The First Step: The college professor accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in high school says she wants an FBI investigation before she testifies  before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week. That ratchets up the stakes in a big way for Kavanaugh and the Republicans as they attempt to ram through his nomination to confirmation.

Christine Blasey Ford said an FBI investigation should be “the first step.” President Trump claimed that the FBI said, “They really don’t do that, that’s not what they do.”

Trump also said about Kavanaugh, “I feel so badly for him that he’s going through this. This is not a man that deserves this.”

Senator Charles Grassley, the IowaRepublican who heads the committee said he plans to go ahead Monday with a hearing. Ford’s lawyer, Lisa Banks, said “No legitimate investigation is going to happen between now and Monday.”

Ford’s lawyers wrote a letter to Grassley saying, “While Dr. Ford’s life was being turned upside down, you and your staff scheduled a public hearing for her to testify at the same table as Judge Kavanaugh in front of two dozen US Senators on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.” They said the hearing “would include interrogation by senators who appear to have made up their minds that she is ‘mistaken’ and ‘mixed up.’”

Ford has said that Kavanaugh’s high school friend, Mark Judge, was also present in the room when she was assaulted. Judge, who wrote a book called “Wasted: Tales of a GenX Drunk,”says he never saw anything like the incident Ford described. He also said he doesn’t want to testify. If the Republicans don’t subpoena him, it will look like a whitewash.

Judge is a potential corroborating witness if he changes his story under oath. It’s also worth noting that the State of Maryland — where the assault is said to have occurred — has no statute of limitations for rape and sexual offenses. What Ford accuses Kavanaugh of doing might fall under the state’s definition of 3rd or 4th degree sexual assault. Third degree is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, 4^thdegree a misdemeanor.

Aftermath: As rainwater  drains through the Carolina’s to the coast, the hurricane and tropical storm called Florence is now blamed for 37 deaths.

Homes are still flooded and bridges are threatened by debris piling up under the pressure of fast-moving rivers.

Floods also cause major pollution, washing away sewage, oil, gasoline, pesticides and all kinds of yuck. The floods have drowned an estimated 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,000 hogs.

Trade War: China immediately retaliated against President Trump’s latest tariffs with taxes on $60 billion worth of US goods that would be exported to China. Chinese state television reported that it is a measure of last resort against American unilateralism and trade protectionism.”

China’s problem is that they can’t go one-for-one on tariffs. We buy more from them than they buy from us.

Southern Strategy: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says he will visit South Korea in “the near future.” If he does, he would be the first leader of the North since the division of Korea to be welcomed in the South. It’s a further warming of relations in the hoped-for nuclear disarmament of North Korea.

The Brink: The former Beijing bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times, who was suspended last May, has resigned amid accusations of sexual impropriety by two women. Jonathan Kaiman said in an emailed statement that “all acts we engaged in were mutually consensual.” He said the allegations “have irrevocably destroyed my reputation, my professional network, my nine year career in journalism, and any hope for a rewarding career in the future; they have branded me with a scarlet letter for life, and driven me to the brink of suicide.”

Speed: A California woman set the land speed record for riding a bicycle at an astounding 183.932 mph.

Denise Mueller-Korenek rode on the Bonneville Salt Flats behind a drag racer with a housing on the back that shielded her from wind resistance. The technique is called “drafting.”

The previous record of 167 mph was set by a Dutch man in 1995.

Mueller-Korenek started out with a tow rope for the first mile, then travelled under pedal power for 3 ½ miles, setting the record average in the last mile.

Slowing down without crashing was also tricky. You don’t just put on the brakes at 183.

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