Justin Bieber I'm A Bad Ass Behind Bars

 Justin Bieber -- I'm A Bad Ass Behind Bars

 EXCLUSIVE

 had his ass up in the air during his short stint in jail ... impressively doing 23 1/2 pushups in 28 seconds.The jailhouse video -- obtained by TMZ -- shows Justin in his cell after being busted last month in Miami Beach for DUI and resisting arrest.It's unclear what possessed him to show off his physical prowess, but he seemed excited about upping his cred.Law enforcement tells TMZ ... there's one part of the 9 hours of video which shows Justin clearly under the influence. Frankly, we've looked at the video and Justin doesn't seem obviously under the influence ... at all. ||||| Justin Bieber Penis is a Moving Target Hard to Blur

 Justin Bieber -- Penis Is a Moving Target ... Hard to Blur

 EXCLUSIVE

 Miami Beach cops are having technical difficulties with's penis ... because it moves too much.Law enforcement sources tell us ... they fully intend to release more jailhouse videos of the dainty jailbird ... including one showing him peeing into the visible jail toilet. The judge previously ordered cops to blur Bieber's junk before releasing it ... we mean the video.But there's a problem ... Our sources say they're having trouble obfuscating Bieber's genital area, because he moves as he pees. But they're also having technical issues blurring the video.We're told the police tech team has been working on the problem non-stop since Tuesday.The judge will review the police department's handiwork before releasing the video. ||||| MIAMI (AP) — Remaining police video clips of Justin Bieber after his January arrest will be made public with sensitive portions blacked out to protect the singer's privacy, a judge ruled Tuesday.

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla. Bieber... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla. Bieber... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla. Bieber... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla. Bieber... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 In this Jan. 23, 2014 photo made available by the Miami Beach Police Dept. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014, Justin Bieber shows one of his tattoos at the police station after his arrest in Miami Beach, Fla.... (Associated Press)

 Miami-Dade County Judge William Altfield said two of the five unreleased video clips depict the singer's genitalia during a urine test for drugs at the Miami Beach Police Department. Altfield agreed with lawyers for Bieber, who turned 20 on Saturday, that the video's airing would be an invasion of privacy that outweighed the public's right to know.

 "Mr. Bieber's right to privacy is paramount," the judge said. "He has not lost his right to privacy, and that is what is important here."

 Attorneys for The Associated Press and other news outlets had previously suggested any sensitive portions be blacked out and the rest released under Florida's liberal open records laws. Much of the footage was released last week, some of it showing Bieber walking unsteadily during a sobriety test.

 Bieber has pleaded not guilty to charges of driving under the influence, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license. He and R&B singer Khalil Amir Sharieff were arrested early on Jan. 23 during what police called an illegal street drag race between a Lamborghini and a Ferrari. Neither has been charged with drag racing.

 Bieber attorney Roy Black said he was satisfied with the ruling, as did media attorneys. AP attorney Deanna Shullman said the news organization would never show Bieber's private parts and Scott Ponce, representing The Miami Herald and CBS television stations, said the ruling was more about protecting the singer from random releases on the Internet.

 "It's more about what someone in the private sector might do," Ponce said.

 Black said the three clips to be released without redaction are shot from an angle that is too far away to discern what is going on. Prosecutors said they will release all five remaining clips in a few days, after the court-ordered redactions are completed.

 Separately, the Miami Beach Police Department made public a new batch of 18 still photos taken shortly after Bieber's arrest, mainly close-ups of his many tattoos — a praying Jesus, a grinning joker's face accompanied by the word "love," an Indian chief's head, a Psalms quotation, and more — and one full-length picture of the singer.

 Evidence released previously showed that a breath test found Bieber's blood-alcohol level below the .02 threshold considered intoxicated for underage drivers. The urine test found the presence of the active ingredient in marijuana and the antianxiety drug Xanax. Bieber told officers he had been smoking marijuana before his arrest, according to police reports.

 A trial date has not been set. Altfield set another status conference for next week in the case.

 _____

 Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– We can only assume the apocalypse is nigh: A Florida judge yesterday ordered the release of all the video clips from Justin Bieber's time at the Miami Beach Police Department after his drunk drag racing arrest, which means you will soon get to see the singer taking a urine test for drugs. In what might come as sad news to Beliebers everywhere, however, his private parts will be blacked out: "Mr. Bieber's right to privacy is paramount," the judge said. "He has not lost his right to privacy, and that is what is important here." The ruling came about after the AP and other news outlets requested the videos be released under the state's open records law. Initially, just the less sensitive footage was released, including video of Bieber stumbling a bit during a sobriety test and randomly doing push-ups in his jail cell. The five as-yet-unreleased clips will be out within a few days (TMZ offers up some TMI, noting that police are having a hard time blurring Bieber's genitals because they move too much in the video). For now, you'll just have sate your curiosity with the many, many close-ups of Bieber's tattoos that were made public by the Miami Beach Police Department yesterday.


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 The Texas sheriff's deputy who was killed at a gas station was shot 15 times by a gunman who unloaded his entire clip, a prosecutor said Monday as the suspect appeared in court for the first time.

 A judge found probable cause to hold the suspect, Shannon Miles, for capital murder in the killing of Deputy Darren Goforth in Houston. Miles, 30, wore a yellow jump suit and shackles. He did not enter a plea.

 Goforth had just finished filling up his cruiser on Friday night when he was shot in the back of the head. The gunman then stood over him and kept firing, said Devon Anderson, the Harris County district attorney.

 "He unloaded the entire weapon into Deputy Goforth," she said — a 14-bullet clip, plus one that was already in the chamber.

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 Investigators have said they are not sure what motivated the gunman. Sheriff Ron Hickman said over the weekend that "our assumption is he was a target because he wore a uniform."

 Ballistics tests matched a gun at Miles' home — a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson — to the shell casings at the gas station, the prosecutor said.

 Goforth, 47, was a 10-year veteran of the force with a wife and two kids. More than 1,000 people turned out on Sunday night for a walk in support of law enforcement, and donations of cash for the family have topped $150,000 at the gas station and online. ||||| Suspect in deputy slaying spent time in mental hospital

 HOUSTON - Shannon Jaruay Miles, who is accused of gunning down a sheriff's deputy on Friday, spent four months in a mental hospital in 2012 after being declared incompetent to stand trial in an aggravated assault case, court records show.

 The revelation offered a possible insight in a case that has so far defied explanation.

 Miles, 30, was arrested Saturday on charges of capital murder, accused of shooting Harris County sheriff's deputy Darren Goforth outside a northwest Harris County gas station.

 As the deputy walked out of the Chevron store, Miles allegedly ran up behind him, put a gun to the back of his head and fired. After the deputy fell, Miles stood over his body and emptied his .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol into the deputy's back, shooting 15 rounds, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said Monday.

 The chilling allegations, seen by witnesses and caught on surveillance video, left dozens of police officers shaking their heads in disbelief as Miles made his first appearance in a Harris County courtroom on charges of capital murder.

 "They found Deputy Darren Goforth face down in a pool of his own blood," Anderson told state District Judge Denise Collins. Anderson later told reporters that her office is looking into charges that were filed against Miles in Travis County.

 In that case, Miles was accused of viciously beating up a man at a Salvation Army shelter where he was apparently staying in Austin in 2012. The victim suffered a broken vertebrae. Several months after the alleged assault, Miles was declared mentally incompetent and sent to North Texas State Hospital. He was later returned to competency, according to Travis County records. The assault case was later dismissed.

 As theories swirled Monday about why Goforth was killed, court records reveal a long history of run-ins between Miles and police. In two of those crimes, he pleaded guilty to a physical altercation with a police officer.

 In 2005, he was charged with failure to identify himself to police officers. No other information about that misdemeanor was available Monday. Three months after that arrest, his mother filed charges against him for throwing a 19-inch television into a 60-inch TV during a fight with her.

 She told police they were arguing because the 20-year-old was living at her home and would not get a job, court records show. He spent three days in jail and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal mischief in exchange for time served.

 A few months after that, Miles was charged with resisting arrest, accused of pushing a Harris County sheriff's deputy. He pleaded guilty to a class A misdemeanor and was sentenced to eight days in jail.

 A year later, he was arrested on New Year's Day for unlawful discharge of a firearm. In that case, police took away a 9mm handgun which was later destroyed. In that case, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in exchange for 15 days in jail. Months after that arrest, he was sentenced to 10 days in jail after pleading guilty to evading arrest after fleeing a Jersey Village police officer. Just days later, he was arrested for trespassing and sentenced to 10 days behind bars after admitting guilt.

 In 2009, he was charged with resisting arrest in a case where he hit a Houston-area police officer. Miles pleaded no contest in exchange for time served after spending six days in jail.

