State and National News

DO NOT STARE AT THE SUN.

Is that clear enough?

As we looked this morning for good guides about how to safely watch on Tuesday as Venus passes across the face of the sun, there was no escaping the stern warnings about what NOT to do.

There are stories both famous and infamous of children pushed into performing careers by their parents (Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Judy Garland ... the list goes on and on). But Vanessa Perez has become a fine young pianist despite her mother's best efforts to keep her away from the performing arts.

(NPR's Larry Abramson is among the correspondents traveling with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in Asia this week. In Vietnam earlier today, the government there told Panetta it will open three new sites for excavation — in the hope of finding U.S. troops' remains.

This is a commencement address I gave this weekend at the College of the Atlantic, in Bar Harbor, Maine. It's a small, highly interdisciplinary liberal arts college that I much admire. This is my talk to the graduating class.

OK. Finally you are at the door.

The reliable backup singer who seizes the spotlight is the stuff of entertainment-industry fairy tales, but Kelly Hogan hasn't actually had to labor in obscurity.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Nigeria Mourns 'National Disaster;' Plane Crash Killed Scores.

-- George Zimmerman Back In Jail; Attorney Preparing New Bond Motion.

If you haven't seen it by now, check out the chip shot that Tiger Woods rolled into the cup Sunday on the 16th hole at the Memorial Tournament. It put him on the way to winning the tournament.

According to golf legend Jack Nicklaus, it was "the gutsiest and best shot I've ever seen in my life."

It turns out that Off-Broadway plays, in particular, are so reliant on the feedback they get (and the revenue they get) from preview performances that they sometimes schedule a longer period of previews than regular perfomances. [The New York Times]