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Family, friends remember the brave, caring legacy of Sandy Hook teacher Vicki Soto, 27

Teacher Victoria Soto used her body to shield her students from the maniacal gunman who launched a massacre at a Connecticut school, relatives said Saturday.

Soto paid for her bravery with her life. But in doing so, the 27-year-old may have saved her first-graders from the murderous wrath of Adam Lanza — and became a hero.

“The family received information she was found shielding her students in a closet,” Soto’s cousin Jim Wiltsie told the Daily News. “She put herself between the gunman and her students.”

Wiltsie said police told the family of Soto’s bravery at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“I’m very proud to report she was a hero,” said Wiltsie, who is a police officer in Fairfield, Conn. “I would expect nothing less from Vicki. Instinctively her training kicked in. She did what she was trained to do, but also what her heart told her to do.”

“She absolutely adored her family, a very close-knit family,” Wiltsie said. “She was the ringleader of the bunch. They had just done secret Santa. She always took charge.”

Soto lived with her parents, her sisters and a brother in Stratford, Conn. Home was a modest Cape Cod-style house in a blue-collar neighborhood. She was single, doted on her black Labrador, Roxy, and was a regular worshiper at the Lordship Community Church in Stratford.

Her mom, Donna, has worked as a nurse at Bridgeport Hospital for 30 years. Her dad, Carlos, is a crane operator for the state’s Department of Transportation.

Vicki, as everybody called her, was the apple of her father’s eye. And it was left to him to formally identify his daughter’s body.

Women with severe endometriosis may be more attractive

Observing that women with the most severe form of endometriosis happen to be unusually attractive, researchers in Italy speculate that the qualities that led to the women's good looks also predisposed them to the painful gynecological condition.

In the study, independent observers rated 31 percent of women with severe endometriosis as attractive or very attractive, while just 8 percent of women with milder endometriosis, and 9 percent of women without the condition were rated that highly.

"Several researchers believe that a general phenotype exists which is associated with the disease," said study researcher Dr. Paolo Vercellini, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Universita degli Studi in Milan.

It may be that a more feminine body type is the result of the same physical characteristics that predispose women to develop severe endometriosis, Vercellini said.

Female attractiveness is linked with higher estrogen levels, and it's possible that the hormone "might favor the development of aggressive and infiltrating endometriotic lesions, particularly in the most feminine subjects," the researchers wrote in their study.

The study was published online Sept. 17 in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

A more feminine silhouette
In endometriosis, cells that normally line the uterus leave the organ and become deposited in other sites within the body, such as on the ovaries, rectum, bladder or pelvic area. These deposits respond the same way as normal uterine cells do to the hormone changes that occur over a woman's monthly cycle — they thicken, and then shrink — which can cause pain in the pelvic region, and bleeding.

Endometriosis is thought to affect 5 to 10 percent of women. The severe form, called rectovaginal endometriosis, is much less common than milder forms, Vercellini said.

In the new study, researchers looked at 100 women with rectovaginal endometriosis, 100 women with less severe endometriosis, and 100 women without endometriosis who were undergoing gynecologic surgery for other reasons. Most of the women in the studies were in their late 20s or early 30s.

Two male and two female doctors who did not know the women's diagnoses met with each woman for a few minutes, and rated her overall attractiveness on a 5-point scale.

Other researchers took measurements of the women, and calculated their body mass indexes, their waist-to-hip ratios, and their "breast-to-underbreast" ratio — a measure of breast size.

Results showed that the women with severe endometriosis had lower body mass indexes, and larger breasts, than those without the disease.

Authorities ID gunman who killed 27 in elementary school massacre

A day after the Newtown massacre, gunman Adam Lanza’s motive – and any personal demons – remained a mystery.

Lanza, 20, was identified by authorities as the black-clad killer who fatally shot his mother, gunned down 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and then committed suicide on Friday.

His older brother told authorities Lanza had a history of mental problems, but the nature of them was not clear. Former classmates remembered him as a brainy and quiet teen who sometimes wore a pocket protector.

Tim Arnone told Reuters that he first met Lanza at Sandy Hook and attended Newtown High School with him, where the two were members of a technology club. He said Lanza was "driven hard" to succeed academically by his parents, particularly his mother.
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Nancy Lanza and her husband, Peter Lanza, divorced in 2008, according to public records. Peter Lanza could not immediately be reached for comment but has spoken to police.

Joshua Milas, who graduated from Newtown High School in 2009, told The Associated Press that Adam Lanza was generally a happy person but that he hadn't seen him in a few years.

