A Houston-area whiz kid is the new champion of 2012 National Geographic Bee after correctly answering the question: "Name the Bavarian city located on the Danube River that was a legislative seat of the Holy Roman Empire from 1663 to 1806."

Rahul Nagvekar’s answer: Regensburg.

The 14-year-old eighth-grader from Quail Middle School in Missouri City, Texas, won the grand prize, including a $25,000 college scholarship and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

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“My parents have helped me tremendously and everyone -- my family, my teachers, my friends, all the students at the school -- have been so encouraging and supportive,” Nagvekar told msnbc.com on Thursday. “I could not have done this without them.”

Nagvekar admits he was a little nervous during the competition.

“I knew that if I remained calm and focused and listened to the questions I would do well,” Nagvekar said. “I was nervous, but relaxed.”

After four rounds of intense tie-breaker questions, Nagvekar finally ousted Vansh Jain, a 13-year-old bee veteran from northwestern Wisconsin, to win the coveted prize, according to NBC News.

Jain, an eighth-grader at Minocqua-Hazelhurst-Lake Tomahawk Elementary School in Minocqua, Wis., had been in the finals the past three years. Jain's second-place finish earned him a $15,000 college scholarship.

“I saw him on TV in the finals last year. I admired him for being so well-versed and looked forward to competing with him,” Nagvekar said.

Nagvekar said he will crack open more books, maps and National Geographic publications to prepare for more contests. Nagvekar has a chance to represent the U.S. at the world championship in Russia in 2013.

But first things first, he said. He wanted to chat a little more with some of his competitors during a dinner on Thursday evening, hosted by National Geographic staff in Washington, D.C.

He described his peers as "very nice, very welcoming."

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Varun Mahadevan, a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Prince of Peace Christian School in Fremont, near San Francisco, won third place and a $10,000 scholarship, according to National Geographic.

Alex Trebek of “Jeopardy!” hosted the event, which will be televised on the National Geographic Channel Thursday at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET/PT.

This is the third time in four years that a student from Texas has won the National Geographic Bee, according to National Geographic. Last year's winner was Tine Valencic of Fort Worth. The 2009 winner was Eric Yang from The Colony, Texas, according to the National Geographic.

Millions of students from thousands of schools took part in the 2012 National Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google.

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Updated at 4:49 p.m. ET: The jury in the campaign finance corruption trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards signaled Thursday that it may not be near a verdict.

As they broke for lunch on their fifth day of deliberations in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, N.C., jurors asked Judge Catherine Eagles for 20 more exhibits to produced for review. 

Most of the requested exhibits relate to money provided by the late Fred Baron, the finance chief of Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign, that was used to pay for hotel rooms, private jets and other transportation expenses rung up as campaign officials moved Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, around the country in an attempt to conceal their affair from the public.

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The new request was so expansive that Eagles asked jurors whether it would simply be quicker to have all of the trial's exhibits — more than 500 documents — sent to the jury room. The foreman replied, "Sounds like a good idea," and Eagles agreed to provide all of them.

The jury headed home for the day without reaching a verdict Thursday afternoon. Deliberations resume Friday morning.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina who was the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, is charged with six felony counts of accepting about $1 million in illegal and unreported campaign donations from Baron and billionaire heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon at a time when federal campaign donations were capped at $2,300.

• Full trial coverage on msnbc.com
• Full transcripts of closing arguments
• Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

Hampton Dellinger, a legal analyst for NBC news and msnbc.com, said the request made it clear that there's "no verdict in sight." 

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The four-week trial established that the Federal Election Commission — which cleared the contributions in its audit of Edwards' campaign — and the Justice Department were unable to agree on whether the donations from Mellon and Baron constituted campaign contributions subject to regulation under a 1971 election law. And the "jury can't yet, either," Dellinger said.

As the deliberations have stretched on, scores of reporters and camera crews outside the courthouse have taken to speculating on the significance of even minor clues.

Wednesday, one reporter was overheard asking whether it meant anything that three of the jurors had shown up wearing orange. 

And after Edwards showed up Thursday wearing what appeared to be the same green tie he's been wearing all week, a reporter asked him whether it was his "lucky tie."

Edwards responded, "I'm not saying."

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There's a hunter out there with a $10,000 bull's-eye on his back. That's the reward being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of whoever shot dead a grizzly bear and her cub in northern Idaho.

Grizzlies are on the Endangered Species Act list and thus may not be hunted in the Lower 48. An estimated 40-50 grizzlies live in the region, Jason Holm, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, told msnbc.com, so killing two is a significant number.

It wasn't clear why the grizzlies were shot, given that the carcasses were still there. Officials would not elaborate on whether any body parts were taken.

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"We can't reveal details pertinent to the investigation, including specifics on the carcass condition," Holm said. 

A black bear hunting season is open in Idaho, raising the possibility that someone mistook the grizzlies, also known as brown bears, for black bears.

While federal and state officials investigate, several private groups stepped up with the reward. Holm said they preferred to remain anonymous.

The two bears appeared to have been dead a few days when found May 18.

The mama grizzly was discovered by a hiker in a clear-cut area on Hall Mountain, east of the Kootenai River valley and northwest of U.S. 95. A subsequent search of the area turned up her dead cub. 

