World Series: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 last night to win their first World Series since 1988, but not without a last-minute visit from the coronavirus.

  The entire Series was played on neutral ground in Arlington, Texas to guard against the coronavirus. But with two innings left, the Dodgers inexplicably removed third baseman Justin Turner from the game.  As the celebration erupted the league announced that Turner had tested positive for the coronavirus. “We learned during the game,” Commissioner Rob Manfred told Fox Sports. “He was immediately isolated to prevent spread.”

  The Dodgers have thrown everything at their effort to win another series, pouring $2 billion into player salaries in the past eight years. Finally last night, Dodger outfielder Mookie Betts hit a double and a home run and scored twice to help the franchise end its 32-year World Series drought.

The Early Line: With people waiting hours in line, early voting has already surpassed the number of early votes cast in 2016 and is more than half of all votes cast the year Donald Trump won the presidency.

  As of this morning, 71,063,593 people have voted. Total votes cast in the 2016 election was 136,750,000.

  Democrats in many states are voting early twice as much as Republicans, who may be saving their vote for election day.

  Hoping to break some ground, former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned yesterday in Georgia, which has suddenly come into play after not going for a Democrat since 1992.

  Biden told his crowd, “Our politics for too long have been mean and bitter and divisive, you can hear it now in the distance. We’ve stopped seeing dignity in one another. We’ve stopped showing each other respect.”

  He said, “Have we passed the point of no return? Has the heart of this nation turned to stone? I don’t think so. I refuse to believe it. I know this country, I know our people, and I know we can unite and heal this nation.”

  In that spirit, First Lady Melania Trump hit the trail in Atlgen, Pennsylvania, where she said, “Joe Biden’s policy and socialist agenda will only serve to destroy America and all that has been built in the past four years.”

Call 1-800:  A federal judge yesterday rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to defend the  President in the defamation lawsuit brought against him by former Elle magazine columnist E Jean Carroll.

 Carroll claimed in a book that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. He denied it, calling her a liar, and she sued.

 Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled only on the narrow issue of whether the Justice Department could be Trump’s legal team. Kaplan said that under the law Trump is not technically an “employee” of the federal government, and is therefore not eligible to be defended by government lawyers.

Presidential Business: In twin stories, The NY Times and Washington Post have detailed how much money the federal government has paid to Trump businesses during his term, and how he skated on loans for his Chicago Tower and got a tax break.

  The Post story begins with the nugget that when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the US, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club “billed the U.S. government $13,700 for guest rooms, $16,500 for food and wine and $6,000 for the roses and other floral arrangements.”

  When Trump and Abe met with no food on the table, the club billed $3 each for water, the Postreports. In all, Trump’s businesses have billed the federal government and political supporters for $8.1 million while he’s been in office, the Post says.

  The NY Times dug into the ruins of Trump’s Chicago International Hotel & Tower. The Times reports that, “The president’s federal income tax records, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time that, since 2010, his lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that he failed to repay. The vast majority was related to the Chicago project.”

  Under tax laws, forgiven loans become taxable income, but Trump didn’t pay it, the Times says. That’s at the heart of the investigation of Trump by the NY attorney general.

The Master Goes to Prison: Keith Raniere, whose self-improvement seminars turned into the sexual slavery cult known as Nxivm in the area of Albany, NY, was sentenced yesterday to 120 years in prison, effectively a life sentence. The judge also ordered the 60-year-old to pay a $1.75 million fine.

  He was convicted of sex trafficking, racketeering, and child pornography.

  Raniere tended to attract the rich and directionless, including an heiress to the Seagram’s liquor fortune and the actress Allison Mack, who played in the “Smallville” television series.

  Women who once called Raniere “Master” said he ordered them to weigh less than 100 pounds, branded them with his initials, and demanded that they be available for sex at any time. Many were underage at the time.

  Raniere told the court he was sorry and didn’t mean to cause so much pain, but he’s innocent.

The Bulletin Board: Hurricane Zeta is headed for the Gulf Coast. Already this year, Louisiana has been hit by two tropical storms and two hurricanes. — As the newspaper business shrinks, both daily newspapers in Salt Lake City announced that they are ceasing daily publication on paper and going almost entirely online. The 150-year-old Salt Lake Tribune and The Deseret News, founded in 1850, both said they will go digital and print only weekly editions. — A Pennsylvania county is already asking the newest Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett to recuse herself from an election case.

Your Fifth Car: General Motors has introduced an all-electric, 1,000 horsepower Hummer with hands-free driving and an “infinity roof”  capable of crab-walking over boulders. You need that.

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