By Aarne Heikkila, Producer, NBC News

YORBA LINDA, CALIF. -- It was 40 years ago that hundreds of Vietnam-era Prisoners of War were saluted at the biggest White House dinner ever following their release in a prisoner exchange. Richard Nixon was president then, and on Friday at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., nearly 200 of those P.O.W.'s came together once more.

Below, we've posted some of the archival photos from the original event, which took place on May 24, 1973. 

Here, President Nixon and his wife, Pat Nixon, sing "God Bless America" with Irving Berlin, the original composer of the song. 

There were about 600 Prisoners of War that night in the State Department Auditorium. At the time, it was the largest dinner ever held at the White House.

Nixon Library and Museum

One of the men being welcomed home was future Arizona Sen. John McCain, who had been a P.O.W. for six years. 

Oliver F. Atkins / Nixon Library and Museum

President Nixon shakes hands with Lieutenant John McCain in the receiving line at a welcome home ceremony for returned POW's in the State Department Auditorium.

The veterans were accompanied by wives, mothers and significant others. 

White House Photo Office Collect / Nixon Library and Museum

Also in attendance: Julie Nixon Eisenhower and her husband, David Eisenhower.

White House Photo Office Collect / Nixon Library and Museum

President Nixon and his wife Pat entertained the crowd by singing "God Bless America" alongside Irving Berlin, the original composer of the song. 

White House Photo Office Collect / Nixon Library and Museum

The next day, Col. John Dramesi gave President Nixon an American flag made from handkerchiefs and scraps of material that he created while in captivity. The Dramesi flag has since become a symbol of the POW ordeal, according to the Nixon Library. 

Nixon Library and Museum

Rick Bowmer / AP

A Davis County law enforcement official walks from the garage Thursday at a home where two young boys were found dead Wednesday night in West Point, Utah.

A 15-year-old boy is in custody after authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of his younger adopted brothers found him miles away with traces of blood on him, officials said.

He was arrested Thursday in the deaths of the boys, ages 4 and 10, at the family home in a Utah subdivision of new houses and tidy lawns, police said.

"He spoke bluntly with our investigators," said Davis County Sheriff Todd Richardson.

County Attorney Troy Rawlings said he wasn't prepared to file charges. He was trying to find out more about the boy and killings that stunned the community, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.

Officials described the older brother as an honor student and a long-distance runner on the track team — when his mother wasn't home-schooling him, while neighbors said he was socially awkward with a speech impediment.

"I'm still in shock," neighbor Karin Jackson said Thursday. "This is a wonderful neighborhood and the kids are usually outside playing."

The younger brothers died from knife wounds following the attack, according to a preliminary report by the medical examiner, and the 15-year-old allegedly acted alone, apparently on an impulse, Richardson said.

At first he was thought to be a third victim, missing from the crime scene, and police publicized his name while looking for him. The Associated Press is withholding his name because of his age.

"There are more questions than answers at this point," Rawlings said. "This teen in custody has a presumption of innocence. Facts are being gathered to assist with critical decisions."

The 15-year-old and his two younger brothers had been left home alone. The family has six children, and police said their mother took the other children to a dance recital, returning to find first one body, then another. Their father, reportedly a Department of Defense engineer, was away in Alabama.

Nobody was at the home throughout much of Thursday, when the home was cordoned off by police tape, and the parents couldn't be reached.

Four of the family's six children are adopted, and neighbors spoke highly of them.

But the 15-year-old was "different," said Scott Green, an ex-neighbor who said he once found him throwing dozens of rocks over a fence onto his trampoline.

The father is an engineer working for the Air Force, Green said. At first, authorities said he was active duty military, but later said they weren't certain about his status with what they believed was the Air Force. The couple had spent time in South Korea before moving to Utah, Green said.

The 10-year-old adopted boy spent a lot of time at his house, playing with Green's daughter — "best of pals," he said.

The 15-year-old was enrolled as a ninth grader at West Point Junior High, member of the National Honors Society and a distance runner on the track team, Davis School District spokesman Chris Williams told The Salt Lake Tribune and KSL-TV.

