Harold Meyerson notes that it's not just wildfires that are sweeping the state the state hugely and abruptly:
In Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties, there were 1,960 foreclosures in the third quarter of 2006. In this year's third quarter, there were 13,314. They are particularly pervasive in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, the working-class exurbs of Los Angeles and Orange County, and the fastest-growing counties in the state. With affordable housing in Los Angeles now a fond memory at best, working- and middle-class families have been migrating inland to cheaper tracts and subprime mortgages, which in some parts of San Bernardino and Riverside account for nearly half of all mortgages.
Read the rest (and comment) here. --The Editors
