Geithner: Obama won't ask me to stay in a 2nd term (AP)

WASHINGTON – Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that he doesn't expect to serve a second term as Treasury secretary. He said he doesn't think President Barack Obama would ask him to remain if Obama won re-election.

"He's not going to ask me to stay on, I'm pretty confident," Geithner said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "I'm also confident he's going to have the privilege of having another Treasury secretary."

Geithner is the only remaining top official on Obama's original economics team. He had considered leaving in August after the congressional battle over raising the debt limit was resolved.

Obama asked him to reconsider and remain in the Cabinet, and Geithner did. But the incident heightened expectations that Geithner would serve only through the 2012 election.

Geithner, who helped lead the administration's response to the 2008 financial crisis, has been a frequent target of criticism in his three years at Treasury. Many accused him of siding too closely with Wall Street in the government bailout of the financial system.

As the administration's highest-profile economic figure, Geithner been a lightning rod for criticism of its economic stewardship. Critics contend that government spending under Obama failed to keep unemployment from rising and gave the country record budget deficits.

But Geithner also received praise for his leadership in getting a sweeping financial overhaul through Congress and in the efforts he made to stabilize the financial system

Geithner's supporters also argue that the Treasury secretary provided Obama with sound advice on how to restructure the financial system. They note, too, that he successfully managed the government's $700 billion financial bailout to limit taxpayers' losses.

In the interview Wednesday, Geithner offered no hints of what he might do after leaving the administration.

"I'm very fortunate," he said. "I work with tremendously talented people, and this is one of the most important times in modern history to be in the world of economic policy and finance. And I work for a great president, who I believe in."

It isn't unusual for Cabinet secretaries to leave after just one term of a two-term presidency. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both had three Treasury secretaries during their two terms in office.

The only Treasury secretary in recent history to serve more than four years was Nicholas Brady who served as Ronald Reagan's third Treasury secretary. Brady then stayed to serve for all four years of the George H.W. Bush administration.

Arizona Gov. Brewer gets book critique from Obama (AP)

MESA, Ariz. – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One's steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book."

Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. "He did blow me off at ASU," she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. "I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least."

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

"I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is," she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

"I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we're glad he's here, and we'll regroup."

A White House official said Brewer handed Obama a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The official said Obama told her he would be glad to meet with her again. The official said Obama did note that after their last meeting, which the official described as a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation between the president and the governor.

Obama and GOP candidates offer a campaign preview (AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – On a day that combined two campaigns into one, President Barack Obama on Wednesday challenged Republicans to raise taxes on the rich as GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich swiped at him on the economy and criticized each other over immigration.

With a week to go before the Jan. 31 Florida Republican presidential primary, the polls suggested a tight race, although Romney and his allies seized a staggering advantage in the television ad wars. They have reported spending $14 million combined on commercials, many of them critical of Gingrich, and a total at least seven times bigger that the investment made by the former House speaker and an organization supporting him.

Obama's political timeline was a different one, Election Day on Nov. 6. In a campaign-style appearance in Iowa, he demanded Congress approve a tax increase for anyone like Romney whose income exceeds $1 million a year.

"If you make more than a million dollars a year, you should pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent. If, on the other hand, you make less than $250,000, which includes 98 percent of you, your taxes shouldn't go up," he said after touring a manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids and in a state that he won in 2008 that was expected to be a battleground in the fall.

"This is not class warfare," he said. "That's common sense."

As Obama surely knew, it was an offer Gingrich, Romney and the anti-tax Republicans in Congress are likely to find easy to refuse.

Referring to Obama's call in the speech for Congress to end tax breaks that encourage companies to ship jobs overseas, Romney said he didn't know of any.

Instead, he said the president presides over "the most anti-business, anti-investment, anti-job creator administration I've ever seen, and so, what I'll do — I'll get America to work again. I spent 25 years in business."

Gingrich was far harsher at an appearance in Miami.

