"House of Cards" success surprises co-creator

(CBS News) "House of Cards" is a new show with an age-old theme: politicians thirsty for power, but you won't find it on television. In fact, you may have already seen the entire first season. All 13 episodes of the successful show debuted at once last month on Netflix.

"We didn't know whether everyone would watch it in 13 hours straight or whether anyone would watch it at all. We've been thrilled with the response, and we've had a lot of marathon watchers," said Beau Willimon, the show's co-creator. "It seems like it's an experiment, in this case, that worked out."

Streaming movies: It's the pictures that got small

Willimon is not new to politics or entertainment. He's written for the stage and big screen but actually got his start working on the political campaigns of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer; former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was elected to the Senate twice; former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley; and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

His campaign background gave him first-hand insight in writing the new show and at the same time illustrating the behavior of political players. One of the main characters, Frank Underwood, played by Kevin Spacey, is especially capable in his ability to manipulate a situation in his favor.

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"He does make an argument for ends justifying the means at a time when congress is choked by gridlock and you see the Administration that's struggling to get its agenda forward," said Willimon. "He gets things done. So he might be doing it for incredibly self-serving reasons, but at the same time he makes progress and I think a lot of people find that at this particular time quite attractive."

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With no pope, cardinals summoned for conclave

VATICAN CITY The Catholic Church has awoken with no pontiff following Benedict XVI's resignation, in which he pledged obedience to his successor and described himself as "simply a pilgrim" starting the final part of his life.

Now begins a period known as the "sede vacante" or "vacant see" — the transition between the end of one papacy and the election of a new pope.

During these few days — no more than 20 — a few key players take charge running the Holy See, guiding the College of Cardinals in their deliberations and organizing the conclave to elect Benedict's successor.

In one of his first official acts as dean, Cardinal Angelo Sodano on Friday officially summoned cardinals to Rome to participate in the conclave, a formality given that most are already here. Sodano sent official "convocation letters" to the cardinals' offices around the world Friday, along with electronic versions via email, summoning them to the Vatican.

And in one of his first official acts as camerlengo, or the chamberlain who actually runs the Holy See in the transition, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone sealed Benedict's apartment in the Apostolic Palace on Thursday night. It will not be reopened until a new pope is elected.

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Pope Benedict XVI officially retires

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Pope leaving behind unfinished business

With the 8 p.m. Thursday end of Benedict's papacy, every department head in the Vatican lost his job — except for those whose offices are crucial for the smooth running of the transition period itself.

Cardinals on Monday will begin formal meetings to set the date for the conclave and discuss problems facing the church; major topics of discussion are expected to be the report Benedict commissioned into the leaks of sensitive Vatican documents and the dysfunction currently reigning in the Vatican bureaucracy.

The date for the conclave of cardinals to begin their deliberations has not yet been set, although one of Pope Benedict XVI's final acts before resigning his office was to amend the rules governing the election of a successor, allowing the cardinals to meet earlier than the usual 15-day transition between pontificates.

On Thursday, soon after Benedict left the Vatican on his final day as pope, Monsignor Carlo Maria Celli, a papal communications officer, hinted that the date could be March 11. That could not be immediately confirmed.

The date of the conclave's start is important because Holy Week begins March 24, with Easter Sunday March 31. In order to have a new pope in place for the church's most solemn liturgical period, he would need to be installed by Sunday, March 17

"What we talk about ... will be certainly the governance of the church and in that context there may be questions to people who did the report," said Chicago Cardinal Francis George. "I think we will find out a lot from a lot of sources to figure out what is necessary now to govern the church well here in Rome itself."

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Manning makes sudden admission in WikiLeaks case

Updated at 11:43 a.m. ET

FORT MEADE, Md. An Army private charged in the biggest leak of classified material in U.S. history offered guilty pleas Thursday to 10 of 22 charges against him and a military judge said she would allow the soldier to read a statement explaining his actions.

Pfc. Bradley Manning would plead guilty to sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, in violation of military regulations but not in violation of federal espionage laws.

The judge, Col. Denise Lind, must decide whether to accept the guilty pleas, which could carry a sentence of 20 years in prison. Prosecutors could still pursue a court-martial on the remaining charges, including aiding the enemy, which carries a potential life sentence.

The 25-year-old Manning is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports, State Department diplomatic cables, other classified records and two battlefield video clips to WikiLeaks in 2009 and 2010 while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

The Obama administration has said releasing the information threatened valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments. Experts say that by seeking to punish Manning, the administration is sending a strong message that such leaks will not be tolerated.

Manning supporters — who held events Saturday to mark his 1,000 days in confinement — consider him a whistleblowing hero whose actions exposed war crimes and helped trigger the Middle Eastern pro-democracy uprisings known as the Arab Spring in late 2010.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that Manning has submitted a written statement about the leak and the motive behind it that he wanted to read in court during Thursday's hearing. Prosecutors objected to the statement, but the judge said Thursday she would allow him to read it.

Manning has won few significant victories in his lengthy pretrial proceedings, which included testimony from the soldier about how he was deprived of his clothing and told to stand at attention naked while on suicide watch at the maximum-security Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Va. He has since been transferred to medium-security confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

The judge ruled that Manning was illegally punished for part of the time he spent at Quantico and that 112 days should be cut from any prison sentence he receives if convicted.

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Anti-virus firm makes new revelation on Stuxnet

Updated at 11:22 a.m. ET

LONDON The sophisticated cyberweapon which targeted an Iranian nuclear plant is older than previously believed, an anti-virus firm said Tuesday, peeling back another layer of mystery on a series of attacks attributed to U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

The Stuxnet worm, aimed at the centrifuges in Iran's Natanz plant, transformed the cybersecurity field because it was the first known computer attack specifically designed to cause physical damage. The precise origins of the worm remain unclear, but until now the earliest samples of Stuxnet had been dated to 2009.

Security experts generally agree that Stuxnet was an attempt to sabotage Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges, which can be used to make fuel for reactors or weapons-usable material for atomic bombs. Iran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

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Stuxnet: Computer worm opens new era of warfare

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Stuxnet copycats: Let the hacking begin

As "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft reported last year, Stuxnet was incredibly complicated and sophisticated, beyond the cutting edge. By the time it was first detected in June 2010, it had been out in the wild for a year without drawing anyone's attention, and seemed to spread by way of USB thumb drives, not over the Internet.