"We would hang out, and he was a good kid. He was smart," Joshua Milas said. "He was probably one of the smartest kids I know."

Catherine Urso, of Newtown, told the Associated Press her college-age son knew Lanza. "He just said he was very thin, very remote and was one of the Goths," she said.

Law enforcement officials initially told NBC News that the gunman was Lanza's brother, Ryan, and they had sent out a bulletin to local and federal law enforcement agencies to that effect.

But when authorities went to Ryan's home in Hoboken, N.J., to search it, they unexpectedly found him there.

Ryan told police he was not involved and that his brother has a history of mental health issues and might have had his ID even though they had not seen each other in two years, officials said.

A senior official later said that Ryan was nowhere near the shooting, was not believed to be involved, and was cooperating with the investigation.

Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.

This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then driving to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School armed with at least two handguns and at least one semi-automatic rifle.

There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot and killed 20 children, who President Obama later described as between five and 10 years of age. Six adults were also killed at the school. Nancy Lanza was found dead in her home.

A relative told ABC News that Adam was "obviously not well."

Family friends in Newtown also described the young man as troubled and described Nancy as very rigid. "[Adam] was not connected with the other kids," said one friend.

State and federal authorities believe his mother may have once worked at the elementary school where Adam went on his deadly rampage, although she was not a teacher, according to relatives, perhaps a volunteer.

Nancy and her husband Peter, Adam's father, divorced in 2009. When they first filed for divorce in 2008, a judge ordered that they participate in a "parenting education program."

Peter Lanza, who drove to northern New Jersey to talk to police and the FBI, is a vice president at GE Capital and had been a partner at global accounting giant Ernst & Young.

Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24, has worked at Ernst & Young for four years, apparently following in his father's footsteps and carving out a solid niche in the tax practice. He too was interviewed by the FBI. Neither he nor his father is under any suspicion.

"[Ryan] is a tax guy and he is clean as a whistle," a source familiar with his work said.

Police had initially identified Ryan as the killer. Ryan sent out a series of Facebook posts saying it wasn't him and that he was at work all day. Video records as well as card swipes at Ernst & Young verified his statement that he had been at the office.

Jenni Rivera's Body Identified, Remains Turned Over To Family

Mexican authorities have confirmed that the remains of Jenni Rivera have been identified and turned over to her family, according to CNN.

The Mexican-American superstar was killed in a plane crash Sunday. Shortly after taking off from the northern city of Monterrey on her way to Toluca, the Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six companions crashed.

Rivera's mother Rosa Saavedra had previously told reporters that she still hoped her daughter would somehow be found alive.

HuffPost Voces was able to confirm that Lupillo, Juan and Gustavo, Jenni's three brothers, had traveled to Monterrey to identify their sister’s body and are in the airport about to take a flight to Los Angeles, where the rest of the family is waiting for them.

We will continue to update as this story develops.

'I Knew You Were Trouble' Video Taylor Swift Knew He Was Trouble

Taylor Swift's video for "I Knew You Were Trouble" begins with an ominous -- and lengthy -- bit of voice-over narration. Deep breath:

"I think when it's all over it just comes back in flashes, you know? It's like a kaleidoscope of memories; it just all comes back. But he never does. I think part of me knew the second I saw him that this would happen. It's not really anything he said, or anything he did -- it was the feeling that came along with it. Crazy thing is, I don't know if I'm ever going to feel that way again. But I don't know if I should. I knew he world moved too fast and burned to bright, but I just thought, 'How can the devil be pulling you toward someone who looks so much like an angel when he smiles at you?' Maybe he knew that when he saw me. I guess I just lost my balance. I think that the worst part of it all wasn't losing him. It was losing me."
After that bit of introspective, post-relationship clarity? It's time for Swift to cue up "I Knew You Were Trouble," a catchy pop song with a faux-dubstep bass drop.

While the song is a Top-40 smash waiting to happen, the video continues in the somber mood of Swift's initial monologue. She's shown cavorting in dirty hotel rooms and bathrooms with a scrawny male companion, who runs hot and cold on the pop singer and eventually gets beaten up in a pool hall. (Don't ask.) Later, he's making out with another girl, all while Swift -- in her Debbie Harry Sunday best -- looks on in horror.

"I don't know if you know who you are until you lose who you are," Swift says at the end of the video.

It's like Rihanna's "We Found Love" video, without anything actually scary. At least Swift's song is great.