"If he actually meant what he said it would be a disaster of the first order," Gingrich said of the president's call for higher taxes on millionaires.

The former House speaker said the president's proposal would double the capital gains tax and "lead to a dramatic decline in the stock market, which would affect every pension fund in the United States."

"It would affect every person who has a 401(k). It would attack the creation of jobs and drive capital outside of the United States. It would force people to invest overseas. It would be the most anti-jobs single step he could take," he said.

Under current law, investment income is taxed as the rate of 15 percent, a fact that has come to the fore of the campaign in recent days with the release of Romney's income tax return.

Wages, by contrast, are taxed at rates that can exceed 30 percent.

Electability is the top concern for GOP primary voters, according to polls taken in the early primary and caucus states, so both Republicans were eager to paint a contrast with the president.

But Romney and Gingrich also focused on the Florida primary now seven days distant.

Romney has long led in the state's polls, but Gingrich's upset victory last Saturday in the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina revitalized his candidacy and raised questions about the former Massachusetts governor's staying power.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is also on the ballot, as is Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

But Santorum has been sinking in the polls as Gingrich rises, and Paul has indicated he intends to bypass the state to concentrate on caucuses to be held elsewhere.

That gives Florida the feel of a two-man race, and Romney and Gingrich are treating it that way. The two men sparred heatedly Monday night in a debate that virtually relegated Santorum and Paul to supporting roles.

A second debate is set for Thursday in Jacksonville. And if their separate appearances during the day on the Spanish-language television network Univision is a guide, it will be as feisty as the first.

Gingrich referred acidly to Romney describing a policy of "self-deportation" as a way of having illegal immigrants leave the country without a massive roundup.

"You have to live in a world of Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts and automatically $20 million income for no work to have some fantasy this far from reality," he said, referring to some of the details disclosed this week when the former Massachusetts governor released his tax returns.

"For Romney to believe that somebody's grandmother is going to be so cut off that she is going to self-deport, I mean, this is an Obama-level fantasy."

Romney's campaign swiftly produced evidence that aides to Gingrich had used the term "self-deport" approvingly, and the former governor attacked.

"I recognize that it's very tempting to come out to an audience like this and pander to the audience," Romney said. "I think that was a mistake on his (Gingrich's) part."

Gingrich also ran into trouble over a radio ad his campaign was airing that called Romney "anti-immigrant." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is neutral in the presidential race, criticized the commercial, and Romney said the term "anti-immigrant" was an epithet.

Gingrich made a stop in Cocoa, center of the state's now-withered space industry, and he cheered his audience by envisioning construction of the first permanent base on the moon. He also promised a "robust industry" of "commercial near-earth activities" to include science, tourism and manufacturing.

He said he hopes to stimulate investment by having the government offer prizes to private companies, but he did not elaborate. For Obama, Iowa was the first of five stops in three days following a State of the Union speech in which he stressed the theme of income equality that is expected to be one of the cornerstones of his re-election campaign. He also wove in proposals to help restore the U.S. manufacturing base that has withered in the course of the recession that began in 2008.

"Our economy is getting stronger, and we've come too far to turn back now," he told workers and guests at a conveyor manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids. Speaking of Republicans, he said, "Their philosophy is simple: We're better off when everyone is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules."

It's a message that may be received differently depending on the local economy.

Iowa's unemployment was most recently measured at 5.6 percent, well below the national average. In Arizona, which has its primary in four weeks, joblessness is 8.7 percent, while Nevada's at 12.6, the highest in the country. Its caucuses are Feb. 4.

___

Associated Press writers Brian Bakst, Kasie Hunt and Steve Peoples in Florida contributed to this report.

Amid tears, Giffords bids her farewell to Congress (AP)

WASHINGTON – The applause rolled through the big chamber, growing ever louder as hundreds of Republicans and Democrats suddenly realized Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was back in the House.

But this time she had come to say goodbye.

Fellow lawmakers gave her a fitting send-off: cheers, hugs, a cascade of tributes and plenty of tears in a rare moment of political unity.

