A judge in Italy on Wednesday ordered the captain of the ill-fated Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of Tuscany last year, killing 32 people, to face charges of manslaughter.

Francesco Schettino, 52, is accused of negligence that led to the grounding of the ship and for abandoning the vessel while a rescue of the 4,200 passengers and crew was still underway.

The New York Times says:

"Five other defendants — an official of the cruise ship company, Costa Cruises, and four crew members — sought plea bargains, and their cases will be judged separately. ...

Captain Schettino has said his superiors ordered him to get close to an island, Giglio, for sightseeing purposes. The ship hit a rock, which gashed its hull and caused the ship to start taking on water until it capsized just off the island. In April, Costa Cruises struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and agreed to pay $1.28 million for administrative offenses related to the charges against its employees."

Since the incident, the nearly 1,000-foot-long cruise ship has been lying on its side at the site of the grounding just outside the island's main harbor.

A man has been killed in what reports described as a machete attack in London, and police have shot two suspects in what British Prime Minister David Cameron says is likely a terrorist incident.

The Associated Press says the incident occurred Wednesday when the suspects attacked the man near a London military barracks. The BBC called the weapon used a machete, but the AP said footage it obtained from ITV news "showed a man in a dark jacket and knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife in what appear to be bloodied hands."

The BBC reports that the man shouted: "We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"He added: 'I apologize that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don't care about you.'"

Cameron, at a news conference in Paris with French President Francois Hollande, called the attack "the most appalling crime" and said there are "strong indications" that it is a terrorist incident, according to AP.

London Mayor Boris Johnson was quoted by Reuters as saying the attack was "overwhelmingly likely" a terrorist incident.

Two Oregon counties have reportedly rejected property tax increases that would have funded law enforcement and public safety services. The counties once received federal timber subsidies, but those days are over — and now they're scrambling to pay for essential services.

In Josephine County, where nearly 70 percent of the land belongs to the U.S. government, Tuesday's vote that was too close to call last night. But The Daily Courier in Grants Pass, Ore., reported Wednesday that voters rejected the new levy.

The impact of the loss of federal funds in the county — and the reported 80 percent layoffs in the local police force that it forced — was illustrated in harrowing fashion by Amelia Templeton's report for All Things Considered Tuesday, as she played a recording of a woman's desperate 911 call from August 2012, when the caller was told that there were no officers who could help.

The problem was that the county's police were only on duty during daytime hours, from Monday to Friday.

"My ex-boyfriend is trying to break into my house. I'm not letting him in, but he's, like, tried to break down the door, and he's trying to break into one of the windows," the unidentified woman told the 911 dispatcher. She added that the man had injured her before, putting her in the hospital.

"The call came in on a Saturday at 4:58 in the morning. None of the sheriff's deputies in Josephine County were on duty," Templeton reports. "So dispatch transferred the call to the Oregon State Police, but they also didn't have anyone available."

The call lasts more than 10 minutes; in it, the woman repeatedly asks for help. At one point, the dispatcher suggests she find somewhere to hide.

"Once again, it's unfortunate you guys don't have any law enforcement up there," the dispatcher says.

On Tuesday's ballot, the county's residents were asked to decide, "Shall Josephine County impose $1.48 per $1,000 assessed value for criminal justice and public safety for three years beginning 2013?"

The measure listed several potential uses, such as adding capacity to the county's jail, providing a school security program, and increasing "Sheriff's deputies' response and patrol."

"The approximate tax increase for a home with an assessed value of $150,000 would be $222.00 per year, or approximately $18.50 per month," according to the ballot document.

In two other counties in similar situations — Lane and Curry Counties — voters took up their own public safety levies Tuesday. Curry County voters rejected their measure, according to The Curry Coastal Pilot, while voters in Lane County were projected to approve their levy.

"Keep in mind, it's been almost a quarter of a century since Lane County passed a public safety levy," April Baer of Oregon Public Broadcasting said this morning.

