US officials probe Corvette headlamp problem

Published May 13, 2013

Associated Press

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U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating complaints that the low-beam headlights can go dark without warning on some Chevrolet Corvettes.

The probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers more than 103,000 Corvettes from the 2005 through 2007 model years.

The agency says it has gotten 30 complaints from owners about low-beam headlight failure. No crashes or injuries have been reported. But in one case a driver ran over a discarded tire while trying to pull off the road.

The high-beam headlights and fog lights keep working even if the low beams fail. But the agency says driving with the high beams all the time can harm vision of oncoming drivers.

Investigators will check into how often the problem happens and decide if a recall is needed.

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IRS senior officials knew Tea Party targeted as early as 2011

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Senior officials at the Internal Revenue Service were aware that its agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011, Fox News confirms. 

The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.

Lois Lerner, who runs the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, knew about the targeting of Tea Party groups since June 29, 2011. 

Lerner learned at a meeting that the groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," `'Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. In addition, the Determinations Unit sent cases to a designated team of specialists to be worked that had issues including government spending, government debt, or taxes, or included statements in their files criticizing how the country is being run.

The 9-12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.

Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.

The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.

Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS' Rulings and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue."

On Jan, 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the report says.

While this was happening, several committees in Congress were writing numerous letters IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to express concern because tea party groups were complaining of IRS harassment.

In Shulman's responses, he did not acknowledge targeting of tea party groups. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.

"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.

The portion of the draft report reviewed by the AP does not say whether Shulman or anyone else in the Obama administration outside the IRS was informed of the targeting. It is standard procedure for agency heads to consult with staff before responding to congressional inquiries, but it is unclear how much information Shulman sought.

The IRS has not said when Shulman found out that Tea Party groups were targeted.

Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. His 6-year term ended in November. President Barack Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now run by an acting commissioner, Steven Miller.

The IRS said in a statement Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG's report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.

"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "The timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail."

Lerner's position is three levels below the commissioner.

"The timeline supports what the IRS acknowledged on Friday that mistakes were made," the statement continued. "There were not partisan reasons behind this."

Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight subcommittee, said the report "raises serious questions as to who at IRS, Treasury and in the administration knew about this, why this practice was allowed to continue for as long as it did, and how widespread it was."

"This timeline reveals at least two extremely unethical actions by the IRS. One, as early as 2010, they targeted groups for political purposes. Two, they willfully and knowingly lied to Congress for years despite being aware that Congress was investigating this practice," Boustany said.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power. Going after organizations for referencing the Bill of Rights or expressing the intent to make this country a better place is repugnant," Boustany added. "There is no excuse for this behavior."

Several congressional committees have promised investigations, including the Ways and Means Committee, which plans to hold a hearing.

"The admission by the agency that it targeted American taxpayers based on politics is both shocking and disappointing," said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. "We will hold the IRS accountable for its actions."

The group Tea Party Patriots said the revelation was proof that the IRS had lied to Congress and the public when Schulman said there had been no targeting of tea party groups.

"We must know how many more lies they have been telling and how high up the chain the cover-up goes," Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for the group Tea Party Patriots, said in a statement Saturday.

"It appears the IRS committed crimes and violated our ability to exercise our First Amendment right to free speech. A simple apology is not sufficient reparation for violating the constitutional rights of United States citizens. Therefore, Tea Party Patriots rejects the apology from the Internal Revenue Service," Martin said. "We are, however, encouraged to hear that Congress plans to investigate. Those responsible must be held accountable and resign or be terminated for their actions."

On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration expected the inspector general to conduct a thorough investigation, but he brushed aside calls for the White House itself to investigate.

Many conservative groups complained during the 2012 election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.

The forms, which the groups have made available, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.

In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors.

There has been a surge of politically active groups claiming tax-exempt status in recent elections -- conservative and liberal. Among the highest profile are Republican Karl Rove's group Crossroads GPS and the liberal Moveon.org.