A year since that fateful Saturday morning when Giffords was severely wounded during a shooting rampage in her home district, the Arizona congresswoman resigned on Wednesday with a plea for civility — and a hint that she'll be back on the national stage. For now, the 41-year-old said, her movements and speech still halting, she needs to focus on her recovery.

For all the kind words showered on her, Giffords reflected in her resignation letter about a level of respect that seems like an aberration these days in a bitterly divided Washington.

In her five years in Congress, she said, "Always I fought for what I thought was right. But never did I question the character of those with whom I disagreed. Never did I let pass an opportunity to join hands with someone just because he or she held different ideals."

Said Republican Rep. Ted Poe of Texas in the first of many tributes: "Gabby is the spirit of bipartisanship that we should all learn from."

Giffords' friend Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., became emotional before reading Giffords' resignation letter in the well of the House. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., held Giffords' hand. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, cried after Giffords slowly made her way to the podium and handed him the envelope with her resignation letter.

Last January, a gunman opened fire at Giffords' "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, killing six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge and wounding 13, including Giffords who suffered a gunshot wound to her head. She has spent the past year recovering, showing up in the House just once last August to vote on raising the nation's borrowing authority.

That appearance stirred speculation about her political future and whether she would seek another term or even pursue an open Senate seat.

Giffords put that talk to rest on Sunday, announcing in a Web video that she would resign this week. On Monday, she met with survivors of the shootings in Arizona, , finishing the event that she had started outside a supermarket. On Tuesday night, she received thunderous applause and a hug from President Barack Obama at his State of the Union address.

Colleagues and friends stood with her, Flake by her side. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., had her back.

On Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats turned a morning debate over Giffords' last bill into a forum to praise her work and perseverance.

"We haven't seen the last of Gabby Giffords," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas. "I believe ... whatever the future holds for her she has made this a better place."

Around 10 a.m., Giffords entered the chamber through the main door, the same one Obama used the previous night. Wasserman Schultz assisted her as she made her way down the aisle, greeted warmly by colleagues with kisses and hugs. She sat in the front row for a flurry of tributes. In the gallery sat her mother, Gloria, and husband, retired Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, the former astronaut.

"All of us come to the floor today ... to salute her as the brightest star among us, the brightest star Congress has ever seen," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said he received a call from Kelly on Sunday informing him of Giffords' plans to resign. He said Giffords' "strength against all odds serves and will continue to serve as a daily inspiration to all of us."

Said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., "The House of Representative has been made proud by this extraordinary daughter of the House. Gabby, we love you, we have missed you."

Prolonged standing ovations and spontaneous whoops marked the tributes. Giffords briefly waved at Kelly and her mother when their names were mentioned.

Surrounded by colleagues and friends, Giffords stood in the well of the chamber to resign. Wasserman Schultz read her two-page letter to Boehner.

"Everyday, I am working hard," Giffords wrote. "I will recover and will return, and we will work together again, for Arizona and for all Americans."

She purposefully made it to the podium to deliver the letter to Boehner.

Moments later, the House, including Giffords, voted for her final piece of legislation — a bill that would impose tougher penalties on smugglers who use small, low-flying aircraft to avoid radar detection and bring drugs across the Mexican border.

The vote was 408-0. The Senate, which recently passed a version of the bill, is expected to vote Thursday on the measure and send it to Obama for his signature.

Giffords submitted resignation letters to both Boehner and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. It falls to Brewer to set a date for a special primary and general election to fill the Arizona seat. That will probably happen in the spring or early summer. In November, voters will choose someone for the full two-year term.

After the tribute, Kelly said his wife realized stepping down was the right thing to do.

"But I'm more optimistic than anybody else about her future. She just needs some more time, whether it's a year or two years or three years, I'm very confident she's going to have a long and effective career as a public servant," he said.

Asked about her daughter's future, Gloria Giffords said, "I kind of think she's transcended Congress. I don't know where she's going to end up."

