The Statue of Liberty made it through Sandy unscathed, but the property surrounding it was hammered by the storm.

NBC 4 New York obtained some of the first images of the damage Liberty Island sustained from Sandy. The storm left thousands of brick pavers torn up, a cracked sea wall and twisted railings and docks.

Liberty Island Superintendent David Luchsinger, the property's only resident, said when he first returned to the island he has lived on for three and a half years, he saw a tattered flag flying and the torch of Lady Liberty soaring -- a sign of resilience after the storm. He said he felt a wave of emotion, mostly pride, that the statue made it through Sandy. 

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His home, however, was all but destroyed. The 62-year-old Luchsinger said it won't be rebuilt and that he didn't think anyone would live on the island again once he and his wife left for good.

More from NBCNewYork.com: LIPA chairman resigns

Liberty Island has been closed since Sandy hit Oct. 29. Crews continue to work to clean up and repair the damage.

Luchsinger couldn't estimate how long it would take the island to reopen.

Long Island Power Authority Chairman Howard Steinberg has resigned from the board of directors of the troubled agency.

Steinberg resigned in a letter saying his private sector responsibilities preclude him from being able to devote the time needed to address the challenges at LIPA, according to a LIPA source.  

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The resignation is effective immediately. Gov. Cuomo's office would not confirm or comment on the matter.

His exit Friday is the latest in a string of departures following criticism of LIPA's performance in the wake of Sandy.

Steinberg's resignation follows those of LIPA chief operating officer Michael Hervey, trustee X. Christofer Damianos and vice president of customer service Bruce Germano.

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Steinberg was appointed by Gov. George Pataki in 1999.

The utility is being investigated for its performance after Sandy. More than a million customers lost power, and some remained in the dark for more than two weeks.

FORT MEADE, Md. -- Pfc. Bradley Manning spent six more hours on the stand Friday during a hearing on the WikiLeaks case, facing questions from the prosecution, the judge and his own attorney, David Coombs.

The discussion never deviated from Manning's treatment while at Quantico brig, focusing mainly on why he didn't complain about his treatment before January and on various incidents that may have led to the military to put Manning on prevention of injury status, which put more restrictions on him.

Manning did seem to choke back tears at one point when he spoke about his family.

When asked why he never complained about his restrictive status to his family during visits, Manning's voice hitched and his face got red. "I didn't want them to worry about me," he said. He added that he worried that he would not be allowed to have visitors if he complained.

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One of the Marine guards who was assigned to Manning testified Friday evening about how Manning behaved at Quantico, saying that he was not a disrespectful inmate, with the exception of an incident in January 2011.

The guard testified that Manning yelled at the brig commander, which led the guards to call a "code blue" and mobilize a response team to possibly remove Manning forcibly from his cell. In the end, Manning wasn't removed from his cell, but the guard explained just how significant this incident was in the facility.

Assange asks Obama to release leak suspect

"It was an extremely big deal to show disrespect to the commanding officer of the brig," the former guard said.

Judge Denise Lind asked whether it was standard for someone who is disrespectful to the commander to be placed on suicide watch as a result.

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"It never happened before," the former guard said.

Earlier, a prosecutor, U.S. Army Maj. Ashden Fein, read through dozens of weekly evaluations in which Manning said that treatment by his guards was "excellent" and the facility "very professional." Fein also walked through months of assessments in which Manning did not ask to be taken off of protective status (which is essentially one step less restrictive than suicide watch).

Despite arriving at Quantico in late July 2010, Manning did not ask to be taken off prevention of injury status until January 2011, the defense said, when he appeared before a board to plead his case for fewer restrictions.

The defense argued that Manning demonstrated that he might harm himself on several occasions - including once making a noose.

Among the exhibits presented in court Friday were two bedsheets. Manning said that he recognized one of the sheets and, when asked whether it was the sheet he had made a noose out of while in detention in Kuwait, Manning said, "yes, sir."

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The prosecution asked about Manning's handwritten statement on an admission form at the Quantico brig, in which he responded to a question about any suicidal tendencies with a cryptic "Always planning, never acting."

Manning said that when he appeared before the board in January 2011, the focus was on those two incidents. When the board asked about his admission statement, Manning told the court Friday that he had responded that it was really more of a philosophical question, so he gave them a longer, more intellectual answer.

Bradley Manning's psychiatrist says his recommendations ignored by Quantico staff

Manning said he argued with the board about what is really true or false, and explained that humans are fallible. He said it may have been a "sarcastic answer, given on a whim."

Manning did elicit laughter from some people in the courtroom when Fein asked him if he needed a "comfort break." Manning responded that he could wait. "Seven more minutes will be good," he said, adding, "I can control my bladder." The prosecutor said he would try to limit his next few questions to exactly seven minutes.

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In its most sweeping use of the Endangered Species Act, the nation's oceans agency on Friday proposed listing 66 species of coral as endangered or threatened -- and cited climate change as driving three key threats: disease, warmer seas and more acidic seas.

"Climate change and other activities are putting these corals at risk," Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in announcing the proposal. "This is an important, sensible next step toward preserving the benefits provided by these species."

Lubchenco argued that the benefits extend to fishermen -- some of whom are worried that any coral protection could mean less fishing.

