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A handful of top-tier performers have begun producing stand-up specials on their own, posting them online and selling them directly through their personal Web sites, eliminating the editorial control of broadcasters and the perceived taint of corporate endorsements.

While this straight-to-the-Internet strategy is far from ubiquitous in stand-up, it is already having a profound impact on the comedy landscape, enabling online content providers and individual artists to take more turf from television networks and empowering comedians to be as candid (and as explicit) as they want in their material.

“It’s a very rare thing, where you answer to no one at all as a comedian,” said Aziz Ansari, a stand-up comic and actor who released his first online performance special on Tuesday. “Now you can even put it out the way you want.”

The turning point arrived in December, when the comedian Louis C. K. released a stand-up special, “Live at the Beacon Theater,” that was sold only as a $5 download, without copy protection, from his Web site.

Louis C. K., who stars in the FX series “Louie,” and has performed in comedy specials on HBO, Showtime and Epix, said that he was seeking min

The tariffs were smaller than many industry executives had expected   —   2.9 to 4.73 percent —   which could blunt their effect on sales. But the decision was nonetheless likely to be seen as a milestone because of its implications for international trade, renewable energy and American manufacturing.

With China and trade policy both critical issues in presidential campaign politics, the imposition of tariffs by the Obama administration seems certain to be used by the president’s backers as evidence that he is getting tough with Beijing, while opponents might see an opportunity to criticize it as meddlesome industrial policy. But the decision was actually made by civil servants in a quasi-judicial process that is designed to be insulated from political pressures.

The Commerce Department s

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The shooting last month of the teenager, Trayvon Martin, which has set off a national outcry, is also being investigated by the Justice Department.

On Tuesday, the state attorney for Brevard and Seminole, Norman R. Wolfinger, released a statement saying that a Seminole grand jury would examine the episode beginning on April 10. He asked for the public’s patience while law enforcement officials continue to investigate.

“I share in the desire of the family and the community to accurately collect and evaluate all the facts surrounding the tragic death of Trayvon Martin,” Mr. Wolfinger’s statement said. “I respectfully request that the public remain patient as this process continues forward.”

Trayvon, 17, was shot as he was walking to the home of his father’s girlfriend from a convenience store in Sanford, just north of Orlando, on Feb. 26. George Zimmerman, 28, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon, has told the police that he shot the teenager in self-defense.

On Monday nig

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That timetable would defer one of the thorniest military decisions facing President Obama — the pace at which the United States removes its forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2014— until after the November elections.

Gen. John R. Allen, a Marine four-star who commands the American-led allied forces in Afghanistan, said that he remained optimistic about eventual success but that it was too early to begin shifting forces from battles in the south to the country’s turbulent eastern provinces.

He also acknowledged the