By Kurt Schlosser
NBC News

Zach Galifianakis warned Brian Williams that viewers would turn off a long interview piece with the actor if it aired on "Rock Center." But after watching several candid minutes with the comedian and "Hangover" star on Friday night, it was hard not to be left wanting more.

Galifianakis, the bearded comic turned reluctant big-time star, opened up to Williams about more than just the buddy-movie trilogy that has made his extended Greek moniker a household name.

They talked about life on the North Carolina farm where Galifianakis, 43, and his wife Quinn Lundberg spend part of each year. "I have donkeys. I have blueberries," Galifianakis said. "But enough about your Brooklyn apartment," Williams countered. "I asked about North Carolina."

NBC News

Cue the whistling: Galifianakis says a 6th grade visit from the man behind the iconic theme song of "The Andy Griffith Show" convinced him he should go into show business. "I remember being affected by that whistler, thinking I could maybe try to do something like that with my life. Not whistling ... but telling diarrhea jokes."

But it's no joke that life at home on the farm has framed Galifianakis' view of Hollywood and all that comes with being a celebrity. "It's not for me. I'm not into that scene," he said. "It's so stupid. It's all so dumb. It's so weird to me."

And for a man with the last name Galifianakis, there's a punchline waiting in the wings. "If I've always wanted to have my name up in lights I would have changed it to Don't Walk." Nod. Wink. Cheers.

Starring roles on television aside, it's the "Hangover" movies which did put Galifianakis' name in lights. Alan -- the portly, man-purse carrying sidekick to Bradley Cooper's Phil and Ed Helms' Stu -- is back in theaters May 23 in the third and final movie.

And any interview with Galifianakis wouldn't be complete without actually being interviewed with ferns for a backdrop, something he's turned into comedic art with his fake Internet talk show "Between Two Ferns." Williams brought the two ferns to the interview and Galifianakis was game for a lengthy chat among the plants.

"This is the longest conversation I've had with anyone in, like, seven years," Galifianakis said, contradicting his earlier directive to Williams to "do a couple of jokes and then get out."

Rock Center
The murder of Karen Cox Smith by her husband allegedly sparked both her family and the mayor of Dallas, Texas to work to curb the rising number of domestic violence cases in Dallas. At the time of Karen's murder, police had a warrant for her husband's arrest, but the warrant was never served because of a case backlog. Kate Snow reports.

WATCH: Domestic violence victim's 911 call ignored says family

WATCH: Dallas 911 operator breaks silence on Deanna Cook case

Related:

Click here to visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1−800−799−SAFE(7233)

Click here to visit Deanna's Voice, the non-profit organization started by Deanna Cook's family to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Click here to learn more about The Family Place, a Dallas based organization working to prevent family violence.

Click here to learn more about the Domestic Peace App created by Tonyita and Eric Hopkins.

Rock Center
A month after the bombings at the Boston Marathon, survivor Marc Fucarile is determined to leave the hospital, though he’ll leave with one leg gone and a body full of shrapnel.

“It’s right on the surface,” says Fucarile of the shrapnel still within his body. “There’s more BBs, like, in my, I got shrapnel in my heart.  It came up through a vein and came out in my heart.”

Fucarile’s family, including his fiancée and 5-year-old son, say that the 34-year-old’s heart, while littered with shrapnel, is still as big as it’s always been.

“He’s still that strong kid with the big heart that would do anything for anyone and what they did to him that day didn’t destroy who he is,” said Fucarile’s sister, Stephanie Baron, in an interview airing Friday at 10 p.m./9 CDT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Baron has started a fund to help her brother pay his mounting medical bills.

CLICK HERE TO HELP MARC FUCARILE

Fucarile, 34, was at the April 15 marathon celebrating Patriot’s Day when the two bombs exploded. He still remembers everything about what happened that day -- the moment his right leg was blown off and a firefighter put a tourniquet on him.

“I’m like, ‘I don’t want to die. I got a little boy and I got, you know, my fiancée. I don’t want to die.’ He’s like, ‘Just think of them. Just think of them. Keep them on your mind. Just hang in there,’” said Fucarile of the firefighter who helped him.

When Jen Regan, Fucarile’s fiancée and the mother of his son, saw him, she said she didn’t recognize his burned face.

“He was like, looked like he was 400 pounds and his skin was not his skin,” Regan said.

HOW TO HELP BOSTON BOMBING SURVIVORS HEALING FROM SEVERE LEG TRAUMA

Since April 15, one of Fucarile’s family members has stayed at his side every minute of his recovery at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“We’ve seen the progressions, we’ve seen the setbacks, but in our world, it’s still April 15,” said Fucarile’s father, Eddie.

It’s still unclear when Fucarile will leave the hospital, but he dreams of getting back to a “regular life,” where he can take his son to baseball games.

CLICK HERE TO HELP MARC FUCARILE

Through countless surgeries and screams of pain in the middle of the night, Fucarile’s family says the Boston man has not uttered a word of self-pity.

“They did what they wanted to do, terrorize us, but they’re not going to terrorize the spirit and our strength for our son,” Eddie Fucarile said.  

Related:

Click here for how to help Boston bombing survivors healing from severe leg trauma

To contribute to One Fund Boston, the fund set up by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to help Boston bombing victims and their families, click here.

Editor’s Note: Harry Smith’s full report on the Fucarile family airs tonight at 10pm/9CDT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center

The family of Dallas woman Deanna Cook is outraged it took police almost one hour to respond to her call for help, while she was being allegedly attacked by her ex-husband while on the phone with 911.

Cook's family discovered her body two days later.  The family says her death exposes a larger problem – a broken emergency response system that fails to take domestic violence seriously, especially in minority neighborhoods.  

Related:

Click here to visit Deanna's Voice, the non-profit organization started by the Cook family to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Click here to visit the National Domestic Violence Hotline or call 1−800−799−SAFE(7233)

Click here to learn more about The Family Place, a Dallas based organization working to prevent family violence.

Click here to learn more about the Domestic Peace App created by Tonyita and Eric Hopkins.

Editor's Note: Kate Snow's full report airs Friday, May 17 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Kate Snow, Diane Beasley, Jay Kernis, Michelle Kessel and Erin McClam
Rock Center

Friends started calling Jennifer Summers on Monday night and telling her to turn on the news: Three kidnapped women had been freed, and there was a chance that one of them was Summers’ daughter, who disappeared in Cleveland six years ago.

Courtesy of Summers family

Ashley Summers

“Oh, my God,” Summers remembers thinking. “Let’s hope it’s Ashley.”

It was not. So while Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are all beginning to adjust to open society again, and while their families can finally start catching up on lost years, the family of Ashley Summers still waits.

“It’s been a restless week,” her mother told Kate Snow of NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams. “I’ve been feeling all kinds of emotions. Happy for the girls that were found, very sad that it wasn’t my daughter, wondering when it’s going to be her turn.”

