A 31-year-old man was charged with kidnapping Thursday, a day after the mother of a snatched 4-year-old girl chased down a car and rammed it with her own.

Albuquerque police said David Jesus Hernandez ran away after the crash. According to authorities, the victim's mother did not realize he had pushed the child from his car while fleeing the apartment complex where the girl had been taken.

David Jesus Hernandez, 31, is wanted for questioning in a child kidnapping that took place Wednesday in Albuquerque.

A manhunt for Hernandez ended Thursday night when he turned himself in.

Hernandez was being held Friday on charges of kidnapping and child abuse, according to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.

Police said they were investigating a "possible connection" between Wednesday's incident and one last week in which a 6-year-old girl was kidnapped, driven away in a car and sexually assaulted.

In the latest incident, the victim was playing in her yard about 6:30 p.m. when a man forced her into a silver Buick, police said. As he took off, some teenagers hanging around outside ran inside and alerted the child's mother, police said.

As she jumped into her own car to chase the Buick, the suspect pushed the little girl out of his vehicle. The mother didn't notice and kept going after the man.

"She was involved in a high-speed pursuit," Police Chief Ray Schultz said.

After tearing down several streets, the mother rammed the Buick to get it to stop, police said. The driver jumped out and fled on foot.

"This appears to be a complete stranger abduction," Schultz said.

The 4-year-old was found wandering near the apartment complex.

Last week's incident also involved a man driving a silver or gray car, police said.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 2:16 PM EDT

The Obama administration, four short months into its second term, finds itself beset by three political storms.

Republicans in Congress, some Democrats and the press are pelting the White House with questions about the raid on an American post in Libya, the conduct of the Internal Revenue Service and the seizure of phone records from The Associated Press.

Taken together, the three have consumed the week in Washington. Here’s a quick guide.

BENGHAZI

The basics: Four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, were killed in a raid on a diplomatic post in the city of Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. The State Department ultimately determined that the raid was a series of terrorist attacks.

Republicans have made an array of accusations, including that the administration failed to send the military to help, waited too long to consistently describe the raid as a terror attack, and extensively edited talking points for media appearances.

The White House response: President Barack Obama, exasperated, dismissed the Republican furor over the talking points earlier this week as a politically motivated “sideshow.”

The administration has also said that sending the military was logistically impossible and would have left other American interests undefended. Obama said within hours of the raid that “acts of terror” would not be tolerated. On Thursday, he pledged increased security for diplomatic posts.

Accused of changing its public stance on the raid because of political reasons — the presidential election was less than two weeks away — the administration released 100 pages of emails and other documents Wednesday shedding light on how the talking points were changed.

The stakes: The political stakes are increasingly focused on Hillary Clinton’s potential run for the presidency in 2016. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. and himself a possible candidate, accused Clinton of “dereliction of duty” at a speech in Iowa over the weekend.

American Crossroads, Karl Rove’s political action committee, released an ad draping Clinton in dark shadows and grainy black-and-white photos and accusing her of a cover-up. The ad ends with an invitation to donate to American Crossroads.

What’s next: More questions from Republicans, despite the administration’s insistence that there is little if anything left to explain.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has accused the administration of lying and believing itself to be above the law, wants to interview former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, one of the leaders of the review board.

THE IRS

The basics: Employees of the Internal Revenue Service singled out Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations for special scrutiny in reviewing applications for tax exemption.

Republicans want to know whether anyone in the administration knew about it — to date there is no evidence that they did — and have suggested the government was punishing political enemies.

The White House stance: Obama on Wednesday ousted the acting head of the IRS, Steven Miller, and said: “Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it.”

The president acted after a Treasury Department investigation faulted the IRS for using “inappropriate criteria” in picking which organizations to scrutinize. The report also said that “ineffective management” allowed the criteria to stay in place.

Asked Thursday whether he supported the appointment of a special prosecutor, Obama said he believed working with Congress to investigate would be sufficient.

The stakes: Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed. Republicans appear to be coalescing around an insistence that it shows a pattern of intimidation by the administration.

“The unifying themes of this town are an arrogance and view of the machinery of government to be a tool of partisanship,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas and a Tea Party favorite, said Thursday.

Besides demanding hearings, they are likely to use that argument in the 2014 midterm elections. In addition, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that the IRS ordeal could hurt the push for immigration reform in Congress.

“We’ve already faced tremendous suspicion about the federal government’s ability or willingness to enforce the law,” Rubio said.

What’s next: Attorney General Eric Holder has pledged a nationwide investigation. Federal prosecutors are looking at potential violations of law, including civil rights statutes and a federal law that restricts political activities by federal employees.

There are at least three congressional hearings scheduled, beginning with the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday.

AP PHONE RECORDS

The basics: The Justice Department secretly seized two months of records from more than 20 telephone lines used by reporters and editors for The Associated Press last year.

The seizure was apparently connected to a federal investigation into who leaked classified information about a foiled terror plot in Yemen that the AP reported on in May 2012. The AP has angrily objected and demanded further explanation.

