President Barack Obama presented the country’s highest military decoration to the family of Army Spc. Leslie H. Sabo Jr., who was killed protecting fellow soldiers from an ambush in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

The 22-year-old Army rifleman killed several North Vietnamese soldiers, shielded a comrade from a grenade blast and forced a retreat in a battle that took place on May 10, 1970.

The Medal of Honor was awarded to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown,  in the East Room of the White House.

"He saved  his comrades who meant more to him than life, Obama said at the ceremony, while also saluting other Vietnam War veterans. Members of Sabo's unit, Bravo Company, were in attendance and received a standing ovation.

"A piece of metal won't bring back my husband," Sabo-Brown told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in an interview. "But my heart beams with pride for Leslie because he's finally getting what's due to him. I will show it proudly for him for the rest of my life."

Spc. 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr. is shown during his tour with Company B, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division. He will receive the Medal of Honor May 16 for his valor in Vietnam.

The records of the Pennsylvania man's heroics were lost in military archives for decades before being re-discovered in 1999 by a magazine writer researching Vietnam era Medal of Honor winners.

Related: Soldier to receive posthumous Medal of Honor for heroic actions in 1970 Cambodia battle

Sabo’s platoon was on patrol in the Se San River valley in Cambodia when they were ambushed by a larger North Vietnamese force.

Sabo quickly charged and killed several enemy soldiers. Then, according to the White House, Sabo rushed at another oncoming flanking force and drew fire away from American troops, forcing the North Vietnamese to retreat.

As Sabo was reloading his rifle, a grenade landed nearby. He picked it up, threw it and shielded a fellow soldier with his own body. Wounded from the blast and enemy fire, he continued to fight, storming an enemy emplacement and throwing another grenade. The grenade explosion silenced the enemy, but also killed Sabo, the White House said.

Sabo’s remains were shipped home in a body bag marked “Remains Unfit for Viewing,” his hometown newspaper, the Ellwood City Ledger, reported. His father and namesake died in 1977 without knowing the full story of his son’s death.

A citation recommending Sabo for the Medal of Honor was lost after the war, but resurfaced in 1999 when Alton “Tony” Mabb, a writer for a military association magazine, was researching Vietnam-era Medal of Honor winners at the National Archives.

Mabb contacted Sabo's widow and met with her and other members of his platoon at the Vietnam Veteran's War Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2002, according to an account in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Mabb also contacted U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, who wrote the Defense Department requesting that Sabo's actions be recognized. In 2006, Sabo was recommended for the Medal of Honor by the Secretary of the Army.

It took an act of Congress to extend the time limit for the medal, which was passed in the 2008 defense authorization act.

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Ted S. Warren / AP

Steve Powell looks toward his attorneys during the day of final arguments in his voyeurism trial, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tacoma, Wash.

TACOMA, Wash. -- A jury found Steven Powell guilty Wednesday on 14 counts of voyeurism for taking pictures of girls and women in various states of undress for the purpose of sexual gratification. The charges stemmed from an investigation into his missing daughter-in-law.

Defense attorneys had argued that there was too much reasonable doubt in the case to convict Powell, but jurors disagreed, finding him guilty on all counts.

Powell is the former father-in-law of Susan Powell, who has been missing since December 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, who is Steven's son, was a person of interest in her disappearance. He killed himself and the couple's two children in an explosion in Graham, Wash., earlier this year.

Steven Powell's sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 15. He faces a standard sentence of about four years, but the state has alleged aggravating factors that could result in a longer term.

Authorities brought the voyeurism charges last year after searching Steve Powell's home during their investigation into the disappearance of Susan Powell in Utah. 

Jurors questioned evidence during deliberations, asking if a disc of pictures was found in boxes containing only Steve Powell's belongings.

Watch the video and read the full story on King5.com

Evidence used by prosecutors included photos of young girls in bathrooms, girls changing clothes and at least one video of Powell allegedly touching himself. The photo corresponding to each charge was shown once again to jurors during the prosecution's closing arguments.

