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Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lifestyle. Show all posts
U.S. to 'rain mice' on tree snakes
Labels: LifestyleiPhone, iPad and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.Man vanishes into bedroom sinkhole
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Rescuers have turned to trying to recover man's body, sheriff's office says
- The sinkhole opened under a home's bedroom, swallowing a man inside
- Hole, previously reported as 100 feet across, is about 20 to 30 feet wide, engineer says
- Monitoring equipment failed to detect any sign of life in the sinkhole
Seffner, Florida (CNN) -- The ground just swallowed him up.
A Florida man fell into a sinkhole that opened suddenly Thursday night beneath the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, calling out to his brother for help as he fell, the brother said Friday.
"I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house," Jeremy Bush told CNN affiliate WFTS. "I heard my brother screaming and I ran back there and tried going inside his room, but my old lady turned the light on and all I seen was this big hole, a real big hole, and all I saw was his mattress."
Bush frantically tried to rescue his brother, Jeff Bush, by standing in the hole and digging at the rubble with a shovel until police arrived and pulled him out, saying the floor was still collapsing.
"I thought I heard him holler for me to help him," the man tearfully told WFTS.
Jeremy Bush and four other people, including a 2-year-old child, escaped from the blue, one-story 1970s-era home in Seffner, Florida, a Tampa suburb.
Sinkholes: Common, costly and sometimes deadly
What began with hopes of rescue turned into a body recovery operation after monitoring equipment failed to detect any signs that Jeff Bush survived the fall into the hole, according the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
Rescuers still hadn't gone into the hole -- it's too dangerous, Fire Chief Ron Rogers told reporters. Authorities say they worry the hole is still spreading and the house could collapse at any time.
The sinkhole is about 20 feet to 30 feet across and may be 30 feet deep, said Bill Bracken, president of an engineering company assisting emergency workers. The hole was originally reported to be 100 feet across, but that is the diameter of the safety zone surrounding it, Bracken said.
"It started in the bedroom, and it has been expanding outward and it's taking the house with it as it opens up," he said.
Check out images of the sinkhole house
Nearby homes have been evacuated as a precaution, Rogers said.
Damico said about 40 police and firefighters were standing by at the scene Friday morning. Meanwhile, engineers hope to use more sophisticated equipment to get a three-dimensional image of the sinkhole.
Family members were also on hand, waiting out what they feared would be a devastating day.
"I know in my heart he's dead," Jeremy Bush said. "But I just want to be here for him, because I love him. He was my brother, man."
Sinkholes are common in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The state lies on bedrock made of limestone or other carbonate rock that can be eaten away by acidic groundwater, forming voids that collapse when the rock can no longer support the weight of what's above it.
Hillsborough County is part of an area known as "sinkhole alley" that accounts for two-thirds of the sinkhole-related insurance claims in the state, according to a Florida state Senate Insurance and Banking Committee report.
John Zarrella reported from Seffner; Michael Pearson reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Jake Carpenter, Brian Carberry, Elwyn Lopez, Nick Valencia and Tina Burnside also contributed to this report.
Obama urging court to end same-sex marriage ban
Labels: LifestyleProp 8 and another appeal over the federal Defense of Marriage Act will produce blockbuster rulings from the justices in coming months.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Obama administration to express support for same-sex marriage in California
- NEW: It said in legal brief that gay and lesbian couples have equal protection rights to wed
- Two same-sex marriage cases are now being weighed by the Supreme Court
- President Barack Obama has had an evolving position on gay rights
Washington (CNN) -- The Obama administration will formally express its support for same-sex marriage in California.
The administration said in a legal brief on Thursday that gay and lesbian couples in the state have the same "equal protection" rights to wed and that voters there were wrong to ban it, according to an administration official.
An appeal in the so-called Proposition 8 case will be formally filed later on Thursday with the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear the issue in March.
That case and another appeal over the federal Defense of Marriage Act will produce blockbuster rulings from the justices in coming months.
Gay rights groups had privately urged Obama and his top aides to go beyond his previous personal rhetoric in support of the right and come down "on the side of history" in this legal fight.
Sources told CNN that Obama made the final decision over whether to file a brief and what to say.
Same-sex marriage could be a defining moment in Obama's presidency, similar to the political impact last year when the Supreme Court upheld the health care reform law he spearheaded.
He must decide how much political capital to expend in coming months when expressing his views and those of the executive branch.
Opinion: 2013 -- A year for big issues in the courts
Obama has already faced strong opposition on the issue from many Republican state and congressional lawmakers, as well as social conservatives.
The justices will hear oral arguments in the Proposition 8 case March 26, with a ruling due by the last week of June.
The separate case over the Defense of Marriage Act involves a 1996 law that says for federal purposes, marriage is defined as only between one man and one woman. That means federal tax, Social Security, pension, and bankruptcy benefits, and family medical leave protections-- do not apply to gay and lesbian couples.
That case will be argued March 27.
But it is the Proposition 8 case where the high court is being asked to establish the constitutional "equal protection" right.
The administration is not a party in the California appeal and not required to weigh in, but it decided to file an amicus or "friend of the court" brief. The key question for Obama was whether he would stop short of a vigorous endorsement of the constitutional right.
It is rare for a president to be personally involved in the legal and political considerations in a high court appeal, and sources say he spent a good deal of time reading up on the issue and articulating his views privately.
Much of the legal reasoning in any government brief would reflect in large part his personal thinking, gained from his years as a former constitutional law professor.
Obama administration weighs in on defense of marriage law
There are about approximately 120,000 legally married same-sex couples in the United States.
Dozens of advocacy groups on both sides of the issue have bombarded the high court with briefs, including a coalition of national Republicans, business, faith, and military leaders supporting same-sex marriage.
Among the prominent conservative names lending their view: former Utah governor and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Hewlitt-Packard chief executive and former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), and actor Clint Eastwood.
"As a Republican, I believe in protecting individual freedoms and that everyone, including gay and lesbian Americans, has a constitutional right to be treated equally under the law," said former Rep. Jim Kolbe.