 Before ending up in Austin in 2012, Miles attended the University of Houston main campus in the spring of 2011, school officials said. No degree was awarded.

 After Miles was arraigned Monday, Anderson said investigators continue to look for a motive for Friday's shooting.

 "We're going to try to figure out the motive, even though we don't have to prove it under Texas law," she said. "Everybody sure would like to know the motive. I'd love to know where he got the gun and how he got the gun."

 In hushed tones around Houston's criminal courthouse, police officers of all stripes echoed Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman who, on Saturday, connected Goforth's death and other violence against law enforcement to anti-police rhetoric across the country.

 After Goforth was killed about 8:20 p.m. Friday, police started searching for vehicles matching the description of the gunman's truck, a red Ford extended cab with a distinctive trailer hitch.

 They found the truck in the driveway of Miles' house less than a mile from the crime scene. A man at the house said Miles had left with his mother and while police were looking around, Miles came home.

 He told police he had two guns, but had recently gotten rid of his 9mm pistol. The other was in a blue bag in his garage. He declined to give police permission to go inside. When they returned with a search warrant, Anderson said, they found the loaded .40 caliber pistol where Miles said it was.

 There was also a box of bullets of the same brand used to kill Goforth.

 Ballistics experts said the gun was the same one that fired the shots at the gas station, Anderson said.

 She said Miles matched the description of the man on the surveillance video, and a witness to the crime later identified Miles as the shooter in a video line-up.

 In court Monday, Miles appeared in the yellow jail uniform typically reserved for high-profile inmates. He did not speak except to acknowledge that he understood the charges against him.

 The judge kept him in jail without bail and appointed defense attorneys Charles Brown and Anthony Osso who said they are just beginning to investigate the allegations.

 "We're going to look at every aspect of this from mental health all the way down," Osso said. "This is not a guy who has a long history of violent offenses."

 Since the shooting, a makeshift memorial at the Chevron where 47-year-old Goforth was killed has overflowed with American flag balloons and flowers. More than 1,000 people attended a vigil for Goforth at the gas station Saturday and Sunday evenings, Anderson said.

 She dismissed questions about whether anti-police rhetoric or similar reasons were behind the shooting.

 "People from all races, from all around the county — over 1,000 on both nights — came out to support law enforcement," she said. "This crime is not going to divide us, this crime is going to unite us."

 Anderson personally prosecuted Harlem Lewis last year, who was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Bellaire Police officer Jimmie Norman. Norman and a good samaritan named Terry Taylor were fatally shot during a traffic stop on Christmas Eve, 2012.

 Anderson said she had hoped Norman would be Harris County's last officer to be killed in the line of duty.

 "I really never wanted to have to do this again," she told reporters. "I can't believe Friday night I was out at a scene looking at an officer dead on the ground."

 Goforth had been with the sheriff's office for 10 years and was stationed in District 5 in northwest Harris County. He had a wife and two children. On Monday, President Barack Obama released a statement that he had called Goforth's widow.

 "On behalf of the American people, I offered Mrs. Goforth my condolences, and told her that Michelle and I would keep her and her family in our prayers," he said. "I also promised that I would continue to highlight the uncommon bravery that police officers show in our communities every single day. They put their lives on the line for our safety. Targeting police officers is completely unacceptable — an affront to civilized society. As I said in my State of the Union Address, we've got to be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the wife who won't rest until the police officer she married walks through the door at the end of his shift. That comfort has been taken from Mrs. Goforth. So we must offer her our comfort — and continue to stand up for the safety of police officers wherever they serve."

 Goforth's funeral will be 11 a.m. Friday at Second Baptist Church, 6400 Woodway. There is a viewing an hour before. The officer will be buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, 8010 Katy Freeway.

 Chronicle reporter Jennifer Dlouhy contributed to this story. |||||Summary:

– In the aftermath of a Texas sheriff's deputy's "execution-style" murder on Friday night, police explained that Darren Goforth was killed by a gunman who fired at him multiple times from behind a gas station. Suspected gunman Shannon Miles was today in court for the first time, and a prosecutor got even more specific about the circumstances of Goforth's death. "He unloaded the entire weapon into Deputy Goforth," said Harris County DA Devon Anderson of Miles, per NBC News. That was 15 shots: a bullet in the chamber plus a 14-bullet clip. "They found Deputy Darren Goforth face down in a pool of his own blood," continued Anderson, per the Houston Chronicle. She says 15 shell casings were found at the scene, and a .40 caliber handgun recovered from Miles' home proved a match for the bullets that killed Goforth. The Chronicle reports Miles, 30, didn't say much during his appearance, and was dressed in the yellow uniform given to high-profile inmates. He remains in jail without bail. A motive has yet to be given for the shooting. A GoFundMe campaign for Goforth's family (he has two kids) today surpassed its $100,000 goal.


TOKYO Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear plant on Saturday in a race to prevent deadly radiation from an accident now rated at least as bad as America's Three Mile Island incident in 1979.

 Further cabling inside was under way before an attempt to restart water pumps needed to cool overheated nuclear fuel rods at the six-reactor Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

 Japan's unprecedented multiple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and radiation leak has unsettled world financial markets, prompted international reassessment of nuclear safety and given the Asian nation its sternest test since World War Two.

 It has also stirred unhappy memories of Japan's past nuclear nightmare -- the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

 Working inside a 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone at Fukushima, nearly 300 engineers were focused on trying to find a solution by restoring power to pumps in four of the reactors.

 "TEPCO has connected the external transmission line with the receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can be supplied," the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said in a statement.

 Another 1,480 meters (5,000 feet) of cable are being laid inside the complex before engineers try to crank up the coolers at reactor No.2, followed by numbers 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials said.

 If that works it will be a turning point.

 "If they are successful in getting the cooling infrastructure up and running, that will be a significant step forward in establishing stability," said Eric Moore, a nuclear power expert at U.S.-based FocalPoint Consulting Group.

 If not, there is an option of last resort under consideration to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release.

 That method was used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

 Underlining authorities' desperation, fire trucks sprayed water overnight in a crude tactic to cool reactor No.3, considered the most critical because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.

 Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis to level 5 from 4 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious.

 Chernobyl, in Ukraine, was a 7 on that scale.

 THOUSANDS DEAD, MISSING AND SUFFERING

 The operation to avert large-scale radiation has overshadowed the humanitarian aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude quake and 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami that struck on March 11.

 Nearly 7,000 people have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged and debris-shrouded wastelands.

 Another 10,700 people are missing with many feared dead.

 Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's aging population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in shelters in northeastern coastal areas.

 Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply.

 "Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless.

 Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful. But the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.

 "I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at Narita international airport using his laptop.

 "I'll probably come back in about a month."

 Though there has been alarm around the world, experts have been warning there is little risk of radiation at dangerous levels spreading to other nations.

 The U.S. government said "minuscule" amounts of radiation were detected in California consistent with a release from Japan's damaged facility, but there were no levels of concern.

 Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 279 nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape.

 "My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters.

 G7 INTERVENTION FOR YEN

 The Group of Seven rich nations succeeded in calming global financial markets in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen.

 The dollar surged to 81.98 yen on Friday after the G7 moved to pour billions into markets buying dollars, euros and pounds -- the first such joint intervention since the group came to the aid of the newly launched euro in 2000.

 The dollar later dropped back to under 81 yen, but it was still far from the record low of 76.25 yen hit on Thursday.

 "The only type of intervention that actually works is coordinated intervention, and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of the severity of the situation in Japan," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York.

 Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It lost 10.2 percent for the week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalization.

 The plight of the homeless worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to the worst-affected areas.

 Nearly 290,000 households in the north were still without electricity, officials said, and the government said about 940,000 households lacked running water.

 Aid groups say most victims are getting help, but there are pockets of acute suffering.

 "We've seen children suffering with the cold, and lacking really basic items like food and clean water," Stephen McDonald of Save the Children said in a statement on Friday.

 (Additional reporting by Linda Sieg, Nathan Layne, Elaine Lies, Leika Kihara, Jon Herskovitz, Joseph Radford and Chris Gallagher in Japan; Fiona Ortiz in Madrid; Scott DiSavino in New York; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Robert Birsel) ||||| YAMAGATA, Japan -- Emergency workers seemed to try everything they could think of Thursday to douse one of Japan's dangerously overheated nuclear reactors: helicopters, heavy-duty fire trucks, even water cannons normally used to quell rioters. But they couldn't be sure any of it was easing the peril at the tsunami-ravaged facility.

 (SCROLL DOWN FOR LIVE UPDATES)

 Three reactors have had at least partial meltdowns, but an even greater danger has emerged. Japanese and U.S. concerns were increasingly focusing on the pools used to store spent nuclear fuel: Some of the pools are dry or nearly empty and the rods could heat up and spew radiation.

