A bail hearing in Sanford, Fla. for George Zimmerman concluded Friday after a heated exchange in which prosecutors argued for denying bond and the defense called on the judge to reinstate the defendant's $150,000 bail, which was revoked in early June.

Circuit Court Judge Kenneth Lester was weighing the arguments and will issue his ruling by written order, a public information officer for the Seminole County court said. The spokesman did not offer the timing of that order.

Zimmerman, charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, is seeking release on bail for the second time. His initial bail of $150,000 was revoked and he was rearrested on June 3, after prosecutors argued that Zimmerman, with the aid of his wife's testimony, had misled the court about their financial picture in the first bail hearing on April 20.

Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, and asserted that he acted in self-defense.

Earlier in the three-hour proceedings, Zimmerman's father, Robert John Zimmerman, took the stand briefly.

---

After the elder Zimmerman was sworn in, defense attorney Mark O'Mara played a witness 911 tape that captured the sounds of screaming and a shot being fired during the fatal encounter between Trayvon and Zimmerman.

Under questioning by O'Mara, the elder Zimmerman said he told state investigators that the voice of the man screaming "was absolutely George's."

Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda then questioned Robert Zimmerman, asking how his son could make those screaming noises if, as George Zimmerman told police, Martin was covering his nose and mouth.

Robert Zimmerman responded: "From the look of my son's injuries, Trayvon Martin's hands were not just on his nose and mouth."

The court heard testimony from firefighter Kevin O'Rourke, of the Sanford Fire Department, who was called to the scene after the shooting. O'Rourke, who said he attended to Zimmerman, answered questions about the severity of the shooter's injuries.

"I observed that he had blood on his face and the back of his head," O'Rourke said.

He said that Zimmerman's nose was "obviously deformed," agreeing with defense attorney Don West that the injury was consistent with a broken nose. But under questioning by prosecutor de la Rionda, O'Rourke said he didn't diagnose Zimmerman with a broken nose.

The court was also shown the last minutes of a video taken by Sanford police on Feb. 27 in which Zimmerman discusses wounds to his nose and head.

Zimmerman appeared at the hearing wearing a grey suit, after O'Mara had successfully argued that showing up in prison garb and shackles could damage his client's chances of getting a fair trial.

Martin's older brother Jahvaris Martin attended the hearing, along with Trayvon's parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. The family was escorted -- and sat with -- family attorney Benjamin Crump.

Following the money
At the start of the hearing, the first witness to testify, at the request of Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara, was an accounting expert Adam MaGill, who detailed a series of money transfers conducted by the defendant's wife, using money contributed for his legal defense.

MaGill, who was called by the defense, said he was asked by O'Mara to look at records of money transfers from Zimmerman's PayPal account to the official legal defense fund later established by O'Mara.

The judge determined that Zimmerman and his wife Shellie misled the court about their finances his first bail hearing.

Shellie Zimmerman testified at that April 20 proceeding that she did not know how much money was in a PayPal account set up for contributions to her husband's legal defense.

In recorded telephone conversations from jail prior to that date, Zimmerman and his wife appear to discuss — in thinly disguised code — the amount of money in the account, and he instructs her to make a series of transfers to other accounts, the prosecution charges. (Read original report.)

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey used the recordings to persuade the judge to revoke the original bond for George Zimmerman. Shellie Zimmerman was arrested on June 12, charged with perjury and released on $1,000 bond.

She was not present at Friday's bond hearing for her husband.

O’Mara told NBC on Thursday that if Zimmerman is released on bond, he would go back into hiding for his own safety. The shooting death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in February has stirred an emotional national debate about race, gun rights and "stand your ground" laws like the one in Florida that use a broad definition of self-defense.

NBC's Lisa Lampkin contributed to this report.

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Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, could still profit from his public pension.

Sandusky stands to collect $58,898 each year, according to PennLive.com, because the crimes he committed are not included on the list of 22 that would force him to give up his benefits.

Pennsylvania's public officials or retirees are required to forfeit their pensions under the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) if they commit "certain crimes that breach the member's duty of faithful and honest public service." The list does not include sex crimes.

---

"I think it is nauseating that a convicted pedophile like Sandusky will be collecting a pension while sitting behind bars," Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle said in a statement. "He certainly doesn't deserve to continue to enjoy the benefit of a taxpayer-funded pension."

Upon his death, Sandusky's wife, Dottie, would be able to get half of the annual payout, PennLive.com reported.

Nicholas Maiale, chairman of the SERS board, told PennLive.com that he will get a legal review of the board's options in this case. "I am a Penn Stater and I am a citizen of Pennsylvania, and we are all morally outraged about this case and what happened to those kids,” he said, though he is not optimistic about a forfeiture.

Retired Penn State Vice President Gary Schultz, meanwhile, could lose his pension after being accused of perjury, PennLive.com reported.

Rep. Boyle introduced a bill in 2011, before Sandusky was charged, that is now one of six bills that could broaden the list of crimes that require public workers to give up their pensions, PennLive.com reported.

Sandusky’s sentencing is expected in about three months.

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A Virginia woman who asked a Catholic priest to rid her of the devil is suing his former employer, alleging he sexually assaulted her over a two-year period, The Associated Press reported. 

The suit seeks $5.3 million in damages from Human Life International, an anti-abortion ministry, as well as the Catholic Diocese of Arlington and its bishop, Paul S. Loverde.  

---

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer served as president of HLI when he told the woman in 2008 he would rid her body of "unclean spirits," The Washington Post reported.

Euteneuer is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit because he reached a settlement with the woman out of court, the paper reported.  

The AP reported that he told the woman he believed her case was "severe" and needed an exorcism.

The woman, identified in court papers as Jane Doe, signed a document pledging complete cooperation in spiritual work with Euteneuer, according to the lawsuit. 

The suit, filed on June 19 in Virginia's Arlington County Circuit Court, alleges Euteneuer sexually molested the woman during exorcism sessions conducted mostly in HLI offices. 

According to the suit, she claims he kissed her on the mouth and touched her in inappropriate places on her body. 

"To the extent Father Euteneuer has already admitted to engaging in highly inappropriate conduct with a young adult woman, we can only emphasize that such behavior was never within the scope of his employment with HLI," HLI director of communications Stephen Phelan said in a statement. 