The White House stance: The deputy attorney general who is overseeing the investigation insisted in a letter to the AP that the seizure was limited in scope and that the content of calls was not monitored.

Holder, who has recused himself from the investigation, said Tuesday that the leak “put the American people at risk” and was among the most serious he has seen in 37 years as a prosecutor.

The stakes: Media organizations have said that the seizure will intimidate whistle-blowers. As in the IRS furor, Republicans are seeking to portray an administration bent on overreaching. Democrats have joined the criticism, too.

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said Wednesday that the Justice Department’s steps were “a blatant violation of privacy, and directly interfere with the constitutionally protected rights of the press to do its job free from government intrusion or direction.”

What’s next: Under fire, the Obama administration is pushing to revive legislation that would enhance protections for journalists when they refuse to name confidential sources.

A White House official called Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to ask him to reintroduce the legislation, known as a media shield law. Schumer said that the bill at least would have ensured a fairer process in the AP leak.

But Obama stressed Thursday that he makes no apology for being concerned about leaks that jeopardize American missions.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 1:35 PM EDT

Dozens of families who lived in homes they helped build with their own hands saw their neighborhood devastated by a tornado that struck north Texas on Wednesday night.

Habitat for Humanity, a Christian group that organizes volunteers to build homes for the needy, had worked with residents to construct 61 houses in the Rancho Brazos neighborhood that was battered by the twister in Granbury, Texas. 

Aerial footage taken Thursday showed home after home in Granbury completely demolished, with others severely damaged. Six adults have been confirmed dead after what the National Weather Service said were three tornadoes that swept through Montague and Hood counties in northern Texas.

Rancho Brazos was a “well-knit” neighborhood were people kept their lawns trimmed and their single-story homes in top shape, said Asa Maddox, 68.

Ralph Lauer / EPA

Debris is piled into a fence after a tornado tore thru the area in Granbury, Texas, USA, 16 May 2013.

“The neighborhood was pretty immaculate,” he said.

The winds that whipped up on Wednesday night spared Maddox’s 897-square-foot home, but lifted up the metal lawnmower shed in his yard and blew out the windows on a van in his driveway, he said. He and his wife took shelter in their home’s laundry room with their dog.

“I had heard the sirens going off and it was a continuous blast from the sirens, so I knew that there was some sort of a weather deal coming on,” Maddox said. “Then all of a sudden my lights went out and it started hailing, I mean everywhere from pea-sized all the way up to baseball-sized hail coming down and really hitting my roof.”

Gusts bent trees in his yard and sent debris flying toward his home, Maddox said.

“I could hear a real loud noise, and as I listened it was getting louder and louder,” Maddox said as the tornado approached his home around 8 p.m. local time on Wednesday. “I kind of peeked out around and I saw the wind was blowing real, real, real hard.”

Maddox drove out of the neighborhood in the dark Wednesday night. His home was mostly spared, he said.

“The mobile home that was on my right is there. The roof’s pretty much gone,” Maddox said. “The other side of my house is another Habitat house about the same size as mine and it was still there.”

Another Habitat-built home down the street was not so fortunate.

“It just shattered. It disappeared,” Maddox said.

A retired service technician who worked in a mobile-home factory, Maddox said he has been in the Rancho Brazos home he built with the help of Habitat for Humanity volunteers since 2009. It was a “joyous occasion” when he moved into the home equipped with all-new appliances, he said. He said he has been in touch with his insurance agent and expects to be back on his feet soon.

“I thank God for sparing my house and myself, and I feel real, real bad about the people who lost their house, lost everything,” he said. “If there was a way that I could help them I would.”

Habitat for Humanity volunteers were working to finish two more homes for waiting families on the day the twister struck, said Michelle Kennedy, assistant director for Trinity Habitat for Humanity, a nearby affiliate that was supporting the local Hood County Habitat organization on Thursday.

“The house that was under construction this week survived,” Kennedy said. “The house that was ready to dedicate on Saturday was completely destroyed.”

Kennedy said she helped one homeowner who collapsed in tears in the hallway of Granbury’s First Christian Church, where about 50 Rancho Brazos residents took shelter with help from the Red Cross.

“It’s devastating,” Kennedy said.

“The thing that’s different about Habitat is that families actually work in the building of the homes,” she said. “They have a deep interest not only in their homes but in the community. This devastation, it almost gives them a sense of hopelessness.”

Habitat of Hood County’s newsletter recounts the work done by its volunteers over the years, including some overseas. Families contribute at least 300 hours of work to building the home they will move in to, according to the newsletter. Each house costs about $50,500 to build, according to the group's website.

Volunteers from Hood County also began partnering with Habitat for Humanity Kyrgyzstan in 2003, according to a post on the non-profit’s website. The Texans helped build homes for nearly two dozen families in Kyrgyzstan, HFH Hood County executive director Carol Davidson said in the post.

Related:

• 6 dead, 7 missing as tornadoes rip through Texas
• Aftermath of deadly EF-4 tornado

AP file photo

Anglers in this year's Winni Derby on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire will have to pass a lie-detector test before claiming any prizes.

