LOS ANGELES (AP) Video shows Justin Bieber running into a photographer with his white Ferrari in Hollywood, but police say there was no crime and the injuries aren't life-threatening.

Lt. Craig Valenzuela says Bieber's car collided with the person at 11:45 p.m. Monday on Sunset Boulevard.

Valenzuela says nobody was cited or arrested and officers determined no crime was committed. He says investigators are trying to determine whether the pedestrian was in the roadway.

A video posted by TMZ.com shows Bieber getting into a Ferrari. He's surrounded by paparazzi and as the car drives off, one falls to the ground and grips his knee.

A request for comment from Bieber's publicist, Melissa Victor, was not immediately returned.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) A 25-year-old accountant from Connecticut with a secret glamorous side is the new Miss USA.

Erin Brady of South Glastonbury, Conn., won the beauty pageant Sunday night after strutting in a white sparkly gown and answering a question about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding widespread DNA tests.

She beat out 51 other beauty queens every U.S. state and Washington D.C.at the Planet Hollywood casino on the Las Vegas Strip to take the title from outgoing champion Miss Maryland Nana Meriwether.

Asked if she agreed with the decision to swab the cheeks of arrestees, Brady said she did, since they had committed crimes after all.

As Brady was crowned, she could be seen mouthing "Oh my God, oh my God" with tears in her eyes.

As the stage emptied, the blonde woman spoke about her commitment to fighting drug and alcohol abuse, which have marked those close to her.

"I grew up in a family influenced by that and I think it's really important to help the children of families that are suffering from those problems," she told The Associated Press.

As Miss USA, Brady gets the crown and a New York apartment for one year. She is expected to spend her title reign on a nationwide speaking tour and raising breast and ovarian cancer awareness, the organization's official cause.

The Central Connecticut State University fiance major could not contain her excitement at the prospect of telling her bosses at Prudential Financial she wasn't coming in tomorrow. Or ever again.

Asked what she was looking forward to now that the competition is over, she described a routine that sounded not very different from her training regime: getting in her beauty sleep and hitting the gym.

Her father Francis said he always knew his math-oriented daughter was a glamour girl. She and her sisters used to strut around and pretend they were beauty queens.

"They would model around the pool," he said.

Her sister Audrey, 20, said with tears in her eyes that her grandmother would orchestrate the shows.

"She'd be like, 'prance around the pool like Miss America.'"

The family was taken by surprise when Brady announced that she would be entering the Miss Connecticut competition two years ago, but cheered her on.

"She just went up there on a whim, man. But it was like, 'Just go for it. There should be more people like you who are competing, where it's not all about the hair and the makeup, but personality too,'" Audrey said.

Fiancee Tony Capasso said it was her winning personality that propelled her to the crown. He said he advised her to compete without makeup.

Brady told The Associated Press she hopes that her background will help dispel the image held by some of the bimbo beauty queen.

"I think that now more than ever, they're accepting that we're all intelligent individuals and that it's really not a stereotype anymore," she said.

Unlike the rival Miss America pageant, Miss USA doesn't ask its queens to perform a talent or choose a charity mission.

Brady will represent the United States at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow this winter.

Last year's Miss USA, Olivia Culpo, won that international crown, becoming the first Miss USA to ascend to Miss Universe in 16 years.

Brady said she is determined to pull of that feat for the U.S. again.

In the moments before she won, Brady held hands with first runner up Mary Margaret McCord, of Alabama. McCord could be seen saying, "I love you" in the moments before the winner was announced. Miss Illinois Stacie Juris was second runner up.

Two of the six judges' questions on Sunday touched on the controversial data-collection programs run by the National Security Agency brought to light earlier this month.

In both cases, the queens took an unconcerned attitude. Miss South Carolina said the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden who leaked the information should not be charged with treason. Miss Alabama said the programs did not bother her.

Brady also took a sanguine attitude in her answer about check swabs.

"If someone is being prosecuted and committed a crime, its should happen. There are so many crimes that if that's one step closer to stopping them, than we should be able to do so," she said.

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Yvette Cruz contributed to this report.

Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier

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The civil war in Syria is expected to dominate much of the discussion as President Obama sits down tomorrow with the Group of Eight leaders in Northern Ireland, just days after the White House confirmed the use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"They'll clearly discuss the situation in Syria, to include the most recent chemical weapons assessment that we've provided, the efforts that are underway to support both the opposition but also a political settlement in the country," Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes told reporters Friday.

obama The Obama administration has said it will provide more "direct support" to the Syrian opposition now that the president's "red line" has been crossed. The U.S., he added, has "steadily increased both the size and scope of our assistance" to the Supreme Military Council, the armed wing of the Syrian opposition.

"At the same time, you know, this is a fluid situation. So it's necessary for [the president] to consult with all the leaders at the G-8 about both our chemical weapons assessment and the types of support we're providing to the opposition," he added.

syria The president will also, however, have to sway Assad's allies, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama and Putin will meet face-to-face at the G-8 summit for the first time in a year.

Russia has publicly questioned American evidence that Assad used chemical weapons and does not agree that Assad must step down from power for a political settlement to be successful.

"What Russia has articulated to us, and publicly, is that they don't want to see a downward spiral," Rhodes said. "They don't want to see a chaotic and unstable situation in the region. They don't want to see extremist elements gaining a foothold in Syria. And the point that we've made to Russia is that the current course in which Assad is not being appropriately pressured to step down from power by those who continue to support him in the international community is bringing about those very outcomes."

"We still continue to discuss with the Russians whether there's a way to bring together elements of the regime and the opposition to achieve a political settlement. We have no illusions that that's going to be easy," he added.

While the Syrian crisis will overshadow much of the summit agenda, there are many other topics up for discussion, including economic reform, trade and the fight against terrorism.

Obama is expected to defend his administration's phone and internet surveillance programs as vital counterterrorism tools. "He'll be able to discuss with the other leaders the importance of these programs in terms of our counterterrorism efforts in particular, the constraints and safeguards that we place on these programs so that they have oversight against potential abuses," Rhodes said.

"And all of these countries at the G-8 are important counterterrorism partners. And together we've worked with them on an intelligence and security relationship to foil terrorist attacks in the United States and in Europe, and of course Russia shares a significant counterterrorism interest with us as well," he said.

In addition to participating in a series of high-level meetings, the president will also deliver a major address in Northern Ireland at the Belfast Waterfront Convention Center. This will be the president's first opportunity to address at length the support that the U.S. has provided to the peace process in Northern Ireland and to the development of its economy.

After two days of summit meetings, the president will travel to Berlin, where he will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, and deliver a major address at the historic Brandenburg Gate.

The short three-day trip to Europe will be also a family affair for the president. The first lady and daughters Sasha and Malia will be joining him.

