TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised federal aid on Friday to the tornado-ravaged South, where deadly twisters have killed at least 339 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.

Obama toured smashed homes and met survivors on a visit to the worst-hit state, Alabama. It was one of seven southern states mauled by recent tornadoes and storms which have caused insured losses of between $2 billion and $5 billion, according to one catastrophe risk modeler's estimate.

"We are going to do everything we can to help these communities rebuild," Obama told reporters in Tuscaloosa, a university city in Alabama that was devastated by the tornadoes.

The destruction inflicted this week by the twisters, which flattened whole neighborhoods, was the deadliest natural catastrophe since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"I have never seen devastation like this. It is heartbreaking," said Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle and Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. "This is something I don't think anyone has seen before."

In Alabama, emergency officials again raised the death toll from the tornadoes in that state, to 238. Bentley said 1,700 people were injured.

At least 101 more deaths were reported across Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Virginia and Louisiana.

Children were among the victims.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said it was feared the number of deaths would rise as states searched for many people unaccounted for. But the number of missing was not clear.

"We can't bring those who've been lost back. They're alongside God at this point ... but the property damage, which is obviously extensive, that's something we can do something about," Obama said.

"With initial reports of buildings destroyed approaching 10,000, property insurance losses are expected to range from $2 to $5 Billion," catastrophe risk modeling company EQECAT said.

"Tornado activity in April is putting 2011 into the record books," it said, adding that the recent tornado outbreak had involved "hundreds of touchdowns, some tornado tracks reported to be almost a mile wide and tens of miles long causing hundreds of fatalities".

Obama was eager to show that federal relief is on its way and that he is not taking the disaster lightly. His predecessor George W. Bush was fiercely criticized for what was viewed as a slow response to Hurricane Katrina.

Flying into Tuscaloosa aboard Air Force One, Obama and his family saw a wide brown scar of devastation several miles (kilometers) long and hundreds of yards (meters) wide.

Tuscaloosa resident Jack Fagan, 23, was glad that Obama saw the damage. "Perhaps federal funds will help us, but I'm sure it will take longer than they say because it always does."

Recovery could cost billions of dollars and even with federal disaster aid it could complicate efforts by affected states to bounce back from recession.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the U.S. South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

NUCLEAR PLANT SHUT, INDUSTRIES DAMAGED

The tornadoes hit Alabama's poultry industry -- the state is the No. 3 U.S. chicken producer -- and hurt other manufacturers in the state.

They also halted coal production at the Cliffs Natural Resources mine in Alabama.

The second-biggest U.S. nuclear power plant, the Browns Ferry facility in Alabama, may be down for weeks after its power was knocked out and the plant automatically shut, avoiding a nuclear disaster, officials said.

Apparel producer VF Corp, owner of clothing brands such as North Face and Wrangler Jeans, said one of its jeanswear distribution centers, located in Hackleburg, Alabama, was destroyed and one employee killed.

In Tuscaloosa, the twisters, including one a mile-wide, cut a path of destruction, reducing houses to rubble, flipping cars and knocking out utilities. The death count was expected to rise with many bodies still trapped under debris.

"We are bringing in the cadaver dogs today," said Heather McCollum, assistant to Tuscaloosa's mayor. She put the death toll in the city at 42 but said it could rise.

Of the more than 150 tornadoes that rampaged from west to east across the South this week, the National Weather Service confirmed that one that struck Smithville in Mississippi's Monroe County on Wednesday was a rare EF-5 tornado, with winds reaching 205 miles per hour.

This is the highest rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale that measures tornado intensity.

"The homes here are made well ... but when you are talking about a direct hit, it does not matter," Monroe County Sheriff Andy Hood said. "Right now, those homes are slabs of concrete. There is nothing left."

Across the South, many people were made homeless by the tornadoes and stayed in shelters. Some residents provided food, water and supplies to neighbors whose homes were destroyed.

Tuscaloosa resident Antonio Donald, 50, received help. "I got no light, no water. I have a newborn baby at home, a daughter who is pregnant and an 88-year-old aunt," he said.

The storms left up to 1 million homes in Alabama without power. Water and garbage collection services were also disrupted in some areas.

Alabama's Jefferson County, which is fighting to avoid what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, suffered damage and 19 dead but said the storms would have little direct impact on its struggling finances because federal grants were expected.

(Additional reporting by Peggy Gargis in Birmingham and Colleen Jenkins in St. Petersburg, Leigh Coleman in Mississippi, Phil Wahba in New York; writing by Matthew Bigg and Pascal Fletcher, Editing by Paul Simao)

DEARBORN, Michigan (Reuters) – A controversial Florida pastor banned last week from protesting at a Detroit-area mosque on Friday cut short a demonstration at a city hall largely drowned out by counter-protesters.

Terry Jones, 59, had vowed to return this week, saying that his ban on demonstrating in front of the landmark Islamic Center of America in heavily muslim Dearborn had violated free speech protections of the Constitution.

"We are here today to speak out on issues that pertain to all American citizens," Jones said, using a wireless microphone at a podium set up at the top of the city hall steps.

Separate barricaded zones were created for Jones' protest on the steps of city hall and for counter-protesters across Michigan Avenue, a busy four-lane street. Jones' 75 supporters were outnumbered by about five-to-one.

Police were a visible presence on both sides of the street and on two rooftops across the street from city hall.

About an hour into his protest, Jones walked down the steps of city hall and approached Michigan Avenue, raising his arms as he continued his speech. About 150 people broke past a barrier and approached Jones and his group.

Some 30 police wearing helmets and protective gear stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the street in front of city hall and the event ended about 15 minutes later.

Dearborn Mayor John O'Reilly Jr. told reporters afterward that the event was stopped for security reasons.

"They asked him not to step toward the barricade and he did," O'Reilly said. "Our job is to serve and protect our community and that's what we did."

Three people were taken into custody and are expected to face misdemeanor charges, a Dearborn Police sergeant said.

Jones had scheduled three hours for the demonstration, but it ended after about 75 minutes and he was escorted by police to a waiting car. Dearborn Police had also picked Jones up at Detroit Metro Airport on Thursday.

Jones told reporters as he left he would return to Dearborn. He also said he had wanted the counter-protesters to join him in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Counter-demonstrators chanted "Terry Jones go home" and as Jones began speaking the driver of a large truck stopped in traffic on Michigan Avenue sounded its foghorn, setting off a cacophony of car horns that drowned out Jones' speech.

A largely unknown pastor until he courted publicity last year with threats to burn the Koran at his tiny fundamentalist church in Gainesville, Florida, Jones had said his planned protest last week was aimed at "radical Islam."