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Anyone with tips is encouraged to call: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 509-928-6050; the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at 208-769-1414; or the Idaho Citizens Against Poaching at 1-800-632-5999. Callers may remain anonymous.  

Anyone convicted of killing wildlife protected under the Endangered Species Act faces a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Holm, for his part, hoped that the substantial reward would produce some quick results.

"I trust the shooter is sleeping poorly tonight, knowing his softball teammates, drinking buddies and family members are currently weighing whether they appreciate him or the ability to receive $10,000 anonymously more," he said. "I hope the reward and the truly callous nature of the crime persuade someone to do the right thing."

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A missing father and his two teenage sons were found dead early Thursday in a large manure pit in Maryland, police said.

Glen W. Nolt, 48, Kelvin R. Nolt, 18, and Cleason S. Nolt, 14, all of Peach Bottom, Pa., were reported missing just before 8 p.m. on Wednesday, according to officials. 

The father and his two sons were last seen at about 2 p.m. at a dairy farm in Kennedyville, Md., where they worked daily, NBCWashington.com reported.

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NBC station WGAL of Lancaster, Pa., reported that Maryland State police said that when the victims did not return home to Pennsylvania to milk Wednesday evening, family members were concerned and drove to the farm in Maryland, about 55 miles away. A tractor, still running, and the victim's pickup truck were found parked beside the 2-million-gallon manure septic pond, where the three were thought to have been working, the police said. 

Just before 8 p.m. Wednesday, emergency personnel were called. Vaccum trucks from a nearby farm were called in to remove manure from the pit.

The three may have been working with an auger at the manure pit, Maryland State Police told WGAL. The victims worked at the farm daily, pumping liquid manure through large augers that sprayed the manure onto the ground for drying before being spread on other farm fields, they said.

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The manure pit is 150 by 300 feet and is 20 feet deep with steep sloping sides, the state police said.

The body of the first victim was found submerged in the pit at about 1:15 a.m. Thursday, the others at 4 a.m. and 5:45 a.m., WGAL reported.

Investigators said they are unsure how all the victims became submerged in the manure pit but there was no evidence of foul play.

This article includes reporting from NBC station WGAL in Lancaster, Pa., and NBCWashington.com.

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- A year before he shot Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman criticized Sanford, Fla., police as lazy, saying at a public forum that he saw “disgusting” behavior by officers on ride-alongs.

He also contended the department covered up the beating of a black homeless man by the son of a white officer.

"I would just like to state that the law is written in black and white," Zimmerman said during a 90-second statement to city commissioners at a community forum. "It should not and cannot be enforced in the gray for those that are in the thin blue line."

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The forum took place on Jan. 8, 2011, days after a video of the beating went viral on the Internet and then-Sanford Police Chief Brian Tooley was forced to retire. Tooley's department faced criticism for dragging its feet in arresting Justin Collison, the son of a police lieutenant, in the beating.

The Miami Herald obtained a clip of a recording of the meeting and first reported details from the community forum Wednesday. The Associated Press also obtained a copy of the tape and reported details.

Zimmerman's public comments could be important because Martin’s parents and supporters contend the neighborhood watch volunteer singled Martin out because he was black. Zimmerman has a Peruvian mother and a white father. His supporters have said he is not racist.

Miami Herald: Listen to Zimmerman's January 2011 comments at community forum

At the community forum, Zimmerman said he witnessed "disgusting" behavior by officers when he was part of a ride-along program.

“The officer showed me his favorite hiding spots for taking naps, explained to me that he doesn’t carry a long gun in his vehicle because, in his words, ‘anything that requires a long gun requires a lot of paperwork, and you’re going to find me as far away from it.’

“He took two lunch breaks and attended a going-away party for one of his fellow officers.”

Zimmerman also said Tooley should be denied a pension.

“I would like to know what actions the commission is taking to repeal Mr. Tooley’s pension. I am not asking you to repeal his pension. I believe he has already forfeited his pension by his illegal cover-up, corruption and what happened in his department.”

Report: 4 Martin shooting witnesses change story

Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s lawyer in the Martin shooting, said his client was concerned about fairness.

“I think he was upset with the cops, because they treated the homeless guy poorly and treated Collison very well,” O’Mara told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “At the [community] meeting, he was like, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ ”

Sanford Interim Police Chief Richard Myers said in a statement Wednesday it would be “inappropriate” to draw any conclusions from Zimmerman’s January 2011 comments at the forum.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for shooting Martin on Feb. 26 in Sanford. The 17-year-old Martin was walking back to a townhome where he was staying when he got into a confrontation with Zimmerman, who shot him in the chest at close range.

Zimmerman, who claims the shooting was self-defense, was initially not arrested. But after protests around the country and an investigation by a state prosecutor, he was charged.

Tooley's successor, Bill Lee, temporarily resigned his post following a no-confidence vote by city commissioners.

Lee offered to resign permanently, but commissioners turned down his request. He is on paid leave.

Prosecutors handling the case against Zimmerman on Wednesday asked a judge to keep some evidence from the public, including the results of an unspecified  test police conducted on Zimmerman the day after the shooting and the identities and phone numbers of 22 witnesses.

The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this report.

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An auction house announced Thursday that it plans to donate a vial containing dried blood residue said to be from President Ronald Reagan to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation instead of selling the item.

