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Obama vs. Romney: Future of the Workforce--Graphic

SPECIFIC POLICY POSITIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION
Obama says that the United States should lead the world in college-graduation rates by 2020. He has pushed to expand the size of, and access to, Pell Grants for students from low-income families, increasing the maximum per-student amount. In the spring, Obama shifted his attention to student loans, advocating for legislation to prevent the 3.4 percent student-loan interest rate from doubling. He succeeded when Congress passed a one-year delay. Obama launched an aggressive campaign promoting community colleges. He has also warned universities that their federal funding could be reduced if they don’t rein in tuition costs. 

K-12
Obama considers the Education Department’s Race to the Top competitive-grant program, which encourages state-level school reforms, to be one of his crowning domestic-policy achievements. His budget for fiscal 2013 includes $850 million for the program, down from its $4.35 billion level in the 2009 economic-stimulus bill. He has also pushed for tougher teacher evaluations based on student test scores, a controversial requirement for some Race to the Top funding. He backs the Common Core State Standards Initiative, an effort to set uniform career- and college-readiness standards in all schools.

JOB TRAINING
In March, the White House unveiled Obama’s job-training strategy—“a streamlined reemployment system.” He wants to unify training programs online under an “American Jobs Center” and invest more in counseling. Displaced workers could be eligible for $4,000 in annual training awards for up to two years, and weekly stipends to cover expenses as they search for work. Older people could receive up to two years of wage insurance to ease the transition to jobs that pay less than their previous ones.

IMMIGRATION
Obama wants to boost high-skilled immigration by attaching green cards to Ph.D.s or diplomas in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics earned in the U.S. He also advocates a new start-up visa, encouraging foreign entrepreneurs who receive U.S. investment to set up shop here, giving them permanent residency if their businesses create domestic jobs and generate revenue. In the wake of the failed Dream Act, Obama established administrative two-year deferrals from deportation for illegal immigrant teens who were brought to the United States by their parents.

UNIONS
Unions cheer Obama for his trio of recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in February and his support of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions. Teachers unions have chafed at his push to tie teacher evaluations to test scores.

RECORD

FUNDING
Obama has been a strong proponent of education funding. In 2009, he
dedicated roughly $100 billion of his $787 billion stimulus package to education, according to the Education Department. He has staved off the most draconian of Congress’s proposed cuts to education programs, and he saved Pell Grant funding.

RACE TO THE TOP
The 2009 stimulus package allocated $4.35 billion for the Race to the Top fund, to be distributed among states for education reform. By January, the initiative had helped one of every three states, while using less than 1 percent of total education spending for the program, according to the White House.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Obama announced an $8 billion “Community College to Career Fund” in February. Touted by Jill Biden, the goal is to help community colleges and businesses train 2 million workers for high-demand industries.

KEY ADVISERS

Arne Duncan: The Education secretary is a longtime friend of Obama’s and an ardent champion of school reforms. Duncan started his career at a nonprofit that funded college educations for inner-city students in Chicago, and he spent seven years as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools.

Cecilia Muñoz: An experienced civil-rights advocate and a veteran of the National Council of La Raza, Muñoz has spent her career fighting for immigrants’ rights. Her portfolio broadened earlier this year when she became director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.

Alan Krueger: As a labor economist and the current chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Krueger plays a key role in developing Obama’s jobs policies, making sure they have a strong link to economic growth. He served as the Labor Department’s chief economist in the mid-1990s.

Jill Biden: Obama deputized the vice president’s wife, a longtime community-college instructor, as the face of the administration’s push to raise awareness of and increase access to community colleges.

SPECIFIC POLICY POSITIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION
Romney has promised to reintroduce private banks to the student-loan market, undoing a centerpiece of Obama’s education plan that Romney says “nationalized” the market. To offset “massive increases” in the size of the Pell Grant program, Romney says he will refocus those funds on only the neediest students. He plans to scale back the Education Department’s data-collection requirements and instead partner with the private sector to measure institutional success. Romney promises to unwind “complicated and unnecessary” regulations.

K-12
Expanding school choice, measuring school performance, and implementing teacher evaluations are the three legs to Romney’s K-12 plan. School choice is the boldest of his promises. He wants to require states to give disadvantaged students open enrollment at any school, public or private; the plan would upend the current system in which communities dole out federal dollars to schools with the highest percentage of low-income or disabled students. He would require states to eliminate caps on charter and digital schools and to issue simple report cards on each of their schools. Romney’s plan would eliminate the current law’s “highly qualified” teacher-certification requirement and make block grants available to states that work to improve teacher effectiveness.

JOB TRAINING
Romney would consolidate various federal retraining programs into a block grant for states. He also backs personal reemployment accounts, a George W. Bush-era proposal that lets the unemployed choose how to use cash aid (for example, toward community-college classes or other forms of training). Romney says that the government should reimburse training costs for businesses that train and hire jobless workers.

IMMIGRATION
Romney’s position on high-skilled immigration is similar enough to Obama’s that their plans share imagery—both mention “stapling” green cards to the diplomas of math, science, and engineering students studying here. Romney backs raising the cap on H-1B visas for highly skilled workers and would make mandatory the voluntary “E-Verify” system under which employers electronically check the citizenship status of their hires. As governor of Massachusetts, he vetoed in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants, and he has vowed to veto the Dream Act if Congress ever passes it.  He is “studying” the scaled-back version of the Dream Act proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

UNIONS
Romney opposes “card-check” legislation that would allow workers to organize unions and elect leaders more easily, and he supports a measure that would require the use of secret ballots in all union elections. He plans to use the bully pulpit, if elected, to promote right-to-work laws at the state level.

RECORD

DREAM ACT
As governor of Massachusetts, Romney vetoed a bill in 2004 that would have allowed illegal immigrants who graduated from state high schools to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.

CHARTER SCHOOLS
Romney also vetoed a state freeze on opening charter schools in 2004, arguing that it was not consistent with the Legislature’s budget, which included $37 million to compensate local districts for funds lost to educate charter students, The Boston Globe reported at the time.

UNIONS
Early in his tenure as governor, Romney wrestled with public-employee labor unions over their steering half a dollar of state employees’ weekly paychecks to political action committees, according to The Boston Globe. If elected, Romney would propose legislation banning such practices.

KEY ADVISERS

Rod Paige: Who better to advise you on education policy than someone who once implemented it? Paige was secretary of Education during President George W. Bush’s first term.

John Bailey: A former member of George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council, Bailey has emerged as a key adviser on immigration and technology. He also served as deputy policy director at the Commerce Department.

Emily Stover DeRocco: One of Romney’s point people on job training, DeRocco joined thecampaign after a stint at a nonpartisan arm of the National Association of Manufacturers. Before that, she was Bush’s assistant secretary of Labor for employment and training.

Kris Kobach: The Kansas secretary of state has become something of a torchbearer for far-right opposition to the Dream Act. His clout as a Romney adviser has been somewhat in question; the campaign has said that Kobach is merely a “supporter.”

Photos: Marilyn Monroe, the LIFE covers

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Professor wins $5 million grant to study life after death

Pop quiz: Does life exist after death?

A University of California, Riverside philosophy professor, John Martin Fischer, has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant by the John Templeton Foundation to study just this topic—and yes, students can take his class.

Fischer noted in an email to Yahoo News, "Both I and my post-doc, Benjamin Mitchell-Yellin, will teach related classes over the next three years. I have frequently taught classes on death, immortality, and the meaning of life both at Yale University and UC Riverside."

So what's the meaning of life? More on that in a moment.

Fischer noted, "We'll be open both to studying religious and non-religious views about immortality. One thing that we'll study is whether human beings would want to live forever: would it be boring? Would it lose its meaning and beauty and urgency? Does death give meaning to life?"

According to the university's website announcing the grant award, many anecdotal reports of the afterlife abound, but there has been "no comprehensive and rigorous, scientific study of global reports about near-death and other experiences, or of how belief in immortality influences human behavior." The research will look at a range of phenomena, including heaven, hell, purgatory, and karma.  The grant is the largest ever awarded to a humanities professor at UC Riverside, and one of the largest given to an individual at the university.

Fischer said in a statement, "We will be very careful in documenting near-death experiences and other phenomena, trying to figure out if these offer plausible glimpses of an afterlife or are biologically induced illusions," Fischer said. "Our approach will be uncompromisingly scientifically rigorous. We're not going to spend money to study alien-abduction reports."

The grant will also fund two conferences to discuss the findings. Said UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy P. White, Fischer's research "takes a universal concern and subjects it to rigorous examination to sift fact from fiction."

The Immortality Project, as it is called, will solicit research proposals from eminent scientists, philosophers and theologians whose work "will be reviewed by respected leaders in their fields and published in academic and popular journals."

The research will also delve into cultural aspects of the afterlife. For example, there are reports of millions of Americans seeing a tunnel with a bright light at the end. In Japan, reports often find the individual tending a garden.

The professor added that the academic research could include a range of issues, like "heaven and hell: If we are material beings, how can we exist in heaven, where we would not have physical bodies (or not of the sort we have here)?

"There is a lot of interest in near-death experiences. We can carefully catalog them and look into whether there are patterns. There has already been a lot of work on this. Perhaps some cross-cultural studies would be helpful.

"We'll also be open to studying the relationship between beliefs in afterlife and behavior--moral behavior and crime rates."

Sounds like the kind of research topics that many college students have already spent hours pondering. As for the meaning of life? The professor says check back in three years.

