• BARR LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED: “Attorney General Bill Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and to determine if the FBI’s surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016 was legal.” (The Daily Wire)

• HOUSE TRADITIONS GO AWRY: “The witness rose from her seat, raised her right hand and swore to tell the truth before Congress. But four words were missing: ‘So help me God.’ In the House of Representatives, to the winner go the spoils, and Democrats, the new decision makers, control everything, including what legislation gets a vote and the minutiae of procedural choices, such as whether witnesses must utter the traditional plea for divine aid. Democratic chairmen and chairwomen of several key committees have deemed no such entreaty is necessary.” (The New York Times)

• TARIFF BATTLE: “U.S. officials listed $300 billion more of Chinese goods for possible tariff hikes while Beijing vowed Tuesday to ‘fight to the finish’ in an escalating trade battle that is fueling fears about damage to global economic growth.” (Associated Press)

• TARIFF RELIEF: “President Donald Trump said on Monday that his administration was planning to provide about $15 billion in aid to help U.S. farmers whose products may be targeted with tariffs by China in a deepening trade war.” (Reuters)

• FEDERAL IMMIGRATION CRIMES NOW A PLURALITY: “Immigration offenses became the biggest category of federal crime in fiscal year 2018, surpassing the number of drug offenses. Crimes relating to immigration comprised 34.4 percent of all federal sentencing cases, an increase from last year’s 30 percent, according to the United States Sentencing Commission’s annual report.” (National Review)

• VOTERS BACK VISA ENFORCEMENT: “As recently as 2017, over 600,000 of those who entered the United States on legal visas overstayed, and a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 62% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government should find these individuals and make them go home.” (Rasmussen Reports)

• “WE ARE ALL TIMES READY FOR WAR”: “At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons.” (The New York Times)

• ‘EMPIRE’ MISFIRE: “A few weeks after several of the stars of Fox’s hit television series ‘Empire’ wrote a letter to executives and producers demanding the return of embattled actor Jussie Smollett, Fox Entertainment announced that this upcoming season will be the scandal-damaged show’s last.” (The Daily Wire)

• APPLE ANTITRUST FOREWARNING: “The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 against Apple, saying iPhone users can pursue their antitrust lawsuit involving the tech giant’s signature electronic marketplace, the App Store. … The iPhone users argued that Apple’s 30% commission on sales through the App Store is an unfair use of monopoly power that results in inflated prices passed on to consumers.” (CNBC)

• POLICY: Why VW workers have more to lose than gain from unionizing (The Daily Signal)

• POLICY: Sharpening the U.S.-China trade debate (American Enterprise Institute)

• HUMOR: Alyssa Milano launches line of purity rings (The Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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