The Toll Rises: Seventy-seven people are now dead in Northern California’s Camp fire and the search for bodies goes on. They are using rapid result DNA identification kits.

The fire burned at least 10,600 homes and buildings.

Pacific Gas and Electric now says it had two major power line failures the day the fire started 11 days ago. They chose not to shut off the electricity to thousands of customers. PG&E probably faces billions of dollars in liability claims.

The Trumpster Fire: Something is bothering President Trump and he’s lashing out. Yesterday on Fox News, Trump trashed retired Adm. William McRaven, the Navy Seal who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, dismissing him as a “Hillary Clinton backer.”

  Trump said, ” Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner than that? Wouldn’t it have been nice? You know, living — think of this — living in Pakistan, beautifully in Pakistan.”

This from a man who dodged military service and lived beautifully in Trump Tower. McRaven was not in charge of finding bin Laden. He was in charge of getting him.

Trump also attacked Calif. Rep. Adam Schiff, who will likely chair the House Judiciary Committee when the Democrats take control in January. Trump tweeted, and his spelling was no accident, “So funny to see little Adam Schitt (D-CA) talking about the fact that Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker was not approved by the Senate, but not mentioning the fact that Bob Mueller (who is highly conflicted) was not approved by the Senate!”

The President doesn’t seem to know, or care, that a special counsel is not approved by the Senate.

Also in that Foxinterview Trump said he’s been briefed on the audio tape of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“We have the tape. I don’t want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said. “I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it . . . . It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”

High Tuition: Former New York mayor and founder of Bloomberg News announced that he’s giving $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated in 1964.

Bloomberg says in an opinion piece in the NY Timesthat he is forever grateful for what Hopkins gave him and that he wants to remove affordability as a factor for new students who want to go there. “This will make admissions at Hopkins forever need-blind; finances will never again factor into decisions,” he writes. “The school will be able to offer more generous levels of financial aid, replacing loans for many students with scholarship grants. It will ease the burden of debt for many graduates. And it will make the campus more socioeconomically diverse.”

This is will be the second $1.8 billion Bloomberg has given to Hopkins.

The Long Count:Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson has officially lost his seat to outgoing Gov. Rick Scott.  After 18 years in the Senate, 46 altogether in politics, Nelson lost by just 10,033 votes.

Freedom from the Press: The White House has sent CNNcorrespondent a letter telling him that his press pass will be revoked again once a federal judge’s 14-day restraining order expires. It seems evident that they want to permanently exclude him from the White House press corps. CNNresponded with a statement yesterday saying, “The White House is continuing to violate the First and 5th Amendments of the Constitution.”

Thrown for a Loss: Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a notably ugly injury yesterday, ending his season. Smith broke his tibia and fibula and was sent straight to surgery. It was 33 years to the day that Redskins QB Joe Theismann was hit by the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor, leaving his leg pointed in the wrong direction and ending his career.

Theismann was watching the game. “I turned away,” Theismann says. “And I wouldn’t watch the replay. It felt as if 1985 was yesterday. I had a sick feeling in my stomach and felt so bad for Alex.”

That Ain’t Peanuts:Scientists have created a peanut allergy regimen that may protect patients from potentially fatal exposure. The drug is taken by mouth. In year-long testing, two-thirds of the 372 children who received the treatment were able to eat 600 milligrams of peanut protein, the equivalent of two peanuts.

-30-