The Daily Rundown: August 11, 2026
🔥 Wildfires burning across the Western United States on Monday stretched local and national firefighting resources. Firefighters are responding to more than a dozen wildfires that are over 100,000 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Two were sparked over the weekend near Reno, Nevada — the Bug Fire and the Fred Mountain Fire — which have forced thousands of people to evacuate their homes.
North of Reno, the overwhelming majority of the wildfires currently burning are concentrated in the Pacific Northwest, with more than 30 in Oregon and more than 20 in Washington. Hundreds of structures have been lost to blazes around Spokane. Nearby, in Idaho, 10 more fires rage and one more burns in Northern California, totaling more than 3 million acres of active wildfires.
An additional 98 wildfires were reported in southwest Canada, the overwhelming majority of which are considered “out of control,” according to the British Columbia Wildfire Service.
The fires this summer have also taken the lives of several firefighters in Colorado and Utah.
Federal Preparedness Level 5, or PL5, is the highest activity and deployment level for wildland firefighters, according to the NIFC. Several areas in Mountain West states were at higher levels. The Northwest Interagency Coordination Center and Great Basin Geographic Area Coordination Center were both at that level.
Read the full story by the Mountain West News Bureau’s Austen Erblat at KNPR.org.
🏥 Despite an ongoing effort from University Medical Center to hire a forensic or child abuse pediatrician, none have applied for the role as of August 6, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Experts say that means Nevada still has no board-certified child abuse pediatrician. They also say there are only around 300 to 400 child abuse pediatricians nationwide.
One of the issues with filling the position, officials say, is the field’s status as a niche specialty. Additionally, applicants desire a fellowship program to train future applicants for the field. However, Las Vegas doesn’t currently have the infrastructure and staffing in place to support that.
Officials also say the lack of qualified child abuse pediatricians has made medical and legal proceedings difficult where child abuse has led to death or serious bodily harm.
♿ Erica Carter is passionate about her job, and she has 7 acres of flowers and vegetables to show for it.
Carter’s specialty is reeling in grants to support students in the Omaha Nation school district, where she is a finance manager. One paid for the garden that sits next to the district’s campus. Another allowed the school system, in one of Nebraska’s lowest-income counties, to pay students to maintain it.
“They’re out in the sun. They’re watering plants,” she said. “It’s the first time they get a paycheck in their life.”
Carter, 41, is paralyzed from the chest down, an injury she’s lived with since a fall in her early 20s. It didn’t slow her down as she built her accounting career and got a master’s degree in human resource management.
But in November 2023, Carter — who lives in Sioux City, Iowa — got a letter from Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services. It said that her income was too high for her to stay on Medicaid and that she might lose her benefits in two weeks if she didn’t take action.
States are scrambling to get ready for a new federal requirement to double-check that many people on Medicaid qualify for the benefit by showing they are working, volunteering or studying at least 80 hours per month.
Politicians’ focus on requiring work has angered many people with disabilities who have Medicaid and say current policies that apply to them have the opposite effect — making them choose between working or receiving benefits. Hear the full story by Iowa Public Radio’s Natalie Krebs at KNPR.org.
🥃 A Texas-based company has acquired a popular local liquor chain. Spec’s Family Corporation will take over Lee’s Discount Liquor, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The liquor company says Lee’s will keep its name and partnerships and will continue to operate independently in Nevada. The new owners have not yet disclosed financial terms of the deal.
⛈️ Today, the National Weather Service forecasts isolated showers and thunderstorms after 2 p.m., with mostly sunny and hot skies. High temperatures are expected to reach near 106 degrees, with wind speeds potentially gusting as high as 21 mph.
Later in the evening, low temperatures are expected to drop to around the mid-80s. The rest of the week is forecast to have more isolated showers and thunderstorms through Saturday, August 15. Temperatures will also gradually decrease from a high of 101 degrees tomorrow to the upper 90s on Friday, August 14.
Part of these stories are taken from KNPR's daily newscast segment. To hear more daily updates like these, tune in to 88.9 KNPR FM.
