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Bell County Sheriff's Office / Reuters

Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 in a November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is pictured in an undated Bell County Sheriff's Office photograph.

An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 and wounding nearly three dozen others at a Fort Hood, Texas, military post in 2009 has been denied a trial delay by a judge.

Major Nidal Hasan, 42, who has been allowed to represent himself, had requested a three-month postponement to his trial so he could prepare more. Military Judge Col. Tara Osborn refused the request Tuesday, and said jury selection was set for July 9 and was expected to last for four weeks; testimony will start Aug. 6 at the earliest. 

Hasan's court martial has been sidetracked numerous times by questions over his legal representation and the beard he has, which violates military dress code. Opening statements had been scheduled to begin on July 1.

Most of those killed in the shooting four years ago at Fort Hood, a staging base for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, were military personnel. Hasan was shot four times by civilian police after the attack.

Hasan, who was born in the U.S. and is Muslim, could face the death penalty in the trial. He has been charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder; 32 others were wounded.

Osborn ruled last week that Hasan could not use as a defense that he carried out the base shooting in an attempt to protect Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

According to witnesses, a gunman in an army combat uniform opened fire in a packed medical building on Nov. 5, 2009, stopping only to reload his weapon. 

None of the victims posed an “immediate imminent threat” to Taliban personnel in Afghanistan, the judge said.

Although Hasan is representing himself, Osborn ordered his three former defense attorneys to remain on the case and to offer assistance to him if he requests help.

Hasan's trial was initially slated for March 2012, but was delayed twice because defense attorneys said they needed more time to prepare. It was delayed a third time last fall when Hasan appealed an order from then-judge Col. Gregory Gross that his beard be forcibly shaved if he didn't remove it before his trial. 

Gross was ousted from the case and his order was thrown out, and court proceedings resumed in December with the current judge.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Fort Hood suspect, defense attorneys at odds
• Judge bans Fort Hood suspect's defense strategy
• Judge rules Fort Hood suspect can represent himself

Patrick Semansky / AP

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, center, is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., on Monday.

FORT MEADE, Md. - The court-martial of the U.S. soldier accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks in a case illustrating the challenge of keeping secrets in the digital age must decide whether tweets and Web pages can be admitted as evidence.

Lawyers for Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, who is accused of providing more than 700,000 files to the anti-secrecy website in the biggest breach of classified U.S. data in the nation's history, argued on Tuesday that Twitter postings offered by prosecutors do not meet the court's standards.

"Anyone can create a Web page...that looks like WikiLeaks or that looks like Twitter," argued defense attorney Captain Joshua Tooman when the government sought to admit a May 7, 2010 tweet from WikiLeaks seeking military Internet addresses, and the Web page of the Internet archive site archive.org that showed a 2009 WikiLeaks "Most Wanted" list of items it was seeking from the public.

Tooman said a government investigator had accessed the tweets indirectly, through Google, rather than directly through Twitter or WikiLeaks. He said the evidence failed to meet the test of authenticity since there was no way of knowing what the website looked like when the tweet or page was published.

Prosecutors argued those tweets, as well as one on January 8, 2010 from WikiLeaks saying it had an encrypted video of a U.S. air attack, were evidence of a leak and should be admissible.

Judge Colonel Denise Lind did not rule on the evidence. She ordered the trial into recess until a status hearing next Tuesday. The trial is scheduled to resume on June 26.

Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010 when WikiLeaks published the classified information. He faces 21 charges, the most serious being aiding the enemy, and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

A man was arraigned on indictment for murder on Monday by a California grand jury for throwing his ex-wife over the side of a cruise ship, according to the Orange County District Attorney.

The indictment against Lonnie Loren Kocontes, 55, includes one felony count of murder for financial gain.

Prosecutors said that that Kocontes and his ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki, divorced in 2001 but lived together on and off for the next several years. They were also comfortable with traveling together and in 2006 went on a cruise that left from Spain.

That's when Kocontes is accused of strangling Kanesaki, throwing her body over the side of the ship into Italian waters — and then reporting her missing.

He later moved over $1 million from their joint bank accounts and the proceeds from the sale of their shared home into his own accounts and his new wife’s accounts, according to the DA.

According to the press release, the money transfer drew suspicions from the FBI and the Orange County Sheriff’s department later found additional evidence against Kocontes. He was arrested in February of this year.

Although a judge already ruled on May 29 that the state of California has the right to try the case since Kanesaki was a California resident, Kocontes will fight to have the case thrown out during a June 26 hearing, claiming that local authorities do not have jurisdiction to prosecute him, The Associated Press reported.

