• Tornadoes rip through Kansas, Oklahoma

    Travis Heying / MCT via Zuma Press

    A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita near the town of Viola, Kan., on Sunday. The tornado was part of a line of storms that passed through the Central Plains states.

    By Jeff Black and Hasani Gittens, NBC News

    People in two states were taking shelter amid wailing warning sirens Sunday as tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma as part of an extreme weather system plowing through the nation's midsection.

    The system, which stretched from North Texas to Minnesota, also heaved hail -- dime to softball sized -- as well as heavy rainfall. 

    Residents in downtown Wichita, Kan., were told to seek shelter Sunday afternoon after a tornado was confirmed on the ground – with its presence cloaked by think clouds and heavy rain.

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  • Graduation day: Columbia janitor gets degree after 12 years, question popped at UNC, docs party at KU

    Charlie Riedel / AP

    Graduates in the School of Medicine celebrate during the 140th annual commencement ceremony at the University of Kansas, May 13, in Lawrence, Kan.

    Jason DeCrow / AP

    Columbia University janitor Gac Filipaj, center, looks on during the Columbia University School of General Studies graduation ceremony, May 13, in New York.

    For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia University.

    A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he eked out a living working for the Ivy League school. But Sunday was payback time: The 52-year-old janitor donned a cap and gown to graduate with a bachelor's degree in classics

    For Filipaj, the degree comes after years of studying late into the night in his Bronx apartment, where he'd open his books after a 2:30-11 p.m. shift as a "heavy cleaner" - his job title. Before exam time or to finish a paper, he'd pull all-nighters, then go to class in the morning and then to work.

    On Sunday morning in the sun-drenched grassy quad of Columbia's Manhattan campus, Filipaj flashed a huge smile and a thumbs-up as he walked off the podium after a handshake from Columbia President Lee Bollinger.

    -- Reported by the Associated Press

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    Gac Filipaj, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, completed his Classics degree with honors after balancing classes with a fulltime custodial job for the past 12 years. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.

    Takaaki Iwabu / The News & Observer via AP

    Maura Mayorga, standing right, and Michael Wengenroth embrace after getting engaged during the University of North Carolina's 2012 commencement in Chapel Hill, N.C., May 12. About 5,700 students graduated.