Tech giant Apple used a "complex web of offshore entities" to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes in the U.S., a congressional investigation has found.

In a statement Monday, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said:

"Apple's claim[ed] ... three key offshore companies are not tax residents of Ireland, where they are incorporated, or of the United States, where Apple executives manage and control the companies. One of those Irish subsidiaries has paid no income taxes to any national tax authority for the past five years."

"Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the panel. "Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."

The Senate subcommittee holds a hearing Tuesday on the company's practices.

Sen. John McCain, the panel's ranking member, called Apple "among America's largest tax avoiders."

The subcommittee's statement detailed some of Apple's practices:

"Apple established at the apex of its offshore network an offshore holding company that it says is not tax resident in any nation. That subsidiary, Apple Operations International, has no employees and no physical presence, but keeps its bank accounts and records in the United States and holds its board meetings in California. It was incorporated in Ireland in 1980, and is owned and controlled by the U.S. parent company, Apple Inc. Ireland asserts tax jurisdiction only over companies that are managed and controlled in Ireland, but the United States bases tax residency on where a company is incorporated. Exploiting the gap between the two nations' tax laws, Apple Operations International has not filed an income tax return in either country, or any other country, for the past five years. From 2009 to 2012, it reported income totaling $30 billion."

Another example offered by the panel:

"A second Irish subsidiary claiming not to be a tax resident anywhere is Apple Sales International which, from 2009 to 2012, had sales revenue totaling $74 billion. The company appears to have paid taxes on only a tiny fraction of that income, resulting, for example, in an effective 2011 tax rate of only five hundreds of one percent. The third Irish subsidiary is Apple Operations Europe. In addition to creating non-tax resident affiliates, Apple Inc. has utilized U.S. tax loopholes to avoid U.S. taxes on $44 billion in otherwise taxable offshore income over the past four years, or about $10 billion in tax avoidance per year."

Levin and McCain plan to issue a 40-page memorandum with findings and recommendations on Tuesday. Among those testifying at the hearing are Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives at the company.

Our colleague Andy Carvin has scanned Twitter in search of reaction, including photos and video, from the massive tornado that swept through central Oklahoma on Monday.

Among the tweets:

Sidney Montoya of Oklahoma City says he is "Praying for my little cousins in Moore, their elementary school just got hit by the tornado."

And Dennis Varghese, who also lives in Oklahoma City, says: "Just overheard a lady break down and say, 'my house is gone!' and now worrying about her kids. Please pray."

A warning that some of the language below on Andy's Storify page could be offensive to some of our readers.

NBC News has put together a time-lapse video of the EF-4 tornado that tore through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Okla.

As we told you in the live blog, the National Weather Service says it was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

It's another bad day for the Justice Department.

A federal judge in Louisiana has thrown out the central criminal charge against a former BP executive because prosecutors failed to prove he knew about a pending congressional investigation into oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico three years ago. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt also ruled that a Democratic House member who inquired about the oil flow rate was acting as head of a subcommittee, not a full congressional committee, as required under the federal Obstruction of Justice statute.

The judge's ruling dismisses half of the BP Task Force prosecution against David Rainey, the highest ranking official at the British oil giant to be charged with a crime in connection with the spill and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig. Eleven men died there in April 2010.

Brian Heberlig, a lawyer for Rainey, told NPR in an email statement that "we are very pleased with the Court's thoughtful and well-reasoned opinion dismissing the main charge in the indictment."

The original grand jury indictment said Rainey failed to share accurate information about the oil flow rate during a briefing with members of Congress and their staff only weeks after the spill, and that he helped prepare a misleading response to Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ed Markey about flow rate estimates.

But the judge ruled that "it is not enough that the indictment obliquely suggest that the defendant was aware of a request emanating from some person or group associated with Congress."

He added: "Because it is an essential element of this crime that the defendant knew of this inquiry and investigation, the indictment must allege such knowledge. It does not."

A Justice Department spokesman said prosecutors are reviewing the ruling and declined to comment further "at this time." Authorities have the option of appealing the ruling or refashioning their indictment. The judge's decision left in place a second charge against Rainey, for allegedly making false statements about the oil flow rate in an April 2011 interview with law enforcement agents.