The vial had been taken from a laboratory that tested Reagan's blood for lead in the days after he was seriously wounded by a would-be assassin in 1981. In a statement, the auction house said "we have negotiated with the consignor to arrange for the item to be withdrawn from the auction and donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, a considerable financial gesture from the consignor."

Bidding for the items on the PFC Auctions website was at $30,086 when the item was pulled, according to the company. The bid deadline was set for Thursday evening.

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Read the original report at NBCLosAngeles.com

After it was removed from the laboratory by someone who worked at the lab, the vial was obtained during a February auction in the United States. The lot description said the vial holds a "sample of President Ronald Reagan’s blood after an assassination attempt in 1981."

Officials with the Reagan Foundation said they were pleased the vial would be kept "out of  public hands." Earlier this week, the foundation's executive director called the auction a "craven act."

Reagan's family and his surgeon also criticized the proposed sale.

First story at NBCWashington.com: Vial of Ronald Reagan's blood up for sale

"We are very pleased with this outcome and wish to thank the consignor and PFC Auctions for their assistance in this matter," said John Heubusch, executive director for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

"While we contend that the removal of the vial from the hospital laboratory and the U.S. auction sale in February 2012 were not legal acts in our opinion, we are grateful to the current custodian of the vial for this generous donation to the Foundation Ensuring President Reagan’s blood remains out of public hands."

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The consignor, a collector of presidential memorabilia who asked to remain anonymous, purchased the vial for $3,550 at the February auction.

"I just don't think people should profit from it," said Joseph Maddalena, of Profile in History Auction House in LA. "I would never do it. It's kind of poor taste. Selling somebody's blood? It's a little creepy."

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It's been six weeks since two men were shot to death inside a Coast Guard communications station in Kodiak, Alaska, and investigators still are saying very little except that they don’t believe islanders are in danger.

Some residents are left to wonder if a killer is roaming their archipelago about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The FBI leads the investigation into the April 12 shooting deaths of Richard Belisle, 51, and Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins, 41.

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No one has been named a suspect or person of interest in the case, Anchorage-based FBI Special Agent Eric Gonzales told msnbc.com.

“There is an expectation of solving this double-homicide,” Gonzales said. “That’s what we’re all striving for, but I can’t give you a timeline.”

Kodiak Police Chief T.C. Kamai told msnbc.com that residents need to be patient and confident that federal authorities will solve the case and answer questions the violence raised.

"People are anxious for some sort of resolution," Kamai said.

Kodiak, a city of 6,100 on the island that is home port to 770 comercial fishing vessels, has a relatively low violent crime rate so a double-homicide is "huge," he said.

However, "the town is safe" with no uptick in crime "leading up to or subsequent to" the murders, Kamai said.    

Three times, authorities have reached out to the public for help the investigation.

On April 20, the FBI asked if anyone had seen two vehicles, a white 2002 Dodge Ram pick-up truck and a blue 2001 Honda CR-V.

Vehicles matching the descriptions belong to James and Nancy Wells of Bell Flats, a Kodiak Island town about 12 miles from downtown Kodiak, NBC station KTUU reported.

James Wells, a civilian rigger who worked alongside Belisle and Hopkins repairing antennas, told KTUU “It’s our policy not to talk to anybody.”

The FBI searched the couple’s property, KTUU said.

Gonzales said he could not comment if the cars involved belonged to Wells and his wife or if their home was searched.

KTUU said one witness told it the cars were seen at the parking lot of a Comfort Inn near the Coast Guard station. The motel’s guest list was subpoenaed by the FBI, KTUU said.

On May 2, the Coast Guard, working with the FBI, asked for volunteers to search the station beyond the crime scene.

Gonzales told msnbc.com he could not say if any items turned up by the 120 searchers had any value for the investigation.

Radio station KMXT at the time said the search did not produce any results, KTUU reported.

On May 15, the FBI asked to talk to anyone in Alaska who sold, traded, or otherwise transferred any of these .44 Magnum revolvers in the past year: Smith and Wesson Model 29, Smith and Wesson Model 629, or any Taurus model in that caliber.

Some residents around Kodiak take the investigation in stride. Others are wary.

“You’re just wondering, ‘Where are the answers? Is this guy still on the loose? Are we still safe in our home?’” Diane Descloux, a longtime Kodiak resident, told KTUU.

“You know it's a big wild place and things happen,” Kodiak resident Andrew Field told KTUU.

Follow Jim Gold at msnbc.com on Facebook here. 

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A fire that broke out Wednesday evening on a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine docked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine injured at least seven people but there were no deaths, a Navy spokesman said on Thursday.

Damage from the fire, which began shortly before 6 p.m. on the USS Miami, an attack submarine docked at the Kittery, Maine, shipyard, was limited to the forward compartment spaces, which include living as well as command and control spaces, Rear Admiral Rick Breckenridge said in a statement.

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The submarine was undergoing maintenance.

Breckenridge, who is in charge of submarines in the region, said the ship's nuclear reactor has been shut down for more than two months and remained in safe and stable condition throughout the event. There were no weapons on board in the torpedo room, he said.

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified, Breckenridge said. A full investigation is taking place.

