The lead inspector of a Center City building that collapsed last week is dead after committing suicide, Philadelphia city officials confirmed Thursday.

"I was just astounded to find this out," Mayor Michael Nutter said. "We're really talking about a city in pain right now and trying to recover."

Ronald Wagenhoffer, 52, was found dead around 9:30 Wednesday night of an apparent suicide, Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison said at a news conference Thursday morning.

NBC10 Philadelphia learned that Wagenhoffer left a final video message for his family before killing himself, where he admits he was at fault.

"It was my fault. I should have looked at those guys working, and I didn't. When I saw it was too late. I should have parked my truck and went over there but I didn't. I'm sorry." On the cell phone video, Wagenhoffer said he couldn't sleep because six people died and 13 others were injured in the collapse.

Law enforcement sources say Wagenhoffer shot himself once in the chest inside his pickup truck along a wooded section of the 100 block of Shawmont Avenue in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia. That's less than a mile from his home.

"I think what you have here is a 16-year-employee who cared very deeply about his job," said Nutter. "We don't know all the things that may have been going through his mind."

Wagenhoffer did not leave behind a physical note instead opting for the video. 

A source close to the investigation who did not want to be named because they aren't authorized to speak publicly about the case, said Wagenhoffer had been grieving for days and felt responsible. They said Wagenhoffer did not take any time off after the collapse because he thought sticking to his work routine might help him deal with the tragedy.

Nutter, who is in Chicago, was asked if Wagenhoffer should have been placed on leave after the building collapse."Each of us deals with our grief and sorrow and any sense of responsibility in a different way. I'm not going to second guess his judgment to keep working," Nutter responded. He said Wagenhoffer had been in constant contact with his supervisor and was offered time off, but declined.

City officials said Wagenhoffer visited the demolition site of an adjacent building, 2134 Market Street, on May 14 after a citizen expressed safety concerns. During his inspection, no violations were found.

L&I records also show Wagenhoffer completed and passed an initial inspection at 2136 Market Street on February 25.

L&I Commissioner Carlton Williams called Wagenhoffer an outstanding employee.

“He was a dedicated civil servant who did his job," he said. "He started in the Department of Public Property and moved his way up through the ranks as one of our top code officials in the Department of Licenses & Inspections."

Last Wednesday, the four-story outer wall of 2136 Market Street crumbled onto the Salvation Army Thrift Store next door. Six people were killed in the collapse -- three employees and three patrons. The wall also buried 13 others who were in different areas throughout the store, including the basement. They were eventually rescued by citizens and first responders.

Excavator operator Kane R. Robert, also known as Sean Benschop, stands charged in the collapse. Investigators with the District Attorney's homicide unit say he tested positive for the pain killer Percocet and marijuana on the day of the collapse. They allege he was in no condition to operate heavy machinery. A grand jury has been convened to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse.

City officials said that fellow employees and Commissioner Williams reached out to Wagenhoffer in the days after the collapse.

"This man did nothing wrong," Deputy Mayor Gillison said. "The department did what it was supposed to do under the code that existed at the time."

Nutter said the city is also encouraging other employees to get emotional support if they need it.

"Obviously I don't know why this happened, but we've tried to send a message out certainly to all of our public employees who are deeply affected by this, especially those who worked with Ron," Nutter said.

Wagenhoffer leaves behind a wife, Michele and 7-year-old son.

Deputy Mayor Gillison added there are five investigations underway regarding the collapse and that the city is "proud" of L&I's work.
Griffin Campbell was the contractor overseeing the demolition. In a statement released by his attorney Kenneth Edelin, he said "heartfelt condolences go to the family of the inspector."

"We also continue to pray for the families of those that were lost, and for the health and speedy recovery of those that were injured," the statement continued.

Walter Michot / Miami Herald via AP

Rescue divers search for missing persons after a packed outdoor deck collapsed at a popular Miami-area sports bar Thursday June 13, 2013.

Thirty-three basketball fans were injured after a deck collapse at a popular Miami-area bar and grill sent them tumbling into the waters of Biscayne Bay on Thursday night as the Miami Heat took on the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, authorities said.

About 100 people were on the deck of Shuckers Waterfront Grill when it collapsed around 9:45 p.m. local time, Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue said, and two dozen were transported for medical treatment. Two people injured in the collapse remained in critical condition late Thursday night.

“We were up on the fifth floor and just heard a crash, like something collided or like a thunderstorm,” witness Erick Williams told NBC Miami. “They were injured, there were leg injuries, there were body injuries, people just shocked and awed.”

The restaurant sits partially in the bay and part on land in North Bay Village, an island between Miami and Miami Beach.

Witnesses said they found themselves stuck in the water after the deck, situated about five feet above the bay, gave way beneath them. They said bystanders jumped in to help injured people caught among the floating wood, tables, and umbrellas.

“There was just a crack, and then we were in the water,” Crystal Infante told the Miami Herald. “It was really hard to get out, and you couldn’t find anyone.”

Dozens of emergency responders worked to get patrons to safety after the collapse, which occurred minutes before the NBA Finals halftime. Divers from Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue and Miami-Dade Police plucked injured patrons from the bay’s shallow water.

Peter Zalewski of Miami Beach was griping about his team’s performance when suddenly he was surrounded by “chaos.”

“It’s a little starling because you’re sitting there watching the game, you’re complaining about Wade not making his baskets and Bosh not getting any rebounds and next thing you know, there’s this huge noise, the landscape just disappears, people disappear and the ones still standing start running toward you,” Zalewski told the Miami Herald.

“Most of the people were just calling out, ‘Is anybody missing, is anybody missing?’” he told the paper. “You just kept hearing that over and over and over.”

Authorities said they believed everyone was accounted for by early Friday.

“This is a real tragedy,” North Bay Village Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps said. “Shuckers has been here for many, many years. People come from all around to enjoy the view and the food. This is really unfortunate.”

Team members expressed their concern for their hometown fans hurt in the deck collapse.

“I want to share our concerns as an organization and our gratitude to our fans back in Miami for their support,” Heat player Dwyane Wade told reporters in a postgame interview.

The Heat pulled ahead to beat the Spurs, 109-93, to even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.

Related:

• NBC Sports' full NBA Finals coverage
• NBC Finals Game 4: Heat big three key 109-93 win
• 24 injured, two seriously after deck of Shuckers Bar & Grill collapsed

John Wark / AP

Burnt trees and destroyed homes are left in the wake of a wildfire in the densely wooded Black Forest area northeast of Colorado Springs, Colo., on Thursday.

Thousands of Colorado Springs residents remained poised for mandatory evacuation orders Friday as crews fought to prevent the most destructive wildfire in Colorado’s history from spreading inside the city limits.

Two people have died in the 15,700-acre Black Forest fire – one of three major blazes burning in the state – and 38,000 people have been forced to flee their homes.

It had reduced 378 homes to cinders by 10 p.m. local time Thursday (midnight ET Friday), according to the El Paso County Sheriff's office. It also covered more than 24 square miles. 

Hot, variable winds were hampering efforts to fight the fires.

As of late Thursday, flames from the Black Forest fire had not damaged properties within the Colorado Springs city limits but the sheriff’s office issued a mandatory evacuation order for about 1,000 homes inside the north-eastern boundary and a voluntary order for about 2,000 more, Reuters reported.

Thursday’s two victims were found in the garage of a home in a heavily wooded area, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said, adding that their car doors "were open as if they were loading."

Full coverage from NBC station KUSA

"All evidence from the scene is they were planning on departing," he said. Two other people who had been reported missing were later found safe.

