United States Senators have a new idea to boost struggling local news outlets in their home states: Ads from the federal government. Nearly three-quarters of the US Senate have signed a letter to the Trump administration encouraging various agencies to "increase advertising in local newspapers and on broadcast stations in order to help ensure they are able to continue to operate throughout the Covid-19 pandemic." More than half of the members of the US House of Representatives have lent their names to a letter endorsing the same idea earlier this week.