FBI via AP

This image from an FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin shows the remains of a pressure cooker that the FBI says was part of one of the bombs that exploded during the Boston Marathon. The surviving suspect has told investigators that he and his brother were inspired by an al Qaeda online magazine, federal officials say.

It is as slickly designed as any magazine you would find at the supermarket checkout line, or in the seat pocket in front of you on an airplane. It even has snappy cover headlines — teasing articles like “Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”

And now Inspire, the recruitment magazine of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, probably has its next cover story: It allegedly helped inspire the two brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the hospitalized suspect in the marathon attack, has told federal investigators that the brothers got information on building bombs from Inspire, law enforcement officials told NBC News.

The magazine, which terrorism monitoring groups say was published for the first time in 2010, exists mostly as PDFs and obscure links passed around the Web. In the Internet era, shutting it down would be virtually impossible, terrorism experts say.

It is published in English and targeted at Western audiences, particularly young readers who might have inclinations toward terrorism.

“It’s one thing to have Osama bin Laden speaking and subtitles, and how interesting is that going to be to a young, radicalized individual? As opposed to lots of graphics,” said Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

One issue, published in the summer of 2010, illustrated just how closely Inspire copied the eye-catching design of American magazines. Articles about jihad are advertised in the same style that Western publications use for 30-minute recipes or sex advice.

In the summer 2010 issue, headlines invited readers to check out an “Exclusive Interview with Shaykh Abu Basir.” Another advertised a piece about “Mujahideen 101.” At the bottom of the cover: “What to Expect in Jihad.”

Other articles have offered blueprints for destroying buildings and carrying out attacks against cars, trains and malls — particularly small operations to unnerve the enemy because “hitting him in his backyard drives him crazy.”

The advice for radicals is so practical, said Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, that it even offered advice on what to wear if you go on jihad — good shoes.

“The message,” Riedel said, “is you can advance jihad in your home neighborhood. You can strike America or Canada or whatever at home and become a hero. And here’s how to do it.”

The same 2010 issue included instructions on precisely how to use a kitchen pressure cooker, explosives and shrapnel to produce a bomb — the exact method of attack that authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers used in Boston.

On the cover, the article was teased as being written by “The AQ Chef.”

Inspire was the brainchild of Samir Khan, a young blogger and Photoshop whiz from Charlotte, N.C., who moved to Yemen in 2009 and leveraged his skills to help al Qaeda produce a magazine that could appeal to young would-be radicals.

He was killed in September 2011, at age 25, by an American drone strike in Yemen that also killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent radical cleric. Since Khan’s death, terrorism analysts said, the magazine has taken on a less professional look.

Part of the magazine’s appeal to its audience, the analysts said, is that it engages its readers: It invites them to share stories of their jihad skills. And getting published, just as it might in Time or People, imparts a certain celebrity status.

Jose Pimentel, an Algerian immigrant sentenced to 10 years in prison for plotting to blow up churches and synagogues in Manhattan, maintained a website with bomb-making instructions copied from Inspire, the ADL said.

And Naser Jason Abdo, a former American soldier sentenced to life for planning to use pressure-cooker bombs in an attack on a Texas restaurant, was found with a copy of the Inspire “Kitchen of Your Mom” article.

“Nothing makes them feel more empowered than having their materials published,” Segal said. “Frankly, that’s just really good marketing. Fortune 500 companies are trying to engage their demographics this way.”

Because it spreads through chat boards and email, just as a dishy story about a Kardashian might, or a rumor about the next Apple product, the magazine is almost certainly read by thousands of people. It is impossible to say for sure. 

“It becomes viral very fast, and people share it the way people used to pass around baseball cards,” Segal said.

The magazine’s link to the Boston case is critical, terrorism analysts said. While investigators have said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev claimed no links to terror groups, the mention of Inspire shows that the brothers were influenced by al Qaeda, they said.

“Inspire magazine was intended to inspire and instruct,” Riedel said. “And I think they can say it worked.”