In March, Jones and Wayne Sapp, 42, staged and videotaped a mock "trial" for the Koran and burned a copy of the holy book, a gesture that prompted riots in Afghanistan and widespread condemnation in the U.S. and around the world.

On April 22, Jones and Sapp were jailed briefly after they refused to pay a $1 bond as ordered by District Court Judge Mark Somers. Somers also barred them from the vicinity of the Islamic Center mosque for three years.

Police in Dearborn denied Jones a permit to protest in front of the Islamic Center. He was tried under an obscure Michigan law dating to 1846 requiring people judged to present a risk to public order to post a "peace bond."

Dearborn's city hall was one of a handful of "free speech zones" where city officials indicated they would allow Jones to hold events. It is more than four miles from the Islamic Center, the largest mosque in the United States.

He has appealed the court's ruling and is represented in litigation by attorneys from the Thomas More Law Center, which is "dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life," according to its web site.

The conservative law center has also represented Christian missionaries who were arrested in Dearborn last year.

(Additional reporting by Teri Murphy; Writing by David Bailey. Editing by Peter Bohan)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – City officials on Friday agreed to pay $1.5 million to the family of a Native American woodcarver fatally shot by a white cop in a confrontation that stoked racial tensions and helped spark a federal probe of Seattle's police force.

A police firearms review board deemed the August 2010 shooting of John Williams, 50, unjustified, ruling that although he was intoxicated at the time he posed no threat "of serious harm" to the officer.

But prosecutors chose not to bring criminal charges against the policeman, Ian Birk, 27, finding insufficient evidence of the criminal intent or malice required under Washington state law to prosecute a law enforcement officer for homicide.

Birk quit the force the same day, February 17.

The civil settlement, announced by the Seattle city attorney's office, was reached through mediation by municipal officials and Williams' relatives.

The settlement document states that $1.25 million will be paid to Williams' estate and $250,000 paid to his mother, Ida Edward of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Birk had insisted he believed Williams was armed and that he shot the man in self-defense. A knife with the blade folded closed was found next to Williams after the shooting.

His death sparked several rallies, attended mostly by minority citizens, protesting policing practices they claimed were racially discriminatory.

The Williams shooting was one of several incidents cited by the American Civil Liberties Union in seeking a U.S. Justice Department investigation into an alleged pattern of excessive force by Seattle police officers, particularly against ethnic and racial minorities. The Justice Department in March said it had launched such an investigation.

Williams' family on March 16 asked the King County Superior Court to convene a citizens grand jury to determine whether Birk should be criminally charged. No ruling has been made.

(Reporting and writing by Laura Myers; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Bohan)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (Reuters) – Tornadoes and violent storms tore through seven Southern states, killing at least 306 people and causing billions of dollars of damage in one of the deadliest swarm of twisters in U.S. history.

President Barack Obama described the loss of life as "heartbreaking" and called the damage to homes and businesses "nothing short of catastrophic." He promised strong federal support for rebuilding and plans to view the damage on Friday.

Over several days this week, the powerful tornadoes -- more than 160 reported in total -- combined with storms to cut a swath of destruction heading west to east. It was the worst U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed up to 1,800 people.

In some areas, whole neighborhoods were flattened, cars flipped over and trees and power lines felled, leaving tangled wreckage.

While rescue officials searched for survivors, some who sheltered in bathtubs, closets and basements told of miraculous escapes. "I made it. I got in a closet, put a pillow over my face and held on for dear life because it started sucking me up," said Angela Smith of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the worst-hit cities.

In Birmingham, Alabama, which was also hard hit, Police Chief A.C. Roper said rescue workers sifted through rubble "hand to hand" on Thursday to pull people from destroyed homes.

"We even rescued two babies, one that was trapped in a crib when the house fell down on top of the baby," Roper said in an interview on PBS NewsHour.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the U.S. South and Midwest, but they are rarely so devastating.

Wednesday was the deadliest day of tornadoes in the United States since 310 people lost their lives on April 3, 1974.

Given the apparent destruction, insurance experts were wary of estimating damage costs, but believed they would run into the billions of dollars, with the worst impact concentrated in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

"In terms of the ground-up damage and quite possibly the insured damage, this event will be of historic proportions," Jose Miranda, an executive with the catastrophe risk modeling firm EQECAT, told Reuters.

'ONE OF THRE WORST'

"I think this is going to rank up as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in U.S. history," said Federal Emergency Management Agency director Craig Fugate.

Fugate spoke in an interview with CNN from Alabama, where his agency said the tornadoes killed at least 204 people. There were still unconfirmed reports late on Thursday of "entire towns flattened" in northern parts of the state, Fugate said.

"We're still trying to get people through rescues and locate the missing," he said.

In preliminary estimates, other states' officials reported 33 killed in Mississippi, 34 in Tennessee, 11 in Arkansas, 14 in Georgia, eight in Virginia and two in Louisiana.

The mile-wide monster twister that tore on Wednesday through Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama, may have been the biggest ever to hit the state, AccuWeather.com meteorologist Josh Nagelberg said.

Obama said he would visit Alabama on Friday to see the damage and meet the governor. He declared a state of emergency for Alabama and ordered federal aid.

"I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover, and we will stand with you as you rebuild," Obama said at the White House.

Miranda said estimated costs would be "in the same ballpark" as an Oklahoma City tornado outbreak in 1999 that caused $1.58 billion of damage and a 2003 tornado outbreak in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma that caused $4.5 billion of damage.

The Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama was expected to be shut for days, possibly weeks, as workers repaired damaged transmission lines.

But the backup systems worked as intended to prevent a partial meltdown like the nuclear disaster in Japan.

The rampaging tornadoes and violent storms destroyed 200 chicken houses that held up to 4 million chickens in Alabama, the No. 3 U.S. chicken producer.

They also battered a local coal mine.

Up to 1 million people in Alabama were left without power.

Daimler said it had shut down its Mercedes-Benz vehicle assembly plant in Tuscaloosa until Monday due to the tornadoes, but the plant itself sustained only minor damage.

'SOUNDED LIKE CHAIN-SAW'

Some of the worst devastation occurred in Tuscaloosa, a town of about 95,000 in the west-central part of Alabama, where at least 37 people were killed, including some students.

"It sounded like a chain-saw. You could hear the debris hitting things. All I have left is a few clothes and tools that were too heavy for the storm to pick up. It doesn't seem real," said student Steve Niven, 24.

"I can buy new things but you cannot replace the people. I feel sorry for those who lost loved ones," Niven told Reuters.

The campus of the University of Alabama, home of the famous Crimson Tide football team, was not badly damaged, but some students were killed off campus, Bentley said.

