MISSING KEY: The massive cargo ship that hit the Francis Scott Key bridge at the mouth of Baltimore harbor had lost power and sent out a mayday signal before the collision that took down several spans of the 1.5 mile bridge.

  The warning gave authorities time to cut off traffic, but six construction workers repairing potholes in the roadway have since been given up for dead. Two men were pulled from the water, one in serious condition and another unhurt who declined medical care.

   Despite the warning, the construction workers had remained on the bridge. The six missing men were migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico.

  The ship was the 948-foot-long Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel stacked high with shipping containers that hit a bridge column at 1:30 in the morning. A local Baltimore pilot would have been in command of the ship at the time.

  The Key bridge completed in 1977 carried the 695 highway, the route for about 30,000 people a day, and the span will takes years to rebuild. 

  The accident also cuts off ship traffic in and out of Baltimore Harbor, one of the busiest in the country. It’s a major destination for cars, light trucks, and sugar. Ships headed to Baltimore are being diverted and those in the harbor are stuck. President Biden said 15,000 jobs depend on the port and he vowed to have the US government pay for a new bridge. 

THE PILL: The majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical yesterday of arguments on behalf of a group of anti-abortion doctors and groups seeking to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, the medication used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the US.

  A ruling in favor of the plaintiffs would cut off prescriptions by telemedicine and pills sent by mail,which have widened distribution in recent years.

  The anti-abortion doctors have said their morals are offended by patients who’ve had medical abortions and that mifepristone was improperly approved. Justices questioned whether the plaintiffs have “standing,” meaning that they are harmed by other doctors prescribing the drug.

DIDDY RAP:  Law enforcement sources tell reporters that raids on the Los Angeles and Miami homes of music mogul Sean Combs is related to a sex trafficking investigation of P Diddy himself. 

  Details in the lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, if true, reveal that Combs has some wild, sleazy and abusive tastes in sex. He quickly settled the suit.

  His lawyers yesterday called the raids a “witch hunt.”

VEEP: Independent presidential candidate with no chance Robert F. Kennedy Jr. yesterday announced that his running mate will be Nicole Shanahan, a Silicon Valley lawyer, investor, and political newcomer. She was married to the billionaire co-founder of Google.

  Kennedy needs a running mate to get on the ballot in some states and Shanahan’s primary qualification is that she has money.

  The 38-year-old Shanahan helped pay for the multi-million dollar Kennedy Super Bowl commercial that echoed the style of his uncle Jack’s 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy said he brought her on in part because she knew how to counter some of the more insidious influences of artificial intelligence technology.

  Bobby has followers, but not in his own family. He’s an anti-vaccine conspiracy nut. His sister Rory said yesterday that, “I do worry that Bobby just taking some percentage of votes from Biden could shift the election and lead to Trump’s election.”

PEACOCK REVOLT: Following an internal revolt, NBC News dropped former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as the network’s newest political analyst. She made her first and last appearance Sunday on “Meet the Press.” 

  NBC Chairman Cesar Conde said in an internal email that, “No organization, particularly a newsroom, can succeed unless it is cohesive and aligned. Over the last few days, it has become clear that this appointment undermines that goal.”

  NBC’s anchors and show hosts had uniformly announced the McDaniel would never appear on their programs. Since 2020 McDaniel has fostered the lie that the presidential election was rigged while attacking and undermining the credibility of the press for telling the truth about it … NBC News included. She backed Trump’s effort to stay in office after he lost the election.

  What’s missing in Conde’s announcement is his resignation as well as that of NBC News President Carrie Budoff Brown and other executives who signed McDaniel to a $300,000 contract.

THE OBIT PAGE: Richard Serra, the artist of monumental sculptures that not only had to be seen but sometimes walked through, has died at age 85 on outer Long Island.

  Serra’s works of steel blocks, wavy walls, and pyramids were compared by critics to ancient temples, ritual sites, and landmarks like Stonehenge left by ancient civilizations. 

THE SPIN RACK: The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal case in the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff case imposed a gag order on the former president, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, court staff, and jurors. — Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid trial on a nine-year-old indictment for felony securities fraud. — The ornately carved panel of wood that served as the door on which actress Kate Winslet as “Rose” floated to survive the sinking of the Titanic in the 1997 movie, sold at auction for $718,750. And the rich say taxes are too high. 

BELOW THE FOLD: Donald Trump, who has claimed that the Bible is his favorite book although there’s little evidence that he reads anything at all, is hawking a $60 version he calls the “God Bless the USA Bible.”

  He has also sold steaks, vodka, and Trump digital trading cards.

  This Bible includes the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance as well as handwritten lyrics to the chorus of the Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the USA.”

  Trump said, “We must make America pray again,” and no doubt millions are on their knees every day doing just that.

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