Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball

The shattered remains of a high-profile space rock are oddly low in organic materials, the raw ingredients for life. The discovery adds a slight wrinkle to the theory that early Earth was seeded with organics by meteorite impacts.

In April a van-sized meteor was seen streaking over northern California and Nevada in broad daylight. The fireball exploded with a sonic boom and sprayed the region with fragments. Videos, photographs and weather radar data allowed the meteor's trajectory to be reconstructed, and teams quickly mobilised to search for pieces in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in northern California.

Researchers readily identified the meteorites as rare CM chondrites, thought to be one of the oldest types of rock in the universe. "Because the meteorites were discovered so freshly, for the first time we had a chance to study this type of meteorite in a pristine form," says Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the search effort and the subsequent study of the space rocks.

Jenniskens personally found a fragment in a parking lot, where it remained relatively free of soil contaminants. "That's the best you could hope for, other than landing in a freezer," says Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Battered past

CM chondrites make up only about 1 per cent of known meteorites. Most of them contain plenty of organic materials, including amino acids, the building blocks of life on Earth.

Jenniskens and colleagues found that the California fragments also have amino acids, including some not found naturally on Earth. But in three rocks collected before a heavy rainstorm, which bathed the other pieces in earthly contaminants, organics are less abundant by a factor of 1000 than in previously studied CM chondrites.

These three rocks could not have lost organics due to space "weathering": analysis of the meteorites' exposure to cosmic rays suggests the original meteor was flying through space for only about 50,000 years before hitting Earth.

Based on its trajectory and its relatively short flight time, Jenniskens thinks the meteor can be traced back to a family of asteroids dominated by 495 Eulalia, a group known as a possible source of CM chondrites. It is probably a piece that broke off during an impact, revealing the relatively pristine material inside.

So what happened to its organics? Jenniskens' team found that the meteorites are breccia – smaller rocks cemented together – which suggests that the asteroid from which they came took a series of beatings. Those impacts, or possibly other processes inside the asteroid, could have heated it enough to destroy most organic material.

Limited delivery

The result might have implications for the organics delivery theory, says Bill Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"It shows that not all asteroids can deliver sufficient quantities. One of the disappointments is that, from a prebiotic organic chemistry perspective, it was very limited," says Bottke. "But this is an unusual case. Most [CM chondrites] are loaded with organic compounds."

Still, studying the space rocks will help us prepare future missions to asteroids such as OSIRIS-Rex, scheduled to take off for asteroid 1999 RQ36 in 2016 and bring a sample back in 2023.

"In some ways, we've had a sample, a very fresh one, come to us," says Bottke. "This is a test bed for the techniques we'll use in that mission."

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1227163

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Obama calls for gun violence proposals within a month

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Wednesday set up a task force to frame "concrete proposals" on ending mass shootings by next month and called for new laws, but denied he had been on "vacation" on gun control.

With trauma still raw after the Connecticut school massacre last week, Obama put Vice President Joe Biden in charge of an inter-agency effort on gun control and mental health, saying America had a "deep obligation" to act.

Obama, who failed to put political muscle behind greater gun control after previous mass slaughters, dismissed the notion that the task force would simply be a familiar, toothless Washington policy commission with little impact.

And he said killings of 20 children aged six and seven and six teachers and caregivers in the elementary school in Newtown were so horrific they should provide lawmakers with a potent incentive for action, even when the initial shock fades.

"I would hope that our memories aren't so short that what we saw in Newtown isn't lingering with us, that we don't remain passionate about it only a month later," Obama said at the White House.

"This is a team that has a very specific task to pull together real reforms right now.

"I will be putting forward very specific proposals. I will be talking about them in my State of the Union, and we will be working with interested members of Congress to try to get something done."

Obama urged the slow moving Congress to hold timely votes on banning military-style assault weapons like the one used by gunman Adam Lanza in Newtown and also on outlawing the sale of high-capacity ammunition clips.

He also called for new laws to ensure background checks for all gun purchases and signalled an effort to expand mental health care, in an effort to deter psychologically troubled people from turning to mass violence.

"We're going to need to make access to mental health at least as easy as access to a gun. We're going to need to look more closely at a culture that, all too often, glorifies guns and violence."

Biden has a history of framing crime legislation from his years in the Senate, has an affinity with law enforcement services, and also enjoys the kind of cordial links with many top Republicans in Congress that Obama lacks.

