President Obama on Saturday called for a "caucus of common sense" to step forward and stop the sequester, which began cutting $85 billion of federal spending out of the economy on Friday.
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Sequester to affect all federal agencies
"I know there are Republicans in Congress who would rather see tax loopholes closed than let these cuts go through," he said in his weekly address. "And I know there are Democrats who'd rather do smart entitlement reform than let these cuts go through. There's a caucus of common sense. And I'm going to keep reaching out to them to fix this for good."
The deadline to avoid the across the board cuts outright came and went on Friday evening, as Mr. Obama officially signed the sequester into effect. Both parties blamed each other for the failure to secure a deal before the deadline, and the finger-pointing continued Saturday.
The sequester "took effect because President Obama and Senate Democrats failed to act," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. and a member of House GOP leadership, said in the Republicans' weekly address. "In the last year, the House of Representatives has passed two proposals to replace the president's sequester with smarter spending cuts," but that the president's desire to "continue singling Americans out for tax increases" prevented Democrats from passing a "responsible plan to replace" the sequester.
"The president must stop using this debate as an excuse to raise taxes," she said, "and start seizing this opportunity to cut spending."
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Americans to feel sequester cuts in few weeks
Mr. Obama, for his part, pinned the blame squarely on Republican obstinacy, accusing the GOP of protecting tax loopholes for the rich at the expense of middle-class families.
"None of this is necessary," the president said. "It's happening because Republicans in Congress chose this outcome over closing a single wasteful tax loophole that helps reduce the deficit. Just this week, they decided that protecting special-interest tax breaks for the well-off and well-connected is more important than protecting our military and middle-class families from these cuts."
And "while not everyone will feel the pain of these cuts right away," Mr. Obama said, "the pain will be real."
Instead of submitting to the "perpetual partisanship and brinksmanship," the president suggested, "we can and must replace these cuts with a balanced approach" that combines targeted spending cuts with entitlement reform and closes tax loopholes.
"This is America," he said, "and in America, we don't careen from one manufactured crisis to another. We make smart choices."
Bipartisan leaders from the House and Senate met with President Obama at the White House Friday to continue negotiations before he officially signed the cuts into effect.
No agreement emerged, but both parties forged on, already looking ahead to the next fiscal fight. A temporary budgetary measure funding the government expires March 27, and if the parties cannot reach an agreement on continued funding by then, the government will shut down.
Despite the potential for another bout of budgetary drama, the president and House Speaker John Boehner each signaled after their meeting on Friday that a government shutdown looks unlikely.
"With respect to the budget and keeping the government open," Mr. Obama said, "what's called the continuing resolution, which is essentially just an extension of last year's budget into this year's budget to make sure those basic government functions continue - I think that's the right thing to do to make sure that we don't have a government shutdown. And that's preventable."
Boehner said, "The House is going to move a continuing resolution next week to fund the government past March 27th, and I'm hopeful that we won't have to deal with the threat of a government shutdown while we're dealing with the sequester at the same time. The House will act next week, and I hope the Senate will follow suit."
SEFFNER, Fla. A man was missing and feared dead early Friday after a large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa.
His brother says the man screamed for help before he disappeared.
The 36-year-old man's brother, Jeremy Bush, told rescue crews he heard a loud crash around 11 p.m. Thursday, then heard his brother screaming for help.
"When he got there, there was no bedroom left," Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Jessica Damico said. "There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up."
The brother called 911 and frantically tried to help his brother. He said he jumped into the hole and dirt was quickly up to his neck.
"The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," Jeremy said. "But I just couldn't do nothing."
An arriving deputy pulled the brother from the still-collapsing house.
"I reached down and was able to actually able to get him by his hand and pull him out of the hole," Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy Douglas Duvall said. "The hole was collapsing. At that time, we left the house."
Engineers worked to determine the size of the sinkhole. At the surface, officials estimated it was about 30 feet across. Below the surface, officials believed it was 100 feet wide.
"The entire house is on the sinkhole," Damico said.
Hillsborough County Fire Chief Ron Rogers told a news briefing that extra-sensitive listening devices and cameras were inserted into the sinkhole. "They did not detect any signs of life," he said.
By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts.
Neighbors on both sides of the home have been evacuated.
Sinkholes are common in seaside Florida, whose underlying limestone and dolomite can be worn away by water and chemicals, then collapse.
Engineers condemned the house, reports CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP.
From the outside of the small, sky blue house, nothing appeared wrong. There wear no cracks and the only sign something was amiss was the yellow caution tape circling the house.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said authorities asked sinkhole and engineering experts, and they were using equipment to see if the ground can support the weight of heavy machinery needed for the recovery effort.
Jeremy Bush stood in a neighbor's yard across the street from the house Friday and recounted the harrowing collapse.
"He was screaming my name. I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him," he said of his brother.
Jeremy Bush's wife and his 2-year-old daughter were also inside the house. "She keeps asking where her Uncle Jeff is," he said. "I lost everything. I work so hard to support my wife and kid and I lost everything."
Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times newspaper she was inside the house with four other adults and a child when the sinkhole opened.
"It sounded like a car hit my house," she said.
The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind, sleeping in her car.
VATICAN CITY Much speculation surrounds the date when leaders of the Roman Catholic Church will begin the process of selecting their new pope.
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Pope Benedict XVI: "I am no longer Pope"
The date for the conclave of cardinals to begin their deliberations has not yet been set, although one of Pope Benedict XVI's final acts before resigning his office was to amend the rules governing the election of a successor, allowing the cardinals to meet earlier than the usual 15-day transition between pontificates.
On Thursday, soon after Benedict left the Vatican on his final day as pope, Monsignor Carlo Maria Celli, a papal communications officer, hinted that the date could be March 11.
