text: Hillary Clinton ducks object thrown at her during Las Vegas speech 
   
   Hillary Clinton, addressing the annual Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries convention at Mandalay Bay Thursday, knew she would be following in the footsteps of George W. Bush, who spoke at the convention two years ago, but she was surprised to join the former president as the target of a shoe attack. 
   
   A few minutes into her opening remarks to the crowd of more than 1,000, a woman with long platinum blond hair threw multiple objects at Clinton. Several people in the audience saw papers thrown, and Clinton had to dodge at least one projectile near her head. 
   
   Clinton, the former secretary of state and presumed Democratic front-runner for the 2016 presidential nomination, was momentarily startled, and at first wondered aloud if it had been a bat. 
   
   The woman did not yell anything out, and immediately walked briskly to the ballroom exit. 
   
   Clinton was unharmed and handled the situation with aplomb, quickly getting back on track. 
   
   “Thank goodness she didn’t play softball like I did,” she quipped to loud applause. 
   
   The thrower declined to give her name, but said she threw her shoe and "dropped" some papers. She was escorted out of the convention by convention center security and Secret Service officers, and convention organizers said police would be called. The shoe thrower was wearing sandals. 
   
   In December 2008, a man threw a show at George W. Bush while he held a press conference in Iraq. 
   
   Mark Carpenter, a spokesman for the recycling institute, said the woman dodged security to get inside. 
   
   “The woman interrupting the speech was not affiliated with our organization and was not credentialed for this event. Our staff denied her access before she later rushed past security,” Carpenter said in a statement after the event. “An ISRI staffer then stopped her as she approached the stage. She was then handed over to law enforcement. We are grateful that Secretary Clinton continued in a professional manner to share her firsthand knowledge and experience of how the recycling industry has a positive impact on the economy and environment.” 
   
   The rest of Clinton’s address went smoothly. She did not use the stage to announce her plans for the 2016 presidential race, but did mention her book due out this summer chronicling her four years as secretary of state. 
   
   Clinton was the keynote speaker for the closing ceremonies of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries annual convention, which drew approximately 6,000 people. The institute is a trade organization that represents businesses in the recycling field, and has 1,600 companies on its roster. 
   
   In her speech, and question and answer session with the recycling institute’s chair, Jerry Simms, Clinton touched on the recycling industry, international trade, the civil war in Syria and U.S. relations with Russia. 
   
   “(Scrap recycling) offers a chance to improve the environment and stimulate the economy at the same time,” she said before discussing the Clinton Foundation’s various projects involving sustainable waste management. 
   
   “We can be the clean energy superpower for the 21st century as American innovation unlocks new supplies, pioneers new technologies, and gives us new tools to lower carbon emissions,” she said. 
   
   While Clinton has said she will not announce if she will run for president in 2016 until the end of this year, at times she waded into stump-speech waters. 
   
   “We have to tackle the problems we have. We have nearly 6 million young people in America out of school and out of work,” Clinton said. “We’re not making the investments in public infrastructure and science that will keep us ahead of the curve. Washington too often seems to be operating in what I like to call an evidence-free zone, where ideology trumps data.” 
   
   Many of the scrap recycling companies rely on international trade, and Simms asked Clinton about preventing protectionist trade policies of other nations. 
   
   “We have to be stronger about going after countries in the WTO, like China, now like Russia, like any others who try to put those barriers up,” Clinton responded. “We have to be tougher in bringing trade action against them. We have to threaten reciprocity, because they love to get into our market while they block their markets.” 
   
   On Russia’s military incursion into Crimea and annexation of the region, Clinton said the U.S. and other nations should provide economic support to Ukraine and help ensure fair elections. 
   
   “What we’re watching is a naked, unlawful annexation of Crimea, and a continuing effort by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to undermine and destabilize the rest of Ukraine,” she said. “What Putin has to understand is this action he took against Crimea will cost him economically and will undermine his energy income.” 
   
   Simms also asked Clinton about dysfunction in Washington and how to improve the atmosphere in American politics. 
   
   “People in politics are like people in any profession — they do what they think will be rewarded,” she said. “I’m concerned about the attitude and atmosphere of politics and how people are being pushed to the extremes on all sides of the political spectrum. And, I think it’s a very serious problem when people run for office proudly claiming they will never compromise.” 
   
   After the speech people in the audience said they were surprised to see a disturbance at their event, and praised Clinton for her poise. 
   
   Don Pittman, who works in metal recycling in Vancouver, British Columbia, said he appreciated Clinton’s comments on free trade and promotion of scrap recycling materials. 
   
   “In Canada we follow what your leaders, and perhaps future leaders, have to say on these issues because they have a big impact on us,” he said. 
   
   Others appreciated that Clinton tackled some complicated issues of economics and foreign relations. 
   
   “She was very knowledgeable and didn’t skip a beat on a broad range of questions,” said Rajesh Agarwal, who was attending the conference from Miami. “She was very cool when that woman interrupted, super cool.” 
   
   The Las Vegas appearance was part of a cross-country tour in which Clinton is giving paid speeches to industry organizations and appearing before key Democratic Party constituents. ||||| Hillary Clinton’s Las Vegas adventure Thursday might be good training if the Democrat runs for president and has to dodge critics — in this case one armed with a strappy shoe. 
   
