Kael Alford / for NBC News

Missy Hall shows the gold necklace that her brother gave to their mother before he died of cancer 13 years ago. More than a dozen volunteers came to the area to help search for the necklace and photographs that were buried in the rubble of the family's home after a tornado ripped through the neighborhood/

Pat Hall had one request for volunteers scouring the rubble of her ripped apart home in a rural corner of Oklahoma City: find the necklace that her son, who died quickly from cancer, gave her before his death.

She got her wish. Brian Foster, an Air Force Master Sgt. volunteering with his local church, plucked the necklace with a gold nugget out of a pile of debris where Hall thought it might be.

“This is my son that passed away 13 years ago. He got me this, so I really wanted to find this,” she said, breaking down as she held up the necklace from her son Chad, who died at 36 from a rare form of cancer.

“We built here because Chad our son lived right down there (the street). … we wanted to be close to him and his family.”

Kael Alford / for NBC News

Photographs and other sentimental items recovered by volunteers and family members from the rubble of Pat and Quentin Halls' home.

Foster was helping at another tornado-torn house when he and a few volunteers heard about the search for the necklace and came over. He said they moved a wall out of the way in the debris, where the family thought the necklace was, when they came across jewelry and then the cherished find.

“Very, very lucky. In the midst of all this to actually come across that is amazing,” he said as he took a break from the cleanup. “The one thing that they absolutely wanted to find and amongst everything. And just to be able to pull that out of all of this has definitely been a blessing.”

“It was incredible,” Missy Hall, Pat's daughter said of the find. “That's the only thing she wanted.”

Pat and her husband, Quentin, are staying with Missy while they consider the path ahead. At this point, she doesn't think they'll rebuild.

“It's just devastating. You don't know what to do first. You don't know what to do second. You don't know what to do,” she said.

“But the Lord doesn't make any mistakes. He's going to get us through it.”

Related stories:

• Panoramic photo illustrates the devastation
• Tornado birth: Mom endures labor as twister destroys hospital
• Post-tornado peril: Victims could face deadly fungal infections
• Tornado victims identified
• Full coverage of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy on NBCNews.com

Scott Shaw / The Plain Dealer

Charles Ramsey talks to media as people congratulate him on helping some women get out of a home in the 2200 block of Seymour Ave on May 6, 2013.

Cleveland’s most camera-ready hero may now also be its best fed.

More than a dozen Ohio restaurants and at least one in Pennsylvania have pledged free burgers for life to Charles Ramsey, the Big Mac-munching man who was credited with helping a woman escape from the home where she had been held captive, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Ramsey mentioned in numerous interviews earlier this month that he had been chowing down on a McDonald's burger when he heard screams from the house across the street, spurring the fast-food giant to tweet they would “be in touch.”

The hometown hamburger homages began with an 8-ounce Angus beef patty with a secret sauce devised by Chris Hodgson, chef at the downtown restaurant where Ramsey works as a dishwasher.

“He’s calm in the face of crazy and hectic things going on,” Hodgson told the Cleveland Plain Dealer after police rescued Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight from the house where they were allegedly held captive and raped for a decade. “He always steps up to do anything you ask.”

The “Ramsey Burger” started out as a temporary menu item, but has since become permanent and the idea has spread to other restaurants, according to the Plain Dealer.

“We want to honor our local hero with local food,” Cleveland restaurateur Scott Kuhn told the paper. “He stopped his meal midway through to help those women. We’re now making sure he has other opportunities to go out and fully enjoy his burger.”

Ramsey gained instant celebrity with his candid and profanity-flecked retellings of how he kicked in the door of suspect Ariel Castro’s home so Amanda Berry and her child could climb out.

But the man, who has been traveling on paid leave according to the Plain Dealer, said he didn’t have any choice but to help.

“My father would have whupped the hell out of me if I cowered out,” Ramsey told a reporter after the rescue.

Related:

• Chuck Ramsey: Definition of a hero, bro
• Charles Ramsey shirt sales to benefit victims
• 'Can I help?' Neighbor Charles Ramsey tells of role in discovery of missing women

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is under fire for his decision to block the execution of man convicted of massacring four people at a Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora, Colo., two decades ago.

