Spin City:After a day of grilling in the Senate, Attorney Gen. William Barr is skipping a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee today because he objects to a plan to have staff lawyers question him. The assumption is that lawyers will ask more piercing questions than members of Congress.

  Barr spent five hours yesterday defending his conclusion that the Special Counsel report found that President Trump had committed no crimes. Democrats demanded to know why Barr had said President Trump cooperated with the investigation while at the same time Trump was clearly trying to thwart or kill it.

   In a four-page memo to Congress in March, Barr provided a description of the report that was favorable to Trump a month before the release of the full report with redactions wthat painted a different picture.

  Days later, Mueller wrote Barr a letter protesting Barr’s description of the report. Yesterday Barr dismissed Mueller’s letter saying, “The letter’s a bit snitty and I think it was probably written by one of his staff people.” Mueller signed his own letter.

  The NY Timesreported that members of Mueller’s staff were unhappy with Barr, yet Barr told Congress that he had no knowledge of anyone on Mueller’s staff being discontent.

  A Washington Posteditorial says, “In other words, after releasing a spin job on the Mueller report, he misled Congress on whether the special counsel was unhappy about it.”

Small Bites:In an opinion piece in The NY Times, former FBI director James Comey muses about why a man like Attorney Gen. William Barr and others suddenly seem to have become supplicants to President Trump.

  Comey describes a President who smothers those in his presence with fictions and fantasies. He writes, “Speaking rapid-fire with no spot for others to jump into the conversation, Mr. Trump makes everyone a co-conspirator to his preferred set of facts, or delusions. I have felt it — this president building with his words a web of alternative reality and busily wrapping it around all of us in the room.”

  Comey says that he found himself at times unable to stand up to a man who just makes it up as he goes. He said, “Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.”

Abortion:The Alabama legislature is on the brink of passing the most restrictive abortion law in the country, making it illegal for doctors to perform abortions at any stage of a pregnancy, unless a woman’s life is threatened. In other words, they are making it a crime to perform a procedure that is otherwise legal. The woman who has the abortion would not be charged.

  It’s part of a push within the ant-abortion movement to get the issue before the Supreme Court for reconsideration of the landmark decision that made abortion legal in 1973.

 Republican state Rep. Terri Collins of Decatur, Ala. defended her “Human Life Protection Act” during a contentious debate.  “This bill is focused on that baby that’s in the womb that is a person,” Collins said. “That baby, I believe, would choose life.”

Fighting Firefighters with Fire: President Trump went on a Twitter rampage yesterday sparked by the national firefighters’ union endorsement of Joe Biden for President. He pushed the button on a barrage of nearly 60 tweets and retweets, in one of them referring to “this dues sucking union.”

  Trump wrote in  a rage over the endorsement, “I’ve done more for Firefighters than this dues sucking union will ever do, and I get paid ZERO!”He retweeted dozens of messages from people claiming to be firefighters who support him.

  Trump did well with union members in 2016 but seems to be worried about holding their loyalty. He’s trying to split the members from their leaders. Earlier he attacked the president of an auto workers local.

Hired Education:More parents have been notified that they may be targets in the college admissions payoff investigation. Even some parents who have yet to be notified are lining up defense lawyers, The NY Times reports. 

  One couple pleaded guilty yesterday and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

  The Los Angeles Timesreports according to sources that the family of a Chinese student admitted to Stanford in the spring of 2017 paid $6.5 million to the consultant at the heart of the admissions scandal. The student was falsely posed as a candidate for the sailing team. 

The Roundup:The White House yesterday asked Congress for an additional $4.5 billion to deal with asylum seekers at the southern border. — The federal reserve yesterday left interest rates unchanged, ignoring President trump’s suggestion that they be lowered to spur the economy even though it is healthy. — The Trump administration filed papers in a federal court yesterday arguing that all of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, should be struck down. That would end health insurance for 21 million Americans.

Run Slower: The international court governing sports ruled yesterday that women athletes with a naturally high level of testosterone must take suppressive drugs if they are going to compete in sanctioned events.

  The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decided in favor of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which has ruled that it’s unfair for some women to have elevated testosterone.

  Much of the case focused on South African Olympic gold medalist Caster Semenya, who won the 800 meters twice. Her defenders say her natural state should be altered no more than a tall high jumper or a discus thrower with big hands. 

   Semenya said in a statement, “For a decade the IAAF has tried to slow me down, but this has actually made me stronger.” 

-30-