Mrs. Obama and her daughters will attend the president's speech in Belfast and then break off to travel to Dublin, while the president is busy with summit meetings. There, they will tour Trinity College, Ireland's oldest university and "explore the archives that they've gathered to document the Obamas' Irish ancestry," Rhodes explained.

The first family will reunite in Berlin.

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By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is likely to send weaponry like rocket-propelled grenades and mortars to Syria's rebels after President Barack Obama approved arming the insurgents, sources said on Friday.

A source in the Middle East who is familiar with U.S. dealings with the rebels told Reuters that weapon supplies would include automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, known as RPGs.

Accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces of using chemical weapons, the White House said on Thursday the United States would supply direct military assistance to the rebels. A U.S. official said that meant sending them weapons supplies for the first time.

Two European security sources said the United States would increase the caliber of the arms and ammunition being supplied to the rebels by regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as supply some heavier weapons, including RPGs.

More RPGs would give the rebels, who have lost ground to government forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants in recent weeks, greater ability to fight government armored vehicles and even tanks.

But a U.S. official who has been briefed on the new policy said he did not expect the new U.S. aid to seriously affect the course of events in Syria.

All three sources said there were no plans to send shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles, known as MANPADS, to the mostly Sunni rebels fighting Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah Shi'ite allies.

The first military supplies - to be sent to groups under rebel commander Salim Idriss that are vetted by Washington and its allies - could take a minimum of two to three weeks to be delivered.

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes refused to say on Friday how Washington would arm the rebels.

"I'm not going to get into kind of a detailed description of different types of assistance," he told a briefing in the White House.

Aid to the rebels will most likely go through Turkey, where the United States is involved in a secret base that Turkey set up with Saudi Arabia and Qatar to direct military and communications aid to Syria's armed opposition. U.S. aid could also go through Jordan where several thousand U.S. troops are on a joint exercise. A further 200 soldiers from the U.S. Army's First Division are also there.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)

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NEW YORK (AP) Private investigators found that CBS News Washington reporter Sharyl Attkisson's computer was tampered with multiple times late last year, the network said Friday.

CBS said an intruder, working remotely using Attkisson's accounts, executed commands involving the search and filtering of data. The network said it is taking further steps to identify the intruder and how that person gained access to her computer.

CBS hired a cybersecurity firm to conduct the analysis. Attkisson, an investigative reporter who has worked at CBS since 1995, said three weeks ago that she thought someone had tampered with her computers.

In an interview with Philadelphia's WPHT radio on May 21, Attkisson said "there could be some relationship" between what has happened to her and to James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel. In what appeared to be a leak investigation, law enforcement officials obtained a search warrant to obtain some of Rosen's private emails and tracked his comings and goings from the State Department.

Attkisson said she had been having problems with a computer in her house since at least February 2011. At that time, she said, she was investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation and stimulus spending on clean-energy projects. Attkisson won an Emmy award for her "Fast and Furious" investigation.

In another leak probe, prosecutors secretly subpoenaed phone records from The Associated Press.

In its analysis, the cybersecurity firm said that whoever tampered with Attkisson's computer "used sophisticated methods to remove all possible indications of unauthorized activity, and alter system times to cause further confusion."

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NEW YORK (AP) Sting performed in honor of Elton John, Billy Joel sang snippets of Foreigner's hits when introducing the band and Smokey Robinson debuted part of a new song he wrote about Berry Gordy.

The 44th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony was full of star power that included Alison Krauss, Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Nickelback, Petula Clark, Wiz Khalifa, Jordin Sparks and a video message from Bill Clinton.

Tyler, Perry, Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner, Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch were inducted Thursday into the Songwriters Hall 2013 class in New York City.

John and writing partner Bernie Taupin received the Johnny Mercer award, and Sting kicked off the night with a performance of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting." Sting also called John and Taupin "my two heroes."

John, who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall in 1992, said songwriting is often taken for granted.

"I don't mean this lightly, but when you get an Ivor Novello award or an American songwriter's award, it means so much more than a Grammy because this is where the whole process starts," he said.

John also used the stage to try to clear his differences with Joel.

"I didn't see you tonight Mr. Joel, but I want to see you," he said.

Joel responded later when he was onstage with light jokes.

"Is Elton still here by the way?" he asked. "Anyway, we're OK. Call me. It's the same phone number."

Joel introduced Jones and Gramm, who gave the night's most rousing performance when they sang the Foreigner hits "Juke Box Hero" and "I Want to Know What Love Is," which had the crowd singing along, standing and swaying side-to-side at the black tie event. Foreigner also got a boost thanks to The Anthony Morgan's Inspirational Choir of Harlem.

Petula Clark also stunned with her performance of "Downtown," which Hatch wrote and produced in 1964. Hatch, too, was entertaining on the piano as he sang a medley of tunes he wrote, including Clark's "My Love" and Bobby Rydell's "Forget Him."

Hatch also provided the laughs after thanking Universal Music, who owns his publishing.

"I hope that plug will get me more royalties in the future," he said. "I'm still under those 1966 contracts."

Nickelback was impressive with their rendition of Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion," which was followed with the rock icons singing "Walk This Way."

Krauss was soft when she sang for Souther, and Patty Smyth was a firecracker when she performed "The Warrior" in honor of Knight, who has written hits for Tina Turner and Pat Benatar.

"I want to dedicate this to all of my exes," Knight said before singing "Love Is a Battlefield" on piano.

Robinson, who gave a lengthy, 15-minute introduction to Gordy, said he was recovering from inflamed vocal cords and hadn't performed in two months. Then he sang part of a new song he wrote about his relationship with Gordy, who he called his mentor, brother, sometimes dad and best friend.

"Did you know all the joy you'd be bringing," he sang. Some of the cast of "Motown: The Musical" followed with a medley of classics.

Benny Blanco, the 25-year-old who has co-written No. 1 hits for Katy Perry, Maroon 5 and Ke$ha, earned the Hal David Starlight award.

"They picked the wrong person," said Blanco, who has also worked with Khalifa, Nicki Minaj and Bruno Mars. "I'm in a room with people I should probably be serving food to."

The event also featured a video from Clinton, who spoke about the significance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" during the Civil Rights Movement. The song, performed by Jordin Sparks, was honored with the towering song award.

The night also paid tribute to Hal David, who died last year, and Phil Ramone, who died in March.

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Online:

http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter: twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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MANCHESTER, Tenn. (AP) Mumford & Sons has canceled its headlining performance at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee.

The decision comes after bassist Ted Dwane received treatment this week for a blood clot on his brain.

The band made the announcement on its Facebook page.

The band postponed three shows earlier this week after the blood clot was discovered, but hoped to play Bonnaroo on Saturday night.

There is no word on what act will replace Mumford & Sons in the headlining slot in front of 80,000 fans.

Dwane is recovering from the procedure and was not ready to play Saturday.

Rather than perform with a replacement, the London-based Grammy-award-winning folk rock band decided to pull out.

