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  • Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins National Spelling Bee

    Slideshow: National Spelling Bee

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Snigdha Nandipati won the 2012 National Spelling Bee, which featured 278 spellers from around the country.

    Launch slideshow

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    Snigdha Nandipati clinched the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee title with the French word guetapens. (If you're feeling cheeky, you could say that no guetapens could have tripped up Snigdha.) She won in the 13th round, beating Stuti Mishra, a 14-year-old from Orlando, Fla. Arvind Mahankali, a 12-year-old from Bayside Hills, N.Y. was third place for the second year in a row.

    Snigdha is an 8th grade student at Francis Parker School, a private school in Mission Valley, according NBC San Diego. She also competed in last year’s contest and tied for 27th place. She was eliminated when she misspelled "kerystic."

    Read the story at NBCSanDiego.com

    According to the Spelling Bee's official web site, Snigdha reads mysteries, adventure stories and "random facts in encyclopedias, particularly those topics pertaining to science or history." She also enjoys collecting coins from around the world. She plays violin, is a member of her school yearbook club and is fluent in Telugu.

    Her grandfather, who traveled from India with her grandmother to watch her compete, promised her a trip to India if she won, according to the announcers. When she won, he rushed up to the stage and gave her a hug as confetti fell around them.   

    One of the announcers said that Snigdha means "smooth like honey" -- we weren't able to verify that, but we'll roll with it. She was cool and confident throughout the contest, which last two days. As she said minutes she won, "I knew my words."

    Below is the feed from the final rounds:

    10 p.m.: Snigdha Nandipati is trending on Twitter! 

    9:43 p.m.: "Is there any word you didn't know?" Snigdha responds, "I knew my words." Apparently she studied 10 to 12 hours on weekends and six hours on weekdays.

    9:40 p.m.: One of the announcers says that Snigdha lives up to her name, which means "smooth like honey." A bit of a leap, but I'll go with it -- she was cool and unflappable.

    9:39 p.m.: Snigdha's grandfather apparently promised her a trip to India if she won. Snigdha tells the announcer that this is a "miracle." She apparently knew the word when she heard it.

    9:37 p.m.: Congratulations Snigdha Nandipati, who wins with "guetapens"! Her father wrote a computer program to help her study, and it paid off. The confetti is everywhere. (Guetapens means "an ambush, snare or trap.")

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Lena Greenberg, 14, of Philadelphia, reacts after spelling a word incorrectly and being eliminated during the finals of the National Spelling Bee Thursday, May 31, 2012 in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

    9:36 p.m.: @ScrippsBee tells us there have been co-champions three times and that the last time was in 1962.

    9:36 p.m.: It's not over yet! But Stuti misspelled her word, schwarmerei.

    9:34 p.m.: Oooh, apparently Stuti and Snigdha did not "exchange much chitchat during the break." Stuti's little sister has been staring at her intently as she spells her word.

    9:28 p.m.: We may be here for a while. Love that Snigdha, Speller 44, just said, "right, arrondissement." As in, I used to live in the 14th arrondissement in Paris.

    9:25 p.m.: We're down to two spellers. Nail biter. Snigdha aces "admittatur."

    9:21 p.m.: Arvind, who is 12, misspells schwannoma. He finishes third for the second year. He'll be able to return next year.

    9:20 p.m.: Oh my word. Dr. Bailey uses "schwannoma" in a sentence: "M-m-m-my schwannoma." Was Arvind even alive when Reality Bites came out? (I just looked it up. No.) 

    Alex Wong / Getty Images

    Lena Greenberg of Philadelphia celebrates with fellow speller Nicholas Rushlow of Pickerington, Ohio, after she correctly spelled her word.

    9:14 p.m.: We should have noted that Lena got out for "geistlich," from the German for ghost.

    9:12 p.m.: Down to the last three spellers! Arvind, Snigdha and Stuti remain on stage.

    9:09 p.m.: Nicholas Rushlow gets another French word, vetiver, which he misspells. (He says, "another one?" referring to another word of French origin. What he was really thinking, he says later: "Oh crap.") His parents, clutching each others' hands in the audience, are his coaches.

    9:08 p.m.: Arvind Mahankali of New York, who was at the Bee last year, is considered the favorite by many. He just correctly spelled quattrocento, which means fifteenth century.

    9:07 p.m.: Love the judges who counsel the spellers to "watch Dr. Bailey's lips" and to "watch the time."

    9:05 p.m.: Gifton Wright is out with ericeticolous, receives a standing ovation from his fellow spellers. Apparently you don't see this often. Gifton spells the word with an "o."

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Frank Cahill, 14, of Parker, Colo., reacts as he spells a word during the finals of the National Spelling Bee on Thursday. He was eliminated.

    8:55 p.m.: "That luteovirescent shirt so does not go with those skinny jeans." -- Dr. Bailey

    8:54 p.m.: Lena Greenberg is a delight. She just spelled yttriferous, her voice rising an octave with each letter.

    8:53 p.m.: The last word was "rouille" and Nicholas Rushlow nailed it with just seconds on the clock. Not fair. I haven't had dinner yet.

    8:50 p.m.: Dr. Jacques Bailey, the official pronouncer of the Bee, was the 1980 champion. He apparently trained with a nun at his Catholic school. He says that when he joined the Bee, he "kind of had an attitude."

    8:44 p.m.: Gifton Wright takes the stage and my palms start to sweat. We're literally spelling the word out loud with him as he spells p-h-t-h-i-s-i-o-l-o-g-y.  

    Reuters

    Emma Ciereszynski, 14, from Dover, New Hampshire, reacts as she incorrectly spells a word in the final round.

    8:41 p.m. Frank Cahill of Parker, Colo. has been given the word "porwigle": Frog or toad larva that at hatching has a rounded body, also known as a tadpole. Countdown ... trips up and spells it p-o-r-w-i-g-g-l-e.

    8:40 p.m.: Apparently some of these kids spend 600 hours practicing.

    8:31 p.m.: My favorite response so far, to the word "otosteon" -- Lena Greenberg of Philadelphia just said, "What?" The audience laughed. Her mother had her head in her hands. The announcer said she doesn't watch her daughter spell.  

    8:30 p.m.: My favorite comment so far, about Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego: "A strong threat to go deep this time." 

    8:23 p.m.: I'm not sure what's more stressful -- watching the parents or watching the spellers.

    Alex Brandon / AP

    Snigdha Nandipati, 14, of San Diego, Calif., spells a word during the finals of the National Spelling Bee Thursday.

    8:22 p.m.: There are now seven contestants remaining at the National Spelling Bee. Two were eliminated in the time it took simply to format this blog.

    8:21 p.m.: Ouch: The National Spelling Bee's Twitter feed: "Speller 145, Emma Ciereszynski, spells ridotto incorrectly in Round Seven of the Bee. ‪#spellingbee‬ She's out."

    Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

    Jordan Hoffman, 14, of Lee's Summit, Missouri, reacts as she incorrectly spells a word in the final round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee at National Harbor in Maryland May 31, 2012.

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  • Jury awards $3 million in man's threesome sex death

    By msnbc.com staff

    The estate of a Georgia man who died during three-way sex with a friend and a woman who wasn’t his wife was awarded $3 million in a medical malpractice suit, his lawyers said.


    A Gwinnett County jury determined Tuesday there were $5 million in damages, but because it found William Martinez of Lawrenceville was 40 percent liable for his death on March 12, 2009, the award was reduced, the lawyers from Edmond and Lindsay of Atlanta said.

    The jury agreed that cardiologist Sreenivasulu Gangasani of CardioVascular Group in Lawrenceville failed to warn Martinez to stop all physical activity in the week between the time Martinez came to see him with complaints about chest pains radiating into his arm and a heart stress test -- scheduled the day after the patient died.

    Cheating guys more likely to die of a heart attack

    "Our case was strong on the medicine, but the case was particularly challenging and unusual due to some extraordinary and sensational facts surrounding the victim’s death,” said attorney Rod Edmond, who is also a medical doctor, in a prepared statement. 

    "We’re definitely going to appeal the verdict and the judgment," attorney Gary Lovell Jr., who represented Gangasani and CardioVascular Group, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

    It was unclear if the money would go to Martinez's his wife and two sons.

    Msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this article. Follow him on Facbeook here.

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  • EPA planes spying on ranchers? Lawmakers want answers

    EPA

    A Maine dairy farm's manure lagoon is seen leaking into a stream. The Environmental Protection Agency says its overflights of farms and ranches help detect pollution like this 2006 case.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    A Nebraska cattlemen’s group is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to stop pollution-control flights over ranches, claiming it amounts to spying on citizens. EPA, meanwhile, says the flights are an effective way to quickly spot -- and stop -- pollution from manure lagoons and other waste at large livestock operations.

    Nebraska's five federal lawmakers joined the fight this week, demanding to know on what authority EPA is flying over and photographing private property. The lawmakers sent their demands to EPA chief Lisa Jackson on Tuesday, listing a battery of questions and demanding answers by June 10. 


    EPA has been operating these flights across the country for nearly 10 years. 

    "These operations are in many cases near homes, and landowners deserve legitimate justification given the sensitivity of the information gathered by the flyovers," Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said in a statement. "Nebraskans are rightfully skeptical of an agency which continues to unilaterally insert itself into the affairs of Rural America."

