Storms pelt Midwest with rain, winds, hail

A pedestrian races to avoid an unusually massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds that have been forecast for evening rush hour, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

Pedestrian take cover under their umbrellas trying to avoid an unusually massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds that have been forecast for evening rush hour, Wednesday, June 12, 2013, in Chicago. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHICAGO (AP) — A massive line of storms packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds began rolling through the Midwest Wednesday evening and could affect more than one in five Americans from Iowa to Maryland before subsiding.

In the small town of Belmond, Iowa, about 90 miles north of Des Moines, Duwayne Abel, owner of Cattleman's Steaks & Provisions restaurant, said a tornado swooped through his business' parking lot and demolished part of the building. No one was in the restaurant at the time.

"I was, oh, eight miles west of town and I looked toward town and I could see a funnel cloud, having no idea it was exactly where our restaurant was," Abel said. His wife and an employee were able to get out of the restaurant and sought shelter in a basement.

Other small tornadoes were also reported in other parts of Iowa and in Illinois. Authorities in Iowa said at least two businesses and a home were "completely damaged" by severe weather, and tens of thousands of people from Iowa toIndiana had lost power.

"We're just happy that we don't have reports of injuries or fatalities," said Stephanie Bond with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management. "We just hope the extent of the damage is minimal."

In addition to tornadoes, lightning and large hail, meteorologists were warning about the possibility of a weather event called a derecho (deh-RAY'-choh), which is a storm of strong straight-line windsspanning at least 240 miles. The storms are also likely to cause power outages that will be followed by oppressive heat, said Russell Schneider, director of the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Flash flooding was also a concern in some areas.

The center was using its highest alert level for parts of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

In Chicago, Wednesday night's White Sox game against the Toronto Blue Jays was postponed and a symphony concert at the city's downtown Millennium Park was canceled. The Metra commuter rail service halted all inbound and outbound trains, and Northwestern University canceled classes and finals at its campuses in Chicago and suburban Evanston. Airlines canceled more than 120 flights at O'Hare International Airport.

The warnings prompted the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. to increase staff at its customer call center and scheduling extra work crews to handle any power outages.

Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency spokesman Cory Angell said a standby worker was added at the emergency operations center in Harrisburg and officials had ensured two National Guard helicopters were ready if needed for water rescues.

All told, the area the weather service considered to be under heightened risk of dangerous weather included 74.7 million people in 19 states.

Last year, a derecho caused at least $1 billion in damage from Chicago to Washington, killing 13 people and leaving more than 4 million people without power, according to the weather service. Winds reached nearly 100 mph in some places and in addition to the 13 people who died from downed trees, an additional 34 people died from the heat wave that followed in areas without power.

Derechoes, with winds of at least 58 mph, occur about once a year in the Midwest. Rarer than tornadoes but with weaker winds, derechoes produce damage over a much wider area.

Tornadoes and a derecho can happen at the same time. Straight-line winds lack the rotation that twisters have, but they can still cause considerable damage as they blow down trees and other objects.

For Washington, Philadelphia and parts of the Mid-Atlantic the big storm risk continues and even increases a bit Thursday, according to the weather service.

The term derecho was coined in 1888, said Ken Pryor, a research meteorologist at the Center for Satellite Applications and Research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College Park, Md. The word is Spanish for "straight ahead" or "direct," Pryor said.

The structure of a derecho-producing storm looks distinctive in radar and satellite imagery, Pryor said. "The systems are very large and have signatures that are very extreme," he said. "You get large areas of very cold cloud tops that you typically wouldn't see with an ordinary thunderstorm complex. The storms take on a comma or a bow shape that's very distinctive."

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Online:

The Storm Prediction Center: www.spc.noaa.gov

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Associated Press writers Charles Wilson in Indianapolis, Barbara Rodriguez in Des Moines, Iowa, and Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

Vigilantes target extremists in northeast Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) — Young men armed with machetes and sticks have entered the streets of Nigeria's biggest city in thenortheast to target suspected Islamic extremists, even as soldiers continued an offensive against the radical fighters.

