Elaine Thompson / AP file

George Hickman holds a photo of himself in the cockpit of an AT6 trainer airplane on Jan. 16, 2009. Hickman, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, died Aug. 19, 2012.

George Hickman, a Tuskegee airman decorated as among the first black pilots to fly for the U.S. military during World War II, died over the weekend. 

His wife, Doris, confirmed to the Associated Press that he died on Sunday morning in Seattle. He was 88.

Hickman had a long association with the sports community in Seattle, working as an usher at University of Washington sporting events as well as NFL football games with the Seattle Seahawks.

"Things will be a little different right before we go out on the court not being able to shake the hand of George Hickman," UW men's basketball coach Lorenzo Romar tweeted. "He was one of the most inspirational men that I have ever met."

"George Hickman will be missed. He represented the UW and the Tuskegee airmen with class. I will always appreciate how he treated my family," added UW football coach Steve Sarkisian.

Hickman raised the "12th Man Flag" at a Seahawks game in November.

"He was always quick with a handshake and a smile to those entering the press box and when asked how he was doing, Hickman would answer, 'Blessed to be here,'" the Seahawks' Clare Farnsworth wrote.

In 2007, Hickman traveled with other Tuskegee airmen to Washington, D.C., to receive the Congressional Gold Medal. He also attended President Obama’s inauguration in 2009.

The grandson of slaves, Hickman grew up in St. Louis, and joined the segregated pilot training program in Tuskegee, Ala. in 1943, serving until 1945, according to his Army profile.

theGrio: Oldest living Tuskegee Airman is finally honored

"There was nothing better in the world. In that biplane, the guy wires between the wings were like musical instruments," he told The News Tribune of Tacoma, Wash., in 2011.

But Hickman also recalled in a 2009 Associated Press interview the humiliation of being pushed off sidewalks in the South and spit at while in uniform.

As a cadet captain, he was effectively blocked from flying when he called out white superior officers for the mistreatment of a fellow black cadet. "I felt like I had really been mistreated," he told the AP.

In 1955, he met and married his wife in Amarillo, Texas, while volunteering with her mother at a local library that supplied multi-cultural books to public schools, according to an Army article profiling the Hickmans.

"He was just a wonderful man," Doris Hickman told The Associated Press on Monday.

He moved to Seattle in 1955 to work for Boeing. He retired in 1984.  

NBC station KING-TV and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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It may come as little surprise with this summer's sweaty nights and blistering days across much of the country, but July marked the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States, according to government scientists. Furthermore, drought now covers nearly 63 percent of the Lower 48 states, where average precipitation is 0.19 inch below average.

A bit of hope, though, was seen for some crops in the Midwest thanks to cooler temperatures and rain.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature across the contiguous United States in July was 77.6 Fahrenheit, a full 3.3 degrees above the 20th century average.

The previous warmest July was in 1936, when the nation's average temperature was 77.4 degrees.

The hot July contributed to a record-warm first seven months of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since accurate record keeping started in 1895.

Virginia experienced its warmest July on record, with a statewide temperature a whopping 4 F above average. In all, 32 states had July temperatures among its 10 warmest, with seven states having their second warmest July on record.

While heat and extreme events such as drought and wildfires are often associated with global warming and climate change, it's unclear if the latest pattern is part of a much larger trend. 

Related: Drought socks crops despite recent showers 

"These events are kind of what we'd expect with climate change, we'd expect expanding drought, we'd expect warm, record breaking temperatures," Jake Crouch, a NOAA climate scientist, told NBC News. "But it's kind of hard to pinpoint this month or past several months as a telltale sign that climate change is happening. The drought is more of a local factor and isn't necessarily driven by large scale climate change, but is impacting local temperatures. But we've also seen an increase in U.S. temperatures overall."

Still, there's no doubt this summer is taking a human toll, with warmer nights making it difficult for some people to sleep, and causing physical stress, Crouch said.

And the drought rollls on, with drier-than-average conditions continuing across the Central Plains and Midwest. Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri had July precipitation totals ranking among their 10 driest.

Some rain and cooler temperatures in the drought-stricken Midwest, however, are expected to provide relief for late-season soybeans, but the change in the weather is arriving too late to help the already severely damaged corn crop, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday. 