Defense attorneys argued reasonable doubt exists and that, "this case is not about what you feel, it's about what you know."

The photos were found on Powell's computer last fall when police searched his Puyallup home. At the time, Powell's former daughter-in-law, Susan Powell, had been missing for nearly two years. Officers were looking for her journals.

A child pornography charge against Steven Powell was thrown out last week.

Photos of Susan Powell were tossed out as evidence because she was not considered one of the alleged victims in the voyeurism case.

King 5-TV and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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A Weston, Fla., family has won a landmark $323 million court decision against Iran and Syria, six years after their son was killed by a suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. When they’ll see the money is another matter.

A U.S. federal judge awarded Tuly and Cheryl Wultz the judgment against Iran for financially supporting the Islamic Jihad movement and Syrian for allowing the group to train in its territory. The lawsuit was filed by an Israeli advocacy group on behalf of the family. The award includes $300 million in punitive damages.

Tuly Wultz remembers like it was yesterday how the terrorist looked moments before the April 17, 2006, blast that killed his son, Daniel, when they were vacationing in Israel. They were having lunch in Tel Aviv when the suicide bomber approached, standing 2 feet away from Daniel Wultz, 16.

Read the original story at NBCMiami.com

“I tried to jump on Daniel but he already detonated and the bomb was over 40 pounds of explosives,” Tuly Wultz recalled in an interview with NBC Miami. He was severely injured, and his son and 10 other people were killed in the attack by an Islamic Jihad militant.

“My heart is still bleeding for Daniel. I’ll never be recovered from that,” the father said.

He said of Daniel Wultz, “He did what is right, he did what is justice.”

Daniel Wultz died from his injuries on May 14, 2006.

On Monday, the sixth anniversary of his death, his parents received word of the court victory.

Wultz Attorney Robert Tolchin told msnbc.com that with the court judgment in hand his clients can seek Iranian and Syrian assets to collect the award.

Tolchin said he couldn’t be specific, but he would explore “various avenues.”

“There is a lot of litigation by people seeking the turnover of Iranian assets,” Tolchin said. “The Iranians have kept U.S. courts busy.”

As in the Wultz case, Iran often does not fight against a judgment, but hires major U.S. firms to fight the collection of the award, Tolchin said.

Syria, on the other hand, did fight the claim and was represented in court by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

The case was brought under a special provision of federal law that allows U.S. citizens to take court actions against foreign states providing support for terrorism.

“Iran and Syria are foreign states with substantial wealth and that have expended significant resources sponsoring terrorism,” wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth in his ruling.

“Barbaric acts like the April 17, 2006 suicide bombing have no place in civilized society and represent a moral depravity that knows no bounds.”

The Wultzes say they are pleased with the decision, which they say is just one step towards justice and a way to ensure their son’s death was not in vain.

“This judgment was important because it’s the first time that there’s a judgment that concerns terrorism against Syria,” Cheryl Wultz said.

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NBC San Diego

Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino, 36, appeared in a Vista courtroom to face a murder charge for allegedly aiding and abetting in Brittany Killgore's murder, prosecutors charged.

Prosecutors say a trio of defendants lured a North County, Calif., Marine wife to go on a dinner cruise but had different plans for her in the hours before her death.

New details were revealed in court Tuesday about what may have happened to Brittany Killgore, the 22-year-old Fallbrook resident who was last seen alive on April 13, wearing a purple evening gown.

Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino, 36, appeared in court to face a murder charge for allegedly aiding and abetting in Killgore's murder, prosecutors charged. She stood quietly in court staring at the ground with half her face covered by hair.

Brittany Dawn Killgore

Maraglino is pregnant, according to a law enforcement source, who added that she is due in August.

Her alleged co-conspirators, Jessica Lynn Lopez, 25, and U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Perez, 45, have pleaded not guilty to murder in previous court appearances.

Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza said Maraglino was involved in every part of the crime, from the planning to the execution.

Read original story on NBCSanDiego.com

Killgore's body was found abandoned on the side of the road on April 17, four days after she was reported missing. The last communication anyone received from Killgore was a text on April 13 that read "help."

Prosecutors said Maraglino called Killgore April 13 to convince her to go on a boat cruise, but it was just a ruse.

Killgore did not want to go with Maraglino, prosecutors said, because she knew the defendant didn't like her.

However, Killgore agreed to go with Perez and got in the car with him. It was during that ride, prosecutors claim, that Killgore texted the word "help" to a friend.

Within minutes, according to investigators, Perez had texted Maraglino, asking her to meet him at a home she owned. Maraglino bought the home in December 2009, according to the North County Times. At some point, she shared the home with Lopez and Perez.

Investigators searched the residence several times in the days after Killgore's body was discovered, taking photos, removing evidence bags and even watching video tapes, according to neighbors.

Click here for timeline from NBCSanDiego.com: Brittany Killgore case

At a hearing last month, a prosecutor said investigators found Killgore’s blood and a weapon in Perez's car.

An incriminating note?
Authorities said Killgore's body was discovered in brush near Lake Skinner, only hours after paramedics were called to a San Diego motel and found another woman -- who turned out to be Jessica Lynn Lopez -- with self-inflicted cuts and a suicide note.

The suicide note reportedly refers to Maraglino as "Mistress" and Lopez as "Master." The San Diego Union Tribune published a report saying its staff had a copy of the handwritten note along with reaction from Lopez' attorney Sloan Ostbye, who said the contents of the letter should not be believed.

“Master I am so sorry I dragged you into this,” the letter reads. “I thought I was defending the family and it would be simple like Dexter.”

"Dexter" likely refers to the television show "Dexter," which depicts a serial killer.

Lopez admits in the letter to binding and strangling Killgore, and then dumping her body near Lake Skinner.

The prosecutor said Lopez and Perez once lived together but didn't indicate when or where. Lopez currently lives a mile from Killgore's second-floor apartment overlooking Camp Pendleton.

Maraglino and Perez practiced sadomasochism and bondage, according to online profiles posted by the two, reported The San Diego Union Tribune. Maraglino is described online as Perez's "sex slave," said the paper.

Perez has lived in San Diego County for 10 years and has a wife there.

Authorities have revealed no link between Kilgore and the sadomasochistic lifestyle, said the Tribune. She was "an innocent victim," Espinoza told the court.

Homicide detectives said Maraglino’s arrest – the third in Killgore’s case – was made as a result of information and evidence obtained throughout the ongoing investigation.

The judge set bail for her at $3 million.

Killgore recently separated from Marine Lance Cpl. Cory Killgore, who was in Afghanistan when she disappeared. She cited irreconcilable differences in her divorce filing but gave no other details.

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By now, it’s hardly news when a city bans plastic bags at checkout counters -- but an entire state? That’s happened in Hawaii, where Honolulu County has joined the state’s three other counties to give Hawaii a first-in-the-nation title.

"Passing the bans did take an effort -- change always does -- but people seemed to understand the need for such an effort," Robert Harris, director of the Sierra Club's Hawaii chapter, told msnbc.com of the two-year campaign across the islands.

The Honolulu County Council approved the ban late last month and Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle, who is also the county executive, initially held back his support, saying he wanted to collect more public input due to enforcement and cost concerns.

But when he signed the ban on Thursday, Carlisle was fully committed, especially since retailers were given three years to comply.

"This is groundbreaking. By signing this environmentally friendly bill, Honolulu joined our neighbor island counties," Carlisle said. "Hawaii has become the only state in the United States where every county has plastic bag legislation."

The county law bans non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout as well as paper bags that are not at least 40 percent recycled. Retailers in Honolulu County have until July 1, 2015, to make the change.