The vigilante group, known as "Civilian JTF," a play off the acronym used to describe the joint military and police taskforce in the region, started taking up arms after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency May 14 in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states — a territory of around 155,000 square kilometers (60,000 square miles) of the Sahel bordering Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

In a nationally televised speech, Jonathan admitted the nation had lost control of some villages and towns to extremist fighters already responsible for more than 1,600 killings since 2010 alone, according to an Associated Press count.

In the time since, the military claims it has killed and arrested suspected extremists as it now controls security for the region with expanded powers to arrest anyone and occupy any building. However, military officials who spoke to journalists on a recent trip through the northeast acknowledged many fighters likely fled with heavy weaponry including anti-aircraft guns and still remain a major threat to Africa's most populous nation.

The members of Civilian JTF have now come under attack from extremists for pointing out suspects to soldiers.

An AP reporter met a group of the young men belonging to the vigilantes recently in the streets ofMaiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the spiritual home of the extremist network Boko Haram. The men ranged in age from 17 to 25 and carried machetes, iron bars and batons to protect themselves.

The men said they formed their own patrols after becoming tired of soldiers routinely rounding up any young man found in a neighborhood after an extremist attack in the city. Soldiers in Nigeria's military, drawn from across the more than 250 ethnicities in the nation, can have difficulties speaking local languages and understanding customs in regions far from their home. The young men said their local knowledge helps the soldiers do their job better.

"We are into this to salvage our people from the Boko Haram who had killed our people, security operatives and destroyed our economy," vigilante Isa Musa said. "We are not afraid of them because we are doing a just cause and God is by our side."

Musa said the vigilantes didn't fear the extremists, even though their fighters carry Kalashnikov assault rifles and other sophisticated weaponry.

"All we want is prayers from the people and their cooperation. We are working together with the JTFsoldiers," he said. "We want government to assist us with more weapons like cutlasses, iron batons and axes."

Last Friday, however, the Civilian JTF members found themselves a target of a suspected Boko Haram attack. Gunmen hid their assault rifles inside a coffin and opened fire on them in Maiduguri. At least 13 people were killed in that attack, witnesses said.

It's not clear whether these civilian groups receive either the passive acceptance or the endorsement of the military now securing Maiduguri, though it would appear likely as soldiers seem to allow their movement in a city filled with sandbagged roadblocks. Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, a military spokesman in the city, could not be reached for comment as security forces have shut down mobile phone networks in the northeast as part of the offensive.

What is known is that suspects recently pointed out by the vigilantes in three cases ended up dead. Two were shot and killed for "trying to escape," a witness recently said. An AP journalist saw the bodies of eight other suspected extremists dead in a ditch after being pointed out last week by vigilantes. Human rights activists and international organizations routinely document cases of soldiers and police carrying out so-called "extrajudicial killings" in Nigeria, meaning that those pointed out could end up dead or imprisoned without charges.

However, those concerns don't bother the civilians, who continue their armed patrols.

"We have lost count of how many Boko Haram we have caught and handed over to the soldiers," vigilante Abubakar Malum said. "And we are going after more of them."

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Officials: Obama aides split on arming rebels

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite growing alarm over the Syrian government's military advances, Obama administration officialsare split over whether to arm the country's rebel forces or make other military moves that would deepen U.S. involvement in the conflict.

President Barack Obama's top national security advisers met at theWhite House on Wednesday to air their differences. The administration's caution persists despite its nearly two-year-old demand that President Bashar Assad step down, its vows to help the besieged Syrian rebels on the ground and its threats to respond to any chemical weapons use.

U.S. officials had hoped this week to reach a decision on arming the rebels to halt the violence and motivate the government and the opposition to hold peace talks. But they are still uncertain whether that's the best way to reshape a war that now includes Hezbollah and Iranian fighters backing Assad's armed forces, and al-Qaida-linked extremists backing the rebellion.