There will be no fish stories at this year's Winni Derby in New Hampshire.

Organizers of the annual landlocked salmon-fishing contest will force the winner to take a polygraph exam to ensure the grand-prize specimen isn't imported from another lake or caught earlier.

"It's something that's always been in our rules, but it was never done before," derby chair Diane LaBrie said Thursday, the eve of the three-day competition.

She said no one has been caught cheating, but "there's a lot of rumors."

"People talk. Fish and Game hears things. We just feel it's necessary to do."

The derby costs $40 to enter and the grand prize is $12,500. The rules say that the salmon and lake trout must be caught on Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire.

LaBrie said over-eager anglers could be tempted to take their boats out on smaller lakes that might have bigger salmon because they're less fished and then bring them to the derby weigh station.

It's even possible someone could land a big fish before the derby and then keep it alive until the weigh-in.

So to make sure the scales of justice are not compromised, this year's winner will have to submit to a lie-detector exam within a week, as first reported by the New Hampshire Union Leader. If they flunk, the title will be stripped.

Last year's top winner weighed 5.4 pounds and was almost 25 inches long.

New Orleans police said Thursday that they had arrested a second suspect in a shooting rampage that left 19 people injured at a Mother’s Day parade.

Police identified the suspect as Shawn Scott, 24. His brother, Akein, was arrested late Wednesday and ordered held Thursday on $10 million bond. Each faces 20 counts of attempted murder, police said.

Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AFP - Getty Images

Akein Scott, the first suspect arrested by New Orleans police in a shooting at a parade Sunday.

Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said four other people were arrested and charged with harboring the brothers. Those four suspects were identified as Justin Alexander, Bionca Hickerson, Nekia Youngblood and Brandy George.

The wounded at the parade included two 10-year-old children, a boy and a girl. Surveillance footage captured a man stepping into the street, opening fire on the crowd and running away.

On Monday, Serpas named Akein Scott as a suspect, flashed a photo of him and warned: “We know more about you than you think.” He said Scott had previous arrests on gun and drug charges and was free on $15,000 bail.

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

The parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people. The crime scene was a mile and a half from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, the centerpiece for the HBO series of the same name.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 11:58 AM EDT

President Obama won't leave the top job at the Internal Revenue Service vacant for long.

NBC News has confirmed from a senior administration official that the president plans to appoint a new acting IRS commissioner this week.  

Obama said Wednesday that he was "angry" at IRS officials who inappropriately targeted conservative groups for scrutiny when he announced that his administration had sought and accepted Steven Miller's resignation as interim commissioner of the IRS.

"I've reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog's report, and the misconduct that it uncovered was inexcusable," Obama said in a statement at the White House.

"It's inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I'm angry about it."

The president said that he expected the IRS to act with even higher levels of integrity than other government agencies and that, to that end, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had sought and accepted Miller's resignation — something many Republicans had demanded.

Obama's remarks came amid news that two IRS employees who had engaged in activities targeting conservative groups had faced disciplinary action for their conduct.

The inspector general's release Monday found that incompetence and ineffective management at the tax-collecting agency led to employees' applying extra scrutiny to conservative and Tea Party advocacy groups. The report also found there was no evidence of outside pressure on officials to target conservative groups.

Related:

IRS challenges public's confidence in government

Trying to stop the bleeding

Tea Party lawmakers use IRS fiasco to ding health care reform

A New York senator introduced a bill Thursday that aims to remove sex crimes from the military’s chain of command — a bid to transform an insulated culture that tends to dampen sex-assault reporting, leaving many victims feeling helpless or hopeless.

Under the Pentagon’s current justice system, less than 1 percent of accused sexual perpetrators in the military were convicted last year while during 2012 just 9.8 percent of sex-assault victims reported the incidents, according to a Department of Defense report. Many victims feel powerless because their superiors can control everything from whether a case proceeds to whether a guilty verdict is eventually overturned.

The new proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., rides a rising tide of public anger over separate allegations that two service members tasked with curbing sexual misconduct within the armed forces had themselves committed sexual misconduct:

• A Fort Hood Army sergeant accused Tuesday of allegedly forcing at least one subordinate soldier into prostitution. There is suspicion that other senior non-commissioned officers were aware of these activities, but the extent of that remains unclear, a government official told NBC News;
• An Air Force officer arrested May 6 for alleged sexual battery. 

"When the officer in charge of preventing sexual assault in their ranks is himself arrested for sexual assault — clearly, the strategy we have in place is not working. Twice in just the last two weeks this has happened," Gillibrand said. 

Some service members have confided to Gillibrand, she said, that following sexual offenses committed against them, the military's current system forced them to seek permission from their perpetrators in order to take their cases to trial. 

"This is unacceptable — and is long overdue for change," Gillibrand said. 

Her push to revamp the military's machinery for the investigation and discipline of reported sexual assaults has bipartisan backing. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., said he will file a companion bill in the House. 