By the fall of 2010, the consensus was that Iran's top secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz was the target and that Stuxnet was a carefully constructed weapon designed to be carried into the plant on a corrupted laptop or thumb drive, then infect the system, disguise its presence, move through the network, changing computer code and subtly alter the speed of the centrifuges without the Iranians ever noticing, Kroft reported.

"Stuxnet's entire purpose is to control centrifuges," Liam O Murchu, an operations manager for Symantec, told Kroft. "To make centrifuges speed up past what they're meant to spin at and to damage them. Certainly it would damage the uranium enrichment facility and they would need to be replaced."

Last June, The New York Times traced the origins of the top-secret program back to 2006.

In a new report issued late Tuesday, Symantec Corp. pushed that timeline further back, saying it had found a primitive version of Stuxnet circulating online in 2007 and that elements of the program had been in place as far back as 2005.

One independent expert who examined the report said it showed that the worm's creators were particularly far-sighted.

"What it looks like is that somebody's been thinking about this for a long, long time — the better part of a decade," said Alan Woodward, a computer science professor at the University of Surrey. "It really points to a very clever bunch of people behind all of this."

Nuclear Iran: Sites and potential targets

A look at the locations where Iran carries out work linked to its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons

The Times reported that President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of Stuxnet against Iran in a bid to put the brakes on its atomic energy program, detailing how the worm tampered with the operation of Natanz's centrifuge machines to send them spinning out of control.

President Obama, who succeeded Bush shortly after the first attacks, expanded the campaign, the report said.

U.S. and Israeli officials have long declined to comment publicly on Stuxnet or their alleged involvement in creating and deploying the computer worm.

Symantec's report suggests that an intermediate version of the worm — Stuxnet 0.5 — was completed in November 2007. That worm lacked some of the sophistication of its descendant, Symantec said, and was designed to interfere with the centrifuges by opening and closing the valves which control the flow of uranium gas, causing a potentially damaging buildup in pressure.

That approach was dropped in later, improved versions of the Stuxnet code.

Symantec said the servers used to control the primitive worm were set up in November 2005, suggesting that Stuxnet's trailblazing authors were plotting out their attack at a time when many parts of the Internet now taken for granted were not yet in place. Twitter did not exist, Facebook was still largely limited to U.S. college campuses, and YouTube was in its infancy.

Woodward said that had troubling implications.

"Clearly these were very forward-thinking, clever people that were doing this," he said. "There's no reason to think that they're less forward-thinking now. What are they up to?"

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At least 18 tourists die in balloon crash in Egypt

Updated 9:02 a.m. EST

LUXOR, Egypt A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists, a security official said. The death toll rose Tuesday afternoon after a British tourist died of his injuries.

It was one of the worst accidents involving tourists in Egypt and is likely to push the key tourism industry deeper into recession.

The casualties included French, British, Belgian, Hungarian, Japanese nationals and nine tourists from Hong Kong, Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad told reporters.

Three survivors of the crash -- two British tourists and one Egyptian -- were taken to a local hospital. Local media reports said the pilot was among the survivors. One of the British tourists eventually succumbed to his injuries.

According to the Egyptian security official, the balloon was carrying at least 20 tourists and over Luxor when it caught fire, which triggered an explosion in its gas canister. It then plunged at least 1,000 feet from the sky.

The balloon crashed into a sugar cane field outside al-Dhabaa village just west of Luxor, 320 miles south of Cairo, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Egyptians inspect the site where a hot air balloon exploded over the ancient temple city of Luxor on February 26, 2013.

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STR/AFP/Getty Images

Bodies of the dead tourists were scattered across the field around the remnants of the balloon. An Associated Press reporter at the crash site counted eight bodies as they were put into body bags and taken away. The security official said all 18 bodies have been recovered.

The official said foul play has been ruled out.

Egypt's civil aviation minister, Wael el-Maadawi, flew to Luxor to lead the investigation into the crash.

The head of Japan Travel Bureau's Egypt branch, Atsushi Imaeda, confirmed that four Japanese died in the crash. He said two were a couple in their 60s and from Tokyo. Details on the other two were not immediately available.

In Hong Kong, a travel agency said nine of the tourists that were aboard the balloon were natives of the semiautonomous Chinese city. There was a "very big chance that all nine have perished," said Raymond Ng, a spokesman for the agency. The nine, he said, included five women and four men from three families.

They were traveling with six other Hong Kong residents on a 10-day tour of Egypt.

Ng said an escort of the nine tourists watched the balloon from the ground catching fire around 7 a.m. and plunging to the ground two minutes later.

In Britain, tour operator Thomas Cook confirmed that two British tourists were dead and two were in hospital.

"What happened in Luxor this morning is a terrible tragedy and the thoughts of everyone in Thomas Cook are with our guests, their family and friends," said Peter Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook UK & Continental Europe.

"We have a very experienced team in resort with the two guests in the local hospital, and we're providing our full support to the family and friends of the deceased at this difficult time," he said.

In Paris, a diplomatic official said French tourists were among those involved in the accident, but would give no details on how many, or whether French citizens were among those killed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to be publicly named according to government policy, the official said French authorities were working with their Egyptian counterparts to clarify what happened. French media reports said two French tourists were among the dead but the official wouldn't confirm that.

Hot air ballooning, usually at sunrise over the famed Karnak and Luxor temples as well as the Valley of the Kings, is a popular pastime for tourists visiting the area.

The site of the accident has seen past crashes. In 2009, 16 tourists were injured when their balloon struck a cellphone transmission tower. A year earlier, seven tourists were injured in a similar crash.

Egypt's tourism industry has been decimated since the 18-day uprising in 2011 against autocrat leader Hosni Mubarak and the political turmoil that followed and continues to this day.

Luxor's hotels are currently about 25 percent full in what is supposed to be the peak of the winter season.

