ATLANTA -- Most of the victims of last year's epic tornado outbreak in Alabama had at least one thing in common: They knew the storm was coming.

A year after the onslaught of dozens of twisters killed at least 250 people in Alabama and more elsewhere in the South, federal researchers are completing a study of who died and where they were when it happened. Among the conclusions so far: Nearly half of the people who died had been advised to take shelter. Indeed, most of them did.

But many of the tornadoes were so fierce that few structures were able to withstand them.

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These were catastrophic winds that could destroy pretty much anything in its path," Cindy Chiu, an epidemic intelligence service officer, said in reporting preliminary findings this month at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference in Atlanta.

Unlike in other tornado outbreaks, the largest group of people who died were in single-family houses — not mobile homes — the CDC analysis found.

The April 27, 2011, outbreak involved 62 tornadoes that stretched along ground-hugging tracks that covered more than 1,000 miles. Fatalities were reported from central Alabama to far north Alabama.

While many who heard the warnings sought shelter, others took their chances and lost.

The American Red Cross shares disaster data with the CDC, including what was gathered in extensive interviews with families of the deceased.

Relatives of an 80-year-old woman from Lawrence County "notified her of impending storm — asked her to go to storm shelter next door. She refused, said if her time to go, she would."

The wife of a 35-year-old man from Franklin County heard the warning on TV, according to another vignette provided by Chiu. "She and sons went to basement of neighbors. He stayed in the home," the vignette states. "Tornado struck (at) 330pm and he was found 30 mins later near a tree. He was badly injured and died in the hospital."

The CDC has been examining reports of 255 deaths, including a few for which no Alabama death certificate has been found yet. It's possible a few people were injured in Alabama but died in hospitals in nearby states, Chiu said.

For 120 of those 255, the CDC determined whether the victims knew of the coming tornadoes ahead of time. And 105 were warned.

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Of those, 70 took some kind of protective action, like covering themselves or going to what they thought was a safer location or room — including 45 who sought proper shelter, like a basement or interior room on the lowest floor possible. Nineteen were in bathrooms, 10 in basements, 10 in bedrooms and 10 in hallways and smaller numbers in other rooms.

The average age of those who died was 50, and a third of the deaths were people 65 and older, the CDC found.

Being elderly is considered one of the greatest risk factors for death and injury in a tornado. Older people may be less mobile and have more difficulty getting to shelter. They may be frail, and more likely to die from an injury that might not kill a healthier and younger person.

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A Marine’s wife who was killed and left on the side of the road in California texted a friend for help on the night of her disappearance, a deputy district attorney said in court.

Investigators say that three days after seeking a divorce from her husband deployed in Afghanistan, 22-year-old Brittany Killgore of San Diego disappeared after a night out with another Marine.

On Thursday that Marine, Luis Ray Perez, 45, was charged with first-degree murder in Killgore’s death.

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Prosecutors outlined their version of Killgore's last hours alive.

"She sent a text saying, 'Help,'" Patrick Espinoza, a deputy district attorney in San Diego County, said in court. "She was missing from that point on."

Killgore's message to an unidentified friend was disclosed at an arraignment for Perez, who pleaded not guilty to murder.

The brief hearing offered the most details yet of what authorities believe happened to Killgore after she disappeared on April 13.

Espinoza said investigators found Killgore's blood and a weapon in Perez's car. He also said Perez told investigators he dropped off Killgore in downtown San Diego's bustling Gaslamp District, but investigators concluded that he lied about his whereabouts and stayed in the town of Fallbrook, about 60 miles north, where Killgore lived.

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Authorities said Killgore's body was found in brush near Lake Skinner on April 17, only hours after paramedics were called to a San Diego motel and found another woman with self-inflicted cuts and a suicide note.

Jessica Lynn Lopez, 25, was the woman found at the motel, authorities said. She also has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The prosecutor said Lopez and Perez once lived together but didn't indicate when or where. Lopez currently lives a mile from Killgore's second-floor apartment overlooking Camp Pendleton.

Espinoza didn't disclose a possible motive or other details about the death during the hearing, and he later declined to elaborate on the investigation.

It's still unclear how Killgore died and whether the unspecified weapon authorities said they found in Perez's car was used in the killing.

Perez's attorney, Jeff Reichert, said Lopez's suicide note shows "very, very clearly" that she killed Killgore and that his client was not involved.

"The court has information in its hands that exonerates my client on this charge," Reichert said.

However, details of the note were not released, and Superior Court Judge Kimberlee Lagotta ordered it to be sealed.

Perez, a Marine for 16 years who is married and has lived in the San Diego area for 10 years, has also pleaded not guilty to stealing an assault weapon. The prosecutor said Perez stole the weapon and a motorcycle from a trailer at Camp Pendleton.

The death has shaken many at Camp Pendleton and neighboring Fallbrook, known for its rolling hills and avocado orchards. The Killgores lived in one of several apartment complexes on Ammunition Road that advertise special rates for military members and is close to a base entrance.

Killgore recently separated from Marine Lance Cpl. Cory Killgore, who was in Afghanistan when she disappeared. She cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce filing but gave no other details.

Cory Killgore made his first public comments about his wife's death in a statement released Thursday by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department:

"My wife Brittany, was beautiful beyond words and her murder has left me devastated. My duty to her memory is now to ensure her good reputation remains intact, and help law enforcement and prosecutors secure justice for the person, or persons who took her away from me.