"It's definitely better than what we've had but I'd be hesitant to call it a drought-buster. Longer-term outlooks still look like a return to warm and dry," said Jason Nicholls, meteorologist for AccuWeather. 

Related: Blame blistering heat waves on global warming, study says

Nicholls said up to three-quarters of an inch of rain, with locally heavier amounts, was expected in roughly 75 percent of the Midwest from Wednesday through Friday morning, and a similar weather system is expected next week.

Though the heat can be uncomfortable, not everyone is complaining. “The heat is definitely a blessing for us after coming off the warm, dry winter without a lot of weather events,” Alan Ayers, general manager at Crisafulli Brothers Plumbing and Heating Contractors in Albany, told The Associated Press.

The 73-year-old company has seen an 18 percent increase in new air conditioner installations over last year and has its 16 technicians working long hours to install, replace and repair units taxed by the swelter.

A storm pattern in the Southwest contributed to California's fifth wettest July on record and Nevada experiencing its eighth wettest, NOAA said. Wetter-than-average conditions were also reported through the rest of the Southwest, along the western Gulf Coast, and through the Ohio Valley where West Virginia had its tenth wettest July.

The warm and dry conditions over a large swath of the United States were seen as ideal wildfire conditions, NOAA said. More than 2 million acres burned nationwide in July because of wildfires. That is nearly half a million acres above average, and the fourth most on record since 2000.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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California Conservation Corps

Veterans train with the California Conservation Corps in May 2012. Branden Gray, left, was recently hired by the U.S. Forest Service on the Laguna Hot Shots crew in Descanso, Calif.

As a staff sergeant in the Marines, Branden Gray received two Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Baghdad, a 7-year-old boy he thought wanted a Snickers candy bar stabbed him in the back. During a raid in Afghanistan, a piece of shrapnel from an improvised bomb severed an artery in his right leg.

"I was in a medically induced coma for a while,” Gray said. “I woke up one day thinking I was in still in Afghanistan, but I heard German voices. I was in a hospital in Germany.” He later was moved stateside to a hospital in Dallas.

After recuperating and fulfilling his four-year contract, Gray, 25, worked on earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Columbia College. But he yearned for a job with the pace he was accustomed to in the special forces of the Marine Corps.

So he joined an elite U.S. Forest Service firefighting crew called the Laguna Hot Shots based in Descanso, Calif., near San Diego. The Hot Shots are friendly rivals of the Smoke Jumpers in fighting wildfires — “the best of the best,” said Gray.

He is one of a many young veterans who instead of holding a weapon this summer, is wielding a chainsaw or firefighting hoe to battle blazes in forests around the country.

“The work is hard,” Gray told msnbc.com in phone call between assignments. “But the people are second to none.”

California Conservation Corps

Veterans train with the California Conservation Corps earlier this year.

Related: Thousands of veterans failing in latest battlefield: college

The discipline and command structure of firefighting crews are similar to the military, firefighters say, and the skills they gained in military service — like working as a team for a common mission — are fully transferable.

“Like the Marines, you can’t be distracted by petty things, you just have to figure out a way to see your objective and stay locked on,” Gray said.

Gray hooked on with the Hot Shots after completing a 10-month training program through the California Conservation Corps (CCC). The California program is one branch of a nationwide effort to move veterans into the work force that includes federal AmeriCorps, the nonprofit Veterans Green Jobs initiative and conservation corps in several states.

 “Veterans have just been through more already by the time the come into the CCC,” said David Muraki, CCC's director. “We are interested in accelerating their transition into the domestic work force.”

Like the military, the work is demanding and the jobs require a high level of physical fitness.

“Our motto is ‘hard work, low pay, miserable conditions,’” said Muraki. 

Since the program began in 2011, more than 130 young veterans have been trained to fight fires through the California Conservation Corps alone, Susanne Levitsky, CCC spokeswoman, told msnbc.com. Two CCC crews of veterans are helping fight wildfires in Utah and Nevada now, she said.

Related: Jobless vets need to think outside military box

Many veterans, like Gray, go on to a future seasonal or full-time jobs with the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management. Gray is a month into his job with the Hot Shots as a seasonal worker and is thinking about a future full-time job.

