ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- A year after Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan, one key question has yet to be answered: how did the world's most wanted man manage to move and live, undetected, in this country for so long?

Journalists, analysts, and others have been working to fill in the narrative holes over the last 12 months. Leaked and strategically released nuggets of information have helped to paint a vague picture of what life was like inside the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden spent his final years, living with three of his wives, and several children and grandchildren. We've learned of the austere conditions inside the home, the restricted lifestyle led by all inside, and the discipline with which the head of al-Qaida communicated with a trusted few. But the crucial questions -- how he got to that compound in the first place and who helped him to do so -- remain unanswered.

Kamran Bokhari, vice-president for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs at Stratfor, a global intelligence company, believes the idea that bin Laden moved around without a network of individuals organizing his transportation and logistics is simply not possible.

"If you're a six-foot-five Arab, and the most wanted man on the planet, you can't just walk into a place like Pakistan without support," Bokhari said. "So what's the nature of that support?"

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U.S. officials publicly state they have no evidence that any Pakistani institutional leaders had any knowledge of bin Laden's presence here, nor played any role in helping to move him. Privately, however, some admit that the deep mistrust between the two nations has led to strong, lingering suspicions within many in the U.S. that Pakistan's premier intelligence agency -- Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI -- must have known, at some level.

"There are deep suspicions on both sides," says retired General Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former national security advisor and ambassador to the United States. "I think the biggest concern in the U.S., if I put it in a phrase, is that Pakistan is hunting with the hounds and running with the hares. That is the perception."

Panetta recalls nail-biting moments of bin Laden raid

That perception has not been helped by what seem to be Pakistan's action priorities over the last year. The prevailing public dialogue among military and government officials in the immediate raid aftermath focused on how the U.S. had managed to breach Pakistan's borders, not how bin Laden had. The Pakistani doctor who ran a fake vaccination program in Abbottabad for the CIA in an effort to secure DNA samples from inside the bin Laden compound was swiftly tracked down, arrested, and remains in detention, possibly to stand trial for treason. Authorities quietly began work after dark to demolish the compound in February, keeping press behind a security cordon half a mile away, and after a year in custody, the widows and their families were shuttled out of their house in the dead of night and deported to Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan did immediately launch a formal commission with wide-reaching powers soon after the raid, pledging to investigate both the U.S. border breach and bin Laden's presence here. The Abbottabad Commission, as it's come to be known here, has enjoyed unparalleled access to anyone and everyone associated directly or peripherally with either issue, interviewing over 100 witnesses over the last year, including bin Laden's widows, the detained doctor who worked for the CIA, and high-level Pakistani officials.  But there is no working deadline and expectations vary as to how blunt and definitive an account commission members will be able to put forth.

"Given how previous commissions in Pakistan have behaved, I'm not really hopeful that much will come out of this," Bokhari said. "This is not like the 9/11 Commission or anything similar elsewhere in other countries where there's a process and transparency and rule of law."

'Embarrassment'
Durrani, who's been in touch with members of the commission, says the length of time it's taken for them to compile findings speaks to their determination to fulfill their mandate to the best of their ability.

"If the report comes out tomorrow and it's a whitewash, then people will ask -- what have you done?" Durrani said. "They [the commission members] are keen to get to the bottom of this, to find out what happened, why it happened, who's at fault, and what needs to be done so we don't have such embarrassment and such issues in the future."

Driving the investigators' query is a widely-held belief here in Pakistan that bin Laden was never here at all -- that the entire raid was an effort by the U.S. to defame and destabilize Pakistan's security establishment. Residents of Abbottabad with whom NBC News spoke reiterated that skepticism, saying they don't believe the U.S. claim that bin Laden was living in their midst, particularly in the absence of any evidence of his death.

Low expectations
Commission members have been reluctant to speak with the media until their findings are complete, but the head of the commission, retired Supreme Court Judge Javed Iqbal, confirmed to NBC News that one of the key issues his team is investigating is whether bin Laden was ever really here at all.

PhotoBlog: Abbottabad -- One year after Osama bin Laden raid

Despite low expectations for the pending report, Bokhari admits the commission is tasked with an enormously difficult job, one that will have repercussions for generations to come in the form of Pakistan's official narrative of this historic event.

"This is the biggest event in recent history since the fall of the Soviet Union -- 9/11 and its impact, the killing of Osama bin Laden -- so I'm not surprised it's taken them this long to come up with a report," Bokhari said. "It may take decades before anybody can actually come up with a comprehensive view of what was really happening."

 

The few specifics that have emerged from Pakistan in the last year in effect lead to more questions officials here must attempt to answer, through the commission or otherwise.

The U.S. moved quickly on the message-control front after the Abbottabad raid, releasing selective video clips and pieces of information from the "treasure trove" of evidence seized from bin Laden's compound. An NBC News team was given an exclusive briefing by a senior U.S. counterterrorism official on currently classified intelligence from the raid, including details of the role bin Laden played in al-Qaida from his hideout in Pakistan, who he was in touch with, and more on the life he lived within that compound. Those details will air on Discovery Channel on Tuesday as part of a one-hour special on the anniversary of the U.S. raid.

But the details from within Pakistan have been few and far between. A rare piece of evidence -- a confidential interrogation report of bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal, obtained by NBC News -- did reveal some surprising details about the family's life on the run after the attacks of September 11.

According to the report, Amal told investigators that the family scattered after 9/11, bouncing from house to house and place to place in Pakistan. In her complicated timeline, she moved across multiple residences in the southern mega-city of Karachi, then moved on to Peshawar to link up with her husband. From there, the family moved to Swat, then to Haripur, and finally settled in the Abbottabad home for about six years until the U.S. raid that killed her husband.

"These people are fanatics. They're ideological but keep in mind that they are also very professional at what they do," Bokhari explained. "They're in a business where if you make a small error in judgment it can easily translate to death for many people. There are people waiting for you to make a mistake. You have to be highly disciplined."

Co-conspirators?
But the pace of movement believed to have been followed by bin Laden and his family -- traversing entire provinces in Pakistan, and including rural, tribal, settled, and urban areas while remaining completely undetected -- would be difficult without some sort of network of support. Current and former Pakistani officials and analysts have offered up the possibility of "rogue or retired" elements from within Pakistan's military or intelligence establishment as possible facilitators or co-conspirators helping to hide bin Laden.

The nature of Pakistan's retired uniformed corps, many of whom stay involved with the work of the agencies long after they leave as the new leadership continues to make use of their experience and contacts, albeit in unofficial capacities and with limited authority. As the largest employer in Pakistan, it follows that the Pakistan army also has the largest pool of retirees, some of whom spent significant time working closely with and gaining the trust of jihadi groups in the 1980s and 1990s.

"If it's a retired network of people, what I call the 'Pakistani Blackwater,' that's not that bad. It's bad, but not that bad," Bokhari said. "But if it's someone who's serving, or more than one person, then [Pakistan's leaders] have a leak in [their] system and that's terrifying. Anyone who's a very nationalistic, Pakistani leader who doesn't want al-Qaida or the CIA to be able to get into their house will want to get to the bottom of that."

Bin Laden's widow's condition worsens, brother says

As potentially worrying or damaging as some of the information in the commission's report may be for Pakistan's institutions, it is also widely believed that the organizations cannot survive without taking a hard look at their own potential faults, and admitting mistakes where they did occur. The military and intelligence establishments were already raked over the coals by the government and media after last year's raid in Abbottabad, and are now under the highest level of scrutiny in the country's history.

A failure, at this point, to produce a credible, official version of events will only damage Pakistan, according to Durrani.

"Pakistan wants to move forwards not backwards. They have to get to the bottom of this, in their own interest," he says. "If they don't, it will be another major issue buried in the sands of history. And people will forever be looking for answers."

NBC's Fakhar Rehman contributed to this report from Abbottabad.