That could not be immediately confirmed.
The date of the conclave's start is important because Holy Week begins March 24, with Easter Sunday March 31. In order to have a new pope in place for the church's most solemn liturgical period, he would need to be installed by Sunday, March 17 -- a tight time frame if a conclave were to start March 15.
Cardinal Francis George, of the Archdiocese of Chicago, told CBS News he hopes the papal conclave will work quickly to name a new pope when it convenes next month -- but he does not know who he will vote for.
"Not yet, I honestly don't," he said. "I've got four or five names in mind. That's part of the next days' work, to check and see do the others think what I think?"
Regarding the issues the cardinals will be considering as they choose a new Pope, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, told CBS News that cleaning up the church after a number of scandals most likely will be part of the conclave's goal.
"Sadly, tragically, we leaders of the church have often given people reasons not to have trust in the church anymore," he said.
LONDON The sophisticated cyberweapon which targeted an Iranian nuclear plant is older than previously believed, an anti-virus firm said Tuesday, peeling back another layer of mystery on a series of attacks attributed to U.S. and Israeli intelligence.
The Stuxnet worm, aimed at the centrifuges in Iran's Natanz plant, transformed the cybersecurity field because it was the first known computer attack specifically designed to cause physical damage. The precise origins of the worm remain unclear, but until now the earliest samples of Stuxnet had been dated to 2009.
Security experts generally agree that Stuxnet was an attempt to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges, which can be used to make fuel for reactors or weapons-usable material for atomic bombs. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
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Stuxnet: Computer worm opens new era of warfare
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Stuxnet copycats: Let the hacking begin
As "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft reported last year, Stuxnet was incredibly complicated and sophisticated, beyond the cutting edge. By the time it was first detected in June 2010, it had been out in the wild for a year without drawing anyone's attention, and seemed to spread by way of USB thumb drives, not over the Internet.
By the fall of 2010, the consensus was that Iran's top secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz was the target and that Stuxnet was a carefully constructed weapon designed to be carried into the plant on a corrupted laptop or thumb drive, then infect the system, disguise its presence, move through the network, changing computer code and subtly alter the speed of the centrifuges without the Iranians ever noticing, Kroft reported.
"Stuxnet's entire purpose is to control centrifuges," Liam O Murchu, an operations manager for Symantec, told Kroft. "To make centrifuges speed up past what they're meant to spin at and to damage them. Certainly it would damage the uranium enrichment facility and they would need to be replaced."
Last June, The New York Times traced the origins of the top-secret program back to 2006.
In a new report issued late Tuesday, Symantec Corp. pushed that timeline further back, saying it had found a primitive version of Stuxnet circulating online in 2007 and that elements of the program had been in place as far back as 2005.
One independent expert who examined the report said it showed that the worm's creators were particularly far-sighted.
"What it looks like is that somebody's been thinking about this for a long, long time — the better part of a decade," said Alan Woodward, a computer science professor at the University of Surrey. "It really points to a very clever bunch of people behind all of this."
Nuclear Iran: Sites and potential targets
A look at the locations where Iran carries out work linked to its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons
The Times reported that President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of Stuxnet against Iran in a bid to put the brakes on its atomic energy program, detailing how the worm tampered with the operation of Natanz's centrifuge machines to send them spinning out of control.
President Obama, who succeeded Bush shortly after the first attacks, expanded the campaign, the report said.
U.S. and Israeli officials have long declined to comment publicly on Stuxnet or their alleged involvement in creating and deploying the computer worm.
Symantec's report suggests that an intermediate version of the worm — Stuxnet 0.5 — was completed in November 2007. That worm lacked some of the sophistication of its descendant, Symantec said, and was designed to interfere with the centrifuges by opening and closing the valves which control the flow of uranium gas, causing a potentially damaging buildup in pressure.
That approach was dropped in later, improved versions of the Stuxnet code.
Symantec said the servers used to control the primitive worm were set up in November 2005, suggesting that Stuxnet's trailblazing authors were plotting out their attack at a time when many parts of the Internet now taken for granted were not yet in place. Twitter did not exist, Facebook was still largely limited to U.S. college campuses, and YouTube was in its infancy.
Woodward said that had troubling implications.
"Clearly these were very forward-thinking, clever people that were doing this," he said. "There's no reason to think that they're less forward-thinking now. What are they up to?"
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., the congressman who went from coining the term "freedom fries" to becoming an outspoken critic of the Iraq war, said that there's probably a spot in hell for former Vice President Dick Cheney because of his responsibility for the conflict.
"Congress will not hold anyone to blame," Jones said Saturday at an event hosted by the libertarian group Young Americans for Liberty. "Lyndon Johnson's probably rotting in hell right now because of the Vietnam War, and he probably needs to move over for Dick Cheney."
Jones voted for the Iraq war and even pushed for the U.S. House cafeteria to serve "freedom fries" rather than french fries to protest France's opposition to war. At Saturday's event, however, Jones -- whose district is home to the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune and other military bases -- said he voted for the war because he "was more concerned about getting reelected, and I regret that, and I will to the day I die."
Jones also criticized President Obama for bypassing Congress in his decision to intervene in Libya and kill Muammar Qaddafi, calling it "a breach of the Constitution."
"Mr. Obama didn't even come to Congress -- Mr. Bush, I'll at least give him that," he said.
Amid a handful of allegations that threaten to mar his reputation in the Senate, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., continues to maintain his innocence, decrying the accusations as right-wing attempts to "destroy" his career and invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in asserting his faith that justice will win out.
Menendez, who was re-elected to his seat in November, has since been hit with allegations that he solicited prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, where prostitution is legal. The FBI is looking into the claims. The allegations were originally reported by a conservative website citing an anonymous source.
