The Vapor Trail: The President who campaigned against government regulation is preparing to start regulating the vaping industry. In the midst of an unexplained rash of vaping-related illnesses and deaths, President Trump said, “We’re going to have to do something about it.”

  The sixth vaping-related death was reported in Kansas on Tuesday. As many as 500 lung illnesses have been recorded across the country.

  Trump’s administration is proposing to ban all flavored refills and flavored electronic cigarettes. The ban may include menthol and mint, the most popular flavors that tend to appeal to young people.

 Government is just waking up to what may be the harm in what has been sold as a harmless alternative to cigarettes. Michigan became the first state to ban vaping flavors. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that no one should use any vaping product at all. New York Investigators suspect that some of the illnesses are linked to pure vitamin E acetate oil used in vaping liquids.

  There’s also a major market in illegal vapor pods containing THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

  A big target of concern is the king of the industry, Juul.  On Monday, the FDA sent a warning letter accusing the company of violating federal regulations by promoting its vaping products as healthier than cigarettes. The company’s flavor pods have a higher level of nicotine than cigarettes.

Unwelcome Mat: The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration may continue to deny asylum to immigrants who have passed through another country without applying in that country first. 

  The court allowed the policy to remain in effect while legal challenges continue. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonya Sotomayor were the only dissenters.

  In a brief representing the administration, Solicitor Gen. Noel Francisco, said the policy is needed to address “an unprecedented surge in the number of aliens who enter the country unlawfully across the southern border and, if apprehended, claim asylum and remain in the country while their claims are adjudicated.”

While We Were Out:Go off the grid for a day and stuff happens. While we were away, National Security adviser John Bolton became another casualty of the Trump administration. He was either fired or resigned, or both on Tuesday. He was Trump’s third national security adviser in less than three years in office.

  Bolton, known as a hawk on foreign affairs, had clashed with the President over issues like talking to North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and inviting the Taliban to  Camp David. The last straw appeared to be the Taliban deal, which Bolton strongly opposed and ultimately fell apart.

  Trump said, “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House.”Bolton was quick to do his own PR, tweeting,“I offered to resign last night and President Trump said, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow.’”

  Unlike previous members of the administration who have remained silent, Bolton suggested he might not.

Weather Report:The NY Timesreports that the order to deny the truth of a hurricane forecast for Alabama came from the top; President Trump to Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney; Mulvaney to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross; Ross to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration; and down through the ranks of the National Weather Service which denied the truth of its Birmingham office that Hurricane Dorian would not hit Alabama.

  All this happened because President Trump repeatedly said Alabama could face serious damage and couldn’t stand to be wrong.

  Trump said yesterday, “I never did that. That’s a whole hoax by the fake news media. When they talk about the hurricane and when they talk about Florida and they talk about Alabama, that’s just fake news. It was — right from the beginning, it was a fake story.”

  Yes, a fake story that came from the President.

 The Obit Page:T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil baron and corporate raider who shook up the oil industry in the 1980s, has died at age 91.

  His genius at making money was in attempting to buy out oil giants like Gulf Oil, Phillips Petroleum, and Unocal, then accepting payments of hundreds of millions of dollars to go away.

  Pickens become a billionaire running a natural gas-oriented hedge fund. He campaigned for energy self-sufficiency and for corporate shareholder rights. 

He was also a great philanthropist who gave away a billion dollars during his lifetime. But his big thing was oil. “My IQ is the gas price,” he told Texas Monthly in 1982. “At $3 I’m a genius. At $1.50 I’m a moron. Don’t talk to me too fast; it’s at $1.53 today.”

The News Roundup:The top 10 Democratic candidates for president debate tonight in Houston. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders share the stage for the first time. —William Happer, a physicist and member of the National Security Council who doesn’t believe in climate change, is leaving the Trump administration.  He has claimed that greenhouse gases warming the planet are beneficial to humanity. — Purdue Pharma, the drug company accused of being responsible for much of the opioid epidemic, has reached a tentative settlement worth billions of dollars with thousands of plaintiffs.Future profits from the sale of OxyContin would go into a trust designated to help communities struggling with the opioid addiction.

Gridiron Blues:New England Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown, who just signed with the team for $15 million a year, is being sued by his former personal trainer who claims Brown sexually assaulted and raped her. 

  The woman, Britney Taylor, is a gymnast Brown met while they both attended Central Michigan. He denies it.

  Brown just ended a contentious employment by the Oakland Raiders before signing with New England. The Patriots’ barely verbal coach Bill Belichick said the team is focused on playing Miami.

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