ANALYSIS

GREENSBORO, N.C. — After an eventful first five days, here are three keys as the John Edwards case moves on to week two:

Did the defense's cross-examination of Andrew Young destroy the government's case?
Stymied by technical glitches (no mike, a balky video player), frequently sustained objections and a somewhat scattershot approach, the cross-examination of Edwards' former aide by lead defense attorney Abbe Lowell got off to a halting start. But by Day Two, Lowell's questioning of Young had turned surgical. Time and again, Lowell forced Young to acknowledge inconsistencies among his past statements, and between those statements and his courtroom testimony. The centerpiece came when Young acknowledged that most of the $925,000 the government contends went to cover up Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter was, in fact, kept by Young and his wife, Cheri, to finance a family manse.

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By the end, Lowell (solemn-faced and in a dark suit) had the air of an undertaker while Young (fatigued and evidencing a gray pallor atop his tanned faced) looked funeral-ready. And yet ... I'm not sure the government's theory of the case got buried by the cross-examination. No matter how much of the money trail led to the money pit that was the Youngs' dream home, some amount of political supporter money well above the $2,300 individual contribution limit benefited Hunter. Indeed, Edwards admitted as much in his trial brief filed in mid-April: "[T]here is no doubt that payments by Ms. Mellon and Mr. Baron covered Ms. Hunter's personal expenses (and much more so, the Youngs' personal expenses, such as the construction of their dream home." So, while Lowell's cross of Young was good lawyering and great theater, the government's prosecution theory likely survived it.

Full trial coverage from NBC News and msnbc.com

Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

Did Andrew Young damage the prosecution more during his direct examination?
Ultimately, Young's answers in three areas of questioning during his direct examination may prove more helpful to Edwards than the admissions forced out of him by Lowell on cross. First, Young made it clear that neither Rachel "Bunny" Mellon nor Fred Baron expected anything in return for their largesse, thus confirming that this isn't the typical quid pro quo political corruption case.

Second, Young testified that both he and Edwards told Mellon that her donations were intended to aid Edwards with a personal matter, not a political one.

Third, Young said Edwards consistently reassured him that the arrangement was legal. The last point is a huge one: If the government was counting on Young to establish that Edwards knew the Baron-Mellon financial support for his mistress ran afoul of federal election laws, his testimony proved a major disappointment.

Is an anti-Andrew Young train coming and, if so, how long is it?
Given that the defense was able to turn the trial of Edwards into the trial of Young during much of Week One, prosecutors have to be worried about a possible parade of witnesses coming to the stand to disparage Young's character and dispute his recollection. We can't know for sure until they take the stand, but there are indications that potential defense witnesses such as respected North Carolina lawyer David Kirby, acclaimed author Robert Draper and veteran pollster Harrison Hickman may offer event accounts that differ dramatically from Young's.

This trial is a long way from over. But it's fair to say that, thanks to Young's direct testimony as much as anything else, prosecutors likely see some hard work ahead before they will feel comfortable resting the government's case.

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In Dearborn Mich., a Detroit suburb known for its concentration of Muslim Americans, anti-Islam leaders from around the country are gathering to discuss how to rescue women from that faith. The "Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference on Honor Killings" on Sunday is named for a local Muslim woman murdered one year ago.

But Muslims, civil rights groups and other religious leaders say the conference is merely another event put on by well-known bigots to attack the minority religion. Their response was to schedule a town hall meeting just a few miles away on Sunday called "Rejecting Islamophobia: A Community Stand Against Hate."

The honor killing conference, organized by Pamela Geller, who became nationally famous for her vocal opposition to the Ground Zero Mosque, aka Park 51 in Manhattan, is based on the premise that Mokdad, 20 years old when she died in April 2011, was the victim of an honor killing justified by Islam.

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Mokdad’s family maintains that the killing was a tragedy that has nothing to do with their Islamic beliefs, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.

"It's not a case based on honor," Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Cataldo, chief of homicide, told the Free Press on Friday.

In court, prosecutors have said the motive for Mokdad’s killing was that her stepfather, Rahim Alfetlawi had "been sexually abusing her," Cataldo said, according to the report. They argue that when she threatened to go public about the abuse he killed her.

Cataldo said the family strongly objects to the conference using Mokdad’s killing, which they say was a tragedy that had nothing to do with their faith.

Geller insists this was an honor killing carried out by a devout Muslim because his stepdaughter was not following Islam, and that the family is covering it up. She alleges that law enforcers systematically cover up honor killings here and elsewhere under "stealth enforcement" of Islamic shariah law.

On her web site, Geller says: "Despite pressure from the media and members of Jessica's family who want to cover up the honor killing aspect of her murder, we are not going to change the name of the conference. Unlike those closest to her, we are going to honor Jessica's memory and stand up against the brutal practice that took her life."

The Dearborn conference will feature speeches by Geller and Robert Spencer — author of the blog "Jihad Watch" — as well as several like-minded legal and religious figures. They have also invited a young man who says he was Mokdad’s friend to offer "firsthand testimony" that she was a victim of honor killing.

Stop the Islamization of America, which Geller and Spencer founded, has been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit civil rights watchdog.

"Pamela Geller is the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead," according to a profile published by SPLC on its web site. "She's relentlessly shrill and coarse in her broad-brush denunciations of Islam and makes preposterous claims."

The Arab American Institute, a decades-old community organization in the Detroit area, discouraged Muslims and their supporters from protesting at the site of Geller's conference.  But they organized a competing event, said AAI president Jim Zogby, because Geller and Spencer have become too prominent to ignore.

"Geller and Spencer have thousands of followers, and are given airtime to spew their hate on major American news networks, as if they are respected analysts with just another viewpoint," Zogby said on the AAI announcement for the "Rejecting Islamophobia" town hall in Detroit.

Although many Americans have never encountered a Muslim in person, about 43 percent questioned in a recent Gallup Poll said they felt at least “a little” prejudice against Muslims.

"This group, we cannot ignore. This is the time for our community to take a stand, along with all those who value America’s commitment to diversity and freedom of religion, against the politics of division and bigotry promoted by the Islamophobes."

A variety of community, interfaith and religious leaders and Michigan public on their agenda, for a "community conversation about how to respond to these continued attacks," said Zogby.

One participant who was just on his way to the town hall was Dawud Walid, who heads the Michigan office of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a civil rights advocacy group for Muslims.

"I think firstly we have to better expose who these anti-Muslim bigots are as well as their funders," said Walid. "We believe that the Islamophobia that permeates our country is being pushed by a well-organized, highly-funded network."

He says that while Dearborn and Detroit have become a focus for the activities of Geller and others of like mind, the problem is bigger.

"Islamophobia is a national illness," he said.

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A 37-foot sailboat apparently collided with a much larger vessel during the annual sailing race from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada, Mexico, killing three crew members and leaving one missing, a sailing association said early on Sunday. 

"An investigation was continuing, but it appeared the damage was not inflicted by an explosion but by a collision with a ship much larger than the 37-foot vessel,"  Newport Ocean Sailing Association spokesman Rich Roberts said in a statement.

The sailboat Aegean had been reported missing Saturday morning near the Coronado Islands, just south of the border, Coast Guard spokesman Henry G. Dunphy said in a news release.

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"The first indication of the incident was at 1:30 a.m. Saturday when the boat's image vanished from the online race tracking system in place for the race. A Coast Guard search was launched that led to discovery of the boat's wreckage, including the rear transom with the boat's name on it," Roberts said.

Dunphy said vessels near the Coronados reported seeing debris at about 10 a.m. and three sailors were found dead in the afternoon. One body was recovered by a Coast Guard helicopter and two others by a civilian crew.

Dunphy said race officials reported the Aegean missing about 11:40 a.m. The Associated Press reported that the Aegean's home port was Redondo Beach. The names of the crew were not released.

The 125-mile race, organized by the Newport Ocean Sailing Association, began at 11 a.m. Friday off the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach. The race crosses heavy shipping lanes off San Diego, and only a relative few boats can finish before darkness the first night.

More than 200 boats had entered the race as of Wednesday, though it was unclear how many started.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Some boats can finish the race in less than 12 hours, but others can take up to two days.

The incident comes two weeks after an accident during a race from San Francisco to the Farallon Islands left five sailors dead.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A woman whose remains were found in the backyard of an Indiana man already charged with two other murders a decade apart apparently was strangled, according to news reports.