Pete Williams and Robert Windrem of NBC News contributed to this report. Reuters and The Associated Press also contributed.

William Farrington / Polaris

The American wife of suspected marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Katherine Russell, leaving the house where he lived on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Mass.

The American wife of the dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect is cooperating with investigators, and her husband’s alleged involvement in the attack came as an “absolute shock,” her lawyers said Tuesday.

The lawyers would not say whether Katherine Russell, who is known as Katie and married Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2010, had already spoken with the FBI.

"The reports of involvement by her husband and brother-in-law came as an absolute shock to them all," lawyer Miriam Weizzenbaum said, speaking of Russell’s family, according to NBC affiliate WJAR in Providence, R.I.

"As a mother, sister, daughter, wife, Katie deeply mourns the pain and loss to innocent victims," she added.

Another lawyer, Amato DeLuca, said that Russell was doing "everything she can to assist with the investigation."

Russell converted to Islam after she met her future husband at a nightclub in 2009. She dropped out of college, got married and had a baby three years ago. She has been living in Cambridge, Mass., raising the child and working as a home health aide, the lawyers said. She has also been spending time with family in Rhode Island.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed after a shootout with police early Friday. His brother, Dzhokhar, 19, was captured that night, hiding in a boat in a suburban Boston driveway, after a daylong manhunt that paralyzed the Boston area.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and could face the death penalty. He was upgraded to fair condition from serious Tuesday at a Boston hospital.

Authorities said the brothers led police on a wild chase that began late Thursday. They shot and killed a college patrol officer, carjacked an SUV and engaged police in a wild, 200-shot gun battle, tossing explosives out the window of a car, authorities said.

The FBI checked out Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, after the Russian government raised concerns that he might have ties to extremist groups, but turned up nothing, law enforcement officials have said.

Meanwhile, The brothers' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, told the British broadcaster ITN on Tuesday that she was aware that investigators had talked to Tamerlan in the past, and that investigators had also spoken with her.

She said she was asked, "'He’s like a leader, he’s a strong boy, and do you think that he could get involved into kind of like any organization, you know like radical organization?' At that time because they told me that they saw whatever he was reading. And I said no, no."

"What happened was a terrible thing,” the mother told ITN from Makhachkala, in southern Russia. “But I know that my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it. I am mother. I know my kids. I know my kids."

And also late Tuesday, the suspects' sisters, Ailina and Bella Tsarnaev, who live in New Jersey, released a short statement through their lawyers, which read: "Our heart goes out the victims of last week’s bombing. It saddens us to see so many innocent people hurt after such a callous act. As a family, we are absolutely devastated by the sense of loss and sorrow this has caused. We don’t have any answers but we look forward to a thorough investigation and hope to learn more."

Related:

• Officials: Bombing suspect says he and brother motivated by religion
• Slain MIT officer's family: Losing him is 'nightmare come true'
• Survivor: 'I want my Boston back'

This story was originally published on Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:17 PM EDT

A mosque outside Boston said Saturday that the two brothers suspected in the bombing of the Boston Marathon were “occasional visitors” who never “exhibited any violent sentiments or behavior.”

The Islamic Society of Boston Cambridge Masjid said in a statement that its community was “in shock to have learned of the crimes of these individuals.”

People who knew Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the men authorities say set off twin blasts near the marathon finish line Monday, have been urged to call law enforcement and have done so, the mosque said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive hiding in a boat outside a home in Watertown, Mass., and was in serious condition Saturday and under heavy guard at a Boston hospital. Authorities were waiting to question him and were preparing charges.

Tsarnaev was injured in a firefight with Watertown police early Friday that left his brother dead.

Federal authorities are trying to determine a motive for the attack, which killed three people and injured 176.

The FBI confirmed that it questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 for possible extremist ties after a tip from a foreign country that he was a “follower of radical Islam” and planned to join an underground group.

Agents talked to him and neighbors and did not find “any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign.”

The Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, the largest Islamic place of worship in New England, closed for the day Friday after The Boston Globe reported that one of the suspects had worshipped there.