 It could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said. He defended the U.S. decision to recommend a 50-mile evacuation zone for its citizens, a much stronger measure than Japan has taken.

 A senior official with the U.N.'s nuclear safety agency said there had been "no significant worsening" at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and in a third they were also not completely submerged.

 If the fuel is not fully covered, rising temperatures and pressure will increase the chances of complete meltdowns that would release much larger amounts of radioactive material than the failing plant has emitted so far.

 Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself. Still, the crisis triggered by last week's earthquake and tsunami has forced thousands to evacuate and drained Tokyo's normally vibrant streets of life, its residents either leaving town or holing up in their homes.

 President Barack Obama appeared on television to assure Americans that officials do not expect harmful amounts of radiation to reach the U.S. or its territories. He also said the U.S. was offering Japan any help it could provide, and said he was asking for a comprehensive review of U.S. nuclear plant safety.

 Japanese and American assessments of the crisis have differed, with the plant's owner denying Jazcko's report Wednesday that Unit 4's spent fuel pool was dry and that anyone who gets close to the plant could face potentially lethal doses of radiation. But a Tokyo Electric Power Co. executive moved closer to the U.S. position Thursday.

 "Considering the amount of radiation released in the area, the fuel rods are more likely to be exposed than to be covered," Yuichi Sato said.

 Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems, but they tried even more desperate measures on Unit 3's reactor and cooling pool.

 Two Japanese military CH-47 Chinook helicopters began dumping seawater on Unit 3 on Thursday morning, defense ministry spokeswoman Kazumi Toyama said. The choppers doused the reactor with at least four loads of water in just the first 10 minutes, though television footage showed much of it appearing to disperse in the wind.

 Chopper crews flew missions of about 40 minutes each to limit their radiation exposure, passing over the reactor with loads of about 2,000 gallons (7,500 liters) of water. Another 9,000 gallons (35,000 liters) of water were blasted from military trucks with high-pressure sprayers used to extinguish fires at plane crashes, though the vehicles had to stay safely back from areas deemed to have too much radiation.

 Special police units with water cannons were also tried, but they could not reach the targets from safe distances and had to pull back, said Yasuhiro Hashimoto, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency.

 Unit 3's reactor uses a fuel that combines plutonium, better known as an ingredient in nuclear weapons, and reprocessed uranium. The presence of this mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, means potentially that two very harmful radioactive products could be released into the environment.

 Tokyo Electric Power said it believed workers were making headway in staving off a catastrophe both with the spraying and, especially, with efforts to complete an emergency power line to restart the plant's own electric cooling systems.

 "This is a first step toward recovery," said Teruaki Kobayashi, a facilities management official at the power company. He said radiation levels "have somewhat stabilized at their lows" and that some of the spraying had reached its target, with one reactor emitting steam.

 "We are doing all we can as we pray for the situation to improve," Kobayashi said. Authorities planned to spray again Friday, and Kobayashi said: "Choices are limited. We just have to stick to what we can do most quickly and efficiently."

 Work on connecting the new power line to the plant was expected to begin Friday and take 10 to 15 hours, said Nuclear Safety Agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda. But the utility is not sure the cooling systems will still function. If they don't, electricity won't help.

 Four of the plant's six reactors have seen fires, explosions, damage to the structures housing reactor cores, partial meltdowns or rising temperatures. Officials also recently said temperatures are rising even in the spent fuel pools of the other two reactors.

 The troubles at the nuclear complex were set in motion by last Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out power and destroyed backup generators needed for the reactors' cooling systems. That added a nuclear crisis on top of twin natural disasters that likely killed well more than 10,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

 Mario V. Bonaca, a physicist sits on an advisory committee to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said he believes the focus of the effort has shifted to the spent fuel pools. "I understand that they've controlled the cooling of the cores," said Bonaca, who said he was basing his understanding on NRC and industry sources.

 The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.

 While a core team of 180 emergency workers has been rotating in and out of the complex to avoid exposure, experts said that anyone working close to the reactors was almost certainly being exposed to radiation levels that could, at least, give them much higher cancer risks.

 Experts note, though, that radiation levels drop quickly with distance from the complex. While elevated radiation has been detected well outside the evacuation zone, experts say those levels are not dangerous.

 U.S. officials were taking no chances. In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

 The first flight left Thursday, with fewer than 100 people onboard, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy said. Plans also call for airlifting several thousand family members of U.S. armed forces personnel as well as nonessential staff stationed in Japan in the coming days.

 The U.S. evacuation zone is far bigger than that established by Japan, which has called for a 12-mile zone and has told those within 20 miles to stay indoors. Daniel B. Poneman, U.S. deputy secretary of energy, said at the briefing that his agency agreed with the 50-mile zone - but said Japan's measures were also prudent.

 Nearly a week after the earthquake and tsunami, police said more than 452,000 people were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short. Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help, as the chances of finding more survivors dwindled.

 Noriko Sawaki lives in a battered neighborhood in Sendai that is still without running water and food or gasoline supplies and that, she said, makes life exhausting. "It's frustrating, because we don't have a goal, something to strive for. This just keeps on going," said the 48-year-old.

 In the town of Kesennuma, people lined up to get into a supermarket after a delivery of key supplies, such as instant rice packets and diapers.

 Each person was only allowed to buy 10 items, NHK television reported.

 With diapers hard to find in many areas, an NHK program broadcast a how-to session on fashioning a diaper from a plastic shopping bag and a towel. ||||| Smoke billowed from a building at Japan's crippled nuclear power plant Friday as emergency crews worked to reconnect electricity to cooling systems and spray more water on overheating nuclear fuel at the tsunami-ravaged facility.

 ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK870 OF MARCH 17, 2011 - In this photo taken on Wednesday afternoon, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the top part of the badly... (Associated Press)

 A taxi driver moves along a quiet street in Tokyo Thursday, March 17, 2011. In elsewhere in the nation's capital, public apprehension over a brewing nuclear disaster is draining the streets and stores... (Associated Press)

 A man watches TV showing a Japanese military helicopter dumping water on the troubled reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex, at an electronics retail store in Osaka, western Japan, on Thursday, March... (Associated Press)

 A resident carries household belongings in a cardboard as his devastated house was due to be removed by earthmovers at Iwaizumi, northeastern Japan, on Thursday, March 17, 2011 following last week's massive... (Associated Press)

 Ecacuees watch a Japanese military helicopter dumping water on the troubled reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex in a live TV broadcast, at Fukushima, northeastern Japan, on Thursday, March 17,... (Associated Press)

 In this photo taken on Wednesday afternoon, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the top part of the badly damaged No. 4 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi... (Associated Press)

 Japan's Self-Defense Forces's helicopter heads to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant to dump water on the stricken reactor in Okumamachi Thursday morning, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Asahi Shimbun,... (Associated Press)

 A sufferer searches for usable items amid debris in Iwaizumi, northern Japan Thursday, March 17, 2011 following Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT,... (Associated Press)

 Cars lie piled up in trees following the March 11 earthquake triggered tsunami at the port in Sendai, Japan, Thursday, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) (Associated Press)

 In this photo made off NHK TV video footage, a Japan Self-Defense Force helicopter dumps water over the No. 3 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Thursday,... (Associated Press)

 President Barack Obama arrives to make a statement about Japan following last week's earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear concerns, Thursday, March 17, 2011, in the Rose Garden of the White House... (Associated Press)

 A man walks down a nearly empty street Thursday, March 17, 2011, in Tokyo. In elsewhere in the nation's capital, public apprehension over a brewing nuclear disaster is draining the streets and stores... (Associated Press)

 ALTERNATE CROP OF TOK872 OF MARCH 17, 2011 - In this photo taken on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 and released on Thursday, March 17 by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), white smoke billows from the badly... (Associated Press)

 Headlights of vehicles stream along a landscape destroyed in Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Minamisanriku town, Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, March 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT,... (Associated Press)

 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant is pictured before helicopters dump water on the stricken reactor to cool overheated fuel rods inside the core in Okumamachi, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, Thursday... (Associated Press)

 Four of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi plant's six reactor units have seen fires, explosions or partial meltdowns in the week since the tsunami. While the reactor cores where energy is generated are a concern, water in the pools used to store used nuclear fuel are also major worries. Water in at least one fuel pool _ in the complex's Unit 3 _ is believed to be dangerously low, exposing the stored fuel rods. Without enough water, the rods may heat further and spew out radiation.

 "We see it as an extremely serious accident," Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters Friday just after arriving in Tokyo. "This is not something that just Japan should deal with, and people of the entire world should cooperate with Japan and the people in the disaster areas."

