Most Recent Posts

NEW YORK (AP) — Shia LaBeouf was released from police custody Friday after he was escorted from a Broadway theater for yelling obscenities and continued to act irrationally while being arrested, authorities said.

After his court appearance, the actor, wearing a ripped blue T-shirt, skinny jeans and boots, walked several blocks to The London NYC Hotel on West 54th Street. He declined to comment.

The 28-year-old, who starred in the first three "Transformers" movies, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and harassment Thursday night at the show "Cabaret."

The inside of the Broadway theater, which used to be a notorious, coke-fueled disco in the 1970s, has been reworked to look like a decadent Berlin cabaret from the 1930s, with tiny nightclub tables, an offstage working bar and waitresses who offer shots, small dishes and cocktails. LaBeouf was in the audience and had paid for his ticket himself. During the show, he was seen offering a strawberry to a woman and lighting a cigarette.

According to police, security guards asked LaBeouf to leave the Studio 54 theater at about 8:45 p.m., but he refused, used obscene language and physically interfered with employees. Police said he made aggressive statements and threats to security guards and police officers.

He was acting irrationally, continued to make aggressive statements and used foul language after he was removed from the theater and throughout the arrest process, police said. Officers said he appeared intoxicated or under the influence of some kind of drug.

A spokesman for "Cabaret" says LaBeouf was "disruptive during Act 1" and was escorted out of the theater at intermission.

LaBeouf, who was represented by a Legal Aid attorney Friday, was due back in court July 24.

On Friday, as the pack of reporters trailed him to the hotel, a reporter fell out of her shoe. LaBeouf stopped to help her get back into it.

LaBeouf's other films include "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," "Disturbia" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

Last year, he pulled out of what would have been his Broadway debut in "Orphans," a play starring Alec Baldwin. LaBeouf left the production over what was described as "creative differences" and was replaced by Ben Foster.

LaBeouf has been arrested previously.

In 2008, he was taken into custody on suspicion of drunken driving after another driver crashed into his vehicle in West Hollywood, California, but prosecutors later concluded there was insufficient evidence to file a formal charge.

In 2007, he was arrested for refusing to leave a downtown Chicago drugstore. Prosecutors dropped the case after store officials said they didn't want to continue it.

In February, the actor participated in a performance-art oddity at a Los Angeles art gallery wearing a bag over his head with the words "I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE" scrawled in black ink across it.

The stunt came days after he posed on the red carpet at the Berlin Film Festival in the same getup. At the same festival, he walked out of a news conference after answering a reporter's question by saying: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much." The line was borrowed from a French soccer player who baffled reporters with it in the mid-1990s.

Last year, LaBeouf came under fire for borrowing the storyline and dialogue for his short film "Howard Cantour.com," which closely resembled the 2007 graphic novel "The Death-Ray" by Daniel Clowes. LaBeouf apologized on Twitter in a series of posts that were directly lifted from other famous mea culpas.

NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market drifted mostly lower in light trading Friday, putting major indexes on track for their second weekly loss this month. Reports of sluggish economic growth have weighed on the market this week.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 48 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,798 as of 3:02 p.m. EST. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell two points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,954, while the Nasdaq composite slipped edged up seven points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,386.

LOOK BACK: After dropping three days this week, the S&P 500, the most widely used benchmark for stock funds, is on course for a weekly loss of 0.5 percent. Many investors have been waiting for the market to take a break from its long climb. The S&P 500 has gained 5.8 percent in three months and reached its latest all-time high on June 20, one week ago.

WHAT, NO WORRIES? "The fact is, it's the summer, and there isn't much happening," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.

Turmoil in the Middle East, however, could easily rattle U.S. markets, especially if the fighting in Iraq drives oil prices up too high, Ablin said. Rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia remain a concern.

"The risk in the summer typically isn't financial, it's political," he said. "This summer it's geopolitical: Iraq and Ukraine."