The president has had an evolving position on gay rights, once supporting only civil unions. But in his inaugural address last month, he raised expectations, and perhaps signaled his impending legal views, when offering sweeping rhetoric.
"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law-- for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."
Last November, voters in three states-- Maryland, Washington, and Maine-- approved same-sex marriage, adding to the six states and the District of Columbia that already have done so.
Opinion: Gay Americans pay more taxes for fewer rights
As more states legalize same-sex marriage, one of the key questions the justices may be forced to address is whether a national consensus now exists supporting the idea of expanding an "equal protection" right of marriage to homosexuals
Many other states, including New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Rhode Island and Hawaii, have legalized domestic partnerships and civil unions -- a step designed in most cases to provide the same rights of marriage under state law.
But other states have passed laws or state constitutional amendments banning such marriages. California's 2008 Proposition 8 referendum revoked the right after lawmakers and the state courts previously allowed it.
In February, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled the measure unconstitutional. In its split decision, the panel found that Proposition 8 "works a meaningful harm to gays and lesbians" by denying their right to civil marriage.
The justices here have discretion to rule narrowly or broadly on the aspects of the legal and procedural questions raised.
Eastwood inks support for same-sex marriage
Snowstorm batters heartland
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: More than 56,000 buildings are without power in Kansas and Missouri
- NEW: Roads are snow-covered but improving in northwest Missouri, state says
- At least three people are dead because of the storm, officials say
- Wichita, Kansas, breaks a 100-year record for February snowfall -- in six days
(CNN) -- Phillip Prince sat in his tractor-trailer, stuck on Interstate 40 near Groom, Texas, for hours.
Nine hours and four minutes, to be precise.
Prince and his co-driver were due in California at 1 p.m. Tuesday, where they were going to drop off 25,000 pounds of frozen pizza.
But they stumbled on what the National Weather Service is calling "a crippling, historic blizzard."
"It was pretty nasty when we first got into it," he said. "But then it turned into a whiteout."
Prince, who has been a long-haul driver for nine years, said in a submission to CNN's iReport that he'd never seen it so bad. The line of trucks on the westbound side of the interstate was five to six miles long.
A day later, three people were dead, and 21 states and 45 million people were under some form of winter weather watch, warning or advisory.
The piling snow snapped tree branches, brought down power lines and made it tough for snowplows and utility crews to keep up.
In Shawnee, Kansas, the roof of a horse arena collapsed under the weight of snow Tuesday morning, CNN affiliate KSHB reported. It was one of several such collapses in the region because of the wet heavy snow, the station said.
No injuries were reported in those collapses, but a person died Monday in a roof collapse in hard-hit Woodward, Oklahoma, said that city's mayor, Roscoe Hill.
The other two deaths came in Kansas on Monday in separate weather-related accidents on Interstate 70. One accident happened in Sherman County and the other in Ellis County, the Kansas National Guard said.
As the storm moved northeast, the snow stopped, temperatures rose and roads were clearing in the Kansas City area. But the Kansas Department of Transportation reported early Tuesday that three of its plows had gotten stuck. The agency asked that motorists give crews more time to clear roads before trying to venture out.
More than 56,000 customers in Kansas and Missouri were without power Tuesday afternoon, the Kansas National Guard said. The bulk of the outages -- 45,000 -- were in the Kansas City region straddling the border between Kansas and Missouri.
Most flights out of Kansas City International Airport were canceled.
Roads were still snow-covered, but improving, in northwestern Missouri, the state Department of Transportation said on Twitter. The agency continued to discourage travel.
Forecasters expected the storm to bring up to 18 inches of snow to parts of eastern Kansas, Missouri and Illinois a day after plastering southern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Winter storm watches and warnings or weather advisories stretched from Oklahoma to Michigan.
Also on Tuesday, a stretch of Interstate 40 east of Amarillo, Texas, was closed in both directions because of what the Texas Department of Transportation called "extremely icy conditions."
Track the storm
While the back-to-back snowstorms were frustrating for some, others put a positive spin on the experience. Jim Service of Overland Park, Kansas, spaced out the work of clearing last week's snowfall over four days. He finished Sunday, just in time for this storm.
After a warm-up session clearing Tuesday's snow -- much wetter and heavier than last week's -- he retreated inside with a Clive Cussler novel and planned to enjoy the day off. Like many others, Service's company called off work Tuesday at the behest of state officials who warned that the storm was too dangerous for people to be on the roads.
"It's great for me," he said.
The Kansas National Guard warned that continued snowfall and gusty winds would make travel tricky through Wednesday.
In Woodward, emergency vehicles were still having trouble getting around Tuesday, a day after the storm dropped more than 15 inches of snow.
Crews dispatched to a house fire Monday had trouble reaching the home because of 4-foot snowdrifts. The snowplow sent to free the firefighters also got stuck. Even Tuesday, emergency vehicles still were having a tough time getting around.
"We're in such a mess," said Hill, the mayor.
Whiteout conditions
The storm follows one last week that paralyzed a broad swath of the Plains and Midwest with more than a foot of snow. Parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and other states were affected.
The storm prompted a state of emergency declaration in Kansas and parts of Oklahoma, bringing whiteout conditions to southern parts of those states and Texas.
Schools in Wichita, Kansas, were closed Tuesday for a fourth straight day after last week's storm, which dumped a record 14.2 inches on the city. Wichita has received 21 inches of snow in February, breaking a record that had stood for 100 years, the National Weather Service said. And it all fell in the past six days.
Amarillo, not far from where truck driver Prince was stuck, saw 19 inches of snow Monday, along with fierce winds that whipped the snow into whiteout conditions.
Are you there? Send stories and photos
By Monday night, though, conditions had improved in the Texas panhandle.
"Things have cleared up now," said CNN iReporter Julie Swift, a student at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview. "The snow is starting to melt and the roads are improving. It's still very windy, though."