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Online: http://mumfordandsons.com/

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) The mother of a gunman who fatally shot five people in Santa Monica once said the shooter's father had threatened to kill her at least twice during years of turmoil in the family, according to court records obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

"'If I had a gun it would be over,'" Randa Abdou quoted her husband in a 1998 document seeking a temporary restraining order.

The mother of John Zawahri also said her husband had threatened to take their two young sons to Canada after the couple separated, and that he once punched her and stole her jewelry, purse, and unfiled divorce papers.

Authorities said the gunman, John Zawahri, 23, shot his 55-year-old father, Samir Zawahri, and his 25-year-old brother, Christopher Zawahri, on Friday, leaving their home in flames before shooting at strangers in cars and on the Santa Monica College campus during a 15-minute rampage.

The former student at the school was heavily armed and carried a duffel bag with 1,300 rounds of ammunition when officers killed him in the campus library.

Randa Abdou cut short a visit with family in Lebanon to return to Los Angeles on Sunday and had spoken with investigators who hoped she could provide clues to what sparked the violence.

Neighbor Beverly Meadows said she spoke with Abdou on the phone on Monday and was told Abdou was in mourning and concerned about those who were hurt.

"She is very, very fragile right now, and at this point in time, everybody else is gone," Meadows said.

Abdou has not spoken to the media.

"Please respect the fact that this woman is devastated," Meadows said. "She is absolutely overwhelmed and she doesn't know how to process it. She sounds like she's done nothing but cry. ... She still feels like maybe she should have done something."

Santa Monica College reopened on Monday for final exams and for students to recover backpacks, cars and other items left behind when they fled the violence. Extra security and counselors were on hand but the library where Zawahri was shot by police remained closed.

Zawahri enrolled at Santa Monica College in winter 2009 and last attended in fall 2010, sporadically taking classes in the entertainment technology program, which involves game design, animation and computer skills for digital media, the college said.

A statement said the college had no disciplinary issues with Zawahri.

Zawahri killed his father and brother at a home near the campus then opened fire on strangers as he made his way to the college, where police fatally shot him in the library.

Investigators were still trying to determine what prompted the attack and if it might have involved some type of mental illness.

Zawahri's parents married in 1985, and his father brought his family to the neighborhood of small homes and apartment buildings tucked up against Interstate 10 in the mid-1990s, according to property records.

When Zawahri was 9, his now-separated mother sought the restraining order.

In the 1998 document, Abdou said she left Lebanon and joined her husband in the U.S. five years after their wedding, and the couple "have had marital troubles ever since."

Her estranged husband had been "verbally abusive and controlling," she stated, adding that she was afraid he might do something "drastic because he seems to become increasingly angry and frustrated over our separation."

Abdou said her husband has "followed me, struck me, taken the children without telling me, and entered my apartment without my permission and removed photographs."

He once came to the apartment and told her that he was going to take the children to Canada, she said.

"The defendant said that he would do anything to make my life miserable and that he could kill me and no restraining order can stop him," she said.

Her husband waited for her at work once, and when she pulled up in a car with a friend, he struck her in the arm, pulled her hair, took gold bracelets, her purse and unfiled divorce papers, she said.

She was afraid to press charges, she added, because he scared her and she didn't want to enrage him further. "The defendant has told me that life means nothing to him if we are not together," she said.

Abdou asked the court to order the return of her property, including her green card, and to grant her custody of the couple's two sons pending a court hearing.

However, her request for a restraining order was dismissed when she missed the hearing.

She wrote that she was afraid to notify him of the restraining order, saying "I do not know how he would react to the notice."

Court records indicated that Samir Zawahri filed for divorce in 1993, but it was never finalized.

Five years later, when Abdou filed court papers for the restraining order, she noted that no divorce was pending, but she indicated that she had been in the process of filling out divorce papers. It's unclear if the couple ever divorced.

Public records show that Abdou had sold her portion of the family home to Samir Zawahri in 2002. The sale was finalized the following year.

Thomas O'Rourke, a neighbor of Samir Zawahri, said the couple did divorce, with one son living with each parent.

A candlelight vigil for victims was planned Monday evening outside the library.

Earlier, campus police Chief Albert Vasquez identified a woman fatally shot outside the library as Margarita Gomez, 68, of Santa Monica, a non-student who was known for collecting recyclables at the site.

Kelly Williams, 19, said she was nervous about coming to campus to take a psychology final but felt better once she saw a police car parked outside.

"It's kind of scary because it just happened and you don't know if it will happen again," she said.

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Associated Press writers Anthony McCartney and Robert Jablon contributed to this story.

Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) The gunman who went on a chaotic rampage killing four people before being fatally shot by police at a college campus planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds of ammunition, the police chief said Saturday.

"Any time someone puts on a vest, of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that's premeditated," said Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

The killer would have turned 24 on Saturday, but Seabrooks wouldn't identify him because his next of kin was out of the country. Police had an encounter with him seven years ago, but she wouldn't elaborate because he was a juvenile at the time.

The chief spoke near a display of weapons and ammo recovered from Santa Monica College where the killings ended Friday when police gunned him down in the library, where students were studying for finals.

Among items on display were surveillance photos of a man in black entering the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.

The gunman fatally shot one woman in the head outside the library before entering the building and opening fire as students ran for cover.

Students hid into what Seabrooks called a "safe room" in the library and barricaded the door for safety.

"They stacked items found in the safe room against the door, hunkered down and avoided shots fired through the drywall at them while they were in that room," she said.

The violence, which lasted little more than 10 minutes, started about a mile away when the gunman began shooting at a house, and it caught on fire. Two bodies were later found inside.

Two officials told The Associated Press that the killings began as a domestic violence incident and the victims in the home were the gunman's father and brother. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.

As flames rose from the house, the man, wearing what appeared to be a ballistic jacket, he shot a woman passing by in a car and carjacked another woman at gunpoint. He directed her to drive to the college campus, having her stop so he could shoot along the way, police said.

He fired on a city bus where three women were left with minor injuries. One had shrapnel-type injuries and the two others had injuries not related to gunfire. They were treated at a hospital and released.

The gunman also fired on police cars, bystanders and pedestrians, police said.

From there, the chaos shifted to the college, a two-year school with about 34,000 students located among homes and strip malls more than a mile inland from the city's famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.

In a faculty parking lot on the edge of campus, he fired on two people in a red Ford Explorer that crashed through a block wall. The driver was killed, police said, and a passenger was in critical condition after undergoing surgery UCLA Medical Center, doctors said. On Saturday, authorities identified the driver as Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, of West Los Angeles, who worked at the school.

College employee Joe Orcutt was in the lot and said the gunman looked calm and composed as he fired at him. Orcutt jumped out of the way.

"He's just standing there, like he's modeling for some ammo magazine," Orcutt said, "seeing who he could shoot, one bullet at a time, like target practice."