Obama, who comforted relatives of Newtown victims on Sunday, bristled when asked by a reporter whether he had been absent on gun control issues, following mass killings in Colorado, Arizona and Texas on his watch.

"I've been president of the United States, dealing with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, an auto industry on the verge of collapse, two wars. I don't think I've been on vacation."

Obama, who many conservatives believe wants to take away their guns, also said he supported the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines the right to bear arms in the United States.

"There is a big chunk of space between what, you know, the Second Amendment means and having no rules at all," he said.

Obama also called on the National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun lobby group which piles pressure on lawmakers over gun rights, to consider its priorities, before senior figures hold a news conference on Friday.

"The NRA is an organisation that has members who are mothers and fathers, and I would expect that they've been impacted by this as well, and hopefully they'll do some self-reflection."

The aftermath of the horrific shootings in Connecticut has prompted some pro-gun figures on Capitol Hill to admit that more needs to be done to regulate the sale and use of firearms.

But most evidence of shifting positions has been among Democrats, and there are signs that Republicans, especially those from rural, southern and conservative states may balk at new legislative action.

In another development Wednesday, Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller announced a bill that would require a National Academy of Sciences assessment of links between violent games and violence.

Lanza was reportedly a fan of violent video games including "Dynasty Warriors."

- AFP/de

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President to GOP: Fiscal cliff is not about me

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: President Obama suggests Republicans are fixated on besting him personally


• NEW: Obama: It's "puzzling" that GOP leaders have yet to agree to a deal


• NEW: Speaker Boehner's office says Obama's latest proposal is lacking


• Without a deal, everyone's taxes go up in the new year

Washington (CNN) -- In a candid assessment of the tough fiscal cliff negotiations, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that Republicans are focused too much on besting him personally instead of thinking about what's best for the country.

The comments at a White House news conference came less than two weeks before the nation faces automatic tax increases on everyone, as well as deep spending cuts due to the fiscal cliff at the end of the year.

Obama alluded to the Connecticut school shootings in calling on Republicans to agree to a deal, saying that "if there's one thing we should have after this week, it should be perspective about what's important."

"Right now, what the country needs is for us to compromise," he said, calling what he characterized as a GOP refusal to accept a reasonable compromise on the table as "puzzling."

Asked why an agreement proved so difficult to attain after both sides made major concessions in the past week, Obama said it might be that "it is very hard for them to say 'yes' to me."

"At some point they've got to take me out of it," Obama said of Republicans, adding they should instead focus on "doing something good for the country."

The incremental negotiations seek to avoid the fiscal cliff with a broad deficit reduction agreement that the two sides have shaped to a roughly $2 trillion package of new revenue, spending cuts and entitlement reforms.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner responded to Obama's remarks by saying the president's latest proposal was not evenly balanced, with more new revenue opposed by Republicans instead of spending cuts and entitlement reforms they seek.

With the talks moving closer to a possible deal, Boehner added a new wrinkle on Tuesday by proposing what he called a plan B option to let tax rates go up on income above $1 million while keeping current rates for everyone else.

Boehner told reporters his proposal was a possible short-term step while continuing to negotiate a broader deal.

"We all know that every income tax filer in America is going to pay higher rates come January the first unless Congress acts," Boehner said in reference to the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff. "So I believe it's important that we protect as many American taxpayers as we can."

While addressing part of the fiscal cliff, the Boehner plan B would leave intact government spending cuts, including defense, that are required under a budget deal reached last year to raise the federal debt ceiling. Known as sequestration, the cuts were intended to motivate Congress to reach a deficit reduction deal to avoid them.

Opinion: Art that calls the fiscal cliff's bluff

Obama said Wednesday the Boehner proposal "defies logic" because it raises tax rates on some Americans, which Republicans said they didn't want, and lacks any spending cuts, which Republicans say they do want.

The White House and congressional Democrats say the Boehner plan B has no chance of passing Congress, and Obama added that bringing it up now wasted time as the deadline for an agreement looms ever closer.

In a background briefing with reporters, senior administration officials said no further talks have occurred between Obama and Boehner since Monday. According to the officials, Obama will delay his planned holiday trip to Hawaii on Friday if no deal is reached by then.

Republican Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas called Boehner's move a negotiating tactic, and GOP leaders sought to corral support for the plan B option.

If they can assure the outcome they seek, they plan to hold votes Thursday on both the Boehner proposal and Obama's longstanding demand to return to higher tax rates of the 1990s on income above $250,000 for families.