“Bringing some of that military leadership certainly helped,” Gray said. “And many of the others firefighters here have that experience and put it to good use.”

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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will receive a website, GIBill.com, from a marketing company accused of deceiving veterans by steering them to for-profit colleges while it masqueraded as an unbiased source of information.

QuinStreet, a publicly held Foster City, Calif.-based company, on Wednesday announced that it has entered into an agreement with the attorneys general from 15 states who were investigating the company for potential violations of consumer protection laws.

The company disclosed the settlement in an SEC filing. 

The states involved in the settlement alleged that the company duped users by implying that military education benefits could only be used at schools listed on its website, when in fact it the list of schools was incomplete.

GIBill.com also allegedly said its information was unbiased and comprehensive when in fact only clients of the company were listed on the site.

Related: Pentagon, Congress eye new payday loan rules

"This company preyed on our veterans who received educational benefits as a result of their military service to our country," Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said in a news release after the settlement. "The actions were unconscionable and purposefully drove veterans to for-profit colleges who were perhaps more interested in getting their hands on the federal benefits than in educating our soldiers and their families."

While it admits no wrongdoing, QuinStreet is donating the website’s address to Veterans Affairs and is paying $2.5 million to reimburse states for investigation costs, according to the SEC filing on the case.

Related: Feds move to help out underwater military homeowners

QuinStreet runs hundreds of websites that collect a fee by driving users to educational institutions.

Current disclaimers on GIBIll.com point out there is no affiliation with the government. However, a year ago the disclaimers were absent from the site, ArmyTimes.com reported. 

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Federal regulators on Thursday moved to protect underwater homeowners in the military from financial ruin when they move from one base to another.

New guidance warns mortgage servicers that federal agencies will crack down on unfair, abusive or deceptive practices on military members who have received Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders.

Among the practices of concern are failing to give service members accurate information on federal mortgage assistance programs, urging them to waive special protections or advising customers to skip payments in order to get help.

In a corresponding move, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the service members being transferred will be automatically approved to sell their home at market rates even if it is lower than their mortgage amount – a move called a short sale.

About one-third of active duty service members are ordered to move each year. And, according to the Department of Defense, 70 percent of the 1.2 million active duty service members do not live in military housing -- with an estimated 185,000 owning their own homes.

In some cases, service members required to move have faced forcelosure, or had to leave families in the old home.

Many of those families live in California, Nevada, Texas, Florida and other areas hardest hit by the real estate market collapse, Holly Petraeus, who oversees service member affairs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told msnbc.com.

“I hope that it’s reassuring for them to know that someone is looking out for them,” Petraeus, said. "I hope that when they have those questions when they get their orders that they will be able to go to their servicer and get an answer to their questions -- and get them in a timely manner.”

The guidance calls for the mortgage servicers to train employees about all options for homeowners with PCS orders, and compels them to comply with all existing laws or face additional scrutiny and perhaps referral to law enforcement.

The Federal Reserve, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration and the Office of Comptroller of the Currency issued the guidance.

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/

Crew walk to the U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft at MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida in 2008.

The Air Force has fired the commander of a special operations squadron a week after a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in his unit crashed in Florida, NBC News confirmed on Thursday.

Lt. Col. Matt Glover, who commanded the 8th Special Operations Squadron based at Hurlburt Field in Florida, was relieved from his duties because of a loss of confidence, a military official told NBC News.

The Osprey, designed to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a twin turboprop airplane, crashed on a training mission north of Navarre, Fla., on June 13 in a 750-square mile military training area called the Elgin Range. Five crew members were hospitalized with injuries.

On Wednesday, two of the airmen injured in the crash remained in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the Air Force reported. Officials are investigating.

This crash, along with a fatal MV-22 crash in Morocco in April, have raised new safety concerns among Japanese leaders and citizens ahead of an expected deployment of MV-22 Ospreys to Japan, NBC News reported. The MV-22 is the Marine Corps' version of the same aircraft.

Two Marines were killed in that crash and two more were more seriously wounded. The investigation determined that the crash was not a result of mechanical failure.

In an attempt to assuage safety concerns, several senior U.S. military officials at the Pentagon on Friday will brief a Japanese delegation on the preliminary results of the investigation into the June crash, NBC News reported.