The incident brought back memories of last year's Waldo Canyon fire, which swept through the area and was the most destructive in the state's history to that point, destroying 346 homes and forcing more than 35,000 people to evacuate.

"I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined we'd be dealing a year later with a very similar circumstance," Maketa said.

For the Gardner family of Colorado Springs – the state’s second-biggest city, with 400,000 residents  - it's the second year in a row they've lost their home.

"Here we go again," Terrie Gardner, who lost her home in the Waldo Canyon fire last year, told NBC station KUSA.

Gardner and her husband, John, were living with her parents, Bryan and Bonnie Lord, after they lost everything last year. Now the Black Forest fire has destroyed that home, too. 

The Lords had lived there for 28 years. All that's left are two cats, a dog, a laptop and a couple of checkbooks. Everything else in the home — family photos, important paperwork, all of the new appliances the Gardners had bought for their prospective new home — is gone.

Terri Gardner said the situation was "kind of overwhelming at first. We've practiced this once before."

But "you can't change it," Bonnie Lord told the station. "It's happened. What's gone is gone."

"Decisions to evacuate are difficult, and those of you who had to evacuate, we know it's very difficult for you," Colorado Springs Mayor Steve Bach said.

Police Chief Peter Carey said he was in discussions with the National Guard to provide security in the evacuated areas.

More than 700 firefighters were at work on the fire, reinforced by active-duty military and National Guard troops, said Rich Harvey, a federal incident commander.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed three disaster emergencies Thursday authorizing a combined $10.15 million to help pay for firefighting and other costs.

Slideshow: Western wildfires

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Drought conditions fuel blazes in the U.S.

Launch slideshow

In the area of the Royal Gorge fire, about 15 miles from Cañon City, 48 of the 52 nearby structures were destroyed, authorities said Thursday afternoon. The fire had charred about 3,150 acres and was 20 percent contained. 

The fire is burning on both sides of the Royal Gorge Bridge, which stretches more than 950 feet above the Arkansas River and is surrounded by theme park attractions. The bridge itself was still intact, officials said at a news conference.

That blaze also forced the evacuation of almost 900 prisoners from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility outside Cañon City to a vacant prison in another part of the city Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Big Meadows fire that broke out Monday afternoon on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park was at 333 acres by late Thursday, KUSA reported. However, no structures or communities are threatened.

NBC News' Miguel Almaguer, Alastair Jamieson and Christopher Nelson and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related: 

• Colorado wildfires char homes, thousands of acres, force prison evacuation

This story was originally published on Fri Jun 14, 2013 5:39 AM EDT

Tony Gutierrez / AP

An American flag planted by the curb in front of this home waves in the breeze as a tractor demolishes a home in West, Texas, on Friday, May 31, 2013.

The small town of West, Texas, is making plans to move forward after being denied additional funds from The Federal Emergency Management Agency to rebuild after a deadly fertilizer plant explosion last April.

Governor Rick Perry received a letter from FEMA on June 10^th, rejecting his request to declare a major disaster declaration in the town of West, Texas. 

The letter stated bluntly: “It has been determined that the remaining cost for permanent work is within the capabilities of the state and affected local governments. Accordingly, we have determined that a major disaster declaration is not necessary.”

As a result of the denial, Texas officials said West will be forced to absorb an estimated $57 million in public damages.

“I’d just like a little definition on what they consider a disaster,” said West Mayor Tommy Muska, a volunteer firefighter himself who helped battle the explosion and inferno that killed 15 and injured 160. “If they would see what I see, and if they saw what I saw and still see, I don’t understand how this is a disaster that doesn’t merit a declaration.”

The disappointed mayor must now face the daunting question of what to do next.  But Muska said that he will look into any and every avenue for help — including calling on soldiers at the Army base in Ft. Worth to come start rebuilding infrastructure, to reaching out to the National Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers for help.

“We need help, and we need it now so people don’t move away from our small town,” said Muska who visited with Gov. Perry to discuss plans on how to move forward.

The mayor said he will work with the governor’s office to prepare a letter of appeal to be sent to President Barack Obama. The letter will include additional information about the damage in West, with hopes that it will be enough to persuade FEMA to reconsider.

But FEMA officials countered that the agency already took into consideration a number of factors when assessing the request and that, “personnel at the Joint Field Office in West, TX and in the field are actively working with state and local officials to prepare project worksheets for reimbursement of costs related to debris removal and emergency protective measures.”

The agency said it has also helped some individuals and small businesses affected collect over $7 million in federal disaster aid.

Still, Josh Havens, a spokesman for Gov. Perry, said, “FEMA’s decision to deny funds was weird because in this case, a little town sustained enough loss to qualify for assistance on both local and state levels with one single localized event.”

Tony Gutierrez / AP

This April 18, 2013 aerial photo shows a destroyed fertilizer plant, top, following an explosion in West, Texas.

This is not the first time, however, that FEMA has turned down a request for assistance after a non-natural disaster emergency.

In 2010, the town of San Bruno, in Northern California, was denied millions of dollars in public funding after a major Pacific Gas and Electric pipeline explosion.

“At the time I was disappointed,” said San Bruno Mayor, Jim Ruane. “On a national basis, we weren’t recognized. No one said, ‘You people have been through this horrific explosion and the country is watching you and wanting you to rebuild and we want to help you though this.’”

Despite being denied funds from FEMA, PG&E as well as other entities, came forward to claim responsibility for the explosion in San Bruno, and established a $50 million trust fund for the city to help with rebuilding. The city also received $70 million to be used to establish a nonprofit from PG&E for the city as a whole.

Texas public officials would not comment on any litigation against Adair Grain, Inc., owner of the West plant, but two lawsuits have reportedly already been filed by a group of individuals and small businesses.

San Bruno’s Mayor Ruane said the best piece of advice he could offer the town of West is to, “get the city together and say that we as elected officials are there to hold their hand if they need it.”

An explosion and fire at a Louisiana chemical plant Thursday morning killed one person and injured 73 more, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

The explosion took place at Williams Olefins chemical plant in Ascension Parish, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, state police said. A fire after the explosion was contained and then extinguished, and preliminary tests showed the air was safe.

Chemicals were being burned off, but there was no immediate threat to the public, said Jared Sadifer, a state police spokesman.

The fire, fueled by the petrochemical propylene, burned for more than three hours, though government monitors had yet to detect dangerous levels of emissions, Jindal told a news conference near the scene.

WVLA

People run away from an explosion and fire at the Williams Chemical Plant in the Ascension Parish town of Geismar, La., on June 13. The photo was taken by a plant employee who did not wish to be identified.

"Once the investigations are done, once there's a responsible party, they will absolutely be held responsible," Jindal said.

The cause of the fire was undetermined, Slaton said. Hazardous-materials crews were checking the site, and a controlled fire was burning off the rest of the chemicals.

The injured were taken to hospitals, and a total of 300 workers were evacuated, Jindal said. Ten people remained in a safe room at the plant, he said.

The man killed was identified Thursday evening as 29-year-old Zachary C. Green of Hammond, Louisiana, according to the state police.

Authorities ordered people within a 2-mile radius to remain in their homes, in part because of the smoke, said Lester Kenyon, a spokesman for Ascension Parish.

The site of the explosion remained an “active scene,” Lester Kenyon, a public information officer for Ascension Parish, told NBC News. He said the parish’s emergency operations center was in “partial activation,” with police, fire, Homeland Security and other emergency officials on the scene.

Baton Rouge General Medical Center said it had received seven victims, and St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales had eight more. Eleven were taken to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, two in critical condition. Some patients were flown from the scene.