The Democrat has vowed not to sign a death warrant for Nathan Dunlap as long as he's in office, even though he declined to back an outright repeal of capital punishment two months ago.

Hickenlooper's decision on Dunlap — a day before lawyers for Aurora movie-theater massacre suspect James Holmes were due in court to challenge the death-penalty statute — infuriated some victims' relatives and law-enforcement officials.

"He should die," former Aurora Police Officer Dan Jones, who was the first to arrive at Chuck E. Cheese the night of Dec. 14, 1993, told NBC station KUSA.

"What he did was horrific. And now 20 years later...the governor passes the buck."

Bob Crowell, whose 19-year-old daughter Sylvia was one of those killed, called Hickenlooper a "chicken governor."

"We've waited an awful long time," Crowell said after a heated conference call with the governor on Wednesday. "It's a little like carrying a knife in my back. Today, that night was severely twisted."

Colorado has had the death penalty since 1977, although only one person has been put to death since then and there are just three on Death Row.

Helen H. Richardson / AP

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper says he will block the execution of convicted Chuck E. Cheese massacre killer Nathan Dunlap for as long as he is in office.

Dunlap, who ambushed the restaurant workers after he was fired, was scheduled for an Aug. 18 execution. Hickenlooper signed an executive order that will remain in effect at least until his first term ends in 2015.

The governor is running for re-election, and his critics accused him of trying to have it both ways on the divisive death penalty issue.

"It's not a perfect decision and I recognize that," he told KUSA. "But I think the reasons we are doing it this way override that lack of closure [for the victims' families]."

Hickenlooper said he did not support a bill to repeal capital punishment earlier in the year because he did not want to force that decision on his constituents.

At the same time, he said, he could not in good conscience let Dunlap be put to death when studies show execution is not a deterrent to crime and is often applied inconsistently.

“It’s hard to defend the death penalty," he said.

Dunlap's lawyers had asked Hickenlooper to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole, but he declined to do that, leaving open the possibility for his successor to overturn the executive order and send the 39-year-old to the death chamber.

Araphoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said Hickenlooper's move would please few people.

"One person will go to bed with smile on his face and that's Nathan Dunlap," Brauchler said.

Brauchler is seeking the death penalty for the man accused in Aurora's bloodiest crime, the murder of 12 people at a midnight "Batman" screening last July.

James Holmes' lawyers will be in court Thursday to challenge the capital punishment statue on the grounds that it makes an insanity plea untenable.

They said that certain conditions Holmes must accept to mount an insanity defense would hamper their ability to argue he should be spared death during the sentencing phase if he's convicted.

This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 9:01 AM EDT

Jim Mone / AP

Rescue personnel gather near an entrance to Lilydale Regional Park above the Mississippi River during a suspension of search efforts to find a fourth child missing after a landslide swept over a group of children on a fourth grade field trip Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in St. Paul, Minn.

Authorities said they would continue their search Thursday for a Minnesota child who remained missing after a gravel slide swept several children on a school fossil-hunting trip into a pit, killing one.

The fourth-graders from a St. Louis Park elementary school were hiking in Lilydale Regional Park on Wednesday when a steep slope soaked by rain gave way, authorities have said. Two trapped children were dug out by firefighters who clawed away gravel with their hands and shovels, they said.

“It appears they were walking along and the ground, after the rain we’ve had, was so soft and it gave way and they fell into what became a hole and the earth came on top of them,” St. Paul Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard said at a news conference, according to NBC News affiliate KARE.

Scott Takushi / AP

An emergency worker attends to a person on a stretcher, being evacuated out of a rockslide site by helicopter, on the West Side of St. Paul, Wednesday, May 22, 2013.

One of the children pulled from the pit later died, and has not yet been identified by authorities.

“The slide had fallen down on top of them," Zaccard said. “One was partially buried, one was completely buried.”

The search for the missing student was suspended overnight as rescuers battled worsening conditions.

“Water is flowing right into the hole making it extremely dangerous for rescuers to work anymore,” Zaccard said. “We are working with our partners in Parks and Public Works to make the scene safe for what’s become a recovery effort for what might be a fourth victim.”

A man who identified himself as the missing child’s uncle said the student “liked geology,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

“Thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the children and to our first responders who continue to deal with the situation as it develops,” said St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

A construction worker takes measurements at a commercial construction site May 2, 2013 in Washington, DC. New Census figures shows major cities have seen marked population growth.

