Boy Scouts' Anti-Gay Policy Challenged

Eagle Scout Zach Wahls challenged the Boy Scouts of America's anti-gay policy today when he delivered three boxes of petitions demanding change, signed by more than 275,000 people.

Wahls, 20, presented the petitions during the Boy Scouts' National Annual Meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., on behalf of Jennifer Tyrrell, an Ohio mom who was removed as the den leader of her 7-year-old son's Cub Scout troop in April because of her sexual orientation. The Boy Scouts are the parent organization of the Cub Scouts.

Wahls is the author of "My Two Moms" and a video of his three-minute speech before Iowa legislators urging them not to pass a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage and civil unions went viral in February 2011.

The Change.org petition called for Tyrrell's reinstatement and a change in policy for the organization.

"It is time for the Boy Scouts of America to reconsider its policy of exclusivity against gay youth and leaders," the petition reads. "Please sign this petition to call for an end of discrimination in an organization that is shaping the future."

The petition has garnered support from celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres, Julianne Moore, Ricky Martin, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and "Hunger Games" star Josh Hutcherson among others.

After delivering the petitions, Wahls met privately with three Boy Scout representatives.

"It went well. It was an honest conversation, but a productive one," Wahls told ABCNews.com today. "The fact that the meeting happened is a really positive indicator."

Wahls said the Boy Scout leaders were "receptive" of his ideas and he believes the conversation is a positive first step in overcoming cultural prejudices.

"It's a dialogue that continues to be difficult for many people," he said. "But the members of our community are the ones that pay the price, not the organization as a whole."

Following the meeting, the Boy Scouts released a statement that said they have "no plans" to change their policy.

"The Boy Scouts of America teaches its members to treat those with different opinions with courtesy and respect at all times," Deron Smith, BSA director of public relations, said in a statement. "Today, Scouting officials accepted signatures from an online petition and shared the purpose of its membership policy."

"Scouting maintains that is youth development program is not the appropriate environment to introduce or discuss, in any way, same-sex attraction," he wrote. "Parents and caregivers should have the right to decide when and how to discuss the issue with their children."

Wahls is not deterred by the statement.

"President Obama said the exact same thing up until the day he endorsed same-sex marriage. I expect we'll see a similar progression from the Boy Scouts," he said. "Obviously, this is a very long-standing policy and I don't think it we'll see a change today, this week or even this year. But over the coming months, we'll continue to take steps in this evolution."

Tyrrell, 32, was not in Florida for the delivery of the petitions, but will join Wahls at the GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco on Saturday. She told ABCNews.com she is grateful for all of the support.

"I didn't expect it, of course," she said. "It's been humbling. It's been terrifying. It's been exciting. It's been a whole bag of mixed emotions."

Tyrrell started the petition when she was removed from her year-long position as den leader because of her sexuality.

"I actually felt devastated. I was heartbroken. I cried a lot. I still feel sad about it a lot," she said. "It's 2012 and nobody deserved to be treated like that."

She said that all of this is mostly sad for her 7-year-old son Cruz who is missing out on all of the positive elements of the Boy Scouts.

When asked if Cruz understands what is happening and that one of his moms has become the face of a movement, Tyrrell said, "To the extent of his ability, he knows what's going on. He's kind of like, 'Boo the Boy Scouts.' He doesn't understand discrimination. He's never been taught that. He doesn't see people by the color of their skin or who they love. He just loves everyone and doesn't understand how others couldn't."

Colorful Edwards Jurors Sent Home

The judge in the John Edwards campaign-finance trial today told a group of four alternate jurors known for wearing color coordinated outfits that they no longer have to attend daily court sessions while the other 12 jurors deliberate.

Despite sitting through the entire month-long trial and being ordered to appear every day while the regular panel considers the evidence, the three women and one man who are alternates have had no input in those deliberations and are not permitted in the jury room.

The alternates last week began wearing matching clothes. They've appeared in court wearing matching yellow, red, black or gray, and purple outfits.

"We will miss your cheerful faces," Federal Judge Catherin Eagles told the alternates. "And we will regret not knowing the color for tomorrow."

Though they no longer have to attend the daily court sessions, the alternate jurors are still under orders not to discuss the case or give media interviews. They could also be called to take the place of a juror if one or more are unable to complete deliberations.

The panel has deliberated for 45 hours over eight days and through several delays.

Edwards, a two-time presidential candidate and former senator, is accused of using nearly $1 million in donations from wealthy political backers to hide his mistress Rielle Hunter and their love child during his 2008 campaign.

If convicted Edwards faces up to 30 years in prison and be fined as much as $1.5 million, although it is unlikely he would face the severest penalties.

Deliberations were briefly stalled today when the judge received a mysterious note from a juror, prompting a closed-door session to deal with the jury matter, the third such delay in as many days.

It is unknown what information was contained in the note.

Later in the day, the judge cleared the courtroom a second time to discuss the matter with lawyers for Edwards and the government.

The judge signaled Tuesday that potential scheduling conflicts could cause additional delays. Some jurors have requested time off for personal matters, like attending a child's high school graduation. The judge said she will soon have a meeting in her chambers to address those conflicts.

The regular panel of jurors ended their eighth day of deliberations this evening, adding to anxiety and anticipation surrounding the verdict.

Edwards and his legal team had, until today, waited out every day of deliberations from a second-floor room inside the courthouse. Early on, Edwards could sometimes be seen pacing the room and looking out the window at journalists assembled outside.

Edwards was not at the courthouse this morning, but came back following a lunch break.

Suspected Seattle Cafe Killer Shoots Self

The man who opened fire and killed three people at a Seattle café as officers closed in on him after a citywide manhunt has killed himself, his father confirmed.

Ian Stawicki died at 6 p.m. PT, his father Walt Stawicki confirmed to ABC News late Wednesday.

Police say Ian Stawicki killed a fourth person during a subsequent confrontation on Wednesday after the shootings began at approximately 11 a.m. PST, when he opened fire at Cafe Racer Espresso in Seattle's University District.

Two victims, both male, died at the scene. Two others died later at Harborview Medical Center.

People who were brought to the hospital had suffered gunshot wounds to the head, according to Susan Gregg, a hospital spokeswoman.

It was unclear what prompted the cafe shooting.

The shooting set off a massive manhunt through Seattle on Tuesday. Earlier in the day Seattle police had tweeted that the suspect "is still alive and receiving treatment at Harborview Medical Center."

The second shooting incident occurred in downtown Seattle, about a 15-minute drive from the cafe.

"It appears that about 30 minutes after the shooting at the cafe, the suspect in the cafe shooting fled to First Hill, where he fatally shot a woman in a parking lot, and stole her SUV," police wrote in a blog post on the shootings.

The area where the suspect shot himself was about seven miles southwest of downtown Seattle -- about a mile to a mile and a half from where the suspect's stolen SUV was found abandoned with a gun on the seat, according to police.

During a search of the area, a detective spotted the suspect on the street and started watching him, police said. When back-up officers arrived and started moving toward the man, he turned to the officers and the officers ordered him to drop his weapon.

Instead, the suspect put a firearm to his head and pulled the trigger, firing one shot, and immediately dropped to the ground.

"Based on evidence recovered during today's investigations, SPD believes a lone suspect is responsible for the murders in Roosevelt and First Hill," police said in the blog post. "Still, neighbors should expect to see a heightened police presence as detectives work to confirm links between the two tragic incidents."

The initial shootings at the cafe spurred a massive manhunt. Police scoured the surrounding area for the suspect and warned people in the area to be on the alert.

"We are asking folks to be on guard and not to open their doors to anybody they don't know," Seattle Deputy Police Chief Nick Metz told KOMO-TV.

Roosevelt High School, which is near the cafe, was put on lockdown while police armed with rifles continued to search the area.

Two other nearby schools, Greenwood Elementary School and Eckstein Middle School, were put on a modified lockdown, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

No one answered the phone at Cafe Racer. A recorded message urged callers to "remember to come visit us, where we keep safety third."

"We've had two tragic shootings today that have shaken this city," Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn told reporters.

He said he has asked police to find ways to end the gun violence.

"It's their highest priority to identify the strategies we need to employ to try to bring an end to this wave of gun violence that this city is seeing," he said.

ABC News' John Capell and ABC News Radio contributed to this report.