Ashley was 14 when she disappeared one day in July 2007 and never came back. She went missing just blocks from where the other girls were last seen in Cleveland, and Ashley went to the same middle school as one of them.

Click here for more from the FBI on the disappearance of Ashley Summers

She even looked similar in some ways to the other girls — on the smaller side and close in age.

“We were very concerned that maybe this was all one thing,” said Vicki Anderson, a special agent in the FBI’s Cleveland office.

But the family has heard little, except for one day almost a year after Summers’ disappearance, when her mother got a phone call. She is certain that it was her daughter on the line.

“She took one deep breath, and she was like, ‘It’s me, mom. I’m OK. Don’t worry.’ It was really fast.”

Then the phone went dead.

Her mother said she misses everything about Ashley. She thinks of how they used to stay up late and watch scary movies together — the mother always scared, the daughter never scared.

Ashley Summers as a little girl.

When Ashley reached her teenage years, her mother said, things got harder. She gave her mother a hard time about going to school, and the two sometimes fought. In the summer of 2007, just before she went missing, Ashley went to live with her great uncle.

Anderson, the special agent, said that so far  authorities have not connected Summers’ disappearance to Ariel Castro, the man charged with kidnapping the other three women and holding them for a decade.

She stressed that agents are still investigating.

“All the investigators that were on the situation this week,” she said, “everybody is aware, if you hear Ashley Summers’ name, you know, let’s get on that immediately. Everybody has been looking.”

In the meantime, the family keeps hoping. On Wednesday, Vicki Summers, Ashley’s little sister, made a video featuring all her siblings.

WATCH: YouTube video made by Vicki Summers

One of them, a 5-year-old whom Ashley has never met, introduced herself: “Ashley, I’m Tina.”

Jennifer Summers, the mother, said she thinks of her daughter a million times a day.

“These six years have been the worst six years of my life,” she said. “If I could just see her one time, it would erase all the pain.”

Click here to visit the Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Rock Center

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie says that his decision to have weight loss surgery was a personal one made for his wife and children.

“Last fall, I was turning 50 and it really was a moment of reflection for me,” Christie said in an exclusive interview with NBC News’ Brian Williams airing Friday, May 10 on Rock Center with Brian Williams.  “And so I really just felt like for Mary Pat and for the kids that I needed to take a more significant step to try to get my weight under control so that I could have a really active next half of my life.”

Before going through with the surgery this February, Christie says that he consulted with Dr. George Fielding at New York University, a pioneer in weight-loss surgery.

“I said, ‘Well, do I really think I need this?’ And he said to me, ‘If you came in here with cancer and I told you that I had a 40-minute surgery that'd give you a 90 percent chance of cure, would you sign up?’ And it just really crystallized it for me.  And I said, ‘Yeah, I would.’  And he said, ‘Well, then why wouldn't you do that to cure obesity?’ Christie recalled.

Christie, who is often toted as a Republican presidential contender, has often joked about his struggle with his weight – even appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman eating a donut earlier this year. By the time of that appearance, he’d already made the choice to have Lap-Band surgery.

“I did not want to take the risk of becoming unhealthy and the ramifications that would have for Mary Pat and for my four kids.  And as you know, I still have children that are in elementary school, so I got a long road here as a father and I don’t want to miss any of it,” he said.

Adam Rivera/NBC News

The governor said that he also consulted with New York Jets coach Rex Ryan who has had lap-band surgery himself. Christie says that he’s still adjusting to not being hungry.

“The biggest thing about it for me has been I’m just not very hungry anymore and that’s a huge change for me,” Christie said. 

While there has been a noticeable reduction in the governor’s weight, Christie says he’s taking his weight-loss one day at a time.

WATCH: Chris Christie sees hope for Jersey Shore

“I’m not taking any victory lap, I’m not talking about numbers, you know, pounds, all the rest of it.  People will notice how I’m doing.”

Editor's Note: Brian Williams' interview with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will air Friday, May 10 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC News' Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Slideshow: Chris Christie

Mel Evans / AP

The N.J. politician's straight-talk and tough policies put him in the national spotlight — but after considering a presidential bid, the governor decided he wasn't ready.

Launch slideshow

By Scott Stump
TODAY

Tennis legend Jimmy Connors is revealing intimate details of relationships including a broken engagement to Chris Evert and keeping his marriage together after a public affair with another woman.

In his new memoir, Connors, 60, writes about breaking his engagement to fellow tennis star Evert in 1975. He writes that Evert, who was 19 at the time, had an abortion shortly before they broke up.

“Well, that was a certainly a decision that needed to be made,’’ he told NBC's Harry Smith in a “Rock Center With Brian Williams” interview that will air in its entirety at 10 p.m. ET on Friday. “To face that together and to go through that together was a necessity.”

Connors, who will also appear live on TODAY Friday morning, told Smith he was willing to become a father.

“I was, but, you know, accepting responsibility was something that I've always done,’’ Connors said. “I have never ever apologized for anything. I have felt if I do it, it's done. That's the way I've always gone about it, and I was brought up that way.”

In his book, "The Outsider," Connors writes: "I was perfectly happy to let nature take its course and accept responsibility for what was to come. Chrissie, however, had already made up her mind that the timing was bad and too much was riding on her future. She asked me to handle the details.

'Well, thanks for letting me know. Since I don't have any say in the matter, then I guess I'm just here to help.' "

Evert has expressed her displeasure about Connors' choice to reveal the details of their relationship in the book.

“In his book, Jimmy Connors has written about a time in our relationship that was very personal and emotionally painful,” Evert said in a statement to Reuters. “I am extremely disappointed that he used the book to misrepresent a private matter that took place 40 years ago and made it public without my knowledge.”

Connors has been married to his wife, Patti, since 1979. In his book, "The Outsider," which comes out on May 14, he writes about an affair he had that was was so public he even brought the woman to meet his mother in Illinois. Patti took him back, despite his infidelity.

“I think that it's been written many times that Patti Connors was a saint to put up with Jimmy Connors,’’ he told Smith.

“Bottom line is I loved him,’’ Patti told Smith. “I loved him. I came from a broken family. My mother and father were divorced when I was 19 months old. No one's infallible. We all make mistakes, and there is one word that is in the vocabulary, everyone who gets through life has to use, it's called forgiveness.”

Connors, who won eight Grand Slam singles titles in his career and was once ranked No. 1 in the world for 160 consecutive weeks, also spoke with Smith about his struggles with gambling.

“I had a problem,’’ Connors said. “I didn't know when to quit. I either had to break the bank or break me, and, you know, there's only one winner there, and it's not me. If I won two games, I had three or four. If I won four, I had to win six. So I'd just keep until, you know, I'd explode.”

Unlike many other gambling addicts, Connors didn't go broke.

