diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 2b0d27fc50..1df5362817 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,3 +1,33 @@
+7.1.0-dev.230 | 2024-08-30 15:38:52 +0200
+
+  * RunState: Drop broker_mgr->Active() usage (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
+    ...and deprecate it. The communication_enabled flag doesn't really
+    make a difference in how the IO loop works.
+
+  * logging/WriterFrontend: No need for explicit CleanupWriteBuffer() (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
+    Any pending records will be cleaned in the destructor of WriterFrontend
+    and WriteBuffer, no need to do this explicitly.
+
+  * logging: Switch index-assignment of raw pointers to emplace_back() (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
+  * broker/logging: Change threading::Value** usage std::vector instead (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
+    This allows to leverage automatic memory management, less allocations
+    and using move semantics for expressing ownership.
+
+    This breaks the existing logging and broker API, but keeps the plugin
+    DoWrite() and HookLogWrite() methods functioning.
+
+    It further changes ValToLogVal to return a threading::Value rather than
+    a threading::Value*. The vector_val and set_val fields unfortunately
+    use the same pointer-to-array-of-pointers approach. this can'tbe changed
+    as it'd break backwards compatibility for plugin provided input readers
+    and log writers.
+
+  * threading/Value: Support move and copy constructors (Arne Welzel, Corelight)
+
 7.1.0-dev.222 | 2024-08-27 13:29:12 +0100
 
   * Fix parsing of version field in SSLv2 client hello (Johanna Amann, Corelight)
diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 74017c93a6..9cca9a4177 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.1.0-dev.222
+7.1.0-dev.230
diff --git a/src/RunState.cc b/src/RunState.cc
index 1585831d08..6add4134aa 100644
--- a/src/RunState.cc
+++ b/src/RunState.cc
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ extern "C" {
 #include "zeek/Reporter.h"
 #include "zeek/Scope.h"
 #include "zeek/Timer.h"
-#include "zeek/broker/Manager.h"
 #include "zeek/iosource/Manager.h"
 #include "zeek/iosource/PktDumper.h"
 #include "zeek/iosource/PktSrc.h"
@@ -275,8 +274,6 @@ void run_loop() {
         }
 #endif
         current_iosrc = nullptr;
-        auto communication_enabled = broker_mgr->Active();
-
         if ( ! ready.empty() ) {
             for ( const auto& src : ready ) {
                 auto* iosrc = src.src;
@@ -289,8 +286,7 @@ void run_loop() {
                     iosrc->Process();
             }
         }
-        else if ( (have_pending_timers || communication_enabled || BifConst::exit_only_after_terminate) &&
-                  ! pseudo_realtime ) {
+        else if ( (have_pending_timers || BifConst::exit_only_after_terminate) && pseudo_realtime == 0.0 ) {
             // Take advantage of the lull to get up to
             // date on timers and events.  Because we only
             // have timers as sources, going to sleep here
@@ -330,7 +326,7 @@ void run_loop() {
 
         // Terminate if we're running pseudo_realtime and
         // the interface has been closed.
-        if ( pseudo_realtime && communication_enabled ) {
+        if ( pseudo_realtime != 0.0 ) {
             iosource::PktSrc* ps = iosource_mgr->GetPktSrc();
             if ( ps && ! ps->IsOpen() )
                 iosource_mgr->Terminate();
diff --git a/src/broker/Manager.h b/src/broker/Manager.h
index 979d51f20a..412fa764ae 100644
--- a/src/broker/Manager.h
+++ b/src/broker/Manager.h
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ public:
     /**
      * Returns true if any Broker communication is currently active.
      */
-    bool Active();
+    [[deprecated("Remove with v8.1 - unused")]] bool Active();
 
     /**
      * Advances time.  Broker data store expiration is driven by this