The U.S. diplomat accused of spying in Russia joins a small group of Americans who have been publicly branded spies while overseas.

Keystone/Getty Images

Francis Gary Powers, pilot of the U-2 spy plane which crashed in Russia, appears before a Senate Armed Forces Committee in Washington holding a model of a U-2 in March 1962.

Their alleged transgressions range from piloting a spy plane into enemy territory to darting over a border in the wilderness. Some of them were returned to the U.S. after diplomatic intervention; some are still waiting to learn their ultimate fate:

Francis Gary Powers: The U-2 pilot parachuted into history on May 1, 1960, when a Russian missile shot down his spy plane. The cover story was that it was a weather plane, but after months of interrogation by the KGB, Powers publicly confessed to espionage and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

He served less than two years, though, after the U.S. and Russia agreed to a spy swap. When he returned to the States, he found himself under fire for failing to activate the self-destruct mechanism on the U-2 or use a cyanide capsule before his capture, according to his son's website.

Cleared of any wrongdoing during a congressional inquiry, he was later awarded several medals -- but not until 20 years after he was killed in a helicopter accident while working as a pilot for KNBC in Los Angeles.

Vincent Kessler/Reuters

American businessman Edmond Pope, accompained by his wife Cheri, gives a thumbs-up to the press assembled on a balcony at the American Hospital of Landstuhl in Germany after he flew in from Moscow on Dec. 14, 2000.

Edmond Pope: It took 40 years after the Powers case for another American to be convicted of spying in Russia. Pope was a U.S. businessman working on defense projects when he was accused of obtaining classified torpedo designs from a Moscow professor. Pope said he had no idea the plans were off-limits.

His 2000 trial — which featured his defense lawyer delivering a closing argument in verse — ended with a guilty verdict and 20-year sentence. Within days, President Vladimir Putin had pardoned him, citing his poor health.

The retired naval intelligence officer always denied being a spy. "I'm not James Bond," he insisted after his release.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee: The two journalists traveled to China in 2009 to film a documentary for Current TV and were arrested after North Korea claimed they had crossed the border. With tensions between Washington and Pyongyang running high, the two women were convicted of "hostilities" against North Korea and illegal entry and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

Ling and Lee were granted amnesty after former President Bill Clinton intervened on behalf of the White House. They later said that they had spent only seconds on the North Korean side of the border before returning to Chinese territory and that soldiers chased them and dragged them back.

Robyn Beck/AFP – Getty Images

Freed U.S. journalists Euna Lee, left, and Laura Ling embrace family members after being released from North Korea at the airport in Burbank, Calif., on Aug. 5, 2009.

Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal and Sarah Shourd: A visit by three hikers to a waterfall on the border of Iran and Iraq turned into a two-year international saga. Iranian guards arrested the trio — who were working in Kurdistan at the time — and accused them of espionage.

Shourd was released in 2010 for health reasons but the two men were convicted in 2011 and sentenced to eight years. They became a cause celebre and were released a month later after the government of Oman posted nearly $1 million in bail to secure their freedom.

They maintain that they were not spying and don't even know if they actually crossed into Iran by accident. "From the very start, the only reason we have been held hostage is because we are American," Fattal said when he and Bauer were back on U.S. soil.

Press TV via AP

American hikers Shane Bauer, left, Sarah Shourd, center, and Josh Fattal, sit at the Esteghlal Hotel in Tehran, Iran, on May 20, 2010.

Timothy Tracy: Venezuelan authorities arrested the California filmmaker last month and accused him of being a U.S. government agent and paying right-wing groups to destabilize the new government of leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

The 35-year-old's family said he was in Venezuela only to make a documentary. He was heading back to the U.S. for his father's 80th birthday when he was detained at the airport in Caracas, relatives told the Associated Press.

Obama called the accusations that Tracy is a spy and that the U.S. is trying to incite civil war "ridiculous."

Tracy family via AP

This undated family photo released April 25, 2013, shows Timothy Tracy inside of a vehicle in Venezuela.

Kenneth Bae: The American businessman was arrested in North Korea in November and sentenced last month to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts."

Yonhap via Reuters

Video released in Seoul by Yonhap News Agency on May 2, 2013, shows a portrait of U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae.

Friends say Bae, 44,  was a tour operator who ran excursions from China and a devout Christian who had traveled to the North several times with an eye toward helping orphans there.

The U.S. has demanded his release, and basketball star Dennis Rodman, who claims to be friends with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, tweeted that he was going to bat for Bae.

Alan Gross: The U.S. Agency for International Development subcontractor is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba after being convicted of leading a "subversive project" by smuggling satellite equipment to the communist-run island.

James L. Berenthal/AP

Jailed American Alan Gross poses for a photo during a visit by Rabbi Elie Abadie and U.S. lawyer James L. Berenthal at Finlay military hospital in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 27, 2012.

He was nabbed during his fifth trip to Cuba in 2009 while in possession of a SIM card that blocks tracking of satellite phone signals. It is not available on the open market, according to the AP, but is used by the Defense Department, State Department and CIA.

Gross, 64, claimed during that trial that he was doing humanitarian work and was duped into bringing in contraband. His lawyer has called him a pawn in the decades-old feud between the U.S. and Cuba.

NBC4

Former Bishop Watterson physical education teacher Carla Hale was fired in March.

A gay teacher who was fired from a Catholic high school in Ohio says she has been dealt another blow: Her local union isn't supporting her.

Carla Hale taught physical education for 19 years at Bishop Watterson Catholic High School in Columbus. She was fired in March after her name appeared with her longtime lesbian partner's name in her mother's obituary.

The firing, which the school said was prompted by an anonymous letter from a parent complaining about a lesbian teacher, resulted in a heated debate on both sides for the diocese of Columbus.

On Monday, Hale and her attorney announced their request for help with her case had been turned down by the local union for Catholic educators.