“No, there's somebody that wouldn't let me do that,’’ he said. “Patti would not let me do that.”

Connors said he has no regrets about including intimate details in the book.

“Well, I guess the best thing to say about that is I wrote the book as honest as I played tennis,’’ he said. “Now, you know, I was right straight in your face, and I didn't complain about the way I played tennis. So I'm not complaining about the way I wrote the book.”

Rock Center

From severe weather, to a weatherman's hiccups, to mobile medical technology, to cliché vacation photos, to a behavioral study concerning airline passengers, to the latest in comfort dog news – Brian Williams catches up on the news you may have missed this week.

Oh, and for kicks - watch that video of a Golden Retriever puppy taking a bath after the jump.

Rock Center

The rehabilitation process to recover from severe lower limb trauma can be long, arduous, and expensive.  To help those injured in the Boston bombings, the MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics Group is collaborating with the Mass Technology Leadership Council and No Barriers Boston Fund on two initiatives.

The first initiative involves the  Mass Technology Leadership Council working to ensure that each person is provided with the assistive and rehabilitative solutions that best address their injury.  If you have a technology that you believe could help those who suffered traumatic injuries, please contact the Mass Technology Leadership Council by clicking here.

Secondly, the No Barriers Boston Fund has been established to provide the victims with devices to allow them to lead full and active lives.  The fund will provide these individuals with prosthetic limbs specifically designed for athletic activities such as running, cycling, swimming, skiing and even dancing.  To donate to this important cause, click here.

To contribute to One Fund Boston, the fund set up by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to help Boston bombing victims and their families, click here.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Federal law requires anyone served with an order of protection to give up their guns, but it's rarely enforced at the state level, leaving domestic violence victims in jeopardy.

One community in California, though, is using a federal grant to tackle the problem -- with promising results, as a report by NBC News' "Rock Center with Brian Williams" found.

San Mateo County Deputy Sheriff John Kovach and his partner head a team that tracks down and confiscates these weapons one by one. Last year, his department collected 324 firearms and for the third year didn't have a single gun-related domestic violence homicide.

"We have shotguns, rifles, pretty much any kinda gun you can imagine," Kovach said as he displayed the contents of his gun vault.

"Right here we have a submachine gun that was actually purchased illegally in Nevada and brought into the State of California. And this was recovered during one of our investigations of a restraining order."

When someone in his county takes out an order of protection, Kovach interviews them to find out what kind of guns the other party might have. Then he goes to the home to serve the order and take the weapons.

Sometimes the owner says they don't have the weapons any longer; sometimes they say they're at a relative's home, which means another stop for Kovach and his partner.

The sleuthing and legwork is worth it, he said.

"I've worked in a lot of different areas of law enforcement," Kovach said. "They are all satisfying, but nothing like this."

He noted that responding to a domestic violence incident is among the most perilous calls for a police officer. Getting guns out of the hands of those with restraining orders means other cops -- along with civilians -- are safe, he said.

In Spokane, Wash., mother of two Stephanie Holten learned how ineffective an order of protection can be if the other person is still armed.

After she told her ex-husband she was seeing someone else, he threatened her, she said.

"He said to my face that he would come over to my house and put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger, that he would blow my head off," she said.

She filed a police report and obtained an order of protection. Police served her ex with the order, but no one took his gun. Nine hours later, he was at Holten's door with the weapon.

"He starts yelling at me, 'I was served a protection order today and I'm going to kill you. I'm going to shoot you,'" Holten recalled.

"I'm on my knees by the living room couch and he's standing over me. And I am looking at this gun barrel."

Secretly Holten used her cell phone to call 911, and police rescued her. Her ex-husband is in prison now.

Kelly Starr of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence said the episode could easily have had a more tragic ending.

"When there is a gun around is when we see domestic violence turn to murder," she said. "What we know is that domestic violence victims are five times more likely to be killed if there's a gun around."

Statistics like that are why Kovach believes he is making a difference.

"I know I am saving lives," he said.

Related links:

Son of a transgender author: 'I live in a normal family'

More from Rock Center with Brian Williams

Slideshow: Ecuador's Yasuni National Park

©Pete Oxford

Launch slideshow

Rock Center

Yasuni National Park in Ecuador is reputed to be the biologically richest place on earth. Its 3791 square miles are believed to contain more species of plants and animals than any other comparable area. 

WATCH: Oil boom threatens Amazon tribesmen

These photos were taken by award-winning nature photographer Peter Oxford and first appeared in "Yasuni, Tiputini & the Web of Life," a book he co-authored with Dr. Kelly Swing. Pete is a biologist who was named one of the 40 most influential nature photographers by Outdoor Photography magazine. His photo credits include National Geographic, Smithsonian, and International Wildlife. A founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ICLP), Pete works as a team with his long-time partner and wife Renee Bish, with whom he has published eight books, two of which focus entirely on the Galapagos Islands.

WATCH: Living in the Amazon: 'There's a harmony'

 Find out more about efforts to preserve part of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador:

Yasuni-ITT

YasuniSupport.org

Amazon Watch – Ecuador

Learn more about the groups in Ecuador's Amazon Rainforest.

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Ann Curry's full report from Ecuador that aired Friday, May 3, 2013 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Scott Stump
Today

When noted transgender author Jennifer Finney Boylan began the transition from male to female, she believed her marriage to wife Deedie Boylan was most likely over.

Instead, it is still going strong 25 years since the two tied the knot, and her relationship to their two sons is equally solid.

In an interview with Harry Smith that will air on "Rock Center with Brian Williams" Friday at 10 p.m. ET, Jennifer and Deedie and their son Zach talk about the changes their marriage has undergone in 25 years, the changing face of the American family, and the fear of how Jennifer's transition would affect Zach and his brother, Sean. Jennifer, an English professor at Colby College and best-selling author, also talks about her new book, “Stuck in the Middle With You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders.” Jennifer, Deedie and Zach will also appear on TODAY Friday.

“I think it's very typical for us to think that love will make us into better people, will make us into the people that we hope to be,’’ Jennifer told Smith about making the male-to-female transition during her marriage. “I really felt that that part of my life was over. But it only took a few years before the feelings returned, and returned more powerfully.”

Deedie, who married the then-James Richard Boylan in 1988, then dealt with the experience of watching her husband transition into a woman with sexual reassignment surgery in 2002.

“One of the ways that I dealt with it was to sort of say, ‘Look, I'm not your consultant on how to be a girl,’’’ Deedie said. “I didn't want her to touch my stuff. I didn't want her to wear my earrings. She got the journey of discovering who she really was, and I had to sort of watch the man I had married disappear.”

The result is an unconventional family, but one filled with love.

“If normal is a family that has a mom and a dad and two kids and a white picket fence, then no, I don't live in a normal family,’’ Zach Boylan told Smith. “But if a normal family is one where everyone treats each other as equals and with love, then yeah, I live in a normal family.”