 Frantic efforts were made Thursday to douse a number of units with water, and authorities were preparing to repeat many of those efforts.

 Friday's smoke came from the complex's Unit 2, and its cause was not known, the nuclear safety agency said. An explosion had hit the building on Tuesday, possibly damaging a crucial cooling chamber that sits below the reactor core.

 Last week's 9.0 quake and tsunami in Japan's northeast set off the nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems at the reactors. The unfolding crises have led to power shortages in Japan, forced auto and other factories to close, sending shockwaves through global manufacturing and trade, and triggered a plunge in Japanese stock prices.

 Low levels of radiation have been detected well beyond Tokyo, which is 140 miles (220 kilometers) south of the plant, but hazardous levels have been limited to the plant itself. Still, the crisis has forced thousands to evacuate and drained Tokyo's normally vibrant streets of life, its residents either leaving town or holing up in their homes.

 The Japanese government has been slow in releasing information on the crisis, even as the troubles have multiplied. In a country where the nuclear industry has a long history of hiding its safety problems, this has left many people _ in Japan and among governments overseas _ confused and anxious.

 "I feel a sense of dread," said Yukiko Morioka, 63, who has seen business dry up at her lottery ticket booth in Tokyo. "I'm not an expert, so it's difficult to understand what's going on. That makes it scarier."

 A senior official with the U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday there had been "no significant worsening" at the nuclear plant but that the situation remained "very serious." Graham Andrew told reporters in Vienna that nuclear fuel rods in two reactors were only about half covered with water, and they were also not completely submerged in a third.

 Edano said Friday that Tokyo is asking the U.S. government for help and that the two are discussing the specifics.

 "We are coordinating with the U.S. government as to what the U.S. can provide and what people really need," Edano said.

 At times, the two close allies have offered starkly differing assessments over the dangers at Fukushima. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jazcko said Thursday that it could take days and "possibly weeks" to get the complex under control. He defended the U.S. decision to recommend a 50-mile (80-kilometer) evacuation zone for its citizens, wider than the 30-mile (50-kilometer) band Japan has ordered.

 Crucial to the effort to regain control over the Fukushima plant is laying a new power line to the plant, allowing operators to restore cooling systems. The operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., missed a deadline late Thursday but said Friday that workers hoped to complete the effort in 10 to 15 hours, said nuclear safety agency spokesman Minoru Ohgoda.

 But the utility is not sure the cooling systems will still function. If they don't, electricity won't help.

 The official death toll from the disasters stood at 6,405 as of Friday morning, with 10,259 missing, the national police agency said.

 President Barack Obama appeared on television to assure Americans that officials do not expect harmful amounts of radiation to reach the U.S. or its territories. He also said the U.S. was offering Japan any help it could provide.

 A utility official said Wednesday that the company has been unable to get information such as water levels and temperatures from any of the spent fuel pools in the four most troubled reactors.

 Workers have been dumping seawater when possible to control temperatures at the plant since the quake and tsunami knocked out power to its cooling systems, but they tried even more desperate measures on Units 3 and 4.

 On Thursday, military helicopters dumped thousands of gallons of water from huge buckets onto Unit 3, and also used military firefighting trucks normally used to extinguish fires at plane crashes.

 Officials announced Friday they would not continue with the helicopter drops _ televised footage appeared to show much of that water blowing away _ but would continue spraying from the trucks.

 Police said more than 452,000 people made homeless by the quake and tsunami were staying in schools and other shelters, as supplies of fuel, medicine and other necessities ran short. Both victims and aid workers appealed for more help, as the chances of finding more survivors dwindled.

 At the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, a core team of 180 emergency workers has been rotating out of the complex to minimize radiation exposure.

 The storage pools need a constant source of cooling water. Even when removed from reactors, uranium rods are still extremely hot and must be cooled for months, possibly longer, to prevent them from heating up again and emitting radioactivity.

 In Washington, the State Department warned U.S. citizens to consider leaving the country and offered voluntary evacuation to family members and dependents of U.S. personnel in the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

 ___

 Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Elaine Kurtenbach, Shino Yuasa, Jeff Donn and Tim Sullivan in Tokyo contributed to this report. ||||| While the findings were reassuring in the short term, the United States declined to back away from its warning to Americans there to stay at least 50 miles from the plant, setting up a far larger perimeter than the Japanese government had established. American officials did not release specific radiation readings.

 American officials said their biggest worry was that a frenetic series of efforts by the Japanese military to get water into four of the plant’s six reactors — including using water cannons and firefighting helicopters that dropped water but appeared to largely miss their targets — showed few signs of working.

 “This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and then the spent fuel pool,” said Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission , briefing reporters at the White House.

 The effort by the Japanese to hook some electric power back up to the plant did not begin until Thursday and even if they succeed, it is unclear whether the cooling systems, in reactor buildings battered by a tsunami and then torn apart by hydrogen explosions, survived the crisis in good enough shape to be useful.

 “What you are seeing are desperate efforts — just throwing everything at it in hopes something will work,” said one American official with long nuclear experience who would not speak for attribution. “Right now this is more prayer than plan.”

 On Thursday, President Obama said that the crisis had convinced him to order the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do a comprehensive review of the safety of nuclear plants in the United States.

 After a day in which American and Japanese officials gave radically different assessments of the danger from the nuclear plant, the two governments tried on Thursday to join forces.

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 Experts met in Tokyo to compare notes. The United States, with Japanese permission, began to put the intelligence-collection aircraft over the site, in hopes of gaining a view for Washington as well as its allies in Tokyo that did not rely on the announcements of officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which operates Fukushima Daiichi.

 American officials say they suspect that the company has consistently underestimated the risk and moved too slowly to contain the damage.

 Aircraft normally used to monitor North Korea’s nuclear weapons activities — a Global Hawk drone and U-2 spy planes — were flying missions over the reactor, trying to help the Japanese government map out its response to last week’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed and now the nuclear disaster.

 President Obama made an unscheduled stop at the Japanese Embassy to sign a condolence book, writing, “My heart goes out to the people of Japan during this enormous tragedy.” He added, “Because of the strength and wisdom of its people, we know that Japan will recover, and indeed will emerge stronger than ever.”

 Later, he appeared in the Rose Garden at the White House to offer continued American support for the earthquake and tsunami victims, and technical help at the nuclear site.

 Video

 But before the recovery can begin, the nuclear plant must be brought under control. On Friday, steam that was likely laced with radioactive particles was again rising over the plant, this time billowing from reactor No. 2, which suffered an explosion Tuesday. But Japanese authorities said they did not yet know the cause of the latest release.

 American officials, meanwhile, remained fixated on the temperature readings inside that reactor and two others that had been operating until the earthquake shut them down, as well as at the plant’s spent fuel pools, looking for any signs that their high levels of heat were going down. If the fuel rods are uncovered and exposed to air, they heat up and can burst into flames, spewing radioactive elements.

 So far the officials saw no signs of dropping temperatures. And the Web site of the International Atomic Energy Agency , the United Nations nuclear watchdog, made it clear that there were no readings at all from some critical areas. Part of the American effort, by satellites and aircraft, is to identify the hot spots, something the Japanese have not been able to do in some cases.

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 Critical to that effort are the “pods” flown into Japan by the Air Force over the past day. Made for quick assessments of radiation emergencies, the Aerial Measuring System is an instrument system that fits on a helicopter or fixed-wing aircraft to sample air and survey the land below.

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 Daniel B. Poneman, the deputy secretary of energy, said at a White House briefing on Thursday that preliminary results of the initial flights “are consistent with the recommendations that came down from the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” which led to the 50-mile evacuation guideline given to American expatriates. Although the worst contamination is closer to the plant, the recommendation takes into account the possibility of shifting winds or greater emissions.

 The State Department has also said it would fly out of the country any dependents of American diplomats or military personnel within the region of the plant and as far south as Tokyo. Space will be made for other Americans who cannot get a flight, it said.

 Getting the Japanese to accept the American detection equipment was a delicate diplomatic maneuver, which some Japanese officials originally resisted. But as it became clear that conditions at the plant were spinning out of control, and with Japanese officials admitting they had little hard evidence about whether there was water in the cooling pools or breaches in the reactor containment structures, they began to accept more help.

 The sensors on the instrument pod are good at mapping radioactive isotopes, like cesium 137, which has been detected around the nuclear plant and has a half-life of 30 years. In high doses, it can cause acute radiation sickness . Lower doses can alter cellular function, leading to an increased risk of cancer .

 Cesium 137 can enter the body through many foods, including milk.

 On Wednesday, when the American Embassy in Tokyo, on advice from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told Americans to evacuate a radius of “approximately 50 miles” around the Fukushima plant, the recommendation was based on a specific calculation of risk of radioactive fallout in the affected area.