The CV-22 Osprey’s mission is to conduct long-range infiltration, extraction and resupply missions for special operations forces, according to the U.S. Air Force web site.

The Air Force version is filled with sophisticated technology, including a missile defense system, terrain-following radar, a forward-looking infrared sensor and other electronic gear that enable it to avoid detection and defend itself on special operations missions over enemy territory, the Associated Press reported.

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Brendan Haas earned a prize any young kid would appreciate — an all-expenses paid trip to Disney World. Instead of going, though, the Massachusetts boy gave the vacation to the family of a soldier killed in Afghanistan.

Haas earned the trip through a trading contest on Facebook he set up to help out a military family. He got the idea from the story of a man who traded up from a red paper clip to a house.

In February, Brendan and his mother Melissa set up the "Soldier for a Soldier" Facebook page in an attempt to trade up from a toy soldier to a Disney trip.

Through a series of trades on the social network site, he managed to amass Disney gift certificates worth almost $900 as well as airfare and a stay at a Disney resort hotel.

On Memorial Day, the boy pulled the name of 2-year-old Liberty Hope Steele out of a hat. She is the daughter of U.S. Army Lt. Timothy Steele, 25, who was killed last August in Afghanistan.

“I think it would make them a lot happier,” Brendan Haas said.

It turned out that Timothy Steele’s parents live in nearby Duxbury, Mass., so Brendan went over to the family’s home and surprised the soldier’s parents with the news of the trip.

The story was first reported by NBC station WHDH-TV.

“Tim was pretty special to us,” Jack Steele, Timothy’s father told WDHT-TV. “He knew what he wanted to do at a very young age.”

Haas' ingenuity, sacrifice and thoughtfulness led to an outpouring of admiration on Facebook.

“Your one amazing young man,” wrote Ann Marie Smith Braga, “Our family lives on Hanscom AFB in Bedford, Mass. We are an active duty Army family. I want to thank you from all the Army families here at Hanscom.” 

“Your parents must be so proud of you,” wrote Cheryl Simoes-Buente. “I hope you always will be such a caring and amazing person. God bless you for your thoughtfulness!!!”

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Nearly five years after the 9/11 Commission Act recommended that 100 percent of cargo aboard passenger planes be screened, The Transportation Security Administration has announced a deadline to meet the requirement.

TSA on Wednesday set Dec. 3, 2012, as the mark for carriers to conduct full cargo screening on international flights bound for the United States. As of that date, all cargo on international flights must undergo screening for explosives, TSA said in a press release.

The system adds additional “risk-based, intelligence-driven procedures,” before items are shipped and “enhanced screening” for shipments designated at a higher risk, TSA said.

Postal Service ban on overseas delivery of iPads, smart phones hits troops

“Harmonizing security efforts with our international and industry partners is a vital step in securing the global supply chain,” TSA Administrator John S. Pistole said in a news release announcing the deadline. “By making greater use of intelligence, TSA can strengthen screening processes and ensure the screening of all cargo shipments without impeding the flow of commerce.”

Air carriers often transport commercial items in their jets' cargo holds. On larger planes, numerous containers sealed by the shipper -- roughly the size of a Volkswagen beetle -- fill up the space.

Douglas R. Laird, president of Laird & Associates, Inc., an aviation security consulting firm, says just because 100 percent of cargo is screened doesn’t mean that nothing could slip through detection.

“That sounds good on its face, but there really is no good technology to fully screen some of the larger cargo, like containers,” Laird told msnbc.com, noting that the newest computerized machines are good at sniffing out potential explosives in suitcases and packages, but aren't useful on such cargo as containers and and other big items like high-end cars that end up on airplanes.  

Risk-based intelligence, he explained, is essentially profiling the shipper to determine whether that company or individual poses a potential risk. A terrorist, however, could try to target a shipping company by getting a job there.

“Everyone want’s 100 percent, but the only problem is there is no such thing as 100 percent,” he said.

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Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

President Obama presents Rose Mary Sabo-Brown with a Medal of Honor for her late husband, Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

President Barack Obama presented the country’s highest military decoration to the family of Army Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr., who was killed protecting fellow soldiers from an ambush in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The 22-year-old Army rifleman killed several North Vietnamese soldiers, shielded a comrade from a grenade blast and forced a retreat in a battle that took place on May 10, 1970.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown,  in the East Room of the White House.