Related:

The quiet street where 5 days of terror ended

Lone officer confronted suspects on dark street, official says

'Best day of my life,' mom says after bomb victim opens eyes

What's next: The interrogation of the Boston bombing suspect

Secret weapon: How thermal imaging helped catch bomb suspect

Parents of suspects say their children were framed

Family of dead suspect's wife: 'Our hearts are sickened'

On social media, Tsarnaev's mixed religious fervor, whimsy

A nation cheers arrest of Boston bombing suspect

Slideshow: Timeline of terror hunt and capture

This story was originally published on Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:42 PM EDT

Three days after bombs shattered its most joyous day, Boston came together Thursday to seek comfort, honor the victims and, in the words of one minister, heal a city and a violence-weary world.

“I have no doubt you will run again. You will run again,” President Barack Obama told an interfaith prayer service, addressing runners who were maimed in the attack on the Boston Marathon. “Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act.”

To those who thought they could shake American resolve, Obama declared: “It should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. Not here in Boston. Not here in Boston.”

First lady Michelle Obama, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and other dignitaries also attended the service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, less than a mile from the marathon finish line.

“We are one Boston,” Mayor Thomas Menino told about 2,000 people gathered there. “No adversity. No challenge. Nothing can tear down the resilience in the heart of the city and its people.”

Rev. Liz Walker of Roxbury Presbyterian Church opened the service with the message of healing. Other speakers sought to reassure a heartbroken city that it would find strength in its grief.

“God has not forsaken Boston,” said the Rev. Roberto Miranda of Congregation León de Judá. “God has not forsaken our nation. He merely weaves a beautiful, bright tapestry of goodness that includes a few dark strands.”

Obama offered prayers for the families of the dead and praised Boston as an open-hearted city, one of the world’s greatest. He also cited personal ties: The president attended law school at Harvard, across the Charles River in Cambridge, and was catapulted to political prominence by a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

“Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city,” Obama said. “Every one of us stands with you. Because after all, it’s our beloved city, too.”

People began lining up as early as 6:30 a.m. to get into the service, in a line stretching 10 blocks, The Boston Globe reported. About half the seats were reserved for police, other first responders and families of victims. Runners, nurses and other well-wishers also turned out.

Related: Well-wishers ‘trying to be strong’ for marathon victims

The service took place while investigators looked for two men they want to question in the blasts, which killed three people and injured 176 on Monday.

Earlier Thursday, Obama met with the family of Krystle Campbell, one of the three people killed in the attack. After the service, Obama went across the street to a high school gym and thanked volunteers, and later to Massachusetts General Hospital to visit patients.

Pete Souza / The White House

President Barack Obama talks with staff at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass., April 18, 2013. The President visited the hospital to meet with patients who were wounded in the bombings in Boston, following an interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

As the city struggled back to life, the Boston Bruins played the first professional sports event since the bombings. During the national anthem, a crowd of more than 17,000 joined in singing, and was cheering and belting out the song by the last lines.

The explosions took place on the most celebrated day on the Boston calendar — Patriots Day, a city holiday commemorating the battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolution.

The cathedral was dedicated in 1875. It is led by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, who was considered a candidate for pope earlier this year. At the service, he offered love and support from Pope Francis, and he invoked the runners and race volunteers who rushed to help victims of the blasts.

“The generous and courageous response of so many assures me that there resides in people’s hearts a goodness that is incredibly selfless,” the cardinal said. “Summoned by great events, we can be remarkably committed to the well-being of others, even total strangers.”

Related:

• Bombing victims try to track down heroes who saved them
• Who is the FBI’s agent in charge of Boston marathon case?
• Anatomy of a bombing: Photos show device components
• Full coverage of Boston Marathon bombings from NBC News

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 18, 2013 10:16 AM EDT

With thousands of runners still on the course, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people, injuring at least 113 and turning the city’s most celebrated event into a grisly spectacle of shattered glass, blood and screams.