Williams said the youths' parents moved them in and out of public school over the years, sometimes home-schooling them.

Neighbors interviewed by The Associated Press were unanimous: The 15-year-old kept to himself and wasn't seen except when jogging.

"We never had a history file on him, except for the time he did a runaway," Richardson said.

It was two or three years ago, police and neighbors said. After a 7-hour search, according to the Standard-Examiner of Ogden, police found him four miles away at a Wendy's restaurant, KSL reported.

The sheriff said the 15-year-old had undisclosed, minor injuries when found late Wednesday walking along a street in nearby Layton. The injuries were consistent with having been involved in an attack, said Richardson. He declined to elaborate.

"It's very sad," said Lindsey Caballero, a young mother who lives directly across the street from the suspect's home. "It's scary. It goes to show you never know what's happening."

Richard Freeda for NBC News

Dave Knapp, 86, was a district scout executive for 10 years, and decades later he was asked to return to recruit other adult leaders. He picketed in front of every BSA council office in Connecticut to protest the membership policy.

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- After years of dedication to an organization that ultimately didn't want them, former gay adult leaders with the Boy Scouts of America were elated to see the group finally accept openly gay youth. But the moment was tinged with bitterness, because as gay adults, they remain stuck on the outside.

Members of the BSA cast the historic ballots on Thursday to change the controversial membership guidelines that had dogged the organization in recent years.

“It's a very strange feeling because I think we feel like we've had a great victory, but we still realize that … when we go back to our respective hometowns, we're still not going to be welcome as adults. We're still going to be discriminated against. So as pleased as we are that something has happened, clearly we were left out of this and will continue to be left out for some time,” said Greg Bourke, 55, of Louisville, Ky., who was forced to resigned as assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 325 last year over his homosexuality.

“It's bittersweet … and it's frustrating, but it's also motivating because we now have this sense that the BSA is finally willing to change and they've taken the first step,” he added.

Dave Knapp, of Guilford, Conn., was a district scout executive for 10 years, and decades later he was asked to return to recruit other adult leaders. He said he realized he was gay later in life.

“I was elated and weary (by the decision) because I've been fighting them since 1993. … I felt like I was David against Goliath,” said the 86-year-old Knapp. “How can one person, even with all the help of all the organizations, combat this ... most prestigious youth organization in the country?”

Knapp's method of choice was public protest. He picketed in front of every BSA council office in Connecticut.

Jennifer Tyrrell, 33, a lesbian who was ousted as den leader from her son's Tiger Cub pack in Bridgeport, Ohio, used the Internet to get her message out, as did Bourke.

As the controversy over the gay ban grew last year, first with Tyrrell's ouster in April, then Bourke's in August and then that of a gay California teen denied his Eagle rank in September, the group of former Scout volunteers turned LGBT activists found each other.

“What I think is interesting ... is the way our stories unfolded independently,” Bourke said. “I knew the policy was out there but I really wasn't aware of” the movement to let gays to join. “I was just out there because my son … wanted to be a Scout and my troop needed people to be leaders,” he added, echoing Tyrrell's path to the Cub Scouts for her son Cruz.

Though Bourke can still participate informally as a parent, he -- like the others -- misses the deeper connections to Scouting he used to have.

“We have this crazy dichotomy where we've been harmed by this organization irreparably and yet we have to defend it all the time and tell everyone how great it is,” Bourke said.

Tom Pennington / Getty Images

Activists, including Greg Bourke, second from left, and Jennifer Tyrrell, to his right, deliver boxes containing 1.4 million signatures urging the Boy Scouts of America to reverse the organization's ban on LGBT Scouts on February 4, 2013 in Irving, Texas.

“So we're promoting Scouting ... because I believe in it,” Knapp said, noting he still tries to do a "good turn" every day, referring to the Boy Scouts' motto of doing a good deed daily. “My mother lived to be 99. I'm 86. So I'm hoping that before I get to be 99 (they let gay adults in). And I tell everybody I'm going to fight till the day I die. I'm not going to give up.”