"Corals provide habitat to support fisheries that feed millions of people," she said, as well as generating jobs through recreation and tourism, and protecting coastlines from storms and erosion.

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In its press release, NOAA emphasized that since President Barack Obama had directed agencies to minimize regulatory burdens it would strive to "adopt the least burdensome means" of compliance should it create protected habitat. "A full analysis of economic impact, including impact on jobs," will also be undertaken, it stated.

The proposal is the result of a court settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity, which petitioned to have 83 coral species listed. NOAA agreed to review 82 of those species.

"While the government decided that 16 of the corals we proposed do not warrant listing, the fact that dozens are moving forward with protections is good news," the group's oceans director, Miyoko Sakashita, told NBC News.

"Our coral reefs are dying and need federal protection," she added.

Last April, NOAA scientists reported that more than half of those 82 species were "more likely than not" to face extinction by 2100.

Corals are very sensitive to disease and temperature change, and the fact that seas have warmed and become more acidic as carbon dioxide emissions have risen led to NOAA's proposal and focus on climate change. The acidity weakens the skeletal structure of coral.

The polar bear is the only other species listed under the Endangered Species Act because of climate change, and that's because of shrinking sea ice.

Since climate change is global in nature, NOAA can't do much to protect coral from that threat, but Sakashita said actions that the U.S. could eventually take include protecting corals from overfishing.

"For example, in the Caribbean we have a lawsuit pending that challenges overfishing of parrotfish, which are important grazers for coral reefs to keep them free of algae," she said. "Other local threats that need attention include water pollution, dredging, or coastal construction that impacts coral habitat."

To date, just two species of coral -- staghorn and elkhorn -- are on the Endangered Species Act, and both are in Florida and the Caribbean. Now listed as threatened, they would be reclassified as endangered under the proposal.

Of the 66 species now proposed for listing, 12 would be listed as endangered -- seven in the Pacific and five in the Caribbean; 54 would be listed as threatened -- 52 in the Pacific and two in the Caribbean.

NOAA aims to finalize the listings in late 2013, after public meetings and a comment period. Comments can be made via NOAA's listing proposal site.

NOAA had never before analyzed so many species over such a wide geographic range. The closest in scope was a review of 30 West Coast salmon and steelhead species in 1994.

Friday's proposal came as nations met in Qatar to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol with a new framework for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Little progress has been made, and the talks continue next week.

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When Jeff Schmidt completed the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii earlier this fall, crossing that finish line after nearly 18 hours on the course meant more than just the end of a race. It signified a positive highlight in a long physical and emotional battle the San Jose, Calif., resident has faced for over a decade.

"It was exciting, because it's a dream," Schmidt told NBCBayArea.com's Garvin Thomas.

Fifteen years ago, Schmidt was a star player on his Missouri high school soccer team — a young man dreaming of a college career and then going pro. During the first playoff game of his senior year, he had just finished saving a goal, when another player hit the side of his shin as his leg was in the air.

At that moment, Schmidt's life changed forever.

"I knew instantly my leg was [broken]," Schmidt said. His leg ended up being set and cast in the wrong way, which caused permanent damage. That led to 10 years of constant pain, failed surgeries and not being able to walk very far.

---

Schmidt faced depression and thoughts of suicide.

"We didn't know how to handle that kind of stress," his wife, Jenny, told NBCBayArea.com. "It ... caused medical issues, financial issues, emotional issues. It was tough. We went through a lot of really, really hard times."

Eventually in 2004, it was suggested that Schmidt should have his lower leg amputated. But the suggestion made him mad.

"I felt like I had fought so hard to keep that foot and ankle that to suggest getting rid of it, to me was like giving up." Schmidt said.

But three years after that suggestion, he went through with the amputation.

"If something in your life is causing you nothing but anguish, and you can get rid of it, what do you do? You get rid of it," he said.

A second chance
At wife Jenny's suggestion, Schmidt, who now has a prosthetic leg, soon began training for triathlons like she was.

That brings the story back to 2012 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

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On the day of the triathlon, Oct. 13, Schmidt felt good going in to the race, but challenges eventually arose: The run portion turned into a walk for him.

"I don't like to give up," Schmidt told NBCBayArea.com. "It's not something that is really in me to do."

Then, just four miles from the end, race officials told him he would not make the finish line before the course officially closed at midnight. But that didn't stop Schmidt.

"I had come too far not to finish," he said.

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Nearly 18 hours after the race began, and half an hour past midnight, Schmidt was the last Ironman still going.

But he crossed the finish line, last, to cheers.

"We were in awe, really," said Tal Johnson, president and COO of Berkeley, Calif., race sponsor GU Energy Labs. "All of us. You know -- grown men, experienced athletes who were moved to the point of tears."

"Going through everything with my leg and the amputation, and to be able to come and finish at Kona ... to me it's one of the highlights of my life," Schmidt said.

NBC Bay Area's Garvin Thomas contributed to this story. The 2012 Ironman World Championship was telecast by NBC Sports on Oct. 27. Next year's Ironman in Kailua-Kona takes place on Oct. 12, 2013.

An earlier version of this report misspelled the name of GU Energy Labs.