Baer was then asked what might happen next in places like Josephine County.

"The Oregon Senate Rules Committee has been considering a bill that would give the state certain powers," she says. "The governor was involved drafting it. Under its terms, the state could declare a public safety emergency, and impose a temporary tax to shore up the jail and other safety services for up to 18 months."

This week, the Oregon District Attorneys Association called for the state to lower penalties and allow discretionary sentencing for crimes involving drugs and driving offenses, saying the money required to jail people for such crimes cuts into what can be spent to keep violent offenders in custody.

The prosecutors' suggestions come after Oregon's public safety commission suggested removing mandatory sentences, "for such crimes as first-degree sex abuse, second-degree assault and second-degree robbery," The Oregonian reports.

In Amelia Templeton's report yesterday, she noted that Josephine County Sheriff Gil Gilbertson issued a press release after the budget cuts first took effect.

"In it, he warned victims of domestic violence to 'consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services,'" Templeton reported.

The kerfuffle Tuesday and today on Twitter about the "news" that the creator of the GIF gets annoyed if he hears someone use a hard "G" when pronouncing the name of his file format triggered our aging memory banks.

Hadn't we heard a while back that GIF creator Steve Wilhite and many other tech types insist it's supposed to be pronounced with a soft "J," like Jif peanut butter?

Yes we had. Check Eyder's post from last November, when he noted that GIF was the Oxford Dictionary's American word of the year for 2012. He wrote that:

"Technology enthusiasts insist on pronouncing it like the peanut butter brand Jif."

Still, as Eyder was careful to add, "Oxford points out that the 'the pronunciation with a hard g is now very widespread and readily understood.' "

Side note: Eyder, who isn't here today, knows about mispronunciations. He's too polite to correct the many folks, even at NPR, who call him I-der rather than A-der. But if this blogger is called ma-MOTT, rather than MEH-mitt, he will point that out.

Back to GIFs. We did an informal survey of some tech-savvy types in the NPR newsroom and they insisted they won't be intimidated into saying it the way Wilhite and others want. To them, it's GIF with a hard "G."

We wonder if Two-Way readers are so hard-headed. So, the question is:

A male sergeant at West Point has been accused of secretly videotaping at least a dozen female cadets, sometimes when they were showering, The New York Times reports.

Gen. John F. Campbell, the army's vice chief of staff, tells the Times that "once notified of the violation, a full investigation was launched, followed by swift action to correct the problem."

The accused, Sgt. Michael McClendon, was charged on May 14 "under four articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for indecent acts, dereliction in the performance of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, and actions prejudicial to good order and discipline," according to the newspaper, and was transferred to Fort Drum, N.Y. He had been a staff adviser to a company of cadets.

This news follows a series of reports regarding allegations of sexual assault in the military. Among our related posts:

— Head Of Sexual-Harassment Program At Fort Campbell Arrested.

— Military Recruiters, Sex Assault Responders To Be Retrained.

— Member Of Fort Hood Sexual Assault Response Team Accused Of Abuse.

— Sexual Assaults In Military Have Increased By A Third Since 2010.

— General's Dismissal Of Sex Assault Conviction Sparks Anger, Review Of System.

Other NPR reports include:

— Military's Sexual Assault Problem Is A Cultural One. (All Things Considered)

— Why Is There So Much Sexual Abuse In The Military? (Tell Me More)

— U.S. Military Faces More Accusations Of Sexual Improprieties. (Morning Edition)

Former CIA Director David Petraeus is under renewed scrutiny over the role he played in creating the discredited "talking points" about the attack that killed four Americans last year in Benghazi, Libya. The Washington Post has a front-page story Wednesday that suggests Petraeus sought to shape the resulting memo to favor his agency.

In the days immediately after the violence on Sept. 11, 2012, members of the Obama administration said or suggested the attack was a protest that spiraled out of control. But the assault that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans at the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi is now seen as a terrorist attack.