The fight has taken its toll. Tyrrell said it was hard to hold down a job with the demands of an ongoing campaign.

“God knows, I've definitely wanted to bow out a lot of times," she said. "It's so mentally and physically draining. Like I said we've literally put out life on hold.”

Yet she carries on: “I feel attached to the people that have reached out to me saying thank you for speaking when I couldn't ... All of those people I feel obligated to. I feel obligated to Cruz (her son) to teach him that we do not back down from people that try to tell us that we are lesser than anyone else.”

Tyrrell said she has severed ties to her former pack, and she won't go back to Scouting until all families are included.

But Bourke, whose son Isaiah, 15, is a Scout, still participates informally.

“I definitely have come to admire his dedication,” Tyrrell said. “I think it takes a stronger person to stay involved.”

Bourke said he stayed because he wanted to dispel the myth that some harm would come from gays serving as adult leaders. Next week, he will lead the Scouts on a charity walk over three days that he has organized for five years.

Though it's at times difficult to stay on, he does so because he wants “to continue to demonstrate to people that an openly gay person can function as a Scout leader because I'm still basically doing almost everything I used to do before and no harm comes from it,” he said. “No children are damged in any way, they still look to me as a leader. I'm just trying to prove that this model works ... It's okay, world, to have a gay scout leader. It's possible, it's being done.”

If you are a current or former member of the Boy Scouts and would like to share your thoughts on how your troop, pack or council is handling the change in the membership policy, you can email the reporter at miranda.leitsinger@msnbc.com. We may use some comments for a follow-up story, so please specify if your remarks can be used and provide your name, hometown, age, Boy Scout affiliation and a phone number.

Related:

Elaine Thompson / AP

The north end of the Interstate 5 bridge crossing the Skagit River lies collapsed in the water on Friday, in Mount Vernon, Wash. A truck carrying an oversize load struck the four-lane bridge on the major thoroughfare between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River below Thursday evening. All three occupants suffered only minor injuries. At an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed the collapse on a tractor-trailer carrying a tall load that hit an upper part of the span.

The Washington state bridge collapse that spilled two cars into the Skagit River could give Americans pause as they hit the roads for Memorial Day holiday travel.

With good reason.

This weekend, millions will cross 66,000 bridges that the federal government has deemed "structurally deficient," meaning key elements are in poor condition.

The Federal Highway Administration hastens to note that label doesn't mean they are unsafe or in danger of collapse, but transportation advocates say it highlights a growing crisis of aging infrastructure, deferred maintenance and rebuilding, and design flaws.

"We don't expect an epidemic of collapses — that's the extreme," said Dan Goldberg, communications director for Transportation for America, a coalition that identified the busiest deficient bridges in the nation in a 2011 report.

"We are going to see probably some more of this, but the more likely scenario is contending with the issues of decay that happen before the collapse."

Big potholes, weight restrictions and lane closings are some of the inconveniences bridge users face unless reconstruction and replacement is ramped up across the nation, Goldberg said.

The Interstate 5 bridge in Mount Vernon, Wash., which apparently crumpled after being hit by an oversized truck, was not on the Federal Highway Administration's structurally-deficient list.

Famed spans aren't the problem. San Francisco's Golden Gate, for instance, is in pretty good shape. The Brooklyn Bridge is undergoing a massive rehabilitation project to correct its deficiencies.

But hundreds of less glamorous bridges — many of them generic overpasses that take commuters over cross streets or other highways — remain vulnerable.

Here are six crossings, together used by more than 1 million vehicles each day, that don't make the grade:

Maryland DOT

A view of I-695 crossing over Liberty Road in Maryland in August 2012.

I-76 over Klemm Ave. in Gloucester, N.J.: The deck and superstructure are in poor condition on this 11-lane interstate overpass that dates to 1956. More than 191,000 vehicles use it every day, and $30 million has been earmarked for deck replacement.