That date "gives us plenty of time to get ready," Carlisle told msnbc.com. "Retailers will be able to use up their inventory of bags and make arrangements to educate the public on the importance of bringing their own bag."

Kauai and Maui counties already enforce bans, while Hawaii County's ban takes effect on Jan. 17, 2013. 

The Sierra Club organized rallies to support the bans, said Harris. "We also lobbied extensively for statewide legislation, which failed, but it helped direct attention to the issue and eventually got the last county to take action."

"Being a marine state, perhaps, we are exposed more directly to the impacts of plastic pollution and the damage it does to our environment," Harris said in explaining the support in all four counties. "People in Hawaii are more likely to be in the water or in the outdoors and see the modern day tumbleweed -- plastic bags -- in the environment."

Getting shoppers to switch to reusable bags is another matter.

Island supermarkets, which said they would prefer to charge a nickel or dime for plastic bags rather than live with a ban, argued that most shoppers have shifted to paper bags, which have their own environmental impact and increase store costs. 

The Surfrider Foundation, which also lobbied for the bans as part of its mission to protect beaches and oceans, acknowledged the challenge ahead.

Interactive: The paper or plastic debate

"While we are excited that the plastic bag bans have been enacted, there has been a reported increase in paper bag use from locals," Bill Hickman, the nonprofit's point man in Hawaii for plastics, said in a blogpost Monday. He added that his group might even lobby for a fee on paper bags at some point.

The state-level legislation, which would have charged users 10 cents per plastic bag, died a quiet death earlier this month, just two weeks after being introduced. A statewide ban also recently failed in California, noted Harris. 

Ted Duboise, publisher of PlasticBagBanReport.com, said he doesn't think any state is close to a ban enforced at the state level. "Too much political hem haw," he told msnbc.com.

As for a national ban, don't hold your breath, said Duboise, citing "labor, lobbyist and plastic industry interests."

Still, the number of areas with bans or bag fees has grown across the U.S. and the globe. Dozens of areas on every continent but Antarctica are listed on an interactive map at PlasticBagBanReport.com.

So is the lesson here that it's easier to get bans at the local level?

"In Hawaii, yes," said Harris. "And looking to the mainland, I would suspect the same."

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Burbank, Ill., police are on the hunt for the husband of a newlywed woman found stabbed to death in her bathtub over the weekend.

Arnoldo Jimenez, 30, and Estrella Carrera, 26, were married on Friday, just two days before Carerra's body was found by authorities during a search prompted by worried family members.

Jimenez hasn't been seen since, officials said. A Cook County judge issued a warrant for his arrest on Tuesday.

Still wearing wedding dress, woman stabbed to death in bathtub

Following a City Hall wedding ceremony, the newlyweds rented a party limo and celebrated their new union with a group of friends and family, ending the evening at a night club on the north side of Chicago, officials said.

The pair were last seen together at about 4 a.m. Saturday, officials said. Roughly 36 hours later, Carerra's body was found. Officials confirmed she was still wearing her silver-sequined wedding dress.

"It was a very brutal killing," Capt. Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told The Associated Press Tuesday. "We do our jobs every day, of course. But something like this really motivates you to work even harder."

Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry into the bride's apartment.

Jimenez was known to be driving a black, four-door 2006 Maserati with Illinois license plates. According to The Associated Press, he had tried to keep the impending wedding secret from most of Carrera's family.

Carerra called one of her cousins, Sandy Lopez, and invited her to the party but said nothing about a wedding, The Associated Press reported.

"She didn't want to tell me she had gotten married," she said. "She didn't tell anybody besides her father the day before." 

The couple had reportedly been dating for two years prior to getting married. Carrera had two children, aged two and nine.

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Updated at 2:20 p.m. ET: Lawyers for former Sen. John Edwards rested their case in his campaign finance corruption trial Wednesday morning without calling Edwards or his onetime mistress, Rielle Hunter.