Syria pleads with Russia for aid in sign of desperation

BEIRUT - Syria reached out to its powerful ally Russia on Friday, as senior officials pleaded with Moscow for financial loans and supplies of oil products — an indication that international sanctions are squeezing President Bashar Assad's regime.

The signs of desperation came as resilient rebels fought regime forces in the Syrian capital only two weeks after the government crushed a revolt there. The renewed battles in Damascus show that Assad's victories could be fleeting as armed opposition groups regroup and resurge.

"The fighting in Damascus today proves that this revolution cannot be extinguished," said activist Abu Qais al-Shami. "The rebels may be forced to retreat because of the regime's use of heavy weaponry but they will always come back."

Syria is thought to be burning quickly through the $17 billion in foreign reserves that the government was believed to have at the start of Assad's crackdown on a popular uprising that erupted in March 2011. The conflict has turned into a civil war, and rights activists estimate more than 19,000 people.

Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, who has led a delegation of several Cabinet ministers to Moscow over the past few days, told reporters Friday that they requested a Russian loan to replenish Syria's hard currency reserves, which have been depleted by a U.S. and European Union embargo on Syrian exports.

He said Damascus also wants to get diesel oil and other oil products from Russia in exchange for crude supplies.

"We are experiencing shortages of diesel oil and gas for heating purposes," Syrian Oil Minister Said Maza Hanidi said in Moscow. "This unfair blockade has hurt all layers of the population."

The Syrian regime has blamed sanctions for shortages that have left Syrians across the country standing in long lines to pay inflated prices for cooking gas, fuel, sugar and other staples.

Syrian officials refused to mention specific figures but said that deals with Moscow could be finalized within weeks. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government.

While the Syrian delegation was holding talks in Moscow, a squadron of Russian warships was approaching Syria's port of Tartus, the only naval base Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.

Russian news agencies reported that two of the three amphibious assault ships will call at Tartus while the third will cast anchor just outside the port.

They said that each of the three ships is carrying about 120 marines backed by armoured vehicles. It wasn't immediately clear whether some of the marines will stay to protect Tartus. Some Russian media said the marines were supposed to ensure a safe evacuation of Russian personnel and navy equipment from the base if necessary.

Russia has protected Syria from U.N. sanctions and continued to supply it with weapons throughout the conflict. The Kremlin, backed by fellow veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member China, has blocked any plans that would call on Assad to step down.

On Friday, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly denounced Syria's crackdown in a symbolic effort meant to push the deadlocked Security Council and the world at large into action on stopping the civil war.

Before the vote, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon accused the Syrian regime of possible war crimes and drew comparisons between the failure to act in Syria with the international community's failure to protect people from past genocide in Srebrenica and Rwanda.

"The conflict in Syria is a test of everything this organization stands for," Ban said. "I do not want today's United Nations to fail that test."

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari called the resolution's main sponsors, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, "despotic oligarchies."

"The draft resolution will have no impact whatsoever. It is a piece of theatre," he told reporters after the vote. And Iran's No. 2 ambassador, Eshagh Alehabib, called the resolution "one-sided."

Assad's regime stands accused of a number of massacres in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed. The Syrian government blames gunmen driven by a foreign agenda for the killings, but the U.N. and other witnesses have confirmed that at least some were carried out by pro-regime vigilante groups, known as shabiha.

But the recent emergence of videos showing summary executions committed by rebel forces — albeit on a far smaller scale than the regime's alleged atrocities — is making it more difficult for the Syrian opposition to claim the moral high ground.

With the civil war becoming increasingly vicious, chances for a diplomatic solution were fading after the resignation Thursday of Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria. Annan cited divisions within the Security Council preventing a united approach to stop the fighting.

The fighting continued Friday in the country's two most important cities, Aleppo and Damascus.

In Damascus, residents reported loud explosions and plumes of smoke over the southern edge of the city Friday, as frightened people stayed at home.

"The bombs are back, I have been hearing explosions all day," a resident of central Damascus told The Associated Press, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

Government forces crushed a rebel assault on Damascus two weeks ago, but pockets of resistance remain including the southern neighbourhood of Tadamon, where most of Friday's fighting took place.

Late Friday, Syria's official news agency SANA said government forces had hunted down the remnants of the "terrorist mercenaries" — its term for the rebels — in Tadamon. It said several were killed and many others wounded.

Al-Shami and other activists said troops backed by dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles broke into Tadamon on Friday evening, forcing a fresh wave of residents spilling into nearby areas for shelter.

Many Damascus residents had earlier taken refuge in the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Yarmouk, where mortar shells raining down on a crowded marketplace killed 21 people late Thursday.

Nevertheless, there were signs that rebels may be planning another run on Damascus in an effort to drain the army's resources as fighting stretches into its second week in Aleppo, 350 kilometres (215 miles) to the north.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, warned of a major government assault on Aleppo in the coming days to retake the rebel-held neighbourhoods.

"The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been a considerable buildup of military means," he told reporters in New York late Thursday after briefing the Security Council on his trip to Syria. "We have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start."

____

Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

Earth to Mars rover, Curiosity: Have you landed?

Tune in to the Yahoo! live-stream on Sunday, August 5, at 10:31 p.m. PT or 1:31 a.m. ET.

On Sunday night, millions of miles away, a nail-biter of a landing will be executed—or not—on Mars. The Mars rover, Curiosity, which has been traveling to the distant planet for the past eight-and-a-half months, will land on the red planet by remote control.

To stick the landing, the car-size rover must successfully slow down from 13,000 mph to zero in seven minutes, or "Seven Minutes of Terror," as the wildly popular video from NASA explains—which you can watch above.

Due to the long-distance signal from Mars to Earth, researchers won't know for an agonizing 14 minutes if the landing, programmed from Earth, is a success or an epic fail. The event has gotten so much attention that it will be broadcast live in Times Square.

During the short but tense wait, a sequence of events must fall into place for the landing of the 1,982-pound spacecraft to be successful, including using a parachute to slow it down, firing rockets to prepare for the landing, and carefully setting it in a crater to avoid a dust cloud. If all goes well, the craft will send out a signal that its landing was successful.

The Mars rover has already become somewhat of a celebrity, with its own Facebook page, and messages posted on its wall like this one from Issam Motawaj: "Very excited. We hope you will be a safe landing. Good Luck." And from Jeff Baber "I'm be watching!!! Love it!!!"

But the landing is just the beginning of what's hoped to be a two-year mission to explore signs of life on the planet. The rover, essentially a moving science lab, cost NASA $2.5 billion to build and comes equipped with 17 cameras, a 7-foot-long robot arm, and state-of-the-art science experiments and sensors weighing 125 pounds.

Bing Quock, assistant director of Morrison Planetarium at California Academy of Sciences, calls this "exciting times." He wrote in an email to Yahoo! News, "There are so many things that could go wrong, but it's not like NASA's engineers haven't thought it through. They have a way of performing the impossible, so I'll be watching the feed on the Internet that night with fingers crossed, hoping for the best. "

N. Korea gives refrigerators for medals, labor camp for losing

North Korea's Olympic athletes are thrilling their countrymen with surprising success in winning medals and they are attributing their success to their Dear Leader Kim Jong Un.

But others, including former North Korean athletes who have defected, suggest the success of the country's small contingent of athletes at the games may be the result of a policy of training them from a very young age at specialized schools, backed up by rewards like cars and refrigerators for winners and the threat of labor camps for losers.

North Korea ranks 14th in the overall medal count, but fifth in terms of the number of gold medals with four.

The country won two golds in men's weightlifting, one in women's weightlifting and one in women's judo. It also captured a bronze medal in women's weightlifting.

The communist nation has 56 athletes competing in 11 sports. Its hopes for additional medals lie in boxing, wrestling, diving, table tennis, judo, and archery. The best Olympic result in the past was four gold medals and five bronzes in Barcelona 1992.

Joyful residents in North Korea gather to watch the games on huge outdoor screens and public places with television connection.

"After witnessing the gold medal at the Olympics, my heart is unutterably happy and my pride (in our nation) is growing," an unidentified woman said on state television news.

That pride is exactly what the country's new 28 year-old leader Kim Jong Un is looking for. He has taken control of the impoverished nation of 25 million after his father Kim Jong Il passed away last December. Decades of famine have left many North Koreans bitter and analysts say this Olympic Games' fever is a perfect opportunity to generate loyalty and devotion among his subjects.

Gold medalist Kim Un-Guk, who set an Olympic record in 62-kilogram weightlifting, dutifully attributed his triumph to their leader Kim Jong Un.

"I won first place because the shining Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un gave me power and courage," he told reporters in London.

An Kum-Ae, who won her gold in the women's judo 52-kilogram division, said, "I cannot be any happier than right now for I can give my gold medal to our great leader, Kim Jong Un."

Woo-Young Lee, a professor at University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, says, "Athletes in North Korean society are revered as elites and they are managed, trained, and supported on a national level."

Hand-picked by the Communist Party's Sports Committee, the athletes are trained at very young ages and registered at specialized schools which provide "daily meals and spending money at times," said Gu-Kyeong Bang, a defector living in South Korea.

Bang was a student athlete in Taewondo in the North. Training involved four hours of "ideological education" per week aimed at cultivating loyalty to the leader.

"They play with a different mind set," said another North Korean defector to the South, Kim Yo-Han. "An absolute loyalty towards the country and the leader is the core foundation of the North Korean athletes' sportsmanship."