Obama made the tax proposal a central theme of his re-election campaign, arguing that it prevented a tax increase for middle-class Americans in a time of needed fiscal austerity.

Polls consistently show strong public support for the Obama plan, and some Republicans have called for giving the president what he wants on the tax issue in order to focus negotiations on the spending cuts and entitlement reforms sought by their party.

As part of the broader talks on reducing the nation's chronic federal deficits and debt, Obama on Monday raised the threshold for the higher tax rates to $400,000.

Budget experts: Fiscal cliff deal could disappoint

The Boehner proposal Tuesday would set the threshold at $1 million, and Democrats claimed he made it because he knows he can't get conservative House Republicans to back the agreement he is negotiating with the president.

"The Republicans in the House have rejected their own speaker's proposal at this stage," Rep. Xavier Becerra of California told reporters. "So, (at) this stage it seems like the real negotiation and fight is among Republicans."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Boehner's backup plan appeared to be a result of pressure from tea party conservatives opposing a wider deal.

"It would be a shame if Republicans abandoned productive negotiations due to pressure from the tea party, as they have time and again," Reid said.

Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, shot back that the plan B proposal gave Democrats exactly what they wanted -- higher tax rates on millionaires. He noted that the Senate passed a similar measure in 2010, saying that to oppose Boehner's plan now would make Democrats responsible for failing to avoid the fiscal cliff.

That brought a response from a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, who came up with the 2010 compromise that never won House approval.

Since the 2010 vote, "we've had an election on the president's tax plan, the president won, and Republicans can't turn the clock back," said the spokesman, Brian Fallons.

"It's not surprising Republicans are having buyer's remorse, but we need higher revenues now," Fallons said. "The more revenue we raise up front through a tax rate increase on the wealthy, the less likely the middle class will get hit on the deduction side."

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney made a similar point, telling reporters that Obama wants to lock in the increased revenue from higher tax rates on top income brackets now.

Expected negotiations next year on a broader reform of the tax system would be "revenue neutral," meaning the changes would result in no increase or decrease of overall tax revenue, Carney said.

Conservatives trying to shrink the federal government generally oppose increasing tax revenue. They are particularly opposed to higher tax rates because history shows that once rates go up, it is difficult to later reduce government revenue by lowering them again.

Obama and Democrats argue that increased revenue, including higher tax rates on the wealthy, must be part of broader deficit reduction to prevent the middle class from getting hit too hard.

The president previously said that once Republicans agreed to higher tax rates on wealthy Americans, he would be willing to compromise on spending cuts and entitlement reforms sought by Boehner as part of what the president calls a balanced approach.

What happens if the payroll tax cut expires

After weeks of little progress and much ideological pontificating, both sides started making concessions after two face-to-face meetings last week.

Over the weekend, Boehner offered for the first time to accept tax rate increases on household income of $1 million and above, sources said. The speaker also offered to allow the president to raise the debt ceiling in 2013 without a messy political fight, another key Obama demand.

In response, Obama on Monday offered $200 million in new cuts to discretionary federal government spending, divided evenly between defense and non-defense programs.

The president also included for the first time a provision to change the formula for adjusting entitlement benefits for inflation based on the consumer price index, or CPI, and he dropped an extension of a payroll tax cut from the past two years.

According to a source who provided CNN with details of Obama's counteroffer, it included $1.2 trillion in revenue increases and $1.22 trillion in spending reductions.

However, Republicans disputed those figures, saying the Obama offer really was $1.3 trillion in additional revenue and $850 billion in spending reductions.

Working out those differences appeared to be a key to reaching a comprehensive deficit reduction deal by the end of the year. At the same time, Boehner's plan B offer signaled a possible diversion for now, though.

Obama's latest offer brought the two sides billions of dollars closer, but it also generated protests from the liberal base of the Democratic Party because it included some benefit cuts in entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn, the liberal movement that backed Obama's presidential campaigns, said the group's members would consider any benefit cuts "a betrayal that sells out working and middle-class families."

In particular, liberals cited concessions that Obama made in his Monday counteroffer, including the new inflation formula applied to benefits that is called chained CPI.

Obama offers fiscal cliff tax concession

The chained CPI includes assumptions on consumer habits with regard to rising prices, such as seeking cheaper alternatives, and would result in smaller benefit increases in future years.

Statistics supplied by opponents say the change would mean Social Security recipients would get $6,000 less in benefits over the first 15 years of chained CPI.