"She's remembered every boy she's ever kissed, every song she's ever sang, every bill she's ever passed," she said. "So upward and onward."

___

Associated Press writers Alan Fram and Jim Abrams contributed to this report.

Pelosi hints, then denies she has Gingrich secrets (AP)

WASHINGTON – Does House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi know some dark secrets about GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich? Twice, she offered tantalizing hints that she does. And then said she doesn't. Gingrich said Wednesday that the House Democratic leader should come out with it or shut up.

The latest back-and-forth in the contest of two former House speakers came in a CNN interview Tuesday night, when host John King suggested to Pelosi that she "could come back here next January or next February with a President Gingrich?"

"Let me just say this. That will never happen," Pelosi said.

When King asked, "Why are you so sure?" Pelosi responded: "There's something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him, that's their prerogative. I don't even think that's going to happen."

On Wednesday, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said: "The `something' leader Pelosi knows is that Newt Gingrich will not be president of the United States. She made that clear last night."

Hammill's statement, however, acknowledged that this wasn't the first time that Pelosi hinted that she knows something about Gingrich that she hasn't revealed.

In December, Pelosi reminded an interviewer that she served on the ethics panel that investigated Gingrich's use of tax-exempt organizations. That case ended with a reprimand by the House and a $300,000 penalty against the then-speaker for misleading the committee and prolonging its investigation.

Pelosi said last month: "One of these days we'll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich. I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

Hammill repeated the explanation provided after those comments.

"Leader Pelosi previously made a reference to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware," the spokesman said.

Gingrich said Wednesday that Pelosi should come out with her information or stop talking.

"Look, I think if she knows something she ought to say it. If she doesn't know something she ought to quit saying it. But this is baloney. I don't think any Republican is going to be threatened by Nancy Pelosi. Frankly, I'd rather have her threaten me than endorse me. So I feel pretty good about it. If she has something, bring it out," he said.

Mitt Romney, Gingrich's chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination, has asked that all records from Gingrich's ethics investigation be released. In January 1997, when the case ended, the committee did make public its final report as well as exhibits — which amounted to a comprehensive account of the committee's findings.

The chairman of the ethics committee during the Gingrich investigation, former Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, said the committee traditionally does not publicly release investigative documents.

A daring raid, and US, Danish hostages on way home (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Held captive since last fall, an ailing American woman and a Danish man will soon be safely on their way home after a bold, dark-of-night rescue by U.S. Navy SEALs. The commandos slipped into a Somali encampment, shot and killed nine captors and whisked the hostages to freedom.

The raid's success was welcome news for the hostages and their families, for the military and for President Barack Obama, who was delivering his State of the Union speech and beginning a five-state tour as the mission wrapped up. He did not mention it in his address but dropped a hint upon arriving in the House chamber by telling Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, "Good job tonight."

It was the second splashy SEAL Team 6 success in less than a year, following last May's killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The SEALs encountered some degree of resistance from the kidnappers at the encampment, two U.S. officials said, and there was a firefight during an approximately 1- to 1 1/2-hour operation.

One defense official said it was likely that the SEALs killed the kidnappers rather than capture them because they encountered armed resistance or the threat of resistance.

The Pentagon was mostly tight-lipped about details on Wednesday, citing a need to preserve the secrecy that can give SEALs and other special operations forces an edge against the terrorists, criminals and others they are ordered to kill or capture around the world under hazardous and often hostile conditions.

Special operations forces, trained for clandestine, small-team missions, have become a more prominent tool in the military's kit since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The Obama administration is expected to announce on Thursday that it will invest even more heavily in that capability in coming years.

After planning and rehearsal, the Somalia rescue was carried out by SEAL Team 6, officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret mission. The same outfit did the bin Laden mission, the biggest counter-terror success of Obama's presidency. It was not clear whether any team members participated in both operations.