"The COACE [Central Ohio Association of Catholic Educators] informs you of the decision of its Grievance Committee not to carry forward the grievance Ms. Carla Hale has filed to challenge the termination of her employment as a Diocesan teacher," read the letter from the Central Ohio Association of Catholic Educators, according to WCMH.com in Ohio. It was signed by the union's president, Kathleen Mahoney.

The association did not return calls seeking comment.

Hale was fired March 28, ater returning from a break for her mother's funeral. She said she was called into a meeting with administrators, who had a copy of the obituary for her mother that she and her brother had written. They also handed her an anonymous letter from a parent calling the diocese disgraceful for employing a lesbian teacher at its school. 

Her termination letter from Bishop Watterson Principal Marian Hutson declared, "Your written spousal relationship violates the moral laws of the Catholic Church."

Following Hale's dismissal, the school said it received threatening phone calls and a slew of online criticism. But it stood by its decision, even as Hale filed a grievance to seek reinstatement and was denied.

"My living arrangements are my personal business. I'm a very moral person," she told reporters Monday after learning of the union's decision. "My decision to acknowledge a loved one in my mother's obituary was not immoral. I am not immoral." 

Hale has also filed a complaint with the city of Columbus, which prohibits firing employees based on sexual orientation. 

Her attorney, Tom Tootle, said it could take a month or more for the city to rule on her case, according to WCMH.com. Without help from her union, he asked her supporters for financial assistance.

"Arbitrations can be very expensive. Without the support and assistance of the COACE, we will need the support of all those who have been out there," Tootle said.

Hale's case has received national attention. A Change.org petition calling her to get her job back has more than 127,000 signatures. Locally, a group supporting her called Halestorm Ohio has more than 5,000 members, according to WCMH.com.

"We have a real opportunity not only to see justice done for a great teacher and great mentor, but to also make history. What we do here could impact employment policy all over the country," Amanda Finelli, a member of Halestorm Ohio, told WCMH.com.

NBC News' Jeff Black contributed to this report.

Read original story: 

Fired lesbian teacher fights to get job at Catholic high school back

A roller coaster that was plunged into the Atlantic Ocean after Super Storm Sandy ripped through the Jersey Shore last October and became a symbol of the devastation was being demolished Tuesday afternoon.

The partially submerged Jet Star coaster was once a popular destination at Casino Pier, an amusement park in Seaside Heights, N.J. But when Sandy ravaged the Jersey shoreline, destroying parts of the pier, the coaster tumbled into the ocean.

Watch live video at NBCNewYork.com

Footage recorded at the scene showed demolition crews beginning to rip apart what remains of the former thrill ride. The crews are expected to use barges in the water and on-shore equipment to dismantle and uproot the coaster, Casino Pier spokeswoman Toby Wolf told NBC New York.

The demolition will take roughly two days to complete, Wolf said.

Casino Pier has reportedly asked Weeks Marine, the construction and dredging company hired to tear down Jet Star, to salvage a piece of the fallen coaster, which park officials intend to install as part of a planned Sandy memorial, according to NBC New York.

Prince Harry, who earlier Tuesday visited the storm-battered towns of Mantoloking and Seaside Heights with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at his side, said that he saw the “American spirit” manifested in the coastal region's recovery from natural disaster.

The prince is scheduled to appear in New York City on Tuesday evening to promote British trade and a community baseball program.

NASA/SDO

The strongest solar flare of 2013 erupted Monday from the sun. This image of the flare, shown in the upper left corner, was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observator.

The sun, it seems, is in overdrive. Late Monday night, the sun unleashed its third major solar flare in 24 hours — the biggest and most powerful solar storm of the year, so far. 

This latest sun storm erupted Monday at 9:11 p.m. ET and registered as an X3.2 solar flare, one of the strongest types of flares the sun can release, space weather officials said. It came on the heels of two other recent X-class solar flares on Sunday night and Monday, all of which were sparked by a highly active sunspot on the sun's far left side. 

Officials at the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., marveled at the intense activity from the crackling sunspot. 

"Clearly an extraordinary active region is making its way fully onto the visible disk," SWPC officials wrote in a morning update Tuesday. "Can it keep up this hectic pace?" 

Two of the three recent solar flares have been associated with massive explosions, called coronal mass ejections, which flung super-hot solar material into space at millions of miles per hour. Because the sunspot firing off the flares is not yet facing Earth, the solar eruptions pose no threat to satellites and astronauts in orbit, NASA has said. 

"This marks the 3rd X-class flare in 24 hours," officials with NASA's sun-watching Solar Dynamics Observatory wrote in a statement. "Just like the two before this one also happened over the eastern limb of the sun and is not Earth-directed." 

More than a year after video footage of U.S. Marine snipers purportedly urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan surfaced on YouTube, setting off a storm of controversy in the Middle East, the officer in charge of that platoon will be court-martialed for his alleged misconduct, military officials announced.

Capt. James V. Clement will be tried for dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer and failure to stop misconduct by junior Marines, four of whom can be seen in the widely circulated video laughing and joking as they urinate on the bodies of what are believed to be dead Taliban insurgents.

A date for the impending court-martial has not been set, according to a Marine Corps statement released Monday.

Two of the snipers – Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola and Staff Sgt. Joseph W. Chamblin – have already been convicted in the case following outrage from world leaders and U.S. military officials.

Three other Marines pleaded guilty to a range of charges associated with the incident and were disciplined last August as part of a non-judicial military proceeding.

Another enlisted soldier still awaits trail, according to The Associated Press.

The video allegedly was filmed during a counter-insurgency operation in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in July 2011, according to the Marine Corps statement. Footage of the four Marines from the Third Battalion, Second Marine Regiment was uploaded to YouTube in January 2012 and quickly spread across the Web, triggering global outrage.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the behavior in the video as “inhuman.” U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta denounced the incident as “deplorable,” according to Reuters.

The video drew international attention during a particularly volatile time for U.S.-Afghan relations. The burning of Qurans at Bagram Air Base last February sparked a wave of deadly protests that resulted in the death of 30 Afghans, intensifying anti-American sentiment in the region.