 In a statement, the commission said the advice grew out of its assessment that projected radiation doses within the evacuation zone might exceed one rem to the body or five rems to the thyroid gland. That organ is extremely sensitive to iodine 131 — another of the deadly byproducts of nuclear fuel, this one causing thyroid cancer .

 The commission says that the average American is exposed to about 0.62 rem of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources.

 The American-provided instruments in Japan measure real levels of radiation on the ground. In contrast, scientists around the world have also begun to draw up forecasts of how the prevailing winds pick up the Japanese radioactive material and carry it over the Pacific in invisible plumes.

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 Private analysts said the United States was also probably monitoring the reactor crisis with spy satellites that can spot the heat from fires — helping it independently assess the state of the reactor complex from a distance.

 Jeffrey G. Lewis, an intelligence specialist at the Monterey Institute, a research center, noted that the Japanese assessment of Reactor No. 4 at the Daiichi complex seemed to depend in part on visual surveillance by helicopter pilots.

 “I’ve got to think that, if we put our best assets into answering that question, we can do better,” he said in an interview.

 One main concern at No. 4 has been a fire that was burning there earlier in the week; American officials are not convinced that the fire has gone out.

 American officials have also worried that the spent-fuel pool at that reactor has run dry, exposing the rods. Japanese officials, however, have concentrated much of their recent efforts on Reactor No. 3, which has been intermittently releasing radiation from what the authorities believe may be a ruptured containment vessel around the reactor. Temperatures at that reactor’s spent fuel pool are also high.

 Perhaps because of the difficulties experienced Thursday trying to accurately drop water from helicopters, the Japanese military announced Friday that it was halting those efforts for at least a day. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Japan is considering burying its troubled nuclear plant in sand and concrete—the same move made in Chernobyl 25 years ago, Reuters reports. “It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete. But our priority right now is to try and cool them down first,” said an official, as authorities work to restore power. Smoke has been rising from the No. 2 reactor at the plant, and authorities aren’t sure of the cause—though it may be linked to the explosion there Tuesday, notes the AP. New damage has been discovered in the fuel pool at the plant’s No. 4 reactor, hampering cooling efforts to refill it with water (click for more on the alarming situation). US data-collecting flights suggest that radiation hasn’t expanded outside a 19-mile area—but Japan has raised its threat level from 4 to 5 out of 7, pointing to danger that extends beyond the local. The crisis could continue for weeks, said a US official. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post notes, authorities are using every cooling method available, from fire trucks to water cannons.


Summarize this article:

The OFFICIAL twitter of Actor, Author & the man behind the mask of CHEWBACCA! This is where The Wookiee Roars... and Tweets!!!! https://www.facebook.com/thewookieeroars

 Kashyyyk ||||| Star Wars creator George Lucas is mourning the death of his longtime friend and leading lady Carrie Fisher.

 “Carrie and I have been friends most of our adult lives,” he said in a statement to PEOPLE. “She was extremely smart; a talented actress, writer and comedienne with a very colorful personality that everyone loved. In Star Wars she was our great and powerful princess – feisty, wise and full of hope in a role that was more difficult than most people might think.”

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 “My heart and prayers are with Billie, Debbie and all Carrie’s family, friends and fans. She will be missed by all,” the statement concludes.

 Fisher, 60, was aboard an 11-hour flight from London to Los Angeles on Friday when she went into cardiac arrest. Paramedics removed her from the flight and rushed her to a nearby hospital, where she was treated for a heart attack. She later died in the hospital.

 Since her death, other members of the famous franchise have paid tribute to Fisher’s life and legacy.

 “Carrie was one-of-a-kind…brilliant, original,” Harrison Ford said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely…My thoughts are with her daughter Billie, her mother Debbie, her brother Todd, and her many friends. We will all miss her.”

 Her onscreen brother Mark Hamill, on the other hand, was speechless about the heartbreaking news of Fisher’s death: “No words #Devastated,” the actor tweeted alongside a photo of the two during their Star Wars years.

 After him, several other Star Wars alums shared messages of love for Fisher on Twitter — including the actor who played Chewbacca.

 There are no words for this loss. Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly. pic.twitter.com/GgIeYGeMt9 — Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) December 27, 2016

 “There are no words for this loss,” said Peter Mayhew. “Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly.” ||||| Carrie Fisher Wrapped ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Before Her Death Actress died Dec. 27 after suffering from a heart attack before the holidays

 Carrie Fisher had wrapped filming “Star Wars: Episode VIII” before her death, TheWrap has learned.

 The actress reprised her role as Princess Leia in director Rian Johnson’s “Episode VIII,” which the official “Star Wars” Twitter account tweeted had wrapped production back in July. The film is due in theaters on December 15, 2017.

 The “Star Wars” films sometimes involve reshoots and re-looping — sometimes extensive ones, as was the case with the new “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” — an individual with knowledge of the production said that Fisher had completely finished her scenes on the new film.

 Image 1 of / 33 Caption Close Image 1 of 33 Actress Carrie Fisher died at 60 after suffering a heart attack while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

 Look through the following gallery for celebrity and fan reactions to her death. Actress Carrie Fisher died at 60 after suffering a heart attack while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

 Look through the following gallery for celebrity and fan reactions to her death. Image 2 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 3 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 4 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 5 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 6 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 7 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 8 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 9 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 10 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 11 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 12 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 13 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 14 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 15 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 16 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 17 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 18 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 19 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 20 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 21 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 22 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 23 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 24 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 25 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 26 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 27 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 28 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 29 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 30 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 31 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 32 of 33 Twitter Twitter Image 33 of 33 Carrie Fisher Wrapped ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Before Her Death 1 / 33 Back to Gallery

 Also Read: Carrie Fisher Over the Years: Through Good and Bad, the Wit Endured (Appreciation)

 However, it’s unknown how Fisher’s death might impact future installments in the blockbuster franchise and whether Leia, a character Fisher originated in 1977’s “Star Wars,” was expected to play a significant role in “Episode IX” that may now need to be reassessed.

 Representatives for the studio and for Lucasfilm have not responded to requests for comment.

 Fisher died Tuesday after suffering a heart attack on a plane from London to Los Angeles on Dec. 23. After she was taken to UCLA Medical Center for emergency treatment, she was reported to be in stable condition over the weekend.

 Also Read: Carrie Fisher, 'Star Wars' Icon, Dies at 60

 Final slate of the final shot. VIII is officially wrapped. Cannot wait to share it with you all! -@rianjohnson pic.twitter.com/l4Apk0Ro4i

 — Star Wars (@starwars) July 22, 2016

 Fisher made her big screen debut in “Shampoo” (1970) with Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn and Julie Christie. In 1977, she won the role that would make her internationally famous in “Star Wars,” as the revolutionary princess of the planet Alderaan.

 Following starring roles in “Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi,” Fisher had a string of small or guest parts such as “Scream 3,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” “These Old Broads,” “Sex and the City” and “Entourage.” She most recently starred in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

 Read original story Carrie Fisher Wrapped ‘Star Wars: Episode VIII’ Before Her Death At TheWrap |||||

– Carrie Fisher is gone but she will live on through her books and movies—including Star Wars: Episode VIII, which won't be in theaters for almost a year. Sources tell the Wrap that the 60-year-old Fisher had completely finished filming her role and all necessary reshoots for the movie, in which she reprises her role as Princess Leia. It's not clear how her death will affect the future of the Star Wars series. George Lucas was among the many people paying tribute to Fisher on Tuesday. "She was extremely smart; a talented actress, writer and comedienne with a very colorful personality that everyone loved," he told People. "In Star Wars she was our great and powerful princess—feisty, wise and full of hope in a role that was more difficult than most people might think.” Harrison Ford was among the Star Wars co-stars with warm words for Fisher. "Carrie was one-of-a-kind…brilliant, original," he said. "Funny and emotionally fearless. She lived her life, bravely." Mark Hamill, at first, could only tweet that he was "devastated." In a follow-up tweet, he praised his "beloved space-twin." "She was OUR Princess, damn it, and the actress who played her blurred into one gorgeous, fiercely independent and ferociously funny, take-charge woman who took our collective breath away." Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, tweeted photos of himself with Fisher over the years. "There are no words for this loss," he wrote. "Carrie was the brightest light in every room she entered. I will miss her dearly."


Article:

On Monday 3 June, the Guardian published an interview with the actor Michael Douglas in which he said that his cancer was "caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), which actually comes from cunnilingus".

 Allen Burry, a spokesman for the actor, has since denied that Douglas said that oral sex was the cause of his own cancer, but was merely one of the many causes of oral cancer. "In a discussion with the newspaper," the Associated Press quotes Burry as saying, "they talked about the causes of oral cancer, one of which was oral sex, which is noted and has been known for a while now."