IS-695 over Milford Mill Road in Baltimore, Md.: Built in 1961 and reconstructed in 1979, this eight-lane overpass on the Baltimore Beltway has a deck and substructure in poor condition. But good news for nearly 190,000 vehicles that cross each day: It will be replaced in a two-year project starting this summer.

Halona St. Bridge in Honolulu, Hawaii: Built in 1938, this slab bridge over the Kapalama Canal is not slated for replacement until 2019. Some 184,000 vehicles travel the two-lane crossing, which has a deck and substructure in poor condition. 

Colorado DOT

A view of the I-70 bridge over Havana Street in Denver, Colo. E-17-JP

I-70 over Havana St. in Denver, Colo.: This 10-lane structure, which has a deck and substructure in poor condition, is slated for a rebuild in the next few years. Built in 1964 and reconstructed in 1978, it services 183,000 vehicles a day.

I-278 approach to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in Staten Island, N.Y.: On an average day, 182,700 vehicles take this overpass to a majestic double-decker bridge. The substructure of the two-lane approach, built in 1961, is in poor condition.

I-95 over Hendricks Ave. in Jacksonville, Fla.: The deck is in poor condition on this nine-lane section of interstate that handles 121,000 vehicles a day. Built in 1959 and reconstructed in 1989, it is undergoing a replacement.

Source: Information about the structures was compiled by Nationalbridges.com, a website that analyzes data in the Federal Highway Administration's national bridge inventory.

Splash News

Ibragim Todashev is seen in 2009 at the Massachusetts gym where Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev trained.

The friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev who law enforcement forces said was shot and killed Wednesday after being questioned by the FBI about a brutal 2011 Boston-area homicide was a promising if somewhat forgettable mixed martial artist, fellow practitioners of the sport said.

Chris Palmquist, who operates the official registry for amateur and professional MMA fighters, said Ibragim Todashev, 27, fought his matches under the name Ibrahim Tody. “I don’t know if it was an alias he gave or if it was just a misspelling. Or a promoter could have entered him,” said Palmquist, who fought Todashev once in a competition about four years ago.

There was “nothing that stood out” about Todashev when the two faced off in a 2009 New England grappling competition, a video of which is online.

In another video from 2009, this one showing an MMA bout at American Steel Cage Fighting in New Hampshire, the man who was shot on Wednesday strides into the circular ring to the thumping bass of Cypress Hill’s song “Rock Superstar”: “You want to be a rock superstar and live large / A big house, five cars, you’re in charge.”

The announcer introduces him as “hailing” from Chechnya, a “freestyle fighter” with a “perfect amateur mixed martial arts record with four victories in all four of his bouts.” Before the start of the three-round fight – which Todashev would lose – two bikini-clad card girls circle the ring.

Courtesy of Gary Marino

Ibragim Todashev weighing in at a 2009 mixed martial arts competition in Salem, New Hampshire.

Todashev is credited in that video with fighting for Wai Kru, the same gym in Allston, Mass., frequented by Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The man’s father, Abdul Baki Todashev, told NBC News in a phone interview from Chechnya that his son and Tamerlan Tsarnaev “went to the same gym for boxing classes.”

His son and Tsarnaev, the older bombing suspect who was killed in a shootout with police, “never were close friends,” he said.

Mixed martial arts is a popular, full-contact fighting sport in which competitors use boxing and martial arts skills combined with grappling and wrestling moves to defeat their opponent. The introduction of the Ultimate Fighting Championship brought mixed martial arts to greater attention in the United States in the early 1990s.

A matchmaker who organized the 2009 fight in New Hampshire, Gary Marino, said he remembered Todashev from the Wai Kru gym and the weigh-in before the bout.

“I remember that kid, the way he looked at me was weird, he kind of looked right through you,” Marino said. “He was very quiet but he kind of looked right through you like he didn’t know what you were talking about.”

Palmquist also trained MMA fighter Evan Scott, who fought Todashev in his last sanctioned amateur MMA bout. Scott beat the 5-foot-9, 160-pound Todashev with an armbar submission in the second round.

