Death Toll Climbing In Oklahoma Tornado Tragedy

Credit RIchard Rowe / Reuters /Landov
The destruction was wide and devastating in Moore, Okla., on Monday after a tornado roared through.

(We're following the news from Oklahoma, where a tornado devastated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on Monday. Most recent update: 11:21 a.m. ET.)

While the number of deaths and amount of damage caused by a huge tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday remain high, state officials announced just after 9 a.m. ET Tuesday that fewer people than feared may have lost their lives.

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Severe Storms
10:14 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Coburn: Any Tornado Aid Must Be Paid For

Credit Tom Coburn / Facebook

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) says that any additional federal aid to help tornado victims and to rebuild devastated areas of his state should be financed with cuts to other programs in the government's $3.6 trillion budget.

Spokesman John Hart says it's a position Coburn has consistently held regarding federal spending on disasters dating to the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City.

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Severe Storms
9:27 am
Tue May 21, 2013

"Google Crisis" A Clearinghouse for Information

Credit Google

This interactive map from Google highlights the storm track, as well as locations for American Red Cross shelters throughout Central Oklahoma.

Relief organization Save the Children says it's sending help to families affected by Monday's deadly tornado in Moore.

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The Two-Way
8:09 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Oklahoma Tornados: Finding Aid, Giving Aid

Credit Brett Deering / Getty Images
Aid groups are mobilizing relief efforts to help victims of the storm. Here, Candice Lopez, left, and Stephanie Davis help clean debris from Thelma Cox's mobile home near Shawnee, Okla., after it was destroyed Monday.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 9:40 am

Residents of Moore, Okla., are searching for survivors and coming to terms with a massive tornado that left dozens of people dead and injured more than 200 others Monday afternoon. As aid and recovery groups search for victims and try to reunite loved ones, they're also seeking donations and coordinating housing:

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Severe Storms
7:02 am
Tue May 21, 2013

SLIDESHOW: StateImpact's Joe Wertz's Images From Monday's Tornado

StateImpact Oklahoma's Joe Wertz took cover in Moore on his drive home from KGOU Monday afternoon. Once the tornado passed, he immediately went to work reporting for Oklahoma's public radio stations and NPR.

Severe Storms
5:30 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

UPDATE: Death Toll Lower Than Feared, 24 Confirmed

Credit Joe Wertz / StateImpact Oklahoma

The state medical examiner's office has revised the death toll from a tornado in an Oklahoma City suburb to 24 people, including seven children.

Spokeswoman Amy Elliot said Tuesday morning that she believes some victims were counted twice in the early chaos of the storm.

Authorities said initially that as many as 51 people were dead, including 20 children.

Teams are continuing to search the rubble in Moore, 10 miles south of Oklahoma City, after the Monday afternoon tornado.

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Severe Storms
10:29 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Fallin Touring Tornado Damage In Carney, Shawnee

Credit Red Cross Oklahoma / Twitter
Gov. Mary Fallin speaks to a young victim of Sunday's tornado that tore through Carney, Okla.

Gov. Mary Fallin is touring the areas hit hard by tornadoes Sunday.

The governor visited Carney at 10 a.m. Monday before traveling to the Shawnee area. The governor plans to tour the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park in Shawnee, where two people were killed.

Twenty-one people were also injured after severe weather raked the state.

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Severe Storms
7:27 pm
Sun May 19, 2013

Tornado Hits OKC Suburb, Kicking Up Debris

Credit Mike Prendergast / SkyWatcherMedia.com

A tornado kicked up debris in an Oklahoma City suburb and threatened a number of tourist attractions on historic Route 66 before growing into a larger storm that rolled across rural parts of central Oklahoma.

Television footage Sunday showed a tornado at Edmond . The storm threatened a novelty soda-pop store and a historic barn in the small town of Arcadia, then grew into a larger storm as it moved northeastward a few miles north of the Turner Turnpike between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

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Business
8:32 am
Sun May 19, 2013

Tesla Rides High, But Faces Formidable Foe: Car Dealers

Credit Stan Honda / AFP/Getty Images
The Tesla Model S, Motor Trend Car of the Year, is introduced at the 2013 North American International Auto Show, in Detroit in January. Tesla's attempts to sell its cars without going through dealerships is meeting resistance.

Originally published on Sat May 18, 2013 11:51 pm

Tesla Motors, the American maker of luxury electric cars, has been riding a wave of good publicity.

Its Model S sedan (base priced at $62,400, after federal tax credits) was just named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Reviewers at Consumer Reports gave the lithium-ion battery powered vehicle a rave.

And the company, headed by billionaire innovator Elon Musk, 41, posted a profit for the first time in its 10-year history — powered in part by zero-emission environmental credits.

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Politics
8:27 am
Sun May 19, 2013

Nonconservative Groups Say IRS Scrutinized Them, Too

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Outgoing acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steve Miller (right) and Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George are sworn before a full House Ways and Means Committee hearing Friday.

Originally published on Sun May 19, 2013 5:46 pm

The IRS was in the hot seat Friday, with its outgoing acting commissioner testifying before a House committee. A Senate panel is scheduled for Tuesday. Congress is prodding to find out why the agency singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny.

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Movie Reviews
5:14 pm
Sat May 18, 2013

New 'Trek' Goes 'Into Darkness,' But Not Much Deeper

Credit Zade Rosenthal / Courtesy Paramount Pictures
Zachary Quinto as Spock, with Chris Pine as Kirk, in Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Originally published on Sat May 18, 2013 6:47 pm

The opening sequence of J.J. Abram's new entry in the Star Trek universe has all the ingredients of the classic franchise.

There's Kirk and his crew bellowing on the bridge, everyone worrying about the prime directive and our favorite Vulcan trapped in a volcano.

OK, I'm in. I may not be a fanboy anymore, but I sure was in my youth, and having these guys in their youths again is just as cool at the outset as it was last time.

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