Body Dysmorphia Takes Son's Life; Propels Grieving Dad to Walk

From the age of 11, Nathaniel Asselin struggled with body dysmorphia -- a cruel disorder that made him magnify every imperfection he imagined on his face.

The "fiercely intelligent" boy with a keen sense of humor agonized over gelling his hair the right way or staying in shape, but mostly about his skin.

"A shaving nick or a small blemish, or even just a bump under the skin would keep him in front of the mirror for hours, applying small pieces of Band aid to cover up the marks," said his mother, Judy Asselin, a middle school teacher from Pennsylvania.

"The irony, of course," she said, "was that he had a beautiful complexion."

In his teens, Nathaniel's social sphere grew smaller. Dating was "an impossibility," according to his mother. And when he mustered the courage to leave the house, he thought people were looking at him because of his "wrong" appearance.

But after numerous hospitalizations and failed treatments, Nathaniel took his own life somewhere near the family's home in Cheyney, Pa., at the age of 24.

He told his parents throughout the "roller coaster" of his life: "I can't do this anymore," and "I can't wake up in my bed in the morning and do this all over again."

His father, Denis Asselin, a retired French teacher, said they felt "helpless."

Now, his grieving father has embarked on a 525-mile trek on foot to Boston -- "Walking With Nathaniel" -- stopping at hospitals and clinics that were part of his son's painful journey.

As for healing, Asselin, 64, said that if he "puts one foot head of the other" he might get there.

"It was a metaphorically powerful symbol for me -- how to move forward after the most tragic experience," he said.

Nathaniel had dysmorphic body disorder (BDD) -- often called "broken mirror syndrome" -- a form of obsessive compulsive disorder that may affect as many as 1 in 100 people, according to the International OCD Foundation.

The disorder commonly starts in adolescence when children begin to compare themselves to their peers. The obsessions can consume a person's thoughts, harming every aspect of their life.

"They focus on a part of the body -- the nose is too big or the skin is not smooth enough or the hair is not thick enough," said the foundation's executive director Dr. Jeff Szymanski. "For men, you have a group who feel like they are too thin ... the gym rats."

Those with BDD can fixate on their appearance, mirror checking and covering up with hats, scarves or make-up. Some turn to frequent and excessive plastic surgery.

"It goes beyond a preoccupation and the mind can't let go of the obsessions," he said.

They are at 45 times greater risk for suicide than the general population. And because those with BDD don't recognize they have a problem, therapies are often ineffective.

"You have to look at their belief system and get insight in there and go the distance," he said.

Szymanski praised Denis Asselin, who has already raised $50,000 for research, who has turned "adversity to advocacy," a theme of the foundation.

Asselin left Pennsylvania on April 24 and by June 7, he will arrive in Boston, the home of McLean and Massachusetts General hospitals, in clinics where Nathaniel sought treatment.

Nathaniel began to experience OCD compulsions in the fifth grade. A healthy interest in running became an obsession and his weight dropped. By high school, he was spending hours in front of the mirror.

A therapist suggested Nathaniel had BDD. School and the pressures that accompanied test taking were stressful for Nathaniel.

"It was as if the patterns he followed were all dictated by the disorder," said Judy Asselin. "He never felt he could launch a career, as he couldn't go to college. He was brilliant and could have taken anything if he had not had the disorder."

Nathaniel yearned to be an emergency medical technician, "to be a hero, a rescuer," but getting the certification in a timed manner was "unbearable" to him, she said.

Instead, he volunteered to be an ambulance rider, and coached track and worked part-time at Westfield School, where Judy Asselin is a middle school teacher.

"He was a pied piper," said his father. "Kids just loved him and they never knew about his struggle because he never complained."

But Nathaniel's obsessions continued to get worse and medications came with side effects. He was eventually hospitalized at McLean, but ran away, refusing treatment.

Why Donald Trump Matters, And Doesn't Matter

If you watched Twitter or cable all day, it was easy to conclude that Donald Trump ruined Mitt Romney's big day.

The blogosphere was abuzz as commentators declared the Romney-Trump alliance a disaster for the former governor. It makes him look like an apologist for the fringey 'birther' movement, they cried. It damages his brand among moderate voters, said others (including me). Even Republicans worried that the association with Trump will turn off traditional establishment donors.

But, most voters ' especially those highly sought after independent, swing voters ' aren't monitoring their computer and TV screens like those of us inside-the-bubble. They have jobs and lives and like, real things to do.

Why the Trump incident really mattered for them is not for what they did see, but for what they didn't.

No attention was given to the fact that Romney was in Colorado talking energy policy ' and whacking Obama on Solyndra. Or that he was campaigning in a swing state with double-digit unemployment. Or that the Conference Board reported consumer confidence suffered its biggest decline in eight months in May.

Every day that Trump, or other shiny objects like him (read: the reports of a SuperPAC going after Jeremiah Wright) distract the media, is another day that talk of the economy/jobs is on the back burner. And that is a small, but significant, victory for Team Obama.

At the end of the day, however, 'winning the news cycle' only goes so far toward winning the race. Voters perceptions of the economy are going to drive this contest more than any one celebrity or ad or campaign flub.

Amy Walter, Political Director, ABC News

Etan Patz Suspect: Is Confession Real?

Since Pedro Hernandez's confession to the killing of Etan Patz last week, questions are beginning to rise regarding the man's mental health and whether he is telling the truth about what happened in lower Manhattan 33 years ago when he allegedly murdered the 6-year-old boy.

Despite his confession and the second-degree murder charges filed against him, police have offered no possible motive for the crime Hernandez allegedly committed as a teenager, leaving some skeptics wondering if he is admitting to something he didn't do.

As Hernandez's lawyer has said that he "has a history of hallucinations," a trio of forensic psychiatrists has spoken to ABC News about the considerations that come along with a confession from someone who has psychotic mental illness, Hernandez's mental state, and how it might impact the case against him.

"You have to rule out the possibility that he may be faking," said Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, co-founder of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard Medical School. "This may be a wish to get attention; it may even be an unconscious wish, a wish to feel self-important. That's something which needs to be explored in psychological examination."

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Hernandez, a 51-year-old New Jersey builder, had told relatives, friends and a church group as early as 1981 that he'd "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York."

While psychopaths generally show no remorse after they commit a violent crime, Hernandez reportedly broke down emotionally during his confession. Unlike most child molesters, Hernandez has no criminal record.

Dr. John Thompson, who is a director at the Division of Forensic Neuropsychiatry at Tulane University, said that a psychiatric evaluation and testing compared with forensic and other data should help lead to a conclusion regarding the accuracy of his confession. While he said that it is difficult to make conclusive statements about Hernandez's mental state given the limited information available, he noted that it is possible that psychological troubles could have led Hernandez to make up his story about what happened to Patz 33 years ago.

"Since one of the hallmark symptoms of schizophrenia is a delusion, or 'fixed false belief,' it is possible for such an individual to make a false confession," Thompson said.

Even if he was telling people about the murder, how did Hernandez provide such grisly details in his confession on how he choked Patz in the basement of a bodega and stored the body in the freezer before disposing of it in the garbage?

Dr. Park Dietz, president of Park Dietz & Associates, Inc. in Newport Beach, Calf., would not directly comment on the Patz case, but said that people with a history of psychosis may have a memory of events that is formed from other sources, such as news, gossip, dreams, fantasies and delusions. Until such details are supported by evidence, their validity is anyone's guess.

"All confessions to notorious cold cases must be treated with skepticism, whether the confessor is psychotic or not, and the determination of guilt must rest on the confessor giving details that were never released to the public and that can be corroborated and/or by the discovery of corroborative evidence," Dietz said.

But why did it take so long for Hernandez to confess to police that he killed Patz? Bursztajn said: "Conscience is timeless and becomes more pronounced as mortality becomes more a reality with age."

Still, forensic psychiatrists caution that all the facts in this case need to be collected and examined.

"The only way to tell if he is telling the truth or not is to go ahead and to get all the facts," said Bursztajn. "There has to be corroborative data as well. You need to see in which areas he is psychotic, and which other areas in which he may be sufficiently psychosis-free."

ABC News' Eileen Murphy contributed to this report

5.8-Magnitude Quake Hits Italy

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck northern Italy on Tuesday, killing at least 10 people as factories, warehouses and a church collapsed in the same region still struggling to recover from another deadly tremor nine days ago.