    The issue was brought to the lawmakers' attention by Nebraska Cattlemen, which represents the state's beef producers.

    "The same ends could be accomplished by picking up a phone, sending an email, talking to a producer in person," Kristen Hassebrook, the group's environmental affairs director, told msnbc.com. "There is no need to spy on citizens."

    "Another frustration," she added, is that "EPA does not alert livestock producers that the flight will occur or has occurred."

    The flights, she insists, found "few potential issues" and EPA usually misinterpreted what was happening on the ground or photographed something that Nebraska regulators were already aware of and working with ranchers on. 

    EPA plans to respond to lawmakers' questions by June 10. Spokesman Ben Washburn emphasized that the flights help "minimize costs and reduce the number of on-site inspections across the country."

    "In no case," he added, "has EPA taken an enforcement action solely on the basis of these overflights."

    EPA met with cattlemen in eastern Nebraska in March to address concerns.

    Ron Coufal, who represents cattle feeders in Cuming County, told Brownfield Ag News his concerns were allayed after seeing the photos.

    "I can see that it probably is saving our government money by having the overflights and not going to every feedlot to see if they’re in compliance," he said.

    Hassebrook says privacy is the bigger issue. 

    "Someone’s home, their children’s playground, their decks where they have family parties, are generally right there, smack dab in the middle of their business" and EPA cameras, she said. "Even if it’s not their (EPA’s) primary focus, you still have privacy rights in your home -- so I have serious reservations as to whether or not they should be taking such photos."

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  • Additional tests shed no light on mystery of 'burning rocks'

    Uncredited / AP file

    A photo released by the Orange County Fire Authority on May 17 shows Lin Hiner's cargo pants after beach rocks ignited in the pocket of her shorts. The San Clemente, Calif., woman suffered third-degree burns in the incident.

    By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com

    Additional testing by a California state laboratory has failed to unravel the mystery of the “burning rocks” that scorched a Southern California woman early this month after erupting into flames in her pocket.

    Follow Mike Brunker on Twitter and Facebook.

    Results of the tests by the state lab, released Thursday, confirmed initial testing by the Orange County Public Health Department that found elevated levels of phosphate on the rocks, but provided no explanation of its presence.

    Chemistry experts have said they do not believe the phosphate was naturally occurring and have speculated that the rocks could have been coated with phosphorus, which can spontaneously ignite when exposed to oxygen.

    The victim of the bizarre incident, Lyn Hiner, 43, suffered third-degree burns on May 12 when the rocks burst into flames while in the pocket of her shorts as she stood in the kitchen of her San Clemente, Calif., home, with her husband, Rob, and their children.

    The kids had collected the rocks -- one smooth, orange-colored one and a smaller green one -- along with others earlier in the day at Trestles Beach at San Onofre State Beach. Lyn Hiner told the Orange County Register afterward that she put the rocks in her shorts pocket because her daughters were in their swimsuits.

    Related story:
    Burning rocks victim tells of strange horror

    At least four hours later as Hiner stood in the kitchen, two of the rocks ignited, burning her upper thigh and her hand as she attempted to beat out the flames. Rob Hiner suffered burns to his hands as he struggled to free his wife from the burning shorts.


    The Orange County Public Health Department, which took the case because the Hiners live in the county, said Thursday that its involvement in the investigation is concluded.

    “Since the land is owned by the United States Marine Corps, operated by State Park Rangers, and the rocks were located in the County of San Diego, any future inquiries on this matter should be directed to the appropriate authorities,” it said in a statement.

    After some rocks spontaneously ignite in woman's pocket, burning her and damaging her home, the hunt is on to find the cause of this unusual incident. KNBC's Vikki Vargas reports.

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  • 'Hero' at Seattle cafe threw stools at shooter

    By Isolde Raftery, msnbc.com

    Stephen Brashear / Getty Images

    Maggie Ritnour lights a candle at a makeshift memorial at Cafe Racer in north Seattle Thursday as Kara Bazzi looks on.

    Updated at 8 p.m. ET: The regulars at Café Racer in north Seattle were by all accounts a welcoming group that embraced free spirits, but Ian Stawicki, the man suspected of fatally shooting five people Wednesday before killing himself, seemed “creepy” even to them, according to SeattlePI.com. One night he fought with musicians, the news site reported, and another night a bartender wanted to kick him out for behaving belligerently.  


    And yet, one of the cafe regulars may have invited Stawicki to his home days before the shooting, according to the Stranger, an alternative Seattle weekly.

    Stranger reporter Brendan Kiley, who attended a wake for two of the men who were shot, wrote in a blog post about a man he referred to as D, one of the victims: “People at the wake said D had invited the man over to his home just a day or so ago, trying to make some kind of connection. (D was, by all accounts, a nice guy.) But D’s wife, they say, wanted the man to leave because he was acting oddly and scarily.”

    For reasons still unclear, Stawicki entered the café at 11 a.m. Wednesday and opened fire. He shot five, killing four of them. Police released two images of Stawicki from a camera inside the café: One of him approaching, shoulders hunched, eyes directed at someone behind the counter; patrons sitting on stools at the bar, drinking mugs of coffee.

    The second is of him, alone, apparently surveying the scene. The image is fuzzy, but he appears to be holding a gun in his left hand. Stools are overturned.

    King County Sheriff's Department

    A police booking photo of Ian Stawicki dated March 31, 2008.

    Veteran police officials were chilled by the video from the shootings, which Deputy Chief Nick Metz called "horrific and callous and cold."

    At a press conference Thursday Jim Pugel, the chief of detectives for Seattle Police, provided some details about what happened during the time that those two images were taken.

    Before 11 a.m., Stawicki walked into the cafe and sat at the bar. When Stawicki pulled out his gun and started shooting, the man seated next to him threw a stool at him. He picked up another stool and threw that.

    "Two or three people made their escape and the suspect was between them and the door," Pugel said, calling that man a hero. "He saved three lives."

    Within minutes, Stawicki, 40, bolted for downtown Seattle. Thirty-two minutes later, he carjacked a woman with a black Mercedes SUV. He had two 45-caliber semi-automatic weapons and shot her several times. She died at the scene.

    Stawicki shot himself as officers approached in West Seattle, a neighborhood across town where the Mercedes SUV had been found, according to the Seattle Police Department’s Twitter feed.  

    How Stawicki obtained the gun is unclear, said Reneé Witt, a Police Department spokeswoman.

    “The detectives have not identified that part of the puzzle,” Witt said.  

    Whether he was legally allowed to posses a gun also remains unclear. Stawicki’s family told the Seattle Times that he apparently had mental health problems but that he had not sought treatment. Had he been involuntarily committed, he would have not been allowed to own a firearm, according to state law.

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  • Girlfriend of face-eating attacker blames drugs or voodoo

    By Karen Yi, NBCMiami.com

    Miami-Dade Police Dept. / AP

    This photo from the Miami-Dade Police Department shows Rudy Eugene, 31, who was shot and killed by police.

    The girlfriend of the face-eating attacker who mauled off most of another man’s face said her boyfriend was either unknowingly drugged or placed under a voodoo curse.


    She told the Miami Herald the attacker, identified as 31-year-old Rudy Eugene, was “sweet and well-mannered.” The girlfriend, who asked that her name not be disclosed, said she was shocked to hear her boyfriend was the man everyone was calling the “Miami Zombie.”

    “Something happened out of the ordinary that day. I don’t want him to be labeled the Miami Zombie,” she told the Herald. “He was a person. I don’t want him to go down like that.”

    Read the original story at NBCMiami.com

    Eugene was fatally shot by an officer as he chewed off more than 80 percent of a homeless man’s face. The victim, identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

    The Jackson Memorial Foundation said Thursday that it has set up a fund to help Poppo through its website, www.jmf.org.

    Surveillance videos captured by security cameras at the Miami Herald building show Eugene walking on a pedestrian bridge near MacArthur Causeway Saturday and encountering his victim.

    Handout / Reuters

    Ronald Poppo, who was savagely mauled by another man, is seen in a photo released by the Miami-Dade Police Department.

    In the nearly 20-minute attack, Eugene dragged Poppo along the sidewalk and ripped his clothes off, the video showed.

    Authorities said when the officer, identified as Jose Rivera, arrived, he was forced to open fire and kill Eugene when he continued to savagely attack Poppo’s face. Officials said Eugene growled at the officer and kept eating at the man’s face.

    Eugene’s girlfriend said she was hysterical when she heard it was her boyfriend who had attacked the man on MacArthur Causeway.

    “I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God, that’s crazy,’ she told the Herald. “I didn’t know that it was Rudy.”

    She said Eugene was never violent around her and though he smoked marijuana, didn’t use stronger drugs, the newspaper said.

    Records showed Eugene was arrested for a variety of charges between 2004 and 2008, including battery and trespassing. He also served time for selling and possessing marijuana.

    The girlfriend said the day he died Eugene kissed her goodbye, told her "I love you" and left early in the morning with his Bible in his hand.

    She said Eugene, who worked at a car wash, would always read the Bible to her and carried it with him everywhere.

    Eugene's brother told NBC 6 Wednesday that he was also a little shocked when he heard about what happened.

    “Pretty uncharacteristic of him. It was real weird – kind of mixed emotions, I think,” said the brother, who only gave his first name, Thompson. “Through the whole thing I was mostly thinking about my mom.”

