Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop Dies

With his striking beard and starched uniform, former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop became one of the most recognizable figures of the Reagan era – and one of the most unexpectedly enduring. His nomination in 1981 met a wall of opposition from women's groups and liberal politicians, who complained President Ronald Reagan selected Koop, a pediatric surgeon and evangelical Christian from Philadelphia, only because of his conservative views, especially his staunch opposition to abortion. Soon, though, he was a hero to AIDS activists, who chanted "Koop, Koop" at his appearances but booed other officials. And when he left his post in 1989, he left behind a landscape where AIDS was a top research and educational priority, smoking was considered a public health hazard, and access to abortion remained largely intact.

Koop, who turned his once-obscure post into a bully pulpit for seven years during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and who surprised both ends of the political spectrum by setting aside his conservative personal views on issues such as homosexuality and abortion to keep his focus sharply medical, died Monday at his home in Hanover, N.H. He was 96. An assistant at Koop's Dartmouth College institute, Susan Wills, confirmed his death but didn't disclose its cause. Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as surgeon general a decade ago under President George W. Bush, said Koop was a mentor to him and preached the importance of staying true to the science even if it made politicians uncomfortable. "He set the bar high for all who followed in his footsteps," Carmona said. Although the surgeon general has no real authority to set government policy, Koop described himself as "the health conscience of the country" and said modestly just before leaving his post that "my only influence was through moral suasion." A former pipe smoker, Koop carried out a crusade to end smoking in the United States; his goal had been to do so by 2000. He said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine. And he shocked his conservative supp

Las Vegas Strip Shooting: 3 Dead After Gunfire Leads To Multi-Vehicle Crash, Police Say

Bullets were flying from a black Range Rover at a gray Maserati as the vehicles raced toward a red light on the Las Vegas Strip. Beneath the neon lights, police say, the Maserati ran a red light at one of the Strip's busiest intersections and smashed into a taxi that exploded into flames early Thursday, killing the two people inside. Three more cars and a utility truck also collided at the crossroads home to Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Bally's, injuring at least six more people as the Range Rover sped off in the pre-dawn darkness. The Maserati driver was pronounced dead at a hospital. The dramatic scene that more than one tourist compared to something out of a violent action movie set off a frantic search for the occupants of the Range Rover that continued into the night, and marked the latest violent episode on the Strip since the beginning of the year. Two people were critically wounded in a shooting at a parking garage Feb. 6, and a tourist was stabbed Saturday in an elevator at The Hotel at Mandalay Bay. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie told reporters several hours after Thursday's attack that it was sparked by an argument in the valet area of the nearby Aria hotel-casino, and that the violence at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road did not reflect the values of Las Vegas residents or visitors. "What happened will not be tolerated," Gillespie said. He promised the shooters would be "found and prosecuted to the full extent of the law." On the Strip, which remained closed as daylight turned to darkness 12 hours later, the fiery rampage shocked tourists.

"We get stabbings, and gang violence," said Mark Thompson, who was visiting from Manchester, England, with his wife, "but this is like something out of a movie. Like `Die Hard' or something." Police said they were contacting authorities in three neighboring states about the Range Rover Sport with dark tinted windows and distinctive black custom rims and plates that fled the scene about 4:20 a.m. It had a car dealer's advertisement in place of a license plate. In Southern California, the California Highway Patrol alerted officers in at least three counties to be on the lookout for the SUV. Las Vegas police Sgt. John Sheahan said the Range Rover was last seen near the Venetian resort as it headed north from the shooting scene on Las Vegas Boulevard. Witnesses also told police the SUV and Maserati had come from the nearby CityCenter area, the home of Aria, just south of the site of the attack. "We have numerous witnesses to this," Sheahan said. "But what is the genesis of this? We don't know yet." Predawn jogger Eric Lackey was on his way back to the New York-New York hotel when he snapped a cellphone photo of the blazing scene moments after the crash. Black smoke billowed from the flaming taxi, amid popping sounds from the fire.