Scared off by the political turmoil and tenuous security that has followed the uprising, the number of tourists coming to Egypt fell to 9.8 million in 2011 from 14.7 million the year before, and revenues plunged 30 percent to $8.8 billion.

Poverty swelled at the country's fastest rate in Luxor, which is highly dependent on visitors to its monumental temples and the tombs of King Tutankhamun and other pharaohs. In 2011, 39 percent of its population lived on less than $1 a day, compared to 18 percent in 2009, according to government figures.

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Addressing controversy, Menendez invokes words of MLK

Amid a handful of allegations that threaten to mar his reputation in the Senate, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., continues to maintain his innocence, decrying the accusations as right-wing attempts to "destroy" his career and invoking the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in asserting his faith that justice will win out.

Menendez, who was re-elected to his seat in November, has since been hit with allegations that he solicited prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, where prostitution is legal. The FBI is looking into the claims. The allegations were originally reported by a conservative website citing an anonymous source.

Menendez has also been accused of improperly lobbying the State Department on a port security contract on behalf of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a close friend and donor. Menendez recently reimbursed Melgen $58,000 for two of three trips he took on Melgen's plane to the Dominican Republic in 2010, but called the tardy reimbursement an honest oversight and says the allegations against him are "absolutely false." The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating Menendez regarding those trips. Melgen himself is the target of more than one federal investigation stemming from allegations of Medicare fraud.

This weekend, at an event celebrating Black History Month at Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, N.J., the senator answered the accusations with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

"Dr. King said that 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,'" he said, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. "Now we face anonymous, faceless, nameless individuals from right-wing sources seeking to destroy a lifetime of work. And their scares are false. I have worked too hard and too long in the vineyards to allow, at my hands, for the harvest to be soured."

"I have felt the sting of discrimination," he said, according to the North Jersey Record.

Menendez said he believes ultimately, "justice will overcome the forces of darkness."

"I have my hand on the plough," he said, "and I am going to continue to look forward and to work to make that plough lead us to the fulfillment of educational, economic and health care opportunity in this country."

A recent Quinnipiac poll shows a recent drop in Menendez's popularity, with just 36 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving.

But the Democrat, who is at the start of another six-year term, brushed off the importance of those numbers.

"The only poll that matters is what do I get accomplished each and every day," he said, according to the Star-Ledger.

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NASCAR has some cleaning and explaining to do

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla .With the start of the Daytona 500 just hours away, NASCAR officials still have some cleaning up to do amid growing questions about fan safety.

The season opener will go off as planned Sunday less than 24 hours after at least 33 people were injured when a car flew into the fence during a NASCAR race at Daytona International Speedway, sending a tire and large pieces of debris sailing into the stands.

"Just seeing the carnage on the racetrack, it was truly unbelievable," driver Justin Allgaier said.

21 Photos

Daytona racecar loses control

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Fans injured in crash at Daytona

The final-lap accident Saturday marred the second-tier Nationwide Series race on the eve of a spectacle often called the Super Bowl of motorsports. Late into the night, track workers were scrambling to repair a huge section of fence that separates fans from the high-speed track.

Nathan Kimpel, 24, who works at a concession stand near where the crash happened, told CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz that he saw 10 to 15 fans being carried out on stretchers.

"As soon as I saw the accident I just turned my head because I didn't want to get injured or anything," Kimpel told Diaz. "I saw the fence separate and more pieces of car parts flying up."

Meghan Willams, 20, who also works at a concession stand, told Diaz the crash sounded like an "earthquake." She saw people running and crying and a girl completely covered in engine oil.

Byron Cogdell, a spokesman for Halifax Health Medical Center, told CBS News that one of the 11 patents taken to the hospital was in critical condition and five more were listed as "trauma" patients.

Speedway President Joie Chitwood III has a news conference scheduled for Sunday morning to give the latest update on repairs and any safety changes that could be made before the "Great American Race."

The 12-car crash began about 200 feet from the start-finish line as the front-runners approached the checkered flag. Leader Regan Smith attempted to block Brad Keselowski for the win, triggering a horrific pileup that could have been much worse.

The front end of Larson's No. 32 car was sheared off, and his burning engine wedged through a gaping hole in the fence. Parts and pieces of his car sprayed into the stands, including a tire that cleared the top of the fence and landed midway up the spectator section closest to the track.

The 20-year-old Larson stood in shock a few feet from his car as fans in the stands waved frantically for help. Smoke from the burning engine briefly clouded the area, and emergency vehicles descended on the scene.

Ambulance sirens could be heard wailing behind the grandstands at a time the race winner would typically be doing celebratory burnouts.

"It was freaky. When I looked to my right, the accident happened," Rick Harpster of Orange Park said. "I looked over and I saw a tire fly straight over the fence into the stands, but after that I didn't see anything else. That was the worst thing I have seen, seeing that tire fly into the stands. I knew it was going to be severe."

Shannan Devine of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., was sitting about 250 feet from where the car smashed into the fence and could see plumes of smoke directly in front of her.

"I didn't know if there was a car on top of people. I didn't know what to think," she said. "I'm an emotional person and I immediately started to cry. It was very scary. Absolutely scary. I love the speed of the sport. But it's so dangerous."

Chitwood said 14 fans were treated on site and 14 others were taken to hospitals. Local officials said 19 people were taken to neighboring hospitals, including two who were in critical but stable condition.

Because of potential injuries, race winner Tony Stewart skipped the traditional victory celebration.

Stewart, who won for the 19th time at Daytona and seventh time in the last nine season-opening Nationwide races, was in no mood to celebrate.

"The important thing is what is going on on the frontstretch right now," said Stewart, a three-time NASCAR champion. "We've always known, and since racing started, this is a dangerous sport. But it's hard. We assume that risk, but it's hard when the fans get caught up in it.

"So as much as we want to celebrate right now and as much as this is a big deal to us, I'm more worried about the drivers and the fans that are in the stands right now because that was ... I could see it all in my mirror, and it didn't look good from where I was at."

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White House to give senators Benghazi documents

WASHINGTON The White House has agreed to give the Senate Intelligence Committee documents related to the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, a congressional aide told The Associated Press Friday.

Republicans had demanded the documents as a condition of voting on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.

