Tornadoes cut a path of destruction from eastern Kansas through Missouri, ripping out trees and power lines in Lawrence, southwest of Kansas City, and destroying houses in nearby Linwood. 

  It was the 12^thday of what may be a record outbreak of tornadoes.

 In the last week alone, authorities have linked tornadoes to at least seven deaths. The National Weather Service has logged reports of more than 500 tornadoes in a 30-day period. 

A Matter of Choice:As a handful of states chip away at legal abortion, Missouri is about to become the only state without an abortion clinic. The state is expected to deny renewal of the operating license held by a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, the only one in the state. 

  The root of the dispute is an annual audit conducted by the state and its imposition of new rules, as well as a demand for interviews with the seven doctors who work there. Planned Parenthood executives believe the state’s un-stated purpose is to shut them down.

  Earlier this month, Alabama passed a law that would ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy. Louisiana legislators are expected to ban abortion as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy.

 Anti-abortion advocates are trying to get the issue before the Supreme Court, which yesterday mostly took a pass on a major case. The court declined to reinstate laws in Indiana and Kentucky that would ban abortions sought because of the sex or disability of a fetus. The court did uphold an Indiana law requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated.

Amazon Prime:MacKenzie Bezos, who’s coming away with $36 billion after divorcing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says she’s going to give half of it to charity. She wrote in a letter, “I have no doubt that tremendous value comes when people act quickly on the impulse to give. No drive has more positive ripple effects than the desire to be of service.”

  The former Mrs. Bezos will own 4 percent of Amazon when the divorce is final. Don’t feel sorry for Jeff. He still has 12 percent, making him the richest man in  the world.

Pain Relief:The first major case in which a drug company is being blamed for feeding the national opioid addiction crisis opened yesterday in Oklahoma, where thousands of addicted residents have died.

  The nation’s largest drugmaker, Johnson & Johnson, is the only defendant in the case after two other companies — Teva Pharmaceuticals and Purdue Pharma — both settled with the state. 

  Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in opening statements that the opioid crisis is the “worst manmade public health crisis in the history of our state and country.”

  The state claims that Johnson & Johnson pushed sales of its opioid painkillers far beyond their necessary use. In some areas, drug companies sold hundreds of pills for every man, woman, and child.

  Almost all the states and more than 1,600 local governments are suing drugmakers and distributors for the billions of dollars they spent fighting opioid addiction.

Your President Speaking:President Trump, who has nearly lost his ability to shock, has been heavily criticized for siding with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in his attack on former Vice President and presidential candidate Joe Biden.

  Trump tweeted, “I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a ‘low IQ idiot,’ and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer ‘low IQ individual.’ Who could possibly be upset with that?”

Impeachable Conduct: The only Republican member of Congress who’s said President Trump is guilty of impeachable conduct got a standing ovation at a town hall meeting yesterday. The crowd appeared to be a mix of Republicans and Democrats. Of course, some Republicans told him they’re not happy with him.

  Michigan Rep. Justin Amash broke out of the Republican pack in a series of tweets earlier this month in which he said Attorney Gen. William Barr misrepresented the contents of the Robert Mueller Special Counsel report.

  “Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the president’s false narrative to the American people,” Amash said in the final tweet of his thread. “This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth.”

  Yesterday he told the crowd in his town meeting, “If you have a society where all we care about is that the other side is bad, and therefore we don’t have to do the right thing, that society will break down, and you will have no liberty.” 

Editor’s Note:The Rooney Report is taking a few days off to float on a raff down the Hudson River. We’ll be back Monday if we don’t get run over by a barge.