-year-old son following a long legal battle. He said his son was being raised as non-binary by the mom against the son's wishes. NTV's David Lam speaks with the father. All right, Harrison Tinsley, thank you so much for joining me again. You spoke to us last time about the legal battle over gaining custody of your son Sawyer. So tell us about the recent developments about this case. Yeah, thank you so much for having me again. I mean, it's just miraculous. I have finally won full custody of Sawyer after a four-and-a-half-year battle. And I'm so thankful, you know, that he's safe and has a stable environment with me. And he just seems to be thriving ever since it started. And I just have this deep desire now burning in me to help more kids and more families. Talk to us about this desire. What is it that you're trying to do for kids? Well, you see in California, as an example, bills like AB-1955 that Newsom just signed basically forcing schools to keep secrets from parents when it has to do with gender ideology. I mean, we're talking about schools that have to call you if they want to give your kid Tylenol. They have to tell you if your kid gets in a fight or gets in trouble or something. But that's the one thing we're going to keep secret, a serious mental health issue. And it's just become this virus spreading all over society. It's a trend. There's not this many people suffering from real gender dysphoria. I don't think there's any such thing as a trans kid. There's no letting kids choose their gender. How has Sawyer changed from when you were sharing split custody and after gaining full custody of him? What has his reactions been? He just seems to be thriving, excelling at everything, you know, less temper tantrums. And it's just, he just seems to basically be doing wonderful. You can just see it in his spirit and how well he's developing, you know, and it's incredible to see. Tell us about briefly, what are some examples or what were some things that Sawyer went through? So unfortunately, you know, I've been warning reports for years, you know, his mom has some issues and I pray that she can get better and work on herself to be a better mom for Sawyer. But, you know, I tried warning them and they just never listened. When I won half custody of him a couple years ago, decided to start trying to pretend that he's non-binary. She would call him a day, she tried to put dresses on him, makeup, things like that. And he never liked it. He always told me, you know, when she took him to Disneyland, she wouldn't let him go on the rides allegedly unless he wore princess shoes. He didn't want to wear princess shoes, he wanted to wear boy shoes, and he was very sad and I could see that, but I just always made sure to tell him the truth. You know, you're a boy, you'll always be a boy. So what are the next steps for Sawyer and you going forward? I'll just do my best to guide him, give him a stable, wonderful life, show him lots of love and wisdom, tell him the truth, try to lead him by example, and just watch him grow, believe in him, be proud of him. Thanks for sharing that. And lastly, are you surprised that the court ruled in your favor? Well, let me put it this way. I'm surprised and thankful that CPS were such good people. It was just divine that I got the CPS workers I did. They did not care about politics, they cared about children. And it was really CPS that drove home the fact that I needed Polkowski more than court. But I am thankful to court for at least, you know, giving CPS and me the chance to present that that's what's best for Sawyer. Harrison Tinsley, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much, man. Juan Canzo's family is thrilled after emergency crews rescued a terrified toddler. The boy fell into a narrow pipe and got stuck about a dozen feet underground in his yard. NTD's Christina Corona has more on the story. Hey, buddy. Poor brick down there. Okay. We're gonna get you out, Bentley. It's okay. A 14-month-old boy fell into a PVC pipe and became trapped underground in Kansas on Sunday afternoon. The whole family was outside their home in Mound Ridge, Kansas, where the father was working on his car while the mother walked around the yard with their 14-month-old son, Bentley. Suddenly, she saw him fall into a PVC pipe over 10 feet deep. The parents called 911 just before 2 p.m. The Mound Ridge Police Department, Fire Department, and EMS responded. They found the toddler standing upright at the bottom of the pipe, which was about 12 inches in diameter. Hey, Bentley. Bentley, listen to me, bud. I need you to stand up. The rescuers promptly started efforts to free the child. The police department commended Officer Ronnie Wagner for crafting a catch pull from a thinner PVC pipe and rope. He reached out to Jeremy Samlin from EMS, who lives nearby and had a narrow PVC pipe in his garage. The two crafted a 16-foot PVC rod and threaded Fire Department rope through it. Wagner then tied a lasso at the end. There we go. Rescuers lowered the rod and rope over the boy and successfully lifted him to safety in about 20 minutes unharmed. Officer Wagner said the boy may have a few bruises but didn't even require a trip to the hospital. Christina Corona, NTD News. The U.S. is now taking major action on Venezuela after the recent election. The State Department says it now recognizes the opposition candidate as the legitimate president-elect. NTD's international correspondent Arian Pasdar has the details from South America. The U.S. State Department issued a statement on Venezuela's elections on Thursday night. Now, the department gave a number of reasons for why it now recognizes the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the actual president-elect. For example, the department criticizes the fact that socialist leader Nicolas Maduro still has not released any tabulated voting results. At the same time, the opposition has already released 80% of tally sheets from across the country. The State Department thus comes to the conclusion that it is clear to the United States and most importantly to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won. The department also mentioned an independent report by the Carter Center, which also concluded that the election was fraudulent. Maduro had actually invited the U.S.