The Post's story follows the White House's release last week of 100 pages of emails that were written within days of the attack.

Those emails were part of an effort to supply unclassified information to help members of a House intelligence panel speak publicly about the attack without giving away secret information. As NPR's Scott Horsley reported last week, "the first batch of emails in this collection is all from people inside the CIA working to put together the talking points."

The emails revealed the complicated process that produced talking points about the attack, and as Scott said of the intelligence agency, "their very first draft contains the seeds of the mistake that continues to haunt the administration. The director of terrorism analysis at the CIA wrote: 'We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protest at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. consulate.'"

That contention, repeated on Sunday interview shows by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, has been proven wrong. The resulting controversy has pitted members of Congress against the White House and suggested rivalries between federal entities including the CIA, the FBI, and the State Department.

And it seems the CIA had its own complicated internal debate over the talking points, with the agency's director at the time, Petraeus, playing a key role in shaping the document, according to The Post.

Petraeus sought to go "well beyond the committee's request, apparently to produce a set of talking points favorable to his image and his agency," The Post reports. The newspaper adds that the director's requests to add certain elements to the memo met with resistance from other top CIA officials.

The man who asked for the talking points in the first place, Democratic Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of Md., says his only goal was to help members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, especially those new to the panel, avoid giving away information about the investigation or clandestine activities.

"We had some new members on the committee, and we knew the press would be very aggressive on this, so we didn't want any of them to make mistakes," Ruppersberger tells The Post.

But the request took on great importance and highlighted divisions within agencies over how to portray that attacks. When it emerged from the CIA for review, the draft memo contained two elements that troubled the State Department, as Scott reported last week:

"A spokeswoman there, Victoria Nuland, was worried about the reference to another Islamic extremist group, Ansar al-Sharia, because the State Department itself had been careful not to identify perpetrators or possible perpetrators while the investigation was underway."

That reference, added at Petraeus' request, also rankled the FBI, which was investigating the attack. And it unsettled the CIA's general counsel, Stephen W. Preston, who wrote an email reminding his agency colleagues that naming possible suspects was not allowed during an ongoing criminal investigation.

It became "the chief source of tension" between the three U.S. entities, The Post says.

Another problem, the newspaper reports, was that the draft memo mentioned earlier CIA warnings regarding events in Cairo and precautions ahead of the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — elements that seem to have been added at Petraeus' request.

Nuland "complained that a reference to CIA warnings could make it appear the State Department hadn't been paying attention," Scott said. "And so, by Saturday afternoon, those items had been dropped from the talking points."

Eventually, CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell reduced the talking points to three main items, The Post says. But the simplified version prompted concerns within the CIA that Petraeus would not sign off on the revisions. And an email quoted by the newspaper shows that some within the agency warned that the House panel that requested the information would not be satisfied with the talking points.

"They are fine with me. But, pretty sure [the House committee] won't like them," the CIA terrorism analysis director responded, according to the story, which notes that he ended his email with an emoticon of a smiling face.

Petraeus was less positive, saying he'd rather not use the memo as written. He added that it wouldn't satisfy Ruppersberger.

But that statement puzzles Ruppersberger, according to The Post, which quotes him as saying, "I'm not sure what he meant. I had no expectations."

The Post's feature, published Tuesday evening, includes copies of 100 pages of emails, along with annotations.

In the nearly impenetrable language that comes with his job, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that even though the economy is doing better, the central bank needs to keep giving it a boost.

The key passage from his prepared testimony:

"Recognizing the drawbacks of persistently low rates, the FOMC actively seeks economic conditions consistent with sustainably higher interest rates. Unfortunately, withdrawing policy accommodation at this juncture would be highly unlikely to produce such conditions. A premature tightening of monetary policy could lead interest rates to rise temporarily but would also carry a substantial risk of slowing or ending the economic recovery and causing inflation to fall further. Such outcomes tend to be associated with extended periods of lower, not higher, interest rates, as well as poor returns on other assets. Moreover, renewed economic weakness would pose its own risks to financial stability."

