McDonald's confirmed that it has eliminated the use of ammonium hydroxide — an ingredient in fertilizers, household cleaners and some roll-your-own explosives —  in its hamburger meat.

The company denied that its decision was influenced by a months-long campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver to get ammonium-hydroxide-treated meats like chicken and beef out of the U.S. food supply. But it acknowledged this week that it had stopped using the unappetizing pink goo — made from treating otherwise inedible scrap meat with the chemical — several months ago.

Besides being used as a household cleaner and in fertilizers, the compound releases flammable vapors, and with the addition of certain acids, it can be turned into ammonium nitrate, a common component in homemade bombs. It's also widely used in the food industry as an anti-microbial agent in meats and as a leavener in bread and cake products. It's regulated by the U.S. Agriculture Department, which classifies it as "generally recognized as safe."

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McDonald's decision was first reported this week by the Daily Mail, a blaring British tabloid, which trumpeted it as a victory for fellow Brit Oliver against the monolithic U.S. food industry. 

Oliver's campaign began in April, when he included a segment on what he called "pink slime" on his TV show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" (warning: some readers may find this video distasteful):

The use of treated scrap meat "to me as a chef and a food lover is shocking," Oliver said. "... Basically we're taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs and making it 'fit' for humans."

Todd Bacon, McDonald's senior supply chain officer, told the Daily Mail that the decision "was not related to any particular event, but rather to support our effort to align our global beef raw material standards." 

In a statement, McDonald's clarified that it stopped using "select lean beef trimmings" — its preferred term for scrap meat soaked in ammonium hydroxide and ground into a pink meatlike paste — at the beginning of last year.

"This product has been out of our supply chain since August of last year," it said.

Sarah Prochaska, a registered dietitian at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, said that ammonium hydroxide is widely used in the U.S. food industry but that consumers may not be able to know what products include it because the USDA considers it a component in a production procedure — separating scrap meat — and not an ingredient that must be listed on food labels.

"It's a process, from what I understand, called 'mechanically separated meat' or 'meat product,'" Prochaska told NBC station KSDK of St. Louis.

While the government considers it safe, it certainly "does not look anything like ground beef," she said. And since it's not on nutrition labels, the only way to avoid it "would be to choose fresher products, cook your meat at home, cook more meals at home," she said.

NBC station KSDK of St. Louis contributed to this report.

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Updated 9:38 p.m. ET

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney staked his claim to the distinction of being the frontrunner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination with a win Tuesday in Florida’s Republican primary.

Romney easily won the contest, which was limited to only registered Republican voters, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the winner of the Jan. 21 South Carolina GOP primary, in a distant second. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum finished third, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul came in fourth.

Romney, in remarks shortly after polls closed, turned his attention back to President Obama and sought to project Republican unity. Gingrich, meanwhile, defiantly vowed to carry on in his presidential bid, all the way through August's Republican convention.

Romney’s victory reflects a rebound in his fortunes over the past 10 days, during which Gingrich had initially seemed to be charging into Florida with momentum after the Palmetto State victory. The ex-speaker seemed to emerge as a primary threat to Romney’s shot at the nomination, mostly by stoking doubts among conservatives about the former Massachusetts governor’s ideological core.

But Gingrich ran into a barrage of advertising in Florida sponsored by both the Romney campaign and a super PAC working on Romney’s behalf, which questioned the baggage Gingrich had accumulated as speaker, and pointed to the work Gingrich had done as speaker on behalf of troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac after leaving office.

Romney made a veiled reference to the hard-fought Florida battle in his remarks, in which he sought to posture himself as the GOP's standard-bearer.

"A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us. And we will win," Romney said, adding later: "I stand ready to lead this party and to lead our nation."

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The Romney campaign and the super PAC, Restore Our Future, outspent the Gingrich campaign and a super PAC supporting the former speaker by a 4-to-1 ratio in Florida, a testament to the effectiveness of negative advertising, especially in a large, expensive state that prizes TV ads.

The contest had essentially become a two-man showdown in Florida, since Santorum and Paul – the two other remaining GOP candidates – scarcely competed in Florida, and barely spent any resources in the state.

Gingrich, in his remarks following Florida's results, said the race would be a two-person race going forward as well.

"It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate," the former speaker said of the results in Florida. "We are going to contest every place, and we are going to win, and we are going to be in Tampa as the nominee in August."

Romney's victory over Gingrich, though, was mostly complete, spreading over most parts of the state, and he beat Gingrich among every age, race, gender and income group, according to exit poll data. Romney did particularly well with women, who made up almost half of the primary electorate, and Latinos – who, in Florida, were mostly Cuban voters.

Romney also performed well with voters who rated the economy as their top issue, and voters who named the ability to beat President Obama as the most important quality in a candidate. Both are core strengths of Romney’s candidacy, and Gingrich edged Romney in both categories in South Carolina.

But while the former Massachusetts governor beat Gingrich among self-described conservatives as a whole, the exit poll data suggested that Romney still faces challenges in winning over the most conservative elements of the GOP.

Gingrich beat Romney among “very conservative” voters in the primary, who made up about a third of the electorate. Strong supporters of the Tea Party – who composed roughly 35 percent of voters – also broke for Gingrich.

And while Republican primary voters Tuesday in Florida expressed positive opinions of Romney as a person, about four in 10 voters said his positions on issues are insufficiently conservative. Thirty-eight percent of primary voters said they wished another Republican candidate would enter the race, underscoring the lingering reluctance of Republicans – especially conservatives – to coalesce behind Romney.

But for as much as Romney took strides to tamp down Gingrich during the last 10 days in Florida, he turned his attention back to the president in much of his victory speech.

"Together, we will build an America where 'hope' is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker," he said.

Still, the primary battle is set to go forward, though Tuesday's contest caps a relatively busy month for the Republican candidates, which saw Santorum eke out a victory in Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses, and Romney decisively win New Hampshire's Jan. 10 primary.

The campaign is now set to enter a new phase, with a relatively dead period for candidates in the next month.

Nevada and Maine host caucuses on Saturday; Romney won in the former (which has a sizable Mormon population) in 2008. Colorado and Minnesota each hold caucuses on Feb. 7, too. Because caucuses typically favor candidates with money and organization, Romney and Ron Paul, who's focused intently on those contests, are expected to perform best.

