Venezuelans may be used to a dearth of medicine, milk and sugar, but there's a new shortage that's, shall we say, a bit more problematic: toilet paper.

The government of socialist President Nicolas Maduro announced this week that it would import 50 million rolls of toilet paper to meet the growing demand.

"We will saturate the market so the people will be calm," Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming told the official AVN news agency.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who was front-and-center during the Republican-led impeachment of President Clinton in 1998, is cautioning his GOP colleagues about the risk of appearing to be too eager as they dig into the scandals now dogging the Obama administration.

On Cragslist, he describes himself as "a clean man" with a job and no arrest record, who adds, "I don't like murder." For extra motivation, he promises an open bar.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

Kevin Williamson took a stand against annoying cell phone use. The National Review writer attended a musical in New York and says the crowd was disruptive. One woman was Web surfing on her phone, violating theater rules. Mr. Williamson tells Gothamist he complained to the woman. She replied: So don't look. That's when Williamson grabbed her phone and threw it across the theater, an offense for which he says he's glad to go to jail if he is prosecuted.

Friday's major news about the conflict in Syria:

-- "Russia Sends More Advanced Missiles to Aid Assad in Syria."

According to The New York Times, "Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday."

(Most recent update: 12:50 p.m. ET.)

Saying that "foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection," the outgoing head of the Internal Revenue Service told Congress on Friday that he and the agency want to apologize for the targeting of some conservative groups during the 2012 campaign cycle.

On Thursday, President Obama named Daniel Werfel, 42, acting IRS commissioner. The announcement comes a day after the resignation of Steven Miller, who got caught up in the controversy over the IRS targeting Tea Party groups.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some other news, New Orleans police have arrested six people after last Sunday's shooting spree at a Mother's Day parade. Two of those suspects, brothers, face 20 counts of attempted murder after 20 people were injured. The shooting galvanized residents of a city with one of the world's higher murder rates. Keith O'Brien has the story.

KEITH O'BRIEN, BYLINE: Residents at the intersection of Frenchman and North Villere Streets were thrilled to see it yesterday morning, a produce truck selling fruits and vegetables, door to door.