Lackey, of Forest Hill, Md., said a security officer in a yellow shirt performed CPR on a person on the sidewalk while police officers canvassed a small crowd of perhaps 15 onlookers gathering at the scene. "Police were asking if anyone was still in the vehicles and if they heard gunfire," Lackey told The Associated Press. "That's when I realized it wasn't just a regular accident." Sheahan said police have video from traffic cameras at the intersection and were checking hotel surveillance systems. The video will not be made public, he said. Police did not release the names of the people who were killed, citing the ongoing investigation. The crumpled, gray Maserati, which had no license plate, came to rest several feet away from the incinerated taxi. "The people I feel sorry for are the people in the taxi," said Elvina Joyce, a tourist from Regina, Saskatchewan. "Seconds made all the difference in the world for them. Wrong place, wrong time." The area near the scene has been the site of high-profile violence in the past. Rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996 about a block away under similar circumstances, as assailants opened fire on his luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road. The killing has never been solved.

White House Refuses To Release Targeted Killing Memos

Rather than agreeing to some Democratic senators’ demands for full access to the classified legal memos on the targeted killing program, Obama administration officials are negotiating with Republicans to provide more information on the lethal attack last year on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to three Congressional staff members. The strategy is intended to produce a bipartisan majority vote for Mr. Brennan in the Senate Intelligence Committee without giving its members seven additional legal opinions on targeted killing sought by senators and while protecting what the White House views as the confidentiality of the Justice Department’s legal advice to the president. It would allow Mr. Brennan’s nomination to go to the Senate floor even if one or two Democrats vote no to protest the refusal to share more legal memos. At issue is the critical question of how Congress conducts oversight of a shadow war against people suspected of being terrorists.

The administration routinely reports on its lethal drone strikes to both the Senate and the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, but it has long rebuffed Congressional attempts to see the legal opinions that authorize the strikes — let alone requests to make them public. Only after an unclassified Justice Department white paper summarizing the legal arguments was leaked to NBC News this month did the administration make two legal opinions on the targeted killing of American citizens briefly available to members of the Intelligence Committees. But the documents were available to be viewed only for a limited time and only by senators themselves, not their lawyers and experts. The arrangement frustrated members of the committee, who were not allowed to have their staff members study the highly complex legal opinions. But the reinvigorated public discussion set off by the nomination of Mr. Brennan has raised hopes in Congress that the debate will continue even if he is confirmed.

The refusal so far to share more of the opinions with Congress, or to make redacted versions of the memos public, comes despite a pledge of greater transparency by President Obama in his State of the Union address on Feb. 12. “I recognize that in our democracy, no one should just take my word that we’re doing things the right way,” the president said. “So, in the months ahead, I will continue to engage with Congress to ensure not only that our targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists remains consistent with our laws and system of checks and balances, but that our efforts are even more transparent to the American people and to the world.” The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, has long called for all Justice Department legal opinions on intelligence to go to the committee. But a spokesman said she did not believe the issue should block Mr. Brennan’s confirmation. The votes of at least two other Democratic senators who feel strongly about greater access to the legal opinions, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, are less certain.

“I still have a number of unanswered questions about the president’s authority to kill Americans who are deemed to be a threat to the United States,” Mr. Wyden said. He said that he was “encouraged” by Mr. Obama’s promise of greater transparency in the State of the Union address but that “the administration has not yet lived up to that commitment.” The administration is currently in discussions with Republican members of the Intelligence Committee about providing the trail of e-mails that were the basis of “talking points” from the intelligence agencies regarding the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, which killed the American ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans. Such a concession would probably win at least some Republican votes for Mr. Brennan. By most accounts, Mr. Brennan is likely to be confirmed as director of the C.I.A., in part because some human rights advocates who were once deeply skeptical about his record are now ambivalent.

Reeva Steenkamp's Mom: Why Did Oscar Pistorius Do This?

The family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend wants answers, her mother told a Johannesburg newspaper, as South Africans braced to hear why prosecutors believe a national hero murdered the model who was shot multiple times. June Steenkamp, Reeva Steenkamp's mother, told The Times in a front page interview published Monday: "Why? Why my little girl? Why did this happen? Why did he do this?" "Just like that she is gone," the newspaper quoted her as saying in what it described as an emotional telephone interview. "In the blink of an eye and a single breath, the most beautiful person who ever lived is no longer here." Pistorius, who remains in custody in a red-brick, one-story police station in Pretoria, is set to return to court Tuesday for the start of his bail hearing. It will be the first opportunity for the prosecution to describe evidence police gathered against the 26-year-old double-amputee runner and the reasons why he was charged with murder.