The documents include emails between top national security officials showing the debate within the administration over how to describe the attack and other documents the committee had been asking for, the aide said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The White House has said it has already turned over more than 10,000 pages of Benghazi-related documents, along with witness interviews, staff briefings and hours of testimony.

Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the administration was talking with members of Congress about their requests regarding both the Benghazi attacks and the use of drone strikes, but he declined to say whether those requests had been granted.

"That being said, the confirmation process should be about the nominees and their ability to do the jobs they're nominated for," Vietor said.

The attack on the Benghazi compound last Sept. 11 killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The Obama administration sent conflicting signals about whether the assault was a terrorist attack or an incident touched off by protests over an anti-Muslim video.

Republicans accused the administration of an election-year cover-up of an act of terrorism and repeatedly pressed for more information about the attack. An independent review that faulted the State Department and led to four employees being relieved of their duties failed to placate GOP lawmakers. They demanded testimony from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who spent more than five hours before two congressional panels, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey about the military's response to the attack.

Republicans also pressed the administration for emails, communiques and videos, and threatened to hold up the nominations of members of President Barack Obama's second-term national security team, including the choice of Chuck Hagel for the Pentagon and Brennan for CIA director.

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Georgia executes man lawyers claimed was mentally ill

JACKSON, Ga. A 38-year-old inmate convicted of killing two college students in 1995 was executed in Georgia on Thursday, apologizing to the families of both victims before being injected at a state prison.

Andrew Allen Cook was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m., about 14 minutes after he was injected with the sedative pentobarbital. He was the first inmate to be executed since the state changed its procedure in July from a three-drug combination to a single dose.

With his last words, he apologized to the families of Mercer University students Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19, who were shot several times as they sat in a car at Lake Juliette, which is about 75 miles south of Atlanta. He said what he did was senseless.

"I'm sorry," Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney. "I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I can't even do it myself."

He also thanked his family for "their support, for being with me and I'm sorry I took so much from you all."

The Georgia Appeals Court on Wednesday temporarily stayed Cook's execution to consider a challenge to the state's lethal injection procedure. But the Georgia Supreme Court lifted the stay Thursday and all other appeals were exhausted.

Cook's lawyers have argued at various stages in their appeals of his death sentence that he suffered from mental illness and was being treated for depression up to the time of his death.

Mary Hendrickson, the mother of one of the victims, recently told television station WMAZ-TV in Macon she's been waiting 18 years for justice.

"I think that's what it was: the devil's work," she said. "When all that is going on, I was just thinking to myself, 'Well, the devil is not going to win. He's not going to win over my heart. He is not going to win."'

The single-drug injection began at about 11:08 p.m. Cook blinked his eyes a few times, and his eyes soon got heavy. His chest was heaving for about two or three minutes as his eyes closed. Not too long after, two doctors examined him and nodded and Carl Humphrey, warden of the state prison in Jackson, pronounced him dead.

Corrections officials said Thursday evening that Cook had received visits from family earlier in the day and ate the last meal he had requested -- steak, a baked potato, potato wedges, fried shrimp, lemon meringue pie and soda.

A jury sentenced Cook to death after he was convicted in the January 2, 1995 slayings at Lake Juliette. Cook wasn't charged until more than two years later. He confessed to his father, a Macon FBI agent who ended up testifying at his son's trial.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reached out to John Cook in December 1995 because they were interested in speaking to his son. When he called his then-22-year-old son to tell him the GBI wanted to talk to him, he had no idea the younger man was considered a suspect.

"I said, 'Andy, the GBI is looking for you concerning the Lake Juliette homicide. Do you know anything about it?"' John Cook testified at his son's trial in March 1998. "He said, 'Daddy, I can't tell you. You're one of them. ... You're a cop."'

Eventually, Andrew Cook told his father that he knew about the slayings, that he was there and that he knew who shot the couple, John Cook recalled.

"I just felt like the world was crashing in on me. But I felt maybe he was there and just saw what happened," he said. "I then asked, 'Did you shoot them?'

"After a pause on the phone, he said, 'Yes."'

As a law enforcement officer, John Cook said he was forced to call his supervisor and contacted the Monroe County sheriff.

At the trial, as he walked away from the stand, the distraught father mouthed "I'm sorry" to the victims' families who were sitting on the front row of the courtroom. Several members of both families acknowledged his apology.

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Winter storm brings heavy snow to Midwest

Updated at 8:47 a.m. ET

ST. LOUIS Parts of the nation's heartland awoke Thursday to more than half a foot of snow, as a large storm made its way eastward out of the Rockies, snarling traffic for morning commuters and allowing an army of children to trade pen and paper for shovel and sled, at least for a day.

Winter storm warnings were issued from Colorado through Illinois, and many school districts cancelled classes ahead of time, in anticipation of the more than a foot of snow expected to fall in some places.

CBS News weather consultant David Bernard reported on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that very heavy snow squalls were moving across Wichita, Kan., and further north into Kansas City, Mo., where it looks like it's going to snow hard for about the entire day.

Forecast models show the snowstorm pivoting from the southwest to the northeast throughout the morning and afternoon hours, so Wichita would see improvement late Thursday, but northeastern Kansas and most of Missouri would be looking at heavy snowfall until at least Thursday night, Bernard reports.

Kelly Sugden, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Dodge City, Kan., said early Thursday that the storm that had already dumped heavy snow on Colorado.

"It's very active," Sugden said, noting the snowfall was mixed with lightning and sleet showers.

Kansas' capital, Topeka, had little more than a dusting of snow after dawn, but in the town of Rozel, roughly 210 miles west, 6 1/2 inches had already been reported fallen.

Sugden said that while forecasters weren't expecting blizzard conditions to develop in Kansas, the Interstate 70 corridor could get as much as 13 inches of snow, and large drifts would make driving very dangerous.

In Oklahoma on Wednesday, roads were covered with a slushy mix of snow and ice that officials said caused a crash that killed an 18-year-old driver, Cody Alexander.

Alexander, of Alex, Okla., skidded in his pickup truck into oncoming traffic on State Highway 19 and was hit by a truck and killed, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. The other driver wasn't seriously injured.