“Right now, too many sexual assaults in our military go unreported," Benishek said. "Many soldiers are uncomfortable reporting the details of these traumatic events. My daughter is a military veteran so I know exactly the kind of hard-working women we have in our armed forces. This situation is a travesty and we need to fix it now.

"We need to reform how the military handles sexual assault cases and make sure victims aren’t afraid to report a crime," he added. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was informed Tuesday about the allegations against the Fort Hood sergeant, leaving the Pentagon chief "frustrated, angered, and disappointed over these troubling allegations as well as the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply," said Cynthia Smith, a DoD spokeswoman. 

Hagel immediately directed every branch to "re-train, re-credential, and re-screen" all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters — and he has "made it clear he has not ruled out any options for improving the military's response to sexual assault," Smith said.  

Under Gilliland's proposed legislation, any reported offense committed by a service member that’s punishable by confinement of one year or more would be handled not by branch and unit commanders — like now — but instead be funneled to independent military prosecutors. Her proposal also seeks to ensure that military commanders may not set aside a guilty finding.  

She began writing her bill — working with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. — just two days after her impassioned critique of the military's desire to retain "convening authority" in sex crimes went viral last March. She since has emerged as one of the Senate's loudest proponents for wholesale Pentagon reform on the issue, calling for a format that's more parallel to the civilian legal system. 

Related:

• Gillibrand leads Senate charge for protocol changes in military sexual assault cases
• US military faces historic tipping point on rape epidemic
• Army sergeant assigned to sex-abuse prevention being investigated for pimping, sexual assault
• Air Force's sex-abuse prevention honcho charged with sexual battery
• Obama: 'No tolerance' for military sexual assault
• 'Every American should be outraged:' Military sees sharp increase in sex assault cases

A 14-month-old girl was hospitalized after falling onto commuter train tracks in West Philadelphia.
 
Surveillance video shows a woman on the platform with her daughter in a stroller at the 56th Street SEPTA station around 1 p.m. Wednesday. Suddenly, the stroller slowly rolls toward the eastbound track and topples over.

"What it looks like to us is that the mother became distracted by something, didn't apply the brake on the stroller and the stroller was able to move off the platform and onto the tracks,'' said Scott Sauer, director of system safety for SEPTA.

The stroller came to rest on the outer rail, which carried no charge. The woman jumped off the platform to free the baby and hand her off to a man standing on the platform above.

More news from NBC10.com 

As the mother rescued her child, another woman ran to an emergency call box and hit the button, alerting SEPTA controllers of the incident.

The controllers then alerted an approaching train that was only one station away.

If the woman had not pressed the emergency button, the mother and her child could have had less than a minute to get off the tracks before the next train arrived.

Police say another good Samaritan hopped down the tracks to help the mother up. 
 
The child was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment of a cut on her forehead but is expected to be okay.

Sauer said during a news conference that watching the video was "gut-wrenching.'' 
 
"With the stroller moving at such a slow rate of speed, you know, you want to call out to someone, 'Hey, the stroller's moving! Somebody grab the stroller,''' Sauer said.

SEPTA police said no charges will be filed but the accident serves as a reminder for other riders to lock stroller brakes when waiting on platforms.

The latest turn in the 2009 disappearance of a Utah mother has led investigators to a farm in Oregon.

Authorities investigating Susan Powell's vanishing will spend a third day at a remote property east of Salem, Ore., that has ties to the Powell family, the Associated Press reported.

Chuck Cox, Susan Powell's father, confirmed to local NBC affiliate KSL that he told police the farm was a place Susan's husband Josh Powell spent a lot of time. Police searched the area, but found no evidence of remains, according to Cox.

Josh Powell had long been a person of interest in the case of Susan Powell, who vanished in December 2009. Josh Powell blew up his Washington residence on Feb. 5, 2012, killing himself and the couple's two young children. 

Josh Powell was never charged in his wife's disappearance, but unsealed police documents say authorities found Susan Powell's blood in the couple's Utah home. Investigators also found life insurance policies on Susan Powell and determined that Josh Powell had filed paperwork to withdraw her retirement account money about 10 days after her disappearance.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

CBS News via AFP - Getty Images

This image obtained April 19 courtesy CBS News shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing who was captured hiding in a boat in a Boston suburb.

Bleeding and hunted by police, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scrawled a note inside the hull of the boat where he was hiding saying that the Boston Marathon bombings were retaliation for American action against Muslims, sources told NBC News on Thursday.

In the note, Tsarnaev, the lone surviving suspect in the marathon attack, said many of the things he told investigators from his hospital bed days later, after his capture, the sources said.

The note was first reported by CBS News.

Tsarnaev was discovered hiding in the boat, in suburban Watertown, Mass., on April 19 after a daylong manhunt that paralyzed Boston and its surroundings. He had been wounded in a firefight with police.

Tsarnaev, 19, is in a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. He could face the death penalty. His older brother, Tamerlan, was killed in the firefight.

Three people were killed and 264 injured when two bombs exploded near the marathon finish line April 15.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev told investigators in the days after his capture that the brothers acted alone and were defending Islam after the American-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials have told NBC News.