Kim's father was a soccer coach and mother was a rhythmic gymnastics coach in the North.

Upon returning home, gold medal athletes like Kim Un-Guk and An Gum-Ae would be rewarded with handsome prize money, an apartment, a car, and additional perks like refrigerators and television sets.

But most of all, they will be rewarded with a huge jump in social status with the title of "hero" or "people's athlete."

But poor performances, especially losing to their archenemy nations like the United States or South Korea, have consequences. Rumors of athletes being sent directly to labor camps upon arriving home are not confirmed, but it is a common procedure to open "review meetings" after the sports events in which participants "assess" their own and each other's games, said Kim Yo-Han.

If during that process the person is determined "disloyal" to their Dear Leader, the athlete is likely to be expelled from the sports organization and at times sent to labor camps.

Yunjoo Lim and Sungeun Lee contributed to this report

Also Read

SEAL who wrote book on bin Laden raid revealed

White House Situation Room, May 1, 2011 (Pete Souza/White House)

The Navy SEAL who used a pseudonym to write an upcoming book on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden has been revealed.

Penguin Books—which is publishing "No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama bin Laden" on Sept. 11 on its Dutton imprint—said the author used the pen name Mark Owen and changed the names of his fellow SEALs for security reasons.

But Fox News published Owen's real name, saying he is a 36-year-old Alaskan and former member of the so-called Team 6 that killed bin Laden in a May 2011 assault on the al-Qaida chief's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. (The Associated Press also published his name; other news outlets, including CNN, chose not to do so.)

"Owen was one of the first men through the door on the third floor of the terrorist leader's hideout," Penguin said in a press release on Wednesday, "and was present at his death":

The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden's death, is an essential piece of modern history.

Owen said the reason he wanted to write the book—co-authored with Kevin Maurer—was to "set the record straight about one of the most important missions in U.S. military history."

Pentagon officials, though, say they have not vetted the account. Penguin said the publisher consulted with a former special operations attorney on its release.

"He vetted it for tactical, technical and procedural information as well as information that could be considered classified by compilation and found it to be without risk to national security," Christine Ball, a spokeswoman for Dutton, told The Associated Press.

"I haven't read the book and am unaware that anyone in the department has reviewed it," Pentagon press secretary George Little said Thursday.

Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. James Gregory said that if the book reveals classified information about the raid, the Pentagon would turn the case over to the Department of Justice.

Since the bin Laden raid, "there has been a consistent and effective effort to protect the identity of those that participated in the raid," then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in 2011. "I think that that has to continue."

"No Easy Day" is not the first account of the bin Laden raid to spark controversy.

Last August, the New Yorker published "Getting Bin Laden," a gripping, 8,500-word play-by-play of the killing written by freelancer Nicholas Schmidle.

It was, perhaps, too gripping. Schmidle's sourcing came under fire from several critics who said that he and the New Yorker failed to disclose that Schmidle never spoke with the SEALs directly.

[Related: The New Yorker's account of raid is amazing—perhaps too amazing]

And the White House was criticized by lawmakers for its collaboration with the producers of "Zero Dark Thirty"—Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's upcoming film on the bin Laden raid—over their possible access to classified material. Bigelow and the White House disputed the claims; the CIA said the agency's involvement with the filmmakers was not unusual and that no intelligence was compromised.

The film, originally scheduled to open before the presidential election, was pushed back to Dec. 19 after Republicans complained it might affect voters.

Retired porn star Jenna Jameson supports Mitt Romney

Retired adult film actress Jenna Jameson voiced support for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at a strip club Thursday, CBS San Francisco reports:

"I'm very looking forward to a Republican being back in office," Jameson said while sipping champagne in a VIP room at Gold Club in the city's South of Market neighborhood. "When you're rich, you want a Republican in office."

Jameson was being interviewed "exclusively" by a CBS reporter who was "on assignment" at "an event marking the 8th anniversary" of the San Francisco-area strip club.

Jameson isn't the first in the business to praise Romney: Ron Jeremy recently called Romney "a good man" and "such an amazing father." In an interview with Yahoo News earlier this year, gay porn titan Michael Lucas said he would "of course" support the former Massachusetts governor.

Alaskan fishermen save bear cub from whirlpool (VIDEO)

A boat  of Alaskan fishermen documented their successful, and risky, attempt to rescue a bear cub who was struggling against the river current and in danger of being pulled into a nearby whirlpool.

Mike Polocz tells the Anchorage Daily News that the bear was struggling to stay afloat in the Kenai River when Polocz, his son and a fishing buddy went into action.

"I couldn't watch this defenseless animal suffer," Polocz told the Anchorage Daily News. "I was ready to go in after it if it went under."

And aside from the obvious risks involved with trying to save even a bear cub, Polocz notes that the cub's mother, along with its siblings, were all standing nearby on the shoreline watching the entire scene unfold.

"I was so close I could look into its eyes and they were wide open and filled with just sheer terror," Polocz said.

On a somewhat unusual aside, the bear is screaming throughout the video in a tone that almost sounds like a disgruntled human yelling the word, "bear." But anyway, back to the rescue.

At first, Polocz tries to use his fishing net to bring the bear aboard, and the cub tries climbing into it. But when that fails, he uses the net's handle to guide the cub close enough to the shoreline for it to safely escape.

The video does not contain the final moments of the cub's escape but it reportedly let out a roar of approval upon reaching the shore and its worried mom.

"There were three pretty tough guys in the boat, and there wasn't a dry eye among us," Polocz said.

Warning: The video contains some mildly not-safe-for-work language.

Romney: My health plan is superior to Obama's

DENVER (AP) — Claiming health care bragging rights, Mitt Romney said Thursday his plan to provide health insurance to everyone in Massachusetts was superior to the one it inspired, President Barack Obama's much-debated national law.

"My health care plan I put in place in my state has everyone insured, but we didn't go out and raise taxes on people and have a unelected board tell people what kind of health care they can have," Romney said in an interview with CBS' Denver affiliate, KCNC.

The law signed by Romney in 2006 sought to expand health care but did not guarantee coverage for all. Romney and Massachusetts lawmakers decided that rather than reinvent the entire health care system, they would instead close a series of holes, allowing the vast majority of residents to keep their existing plans.

Obama's law basically followed the same outline — a private insurance system with an expanded government safety net. But there are some important differences.

The federal law is national, and most of its important provisions are binding even in states that oppose it. Romney's law was a state effort that enjoyed support from both political parties, and the Republican candidate argues that health care reform should remain a state prerogative.

Obama's law cut Medicare payments to hospitals, insurers and other service providers. As a state law, Romney's plan had no effect on Medicare.

Romney's law has led to about 400,000 Massachusetts residents gaining coverage, state officials say. More than 98 percent of state residents are covered. Obama's law has already led to coverage for more than 2.5 million young adults on their parents' plans. If all of its provisions go into effect, more than 30 million uninsured people will be covered.

The Massachusetts law requires residents to have insurance, with certain exemptions.

Those who can show they earn too much to qualify for the state's subsidized health care plan, but not enough to afford even the least expensive nonsubsidized plan, are not required to pay the so-called "individual mandate" penalty.

The Supreme Court ruled that Obama's individual mandate constitutional — as a tax. It, too, has exemptions for financial hardship, religious beliefs, and membership in an American Indian tribe.

The law Romney signed also created an unelected board — known as the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority Board — which oversees an independent state agency that decides what level of insurance complies with the state law.

The agency can also exempt people whose financial hardships prevent them from enrolling in health insurance.

Since Obama's plan was modeled on Romney's, some conservatives remain wary of the former Massachusetts governor. Some GOP activists were angered when a Romney spokeswoman touted the Massachusetts plan on Fox News earlier this month.

In Thursday's interview, one of a series the presumptive Republican presidential nominee gave local broadcast outlets in swing states, Romney was asked how he'd appeal to women voters on health care and other issues. The Obama campaign has been pounding Romney for his stances on birth control, abortion and other women's issues.

Romney replied by talking about how he'd improve the economy and education. Then he shifted to health care, saying it was "a big issue."

Romney also laughed off concerns that a hurricane could disrupt the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week. "The winds of change are coming," he said, "so we're looking forward to it."

---

AP Writers Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in Washington contributed to this report.

Police investigating reported threat against Akin

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police said Thursday that officers are investigating a reported threat against Rep. Todd Akin, the Missouri congressman who has been criticized for comments he recently made about rape.

Police spokeswoman Lt. Kimberly Schneider said there was "an active, open investigation" into a reported threat against the Republican, though she declined to detail the threat because it involved security of members of Congress.

The six-term congressman, who is running for the U.S. Senate, created a firestorm when he said in a television interview Sunday that women's bodies have ways of preventing pregnancies in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." He has repeatedly apologized, saying he misspoke, and has refused demands by top Republicans to withdraw from the Senate race.

Several threats have been made against the congressman, his family and staff since the interview aired, Akin spokesman Steve Taylor said. Taylor said threats of rape and other violence have been aimed at Akin through phone calls, emails and tweets.

Akin is challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill.

Slideshow: The best photos of the day

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Typhoon batters southern Taiwan with winds, rain

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A powerful typhoon made landfall in southern Taiwan before dawn Friday, toppling trees and dumping torrential rain that flooded farmlands before roaring out to sea.

No casualties from Typhoon Tembin were immediately reported. Authorities had taken precautions, evacuating more than 3,000 people from mountainous, landslide-prone areas of Taiwan a day ahead of the storm.