In northern Arkansas, a school bus crashed Wednesday on a steep, snowy country road, leaving three students and the driver with minor injuries. Pope County Sheriff Aaron Duval said the bus slid off a road on Crow Mountain, nearly flipping before it was stopped by trees at the roadside.

The weather service warned that freezing rain could lead to a half-inch or more of ice accumulating Thursday in central and northern Arkansas, making travelling particularly dangerous.

Officials said the storm could be the Midwest's worst since a two-day storm that began Feb. 1, 2011. That storm was blamed for about two dozen deaths and left hundreds of thousands without power, some for several days. At its peak, the storm created white-out conditions so intense that Interstate 70 was shut down across the entire state of Missouri.

Tim Chojnacki, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said it planned to have salt trucks on the roads before the storm arrived in the Show-Me State in hopes that the precipitation would largely melt upon impact.

Much of Kansas was expected to get up to a foot of snow, which many rural residents welcomed after nearly a year of drought.

Jerry and Diane McReynolds spent part of Wednesday putting out more hay and straw for newborn calves at their farm near Woodston in north central Kansas. The storm made extra work, but Diane McReynolds said it would help their winter wheat, pastures and dried-up ponds.

"In the city you hear they don't want the snow and that sort of thing, and I am thinking, 'Yes, we do,' and they don't realize that we need it," she said. "We have to have it or their food cost in the grocery store is going to go very high. We have to have this. We pray a lot for it."

Meanwhile, a separate snow storm caught many drivers by surprise in California, leaving hundreds stranded on mountain highways. A 35-mile stretch of Highway 58 between Mojave and Bakersfield was closed Wednesday, and several school districts closed. No injuries were reported.

Schools also were closed in northern Arizona and Colorado with snow there. Mindy Crane, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said hundreds of plows had been deployed for what was expected to be one of the most significant snow storms of the season.

Just the threat of snow led to a series of shutdowns in the middle of the country. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback closed state government from Thursday morning through Friday morning and urged residents to stay off the roads.

Lawmakers in Nebraska and Iowa cancelled committee meetings and hearings, and the Arkansas Senate voted to recess until Monday so lawmakers could make it home before the worst of the storm hit. University of Nebraska officials moved a Big Ten men's basketball game against Iowa from Thursday to Saturday.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jayson Gosselin said precipitation is generally expected to drop off as the storm makes its way east. Chicago and parts of Indiana, he said, could get about 2 inches of snow and some sleet.

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McCain gets an earful on immigration in Arizona

PHOENIX Arizona took center stage in the national immigration debate Tuesday as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano toured the state's border with Mexico and Sen. John McCain defended his proposed immigration overhaul to an angry crowd in suburban Phoenix.

The presence of the top officials is the latest sign that Arizona will play a prominent role in the immigration debate as President Obama looks to make it a signature issue of his second term.

Napolitano toured the border near Nogales with the highest-ranking official at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the incoming chairman of the Senate's homeland security committee and an Arizona congressman. Napolitano, Arizona's former governor, said afterward that comprehensive immigration reform will strengthen the nation's border against criminals and other threats.

Also Tuesday, McCain hosted two town hall meetings in Arizona, during which he defended his immigration plan to upset residents concerned about border security. A bipartisan group of senators — including Arizona Republicans McCain and Jeff Flake — want assurances on border security as Congress weighs what could be the biggest changes to immigration law in nearly 30 years. Arizona is the only state with both of its senators working on immigration reform in Congress, a sign of the state's widely debated border security issues.

Immigration activists and elected officials say it's only natural for Arizona to continue to take the forefront in the national conversation on immigration after years of internal debate on the topic.

"No state in this country has had more experience with enforcement-only immigration laws than Arizona," said Todd Landfried, executive director of Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, which opposes the state's tough immigration laws.

During a heated town hall gathering in the Phoenix suburb of Sun Lakes, McCain said the border near Yuma is largely secure, but he said smugglers are using the border near Tucson to pump drugs into Phoenix. He said immigration reform should be contingent on better border security that must rely largely on technology able to detect border crossings.

McCain said a tamper-proof Social Security card would help combat identity fraud, and noted any path to citizenship must require immigrants to learn English, cover back taxes and pay fines for breaking immigration laws.

"There are 11 million people living here illegally," he said. "We are not going to get enough buses to deport them."

Some audience members shouted out their disapproval.

One man yelled that only guns would discourage illegal immigration. Another man complained that illegal immigrants should never be able to become citizens or vote. A third man said illegal immigrants were illiterate invaders who wanted free government benefits.

McCain urged compassion. "We are a Judeo-Christian nation," he said. McCain's other town hall meeting took place in Green Valley, south of Tucson.

Arizona gained international recognition as an epicenter of the U.S. immigration debate when it passed its tough anti-immigrant law in 2010. A handful of other states — including Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah — have since adopted variations of Arizona's law.

Arizona has the nation's eighth-highest population of illegal immigrants, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Center. In 2010, illegal immigrants represented roughly 6 percent of the state's population.

Activists said Arizona's anti-immigrant laws inspired many illegal immigrants to demand more rights. Last week, some college students rallied outside Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's office for driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

"They no longer are afraid to come and say, 'I am not able to vote, but I can make my voice heard, and they have to listen to me,"' said community organizer Abril Gallardo.

A report released in January showed the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson sector remains the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Tucson sector accounted for 38 percent of all drug seizures and 37 percent of all apprehensions along the border.

Brewer said last week the border cannot be declared safe until the people living near it feel secure from drug and human trafficking.

But Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told Latino and black community leaders at a Phoenix luncheon Tuesday that Arizonans need to spread the word on how much more secure the border has become.

"There are lots of folks who don't live in Arizona who have no idea what the border is like," Sinema said.

Napolitano toured the border Tuesday afternoon with U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. Carper is the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

She said in a statement after the tour that border crossings are down 50 percent since 2008 and 78 percent since their peak in 2000.

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Should abuse-tainted cardinal vote for new pope?