Lawyers who represent people in front of Congress are already taking note of the decision.

Washington lawyer Stanley Brand says "it's certainly significant from a congressional standpoint for future cases."

"For obstruction purposes," Brand says, "it has to be an officially authorized investigation and what that means is, you've got to have the chair and you've got to have the majority otherwise it's just a rump exercise for the purposes of the law."

Although Oklahoma is a state where tornadoes are a fact of life, few days stand out like May 3, 1999.

That was when some 70 tornadoes touched down over a 21-hour period, cutting paths of destruction like deep cuts of a knife blade in and around Oklahoma City. One tornado maxed out the Fujita scale at F-5, smashing through some of the very same areas that were hardest hit on Monday. Its winds topped out at a staggering 318 mph, the highest ever recorded anywhere on Earth.

At the time, it was the deadliest twister in 20 years in the U.S. and the costliest (estimated at the time to be $1 billion) in the state's history, according to NOAA.

A decade after the 1999 tornadoes, the experience was still fresh for survivor Renee Faulkinberry, who recalled how she and her 16-year-old daughter huddled in a bedroom closet as the massive twister leveled their home. Faulkinberry told local media that the best she could figure was that they both blacked out. When they came to, she called out to her daughter, who replied that she was OK.

"All I could see was blood coming down my arm and down my face," Faulkinberry said recently. "I remember her getting out and me lying there waiting for her to get help. It seemed like forever. I didn't hear anybody, and I kept screaming for help."

Oklahoma sits at the heart of "Tornado Alley," which stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians. Although on average Texas has more total tornadoes, Kansas and Oklahoma rank at the top for tornadoes per square mile.

As devastating as the 1999 tornadoes were, with 46 deaths across two states, the toll was far short of one that struck on April 9, 1947. It was an F-5 that did most of its damage about 140 miles northwest of the capital, in the town of Woodward. The tornado killed 185 people starting in Texas and ending in Kansas — a path of destruction that measured 100 miles long and 2 miles wide in some places.

According to NOAA, the tornado "unleashed its worst destruction on Woodward, striking the city without warning at 8:42 pm. Over 100 city blocks on the west and north sides of the city were destroyed ... Confusion and fires reigned in the aftermath with over 1,000 homes and businesses destroyed, at least 107 people killed in and around Woodward, and nearly 1,000 additional injuries."

The second deadliest twister to hit the state was on May 10, 1905. That was the day an F-5 tore through the town of Snyder, about 115 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, killing 97 people. An F-4 on May 2, 1920, in the small town of Peggs, 130 miles northeast of the capital, ranks as No. 3 on the list. It killed 71 people.

NOAA says that in and around Oklahoma City, "May is the peak month for all tornadoes, followed closely by April and June."

"About two thirds of all tornadoes in [Oklahoma City] have struck during those three months. Strong and violent tornadoes tend to occur slightly earlier, with April the peak month."

NOAA says 18 of the 27 April tornadoes were F-2 or greater, and that 5 of the 10 F-4/F-5 tornadoes on record occurred in April.

Damaging tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma on Sunday and Monday, causing widespread damage that is still being assessed, and additional severe weather is expected.

One of the hardest hit areas, Moore, Okla., is no stranger to devastating twisters. A massive tornado that hit on May 3, 1999, was one of the most powerful and destructive single tornadoes in history until the 2011 tornado that hit Joplin, Mo., killing 158 people and causing an estimated $2.8 billion in damage.

Monday's tornado, which is estimated to have been on the ground for nearly 40 minutes and possibly more than a mile wide, followed closely the track of the one that struck in 1999, according to the National Weather Service.

Tornado strength is currently measured on what is called the Enhanced Fujita Scale (adapted from the simpler Fujita Scale in 2007), which gives the tornado a rating from 0 to 5 based on estimated wind speeds and the severity of the damage. The 1999 Moore tornado is listed as an F-5, the most powerful, though it is still unclear where on the scale Monday's tornado will be until the damage can be examined.