President Barack Obama said authorities did not know who carried out the attack but vowed to render “the full weight of justice” against those responsible. Minutes later, law enforcement officials said that an 8-year-old child was one of the dead.

Video from the scene showed two blasts about 20 seconds apart just off the course at the finish. White smoke rose, barriers flew, and throngs of people who had gathered to cheer the runners turned and fled in terror. They later reported seeing horrific injuries that included blown-off limbs and bodies thrown to the asphalt.

“All the sudden there was a massive boom. There was a sort of concussive blow that pushed a lot of people back. I could see runners falling in front of me,” said Dave Abel, a reporter for The Boston Globe who was about 10 feet from one of the explosions.

“When the smoke started to clear, I could see lots of bodies,” he said. “I could see one woman staring vacantly into the sky. I could see a lot of mangled limbs, a lot of blood and shattered glass. It was probably the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen.”

Larissa Brinkley, who came from Pennsylvania to run the race, said people dropped everything and ran the opposite way. Other witnesses described what at first sounded like a cannon blast or fireworks.

“Then it went off again. And then all of a sudden we heard people crying and running away,” said Serghino Rene, who was a few blocks away. “It was a huge horde of people just running away.”

Related: Witnesses describe pandemonium after blasts

The FBI took control of the investigation through its multiagency Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"It is a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation," said FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers.

As he announced the death toll had risen to three, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said authorities "will turn every rock over" to find out who is responsible.

"There is no suspect," he said. "There are people we are talking to."

Earlier, federal officials told NBC News that Boston police were guarding a “possible suspect” who had been wounded in the blasts, but they cautioned that there was no information at the federal level to consider that person a suspect.

A third, undetonated device was found near the finish line, a House Homeland Security Committee official and three law enforcement officials told NBC News. Authorities also reported an explosion at the John F. Kennedy presidential library, elsewhere in the city, more than an hour after the blasts, but police said that it appeared to be caused by a fire. The police commissioner urged people to stay inside.

Law enforcement officials later revealed that each of two confirmed explosives contained BBs or ball bearings, which functioned as shrapnel in the bombs.

In addition, police issued be-on-the-lookout alerts: one for a man seen leaving the blast scene in dark clothing and a hood and another for a rental truck seen attempting to enter then area near the finish line.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said the city of Boston would be open Tuesday but warned, "It will not be business as usual." He said security would be tight and Bostonians should remain vigilant.

"We're gonna get through this," Patrick said.

Hospitals reported that at least two children were among the injured. Dr. Alisdair Conn, chief of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, characterized the wounds as something Americans are more accustomed to seeing on the news from a military-style bombing in Iraq or Israel.

“We still do not know who did this or why, and people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts, but make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this,” Obama said from the White House several hours after the blasts. “Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

He pledged the full help of the federal government and said: “The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight.”

Related: Obama pledges federal help

Suspicious packages were found after the blasts at three Boston subway stops, and authorities were investigating. New York police deployed extra security to landmarks, Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to foot traffic, and the Pentagon tightened security. Federal authorities briefly grounded flights at the Boston airport as a precaution. 

The race is a signature event in Boston and has been run since 1897 on Patriots Day, the third Monday in April. Tens of thousands of spectators turn out each year to watch.

Race organizers said that almost 27,000 runners competed, representing 96 countries. The winners were Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia for the men and Rita Jeptoo of Kenya for the women. A special marker at the 26th mile of the course, yards from the finish, had been set up to honor the 26 dead in the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting last December.

The elite men began running at 10 a.m., and the explosions were reported just before 3 p.m. The winners had long ago completed the race — Desisa finished with a time of just over 2 hours, 10 minutes — but the explosions came as masses of other runners were approaching the finish. NBC affiliate WHDH said that storefront windows nearby were blown out.

Related: Slideshow of scene of explosions

“Right now I’m in my condo with about 50-60 people I picked up off the street including marathon runners. Setting up a camp,” Corey Griffin told NBC News. “They have nowhere to go because everything is shut down. Officials said to get inside. This is crazy.”

