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A star of the Discovery Channel show “Storm Chasers,” his son and a colleague have been identified as victims in the deadly outbreak of tornadoes that swept through the Oklahoma City area on Friday.

Tim Samaras, 55, died with his son Paul, 24, and friend Carl Young, 45, in Canadian County chasing down a tornado that wreaked havoc along Interstate 40, Fox 25 reports.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Tim Samaras his son Paul and their colleague Carl Young,” the Discovery Channel said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to their families.”

The channel added that it would be dedicating Sunday night’s show on the tornadoes in their memory.

Tim Samaras is a 20-year veteran of storm chasing and founded the project TWISTEX (Tactical Weather Instrumented Sampling in Tornadoes Experiment), which gathers weather information by placing devices in the way of tornadoes, Fox 17 reports.

In 2004, Tim Samaras dropped a probe into the path of an EF-4 tornado, where it measured a 100 millibar pressure drop — a record that still stands today, the Discovery Channel’s website says.

Since 2003, Tim Samaras, meteorologist Carl Young and their team have tracked down more than 125 tornadoes, according to Young’s biography on Discovery Channel’s website.

Samaras appeared for three seasons on the Discovery Channel show, Fox 17 reports.

Five tornadoes swept through the Oklahoma City area on Friday, killing at least 10 and injuring 115, according to authorities who spoke to the Associated Press.

Click for more from Fox 17.

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NEW YORK –  Jean Stapleton, the stage-trained character actress who played Archie Bunker’s far better half, the sweetly naive Edith, in TV’s groundbreaking 1970s comedy “All in the Family,” has died. She was 90.

Stapleton died Friday of natural causes at her New York City home surrounded by friends and family, her children said Saturday.

Little known to the public before “All In the Family,” she co-starred with Carroll O’Connor in the top-rated CBS sitcom about an unrepentant bigot, the wife he churlishly but fondly called “Dingbat,” their daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and liberal son-in-law Mike, aka Meathead (Rob Reiner).

Stapleton received eight Emmy nominations and won three times during her eight-year tenure with “All in the Family.” Produced by Norman Lear, the series broke through the timidity of U.S. TV with social and political jabs and ranked as the No. 1-rated program for an unprecedented five years in a row. Lear would go on to create a run of socially conscious sitcoms.

Stapleton also earned Emmy nominations for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in the 1982 film “Eleanor, First Lady of the World” and for a guest appearance in 1995 on “Grace Under Fire.”

Her big-screen films included a pair directed by Nora Ephron: the 1998 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romance “You’ve Got Mail” and 1996′s “Michael” starring John Travolta. She also turned down the chance to star in another popular sitcom, “Murder, She Wrote,” which became a showcase for Angela Lansbury.

The theater was Stapleton’s first love and she compiled a rich resume, starting in 1941 as a New England stock player and moving to Broadway in the 1950s and `60s. In 1964, she originated the role of Mrs. Strakosh in “Funny Girl” with Barbra Streisand. Others musicals and plays included “Bells Are Ringing,” “Rhinoceros” and Damn Yankees,” in which her performance — and the nasal tone she used in “All in the Family” — attracted Lear’s attention and led to his auditioning her for the role of Archie’s wife.

“I wasn’t a leading lady type,” she once told The Associated Press. “I knew where I belonged. And actually, I found character work much more interesting than leading ladies.” Edith, of the dithery manner, cheerfully high-pitched voice and family loyalty, charmed viewers but was viewed by Stapleton as “submissive” and, she hoped, removed from reality. In a 1972 New York Times interview, she said she didn’t think Edith was a typical American housewife — “at least I hope she’s not.”

“What Edith represents is the housewife who is still in bondage to the male figure, very submissive and restricted to the home. She is very naive, and she kind of thinks through a mist, and she lacks the education to expand her world. I would hope that most housewives are not like that,” said Stapleton, whose character regularly obeyed her husband’s demand to “stifle yourself.”

But Edith was honest and compassionate, and “in most situations she says the truth and pricks Archie’s inflated ego,” she added.

She confounded Archie with her malapropos — “You know what they say, misery is the best company” — and open-hearted acceptance of others, including her beleaguered son-in-law and African-Americans and other minorities that Archie disdained.

As the series progressed, Stapleton had the chance to offer a deeper take on Edith as the character faced milestones including a breast cancer scare and menopause. She was proud of the show’s political edge, citing an episode about a draft dodger who clashes with Archie as a personal favorite.