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Security has been beefed up at the San Onofre nuclear power plant in Southern California after it was discovered that a generator there might have been tampered with, the plant operator said. The plant has been out of service since January due to a leak in a steam generator.

Southern California Edison said it discovered engine coolant in an oil system in the backup diesel generator in late October during routine monitoring. An internal probe found evidence of potential tampering, though it could not be confirmed.

The presence of coolant posed no safety risk, the company said.

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The news is the latest blow to San Onofre's majority owner, which earlier this month said the cost of the prolonged outage at the damaged nuclear power plant has topped $317 million. San Onofre's Unit 2 and Unit 3 reactors have been shut down since January after operators discovered a leak in a steam generator tube in Unit 3.

Technicians later found excessive wear on hundreds of tubes in units 3 and 2, which had been taken offline earlier for maintenance.

The problems center on damage to alloy tubing in four steam generators that were installed during a $670 million overhaul in 2009 and 2010.

A three-month federal probe blamed a botched computer analysis for generator design flaws that ultimately resulted in excessive wear to the tubes.

Last month, Edison asked federal regulators for permission to restart the Unit 2 reactor and run it at reduced power.

The utility and the NRC scheduled a public meeting on the issue Friday in Southern California.

However, an NRC decision is not expected for months.

The investigation into the potential tampering is ongoing, the utility said, adding that it has enhanced security at the nuclear power plant that sits on the coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. 

The company informed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the issue on Oct. 30 and told the agency of the potential tampering on Nov. 27.

NRC officials were not immediately available for comment.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A tennis umpire whose murder case was dismissed on Friday said she was relieved the case is over so she can go on with her life and her career officiating tennis.

“I’ve been treated fairly now,” Lois Goodman told reporters after the court hearing in Van Nuys, Calif. “It was just a tragic accident.

“I’m glad it’s over, so I can go on with my life.”

Goodman’s attorney, Alison Triessl, said she hopes the news sends a clear signal of her client's innocence.

“This is a wonderful woman whose name was tarnished all over this country,” Triessl said. “And hopefully today everybody knows that she didn’t do anything.”

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The news came during a preliminary hearing for Goodman, 70. She had a broad smile when she heard the news of the dismissal in court.

She was accused of stabbing her former husband of nearly 50 years, Alan Goodman, using a coffee mug as an improvised knife, prosecutors said.

"The District Attorney’s Office asked the court to calendar this matter today because we received additional information regarding the case," said Los Angeles County District Attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. "Based upon this information, we announced that we are unable to proceed with the case at this time.

"The court granted our request to dismiss the case without prejudice."

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Gibbons declined further comment, saying that "because there is an ongoing police and District Attorney’s investigation, we will not make any further statements that might compromise that investigation."

Alan Goodman's bloodied body was found in their Woodland Hills home on April 17. Officers ruled the death suspicious, because they initially couldn’t determine if foul play was involved, according to an LAPD press release.

But after launching a full homicide investigation and working closely with the L.A. County Coroner’s Office, detectives determined on Aug. 2 that Alan Goodman was killed, and they named his wife as the prime suspect, the LAPD said.

Goodman was arrested on Aug. 21 in New York, where she was set to work as a line judge at the U.S. Open. She pleaded not guilty to murder and had been under house arrest.

Goodman’s attorneys claim the police botched the investigation and argued that Goodman was not physically capable of committing the slaying. They also said that her DNA was not found on the coffee mug and that she passed a lie detector test.

A website and a Facebook page were set up to raise bail for Goodman. Family members praised Goodman in court records, arguing for her bail.

In a character reference letter in support of a motion to reduce Goodman’s bail on Aug. 28, Goodman’s youngest daughter, Allison Goodman Rogers of San Diego, wrote that her mother “is the most honest, loving, kind, generous, funny and trustworthy person you could ever meet.”

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Goodman Rogers wrote that she was raised in a “normal Jewish family” in the San Fernando Valley and looked up to her parents as role models. She believes the death was an accident.

“She would do anything for anyone,” Goodman Rogers wrote in court documents. “Happily married to my father just shy of 50 years, there was never once a foul word between the two of them. There was never once any sort of violence between the two of them.

"For her to even be accused of something like murdering my father is ludicrous! It’s simply not possible.”

Goodman’s eldest daughter, Joan Goodman, 48, of Glendale, wrote about fond memories of family trips to Palm Springs every other weekend. They went cherry picking and visited arts festivals in Laguna Beach.

Joan Goodman wrote that her mother was not physically capable of such an act. She said her mother had many ailments, including a hearing aid, arthritis, two knee replacements, a shoulder replacement and back issues.

“My parents were adorable together,” Joan Goodman wrote in court documents. “He was the yin to her yang. They were united in all their decisions.”

It's not just the two jackpot winners who hit big in Wednesday's Powerball drawing. Besides the $587 million grand prize, the lottery offered $131 million in other prizes, and those ended up creating at least 60 other instant millionaires.

Powerball sold 8,924,125 winning tickets for this week's drawing, said the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball in the 27 states that participate. 

