Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories

In the lull between the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end, coverage today is notable only for a headline webbed in the Globe: “Black Trial Entering Final Weeks.” It seems like only yesterday that journalists, fearful the proceedings could drag into August, were begging for death’s sweet release. Now, with the end in sight, we discover that lawyers for Black et al. are planning closing arguments weighing in at a lousy four hours each, and the prosecution intends to sum up its case in a rapier-quick eight hours. This morning, a defence lawyer named Marc Martin was scheduled to cross-examine former 10 Toronto Street security guard Lance Bloomfield on behalf of Lord Black. The law of averages alone dictates he’d have to be faster than either of the Eddies on that score. If things continue at this pace, we’ll all be home and dry in time for barbecue season at 26 Park Lane Circle. I’ve yet to receive my invitation, but I’m quite sure it’s in the mail.

Black trial sees video of box removal [Globe and Mail]Prosecution expected to wrap up its fraud case against Conrad Black Tuesday [CBC]