THE TOLL RISES: In just one example of the kind of thing that happened, a couple and a 6-year-old boy waiting to be rescued on a rooftop drowned when their home collapsed.

  President Biden plans to visit the disaster area as soon as tomorrow.

  Particularly hard hit was North Carolina where neighborhoods and small towns were destroyed by floodwaters and landslides. Receding waters in some places have left lakes of lumber, cars, boats, trash bins, and sections of houses.  Asheville’s drinking water system was severely damaged. People are standing in long lines waiting to buy food.

  Officials are now beginning to deal with how residents of disaster areas will vote in next month’s election.

  Donald Trump visited Valdosta, Georgia yesterday where he landed with lies trying to take political advantage of the situation. He said Gov. Brian Kemp was “having a hard time getting the president on the phone” even though Kemp had earlier said he’d spoken on the phone with Joe Biden and the president had offered him anything he needs.

  But Trump backed up his attack on Twitter/X saying, “They sacrificed Americans to an Open Border, and now, they have left Americans to drown in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and elsewhere in the South.”

THE WAR ROOM: Israeli troops overnight crossed into southern Lebanon, saying that they would destroy Hezbollah military infrastructure in villages close to the border. The military issued a statement describing the operation as “limited” and targeting sites that “pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.”

  Israel had been massing armor and troops near the border but American officials told reporters they believed they had persuaded Israel not to conduct a major ground invasion. But that was contradicted by Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant telling mayors of Israeli towns along the border that “the next stage of the war against Hezbollah will soon commence.”

WAR OF WORDS: Vice presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz debate tonight on CBS in what would appear to be the last encounter between major candidates before the election.

  It’s the confrontation between Vance the Yale guy and Walz the Carhartt man who’ve been insulting each other from a distance for weeks. Expect both of them to play up their humble roots. 

  CBS says its anchors Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan will not fact-check false claims and lies on the spot. A QR code will appear onscreen allowing viewers to connect to real-time fact checks supplied by a team of 20 CBS fact checkers.

FEAR: Tesla billionaire Elon Musk is pushing the fear that illegal immigrants will end democracy in the US. He tweeted, “Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!”

 He went on, “Let me explain: if even 1 in 20 illegals become citizens per year, something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible, that would be about 2 million new legal voters in 4 years.”

  About 878,000 people became naturalized citizens in 2023, down from the previous year. Musk does not explain how he believes naturalized citizens will vote to end democracy.

THE OBIT PAGE: Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and greatest embarrassments who was dealt a lifetime ban and declared ineligible for the Hall of Fame after betting on baseball, has died at age 83. No cause was given.

  To this day, Pete Rose still holds the record for career hits, 4,256. Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle,” Rose did everything full speed from fielding the ball, hitting the ball, running the bases — and pursuing his gambling habit. 

  Not until he was retired from the field and was manager of the team he had played for, the Cincinnati Reds, did it catch up with him. Rose long held a reputation for gambling but it was finally when Bart Giamatti was commissioner that the league come up with the proof in 1989 and Rose was banned, becoming the subject of endless barroom arguments about the justice of keeping him out of the Hall of Fame.

  Rose spent 13 years appealing and claiming he had not bet on baseball games until 2002 when he admitted to Commissioner Bud Selig that he had. He died famous but not in Hall of Fame.

THE SPIN RACK: Longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike for the first time in 50 years, cutting off most trade through some of the busiest ports and probably stalling the economy if they don’t settle soon. — A Georgia judge yesterday struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban but the issue is likely to get a final decision in the state’s supreme court. — Claudia Sheinbaum, a 62-year old environmental scientist and academic takes office today as Mexico’s first woman president. — Former President Jimmy Carter turns 100 today becoming the longest-living president. He’s been in hospice care for months, but lives on.

BELOW THE FOLD: Francis Ford Coppola’s $140 million, two hour and eighteen minute movie “Megalopolis” has been playing to nearly empty theaters. The flick has been described as artistic but unsalable to audiences. In the backbiting world of Hollywood, it’s been dubbed “Megaflopolis.”

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