He did not enter a plea after his charges were read Monday.

If he is convicted, Kocontes faces a life sentence but would also be eligible for the death penalty, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

AP

The official signature of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on a $5 bill, top, and Lew's signature on a 2011 memo.

Penmanship purists can relax: Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has straightened out his signature.

When he was nominated for the post earlier this year, Lew was mocked for his John Hancock — an aimless series of loops that was compared to the white icing atop a Hostess cupcake.

The top finance official in the federal government was given the humiliating nickname Loopty Lew. Worse still, the treasury chief is one of two people whose signatures grace United States currency. President Barack Obama joked that he might devalue the dollar.

But the Treasury Department on Tuesday released Lew’s signature as it will appear on bills this fall, starting with the $5 note, and it’s a little more grown-up. In fact, it’s borderline legible.

The first name arguably looks more like “Paul” than Lew’s real first name, Jacob. But the middle initial is an unmistakably accurate “J,” and the last name is at least a close approximation of the real thing — an L, an E and the faintest beginnings of a W.

Asked to explain the dramatic change, a Treasury Department spokeswoman would say only that it’s common for secretaries’ signatures to evolve once they get the job and start practicing for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Reaction on the Internet, meanwhile, was mixed. Some people said the country had dodged an embarrassment. But others were nostalgic, having hoped that the zany original would lend some whimsy to the greenback.

Kevin Roose of New York magazine mourned on Twitter: “boOoOoOo.”

Following a public spat between Chrysler and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration, the maker of the Jeep Cherokee on Tuesday finally agreed to recall 2.7 million vehicles. But it's not the biggest recall ever, and it's really just one more in a string of high-profile companies that have been forced to admit their products were faulty. Here's a look at some of the more notable recalls in recent history.

Tylenol – 1982

In 1982, seven people in the Chicago area died suddenly after taking cyanide-laced Extra Strength Tylenol. The company took immediate action and quickly recalled 31 million units of the product. The individual(s) responsible for the poisoning, however, were never caught. The incident prompted the food and drug industries to develop tamper-resistant packaging and product tampering was made a federal crime.

Tylenol – 2010

Nearly three decades later, McNeil Healthcare – Tylenol’s manufacturer – took much longer to respond to complaints of nausea and other side effects from consumers taking Tylenol products. After 20 months of receiving these complaints, the company took action and recalled about 60 million bottles of various Tylenol products.

Spinach - 2006

In 2006, at least three deaths and nearly 200 illnesses resulted from infections tied to E. coli-contaminated spinach linked back to a farm in central California. The outbreak cost the industry more that $350 million and greatly affected the sales of spinach for the years to follow.

Volkswagen – 1972

In 1972, Volkswagen recalled all of their beloved Beetles, made 1949-1969, for problems regarding their windshield wipers. At the time, VW’s wipers were notorious for loosening and falling off. After years of complaints, the company agreed to replace the windshield wipers on 3.7 million Beetles with an improved design.

Ford Pinto – 1978

In 1978, Ford recalled 1.5 million Pintos after an investigation by the NHTSAn proved that the Pinto’s gas tank was susceptible to explosion and fire after minor collisions. Three people died before the recall and six died in Pinto fires during the time following the recall but before the parts to repair the vehicle were made available.

Ford – 1980

During the 1970s, Ford battled with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding alleged defects in Ford’s transmissions, which caused some vehicles to reverse rather than park. But the NHTSA was unable to successfully recall the 23 million Ford vehicles believed to have this transmission fault. In 1980, the Department of Transportation agreed to close its investigation in exchange for Ford’s pledge to send notification and warning labels to the owners of the 23 million Fords.

Firestone Tires – 2000

Firestone voluntarily recalled 6.5 million tires in 2000 after the NHTSA began an investigation linking the tire company to nearly 300 tire failures. The government investigation linked Firestone tires to at least 46 deaths between the years 1997-2000.

Easy-Bake Ovens – 2007

Hasbro and the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled almost 1 million Easy-Bake Ovens after finding that children could get their fingers caught and burned in the oven’s opening. At the time of the recall, the CPSC reported five cases of burns, including one 5-year-old girl who was burned severely enough to need to have one of her fingers partially amputated.

Toyota cars – 2009-2010

Toyota made headlines in 2010 when the company recalled 5.6 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles for problems linked to sudden unstoppable acceleration. It’s estimated that the recall cost Toyota $2 billion, which includes the costs incurred by Toyota’s decision to halt both production and US sales during the investigation. The recall was the largest ever for Toyota and among the largest in automobile history.