“You get a fair mix of guys who come from solid backgrounds, and then you get guys who probably shouldn’t be fighting already but just kind of jump in there,” Palmquist said. “He was definitely a pretty good amateur fighter. He definitely came from some kind of wrestling background.”

Todashev fought a total of six sanctioned amateur matches, winning four and losing two, according to his official MMA record. He fought one unsanctioned amateur bout in February 2012, and one sanctioned professional bout in July of that year, winning both.

Todashev applied for a mixed martial arts license with the Florida State Boxing Commision on July 26, 2012. On an application for a national MMA identification card filed on the same day, he wrote that he had four years of experience in the sport. The Florida license was issued in August 2012 and expired in December of that year, according to the state department of business and professional regulation.

He spent at least some of that time training at The Jungle MMA and Fitness, a gym that bills itself as “Central Florida’s Premier Spot” for MMA training. He did not fight any matches through the gym, according to staff there.

AP Photo / Orange County Corrections Department

In this May 4, 2013 police mug provided by the Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando, Fla., shows Ibragim Todashev after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando. Todashev, who was being questioned in Orlando by authorities in the Boston bombing probe, was fatally shot Wednesday, May 22, 2013 when he initiated a violent confrontation, FBI officials said.

“He was here for about maybe two months about a year and a half ago,” said gym manager John Morehouse.

Todashev was “pretty unmemorable,” Morehouse said. “You know, your basic guy, come in, take a class. I don’t think he had any friends here.”

Law enforcement sources have said Todashev had two prior run-ins with the law and had confessed to involvement in a 2011 triple murder before he was shot. People familiar with MMA said if he did have a violent past, it’s not typical of the sport’s practitioners. Most amateur and professional fighters are no more violent outside the ring than anyone else, they said.

Mark Tullius fell into the world of amateur MMA after graduating with a degree in sociology from Brown University. After being active in the sport from 1998 to 2002, Tullius abandoned it because he was “turned off by the violence,” he said. Over the past year, he has traveled to 15 states and interviewed more than 250 mixed martial arts fighters to figure out what makes them tick.

“Ninety-five to 97 percent of them are just awesome people,” Tullius said of the fighters and their coaches.

“I think when a lot of people go to the gym, they’re looking for something they’re missing,” Tullis said. “There are lots of different kinds of fighters. Lots of today’s fighters are wrestlers who are just super competitive and are looking for another way to compete.”

While pro MMA matches are regulated, amateur competition often goes on with little oversight, according to Gregory Sirb, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission and former president of the Association of Boxing Commissions. Amateur mixed martial arts competitions are banned in West Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Colorado, and North Dakota, according to the ABC. Bouts at the amateur level go on completely unregulated in 11 states, the organization says.

“It’s horrible,” Sirb said. “For a sport that’s so violent – this sport screams for oversight.”

While amateur match-ups may not be heavily regulated by the states, experienced fighters tend to have their own code of conduct, Tullius said, an ethic Todashev violated in at least two incidents when he appears to have used his fighting abilities well outside the ring.

"Some places will say if you get into a fight you're not training here," Tullius said. "And a professional would not want to do that."

Todashev was arrested in Boston in 2010 after aggressively confronting two women following an accident involving his van and their car, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office told NBC affiliate WHDH. There were no injuries and no charges were pressed, authorities said.

He was arrested a second time this year, for aggravated battery on May 4, after allegedly getting into a fight with a man and his son over a parking space in Orlando, according to an Orange County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit. Todashev told officers he was a mixed martial artist before being transported to the booking and release center, according to the affidavit.

“This skill puts his fighting ability way above that of a normal person,” the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.

Todashev was released the next day on a $3,500 surety bond.

Related:

• Father of slain man linked to Boston bombing suspect maintains son's innocence
• Man with ties to Boston bombing suspect admits role in 2011 murders; shot during FBI questioning

An airport shuttle bus crashed into a tractor-trailer near Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport late Friday morning, injuring at least 16 people, including a child, local hospitals and officials said.

