• 'Disgusting': Families of massacre victims boycott Colorado theater reopening event

    Jonathan Castner / AFP - Getty Images file

    The scene in front of the Aurora, Colo., theater on July 20 where a gunman opened fire during the opening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."

    By Jeff Black, NBC News

    Calling it a “disgusting offer” and a “thinly veiled publicity ploy,” some victims’ families of the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre are outraged that the movie house chain's owner would invite them to a special event marking the re-opening of the place where 12 movie-goers were killed and 58 wounded.


    Cinemark CEO Tim Warner offered free tickets to an event Jan. 17 for the reconfigured Aurora Century Theatre, according to an invitation letter sent to Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan and obtained by NBC News. Warner also points out the community had requested the theater's restoration.

    In addition, victims and their families were told special arrangements could be made for them to visit before the reopening, on Jan. 15 and 16.

    According to the Denver Post, an email invitation was also sent through the Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance. It said that counselors would be available at the event.

    In response, a group of families fired back a letter of their own, blasting the invitation and saying they would urge a boycott of the event on social media.

    “This disgusting offer that you’d 'like to invite you and a guest to a special evening of remembrance on Thursday, January 17 at 5 PM' followed by the showing of a movie and then telling us to be sure 'to reserve our tickets' is wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.”

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    The letter says Cinemark had not reached out to families before the invitation.

    "None of us received a letter of condolence or any other communication from Cinemark, but now they want us to step foot in that theater," Sandy Phillips, mother of Jessica Ghawi, told The Denver Post. Ghawi was one of the people fatally shot during the sold-out midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20.

     “We, the families, recognize your thinly veiled publicity ploy for what it is:  A great opportunity for you to distance yourselves and divert public scrutiny from your culpability in this massacre,” the letter states.

    Court date set for Colorado theater shooting suspect's biggest hearing yet

    A survey conducted this summer by the city of Aurora found the majority of residents in favor of having the theater re-opened, the Post reported. It was remade into an XD theater with wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor screen.

    Several victims’ families have sued Cinemark USA, alleging improper security at the theater on the night of the massacre.

    A spokeswoman for Cinemark told NBC News the theater would have no immediate comment on the boycott.

    James Holmes, a 25-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder in the shootings. On Wednesday prosecutors said they would make public evidence in the case for the first time in a hearing next week.

    At previous hearings, a defense lawyer has said Holmes suffered from an unspecified mental illness. 

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    Since when is a movie theatre "required" to provide security?

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  • FBI: US gun checks soar 39 percent, setting record

    By Reuters

    WASHINGTON - The number of FBI background checks required for Americans buying guns set a record in December, indicating that more people may have  purchased one after the Connecticut school massacre stirred interest in self-defense and prompted renewed talk of limits on firearms, according to FBI data.


    The FBI said it recorded 2.78 million background checks during the month, surpassing the mark set in November of 2.01 million checks - about a 39 percent rise.

    The latest monthly figure was up 49 percent over December 2011, when the FBI performed a then-record 1.86 million checks.

    Consumer demand for guns appears to have accounted for the uptick in activity. There were no changes in FBI background check procedures that would have affected the December numbers, FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer said.

    December is typically the busiest month of the year for checks, however, due in part to Christmas gift sales.

    The figures do not represent the number of firearms sold, a statistic the government does not track. They also do not reflect activity between private parties, such as family members or collectors, because federal law requires background checks only for sales from commercial vendors with a federal license.

    Someone who passes a background check is eligible to buy multiple firearms.

    FBI checks for all of 2012 totaled 19.6 million, an annual record and an increase of 19 percent over 2011.

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    The FBI system - known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) - "processed transactions following normal established protocols," Fischer said in an email.

    The national debate on guns has grown more intense since Dec. 14, when Adam Lanza forced his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.

    Lanza also killed his mother, the registered owner of the guns used in the killings, before going to the school.

    Msnbc's T.J. Holmes talks with the Washington Post's Justin Jouvenal about his article on gun sales.

    Shootings lead to sales
    Interest in guns tends to increase after a mass shooting, as customers fear for personal safety or worry that lawmakers might ban certain firearms.

    President Barack Obama has committed to pushing new legislation, possibly including a ban on some semi-automatic weapons, this year.

    The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for firearms-makers, estimates the size of the industry at $4 billion a year. A spokesman for the association did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

    Newspaper that outed gun owners hires guards

    Shares of gun maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp were up 1.2 percent at $8.54 at Wednesday's close, while those of Sturm Ruger & Co Inc were up 1.1 percent at $45.88, during a broad rally in which the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 2.5 percent.

    Neither company responded to requests for comment.

    "The last eight years (have) been very good to be a handgun company. The market has expanded significantly, and long guns having done pretty good, as well," said Smith & Wesson Chief Executive James Debney at a Dec. 12 conference for investors.