Shops, shopping malls, drug stores, gas stations and dry cleaners were all flattened in one section of Tuscaloosa.

Alabama's governor declared a state of emergency and deployed 2,000 National Guard members. Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia also declared states of emergency.

Among the Alabama counties affected was Jefferson, which is struggling to avert what would be the largest bankruptcy in municipal history over a $3.2 billion bond debt.

The county suffered "widespread damage," a local emergency spokesman said, and at least 17 people were killed.

(Additional reporting by Peggy Gargis in Birmingham and Leigh Coleman in Biloxi, Colleen Jenkins in St. Petersburg, Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Tom Brown in Miami, Will Dunham in Washington; Writing by Matthew Bigg and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The California couple charged with abducting 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years pleaded guilty on Thursday to kidnapping and sexual assault charges that carry life prison sentences.

Phillip Garrido, 59, who authorities say fathered two daughters by Dugard during her captivity, and his co-defendant wife, Nancy, 55, are scheduled to be formally sentenced on June 2, the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office said.

The case made international headlines in 2009 when Dugard, forced to live nearly two decades in squalid tents and sheds in the backyard of the Garridos' San Francisco Bay-area home, was rescued at age 29 with her daughters, then 11 and 15.

Garrido, a previously convicted rapist, had aroused police suspicions while proselytizing at a college campus.

Dugard, who turns 31 next week, issued a brief statement through a representative saying she was "relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family."

Her family received a $20 million settlement in 2009 through a state victim's compensation fund.

The California inspector general found that state officials failed to properly supervise Garrido after his release from a 10-year prison term for a 1976 rape, overlooking a series of parole violations that should have led to his earlier capture.

District Attorney Vern Pierson credited Dugard with enabling prosecutors to bring the Garridos to justice.

"Jaycee's courage and willingness to confront her abductors in court directly led to the defendants' plea and life sentences," he said in a statement.

Under the plea deal, Phillip Garrido faces a sentence of 431 years to life, and his spouse 36 years to life, minus time already served. Both waived their rights to appeal

Nancy Garrido would be eligible for parole after 36 years if she lives that long. "The odds are she probably won't get out, but she has a chance," lawyer Steve Tapson told Reuters.

Dugard was snatched from a street near her South Lake Tahoe home on June 10, 1991, as she walked to catch a school bus.

She was forced to live in a makeshift compound at the Garridos' home near Antioch, California, for 18 years, bearing two daughters fathered by Garrido when she was a teenager.

Their discovery came after Phillip Garrido brought Dugard and the girls with him to a meeting with a parole officer, who determined their identity.

Dugard, who has kept a low public profile since her rescue, reached a deal with publisher Simon and Schuster last year to recount her ordeal in a book.

Tapson said last month the Garridos had given police a full confession in hopes of securing a relatively lenient sentence for Nancy Garrido, who said she was under her husband's sway and not involved in any the sexual abuse of Dugard.

But she ended up pleaded guilty to one count of rape -- for aiding and abetting her husband, Tapson said -- as well as one count of kidnapping. Phillip Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping as well as to 13 sexual assault counts alleged against him in the couple's indictment.

He was expected to plead guilty three weeks ago under an earlier agreement with prosecutors, but an unspecified legal hitch scuttled the deal and he pleaded not guilty instead.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – The North American branch of the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order that runs schools around the world, has filed for bankruptcy protection amid mounting sexual abuse claims against U.S. and Canadian members.

Although the bankruptcy filing was made in New York, where the brothers' North American chapter is headquartered, the bulk of the abuse claims come from the Seattle area, said Michael Patterson, a lawyer for the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle.

"It's a sad day. We're very disappointed that it reached this level," Patterson told Reuters on Thursday night.

"We had hoped that we could have partnered with the Christian Brothers to settle claims. What this means is that victims now have to deal with this out of bankruptcy court."

He said he did not know the extent of the claims.

But lawyers for the plaintiffs in lawsuits against the Christian Brothers said its members, who are not ordained as priests, sexually abused scores of children in the United States and Canada.

Seattle attorney Michael Pfau said on Thursday he has settled more than 50 abuse cases for a total of $25.6 million, paid out to victims in the last five years by the order and the Seattle Archdiocese.

About 35 of those cases originated with the now-defunct Briscoe Memorial School, an orphanage and boarding school jointly run by the archdiocese and Christian Brothers in Kent, Washington.

"There were rapes, molestations and beatings. The brothers carried long leather straps. It was a very abusive place," Pfau told Reuters.

Most lawsuits still pending involve allegations of sexual abuse at schools and orphanages the Brothers owned and operated in Washington state and Canada, he said, adding that the order filed for bankruptcy in a bid to shield its assets in Rome.

"They made money taking over the care of children but put many of their members who were known abusers in charge of them," Pfau said. "Then they tried to cover it up. This bankruptcy is just another effort for them to avoid responsibility."

A spokesman for the order reached by telephone on Thursday declined to comment.

The bankruptcy filing comes weeks after the Pacific Northwest branch of another Catholic order, the Jesuits, agreed to pay $166 million to settle more than 500 child sexual abuse claims against priests, nuns and other non-clergy. Those claims led the Jesuits to file for Chapter 11 two years ago.

Last year, the Congregation of Christian Brothers came under fire over a report by the government of Ireland finding widespread sexual abuse of children in schools and other institutions run by the order in that country.

(Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Jerry Norton)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) – Tornadoes and storms killed 45 people in Alabama on Wednesday bringing the total dead in storms and flooding across the U.S. South to at least 72 people over the last three days, authorities said.

The violent storms included what may be the worst ever twister to hit Alabama. It killed 15 people as it ripped through the university city of Tuscaloosa, crushing houses, picking up cars and uprooting trees by the hundreds.

"Everybody says it (a tornado) sounds like a train and I started to hear the train," Anthony Foote, a resident of Tuscaloosa whose house was badly damaged, told Reuters. "I ran and jumped into the tub and the house started shaking. Then glass started shattering."

Deaths occurred in Arkansas and Mississippi, where 11 were killed in each state, and also in Louisiana, Georgia and Tennessee. But Alabama appeared the hardest hit.

The Alabama Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) confirmed 45 storm-related deaths in nine different counties across the northern and central parts of the state, with at least nine people also injured, authorities said.

Authorities there and in Mississippi said they expect the toll to rise as emergency workers attempt rescues and recovery in the storm's wake.

Tornadoes are a regular feature of life in the South and Midwest but rarely are they so devastating.

President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency for Alabama and ordered federal aid for the stricken state.