The Central Weather Bureau said Tembin landed in coastal Pingtung County at 5 a.m. (2100 GMT), packing winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) per hour, before blowing out to the Taiwan Strait 2 1/2 hours later.

Mindful of a devastating typhoon three years ago that took 700 lives, Taiwan's military readied thousands of soldiers equipped with rubber boats and amphibious vehicles to help with relief efforts in areas impacted by Tembin's fury.

Authorities also ordered workers home in the eastern city of Hualien, where all flights were canceled. Schools were closed in several areas in the southeast.

Farmers urgently harvested crops ahead of the storm's arrival, and many homes and businesses in eastern Taiwan boarded up their windows. Outdoor events to mark a special Taiwanese Valentine's Day on Thursday were canceled.

Another typhoon may threaten southern Japan over the weekend. Typhoon Bolaven has winds of 144 kph (89 mph) and may intensify, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The current forecast has the typhoon affecting southern islands, including Okinawa, on Sunday.

Washed out bridge strands Missouri couple in their home

For Bob and Connie Bushner, a trip to the grocery store involves a trek on a four-wheel ATV down a creek bank, across the creek, up another steep bank and then to a car parked away from their home.

It's been that way since December of 2010, when a storm washed away a small bridge over the creek that connected their Ozark County, Mo., home to the main road.

With the bridge washed away, the Bushners essentially have been stranded in their own home, Fox News reports.

"Nobody can come and visit unless we bring them over on the four-wheeler," Connie told the news station.

The Bushners are at odds with Ozark County officials on the reconstruction of the bridge. The long-standing argument is over who is responsible for fixing the bridge.

Fox notes that County Commissioner T.J. Lewis said he won't pay for repairs because it would be "a waste of taxpayers' money." The Bushners have proposed to pay for half of the construction of a new bridge, but Lewis seems not to want to agree to that.

The news station also reports there's also an issue between the county and the Army Corps of Engineers on who is responsible for the bridge.

In the meantime, though, the Bushners are still slogging on an ATV to and from their dream home.

Dole recalls bagged salad over possible Listeria discovery

Dole says it is voluntarily recalling 1,039 cases of bagged salad after a random sample tested positive for the Listeria bacteria.

Dole Fresh Vegetables, a division of Dole Food Company, which is based in Westlake Village, Calif., issued the statement Wednesday evening, saying no illnesses have been reported in association with the recall.

The specific product being recalled is 10 oz. Dole Italian Blend, with a "Use-By" date of Aug. 20, distributed in eight U.S. states: Florida, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Mississippi and Virginia.

The company said the recall is in response to an "isolated instance in which a sample of Dole Italian Blend salad yielded a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test conducted by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture."

However, Dan Ragan, director of the food and drug protection division of North Carolina's agriculture department, said the testing did not take place in the state. He said samples were sent to his state's agriculture department as part of a regular practice through the USDA's Microbiological Data Program, a national food-borne pathogen monitoring program implemented in 2001.

Ragan said he does not know where the sample originated or where the testing took place.

A request for comment from Dole was not immediately returned.

Last year, 30 people died after being infected with one of four outbreak-associated strains of the bacteria, Listeria moncytogenes, and one ill pregnant woman had a miscarriage, the Centers for Disease Control reported. A total of 146 people from 28 states were reported to the CDC as infected.

Dole said in a statement that it was "coordinating closely" with regulatory officials.

Because the product is two days past its "Use-By" date, Dole said "it is highly unlikely that any product is still available at retail…."

But the company said, "Retailers should check their inventories and store shelves to confirm that none of the product is mistakenly present or available for purchase by consumers or in warehouse inventories."

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Will Isaac hit Tampa during the Republican convention?

Click on the image for Isaac's latest projected path. (Weather.com)

A day after the mayor of Tampa said he was prepared to call off next week's Republican National Convention if Tropical Storm Isaac hits the bay area as a major storm, Florida Gov. Rick Scott assured conventiongoers that "Tampa is open for business."

"We're a hospitality state," Scott said on CNN. "We do this every day."

Tropical Storm Isaac, which brought heavy winds and rain to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Thursday, was expected to reach hurricane strength before reaching the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the Florida Keys.

According to the National Weather Service, Isaac's most likely projected path would take it just to the west of Tampa as a Category 1 hurricane--with winds between 75 and 85 mph--on Monday, making landfall in the Florida Panhandle sometime Tuesday. (One computer model had the storm pass right over Tampa; another had it hitting New Orleans.)

While the site of the GOP convention--the Tampa Bay Times Forum--would be within the city's mandatory evacuation zone should winds reach 96 mph, Scott urged the 50,000 people expected in Tampa to not change their travel plans.

Scott said his office conducts conference calls twice a day with state, local and Republican officials to discuss contingency plans, and that the convention organizers would ultimately make the "hypothetical" call to cancel the event.

"If something happens, we're going to be ready," Scott said. "But Florida's used to this. We're a tourism state. We're going to have a great convention."

According to Reuters, though, authorities "have not ruled out the possibility of postponing or relocating the Republican convention if the storm takes direct aim at the city on Florida's central Gulf Coast."

"Absolutely, we're prepared to call it off," Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn said on CNN on Wednesday. "I mean, safety and human life trump politics. I think the RNC recognizes that. The organizers, certainly Gov. Romney, recognize that."

"These officials have been working together on the convention for the past 18 months," Scott said earlier Thursday. "The possibility of a hurricane has been part of that planning process. All that's required for those plans to be activated would be for there to be a hurricane and hopefully that will not happen."

"There is no such thing as cancelling," RNC communications director Sean Spicer said on CNN's "Starting Point."

But the carefully-worded statement from convention chief William Harris--issued Thursday afternoon--leaves some wiggle room:

The Republican National Convention and the Republican National Committee, working in consultation with the Romney/Ryan campaign, are in regular contact with the National Weather Service, Governor Scott and local emergency officials in an effort to track and understand the potential impact of the storm. Governor Scott and local emergency officials have assured us that they have the resources in place to respond to this storm should it make landfall, as our primary concern is with those in the potential path of the storm. We will continue to work closely with them and federal officials to monitor the storm and discuss any impact it might have on the Tampa area and the state of Florida. We continue to move forward with our planning and look forward to a successful convention.

The storm has sustained winds of just 40 mph. "However," the National Hurricane Center said, "environmental conditions are favorable for rapid intensification, which could occur if the cyclone develops a well-defined inner core."

U.S. to weigh gay relationships in deportation cases

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amid pressure from Democratic lawmakers, Homeland Security officials reiterated Friday that a foreigner's longstanding same-sex relationship with a U.S. citizen could help stave off the threat of deportation.

Binational gay couples are eligible for consideration under a federal program designed to focus resources away from low-priority deportation cases and let officials spend more time tracking down convicted criminals, said Marsha Catron, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security.

However, the Obama administration will not automatically shelve deportation cases or process green card applications involving foreign citizens married to same-sex American partners.

Catron said Homeland Security will continue to comply with a 1996 law that prohibits the government from recognizing same-sex relationships, even as it takes these relationships into consideration when evaluating possible deportation.

The Obama administration last year said it considers the Defense of Marriage law unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court.

Friday's statement, which builds on comments Homeland Security officials made last summer, came three days after 84 lawmakers led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi demanded the agency put its position in writing and disseminate it to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices to help keep same-sex couples together.

The reassurance was first reported on Thursday by the online news site BuzzFeed. Immigrant advocates welcomed the comments but said a formal policy still is needed.

"It is significant to me because it is expressly inclusive of LGBT families," said Lavi Soloway, an immigration attorney who represents a number of same-sex couples in deportation proceedings.

Yet "as long as it's not in writing it doesn't mean that much for an individual in deportation," Soloway said.

That sentiment was echoed by Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, whose boss is awaiting word on whether the administration plans to recognize couples' ties in a memo or field guidance," not just public statements.

"We look forward to the written guidance that we expect would be a logical next step," Hammill said.

Homeland Security officials did not answer questions about whether a written memo would be issued.

The federal government last year began reviewing deportation cases to determine which ones should be top priority and which ones might be shelved. Government attorneys weigh factors such as a person's criminal record, family ties and community relations in making their decisions. ICE officials said at the time that long-term same-sex relationships could be included under the family ties criteria.

As of July 20, government attorneys had reviewed more than 355,000 deportation cases and determined about 6 percent qualified to be placed on hold, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least half a dozen same-sex couples who were at risk of being separated have won temporary reprieves, either from immigration judges or under the broader review.

Immigrant advocates have criticized the program for failing to help more immigrants, while gay rights advocates have continued pushing for a blanket moratorium on deportations of foreign nationals who are legally married to same-sex spouses or in long-term gay relationships.

Supporters of stricter limits on immigration have decried it as a way of circumventing Congress.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, questioned how the Obama administration could simply contradict the 1996 law passed by Congress known as the Defense of Marriage Act.

"I just don't see how you can exercise discretion as though they're spouses if they're not spouses under federal law," said Krikorian, whose group wants more limits on immigration. "It doesn't even matter what you think about DOMA."

In this week's letter, Democratic lawmakers accused Homeland Security officials of overlooking binational same-sex couples for prosecutorial discretion — even though agency officials said almost a year ago that same-sex marriages and partnerships would be considered a positive factor in their cases.

Meanwhile, a lawsuit seeking green cards on behalf of five foreign citizens married to gay or lesbian Americans has been put on hold while the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to take up several other cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.