Below is a quick rundown of the EF scale and damage estimates, according to Weather Underground:

The Enhanced Fujita Scale

• EF-0 (wind speeds 65-85 mph): Light damage. Peels surface off some roofs; some damage to gutters or siding; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
• EF-1 (wind speeds 86-110 mph): Moderate damage. Roofs severely stripped; mobile homes overturned or badly damaged; loss of exterior doors; windows and other glass broken.
• EF-2 (wind speeds 111-135 mph): Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-constructed houses; foundations of frame homes shifted; mobile homes completely destroyed; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated; cars lifted off ground.
• EF-3 (wind speeds 136-165 mph): Severe damage. Entire stories of well-constructed houses destroyed; severe damage to large buildings such as shopping malls; trains overturned; trees debarked; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance.
• EF-4 (wind speeds 166-200 mph): Devastating damage. Well-constructed houses and whole frame houses completely leveled; cars thrown and small missiles generated.
• EF-5 (wind speeds >200 mph): Incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of over 100 yards; high-rise buildings have significant structural deformation; incredible phenomena will occur.

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and a founding member of The Doors, died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

A statement from publicist Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald said Manzarek died in Rosenheim, Germany, after a long battle with bile duct cancer.

Manzarek and Jim Morrison founded the iconic band after meeting in California. The Doors went on to become one of the most successful rock 'n' roll acts of the 1960s — and continues to have an impact decades after Morrison's death in 1971.

In an interview with NPR in 2000, Manzarek recalled the band's influences and its music:

"We were aware of Muddy Waters. We were aware of Howlin' Wolf and John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Plus, Jan and Dean and The Beach Boys and the surf sound. Robby Krieger brings in some flamenco guitar. I bring a little bit of classical music along with the blues and jazz, and certainly John Densmore was heavy into jazz. And Jim brings in beatnik poetry and French symbolist poetry, and that's the blend of The Doors as the sun is setting into the Pacific Ocean at the end, the terminus of Western civilization. That's the end of it. Western civilization ends here in California at Venice Beach, so we stood there inventing a new world on psychedelics."

Here's more from the publicist's statement:

"After Morrison's death in 1971, Manzarek went on to become a best-selling author, and a Grammy-nominated recording artist in his own right. In 2002, he revitalized his touring career with Doors' guitarist and long-time collaborator, Robby Krieger."

"I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and bandmate Ray Manzarek today," Krieger said. "I'm just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life, and I will always miss him."

Manzarek is survived by his wife, Dorothy; his brothers, Rick and James Manczarek; his son, Pablo Manzarek; daughter-in-law, Sharmin; and three grandchildren.

(This post was last updated at 9:02 p.m. ET.)

A massive tornado ripped through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, according to the state medical examiner's office.

The death toll was expected to rise.

Helicopter images showed large tracts of Moore, Okla., completely leveled by what the National Weather Service says was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

On video aired by KFOR-TV, emergency personnel could be seen sifting through rubble, walking over mounds of twisted debris.

Joe Jolly, a Moore resident, told our Newscast unit that his neighborhood looked like a "war zone."

"I pretty much don't have much of a house right now," he said. "I'm still kind of in shock right now. It was intense... I really don't know what to say. It's a big deal, devastating."

KWTV in Oklahoma reports that hundreds of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Jayme Shelton, a public information officer for the Moore Police Department, told All Things Considered the tornado hit two schools and a hospital. Lance West, a reporter from KFOR, was in front of Plaza Tower Elementary School.

West said rescue workers were looking through what was left of the building, searching for children. One of them was pulled out alive and reunited with his parents.

"The walls are gone," West said. "Cinderblock walls that are ten inches thick are gone."

Earlier today, the National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metro area.

That's a rare warning from the weather service, which says it issues one "when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a tornado is imminent or ongoing."

The National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., is tweeting updates. At 4:22 p.m. ET. it warned that:

"the tornado is so large you may not realize it's a tornado. If you are in Moore, go to shelter NOW!"

This story is breaking, so the news will surely change quickly. We'll concentrate on information from news outlets and authorities at the scene and will update this post as we get more. KFOR is streaming its live coverage.

Update at 11:45 p.m. ET. Obama Signs Disaster Declaration

President Obama signed a disaster declaration late Monday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area.

"The President's action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie," a White House statement said.