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Associated Press writers Greg Risling and Sarah Parvini contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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NEW YORK (AP) The great comedian W.C. Fields is credited with the line, "Never work with children or animals." He would have had trouble on Broadway this season.

There were kids at every turn "Motown: The Musical," ''Kinky Boots," ''Annie," ''Matilda the Musical," ''A Christmas Story, the Musical" and "Pippin." And animals? Dogs in "Annie," ''Pippin" and "A Christmas Story, the Musical," a cat in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," a dead crow in "Macbeth" and even a live vulture in "The Testament of Mary."

But now that it's Tony Awards time, it's the moment for the adults to shine. No kids or pets made it through the nomination process, so only grown-ups will emerge victorious Sunday night.

BEST MUSICAL

Will win: "Kinky Boots." Should win: "Matilda the Musical."

Though it's been a horse race between "Kinky Boots" and the import "Matilda the Musical" both coincidentally having actors adopting British accents and both featuring men in dresses the consistently high marks for all aspects of "Matilda" should sweep it to victory, but won't. "Kinky" is unabashedly sentimental with a classic message of acceptance, while "Matilda" is rebellious and edgy, a place Tony voters don't naturally feel comfortable.

BEST PLAY

Will win: "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike." Should win: "The Assembled Parties."

Christopher Durang's comical "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," which takes characters and themes from Anton Chekhov and sets them in present-day Pennsylvania, is sly and funny and lovely. But Richard Greenberg's "The Assembled Parties," a meditation on time and family, leaves a lasting impression.

REVIVAL-PLAY

Will win: "The Trip to Bountiful." Should win: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

The Cicely Tyson-led revival of Horton Foote's play is lovely and well done. You walk out hopeful and sunny the opposite of what the revival of Edward Albee's play felt like. Superbly acted and directed, it was a cage-match with intellectuals. But Tony voters like sunny and inspirational.

REVIVAL-MUSICAL

Will win: "Pippin." Should win: "Pippin."

"Annie" is pretty good, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was rollicking, "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" is sweet and smart, but "Pippin" is thoroughly thrilling, rebuilt with a circus inside. Diane Paulus rides the Big Top theme fire jugglers, teeterboards, knife throwing and contortionists but she also teases out the wandering nature of the mysterious players and zooms up the physicality of the story. Magic.

ACTOR-PLAY

Will win: Tom Hanks. Should win: Tracy Letts.

Everybody loves Tom Hanks. He is just so darn lovable. In "Lucky Guy," he gets to be funny and poignant and noble while dying. What kind of monster are you if you don't like Tom Hanks?

But, speaking of monsters, Tracy Letts showed a hint of one in the seemingly weak-willed history professor George in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" ''He was savage and sad, allowing years of pain and frustration to seep out of a semi-broken man." Hanks, David Hyde Pierce and Nathan Lane turned in fine performances, but nothing touched Letts, an actor at the top of his game.

ACTRESS-PLAY

Will win: Cicely Tyson. Should win: Laurie Metcalf.

Cicely Tyson's return to Broadway for the first time in 30 years to be in Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful" has been met by deserved high praise. But Laurie Metcalf was simply astonishing as she went from a snippy, bossy scientist to a broken, confused intruder wolfing down Chinese food on the floor in "The Other Place." The other three women in this category Amy Morton, Kristine Nielsen and Holland Taylor also are admirable, but Metcalf was soul-stirring.

ACTOR-MUSICAL

Will win: Bertie Carvel. Should win: Billy Porter.

Both men are deserving of the honor and, believe us, both actors look sensational in skirts, but Billy Porter in "Kinky Boots" bares his heart a little more and pushes his poor body a little more than his rival in "Matilda the Musical." Bertie Carvel won the Oliver Award Britain's equivalent of the Tony in the role of Miss Trunchbull and brought his terrifying skill to Broadway without being cartoonish, but Porter can make tears fall down your cheeks.

ACTRESS-MUSICAL

Will win: Patina Miller. Should win: Patina Miller.

While Laura Osnes from "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" is perfectly cast as a princess-to-be and sings beautifully, Patina Miller is a muscular creature with a hat and cane, a grimace plastered to her face, who dances tough Bob Fosse steps and does tricks on a trapeze while singing in Diane Paulus' retelling of "Pippin." Miller is fierce and that always beats cute.

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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by Rob Walker | @YahooTechWhat does the digital revolution mean to photography? The question can be or rather, has already been answered in myriad ways. The most recent high-profile excuse to wrestle with the issue: The Chicago Sun-Times decision to do away with its photo staff. One of the affected photojournalists reacted to being replaced by a reporter with an iPhone by starting a Tumblr. Laidofffromthesuntimes.tumblr.com, created by Rob Hart, promptly attracted a swarm of online attention.

So is that a story about a digital threat or a digital opportunity? Or both?

Just as I was chewing over this question, I had a chance to check out A Different Kind of Order, the International Center of Photography s fourth triennial exhibition aiming to offer a picture of the most compelling contemporary photo work.

While I d stopped by out of idle curiosity, what I got was a major jolt to my thinking about technology and the making (and consuming) of images today.

Sure, the smartphone revolution has extended the long history of photography s democratization. But A Different Kind of Order repeatedly reminded me that there are photographers, artists, photojournalists and other image-makers whose work rises far above the crowd. The best of this work both uses and critiques technology in ways that disturb, inspire awe, and generally blow your mind.

Here are five of my favorite pieces from from the show:

1. A chilling piece by Rabih Mour collects images and videos made with mobile devices in war-torn Syria. In one, a shaky video settles on a hiding soldier. Suddenly this blurry figure seems to notice the camera-holder, and raises his rifle. The image spins to the ground. Has this citizen documentarian just been shot? There is no way of knowing for sure: a grim reminder of how the explosion of visual information still resolves in maddening uncertainty.

2. Trevor Paglen s large prints resemble pleasing abstractions or luscious sksyscapes. But study them very closely and you will see a tiny blemish here or there and that speck is a Predator or Reaper military drone, flying over a test site that of course a non-military photographer cannot get near. Apart from forcing the viewer to stare intently, searching a large physical image for its subject (the pictures wouldn t translate well to a computer screen), Paglen s approach comments on the conundrum of these hulking and influential weapons that are, by design, invisible to their victims and to most of the rest of us, too.

3. A.K. Burns Touch Parade addresses something I had never heard of: highly specialized fetish videos found on YouTube. How specialized? Evidently these videos depict such actions as crushing vegetables with one s foot, or inflating a balloon until it pops. To most people, of course, such a video would just seem pointless and strange but to some small community they read as erotic. Burns reenacts five examples, which run simultaneously on five TVs. Apart from being freaky and creepy, the videos offer a vivid example of subversive imagery that hides in plain sight and a jarring variation of the familiar clich s about connecting over shared interests online. If YouTube understood what such videos were about, would it force them off the platform? And what does it mean to watch something that switches from inexplicable to disturbing once you understand its intent?

