TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, generate a short title of the document. The title should convey the main idea/event/topic about which the document is being written. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: Russian election officials on Monday formally barred  Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny  from running for president  prompting calls from  him  for a boycott of next year's vote.
 Navalny  is implicitly barred from running for office because of a conviction in a fraud case which has been viewed as political retribution.  He  could have run if  he  was given a special dispensation or if  his  conviction was cancelled.
 Incumbent Vladimir Putin  is set to easily win a fourth term in office in the March 18 election  with  his  approval ratings topping 80%.
 Putin  foe clears first step in bid for Russian presidency
Over the past year   Navalny  has mounted a grassroots campaign which reached out to the most remote corners of  Putin 's heartland.
 Navalny   41  is the most serious challenger that  Putin  has faced in all  his  years in power  and the court cases against  him  have been widely seen as a tool to keep  him  from running for office.
In a pre-recorded video message that was released minutes after the Election Commission handed down the decision  Navalny called on  his  supporters to boycott the vote.
"The procedure that we're invited to take part is not an election "  he  said. "Only Putin and the candidates  he  has hand-picked are taking part in it."
Central Election Commission chief Ella Pamfilova told  Navalny  ahead of its vote to bar him that "maybe we would be interested if you were running " but said the conviction doesn't allow the commission to put him on the ballot.
Speaking before the vote   Navalny  told the commission that  their  decision to bar him would be a vote "not against me  but against 16 000 people who have nominated me  against 200 000 volunteers who have been canvassing for me."
The involvement of Ksenia Sobchak  a 36-year-old star TV host  could raise public interest in the race. While Sobchak has denied colluding with the Kremlin  she could attract some of  Navalny 's supporters and help boost attendance.
Sobchak criticized  Navalny 's call for boycotting the vote  saying Monday that the "election is the only way to change something  and boycotting them is inefficient and harmful."

SOLUTION: Russian officials bar Navalny from running for president

PROBLEM: Study author David Kaufman  director of Boston University's Slone Epidemiology Center   noted that ibuprofen and other NSAIDs are among "the most-used medicines in the U.S.
"[But] most NSAID use is over-the-counter "  he  added  "with users deciding what to take without involvement by health care providers."
 Kaufman  downplayed the notion that users might be popping too many NSAIDs to avoid using addictive opioid painkillers.
"My guess "  he  said  "is that while avoidance of opioids may influence prescribing decisions by doctors  it may not affect consumer behavior very much."
Instead   Kaufman  believes some consumers may simply decide to take an excessive number of pills â regardless of label instructions. But that behavior is "potentially modifiable with better education of users " he added.

SOLUTION: Opioids aren't America's only painkiller problem

PROBLEM: Next thing. I wrote recently about answering a casting call for extras to portray hurricane refugees in a video for the Bill White gubernatorial campaign. I showed up and played along just to get an idea of what the experience would be like.
 You can see the video at tinyurl.com/28y8sa5. I'm in the second snippet  about 25 seconds in. My participation ends at about the 26-second mark. Good luck spotting me.
 Taken as a whole  here's the message: White's a weird-looking dude who is very  very short (at least he looks so in the photo of him with the 7-foot-6-inch Yao Ming) and who at least once attended an event with some Borat-looking folks and who tends to make babies cry (unexplained photo of a smiling White holding a crying baby).
 A current Perry attack ad twice uses a video clip in which White looks very shifty-eyed. And there's another ad that ends with a black-and-white mugshot of White  in which he looks like a guy trying to smile through his booking photo or a patient asking if he should be concerned about the oozing from his left eye. Way to take the high road  governor.
 Locally  the best example of this genre so far is an ad (tinyurl.com/26qx8rp) for Rep. Patrick Rose  D-San Marcos  showing GOP opponent Jason Isaac -- who looks downright presentable in photos on his campaign website -- in slow-mo  grainy action doctored to make it look like it might have been taken while Isaac was fleeing after robbing a 7-Eleven.

SOLUTION:
THE FACES (AND ONE NOTABLE BACK OF THE HEAD) OF CAMPAIGN SEASON