The assistance can be in the form of grants for temporary housing and home repairs, "low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover."

Update at 9:00 p.m. ET. Search And Rescue Underway:

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, speaking at a news conference Monday evening, said rescue efforts were underway and officials were "working as quickly as we can".

"It will be dark pretty soon and we want to do everything we can to continue to look," she said.

Fallin said that rescue dogs were being called in to assist in the search.

"We do know there are fatalities, but we don't have a number count yet," she said.

Authorities said they expected a federal disaster declaration shortly.

"As you know, we've been through this before, but I can tell you that our citizens are resilient," Moore city manager Steve Eddy told reporters. "This city will recover and we will rebuild."

Update at 8:30 p.m. ET. Death Toll Rises To At Least 51:

At least 51 people have been killed, spokesperson Amy Elliot of the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner's Office, tells NPR. Elliot said the death toll is expected to rise.

Scott Coppenbarger, a spokesman for OU Medical Center, says the hospital has admitted 20 people for treatment due to tornado-related injuries — 12 adults and eight children.

Update at 7:39 p.m. ET. 'All Hands On Deck:'

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin tells KFOR that the state has "all hands on deck."

"We have called out everyone we can," she said, adding that she has activated the National Guard and that three out-of-state rescue teams are on the scene.

President Obama called Fallin to say the federal government "stands ready to provide all available assistance as the Governor's team responds to the storm and that he has directed his team to ensure that they are providing available resources as the response unfolds."

In a read-out of the president's call, the White House said:

"FEMA has deployed an Incident Management Assistance Team to the state emergency operations center in Oklahoma City to support state and local officials on the ground and additional personnel and resources stand ready to be dispatched as necessary. The President told Governor Fallin that the people of Oklahoma are in his and the First Lady's thoughts and prayers and, while his team will continue to keep him updated, he urged her to be in touch directly if there were additional resources the Administration could provide."

Update at 7:33 p.m. Three Dead:

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says at least three people are dead.

Norman Regional Health System spokesperson Paula Price tells NPR they have received a total of 40 are injured.

Update at 7:17 p.m. ET. A History Of Okla. Tornadoes:

Scott has put together a post that details the history of tornadoes in Oklahoma. We also added these other posts:

— Measuring The Power Of Deadly Tornadoes

— VIDEO: A Time-Lapse Of The Tornado In Oklahoma

Update at 6:45 p.m. ET. Two Schools And A Hospital:

Jayme Shelton, a public information officer for the Moore Police Department, said the tornado had hit two schools and a hospital.

The Moore Medical Center, Shelton told All Things Considered, is closed because it was heavily damaged.

Shelton said they have not gotten any reports of casualties.

"What we need is people who are not in the area to stay out of the area," Shelton said.

Update at 6:19 p.m. ET. Dramatic Video:

David Massey, a Twitter user, has uploaded dramatic video of the tornado and the aftermath. NPR's Andy Carvin is collecting reaction, videos and images that are moving on social media.

Update at 6:13 p.m. ET. At Least An EF-4:

The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, reports:

"Preliminary Rating of Newcastle-Moore Tornado at least EF-4 #okwx"

An EF-4 tornado has winds speeds of 166 to 200 mph. It is the second strongest rating for a tornado. For perspective, that is more severe than a category 5 hurricane, which has maximum sustained winds of more than 157 mph.

Update at 6:06 p.m. ET. 'Like A War Zone:'

Joe Wertz of NPR member station KGOU is in Moore. He described a devastating scene for our Newscast unit.

"Every window on every house is completely shattered," he said. "Police have shut down a lot of roads, there are power lines down, there's an air conditioning unit, roof material... there is just debris everywhere."

Joe Jolly, a Moore resident, told our Newscast unit that it looked like "war zone."

"I pretty much don't have much of a house right now," he said. "I'm still kind of in shock right now. It was intense... I really don't know what to say. It's a big deal, devastating."

Update at 5:37 p.m. ET. Search And Rescue:

KWTV in Oklahoma reports:

"Complete devastation in Moore, OK. Hundreds home homes and businesses destroyed. National Guard, EMSA, Police and Fire are in search and rescue mode."