Joseph Chamberlain / Red Stick Storm Spotters

A plume of smoke rises from an explosion at the Williams Olefins chemical plant on Thursday.

The plant said the blast happened just after 8:30 a.m. Emergency responders were notified and shut-down valves were closed after the explosion, isolating the unit, according to a release.

The plant is in the unincorporated, mostly industrial area of Geismar, about 60 miles northwest of New Orleans. The facility produces 1.3 billion pounds of ethylene and 90 million pounds of propylene a year, according to the company’s website.

Reuters contributed to this report

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:36 PM EDT

David Duprey / AP

A tow truck operator attaches a cable to a car that crashed into a flooded ditch during heavy rain along the New York State Thruway in Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday, June 13. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of upstate New York, saying the region was in for two days of rain starting Thursday.

A tornado in Maryland as well as lightning, hail and heavy rain delayed flights and snarled work commutes along the East Coast on Thursday, caused by a massive storm system that tormented the Midwest a day earlier.

The storm turned deadly in Virginia, where a large, mature tree uprooted by the storm fell on a school-age child, killing him, police said. A man was also injured in the incident that took place at Maymont Park in Richmond, but his injuries are not life-threatening.

Flood warnings were in issued for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington, while severe thunderstorm warnings were also issued in the South and Southeast.

The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado near the Washington suburb of Laurel, Md., just after 4 p.m. ET Thursday, and said the twister was moving east at 50 mph. A tornado threat had been issued earlier in the day, extending all the way from southern New Jersey and southern Pennsylvania to the Gulf Coast, said Weather Channel forecaster Greg Forbes. The threat was highest from north and east Virginia to east Pennsylvania and central New Jersey. 

In Maryland and Virginia, tornado watches expired at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Roughly 62 million Americans were in the path of severe weather, MSNBC Meteorologist Bill Karins said. Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Richmond, Va., and Philadelphia were expected to get the worst of it. 

An initial batch of storms passed through the nation's capital Thursday morning, with more severe weather hitting the area in the evening, NBCWashington.com reported. Downed wires and trees were reported in nearby Frederick County, Md.; Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport ordered groundstops Thursday morning.

The storms delayed hundreds of people on planes and trains and created massive backups on area roadways. More than 360 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport. For a time, all inbound flights to O'Hare were kept at their origin. Midway International, to the south, saw another 50 cancellations.

Weather Service ground crews surveying damage on Thursday made preliminary confirmation of a derecho -- straight-line windstorms whose gusts can reach hurricane force -- happening Wednesday night into early Thursday morning in northern Indiana and northwest Ohio, The Weather Channel reported.

Winds during the likely derecho event, which completely destroyed a grain silo and two barns in the Wabash, Ind., area, were estimated at 90-100 mph in a swath 7 miles long and 3 miles wide.

The storm's broad path along the Eastern United States knocked out electricity for up to 200,000 people across several states. In Georgia alone, more than 162,000 customers were without power, officials said. 

At least 55,000 customers were without power in Illinois and northwest Indiana after the storm system pushed through the Upper Midwest Wednesday, bringing suspected tornadoes to Chicago and Ohio. The Weather Service confirmed Thursday that the tornado that hit the Savanna area of Illinois, knocking a house off its foundation and damaging several smaller buildings, was an EF-2 storm with maximum winds of 135 mph.

New York and surrounding suburbs, already saturated with up to 7 inches of rain from the downpours Friday and Monday, primarily faced the threat of more flooding, NBCNewYork reported.

A powerful supercell system pushed through metropolitan Cleveland in the early hours of Thursday, which forecasters earlier predicted would bring baseball-sized hailstones and more high winds.

It was the end of what Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel had earlier warned was going to be a "long and ugly night" for Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis and the rest of the Midwest.

Scott Eisen / AP

Lightning flashes over Chicago's skyline on Wednesday.

Kevin Gold / NOAA, file

This photo taken in LaPorte, Indiana, on June 29, 2012, shows a shelf cloud on the leading edge of a derecho.

The Weather Channel reported "buildings destroyed" in Auglaize County as powerful winds blew through Ohio's northern Miami Valley early Thursday, though no details were immediately available. In the same county, a semi truck was toppled by high winds, NBC station WDTN TV in Dayton reported.

In Lake Delton, Wis., a "very, very strong downpour of rain" caused the roof over a loading dock to collapse at a Wal-Mart store late Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Police Sgt. William Hitchcock told NBC station WTMJ of Milwaukee that no serious injuries were reported, but the store is likely to be closed through Thursday.

NBC News' Jeff Black, Catherine Cetta, Justin Kirschner, Elizabeth Chuck and Sophia Rosenbaum contributed to this report.

Related:

• Wild weather over Washington as clouds converge on capitol
• PhotoBlog: Lightning strikes Chicago's Willis Tower
• Full coverage from weather.com

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:29 PM EDT

Two women and a 3-year-old girl were rescued from an SUV Wednesday night, after the vehicle was swept off the road by rising floodwaters into a ditch in Worth County, Iowa, the sheriff's office said.

Video cameras captured the rescue, which Kare11.com revealed took 45 minutes. Worth County Sheriff's Lt. Daniel Shaffer said the rescue was a joint effort of “several different fire departments.”

The video shows rescuers using a zip-line-type maneuver to safely transport the child from the SUV, through the choppy waters and onto dry land.

"Torrential downpour with very heavy rains, poor visibility, poor surface conditions," Shaffer described the conditions after the rescue.

Worth County is under a flood warning until 8:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, according to weather.com. “Do not drive your vehicle into areas where the water covers the roadway,” the site warns, “turn around … don’t drown.”

The three victims were examined at the scene and found to be in good health, Kare11.com said.

KSDK-TV

Police respond to a fatal shooting Thursday, June 13, on Cherokee Street in St. Louis.

Four employees of a home health care business were killed in a murder-suicide Thursday in St. Louis, police said.

The gunman, a second man and two women were found shortly after 1:30 p.m. in the office of A K Home Health Care on the first floor of the Cherokee Place Business Incubator, which renovates buildings on the street and leases them as work spaces, police said. 

Police identified the gunman late Thursday as Ahmed Dirir, 59. State and federal licensing records list a man with that name as the company's director.

His three victims were identified as Khadra Muse, 44; Seaeed Abdulla, 29; and Bernice Solomon-Redd, 54.

Police Capt. Michael Sack told reporters that video from a surveillance camera showed the gunman having an argument with the three others before opening fire. 

"It appeared to be brief," he said. "We don't know if this was a thing that carried over into today or was initiated today."

The weapon, a semi-automatic handgun, was recovered at the scene, he said.

Abdisalam Elmi, a Somali immigrant who drives a cab, told NBC station KSDK of St. Louis that he knew all four victims. 

"They are very hard workers," he said in an on-camera interview. "They're friendly. They always smile for me."

"This is the worst day in my life," he said, adding: "I pray for peace, for love, no hate."

Watch US News crime videos on NBCNews.com

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:25 PM EDT

The jury will be sequestered in the trial of George Zimmerman, the Florida man accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the judge said Thursday.

Judge Debra Nelson made the statement in court on the fourth day of jury selection. Prosecutors and the defense are trying to find six jurors, plus alternates, who say they can hear the case with an open mind despite its high profile.

Zimmerman claims he was acting in self-defense when he shot Martin on the night of Feb. 26, 2012. He has pleaded not guilty.

Both sides said Thursday that the trial will take roughly two to four weeks.