NBC station WAVE of Louisville reported Saturday that the remains found Friday in New Albany, Ind., were identified as those of 35-year-old Stephanie Marie Kirk, who disappeared in March. The Louisville Courier-Journal reported that Floyd County Coroner Leslie Knable said the preliminary cause of death was strangulation and it was uncertain how long she had been dead.  

"Relieved in a way," Kirk’s grandmother, Betty Kirk, told WAVE when asked her reaction. "Knowing that she's not tied up in a room somewhere held prisoner, or whatever. Now, she's in heaven with her mother."

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The remains were found at the home of William Clyde Gibson, a registered sex offender charged in the death of 45-year-old Karen Hodella and 75-year-old Christine Whitis. Hodella disappeared in 2002, and her body was found early the next year. Whitis was found dead April 19 at Gibson’s mother’s home in New Albany. Gibson was arrested later that day.

Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson said Friday that after Gibson’s arrest he implicated himself in the deaths of Hodella and Whitis, the News and Tribune of Jeffersonville, Ind., reported.

Kirk, of Charlestown, Ind., was last seen when she left a friend's house in New Albany on March 25, perhaps to meet a man to go motorcycling, WAVE reported. Betty Kirk said it was unlike her granddaughter, who had a teenage daughter, not to contact her father.

"I want her to come home,” her father, Tony Kirk, said this week, WAVE reported. “She's got a daughter. We both miss her. We both worry about her, can't sleep. Her daughter can't sleep."

Crews began digging in Gibson's yard Friday based on information they developed earlier in the day.

A next-door neighbor, Melodie Shultz, told the Courier-Journal that she had known Gibson since childhood and that he had been in trouble with the law off and on, but that he had always been willing to help out around the neighborhood.

“You never know who is living next door,” Shultz told the Courier-Journal.

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ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- A storm blasting through the city blew away a tent outside a downtown bar, leaving one man dead Saturday afternoon, NBC station KSDK reported.

Twenty others -- three in critical condition -- were taken to a hospital after the incident at Kilroy’s Sports Bar on South Seventh Street, a couple of blocks south of Busch Stadium, KSDK reported. A total of 100 people received medical treatment, KSDK said. Photos showed the tent impaled on a nearby railroad trestle.

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It was not clear whether the man who died was struck during the incident or went into cardiac arrest because of shock, officials said.

St. Louis Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson told KSDK that a few hundred people were celebrating in the tent after the Cardinals' 7-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers when the storm hit.

"We've got severe injuries to quite a few people," Jenkerson said, noting live wires were left on the ground after the tarp tied to galvanized pipes blew away. "We don't like this type of building. It gives us nightmares, and as you can see, it caused one."

The pipes "beat up" many of the people in the tent, Jenkerson said.

The tent was set up as a beer garden next to Kilroy's, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Eddie Roth, director of the St. Louis Department of Public Safety, said the tent had passed inspection and it didn't appear there would be any violation, although an investigation would continue, The Associated Press reported.

"I thought a train fell off the track," Art Randall, Kilroy's owner, told the Post-Dispatch. "We all ducked for cover. Everything was going sideways. I had metal chairs ripping across the beer garden."

"People were pushing and shoving," said Christy Eilermann, 42, of St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch reported. "The wind just picked up and they started dragging people inside."

Storms packing hail up to baseball-size hail slammed eastern Missouri and western Illinois on Saturday.

Weather spotters in O’Fallen, Baden and Lebanon, Ill., reported baseball-size hail, 2.75 inches, smashing car windshields and home windows at 4:22 CDT.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings for parts of Daviess, Knox and Martin counties in southwest Indiana and severe thunderstorm warnings for east-central Missouri and south-central Illinois.

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WASHINGTON -- Secret Service agents are often portrayed in popular culture as disciplined, unflappable, loyal — and male. A spiraling prostitution scandal that has highlighted the dearth of women in the agency that protects the president and dignitaries has many wondering: Would more females in the ranks prevent future dishonor?

Only about a tenth of field agents and uniformed officers are women, a shortage some attribute to travel demands that can be especially taxing on women balancing families and careers. A scandal that risks portraying the agency as unfriendly to women, however, could set back efforts to close the gender gap.

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"I can't help but think that there would be some progress if there was more diversity and if there were more women that were there," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "When you have a diversity of people there, it brings more accountability. What you see is a lack of accountability in this."

Women make up about 25 percent of the agency's workforce, but only about 11 percent of agents and uniformed officers, said spokesman Ed Donovan. That's significantly lower than the 19 percent of female special agents in the FBI, though higher than the 9.7 percent of special agents who are women in the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Secret Service does not provide gender breakdowns on the agents assigned to presidential details, though women have been included on those assignments for years.

The agency has aggressively recruited women, targeting female-oriented career fairs and sending brochures to colleges.

"We all recognize that we want to get more women into the Secret Service," Donovan said.

But that wasn't easy even before the prostitution embarrassment in Colombia, which unfolded two weeks ago when a dispute over payment between a prostitute and Secret Service officer spilled into a hotel hallway. A dozen Secret Service employees and a dozen enlisted military personnel have been implicated. Although Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said it appeared to be isolated, the agency has since confirmed it's investigating if employees hired prostitutes and strippers ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to El Salvador last year. The agency on Friday also announced stricter measures, including assigning chaperones on some trips to enforce new rules of conduct for agents and employees.

Paige Pinson, 45, spent 15 years with the agency and her father, W. Ralph Basham, is a former director. She said it wasn't the culture that encouraged her to forego her agent's position. After all, male agents were loyal to each other and fiercely protective of her. She'd drink alongside them at bars and laughed at the "groupies" who fawned over their status. It was, instead, the birth of her first child that inspired her to seek a less travel-intensive analyst's position. She left the agency in 2009.

"You do miss birthdays, you do miss Christmas, and you miss piano recitals," Pinson said, "and maybe women are just more sensitive to that than men can be."

The agency enjoys vaunted prestige in American popular culture, but the rigors of a protective detail — jet-setting the globe at a moment's notice to protect a dignitary, being on-call around the clock — isn't for everyone. It's the type of full-bore commitment that leads to canceled vacations and blown-off family obligations, an occasional workaday drudgery that, former agents say, can distinguish the Secret Service from other law enforcement agencies.

"I know they work hard and long hours too, but at the end of the day, they go home at night," said Barbara Riggs, who spent 31 years with the agency, serving on presidential protective details for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — ascending to the role of a supervisor — before retiring as deputy director in 2006. "You can't say the same for being a Secret Service agent."

Cavorting with prostitutes on the job isn't all that different from holding a business meeting in a topless joint: Both are hyper-sexualized activities that some men may condone but are bound to make women uncomfortable, said Donna Milgram, executive director of the National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology and Science.

"Whenever you have a culture in which it's accepted that sexual activity as has been described is part of that culture — i.e. using local prostitutes — that is not going to be a culture in which women are going to be want to be in," said Milgram, who has advised law enforcement agencies on recruiting and retaining women. "Those are generally not cultures that want to have women."

Other incidents over the past 15 years haven't helped the Secret Service come off as welcoming to women. Emails filed as part of a race discrimination lawsuit show workers sharing racially and sexually inappropriate jokes. An alcohol-soaked bar brawl involving off-duty agents in 2002 involved allegations that an agent had bitten off part of a man's ear — though no charges were brought and a jury sided with the agent in a civil trial. A 2002 U.S. News & World Report contained allegations of heavy drinking, pornography viewing at work and security lapses.

Some former agents acknowledge a close-knit atmosphere where employees travel, dine and socialize together — sometimes in the form of so-called "wheels up" parties held in foreign countries after the departure of a president or other person under protection. But they say the prostitution scandal does not represent a cultural problem or reflect a broader disdain for women.

The Secret Service began adding women in the early 1970s, a time when returning Vietnam War veterans signed up in bunches. Just as they do now, agents prided themselves on being physically strong and on a strict selection process for the presidential detail, said Joseph Petro, who joined in 1971 and a co-author of "Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service." New recruits were expected to prove themselves.