The fire spread to spaces within the submarine that were difficult to reach, Breckenridge said, making it challenging for firefighters to battle the blaze. The fire was brought under control by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's department, along with several area fire departments. It took hours for the blaze to be extinguished.

The injured personnel included three Portsmouth Naval Shipyard firefighters, two crew members and two civilian firefighters providing support. They were either treated on scene or taken to a local medical facility. All have been released.

The submarine, whose home port is Groton, Conn., arrived at the shipyard in March. It is worth about $600 million, typically carries a crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted personnel, and is armed with Tomahawk missiles.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Federal agents have arrested four people accused of smuggling 131 illegal immigrants found at a "stash house" in south Texas, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Wednesday. 

The immigrants were also detained Tuesday after a raid at a house near Alton, Texas, about eight miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said.

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The people at the house were from Mexico and Central America, and did not require medical attention, she said. 

The Monitor newspaper, which covers the Rio Grande Valley, said Salvador Hernandez, 52, had just left his house with his elderly parents when the normally quiet neighborhood was suddenly surrounded by ICE agents.

“I have been living here for 28 years and have never seen anything like that happen,” he told the paper.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley, which straddles the southern tip of Texas along the Gulf Coast, have seen the number of so-called "stash houses" used to house illegal immigrants roughly double since October 2011, according to agency figures. 

'Welcome to Hell'
In one of the more brutal recent cases, two men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to harboring 115 immigrants -- some without food or water for days -- in a cluster of stash houses in Edinburg, Texas. 

Vicente Ortiz Soto and Marcial Salas Gardunio, both 23-year-old Mexican citizens, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harbor aliens on Wednesday in U.S. District Court, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, who represents the Southern District of Texas. 

Several of the immigrants required medical attention after authorities found dozens of them locked inside a crowded, hot, ramshackle house, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. 

One immigrant told ICE agents that Salas would greet new arrivals with "Welcome to Hell" when they arrived at the residence and threatened to beat or kill them if they did not remain quiet, court papers state.

Ortiz admitted to driving immigrants to the stash houses from the border and selling them snacks. 

Each man faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at a sentencing hearing set for July. 

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Updated at 10:53 p.m. ET: A former bodega stock clerk has been arrested for allegedly luring 6-year-old Etan Patz off a New York City street with the promise of a soda before strangling him in a development that police say solves a case that has mystified New York City for decades.

Etan (pronounced ay-tahn) vanished on his way to a school bus stop 33 years ago Friday. The case drew international attention and changed the way parents felt about letting their young children go off alone.

Police announced Thursday that Pedro Hernandez had told them he lured Etan into a bodega where he worked, near the boy's house, and attacked the child, choking him to death in the basement.

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Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said police focused on Hernandez, who now lives in Maple Shade, N.J., after the Missing Persons Squad received a tip from someone who remembered Hernandez speaking of having killed a child. Others close to Hernandez also recalled those claims, a source told NBC 4 New York.

For more on this case, visit NBCNewYork.com

Based on those interviews, police went to question Hernandez.

Kelly said Hernandez, who worked at the bodega for about a month, had not given a reason for attacking Etan and said there was "no reason at this time" to suspect the boy was sexually abused. He said it was "unlikely" that Etan's remains would ever be found and that Hernandez told them he put the boy's body in the trash.

Kelly did not answer whether Hernandez had a lawyer.

Hernandez' sister, Maria, who did not want her last name used, told NBC New York on Thursday that her heart ached over the news of her brother's arrest and said she couldn't believe it. She said Hernandez had three children of his own and came from a family of 12 that emigrated from Puerto Rico in 1973.

Mayor Bloomberg said Thursday that the disappearance of Etan "broke the hearts of millions" across the nation, especially parents, and expressed sympathy again for the boy's family.

"I certainly hope that we are one step closer to bringing them some measure of relief," he said.

Neighbors near Hernandez' house in Maple Shade, N.J., said he lived with a woman and a daughter who attends college.

"I can't believe something like that," said Dan Wollick, 71, who rents the other apartment in the home. "This guy, he doesn't seem that way."

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance had pledged to reopen the decades-old cold case when he took office in 2010. The exhaustive search for Etan was renewed several weeks ago when police dug up the basement of a handyman's workshop near where Etan disappeared. A new layer of concrete had been laid over the foundation of the basement shortly after the boy vanished.

That search yielded no new evidence.

A lawyer for the handyman, Othniel Miller, said his client is "relieved by these developments, as he was not involved in any way with Etan Patz's disappearance."

Police end search for Etan Patz remains
Investigators collect hair, paper in search for Patz

One other man had remained a longtime possible suspect: Jose Ramos, a drifter and onetime boyfriend of Etan's baby sitter. In the early 1980s, he was arrested on theft charges, and had photos of other young, blond boys in his backpack. But there was no hard evidence linking Ramos to the crime.

He is in prison in Pennsylvania on a separate case.

The boy's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads, and a lack of hard evidence.      

Police said the family had been notified of the arrest. 

Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been criminally charged with the boy's death and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found Ramos to be responsible for the child's death.

Jonathan Dienst is chief investigative correspondent for WNBC. Shimon Prokupecz is a WNBC investigative producer.