Touch Parade (crush), 2011 / excerpt from A.K. Burns on Vimeo.



4. Mishka Henner s images are documentation of counter-documentation. The satellite imagery on Google Maps turns out to include some interesting anomalies: governments demand that certain territories of military or other significance be kept obscured. As it happens, the Dutch method of censorship entails aesthetically engaging abstractions, plopped right into satellite pictures. In a sense these are found images but found in the digital world rather than the physical. Interestingly, while I d seen these pictures previously, online, they looked terrific in the form of physical prints.

5. Finally, there s Touching Reality, by Thomas Hirschorn. This meta-examination of the way we consume images now is short but incredibly affecting: A video shows a hand swiping and pinching an iPad, viewing a series of extremely graphic photos of war casualties. Such gory evidence of violence would likely be kept off the front page or evening news, but is now routinely documented by citizen photojournalists with camera phones, and easily found online. The hand flicks through these images, pausing now and again to zoom in on some horrifying detail. The viewer empathizes (this way of taking in pictures is now familiar) yet feels frustrated by the lack of control and vaguely judgmental of the hand, even while consuming exactly the same images its owner is consuming. It s disorienting. And for me, it was actually just too gruesome to watch all the way through. But with that warning in mind, you can see a short excerpt of the piece below.

Touching Reality, Thomas Hirschhorn from Anouli Patchouli on Vimeo.



None of this makes me think any less of services like Instagram and Flickr and the exploding range of work, from the casual to the serious, that emerges there. But A Different Kind of Order is a powerful reminder that the far edges of image-making are still being explored, with rewarding results. If you have a chance to see this show in person, do it. It will change the way you see.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) A judge said Thursday he was inclined to unseal portions of a choreographer's court filings alleging he was abused by Michael Jackson.

However, personal details and psychiatrist reports would likely not be released.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff said he needed to address which records should remain sealed before he can deal with whether Wade Robson, a choreographer and television personality, can pursue his claim.

Robson requested on May 1 that Beckloff allow him to file a late creditor's claim against Jackson's estate nearly eight years to the day after he testified in Jackson's defense at the singer's molestation trial.

Jackson was acquitted after Robson told jurors the entertainer never touched him inappropriately. Henry Gradstein, an attorney for Robson, said a breakdown last year prompted Robson to address the abuse.

Howard Weitzman, an attorney for Jackson's estate and Thomas Messereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson, have attacked Robson's credibility and noted his repeated defense of the singer.

Weitzman has called the accusations "outrageous and pathetic."

"We are confident that the court will see this for what it is" he said at the time the allegations were first made.

On Thursday, Beckloff presented attorneys with possible redactions of Robson's sworn declaration and said it should serve as a roadmap for what information can be made public.

The judge believes some of the material could be made public, even though attorneys on both sides would like the case sealed in its entirety.

Some of Robson's private and personal information, including a paragraph that detailed his allegations of abuse by Jackson, should be sealed, Beckloff said.

He also said portions of the records that deal with mental health issues also should not be released.

"There aren't a lot of redactions," Beckloff said of his suggestions.

Attorneys for Robson and Jackson's estate will review the suggestions by the judge and report back at a hearing on June 25, the fourth anniversary of Jackson's death.

Beckoff, who is overseeing the probate case involving Jackson's massive estate, said he will also handle a separate lawsuit filed by Robson against Jackson and two other defendants listed as "Doe 2" and "Doe 3" that includes allegations of abuse by the entertainer. That lawsuit also remains sealed.

Robson, 30, has worked with Britney Spears and numerous other stars. He was 22 at the time he testified, telling jurors in Jackson's criminal case that he met the pop star when he was 5 and spent the night at Jackson's Neverland Ranch more than 20 times, sleeping in the singer's bedroom on most visits.

During the trial, Robson bristled at testimony by other witnesses that they had seen Jackson molest him.

"I'm telling you nothing happened," Robson testified when a prosecutor challenged his account in 2005.

Gradstein previously issued a statement saying, "Last year, on a career trajectory that was off the charts, (Robson) collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child."

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Russell Brand has a "Messiah Complex," and he's taking it on the road.

The British comedian announced Thursday that he's launching a world comedy tour focusing on Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X and Jesus Christ. Brand says the show examines "the importance of heroes in this age of atheistic disposability."

The 38-year-old says he plans to perform in theaters as well as "prisons, drug rehabs ... nationalist organizations, Mosques, foreclosed houses, protest sites, Synagogues and in people's private homes."

The "Messiah Complex" tour is set to begin Aug. 15 in Abu Dhabi and wrap up Dec. 9 in Iceland.

Brand's FX show, "Brand X," concluded last month.

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Online:

www.russellbrand.tv

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PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) All that was left of his two-story home with a stunning panoramic view was black twisted metal and ashes.

On Monday afternoon, Gregg Johnson surveyed the damage along with the nearly 3,000 others allowed to return to their homes in the rural communities threatened by a massive Southern California wildfire.

Johnson, 59, left his home Saturday with his wife and 12-year-old son after watching the fire race down around Lake Hughes below them and then surround their mountaintop home.

"At that point, you know, the deal was done," Johnson said. "Of course I was holding out hope ... maybe the people who told me my house had burned down were wrong."

The remnants of the fire's destructive path left charred hillsides speckled with white ash over 50 square miles in northern Los Angeles County as residents returned to 700 homes they had fled in the rural communities 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

The Powerhouse Fire was 60 percent contained Monday evening as firefighters finally gained the upper hand on a blaze that had doubled in size over the weekend and spread rapidly through more than 32,000 acres of old, dry chaparral with the help of gusty winds and triple-digit temperatures.

Cooler, moist air on Monday helped thousands of firefighters battling flames that moved out into easier, sparser terrain from the rugged mountains of the Angeles National forest onto the floor of the high desert Antelope Valley.

Full containment was expected in a week as terrain, and officials expressed guarded optimism Monday.

"What a difference a day makes," said LA County Deputy Chief David Richardson.

Firefighters expected cooler temperatures, lighter winds and rising humidity to help them make more progress overnight, said U.S. Forest Services spokesman Nathan Judy. Water-dropping helicopters would continue to fly through the night, he said.

"We're supposed to have a good marine layer into the morning, we're hoping for it not too heat up too early," said a U.S. Forest Service spokesman Ed Gililland.

The fire was most active Monday in the northwest, pushing through a brushy area and had not burned since the 1930s, said Ronald Ashdale, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. On Monday winds had swept across a dozer line set up by firefighters, pushing the area of containment out by another 5 acres.

But with only widely scattered homes in the area, firefighters were able to work more on attacking flames than on structure protection. At least six houses have been destroyed by the fire, and nine more damaged.