Rain, ice elsewhere
Also on tap for Tuesday: up to 7 inches of much-needed snow in the Chicago and Detroit areas; high winds in Tennessee, North Carolina and southern Virginia; the threat of ice in West Virginia; and more drenching rain in the Southeast, the National Weather Service said.
In the Southeast, gusty winds and flooding were the concerns.
In Mobile, Alabama, the storm was expected to bring heavy rain and 30 mph wind gusts early Tuesday. Tornado watches were up in southeast Georgia and parts of Florida through Tuesday afternoon. Flood watches and warnings were in place from Louisiana to South Carolina.
CNN's Brandon Miller, Erin McPike, Ric Ward, Janet DiGiacomo, Greg Botelho, Michael Pearson and Henry Hanks contributed to this report.
Weatherman blacks out on live TV
Labels: Lifestyleon your computer or on the CNN Apps for iPhone® and iPad®.
iPhone, iPad and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.Jimmie Johnson wins Daytona 500
Labels: LifestyleBy CNN Staff
updated 5:00 PM EST, Sun February 24, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Danica Patrick says she had a solid day
- Second-place finisher Dale Earnhardt Jr. was a runner-up for the third time in 4 years
- Some fans injured in Saturday incident were scheduled to attend race, official says
(CNN) -- Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500, the season-opening and most prestigious race of the NASCAR season, on Sunday at the Daytona International Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second for the third time in four years.
Danica Patrick, the first woman to win the pole position at the Daytona 500, led three times, including five laps under green -- also becoming the first woman to lead a lap at the race not under a yellow flag caution. She finished eighth, the highest finish ever for a female driver at the race.
"At the end of the day it was a solid day," she said. "We stayed basically in the top 10 all day so it was nice."
Some of the fans who were injured by flying debris Saturday during a crash late in the Nationwide Series Drive4COPD 300 were to attend the Daytona 500, speedway president Joie Chitwood said Sunday morning.
At least 28 fans were injured when more than a dozen cars piled up in the final curve of Saturday's race. Some of the debris went over a 22-foot-high fence that was built in 2010, and some of it went through holes as the fence mangled when a car slammed into it and bounced back onto the track.
Saturday's wreck occurred when several closely packed cars were jostling for position at top speeds of about 175 mph. They got tangled up, setting off a dangerous chain reaction that ensnared a number of vehicles.
Driver Kyle Larson's vehicle ended up flying into a fence that separates the track from spectators. The car broke into pieces, including tires and a fiery engine.
Larson walked away from the crash, even after the front part of his No. 32 car was gone. He and the other nine drivers involved told reporters that they were checked at a medical tent on the Daytona infield and released.
Vatican denies rumors as pope prepares to step down
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Top Vatican official condemns "often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories"
- Rumors are intended to put pressure on cardinals, Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone says
- Italy's La Reppublica has published allegations involving a shadowy network of gay clergy
- Pope Benedict XVI is to stand down from office on Thursday
Rome (CNN) -- The Vatican sought Saturday to tamp down rumors involving sex, money and gay priests that have been swirling in the Italian media and have been linked by some to Pope Benedict XVI's decision to resign.
The strongly-worded denial came on the eve of the pope's last Angelus blessing, expected to draw huge crowds of the faithful, before he stands down on Thursday.
Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone said it was "deplorable" that as the time for the Roman Catholic cardinals to elect a new pope approaches, a rash of "often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories" has appeared.
Such unfounded stories "cause serious damage to persons and institutions," he said, and are an attempt to influence the cardinals' free will in the election "through public opinion."
Opinion: There's more to the Catholic Church than the pope
Bertone did not address the specific claims that were first published in La Repubblica, the country's largest circulation daily newspaper, on Thursday and Friday.
The newspaper stories center on an investigation last year by three cardinals into a scandal involving leaks from the Vatican.
La Repubblica, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation, alleged that the investigation revealed a series of scandals involving sex, money and power that touch cardinals, priests and lay people that work in the Vatican.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi declined to comment on La Repubblica's article in a media briefing on Thursday.
CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen, also a correspondent with the National Catholic Reporter, suggested in a piece written Friday that unsourced speculation about a shadowy "gay lobby" within the Vatican should be taken with a grain of salt.
But, he said, while he doesn't know for sure if the three cardinals did investigate networks based on sexual orientation, "frankly, it would be a little surprising if they hadn't" -- given past scandals that have become public concerning clergy involved in homosexual activities.
The pope may well have been worn down by the "cumulative impact of the various meltdowns over the last eight years," Allen said.
"However," he added, "it's probably a stretch to draw a straight line between all of this and Benedict's resignation. For the most part, one has to take the pope at his word: He's stepping aside because he's old and tired, not because of any particular crisis."
The pontiff will leave office at 8 p.m. on February 28, two-and-a-half weeks after he shocked the Roman Catholic world by announcing his resignation.
The Vatican has said a new pope will be in place for the Church's Easter celebrations on March 31.
Benedict on Saturday concluded a week-long spiritual retreat, held to mark the Lenten period.
Addressing the clergy who had joined him, he thanked them "not only for this week, but for these past eight years that you have carried with me -- with great skill, affection, love and faith -- the weight of the Petrine ministry," referring to the papacy.
Benedict also met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Saturday, an encounter described by the Vatican as "particularly warm and cordial."
Facts about Pope Benedict XVI
The pontiff is considering changing the Vatican constitution to allow a vote for his successor to begin before March 15, Lombardi said Wednesday.
Existing rules say the Roman Catholic Church's cardinals should start voting on a replacement from 15 to 20 days after the papal throne becomes vacant. With Benedict due to depart on February 28, the cardinals' conclave ordinarily would start no sooner than March 15.
But Lombardi has said that because Benedict was leaving the papacy through resignation rather than death, the Vatican would explore the possibility of selecting a new pope sooner than normally prescribed.
The so-called "Vatileaks" scandal last year led to the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, being convicted on charges of leaking private papers from the Vatican in a high-profile trial and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Although Gabriele was pardoned weeks later by the pope, the whole affair -- which revealed claims of corruption in the church's hierarchy -- was damaging to the Vatican's reputation.