New census estimates show that most of the nation's largest cities further enhanced their allure last year, posting strong population growth for a second straight year. 

Big cities surpassed the rate of growth of their surrounding suburbs at an even faster clip, a sign of America's continuing preference for urban living after the economic downturn quelled enthusiasm for less-crowded expanses. 

Farther-out suburbs known as exurbs saw their growth slip to 0.35 percent, the lowest in more than a decade. 

Economists generally had played down the recent city boom as an aberration, predicting that young adults in the recovering economy would soon be back on the move after years of staying put in big cities. But the widening gains for cities in 2012 indicate that young people — as well as would-be retirees seeking quieter locales — are playing it safe for a while longer in dense urban cores, where jobs may be easier to find and keep. 

Prior to 2011, suburbs had consistently outpaced big cities since 1920, with the rise of the automobile. 

The new census estimates are a snapshot of population growth as of July 2012. The Associated Press sought additional analysis from William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, and Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire. 

Cities with booming regional economies continue to see the biggest gains — from Seattle and San Francisco to Austin, Texas, Raleigh, N.C., and Washington, D.C., locales seeing a burst of new apartment construction. 

"Cities have become more appealing to young people, with more things to do and places to see," said Mark Obrinsky, chief economist at the National Multi Housing Council, a Washington-based trade group. "Many of the cities are committing themselves to regrowth and development, and in newer cities like Dallas we're beginning to see new restaurants, bars and apartments in the downtown areas that put it a bit closer to being a 24-hour city." 

He noted that the division between city and suburbs is blurring, too. There's no longer a clear line between an economic center where people work and suburban bedroom communities. Both can be home to major companies and residences. 

Census data show that many closer-in suburbs linked to a city with public transit or well-developed roadways are benefiting from strong city growth, while far-flung areas near the metropolitan edge are fizzling after heady growth during the mid-decade housing boom. 

Suburbs in the South and West also are seeing some gains, such as those around Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla. 

New Orleans, which saw its population shrivel in the mid-2000s after Hurricane Katrina, continued to post the biggest increase in city growth relative to suburbs in the past year — 2.5 percent vs. 0.6 percent. Atlanta, Richmond, Va., Denver, Boston and Charlotte, N.C., also showed wide disparities between city and suburbs. 

Other big cities showing faster growth compared with the previous year include Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco and Columbus, Ohio. 

In all, primary cities in large metropolitan areas with populations of more than 1 million grew by 1.12 percent last year, compared with 0.97 percent in surrounding suburbs. In 2011, the gap between city and suburb growth was narrower — 1.03 percent vs. 0.96 percent. 

During the mid-decade housing boom, city growth had come to a standstill, while exurban growth rose by 2 percent, as the wide availability of low-interest mortgages pushed new residential development outward. 

"The country has been exposed to a very difficult five years, and many people are reluctant to take chances," said Johnson, the University of New Hampshire demographer. "Marriages are still down, births are still down. Economists may say that the recession is over, but the recovery has not yet been fully reflected in demographic trends." 

Other findings: 

—New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Boston each grew faster between 2010 and 2012 than they did annually between 2000 and 2010. 

—Texas continued to be the big population winner, accounting for eight of the 15 fastest-growing cities with populations of 50,000 or more from 2011-2012. 

—New York remained the nation's most populous city, at 8.3 million, with the rest of the top 10 unchanged. Austin, Texas, moved up from 13th to 11th, supplanting Jacksonville, Fla.; Indianapolis slipped from 12th to 13th. 

A Texas deputy who was shot by a wanted Colorado man says he only remembers bits of what can be seen in video from his dashboard camera.

Evan Spencer Ebel, who was suspected in the slaying of Colorado's prisons chief and a pizza deliveryman, shot Montague County Deputy James Boyd three times at point-blank range during a traffic stop.

Montague County Sheriff Paul Cunningham on Wednesday released dash-cam video of the March 21 shooting.

The video shows Boyd stopping the car for driving in the left-hand lane and not passing. As soon as Boyd approaches the car, Ebel can be seen quickly shooting Boyd three times -- twice in the chest and once in the head. He then speeds away.