 The Guardian firmly denies this charge of misrepresentation. Mr Burry was not present at the Guardian's interview with Michael Douglas; the only two people present were Mr Douglas and the Guardian writer, Xan Brooks. Here is the audio file of the relevant part of the interview, along with a verbatim transcript of that section.

 Xan Brooks: Do you feel, in hindsight, that you overloaded your system? Overloaded your system with drugs, smoking, drink?

 Michael Douglas: No. No. Ah, without getting too specific, this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus. ||||| Michael Douglas' public relations team went into damage control mode Monday, insisting the actor never said he contracted throat cancer from oral sex.

 “He wants to make it very clear he never said that was the particular cause of his particular cancer,” Douglas’ publicist, Allen Burry, told the Daily News.

 Douglas’ flack was forced to backtrack after his boss, in an eyebrow-raising interview with The Guardian newspaper, blamed his cancer on “a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer.”

 Douglas attends the One Centennial Sensation, the 100th birthday celebration of the American Cancer Society, at the Hudson Theatre Monday evening. “This particular cancer is caused by HPV," he says in a recent interview. (Ben Gabbe/Getty Images)

 “This particular cancer is caused by HPV, which actually comes about from” oral sex, he said.

 The 68-year-old star of “Basic Instinct” and “Wall Street” had previously blamed the cancer that sidelined him on nicotine and alcohol.

 Catherine Zeta-Jones won’t get the cancer from husband Michael Douglas, says the expert. (Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic)

 Burry refused to concede Douglas’ words might have caused people to conclude he got cancer from sex. And when pressed whether Douglas tested positive for one of the human papilloma virus strains linked to oral cancer, Burry said, “I don’t think it’s really anybody’s business anymore.”

 Douglas was honored by the American Cancer Society Monday at the Hudson Theater. “I have one footnote to make,” he said to laughter. “I’ve become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster boy for oral cancer, and just so you all understand, I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from.

 A gaunt-looking Michael Douglas pictured in 2010 when the actor was undergoing chemotherapy. (INFPhoto.com)

 “I simply, to a reporter, tried to give a little PSA announcement about HPV, a virus that can cause oral cancer, and is one of the few areas of cancer that can be controlled and there are vaccinations that kids can get. So that was my attempt.”

 His ex-wife Diandra told TMZ.com that she doesn’t have HPV — and her actor ex didn’t catch anything from her.

 Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. The actor took a moment to clarify his comments to The Guardian when he was honored Monday night by the American Cancer Society. “I simply, to a reporter, tried to give a little PSA announcement about HPV, a virus that can cause oral cancer, and is one of the few areas of cancer that can be controlled and there are vaccinations that kids can get. So that was my attempt.” (Richard Corkery/New York Daily News)

 Douglas’ wife, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, had no comment.

 hevans@nydailynews.com |||||
What is a summary?

– Michael Douglas has backtracked after hitting the headlines by saying his throat cancer was caused by oral sex instead of smoking and drinking. The actor's publicist now says that he wasn't talking about his own cancer being caused by the human papilloma virus, the BBC reports. The reversal prompted the Guardian to release audio of its interview with Douglas, in which the actor says he doesn't regret his years of smoking and drinking, because "this particular cancer is caused by something called HPV, which actually comes about from cunnilingus." At an American Cancer Society event in New York last night, Douglas said he had been trying to raise awareness of the link between HPV and throat cancer, the New York Daily News reports. "I've become, I think, in the past 24 hours a sort of poster boy for oral cancer, and just so you all understand, I think we would all love to know where our cancer comes from," he told the audience. "I simply, to a reporter, tried to give a little PSA announcement about HPV, a virus that can cause oral cancer, and is one of the few areas of cancer that can be controlled and there are vaccinations that kids can get."


Article:

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 SAN DIEGO - A 34-year-old man laid down in front of a car driven by a friend, and was killed as the woman drove away from his birthday party just after midnight Sunday, police said.

 Jonathan Carlyle Merkley, of Garden Grove, was celebrating his 34th birthday night at the Staybridge Suites hotel, in the 6600 block of Mira Mesa Boulevard, at about 12:30 a.m.

 According to San Diego police, Merkley friends' had been drinking alcohol at the hotel when the unidentified woman tried to get behind the wheel.

 Witnesses said both had been drinking alcohol with friends before the incident. The man was trying to prevent the woman from leaving, walked into the path of her BMW and laid down in front of the moving car, according to San Diego Police Sgt. Tom Sullivan.

 The woman did not stop, ran over the man and kept going. The victim suffered major trauma to his chest and died later at a hospital, Sullivan said.

 Police know the identity of the BMW driver, but she had not been arrested as of late Sunday morning, according to Sullivan.

 “She needs to turn herself in. You need to understand there was a mistake that was made, but to do the right thing,” said Gloria Williams, a hotel guest. "I think this is crazy, we don’t value each others lives.”

 If anyone has information about his hit and run you are asked to contact the San Diego Police Department or crime stoppers at 888-580-8477.

 [UPDATE August 23, 2016] San Diego police have not made any arrests in the deadly crash. They released this statement:

 “We have interviewed the female friend and have a vehicle in custody pending examination to determine if it is the vehicle in question. We are still evaluating the other parties culpability, if any, in this collision. There have been no arrests and the investigation is ongoing. “ ||||| GARDEN GROVE - An Orange County man laid down in front of a car driven by his female friend, and was killed as the woman drove away from his birthday party just after midnight today, San Diego police said.

 Jonathan Carlyle Merkley, of Garden Grove, was celebrating his 34th birthday night at the Staybridge Suites hotel, in the 6600 block of Mira Mesa Boulevard, at about 12:30 a.m.

 Witnesses said both had been drinking alcohol with friends before the incident, near the San Diego suburb of Sorrento Valley.

 Merkley was trying to prevent the woman from leaving the hotel walked into the path of her BMW and laid down in front of the moving car, according to San Diego Police Sgt. Tom Sullivan.

 The woman did not stop, ran over the man and kept going. The victim suffered major trauma to his chest and died about 45 minutes later at a hospital, Sullivan said.

 Police know the identity of the BMW driver, but she had not been arrested as of late Sunday morning, according to Sullivan. |||||  Police tracked down the woman who ran over and killed a man who was trying to keep her from leaving his Sorrento Valley birthday party early Sunday.

 She hasn’t been arrested, a traffic sergeant said Tuesday.

 Detectives found the woman, who lives in San Diego County, at a friend’s house, said San Diego police Sgt. Tim Underwood. She was interviewed, and a car that “may have been involved” in the crash was impounded.

 “There’s a lot we still need to find out,” Underwood said. “It's the nature of collision investigations.”

 Before he was hit, Jonathan Merkley, who turned 34 on Saturday, had been drinking and celebrating at the Staybridge Suites on Mira Mesa Boulevard, officials said. Soon after midnight on Sunday, a woman at the party decided to leave.

 Merkley, of Garden Grove, tried to get her to stay by lying down in front of her car. She then ran over him and drove off, police said.

 Investigators said after the incident that it was unclear whether the driver knew she hit the man.

 lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.com |||||
What is a summary?

– A birthday party in California turned tragic after the guest of honor was run over and killed by his friend. Police say Jonathan Carlyle Merkley was celebrating his 34th birthday early Sunday at a hotel near San Diego when a woman decided to leave the party. Merkley wanted her to stay and reportedly walked toward her BMW and laid down in front of what the Orange County Register describes as a moving car. The woman didn’t stop, ran him over, and kept going. Police cite witnesses as saying both had been drinking, Fox 5 reports. Merkley, who suffered major chest trauma, died about 45 minutes later at a hospital. Police tracked the woman down and a car that "may have been involved" was impounded, cops tell the San Diego Union-Tribune. The woman was not arrested but police said on Tuesday that the investigation is continuing. "There's a lot we still need to find out," says San Diego Police Sgt. Tim Underwood.


– For 40 days and nights, Noah's ark was said to have housed all variety of creatures—but probably not one like this, who just became the first of its kind to live past a similar 40-day mark, per National Geographic. Lucky the two-faced calf, who lives on a Campbellsville, Ky., farm, is the result of a rare genetic mutation that at first had owners Brandy and Stan McCubbin doing a double-take when she was born in mid-September. "From a distance, I thought I had twins lying together," Stan told WDRB at the time. "Then when I saw her, I was just completely blown away." The McCubbins' 5-year-old daughter named the calf after she heard her mom say the baby was lucky to alive. The BBC explains that two-headed animals like Lucky—a condition called craniofacial duplication, or diprosopus— can be produced in a variety of ways: They can come from a single fertilized egg that never fully separates, be the result of a developmental anomaly in which the head keeps growing until it breaks into two new ones, or emerge when cells that set off head development somehow get moved to the wrong part of an animal's body. Lucky's two middle eyes don't work, she can only walk in circles, and she tends to fall down a lot. She also needs assistance when chowing down—and both her mouths move when she's chewing—but she seems healthy otherwise. "It's something I've never seen before, and I think it's amazing," Stan tells WDRB. Check out a video of Lucky on the move via Caters News. (What appeared to be a two-headed dolphin washed up on Turkey's shores.)