Menendez has also been accused of improperly lobbying the State Department on a port security contract on behalf of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a close friend and donor. Menendez recently reimbursed Melgen $58,000 for two of three trips he took on Melgen's plane to the Dominican Republic in 2010, but called the tardy reimbursement an honest oversight and says the allegations against him are "absolutely false." The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating Menendez regarding those trips. Melgen himself is the target of more than one federal investigation stemming from allegations of Medicare fraud.
This weekend, at an event celebrating Black History Month at Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, N.J., the senator answered the accusations with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.
"Dr. King said that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,'" he said, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. "Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals from right-wing sources seeking to destroy a lifetime of work. And their scares are false. I have worked too hard and too long in the vineyards to allow, at my hands, for the harvest to be soured."
"I have felt the sting of discrimination," he said, according to the North Jersey Record.
Menendez said he believes ultimately, "justice will overcome the forces of darkness."
"I have my hand on the plough," he said, "and I am going to continue to look forward and to work to make that plough lead us to the fulfillment of educational, economic and health care opportunity in this country."
A recent Quinnipiac poll shows a recent drop in Menendez's popularity, with just 36 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving.
But the Democrat, who is at the start of another six-year term, brushed off the importance of those numbers.
"The only poll that matters is what do I get accomplished each and every day," he said, according to the Star-Ledger.
KABUL, AfghanistanAfghanistan's president says all U.S. special forces must leave eastern Wardak province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi says Sunday's decision was taken during a meeting of the National Security Council because of the alleged actions of Afghans who are linked to the U.S. special forces.
He said the government wants the individuals, whom he did not identify, to be handed over to the government.
Wardak is a restive province next to Kabul and has been the focus of counterinsurgency efforts.
Meanwhile, suicide bombers targeted Afghanistan's intelligence agency and other security forces in four coordinated attacks in the heart of Kabul and outlying areas on Sunday in a bloody reminder of the insurgency's reach nearly 12 years into the war.
The brazen assaults, which occurred within a three-hour timespan, were the latest to strike Afghan forces, who have suffered higher casualties this year as U.S. and other foreign troops gradually take a back seat and shift responsibility for security to the government.
The deadliest attack occurred just after sunrise — a suicide car bombing at the gate of the National Directorate of Security compound in Jalalabad, 78 miles east of Kabul.
Guards shot and killed the driver but he managed to detonate the explosives-packed vehicle, killing two intelligence agents and wounding three others, according to a statement by the intelligence agency. Provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai confirmed the casualty toll and said the building was damaged in the attack.
A guard also shot and killed a man in an SUV filled with dynamite that was targeting an NDS building on a busy street in Kabul, not far from NATO headquarters. The explosives in the back of the vehicle were defused. Blood stained the driver's seat and the ground where security forces dragged out the would-be attacker.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Jalalabad attack and two others in the eastern province of Logar in an email to reporters. He did not address the attempted assault in Kabul.
Shortly before the Jalalabad attack, a suicide attacker detonated a minivan full of explosives at a police checkpoint in Puli Alam, on the main highway between Kabul and Logar province. One policeman was killed and two others were wounded, along with a bystander, according to the NDS.
Also in Logar province, which is due south of Kabul, a man wearing a suicide vest was stopped by police as he tried to force his way into the police headquarters for the Baraki Barak district, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, the provincial government spokesman. The attacker detonated his vest while being searched, wounding one policeman, according to Darwesh and the NDS.
"Once again the enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan ... staged coordinated attacks against the Afghan security forces and the Afghan people," the intelligence agency said.
The attacks were a reminder that insurgents are still on the offensive even as U.S. and other international forces prepare to end their combat mission by the end of 2014.
Afghan soldiers and police are easier targets than their NATO allies because their checkpoints and bases are less fortified.
More than 1,200 Afghan soldiers were killed in 2012 compared to more than 550 the previous year, according to data compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
U.S. troop deaths, meanwhile, declined overall from 404 in 2011 to 295 in 2012.
WASHINGTON The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee documents related to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, a congressional aide told The Associated Press Friday.
Republicans had demanded the documents as a condition of voting on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.
The documents include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and other documents the committee had been asking for, the aide said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The White House has said it has already turned over more than 10,000 pages of Benghazi-related documents, along with witness interviews, staff briefings and hours of testimony.
Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration was talking with members of Congress about their requests regarding both the Benghazi attacks and the use of drone strikes, but he declined to say whether those requests had been granted.
"That being said, the confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they're nominated for," Vietor said.
The attack on the Benghazi compound last Sept. 11 killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The Obama administration sent conflicting signals about whether the assault was a terrorist attack or an incident touched off by protests over an anti-Muslim video.
Republicans accused the administration of an election-year cover-up of an act of terrorism and repeatedly pressed for more information about the attack. An independent review that faulted the State Department and led to four employees being relieved of their duties failed to placate GOP lawmakers. They demanded testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spent more than five hours before two congressional panels, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey about the military's response to the attack.
Republicans also pressed the administration for emails, communiques and videos, and threatened to hold up the nominations of members of President Barack Obama's second-term national security team, including the choice of Chuck Hagel for the Pentagon and Brennan for CIA director.
WASHINGTON The Justice Department has joined a lawsuit against disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong that alleges the former, seven-time Tour de France champion concealed his use of performance-enhancing drugs and defrauded his long-time sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service, Armstrong's lawyers said Friday.
The suit the Justice Department is joining was filed in 2010 by former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for doping.
Settlement discussions had been underway between the Justice Department and Armstrong's lawyers. A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press the two sides are tens of millions of dollars apart on how much Armstrong should pay to settle the case. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the private talks.
