No one was injured Wednesday when a Pittsburgh narcotics detective fired two shots at a gunman in a dimly lit house in the Perry South area of the North Side, city police spokeswoman Diane Richard said.

Detectives were investigating a drug complaint in the woods in the 300 block of Elsdon Street when they encountered two men about 3:40 p.m. One man pulled a gun out of his pants and ran into a house, locking the door behind.

A detective identified himself as a police officer, forced his way into the house and saw what he thought was the man pointing the gun at him. It was later determined that what he saw was the gunman's image in a mirror, Richard said.

The detective fired two shots, breaking the mirror. There is no indication that the gunman, who dropped his weapon and fled, was wounded. A teenage boy inside the house was not hurt, police said.

The commander of an Israeli Air Force base has sentenced a soldier to 21 days in jail for yawning during his memorial speech to mark the anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. It appears that the yawn unbecoming a soldier was aggravated by his failure to cover his mouth.

The concerned woman said her son yawned "without covering his mouth" while the commander of his air force base in the north of the country was speaking during the memorial event Israel held on Monday.

When the commander spotted him, he stopped his speech and later ordered the soldier to spend 21 days in jail for what the commander called his "disrespectful act," the mother told public radio.

This could be a dangerous trend for our own leaders who routinely are captured yawning, snoring, and sleeping at major events. Bill Clinton once had a dream at a Martin Luther King speech.

Some interesting yawn facts both work for and against the military crackdown on yawning. First, 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn. That threatens an entire regiment of yawners.

Since the average yawn lasts six seconds, you can have a cascading effect of continual yawning that can last hours in a closely packed military base. On the other hand, yawns are common among athletes at major sporting events ' suggesting that it is not boredom but anticipation that can produce yawning.

In 2000 and 2004, GOP activists misled voters with fake fliers that told democrats that they would vote on Wednesday rather than Tuesday. The fliers have appeared throughout Virginia and the culprit has been identified. However, the state officials have decided not to charge the person responsible.

State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues said Monday the flier bearing the Virginia seal and the elections board logo was simply a joke that got out of control. Officials have refused to release the name or to charge the individual.

I fail to understand how this act, which is a misdemeanor crime, falls under some joke exception with the state. It is hard to dismiss such an act as a joke when it was used for voter suppression in the last two elections. Is there now a laugh test for state officials. If a suppression device makes them giggle, no charges will be brought?

Given the growing failure of Rodrigues and her colleagues to guarantee sufficient staff and machines for this elections, it would be helpful to have more information on why criminal charges were not brought. The message of others is particularly bad: if you suppress votes as a joke, Virginia will give you a humor pass. More.