Read more from NBCDFW.com

After a minute, drivers stop to help Boyd and call emergency crews.

"I can remember stopping the car, making the approach, knowing something's not right," said Boyd, who has been recovering at a rehabilitation center in Dallas.

"I can remember being shot, and that's about the point I blacked out for 30, 45 seconds," he said.

"The only thing I can consciously remember is seeing the gun shoot off at me," he said.

Boyd is scheduled to go back to work on Friday, nearly two months after the shooting.

Even now, the video is still hard to watch, the sheriff said.

"I mean, I don't know what else to say-- I was mad," Cunningham said. "That was somebody [who] hurt one of my deputies. You know, you want to strike back."

"It's hard every time you watch it," he said, choking back tears. "You can almost feel the bullets when you're watching it."

Ebel was killed later that day in a shootout in Wise County after the high-speed chase.

Boyd said he's just grateful that his encounter with Ebel wasn't worse.

"If it would've gone one way or another, I could be dead," he said. "It was a very close call. It just wasn't my time."

Kael Alford for NBC News

From left to right: Amber Bowie, 37, Johnny Knight, 66, Rebecca Garland 63, Janis Knight, 62, Jana Portell, 32, Todd Portell, 31, Chase Shelton, 15, and Dan Garland, 65, pose for a portrait around the underground storm shelter that saved their lives during the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20. The storm destroyed their 3000-square-foot home.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — A little treasure in the debris of a home that once welcomed Rebecca Garland's four grandchildren gave her such a delight as her friends and family scoured the mountain of rubble for any mementos left behind by Monday's powerful tornado.

“This is where we measured the kids' height!” she exclaimed as her son Lee held up a piece of a wall showing the rising tick-marks as his three boys and little girl grew taller and taller — her "sugars," she calls them. “Oh! Oh! ... That's priceless.”

“Little stuff like this,” said Lee, 41. “It can go in the new house.”

Such was the talk among the Garlands, their two adult children, and the many friends who stopped by on Wednesday — with brownies and cupcakes, plastic boxes and a couple of hugs and laughs — as the couple contemplated the road ahead after Monday's tornado tore apart their house, which was built by Rebecca's husband, Dan.

The pair, who have owned a construction business for more than 30 years, also built the homes next door for Dan's 91-year-old mother, Bobbie, and his neighbor, Ron Bowie.

Those houses were destroyed, too, as the tornado tore a devastating swath through their scenic neighborhood of rolling green hills, century-old trees and farm animals.

Kael Alford for NBC News

Lee Garland found a piece of sheet rock marked with the heights of his children from his parents' home May 22 in Moore, Okla. He cut the piece out of the wall when going through the rubble to save and install when his parents rebuild.

Bobbie won't rebuild, but Bowie said if he does, he'll enlist his neighbors again.

“It's kind of an emotional thing,” said the Garlands' other son, Max, 36, as he stood next to the many jagged and splintered pieces of wood that once made up his parents' one-story home. “We framed and built these houses.... Part of your life is destroyed in a way.”

The Garlands plan to rebuild, which could take up to nine months — depending on when they get started. For now they are bunking with Max, and they'll soon head to the house of family friends — the Portells — who hunkered down with them during the tornado in their storm shelter.

“What's good about this group is you can always find a blessing in disguise,” said Todd Portell, 32, who works in sales and whose wife, Jana, has known the Garlands since she was a child. “Through the rubble we've always found something to laugh about, something that's good.”

There were many laughs and giggles among the group of friends and family, especially from Rebecca, 63. As a wind picked up two cardboard boxes, swirling them through the air, she cracked: “Oh, look at a wind tornado! How dare you!”

“Hey you little pipsqueak, we're not scared of you!” Dan, 65, chimed in.

“We've laughed a lot,” his wife noted. “We've cried, too, but we've laughed.”

As they scrolled through items like their wedding album and a scrapbook (“Here we are when we were king and queen. And here we are as Sonny and Cher,” Rebecca mused of the photos), Dan had a difficult moment.

“There's sentimental value, and that makes it a little more touching and a little more emotional. (Other stuff) is just scrap and junk that you can replace. Memories ... (it's) hard to replace those things,” he said as he choked up.

“At least they're in the heart,” Rebecca said.

“Yeah but, I mean, it's the end of things,” Dan said.

