The Purge: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio returned from home to Washington on Saturday to personally fire his chief of staff following accusations of sexual impropriety in the office. Rubio said in a statement, “By early this afternoon, I had sufficient evidence to conclude that while employed by this office, my chief of staff had violated office policies regarding proper relations between a supervisor and their subordinates.”

It’s a relatively minor incident in the nationwide purge of men accused of sexual harassment and impropriety. Now, the National Gallery of Art in Washington has decided to postpone a display of works by the portrait artist Chuck Close, 77, who has been accused of asking prospective female models to take off their clothes so he can evaluate their bodies. Two women told the NY Times he made them uncomfortable. Close said it was part of picking models.

The case of Close and other men in the arts raises the question of whether the value of the art should be separated from the behavior of the artist. Jock Reynolds, the director of the Yale University Art Gallery, said to the NY Times, “Pablo Picasso was one of the worst offenders of the 20th century in terms of his history with women. Are we going to take his work out of the galleries?”

The NY Times published a story asking whether it’s over for the prolific film maker Woody Allen, whose daughter Dylan has accused him of molesting her when she was just seven. The paper reports that Amazon Studios, which backed his latest movie, “A Rainy Day in New York,” is considering putting the film on the shelf and letting it die because of the accusation. Allen survived marrying his ex-wife Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi, but now it could be the end of his show.

The American President: Donald Trump told Britain’s ITV Channel that he does sometimes tweet from his bed and that he needs twitter to defend himself and communicate with the public. “If I don’t have that form of communication I can’t defend myself,” Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. “I get a lot of fake news, a lot of news that is very false or made up.”
Nothing ever reported by legitimate news organizations about President Trump has ever been shown to be “made up.”

Nation: Four people are dead after a shooting early yesterday at a Pennsylvania carwash. The killing police attributed to a domestic dispute took place about 3 am Sunday at Ed’s Car Wash in Melcroft, Pa., about 50 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Four victims, all in their 20s and 30s, were dead at the scene. The man believed to be the shooter is reported to be on life support at a hospital. — The Washington Post reports that the National Park Service is having a problem with the cremated remains of Vietnam veterans. Apparently it’s become a quiet custom for families to cremate the remains of veterans who have died and leave them at the foot of the memorial wall in Washington. The National Park Service says it can’t keep collecting and storing the ashes.

Tunes: Bruno Mars won the two top Grammys. His single “24K Magic” won record of the year and “That’s What I Like” was named song of the year for songwriting. Mars accepted the songwriting award surrounded by a team of writers who were involved. “I’ve been knowing these guys for over a decade,” Mars said. “All the music-businesses horror stories you’ve seen in the movies, we’ve been through all of them.”

Reality: Fresh off the White House payroll later having been fired, professional reality television star Omarosa Manigault has signed on with “Celebrity Big Brother,” which goes on the air Feb. 7th. Her time in the White House should serve as good training.

The Obit Page: Ingvar Kamprad, the Swedish founder of the Ikea furniture chain, has died at age 91. Kamprad invented what’s called “flat pack” furniture; shelves, dressers, and beds packed in parts in flat easy-to-move boxes. The customer has to put it together at home with a variety of clever locking fasteners. Millions of people have spread the parts and fasteners on the floor and figured it out with the picture plans. One of the smartest things about it is that the parts are cut and engineered so that you can’t put them together wrong, but it’s not always easy.
The stores also do a big business in frozen Swedish meatballs.
Kamprad was proud of being thrifty and made his furniture affordable for thrifty customers. Ikea started in 1943 and now has 412 stores worldwide. They sold $43 billion worth of stuff in 2016. Along the way, Kamprad inspired a small side industry; people who put the furniture together for you. — John Morris, a composer who wrote the score for the comedy movies “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles” with Mel Brooks, has died at age 91. Morris wrote the music and Brooks did the lyrics:
“We’re marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race!”

Dept. of Corrections: Yeah, we know. Our story about new refrigerators for Air Force One yesterday included an egregious typographical error. Fake News! The cost of the two new fridges is not $24,000, it’s $24 million.

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