In a hastily called news conference, Premier Mario Monti pledged the government will do "all that it must and all that is possible in the briefest period to guarantee the resumption of normal life in this area that is so special, so important and so productive for Italy."

The region around Bologna is among the country's most productive. Italy is in the midst of another recession and struggling to tame its massive debt as the European debt crisis worsens.

The quake hit just after 9:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) and was centered 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the city of Bologna, according to the U.S. Geological Survey ' the same area where a 6.0-magnitude temblor killed seven people on May 20.

The quake was felt from Piedmont in northwestern Italy to Venice in the northeast and as far north as Austria. It was followed by many aftershocks, some registering more than 5.0 in magnitude.

The ANSA news agency reported that 10 people had died, while the LaPresse news agency said others were still buried under the rubble of collapsed homes and factories. Emergency crews were trying to sift through the twisted steel and broken stone, looking for victims.

In Mirandola, near the quake's epicenter, the main cathedral collapsed along with the town's oldest church, St. Frances.

Many victims of the new quake, like the one nine days ago, were at work in huge warehouses that collapsed, including one dead inside a machinery factory in Mirandola.

The mayor of San Felice sul Panaro told Sky News 24 that there were fatalities in his town, where Italian media said a tower had collapsed.

Tall buildings and schools were evacuated as far away as Milan as a precaution before people were allowed to re-enter. Train lines connecting Bologna with other northern cities were halted while authorities checked for any damage.

When the quake hit, Monti was meeting with emergency officials in Rome to discuss the impact of the earlier quake, which struck in the middle of the night and left at least 7,000 homeless.

The May 20 quake was described by Italian emergency officials as the worst to hit the region since the 1300s. In addition to the deaths, it knocked down a clock tower and other centuries-old buildings and caused millions in losses to a region known for making Parmesan cheese. Its epicenter was about 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Bologna.

Television footage on Sky News 24 showed evacuees from the May 20 quake peering out of their shaking emergency tents in disbelief on Tuesday.

Residents had just been taking tentative steps toward resuming normal life when the second quake struck. In the town of Sant'Agostino, a daycare center had just reopened. In the town of Concordia, the mayor had scheduled a town meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the aftermath of the first quake.

Instead of moving on, Concordia Mayor Carlo Marchini confirmed the death of one person struck by falling debris in the town's historic center.

Italy's friendly soccer match against Luxembourg, a warm-up match for the Euro 2012 championships, was canceled. The game was due to be played Tuesday in Parma, just 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of the quake.

'''

Barry reported from Milan.

Parts of Airplane Fall on Neighborhood

An Air Canada jet flying from Toronto to Narita, Japan was forced to turn around shortly after takeoff and make an emergency landing this afternoon after one of its two engines suddenly shut down, and pieces of the plane fell on a suburban neighborhood below.

Flight 001, a Boeing 777 with 318 passengers and 16 crew members on board, took off from Toronto's Pearson International Airport at 2:10 p.m.

Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzgerald tells ABC News that shortly after take-off, the engine shut down and  it appears that pieces of the engine fell off the plane, crashing into neighboring suburbs.

Fitzgerald could not confirm what exactly fell from the plane, but told ABC News that 'the engine did not fall off. It broke.'

The metal parts smashed through windshields of parked cars in Mississauga, Ontario, leaving their owners stunned.  Peel Regional Police reportedly received calls of minor property damage, but no injuries were reported.

According to passengers, the captain declared an emergency in the air.  With just one of two engines still running, the jet returned and landed safety at Pearson International Airport shortly before 4 p.m.

 

Etan Patz Suspect's Sister Reportedly Told Police

The sister of Pedro Hernandez, the New Jersey man arrested on suspicion of killing 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago, has reportedly said that she alerted police in the early 1980s that her brother had confessed to the crime to a church group.

Norma Hernandez, 53, said that she was informed by family members that her brother had confessed to abducting and killing Etan to a prayer group at St. Anthony of Padua, a Roman Catholic Church in Camden, N.J., according to The Wall Street Journal. The suspect's sister said that other family members were present at the time of his alleged confession and that she informed Camden police after they told her about it.

It is still unclear what the Camden police did with the information that she said she gave them. The Camden County Prosecutor's Office told the Wall Street Journal Monday that the office wouldn't discuss the case.

"I just feel angry that people who heard the confession didn't do anything," Norma Hernandez told the newspaper.

She added that her brother had returned from New York City after the killing, and would frequently look out the window. "He was afraid or something," she said.

Hernandez was arrested Thursday after telling authorities that he'd lured the child to his death with the promise of soda in lower Manhattan May 25, 1979. He reportedly said that he'd strangled Etan and then stuffed the boy's body into a plastic garbage bag, carried it to another location and then dumped it in the trash.

The New York Times reported this weekend that Pedro Hernandez had confessed during a prayer meeting in the early 1980s to killing the boy, whom he allegedly abducted on the first day he was allowed to walk to the school bus stop alone.

The former leader of the prayer group, which was held in a Roman Catholic Church in Camden, told the Times that Hernandez said in front of the meeting's attendees that he had strangled a boy, the paper reported Sunday.

"He confessed to the group," said Tomas Rivera, who often led the meetings at St. Anthony of Padua and was present during the admission. Rivera told the Times he did not tell the police at the time "because he did not confess to me."

Rivera, who said he'd been questioned by New York police last week, said Hernandez had also said he left the body in a trash bin.

Hernandez was a clerk at a corner store in the New York City neighborhood where Etan disappeared 33 years ago. He had worked at the store for nearly a month. He left the job after Etan's disappearance, according to officials. Etan's body has not been found.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Hernandez had told relatives and friends as early as 1981 that he'd "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York."

Hernandez was formally charged with second-degree murder. He remains at a New York City hospital because authorities fear he might attempt kill himself. His lawyer said no plea had been entered pending a psychiatric evaluation.

The search for Etan has been one of the largest, longest-lasting and most heart-wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history. His photo was among the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.

Stan Patz, Etan's father, reportedly spent Memorial Day on a bike ride through lower Manhattan, where he silently rode past 448 West Broadway, the address where Pedro Hernandez allegedly killed his son.

Did the Butler Leak Vatican Documents?

He is always at the Pope Benedict XVI's side.

Butler Paolo Gabriele helps the pope dress in the morning and serves him his meals through the day.

But now the pope's loyal butler is under arrest, accused of betraying the man he serves by leaking embarrassing confidential Vatican documents to the Italian media.

The arrest has stunned the Vatican, a place familiar with intrigue, but not public betrayal by someone so close to Benedict.

"The fact that this came from somebody who was in the papal apartment and a member of the papal family is great cause for a crisis of consciousness," John Allen of U.S. National Catholic Reporter said.

The embattled pope is said to be deeply "saddened" by the arrest of one of his closest aides.

But many people remain skeptical about the accusations leveled at Gabriele. Few believe he would have had the sophistication to orchestrate a series of leaks that have consumed the Italian media since January.

Marco Politi, Vatican journalist and author of a Benedict biography called "Crisis in the Papacy," told ABC News he believes that if the accusations are true, Gabriele did not act alone.

"If it happened, there are others helping him and maybe leading him," he said.

Today's newspapers in Rome say that Gabriele was just a messenger and that there is a network of Vatican insiders behind the leaks and that a so-far unnamed cardinal is orchestrating it all.

In a cloak and dagger twist right out of a Hollywood thriller, a "deep throat" who claims to be inside the Vatican network spoke anonymously and nervously to Rome's La Repubblica.

"Whoever is doing this is doing this to support the pope," the insider told La Repubblica, "because the aim of the network of conspirators is to bring to light the rot within the church in the last few years."

The insider said there are warring factions within the Vatican, as some are out to destroy powerful Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state.

Bertone is the second-most powerful man in the Catholic Church, responsible for the Vatican but also for overseeing the church around the world. His critics say he is too weak to lead the church.

But the insider said others within the Vatican believe it is Benedict himself who is too weak and that he has allowed Bertone to accumulate power and that he is not qualified for such a demanding job.

The leaked documents began appearing in the Italian media in January.

They expose alleged corruption, mismanagement and deep internal divisions at the Vatican. One document detailing corruption was addressed to Pope Benedict personally.

Many of the leaked documents focus on money laundering and kickbacks at the secretive Vatican bank.

The head of the bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was appointed by the pope to clean up the bank and he reported directly to him.