-based center to oversee the election. The Carter Center says Venezuela's electoral authority could release the voting results if they wanted to. There's always a chance to correct an error. And this is what the Venezuelan CNE needs to do. And they have the capability, they have the data, they have the ability to do that. On Sunday night, the electoral authority had announced that Maduro won the election with 51% of the votes without releasing any data. The announcement sparked protests and unrest inside the country and at Venezuelan embassies across the globe. The government then arrested hundreds of protesters, and at least 16 people have died. Parents of the detained protesters were seen crying on Thursday, calling for their kids to be released. Venezuela's opposition leader calls on the people to take to the streets and protest the arrests. We'll pay tribute to every one of the heroes who enforced and defended the will of the Venezuelan people. And not just the U.S. is mounting pressure on Maduro. Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are now also calling on the socialist leader to release the full voting results. Maduro has said he would release them earlier this week, but at the same time he keeps insisting that the voting machines have been hacked. Reporting in Brazil, Ariel Pastar, NTD News. We'll take a short break now everybody, but here's a look at what we have for you when we come back. A city in Southern California launches the world's first all-EV police fleet. Video game actors in Los Angeles are going on strike over what they're calling unregulated AIUs. About a year after the deadly wildfire in Hawaii, Nahaina High School graduates are getting scholarships to help them afford college. Those stories and more coming up on NTD Tonight. Welcome back to NTD Tonight. I'm your host, David Zhang. In Southern California, one small city has just made history by launching the world's first all-Tesla police fleet, setting new sustainability standards for police departments nationwide. Our news crew is plugged into the story and they bring us more. Earlier this week, the city of South Pasadena in Los Angeles County unveiled the world's first all-electric Tesla police fleet. This comes nearly two years after the city council approved the transition from an entirely gas-powered fleet to what they call battery electric vehicles, or BEVs. The mayor of South Pasadena, Evelyn Zunimer, proudly made the announcement on Monday. Today, we're celebrating a tremendous accomplishment to become the first city in the nation to implement a zero-emission police fleet. The choice of their battery electric vehicles ended up being Tesla, but not without some upgrades and modifications. South Pasadena Police Chief Brian Solinsky tells us more. From bullet-resistant panels, a geo-fenced high visibility emergency lighting package, a unique prisoner seating partition, and a vehicle with a five-star crash rating system, ultimately improving the speed and quality of service that we provide to our community. The city also worked with a customization company in an effort to make their police cruisers highly competitive. Ben Schaefer, a co-founder and CEO of Upfit, tells us how it all began. We realized a couple of years ago there's a big opportunity to save taxpayer money and to bring in a new generation of police vehicles because the Tesla platform is just so capable. So we began developing an entire vehicle architecture and a full system of how to deliver police vehicles like we have today at South Pasadena. David Hodge, the founder and CEO of Standard Fleet, also partnered with the city to assist them in managing their fleet. A major focus area for us though is reporting related to charging, energy management, and just access to the vehicles. That's a big focus area for our customers. David also did a brief demo for us to illustrate the capabilities of his software for use in these new police cruisers. So I'm going to unlock this car so you'll see that the mirrors are folded in. So when I press this unlock button it's going to ask me for permission and it's going to unlock the vehicle. You could also, so you'll the mirrors fold out in a second. So there's the mirrors coming out. I'll open the trunk so you see the trunk pop open in the back there in a second. So there's the trunk lifting and officers can use our software to get in any one of their vehicles and drive it as needed or pull in reporting. His software can even honk the horn of a police car. Wow, thank you. You're welcome. In Monterey County, about 270 miles away from South Pasadena, Greenfield Police Chief Guillermo Mixer explains the advantages of using Tesla police cruisers as opposed to traditional gas-powered cruisers. The