Translation: The Fed thinks it's still too soon to take its foot off the accelerator. So it will keep interest rates low, in a bid to spur borrowing and spending.

As the Fed chairman was speaking, the National Association of Realtors was releasing new data that underscore the sense that the economy is on the mend. It reported that sales of existing homes rose 0.6 percent in April form March and were up 9.7 percent from the level of April 2012.

The association's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said sales would have been even stronger if not for "tight access to credit and limited inventory" of homes.

There will be more word about how the economy is doing this afternoon when the Fed releases the minutes of its April 30-May 1 meeting of policy makers.

"I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations."

That was the word Wednesday morning from Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the political storm over the agency's targeting of some conservative groups that were given extra scrutiny from 2010 into 2012.

Then, at a hearing held by the House Committee On Oversight and Government Reform, Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions.

Because the Justice Department has launched an investigation into the IRS's actions, Lerner said, "I've been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right. ... I have decided to follow my counsel's advice."

She added: "I know that some people will assume I have done something wrong. I have not. One of the basic functions of the Fifth Amendment is to protect innocent individuals."

The committee's Republican chairman, Darrell Issa of California, made the case that Lerner had waived her Fifth Amendment rights by previously responding to questions about how the IRS handles organizations' applications for tax-exempt status. But after Lerner again made it clear that she would not respond to additional inquiries, Issa dismissed her from the hearing.

The IRS has been under fire since May 10, when Lerner apologized to the groups that were singled out for more exacting reviews. Lerner, who heads the division overseeing tax-exempt groups, said the scrutiny was partly a result of a surge in applications.

Democratic and Republican members of Congress alike have condemned the singling out of those organizations — which identified themselves with words such as "tea party" or "patriots" — for extra scrutiny that delayed their applications for tax-exempt status.

Republicans also have accused Lerner and other IRS officials of misleading lawmakers by not telling them about what the agency had been doing — even though lawmakers had been asking about reports that conservative groups' applications were being inappropriately delayed.

In Orlando, Fla., early Wednesday "an FBI agent was involved in a deadly shooting connected to the Boston Marathon bombing case," NBC News is reporting. A man who was being questioned by the agent is dead. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston and Carrie Johnson have also confirmed the news.

Just how firm the man's alleged connection to the marathon case is, though, remains unclear.

The dead man has been identified by NBC, the Orlando Sentinel and Orlando's WESH-TV as 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev. Another man, Khusn Taramiv, was the first to connect Todashev's death to the investigation into the Aprill 15 bombings in Boston. The Sentinel says that:

"Taramiv told several television outlets his friend was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and Todashev knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because both were mixed martial-arts fighters."

A source with knowledge of what happened tells our colleagues that the FBI agent was conducting an interview related to the bombings investigation when the individual being questioned became violent. Other law enforcement personnel were there, as well. During the confrontation, the source tells the NPR correspondents, "the individual was killed."

So far, according to the Sentinel, FBI spokesman Dave Couvertier has only officially confirmed that "the agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. ... We are still gathering facts involving the shooting incident."

Taramiv, the friend of the suspect killed in Orlando, has told WESH-TV that "the FBI) took me and my friend (Ibragim Todashev). They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they're going to bring him back. They never brought him back."

Taramiv also said Todashev, like Boston suspect Tsarnaev, was an ethnic Chechen and that the two men spoke to each other by telephone a month or so before the marathon bombings. "He wasn't radical," Taramiv said of his friend, Todashev.

Tsarnaev, 26, died on April 19 from injuries he sustained during a gun battle with police in Watertown, Mass. The other suspect in the bombings, his 19-yer-old brother Dzhokhar, was captured on April 19. He has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

Update at 10:50 a.m. ET. More On What Happened.