"He saved  his comrades who meant more to him than life," Obama said at the ceremony, while also saluting other Vietnam War veterans. Members of Sabo's unit, Bravo Company, were in attendance and received a standing ovation.

"A piece of metal won't bring back my husband," Sabo-Brown told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an interview. "But my heart beams with pride for Leslie because he's finally getting what's due to him. I will show it proudly for him for the rest of my life."

Spc. 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr. is shown during his tour with Company B, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He will receive the Medal of Honor May 16 for his valor in Vietnam.

The records of the Pennsylvania man's heroics were lost in military archives for decades before being re-discovered in 1999 by a magazine writer researching Vietnam era Medal of Honor recipients.

Related: Soldier to receive posthumous Medal of Honor for heroic actions in 1970 Cambodia battle

Sabo’s platoon was on patrol in the Se San River valley in Cambodia when they were ambushed by a larger North Vietnamese force.

Sabo quickly charged and killed several enemy soldiers. Then, according to the White House, Sabo rushed at another oncoming flanking force and drew fire away from American troops, forcing the North Vietnamese to retreat.

As Sabo was reloading his rifle, a grenade landed nearby. He picked it up, threw it and shielded a fellow soldier with his own body. Wounded from the blast and enemy fire, he continued to fight, storming an enemy emplacement and throwing another grenade. The grenade explosion silenced the enemy, but also killed Sabo, the White House said.

Sabo’s remains were shipped home in a body bag marked “Remains Unfit for Viewing,” his hometown newspaper, the Ellwood City Ledger, reported. His father and namesake died in 1977 without knowing the full story of his son’s death.

A citation recommending Sabo for the Medal of Honor was lost after the war, but resurfaced in 1999 when Alton “Tony” Mabb, a writer for a military association magazine, was researching Vietnam-era Medal of Honor recipients at the National Archives.

Mabb contacted Sabo's widow and met with her and other members of his platoon at the Vietnam Veteran's War Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2002, according to an account in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mabb also contacted U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, who wrote the Defense Department requesting that Sabo's actions be recognized. In 2006, Sabo was recommended for the Medal of Honor by the Secretary of the Army.

It took an act of Congress to extend the time limit for the medal, which was passed in the 2008 defense authorization act.

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American troops sold $2 million worth of weapons and combat gear, including assault rifles and night vision goggles to street gangs and to foreign countries, including China, in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy uncovered by a Navy probe, according to military officials.

A two-year undercover investigation has implicated more than 60 individuals, an official with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) told The Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C. Many of those involved were stationed at Camp Lejeune, a sprawling coastal Marine Corps installation that is home to special operations and expeditionary forces.

Some of the equipment was sold over eBay and Craigslist, though weapons and ammunition were also sold at yard sales and in secretive face-to-face meetings, according to the paper.

Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com

The Navy probe eventually spilled into other military branches, including the Army and Air Force.

In all, $1.8 million worth of equipment has been recovered as a result of the investigation. Officials said that in addition to the assault rifles and night vision goggles, $800 flashlights were recovered as a result of the probe.

Panetta: Misconduct threatens war effort

“We’re talking about sophisticated, high-tech flashlights that cost the government up to $800 per unit. The temptation and ease with which to steal and sell them, for some, is irresistible,” an unnamed military official told Stars & Stripes, which confirmed the report.

So far, 47 service members and 21 civilians have been charged. About half of those have been to trial, with many pleading guilty to the offenses, Ed Buice, an NCIS spokesman, told The Daily News.

Two Marines have been convicted in the case, The Daily News reported.

Sgt. Daniel Adam Reich was convicted Monday of selling and attempting to sell military property as well as conspiracy. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison and given a dishonorable discharge.

Capt. Donald E. Pump Jr. last week was convicted of attempting to sell military property and conspiracy. He was dismissed from the Marine Corps and sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Though cases of what is sometimes called "mailing the war home" aren't unusual, the scope of the investigation and the number of people allegedly involved points to a deeper problem of checks and balances in how combat equipment is accounted for, Philip Cave, a Washington military attorney, told msnbc.com.

