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NBCNews.com
16 minutes ago

Funeral for "Ladybug," 9, Is First for School Tornado Victims

AP The first funeral for a child killed when a tornado struck the Plaza Towers elementary school in Oklahoma will likely be held Thursday. Antonia Candelaria, 9, who died along with six other children when Monday’s twister tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, was due to be buried at a local church. She was nicknamed "Ladybug" and was “specially gifted in art as well as music” and “loved to draw, paint, color and make crafts, according to an obituary published in The Oklahoman.“She was a beautiful young lady on the inside and out,” the obituary said. In total, 24 people were killed and as many as 13,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
2 hours ago

What’s at Stake in Boy Scouts Vote on Gay Membership

NBC 5 News After years of emotional debate, the Boy Scouts of America is considering a proposal at its annual meeting to allow gay youths to openly participate in the organization, NBC News reported. Thirteen years ago the Supreme Court ruled that as a private membership organization the Boy Scouts was free to decide whom it would admit. The exclusion of gay Scouts has been the subject of much squabbling and soul searching in the century-old organization — from local troops and councils to online petitions to national board meetings. But many questions — for example: Under the proposal, what would happen to an Eagle Scout who is gay and wants to volunteer as an adult? — still persist. For answers and analysis, click through. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 11:25 PM

Drone Strikes Killed 4 Americans Since 2009: Holder

AP The White House revealed on Wednesday that drone strikes have killed four Americans overseas since 2009, NBC News reported. One of those killed, Anwar Al-Awlaki, was targeted in Yemen for plotting terrorist attacks in the United States. The other three killed were Awlaki's teenage son Abd al-Rahmn Anwar al-Awlaki; Samir Khan, the American who ran al Qaeda’s web-based propaganda magazine Inspire and Jude Kenan Mohammed of Raleigh, N.C., whose death came as a surprise to the FBI as he was still on the agency's "most wanted" list for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Attorney General Eric Holder said the older Awlaki was the only American citizen targeted, but the other three were not "specifically targeted" and were killed in circumstances that the administration did not explain. The revelation came in a letter from Holder to congressional leaders and on the eve of a major address by President Barack Obama on his counterterrorism policy. Click through to read more on this breaking story. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
43 minutes ago

Soldier Killed in Possible Terror Attack in London

AP A man was killed by knife-wielding assailants on a London street Wednesday, and a bloodstained suspect at the scene holding a meat cleaver was captured on video telling passers-by, "We swear by the almighty Allah." Eyewitnesses said the two attackers were later shot by officers, and described the victim as being chopped like a "piece of meat," NBC News reported. Those two men were taken to a hospital where they were later arrested. The London police later confirmed that the victim is a serving soldier. In the video from the scene, obtained exclusively by NBC's UK news partner, ITV News, one of the attackers also said, "Leave our lands and we can all live in peace, that's all I have to say." Prime Minister David Cameron, on a trip to Paris that he cut short to return to London and chair an emergency national security meeting, said, "It is the most appalling crime." Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
4 hours ago

Tamerlan Tsarnaev Had Role in Triple Homicide: Sources


Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a Florida man -- who was killed while being questioned by the FBI in Orlando on Wednesday -- murdered three people in Massachusetts in 2011 after a drug deal went awry, sources tell NBC News. Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended as a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and his friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them. An FBI agent shot and killed Todashev on Wednesday after he allegedly attacked the agent with a knife, investigators said. The agent sustained non-life threatening injuries, the FBI said in a statement. Todashev was not suspected of being involved in the bombing, but he did confess to being involved in the brutal 2011 killings in Waltham, Mass., investigators said. Law enforcement officials said Todashev was being questioned as part of the FBI’s effort to find and talk to anyone who had any links to Tsarnaev. Todashev, officials said, had spent some time in the Boston area, where he was a mixed martial arts fighter, and knew Tsarnaev there. He had been interviewed about his connections to the bombing suspects before by the FBI and started out cooperative. Officials said he became violent as he was about to sign a written statement based on his confession. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 10:00 PM

NASA Funds Project to Make Space Meals with 3-D Printer

NASA is paying out $125,000 to study the use of 3-D printing technology for food preparation in space, NBC News reported. "We will be building the components for a prototype" over the grant's six-month period, David Irwin, principal investigator for the project at Texas-based Systems and Materials Research Consultancy, told NBC News. Generic mixes of starch, protein and fat can be transformed into food elements that result in food items like warm pizza with fake cheese, sauce and pepperoni, according to NBC News. The contract was signed on Wednesday and the project is part of NASA's efforts to widen the menu options for future space travelers on Mars and asteroid missions. Astronauts are currently eating pre-packaged, pre-processed foods. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 9:51 PM

Washington State Man Arrested Over Ricin Letters

Getty Images A man was arrested on Wednesday after two letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week, The Associated Press reported. A grand jury issued an indictment for 37-year-old Matthew Ryan Buquet that accuses him of sending threatening communication to U.S District Judge Fred Van Sickle at the federal courthouse on May 14. FBI agents arrested Buquet on Wednesday afternoon and he appeared in federal court in Spokane. He pleaded not guilty. If convicted of mailing the threatening letters, he could face up to 10 years in prison. Get More at NBC News

CPS Closures
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 11:36 PM

Chicago School Board Votes to Close 50 Schools

Chicago School Board Votes to Close 50 SchoolsAP
The Chicago School Board voted Wednesday to shutter 49 elementary schools and one high school in the nation's third-largest school system despite demonstrations and community outrage over the closings. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools officials said the move is necessary to improve education and get the school district on better financial footing. Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis called the closings a "cowboy mentality." "Mayoral control is out of control," Lewis told reporters as another round of protests began outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters. More than 300 of the district's 681 schools were initially eyed for closure. That number was lowered to 129 in February when CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett announced more specific criteria as to which schools might be affected to deal with what she called a "utilization crisis." Hours before that vote, Chicago Board of Education vice president Jesse Ruiz confirmed to NBC Chicago that Byrd-Bennett would withdraw her recommendation to close four schools. Read »
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 11:14 AM
 

I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations.  

— IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner Refusing to answer lawmakers' questions during her appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 2:58 PM

Up to 13,000 Homes Damaged as Okla. Turns to Recovery

Getty Images The tornado that zeroed in on Moore, Oklahoma, decimating two elementary schools and the local hospital and wiping out entire neighborhoods, destroyed or damaged 12,000 to 13,000 homes, said Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett at a Wednesday afternoon press conference. The cleanup of debris was beginning Wednesday as rescue teams wound up their search, NBC News reported. Cornett said 33,000 people were affected by the twister and he put the monetary damage estimate at between $1.5 billion to $2 billion. President Obama vowed to help victims get needed assistance "right away" and is scheduled to travel to Moore on Sunday to survey the damage. Authorities said 24 people were killed by the twister, nine of them children. The first funeral for one of the victims is scheduled for Saturday, Cornett said. Six people, all adults, remained unaccounted for, said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood. They might have just "walked off" their properties or could still be in the rubble, he said. Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
Thursday, May 23, 2013 at 12:31 AM

Arias Jury in Deadlock: "What If We Can't Reach a Decision?"


The Arizona jury deliberating whether Jodi Arias should face the death penalty or life in prison for the murder of her ex-boyfriend was in a deadlock on Wednesday as jurors questioned the judge about what to do if they can't reach a decision. Judge Sherry Stephens gave the jurors further instructions and sent them back to the jury room to resume deliberations, NBC News reported. A new jury would be enlisted if the current jury is unable to reach a decision. Arias is now asking jurors to spare her life after initially saying she preferred to die. “What I receive will be what I deserve, I believe,’’ Arias said in interview which aired on the "Today" show Wednesday. Arias said she deserves life in prison instead of the death penalty because she still has a lot to contribute to society. She also said she feels betrayed by the jury’s verdict, which her attorneys plan to appeal. Asked in the "Today" interview about people who feel that the only way for Travis Alexander to get justice is for Arias to get the death penalty, the former waitress replied, "That's not justice. That's revenge." Get More at NBC News

NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 3:43 PM

IRS Official: "I've Done Nothing Wrong"

AP Members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday expressed anger and bewilderment that IRS leaders had not told Congress sooner that the tax agency had improperly singled out conservatives groups seeking tax-exempt status, NBC News reported. The lawmakers voiced outrage that Douglas Shulman, the commissioner of the IRS during much of the abuses, did not tell lawmakers that an internal agency investigation had suggested improper action. "You misled Congress. Make no question about it … When you learned there was a list, you did nothing," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. Earlier in the day, the committee dismissed the IRS official in charge of the division accused of wrongdoing, after she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify. Lois Lerner refused to answer lawmakers’ questions but denied having done anything wrong before invoking her rights, NBC News reported. “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations,” she said at the hearing. Get More at NBC News

Sandy
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 5:18 PM

Jersey Shore Towns to Vacationers: We’re Still Here

Jersey Shore Towns to Vacationers: We’re Still HereRyan Morrill/The SandPaper
More than six months after Sandy, many repeat summer renters have not yet booked homes on Long Beach Island, N.J. over fears of damage from the storm. Realtors and homeowners, who typically have the bulk of their summer properties booked up by Memorial Day, say they’re seeing more rental vacancies than usual for this time of year. They worry the storm damage got more attention than the cleanup and that summer renters, one of the main economic drivers of LBI—an island with one and a half times as many seasonal second homes as permanent residents—will take their vacations and money somewhere else. “People think we’re Seaside Heights and we’re not,” says Joe Mancini, the mayor of Long Beach, the island’s largest township. He, like others on LBI, believe that images of lingering damage in Seaside and Mantoloking, LBI’s neighbors to the north, have sowed the flawed notion that the entire Jersey shore is still damaged. “This was a horrific storm,” Mancini adds, “but we were aggressive in cleaning it up.” Read »
NBCNews.com
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 6:49 PM

West Point Sergeant Charged with Secretly Filming Female Cadets


A staff member at West Point is accused of hiding cameras in the women’s shower and locker room. Army Sgt. 1st Class, Michael McClendon was relieved of his duties at West Point and has been charged with four counts of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, cruelty and maltreatment and violations of good order and discipline, according to The New York Times. Get More at NBC News

Sandy
Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at 5:39 PM

N.J. Shore Town Destroyed by Sandy Confronts an Uncertain Future

N.J. Shore Town Destroyed by Sandy Confronts an Uncertain FutureGetty Images
It’s hard to relax in Highlands, a small but proud middle-class town at the northern tip of the Jersey Shore. The borough of 28,000, at the junction of the Shrewsbury River and Sandy Hook Bay, is undergoing a profound transformation that won’t end with the physical rebuilding. The unprecedented damage wrought by Sandy—up to eight feet of water inundated downtown—has prompted what might best be described as an existential crisis, with residents, business owners and public officials confronting daunting questions about the kind of place Highlands will be for those who remain, and how it will survive. Read »
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