"We wanted to look at them — see what kind of shape they were in, how they fit, what their manner was. That goes on — and it should," said Petro, who after Vietnam spent 23 years with the agency as an agent and manager, helping protect Reagan.

Some women had it tough in the early years, he recalled, bumping up against "hard-headed" men who had never worked with women. But some found niches through special skills, like horseback riding, and the atmosphere was genteel and respectable enough that Petro said he always felt comfortable bringing his wife and daughter on trips to Reagan's ranch in Santa Barbara.

"There were a couple of guys who brought their wives and kids," Petro said. "That puts the brake on a lot of things."

In the latest debacle, the Secret Service has forced eight employees from their jobs and was seeking to revoke the security clearance of another employee, which would effectively force him to resign. Three others have been cleared of serious wrongdoing. How much it sets back efforts to recruit women may depend on the pervasiveness of inappropriate behavior, Milgram said.

"It's a way of operating," she said, "that I think most of us would consider a way that was left behind 30 years ago."

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A woman charged with DUI after her car slammed through a Connecticut liquor store  is blaming it all on Nyquil and Armor All.

A car driven by Sharon Brooks, 63, of East Haven crossed over the sidewalk and crashed through the front entrance of Yankee Discount Liquor at 664 Foxon Road around 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to police.

See the video and original report at NBCConnecticut.com

The car continued halfway into the store, striking the counter, crushing displays of wine and injuring an employee inside. The worker was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital with what police called minor injuries.

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Brooks was charged with driving under the influence and reckless driving. 

As she left East Haven Police headquarters, Brooks spoke exclusively to NBC Connecticut.

"I have a cold," Brooks said. 

When asked if she had taken cold medicine, Brooks replied, "Nyquil and somebody cleaned the inside of my car and they put Armor All on my brake pad and my foot slipped off the brake pad." 

Brooks further explained what happened by saying, "I never had the whole inside of my car cleaned before and this time I did so it would look really nice, and my foot slipped off the brake."

Deepak Pattani, the store's owner, says he's never seen anything like this crash in his eight years of doing business at this location.

"We were just waiting over there for the customers to come in and all of a sudden the car came in all the way, halfway through the store and we were just shocked," said Pattani.

He says Brooks is a regular customer at the store.

"If I was on alcohol I wouldn't be leaving now," said Brooks, just before she got into a taxi outside the police station.

Workers at the liquor store say they're just thankful things weren't worse.

"If I was cleaning or helping a customer I would have been killed," said Babu Khatiwada, a store employee.

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Who knew a baby could cause such a fuss at the airport?

A baby who hadn’t been properly screened prompted authorities to shut down a section of a terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport for more than an hour Friday, Transportation Security Administration officials said. The “security breech” led to an evacuation of part of the terminal, flight delays and inconveniences for hundreds of passengers.

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The incident happened around 1:15 p.m. at a checkpoint leading to some gates at Terminal C.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a mother and baby went through a metal detector when the machine sounded an alarm, according to The Associated Press. The mother handed the child to the father, who had already been screened. The mother was cleared, but the baby hadn't been properly screened. The parents and baby left the checkpoint and headed to their gate, Farbstein told the AP.

A short time later, TSA workers realized the baby had not been checked. They began searching for the family in the terminal and notified Port Authority police as per protocol, but they emphasized that it was a low-risk situation, Farbstein said.

A TSA official said the agency recommended against evacuating the terminal because of the low risk, but Port Authority police did so anyway. "Port Authority police unilaterally made the decision to evacuate the terminal, sweep the terminal for explosives and re-screen all of the passengers, inconveniencing hundreds of passengers and delaying numerous flights," the official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue by name because of its delicacy, told nj.com.

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, said that it took the TSA more than 30 minutes to notify police of the lapse. He said officers "took immediate action to make sure the breach did not endanger passengers or our facility," AP reported.

"We're not going to second-guess a real-time decision made by our police department to err on the side of caution and protect passenger safety," he said.

The search for the family was called off and the area was reopened at 2:50 p.m.

Passengers who went through the security checkpoint had to be screened again.

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Updated at 3:07 p.m. ET: A moderate earthquake rattled Southern California on Saturday morning, shaking homes across the Inland Empire region and causing buildings to sway in Los Angeles. There were no reports of injuries or serious damage.

The quake, initially reported at magnitude 4.1, was later downgraded to 3.8. It was centered along the San Andreas Fault about two miles northwest of Devore, in San Bernadino County, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It struck at 8:07 a.m. at a depth of more than six miles.

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"I was just sitting in my old chair when the house started shaking," Frank Chavez of Crestline, a mountain town just east of the epicenter, told The Associated Press. "I looked at my wife and we both said, 'earthquake!'. It was no big deal. These get to be old hat if you live in California awhile."

A San Bernardino County Sheriff's dispatcher in nearby Rancho Cucamonga said the station shook for a few seconds, but there were no calls about damage or injuries, the AP reported.

Buildings swayed in downtown Los Angeles, about 60 miles to the west, according to local media reports.

The USGS said it didn't expect any serious damage from the quake.

NBC4’s Facebook page lit up with reactions from people throughout Southern California who said they felt the quake.

Desiree Carroll said she thought a truck went off the 57 Freeway and hit her house in Diamond Bar.

Pat Gowder said he heard the rumble rather than felt it. “Sounded like my house was sliding but didn't feel movement. I live in Glendora,” Gowder wrote.

Michael V. Muñoz wrote, “Oh Ok! So it wasn't just me feeling like I was going to passout after my run this morning!”

The Associated Press and NBCLosAngeles.com contributed to this story.

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Updated at 4:42 p.m. ET: NORTH BEND, Wash. -- Law officers hunting for a self-trained survivalist suspected of killing his wife and daughter on Saturday found a body inside elaborate, underground bunker in the woods of Washington state where he was thought to have been hiding.

Authorities used explosives Saturday morning to blow the roof off the heavily fortified bunker and gain access. They said the body found inside was believed to be that of Peter Keller, who has been on the run since Sunday.

"Once inside deputies discovered a body which they said appeared to be Keller, and it appeared as though he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the King County Sheriff's Office said in a press release.

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A gun and some blood were found near the body, The Seattle Times reported.

No shots were fired by law enforcement furing the 22-hour standoff, Sheriff Steve Strachan said.

Members of the sheriff's Bomb Disposal Unit were sent in to clear the bunker to ensure there were no planted explosives or booby traps.

Keller had spent eight years building the bunker into the side of Rattlesnake Ridge in the Cascade mountains, police said. It was thoroughly camouflaged and had multiple levels. Photos of the inside of the bunker, released by the King County Sheriff's Office, showed a shelf full of ammunition boxes stacked inside Ziploc bags.

On Friday, authorities pumped tear gas into the structure after locating it in the Cascade foothills east of Seattle. The dozens of officers didn't immediately enter the bunker because they believed its occupant was armed, and that it might be booby-trapped.

Officers kept watch over the bunker overnight.

With clear weather and a fresh SWAT team in place Saturday morning, it was time to act more aggressively, King County sheriff's Sgt. Katie Larson said.

Hostage negotiators were dropped Saturday morning by helicopter into the rugged site. They were among more

than 100 officers and volunteers from the King County Sheriff’s Office, the Seattle Police Department and other area agencies were on hand.

No police were injured in the siege. Two officers were treated for dehydration and hypothermia from chilly overnight temperatures and released, Larson said.

The raid ended a tense week for law enforcement officials who tried to track down Keller, a gun enthusiast described by his family as having a "survivalist mentality." That Keller was likely armed and on the loose in an extremely popular hiking and mountain-biking area east of Seattle kept many people on edge.

"There's been a huge sigh of relief," Larson said. "Our people are out safe, and the trails are now safe for the community to use."

Keller had spent eight years building the bunker into the side of Rattlesnake Ridge, police said. It was thoroughly camouflaged and had multiple levels. Photos of the inside of the bunker, released by the King County Sheriff's Office, showed a shelf full of ammunition boxes stacked inside Ziploc bags.