NBC News' Courtney Kube and Jim Miklaszewsaki contributed to this report.

New Orleans Police via AP

19-year-old Akein Scott has been named a suspect in the New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting that left 19 people wounded.

New Orleans police and federal authorities were searching early Tuesday for a young man who is suspected of opening fire at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, wounding 19.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas identified the suspect late Monday as Akein Scott, 19, of New Orleans. Referring to blurry surveillance camera images of the mass shooting, Serpas said police have "multiple identifications of Akein Scott as the shooter" seen in the film.

Serpas said officers would be searching all night and into Tuesday for Scott, whom he called "no stranger to the criminal justice system." He urged the teen, who has previous arrests on firearms and drug charges, to give himself up.

"We would like to remind the community and Akein Scott that the time has come for him to turn himself in," Serpas said at a news conference outside police headquarters.

A photo of Scott hung from a podium in front of the police chief. "We know more about you than you think we know," he said.

Serpas said it was too early to say whether he was the only shooter.

The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies the city's festive image. Earlier, police announced a $10,000 reward and released the surveillance camera images, which led to several tips from the community.

"The people today chose to be on the side of the young innocent children who were shot and not on the side of a coward who shot into the crowd," Serpas said.

The superintendent said SWAT team members and U.S. marshals served a searched warrant at one location looking for Scott, but didn't locate him.

Angry residents said gun violence — which has flared at two other city celebrations this year — goes hand-in-hand with the city's other deeply rooted problems such as poverty and urban blight. The investigators tasked with solving Sunday's shooting work within an agency that's had its own troubles rebounding from years of corruption while trying to halt violent crime.

"The old people are scared to walk the streets. The children can't even play outside," Ronald Lewis, 61, said Monday as he sat on the front stoop of his house, about a half-block from the shooting site. His window sill has a hole from a bullet that hit it last year. Across the street sits a house marked by bullets he said were fired two weeks ago.

"The youngsters are doing all this," said Jones, who was away from home when the latest shooting broke out.

Video released early Monday shows a crowd gathered for a parade suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man in a white T-shirt and dark pants who turns and runs out of the picture. Two children were among those wounded.

Police were working to determine whether there was more than one gunman, though they initially said three people were spotted fleeing from the scene. Whoever was responsible escaped despite the presence of officers who were interspersed through the crowd as part of routine precautions for such an event.

A police news release says Scott has previously been arrested for illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of a stolen firearm, resisting an officer, contraband to jail, illegal carrying of a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of heroin.

It was not immediately clear whether Scott, who was arrested this past March, had been convicted on any of those charges.

Serpas said ballistic evidence gathered at the scene was giving them "very good leads to work on."

Witness Jarrat Pytell said he was walking with friends near the parade route when the crowd suddenly began to break up.

"I saw the guy on the corner, his arm extended, firing into the crowd," said Pytell, a medical student.

"He was obviously pointing in a specific direction; he wasn't swinging the gun wildly," Pytell said.

Pytell said he tended to one woman with a severe arm fracture — he wasn't sure if it was from a bullet or a fall — and to others including an apparent shooting victim who was bleeding badly.

Three victims still in critical condition
Three gunshot victims remained in critical condition Monday, though their wounds didn't appear to be life-threatening. Most of the wounded had been released from the hospital.

It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

The shootings are bloody reminders of the persistence of violence in the city, despite some recent progress.

Last week, law enforcement officials touted the indictment of 15 people in gang-related crimes, including the death of a 5-year-old girl killed by stray gunfire at a birthday party a year ago.

The city's 193 homicides in 2012 are seven fewer than the previous year, while the first three months of 2013 represented an even slower pace of killing.

On Monday night, 100 to 150 people gathered for a unity rally and peace vigil in the wake of Sunday's shootings. Some residents stood in their doorways or on their steps. At one point, trumpeter Kenneth Terry played, "O For a Closer Walk With Thee."

Robin Bevins, president of the ladies group of the Original Four Social Aid and Pleasure Club, said she and members of her organization came to the rally to show solidarity.

"This code of silence has to end," said Bevins, who's also a member of the city's Social Aid Task Force. "If we stand up and speak out, maybe this kind of thing will stop."

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked into the area, greeting people, shaking hands and stopping to talk with some residents before addressing the crowd.

"We came back out here as a community to stand on what we call sacred ground," Landrieu said. "We came here to reclaim this spot. This shooting doesn't reflect who we are as a community or what we're about."

Leading efforts to lower the homicide rate is a police force that's faced its own internal problems and staffing issues. At about 1,200 members, the department is 300 short of its peak level.

Serpas, who has been chief since 2010, has been working to overcome the effects of decades of scandal and community mistrust arising from what the U.S. Justice Department says has been questionable use of force and biased policing.

The site of the Sunday shooting — about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter — showcases other problems facing the city. Stubborn poverty and blight are evident in the area of middle-class and low-income homes. Like other areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the area has been slower to repopulate than wealthier areas. And Landrieu's stepped-up efforts to demolish or renovate blighted properties — a pre-Katrina problem made worse by the storm — remain too slow for some.

Frank Jones, 71, whose house is a few doors down from the shooting site, said the house across from him has been abandoned since Katrina. Squatters and drug dealers sometimes take shelter there, he said.

A city code inspector, who declined to be interviewed, was there Monday.

"It's too late," Jones said. "Should have fixed it from the very beginning. A lot of people are getting fed up with the system." 

Toby Talbot / AP

The Senate bill sits on the speaker's podium on Monday in Montpelier, Vt.

Vermont is poised to become the fourth state to allow doctors to help terminally ill patients die.

A bill approved Monday night by the state House would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication. The Senate has already approved the bill. It goes to Gov. Peter Shumlin, a strong supporter.

Vermont would join Oregon, Washington and Montana. Oregon and Washington passed similar laws by popular vote, and a court order Montana made it legal there. Vermont would be the first to pass such a law through its legislature.