Jury selection has focused on the extensive pre-trial publicity. One potential juror estimated that she had seen 200 news reports about the case, and another said: “Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, it’s been pretty hard for people not to have gotten a lot of information.”

Editor’s note: George Zimmerman has sued NBCUniversal for defamation. The company has strongly denied his allegations.

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:38 PM EDT

The chief of police of Clinton, La., says he knows everyone in his small town, and that’s why he wants to keep it safe with an 11 p.m. curfew for all its residents.

After 13 years with the Clinton police department, Chief Fred Dunn said he knows when crimes are going to occur. And they usually happen in the night hours.

“The reason why I did the curfews is because of the businesses and home owners,” he said. “My citizens have been telling me that when they go home, they don’t feel safe.”

Clinton is a community of about 1,600 people about 35 miles north of Baton Rouge. 

Dunn implemented the curfew – which lasts until 6 a.m. – on May 30 and he said it's already producing results. The chief said he encountered two men hanging around one of Clinton’s streets a few days ago. Dunn said he was able to tell the men to move on because of the curfew. Later that night, Dunn said he learned the same men robbed a town 18 miles away.

The chief said residents have praised the new ordinance, but not everyone is a fan.

“I think that's kind of stripping people's rights to come and go as they please,” Tammy Childress, who works at the only 24/7 gas station in town, told NBC affiliate WVLA.

“We’re the only store open 24 hours here in Clinton, and we do pretty good business between the hours of 11 and 2,” Childress said.

But Dunn said no one has come to his office to complain about the curfew.

“I haven’t had one person come and say they don’t think it’s right,” he said. “I have an open-door policy and anyone can come talk to me.”

Dunn said he understands some people are travelling to and from work, and those people are not stopped. During their patrol, his officers look for cars stopped in the same area for longer than 30 minutes.

He plans to keep the curfew in place while he monitors crime rates.

The Supreme Court has finally done what should have been done years ago -- declared that genes which naturally exist in all of us cannot be patented.  For years Myriad Genetics, the company that sells the genetic tests used by Angelina Jolie and thousands of other women to assess their risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer, has held back the development of better tests and access for many women to testing by invoking their patent claims on key genes. Now the Supreme Court has rightly said that kind of patent is not valid. 

Patenting a naturally existing gene never made any sense. Sure, it takes work to figure out what genes do, but the rewards for that are publications, tenure, professional honors and even a Nobel Prize -- not a patent. Patents should be given not for discovery, but for inventions: What genes can you change; what test kit can you build; what program can you run to screen genetic risks?

The implications of the decision could be far broader than Myriad, whose stock price went up after the ruling. Many companies have taken out patents on genes not only those found in humans but in animals, microbes and plants.  All of these are now in question -- which may cause some reevaluation of the worth of some companies who have been touting their ownership of genes to Wall Street.

The decision will also give a bit of a push to the field of synthetic biology. In this area scientists try to change, tweak or create new genes -- usually in viruses or bacteria -- to make novel organisms that have valuable properties like making proteins for food or acting as vaccines against disease. The Supreme Court explicitly encouraged patents for this type of invention and it is likely to be where the action is in the field of genetics.

It took a very long time to get a sensible patent policy in place in the United States and other countries. The point of patents is to reward practical inventions and useful creations, not to let people profit from finding what naturally exists in the world. Now industry and lawyers will have to work to reset the rules since the days of the Oklahoma land rush laying claims to bits of human DNA have been called to a halt.

Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., is the head of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Related:

DNA ruling will make gene tests cheaper, experts say

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's chief executive and one of the richest men in America, has filed for divorce from his third wife Wendi, a spokesman for the company confirmed to CNBC on Thursday. 

The reasons for the split were not immediately clear, but sources said the couple had been leading largely separate lives after 14 years of marriage.

The company spokesman said the relationship had been irretrievably broken for more than six months before he filed for divorce Thursday.

Born in China and educated in the U.S., the former Wendi Deng was working for News Corp. subsidiary Star TV in Hong Kong when she met Murdoch in 1997.

Two years later, Murdoch, 82, married Deng, 44, on a yacht in New York Harbor — less than three weeks after his divorce from second wife, Anna, was finalized. They have two daughters, born in 2001 and 2003.

After the wedding, Wendi remained involved in the conglomerate's Chinese interests and Internet and film ventures, and she produced the 2011 feature "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" for Fox Searchlight pictures. In Oct. 2012, Murdoch gave his wife a shout-out on Twitter for her "hard work" on the website Art.sy.

In July 2011, the onetime volleyball player became the unexpected star of a British hearing into phone hacking by News Corp. when she tried to smack a protester who went after husband with a foam pie.

Matt Sayles / AP file

Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi arrive at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles, on Jan. 15, 2012. On Thursday, Murdoch filed for divorce from Wendi Deng Murdoch, his wife since 1999.

Murdoch's net worth was listed at $11.2 billion by Forbes in March, ranking him 33rd on the U.S. billionaire's list.

The divorce filing comes just ahead of News Corp.'s planned split into two separate publicly traded companies, one for its entertainment businesses and the other for publishing.

The couple has a prenuptial agreement the terms of which give Wendi Murdoch cash and property, not company control, sources told CNBC.

Murdoch is being represented by veteran Manhattan defense attorney Ira Garr, whose high-profile clients have included Ivana Trump. Garr's office said he would have no comment.

Raoul Felder, a Manhattan divorce lawyer who has represented ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and actress Robin Givens and is not involved in the Murdochs case, said he expected the split would be very private.

"They sit down in a lawyer's office and the lawyers prepare papers," Felder said. "They'll never see the inside of a courtroom."

He said that given Murdoch's immense wealth, it's likely his wife is getting enough of a payout that she would not challenge any agreement, especially since prenups are rarely overturned.

"Money is a cheap currency when you have a lot of it," Felder said. "I'm sure he was very generous.'

Bernard Clair, another well-known Manhattan divorce attorney, said the globe-trotting CEO may have chosen to file in New York, where he has a home, because it's "a place where prenups are generally given a significant amount of presumptive validity by the courts."

It's also possible the prenup stipulates that it must be interpreted and enforced according to New York law, Clair said.

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:34 PM EDT

Patients, researchers and industry all claimed victory Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled that human DNA cannot be patented, opening the door for dozens of scientists and others trying to market newer and better tests to tell people about their risks for a range of illnesses from cancer to heart disease.  

But the unanimous ruling left in place protections for the biotechnology industry and methods used to make drugs based on engineered DNA.

The ruling clearly invalidated Myriad Genetics' most controversial patents on tests for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes that raise the risk of breast, ovarian and other cancers. But it did not go so far as to remove patents on artificial DNA, which is not widely used in genetic testing, but is used in other biotechnology applications.

“We just are so glad that women and our genes are not being held hostage by a private corporation any more,” said Lisbeth Ceriani, a Massachusetts breast cancer survivor who is one of the plaintiffs in the suit.

The researchers whose lawsuit prompted the decision were also celebrating. They say it will make genetic tests cheaper and far more widely available in the future.

“I think it changes everything,” Dr. Harry Ostrer, a genetics expert at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and one of the main plaintiffs in the case, told NBC News.

“I think this is a green light for us to go ahead with our testing.”

Patients will benefit, said Dr. Ossama Tawfik an expert in breast cancer pathology at the University of Kansas Medical Center and a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology. “I know the costs of these tests will be considerably lower without patent protection, allowing more women at risk to be tested,” Tawfik said in a statement.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which backed Ostrer in the suit, said many more patents on genetic tests may also fall. “Obviously, we are thrilled with the decision, “ said the ACLU’s Sandra Park.

