Simon & Schuster, the Free Press unit of which published my biography of Samuel Adams, has launched a new web site, 250words.com, which sends out a daily email with a 250-word article about a new business book. Though the site is owned by Simon & Schuster, it covers books from a variety of publishers. Today's is a book called Blockbusters, from Henry Holt: the article runs under the headline: "How Warner Brothers Got Lucky Acquiring Harry Potter."

You can sign up for the free email at the 250words.com site. I've been watching it for a few days and have found it useful. I particularly appreciate the brevity; I'm glad it's 250 words and not 1,000.

NPR reports that the Post Office inspector general is suggesting that the government agency replace the revenue it has lost from the decline of old-fashioned letters (because of email and electronic payments, among other things) by getting into the banking business: "The Inspector General's report estimates the Postal Service could make $8.9 billion annually in new revenue by offering banking services."

From the NPR report:

Consumer Bankers Association CEO Richard Hunt calls the idea "the typical Washington, D.C., mentality. You've got an agency of the government losing money, so what do they say? 'Well, maybe we should go to a field that we know nothing about 'cause there's possibly money there.'"

I think Mr. Hunt has this one just about right.

Not the usual government to law firm or government to bank, but government to baseball team. MLB.com reports:

NEW YORK -- The Mets on Wednesday named Haeda Mihaltses, a former Michael R. Bloomberg cabinet member, to the newly created position of executive director of external affairs, where she will serve as the organization's main liaison with city, state and federal officials, as well as oversee relations with community stakeholders.
Mihaltses spent 12 years in the former mayor's administration as director of intergovernmental affairs, coordinating New York City's relationship with the federal government, New York State government and city government. ...The Mets worked closely with Bloomberg's administration in recent years to bring the All-Star Game to Citi Field. Currently, they are involved in a Willets Point redevelopment plan that would transform the area around Citi Field with swaths of new residential and commercial space.

Maine has started enforcing a decades-old law banning the disclosure to customers of the alcohol content in beer. Jonathan Adler, a professor at the Case Western University School of Law, writes that the law "is almost certainly unconstitutional as it is currently being enforced," a violation of the First Amendment protection on free speech.

Bloomberg Television has an interview with investor Sam Zell, who said, in part, according to a transcript supplied by Bloomberg:

LIU: Speaking about leadership, I want to talk about a couple of – couple of people in the news who are – one considered a leader is New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who's now been under pressure given this whole Bridgegate scandal. Do you think he's going to survive this?

ZELL: I think he will. I think this Bridgegate scandal is another example of journalistic hypocrisy. I just wonder whether the president lying to everybody about healthcare was more – more or less important than Bridgegate. Because I think Bridgegate has gotten more press and more focus than who knew what and when when the president was telling us --

LIU: So you think the press has given – you think the press has given the White House a pass on – on Obamacare.

ZELL: Do you have any doubt about that?

The federal government has so far paid out $19.2 billion in incentives for doctors and hospitals to implement electronic health records, HealthCare IT News reports. A lot of the money was taken in taxes from other sectors of the economy that computerized their business processes without billions of dollars in government subsidies.

Bloomberg has a news article about Harvard Business School asking a professor to make additional disclosures at the end of piece the professor wrote based in part on research about a publicly traded company that the professor, Benjamin Edelman, did for a paying client. The revised disclosure reads as follows:

Bloomberg View columnist Clive Crook takes on the argument made by, among others, this New York Times editorial, that the job-killing effect of ObamaCare is somehow a good thing because, as the Times editorial puts it, "The new law will free people, young and old, to pursue careers or retirement without having to worry about health coverage." Mr. Crook writes:

That just leaves one thing -- the small and strangely neglected matter of who pays for the subsidies. As a taxpayer, I'm more than happy to finance a subsidy that guarantees access to decent health care for all. I'm not so happy to subsidize your early retirement or improved work-life balance. Health care is, or should be, a basic entitlement. Your lifestyle choices aren't.

CVS Caremark announced this morning that it will stop selling tobacco products at its drugstores, foregoing $2 billion a year in revenues.

Almost instantly, President Obama issued a statement praising the decision:

As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today's decision will help advance my Administration's efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs - ultimately saving lives and protecting untold numbers of families from pain and heartbreak for years to come...I congratulate -- and thank -- the CEO of CVS Caremark, Larry Merlo, the board of directors, and all who helped make a choice that will have a profoundly positive impact on the health of our country.

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial attributing the Rhode Island State Investment Commission's decision to withdraw from Daniel Loeb's Third Point LLC investment partnership to pressure from the teachers' union. The state treasurer, Gina Raimondo, is running for governor.

The New York Times gives a front-page boost to an effort by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a private non-profit group, to prevent Aby Rosen from removing a Picasso tapestry. The tapestry is owned by the conservancy and hangs in a foyer of the Four Seasons restaurant, which is in the Seagram Building owned by Mr. Rosen's real estate company.

The Times article omits the context, which is that it is the second time that Mr. Rosen has seen his property rights infringed by landmarks extremists. As Edward Glaeser wrote in the New York Sun back in 2006 at the height of the previous battle, over the Parke-Bernet building at 980 Madison Ave.:

Law professor Richard Epstein's latest weekly column is about the difference between "strict libertarians such as Rand Paul" and "classical liberals" such as Professor Epstein.

The latest Washington policy solution to the problem of the long-term jobless is to pay them to move somewhere else where there are more jobs. That's the topic of my column this week: please check it out at Reason (here) and the New York Sun (here).

USA Today has an editorial condemning "heat and eat," which it calls a "trick" to milk the food stamp program:

to give someone with no actual heating bill a token amount of home heating assistance — as little as $1 a year in some states, or a single dime a year in California. Sixteen states and Washington, D.C., use the gimmick to extract billions of dollars in extra federal food-stamp benefits that their citizens aren't really entitled to under the rules....It is a scam that bends the rules in ways lawmakers never intended. It gives some people extra benefits while others in the same situation get less. And it's serious money: Closing this loophole would save more than $8 billion over the next 10 years.

Even the New York Times is starting to view as obsessive or excessive the government's pursuit of Steven A. Cohen, to judge by the language in a Times news article today, which refers to "the government's apparent fixation with seeking to link Mr. Cohen to illicit trading."