Declarations

“The threshold for flash flooding is pretty low up there because of the soils in the burn scar. One to two inches of rain in an hour is plenty sufficient to cause problems.”

— Frank Cooper, a National Weather Service meteorologist, explained how nearly an inch of rain in an area in northern Colorado resulted in a flash flood that swept away a camping trailer, killing a woman and a child.

“No family or community needs to experience this pain and no child should have to live with it for the rest of their life.”

— Matthew and Mary Mueller, the parents of a teenager wounded in a Michigan high school mass shooting, said in a suit against a shop that sold the handgun used to kill four students and injure six other people. The complaint accuses Acme Shooting Goods LLC of negligently or unlawfully supplying the gun through a straw sale. Authorities said James Crumbley bought the 9 mm semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting at Oxford High School as an early Christmas gift for his son, Ethan, who was 15 at the time. Ethan Crumbley, now 16, has been charged as an adult with murder and terrorism, and faces trial in January.

“We are experiencing dry fuels to a level that we haven’t seen in the past ten years.”

— Adam Turner, a spokesperson for Texas A&M Forest Service, said of the fire risk resulting from drought conditions in the state. On July 18, a wildfire burned several homes and prompted calls for voluntary evacuations around a lake in north Texas amid sweltering temperatures and dry conditions. Wildfires and intense heat in Texas and some other parts of the United States come as unusually hot, dry weather has gripped large swaths of Europe.

“We will eradicate these snails. We’ve done it before and we will do it again.”

— Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said, referring to an invasion of giant African land snails that can eat building plaster and stucco, consume hundreds of varieties of plants, and carry diseases that affect humans.

“I am making an incredibly hard decision to part ways with many of our friends and colleagues in an effort to adapt to the worsening macroeconomic environment and to secure the long-term vision of the company. … As difficult as this is, it is my responsibility to adjust our priorities in light of the new reality of market conditions and to accelerate NEXT’s goals to become profitable.”

— Guy Goldstein, CEO and co-founder of insurtech NEXT, said in a July 7 letter to employees that was shared on the company’s blog, addressing NEXT’s shedding of 17% of its workforce in July.

“No, I don’t (accept) responsibility because I wasn’t trying to cause pain and suffering. … If questioning public events and free speech is banned because it might hurt somebody’s feelings, we are not in America anymore. They can change the channel. They can come out and say I’m wrong. They have free speech.”

— Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said in a lawsuit deposition when questioned about calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut a hoax and the effect the statement had on families who lost loved ones, according to recently released court documents. Several Sandy Hook families are suing Jones for defamation over the hoax claim. After first promoting the hoax conspiracies on his Infowars show and other media platforms, Jones later said he did believe the shooting happened but has maintained he had the right to say it didn’t.