The fire continued to threaten about 275 homes Monday evening, down from 1,000 earlier in the day.

Monique Hernandez, 37, saw the fire jump Lake Hughes and decided to flee the mountaintop home she and her parents rented in March.

The family put their dog, photos and clothes into a van and sped down a mile-long dirt road. An hour later, they learned their home had burned.

"I saw it on the news," Hernandez said at the Red Cross shelter in Palmdale with her 3-year-old daughter, Angelique. "It was all gone. It was down to ashes."

About 2,100 firefighters took on the flames, aided by water-dropping helicopters and airplanes unleashing loads of retardant across the flanks of the fire.

The cause of the fire was under investigation. Three firefighters had minor injuries, but no one else was hurt.

Smoke from the Southern California wildfire and from Nevada fires hung over Las Vegas, where Clark County officials advised Monday that it could bother sensitive people such as those with respiratory conditions.

In the West, two major wildfires were burning in northern New Mexico, and weather conditions were not expected to be helpful to firefighters.

The Tres Lagunas fire north of Pecos in Santa Fe National Forest had grown to 12 1/2 square miles, causing smoke to spread across much of the region.

It previously prompted the evacuation of about 140 houses, mostly summer residences, but no structures had been burned.

Drier and windier weather was moving in, said interagency fire management team spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano. "It's going to be challenging," she said.

Firefighters were working to protect a group of homes in Holy Ghost Canyon and prevent the fire from spreading east, where it could endanger a river watershed that supplies Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs remained at nearly 3 square miles. Forty to 50 houses were evacuated late last week.

A light gray haze blanketed the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the east of Santa Fe and a thicker haze nearly obscured a view from Santa Fe of the Jemez Mountains to the west.

In Evergreen, Colo., about 30 miles west of Denver, sheriff's officials made about 9,900 automated calls telling people to evacuate as gusts carried sparks a half mile from where a fire burned an estimated 25 to 35 acres. The exact number of evacuees wasn't known because some homes receive calls to multiple numbers.

The fire was settling down Monday night and authorities said some evacuees will be able to return home.

In Alaska, wetter, cooler weather was giving crews a reprieve at many of the 40 active wildfires in the state. There have been 150 fires in Alaska this year, with more than 66 square miles burned.

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Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and Tami Abdollah in Los Angeles, Paul Davenport in Phoenix and Rachel D'Oro in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this story.

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Damaging winds flattened trees and utility wires and knocked out power in parts of northern New England on Sunday, flights were delayed in New York City and there were reports of a tornado in South Carolina as the East Coast weathered the remnants of violent storms that claimed 13 lives in Oklahoma.

Heavy rain, thunderstorms, high winds and hail moved through sections of the Northeast on Sunday afternoon, knocking out power to more than 40,000 in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The National Weather Service issued a rare tornado warning as a line of thunderstorms raced through New Hampshire into western Maine. The National Weather Service said a tornado warning was issued as radar indicated a possible tornado moving from Kingfield, Maine, to Bingham, Maine. The tornado was not immediately confirmed.

In northwestern South Carolina, authorities checked unconfirmed reports of a tornado, said Jessica Ashley, a shift supervisor for Anderson County's 911 center. The fire department responded to a report of roof damage to a home and callers said trees were blown over. No injuries were reported.

The weather service said thunderstorms and winds in excess of 60 mph in Vermont produced 1-inch-diameter hail and knocked down numerous trees and wires. In northern Maine, radar picked up a line of thunderstorms capable of producing quarter-sized hail and winds stronger than 70 mph. Forecasters warned of tornadoes.

The prediction for stormy weather in the New York City region produced delays at major airports. La Guardia Airport and Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey had delays of up to 90 minutes, while John F. Kennedy International had delays of about 30 minutes. Outside Washington, delays were up to nearly two hours at Dulles Airport.

Patrick Herb, 34, was traveling from Dulles with his 1- and 3-year-old to his home in Wisconsin, and had his departure time for a connecting flight in Detroit moved back three times. He described the mood at Dulles as "frustration and fatigue."

"The communication is honestly one of the most frustrating parts of travel," Herb said. "I'm sort of pessimistic it will get off on time."

In the southern part of the United States, thunderstorms, high winds and hail were expected as part of a slow-moving cold front. Heavy rains could spawn flash flooding in some areas, the weather service said.

Meanwhile, residents in Oklahoma cleaned up after the storms there killed 13 people, including three veteran storm chasers. Tim Samaras; his son, Paul Samaras; and Carl Young were killed Friday. The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the men were involved in tornado research.

Jim Samaras told The Associated Press on Sunday that his brother Tim was motivated by science.

"He looked at tornadoes not for the spotlight of TV but for the scientific aspect," Jim Samaras said. "At the end of the day, he wanted to save lives and he gave the ultimate sacrifice for that."

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin toured damage in El Reno, about 30 miles from Oklahoma City. She said the death toll could rise as emergency workers continue searching flooded areas for missing residents.

The state Medical Examiner's Office spokeswoman Amy Elliott said the death toll had risen to 13 from Friday's EF3 tornado, which charged down a clogged Interstate 40 in the western suburbs. Among the dead were two children an infant sucked out of the car with its mother and a 4-year-old boy who along with his family had sought shelter in a drainage ditch.

In Missouri, areas west of St. Louis received significant damage from an EF3 tornado Friday that packed estimated winds of 150 mph. In St. Charles County, at least 71 homes were heavily damaged and 100 had slight to moderate damage, county spokeswoman Colene McEntee said.

Northeast of St. Louis, the town of Roxana, Ill., also saw damage from an EF3 tornado. Weather service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said it wasn't clear whether the damage in Missouri and Illinois came from the same twister or separate ones.

Five tornadoes struck the Oklahoma City metro area on Friday, the weather service said. Fallin said Sunday that 115 people were injured.

The storms formed out on the prairie west of Oklahoma City, giving residents plenty of advance notice. When told to seek shelter, many ventured out and snarled traffic across the metro area perhaps remembering when a tornado hit Moore on May 20 and killed 24 people.

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Betsy Randolph said roadways quickly became congested with the convergence of rush-hour traffic and fleeing residents.

"They had no place to go, and that's always a bad thing. They were essentially targets just waiting for a tornado to touch down," Randolph said. "I'm not sure why people do that sort of stuff, but it is very dangerous."

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Associated Press writers Thomas Peipert in Denver, Jim Suhr in St. Louis, Sean Murphy in El Reno, Okla., Tom McElroy in New York and AP Radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.