But Stapleton worried about typecasting, rejecting any roles, commercials or sketches on variety shows that called for a character similar to Edith. Despite pleas from Lear not to let Edith die, Stapleton left the show, re-titled “Archie’s Place,” in 1980, leaving Archie to carry on as a widower.

“My decision is to go out into the world and do something else. I’m not constituted as an actress to remain in the same role…. My identity as an actress is in jeopardy if I invested my entire career in Edith Bunker,” she told the AP in 1979.

She had no trouble shaking off Edith — “when you finish a role, you’re done with it. There’s no deep, spooky connection with the parts you play,” she told the AP in 2002 — but after O’Connor’s 2001 death she got condolence letters from people who thought they were really married. When people spotted her in public and called her “Edith,” she would politely remind them that her name was Jean.

Stapleton proved her own toughness when her husband of 26 years, William Putch, suffered a fatal heart attack in 1983 at age 60 while the couple was touring with a play directed by Putch.

Stapleton went on stage in Syracuse, N.Y., that night and continued on with the tour. “That’s what he would have wanted,” she told People magazine in 1984. “I realized it was a refuge to have that play, rather than to sit and wallow. And it was his show.”

Stapleton was born in New York City to Joseph Murray and his wife, Marie Stapleton Murray, a singer. She attended Hunter College, leaving for a secretarial stint before embarking on acting studies with the American Theatre Wing and others.

Stapleton had a long working relationship with playwright Horton Foote, starting with one of his first full-length plays in 1944, “People in the Show,” and continuing with six other works through the 2000s.

“I was very impressed with her. She has a wonderful sense of character. Her sense of coming to life on stage — I never get tired of watching,” Foote told the AP in 2002. He died in 2009.

Her early TV career included guest appearances on series including “Lux Video Theatre,” “Dr. Kildare” and “The Defenders.”

She and Putch had two children, John and Pamela, who followed their parents into the entertainment industry.

Her post-”All in the Family” career included a one-woman stage show, “Eleanor,” in which she portrayed the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Stapleton spent summers working at the Totem Pole Playhouse near Harrisburg, Pa., operated by her husband, William. She made guest appearances on “Murphy Brown” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” and even provided the title character’s voice for a children’s video game, “Grandma Ollie’s Morphabet Soup.”

For years, she rarely watched “All In the Family,” but had softened by 2000, when she told the Archive of American Television that enough time had passed.

“I can watch totally objectively,” she said. “I love it. And I laugh. I think, `Oh,’ and I think, `Gee, that’s good.”‘

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In the wake of the scandal over the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status, the embattled agency has provided lawmakers with a video featuring about a dozen of its employees line dancing on a stage.

The video of the IRS workers practicing their dance moves, which lasts just under three minutes, comes weeks after it was revealed that agency workers produced two other videos parodying the “Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island” TV shows.

All three videos were provided to Congress Friday in response to a request issued by Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, after learning that the videos were recorded at IRS offices in New Carrollton, Md., outside Washington, D.C.

The latest recording cost about $ 1,600 and was produced to be shown at the end of a 2010 training and leadership conference held in Anaheim, Calif., said IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge. At a time when most government agencies are coping with across-the-board spending cuts by furloughing workers and finding other savings, that conference has become the target of a report a Treasury inspector general plans to release next week.

The report, called “Collected and Wasted: The IRS Spending Culture and Conference Abuses,” will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that panel said Friday.

“Whether it is the tens of thousands of hard-earned taxpayer dollars spent to produce frivolous entertainment for agency bureaucrats, or the IRS’s own admission that it targeted the American people based on their personal beliefs, the outrage toward the IRS is only growing stronger,” Boustany said in a statement.

“Clearly this is an agency where abuse and waste is the norm and not the exception. It is clear that this is a broken agency that is empowered by a broken tax code. We need to fix this and make not only the agency, but the tax code, more effective and efficient.”

In a written statement, the IRS said the video was “unacceptable and an inappropriate use of government funds.” It said the agency has new policies in place “to ensure that taxpayer funds are being used appropriately.”

In the video, various workers comment as colleagues practice their dancing in the background to music that sounds like “Cupid Shuffle,” a 2007 hit by the performer Cupid. In the version obtained by The Associated Press, IRS employees’ names have been erased.

At one point, one woman says, “And I thought doing the ‘Star Trek’ video was humiliating.”

That “Star Trek” video was produced for the same 2010 conference. The agency called the “Star Trek” video, which lasted six minutes and featured employees dressed as characters from the popular show, a mistake.