Brittany's death cannot be in vain – at this point, I don't know how to use this tragedy for good, but others have found their way and I hope to do the same. Brittany meant too much to do any less. As my father‐in‐law said, please honor my wife's name and don't succumb to salacious gossip and rumor. Brittany was a beautiful, good person, who did not deserve this."

The judge set bail at $3 million each for Perez and Lopez and scheduled a preliminary hearing for May 30. If convicted, they could face maximum sentences of life in prison.

This report includes information from NBCLosAngeles.com, NBCSanDiego.com and The Associated Press.

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WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration wants to trademark the term "GI Bill" in an effort to shield veterans and military families being swindled or misled by schools that target their federal education benefits.

President Barack Obama signed a wide-ranging order on Friday that partially addresses growing complaints about fraudulent marketing and recruiting practices aimed at military families eligible for federal education loans under the GI Bill.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama addressed troops at the Fort Stewart Army post in Georgia, where Obama signed the executive order mandating several new education protections for military service members.

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There is little the federal government can do to shut down diploma mills, but the new protections would make it harder for post-secondary and technical schools to misrepresent themselves to military students.

The main target of the White House action is for-profit colleges and universities that market heavily to military families because of the easy availability of federal loan money under the GI Bill.

Some post-secondary schools target current and former military service members using deceptive military-themed websites that appear to be government-run or connected to the GI Bill benefit system, administration officials said.

'Know Before You Owe'
The financial regulation overhaul that Obama signed in 2010 included the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with specific authority to protect members of the military from predatory financial practices.

The law set up an Office of Service Member Affairs to help members of the military and their families "make better informed decisions regarding consumer financial products and services."

Bills pending in Congress, largely backed by Democrats and unlikely to become law soon, would do many of the same things Obama was ordering Friday.

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Obama's order will also set a new gauge that potential students can use to calculate how much a school will really cost in tuition and fees. Schools are asked to voluntarily participate in the "Know Before You Owe" system this school year and would be required to do so next year.

Federal money, most of it through the financial aid students receive, accounts for up to 90 percent of for-profit colleges' revenue — even more if veterans attend the school on the GI Bill.

Some schools spend a quarter or more of their revenue on recruiting, far more than traditional colleges. In some cases, recruiting expenses approach what these institutions spend on instruction.

A recent Senate report on 15 large, publicly traded for-profit education companies said they got 86 percent of their revenue from taxpayers and have spent a combined $3.7 billion annually on marketing and recruiting.

Military veterans are particularly attractive recruiting targets because they come with generous federal tuition support and also don't count toward a limit called the "90/10" rule, which requires colleges to get at least 10 percent of their revenue from nonfederal sources.

Student Veterans of America, a leading campus veterans group, applauded the White House announcement, saying the executive order would help stop "deceptive and misleading" practices at educational institutions.

The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, which represents for-profits, said in a statement it was disappointed that Obama "decided to bypass the Congress" with an executive order.

"Career-oriented institutions proudly serve military and veteran populations, and work with congressional leaders in a bipartisan manner to address concerns about veteran education across all sectors of higher education," the lobbying group said.

Quality at for-profit colleges varies widely, and many are a good fit for students, particularly adult learners looking for flexible scheduling and specialized career training that often requires a certificate but not a degree.

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But while comparing graduation rates can be misleading for those reasons, for-profit schools on average have lower success rates than traditional colleges on a variety of measures. The Senate report found that almost 2 million students withdrew from large for-profit colleges over a three-year period. Among those who enrolled at 10 large chains in 2008-2009, 54 percent had quit by the summer of 2010.

Default rate
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the Education Department put the default rate on federal student loans for students at for-profit colleges at 15 percent, compared with 7.2 percent at public nonprofit universities and 4.6 percent at private nonprofit colleges.

The industry points out that's partly because its schools tend to serve lower-income students. But difficulties transferring credits and having credentials from for-profit colleges rewarded in the job market also play a role.

The Obamas were to be joined in Georgia by Holly Petraeus, the assistant director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focused on economic security for military families. She's the wife of David Petraeus, the four-star general and current CIA director.

Unlike many recent trips in which Obama has visited states that are central to his re-election, his visit to Georgia — a solidly Republican state — has no obvious political benefit.

The president has, however, focused on initiatives aimed at attracting young voters, and many of the military service members who would benefit from Friday's action fall into that category.

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Sarah Smiley knew her husband’s deployment was going to be hard.

Dustin, a Navy pilot, would be gone in the Middle East for 13 months.

Smiley, 35, thought about the coming loneliness. When Dustin had previously deployed in 2001 and 2003, the couple’s first two sons were young, and Sarah contended only with her own sadness. Now Ford, Owen and Lindell, ages 11, 9 and 5, know what it means to miss their father.

Dustin’s absence would always be there, but Smiley knew that one daily activity would remind them more than others. “I knew from past deployments that dinner time is the worst,” she said. “It’s lonely because you don’t have all of your family. I remember those being sad times.”

Smiley, who is an author and syndicated columnist, came up with a novel idea: instead of face her husband’s empty chair at dinnertime, she decided to invite a guest to sit in his place once a week. And with that began "Dinner with the Smileys," a 52-week affair that will end when Dustin returns home in December.

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The inaugural dinner at the family’s Bangor, Maine, home kicked off on Jan. 3 with a distinguished guest, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Ford invited her in a letter that read in part, “My mom is letting us invite one person to dinner each week our dad is gone. We are wondering if you would like to come to dinner some time this year (which is stretching it quite a bit but my mom insisted that we be flexible).”