Jennifer has written extensively about her personal experience. Her 2003 memoir, “She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders,” was the first best-seller by a transgender American.

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Harry Smith's full report that aired Friday, May 3 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center

NBC News’ Ann Curry journeyed deep into the Amazon Rainforest to a village called Bomeno in Ecuador. Bomeno is home to the rarely seen people of the Waorani Tribe. The tribe and the rainforest they call home is increasingly being threatened by environmental damage caused by oil drilling.  One of the tribesman showed Curry how to use a blow gun, a survival tool used by the tribe. 

Learn more about the groups in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Ann Curry's full report from Ecuador that aired Friday, May 3, 2013 at 10pm/9c on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

A mother who lost her legs and a daughter who was critically injured in the April 15 Boston marathon attack had only been at the race’s finish line for 10 minutes -- 20 minutes, tops -- when the bombs went off.  

For Celeste Corcoran, 47, and her daughter, Sydney, 18, those brief moments devastated their lives, changing them forever. But the women tell Natalie Morales of TODAY and NBC’s Rock Center that they are determined to rebound with the help of family, friends and community.

“I will have a different life, a different reality,” said Celeste Corcoran, who lost her lower legs below the knee. “But, I really believe that if you just kinda persevere and believe in yourself, you really have to dig down deep inside and just be like, ‘I can do this.’ It’s going to be hard, but I can do this.”

The mother-daughter duo stopped by the marathon finish line that Monday after lunch to see Carmen Acabbo, Celeste Corcoran’s sister, finish the race. They were moving closer to get a better view with the explosions ripped through the crowd.

“The moment the bomb hit, I was in shock,” Sydney Corcoran told Morales. “I wasn’t exactly sure what happened. It wasn’t until, like, I was on the ground and everyone was grabbing at me that I realized something serious had happened.”

John Tlumacki/Boston Globe via Getty Images

Bystanders help Sydney Corcoran, a 17-year-old senior at Lowell High School, at the scene of the first explosion on Boylston Street near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon.

Nearby, her mother was badly injured and her father, Kevin Corcoran, used the belt from his pants to staunch one of her wounds. He asked a stranger for a second belt to help, too.

“I just wanted to die,” Celeste Corcoran told Morales. “The thought was there  ‘cause I was in so much pain. And then I just remember thinkin’, like, I can’t. I can’t. I don’t wanna leave my family, you know. There’s still too much to do.”

Both women were taken to Boston Medical Center, where doctors raced to save their lives. They’re healing together in a shared room, but are scheduled to move soon to a new center operated by the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network, said Greg John, a friend who is helping the family with publicity.

A spokesman for the center, Tim Sullivan, said between 10 and 20 victims of the Boston blasts are expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

There, they’ll all begin the long road to recovery. Celeste Corcoran will work to prepare her limbs for prosthetics that will help the hairdresser return to the work she loves.

“It’s been a lifelong passion,” she said. “I can’t see myself not doing that.”

NBC News

Celeste Corcoran, 47, and Sydney Corcoran, 18, were badly injured in the the Boston marathon bombings.

Sydney Corcoran, who celebrated her birthday in the hospital Tuesday, suffered a severed artery in one leg and life-threatening shrapnel wounds. Doctors have told her that she would have died except for the help of strangers whose quick work applying a tourniquet was captured in a wrenching image after the attack.

Now, Sydney Corcoran hopes to recover enough to return to high school, go to college and pursue her dreams of a career in criminal justice. But she knows there’s a lot of work ahead.

“They think that with effort, I might be back to where I was before,” she said.

The family, which includes Tyler Corcoran, 20, is still sorting out what comes next. They have health insurance, but it’s not yet clear whether it will cover all of the medical expenses that loom ahead. An online fundraiser organized by family friend Alyssa Carter has received more than $655,000 in pledges. 

Link: Celeste & Sydney Recovery Fund by Alyssa Carter

The women have been deluged with flowers, balloons, cupcakes – and visitors, including actor Bradley Cooper, who stopped by last week, Johns said. Marines from the Semper Fi Fund visited, including an amputee with injuries similar to those Celeste Corcoran suffered.

“He came in here with his legs and I was just amazed,” Celeste Corcoran said. “He goes rock climbing. (It) sounds like there’s nothing he can’t do. Granted, he’s a few years younger than I am. But, you know, if you have the spirit and you know that you wanna do it, I can absolutely achieve it.”

Related stories:  

• Mother and daughter injured at Boston marathon bombing reunited at hospital
• 'Rapid strides': Limb advances offer hope for Boston amputees
•  Crowdfunding raises $2 million for Boston victims; critics urge caution

Rock Center

You might not know his name, but his voice and face will leave you laughing in the popular AT&T commercials for the "It's Not Complicated" campaign. Rock Center Special Correspondent Chelsea Clinton sits down with Beck Bennett who's the grown-up interviewer at the kids' table.

Editor's Note: Clinton's full report airs at Friday, April 26 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center

Jackie Hance, the mom who lost her three daughters in a fatal car accident when her sister-in-law drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway, said she always thought of sister-in-law Diane Schuler as a "good mom," before the accident.

"Because up until that day, I only knew what I knew and she was a good person and a good mom and, you know, a good friend. So, I don't know what happened that day," said Hance in an exclusive interview with NBC News' Ann Curry.

Both Jackie Hance and her husband, Warren, are breaking their silence about the tragic loss of their daughters- 8-year-old Emma, 7-year-old Alyson and 5-year-old Katie.

Hance on Daughters: 'My greatest desire is for people to know them'

In July 2009, Warren Hance’s sister, Diane Schuler, drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway killing eight people including the Hance girls, Schuler, Schuler’s daughter and three others in another vehicle.

Chronicled in Jackie Hance's new book, I’ll See You Again, Hance talks candidly for the first time about the accident, and how the trauma threatened her marriage. She also reveals that she considered suicide, but the love for her husband, forming the Hance Family Foundation in honor of their three remarkable daughters, and the birth of a new baby helped her and her husband move past their pain.

Editor's Note: Click here to watch Ann Curry's interview with Jackie and Warren Hance that aired Friday, April 26 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

The Boston Marathon bombing suspect was captured alive but wounded Friday night — after holing up in a boat in a suburban backyard following a bloody rampage that left a cop dead and a daylong manhunt that shut down the city.

The arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and the earlier death of his brother during a firefight with cops, ended five days of terror sowed by the double bombing at the marathon finish line, which killed three people, wounded 176 and left the city of Boston on edge.

"We got him," Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted.

"CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won," the Boston Police Department said on its Twitter account.

Cops cheered as the suspect was taken into custody in Watertown, Mass., just before 9 p.m. Later, the people of Watertown flooded the streets, cheering every passing police car and armored vehicle in an impromptu parade. Chants of "USA! USA!" broke out. In Boston, people danced in the streets outside Fenway Park.

