Barr attacks Justice Department staff, compares them to preschoolers  —  (CNN)Attorney General William Barr slammed the hundreds of Justice Department prosecutors working beneath him on Wednesday, equating them to preschoolers, in a defense of his own politically tuned decision making in the Trump administration.

Federal officials stockpiled munitions, sought ‘heat ray’ device before clearing Lafayette Square, whistleblower says  —  Hours before law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square in early June amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd, federal officials began …

Romney says Biden probe ‘not legitimate role of government’  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Mitt Romney is sharply criticizing an investigation by his own party into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son, saying it's “not the legitimate role of government” to try and damage political opponents.

On Rosh Hashanah call, Trump tells American Jews ‘We love your country’ and asks for their vote  —  WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump spent much of his 20-minute call with American Jewish leaders making the case for more American Jews to vote for him.  He closed by repeating a line that has raised their eyebrows before.

COVID-19 emails from Nashville mayor's office show disturbing revelation  —  The coronavirus cases on lower Broadway may have been so low that the mayor's office and the metro health department decided to keep it secret.  Emails between the mayor's senior advisor and the health department reveal only a partial picture.

Postal Service Stiffed $20 Million Cost of Delivering Trump COVID-19 Mailer  —  “The U.S. Postal Service is a self-funding agency,” said Kevin Kosar, a fellow at American Enterprise Institute.  “By law it should be paid whenever it provides delivery services.”  —  BEAST INSIDE

Freedom Caucus presses McCarthy to launch long-shot bid to oust Pelosi  —  Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are quietly working to convince GOP leadership to sign off on a long-shot bid to oust Nancy Pelosi from the speakership, according to multiple sources …

Huge numbers of Republicans say mail-voting is fraudulent.  That's ominous.  —  President Trump has spent the last few months telling all kinds of lurid lies about vote-by-mail, and if a new Pew Research poll is to be believed, his efforts are paying off in exactly the manner he hopes:

Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the coronavirus pandemic are now permanent  — Yelp on Wednesday released its latest Economic Impact Report, revealing business closures across the U.S. are increasing as a result of the coronavirus.  — As of Aug, 31, 163,735 businesses …

How Michael Caputo shook up Health and Human Services  —  After it became clear in mid-April that his administration's response to Covid-19 was threatening his re-election, President Donald Trump considered a leadership shake-up within a health department whose rivalries and battles …

Review: Woodward's Trump exposé ‘Rage’ reflects the lazy thinking that got us into this mess  —  If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.  —  They spoke 18 times.  Eighteen!

'You can't attack a regular voter': Trump faces a retail-campaigning gap  —  President Donald Trump rarely interacts for extended periods with everyday Americans who haven't been pre-screened by the White House or campaign.  He's never been fond of retail politics, like the random visit to a coffee shop or diner.

Invisible company owned by Rudy Giuliani got taxpayer-backed PPP money — but where did it go?  —  Giuliani's payroll company got a PPP loan from a Trump-friendly bank — but lists no employees.  Was it fraud?  —  view in app  —  Additional reporting was contributed by Kathleen O'Neill.

Jim Carrey to Play Joe Biden on SNL  —  ALRIGHTY THEN  —  NBC announced on Wednesday that actor Jim Carrey will be joining Saturday Night Live to play former Vice President Joe Biden when the show returns to 30 Rockefeller Center for its 46th season on Oct. 3.

White House Staff Members Reportedly Test Positive For COVID-19 Less Than 24 Hours After President Donald Trump Visited Philadelphia  —  PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — White House staff members have reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump visited Philadelphia.