cost savings that we're going to realize every year is going to be significant in between $2,500 and $6,500 a year per vehicle that we're going to save. Mixer also says it's much more cost efficient to maintain an electric vehicle. Besides the fuel, we'll be saving a lot of money on fuel. We're not using gas, but the oil changes, the transmission fluids don't need to be changed, the radiators don't need to be changed. So really it's tires and brakes, the only maintenance that it needs. And we're happy about that because that also means the car's in service more time. With South Pasadena switching their police fleet to all EVs, California State Senator Anthony Porcentino says its impact can have a domino effect. Well, you know, it's a small city, does it matter? The answer is yes, it matters. Because everything we do to help the environment collectively makes a difference, right? If we all put a little drop in the ocean, it becomes a tidal wave. And South Pasadena today starts that tidal wave by having their police department go green. South Pasadena Police Department's new $1.85 million fleet includes 20 Teslas, along with 34 chargers installed at South Pasadena City Hall. Bill Thomas and Jimmy Ma, NTD News, South Pasadena. Video game actors are going on strike for the first time since 2017. This comes after months of negotiation with the top gaming companies to protect union voice actors and motion capture workers. The workers are against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence. NTD's Christina Corona has more on the story. Members of SAG-AFTRA began picketing outside Warner Brothers Studios on Thursday as part of their strike against major video game studios. The video game companies are rightly isolated. When you look at the studios, the streamers, the record labels, we've been able to achieve the necessary protections for our members with all of those companies. And yet, for some reason, the video game companies refuse to make the same fair deal. And what exactly they are striking for? We're looking for information, transparency that informs meaningful consent from the performer around using this technology as it pertains to them and their performance, and proper compensation, fair pay. One significant issue is the lack of recognition for motion capture actors whose likenesses are being used in AI systems. Andy Norris, who performed the movements for Lilith in Diablo 4, also modeled for most of the female characters in Immortals of Avium. You don't know that I have done these characters because I'm not attached to it, right? So they want to take my movement because they argue that it's unrecognizable as me, which is kind of my job, and use that data to pilot these AI systems. She says companies are saying her work is not a performance. They're saying that what I do isn't acting, which is absurd to me. I mean, that's like saying that mining isn't performance, right? And they want to, by calling it data, they say that we don't have any right to it. These companies have the ability, when we work for them, to keep a library of our performances, in our case, our movement, our action, our acrobatics, and they're able to give it to a machine to then study that, basically become us and spit out new performances without us, without our knowledge. However, Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers, said the companies have provided AI protections as well as a significant increase in wages for SAG-AFTRA represented performers in video games. Video game actors hit the picket line a year after Hollywood actors and writers wrapped up their own historic strikes that lasted 118 days. Christina Corona, NTD News. About a year after the deadly wildfire in Hawaii, an Ahi'ina High School graduates are getting scholarships to help them afford college outside Hawaii. They're funded by a grant. Nearly a year after the fire that destroyed thousands of other homes and killed 102 people in historic Lahaina, some students and their families don't have to worry about how to pay for college. About $325,000 in college scholarships were awarded Wednesday to 13 Lahaina Luna High School graduates attending schools on the U.S. mainland. Using a grant from the Maui Strong Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Downtown Athletic Club of Hawaii is providing 13 classmates with about $25,000 each, meant to cover out-of-state college costs after other scholarships and financial aid for the first year. In a separate effort after the fire, the University of Hawaii announced scholarships for 2024 Lahaina Luna graduates to attend any campus in the statewide system. According to school data, nearly 80 percent of a graduating class of 215 applied to UH campuses. As of last week, 105 students had registered at a UH school, leading to a record number of college-bound Lahaina Luna graduates. School officials expect that number to increase by mid-August. Stay tuned for China In Focus with Tiffany Meyer coming up next. The U.S. suing TikTok. The Justice Department alleging the Chinese app exposed millions of American children to adult content and collecting their data. More on China In Focus with Tiffany Meyer at 930 p.m. Eastern. That's all we've got for you tonight. We'd like to thank you for joining us on NTD Tonight every weekday up until now. Today is our last show, but NTD has plenty of informative shows and on-the-ground news coverage airing across our network. For more information, please visit NTD.com. I'm David Zhang. Have a wonderful weekend.