“Don’t tase me, bro!” immediately entered the national lexicon when university police in Florida zapped a protesting student with a Taser gun. His bleating cries have “become the newest cultural touchstone of our pop-cultural lexicon,” Wired says.

But the incident also substantially raised the profile of Taser International, makers of the police zappers. Company stock is skyrocketing on new orders and it has fended off dozens of wrongful-death lawsuits.

This week, the sheriff’s department of Jacksonville, Fla., purchased 450 new Taser X26s and the Cleveland police ordered 175 more. That was enough to push the stock price up 4.1% on Monday and another 1.34% on Tuesday. The stock is trading at its highest level in two years.

After the worst week of her life, pop singer Britney Spears is slowly trying to rehab herself in order to get her children back.

A Los Angeles judge ruled Wednesday that Kevin Federline will retain custody of his two boys with Spears but said the troubled singer can have supervised visitation rights.

The decision was actually a step forward for Spears, who was ordered Monday to hand over her children, Sean Preston and Jayden James, because she had failed to undergo random drug testing, counseling, and parenting classes.

Billionaire Ron Burkle has a new crash pad in New York, complete with a heated swimming pool and a panic room.

Burkle, one of former President Bill Clinton’s best friends, has purchased a swank Manhattan apartment for a whopping $17.5 million, plus nearly $100,000 a year in maintenance fees. Burkle already owns the lavish Green Acres estate in Beverly Hills, where frequent Democratic fundraisers are held.

The three-level apartment with 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms doesn’t have a doorman and is situated in a fairly uninteresting part of lower Manhattan.

The New York Times is backing down - somewhat - on a controversial ad placed by the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org that infuriated conservatives.

Under the headline “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?” the full-page ad contended that the American commander in Iraq was “constantly at war with the facts” in giving upbeat assessments of progress and refusing to acknowledge that Iraq is “mired in an unwinnable religious civil war … Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.”

Egos are colliding.

Two years after Paramount Pictures paid a reported $1.6 billion for DreamWorks studios, the ego-fueled relationship is headed toward a messy divorce.

Steven Spielberg and his DreamWorks partner David Geffen have felt slighted that they haven’t gotten more independence and credit within Viacom Inc., which owns Paramount Pictures, given the success of their movies this summer, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Erwin Chemerinsky was out. Now he’s back in.

The high-profile legal scholar and Duke University professor has been “re-hired” to become the founding dean of the Donald Bren School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, officials announced.

Chemerinsky’s original hiring at U.C. Irvine caused a national stir among conservatives and several prominent Californians who complained about his liberal views. Chemerinsky, for one, was instrumental in helping tear down a prominent California ballot initiative, Proposition 209, which would have repealed affirmative action programs in the state.

American adventurer Steve Fossett never did much on a small scale. Now, extraordinary and sophisticated measures are being taken to find the lost aviator, who has been missing for nearly two weeks.

Two of America’s largest companies and tens of thousands of people - literally - are searching for Fossett.

Since Fossett disappeared, the state of Nevada has spent more than $600,000 looking for the expert pilot and world-class yachtsman. Fossett, who made a fortune in commodities trading, was last seen taking off from Barron Hilton’s sprawling Nevada ranch in a Bellanca Super Decathalon fixed wing aircraft.

Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner isn’t done with politics yet.

After raising $9 million to run for president on the Democratic ticket last year, Warner dropped out of contention in October and contemplated his options. Now, the former governor announced Thursday he’s running for U.S. Senate to replace U.S. Sen. John Warner, who is retiring after five terms. (The two politicians are not related.)

John Warner’s retirement gives Democrats another chance to extend their majority in Congress. According to the New York Times, two Republicans have said they will run for the Republican nomination - Thomas M. Davis and former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who himself mounted a presidential this year before dropping out in July.