___

Taxin reported from Orange County, Calif.

Romney energy plan aims to expand drilling on federal land

Romney in New Mexico (Evan Vucci/AP)

In what his campaign billed as a major policy speech, Mitt Romney unveiled an energy plan Thursday that would give states the power to determine whether drilling and mining should occur on federal lands within their borders as part of a larger effort to increase domestic oil, coal and natural gas production and achieve energy independence by 2020.

"This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing," Romney said during a speech at an oilfield services company in Hobbs, N.M. "This is a real, achievable objective."

Under current law, the federal government controls oil, coal and gas permits for federal lands. But Romney argued determination should be up to state officials, insisting individual states are in a better position to "develop, adopt and enforce regulations" on local basis than the federal government--which his campaign says has been unduly influenced by Washington politics.

A policy paper released ahead of the candidate's speech by the Romney campaign argues President Barack Obama "has intentionally sought to shut down oil, gas and coal production in pursuit of his own alternative energy agenda."

Romney said that loosening regulations on the energy industry will benefit taxpayers by lowering gas costs and reducing the cost of consumer goods, which have increased as companies pay higher energy prices. He'll argue that allowing more federal drilling would not only bring money back into the nation's budget but would result in lower energy prices that could create jobs, lower the trade deficit and increase the nation's security.

"Three million jobs come back to this country by taking advantage of something we have right underneath our feet. That's oil, and gas, and coal. We're going to make it happen. We're going to create those jobs," Romney said Thursday. "Let me tell you what else it does. It adds $500 billion to the size of our economy. That is more good wages. That's an opportunity for more Americans to have a bright and prosperous future."

The push is part of what Romney touted as an effort to achieve energy independence by 2020, a plan that also includes expanding offshore energy development along the coast of Virginia and North and South Carolina as well as approval of the Keystone energy pipeline linking Canada to the United States.

Romney's speech came amid criticism that he hasn't been specific enough about what exactly he would do as president. In a conference call ahead of the speech, a Romney aide acknowledged that some of the ideas the candidate detailed Thursday he's pitched previously on the campaign trail. But aides insisted the speech offered more details about how Romney's policies would work as part of a larger effort to improve the economy. Romney also pressed the idea that government is standing in the way of the U.S. achieving energy independence—an argument the presumptive Republican nominee has made in the past.

"The challenge in getting there is not about the resources we have. It's not about the technology we have. It's about the government we have," Oren Cass, Romney's domestic policy director, told reporters in a conference call Wednesday. "The real question is are we going to pursue the political reforms that will allow us to develop the resources to their fullest."

But the Romney campaign presented different calculations from what has been previously suggested about the impact of the candidate's proposed policies, including the impact of drilling on federal lands. A recent Congressional Budget Office report suggested that opening nearly all federal lands to drilling would yield just $7 billion in government revenue over the next decade—a vast difference from "trillions of dollars" estimated by the Romney campaign.

Asked about the disparity, Cass said the campaign was including revenues from both onshore and offshore drilling on federal lands and suggested the CBO had produced lower numbers by not including lease payments, royalties and taxes certain to be earned in coming "years and decades."

"If you keep in mind that this is something that America is going to be able to sustainably produce over years and decades, the aggregate total is much higher," Cass said.

Responding to Romney's speech, the Obama campaign accused the candidate of still not being specific enough about what his energy goals are and questioned his ties to the oil and gas industry. On Tuesday, Romney raised roughly $7 million during a fundraising swing through Texas, which included a finance luncheon with energy industry leaders.

"His energy speech today was devoid of any policy specifics or concrete steps that would realistically increase our nation's energy independence," Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said in a statement. "If anything, Romney's policies would take us backward. He wants to keep giving billions of dollars in tax subsidies to the big oil and gas companies and recklessly open new areas for drilling, but turn our back on increasing energy efficiency and developing our clean, homegrown energy sources. That's not a recipe for energy independence."

But the Romney campaign rejected criticism of Romney's ties to the energy industry and insisted his proposals would benefit all Americans.

"Unleashing those resources … the beneficiaries of that are consumers and families and workers who will get the benefit of more jobs and more affordable energy," Ed Gillespie, a senior Romney adviser, said.

Obama campaign unleashing 'the Big Dog' in battleground states

President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton campaign together in New York in June. (Carolyn Kaste …

Do you look back fondly on Bill Clinton's time in office as an era of prosperity? President Barack Obama's re-election campaign hopes you do—because it will be unleashing the gifted politician, sometimes known as "the Big Dog," in battleground states.

"I anticipate that he'll be one of our principal surrogates in the fall," a senior Obama campaign official told several dozen reporters at a briefing held in Washington. The session, which included six top Obama campaign officials, was held on condition that they not be named.

"Obviously, President Clinton has extraordinary credibility on these issues of how you build a strong economy," the official said. "He faced some of the same forces when he was president that president Obama is facing now, the same opposition to dealing with a fiscal challenge by taxing the wealthy to pay a little more, the same opposition to the kind of investments we need to make in order to grow the economy."

His hopes for a second term weighed down by the sour economy, the current president frequently invokes Clinton in his stump speech and paints the Obama-Romney choice in November as being between Clinton's economy and George W. Bush's. And Clinton appears to have set aside any bad blood from the 2008 campaign, when Obama beat Hillary Clinton in a frequently harsh campaign. Clinton has starred in Obama campaign ads, helped Obama raise funds and defended Obama in media interviews. (It hasn't always gone perfectly. Republicans gleefully seized on Clinton's description of Romney's business record as "sterling.") Next up, Clinton will play a starring role at the Democratic convention—formally nominating Obama for re-election and defending his economic policies.

To hear the Obama campaign aides tell it, Clinton will play such as big role that the fall campaign may start to feel like an Obama/Biden/Clinton ticket. "We want as much of his time as he's willing to give. And he's been very generous so far," said the official. "He's indicated to us that he's willing to give us a significant amount of time moving forward."

Clinton's broad appeal—a July 2012 Gallup poll found 66 percent of Americans regard him favorably, against 28 unfavorably—includes many white working-class voters, a demographic Obama sometimes struggles to reach.

"He plays everywhere," said a second Obama campaign official. "You've seen his numbers, his economic message. There isn't a battleground state it doesn't play well. Bill Clinton can go anywhere."

NASA forms $1.1B partnership with private space companies

The U.S. space agency wants to help private companies reach the stars without outsourcing to other countries

Though many of us dream of exploring the stars or starting a human colony on Mars, that dream is not shared by the government. If the United States is going to return to the stars, it's going to need the help of private companies — a fact NASA seems to acknowledge via its new $1.1 billion agreement to support private space craft development.

Specifically, the space agency has made funding agreements with three private companies that seek to send man into space. The Sierra Nevada corporation will receive $212.5 million, SpaceX will get $440 million, and Boeing will get $460 million. The goal, aside from going where no man has ever gone before, is to keep space-related jobs in American hands. Says NASA administrator Charles Bolden, "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."

Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and Boeing will be using the money to perform tests over the next two years in an effort to "launch crewed orbital demonstration missions to low Earth orbit" by 2015. From there, it's hoped that the companies will help provide a means to explore the solar system.

[Image credit: NASA]

This article was written by Fox Van Allen and originally appeared on Tecca

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Chick-fil-A protests: Have they gone too far?

It seems that a sandwich has become the target of partisan political debate. Ever since Dan Cathy, the president of chicken restaurant chain Chick-fil-A, voiced his opposition to gay marriage, opinions about the company have caused a lot of indigestion.

Adam Smith, then the CFO of a medical supply firm, created a wave of interest on the Web when he posted a video of himself berating a Chick-fil-A worker at a drive-through window in Tucson, Ariz. Smith, who said he "just couldn't stand all the hate," wasn't exactly showing his sweet side.

Smith tells the employee, who offers him free water and wishes him a nice day, "I don't know how you live with yourself and work here. I don't understand it. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values. You deserve better." Smith's employer, Vante, was not impressed, stating in a press release that Smith no longer works for the company.

Overnight, a Chick-fil-A in Torrance, Calif., was vandalized with the spray-painted message "Tastes like hate" in advance of today's "National Same-Sex Kiss Day."

Some gay activists have encouraged same-sex couples to document themselves smooching at the restaurant chain's locations.

This comes after Wednesday's Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, which brought out tens of thousands to wait in long lines and, Chick-fil-A confirmed, resulted in a "record-setting day" for the business.

Mayors in Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco have rolled up the welcome mat to the chain, and in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised his city for its "vibrant" LGBT community.

New York City's Michael Bloomberg, on the other hand, a supporter of gay marriage, said on his radio show Friday that it is not appropriate for government "to look at somebody's political views and decide whether or not they can live in the city, or operate a business in the city, or work for somebody in the city."

Twitter was abuzz from all the activity. As helpbydonating (@ithas2besaid) noted, "If you want to protest these mayors who banned Chick-fil-A, that's one thing. But if you want to defend the constitution, defend all of it." Richard Penney (@RichardPenney) weighed in, saying, "If you don't like Chick-fil-A don't go there. If you do, go there. But banning the business because you disagree w/ the CEO? Fascist."

On the other hand, all the chatter about chicken sandwiches simply seems to be making some people hungry. Coraline Jones (@kaylacurtsinger) posted, "The more y'all keep talking about Chick-fil-A, the more I crave it."

Sometimes, a sandwich is just a sandwich.