    Related: Gun control advocates zero in on new tactic, banning high-capacity ammo clips

    The pattern of gun sales rising after a mass shooting is disturbing, said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, a Washington group that favors gun control.

    "While the majority of Americans look for solutions to stop the next attack, a minority of gun owners runs to hoard the very guns used in the most recent" incidents, Sugarmann said in an email.

    Even as gun purchases rise, the share of U.S. households with a gun has been falling for decades, from 54 percent in 1977 to 32 percent in 2010, according to the University of Chicago's General Social Survey.

    In the Colorado city where one of the worst mass shootings in American history took place, the massacre prompted many to seek firearms for self-defense. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.

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  • Hillary Clinton leaves hospital after blood clot: State Dept.

    After being treated for a blood clot, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Wednesday and her medical team is reportedly confident she'll make a full recovery. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    By Maggie Fox, NBC News

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left a New York City hospital on Wednesday after being treated for a rare blood clot in her head, the State department said. Staffers said she has been communicating by phone and doctors said she is expected to make a full recovery. 

    "Secretary Clinton was discharged from the hospital this evening,' her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said in a statement. "Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery."

    Clinton, who fainted and hit her head in December, probably developed the blood clot as a result of the injury, doctors say. It’s in an unusual place -- in a large vein that drains blood from the brain, and that sits on a covering of the brain called the dura, right beneath her skull.

    “This is in a weird space,” NBC News medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman told TODAY on Wednesday.

    Clinton hadn’t been seen since she made an appearance Dec. 7 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her spokesman said she had a stomach virus, became dehydrated and fainted, suffering a concussion.

    Joshua Lott / Reuters

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, left, leaves New York Presbyterian Hospital Wednesday with husband, Bill, top, and daughter, Chelsea, center, in New York. The secretary of state, who had not been seen in public since Dec. 7, was revealed on Sunday evening to be in a New York hospital under treatment for a blood clot that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December.

    “She fainted, she clunked her head,” Snyderman said. Perhaps that caused a tiny tear in the vein, known medically as the right transverse sinus. Blood would have leaked out, pooled and clotted. But she did not suffer any debilitating symptoms, spokespeople said.

    "She has been talking to her staff, including today," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told NBC News earlier Wednesday. "She's been quite active on the phone with all of us."

    But Nuland said that on Saturday, before Clinton's blood clot was discovered, she called Joint Special Envoy for Syria Lakhadr Brahimi and the prime minister of Qatar.

    Nuland said Brahimi briefed Clinton on his recent visit to Syria and his meeting with President Bashar al-Assad. Clinton also discussed Syria, the Palestinian Authority and Afghanistan with the prime minister. 

    "So she has begun to pick up her regular phone contact with some of her counterparts," Nuland said. And Reines said she was planning to get back to work. "She's eager to get back to the office, and we will keep you updated on her schedule as it becomes clearer in the coming days," he said.

    Clinton's concussion is a potentially serious condition that can cause a stroke, but doctors found the clot when they did an MRI scan Sunday.

    “It did not result in a stroke, or neurological damage,” Dr. Lisa Bardack of Mt. Kisco Medical Group in New York and Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi of George Washington University said in a joint statement released Monday.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to make a full recovery after spending a  fourth day in a New York City hospital for a blood clot in her head that developed following a fall and concussion she suffered last month. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    “To help dissolve this clot, her medical team began treating the secretary with blood thinners. She will be released once the medication dose has been established.”

    This is a standard and safe therapy for such a blood clot, according to a review published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005. Dr. Jan Stam of the University of Amsterdam said the clots are rare – affecting 3 to 4 people out of a million every year. Some doctors fear that blood thinners for a clot near the brain could be dangerous, but it’s the best way to dissolve the clot. “More than 80 percent of all patients now have a good neurologic outcome,” Stam wrote.

    It’s also likely Clinton, who is 65, had a headache that could have tipped doctors to a potential problem -- 90 percent of people who develop these clots have headaches, he said.

    The statement from Bardack and El-Bayoumi put an end to grumblings that Clinton was feigning illness to escape testifying about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Beghazi, Libya in which the ambassador and three other Americans were killed. Clinton had been expected to testify on Dec. 20 before the House of Representatives and Senate foreign affairs committees.

    “When you don’t want to go to a meeting or conference or an event you have a ‘diplomatic illness.’ And this is a diplomatic illness to beat the band,” former United Nations ambassador John Bolton told Fox News on Dec. 17. 

    But many of her critics were wishing Clinton well this week. “A full recovery is what’s important now,” the New York Post wrote in a commentary.

    In nearly four years of office, Clinton has traveled just shy of a million miles, visiting 112 countries. She’s considered a possible Democratic candidate for president in 2016. She had a blood clot in her leg in 1998, when she was first lady, and took blood-thinning drugs for several months.

