Apologize for interrupting here, but I think this event demonstrates why closing off any NOW thread, any Discussion thread, and keeping in force the 48 hour rule against discussing any recent events effectively chokes off any and all discussion of contemporaneous important, possibly historical events, is short-sighted and possibly short-circuits an important historical record. I realize just repeating widely-reported news is redundant and doesn't add much value to the site, but many times a member may have a local news tidbit or may capture a great screen-save of a radar picture that could prove widely informative.
And, BTW, the only reason I post this in this thread is I see there isn't even a section that allows dicussion about ST policy anymore.