Video: Family of four stranded at airport for six days

The Saxton family spent six days at SLC Airport before getting a flight home (ABC News 4)A Virginia family spent six days stranded at Salt Lake City International Airport before a generous donor purchased them a flight back home.

"We just sit and walk around and wait for our flights," Curtis Saxton told local affiliate ABC 4. "We've been here for every flight, rolled over for every flight," said Saxton. "We're still at the bottom of that list."

Curtis Saxton and his wife Nicole Bennett, along with their 13-year-old daughter Sadee and 4-year-old son Dominic, had used a relative's buddy pass, to fly from Virginia to Utah.

Buddy passes are technically lower-end version of standby flights, meaning that the Saxtons were forced to wait until all passengers, including regular standby requests, had been seated.

And with so many Americans traveling on summer vacations, there just weren't any seats available on their return JetBlue flight. So the family was stuck at SLC Airport from Aug. 15 through Aug. 21.

Even worse, they were forced to sleep on airport benches and because of limited funds, could afford to eat only one meal per day. "There's a lot of people walking by and staring at you and kind of laughing at you," said Bennett. "It doesn't feel very good."

The family hadn't even been able to shower since the day they arrived at the airport. "You feel gross," said 13-year-old Sadee. "It's embarrassing."

The family said neither they nor their relatives could afford to purchase a ticket back to Virginia at the standard price.

However, once news of their plight was reported, donations quickly arrived. United Airlines purchased a motel room for the family and an anonymous donor purchased them a ticket back to Virginia, which they used on Wednesday morning.

Before the donations arrived, things had gotten so bad that 4-year-old Dominic began vomiting on Sunday and had to be evaluated by airport paramedics. "I have been hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry!" Dominic said.

It should be noted that JetBlue did nothing wrong here. In fact, the airline said it was without options, as it could not take away tickets from other paying passengers on flights that were already fully booked. A independent survey of airlines passengers released by J.D. Power and Associates in June ranked JetBlue as the top industry airline for customer satisfaction for North America.

Curiosity rover landing: This time in HD

You've seen the $2.5 billion Mars rover Curiosity flawlessly land on the Red Planet. But you haven't seen it like this.

Folks, this is not your grandparent's moon landing video. Grainy, it's not. Instead, we've got full-resolution images, courtesy of the Mars descent imager that cataloged the landing from the jettison of the heat shield until touchdown.

It's the geek equivalent of a victory lap. The  high-resolution images from NASA form this unofficial video made by visual effects producer Daniel Luke Fitch of the rover's landing. The highlight reel of high-definition images has captured the public's attention, with more than 500,000 views online so far.

And viewers just can't get enough of Mars madness, from their marriage proposals to NASA's Mohawk guy to their following Curiosity on Twitter.

In the hi-res video, the supersharp images show first the heat shield being jettisoned. Then Curiosity hovers over the planet, and you get a window seat as the surface of Mars grows larger as the craft nears the planet. Finally the rover sets down in the Gale Crater, creating a cloud of Martian dust.

For audio play-by-play, check out NASA's official hi-res video mashup from Curiosity, posted on Twitter:

Missile Defense Agency employees warned about porn on the job

A top official at the government agency charged with protecting America from incoming nuclear missiles recently had to order his employees to keep their eyes on the sky and off pornographic websites they had accessed on secure computers.

As first reported by Bloomberg News, Missile Defense Agency Executive Director John James Jr. wrote in a July 27 memo that employees and contractors had potentially put the security of the MDA network at risk by visiting unauthorized websites and watching, and sharing, sexually explicit content.

"These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD [Department of Defense] regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code," he wrote. Those found in violation could potentially lose their security clearance, be suspended or dismissed from service at the MDA, the memo said, according to Bloomberg.

MDA spokesperson Rick Lehner told ABC News the agency-wide memo "reflects standard policy used by both government agencies and private industry" and said that of the 8,000-odd employees of the MDA, "less than a half-dozen" were involved in the alleged misconduct.

"Employees should not access inappropriate Internet sites for pornography, gambling, video games and unauthorized music and video sites, to name a few. If they do, there are consequences, including possible loss of security clearances and termination," he said.

Though pornography websites have a reputation for hosting malware that can potentially infect visitors' computers, Lehner said that at no time was the MDA network compromised.

"MDA has a highly-advanced monitoring system to detect intrusions, access to inappropriate websites, viruses and malware downloads, and it worked as designed," he said.

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What Gabby Douglas’ vault into Olympic history means

Late last night, minutes after NBC aired the much-anticipated cuticle-picker that was the Olympic women's all-around gymnastics finals—hours after the event actually took place, of course—the broadcast director cut from an on-floor interview with gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas to a broadcast booth somewhere nearby. In it sat longtime NBC commentator and sports journalism veteran Bob Costas, his prime-time-friendly, man-child hairdo in perfect position.

"You know, it's a happy measure of how far we've come that it doesn't seem all that remarkable, but still it's noteworthy, Gabby Douglas is, as it happens, the first African-American to win the women's all-around in gymnastics," Costas intoned, his besuited left elbow resting comfortably on the anchor desk. "The barriers have long since been down, but sometimes there can be an imaginary barrier, based on how one might see oneself."

In a political and cultural environment in which the patriotism—the very Americanness—of people of color (including the current president of the United States) is often called into question, Costas's scripted deep thought—his "little homily,” as one Twitterer called it—was at worst dishonest, at best naive. What leveled barriers, I wondered, was Mr. Costas referring to? Who, excepting the most Pollyanna-ish or cloistered of cultural observers—the type who assert the legitimacy of phrases like "post-racial"—would believe that Gabby Douglas' challenges were primarily psychic, a statement that can be contradicted by pretty much any news story or feature profile on the 16-year old gymnast, all of which make no secret of the undeniable whiteness of being that is high-level American gymnastics? "Bob Costas just re-affirmed that the success of a black person means we're not racist anymore. THANK GOD THAT'S OVER," wrote the political writer Ana Marie Cox. A few moments later she offered a revision of sorts: "Ok what he said was 'a barrier has fallen' or somesuch but one person over the wall does not a fallen barrier make. TAKES NOTHING FROM GABS."

Costas, of course, did have a point: Our ideas about ourselves, no matter our color, often prove as limiting and toxic as the external and institutional roadblocks put in our way. But you can't have one without the other. In this, Douglas' triumph seems extremely remarkable, both because of the commonality of her situation—the big dreams, the economic hardships, the one-parent household—and its unusualness: a minority in a historically "white" sport.

On that last point: In January, a fact sheet released by the National Women's Law Center reported that less than two-thirds of African-American and Hispanic girls play sports, while more than three-quarters of Caucasian girls do. And a 2007 diversity study commissioned by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., said that just 6.61 percent of the participants in American gymnastics programs were black (10.67 percent are Asian and 74.46 percent are Caucasian). Members of USA Gymnastics—coaches, judges or athletes who participate in its sanctioned events—responded to (and within) the survey in a variety of ways, many of them unsympathetic: "This is just another example of political correctness gone CRAZY!" Said another: "As a middle class, white Christian male, is the NBA doing any "reach out" programs to me and my family?" And another advised: "Start programs in low income areas. Once people understand you don't have to be a rocket scientist to teach and coach gymnastics, it will flourish. We are too elitist to appeal to the masses."

Elitist? Perhaps. White? Definitely. Speaking of aerospace experts, it also doesn't take an authority on modern propulsion methods to notice that coverage of this first week of the 2012 Olympics has been an overwhelmingly homogenous one. Douglas, her fellow gymnast John Orozco and other Olympians like freestyle swimmer Cullen Jones notwithstanding, the focus on fan favorites like gymnastics and swimming has underscored just how few Americans of color make up the ranks of the non-track-and-field elite. (And don't get me started on crew.) This, of course, is a function of both access and opportunity, and it starts early; as the NWLC report put it, "girls, particularly girls of color, receive far fewer opportunities to play sports than do boys, as well as inferior treatment in areas such as equipment, facilities, coaching and publicity." Doesn't sound to me like so many barriers have been felled after all.

That said, I'm sympathetic to what I suspect Costas tried—and failed—to articulate last night, which is to say, the sometimes contradictory desire to both celebrate history being made and live in a world in which achievements like Douglas' seem ordinary, or, at the very least, unsurprising. But we're not there yet, despite Costas' assertions (protestations?) of societal colorblindness. These competing tensions were evident in today's newspapers—a quick scan of the front pages of the largest papers in the country revealed that only a handful of headlines led with the historic nature of Douglas’ achievement; most others alluded to it or didn’t mention it at all—and in Douglas herself, whose level of fame has risen in direct proportion to the vagueness of her public statements. ("I have an advantage because I'm the underdog and I'm black and no one thinks I'd ever win," she matter-of-factly told a reporter in June. On Friday morning, she watered that down for the "Today" show’s Savannah Guthrie, saying, "Making the history books is definitely one of the perks, and it just feels amazing.”)

But whether or not Douglas directly acknowledges and unpacks the burden of representation that comes with her achievement—and I'm by no means convinced that she owes it to anyone to do so—she "carries the aspirations and expectations of countless others," as The Nation's Dave Zirin put it Thursday night. Her two medals have the potential not only to inspire millions of young girls around the world but also to influence American ideas about what it means to be a "golden girl." (Douglas, who is the first American gymnast to win both the all-around and team gold medals in the same Olympics, will reportedly appear on the box of a special edition of Kellogg's cornflakes.) The 16-year-old's triumph—not to mention her poise, her maturity, her focus, her elegance—will help recalibrate what young females of color believe is within their reach, while also influencing Western ideas and concepts of black womanhood, strength, agency and femininity—which has been historically objectified, sexualized and, it should be noted, feared. (Remember French ice skater Surya Bonaly?) The hope, at least in these quarters, is that Gabby Douglas' all-around triumph is also an all-American one.