The woman's attorney, Demetrios C. Pikrallidas, told the Post she suffered emotional distress from the abuse she endured.

"She placed her trust in a man of faith," he said. 

Arlington Diocese spokesman Michael J. Donohue told The Post that Euteneuer has never been a priest for the diocese.

"He was not authorized to perform an exorcism on this woman. He may have lied to her and said he was, but he was not," he said.

According to the lawsuit, the Arlington Diocese was named in the lawsuit because it "was responsible for the governance of the Roman Catholic priests practicing within its assigned geographical borders,' the AP reported. 

Euteneuer performed the exorcism independently from his job at HLI. He resigned from the organization in 2010. 

The AP reported the woman contacted the Arlington Diocese after realizing his conduct was inappropriate. 

Officials at the Diocese of Palm Beach recalled the priest to Florida to undergo counseling after the Arlington Diocese made them aware of the allegations. 

In an official statement last year, Euteneuer issued an apology for his actions and acknowledged overstepping his boundaries. 

"I take full responsibility for my own poor judgment, my weakness and my sinful conduct that resulted from it, the statement read. 

Pikrallidas commended his client for coming forward under strenuous circumstances.

"When someone gets to a point where they believe they are in need of an exorcism, that is very difficult," he told the station. "To come forward is more difficult."

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The unemployed subway hero who saved a baby in a stroller after it was swept by a strong wind onto an elevated subway track in Brooklyn was reunited with the family on Wednesday – right after getting a new job.

“That’s the little man that got me a job today,” Delroy Simmonds told the New York Daily News.

Simmonds visited the boy and his mother Wednesday at Brookdale Hospital, where the child was being treated for a small head injury. The baby is expected to be OK.

---

Simmonds said the mother thanked him, and he shrugged off talk about his heroism. He pointed out that he's a father and would expect anyone else to do the same for his child.

"I don't really feel like much of a hero," he told NBCNewYork.com. "I didn't really think, I just reacted."

Simmonds was on his way to a job interview at about 1 p.m. Tuesday when a powerful blast of air carried the stroller from the elevated track onto the J train platform at Van Siclen Avenue. The baby and stroller both landed on the tracks.

Simmonds immediately jumped onto the tracks, rescuing the baby before the next train came into the station.

Simmonds missed his job interview but says he was offered a job only a day later as a maintenance worker at Kennedy Airport on Wednesday. He starts in two weeks.

“Thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Simmonds told the Daily News was his response to the job offer. “I’m just excited to start working.”

Simmonds said he received a slew of employment offers Wednesday from people who heard of the incident.

“It says a lot about his character that he would jump on the tracks to save a little boy,” Guy Rodriguez, project manager for the janitorial company, told the Daily News. “We are happy to hire Delroy. We are honored.”

NBCNewYork.com contributed to this report.

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Updated at 7:04 p.m. ET: Now that the Supreme Court has upheld President Barack Obama's health care initiative, will Congress have to rewrite it from scratch?

It's not a paradoxical question. The court signed off on nearly all of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but it struck down one provision, and in doing so — whether it knew it or not — it may have put the poorest Americans at the greatest risk of being left without any health insurance.

Chief Justice John Roberts said as part of the 5-4 decision that states can't be penalized for refusing to join the law's expansion of Medicaid eligibility. Health law experts said that had the practical effect of flipping an all but mandatory program into one a state can choose not to join.

---

Here's the problem: The ACA creates state health insurance "exchanges," providing tax credits to eligible residents to buy affordable, state-certified health insurance. But the poorest Americans aren't in that eligible pool, because the law assumes they'll be covered by the expansion of Medicaid, which is no longer a given. 

In states that reject the expansion, poor residents could be left without either form of coverage — as many as 15 million if all 50 states opt out, a circumstance that former Medicaid director Donald Berwick said was highly unlikely.

The White House didn't address the issue in a long Q&A it issued on the court's decision. The statement touted every provision of the act but one: Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid currently covers only some low-income people, primarily parents with children, pregnant women, people with severe disabilities and senior citizens. Adults without disabilities or children, in other words, aren't generally covered. That's the group the Medicaid expansion was supposed to help the most.

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If their states opt out, young working adults below the poverty line could be in a Catch-22, because "they may not get Medicaid, and they may not be eligible to purchase insurance through the exchange," said Christina S. Ho of the Rutgers University School of Law, who was a member of President Bill Clinton's Domestic Policy Council. 

It works this way:

The insurance tax credits are targeted at people with incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line as determined by the U.S. Census Bureau. Congress sought to compel the states to cover everyone under the line through Medicaid.

The federal government promised to fully cover all expenses for the expanded coverage before eventually pulling back to cover 90 percent after a few years. The states would have to pick up the extra 10 percent eventually.

States aren't required to take part, but if they don't, the law as enacted would have turned off the flow of all Medicaid funding from Washington. 

That enforcement mechanism is what the court invalidated Thursday, meaning there's no penalty for a state that says, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Twitter reactions to the ruling

Because states haven't had time to consider yet whether they will opt in or out. it's difficult to say how many people could be affected. 

But about half of the nearly 50 million uninsured Americans have incomes below the new eligibility thresholds, according to the latest report, in October, from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. And about 6 in 10 of them are adults without dependent children — the primary beneficiaries of the program's expansion.

If you do the math, roughly 15 million Americans could be in the newly created gray area. In 2010, when the act was passed, the Commonwealth Fund, an independent health care policy foundation, similarly calculated that the Medicaid expansion would benefit 12 million of the 15 million uninsured Americans under the poverty line. 

Donald Berwick, former head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which administers the two programs, said few states were likely to take that risk.

"Those people are still living in your state, They're still poor. They're going to come to your emergency room. They're going to be operated on, and they're going to have diseases that get worse, and you're going to have to pay for that. That will come from the state — free care pools and charity in the state," Berwick said in an interview on MSNBC-TV. 

"I think what's going to happen is the states are going to be under pressure from providers of care who say: 'Why are you leaving this money on the table? Let's join in with the federal dollars.'"

But Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy at the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, agreed with Ho that the decision means low-income adults could lose the promise of Medicaid coverage "even while people with somewhat higher incomes will be eligible for premium tax credits." 

