QVC latest to drop Paula Deen

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Paula Deen, pictured during her emotional TODAY interview on Wednesday, June 26.

The queen of Southern comfort food has officially been thrown off her throne, after seven companies have ended partnerships with Paula Deen amid the controversy surrounding her.

The latest is QVC, as the company's president and CEO Mike George wrote a blog post Thursday evening saying that, "For now, we have decided to take a pause. Paula won’t be appearing on any upcoming broadcasts and we will phase out her product assortment on our online sales channels over the next few months."

He leaves the option for QVC to have a relationship with Deen in the future, going on to say that while customers "may wonder if this is a 'forever' decision," the company believes "people deserve second chances."

Diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk and Target also distanced themselves from Deen on Thursday.

"Novo Nordisk and Paula Deen have mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now, while she takes time to focus her attention where it is needed,'' the company said in a statement. "Novo Nordisk would like to acknowledge Paula’s involvement in our 'Diabetes in a New Light' campaign, where she has helped make many people aware of type 2 diabetes and the lifestyle changes needed to control this serious disease."

Deen, who has Type 2 diabetes, had been a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk's diabetes drug Victoza.

Target announced that it is ending its relationship with Deen entirely.

"We have made a decision to phase out the Paula Deen merchandise in our stores as well as on Target.com,'' the company said in a statement. "Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory."

The latest announcements came after Wal-Mart and Home Depot announced on Wednesday that they were severing ties with her.

"We are ending our relationship with Paula Deen Enterprises and we will not place new orders beyond those already committed,” Wal-Mart spokesperson Danit Marquardt said on Wednesday. “We will work with suppliers to address existing inventories and agreements."

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has carried a variety of Paula Deen-branded products including cookware and health and wellness products for several years.

Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for Home Depot confirmed to NBC News that the company will stop carrying Paula Deen-branded items under their kitchen and cookware category as a result of the scandal.

The Food Network, Smithfield Foods and Caesars Entertainment also terminated their partnerships with Deen, who appeared in her first live interview on TODAY Wednesday to discuss the scandal over her use of racial slurs. Sears and Kmart say they are exploring next steps as they pertain to Deen's products

Mother's Birthday!!

When the pain of losing my mom eased, I was able to keep her memory alive and honor her on the special day on her birthday. I enjoyed a wonderful relationship with my mother; I admired her, sought advice and shared dreams. She had been my biggest supporter, and her death had left a huge hole in my life.
Celebrating her birthday can be painful, whether this will be your first without your mom, or if it has been many years since her death. In time, your grief and depression will turn into healing and peace. Keep reading for ways to stay connected with your Mom and honor her memory on her birthday and all days. Happy 79th Love always your loving son Ric.

Choice of Health Plans to Vary Sharply From State to State

Jon Schulte | E+ | Getty Images

When a typical 40-year-old uninsured woman in Maine goes to the new state exchange to buy health insurance this fall, she may have just two companies to choose from: the one that already sells most individual policies in the state, and a complete unknown—a nonprofit start-up.

Her counterpart in California, however, will have a much wider variety of choices: 13 insurers are likely to offer plans, including the state's largest and best-known carriers.

With only a few months remaining before Americans will start buying coverage through the new state insurance exchanges under President Obama's health care law, it is becoming clear that the millions of people purchasing policies in the exchanges will find that their choices vary sharply, depending on where they live.

States like California, Colorado and Maryland have attracted an array of insurers. But options for people in other states may be limited to an already dominant local Blue Cross plan and a few newcomers with little or no track record in providing individual coverage, including the two dozen new carriers across the country created under the Affordable Care Act.

Maine residents, for example, will not see an influx of new insurers. The state has an older population and strict rules that already have discouraged many insurers from selling policies, so choices will probably be limited to the state's dominant carrier, Anthem Blue Cross, and Maine Community Health Options.

"What we're seeing is a reflection of the market that already exists," said Timothy S. Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia who closely follows the health care law.

Obama administration officials estimate that most Americans will have a choice of at least five carriers when open enrollment begins in October. There are signs of increased competition, with new insurers and existing providers working harder to design more affordable and innovative plans. In 31 states, officials say there will be insurers that offer plans across state lines. The exchanges will be open to the millions of Americans who are uninsured or already buying individual coverage. Many will be eligible for federal subsidies.

But the insurance landscape will be highly varied, with some of the states that have been slow to embrace the law potentially offering the fewest options—and plans with the highest premiums—in the first year.