   A female protester threw the footwear at Clinton near the start of her speech at a metal recycling conference as well as some papers that fluttered in the air like wings, prompting the former secretary of state to declare: “Is that a bat?” 
   
   When Clinton, who wasn’t hit by the shoe, realized someone threw something at her, she took it in stride. 
   
   “Is that somebody throwing something at me?” Clinton asked, putting her right hand above her eyes to cut the glare of lights from the stage at Mandalay Bay 
   
   “Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?” Clinton quipped, prompting laughter from the audience. 
   
   “My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial,” she added, referring to what she was talking about when the protester took action around 1:52 p.m. “Thank goodness she didn’t play softball like I did.” 
   
   The audience of more than 1,000 people attending the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ annual convention applauded Clinton’s gumption and some stood, giving her a standing ovation. 
   
   The U.S. Secret Service confirmed the protester had sneaked into the convention and wasn’t associated with the group. The convention organizers said she was initially denied access to the ballroom, but later rushed past security. 
   
   “The subject was not a ticketed guest and had eluded hotel security to enter the event,” said Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie. 
   
   Secret Service agents noticed the woman and as they and hotel security approached her she threw a shoe. The women then turned around, threw her hands into the air and began marching toward the back of the room. 
   
   The woman was immediately taken into custody by Secret Service and hotel security, Ogilvie said. 
   
   No information was immediately released about the woman’s identity. 
   
   Dylan de Thomas, a reporter for a trade publication called “Resource Recycling,” said he saw the protester throw the shoe. 
   
   “It looked like a shoe with a strap on it,” de Thomas said. 
   
   The Secret Service didn’t release information about the papers the protester threw. But an attendee handed a reporter a piece of paper that was apparently thrown by her and it appeared to be a copy of a Department of Defense document labeled confidential and dated August 1967, The Associated Press reported. It referred to operation “Cynthia” in Bolivia. 
   
   After Clinton’s speech, which focused on environmental issues and international affairs, she took some prewritten questions from the audience. She didn’t mention any presidential plans, although she has said she’ll decide later this year. 
   
   Jerry Simms, the outgoing chairman of the scrap metal recycling trade group, started the Q-and-A by apologizing to Clinton for what he called “that crude interruption.” 
   
   Clinton, a former U.S. senator from New York and President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, was asked about a range of issues, several centered on whether the administration was robust enough in its responses to international crises. 
   
   On Syria, for example, she was asked why Obama didn’t follow through with a threat to take military action if President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons, which he apparently did against his own people during that nation’s civil war. 
   
   Clinton said the United States decided it was better to work with Russia to get Syria to give up its chemical weapons, which she said the country had stockpiled, representing a greater threat to the entire Mideast region. 
   
   “As of today, more than 50 percent of the chemical weapons have been removed,” Clinton said. “And that’s an incredible accomplishment because you are doing it in the middle of a war.” 
   
   Clinton disputed the idea posed in another question that the U.S.-Israel relationship had weakened under Obama. 
   
   “The relationship has never been more solid,” she said. “The actions between our two countries, I think, are on a very strong footing.” 
   
   She noted the U.S. helped fund the Iron Dome missile defense system Israel is using to intercept missile attacks. 
   
   On Russia’s move to grab Crimea, Clinton said the U.S. and NATO would act more forcefully and be obligated to act militarily if Moscow made moves against former Soviet states now included under NATO’s defense umbrella. 
   
   “If he were so foolish as to move into the Baltics or Romania or Bulgaria or any of our other NATO allies who used to be part of (the Soviet Union), that would trigger a military defense because an attack on one is an attack on all,” she said. 
   
   Clinton’s visit to Las Vegas comes as she’s thinking about running for president in 2016 and ahead of the publication of her new book on her time as Obama’s secretary of state. 
   
   Although she said she won’t make a White House decision until later this year, all signs seem to point to Clinton launching a second presidential bid as the far and away leader of the potential Democratic field of candidates, polls show. Her Nevada stop was part of a three-state speaking tour this week that also included events in Oregon and California. 
   
   If she runs, Clinton will have a ready-made campaign foundation. A super PAC “Ready for Hillary,” which is urging her to run and promoting her already, raised $1.7 million in the first quarter of the year, according to Politico. The total includes low-dollar donations with more than 80,000 contributions so far, the political publication said. 
   
   “Ready for Hillary” organizers followed Clinton’s tour to sign up supporters and hand out buttons and bumper stickers. 
   
   Clinton, 66, reportedly receives about $200,000 plus travel and hotel expenses for such speeches to private groups. 
   
   In 2008, Clinton lost the Democratic primary to Obama in a tense, hard-fought race. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, served in the White House for two terms, from 1993 until 2001. 
   
   Review-Journal reporter Maria Agreda contributed to this report. Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.
target: – Hillary Clinton had to be fast on her feet during a speech in Las Vegas today. A woman in the audience chucked a shoe that whizzed past her head, reports the Las Vegas Sun. "Good thing she didn't play softball like I did," said Clinton, drawing laughter. The unidentified woman apparently threw a stack of papers, too, before being escorted from the convention to face arrest, reports the Review-Journal. Clinton was speaking before the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, and the woman wasn't part of the convention, says a spokesperson. It's unclear at this point what prompted her protest. "My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial,” said Clinton. (Click to see George W. Bush's famous close call with a shoe in Iraq.)