PARADISE LOST: The body count in the Maui wildfire has risen to 96, making it the deadliest wildfire in the US in more than 100 years. Authorities expect to find still more fatalities as they pick through the ash and ruins of virtually the entire town. Many people are still listed as missing.

 An estimated 2,700 structures, around 86 percent of them residential, were destroyed. Residents have not been allowed back into town to see what’s left because of toxic fumes and ash. Estimates for the cost of rebuilding are running up to about $6 billion.

  In another deep blow to the island economy, 40,000 tourists and visitors have left since the fires.

  Residents have said they never heard emergency sirens and there’s a reason for that … they never sounded. The 80 warning sirens placed around Maui were never activated, according to an emergency services spokesman. Hawaii claims to have one of the largest systems of outdoor public safety warning sirens in the world. 

  And one other critical system failed as the fire grew. The fire hydrants became quickly tapped out so firefighters turned to the role of evacuation and rescue.

ORANGE ALERT: Prosecutors in Atlanta this week are expected to begin presenting evidence to a grand jury about efforts to overturn the 2020 election by Donald Trump and his allies. 

  Nearly 20 people have been told they are potential targets for charges. This could result in Trump’s fourth criminal indictment. Unlike the two federal indictments, Trump would not be able to pardon himself in Georgia if re-elected president.  

  Among witnesses called to the grand jury are former Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, now a commentator for CNN, and George Chidi, an independent journalist.

  CNN reports “according to sources” that the Atlanta prosecutors are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, Georgia. CNN says it was not a spontaneous effort by Trump supporters, but “a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software.”

ON DEADLINE: Rural Kansas has become a battleground for the First Amendment and freedom of the press after law enforcement raided the offices of the Marion County Record last Friday, seizing computers, servers, and cellphones of reporters and editors. They also searched the home of the paper’s editor.

  The cops appear to have acted in response to a claim by a local restaurant owner that her privacy had been violated. Kari Newell publicly accused the newspaper of illegally getting information about a drunk-driving charge against her and giving it to the vice mayor.

   The search warrant alleged that the newspaper, its owners, or the vice mayor had committed identity theft and unlawful computer acts against Newell, but it appears to have been issued without the basis of a proper affidavit. The search may also have been performed in violation of federal law protecting journalists from broad search and seizure. 

  The editor of The Marion County Record says the paper will sue the city and the people involved in the raid, which, the paper wrote in its coverage, “legal experts contacted were unanimous in saying violated multiple state and federal laws, including the U.S. Constitution, and multiple court rulings.” 

  The paper is trying to publish again this week.

SUMMIT FEVER: Climbers who were recently on Nepal’s K2, including a woman who set a time record for summitting all 14 of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks, are defending their decision to abandon a porter who had fallen and later died on the mountain.

  The target of most criticism appears to be Finland’s Kristin Harila, who was on her final leg of completing the 14 peaks in a month and a day. Her party stopped for a while to help the porter, Muhammad Hassan, but did not turn around and attempt to haul him down the mountain. Harila instead recorded a smiling video from the top saying “We are very happy to be here,” and that, “We are very, very happy that we could share this record.”

  Harila was not alone. An Austrian climber said at least 70 people stepped over Hassan and kept going and that if he had been a Westerner, efforts probably would have been made to save him. Harila once again passed Hassan on the descent, and by then he was dead.

THE OBIT PAGE: W. Jason Morgan, a professor of geology who in 1967 as a professor at Princeton University developed the theory of plate tectonics, providing a foundation for understanding earthquakes, volcanoes and the slow, drift of entire continents over the earth’s crust, died last month in Natick, Massachusetts at age 87.

  While scientist knew that the continents appeared to move … the outlines of some matched the outlines of others thousands of miles away … Morgan’s theory of “plate tectonics,” the movement of giant pieces, was instrumental in the explanation of enormous gaps in the knowledge of geology.

THE SPIN RACK: An explosion in a house 20 miles east of Pittsburgh on Saturday killed five people, levelled the house, and destroyed several other homes. The cause is under investigation. — Disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried has had his bail revoked and is being sent to jail to await his fraud trial in October. Prosecutors accused him of witness tampering. — The military leaders of the coup in Niger announced that they plan toprosecute deposed President Mohamed Bazoum for “high treason” and undermining state security. 

BELOW THE FOLD: “I left my heart …” The San Francisco Standard reports that passengers are having sex in driverless cars and taxis in the Golden Gate City. Evidently the destination is the back seat. 

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