“This ruling is a victory,” Park told reporters in a conference call.

Ostrer, the ACLU and others sued Myriad Genetics over the company’s strict enforcement of its patents on BRCA1 and BRCA2.  Ostrer said the company’s legal threats have kept researchers like himself from making and distributing DNA tests that can test multiple genes at a time to tell someone their cancer risk.

“You won’t need to get prior approval from Myriad Genetics to have the BRCA1 and 2 results reported,” Ostrer said.

The Court ruled that natural DNA cannot be patented, and that no matter how clever Myriad was in finding the particular gene mutations it did, or in removing and copying that DNA to make a test, it cannot claim a patent on the DNA itself.

The unanimous ruling makes a point of saying Myriad’s patent was on a product, not a method.  “Had Myriad created an innovative method of manipulating genes while searching for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, it could possibly have sought a method patent,” reads the ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas. But it used well-known and reported methods.

Ostrer says what the ruling does is protect other aspects of the biotech industry -- those that use artificial and engineered DNA to make drugs, for instance. “The biotech industry had expressed a lot of concern that they would lose out,” Ostrer said.

Myriad claimed victory, also, saying the court’s ruling on artificial DNA upheld the company’s claims. “Following today's decision, Myriad has more than 500 valid and enforceable claims in 24 different patents conferring strong patent protection for its BRACAnalysis test,” the company said in a statement. Myriad also disputed that the test was too expensive.

"As a result of the Affordable Care Act, the vast majority of at-risk patients can receive BRCA analysis testing with no out-of-pocket costs — meaning no co-pays or deductibles. Additionally, more than 35,000 at-risk patients in need have participated in Myriad's patient assistance programs that provide free tests or other financial assistance," the company said.

The 2010 health care law says health insurance companies must pay for cancer screening without charging patients any co-pay.

The researchers say the ruling does leave others free to develop their own tests for breast cancer risk, however. Since the Myriad tests came out, researchers have found dozens of other genes that influence breast cancer risk, as well as the risk for other cancers.

Myriad's earliest patents were set to run out over the next year or so and the company has been preparing for this. Wall Street investors have also taken this into account, and Myriad's share rose after the decision was handed down.

Kevin Noonan, a partner at Chicago law firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP, who specializes in the biotechnology industry, says many gene tests don’t look at the entire gene anyway, any more. Newer tests can look at small bits of the the gene, just looking for the important mutations that affect cancer or other disease risk.

“If you don’t get the whole gene isolated in a test tube, you don’t infringe the claim,” Noonan said.

Other companies have patented human genes, and those patents could be challenged one by one. “Perhaps a quarter or even more of human genes have been patented,” Ostrer said.

But Roger Klein, of the Association for Molecular Pathology, another one of the plaintiffs in the suit, said it’s more likely that researchers will just ignore the patents, knowing the companies won’t be able to enforce them.

“This testing is very, very important. People make extremely important, life-changing  decisions based on the testing,” Klein said.

Among them was actress Angelina Jolie, who made headlines in May when she said she’d had both breasts removed and would have her ovaries removed soon because of her high genetic risk of both cancers.

“Having gone through the devastating experience of making life-altering decisions based on the results of one test, I believe that the Supreme Court’s decision is a victory for everyone who believes that a company cannot patent parts of our body,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.

“Despite the fact that we’re all born with these genes, a private company had patented them. These patents had broad practical ramifications, preventing competition in testing for the gene mutations, second opinion testing, and restricting access to data on testing results for other researchers.”

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This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:29 PM EDT

Lititz Borough Police via AP

Brenda Heist 11 years ago (left) and in April upon resurfacing after 11 years missing.

The Pennsylvania woman who disappeared in 2002 and was declared legally dead in 2010 only to resurface in Florida in April is now facing a year in jail.

Brenda Heist left behind a husband and two young children in Lititz, Pa., leaving dinner on the table and a load of laundry in the wash when she bolted.

After 11 years missing -- and presumed dead -- Heist, 54, turned herself into the Monroe County Sherriff’s office on April 26. She said she thought she was wanted in a county nearby.

“I don’t know if she was wanted in another county or not,” said Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe County, Fla., Sheriff’s office. “She turned herself into us because she said she was tired and didn’t want to be missing anymore.”

It was at the Monroe County Sherriff’s Office that she revealed she was a missing person, which police authorities later confirmed.

She had been arrested on Feb. 15 for stealing an ID of a person she worked for and using it at a traffic stop. In April, she pleaded no contest to the charges and was placed on probation for three years.

In May, she was arrested for violating that probation by failing to check in with authorities.

Circuit Judge David Rimmer sentenced her Wednesday to 364 days in county jail, according to Joan Malley, deputy clerk for Santa Rosa County. She was accredited with serving 100 days toward that sentence.

When Heist resurfaced, her family back in Pennsylvania said they did not plan to see or talk to her.

“It’s not that I hate her,” Morgan Heist, Brenda Heist’s 19-year-old daughter, told NBCPhiladelphia.com. “I just don’t think she deserves to be in my life at this point.”

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The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that companies cannot patent human genes, a decision that patient advocates said would increase competition and lower the cost of screenings for cancer risk and other genetic tests.

DNA is “a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated,” the court said. In something of a compromise, it ruled that genetic material created in laboratories is eligible for patent protection.

The case centered on a Salt Lake City company called Myriad Genetics that was granted patents for isolating two human genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that indicate a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The company now markets tests for those genes.

BRCA1 is the gene carried by actress Angelina Jolie, who determined after a test that she was at higher risk of developing breast cancer and chose to have a double mastectomy. Jolie herself said that the cost of screening — more than $3,000 in the United States — was an obstacle for most women.

Douglas C. Pizac / AP file

A technician loads patient samples into a machine for testing at Myriad Genetics on May 31, 2002, in Salt Lake City.

“Myriad did not create anything,” Justice Clarence Thomas said, writing for the court. “To be sure, it found an important and useful gene, but separating that gene from its surrounding genetic material is not an act of invention.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed Myriad, said that the court had “lifted a major barrier to progress” in treating and preventing diseases.

While companies are free to use the genes as a starting point to develop tests and treatments, the genes themselves should remain in the “public storehouse of knowledge” for scientists and companies to study and use, the ACLU said in a blog post.

The court could have ruled that both natural and synthetic genes are ineligible for patent protection, an outcome that would have been much worse for Myriad. Wall Street appeared to view the ruling as at least a partial win for the company and sent its stock up 10 percent.

The justices had wrestled with whether Myriad’s work was a product of invention or nature. The biotechnology industry warned that a ruling against the company would threaten billions of dollars in investment.

The government has already granted patents on 4,000 human genes, mostly to companies and universities.

An oral argument in April was so deeply technical — introns, exons and messenger RNA were all discussed in detail — that justices and lawyers alike had to grope for everyday analogies.

Gregory Castanias, a lawyer for Myriad, likened the isolation of genes to the creation of a baseball bat, which “doesn’t exist until it’s isolated from a tree.”

Mladen Antonov / AFP - Getty Images, file

A woman holds a banner demanding a ban on human-gene patents during a protest outside the Supreme Court in April.

“But that’s still the product of human invention,” he said, “to decide where to begin the bat and where to end the bat.”

Doctors and scientists who challenged the patents said that their research had been hindered. The lawyer arguing for them said that Myriad deserved credit for unlocking the secrets of genes — just not a patent.

“One way to address the question presented by this case is: What exactly did Myriad invent?” asked the lawyer, Christopher Hansen of the American Civil Liberties Union. “And the answer is nothing.”

