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ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday dismissed Tehran's claims that it has recovered data from a U.S. spy drone that went down in Iran late last year....

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A nor'easter packing high winds, soaking rain and springtime snow churned up the Northeast on Monday, unleashing a burst of winter, closing some schools and sparking worries about power outages in communities that were basking in record warmth a month ago....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Authorities on Monday finished excavating a Manhattan basement in connection to the disappearance of a 6-year-old boy three decades ago without finding any obvious human remains, law enforcement officials said Monday....

MIAMI (AP) -- In a low-key event, George Zimmerman was released from a Florida jail in the middle of the night on $150,000 bail as he awaits his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Surrounded by the haunting memories of the Holocaust, a solemn President Barack Obama on Monday announced a new crackdown on Iran and Syria and said the world must never again allow hatred to take root into the "madness" of mass atrocities....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a blow to the Obama administration on Medicare, government auditors Monday called for the cancellation of a costly bonus program for private health plans that congressional Republicans have criticized as a wasteful political ploy....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An aging population and an economy that has been slow to rebound are straining the long-term finances of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two largest benefit programs....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Monday announced a plan to impose sanctions against foreign entities and individuals who help authoritarian regimes use technology to crackdown on dissidents....

CHICAGO (AP) -- A gift of balloons. That, prosecutors contend, is what sent singer Jennifer Hudson's then brother-in-law into such a jealous rage that he shot dead her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in a horrific act of vindictiveness in the home where the Hollywood star grew up....

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A spring nor'easter packing soaking rain and high winds churned up the Northeast on Monday morning, unleashing a burst of winter and up to a foot of snow in higher elevations inland, closing some schools and sparking concerns of power outages.

"It's unusual, but not unheard of," ...

SANFORD, Fla. — George Zimmerman, who slipped out of jail on $150,000 bail in the early morning darkness, went back into hiding Monday and likely fled to another state to avoid threats as he awaits his second-degree murder trial for the killing of Trayvon Martin.

His release from jail came ...

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- He had a Las Vegas wedding to attend, but Bryan Dalia was hung over from some marathon partying the night before....

A suppression motion that says that defendant was subjected to a warrantless search is not enough to get a suppression hearing. What are the disputed facts? The motion is denied on the papers. United States v. Brissey, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55739 (S.D. Ind. April 20, 2012).

Officers had reasonable suspicion to believe defendant was in possession of a weapon when they arrived at a shots fired call and heard shots from behind defendant’s house and then saw defendant there. United States v. Huebner, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55821 (E.D. Tenn. February 13, 2012).*

Defendant was stopped by the police after they saw him in a high-crime area with his compatriots flagging down cars for drug deals, and, when he saw the police, he dropped something. That was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Johnson, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154810 (E.D. Mo. December 15, 2011), adopted 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55837 (E.D. Mo. April 20, 2012).*

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A spring nor'easter packing soaking rain and high winds churned up the Northeast Monday morning, unleashing a burst of winter and up to a foot of snow in higher elevations inland, closing some schools and sparking concerns of power outages....

Following the Eighth Circuit, avoiding a DUI checkpoint alone is not enough to make reasonable suspicion. Here, however, there was more. State v. Rademaker, 2012 SD 28, 2012 S.D. LEXIS 28 (April 18, 2012).

2255 inventory claim fails on the merits. “I find no evidence in the record that the impoundment was unlawful or that officers conducted the inventory search before deciding to impound the vehicle.” Brunick v. United States, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55096 (D. Or. April 19, 2012).*

A young man brought defendant’s laptop to the police claiming there was teen gay pornography on the screen from websites defendant visited. The officer touched the mousepad and the screen came on showing what he said. The officer’s viewing of the computer went no further than the private search. Then a state search warrant was sought. United States v. Goodale, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55554 (N.D. Ga. April 19, 2012).*

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- As jurors in the John Edwards campaign corruption trial get set for a fifth day of deliberations, legal experts caution it's still too early to read too much into their discussions....

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Schools in western Pennsylvania are closing in the face of an unusual late-April snow storm that's chugging through the Northeast, threatening to bring high winds and up to a foot of snow in some places....

MIAMI (AP) -- In a low-key event, George Zimmerman was released from a Florida jail on $150,000 bail as he awaits his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin....

CHICAGO (AP) -- A gift of balloons. That, prosecutors contend, is what sent singer Jennifer Hudson's then brother-in-law into such a jealous rage that he shot dead her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in a horrific act of vindictiveness in the home where the Hollywood star grew up....

Defendant’s arguments in the trial court were not the same ones made on appeal, so his appeal is governed by the plain error standard, and he doesn’t succeed for lack of a record supporting his argument. He was shot during what was found to be a Terry stop with guns drawn. Under Graham v. Connor, it appeared, on this record, it was justified enough to support the district court's conclusion. United States v. Hill, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 8072 (4th Cir. April 19, 2012)*:

Hill argues that when we weigh the three factors enumerated in Graham — the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether the suspect was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight — it is apparent the officers "did not have an objectively reasonable ground to shoot Hill." Appellant's Br. at 25. As to the severity of the crime, he argues it weighs in his favor because at no point did the officers suspect Hill of having committed a crime; other than knowing that Bennett had written "help" on the receipt and herself carried a gun, all their information came from their observations of Hill inside the car. As to the third factor, he argues, Hill was not actively resisting arrest or attempting to flee.

The reasonableness of the officers' actions thus comes down to whether Hill's movements inside the car rendered reasonable the officers' belief that Hill posed an imminent threat to them, justifying the use of deadly force. The government argues the officers were justified in interpreting Hill's movements as evidence that he was reaching for a gun. Hill argues that belief was unreasonable because "the movement of a suspect's hands, without more, while he is under arrest is insufficient to give rise to an objectively reasonable basis for the police to use deadly force." Appellant's Br. at 26. Only if "the police had seen him with a gun, or had reliable and specific information that he was known to be armed," might this have been a "significant factor," he argues. Id. He also points out that the officers' descriptions of Hill's precise movements were inconsistent, and that it was Bennett, not Hill, whom the officers knew was armed.

Here again, our problem is the absence of adequate information to find that it was "obvious" that Hill did not pose an imminent threat of serious physical harm to the officers. Had Hill raised these issues in the district court, the risk of non-persuasion on these issues would have been cast upon the government to justify a warrantless seizure. See, e.g., United States v. Basinski, 226 F.3d 829, 833 (7th Cir. 2000); United States v. Burke, 605 F. Supp. 2d 688, 693-94 (D. Md. 2009). But under the plain error standard we apply here, Hill must shoulder the burden to prove the contrary. Without findings by the district court on these and related issues, and particularly inasmuch as the surveillance video does not show Hill's movements in the car, we may not plausibly notice plain error on this record and we decline to do so.