People in certain parts of the country may not have the robust choice of insurers that the law sought as a way to keep premiums lower and customer responsiveness high. These people are likely to have few brand-name options to choose from, and they will be gambling on plans offered by insurers new to the individual market as well as brand-new carriers. The choice of providers and costs could also vary as a result.

(Read More: Rise in Alzheimer's Patients Creates Health Care Plays)

As people become aware of the differences among the exchanges, "some of the laggard states are going to end up changing," said Ron Pollack, the executive director for Families USA, a consumer advocacy group that supports the law.

Whether the law ultimately accomplishes its aim of making the insurance markets nationwide more competitive—and plans more affordable—will only become clear over time. Experts expect some insurers to drop out after a year or so, while some other companies may decide to enter, depending on how the markets evolve. Insurers will have to figure out how to offer plans that most people can afford but still provide coverage to those with expensive medical conditions—and, for investor-owned plans, how to make a profit in the meantime.

"A rush to judgment will be just that," said Dan Mendelson, the chief executive of Avalere Health, a consulting group. "It's not going to be possible in 2014 to make a strong valid judgment of whether the exchanges are working or not."

Insurers already active in the market are the most likely to show up on the exchanges. Blue Cross plans, for example, have already established relationships with local hospitals and physician groups, as well as state regulators. "We don't have to recreate the wheel because the Blue plans are already there," said Daniel J. Hilferty, the chief executive of Independence Blue Cross, a nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia.

In California, Anthem Blue Cross, Health Net, Kaiser Permanente and Blue Shield of California will remain big players. Most likely to be missing from any given exchange are many of the national insurers, whose business is focused mainly on providing coverage to workers through their employers—companies likedUnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Cigna.

WellPoint, which operates Blue Cross plans in 14 states and is the nation's largest provider of individual and small business policies, has little choice but to compete because many of its customers will be buying insurance on the exchanges.

Play Video

Pres. Obama Speaks on Affordable Care Act

President Obama explains the "two main things Americans need to know" about the new legislation on health care. The President outlines how competition will provide an incentive to keep health care costs down, and cover millions of people who currently don't have insurance coverage.

But the other companies may delay entering any given exchange until they see a real chance to gain customers. Given the uncertainty over how well the exchanges will function, and whether enough healthy people will enroll, insurers are likely to enter only those markets where they already have a sizable number of existing customers.

"If you're not going to protect your position, you would more likely take a cautious, wait-and-see-stand," Ana Gupte, a health insurance analyst for Dowling & Partners Securities.

Once the market becomes more established, some of those companies may start offering plans, Mr. Jost said. "As soon as they see there's money to be made there, they will jump right in," he said.

The law has clearly encouraged the entry of new competitors. As many as a quarter of the companies vying to offer plans on the 19 exchanges run by the federal government are new to the market, federal officials said in a memo released last month.

If the experience in Massachusetts is any guide, the fact that a plan is new and unknown might not keep it from becoming popular quickly. In that state, a relatively unknown insurer, Neighborhood Health Plan, captured a large market share. The Affordable Care Act "represents disruption," said Kevin J. Counihan, who spent several years in Massachusetts helping to run its marketplace before coming to Connecticut to head its exchange.

On the flip side, though, one of the potential new entrants in Vermont, the Vermont Health Co-op, has not been able to win licensing approval from state regulators.

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Insurers also say they plan to compete aggressively on price. The new law places strict limits on how much of every dollar of premium can go to anything other than medical expenses, and the insurers say success will depend on enrolling as many customers as possible rather than figuring out how high a premium they can charge to raise profits.

"It's more a volume game," said Wayne S. DeVeydt, an executive vice president at WellPoint, which expects to spend about $100 million in marketing for plans offered on the exchanges.

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To compete, insurers will have to find ways to offer inexpensive plans, he said. In California, for example, WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross wants to offer a plan in southern Los Angeles for as little as $259 a month for a 40-year-old. In Maine, WellPoint has asked regulators to approve plans in which it will partner with selected health systems to offer less expensive coverage for people willing to go to a specific network of doctors and hospitals.

The consumer-operated plans, known as co-ops, are also expected to put pressure on other insurers to hold down prices. "We don't have to return money to stockholders on Wall Street, like for-profit insurers," said Jerry Burgess, the chief executive of Consumers' Choice Health Plan, the co-op established in South Carolina.

He says the insurer expects to charge little more than the actual costs of its medical care and will lower its premiums if possible. "We would see an opportunity to gain market share by lowering our price," Mr. Burgess said. "That's exactly what health reform hopes will happen."