Writing on the center's policy blog, Solomon said: "The poorest adults — primarily parents and other adults working for low wages — will be left out in the cold."

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Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman,  who is now being held in solitary confinement, is scheduled to appear in a Florida court on Friday, seeking another chance to be released on bail after it was revoked by a judge.

Speaking to NBC News on Thursday, defense attorney Mark O’Mara said that his client, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, presents no flight risk, no threat to the public and that the only question should be the bond amount required by the judge.

"If it is a truly large amount of money, then those supporters who are out there who have already supported him are going to have to sort of dig deeper into their pockets because quite honestly, I need him out to help me work on the defense,” said O’Mara. "We have, let's say, a hundred hours, 120 hours, of documents and videos and audios.  I want him available to me so that I can interact with him."

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"And jail is not supposed to be punishment before trial," he added. "It's only to ensure that you come back to the courtroom, and he has shown that time and time again."

Zimmerman was not arrested until several weeks after the shooting of Martin, who was walking through a gated neighborhood in Sanford, Fla. when the encounter took place. Zimmerman asserts that he acted in self-defense and pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge.

Judge Kenneth Lester granted a request from O’Mara that Zimmerman be allowed to appear in court without shackles and wearing civilian clothes rather than his prison uniform.

O'Mara argued that with the heavy media presence outside the courthouse, the prison garb could damage Zimmerman's chances of getting a fair trial.

"We can't deny the fact that public perception is important," he told NBC. "Chains suggest incarceration. Chains suggest guilt."

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, parents of the victim Trayvon Martin, were planning to be in court for Zimmerman's bond hearing, lawyers for the Martin family told NBC News.

O’Mara said he did not expect Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, to appear at the courthouse on her husband’s behalf, because of the risk that she might incriminate herself as she battles a perjury charge.

Shellie Zimmerman is accused of misleading the court at her husband's April 20 bond hearing, when she asserted that she did not know how much money was in a PayPal account set up for contributions to Zimmerman’s legal defense.

In recorded telephone conversations from jail prior to that date, Zimmerman and his wife appear to discuss — in thinly disguised code — the amount of money in the account, and he instructs her to make a series of transfers to other accounts, the prosecution charges. (Read original report.)

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey used the recordings to persuade the judge to revoke the original $150,000 bond for George Zimmerman, who was rearrested on June 3. Shellie Zimmerman was arrested on June 12, charged with perjury and released on $1,000 bond.

O’Mara said that if Zimmerman is released on bond, he would go back into hiding for his own safety. The shooting death of Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in February has stirred an emotional national debate about race, gun rights and the "stand-your-ground" laws like the one in Florida that use a broad definition of self-defense.

Meanwhile, Zimmerman is being held in protective custody in isolation at the Seminole County Jail in Sanford, Fla.

"He’s reading the Bible. He is just trying to get by," said O’Mara, when asked about Zimmerman’s mental state. "But he's very worried about Shellie. That's a primary focus of his. He wants out. He wants to be able to get forward with moving the case forward."

O’Mara dismissed as irrelevant new information reported by the Miami Herald that Zimmerman was a no-show for a scheduled deposition related to a civil lawsuit he had filed to recoup wages from a former employer.

In that incident, the court fined him $10,000 after lawyers, including one who flew in from Atlanta, waited an hour and a half for Zimmerman while trying to reach him, the Herald reported.  Zimmerman ultimately did win $18,000 from the employers bankruptcy trustee, but the fine was never paid, it said.

In an email to the Herald, O’Mara said: "To the extents that courts concern themselves with a client’s appearance, missing a noticed or scheduled court proceeding is considered significant… (But) missing a deposition, while we don’t know why Mr. Zimmerman missed a deposition in a civil case, missing a deposition is not missing a scheduled court proceeding."

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The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a grassroots advocacy organization, released a report Thursday calling for the military to make service members with combat-related post-traumatic stress and other psychological injuries eligible to receive the Purple Heart.

The report, Parity for Patriots, argues that mental health disorders are "signature" injuries of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In 2011, there were more hospitalizations for mental disorders amongst active-duty service members than for any other major illness or injury, affecting one in five individuals.

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Sita Diehl, the report's author and director of state policy and advocacy for NAMI, said that in addition to PTSD, the military should also consider combat-related depression for Purple Heart eligibility. Previous research, Diehl said, has shown that after a sixth or seventh deployment, it is standard to experience about six months of combat-related depression.

 

The Purple Heart is awarded to service members who have been wounded or killed by the enemy in combat. Post-traumatic stress disorders currently do not justify a Purple Heart, according to Army regulations. Other injuries that do not merit the Purple Heart include heat stroke, frostbite, battle fatigue and accidents.

Awarding the Purple Heart for mental illness that results from combat, Diehl said, would "help to recognize these are genuine medical conditions. If you get a psychological wound in battle, that means you are courageous. We want that to be recognized."

NAMI spokesman Bob Carolla said the organization previously approached military leaders privately about Purple Heart eligibility, but said it never received a response. This is the first time the organization has publicly called for changes to the regulations.

The report also outlines a looming mental health crisis for service members, veterans and their families. Studies have shown that military spouses and children are diagnosed with anxiety, depression and other mental disorders at rates comparable to service members.

In order to address various aspects of the crisis, the report called on the Department of Defense to require commanders to focus on preventing psychological injuries and deaths; said the Veteran Health Administration should ensure that more veterans and their families have access to care; and recommended that the Department of Health and Human Services finalize regulations for a federal parity law that would fully end discriminatory practices in mental health care treatment.

Still, Diehl said, the responsibility to help service members, veterans and their families can't fall only to the government.

"These [agencies] can’t do it alone," she said, "We as the American people need to reach out and care."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com and a 2011-2012 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow. Follow her on Twitter here.

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CLEVELAND -- An Ohio teacher who died after trying to save a 9-year-old student from Lake Erie rip currents is being remembered for her selflessness as investigators try to determine why children on a school beach outing were in the water before lifeguards were on duty.

Laura Recco, 46, of Seven Hills dove into the water about 10:30 a.m. Monday when she saw two students, including Diamond Harris, 9, being pulled under at Bay Village’s Huntington Beach, about 10 miles west of Cleveland, according to reports.