These groups claim tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (4) of the federal tax code, which is for social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities, but their primary activity must be social welfare.

That determination is up to the IRS.

The number of groups filing for this tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in an office in Cincinnati.

Lerner said on Friday this was done to develop expertise among staffers and consistency in their reviews. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity.

As part of this process, agents in Cincinnati came up with a list of things to look for in an application. As part of the list, they included the words "tea party" and "patriot," Lerner said.

"It's the line people that did it without talking to managers," Lerner told the AP on Friday. "They're IRS workers, they're revenue agents."

In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications.

Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.

Fox News' Jacqueline Pham and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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House Republicans swiftly announce hearing on IRS targeting conservative groups

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Immigration officials holding two fellow students of Boston bombing suspect

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  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and older brother Tamerlan reportedly planned to drive to NYC after their deadly Boston attack to detonate devices in Times Square, which Dzhokhar visited earlier with friends. None of the others pictured here are suspected of being involved in the Tsarnaevs’ plot. Dias Kadyrbayev is standing left of Dzhokhar's right in the blue scarf, and Azamat Tazhayakov is immediately left of Kadyrbayev.

Two people seen in a photo with suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in New York's famed Times Square are being held by authorities on administrative immigration violations, Fox News has confirmed.

The two men were identified to Fox News as Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both citizens of Kazakhstan. They can be seen standing next to Tsarnaev in a photo believed to have been taken in April 2012 in Times Square, which authorities suspect was another of the bombers' intended targets.

Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were arrested April 20 -- five days after the attack at the marathon -- at the Hidden Brook apartments by the FBI and Homeland Security in New Bedford Mass., and they are being detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement at the Suffolk County House of Corrections in Boston because of problems relating to their student visas, sources told Fox News.

New York City officials held a news conference Thursday confirming that the city was another target following the bombings in Boston, which killed three and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the Boston race.

“We learned through the Joint Terrorist Task Force that the Boston Marathon bombers had planned to travel to Manhattan to detonate remaining bombs in Times Square,” New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, though it is unclear when this information was relayed to New York City officials.

A law enforcement source also confirmed that task force investigators will be questioning Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov about their activity last week immediately after a surveillance video of the suspected Boston bombers was released. They also want to know whether the two young men took any action to help Tsarnaev.

The source said a "variety of techniques" led investigators to question Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov, with the goal of seeing “what’s there” -- though they are not charged with any crimes at this time. 

Kadyrbayev is a former student and Tazhayakov is a current student of UMass Dartmouth, a university spokesman said. Tsarnaev, 19, is registered as a sophomore at the university.

Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen and U.S. citizen, is being held on a federal charge of using a weapon of mass destruction. Authorities think he was recruited to help carry out the bombings by his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed days later in a shootout with police.

Kadyrbayev's father, Murat Kadyrbayev, told Kazak news website Tengri News that Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were in Tsarnaev's social circle but nothing more. The father also said a "TERRORISTA #1" vanity plate on a BMW jointly owned by the two young men was just a joke.

Yerlan Kubashev with the Consulate General for Kazakhstan in New York confirmed in a statement to Fox News that the consulate is helping the young men with legal representation.

Kubashev said the two men are “shocked at the bombings,” and “they express sorrow to the bombing victims and their families.”

Attorney Robert G. Stahl confirmed to Fox News he is representing Kadyrbayev in an upcoming immigration hearing.

"He’s a 19-year-old with student visa problems, and he may or may not be returned to Kazakhstan," Stahl said.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

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Antisemitism, anti-Americanism are UN Human Rights Council official's job description

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  It's not the first time Richard Falk, the UN Human Rights Council's Palestine monitor, has come under fire for comments. (AP)

A UN “expert” of the UN Human Rights Council, Richard Falk, has announced that Boston had it coming. America’s “fantasy of global domination” justified what he has labeled “resistance.” Boston’s “canaries” happened to be the ones the resisters decided “have to die.”
Appointed in 2008 as the UN “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967,” Falk spends his time as a professor emeritus from Princeton University, responding to speaking invitations, collecting awards from around the country, spouting antisemitism, and supporting 9/11 conspiracy theories.