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WASHINGTON -- Two female soldiers filed suit on Wednesday to scrap the U.S. military's restrictions on women in combat, claiming the policy violated their constitutional rights.

Command Sergeant Major Jane Baldwin and Colonel Ellen Haring, both Army reservists, said policies barring them from assignments "solely on the basis of sex" violated their right to equal protectio under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

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"This limitation on plaintiffs' careers restricts their current and future earnings, their potential for promotion and advancement, and their future retirement benefits," the women said in the suit filed in U.S. District Court.

Pentagon's new rules deploy women closer to combat

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Secretary John McHugh are among the defendants. Baldwin is from Tallahassee, Florida, and Haring lives in Bristow, Virginia.

The Pentagon unveiled a new policy in February that opened up 14,000 more positions to women in the military. It still barred them from serving in infantry, armor and special-operations units whose main job is front-line combat.

NBC News: Pentagon to open more military jobs to women

Defense Department spokesman George Little declined to comment on the lawsuit. He said Panetta was "strongly committed to examining the expansion of roles for women in the U.S. military, as evidenced by the recent step of opening up thousands of more assignments to women."

Women make up about 14.5 percent of active-duty military personnel. More than 800 women have been wounded and more than 130 killed in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lawsuit said.

"The linear battlefield no longer exists," Baldwin and Haring said. They alleged that women are engaged in combat even when it is not part of their assigned roles.

From wannabe housewife to managing $822 billion military budget

Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno said last week the Army was considering letting women attend its elite Ranger School and opening up infantry and armor positions to women.

Report: Growing number of military women see combat, serve in leadership roles

More than 200 women had begun reporting to maneuver battalions and combat teams last week, he said.

The case is Baldwin et al v. Panetta et al in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-cv-00832.

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Sure, it sounds like a sci-fi movie: Alien species deep below the ocean latch onto scientists' gear, surface and cause havoc. But it could happen, scientists reported Thursday in a study that concludes those free rides can ruin ecosystems.

"I don't worry too much about deep-sea aliens taking over," lead researcher Janet Voight told msnbc.com, "but the worse-case scenario would in fact be a fundamental change in the ecosystem" if the new species brought with it a disease or parasite.

What triggered the study was the discovery of 38 deep-sea limpets, a kind of saltwater snail, inside a suction system aboard the research submarine ALVIN. They were found just after a dive in 2004 to the deep-water hydrothermal vents along the Juan de Fuca Ridge off Washington state -- and didn't seem like limpets native to the zone.

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Voight, who was the mission's chief science officer, said, "I examined the specimens, and contacted my co-authors to help me understand why these limpets were apparently collected on Juan de Fuca Ridge." 

Further research determined that the limpets were from Gorda Ridge, a deep-water site 400 miles to the south where ALVIN had been a few days before the Juan de Fuca dive.

"We realized instead that they had been collected on Gorda Ridge and 'stowed away'," said Voight, a biologist with the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Most surprising was that the limpets had survived the pressure change that comes from rising 8,900 feet in a submersible. 

"Our small limpets and their associates accrued somewhere in the suction sampler, perhaps in the corrugated hose, where enough water pooled to keep them alive," the researchers wrote in their study.

So while ALVIN was busy collecting new samples at Juan de Fuca, the Gorda Ridge limpets were hiding out in the hose.

Ships and even air travelers, via shoes or clothes, are also known to redistribute species to new areas, potentially altering local ecosystems.

"In retrospect, we should have cleaned the sampling gear more thoroughly, but we honestly believed that no animals could survive on ALVIN at sea level pressure for more than a day it took to get to the next dive site," Voight said. "We were naive. This is why we are admitting to our mistake, which could have, but we don't think did, introduce this species to Juan de Fuca Ridge. We want to warn other scientists that it is possible."

The danger at Juan de Fuca, Voight said, is that the Gorda Ridge limpets could have established themselves, along with parasites or disease, and potentially wiped out the native limpets.

Voight doesn't think that happened because the Juan de Fuca dive was some 300 feet from any vents, which the limpets need to survive. Still, she adds, "it might be worthwhile to go back to that spot" to check things out.

The team's advice? "We urge our colleagues to assume that physiologically tough stowaways are present on deep-sea research tools and to guard against transport of non-native species by clearing hoses and rinsing containers with freshwater, or even a peroxide solution, and drying tools before transporting them to different sites," they wrote.

The peer-reviewed study was published in the journal Conservation Biology.

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The mother of a 15-year-old Texas girl who was mistakenly deported to Colombia has filed suit against Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

In the suit, Johnisa Turner contends that her daughter, Jakadrien Turner, now 16, gave police officers a false name – Tika Cortez – when she was arrested on April 2, 2011, for shoplifting, a lie that triggered a series of events that landed her in Colombia's capital city, where she lived in shelters for seven months and became pregnant.

Unbeknownst to Jakadrien, a 22-year-old Colombian named Tika Cortez was in the system -- court documents do not specify whether she was wanted by Colombian authorities or had been flagged as being in the United States illegally.

Jakadrien’s mother says her daughter's false claim should not have mattered. Jakadrien was listed on the National Child Runaway list and her birth certificate is filed in Texas. Additionally, Johnisa Turner says, her daughter is African American, does not speak Spanish and appeared to be a younger teenager.