However, Carney, the White House spokesman, said Obama's CPI proposal includes a provision "that would protect vulnerable communities including the very elderly when it comes to Social Security recipients." He called the president's acceptance of the chained CPI a signal of his willingness to compromise.

It was the latest in a series of concessions by both sides since last week's school shooting in Connecticut that killed 20 children.

Asked if the massacre affected what had been incremental negotiations, Boehner said: "I think both sides would agree to that."

"This is a difficult time for Americans," he said, adding that "it's not a time to put Americans through more stress."

Carney acknowledged that the Newtown tragedy had affected all Americans and "reminds us what really matters," but he stopped short of saying it had directly affected the talks.

"It's obviously hard to know what the impact of an event like that is on the way that lawmakers and others in Washington approach other issues," he told reporters. He later added, "To the extent that an event like that, as tragic as it is, brings us a little closer together, both in the nation and in Washington, that would be a good thing, but it's hard to measure an impact like that."

Congress had been scheduled to end its work last week, but legislators returned to Washington on Monday and leaders warned members to be prepared to stay until Christmas, return after the holiday and stay until the end of the year.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said a deal would have to be reached by Christmas to allow time for the legislative process to approve the required measure or measures by the end of the year.

CNN's Dan Lothian, Dana Bash, Deirdre Walsh and Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.

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State Dept. officials resign following Benghazi report

Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, CBS News confirmed, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Two other officials are resigning as well, CBS News has confirmed: Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and an unnamed person from the State Department's near eastern affairs department.

Boswell's resignation from his post as assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security is effective immediately. Sources say he will stay on as director of the Office of Foreign Missions for a short, indefinite time.

The report, released today by an independent board led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, did not single out any individuals for culpability. It did, however, blame failures within two bureaus at the State Department for the missteps that eventually lead to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three additional American personnel in Libya. The two bureaus cited -- Near Eastern Affairs and Diplomatic Security -- were criticized for a security posture that was "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack," and for failing to coordinate with other agencies to better secure the consulate.

Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees were briefed on the report this morning. After the briefings, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the report "is going to significantly advance the security of personnel and our country."

A number of congressmen said today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should still testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack. Clinton was scheduled to testify on the Benghazi attack this Thursday in two congressional hearings. However, after falling ill and suffering from a concussion, she's no longer scheduled to appear at the hearings. Clinton sent a letter to Congress, indicating she accepts the Benghazi report's 29 recommendations for strengthening security at diplomatic posts and recognizes the the need to address the "systemic challenges" at the State Department.

House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-lehtinen, R-Fla., said Clinton "absolutely" still needs to testify. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said committee members still have many questions and that today's closed-door briefing was just the start.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said it was "imperative" for Clinton to testify before a new secretary of state is confirmed in President Obama's second term.

"I think that is very important to her, I think it is very important for our country, and I think it is very important to really understand the inner workings of the State Department itself," he said.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement that Clinton will need to "personally address" issues he feels were not addressed entirely in the report.

"While I appreciate the board's hard work, I am deeply concerned that the unclassified report omits important information the public has a right to know," Issa said. "This includes details about the perpetrators of the attack in Libya as well as the less-than-noble reasons contributing to State Department decisions to deny security resources. Relevant details that would not harm national security have been withheld and the classified report suffers from an enormous over-classification problem."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., by contrast, called the report's conclusions "very stark, very candid, very honest."

The report, he said, "told us the following: Mistakes were made, lives were lost, lessons need to be learned." Durbin said the review board's conclusions were: "Our intelligence fell short, our security personnel were inexperienced and unprepared, our security systems failed, our host nation was lacking in protection for our own people, and senior State Department officials unfortunately showed a lack of leadership and management ability."

He added, "That is a challenge to all of us, it is a challenge for us to assess this in an honest fashion and to change policy to put resources in place that will make a difference."

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Inside One School's Extraordinary Security Measures

While schools across America reassess their security measures in the wake of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., one school outside of Chicago takes safety to a whole new level.

The security measures at Middleton Elementary School start the moment you set foot on campus, with a camera-equipped doorbell. When you ring the doorbell, school employees inside are immediately able to see you, both through a window and on a security camera.

“They can assess your demeanor,” Kate Donegan, the superintendent of Skokie School District 73 ½, said in an interview with ABC News.

