Three white men, including a teen who pleaded guilty to murder and hate crime charges in Mississippi for running over a black man, were charged Thursday with federal hate crimes, The Associated Press reported.
Two people familiar with the case told the AP that John Aaron Rice, Dylan Butler and Deryl Dedmon were charged in documents sealed in US. District Court in Jackson.
On Wednesday, Dedmon, 19, received two life sentences on state charges for the June 2011 death of James Craig Anderson, 47.
All three men are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Jackson later Thursday, the AP reported. They are expected to plead guilty, according to sources familiar with the case. Officials are reportedly planning a news conference later in the day.
In entering his guilty plea to the state charges, Dedmon admitted he and a group of white teens were partying in Puckett, a small town outside Jackson, when he suggested they find a black man to harass, the AP reported. The group reportedly went to Jackson because of its majority-black population. They found Anderson outside a hotel, where he was beaten before Dedmon ran over him, the AP said.
President Barack Obama speaks at the TransCanada Stillwater pipe yard in Cushing, Okla., on Thursday.
By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services
CUSHING, Okla. -- Touting an "all-of-the-above" energy policy, President Barack Obama traveled to this oil town on Thursday to show his support for the southern leg of the controversial Keystone oil pipeline proposed from Canada to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
"I am directing my administration to cut through red tape, break through bureaucratic hurdles, and make this project a priority," he said with dozens of pipes stacked up behind him at a yard used by TransCanada, the company proposing the Keystone pipeline.
But neither the oil industry, which insists Obama could send stronger market signals to lower prices at the pump, nor environmentalists, who cite the climate impact of fossil fuels, were on board.
"A true all-of-the-above energy strategy would include greater access to areas that are currently off limits, a regulatory and permitting process that supported reasonable timelines for development, and immediate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring more Canadian oil to U.S. refineries," Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement. "This would send a positive signal to the market and could help put downward pressure on prices."
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Obama in his speech noted that domestic production has risen during his term. "America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years," he said. "Over the last three years, I've directed my administration to open up millions of acres for oil and gas exploration across 23 different states. We're opening up more than 75 percent of our potential oil resources offshore. We've quadrupled the number of operating oil rigs to a record high."
The southern leg would help drain a glut of crude in Cushing, the storage hub for U.S. crude oil traded on the futures market, easing deliveries to refineries along the Gulf Coast.
As for the overall Keystone project, Obama said the delay in the northern leg came about because Nebraska lawmakers -- both Republicans and Democrats -- raised concerns about the potential impact on the state's water supply if a spill happened. "So to be extra careful that the construction of the pipeline in an area like that wouldn't put the health and safety of the American people at risk, our experts said that we needed a certain amount of time to review the project," he said Thursday.
Environmentalists, for their part, oppose the pipeline because it promotes the expanded use of fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases tied to global warming. The activist group 350.org planned to make that case by protesting Obama's visit to Ohio State University later Thursday.
David Greenberg, of Greenberg Capital, discusses oil's direction and President Obama's energy plan.
Some have even made the argument that Keystone's southern leg won't help domestic oil producers much since most of the oil will be coming from Canada.
It "simply is not designed to move significant volumes of domestic crude," Anthony Swift, an international law attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in a blog post. "The 900,000 barrel per day (bpd) pipeline only has two comparatively small on-ramps in the United States," he added, citing company documents filed with the U.S. "The first, in Montana, includes an on-ramp for a maximum of 100,000 bpd of crude. The second in Cushing, Oklahoma, allows a maximum of 150,000 bpd ... That means that at most, little more than a quarter of the oil on Keystone XL would be from domestic producers."
Republicans dismissed Obama's move as a publicity stunt that made little difference to the timeline of the southern project or the problem of U.S. energy security. "He's taking credit for going forward on the only portion of the pipeline that he doesn't need to approve," said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., at a press conference. "This is literally straddling both sides of the issue." Hoeven has led the charge in the Senate to pass legislation that would bypass the administration and approve the full pipeline.
Construction of Keystone's 485-mile southern leg is expected to start in a few months, once TransCanada gets a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
"We have been working with them for weeks and we hope to have the permit in place to allow us to begin construction mid-year," a TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha told NBC News. "As the president highlighted, they are supportive of the project as it helps move domestic oil to the refineries."
The Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday it could not estimate how long approval would take since it had not yet seen an application from the company.
TransCanada plans to submit a new proposal for the 1,200-mile northern leg, after which federal agencies will weigh in.
NBC's Shawna Thomas and Reuters contributed to this report.
Sugar the cat, left, survived a 19-story fall from her owner's home in Boston, center. At right is the spot where she landed.
By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com
Sugar, a white furry cat who is deaf, plunged 19 floors from a window in a high-rise building in Boston and – aided by her fall into a tiny mulch patch and the feline’s ability to glide a la the "flying squirrel" – lived to walk another day, animal rescue officials say.