Nearly all of them are for relatively small returns, but in addition to the two big jackpot tickets, there were 66 million-dollar tickets in 25 states. The winners have 180 days to claim their prizes, so there's no way to track down all of the winners. But a handful have already stepped forward, some of them with stories just as compelling as those of the jackpot winners:

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Take, for instance, the 22 Columbus, Ohio, cops who went in on a ticket that hit a million at a gas station in nearby Grandview Heights. They'll take home about $30,000 apiece once they divide up what's left after the government takes its 30 percent cut.

Lt. Kevin Conley, one of the winning officers, said none of the cops likely has grandiose plans — he hopes to finance a few vacations for himself and his wife.

"Remember, you're talking to a whole bunch of cops. We're not a whole bunch of people that'll be jumping around screaming and yelling. We don't do that," Conley told NBC station WCMH of Columbus. "Everybody's happy, and they're smiling. They're doing that."

Almerta Williams of Edgewood, Md., did the double: Because she paid extra for the Bonus Powerball option, her million-dollar ticket is actually worth $2 million. And even that was a mistake.

11 things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot

Williams told NBC station WBAL of Baltimore that she won only because she marked down the wrong number — she meant to mark down a 3, but instead she marked a 5.

"So I told my kids, 'You all make fun of me because I can't see?' I said, 'Me not being able to see got me $2 million. I'm a rich blind woman,'" Williams said.

For Larry Chandler, 34, of Highland, Ind., the $1 million he scored Wednesday should be enough to put him back in his home. He's been living with his girlfriend because his own home is in foreclosure.

"I've never won anything in my life, and I've played lots of different things. I just never won anything, so finally I won something, and it's pretty cool," Chandler said.

Chandler plans to be back on the line Monday at his job as a union electrician with BP. This week? He's spending it consulting with his dad, a financial planner, about what to do with the money.

That's a common theme. Besides Chandler and the Columbus cops, other million-dollar-ticket winners say they, too, will be back in the office.

Take Jerry Hucks of Rock Hill, S.C., just south of Charlotte, N.C. He also said he wouldn't abandon his job as a truck builder for Daimler Trucks. But he also said wouldn't be accepting overtime anymore, either.

Hucks was in his truck Thursday morning when he flipped on the light and saw the winning numbers on his ticket.

"I didn't even have the truck door locked, and I had a million-dollar ticket out there," Hucks told lottery officials in Columbia. "Then I can't believe I let three or four guys at work hold my ticket and Google the numbers, screaming, 'It's a $1 million!'"

Hucks told NBC station WIS of Columbia that he then called his girlfriend with the news and began driving home. His nerves held out until he hit the road.

Pretty soon, he had to pull over to throw up.

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It's a club where you might, in fact, use a club: Harvard University has joined the small but growing roster of U.S. colleges that have approved official student organizations devoted to kinky sex.

Harvard administrators were to formally approve the group, Harvard College Munch, on Friday, The Harvard Crimson reported. The recognition means the group, which has grown to 30 members since its informal founding earlier this year, can officially meet on campus to discuss issues related to the bondage-discipline, dominant-submission, and sadism-masochism communities, known collectively as BDSM.

More important, its founder told the newspaper, speaking under the pseudonym "Michael," is that the move bestows "the fact of legitimacy."

While Harvard's club drew widespread attention this week, it's far from the only BDSM club officially recognized by, or at least tolerated at, U.S. colleges.

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At the University of Minnesota, Kinky U is Student Organization No. 2370. It meets weekly — after office hours "for maximum safety and confidentiality" — to discuss "topics related to kink and the kinky community."

At Tufts University in Medford, Mass., Tufts Kink started meeting this semester.

"I think there’s a number of students who feel sort of isolated and alienated, and I think it's very powerful for them to have just a place where they can express themselves and a place where they can make friends," co-founder Anschel Schaffer-Cohen told The Tufts Daily.

There's no national registry of campus BDSM groups, but consensus is that the oldest is at Columbia University, in New York, where Conversio Virium meets on campus every Monday night at 9.

"Conversio virium" is Latin for "conversion of forces," and the group says it dedicates itself to 'the full exploration of BDSM, both in its sexual and spiritual aspects."

"We encourage acceptance and communication between members," its charter says. "We urge them to learn from each other's play styles and experiences and to set aside any assumptions they may have about who people are and what they do." 

Actual sex isn't allowed at such on-campus gatherings, which usually host discussions or the occasional live demonstration of safe and consensual kinky sex.

The point is to "raise general awareness of kink and to promote acceptance and understanding of BDSM," according to the bylaws of Risk-Aware Consensual Kink, or RACK, at the University of Chicago.

RACK is an intellectual group, it says, not a play group. It provides "resources to students who are interested in or curious about BDSM" and demonstrations that "give students an opportunity to learn from experienced members of the BDSM community about safely practicing kink."

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Updated at 7:11 p.m. ET: A man killed a woman in Casper, Wyo., on Friday and then headed to the campus of Casper College, where he killed a man in front of students during a science class before killing himself, police said.

The man used "an edged weapon" — earlier described by police, college officials and eyewitnesses as a "bow and arrow-type" weapon — in all three killings, including his own suicide, Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh said.

Walsh wouldn't identify any of the victims, including the killer, pending notification of their families. College officials said the man who was targeted in the classroom was a faculty member, whom they also wouldn't immediately identify.