Those are the only nominating contests until late February, when Arizona and Michigan host its primaries. The Wolverine State is expected to strongly favor Romney -- it is where he was raised and where his father served as governor.

The structure of the calendar means that Romney could work to secure a stranglehold on the race for the nomination or, if nothing else, dismiss competitors like Gingrich with the kind of relentless advertising that took its toll on the former speaker in the last week.

Gingrich has defiantly vowed to take his candidacy all the way to the Republican convention, signifying the prospect of a prolonged battle for delegates. The former speaker might have his best chance to pick up some of those delegates on March 6 -- the "Super Tuesday" of the 2012 cycle, when a number of southern and more conservative-leaning states, which tend to favor Gingrich, hold their nominating contests.

Santorum commented on the results in Nevada after a town hall, arguing that the Florida results show that he -- and not Gingrich -- was the candidate best positioned to challenge Romney.

"We need another alternative, we need someone who doesn't have the baggage, and the personal issues as well as the inconsistencies in policies that Newt has to be the clear alternative Mitt Romney," he said.

The former Pennsylvania senator also took aim at Romney, promising to deliver a speech on Wednesday on "Romneycare and Obamacare."

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed reporting.

Al-Qaida remains a threat, but intense U.S.-led pressure is working and could relegate it and similar organizations to having only "symbolic importance," the nation's intelligence chief said Tuesday.

When and if that happens, the U.S. will no longer have the luxury of focusing on one dominant threat, James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told senators in the intelligence community's annual assessment of threats to national security.

Rather, the "multiplicity and interconnectedness of potential threats, and the actors behind them, "will combine into an amorphous but critical challenge," Clapper said in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was joined at the hearing by CIA Director David Petraeus. 

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While people find it easier to identify a single target — like the Soviet Union during the Cold War or al-Qaida during President George W. Bush's war on terrorism — "it is virtually impossible to rank, in terms of long-term importance, the numerous potential threats to U.S. national security," he said.

Clapper warned that security challenges today cut across political, economic, military and transnational trends. They reflect a "quickly changing international environment" that includes new political and military developments, the rise of "nonstate actors" — like regional terror and paramilitary groups — and ever-increasing access by individuals to deadly technologies.  

The good news, he said, is that the resistance to al-Qaida over the past decade has established that sustained pressure works.

"The intelligence community sees the next two or three years as a critical transition phase for the terrorist threat, particularly for al-Qaida and like-minded groups," he said. "... As long as we sustain the pressure on it, we judge that core al-Qaida will be of largely symbolic importance to the global jihadist movement."

Take our Facebook poll: Is the U.S. safer today?

Clapper, a retired Air Force general and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was confirmed as national intelligence director in August 2010. 

In his testimony Tuesday, Clapper and Petraeus talked in detail about al-Qaida and other threats to national security:

• Al-Qaida: The death of Osama bin Laden deprived radical Islam of it "most iconic and inspirational leader" at a time when its capabilities had already been degraded by years of U.S.-led pressure, Clapper said. Al-Qaida's new leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is unlikely to change the organization's strategic direction, even though "most al-Qaida members find Zawahiri's leadership style less compelling than bin Laden's image as a holy man and warrior" and "will not offer him the deference they gave bin Laden." 

As a result, "al-Qaida increasingly will seek to execute smaller, simpler plots to demonstrate relevance to the global jihad," Clapper said. In fact, smaller regional groups like al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaida in Iraq are likely to "surpass the remnants of core al-Qaida in Pakistan" as threats to U.S. interests. 

• Syria: It's only a matter of time before Syrian President Bashar Assad falls from power, Clapper said, but it could be a long time because of intervention by Iran and the militant Islamist group Hezbollah and military supplies from North Korea. That makes it difficult for the West to plan for "a post-Assad situation," he said.
• Weapons of mass destruction: The spread of biological, chemical and  nuclear weapons is "among our top concerns," Clapper said, because "the time when only a few states had access to the most dangerous technologies is past."

Biological and chemical materials "move easily in our globalized economy, as do the personnel with scientific expertise to design and use them," he said. 

Open Channel: Israeli Embassy, US tourists among likely targets of bomb plot

While no recognized countries are yet known to have provided direct WMD assistance to terrorist groups, that could change: "As governments become unstable and transform, WMD-related materials may become vulnerable to nonstate actors, if the security that protects them erodes," he said.

• Iran: Petraeus said he believed the International Atomic Energy Agency's report in November — which said Iran is on the verge of a nuclear "breakthrough" that could allow it to launch a missile able to hit Israel and Europe — is accurate.  

But Iran's willingness to allow IAEA inspectors to extend their stay in Tehran this week indicates that new sanctions on Iran's central bank are beginning to bite. (NBC News has reported that China, Iran's biggest oil customer, has recently reduced its purchases of Iranian oil after behind-the-scenes negotiations with U.S.)

Msnbc.com: Will Iran make good on its threat against US?

• North Korea: The death of supreme leader Kim Jong-il is unlikely to lead to any fundamental change in Pyongyang's isolation and belligerence, Petraeus said. There's no reason to believe, he warned that the new leader, Kim Jong-un, will stop the country's exports of ballistic missiles and other materials to Iran, Syria and possibly other countries.

• Cyber-threats: Advances in information technology have opened the door to mass-scale collection of personal and governmental data by China, Russia and numerous independent groups, Clapper said.

Unfortunately, "innovation in functionality is outpacing innovation in security, and neither the public nor private sector has been successful at fully implementing existing best practices," he said. That's shown by well-publicized intrusions into the NASDAQ computer system and International Monetary Fund networks, underscoring the "vulnerability" of the U.S. economy.

• Health threats and natural disasters: Clapper pointed to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as an example of what could go wrong even when a government acts appropriately.  

"Although Tokyo responded adequately in the immediate aftermath of Japan's largest earthquake, the triple disaster contributed to Prime Minister (Naoto) Kan's resignation," he said. Beyond the immediate health and safety concerns, such developments open the way for militant groups to "challenge and potentially destabilize governments" that never would have been considered vulnerable, he said.

"Although we can say with near certainty that new outbreaks of disease and catastrophic natural disasters will occur during the next several years, we cannot predict their timing, locations, causes or severity," he warned.