"Lance and his representatives worked constructively over these last weeks with federal lawyers to resolve this case fairly, but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged," Armstrong attorney Robert Luskin said in a statement to news outlets, including CBS News.
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Is Lance Armstrong still lying?
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Armstrong refuses to talk to anti-doping agency
The Landis lawsuit was filed under seal, but it will be unsealed with the Justice Department decision to join, or in essence, take over the case.
Armstrong was the subject of a two-year federal grand jury investigation that the Justice Department dropped a year ago without an indictment.
Throughout his career, Armstrong always denied drug use, but he confessed to having done so in an interview last month.
In October, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a report that included affidavits from 11 of Armstrong's former teammates. These affidavits detailed how the teammates were supplied with EPO by Armstrong and saw him inject, and how they were pressured to dope and bullied by Armstrong and Johan Bruyneel, the team manager. The cycling world's governing body then stripped Armstrong of the seven Tour de France titles he won from 1999 to 2005.
Last month, the head of USADA lobbied Attorney General Eric Holder for the Justice Department to join the lawsuit against Armstrong. USADA chief executive Travis Tygart has called the doping by Armstrong and the Postal Service teams a "massive economic fraud."
ST. LOUIS Blinding snow, at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, bombarded much of the nation's midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, making major roadways all but impassable and shutting down schools and state legislatures.
Kansas was the epicenter of the winter storm, with parts of the state buried under 14 inches of powdery snow, but winter storm warnings stretched from eastern Colorado through Illinois. Freezing rain and sleet were forecast for southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Arkansas. St. Louis was expected to get all of the above — a treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
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Biggest storm in central U.S. in two years
CBS News weather consultant David Bernard reported on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that very heavy snow squalls were moving from Wichita, Kan., into Kansas City, Mo., where it looks like it's going to snow hard for about the entire day.
Forecast models show the snowstorm pivoting from southwest to northeast throughout the afternoon hours, so Wichita would see improvement late Thursday, but northeastern Kansas and most of Missouri would be looking at heavy snowfall until at least Thursday night, Bernard reports.
Several accidents were blamed on icy and slushy roadways, including two fatal accidents. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighboring states, were closed. Legislatures shut down early in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.
By midmorning Thursday, the snowfall was so heavy that Kansas City International Airport shut down. About 90 flights were also cancelled at Lambert Airport in St. Louis, where sleet and ice began falling late-morning.
"Thundersnow" accompanied the winter storm in parts of Kansas and Missouri, which National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett said is the result of an unstable air mass, much like a thunderstorm.
"Instead of pouring rain, it's pouring snow," Truett said. And pouring was a sound description, with snow falling at a rate of 1 1/2 to 2 inches per hour in some spots. Kansas City got 5 inches in two hours.
Snow totals passed the foot mark in many places: Monarch Pass, Colo., had 17 1/2 inches, Hutchinson, Kan., 14 inches and Wichita 13 inches. The National Weather Service said up to 18 inches of snow were possible in Kansas towns such as Salina, Russell and Great Bend.
With that in mind, Kansas transportation officials — and even the governor — urged people to simply stay home. Drivers were particularly warned away from the Kansas Turnpike, as whiteout conditions meant low visibility for the length of the turnpike, from Oklahoma to Kansas City.
Interstate 70, which runs the length of Kansas, was also snow-packed and icy. State transportation officials closed a 90-mile stretch of I-70 between Salina and Hays.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback closed executive offices, except for essential personnel.
"If you don't have to get out, just really, please, don't do it," Brownback said.
Some travelers gave up, filling hotels rather than skating across dangerous roadways.
At the Econo Lodge in WaKeeney, Kan., assistant manager Michael Tidball said the 48-room hotel was full by 10 p.m. Wednesday and that most guests were opting to stay an extra day. He said travelers reported that snow was freezing on their windshields faster than wipers could keep them clean.
The blowing snow didn't stop everyone. Christy Walker, a waitress at the Polly Anna Cafe in Woodward, Okla., got stuck in the 8 inches of snow during her drive into work. But business in the western Oklahoma town was brisk, she said.
"It's affecting everybody who is hungry and wants to come out to eat," she said. "I'm extremely busy right now."
Areas in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle also had up to 8 inches of snow by Thursday morning. Arkansas saw a mix of precipitation — some got a combination of hail, sleet and freezing rain, while others got up to 6 inches of snow. Forecasters warned that northern Arkansas could get a half-inch of ice accumulation.
Near the Nebraska-Kansas border, as much as 8 inches fell overnight, while western Nebraska saw about half of that amount, National Weather Service forecaster Shawn Jacobs said.
Two fatal accidents were attributed to winter weather on Wednesday. In Oklahoma, 18-year-old Cody Alexander of Alex, Okla., died when his pickup truck skidded on a slushy state highway into oncoming traffic and struck a truck. And in Nebraska, 19-year-old Kristina Leigh Anne Allen of Callaway died when a sport utility vehicle lost control in snowy, icy conditions, crossed the median and struck her car.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Thursday morning and activated the State Emergency Operations Center. The declaration allows state agencies to coordinate directly with cities and counties to provide emergency services.
Kansas City-area roads were a mess. Portions of I-70 and I-35 were closed along with many other roads because of snow drifts and slippery conditions. The Missouri Department of Transportation said Interstate 44 near Springfield was completely covered with ice Thursday morning, and traffic was moving very slow.
In Jefferson City, Mo., off-duty police sergeant Randy Werner had been perched atop a hotel for more than 24 hours as a publicity stunt for a charitable fundraiser.
As large snowflakes pelted him in the face Thursday morning, Werner defiantly declared: "The weather's not bothering me, I can assure you."
