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 …

Donald Trump accused of sexual assault by former model Amy Dorris  —  Exclusive: Amy Dorris alleges Trump forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at 1997 US Open  —  A former model has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament …

New Survey Results From KFF/Cook Political Report Survey in AZ, Fl, and NC.  AZ Moves to Lean Dem  —  There are two key geographic battlegrounds for the Electoral College this year.  One is the Midwest that until 2016, had been reliably Democratic.  The other is the fast-growing Sun Belt section …

A scrapped plan to ship masks to Americans.  A standoff with Amazon amid pressure from Trump.  New documents detail USPS's spring in crisis.  —  Nearly 10,000 pages of emails, memos and other private documents offer new details about the agency's struggles and the pro-Trump figures to whom it turned for advice

GOP growing more indifferent with Trump controversies as election nears  —  Washington (CNN)Public health experts reacted with alarm after President Donald Trump held an indoor rally with thousands of maskless supporters at a packed arena in Nevada amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. Intel Repeatedly Warned About Rudy's ‘Russian Agent’ Pal  —  RED ALERT  —  For a year and a half, U.S. intelligence warned that Andriy Derkach was suspected of election interference.  Yet Derkach—and his wild beliefs—kept drawing more Trumpist adherents.

The Election Needs Oversight  —  Congress should establish a bipartisan commission to monitor voting and ensure that laws and regulations are followed.  —  Mr. Coats served as the director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019.  —  We hear often that the November election is the most consequential in our lifetime.

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.

Chad Wolf appears ready to defy House subpoena to testify, DHS official says  —  Acting Secy Wolf: DHS needs a confirmed secretary  —  (CNN)Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf appears ready to defy a House subpoena issued last week for him to testify Thursday on threats to the US homeland …

16 Straight Hours Inside The Alternate Reality Of Pro-Trump TV Channel OAN  —  This is what it's like watching an entire day of Trump World's answer to state television.  —  The first thing I learn from One America News Network is that there is a new Rolling Stones flagship store opening …

Dems fear Wisconsin governor is becoming a liability for Biden  —  KENOSHA, Wis. — Tony Evers pulled off one of the Democratic Party's biggest feats of 2018: ousting liberal villain Scott Walker after earlier attempts to take out the Wisconsin governor fell short.

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 …

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 …

The Higher Wages of Growth  —  Before the pandemic, income growth soared and poverty fell to the lowest rate since 1959.  —  By The Editorial Board  —  In case you missed it, and most of the media did, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the median household income in 2019 grew a whopping 6.8% …

Navalny team says nerve agent was found on hotel room water bottle  —  MOSCOW (Reuters) - The nerve agent used to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detected on an empty water bottle from his hotel room in the Siberian city of Tomsk, suggesting he was poisoned …

'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.

Barack Obama to release first volume of memoirs after election  —  Former President Obama's memoir will be published in two volumes — with a 768-page Volume 1, “A Promised Land,” out Nov. 17 in 25 languages, publisher Penguin Random House announced Thursday.

The One Vital Message Democrats Need to Win  —  The most powerful campaign message the Democrats have been sending in 2020—exemplified by their diverse, stirring lineup of convention speeches—is an appeal to inclusion and identity.  The party clearly is making a clear effort, in particular …

Stanley Crouch, Towering Jazz Critic, Dead At 74  —  Stanley Crouch, the lauded and fiery jazz critic, has died.  According to an announcement by his wife, Gloria Nixon-Crouch, Stanley Crouch died at the Calvary Hospital in New York on Wednesday , following nearly a decade of serious health issues.

‘It just created a public relations nightmare’: Inside Michael Caputo's time at HHS  —  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 …

Democrats scramble to soothe voter fears about in-person voting ahead of November election  —  (CNN)After months of warnings about the risks posed by in-person voting in a push to expand access to mail-in ballots, Democrats across the country are increasingly focused on communicating to voters …

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!

The Big Ten might save its football season, but the myth of college sports has been shattered  —  Here is how important college football is in this country: By Tuesday afternoon, the University of Wisconsin had 2,160 students who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and all classes were being held virtually.

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.

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 …

Facebook Censors Pro-Trump Ad On Biden Raising Taxes After Fact-Check Admits Claim May Be True, Rules ‘Mostly False’ Anyhow  —  Amid pressure from left-wing activists and media outlets to clamp down on “misinformation” from the right, Facebook has begun censoring political ads …

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.

‘This is the beginning of the end of the Israeli-Arab conflict’  —  US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman urges the Palestinian leadership to join the 21st Century, says they are “on the wrong side of history at the moment.”  —  Recent regional developments and especially the normalization …

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.

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.

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.

Armed civilian roadblocks in Oregon town fuel fears over vigilantism … As Oregon battles more than a dozen wildfires and rumors about looters and arsonists flare, the appearance of armed civilian checkpoints has sparked a fierce debate about vigilante activity and how law enforcement should respond.

The Campus Surveillance State  —  If rational debate breaks down in the centers of learning, how can we expect it to last everywhere else?  —  That many college campuses have adopted a culture of intellectual intolerance has become something of a cliché, as well as a chess piece …