But in yet another blow to the pope's influence, his friend was fired Thursday.

The insider told La Repubblica that when Benedict XVI heard the news, "he started to cry 'for my friend Ettore.'"

The now-disgraced butler began his life at the Vatican as a cleaner.

He rose to the rank assistant butler under Pope John Paul II and has been at Benedict XVI's side since 2006.

Gabriele lives with his wife and three children inside the Vatican walls in an apartment where the secret documents were allegedly found. So far he has been only been accused of theft.

Plane Crashes Into Water in San Diego Bay

A sunny Memorial Day weekend flight ended in a panic as a small single engine plane slammed into the San Diego Bay, narrowly missing a waterfront hotel and shocking onlookers.

The plane, a cessna-152 operated by Aerial Advertising, was flying a banner that read "Honor our Heroes" over the USS Midway aircraft carrier Saturday.

At about 600 feet in the air, the engine shuddered to a stop.

One of the two pilots on board, Ron, who wanted to be identified only his first name, said the pair knew right away they were in serious trouble.

"You prepare for it, but you don't ever want it to happen," he told ABC News San Diego affiliate KGTV.

"After the engine failure' it was just a matter of dropping the banner, get a little better glide out of it' There was no way I was going to make land," Ron said.

Thinking quickly, they lined up with a clear portion of the bay and glided to startling, but safe landing.

"It was just a matter of getting the door open and getting the seatbelts off and got out of it," Ron said.

Nearby boaters and the Coast Guard quickly came to their rescue and the two escaped without injury.

Paul Parcel, one of the good Samaritans who helped rescue the men told KGTV that he knew the plane was in trouble before it even came down.

"I saw the airplane turn from the Midway," Parcel said the station. "I noticed that he was losing altitude and he kept coming down lower and lower."

Tropical Storm Beryl Makes Landfall in Fla.

Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall near Jacksonville, Fla. shortly after midnight on Monday with top winds of 70 miles an hour.

On land, the highest wind gusts were 73 mph in Mayport Fla. just east of Jacksonville.

Beryl is expected to dump about six inches of rain as it moves inland over the next couple of days in the southeast portion of the U.S., according to Navy hurricane specialist Dave Roberts at the National Hurricane Center.

Forecasters predict the storm surge and tide will cause significant coastal flooding in northeastern Florida, Georgia and southern South Carolina.

A tropical storm warning remained in effect early Monday for coastal areas of Florida and South Carolina, and it was expected to tangle holiday traffic after forcing the cancellation of some events and causing shoreline campers to pack up and head inland.

There have been many reports of trees and power lines down throughout the area, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather system is expected to continue dumping rain over parts of Florida and Georgia on Monday.

It is expected to weaken as it moves inland and become a tropical depression by Monday night, and then moves out to sea.

VIEW: Photos of Weather Around the World.

So far more than 20,000 people without power from Savannah, Ga. to Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, Fla.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott urged Florida residents in the affected areas to "stay alert and aware."

Beryl has already spoiled Memorial Day festivities for many and is expected to snarl traffic as the holiday weekend comes to a close. People visiting Cumberland Island, Ga. were ordered to leave ahead of the storm on Sunday afternoon. A jazz event was canceled Jacksonville, Fla.

This is the earliest since 1908 that two named storms have formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical Storm Alberto was the first system to form earlier this month.

While the southeast is dealing with rain and high winds, the northeast dealt with a heat wave over the holiday weekend with temperatures in the mid 80s and 90s.

Over the weekend, almost 200 record highs reported around the country including 100 degrees in Tallahassee, Fla.

ABC News' Max Golembo and The Associated Press contributed to this report

'The Patient Fled the Emergency Room amd Drove Off in an Ambulence'

When two pairs of neighbors heard squeals from a Knoxville, Tenn., carport, they found a kitten so small, they thought it was a mouse.

"Moses the Cat," who went on to become an Internet sensation, was only four inches long and weighed just four ounces.

Although the vet was only "cautiously optimistic" that Moses would survive, one couple nursed him back to health, using syringes and a bottle to feed him.

Click here to read full story

Miami Cop Kills Naked Man Eating Another Man

A Miami police officer on Saturday fatally shot a naked man who was chewing on the face of another man on a downtown causeway off-ramp, police and witnesses said.

The Miami Herald reports (http://hrld.us/KiMC2Y) that gunshots were heard at about 2 p.m. on the MacArthur Causeway off-ramp, which is near the newspaper's offices. Witnesses said that a woman saw two men fighting and flagged down a police officer, who came upon a naked man mauling the other man. The newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that the officer ordered the naked man to back away, and when he ignored the demand, the officer shot him. Witnesses said that the naked man continued his attack after being shot once, and the officer shot him several more times.

Police said the other man was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center. The newspaper said he had suffered critical injuries.

The police department confirmed in a news release that there was an officer-related shooting, but did not include many details provided by witnesses to the newspaper.

A police spokesman couldn't be reached for comment by The Associated Press on Saturday evening.

The police news release said the identities of the two men were not known.

A photograph posted on The Herald's website shows an officer standing watch on the ramp next to two police cruisers, with a body lying on a pedestrian walkway. Police requested the newspaper's video surveillance tapes.

The shooting and investigation tied up causeway traffic as crowds were arriving at South Beach for an annual hip-hop festival.

Javier Ortiz, a spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police in Miami, said that based on information he's received, the officer who fired the shots "is a hero and saved a life."

Top 9 Most Expensive U.S. Cities

What drives costs in the most expensive cities in the U.S.? The answer is housing. But the nationwide trend of falling home prices won't knock the city with the highest cost of living, New York, out of the top spot anytime soon.

According to an index of 306 cities published by the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), the cost of living in the borough of Manhattan in New York City is 128 percent higher than the national average, with an index score of 228.

The council has published the quarterly data since 1968, after it was originally published by the government, and uses the prices of 60 consumer goods and services in six categories: grocery items, housing, utilities, transportation, health care and miscellaneous items.

Housing, which is weighted the heaviest in the analysis, created challenges for the data collection with its plummeting prices across the country.

"This is the worst economy the project has seen since 1968," said Dean Frutiger, project manager of the Cost of Living Index project at C2ER.

Frutiger said the project usually does not use new home prices below $365,000 for its data collection, but he has been seeing "prices that are far below that."

"The economy forces us to be pretty flexible," he said.

Here's a list of the nine cities with the highest cost of living out of the 306 regions analyzed by C2ER.

Man Releases Ind. Hostages, Shoots Self

A gunman released the last two remaining hostages at an office building in Indiana and then shot himself twice in the head, police said today.

The suspected gunman was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

No hostages remain in the Prudential real estate office that a gunman ambushed today believing someone in the office owed him money, according to Sgt. Mike Grennes of the Valparaiso police department.

One woman suffered a head injury during the hostage situation but, aside from the suspected gunman, there were no injuries caused by gunshots, he said.

FBI agents entered the Valparaiso, Ind., real estate office building around 1 p.m. after a report of hearing gunshots fired, Grennes said. The gunman, whose identity was known to police, initially remained in the building with the hostages.

"We're basically in a standoff situation," Grennes said at a news conference before police said the gunman shot himself. "From what I understand, he is not an employee."

Authorities believed the incident could have been the result of a financial dispute, Grennes said.

Police received a 911 call around 11 a.m. from someone inside the Prudential Building that a gunman had entered the office, Grennes said. Police arrived and confirmed that an individual was inside with a gun.

Police were successful in getting some people out of the building, but they did not know the number of people left inside as the situation dragged on into the early afternoon hours.

Andy Melin, the superintendent of Valparaiso Community Schools, told ABC News that three schools in the area went on "a modified lockdown" when the situation began Friday morning. The three schools are Flint Lake Elementary School, Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, and Thomas Jefferson Middle School, all within "roughly a mile or a mile and a half of the Prudential Building," according to Melin.

"Everyone's on alert," Melin said. "There's an axe on the outer door and no one is allowed access to our building unless they are identified as an employee or parent."

Melin noted that a full-scale lockdown would be "something more imminent" such as "an intruder in the vicinity." In that case, Melin said, "students would be locked in their rooms and bigger security measures" would be in place.

"We will stay on a modified lockdown until the situation is resolved," Melin said, noting that the dismissal times for the schools were fast approaching.