Collins showed up to dinner with a plate of homemade brownies. 

The senator has been the highest-profile guest to date, though Smiley says the White House contacted her earlier this year. Ford invited both the president and vice president. The Smileys would bend the rules of having only two guests, he said, and make room for the president’s wife and daughters if they wanted to come.

In May, retired Major League Baseball player Matt Stairs, who lives in Maine, will have dinner with the family. Smiley has invited the author Stephen King, a Maine native, to dine as well. The conductor who performed the Star Wars score live with the Boston Pops will join the family this Sunday, April 29.

Most of the guests, however, have not been famous. The Smileys have hosted the boys’ teachers, their minister and his wife, anchors from a local TV station, and, separately, Bangor’s mayor and chief of police.

Dinner No. 17, held on April 22, left the greatest impression on Smiley so far. The family was scheduled to eat with an elderly neighbor who had recently moved into an assisted living facility, but she passed away before the dinner. The boys decided they wanted to spend the evening at the facility and they ate with their friend’s neighbors, including a resident who has memory problems. The woman was accompanied by her husband, though she didn’t recall that they were married.

“That dinner was very rich because we were with a lot of people who were missing someone,” Smiley told msnbc.com. “It helps the kids to see there are a lot of people who are lonely.”

As of January 2011, there were 1.9 million children with a parent serving in the military; 220,000 of those children had a deployed parent.

Dr. Catherine Mogil, director of training at the FOCUS project, which provides family resiliency training at military installations across the U.S. and in Japan, says Smiley’s unique idea can help the family cope with Dustin’s deployment.

Mogil says Smiley's dinnertime ritual is a way of helping the boys keep track of time, which can be particularly hard for younger children. Marking the passage of time in weekly increments can be more manageable than ticking days off the calendar, Mogil says. She's known families that have created similar rituals, including a weekly ice cream outing. At home, the family will post a paper cut-out of an ice cream cone and add another scoop after each outing. At the end of the deployment, the returning parent puts a cherry on top.

The weekly dinner also strengthens the bonds the Smiley boys have with caring adults, Mogil says. “Making those connections is one of the big protective resilience factors. The more people that she invites that are in their community, she’s really strengthening their network.”

Though military families may feel adjusted to deployments, Commander Wanda Finch, a family and community program manager at the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, says the strains of an absent parent are many. The constant worrying about a loved one's well-being can lead to anxiety, stress and depression. Families can cope with those feelings in a number of ways, including maintaining rituals and keeping in close contact with the deployed parent. That might include e-mailing and Skyping as well as leaving signed cards for birthdays or recordings of bedtime stories.

“It's an example of how family rituals can be embellished to provide ongoing support a parent may need to tap into in the absence of their spouse,” Finch said of the Smiley's dinner project.

For Sarah, that support has come in multiple forms. During her husband's previous deployments, she often felt isolated. Now she looks forward to the adult company once a week. When her basement recently flooded, some of the recent dinner guests rallied to help Smiley clean up the mess.

The dinners also give Dustin comfort. “It makes him feel his absence is more present,” Smiley said. “They know what our family is going through.”

The Smileys, who are documenting their dinners on Facebook, will hold a 53rd dinner when Dustin returns in December. She also plans to reunite all of her dinner guests at a gathering next year.

“I started to realize that [Dustin] was missing a lot,” Smiley said.  “Once he gets settled, I’m going to have a big party here and invite all of our guests to come and meet him.”

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow.

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File this under "Excuses Traffic Cops Don't Hear Every Day."

A Chicago-area man who allegedly was clocked driving 111 mph through a 45 mph forest preserve told a patrol officer he was in a hurry to “try to go have sex with a girl he liked.”

Zachary P. Ramirez, 21, of Naperville, which lies about 20 miles west of downtown Chicago, was caught speeding through Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve last Saturday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

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Police Sgt. Gregg Bell told the paper an officer saw Ramirez's 1994 Honda Prelude run a red light, then run a stop sign. Another officer pulled him over and asked him why he was traveling so fast.

For sex, he said.

The officer’s radar unit initially clocked the car traveling at 104 mph “and finally locked at 111 (mph),” Bell told the Sun-Times.

Disobeyed light and stop sign
Police also allegedly found 0.2 grams of marijuana in the car. Ramirez faces charges of speeding 40 mph or more over the limit, according to the paper. He also was charged with drug possession, disobeying a traffic light and disobeying a stop sign.

Ramirez is free on $200 bond, the Sun-Times reported. His arraignment date is pending.

See the story at NBCChicago.com.

The prosecution in the second-degree murder case against George Zimmerman asked a Florida judge Friday to raise Zimmerman's bond in light of recent revelations that a website for his defense raised more than $200,000.

Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester said he wants to know more about the money before he decides whether to adjust the bond. The judge said he will make a decision at a later date.

Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara revealed Thursday night that his client's website had raised about $204,000 in donations, adding that the money has been placed in an account that can't be accessed directly by Zimmerman or his family.

"He asked me what to do with his PayPal accounts, and I asked him what he was talking about," O'Mara told CNN in an interview on Thursday. "He said those were the accounts that had the money from the website he had. And there was about ... $204,000 that had come in to date."

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O'Mara told the judge about the money at a hearing Friday. The hearing was previously scheduled to discuss whether Zimmerman's file should be made public. Zimmerman is accused of second-degree murder in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.