Prosecutors allege the killing was premeditated. Pistorius' family denies he committed murder though they have not addressed whether he shot her. When word first emerged about the killing there was speculation in the local media that Steenkamp had been mistaken for an intruder in Pistorius' home. Police have said that was not something they were considering. In an email to The Associated Press on Monday, Pistorius' longtime track coach - who was yet to comment - said he believes the killing was an accident. "I pray that we can all, in time, come through this challenging situation following the accident and I am looking forward to the day I can get my boy back on the track," Ampie Louw wrote in his statement. "I am still in shock following the heart-breaking events that occurred last week and my thoughts and prayers are with both of the families involved." While Pistorius goes to court, Steenkamp's funeral will also be held Tuesday in her hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast, her family said. It is to be a private ceremony at a local crematorium, closed to the public and media. "We're just taking things one day at a time," Reeva Steenkamp's brother Adam Steenkamp said outside the family home. "But at the moment it's family coming together and the one person who would be the strongest, who held us all together, is unfortunately not here anymore - and that's my sister."

Just One Drink A Day Could Raise Your Cancer Risk

Alcohol-related cancer affected men and women equally in 2009, but with different cancers. While women with alcohol-related cancer were most likely to die from breast cancer, men were most likely to have died from oral, pharynx, larynx and esophageal cancer, Alcohol-linked breast cancer deaths accounted for 15 percent of all breast cancer deaths. While the majority – an estimated 54 percentage – of these deaths occurred in people who drank more than three alcoholic drinks per day, the researchers found that, depending on the type of cancer, up to 33 percent of people who died from alcohol-related cancer had consumed only one alcoholic drink per day on average.

Alcohol as Part of an Unhealthy Lifestyle In the new study, alcohol-related cancers predominantly killed people who consumed 40 grams or more of alcohol per day – approximately three drinks or more. Drinking between one and three alcoholic drinks per day was linked to 14 to 17 percent of alcohol-related cancer deaths, and one drink or less per day was responsible for between 25 and 35 percent. (If that last set of number seems large, researchers explained that the higher percentage of deaths at the lower level of alcohol consumption is due to the fact that there are more people in the one-drink-per-day category.) While researchers are not exactly sure how alcohol may lead to cancer, it is clear that poor health habits – not just drinking – play a major role in cancer risk.

Dr. Nelson says that people who drink a lot often also have a poor diet and/or smoke, which, coupled with alcohol use, puts them at a greater risk for developing cancer. “There are some types of alcohol-related cancer, such as oral, where there are strong relationships between alcohol and tobacco,” he says. “Cancer is a complex disease, but as a general rule, it is safe to say that people who are smokers are less likely to live a healthy lifestyle.” And a healthy lifestyle is the best way to ward off cancer, regardless of whether you drink alcohol, said Eric Jacobs, PhD, strategic director of pharmacoepidemiology for the American Cancer Society, in an e-mailed statement “Whether or not you drink alcohol, not smoking, being physically active, and maintaining a healthy weight can greatly lower your risk of fatal cancer as well as improve your general health," Dr. Jacobs said in the statement.

Women and Breast Cancer: Assessing the Alcohol Risk The dramatic link between alcohol and breast cancer death rates raises a question: Should women limit their alcohol consumption even more than is currently recommended? Moderate drinking is currently defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as one drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. “There is no safe level of alcohol consumption for breast cancer,” asserts David H. Jernigan PhD, associate professor in the department of health, behavior and society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. “The risk begins to increase the minute you pick up a drink. Women with breast cancer in their family should think long and hard about their decision to drink.” Clifford Hudis MD, chief of the breast cancer medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, has a different view, saying the breast cancer risk posed by drinking is simply a part of life.

