First, the Patriot Act. It was passed and signed by President George W. Bush after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. It expanded the government's ability to investigate and keep tabs on suspected terrorists. It was renewed by President Bush and President Obama. 

 

Second, the National Security Agency. In 2013, former U.S. government contractor Edward Snowden leaked information that the NSA had a secret program. It gathers up millions of phone records on a daily basis. Not what people say but the numbers involved and the link of the calls are collected. 

 

The Obama administration has argued that part of the Patriot Act allows the government to continue to collect that information. But it lost its case with an appeals court ruling that the NSA's program goes beyond what Congress authorized. The part of the Patriot Act that the government said authorizes the NSA program expires in June. Lawmakers are divided over whether to reauthorize it.

 

There's a state of emergency in 12 Oklahoma counties.  

 

One reason: dangerous amounts of rain. A line of storms passed through several U.S. states earlier this week, dumping so much water that rivers and creeks have crested their banks in some areas. Oklahoma City got seven-plus inches of rain. Officials there declared a flash flood emergency for the first ever.

 

The other reason: tornadoes, plural. Dozens of people reported them. At least 13 people were hurt by a twister. We're not sure yet exactly how many tornadoes there were on Wednesday night. But we can tell you where they struck.

 

It's from Nebraska all the way down to Texas. And I don't have a real number. Was it a 30? Was it a 50? We don't know, because if one guy reports it from the southeast and other from the northeast, it could have been the same storm reported.  

 

So, the Weather Service will go out there and look at how many damaged swaths are out there. But I can tell you that there's a couple of tornadoes for sure, because I can show you pictures, like this one. Bearden, Oklahoma, tornado on the ground. No question about it. This was late in the evening after the storms had already gone to parts of Norman. And then here further to the north, and up Republic County, Kansas, and finally up into Harding, Nebraska.  

 

Look at that beast. That is a tornado. Luckily, no big buildings in the way, no homes, no schools, no cities in the way of that. But obviously, a lot of damage done there across parts of the country.

 

Something else, yesterday, great pictures there. Please don't do this because here's what happened yesterday, we had these called "high precipitation thunderstorms." A lot of rain, high precip.  

 

If you're looking at the storm, you can take a picture of it right there. That's no problem, you can actually see it. But as the storm wraps up, all of a sudden, you can't see it anymore because the veil of rain that you have to look through is completely obscuring your view of the tornado.  

 

You can't see that through all that rain. There's no possible way to see it. The tornado was there, you're seeing it. Then, all of a sudden, the tornado wraps around, the rain wraps around, and you can't see the tornado.