O'Mara told the judge the money is currently in a trust fund that he controls and Zimmerman cannot access.

The website, which was created before Zimmerman turned himself in, has been shut down by O'Mara, who told the court he was not aware of the money it had raised when he spoke at Zimmerman's bond hearing last week. The site included pictures, quotes and a page asking for donations via PayPal.

Zimmerman, 28, the former neighborhood watch volunteer, was released early Monday from a Florida county jail on $150,000 bail. His family put up 10 percent to secure his release.

Martin's family was distressed to hear Zimmerman had raised so much money, considering the bond was set by the judge based on his family's limited wealth, their attorney said.

"They tried to portray themselves as indigent that they did not have any money," Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said, according to CNN.

"We think that the court should revoke his bond immediately and he should be held accountable for misleading the court," he added.

At the bond hearing last week, Zimmerman's wife told the court she did not know how much money the website had collected in donations, adding that her brother-in-law helped set it up. She said the family is “trying to scrape up anything that we possibly can.”

According to CNN, O'Mara said Zimmerman's defense costs could reach $1 million.

"You can really go through a lot of money on a case like this, with the intensity of it," he said.

At the hearing Friday, the judge said he wouldn't place a gag order on Zimmerman's attorney, denying prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda's request. The prosecutor had complained to the court that O'Mara had been talking about the facts of the case to the media.

Zimmerman says Martin attacked him and he shot in self-defense. He was not charged for more than six weeks, sparking national protests. Martin was black; Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Cheers and songs broke out at the Philadelphia transit agency offices on Thursday when 48 employees learned they had literally hit the jackpot - the $172.7 million Powerball lottery prize.

Divided equally, the group of administrative employees of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority would each get more than $2.2 million, minus taxes, in a one-time cash payment. Philadelphia's NBC10.com reported that a co-worker said the group had decided on the lump sum.

"I know that when one of the winners came to the particular floor that I'm on, there were songs of 'For he's a jolly good fellow,' and a lot of clapping and hugs," said Jerri Williams, director of media relations for the agency.

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The winners all worked at the Center City headquarters of the authority, and most worked on the 11th floor, NBC10.com reported. They bought the winning ticket at one of the city's biggest commuter train stations across the street from their office. The owner of the newsstand inside The Gallery that sold the ticket got a $100,000 bonus check Thursday from the Pennsylvania Lottery.

They range from secretaries to managers.

More on this story at Philadelphia's NBC10.com

Williams said word of the win started spreading shortly after 2 p.m. when one of the members of the lottery pool checked the numbers.

"It was very exciting," Williams said. "We're very happy for them. It couldn't have been a nicer group of people."

For now, it's also an anonymous group of people. Williams said the pool members do not want their names revealed.

A Powerball spokeswoman confirmed there was only one winning ticket, but said the identity of the winner had not yet been verified. The Powerball website said the winning ticket was from Pennsylvania.

"They've worked together for years," co-worker Jeff Coppedge, who knows some of the winners, told NBC10's Denise Nakano. "They were on the same floor or if someone got a different job on another floor, the core members kept pooling their money together."

Coppedge says they deserved to hit the jackpot. "Yeah, they do need a break. They're right at retirement or they've been hanging on."

"I hear one of the guys has three kids just coming out of college," Williams said. "And he definitely said it's nice to know the tuition bills will be paid. He was pretty happy about that."

This artcle includes reporting from Philadelphia's NBC10.com and Reuters.

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The United States and Afghanistan have agreed to "give safe passage" to representatives of the Afghan Taliban to help them to enter future peace talks, officials announced Friday.

It may  represent a significant step forward towards the resumption of peace talks that were suspended in Qatar last month, and  comes just weeks ahead of a NATO summit in Chicago on the future of Afghanistan. 

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Speaking at a joint press conference with U.S. Special Envoy Marc Grossman and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani,  Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Ludin said: "Time is short, peace is urgent."

New blow to US-Afghan links? Congressional delegation meets Karzai foes

"We need to find and encourage and create safe passage for peace talks," with the Afghan Taliban, he added.

His comments came after the three countries held their sixth meeting aimed at political reconciliation in Afghanistan.

A U.S. Embassy official confirmed to NBC News that the countries have agreed to allow and facilitate travel of the Afghan militants to participate in any future talks. The official said details of how it would work in practice have not been announced.

U.S. sees Taliban talks suspension as tactical move

Jilani announced the establishment of two new groups, one to represent the efforts of the three countries at the United Nations, and another responsible for "safe passage." "Safe passage will be to help bring Afghan Taliban in to peace talks," he told NBC News.

Talks were suspended last month amid a string of public setbacks that have scandalized and angered Afghans, notably U.S. soldiers' burning of copies of the Koran and the killing of 16 Afghan villagers for which a U.S. soldier is in custody.

Dr Gareth Price, senior research fellow at Britain's Chatham House think thank, told msnbc.com the move could be seen as a "confidence-building measure".

"The US has made clear it will remain in Afghanistan in some form - that's the stick, if you like, so maybe this is the carrot," he said.

On Tuesday, White House sources told Reuters that President Barack Obama's administration may hand over a Taliban detainee at Guantanamo Bay prison directly to the Afghan government in order to help revive peace talks.

As foreign forces prepare to exit Afghanistan, the White House had hoped to lay the groundwork for peace talks by sending five Taliban prisoners, some seen as among the most threatening detainees at Guantanamo, to Qatar to rejoin other Taliban members opening a political office there. 