"While we may not know the extent of the damage for days, we will continue to monitor these severe storms across the country and stand ready to continue to help the people of Alabama and all citizens affected by these storms," Obama said in a statement on Wednesday night.

Governors in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee also declared a state of emergency.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley mobilized around 1,400 National Guardsmen and said they would be on the ground early on Thursday to help with search and rescue, logistics and debris removal, a statement from his office said.

"These guardsmen are well trained and will take every action necessary to protect lives and property in this emergency," Bentley said.

DIRECT HIT

The supercell thunderstorm that produced the tornado in Tuscaloosa, west central Alabama, was still producing a tornado three hours later in northwestern Georgia, said Josh Nagelberg, a meteorologist on the AccuWeather.com website.

"This could be the worst tornado in Alabama's history," Nagelberg said, adding that by 9 p.m. local time 0200 gmt the twister passed within a few miles of Rome in northwestern Georgia and appeared to be weakening.

Marshall county in northeastern Alabama had six fatalities, according to the state emergency agency.

"At this time, we have six dead and one missing," Sheriff Scott Walls told Reuters, adding that five of the victims were killed in a single house.

"That house was in the direct path of the tornado. We had homes and businesses that took direct hits. Every community in the county has suffered damage," he said.

On Wednesday night, Mississippi authorities said that the storms had caused at least 11 deaths in eight separate counties in the state in the last 24 hours.

The storms also forced the Tennessee Valley Authority to close three nuclear power plants in Alabama and knocked out 11 high voltage power lines. Tens of thousands of homes have lost power.

Two people also died in Dade County, Georgia, near the border with Tennessee and Alabama and hundreds of homes destroyed when a tornado hit on Wednesday evening, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on its website.

The storms and flooding were the latest in the violent weather that has pummeled much of the mid-South this month. Two weeks ago more than 47 people died as storms tore a wide path from Oklahoma all the way to North Carolina.

(Additional reporting by Verna Gates in Birmingham, David Beasley in Atlanta and Leigh Coleman in Biloxi; Writing by Matthew Bigg, Editing by Jerry Norton and Peter Bohan)

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday approved a bill that would create criminal penalties for undocumented immigrants who work in Oklahoma and those who smuggle them into the state.

It would also give police officers more authority to question citizenship status of suspects.

The bill, approved by a 37-8 vote, originated in the Oklahoma House and underwent revisions in the Senate. The two chambers must reconcile differences in the bill before it can go to Governor Mary Fallin. Senators faced a deadline on Thursday to pass bills that originate in the House.

Oklahoma is one of several states -- including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah -- where Republicans are pushing immigration measures reminiscent of the one that became law in Arizona a year ago. The Arizona law required police to investigate the immigration status of anyone they detained and suspected of being in the country illegally.

Under the Oklahoma measure, local police officers trained through a federal program would be authorized to ask about immigration status.

The bill would also make it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants to work, apply for work or solicit work in a public place. Convictions could result in up to a year in jail and/or a $500 fine.

In addition, the measure:

- Targets the common practice of employers hiring day workers who gather along roadways by making it a misdemeanor to stop a vehicle in a roadway and impede traffic while picking up workers. In addition, it prohibits undocumented workers from entering vehicles stopped in a roadway.

- Prohibits employers from hiring workers who do not have proper identification issued by state or federal authorities, but it does not call for any specific punishment for violations.

- Makes human smuggling for profit a felony offense punishable by no less than a year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine; it also allows for the forfeiture of vehicles used to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country.

- Repeals a section of Oklahoma law that enables undocumented immigrants in the state to pay in-state tuition for college.

(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Corrie MacLaggan and Jerry Norton)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Funds for refinancing home mortgages were much more available in predominantly white sections of major U.S. cities than in minority areas after the recent housing crash, a study showed on Thursday.

The study's authors called for more investment by lenders in poor communities and for improved disclosure requirements for mortgage lenders to protect unwary borrowers.

"Paying More for the American Dream V," found that in the seven metropolitan areas included in the study -- Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York City and Rochester, New York -- conventional mortgage refinancing in minority communities decreased by an average of 17 percent in 2009 compared with the previous year.

But in predominantly white neighborhoods, mortgage refinancing loans jumped by an average of 129 percent.

This is the fifth in a series of reports that began in 2007, compiled by a coalition of nonprofit groups across the country, including the California Reinvestment, the Woodstock Institute in Chicago and the Ohio Fair Lending Coalition.

The study also found lenders "were more than twice as likely" to deny refinancing applications by borrowers in minority communities than in majority white neighborhoods.

Previous reports by the coalition showed that during the recent property boom minority borrowers were more likely to obtain high-risk subprime loans than white Americans, even if their credit was good.

"These findings build on our past reports, which have documented ongoing racial disparities in mortgage lending," Adam Rust, Director of Research at the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina, said in a statement. "Lenders are loosening up credit in predominantly white neighborhoods, while continuing to deprive communities of color of vital refinancing needed to aid in their economic recovery."

Subprime loans -- offered to borrowers with poor credit -- and risky products like "stated income," or "liar loans" where banks did not check borrower's income, exploded during the housing boom. Irresponsible lending contributed to a housing market crash in 2007 that triggered America's worst downturn since the Great Depression.

The crash also resulted in an unpopular bailout program for the U.S. banking sector that continues to have political repercussions.

A separate study published in the American Sociological Review in October found that predatory lending aimed at predominantly minority neighborhoods led to mass foreclosures and directly contributed to the crash.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) – Tornadoes and flooding, which killed at least 10 people in Arkansas this week, threatened more destruction in the mid-South and Ohio Valley region Tuesday night into Wednesday, forecasters said.

As of 9 p.m. local time Tuesday, 24 tornadoes had been reported, with extensive damage in Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas, according to AccuWeather.com

An 18-wheel tractor trailer was blown off the road in Coy, Ark., a rural area about 28 miles east of Little Rock, and a person was trapped inside, local officials reported.

Storm damage also was reported at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Ark., in the western part of the state.

"It's a very dangerous day," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Henry Margusity, quoted on the AccuWeather web site. "It's the kind of day where tornadoes could cause massive destruction."

Floods also remain a big concern in several states, where days of rain and the snowmelt from the winter's heavy snows have caused rising rivers and saturated soils.

On Tuesday, the levee on the swollen Black River near Poplar Bluff in southeastern Missouri was breached south of the city, local officials said.

More than 1,000 people were evacuated on fears of flash flooding. Authorities continued to help people leave their homes on Tuesday afternoon as the river overflowed the levee.

"We are continuing our efforts to get them out of harm's way," said Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs.

So far, no more injuries or deaths have been reported.

