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The Two-Way
7:49 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Tweets Capture 'Shock And Awe' At Tornado's Deadly Power

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:56 am

Our colleague Andy Carvin has scanned Twitter in search of reaction, including photos and video, from the massive tornado that swept through central Oklahoma on Monday.

Among the tweets:

Sidney Montoya of Oklahoma City says he is "Praying for my little cousins in Moore, their elementary school just got hit by the tornado."

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The Two-Way
7:15 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

VIDEO: A Time-Lapse Of The Tornado In Oklahoma

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:57 am

NBC News has put together a time-lapse video of the EF-4 tornado that tore through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Okla.

As we told you in the live blog, the National Weather Service says it was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

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The Two-Way
7:14 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

A Brief History Of Oklahoma Tornadoes

Credit Jerry Laizure / AP
Destruction at Midwest City, Okla., one of the towns hit by the May 5, 1999, tornadoes.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:58 am

Although Oklahoma is a state where tornadoes are a fact of life, few days stand out like May 3, 1999.

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The Two-Way
7:11 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Key Charge Against Ex-BP Official In Spill Case Dismissed

Credit Matthew Hinton / AP
David Rainey, a former BP vice president during the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, leaves federal court after being arraigned on obstruction of a federal investigation in New Orleans on Nov. 28, 2012. A federal judge Monday dismissed the charge that Rainey obstructed a congressional investigation into the 2010 spill.

It's another bad day for the Justice Department.

A federal judge in Louisiana has thrown out the central criminal charge against a former BP executive because prosecutors failed to prove he knew about a pending congressional investigation into oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico three years ago. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt also ruled that a Democratic House member who inquired about the oil flow rate was acting as head of a subcommittee, not a full congressional committee, as required under the federal Obstruction of Justice statute.

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The Two-Way
6:30 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Ray Manzarek, Founding Member Of The Doors, Dies

Credit Express / Getty Images
Ray Manzarek (far right) stands with fellow members of The Doors Jim Morrison (from right), Robby Krieger and John Densmore in 1968. Manzarek died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and a founding member of The Doors, died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

A statement from publicist Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald said Manzarek died in Rosenheim, Germany, after a long battle with bile duct cancer.

Manzarek and Jim Morrison founded the iconic band after meeting in California. The Doors went on to become one of the most successful rock 'n' roll acts of the 1960s — and continues to have an impact decades after Morrison's death in 1971.

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Around the Nation
6:01 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

The Low-Tech Way Guns Get Traced

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:06 pm

Opponents of expanding background checks for gun sales often raise the fear that it would allow the government to create a national gun registry — a database of gun transactions. In fact, federal law already bans the creation of such a registry. And the reality of how gun sales records are accessed turns out to be surprisingly low-tech.

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NPR Story
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Tornado Ravages Oklahoma City Suburb

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:29 pm

Melissa Block talks to Joe Wertz of the public radio initiative State Impact about the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area on Monday.

Performing Arts
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

At L.A.'s UnCabaret, 25 Years Of Letting It All Hang Out

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:07 pm

A lot of the stand-up comedy that gets done in Los Angeles is really just comics auditioning for parts in TV or movies.

Not at UnCabaret: For 25 years, it's been a place to hear unvarnished, rough-edged ideas being tried out — mostly for the first and possibly only time.

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Parallels
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:00 pm

A 1,200-year old European pilgrimage route is experiencing a revival. Last year alone, some 200,000 followed in the footsteps of their medieval forebears on the Way of St. James, making their way some 750 miles from Paris across France to the Spanish coastal city of Santiago de Compostela, and the relics of the eponymous apostle.

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Law
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Closing Arguments Begin In NYPD's 'Stop-And-Frisk' Lawsuit

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:00 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

The federal class-action trial of a New York City Police Department's Stop-and-Frisk policy wound down today. After nearly 10 weeks of testimony, both sides presented closing arguments.

NPR's Margot Adler was in the courtroom today and she joins us now. And, Margot, tell us how each side presented its case.

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