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While that plan has not been scotched entirely, several sources familiar with preliminary discussions within the U.S. government said the United States may instead, as an initial gesture meant to revive diplomacy, send one of those detainees directly to Afghan government custody. 

The sources identified the detainee as a former Taliban regional governor named Khairullah Khairkhwa, who is seen by American officials as less dangerous than other senior Taliban detainees now held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba. 

Karzai slams NATO over 18-hour Kabul gunbattle

More than a year ago, the White House launched what began as a secretive diplomatic bid to coax the Taliban, the Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until 2001, into peace talks. That campaign has become central to U.S. strategy as officials conclude the Afghan war will not end on the battlefield alone. 

It remains far from clear whether the Taliban would embrace sharing power in Afghanistan and whether the militants are cohesive enough to agree on a joint diplomatic approach. 

But Washington's strategy, before the summit in Chicago, is to build on what officials see as military progress against the Taliban, and encouraging signs from the Afghan and Pakistani governments, to heap pressure on the Islamist group. 

The Chicago summit is expected to further detail plans for the withdrawal of most of NATO's 130,000 troops there by the end of 2014 and set the course for future ties between Afghanistan and the West.

U.S. efforts to broker the talks were dealt a blow last month when the Taliban suspended its participation and appeared to reject even minimal restrictions for prisoner transfer. 

'Deplorable': U.S. defense chief condemns urinating Marines video

Meanwhile, President Obama has reviewed potential threats to the United States before next week's anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, but there is no concrete evidence al-Qaida is plotting any revenge attacks, the White House said on Thursday. 

U.S. Navy SEALs shot bin Laden last year in a raid on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Pakistan before dawn on May 2 local time, which was May 1 in the United States. The killing is touted by the Obama administration as one of its top national security accomplishments. 

Osama bin Laden's widow, kids leave Pakistan

"At this time, we have no credible information that terrorist organizations, including al-Qaida, are plotting attacks in the United States to coincide with the anniversary of bin Laden's death," White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Thursday. 

That assessment was echoed in an FBI and Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin issued on Wednesday to state and local law enforcement agencies. 

The bulletin said U.S. agencies "have not detected signs of homeland plotting by these groups in the intervening months." 

Abbottabad: One year after bin Laden

Despite the lack of evidence of a threat, the bulletin cautioned that al-Qaida "probably would view a homeland attack on this anniversary as a symbolic victory that would help reassert the group's global relevance following the major leadership losses and operation setbacks it has suffered over the past year." 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON - A nearly three-year-long investigation by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats is expected to find there is little evidence the harsh "enhanced interrogation techniques" the CIA used on high-value prisoners produced counter-terrorism breakthroughs.

People familiar with the inquiry said committee investigators, who have been poring over records from the administration of President George W. Bush, believe they do not substantiate claims by some Bush supporters that the harsh interrogations led to counter-terrorism coups.

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The backers of such techniques, which include "water-boarding," sleep deprivation and other practices critics call torture, maintain they have led to the disruption of major terror plots and the capture of al-Qaida leaders.

One official said investigators found "no evidence" such enhanced interrogations played "any significant role" in the years-long intelligence operations which led to the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden last May by U.S. Navy SEALs.

'Tortured' Gitmo prisoner seeks release of secret videos

The debate over the effectiveness of enhanced interrogations, which human rights advocates condemn as torture, is resurfacing in part because of a new book by a former top CIA official.

In the book, "Hard Measures," due to be published on Monday, the former chief of CIA clandestine operations Jose Rodriguez defends the use of interrogation practices including water-boarding, which involves pouring water on a subject's face, which is covered with a cloth, to simulate drowning.

"We made some al-Qaida terrorists with American blood on their hands uncomfortable for a few days," Rodriguez says in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" that will air on Sunday. "I am very secure in what we did and am very confident that what we did saved American lives."

Expert: War on terror at 'critical' point as al-Qaida looks to regroup in Africa

For nearly three years, the Senate intelligence committee's majority Democrats have been conducting what is described as the first systematic investigation of the effectiveness of such extreme interrogation techniques.

The CIA gave the committee access to millions of pages of written records charting daily operations of the interrogation program, including graphic descriptions of how and when controversial techniques were employed.

Sources agreed to discuss the matter on condition of anonymity because the report has not been finalized.

The committee members' objective is to conduct a methodical assessment of whether enhanced interrogation techniques led to genuine intelligence breakthroughs or whether they produced more false leads than good ones.

Report: Bin Laden told followers to kill Obama, Petraeus

U.S. intelligence officials have acknowledged that while the harshest elements of the interrogation program, including water-boarding and other tactics which cause severe physical stress, were in use, the CIA never carried out a scientific assessment of the program's effectiveness.

The Bush Administration only used water-boarding on three captured suspects. One of them was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Other coercive techniques included sleep deprivation, making people crouch or stretch in stressful positions and slamming detainees against a flexible wall.

The CIA started backing away from such techniques in 2004. Obama banned them shortly after taking office.

One source cautioned there could still be lengthy delays before any information or conclusions from the Senate committee's report are made public.

Hidden in plain sight: Inside a secret CIA prison

One reason the inquiry has taken so long is that in 2009, committee Republicans withdrew their participation, saying the panel would be unable to interview witnesses to ensure documentary material was reported in appropriate context due to ongoing criminal investigations.