Passenger Arrested for Rushing Cockpit

A "disoriented" Canadian man has been arrested in for attempting to rush the cockpit of an American Airlines plane at the Miami International Airport today.

Ryan Snider, 24, was subdued by two first-class passengers as he tried to break into the cockpit. He is expected to face federal charges that could include interference with a flight crew, according to the FBI.

One of the passengers who restrained him, Malik Cann, told ABC News' Miami affiliate WPLG how they grabbed Snider and held him down.

"We weren't going to allow him to harm anybody or get to the cockpit," Cann said. "He was screaming. 'Get me off the plane. Get me off the plane.' That's all he wanted to do."

Snider does not appear to have any connections to terrorism and was not on the "no fly list," according to FBI Miami spokesman Michael Leverock.

None of the 165 passengers on board were injured and there was no damage to the plane.

An American Airlines representative told ABC News that Snider moved quickly toward the front of the airplane, but did not make it to the cockpit before being restrained. He may have bumped the door as he was being subdued.

The captain of the flight did not feel that there was a security threat.

The plane was American Airlines flight 320 from Montego Bay to Miami. Police responded to reports of an unruly passenger, according to the airport.

"We had what appeared to be a 'disoriented' male passenger who stood up at his seat in the Main Cabin after landing in Miami as the flight was taxiing in," an American Airlines representative told ABC News. "He did not obey crewmember instructions to sit down and then moved toward the front of the aircraft where he was subdued. He was turned over to police upon arrival at the gate."

The FBI's Miami field office said, "We are aware of an incident on a plane in bound to MIA today (AA 320) in which a passenger reportedly rushed the cockpit door. The FBI is investigating the alleged incident. Nevertheless the plane did land safely without damage to the plane or injuries."

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that the flight was met by law enforcement "out of an abundance of caution" and that the passenger in question is being interviewed.

Snider is expected to make is first court appearance on Tuesday in Miami.

Texting Teen Not Liable for Beau's Crash

A New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled today that a woman who sent a text message to her boyfriend while he was driving cannot be held liable for the motor vehicle accident he subsequently caused.

The decision stemmed from a 2009 case in which Kyle Best, 19, was responding to a text message from his girlfriend, Shannon Colonna, 19, while he was driving his pickup truck when he crashed into a motorcycle and severely injured David and Linda Kubert.

In an unprecedented legal twist, the Kuberts' attorney, Stephen "Skippy" Weinstein, amended the original complaint filed against Best to include Colonna as a defendant in the case, saying that she had been in frequent texting contact with Best throughout the day and ought to have known he was driving.

But Judge David Rand ruled today in Morris County Superior Court that Colonna could not be held responsible for Best's distracted driving.

"Drivers are bombarded with all forms of distractions," Rand told the courtroom, according to The Star-Ledger, a newspaper in New Jersey. "I find that there was no aiding, abetting here in the legal sense. I find it is unreasonable to impose a duty upon the defendant in this case under these facts. Were I to extend this duty, in my judgment, any form of distraction could potentially serve as basis of a liability case."

Rand said implicating Colonna as liable for an accident caused by text messaging when she wasn't present in Best's car was an argument that had never been addressed in any previous lawsuits, according to The Daily Record.

Weinstein said in a news conference that the Kuberts, who both became amputees as a result of the accident, "are understandably disappointed with the court's decision today," but that they plan to appeal it once the lawsuit against Best has been decided. The Kuberts recently moved to Florida from New Jersey for financial reasons and were just denied permanent disability status from an insurance company, Weinstein said.

Proceedings against Best, who pleaded guilty to distracted driving, will continue within the next few months.

Colonna's attorney, Joseph McGlone, did not respond to requests for comment following Rand's decision, but he had argued that she shouldn't be held accountable for the accident when she wasn't present in the vehicle.

"I don't think it's a valid claim against her," he previously told ABCNews.com.

McGlone added he had never heard of a case similar to the one against his client being brought to trial.

But Weinstein argued that the couple's back-and-forth texting was tantamount to a verbal conversation.

"She may not have been physically present, but she was electronically present," Weinstein said.

Best pleaded guilty to three motor vehicle citations earlier this year, but his driver's license was not suspended, according to The Daily Record.

The case has again brought up the question of how to balance safe driving with distracting mobile communication devices.

In December last year, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a ban on all "personal electronics" in cars except for those needed for emergencies or driver assistance.

Regardless of whether Weinstein's novel argument that Colonna partially responsible for the crash is ever repeated in future cases, he said the Kuberts "are gratified that if by bringing the case they have accomplished the goal of making people think before they text, whether while driving or while the recipient is driving."

Edwards Jury Moves on to 2nd Donor

After nearly a week of deliberations jurors in the John Edwards trial have yet to reach a verdict, methodically working their way through six criminal charges and a month's worth of testimony about how the former presidential candidate allegedly used campaign donations to cover up a torrid illicit affair.

Jurors ended their fifth day of deliberations today, after requesting exhibits concerning counts 4 and 5 of the indictment, both of which deal with funds from millionaire political donor Fred Baron that were used to help hide Edwards' mistress Rielle Hunter.

Among the evidence jurors are reviewing is a note Baron wrote to Edwards' aide Andrew Young, accompanying an envelope full of cash.

"Old Chinese saying: Use cash, not credit cards," read the note, which Baron wrote in December 2007, weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

The cash was sent to a Florida hotel, where Young was staying with Hunter to keep her out of view from an increasingly inquisitive press corp.

Jurors also requested Young's bank statement, in which he had received a $20,000 deposit from Baron and another $725,000 from another wealthy Edwards supporter, millionaire heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon.

Edwards is charged with six counts of violating federal campaign laws and was accused by the government of soliciting nearly $1 million from Baron and Mellon to finance a cover up of his affair and illegitimate child while running for president in 2008.

For much of this week jurors focused on counts 2 and 3 of the indictment. Those charges all concerned donations Mellon made to aid the cover up in 2007 and 2008.

Neither Baron nor Mellon testified in the case. Baron died in October 2008 of bone cancer. Mellon, who lives on a Virginia estate, is 101-years-old and hard of hearing.

After doling out exhibits piecemeal as the jury requested them, Federal Judge Catherine Eagles today gave the jury all the evidence in the case, a move that could help speed deliberations.

The jury has spent more than 25 hours deliberating since it was charged last Friday. They have taken breaks only for lunch.

Edwards was spotted earlier this week, pacing around a second-floor room of the courthouse, occasionally peering at the press gathered outside.

On Wednesday, he and daughter Cate attended a college baseball game in Greensboro, featuring the UNC Tarheels, his alma mater.

If convicted Edwards can face up to 30 years in prison and be fined more than $1 million, although it is unlikely he will face the most severe penalties.

Inside FAMU Drum Major's Hazing

Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion endured a lethal pummeling down the aisle of a pitch black bus that rocked from the force of the violence inside, the culmination of a tradition of violent hazing at the nationally known marching band.

Champion struggled, with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment, through a gauntlet of band mates who used their fists, feet, straps and sticks to pound him into unconsciousness.

Over 2,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into Champion's death were released by the Florida District Attorney's Office and they deliver a blow-by-blow of the night's events.

They also describe a culture that considers repeated "hot seat" beatings and the final "crossing over" gauntlet that killed Champion as rites of passage.

"It's a respect thing, you know," Jonathan Boyce told investigators.

Band members said that the band director and bus driver were not on the bus for the "crossing over," but that they were sometimes up front watching movies during the "hot seat" beatings.

Boyce, the head band member now charged with felony hazing, told detectives that Champion "was wanting to do it [cross over] all season," but Boyce had been reluctant to let him. Champion could not participate without Boyce's permission, as dictated by the band's internal code of hierarchy.

The band was in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 19, 2011 for the last game of the football season. Boyce asked Champion if she still wanted to participate.

"I was like, 'Do you still want to do it?' So he was like, 'Yes,'" Boyce told detectives. "I was like, 'Fine.'"

Champion, 26, was a member of the college's famed "Marching 100" band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after a football game.

His death was ruled a homicide and 11 people have been charged with felony hazing and two have been charged with misdemeanor hazing in connection to Champion's death.

That night, Boyce said he was in a friend's room at the hotel when he got a call that Champion was going to do it, so he rushed to the bus to "try to save him," according to his interview with the police.

Meanwhile, Champion had begun the hazing. He was shirtless as dictated by the band's rules'women wear only sports bras as they "cross over" 'and he was the third band member to try to make his way to the back of bus that night.