Judge orders all federal prosecutors in Manhattan to read opinion on withholding evidence  —  A federal judge has ordered all federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to read a ruling she issued Wednesday that blasts prosecutors for their handling of evidence …

Stop whining, Alan Dershowitz  —  Sarah Palin sued the New York Times for suggesting that her political action committee incited a murderous rampage.  Seth Rich's family sued Fox News for the emotional suffering that stemmed from the network's false report boosting the conspiracy theory …

Op-Ed: The GOP failed to heed the decline of California's Republican Party  —  The 50th Congressional District is one of the last Republican strongholds in California.  Encompassing large swaths of San Diego County, it's also where I grew up.  As a student at Escondido High School …

Fed expects to keep rates near zero through 2023  —  Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday projected that they would keep interest rates near zero through 2023 to help the economy fully recover from the pandemic, but Fed Chair Jerome Powell warned that Congress will probably have to do more.

Trump blames blue states for the coronavirus death toll — but most recent deaths have been in red states  —  For months, President Trump has been scrambling to deflect criticism for the breadth of the coronavirus pandemic toward whatever target might be available.

New QAnon-Allied GOP Senate Candidate Also Pushed Anti-Semitism, Flat Earthism, and 9/11 Conspiracies  —  The National Republican Senatorial Committee did not return a request for comment.  —  One-time QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke won the Republican Senate primary in Delaware on Tuesday …

CDC says U.S. should have enough coronavirus vaccine to return to ‘regular life’ by third quarter of 2021  — The U.S. should have enough Covid-19 vaccine doses for Americans to return to “regular life” by the third quarter of 2021, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

Bail Fund Promoted By Kamala Harris Helped Man Accused Of Sexually Penetrating A Child  — A bail fund promoted by Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris helped a man accused of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl get out of jail in July, court records show.

Chris Rock Tried to Warn Us  —  In a candid interview, the comic discusses America's summer of strife, Trump, blackface and his dramatic turn in the new season of “Fargo.”  —  Chris Rock wasn't sure if he was hiding out or not.  —  On the Friday before Labor Day, he was speaking by phone …

Russian Media Is Rooting for Civil War in America: ‘The Worse, the Better’  —  “It is better to remain neutral, but if we had to choose, then Trump is certainly ours.”  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  There is no shortage of local topics that interest the Kremlin—from the poisoning of an inconvenient dissident …

The welcome lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden  —  As the US has found, worshipping political leaders is weird and pernicious  —  Delaware can reasonably claim to be the most innocuous state in the US.  The tax-advantageous peninsula seldom incurs hatred, its opposite, or even a second thought …

The latest crisis: Low-income students are dropping out of college this fall in alarming numbers  —  Many low-income students say they don't have good enough WiFi at home to take online courses.  —  In August, Paige McConnell became the first in her family to go to college — and the first to drop out.

These Two Lawyers Face Up To Life In Prison For Allegedly Burning An Empty Cop Car  —  The NYPD van on a Brooklyn street was banged up and empty, a battered steel shell with shattered windows and a mask of spray paint.  Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, May 30, the fourth straight night …

White House Watch  —  Trump Takes First Lead  —  President Trump has now edged to a one-point lead over Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the latest Rasmussen Reports' weekly White House Watch survey.  While statistically insignificant, it's the first time Trump has been ahead.

‘The difference is QAnon’: how a conspiratorial hate campaign upended California politics … Catie Stewart was on her way home from a vacation in early August when her phone reconnected to cell service and she realized something was wrong.  As the communications director for Scott Wiener …

Republicans set aside past concerns over controversial Georgia candidate as they urge her to join ‘team’  —  (CNN)Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, said in mid-June that congressional candidate Marjorie Taylor Greene had made “disgusting” comments regarding Black people …

Ratcliffe reinstates election briefings for intel panels  —  The nation's top intelligence official is partially reversing course on his decision to scale back critical election-security briefings for lawmakers.  —  John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence …

Big Ten's decision to play football signals darkest day in conference's sports history  —  For decades, the Big Ten has thought of itself as a different kind of sports conference, one that proudly touts the academic achievements and Great Lakes values of its like-minded, highly-regarded, internationally-ranked research institutions.