    Eugene's girlfriend said though she’s never believed in voodoo, she does now.

    “I don’t know how else to explain this,” she told the Herald.

    The Jackson Memorial Foundation said those interested in contributing to Poppo's fund should click the "Take Action Now" tab on its site, then click donations, select "others" under contribution details, and type in Ronald Poppo.

    Checks made out to Jackson Memorial Foundation can also be mailed to Jackson Memorial Foundation, Park Plaza East, Suite G, 901 NW 17th Street, Miami, FL 33136.

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  • 'Dr. Bloomberg' derided for proposal to limit size of sugary drinks

    John Makely / msnbc.com

    Judy Laurini, left, and Gem Sumner, right, laugh about their 24-ounce sweet teas that they bought from McDonald's on Sixth Avenue.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

    NEW YORK -- Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to limit the size of New Yorkers' sugary drinks, but the initiative is not going down very well with people in the city, including visitors interviewed on Thursday.

    The ban on the sale of any cup or bottle of a drink larger than 16 fluid ounces – a little bit bigger than the size of a soda can – would include a range of sweetened drinks sold at restaurants and food carts, according to the mayor’s office.  The New York Times, which reported on the initiative, said the proposal could go into effect as early as next March.

    The mayor noted that 58 percent of adults in the city (and nearly 40 percent of public school students in grades K-8) are overweight or obese. Obesity costs $4 billion a year in health care costs and kills thousands of New Yorkers, his office said.

    But that rationale didn’t fly with many out for lunch or a stroll in the city’s midtown district.

    “I don’t need the government on my meal plate or in my beverage,” said Travis Humphrey, a 30-year-old who works in tobacco prevention from Norman, Okla.

    NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg has touched off a nationwide controversy with his efforts to combat obesity. He joins Andrea Mitchell Reports to discuss the proposal.

    He said he was “very reluctant” to have such regulations imposed on businesses and their products though he welcomed the effort to work on serious health issues. “This is something that I am not exactly sure if government regulation … is going to be the solution.”

    A pair of friends in town drinking sweet teas in what appeared to be 24-ounce size cups also denounced the mayor’s effort.

    “I wish the government would get out of it and stay out of our lives and allow us to make the choices,” said Judy Laurini, 68, of Rochester, N.Y., who advocated that he spend money on educating people about the health problem.

    “I’m an adult, I can drink it if I need it,” chimed in her friend, Gem Sumner, 68, of  Seattle, Wash. “But I would not let my children,” she added, laughing.

    A man who didn’t want to identify himself derided the effort and the mayor’s earlier anti-smoking law, calling him, “Dr. Bloomberg,” and saying it felt like a “police state.”

    “I think he’s a little bit out of line. I don’t think he’s got the right to sort of dictate what people can and cannot drink,” Carolyn Summers, a 46-year-old New Yorker who works in finance said as she held a large cup of unsweetened tea. “I can see that concern about obesity but I think that people need to be responsible for themselves.”

    The mayor’s office said the ban would build on his previous health initiatives, such as banning smoking in public places and having calorie content posted at chain restaurants. It said those had improved life expectancy by nearly three years in the city famous for its pizza slices and hot dogs.

    John Makely / msnbc.com

    Bonita Troia, 35, a paramedic and her son Carlos Lopez, 17.

    “We have an obligation to warn you when things aren't good for your health,” he told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “So here the idea is, if you have to take it in a smaller glass, you’ve got to make a conscious decision to have another cup of it. And, we think a lot of people won't and therefore that will reduce one of, and it’s only one of, the contributors to the obesity epidemic that’s going on in this country.”

    Bonita Troia, a 35-year-old paramedic from Kingsville, Texas, said she agreed with the mayor, especially since in her work she sees 500-pound adults and children who weigh 200 or 300 pounds.

    “When we grew up in the ‘80s the portions were smaller and people weren’t that big,” she said as she ate lunch with her teenage son. “The portion sizes have been getting bigger so people got bigger.”

    “People just don’t discipline themselves,” she added.  And, “us as taxpayers are paying for what people are putting on their plates.”

     

  • NY teen Pierce Crowley, missing nearly a week, found safe

    Pierce Crowley, 15, of Rye, N.Y. was found just after midnight Wednesday night.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A teenager who vanished last Friday from Westchester County, N.Y., has been found safe in Manhattan, officials said Thursday.

    Police said officers spotted Pierce Crowley, 15, just after midnight Wednesday night with a group of other teenagers in Washington Heights, in the northern part of New York City. They questioned Crowley, and once they determined it was the teen, officers returned him to his family's house in Rye.

    "He was unharmed, appeared to be in good health and good spirits," White Plains Police Lt. Eric Fischer told msnbc.com.

    Police, family members, and hundreds of volunteers had been searching for Crowley, plastering fliers around Manhattan, Westchester and the Bronx. On the day he vanished, he had been at White Plains' New York-Presbyterian Hospital in what his parents described in an email to friends as "a fragile state."

     

    He hadn't been feeling well when he disappeared, his parents had said, but didn't elaborate. The medical center where he was last seen is one of the top psychiatric hospitals in the nation.


    According to police, a friend of Crowley's had come forward to say the two left the hospital and went to The Cheesecake Factory restaurant together, Newsday reported.

    They then took a cab to the White Plains Metro-North train station, the report said. Crowley's friend took a train to New York City while Crowley stayed behind in the cab.

    Crowley had $40 in his pocket, no credit card and no cell phone, police told Newsday.

    Previous report: Teen missing; parents say he was in a 'fragile state'

    "We were treating it as a missing persons case. At no time did we ever have any information that foul play was suspected," Fischer told msnbc.com.

    On Thursday morning, a Facebook page called "Find Pierce Crowley," which had garnered nearly 7,000 fans, was updated with a single sentence: "Pierce is safe back home, thank you for all your help!"

    Crowley's parents did not return a phone call from msnbc.com, but his mother, Gretchen, told Newsday, "We're just so incredibly relieved, I can't even put it into words. He's here and he's safe and obviously everybody is thrilled here."

    He was happy to back with his family, a White Plains public safety commissioner said.

    "He looks like he just walked out and decided to have an adventure," David Chong told Newsday. "It's like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack."

    Tips about Crowley's location, including one Wednesday night about him being in the Washington Heights area, had poured in throughout the investigation, the White Plains police said.

    Crowley is a student at Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, where he plays hockey and lacrosse and runs cross-country, Newsday said.

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  • John Edwards 'not guilty' on one count; mistrial declared on remaining charges

    The jury delivered a unanimous verdict on one of the six felony counts and found Edwards not guilty of receiving illegal campaign contributions from heiress Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon. The judge declared a mistrial on the five other counts. Edwards later told reporters that he knew he had not done anything illegal but that he was accountable for his behavior. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

    By NBC News' Michael Austin and Stacey Klein and msnbc.com's Mike Brunker

    Updated at 4:34 p.m. ET -- Capping a day of dramatic turnarounds, the jury in the campaign finance trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards found him not guilty on Thursday on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and said it was deadlocked on the remaining five charges.


    U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles then declared a mistrial on the remaining charges. It was not immediately clear if prosecutors intend to seek a retrial on those charges.

    In a statement outside the federal courthouse in Greensboro, N.C., Edwards acknowledged that he had behaved poorly, but said he had not acted illegally.

    Read Thursday's court transcript

    “I want to make sure that everyone hears from me … that while I don’t believe I did anything illegal,  I did an awful, awful lot that was wrong and there is no one else responsible for my sins,” said Edwards, who did not testify at the trial and took no questions.

    The count on which the jury reached a "not guilty" verdict involved contributions from Edwards' contributor Rachel "Bunny" Mellon.

    NBC station WNCN of Raleigh, N.C., reported that when the decision came, Edwards closed his eyes, rubbed his face and smiled at his daughter, Cate. He then hugged his daughter and his elderly parents while whispering to them, "I told you this would be OK," WCNC reported. Earlier, the jury of eight men and four women told Eagles that it had reached a verdict on all six felony accounts against Edwards. But after the jury returned to the courtroom, the foreperson stated that jurors had reached a unanimous decision on only one count. Eagles then sent them back to the jury room to resume deliberations.

    The charges against Edwards, 58, arose while he was in the midst of the 2008 race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and were focused on about $1 million in donations from two wealthy donors, Fred Baron and Mellon, a billionnaire banking heiress. The money was used to support and hide Edwards' pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter.

    NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez reports on John Edwards' campaign finance trial after the jury found him not guilty on one count. The judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five counts. NBC News' Pete Williams, Savannah Guthrie and former prosecutor John Q. Kelly provide analysis on the case.

    Prosecutors argued that the money amounted to illegal and unreported campaign contributions at a time when federal donations were capped at $2,300; the defense said the money was a "gift" intended to allow Edwards to hide the affair from his ailing wife, Elizabeth, and the public. Elizabeth Edwards, who had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer, separated from John Edwards in early 2010 and died later that year.

    If found guilty of all six counts, Edwards could have faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.  Each individual count carries a maximum sentence of 5 years and a fine of up to $250,000.

    Attorneys for Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina and the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, and prosecutors alike painted him as a liar and a bad husband. Where they differed was whether the scheme to hide his affair amounted to a crime.

    The jurors were charged with deciding if Edwards "knowingly and willfully" violated a 1971 campaign finance law by orchestrating the scheme to support and hide Hunter.