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Walsh did say that all three victims were adults who knew one another and that the killer wasn't a current student at the college. The incident didn't appear college-related, he said.

The man appeared to have acted alone. "There is no one at large, and there is no threat of violence," Walsh said Wednesday afternoon.

Police found the two men on the third floor of the community college's physical science center, where they had been called to investigate a "traumatic injury" at about 9 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), Walsh said. Shortly after they arrived, they received a similar call involving an address about two miles from campus, where they found the dead woman.

All told, 33 local, state and federal officers responded at the campus, which was locked down temporarily while police checked for other suspects, authorities said. An alert on the community college's website said that all classes and activities had been canceled and that counselors were being provided for the colleges faculty, students and staff.

Casper College is a two-year community college of 4,400 students in Wyoming's second-largest city.

The school has a small security team on campus, but they're not armed.  

"It's such a small town that Casper police is very close," Fujita said.

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A six-year-old girl may get the pony she has dreamed of owning, thanks to the record Powerball jackpot her family just won.

The Hill family of Dearborn, Mo., who won half of the jackpot worth $587.5 million, appeared at a press conference on Friday with six-year-old Jaiden, who was adopted from China, clutching a stuffed horse as her parents were handed an oversized check made out for their share: $293,750,000.

"We’re still stunned by what’s happened. It's surreal and people keep asking us, 'What are you going to buy with it?' I just want to go home and be back to normal," Cindy Hill, 51, said at the press conference in which she, her husband Mark, their three adult sons and daughter Jaiden were introduced to the nation. 

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Since winning, the couple has considered adopting again, according to the lottery. Mark has spoken of getting a red Camaro; they also would like to take Jaiden to the beach, since she's never been to one. And they plan to start college funds for their grandchildren and nieces and nephews, as well as set up a scholarship fund at the local high school in Mark's father's name.

They are also looking forward to not working and traveling together as a family using their winnings, Hill added.

As for the pony, it will be coming -- but later.

"The pony’s not going to be for a while," Cindy said Friday. "I think we’re going to just stick with what we have planned, and maybe after the first year, go on a big vacation.” 

After hearing on Thursday morning that one of the winning tickets was sold in Missouri -- the other was sold in Arizona -- Cindy dropped her Jaiden off at school, went to a convenience store for a winning numbers report, and checked her tickets in her car.

"I didn't have my glasses, and I was thinking, is that the right number? Is that the right number?" Cindy said.

Upon seeing that one of the five tickets she bought had the winning combination, Cindy said she headed straight to her mother-in-law's house and asked her to double-check the ticket. Husband Mark, 52,  joined her there to see for himself.

With the odds of any single ticket winning the jackpot at 1 in 175 million, the Hills said they hardly gave a thought to winning. They spent $10 on tickets Wednesday evening and didn't check them again until Cindy saw they had won Thursday morning.

Cindy was an office manager until she was laid off in 2010; Mark works as a mechanic for Hillshire Brands, according to the Missouri Lottery.

They don't play the lottery often, and don't have any plans to move from Dearborn, a Kansas City suburb.

The couple traveled to Jefferson City, Mo., to meet with lottery officials after discovering they had won. When packing for the trip, Mark, still in shock over the magnitude of their win, said he stopped to buy toothpaste for his travel bag, and said, "I found myself in the store still looking at the prices."

"Old habits are hard to break," he said, adding, "We don't have the money yet!"

David Troutman, a former high school classmate of the winning couple, said on TODAY that they first posted the news on Facebook.

"I was on Facebook and I saw that his wife had posted, ‘Thank you God, we won the lottery.’ Of course everybody in town, all his friends, gave all thumbs up. It couldn’t have happened to a better guy,’’ Troutman said.

The Hills are high school sweethearts. In the tiny town of Dearborn -- population, 496 -- their identity didn't stay secret for long. 

“Word spread that he won so fast,’’ Troutman said. “I heard that it was a winner from Dearborn, and by the time I walked in the door my mom was on the phone, and she said, ‘He won. It was him.’ Who knows what the impact will be on Dearborn.’’

Jason, one of Cindy and Mark's sons, said Friday, "I hope we stay grounded. I hope we stay the same great people we were yesterday and the day before."

Dozens of others become instant millionaires too

Dearborn is about 35 miles north of Kansas City, the home of the Royals baseball team. While some speculated that the winning numbers -- 5, 23, 16, 22, 29 and Powerball 6 -- were based on Kansas City Royal greats' jersey numbers, the Hills said on Friday that they had done the computerized random quick-pick.

All but five states -- Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, North Dakota and Ohio -- require the lottery to release the winning names to anyone who asks, according to the Powerball site.  

No one has come forward yet to claim the winning ticket in Arizona, but on Thursday, a mystery man showed up at a gas station in Upper Marlboro, Md., claiming to hold the big winner.

Surveillance video showed a man in a yellow construction suit slowly amble up to the counter, where he pulled out some lottery tickets. After confirming that the numbers on one of the tickets matched, he can be seen in the video repeatedly pumping his fists. It’s unclear what the man was doing in Maryland with a ticket ostensibly from Arizona.

Modern coins go "plink" when they drop into a Salvation Army kettle. But gold is a softer metal; it goes "plonk." And in a Christmas tradition that's 30 years old this year, the gold coins are once again starting to plonk into the iconic red kettles. 