“It’s huge,” Michael Sirotkin, a lobbyist involved with the issue in Vermont for a decade, told the Burlington Free Press newspaper. “I think it’s going to have a major effect on other states’ willingness to vote on this.”

For the first three years, Vermont would follow the Oregon law, which requires that patients state their wish to die three times, including once in writing, and requires a concurring opinion from a second doctor.

After July 1, 2016, Vermont would require less monitoring and reporting by doctors. Lawmakers could still eliminate those changes and permanently follow the Oregon model.

The law would take effect immediately upon the governor’s signature. Supporters told NBC affiliate WPTZ in Burlington that they expect about 20 people to ask for the lethal dose each year, and roughly six to decide to take it.

Debate in the Vermont Legislature was charged. Supports of the legislation sometimes call it “death with dignity,” and opponents sometimes call it “physician-assisted suicide.”

“I believe this bill is very dangerous bill,” state Rep. Tom Koch told the newspaper. “We have facilitated euthanasia.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 8:57 AM EDT

Elise Amendola / AP

Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney who managed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, speaks at a news conference in Boston on April 23 as Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick listens at right.

He's called “the umpire.”

Blunt yet sympathetic. Good with a calculator under pressure. Loves doing pro-bono work as a hobby. Because of all of those attributes, arbitration attorney Kenneth Feinberg is asked again and again to take on the awful task of putting price tags on pain, suffering and even human life.

Feinberg, 67, has managed compensation for families damaged by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Aurora movie theater massacre and the Virginia Tech shooting. He's worked with asbestos sufferers and waded through BP's oily mess.

Now, he will divvy up monies collected by the One Fund for Boston Marathon victims and their families.

"You know the book 'In Search of Excellence?'" asked Bobby Epstein, who attended the University of Massachusetts with Feinberg 50 years ago and was also a teenage summer camp counselor with him. "When you meet Kenny Feinberg, your search for excellence is over.

"The only thing we talk about is a hair piece, that's all," Epstein, the president of a Norton, Mass.,-based beverage company, joked.

Epstein says Feinberg's unique career -- which requires a delicate mix of empathy and calculation -- is hard to grasp.

"It's impossible," said Epstein, 68, who lives in Boston. "I was in his office in Washington one day when the Virginia Tech people, the parents, came in. My God, I was crying, and I didn't even know who they were. ... How he sleeps at night, how he can live with it -- he's an amazing individual. The country is lucky to have him."

Feinberg to Boston victims: ‘Lower your expectations’
Feinberg doesn't sleep much at night: Four or five hours at most, Epstein says. It may be even less now, as he commutes from his Bethesda, Md., home up to Boston to manage the One Fund.

“Whatever we do with this fund is inadequate,” Feinberg said at a town hall-style meeting he set up for marathon victims and their families in Boston last Monday. “Everyone, please lower your expectations about this fund. If you had a billion dollars, you would not have enough money to deal with the problems with these attacks.”

The One Fund, set up by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino after the bombings on April 15, has collected $29 million in donations so far. More than 200 people were injured in the marathon bombings; three people lost their lives there, and an MIT officer was killed by the suspects days later.

Feinberg must calculate how much each person is entitled to, factoring in horrific realities such as the number of limbs a victim lost.

He's doing it for free, and has told victims he plans to distribute all the money by June 30.

Placing a dollar amount on a life or an injury may sound heartless, but Feinberg, who is rehearsed in hearing victims' stories, brings sensitivity to his work, say those who have worked with him.

"He's the umpire, the mediator, the resolver," said John C. Coffee Jr., a law professor at Columbia University in New York who has known Feinberg for about 20 years. "He can listen, and he's a people person."

Feinberg’s first break in large settlement cases was in 1984, when he was appointed to distribute money from a $180 million settlement for Vietnam veterans who were suing the makers of Agent Orange. In his late thirties at the time, Feinberg was chosen by Judge Jack Weinstein because of his knowledge of toxic tort litigation and because he was highly regarded by big-name politicians, including Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who he worked for in the 1970s, first as an assistant, then as chief of staff.

"Kennedy was like a second father to him," Epstein said. "Kenny was a pallbearer [at his funeral]."

Slideshow: Boston bombings

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Heightened security, empty streets, and memorials mark the the days after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Launch slideshow

Since then, calls for jobs of this sort have come in regularly, including from George W. Bush's administration, which asked him to manage the 9/11 victims' compensation fund — a $7 billion fund hastily created by Congress in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, paid for by taxpayers, that made Feinberg the sole decision-maker of how much each claimant received. Victims and families who accepted money could not sue the airlines whose planes were used in the attack, and not all victims' families were willing to play ball.

“'We have to discover what really happened that day. We will get in a lawsuit what the CIA knew, what the FBI knew, what the administration knew,'" the families said to him, Feinberg told "60 Minutes" in a November 2003 interview. "I say to them, 'You’re not going to get any of that in a lawsuit.'”

Around 98 percent of the 5,562 family members of the more than 2,700 who lost their lives worked with the fund and avoided litigation, Epstein said.

Boston is a totally different case. Money isn't being handed out to prevent lawsuits.

"One benefit here in Boston, in Aurora, or Virginia Tech, you’re not waiving rights. This is a gift, in effect. This is money that’s been donated in private," Feinberg told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on May 2.

The cash that victims get in Boston can go straight to medical bills, which is part of why Feinberg spends so much time mapping out how much money each victim in a tragedy should receive, as opposed to just dividing the amount equally by the number of claimants.

"Last Saturday night, we were together, and he said, 'People have burns, and that will go away. Some people lost limbs and their lives will never be the same.' It’s half a million bucks to go through the life cycle of a prosthetic device. You gotta change the house around," Epstein said, adding that Feinberg takes the extent of the injuries and the person's earning capabilities into consideration, among other factors.

Despite all of Feinberg's best efforts to make fair estimates for how much each victim or victim's family is owed, there is always backlash. Some people tell him he hasn't delivered enough money to them; others tell him it's unfair their tragedy hasn't been recognized with a fund.