A woman in the West End building said she saw a “white streak” go by her window early Wednesday afternoon and then saw Sugar after she hit the ground, said Mike Brammer, assistant manager of the animal rescue services department at the Animal Rescue League of Boston.
“You could see the impact crater where she actually did hit the ground and she actually lost some fur in the hole, too," Brammer said.
The cat's small landing spot is surrounded by brick and concrete.
“Whether cats can sometimes aim, so if it did it itself or if it was a combination of luck or both … it managed to hit that small patch of mulch, so it was very soft ground,” he said.
After bouncing up from her fall of 150-200 feet, Sugar ran near the building, rather than out onto the nearby highway.
“Instead of, you know, being scared and just running out into traffic, she somehow hit the best spot and stayed near the building,” he added. “So it was very fortuitous on many different levels.”
Sugar, who was tended to by the building concierge before rescue officials arrived, suffered a small cut on her lip and a little bruising, including some to her lungs.
“Considering what she had been through, she was in really good shape,” he said.
The feline, about 4.5 years old, was aided in her fall by dynamics akin to the “flying squirrel” phenomenon, Brammer said.
“You notice where their legs attach to the body, they have … the extra fur right there,” he said. If they put their legs out, “they’re able to glide a little bit and control … where they are going, and then I guess supposedly they can use their tail and move their body as a rudder to kind of control where they want to go.”
And ironically, the height may have helped her, he added, noting that a rescue league veterinarian shared information about a study on cats falling from tall heights.
“What happens is that the higher up, they reach terminal velocity and so I guess the sensation isn’t that they’re still falling. It kind of levels out so they don’t feel as stressed and they relax a little bit,” he said.
The Animal Rescue League was able to track the owner through the microchip and with help from the building.
Sugar's owner, Brittney Kirk, a 32-year-old registered nurse, said at first she didn't think her cat had made it. She had left the window open due to the warm weather because she didn't want Sugar to be in a hot apartment.
"It just seemed so unreal … my thought was obviously that she didn’t make it," she said. "I was definitely relieved and kind of in disbelief … if there were a cat to fall 19 stories and to be fine, I think it would definitely be Sugar, because she’s a pretty special cat."
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is on the defensive after one of his top aides likened Romney's likely journey to the general election to an Etch A Sketch, where "you can kind of shake it up and restart all over again."
By Martha C. White
Mitt Romney's campaign is probably wishing at this point that political statements were as easy to erase as the gray doodles on an Etch A Sketch, but the toy's century-old manufacturer is enjoying the unexpected publicity. As the candidate's campaign went into damage control mode after a top advisor's remark yesterday, executives at Ohio Art Company were thrilled at the sudden surge of interest in the iconic toy.
"This is the first time I've seen Etch A Sketch go viral so quickly," said Martin Killgallon, senior vice president of marketing and product development.
The Killgallons — Martin's father Larry is the company's president — are a majority owner in Ohio Arts, and the family history with the company dates to 1955. Both father and son say it's still too early to tell if the Etch A Sketches being waved around at rallies by supporters of Romney's competitors will translate into a sales boom.
One buyer told the company this morning that it sold roughly double the number of average units yesterday, Larry Killgallon said, but spring is a historically slow time for toy sales.
He said he'd be happy if Etch A Sketch's moment in the election cycle spotlight gets people to pay a little more attention to politics. "We hope it gets people's awareness up so they go out and vote in November."
Even if the Romney campaign's gaffe doesn't lead to a sales spike, Martin Killgallon said Ohio Arts is more than just Etch A Sketch. Founded in 1908, the company's roots are in metal lithography and packaging, and the production of things like popcorn tins and shaving cream cans still account for around 40 percent of the company's sales.
The company has a handful of toy brands, but Etch A Sketch is the biggest seller — 150 million units sold since its debut in 1960 — as well as the most well-known. In recent years, the company has expanded on the classic Etch a Sketch with branded editions tied into the product's association with the "Toy Story" movies, a smaller "pocket" edition that is now the biggest seller in terms of units sold, and iPhone and iPad apps.
Larry Killgallon said Etch A Sketch is responsible for about 35 percent of Ohio Art's toy revenue. The company's second-biggest seller is a line of tiny plastic building blocks called Nanoblocks. "That brand is growing very rapidly through Toys 'R Us and specialty toy shops," he said.
Going low-tech may seem counter intuitive, but one industry analyst said there's still room for toys that don't involve a screen or batteries.
"While technology is certainly prevalent in our lives, and our children’s lives, it does not mean that tech-less toys cannot succeed," Anita Frazier, analyst at the NPD Group, said via email. Even though it's old-school, Frazier said Etch A Sketch "has a lot going for it. It’s simple and intuitive for kids to use [and] it has the nostalgia factor going for it with parents."
There's a silver lining for Mitt Romney with every Etch A Sketch his opponents purchase, though: A big seller is Toys 'R Us, which was bought out in 2005 by an investor consortium including Romney's own Bain Capital.