Recco pulled one student out but when she went back for Harris, currents and waves up to 6 feet pulled her under, too, the Morning Journal newspaper of Lorain reported.

"The way she died is the perfect display of how selfless she was," Angelica Gagliardi, the older of Recco’s two daughters, tearfully told WEWS of Cleveland.

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Although Cleveland Metroparks lifeguards weren’t due on duty until 11 a.m., Christian Pesarchick, 19, of Avon Lake was setting up and jumped in to try to save Recco and Harris, but he got into trouble in the water, too, NBC station WKYC of Cleveland reported.

About a half-dozen other lifeguards and passerby Clint Kranes, an Elyria resident and Navy veteran, and another teacher eventually pulled all three out of the water, WKYC reported.

The three were sent to St. John Medical Center. Pesarchick was released Monday. Harris was transferred to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and was released Tuesday, the Morning Journal newspaper of Lorain reported.

Recco died Wednesday morning, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

She was one of four teachers who came with Harris and four other students on the annual beach outing for the private nonprofit Positive Education Program, which serves 2,500 Cleveland-area children with special learning needs, WKYC reported.

Why some children and adults ventured into the water before the beach was officially open and with dangerous conditions on the lake is being investigated by both Metroparks Rangers and by the Positive Education Program, WKYC reported.

Gagliardi described her mother to the Morning Journal: “Best teacher. Best mother. Best grandmother. Best friend. None of those things even touch the surface of the woman my mom was and the woman my mom raised me to become. She was strong and respected and put everyone else before herself.”

PEP would not comment to msnbc.com or other news organizations.

On Wednesday it issued a statement: “Laura was one of our very finest teachers. Uniquely skilled at helping children build competencies, she was committed to helping every child know some joy in each day. She was deeply respected by her peers and was honored as PEP Hopewell’s Teacher-Counselor of the Year in 2006.”

The veteran teacher also leaves behind her husband, Frank.

Msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this article. Follow him on Facebook here.

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Updated at 3:20 p.m. ET: While it upheld most of President Barack Obama's health care reform program Thursday, the Supreme Court took away the stick the White House had hoped to use to force states to expand Medicaid coverage for millions of poor Americans.

The court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, said states can't be penalized for refusing to join the Medicaid expansion by losing all of their federal Medicaid funds. That leaves cash-poor states in the position of deciding during an election year whether the benefits of the expansion outweigh the potential downsides — both financial and political.

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First, some background. Medicaid currently covers many families that are at or below about 63 percent of the poverty line, with some categories — such as children under age 6 — covered up to 133 percent. But most states don't cover lower-income adults.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act sought to compel states to expand coverage to nearly everyone up to the 133 percent threshold — income of about $30,000 a year for a family of four — which would add about 17 million people to the Medicaid rolls.

The carrot was the federal government's promise to cover all of the states' Medicaid expenses for the new enrollees through 2016, gradually dropping to 90 percent by 2019. The stick was that states that refused to sign on would lose all of their federal Medicaid funding.

Christina S. Ho of the Rutgers University School of Law told msnbc.com that the decision could leave the poorest residents of states that decline the money in a particularly vulnerable situation.

Another provision of the law the so-called state health insurance exchanges, extends subsidies to people between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line to buy coverage. But if you're below the poverty line, you're not eligible — because the law assumes you'll get the new Medicaid benefit.

So if a state rejects the expansion of Medicaid, "there are some people that may not be able to get coverage at all," said Ho, who was a member of President Bill Clinton's Domestic Policy Council. "They may not get Medicaid, and they may not be eligible to purchase insurance through the exchange."

States charge plan was blackmail
Twenty-six states filed a petition with the court arguing that the provision was unconstitutional, saying it amounted to blackmail: Either they accept the added funding for a few years, with its increased burden on state coffers in later years, or they lose all of their billions of dollars of federal Medicaid distributions.

That would be a crippling financial blow, because states can't opt out of Medicaid itself. Currently they pay about 40 percent of those expenses; without any federal funding, they would have to come up with the remaining 60 percent themselves.

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Roberts upheld the constitutionality of the expansion itself, in essence saying the carrot was fine but the stick was illegal.

"Nothing in our opinion precludes Congress from offering funds under the Affordable Care Act to expand the availability of health care, and requiring that States accepting such funds comply with the conditions on their use," he wrote. "What Congress is not free to do is to penalize states that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding." 

Twitter reactions to the ruling

"The states claim that this threat serves no purpose other than to force unwilling states to sign up for the dramatic expansion in the health care coverage effected by the act," he added. "Given the nature of the threat and the programs at issue here, we must agree.”

While it might be fair to say the ruling turned a virtually mandatory program into a voluntary one, few if any states are likely to reject the increased coverage for so many more of their residents, said Katherine Hayes, a lawyer who is an associate research professor for the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services.

"I think, to the extent that they do, it will be largely for political reasons rather than financial or policy reasons," Hayes told msnbc.com. In an election year, it might be useful for some conservative lawmakers "to say you oppose quote-unquote Obamacare," she said.

Jay Bhattacharya, a physician and economist at the Stanford University Center for Health Policy, disagreed, saying some state budgets are so stretched that state officials might "consider this option since they will ultimately be on the hook for financing at least a portion of this expansion."

"If enough states decide to deny the Medicaid expansion, this may substantially reduce the ability of ACA to expand insurance coverage," Bhattacharya wrote on the center's health policy blog.

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell predicted that would happen, saying that once the federal contribution begins dropping, states will still be left with a large "unfunded mandate" — $2.2 billion over 10 years in his state, he said.

"We've already had Medicaid grow from 5 percent to 21 percent of our budget in the last 30 years, and for every governor, these mandates are crushing expenditures to endure," McDonnell, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said in an interview on MSNBC-TV. "So this is a real hardship."

But Hayes said that in practical terms, the incentives for states to sign on are too big to turn down: They can provide hundreds of thousands of residents with health care coverage at no cost for a few years, and even in the outlying years (when the federal government will pick up only 90 percent of the bill), they can work on strategies to mitigate the reduction, such as seeking waivers from the Department of Health and Human Services.

"I don't know what more the federal government or (Health and Human Services) could do" to bring reluctant states on board, she said.

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The only abortion clinic in Mississippi is going to court to try to block a new law that it says would effectively ban all abortions in the state.

The Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Wednesday asked a federal judge to issue an injunction barring House Bill 1390 from taking effect on Sunday.

The lawsuit contends the requirements of the bill, signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant in April, are unconstitutional and would force the clinic to close.

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“This measure would force Mississippi women who are already facing difficult circumstances to travel hundreds of miles to a neighboring state to get an abortion. That is simply not an option for many poor and working-class women, and will certainly lead some to consider unsafe and illegal alternatives that pose grave risks to their health, lives, and reproductive future,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit on the clinic’s behalf, said in a statement.

The law requires that any doctor who performs abortions at a clinic be a board-certified OB-GYN and have admitting privileges to a local hospital, an arrangement whereby doctors can refer patients to a hospital if further treatment is warranted.

The clinic says its doctors are having a hard time getting admitting privileges and won’t be able to do so by Sunday, either because they live out of state or because local hospitals are reluctant to grant such privileges to physicians who perform abortions.

Even so, that doesn’t mean the clinic will close anytime soon. The state Department of Health will inspect the clinic on Monday and it would have roughly 45 days after that to come into compliance with the new requirements, saidLiz Sharlot, a health department spokeswoman. It’s only after that period that the state could move to revoke its license, and the clinic could appeal any revocation.

“They will not shut down on July 2,” Sharlot told msnbc.com on Thursday.

“This facility gets the same due process and procedures provided by the law as any other health care facility.”

Watch the most-viewed videos on msnbc.com

Supporters of the bill have made it no secret that they would like to end all abortions in Mississippi.

Bryant, the Republican governor, issued this statement on Wednesday:

“Mississippi stands ready to vigorously defend House Bill 1390, which requires abortion providers to be certified OB/GYN physicians and have admitting privileges at a local hospital. This basic requirement goes to both the heart of women’s health care and protecting the lives of unborn children.”

Any facility in Mississippi that performs 10 or more abortions a month or 100 or more in a year needs a license from the state. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization in Jackson has been the sole licensed abortion clinic in the state since 2002.

According to The Associated Press, abortion clinics operate in the four states surrounding Mississippi — Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Alabama. All four require a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion can be done, as Mississippi does.

"Some of the clinic’s patients may be able to travel to other states, but this can cause significant delays," the lawsuit states. "Women without the means to travel will not have this option, and accordingly may not be able to obtain a safe abortion at all."

In 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, 2,297 abortions were performed in Mississippi with no deaths and one complication, according to the health department.

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Efforts to recover the body of climbing ranger Nick Hall, who fell to his death a week ago off Mount Rainier, were cancelled Thursday because of strong winds, according to media reports.

Officials at Mount Rainier National Park, about 70 miles southwest of Seattle, said they had been confident about recovering Hall's body because of clear weather and lower avalanche risk, The Associated Press reported. 

The AP reported officials will try again if winds subside Thursday afternoon.

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"We want to recover Nick as soon as it is safe to do so," park Superintendent Randy King told NBC station KING5 in Seattle. "Conditions must be stable before it is safe to put recovery teams on the mountain."

Hall, 34, died June 21 after falling 2,500 feet from a glacier on the mountain during the rescue of four injured climbers.

Hall was part of the first team that responded to the report about the climbers, who had fallen at the 11,000-foot level on the mountain's northeast side. He was helping with the helicopter rescue when he fell. 

Rangers hoped to get Hall's body off the mountain Wednesday during a break in the weather, but clouds and avalanche danger prevented that. But improved weather conditions Thursday are allowing helicopters to fly, KING5 reported. 

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

"This is a bad circumstance that led to a tragedy, and the tragedy’s gotta stop," Nick's brother Aaron Hall told KING5 in urging caution on the recovery. "It’s not going to change the outcome any longer and safety is paramount."  

Hall, originally from Maine, was a four-year veteran of Mount Rainier National Park's climbing ranger program.

His death is the second of a ranger at Mount Rainier this year. In January, Margaret Anderson was shot by a gunman on New Year's Day after trying to stop his vehicle in the park. The gunman was later found dead. 

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Updated at 11:00 p.m ET: When Hilario Chapa went to a hospital to identify his sister, who was found shot in the head along with her girlfriend in a South Texas park, her face was unrecognizable. He and another sibling had to check her hands and feet and the rest of her body instead, in order to determine this was Mary Kristene Chapa, their sister.

But days after the brutal attack that left Kristene’s girlfriend, Mollie Olgin, dead, the 18-year-old has opened her eyes and is making inquiries about her recovery, though she has to write on a clipboard and use sign language to communicate, and she has little sensation on the left side of her body, her brother said.

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“I do believe she knows what’s happened, but she hasn’t chosen to talk (about) it on her own,” he said. “I’m under the impression that she doesn’t know” who did it.

“I think she’s pissed about what happened to her and I think she’s ready to get up and take off walking if she could,” he added.

The swelling from the gunshot has gone down, but it's unclear when she'll be able to leave the intensive care unit, said Chapa, 32, who also spoke to NBC Latino.

“All that we’ve gotten from the doctors is that she is making very … impressive progress,” he told msnbc.com, saying it had been "rough." "I can’t even imagine how the other family feels about this situation. ... It’s very tragic.”

Olgin, 19, and Chapa were found in a grassy area of the park by a couple Saturday morning with gunshot wounds to the head in Portland, Texas, Police Chief Randy Wright said. Olgin, a first-year university student living in Corpus Christi, died; Chapa, of Sinton, was alive and rushed to an area hospital.

Police have recovered a bullet casing from a large-caliber gun at the scene, leading investigators to believe the shootings occurred where the pair was found, but they haven’t found the weapon. Two witnesses said they heard what could have been gunshots or firecrackers just before midnight last Friday but did not report it at the time, he said.

Late Thursday, police said an eyewitness to the attack described the suspect as a white man with dark hair in his 20s, weighing 140 pounds and standing 5 foot 8 inches tall.

In the community of Portland, the crime rate is low, with the last homicide occurring in 2010, Wright said. The police haven’t established a motive for the attack on the girls, who were planning to spend some time in the park that fateful Friday night before seeing a movie, Olgin’s father, Mario, told local television station kiiitv.com.