"Dear Mr. Feinberg, my son died in Oklahoma City, where's my check? Dear Mr. Feinberg, my daughter died in the African embassy bombings from the terrorists, where's my check? Dear Mr. Feinberg, my son died in the first World Trade Center bombing in '93 committed by the very same people -- why aren't I eligible?" he told "60 Minutes" in 2003, quoting letters he has received from grieving families.

Back to his Boston roots
Through his latest assignment, Feinberg is returning to his roots. A Brockton, Mass., native who speaks with a Boston accent, he got his undergrad degree from UMass in 1967. Three years later, he got his law degree from New York University, despite being involved in theater at UMass and briefly considering a career in acting.

Feinberg is a managing partner at his own firm, which has Washington and New York offices, but he has been involved in the biggest class action and mass tort lawsuits -- broader civil suits involving many victims -- over the past four decades, to the point where his name is synonymous with large settlements, Coffee, the Columbia professor, says.

His claims have ranged from a defective contraceptive device to the government’s TARP allocations during the economic downturn.

“He is not necessarily the greatest legal scholar who can give you the perfect multifaceted model for dealing with the problem, but he's got the instinct to get people to agree, to recognize that their self-interest is in something that is reasonable, rather than litigating for eternity," Coffee said.

The married father of three and grandfather plans on retiring in Martha’s Vineyard -- if he ever retires.

A spokesperson for Feinberg said he was too busy commuting from his Maryland home to Boston to be interviewed for this story. He's also too busy for hobbies, his friend, Epstein, says.

"This is his hobby. He's not a golfer, a fisherman, a tennis player," Epstein said.

Slideshow: Boston bombings

Dominick Reuter / Reuters

Cheers filled the streets after a Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — following a day-long manhunt that shut down the city.

Launch slideshow

Related stories:

• Bittersweet update from family devastated by marathon bombing
• Unaware of Tsarnaev warnings, Boston counterterror unit tracked protesters
• Full coverage of the Boston Marathon tragedy on NBCNews.com

New Orleans Police Department

New Orleans Police released this photo of 19-year-old Akein Scott late Monday. Scott is a suspect in the Mother's Day shooting that wounded 19 people in New Orleans.

New Orleans police have identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the  Mother’s Day shooting that wounded 19 people marching in a parade.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said at a press conference late Monday that an arrest warrant has been issued for Akein Scott. He was positively identified by more than one person, Serpas said.

Authorities searched three different addresses Monday night but were unable to find Scott, NBC New Orleans affiliate WDSU reported.

“We will be looking for Akein Scott for the rest of the night and tomorrow until we find him, and I would strongly recommend that Akein turn himself in,” said Serpas.

Scott has a criminal background which includes charges of resisting arrest and possession of a fire arm, Serpas said.

Earlier in the day, New Orleans police had released dramatic images early that show what authorities believe is the moment a buoyant Mother’s Day celebration was brought to a halt by a barrage of bullets.

Surveillance images recorded on North Villere Street in the 7th Ward neighborhood show a man police consider a potential suspect appearing to open fire on a crush of people gathered for a festive holiday parade. An adult male can be seen charging with raised hands, sending parade-goers scrambling in all directions of the surveillance camera’s frame.

See the chilling video stills at WDSU.com

On Sunday, Serpas said there may have been as many as three shooters in Sunday’s attack, which left 19 people injured – including two young children.

And at a press conference earlier Monday, Serpas asked that anyone who may have photos, videos or witnessed the possible shooter to contact law enforcement, stressing a $10,000 award for information leading to an arrest.

"I want to remind you that two children were struck in this incident," he said. "And if you choose not to tell the police what you know, then you're choosing to stand with those who shot those children."

At least three people were spotted running away from the scene after the gunfire erupted at 1:45 p.m.

Police said 10 adult men, seven adult women, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were struck by bullets. The injured children were grazed by the bullets and were in good condition Sunday evening, New Orleans Police spokesman Garry Flot said in a statement. A woman and a man were reportedly in surgery Sunday evening, but there were no fatalities and most wounds were not life-threatening, police said.

The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, a buoyant New Orleans tradition inspired by the city’s iconic jazz funerals: A brass band plays as it marches in the streets, while a lively “second line” of people follows the band, celebrating and dancing.

Officials said the parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people, though only half that number were close to the gunfire. The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece of the HBO TV series "Treme."

“These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year,” Serpas said.  “We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these two or three people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at, towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.”

Shermaine Tyler, 32, was celebrating Mother’s Day just a block away from the barrage of bullets.

“Me and mom were going to the second line. I told her I didn’t want to go because there are always shots at a second line,” Tyler told The Times-Picayune. “And the second I heard shots, I heard shots fired, we ran outside and one man fell in my lap who had been shot.”

She told the newspaper that the man who tumbled into her lap had been shot in his groin area and in his hand.

“This is all ridiculous. We all bleed the same blood. We all come from the same God,” Tyler told the newspaper. “Everyone is getting shot, and for what?”

Leonard Temple, who waited outside New Orlean’s Interim LSU Public Hospital on Sunday evening while a friend was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade, described the scene before shots rang out.

“People were just hanging out. We were just chilling,” Temple told The Associated Press.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Sunday that the shooting was part of "the relentless drum beat of violence" on the streets of New Orleans.

"It’s a shame and it’s got to stop," Landrieu told The Times-Picayune from outside the hospital. "You see it cascading across the country but we have more of it than anyone else."

Second lines have been targets for violence in New Orleans in recent years. In the past, shooters have targeted a specific person in the crowd, which authorities say may have been the case Sunday as well.  But Landrieu dismissed the notion of outlawing the Louisiana tradition.

“It’s not the second line that did the shooting,” he said. “The cultural events are very important to us, it’s like calling for an end to Mardi Gras because someone takes an opportunity to shoot someone during one of our parades.” 