The latest media allegations, despite the strenuous Vatican denials, may add to the pressure for reform.
CNN's Hada Messia and Ben Wedeman reported from Rome, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote from London.
U.S. suing Lance Armstrong
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- U.S. Justice Department will file formal complaint in 60 days
- Feds won't allow Armstrong and managers "to walk away" with tens of millions of dollars
- "The defendants failed to live up to their agreement," postal official says
- "We disagree...whether the Postal Service was damaged," Armstrong attorney says
(CNN) -- The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it has joined the whistle-blower lawsuit against cyclist Lance Armstrong that was originally filed by a former teammate.
The Justice Department will file its formal complaint in 60 days.
Armstrong, the onetime legendary and now disgraced cyclist, has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. He was the team's lead rider when the U.S. Postal Service sponsored the team from 1996 to 2004 and Armstrong won six of his seven Tour de France titles, the Justice Department said.
The civil lawsuit alleges that Armstrong and former team managers submitted false claims for government funds to the sponsoring Postal Service by their "regularly employing banned substances and method to enhance their performance" in violation of the sponsorship agreement, the federal announcement said.
"Today's action demonstrates the Department of Justice's steadfast commitment to safeguarding federal funds and making sure that contractors live up to their promises," Stuart F. Delery, principal deputy assistant attorney general for the civil division, said in a statement.
Between 2001 and 2004, the Postal Service paid $31 million in sponsorship fees, but that affiliation has now been "unfairly associated with what has been described as 'the most sophisticated, professionalized, and successful doping program that sport has ever seen,' " said Ronald C. Machen Jr., U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
"In today's economic climate, the U.S. Postal Service is simply not in a position to allow Lance Armstrong or any of the other defendants to walk away with the tens of millions of dollars they illegitimately procured," Machen said.
The suit also names as defendants Johan Bruyneel, who had managed the U.S. Postal Service and Discovery racing teams on which Armstrong raced, and Tailwind Sports, which was the team's management entity, the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department is joining the lawsuit's allegations against Bruyneel and Tailwind, but it isn't intervening in the suit's claims against several other defendants, the agency said.
The U.S. Postal Service supported the intervention.
"The defendants agreed to play by the rules and not use performance enhancing drugs," general counsel and executive vice president Mary Anne Gibbons said in a statement. "We now know that the defendants failed to live up to their agreement, and instead knowingly engaged in a pattern of activity that violated the rules of professional cycling and, therefore, violated the terms of their contracts with the Postal Service."
The lawsuit accuses the former management of Armstrong's team of defrauding the federal government of millions of dollars because it knew about the drug use and didn't do anything.
The federal government had been evaluating for weeks whether to intervene in the lawsuit.
An attorney for Armstrong, Robert Luskin, said that ongoing discussions between the federal government and Armstrong's legal team had collapsed.
"Lance and his representatives worked constructively over these last weeks with federal lawyers to resolve this case fairly, but those talks failed because we disagree about whether the Postal Service was damaged," Luskin said. "The Postal Service's own studies show that the service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship -- benefits totaling more than $100 million."
Armstrong's attorneys declined to comment further on Friday's Justice Department announcement.
Former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after failing a drug test, filed the lawsuit in 2010 against the team, which was sponsored the U.S. Postal Service.
As of midday Friday, the whistle-blower suit remained under court seal.
Landis was a teammate of Armstrong on the Postal Service sponsored team from 2002 to 2004, and his lawsuit was filed under the False Claims Act, the Justice Department said. That act is commonly called the whistle-blower law.
The law permits the federal government to investigate allegations and intervene, the Justice Department said.
The act was originally passed in 1863 when government officials were concerned that suppliers to the Union Army during the Civil War could be defrauding them.
In 1986, Congress modified the law to make it easier for whistle-blowers to bring cases and give them a larger share of any penalties collected. Whistle-blowers can now take home between 15% and 30% of the sums collected in their cases.
For years, Armstrong had denied drug use and blood doping, but he publicly admitted such use in January, three months after international cycling's governing body stripped him of his seven Tour de France titles.
That stripping came after a damning report by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency accused Armstrong and his team of the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program" in cycling history.
That agency praised the Justice Department's announcement.
"The U.S. Postal Service Cycling Team was run as a fraudulent enterprise and individuals both inside and outside of sport aided and abetted this scheme and profited greatly," CEO Travis T. Tygart said in a statement.
CNN's Jason Morris in Dallas contributed to this report.
Gunfire, crash kill 3 in Vegas
Labels: LifestyleBy CNN Staff
updated 4:16 PM EST, Thu February 21, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Police collect security video from neighboring casinos
- Gunfire and a fiery crash kill 3 in the heart of Las Vegas Strip
- Casino visitor describes seeing "fireball" from Caesars Palace
- Police are looking for a black Range Rover Sport with large black rims
(CNN) -- Three people were dead and at least three others injured after a shooting and fiery six-vehicle crash along the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada early Thursday, police said.
The incident began about 4:20 a.m. at a stoplight on Las Vegas Boulevard, when someone in a black Range Rover fired into a Maserati that also had stopped at the light, Las Vegas police said.
The Maserati moved into the intersection and collided with a taxi, starting a chain of crashes that involved four other vehicles, police said.
Fire swept through the taxi, where the driver and a passenger were trapped.
iReporter captures video of fire
The taxi's two occupants and the Maserati's driver died, Las Vegas Police spokesman Jose Hernandez said. A passenger in the Maserati suffered gunshot wounds and was being treated at a hospital, police said, while at least two other people in the other vehicles suffered light to moderate injuries, they said.
Four of the gambling mecca's biggest casinos -- Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, Bally's and the Flamingo -- are perched around the corner where the shootings occurred.
Police said they have requested and received security-camera video from all four of those establishments as part of their investigation.
John Lamb, who was inside Caesars Palace, told CNN affiliate KLAS he heard the commotion and saw the taxi on fire from a window.
"There was a loud bang, and I hear two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace ... and could see the fireball," he told KLAS.