Andrea Mitchell and Courtney Kube of NBC News contributed to this report from Washington.

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Temperatures in the 50s and 60s across much of the Northeast and Great Lakes region on Tuesday added to the drama over whether this month will go down as the warmest January on record in the continental U.S. The warm spell has also generated plenty of chatter and even a spring of sorts -- folks walking around in shorts and flowers blooming early.

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Weather.com expected at least a dozen cities on Tuesday would set or approach records for a Jan. 31, with temperatures up to 20 degrees above average. "With the very warm air mass, several more record highs are anticipated on Wednesday as we kick off the month of February," weather.com meteorologist Tim Ballisty wrote.

Deke Arndt, the head honcho when it comes to monitoring temperatures for the National Weather Service, told msnbc.com that where he lives, in Asheville, N.C., he gets "a lot of people" asking about the emergence of daffodils in recent weeks.

Arndt tells them that while he's not a plant expert, "it's been very warm" and plants "are responding to soil temperatures."

"That's where my expertise ends," adds Arndt, whose formal title is chief of the National Climatic Data Center's monitoring service.

Arndt told msnbc.com on Monday that his office will report on Feb. 7, next Tuesday, as to whether last month set a record. In the meantime, msnbc.com asked its Facebook audience to share what winter's been like in their neck of the woods. The overwhelming response: warm.

Here's a sampling:

• Deborah Scales Gunter: Yes, in southeast Alabama it's been crazy weather. I even saw one of my iris blooming now and even a light color butter cup blooming now; it's too early for them but weather is crazy here -- warm, raining and sunny and warmer and then turns cold again.
• Roxanne Stickler (Claremore, Okla.): Yep! This time last year there was snow on the ground and more coming! Today it was in upper 60s!
• Patty Mauck (southern Indiana): 60 degrees! Lovin it! I don't need cold weather or snow, ever.
• Talicia Harris White (South Carolina): 72 tomorrow, I'm not from here but I know that is not normal. Why are all my neighbors crazy? I'm declaring, climate change is Real!
• Hope Jenkinson: Utah has been feeling like spring not winter. No substantial snow. Gonna be in drought this summer I'm afraid.
• Don Scott: I'm in northwest Montana in a rainstorm, what little snow we had is melting, and my usual 6 foot snowbanks are only about a foot high and shrinking. This has been the most unusually warm winter I've ever experienced in 62 years on this planet.
• Bonita Wood: We have had no winter here in Oklahoma, it's like spring time, daffodils are blooming, etc.
• Melonee Pappas Ryan: Been warm here in Alabama ... and unfortunately, we pay for it with tornadoes!
• Precious Lmnop Singh: Snow storm yesterday, 53 degrees tomorrow. This is not the Michigan January I know.
• Sandra Dampier Mickelson (Astoria, Ore.): I don't like unseasonable weather. I like the seasons to be the way they're supposed to be. I live in what is considered a mild climate. We used to be in a 30 year cycle for huge snowstorms, but it's been over 40 years and none yet. That means havoc for the other seasons of the year. Nothing is quite right anymore.
• Chryssi Mudge: Nebraska was in the 60s today ... We should be in the 30s with snow ... Heck my lawn is still green in spots.
• Julie White Santos: Very warm here in Wilmington, N.C. Have not had any temps below freezing yet. In the 60s and 70s during the day.

VISIT msnbc.com Facebook page for more story discussions

There was, however, an exception to the warm rule -- a deep freeze in Alaska.

Shelley Chaffin of Anchorage, Alaska, posted: "Warm? Has anybody looked at the temperatures in Alaska? This winter has given new meaning to the phrase "the frozen north!"

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A group best known for fighting off whalers has joined federal investigators looking into the recent killings of sea lions near Seattle, offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible.

Another sea lion was found dead over the weekend, adding to seven others found in recent weeks with bullet wounds. A harbor seal was also found dead.

Federal officials planned to examine the latest sea lion on Tuesday to determine if it, too, had been shot. 

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The latest sea lion found was on the Nisqually River, south of Seattle, as were six of the other sea lions.

"This is a violation of U.S. federal law and the person or persons responsible for these shootings must be apprehended and brought to justice," Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said in announcing the reward late Monday.

Watson, who is on a Sea Shepherd ship off Antarctica pursing Japanese whaling ships, noted that his group has offered rewards in the past, including one that led to the arrest of a man convicted of killing 22 seals in New Zealand.

STORY: 8 sea lions found dead

The suspicion has been that sea lions in the Seattle area's Puget Sound are being targeted because they devour salmon, thus reducing what's available for fishermen.

"Sadly, shootings occur annually in the Pacific Northest, particularly in fall and winter when large numbers of sea lions move into our area in search of food," Seal Sitters, a group that responds to marine mammal strandings in the Seattle area, noted in its blog. 

Sea lions are certainly feeding this winter, including the Nisqually, where a state wildlife biologist recently took photos of a large congregation. "This is the most sea lions I have ever seen at once in south sound," Pete Topping told the Seattle Times of the Dec. 24 sighting.

Firecrackers and even rubber bullets have been used by officials to try to scare off sea lions but to little avail. Some known to be California sea lions that migrated north have been captured and trucked back. Those that end up returning and are spotted are killed.

Anyone with information was urged to contact the federal investigation hotline at 800-853-1964. "The information can be provided in confidence and the source can remain confidential," Sea Shepherd said in a statement.

Penalties could range from fines to jail time. One of the animals killed was a Stellar sea lion, a species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.

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Air Force officials violated whistleblower laws when they retaliated against four civilian workers who reported the mishandling of war remains at the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, Del., independent federal  prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The Office of Special Counsel concluded that in 2009 and 2010, three Dover mortuary officials retaliated against the employees for reporting the misconduct and must be disciplined. The employees alleged that they faced job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.

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 “We applaud the whistleblowers for their courage in coming forward,” Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner said in a news release. “We expect the Air Force will now take appropriate steps to discipline the wrongdoers and deter future acts of retaliation.”

In a written statement, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley said “there is no place for reprisal in the Air Force.”  He said he has appointed a two-star general to review the findings and take "appropriate action."