SWAT teams spent a grueling seven hours on the mountainside Friday morning, virtually crawling over dangerously steep terrain slick with mud from recent rains, before they found the bunker. A number of officers were treated intravenously for dehydration, and one broke his ankle, said sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said.

After long shifts, the officers appeared exhausted, their faces smeared with camouflage paint, as they rode down the mountain in sport-utility vehicles or armored carriers to be replaced by fresher teams.

SWAT officers who kept watch on the bunker through Friday night said they saw lights going on and off, and they believed its occupant had everything necessary to remain inside for a long time — including a generator, food, gas mask, bullet-resistant vest and many guns.

Photographs found in Keller's home after the killings gave authorities an idea of where it was; in one picture that they enhanced, detectives could make out buildings in nearby North Bend. Combined with reports from alert hikers who remembered seeing his faded red pickup truck at the Rattlesnake Ridge trailhead, the sheriff's office sent experienced trackers to the area, where they found off-trail boot prints confirming their belief that he was somewhere on the ridge.

They could smell smoke from its woodstove before they found it.

Authorities pumped tear gas into the structure Friday, but it failed to flush the occupant — either because it didn't penetrate deep enough into the structure, or because the person had a gas mask.

Officers described the bunker as "amazingly fortified" and said the photos recovered from Keller's house don't do it justice, West said.

The bunker was found at about the 1,350-foot level, several hundred yards due east of a trailhead at Rattlesnake Ridge. It had several entryways and ladders.

Court documents described Keller as a loner who has a survivalist mentality and has been stockpiling supplies in the woods.

An arrest warrant issued Wednesday accuses him of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson; the home was set on fire after Keller's wife and daughter were shot.

The fire at Keller's home was stopped before the house burned down, and authorities said they found seven gasoline cans placed in different areas of the home.

The King County medical examiner has determined Kaylene Keller, 18, and her mother, Lynnettee Keller, 41, both died from gunshots to the head. Their bodies were found in their bedrooms.

Kaylene's boyfriend told detectives that Peter Keller had shown him his gun collection and several large-caliber rifles and handguns, court documents said. The boyfriend, who was not identified, said Kaylene had told him her father took long hikes on the weekends and was stockpiling supplies at a fort in the woods.

Peter Keller withdrew $6,200 from a bank last week and told one of his co-workers at a computer refurbishing store in Preston that he might not return, according to court documents.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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With the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death approaching, Leon Panetta has spoken of the nerve-wracking moments of the night of the raid by U.S. Navy SEALs.

The picture in Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's office captures the "mission accomplished" moment. 

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It shows Panetta, then the head of the CIA, and a group of U.S. commandos and others in the CIA operations center on the night of May 2 with their arms around each other — a quiet celebration just after U.S. helicopters crossed back over the border into Afghanistan. 

Not until then — 90 minutes after U.S. special operations forces had lifted off from the heavily fortified compound in Pakistan where they went in search of Osama bin Laden — was he sure they could breathe a sigh of relief. 

"We got the job done," Panetta said Friday as he recalled the long silences and the tense, heart-pounding moments before Adm. William McRaven's words finally came through loud and clear. 

"Geronimo EKIA" — the code name for bin Laden, and the signal for "enemy killed in action." 

Abbottabad - One year after Osama bin Laden

With the first anniversary of the al-Qaida leader's death approaching, Panetta spoke to reporters on his plane as he flew back from a series of meetings with defense leaders in South America. Perched on a table inside the Airstream trailer — dubbed the Silver Bullet — that serves as his office inside his C-17 transport plane, Panetta traced back through the nerve-wracking moments of that night. 

And he talked about its impact over the past year. 

"I don't think there's any question that America is safer as a result of the bin Laden operation," he said. 

While al-Qaida and its offshoots remain a threat, he said, the military and intelligence communities have learned to work better together since Sept. 11, 2001. Still, he acknowledged, there is no single, completely effective way to destroy the terror network. 

"The way this works is that the more successful we are at taking down those who represent their spiritual, ideological leadership, the greater our ability to weaken their threat to this country," he said. 

The story of the raid is well-known: The SEALs and special operations forces that flew deep into Pakistan; the wrenching moment when one of the helicopters went down in the heat, landing hard with its tail on the wall; the SEALs' assault on the house where they believed bin Laden and his wives had been living for several years; and what Panetta on Friday called the "fingernail-biting moments." 

"We knew that there were gunshots and firing, but after that we just didn't know," said Panetta, describing the nearly 20 minutes of silence after the SEALs went into the house. 

PhotoBlog: Osama bin Laden's hideout revealed

Then came confusion. McRaven, commander of the operation, told him that he thought he'd picked up the word "Geronimo." 

"The way he said it was like, you know, 'We think,'" said Panetta. "It wasn't ideal. We were still waiting." 

A few minutes later came the KIA message. Then came the long flight out of Pakistan. 

"By that time they had blown the helicopter that was down and we knew we had woken up all of Pakistan to the fact that something had happened," Panetta said with a laugh. "The concern was just exactly what were they thinking and how were they going to respond." 

The moment they crossed the border, he said, was "the moment when we finally knew the mission had been accomplished." 

Then they could embrace the victory. 

The raid created a deep fissure into the already rocky U.S.-Pakistan relations. U.S. officials, including members of Congress, were irate that the al-Qaeda leader had been able to hide — virtually in plain sight — in a Pakistani military town. Some suggested there was at least some knowledge of his hiding place. 

Pakistani leaders, meanwhile, were outraged that the U.S. had launched a military mission deep within the country's borders without alerting them, violating their sovereignty. Islamabad's military commanders were embarrassed that the U.S. was able to carry out the raid without being detected. 

The bin Laden saga has continued in Pakistan. His three wives and their families were deported early Friday to Saudi Arabia. Officials have said that the wives and as many as eight children and some grandchildren were living in the compound when it was raided. 

The anniversary has triggered security warnings for Americans in Pakistan. The U.S. Embassy said its employees would be restricted from restaurants and markets in Islamabad for the next two weeks. While there was no mention of bin Laden, the period includes the anniversary date.

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Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET: LAS VEGAS -- Using a hammer as a weapon, a "complete stranger" with no significant criminal history allegedly attacked a family in their Las Vegas home, killing a woman and her daughter, in a brutal crime that left investigators both baffled and aghast.

Bryan Clay, 22, was arrested Friday in the April 15 rape and bludgeoning deaths of 38-year-old Ignacia Martinez and 10-year-old Karla Martinez. He had no connection to the family of five, Lt. Ray Steiber said Saturday.

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"This was a complete stranger killing a mother and daughter and attacking the father," Steiber told The Associated Press. "I've been doing this (police work) 24 years, and you don't see cases like this. I can't even put this into words."

Nothing was taken from the blood-spattered house, and investigators were unsure of the motive for the attack.

"There's no rhyme or reason to why (it happened)," he said, adding Clay doesn't have a "significant" criminal history.

Clay also was booked in the beating and rape of a 50-year-old woman in the same west Las Vegas neighborhood hours before the slayings.

Steiber said he didn't know why two boys, 9 and 4, were spared in the home invasion attack that came to light when the older boy told school officials next day that his mother and sister were dead at home.

Arturo Martinez, 39, the husband and father, was critically injured in the attack and remains hospitalized with head injuries. He has been unable to talk to investigators. Both the mother and daughter were sexually assaulted, Steiber said.'

In the earlier attack, the 50-year-old woman was walking near an intersection when an assailant forced her into a nearby desert area and violently sexually assaulted her April 15. "(She was) chased, beaten and raped," Steiber said.

DNA results linked Clay to both attacks, investigators said. A baseball cap left behind by the woman's attacker turned out to be a key piece of evidence, KLAS-TV reported.

Authorities found the bodies of the girl and the mother in separate bedrooms. The two boys remained in the home for at least 24 hours with the bodies and their severely injured father, Steiber said.

Police were notified about the case the next day after the 9-year-old boy came to school and informed a counselor that his mom and sister were dead. The boys were placed in protective custody with the Clark County Department of Family Services after the attack, and police declined to say where they now are.

"They're safe and OK," Steiber said.