Investigators are also focusing on a six-month trip to Russia that Tamerlan Tsarnaev made last year, looking for clues to his radicalization. He was buried last week at a Muslim cemetery in Virginia after cemeteries in Massachusetts refused the body.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 8:02 AM EDT

SEATTLE -- A 10-year-old Washington state boy was sentenced on Wednesday to up to 5 1/2 years in a juvenile detention facility for his role in a foiled plot to rape and kill a girl at his school and harm other children.

The boy was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, juvenile firearm possession and witness tampering in connection with a plot in February at an elementary school in Colville, in the state's northeast.

Prosecutors said he pleaded guilty last month to all charges.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Allen Nielson sentenced the fifth-grader to a minimum of just over three years in juvenile detention and a maximum of nearly 5 1/2 years, Stevens County prosecutor Tim Rasmussen said.

An 11-year-old boy accused of joining in the plot is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, possession of a dangerous weapon in the form of a knife at school and tampering with a witness, Rasmussen added.

The 11-year-old suspect faces a court hearing later this month.

The 10-year-old boy will serve his sentence at the Echo Glen children's juvenile center in Snoqualmie, Wash., 45 miles east of Seattle. As of Thursday he had already spent nearly 100 days in a local juvenile detention facility, Rasmussen said.

The boy told investigators he and his friend had planned to kill a former fifth-grade girlfriend because she was "rude" and "always made fun" of him and friends, according to court documents.

They plotted to entice the girl away from their elementary school, the court papers stated.

The 10-year-old had taken a Remington Model 1911 pistol that originally belonged to his grandfather from his older brother's room, according to court records.

The boys had also packed ammunition and a knife, but they were stopped on Feb. 7 shortly after they boarded a school bus, Rasmussen said.

A fourth-grade student spotted the knife and reported it to a teacher's aide, Rasmussen said. The names of six other targeted classmates were on a list the boys had, Rasmussen said.

Related:

Prosecutors: 5th-grade boys plotted to kill classmate

Ex-con accused of killing grandparents in custody

Wash. inmates help rescue boys from creek

North Texas residents took in the devastation on Thursday wreaked by a series of tornadoes that killed six and injured dozens more in what Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds described as a “nightmare” scenario.

Seven of 14 people who had previously been unaccounted for had checked in by Thursday morning, Deeds said at a press conference on Thursday. About 100 people were reported injured and as many as 250 were homeless after the swarm of twisters that ripped up trees and knocked down homes on Wednesday evening.

The six deceased were all adults, Deeds said. There have been no reports of injuries to first responders, the sheriff said.

“Everything’s running smooth, everything’s looking good,” Deeds said of recovery efforts on Thursday.

Full coverage from NBCDFW.com

Granbury, a town of 8,000 about 65 miles southwest of Dallas, was thought to be among the worst-hit areas. Images of the town revealed leveled homes, badly damaged cars, uprooted trees and downed power lines.

Nineteen buildings and 17 mobile homes were destroyed in Hood County, the sheriff’s office said in an initial damage assessment on Thursday. Seventeen more buildings showed major damage, while more than 40 showed minor damage including to windows and roofing shingles.

“It's rough, very rough. Everything's demolished," a resident told KXAS as she hurried away from the neighborhood with her arms around a child. "It was like hell."

Mike Fuentes / AP

Johnny Ortiz, left, and James South carry Miguel Morales, who was injured in a tornado, to an ambulance in Granbury, Texas, on Wednesday.

The six people who were confirmed dead were in the Rancho Brazos neighborhood on the outskirts of Granbury, Deeds said. He added that the homes there were mostly built within the past five years by Habitat for Humanity.

“I had three different storms that came through but this is the worst one,” Deeds said.

The tornadoes swept through the towns of Granbury and nearby Cleburne, causing “heavy damage,” Deeds said. The search for other people who might have gotten caught up in the storm continued with day break.

“I’ve been assured by my deputies on the scene that they’re pretty confident with the six that they found, but there was a report that two of these people that they found were not even near their homes. So we’re going to have to search the area out there,” Deeds said.

The tornado that hit Granbury was rated EF-4 by the National Weather Service in a preliminary report, meaning that winds reached between 160 and 200 miles per hour.

The tornadoes seemed to have caused less damage in Cleburne, where Mayor Scott Cain told KXAS. The town did “have the potential for some injuries,” Cain said.

The National Weather Service reported three tornadoes across Montague and Hood counties. Storm surveys to determine the extent of the damage were planned for Hood, Johnson, Montague, and Parker counties on Thursday, the weather service’s Dallas-Fort Worth office announced. At least ten tornadoes touched ground across Texas on Wednesday evening according to Mark Fox, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Some witnesses have said the tornado that swept through Johnson County may have been as much as a mile wide. While that twister that hit Granbury was smaller, it struck a more populated area and was “just as destructive,” according to Fox.

People in the affected areas had a little more than the national average of 13 minutes warning before the tornadoes struck, according to the National Weather Service.

