This was not a good week for print. How do I know? Twitter told me so. The San Antonio News-Express is set to cut 135 people from their newsroom. Over at the Hartford Courant, the ax is falling on 100. Ditto that number at the Providence Journal. The New York Post dropped famed gossip columnist Liz Smith. In San Francisco, the Chronicle is hemorrhaging $50 million a year. The respective homes of the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune will be sold as part of the ailing Tribune Company’s bankruptcy proceedings. And last but not least, today marks the final issue of The Rocky Mountain News, which would have been 150 years old in April. →

Looks like the Wells Fargo wagon needs roadside assistance. Yesterday, the 157 year-old financial institution was sued by the State of California for a whopping $1.5 billion. The charge? Securities fraud. And to think that the bank celebrated record profits of $3.05 billion only one day before.

How nice for them.

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On Tuesday, Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) proposed the latest government bailout to another bloodied and bruised industry, the newspapers. Only instead of a straight injection of taxpayer funds, Sen. Cardin wants newspapers to go non-profit so they can enjoy the massive tax breaks that keep charities afloat.

While I applaud the lawmaker’s noble effort to keep the presses printing, I feel that the bill is just another straw grasp by someone who doesn’t truly get the newspaper business—or a capitalist society at that. →

What is home, really? Just a simple set of windows and walls. Maybe a nice yard where you and Dad can toss some baseballs. Sprinklers to run through, but only if you’re lucky. And a tub just big enough to play →

The Los Angeles Times is a pretty sad place right now. And not  because word on the street is that Paul Blart: Mall Cop is getting a sequel.

The news institution is merging its California section of state and local news with the rest of the paper, leaving less space for stories taking place in our own backyards. In other words, say goodbye to the very thing the LA Times can do better than anyone else—cover California. →

Jon Favreau, President Obama’s chief wordsmith, is dating a Maxim model. You know what that means—at long last, it’s officially “cool” to be “smart.”

Don’t believe me? Secretary of Education Arne Duncan proclaimed it so during his January 13 confirmation hearing.

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