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Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen (CO). They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes. The first two pieces of the strategy — educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics — were not surprising, given the money they have given to policy institutes and political action groups. But the third one was: media.

Other than financing a few fringe libertarian publications, the Kochs have mostly avoided media investments. Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company’s eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

Five days of harrowing footage from Boston has allowed a voracious nation to experience Monday’s bombings and their aftermath almost as the events were happening, with ever-present cameras at once documenting history and pushing it relentlessly forward. Fueling this situation has been a series of technological shifts that are likely to accelerate in the years ahead as police, corporations and even private citizens gain access to unprecedented troves of video imagery and the tools to analyze them.

Advances in computing power and analytical software have allowed for individuals to be identified and tracked as never before — especially when that information is combined with the location data emitted by most cellphones. The role of these technologies in the Boston investigation is unclear, but law enforcement experts say that video surveillance and analysis is especially valuable in cases such as this, with an unexpected attack and no obvious suspects at first. The process of winnowing happened with remarkable speed, moving in just days from a mountain of unsorted video, to blurry images of potential suspects, to pictures crisp enough to drive a manhunt. For those seeking to protect privacy in the digital age, however, the news is not all good.

[Commentary] The House passed a new cybersecurity bill, and the accompanying report emphasizes what many corporate and government experts know only too well. “A number of advanced nation-state actors are actively engaged in a series of wide-ranging, aggressive efforts to penetrate American computer systems and networks” and “these efforts are targeted not only at sensitive national security and infrastructure information but are also often aimed at stealing corporate research and development information that forms the very lifeblood of the American economy.” The report called it nothing less than “pillage.” With all this urgency in the air, there is a real need for the government, which has the sophisticated tools and expertise, to team up with the private sector, where the majority of vulnerable networks exist. But such information sharing requires a basis in law. Congress deadlocked over legislation in the last session. On Feb. 12, President Obama issued an executive order, a stopgap attempt to begin doing something to meet the threat. The new Congress must do better.

[Commentary] Every time Congress has taken a serious look at proposals to boost Internet sales taxes, it has rejected them. That's probably why pro-tax Senators are trying to rush through an online tax hike with as little consideration as possible.

For Senators curious about what they're voting on, it is the same flawed proposal that Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced in February. It has been repackaged to qualify for a Senate rule that allows Majority Leader Harry Reid to bypass committee debate and bring it straight to the floor. The Marketplace Fairness Act discriminates against Internet-based businesses by imposing burdens that it does not apply to brick-and-mortar companies. For the first time, online merchants would be forced to collect sales taxes for all of America's estimated 9,600 state and local taxing authorities.