Ryan Dean, another band member indicted for felony hazing, told detectives that he yelled into Champion's ear, "Come on, push through." A woman was holding Champion back as fists rained down on him.

Keon Hollis went with Champion to the bus for the "crossing over." He told police that took a shot of alcohol before heading for the bus.

"It was really dark on the bus," he told detectives. "I couldn't really make out faces, but I know it was a lot of people."

When asked to explain the process, Hollis said, "Basically, get on the bus and you have to take your shirt off and you basically have to make it from the front of the bus to the back of the bus." Hollis told the detective that the goal is to "just get through it as quick as you can."

"They was using hands, straps, think [I] saw a comb," later described as a large plastic orange comb, he said. Hollis said they used drum sticks and kicks as well.

At the end of the ordeal, Hollis walked back to the front of the bus, through applause and "hooting and hollering" from his band mates. When he got outside the bus, he threw up.

While Hollis tried to compose himself, Champion started down the aisle. He battled through the storm of fists and feet with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment.

At its most severe, Champion collapsed into a seat, prompting a band member to brace himself on seat backs and jump up and down on the drum major for an estimated 15 seconds. Champion was greeted with a flurry of seven to 10 punches when he pushed himself free and resumed his death march down the bus aisle.

At least one band member jumped from seat to seat to get to the back of the bus to get another chance at Champion.

"By the time I got there he was maybe like a foot or two away from the back of the bus," Boyce said. "So I climb over the seats all the way to the back."

When he reached Champion, Boyce said he grabbed him "to try to keep everybody off of him" and "put my body around his body" to try to stop the beating.

Moments later, Champion touched the wall indicating that he had made it to the back.

Arrest in 1979 Murder of Etan Patz

Police today arrested a former grocery worker in the 1979 murder of Etan Patz, apparently ending a mystery of what happened to the 6-year-old boy that has haunted New York City for three decades.

Pedro Hernandez, 51, confessed to police that he lured Patz to his death with the promise of a soda. He took police back to the basement of a Manhattan boedga and showed them where he claimed he strangled Patz.

He said he stuffed the boy's body into a plastic garbage bag, carried it to another location in the Soho neighborhood and dumped it in the trash.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Hernandez provided no motive for the killing.

Patz, a handsome blond boy, vanished on the first day he was allowed to walk to the school bus stop alone on May 25, 1979. Friday will be the 33rd anniversary of his disappearance.

Kelly said detectives were drawn to Hernandez in recent days because Hernandez had told family members and friends as early as 1981 that he had "done a bad thing and killed a child in New York."

It was one of those family members or friends who alerted police following renewed interest in the case when police excavated the basement apartment of a building on the same block last month where Patz lived and Hernandez worked.

Kelly said police had informed Patz's parents, who have for years wondered what happened to their 6-year-old son.

"We only hope these developments bring some measure of peace to the family," Kelly said.

Patz's father, Stan Patz, was "a little surprised, but after all the things he has gone through he handled it very well," said Lt. Chris Zimmerman, head of the NYPD Missing Persons Unit.

Investigators are convinced they finally have the right man given "the fact that he had told others in the past and the specificity of his statement," Kelly said.

Hernandez was "remorseful" and indicated a "feeling of relief," opening up to detective in three hours of questioning, Kelly said. Hernandez, he said, gave them a written and signed confession as well as a videotaped confession.

Kelly said there was "no reason at this time" to believe Patz had been sexually abused. But when asked whether the boy had been dismembered, Kelly said, "The investigation is continuing."

Patz who disappeared on a rainy New York day not unlike the one on which Hernandez was arrested, launched the modern missing persons movement and led to missing children being featured on milk cartons.

Hernandez was taken into custody at his residence in Maple Shade, N.J., on Wednesday morning where he lives with his wife and daughter. The apartment is rented by his wife, Rosemary Hernandez, who let her husband move in after he told her that he was dying of cancer.

"We never had a problem with him," Hernandez's brother-in-law, Jose Lopez, told KYW, a CBS station in Philadelphia. "There was never a problem. He was a normal person. Never gave any sign that he did something like that."

If Lopez could speak to Hernandez now, "I would tell him, 'Why didn't you confess years before, years ago, instead of suffering through all these years and letting this father and mother and this family suffer? Why didn't you do it? Why didn't you confess if you did it? ... I hope you're in peace now with yourself.'"

New York City police officers accompanied by local cops took Hernandez into custody at his New Jersey home at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and brought him to the Camden County, N.J., Prosecutor's Office for initial questioning. He was then taken to New York City for additional questioning by authorities there.

Police have named other suspects in the past, but none had ever been arrested or charged.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg declined to provide details today, but said, "A person of interest is in custody and being questioned."

"The suspect came forward and made a statement implicating himself. I caution you all that there's a lot more investigating to do," the mayor said.

Referring to Patz's family, Bloomberg said he hopes that "we are one step closer to providing them some measure of relief."

This morning, NYPD Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski walked along Prince Street, where Patz vanished. Pulaski and his team were reexamining the crime scene in light of new information they have obtained from questioning Hernandez.

Kelly said Hernandez worked at the bodega as a stock clerk for just a month, leaving soon after Patz's death. He told police he lured Patz into the store's basement through a doorway on the sidewalk and choked him to death in the cellar.

Today, the bodega is a trendy eyeglass shop. Police said they were attempting to contact other employees who worked at the shop with Hernandez in 1979.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who reopened the case Patz case when he was elected in 2010, has not commented on the arrest.

The search for Etan has been one of the largest, longest-lasting and most heartwrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history. His photo was among the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.

Inside the Bus During Fla. Drum Major's Fatal Hazing

Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion endured a lethal pummeling down the aisle of a pitch black bus that rocked from the force of the violence inside, the culmination of a tradition of violent hazing at the nationally known marching band.

Champion struggled, with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment, through a gauntlet of band mates who used their fists, feet, straps and sticks to pound him into unconsciousness.

Over 2,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into Champion's death were released by the Florida District Attorney's Office and they deliver a blow-by-blow of the night's events.

They also describe a culture that considers repeated "hot seat" beatings and the final "crossing over" gauntlet that killed Champion as rites of passage.

"It's a respect thing, you know," Jonathan Boyce told investigators.

Band members said that the band director and bus driver were not on the bus for the "crossing over," but that they were sometimes up front watching movies during the "hot seat" beatings.

Boyce, the head band member now charged with felony hazing, told detectives that Champion "was wanting to do it [cross over] all season," but Boyce had been reluctant to let him. Champion could not participate without Boyce's permission, as dictated by the band's internal code of hierarchy.

The band was in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 19, 2011 for the last game of the football season. Boyce asked Champion if she still wanted to participate.

"I was like, 'Do you still want to do it?' So he was like, 'Yes,'" Boyce told detectives. "I was like, 'Fine.'"

Champion, 26, was a member of the college's famed "Marching 100" band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after a football game.

His death was ruled a homicide and 11 people have been charged with felony hazing and two have been charged with misdemeanor hazing in connection to Champion's death.

That night, Boyce said he was in a friend's room at the hotel when he got a call that Champion was going to do it, so he rushed to the bus to "try to save him," according to his interview with the police.

Meanwhile, Champion had begun the hazing. He was shirtless as dictated by the band's rules'women wear only sports bras as they "cross over" 'and he was the third band member to try to make his way to the back of bus that night.

Ryan Dean, another band member indicted for felony hazing, told detectives that he yelled into Champion's ear, "Come on, push through." A woman was holding Champion back as fists rained down on him.

Keon Hollis went with Champion to the bus for the "crossing over." He told police that took a shot of alcohol before heading for the bus.

"It was really dark on the bus," he told detectives. "I couldn't really make out faces, but I know it was a lot of people."

When asked to explain the process, Hollis said, "Basically, get on the bus and you have to take your shirt off and you basically have to make it from the front of the bus to the back of the bus." Hollis told the detective that the goal is to "just get through it as quick as you can."

"They was using hands, straps, think [I] saw a comb," later described as a large plastic orange comb, he said. Hollis said they used drum sticks and kicks as well.

At the end of the ordeal, Hollis walked back to the front of the bus, through applause and "hooting and hollering" from his band mates. When he got outside the bus, he threw up.