The “Star Trek” and “Gilligan’s Island” videos cost about $ 60,000 combined to make, the IRS said in March.

The “Gilligan’s Island” parody was used at the beginning of a 12-hour video the IRS used in 2011 to train its workers on various tax issues, Eldridge said. The entire video was used to train 1,900 workers who assist taxpayers over the phone and in offices around the country, she said.

In a separate statement, Danny Werfel, the IRS’ new acting commissioner, called the 2010 conference “an unfortunate vestige from a prior era.”

He added, “While there were legitimate reasons for holding the meeting, many of the expenses associated with it were inappropriate and should not have occurred.”

Werfel said the IRS has since instituted spending restrictions that include scaling back travel and training expenses by more than 80 percent since 2010.

“Taxpayers should take comfort that a conference like this would not take place today,” Werfel said.

In a statement, the Treasury Department — of which the IRS is part — said it puts “the highest priority on protecting taxpayer dollars.” It said it would work with Werfel as he reviews his agency’s operations and tries to “restore public confidence in the IRS.”

The 2010 conference was attended by 2,600 IRS workers from 350 offices around the country that handle tax returns for small businesses and self-employed individuals, Eldridge said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A huge asteroid is set to cruise by Earth Friday afternoon, making its closest approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will come within 3.6 million miles of Earth at 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 GMT) Friday — about 15 times the distance from our planet to the moon.

There’s no chance the 1.7-mile-wide 1998 QE2 will hit us, researchers say. That’s a good thing, because a strike by such a big space rock would cause catastrophic damage, potentially wiping out our species. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Images)]

In general, scientists think any asteroid bigger than 0.6 miles could end human civilization if it hit us. For comparison, the object that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago is thought to have been about 6 miles wide.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 won’t put on a show for skywatchers. At its closest pass, the space rock will still be 100 times fainter than the dimmest star visible to naked-eye observers under clear and dark skies, experts say.

But several different organizations, including the Slooh Space Telescope and the Virtual Telescope Project, will broadcast live views of the near-Earth asteroid’s close approach from professional-quality observatories around the world. You can watch it live right here at FoxNews.com, starting at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT).

“It will be fun to actually watch it change position,” Astronomy magazine columnist Bob Berman, who will participate in Slooh’s show, said in a statement. “As Slooh’s Space Cameras image it directly [Friday] afternoon, we will all be reminded that asteroids of this size have changed the biosphere of our planet in the past, and even set the stage for the present dominion of humans.”

Scientists are already watching 1998 QE2 closely, in an attempt to learn more about the asteroid’s characteristics and orbit. A team of radio astronomers using NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., for example, just learned that the asteroid is actually a binary system, with a 2,000-foot-wide moon circling the larger space rock.

Researchers plan to use the Goldstone facility as well as the huge Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to watch 1998 QE2 through June 9, NASA officials said.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 was first spotted in August 1998 by astronomers working with MIT’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research program in New Mexico. The space rock’s name is not an homage to England’s Queen Elizabeth II, or to the famous ocean liner. Rather, it’s just the moniker assigned under the established alphanumeric scheme that lays out when asteroids are discovered.

The approaching 1998 QE2 is part of a near-Earth population that likely numbers in the millions. To date, just 10,000 of these relatively close-flying space rocks have been discovered.

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The former head of the IRS visited the White House more times than any Cabinet member, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller, raising questions about the nature of those visits — particularly around the time the agency was targeting conservative groups. 

The Caller analysis of White House visitor logs showed former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times under the Obama administration. 

Even Attorney General Eric Holder, one of Obama’s closest allies, visited only 62 times according to the records. 

The records may not reflect every single visit, as some officials do not have to sign in every time they come to the White House. 

But they could lend weight to concerns voiced by lawmakers at a hearing last week about the frequency of Shulman’s White House contact. During the time period when the IRS was singling out Tea Party and other groups for extra vetting — as they applied for tax-exempt status — Shulman visited the White House 118 times. 

Asked to explain the visits, Shulman gave lawmakers a list of possible reasons. 

“The Easter Egg roll with my kids … questions about the administratibility of tax policy … our budget, us helping the Department of Education streamline application processes for financial aid,” he said. 

According to the Caller analysis, no other top official logged more than 100 visits. 

The official with the next-highest number of visits — close to 90 — was Rebecca Blank, former deputy secretary and now acting secretary of the Commerce Department. Next in line was Thomas Perez, a top Justice Department official who has since been nominated to lead the Labor Department. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner each logged fewer than 50 visits. 