"Nobody wins in Syria the way things are going," Secretary of StateJohn Kerry told reporters Wednesday after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague. "The people lose and Syria as a country loses. And what we have been pushing for, all of us involved in this effort, is a political solution that ends the violence, saves Syria, stops the killing and destruction of the entire nation."

Despite increased support in Congress and the administration for lethal aid, officials said those closest to the president are divided on whether to begin providing Syria's armed opposition with weapons or to consider more drastic steps such as using U.S. airpower to ground Assad's gunships and jets. The officials spoke ahead of Wednesday's meeting at the White House on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the private talks. Kerry, too, said he wouldn't predict the outcome of the discussions.

Obama's moves throughout the 27-month civil war, from political support for the opposition to nonlethal aid for its more moderate fighters, have occurred in close concert with America's partners in Europe. All agree at this point that the efforts haven't done enough. After meeting Kerry at the State Department, Hague also stressed the need for a political solution to end the fighting that has now killed some 80,000 people, without outlining how his government might contribute.

Kerry, who postponed a trip this week to Israel and three other Mideast countries to participate in the White House talks, is believed to be among the most forward-leaning members of Obama's national security leadership. Since becoming America's top diplomat in February, he has spoken regularly about the need to change Assad's calculation that he can win the war militarily, if only to get him into serious discussions with the opposition about establishing a transitional government. Assad's stunning military success last week at Qusair, near the Lebanese border, and preparations for offensives against Homs and Aleppo have made the matter more urgent.

Obama was flying from Massachusetts to Florida on Wednesday and did not participate in Wednesday's meeting. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey and several other top aides of the president were expected to attend.

Officials said some at the White House, the Pentagon and in the intelligence community remained hesitant about providing weapons, ammunition or other lethal support to a rebellion increasingly defined by extremists who, along with Assad, have turned a political insurrection into a sectarian war. Instead, they've focused on nonlethal support, such as Wednesday's decision by the Treasury Department to ease restrictions on Syrian telecommunications, agricultural and petroleum transactions that benefit the opposition.

"We have refocused our efforts on figuring out what to do to help the opposition on the ground," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, citing the battle at Qusair as well as the influx of Lebanese Hezbollah and other foreign fighters as reasons for why the U.S. was rethinking its approach.

Even if nothing is decided this week, officials said the U.S., Britain and France, who together spearheaded the international intervention that helped overthrow Libya's Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, were trying to coordinate a common approach before Obama meets with his colleagues at next week's G-8 gathering of world leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad's most powerful military and political backer, also will be present at the Northern Ireland summit.

White House press secretary Jay Carney would only say Wednesday that the U.S. was "constantly evaluating the situation in Syria and the options available."

Nothing, however, seems to be happening in Washington — or in London or Paris — fast enough to help Syria's rebels.

Desperate for weapons, even more so with an estimated 5,000 Hezbollah guerrillas propping up Assad's forces, the opposition is warning that Western inaction will mean that al-Qaida-linked and other militants will increasingly take over the rebellion.

On Wednesday, activists said Syrian rebels battled Shiites in a village in the country's east, killing more than 60 people, including civilians. Earlier this week, a 15-year-old boy was executed in public by Islamist rebel fighters in the city of Aleppo for taking the Muslim Prophet Muhammad's name in vain.

Finding a shared Syria strategy among the U.S., Britain and France is no easy matter. The British and French governments are at least as divided as the Americans on what is the best course of action and have told their fellow European Union members they won't send any arms to Syria before August. And British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised British lawmakers a House of Commons debate before any such action.

Approving lethal aid, however, brings with it an assortment of new challenges for the administration and its allies. They would then have to decide what weapons to provide, whom to give them to, what training to offer and who should do the training, U.S. and Western officials said. One Western official involved in strategy rejected the notion that weapons and ammunitions shortages were even the problem, citing poor military strategy and the inability of Syria's fractured opposition to coordinate effectively against Assad's more disciplined army.