Esther Millar, 54, is overcome with emotion as she talks about her abuser, while holding pictures of Vicki and Mary, who she says were victims of sexual abuse by a priest in the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, during a news conference urging those with information about alleged abuse to come forward on February 1, 2013, at Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California. / Getty Images

Thousands of pages of evidence released last month in California showed the former Los Angeles archbishop and current Cardinal Roger Mahony participated in a bold cover up of priest sex abuse in his diocese.

Cardinal Roger Mahony in 2012

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Getty Images

The evidence, which is part of a lawsuit against the archdiocese, showed how Mahony and an aide maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church, and keep parishioners in the dark. Shortly after the revelation, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez relieved Mahony of his remaining public duties.

It appears Mahony will avoid any criminal charges in the matter, and he is also expected to be among the approximately 117 men called to participate in the College of Cardinals to help pick the next pope following Pope Benedict XVI's announcement that he will be stepping down as Pontiff on Feb. 28. Mahony has said he looks forward to traveling to Rome to participate in the conclave of cardinals.

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An influential Italian Catholic magazine asked its readers if Mahony should participate in the conclave. Famiglia Cristiana, one of Italy's most-read magazines, featured the question on its website Monday asking readers: "Your opinion: Mahony in the conclave: Yes or No?"

For Catholics United, an American nonprofit organization, the answer is a resounding "no."

"It's the right thing to do," said Andrea Leon-Grossman, a Los Angeles member of Catholics United, in a statement on its website. "In the interests of the children who were raped in his diocese, he needs to keep out of the public eye. He has already been stripped of his ministry. If he's truly sorry for what has happened, he would show some humility and opt to stay home."

Mahony, who was archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 until 2011, has apologized for "mistakes" he made as archbishop, saying he had not been equipped to deal with the problem of sexual misconduct involving children.

Although Archbishop Gomez stripped Mahony of his duties, the L.A. church leader has endorsed Mahony's participation in the conclave, asking parishioners to pray for him, reports KCBS in Los Angeles.

Gomez said in a statement: "Cardinal Mahony's accomplishments and experience in the areas of immigration, social justice, sacred liturgy, and the role of the laity in the Church will serve the College of Cardinals well as it works to discern the will of the Holy Spirit in these deliberations that will lead to the election of our new Pope."

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Jerry Buss, longtime Lakers owner, dead at 80

LOS ANGELES Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships from the `80s Showtime dynasty to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday, his assistant said.

Buss died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant. He was 80.

He'd been hospitalized for cancer, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said.

Various Los Angeles media reported late last week that several current and former Lakers players had visited Buss in the hospital, including Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure.

Few owners in sports history can even approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times through 2011 during his 32 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. The Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club.

Few owners have ever been more beloved by their players than Buss, who always referred to the Lakers as his extended family. Working with front-office executives Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, adding justification for his induction into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Magic Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their glamorous Showtime style.

Jackson then led Shaquille O'Neal and Bryant to a threepeat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010.

Although Buss was proudest of his two hands full of NBA title rings, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool — and a certain Los Angeles lifestyle — for his entire public life.

The father of six rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, boxing matches, poker tournaments — and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch.

Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money largely from his Santa Monica real-estate ventures, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena — the Forum — from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.

The Lakers were recently valued at $900 million by Forbes, CBS Los Angeles reports.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, even receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan — another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in Wyoming and attended USC for graduate school, eventually becoming a chemistry professor and working as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before his life took an abrupt turn into wealth and sports.

The former mathematician claimed his fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer.

Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss' love of basketball was the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers — who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 — into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."

Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast cool.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and chiseled good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.

Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.

Shaq and Kobe didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.

After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.

Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player, frequently participating in high-stakes tournaments, and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 — with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz — prompted him to cut down on his partying.

Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks also won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Buss' children moved into leadership roles with the Lakers in their father's later years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second of Buss' six children, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie is a longtime executive on the franchise's business side — and Jackson's longtime companion.

Yet Jerry Buss served two terms as President of the NBA's Board of Governors, and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time

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S.A. paper sheds doubt on Pistorius claims

Oscar Pistorius weeps in court in Pretoria, South Africa, Feb 15, 2013, at his bail hearing in the murder case of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. / AP Photo

Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius has claimed he shot and killed his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp accidentally because he thought she was an intruder, but a report in a major South African newspaper casts some doubt on that scenario.

Police recovered a "bloodied cricket bat" at the 26-year-old runner's Pretoria home after the shooting, and it has turned into a central piece of evidence in the case, City Press reports.

The paper also claims Steenkamp's skull had been "crushed," and police are investigating whether the bat was the cause of that injury.

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There are allegedly three scenarios police are investigating involving the bat, according to City Press: The first is that Pistorius somehow used it against Steenkamp; the second involves the possibility that Steenkamp used it to defend herself after barricading herself inside a bathroom; the final scenario is that Pistorius used it to break down the bathroom door once she had been barricaded inside.

Police have also allegedly requested a drug test from Pistorius, City Press reports.

A police spokeswoman told The Guardian newspaper she could not explain how the "bloody cricket bat" and drug test claims had emerged in South African newspapers, but did not deny them.

"We are not commenting on anything in the newspapers today as the case is still before the court," she said on Sunday. "They are insinuating they got the information from the police."

Meanwhile, Pistorius' agent told the Associated Press that the double-amputee Olympian has received "overwhelming support" from his fans as he remains in custody in a South African police station.

Peet van Zyl said Sunday outside the Brooklyn police station that "international fans from literally all over the world" have sent their good wishes to Pistorius.

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Dorner's cause of death revealed

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. Fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner apparently killed himself with a gunshot to the head amid a fierce battle with police, law enforcement officials said Friday. He fired his last shot as the cabin he was holed up in was going up in flames.

Police initially weren't sure if Dorner was killed by one of their bullets or by a fire sparked when they launched incendiary tear gas inside. Now they believe he died by his own hand.

"When about a quarter of the cabin was on fire, we heard a distinct single gunshot come from inside the house, which was a much different-sounding shot than what he'd been shooting at us," San Bernardino sheriff's Capt. Kevin Lacy said.