That ending began Monday, when the Garlands, Bobbie, seven friends and two dogs sought safety in the storm shelter at the foot of their house.

With the more than 200 mph whipping winds, Dan struggled to hold the door shut, and Portell and another friend jumped up to help him. That door, dated in pen "05/1/01" for when the shelter was put in, is now bent, revealing the precariousness of their safety.

Kael Alford for NBC News

Rebecca Garland is comforted by a friend outside their house on 149th Street that was destroyed in the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., on May 20. The family hid in their storm shelter with neighbors.

“The whole storm shelter was vibrating. We thought it was going to suck us out of the ground, the whole thing. It was the most frightening thing I've ever experienced in my life,” Rebecca said. “The sound was 1,000 times at least louder than airplane jets. Your ears were popping, just, pop, pop, pop.”

That the storm shelter barely held has Rebecca making the case for a storm cellar built into the basement of their new house, although they don't know yet what the rest of their new home will look like. Dan had always resisted going in the detached storm shelter during tornadoes, but he is now angling for a safe room.

“I prefer the safe room on top of the ground if I can convince her that that would be safe,” Dan said.

“I was underground, and I didn't feel safe, so I'm not sure,” Rebecca said.

But first, they'll have to finish scouring the debris for mementos, bulldoze everything to the street, take out the footing, foundation — everything — from the house, Dan said.

“We're starting from scratch,” Rebecca noted.

Insurance should cover the cost, they hope.

“If I think about this ... the work and the time spent, it's emotional ... just emotional,” Dan said. “I'm not as young as I used to be. I'll do it over again, that's it.”

Related stories:

• Panoramic photo illustrates the devastation around the Garlands' home
• Tornado birth: Mom endures labor as twister destroys hospital
• Post-tornado peril: Victims could face deadly fungal infections
• Tornado victims identified
• Full coverage of the Oklahoma tornado tragedy on NBCNews.com

Antonia Candelaria, 9-years-old

A  nine-year-old girl killed by the Oklahoma tornado will be laid to rest Thursday with her family taking comfort in the belief that she was with her best friend when she died.

Antonia Candelaria is one of seven children who perished at the Plaza Towers elementary school in Moore, Okla. Her closest friend, fellow third-grader Emily Conatzer, was with her — a source of solace for her parents.

'I know Tonia and Emily were together and holding hands and taking care of each other," Antonia's mother said after learning of her daughter's death, according to Moore Schools Superintendent Susan Pierce.

Antonia's funeral is the first of three to be held in the next two days for children who died in Monday's storm, which claimed a total of 24 lives and damaged or destroyed 13,000 homes in the Oklahoma City suburb.

“She was a beautiful young lady on the inside and out,” said an obituary for Antonia published in The Oklahoman newspaper. “She had her own most special and beautiful way of looking at the world. She could find the positive, good and joy in everything.”

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Tannen Maury / EPA

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead.

Launch slideshow

Nicknamed "Ladybug," she was “specially gifted in art as well as music” and “loved to draw, paint, color and make crafts,” the obituary said.

“We will miss our precious little Ladybug everyday but will rejoice for the day we will be reunited with her again someday," it added.

Authorities said Thursday they believe everyone who was missing after the twister has been tracked down and the death toll will stand at 24, including 10 children.

The victims include a mother who sought shelter in a 7-Eleven that collapsed, killing both her and her four-month-old son, and two sisters who were torn from their mother as she huddled with them in a bathtub.

Laurinda Vargyas, 30, told the Oklahoman that she was flopped around and when she landed, 4-year-old Karrina and 7-month-old Sydnee were gone.

She found the baby in a driveway, "just laying there helpless."

"All I could do was sit there and hold her. She was already gone. They say she didn't suffer. So I've got to find peace with that,” she told the newspaper.

Karrina's body was found later in the rubble of a neighbor's house. Varygas and her husband have two older children who were not harmed.

Beyond the human cost, the damage from Monday’s EF-5 tornado could top $2 billion, officials said late Wednesday as the focus shifted to huge task of clearing mile upon mile of of debris.

Moore Mayor Glenn Lewis said Wednesday he would propose an ordinance in the next couple of days to require all new homes to have storm shelters.

NBC News' Tracy Connor and Kate Snow contributed to this report.