"There’s no such thing as a zero-risk life," Dr. Hudis says. "Unfortunately, alcohol is a part of many people's social lives, so I think those people just need to be aware of a slightly increased risk of cancer." Knowing your family history is key to deciding whether you should avoid alcohol over fears of breast cancer, says Freya Schnabel, MD, a professor in the department of surgery at New York University Cancer Center in New York City. You need to know what you’re at risk for before you can start mitigating that risk, she says. “People need to be thoughtful about their family history and figure out where their risks are coming from,” says Dr. Schnabel. “I see a lot of people where everyone in their family has breast cancer. For them, they may want to restrict and be careful about their approach to alcohol.” How Alcohol Can Help and Hurt Health Although this new study outlines the cancer risks linked to alcohol, previous studies have indicated that there may be some benefit to moderate alcohol consumption, says Jacobs.

“While even light drinking may increase risk of some cancers, notably breast cancer, light drinking may also help lower risk of heart disease, and overall death rates do not appear to be increased in light drinkers,” Jacob says. But conflicting information on the benefits and risks of alcohol makes it difficult for consumers to understand how they should balance their consumption, says Chandini Portteus, vice president of research, evaluation, and scientific programs for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. “I think it’s confusing for an everyday consumer,” says Portteus. “What we need to know more about is what the threshold is — if there is a safe limit on alcohol consumption. We don’t really understand if there is a threshold or if any alcohol consumption is a concern.” The important thing for consumers is to look at all the information available and make an educated decision on what’s best for them based on all of the research, Portteus says:

“We can’t look at one study in isolation from the rest." But Nelson thinks the purported benefits of alcohol consumption are overrated when compared to the risks. “Even if you took into account all the potential benefits of alcohol,” he says, “it causes 10 times as many deaths as it prevents worldwide.” However, notes Jernigan, most people don’t want to hear that going to the bar after work could be setting you up for cancer down the line. “The message that alcohol could be good for you resonates so much more pleasantly than the message that alcohol can kill you,” he says. “We are deeply ambivalent about alcohol because we want to enjoy it and not think about its health effects.” The most important thing, Nelson believes, is to make people understand that alcohol is a carcinogen. While it may be impossible to get people to stop drinking, making them aware of the dangers can help them make smarter decisions. “We spend a lot of time talking about potential cancer-causing agents, but alcohol is missing from the discussion,” he says. “If people really want to reduce their cancer risk, one of the things they can do is avoid alcohol.”

Reid: Republicans Mounting Filibuster Against Chuck Hagel

Senate Republicans are following through on their threat to filibuster former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), President Barack Obama's nominee for defense secretary, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday morning. "It is tragic that they have decided to filibuster this qualified nominee," said Reid. "It is really unfortunate." The significance of Reid's announcement wasn't immediately clear, as he gave no indication as to whether or not Democrats had the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster attempt. It was only after Reid finished speaking that a Democratic Senate aide confirmed that the majority leader doesn't yet have the votes to overcome a Hagel filibuster. It was assumed that many Republicans would vote against Hagel but allow his nomination to come to an up-or-down vote. Reid said that blocking Hagel through procedural means would be unprecedented. "This isn't high school getting ready for a football game, or some play being produced at a high school," said Reid.

"In less than two hours, our country will be without a secretary of defense." The first vote on Hagel's nomination will come on Friday. If Reid can muster 60 yes votes by then, the chamber will begin a debate period. After that, there will be a final vote on Saturday. It is customary for a president to be granted the leeway to choose his own advisers. But Hagel was a controversial choice among his fellow Republicans, owing to his public criticisms of President George W. Bush's foreign policy, his advocacy for confronting Iran's nuclear program via diplomatic means and his past criticisms of the Israeli lobby's influence within the halls of Congress. Speaking on the floor, however, Reid said that Republicans were holding up the nomination because of the administration's refusal to release additional information about the September attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. "Chuck Hagel had nothing to do with the attack in Benghazi," Reid said. The last defense secretary who was not confirmed by the Senate was John Tower, whose admission of past personal transgressions led to his nomination's downfall by a vote of 53 to 47 in 1989. That was a defeat via regular order, not a filibuster.