While Hollis tried to compose himself, Champion started down the aisle. He battled through the storm of fists and feet with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment.

At its most severe, Champion collapsed into a seat, prompting a band member to brace himself on seat backs and jump up and down on the drum major for an estimated 15 seconds. Champion was greeted with a flurry of seven to 10 punches when he pushed himself free and resumed his death march down the bus aisle.

At least one band member jumped from seat to seat to get to the back of the bus to get another chance at Champion.

"By the time I got there he was maybe like a foot or two away from the back of the bus," Boyce said. "So I climb over the seats all the way to the back."

When he reached Champion, Boyce said he grabbed him "to try to keep everybody off of him" and "put my body around his body" to try to stop the beating.

Moments later, Champion touched the wall indicating that he had made it to the back.

Etan Patz: Suspect Implicated in Boy's Death

New York City police are investigating whether they finally have someone in custody whom they can charge with murder in connection to the disappearance 33 years ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.

Officials say that the suspect in their custody, Pedro Hernandez, has implicated himself in the death of the little boy who disappeared on his first day heading to the school bus stop alone, the police commissioner said this morning.

"An individual now in custody has made statements to N.Y.P.D. detectives implicating himself in the disappearance and death of Etan Patz 33 years ago," Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

Etan disappeared on the morning of May 25, 1979, soon after leaving his parents' apartment in New York's SoHo neighborhood, the first time he was to walk to the school bus stop by himself.

This morning, NYPD Chief of Detectives Phil Pulaski walked along Prince Street, where Patz vanished 33 years ago. Pulaski and his team were reexamining the crime scene in light of new information they have obtained from questioning Hernandez.

The search for Etan has been one of the largest, longest lasting and most heart wrenching hunts for a missing child in the country's recent history. His photo was among the first of a missing child to appear on a milk carton.

Both Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are expected to provide further details later today.

Hernandez was taken into custody one month after the investigation into Patz's disappearance returned to the headlines when police excavated a Manhattan basement in the hopes of finding evidence about the boy's death. The dig yielded no obvious human remains and little forensic evidence that would help solve the decades-long mystery of what happened to the boy.

His parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April.

The family did not immediately return a message requesting comment.

Neither Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, nor the FBI would comment on the investigation.

Search Intensifies for Missing LA Student

Police in Lafayette, La., are intensifying their search for a young woman who has been missing for four days.

Michaela "Mickey" Shunick was last seen riding a bike home from her friend's house about 2 a.m. Saturday, according to police. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Lousiana State Police have joined the search, along with volunteers scouring the area where she was last seen.

Friends and family held a candle light vigil Tuesday night, and announced a reward of $20,000 for tips leading to her whereabouts. Searches by K-9 units, police and volunteers haven't turned up any hints about what happened, but her family remains hopeful.

"I think she's OK, I think she's alive. I think she's out there," Mickey's sister Charlene told ABC affiliate KATC-TV in Lafayette, La.

Instead of celebrating her brother's graduation Saturday and her own 22nd birthday Tuesday, her family and friends were hitting the pavement hanging fliers and searching for clues along the route they believe she last traveled.

Her parents say Mickey is an avid cyclist, so for her to be riding her bike at that hour was not unusual. They do say that their daughter would never disappear for days on end like this.

"We want our daughter back -- that will make everything better," Nancy Rowe, Micky's mother told ABC News.

Police say the search is particularly difficult because the area they are searching is so large.

"It's a very wide scope for us to look at," Cpl. Paul Mouton said to KATC. "We're canvassing and checking a lot of different businesses for video evidence."

The senior anthropology major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is 5 feet, 1 inch tall and 115 pounds. She was last seen wearing a pastel multi-colored striped shirt, light-wash skinny jeans and gray shoes. She also reportedly always carries a can of mace with her when she rides her bike.

Her family says they can't think of any reason anybody might want to harm Shunick, and her father said although he's grateful for the search efforts, he wishes the search had started earlier.

"None of the video cameras got checked over the weekend because the managers weren't in and waited two days to check the video cameras," he told Lafayette newspaper The Advertiser. "If somebody has abducted her and taken her on the Interstate or something, they got a two-day head start."

Still, those who know Mickey hope raising awareness about her disappearance will help them find her.

"Every volunteer has been amazing. The outpouring from the community has been more than I could have imagined," Shunick's friend Ashley Says told KATC. "People that don't even know Mickey, who don't even know her family have been coming to me and saying they will do anything to help."

Mickey's parents say that she always carried mace to protect herself on her bike. Right now they are hoping that somehow, she makes it home.

"Nothing has turned up so we still have hope -- hopefully everything will be all right," her father Tom Shunick said.

Can Stem Cells Repair Heart Tissue?

People who suffer from heart failure could someday be able to use their own skin stem cells to regenerate their damaged heart tissue, according to a new Israeli study.

Researchers took stem cells from the skin of two patients with heart failure and genetically programmed them to become new heart muscle cells. They then transplanted the new cells into healthy rats and found that the cells integrated with cardiac tissue that already existed.

The study, published in European Heart Journal, marks the first time ever that scientists could use skin cells from people with heart failure and transform damaged heart tissue this way.

The newly generated cells turned out to be similar to embryonic stem cells, which can potentially be programmed to grow into any type of cell.

"What is new and exciting about our research is that we have shown that it's possible to take skin cells from an elderly patient with advanced heart failure and end up with his own beating cells in a laboratory dish that are healthy and young ' the equivalent to the stage of his heart cells when he was just born," Dr. Lior Gepstein, lead researcher and a senior clinical electrophysiologist at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, said in a news release.

The findings open up the possibility, the authors wrote, that people can use their own skin cells to repair their damaged hearts, which could prevent the problems associated with using embryonic stem cells.

"This approach has a number of attractive features," said Dr. Tom Povsic, an interventional cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center. "We can get the cells that you start with from the patient himself or herself. It avoids the ethical dilemma associated with embryonic stem cells and it removes the possibility of rejection of foreign stem cells by the immune system." Povsic was not involved with the Israeli study.

Another advantage of using skin cells is that other types of cells taken from patients themselves, such as bone marrow cells, could potentially lead to the development of unhealthy tissue.

"If a patient is already sick with heart disease, one of the reasons it may develop is that stem cells weren't able to repair the heart the way they should," Povsic added. Skin cells, he explained, are generally healthy.

Promising, but Still Very Early

"It is very exciting and very interesting, but we are far away from taking this to patients," said Dr. Marrick Kukin, director of the Heart Failure Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital who was also not involved in the Israeli study.

Kukin explained that the study only involved two patients, and the cells were transplanted into healthy rat hearts that showed no signs of heart failure.

"Will it work in heart muscle that's dead? Also, how many cells are needed to get an effect in the human heart, and how will they grow the cells to get the critical mass needed," he asked.

There are still a number of major experimental steps that need to take place before trying out this type of therapy in humans, Kukin added.

"These results need to be replicated, and animal studies on mammals need to be done," he said. There should also be studies done on animals whose hearts have been damaged.

Research into cardiac regeneration is ongoing using skin and other types of cells, the experts say, and it could offer hope to people living with damaged hearts.

"With heart attacks, there is no clinically meaningful regeneration. The damage is done, and most medical therapy is aimed at preventing further damage or cope with existing damage," said Povsic. "If we can generate stem cells in a sufficient quantity and manner, we can potentially regenerate organs that have limited native regenerative capacity. We're excited by these steps forward."

Rutgers Spycammer Gets 30 Days in Jail

Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail by a New Jersey judge today for spying on his roommate's gay tryst. Ravi's freshman roommate Tyler Clementi committed suicide days later.

"I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi," Judge Glenn Berman told the court. "He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity."

Ravi, 20, must report to Middlesex Adult Correctional Center on May 31 at 9 a.m. for his 30 day jail term. He was also sentenced to three years probation, ordered to complete 300 hours of community service and attend counseling programs for cyber-bullying and alternative lifestyles.

He must also pay a $10,000 assessment to the probation department in increments of $300 per month beginning Aug. 1. The money will go to victims of bias crimes. The judge recommended that Ravi, who was born in India and is here on a green card, not be deported.

"I heard this jury say, 'guilty' 288 times--24 questions, 12 jurors. That's the multiplication," Berman said. "I haven't heard you apologize once."

Berman also berated Ravi by saying that most defendants stand when a judge speaks to them, but told him, "Keep your seat." The judge called Ravi's pre-sentencing letter "unimpressive."

