The World Narrow Web: Two major events in business and regulation yesterday signaled how big business is moving in to corral the freedom of the internet.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to end what’s known as “net neutrality” in which every provider has an equal opportunity to reach an audience. The federal government will no longer regulate the internet as a public utility. Now a company like Disney can pay broadband providers for favorable and higher-quality service

The Walt Disney Company announced that it’s buying most of 20^th Century Fox for $52.4 billion. Disney wants Fox’s library of entertainment in a plan to move aggressively into video streaming, which the company sees as the future. They are bulking up to fight back against the upstarts Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook.

. Your Disney will run fast, and your Netflix will load like mud, or vice-versa.

Nick Frisch writes in The NY Times, “To taste a future without net neutrality, try browsing the web in Beijing. China’s internet, provided through telecom giants aligned with the Communist Party, is a digital dystopia, filtered by the vast censorship apparatus known as China’s Great Firewall. Some sites load with soul-withering slowness, or not at all. Others appear instantly. Content vanishes without warning or explanation.”

Taxing Issues: Republican Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah are holding up their party’s tax reform, demanding larger child tax credits for working parents. They have power because if the bill won’t pass if it loses just three votes.

It hangs on the edge. Arizona’s John McCain is in the hospital being treated for brain cancer. It’s possible he won’t be able to vote next week. Tennessee’s Bob Corker voted “no” on the Senate version of the bill and remains a question mark. Susan Collins of Maine is still keeping her cards close.

The Russia Thing: As the Special Counsel’s investigation crawls up the ladder in the Trump political organization, The Washington Post reports that after nearly a year in office, President Trump still refuses to admit that Russia tried to influence the 2016 election.

The Post says, “The result is without obvious parallel in U.S. history, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president — and his refusal to accept what even many in his administration regard as objective reality — have impaired the government’s response to a national security threat.”

The Apprentice: Washington is still buzzing about the White House firing of Omarosa Manigault, a rare black employee in the administration. The self-promoting Manigault is buzzing too.

She told ABC’s morning host Michael Strahan, “When I have a chance to tell my story, Michael, I have quite a story to tell.” It may not be the story of how she was hauled out of the White House.

Manigault said, “As the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that made me feel uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people.”

Obviously shopping a book already.

Nation: A California firefighter has died fighting what’s called the Thomas Fire, which has grown to 242,500 acres. At 60 miles long and 40 miles wide, it’s the fourth largest fire in California history.

The circumstances of the firefighter’s death were not immediately given.

The Obit Page: Tommy Nobis, a brutal middle linebacker who was the first-ever draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons, has died at age 74 after deteriorating with evident brain damage. Nobis played in the 1960s when no one paid attention to the possibility of brain damage. When you got your bell rung, you kept playing.

Rooftopping: A young Chinese man who gained internet celebrity for hanging off the edge of high rise buildings and antennae suddenly stopped posting new videos. Now we know why.

Wu Yongning had posted videos of himself hanging by his fingers off the edge of towers, even doing pullups, and clinging one-handed hundreds of feet above urban China. He became a star of what has become known as “rooftopping.”

In his last video, he can be seen immediately having difficult with his grip. His feet are sliding on the slick exterior of the tower. Then he just drops out of camera frame.

Chinese police now confirm that on Nov. 8^th Wu fell 60 stories to his death from the top of the Huayuan Hua Center in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.

Google It: Using technology from the internet search engine Google, researchers have discovered a new planet the size of earth that circles a sun in what’s known as the “habitable zone” where temperatures allow for liquid water.

Kepler-90i was found using computers that “learned” to find planets in data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Don’t pack your bags. Kepler-90i is 800 degrees and 2,500 light years away.

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