Here's how NPR's Dina Temple-Raston described what happened to our Newscast Desk:

"It all happened shortly in the small hours of this morning. An FBI agent and a handful of law enforcement officials went to the Orlando apartment of Ibragim Todashev to interview him, when a scuffle broke out.

"Law enforcement officials say Todashev was a friend of one of the Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He became, in their words, violent, during questioning and that led to the fatal shooting.

"An FBI agent is in a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

"It is unclear why officials wanted to talk to Todashev."

The next mayor of Los Angeles will be City Councilman Eric Garcetti.

In a race in which the two top contenders were both Democrats, the 42-year-old Garcetti has opened a 7- to 8-percentage-point lead over City Controller Wendy Greuel as Tuesday's votes are being counted.

Early Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times, Greuel called Garcetti to concede the race. Soon after, Garcetti tweeted this message:

"Thank you Los Angeles — the hard work begins but I am honored to lead this city for the next four years. Let's make this a great city again."

As Morning Edition and NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin have explained, the race to succeed outgoing Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa attracted little attention in the city. According to Ken, both Garcetti and Greuel were "earnest, sincere, non-ideological candidates" and neither seemed certain about "how to handle the [city's] growing deficit, let alone tell voters which way they intend to take the city."

Garcetti has been on the city council since 2001. He is the son of former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, who rose to national fame during the 1995 criminal trial of O.J. Simpson.

Good morning, here are our early stories:

— In Oklahoma, Rescue Efforts Give Way To Recovery.

— Anthony Weiner Jumps Into Race To Be NYC Mayor.

And here are more early headlines:

Garcetti Wins L.A. Mayor's Race. (Los Angeles Times)

Third Night Of Rioting Spreads In Stockholm Suburbs. (The Wall Street Journal)

Kerry In Jordan To Promote International Conference On Syria. (Bloomberg)

Iran Blocks Rafsanjani, Founder Of The Islamic State, From Presidential Bid. (The Guardian)

North Korea Sends Special Envoy To China. (Voice of America)

Japanese Climber Aims To Become Oldest Person To Ascend Mt. Everest. (The Washington Post)

Fla. Houses Next To Deadly Sinkhole To Be Razed. (Tampa Bay Times)

You're Pronouncing 'GIF' Wrongly, Says Its Inventor. (The New York Times)

Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, whose career appeared to famously flame out in 2011 when he resigned from Congress because of an extramarital sexting scandal and his lies about what he'd done, has now officially jumped back into politics.

In a new video, the Democrat confirmed Wednesday that he's getting into this year's race to succeed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I).

"Look, I've made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down," Weiner says in the video. "But I've also learned some tough lessons."

"I hope I get a second chance to work for you," he adds.

His wife, former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, says to New Yorkers that "we love this city and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony."

The video opens with Weiner, Abedin and their infant son in what appears to be the kitchen of their home.

Speculation about Weiner's comeback plan heated up in April, as we reported, when a profile in The New York Times Magazine made it clear that the former congressman was "eyeing the mayor's race."

As The Associated Press reports, the 48-year-old Weiner "is jumping into a crowded field for September's primary." But he's also "arriving with some significant advantages, including a $4.8 million campaign war chest, the possibility of more than $1 million more in public matching money, polls showing him ahead of all but one other Democrat — and no end of name recognition."

According to Politico, "a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning found City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the longtime front-runner, drawing 25 percent of the vote to Weiner's 15 percent in the multi-candidate Democratic primary. Twenty-seven percent of Democratic primary voters were undecided. Nearly half the city's voters said Weiner shouldn't run for mayor, including 52 percent of women and 44 percent of Democrats."

The contenders for the Republican nomination, the AP writes, "include billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota and homelessness-aid organization head George McDonald."