“Throughout this process, the Air Force remains committed to this mission as a solemn obligation,” Donley said in the statement. “We continue to care for America’s fallen with dignity, honor and respect and provide care and support for their families.”

In an earlier investigation report released last November, the Office of Special Counsel said it had found "gross mismanagement" at the Dover facility, where small body parts of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan were lost on two occasions. The Air Force said at the time that it took disciplinary action — but did not fire — three senior supervisors there for their role in the mismanagement. The reprisal accusations were a separate matter and were investigated by the Special Counsel under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

According to The Associated Press the three disciplined in connection with the earlier Special Counsel included Air Force Col. Robert Edmondson, who commanded the Dover mortuary at the time of the incidents, and two civilian supervisors — Trevor Dean and Quinton Keel.

Edmondson was given a letter of reprimand, denied a job commanding a unit at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and barred from future command assignments, The Associated Press reported. Dean and Keel took a cut in pay and were moved to non-supervisory jobs at Dover. All three have declined to comment publicly on the matter.

Although the Special Counsel did not identify the three accused of retaliating against the whistleblowers, two officials told The Associated Press that they are Edmondson, Dean and Keel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of privacy restrictions.

Report: Air Force dumped remains of 274 troops in landfill

The four whistleblowers had alleged that they suffered retaliation for their disclosures, including job termination, indefinite administrative leave and five-day suspensions.

James Parsons, one of the whistleblowers, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he had not seen the investigators' report but was told Monday that its conclusions support his and the others' claims of retaliation.

Parsons is an embalming/autopsy technician. Two of the other whistleblowers are Mary Ellen Spera, a mortuary inspector, and William Zwicharowski, a senior mortuary inspector. Those three told The Associated Press last November, after the scandal broke, that the Air Force had retaliated against them. Parsons said he was fired in 2010 but reinstated almost immediately. Spera and Zwicharowski said they received letters of reprimand.

Zwicharowski also said he was put on administrative leave for eight months and at one point was labeled "mentally unstable."

Spera and Zwicharowski both said in interviews Tuesday that they had not seen the Special Counsel report.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed deep disappointment in the Dover revelations last fall, and he ordered Donley, the Air Force secretary, to report back to him on the adequacy of the disciplinary actions he had taken.

Panetta also appointed a retired Army general, John Abizaid, to lead an independent assessment of actions taken to improve mortuary operations at Dover. That review is due to be completed by the end of February.

Air Force officials have 30 days to review the OSC’s findings and recommendations, according to the Air Force Times. If they do not sufficiently respond, the OSC can can pursue disciplinary action through the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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A man accused of firebombing three New Jersey synagogues may have been influenced by violent Xbox video games that aggravated his mental issues, his attorney said Tuesday.

The man, Anthony M. Graziano, 19, of Lodi, N.J., has pleaded not guilty to first-degree attempted murder, bias intimidation and aggravated arson, among other charges, for two attacks on synagogues. Graziano was in court Tuesday to seeking a reduction in his $5 million bail, which Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi cut in half because Graziano is destitute.

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No one was seriously injured when several objects, including a rigged aerosol can and a Molotov cocktail, were thrown into a Rutherford synagogue on Jan. 11, but one of the devices crashed through a residential window at about 4:30 a.m., burning a rabbi on the hand. His wife, five children and mother- and father-in-law escaped unscathed. The other two attacks also occurred in early January.

Graziano's attorney, Robert Kalisch, speaking outside court after the hearing Tuesday morning, described Graziano as a young man with mental health issues who had few friends and played violent games on his Xbox. Kalisch didn't say which games Graziano played. 

"This is someone who may (have been), with their own problems they have within their own head, taken over by these games that young people play now — lots of violence, lots of meanness," Kalisch said, NBC station WNBC of New York reported.

(The Xbox system is made by Microsoft Corp., which is co-owner of msnbc.com in a joint partnership with NBCUniversal.)

Kalisch said Graziano called for an ambulance to come to his home in November, telling emergency workers that he was "feeling crazy or something."

Read more on this story at NBCNewYork.com

Graziano was taken to hospital, where doctors recommended that he see a psychiatrist, Kalisch said.

"When you have emotional, psychiatric, psychological problems and you get involved in these games, the whole aura of it pervades, and it's not a game anymore. It becomes reality," Kalisch said.

Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Martin Delaney argued against the reduction in bail, telling DeAvila-Silebi that Graziano was "hell-bent on destruction and murder."

Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told reporters Tuesday last week that investigators found multiple Molotov cocktails in a wooded area near the Jewish Community Center of Paramus, The Jewish Standard reported. He said they traced the evidence to a foiled attack they believe Graziano had been planning for Jan. 7.

Authorities believe he acted alone and had no connection with the synagogues he targeted. They said he simply Googled temples that were close enough that he could reach them on his bicycle.

The attacks kept Jewish residents of the ethnically and religiously diverse communities of Bergen County, part of the New York metropolitan area, on edge for weeks until Graziano was arrested last week.

"We have no doubt that the arson and the attempted murder in Rutherford were directly the result of Mr. Graziano's hatred for people of the Jewish faith," Molinelli said. "We believe that he did this because they were synagogues and specifically to intimidate and cause alarm or concern to people of the Jewish community."

Graziano used empty raspberry Crush soda bottles, motor oil, duct tape and three cans of hair spray to create the bombs, Molinelli said. Detectives searched for stores where those items could be purchased together, which led them to a Wal-Mart store in Rutherford.

Security footage of Graziano buying the ingredients prompted tips that led to his arrest late Jan. 23, Molinelli said.

Authorities believe the attacks could point to a pattern of escalation had they not been thwarted by law enforcement, Molinelli said.

In addition to searching the Internet for how to build weapons, police found, Graziano searched the Web for any news coverage of the attacks. He also owned a firearm purchaser's ID, which would have allowed him to buy a rifle or a shotgun for hunting purposes, but not a handgun.

Graziano's father, also named Anthony Graziano, told WNBC last week that his son was a "great kid."

"This is not my son," the elder Graziano said. "This kid loves everyone."

Brian Thompson of NBC station WNBC of New York contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

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Aiming to pressure two of the largest U.S. producers of pork, one of them a Walmart supplier, into changing how they treat pigs, the Humane Society of the United States on Tuesday said it had staged undercover operations that revealed atrocious conditions.