"Information from family and friends indicates that Mollie and Mary were engaged in a same-sex relationship. However, there is no current evidence to indicate the attacks were motivated by that relationship," the police chief said.

Wright told msnbc.com on Monday that: “It appears as if … this was not just a random attack, but that’s something that we really have to develop over time.”

Teen lesbian couple found shot in Texas park
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The thought of an attack on his sister because she is gay is incomprehensible to Chapa. She is an “all-American kid,” who excels at her studies as well as at softball (she is a pitcher), and is well liked, he said.

“A lot of people want to speculate it was a hate crime. I just can’t comprehend why somebody would shoot two … 18 or 19 year old girl(s) over a hate crime,” he said. “The brutality of it, you know, it’s just unimaginable.”

“I know that Texas has a lot of stereotypes … but South Texas really is a good place,” he added. “You don’t see a lot of hate crimes going on down here. You don’t hear about gay bashing or anything like that.”

Chapa didn’t know his sister was gay before the shootings, though he had thought she might be. He said his mother and other sister already knew. Friends say the pair had been going out since mid-February.

“Our family is very supportive,” he said. “We will take Kristina … for who she is and what she wanted to be, and we will support her in that.”

Chapa said his sister has maintained a stoic face: "You just see her fighting," he said, noting she was eagerly asking questions about her condition.

“She’s moving her right side very strongly,” he said. “But her left side, they haven’t used that word (paralysis), it’s too early to tell. ... She just hasn’t moved it.

"No one is saying she’s paralyzed," he added, noting that he believed his parents had said she experienced some feeling on her left side.

Kristene has written Mollie’s name down a few times, but Chapa said he worried about telling her she was killed, fearing it could cause a medical setback.

“I'm kind of afraid," he said. "She is in such a fragile state right now.”

 The shooting has taken its toll on the family. The parents are maintaining a 24-hour vigil at the hospital and Chapa said he was initially a wreck.

Doctors have told them almost no one survives this kind of shooting, especially given the long period of time between being shot and found. It was an "amazing thing,” he said.

The shooting has also hit the family hard financially. Chapa’s father had just started a new job in West Texas and had not yet enrolled for health insurance, so Kristene is without coverage. They are seeking donations to help them pay for the medical care, which doesn’t yet have an end in sight. (Donations can be made here)

The family has yet to meet with Olgin’s family, though they hope to soon and to provide them support as well, said Chapa, who had never met Mollie.

Chapa has taken time off work from his job as an equipment cleaner at the Corpus Christi Army Depot to focus on his sister’s recovery. During these tough days, he said it is Kristene who gives him encouragement.

"I can honestly say that just watching my sister progress, watching her come back to us, and … seeing her strength, it gives me strength,” he said. “There’s nothing that anybody can tell you … all you can really do is just hang onto hope and just watching her gives me hope.”

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• Supreme Court upholds health care mandate | Stolen Valor Act struck down
• 7-year-old girl, Heaven, shot dead in Chicago
• Lying about military service? These bloggers have you in their sights
• Army veteran campaigns to adopt Diego the bomb-sniffing dog
• Video: Teacher who slammed student in blog is fired
• Forecasters warn of 'life-threatening' heat across much of US

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

Los Angeles model Kourtney Reppert has nearly 200,000 Facebook fans, one of whom is now in federal custody, charged with Internet stalking, according to FBI officials.

Luis Plascencia, 47, of Chicago was arrested Tuesday by Chicago’s Violent Crimes Task Force.

"A random threat on the Internet is something we've all experienced, but this was a specific targeting with death threats to a victim and the family," said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

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According to the complaint, Plascencia stalked Reppert by sending numerous threatening and harassing messages via e-mail and Facebook.

See Reppert's website here

Some of the messages indicated that Plascencia possessed detailed personal information about the alleged victim, including her home address and the address of several of her friends and family members.

According to authorities, one of the messages read: "I hope you die in an automobile accident and crush your ugly face through the windshield and a large piece of glass cuts your throat."

According to the FBI, those messages were traced back to Plascencia’s personal email account. The accused used at least 10 different e-mail accounts, according to investigators.

Placscencia is being held without bond. His next court appearance is Friday.

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Timothy Michael Poe was an ideal “America’s Got Talent” contestant. The singer, 35, not only could belt out a great rendition of a Garth Brooks song, but he had the kind of story reality shows eat up.

In an episode that aired on NBC on June 5, Poe told the audience and judges that he was injured by a rocket-propelled grenade while trying to protect his fellow soldiers in Afghanistan in 2009. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The injury, Poe said, broke his back and gave him a traumatic brain injury, causing a stutter. It wasn’t until a therapist at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio suggested singing in the shower might help his stutter, Poe said, that he turned to music.

“I don't know what to say to a hero like you,” said “America’s Got Talent” judge Howard Stern.

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But almost as soon as the standing ovations Poe received had died away, his story began to fall apart. A lieutenant colonel for the Minnesota National Guard issued a statement saying that Poe’s records didn’t show he was injured by a grenade. His fellow service members began posting online that Poe left Afghanistan due to an ear infection, and that he’d broken his back in an earlier incident back in the United States. Some questioned his stutter, which disappeared completely when he spoke excitedly to “America’s Got Talent” host Nick Cannon after his performance, and pointed out that he was hardly new to singing, as he’d fronted a Minnesota band for years. And it was revealed that Poe had previously claimed medals he didn’t earn, and had provided the talent show with a photo of another soldier from the Department of Defense website when they asked for one of him.

Fans of the show may have been shocked, but Poe's discrepancies didn't faze Jonn Lilyea and Mark Seavey. The two men, both veterans, run the military blog This Ain’t Hell, and they’ve been on the phony soldier beat since 2008.

Related: Supreme Court strikes down Stolen Valor Act

When the Poe story heated up, much of the breaking news was first reported by This Ain’t Hell, as its thousands of readers sent the editors tips and personal anecdotes about the singer.

First, a blog reader who’d met Poe at a golf tournament honoring veterans tipped them off that Poe’s story wasn’t quite adding up.

“She wrote us first thing in the morning (after the show aired) and said hey, you need to get on this,” Seavey told msnbc.com. Soon the blog had posted a blown-up photo of a poster from the tournament showing medals Poe wrongly claimed he earned, and as the story progressed, This Ain’t Hell consistently broke fresh angles on the story, thanks in part to their wide network of readers, as well as the editors’ own dogged research.