FORECAST CUT: DuPont dropped $2.70, or 4 percent, to $65, the biggest decline among the 30 big companies in the Dow. The company cut its profit forecast because of weaker sales of corn seeds.

THE BUSINESS OF SPORT: Nike gained $1.05, or 1 percent, to $77.91 after reporting earnings late Thursday that beat Wall Street's expectations. Stronger worldwide sales offset marketing costs for the World Cup soccer tournament. Nike provided the outfits for 10 national teams, including Team USA, for the World Cup in Brazil.

YOU AGAIN: Micheals Companies made a slight gain in its return to the stock market. Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, two private equity firms, bought the operator of arts and crafts stores in 2006 and returned it to investors in a $472 million initial public offering. Much of the money raised in the IPO will be used to pay down debt. The company's stock rose 19 cents, or 1 percent, to $17.19.

HOW CONFIDENT: The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan reading of consumer confidence edged up to 82.5 in June, a slight increase over the previous month and better than economists had predicted.

WORLD MARKETS: Asian indexes closed lower. In Europe, France's CAC 40 slipped 0.1 percent while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1 percent. The FTSE 100 index of leading British companies rose 0.3 percent.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note held steady at 2.53 percent. The price of oil fell 10 cents to $105.74 a barrel.

ELKHORN, Wis. (AP) — Bond was set at $1 million on Friday for a former police officer suspected in the deaths of two women whose bodies were stuffed into suitcases and dumped along a rural Wisconsin highway.

Steven Zelich, a 52-year-old security officer, is charged with two counts of hiding a corpse. Walworth County prosecutors convinced a judge to set the high bond after saying they expected homicide charges to be filed in the counties where the women were killed.

But Zelich's attorney suggested the women may have died during accidents, perhaps during consensual sex. Investigators have said he met the two women online.

Zelich appeared for the hearing Friday through a video from jail but did not speak.

Zelich was arrested Wednesday, when detectives wearing hazmat suits removed a refrigerator and large brown bags of evidence from his apartment in West Allis, a Milwaukee suburb.

Highway workers cutting grass discovered two suitcases on June 5. Police identified one woman as Laura Simonson, 37, of Farmington, Minnesota. Authorities have not released the identity of the second woman but describe her as a white female with long, dark hair, a pronounced overbite and a small heart tattoo on her lower left abdomen.

Investigators allege that Zelich said he met both women online, killed them and stored their bodies in his home and vehicle for months before dropping the suitcases in the Town of Geneva, some 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee. He killed the unidentified woman in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, in late 2012 or early 2013 and Simonson in Rochester, Minnesota, in November, according to a criminal complaint.

Judge David Reddy accepted the prosecutor's request for a $1 million cash bond, noting that the most important thing was to protect the public.

Walworth County District Attorney Daniel Necci justified the request in part by saying he expected homicide charges to be filed in Kenosha County and Olmsted County, Minnesota, which includes Rochester.

Walworth County public defender Travis Schwantes unsuccessfully argued that the bond should reflect the charges filed, not those that may come.

Farmington police detective Sgt. Lee Hollatz said previously that Zelich was long his main suspect in Simonson's disappearance because soon after her family reported her missing, he learned she had checked into a Rochester, Minnesota, hotel with Zelich on Nov. 2. Zelich left alone the next day.

But Hollatz said he all he had was a missing person's case until the bodies were discovered.

Jim Martinson, chief deputy attorney in Olmsted County, said Friday that he needed to see the evidence before deciding what charges to file and the "lion's share" of that was in Wisconsin. He said he hadn't received reports yet from the many law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.

Martinson also said it could be a while before forensic evidence from the hotel was processed and Zelich was extradited to Minnesota.

Simonson was found naked except for a collar, with a rope around her neck and a gag in her mouth, according to the criminal complaint filed in Walworth County. The other woman's hands were bound behind her back.

Police have said that at least in Simonson's case, Zelich may have met her through a bondage website.