Alleged abuses against the animals include the use of extremely confined crates as well as the cutting off of tails and testicles with no painkillers.

"Lame pigs, pigs with gross abscesses, torn ears and noses, and ripped genitals and piglets sickened by 'greasy pig' disease were not seen by veterinarians," the group said in a statement released along with what it said was undercover video.

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The allegations focus on two pig farms in Goodwell, Okla., one owned by Seaboard Foods and the other by Prestage Farms.

The Humane Society also filed federal complaints against Seaboard alleging that it made false and misleading statements about treating its animals humanely.

Seaboard has a public "Commitment to Animal Care" that states: "We are committed to proper animal care and have a moral and ethical obligation to the humane treatment of animals. We believe food animals can and should be raised, transported and processed using procedures that are safe and free from cruelty and neglect."

On Tuesday, Seaboard posted a statement on its website saying it strongly disputed "any allegations of abuse."

Ron Prestage, who owns Prestage Farms with his parents and siblings, told Reuters the video did not appear to show any neglect or abuse at their farm. He added that the company has initiated an internal investigation to ensure company policies are followed.

"There is nothing for me to defend in the video. We have both systems (gestation crates and group pens) and have for years," Prestage said.

The video shows pigs penned in cages that the Humane Society described as "so small the animals can't even turn around, rendering them virtually immobilized for their entire lives."

The group said its undercover operatives also "found workers cutting piglets testicles and tails off with no painkiller, injured piglets with their legs duct taped to their bodies, gestation crates overflowing with feces and urine and employees hitting pigs’ genitals to force them to move from one crate to another."

Gestation crates are stalls where female pigs are placed during pregnancy.

STORY: Smithfield vows breathing room for pregnant pigs

Both companies are "lagging behind" competitors like Cargill and Smithfield Foods, the Humane Society said, noting that those had recently pledged improvements such as ending the use of gestation crates by 2017.

In its statement Tuesday, Seaboard said that its "integrated system uses both stalls and group pens to house gestating sows. Animal welfare experts and professional groups have found no one method for housing gestating sows that is clearly better than the other when managed properly."

Prestage said that "there are times when each system has its advantages. If you have an animal that's gotten injured, it's much easier to treat them if they are in an individual crate. If they happen to be on the bottom of the pecking order, the other ones are just going to beat them up.

"On the other hand, if there is no fighting, you might decide they are happier in a group pen," he added.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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• New airline rules give meaning to price tags
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• 'I'm very alive': Army veteran declared dead 4 times
• Real-life nightmare: Car lands on sleeping man 

Los Angeles school officials are trying to determine how a former elementary school teacher charged with molesting 23 children over a two-year period and taking photos of them could have committed the crimes, possibly in a school classroom, without anybody finding out.

“We are trying to understand, how could that have happened?” said Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy in a phone interview with msnbc.com. “We’ve had no complaints from parents or students.”

---

Authorities arrested Mark Berndt, 61, Monday at his Torrance home following a year-long probe that began when a film processor turned in the images to law enforcement. Berndt had been a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in an unincorporated area of south Los Angeles for more than 30 years, but was fired by the school district shortly after the investigation began in January 2011.

Deasy said there was nothing in Berndt’s long record with the school district to indicate a problem. “Not so much as a single complaint,” he said.

"I am disgusted beyond belief,"  Deasy said. "I'm a dad as well as a superintendent and it's horrifying." 

Cockroaches on their mouths
Some of the images allegedly show Berndt with his arm around the children or with his hand over their mouths, according to a statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In addition, authorities say the images depict girls with a blue plastic spoon filled with a substance, later determined to be semen. There were also photos of children with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths.

Early in the investigation, Special Victims Bureau detectives recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash in the suspect's classroom. The recovered items tested positive for semen, authorities said, and the suspect's DNA matched the DNA profile found on the spoon and container.

"We ended up finding out through DNA that the white substance was bodily fluids from our suspect," Lt. Carlos Marquez told NBCLosAngeles.com. A search warrant served by detectives on Berndt's home also led to the discovery of more than 100 similar photographs depicting children, authorities aid. Also found was a DVD depicting adult sexual "bondage" activity. The adults in that DVD are not identified, according to detectives.

 

Vicims were ages 6-10
As part of the investigation, authorities say they have interviewed more than 80 current and former students, as well as school employees. The victims are identified as 23 boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 10, during a time period from 2008 to 2010.

Investigators are still working to identify 10 of the child victims in the 390 photos uncovered.

Authorities are recommending the children be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, the Associated Press reported.

Berndt was being held Tuesday on a $2.3 million bail. Berndt is unmarried, has no children and there's no indication of a previous arrest record, authorities told the Associated Press.

Investigators are seeking help from the public to identify possible additional victims during the suspect's tenure at Miramonte Elementary School.

Deasy said "crisis counseling and support have been provided for more than a year to the known victims and their families, and we continue to offer those necessary services to new victims as they are identified or any student or parents who requests assistance."

He said the district is reviewing its policies to ensure that classrooms that appear empty at the end of the day, are truly vacant. Besides having a crisis team at the elementary school, Deasy said the district is also reaching out to the middle school and is planning community meetings to discuss parent concerns. 

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• New airline rules give meaning to price tags
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• 'I'm very alive': Army veteran declared dead 4 times
• Real-life nightmare: Car lands on sleeping man

 

PALM BAY, Fla.  — Despite rumors to the contrary, Army veteran Jerry Miller is still very much alive.

"I'm alive. I’m very alive," Miller told WESH 2 News.

---

The U.S. Veterans Administration has declared him dead four times, but Miller, a Brevard County resident, has refuted the claims.

For more, visit WESH.com

"To me, it’s stupid. I can’t die but one time. They have killed me four times," he said.

Miller, a former drill sergeant, served 10 years in the Army. He said he lives on a government pension and Social Security.

The confusion started in July 2010 when he received a letter addressed to his estate that expressed sympathy for his death and politely explained that, as a dead man, he was not eligible for the veterans benefits he was paid.

Miller said he informed the VA that he was still alive, and his benefits were restarted. But the letters kept coming, each one stopping his benefits.

"I'm alive, you see. This can’t keep going on and on," Miller said.