Update at 5:23 p.m. ET. 1999 Tornado:

As we've told you, local meteorologists are comparing this tornado to one that ripped through the same area on May 3, 1999.

According to NOAA, that outbreak of tornadoes, which spanned a 38-mile path left "46 dead and 800 injured, more than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and total property damage of nearly $1.5 billion."

The National Weather Service also put together a map comparing the two tornado paths.

Update at 5:22 p.m. ET. Danger Is Not Over:

One thing to keep in mind is that the danger is not over for the Oklahoma City metro. The National Weather service is reporting that a "dangerous storm may produce a tornado near Ryan and Sugden in Jefferson County."

Update at 5:20 p.m. ET. Elementary School Hit:

The AP just moved this alert:

"Police: Elementary school in Oklahoma City suburb takes direct hit from mile-wide tornado."

KFOR showed images of what they believed was Plaza Torres Elementary School. Very little was left of the building.

Update at 5:04 p.m. ET. Tornado Track:

The National Weather Service has put together a preliminary map of the tornado's tracks.

The NWS reports:

"Newcastle-Moore OKC Tornado was on the ground approx. 40 minutes. Tornado warning was in effect for 16 minutes before tornado developed."

Update at 4:44 p.m. ET. Devastated Neighborhoods:

Helicopter images of Moore, Oklahoma from KFOR show tracts of devastated neighborhoods. The images show homes missing their roofs, some of them completely leveled.

The reporter on the helicopter said one school was razed by a mile-wide tornado. KFOR showed people walking listlessly through the streets, surveying the damage and reuniting with their families.

Update at 4:38 p.m. ET. Reminiscent Of 1999 Tornado:

Kurt Gwartney of NPR member station KGOU in Oklahoma City said one of the issues with today's tornadoes is that people are at work and school.

"What we're seeing from helicopter coverage," Gwartney tells our Newscast unit, "is very reminiscent of the May 1999 tornado that killed lots of people especially in the Moore area of the Oklahoma City metro.

A report from USA Today at time, put that 1999 tornado's top winds at 318 mph.

Fox News said that it was "outraged," after learning that the Justice Department obtained the personal emails of one of its reporters during the course of a 2009 leak investigation.

The Washington Post broke the story this morning, citing an sealed affidavit filed in The United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The Post reports that the Obama administration was investigating the leak of an intelligence assessment of North Korea. It used internal State Department emails, a reporter's personal Gmail account, as well as records on who was walking in and out of Foggy Bottom to pinpoint two men: Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a government adviser, and James Rosen, a Fox News reporter.

That's not unusual. The U.S. investigates leaks all the time. What made this case, different, reports the Post, is that the government said Rosen had broken the law, "at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator."

"That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target," the Post report.

Essentially, the Justice Department was saying that Rosen had broken the law doing what journalists do: reporting on government secrets.

Fox News executive vice president of news Michael Clemente reacted viscerally in a statement to Media Bistro.

"We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter," Clemente said. "In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press."

Of course, all of this comes as the Obama administration is facing criticism over its surveillance of the Associated Press.

The administration defended its investigation. White House spokesman Jay Carney said during his daily briefing today that while Obama was a "defender of the First Amendment," he took leaks "very seriously because leaks can endanger the lives of men and women serving in uniform overseas."

Obama made similar statements last week.

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

The Invincible class carrier was a victim of a 2010 defense review that recommended scrapping the vessel and selling its Harrier jump jets (they were subsequently sold to the U.S.). Ark Royal's sister ship, HMS Illustrious, is due to be decommissioned next year, and a new class of British carrier, designed to launch and recover the F-35 joint strike aircraft, won't come into service for nearly a decade.

The Daily Mail offers a bit of history on the vessel:

"HMS Ark Royal led UK naval forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and saw active service in Bosnia. The Invincible-class aircraft carrier was built by Swan Hunters in 1981 on the River Tyne and was named by Queen Elizabeth.

"Nearly 30 years later, the government then axed the famous warship in the 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review. It is the most expensive warship built in the United Kingdom, costing a staggering £320million.

"There had been hopes HMS Ark Royal could be preserved as a museum ship, but the Ministry of Defense said she was in too poor a condition.

