Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins declared the emergency in his capacity as director of the county's Homeland Security and Emergency Management and instructed the department to file a local disaster declaration with the state.

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The group described the application as "going beyond environmental vandalism and being tantamount to a declaration of war on the local community and global environment".

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The declaration means federal emergency aid will supplement local recovery efforts.

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The declaration allows for the use of state resources and assets to support local response efforts, MEMA said.

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In the year Britain and China signed their Joint Declaration on Hong Kong's future, not one member of the local legislature was elected.

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In their declaration, prompted by the pope's pre-millennium call to local churches to ask for pardon for misdeeds committed during the course of the church's history, the French bishops seek to place the church's actions between 1940 and 1945 in a historical context.

ECONOMIST: France