Police made the case a top priority as up to 60 investigators were involved. "Our goal was to get this guy into custody, and we weren't going to stop until we did," Steiber said.

Steiber said he didn't know if Clay had a lawyer, and attempts to reach a police spokeswoman were unsuccessful.

Clay was being held without bail Saturday pending an initial court appearance. He was booked on various charges, including murder, battery with a deadly weapon and sexual assault.

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Updated at 4:33 p.m. ET: TITUSVILLE, Fla. – A 22-month-old boy has died after being run over by an SUV driven by the wife of a police chief in the parking lot of a Florida high school during a softball game.

Police said Pamela Bodenheimer, 51, was backing up from a parking spot Friday night at Titusville High School when she drove over Brady Hutto. She told police she did not see the boy. No charges have been filed.

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Bodenheimer's daughter and the boy's sister are teammates on the Auburndale Bloodhounds softball team. The game was postponed after the tragedy.

"We have been in close contact with that family," said Lake Alfred police Chief Art Bodenheimer. "We are a close-knit community that has been impacted greatly. We ask for support and prayers."

A witness tried to perform CPR on the boy before he was taken by ambulance to a hospital, police said. He was pronounced dead soon after arrival.

"It appears to be a tragic accident," said Titusville Police Maj. Todd Hutchinson. "She was absolutely devastated," he said of Pamela Bodenheimer.

Her sport utility vehicle was confiscated for the investigation. There is a potential for a charge of improper backing, Hutchinson said. That will not be determined until the investigation is completed, which could take up to a week.

There was no indication that alcohol was involved, he said.

Most of the crowd had gathered for the softball game when Brady's mother went to get something out of her car in the parking lot. The boy wandered away, and Brady's mother noticed the SUV backing up.

"She witnessed the car backing over her child," Hutchinson said. "She yelled to get the driver's attention, but by then it was too late. The most serious injury was trauma to the chest."

Local coverage from WESH.com in Orlando

There was an outpouring of support on Twitter from members of the community, including players on the softball team who said they were praying for the boy's family.

Jennifer Sansone wrote: "He was the most adorable, sweetest, loving, & charismatic little boy & will be dearly missed. He was loved by many3."

The driver wasn't cited, and police said there was no indication that alcohol was involved. Her SUV was confiscated for the investigation.

Police say a witness tried to perform CPR on the boy, who was taken by ambulance to a Titusville hospital. He was pronounced dead soon after arrival.

The boy's mother was nearby, outside her vehicle when the incident happened.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Heavy drinking and bringing foreign nationals back to hotel rooms on trips abroad is now banned by the U.S. Secret Service in the wake of a growing scandal over allegations that agents consorted with prostitutes in Colombia this month.

The new rules of conduct issued on Friday also ban visits to "non-reputable establishments," presumably including strip clubs, and say staff must obey U.S. laws even while abroad. A copy was provided to Reuters by the Secret Service, and a spokesman said they were effective immediately.

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The new rules were issued two weeks after the scandal erupted over allegations that Secret Service agents and military personnel brought prostitutes to their hotels during a night of drinking and carousing in the Colombian city of Cartagena, just before President Barack Obama arrived for a summit.

The Secret Service this week began looking into allegations of similar misbehavior before a 2011 presidential trip to El Salvador, a report that would appear to contradict official government arguments that the Colombian episode must have been an aberration.

The rules were issued as the agency sought to close a chapter in its worst case of alleged misconduct in decades, which embarrassed the United States and overshadowed Obama's participation in the Summit of the Americas.

The new rules issued on Friday say that "foreign nationals, excluding hotel staff and official counterparts, are prohibited in your hotel room."

Alcohol limits
"Alcohol may only be consumed in moderate amounts while off-duty on a TDY (temporary duty) assignment, and alcohol use is prohibited within 10 hours of reporting or duty," the rules say.

Furthermore, alcohol may not be consumed at all at the hotel where the person being protected by the Secret Service is staying once that person has arrived.

From now on, a member of the agency's professional responsibility section will accompany staff who travel on "car planes," and give staff ethics briefings before they leave, the rules say. The employees in Cartagena were support personnel who came over on the plane to Colombia that brought the president's armored vehicles. 

Secret Service investigates new report of debauchery

Twelve Secret Service employees were implicated in the Colombia matter. Eight have left the agency, three were cleared of serious misconduct and one is being stripped of his security clearance. Twelve members of the military were also implicated and that investigation is ongoing.

House may send investigators to Colombia
Earlier, a senior lawmaker said his committee is considering sending investigators to Colombia in the coming weeks to gather information in an expanded probe of the misconduct.

Representative Peter King, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said his staff will move to a "full-scale" investigation after it receives answers to 50 questions the panel posed to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan about this month's incident.

Neither King nor another senior House lawmaker, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, said they saw a weakening of support for Sullivan in Congress despite reports of other Secret Service misbehavior.

"In my estimation, he is doing all he can do. ... Rumors are coming in and he's following each one of them. He's looking into every single rumor that comes in," Cummings told Reuters.

Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which also is looking into the matter, said Sullivan plans to have 100 top Secret Service employees participate in a "very intense" ethics course next week.

'Morality cop'
"I'm not into being a morality cop, but what happened in Colombia was clearly wrong because it put security at risk," King said outside the House chamber, adding that his committee "probably in the next few weeks" would send investigators to Colombia as part of the probe.

The Secret Service so far has not been able to validate the allegations about El Salvador made in a report Thursday by KIRO-TV news in Seattle, King said. The station is part of the CBS-Cox media group.

"They have gone through the trip file, and spoke with some of the people who were on the trip, the supervisors, and so far it's nothing," King said. "And they are talking to the reporter and trying to find out who his sources are."

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Updated at 11:45 p.m. ET: NORTH BEND, Wash. -- King County sheriff and Seattle police SWAT teams are pumping more tear gas into an underground bunker in the Rattlesnake Ridge wilderness area where they believe Peter Keller, the prime suspect in the murders of his wife and daughter, remains holed up.

Police are using robotic cameras to take a sneak peak in the bunker in preparation for what could be a long, tense standoff through the night.

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Tactical teams fired the first round of tear gas into the bunker near the Rattlesnake Ridge trail around 2 p.m. Friday, but Keller did not surrender.  Police said the bunker appears to be well fortified and Keller is likely wearing a gas mask.

See the original story on KING5.com

Police have seen and heard movement in the bunker and believe Keller is inside. They also believe he is heavily armed and likely has the bunker booby-trapped.

"Our tactical teams are using extreme caution," said King County Sheriff Steve Strachan.

Sheriff’s detectives found clues to the whereabouts of the Cascade Mountains foothills bunker after investigators processed the crime scene at the burned house where his wife and daughter were murdered. They found photos of the bunker on a computer hard drive and discs.

"It apparently was intended to be burned in the fire, but they were not burned because the fire department got there too quick and the neighbors called too quickly, and in fact the hard drives were preserved," said Strachan.

Based on the photos, detectives believe Keller has been building the elaborate bunker for at least 8 years. The bunker is fortified by logs, dirt and is very well hidden. SWAT teams at the scene believe the bunker could have multiple levels.

From one photo, investigators were able to discern power lines and signficant landmarks in the background.  That information, along with tips from people who had seen Keller’s red truck at the western Rattlesnake Ridge Trailhead over the past year, helped investigators narrow their search.

Early Friday morning, Seattle Police SWAT teams began a systematic search on foot of the Rattlesnake Ridge Trailhead. They spotted fresh deep footprints about 800 yards away from the trail, which indicated someone had been carrying a heavy load recently.

"This isn't a hole in the ground. This is a built-up structure, but hidden. It took some time to find it," said Strachan. "In fact, our tactical team smelled the wood smoke coming before they actually saw it."

From there, SWAT teams deployed tear gas, but Keller remained inside, likely armed with gas masks and weaponry.  Strachan said he's never seen anything quite like it.

"If this was a training exercise, it would be almost be too much, be almost not realistic because there were so many challenges, between an individual who committed two murders, who had Kevlar vests, scope rifles, a fortified bunker in the woods," said Strachan.