Justices on both sides of the ideological spectrum seemed concerned about whether companies like Myriad would scale back investment in research if they were not rewarded with patents.

“What does Myriad get out of this deal?” Justice Elena Kagan wondered. “Why shouldn’t we worry that Myriad or companies like it will just say, well, you know, we’re not going to do this work anymore?

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, representing the Obama administration, argued that manipulating a gene into something new might qualify for patent protection, but that isolating what’s already there should not.

The administration has supported the compromise position — allowing patents for synthetically produced genetic material but not natural genes themselves.

The case challenged seven Myriad patents that are set to expire in 2015.

This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:32 AM EDT

Eric Kayne / for NBC News

Miriam Ibarra holds her 6-month old son, Andrew Chavaria. For the first time, America's racial and ethnic minorities now make up about half of the under-5 age group.

For the first time, America's racial and ethnic minorities now make up about half of the under-5 age group, the government said Thursday. It's a historic shift that shows how young people are at the forefront of sweeping changes by race and class. 

The new census estimates, a snapshot of the U.S. population as of July 2012, comes a year after the Census Bureau reported that whites had fallen to a minority among babies. Fueled by immigration and high rates of birth, particularly among Hispanics, racial and ethnic minorities are now growing more rapidly in numbers than whites. 

It’s the latest in a series of reports that have signaled a major, long-term shift in the demographics of the United States, as non-Hispanic white Americans are expected to become a minority group over the next three decades. For years, Americans of Asian, black and Hispanic descent have stood poised to topple the demographic hegemony historically held by whites.

Based on current rates of growth, whites in the under-5 group are expected to tip to a minority this year or next, Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau's acting director, said. 

The government also projects that in five years, minorities will make up more than half of children under 18. Not long after, the total U.S. white population will begin an inexorable decline in absolute numbers, due to aging baby boomers. 

The latest census numbers show: 

• The population younger than 5 stood at 49.9 percent minority in 2012. 
• For the first time in more than a century, the number of deaths now exceeds births among white Americans. This "natural decrease" occurred several years before the government's original projection, a sign of the white population decline soon to arrive. For now, the white population is still increasing slightly, due to immigration from Europe. 
• As a whole, the nonwhite population increased by 1.9 percent to 116 million, or 37 percent of the U.S. The fastest percentage growth is among multiracial Americans, followed by Asians and Hispanics. Non-Hispanic whites make up 63 percent of the U.S.; Hispanics, 17 percent; blacks, 12.3 percent; Asians, 5 percent; and multiracial Americans, 2.4 percent. 
• About 353 of the nation's 3,143 counties, or 11 percent, are now "majority-minority." Six of those counties tipped to that status last year: Mecklenburg, N.C.; Cherokee, Okla.; Texas, Okla.; Bell, Texas; Hockley, Texas; and Terrell, Texas. 
• In 2012, 13 states and the District of Columbia had an under-5 age population that was "majority-minority," up from five states in 2000. In 25 states and the District of Columbia, minorities now make up more than 40 percent of the under-5 group.
• Among the under-5 age group, 22 percent live in poverty, typically in more rural states such as Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. Black toddlers were most likely to be poor, at 41 percent, followed by Hispanics at 32 percent and whites at 13 percent. Asian toddlers had a poverty rate of 11 percent. 

"More so than ever, we need to recognize the importance of young minorities for the growth and vitality of our labor force and economy," said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census data. 

Analysis by Timothy Smeeding, an economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who specializes in income inequality, of the latest research and data on social mobility, provided to The Associated Press, shows that a child's achievement varies widely depending on a parent's education and income. The reason: More educated parents tend to have fewer children and generally earn more money than before, allowing them to spend larger amounts of time or money on a child's development, including music or art classes, extra tutoring, or travel and summer camps. 

The gaps in achievement tend to emerge early in childhood, continuing through high school, and disparities are especially evident in SAT admission scores. College Board data show that average scores spread as wide as 130-140 points in each of the reading, math and writing sections for a student with family income of less than $20,000, compared with a student with family income exceeding $200,000. 

About 40 percent of whites age 25-29 graduate from college, compared with 15 percent for Latinos and 23 percent for blacks. 

Obama proposed expanding pre-K education for any 4-year-old whose family income was below twice the federal poverty rate, or $46,000 for a family of four. That is an increasingly minority age group that would benefit from what Obama calls the single most effective way to boost educational outcomes. 

The plan would be paid for by a nearly $1 per pack federal cigarette tax. But at a time of strapped federal budgets, Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to expand the scope of government or raise new taxes. Medicare and Social Security costs due to aging of the mostly white baby boomer generation are also adding to the government burden. 

A recent Rutgers University study found that state funding for pre-K programs had its largest drop ever last year, with states now spending less per child than a decade ago.

Tom Pennington / Getty Images file

Actress Eva Longoria speaks on stage during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on Sept. 6, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C.

It wasn't long ago that Eva Longoria was more likely to share a dais with fellow actresses like Teri Hatcher or Felicity Huffman than with a former president of the United States, business leaders, or heads of foundations. But the “Desperate Housewives” star is now turning heads as a political power broker and prominent Latino issues advocate.

On Thursday, Longoria will participate in a panel discussion moderated by President Bill Clinton at the annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative America in Chicago. Sharing the stage with Sara Martinez Tucker, CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative; Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of Chobani, Inc. (the yogurt chain); and Laysha Ward, president of community relations for Target Corp., Longoria will take part in a session about achieving economic and social mobility.

She will also release a report commissioned by her eponymous foundation evaluating the factors that contributed to the success of recent Latina college graduates who grew up in disadvantaged environments.

The 38-year-old actress and executive producer isn’t just fundraising or glad-handing; her influence extends to policy and strategy. After serving on President Obama’s commission to create a new National Museum of the American Latino, Obama asked Longoria to be co-chair of his inaugural committee. It paid off: She was able to persuade the president last year to issue a directive for helping the children of illegal immigrants gain citizenship.

“I always knew that the end goal of my journey in life was not to be famous, was not to be an actress. I feel like I haven’t even tapped into the potential that I have as a human being,” Longoria said in a keynote speech at the Lozano Long Conference at the University of Texas last year. “When it comes to my identity, I’ve found out over the years that I’ve just constantly negotiated my position and my space as a Latino, as a woman. And I’ve built my own cultural wealth by discovering my roots, exploring my roots and by staying curious about the world.” (Longoria was traveling out of the country and unavailable for an interview for this story.)

The role of skillful political operator is one she readily gravitated toward in her ongoing quest to bring attention to issues close to her heart — immigration reform, the United Farm Workers and the education and empowerment of U.S. Latinas. Volunteerism and charity work have been an important part of Longoria’s life since growing up on a ranch in Corpus Christi, Texas, near the Mexico border. Through her childhood, she told Newsweek, her mother insisted that she spend her free time in soup kitchens and donate regularly to the Salvation Army and Goodwill.

“At the foundation of her being and what she wants to accomplish with her life is that she’s been there,” said Henry Muñoz, the finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee who has worked with Longoria on several issues and projects. “She doesn’t forget where she came from, and what members of her family and people she grew up with experienced. I see her activism, her community engagement and her involvement as just as important to her as being an actress.” 

After she graduated from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting, Longoria quietly began working with organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Padres Contra el Cancer (Parents Against Cancer). Inspired by her sister who has developmental disabilities, Longoria also co-founded Eva’s Heroes to help young adults with special needs.

