FOX23: National News

Pentagon wants $450M for Guantanamo prison

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:43:21 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon wants more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.

New details on the administration's budget request for next year and other expenses emerged on Tuesday. The cost of the facility that houses 166 prisoners indefinitely includes $200 million for military construction work that could stretch over a decade.

The request also includes $40 million for a fiber optic cable and millions more for military commissions at the facility in Cuba.

Since he took office in January 2009, Obama has pushed to close the prison but has faced opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in Congress. Obama is expected to renew his plea in a speech on counterterrorism on Thursday.

US Coast Guardsman admits desertion

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:41:50 -0500

HONOLULU (AP) — A Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Hawaii whose months-long disappearance lead to a massive search is admitting to desertion, saying he spent three months camping in the mountains of Oahu and didn't plan on ever returning to his job.

Petty Officer 1st Class Russell Matthews pleaded guilty to desertion and using marijuana during a special court-martial in Honolulu on Tuesday.

He says he left Air Station Barbers Point in October, went to pick up his children and got into an argument with his wife. He walked on a beach and then camped in the mountains behind his kids' school.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard launched a massive search.

He turned up at his wife's home in January.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, the Coast Guard is dismissing charges of being absent without leave and causing an unnecessary search.

Oklahoma twister a top-of-the-scale EF-5, officials say

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:01:15 -0500

MOORE, Okla. (AP) — The National Weather Service says the tornado that hit Moore, Okla., was a top-of-the-scale EF-5 twister with winds of at least 200 mph.

Spokeswoman Keli Pirtle said Tuesday the agency upgraded the tornado from an EF-4 on the enhanced Fujita scale to an EF-5 based on what a damage assessment team saw on the ground. The weather service uses the word "incredible" to describe the power of EF-5 storms.

The weather service says the tornado's path was 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide.

Pirtle says Monday's twister is the first EF-5 tornado of 2013.

Central, North Texas under tornado watch Tuesday evening

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:52:04 -0500

DALLAS (AP) — The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for Central and North Texas.

The advisory Tuesday could be expanded to include East Texas as a storm system moves east across the state. Severe thunderstorms are anticipated in some areas.

The weather service has issued the tornado watch until 7 p.m. local time.

A layer of warm air over North Texas had limited storm development over the past two days. But that's expected to dissipate, allowing storms and isolated tornadoes to develop. Storms have raged along the edges of the warm-air cap.

The Texas Department of Public Safety reported a tornado yesterday in Blanket, a town of about 400 residents some 100 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Fort Jackson commander faces adultery charges

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:24:23 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army says the commanding general of Fort Jackson, S.C., has been suspended in connection with charges of adultery and involvement in a physical altercation.

The Army says Brig. Gen. Bryan Roberts reportedly was in an altercation with another woman, not his wife. Roberts was suspended from his job by Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander of Army Training and Doctrine Command, while the investigation continues.

Roberts took command of Fort Jackson in April 2012.

He has been in the Army for about 29 years and served as the director of Iraq training and advisory teams before taking the Fort Jackson post.

The suspension is the latest in a series of scandals involving senior military officers in recent months.

Brig. Gen. Peggy Combs will serve as interim commander during the investigation.

US lawmakers seek Asia missile defense safeguard

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:22:08 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are seeking to prohibit the U.S. from removing missile defense equipment from East Asia, even if the threat posed by a nuclear-armed North Korea is eliminated.

The legislative proposal is a response to remarks last month by Secretary of State John Kerry that the U.S. could reduce its heightened defense posture in the region if North Korea abandoned its nuclear weapons.

That drew criticism from Republicans who are also concerned about China's military power.

The wording is included in a defense spending bill being introduced by a Republican-led House panel that oversees U.S. nuclear and missile defense assets. Its chances of becoming law are uncertain.

The president could waive the requirement on national security grounds, and it wouldn't apply to Aegis missile defense systems on Navy destroyers and cruisers.

Reporters shouldn't be prosecuted, White House says

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:14:00 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama believes journalists shouldn't be prosecuted for doing their jobs.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says he can't comment on any specific government investigation into leaks of classified information. But he says Obama believes the questions currently being asked about how to strike the balance between protecting national security and journalists' freedom are entirely legitimate.

He says Obama believes it's vital to democracy that investigative reporters can do their jobs freely.

The questions were raised by two leak cases: A recent probe in which prosecutors secretly subpoenaed Associated Press phone records, and an investigation into a State Department adviser accused of leaking information to a Fox News journalist. In that case, investigators declared that a journalist is committing a crime by disclosing leaked information.

Power of Oklahoma tornado greater than Hiroshima bomb

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:12:56 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — Wind, humidity and rainfall combined precisely to create the massive killer tornado in Moore, Okla. And when they did, the awesome amount of energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.

Meteorologists contacted by The Associated Press used real time measurements to calculate the energy released during the storm's life span of almost an hour. Their estimates ranged from 8 times to more than 600 times the power of the Hiroshima bomb.

Scientists know the key ingredients that go into a devastating tornado. But they are struggling to figure out why they develop in some big storms and not others. They also are still trying to determine what effects, if any, global warming has on tornadoes.

IRS official Lerner to take 5th at hearing

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:08:14 -0500

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key figure in the Internal Revenue Service controversy plans to invoke her constitutional 5th Amendment right not to testify at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Lois Lerner is the director of the IRS division that handles applications for tax exempt status. That division was responsible for giving extra scrutiny to tea party and other conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

In a letter addressed to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, Lerner's lawyer says his client has "not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course." He cites an ongoing Justice Department investigation.

Lerner was scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

Police search for kidnapped girl, suspect found dead

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:35:25 -0500

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A massive search is underway for a 15-year-old girl who was abducted yesterday from an Iowa bus stop.

Authorities say the man who is suspected of taking her and another girl has been found dead.

Dozens of federal, state and local authorities are searching by air, land and water for Kathlynn Shepard. She and a 12-year-old girl were taken from a bus stop yesterday afternoon after accepting a ride from a stranger. The younger girl was able to escape.

State police said today that the body of a 42-year-old man was found last night at a rural property near the town of Dayton, where the abduction took place. The man, Michael Klunder, is listed on the state's sex offender registry, and he spent several years in prison on kidnapping charges.

State police say they're working on the assumption that the missing girl is still alive. They're releasing her name and photo in an effort to help find her.