FEDERAL CASE: FBI Director Christopher Wray spent yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee suffering the slings and arrows of Republican outrage, conspiracy theories, and political grandstanding. The Democrats threw softball questions and admiration in a session that overall was about political posturing, not oversight of the FBI.

  Republicans led by committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio repeatedly said the public has lost faith in the FBI and portrayed the bureau as the political tool of Democrats. Jordan opined about the “weaponization of the government against the American people.”

  Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz demanded to know, “Are you protecting the Bidens?”

  Opinions for and against the FBI tend to be divided along political lines with Republican leaders undermining the bureau’s image because of the investigation of former President Donald Trump. On that matter, Wray said, “There are specific rules about where to store classified information and that those need to be stored in a SCIF (secure room), and in my experience, ballrooms, bathrooms and bedrooms are not SCIFs.”

  Director Wray is a registered Republican who was appointed by Trump. He said, “The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background.”

  Wray artfully dodged questions about current investigations and anything intended to elicit a political opinion. With Republicans suggesting there were FBI agitators spurring the January 6^thcrowd to attack the Capitol, Wray declined to answer whether any of his agents or “assets” were present.

THE LONG HAUL: President Biden is in Finland today, showing solidarity with NATO’s newest member, which has a long border with Russia.

  Concluding the NATO summit, President Biden yesterday pledged that the US, Ukraine, and its allies are in it for the long haul against the Russian invasion. Speaking at Vilnius University in Lithuania, Biden vowed that “we will not waver” no matter how long the war continues.

  “Putin still wrongly believes that he can outlast Ukraine,” Biden said, describing the Russian leader as a man who made a huge mistake invading Ukraine. “After all this time Putin still doubts our staying power. He is making a bad bet.”

  Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, although disappointed that his country was not immediately admitted to the NATO alliance, came away with the victory of a promise for future membership and status as a non-voting member.

THE WAR ROOM:  Russia launched another wave of attack drones at Kyiv overnight with most or all of them shot down. One person was killed and authorities said most of the damage was done by falling debris.

SILENT MOVIE: The Hollywood actor’s union, SAG/AFTRA, is posed to go on strike today and hit the picket lines with striking writers as they approach a midnight deadline without a contract. That would bring movie and television production to a complete stop.

  The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said it’s “deeply disappointed” that the union “decided to walk away from negotiations.”

  The actors, like the writers, want better pay and professional protections for the growing outlet of streaming video. The writers want to stop the production companies from replacing writers with artificial intelligence.

IN HOT WATER: Temperatures in ocean waters off Florida are reaching the highest levels ever recorded, as much as 97 degrees in some areas, posing a threat to the life of coral reefs. It’s another example of how global warming combined with normal weather events is threatening ecology as we know it.

    Sea surface temperatures in some areas around Florida are 2 to 3 degrees above normal, and that’s all it takes to trigger what’s known as coral “bleaching,” losing their algal food source, turning white, and dying.

  Scientists point out that their concerns are compounded by the calendar. It’s only July and ocean temperatures reach their peak in August and September.

THE OBIT PAGE: Benno Schmidt, a lawyer, former clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren, First Amendment scholar, and former president of both Yale University and the City University of New York, has died at age 81.

  At Yale, Schmidt invested University money in the tattered neighborhood surrounding the campus and doubled the school’s endowment. He left in controversy over cutting the budget for Arts and Sciences in favor of pouring more money into the hard sciences.

  At the City University, he turned around what had become a failing institution.

  Prior to all that, Schmidt was a sidekick to former CBS News president Fred Friendly at the Columbia University Graduate School of journalism. That is where the editor of The Rooney Report was exposed to his wit and wisdom.

THE SPIN RACK: The Consumer Price Index, the measure of inflation, rose 3 percent in the year through June, just a third of its roughly 9 percent peak last year at this time. — Chinese hackers attempted to penetrate State and Commerce Department email accounts in the weeks before Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing last month, US officials said. They said the hackers were likely affiliated with China’s military or spy services. — Farmers Insurance announced it will stop selling policies in Florida, including home, auto and umbrella policies, forcing about 100,000 customers to find new insurance. The company said it’s getting out of Florida because the risk exposure to hurricanes is too much. — The McClatchy newspaper chain let go of three Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonists, including Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee. McClatchy said the decision to “no longer publish daily opinion cartoons” is part of a “continuing evolution” for the company. Ohman, who’s president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, said his firing came as a shock and, “I felt like I had been T-boned at an intersection.”

BELOW THE FOLD: Anchor Brewing, America’s oldest craft brewer as the maker of Anchor Steam Beer is shutting down after 127 years in business. The San Francisco-based company announced that it’s had to give up “following a combination of challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016.” That’s sad. It’s a great beer.

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