Current and former U.S. officials have said one key source for information about the existence of the al-Qaida "courier" who ultimately led U.S. intelligence to bin Laden was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

KSM, as he was known to U.S. officials, was subjected to water-boarding 183 times, the U.S. government has acknowledged.

Officials said, however, that it was not until some time after he was water-boarded that KSM told interrogators about the courier's existence. Therefore a direct link between the physically coercive techniques and critical information is unproven, Bush administration critics say.

Supporters of the CIA program, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, have portrayed it as a necessary, if distasteful, step that may have stopped extremist plots and saved lives. 

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

SANFORD, Fla. -- City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. acknowledges that he put pressure last week on Police Chief Bill Lee to step down over the Trayvon Martin case, though he stopped short of saying whether he threatened to fire Lee.

During a discussion with NBC News on Wednesday, Bonaparte said he held frank conversations with Lee.

“I did suggest,” Bonaparte said, “for the community to move forward, that he consider resigning.”

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Asked whether the suggestion constituted an ultimatum, Bonaparte demurred.

"The chief of police, as all of the city department directors, serves at the pleasure of the city manager and can be fired at any time for no cause,” Bonaparte said, adding that he and Lee “came to an agreement.”

Pressed if the agreement required Lee to hand in a resignation letter or be fired, Bonaparte said,  “I think the chief is a very intelligent man.”

The remarks offer some insight into the back-and-forth between Bonaparte and Lee during the days before Monday’s dramatic meeting at City Hall – when Sanford City Commissioners voted 3 to 2 to reject Lee’s resignation.

The vote spiked Bonaparte's effort to place a new leader at the police department this week.

Monday's swing vote came from Mayor Jeff Triplett, who only weeks ago joined the majority in a no-confidence vote in the embattled chief. (Following that March 22 vote, Lee announced he would step down temporarily; he remains on paid leave.)

Lee has been under fire since deciding not to make an arrest in the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American teenager, inside a gated community in Sanford. The shooting has set off a national discussion about race, and a controversial self-defense law in Florida.

Monday, Triplett said he wished to wait for an internal review of Lee’s investigation into Martin’s death before accepting the chief's resignation.

Bonaparte said Wednesday he had also been in favor of a review.

“Before making any judgments about Chief Lee,” Bonaparte said, “I wanted an independent assessment from a law enforcement entity that could tell me, did the Sanford police do things they shouldn’t have done?  Did they not do things that they should have done?”

But, Bonaparte added, he concluded that investigators would be slowed by the state’s case against George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman accused of second-degree murder in Martin’s death.

“To do a thorough and complete investigation into the Sanford Police Department’s actions,” Bonaparte said, “they will need to look at some of the evidence that the Special Prosecutor has.  That is not public.”

Wednesday’s discussion also offered some insight into Bonaparte himself, who arrived here in September, after leaving a job as city manager in Topeka, Kansas.

Bonaparte said he had been told homelessness would be the key issue here in Sanford.  Now he finds himself caught in the middle of a tempest, receiving angry letters from Lee’s supporters and detractors.

Turning to his computer, Bonaparte said his inbox has 1,643 unopened emails. 

“I can share with you some of the emails and letters that I received,” he said, “very colorful, some of them.”

Bonaparte said he blames the hot atmosphere over Martin’s death in part on visits from national media outlets and activist groups.

“In Kansas – as well as sometimes Florida – we have tornadoes,” Bonaparte said.

“I could see where a tornado could go over a community, completely devastate the community; the tornado keeps going.  It disappears and dissipates.  The community is still destroyed,” he continued.

But Bonaparte, who is African American, also credits the attention his small city has received with forcing an uncomfortable discussion.

“I don't think that it made race relations bad in Sanford,” he said of the case.

“It uncovered how bad they may have been,” he said, adding, “so now let's deal with that.”

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Lise Sievers blames her recent trip to Africa for causing her Delta Air Lines plane to be grounded and quarantined at Chicago's Midway airport Thursday afternoon.

"I was visiting Uganda ... where I'm adopting two special needs kids. So we stayed at a hotel the other night and I think it left friends on my body. My son, who's four and a half, had pustules on him," Sievers said after deplaning Flight 3163.

The flight originated from Detroit, but passengers were kept on the plane outside Gate A7 for more than two hours after landing. From the sky, NBC Chicago's helicopter could see the aircraft on the ground, surrounded by medical and emergency personnel. 

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"Since the passenger had been in Africa, a family member had reported concerns that the rash might be monkeypox," the Centers for Disease Control said in a statement obtained by NBC News. "The passenger was evaluated by Chicago Emergency Medical Services. Medical staff at CDC and the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) reviewed the case and, based on the patient's symptoms and photographs of the rash, it does not appear that the signs and symptoms are consistent with a monkeypox infection." 

"A couple of people came on board, went to one of the passengers, took photographs of her and of the sores that apparently existed. I couldn't tell from where I was sitting what those were," one passenger, David Grober, told NBC Chicago.

Read the original report at NBCChicago.com.

Another passenger on the plane posted a photo to Twitter showing an official wearing a face mask.

"Still in quarantine. They say it's not serious," Kayla Maree Sanders wrote in one Tweet.

Grober said the passengers were later given the all-clear, a fact later confirmed by The Centers for Disease Control in a statement:

"Passenger with rash illness has been examined, photos sent to CDC for analysis and based on info gathered has been released along with all other passengers."

