Wednesday Morning Links -- And For The Truckers -- Beam Me Up Scottie -- I'm Ready To Take My Place At The Helm Of The Enterprise

Active rigs: 189 (very nice; nice to see work for rough necks; truckers)

Beam me up Scottie, I'm ready to drive -- to take my place at the helm of the Enterprise....

Star Trucker, Slim Dusty Play It Loud

RBN Energy: The California power market on natural gas; how the nuclear reactor story will play out

Jobs: expectation, a gain of 155,000; actual, a gain of 119,000. And so it goes. I assume this is a day for golfing for the president.

Walt Mossberg: guide to laptops; springtime buyer's guide; bottom line:
For a high-quality, traditional laptop without a touch screen, you can't do much better than a MacBook Air, if you have at least $999 to spend. On the Windows side, stick with touch screens and be prepared to spend nearly as much, or even a bit more. But if you can wait, come back in the fall.

WSJ Links

Section D (Personal Journal):

Section C (Money & Investing):

Section B (Marketplace):

• Circulation up at WSJ, NY Times. 

Average daily circulation at the largest newspapers in the U.S. declined in the six months ended March 31 from a year earlier, but circulation at The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times rose. 

The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., maintained its position as the country's largest newspaper by average weekday circulation. The paper had an average weekday circulation of 2.4 million, including print and digital subscribers, as of March 31, up 12% from a year earlier, according to the latest figures from the Alliance for Audited Media. 

New York Times Co.'s flagship newspaper rose to the No. 2 rank, with 1.9 million weekday readers, up 18%, and continued to have the highest Sunday circulation in the U.S., at 2.3 million, up 16%.

The Times's circulation reflects gains in digital subscriptions. The paper had the largest digital circulation, at 1.1 million.

Gannett Co.'s  flagship USA Today fell to the No. 3 spot, with 1.7 million readers, a decline of 7.9% from a year earlier.

Perhaps more on this later.

Section A:

• Russia squeezed on natural gas prices; the shale gas revolution in America is having effects in Europe 

Miscellaneous

If heads don't roll at Homeland Security over the Boston Marathon bombings, it confirms my thoughts about the president. It seems "everyone" from Russia to Saudi Arabia was warning the US about the Boston Marathon bomber.  The president: we've won the war on terrorism; we will treat events as crimes, and we won't profile. If "push comes to shove," the Islamists have my back."