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  • Man's body found encased in concrete near Los Angeles

    By Sharon Bernstein, NBCLosAngeles.com

    The body of a man found encased in newly poured concrete in an industrial area of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., had still not been identified on Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office said.


    Investigators also had not determined how the man died.

    The body was found Dec. 30, after the Whittier Police Department received a tip that led them to two businesses in the area.

    Preliminary findings indicate that the man may have been killed as the result of a feud with another person.

    Also on NBCLosAngeles.com: Son of Clippers owner found dead at Malibu home

    Police arrested Juan Alberto Galviz, 35, in connection with the death, a spokesman for the Whittier department said in a press release.

    The spokesman, Officer Brad White, was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

  • Sandy Hook Elementary children, parents tour their new school

    Carlo Allegri / Reuters

    People walk past a makeshift memorial in Sandy Hook after the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting tragedy , in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 28, 2012.

    By Tracy Connor and Tom Winter, NBC News

    Students from Sandy Hook Elementary School will go back to class Thursday in a borrowed building that one police official described as “the safest school in America.”


    They will enter classrooms that have been furnished to look like the ones they left last month, as Adam Lanza carried out his massacre.

    Desks and even abandoned backpacks and coats have been brought from Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn., to the new school in Monroe, seven miles away.

    Greeting the youngsters will be Donna Page, who was the principal of Sandy Hook until she retired in 2010. She agreed to come back after her successor, Dawn Hochsprung, was killed in the rampage.

    Pupils and parents had a chance to tour the new building – an unused former middle school – on Wednesday after Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy met with teachers.

    When they return at 9 a.m. Thursday, they will find counselors and extra police on hand.

    “It feels extremely secure there,” Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson told reporters.

    Police declined to say what security measures were in place, but Monroe Lt. Keith White said parents don’t have to worry.

    “Right now, it has to be the safest school in America,” he said.

    David Connors, 40, who has 8-year-old triplets, said he knows that sending his kids back to school will be difficult – but crucial.

    “The past three weeks have been just crazy,” he told NBC Connecticut.  “Getting back to that sense of figuring out what the new normal is going to look like, I think, is important. Everyone is waiting for that to happen.”

    His children, he said, are ready for the transition.

    “They want to see their teacher. They want to see their classes. They want to get back into a routine,” he said.

    Students from Sandy Hook Elementary return to school in a new building, seven miles away from the scene of the shooting. NBC's Jay Gray reports.

    The 500 students have not been in school since Lanza blasted his way into Sandy Hook on Dec. 14 and killed 20 children, six staffers and himself. He had earlier killed his mother.

    Teachers from Newtown and Monroe spent their holiday break readying the new building for the children, and Robinson said it looks “cheerful and happy” and is decorated with paper snowflakes sent in from around the world.

    She said the first day back will be as ordinary as possible, and the school will wait some time to honor teachers for their bravery during Lanza’s killing spree, which was largely confined to two first-grade classrooms.

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    "There's certainly going to be children that are scared,” Thalia Andernen, a counselor with The Center of Hope, a nonprofit family support center, told NBC New York.

    “They're going to be frightened and feel very insecure about going back, but a lot of them are going to be resilient.”

    With no decision on what will happen to the Newtown building, the former middle school in Monroe has been renamed Sandy Hook Elementary, and the sign has been removed from the old school.

    After so many funerals, there are signs of Newtown’s slow recovery. The large memorials that overtook the town have vanished and the Fire Department’s flag is back at full mast, although the station roof still bears a reminder of the toll: 26 stars.

    In Monroe, officers were stopping cars that tried to stop near the new school and asking them to move on. Down the road, someone from the town had hung a sign for the Sandy Hook kids who will be coming there for the foreseeable future: "We Are So Proud Of You.”

    Slideshow: Newtown school massacre

    Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

    A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history left 20 children and six staff members dead at Sandy Hook Elementary.

    Launch slideshow

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  • Homeowner shoots naked intruder found choking dog, police say

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    By Donna Rapado and Brian Hamacher, NBCMiami.com

    A naked intruder who was trying to choke a pet Rottweiler was shot by a homeowner in Miami Wednesday morning, police said.


    The bizarre incident happened around 5 a.m. when the occupants of the home were awoken when they heard a commotion and dogs barking.

    When the homeowner went to check out the noise, he confronted the suspect, who was completely naked and trying to choke one of the dogs, police said.

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    "He comes out and spots a person who is not only fighting with this dog but is naked fighting with this dog," Miami Police spokesman Det. Willie Moreno said.

    The homeowner opened fire twice, hitting the suspect in the leg once. The homeowner held the man until the police arrived.