Drop-Side Cribs – 2009

The Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled 2.1 million Generation 2 Worldwide and “ChilDesigns” drop-side cribs after the cribs were linked to the deaths of four infants and toddlers by suffocation. In December 2010, the government made the decision to outlaw drop-side cribs after 30 children died during the years 2001-2010from problems with the cribs.

Peanut Corporation of America – 2009

In January 2009, the Peanut Corporation of America issued one of the largest food recalls in history. The Peanut Corporation recalled more than 3000 products from 200 companies after their peanuts were linked to salmonella. Ultimately the outbreak caused a total of nine deaths and over 700 infections.

Ford Motor Company – 2009

In 2009, Ford completed a series of recalls totaling 14 million cars. According to the National highway Traffic Safety Administration, the cars recalled had a faulty cruise control deactivation switch that lead the cars to leak hydraulic fluid, overheat, and eventually smoke and burn. It remains the largest recall in US automaker history.

A stray kitten is recuperating after spending two days stuck in the engine of car that made a 1,000-mile drive from Oregon to Southern California.

Julia Di Sieno, who has been rescuing animals for 30 years, answered the driver’s call to rescue the kitten in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Di Sieno said that the driver heard the stray's cries when she left Oregon, but she continued with her journey, unsure of what to do. The kitten, according to Di Sieno, “was probably orphaned or lost. He was cold in Oregon and crawled into an engine compartment just seeking a warm spot.”

When she reached the car, Di Sieno could not find the kitten but could hear his cries, so she called Chuck Love of Santa Barbara’s Love Towing for assistance.

The liberators ran into trouble when the kitten – only weeks old and reasonably spooked – evaded their attempts to rescue him from the Honda Fit.

Di Sieno then managed to sedate the kitten, which she said, “made it easier to wiggle him through the engine’s small compartments.”

After an hour and a half of trying, Di Sieno was finally able to pull the feline from the car and into her arms.

 She decided to name the cat "Love" after the tow-truck driver who assisted her.

"He didn’t even charge us – just did it as a good Samaritan," she said.

Di Sieno is taking care of Love, who is healthy and now weighs over one pound, as he awaits adoption.

The Guardian via Getty Images

Edward Snowden speaks during an interview in Hong Kong.

Ever since Edward Snowden revealed himself as the leaker of classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs, he has sometimes been called a whistleblower. But is he?

Those who believe he has shed light on improper government actions say he deserves to be called one. But there seems little doubt that he cannot claim legal whistleblower protection.

For starters, the general whistleblower laws apply to government employees who expose wrongdoing, by protecting them from such retaliatory actions as firing, demotion, salary cuts, or blocked promotions. But those laws do not apply to employees or contractors who work for the intelligence agencies.

Instead, a separate law, the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, applies to people who held positions such as the one Snowden did as a contractor for the National Security Agency. Legal experts say, however, that it provides no protection to him for two reasons.

First, they say, he did not expose the kinds of actions covered by whistleblower protections — illegal conduct, fraud, waste or abuse. Some people have argued that the programs revealed by Snowden are illegal or unconstitutional. For now, they are presumptively legal, given the assent of members of Congress and the special court known as FISA that oversees intelligence operations.

But suppose Snowden’s supporters are right, and what he exposed was illegal conduct after all.

Then he would face a second problem: The Federal Whistleblower Protection Act protects the public disclosure of “a violation of any law, rule, or regulation” only “if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law.” In other words, Snowden could claim whistleblower protection only if he took his concerns to the NSA’s inspector general or to a member of one of the congressional intelligence committees with the proper security clearances.

Asked on Tuesday what chances Snowden would have to qualify for whistleblower protection, Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington — an expert on the issue — said, “none.”

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 3:16 PM EDT

Marice Cohn Band / AP file

In this Sept. 17, 2008 file photo, John Martorano is questioned about his plea agreement in exchange for testifying against former FBI agent John Connolly, in the Miami Courthouse.

Retired Boston hitman John "The Executioner" Martorano testified on Tuesday that he and James “Whitey” Bulger were “up to our necks in murder” by the time he committed what he described as his last killing at Bulger’s behest, more than three decades ago.

The former underworld killer also described his one-time boss as having a direct hand in a murder, saying Tuesday that Bulger gunned down a Boston bar owner for bragging about his ties to Bulger's "Winter Hill Gang."

"They took him out in the phone booth," Martorano said of the 1975 murder of Edward Connors, Reuters reported.

"I heard the shots. They came back and said, 'He's gone.'"