Ravi, who was expected to make a statement to the packed New Brunswick, N.J. courtroom, declined to speak before the sentence was read.

The prosecution, which sought a significant prison term, indicated it will appeal the judge's sentence.

Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay.

Before the judge's sentencing, Ravi's mother delivered an emotional plea for leniency during which she and her son both broke into tears. At the end of her plea, Ravi's mother threw herself on her son, sobbing and hugging him.

"Dharun's dreams are shattered," his mother Sabitha Ravi cried. "And he has been living in hell for the past 20 months. It's hard for me to say that my son is sitting here physically alive in front of everyone...I feel that Dharun has really suffered enough for the past two years in the media."

Sabitha Ravi said that her son lives an isolated life studying, has lost 25 pounds and only eats one meal a day to "suppress his hunger."

"This case has been tried, has been treated and exists today, as if it's a murder case," defense attorney Steve Altman said. He spoke about the need for Ravi to be defended and looked at the Clementi family when he said, "I know that family hates me. I'm a demon to them."

In March, Ravi was found guilty of a bias crime for using a webcam to spy on Clementi.

Clementi's family bitterly asked the judge today to sentence Ravi to prison time.

Clementi's father, Joseph Clementi, told the judge, "One of Tyler's last actions was to check Ravi's Twitter page" and noted that his son checked his roommate's Twitter page 37 times before leaving the Rutgers campus and driving to the George Washington Bridge where he jumped to his death.

Ravi was convicted of a hate crime for using a webcame to spy on Clementi during a sexual liaison with a man identified only as "MB" and announcing what he saw on Twitter. Ravi put out another tweet when he heard Clementi was having a second date with MB.

Joseph Clementi said that Ravi decided his son "wasn't deserving the respect of basic human decency" and "was below him" because Tyler Clementi was gay.

"He did it in a cold calculating manner and then he tried to cover it up," the father, who had to pause to compose himself, said. Clementi's mother Jane Clementi cried in the front row has her husband spoke.

The father accused Ravi of having any "lack of remorse."

Tyler Clementi's mother Jane Clementi recalled the day she helped her "excited" son move into his Rutgers dorm room and the coldness Ravi showed by not getting up from his computer to say hello.

DEA Agents Accused of Hiring Hookers

A month after the Secret Service was rocked by allegations that agents brought prostitutes to a Colombia hotel where they were preparing for a visit by President Obama, the Drug Enforcement Administration today announced that at least three of its agents are also under investigation for allegedly hiring prostitutes in Cartagena.

Two of the agents allegedly had encounters with masseuses in the apartment of one of the agents, according to Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"It's disturbing that we may be uncovering a troubling culture that spans more than one law enforcement agency," the Maine Republican said this evening. "In addition to the Secret Service scandal, we now learn that at least two DEA agents apparently entertained female foreign national masseuses in the Cartagena apartment of one of the agents. The evidence uncovered thus far indicates that this likely was not just a one-time incident."

The revelations that Secret Service personnel had been drinking heavily and cavorting with prostitutes ahead of Obama's trip to Colombia last month overshadowed the president's trip to the Summit of the Americas. Twelve members of the military were also investgated for allegedly hiring prostitutes.

Eight of the 12 Secret Service employees implicated in the scandal lost their jobs, another is in the process of losing his security clearances, and three agents were cleared of serious misconduct but still could be disciplined. The military has completed its investigation but no disciplinary action has been carried out.

"The Drug Enforcement Administration was provided information from the Secret Service unrelated to the Cartagena hotel Secret Service incident, which DEA immediately followed up on, making DEA employees available to be interviewed by the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General," a DEA spokesperson said in a statement.

"DEA takes allegations of misconduct very seriously and will take appropriate personnel action, if warranted, upon the conclusion of the OIG investigation." the statement said.

A spokesman for the OIG said the DEA is cooperating in the investigation, which is being coordinated with the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service.

The DEA has agents posted in Colombia to work on counter-narcotic and drug interdiction missions with Colombian authorities. According to officials the agents were among those assigned in Colombia, they were not specifically working on the President's trip.

The revelations about the DEA agents comes ahead of a hearing scheduled on Wednesday with Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Man Survives Niagara Falls Plunge

Image Credit: Jared Fisk

A man who climbed over a retaining wall and leaped into the Horseshoe Falls in Ontario, Canada, earlier today is at an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

'He was obviously suffering,' said Sgt. Chris Gallagher of the Niagara Parks Police. 'He had a large gash on the back of his head.  He had other injuries to his ribs. Mostly it was hypothermia, a little bit of shock. Wasn't able to speak very well.  Our main thing was to get him stabilized and get him some medical assistance as soon as possible.  That's why we called in the air.  As soon as we could get him uptop we could at least fly him to a medical facility.'

Witnesses ' many of  whom were out celebrating Victoria Day, a Canadian holiday ' told the Niagara Parks Police Service that they saw the man, believed to be in his mid-30s, climb high above the Canadian side of the falls and jump.

He later appeared in the lower Niagara River basin near the Journey Behind the Falls observation deck.

The man reportedly was found by park police before he collapsed. He was lifted out of the falls by a crane and then taken to a Hamilton-area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

'It is a very difficult slope from the location he was at to the base of the falls.  It is very difficult to traverse, so we used the aerial ladders to bring him up,' said Lt. Chief Dan Orescanin of the Niagara Falls, Ontario, Fire Department. 'We sent seven firefighters over. Six of them went down and one of them went down with the basket.'

The Niagara Falls Review said the unidentified man's leap was the fourth time a person had survived a jump over the falls without a barrel.

Edwards Jury Looking at 'Bunny' Money

The jury in John Edwards' campaign finance trial begins its second day of deliberations this morning in Greensboro, N.C.

The panel of eight men and four women spent about five hours behind closed doors on Friday as they began to weigh the evidence presented over nearly four weeks of testimony.

Shortly after they retired to the jury room on Friday, the jurors sent out a note to Judge Catherine Eagles, requesting a number of trial exhibits related to money provided by Virginia heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon in 2007.

The government alleges in count two of a six-count indictment that Edwards and his former aide Andrew Young illegally solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mellon as part of the effort to hide his pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign. Count three of the indictment contains similar allegations, but is focused on checks Mellon wrote in January 2008, shortly before Edwards ended his quest for the nomination.

Among the exhibits the jury requested is a letter Mellon wrote in April 2007 that is sometimes referred to as the "haircut" letter. Mellon wrote the letter to Young, shortly after the press had seized on the news that Edwards had charged a $400 haircut to his campaign.

"I was sitting alone in a grim mood - furious that the press had attacked Sen. Edwards on the price of a hair cut," Mellon's handwritten note reads. "From now on, all hair cuts, etc., that are a necessary and important part of his campaign, please send the bills to me. It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions."

Within six weeks of that letter Mellon began writing a series of personal checks that would eventually add up to $725,000 over seven months. The jury also requested copies of the first two of those two checks, which were funnelled to Andrew Young through an intermediary and eventually deposited in an account in the maiden name of Young's wife, Cheri.

Edwards' defense team has argued that Young was taking advantage of Mellon, bilking her out of the money with the pretense that it was for Edwards. They noted that the vast majority of Mellon's money went to Young and his wife, who used much of it to fund the construction of their $1.6 million home.

After the jury's request on Friday, an Edwards lawyer told a clutch of reporters in the courtroom that the deliberations could take a while. The jury appears, at least at the outset, to be taking a meticulous, count-by-count approach to their discussions.

Edwards is charged with conspiracy, accepting illegal campaign contributions and making false statements. If convicted on all six counts, he faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. Practically speaking, any prison term is likely to be well below the maximum.

In addition to the money sent by Mellon, the jury must also consider the support provided to Hunter by Edwards' campaign finance chairman, Fred Baron, who funded a cross-country luxury odyssey for Hunter and the Youngs, after Andrew Young falsely claimed paternity of Edwards' child.

And they also must consider the broader question of whether the financial support provided by Mellon and Baron constitutes an illegal contribution under federal election laws.

At the close of the day the jurors informed the judge that they'd prefer to keep to a set schedule for deliberations, starting each day at 9:30 a.m. and calling it quits by about 4 p.m. The Middle District of North Carolina covers 24 counties and several of the jurors have long commutes to court each day.