A three-year-old girl was killed early on Tuesday in Mississippi after an oak tree fell on her family's home during storms that brought 70 mph winds, said Jeff Rent, director of external affairs for the state's Emergency Management Agency.

Ten people were killed in Arkansas from Monday's storms and flooding -- six from flood waters and four from a tornado that hit the town of Vilonia. About 41,000 Arkansas residents were still without power as of Tuesday night.

Some of the same towns still recovering from tornadoes that ripped through Arkansas on Monday may be struck again.

The storms and flooding were the latest in the violent weather that has pummeled much of the mid-South this month. Two weeks ago more than 47 people died as storms tore a wide path from Oklahoma all the way to North Carolina.

CONCERNS THROUGH THE NIGHT

Night-time storm violence was seen afresh last Friday as a tornado blew out dozens of windows at Lambert Airport in St Louis, downing power lines and flattening many buildings.

The greatest threat of more violent storms on Tuesday evening was a region stretching from northeast Texas to Memphis, Tennessee, according to John Hart, meteorologist with the National Storm Prediction Center.

The threat will continue through the night, moving into the Mississippi Valley by daybreak, he said.

On Wednesday, Hart added, more severe weather with the possibility of strong tornadoes is expected from Ohio southward through the Tennessee Valley and into portions of Mississippi and Alabama.

Flooding is an concern along rivers in Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee, prompting evacuations of hundreds of people.

More than 200 Indiana National Guardsman and 30 inmates are assisting with sandbagging efforts, according to the state's Department of Homeland Security.

In southern Illinois, 325,000 sandbags were placed at a facility in Carbondale for quick deployment if floods threatened, the state's emergency management agency said.

Many towns have flooding along the Ohio River from Cincinnati several hundred miles southwest to the Mississippi River, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Szappanos in Louisville, Kentucky.

Some areas of Kentucky may get another six inches of rain, said Buddy Rogers, spokesman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.

One problem for towns along the Ohio River is that the Mississippi and the Ohio are flooding at the same time, so the Ohio, which usually drains into the bigger river, can't drain, Rogers said.

To prevent flooding in Cairo, Illinois, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to detonate the levee at Birds Point on the Mississippi, according to the Missouri Attorney General.

But the attorney general has sued in federal court to intervene, saying the action could flood 130,000 acres of farmland in that state.

Late Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it could probably hold off making a final decision on the controversial plan until Saturday, after the National Weather Service lowered its forecast for flooding on the Mississippi by half a foot.

In Tennessee, many school systems were closed Tuesday due to power outages and trees blocking roadways, especially in an area northwest of Nashville hit hard by Monday storms.

Flood warnings were in effect along the Cumberland and its tributaries.

(Additional reporting by Susan Guyett, Tim Ghianni, Leigh Coleman, Kevin Murphy and James B. Kelleher; Writing by Barbara Goldberg and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Peter Bohan and Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With Americans upset over rising gasoline prices, Republicans in Congress aim to fix the blame on one person when they return next week from recess: President Barack Obama.

Congress wrapped up its last work session on April 15 with Democrats and Republicans in a blistering debate over budget deficits and the size of the federal government.

Now, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives aim to pivot to another hot-button issue: high gasoline prices that are hitting consumers who are already struggling to recover from a prolonged economic downturn.

"Running on empty: Obama administration does nothing to address skyrocketing gas prices," screamed a press release on Tuesday from House Speaker John Boehner's office.

The Republicans' focus on energy comes as the national retail price for regular gasoline has hit $3.88 a gallon, more than $1 a gallon more than a year ago.

Gas pump sticker shock could get worse as the looming U.S. summer driving season hikes demand for gasoline and political unrest continues in Middle East oil-producing countries.

All this has U.S. motorists worried that gasoline prices could approach the record-high $4.11 per gallon of July 2008.

Boehner's move to put a bull's eye on gasoline prices also comes as public opinion polls show opposition to Republican initiatives that would further cut taxes for the rich while making senior citizens pay more for health insurance.

A CBS News/New York Times poll, for example, found that 61 percent of people think Medicare coverage for the elderly is worth the costs. Meanwhile, 45 percent said military spending should be cut while only 21 percent favored Medicare cuts.

When Congress resumes next week, the Republican-led House will bring to a vote at least one bill aimed at bolstering domestic energy production.

"As gasoline prices close in on $4 a gallon, that is going to be part of the conversation," said Spencer Pederson, a spokesman for the House Natural Resources Committee.

Doc Hastings, chairman of that committee, is leading Republican efforts to expand U.S. offshore oil drilling while easing some industry regulations -- moves that are expected to be blocked by Obama and his fellow Democrats in the Senate.

'LOST OIL'

The Republicans believe Obama wrongfully stood in the way of offshore oil drilling because of safety concerns following last year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf of Mexico oil output will decline by 190,000 barrels per day in 2011, according to Energy Department forecasts.

"That's lost oil on the world market," leading to higher prices, Pederson said. That quantity, however, is only a speck of the estimated 1.52 million barrel per day increase in global demand this year.

The 2012 presidential and congressional elections are 18 months away, but they already dominate the Washington dynamic.

On Monday, House Speaker John Boehner, interviewed by ABC News, predicted Obama would not win a second term if gasoline prices were to rise to $5 or $6 a gallon.

While the White House would quarrel with that assessment, Democrats are worried rising energy prices could undermine the U.S. economic recovery and hurt Obama's re-election chances.

In an interview with a Virginia radio station on Tuesday, Obama said his administration was "talking to oil producers around the world and letting them know it's in their interest to make sure that high oil prices don't end up hurting the world economy."

Oil producing countries, he said, should ramp up their production to moderate gasoline prices.

Obama also urged Congress to end oil and gas industry tax breaks that cost billions of dollars.

Senator Charles Schumer, one of the top-ranking Democrats, backed up Obama's call saying: "These subsidies are a relic of a time when oil was $17 per barrel and oil companies needed incentives to drill. That time has long since ended."

Oil prices are now around $112 per barrel.

Obama's request to Congress came after Boehner said that "we should be looking at" the multibillion-dollar subsidies for oil companies and that those companies "ought to be paying their fair share" in taxes.

But by Tuesday, it was less clear whether Boehner really wanted to switch Republican gears and consider pulling the oil company subsidies.

"We'll look at any reasonable policy that lowers gas prices. Unfortunately, what the president has suggested so far would simply raise taxes and increase the price at the pump," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

(Editing by Laura MacInnis)

MIAMI (Reuters) – The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season will be active with the energy-rich U.S. Gulf Coast facing a significant threat of a hurricane landfall, a leading private weather forecaster predicted on Tuesday.