At one point, it was revealed that Poe had given the show a photo of another soldier taken in Afghanistan in 2006, when Poe himself was actually there briefly in 2009. A reader of This Ain’t Hell quickly posted a comment thoroughly dissecting the photo and explaining why it couldn’t have been taken in 2009.

“He was in A-stan in 2009 but the picture clearly shows the HMMWV in the patrol as being an M1114 without the Frag 5 kit (the Frag 5 became mandatory in 2007 when I was in Iraq),” the comment read. “He would have been riding in an M1151 which has a completely different configuration for the window on the door.” Few if any mainstream media outlets would have been able to delve into the military detail to that exacting level.

Poe, who was eliminated from the show June 26, was hardly the first to claim false honors and come into the sights of This Ain’t Hell, but he definitely earned them the most attention. “It had a lot to do with the fact that he tugged at (the public’s) heartstrings,” Lilyea said.

But others’ false claims may be even more outlandish. Seavey and Lilyea tell stories of men who Photoshopped their faces into military photos, who got tattoos of medals they didn’t earn, wore Army medals on an Air Force uniform, and who claimed service in Vietnam when they weren’t yet born when that conflict ended.

The blog focuses on varying issues that affect veterans, from post-traumatic stress to the defense budget, but false claims are becoming more and more a part of its coverage area.

“Having been in the military, we come out and everyone wants to tell their story,” Lilyea says. “And you just pick things out that just don’t sound right.” He estimates the blog receives as many as 10 tips a week about false claims, many of which take months to research.

Most of the fakers the blog has exposed do have some military experience, but for whatever reason feel a need to embellish it instead of letting a perfectly honorable, if not headline-making, military career speak for itself.

“To me, it just seems so foreign,” Seavey says of the psychology of those who claim false honors. “You are going to get caught. There is just no doubt.”

It’s obviously important to the men, who work closely together despite living in different states. Lilyea is now a government employee in West Virginia after a 20-year military career, and Seavey is an attorney and veteran  based in Indianapolis who manages the American Legion blog The Burn Pit. 

“(The fakers) present the public with a poor impression of soldiers,” Lilyea says. “If I can prove that they’re not part of our (military) community, then I’m doing my job.”

 Related content:

• Controversial singing vet gets boot on 'AGT'
• Poe says he's 'truly sorry' for incomplete facts
• Vet gave 'America's Got Talent' photo of another soldier
• Singer admits to claiming medals he didn't earn

A new round of NBC News-Marist polls shows President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney running almost neck-and-neck in three key battleground states, with Obama holding a slight advantage in Michigan and North Carolina, and the two candidates tied in New Hampshire.

Click here to read the NBC News/Marist Poll of New Hampshire

In Michigan, Obama is ahead by four percentage points among registered voters, including those who are undecided but are still leaning toward a candidate, 47 to 43 percent.

Click here to read the NBC News/Marist Poll of Michigan

In North Carolina, the president gets 46 percent to Romney's 44 percent, which is within the survey's margin of error.
And in New Hampshire, the two men are tied at 45 percent each.

Click here to read the NBC News/Marist Poll of North Carolina

"Everything is very close," says Lee Miringoff, the director of Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted these surveys.

In 2008, Obama won Michigan and New Hampshire – which had been competitive states in previous presidential elections – by double-digit margins. And he carried North Carolina, a reliably Republican state since 1980, by just 14,000 votes.

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In all three states, Obama's approval rating remains above water -- or right on the surface. In Michigan, 48 percent of registered voters approve of his job, while 42 percent disapprove.

In New Hampshire, it's 47 to 45 percent, and in North Carolina it's 47 to 47 percent.

Romney calls Obamacare 'moral failure'

As for Romney, his favorability rating is upside down in two of the three states. In Michigan, 37 percent say they have favorable impression of the former Massachusetts governor, and 43 percent have an unfavorable opinion. In North Carolina, Romney's fav/unfav is 40-42 percent.

The lone exception is in New Hampshire – which borders Massachusetts, and where Romney owns a home – it's even at 45-45 percent.

Mixed results on the economy
The issue of the economy is a mixed bag in each of these three states, as well.

Majorities say the country is headed in the wrong direction, but nearly equal majorities believe that Obama inherited the current economic conditions.

In Michigan, the president holds a narrow edge over Romney, 44 to 42 percent, when it comes to which candidate would do a better job handling the economy.

Romney, meanwhile, leads on this question in New Hampshire, 46 to 42 percent. And they are tied in North Carolina, at 43 percent.

"The economy plays both ways in all three states," Miringoff says.

Obama leads big with Hispanics, but they're not fired up and ready to go yet

In New Hampshire, adding Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to the GOP presidential ticket doesn't improve Romney's standing in the Granite State.

A Romney-Ayotte team won the support of 43 percent of registered voters, versus 45 percent for Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

In a hypothetical contest for Michigan's Senate seat, incumbent Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow leads former Republican Rep. Pete Hoekstra by 12 points among registered voters, 49 to 37 percent.

NYT: Future of aging court raises stakes of 2012 vote

And in North Carolina's gubernatorial contest, former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee, gets 43 percent, while Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton gets 41 percent.

These three NBC-Marist surveys were conducted June 24-25 by landline and cell phone of 1,078 registered voters in Michigan, 1,029 registered voters in New Hampshire and 1,019 registered voters in North Carolina.

The margin of error for the New Hampshire and North Carolina poll is plus-minus 3.1 percentage points, and it's 3.0 percentage points in Michigan.

WEST JORDAN, Utah -- A 6-year-old girl found dead in a canal near her home was sexually assaulted, police said Wednesday as detectives hunted a suspect.

Authorities in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan said the girl was reported missing by her mother early Tuesday morning. On Wednesday, police ruled Sierra Newbold's death a homicide and said an autopsy determined she had been sexually assaulted.

"At this time no suspects have been identified and we do not have any persons of interest," Police Chief Doug Diamond said.

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"There is obviously a predator out there that is a monster, that has murdered a child," Diamond told NBC station KSL. "Is this predator targeting other children? I have no idea at this point. Our highest priority now is to identify, arrest, and successfully prosecute the person or persons responsible for this crime."