Bain docs: Romney investments used 'blockers' to avoid taxes

The private equity firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made use of arcane techniques in several of its Cayman Islands-based funds to avoid U.S. taxes, according to a trove of Bain Capital's private audit and finance records made public on the website Gawker today.

The audited financial statements of one of the Cayman Islands funds make note of the use of "blocker" entities, which are used to help retirement accounts and nonprofit entities avoid some taxes. Financial statements for another fund note that it "intends to conduct its operations so it will … not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax ..."

Those details emerge on the statements of two funds in which Romney still holds a sizeable investment, according to the financial disclosure statements he filed when he announced his bid for president.

The publication of the Bain Documents on the Gawker website could rekindle debate about Romney's role at the company, and specifically about Bain's decision to domicile many of its funds in offshore locations known as tax havens.

Critics say Romney's investments in these funds offer just the latest example of how wealthy Americans can shelter their investments to limit the amount they pay in taxes.

"The only reason they structure it that way is to avoid tax," said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with the group Citizens for Tax Justice. "It just confirms what everyone already believes about the tax system -- that it's rigged. That the rules are rigged to favor the well off."

Romney campaign officials did not immediately respond to questions about the newly published papers. But when ABC News first reported on Bain's Cayman Islands accounts, campaign officials said the purpose of locating offshore was to help attract money from foreign investors. The accounts provided no tax advantage to American investors like Romney. Romney, the campaign said, has paid all U.S. taxes on income derived from those investments.

"The tax consequences to the Romneys are the very same whether the fund is domiciled here or another country," a campaign official said at the time.

The issue of Romney's taxes have plagued his campaign. Just last week, a press conference set up to focus on Romney's Medicare plan turned into a back and forth about Romney's tax returns, and whether he had ever paid less than 13.9 percent.

Romney called the question "small-minded," lecturing reporters about the other issues facing American voters that he deems more important than his tax returns.

"I just have to say given the challenges that America faces -- 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty -- the fascination with taxes I paid I find to be very small minded compared to the broad issues we face," he said at the time. "But I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that."

The admission by Romney came after he told ABC News in an interview that he wasn't sure if he'd ever paid less than 13.9 percent but said that he'd "be happy to go back and look."

Romney has so far released what is legally required of him, one complete year of tax returns from 2010 and an estimate for his 2011 returns. He filed an extension on his 2011 returns and the campaign has said they will be released in full by October.

He has said that he will not release more than two years and is following the precedent set by Sen. John McCain during the 2008 election.

The newly released documents rekindle questions about one of the more technical tax questions that has emerged about Romney's investments – the use of so-called "blocker" entities. The blocker is a paper company that serves as a buffer between the investor and the fund holding the investments, Wilkins explained. That means the investment income can be counted as a dividend and in some cases avoid income tax.

In the financials for the Bain Capital Asia Fund, for instance, the audit describes the establishment of blocker corporations to hold more than $92 million in contributions from the fund.

Some experts have pointed to the blockers to help explain how Romney has been able to amass between $20.7 million and $101.6 million in a tax-free IRA, many times more than the typical amount an IRA can hold. Romney has not responded to questions about his IRA.

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Ex-federal prosecutor to probe Colo. shooting

DENVER (Reuters) - The University of Colorado has hired a former federal prosecutor to probe its handling of a former graduate student accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 in a shooting spree at a movie theater in a Denver suburb, the school said on Friday.

Robert Miller was retained to conduct an internal review of the university's dealings with accused gunman and former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes, the university said in a written statement.

Holmes was charged this week with 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder for the shootings at the July 20 midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado.

Questions have arisen about what the university knew about Holmes' mental state in the weeks leading up to the massacre.

His attorneys said a court filing that he was a patient of Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist who is medical director for student health services at the university's Denver campus.

The judge presiding over the case has imposed a gag order preventing involved parties from publicly discussing the case, but Fox News, citing an anonymous source, reported that Holmes had sent a notebook, which was not opened, to Fenton detailing his plans for the massacre.

Also citing anonymous sources, the Denver Post reported Thursday that Fenton had notified the school's threat assessment team about behavior by Holmes, 24, that she found alarming.

Miller is a former U.S. Attorney and Judge Advocate General for the U.S. Air Force who is now in private practice.

"They have been asked to assess various university systems, procedures and actions related to the suspect," the university said.

The review, which began last week, was requested by University of Colorado Denver chancellor Donald Elliman, who earlier said he believed university personnel "did what they should have done" in dealing with Holmes.

"Our resolve rests with understanding all the facts so we can assist law enforcement and other authorities in ensuring that justice prevails," Elliman said in a statement announcing the review.

The university put no timeline on Miller's report, and said it is unclear how much of the information it could release publicly because of the gag order and student privacy laws.

Holmes, who authorities say told police that he was the Joker, in reference to Batman's comic-book foe, is being held in solitary confinement and without bond in the Arapahoe County jail.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jackie Frank)

Former ambassador Ryan Crocker arrested in DUI

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Former U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker is facing hit-and-run and drunken driving charges in Washington state after striking a semi-truck when he tried to make a right turn from the left lane, authorities said Thursday.

The 63-year-old Spokane native registered a .160 blood-alcohol content — twice the legal limit — and a .152 in successive breath tests when was arrested Aug. 14 in Spokane Valley, Washington State Patrol Trooper Troy Briggs said.

Crocker, who was driving a 2009 Ford Mustang convertible, was stopped in the left lane at a red light. And when the light turned green, he tried to turn right across the path of the semi in the right lane, Briggs said.

The vehicles collided and Crocker's car spun out, but he kept driving, Briggs said. A witness followed him to a nearby bank and called police.

"He was very cooperative but obviously intoxicated," Briggs said.

Crocker pleaded not guilty in court the next day, KXLY-TV reported (http://is.gd/82E4aT). His lawyer, Julie Twyford, did not immediately return a call or email from The Associated Press on Thursday.

Crocker retired from the foreign service last month after serving three decades in some of the world's most dangerous hotspots, most recently Afghanistan.

An Arabic speaker and six-time ambassador, he came out of an earlier retirement last year to take the helm of the embassy at President Barack Obama's request. This year, Crocker announced he was retiring due to a serious health issue that he previously had while ambassador to Iraq.

He also ran embassies in Iraq, Pakistan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Syria.

Crocker was in Beirut when the U.S. Embassy there was blown up in 1983, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans. His residence in Syria was ransacked by a mob when he was ambassador there in 1998, and insurgents attacked the embassy in Kabul last September during Crocker's service there.

He served as ambassador to Iraq from 2007 through 2009. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor.

Crocker has been on leave from his position as dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University.

His next court appearance is scheduled for September 12.

___

Johnson reported from Seattle and can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Wind-whipped Oklahoma wildfires destroy homes

NOBLE, Okla. (AP) — A wildfire whipped by gusty, southerly winds swept through rural woodlands south of the Oklahoma City area Friday, burning several homes as firefighters struggled to contain it in 113-degree heat.

Oklahoma's emergency management officials said 25 structures had burned east of Noble, including a handful of homes. The sheriff's office directed residents of 75 to 100 houses to leave the area as flames spread through treetops. The evacuation area, south of Lake Thunderbird, is about 30 square miles.

The state Highway Patrol closed part of the main highway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa because of a fire that may have been deliberately set. Local deputies were looking into reports about passengers in a pickup truck who were seen throwing out newspapers that had been set on fire.

"I loaded the kids up, grabbed my dogs, and it didn't even look like I had time to load the livestock, so I just got out of there," said Bo Ireland, who lives a few miles from where the Noble-area fire started. "It looked to me that, if the wind shifted even a little bit, I would be in the path of that fire. It was just too close."

There were no immediate reports of injuries or livestock losses from the fires, which also charred the earth near Geary and Luther.

With the ongoing drought, high temperatures and gusty winds, it took little for fires to begin and spread — and there was little crews could do to fight them.

"It's difficult for the firefighters to get into the area because it's heavily wooded on either side of the smaller roads. When the winds are blowing 25 mph it just blows the embers and fireballs across the roads as if they weren't even there," said Jerry Lojka with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

At mid-afternoon Friday, the temperature at nearby Norman was 113. Winds were from the south and southwest at 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph.

"I can tell you the temperatures and the wind are not helping the situation at all. Some homes have been lost in the fire unfortunately, but we don't know how many," said Meghan McCormick, a spokeswoman for the Cleveland County Sheriff's office.

Russell Moore, 53, who lives in the Noble area, said he was outside in his yard when a sheriff's deputy drove down the road and told people to leave. He and his son went to a shelter set up at Noble City Hall, but planned to go to his daughter's home in Norman.

"About all we saw was smoke and a little bit of ash raining down from the sky," Moore said. "Everybody was piling into their vehicles and leaving as we were."

Lojka said an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter has been dispatched to a fast-moving blaze in Luther, northeast of Oklahoma City. He also said helicopters were helping ground crews with a fire near Mannford and Drumright in Creek County. Helicopters from the National Guard and the Bureau of Indian Affairs were fighting a fire in Creek County.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office said it was investigating reports that someone in a black pickup truck near Luther was tossing out newspapers that had been set on fire. The blaze and smoke led the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to shut down part of the Turner Turnpike, which carries Interstate 44 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Traffic was rerouted onto old U.S. Route 66, the famed two-lane highway that crisscrosses Oklahoma.