The plans offered by insurers like Molina Health Care that specialize in Medicaid, the government program for low-income individuals, may also prove to be formidable competitors because of their focus on serving that population. "These are players who are going to be aggressive," said Jaime Estupiñán, a vice president at Booz & Company.

Experts say large health systems are also expected to compete. Kaiser and Sharp Healthcare, a San Diego hospital group that also offers insurance, are expected to participate in California, and hospital groups and insurers are increasingly working together to offer new plans.

Insurance executives concede that it may take years for the new market to take shape. "We're looking at three to five years," said Joel Farran, an executive for the Health Care Service Corporation, which operates nonprofit Blue Cross plans in four states.

The Food Network said Friday it's dumping Paula Deen

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Food Network said Friday it's dumping Paula Deen, barely an hour after the celebrity cook posted the first of two videotaped apologies online begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.

The 66-year-old Savannah kitchen celebrity has been swamped in controversy since court documents filed this week revealed Deen told an attorney questioning her under oath last month that she has used the N-word. "Yes, of course," Deen said, though she added, "It's been a very long time."

The Food Network, which made Deen a star with "Paula's Home Cooking" in 2002 and later "Paula's Home Cooking" in 2008, weighed in with a terse statement Friday afternoon.

"Food Network will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end of this month," the statement said. Network representatives declined further comment. A representative for Deen did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment on the decision.

The news came as Deen worked to repair the damage to her image, which has spawned a vast empire of cookbooks, a bimonthly cooking magazine, a full line of cookware, food items like spices and even furniture.

She abruptly canceled a scheduled interview on NBC's "Today" show Friday morning, instead opting for a direct appeal via online video – one that allowed her and her staff complete control of what she said and how she said it.

"Inappropriate, hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable," Deen said in the first 45-second video posted on YouTube. "I've made plenty of mistakes along the way but I beg you, my children, my team, my fans, my partners - I beg for your forgiveness."

Deen adopted a solemn tone as she looked straight into the camera. Still, her recorded apology featured three obvious edits – with the picture quickly fading out between splices – during a statement just five sentences long.

It was soon scrapped and replaced with a second video of Deen talking unedited for nearly two minutes as she insists: "Your color of your skin, your religion, your sexual preference does not matter to me."

""I want people to understand that my family and I are not the kind of people that the press is wanting to say we are," Deen says in the later video. "The pain has been tremendous that I have caused to myself and to others."

Deen never mentions Food Network or its decision to drop her in either of her online videos.

Deen initially planned to give her first interview on the controversy Friday to the "Today" show, which promoted her scheduled appearance as a live exclusive. Instead, host Matt Lauer ended up telling viewers that Deen's representatives pulled the plug because she was exhausted after her flight to New York. Deen said in her video she was "physically not able" to appear.

Court records show Deen sat down for a deposition May 17 in a discrimination lawsuit filed last year by a former employee who managed Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House, a Savannah restaurant owned by Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers. The ex-employee, Lisa Jackson, says she was sexually harassed and worked in a hostile environment rife with innuendo and racial slurs.

During the deposition, Deen was peppered with questions about her racial attitudes. At one point she's asked if she thinks jokes using the N-word are "mean." Deen says jokes often target minority groups and "I can't, myself, determine what offends another person."

Deen also acknowledged she briefly considered hiring all black waiters for her brother's 2007 wedding, an idea inspired by the staff at a restaurant she had visited with her husband. She insisted she quickly dismissed the idea.

But she also insisted she and her brother have no tolerance for bigotry.

"Bubba and I, neither one of us, care what the color of your skin is" or what gender a person is, Deen said. "It's what's in your heart and in your head that matters to us."

A month later, just one controversy for Obama goes all the way to the top

Over the past month, the White House has battled four different controversies, which have stung President Barack Obama, knocked him off message, and taken a toll on Americans’ trust in their institutions.

But according to the evidence so far, only one of them goes all the way to the top to the president himself: complaints about the National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programs.

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Ironically, many of the president’s chief Republican critics have embraced those programs, which could make it harder for the GOP in the long term to score political points on the issue.

“I believe we should be listening to terrorists, known terrorist emails, following their emails and following their phone calls,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said recently. “We need this program.”

At the same time, however, the revelation of these programs has angered Republican-leaning libertarians, as well as some liberal Democrats who are themselves part of the president’s base.

“I don't think collecting millions and millions of Americans' phone calls, now this is the metadata, this is time, place, to whom you direct the calls, is making us any safer,” Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

For his part, Obama has embraced a national debate of these programs -- even if that conversation wouldn’t have existed without the leak of these secret programs to the news media.