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According to court documents: “Knowing it’s commonplace for people who come in contact with ICE officials to sometimes give a fake name in order to avoid more serious punishment, it is still unclear why ICE officials failed to confirm (Jakadrien’s) identity with fingerprint analysis, genetically-specific markers that suggest a person’s origin, or other methods more definitive than just having a name and no documentation proof of her alleged Colombian citizenship during these hearings.”

15-year-old American girl mistakenly deported to Colombia

The suit lays out a grim narrative of Jakadrien’s life the year before she was arrested.

In November 2010, she was lured from her home by a “child predator” – her relatives say she had been acting out after the death of a close grandparent. The man beat her, trafficked her and forced her to sell drugs until she managed to escape later that spring, but that too proved to be a difficult time. As she made her way home, she slept in bus stations and shoplifted.

When she was caught shoplifting at a mall in Houston, “she was unsure if officers were aware of her previous illegal activity, so she gave them a false name,” court documents say.

Jakadrien was detained for two months, April and May of 2011. She didn’t call home because she “could not find the words to explain that she was in ICE custody and facing deportation. She did not believe that her family would believe that to be even possible,” according to court documents. Her family says she received no legal assistance.

ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – confirmed the facts of the case to the Los Angeles Times but insisted officials followed proper procedure.

“She maintained this false identity throughout her local criminal proceedings in Texas where she was represented by a defense attorney and ultimately convicted by the State criminal court,” said an ICE statement provided to the Times. “At no time during these criminal proceedings was her identity determined to be false.”

The Associated Press reviewed more than two dozen phone calls while Jakadrien was in jail and found this may have been true. Not once during these phone calls did she complain of not having ties to Colombia, the AP reported. Rather, she identified herself as Tika Cortez and discussed renewing her green card, the AP said.

Mistakenly deported teen: ‘I made a lot of horrible mistakes’

In late May, Jakadrien boarded a government plane for Bogota, where her mother said she knew no one.

“When she was released, a stranger saw that she was crying and seemed out of place,” the documents say. “He approached her and realized that she did not speak any Spanish. He guided her to a social welfare program titled ‘Welcome Home,’ run by the Colombian government that helped her get a shelter.”

She lived in shelters across the city for seven months, during which she became pregnant by a 29-year-old man, the documents say. 

Her family continued to search for her, and in December 2011, her grandmother found information on Facebook leading her to believe that her granddaughter was in Colombia. When she contacted the State Department, officials there reportedly confirmed that Jakadrien had been mistakenly deported.

For months, despite the family's asking officials to bring home their child, Jakadrien remained in Colombia, the court documents say. Her mother says it wasn't until the family turned to the press that she was whisked home within days of the reports.

 

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U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald abruptly announced his resignation Wednesday with no heads up to top officials at the Justice Department and no current plans for new employment, his spokesman said.

Fitzgerald called Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Mark Kirk Wednesday morning to inform them of his plans to retire, just hours before his office publicly announced that he was resigning as of June 30 as U.S. attorney in Chicago. 

Fitzgerald, 51, was stepping down "for personal reasons," said Randall Samborn, Fitzgerald's longtime spokesman "It's been ten and a half years. It’s a long time."

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Originally nominated in 2001 by President George W. Bush and kept on by President Barack Obama, Fitzgerald was probably the Justice Department's most famous -- and controversial -- prosecutor. He oversaw major corruption investigations that put two lllinois governors -- Republican George Ryan and Democrat Rod Blagojevich -- and top Obama fundraiser Tony Rezko in prison.

He is best known for serving as special counsel in the CIA leak investigation that led to the conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

Under Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney's Office also convicted media baron Conrad Black.

More recently, Fitzgerald had been tapped by Holder to head an investigation into the leaking of classified information involving Guantanamo detainees that led to the indictment of former CIA officer John Kiriakou.

In the announcement of his departure, Fitzgerald thanked his colleagues.

"I extend my deepest appreciation to the attorneys and staff for their determined commitment to public service. This was a great office when I arrived, and I have no doubt that it will continue to be a great office," he said.

Holder on Wednesday praised Fitzgerald "as a prosecutor's prosecutor."

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Withstanding a strong lobby from the plastic bag industry, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a ban on single-use plastic bags at checkout counters as well as a 10-cent fee on paper bags.

With a population of 4 million -- and using an estimated 2.7 billion plastic bags each year -- Los Angeles becomes the largest city in the U.S. to enact a ban and joins 47 other cities in California alone. 

"This is a tipping point" for banning plastic bags around the world, City Councilman Paul Koretz, a ban sponsor, declared just before the 13-1 vote.

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The industry counters that the ban will be bad for the environment and health and will cost local jobs.

Reusable bags "are hazardous because consumers seldom wash them, and they have been found to transport bacteria," Mark Daniels, chair of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, told msnbc.com, citing a case earlier this month of girls getting norovirus from cookies left in a reusable bag.

"Plastic bags make up a fraction a percent of the litter stream," Daniels added, citing a 2009 litter survey. "A policy to target and ban one product will not address the root issue" of pollution.

City staff countered at Wednesday's meeting that 43 percent of Los Angeles' trash is plastic and that the largest component of that plastic is plastic bags at 19 percent.