In his latest tirade in an online journal, Falk says the Boston attacks make sense when one properly understands that “the American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world.”  Consequently, he argues, we should all be “meditating” on poet W.H. Auden’s apt line “Those to whom evil is done/do evil in return.”

According to Falk, what happened in Boston was a mere “blowback.” Not only that, it will get “worse” if America does not fundamentally alter its “relations with the Islamic world.”  

Falk has been peddling his grotesque opinions from the UN platform for years.  Because the truth is that antisemitism and anti-Americanism is his Human Rights Council job description.  The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) controls the balance of power on the Council by holding a majority of seats in the African and Asian regional groups, which in turn comprise the majority of Council members.

Now Falk has pulled Boston into his twisted terrain, where fighting back is itself indefensible.  He called the police action in Boston a "hysterical dragnet."  Similarly, Falk has analogized Israeli responses to Palestinian terrorism to the “Nazi record of collective atrocity.” His website has sported a cartoon of a dog wearing clothing marked with “USA” and a star of David, devouring blood spattered bones and urinating on a statue of lady justice.

Richard Falk, however, did not materialize out of thin air. Less than two weeks ago, a top UN committee charged with drafting the first comprehensive convention against terrorism, ended in disarray because Islamic states insisted that there is a distinction between terrorism and “legitimate struggle” against “colonial or alien domination.”  Morsi’s Egypt led the way in pressing for a world conference on “root causes” of terrorism and “the conditions conducive to terrorism.”  OIC countries insisted that these conditions include “political and economic injustice, marginalization, poverty, hunger and alienation.”

In short, the real victim becomes the terrorist, not Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Martin Richard, and Officer Sean Collier.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has become a lead champion of the UN Human Rights Council. While President Bush refused to join a human rights body that had no human rights credentials for membership, joining and supporting the Council has been a signature foreign policy move of President Obama.  

The State Department has approached the experience of belonging to the Council as a game of whack-a-mole.  When the unimpeded election of Colonel Gadhafi’s Libya to the Council finally became too embarrassing, they had Libya temporarily “suspended.”  When the permanent bash-Israel agenda item of the Council comes up three times a year they sit mute, and send assistant secretaries of state to Jewish events across the country assuring the community they feel their pain.  When Iran wanted a Council seat, they traded the country for a seat on the UN’s top women’s rights body, the Commission on the Status of Women.

The question is what are they going to whack now?  Richard Falk is emboldened by a UN “human rights” Council that is emboldened by the participation and support of the world’s leading democracy. It is time to put an end to America’s support for the Council now.

Anne Bayefsky is director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust.

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UN official blames Boston Marathon bombings on American 'domination'

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Russian officials contacted US twice in 2011 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, sources say

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Russian officials contacted the U.S. government at least twice in 2011 with concerns Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Chechen who two years later would carry out last week's deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon, Fox News' sources say.

The latest details about what U.S. authorities knew about Tsarnaev ahead of the bombing come as lawmakers question whether enough was done to prevent the attack.

The Russians contacted the FBI once in March 2011, and several months later they contacted the CIA about Tsarnaev, sources say. In October 2011, the CIA sent info to many federal agencies and to "the watchlisting system" about him, the sources say. That step ultimately put him on the vast TIDE database of people potentially tied to terrorism cases.

The FBI has said previously that it was told Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to travel to this foreign country to join unspecified underground groups. The FBI said that it responded by interviewing Tsarnaev and family members, but found no terrorism activity.

Authorities suspect Tsarnaev, 26, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, of using improvised explosives to kill and maim runners and spectators near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed and more than 180 injured in the April 15 attack.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed days later in a shootout with police. His 19-year-old brother escaped but was captured alive Friday night and now faces a charge of use of a weapon of mass destruction that could carry the death penalty.