The primary is set for Sept. 10.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

• A never-before-seen novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck that was discovered in a Texas storage unit will be published in October. Publisher Open Road Integrated Media describes the book, titled The Eternal Wonder, as "the coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax, an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris and on a mission patrolling the DMZ in Korea," according to The New York Times. The newspaper reports that Buck "is believed to have completed the manuscript for the book ... shortly before she died of cancer in 1973, said her son Edgar S. Walsh, who manages her literary estate."
• Mark Ford writes about Vladimir Nabokov and his greatest creation, Humbert Humbert, for The New York Review of Books: "The golden-tongued Humbert, one must always remember, is possibly the greatest rhetorician since Milton's equally persuasive and dangerous Satan."
• At first glance, you might think that The Washington Post actually liked Martin Amis' widely-detested novel Lionel Asbo. The front cover boasts a Post blurb stating: "Amis is a force unto himself. ... There is, quite simply, no one else like him." But as Ron Charles points out, the newspaper eviscerated Lionel Asbo, and the blurb comes from a review of another Amis book that The Post reviewed 23 years ago. There's something almost impressive about that level of shamelessness.
• Ayad Akhtar, who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, is publishing three new plays with Little Brown, publisher Reagan Arthur announced Monday. (Check out Akhtar's essay for NPR Books about the literature of faith in America.)
• The Paris Review excerpts from Martin McLaughlin's new translation of the letters of Italo Calvino: "Although I am small, ugly and dirty, I am highly ambitious and at the slightest flattery I immediately start to strut like a turkey."
• A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone hand-annotated and illustrated by J.K. Rowling sold for a spectacular $227,421 at Sotheby's on Tuesday, in an auction to benefit the free-speech group English PEN. As we noted Monday, Rowling's marginalia explain the origins of Quidditch (a fight with her boyfriend) and reveal the original mascot of Hufflepuff House (a bear, instead of a decidedly non-menacing badger).

(Most recent update: 2:15 p.m. ET.)

The news Wednesday from Moore, Okla., much of which was destroyed by a massive tornado Monday, begins with word that officials doubt they will find any more survivors or bodies under the hundreds of homes, businesses and other buildings that were leveled.

Moore Fire Chief Gary Bird put it this way Tuesday: After searches of all damaged buildings, "I'm 98 percent sure we're good."

That means the official death toll from the storm remains at 24 — a figure that could still change. More than 230 people are said to have been injured by the twister, which packed winds of more than 200 mph.

Word about the low likelihood of finding any more victims or survivors also means the mission in Moore is shifting from a rescue operation to recovery efforts.

On Morning Edition, NPR's Kirk Siegler reported that because hundreds of people have been displaced by the tornado, Red Cross officials are preparing to keep emergency shelters open for weeks. St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Moore has been stocked with food and supplies, Kirk reported, "and donations have also been pouring in" to other shelters nearby.

Also on Morning Edition, NPR's David Schaper reported about James Rushing, who lived across the street from one of the two elementary schools destroyed by the storm. As the tornado approached, Rushing ran from his home to Plaza Towers Elementary, where his foster son was a student. Rushing found shelter with some of the children and staff in a bathroom. Both he and his son were among the survivors.

The sounds "were just deafening," Rushing says. "You could hear windows ... you could even hear wood breaking. It was so loud you couldn't hear anything but things being destroyed."

His home was destroyed. Rushing believes he'd be dead if he had stayed there. But even though he and most of the children at the school made it through the storm, Rushing says that in reality, "there were no safe rooms in that school. There was nowhere for these children to take cover but in a bathroom." Authorities have said that seven of the children killed during the tornado were students at the school.

Update at 2:15 p.m. ET. Banks Try To Get Money To Those Affected.

From Moore, NPR's Alan Greenblatt reports that:

Financial institutions are trying to get cash into the hands of tornado victims. The Bank of Oklahoma has set up a mobile ATM at the First Baptist Church, which is being used as a shelter, with four more machines on their way.

It does storm victims little good to get insurance checks and not have ready cash for food and gas, says Oklahoma Banking Commissioner Mick Thompson. He's asked banks to waive their normal hold period for such deposits.