One official said the SEALs parachuted from U.S. Air Force aircraft before moving on foot, apparently undetected, to the outdoor encampment where they found American Jessica Buchanan, 32, and Poul Hagen Thisted, a 60-year-old Dane, who had been kidnapped in Somalia last fall. The raid happened near the town of Adado.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said the captors were heavily armed and had "explosives nearby" when the rescuers arrived on the scene, but he was not more specific. He declined to say whether there was an exchange of gunfire and would not provide any further details about how the rescue was completed beyond saying all of the captors were killed by the Americans.

The American raiders caught the kidnappers as they were sleeping after having chewed the narcotic leaf qat for much of the evening, a pirate who gave his name as Bile Hussein told The Associated Press by phone. Hussein said he was not present at the site but had spoken with other pirates who were, and that they told him nine pirates had been killed in the raid and three were "taken away."

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby, said U.S. officials could not confirm that the kidnappers were engaged in piracy. He referred to them simply as "criminals."

Little said the decision to go ahead with the rescue was prompted in part by rising concern about the medical condition of Buchanan. He said he could not be specific without violating her privacy but did say U.S. officials had reason to believe her condition could be life-threatening. Mary Ann Olsen, an official with the Danish Refugee Council, which employed Buchanan and Thisted in de-mining efforts in Somalia, said Buchanan was "not that ill" but needed medicine.

Danish Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal told Denmark's TV2 channel, "One of the hostages has a disease that was very serious and that had to be solved." Soevndal did not provide any more details.

U.S. officials "within the last week or so" had collected enough information to "connect the dots" that led Obama to authorize the mission on Monday, Little said.

A Western official said the rescuers and the freed hostages flew by helicopter to Camp Lemonnier in the nearby Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been released publicly. The hostages will remain in Djibouti Wednesday but will be leaving "fairly soon," one U.S. official said. They will then travel to another location for medical screenings and other evaluations before heading home, the official said.

Panetta visited Camp Lemonnier just over a month ago. A key U.S. ally in this region, Djibouti hosts the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, a U.S.-led group organized under U.S. Africa Command.

In a statement after the rescue, Africa Command said Buchanan and Thisted were being held for an undisclosed ransom. It said the rescue team managed to confirm the hostages' presence in the camp before launching the assault. The mission was directed by Army Gen. Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, from his headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Panetta and other members of Obama's national security team monitored the mission from the White House before traveling up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol for the president's annual message to Congress and the nation.

Obama, Panetta and Ham all praised the skill and courage of the SEALs and expressed gratitude for the safe return of the hostages.

"We should remember that Mrs. Buchanan and Mr. Thisted were working to protect the people of Somalia when they were violently kidnapped," Ham said in a written statement. "It is my hope that all those who work in Somalia for the betterment of the Somali people can be free from the dangers of violent criminals."

The Danish Refugee Council confirmed that Buchanan and Thisted were "on their way to be reunited with their families" on Wednesday.

Minutes after Obama completed his State of the Union address he was on the phone with Buchanan's father to tell him his daughter was safe.

"As commander in chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission and the dedicated professionals who supported their efforts," Obama said in a statement released by the White House on Wednesday.

"The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people and will spare no effort to secure the safety of our citizens and to bring their captors to justice."

The Danish Refugee Council had been trying to work with Somali elders to win the hostages' freedom but had found little success. The head of the council, Andreas Kamm, said he would have preferred to see the two hostages freed peacefully "but we're happy with the outcome. This is a day of joy indeed."

Buchanan lived in neighboring Kenya before Somalia and worked at a school in Nairobi called the Rosslyn Academy from 2007-09, said Rob Beyer, the dean of students. He described the American as quick to laugh and adventurous.

"There have been tears on and around the campus today," Beyer said. "She was well-loved by all her students."

Several hostages are still being held in Somalia, including a British tourist, two Spanish doctors seized from neighboring Kenya and an American journalist kidnapped on Saturday.

