By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC NewsA heated battle is brewing on Capitol Hill over cuts to the food stamp program, with lawmakers quoting Bible verses at each other and benefits for millions of people hanging in the balance.Nearly 47 million people – one in seven Americans – rely on food stamps for some of all of their daily sustenance, according to the Department of Agriculture, a n...

The H1N1 virus strain that caused a 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was detected in northern elephant seals off the coast of central California.Scientists say this is the first time marine mammals have been found to carry the H1N1 flu strain, which originated in pigs. The seals seem to have picked up the virus while at sea, but it's unclear how this happened."We thought we might find influenza v...

Do you have the lucky ticket? A winner for the huge Powerball jackpot was sold at a supermarket in Zephyrhills, Fla., a Florida Lottery official confirmed to NBC News early Sunday.The winning Powerball numbers drawn late Saturday were 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 with Powerball number 11.Powerball's website said one winner was sold in Florida, and David Bishop of the Florida Lottery confirmed that it was so...

Do you have the lucky ticket? The winning Powerball numbers drawn late Saturday are 10, 13, 14, 22, 52 with Powerball number 11.Four out of every five possible combinations of numbers were in play, Powerball officials said. The jackpot of the 43-state lottery game surged ahead of the drawing, and had been estimated at $600 million. Powerball officials said after the drawing that the final amount w...

Large sections of the Plains states came under tornado watches Saturday as a wave of storms swept through.The greatest threat late Saturday was in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma, weather.com reported, with central Oklahoma seeing a spike on Sunday.But Weather Channel meteorologist Michael Palmer said the storms on Sunday afternoon and evening were likely to carry a greater chance of tornadoes and the...

232 days - it took over 30 years for Anchorage to set a new record for the longest snow season on record.The National Weather Service measured 2/10ths of an inch just after 9 p.m. Friday and 1/10th Saturday morning - breaking the old record of 230 days set in 1981-1982.Anchorage police responded to 22 crashes, 4 with injuries and 37 vehicles in distress between midnight and noon Saturday. Police s...

The New York college student who was shot during a home robbery early Friday was killed by police gunfire, officials said at a news conference Saturday.According to NBC New York affiliate WNBC, Nassau County Police said Andrea Rebello, 21, was killed by police fire, not by the armed gunman attempting to rob the off-campus house where she lived with her twin sister, Jessica, and several other wom...

About 50 to 60 people were injured Saturday when a driver described by witnesses as an elderly man drove his car into a group of hikers marching in a parade in a small Virginia mountain town.Washington County director of emergency management Pokey Harris said no fatalities had been reported.The injuries ranged from critical to superficial, he said. Three of the victims were flown by helicopte...