Six patients were transported in fair condition to Atlanta Medical Center, Nicole Gustin, spokesperson for the hospital, said. The vicms included five adults and a child.

Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital received 10 patients, two of whom were in serious condition upon arrival, according to Grady spokesperson Denise Simpson. The other eight had minor injuries.

Atlanta Fire Rescue Department spokeswoman Janet Ward said 18 people had been on the shuttle bus at the time, and said it crashed into the tractor-trailer Friday morning.

NBC News

An airport shuttle bus crashed into a tractor-trailer near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Friday morning.

According to NBC Atlanta affiliate WXIA, the shuttle bus serves hotels north of the airport, and was headed to the airport when the crash happened. 

Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest airport in the world, averaging nearly 2,500 arrivals and departures per day.

This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 12:09 PM EDT

Nearly 30 New Jersey bars and restaurants have been accused of filling top-shelf liquor bottles with lower-quality hooch, including one establishment that allegedly passed off caramel-colored rubbing alcohol as scotch, state officials said Thursday.

The rotgut roundup, dubbed “Operation Swill,” targeted 29 establishments and involved more than 100 investigators, Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa and Division of Alcohol and Beverage Control Director Michael Halfacre said.

The investigators seized about 1,000 opened bottles of premium liquors like Tanqueray gin, Johnny Walker Black scotch and Smirnoff vodka on Wednesday.

“This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits, and it is a slap in the face to the consumer,” Chiesa said in a news release. “Consumers should have the peace of mind knowing that they will get what they spent their hard-earned money on every single time – no exceptions.”

A customer of the Blackthorn Restaurant in Parsippany, one of the establishments named by authorities, said she thinks she was always served the poison she picked.

“I see them pour it,” Danielle Ferrazzano told NBC New York. “There’s my Captain and Coke, whatever it is I drink. I was fine with it. I never suspected anything.”

“Operation Swill” began after the state began receiving an influx of complaints about beverages that might have been mislabeled, Halfacre said, and got a boost when an informant with industry knowledge came forward in the fall.

AP Photo / Julio Cortez

Funnels confiscated during an investigation dubbed "Operation Swill," in which 29 bars and restaurants in New Jersey are accused of putting cheap booze in premium brand liquor bottles and selling it, are seen during a news conference, Thursday, May 23, 2013, in Trenton, N.J.

Investigators took covert drink samples from the establishments in the course of the year-long probe, which included 13 TGI Friday's restaurants, authorities said.

The accusations were “isolated to one group of franchised restaurants,” TGI Friday's corporate offices said.

“If accurate, they would represent a violation of our company’s values and our extensive bar and beverage standards which are designed to deliver the highest guest experience in our restaurants,” the company said in a statement. “We have zero tolerance for actions that undermine the trust of our guests and call into question the reputation we have built up over the past 48 years.”

The president of the Briad Group, which operates the 13 TGI Friday's franchises, called the allegations “troubling and surprising.”

“We have already begun our own investigation to learn if any of these allegations are true. If they are, we will take immediate steps to correct any issues that may have led to less than a 100 percent quality experience for our guests,” Briad president Rick Barbrick said in a statement, according to the Star-Ledger.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

Mourners leave a funeral service for Antonia Candelaria, 9, a student at Towers Plaza Elementary school who was killed by Monday's tornado Thursday, May 23, 2013, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Funerals for two more children killed when a tornado hit Plaza Towers elementary school in Moore, Okla., will be held on Friday, school officials in the town said.

They were among the seven 8- and 9-year olds who perished as the storm tore through the elementary school. Another student from Plaza Towers, Antonia Candelaria, was mourned on Thursday at a memorial service.

“She was a beautiful young lady on the inside and out,” said an obituary for Candelaria published in The Oklahoman newspaper. “She had her own most special and beautiful way of looking at the world. She could find the positive, good and joy in everything.”

A funeral service for another student killed at the school will be held on Saturday, according to school officials. Families have requested no media coverage.

Thursday was the last day of school for the town devastated by the storm that claimed two dozen lives, injured more than 300 people and severely damaged or destroyed more than a thousand homes.