The brothers immigrated to the United States about a decade ago with their family. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev became a U.S. citizen last year, but Tamerlan had not yet earned citizenship.

Senators, after being briefed on the case Tuesday, said the U.S. government had "multiple contacts" with Russia about the older Boston bombing suspect, but those lawmakers wouldn't offer any more details.

Fox News was told the FBI tried to determine if Tsarnaev had any ties to terrorism, but those efforts apparently proved inconclusive.

"We did everything we could," one FBI source said, and their assessment was based on the "totality of the evidence."

The FBI insists, despite suggestions to the contrary, that it was contacted only once by the Russians about Tsarnaev.

Lawmakers and investigators are taking a close look at Tsarnaev's trip to Russia in January 2012. His father says his son stayed with him in Dagestan.

Despite violence there, Anzor Tsarnaev said Sunday that his son did not want to leave and had thoughts on how he could go into business. But the father said he encouraged him to go back to the U.S. and try to get citizenship. Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned to the U.S. in July.

His mother said that he was questioned upon arrival at the airport in New York.

"And he told me on the phone, 'Imagine, mama, they were asking me such interesting questions as if I were some strange and scary man: Where did you go? What did you do there?'" Zubeidat Tsarnaeva recalled her son telling her at the time.

Fox News' Mike Levine and Catherine Herridge and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Indiana advances first-in-nation proposal to require arming school officials

Published April 04, 2013

FoxNews.com

Indiana lawmakers are pushing to make their state the first in the nation to require every school to have an armed employee on site, a proposal that aligns with recent recommendations from a National Rifle Association study. 

The proposal in Indiana advanced through a House committee Tuesday. It goes beyond a law signed last month in South Dakota that would allow -- but not require -- teachers to carry guns. 

The Indiana bill would mandate that one officer in every public and charter school have a loaded weapon during school hours. The officers could be police officers or other non-educators but also could be teachers or principals. 

The proposal is the latest precedent-setting bill being advanced in the wake of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. Some states have tightened background checks and bans on assault-style rifles in a bid to reduce the supply of weapons, while others have pushed to make guns more available for purposes of self-defense. 

Supporters of the Indiana bill say it would prevent tragedies like the one in Newtown, Conn., where 20 students and six educators died. The NRA earlier this week recommended that schools try to train and arm at least one staff member.   

"I've been approached by several teachers that would love the ability to have their natural right to self-defense recognized and would gladly do this without being paid," Indiana bill sponsor Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican, said. 

The House Education Committee voted 9-3 to approve the bill, advancing it to the Republican-dominated House for consideration. The Senate would also have to approve the measure. 

But opponents say they're concerned the proposal was rushed and is unnecessary. 

Schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz said Wednesday she believes such decisions on school security should be made by local school districts without mandates from the Legislature. 

No states currently require armed employees in schools. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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American West running out of room for wild horses, officials weigh options

There are 10,000 more horses and burros in the wild than their habitat can support, according to the Bureau of Land Management. 

But, the agency says, there will soon be little they can do about it. 

The overpopulation problem is now putting a big strain on the agency as it tries to figure out how to keep the spiraling population from harming the ecosystem. 

The current conundrum can be traced in part to 1971. At the time, Congress passed the Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which tasked BLM with preserving the wild animals in the 10 western states where they roamed. As with any grazing animal, though, the absence of predators caused the population to boom. After their numbers doubled in five years, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act which made BLM responsible for keeping wild horse and burro populations in check. 

Fran Ackley, who runs BLM's Wild Horse Program holding facility in Canon City, Colo., said that since there are no predators, federal officials "act as predators in that we remove horses (from the wild)." This, he said, "kind of serves as a similar act in controlling the population." 