___

Houreld reported from Nairobi and Burns from Washington. Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Lolita Baldor and Julie Pace in Washington, Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Patrick Walters in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

___

Follow Katharine Houreld at http://twitter.com/khoureld and Robert Burns at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP

Remorseful man admits he caused big Reno blaze (AP)

RENO, Nev. – An "extremely remorseful" elderly man admitted Friday that he accidentally started a brush fire that destroyed 29 homes near Reno when he improperly discarded fireplace ashes at his home south of town, authorities said.

"He came forward on his own accord," Reno Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said about the man. The resulting blaze, fueled by 82 mph wind gusts, burned nearly 3,200 acres and forced the evacuation of up to 10,000 people Thursday.

"He has given statements to our investigators as well as law enforcement officers. He is extremely remorseful," the chief said.

Investigators already had tracked the origin of the fire to a location in East Lake on the north end of the Washoe Valley, where the man lives about 20 miles south of downtown Reno.

Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley said a formal case file will be forwarded to the district attorney next week for consideration of charges.

"The DA will have to give this case a lot of deliberation," Haley said.

"The fact he came forward and admitted it plays a role. But so does the massive damage and loss of life," he said. "It's a balancing act."

In addition to the potential for facing jail time on arson charges, the man could also be ordered to pay the cost of fighting the fire, which already totals $690,000.

Washoe County Manager Katy Simon said she expects the final bill to run into the millions of dollars.

Gov. Sandoval toured the fire damaged area Friday, describing it as "horrendous, devastating."

"There is nothing left in some of those places except for the chimneys and fireplaces," he said.

The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by the wind, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno.

The strong, erratic winds caused major challenges for crews evacuating residents, Sierra Front spokesman Mark Regan said. "In a matter of seconds, the wind would shift," he said.

Haley confirmed that the body of June Hargis, 93, was found in the fire's aftermath, but her cause of death has not been established, so it's not known if it was fire related.

Jeannie Watts, the woman's 70-year-old daughter, told KRNV-TV that Hargis' grandson telephoned her to tell her to evacuate but she didn't get out in time.

A break in the weather and calmer winds allowed firefighters to get the upper hand on the blaze Friday.

Hernandez estimated it to be 65 percent contained Friday night. He said 300 firefighters would remain on the scene through the night checking for hot spots along with another 125 support people, including law enforcement officers and the Nevada National Guard.

About 2,000 people remained subject to evacuation, and about 100 households still were without power.

State transportation officials said they expected to reopen all of U.S. Highway 395 between Reno and Carson City by Saturday morning.

The next challenge may be the forecast for rain and snow in the mountains on Saturday, which could cause flooding in burned areas, he said.

Marred in Reno's driest winter in more than 120 years, residents had welcomed the forecast that a storm was due to blow across the Sierra Nevada this week.

Instead, thousands found themselves fleeing their homes Thursday afternoon.

Connie Cryer went to the fire response command post Friday with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Miramon, to find out if her house had survived the flames.

"We had to know so we could get some sleep," Cryer said, adding her house was spared but a neighbor's wasn't. She had seen wildfires before, but nothing on this scale.

"There was fire in front of me, fire beside me, fire behind me. It was everywhere," she said. "I don't know how more didn't burn up. It was terrible, all the wind and the smoke."

Fire officials said Thursday's fire was "almost a carbon copy" of a blaze that destroyed 30 homes in Reno during similar summer-like conditions in mid-November.

State Forester Pete Anderson said he has not seen such hazardous fire conditions in winter in his 43 years in Nevada. Reno had no precipitation in December. The last time that happened was 1883.

An inch of snow Monday ended the longest recorded dry spell in Reno history, a 56-day stretch that prompted Anderson to issue an unusual warning about wildfire threats.

"We're usually pretty much done with the fire season by the first of November, but this year it's been nonstop," Anderson said.

Kit Bailey, U.S. Forest Service fire chief at nearby Lake Tahoe, said conditions are so dry that even a forecast calling for rain and snow might not take the Reno-Tahoe area out of fire danger.

"The scary thing is a few days of drying after this storm cycle and we could be back into fire season again," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.