Daniels added that "reusables cannot be recycled" but city staff insisted standards would be adopted to make that a requirement.

As for jobs, city staff noted that the 750 jobs at companies making plastic bags in the area are not in the city, but in the county.

Large stores are allowed to phase out plastic bags over six months and then provide free paper bags for another six months. Small retailers will have a year to phase out plastic.

After a year, retailers will be allowed to charge 10 cents for paper bags -- a "disincentive" designed to steer consumers to reusable bags.

The council did back away from also banning paper bags, which would have made it the only city to ban both plastic and paper.

Koretz said the city would study the issue again in two years to see whether the 10 cent fee was enough to reduce paper bags.

The city ban was modeled on one enacted by Los Angeles County, with a population of 10 million. A state court is hearing an appeal in a lawsuit against the county ban after the plaintiffs, a plastic bag maker among them, lost a lower court ruling.

Story: Bag ban taking shape across Hawaii
Interactive: The paper or plastic debate 

City Council members who supported the ban noted that the vote was about creating environmental awareness among Angelenos.

"Let's not stop with plastic bags," said Councilman Richard Alarcon. 

The ban will go into effect after a standard environmental review, which is expected to take four months.

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Santa Monica police are conducting an internal investigation into the shooting death of a mountain lion that appeared in an office building courtyard in the city’s downtown, police Sgt. Richard Lewis told msnbc.com.

The cat, a 3-year-old male weighing about 90 pounds, had apparently wandered into the city overnight from the Santa Monica Mountains and jumped over an eight-foot wall into the building courtyard, Lewis said. At 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a maintenance worker called police, who then called in the fire department, California Fish and Game Department and a wildlife biologist from the National Parks Service.

This was an unfamiliar situation, Lewis said -- the first time in the memories of veteran Santa Monica police officers that a mountain lion had ventured into the city.

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The officials decided a member of Fish and Game would shoot the mountain lion with a heavy dosage tranquilizer dart, hoping he would slump into a corner and officials could then transport him back to the mountains.

Mountain lion shot, killed

“That would cause one of two reactions,” Lewis said. “The animal could become aggressive, or it could become docile and lay down. It chose to do what mountain lions do and it tried to escape.”

The officers acted quickly and shot pepper balls in hopes that the animal would slink back into the corner of the courtyard. They sprayed mist at the glass doors framing the courtyard so the cat wouldn’t try to go through them.

But it did anyway, lunging at the two-inch glass doors, shattering them.

“At that point, the animal circled around, realized where it had jumped in from and started to jump over,” Lewis said. “That’s when the order was given to use lethal force.”

Allowing the cat to jump back over the wall, near the popular Promenade by the beach, was not an option, Lewis said. The cat, injured, angry and able to run 40 to 50 miles per hour, would have encountered humans within seconds. Santa Monica, which houses about 90,000 residents, has a daytime population between 200,000 and 400,000.

Some questioned why a second dart wasn’t used, Lewis said, but that wasn’t possible either. A second dart would have killed the cat, he said, and anyway, it would have taken 15 minutes to take effect. The cat would have jumped over the wall by then.

The incident, from call to the cat’s death, lasted three hours. The internal investigation will focus on the shooting, the performance of the officers and whether they could have used different training, Lewis said.

The Fish and Game Department took its carcass and will perform a necropsy, conducting a chemical and DNA analysis to determine what it had eaten.

They will then cremate the mountain lion and a game warden or biologist will spread the ashes in a peaceful spot in the mountains.

"I call it the circle of life," Andrew Hughan of the Fish and Game Department told msnbc.com.

The mountain lion population is under severe stress due to habitat loss and poaching, scientists say.

For a decade, the National Park Service has been tracking mountain lions in Southern California, including the 275 square miles of the Santa Monica range, which is hemmed in by highways, urban areas, the ocean and agricultural land.

That island of habitat is large enough to support 10 to 15 mountain lions, according to Jeff Sikich, a biologist with the project. Young adult males are forced to set out to establish their own territory or reckon with a dominant male in the area, he said.

"Most young adult males we have followed in the Santa Monica mountains have ended up getting killed on a freeway or by an adult male in that territory," Sikich said.

Wanted: Poacher who cut off cougar's paws

The park service is conducting genetic tests to determine whether the mountain lion killed on Tuesday is a part of the tiny Santa Monica population, which Sikich says is likely.

"This is regrettable," said Tim Dunbar, executive director of the nonprofit conservation group Mountain Lion Foundation. "By having this poor lion die now … that will put even more pressure on the survivability of the species down there."

Dunbar said the Sacramento-based foundation had dispatched staff to Santa Monica to investigate the animal’s death.

"Though we tried to get information from the local police they were not forthcoming," Dunbar said. "We are presently requesting a copy of (the California Fish and Game Department's) incident report."

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The suburban New Orleans public school psychologist whose allegedly racist online comments triggered to a discrimination complaint with the federal government has resigned, the school system said.

Mark Traina, 55, of Slidell, La., worked with students in the Jefferson Parish Public Schools' "alternative schools," where elementary and middle-school pupils "with difficulties in learning and, in some cases, in adapting to the rules of school or community" are sent, according to the school district.