Students from Briarwood Elementary, which was also caught in the storm’s path, met with their teachers on Thursday at another local school, NBC News affiliate KFOR reported.

“I’m actually pretty happy. It will be good for me,” Briarwood third grader Brianna Roper said before seeing her teachers and classmates for the first time since Monday.

The town will hold a public memorial service on Sunday evening at First Baptist Church that will be “open to all,” Gov. Mary Fallin said. President Obama is scheduled to visit Moore and survey the destruction earlier Sunday.

School officials have resolved to get all of the suburb’s students back to class in the fall.

“We will rebuild and we will reopen and we will have school in August,” city school superintendent Susan Pierce said.

Related:

• Okla. funeral held for 'precious' 9-year-old who died with best friend
• Tornado-ravaged city of Moore, Okla. to hold Sunday memorial
• Chaos and courage as tornado wrecks elementary schools

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Scott Olson / Getty Images

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead.

Launch slideshow

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- Seen as a small step toward a greater goal or a wrong step for a century-old organization, a vote Thursday to lift a ban on gay youth in the Boy Scouts won't end the debate.

Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,232 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban during the Boy Scouts of America’s annual national gathering. The policy change will go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.

"This has been a challenging chapter in our history," said Wayne Brock, the BSA's chief Scout executive. "Our goal through all of this was to put the kids first."

What was not considered Thursday was lifting a ban on gay Scout leaders.

"We have not changed our adult membership standards. They have served us well for the last 100 years. Those were not on the table," said Tico Perez, BSA national commissioner.

And so while the nation’s approximately 116,000 Scouting units and 3 million members officially must open their doors to gay youth, a push to change those adult membership standards will resume.

"One day, we'll be back, and I'm not going to stop until we're there," said Ohio mom Jennifer Tyrrell, who was ousted in April 2012 as den leader of her son's Tiger Cub pack because she is a lesbian.

"Tomorrow, we're going to start the next phase, and I'm ready."

Some opponents of ending the ban said they would pull their sponsorships of packs and troops, and parents threatened to take their boys out of Scouting.

Rusty Tisdale, assistant Scoutmaster for a troop in Ellisville, Miss., hopes there is a local option that would allow the decision on gay members to be made at the troop level. Otherwise, he will pull his kids.

"I'm not happy as a parent," Tisdale emailed to NBC News. "The gay activist isn't happy and will not be until homosexuals can be leaders, etc. So there will be more pressure, and more fighting, And more acquiescence. No thanks."

"There are other activities for my kids to do," he added. "There are other organizations that I can support with my time and money."

The ban on gay Scouts has been the subject of much soul-searching in the organization – from local troops and councils to national board meetings. The dispute was even heard by the Supreme Court, which said 13 years ago that as a private membership organization, the BSA was free to decide who it would admit.

Last summer, the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their anti-gay policy after a two-year examination by a committee. Since then, some local chapters had been pushing for a reconsideration.

More than 70 percent of Boy Scout units are sponsored by religious groups, and this compromise proposal has split them. One of the Southern Baptist Church leaders, Dr. Frank Page, last week implored the Boy Scouts not to change the policy. But The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints – the BSA's biggest charter partner – had given tacit endorsement to the plan.

BSA President Wayne Perry said the vote came after an "extensive," "exhaustive," and "respectful" dialogue among the members of the organization.

"It's a very difficult decision for a lot of people, but we are moving forward together," he said. "Our vision is to serve every kid."

Pascal Tessier, a gay 16-year-old from Kensington, Md., felt hopeful after the vote. He believes he can get his Eagle rank — the Scouts' highest honor — in the fall.

"There are a lot of things going through my head," he said. "The initial reaction is ecstatic because I can go home and tell everyone that I'm still a Boy Scout."

But he said he also felt bad for gay leaders.

Related:

AP / Francisco Rodriguez

A man is seen sitting atop a car that fell into the Skagit River after the collapse of the Interstate 5, Thursday.