Former IRS officials have testified that the scrutiny of conservative groups, while inappropriate, was not politically motivated. 

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Is that a rat on Mars?

A photo from the mast camera on NASA’s Curiosity rover reveals the dusty orange, rock-strewn surface of the Red Planet — and what starry-eyed enthusiasts claim is a dusty orange rodent hiding among the stones.

The photo, taken Sept. 28, 2012, depicts the “Rocknest” site, where NASA’s rover took a scoopful of sand, tasted it, and determined it was full of weathered basaltic materials — not unlike Hawaii, the space agency’s scientists said last year.

No word on how the rodent tasted, however.

The “creature” was identified on the UFO Sightings Daily website, where its finder, ScottCWaring, held tight to his opinion: That’s one darn cute rodent on Mars.

“Note its lighter color upper and lower eyelids, its nose and cheek areas, its ear, its front leg and stomach. Looks similar to a squirrel camouflaged in the stones and sand by its colors,” he wrote. “Hey, who doesn’t love squirrels, right?”

Others pointed out that the similarity in coloring and position mean it was most likely just a rock, fingering the psychology phenomenon known as pareidolia, a propensity to pick out faces from everyday objects and structures.

To take advantage of this psychological phenomenon closer to home, designers at Berlin’s Onformative studio developed an algorithm that scans the surface of the earth with Google Maps, picking out geographical structures that are likely to be construed as having face-like features, science blog iO9 recently pointed out.

Their algorithm found faces in fields, mustaches in mountains, hills with actual eyes.

Perhaps the algorithm should be turned loose on Mars?

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Last week police in Altoona, Pa., got a 911 call from a man claiming he had proof of Bigfoot. Here’s a partial transcript of the police recording:

Person 1: “[an individual] called 911 advising that he contacted the Game Commission to call him back; wants a police officer to come to his residence. Apparently he has proof there of Bigfoot.”

Officer: “Bigfoot, right?”

Person 1: “That’s affirmative, he has evidence, uh … proving Bigfoot. He would like a police officer to come there.”

Officer: “Apparently there’s a large amount of smoke in that area…”

Smoke or no, a police officer was dispatched to the man’s residence. What he found there would become a matter of dispute and speculation over the next few days. Bigfoot enthusiasts heard about the incident and various rumors soon circulated, including that a hunter had shot and killed a Bigfoot, and that the presence of a dead unknown manlike creature in Somerset County had been “confirmed” — by who or what is not clear.

PHOTOS: 10 Reasons Why Bigfoot’s a Bust

Whatever was going on attracted the attention of somebody important, because a helicopter was reportedly seen hovering over the witness’s home. Was it the news media? Federal agents assigned to retrieve the Bigfoot and silence witnesses? A false-flag operation initiated by the Obama administration to take away the rights of law-abiding hunters and gun owners?

The Bear Facts

Sharon Hill of the Doubtful News blog followed the story, explaining to Discovery News, “It was typical of Bigfoot rumors — bits and pieces but no real sources. Speculation then went crazy within hours thanks to the Bigfoot online community. This is absolutely the worst way to get information.”

Hill credits Eric Altman, director of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, who helped get to the bottom of this bizarre story through follow-up and research.

“The current Bigfoot scene is awash with hype, rumors, backstabbing, hoaxing and rampant unprofessional behavior,” Hill said. “You have to look for the few who are interested in answering the question: What, if anything, happened here?”

NEWS: ‘Bigfoot DNA’ Study Seeks Yeti Rights

So what did happen? Police investigated and concluded that in the end, there was no hunter, no shooting, no Bigfoot (alive or dead), and no Bigfoot tracks — only tracks of a mother bear and her cub that a man was so sure was from a Bigfoot that he needed to call 911 to report it.

According to Cody Combs of wearecentralpa.com, a man named John Winesickle showed responding police officer “picture after picture of alleged footprints caused by what he said is Bigfoot. Winesickle took the investigating officer on a path in the woods he regularly walks and showed the officer the tracks, but according to the police report, the investigator concluded the tracks belonged to a bear.”

It’s not the first time that bear tracks (and even bear paws) have been mistaken for Bigfoot. As psychologists know, our experiences and perceptions are guided by our expectations, so if you’re looking for Bigfoot tracks you’ll probably find them, even if they’re not there.

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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –  A Democratic campaign office here usually would be quiet this time of year, a few weeks after the state’s legislature wrapped up work and lawmakers headed off to summer vacations.