    Slideshow: Edwards' public life

    /

    Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has faced public and private challenges throughout his life and career.

    Launch slideshow

    Prosecutors alleged in their closing arguments that Edwards manipulated the campaign finance system to conceal the affair with Hunter, a videographer on his 2008 presidential campaign staff.

    He "clearly knew the law and decided to violate it in order to salvage his campaign," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon said, accusing Edwards of cynically seeking to "keep her quiet" until the election was over "and his wife (had) passed away."

    Lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell admitted in his closing arguments that Edwards had committed many "moral wrongs," but he insisted that none of the misdeeds was "a legal one."

    "John's conduct is shameful, but it's human," Lowell told the jury.

    Letters and other notes from Mellon appeared to be crucial to the jurors' deliberations — from their first day of discussions, they requested a stream of exhibits related to the nearly $750,000 she contributed.

    Mellon, who is 101 years old, didn't testify during the trial, but her attorney and financial adviser, Alex Forger, offered extensive testimony that Mellon knew that her donations were intended to fund the "Hunter problem" and weren't given as campaign contributions.

    A possible turning point came in mid-May, when Judge Eagles barred most of the defense's planned testimony from current and former members of the Federal Election Commission about a federal audit that concluded that the money didn't amount to campaign contributions subject to federal regulation.

    Eagles ruled that evidence about the FEC audit was inadmissible because it couldn't be determined exactly what the commission knew or was told at the time.

    NBC's Savannah Guthrie examines how the legal terrain of political campaigns has changed since John Edwards ran for president in 2008.

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  • 26 bus operators shuttered over public safety concerns

    In the largest motor carrier crackdown in American history, the U.S. Department of Transportation shuts down 26 low cost carriers over safety concerns. Brian Mooar reports.

    By Rebecca Ruiz, NBC News

    Federal transportation officials have shut down 26 bus operators in the Northeast corridor after a year-long investigation found that the companies posed an "imminent hazard" to public safety.

    The Department of Transportation, which oversaw the investigation, called the shutdown orders the "largest single safety crackdown in the agency's history" in a press release issued Thursday.

    The action applies to nine active bus companies, 13 companies that had been ordered out of service but continued to operate and three companies that had applied to become operators, as well as one ticket seller. The companies were primarily run by Apex Bus, Inc., I-95 Coach, Inc. and New Century Travel, Inc. and collectively transported more than 1,800 passengers daily from New York to Florida along Interstate 95.


    The carriers had multiple safety violations, according to safety investigators. The companies employed drivers without valid commercial driver's licenses, failed to create drug and alcohol testing programs and operated buses that had not been routinely inspected and repaired.

    The investigation began last year after a series of deadly bus crashes along I-95.

    Related: Deadly bus crashes highlight safety issues

    The companies cited in the investigation will not be allowed to operate under another name in the future under a new rule that revokes the carrier's operating authority and matches new companies to ones previously shut down.

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  • Boy giving 2nd Disney trip to family of fallen soldier

    By msnbc.com staff

    Brendan Haas, the 9-year-old Kingston, Mass., boy who gave a fallen soldier’s family a trip to Disney World, has done it again.


    During an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday, anchor Robin Roberts told Brendan that the Walt Disney Co., ABC’s parent company, would award him and his family an all-expenses-paid trip to Disney World. Plus, she said, Disney would provide VIP treatment not only for Brendan’s family, but also for the family of 2-year-old Liberty Hope Steele, whose name Brendan pulled out of a hat to award the first trip. Her father was killed in Afghanistan.

    Brendan responded to Roberts in a Skype interview: “We can’t accept a trip to Disney but we have many more people who would like to have an all-expenses paid [trip] through the raffle, so we can do another raffle.”

    Earlier: Boy, 9, gives away Disney World trip to family of fallen soldier 

    Haas earned the first trip through a trading contest through the "Soldier for a Soldier" page he and his mother, Melissa, set up on Facebook to help out a military family. He got the idea from the story of a man who traded up from a red paper clip to a house.

    After Brendan's TV appearance, fans posted remarks on his Facebook page such as, "You are so amazing and have such kindness and a big heart" and "You are an inspiration to me."

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  • Ravi starts prison term in case linked to suicide of Rutgers roommate

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 10:55 p.m. ET: With prosecutors appealing for a longer sentence, former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi on Thursday arrived at a sheriff's department to begin a 30-day sentence in a case that exploded into the headlines when his roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide.


    Indian-born Ravi, 20, was found guilty last March of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy.

    Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010, after finding out that Ravi saw him kissing another man and appeared to encourage others to watch his romantic encounters through a camera on his computer.

    Ravi appeared in a New Jersey state court Wednesday to announce his decision to report to jail. NBCNewYork.com reported that Ravi will likely get a 10-day credit for good behavior, and may serve only 20 days in jail. He was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service and $11,000 in fines.

    Ravi apologized in a written statement that was presented at his sentencing, but Clementi's parents rejected his apology as a "public relations piece," according to NBCNewYork.com.

    Prosecutors are appealing Ravi's sentence, which they believe is too lenient, but they said they are not requesting the 10-year maximum sentence he faced.

    Ravi could have remained free during thee prosecutors' appeal. But during a hearing Wednesday, he agreed to waive his protection from double jeopardy. He is now not allowed to argue that he's already served his time if prosecutors prevail on their appeal and he receives a longer sentence.

    Ravi's lawyer, Joseph Benedict, said he's still appealing the conviction altogether. 

    Assistant prosecutor Julia McClure told the court that she felt statutory requirements warranted a five-year jail term.

    But Judge Glenn Berman stood by his 30-day sentence. "I can't find it in me to sentence this gentleman to a state prison that houses people convicted of offenses such as murder, armed robbery and rape," Berman said. "I know he's an adult, but I think the interests of justice demand I deviate from the guidelines."

    In a statement issued Tuesday through a lawyer, Ravi said he would begin serving his jail term Thursday.

    "It's the only way I can go on with my life," he said in the statement -- which also included his first apology in the case.

    Ravi apologizes for spying on roommate
    More on Ravi from NBCNewYork.com
    Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi sentenced

    "I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid and childish choices that I made on September 19, 2010 and September 21, 2010," Ravi's statement read. "My behavior and actions, which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry, prejudice or desire to hurt, humiliate or embarrass anyone, were nonetheless the wrong choices and decisions."

    When Ravi was sentenced on May 21, Judge Berman chastised him for not apologizing for his actions.

    "I heard this jury say 'guilty' 288 times," Berman said, referring to all the sub-parts of the charges Ravi faced, repeated once for each juror. "And I haven't heard you apologize once."

    During the court proceeding, Ravi, who expressed remorse in March in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger, chose not to address the judge, though he cried as his mother pleaded for mercy from the judge.

    Because Ravi's sentence is under a year, it decreases chances that immigration authorities will try to have him deported to India, where he remains a citizen.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Man interviews for job, ends up getting detained for 1975 murder

    Both suspect and police are shocked when job application leads to a 1975 murder warrant. Chris Gordon reports.

    By NBCWashington.com

    A Washington, D.C., man was detained for first-degree murder when a background check for a new job revealed an outstanding warrant in one of the oldest cold case murders in Montgomery County.

    Bobby Coley, 63, of southeast Washington, was applying for work as a temp Tuesday, when a background check uncovered an outstanding warrant in his name. When Coley went to the sheriff’s office to clear his name and land the job, he had no idea the warrant was for murder.

    For more, visit NBCWashington.com

    “We weren’t finding anything, and so we finally looked in judicial case search and we actually saw that a warrant popped up under that name, Bobby Coley, and it said, ‘first-degree murder,’” Montgomery County Sheriff Darren Popkin said.

    The victim, Leopold Lynwood Chromak, disappeared on July 26, 1975. Two days later his wife contacted police and reported him missing.


    “But Mr. Chromak was never located, never returned home,” said Lucille Baur, of Montgomery County police.

    In 1984, a detective learned that the missing person case was actually a murder-for-hire, and that Chromak’s wife, Frances, had hired three men -- Griffin, Smitty and Bobby Coley -- to kill her husband. According to police documents, the woman said her husband was abusive and had beaten her.

    The three men allegedly smothered Chromak at Winexburg Manor Apartments in Silver Spring, Md., wrapped his body in a rug or carpet, took it to a van and dumped it along Central Avenue.

    The 63-year-old Coley, who has been in and out of federal custody on various charges since 1968, was in the D.C. Jail when the arrest warrant was filed in 1984. He wasn’t detained afterward and apparently never knew of the warrant.

    The detective investigating the murder-for-hire said Frances Chromak changed her name to Barbara Ann Stevens and moved to Laurel, Md. Her whereabouts are unknown but she is believed to still be alive.

    The 1975 murder case presents challenges for prosecutors. No body has been found, there is no direct evidence against Coley, and anonymous sources who supplied information in the past may no longer be available.

    “So, now the investigating begins anew,” Baur said. “Now we go back. We find the original case files, the records.”

    The public defender representing Coley in court said there’s no proof there was a murder and it’s unfair to hold Coley in jail while police and prosecutors investigate.

    The prosecutor said he has to assess the viability of the 37-year-old case.

    Coley is being held without bond.

