Morning Wire - Maui’s Recovery Effort & Montana Climate Ruling | 8.17.23

Episode Date: August 17, 2023

The search for the more than 1000 missing people in Maui continues, a battle is brewing between the family members portrayed in the Oscar winning film “The Blind Side” over movie money, and a Montana court ruled in favor of young climate activists in a decision that could set a major legal precedent for future cases. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.  ZBiotics: "Get 15% off your order with promo code WIRE http://www.ZBiotics.com/Wire" Renewals by Andersen: "Shop Renewal by Andersen’s Summer Sale by Texting ‘WIRE’ to 200-300." Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your first order or Coffee Club subscription with code WIRE: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Don't miss the Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters. Merrill Street, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci are back. In light of the recent scandal, I'm here to restore your credibility. I did not hire you, and all I need to do is bide my time until you've failed. On May 1st, icons. I'm going to make something of this job. Rain. Be the bridges I burn. Night my way.

Forever. I just love my job. Get tickets now. The Devil Wears Prada 2 in theaters, May 1st. Directed by David Frankel. As the smoke clears on the Hawaiian. island of Maui, the search for the more than a thousand still missing continues at a painstaking pace. We are facilitating human remain dogs that are searching every address in this area.

What steps are being taken to protect displaced residents and their property? I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, August 17th, and this is Morning Wire. There's a battle brewing between the family members. portrayed in the Oscar-winning film The Blind Side. Now, Michael Orr says he was cheated out of his Hollywood movie money, but the family says that's a lie. And a court in Montana sided with a group of young activists in a decision that could have significant consequences

on the use of fossil fuels. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know. Nine days after the deadliest wildfire in a century ravaged the island paradise of Maui, officials continue their grim search for victims as new details emerge about the potential cause of the blaze. Here with more on what we've learned

and the growing anger towards the government response to the fire as Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips. Cabot first, what do we know so far about the potential cause of the blaze? Yeah, we're finally starting to get a clearer picture of what happened that day. It appears the fire started after high winds knocked down a number of power lines,

sending sparks into underbrush below that have been dried out by drought over the last month. One resident posted a video of what appeared to be the initial blaze, attempting to put it out with the garden hose as he called 911. As firefighters responded to this scene, the fire soon spread out over a three-acre area, but was declared, quote, 100% contained by officials by 9 a.m. However, due to power outages on the island,

firefighters were dealing with diminished access to water, and around 3 p.m., the blaze jumped out of that contained area, raging towards Lahaina. 30 minutes later, officials began urging evacuations. Though, as we talked about on the show, hundreds, if not thousands of residents, never got that message as the emergency sirens failed to sound and text message alerts failed to go off for many without cell service during the power outage. Those who did try to evacuate were then confronted with near zero visibility from smoke,

downed power lines blocking streets, and gridlocked traffic. A number of residents, including families with young children, were found burned to death in their cars. Just horrific. What's the latest on the recovery efforts? Well, at the latest count, the official death toll now sits at 106, though cadaver dogs have now searched just a third of the burned-out rubble. A big fear at the moment is that a large number of the dead may be children. Schools in the area were canceled last Tuesday due to the power outages, leaving many kids home alone while their parents left for work. There have also been questions about what will happen to the destroyed land.

Tell us about those concerns. Yeah, so local government officials and residents have said that they're worried developers will see the destroyed. construction is an opportunity to snatch up prime real estate and potentially drive out locals. The area has seen a housing shortage in recent years. And the fear among locals is that large developers could exacerbate that problem. Here's one Lahaina resident speaking with MSNBC. I just want to remind all you real estate investors around the world, like Lahaina is not for sale. Please don't reach out to these families and take advantage of them during the most devastating time of our lives.

On that note, Hawaii's governor Josh Green said this week, he'd reached out to the state's Attorney General about imposing a moratorium on the sale of any property that's been damaged by the fires. He also said the state is organizing pro bono attorneys from Maui to consult with residents if people reach out to them about buying their land. Here's Green on Wednesday. If someone behaves in a predatory fashion towards one of the people that are suffering right now who have lost their loved ones or lost their home, you can be sure I will not be allowing anyone to build or rezone or do anything of that sort if they've taken advantage of anyone here. Rebuilding will be for our local people.

All right, so the governor vowing to protect people's property. Now, we've seen a lot of frustration from residents angry about the government's response. What are we seeing on that front? So first, there was justifiable anger over the lack of warning as the fire spread. And in the days since, that sentiment has only grown. As residents in the Haina say the government has failed to provide necessary aid to those who lost their homes, while the White House issued an emergency declaration and FEMA was deployed on the ground, resources have been very slow to reach those in need.

Many residents say government officials have been nowhere to be found and that the only food and water they've been given has come from private citizens who formed pop-up relief centers around the island. Here's one angry Maui local in a video posted online. The United States government are criminals for the way they're handling the Maui fire situation right now and for their neglect of the Hawaiian people, their U.S. citizens. There is next to zero federal response.

It's the Hawaiian people that are having to step up and create shelters and give people housing and get supplies, purchasing supplies and bringing it out on boats. And much of that frustration has also been aimed at President Biden, who was on vacation during the fire and went viral after saying, quote, no comment when asked by reporters about the disaster. On Monday, he announced $700 payments to each household displaced by the fire, which residents said was little consolation. That announcement also came the same day that Biden signed off on another $200 million aid package for Ukraine. critics say that money ought to go towards American citizens suffering in Hawaii instead.

For his part, the president said he will visit Hawaii on Monday, but there is a lot of anger heading his way and towards local officials. Yeah, well, a lot more to cover on this, and we'll keep on top of it. Kappa, thanks for reporting. Anytime. A feud has broken out between the real family members depicted in the Oscar-winning 2009 movie The Blindside. Former NFL player Michael Orr is suing Sean and Leanne Tuwe, the couple who took him in as a teenager.