He then acknowledged that was a lie.
"It's blustery," he said. Werner planned to cut his effort short, having raised less than a third of his goal.
The St. Louis region prepared with some uncertainty. Depending on the temperature and the trajectory of the storm, St. Louis could get snow, freezing rain, ice, sleet or all or some of the above. Crews were hoping to spread enough salt to keep at least the major roadways moving.
Alex Sosnowski, a meteorologist for Accuweather, said the storm will push off into the Great Lakes and central Appalachians, and freezing rain could make it as far east and south as North Carolina. He also said a "spin-off" storm was expected to create heavy snow in New England, and could push Boston to a February record.
Accuweather said that by the time the storm dies out, at least 24 states will be affected.
PRETORIA, South AfricaThe investigating officer in the Oscar Pistorius murder case made an error in his court testimony Wednesday when he identified a substance found in the athlete's bedroom as testosterone, the national prosecutor said.
Medupe Simasiku, the spokesman for South Africa's National Prosecution Agency, told The Associated Press that it was too early to identify the substance as it was still undergoing laboratory tests.
"It is not certain (what it is) until the forensics." Simasiku said, adding that it wasn't certain if it was "a legal or an illegal medication for now."
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Pistorius case: Police say they found testosterone, needles in bathroom
19 Photos
Olympic athlete charged with murder
Detective Warrant Officer Hilton Botha, the investigating officer, said earlier in court during Pistorius' bail hearing that police found two boxes of testosterone and needles in the bedroom of the Olympic athlete, who is charged with premediated murder in the Feb. 14 shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
It was a mistake to identify the substance now, Simasiku said, as it was still unknown. He said the discovery of needles was in Botha's statement, however.
Pistorius denies murder, saying in an affidavit Tuesday that the Valentine's Day shooting was accidental because he thought there was an intruder in his house.
In response to Botha's claim, the defense said Wednesday, the second day of Pistorius' bail hearing at Pretoria Magistrate's Court, that the substance found was not a steroid or a banned substance but an herbal remedy.
Pistorius' lawyer Barry Roux had slammed Botha's testimony earlier, saying police "take every piece of evidence and try to extract the most possibly negative connotation and present it to the court."
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence told the AP soon after the substance claims that Pistorius — the world's most famous disabled athlete — was drug tested twice in London last year by the IPC, on Aug. 25 and Sept. 8. Both test results were negative, Spence said.
The Aug. 25 test was an out-of-competition test, and the Sept. 8 one in-competition, a day before the end of the London Paralympics.
The International Olympic Committee said it didn't test Pistorius at the Olympics, but referred the AP to the IPC's negative tests. International athletics body the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency would not comment because it was an ongoing legal case.
"Bearing in mind the ongoing police investigation, WADA must refrain from making any statement at present," WADA said.
Giving testimony, Botha said police made the discovery of testosterone in bedroom of the double-amputee runner and multiple Paralympic champion's upscale Pretoria house after the shooting of Steenkamp but offered no further details or explanation. State prosecutor Gerrie Nel also had to correct Botha when he initially called it "steroids."
Simasiku later told the AP that the detective, Botha, thought it was testosterone by reading the first few letters of the label.
Pistorius' lawyer Roux, said on questioning the detective — who has 16 years' experience as a detective and 24 years with the police — that it was not a banned substance and that police were trying to give the discovery a "negative connotation."
"It is an herbal remedy," Roux said. "It is not a steroid and it is not a banned substance."
The debate over the substance added another dramatic twist to a case that has already gripped the world's attention since Steenkamp's killing at Pistorius' home last Thursday.
Prosecutor Nel also had to clarify that police were not saying that Pistorius was using the substance, only that it was discovered along with the needles in his bedroom.
Pistorius said Tuesday in a written affidavit and read in court by Roux that he mistakenly killed model Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day when he fired four shots into a locked toilet door, hitting his girlfriend three times after thinking she was a dangerous intruder.
The prosecution claims Pistorius intended to kill the 29-year-old Steenkamp after they had a fight.
Oscar Pistorius, the famed double amputee South African Olympian, has been charged by prosecutors with intentionally murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria home.
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Pistorius: I thought girlfriend was a burglar
He has said it was an accident, that he mistook her for a burglar when he fired several rounds through a locked bathroom door with a 9mm pistol. When a judge ruled Tuesday that he could not outright dismiss the prosecution's premeditated murder charge, Pistorius told his side of the story to the court on the same day Steenkamp's family laid her to rest in coastal Port Elizabeth.
The following are the portions of the statement Pistorius' lawyers submitted to the court via an affadavit that offer his view of the tragic events of this past Valentine's Day:
16.2 I have been informed that I am accused of having committed the offence of murder. I deny the aforesaid allegation in the strongest terms.
16.3 I am advised that I do not have to deal with the merits of the case for purposes of the bail application. However, I believe that it is appropriate to deal with the merits in this application, particularly in view of the State's contention that I planned to murder Reeva. Nothing can be further from the truth and I have no doubt that it is not possible for the State to present objective facts to substantiate such an allegation, as there is no substance in the allegation. I do not know on what different facts the allegation of a premeditated murder could be premised and I respectfully request the State to furnish me with such alleged facts in order to allow me to refute such allegations.
16.4 On the 13th of February 2013 Reeva would have gone out with her friends and I with my friends. Reeva then called me and asked that we rather spend the evening at home. I agreed and we were content to have a quiet dinner together at home. By about 22h00 on 13 February 2013 we were in our bedroom. She was doing her yoga exercises and I was in bed watching television. My prosthetic legs were off. We were deeply in love and I could not be happier. I know she felt the same way. She had given me a present for Valentine's Day but asked me only to open it the next day.