“We do have to strike a balance, and we do have to be cautious about how our governments are operating when it comes to intelligence,” he said on Wednesday at a news conference with Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel. “And so this is a debate that I welcome.” 

No evidence yet that IRS, Benghazi, and leak investigations go to the top
By comparison, the other three controversies -- concerning the IRS, the drafting of talking points on the terrorist attack in Benghazi and leak investigations involving journalists -- have yet to show a direct tie to the president or wrongdoing among his top political advisers, despite Republican efforts to prove otherwise.

In fact, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released testimony on Tuesday from a Cincinnati-based IRS front-line manager who appeared to dismiss the idea that the White House played a role in the agency’s targeting of conservative-sounding groups applying for tax-exempt status.

From the transcript of congressional investigators’ interview with this IRS employee, John Shafer, who described himself as a conservative Republican:

Q: Do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decision to screen Tea Party cases?

A: I have no reason to believe that.

Q: Do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decision to centralize the review of Tea Party cases?

A: I have no reason to believe that.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, howled at the release of the testimony. “I am deeply disappointed that Ranking Member Cummings has decided to broadly disseminate and post online a 205 page transcript that will serve as a roadmap for IRS officials to navigate investigative interviews with Congress,” he said.

Republicans also point to the IRS employee’s testimony that his answers “no reason to believe that” meant “no personal knowledge.”

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

President Barack Obama attends the G8 Summit at Lough Erne in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland June 17, 2013.

But Shafer’s testimony confirmed the finding from theinspector general’s report on the IRS controversy, which concluded that the targeting wasn’t “influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS.”

Meanwhile, when it comes to the drafting of talking points after the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, congressional Republicans now have focused more on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her State Department, especially after the White House released the actual emails developing those talking points.

And the leak investigations involving journalists point to the Justice Department, not the White House.

“The president and White House have been cabined-off from any wrongdoing here,” a White House official tells First Read. “And nothing in the facts so far contradicts that.”

But that doesn’t exonerate White House aides from making a series of missteps in handling these controversies -- whether it was not being initially forthcoming about when it knew about the inspector general’s report into the IRS targeting or suggesting that a single adjustment was made to the Benghazi talking points (when more than one was made).

GOP: 'There is still information we need'
While a top Republican House aide admits that it’s “very possible” the IRS, Benghazi and leak-investigation controversies don’t go all the way up to the president, the aide says, “There is still information we need.”

“Let the facts take us where they will,” the aide adds.

The GOP aide goes on to say that the Republican Party’s goal with these investigations has never been to get an immediate touchdown. “We are content to get three yards on a play.”

Here is a status update on the four controversies over the past month:

IRS
On May 10, IRS official Lois Lerner, a civil servant, revealed that the agency had targeted conservative-sounding groups applying for tax-exempt status. An inspector general’s report confirmed that finding, but it also concluded that the targeting wasn’t “influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS.”

After the revelation, Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller announced his resignation; Obama appointed top budget official Danny Werfel to head the agency; and Lerner was placed on administrative leave (after invoking the 5th Amendment to a congressional committee).

More recently, Rep. Issa’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released partial testimony from Cincinnati-based IRS employees contending that Washington officials played a role in the targeting. But those Washington officials have never been tied to the Obama White House or its political team. What’s more, Ranking Member Cummings released testimony showing a conservative IRS employee declaring that the White House had no role in the targeting.

Benghazi
On the same day that Lerner first said the IRS had targeted conservative-sounding groups, ABC News reported on edits that the State Department and Obama administration had made to the “talking points” describing the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. The edits included removing references to Ansar al-Sharia to not hinder the investigation into the attack, and changing a reference to the Benghazi location as a "mission" or "diplomatic post," rather than a consulate.

But when the White House released the actual emails, they revealed more agency politics (between the State Department and CIA) than electoral politics (which Republican critics had alleged). In fact, the emails showed White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes urging his colleagues to ensure they had the right information. "There is a ton of wrong information getting out into the public domain from Congress and people who are not particularly informed," Rhodes wrote. “Insofar as we have firmed up assessments that don't compromise intel or the investigation, we need to have the capability to correct the record, as there are significant policy and messaging ramifications that would flow from a hardened mis-impression.

Republicans, however, pointed their finger at the State Department for wanting to change the talking points. “The seemingly political nature of the State Department’s concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them,” said a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner.

Leak investigations
After the IRS and Benghazi stories surfaced last month, The Associated Press revealed that the Justice Department secretly obtained phone records of AP reporters and editors in pursuing a national-security leak. Then another story dropped: The Justice Department labeled a Fox News reporter as a “co-conspirator” in a separate leak case.