Report: Chris Dorner's Driver's License Found Near Charred Body

It was there that Christopher Dorner apparently took refuge last Thursday, four days after beginning a deadly rampage that would claim four lives. The search ended Tuesday when a man believed to be Dorner bolted from hiding, stole two cars, barricaded himself in a vacant cabin and mounted a last stand in a furious shootout in which he killed one sheriff's deputy and wounded another before the building erupted in flames. He never emerged from the ruins and hours later a charred body was found inside. "We have reason to believe that it is him," San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Cynthia Bachman said. Dorner, 33, had said in a lengthy rant police believe he posted on Facebook that he expected to die in one final, violent confrontation with police, and if it was him in the cabin that's just what happened.

The apparent end came very close to where his trail went cold six days earlier when his burning pickup truck - with guns and camping gear inside - was abandoned with a broken axle on a fire road in the San Bernardino National Forest near the ski resort town of Big Bear Lake. His footprints led away from the truck and vanished on frozen soil. With no sign of him and few leads, police offered a $1 million reward to bring him to justice and end a "reign of terror" that had more than 50 families of targeted Los Angeles police officers under round-the-clock protection after he threatened to bring "warfare" to the LAPD, officers and their kin. Just a few hours after police announced Tuesday that they had fielded more than 1,000 tips with no sign of Dorner, word came that a man matching his description had tied up two people in a Big Bear Lake cabin, stole their car and fled. Authorities didn't immediately give more details on the two people. Game wardens from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife who were part of the search detail spotted the purple Nissan that had been reported stolen going in the opposite direction and gave chase, department spokesman Lt. Patrick Foy said. The driver looked like Dorner.

They lost the purple car after it passed a school bus and turned onto a side road, but two other Fish and Wildlife patrols turned up that road a short time later, and were searching for the car when a white pickup truck sped erratically toward the wardens. "He took a close look at the driver and realized it was the suspect," Foy said. Dorner, who allegedly stole the pickup truck at gunpoint after crashing the first car, rolled down a window and opened fire on the wardens, striking a warden's truck more than a dozen times. One of the wardens shot at the suspect as he rounded a curve in the road. It's unclear if he hit him, but the stolen pickup careened off the road and crashed in a snow bank. Dorner then ran to the cabin where he barricaded himself and got in a shootout with San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies and other officers who arrived.

Your Waistline Could Affect Your Oral Health

Your waistline could have an effect on your oral health, a new review of studies suggests. Research published in the journal General Dentistry shows an association between obesity and gum disease (also known as periodontitis), though whether one causes the other -- or vice versa -- has yet to be determined. But researchers do think that a possible reason for this association is that "obese individuals' bodies relentlessly produce cytokines, proteins with inflammatory properties," study researcher Charlene Krejci, DDS, MSD, who is an associate clinical professor in periodontics at Case Western Reserve University, said in a statement. "These cytokines may directly injure the gum tissues or reduce blood flow to the gum tissues, thus promoting the development of gum disease," Krejci said. Periodontitis occurs when the gums become inflamed or infected, which then spreads to other parts of the mouth responsible for keeping teeth in place. When this occurs, the teeth can more easily come out -- in fact, periodontitis is the main reason why people lose their teeth, according to the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. According to the study, as many as half of Americans age 30 and older have periodontitis.

Your Waistline Could Affect Your Oral Health

Your waistline could have an effect on your oral health, a new review of studies suggests. Research published in the journal General Dentistry shows an association between obesity and gum disease (also known as periodontitis), though whether one causes the other -- or vice versa -- has yet to be determined. But researchers do think that a possible reason for this association is that "obese individuals' bodies relentlessly produce cytokines, proteins with inflammatory properties," study researcher Charlene Krejci, DDS, MSD, who is an associate clinical professor in periodontics at Case Western Reserve University, said in a statement. "These cytokines may directly injure the gum tissues or reduce blood flow to the gum tissues, thus promoting the development of gum disease," Krejci said. Periodontitis occurs when the gums become inflamed or infected, which then spreads to other parts of the mouth responsible for keeping teeth in place. When this occurs, the teeth can more easily come out -- in fact, periodontitis is the main reason why people lose their teeth, according to the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. According to the study, as many as half of Americans age 30 and older have periodontitis.