The forecast by Weather Services International follows one of the busiest seasons on record last year that saw intense levels of storm and hurricane activity but no direct hit on the U.S. coastline.

WSI slightly lowered its December forecast, calling for 15 named storms and eight hurricanes. Four are expected to strengthen into major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, it said.

"While we expect less overall activity this year, we do expect a much more impactful season along the U.S. coastline," WSI's chief meteorologist Todd Crawford said in a statement.

Other private forecasters have made similar predictions for the 2011 season set to begin June 1 and run through November 30.

The La Nina phenomenon, which fosters hurricane formation, is weakening faster than expected and prompted WSI to lower its prediction, Crawford said.

The 2010 season spawned 19 named storms, tying for the third most active season with 1887 and 1995, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Twelve storms grew into hurricanes last year, making it the second-highest season tied with the year 1969.

NO LANDFALLS SINCE 2008

The U.S. coastline has been spared a direct hit since 2008. Last year, Hurricane Earl, which grew into a Category 4 hurricane, came the closest by approaching to about 100 miles off North Carolina and southern New England in September.

"Our recent good fortune in avoiding landfalling hurricanes is not likely to last," Crawford said.

Projection models, he said, showed the western states on the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where major oil and gas installations are located, facing "sharply increased" chances of a landfall this year.

Crawford predicted two or three hurricanes could come ashore.

"The U.S. has not had a three-year stretch without a hurricane landfall since the 1860s," he added.

A change in weather conditions is also increasing chances of an hurricane making impact on the U.S. coastline, according to Crawford.

Pockets of low pressure in the Atlantic helped to shield the U.S. East Coast from direct hits last year, but are not expected to be present later this summer when storm activity intensifies, he said.

Warmer sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean may also help storms develop more easily there instead of farther out in the Atlantic, Crawford added.

"Storms developing in the Gulf and the Caribbean are a much greater threat to make landfall along the U.S. coast than those that develop off the coast of Africa," he said.

WSI said its forecast numbers were similar to the 2008 season when Hurricanes Dolly, Gustav and Ike impacted Louisiana and Texas.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

SPRING VALLEY, New York (Reuters) – Tiny white caskets of three children who drowned with their mother when she intentionally drove into the Hudson River were buried on Monday several miles away from her grave.

After a tense funeral marked by shouting between the two sides of the family, a hearse followed the father's orders and drove to the children's burial plot at Gethsemane Cemetery in Congers, New York. It was six miles from where their mother, Lashondra Armstrong, 25, was buried in New Hempstead, New York.

Armstrong, 25, killed herself along with her sons Landen, 5, and Lance, 2, and daughter Laianna, 11 months, on April 12 after an argument with their father, Jean Pierre, said police in Newburgh, a city about 25 miles north of New York City.

Her eldest son, La'Shaun, 10, who has a different father, was in the minivan but saved himself by climbing through a window as the vehicle disappeared beneath the waters.

The Armstrong family had arranged for the mother to be interred with her children, but Pierre intervened and arranged for a separate plot in another town.

His lawyer, Stephen Powers, said, "He thought it was inappropriate in light of the fact that the mother murdered the three children."

Tensions mounted on Monday as family members filed past police officers standing guard outside the funeral home where the ceremony took place.

An Armstrong family member, Gwendolen Green, said the mother's relatives were largely banned from the ceremony and guests were checked against a list before being allowed entry.

At one point, yelling could be heard coming from inside the funeral home and soon afterward Green, the mother's second cousin, was escorted from the building.

"You could cut the tension with a knife," Green said, adding that she had been asked to leave the ceremony after an argument.

Green said she had attended the funeral despite not being on the guest list.

"You're not gonna keep me from going in and seeing my family," she said. "I saw the children, and they were beautiful."

Green said the surviving son had not attended the funeral because it was "too much." She said the two dead boys were dressed in dark suits and the baby girl was wearing a white dress.

Soon after Green was escorted out, three little caskets accompanied by small bouquets of blue and white flowers, were loaded into a white hearse headed for Congers.

(Edited by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Spreading drug cartel violence in northern and central Mexico has led U.S. authorities to increase the number of states Americans should avoid for safety reasons.

A U.S. State Department travel advisory issued over the Easter weekend warned Americans to avoid all but essential travel to 10 states in northern and central Mexico due to "ongoing violence and persistent security concerns," up from six states named in a caution issued last September.

The latest advisory added warnings against nonessential travel to parts of Sonora, south of Arizona, and to parts of Mexico's central Jalisco, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas states, where cartel violence has spiked in recent months.

It also kept in place warnings issued last September advising against nonessential travel to northern Tamaulipas and central Michoacan states, as well as parts of northwestern Durango and Sinaloa states and the border states of Coahuila and Chihuahua, south of Texas.

"Bystanders, including U.S. citizens, have been injured or killed in violent incidents in various parts of the country, especially, but not exclusively in the northern border region, demonstrating the heightened risk of violence throughout Mexico," the warning said.

More than 37,000 people have been killed in Mexico since late 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office and sent the armed forces to crush powerful cartels battling for lucrative smuggling routes to the United States.

The State Department advisory noted that 111 Americans were reported murdered in Mexico last year, up from 35 in 2007.

In one gruesome sign of escalating violence, authorities earlier this month retrieved 177 corpses from a mass grave in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Mexico's Attorney General blamed the Zetas drug cartel for the killings.

In another high profile crime, a U.S. federal agent was shot dead and a second wounded while driving on a highway in San Luis Potosi in February, in an attack also blamed on the Zetas.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Jerry Norton)

ST. LOUIS, Mo (Reuters) – A tornado destroyed 50 to 80 houses and killed at least one person in an Arkansas town on Monday and floods caused at least three deaths in the state as storms continued to lash the region, authorities said.

In Missouri, a warning of imminent failure for a levee on the Black River in the southeast part of the state prompted the mandatory evacuation of about 1,000 people.

In Vilonia, Arkansas, a town of some 3,000 people north of Little Rock, one death was confirmed and between 50 to 80 houses were destroyed by a tornado, according to Faulkner County emergency management. Police reported a path of destruction half a mile wide.

Law enforcement officials said there was another fatality in Washington County in northwest Arkansas from a drowning when a woman was swept away by rapidly moving water. The Madison County Sheriff's Office also said an elderly couple died after they were swept away in their car as War Eagle Creek rose in northern Arkansas on Monday afternoon.

The storms and flooding were the latest in the violent weather that has pummeled much of the mid-South this month. Two weeks ago at least seven people died from tornadoes in Arkansas, as more than 47 people died as storms tore a wide path from Oklahoma all the way to North Carolina.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe on Monday declared a state of emergency in response to tornadoes and flooding, which have caused problems on a number of roads and highways.