Expand this summary.

It was a blood-chilling sight. The multi-headed Lernaean Hydra, a fearsome, serpent-like creature, emerged from its lair and bore down on a waiting Heracles, the son of the Greek god Zeus. But Heracles had a plan. Earlier, he had realised that the Hydra would regrow any head that was chopped off, so he had enlisted the help of his nephew Iolaus.

 I'm absolutely convinced that they noticed these naturally occurring abnormalities around them

 This time, when Heracles struck at the creature, Iolaus swooped in and burnt the stump of its necks with a firebrand, preventing the diabolical beast's heads from growing back. All the while the Hydra hissed and writhed, its poisonous blood and breath threatening to exterminate Greece's greatest hero. But he prevailed. The monster's final head was at last amputated and a victorious Heracles was able to progress to the third of his twelve labours.

 A multi-headed beast with poisonous innards and the ability to regrow body parts – it was certainly some feat of imagination. In one telling, the Hydra has as many as 50 heads, though several depictions show it with far fewer. But where did this extraordinary idea come from? Could the Greeks have got their idea for a multi-headed serpentine ogre from nature itself?

 Scientists have documented rare cases of two-headed specimens for many years. One, L E Cable, wrote during the 1940s about a two-headed pipefish embryo. He called it a "tiny monstrosity".

 More recently, developmental biologist Arkhat Abzhanov at Imperial College, London, has seen many examples of two-headed creatures in his lab. With the help of a modern understanding of genetics, he has observed mutations and cellular displacements that could allow for this phenomenon. Such cases could well have inspired ancient writers of myths.

 Two egotisms in the place of one

 "I'm absolutely convinced that they noticed these naturally occurring abnormalities around them, and tried to explain them in some way or incorporate them into their culture," says Abzhanov.

 It's true that, from time to time, two and even three-headed animals are found in the wild or in captivity. Interestingly, this phenomenon – known as polycephaly – does not seem restricted to any one class of animals. Take fish, for starters. In 2013, a two-headed bull shark foetus was discovered in the Gulf of Mexico.

 The following year, a similar case was found in marine mammals when a two-headed dolphin washed up on a Turkish beach. These both appear to be examples of conjoined twins – offspring that develop from an egg that does not separate completely after fertilisation. It happens in humans as well. Often, such offspring don't just have two heads, but double sets of certain internal organs and even limbs.

 One famous set of experiments showed it was actually possible to restrict fertilised eggs from splitting – and thereby instigate conjoined twins. It was carried out by a biologist called Hans Spemann in the early 20th Century. He was interested in understanding how embryos develop. He tied very young salamander embryos together with a strand of human baby hair. This, he found, could result in salamanders with two heads – two heads that fought over food for the same body. He said this was "two egotisms in the place of one."

 Getting the shape and composition of a face right is a function of an organism's genes

 In fact, the list of example animals is quite long – including turtles snakes and even kittens. We also know that these are not just modern day occurrences because palaeontologists have discovered fossilised two-headed embryos that date back millions of years.

 As Abzhanov points out, there are various mechanisms that can result in more than one head or face. He explains that heads, as a feature on an organism's body generally, are an example of convergent evolution – when similar traits evolve separately in completely different groups of species. Animals with and without backbones both benefit from having heads, but have different ancestral lineages. Heads just seem to be useful adaptations that can arise in a wide range of organisms.

 "It's actually a beneficial thing to have," explains Abzhanov. "You're heading into the new environment head-first."

 That's why so many sense organs – eyes, ears, nose and mouth, for instance – are found there. Getting the shape and composition of a face right is a function of an organism's genes. And one gene that has a big impact, specifically on the width of the face, is curiously named "Sonic Hedgehog", or SHH. It's named after a series of "hedgehog" (HH) genes first described in relation to fruit flies – mutations that caused the fruit flies to be born with spiky hair-like structures, making them look like tiny hedgehogs.

 It is vertebrates, animals with backbones, that have the SHH gene. Abzhanov explains that if the hedgehog signalling pathway is weakened during embryonic development, then the organism's head will get narrower and narrower. It will even begin to collapse in on itself in some cases, causing animals to be born with a one-eyed, cyclops-like, head. In fact, a substance known to cause this deformity in livestock such as sheep is named "cyclopamine". It's found in corn lilies, for instance, which is sometimes eaten by pregnant females.

 If you take the group of cells and implant [these] on the body of a frog embryo it will have two heads

 What if you instead increase the SHH signal instead, though? That leads to the opposite outcome – a head that widens until two faces are produced. "Those kind of mutants are rare, but they're reported in domestic animals and in the wild," says Abzhanov.

 Technically, of course, this will only ever result in a two-faced, not two-headed specimen. For a completely separate neck and head growing from a single body, Abzhanov has observed another quirk that happens early in development.

 "The head is just like any structure on the body, it needs to be triggered and [to do this] there is a group of cells in a very early embryo – what we call an organiser," he explains. In fact, it was Spemann's work with salamander embryos that eventually led to the discovery that cells could behave in this way.

 "If you take the group of cells and implant [these] on the body of a frog embryo [for example] it will have two heads. That tells you that this group of cells releases a signal that tells the organism to produce a head."

 This is what happens in cases of conjoined twins but Abzhanov has also noticed this happening in the lab. Sometimes an embryo will accidentally have this key group of cells transplanted onto it following an injection or incision of some kind to another embryo. Here the organiser is simply plucked up, a sort of biological stowaway, by a surgical instrument used for some other purpose and deposited elsewhere.

 Researchers are getting closer to understanding why these abnormal steps in developments occur. Abzhanov notes that one factor seems to be temperature. He and his colleagues often receive fertilised eggs from chicken farms. These embryos are later inspected in the lab. But in periods of hot weather, his team has noticed strange things happening.

 "If the temperature is above 30C, the batch of eggs we receive that week will have a higher rate of abnormalities – including two heads," he says.

 Interestingly, this has occurred elsewhere too. One biologist for instance, found that higher water temperatures resulted in the development of a two-headed zebrafish embryo. It's not clear why these things happen, but more research is currently being done to understand how temperature can influence deformities.

 Biology may well have inspired myth, but the opposite is also true, myth has inspired biology. Some of the Hydra's features helped to inspire the names of a group of tiny aquatic animals in 1758, named by the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus. These creatures are particularly interesting because they have multiple, snake-like appendages and also have the ability to regenerate themselves – like the Hydra faced by Heracles.

 It's not so common to have two-headed salamanders

 One thing to note, though, is that many two-headed organisms, like conjoined twins, do not have a very good survival rate. It's rare for them to live past the embryonic stage and even rarer still that they make it to adulthood.

 A 2014 example demonstrates how the continuing development of an organism as it grows can put great stresses on multi-headed creatures. A chance occurrence – that would presumably delight Spemann – was reported by a lab at the University of Haifa in Israel – a two-headed salamander (see image below). It received a great deal of media attention but did not live very long.

 "It's not so common to have two-headed salamanders," explains Leon Blaustein, who was in charge of the lab in question at the University of Haifa. "It did quite well as a larva but after the metamorphosis it just died." Salamanders are tadpoles until they metamorphose into adults – a process during which they lose their gills and some fins. The head, in particular, goes through a lot of changes. Eyes develop, tongues and teeth appear and the mouth gets broader. Perhaps these dramatic changes may have led to its untimely death – the answer is not known.

 Besides the observation of real two-headed animals in the wild, the Greeks could have had other potential sources of inspiration, suggests Abzhanov. He points out that snakes have a habit of grouping together during mating seasons – forming a "mating ball".

 "You can imagine seeing one 'body' and several heads," he says. "You have this multi-headed snake lying in the bushes, very dangerous looking as well." Indeed, some ancient illustrations of Hydra just happen to look quite like this.

 Polycephaly is certainly unusual, and humans are psychologically prone to be unsettled by things that they find abnormal. Such reactions could help to explain why a deformity was used to make the Hydra of Greek myths such a frightful creature.

 Indeed, the story of Blaustein's two-headed salamander, like Cable's early description of a "tiny monstrosity", captures human discomfort at polycephaly. People even indulged in conspiracy theories about the case. "Things started getting out of hand because there were different groups claiming on the web that it was due to radiation," recalls Blaustein, "but we don't know why it happened."