Evan Kohlmann, a terrorism analyst for NBC News, said that authorities would probably examine residue from the blasts to determine their type.

Adding that it was premature to identify a culprit, he said: “If this was a deliberate act, unfortunately it certainly would reflect something that we’re seeing. There’s an emphasis on these soft-targeted attacks now. We’re moving away from the spectacular attacks and we’re moving into the small-grade, homegrown attacks.”

Related: Images from the scene

Will Ritter, spokesman for Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez, who was running the race, told NBC News that he heard what sounded like two explosions and saw smoke rising near the Boston Public Library. He said that he saw three fire engines and police running to the site.

“We heard two really large explosions in rapid succession, about a second apart from each other,” Ritter said. “Everybody kind of ducked and hit the ground.”

The AP reported that runners and race organizers were crying as they fled the scene, and that bloody spectators were carried to medical tents intended for exhausted runners. Runners who were still on the 26.2-mile course were being stopped and directed elsewhere, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said. The agency suggested that people trying to reach loved ones use text messaging because of crowded phone lines.

Authorities gave a phone number for people in search of loved ones — 617-635-4520. They encouraged people with information about the blasts to call 1-800-494-TIPS.

NBC News' Tracy Connor and Jeff Black contributed to this report. Reuters also contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 3:05 PM EDT

Jon Sweeney / NBC News

The lines were long at the James Farley U.S. Post Office in New York as taxpayers wait to mail their taxes Monday.

Some people can’t stomach the thought of turning hard-earned money over to the federal government. For others, everyday life is just too busy. A handful admit a perverse thrill from waiting until the last minute.

And then there is Janet Metsa of Houghton, Mich., who had perhaps the most creative excuse for waiting until the final hours on April 15 to submit her tax return.

“We are making maple syrup and have been busy tapping trees in our maple bush and boiling the resulting sap. The tax deadline has just sneaked up on us!” she said. “We are not usually this late.”

Welcome to Tax Day in America — the Olympics of procrastination, the Super Bowl of stalling, the extreme sport of excuse-making, the high holy day of having something better to do. Festivus for the stressed of us.  

On Sunday night, with hours to go before the deadline, prime time for kitchen-table calculator-pounding, NBC News put out a call for readers to explain why they waited until the last minute.

We heard from people all over the country. They sent us emails. They tweeted. They posted to Facebook. All hungry to commune with others taking part in our national springtime ritual.

Jon Sweeney

Lyna Woo mails her taxes at the James Farley U.S. Post Office in New York on Monday.

Or maybe they were happy to find an excuse to put off the dirty work.

Emily Fritz of Richmond, Ky., keeps a box in the back seat of her car — a cute one, she volunteered, adorned with sea creatures and mermaids, better suited for recipe cards or old family photographs.

She works as a private nanny and keeps her tax documents in the box. It’s been sitting undisturbed for two months, she said, because she is dreading watching the numbers on TurboTax zip into the red.

“So instead of a refund, which I could SO use right now, I’m up at 5 in the morning writing this email and further avoiding my taxes because I don’t want to know how many thousands I owe,” she wrote.

An estimated 20 to 25 percent of Americans are chronic procrastinators, said Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University and — it turns out there is such a thing — a leading expert on procrastination.

It doesn’t take a doctorate to figure out why: We put off things that we consider “aversive,” meaning they are boring or complicated or unpleasant, like shuffling through forms with ugly names like Form 941 Schedule B.

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t keep day-by-day statistics, so there’s no way of knowing with precision how many Americans are April 15ers.

But we know that what they lack in timeliness, they make up for in numbers. Last year, the IRS processed about 148 million returns. With three days to go before the filing deadline, the agency had received only about 109 million of them.

You do the math. But then, that’s the problem, isn’t it?

“I will be one of those rushing to file tonight,” wrote Amanda Scott of Washington. “It reminds me of the feeling I got when cramming for a test in college. Those days are over, but tax day gives me a slight reminder of what my time in undergrad was like.”

