Actress Amanda Bynes was arrested in her New York apartment Thursday night on charges of reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and criminal possession of marjuana, NBC New York reported.The doorman of the building called police to report that Bynes was smoking marijuana in the lobby, sources told the station. Before officers arrived, Bynes, 27, had gone back to her 36th floor apartment, a...

Three people were rescued from a river after a bridge along Interstate-5 in Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, plunging cars into the water below, according to Washington State Patrol.The extent of the injuries for the three is unclear, but all were evaluated on scene and were transported to area hospitals, according to Marcus Deyerin of the Washington Incident Management Team. Author...

A bridge along Interstate-5 in Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, leaving at least two cars and some people submerged in water, according to Washington State Patrol.It was unclear how many people were in the Skagit River, the waterway in northern Washington that the four-lane bridge crossed.The incident happened around 7 p.m. local time, and traffic has been closed in both directions....

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay kids and teens from joining one of the nation's most popular youth organizations, ditching membership guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.Over 61 percent of Scouting's National Council of 1,400 delegates from across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said. The fin...

Jurors in the high-profile Jodi Arias trial on Thursday failed to reach an agreement over whether she should receive the death penalty for killing her ex-boyfriend.Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens called for a retrial in the penalty phase after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict. The new jury will be impaneled on July 18, unless the prosecutor decides to no longer see...

Amid a raft of Pentagon initiatives to slow its suicide crisis, a new Army report Thursday showed the pace of self-inflicted deaths among soldiers — and all service members — has barely budged so far this year from the record rate the military suffered during 2012. Through April, the U.S. military has recorded 161 potential suicides in 2013 among active-duty troops, reservists and National Guard m...

In a major address Thursday President Barack Obama sought to reframe the nation’s counterterrorism strategy, saying, “Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. But this war, like all wars, must end. That's what history advises. That's what our democracy demands.”Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington Obama said, “America is at a crossroads. We mus...

The father of the man who was  killed by FBI agents — after allegedly admitting he and Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev committed a triple homicide in 2011 — claims that his son is innocent and federal investigators made up their case against him.Investigators say Ibragim Todashev told them on Wednesday that he and Tsarnaev killed three people in a Boston suburb two years ago in what sourc...

Following the Boy Scouts of America's vote on Thursday to end its policy banning gay kids and teens from joining the organization while continuing to bar adult gays from serving as Scout leaders, reaction poured in from across the Internet. Here's a sampling. Related:Boy Scouts vote to allow gays

By Elizabeth Chuck, Jamie Novogrod, and Tom Winter, NBC NewsThe defense team for George Zimmerman, the man charged with second-degree murder in the Florida shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, has released a trove of texts and photos from Martin's cell phone — but it's not clear whether they'll be admissible in trial.The newly released evidence, posted to a website run by Zimmerman's...

For the second time in less than a year, the main satellite that keeps an eye on severe weather systems in the eastern half of the United States has malfunctioned, according to government officials. The failure is indicative of the overall aging of the nation's weather satellite network that could lead to gaps in coverage as the fleet is replaced, an expert said.Although a backup satellite began o...

It sounded too good to be true and unfortunately it was.  Three research studies out Thursday severely diminish the hope that a cancer drug already on the market could be an Alzheimer’s treatment.In February 2012 scientists at Case Western University Medical Center reported that a drug approved to treat skin cancer cured a mouse of a form of Alzheimer’s.  They reported the drug eliminated the plaq...

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterro...

Lois Lerner, the IRS official who oversees the agency’s division in charge of tax-exempt organizations, has been placed on administrative leave, a source told NBC News on Thursday. The IRS has selected Ken Corbin as acting director during Lerner's absence.Lerner, whose responsibility for the targeting of conservative groups at the IRS has become a point of scrutiny in the controversy, had come und...

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The Boy Scouts of America voted on Thursday to end its controversial policy banning gay kids and teens from joining one of the nation's most popular youth organizations, ditching membership guidelines that had roiled the group in recent years.Over 60 percent of the The National Council of 1,400 delegates from Scouting across the country voted to lift the ban, BSA officials said...

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- As 1,400 Boy Scouts of America delegates gathered Thursday to vote on a proposal to end the organization’s longstanding ban on gay youth, activists on both sides of the contentious issue ramped up the pressure.A group opposed to allowing gay Scouts posted a call to prayer on its Facebook page – a sign of how large religion looms over the vote.“Would you join us in a time of sol...

“Star Trek Into Darkness” has already conquered the box office, and now J.J. Abrams and crew can toast their success with the first officially licensed adult beverage in the “Star Trek” universe, Vulcan Ale.Vulcan Ale was dreamed up by Canada’s Delancey Direct to celebrate the centennial of Vulcan, Alberta, a small Canadian prairie town that has leveraged its name (which it shares with Spock’s hom...

The “Hangover” franchise is all about the Wolf Pack getting into and out of a lot of trouble in a short period of time. But everything's relative. Some of the movie trouble (head-shaving) is relatively minor, but other events (stealing Mike Tyson's tiger?) are crazy. With "Hangover Part III" opening May 23, here's a ranking of the trouble the boys got into in the first two installments.Crazy ranki...

Zzzzz... Look, film promotion can be an exhausting business. And who can blame an esteemed actor like Morgan Freeman if he gets tired of doing the same kind of local-news interview to promote his new movie in dozens of cities? Freeman and Michael Caine spoke to Seattle's Fox affiliate, Q13, via satellite from New York on Wednesday, and it looked as if Freeman grabbed a little shut-eye while Caine ...

By Megan GannonSpace.comVials of moon dust brought back to Earth by the first men on the moon have been found inside a lab warehouse in California after sitting in storage unnoticed for more than 40 years.The samples — collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — were rediscovered last month by an archivist who was going over artifacts tucked away at the Lawrence Berkeley Nat...

Tamerlan Tsarnaev landed on America's terrorist watch list in 2011. Tamerlan's younger brother, Dzhokhar, now charged in the Boston Marathon bombing case, seems not to have made the list.Ultimately, Tamerlan's inclusion on the watch list did not lead investigators to detect the April 15 bomb plot that killed three and wounded at least 260 – prompting inevitable questions about why not, and whether...

Children need a full hour of exercise in schools every day, and not just in physical education classes, the Institute of Medicine recommended on Thursday.Schools that have dumped education classes need to put them back on the schedule, the report recommends. They also need to help kids get up and moving in the classroom, at recess and after school, a committee of experts appointed by the Ins...

Batten down the hatches.Forecasters said Wednesday that the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be "above normal and possibly extremely active," predicting three to six major hurricanes this season.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its outlook that it forecast seven to 11 Atlantic hurricanes for the 2013 season, which officially begins on June 1."NOAA predicts an ...

Housing is going to propel the economic recovery, or so many experts have said. Some of them are warning, however, that the enthusiasm should be curbed despite all the upbeat data recently.Robert Shiller, Karl Case and David Blitzer -- leading experts in the housing market -- believe several headwinds will keep a lid on housing gains, such as a low level of new home starts, an unexpectedly slow mi...

LONDON - A mother-of-two who confronted a blood-soaked, knife-carrying man in the moments after what is suspected to be the ideologically motivated murder of a British soldier said she wanted to protect onlookers.Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, jumped off the bus she was riding in southeast London Wednesday when she saw the man slumped on the sidewalk next to a crashed car.British police said on Thursda...