Landrieu called for residents to gather at the site of the shooting Monday evening as a show of solidarity and commitment to stopping gun violence in the city.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Talya C. Arbisser

Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Popular television psychologist and columnist Joyce Brothers passed away at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey on Monday, her family confirmed to NBC News. She was 85.

Brothers died peacefully, surrounded by family, according to an obituary written by her family and provided to NBC News.

She was born on October 20, 1927 in New York City and married physician Milton Brothers in 1949.

Her career spanned nearly six decades after her start in 1955 as the only woman to ever win the television quiz show “The $64,000 Question.”

And in 1958 she was offered a trial television show on NBC where she doled out advice on personal problems ranging from love, marriage and raising a family. The show took off and she gained fame by diving into subjects that at the time were seen as too taboo to speak about publicly.

Her television show would soon make her a pop culture fixture.  She made nearly 100 appearances on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show.” Her frequent public appearances propelled her to become one of the most admired women in America, appearing on Gallup’s list of most admired American women.

Her syndicated column appeared in more than 350 newspapers.

But Brothers’ status as a “media psychologist” was sometimes cause for critique by other members of her profession. Some in her field called it unprofessional to diagnose patients on the spot without knowing their backgrounds, but she responded by saying that she always would advise people to seek professional help when needed.

Brothers is survived by her sister, Judge Elaine Goldsmith (retired) of Somerville, New Jersey, her daughter Dr. Lisa Brothers Arbisser, and son-in-law Dr. Amir Arbisser, of Davenport, Iowa and Sarasota, Florida, four grandchildren, two great-grandchildren.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron at White House on Monday.

Outrage intensified in Washington on Monday over the disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

President Barack Obama, at a White House appearance with the British prime minister, said that he wanted all the facts but used strong terms to condemn the reported conduct.

“I’ve got no patience with it. I will not tolerate it,” he said. “And we will make sure that we find out exactly what happened on this.”

The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration will release an audit report later this week. In the meantime, here are five big unanswered questions looming over the IRS.

How did this start and why?

In January 2010, a Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United touched off a flood of political spending, much of it classified under a section of tax law known as 501(c)4 that entitles certain “social welfare” groups to tax exemption.

Two months later, a special unit of the IRS in Cincinnati assigned to screen applications for 501(c)4 status began searching for groups with descriptions that included “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” according to a partial draft of the inspector general’s report obtained by NBC News.

Lois Lerner, head of the IRS division on tax-exempt organizations, said Friday that the targeting of conservative groups was “inappropriate” but “absolutely not” influenced by the White House. She also said that none of the targeted groups was denied tax-exempt status.

What has not been spelled out is who in the Cincinnati office decided to search for conservative groups and why.

At least one Tea Party group called on the administration Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the matter, which it called “un-American and Nixonesque.” One of the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon accused him of targeting political opponents for tax audits.

Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are determined to investigate.

“I just don’t buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Sunday on the CNN program “State of the Union.”

Who knew what, and when, higher in the IRS?

Lerner learned in June 2011 that agents had targeted groups with names including “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” according to the draft obtained by NBC News.

She “instructed that the criteria immediately be revised,” according to the draft. Ten months later, in March 2012, the IRS commissioner at the time, Douglas Shulman, testified to Congress that the IRS was not targeting tax-exempt groups based on their politics.

The IRS said over the weekend that senior executives were not aware of the targeting, but it remains unclear who knew what and when. Shulman, who left the agency last fall, has not spoken publicly about the scandal and did not answer a request for comment Monday from NBC News.

Members of Congress had sent letters to Shulman as early as June 2011 asking specifically about targeting of conservative groups, according to a House Ways and Means Committee summary obtained by NBC News.

The IRS responded at least six times but made no mention of targeting conservatives, according to the committee’s summary.

Will anyone be fired?

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Monday demanded the resignation of the head of the IRS. That is Steven Miller, who is serving as acting commissioner until Obama nominates a replacement.

The last commissioner was Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008, left the agency in November and has taken a position as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Newt Gingrich, the Republican former House speaker, told MSNBC on Monday that Obama should say “he’s going to fire everybody he can legally fire who’s been involved with this.”

How will the White House contain the political damage?

The IRS scandal presents a daunting political challenge for the White House, which is already being forced to defend its handling of the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, last September.

The furor over the IRS has come from both parties. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Monday the agency had committed an “outrageous abuse of power” and pledged a grilling.

“The IRS will now be the ones put under additional scrutiny,” he said.

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia called it inexcusable, and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said the president “must immediately condemn this attack on our values and find those individuals in his administration who are responsible and fire them.”

How can this be prevented in the future?

Rubio, in his letter calling for the resignation of the IRS chief, called the behavior “seemingly unconstitutional and potentially criminal.”

But under existing law, the worst that can happen to an IRS agent who discriminates against taxpayers is getting fired, said Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican who sits on the House Oversight Committee.

Turner introduced a bill Monday to increase the toughest penalty to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

“This is about protecting the rights of all Americans and their ability to freely express their political thoughts,” he said.

Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report. Reuters and The Associated Press also contributed.

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 5:18 PM EDT

Julie Jacobson/AP

O.J. Simpson, right, sits in Clark County District Court on Monday with his attorney, Patricia Palm. Simpson, who is serving nine to 33 years as a result of his 2008 conviction on armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is seeking a new trial on grounds of ineffective counsel.

Simpson — who did not take the stand during the explosive 1995 trial for the murder of his wife and her friend, which ended in his acquittal — is expected to testify midway through the five-day hearing. Galanter is also slated to take the stand.

If he doesn't prevail at this proceeding, known as a writ of habeas corpus, Simpson, 65, must serve five more years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

On the stand for the hearing, a friend of Simpson described Galanter as "somewhat dismissive" of any concerns his client voiced about the way the trial was going.

“Mr. Simpson was ...somewhat intimidated by Mr. Galanter. He was dominated by him. He tended not to question what he told him,” said James Barnett, a Las Vegas businessman.