On Interstate 40 near Morrilton, vehicles were blown off the road, according to Arkansas State Police.

They said a church was destroyed at Morgan, Arkansas, just northwest of Little Rock. One tornado struck Little Rock Air Force Base, with initial reports indicating at least four homes in base housing were damaged. More than 100,000 people were without power in the state, authorities said.

In Missouri, water was topping the Black River levee at several points, which may lead to a failure of the levee system between the city of Poplar Bluff and the town of Qulin, the National Weather Service said on Monday.

County officials evacuated about 500 structures in the southeastern part of Poplar Bluff, which has about 17,000 residents.

Flood warnings on Monday prompted evacuations of hundreds of people in Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri following days of rain that led to rivers cresting over the flood stage, according to forecasters.

"The ground is very saturated -- there are areas with 9-10 inches of rain," said Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety.

He said some local roads are flooded in southern Missouri, and drivers were being warned not to go past barriers.

NATIONAL GUARD IN ACTION

Governor Jay Nixon activated the Missouri National Guard on Monday to help in areas hit by flooding.

Nixon also criticized U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to intentionally breach Birds Point levee along the Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri. He said that would affect hundreds of families and "pour a tremendous amount of water into 130,000 acres of prime farmland."

A spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers was not immediately available for comment.

The Black River is expected to rise higher than it did in 2008 when heavy rains caused widespread flooding, according to the National Weather Service in Little Rock.

Portions of two state parks in northwest Arkansas were closed due to the rising of the river. Many schools in northeastern Arkansas also closed Monday because of flooding.

Parts of Utica in southern Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, also had flooding, according to Mike Callahan, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Louisville.

"This is the worst flooding we've had since 1997," he said.

Callahan said more flooding was reported in western Kentucky and southern Illinois. People who live along the Ohio River near Louisville started leaving their homes ahead of the flood late last week, and some roads around the city were closed, he said.

Bill Davis, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Missouri, expects problems to be especially bad along the Taneycomo River in southwest Missouri.

"It's only (going) to get worse over the next couple of days," said Davis. "There's going to be more water on top of water."

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Susan Guyett and Suzi Parker; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A cache of classified U.S. military documents provides intelligence assessments on nearly all of the 779 people who been detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The secret documents, made available to The New York Times and several other news organizations, reveal that most of the 172 remaining prisoners have been rated as a "high risk" of posing a threat to the United States and its allies if released without adequate rehabilitation and supervision, the newspaper said.

The documents, provided by WikiLeaks, also show about a third of the 600 detainees already sent to other countries were also designated "high risk" before they were freed or passed to the custody of other governments, the Times said in its report late on Sunday.

The dossiers, prepared under the Bush administration, also show the seat-of-the-pants intelligence gathering in war zones that led to the incarcerations of innocent men for years in cases of mistaken identity or simple misfortune, the Times said.

The documents are largely silent about the use of the harsh interrogation tactics at Guantanamo that drew global condemnation, the newspaper reported.

President Barack Obama pledged two years ago to close the prison at U.S. naval base in Cuba but it remains in legal limbo.

Obama administration officials condemned the leaking of the documents but said the material is out of date.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell and State Department envoy Dan Fried said in a joint statement that the administration's Guantanamo review panel, established in January 2009, had made its own assessments.

"The assessments of the Guantanamo Review Task Force have not been compromised to Wikileaks. Thus, any given DAB (Detainee Assessment Briefs) illegally obtained and released by WikiLeaks may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee," the statement said.

This was the latest batch of secret U.S. documents dumped by WikiLeaks, which had previously released classified Pentagon reports on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 State Department cables.

Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old U.S. soldier accused of leaking secret documents to WikiLeaks has been detained since May of last year.

The Guantanamo detention camp was opened to house prisoners captured in the U.S.-led Afghan war launched by President George W. Bush soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; editing by Christopher Wilson)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Like an increasing number of well-heeled Americans, the Hodgsons decided it was time to buy a new home, even if most of the U.S. housing market remains in the dumps.

After years in an apartment building, "we were just tired of sharing space with other people," says Cari Hodgson, 32. "It was time to have space of our own."

She and her commodities trader husband sold the condo and recently bought a $1.2 million, five-bedroom home in Chicago's north side, sealing the deal with the kind of big down-payment that is heating up the high-end of the U.S. property market.

Cari, a part-time nurse, declined to say how much of their own money the couple put into the house. But she did say the mortgage was less than a so-called jumbo loan, which are bigger than most U.S. mortgages and currently start at $730,000.

That means the Hodgsons put down at least 40 percent of the house's value, a chunk far out of reach for most Americans.

"We were told by a number of people that it was very difficult to qualify for a jumbo loan," Cari Hodgson said. "So we didn't even try to get one."

Four years after U.S. housing prices began to nose-dive, eventually triggering a global financial crisis, signs of life are appearing at the top and the bottom ends of the market.

By contrast, a sustained recovery remains far off for the vast middle ground of the U.S. housing sector.

Affluent Americans are feeling more secure as the impact of the recession fades and the stock market racks up big gains.

"People who have decent income are saying, maybe I can trade up, buy a better property," said Bill Hardin, director of the real estate program at Florida International University.

"Some people are even saying, I'm willing to take a loss on the property I'm selling now to get something I couldn't buy during the housing peak."

Sales of homes worth over $1 million, which account for about 1.5 percent of total U.S. sales, have risen in most states so far in 2011.

Realtors, brokers and others in the housing industry report the first bidding wars for expensive homes since the crash.

"There is a surge of confidence among high-end buyers and we're unfortunately short on inventory," said Pamela Liebman, chief executive of New York property firm The Corcoran Group.

Her firm saw a doubling in the sale of luxury co-ops, worth more than $10 million, in the first three months of 2011.

At the bottom end, homes are also on the move as investors pay cash for foreclosed properties to rent them out.

It's a different story in the middle of the market.

Properties worth between $100,000 and $500,000 make up more than 60 percent of U.S. housing. Sales in that category in March were down across every region of America from the same month a year earlier, when tax breaks were propping up demand.

Foreclosures and short sales -- whereby struggling homeowners sell their homes for below what they owe, with the consent of their lenders -- are still a big drag. Credit remains tight and middle-income families are more pessimistic than their wealthier compatriots about the economy.

So this year's Spring selling season, when buyers typically start to look for a home after winter, has mostly been a dud.

Access to credit is cited as a broad problem. While the rich can simply put more money down, for most would-be buyers the need for more 'skin in the game' is a deal-breaker.