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by Jason Gilbert | @YahooTechIf you check Twitter even semi-frequently, you've probably come across Rob Delaney's bulge. The L.A.-based standup comedian's Twitter avatar -- a photo of the comic on a beach, in a speedo, from his nose down to his bare thighs -- is somewhat omnipresent on the social media site, thanks to the high amount of shares his bawdy, profane and occasionally incisive tweets attract. His knack for tweeting has boosted his follower count up toward a million, and has landed him gigs on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Conan and several other national TV shows. Not bad for a guy who was struggling to make a living doing standup five years ago.We talked to Mr. Delaney about his rise to fame on both Twitter and in the real world; his recent, inspired takeover of the @MLB Twitter account; and why he hates Walmart so much. You can read it all below, and follow Rob on Twitter right here. When did you first hear about Twitter and what did you think about it?

I think I first heard about it in 2008, and at that point nobody had any idea of the potential. What I was hearing about it was that it was the worst of mass texts. It was introduced so that every tweet made your phone buzz, and told you that your friend Susie was having Pad Thai with her cousin Eric; and I thought if my phone ever did that, I would throw it in the garbage disposal.

So my earliest impressions of Twitter were similar to what a lot of people thought, which was that it was a mass text message board that anytime someone you were friends with farted, you would find out about it.

And as much as I enjoy my friends farts, I want to savor them, I want them to be special, you know?

A lot of people know you solely from your Twitter account. How would you introduce yourself to a reader who isn t familiar with you?

The most important three things about me are, I m a dad, a husband and a comedian. I think that s about it. I m mostly boring compared to all the garbage that you read about online. I ve always been a weirdo.

Why do you say that you ve always been a weirdo?

I ve always enjoyed silly, funny, outrageous, insane things for their entertainment value. I m addicted to laughing and making other people laugh so I spend most of my waking moments either trying to make funny things or consume them -- for better or for worse. My life has a singular focus, certainly.

If I were a woman, when I encountered sexism I d be like BRB, I m gonna go *MAKE A HUMAN* IN MY BODY LIKE A MAGICAL GOD, YOU SAD OAF.

rob delaney (@robdelaney) August 9, 2012 What were you doing before Twitter?

Standup and trying to get hired for late-night shows. I had been doing standup for some years before Twitter and -- you know, I was getting paid to do it, but not enough to live. I don t know if you ve seen Mike Birbiglia s film Sleepwalk with Me, but it s superb, and there are literally scenes where his traveling standup gigs result in a net negative, where you re paid less than it cost to get there. And I definitely had plenty of those.

I m guessing Twitter has changed that.

Yeah, very, very dramatically. I am able to now sell places out on the road, which is the greatest thing that ever happened, as far I m concerned. It s afforded me insane opportunities. As I said, I was pursuing all the classic avenues that a comedian does to make a living beforehand, but Twitter pretty much pole-vaulted me into another universe. So I m very cognizant of that.

You re sort of a poster boy for the success a comedian can have by making himself known through Twitter. Has anyone from Twitter reached out to you?

I was summoned to headquarters maybe a year-and-a-half ago and we just shot the breeze. They kinda wanted to know what I liked about it, what I didn t like. And we just sort of had a little brain-smush together, and that was fun. Any time I ve interacted with anyone who works at Twitter-- you know, they re pretty youth-savvy and interesting and interested in what I m doing and what people are doing with Twitter.

I m curious to hear what you told them you didn t like.

I told them that for my purposes, I need no bells and whistles. I am after the pure experience of what can I get in 140 characters. Twitter for me could be a white box that I put jokes in. I m very interested, of course, in how many people share my jokes or are retweeting, but that s literally the only bell I need. I need no others.

But I don t have any real standing complaints about Twitter. If I graded it as a service I might give it an A, instead of an A+; but, you know, what is perfect in this world, other than Adele s porcelain complexion and melodious voice? Not much.

When are we going to see a Rob Delaney show?

I don t know! I just wrote a pilot for the BBC. And I just gave that to them. Maybe they ll like that, maybe they won t, but it was my latest effort to make a television show. It s a sitcom about a husband and a wife and their children.

Do you have a British accent?

No, I m American in it. I m American, and my wife is Sharon Horgan, and she s Irish. But it s set in London.



You recently took over Major League Baseball s Twitter account. How did that come about?

They just asked me to! They wrote me on Twitter, Hey, can you follow us so we can DM you? And then they did, and they asked me if I wanted to do that, and I said Yeah, definitely. I had done it for Conan O Brien s show, I had taken over their Twitter, and that was really fun. They were such great sports and I do legitimately love baseball, so for me it was a blast.

If you could take over another corporate Twitter account, which one would it be?

Maybe Walmart, and not for any social activism purposes. Iif you look at the Walmart Twitter, it is the worst, most pathetically offensive thing on the Internet. They totally have people who have like ***social media degrees*** running it. They clearly have a protocol where you literally respond to every tweet that they get--except ones from me, they never respond to me.

They try to feign humanity and engage with users. First of all, if you re tweeting Walmart, you re an idiot. Really? It s like, Hey, I couldn t find Jack Reacher on Blu-Ray! So they ll write back, It s in the DVD section! Hey, what are you doing for Memorial Day?! It s like they ask a question that the answer will absolutely not matter and they ll never see it but they try to engage like they re your friend ***Corey***! To me that s on the level of, if the Nazis had invented SkyNet, that s what it would be like. To pretend that you re a human being when you re a gigantic soulless multinational. I can t off the top of my head think of anything more disgusting and offensive.

So I would love to literally tweet for them and tell the truth, and be like, We re Walmart. We re giant. We have many things for you to live a very bland and copiously overstuffed life of milquetoast unoriginality. You know what you re gonna get, so just swing on by. Don t ask us any questions because we re a friggin robot running a Twitter account." I d make it much more popular.

So you hate Walmart. Who are your favorite tweeters?

Twitter I believe was invented for Peter Serafinowicz. He s amazing. He s just virtuosic. Megan Amram: I literally dreamt last night that she and I were writing jokes, that s how great she is. The poet Patricia Lockwood is ridiculous. There s a woman in Indiana whose Twitter handle is MmeSurly. And she s not a comedian, but I gobble up her hilarious observations everyday.

Those are just a few, but I could literally go on all day with just amazing, exciting, wonderful comedians on there that I can t get enough of.

Probably the worst thing you can do to a person is leave them a voicemail.

rob delaney (@robdelaney) December 2, 2012 Folks to follow this Friday: Rob Delaney Peter Serafinowicz Megan Amram Patricia Lockwood Keply Pentland

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) Fire crews in New Mexico on Saturday fought two growing wild blazes that have scorched thousands of acres, spurred evacuation calls for dozens of homes and poured smoke into the touristy state capital.

State officials said the uncontained blaze near Santa Fe had spread to 8 square miles, making it apparently the largest of several wildfires burning in the West as it placed the city under a blanket of haze. The thick smoke also covered the Gallinas Canyon and Las Vegas, N.M.

The fire in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest is burning just 25 miles from the city, prompting the Red Cross to set up an emergency shelter at a nearby high school.

Officials asked residents in about 140 summer homes to evacuate as a crew of 340 battled the flames near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas.