He said a letter came this month -- addressed to his estate -- requesting repayment of more than $94,000 in benefits he shouldn't have received, because he was dead, and that it included polite instructions how to make the payment.

Miller said he has no idea why he was declared dead.

A VA spokesman told WESH 2 News that the organization was looking into the case.

Miller said he asked his congressman to do the same, but so far, being alive has not been sufficient proof that he is not dead.

Cry as it might about the new federal rules designed to clarify flight ticket prices, the airline industry brought this on itself. The hidden fees and “after charges” encountered by flying consumers had reached such absurdity that one might rightly call them an attack on the English language.

Witness, for example, Spirit Airlines "passenger usage fee," which adds up to $16.99 to flights purchased online – each way.  The fee’s name implies that buying a ticket costs one price, but actually using it costs extra.  That's absurd.  It's also not quite what Spirit is doing -- the fee is assessed to consumers who purchase tickets through the airline’s Website. The only way to avoid the fee is to buy tickets at the airline's airport counters.  

---

Either way, consumers have had enough, and now the Department of Transportation has, too.  Could similar rules for other industries, such as cell phones or pay television, be far behind?

On Thursday, new consumer-friendly federal Department of Transportation rules kicked in that require airlines to quote prices including all required fees and taxes.  The airlines aren't happy and have filed lawsuits over the requirement.

But already, consumers should notice the changes. For example, in the past, you might typically see an ad for a $199 one-way fare that in reality cost $245 after security fees, taxes, and other tack-on charges were applied. Now, airlines must use the $245 figure in an ad. (AlaskaAir.com uses this example on its Website.)

The rules do not require inclusion of "optional" fees, such as checked luggage costs, in the advertised price -- so consumers still have a lot of homework to do when they are shopping around for the best deal on a ticket.

Still, after years of battling what I've called "The Death of the Price Tag," a phenomenon that makes it nearly impossible for consumers to properly comparison shop for many products and services they buy, there's finally a small reason to celebrate.

"Now there are no more '$9 fare' sales. Airlines have to advertise the full price," said Christopher Elliot, a travel writer and author of “Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals." “(For some airlines) deception has been their business model. It's definitely not only the airlines who were doing this kind of thing, but they have made an art out of it." 

The new rules clean up some other advertised price issues, too. For years, airlines have hawked bargain-basement round-trip tickets by slicing the price in half and publishing a one-way fare -- even in situations where purchase of a round-trip ticket was required. In other words, there was no way to buy something anywhere near the price in the ad. The new rules require prominent disclosure of the round-trip price.

Edgar Dworsky, who operates Mouseprint.org, cheered the changes and said other federal regulators should consider similar requirements.

"The car rental industry is notorious for quoting a low daily rates, but when you add up the fees and everything else, the price comes out to 20, 30, even 40 percent above the stated price," he said. He also cited a friend in New York who recently signed up for cable television and Internet service after answering an ad claiming the price would be $99 per month. “His bill was $147. He didn't realize he would be charged extra for a box in every room, and goodness knows what else." 

Tack-on fees are huge business for the airlines. Domestic carriers collected nearly $5.7 billion in baggage and change fees alone in 2010, according to Consumers Union. So naturally, the airline industry is hardly going down without a fight. Spirit Airlines is risking the wrath of regulators by railing against the new rules with a large pop-up notice placed on its home page labeled "Warning." The notice accuses regulators of planning to "carry out their hidden agenda and quietly increase their taxes...And if they can do it to the airline industry, what's next?"

Industry trade associations are also complaining about the change. Steve Lott, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, has complained in several publications that "basic economics" dictate consumers will shy away from flying because prices appear to be higher.

In other words, Lott suggests, deceptively low price tags are good for the economy. If that were true, then fixing the economy would be easy -- simply let all retailers cut the price tags they place on items by 50 percent.  

In reality, price transparency is essential for economic activity, and it's just as likely that more clarity will lead to more purchases, not fewer.

Sadly, the new airline rules go only half-way toward real price transparency in the airline industry.  The aforementioned Spirit Airlines "passenger usage fee" still rates as optional in this new system, so it would not be included in advertised prices.

The real solution, says Elliot, is to force airlines to offer up their entire fee schedules to third parties that could create true apples-to-apples comparisons for consumers. 

"There are still some fees that were traditionally included in the price of the ticket that are, as the industry calls it, 'unbundled,’ now,” he said. "What would be great is if there were some way of forcing them to release data to the outside world, to online travel agencies, so they could build a fare tool that would include all of that."

And the simplest form of consumer protection in America would be a rule that simply forbids all firms from advertising a price for any item -- monthly cable service, airplane tickets, or a telephone line -- that is impossible to get. The problem is so rampant that many industries, such as auto sales, have adopted twisted language like "out-the-door-price” or “OTD price" to distinguish between fake price tags and real ones.  The Department of Transportation has taken one small step in this direction; other regulators should take notice.

Other friendly features of the new DOT airline regulations:

*Consumers now have 24 hours to cancel flight purchases without penalty, as long as the flight is at least seven days in the future.  That will give consumers extra time to shop around for prices; it will also allow them to get out of bookings made in error. Some airlines already extend such refunds to consumers as a courtesy; now, they all have to do it.

*Also, airlines must display baggage fees on the first screen of Websites containing a fare quotation for a specific itinerary, and must show the fees on ticket confirmation notices, too, the DOT says.

 

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Since the death of Canadian skier Sarah Burke in January, fans and supporters from around the world have donated over $300,000 – more than enough to cover the massive U.S. medical bill generated by efforts to save her.

The outpouring of grief for Burke and the influx of funds are a tribute to a young woman who was a pioneer and legend in her sport. The need for a fundraiser — to help her grieving family avert bankruptcy — was viewed by some Canadians and U.S. observers as a condemnation of the U.S. health care system.

"The irony is that had the accident occurred in Canada… her care would have been covered because, unlike the U.S., Canada has a system of universal coverage," wrote Wendell Potter, an insurance executive-turned-whistleblower who writes for iWatch at the Center for Public Integrity. "No one in Canada finds themselves in that predicament, nor do they face losing their homes as many Americans do when they become critically ill or suffer an injury..."

