Wiretap: Wet winter and record-breaking summer heat combine to leave California in flames

In the Caribbean and in the Southeast, there have been the winds and the floods of hurricanes. In the West, there are wildfires. Across California on Tuesday night, 17 large wildfires were still burning, covering 115,000 acres. At least 17 are dead, hundreds injured, an unknown number missing, an estimated 2,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. A bad October wildfire season was anticipated by officials following a wet winter which produced vegetation for fuel and the state’s hottest summer on record which turned the brush into tinder. Via The New York Times.

Bob Corker accuses Donald Trump of running a reality show administration. Over the next 48 hours, Trump proves him right. Via The New York Times.

The Washington Post reports that the White House is like a pressure cooker these days, with staff just hoping it doesn’t blow. And as the pressure increases, so does the number of Trump’s temper tantrums, leaving chief of staff John Kelly desperately trying to control the damage.

Dana Milbank: In which Donald Trump takes an IQ test. He guarantees he’ll ace the test — unless, of course, it’s rigged. And you know how the fake media will report it. Via The Washington Post.

The National Hockey League champion Pittsburgh Penguins come to the White House, and Trump congratulates them as true patriots. One problem, 13 of the 23 players on the team aren’t actually Americans. Via Vox.

All the stories you’ve heard about Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior are bad enough. But the truth is actually far worse. Via The New Yorker.

There’s a new timeline in the Las Vegas shooting and a new question: If a security guard alerted the hotel to the gunman before the massacre began, why did it take so long to stop Stephen Haddock? Via The Los Angeles Times.

It’s just not true that all businesses hated Obama’s Clean Power Plan. In fact, there’s a long list of businesses who openly supported the plan. Via The Atlantic.

Michael Tomasky: Nancy Pelosi would cement her legacy as a great Democratic leader if she decided to pass the leadership torch. Via The Daily Beast.

David French writes in The National Review that the kneeling issue could test whether even the mighty National Football League can thrive in polarized red-blue America.

Photo by Bob Dass, via Flickr: Creative Commons