This is a rare subspecies of the tax procrastinator, the people motivated by nostalgia. More common were people like Mike White, who figured he would be more likely to blow the tax refund on something frivolous if he got it early.

It did not appear to be his main reason. About four in five Americans now file taxes online, but White said that he planned to file on paper this year, just to spite the government. He added that Uncle Sam could kiss an unprintable part of his anatomy.

“I would send them a paper 1040 with Braille Roman numerals if I knew how,” he said.

Putting tax preparation off is not a phenomenon restricted to everyday Americans. The Obamas filed their tax return this year with a mere week to spare — $608,000 in taxable income, $112,000 in federal taxes paid.

The First Filers left themselves slightly more breathing room this year by turning in their return April 8. Last year, they filed April 11. The year before that, April 13.

So this is progress.

The closest thing to a dog-ate-my-homework explanation came from Vanessa Weiss of Hilliard, Ohio, who works as an agent’s assistant in an insurance office. She said she is a habitual tax procrastinator but has a good excuse this time — a computer virus.

“I’m going to a friend’s tonight to use her computer,” she said.

Then she added: “It doesn’t help that this year I have to pay.”

Related:

Here's why you still haven't done your taxes

More Americans think Uncle Sam unfair on taxes

This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:26 PM EDT

Sarah Cole / AL.com via AP file

People opposing and supporting abortion rights demonstrate outside the Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville in February.

When Virginia approved restrictions that could force abortion clinics to close, it joined a rapidly growing list of states that are energizing social conservatives by making it more difficult for women to terminate pregnancies.

Four other states have tightened abortion restrictions in less than two months — part of what abortion-rights groups say is an alarming trend since Republicans swept the 2010 elections. The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday called the Virginia restrictions “excessive and inappropriate.”

Anti-abortion groups see evidence of a break between the relatively stable politics of abortion at the national level and the action in the states.

“There’s a fundamental culture change going on,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, which supports anti-abortion political candidates. She called the recent restrictions “common-sense, common-ground” measures.

“The middle ground is exactly where most people are,” she said in an interview. “They want to see clinic regulation. They want to see parental notification. They don’t like late-term abortions.”

Arkansas legislators, overriding the Democratic governor, banned abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The Kansas legislature blocked certain tax breaks for abortion providers and declared that life begins at fertilization.

Julie Bennett / AL.com via AP

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, back left, Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, second left, and others applaud as Gov. Robert Bentley signs an abortion clinic regulation bill on April 9.

Alabama enacted a law last week requiring abortion doctors to have permission to perform the procedure at local hospitals, challenging a practice under which clinics bring in physicians from out of town.

And in late March, the governor of North Dakota signed the toughest abortion law in the nation — a ban on abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, a restriction that even some abortion opponents say is designed to provoke a court challenge.

“Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade,” Gov. Jack Dalrymple said.

In Virginia, the Board of Health on Friday voted 11-2 to require abortion clinics to meet the same architectural standards required of new hospitals. Abortion-rights groups say the standard is clearly designed to be so costly that clinics will have no choice but to close.

“This is a blatant attempt to impose a backdoor ban on safe, legal abortion care,” said Caroline O’Shea, deputy director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, which supports abortion rights.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that studies reproductive health, reported this week that 694 state provisions on reproduction have been introduced this year, about half of them to restrict abortion.

Among those are provisions in 14 states seeking to ban abortion before the fetus is viable. In recent years, the institute said, lawmakers had focused on regulating abortion, such as requiring ultrasounds for pregnant women.

“Legislators this year seem to be focusing on banning abortion outright,” it said.

Grisly Philadelphia case
Conservative bloggers, including at RedState and National Review, have lashed out this week at national media organizations for not paying enough attention to the gruesome trial of a Philadelphia abortion provider accused of killing seven late-term fetuses after they were born alive.

The doctor, Kermit Gosnell, faces the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors say he killed some of the fetuses by plunging scissors into their necks and snipping the spinal cord.

Stephen Massof, an unlicensed medical school graduate who worked at the clinic, testified last week that women were sometimes given medicine to speed deliveries and “it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.”