After criticism of the Justice Department’s actions, President Obama called for Congress to pass a media-shield law, and he also instructed the Justice Department to conduct a review of guidelines about investigations regarding reporters -- due to the president by July 12. “Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs,” Obama said in his national-security speech last month. “Our focus must be on those who break the law.”

NSA surveillance
On June 5, Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian newspaper reported that the U.S. government has collected American’s phone records and other meta-data, and the government later revealed it was part of a National Security Agency program dating back to 2006. The Guardian and Washington Post later reported on a different surveillance program that gathers foreign intelligence through information from electronic sources, including major Internet companies.

Obama has argued these programs have checks and balances. “This is not a situation in which we are rifling through the ordinary emails of German citizens or American citizens or French citizens or anybody else,” he said at his news conference on Wednesday. “This is a circumscribed, narrow system directed at us being able to protect our people. And all of it is done under the oversight of the courts.”

Earlier in the week, national security officials testified that the programs helped prevent numerous potential terrorist events.

Guardian reports secret court documents allowed cases of data collection of U.S. citizens

The Guardian newspaper has posted two more classified documents, both signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, regarding the rules of the road for using intercepted information from foreign targets —  and what the NSA does to minimize the use of data inadvertently collected from U.S. citizens and residents.

One of the documents is classified "Top Secret," the other is "Secret."

The documents, which were submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and signed by current Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009, detailed the guidelines the NSA is required to follow when monitoring people outside the United States.

While the documents outline extensive steps the agencies must take to protect the privacy of Americans, they also show that the FISA court apparently permits domestic communications to be retained, even if they were acquired inadvertently, if they contain usable intelligence on criminal activity or are believed to contain information relevant to cyber security.

The Guardian story claims these exceptions contradict the claim by the President and other top officials that emails and calls from U.S. residents and citizens cannot be collected without a FISA court order.

NBC News has not verified the authenticity of the documents.

The FISA papers also reveal the procedures that must be taken to prevent surveillance on U.S. citizens through the foreign intelligence authority. Those steps include extensive checks by analysts to ensure targets are outside the U.S. and that American call records are used to help prevent U.S. citizens from being the targets of surveillance.  

But the documents show that the FISA court approved policies that allowed the NSA to keep data that could contain details of U.S. persons for as long as five years.

The Guardian wrote a similar story two days ago. This is the first time it posted the documentation.

Obama administration officials have yet to comment on the documents, but in an interview on Monday the president reiterated that the programs are transparent and that the NSA is not listening to the telephone calls or reading the emails of ordinary American citizens.

Cheney says NSA monitoring could have prevented 9/11

 

The United States might have been able to prevent the deadly Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington had controversial National Security Agency surveillance practices been in place at the time, former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. 

The former No. 2 in the Bush administration defended the NSA's ability to monitor phone and email data, and labeled as a "traitor" the analyst who has admitted to having leaked details about the classified program.

Harry Hamburg / AP file photo

Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Center For Security Policy dinner at Union Station in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009.

"As everybody who's been associated with the program's said, if we had had this before 9/11, when there were two terrorists in San Diego — two hijackers — had been able to use that program, that capability, against that target, we might well have been able to prevent 9/11," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday."

And Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., a hawkish Republican who's vocally defended the NSA practices, suggested another attack is even made more likely if the monitoring is curtailed. 

"I believe we should be listening to terrorists, known terrorist emails, following their emails and following their phone calls. And if they're emailing somebody and the United States or calling a number in the United States, I would like to get a judge's position to monitor that phone call," Graham said on "Meet the Press" on NBC. "If we don't do that, another attack on our homeland is very likely."

Many of the broad surveillance practices referenced by Cheney were initiated following the 9/11 attacks, prompted by President George W. Bush, who argued for broader government powers to prevent future attacks. But revelations that the government was routinely collecting so-called "meta-data" from phone providers like Verizon and other communications companies has prompted a new debate over what limits should be put on domestic government surveillance. 

President Barack Obama has also called the NSA's practices an important tool for his administration. Asked on CBS whether Obama felt as though any American's privacy had been violated, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said: "He does not."

McDonough also suggested that Obama will endeavor to speak more publicly about the program in the coming days, and touted the administration's work to more fully brief lawmakers about the programs and build in more oversight.

Obama has also asserted that he has scaled back some practices undertaken during the Bush administration — a claim which drew a sharp rebuke from Cheney. 

"I don't pay a lot of attention, frankly, to what Barack Obama says," Cheney said. "I find a lot of it is, in other areas — the IRS, Benghazi — not credible. I'm obviously not a fan of the incumbent president."

