Cop Charged: A white South Carolina police officer has been charged with murder after the release of a video showing him shooting an unarmed black man in the back as he ran away. Patrolman Michael Slager fired his pistol eight times after 50-year-old Walter Scott turned and ran. Scott, the father of four, had been stopped for a broken tail light. Slager had originally reported that he feared for his life after Scott wrestled away his stun gun. But after Scott was down, Slager is seen picking up an object where the confrontation began, walking over to where Scott lay on the ground, and dropping it next to the body.

Lights Out: America’s center of power was without it for a while yesterday after an explosion at a power plant 50 miles away. The lights went out at The White House and the State Department as a swath of the city went dark in the middle of the day. Homeland security officials are alarmed that a simple accident so far away could knock out government power.

The Campaign Trail: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced for president yesterday saying, “I have a message, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We have come to take our country back.” Saying he would take the country back from special interests and people who use Washington “as their personal piggy bank,” the Libertarian politician said,

“The Washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped.”

Nation: The local electric utility had cut off the power at a rental home in Maryland where a man and his seven children were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Delmarva Power said the house had a stolen electric meter, which they removed for “safety” reasons. The father then hooked up a generator inside the house and the exhaust killed all eight occupants.

Early and Often: Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has survived a runoff election to serve a second term. He beat County Commissioner Jesus Garcia 56 to 44 percent.

Jewel Heist: In a caper worthy of Hollywood, thieves broke into a London safe deposit company over a holiday weekend, taking as many as four days to rifle through deposit boxes containing jewels and valuables. The Bobbies were not giving much information, but the thieves used cutting and rappelling gear to break into Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.

The Sports Page: The powerhouse University of Connecticut women’s basketball team yesterday won their third straight NCAA championship … their 10^th overall. They’ve won every time they have reached the final game.

The Obit Page: Satirist and advertising man Stan Freberg, who dared to make commercials funny, has died in Santa Monica at age 88. Originally he was a comedian, one of the first with a politically incorrect sense of humor. He took his mad humor to Madison Avenue to create commercials that sometimes pointed out the flaws of his client’s product. His commercial for Pacific Airlines portrayed even the flight crew as afraid to fly. His ad for Chun King Chow Mein said, “Nine out of 10 doctors prefer Chun King.” The camera panned to show the doctors — nine of them Asian, one Caucasian.

BookBeat: Former NY Times Reporter Judith Miller is making the rounds of talk shows hawking her book “The Story: A Reporter’s Journey,” about how her career crashed covering Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Government officials lied to Miller. Her stories were wrong and she was pushed out of the Times, accused of being a mouthpiece for the Bush administration.

The Times published a somewhat savage review of Miller’s book saying, “Ms. Miller’s defense of her work then was straightforward: She reported what her sources told her. She has now written a book-length elaboration of that defense, ‘The Story: A Reporter’s Journey.’ The defense is no better now than it was then.”

It’s unlikely the Times would have printed a favorable review. Perhaps they should have farmed it out to a reliable publication like Rolling Stone.

-30-