"We've asked them to give immediate credit," Thompson says. "Some are issuing debit cards immediately."

Thompson notes that HUD is also trying to put foreclosures on hold for 90 days in the area.

Update at 2:10 p.m. ET. Advice From The Mayor Of Joplin, Mo.:

On Tell Me More Wednesday, host Michel Martin talked with Melodee Colbert Kean, the mayor of Joplin, Mo.

Kean's city was crushed by a tornado in May 2011. More than 150 people died.

Michel asked Kean what people around the nation can do for the people of Moore. "Don't just load up and go," the mayor advised. "A lot of people mean well, but a lot of times, you're hindering progress. ... Find out exactly what they need, and then gather a point person to take, you know, one group of supplies down there ... or donate to your local Red Cross or different organizations like that that are immediately down there and able to help."

And Kean offered advice for those who live in tornado-prone areas: "Make sure that you're prepared. [And] if you hear sirens go off — take cover. Don't wait for a second siren. ... Have a plan already in place, so that when something does occur, you are ready, you don't have to think about some place where you have to go, you HAVE some place to go. And that's the key thing. Preparation."

Update at 2 p.m. ET. Obama To Visit On Sunday:

The White House confirmed this afternoon that President Obama will visit the tornado-ravaged area on Sunday.

Update at 11:40 a.m. ET. 10 Children Among Those Killed:

The 24 people who were killed included 10 children, according to a statement sent to reporters by the office of Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. That's a slight change from what officials were saying Tuesday, when they reported that 9 children were among the 24 victims.

According to the statement, the Oklahoma Chief Medical Examiner's Office has identified 23 of the 24 people killed. The ages of those killed range from 4 months to 65 years (though the ages of five victims have not yet been confirmed).

In early reports from Moore, it was said that 7 children at the Plaza Towers Elementary School had drowned. In fact, according to the medical examiner's office, they were crushed to death. The official causes: Either "mechanical asphyxia," "blunt force trauma" or asphyxia.

Update at 9:45 a.m. ET. Governor Says State Will Talk About "Safe Rooms" At All Schools:

On Morning Edition this hour, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) was asked whether all schools in the state should be required to have "safe rooms." Neither of the elementary schools in Moore that were destroyed had such facilities.

"We are going to be talking about that," Fallin said. She noted that newly built schools in the state do have storm rooms or storm shelters, but that older buildings — such as those in Moore — do not. All schools are required to have evacuation plans, she added.

Fallin hailed the teachers in Moore. They "are really heroes" for the efforts they made to protect the children there, the governor said.

NPR's coverage of the tornado is collected here. Some of the morning's related news includes:

— The storm likely caused more than $1 billion in damages, according to Oklahoma City's KFOR-TV.

— Officials say that among those who were injured, "four individuals were struck by vehicles or other large objects, 85 were struck by other objects and 148 sustained cuts or pierces," The Oklahoman writes.

— "Moore Police spokesman Jeremy Lewis said more than 200 people were rescued from the rubble — all of them Monday night," says CBS News. "No survivors were found Tuesday, he added."

— For the first day since the tragedy in Moore, the National Weather Service is not warning that there could be more severe weather in that area.

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who handled the division that deals with nonprofit groups seeking tax-exempt status, will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than answer questions at a congressional hearing set for Wednesday.

Lerner is accused of placing conservative groups under special scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. She was subpoenaed to testify Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee.

Speaking Tuesday, Lerner's attorney, William W. Taylor III, said that his client "has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation, but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course."

A spokesman for committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the subpoena would not be withdrawn, raising the possibility that Lerner would have to appear and then decline to answer question after question.

In a letter on Tuesday to Issa, Lerner's attorney asked that she be excused from testifying.

"Requiring her to appear at the hearing merely to assert her Fifth Amendment privilege would have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her," Taylor wrote, according to Politico.