It happened Nov. 9 in Bettendorf, Iowa, when a 1/4-ounce gold coin worth about $500 was dropped in a volunteer's pot outside Schnuck's Market. It was nestled in a cardboard setting with cellophane wrapped around it, so it stood out when the kettle was opened, said Holly Nomura, development director for the Salvation Army's Quad Cities Corps.

Then on Tuesday, outside a Sam's Club in southwest Houston, someone — no one but the donor knows who — left a 1-ounce gold coin worth almost $2,000 in the pot, wrapped inside a $1 bill. Attached was this note: "A child is born, Jesus! Merry Christmas!"

It's at least the 15th straight year that's happened in the Quad Cities and the fifth year in a row in Houston. And it's always "a wonderful start to our holiday fundraising efforts," said Lt. Josh McKain of the Salvation Army's Irvington, Texas, corps.

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So far this season, gold coins worth many times their face values also have been left in Salvation Army kettles at a Sam's Club in Mishawaka, Ind.; at a Jewel-Osco store in Kankakee, Ill.; and in a kettle somewhere in Johnson County, Tenn. (It wasn't discovered until the bank started counting donations, so the precise location isn't known.)

The Red Kettle donation campaign began in San Francisco in 1891, and presumably gold coins — which were legal tender until 1933 — were part of the haul from the beginning. 

But the specific tradition of anonymously leaving a single gold coin in the pot is more recent. Most accounts say it began 30 years ago, in Quincy, Ill., but there's a friendly dispute over that — the Quad Cities unit in Iowa says it believes that the tradition began there, though it acknowledges it can't prove it.

For years, someone would anonymously leave a single 1-ounce gold coin in a kettle in the Quad Cities (besides Bettendorf, the three other cities are Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill.). That anonymous donor is believed to have died about four years ago, but not the tradition, as smaller gold coins have continued to pop up.

"Every year we have one," Nomura told NBC News.

'Huge motivation'
The national Salvation Army says it's gotten more than 400 gold coins from anonymous donors over the last three decades. They come from several countries. Someone has left a South African Krugerrand in a pot in Mason City, Iowa, since 1997, for instance.

But they're often Gold Eagles, which are U.S. coins minted in four denominations: $5, $10, $25 and $50. They're 92 percent gold (and 3 percent silver), so their real worth fluctuates with the market price of gold. They're intended for collectors and for transactions involving precious metals, not for general circulation. 

The condition and age of a coin can lower (or raise) its final value, but the U.S. Mint said that at Thursday's gold price, a 2012 1-ounce $50 piece in uncirculated condition would cost $1,978. A 1/4-ounce $10 piece (like the one donated in Bettendorf) would command $515.50, the Mint said. 

Obviously, you can't just throw one of those into a coin roll and drop it off at the bank. Eventually, the coin left in Bettendorf will be taken to a dealer to be appraised and then sold, with the proceeds going toward the chapter's $725,000 fundraising goal for 2012.

Until then, it's in a safe, "except when the media wants to film it," Nomura told NBC News. 

And that's not uncommon — the tradition has turned into a terrific publicity tool for the Salvation Army. If a gold coin shows up in a kettle somewhere, a press release is sure to follow.

But it also serves a larger purpose, said McKain, of the Texas chapter that got Tuesday's Gold Eagle.

"It's not only a significant boost for us this year as a monetary donation, but also a huge motivation for all of our kettle workers," he told NBC station KPRC of Houston. "Really, for all of us who are involved in the Red Kettle campaign."

NBC station KPRC of Houston contributed to this report.

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A Delaware couple was arrested after police say the couple's 12-year-old son was physically abused and malnourished while locked in his room for months.

The boy's father and stepmom are accused of locking the boy in his room for three months, only allowing him to leave briefly to use the bathroom.

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New Castle County police arrested Robert Hohn, 41, and Shannon Watterson, 39, Wednesday after police say the boy escaped from the home on the 100 block of Brookside Boulevard in Newark and ran to a neighbor's house for help.

The neighbor called police and said the child was not wearing shoes, had bruises on his face and appeared to be malnourished. Detectives say the boy's food intake was restricted putting him 20 pounds below medically accepted levels for his age.

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After checking out the home, police discovered the window of the boy's room was screwed shut, the door handle was put on backwards and there was no furniture inside the room except a lamp.

Police say three other children, ages 9, 10 and 14 were also living at the home.

The boy is being treated at A.I. Dupont Hospital for Children. The other kids are in the custody of a family member.

Hohn and Watterson were both charged with felony child abuse and several counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Both failed to post bail and remained behind bars Thursday afternoon.

FORT MEADE, Md. -- The U.S. soldier accused in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history broke his silence in court Thursday, speaking in great length and detail about his time in various U.S. military detention facilities.

In the third day of a hearing to determine whether he should face court-martial, Pfc. Bradley Manning began by describing the day he was detained in Iraq on May 27, 2010, and then described each cell and detention facility he's been in since.

After a few days in a facility in Iraq, Manning was taken to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait. He characterized his cell there as a "cage," dark and with no air conditioning. Manning said that after several weeks in the segregation tent at Camp Arifjan he felt like a caged animal. "I was a mess, I totally started to fall apart," he said.