Police cornered Tsarnaev -- a naturalized U.S. citizen of Chechen origin -- around 7 p.m., less than an hour after police lifted a stay-indoors order for the city and its suburbs.

A resident had gone outside to smoke and noticed a tarp on the boat was flapping, a relative told NBC News. When he went to investigate, he saw what looked like a curled-up person and bloody clothes.

The man "freaked out," ran into the house and called police, the relative said.

Thermal imaging from helicopters confirmed there was a person in the boat, officials said.

Over the course of two hours, several bursts of gunfire could be heard. The police exchanged fire with Tsarnaev, threw flash-bang grenades designed to disorient him and brought a negotiator to the scene as night fell, officials said.

Just before 9 p.m., the wounded Tsarnaev was taken into custody. "He sustained significant blood loss," a law enforcement official at the scene said.

As an ambulance took the suspect to Boston Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital — where he was in serious condition — people lining the streets applauded in joy and relief.

“We are so grateful to be here right now, so grateful to able to bring justice and closure to this case,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said at a briefing. “We’re exhausted, folks, but we have a victory here.”

President Barack Obama praised the outcomes but said many questions remained. Among them, he said: “Why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and our country resort to such violence?”

Authorities are also not sure of a motive or whether the suspects had help. Even as the standoff took place in Watertown, the FBI was taking three people in for questioning in New Bedford, Mass., who were believed to be former roommates of Tsarnaev.

"No one was detained. No one was arrested," a spokesman with the Massachusetts FBI office later said, once the two men and one woman questioned in connection with Tsarnaev were released.

But the president declared: “Whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not, cannot, prevail. Whatever they thought they could achieve, they’ve already failed.”

Tsarnaev will be questioned by a federal team called the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which includes officials of the FBI, CIA, and Defense Department, an Obama administration official said.

His apprehension capped a manhunt that had the city of Boston and its suburbs on total lockdown after the execution of a college campus patrol officer, a carjacking and the death of Tsarnaev's 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, during a 200-bullet confrontation with cops.

The overnight violence had triggered an extraordinary shutdown of transportation, schools and businesses in Boston and its suburbs, with police warning more than a million people to hunker down behind locked doors while SWAT teams fanned out and bomb squads collected seven homemade explosive devices.

The brothers' bloody last stand began about five hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of two "extremely dangerous" men suspected of planting two bombs near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 176.

Read more: Who are the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing?

Tips about the identity of the suspects were still pouring in when the Tsarnaev brothers fatally shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology officer Sean Collier, 26, in his vehicle at 10:20 p.m., law enforcement officials said.

The brothers then carjacked a Mercedes SUV, holding the driver captive for a half-hour while they tried to use his cash card to get money from three ATM's, a source said. At the first, they put in the wrong number; at the second, they took out $800 and at the third, they were told they had exceeded the withdrawal limit, the source said.

The carjacking victim was released unharmed at a gas station in Cambridge, sources said. He told police the brothers said they were the marathon bombers and had just killed a campus officer.

As the duo sped in his car toward Watertown, a police chase ensued and they tossed explosive devices out the window, officials said.

There was a long exchange of gunfire, according to Andrew Kitzenberg of Watertown, who took photos of the clash from his window and shared them via social media.

“They were also utilizing bombs, which sounded and looked like grenades, while engaging in the gunfight,” he told NBC News in an interview. “They also had what looked like a pressure-cooker bomb.

“I saw them light this bomb. They threw it towards the officers,” he said. “There was smoke that covered our entire street.”

A transit officer, identified as Richard H. Donahue, 33, was seriously injured during the pursuit. Authorities said he underwent surgery at Mount Auburn Hospital.

Kitzenberg said he saw the firefight end when Tamerlan Tsarnaev ran toward the officers and ultimately fell to the ground.

Tamerlan -- the man in the black hat from FBI photos released six hours earlier -- had an improvised explosive device strapped to his chest, law enforcement officials said.

Dzhokhar -- the brother who was wearing a white hat in the surveillance photos from the marathon -- got away when he drove the SUV through a line of police officers at the end of the street, Kitzenberg said.

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that blood found at the scene suggested Dzhokhar may have been wounded in the gun battle.

During the lockdown, subways and buses were shut down, Amtrak service to Boston was cut, and college campuses were closed. The Red Sox and Boston Bruins' home games were canceled.

Watertown was the epicenter of the search. Frightened residents were trapped inside as convoys of heavily armed officers and troops arrived by the hour and snipers perched on rooftops and in backyards.

When police finally gave residents the OK to venture outside, some cheered as they stepped outside, only to be swept back inside when shots rang out, and police converged on Tsarnaev's hideout.

An administration official said Tsarnaev was not read his Miranda rights and could be questioned without them for up to 48 hours under a special legal exception used in cases where public safety is at stake.

In a statement late Friday, The FBI said they interviewed Tamerlan in early 2011, following a tip from "a foreign government" that he was "a follower of radical Islam" and was preparing to leave the United States to join underground organizations.

The FBI said its interview two years ago of Tsarnaev and his family, along with checks of travel records, Internet activity and personal associations, "did not find any terrorism activity" at the time.

NBC News' Jonathan Dienst and Kasie Hunt contributed to this story.

Slideshow: Search for suspects in Boston Marathon bombings

Dominic Chavez / EPA

A tense night of police activity that left a university officer dead on campus just days after the Boston Marathon bombings and amid a hunt for two suspects caused officers to converge on a neighborhood outside Boston, where residents heard gunfire and explosions.

Launch slideshow

Related:

Who are the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing? 

 Chechen insurgents deny any link to marathon bombing

What we know: Timeline of terror hunt

‘Dedicated officer’ gunned down by Boston Marathon suspects at MIT

Slideshow: Bombings at Boston Marathon

Boston bombing spurs Senate debate on tighter immigration screening 

Tweeting police chatter creates confusion over Boston suspect

Missing student's family staggered by false accusation

This story was originally published on Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:35 AM EDT

By Monica Alba
Rock Center

Sydney Corcoran and her mother Celeste were both seriously injured in the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday. Sydney, a high school senior, suffered shrapnel wounds to her legs and severed her femoral artery. Her mother lost both legs below the knees. They, along with Sydney’s father Kevin and other family members, were near the finish line to cheer on Celeste’s sister, Carmen Acabbo, who was running her first marathon.

“Life will never be the same, but she can still hug me,” Acabbo said about her sister. “She's my very best friend. And I'm just so thankful to have her in whatever capacity I do.”

After the bomb went off, Kevin stayed by his wife’s side, while strangers rushed to his daughter’s aid. Before he had a chance to check on her, Kevin says Sydney was already moved to another location. By a small miracle, Sydney and Celeste ended up at the same hospital, where they each underwent several surgeries this week.

