In Like a Lion:Tornadoes ripped through three southeastern states yesterday, killing at least 23 people in Alabama. The storms also touched down in Georgia and Florida.

  The twister in Florida was described as being a half-mile wide with winds up to 150 mph.

  Hardest hit appeared to be Smiths Station and Beauregard, about 60 miles east of Montgomery. Mobile homes were destroyed, trees felled, and a cellphone tower collapsed across US Rte. 280. About 150 rescuers were searching for people possibly dead and injured. Survivors were still being pulled from the rubble.

 Authorities say they expect the death toll to rise.

  In the Northeast, a winter storm moved in overnight, bringing five to 10 inches of snow from Pennsylvania up the coast to Providence and Boston. 

  Arctic air is plunging down from Canada into the upper Midwest. It’s minus 7 in Fargo. Chicago, -1,  Muskegon, Mich., 9, North Platte, Neb., -21. 

The Troubled President: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced over the weekend that he will vote to block President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency. That would force Trump to veto the bill and ignore the will of Congress if he wants to build his southern border wall.

  Paul said, “We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn’t authorize it. If we take away those checks and balances, it’s a dangerous thing.”

  Somebody must have been telling the President over the weekend that he’s in trouble because he spent a lot of time yesterday saying he’s not.

  He tweeted, “Presidential Harassment by ‘crazed’ Democrats at the highest level in the history of our Country. Likewise, the most vicious and corrupt Mainstream Media that any president has ever had to endure,” he said. But here’s the amazing part because — as he’ll tell you — he’s the greatest President ever and he can tough it out. He went on,  “Yet the most successful first two years for anyPresident. We are WINNING big, the envy of the WORLD, but just think what it could be?”

  One of  Trump’s “crazed” Democrats is New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who said over the weekend that he plans to summon as many as 60 Trump associates before the House Judiciary Committee. Nadler said his goal is to present “the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,” which could lead to impeachment of the President.

  On another front, Trump was blaming his failure with the North Korea negotiations on Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House. Like a child who broke mom’s vase, it’s always someone else’s fault. He tweeted, “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the ‘walk.’ Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

Neverland:When Elvis Presley died at age 42 it was considered a great career move. Death revived the popularity of the porcine and drug-addled singer whose swinging hips were once banned from the Ed Sullivan show.

 So it was with Michael Jackson. Struggling professionally and living in a rented mansion when he died, death returned Jackson’s popularity and ended his lavish spending, allowing him to be rich again. His estate has grossed $2 billion since 2009.

 Almost forgotten in the worldwide haze of sentiment over Jackson’s death was his reputation as a serial child molester.

 Last night HBO debuted the first half of the four-hour documentary, “Leaving Neverland,” featuring the stories of  two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who say Jackson molested them for years, starting when they were little boys.  The documentary presents a threat to the Jackson money machine at a time when accusations of sexual misconduct is ending careers. Jackson’s family is outraged at what they consider a smear on his reputation, although they are proud to say they will not watch the show.

  Robson, 36, and Safechuck, 41, both tell how they and their families were seduced into the inner world of Michael Jackson. The pop star, by their accounts, had the classic traits of a “groomer” child molester. They say that while entertaining their families at his 2,600-acre Neverland ranch in Southern California, he was molesting the boys in his bedroom and swearing them to secrecy. 

  “He told me if they ever found out what we were doing,” Robson says in the film, “he and I would go to jail for the rest of our lives.”

  The problem now for both men is they were once defenders of Jackson, testifying that he would never molest a child. Robson was an instrumental witness in a 2005 criminal molestation case against Jackson in which he was acquitted. Both say that having children of their own inspired them to come forward with the truth. 

  Jackson’s estate has filed a $100 million arbitration case against HBO, claiming the cable service violated a 1992 agreement it signed with Jackson that included a “non-disparagement” clause. Then the legal question becomes whether truth is disparagement. 

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