"Other proposals to reuse the ship included turning her into a commercial heliport, nightclub, school, or a casino."

Imagine: You're tapped to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Memorial Cup, a Canadian hockey tournament being held in Saskatoon. Midway through, you realize you don't know the words. What do you do?

Well, on Saturday, the Canadian jazz singer Alexis Normand decided to just keep going and mumble the rest. It's cringe-inducing, but also really funny. Watch:

Normand, by the way, sent this tweet shortly after her performance:

"I'm embarrassed and deeply sorry. I wish I'd had more time to learn the American anthem. Thanks so much for the crowd's help! #memorialcup"

Salon gives her some solace. It rounds up the "worst national anthem fails." Among them: Michael Bolton, who had to stop midway to read the lyrics off his hand.

All of this reminded Boston.com of the scene from The Naked Gun.

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for improperly singling out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny — putting them through months (or longer) of questions that delayed or derailed the organizations' requests for tax-exempt status.

Well, now the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have some questions and requests — actually dozens of them — for the IRS.

As senators Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, say, "targeting applicants for tax-exempt status using political labels threatens to undermine the public's trust in the IRS."

So, they've sent the outgoing acting commissioner, Steven Miller, a letter with 41 multiple-part queries or demands for information. They range from ...

"A copy of any and all questions, questionnaires and information requests used by the IRS to attempt to elicit additional information from 501(c)(3)-(6) applicants from Feb. 1, 2010, to the present regarding their donor lists, volunteer lists, financial support for, and relationships with, political candidates, and any and all similar information."

... to ...

"Any written communication, memos, policy drafts, or other documents related to the interpretation of section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code since 2009."

As NPR's Peter Overby tweeted: "Looks a lot like the q'aires the IRS sent to 501c4 applicants. Hmmm."

The senators set a deadline of May 31, 2013. There's no mention of being able to file for an extension on that. Miller, who was forced to submit his resignation, is expected to still be in the acting commissioner's post until around June 8, according to ABC News.

There's a copy of the lawmakers' request here and in the box below. Just click on the headline "Senators Baucus and Hatch have some questions for the IRS."

Beijing has long been about the closest thing to an ally that Pyongyang enjoys, but the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat by unidentified North Koreans has threatened to put an already tenuous relationship on even shakier ground.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted by The New York Times as making it fairly clear that his government was not happy about the development.

China, he said, is "demanding that it properly deal with the matter as quickly as possible and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights of the Chinese fishermen, as well as the safety of their lives and property."

The incident comes close on the heels of North Korea conducting a series of test firings of "short-range projectiles," including short-range missiles and possibly rocket artillery over the weekend.

According to The Times:

"The announcement about the captured boat promptly drew an outcry from Chinese media and citizens online, some of whom have already expressed increasing impatience with North Korea over its nuclear weapons ambitions and threats to the region. ...

"The Chinese media reports said that the boat was seized May 5, with 16 men aboard, and that the North Korean authorities demanded payment of 600,000 renminbi, or about $98,000, to release them and the vessel, apparently on the grounds that it was fishing in waters claimed by North Korea. The deadline for payment was Sunday, the Beijing Times newspaper said.

"The owner of the boat [Yu Xuejun] drew public attention to its capture through messages on Tencent Weibo, a Chinese microblog service. And on Monday he issued a message saying that he feared his crew had been beaten."

Germany's Deutsche Welle has gone so far as to suggest that China is "quietly encouraging regime change" in North Korea. The network last week quoted unnamed intelligence sources as saying that Beijing had a contingency plan in case North Korean leader Kim Jong Un should lose control of his country; the plan reportedly involved Kim's older brother, Kim Jong Nam, taking the reins.

Deutsche Welle says:

"At 42, Kim Jong-nam is the oldest son of Kim Jong-il, the dictator who ruled North Korea with an iron fist for 17 years until his sudden death in December 2011. Kim Jong-nam had been expected to assume the leadership after his father's death, but fell from favor spectacularly in 2001 when he was detained with two women and a boy aged 4 at Tokyo's Narita International Airport travelling on a forged Dominican Republic passport. He later admitted that he had wanted to visit Disneyland.