16.5 After Reeva finished her yoga exercises she got into bed and we both fell asleep.
16.6 I am acutely aware of violent crime being committed by intruders entering homes with a view to commit crime, including violent crime. I have received death threats before. I have also been a victim of violence and of burglaries before. For that reason I kept my firearm, a 9 mm Parabellum, underneath my bed when I went to bed at night.
16.7 During the early morning hours of 14 February 2013, I woke up, went onto the balcony to bring the fan in and closed the sliding doors, the blinds and the curtains. I heard a noise in the bathroom and realised that someone was in the bathroom.
16.8 I felt a sense of terror rushing over me. There are no burglar bars across the bathroom window and I knew that contractors who worked at my house had left the ladders outside. Although I did not have my prosthetic legs on I have mobility on my stumps.
16.9 I believed that someone had entered my house. I was too scared to switch a light on.
16.10 I grabbed my 9mm pistol from underneath my bed. On my way to the bathroom I screamed words to the effect for him/them to get out of my house and for Reeva to phone the police. It was pitch dark in the bedroom and I thought Reeva was in bed.
16.11 I noticed that the bathroom window was open. I realised that the intruder/s was/were in the toilet because the toilet door was closed and I did not see anyone in the bathroom. I heard movement inside the toilet. The toilet is inside the bathroom and has a separate door.
16.12 It filled me with horror and fear of an intruder or intruders being inside the toilet. I thought he or they must have entered through the unprotected window. As I did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, I knew I had to protect Reeva and myself. I believed that when the intruder/s came out of the toilet we would be in grave danger. I felt trapped as my bedroom door was locked and I have limited mobility on my stumps.
16.13 I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police. She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom, keeping my eyes on the bathroom entrance. Everything was pitch dark in the bedroom and I was still too scared to switch on a light. Reeva was not responding.
16.14 When I reached the bed, I realised that Reeva was not in bed. That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet. I returned to the bathroom calling her name. I tried to open the toilet door but it was locked. I rushed back into the bedroom and opened the sliding door exiting onto the balcony and screamed for help.
16.15 I put on my prosthetic legs, ran back to the bathroom and tried to kick the toilet door open. I think I must then have turned on the lights. I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my cricket bat to bash open the toilet door. A panel or panels broke off and I found the key on the floor and unlocked and opened the door. Reeva was slumped over but alive.
16.16 I battled to get her out of the toilet and pulled her into the bathroom. I phoned Johan Stander ("Stander") who was involved in the administration of the estate and asked him to phone the ambulance. I phoned Netcare and asked for help. I went downstairs to open the front door.
16.17 I returned to the bathroom and picked Reeva up as I had been told not to wait for the paramedics, but to take her to hospital. I carried her downstairs in order to take her to the hospital. On my way down Stander arrived. A doctor who lives in the complex also arrived. Downstairs, I tried to render the assistance to Reeva that I could, but she died in my arms.
16.18 I am absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva. With the benefit of hindsight I believe that Reeva went to the toilet when I went out on the balcony to bring the fan in. I cannot bear to think of the suffering I have caused her and her family, knowing how much she was loved. I also know that the events of that tragic night were as I have described them and that in due course I have no doubt the police and expert investigators will bear this out.
LOS ANGELES Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the `80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday, his assistant said.
Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 80.
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Jerry Buss: 1933-2013
He'd been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said.
Various Los Angeles media reported late last week that several current and former Lakers players had visited Buss in the hospital, including Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure.
Few owners in sports history can even approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his 32 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club.
Few owners have ever been more beloved by their players than Buss, who always referred to the Lakers as his extended family. Working with front-office executives Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.
Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, adding justification for his induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
Magic Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their glamorous Showtime style.
Jackson then led Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant to a threepeat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.
Although Buss was proudest of his two hands full of NBA title rings, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool — and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle — for his entire public life.
The father of six rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches, poker tournaments — and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch.
Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money largely from his Santa Monica real-estate ventures, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena — the Forum — from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.
The Lakers were recently valued at $900 million by Forbes, CBS Los Angeles reports.
Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.
Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan — another deal that was ahead of its time.
Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports.
The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer.
Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers — who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 — into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.
"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."
Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast cool.
Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.
Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.
Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.
Shaq and Kobe didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.
After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.
Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 — with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz — prompted him to cut down on his partying.
Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.
Buss' children moved into leadership roles with the Lakers in their father's later years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second of Buss' six children, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie is a longtime executive on the franchise's business side — and Jackson's longtime companion.
Yet Jerry Buss served two terms as President of the NBA's Board of Governors, and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time
Oscar Pistorius weeps in court in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb 15, 2013, at his bail hearing in the murder case of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. /AP Photo
Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius has claimed he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp accidentally because he thought she was an intruder, but a report in a major South African newspaper casts some doubt on that scenario.
Police recovered a "bloodied cricket bat" at the 26-year-old runner's Pretoria home after the shooting, and it has turned into a central piece of evidence in the case, City Press reports.
The paper also claims Steenkamp's skull had been "crushed," and police are investigating whether the bat was the cause of that injury.
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Pistorius, Steenkamp families in shock
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The fall of Oscar Pistorius
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Oscar Pistorius' model girlfriend
There are allegedly three scenarios police are investigating involving the bat, according to City Press: The first is that Pistorius somehow used it against Steenkamp; the second involves the possibility that Steenkamp used it to defend herself after barricading herself inside a bathroom; the final scenario is that Pistorius used it to break down the bathroom door once she had been barricaded inside.
Police have also allegedly requested a drug test from Pistorius, City Press reports.
A police spokeswoman told The Guardian newspaper she could not explain how the "bloody cricket bat" and drug test claims had emerged in South African newspapers, but did not deny them.