“The way Eva has described it to me, she looks at that period as a learning period,” said Maggie Neilson, co-founder of Global Philanthropy Group, the Los Angeles firm that oversees Longoria’s foundation. “She talks about the mentors who helped her get educated about the historic and other issues important to her community. She very smartly wasn’t someone who went on blast early on. She took the time to really learn. That’s why I think today a lot of people are surprised by the depths of her knowledge. She really took a long time to know what she cares about and understand it.”

The end of “Desperate Housewives” opened up Longoria’s schedule to become more actively involved in President Obama’s re-election.

Longoria was the first person Munoz reached out to when he began developing The Futuro Fund, which raised $30 million for Obama’s re-election campaign and created a resourceful fundraising network that will impact elections to come, he said.

“I’ve seen Eva in meetings with the President, for example, where this is not a celebrity interaction with people of substance,” Munoz said. “This is a serious policy discussion about the impact of an issue on a community. She is my friend. But that aside, she is a very serious, important and nationally recognized activist for the Latino community and for the community of women.”

She has also dedicated herself more fully in The Eva Longoria Foundation, the non-profit organization she launched last year that invests in educational and entrepreneurial opportunities for U.S. Latinas. In May, she graduated from Cal State Northridge with a master’s degree in Chicano studies and political science.

“That gave her the additional information and knowledge with which to work on her non-profit issues and on the presidential election,” Neilson said. “To me, it all kind of makes sense and none of it is new. It’s all just culminated in the last 18 months. She just didn’t have quite as big of a toolbox and platform from which to make a difference and she also didn’t have quite as much time. The stuff she’s been doing all along has just now come to the forefront.”

Longoria wants other Latinos to follow in her footsteps and seize the power the country’s largest minority group demonstrated in the November election that it now has.

 “We have to think about what these changes mean for our community,” Longoria told the University of Texas audience. “I find a lot of people are scared of this change. Where is this xenophobia coming from? I think there’s a Taco Bell on every corner. I don’t understand it. I think we also have to think about who has to gain from this xenophobia. It’s time for Latinos to stop being a number and start being a market, to stop being the largest minority in the United States and start being the most influential group in the country.”

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Rick Wilking / Reuters, file

Police stand beside two suspected looters in Moore, Oklahoma, on May 21.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Officials in tornado-stricken Oklahoma cities are now dealing with looters who are stealing items ranging from copper wire to jewelry.

Moore police spokesman Jeremy Lewis and Mayor Glenn Lewis said 17 arrests have been made on misdemeanor charges of looting in Moore since the May 20 EF5 tornado hit.

"We are seeing people take everything from copper to pipes to scrap metal to all kinds of electronics," Lewis said. "It's a misdemeanor crime and not a crime we usually have to deal with."

Jon Fisher's home was flattened in the May 20 storm that killed 24 people and his neighborhood has been among those targeted by looters, mostly homes on the edge of damaged areas.

"The houses are still standing and looters are kicking in doors and taking TVs and appliances," Fisher said. "They arrested two guys in my neighborhood the night of the tornado who were carrying out a love seat and couch."

Fisher said his insurance company told him to remove all valuables from his house as fast as possible, particularly items with sentimental value or those not easily replaced.

Moore police also dealt with looters after another massive EF5 tornado struck the city in 1999.

In May, police immediately set up positions and checked identification of people trying to enter locked-down tornado-damaged areas. The Oklahoma Insurance Commission also issued badges to assessors and workers to make them easily identified when working in damaged neighborhoods.

Three Virginia men - Steven Corky Daniels, 36; Steve Costello, 44 and Justin Wagner, 25 - were among those arrested for looting copper wire and scrap metal in Moore.

Maria Lopez, 30, of Norman, Oklahoma, was charged with disturbing a disaster area on May 30 in Moore after neighbors reported seeing her and her children sort through rubble.

Alleged looters closer to home were also arrested. Moore Police arrested Moore resident Edward Dean McDonald on May 29 on misdemeanor looting charges.

Shawnee police said they have made no looting arrests since a tornado struck that town on May 19.

Moore City Manager Steve Eddy said crime is not as widespread as some may think.

"We learned from the first tornado, and we have officers in that area 24/7," Eddy said. "We have no tolerance for it. We're not going to shoot them on sight or anything, but we will arrest anyone suspected of it."

On May 31, a second EF5 tornado near El Reno, Oklahoma, and severe storms left 21 people dead.

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Tom Pennington / Getty Images

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

Launch slideshow

David Wallace / AP file

Jodi Arias stands as the jury is excused after the verdict for sentencing was declared a hung jury for her first degree murder conviction at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, Ariz., on Thursday, May 23, 2013.

PHOENIX — A top Arizona prosecutor said on Wednesday that the state still plans to seek the death penalty for convicted murderer Jodi Arias for killing her ex-boyfriend, after a jury deadlocked last month on whether she should be executed.

Arias, a former waitress from California, was found guilty last month of killing Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home in June 2008. He had been stabbed 27 times, had his throat slashed and was shot in the face.

But the same eight-man, four-woman jury that convicted Arias of murder and quickly ruled her eligible for the death penalty subsequently failed to reach a consensus as to whether Arias should be executed, prompting a penalty phase mistrial.

The state of Arizona now has the option of retrying the sentencing phase of the trial, which would require a new jury be empanelled. If there is another deadlock, a judge would sentence Arias to natural life in prison, or life with the possibility of parole after 25 years.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery told reporters prosecutors would ask a new sentencing jury to do what the previous one could not - put Arias to death.

"At this point, we are still preparing to move forward to retry the penalty phase," Montgomery told a news conference.

After the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on May 23, Montgomery said that his office would assess its next steps, but was proceeding "with the intent to retry the penalty phase."

A status hearing has been scheduled for June 20. A July 18 court date was set to select a new jury in the case.

The sensational trial began in January, becoming a staple with U.S. cable television viewers with its tale of a soft-spoken young women charged with such a brutal crime. The trial was punctuated with graphic testimony and bloody photographs.

Arias, 32, took the stand for a marathon 18 days and maintained throughout that the killing was in self-defense despite fierce cross-examination by prosecutors.

Springdale Police Department

Rainbow Kilo Rasphoumy seen in booking photo.

An Arkansas man with a toy gun got into a real altercation Wednesday with police outside of a Wal-Mart — and cops later found his van held a veritable menagerie of various birds.

The bizarre unfolding of events began shortly before 8:00 am, when police in Springdale, Ark., received a call reporting a suspicious vehicle.

The caller stated that her uncle, identified as Rainbow Kilo Rasphoumy, 40 of Huntsville, often came to her home and bothered her, according to the Springdale Police Department. She also noted that she believed Rasphoumy to be mentally ill, cops said.

When police located the vehicle and signaled it to pull over, the suspect stopped in a Wal-Mart parking lot and got out of his van — but refused to cooperate with police, said Springdale PD Captain Mike Peters.

After attempting to hit officers with a plastic flute, police tasered Rasphoumy, who was not disabled by the stun gun.

Rasphoumy then pulled out what police now know was a plastic gun, and pointed in the direction of the officers, who then fired seven real shots at him.

None of the bullets hit Rasphoumy, who then locked himself in his van. 

According to Peters, that is when a SWAT team and negotiators were called to the scene. After pleading with Rasphoumy for 45 minutes, Rasphoumy left his vehicle and was arrested and taken into custody by police. 

In the van, officers recovered the toy gun — along with three parakeets, three chickens, and two ducks. 

“It was a little strange, not something you see every day,” said Peters.

While the criminal investigation into Rhasphoumy’s actions is still ongoing, he has been charged with aggravated assault, assault in the first degree, and resisting arrest and was being held in custody Wednesday night.