The accelerated restrictions on abortion come at a time when Americans have deeply mixed feelings about the procedure.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday found that 52 percent of Americans believe abortion should be illegal with some or no exceptions, compared with 45 percent who believe it should be legal most or all of the time.

Those figures have been roughly unchanged over the past decade, although the same poll found in January that only 44 percent believed it should be illegal with some or no exceptions.

Still, that January poll, timed at the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a limited right to abortion, found that seven in 10 Americans wanted it to stand, the highest figure since 1989.

Giving ground
The state restrictions have been enacted while national Republicans have given ground on other cultural issues.

Two Republican senators have announced support for gay marriage. Republicans are working with Democrats on a way to establish some path to citizenship for undocumented workers.

And on Thursday, 16 Republican senators joined most Democrats to overcome a threatened filibuster on a bill that would expand criminal background checks for gun sales and toughen penalties for illegal sales.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the Republican vice presidential nominee last year, told an anti-abortion group on Thursday that Republicans “need to work with people who consider themselves pro-choice.”

He also said: “We don’t want a country where abortion is simply outlawed. We want a country where it isn’t even considered.”

Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, pointed out that three dozen governorships will be decided in the 2014 election, and suggested the restrictions passed over the past few weeks would wake up voters.

“What we’re seeing here is an extreme position about women’s rights that was soundly rejected in the 2012 election at the federal level,” she told MSNBC. “These governors should be watching very, very carefully.”

Related:

Kansas lawmakers pass sweeping anti-abortion legislation

Abortion worker at trial: 'It was literally a beheading'

North Dakota governor signs toughest anti-abortion package in US

Arkansas lawmakers approve toughest abortion limits in nation

 A vast storm system that spawned tornadoes and killed three people marched toward the East Coast on Friday, delivering spring snow and ice to New England and promising to drench some of the country’s most populous cities.

On Thursday, storms tore through the Great Plains, Midwest and South. Tornadoes were reported in Missouri, Arkansas and Mississippi, and tens of thousands of people were left without power.

Storms blew the steeple off a church and killed someone in Mississippi, and a utility worker was electrocuted repairing damage in Missouri. Earlier in the week, a Nebraska woman died trying to trudge through a vicious snowstorm from her car to her home.

In Shuqualak, Miss., Kathy Coleman said she was outside her home Thursday, signing for a delivery of dialysis medication, when the storm hit. The deliveryman rushed her into the house, and the two of them huddled with the housekeeper in the bathroom.

“All I could hear was trees breaking and falling and glass,” she said. “He started praying and I started praying. Thank God he was here.”

Rogelio V. Solis / AP

Residents begin cleanup of debris from homes hit by a tornado in Shuqualak, Miss.

More coverage from The Weather Channel

Umbrellas bloomed at the Masters golf tournament in Georgia, and elsewhere in the state roofs were ripped off buildings and wrapped around trees like pieces of paper, one witness said.

In Rome, Ga., a wooden beam shot through a house 3 feet from where Tim Crouch was standing.

“I’m lucky,” he said. “I’m sure there are some folks out there who can’t go back to their home.”

On Friday, the system still had remarkable reach — bending from the Canadian border in snowy North Dakota through the Great Lakes and punishing the East Coast with storms all the way to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Bob Gathany / al.com via AP

Lightning strikes downtown Huntsville, Ala., as strong storms moved into Madison County Thursday.

Tornado watches were in effect in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. Parts of New Hampshire were expected to get 3 to 5 inches of snow, according to meteorologists for The Weather Channel. New York City, Boston and Washington were expecting heavy rain.

The storm was also having some positive effects, bringing much-needed rain to drought-stricken farmland in the Midwest.

Heavy rain on Friday morning even helped extinguish a wildfire that burned across 3,400 acres on the west side of the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va., according to a Marine Corps press release. 

Forecasters said a similar storm pattern was taking shape for next week, probably Tuesday through Thursday, packing both snow and severe thunderstorms as it plows east.

