When Alaska Natives debate proposals to drill and mine the landscape of the nation’s largest state, it involves more than an environmental or economic question.

A court filing says the parties in lawsuits seeking damages for last year’s Maui wildfires have reached a $4 billion global settlement.

Officials in Maui are warning residents that it remains too early to return to some parts of the island where firefighters have extinguished flames.

As smoke cleared from the fires in Maui that killed at least 80 people and wiped out a historic town, the firestorm left hundreds of people searching desperately for missing loved ones.

The fire that tore across a coastal Maui town and caught many by surprise has already claimed dozens of lives and burned more than 1,000 buildings.