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  • Teen stuck in Mexico over 'Leap Day' error can return home

    By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

    Elizabeth Olivas, who came to the U.S. illegally at age 4, went to Mexico to get a green card or visa to fulfill requirements of U.S. law and has not been allowed to return since she missed the deadline by a day.

    Updated 3:45 pm EST -- A teen stuck in Mexico because she missed an immigration deadline due to a “Leap Day” error received a visa on Thursday that will allow her to return to the US just in time to give the salutatorian speech at her high school graduation this weekend, her lawyer said.

    Elizabeth Olivas, who came from Mexico when she was four, failed to meet the visa requirement by one day due to it being a leap year and had been stuck in Chihuahua, Mexico, for the last six weeks while she awaited a decision from the U.S. Consulate in Ciudad Juarez, according to her lawyer, Sarah Moshe.

    “Just got out visa in my hands. I’m coming home!” she wrote in a text message to Moshe. “I’m soo happy!”

    Moshe said in an email statement that she also received electronic correspondence from the State Department, reading: “The waiver was approved, and we just finished issuing and printing her visa.”

    Olivas, who is eligible for a green card because her father is a U.S. citizen, faced a possible three-year bar from entering the country because of the calendar error. People in her situation are allowed 180 days unlawful presence in the country after their 18th birthday, but after that time would need a waiver, said Moshe, who did not have any details about Olivas’ mother.

    Olivas traveled from her home in Indiana to Mexico on April 17, the day she believed was her last chance to be within that180-day window. Not knowing how long it might take to get an appointment once she was in Mexico, Olivas and her lawyer decided she should chose to stay in the U.S. for as long as she could beforehand, Moshe told msnbc.com.

    “I would never have sent her had I had any question in my mind,” Moshe said Wednesday evening, noting two legal calculators they had used said Olivas would need to be in Mexico on April 17, not April 16, to apply for an immigrant visa. “It was a very innocent mistake … we were aware within days essentially and tried very hard to work in that timeframe but to no avail.”

    Olivas, who turned 18 on Oct. 18, 2011, had sought the expedited waiver after learning about the error. She is graduating from Frankfort High School in Frankfort, Ind., with a GPA over 3.9, was winter homecoming queen and has already been accepted into nursing programs. As part of the 400-page waiver application, she submitted at least 25 letters of support from her instructors, Moshe said.

    Almost-deported valedictorian helps introduce immigration reform bill

    Waiting at her paternal grandparents’ home in Chihuahua, Mexico -- relatives she had not met before -- she had experienced the highs and lows of the slow-moving immigration process. She has also missed her prom, Moshe said.


    “In the past, on the days when there’s been no movement, it’s been really hard for her,” Moshe said before the decision. “Dealing with huge government agencies, there are days when nobody responds to email or returns a phone call. But she’s really excited right now, I mean she’s really hopeful.”

    Principal Steve Edwards told the Indianapolis Star that Olivas has done her homework online while she has been in Mexico and her grades had not been affected.

    Can an illegal immigrant become a lawyer?

    "This is a very skilled, talented, beautiful young lady. This hurts me and is one of the hardest things I've ever dealt with in my life," he said.

    For the waiver application, Moshe argued that Olivas’ absence would prove a medical hardship on her father, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, among other ailments.

    “Last time he was in my office, he literally put his hand in front of me and stuck a finger out and said take my finger if you need to, just do anything,” Moshe said.

    Mom of deported teen runaway files federal lawsuit

    Maria Elena-Upson, a Dallas-based spokeswoman for USCIS, told the Indianapolis Star that the agency normally took applications as they came in and not out of turn. The process typically takes two to three months.

    "I can sympathize with this situation, but it would not be correct," Elena-Upson told the newspaper.

    Moshe had said she would appeal if the consulate denied Olivas’ waiver application – a step that’s no longer necessary.
    “She will certainly enjoy a well-deserved graduation celebration on Saturday!” she wrote in an email.

     

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  • If the IRS overpaid you on a tax refund, would you give it back?

    An honest Ohio waitress who was expecting a $700 tax refund check instead received one for over $400,000. WKYC-TV's Dick Russ reports.

  • Video purportedly shows NYC student making out with his teacher

    By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A New York high school senior allegedly won a bet with four friends to see who could hook up first with their 26-year-old global studies teacher, the New York Post reported.

    A video recorded Friday by a Manhattan Theatre Lab High School pupil shows fellow student Eric Arty, 18, kissing a woman on a park bench in lower Manhattan.

    Arty denied to the Post that the woman he is seen with at Bleecker Playground in Greenwich Village is teacher Julie Warning.

    “Yeah, that’s me. I’m kissing a girl,” Arty told the newspaper when confronted with the photo. “That’s not my teacher that I’m kissing in the picture. It’s just a girl I know.”


    Arty refused to say who the woman was.

    The teacher also denied the involvement, telling the Post: “He is my student, but I’ve never had a relationship with him or any of my students. That is inappropriate. I think that this is a misunderstanding.”

    A spokesperson for the city's school district confirmed to msnbc.com the incident was being looked at.

    Laurel Wright-Hinckson, public information officer for the Special Commissioner of Investigation for the New York City School District, told msnbc.com an investigation had just been started, and would take at least a couple of months to complete.

    The student who filmed the two kissing said Warning is "the most appealing teacher in the school.”

    “She always wore nice skirts, and she had appealing tattoos all over her body,” he told the Post.

    Arty and four of his friends each contributed $100 to a pool, the newspaper said. The first to win Warning's affection would win the cash.

    Some students told the Post that Warning tried to resist the teenagers’ flirtations at first.

    “She would try to avoid it because she was [Arty's] teacher," a student told the paper. "She was a nice teacher and didn’t want to report him, and she would throw him and his friends out of class for trying to flirt with her,” the student said.

    According to the Post, Warning was reassigned on Tuesday to an administrative position at the school, which is north of Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

    A Department of Education spokesperson told msnbc.com Warning didn't report to her new desk job Wednesday.

    It wasn't clear whether Warning reported for her reassignment on Thursday.

    Job at stake, but no possible charges
    Warning does not have tenure at the school and could lose her job, but she wouldn't face criminal charges because Arty isn't a minor.

    The teacher's father, Pete Warning, told the Post this didn't seem like something she would do.

    “All of her students, like 85 percent, are gonna pass their Regents for the first time," Peter Warning said, speaking of the standardized tests students take in New York State. "They all love her. My heart’s broken.”

    Earlier this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the school chancellor and State Senator Stephen Saland announced new legislation to better protect New York students from inappropriate sexual contact with teachers.

    Under current law, outside hearing officers decide on these cases and impose penalties – including whether or not a teacher is fired. The new legislation would make it easier to remove a teacher who is found to have engaged in sexual activity with students.

    “If a school employee is found to have engaged in sexual behavior or made sexual comments towards students, the chancellor should have the final say on what action to take and the legislation we are proposing would provide that authority,” Bloomberg said Tuesday in a press release.

    “Every child deserves a safe learning environment and every parent has the right to know that his or her child is safe while at school,” he said. 

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  • Father accused of leaving 8-month-old in car to gamble for 7 hours

    By Bob Connors, NBCConnecticut.com

    Connecticut State Police have charged a father with leaving his infant son in a car for seven hours while he gambled inside the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville.


    Kyuyoun Lee was arrested Wednesday at 10 a.m. inside one of the casino's parking garages. Police said Lee had been gambling inside the casino since 3 a.m. Lee's 8-month-old son was left alone in a car in the parking garage for the entire time, according to police.

    Read the original report at NBCConnecticut.com

    Lee, 32, of Waterbury, was charged with leaving a child unsupervised, and risk of injury to a child. He was released on $5,000 bond and will be in court June 14.

    The baby is now in the custody of The Department of Children and Families, according to police.

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  • Appeals court: Denying federal benefits to same-sex couples is unconstitutional

    The Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples, was declared unconstitutional Thursday. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.


    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET: A federal appeals court has ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that denies a host of federal benefits to same-sex married couples, is unconstitutional.

    The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled Thursday that the act known as DoMA, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, discriminates against gay couples.

    The law was passed in 1996 at a time when it appeared Hawaii would legalize gay marriage. Since then, many states have instituted their own bans on gay marriage, while eight states have approved it, led by Massachusetts in 2004, and followed by Connecticut, New York, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Washington state and the District of Columbia. Maryland and Washington’s laws are not yet in effect and may be subject to referendums.

    Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

    The appeals court agreed with a lower court judge who ruled in 2010 that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage and denies married gay couples federal benefits given to heterosexual married couples, including the ability to file joint tax returns.

    The 1st Circuit said its ruling wouldn’t be enforced until the U.S. Supreme Court decides the case, meaning that same-sex married couples will not be eligible to receive the economic benefits denied by DOMA until the high court rules.

    Attorney Paul Clement, who represented the House of Representatives in defending DOMA, told msnbc.com that no decisions on legal strategy have been made.

    “But we have always been clear we expect this matter ultimately to be decided by the Supreme Court, and that has not changed,” he said.

    Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston-based legal group that brought one of the lawsuits on behalf of gay married couples, said the court agreed with the couples that it is unconstitutional because it takes one group of legally married people and treats them as "a different class" by making them ineligible for benefits given to other married couples.

    "We’ve been working on this issue for so many years, and for the court to acknowledge that yes, same-sex couples are legally married, just as any other couple, is fantastic and extraordinary," said Lee Swislow, GLAD’s executive director.