The Rockies, parts of the Plains and Upper Midwest could get snow again, The Weather Channel said, and severe storms could rip through the southern Plains and the Mississippi Valley.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:38 AM EDT

At least two people were killed and 36 injured Thursday when a bus carrying people to a casino overturned on a highway outside Dallas, authorities said.

The crash happened in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Video from NBC affiliate KXAS showed crews working to free trapped passengers and carrying people away on stretchers.

“People were screaming, on top of each other,” Dan Risik, who identified himself as a passenger on the bus, told KXAS. “I was on top of a friend of mine, and a woman was on top of me on my leg. I couldn’t move up, or what have you, until help arrived and they climbed through the windows.”

Risik said the bus was headed to Choctaw Casino Resort, just over the Oklahoma state line and about 90 miles from Dallas. Many of the passengers were elderly, Risik said.

Lm Otero / AP

Emergency responders works the scene of bush crash on the George Bush Turnpike on April 11, in Irving, Texas.

Lonny Haschel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, confirmed the two deaths to KXAS. Rusty Wilson, the assistant fire chief of Irving, said 36 were injured. About an hour after the crash, Haschel said it was not clear whether passengers were still trapped inside.

The bus veered out of the northbound lanes of a state highway, struck a rubber roadside barrier, skidded back across the highway, hit a concrete barrier on the other side and overturned, Haschel said. The bus carved deep skid marks into the grass in the median and came to rest on its passenger side.

Ed Cluck said he helped pull a number of people from the bus before rescuers arrived.

“It was pretty bad, people screaming. There was obviously a lot of pain,” Cluck said. “You could see the people that were obviously in very bad pain and shape and you just couldn’t get to them because there were other people on top of them.”

The National Transportation Safety Board dispatched regional investigators to the scene of the accident.

Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas said it received 15 people transported from the crash. Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving said it was treating six passengers.

Dr. Alex Eastman, a trauma surgeon at Parkland, said that the patients ranged in age from about 66 to 80 years old. Four patients in critical condition were taken to Parkland. All of the patients in critical were talking when they arrived, Eastman said.

Authorities closed the highway and a nearby toll booth and set up a command center in the parking lot of a nearby bank. The National Transportation Safety Board sent investigators.

KXAS reported that Irving fire officials ordered all their trucks to help.

NBC News' Matthew DeLuca contributed to this report.

KXAS

This story was originally published on Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:50 AM EDT

A man who was pinned by his overturned tractor and losing breath with each scream says he was saved by his two teenage daughters, who found the strength to lift the ton-and-a-half machine.

Jeff Smith of Lebanon, Ore., was trying to pull a stump out of his garden last Monday when his muddy boot slipped off the clutch. The tractor flipped, and the steering wheel pinned his chest to the ground.

The daughters, 16-year-old Hannah and 14-year-old Haylee, heard him screaming and ran to help. They reportedly lifted the tractor enough to free his torso and give him room to breathe.

“It’s amazing. You hear about this kind of stuff — this adrenaline rush, being able to pick cars up and slide people out,” Smith told KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland. “You never realize it’s really there until you actually witness it.”

The girls tried to dig their father’s arm out but struck compacted dirt. Hannah got on her four-wheeler and found a neighbor, who brought his own tractor and used its shovel to finish freeing Smith, the Albany Democrat-Herald newspaper reported.

Jesse Skoubo / Mid-Valley Sunday

Jeff Smith sits astride his tractor alongside his daughters Hannah, 16, and Haylee, 14 at his Oregon home Saturday afternoon.

Smith was treated at the hospital for a broken wrist and other injuries. Hannah said she called her mother before the ambulance ride. The mother thought it was an April Fool’s joke.

“I just can’t believe it happened, honestly,” Hannah told the newspaper. “We were supposed to go to a friend’s house. I don’t know why we didn’t.”

Since the ordeal, neighbors have finished tilling the garden, and the family has nicknamed the tractor Satan.

This story was originally published on Wed Apr 10, 2013 12:11 PM EDT