---

Burke, who died at 29, was on skis by age five, and pursuing a professional skiing career before she left high school. She pioneered women’s halfpipe skiing and was instrumental in getting the event included in the X-Games, according to a profile in Sportsnet magazine of Canada.

 
UPDATE: Why are fans paying medical bills for a world-class skier?

"She was to freeskiing what Wayne Gretzky was to hockey or Michael Jordan was to basketball — the iconic face of a sport,” wrote Sportsnet reporter Dan Robson. "She built her world by conquering limits, both on the hill and off it."

After Burke’s crash while training on the Eagle Superpipe at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah on Jan. 10, doctors fought to save her for nine days. She died Jan. 19, from a torn vertebral artery in her neck that caused bleeding in her brain.

Burke’s contribution to sport — not to mention her youth, beauty, charisma and fame — has no doubt helped the effort to generate donations to cover an operation, countless tests, care and hospitalization. The fundraising page on GiveForward.com late Monday showed that $302,535 had been raised. Burke’s publicist said that medical costs were expected to be about $200,000.

The fundraising page said that future contributions would go to a foundation “to honor Sarah's legacy and promote the ideals she valued and embodied."

The loss of Sarah Burke is no less painful for her loved ones, but with medical care covered through donations, the aftermath will not bring them additional hardship.

For many Americans, the hardship persists.

On Monday, Potter pointed to the plight of a 13-year-old Caroline Richmond on life support in Alabama after collapsing from a stroke, which turned out to be caused by leukemia. Her self-employed parents do not have health coverage.

“As it turns out, Caroline is one of more than 50 million men, women and children who do not have health insurance in the United States, which is why her family is in the same predicament as Sarah Burke’s,” Potter wrote.

The community has launched a multi-pronged effort to raise money to cover mounting medical costs for Carolyn — car washes, a bake sale, a fish fry and so on — but like most people who have life threatening medical conditions, she is not famous.

An estimated 700,000 American families file for bankruptcy every year because of medical debt, Potter said.

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• 'Extremist' speaker at West Point draws protests

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook.

Updated at 9 p.m. ET

West Point issued a brief statement late Monday saying that retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin has decided to withdraw from speaking at the Feb. 8 prayer breakfast and another speaker would be lined up in his place.

Earlier

The Army is drawing protests from veterans’ and Islamic groups for inviting a retired general who many have called anti-Muslim to speak at a West Point prayer breakfast.

Lt. Gen William G. Boykin has been criticized for speeches at evangelical Christian churches in which he made disparaging remarks about Islam. Boykin has said that Muslims are trying to implement Shariah Law in the United States and that Islam is the greatest threat America faces.

According to The Associated Press, Boykin has also said that America's enemy was Satan, that God had put President George W. Bush in the White House and that one Muslim Somali warlord was an idol-worshipper.

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Groups such as VoteVets.org, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, as well as Forum on Military Chaplaincy all petitioned the Pentagon to stop Boykin from speaking at the Feb. 8 breakfast, Stars and Stripes reported.

VoteVets.org told Army Gen. Raymond Odierno in a letter that allowing retired Boykin to speak at the Feb. 3 National Prayer Breakfast Service would be contrary to Army values and disrespectful to Muslim cadets.

'Incompatible with Army values'
"These remarks are incompatible with the Army values, and a person who is incompatible with Army values should not address the cadets of the United States Military Academy," VoteVets chairman Jon Soltz said in the letter, according to The Associated Press.

Army public affairs didn't immediately comment, though West Point's Lt. Col. Sherri Reed said cadets are "purposefully exposed to different perspectives and cultures" during their four years at the academy.

"The National Prayer Breakfast Service will be pluralistic with Christians, Jewish, and Muslim cadets participating," Reed said in a prepared statement. "We are comfortable and confident that what retired Lt. Gen. Boykin will share about prayer, soldier care and selfless service, will be in keeping with the broad range of ideas normally considered by our cadets."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is also asking officials to retract the invitation.

“Having a guy like that speak at a respected institution like the U.S. Military Academy gives credibility to his extremist views of hatred toward Muslims,” Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for Council on American Islamic Relations, told msnbc.com. “We are strong defenders of the First Amendment. What we are saying is that he not be allowed to spread views at West Point. He can go shout his hatred on the streets if he wants to.”

Hooper calls the argument that Boykin represents an alternative viewpoint “ridiculous,” and equates it with inviting a racist white leader to speak at West Point since some of the cadets are African American.

“I doubt that they would invite a KKK speaker and claim that they want to expose the students to a variety of opinions," CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, told the Associated Press, referring to the hate group the Ku Klux Klan.

Just last week, CAIR and People for the American Way had asked officials in Maryland to rescind an invitation for Boykin to speak at a prayer breakfast. Boykin attended and spoke about his faith and did not mention Islam.

Before his retirement in 2002, Boykin was chastised by military commanders for comparing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a holy war. Boykin later issued a written statement apologizing and said he didn't mean to insult Islam.

Pentagon investigation concluded that Boykin violated regulations by failing to make clear he was not speaking in an official capacity when he made nearly two dozen church speeches beginning in January 2002. It also found that Boykin, who made most speeches wearing his uniform, didn't get prior clearance for the remarks.

Boykin couldn't immediately be reached by msnbc.com for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Occupy protesters have taken a wide array of approaches to further their power-to-the-people message — kumbaya-style public sit-ins, noisy protests at banks that are blamed for terrible economic conditions, and occasionally vandalism as witnessed in Oakland this weekend — either a tactic or an outcome, depending on your source.

But here’s a new one: In Seattle, Babylonia Aivaz — surrounded by loving friends and lavishly outfitted activists — married a building, in a ceremony Sunday that was documented by the Seattle PI.

"When I look at this building I see a community center, I see a community art space, I see a homeless shelter, I see free childcare, I don't see a building, I see a space that can address all the needs of our neighborhood,” Aivaz told KING 5 television.

In order to seal her commitment to the 107-year-old warehouse building — and protest the sweeping gentrification in the city—she donned white, declared her love, and uttered “I do.” A sign on the building, also promised “I DO,” at least until death do them apart — most likely this week, when the building is slated to be demolished to make way for a new apartment complex.