    Earlier: Illinois same-sex couples sue for right to marry

    During arguments before the court last month, a lawyer for gay married couples said the law amounts to "across-the-board disrespect." The couples argued that the power to define and regulate marriage had been left to the states for more than 200 years before Congress passed DoMA.

    An attorney defending the law argued that Congress had a rational basis for passing it in 1996, when opponents worried that states would be forced to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere. The group said Congress wanted to preserve a traditional and uniform definition of marriage and has the power to define terms used to federal statutes to distribute federal benefits.

    More than 1,000 benefits in question
    Two California federal judges earlier said the act violated constitutional standards.

    Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland ruled May 24 that the law legalized bigotry by withholding more than 1,000 federal benefits -- such as joint tax filing, Social Security survivor payments and immigration sponsorship -- from gays and lesbians legally married under state law.

    Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco also declared DoMA unconstitutional and ordered the government to provide family insurance coverage to the wife of a lesbian court employee. White's ruling has been appealed to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear the case in September.

    President Barack Obama withdrew his administration's defense of the law in February 2011, saying he considered it unconstitutional. House Speaker John Boehner convened the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend it. The legal group argued the case before the appeals court.

    On May 9, Obama declared in an interview with ABC News his unequivocal support for gay marriage, becoming the first president to endorse the idea.

    Obama said, "I have hesitated on gay marriage in part because I thought that civil unions would be sufficient." He added that he "was sensitive to the fact that for a lot of people the word 'marriage' was something that invokes very powerful traditions, religious beliefs and so forth."

    Now, he said, "it is important for me personally to go ahead and affirm that same-sex couples should be able to get married."

    Two of the three judges who decided the case Thursday were Republican appointees, while the other was a Democratic appointee. Judge Michael Boudin, who wrote the decision, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, while Judge Juan Torruella was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Chief Judge Sandra Lynch is an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

    Groups slam, praise ruling

    • “Liberal federal judges in Massachusetts and California have resorted to making up legal standards in order to justify redefining marriage,” said Brian Brown, president of The National Organization for Marriage. “They realize the legal precedent doesn’t allow them to redefine marriage, so they are making up new standards to justify imposing their values on the rest of the nation. It is clear that the U.S. Supreme Court is going to have to resolve this issue once and for all. … It’s obvious that the federal courts on both coasts are intent on imposing their liberal, elitist views of marriage on the American people.”
    • "We are thrilled that another court -- this time, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals -- has ruled that it is unconstitutional to deny respect to the marriages of lesbian and gay couples," said Camilla Taylor, National Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal. “We congratulate our colleagues at GLAD for achieving this wonderful victory."
    • "This is one more powerful statement now from an appellate court following four other federal courts that the so-called Defense of Marriage Act is indefensible under the constitution and should be discarded," Evan Wolfson, founder and president of Freedom to Marry, told msnbc.com. "It’s obviously a great victory not just for families harmed by federal marriage discrimination but for the country. Hopefully it will help us get back to our normal practice of the federal government respecting the marriages celebrated in the states without a gay exception."

    Msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger and Jim Gold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • NBC-Marist polls: Obama, Romney deadlocked in three key states

    Now that Mitt Romney is the official GOP presidential nominee, President Obama placed a call to the former governor to congratulate him. Meanwhile both campaigns have already spent a combined $85 million on TV ads. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.

    By Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor, NBC News

    President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are deadlocked in three key presidential battleground states, according to a new round of NBC-Marist polls.

    In Iowa, the two rivals are tied at 44 percent among registered voters, including those who are undecided but leaning toward a candidate. Ten percent of voters in the Hawkeye State are completely undecided.

    Read the full Iowa poll

    In Colorado, Obama gets support from 46 percent of registered voters, while Romney gets 45 percent.

    Read the full Colorado poll

    And in Nevada, the president is at 48 percent and Romney is at 46 percent.

    Read the full Nevada poll

    These three states are all battlegrounds that Obama carried in 2008, but George W. Bush won in 2004.

    “These are very, very competitive states,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted these polls. “Everything is close.”

    Results from NBC-Marist polling in three other battleground states released last week – Florida, Ohio and Virginia – showed Obama with narrow leads in each state.

    Optimism, pessimism and enthusiasm
    In Colorado, Iowa and Nevada, a more optimistic attitude about the U.S. economy is working in Obama’s favor. Majorities in each of the three states believe the worst is behind us, rather than yet to come.

    In addition, majorities in these states say that the president mostly inherited the current economic conditions. 

    David Axelrod, a senior adviser for President Obama's re-election campaign, speaks with TODAY's Matt Lauer about the President's strategies for taking on the battleground states and rekindling the enthusiasm from 2008.

    But what seems to be hurting Obama – and helping Romney – is a sense that the nation is on the wrong track, with 54 percent in Iowa, 55 percent in Nevada and 56 percent in Colorado sharing that belief.

    First Thoughts: Still fighting on GOP turf

    Asked which candidate would do a better job on the economy, respondents in Colorado (45 percent to 42 percent) and Iowa (46 percent to 41 percent) picked Romney over Obama. But the two men were tied in Nevada (44 percent to 44 percent). 

    What’s more, Romney leads Obama in Colorado and Iowa among those expressing a high level of enthusiasm, while the president leads among those voters in Nevada.

    Obama’s approval rating, Nevada’s Senate race
    The NBC-Marist poll also shows that Obama’s approval rating is above water in Iowa (46 percent approve, 45 percent disapprove), and it’s underwater in Colorado (45 percent to 49 percent) and Nevada (46 percent to 47 percent)

    And in Nevada’s competitive Senate contest, the survey finds incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller in a tight race with Democrat Shelley Berkley, with Heller getting 46 percent among registered voters and Berkley getting 44 percent.

    President Obama phones Mitt Romney to congratulate him for locking up the GOP nomination. NBC's Steve Handelsman reports.

    These NBC-Marist polls were conducted May 22-24 by landline and cell phone of 1,030 registered voters in Colorado, 1,106 registered voters in Iowa and 1,040 registered voters in Nevada. The margin of error in all three surveys is plus-minus 3.0 percentage points.

    Click here to sign up for First Read emails. 
    Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone.
    Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @DomenicoNBC, @brookebrower

  • Truck runs into students at high school; 9 hospitalized

    Nine people were hospitalized after a truck veered into a crowd outside of a California high school. KNBC-TV's Beverly White reports.

    By NBC4 and msnbc.com news services

    HEMET, Calif. - A high school student in a pickup truck ran into a group of teenagers who were crossing a street outside a California high school Wednesday, leaving nine people injured and backpacks and clothing strewn across an intersection, officials said.

    The accident occurred shortly after school ended for the day at Hemet High School, Riverside County fire officials said in a statement.

    Eight out of the nine people hospitalized were students, officials said.

    The driver, a student at the school, named by police a David Carrillo,18, ran into a group of people who were in an intersection headed toward the student parking lot and the school's football stadium, principal Emily Shaw said.

    "The kids were in the crosswalk doing everything right," Shaw said.

    Three of those victims were in critical condition, including 15-year-old Helen Richardson, who was in a "conscious coma" and intubated, according to her mother Trisha Telezinski.

    Read more at NBC4 Southern California

    Witnesses reported hearing Carrillo yell out, "My brakes have gone out," Telezinski said.

    Early reports indicated eight pedestrians were taken to the hospital, and at least five of the victims were students, according to CAL FIRE. California Highway Patrol later clarified that nine people were hospitalized, eight of them students at the high school, which had just let out at the time of the crash, according to NBCLosAngeles.com.

    NBC4 News said highway patrol officials believe the truck may have had a mechanical problem and has been impounded for inspection.

    Drugs and alcohol have been ruled out as a factor, officials said, adding that criminal charges against the driver, if any, will be determined after the evidence has been examined.

    A statement released by California Highway Patrol Officer Darren Meyer said the truck was travelling "at a speed greater than the 25 MPH school zone speed limit.”

    "The driver stopped immediately after the collision to assist the victims," Meyer said.

    Parent Rick Chavez witnessed the accident while waiting at the red light just after picking up his son, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.

    “The guy went through the red light. …I saw the truck and started screaming out ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’” Chavez told the newspaper. “He plowed right into the kids. Two girls were really bad. I thought they were gone. I was in shock.”

    NBC4's Olsen Ebright, Samantha Tata and Beverly White, msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Would you rather donate at a charity auction or at a traditional fundraiser?

  • Almost-deported valedictorian Daniela Pelaez helps introduce immigration reform bill

    Rep. David Rivera's office

    Daniela Peleaz, a graduating senior at a Miami high school, speaks in favor of the STARS Act, outside Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 30, 2012. With her from left are Christina Caicedo (assistant to Nera Shefer), immigration attorney Nera Shefer, Dayana Pelaez (Daniela's sister) and Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla.

    
    By James Eng, NBC News

    A little more than two months after she came close to being deported, high school valedictorian Daniela Pelaez joined a Florida congressman on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as he introduced a bill to allow undocumented students to remain in the U.S. if they get a college degree.

    The Studying Towards Adjusted Residency Status Act, or STARS, would help students like Pelaez, whose parents are illegal immigrants and who has been in the U.S. since she was a young child.


    “It would be amazing. It’s the only concrete solution people like myself and other kids (in my situation) have to stay in the U.S.,” she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview on Wednesday before heading to Capitol Hill.