“If Mr. Simpson would ask about some specific point in court, he would say, 'That’s not important' or 'Don’t worry about it.'”

Barnett said he was told by Galanter's co-counsel, Gabriel Grasso, that Grasso had his 15-year-old son perform analysis of audiotapes that were a key piece of evidence in the trial because they couldn't afford to hire experts.

The appeals team also questioned Dr. Norman Roitman, a psychiatrist who specializes in the effects of alcohol on perception.

The lawyers asked Roitman whether someone who fit Simpson's physical description, who had been "drinking all day" and the night before and was sleep-deprived and stressed-out, might experience poor perception in a crowded hotel room where he expected to find personal items he had not seen for 15 years.

Speaking hypothetically, Roitman said that person would.

A lawyer for Simpson's co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart testified Monday that prosecutors in the midst of the trial offered a plea deal -- a two- to five-year sentence for each defendant in return for guilty pleas. Prosecutors said they were presenting it to Simpson's lawyers but later said there was no deal, Bryson said. 

Bryson said he didn't know if Simpson had ever been told about the deal. Simpson claims he was not. 

Simpson's co-counsel in the 2008 trial, Las Vegas criminal defense attorney Grasso, testified that Galanter told him he would give Simpson the news of the plea deal and that day went off to talk to Simpson privately.

When Galanter came back, he said, "We're not taking a deal," Grasso said. Grasso, however, admitted he never talked to Simpson about the guilty-plea offer and did not know what Galanter had told Simpson at that time.

Grasso testified that Galanter made the key decision for the defense team. He said Grasso rarely even involved his co-counsel in discussions with Simpson.

"Yale was O.J.’s lawyer. I was just the odd man out, the third wheel," Grasso said.

Grasso said he wanted to file a motion to suppress the tapes from being entered into evidence at the trial because they made Simpson look bad, and because it could be argued the tapes were recorded secretly. Galanter, however, did not want to challenge the tape evidence, Grasso said.

The defense also did not have the benefit of experts to challenge the tapes in  the courtroom because Galanter said there was no money to pay for them, Grasso said. 

“In a case of this magnitude, we don’t have any help?" Grasso asked, noting the state had hired a jury consultant.

Grasso also said he favored letting Simpson take the stand and told the former football player that, but Galanter rejected that notion, telling him "don't advise O.J."

Grasso was expected to continue his testimony in the hearing on Tuesday.

Jeff Black of NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 12:27 PM EDT

At least 19 people were injured on Sunday when multiple gunmen opened fire on a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans, police said.

A 10-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl were grazed by bullets but were in good condition, New Orleans Police spokesman Garry Flot said in a statement. A woman and a man were in surgery Sunday evening, but there were no fatalities and most wounds were not life threatening, police said.

At least three people were spotted running away from the scene after the shooting on North Villere Street in the 7th Ward neighborhood at 1:45 p.m. At least one suspect was described as a man between the ages of 18 and 22.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said there may have been as many as three shooters, and that two different types of weapons were likely used.

The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, which are common in New Orleans: A brass band plays while marching in the streets, while a “second line” of people follows the band, celebrating.

Officials said the parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people. The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."

“These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year,” Serpas said.  “We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these two or three people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.”

Lauren Mcgaughy / The Times-Picayune / Landov

Bystanders comfort a shooting victim after gunfire injured 19 people during a Mother's Day in New Orleans on Sunday.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the shooting was part of "the relentless drum beat of violence" on the streets of New Orleans.

"It’s a shame and its got to stop," he told The Times-Picayune from outside New Orleans' Interim LSU Public Hospital. "You see it cascading across the country but we have more of it than anyone else."

Detectives were conducting interviews and retrieving surveillance video from around the scene.  Landrieu urged anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.

He added: "These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help."

Second lines have been targets for violence in New Orleans in recent years. In the past, shooters have targeted a specific person in the crowd, which authorities say may have been the case Sunday as well.  But Landrieu dismissed the notion of outlawing the Louisiana tradition.

“It’s not the second line that did the shooting,” he said. “The cultural events are very important to us, it’s like calling for an end to Mardi Gras because someone takes an opportunity to shoot someone during one of our parades.”  

“Second lines have been with us for a long, long time,” Landrieu added. “They are an important part of our culture and our heritage.”

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, told The Associated Press that federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:26 AM EDT

The brothers of Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of imprisoning three women for a decade, say that they hope he rots in jail and consider him a “monster,” not a brother.

The brothers, Pedro and Onil Castro, were arrested last week along with Ariel Castro, but authorities later said that they had no evidence against the brothers and released them.

“I hope he rots in that jail,” Onil Castro told CNN. “I want him to suffer in that jail to the last extent. I don’t care if they even feed him.”

Pedro Castro said that he would have reported Ariel Casto to authorities if he had suspected anything, “brother or no brother.” He said that he would have grabbed him by the neck and asked, “What’s up with this, man?”

Both brothers said that Ariel Castro gave them a fist bump when they last saw him, in jail last week. Onil Castro said that he was in a separate cell when Ariel walked by and said, “You’re never going to see me again. I love you, bro.”

The three women — Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight — were freed May 6 after Berry broke part of a door and screamed for help. All three have been released from the hospital and are asking for privacy.

Ariel Castro is being held on $8 million bond. He is charged with three counts of rape and four counts of kidnapping, one for each of the women and one for a daughter, now 6, whom Berry bore in captivity.

Investigators have said that Ariel Castro sometimes took the girl out in public. Pedro Castro told CNN that he once saw them together at a McDonald’s and asked who the girl was. He said Ariel Castro claimed the girl belonged to a girlfriend.

The brothers told CNN that Ariel Castro kept parts of the house blocked off with curtains, explaining them as a way to save on the gas bill. They said he always had background noise going and never let them past the kitchen.

Slideshow: Missing women found alive in Cleveland

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP - Getty Images

A daring escape and a dramatic 911 call led to the rescue of three women who allegedly had been held captive for years inside a home in Cleveland.