The CDC added that "appropriate follow up" with Sievers was to come.

"I have to say, Chicago Police Department, everybody just responded very well and all the passengers were great," Sievers said.

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Arizona lawmakers appear close to sending to Gov. Jan Brewer a tea party-backed bill that proponents say would stop a United Nations takeover conspiracy but that critics claim could end state and cities’ pollution-fighting efforts and even dismantle the state unemployment office.

A final legislative vote is expected Monday on a bill that would outlaw government support of any of the 27 principles contained in the 1992 United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, also sometimes referred to as Agenda 21.

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Senate Bill 1507 was passed by the state Senate last month and received an initial House affirmation Wednesday. It is sponsored by state Sen. Judy Burges, R-Sun City West, who also sponsored a state birther bill that Brewer vetoed last year.

"The bill is designed to protect the rights of Arizona citizens and prevent encroachment on those rights by international institutions," Burges told msnbc.com in an email. "We have three branches of government and when one branch preempts the process through executive orders, the balance of power is lost in the process. It is that simple -- no more, no less."

At a March 15 hearing on the bill, Burges said an executive order signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993 started the implementation of Agenda 21 after the Senate refused to pass a treaty ratifying it.

"Any way you want to describe it, Agenda 21 is a direct attack on the middle class and working poor" through "social engineering of our citizens" in "every aspect" of their lives," she told the hearing. 

But House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, has a different view.

“It’s the most poorly crafted bill in this state,” Campbell told msnbc.com. “It’s so broad and overreaching, we’re not sure what it could impact.”

Among the U.N. declaration’s non-binding principles are calls for sustainable development, environmental protection, eradicating poverty, eliminating unsustainable production and consumption patterns, economic growth and the participation of women in government decisions.

“We wouldn’t be able to use CFL light bulbs in state buildings because that would be considered energy efficiency,” Campbell said.

Campbell also said that the state’s Economic Security Department, which handles unemployment and welfare benefits, could be outlawed because it has to do with eradicating poverty.

Also, Arizona universities have sustainability programs that could be banned if the bill becomes law, Campbell warned.

Arizona State University has a School of Sustainability, Northern Arizona University offers a master's in sustainable communities, and the University of Arizona has an environment and sustainability portal.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Brewer, who last spring vetoed Burges' bill to require presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship, typically does not comment on legislation until it reaches her desk, her spokesperson told msnbc.com Thursday.

About the Rio declaration, SB1507 says “the United Nations has enlisted the support of numerous independent, shadow organizations to surreptitiously implement this agenda around the world.”

Rep. Terri Proud, R-Tucson, told supporters in an email that the U.N. declaration “will take away our rights as Americans by allowing the United Nations to mandate laws on our soil,” the AzCapitolTimes.com reported. “It’s very real and it is happening.”

The Times also reported that during House debate Wednesday, Rep. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, said the declaration is connected to the “occult” of sustainability.

"The tea party and conspiracy theorists run the state now, Campbell told msnbc.com.

See video from the March 15 House Judiciary committee meeting on SB1507 here.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. — John Edwards' defense lawyer on Thursday picked apart ex-aide Andrew Young's story that he was asked to use campaign money to conceal Edwards' affair with a mistress, accusing him of making up stories about the former presidential contender to make money off of the scandal.

Full trial coverage
Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

Andrew Young took witness stand for a fourth straight day at Edwards' campaign finance fraud trial. The star prosecution witness is key to the government's case that while campaigning for the White House in 2008, Edwards directed a scheme to use nearly $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy donors to conceal an affair with his pregnant mistress.

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Edwards has pleaded not guilty to six criminal counts and faces up to 30 years behind bars if convicted. The defense argued in opening statements that Young spent most of the money at issue in the case to build a $1.5 million house for his family, not to buy the silence of Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter.

The defense sought to undermine Young's credibility and paint him as a pathological liar.

Defense lawyer Abbe Lowell pointed out inconsistencies with Young's account of the scandal at trial this week and in multiple other accounts, including grand jury testimony and his 2010 tell-all book about Edwards.

Lowell asked Young whether he first learned Hunter was pregnant in May 2007, as his book says, in June 2007, as he testified, or in early July, a date backed by phone records and Hunter's medical records.

The timeline issues could challenge the accounts of conversations Young said he had with Edwards in a car discussing whom to ask for money to help take care of Hunter and discussing Hunter's pregnancy.

Young said he couldn't recall the exact date for either event.

Lowell also challenged Young on which amount of secret money a wealthy heiress said she would provide to help make Edwards president — $1.2 million, as he testified this week, or $900,000 and $925,000, figures he had previously given.

Young said the number he provided this week is the correct one.

Young had falsely claimed paternity of Edwards' daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter, while Edwards was campaigning for president. Edwards acknowledged two years later that he had fathered the child.

As Lowell's detailed questioning continued, some jurors appeared distracted, and even U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles grew impatient.

"I'm not quite following," the judge told Lowell after he asked Young a question about whose idea it was for Young to claim paternity of Hunter's child. "We're about to beat a dead horse here."

She warned the attorney she might cut off his questions if they weren't relevant to the criminal charges facing Edwards.

"You're going to get to the money, right?" she asked Lowell.

Young was expected to remain on the stand all day Thursday. His wife, Cheri Young, could take the stand Friday.

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Navy has seized nearly 5,000 pounds of cocaine from drug-running "fast boats" off the coast of Panama, NBC News has learned. Drug enforcement officials estimate the street value to be more than $360 million.

