—From Pilot Knob, NY.

Patriot Inaction: Key arts of the Patriot Act, in particular the portions that allow for the wholesale collection of telephone data by the NSA, expired at midnight after Congress failed to agree on an extension. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul blocked renewal in a sometimes-contentious session. “Little by little, we’ve allowed our freedom to slip away,” he said on the Senate floor.

It looks now as if the Senate late this week will pass a compromise bill that shifts the storage of telephone records from the NSA to the telephone and communication companies.

At least temporarily the expiration means that law enforcement also loses Patriot Act powers, including what are called “roving wiretaps” that allow the FBI to target a person who uses multiple telephones rather than just specific phone numbers.

World: Friction is mounting between the US and China over China’s moves to control a disputed area of the South China Sea. China has built about 2,000 acres of artificial islands and has already put two pieces of artillery on one of them. The US continues to patrol the area on land and sea, with occasional confrontations. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said, “We all know that turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty.”

Scrubbed: Wheaton College, a Christian school in Illinois, removed the name of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert from the name of its public policy school after he was indicted by the Justice Department for paying to cover up sexual abuse of a former high school student. The J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy has been renamed the Wheaton College Center for Economics, Government and Public Policy.

Small Screen: Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer signed off yesterday after 46 years at CBS News. He’s 78. Schieffer said, “I’ll be honest. I’m going to miss being in the middle of things, but one thing I will never forget is the trust you placed in me, and how nice you were to have me as a guest in your home over so many years. That meant the world to me and it always will. Thank you.”

Stormy Weather: Poor weather has forced the Solar Impulse sun-powered plane to abort its attempt to cross the Pacific and turn back for a landing in Japan. They’ll wait for sunny skies.

The Obit Page: Doris Hart, who despite congenital troubles with her legs and knees became one of the top women’s tennis players in the years after World War II, has died at age 89. Because of her physical limitations Hart played with her brain, a hard serve, and a nasty drop shot. After rain delays in 1951, she played three Wimbledon finals in one day and won them all. It’s considered one of the great feats in tennis.

> Betsy Palmer, the beautiful blonde actress who became a regular on the Today Show and later in life was featured in the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13^th, has died at age 88. Obituary writers too young to know say she was best known for her “Friday” role, but she had appeared for years in feature films and became familiar to television audiences as a panelist on the long-running game show “I’ve Got a Secret.”

Goodbye to Yoga Pants: The travelogue is over. The Rooney Report has left Los Angeles, travelled the deserts, the Indian reservations, the Grand Canyon, the Texas glass canyons made by money, the fields of Tennessee, and the choked arteries of New Jersey and New York to establish its editorial offices in an East Coast deadline. Here’s hoping the food is as good as it was on the road.

-30-