E Minus 15: Hillary Clinton crossed the 50-percent line with voters and has a 12-point lead over Donald Trump, according to an ABC News tracking poll. The poll says Clinton has a 20-point lead with women.

The RealClear Politics average of polls has Clinton with a 6.7 percent lead over Trump. The NY Times “Upshot” gives Trump only a seven percent chance of winning.

But Trump has finally won his biggest-major newspaper endorsement. The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is owned by Republican billionaire bankroller Sheldon Adelson. He bought Nevada’s biggest paper so it couldn’t say anything bad about him.

The editorial says, “Make no mistake, a Hillary Clinton administration would indulge the worst instincts of the authoritarian left and continue to swell the bloated regulatory state while running the nation deeper into the red in pursuit of ‘free’ college and health care.”

The paper brushes aside Trump’s peccadilloes and says, “Mr. Trump represents neither the danger his critics claim nor the magic elixir many of his supporters crave. But he promises to be a source of disruption and discomfort to the privileged, back-scratching political elites for whom the nation’s strength and solvency have become subservient to power’s pursuit and preservation.”

Trump is still telling every audience the election is rigged. Mocking him yesterday, President Obama said, “If this was rigged, boy it would be a really big conspiracy.”

Down Ballot: With Clinton so far ahead in the polls, she and the Democrats are working to score big on what’s known as the “down ballot,” everything on the ballot under the presidential candidates. Clinton is urging voters to vote not only for her, but for Democrats in the Senate and the House.

In Pennsylvania, Clinton badmouthed incumbent Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey. In North Carolina, she urged people to vote for the Democratic candidate, Deborah Ross. “Unlike her opponent, Deborah has never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump,” Clinton said.

The Democrats are also hoping to win back some state governments. Sixty-six out of 99 state legislatives bodies are majority Republican. In 22 states, republicans have both the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature. They have a lot to defend, and a lot to lose.

Nation: Thirteen people were killed early yesterday when a bus carrying gamblers back to Los Angeles from a desert casino near the Salton Sea rear-ended a tractor trailer at high speed. The front of the bus crumpled and the trailer box peeled apart.

The Obit Page: Tom Hayden, the former radical activist and politician who was one of the Chicago Seven protesters put on trial after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, has died of heart failure at age 76. Hayden was one of the prominent figures who emerged from the turbulent 1960s and the anti-Vietnam War movement. He started out as a civil rights worker, became a founder of Students for a Democratic Society, and later was an author and California legislator. He was married to actress Jane Fonda for 17 years, a romance spawned from the anti-war movement.

> Steve Dillon, the British comic book artist, who drew the cult characters Hellblazer, Preacher, Punisher, and 2000AD’s Judge Dredd, has died at age 54. The titles tell the nature of his work. He drew comics about dystopian worlds of sex and violence, but he was known for a winking sense of humor.

Thanks for Your Service: The Pentagon has ordered the California National Guard to claw back signing bonuses paid to about 8,000 soldiers for re-enlistment during the last 15 years of foreign wars. In most cases the money was spent long ago on cars, homes, and living expenses. The Pentagon says the California Guard was too generous and they want their money back. Some reporter is going to find a badly wounded veteran who can’t pay and this will turn into a huge embarrassment.

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