Earthquake: A 6.2 magnitude earthquake levelled parts of three historic towns in mountainous central Italy. Whole buildings collapsed, trapping people in the rubble. At least 38 people are reported dead and the death toll is likely to raise. One mayor said, “Half the town no longer exists.”

PayChat: More than half the non-government employees who met with Hillary Clinton while she was Secretary of State had given money to the Clinton Foundation either directly or indirectly through companies or groups, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.  The AP counted 85 out of 154 visitors who had paid or pledged a combined $156 million to the Foundation. Twenty of them gave $1 million or more.

The appearance is that donations bought access to the Secretary of State, although not necessarily any favor in return. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said, “It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton’s basis for meeting with these individuals.”

The business of the Foundation, like her use of private email, is certain to haunt Clinton as Donald Trump makes Hillary herself one of the primary issues of the election. The New York Post headline today says, “Dough Nation.” Donald Trump said after an appearance, “Lie after lie after lie. Hillary Clinton is totally unfit to hold public office.”

Louisiana: President Obama visited flood-ravaged Louisiana yesterday where nearly 110,000 households have applied for emergency relief. Close to 61,000 houses were damaged and 30,000 people had to rescued from rising waters just 11 years after the devastating Hurricane Katrina.

Obama had been criticized by Donald Trump for not going to Louisiana earlier, but Gov. John Bel Edwards had urged the President to stay away in the early days of rescue and recovery. The President arrived four days after Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence made a campaign stop out of handling boxes of Play-Doh that had arrived with relief supplies.

Permawar: Turkish forces backed by US warplanes crossed the border into Syria last night, beginning a ground offense to take an Islamic State stronghold in the city of Jarabulus. Turkey vowed wipe out threatening ISIS fighters after the suicide bombing of a Kurdish wedding killed 55 people.

As Syria’s civil war rages on, about 275,000 people in rebel-held eastern Aleppo are cut off from food, water, and medicine. Life is only marginally better for another 1.5 million people on the western side of the city warred over by rebels, Russians, the government, and Islamic militants. UN official Stephen O’Brien called Aleppo, “the apex of horror at its most horrific extent of the suffering of people.” While efforts are underway to arrange a multi-sided ceasefire, O’Brien said it would be hard to avoid “a humanitarian catastrophe unparalleled in the over five years of bloodshed and carnage in the Syrian conflict.”

Saber-Rattling: North Korea successfully fired a ballistic missile from a submarine off its east coast. The missile flew about 300 miles, landing inside Japan’s air defense perimeter. South Korea and the US are beginning their annual military exercises, which always irritate the North.

The Obit Page: Steven Hill, the dour-faced actor who played the NY District Attorney Adam Schiff on 10 seasons of the television series “Law & Order,” has died at age 93. He made 288 episodes of the series.

Hill was in his first movie in 1950 and at times flirted with stardom, but developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. He spent years without work until making a comeback in the early 80s. As Adam Schiff, Hill often had the last word: “Never ask a jury to think.”

-30-