PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Part of a major interstate highway in Oregon was closed Monday due to a wildfire that forced a small town to evacuate, one of dozens of blazes burning across the state.
The Fox Fire forced the closure of Interstate 84 for some 70 miles (113 kilometers) between Baker City and Ontario near the Idaho state line before reopening later in the day, the Oregon Department of Transportation said. I-84 is a key thoroughfare, running from Portland in the west through the Columbia River Gorge and into eastern Oregon before crossing the Snake River eastward through Boise.
The transportation department said the wildfire remains active in the area and that intermittent closures were still possible.
Challenging wildfires have burned across the Western U.S. this summer, following months of dry weather, a record lack of snow in some areas, hot spells and erratic winds. Federal authorities announced Saturday that a fourth firefighter died of his injuries after he and several colleagues were overcome last month by a fast-moving wildfire near the Colorado-Utah border.
The Fox Fire was burning near the Oregon-Idaho state line about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of the small town of Huntington, which was under a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order, meaning its roughly 500 residents have been told to leave immediately.
Fueled by hot, dry and breezy conditions, the fire has scorched nearly 72 square miles (186 square kilometers) and was 0% contained as of Monday.
Huntington Mayor Chuck Guerri said the fire flared up early Monday morning near the east side of town, estimating it got within 250 feet (76 meters) of the nearest home before firefighters got a handle on that portion of the blaze. The smoke was so thick you could taste it, he said.
“We did send the alarm and went around knocking on doors on the east end of town to try to get people out of here, because it was coming in pretty quick,” he said. “But we had some good crews here, and they got it knocked down pretty quickly."
Officials are continuing to keep a close eye on the fire beyond other parts of the town, which is surrounded by grassy rangeland, he added. “We want to make sure that they can keep that contained out there and not turn into something else."
With aircraft potentially grounded due to limited visibility from the smoke, firefighters were building bulldozer lines around Huntington near a railroad that also runs through the area to protect critical infrastructure, authorities said.
Elsewhere in eastern Oregon, the state transportation department's website showed a rural stretch of U.S. Route 20 was also closed Monday due to wildfire for nearly 70 miles, between the small cities of Burns and Vale.
In central Oregon, the Akawa Butte Fire was deemed a top priority for firefighting in recent days due to its proximity — about 5 miles (8 kilometers) — to Sisters, a small city of about 3,000 people. While authorities said Sunday that fire activity had decreased across much of the blaze, part of the town is still under an evacuation notice, with residents told to be prepared to leave if necessary.
This undated photo provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation on Monday, July 27, 2026, shows the Fox Fire burning in eastern Oregon. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)
This undated photo provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation on Monday, July 27, 2026, shows the Fox Fire burning in eastern Oregon. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — In the months after the birth of her third child, Lindsay Clancy 's mental health collapsed. Manic, unable to sleep and stricken with thoughts of harming herself, she sought care from experts in postpregnancy mood disorders, was put on multiple psychiatric medications, and when nothing worked, checked in to a psychiatric hospital.
Nineteen days after she was discharged, she strangled her three children at their Massachusetts home.
A jury is set to hear opening statements Monday in Clancy's murder trial, which will feature dueling views about her culpability and mental state.
Prosecutors are set to argue that Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, carefully planned the killings and bears full responsibility for their deaths.
Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, will argue that at the time of the killings she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.
The trial is expected to take several weeks.
Elyse Hershon, a Boston criminal defense attorney and legal analyst, said the verdict will likely depend on how the jury views Clancy’s “intent and mental capacity."
“Whenever there are deaths of children, it rattles emotions. Because these actions are incomprehensible and the outcome so horrific, people tend to want to hold someone responsible,” Hershon said. “Some people naturally will identify and sympathize with Clancy and her postpartum depression, and others will not be able to understand how one could end their children’s lives, and demand responsibility.”
While postpartum depression is fairly common among women who have given birth, postpartum psychosis is estimated to afflict only 1 to 2 per 1,000 women after delivery. Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, mood changes and thoughts of harming yourself or others. Most women who have the condition, however, do not wind up harming their children.
Prosecutors say Clancy strangled her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — on Jan. 24, 2023, after sending her then-husband, Patrick, out for some errands. She then jumped out of the home’s second-story window and was paralyzed from the waist down in the fall.
At the time, she had been getting psychiatric care for about four months. On the day of the killings, she said she heard voices telling her, “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself," according to her lawyer.
If convicted of murder, Clancy faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
The case has parallels to several others involving mothers accused of killing their children.
In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub in Texas. Her attorneys she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and, in a delusional state, believed Satan was inside her and that killing the youngsters would save them from hell.
Her initial murder conviction was overturned and in a retrial she was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state mental hospital.
Another Texas mother, Dena Schlosser, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2006 after she killed her 10-month-old daughter by cutting off her arms.
Nicole Cirino, the director of the division of reproductive psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, who has been an expert defense witness in infanticide cases, said many of the women who harm their children while in the grip of postpartum psychosis believe their actions are helping the child.
In their own minds, “they may be saving their children from damnation," Cirino said.
Clancy and her former husband, Patrick Clancy, filed lawsuits accusing her medical providers of failing to properly diagnose and treat her condition.
Awareness about postpartum psychosis has grown since the Yates case, but Cirino and other maternal mental health advocates said prosecutors rarely consider a mother's mental state. Illinois is the only state with a law allowing for undiagnosed or untreated postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis to be a mitigating factor in sentencing.
“Women who kill their children in the throes of this medical illness, postpartum psychosis, are seriously and profoundly mentally ill. They are not evil,” said Dr. Catherine Birndorf, the CEO and founder of The Motherhood Center in New York City, which treats mothers with perinatal mood and anxiety disorders.
“To me it’s illness until proven otherwise,” she continued. “The fact that we consider it criminal until proven otherwise is problematic.”
Patrick Clancy reacts as images of himself and his children on vacation a month before they were killed is shown in the courtroom at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, July 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Jennifer Sprague, a prosecutor with the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office, enters a bag of prescription pills as evidence in Lindsay Clancy's trial, Monday, July 27, 2026, at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Patrick Clancy glances over at the defense table and his ex wife Lindsay Clancy is seated during her murder trial at the Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, July 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy waits for the judge to call a prospective jury member into court in her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defendant Lindsay Clancy fights back tears as the details of her children's death are read in court at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, July 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defendant Lindsay Clancy watches as her ex husband Patrick Clancy takes the witness stand at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., Monday, July 27, 2026. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington stays at the side of his client Lindsay Clancy during her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Lindsay Clancy waits for the judge to call a prospective jury member into court in her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Clancy confers with her lawyer Kevin Reddington during her murder trial where she is charged in the 2023 killing of her three children, Wednesday, July 22, 2026, in Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
