Cannons

For most of the 1960s, Hollywood was the last place you'd go to find the pulse of the pop culture. Movie attendance had reached all-time lows. The studios were crumbling -- most film lots were either up for sale, being rented out or looked like decaying junkyards.

Using batons, tear gas and water cannons, security forces and pro-government militias imposed a tense, tentative calm on Tehran late Saturday after a chaotic day of clashes with stone-throwing protesters who defied warnings to stay off the streets. Rocks and debris filled roadways, and black smoke rose above neighborhoods filled with the haze of tear gas, according to witness accounts.

Another Obama administration nominee withdrew his name Wednesday as questions emerged about a nonprofit group with which he had been affiliated. Jonathan Z. Cannon, nominated as deputy director of the Environmental Protection Agency, cited questions about the now-defunct America's Clean Water Foundation, for which he had been a board member. He said he didn't want to be a distraction. In 2007, EPA auditors accused the foundation of mismanaging $25 million in taxpayer funds.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- No matter what, Cannon Smith will never be just another Miami quarterback. He knows that. No, the reality -- fair or not -- is that he'll probably always be Cannon Smith, the son of FedEx chairman Fred Smith, one of the richest and most powerful businessmen on the planet. Or Cannon Smith, the kid who got charged with possessing ecstasy and headed to a military academy for a year instead of enrolling at Mississippi as he'd planned. Or Cannon Smith, the guy who presumably got a chance to appear in movies only because of his family's copious wealth.

Japanese patrol vessels fired a water cannon at a boat carrying Chinese activists who were protesting Japanese claims to territory in the East China Sea, the activist group said. A boat carrying the protesters arrived Sunday evening near five disputed islets known as the Diaoyutai islands in China and Senkaku in Japan, according to the activists' group, the Hong Kong-registered China Federation of Defending Diaoyutai Islands.

WITH DEMOCRATS like Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn't need Republicans. After Pelosi promised that Democrats would preside over "the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress," Murtha, whom Pelosi unsuccessfully pushed for majority leader, described a Democratic lobbying reform proposal as "total crap." (He graciously added, however, that he'd support the legislation because "that's what Nancy wants."

A year that promises several surprises started off with a few on Sunday as the Galaxy held the defending Major League Soccer champion Houston Dynamo to a 0-0 tie in Texas in the season opener for both teams. It wasn't so much the result that raised eyebrows, but the way in which the Galaxy achieved it -- with a lineup featuring new players in several positions. Goalkeeper Joe Cannon made his Galaxy debut and pulled off a couple of crucial saves.

Ann Coulter has been a reliable name for years among people who plan television news shows -- an attractive, articulate blond conservative who's made a living lobbing verbal bombs. After her use of a gay slur about Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards this month during remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference, some on TV are wondering whether her shelf life is expiring. Many were angered by her use of the "f-word."

A thunderous boom from a 20-foot cannon echoes over John Diepersloot's apricot and peach orchards, a weapon the farmer hopes can save his trees from storms by breaking up hailstones before they can form. Hail cannons, which switch on when storms are approaching, are the latest high-tech device aimed at protecting crops from the volatile weather that hits California's agricultural heartland, where a single hailstorm or freeze can destroy a crop -- and a local economy -- overnight.