Heavy Weather: Streets were flooded after parts of New Orleans got nine inches of rain in three hours yesterday, and much more is coming. The city’s party central — Bourbon Street — was under water. As much as 18 inches of rain may fall over the next several days in a storm system that could be a developing hurricane.

 Declaring a state of emergency, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said, “This is going to be a Louisiana event that impacts every part of the state, and no one should take this storm lightly.”

Oily Waters:A British warship chased off three Iranian boats that were trying to block a British oil tanker from passing through the Strait of Hormuz in another escalation of tensions between Iran and the West.

  Iran appears to be increasingly desperate to get economic sanctions lifted and is grabbing attention by increasing its nuclear fuel production and messing with foreign oil tankers passing through gulf waters. 

  This is all happening because President Trump bailed out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and re-instated economic sanctions on Iran. 

Immigration Sweep: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is gearing up for what may be massive immigration raids to arrest thousands of illegal immigrants. The operation backed by President Trump has been brewing — and it’s been delayed — by opposition within ICE itself.

  The NY Timesreports that ICE agents will be targeting at least 2,000 immigrants who have been ordered deported — some as a result of their failure to appear in court. The raids are expected to take place in at least 10 major cities.

Standing Firm:Labor Secretary Alex Acosta in a press conference yesterday refused to resign and defended his role in an easy deal given 10 years ago to serial teenager-molester Jeffrey Epstein. 

  Acosta said he was able to engineer a guilty plea and get Epstein registered as a sex offender even though he got a cushy jail sentence with release six days a week to go to work.

  “Simply put, the Palm Beach state attorney’s office was ready to let Epstein walk free, no jail time, nothing,” Acosta said.

  Legal experts disagree over the strength of the case both Florida and the feds had at the time. Epstein’s recent re-indictment for the same behavior suggests that Acosta’s office didn’t pursue Epstein with full force. 

  Epstein was a buddy of the rich and powerful, including for a while private citizen Donald Trump. One published story tells of a party Epstein staged filled with young women at which he and Trump were the only male guests. Nonetheless, Trump said this week, “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.”

Hotel? Trivago:In a legal win for President Trump, a federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit yesterday that claims the President illegally profits from foreign dignitaries who stay at his Washington hotel.

  The suit claims that Trump violates the “emoluments” clause of the Constitution that prohibits profiting from his office. 

  With is usual Presidential class, Trump tweeted, “Word just out that I won a big part of the Deep State and Democrat induced Witch Hunt. Unanimous decision in my favor from The United States Court of Appeals For The Fourth Circuit on the ridiculous Emoluments Case. I don’t make money, but lose a fortune for the honor of serving and doing a great job as your President (including accepting Zero salary!).”

  Now let’s talk about that salary. While Trump claims he gives it back, a single trip to one of his private golf clubs costs multiples of his salary — and the Secret Service rents golf carts from him, allowing him to profit from his office. 

The Obit Page:Jim Bouton, the renegade former baseball pitcher who ripped the skin off the professional game with his book, “Ball Four,” has died at age 80.

  Bouton was an average pitcher whose celebrity was based on his raunchy, irreverent memoir that revealed the tobacco stains on the professional game. He wrote about how players routinely cheated on their wives on the road, spied on women through hotel windows, drank, swore like Marines, and ate amphetamines like candy. 

  Professional baseball and even many baseball writers were outraged that Bouton revealed the tarnish beneath baseball’s illusion of shiny wholesomeness.

  At age 30, with his usefulness as a pitcher waning, Bouton famously adapted the “knuckleball,” a pitch with no spin that erratically jumps around on its way to the plate, evading the batter and sometimes even the catcher. The pitch was like Bouton himself, surprising and all over the place.

Robocalls:The independent Atlantic League became the first American professional baseball league to let a computer call the pitches last night at its All-Star Game. The umpire wore an earpiece connected to an iPhone in his pocket and relayed the call made by the TrackMan computer system that uses Doppler radar.

 The system is not yet dependable enough to use without the presence of a human umpire, so an unhappy manager can still kick dirt on his shoes.

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