But even though it’s not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning — the recall phase.

A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights. In an era in which recall efforts are booming, from governor’s offices down to town councils and school boards, the Colorado efforts will serve as the first test of gun-rights groups’ ability to punish elected officials who expanded gun control laws after last year’s Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., shooting massacres.

In Colorado, gun-rights activists wasted no time seeking recalls to oust state Senate President John Morse and three other Democratic lawmakers. The targeted lawmakers weren’t necessarily the main advocates for ratcheting back gun rights, but all come from districts with enough Republicans to give opponents hope they can boot out the Democrats and replace them with lawmakers friendlier to guns. Colorado is the only state outside the East Coast to have adopted significant statewide gun controls this year.

“Colorado seems to be the testing ground for some of the gun measures, so this has national implications,” said Victor Head, a plumber from Pueblo who is organizing a recall attempt against a Democratic senator.

Two of four recall efforts in Colorado already have evaporated from lack of support. But in Colorado Springs, Morse opponents are piling up signatures in gun shops and outside libraries and grocery stores. The National Rifle Association sent a political mailer saying it was coordinating the recall effort with local groups, though the local recall petitioners have denied that. The NRA did not return calls for comment on their involvement in the Colorado Springs effort.

Morse has mounted a campaign to urge voters not to sign petitions. In an indication of the national stakes, that push is largely funded by a $ 20,000 contribution from a national progressive group called America Votes. The Morse campaign said the donation came through the group’s local Colorado office.

The recall group’s main funding comes from a $ 14,000 contribution from a nonprofit run by a local conservative consultant, Laura Carno. She said that contribution was made possible by some out-of-state donors.

“People in other states that are further down this road, like New York and Massachusetts, are calling up and saying `What can we do to help?”‘ Carno said. “This isn’t what Colorado stands for.”

In an interview, Morse seemed resigned to facing a recall vote after signatures are verified. He believes national gun-rights supporters are using his district to make a national statement about the political peril officials face if they take on gun control.

“That’s what’s going on here. They want to take out the Senate president,” Morse said.

The organizer of the Morse recall effort, Anthony Garcia, didn’t disagree. Garcia doesn’t live in Morse’s district but in the northern Colorado town of Brighton. Garcia said Morse was targeted not just because of his votes for gun control but because he’s a prominent Democrat from a competitive district.

“It’s as much about saying Colorado is angry as it is about getting one guy out,” Garcia said. “Legislators need to know when citizens are outraged that they can’t ignore the people.”

Immediate accountability seems to be a common thread in recall attempts, said Joshua Spivak, who tracks recall elections nationwide at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York. Technology makes it easier to organize, Spivak said, and modern-day voters watching political activity in real time on Twitter and TV aren’t content to wait until another election to show their displeasure when they feel ignored.

Spivak said at least 169 officials at all levels of government faced recalls last year, up from 151 the year before. The number this year could go even higher, he said.

Technology isn’t the only explanation.

“The other reason,” Spivak said, “is that they succeed.”

Most recalls actually fail, as in the case last year of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who survived a recall election after attacking collective bargaining rights for state employees. But compared with re-election campaigns, when incumbents face up to 75 percent likelihood of winning, Spivak said recall elections have a much lower rate of success for incumbents.

In Colorado last year, seven recall efforts made it to ballots, all local races, Spivak said. Of those seven, two officials were ousted and two more resigned.

Nationwide, 108 recalled officials last year lost or left office after a recall. That makes the recall a powerful tool — and one likely to be used more often, Spivak said.

Back in Colorado Springs, a couple of Morse opponents defended the recall attempt as the best way for citizens to keep their representatives accountable.

“I believe in gun rights. And he didn’t listen. He’s supposed to represent the people, and when he doesn’t do that, what are supposed to do? Nothing?” asked Bianca McCarl, a 40-year-old merchandiser who is supporting Morse’s recall.

Assuming the Morse recall goes to ballots, with an election to be held by late summer, the incumbent holds a slight party registration advantage in the district. He believes most voters liked his gun votes.

He’s counting on the support from voters like Joan Muir, a retiree who placed a pro-Morse sticker on her car bumper after seeing other cars carrying messages calling for his ouster. In an interview, Muir said she was dismayed by the recall campaign.

“I live here. I’m for gun control,” Muri said. “I don’t care for guns, period, so they don’t speak for all of us when they say Morse didn’t listen to the people.”

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