'No need to panic'
The chief said he has increased police patrols in the area and is asking parents to take precautions to protect their children.

"If during the course of this investigation an imminent threat becomes known, we will share that information with our residents immediately," he said. "I believe there's no need to panic at this time."

Diamond said the girl's parents have been cooperating in the investigation.

Speaking to KSL, Diamond declined to provide details about the victim's condition, but added: "There was not a significant amount of trauma on the body."

Reed Newbold, the girl's grandfather, said her mother found her missing from her bedroom early Tuesday.

"We don't have any idea" how the girl disappeared or whether she was taken from the bedroom, Reed Newbold told The Associated Press. "It's a complete mystery."

The parents "are devastated by this," he said. No working telephone number could be found for the parents, and authorities had cordoned off the neighborhood with police tape and patrol cars, where pink and purple ribbons hung on trees and mailboxes.

More news from KSL.com

Officers found Sierra's body in the canal about a block from her home, just 30 minutes after her mother "discovered she was not there and called us," police Sgt. Drew Sanders said.

Sanders declined to comment on any possible motive in the case. Investigators also are withholding a precise chain of events leading to the girl's disappearance.

"We haven't come to any conclusion," Sanders said. He said police have "tons of leads" and "it's paramount we find out who did this."

Police have said there were no signs of a break-in at the family's home, and they declined to release any more details about the case.

KSL's report added:

The case appears to have similarities to an unsolved Salt Lake City homicide that occurred in August 1995. Two days after going missing, the body of 6-year-old Rosie Tapia was found in a canal near her family’s Glendale-area apartment. Police ruled her death to be a murder, but leads eventually ran cold. Rosie would have turned 23 this August.

 

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An alleged thief dubbed the "Oil of Olay bandit" turned himself in to police in Coppell, Texas, on Wednesday, NBCDFW.com reported.

Police said investigators believe Efrain Hardman, 27, had stolen tens of thousands of dollars worth of skincare products.

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Coppell police said Hardman turned himself in at about noon and was booked on a felony theft warrant.

NBC 5 aired a report on Hardman on Tuesday night after police named him the primary suspect in the theft of $40,000 worth of Oil of Olay skincare products.

Get more news from NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

The products were stolen from nearly three dozen North Texas Tom Thumb grocery stores across the Metroplex between December 2011 and Sunday.

Lost his job
Police said Hardman was trying to resell the pilfered skincare products to make a living after he lost his job at an Irving fast food restaurant.

Hardman has been charged with four thefts in Coppell. Police there said other cities are interested in also pressing charges against him.

NBC 5's Ellen Goldberg contributed to this report.

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Logan Black has only one dream about his time in Iraq.

From 2006 to 2007, the former sergeant was deployed in Fallujah, sweeping for improvised explosive devices (IED), ammunition, firearms, grenades and raw bomb materials. He survived firefights and IED attacks.

What Black dreams about, though, is the yellow Labrador -- Diego -- that searched for weapons alongside him. 

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Black, 34, began training with Diego at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri when the dog was a year old. He parted with Diego upon leaving the Army in May 2007. Black has wondered about Diego's fate ever since, leaving phone messages with his unit every six months or so with updated contact information, but said he never heard back.

"I figured he had to be in Afghanistan or Iraq the majority of the time after I left," Black said. "[Diego's safety] was always a concern, but I tried to push that out of my mind. I hoped that he had a handler that kept him safe."

Related: Marine and dog bonded by war, divided by red tape

Black recently turned to a website about military working dog adoptions and posted a request for help to find Diego. He received a response from someone who said he was Diego's second handler. The dog, he said, had been sent back to the U.S. from Iraq in 2008 after another yearlong deployment. 

Determined to reunite with Diego, Black recently started a Facebook and Twitter campaign to locate and adopt the dog. On Monday, he learned that Diego, now 8, is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio as a demonstration aide, teaching other soldiers how to be handlers.

"The greatest thing about this is now I know where he is," said Black, who wants to expedite Diego's adoption.

What many veterans don't know, said Collen McGee, a spokeswoman for the 37th Training Wing at Lackland Air Force Base, is that a prior handler has priority in adopting his or her retiring dog if it is not first assigned to a civilian law enforcement agency.

Those unaware of the adoption process often go to great lengths to reunite with their dogs. McGee said she receives about one Congressional request a month to help a veteran handler adopt a dog. In addition to starting an online campaign, Black took the same approach and reached out to Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., for assistance. Last year, 319 military working dogs from across the services were adopted; about 90 percent of dogs are adopted by their former handlers.

Technical Sergeant Joseph Null, who runs the adoption program for the 341st Training Squadron at Lackland, told msnbc.com that Diego is nearing retirement age, but in the meantime continues to perform a vital role.

"Without dogs like Diego, there would be no military working dog program," he said. "He’s a critical asset to developing future dog handlers."

Black hopes to train Diego as a service dog to help manage post-traumatic stress disorder -- specifically to help calm him down during stressful situations.

His symptoms emerged after returning home to Salt Lake City. That is when the dreams about Diego began, and when he started to notice a hyper-sensitivity to smells and sights that reminded him of Iraq.

Rip Black, Logan's father, said that much of his son's concern around his deployment was for Diego's safety. "This young man and this dog had a bond that very few of us will ever know or understand," he said.

Black worried that Diego had developed PTSD after an IED struck the back of a vehicle the pair was riding in April 2006. Diego leaped from the back seat into Black's lap and shook uncontrollably.

"After that attack, any kind of loud noises would send him into a similar state," said Black. Those noises included base artillery, gun fire and helicopters. Black would calm him down by bringing out Diego's favorite toy, a hard rubber cone. "We were always able to work through it so it never really slowed him down."

Null said that while Diego had been sensitive to loud noises and was eventually de-certified as a specialized search dog, he was never diagnosed with PTSD.

Null is helping Black through the adoption process, but said there is no timeline yet for Diego's retirement.

Black said he will continue campaigning to be reunited with his friend: "Diego has been the biggest wish I've had for a very long time."

Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter here.

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• Father of slain lesbian teen: 'Justice wil be served'
• Video: Home from jail, alleged ‘soccer mom madam’ speaks

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