Police are looking for the occupants of the SUV, described as a black Range Rover Sport with tinted windows, large black rims and a dealer license plate not from Nevada, said police Sgt. John Sheahan.
Hernandez said he didn't have information on what led to the shooting. The names of the dead and the injured were not immediately released.
Man kills 3, himself in Southern California shooting
CNN's Miguel Marquez, Carol Costello, Jason Hanna and Deanna Hackney contributed to this report.
Lance Armstrong won't cooperate with USADA probe
Labels: LifestyleBy Jason Hanna, CNN
updated 4:40 PM EST, Wed February 20, 2013
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Agency had given cyclist until Wednesday to decide whether he would cooperate under oath
- Armstrong's lifetime competition ban could have been altered had he cooperated
- Cyclist was stripped of Tour de France titles after drug and blood-doping accusations
(CNN) -- Cyclist Lance Armstrong will not cooperate with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's investigation of performance-enhancing drug use in the sport, an Armstrong attorney said Wednesday.
USADA had given Armstrong -- who publicly admitted such drug use last month -- until Wednesday to decide whether he would cooperate under oath with investigators as part of a possible path to altering his USADA-imposed lifetime competition ban.
"Lance will not participate in USADA's efforts to selectively conduct American prosecutions that only demonize selected individuals while failing to address the 95% of the sport over which USADA has no jurisdiction," Armstrong attorney Tim Herman said in a written statement Wednesday.
USADA CEO Travis Tygart issued a statement Wednesday saying that "over the last few weeks (Armstrong) has led us to believe that he wanted to come in and assist USADA, but was worried of potential criminal and civil liability if he did so."
"Today we learned from the media that Mr. Armstrong is choosing not to come in and be truthful and that he will not take the opportunity to work toward righting his wrongs in sport," Tygart said. "At this time we are moving forward with our investigation without him and we will continue to work closely with (the World Anti-Doping Agency) and other appropriate and responsible international authorities to fulfill our promise to clean athletes to protect their right to compete on a drug-free playing field."
Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles by international cycling's governing body in October after a damning report by USADA accused him and his team of the "most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program" in cycling history.
He first admitted using performance-enhancing drugs and blood doping during a January television interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The USADA banned Armstrong, 41, for life but said the ban could be reduced to eight years if he cooperated under oath with investigators. Armstrong's competitive cycling career is long over, but he moved on to triathlons and won several of them in 2012.
The agency initially gave Armstrong a February 6 deadline before extending it by two weeks.
CNN's Jason Morris, Wayne Sterling and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
Part of complete coverage on
Lance Armstrong
updated 10:13 AM EST, Sat January 19, 2013
The fairy tale of a cancer survivor who beat the odds to win the Tour de France a record seven times has crashed and burned. What can we learn?
updated 10:18 AM EST, Sat January 19, 2013
When it comes to seeking public redemption for crimes and misdemeanors, such as cheating in the Tour de France, surely being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey is, well, cheating.
updated 8:21 PM EST, Fri January 18, 2013
In July, when the riders of the Tour de France headed into Paris during the final stage of the race, they gave the honor of leading the pack onto the Champs-Elysees to George Hincapie.
updated 10:25 AM EST, Sat January 19, 2013
After years of tenacious spin that he was innocent, Lance Armstrong confessed said he used performance-enhancing drugs.
updated 1:06 PM EST, Fri January 18, 2013
Armstrong still must face judgment from a different group of fans: those who have personal experience with cancer.
updated 11:06 PM EST, Thu January 17, 2013
In a sense, Fred Schuster has a permanent reminder of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong etched into his skin.
updated 1:43 PM EST, Fri January 18, 2013
Cheating arises from desires, incentives, pressures.
updated 7:56 AM EST, Fri January 18, 2013
Lance Armstrong admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Here's a look at what they are, and how they work.
updated 2:39 PM EST, Fri January 18, 2013
CNN asked for views on whether disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong deserves another chance.
updated 8:46 AM EST, Thu January 17, 2013
Armstrong has not only spent years vehemently denying using banned performance-enhancing drugs; he also has viciously attacked those who told what they knew about doping in the sport and implicated him in the process.
updated 4:27 PM EST, Tue January 15, 2013
The court of public opinion weighed in decidedly against Lance Armstrong, even before the broadcast of an interview in which he is said to acknowledge using performance-enhancing drugs after years of denials.
updated 9:26 AM EST, Tue January 15, 2013
Lance Armstrong's feat of winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles was like the demigod Hercules achieving his "Twelve Labors."
updated 3:40 PM EDT, Mon October 22, 2012
The International Cycling Union announces hat Lance Armstrong is being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.
Pistorius: 'She died in my arms'
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Oscar Pistorius paints a detailed picture of his version of his girlfriend's death
- "I had no intention to kill my girlfriend," he says in the statement
- "We were deeply in love and couldn't be happier," he said
- Prosecutors dispute Pistorius' version, say he meant to kill her
Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- It was the middle of the night, Oscar Pistorius says, and he thought an intruder was in the house. Not wearing his prosthetic legs, feeling vulnerable in the pitch dark and too scared to turn on the lights, the track star pulled his 9mm pistol from beneath his bed, moved toward the bathroom and fired into the door.
It was only after he called to girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp -- whom he thought had been in bed beside him after a quiet evening -- that he realized something horrible might have happened, he told Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair in a statement read by his lawyer during his bond hearing Tuesday. Prosecutors dispute the version of events that Pistorius detailed in his statement.
Pistorius says he broke down the locked bathroom door -- at one point in the statement saying he kicked the door in, at another saying he used a cricket bat to break it down -- then scooped up the mortally wounded Steenkamp and carried her downstairs after for help.
"I tried to render the assistance to Reeva that I could, but she died in my arms," he said in the statement. "I am absolutely mortified by the events and the devastating loss of my beloved Reeva."
Pistorius' affidavit in alleged murder of girlfriend
Pistorius' girlfriend dies on Valentine's Day
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'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius
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While prosecutors and defense lawyers agree Pistorius shot Steenkamp, the track star denied intentionally killing her, in the statement read Tuesday.