"Who's minding the store? Where's the accountability? Where's the supervision and leadership?” Cave said. “Somehow these people figured out how to beat the system."

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An animal rights group's release of a video showing a goat's legs being removed with what appear to be tree trimmers has prompted the Coast Guard to defend the use of live animals in combat medical training.

The Coast Guard said it could not verify that the video posted on YouTube by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on Wednesday involved its personnel, The Associated Press reported. But the AP reported that Lt. Cmdr. Jamie C. Frederick, spokesman for the Atlantic area, wrote in an email that the Coast Guard does use "live tissue training using live animals."

The animals appear to be anesthetized in the video, which was purportedly shot in Virginia Beach, Va. In addition to the use of tree trimmers, instructors stab the animals with scalpels and pull out internal organs -- which a narrator and a PETA blog post say was done to simulate injuries. The blog post said that veterinarians who viewed the video said the animals' movements indicate that the goats may not have been adequately anesthetized. At one point, one of the men in video calls for more anesthesia.

PETA said the video was taken by a whistleblower and showed military instructors contracted by the Coast Guard. The faces of the participants are blurred.

Justin Goodman, PETA's associate director of lab investigations, told msnbc.com the group was able to verify the video's authenticity by checking the credentials of the person who leaked it and by cross-referencing the medical training company involved with government contracts.

Tens of thousands of people have responded to a plea on the group's website urging the Pentagon to stop the use of animals in medical trauma training, Goodman said.

"We're still waiting to get a response from the Coast Guard," Goodman said.

Other branches of the military use similar training on goats and pigs, the AP reported, to prepare medics and front-line troops for treating catastrophic injuries in the field of battle. The AP said the Pentagon declined to respond to a request for comment about the video.

"Animals used in trauma training are supported and monitored by well-trained, experienced veterinary staff to ensure that appropriate anesthesia and analgesia prevent them from experiencing pain or distress," Frederick wrote to the AP.

Graphic warning: Video in PETA blog post

He said the training has also proved invaluable in noncombat situations, such as when Coast Guard members were the first to respond to Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake, the AP reported.

But some medical professionals say the practice is cruel and unnecessary and have signed a letter, drafted by PETA, to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta seeking an end to the practice, the AP said.

"Learning how to apply a tourniquet on a severed goat's leg does not help prepare medical providers to treat an anatomically different human being wounded on the battlefield," Dr. Michael P. Murphy, an associate professor of surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who served two tours of duty in Iraq, told the AP.

U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a California Democrat, has introduced legislation, HR1417, to phase out use of live animals by the military in training. So far, he has 49 cosponsors. But he told the AP that he has faced opposition from the Defense Department.

 PETA advocates the use of humanlike simulators for military training, like the one shown in this YouTube video.

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Seminole County Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler took herself off George Zimmerman's second-degree murder case on Wednesday because of a possible conflict of interest.

The new judge on the case is Judge Kenneth Lester Jr., a 15-year veteran who has heard death penalty cases, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, 17, during a scuffle in a gated community in Sanford, Fla.

Zimmerman, a block watch volunteer, has pleaded not guilty, claiming it was self-defense.

The killing of Martin on Feb. 26, and a long delay in an arrest or charges in the case, sparked protests across the nation as well as emotionally charged debate about race relations and self-defense laws.

Martin is black, and Zimmerman is white and Hispanic.

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey ordered Zimmerman’s arrest and filed charges last week. Recksiedler was assigned to the case at that time.

Recksiedler is on a temporary assignment for the Florida Supreme Court.

Zimmerman is being held in Seminole County Jail while he awaits a bail hearing, scheduled for Friday. That hearing will decide if Zimmerman will be released on bail pending trial, and the amount of money he would need to post.

“The goal is to have a new judge in place in order to make that hearing,” Michelle Kennedy, court spokeswoman, told msnbc.com on Wednesday.

Zimmerman’s defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, on Monday requested that Recksiedler surrender the case because of a conflict of interest. Her husband is a partner in a law firm that includes Mark NeJame, an attorney who provides on-air analysis of the case for CNN. Zimmerman’s family also had approached NeJame about representing him, but NeJame declined.

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