As to Edward Snowden, the former Booz Allen analyst who has claimed responsibility for first leaking details of the classified NSA program, Cheney said it was one of the worst breaches of intelligence he could imagine.

"I think he's a traitor," Cheney said of Snowden. "I think it's one of the worst occasions, in my memory, of somebody with access to classified information doing enormous damage to the national security interests of the United States."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Ga., the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Snowden should face prosecution. 

"He needs to look an American jury in the eye and explain why he has disclosed sources and methods that are going to put American lives in danger," said Chambliss.

McDonough was far more reluctant to attach any label to Snowden, explaining that he did not want to prejudge any investigation.

Cheney, though, additionally suggested that Snowden's decision to flee to Hong Kong — where he is thought to currently reside — could mean that he was working with the Chinese government. (McDonough said he could not comment as to Snowden's whereabouts or cooperation with the Chinese.)

"I am very, very worried that he still has additional information that he hasn't released yet, that the Chinese would welcome the opportunity and are probably willing to offer immunity — or sanctuary, if you will — in exchange for what he presumably knows or doesn't know," he said.

3 wildfires burn out of control in Colorado

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THOMAS PEIPERT, AP
8 minutes ago 

People pulled to over watch from their cars as a fire-fighting slurry plane...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A wildfire fueled by hot temperatures, gusty winds and thick, bone-dry forests has destroyed 92 homes, damaged five more and prompted more than 7,000 residents northeast of Colorado Springs to flee, sheriff's official said Wednesday.

A separate Colorado wildfire to the south led to the evacuation of about 250 residents and nearly 1,000 inmates at medium-security prison, while to the north another fire burned in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Wildfires also were burning in New Mexico, Oregon and California, where a smokejumper was killed fighting one of dozens of lightning-sparked fires.

Crews were so busy battling blazes across the West that the U.S. Forest Service said Wednesday it was mobilizing a pair of Defense Department cargo planes to help — a step taken only when all of the agency's contracted tankers already are in use.

The fire near Colorado Springs, one of several that broke out Tuesday along Colorado's Front Range, has prompted evacuation orders and pre-evacuation notices to between 9,000 and 9,500 people and about 3,500 homes and businesses, sheriff's officials said.

Some Colorado Springs residents were warned to be ready to evacuate, mostly because of a fear of flying embers spreading the fire into the state's second-largest city. Sheriff's officials also evacuated part of neighboring Elbert County, including two camps with a total of about 1,250 children and adults.

The smell of smoke and bits of ash drifted into Denver, about 60 miles to the north, where the haze blocked the sun.

No injuries or deaths have been reported, but El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said officials were trying to confirm the whereabouts of one person reported missing Wednesday. Firefighters tried to go where the person was last seen but were turned back twice because it was too hot, he said.

Maketa said he was worried about those who chose to ignore evacuation orders and stay behind.

"One of my worst fears is that people took their chances and it may have cost them their life," he said.

The area is not far from last summer's Waldo Canyon Fire that destroyed 346 homes and killed two.

Denver Broncos guard Ben Garland's grandparents lost their home in that blaze and now live in a Black Forest neighborhood. They left their new home Tuesday, returned and were watching the fire Wednesday.

"It's tough. It was tough going through it the first time," Garland said. "I know the first time, we didn't take it as seriously. We just thought it'd pass over and the firefighters would take care of it. The second time, it was really scary and they packed up real quick and got ready to go."

The Forest Service mobilized specially equipped Defense Department C-130s to drop slurry on wildfires in the West after all 12 of its air tankers were deployed. At least one was fighting the Black Forest Fire.

By law, the Modular Airborne Firefighting System — MAFFS— planes can be deployed only when all of the Forest Service's contracted tankers are in use. Around this time last year, the aircraft sat on runways when massive wildfires burned in Colorado and New Mexico.

In northeast California, 28-year-old Luke Sheehy was fatally injured this week by part of a falling tree in Modoc National Forest. The Susanville, Calif., man was a member of the Redding-based California Smokejumpers — firefighters who parachute into remote areas from airplanes.

In New Mexico, a wildfire burning in the steep, narrow canyons of the Pecos Wilderness north of Santa Fe grew to more than 12 square miles Wednesday. It was burning about 10 miles southeast of some small communities. Crews planned to build fire lines and clear out fuel in key areas miles ahead of the blaze in hopes of protecting the communities if the fire heads that way.

In southwestern New Mexico, firefighters were trying to keep a massive wildfire from reaching an old mining town whose 45 or so residents already have been evacuated. That fire was burning in a rugged mountainous area of dense forest.

