* Let’s hear it for Susan Collins and Angus King, the two Maine senators, who have introduced legislation that would suspend tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada. The suspension would be in play while the Department of Commerce examines the impact on the U.S. printing and publishing business.
That shouldn’t take long; the stark reality is that obvious. The publishing business has been reeling as advertisers migrate from print to digital, and the pop culture treats newspapers and magazines like rotary telephones. We’re not talking coal mining here. This is about more than lost printing businesses and jettisoned jobs; it’s also about the further erosion of a critical forum for our democracy. At the worst possible time.
* Yes, we understand Rudy Giuliani’s presumed role in the Trump Administration. He is Trump’s New York-celebrity mouthpiece who can, ostensibly, talk to the media. But an off-the-cuff Nosferatu? SNL, you missed this one.
* The wedding service of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a refreshingly diverse, populist touch. That included the African-American Episcopal Bishop Michael Bruce Curry of Chicago. He personified inclusion as he charismatically preached a message of love that underscored that he also loves a spotlight–especially one amid a historically staid gathering.