If  anyone doesn’t think life is tough in the newspaper world is tough, go talk to the more than three dozen people laid off this week at the  Indianapolis Star . The Star is a victim of a number of factors, but I’ve always wondered in the 21st Century is there still a need for a daily printed edition of a newspaper?  Most content can be delivered on-line to your computer, laptop or cell phone.  It’s much cheaper to push “send”  than to run a printing press. Some papers have already cutback daily circulation.

Yesterday I wrote how reports are showing Tom Coburn counselling John Ensign to end his affair and hand over some hush money to his mistress Cindy Hampton. This story is developing quickly, though, so quickly that one expects everything to fall apart, and soon, for Senator John Ensign. We’ve got what appears to be payoffs ($96,000) in some sort of equavalence to small, unmarked bills, from Ensign’s parents.

Politico had a story this week, one of a few like it elsewhere, to the effect that the rubber was hitting the road for President Obama, with a variety of tough battles coming to a head, an economy that has not yet responded to the stimulus package in significantly visible ways (with predictable second-guessing and recriminations from the right and the left), a contentious Congressional majority, and slippage among independent voters who like Obama personally but are increasingly apprehensive about

AP: Internet drug purchases included in spending billsThe Senate dealt a blow to the drug lobby Thursday by voting to permit people in the United States to order lower-cost drugs from Canada over the Internet.CNN: Statement: Ensign’s parents give mistress’ family $96K The story of Sen. John Ensign’s affair with a former staffer took a new twist Thursday with the revelation by Ensign that his parents gave the woman’s family $96,000 as a gift.CNN: Coburn: ‘I will never reveal’ what I told Ensign Sen.