“The warning came well before the tornadoes,” Fox said. Residents of Montague County were alerted about 15 to 30 minutes before the storm struck, and in Hood County a warning was issued 25 minutes before the tornado touched down.

Nearly forty patients were taken to Lake Granbury Medical Center and 18 discharged, with the majority of injuries including cuts, broken bones, and some head injuries. A total of eight patients were admitted to the emergency room at the Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth. Two of the patients were in critical condition as of 4 a.m. local time.

“I’ve been at LGMC for over 12 years, and we have never seen a community catastrophe with as many injuries as we did through last night,” said Kyle McCombs, chief of staff at Lake Granbury Medical Center, in a press release. “However, these are the types of disasters that our medical team continuously prepares for.”

Relocation centers have been set up Granbury Methodist and First Christian churches in Hood County.

The tornado outbreak was by far the year's deadliest, the weather service said. Prior to Wednesday night, there had been three fatal tornadoes this year, killing one person each in Georgia, Mississippi and eastern Texas.

Anita Foster of the American Red Cross, which opened two shelters in Granbury, told KXAS that 42 people had spent the night in the shelters. She added that only a quarter of people who are left homeless in such disasters typically seek shelter with the Red Cross, indicating that many more had been affected.

"We’re going to have a lot of people who are going to need some help," she said, adding, "It was a really frightening evening. It was a devastating event for our community."

The tornadoes, normal for this time of year, formed as the warm, moist air of the Texas springtime encountered an upper level storm between Wichita and Dallas, Fox said. A few thunderstorms hung over the state on Thursday but the weather system headed eastward for the most part, he said.

Severe weather was expected to sweep into some parts of the Midwest and Plains states with the potential for tornadoes heading into the weekend, the Weather Channel reported.

About 60 departures have been canceled and 70 flights diverted from Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport, spokesman David Magana told the Associated Press.

NBC News' John Newland and Andrew Rafferty contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 12:39 AM EDT

New Orleans Police via AP

19-year-old Akein Scott was identified as a suspect in the New Orleans Mother's Day parade shooting that left 19 people wounded.

New Orleans police and federal agents say they have taken the suspect in a Mother's Day parade shooting that left 19 people wounded into custody, NBC affiliate WDSU in New Orleans reported early Thursday.

Authorities said they arrested 19-year-old Akein Scott between 10 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. Wednesday night in the Little Woods section of eastern New Orleans, WDSU reported.

Scott was wanted in connection with the shootings of 19 people, two whom were children, at a Mother's Day parade in the city last Sunday. 

Surveillance cameras of the scene captured images of a man stepping into the street, opening fire on the crowd, and then running away. On Monday, police identified the shooter as Scott and obtained an arrest warrant, WDSU reported.

Police department spokeswoman Remi Braden told the Associated Press no additional details were available and would not be until Thursday morning.

Nope, you didn't win. 

There was no Powerball winner in Wednesday night's drawing for the $360 million jackpot, the third-largest prize ever, Sue Dooley, an official with the Multi-State Lottery association said. 

Nati Harnik / AP

Parker Adair works the Powerball machine at a Baker's supermarket in Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday.

The next drawing will be Saturday May 18 for a grand prize of $475 million. 

The winning numbers for the jackpot were 02-11-26-34-41, with Powerball 32.

Powerball tickets are sold in 43 states.

The biggest jackpot ever totaled $587.5 million. That unbelievable sum was split between two tickets on Nov. 28. New Jersey resident Pedro Quezada won the fourth-largest Powerball prize ever in March, taking home a $338 million jackpot.

If you couldn't match these numbers, you might not be totally out of luck. A game redesign last year made such gargantuan prizes more common and raised the price of a ticket to $2.

There’s a one in 175.2 million chance of anyone's winning the grand prize, according to Powerball.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 11:18 PM EDT

Two South Carolina children are dead, their father is hospitalized and their mother is accused of murder.

An autopsy report released by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said the children – Sawyer Simpson, 5, and Carly Simpson, 7, -- were shot multiple times, NBC station WYFF in Greenville, S.C., reported.

An arrest warrant obtained by the station shows that Suzanna Simpson, known as Anna, is charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder of her husband, Michael. 

Suzanna Simpson was under guard at a Greenville hospital, the station reported.

Deputies responding to a vehicle crash in the tiny community of Dacusville just after 6 a.m. on Tuesday found a pickup truck on the side of the road with Anna Simpson behind the wheel, Pickens County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Creed Hashe told the station.

Using the registration document for the truck, deputies went to the Simpson home in the Cherokee Trail area of the town and found the children dead and their father, Michael Simpson, severely wounded.

Michael Simpson remains in critical condition with life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to the sheriff’s office. 

Suzanna Simpson will be booked into county jail as soon as she is released from the hospital, the sheriff’s office said.

A representative with Pickens County Schools, John Eby, told the station Sawyer was a kindergartner and Carly was in first grade. Anna Simpson was a very active parent, Eby said.

