Political Environment: President Trump met with California Gov. Gavin Newsom about the wildfires yesterday. Newsom wore a face mask and Trump didn’t. He should have at least worn one for the smoke blanketing the state.

  Disembarking from Air Force One in Sacramento, Trump delivered an impromptu speech on how the forests are not well managed, ignoring that California owns just 3 percent of the forest in the state and the federal government owns 57 percent.

  Newsom confronted Trump about climate change in a gentlemanly way. He said, “We come from a perspective, humbly, where we submit the science is in and observed evidence is self-evident that climate change is real and that is exacerbating this.” He continued, “And so I think there’s an area of at least commonality on vegetation, forest management. But please respect — and I know you do — the difference of opinion out here as it relates to this fundamental issue on the issue of climate change.”

  Trump said, “I don’t think science knows” what is actually happening.

  Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, former Vice President Joe Biden called Trump a “climate arsonist” whose inaction and denial on climate change has led to destruction. Biden said, “If you give a climate arsonist four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised if we have more of America ablaze? If you give a climate denier four more years in the White House, why would anyone be surprised when more of America is underwater?”

War Room: The Biden presidential campaign has created a legal war division to ensure that voting rights and procedures are protected, and that votes are counted.

  The operation will consist of several hundred lawyers, among them two former solicitors general of the US. They intend to fight voter suppression and make sure people know how to vote.

  The general line from Republicans and President Trump is that increased mail voting because of the pandemic will be rife with fraud. “This will be, in my opinion, the most corrupt election in the history of our country and we cannot let this happen,” Trump has said.

  He’s also said, although he’s trailing in the polls, the only way he can lose is if the election is rigged.

Viral News: As the US pushes toward 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the death rate has slowed over the past several days. In the past 24 hours only 461 people died.

  The world is moving toward 1 million deaths.

Heavy Weather: Hurricane Sally is expected to make landfall in the Gulf today or tonight with sustained winds up to 110 mph, making it a Category 2 storm, the National Hurricane Center said. Flooding is already occurring in some coastal areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama. 

Conspiracy Theory: The top communications officer at the Department of Health and Human Services who’s in charge of informing the country about the pandemic, issued a Facebook video in which he said the Centers for Disease Control has a “resistance unit” that undermines President Trump and he warned that left wing “hit squads” were preparing to go into action after the election.

  Michael Caputo, the assistant secretary of public affairs, said that, “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.” He also said, “There are scientists who work for this government who do not want America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.”

The Bulletin Board: The police chief in Rochester, New York was fired even though he announced he was retiring at the end of the month as the mayor moves quickly to clean up her police department following the death of a mentally ill black man. — Several states in Mexico are moving toward making it illegal to sell junk food like chips and soda to children.

Big Thaw: As fires fed by climate change burn the west, the Arctic is quickly becoming not so arctic, a team of atmospheric scientists said yesterday. They say the Arctic ice is being replaced by open water and rain.

  The study comes from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

 Already, they say, even in colder years there’s not as much sea ice as 10 years ago. The number of rainy days is increasing. Dr. Lara Landrum, the lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change said the question is, “has the Arctic changed so much and so fast that the new climate cannot be predicted from the recent past?”

  In the Antarctic, two enormous glaciers are breaking loose, increasing the threat of major sea-level rising. The loss of the Thwaites glacier alone could trigger the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which contains enough ice to eventually raise seas by about 10 feet.

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