a blog by Jack Limpert, Editor of The Washingtonian for more than 40 years.
From a Washington Post story by Sarah Ellison headlined “The Washington Post will end its Sunday magazine, eliminate positions”:
The Washington Post will stop publishing its stand-alone print Sunday magazine, the newspaper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, announced Wednesday.
The magazine has 10 staff members, who were told in a meeting that their positions have been eliminated, according to Shani George, The Post’s vice president for communications.
From a Times Insider column by Eric Lipton headlined “Cigars, Colleges, Booze and Blitzes: Investigating the Sports Betting Boom”:
The Kansas State Capitol is the state’s greatest architectural treasure, a towering temple of democracy. Taller than the United States Capitol, the 119-year-old building is filled with reminders of Kansas’ outsized role in United States history. A 2,000-pound statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the five-star general turned president and a Kansan, stands proudly in the rotunda.
When I visited the Capitol one April evening with Amir Hamja, a photographer, lawmakers were rushing through the limestone halls to leave before the business day ended. Where were they headed, we wondered?
From an AP story by Jill Colvin headlined “Trump’s dinner disaster sparks new rules for his campaign”:
Donald Trump is betting he can win his way back to the White House by reviving the outsider appeal that fueled his success in 2016.
But his dinner with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and a rapper who has spewed antisemitic conspiracies is demonstrating the risks of that approach. It underscores the dangers of his limited campaign operation and leaves the former president subject to stinging criticism from fellow Republicans who increasingly see him as a liability for their party after a lackluster showing in this year’s midterm elections.
From a New York Times story by Lydia Polgreen headlined “Protect Our Democracy. Support Local News.”:
Like a lot of folks, I have been thinking quite a bit lately about how to shore up our democracy. We voted in November, and that seems to have gone pretty well. Election deniers and conspiracy-mongers running in swing states lost. Common-sense candidates focused on kitchen table issues won. But after voting, what’s next? In this season of giving I have a modest suggestion: Support your local news organization.
From a Wall Street Journal story by Deborah Acosta headlined “Downtown Miami Waterfront Property Has $1 Billion Asking Price”:
Genting Malaysia Bhd., the Southeast Asia casino operator, is marketing 15.5 acres of waterfront land in downtown Miami with an asking price of about $1 billion.
“There’s never been a property of this size ever available, at this kind of location,” said Michael T. Fay, the managing director of Avison Young‘s Miami office, which is marketing the parcel.
From an AP story by Janie Har headlined “San Francisco will allow police to deploy robots that kill”:
Supervisors in San Francisco voted Tuesday to give city police the ability to use potentially lethal, remote-controlled robots in emergency situations — following an emotionally charged debate that reflected divisions on the politically liberal board over support for law enforcement.
The vote was 8-3, with the majority agreeing to grant police the option despite strong objections from civil liberties and other police oversight groups. Opponents said the authority would lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities.
From a Washington Post story by Emily Yahr headlined “Amy Grant conquered Christian music. That was just her first act.”:
When Amy Grant is awarded the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, it will celebrate the career of a superstar who broke barriers in contemporary Christian music before she crossed over to pop and mainstream audiences and established herself an artist beloved across genres and generations. The lifetime achievement is a natural occasion for reflection, which makes it incredibly bittersweet that when it comes to the most recent significant event in her life, Grant can’t remember anything.
From a New York Times review by Dwight Garner of the book by Cormac McCarthy titled “Stella Maris”:
Artists tend to simplify their form with age, and the big novel has traditionally been, to paraphrase writers dead and living, no country for very old men. But this fall, Cormac McCarthy, who is pushing 90, has arrived with a pair of audacious linked novels, one a total banger and the other no embarrassment. If this is what it sounds like to be on your last legs, young writers should ask their server for whatever he’s having. If McCarthy’s voice is any indication, he’s still limber enough to outrun an aggrieved cheetah in his drawers and stocking feet.
From a story on lithub.com by Ethan Joella headlined “Always on the Clock: On the Writerly Need to Find Ideas in Unexpected Places:
I read once that when ducks sleep in a big group, those on the outer rim keep one side of their brains awake. This is what it’s like to be a writer, at least in my case. You’re never off the clock. What if you miss overhearing a perfect word from two booths down at the diner? What if someone opens their purse in a waiting room, and random objects spill out: a pair of pantyhose, unicorn-flavored gum? If you are on a walk, and a neighbor’s garage is open, you want to see what they have on their shelves: laundry detergent, potting soil, rock salt. Like the duck on half alert, the writer doesn’t let their guard down.
From an AP story by Jill Lawless headlined “Christians a minority in England; non-religious grow”:
Fewer than half the people in England and Wales consider themselves Christian, according to the most recent census — the first time the country’s official religion has been followed by a minority of the population.
Britain has become less religious — and less white — in the decade since the last census, figures from the 2021 census released Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics revealed.
