(larger and original version here, via TMZ.com.)

Bump and Update: Paris has been ordered back to jail. Via TMZ.com.

Paris Hilton was just ordered back to jail in Lynwood. Hilton left the courtoom in tears, screaming, "Mom, Mom, Mom."

One witness described the scene as being "physically dragged" out of the courtroom by a female deputy.

Update: The court spokesman says at 12:30 pm PT after the hearing that the Sheriff called the court and asked if he would modify his sentence. The Court told the Sheriff to file the appropriate pleadings and the Sheriff never did. The issue of her medical condition never came up at the hearing because no papers were ever filed about it.

Get ready for the appeal and a fight over whether the appeals court will stay the court's order today pending the outcome. She could be out today if the appeals court stays the order. But nothing will happen before Monday.

More below the fold:

It's all Paris, all the time.

Earlier posts with background and my views here and here.

The judge in the Paris Hilton case flip-flops again. First he says Paris can appear by phone. Then the City Attorney complains and he orders her to come in. They are now waiting for Paris to arrive.

I'm riveted to the tv. I can't stand all the prosecutor heads screaming for blood. All three of the cable networks have them front and center. It's Gladiator Central.

But I'm watching as I'm packing and getting ready to leave town and will try to make to the finish.

Update: Hearing now scheduled for "midday" local time. The Sheriff's van is on its way to Paris' house to pick her up. They are going to do a perp walk? How disgusting. Her bodyguard has umbrellas in hand. The scene at her home is a complete circus. I haven't seen anything like this since the OJ road chase.

Continued updates below the fold.

[Note: Scroll down for updates as I've added several]

The City Attorney in Los Angeles is challenging the Sheriff's decision to send Paris Hilton home on house arrest. The Judge has scheduled a hearing tomorrow. You can read the motion here. (pdf)

The City Attorney is also demanding that the Sheriff pick her up at her house tomorrow and transport her to court for the hearing.

There's more. He is asking the Judge to hold the Sheriff in contempt of court for putting Paris on home detention which the Judge precluded in his sentencing order. The court spokesman today said the Sheriff asked the judge to modify the sentence to home detention yesterday and the judge declined. But, the Judge was told of the sentence change before

My earlier post on Paris' release is here.

Update: I think it's up to the Sheriff where to place her. Even the court spokesman initially said today,

More....

(video here)

Bump and Update: TMZ reports she was released for mental not physical problems. She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I'll be discussing her release now around 1:45 p.m. ET on BBC News radio.

Post-BBC segment: I was the only one with any sympathy for Paris. [You can listen here, and fast forward to about 40 minutes in.]I think she was sentenced more harshly because she was a celebrity. A non-celebrity would not have received 45 days in solitary confinement. Most of the callers to the show complained about the different standards for the rich and poor. Poor people would not have had a top-notch lawyer or been provided relief due to a medical condition. My answer: Rather than say the rich shouldn't benefit from good counsel and compassionate care while incarcerated, we should find a way to ensure both are available to all inmates and defendants, including the poor ones.

Update: Andrew Cohen at CBS agrees she never would have gotten sentenced to 45 days in the first place had she not been a celebrity. Also getting it right: Blake Fleetwood at Huffington Post.

Update: Paris Hilton's lawyer released this statement with no detail. And once home, Paris phoned in for cupcakes and had them delivered.

More...

Sanity prevailed in Chelsea, Vermont, where public defender Kelly Green was able to convince a prosecutor to drop the charges against her client, Jayna Hutchinson. After an argumentative encounter with Vermont State Police Sgt. Todd Protzman,

she approached Protzman's cruiser, where his dog Max was waiting, putting her face within inches of the window and "staring at him in a taunting/harassing manner," Protzman wrote in an affidavit.

"While the defendant taunted my canine, Max was focused on the defendant and the perceived threat she presented to him," the affidavit said. "He was no longer focused on me and the other officers at the scene."

Hutchinson (who had apparently imbibed a few too many) was charged with cruelty to a police animal. Charges were dropped shortly before trial after the prosecutor watched a videotape that offered no support for Protzman's claim that Max "perceived" a "threat," or was even disturbed by the staring match. A resisting charge, premised on the claim that Hutchinson "pulled her arms and upper body away during the arrest," was also tanked.

After one last party, the MTV Movie Awards, Paris Hilton surrendered to Los Angeles authorities last night to begin serving her 45 day prison term. She had until tomorrow to report.

She'll be in solitary 23 hours a day, in an 8×12 foot cell. She'll eat her meals in her cell. She gets an hour a day to shower, exercise or watch tv in the day room. She won't have a roommate, at least initially.

This is the "special needs" section of the jail for cops and celebrities.

At least she won't be forced to do slave labor.

She'll be out in 23 days, not due to overcrowding, but because all inmates get that much time off for good behavior.

Good luck, Paris.

This is just too good to be true. Listening to Keith Olbermann, the Paris Hilton in jail story borders on the complete breakdown of legitimate news coverage in America.

A few hours ago, the LA Times posted its article about the jails concerns for protecting her privacy in jail: Rules laid down for Paris' jail time. Since it was posted, it is the "most viewed" story on the Times website.

More...

Welcome news, if the accusation is true:

A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web might notice a decrease in junk e-mail.

The charges, however, seem like overkill.

Last week, a federal grand jury returned a 35-count indictment against [Robert Alan] Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Couldn't he just be charged with being an incredible nuisance? And sentenced to spend the rest of his life deleting spam emails from our mailboxes?

The jury returned a guilty verdict against marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal today -- he won't serve any jail time though. Background here.

Who could forget Chandra Levy and Gary Condit? The San Francisco Chronicle featured Chandra's death this past week because it was the fifth anniversary since the discovery of her remains.

No one has been charged with the crime. It's considered a "cold case" but it's not closed. Chandra's mother still goes to D.C. once a year to meet with the police chief.

Whatever became of Gary Condit? He and his wife live primarily in Arizona where they own two ice cream shops.

"It's a family-run shop," Chad Condit told CNN's Larry King in 2005. "We scoop ice cream." Last year, Baskin-Robbins filed a federal suit claiming that the Condits had breached their franchise agreement.

Two families that just can't catch a break. Sad.

Paris Hilton hasn't started serving her sentence yet, but it's already been halved to 23 days with time off for good behavior. What's good behavior? It includes showing up for her sentencing.

She'll be in a special housing unit, and that is not synonymous with special treatment. It means isolation from the general public for her protection. Her fellow inmates:

Hilton will stay in a unit that contains 12 two-person cells reserved for police officers, public officials, celebrities and other high-profile inmates, he said.

Like everyone else in the 2,200-inmate facility, Hilton will get at least an hour outside her cell each day to shower, watch television, participate in outdoor recreation or talk on the telephone, he said.

In other words, she'll be in 23 hour lockdown. That's ridiculous. She's being treated more harshly because of who she is. Her sentence was for violating probation by driving with a suspended license. She didn't drive drunk on probation. She didn't hurt anyone. I really doubt anyone else in that situation would have gotten more than five or ten days.

23 days in isolation (2 pairs of underwear a week) is absurd.

A federal judge has stepped in and granted a restraining order against D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfry prohibiting her from releasing more of her client records, saying the release was a form of witness intimidation.

Related somewhat: Norway is going to follow Sweden's policy of keeping prostitution legal, but criminalizing purchasing sex services, and then prosecuting the Johns.