Prosecutors say they believe Pistorius put on his prosthetic legs, picked up his gun and walked to the bathroom where Steenkamp, 29, had locked herself -- apparently after a heated argument -- and shot at her four times.
Three of the bullets struck Steenkamp, who died soon after. Her funeral was Tuesday.
Pistorius spent much of the hearing sobbing and heaving at the mention of his girlfriend's name, at one point forcing Nair to stop the proceedings to ask him to compose himself. His family stood nearby, huddling during breaks and appearing to pray. During parts of the hearing, Pistorius' brother placed his hand on the suspect's back.
During Tuesday's hearing, Nair upgraded the charge against Pistorius to premeditated murder, saying he could not rule out the possibility that the track star planned Steenkamp's death. But Nair said he will consider downgrading the charge later.
The allegation of premeditation makes it more difficult for Pistorius' attorneys to argue he should be released on bail pending trial. To win bail, the defense must argue that "exceptional circumstances" exist that would justify Pistorius' release.
The session ended Tuesday afternoon with no decision on bail for Pistorius, 26. Prosecutors said they needed time to study the affidavits read in court before deciding how to proceed.
Opinion: What my son taught me about Pistorius
In the statement read by his lawyer, Pistorius said he would not try to flee or influence any witnesses if he is allowed out on bail, and argued that his release wouldn't be a danger to public order.
The hearing is scheduled to resume Wednesday morning.
Follow updates on our live blog
A tragic mistake?
In his statement, Pistorius said Steenkamp came over February 13, opting for a quiet dinner in over a night out with friends. They wrapped up the night with a bit of television in bed for him, some yoga for her. She had brought him a Valentine's Day present to open the next day.
After the couple had gone to bed, he said he got up in the early hours of February 14 to close the balcony door in his bedroom when he heard a sound in the bathroom.
Pistorius said he'd been a victim of violence and burglary in the past, and realized with terror that contractors who worked at the house had left ladders outside.
Fearing someone had entered the home through the open bathroom window, moving in the dark on the stumps of his amputated legs, Pistorius grabbed his pistol from under the bed and yelled at the intruder to get out.
"I fired shots at the toilet door and shouted to Reeva to phone the police. She did not respond and I moved backwards out of the bathroom, keeping my eye on the bathroom entrance," Pistorius said in his statement. "Everything was pitch-dark in the bedroom and I was still too scared to switch on a light."
"When I reached the bed, I realized that Reeva was not in bed. That is when it dawned on me that it could have been Reeva who was in the toilet. I returned to the bathroom calling her name," he said.
He said he threw open the balcony door and screamed for help, put on his prosthetic legs and tried to kick in the door to the separate room inside the bathroom containing the toilet. Then, he said, he picked up a cricket bat, smashing panels out of the door before finding a key and unlocking it.
"Reeva was slumped over but alive," he said.
Pistorius said he called for help and was told to take her to the hospital himself.
He carried her downstairs and tried to help but, but she died.
"I cannot bear to think of the suffering I have caused her and her family, knowing how much she was loved," he said.
But he said he did not mean to kill her, and protested the charges against him.
"I fail to understand how I could be charged with murder, let alone premeditated murder because I had no intention to kill my girlfriend," Pistorius said in the statement.
"We were deeply in love and couldn't be happier," he said."I loved her and I know she felt the same way."
A premeditated murder?
Prosecutors, however, painted a different picture.
They rejected Pistorius' claim that he mistook her for a burglar, saying it would make no sense for an intruder to hide behind a locked bathroom door.
Instead, they say Pistorius armed himself, attached his prosthetic legs and walked 7 meters (23 feet) to shoot Steenkamp through a bathroom door after a heated argument.
Defense attorney Barry Roux questioned the state's argument, asking how prosecutors would know Pistorius had put on his prosthetic legs and walked to the bathroom before shooting his girlfriend.
Police were alerted to the shooting by neighbors, and residents had "heard things earlier," police spokeswoman Denise Beukes said.
Authorities said there had been "previous incidents" at the home, including "allegations of a domestic nature," but did not provide details.
Detectives are investigating the blood-stained cricket bat found in the home, Johannesburg's City Press newspaper reported. They are trying to determine whether it was used to attack Steenkamp, if she used the bat in self-defense, or if Pistorius used it to try to break down the bathroom door, the newspaper said.
Final farewells for Steenkamp
As the drama in court unfolded, friends and family mourned Steenkamp at a private funeral in her hometown of Port Elizabeth.
"There's a space missing inside all the people she knew that can't be filled again," her brother Adam Steenkamp told reporters outside.
Steenkamp was a law school graduate whose modeling career was on the rise. She landed the cover of FHM magazine and recently appeared on a reality TV show.
On Sunday, South Africans heard Steenkamp's voice one last time after her death, when the national broadcaster aired a pre-recorded episode of the show. The model talked about her exit from "Tropika Island of Treasure," on which local celebrities compete for prize money.
"I'm going to miss you all so much and I love you very, very much," she said, blowing a kiss to the camera.
Case rivets fans
The case of the global sports hero known as the "Blade Runner" has riveted stunned fans around the world.
As he walked into court in a blue shirt and gray suit, frenzied photographers snapped away, prompting the judge to demand they stop.
The scene was a far cry from the packed stadiums that erupted in applause whenever the double-amputee competed against men with legs.
On social media, sentiment appeared to mixed. "Oscar Pistorius is telling us rubbish," one Twitter user posted.
But others were more supportive after hearing Pistorius' story. "I for some reason believe Pistorius after reading his affidavit!!," another person tweeted.
Robyn Curnow reported from South Africa; Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Nkepile Mabuse also contributed to this report.