Manning described how he "started to really deteriorate,” and how he was anxious all the time. "I'm going to die, I'm stuck inside this cage," he said he thought to himself, adding, "I had pretty much given up."

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He said that on June 30, 2010, he had a mental break from reality. Manning said that he doesn't remember yelling uncontrollably, screaming, mumbling, or making a noose out of his bedsheets, describing everything from those hours as foggy and hazy.

Manning acknowledged that he "certainly contemplated" suicide but that he "didn't want to die," he just wanted to "get out of the cage."  After several weeks of medication, Manning said, he began to "flatten out."

That July, he found out he was moving to another facility, but he had no idea where he was going. He speculated that he could be going to Guantanamo Bay, saying that he was "very scared" and "had no idea" what would happen to him. It wasn't until he was on a plane in Germany that he found out he was flying to Baltimore-Washington International Airport.WI.

Manning said he was "elated" to be back on U.S. soil, but that feeling was trampled when he arrived at Quantico for in-processing. He testified that the Marines conducted a "shark attack" on him, forcing him to fill out paperwork for hours, barking at him the entire time.

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During those hours, Manning answered a question about any suicidal tendencies by saying that he is "always plotting, but never acting."  He wasn't thinking about what he was writing so he responded sarcastically he said, adding that he now regrets that. That statement would haunt him for the duration of his time at Quantico.

Manning was placed on suicide risk when he arrived at Quantico, and he stayed at virtually the same restrictive level for his entire nine months there.

During Thursday’s hearing he used a diagram made of white tape on the floor of the courtroom to illustrate how small his Quantico cell was. He put on a suicide smock (the thick, heavy jumper he was given to sleep in at night), showed a suicide mattress, and described his daily life there.

Manning was always in restraints when out of his cell, and he described in detail a minor altercation he had with the guards in January 2011 that led to even further restrictions.

Manning, frustrated to still be on restrictions in March 2011, tried to make his case to the commander at the brig. He argued that if he wanted to kill himself, he could just use his socks or underwear, something already in his cell.

As expected, that caused the brig leadership to begin taking his clothes away from him at night, citing the need to protect him from harming himself. This was how Manning ended up standing naked at count one morning. Manning testified that he spent several minutes standing completely naked as the guards counted the prisoners after his first night without clothes. His clothes were taken away again that night (and every night after that), but the following mornings the guards had his clothes waiting for him before count.

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In April 2011, Manning was transferred to the Joint Detention Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He described how strange it felt to be allowed to move around without leg and arm restraints. "It felt awkward," he said. He was surprised to see that at his new facility he was not only given underwear, but he had a T-shirt, shorts, sheets, blankets, a pillow and toiletry items.

Manning testified that this was a "huge upgrade" and he was actually concerned that it was a mistake or miscommunication. Manning got into a verbal and physical altercation with another detainee at Leavenworth, but they were both punished and he has not had any other problems since then.

Overall, Manning testified for more than six hours this afternoon. He was polite, answering sir or ma'am to every question. He rambled at times, clearly unsure how to answer certain questions from his own attorney, and often forgetting names and dates.

We learned a little bit about how he spent his 21 to 23 hours per day in solitary ... he testified that he wasn't allowed to exercise in his cell at Quantico, so he would often "practice various dance moves," calling it "a form of pseudo exercising."

He said he often made faces at himself in the mirror in his cell and played peek a boo with himself, calling the mirror "the most entertaining thing in there." He said he knew he was looking at himself in the mirror, and that he "wasn't seeing anyone else."

Manning acknowledged that he would pretend to lift imaginary weights, calling it strength training, and that he did pretend to have sword fights with himself and that he knew that the guards were watching him.

And he said he prefers non-fiction books and enjoys reading about philosophy and history, but he named John Grisham and Tom Clancy as a couple of his favorite authors.

Court is now in recess. Manning is back in court Friday morning for cross examination from the prosecution.

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NEW YORK -- All civil litigation between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the hotel maid who claimed that he sexually assaulted her has been settled in principle but no paperwork has been signed yet, according to a source familiar with the case.

The parties are expected to be in court next week in the Bronx to finalize the settlements. 

The civil case emerged from the hotel-room encounter that spurred now-dismissed criminal charges against Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief who was a likely contender to be the next president of  France before the scandal exploded.

The housekeeper, Nafissatou Diallo said Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her when she arrived to clean his Manhattan hotel suite. Strauss-Kahn denied doing anything violent during the encounter.

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Lawyers for both sides are not commenting at this time.

See a timeline of the case here.

Prosecutors dropped related criminal charges in the summer of 2011, saying they had developed doubts about Diallo's trustworthiness because she had lied about her background and her actions right after the alleged attack. 

Jonathan Dienst is chief investigative reporter for WNBC.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Lawyers for a woman mauled by a chimpanzee in Connecticut have agreed to a settle a lawsuit against the estate of the primate's now-dead owner, according to court documents obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Attack victim Charla Nash's brother filed the lawsuit on her behalf in 2009 in state Superior Court seeking $50 million in damages from chimp owner Sandra Herold, who died in 2010. Nash was blinded, lost both hands and underwent a face transplant after being mauled outside Herold's home in Stamford in February 2009.