"We are not commenting on anything in the newspapers today as the case is still before the court," she said on Sunday. "They are insinuating they got the information from the police."
Meanwhile, Pistorius' agent told the Associated Press that the double-amputee Olympian has received "overwhelming support" from his fans as he remains in custody in a South African police station.
Peet van Zyl said Sunday outside the Brooklyn police station that "international fans from literally all over the world" have sent their good wishes to Pistorius.
GRAPEVINE, Texas A Florida prisoner who escaped after stabbing a detective with his eyeglasses was shot and killed by Texas law enforcement officers early Saturday after police responded to a report of a home burglary, authorities said.
Alberto Morales was shot shortly after midnight when officers, with assistance from a police helicopter, spotted him in a wooded area near a lake in North Texas, Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling said. Two hours earlier, officers responded to a report that jewelry and men's clothing had been stolen during a break-in at a home near where Morales was found.
Eberling said at a Saturday news conference that officers instructed Morales to lay on the ground and show his hands, but he rushed toward them, at which point they opened fire. He said the fugitive was still wearing part of his prison-issued jumpsuit as well as jogging pants, but Eberling said he couldn't comment on whether the stolen clothing and jewelry was found with Morales.
The residents arrived home around 10:30 p.m. Friday to discover the burglary at their home and called law enforcement officials, Eberling said.
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911 call: Alberto Morales allged stabbing victim
The 42-year-old Morales escaped Monday at a Wal-Mart store parking lot in Grapevine, a community near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Police said he used a sharp piece from his eyeglasses to stab a Miami-Dade detective who was transferring him by car to Nevada, where Morales was to serve a sentence of 30 years to life after being convicted of a sexual assault.
Det. Jaime Pardinas was expected to recover after being treated at a Dallas hospital for deep stab wounds to the neck, shoulder and back and a collapsed lung. It wasn't clear when he would be released.
Pardinas was accompanied by Miami-Dade Detective David Carrero during the transfer. They flew to Houston with Morales and then decided to drive the rest of the way after he became disruptive on the flight. They had stopped near the store while waiting for a third officer who was flying to the Dallas area to join them. Department policy requires three officers to be present for ground transfers of prisoners.
On a recording of a 911 call of the incident released Wednesday, Pardinas can be heard breathing heavily as he tells the operator that he's been stabbed. He described Morales' height, weight and appearance and then added, "He's a schizophrenic."
The escape set off a massive five-day manhunt in North Texas.
(CBS News) Thousands of passengers erupted into cheers Thursday night as the crippled triumph finally pulled up to the dock. As they stepped onto dry land, and into the arms of their loved ones some couldn't contain their excitement.
Carnival then chartered a caravan of buses to transport folks out of Mobile, Ala. To add insult to injury, at least one of those buses became stranded on the way to New Orleans, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.
The nightmare started Sunday, when an engine fire knocked out power.
Passengers leave cruise ship telling tales of woe
Kendell Jenkins won the trip in a contest, but said it was more like cruising on a floating port-o-potty. "I'm just really thankful and blessed to be back," she said. "I mean there was sewage, water everywhere, mix that with some rotten food smells and welcome to carnival Triumph."
"No ships were coming, no boats, were coming, we saw no helicopters," said Jenkins. "It scared us because we thought the ship wasn't notifying or coming out to help us."
It took more than a day before the first tugboat arrived. As passengers got cell reception, they shared photos revealing squalid conditions - sewage seeping through the floors, plastic bags used for restrooms. Tent camps above deck, and mattresses sprawled out below. For some, the hardest part was losing contact with their family.
Stricken Carnival Cruise Line ship Triumph expected to dock in Mobile, Ala.
It took several grueling hours to drag the massive ship through a narrow channel Thursday. At the terminal, carnival C.E.O. Gerry Cahill addressed reporters.
"We pride ourselves in providing our guests with a great vacation experience and clearly we failed in this particular case," he said. He then boarded the ship and apologized to passengers, but some still want answers.
For Anna Werner's full report, watch the video in the player above
(CBS News) Police in Southern California are defending their actions in the manhunt for Christopher Dorner. They say they did not intentionally burn down the cabin where he apparently died.
Dorner was a suspected killer with a grudge against the Los Angeles Police Department, but two of his final victims say he didn't seem like a bad man.
Karen and Jim Reynolds are the owners of Mountain Vista Resort, the property where the alleged cop-killer had been hiding the day police tracked him down. On a routine check of one of their units, Dorner surprised them from upstairs.
"He opened the door and came out at us. He had his gun drawn," said Jim. "He yelled 'stay calm' and ran out."
"He talked to us trying to calm us down and saying very frequently he would not kill us," said Karen. "He had said 'I just want to clear my name.'"
Sheriff: Fire in cabin wasn't set intentionally Calif. deputy slain in ex-cop shootout was father of two Carjacking victim: Christopher Dorner told me "I don't want to hurt you"
Jim said that Dorner told them he didn't have a problem with them and wasn't going to hurt them.
Dorner had been keeping an eye Karen and Jim for days, and although he had broken in and tied them up, he paid them an unexpected compliment.
"He said we are very hard workers, we're good people. He talked about how he could see Jim working on the snow every day," said Karen.
"He said he'd been watching us shoveling the snow," said Jim.
Dorner left the couple behind, and tried to take their car. But he soon returned, asking how to start their keyless Nissan. Later, the Reynolds managed to undo their restraints and call police. A few hours later, the manhunt was over.
Although the Reynolds were aware of Dorner's alleged trail of violence, they couldn't help but feel some compassion for their captor.
"I really didn't wish him dead, though. I really didn't. I prayed for him a lot and I'm praying for his family now," said Karen.