Related content:

• 'She was always happy': Families grieve tornado victim
• The latest on the aftermath of the Oklahoma tornado
• Tornado victim separated from spouse: 'The house totally disappeared'

This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 4:43 AM EDT

Win Mcnamee / Getty Images

With the Boy Scouts of America set to vote on a policy that would allow openly gay youths to participate, activists ramp up the volume on their protests.

After years of emotional debate, the Boy Scouts of America are considering a proposal at their annual meeting to allow gay youths to participate openly in the popular organization for the first time.

The exclusion of gay Scouts has been the subject of much wrangling and soul searching in the century-old organization -- from local troops and councils to online petitions to national board meetings. The dispute was even heard by the Supreme Court, which said 13 years ago that as a private membership organization the BSA was free to decide who it would admit.

Here is a rundown of what is at stake in the vote, which is scheduled to take place Thursday among the 1,400 delegates of the National Council gathered in Grapevine, Texas.

What would the new membership policy look like?

The proposal would lift the organization’s ban on openly gay youth participants, but it would continue to bar gay adults from being Scout leaders.

Subject to gut-wrenching debate over morality and rights, the proposal would impact more than 100,000 scouting units, such as Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops, that involve nearly 3 million youths and more than 1 million adults. Generations of Scouts have weighed in on the issue in private and in public, with partisans on both sides threatening to withdraw from participating depending on how it is resolved.

Why is the scouting organization considering this change now?

BSA leaders won’t say exactly why now, but more than a decade after the Supreme Court said the organization was on solid legal ground in excluding gays, the debate quite simply won’t go away. Last summer, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their anti-gay policy, after a two-year examination by a committee. Since then, some local chapters have been pushing for a reconsideration.

Meanwhile issues related to gay rights -- such as gay marriage and adoption -- are gaining wider public acceptance, and lobbying campaigns by Jennifer Tyrrell, a lesbian who was ousted from her role as den mother last year, and Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who was raised by two lesbian mothers, kept the debate in the public eye. Activists have also pressured corporate sponsors, many of which have non-discrimination clauses tied to their giving, to withdraw funding unless the policy is changed.

Stephen B. Thornton / Stephen B. Thornton for NBC News

Pack 215 Cub Scouts recite the Pledge of Allegiance at their pack meeting at Eagle Heights Baptist Church on Tuesday in Harrison, Ark. The church's pastor has said it will not stay on as sponsor if the policy is changed.

Who is for the proposal, and who is against?

It’s unclear exactly how many scouts and councils -- which oversee the scouting units -- are on each side of the debate, and we’ll have to wait for the results of the secret ballot to see which side is victorious. Some councils have publicly said they will not continue if gay youths are allowed, while others have called for gay adults to be included too.

Religion looms large over the debate. The Scouts explicitly invoke God in their membership guidelines, and more than 70 percent of Boy Scout units are sponsored by religious groups. One of the Southern Baptist Church leaders, Dr. Frank Page, last week implored the Boy Scouts not to change the policy. But The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – the BSA's biggest charter partner-- has given tacit endorsement to the plan; the National Catholic Council on Scouting has yet to take a position.

Even Barack Obama and Mitt Romney weighed in on the debate during the presidential race. Perhaps one of the most important voices, BSA President Wayne Perry on Wednesday wrote an op-ed in USA TODAY supporting the inclusion of gay boys.

Under the proposal, what would happen to an Eagle Scout who is gay and wants to volunteer as an adult? That wouldn’t be allowed?

That is the big criticism of this policy in more progressive quarters: That life-long, successful scouts essentially will be banned from the organization on their 18th birthday because they are gay. Conservatives also note the tension inherent in the policy, saying it could be a slippery slope: They believe allowing gay youths would undermine the legal underpinnings of the Supreme Court decision, ultimately leading to gay adult volunteers being admitted into the organization.

Will individual local troops be allowed to exclude gay youths if they have moral objections?

In short, no. Here is how Deron Smith, spokesperson for the BSA puts it: “If passed, no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.” This has led some parents and Scout leaders who object to homosexuality to consider alternatives to Scouting, for fear that the resolution might pass.

If gays are allowed, will parents be able to object, for example, to their son sharing a tent with a gay Scout?