Massive Manhunt Underway For Alleged Cop Killer

The first occurred in Corona and involved two LAPD officers working a security detail, LAPD Sgt. Alex Baez. One officer was grazed. Later, two officers on routine patrol in neighboring Riverside were ambushed at a stop light, said Riverside Lt. Guy Toussaint. One died and the other was in surgery. The Riverside officers shot overnight were not actively looking for Dorner, Toussaint said. "We're asking our officers to be extraordinarily cautious just as we're asking the public to be extraordinarily cautious with this guy. He's already demonstrated he has a propensity for shooting innocent people. We can't provide a lot of information now because we're trying to capture him," said Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "We don't know where he is. We're looking for the public's help to locate this guy.

Anybody who sees him or believes they see him or his vehicle should call 911." Dorner's LAPD badge and an ID were found near San Diego's airport and were turned in to police at early Thursday, San Diego police Sgt. Ray Battrick said. Dorner is wanted in the killings of Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure Sunday night, Irvine police Chief David L. Maggard said at a news conference Wednesday night. Dorner, 33, implicated himself in the killings with a multi-page "manifesto" that he wrote that included threats against several people, including members of the LAPD, police said. They gave no further details on the document or its contents. Autopsies showed that Quan and Lawrence were killed by multiple gunshot wounds in the parking structure at their condominium in Irvine, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said earlier Wednesday.

Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California. The killings brought mourning and disbelief at three college campuses, Fullerton, USC, and Concordia University, where the two met when they were both students and basketball players. Police said the U.S. Navy reservist may be driving a blue 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck. His last known address was in La Palma in northern Orange County near Fullerton. Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements. Quan's father, a former LAPD captain who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.

Randal Quan retired in 2002. He later served as chief of police at Cal Poly Pomona before he started practicing law. According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans. Dorner said that in the course of an arrest, Evans kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia. Following an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements. Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man's father, gave testimony that supported Dorner's claim. After his son was returned on July 28, 2007, Richard Gettler asked "if he had been in a fight because his face was puffy" and his son responded that he was kicked twice in the chest by a police officer.

Paul Ryan Says No To Vote-Rigging Scheme

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has come out against altering the way his state allocates its Electoral College votes, even though the proposed change could have meant that he and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have won the 2012 election. Currently, nearly every state awards its Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who captures a majority of the popular vote across the entire state. Only Maine and Nebraska allocate an electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district, with the final two votes going to the person who wins the popular vote statewide. But Republicans in some swing states now want to be more like Maine and Nebraska.

President Barack Obama won the popular vote in such swing states as Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio in 2012. Yet through heavy-handed redistricting and even gerrymandering, the GOP-controlled legislatures in those states had ensured that most of their congressional districts were strongly Republican. So if the GOP plan to award votes based on congressional districts had been in effect, Obama could have been chosen by the majority of the states' residents but lost the majority of their electoral votes -- and the election -- anyway. Nevertheless, Ryan told the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board last week that he believes the Badger State has more power if it maintains a winner-take-all system.

"I've always kind of liked the idea of being targeted as a state," he said. "I'd hate to be a flyover state. I'd like to be in the hunt for being a targeted state. I think it's good for us." In the 2012 election, Obama beat Romney in Wisconsin by 7 percentage points. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has called changing the way the state apportions its Electoral College votes an "interesting idea," although like Ryan, he expressed concern that it could take away some of the state's influence. The issue gained traction nationally, when Republicans in the Virginia state Senate recently attempted to push through similar changes. That plan appears dead for now, as both Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and a couple of Republican lawmakers have said they are opposed to it.

Report: GOP Senator To Support Hagel For Defense Secretary

Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) will support his former colleague Chuck Hagel's nomination for U.S. defense secretary, the Lincoln Journal Star reported Saturday. Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, faced about eight hours of tough questioning on Thursday during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The White House defended Hagel's performance on Friday, maintaining that the former senator will garner enough votes for confirmation. As the Omaha World-Herald reported last month, many eyes have turned to the GOP senators from Hagel's home state, Johanns and Deb Fischer.