 The Hydra is far from the only monster in human mythology that bore more than one head. Another beast Heracles had to face, the twelfth of his twelve labours, was the multi-headed dog Cerberus. An ancient Japanese myth tells of Yamata no Orochi – an eight-headed snake. And there is a Slavic myth about Zmey Gorynych – a three-headed dragon.

 Polycephaly, as a literary trope, suggests multiple challenges in one, something that cannot be defeated easily. It therefore makes sense that there is a whole culture of discomfort around multi-headed monsters.

 There is still much to be discovered about polycephaly in animals, but given the low survival rate of two-headed organisms, both in captivity and in the wild, there's no reason to suppose that the trait will ever be more than extraordinarily rare in real life.

 We can only guess at where the authors of classical myths got their ideas from. It is possible that someone, at some ancient time, stumbled on polycephalic creatures in the wild and told exaggerated stories about them. Eventually, these may have turned into the well-known legends we hear today.

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 If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, Travel and Autos, delivered to your inbox every Friday. ||||| "I'm just thinking, 'How many days do we have?' and I mean, it's a blessing that we get to go through this with our children and our family and it's just something unique and rare," said Brandy McCubbin. |||||


These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Linwood Woody Kaine, son of U.S. Sen. and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

 Isabell Kimball. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

 Jonathan Adams. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

 Glenn Kimball. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

 Haley Ryan. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.

 Anton William Bueckert. Photo courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriffs Office.

 Fans of President Donald Trump confront protesters at the “March 4 Trump” rally at the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday, March 4, 2017 (Will Ashenmacher/Pioneer Press)

 Supporters of President Donald Trump arrive at a March 4 Trump rally Saturday, March 4, 2017, at the state Capitol in St. Paul. About 400 attended the rally while 50 others joined a counterprotest, according to the Minnesota State Patrol, which is in charge of Capitol security. (Will Ashenmacher / Pioneer Press)

 Supporters of President Donald Trump gather in the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday afternoon, March 4, 2017. Protesters tried to disrupt the day's events and six were arrested. (Will Ashenmacher / Pioneer Press)

 Clad in black and wearing a mask, the youngest son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine wrested himself from the cop and then “squared off” with him.

 Woody Kaine, 24, was among five masked, black-garbed people suspected of lobbing a smoke bomb minutes earlier inside the Minnesota Capitol rotunda Saturday afternoon.

 Officers had chased him down, but Kaine wasn’t about to submit, according to a more detailed account provided Wednesday by St. Paul police.

 In the end, it took three officers, a “knee strike” and a chemical spray to subdue Kaine after he was identified as one of the counterprotesters who allegedly used fireworks or a smoke bomb to disrupt a rally in support of President Donald Trump at the Minnesota State Capitol, according to police spokesman Steve Linders.

 NEW: Videos show smoke bomb thrown during Trump rally at Capitol, protesters ordered out

 Linwood Michael Kaine, who attended Carleton College and lives in Minneapolis, and four others were arrested on suspicion of second-degree riot after the “March 4 Trump” rally in St. Paul. A sixth person was cited for disorderly conduct. Counterprotesters — some with apparent anti-fascist and anarchist leanings — clashed with Trump supporters in the Capitol rotunda after they disrupted the permitted event with air horns, whistles and chants. Video of the scene shows a black-clad person wearing ski goggles lobbing the smoke bomb, which allegedly struck a 61-year-old woman. She was uninjured, police said.

 None of the five has been charged. While the Ramsey County attorney’s office has said “there were insufficient facts to prove felony-level riot,” the case remains an “active investigation,” according to the Minnesota State Patrol. St. Paul City Attorney Samuel Clark said his office is investigating the case for possible misdemeanor charges.

 KAINE’S ARREST

 Here’s how Woody Kaine’s arrest went down:

 The Minnesota State Patrol contacted St. Paul police to assist, reporting that troopers had identified five people who lit off fireworks inside the Capitol, Linders said. The State Patrol asked St. Paul officers to arrest the five.

 Police approached them at a park near the Capitol, identified themselves as officers and the people ran in different directions. But officers caught up with them, according to Linders.

 An officer ordered a man, later identified as Linwood Kaine, to the ground. He refused, Linders said.

 “The officer was able to get ahold of Mr. Kaine, but he got up, squared off with the officer and the officer tried to take him to the ground again,” Linders said Wednesday. Another officer arrived and sprayed a chemical irritant toward Kaine.

 “He then was taken to the ground, but continued to resist, at which point another officer deployed a knee strike to get him to cooperate with the officers and put his hands behind his back,” Linders continued. “After the strike, Mr. Kaine cooperated and was taken into custody without further incident.”

 Both pro- and anti-Trump groups were aggressors at various times during rowdy confrontations that broke out Saturday, according to Daniel Springer, who was there recording the event on video.

 Neither Kaine nor the four others arrested with him has been charged, and police haven’t said who specifically they believe threw the smoke bomb — an act that Springer caught on video. The smoke bomb happened early, he said, and was unprovoked. “It wasn’t even during the tense part of things,” Springer said. “It was completely unnecessary, in my opinion.”

 The Pioneer Press has been unable to reach Kaine or any of the other people arrested with him Saturday.

 Tim Kaine, who represents Virginia, where he previously served as governor, was born in St. Paul. On Tuesday night, when the Pioneer Press first reported the story, he released a statement: “We love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues,” he said. “They fully understand the responsibility to express those concerns peacefully.”

 POLITICAL QUESTIONS RAISED

 John Krenik, chairman of the Republican Party in St. Paul, was not at Saturday’s rally, but described disruptors as “being bullies against free speech.”

 Krenik also said that because St. Paul is a DFL town, he thinks “politics had something to do with” the county attorney’s office decision to not charge Kaine.

 “I have contacted the U.S. Department of Justice for a full investigation and review of St. Paul City Attorney Samuel Clark and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi’s actions in not prosecuting these terrorists’ criminal acts,” Krenik said in a statement. “I am asking both John Choi and Samuel Clark to recuse themselves and appoint outside review of these terrorists’ actions, as their objectiveness has clearly been clouded by their political affiliation and Democrat Party loyalty.”

 The Ramsey County attorney’s office said Monday it had “declined to file criminal charges as there were insufficient facts to prove felony-level riot. We referred the case back to the investigative agency (Minnesota State Patrol), and it is our understanding that they have presented the case to the St. Paul City Attorney’s office for consideration of misdemeanor-level riot charges.”

 Choi, who received the DFL endorsement when he ran for office in 2010 and 2014, said in a statement Wednesday that neither he nor anyone in his office, knew of Linwood Kaine’s connection to Sen. Tim Kaine until it was reported by the media. The Pioneer Press posted an article about it Tuesday night.

 “Quite frankly, it would not have mattered, as special privilege for a senator’s son runs counter to a bedrock principle in our office, which is the rule of law in that no one is above it,” Choi said in the statement. “The suggestion itself is offensive and implies that we should charge people with felony crimes with insufficient evidence. … If more information is gathered that could prove felony riot, we will review the new evidence as we would in any case.”

 St. Paul police spokesman Linders and City Attorney Clark have said they were unaware Linwood Kaine was Tim Kaine’s son until Pioneer Press reporters informed them Tuesday evening.

 On Tuesday, Clark said his investigation was continuing. On Wednesday, Lt. Tiffani Nielson, spokeswoman for the State Patrol, said, “The incident remains an active investigation.” |||||

Write a summary.

– Tim Kaine's youngest son probably wouldn't have gotten arrested had his dad fared better in the November election, and not exactly because of the privilege of the vice presidency: The Pioneer Press reports that six people were arrested or cited Saturday at a "March 4 Trump" rally of about 400 in St. Paul, Minn., and 24-year-old Linwood Michael Kaine was one of them. The younger Kaine was arrested on suspicion of second-degree rioting at the state Capitol, where cops say a group of 50 or so anti-Trump protesters raised a ruckus by blaring air horns, being verbally disruptive, setting off fireworks, and even a smoke bomb that reportedly hit a 61-year-old woman in the head when it was thrown into the crowd. A St. Paul police rep says "some force" was needed to haul "Woody" Kaine to the Ramsey County jail. He wasn't charged, nor were the others, though the St. Paul city attorney is looking into whether any misdemeanors are warranted. Kaine was released Tuesday morning while the case is further investigated. Per WCCO, the Minnesota Republican Party put out a statement Monday blaming Democrats for "coordinating disruption and violence" both during the election and afterward. The senator, meanwhile, issued his own statement to the Press, noting he and his wife "love that our three children have their own views and concerns about current political issues," adding his kids know well how to "express those concerns peacefully." (Tim Kaine once ran for his Senate seat against a cat.)