Crews also cleared out campgrounds and closed trailheads in the area as they worked to prevent the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and more populated areas.

The state Department of Health warned residents in the Pecos, Santa Fe and Espanola areas to prepare for smoke and take precautions by avoiding prolonged or physical activity outdoors.

"Potentially unhealthy conditions could occur in these communities overnight and into the early morning," a statement released by health officials said.

Another New Mexico blaze, the Thompson Ridge fire near Jemez Springs, had grown to about 1 square mile, state forestry officials said. Between 40 and 50 homes in the area were evacuated as around 80 crew members and a helicopter arrived to help fight the blaze.

Elsewhere in the West, fire crews worked to beat several other fires, including one in California and another in southwest Colorado.

A fire in the foothills of the Angeles National Forest in Southern California threatened power lines Saturday after prompting mandatory evacuation orders in the community of Green Valley a day earlier.

The evacuation order was lifted later Friday. Firefighters continued to work toward gaining control on the 3,600-acre fire with high heat in the forecast Saturday.

In Colorado, Mike Blakeman, a spokesman for the Rio Grande National Forest, said a fire 15 miles southwest of the small town of Creede was reported at about noon Friday and the cause of it remained under investigation. No structures have been damaged, but three homes and several outbuildings were threatened Saturday.

John Parmenter, director of Scientific Services Division at the nearby Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Journal that the Thompson Ridge fire ignited Friday in dense territory that was scheduled for thinning in the next few years because it posed a fire hazard.

"The area that it's in is very steep terrain leading up to the Valles Caldera," he said. "It could burn a lot of forest . There's a lot of fuel in there."

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

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KINGSTON, N.H. (AP) More than 100 family and friends gathered at a church in a small New Hampshire town Saturday to remember the woman whose son massacred 20 first-graders and six educators in a Connecticut elementary school last year.

The mourners and a few musicians filed into the white clapboarded First Congregational Church in Kingston for the memorial of Nancy Lanza, the first victim of her 20-year-old son Adam's rampage. She was shot dead in their home before he blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown on Dec. 14. He killed himself as police closed in.

More than a dozen uniformed police officers from several agencies blocked off the street and guarded the church door, ensuring only friends and family were allowed into the service. Nancy Lanza grew up in New Hampshire and lived there before moving to Newtown in 1998.

Lanza's brother, James Champion, is a Kingston police officer and still lives in the town.

A lone police bagpiper played as the processional arrived and lined up outside the church to enter together. Media outlets were kept 60 yards back across the street and behind yellow tape, and mourners declined to talk to reporters.

A few people wiped their eyes as they left the church.

Friends have said Nancy Lanza loved the Red Sox and gardening and talked of a growing enthusiasm for target shooting. The rifle and two handguns Adam Lanza took into Sandy Hook were registered to her.

But they also said she never talked about her home life, keeping details about her son private. She occasionally said she was concerned about the future, but she didn't complain.

Nancy Lanza told a divorce mediator in 2009 that she didn't like to leave her son alone. People who met him described him as shy and introverted. The mediator recalled that Nancy and Peter, who had married in June 1981 in Kingston but divorced several years ago, were respectful of each other and concerned about Adam's needs. He'd switched schools several times and Nancy had tried home schooling.

The head of security for the district where Adam Lanza attended high school said Nancy Lanza often had to come to school to deal with him when he had episodes of anxiety or withdrawing from others.

The motive for her son's killing spree is still unclear. Investigators have said mother and son visited shooting ranges together, and the victims killed at the school were all shot with a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle that Adam Lanza took from the house he and his mother shared. That gun and the handgun he used to shoot himself had been legally purchased by his mother.

The massacre has revived the national gun control debate and led to proposals for universal background checks on gun buyers and bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The Newtown massacre was the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history after the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage, which left 33 people dead.

Adam Lanza's father claimed his remains and a family spokesman said there were private arrangements, but the burial location was not made public.

A private funeral attended by about 25 people was held for Nancy Lanza in Kingston on Dec. 20.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives are investigating Justin Bieber for reckless driving after witnesses including former NFL star Keyshawn Johnson complained about the pop-star's alleged freeway speeds in their gated community in north Los Angeles County.

At about 8 p.m. Monday, Bieber allegedly drove his white Ferrari at freeway speeds in what is a 25 mph zone, Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Johnson was outside with his 3-year-old daughter who was preparing to get into a small electric car when Bieber zoomed by. Johnson was upset and got into his Prius, following Bieber to his nearby home. As the garage door was closing, Johnson put out his arm and stopped it, telling Bieber he wanted to talk about his reckless driving.

Whitmore said Bieber scurried into his home without speaking.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department received two calls and responded to the location. When they tried to talk to Bieber, however, they were also turned away.

"His security detail said he declined to talk to us based on the advice of counsel," Whitmore said.

Deputies interviewed two witnesses, including Johnson, and wrote up their report. They handed that off to detectives who are continuing to investigate the incident.

"Their eyewitness testimony to our deputies was definitive not only the speed, not only the vehicle, but Mr. Bieber was sitting and driving in the driver's side seat," Whitmore said.

Deputies plan to send a reckless driving report to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to consider filing misdemeanor charges in the next week or two.

Bieber's publicist did not immediately return a call for comment. Johnson declined to comment via ESPN, where he now works as a TV commentator.

Prosecutors are also looking at whether to charge Bieber for battery in a separate incident involving a neighbor, who complained the pop-star attacked and threatened him.

"We take this very seriously and if this actually did occur, which it appears that it did, it is unacceptable behavior from anybody, anywhere, anytime," Whitmore said.

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Follow Tami Abdollah on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/latams

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LOS ANGELES (AP) It's a blowout at the box office.

"Fast & Furious 6" is revving past "The Hangover Part III" in the No. 1 position at the Memorial Day weekend box office.

Universal Pictures' sixth installment of its muscle car franchise featuring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker debuted with $98.5 million domestically from Friday to Sunday, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Meanwhile, the final edition of the raunchy Warner Bros. comedy trilogy starring Zach Galifianakis, Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms opened with $42.1 million in the No. 2 spot.

Universal estimates that by the end of the four-day holiday weekend Monday, "Fast & Furious 6" will have pulled in $122.2 million domestically and $275.5 million worldwide. That would give it the second-biggest opening of the year behind "Iron Man 3."

Paramount Pictures' sci-fi sequel "Star Trek: Into Darkness" earned $38 million at No. 3 in its second weekend at the box office, while the Fox animated film "Epic" opened at No. 4 with $34.2 million.

Overall domestic receipts for the four-day Memorial Day weekend are expected to come in ahead of 2011's record-breaking $276 million.

Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com, estimated that four-day revenues this time will total $323 million, about 15 percent above Memorial Day weekend in 2011, when "The Hangover Part II" delivered a $103.4 million debut.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

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