About 60 miles southwest of Colorado's Black Forest Fire, a 6-square-mile wildfire was burning near Royal Gorge Bridge Park, but winds were pushing the fire away from Canon City and structures.

The Royal Gorge Fire has destroyed three structures near Canon City, but the soaring suspension bridge spanning a canyon across the Arkansas River is intact. It's normally a tourist attraction, but firefighters are using it to access the fire.

More than 900 prisoners at a nearby medium-security prison, including murderers and rapists, were evacuated overnight because of heavy smoke from the blaze. The prisoners were transferred by bus and van, 200 at a time, throughout the night from the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, built in 1871. The prison also includes an infirmary, and some inmates use wheelchairs and canes.

"This was done as a precaution because it takes a lot of time to move the prisoners," Department of Corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said.

Another fire sparked by lightning Monday in Rocky Mountain National Park has grown to an estimated 400 acres in area with trees killed by pine beetles.

The cause of the fire near Colorado Springs wasn't clear. The El Paso County sheriff said there were no reports of lightning in the area Tuesday.

Near Colorado Springs, fire evacuees Greg and Sharon Rambo set up camp in a Wal-Mart and Home Depot parking lot. They were living in a modular home in Black Forest as they waited to close on a larger house nearby. They believe both were burned.

"It leaves you feeling numb, loss of appetite, disoriented," Greg Rambo said.

The couple previously lived in Southern California, and they were evacuated during a 2004 blaze that hopscotched over their property without damaging it. Since then, they have carried a briefcase filled with medications and important documents, and kept their trailer far from their house so they'd have a place to sleep in the event their home burns down.

Their daughter, who lives nearby, called them Tuesday afternoon and urged them to flee. They do not know if her house also burned.

Sharon Rambo said the wind shifted shortly after that call and ash began to pour from the sky. That's when they left. As they described their predicament, the wind shifted again, and an enormous black plume of smoke suddenly shot up on the horizon behind the parking lot.

People came up and offered them pizza and water. "We're all people. We all love each other," Greg Rambo said.

Pa. girl who took on donor rules gets adult lungs

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MALCOLM RITTER, AP
33 minutes ago 

FILE - In this May 30, 2013 file photo provided by the Murnaghan family, Sa...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation sparked debate over how organs are allocated was getting a double-lung transplant Wednesday after a match with an adult donor was made.

Sarah Murnaghan, who suffers from severe cystic fibrosis, was receiving her new lungs Wednesday at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, family spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said, adding the child was "doing beautifully."

Sarah's relatives were "beyond excited" about the development but were "keeping in mind that someone had to lose a family member and they're very aware of that and very appreciative," she said.

No other details about the donor are known, including whether the lungs came through the regular donor system or through public appeals.

Sarah's mother, Janet Murnaghan, told WTXF-TV that her daughter had been in a medically-induced coma since Saturday and that once the donor lungs were found suitable, she was wheeled out of her room within 15 minutes.

"I kissed her goodbye," she said, adding that the family had been "hoping and praying that this one would work."

Murnaghan said that three previous times they'd been told donor lungs had been located, two did not match. The third time, the donor child's family changed their mind and the procedure did not happen.

Sarah's health was deteriorating when a judge intervened last week, giving her a chance at the much larger list of organs from adult donors.

"Some people would look at this and say it's evidence that if you get a PR campaign, a congressman and federal judge to pay attention, you're going to have far greater access to a transplant, but I don't think that's true," said ethicist Arthur Caplan of the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York of the Murnaghans' public stance.

The Newtown Square, Pa., family received word about the donor lungs Tuesday night, Garrity said. The surgery began just after 11:30 a.m. Wednesday and was expected to take at least six hours, she said.

Murnaghan, in a Facebook post Wednesday, said that the family was "overwhelmed with emotions" and thanked all her supporters.

"Today is the start of Sarah's new beginning and new life!" she wrote, adding that the donor's family "has experienced a tremendous loss, may God grant them a peace that surpasses understanding."

During double lung transplants, surgeons must open up the patient's chest. Complications can include rejection of the new lung and infection.

Sarah's family and the family of another cystic fibrosis patient at the same hospital challenged existing transplant policy that made children under 12 wait for pediatric lungs to become available or be offered lungs donated by adults only after adolescents and adults on the waiting list had been considered. They said pediatric lungs are rarely donated.

On June 5, federal Judge Michael Baylson in Philadelphia ruled that Sarah and 11-year-old Javier Acosta of New York City should be eligible for adult lungs.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network says 33 children under age 11 are on the waiting list for a lung transplant.