Immediately after the attacks, their cousin Alyssa Carter knew she needed to do something to help. She launched an online campaign in Sydney and Celeste’s name using GoFundMe.com. The family hopes to raise at least $500,000 to cover hospital bills and health insurance. People have donated more than $400,000 in three days and it’s currently the most popular campaign on the site.

Kevin has been humbled by the response so far. “What occurs to I would think anybody in this situation is, ‘How are we gonna afford to pay for everything?’"  he said. “You realize that with their help, you are gonna be able to get through this and pay the bills.”

Along with photos, the family is posting constant updates about Sydney and Celeste’s conditions on the crowd-sourcing website. Rock Center will be following the Corcoran family’s amazing story of resilience and recovery in the coming weeks.

By Janet Klein and Lauren Specter
Rock Center

After Rock Center’s report last week on the supplement industry and concerns about DMAA, an ingredient used in a popular work-out supplement,  the maker of DMAA announced Tuesday that it plans to remove the substance from its products. 

The Rock Center report included a stern warning from the FDA about the safety of DMAA, found in the supplement, Jack3D.  Dr. Daniel Fabricant, director of the FDA’s division of dietary supplements programs, told  NBC News Chief Medical Correspondent Nancy Snyderman, "It [DMAA] is an illegal dietary supplement. “ He also warned that the FDA is "very concerned, and we urge consumers to be concerned as well."

In a statement announcing its decision to stop using DMAA, USPlabs said,  "We disagree with FDA's position. The company has never-the-less concluded for business reasons to phase-out products containing 1,3-DMAA and replace them with new advanced formulations."   USPlabs says it continues to stand by the "safety and legality of its products containing the dietary ingredient 1, 3-DMAA."

USPlabs did not say when the phase-out would begin.  

Click here to read Rock Center's previous reporting on the supplement industry.

As of today,  General Nutrition Centers, or GNC - one of the country's biggest supplement distributors - continues to sell Jack3d.  

In a statement to NBC News today, the retail chain said "GNC will continue to sell the products as long as USP Labs makes them available, unless the products are recalled by either the FDA or USP Labs…GNC has no reason to believe that DMAA is unsafe."

The family of Private Michael Sparling, who collapsed and died after taking Jack3D, issued this response to USPlab’s decision:  “USP’s announcement it is reformulating acknowledges that DMAA is dangerous to consumers, but it is not enough. The fact USP has not issued a recall shows their continued disregard for the safety of consumers. Retailers like GNC continue to sell USP’s products as we speak.”

The Sparling family is suing both USP Labs and GNC for causing their 22-year-old son’s death after  a 3.5 mile run at Ft. Bliss Texas 2 years ago.    Both companies deny Jack3D was to blame.

Rock Center

Jackie and Warren Hance, the parents who lost their three daughters in a car accident four years ago, spoke exclusively with NBC News' Ann Curry about their unthinkable tragedy.

The Hance's three daughters were killed in a horrific car accident when the girls' aunt, Diane Schuler, drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway, killing herself, her own daughter and the Hance girls.

Chronicled in Jackie Hance's new book, I’ll See You Again, Hance talks candidly for the first time about that fateful day in July 2009 when she lost 8-year-old Emma, 7-year-old Alyson and 5-year-old Katie.

Hance opens up to Curry about how the trauma threatened her marriage; how she considered suicide, but how the love for her husband, forming the Hance Family Foundation, in honor of their three remarkable daughters, and the birth of a new baby helped them survive.

Editor's Note: Ann Curry's interview with Jackie and Warren Hance airs Friday, April 26 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Rima Abdelkader
Rock Center

Laurene Powell Jobs is speaking publicly for the first time since her husband Steve Jobs' death to advocate for immigration reform.

“I started getting more and more active around immigration reform because this was such a waste of lives, such a waste of potential, such a waste for our country not to have the human capital that we developed – geared towards improving our entire society,” said Powell Jobs in an exclusive interview with Rock Center Anchor Brian Williams airing Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC. 

While Powell Jobs is focused and committed to her goal of getting immigration legislation passed, the intensely private Powell Jobs also addressed her husband's legacy.

“His private legacy with me and the kids is that of husband and father, and we miss him every day,” said Powell Jobs of the late Apple co-founder.  

Powell Jobs is leaving her own mark on the immigration debate. She and filmmaker Davis Guggenheim recently teamed up to promote immigration reform through the film "The Dream Is Now." They both appeared on Capitol Hill this week showcasing the film to members of Congress.

Click here to watch "The Dream Is Now" trailer.

“So my hope is that, when we tell this story, people see the human lives that are at stake,” said Guggenheim of the film that airs Sunday, April 14 on MSNBC. “It definitely has an opinion to it.”

Guggenheim, the documentarian behind “Waiting for Superman,” focuses his latest film on the fight over the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act (acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) would provide high school graduates or students or those who have served in the military a pathway towards legal status.

The film focuses in part on Jose, a young boy who excelled in mathematics and dreamt of becoming a mechanical engineer.  He got a full scholarship to Arizona State University and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering – in a state that faced a shortage of engineers. Still, because Jose was undocumented, he wasn’t able to apply for the jobs his fellow students were eligible for.  Today, he works construction with his father and brother.

“It’s honest work, but he wanted to do more,” filmmaker Guggenheim added. “When he was a kid and he pledged allegiance to the flag, and his teacher said, “You know Jose, if you work hard in this country, you can do anything.” He bought into that and he believed it, and then he got to a certain point and the rules changed.”

Jose isn’t alone in feeling hopeless when it comes to pursuing what he feels is his full potential.  There are roughly 11 million immigrants that live in the United States without legal consent and without work documentation.

“We have educated individuals and individuals who want to further their education, passionately, deeply, right here in our country who we are not enabling,” Powell Jobs said.

Jose at a rally in Washington, D.C., for the passage of the DREAM Act.

Several thousand protesters, including Jose, also came to Washington this week demanding immigration reform. A bi-partisan push in both the House and the Senate to provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented men, women and children already in the US is underway.

President Obama signed a memo calling for “deferred action” or a temporary reprieve from deportation for undocumented immigrants who would’ve qualified for the Dream Act last June. Several versions of the bill have been introduced in both the Senate and in the House. One version failed in the Senate in 2007. Another version was passed on in the House in 2010. Some Senate Republicans argued that it would encourage more people to break the law and that securing the borders takes precedence.

Powell Jobs and Guggenheim are confident that most of the contentious issues have been resolved between both parties.

“I think there’s been a great realization over the last several years that, in fact we do not wish to punish the children because of any actions from their parents,” Powell Jobs said.