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The action took on several issues at once. Aivaz was drawing attention to the building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, which activists wanted to use as a community space. She argued that if a corporation could have personhood — then a building has enough “personhood” to get married. She also declared the building a woman, thus putting in a plug for gay marriage.

The crowd that gathered for the union of building and woman was largely festive, featuring bubbles, music and a vegan potluck, according to local coverage, but some bystanders objected to activists calling it a gay marriage, especially at a moment when the issue of same-sex marriage is under serious discussion in the state of Washington.

Johnny McCollum-Blair attended to protest the protest, told KOMO TV that calling the union a “gay marriage” was “irresponsible” because it could give ammunition to the Christian Right and politicians.

It “gives them a chance to say, ‘See, we told you — they’re going to want to marry everything if we give them the opportunity’,” he said, carrying a sign that read “Marriage is between 2 people.”

“It was definitely… thought provoking. Maybe it was too thought provoking,” said Joshua Farris, an Occupy Seattle activist who was familiar with the action. “This is our challenge every day. We need to think of ways to provoke people’s imaginations. At the same time has to be a message they can wrap their head around.”

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The Air Force has concluded there was “no criminal conduct” by airmen who posed around an open casket with another airman inside pretending to be dead.

The photo, which first came to light on Dec. 13 in the Air Force Times, drew outrage from military commanders, military wives, widows and others who saw it as mocking deceased service members.

---

 “Da Dumpt, Da Dumpt … Sucks 2 Be U” was scribbled at the bottom of the photo.

Rather than criminal charges, the airmen involved in the picture received administrative punishment because their conduct “brought discredit to both the military and themselves,” Col. Gregory Reese, commander of the 37^th Training Group, said in news release sent to msnbc.com. The Air Force said it does not disclose details of administrative actions due to privacy concerns.

Read Monday’s Air Force Times story

 “The investigation indicated that the photo was intended by those who took it to remind the students that they could be killed if they failed to pay attention while loading and unloading aircraft,” Reese said.

The service members in the picture were airmen with the 345th Training Squadron at Fort Lee, Va., where they learn to load and unload aircraft. Their unit is a detachment from a command at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, which issued the news release about the punishment.

The photo, it turned out, was a sort of unofficial class picture in which “creativity got ahead of common sense,” Gerry Proctor, 37^thTraining Wing spokesman, told msnbc.com.

After the photo became public, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, expressed concern that the photo might cause more turmoil for families of fallen troops.

"Such behavior is not consistent with our core values, and it is not representative of the Airmen I know. It saddens me that this may cause additional grief to the families of our fallen warriors,” Donley told  the Air Force Times.

In response to the photo, 37th Training Wing commander, Col. Eric Axelbank issued a wing-wide policy that requires all class photography and memorabilia to be reviewed by squadron commanders.

Proctor told msnbc.com that with the investigation complete and administrative punishment handed out, the Air Force considers the case closed.

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How soon we forget. Sure, this last month has been warmer than average across the lower 48 states, but the record for warmest January was set just six years ago in January 2006 and it's too soon to tell if that will fall.

Deke Arndt, chief of the National Climatic Data Center's monitoring service, told msnbc.com that he can't rule out a record. "It's too early for us to call shots" on just where January 2012 will end up, he said, "but it has been quite warm so far and we expect it to finish in the top 15 or 20," based on records dating back to 1895. The official report for January comes out on Feb. 7, he added.

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Weather.com meteorologist Stu Ostro noted that Jan. 1-23 in 2006 was warmer than the same period this year. "So at least as of that point this January was running well behind the record pace," he told msnbc.com.

With the exception of Alaska, which is seeing record cold and snow, the warmer temperatures have been widespread. 

Areas that saw above average temperatures cover "a rather large amount of real estate in the U.S. from coast-to-coast," is how weather.com meteorologist Chris Dolce put it in his look back. "In fact, the only places that have experienced overall below-average temperatures this month are the far Southeast (southern Florida) and far Northwest corners (western Washington and Oregon) of the country!"

The map below illustrates that, with above average temps seen in orange, red and brown.

Another measure is how many localities have reported record highs or lows for a given day in January. Turns out, nearly 2,800 daily record highs were tied or broken through last week. As for daily record lows, only 160 of those were reported.

Arndt cited two key factors impacting climate this last month. A La Nina cycle is in place, and typically that means colder and snowier winters in the northern U.S. But La Nina's impact was tempered by cold Arctic air being blocked from moving south by a shift in what's known as the Arctic Oscillation.

STORY: 62 below makes for deep freeze in Alaska
STORY: North set for colder months, forecaster says

The warm spell has also meant more tornadoes this month than normal. This month looks set to be the third busiest January on record, with 74 so far. That compares to 218 in January 1999 and 88 in January 2008.

 

Back in 2006, news media reported the lack of winter as well. In Duluth, Minn., folks were flying kites and wearing shorts on Jan. 28, 2006. One widely reported upside back then, as now: lower heating bills.

Even if it has been warmer than usual in much of the United States, there's no denying Alaska is seeing a real winter, even by its standards.

Anchorage is shivering through one of its coldest January's on record, while in Fairbanks, folks preparing for a sled dog race were being tested by temperatures nearly 50 degrees below zero. Farther inland, Fort Yukon has ranged from minus 50 to minus 62 degrees over the last three days, getting close to its record of minus 78.

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Anchorage's average temperature for January has been 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, the Alaska Daily News reported. That's well below its average of 15 degrees, and only three other years (1947, 1925 and 1920) have been colder, National Weather Service data show.

It's so cold for Anchorage, the Daily News reported, that:

• Cross country ski practices by the Junior Nordic League have been canceled due to temps dipping below the official cut-off of minus 4 degrees.
• Tow trucks are so busy helping folks with dead car batteries that it can take up to four hours to get service.
• Some schools have had only a handful of outdoor recess days this month.

In Fairbanks, where the Yukon Quest sled dog race starts on Saturday, some racers have had a hard time moving their trucks around due to a freeze that kept engines from starting, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.

Fort Yukon, for its part, dipped to 62 degrees below zero on Saturday, then hit 59 below on Sunday, the National Weather Service reported.

The deep freeze is in addition to the record snow and blizzard conditions seen earlier this month in towns like Cordova and Valdez. Even Anchorage is on track to see a record snow season, having received more than twice its average amount so far.