“Chuck Hagel’s military career is nothing short of admirable and while he has been a long-time friend, we do have very different opinions on many very important issues," Johanns said in a statement after Obama announced his nomination of Hagel. "Now that he has been nominated, he has an obligation to elaborate on his past statements and fully explain his positions during what I expect to be a thorough and fair confirmation hearing." Earlier this week, Johanns signaled that he was leaning towards supporting Hagel. "It sure seems to me that this has gone well," Johanns told the Journal Star after meeting privately with Hagel ahead of the confirmation hearing. At the time, Johanns said he would reserve his final decision until after the hearing. Johanns is the second Republican to back Hagel. The first was Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), who endorsed Hagel on Tuesday. A committee vote on Hagel may come as early as next Thursday. Democrats hold a 14-12 edge on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Gun Deaths Since Sandy Hook Top 1,280

It was Christmas night when Sincere Smith, 2, found his father’s loaded gun on the living room table of their Conway, S.C., mobile home. It took just a second for Smith’s tiny hands to find the trigger and pull. A single bullet ripped into his upper right chest and out his back. His father, Rondell Smith, said he had turned away to call Sincere’s mother, who had left to visit a friend. His back was turned to the toddler, he said, for just that moment. Sincere was still conscious when his father scooped him up and rushed him to the hospital, just a few minutes away. Eleven hours earlier, Sincere Smith had woken up to Christmas -- the first that he was old enough to appreciate. His father remembered their last morning well -– his son ripping through wrapping paper, squealing with delight with each new gift -- his first bike, a bright toy barn. It was quite a sight seeing Sincere so happy around a cloud of crinkled wrapping paper.

“We bought him a little barn thing,” Smith said. “He knew what a barn is. He just seen it -– ‘Oh Mommy, Daddy! Barn!’ He went crazy over it. … He lit up like a Christmas tree.” Smith, 30, lit up too. “I just wanted to see him open them up,” he said. His own parents were teenagers when they had him. He had vowed to be there for his five children, giving up college and a possible basketball career to take care of them. With Sincere, he promised his wife he’d be a hands-on parent. He said he considered Sincere his best friend. The two kept close that day visiting relatives for more presents and a Christmas dinner of chicken and macaroni and cheese. “Everything was normal,” Smith said. “He was happy. Everything was good then.” Two weeks earlier, Smith had bought a .38-caliber handgun to protect his family after bandits had tried to break into their home. He doesn’t know what to say about the national gun-control debate. He just wants that lost second back. “I would say, man, keep them out of your house,” he offered. “It’s just. Boy. All it takes is a second. Just a second to turn your head. I don’t know, sir.” Sincere died on an ambulance gurney as he was transferred to a second hospital in Charleston. He never got to ride his new blue Spiderman bike outside. It sits in the trunk of his grandmother Sheila Gaskin's car. "He didn't get to ride his bike," she explained. "It was cold [on Christmas].

My daughter doesn't want to take it back to the store." Gaskin lives across the street from her daughter and Smith. She saw Sincere every day of his life. "He hear me coming down the road, my gospel music blasting and he hollering 'Nana!'" she recalled. Now, she said she visits his grave every day. She hasn't gotten a full night's sleep since the accident. "It's just killing me," she said. After Sincere was shot, Rondell Smith thought about taking his own life, Gaskin said. "It's just not good," she said. "It's not good at all. He just has to stay prayed up. ... That's all he can do is give it to God." Smith wasn't at Sincere's side when he died in the ambulance. He was being interrogated by the police, who eventually charged him with involuntary manslaughter. His next court date is Feb. 8. As he was rushing Sincere to the hospital, Smith said he told his son that he loved him. "He couldn't really talk," Smith said. "Last thing I heard him say was, 'Daddy.' He kept trying to say 'Daddy.' Believe me I hear it every day." There were 29 other shooting deaths across the U.S. on Christmas. A soldier was shot and killed in his barracks in Alaska. A man was murdered in the parking lot of Eddie's Bar and Grill in Orrville, Ala. A 23-year-old was shot at a party in Phoenix. A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department employee was killed in a drive-by. A 20-year-old Louisville, Ky., man was shot and killed after walking his sister home.