“One of my favorite quotes is a lawmaker said, “I do not support any immigration policy that would’ve kept my grandparents out of the country.”  And I think that's a good rule.  How about we agree upon what our common American values are, which is let’s make this a true land of opportunity.  We’re also a land of rules and laws that should be enforced.  Let's fix this problem, and then let's let people flourish,” Powell Jobs said.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows about two-thirds of Americans support providing undocumented immigrants with a path to American citizenship.

Powell Jobs and Guggenheim hope reforms will happen in the not-so-distant future for Jose and the other young adults they profile in “The Dream is Now.”

“I think that, when you see a terrible waste of a life and something that can be resolved with political courage, and you have a chance to amplify the voices that are being heard, it's a group privilege to be able to do that,” Powell Jobs said.

Editor’s Note: Rock Center’s full report airs Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

By Kate Snow
Rock center Correspondent

If you’re going to spend a couple of days in paradise with a six-foot-three woman who used to hold the record for spiking volleyballs down the throats of her competitors, you have to expect you’re going to sweat a little.

Kate Snow

Kate Snow and Gabby Reece paddle boarding in Hawaii

Here’s what two days of filming with former beach volleyball star, model and fitness advocate Gabby Reece look like: 

Day one. Learn how to go stand-up paddle boarding on the Hanalei River in Hawaii.  It’s like a surf board but you stand on it and use a long paddle. And if you’re me, your toes clench the board in a desperate attempt to not lose your balance and go into the drink on national television. Cap that off with a ride on a crazy-looking combination of elliptical machine and bicycle. Make sure not to fall down. Take a photo standing next to Gabby and receive the following text from your sister: “Are you standing in a pothole?”

Kate Snow

Gabby Reece and Kate Snow

Day two. Eat a healthy egg white wrap for breakfast because you feel like Gabby might be watching even though you’re miles away from her. Then join her for her three-times-a-week workout class. No, she doesn’t take the class -- she’s the instructor. It started out as just a few friends following Gabby’s weight training and cardio circuit.  Now it’s at least 60 people crammed inside a dirty old warehouse, rotating through different stations. For example, you sit with your back against the wall as if you’re in a chair. Now, wait for your thighs to start screaming. Or grab these thick ropes and whip them up and down until you feel like you might just throw up. Do push-ups while also lifting arm weights. It goes on and on for a whole hour.

Here’s the truth. I liked all that working out. I liked getting out in the Hawaiian sunshine and really moving. I even liked the dingy warehouse. It feels good to be alive after you do a class like that. You feel like you could conquer anything. And that, of course, is Gabby’s point. Exercise, healthy eating, having sex with your husband more than once a month—it all matters. 

She writes about it all in her new book, “My Foot is Too Big for the Glass Slipper.” I have a feeling it will be a big beach read this summer. Women will pass it around and laugh about the story of actor Owen Wilson invading her home on the day she went into labor.

Kate Snow

Gabby Reece leading her fitness class.

“Gabby, do you have any sour cream to go with that chili?” he asked, as she was bent over in a contraction. Or the story of her girlfriend sending her an email that said, “Sorry about the magazine” -- that’s how she found out someone had photoshopped a photo of her butt to make it look as though she had a lot of cellulite. (She countered by posting her own real, unvarnished butt photo.)

Click here to read an excerpt of Gabby Reece's book, "My Foot is Too Big for the Glass Slipper"

There may also be a lot of talk about parts of the book where Gabby writes about gender roles and what works in her marriage. She and her husband have, shall we say, a rather old-fashioned arrangement. Her use of the word “submissive” is sure to cause an intense conversation. It already has in our newsroom.

I happen to agree with Gabby’s philosophy on parenting. She encourages politeness and good manners but also allows her girls to roam free and explore. She rolls her eyes at the helicopter parenting crowd. And she swears like a sailor.  “Are you [expletive] kidding me?” is how she describes over-the-top kids’ birthday parties.

Gabby was willing to show us her family and her life, warts and all. She lays it all out in her book and she laid it all out on camera.

No, she says, her life isn’t perfect. But she’s learned to—as she says—accept the “what is.” Deal with your life as it is. Take a moment to appreciate what you do have. 

I, for one, have a body that is just a little more fit than it was last week. Now, if only I could walk up the stairs.

Gabby Reece and Kate Snow during Reece's fitness class

By Janet Klein, Lauren Specter and Adrian Taylor
Rock Center

Updated 6:18 PM, April 12, 2013: In advance of Rock Center’s report on the supplement industry, the FDA issued a warning about DMAA, the supplement present in the popular product Jack3d. Following the FDA’s advisory warning, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the leading trade association for the dietary supplement industry, called for manufacturers to stop producing products with DMAA and for consumers to stop using them. Both the FDA’s advisory and the statement from the Council for Responsible Nutrition are embedded below.   

NBC News

A bottle of Jack3d

Over the past few years, a popular dietary supplement has amassed a cult-like following of fitness enthusiasts across the country. From coast to coast, you can find small white canisters filled with a pink powder tucked into gym bags, stashed in lockers and sitting in kitchen cupboards. 

Devotees claim it gives them that extra edge they need to run that elusive last mile, or to lift that extra 10 pounds.

But detractors call it potentially dangerous, perhaps even deadly.

The supplement is called Jack3d (pronounced Jacked), but the ingredient that users say sets it apart from other pre-workout supplements is 1,3 dimethylamylamine - or DMAA. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says DMAA is illegal.

The FDA has received 86 adverse event reports  believed to be linked to DMAA. Serious side effects reported to the FDA include depression, anxiety, vomiting, loss of consciousness, chest pain, and even death.

NBC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman sat down with Dr. Daniel Fabricant, director of the division of dietary supplements programs at the FDA.

Fabricant's message about DMAA was clear: "It is an illegal dietary supplement."

So why is it still being sold in the US?  Fabricant says, “banning it would be, you know…it’s difficult.”

The FDA has limited legal authority over supplements. In 1994, a law was passed by the U.S. government that declared dietary supplements exempt from pre-market FDA approval. 

“We don't have pre-market approval…we don't evaluate [dietary supplement] products for safety or efficacy prior to them going to market,” said Fabricant in an interview airing Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

So what can the agency do?  On April 11, the FDA issued a consumer advisory warning against the supplement. A day later, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the trade association representing the dietary supplement industry called on the manufacturer and consumers to heed the FDA warning.

“With this conclusion, CRN now calls on dietary supplement manufacturers to stop manufacturing these products and further advises consumers to stop using them,” said Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition in a statement released today. “The safety and well-being of consumers is always our highest priority.”

This warning is not the first time FDA raised concerns about DMAA’s safety. In 2012, the FDA sent warning letters to 11 manufacturers questioning DMAA’s safety and challenging their claims that the ingredient even qualifies as a dietary supplement.  All of them voluntarily pulled their products - except for USP Labs, the makers of Jack3d. 

In a written statement to NBC News, Michael Petruzzello on behalf of USP Labs maintains that, “DMAA is a safe and lawful dietary ingredient.  We stand by the scientific evidence presented and believe there is no reason to withdraw it from the market.”