Crowds had lined up two hours before court opened in Greensboro, N.C., anticipating they might get an opportunity to hear from the principal players after defense lawyers told U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles late Tuesday that they might call Edwards, Hunter and Edwards' daughter Cate Edwards Upham to the stand on Wednesday.

Jurors were dismissed for the day, but the trial isn't over yet: The prosecution now has the opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses, followed by closing arguments from both sides. 

It was a subdued ending to the defense phase of Edwards' trial on six felony counts of accepting about $1 million in illegal and unreported campaign donations from two wealthy supporters at a time when federal election law limited individual political contributions to $2,300 for the election cycle. The decision surprised spectators and legal analysts alike, many of whom had predicted that Upham would certainly testify and that Edwards was likely to.

• Full trial coverage on msnbc.com
• Analysis by Hampton Dellinger

"Remember, the defense told this jury John Edwards is not afraid of the truth, and I think that was foretelling that he will take the stand," said Kieran Shanahan, a former federal prosecutor who is closely watching the trial.

Abbe Lowell, Edwards' lead attorney, rested after Eagles denied another attempt by the defense to introduce evidence that Donald McGahn, a member of the Federal Election Commission, disagrees with the government's theory that the payments for Hunter constituted illegal campaign contributions.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Lowell tried to introduce an audiotape of McGahn saying at a July 2011 FEC meeting that, even assuming everything the government claims is true, the payments were contributions that should have been reported.

The audio is available here from the FEC's website.

But Eagles said, "I don't think the opinions of others ... are particularly helpful to this jury" — essentially the same reasoning she gave last week in ruling out testimony from former FEC members who had been expected to say they also thought the contributions were legal.

The jury was left with the final testimony of Jim Walsh, a former FBI agent hired by the defense who traced the money trail.

Walsh testified Tuesday that Edwards' friend Fred Baron, finance director for his presidential campaign, gave Hunter monthly payments totaling $74,000 in the second half of 2008 — well after the campaign had ended and some of it even after Edwards publicly admitted the affair.

Slideshow: Edwards' public life

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has faced public and private challenges throughout his life and career.

Launch slideshow

"The only logical reason for making these payments at the time they were made was exactly what John Edwards has been saying: 'I'm trying to protect my wife from finding out that I'm the father of Rielle Hunter's baby,'" Shanahan said.

Another major point of the defense argument is that Edwards didn't know what the money from Baron and billionaire oil heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon was being used for, a contention that was supported Tuesday by John Moylan, who worked in both of Edwards' presidential campaigns.

Moylan testified that Edwards was shocked to learn in August 2008 — several months after the fact — that Mellon had been paying to help support Hunter and keep her from the public eye. The money was given through checks falsely labeled as furniture purchases through Andrew Young, who was once a top aide to Edwards and is now his chief accuser.

Referring to Young as "that damn Andrew," Edwards told Mellon, "Bunny, you should not be sending money to anyone," Moylan testified.

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Construction at a portion of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has stopped in San Jose, Calif., because crews have unearthed pine boxes filled with the bodies of those whose families couldn't afford their proper burials, NBC Bay Area has learned.

The pine boxes date back to between 1875 and 1935, and were discovered in February when construction crews were doing seismic survey work, Santa Clara County counsel Michael Rossi said Tuesday.

For more, visit NBCBayArea.com.

He said the county had no idea there was a cemetery on the property.

"It’s a potter’s field or a pauper’s graveyard. Between 1875 and 1935 at Valley Medical Center, people who died indigent, whose families couldn’t be found were buried at this site," Rossi said.

There are as many as 1,445 bodies on the site. The county filed a petition with the court to get permission to remove at least 100 of the pine coffins to make room for construction.

The county is looking into hiring an archaeologist who specializes in this type of find, Rossi said.