For John Blackstone's full report, watch the video in the player above
A second wrongful death lawsuit has been filed blaming U.S. government officials involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives' "Operation Fast and Furious," which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Tuesday, the Texas family of fallen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata sued the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the former head of the ATF and others they blame in Zapata's death.
In February 2011, Zapata and his partner Victor Avila were gunned down in Mexico by suspected drug cartel members. Avila survived but was critically injured and has joined Zapata's family in the suit.
As CBS News reported, at least two of the murder weapons had been trafficked by suspects the ATF had under surveillance but failed to arrest. Zapata's parents argue that if ATF agents had arrested the suspects and confiscated the weapons early on, the rifles might not have been used in their son's murder.
The Justice Department has not commented except to say that, at the time, the ATF "was not aware of," a suspect's purchase of one weapon used in Zapata's murder. Justice officials said answering further questions would jeopardize the investigation.
Zapata and Avila were on assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico when their supervisors sent them on a mission to pick up some equipment that required driving on an infamous stretch of highway "known to be patrolled and controlled by a dangerous criminal organization," according to the suit. That was despite a recent travel notice that warned U.S. embassy employees of the danger. The lawsuit says Avila objected, but that the two were ordered to make the trip anyway without escort and in an armored Chevrolet Suburban that did not have working GPS.
When a drug cartel vehicle cut off and blocked Zapata and Avila's vehicle, Zapata put the vehicle in park and it automatically unlocked the doors, according to the lawsuit. It says the attackers were able to breach the vehicle, kill Zapata and injure Avila using weapons trafficked by suspects ATF had previously watched without arresting.
The lawsuit blames a number of ATF officials involved in Fast and Furious, including former ATF Director Kenneth Melson, former Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell and former ATF Phoenix Group Leader David Voth for developing the controversial strategy of combating the Mexican cartels with "gunrunning activities." According to the suit, "The high-risk tactics of cessation of surveillance, gunwalking, and non-interdiction of weapons that ATF used in Operation Fast and Furious went against the core of ATF's mission ... These inherent flaws of Fast and Furious made its tragic consequences inevitable."
All of the ATF officials named in the lawsuit have denied wrongdoing. Newell has said that Fast and Furious was sanctioned at high levels at ATF and Justice Department headquarters, and that he and his colleagues turned to the controversial strategy of letting guns "walk" into the hands of Mexicans gun cartels because prosecutors were turning away their smaller cases involving just the so-called "straw purchasers" who move the weapons.
Two months ago, the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry sued seven government employees -- including some also named in the Zapata lawsuit. Terry was gunned down by illegal immigrants in the U.S. two months before Zapata, in Dec. 2010. Like the Zapata case, the alleged killers were armed with rifles that had been trafficked by suspects ATF watched -- but did not arrest at the time.
The Terry lawsuit claims the federal officials "created, organized, implemented and/or participated in a plan - code named 'Operation Fast and Furious' - to facilitate the distribution of dangerous firearms to violent criminals" and that they "knew or should have known that their actions would cause substantial injuries, significant harm, and even death to Mexican and American civilians and law enforcement, but were recklessly indifferent to the consequence of their actions."
Lengthy investigations by Congress and the Inspector General have faulted at least 17 ATF and Justice Department officials for alleged mismanagement and other violations of conduct.
TORRANCE, Calif. Federal court records filed Monday indicate that the former LAPD police officer accused of killing three people may have tried to flee to Mexico with the help of a friend.
The documents, which include an arrest affidavit, were filed with the U.S. District Court on Monday, reports CBS station KCBS in Los Angeles.
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Ex-cop Christopher Dorner continues to elude police
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Miller on Dorner manhunt: "They got a lot of tips"
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Manhunt for suspected LAPD cop killer
"There is probable cause to believe that Dorner has moved and traveled in interstate and foreign commerce from California to Mexico with the intent to avoid prosecution," an investigator with the U.S. Marshals said in the documents.
The records detail the 33-year-old's alleged movements following the murders of Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence on Feb. 3 and Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain on Feb. 7.
Dorner is wanted as a suspect in all three crimes.
Officials say Dorner may have tried to flee to Mexico with the help of an unidentified associate who lives in the Big Bear area.
Last week, authorities tracked the associate's movements and surveyed his property, during which, they discovered Dorner's burned out truck nearby.
New surveillance video obtained by entertainment website TMZ.com Monday reportedly depicts Dorner at a South Bay store just days before the murders.
The security footage reportedly shows Dorner purchasing scuba equipment at the Torrance Sports Chalet just two days before the Irvine murders.
The Los Angeles Police Department is not confirming that the man in the video is Dorner.
Police think that equipment was possibly purchased to help in his flight to Mexico.
On Feb. 6, Dorner reportedly tried to steal a boat in the Port of San Diego, but was unsuccessful.
The federal documents also state that on the same day "an agent found Dorner's personal belongings, including his wallet and identification cards, near the US/Mexico border at the San Ysidro point of entry."
U.S. Marshals say there is no further evidence indicating that Dorner is in Mexico.
WILMINGTON, Del. A Delaware State Police spokesman says 3 people have died in a shooting at the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington.
Officials described the situation as a "gunfight," reports CBS affiliate KYW-TV in Philadelphia. According to investigators, the gunman entered the lobby of the courthouse, pulled out a gun and opened fire.
According to Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams, the suspect's estranged wife and a second unidentified female were shot and killed by the gunman. Williams says the suspected gunman was then killed by police.
Two Capitol police officers were wounded during the shootout and were taken to Christiana Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Williams said he was told the shooting took place about 8:10 a.m. Monday.
Hours after the shooting, there was still a heavy police presence around the courthouse and streets were blocked off.