Pistorius' girlfriend was alive after shooting, official says
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Detectives are examining role of a blood-stained cricket bat, newspaper reports
- Runner Oscar Pistorius has been charged with murder in model Reeva Steenkamp's death
- Steenkamp was still alive when Pistorius carried her downstairs, an official says
Pretoria, South Africa (CNN) -- Model Reeva Steenkamp was shot four times through the bathroom door at the home of Olympian Oscar Pistorius, a South African official familiar with the case told CNN on Monday.
She was alive after she was shot and was carried downstairs by Pistorius, said the official, who was not authorized to release details to the media.
A blood-stained cricket bat has also emerged as key evidence in the case, according to the City Press newspaper of Johannesburg.
Detectives are working to determine whether the bat was used to attack Steenkamp or she used it in self-defense, the newspaper reported, citing a source with inside knowledge of the case. Detectives are also looking into the possibility that Pistorius used the bat to break down the bathroom door.
The details are the latest to emerge in the shooting death that has roiled the nation and left South Africans asking what went so terribly wrong inside the upscale Pretoria home of the man nicknamed "Blade Runner" for his lightning-fast prosthetic legs.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were indications the 29-year-old model intended to stay the night at the house: She had an overnight bag and her iPad.
Opinion: Pistorius case and the plague of violence against women
Authorities have released little about a possible motive in the Valentine's Day shooting, while local media have reported that Pistorius had mistaken his girlfriend for an intruder. South African authorities have stressed that the scenario did not come from them, and said there was no evidence of forced entry at the home.
Police have charged Pistorius with murder, and he will appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing. South African prosecutors have said they intend to upgrade the charge to premeditated murder, but have not released further details.
Pistorius, 26, has rejected the murder allegation "in the strongest terms," his agent said in a statement.
Nike's bullet ad with Pistorius backfires
Burial service
The same day Pistorius returns to court, Steenkamp will be buried in a private service in her hometown of Port Elizabeth.
Her burial Tuesday will come two days after South Africa's national broadcaster aired a pre-recorded reality TV show featuring Steenkamp discussing her exit from "Tropika Island of Treasure," on which local celebrities compete for prize money.
The decision to air the program took "much deliberation," and "this week's episode will be dedicated to Reeva's memory," said Samantha Moon, the executive producer.
The shooting has stunned South Africa, where Pistorius is a national hero as the first disabled athlete to compete in the able-bodied Olympic Games. He competed in the London Games as well as winning two gold medals in the Paralympic Games.
Headlines about the case have dominated in the days since Pistorius was arrested, though tight-lipped authorities have revealed little about what, if anything, the track star has said.
Oscar Pistorius with Reeva Steenkamp in January 2013.
Questions swirl
Reports say Pistorius and Steenkamp became an item around November and were popular in South African social circles.
The night before the shooting, Steenkamp appeared to be looking forward to Valentine's Day.
"What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow?" she asked her Twitter followers the day before. "Get excited."
Steenkamp was found in a pool of blood at Pistorius' home Thursday morning. Neighbors alerted authorities to the early morning shooting, saying they had "heard things earlier," police spokeswoman Denise Beukes has said. She did not clarify what the neighbors reported they heard.
Authorities also have not said whether Pistorius called for help.
Pictures of his walk to a police car, his head covered by a sweatshirt, have flashed repeatedly across television screens.
On Sunday, Pistorius canceled his appearances in five upcoming races.
The move is meant to help Pistorius focus on the legal proceedings and "help and support all those involved as they try to come to terms with this very difficult and distressing situation," said Peet Van Zyl of Pistorius' management company, In Site Athlete Management.
CNN's Robyn Curnow reported from South Africa; Chelsea J. Carter and Faith Karimi reported from Atlanta.
Panic, then composure as Bounty sank
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Third mate: Crew remained calm after Sandy tossed them into the Atlantic
- Coast Guard hearings look for possible negligence
- Before leaving port, captain gave crew option to go home
- Shipyard representative says Bounty had rotted frame
Portsmouth, Virginia (CNN) -- Floating in a life raft with Hurricane Sandy raging around them, the crew of the HMS Bounty remained surprisingly calm and even told jokes after their ship rolled them into the Atlantic, survivors said.
Testifying Friday before a Coast Guard hearing, former Bounty third mate Daniel Cleveland and boatswain Laura Groves revealed breathtaking details about the shipwreck last fall that left a deckhand dead and the captain missing.
The vessel and its crew of 16 were heading from New London, Connecticut, to St. Petersburg, Florida, when it ran into Sandy's vicious winds and waves 90 miles off North Carolina. The ship began taking on water and eventually it lost power to its pumps and engines. In the 4 a.m. darkness of October 25, Capt. Robin Walbridge gave the order they all knew was coming: abandon ship.
Dressed in red survival suits, they stood on deck preparing to take to their lifeboats. Suddenly 50-mph winds and up to 30-foot waves flipped the ship horizontally, tossing the crew overboard.
It was chaos.
"Everybody panicked at that point," said Groves, fighting back tears as she described the struggle to keep their heads above water.
Cleveland said he recalled being "thrown around, caught on stuff and underneath stuff and being hit by things." While they were treading water under the Bounty's huge sails, the wind began slamming the sail rigging down "on all of us repeatedly," said Groves. "We were doing our best to swim away from the boat and the rig."
Cleveland, Groves and a few other crew members found a large piece of wood grating that kept them afloat. "We were all looking for each other," Cleveland said, "but all you could see was a bunch of red suits and there was a lot of yelling."
In a stroke of luck, the crew clinging to the wood grating found a floating capsule containing an inflatable life raft. With some difficulty they inflated the raft and got inside. They had seen a Coast Guard aircraft circling overhead, giving them confidence a rescue helicopter would arrive soon.
"We were there for a while telling jokes and stuff," said Cleveland. "No one was in a bad mood -- crying or anything." He said they talked about the terrifying experience they'd just been through and "what we were going to do when we got home."
"At some point we sang a few sea shanties," recalled Groves. "We were in relatively good spirits."
Dawn broke, followed by the the sound of a Coast Guard chopper, which dropped a rescue swimmer down to the life raft.
He said, 'Hi, I'm Dan. I heard you guys need a ride. Let's get out of here.'