Rounded up animals are placed in long- and short-term holding facilities and put up for adoption. Adoptions, however, especially in the recent recession, have been far lower than the number of horses taken off the range. The result is that there are now some 50,000 "wild" horses and burros in BLM holding facilities around the West. 

That's compared with roughly 37,000 currently in the wild, a number BLM says is 10,000 more than it should be. The agency says room in its holding facilities will reach capacity this year. 

"The growth rate 'in the wild' is about 20 percent," Ackley explained. "So that means we're going to have another 7,400 horses this summer after foaling season. And right now it looks like we cannot remove all of them, maybe between 5,000 and 6,000 animals." 

Each coming year, the population in the wild will increase, and if something isn't done, the BLM will be unable to remove any of them, according to Ackley. "If we don't manage them they're going to eat themselves out of house and home and destroy the habitat that supports -- not only them but, you know, endangered species, other plant and animal species and wildlife." 

Currently the Wild Horse and Bureau Program spends about $50 million a year just to feed the animals held in captivity. That's around 70 percent of its annual budget, and horses in captivity live up to 25 years. When it comes to other grazing animals like deer, elk and bison, hunting acts as a substitute for natural predation. 

Hunting horses, though, is prohibited. 

And while horse meat is consumed by humans in much of the world, selling any of the horses to slaughter houses is a public relations nightmare the Bureau is determined to avoid. 

"We'd like to see reproduction targeted as part of a solution," said Karen Herman, owner and operator of the Sky Mountain Wild Horse Sanctuary near Santa Fe, N.M. She said it's obvious to everyone the current system for managing wild horses is broken. "I think we need to be much more creative and innovative, and I think PZP is a science-based solution that's also ecologically and economically sound." 

PZP, porcine zona pellucida, is a birth control drug that can last up to two years. Longer lasting fertility drugs are being developed. Herman has been involved in PZP trials in the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico where mares are darted in the wild to inject the drug. 

"It limits their reproduction so they can stay free, they can be wild." Herman said. "And yet their numbers aren't exceeding the capacity that the land can hold. There's 20 years of data that shows it's totally safe, it's 90 percent effective (and) it doesn't change their family behavior, their social behavior." 

Many wild horse advocates oppose fertility control but Herman says the alternatives of roundup or overpopulation are far less attractive. "There's nothing humane about starvation -- it's a long, cruel, slow death. I respect other peoples' right to their perspective. Mine is that we have the means to help horses stay healthy and free. Why not use it?" 

Ackley also feels that PZP is promising and points out that the BLM is also conducting trials. He agrees, though, that fertility control is only part of the solution. 

"I'm going to guess there's in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 herds that we can actually do that: approach the horses on foot with a dart gun and put the drug into them. But you know, in Utah, Wyoming, California and Nevada, their horses are a lot more wild ... so that's really not practical in those populations." 

Recently, Kathleen Mussetter came to the BLM Canon City holding facility to adopt one of the mustangs removed from the wild. "They're just so amazing. Just completely honest," she said. 

Mussetter said she also worries about what will happen to the mustangs still roaming wild. "They reproduce out there, but the range is not reproducing. So I believe the BLM is kind of between a rock and a hard place. They're trying to do the right thing for the horses but what can you do? It's hard for a horse lover, it's a hard subject."

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Washington school officials accused of searching student's Facebook page

Published March 17, 2013

Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash. –  The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the Everett School District to apologize to a student because a supervisor pressured her to make her Facebook page available during an investigation of a complaint of cyber-bullying that involved other students.

The group sent a letter to Superintendent Gary Cohn on Friday regarding an incident last month involving a North Middle School vice principal and student Samantha Negrete, The Everett Herald reported.

"Our hope is to work together with the school district to find a resolution to this that allows Samantha to return to a safe and welcoming school environment," said Linda Mangel, an ACLU attorney.

Samantha said she did not willingly disclose the contents of her Facebook page. The ACLU said that the request for Toutant's transfer was made because Samantha fears "he will seek to abuse his power and punish her for reporting his illegal search."