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Atheist group, angry mom go ballistic over prayer at pretend preschool commencement

The controversial supplication occurred on May 31 in a classroom at Amelia Elementary School in Beaumont, reports local ABC affiliate KBMT. A preschool student led the brief prayer, which ended with the words “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” The student seems to have been following the instruction of a preschool teacher.

Amber Barnhill, a self-identified Christian and one of the parents in attendance at the graduation, spoke with the teacher responsible for the prayer. This conversation must have gone poorly. Barnhilltold the ABC affiliate that she was especially offended by the teacher’s response.

“She said it was legal, that it was freedom of speech,” Barnhill told the station. “She said it wasn’t her religion; it was her way of life. And she continually said that she could not allow herself to apologize.”

The teacher with whom Barnhill spoke would only speak anonymously with KBMT but she tells of a pretty different exchange.

“The little girl said something like, ‘Thank you God for this day. Bless us all. In Jesus’ name, Amen,” the unnamed teacher explained. “I didn’t intend to impose. I just tried to mock a graduation. I did apologize to the lady who was the only one that I found that was offended.”

Whatever the case, Barnhill contacted the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which now describes the fleeting prayer at the preschool commencement as “a serious violation of the First Amendment.”

“I expect acknowledgement and accountability,” she demanded.

She said she also expects that no one in Beaumont will ever again invoke religion at a public school’s pretend graduation for preschoolers.

The Beaumont Independent School District will respond to the letter of complaint after it conducts a meticulous investigation of the preschool graduation ceremony, according to a spokeswoman.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has contacted a number of school districts this year with various demands, ultimatums and threats of litigation.

Last month, a Texas judge ruled that cheerleaders at Kountze High School (just north of Beaumont) can display banners emblazoned with biblical verses at football games. An angry letter to the school district from the Madison-based outfit had kicked off that fracas.

The FFRF won a battle against a rural Ohio middle school where a portrait of Jesus had hung since the Truman administration. For a few months, school officials had said they would fight an Establishment Clause-based lawsuit but they caved when the school district’s insurer refused to pay to defend the lawsuit. (RELATED: Rural Ohio school district surrenders to ACLU over Jesus portrait)

The FFRF also demanded a school district in New York force a devoutly Christian teacher to eradicate religious material in her classroom, including two quotes by Ronald Reagan. (RELATED: Teacher claims school district forced her to purge classroom of Bible verses, Reagan quote)

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NASA Checks Tundra for Greenhouse Gases

Permafrost zones occupy nearly a quarter of the exposed land area of the Northern Hemisphere.

Tons of carbon and methane lie under the Arctic tundra, trapped in ice. The frozen ground, called permafrost, covers nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere.

Global warming is thawing patches of permafrost, releasing carbon dioxide and methane — both greenhouse gases — into theatmosphere. An airborne NASA mission called CARVE (Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment) is tracking the gas emissions to better estimate their impact on climate change.

"Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures, as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit [1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius] in just the past 30 years," Charles Miller, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming," said Miller, principal investigator for the five-year mission.

Skimming just 500 feet (150 meters) above the Alaskan tundra in a C-23 Sherpa plane, researchers will use radar and gas sensors on the aircraft to measure soil moisture, surface temperature and gas emissions while the permafrost melts.

Results from the first year of experiments, collected in 2012, revealed very different patterns of methane and carbon dioxide release than expected based on models, Miller said. On the eastern Yukon River, in the Innoko Wildnerness, methane levels over swamps were 650 parts per billion (ppb) higher than normal background levels. "That's similar to what you might find in a large city," he said. (Parts per billion means that for every billion molecules in the atmosphere, 650 of them are methane, in this particular case.)

Figuring out how much methane and carbon will be released by melting permafrost will help climate modelers predict the Arctic soil's contribution to global warming. If the tundra gets warmer and drier, it will likely release mostly carbon dioxide, models predict. But if the region gets warmer and wetter, more methane will be released instead of carbon dioxide.

Which gas is getting emitted makes a difference in the effects on global warming. Methane gas doesn't linger in the atmosphere for as long as carbon dioxide, but it's better at trapping energy. As a greenhouse gas, methane is 22 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.