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great white shark, sparking a flurry of activity.
• They were about to get up close and personal with the animal, more than 2,000 pounds and nearly 15 feet long.
• "I'm nervous," said state shark expert Greg Skomal, who has tagged great whites, but never like this, never this close.
• The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal's team, which has tagged a dozen great whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer's Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.
• Ocearch, a nonprofit research organization named for a combination of "ocean" and "research," is crewed mainly by sport fishermen. It is funded by sponsors and donors, and a South Africa expedition was the subject of History channel's "Shark

Wranglers."
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is trying to steady a shaky campaign as President Barack Obama, enjoying a burst of momentum, heads to New York for a celebrity fundraiser with Beyoncé and Jay-Z and a star turn on David Letterman's couch.
• Romney is trying to contain the political fallout of an unauthorized video of him telling donors that almost half of all Americans "believe they are victims" entitled to extensive government support and adding that as a candidate for the White House, "my job is not to worry about those people." Romney was also trying to shake stories that his campaign was in disarray and looking for a change in direction seven weeks before Election Day.
• In a hastily arranged meeting with reporters late Monday, Romney said that while his comments were "not elegantly stated," he stood by his remarks about Americans who do not pay taxes.
• "Those who are reliant on government are not as attracted to my message of slimming down the size of government," Romney said in Costa Mesa, Calif., doubling down on his statement.
• The former Massachusetts governor did not have public events Tuesday and planned to raise money in Salt Lake City and Dallas.

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