Samantha is "being called a snitch, a tattletale," Mangel said. "She's being ostracized. She's afraid."

The group wants students to be formally notified that Samantha's Facebook page was involuntarily and improperly searched; for students to be trained on their rights and responsibilities in using online technology and their rights regarding school searches; and for a new school district policy outlining when school officials may access students' online accounts.

It called for Bryan Toutant, North Middle School's vice principal, to be re-assigned to another school for the remainder of the school year.

School district spokeswoman Mary Waggoner said Cohn had not seen a copy of the letter.

"If something was done that was inappropriate, we would always apologize," she said.

A report on the North Middle School incident is expected next week, she said. Any decision on whether disciplinary action will be taken against staff will occur after the superintendent gets a chance to review the report, Waggoner said.

Waggoner said that Toutant has not been at North Middle School this past week because he was involved in the investigation of the Facebook incident.

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Sinkhole that swallowed Florida man 'unstable,' officials say

A large sinkhole opened under the bedroom of a house near Tampa, trapping a 36-year-old man in the rubble.

The home collapsed late Thursday in a Seffner neighborhood. By early Friday, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials determined the home had become too unstable to continue rescue efforts.

"Right now, the potential for a collapse is very, very high," Jessica Damico, a Hillsborough Fire and Rescue spokeswoman told MyFoxTampaBay.com. 

"There was no furniture. All he saw was a piece of the mattress sticking up," Damico said. 

There's been no contact with the man since then and neighbors on both sides of the Seffner home have been evacuated.

"We put engineering equipment into the sinkhole and didn't see anything compatible with life," Damico said. But Damico would not say that the man is presumed dead.

Damico said that at the surface, she estimates the sinkhole is about 30 feet across but officials say the sinkhole spreads to about 100 feet across below the surface.

Officials told MyFoxTampaBay.com that rescuers tried to send a camera and listening device into the hole but it was swallowed up. 

A total of five adults, one child and two dogs were in the home. 

Damico says Bracken Engineering officials determined the home's bedroom is the center of the sinkhole.

Engineering officials will return later Friday morning with more sophisticated monitoring equipment to determine the actual diameter and depth of the sinkhole.

Tampa TV station WFTS reports the man's brother tried to pull him from the sinkhole. An arriving deputy was able to pull the brother from the still collapsing sinkhole.

Janell Wheeler told the Tampa Bay Times she was inside the house when the sinkhole opened.

"It sounded like a car hit my house," she said.

It was dark. She remembered screams and one of her nephews rushing to rescue his brother, trapped in the debris.

Wheeler's house was condemned. The rest of the family went to a hotel but she stayed behind with her dog, sleeping in her car.

"I just want my nephew," she said through tears.

The state of Florida has the most sinkholes in the United States. 

Click for more from MyFoxTampaBay.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Lawmakers, officials list problems cuts would bring, but appear no closer to compromise

Lawmakers from the White House to Capitol Hill to the Western Plains agree that the fast-approaching, $85 billion in cuts to the federal budget jeopardize everything from combat readiness to pre-K programs. But they also express little optimism about a deal to avert the reductions before they kick in Friday.  

All of them made their case over the weekend for President Obama along with congressional Democrats and Republicans to reach a budget deal to avert the cuts -- known as sequester. However, both parties accused each other of extending the stalemate.

“It will kick in,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn told “Fox News Sunday.”  "The reason there is no agreement is because there's no leadership from the president on actually recognizing what the problem is."

He was joined on Fox by Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who agreed the cuts would occur -- “unless the Republicans are willing to compromise and do a balanced approach.”

Congress agreed to the massive, across-the-board cuts in 2011 after failing to reach a deal on more measured reductions.

Should no deal be reached, the government will be forced to make drastic cuts with hardly any leeway to save some programs.

This would lead to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers at such agencies as the Transportation and Defense departments and would impact such parts of the everyday American life as commercial air travel and federal meat inspections.