Big East Exodus Coming As 7 Non-Football Schools Plan Departure

The Big East is headed for another break up. This time, the seven prominent basketball schools that don't play FBS football are planning to break away from the ever-changing conference.

The divorce is expected to be complicated, maybe even contentious, with millions of dollars and possibly the future of the league at stake.

The Big East's non-football members decided Thursday to separate from the conference, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because officials from those schools are still sorting through details and trying to figure how best to split from the conference. No official announcement is imminent.

The seven schools that don't play FBS-level football are St. John's, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Seton Hall, Providence and Villanova. Officials at those schools have concerns about the direction of the conference and feel as if they have little power to influence it.

Commissioner Mike Aresco conferred by phone with the leaders of those seven schools earlier in the day, according to another person familiar with the situation, also speaking on condition of anonymity.

The current Big East football membership includes only four schools – South Florida, Connecticut and Cincinnati, Temple – that are committed to the league beyond 2013. But there are 11 schools with plans to join the Big East in the next three years, including Boise State and San Diego State for football only in 2013.

Because those schools won't be members until next summer, the majority of the voting members of the Big East are basketball schools right now. Still, those schools aren't in position to dissolve the conference. That would take the votes of at least two football members, according to the Big East bylaws.

The Catholic schools can leave without financial penalty. The Big East has provisions in its bylaws that allow a group of schools to leave without exit fees.

But what they would do remains unclear, as are the legal ramifications of their actions. There has been speculation those seven basketball schools could merge with the Atlantic 10 or possibly add schools from that league to create a basketball-only conference of smaller Catholic schools.

One of the many things that will need to be sorted out is who owns the rights to the name Big East. Will it stay with new members or go with the old. Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall and St John's were among the original members of the conference when it was formed primarily for basketball in 1979. Villanova came in a year later. Marquette and DePaul came in 2005, the Big East's last previous major expansion.

Alicia Keys Hair Singer Says She Wants To Cut Her Hair Even Shorter

Alicia Keys recently chopped off most of her hair, and the singer is looking to go even shorter.

The R&B superstar debuted her bob hairdo this summer. In a recent interview, Keys said she wants to go "even shorter."

When asked if she would shave her head, the 31-year-old replied: "I'm thinking about something like that. I'm telling you. I'm going there. I'm doing it."

The Grammy-winning Keys arrived on the music scene in 2001 with braids, and she has mostly worn her hair long. She says with her new cut, she's able to do more with her hair.

If she shaves her head, she'll follow a list of celebrities including Natalie Portman, India.Arie, Chrisette Michelle and Kellie Pickler.

Padma Lakshmi Bikini 'Top Chef' Host Is One Hot Mama

The "Top Chef" host sizzled in a blue fringed bikini, flaunting her washboard abs and toned arms as she frolicked in the surf in Miami earlier this month. The single mom, whose daughter Krishna is almost 3 years old, obviously doesn't let those calorie-packed meals affect her figure.

"I’m lucky. I have a fast metabolism, I’m tall, and my digestive tract is ironclad and can really take a beating," Lakshmi revealed to Playboy in November. "Having been a model for 15 years, I know a thing or two about how to dress if I've put on a few pounds."

Oregon Mall Shooting At Least 1 Dead

At least one person is dead and several people are wounded this evening after a masked shooter opened fire at Clackamas Town Center, a mall in suburban Portland, Ore.

Police said the shooter had been "neutralized," but would not say whether the person was alive or dead.

"This is no longer an active shooter," Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. James Rhodes said. "I believe the shooter has been neutralized and we are securing the mall, securing the scene and treating the wounded."

There was not an exact count of those killed or wounded, he said.

"We believe there's at least one deceased and maybe more," he said. "We know there are multiple wounded. Lifeline has landed to treat at least one of those wounded and we're set up to treat them as we find them as we search the mall."

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the busy mall full of holiday shoppers after the shooting began at around 3:30 p.m. PT.

Witnesses described seeing a gunman who looked like a teenager with a white hockey mask, wearing what was believed to be a black, bulletproof vest and carrying an assault rifle.

The person entered the mall through a Macy's store, ran through the upper level of Macy's and opened fire near the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after another, with what is believed to be a black, semiautomatic rifle, according to witness reports.

Witnesses described the shooter as being on a mission and determined, looking straight ahead.

Those interviewed said that Macy's shoppers and store employees huddled in a dressing room to avoid being found.

Evan Walters told ABC News Radio that he was locked in a store for his safety and he saw two people shot and heard multiple gunshots.

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