Realtors and brokers complain that the credit drought is as extreme as the flood of loose lending of the boom years.

"The pendulum has swung from too far to the left to too far to the right," Corcoran's Liebman said. "We need to find some balance in lending."

"IT'S HARD TO BE POSITIVE"

On a recent sunny Sunday afternoon, in Leawood, near Kansas City, realtor Ted DeVore patiently waited inside an elegant ranch home priced at $344,900, eager to point out the lush backyard, new roof, remodeled kitchen and updated bathrooms.

But most of the visitors to the open house were curious neighbors, not would-be buyers.

Middle-income Americans in Middle America are not yet ready to get back into the market. Homes that do sell in the Kansas City area are often going for between 20 percent to 30 percent below the listed price.

"There are so many people questioning things right now, asking themselves, am I going to have my job in six months?" DeVore said, affable but seemingly resigned to a slow Spring. "The indicators are very mixed for the whole economy and the real estate market very closely follows the overall economy."

"It's hard to be positive," he added.

Unemployment of 8.8 percent in March was down from above 10 percent in 2009 but still high enough to worry many Americans.

According to RealtyTrac, which publishes foreclosure statistics, the number of foreclosure filings fell 27 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier but still affected nearly one in every 200 U.S. homes.

And although the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said existing home sales rose 3.7 percent in March, the median home price nationwide was down 5.9 percent from March 2010.

That has few housing market insiders willing to say the worst U.S. housing downturn since the Great Depression has played itself out, despite government support and mortgage interest rates that have scraped record lows.

"It's kind of quiet right now," said Fred Arnold, president of lender American Family Funding. "There's no real excitement out there that we are used to seeing in the springtime."

Many homeowners who are not obliged to move are staying put and investing in home improvements instead.

Home Depot said it has seen rising consumer demand for maintenance and repair projects this spring.

Despite sellers often resorting to painful cuts in their asking prices, realtors say many deals continue to fall through due to the unrealistic expectations on both sides.

"Buyers still think properties are too expensive and want bigger discounts," said Mario Greco, a Chicago-based realtor. "Sellers are still not ready to take their lumps yet and recognize what their property is worth in today's market."

RISK-SHY LENDERS

During the boom, lenders went wild, offering loans with no money down and, in many cases, no requirement on borrowers to prove their income.

Now, access to credit and hefty down-payment requirements are an issue even for buyers with good credit, one that realtors and brokers complain is slowing the market.

"It's difficult, and getting more difficult," said Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans in Detroit. "All the moves whether it be regulatory, underwriting, pricing -- I can't think of an exception -- all of them are pointing toward making it more challenging to get a loan."

The government-rescued housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened up lending standards in 2007 and 2008 as bad loans began to soar and there has been a steady drip of new requirements since then. More changes to credit rules are under discussion and could constrain lending further.

Keith Klein, a mortgage loan consultant at Bank of Blue Valley, a local lender in Overland Park, Kansas, said tougher underwriting standards mean that if prospective buyers cannot put down 20 percent, they cannot get a mortgage.

"We're just not seeing very much right now," he said.

Realtors also complain that credit for first-time buyers has dried up, which has a knock-on effect on the rest of the market as people cannot sell to move up the property ladder.

As the bulk of the market remains hobbled, the contrast with the high end is sharpening.

Mike Sato of Chicago-based Jameson Sotheby's International Realty, cites the recent sale of a $4.5 million home not even built yet as a sign of the change among rich clients.

"I haven't seen a deal like that since 2008," he said.

Diane Saatchi, senior vice-president at Saunders & Associates Realty which specializes in the Hamptons oceanfront strip favored by Wall Street, said she was seeing a lot of buyers paying in cash for homes worth $10 million.

"There's a pent-up demand on the buy side because people have been waiting for a couple years."

High-end borrowers find it easier to get credit but even for them it is not guaranteed.

Matt Farrell, managing partner at Urban Real Estate in Chicago, recounted how a buyer with good credit and seeking a loan for a $2 million home was unable to secure a mortgage in time. So the buyer wired cash to pay for it with no loan.

"After the banking sector was infused with all that government cash to go out and lend more money, you'd think we'd be seeing more activity out there," Farrell said. "But when someone who can pay $2 million in cash can't get a loan, then you know you have a real problem." (Additional reporting by Carey Gillam, Dhanya Skariachan, Kevin Gray, Leah Schnurr, Al Yoon and Daniel Levine)

DENVER (Reuters) – The FBI on Sunday identified a recently paroled bank robber as the man suspected of planting a bomb at a crowded shopping mall near Columbine High School last week on the 12th anniversary of the school massacre.

Earl Albert Moore, 65, who remains at large, "is considered armed and dangerous and has an extensive criminal background," the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force said in a news release.

Previously described as a "person of interest" in the investigation and pictured in surveillance camera images released to the public last week, the FBI said Moore is suspected of placing a pipe bomb near two propane tanks at the Southwest Plaza mall in suburban Denver on April 20.

Firefighters responding to a fire at the mall discovered the explosive device.

The mall, occupied by an estimated 10,000 employees and shoppers at the time, was evacuated as a precaution. But the bomb did not go off, no one was hurt, and the blaze caused minimal damage to the retail complex, located about a mile from Columbine.

Moore was paroled from federal prison on April 13 after serving time for his conviction in the 2005 robbery of a West Virginia bank, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

He was originally sentenced to 18 years in prison, but a federal judge cut his sentence to seven years at the behest of prosecutors who said Moore had provided them with "substantial assistance in investigating or prosecuting another person."

Federal law enforcement officials have called the planned mall bombing an act of "domestic terrorism."

The suspect, initially referred to as a "person of interest" sought for questioning, appeared in still photos and video footage captured by surveillance cameras as a man with a mustache, baseball cap and dark jacket carrying a plastic grocery bag in one hand.

On Sunday, the FBI identified Moore as the target of their manhunt and released booking photographs of Moore from a prior arrest.

The latest series of photos show Moore with multiple tattoos on his arms, including one of a Viking, a dagger, and what appears to be a rose.

Police were probing the similarity to the devices placed in the mall to those that students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris had in their arsenal when they stormed Columbine High on April 20, 1999.

The two heavily armed seniors -- just weeks shy of graduation -- shot dead 12 other students, a teacher and themselves. It was at that time the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.

Moore is described as bald, between 6 feet and 6-feet-2 inches tall weighing between 200 and 225 pounds.

The FBI said Moore goes by several aliases, including John Lindzy, Earl Buchanan, Donald Morelli and Gary Steele.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Bohan)