On Christmas Eve, he had posted an R.I.P. on his Facebook page for a friend and former classmate, who had been gunned down that day. A 10-year-old in Memphis, Tenn., Alfreddie Gipson, was accidentally shot to death by gun purchased by an older brother, who had gotten the weapon after being bullied at school. Gipson was jumping on a bed when the gun slipped out of a mattress. It discharged when his 12-year-old brother tried to put it back, their mother said at a vigil. There were at least 41 homicides or accidental gun deaths on New Year's Eve. On New Year's Day, at least 54 people died from bullet wounds. Through Google and Nexis searches, The Huffington Post has tracked gun-related homicides and accidents throughout the U.S. since the schoolhouse massacre in Newtown, Conn., on the morning of Dec. 14. There were more than 100 such deaths the first week after the school shooting. In the first seven weeks after Newtown, there have been more than 1,280 gunshot homicides and accidental deaths. Slate has counted 1,475 fatal shooting incidents since Newtown, including suicides and police-involved shooting deaths, which The Huffington Post did not include in its tally. A 17-year-old took his last breath in the backyard of an abandoned house in New Orleans. Prince Jones, 19, was found bleeding to death in a 1998 Buick LeSabre in Nashville, Tenn. A woman was slumped over the steering wheel in Houston, the engine still running. A 52-year-old man was shot and killed at a Checkers parking lot in Atlanta.

A 26-year-old man was shot to death in a church parking lot in Jacksonville, Fla. Steven E. Lawson, 28, was shot and killed just outside a church in Flint, Mich., where he was attending a funeral for another gunshot victim. On a Tuesday morning in Baton Rouge, La., police knocked on Alean Thomas' door and told her: "You have a young man dead in your driveway." It was her 19-year-old son. Three days later, a 17-year-old in California was killed visiting family for his birthday. On a Thursday afternoon in New Orleans' Sixth Ward, Dementrius Adams was murdered on his way to buy groceries for his mother. He was 28 and had a 5-year-old daughter. "He was a hard-working man," his sister said told a reporter. "He was so proud of his job. ... He was a good brother, a good father -- he was a loveable man." Adams had just been promoted from a dishwashing job to cook at a New Orleans restaurant. The dead included grandmothers and a 6 month old. There were police officers and a Texas prosecutor. There was a Bodega worker in Queens, N.Y., and a gas station attendant in East Orange, N.J. A high school majorette, a college freshman at Auburn University and a man planning to get his GED in Bradenton, Fla., were killed. One victim became Chicago's 500th murder of 2012. Another was his town's 40th. One was found frozen and bloody in an alley -- Tacoma, Wash.'s first slaying of 2013.

The victim, a mother, was planning to move with her daughters to Manhattan. "I am lost, hollow," said the mother of the GED aspirant gunned down at a Chevron station on New Year's Day. In Newport News, Va., after a shooting broke out, a mother ran outside to protect her two sons, ages 5 and 7. She yelled at one of the gunman and was killed. A Davidson, N.C., husband murdered his wife, then shot himself . Their 3-year-old daughter was found watching T.V. in another room. There were murder-suicides in Florida, Kentucky, Oregon, Texas and California. Most were men killing women, husbands killing wives, boyfriends killing girlfriends, sons killing mothers. There were so many drive-bys. On Jan. 11, in Baltimore, Devon Shields, 26, was found lying in a street with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. Three hours later, Delroy Davis was found lying face-up between two houses. Two-and-a-half hours later, Baltimore police rushed to a double-shooting that left one man dead with multiple gunshot wounds. The next day, Sean Rhodes was found "lying face-down in a pool of blood," according to the Baltimore City Paper. Two others survived gunshot wounds. Silly arguments became final arguments. A man was murdered over two broken cigarettes. Another after getting into a spat at a taco truck. Travis Len Massey, 23, was shot and killed by his sister's boyfriend in a family dispute over a missing gun. A 52-year-old Jacksonville man shot and killed a longtime friend over an argument, according to police. When asked what the argument was about, the gunman said he didn't remember, according to a television report.