"He subsequently lived in Macau and Beijing, under the close watch of the Chinese authorities.

"The reports suggest that after Kim Jong-nam is installed in Pyongyang, his brother will be permitted to go into exile, probably in China."

ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl now says he regrets that some key parts of a major story he reported on May 10 were wrong.

The story sent off a political uproar. As we said last week, it made it appear that in a Sept. 14, 2012, email a top White House aide had come down on the side of the State Department to push for downplaying any terrorist connection to the attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Republicans have been accusing the Obama administration of trying to mislead the nation about the attacks during an election campaign.

Karl said on the air and online that ABC News had "obtained" the email, along with 11 others, and had "reviewed" those emails.

But a few days after Karl's story, CNN's Jake Tapper reported that the key email, written by deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, did not mention the State Department. The source who told Karl otherwise, "seemingly invented the notion that Rhodes wanted the concerns of the State Department specifically addressed," said Tapper, who had a copy of the email.

After Tapper's report, Karl conceded that he had only been told about the email by a source "who reviewed the original documents and shared detailed notes." The White House accused Congressional Republicans of leading Karl astray.

Now, in a statement sent to CNN's Howard Kurtz and in tweets, Karl is expressing regret — but is also insisting that his story stands up.

"Clearly, I regret the email was quoted incorrectly and I regret that it's become a distraction from the story, which still entirely stands," Karl says in the statement to Kurtz. "I should have been clearer about the attribution. We updated our story immediately."

In his tweets, Karl says:

— "In case you missed it, I sincerely regret the error I made describing an email from Ben Rhodes."

— "I should have stated, as I did elsewhere, the reporting was based on a summary provided by a source. I apologize for the mistake."

The part of the story that Karl says still stands is that the famous "talking points" about the Benghazi attack, which U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice would rely on when she appeared on Sunday talk shows the weekend after the attack, went through multiple revisions and that the State Department was particularly concerned about not giving critics fuel to use against the administration.

Jay Rosen, a New York University journalism professor who writes the online PressThink blog, hasn't been buying Karl's defenses. Here's what Rosen has to say in a post about ABC News' "big Benghazi problem":

"Jon Karl has dragged the entire news division at ABC (and now George Stephanopoulos) into his self-dug pit. He got played. His colleagues at other news organizations know it. His friends at the network, were they real friends, would try to talk him out of this disastrous state of denial."

After uproar over some lesson plans some conservatives deemed un-American, a Texas company has decided scrap a curriculum system used by 877 school districts that were too small or too poor to produce their own.

"The CSCOPE era is over," Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick, who was leading the charge against the program, said in a statement. Patrick and others had introduced legislation that would have added more scrutiny to the lesson plans produced by the program. The legislation was scheduled to be debated, but CSCOPE pulled the plug before that.

Texas Monthly wrote a piece back in April that detailed how we got here. The magazine reports:

"[CSCOPE] first gained national attention last November when conservative talk show host (and recent Dallas transplant) Glenn Beck mentioned a lesson on his show that said that, from the British perspective, the Boston Tea Party could be considered an act of terrorism.

"Patrick, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, had explained that he drafted SB 1406 because of his "great concerns about the management, the supervision, and the oversight" of the system. Proponents of the bill who testified shared those concerns; some complained that another lesson on Islam said that 'Allah' was another word for 'God.' Others complained that material in the lesson plans was not always appropriate for grade level."

After today's news, the Texas Freedom Network, an activist organization that tries to fight against what it calls "textbook censorship at the Texas State Board of Education," was not happy.

"Today political bullying resulted in hundreds of school districts getting thrown under the bus and essentially told to figure out for themselves where to find the resources to replace the service CSCOPE had provided them," Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller said in a statement. "The big lesson here is that if you can generate a witch hunt that includes enough incendiary and distorted claims, then there are politicians at the Capitol who are ready to throw their supposed commitment to local control out the window."

Scripps Texas Newspapers reports that during a press conference Patrick said his issue with CSCOPE was that it ran afoul a system of "checks and balances." That is, curriculums should be able to be reviewed by parents or some other Texas entity. Patrick said the "future legislation would take a deeper look at online curriculum that private companies might develop to fill the void left by CSCOPE."