A driver said he thought he was about to die when an Interstate 5 bridge span collapsed in Washington state, plunging his pickup and another car into the Skagit River below.

Dan Sligh, his wife and another motorist found themselves waist-deep in water when the freeway crumbled moments after the bridge was clipped by an oversized truck, he told NBC affiliate KING5 of Seattle.

State officials said the rescue had been “amazing” and warned of major traffic disruption following the complete closure of the section of the road, near Mount Vernon.

Sligh, a Command Master Chief Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy, said the accident was “like a Hollywood movie unfolding in front of your eyes - up close and personal.”

He said he managed to release his seat belt and climb out of his mangled truck to shallower water, despite fearing he had dislocated his shoulder.

His wife also escaped, and was being kept in the Skagit Valley hospital where she was being treated for internal bleeding.

"I thought we were done," Sligh told KING5 outside the hospital late Thursday. “When I look at all the carnage, all the metal, I assumed that was it at that point. But here we stand."

The couple waited 90 minutes on the roof of pickup awaiting rescue, he said, adding that the other driver was not seriously injured.

“I’m OK. I’m beat up. I feel like I rode a rodeo bull or something.”

I-5 is the main freeway that runs up and down the West Coast between the Canadian and Mexican borders, and traffic was significantly backed up in both directions overnight.

The bridge collapse was caused by an oversize truck, which had a permit, that hit an overhead span, officials said. The driver of the truck was cooperating with investigators, police said.

At an afternoon briefing, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee called for patience while officials work on a plan to reopen the I-5 corridor.

He said an investigation into who is at fault is underway, but "we want to discourage drivers from crashing their trucks into state bridges."

The 1,112-foot steel truss bridge, built in 1955, was described by the Washington State Department of Transportation, after an inspection in August 2010, as "somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is."

Diversions have been set up and plans are already underway to install a replacement span, said Bart Treece, a spokesman for the department, describing the lack of more serous injuries as “amazing."

Officials are trying to find a pre-fabricated structure they could use as a temporary replacement for the bridge before they decide how to repair or replace it.

The section of the freeway carries 71,000 vehicles a day, Treece said, warning significant delays were likely over the Memorial Weekend.

“If you can reduce trips or take another route, that would help,” he said.

The minimum vertical clearance on the bridge (distance from the road to something a truck can bump into) is 14.5 feet. The standard height is 16 feet.

Inslee's statement added: "We will be involved in a vigorous and diligent effort to get traffic flowing again through the Skagit bridge corridor and I will issue an emergency proclamation [Friday] to make sure we have the resources to do so as quickly as possible."

State officials stressed that the bridge was not one of the 66,000 nationwide that are considered "structurally deficient.'

“This is just bad luck of where it hit and how it hit,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. “Based on our inspections, the bridge is not structurally deficient.”

State inspection reports submitted to the Federal Highway Administration were reviewed by NBC News. That overall evaluation of the structural condition on the bridge corresponds to a score of 5 on a scale from 0 (worst) to 9 (best).

The bridge received identical scores on inspections in 2010, 2008 and 2006, and is on a schedule for inspection every 24 months, as generally required by federal regulations. State officials said Thursday evening they were working to make public a copy of the latest inspection report, presumably from 2012.

The bridge was of a "fracture critical" design, as are 18,000 bridges nationwide, meaning it could collapse if even one part failed. Even after the bridge collapse that killed 13 people in Minneapolis in 2007, a haphazard system of inspections continued, with federal authorities choosing not to require re-inspection of all the fracture-critical bridges.

In a survey of every state by msnbc.com in 2008, only six states and the District of Columbia said they began to recheck all their fracture-critical bridges. Officials in Washington state, like in most states, said they performed special inspections of only their few dozen bridges of the particular deck-truss design used in Minneapolis.

The bridge that fell Thursday did go on to receive its regular inspections in 2008 and 2010, according to the federal records, called the National Bridge Inventory.

NBC News' Andrew Rafferty and Justin Kirschner contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 7:15 AM EDT