The state was monitoring 11 fires in all Friday afternoon. Gov. Mary Fallin announced a statewide burn ban as the fire danger heightened. She previously had announced a state of emergency for all 77 counties due to the extreme drought.

___

Associated Press writers Rochelle Hines and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

'Plain Jane Bandit' believed caught after eight heists

The "Plain Jane Bandit," who is believed to be responsible for eight bank heists or attempted bank robberies in Southern California, has been arrested, officials said.

Sylvia Helen Garcia, 38, was captured near her home in Downey, Calif., late Thursday, according to ABC News' Los Angeles affiliate KABC.

Here are some other memorable nicknames given to thieves in recent years.

The FBI reportedly received multiple tips about Garcia.

The Plain Jane Bandit has been linked to six bank robberies and two attempted bank robberies in three counties around Southern California since July 12. The most recent attempt by the Plain Jane Bandit was on Tuesday, but she left before getting any money.

In all eight instances, she used both written and verbal demands and told the bank teller that an accomplice was waiting outside, the FBI said.

Authorities did not say how much money was stolen, but witnesses described the robber as a Hispanic woman in her mid-30s, between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5 and weighing 150 to 170 pounds. She did not wear a disguise.

The nickname came from a witness' description of the robber as a "plain Jane."

The robber was linked to a silver four-door vehicle, though the alleged accomplice had not been seen. Authorities said an officer responded to one tip that described the robber's silver car. That officer went to the location of the car and took a woman fitting the robber's description into custody.

U.S. Bank, which had five branches robbed, had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the robber's arrest and conviction.

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Holmes made threats, was barred from campus

James Holmes (Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office)

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The prosecution in the James Holmes mass murder case said on Thursday that the suspect's school life is linked to the July 20 shootings that killed 12 people during a midnight screening of the new Batman movie. Karen Pearson, a lawyer with the Arapahoe County District Attorney's office, said during a hearing that Holmes was also barred from campus after he made threats in June.

"What's going on in the defendant's [education] life is extremely relevant in this case," Pearson said. She said Holmes' threats to campus, his grades, emails and withdrawal from the University of Colorado in 2011 are tied to his purchasing ammunition, body armor and explosives.

Particularly notable, she said, was Holmes' failed oral examination on June 7, just weeks before the theater attack.

"All of that is relevant," Pearson said, "and goes to his decision to withdrawal from school and booby trap his apartment with explosives and commit this act."

Defense attorney Daniel King, at times angry and animated, accused the prosecution of illegally obtaining documents and said it was inappropriately "fishing" for any information on the suspected shooter.

During the hour-long hearing, King told Judge William Sylvester he believed prosecutors unlawfully seized documents that relate to Holmes' education. Those records include Holmes' admission application, course work, class grades, oral exam results, school emails, and his petition for withdrawal from the school. Holmes was pursuing a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

"We now have a pattern of conduct going on in which the prosecution is illegally obtaining documents," King said during the procedural hearing at Arapahoe County District Court. Saying the legal process was "deteriorating," King told Judge Sylvester he suspects the DA's office already knows much of the information they're formally asking for in court.

"Judge, they've already got what they're saying they're seeking," King said.

The school motive, King said, is behind the prosecution's "fishing expedition," a phrase he repeatedly used to describe tactics across the courtroom.
But "motive is irrelevant," King said.

Pearson denied any illegality and said she had a signed order to obtain the records.

"The defense is implying we have obtained those in some illegal manner, and we have not," Pearson said. She said Holmes' grades, relationships with professor and communication with the school could be tied to "the planning of the acts." The DA's office has also requested campus police records on Holmes, and a behavioral threat and health assessment of Holmes that she said is relevant to the shootings.

However, according to the Associated Press, the University of Colorado said in writing that there were no documents related to Holmes' campus ban. That conflicts with the prosecution's arguments on Thursday.

Holmes, who faces 142 counts stemming from the rampage, sat still and said nothing during the hearing. His orange-red hair is browning at the roots, and he still dons a red jail jumpsuit. He will appear in court on Aug. 30 for another hearing. His university psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, is expected to testify then.

Attorneys on Thursday also argued over whether Fenton and other psychiatric professionals are considered, for legal purposes, medical doctors, and thus whether Holmes' relationship and communication with Fenton is privileged information. Prosecutors also said Holmes sent a notebook to Fenton that contains violent descriptions. Prosecutors want access; the defense team argues the notebook is covered under doctor-patient privilege.

King further told Sylvester that no communication from a psychiatric professional could be uttered without a patient waiving privilege, and that records are protected under state and federal laws.

Sylvester asked defense lawyers to provide him with written arguments on that matter by noon on Friday.

ICE agents sue own agency over deferred deportations

A group of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents filed a lawsuit against their own agency Thursday, arguing that the Obama administration is not letting them fully identify and deport illegal immigrants.

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says her department does not have the manpower or money to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants in the USA, so she issued a memorandum last year ordering immigration officials to focus their efforts on dangerous illegal immigrants. In June, Obama announced a program that will allow up to 1.7 million illegal immigrants brought to the USA as children to have deportations deferred for at least two years.

The 10 ICE agents suing Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton say those directives violate the Constitution and federal immigration law. "We are federal law enforcement officers who are being ordered to break the law," said Chris Crane, an ICE agent and president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, a union for ICE employees. "This directive puts ICE agents and officers in a horrible position."

ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein did not comment on the lawsuit but said more than half of the nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants deported in 2011 had been convicted of crimes, the largest number in the agency's history. He said that shows the decision to focus on the most dangerous illegal immigrants is a policy that works, and June's decision to defer deportation for young illegal immigrants enhances that strategy.

A spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Obama may have overstepped his authority by ordering the deportation deferments, and Romney would forge a long-term solution with Congress instead of relying on Obama's "stop-gap measure."

"The courts will have to sort this out, but this kind of uncertainty is unacceptable as these young people brought here as children are seeking clarity on their long-term status," spokesman Ryan Williams said.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in a Dallas federal court, requests that a judge strike down the two directives and protect the agents from any retribution for their lawsuit.

The suit is funded by NumbersUSA, a group that proposes lower levels of legal and illegal immigration, and the attorney is Kris Kobach, the secretary of State of Kansas who has helped Arizona and Alabama craft strict anti-illegal-immigration laws. His work on this lawsuit is not part of his official state duties.

The lawsuit was supported by some GOP legislators who have criticized Obama's immigration plans as "backdoor amnesty."

"These agent's mission is to keep our borders secure, but the head of their agency is directing them otherwise, telling them to undermine their missions and contradict immigration law," Sen. David Vitter, R-La.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the program actually helps ICE officials by allowing them to focus on the most dangerous illegal immigrants. "Deferred action is a major boost to law enforcement who do not have to waste time on honor students and can do the harder work of actually tracking down and deporting criminals," he said.

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Nevada teen missing after Southwest flooding

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A teen was swept away in a drainage wash in the Las Vegas area and remained missing, and two people were rescued from a van stranded in high water in suburban Phoenix after heavy rains in the Southwest flooded ditches and roads.

Family and friends gathered Thursday in Henderson, southeast of the Las Vegas Strip, to look for a 17-year-old boy who disappeared after falling into a flood channel the day before. The wash had filled quickly after a Wednesday morning downpour.

William Mootz was hanging out with friends when he somehow fell into the Pittman Wash, which meanders past a shopping mall and his high school, police said. The teen apparently didn't intend to get in.

"I think they were just going out there to look at the raging water in the washes," Henderson police spokesman Keith Paul said.

Family members say the incoming high school senior is a strong swimmer and has emergency preparedness experience.

More than a dozen Henderson police officers walked up and down the wash with guidance from city public works employees who know how water typically flows down the channel. In all, about 100 volunteers were helping 40 police, firefighters and city employees look for Mootz.

They cleared an estimated 15 tons of dirt and debris from a more than mile-long, concrete-lined portion of the wash before turning their attention to a wider, muddy marsh farther downstream. Rainwater in the wash ultimately drains into Lake Mead.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was helping the effort with a helicopter. The chopper was being used to fly searchers into otherwise inaccessible parts of the mucky wetland.

"More than anything else, it's the use of the Metro Police helicopter that's very helpful in searching a large area quickly," Paul said.

In the Phoenix area, flooded roads led to a dramatic rescue Thursday morning. A driver and her disabled passenger had to be pulled from a medical transport van that was stranded after the driver tried to navigate a flooded Scottsdale wash.

Firefighters used a ladder truck, and news video showed the driver and passenger climbing out of a van stopped in the middle of a flooded area.

Heavy rains hit much of Arizona early Thursday, with more than an inch reported in an hour in parts of metropolitan Phoenix.

Normally dry washes were rushing like major rivers. Some neighborhoods were flooded, and parts of Interstate 10 on the city's western side were inundated, snarling traffic during the morning commute.

Some Southwest residents couldn't resist taking a plunge in the floodwaters despite the dangerous conditions.

On Wednesday, three young men were spotted riding an air mattress down floodwaters in Henderson.

The shirtless trio cheered and waved to a KTNV news helicopter crew as they rode the makeshift watercraft down the dirty waters of the canal. The station reports a police helicopter caught up with the riders and ordered them out of the water.