    U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Fla., worked with Pelaez, who lives in Rivera’s 25th District, and her attorney, Nera Shefer, in drafting the bill.

    The STARS Act would allow illegal immigrants who are 19 years old and younger, arrived in the United States before age 16, and have lived here for at least the previous five years the opportunity to stay for another five years and eventually get legal status if they earn a college degree and meet certain other criteria. 

    “This legislation can make the American dream a reality for young people like Daniela, who through no fault of their own, are prevented from realizing their full potential in this land of opportunity," Rivera said on the House floor.

    Wilfredo Lee / AP

    Daniela Pelaez, valedictorian at North Miami Senior High School, works on a school assignment at her home in Miami in March.

     “I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation to help Daniela and others like her who are as American as anyone born in the United States, and who simply need a chance to continue being productive Americans.”

    Pelaez, 18, is valedictorian of her class at North Miami Senior High School and boasts a 6.7 GPA. She graduates next Friday and plans to attend Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the fall to study biology and history. Her career goal is to attend medical school and become a heart surgeon.

    Pelaez has become a sort of cause celebre for immigration reform and now is a poster child for STARS, which is a narrower, refined version of the DREAM Act.

    More than 1,000 students at North Miami Senior High School in Miami protest the deportation order for 18-year-old Daniela Pelaez, the school's valedictorian. WTVJ-TV's Jeff Burnside reports.

    The Dream Act, which would open a path for citizenship for children of illegal aliens, has been stalled in Congress since it was introduced nearly 11 years ago, the victim of partisan political bickering over immigration reform. Under the act, undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before they were 15 must complete two years of higher education or two years of military service. It is not required that they graduate.

    Shefer said the STARS Act targets a much narrower population and could affect about 2 million teen students who don’t have legal status.

    “These are people that came here very young, most before the age of 16, and they have been raised here. They don’t know any other culture,” Shefer said. “This law will be targeting that population -- those kids who went to high school and graduated and wish to continue their education by going to college.”

    Rivera said Pelaez’s plight inspired him to develop STARS. "Many young immigrants have found themselves stuck in limbo due to our failure to address immigration reform," he said.

    Pelaez was 4 when she and her parents came to the U.S. from Colombia in 1988 and stayed after their visas expired. Her father eventually became a permanent resident through her brother, who serves in the U.S. Army and achieved U.S. citizenship. But her mother is stuck in Colombia, after she returned there in 2006 for medical reasons.

    Pelaez says she has few memories of Colombia and doesn’t want to go back.

    Pelaez’s life was nearly upended in late February when a judge denied her request for a green card and issued an order for her to leave the country. National and international media picked up the story, and soon Pelaez found herself surrounded by supporters at school, in Congress and in the federal government.

    At North Miami High Senior School, Daniela’s classmates walked out of class and took to the streets on March 2 to protest the immigration judge’s order. "Over my dead body will this child be deported," Miami-Dade County Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

    The public outcry had an effect: The Obama administration decided to defer action on the case for two years -- meaning Pelaez and her older sister Dayana will be able to stay in the U.S. without fear of deportation for that period.

    It’s in keeping with the administration’s decision, announced last summer, to focus its deportation policy on illegal immigrants with criminal records and no longer actively seek to deport non-criminals.

    Pelaez has since started the We Are Here Foundation, which according to its website is seeking donations “to support every bright young undocumented immigrant who has lived here his/her entire life, who have every right to pursue the American Dream and wants to call this nation HOME.”

    "The foundation is recognizing that we are here -- these students are undocumented and want to have the American dream,” Palaez said.

    America, she said, is where her roots are.

    “It has everything to offer -- my future, the future for my family, my education, my career. It’s my home. It’s the only thing I know.”

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  • Was Flame virus written by cyberwarriors or gamers?

    AFP - Getty Images

    This undated screen grab released by the Kaspersky Lab site shows code from the computer virus known as Flame.

    By Bob Sullivan, Columnist, NBC News

    Why would super-secret spy software be written in a video game language?  As security researchers continue to unpack the digital mystery that is the Flame virus, that's just one question looming over perhaps the world's most intriguing digital whodunit.

    With all the talk about Flame being the most powerful, ingenious and stealthy computer virus ever written, some properties of the mysterious malicious software are causing confusion.

    For one thing, the program takes up 20 megabytes of space on infected machines. That's not stealthy; large files usually indicate sloppy programming. Also, unlike Stuxnet, Flame didn't come with precision targeting, and hasn't yet been credited with doing anything as impressive as hacking nuclear power plant computers. But perhaps most mysterious of all: Part of Flame’s code was written in the Lua programming language, a simple language used almost exclusively by video game programmers.  Why would a nation-state trying to commit secret espionage toy with video game software?

    "This is not a stealth operation," said Marcus Carey, who worked as a security analyst at the National Security Agency for eight years before joining the security firm Rapid7 in Boston.

    News of the Flame virus hit Monday, as multiple computer security firms claimed the program represented a huge escalation in cyberwarfare. Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs, among the first to analyze the virus, called it the most powerful malicious program ever.

    “The complexity and functionality of the newly discovered malicious program exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date,” it said.

    Flame reportedly comes loaded with lots of capabilities, such as remotely turning on victims' PC microphones, but it's hardly the first virus to accomplish that.  And unlike Stuxnet, it's yet clear that Flame used a series of so-called 0-day exploits --  vulnerabilities in software that are undiscovered by the security industry and for which there are no antidotes.  While initial reports immediately linked Stuxnet to Flame, primarily because they both seem to target Iran, skepticism is beginning to build that the two are directly linked.

    That's partly because the two programs were written in very different ways. Flame’s authors used Lua, something that confuses observers.

    "Lua in a spy tool is just ... weird," said one Israeli programmer who uses Lua and requested anonymity. "The little snippet I've seen of the code seems so ... ordinary ... really like the work of your average programmer.  Stuxnet sounded genius.”

    Said another: "Lua is considered a kids language.... All I see around that is built with Lua are games. I mean, the syntax is very simple."

    Not exactly the stuff of high-tech international espionage. Or is it?

    Lua has been around since the 1980s, developed at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. It was created out of necessity; at the time, trade barriers made importing software development tools too expensive.  Development of Lua as a programming language remains centered in Brazil, where a small group of programmers make infrequent updates to the language.  But it's become a favorite platform for a few thousand devotees around the world, who are attracted to its simplicity, its ability to play well with other software and its tiny footprint, which makes it ideal for use on embedded devices or games, where memory and space are at a premium.

    Unlike other programming languages that grow in size out of necessity over  time, Lua has actually shrunken in recent years, as developers have revised and refined its architecture.

    Its name – Portuguese for “moon” – hints at Lua’s use as a subordinate language to attach satellite projects to larger pieces of software.

    At the Lua-L discussion list, Flame talk was all the rage on Monday, as its users’ small corner of the technology world was suddenly thrust into the limelight. One even the virus "in some morbid way...an endorsement for Lua."

    "I'm a bit perplexed about the alleged high sophistication of that malware, when I see unobfuscated Lua with self-descriptive names," added a poster identified as Enrico Colombini

    But longtime Lua programmer Erik Hougaard, based in Denmark, said such opinions show a fundamental misunderstanding of Lua's simple elegance as a programming tool.

    "It's a well-kept secret, but it's everywhere. It's hard to pick up an Xbox game without it," said Hougaard, who now uses Lua to program robots but has also used it to create from-scratch accounting software and other financial tools at EFoqus Danmark A/S.  "It's not sexy, but it's unique. It's so small you can fit it onto a single chip."

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    That's essential, because Lua includes both program and programming language in one tidy package -- meaning programs written in Lua will run reliably on machines as diverse as PCs and iPhones. 

    "Lua is quite common in the mobile application space. If someone has Angry Birds installed on their iPhone, they are using Lua," said Carey, the security analyst. In fact, thousands of iPhone apps are written with Lua, he said.

    Hackers have taken notice. While security firms have said they can't think of another computer virus before Flame that used Lua, it is a fundamental part of a favorite hacker tool called "NMAP." NMAP is used to scan the Internet for computers with potentially exploitable vulnerabilities; it’s the first tool used by hackers looking for trouble, and by security professionals looking to plug holes. NMAP permits use of a scripting language that runs under Lua so hackers can adjust the tool as needed.

    "People have been using Lua to hack networks for a while, so this shouldn't surprise anyone," Carey said.  "Attackers are just using what works."

    Lua first came to hackers' attention about two or three years ago, roughly when some analysts believe Flame was written, Carey said.

    As with most information about Flame, Lua's appearance in the virus can be interpreted in two ways:

    • Flame's writers may have been ahead of their time, using a unique programming language to create their cybermonster, and further confuse computer security professionals.
    • Or, Flame's writers may have been video gamers and relative amateurs who didn't bother to do much to cover their tracks.

    Symantec Corp. believes the use of Lua supports the former theory. It’s one of many security firms calling Flame one of the most powerful and complex virus ever written.

    "Lua is scriptable, easy to understand, and easy to update. That said, it’s not used often," said Vikram Thakur, principal security manager at Symantec Security Response. "Anecdotally, we can’t think of another threat that is written in Lua..... The usage of the programming language is what makes the program, independent of the language, interesting."

    But is it the work of genius, and a sign that cyberwar has escalated a new and dangerous level? Carey is not so sure.