    The intruder was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where his condition was unknown. Police said he tried to bite the homeowners and police and workers at the hospital, and may be under the influence of drugs.

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    "For right now it does appear to be a justified shooting," Moreno said. "This individual was acting irrational, fighting with the dog, and not only that, but at the point that the homeowner attempted to get this individual's attention, he immediately jumped onto the owner and started fighting with him."

    Police said the suspect, who refused to give his identity, will be charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling with assault, animal cruelty, resisting arrest with violence and lewd and lascivious behavior.

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  • Salvage crews make another attempt to board grounded drilling rig in Alaska

    Tropical storm force winds and massive winds caused a drilling ship to run ashore near Kodiak, Alaska. KTUU's Adam Pinsker reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Crews hoped to board an oil drilling rig on Wednesday that went aground off an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Alaska.

    A number of flights to the stricken vessel were planned, including to try to get team of marine experts on board to determine if the Kulluk could be refloated.


    The Kulluk broke loose of its tether to a tug boat in stormy seas last week and grounded onto a sand and gravel beach.

    A slight break in the weather – 30 mph winds and 6-foot waves with 12-foot swells -- gave a team of Coast Guard, local and company officials optimism that salvage teams could be put in place, Jason Moore, a unified command spokesman told NBC News on Wednesday.

    “It’s not great, but it’s better than what it has been over the last several days,” Moore said. “It is a bit of a break and were hoping we can take advantage of the improving weather”  

    The Kulluk remained stranded but stable off Sitkalidak Island, which is along the southeastern coast of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, Moore said. A Coast Guard cutter stationed to observe overnight Tuesday reported no leaks, he said.

    A Coast Guard plane and helicopter flew over the Kulluk on Tuesday but poor weather didn’t permit marine experts to board the vessel.

    Officials were hoping to get marine experts onboard to take photos and videos, and then come up with a more complete salvage plan once weather permits.

    The Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig is carrying about 143,000 gallons of diesel fuel and about 12,000 gallons of lube oil and hydraulic fluid, according to federal on-scene response coordinator Capt. Paul Mehler.

    Environmentalists have seized on the accident as proof Arctic Ocean oil operations are too risky. The drilling rig was being moved from its Arctic drilling grounds to Seattle for maintenance, and had passed through the Bering Sea and was set to cross the Gulf of Alaska when the storm hit.

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    “Oil companies keep saying they can conquer the Arctic, but the Arctic keeps disagreeing with the oil companies,” Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., a member of the Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement.

    A plan was being prepared in the event of a spill in the Partition Cove and Ocean Bay areas of the island. The area is home to at least two endangered species, as well as harbor seals, salmon, and sea lions.

    Pa3 Jon Klingenberg / AP

    This image provided by the U.S. Coast Guard shows the Royal Dutch Shell drilling rig Kulluk aground off a small island near Kodiak Island on Tuesday.

    Mehler said a team of about 500 people was working on a plan, "with many more coming."

    A Shell official said the drilling rig was built with a double-sided hull of reinforced steel that is 3 inches thick. It recently had undergone $292 million in improvements before being put into service for a short time this summer in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast.

    It was being towed to Seattle for maintenance last week when it separated from a towing vessel south of Kodiak Island. Repeated attempts to maintain towing lines were unsuccessful as a severe storm passed through the area. By Monday night, tow boats guided the rig to a place where it would cause the least environmental damage and cut it loose.

    Sean Churchfield, operations manager for Shell Alaska, said once the situation is under control, an investigation will be conducted into the cause. He did not know whether the findings would be made public.

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    The Coast Guard said it also would investigate and make its findings public.

    NBC News staff contributed to this report from The Associated Press.

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  • Son of LA Clippers owner found dead at Malibu, Calif., home, officials say

    Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press

    Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling watches a game in 2008.

    By Jonathan Lloyd and Sharon Bernstein, NBCLosAngeles.com

    The body of Scott Sterling, son of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, was found late Tuesday at the family's home in Malibu.

    Homicide detectives responded to the beachfront residence at about 11:30 p.m. after receiving a call for a welfare check at Malibu Beach Villas. The caller told responding Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies he had not heard from Scott Sterling, 32, for "several days."

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    Sterling was pronounced dead at the location, but a cause of death was not immediately available from the coroner's office. Sterling died of an "apparent drug overdose," according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

    A coroner's van was at the residence early Wednesday, and an autopsy will be conducted.

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    Donald Sterling, who acquired the Clippers in 1981, is among the longest-tenured NBA owners. The team was located in San Diego at the time, and Sterling relocated the franchise to Los Angeles in 1984.

    Sterling has homes in Malibu and Beverly Hills, according to the Clippers website. Police interviewed Scott Sterling after responding to the Beverly Hills home in 1999 for a report of a shooting, but prosecutors did not file charges. 

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