POLICE USE of Tasers has been tragic and controversial lately but this time we won't fault any officers. Last Monday, according to an Associated Press story, state police said they had to use a Taser on an emu and it fell down and died. As unfortunate as this was, how do you subdue a large flightless bird running amok? That's not in the manual. The emu, a native of Australia that had escaped from somewhere, was running along the eastbound lanes of the Pennsylvania Turnpike near the New Stanton exit, creating a backlog and nearly causing collisions. The officers tried for two hours to capture the 4-foot-tall bird before resorting to the Taser. Crikey!

IN OTHER transportation news, Port Authority contractors on Thursday fired up the tunnel-boring machine in a hole below Stanwix Street to start digging the second tunnel for the $435 million, 1.2-mile light-rail extension project to the North Shore. The first tunnel was finished July 10 and workers had to then turn it around. Spokesman David Whipkey said the project remains on schedule and the tunnel is expected to be completed by the end of the year -- assuming, of course, that no emus start running around.