The illicit drugs were recovered on Friday during Operation Martillo (Hammer), an ongoing drug enforcement operation comprised of US, Central American and South American countries.

A US Customs and Border Protection P-3 surveillance aircraft spotted two fast boats loaded with what appeared to be a large amount of illicit drugs about 25 miles off the east coast of Panama in the Caribbean. As two Panamanian military helicopters gave chase, the drug smugglers tossed their cargo into the sea.

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The suspects escaped but the USS Elfrod, a U.S. Navy frigate patrolling the area, recovered 89 bales of cocaine weighing 4,840 pounds.

 

It's estimated that 80 percent of the cocaine sold in the US is smuggled via the Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

Jim Miklaszewski is NBC News' chief Pentagon correspondent and Courtney Kube is NBC News' Pentagon producer.

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Law enforcers in Charlotte, N.C., are looking for the writer of a threatening letter sent to regional mosques detailing ways that an anti-Islam "network" would make life miserable for Muslims, and warning that the writer would not hesitate to kill them if they tried to retaliate.

"On face value it's really a threatening letter. It’s like they took a page from the Klan’s playbook," said Jibril Hough, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, which received the four-paragraph letter early last week. "Who knows if this person is part of a greater network, a clandestine conspiracy or just someone who has an active imagination?"

The letter claims to represent a network of people in business, government and schools who plan to make life difficult for Muslims by denying them jobs, loans, medical attention and other services.

---

The writer also warned Muslims not to retaliate: "I have no problems killing Muslims legally. So if you try anything, consider yourselves warned," the letter says.

Hough said the mosque filed a police report when the letter was first received early last week. He followed up by meeting with the FBI on Monday, and then by reaching out to the local media because he felt it had to be taken seriously.

NBC Charlotte affiliate WCNC report on the letter

The mosque sometimes receives ranting hate email from people — often sparked by news events, he said. "But this was different."

Hough said the FBI was already investigating because identical letters were received by other Islamic centers in the state, including the Islamic Center of Raleigh.

The FBI would not confirm it was investigating the letters, in line with Department of Justice policy.

"We are aware of the situation," said Shelley Lynch, public affairs officer for the FBI field office in Charlotte. She added: "Everything about the letter is not as it appears."

The letter was signed with a woman’s name, but an area woman with that name denied having any knowledge of the letter and is working with police in their investigation, according to a report by WSOC TV in Charlotte.

Msnbc.com is not identifying the woman in light of uncertainty about her involvement.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Dept. did not respond to multiple calls from msnbc.com for comment and records relating to this case.

"We are hoping the authorities will get behind it and find out the motive," said Hough. "We just want the authorities to look at the threat and give it the attention it deserves."

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Jennifer Tyrrell and her 7-year-old son have had many rewarding experiences with the Boy Scouts of America, but their participation in the national organization came to an end because she is gay, and the group does not allow open or avowed homosexuals in their membership.

Tyrrell learned the news on April 10. The loss has been devastating.

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“We were like a family, so in essence … we lost our scouting family, but they also lost two members of their scouting family,” the former Tiger Cubs den leader from Bridgeport, Ohio, told msnbc.com, at points breaking down into tears.

“The best time in our lives we’ve had in the last year, it’s gone … because we can’t be scouts any more. I can’t stop crying,” she later added.

Tyrrell, a 32-year-old stay at home mother of four, said she agreed to become the den master on the day she signed up her son, Cruz Burns, for the local troop, last year. She had concerns about the Boy Scouts' policy against homosexuals, but a Cubmaster said that – locally -- they wouldn’t have problem.

“He said they would stand, you know, hand in hand with us and stand behind us all the way. Well, actually, that's been true,” she said. “I've never had a problem.”

Boy Scouts spokesman Deron Smith said Tyrrell was removed from the program for being in violation of the national policy regarding homosexuals.

“This policy was understood by her and her fellow volunteers, but not followed, upon her registering in the program,” he wrote in an email to msnbc.com.

Tyrrell said she would still be at home, crying on the couch, if her friends hadn’t encouraged her to hold a protest in town against her dismissal and start a campaign online to seek changes to the Boy Scouts policy.

That petition has garnered more than 170,000 signatures

The Boy Scouts’ policy became a focus of the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, when the justices sided with the organization in a lawsuit involving a former Assistant Scoutmaster who was gay, citing the protections of the First Amendment.

“Scouting, and the majority of parents it serves, does not believe it is the right forum for children to become aware of the issue of sexual orientation, or engage in discussions about being gay. Rather, such complex matters should be discussed with parents, caregivers, or spiritual advisers, at the appropriate time and in the right setting,” Smith said. “We fully understand and appreciate that not everyone will agree with any one position or policy.”

But Tyrrell said sexual orientation wasn’t a topic until her dismissal. The children just knew that Cruz had two moms, but there was no further discussion about sexuality.

She also questioned the timing of the revoking of her membership, claiming that as the recently-appointed treasurer, she was trying to iron out some financial discrepancies – and was going to formally make her queries at a meeting the day she was removed.

“She did raise question about the local unit’s finances, however her removal from the program was solely for being in violation of national policy,” Smith wrote. 

Tyrrell said she will continue to push for changes at the Boy Scouts and called on them to take “the high road” and change their policy to include “all Americans.”

“… because we’re just people,” she said. “We’re just gay people who love their kids.”