Martorano, 72, spent a second day on the witness stand in the famed mobster's racketeering trial. A one-time altar boy who notched 20 murders on his belt working as an enforcer for Bulger, he’s now a star prosecution witness intent on sending his former boss to prison.

Short-spoken and with a prickly sense of honor, Martorano said he was best friends and confidantes with accused Winter Hill Gang leader Bulger and his partner Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi.

Martorano has been free since 2007, having served just 12 years in prison after striking a plea deal that centered on his testimony.

Monday, Martorano tied the 83-year-old Bulger to a murder for the first time in the trial, saying that Bulger watched from a car as the hitman rubbed out another victim, Alfred Notarangeli, on his orders in 1974.

In a matter-of-fact monotone, Martorano has told his bloody tales many times – how he disguised himself in a butcher’s coat, construction hard hat, and false beard before shooting one victim at a Medford, Mass., restaurant in 1973, for example.

Or a triple-murder Martorano carried out five years earlier, when two teenagers caught bullets intended for a man who had slighted Flemmi.

Martorano himself committed perhaps his most sensational murder when he gunned down Roger Wheeler, the chairman of Telex Corp., in 1981 at a Tulsa, Okla., golf club. Bulger was at the center of that murder, too, Martorano has said.

Then Martorano says he killed his friend John Callahan to cover up Wheeler’s murder, again at the prompting of Bulger and Flemmi, he said Tuesday, according to the Boston Herald.

“They were my partners, and we were up to our necks in murder already,” Martorano said of what he’s described as his last slaying.

He liked guns to carry out his handiwork, telling CBS in a 2008 interview: “It’s the easiest way, I think.”

“I think I stabbed one guy,” he said.

Whatever his body count, Martorano says he’s not a hitman because he didn’t get paid to end lives. His services came free for friends, he said, out of a sense of loyalty.

“A hitman is a, that sounds to me like somebody’s getting paid, a paid contract. You could never pay me to kill anybody,” Martorano said. “I might be a vigilante but not a serial killer.”

If there’s one trespass the confessed murderer says he will not forgive, it’s the way Bulger double-crossed him. Prosecutors contend Bulger and Flemmi were informants for the FBI.

“After I heard that they were informants, it sort of broke my heart,” Martorano said. “They broke all trust that we had, all loyalties, and I was just beside myself with it.

“I’ll go along with a lot of things, but not no Judas, not no informant. I never informed or ratted on nobody, and if I could have killed him I would have killed him, but I wasn’t there, and that’s what I think he deserves,” Martorano told CBS.

He’ll exact his vengeance on Bulger on the witness stand, he’s said, but that doesn’t make him a snitch.

“One’s got the courage to stand on the stand, the other one’s doing it behind your back and dropping dimes,” Martorano said in the interview. “How can I be ratting on a guy who’s been the rat for 30 years? I’m trying to stop him from ratting anymore.”

Martorano got $20,000 in walking money from the Drug Enforcement Administration when he was released from prison, the Boston Globe reported, and more in royalties from a book about his life.

“In some ways he did get away with murder,” U.S. Attorney Donald Stern told CBS in 2008. “The only thing worse than this deal was not doing this deal. Because if we didn’t do this deal no one would have received any punishment for these murders. Corrupt law enforcement arrangements would not have been uncovered and prosecuted, and the cancer in law enforcement that existed in Boston for a number of years would have remained there.”

Stephen Davis, brother of an alleged Bulger victim, told NBC News affiliate WHDH on Monday after Martorano's testimony, “I’m glad to see them cutting each others’ throats, you know what I mean.

“That’s what kind of guys they were.” 

Related:

• Former Boston hitman says Whitey Bulger's FBI dealings 'broke my heart'
• Getting Whitey Bulger to the big screen -- who should play the mobster?
• As trial opens, Bulger's adopted neighborhood moves on

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:52 AM EDT

In what is feared to be the worst wildfire season in a century, a central California blaze is gathering strength from dry air and wind gusts to threaten hundreds of homes.

The Carstens Fire, which began Sunday afternoon, continues to burn through brush and timber in the Sierra Nevada foothills southwest of Yosemite National Park, according to Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).

“This fire is continuing to grow and as it threatens more homes, it’s required us to call in additional resources and firefighters in,” he said.

The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning over the weekend for parts of California. In response, CAL FIRE added additional firefighters and equipment to their team.

“While we are hoping we can make it through the next couple of days with minimal fire activity, we are prepared to respond if Mother Nature doesn’t agree,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, CAL FIRE director, in a news release.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 2,200 firefighters were battling the blaze along with 143 engines, several helicopters and various other crews.