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He was the subject of a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal-leaning civil rights advocacy group, which cited comments on Twitter like this:

• "Angry young black males with no respect for life destroying the U.S."
• "Serpas should be warning people to stay the hell out of New Orleans! These black dudes will kill you!" (The reference is to Ronal Serpas, the New Orleans police superintendent.)
• "2 New Orleans policemen shot, 1 suspect dead, another injured. UPDATE|NOLA Quick Someone call David Duke before the NAACP gets here."

Msnbc.com highlighted the case Tuesday, reporting that Traina stood behind his comments, which he said he'd made out of frustration with crime in general. Late Tuesday, Beth Branley, a spokeswoman for the school district, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that Traina had resigned, effective immediately.

School board members had urged acting Superintendent James Meza to take quick action, NBC station WDSU of New Orleans reported. Late Tuesday, the board members said Traina would have been fired had he not resigned.

Investigators for the Civil Rights Division were already separately investigating allegations of discrimination against African-Americans and students with disabilities in Jefferson Parish. Traina's online comments could still be part of that investigation, the Times-Picayune reported.

Traina, who in his Times-Picayune user profile describes himself as a "civil rights activist," called the complaint "unfair" Tuesday in an interview with WDSU.

"Whenever someone speaks out, the liberal media just wants to demonize you," he said.

Traina expanded on those remarks in a long comment posted to the Times-Picayune website last week:

The Southern Poverty Center knows that these allegations are ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE! This is just another way to harass the Jefferson Parish Public School System. One only needs to read the Times Picayune to see who the real trouble makers are. Sadly, it is disproportionately young black males. Everyone knows that our jails throughout the United States are disproportionately filled with black people. Why would the rate be any different in an educational environment?

(Earlier versions of this article included a link to Traina's profile and comments on the Times-Picayune site. The link redirected to an error page late Wednesday.) 

Traina said he isn't a racist, telling WDSU that he made the online comments "out of frustration."

"There's too much killing going on," he said. "There's just too much crime in the country, and it's not all black on black.

"It's got to be put down. It's got to stop," he added. "People are just sick and tired of the crime."

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An upstate New York woman who faked having cancer to con donors into paying for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon is being released after less than two months in jail.

Jessica Vega, 25, apologized Wednesday in court in Orange County, New York, for the scam. A prosecutor says she has paid back more than $13,000 to people she victimized.

The judge then sentenced her to time served. Vega was arrested April 3 and pleaded guilty to the scam three weeks later.

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Her lawyer says she'll be released later Wednesday from the county jail.

Vega claimed in 2010 that she was dying of leukemia and wanted a "dream wedding" to Michael O'Connell, the father of her baby.

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Prosecutors said Vega raised thousands of dollars with her cancer story, paying for a May 2010 wedding and a honeymoon to Aruba. After news of her plight spread, businesses such as a bridal dress shop and a restaurant donated to her cause.

The Times Herald-Record of Orange County, New York, then reported that Vega's husband had called it four months after the wedding to accuse her of faking the illness. The couple divorced over the incident, O'Connell told the paper. He wasn't charged in the matter.

O'Connell says that Vega will live with his family after her release.

This article includes reporting from NBCNewYork.com, The Associated Press and Reuters.

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This squirt gun packs serious heat.

A 54-year-old convicted felon was reportedly arrested in California while carrying a “Super Soaker” gun that had been modified to hold a shotgun shell instead of water.

Fresno police told KMPH-TV the arrest came shortly after they had been briefed about people who convert toy guns into weapons.

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See the original report at NBCNewYork.com

Police said they encountered Randy Smith walking the streets while carrying the weapon around his neck in a sling.

"He took the Super Soaker apart, was able to fashion a barrel to where he was able to make what's considered a zip gun, where you can fire one round through it,” Sergeant Mark Hudson told KMPH. “In this case it was a 20-gauge shotgun shell."

A local gun shop employee told the TV station such a modification could be made for as cheap as $30, but would be about as safe for its handler as “putting a hand grenade next to your head.”

Smith was reportedly arrested on a slew of weapon charges. 

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An official looking into the case of tombstones found by a man gardening in his midtown Memphis backyard says seven more markers have been uncovered.

Jason Blackburn first found 13 headstones while clearing a path to his dog’s pen over the weekend.

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Raymond Miller, director of the Memphis National Cemetery and the national cemeteries in Little Rock and Corinth, Miss, said the headstones were removed between July 5, 1970, and Dec. 28, 1970, when the U.S. Army operated the historic memorial park. They were replaced by newer grave markers that include the names of more recently deceased relatives.

Tennessee man digging in garden finds 13 tombstones linked to military cemetery

While digging up the headstones Tuesday for their return to the military cemetery, seven additional markers were discovered, pushing the number found to 20, Miller told msnbc.com.

The cemetery is now run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It remains unclear how the old headstones made their way some six miles to the central Memphis neighborhood.

A former Memphis city councilman who once owned the house told the Commercial Appeal he was told by a real estate broker the headstones came from a cemetery worker who once lived there.

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"I was told he would bring home the ones they messed up when they were engraving them,” Jack Sammons told the newspaper. “It's a granite marker, not like an Etch A Sketch, I guess. You couldn't just wipe 'em clean."

Miller told msnbc.com that the found headstones will be destroyed after it is verified that all of the headstones have been replaced by subsequent markers.

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