If anything identifiable is found, Rossi said they would publish the information in the newspaper to give families time to claim the remains.

After that, the county will ask the court's permission to dispose of the bodies in accordance to law.

A county map from 1932 shows the cemetery, but by 1958 there was no indication it existed. By 1966, there was an employee parking lot on top of the cemetery.

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WASHINGTON - Law enforcement and homeland security personnel face an average of 55 daily encounters with "known or suspected terrorists" named on government watch lists, officials told Reuters. 

The figure -- which equals more than 20,000 contacts per year -- underscores the growing sweep of the watchlists, which have expanded significantly since a failed Christmas Day 2009 bombing attempt of a U.S. airliner. But officials note that very few of those daily contacts lead to arrests. 

Civil liberties groups question the use of watch lists, and they have been ridiculed for ensnaring innocent citizens. 

U.S. officials said the encounters, which involve airport and border security personnel as well as federal and local law enforcement officers, are reported to the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), an interagency unit led by an FBI official based in a tightly guarded building in northern Virginia. 

At its headquarters, the TSC operates a 24-hour command center, resembling something from a Hollywood thriller, complete with giant wall-screen projections and signs flashing "SECRET." 

Officials said that when a law enforcement or homeland security officer in the field stops a person whose name matches a name in the TSC's databases, the officer is supposed to phone the TSC command center for instructions. Based on information in the databases, the TSC then will advise the officer in the field how to proceed, which could range from releasing the suspect to calling in federal officers as backup. 

Probe: Scant evidence 'torture' aided war on terror
The command center gets between 100 and 150 inquiries a day, of which an average of 55 involve individuals who turn out to be listed on one of the federal watch lists, officials said. Of those calls, about 60 percent come from federal officers at border or airport security posts; the rest come from local police. 

"There are incidents every single day," said TSC director Timothy Healy. 

The watch lists include the best known "no fly list" as well as a "selectee list" of people who the government thinks should get extra screening or questioning before being allowed to board an airplane. 

Officials acknowledge that the number of names on these lists -- and particularly the no-fly list -- have grown considerably since Christmas Day 2009, when a Nigerian-born militant who was listed in a classified database called TIDE, but not the no-fly list, successfully boarded a U.S.-bound aircraft but then failed to detonate a bomb which Yemeni militants had helped him stash in his underpants. 

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Before that incident, the number of names on the no-fly list was around 4,000. U.S. officials said it now contains about 20,000 names while the selectee list contains another 18,000. 

A new threat to aviation security surfaced earlier this month, in the form of a foiled plot by al-Qaida's Yemeni affiliate to deploy a more sophisticated "underwear" bomb. 

The watchlists have been the subject of controversy - most recently last week when an 18-month-old girl and her parents were taken off a JetBlue flight when the toddler's name appeared on a no-fly security list, apparently the result of a computer glitch. 

While the U.S. government has instituted measures to enable people to petition for their names to be deleted, officials insist that over time the lists have become more accurate. 

Watch the Top Videos on msnbc.com

Watchlisting officials say that airlines maintain their own lists of potentially troublesome passengers; often, they said, when a well-publicized case arises of a prominent or innocent person being denied boarding, it is because the air carrier, rather than the government, misconstrued the identity of someone on its proprietary lists. 

But Nusrat Choudhury, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said her organization is pursuing legal action on behalf of people who have unjustifiably been restricted from flying. She said redress mechanisms maintained by the government are at best "ineffective." 

Henry Kissinger gets a TSA pat-down

Two or three of the inquiries per day turn out to be people listed on the "no fly" list, the most restrictive of the watchlists maintained by the TSC. 

A suspect's name is put on the "no fly" list if they are deemed by government experts to be a threat to aviation, to be planning an attack or if they are "operationally capable" and are known to be planning to attend, or to have already attended, a militant training camp. 

Fewer than 500 of the individuals on the no-fly list are U.S. citizens, officials said.

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