Police believe Keller murdered his wife, Lynnettee, and his 18-year-old daughter, Kaylene, in their home near North Bend last Sunday. Kaylene and Lynette were shot in the head and their home was set on fire.

"Based on the facts that we have right now, we believe that violent death came to Lynnettee and Kaylene unexpectedly in their home from a family member who had been familiar and trusted," Strachan said at a news conference.

Probable cause documents reveal Keller said he was "preparing for the end of the world" and had often carried supplies to a "fort in the woods." Court documents also reveal that:

• The fire was set by placing a plastic gas can into a skillet on the stove and turning on the burner
• Keller was known to have a gun collection and body armor
• All the weapons were missing from the home
• Keller had withdrawn $6,200 in cash from his bank account on Friday
• The safe in the home was left open, as was the door of a shed
• Keller purchased a new laptop computer within the last two weeks
• Keller's mountain bike is missing

Family members said Keller, considered a capable and well-equipped outdoorsman, has a "survivalist mentality" and a "distaste for authority." Authorities consider Keller armed and extremely dangerous.

Investigators have posted posters at many trailheads near North Bend in the I-90 corridor, asking if anyone has spotted Keller's truck, but also warning people to not go near him and instead immediately call 911.

Rattlesnake Ridge Trailhead is closed to the public, but other trails remained open, said West.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — Lawyers in the John Edwards trial wrangled with the judge over whether to allow testimony about a sex tape of the former presidential candidate and allegations of an affair involving Andrew Young, the ex-aide who ended a week on the stand Friday, and a witness.

Edwards is accused of directing a conspiracy to use about $1 million in campaign donors' payments to help hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008. He denies knowing about the money and has pleaded not guilty.

Full trial coverage

Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

Young testified this week that he deposited the payments from an elderly heiress and a wealthy Texas lawyer who served as Edwards' campaign finance chairman into personal accounts controlled by him and his wife. The money was used to help build a $1.5 million North Carolina home; Young, who is testifying under an immunity agreement, said Friday that he didn't pay income taxes on the money, considering it a "gift."

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Prosecutors objected Friday when a lawyer for Edwards asked Young whether had threatened to release a "private video" to expose Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles instructed Edwards lawyer Abbe Lowell to continue his cross-examination of Young without mentioning the tape.

After conferring with the judge, Lowell said he would wait to potentially discuss the tape when the defense presents its case.

Hunter sued Young in state court two years ago over ownership of the sex tape and other personal items in Young's possession. That civil suit was settled earlier this year with an agreement to destroy all copies of the tape, although there are suggestions in court documents that federal investigators may still have a copy.

Defense attorneys had no intention of showing the tape to the jury but wanted to mention it in the context of the allegation that Young threatened to out Edwards' affair with Hunter in an August 2008 conversation on a dead-end road near Edwards' Chapel Hill estate.

Young was the first witness called by prosecutors and earlier this week testified about the conversation. Young had said Edwards was acting nervous and that "at one point I feared for my life," he testified Friday.

Confronted with copies of his amended tax returns for 2007 and 2008, Young acknowledged that he had used about $1 million of $1.2 million in the payments from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon and lawyer Fred Baron for himself.

He said that he didn't pay taxes on the money because he believed the income to be "gifts," not taxable income.

The distinction is at the heart of the defense strategy that the secret payments were "gifts from friends" intended to hide Edwards' affair from his cancer-stricken wife, not campaign contributions intended to influence the outcome of the election.

Hunter is expected to testify later in the trial, also with an immunity agreement.

Young also acknowledged contacting three witnesses listed for the defense before the trial occurred, telling Lowell he had called two men and a woman.

Eagles told the defense it could mention that Young had called the witnesses in opening statements, but she barred Edwards' lawyers from characterizing the contact as "witness tampering" or mentioning that Young had had a "one-night stand" with one of the witnesses.

On Friday, Lowell asked Young what he had asked the woman when he called.

"It was for a personal issue, sir," Young replied.

Asked how the woman described her potential testimony, Young replied that she said she would tell the truth. That prompted Lowell to ask Young if he responded by telling her that the truth would "mess up everything."

Young said he couldn't recall whether he said that.

Young's wife, Cheri, took the stand late Friday and will return Monday.

Lowell on Friday quoted a passage from Young's 2010 tell-all book about the Edwards' scandal, in which Young acknowledged being paid "hundreds of thousands of dollars" through publishing and movie deals.

Young wrote that he was concerned that "anyone looking in from the outside would consider what I did and conclude that I must have been a cold-blooded schemer who was motivated by ego or greed or the desire for power."

"Mr. Young, isn't that exactly what you are?" Lowell asked.

"No, sir," Young replied.

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The federal government will not pursue charges against a U.S. border patrol agent who shot and killed a 15-year-old Mexican national two years ago, the Justice Department said on Friday.

The shooting of Sergio Hernandez Guereca took place in a spillway of the Rio Grande along the border on June 7, 2010, as the agent was dodging rocks thrown at him while he was trying to detain a suspected smuggler.

The death of Hernandez Guereca, who was on the Mexico side of the border when he was shot, sparked protest from rights groups and the family filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

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The Mexican government condemned the shooting and called for a swift response. Mexican President Felipe Calderon called on Washington "to investigate fully what happened and punish those responsible."

Investigators say they interviewed more than 25 witnesses, analyzed videos, listened to 911 recordings and law enforcement radio traffic, reviewed border patrol agent training and use-of-force materials, and reviewed the officer's history.

'Reasonable use of force'
They concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the Customs and Border Patrol agent for homicide. The agent has never been identified.

Instead, a Justice Department statement says, what they found indicated "that the agent's actions constituted a reasonable use of force or would constitute an act of self-defense in response to the threat created by a group of smugglers hurling rocks at the agent and his detainee."

They also lacked evidence to prove that "the CBP agent acted willfully and with the deliberate and specific intent to do something the law forbids," which would be required to prove a civil rights violation. The Justice Department said that an "accident, mistake, misperception, negligence and bad judgment are not sufficient to establish a federal criminal civil rights violation."

"The U.S. government regrets the loss of life in this matter," the Justice Department said.

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GLOUCESTER, Va. -- The Department of Motor Vehicles asked a Gloucester man to return his license plates seven years after he first registered the tags. According to the DMV, the message on them is inappropriate.

Rick Sanders said he chose "FOSAMA" because he is passionate about supporting the nation's military. Sanders bought his first vanity plate after the September 11 terrorist attacks. That plate read "H8UBIN."

But, it's his latest plates that are causing all the commotion.

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 "It can be meant as 'Fight Osama, forget Osama,' whatever you want it to be," said Sanders.

Two months before his current plates are set to expire, Sanders received a letter from the DMV saying he has 30 days to return them. The letter said the DMV made an error issuing him plates that violate its guidelines. The DMV explained the plates are "profane, obscene or vulgar in nature."

Replacement plates came with the letter, and in an ironic twist, Sanders told WAVY.com he finds the message on them offensive. They read "6668UP." Sanders read the message as 'the devil ate you up.'

 "I definitely want another plate," said Sanders. "I don't appreciate the plate they sent me. I would like the chance to pick my own."

'Inappropriate'
A spokesperson for the DMV said the number and letter combinations are chosen at random. The DMV is willing to work with Sanders until he is satisfied.

The DMV said judging by how long it's been since Sanders registered, the change is probably provoked by a complaint.

The DMV physically reviews vanity plates, and sometimes runs them through software that reads the message both forward and backward.

If additional review is needed, the plates will go before a committee of 12 people, chosen from within the DMV. The committee members are all different ages and come from different backgrounds in the agency.

Read original story, watch video on WAVY.com

Here are the conditions that deem a plate "inappropriate." If the combination of characters carries, in any way, a connotation that may be reasonably seen by a person viewing the plate as:

• Profane, obscene, or vulgar in nature
• Sexually explicit or graphic
• Excretory related
• Used to describe intimate body parts or genitals
• Used to describe drugs, drug culture, or drug use
• Used to condone or encourage violence
• Used to describe illegal activities or illegal substances
• Socially, racially, or ethnically offensive or disparaging

A spokesperson said 13 percent of the 7.5 million vehicles in the Commonwealth have vanity plates. In  2011, the state made $9 million from vanity plate purchases, according to a DMV spokesperson.