Once the employees let you through the first set of doors, you are only able to go as far as a vestibule. There you hand over your ID so the school can run a quick background check using a visitor management system devised by Raptor Technologies. According to the company’s CEO, Jim Vesterman, only 8,000 schools in the country are using that system, while more than 100,000 continue to use the old-fashioned pen-and-paper system, which do not do as much to drive away unwanted intruders.

“Each element that you add is a deterrent,” Vesterman said.

In the wake of the Newtown shooting, Vesterman told ABC News his company has been “flooded” with calls to put in place the new system. Back at Middleton, if you pass the background check, you are given a new photo ID — attached to a bright orange lanyard — to wear the entire time you are inside the school. Even parents who come to the school on a daily basis still have to wear the lanyard.

“The rules apply to everyone,” Donegan said.

The security measures don’t end there. Once you don your lanyard and pass through a second set of locked doors, you enter the school’s main hallway, while security cameras continue to feed live video back into the front office.

It all comes at a cost. Donegan’s school district — with the help of security consultant Paul Timm of RETA Security — has spent more than $175,000 on the system in the last two years. For a district of only three schools and 1100 students, that is a lot of money, but it is all worth it, she said.

“I don’t know that there’s too big a pricetag to put on kids being as safe as they can be,” Donegan said.

“So often we hear we can’t afford it, but what we can’t afford is another terrible incident,” Timm said.

Classroom doors open inward — not outward — and lock from the inside, providing teachers and students security if an intruder is in the hallway. Some employees carry digital two-way radios, enabling them to communicate at all times with the push of a button. Administrators such as Donegan are able to watch the school’s security video on their mobile devices. Barricades line the edge of the school’s parking lot, keeping cars from pulling up close to the entrance.

Teachers say all the security makes them feel safe inside the school.

“I think the most important thing is just keeping the kids safe,” fourth-grade teacher Dara Sacher said.

Parents like Charlene Abraham, whose son Matthew attends Middleton, say they feel better about dropping off their kids knowing the school has such substantial security measures in place.

“We’re sending our kids to school to learn, not to worry about whether they’re going to come home or not,” she said.

In the wake of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook last Friday, Donegan’s district is now even looking into installing bullet-resistant glass for the school building. While Middleton’s security measures continue to put administrators, teachers, parents and students at ease, Sacher said she thinks that more extreme measures — such as arming teachers, an idea pushed by Oregon state Rep. Dennis Richardson — are a step too far.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable being armed,” Sacher said. “Even if you trained people, I think it’d be better to keep the guns out of school rather than arm teachers.”

Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 19 December 2012

Cassini captures spectacle in Saturn's shadow

Saturn blocks out the sun to reveal its rings in all their splendour in this image from the Cassini spacecraft

Fabricated future: The sceptic's guide to 3D printing

3D printing is a revolutionary technology, but never mind the hype, says MacGregor Campbell - it will make its impact in unexpected ways

Best videos of 2012: Soap bubbles create 3D display

Watch the world's thinnest screen display vivid images, at number 8 in our countdown of this year's top videos.

Nearby Tau Ceti may host two planets suited to life

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Dogs - great people pleasers, less good as chauffeurs

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Our deep relationship with water

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Blame bacteria if you start putting on weight

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Micro-origami uses cells to fold itself

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Users riled Instagram will have its way with pictures

SAN FRANCISCO: Instagram faced a backlash Tuesday as users debated whether to dump the smartphone-sharing service due to a rule change giving it a royalty-free, worldwide license to posted images.

Changes to the privacy policy and terms of service at Facebook-owned Instagram taking effect on January 16 include wording that lets people's pictures be used by advertisers at either online venue.

"You hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service," the new terms of service state.

"You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Instagram contended that it is not claiming ownership of people's pictures, just that it can do what it wishes with images.

Twitter and Instagram forums were ablaze with debate regarding whether to delete accounts before the new rules kick in.

"Bye-bye Instagram," tweeted Scott Ninness. "Who in their right mind will use a service that allows your images (to) be sold with no financial remuneration to you?"

"Everybody should continue using Instagram but just take blurry photos of sandwiches," suggested a Twitter user by the screen-name Michele Catalano.

Some people "tweeted" in defence of Instagram, arguing that it is a "mega-business" that needs to make money.

Another Twitter user predicted that a handful of Instagram users will abandon the service and "everyone else will stick around."

"Nothing has changed about your photos' ownership or who can see them," Instagram said in a blog post when the policy changes were disclosed on Monday.

