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A woman in a wheelchair and a 10-year-old were the unlikely heroes at a Decatur apartment fire Thursday. A mother's desperate action to save her babies turned neighbors into rescuers. "I caught the newborn baby from falling. Before it had hit the ground I caught it," said Zna Gresham, 10. Gresham said she just did what was asked after she ran out of her burning apartment to safety outside. "Then when I was getting out, the lady from upstairs, she was dropping her babies and she asked me and my sister can she get the babies for her," Zna told...

Ohio prosecutors Thursday were close to reaching a plea deal with Ariel Castro, the Cleveland man accused of kidnapping three women and holding them captive for a decade. That deal, which he is expected to accept, is life without parole with an additional 1,000 years, NBC News has learned.

The U.S. military blew through $34 million on a hulking headquarters in southwestern Afghanistan that probably will never be used by U.S. forces, in an example of government waste that has military commanders fuming. John F. Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, exposed the problems in a letter this week to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other military leaders. The Washington Post first reported on the controversy, writing that the construction of the building continued for years despite warnings from the Marine commander in Helmand that it was not needed. The military is now investigating what went wrong, and...

As the Zimmerman trial winds down, I was wondering how long the jury is likely to deliberate before reaching a verdict. An article at HLN asks the same question, and provides a list of how long juries have deliberated for 11 big court cases in the past. A couple of reasonable assumptions lead me to conclude that these big trials have averaged around 20 hours, or about 2 and a half days, of jury deliberation before the verdict is in. OJ's "not guilty" verdict was unusual. It took less than 4 hours. Another page, on jury duty, says that the...

The defense team continued on what is expected to be the last day of their presentation of their case. The day began and ended with a bang. This morning Judge Nelson denied the defense’s request to introduce their animated movie as evidence, although they will be permitted to use it for demonstrative purposes during closing. Professor Jacobson covered this breaking news this morning here: Breaking – Jury will not get to see Trayvon fighting texts Then at the end of Court today the defense rested their case, and it was agreed that the State would present its closing argument tomorrow...

In the days since 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a common claim has been: "we will never know what happened between Zimmerman and Martin since the only person who knows the truth and is still alive is Zimmerman." But this statement is not accurate. Zimmerman's defense rested its case Wednesday. And the truth is, we know a lot about what happened on that fateful night. Trayvon Martin's testimony, could he have spoken, wouldn't changed anything...

I was wondering what the newspaper coverage was when the Declaration of Independence was signed. They DID have newspapers in those days! I think the initial reaction was simply to print the Declaration in its entirety. The first newspaper to do so seems to have been the Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, which printed the Declaration (in German translation) the next day, July 5, 1776. Below is an image of that printing. I would be interested to see other early coverage of the fact that Independence had been declared.

Legal Insurrection seems the type of site that's likely to attract quite a few lawyer types. So it is interesting and probably quite informative that after the first real week of George Zimmerman's trial, and after 816 votes, 94% of those who've voted say they believe George Zimmerman is winning his self-defense case. 31 people, less than 4%, have expressed the opinion that the prosecution is winning the case, with another 2% or so not sure. Completely unscientific, of course, and not necessarily a reflection of what the jury will do in either case. Still, I personally think it's a...

More details have emerged about the Friday night capture that brought the intensive manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects to an end. Suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, had been hiding in a boat in Watertown, Mass. Authorities responded to a call from a local man late Friday, after he observed that a tarp covering his boat had been disturbed and there was blood in the boat. The FBI hostage rescue teams (HRT) planned and executed their operation to clear the boat by lobbing "flash-bangs" into it, which forced the young man to climb out, according to CBS News senior correspondent John...

(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, who has increased the national debt by $53,377 per household, has proclaimed April “National Financial Capability Month,” during which his administration will do things such as teach young people “how to budget responsibly." “I call upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices,” Obama said in an official proclamation released Friday. “My Administration is dedicated to helping people make sound decisions in the marketplace,” he said. "Together, we can prepare young people to tackle financial challenges--from learning how to budget responsibly to saving...

JOLIET, Ill. – Drew Peterson showed nearly no emotion during his murder trial. Yet the once famously jocular ex-Illinois police officer screamed out his innocence before he was sentenced to 38 years in prison for his third wife's death. The outburst Thursday suggested reality may be settling in for Peterson, who for years casually dismissed suggestions he killed Kathleen Savio in 2004, or that he was behind the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson. Savio's death was initially ruled an accident. But after Stacy Peterson disappeared, authorities took another look and reclassified Savio's death as a homicide.

In case you haven’t seen enough Super Bowl coverage in anticipation of Sunday’s big game, we thought we’d take a look at one of the bigger spectacles of NFL football: the cheerleaders. While the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens are battling on the gridiron, their cheerleaders will be facing off on the sidelines. Which team’s cheer squad is better looking? Take a look through the gallery above, then make your pick in the poll.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The execution of Kimberly McCarthy was postponed by a Texas judge on Tuesday, the day she was to die, to give her lawyers time to argue that racial discrimination played a role in choosing the jury that convicted her. It was rescheduled for April 3 and, if carried out, McCarthy will be the first woman to be put to death in the United States in nearly three years.

In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. The future looks like this: Access to college-level education will be free for everyone; the residential college campus will become largely obsolete; tens of thousands of professors will lose their jobs; the bachelor’s degree will become increasingly irrelevant; and ten years from now Harvard will enroll ten million students.

The petition has reached 25,000 signatures. (And yes, the screen shot is real - I happened upon it at exactly the magic number!)

Washington – House leaders are planning to call a vote on the Senate-passed fiscal crisis bill as early as Tuesday night, moving ahead despite the concerns of rank-and-file Republicans about the lack of spending cuts in the package. The House began its debate on the bill Tuesday evening. Lawmakers were moving quickly, after Republicans spent the day weighing their options... If they are to act on the bill, they have less than two days before a new congressional class is sworn in. House Speaker John Boehner had earlier presented members with two options... The first would be to craft an...

Cairo (CNN) -- Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy early Sunday canceled most of a controversial decree that gave him sweeping powers, but vowed to press forward with a planned referendum next weekend on a draft constitution, an adviser said. The move is an apparent attempt to end a political crisis that has spilled into the streets, pitting the president's supporters and opponents against one another and raising questions about Morsy's ability to lead the fragile democracy. It was not immediately clear whether the offer, as announced by adviser Mohamed Selim el-Awwa, would be enough to mollify the opposition. The development came...

A woman is facing a $750,000 defamation lawsuit and has been ordered to alter a negative Yelp review of a home contractor after police found that her claims didn’t add up. Dietz Development is claiming that Jane Perez’s scathing review has cost them new customers and, on Wednesday, a judge ordered a preliminary injunction for her to edit the post. Yelp and legal critics are worried that Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP)-related lawsuits could chill free speech, but business owners say that legal intervention is necessary in an age when online reviews can make or break a company. As...

See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUJwHoz40hc

At least 116 people died in a massive tornado that left a path of destruction nearly a mile wide through the heart of Joplin, Missouri, on Sunday. The cyclone destroyed hundreds of homes and vehicles, as well as a high school and a hospital. Rescue teams have been working hard to find and assist as many people as possible, even as another storm system passes through region today.