Laura Groves, shipwreck survivor
"He said, 'Hi, I'm Dan,'" Groves remembered. "'I heard you guys need a ride. Let's get out of here.'"
While the swimmer was helping survivors get out of the life raft, it flipped upside down. "We all thought we were going to drown again," remembered Groves. Instead, they swam out of the raft and held on to the outside until the chopper hoisted them to safety.
Related: Watch Bounty survivors being rescued
Meanwhile the Bounty -- a replica of an 18th-century sailing ship that was longer than half a football field and weighed about a million pounds -- was descending to the bottom of the Atlantic.
During his testimony, Cleveland was asked about the last time he saw deckhand Claudene Christian, 42. More than three months after the shipwreck, the exact circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear. Before the ship rolled, Cleveland said he remembered holding Christian's hand as he helped her and other crew members prepare to launch the life rafts. Searchers found Christian's body later that evening.
Related: Claudene Christian's mutineer connection
The final glimpse Cleveland got of Walbridge, 63, was just before the ship went on its side.
Walbridge's body has not been found. His widow said she believes the captain died trying to help Christian escape.
Related: Bounty's captain was 'my soul mate'
Bounty's captain: 'My soul mate'
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Bounty was much more than a creaky 50-year-old wooden tourist attraction. It was a bona fide Hollywood star, featured in the 1962 film version of "Mutiny on the Bounty," which starred Marlon Brando, and more recently in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise that starred Johnny Depp. But it also was a ship where inexperienced sailors could learn seafaring skills that go back hundreds of years.
The hearings, which include the National Transportation Safety Board, could lead to federal recommendations aimed at improving safety for other ships like the Bounty.
Investigators in this military shipyard region near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay have been asking two basic questions: Was the Bounty fit to sail in rough weather? And did the ship needlessly sail into harm's way?
About two months before the disaster, Walbridge, a master sailor with a lifetime of experience at sea, played down the seriousness of sailing through bad weather. "Have we run into stormy seas? We chase hurricanes," Walbridge said in a video interview posted on YouTube. "You don't want to get in front of it," he said. "You want to stay behind it, but you also get a good ride out of a hurricane."
Asked about that comment by Walbridge, Cleveland testified that the captain didn't mean literally chasing hurricanes. "It means we are trying to follow them into a navigable, safer" area of the storm, he said. The idea was "getting behind it, in a safe place" to make use of its favorable winds. "You don't want to be in its path."
Before the ship set sail from New London, the crew was very aware of the approaching hurricane, Cleveland said. Walbridge gathered them for a meeting in which he "mentioned his experience with hurricanes and he said if anybody wanted to leave there would be no hard feelings, no begrudging."
"I believed him," said Cleveland, who was then asked if the crew were offered paid expenses home. "In my experience, if you choose to leave, you would have to find your own way home."
"Nobody decided to leave," Cleveland said.
Walbridge said he wanted to "make tracks" to the south and east as fast as possible, Cleveland said, so the vessel could position itself to get the best winds from Sandy.
The captain believed, Cleveland said, that his ship would be safer riding Sandy out at sea, instead of waiting for the storm to hit them in New London. Cleveland said he agreed with that point of view, but there were also good arguments to remain in port.
Bounty first mate John Svendsen testified Tuesday that Walbridge wasn't chasing Sandy, but the captain had said "the ship was safer at sea."
Svendsen testified that as the storm worsened on October 29, he advised Walbridge to abandon ship more than once over a short period. "He said, 'I think we have more time.'" When Svendsen made a third request to the captain to abandon ship, he said Walbridge finally gave the order.
While the 13 other crew members, including Groves and Cleveland, made it safely to two life rafts, Svendsen spent three hours floating alone in his survival suit before Coast Guard rescuers saw his emergency beacon.
The Coast Guard said its goal for the investigation is to determine as much as possible about the cause of the tragedy and whether it was linked to equipment or material failure. Investigators are looking for evidence of "misconduct, inattention to duty, negligence or willful violation of the law."
Did Walbridge make a fatal error? People who weren't there have no right to pass judgment, the captain's widow, Claudia McCann, said last week from her home in St. Petersburg.
Although it's not a criminal hearing, Bounty owner Robert Hansen declined to testify, citing his Fifth Amendment constitutional protections against self-incrimination. Evidence could be forwarded to federal prosecutors.
In Thursday's testimony, Todd Kosakowski of Maine's Boothbay Harbor Shipyard said he raised doubts about Bounty's seaworthiness weeks before it sailed into the storm. He said he told Walbridge he was worried about rotting wood in the Bounty's frame. Walbridge, Kosakowski said, decided against fixing the rot.
"I believe that that could have had an impact on the strength of the vessel," Kosakowski said.
Joe Jakomovicz, a retired manager who worked at the shipyard for four decades, told investigators he disagreed with Kosakowski's analysis. The decay of the Bounty's timbers, he said, wasn't as bad as Kosakowski's assessment. "He's basing his judgment on probably five or six years of experience," Jakomovicz testified.
Claudene Christian's father, Rex, and her mother -- who shares her daughter's first name but goes by Dina -- were also at the hearing. For now, they've declined to speak with reporters.
Their daughter was relatively new to sailing, and told friends in May how excited she was to join the Bounty. A former beauty queen, Christian also said she was a descendant of Fletcher Christian, the infamous mutineer on the real HMS Bounty 220 years ago.
On Friday, her mother sat silently at the side of the hearing room, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief and sometimes taking notes.
The memory of Claudene Christian took a seat at the proceding almost as real as any of the participants.
Several questions focused on the energetic deckhand who had virtually no experience aboard a tall ship, let alone riding out hurricanes. When Cleveland helped her move toward the back of the ship, shortly before it went horizontal, he "told her to stay low. I told her to go aft and to grab the next person I would hand her to."
She never made it home.
During a brief recess, Christian's parents paused at a window near the hearing room in this shipyard town, their arms around each other, looking across the Elizabeth River flowing toward the sea.
CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.
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