Day of Mourning: Italy is holding a national day of mourning for victims of this week’s earthquake in which at least 290 people died. Several people are still missing.

Hardest hit was the historic town of Amatrice, a picture-postcard mountain village where 230 people were killed.

The disaster points out Italy’s problem width retro-fitting its historic buildings to survive earthquakes. Italy spends nearly $4 billion a year reinforcing buildings, but 60 percent of the country’s structures are at least 100 years old.

French Coverup: France’s highest administrative court has suspended local bans on the “burkini,” the full-body bathing attire worn by Muslim women, saying the bans “seriously and clearly illegally breached fundamental freedoms.” About 30 towns banned the burkini, claiming it was culturally inappropriate in France and visually threatening after a string of Muslim terrorist attacks.

Down Where It’s Wetter: President Obama is preparing to issue an order that would expand a marine sanctuary northwest of the Hawaiian Islands to four times its size, making it the largest marine sanctuary in the world. It will be 580,000 square miles. The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, created by President George W. Bush, contains thousands of marine species and encompasses the area of the naval battle of Midway, a turning point in World War II.

Overdose: The pharmaceutical giant Mylan is fighting to maintain a friendly public image amidst public outrage over jacking up the price of life-saving EpiPens from $100 to $600 in just five years. Mylan is offering coupons to lower the price for its customers, without actually lowering the price.

CEO Heather Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, blames market middlemen and health care companies for the high cost to patients. “They’re paying full retail price at the counter, and they’re paying higher premiums on their insurance,” she said. Bresch says Mylan pockets “only” $274 for a package of two pens, which cost just a few dollars to make.

Mylan sales of EpiPens amount to $1 billion a year. People with potentially fatal allergies have to carry two at all times and buy new ones every year.

LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik pointed out that there’s another reason to hate Mylan: it’s a big corporate tax dodger. He wrote, “Mylan is one of the leading exploiters of the technique known as inversion, in which a U.S. company cuts its tax bill by acquiring a foreign firm and moving its tax domicile to the acquired company’s homeland.”

Range War: The NY Times reports that with changing demographics, increased Democratic voter registration, and minority disenchantment with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has a shot at taking several traditionally Republican western states. Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada are hanging in the balance. The Times report says western Republicans are worried that Trump could do long-term damage to their political prospects.

Best Doctors in Manhattan: NBC News reports that Donald Trump’s doctor wrote a glowing medical health report about the Republican candidate in five minutes while a limousine waited outside. The letter closed with the Trump-like superlative, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

The Obit Page: John Ellenby, a British-born computer engineer who put together a design team that produced the first clamshell laptop computer, has died in San Francisco at age 75. The Compass computer went on the market in 1982.

Childcare: The University of Chicago, one of the most selective universities in the country, has warned incoming students not to expect “safe spaces” and trigger warnings for academic content that might upset the little darlings.

In a letter to the class of 2020, Dean of Students John Ellison said one of the defining characteristics of the school is a commitment to freedom of inquiry and expression. “Members of our community are encouraged to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn, without fear of censorship,” he wrote. And he said, “Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings,’ we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own.”

That means no blankets and stuffed bunnies when the art history professor discusses The Rape of the Sabine Women.

-30-