The network added Sarah to the adult waiting list after Baylson's ruling. Her transplant came just two days before a hearing was scheduled on the family's request for a broader injunction.

Critics warned there could be a downside to having judges intervene in the organ transplant system's established procedures. Lung transplants are difficult procedures and some say child patients tend to have more trouble with them than adults.

Cystic fibrosis causes a sticky mucus to build up in the lungs, clogging them and leading to life-threatening infections. It also clogs the pancreas so the body can't properly digest food. The disease occurs when someone inherits a flawed gene from each parent. A few decades ago, children with the disease seldom survived elementary school. Today nearly half reach age 18, but few live past 40.

A lung transplant doesn't cure cystic fibrosis, but over half the people with the disease who get lung transplants survive at least five years, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation website.

The national organization that manages organ transplants this week resisted making emergency rule changes for children under 12 who are waiting on lungs but created a special appeal and review system to hear such cases.

Caplan said the Murnaghan family "did have a legitimate complaint" about the rule that limited her access to adult lungs.

"When the transplant community met, they didn't want to change that rule without really thinking carefully about it," he said. The appeals process that was established this week was "built on evidence, not on influence."

He added: "In general, the road to a transplant is still to let the system decide who will do best with scarce, lifesaving organs. And it's important that people understand that money, visibility, being photogenic ... are factors that have to be kept to a minimum if we're going to get the best use out of the scarce supply of donated cadaver organs."

The transplant network declined to comment on the Murnaghan case but asked that anyone concerned about her fate consider becoming an organ donor.

"All these people out there who want to help this little girl, they can help everybody. All they have to do is go to their state registry and donate," spokeswoman Anne Paschke said. "Thousands more lives could be saved if people designated their wishes."

Pediatric organs are especially scarce. Minors can also signal their interest in organ donation by speaking with family members or, if they get a driver's license, noting their intent. Parents would still have to give consent for any donation to proceed, Paschke said.

Nationally, there are about 12 children age 10 and under on the top priority waiting list for lungs and eight others on a less urgent list. About 13 children are currently inactive, perhaps due to an infection or other issue.

Because of medical privacy laws and transplant network protocols, the public won't hear if another child gets a lung transplant unless a family wishes it to be known, Paschke said.

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Pope confirms 'gay lobby' at work at Vatican

38 minutes ago 

Pope Francis reads a message during the Angelus noon prayer he celebrated f...

Pope Francis lamented that a "gay lobby" was at work at the Vatican in private remarks to the leadership of a key Latin American church group — a stunning acknowledgment that appears to confirm earlier reports about corruption and dysfunction in the Holy See.

The Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious — the regional organization for priests and nuns of religious orders — confirmed Tuesday that its leaders had written a synthesis of Francis' remarks after their June 6 audience. The group, known by its Spanish acronym CLAR, said it was greatly distressed that the document had been published and apologized to the pope.

In the document, Francis is quoted as saying that while there were many holy people in the Vatican, there was also corruption: "The 'gay lobby' is mentioned, and it is true, it is there ... We need to see what we can do ..." the synthesis reads.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Tuesday the audience was private and that as a result he had nothing to say.

In the days leading up to Pope Benedict XVI's Feb. 28 resignation, Italian media were rife with reports of a "gay lobby" influencing papal decision-making and Vatican policy through blackmail, and suggestions that the scandal had led in part to Benedict's decision to resign.

The unsourced reports, in the Rome daily La Repubblica and the news magazine Panorama, said details of the scandal were laid out in the secret dossier prepared for Benedict by three trusted cardinals who investigated the leaks of papal documents last year. Benedict left the dossier for Francis.

At the time, the Vatican denounced the reporting as defamatory, "unverified, unverifiable or completely false."

Francis' remarks on the matter, as reported by the CLAR leadership, were published Tuesday in Spanish on the progressive Chilean-based website "Reflection and Liberation" and picked up and translated by the blog Rorate Caeli, which is read in Vatican circles.

In the synthesis, Francis was quoted as being remarkably forthcoming about his administrative shortcomings, saying he was relying on the group of eight cardinals he appointed to lead a reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

The document quoted him as saying: "I am very disorganized, I have never been good at this. But the cardinals of the commission will move it forward."

In its statement, CLAR said no recording had been made of Francis' remarks but that the members of its leadership team — a half-dozen men and women — together wrote a synthesis of the points he had made for their own personal use.

"It's clear that based on this one cannot attribute with certainty to the Holy Father singular expressions in the text, but just the general sense," the statement said.