"Our updated privacy policy helps Instagram function more easily as part of Facebook by being able to share info between the two groups."

The move that would let advertisers work with people's Instagram pictures comes as the service tries to channel people to its website to view posted images.

Instagram this month made it impossible for Internet users to view its images in messages at fired off at Twitter.

Instagram, which has some 100 million users, is seeking to route photo viewers to its own website, where it has the potential to make money from ads or other mechanisms, instead of letting Twitter get the benefits.

Previously, Instagram pictures shared in messages tweeted from smartphones could be viewed unaltered at Twitter.

Twitter responded by adding Instagram-style photo sharing features of its own.

Yahoo! joined the fray last week by making it more enticing for iPhone users to use its Flickr photo service.

Instagram rose to stardom with the help of Twitter, but has distanced itself from the messaging service since Facebook completed its acquisition of Instagram in September.

The original price was pegged at $1 billion but the final value was less because of a decline in the social network's share price.

- AFP/fa

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Watch Dallas Mavericks try to sing

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"In Cold Blood" killers' remains exhumed

LANSING, Kan. Kansas officials have exhumed the bodies of two men executed for the 1959 slayings of a Kansas family made infamous in Truman Capote's nonfiction novel, "In Cold Blood."

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said the bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were exhumed Tuesday at the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing at the request of Florida officials.

The Sarasota County, Fla., sheriff's office asked for the exhumation to collect DNA that could help solve the 1959 murders of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two children in Osprey, Fla.

A sheriff's office representative observed the exhumations, CBS Topeka affiliate WIBW-TV reports.

Smith's and Hickock's remains are buried in a private cemetery in Leavenworth County, WIBW-TV reports.

The Walkers were killed soon after the slayings of Herb Clutter and his family in Holcomb, Kan.

Sarasota officials say Hickock and Smith fled to Florida after the Kansas killings and were in the area when the Walkers were killed.

Read More..

Threat Closes Newtown Elementary School

Local officials closed a Newtown, Conn., elementary school following a threat on what would have been the first day of classes since a shooting rampage at nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Classes at Head O'Meadow Elementary School were scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET, but as parents and students arrived at the school they encountered police who turned them away.

Principal Barbara Gasparine sent an email to parents telling them that school would be closed rather than locked down due to the threats, the nature of which was not specified.

CLICK HERE FOR A TRIBUTE TO THE SHOOTING VICTIMS

"As was predicted by the police that there would be some threats, the police were prepared and have us in lockdown, which is our normal procedure. Due to the situation, students will not come to school today. Please make arrangements to keep them home," Gasparine wrote parents in an email obtained by ABC News.

Newtown police would not specify the type of threat, calling the school closure a "precautionary measure" in the wake of last week's shooting that left 20 children and six adults of Sandy Hook dead.

Reporters at the school to cover the arrival of Newtown students on the first day since the massacre were pushed back by police a quarter of mile away from the school.

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Sandy Hook Elementary and Head O'Meadow are 4.5 miles away from each other, and in the same district.

Sandy Hook is classified an active crime scene and will remain closed "indefinitely," according to authorities.

Officials are moving furniture and supplies from Sandy Hook classrooms to a former middle school in nearby Monroe, Conn. A start date for those students has yet to be determined.

Teachers photographed their classrooms at Sandy Hook and are recreating them -- down to the crayons left on students desks -- at the new site in Monroe, in an attempt to make incoming students feel as comfortable as possible.

New security systems are being installed at Chalk Hill school, and Newtown councilman Steve Vavrek said when the schools opens it will be "the safest school in America."

It was a somber day for many parents who sent their students back to school. Green and white ribbons adorned the grilles of Newtown school buses this morning.

There was a heavy police presence atthe schools-- 15 police departments had been called in to help with security and there were several units at each school, an officer said.

At Hawley Elementary, families walked their children to school. One tearful mother told ABC that the time is right to go back to school for her fourth grader. Another father told us that this is "a day of great sadness" but that "it will be good to get back into a routine." He addressed concerns of a premature return, saying that "There's no rulebook for this...is there ever a right day?"

At Newtown Middle School, lines of parents waited to drop off their kids. One teacher hugged a student as he exited the car. Children in school buses waved at reporters as they drove by.

And at Reed Intermediate, a memorial has been set up in the center island. Encircling the flag pole are three wreaths, bouquets of flowers, a host of green and white balloons, and what appears to be notes.

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