President Obama during a weekly address said congressional Republicans could easily stop the cuts by agreeing to close tax loopholes that protect the wealthiest Americans.

“Unfortunately, it appears that Republicans in Congress have decided that instead of compromising -- instead of asking anything of the wealthiest Americans-- they would rather let these cuts fall squarely on the middle class.”

Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley called the cuts “senseless.”

"And it's a damn shame because we've actually had the fastest rate of jobs recovery of any state in our region,” he said Saturday during the winter meeting of the National Governors Association.

House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise. They say legislation passed in early January already raises taxes on the wealthiest Americans to generate an estimated $600 billion for the Treasury over a decade.  

Some governors said the budget impasse was just the latest crisis in Washington that is keeping businesses from hiring and undermining the ability of governors to develop state spending plans.

"I've not given up hope, but we're going to be prepared for whatever comes," said Nevada's Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval said Saturday. "There will be consequences for our state."

Several Cabinet secretaries also went on the Sunday television talk shows to warn of the approaching economic fallout.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 70,000 fewer children from low-income families would have access to pre-kindergarten Head Start early education programs. Furloughed meat inspectors could leave plants idled.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that travelers could face delays because the Federal Aviation Administration is in line for $600 million in spending cuts.

He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Transportation Department would not compromise safety but acknowledged air traffic controllers could be furloughed.

Top Republicans on Senate and House transportation and aviation panels accused the administration of raising an unnecessary alarm.

"Before jumping to the conclusion that furloughs must be implemented, the administration and the agency need to sharpen their pencils and consider all the options," the lawmakers said in a joint statement.

The cuts would trim from domestic and defense spending alike. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces. He said the "vast majority" of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers would have to lose one day of work per week, or 20 percent of their pay, for up to 22 weeks, probably starting in late April.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, called those defense cuts "unconscionable" and urged Obama to call lawmakers to the White House or the presidential retreat of Camp David for a last-minute budget summit.

"I won't put all the blame all on the president of the United States,” he said. “But the president leads. The president should be calling us over somewhere -- Camp David, the White House, somewhere -- and us sitting down and trying to avert these cuts."

LaHood also urged his colleagues to watch "Lincoln," Steven Spielberg's film about President Abraham Lincoln's political skills.

"Everybody around here ought to go take a look at the 'Lincoln' movie, where they did very hard things by working together, talking together and compromising," he said. "That's what's needed here."

But there are few signs of urgency among congressional leaders, who have recently indicated their willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.

The sequester cuts, with few exceptions, are designed to hit all accounts equally. The law gives Obama little leeway to ease the pain. Even if granted flexibility to apply the cuts with more discretion -- a legislative step Republicans said Sunday they might pursue -- White House officials say that would still require severe reductions.

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Former security officials to Obama: Cancel nuke cuts

A group of 18 former military and national security officials wrote to President Barack Obama on Friday urging the administration to cancel plans for further cuts in United States nuclear warheads, warning that new arms reductions would undermine U.S. security. 

The ex-officials, including two former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated in the letter to Obama that North Korea's recent underground nuclear test, and concerns about growing Pyongyang-Tehran nuclear arms cooperation, undermines any further disarmament sought by the president. 

"In our professional judgment, born of decades of experience with national security policy and practice, America's 'triad' of nuclear-armed land-based and submarine-launched missiles and bomber-delivered nuclear weapons have promoted strategic stability and discouraged proliferation," the former officials stated. 

"Steps that raise uncertainty about the viability, reliability and effectiveness of our deterrent will have the opposite effect." 

The letter followed a report this week that the new strategic arms cuts with Russia will be announced soon. U.S. officials said the president is preparing for a new round of arms reduction talks with Russia that will seek a one-third cut in U.S. nuclear warheads, beyond the levels set in the 2010 New START arms treaty. The treaty requires cutting the U.S. arsenal to 1,550 warheads. 

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