The company also points to “three published scientific papers [that] document that 1,3 DMAA can be extracted from [a] geranium found in particular areas of China,” meaning it is a natural substance, and is therefore not subject to the FDA’s drug approval process. 

Dr. Pieter Cohen, a Harvard professor and member of the Cambridge Health Alliance who studies supplement safety, disagrees with USP Labs that DMAA comes from a plant.

“DMAA has nothing to do with nature … That's an absolute myth perpetuated by companies selling it,” he says. “DMAA is a drug that manufacturers are passing off as a plant product.”

So if DMAA doesn’t come from the geranium plant, as USP Labs claims, where does it come from?  Cohen says “DMAA is ... produced in a factory.”

Debates over DMAA’s origins aside, Cohen thinks the ingredient should be removed from the market for another reason:  “Could it increase the risk of death? Could it lead to the death of a young healthy man? Absolutely.”

Dr. Cohen says DMAA behaves in the body like an amphetamine:  “If you took a low dose of this, you might notice a slight tremor-- a little more alert, awakeness, your heart beating a little faster.”

He also sees similarities between DMAA and another supplement that was famously banned years ago, Ephedra.

After the Jump, read the FDA's advisory warning and the statement from the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

“Now we're seeing situations in which people are taking this and experiencing adverse events that are completely consistent with those that we saw with Ephedra-- the heart attacks, the strokes, the deaths,” Cohen said.   

In response to questions about the safety of DMAA, USP Labs had this to say: “The company is unaware of a single corroborated serious adverse event [associated with DMAA] when used in accordance with labeled directions for use," and that there are "eight peer-review published clinical studies detailing the safety of DMAA."

DMAA has been banned in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and six other countries. It is also prohibited for use by athletes by many sports organization in the United States, as well as the by the International Olympic Committee. The U.S. Military now prohibits the sale of DMAA on all bases, after two soldiers who used the product died. 

One of those soldiers was Private Michael Sparling. On a June morning in 2011, Sparling went for a training run on his base compound in Fort Bliss, Texas. It was comfortable 70 degree weather and the 3.5 mile circuit was nothing unusual for the young, fit soldier.  

Later that morning, Michael’s mother Leanne received a phone call she’ll never forget.  It was the commander of the base hospital, calling to tell her that her son was in cardiac arrest. While preparing to fly to her son’s bedside in Texas, Leanne called the hospital for an update on his condition.

"Ma'am, we've done everything we could to save him but at 11:17 this morning he passed away."

Michael Sparling was 22 years old. Grief-stricken, the Sparling family looked for answers. What could have caused their young, seemingly healthy son to die so suddenly?

During the autopsy, tests confirmed the presence of the substance DMAA in Michael Sparling’s blood.  Army doctors told the Sparlings that the substance may have played a role in his death.

He had only been using the product for a month before he died.

But even tragic stories like that of Michael Sparling, and the threat of possible side effects like heart failure and cerebral hemorrhage aren’t enough to scare off many enthusiastic Jack3d users.  In 2011, more than $100 million worth of DMAA-based products were sold in the United States.

Keith Stewart is a 24 year-old marketing manager in New York City who uses Jack3d almost daily as a part of his fitness routine.  After work, Stewart heads to his apartment in lower Manhattan, takes the recommended dose of Jack3d, and quickly heads to the gym.  He’s got the timing of when he takes Jack3d down to a science, and won’t let anything get in between him and his work out.   

“Within 30 minutes, you feel this rush of energy in your body and you just have to move.  You basically have to lift things, move things, get it out of your system … I take it, and I know 30 minutes later, if I'm not in the gym, I'm going to start to feel antsy. 

"Your body will start to tingle. Your skin starts to tingle, actually … you can feel it in your veins. You feel this rush of energy in your body and you just have to move,” says Stewart.

“Once I took it actually and I couldn't get to the gym, and, uh, I just remember I had to run.  I just started running down the street, um, and doing like a work out in my own park, so, it was, uh.  That was when I noticed that, wow this stuff is really powerful.”

Powerful and available over the counter at many local supplement stores, like retail giant GNC.  

GNC also declined our request for an interview, but had this to say: “GNC has no reason to believe that DMAA is unsafe.  GNC, as a responsible retailer, does not sell products that contain substances banned by the FDA or that have been recalled by the FDA.”

While it’s true that DMAA is not a banned substance, Cohen feels the company has a responsibility to protect its customers.

“It’s shocking that GNC continues to support USP Labs in selling their wares,” Cohen said.

The parents of Michael Sparling say they aren’t waiting for the FDA to ban DMAA, or for GNC to voluntarily pull Jack3d from its shelves.  They are suing both USP Labs and GNC for causing their son’s death.   USP Labs has moved to dismiss the lawsuit.  Regarding the two military deaths, USP Labs says, "There is absolutely no evidence to support the assertion that 1,3 DMAA had anything to do with those unfortunate deaths."

In a statement, GNC told Rock Center that the company relies on manufacturers to warrant “that the products are fully compliant with all applicable laws and…safe for human consumption.”

And for the past two years, Michael’s mother has been dropping into supplement stores to find out if they’re still selling the product she believes killed her son.  She told us about a conversation she had with a clerk a few months after Michael’s death: 

“I said, ‘Well, I'm interested in a product called Jack 3D, or Jacked?’  And he goes, ‘Oh yes.’ And he became very animated,”  she said.

Leanne says the clerk told her it was the store’s top seller.  She asked him if he had heard of any adverse side effects from using the product.  “And he goes, ‘No, it is 100% natural, it's totally safe…Are you buying it for your son?’”

Leanne Sparling pointed to the dog tags around her neck and said, “Do you see the dog tags I wear…They were my son's … He died after taking this product."

Editor's Note: Dr. Nancy Snyderman's full report airs Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC's Rock Center with Brian Williams.

Rock Center
Laurene Powell Jobs is speaking publicly for the first time since her husband Steve Jobs' death to advocate for young undocumented immigrants. Powell Jobs and filmmaker Davis Guggenheim recently teamed up to promote immigration reform through the film, "The Dream is Now."

Rock Center Anchor Brian Williams' full report airs Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC. The documentary, "The Dream is Now," airs Sunday, April 14 at 4pm EST on MSNBC.

Rock Center

Model and volleyball champion Gabrielle Reece is the author of an upcoming book, "My Foot is Too Big for the Glass Slipper." Reece sat down with Rock Center's Kate Snow for a frank conversation about her new book and her marriage to surfer Laird Hamilton.  Despite her family's picture perfect image, Reece says her marriage nearly fell apart. 

Read More: Gabby Reece on Marriage: Men communicate through food and sex

Editor's Note: Rock Center's profile of Gabrielle Reece airs Friday, April 12 at 10pm/9CDT on NBC.