Launch slideshow

“There would be times when we wouldn’t see him for a month, two weeks,” Onil Castro said. “Mama used to say, ‘Check your brother, check on your brother. He lives alone in that house. He’s a loner.’

“So I would text him and he would text me back: ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m fine.’”

The brothers appeared in court with Castro on Thursday, but on misdemeanor charges unrelated to the kidnappings.

Pedro Castro pleaded no contest to a 2011 charge related to an open container of alcohol, and a judge dismissed an open-container charge and a drug charge against Onil Castro, a court-appointed lawyer said.

Both men, living in an undisclosed location for now, said that they had been damaged by initially appearing as suspects in the kidnapping. They said that they had received death threats.

“I feel trapped for what somebody else did, and it’s a family member,” Pedro Castro said. “You already got your monster. Please give us our freedom. I want the world to know this.”

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:14 AM EDT

Pool via Reuters, file

Accused Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes listens at his arraignment in Centennial, Colo., in March.

Lawyers for James Holmes, the man accused of shooting 12 people to death during a screening of a Batman movie in Colorado last summer, requested Monday to change their client’s plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

Judge Carlos Samour said that Holmes’ defense team demonstrated “good cause” for the change, but added that he would not rule on making the adjustment official until a later date.

A Colorado circuit court judge had previously entered a standard not guilty plea on Holmes’ behalf after the defense said they were not prepared to make a decision. Holmes’ lawyers said in a court filing last week that they intended to mount an insanity defense.

Holmes appeared in court Monday with a thick, brown beard. He sat wordlessly and stared straight ahead as his attorney, Daniel King, told the judge that the defense has a mental illness diagnosis for the 25-year-old former medical student at University of Colorado-Denver.

“We now have an opinion from professionals,” King said, but he did not provide details.

Prosecutors said last month that they would seek the death penalty. District Attorney George Brauchler wrote that Holmes and his defense team both knew he was guilty and "both of them know that he was not criminally insane."

"It's my determination and my intention that in this case, for James Eagan Holmes, justice is death," Brauchler said at a hearing last month.

Besides the 12 gunned down, 58 people were wounded on July 20, 2012, at a midnight showing of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Denver suburb of Aurora. Holmes has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder, and other offenses in connection with the massacre.

Slideshow: Shooting at Batman screening in Aurora, Colo.

Karl Gehring / The Denver Post

Twelve people were killed and 58 injured when a gunman opened fire during the premiere of a Batman movie.

Launch slideshow

Legal experts told The Denver Post that they expect Samour to allow the change, partly because denying it would raise the prospect of a lengthy appeal in the middle of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 3, 2014.

Another judge ruled in March that Holmes must agree to be drugged for a psychiatric exam at the Colorado State Mental Hospital if he wished to plead insanity.

Holmes would also be required to give up his right to remain silent and turn over the names, addresses and medical reports of any doctor or psychologist who has ever treated him for a psychiatric condition.

Judge Samour is expected to ask Holmes if he understands the conditions associated with his insanity plea at a hearing in late May.

Related: 

Colorado shooting suspect wants to use insanity defense 

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 8:47 AM EDT

Reaching across the aisle can be helpful not only in politics but also in the personal growth of recent college graduates, first lady Michelle Obama said in a commencement address at Eastern Kentucky University over the weekend.

“If you’re a Democrat, spend some time talking to a Republican. And if you’re a Republican, have a chat with a Democrat. Maybe you’ll find some common ground; maybe you won’t,” she said to about 600 graduating seniors on Saturday.

“We know what happens when we only talk to people who think like we do," she added. "We just get more stuck in our ways, more divided, and it gets harder to come together for a common purpose.”

Michelle Obama was just one of hundreds of commencement speakers imparting their wisdom to college graduates this month. Over the weekend, the first lady, former President Bill Clinton and NBC News’ Tom Brokaw highlighted the speakers circuit with a common theme: Focus on the things that unite us, not divide us.

"You can either choose to use those opportunities to continue fighting the fights that we’ve been locked in for decades, or you can choose to reject those old divisions and embrace folks with a different point of view," Michelle Obama said.  "And if you do that, the latter, who knows where it might take you -- more importantly, where it might take our country."

Since her husband's 2008 election, Michelle Obama has had a front row seat to experience the gridlock that partisanship has caused in the federal government. Like the first lady, Brokaw urged graduates of Loyola University in New Orleans to focus on the "common pursuit of the goals that we all have, not small ideas that divide us."

"You are prepared to do all that to make us better,” he told the Class of 2013.

Brokaw also told the graduates that the next 100 years will be known as the century where women will fully be viewed as equals to their male counterparts.

“The 21^st century will be remembered, I can assure you now, even though it’s a long way from being over, it will be remembered as the century when women finally took their rightful and fully recognized place in society here and around the world,” he said to thunderous applause.

Clinton told Howard University graduates that they are part of a small minority of the world's population that has the privilege of choosing how they want to earn a living. His advice: Do what makes you happy.

"Most people are happiest doing what they are best at. You have been given that gift," he said.

 Below are some excerpts from their speeches:

Tom Brokaw

Address to Loyola University in New Orleans on May 11.

“Leave here today determined to be the generation of big ideas that unite us in the common pursuit of the goals that we all have, not small ideas that divide us. Adopt the mantra of the generation that gave you all those apps, the instruments and the capacity that so change your life. In Silicon Valley they wake up every morning saying, ‘How can we be disruptive? How can we challenge convention and make life a better place? You are prepared to do all that to make us better.”

Former President Bill Clinton

Address to Howard University on May 11.

“Even with the employment situation and the economic challenges, virtually all of you have the power to choose what you will do to earn a living. It may seem self-evident, but most people who have ever lived, including hundreds of millions even billions on the face of the Earth today, never had that choice.

"… You have a choice. The only bit of personal advice I have is this: Try to do something that will make you happy. And most people are happiest doing what they are best at. You have been given that gift."