This is a real concern among some parents, as evidenced by its inclusion on the BSA’s internal survey on the issue. But Scouting leaders haven’t addressed the matter directly. Instead, they refer generally to maintaining a “supportive and safe environment for young people.” The organization has created a task force to make sure the policy could be implemented smoothly, and they are looking into how other organizations have handled these issues.

If it passes, will this proposal end the infighting, or is this just the beginning?

The BSA may hope this vote will end the debate, but more likely, it will touch off a whole new one. Some troops may disband. Those affiliated with Southern Baptist churches, for example, could lose their charters. And more liberal Scout leaders will lobby to have gay adults included as well -- an issue that is not going to fade anytime soon.

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the possibility of a change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related:

• Scouts await decision on gay membership
• Boy Scouts consider ending ban on gay members, leaders
• Scouts propose allowing gay scouts, but banning leaders
• Mormon church OK with ending Scouts' ban on gay youth

When a devastating tornado touched down in Moore, Okla., on Monday afternoon, Shayla Taylor was on the upper floor of the local hospital, in active labor with her second child.

As the floor shook “like an earthquake” beneath her and ceiling tiles and insulation fell overhead, the 25-year-old huddled with four nurses, braving both the peak contractions of childbirth and the wrath of the worst twister the veteran Oklahoman had ever endured.

“We were all just sitting there holding each other’s hands and praying,” Taylor told NBC News.

Norman Regional Health System

Jerome Taylor, left, Shayla Taylor, center, and Shaiden Taylor, right, welcomed baby Braeden Immanuel at the height of Monday's killer tornado in Moore, Okla.

Moore Medical Center, a 46-bed acute care hospital at 700 S. Telephone Road, took a direct hit from the F-5 tornado, with wind speeds that topped 200 miles per hour.

The blow devastated the hospital, as news photos plainly show, ripping away the roof and walls.

After the chaos, Taylor said she heard not the freight train sound described by so many witnesses, but the absolute silence of the storm’s center. Then she opened her eyes.

“All of a sudden I could see daylight and the wall was gone,” she said. “I look out and I see I-35 and part of the Warren theater,” which later became the triage center for victims of the tornado that killed 24 and injured more than 230 people.

Rick Wilking / Reuters

An aerial view of damage at the Moore Medical Center is shown in Moore, Okla., on May 21, after a tornado ravaged the suburb of Oklahoma City.

She had been dilated to 9 centimeters, nearly ready to deliver the baby, when nurses gave her a quick shot to slow labor during the height of the storm. 

Taylor was quickly reunited with her husband, Jerome Taylor, 29, who had taken their 4-year-old son, Shaiden, to wait out the tornado with others in the hospital cafeteria. With the help of hospital workers, she was carefully carried through the destroyed building and out to a waiting ambulance, which whisked her 5 miles to another hospital in the Norman Regional Health System.

Three hours later, after doctors determined that the petite Taylor would need a cesarean section due to the baby's size, she delivered Braeden Immanuel, a healthy 8-pound, 3-ounce boy.

“His middle name means ‘God is with us,’” said Taylor. “The name had been picked out for months. Now I know why.”

Taylor is among 30 patients and staffers at Moore Medical Center who survived the tornado, which destroyed the hospital, said Kelly Wells, a health system spokeswoman. No decision has been made yet about whether to rebuild or simply raze the site.

Two days after the storm, Taylor and her family are recovering from the trauma of the chaotic birth. The family can’t locate their car, a Toyota Camry, which had been parked in the hospital lot and is now nowhere to be found.

Sossy Dombourian / NBC News

Newborn Braeden Immanuel Taylor is fine after his harrowing birth, his mother says.

“I don’t know if it ended up inside the hospital or down the street,” she said.

Their home is safe, however, and Jerome Taylor, who works for The Hartford insurance company, has been overwhelmed trying to help his neighbors cope.

Oklahomans are used to tornado warnings and Taylor said she wasn’t particularly alarmed before Monday’s storm.

“I’m used to sirens,” she said. “If you panicked, you’d be in a constant panic.”

Now, however, she’s thinking twice about living in Tornado Alley.

“The tornadoes always track through here,” she said. “It’s not to say everybody’s going to pack and leave tomorrow, but they start to reconsider things.”

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