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Gun battle with wanted ex-cop - caught on tape

CBS News correspondent Carter Evans was there caught in the crossfire when the gun battle took place on Tuesday. It was so intense that Evans was forced to take cover, but left a cell phone on. At the very beginning of the shootout, one can hear authorities near the phone talking about burning Dorner out of the cabin he was holed up in:

Officer 1: "Burn that (expletive) house down."

Officer 2: "Get going right now."

Officer 1: (expletive) burn that mother(expletive)

After the crack of the distinctive gunshot, investigators only heard ammunition popping in the flames as the cabin burned to the ground. Dorner's body was later found in the basement.

The day after the shootout, McMahon had insisted that authorities did not burn down the cabin on purpose. At Friday's press conference with the sheriff's department, Evans about the officers' remarks during the standoff. "We did not intentionally burn that cab down," said McMahon. "I stand by that remark. They had just been involved in probably one of the most fierce firefights. Sometimes, because we're humans, they say things they may or may not be appropriate."

Police also confirmed that law enforcement had a near miss with Dorner as he hid in a mountain condominium. Dorner is believed to have entered the condo through an unlocked door sometime Feb. 7, soon after he arrived in the resort area of Big Bear Lake after killing three people. He locked the door and hunkered down for six days until the condo's owners came to clean it, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters Friday.

Deputies knocked on the door that first night but moved on when they found it locked and no sign of a break-in, McMahon said.

"Our deputy knocked on that door and did not get an answer, and in hindsight it's probably a good thing that he did not answer based on his actions before and after that event," the sheriff said of Dorner.

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Couple recall encounter with Christopher Dorner

When the owners arrived, he tied them up and fled in their car, leading to a chase, a shootout that killed a sheriff's deputy and, ultimately, Dorner's death in a remote cabin where he barricaded himself for a last stand.

Dorner was equipped with an arsenal of weapons, including assault rifles with flash suppressors that masked the sound of gunfire and the location it was coming from as he fired on the first two deputies to arrive at the cabin, killing Det. Jeremiah MacKay.

"Our officers had not even pulled their guns out at that point and were not prepared to engage anybody and they were ambushed," McMahon said.

The next five responding deputies got into a fierce firefight with bullets whizzing through trees. They deployed smoke bombs to block Dorner's view so they could pull the wounded to safety as other officers provided cover with a hail of bullets, said Capt. Gregg Herbert.

"Every time they tried to move, Dorner was shooting at them," he said. "There was bullets snapping through the trees."

Worried he was lying in wait to ambush them, they eventually used heavy machinery to peel back walls and windows to see if they could see Dorner, who used smoke bombs to obscure their view. They eventually resorted to the tear gas, though McMahon said they didn't intend to start the fire.

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The search for the former cop began last week after authorities said the former Navy reservist launched a violent revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for firing him, warning in an angry manifesto on Facebook that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families.

Dorner was dismissed for filing a false police report that accused his training officer of kicking a mentally disabled man.

His first victims were Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, both gunned down outside their Orange County condominium Feb. 3. Quan was the daughter of former LAPD Capt. Randal Quan, who Dorner said did not properly defend him before a disciplinary board.

After ambushing and killing Riverside police officer Michael Crain and seriously wounding his partner at a traffic light, Dorner fled to the San Bernardino National Forest, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. His burned-out truck, with a broken axle was found within walking distance of the Big Bear Lake condo where he hid 100 feet across the street from the command post set up for the manhunt.

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Passengers trade broken-down ship for broken-down bus

(CBS News) Thousands of passengers erupted into cheers Thursday night as the crippled triumph finally pulled up to the dock. As they stepped onto dry land, and into the arms of their loved ones some couldn't contain their excitement.

Carnival then chartered a caravan of buses to transport folks out of Mobile, Ala. To add insult to injury, at least one of those buses became stranded on the way to New Orleans, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

The nightmare started Sunday, when an engine fire knocked out power.

Passengers leave cruise ship telling tales of woe

Kendell Jenkins won the trip in a contest, but said it was more like cruising on a floating port-o-potty. "I'm just really thankful and blessed to be back," she said. "I mean there was sewage, water everywhere, mix that with some rotten food smells and welcome to carnival Triumph."

"No ships were coming, no boats, were coming, we saw no helicopters," said Jenkins. "It scared us because we thought the ship wasn't notifying or coming out to help us."

It took more than a day before the first tugboat arrived. As passengers got cell reception, they shared photos revealing squalid conditions - sewage seeping through the floors, plastic bags used for restrooms. Tent camps above deck, and mattresses sprawled out below. For some, the hardest part was losing contact with their family.

Stricken Carnival Cruise Line ship Triumph expected to dock in Mobile, Ala.

It took several grueling hours to drag the massive ship through a narrow channel Thursday. At the terminal, carnival C.E.O. Gerry Cahill addressed reporters.

"We pride ourselves in providing our guests with a great vacation experience and clearly we failed in this particular case," he said. He then boarded the ship and apologized to passengers, but some still want answers.

For Anna Werner's full report, watch the video in the player above

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Couple describes Dorner ordeal, unexpected compliment

(CBS News) Police in Southern California are defending their actions in the manhunt for Christopher Dorner. They say they did not intentionally burn down the cabin where he apparently died.

Dorner was a suspected killer with a grudge against the Los Angeles Police Department, but two of his final victims say he didn't seem like a bad man.

Karen and Jim Reynolds are the owners of Mountain Vista Resort, the property where the alleged cop-killer had been hiding the day police tracked him down. On a routine check of one of their units, Dorner surprised them from upstairs.

"He opened the door and came out at us. He had his gun drawn," said Jim. "He yelled 'stay calm' and ran out."

"He talked to us trying to calm us down and saying very frequently he would not kill us," said Karen. "He had said 'I just want to clear my name.'"

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Jim said that Dorner told them he didn't have a problem with them and wasn't going to hurt them.

Dorner had been keeping an eye Karen and Jim for days, and although he had broken in and tied them up, he paid them an unexpected compliment.

"He said we are very hard workers, we're good people. He talked about how he could see Jim working on the snow every day," said Karen.

"He said he'd been watching us shoveling the snow," said Jim.

Dorner left the couple behind, and tried to take their car. But he soon returned, asking how to start their keyless Nissan. Later, the Reynolds managed to undo their restraints and call police. A few hours later, the manhunt was over.