Lyon County Sheriff's Office via AP

Jeremiah Bean, a 25-year-old person of interest who has been arrested after five people were found dead in one morning in northern Nevada.

A suspect has been charged with open murder for the brutal killing spree that resulted in five deaths on Monday and put a small western Nevada town on edge.

Lyon County police on Wednesday announced Jeremiah Diaz Bean, 25, who was arrested Monday on burglary charges, now faces the open murder charges along with arson, burglary, robbery, ex-felon in possession of a firearm and grand larceny counts.

The open murder charge means Bean can face homicide charges ranging from first degree murder to manslaughter.

Though autopsies have yet to determine a cause of death for the victims, Lyon County Sheriff Allen Veil told reporters that all five had suffered gunshot wounds.

Police believe Bean broke into the home of Robert Pape, 84, his wife, Dorothy, 84, then killed the couple in their Fernley, Nev. home and stole their car. The vehicle somehow became disabled near an interstate exit for an infamous brothel just outside of Reno.

That is where authorities say Eliazar Graham, 52, came upon Bean and was shot and killed. Police alleged Bean then returned to Fernley and murdered Angie Duff, 67 and Lester Leiber, 69, inside Duff’s home — just a short distance from where the Papes were killed. Bean was arrested after authorities found him hiding in a nearby neighbor’s garage with items taken from Pape’s home.

Police have yet to determine a motive, and said it is possible Bean was under the influence of drugs during his rampage. Veil said there is no indication that any other suspects are at large.   

“There should be a sense of relief that we believe we have the person we think did this is custody,” Veil said at a news conference Wednesday.

Police do not believe there is any connection between the five victims.

Lyon County Sheriffs’ officials say there is no immediate threat to the residents of Fernley, but urged everyone to take extra precautions in the wake of the murders that terrified the tight-knit community.

“This is a new one for me and after 31 plus years I know I haven’t seen it all, I wish I had, but this is just one that’s beyond words,” said Veil.

Police said Bean, who served time for burglary in 2011, also admitted to being a gang member.

Elise Amendola / Elise Amendola / AP

J.P. Norden, right, followed by his brother, Paul, both suffering limb-loss after the Boston Marathon bombing, emerge from a news conference at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston's Charlestown section Monday, May 13, 2013.

The One Fund Boston, which has raised more than $30 million for victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, on Wednesday announced a final protocol for distributing the funds which they hope to have in claimants' hands by June 30.

The protocol prioritizes claims for deaths, double amputations and for bombing victims who sustained permanent brain damage, followed by single amputations and then those victims with physical injuries who required an overnight hospital stay.

Claim forms, which are available on OneFundBoston.com, are due by June 15. After that, the requests will be reviewed and distributed on the final day of June.

"The outpouring of support for The One Fund has been unprecedented in my experience," said Administrator Kenneth Feinberg in a press release announcing the final protocol. "We remain committed to channeling that generosity to assist those most impacted by the bombings and to do so by the end of June."

Earlier this month, two town hall meetings were held in Boston to discuss how the funds should be distributed.

Potential claimants will also be able to request a face-to-face meeting with Feinberg, who has played a similar role overseeing victim compensation in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

Claims made after June will be decided on a rolling basis, determined by consultation with the victims, community and One Fund Boston Board, the protocol says. Those killed or injured during the pursuit of bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are also eligible for compensation.

The announcement came exactly one month after the bombings that killed three and injured over 250. On Wednesday, at 2:50 p.m., the time of the first bomb blast exactly a month earlier, Boston Police raised an American flag over their headquarters to full staff. They also removed black mourning bands from their badges.

Also on Wednesday the Boston Globe reported that thirteen deputy chiefs from the Boston Fire Department sent a letter to Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino calling Fire Chief Steve E. Abraira's response to the bombings inadequate.

Abraira contends that when he got to the scene the command staff had the situation under control. "When I got there I was comfortable with what was going on," he told the newspaper.

Jeff Black of NBC News contributed to this report.

Related: Meet Kenneth Feinberg: The man who puts a price on pain

O.J. Simpson, making a long-shot bid for a new trial, testified Wednesday he had no idea that any of his companions were armed when they went to a Las Vegas hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he claims was stolen from him.

“I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams that these guys would have guns," Simpson said on the stand during a court hearing that will determine if he gets a new trial.

Simpson is serving nine to 33 years after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping for the 2007 confrontation. Among his claims is that he didn't know a weapon was used and he got bad legal representation at his trial.

During his first few hours on the stand, the former football star recounted a boozy day with friends at the Palms hotel, where he was staying for a friend's wedding, capped by a chaotic face-off with the memorabilia dealers at the nearby Palace Station.

He said guns never came up as he and the other men discussed going to the dealers' room to size up the merchandise, that he didn't see anyone pull a gun inside the room, and that his pals later denied a weapon was shown before they left with some items.

"I was kind of stunned," he said of his mental state after he walked into the crowded hotel room and surprised the sellers, who thought they were meeting an anonymous buyer. "I was looking at stuff I hadn't seen in 10 years."