Zelich worked for the West Allis police department from February 1989 until his resignation in August 2001. From 2007 until his arrest, he worked as a licensed private security officer with Securitas Security Services USA. The company said he passed regular background checks to keep his state-issued license.

___

Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge moved a big step closer to getting an oft-debated suicide barrier after bridge officials on Friday approved a $76 million funding package for a net system that would prevent people from jumping to their deaths.

The bridge district's board of directors voted unanimously in favor of the funding for a steel suicide net, which includes $20 million in bridge toll revenue. Federal money will provide the bulk of the remaining funding, though the state is also pledging $7 million.

A tearful Dan Barks, of Napa, who lost his son, Donovan, to suicide on the bridge in 2008, said after the vote that he was almost speechless.

"A lot of people have done so much incredible work to get this accomplished," he said.

After the vote, he rose from his knees and shared a tearful embrace with Sue Story of Rocklin, whose son Jacob jumped off the bridge in 2010.

"We did it, Dan! We did it! It's no longer the Bridge of Death anymore," she said.

At least some of the money still requires additional approval. The bridge's board, however, has now taken its final step in adopting the net.

"The tragedy of today is that we can't go back in time, we can't save ... the people who jumped off the bridge. But the good thing, with this vote today, we can vote in their memory," board member Janet Reilly said. "We will save many lives who have followed in their footsteps and that's what so extraordinary about today."

The Golden Gate Bridge, with its sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, has long been a destination for people seeking to end their lives. Since it opened in 1937, more than 1,400 people have plunged to their deaths, including a record 46 suicides last year, officials said.

Officials have been discussing a suicide barrier on the bridge for decades. The bridge's board voted in 2008 to install a stainless steel net, rejecting other options, including raising the 4-foot-high railings and leaving the iconic span unchanged.

Two years later, they certified the final environmental impact report for the net, which would stretch about 20 feet wide on each side of the span. Officials say it will not mar the landmark bridge's appearance.

But funding for the project remained a major obstacle.

A significant hurdle was overcome two years ago when President Barack Obama signed into law a bill making safety barriers and nets eligible for federal funds.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California in a statement Friday praised the bridge's board and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who has been a staunch supporter of a barrier.

"The Golden Gate Bridge is a source of immense pride to San Francisco, but for too many families in our community, it has also been a place of pain," Peloisi said. "A suicide prevention barrier offers a critical second chance for troubled men and women acting on often impulsive suicidal thoughts. Together, we can ensure this magnificent landmark stands as a faithful companion for all San Franciscans, awing and inspiring visitors for generations to come."

Most jumpers suffer a grisly death, with massive internal injuries, broken bones and skull fractures. Some die from internal bleeding. Others drown.

Kevin Hines, who miraculously survived his suicide attempt after jumping off the structure in 2000 at age 19, urged the board before its vote to "not let one more family sit in eternal pain, in perpetuity because of politics."

He later broke down after the unanimous vote approving the funding.

"I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders, all of our shoulders. I feel free," Hines said. "I feel a sense of hope that I haven't had in a very long time. It's not over yet, we will be here until that net is raised and no more people die."

Richard Gamboa of Sacramento, whose son, Kyle was among the 46 bridge suicides last year, said while Friday's vote is momentous, he's not done fighting.

"It's not over for me. I'm going to keep coming here and urging them to get the barrier done. When I go on that bridge and look down and see that net there, then I will be at peace," Gamboa said.

John Brooks, whose 17-year-old daughter, Casey, jumped from the rust-colored span in 2008, told the board Friday that he hopes that some measure is taken before the net is constructed to provide some kind of safety to everybody.

"What I really don't want to see between now and the time it is done is more deaths," Brooks said. "That will be a cruel irony."

Board members and San Francisco supervisors David Campos and London Breed both agreed that the sooner the barrier is built, the better.

"We need to build it as quickly as we can," Campos said.

Bidding on the job is expected to start next year, with completion of construction expected in 2018.