    "Saying this is the work of a nation-state is premature," he said. "This is not a particularly clever piece of malware or uber-elite." And despite the fact that it apparently operated in stealth for at least two years, many experts say it is too big to have been conceived as a spy tool.

    "What's with the size?" said the anonymous Israeli Lua programmer. "It's like the trick they do in the movies of making a scene on the train/plane” to create a diversion while committing a crime. 

    Colombini was even more direct in his assessment.

    "I find it difficult to believe this to be the work of an intelligence service, at least of a decent one,” he said. “Obfuscating … the Lua code would have made analysis more difficult and above all slower. In the spying business gaining time has a very high value. … No self-respecting intelligence service (would have neglected to do that)."  

    So far, most of the roughly 300 confirmed Flame infections have been in Middle Eastern countries that are natural enemies of Israel, including 189 in Iran, according to Kaspersky Lab.  

    “If it weren't for the peculiar geographical distribution, (which is) the only thing that makes one think of politically charged malware, I'd think of a sort of malware construction kit,” designed to simply collect a large series of attack tools in one place, Colombini said.   

    Given that the subject is covert cyberwar, confusion, half-truths and disinformation are the rule rather than the exception. Already, an unnamed U.S. official has told NBC News that the U.S. government is probably responsible for it; while Israeli officials have hinted that their side developed it.

    Something else concerns Carey about the way that the Flame narrative has progressed so far.  Much of what we know about Flame has come directly from Iran's Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center.

     "Generally, we don't believe anything Iran says. Here, we seem to be believing everything they say," he said. "But this incident reinforces a storyline for Iran playing the victim."

    Symantec, and many other security organizations, have said the sheer size of Flame is making thorough analysis of the virus a slog. Early reports on the malicious program all came with warnings that findings were preliminary.  Symantec expects to issue a follow-up later this week.

  • Illinois same-sex couples sue for right to marry

    AP Photo/M. Spencer Green

    Claudia Mercado, left, holds her son Indigo Lopez-Mercado as Angelica Lopez right, holds the couple's other child, Isabel, as they gather for a news conference on the lawsuits in Chicago on May 30, 2012.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Twenty-five couples are challenging the constitutionality of an Illinois’ law that bans same-sex marriage, saying their only legal option of civil unions gives an inferior status to their relationships and denies them equal rights under the law.

    The couples, some who have been together for decades and have children, filed separate complaints in Cook County Circuit Court on Wednesday, asking for the law that went into effect last year to be thrown out. Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois are representing them.

    “Both complaints assert that the marriage ban deprives Illinois same-sex couples of their fundamental right to marry and their right to equality under the law," Camilla Taylor, National Marriage Project Director for Lambda Legal, told msnbc.com.

    “Some of our clients approached us ten years ago in connection with their yearning to marry here in Illinois and we’ve been telling them up until now it’s not time, and today it’s time," she said. "I think as a nation we are now at a tipping point, it’s a national moment.”

    The ACLU said in a statement that the couples described how it felt to be “relegated to a legal status that sends the message that the state regards their relationships as inferior” and said the “freedom to marry will remove the stigma and other problems associated with civil unions.”

    “Our relationship is not about some legal benefits and protections, but about love for one another,” said Tanya Lazaro, lead plaintiff in the ACLU case with Elizabeth Matos. The couple recently had a second child and have rejected getting a civil union. “We love each other; we are committed to one another. Anything short of marriage does not recognize that love and commitment.”

    Lamba Legal helped draft the civil union legislation, which Taylor said "was an important first step to provide some measure of legal protections for Illinois families who had nothing up until then."

    But today, she said, "these couples have been living their lives in civil unions for a year now and they have experienced confusion and hurt and private bias, and they shouldn’t be forced to wait any longer."

    Anti-gay marriage group: We'll be on Maryland ballot

    Obama who? Gay marriage foes seek to extend gains
    Obama: 'I think same-sex couples should be able to get married'
    In North Carolina gay marriage vote, it's Bill Clinton versus Billy Graham

    Six states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage, while 31 states have constitutional amendments that effectively ban gay marriage (this tally does not include California, where federal judges have ruled the amendment unconstitutional though further appeals are expected).

    In mid-May, President Barack Obama said he supported same-sex marriage, becoming the first American president to do so. A Gallup poll released around the same time showed 50 percent of Americans saying same-sex marriage should be legal, compared to 48 percent opposed. Support for gay marriage fell slightly in that poll from a record high of 53 percent in 2011, the first time a majority of Americans favored gay marriage. Opposition was 45 percent in that poll.

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  • Six killed in Seattle shootings, including suspect

    A gunman identified as Ian Stawicki, 40, opened fire in a Seattle, Wash., café and a downtown parking lot, killing five, critically wounding one, and eventually taking his own life. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    By Msnbc.com's Jeff Black and Isolde Raftery

    Updated 6:20 a.m. ET: SEATTLE – A man killed four people in a Seattle cafe and a fifth person in a nearby carjacking before shooting himself dead, police said late Wednesday.

    The five victims brought the number of homicides in Seattle so far this year to 21, matching the total for all of last year, and left city leaders wondering what could be done to stop the bloodshed. 

    The suspect, Ian Lee Stawicki, was described by his family as mentally ill, news reports said.

    For most of Wednesday, police didn’t know whether the shootings at a north Seattle café and a carjacking murder five miles away were related.

    They only knew that a tall, white man with a trim, dark beard had entered a small coffee shop around 11 a.m. and shot five people, killing four. And they knew that half an hour later, someone had fatally shot a woman in the head and driven off with her black Mercedes SUV.


    Immediately police issued a warning to residents of Seattle’s University District: Don’t open your door to strangers. Dozens of detectives combed the city, armed with images of a suspect standing alone in the Café Racer, one hand on his hip, another on an object that appeared to be a gun. In the image, stools were overturned, coffee cups spilled.

    Police found the Mercedes abandoned in West Seattle, a neighborhood across town. A gun was in the driver seat.

    Read more on the KING5 website

    Around 4 p.m., a plainclothes officer spotted Stawicki - a 40-year-old from Ellensburg, a college town in central Washington State who used to live in the University District, according to state voter records. He fit the suspect’s description. The officer called for backup.

    When Stawicki saw a uniformed officer approach, he knelt down in the middle of the road and shot himself, Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center. Late Wednesday night, hospital spokesman Steve Butler confirmed to NBC News that the suspect died.

    Within the hour, police announced that the shootings were related and that Stawicki was suspected of the Cafe Racer killings and of shooting a woman several times for her SUV.

    Two men were killed and three more people were seriously wounded in a shooting at a Seattle cafe by a gunman who fled the scene on foot. KING's Linda Brill reports.

     

    His brother, Andrew Stawicki, 29, told the Seattle Times that his brother was mentally ill.

    "It's no surprise to me this happened. We could see this coming. Nothing good is going to come with that much anger inside of you," Andrew Stawicki told the Times.

    The bodies of two men remained at Café Racer throughout the day. The woman died at the hospital, NBC station KING5-TV reported. A fifth victim also died at the hospital, Harborview spokeswoman Susan Gregg told the Associated Press Wednesday night.

    Café Racer, a coffee shop and restaurant known for its impromptu jazz sessions and diehard regulars, sits at the north end of the University District near the sprawling University of Washington campus. It is four blocks from Roosevelt High School, which was on lockdown as police searched for the suspect.

    At the Trading Musician store next door, store manager John Herman said they didn’t hear any sounds until police converged on the scene.

    “Our first customer of the day had just come from Café Racer, and he thought he walked out right as the person walked in,” Herman told msnbc.com. “He thought he saw the (shooter) but other witnesses say that he may have actually seen a victim.”

    Trading Musician employees hang out at Café Racer, Herman said, and the store holds its holiday parties there. Herman said other Café Racer employees had arrived and were standing across the street. The owner had also arrived and had been escorted by police to the crime scene, he said.

    The Emerald City, generally considered a safe place to live, had 19 murders already this year. Last year there were 20. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

    “They seem very upset, but I don’t know if it’s about the fact that it happened, or because they lost somebody,” he said. He said the Trading Musician was effectively closed, but that employees hadn’t left.

    Ted S. Warren / AP

    A Seattle police officer stands outside a cafe where gunman opened fire on Wednesday.

    “We’re just waiting to find out what has happened to our extended family,” Herman said. 

    Ibrahim Frishak, who was power-washing a sidewalk across the street from where the carjacking occurred, said he heard gunshots and saw a car peeling away, The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper, reported. 

    "I just got back a week ago from Libya on vacation to visit relatives," Frishak told the paper. Everyone over there carries guns, he said, adding, "Now I think Libya is safer than Seattle."

    At an afternoon news briefing, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn said he told police that their "highest priority is to find the shooters and bring them to justice." He also asked political leaders to look into gun laws and the culture of violence to see what can be done to keep weapons out of the hand of offenders.

    Even before the shootings on Wednesday, Seattle was dealing with an outbreak of violence that has stumped police officials, who have blamed it on gangs and weapons. Wednesday’s shootings brought the number of homicides in Seattle to 19, nearly as many as 2011.

    Last Thursday, Justin Ferrari, a 43-year-old software engineer, was gunned down while running errands with his children in the Central Area. No arrests have been made in that investigation. And over the holiday weekend, four-drive by shootings, one that left a bystander wounded, were attributed to gang activity.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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