He claims they tricked him out of earnings on the hit film and book. Here to tell us more about the legal dispute is Daily Wire Culture Reporter Megan Basham. So, Megan, I'll start by saying this is a pretty sad situation all around. What happened? So on Monday, Michael Orr filed a petition that said when he was 18, he signed paperwork believing the Tewis were adopting him. But he now says he only found out six months ago that what he actually signed was a conservatorship agreement and it gave the toee's legal authority over his business dealings or claims that sean

leanne and their two children each initially made two hundred and fifty thousand dollars from the movie and then two point five percent in residuals he says he in contrast received nothing so now he wants to dissolve that conservatorship and he wants a full accounting of the assets produced by the best-selling book and movie and also some unspecified punitive damages now what are the towey saying so they They released a statement on Tuesday through an attorney that is denying all of this. They say that Michael always knew it was a conservatorship and that lawyers told them at the time they couldn't adopt him because it was over 18. They say they made an arrangement to avoid NCAA violations and that allowed him to attend Ole Miss and put him on their insurance. Now, their attorney also said in a statement that

they didn't make any money off of the conservatorship and that really very little money that came from the film was divided equally. He said the idea that the Tewis would try to profit off of Michael Orr is, quote, not only offensive, it is transparently ridiculous because they're already independently wealthy, as depicted in the film. The Tui family is reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to the sale of a string of fast food franchises that they owned. And because of that, he says the notion that the family would, quote, connive to withhold a few thousand dollars, defies belief. Now, that's a story. That's a lot. said, Orr, of course, has made a lot of money, too. He earned an estimated $34 million over eight seasons in the NFL.

So the Tewy attorney said this isn't the first time that Orr has tried to do something like this. They claim he tried to blackmail them in the past, threatening to plant a negative story in the press if they didn't pay him $15 million. To go along with that, Blaze commentator Jason Whitlock said he reviewed Orr's 2011 autobiography. And he says in that book, Orr acknowledges that it was. was a conservatorship, not an adoption. And again, that was back in 2011. Now, have we heard anything from Orr or the Tui's directly? Well, Orr gave us a statement today, and he said, I will let the lawsuit speak for itself. And then Sean Tui spoke with his hometown paper, the Daily Memphian, saying that he and Leanne Tui hope that they can reconcile with Orr. And if so, they're going to, quote,

love him at 37, just as they loved him at 16. Well, you hate to see this. no matter what the truth is. Megan, thanks for reporting. Anytime. In a historic verdict, a Montana state court has ruled in favor of a group of young climate activist who sued the state for violating their right to a, quote, clean and healthful environment by routinely permitting the use of fossil fuels.

Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo. So Amanda, this ruling in Held v. Montana is the first of its kind nationwide, and it's created quite a stir. So tell us a little bit about this ruling. Yeah, sure thing. Helena District Judge Kathy Saley decided that a provision in the Montana Environmental Policy Act was unconstitutional, siding with the 16 young plaintiffs. Those plaintiffs, they range in age from just five years old to 22. Specifically, Judge Saley determined that the provision prevented Montana from considering climate impacts of energy projects.

And she said that ran afoul with the state constitution. That was amended in 1972 to guarantee access to a, quote, clean and healthful. environment. The plaintiffs argued that their injuries included dealing with wildfire smoke, feeling despair about melting glaciers, suffering from asthma, and other injuries associated with their quote, recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic interests. Now, one thing that's unique about this case is the ages of these plaintiffs. You mentioned that at least one is as young as five years old. So who actually organized this suit? Yeah, that's a great question. The group behind the lawsuit is based in Oregon and are called Our Children's Trust.

That group reportedly approached these young people, the minors presumably through their parents, to move forward with the lawsuit. In fact, Our Children's Trust has filed similar climate action on behalf of youth in all 50 states since 2011. This was the first time a youth-driven climate suit made it to trial, let alone score a victory. The group, though, has caught some ire from detractors who claim Our Children's Trust, uses children as pawns to advance their own climate activism. To that point, here's Montana Congressman Matt Rosendell in Fox News.

They get children to file the suits to be their litigants so that they could go in and try and shut down energy developments. I do serve on the Natural Resource Committee, and we have demonstrated time and time again that there's no country on Earth that develops the resources with better labor standards and better environmental standards than what we do, and yet we continue to see these groups try and close it all down. So what's the result of the ruling? The ruling was pretty narrow, so it's going to be up to the Montana state legislature to determine how to bring this provision into compliance. And in Montana, Republicans hold a supermajority in the legislature. So that could be a bit of an issue for activists, and that's if this ruling holds on appeal. However, this ruling is being praised by climate activists because of the precedent it sets.

Julia Olson, the founder of the group representing these plaintiffs, she called the verdict a, quote, game changer in this generation's efforts to save the planet. And she promised more rulings like this one. So climate activists are calling this a huge win. How's the state responding? Well, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, through a spokesperson, has already called the decision absurd, saying the state of Montana can't be blamed for changing the climate. Canutson's spokeswoman, Emily Flower, noted that the same legal theory has been thrown out in courts in over a dozen states, and she argued that it should have been tossed out here, too. Canutson has previously argued that the sue is an attempt to jam a quasi-green new deal through the courts instead of working constitutionally through the legislature.

Others who are on the side of the state are worried that this could have a major impact on Montana's economy by slowing down or even stopping energy projects. Montana ranks six in the nation for coal production. Since its judgment was just issued on August 14th, we haven't yet seen an appeal from the state, but we can expect that pretty soon. Yeah, I think you're probably right. Amanda, thanks for reporting. Thanks for having me. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.