Although the Reynolds were aware of Dorner's alleged trail of violence, they couldn't help but feel some compassion for their captor.

"I really didn't wish him dead, though. I really didn't. I prayed for him a lot and I'm praying for his family now," said Karen.

For John Blackstone's full report, watch the video in the player above

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Another lawsuit filed against U.S. over "Fast and Furious"

A second wrongful death lawsuit has been filed blaming U.S. government officials involved in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives' "Operation Fast and Furious," which allowed thousands of weapons to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

Tuesday, the Texas family of fallen Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata sued the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the former head of the ATF and others they blame in Zapata's death.

In February 2011, Zapata and his partner Victor Avila were gunned down in Mexico by suspected drug cartel members. Avila survived but was critically injured and has joined Zapata's family in the suit.

As CBS News reported, at least two of the murder weapons had been trafficked by suspects the ATF had under surveillance but failed to arrest. Zapata's parents argue that if ATF agents had arrested the suspects and confiscated the weapons early on, the rifles might not have been used in their son's murder.

The Justice Department has not commented except to say that, at the time, the ATF "was not aware of," a suspect's purchase of one weapon used in Zapata's murder. Justice officials said answering further questions would jeopardize the investigation.

Zapata and Avila were on assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico when their supervisors sent them on a mission to pick up some equipment that required driving on an infamous stretch of highway "known to be patrolled and controlled by a dangerous criminal organization," according to the suit. That was despite a recent travel notice that warned U.S. embassy employees of the danger. The lawsuit says Avila objected, but that the two were ordered to make the trip anyway without escort and in an armored Chevrolet Suburban that did not have working GPS.

When a drug cartel vehicle cut off and blocked Zapata and Avila's vehicle, Zapata put the vehicle in park and it automatically unlocked the doors, according to the lawsuit. It says the attackers were able to breach the vehicle, kill Zapata and injure Avila using weapons trafficked by suspects ATF had previously watched without arresting.

The lawsuit blames a number of ATF officials involved in Fast and Furious, including former ATF Director Kenneth Melson, former Phoenix ATF Special Agent in Charge Bill Newell and former ATF Phoenix Group Leader David Voth for developing the controversial strategy of combating the Mexican cartels with "gunrunning activities." According to the suit, "The high-risk tactics of cessation of surveillance, gunwalking, and non-interdiction of weapons that ATF used in Operation Fast and Furious went against the core of ATF's mission ... These inherent flaws of Fast and Furious made its tragic consequences inevitable."

All of the ATF officials named in the lawsuit have denied wrongdoing. Newell has said that Fast and Furious was sanctioned at high levels at ATF and Justice Department headquarters, and that he and his colleagues turned to the controversial strategy of letting guns "walk" into the hands of Mexicans gun cartels because prosecutors were turning away their smaller cases involving just the so-called "straw purchasers" who move the weapons.

Two months ago, the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry sued seven government employees -- including some also named in the Zapata lawsuit. Terry was gunned down by illegal immigrants in the U.S. two months before Zapata, in Dec. 2010. Like the Zapata case, the alleged killers were armed with rifles that had been trafficked by suspects ATF watched -- but did not arrest at the time.

The Terry lawsuit claims the federal officials "created, organized, implemented and/or participated in a plan - code named 'Operation Fast and Furious' - to facilitate the distribution of dangerous firearms to violent criminals" and that they "knew or should have known that their actions would cause substantial injuries, significant harm, and even death to Mexican and American civilians and law enforcement, but were recklessly indifferent to the consequence of their actions."

Lengthy investigations by Congress and the Inspector General have faulted at least 17 ATF and Justice Department officials for alleged mismanagement and other violations of conduct.

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Poll: 45% approve of Obama's handling of the economy

By Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus

As President Barack Obama prepares for the first State of the Union Address of his second term, one which will primarily be focused on economic issues, fewer than half of Americans (45 percent) approve of how he's handling the economy, while more (49 percent) disapprove.

Overall, Mr. Obama is performing better with 52 percent of Americans now approving of the job he is doing as President, while 38 percent disapprove.

Mr. Obama's approval rating has remained fairly constant over the past year, though it rose as high as 57 percent in December. Only 12 percent of Republicans approve; 86 percent of Democrats do. Just under half of independents approve.

On the other hand, the President enjoys particularly strong support for his handling of terrorism - 57 percent approve, while 31 percent disapprove.

Use of Drones

The practice of using unmanned drone aircrafts to attack suspected terrorists in foreign countries - a policy begun by the Bush Administration and expanded under President Obama - enjoys widespread and bipartisan support. Seven in 10 Americans favor using drones to attack suspected terrorists abroad, including most Republicans, Democrats, and independents.

Americans also support a more controversial measure, although in smaller numbers. Forty-nine percent of Americans favor the targeting and killing of U.S. citizens living abroad who are suspected of carrying out terrorist activities against the U.S.; 38 percent oppose that.

Cooperation between Republicans and Democrats?

Looking ahead, Americans are not especially optimistic that there will be more cooperation between Republicans and Democrats in the next four years than there was during the President's first term. Just 17 percent think there will be more cooperation, 22 percent say less, and 58 percent say cooperation will be about the same as it was during the last four years.

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This poll was conducted by telephone from February 6-10, 2013 among 1,148 adults nationwide. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

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"Gunfight" in Delaware courthouse kills 3

Updated 11:04 a.m. ET

WILMINGTON, Del. A Delaware State Police spokesman says 3 people have died in a shooting at the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington.

Officials described the situation as a "gunfight," reports CBS affiliate KYW-TV in Philadelphia. According to investigators, the gunman entered the lobby of the courthouse, pulled out a gun and opened fire.

According to Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams, the suspect's estranged wife and a second unidentified female were shot and killed by the gunman. Williams says the suspected gunman was then killed by police.

Two Capitol police officers were wounded during the shootout and were taken to Christiana Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Williams said he was told the shooting took place about 8:10 a.m. Monday.

Hours after the shooting, there was still a heavy police presence around the courthouse and streets were blocked off.

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