Devastation: As Hurricane Dorian heads for the Carolinas strengthened again to a Category 3, Bahamian authorities say at least 20 people were killed as the storm passed over and more bodies are expected to be found.

  Many thousands of people in the Bahamas were left homeless and now there’s a rush to rescue people who are trapped and get food and water to places left without grocery stores, hospitals, or even landing strips to fly in supplies.  

  Bahamians are in shock at the extent of damage. By some estimates roughly half the homes on the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama were damaged or destroyed. Houses were reduced to sticks while harbors are filled with wrecked and sunken boats.

  Dorian is on track to approach the coast of South Carolina near Charleston this morning. It’s about 85 miles southeast. Nine inches of rain are forecast for Wilmington, NC. Residents along hundreds of miles of coast have been warned of a dangerous storm surge pushed by the hurricane.

Blocked Brexit: British lawmakers continued to pummel Prime Monster Boris Johnson yesterday, moving a bill to block any exit from the European Union without a formal agreement. They also refused to call a snap election, which is what Parliament usually does when the prime minister has lost his voting majority.

  After suspending Parliament for several weeks, starting next week, then failing to ram through an exit from the European Union, Johnson appears to have overplayed his hand and lost even before moving all his shoes into 10 Downing Street. 

Dim Bulbs:In its continuing campaign to deny climate change and foil efforts to fight it, the Trump administration announced that it is rolling back regulations requiring more energy efficient lightbulbs. 

  Congress passed a law to phase out inefficient incandescent and halogen bulbs in 2007, during the administration of President George W. Bush. It’s been a big success. Lucas Davis, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, told The NY Times,“U.S. household energy consumption is down 6 percent since 2010, and this is due in part to the increase in the use of energy-efficient lighting.” 

Swamp Things:Gregory Craig, a prominent Washington’s and former aide to President Obama,  was acquitted yesterday of a felony charge that he lied to federal authorities about work he did seven years ago for the Ukrainian government.

 The case revealed how a foreign government used Washington’s lawyers, lobbyists, and public relations operatives, and transferred at least $4 million from secret offshore banks to Craig’s law firm. Despite how seamy it all looked, the case hinged on whether Craig had intentionally misled the Justice Department about whether he was an unregistered agent for a foreign government, and the jury found that the feds failed to prove their case.

The News Roundup: Iran has released seven of the 23 crew members of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero seized earlier this summer. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards took the ship on July 19 in the Strait of Hormuz two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. The Iranian tanker has since been released. — Thirty-three bodies have been recovered from the Pacific off California after the fire that burned and sank a scuba diving tour boat. Only one person remains missing. — Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that makes California the first state to ban fur trapping.

You Don’t Need a Weatherman:President Trump is being called out for repeatedly saying that Hurricane Dorian also threatens Alabama, which is on the Gulf Coast, not the Atlantic. Although no forecast, including from the National Weather Service, has included Alabama in the danger zone, Trump insists that it is.

  Called out on it by one news outlet, Trump dismissed the story as “phony.”

 Yesterday in a news conference a Trump aide pulled out a graphic map of Dorian’s storm track and a little loop had been drawn on it in what looked like pen to include a portion of Alabama, which, we repeat, no forecaster has said is threatened.

  So, all you need is a pen to prove that the President is right and the news is fake.

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