Asked about audiotape on which he is heard saying that the dealers shouldn't be allowed out of the room, Simpson said his intent was legitimate.

"If they don't want to give [the items] to me, I want them arrested," he said.

Earlier, Simpson testified that he had been drinking steadily before the clash and was so tired he missed a golf game and wanted to take a nap.

He said he had been drunk enough the night before that “I wouldn’t have gotten behind the wheel of a car.” He then had “a Bloody Mary or two” at a midday breakfast, and kept drinking by the hotel pool, he testified.

“I had a joke: ‘My doctor says I should never have an empty glass’ is what I would tell the waitress,” he said.

Simpson, 65, appeared grayer and heavier than he did when he was sent to prison. Wearing jailhouse blues and shackles on his legs, he occasionally chuckled as he calmly answered questions from his appeals team.

He famously did not take the stand during the sensational 1995 trial at which he was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend.

He also did not take the stand during the robbery trial five years ago — a decision that will be key in arguments that lawyer Yale Galanter gave him bad advice during the 2008 robbery trial.

Simpson told the court that he wanted to testify in his own defense and always assumed he would, but Galanter wouldn't commit to that strategy.

"Late in the trial he said he didn't think I should testify, that they hadn't proven their case... that there was no way I could be convicted," he said. "I had to trust his judgment on that."

He said Galanter told him that he "could not be convicted" and squelched suggestions from another lawyer that he take the stand and explain what happened that night.

Under cross-examination, Simpson agreed that he had been told by the judge that he had the right to testify on his own behalf.

He also testified that Galanter knew about his plan to got to the Palace Station to see if he could reclaim the memorabilia and that the lawyer said, "You have the right to get your stuff" as long as he wasn't trespassing.

He told Galanter that if he found a suit he wore during the 1995 trial, he planned to "burn it," and the attorney insisted that he bring it to him instead.

Simpson said he wanted to reclaim the memorabilia — including items that vanished after his murder trial — because it belonged to his children and his family, “not some guy selling at a hotel room in Vegas.”

The mementos, he said, included commemorative footballs, old pictures with presidents and a picture of himself with former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, “before we heard about J. Edgar Hoover and the tutus and stuff.”

Galanter is expected to testify during the hearing, which is schedule to continue through the week.

If Simpson doesn’t prevail at this proceeding, which legal experts say is a long shot, he must serve five more years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:06 PM EDT

Hundreds of guns are being swapped for gift cards in Phoenix, where two anonymous donors have given $100,000 apiece to help fund what some say may be the city’s last series of gun buybacks.

It’s the third buyback the city has held in May, racing to take unwanted guns off the hands of residents before a new state law goes into effect that would require police to resell any lost, forfeited or abandoned firearms they receive.

“Recently I received a phone call from an individual who was motivated by the success of the Phoenix gun buyback program,” city Mayor Greg Stanton said on Tuesday. “That donor has made a donation also in the amount of $100,000.”

“These are people that are motivated by Newtown that wanted to do something positive for the community,” Stanton said of the anonymous donors, referring to the December shooting that left 26 people, most of them children, dead in a Connecticut elementary school.

Residents who want to get rid of their guns are asked to bring unloaded firearms to one of three neighborhood churches on Saturday, according to the Phoenix Police Department. Handguns, shotguns and rifles can be exchanged for a $100 grocery store gift card. Assault weapons get a $200 gift card.

The buybacks were organized in conjunction with Arizonans for Gun Safety and the Phoenix Police Department. Police say they collected 803 guns on the first weekend, and bought back 176 more a week later before running out of money.

That first round of buybacks held on May 5 also was funded by an anonymous donation to Arizonans for Gun Safety.

“That first day that we did it was unbelievably successful, we almost exhausted our gift cards on the first day,” city police spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos told NBC News.

While critics have said the buybacks will do little to reduce gun crimes in the city, the mayor has said the program is intended to be just one step toward preventing violence on Phoenix’s streets.

“I respect the Second Amendment,” Stanton said when he announced the buybacks in his State of the City address in February. “This buyback will take steps to make Phoenix safer without curtailing the rights of responsible gun owners.”

Guns collected will be assessed for historical value and to determine whether they were lost or stolen, according to Phoenix police. After that, the guns will be turned over to a company that melts them down, said Martos.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed the law in April requiring police to resell any firearms they collect to a federally licensed firearms dealer. That law will go into effect 90 days after the current legislative session ends, Martos said, and would make it “counterproductive” for the city to carry out buybacks in the future.

“The whole intent is to take unwanted guns off the street, process them, and then ultimately destroy them,” Martos said.

The law was supported by pro-gun groups.

The National Rifle Association said in a letter to Brewer before the bill was signed that reselling seized guns “would maintain their value, and their sale to the public would help recover public funds,” the Associated Press reported.

“However, this measure would ensure that taxpayer resources are not utilized to pursue a political agenda of destroying firearms,” the NRA’s Brent Gardner said in the letter supporting the bill, according to the AP.

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