Jim Urquhart / Reuters file

Members of the Boys Scouts of America march in a gay pride parade in Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2, 2013.

HOUSTON — The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday called for the removal of some of the Boy Scouts’ leadership after the organization voted to allow gay youth to join, but did not ask its affiliated churches to pull their sponsorship of Scouting.

The convention approved the call in a resolution crafted by a committee at the group’s annual meeting in Houston. It comes three weeks after the Boy Scouts of America voted in an historic ballot to allow gay youth to join after the issue of LGBT membership had roiled the youth organization for years.  

“Bapists didn't put this on the agenda. The Boy Scouts of America put this on the agenda. This was something to which we had to respond,” said Russell Moore, president of the convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Committee.

“The purpose of this resolution is not to call down fire from heaven on the leadership of the Boy Scouts of America,” he added. “It's to seek to persuade, to seek to engage in a conversation.”

The resolution doesn't name specific Boy Scouts leaders, but noted it believed some in executive and board positions had tried to enact the membership change earlier this year without first getting input from “the full range of the Scouting family” and asked for the BSA to “remove” them.

Deron Smith, a spokesman for the BSA, responded by email, saying that the organization “has some of the finest volunteer leaders in the world. We are thankful for their tireless commitment to serving the youth of this nation and investing in its future.”

Allowing openly gay youth in Scouting, according to the Baptists resolution, "has the potential to complicate basic understandings of male friendships, needlessly politicize human sexuality, and heighten sexual tensions within the Boy Scouts."

Though gay adults are still banned, the Southern Baptists feel their inclusion is just a matter of time – a worry expressed by other conservative religious sponsors of the Boy Scouts.

“We express our well-founded concern that the current executive leadership of the BSA, along with certain board members, may utilize this membership policy change as merely the first step toward future approval of homosexual leaders in the Scouts,” the resolution said.

The resolution, however, did not go as far as recommending that Southern Baptist-affiliated churches leave the Boy Scouts.
 
But it asked those churches and families that planned to stay to “work toward the reversal of this new membership policy and to advocate against any future change in leadership and membership policy that normalizes sexual conduct opposed to the biblical standard." 

For those that leave, as some have done, the convention asked them to explore a faith-based alternative, the Royal Ambassadors. 

The impact of the vote is not clear. Though Baptist churches sponsor nearly 4,000 units consisting of more than 108,000 youth, the number of SBC-affiliated churches is unknown, according to the BSA, the SBC and the Association of Baptists for Scouting. 

The SBC-affiliated churches are autonomous and can handle the SBC resolutions however they choose, according to Steve Lemke, chairman of the resolutions committee that drafted the resolution.

“At most, we could have expressed a stronger statement that we urged Southern Baptist congregations to withdraw from Scouts ... we stopped short of that,” said Lemke.

“I think we've maybe given some ammunition to both sides for the local churches to prayerfully make a decision. But our main concern is that they not abandon the ministry of boys,” he added.

The Boy Scouts have reached out to the religious institutions, which make up more than 70 percent of the organization’s charter partners and play a key role in the viability of Scouting units, to encourage them to stick with one of the nation’s most popular youth programs. 

The BSA has maintained that the change, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2014, is consistent with Scouting’s values.

“Scouting’s youth member policy is not about the BSA endorsing homosexuality, or forcing its chartered organizations to do the same. This change allows Scouting to be more compassionate in its response to a young person who expresses a same sex attraction, but is not engaging in sexual activity, by no longer calling for their automatic removal from the program,” BSA spokesman, Deron Smith, said in an email.  

“We believe the BSA policy is fully consistent with how Southern Baptist Churches respond to young people in their congregations and allows them to maintain their beliefs about homosexuality and minister to children who are still learning and developing,” he added. Since the membership change by the BSA’s National Council in late May, religious institutions have formulated their responses to the decision, issuing them over the last few weeks.

Some of the biggest BSA partners, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the United Methodist Men and Catholics (the National Catholic Committee on Scouting), have encouraged their members to stay with the Boy Scouts in statements of support. A statement from the Mormon church was read at religious services last week.

Still, some Baptist families have contacted NBC News, telling them that their church Scouting sponsor would be walking away, such as that for Pack 215 in Harrison, Ark. Other Christian conservative families have sought out faith-based alternatives, which another Boy Scouts charter partner – the Assemblies of God -- has urged them to consider.

But some in the Baptist family have encouraged churches to continue to offer the program, too.

A.J. Smith, president of the Baptist Scouting association, said he had received assurances from the Boy Scouts that charter partners could craft their own codes of conduct on the boys, which he believed would be sufficient to keep sexuality – a key issue for a number of Scouting families – out of the program.

“…I believe that it is possible, even desirable, for Baptist churches to continue to utilize Scouting as an outreach ministry of the church. How it is done, however, must change," he wrote in a statement dated June 7. "No longer can a church simply give meeting space to the Scouts. Churches must take a proactive approach to Scouting and involve members of the local congregation alongside Scout parents as leaders, set expectations for leaders consistent with the values of the church.

“In this way churches can turn what looks like a negative into a positive, having an influence in shaping the values of another generation, and even reach youth that might not otherwise be reached with the gospel,” he added.

Carol Gilley, a member of an SBC-affiliated church whose pastor has said will drop its charter of her Pack 215, said she and her family would find a way to keep the program going locally. She has two sons in the Boy Scouts, too, and believes homosexuality is wrong.

"I'm not changing. I mean, my kids love what they do. We love what we do and we're just going to stick with it," she said of Scouting.

“Are they going to be harmed? Or are they going to be bad because they decided to stick with it? Heck no. No, they're not. ... It's almost like I'm defending homosexuality, and I'm not. It's just, it's there, it's there, and we have to deal with it."

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

Related stories:

• After vote allowing gay kids to become Boy Scouts, some families call it quits
• Bittersweet victory for gay adults kicked out of Scouting
• Boy Scouts vote to lift ban on gay youth

This story was originally published on Wed Jun 12, 2013 8:16 PM EDT

Mark Wilson, Getty Images

Acting CIA Director Michael Morell walked through the Capitol to attend a meeting after being called on to fill in as acting CIA Director after the resignation of David Petraeus.

As President Bush’s briefer during the Sept. 11 attacks, an eyewitness to President Obama’s reaction when Osama bin Laden was captured, and a key figure following the resignation of former CIA Director David Patraeus, Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell’s 33 years of service have certainly been eventful.

On Wednesday, he announced his retirement.

In a statement released by the CIA, Morell briefly referred to some of the challenges he had experienced in his tenure with the CIA and added, "Whenever someone involved in the rough and tumble of Washington decides to move on, there is speculation in various quarters about the 'real reason.'  But when I say that it is time for my family, nothing could be more real than that."

It was simultaneously announced  by the White House that Obama was appointing Avril Haines as the new CIA deputy director.

Morell was named interim CIA Director when Petraeus stepped down in November, but was passed over for the permanent position.

The man Obama chose to lead the agency in his place had kind words for his colleague.

"Michael has tackled some of the toughest assignments that CIA has to offer," said CIA Director John O. Brennan in a statement. "And over the past three months, Michael’s support and counsel to me have been invaluable, and I cannot thank him enough for helping me with my transition back to CIA."

Brennan also sang the praises of Haines, saying, "I very much look forward to Avril bringing her expertise, intellect, integrity, and dedication to national security to our Agency."

Haines currently works as the deputy assistant to the president and legal adviser to the National Security Council.

Morell's retirement becomes official on August 9.