The DMV committee will only review putting '666' on license plates if they receive a significant number of consumer complaints.

What do you think? Vote in the poll we pasted on the WAVY TV 10 Facebook page.

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A woman engaged in a bitter battle with Wells Fargo over foreclosure of her southern California home was arrested late Thursday at the tony residence of the bank's CFO in San Marino, where she and dozens of supporters were protesting.

Ana Casas Wilson, 49, who lives in the working-class neighborhood of South Gate, faces eviction from her childhood home. Like many people who have been through foreclosure, she says that the bank wrongly denied her a loan modification and moved to foreclose even when she was able to catch up.

In an action that is becoming increasingly common, Wilson has taken her complaint public and her protest directly to bank officials. In Thursday’s protest, with at least 80 supporters, she attempted to deliver her mortgage payment directly to Tim Sloan, the top financial officer for Wells Fargo. In addition to protesting the foreclosure, the group was challenging an ordinance created last year making it harder to picket in this wealthy enclave.

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"People are deciding to take this stand that was previously a little unthinkable," said Peter Kuhns, with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which helped organize this and other "home defense" actions. "They are risking arrest, refusing to leave, getting their families involved and putting themselves out there."

Many people are shedding the sense of shame of foreclosure, which kept most people silent in the past, even if they didn’t think they had done anything wrong, he said.

"More and more people are standing up and willing to go public because there is no other remedy and putting public pressure on the bank," said Kuhns.

Wells Fargo did not respond directly to Wilson's situation, but provided a statement in response to queries about her.

"Wells Fargo works very hard to keep customers in their homes whenever possible," said the statement, sent by Jennifer Langan in corporate communications. "We review our customers for a variety of modification options, from HAMP, HARP, HAFA and through our own proprietary programs. Despite these efforts, if a customer is 16 or more months delinquent, it can be extremely difficult to recover." 

Some homeowners who have taken this high-profile approach in their fight against foreclosure, enlisting the support of protesters from the Occupy movement and housing activists, are finding success at it.

Occupy movement targets Wells Fargo shareholder meeting

The case of Rose Gudiel, reported by msnbc.com last year, is one example. In October, Gudiel was hunkered down in her home, surrounded by supporters, awaiting eviction. But at the eleventh hour, lender Fanny Mae canceled the eviction notice and offered her a loan modification, enabling her to keep the home.

Many similar foreclosure battles are under way nationwide, with support from a movement called Occupy our Homes.

Wilson, who has cerebral palsy, lives with her husband, who works as a school janitor, her teen son and her mother, who helps care for her. She has worked as a court reporter, and as an advocate for the disabled.

The trouble covering the mortgage started when she was treated for breast cancer in 2009, and her husband’s income declined as a result of cutting hours to help take care of her. They got behind, but their income stabilized several months later. By then, the bank had moved into foreclosure proceedings and would not accept her payments or discuss ways to catch up, Kuhns said.

The implication in Wells Fargo's statement that Wilson was 16 months behind is misleading, says Kuhns, because for most of that time, the bank refused to take her payments.

Thursday’s protest was on Wilson’s behalf, and it was more generally challenging a San Marino ordinance adopted last November – just a few weeks after a protest of predatory lending practices on Sloan’s front lawn. That demonstration, involving about 100 protesters, was peaceful and ended without incident, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Under the statute, picketers must keep 150 feet from a target residence, or 75 feet from the curb adjacent to the home, whichever is farther.

"The purpose of the ordinance is not to reduce picketing, but to protect the people who are the victims of picketing," police Chief John Schaefer told the Times when it was passed. "We're a prime target. We have a lot of people who fit the profile to be the victim of this type of crime."

Video from the protest posted by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune shows protesters carrying signs and chanting "Wells Fargo, shame on you!" in the street in front of the home.

Wilson is shown crossing a police cordon in her wheelchair to deliver a check to Sloan. She knocks several times, but gets no answer.

"He's embarrassed," Wilson tells the Tribune. "That's why he won't come out. ... He knows that what they are doing is wrong."

Wilson was arrested under the anti-picketing statute, after protesters and police faced off for about two hours. She was released about an hour later and is expected to appear in court in early June.

"The leaders of Wells Fargo and the members of their family should be afforded the right to feel safe in their private residence and we encourage all organizations choosing to demonstrate at private residences to abide by the law for the safety of the general public," the Wells Fargo statement said.

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In Japan, it was a monstrous earthquake and tsunami that brought down the Fukushima nuclear plant. In California, it’s a tiny, jellyfish-like sea creature called salp that’s causing problems at the Diablo Canyon atomic plant.

An invasion of salp has prompted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to temporarily shut down a nuclear reactor at Diablo Canyon, in Avila Beach, San Luisa Obispo County, on the central California coast.

A giant swarm of the transluscent barrel-shaped organisms this week clogged intake screens that are used to keep marine life out of the seawater that is used as a coolant for the nuclear plant.

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On Wednesday, PG&E officials reduced power output at the Unit 2 reactor, then decided to shut it down altogether “until conditions improve at the intake structure.” The plant’s other reactor, Unit 1, had already been shut down earlier in the week for a planned refueling and maintenance outage.

“Safety being the number one priority, there was such an influx of salp and you need ocean water to cool the reactors,” PG&E spokesman Tom Cuddy told msnbc.com on Friday. “At that point we made a conservative decision to safely shut down the unit.”

PG&E owns and operates the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, whose two reactors together produce approximately 2,300 net megawatts of electricity – enough to serve nearly 3 million northern and central California homes.

Cuddy said he wasn’t sure when the Unit 1 reactor would come back online.

“We’ll turn the unit on to full power when it’s safe to do so – when the salps leave,” he said. “The bottom line is we’re taking a methodical and conservative approach.”

Lara Uselding, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees reactor safety and security, said the plant is not in any danger.

“It’s not a normal operation condition, but the plant is safe and all the systems operated as designed,” she said.

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Salps are tiny, gelatinous organisms that move by contracting, thus pumping water throughout their bodies. They can reproduce and multiply quickly.

Though salps look a bit like jellyfish, they are actually more closely related to organisms that have backbones. They typically grow to 1 or 2 inches long and usually do not appear at the coast, says Larry Madin, a salp expert and research director at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

“They’re typically more of an offshore living organism," Madin says. He surmises that the swarm at Diablo may have been carried in on currents blown by wind.

But Steve Haddock, a scientist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, Calif., said salps have been blooming in high numbers along the California coast since at least December. Several sightings have been reported to JellyWatch, a website Haddock runs to track sightings of jellyfish and other marine organisms.

Other than clogging the cooling system filters of a nuclear plant, the organisms pose no danger, says Bruce Robison, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. They don’t sting, they don’t have teeth and they’re not poisonous.

Salps passively feed off tiny organic particles in the water and can reproduce sexually or asexually. “They can have their population size expand tremendously within a short period of time, which makes them very abundant. In a small space, they can take up all the space,” Robison says.

Madin said the slimy swarm at Diablo would probably go away in a few days, carried off by currents. Or, says Robison, they’ll quickly die off when their food supply runs out.

So the best bet, experts say, is for nuclear officials to just wait it out in the short term. "Long term, perhaps if their intakes were a bit deeper, it would not be a problem," Haddock said.

Despite the reactor outage, California is not expected to experience any electricity shortages because it has ample reserves, said Stephanie McCorkle, spokeswoman California ISO, which operates the state's power grid and wholesale markets.

It’s not the first time that sea creatures have interfered with nuclear plant activity.

In 2008, a swarm of jellyfish led to a sharp decrease in power generation at Diablo Canyon, according to the Los Angeles Times.  Similar jellyfish problems have cropped up at nuclear plants in the U.S., Japan, Israel and Scotland over the years, the newspaper said.

“It happens. It’s something you would expect along the coast,” Uselding said.

Madin said this is the first time he’s heard of salps interfering with the operation of a nuclear plant.

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