Lawyers for Nash's twin brother, Michael Nash, accused executors of Herold's estate earlier this week of withholding information needed to complete the settlement, according to a court document obtained by the AP.

An attorney for Herold's estate said Thursday that his office has since provided the information and the settlement is nearly finalized. He declined to elaborate and said the settlement will be confidential.

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"The case is resolved," said Brenden Leydon, a Stamford lawyer representing Herold's estate. "I think it was a fair compromise on all sides."

Leydon had argued that Herold's estate couldn't be sued because Charla Nash was an employee of Herold and any claims were a worker's compensation matter.

Messages were left Thursday for Michael Nash and his lawyer. Charla Nash's other brother, Stephen Nash, declined to comment.

Chimp attack victim speaks about new face, new hopes  

Charla Nash, 57, now lives in a nursing home outside of Boston. She had gone to Herold's home on the day of the attack to help lure Herold's 200-pound chimpanzee, Travis, back into her home. But the animal went berserk and ripped off Nash's nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being shot to death by a police officer.

Travis had starred in TV commercials for Old Navy and Coca-Cola when he was younger and made an appearance on the "The Maury Povich Show." The chimpanzee was the constant companion of the widowed Herold and was fed steak, lobster and ice cream. The chimp could eat at the table, drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet and dress and bathe himself.

A month after the mauling, Nash's family sued Herold for alleged negligence and recklessness. The lawsuit alleged Herold knew Travis was dangerous but failed to confine him to a secure area and allowed him to roam her property. It also claimed Herold gave the chimp medication that exacerbated his "violent propensities."

Behind the scenes with the real Charla Nash  

Travis had previously bitten another woman's hand and tried to drag her into a car in 1996, bit a man's thumb two years later and escaped from her home and roamed downtown Stamford for hours being captured in 2003, according to the lawsuit.

Nash's family is also trying to sue the state for $150 million but is awaiting permission from the state claims commissioner. The state is immune from lawsuits unless they're allowed by the claims commissioner.

Nash wants to sue the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which she holds responsible for not seizing the animal before the attack despite a state biologist's warning it was dangerous.

"I hope and pray that the commissioner will give me my day in court," Charla Nash told reporters following a hearing in August before Claims Commissioner J. Paul Vance Jr. She added that she hopes "this never happens to anyone else again. It is not nice."

Court documents obtained by the AP on Thursday show the settlement between Nash's family and Herold's estate was approved Sept. 25 by the Stamford Probate Court and the two sides met Nov. 13 to finalize it.

A lawyer for Michael Nash, Matthew Newman, said in a court document filed Tuesday that since Nov. 13, "executors have failed and refused to provide information necessary to complete the settlement."

Leydon said Thursday that Newman now has the needed information. 

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Drought is tightening its grip on the central United States as winter weather sets in, threatening to ravage the new wheat crop and spelling more hardship for farmers and ranchers already weary of the costly and ongoing dry conditions.

While conditions started to improve earlier in November, they turned harsh to close out the month as above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation proved a dire combination in many regions, according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly compilation of data gathered by federal and academic scientists issued Thursday.

Forecasts for the next several days show little to no relief and weather watchers are predicting a drier than average winter for much of the central United States.

"The drought's impacts are far reaching," said Eric Luebehusen, a meteorologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in the report.

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The U.S. High Plains, which includes key farm states of Nebraska, South Dakota, and Kansas, are the hardest hit. In that region, almost 58 percent of the land area is in extreme or exceptional drought, the worst categories of drought. A week ago, the tally was 55.94 percent.

Nebraska is by far the most parched state in the nation. One hundred percent of the state is considered in severe or worse drought, with 77.46 percent of the state considered in "exceptional" drought - the worst level, according to the Drought Monitor.

Overall, roughly 62.65 percent of the contiguous United States was in at least "moderate" drought as of November 27, up from 60.09 percent a week earlier,

The portion of the contiguous United States under "extreme" or "exceptional" drought - the two most dire classifications - expanded to 20.12 percent from 19.04 percent.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week that U.S. farm income will drop by 3 percent this year due in part to the ravages of the worst drought in half a century. So far, crop insurers have paid $6.3 billion on losses this year, USDA said. Some analysts say the still-persisting drought in the Farm Belt will drive indemnities to $20 billion.

On top of the crop losses in 2012, more losses are likely for 2013 if soil moisture does not improve. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said this week that the condition of the winter wheat crop fell to an all-time low for late November with only 33 percent of the new crop rated good to excellent, and 26 percent was rated poor to very poor as the plants headed into winter dormancy.

In South Dakota, 64 percent of the crop was rated poor to very poor; and at least 40 percent of the wheat crop in Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma was also rated poor to very poor. Top producer Kansas had 25 percent of its crop rated poor to very poor.

Though light showers are possible through the Mississippi Valley and possibly into southern Texas in the next few days, dry, warm conditions are expected across the remainder of the contiguous United States, the Drought Monitor said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecast warmer-than-average temperatures in much of Texas, northward through the Central and Northern Plains and westward across the Southwest. A drier-than-average winter is forecast for Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and through the upper Midwest.

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