Little progress has been made in containing the fire, as crews have been unable to contain more than 15 percent of it since Sunday. More than 1,600 acres have burned.

A firefighter was injured Monday, but the extent of his injuries is still unknown. Berlant said sprained ankles and heat exhaustion are common when fighting fires like this one.

More than 800 homes in counties near Midpines are threatened by the blaze and hundreds have been evacuated, Berlant said. While the fire is near Yosemite National Park, Berlant said he thinks the main threat is to homes.

Currently, Highway 140, right near Yosemite, is open, but that could change.

Officials say this could be the worst year for fires. Typically, there are about 1,100 wildfires with 8,000 acres burned by June. This year, CAL FIRE has responded to more than 2,100 wildfires with more than 50,000 acres burned.

When asked about a timetable for the Carstens Fire, Berlant said he was unsure because of the dry weather and gusty winds.

“That’s what’s fanning the fire,” he said. “At this point, it’s too early to tell when it will be over.”

The National Security Agency surveillance programs made public this month have helped foil more than 50 terrorist plots since Sept. 11, including one to blow up the New York Stock Exchange, top intelligence officials told Congress on Tuesday.

The officials appeared before the House Intelligence Committee and answered mostly friendly questions to defend the programs, which collect phone records inside the United States and monitor Internet communications overseas.

“I would much rather be here today debating this point than trying to explain how we failed to prevent another 9/11,” said Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director.

At least 10 of the foiled plots were “homeland-based threats,” he said.

Details of the surveillance programs became public after Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, provided documents about them to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Public officials have since called for his prosecution.

Alexander said he would provide details of all the foiled plots to the committee in secret Wednesday. Attempting to make a case that the surveillance programs are critical to protect Americans, however, the officials described several in public Tuesday.

In the stock exchange plot, the NSA used Internet surveillance to find an extremist in Yemen who was in contact with an operative in the United States, said Sean Joyce, deputy director of the FBI.

He said that intelligence agents were able to detect “nascent plotting” to bomb the exchange.

Joyce also said that NSA phone surveillance had led intelligence agents to someone in San Diego who was providing financial support to a terrorist group in Somalia. Joyce appeared reluctant to provide further details of that case.

The FBI official said that NSA surveillance helped stop a plot to bomb the New York subway system, a justification that public officials have previously used to defend the surveillance programs.

In that plot, Joyce said, the NSA intercepted an email from a terrorist in Pakistan in 2009 who was talking with someone in the United States about perfecting a recipe for explosives.

Joyce said that person turned out to be Najibullah Zazi, who later pleaded guilty in the plot and is in federal prison.

The programs also linked an American citizen in Chicago to the 2008 terror attacks on hotels in India and to a plot to bomb the offices of a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, Joyce said.

The American citizen in Chicago was David Headley, who earlier this year was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Headley had cooperated with U.S. investigators and foreign intelligence agencies.

Joyce said, however, that he could not pinpoint how important the surveillance programs were to stopping the plots.

“I think you ask an almost impossible question, to say how important each dot was,” he told one congressman.

Both officials insisted that the programs are critical to protecting the country, are limited and subject to rigorous oversight, and carefully protect the civil liberties of Americans. They stressed that intelligence agents do not listen to Americans’ phone calls or read Americans’ email unless they have a warrant, and said the secret court that monitors surveillance operations was not a rubber stamp.

President Barack Obama defended the programs in an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS on Monday. He stressed that it was important to him to set up checks on the system.

“On this telephone program, you’ve got a federal court with independent federal judges overseeing the entire program,” he said, adding that “all of Congress had available to it before the last reauthorization exactly how this program works.”

Asked how Americans can be sure that the NSA can’t simply “flip a switch” and listen to a phone call, as opposed to gathering information about the length and phone numbers involved, Alexander said it was the NSA’s intention to “do this exactly right.”

“We have not seen one of our analysts willfully do something wrong,” he said.

In introducing Alexander, the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said that Americans’ trust in government to protect the country has been damaged by “inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies” about intelligence programs.

“It is at times like these when our enemies within become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside,” Rogers said.

Alexander said that Snowden’s disclosures would have a “long and irreversible impact” on the security of the United States and its allies.

“This is significant,” he said.

Snowden, who left the country for Hong Kong before he revealed himself as the source of the leaks, said Monday in an Internet chat that the U.S. government could not cover up its actions by “jailing or murdering him.”

“Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped,” he said.

Joyce, the FBI official, was asked by Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., what was next for Snowden. After a pause, he said: “Justice.”

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:30 AM EDT