This generational shift draws modest public debate. But it alarms some policy advocates, who say the United States is reducing vital investments in the future.

Because Democrats and Republicans can't reach a grand bargain on deficit spending with mutually accepted spending cuts and revenue hikes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid keep growing, largely untouched. Steady expansions of these nondiscretionary "entitlement" programs require no congressional action, so they flourish in times of gridlock.

Meanwhile, many discretionary programs are suffering under Washington's decision-by-indecision habits, in which lawmakers lock themselves into questionable actions because they can't agree on alternatives.

The latest example is $80 billion in automatic budget cuts, which largely spare Medicare and Social Security. Growth in these costly but popular programs is virtually impossible to curb without bipartisan agreements.

Instead, the spending cuts are hitting the military and many domestic programs that benefit younger Americans. They include early education initiatives such as Head Start, and scientific and medical research.

This shift in public resources is dramatic and growing. While 14 cents of every federal dollar not going to interest was spent on entitlement programs in 1962, the amount is 47 cents today, and it will reach 61 cents by 2030, according to an analysis of government data by Third Way, a centrist-Democratic think tank.

"Entitlements are squeezing out public investments" in education, infrastructure, research and other fields that have nurtured future prosperity, the study said. "The only way for Democrats to save progressive priorities like NASA, highway funding and clean energy research is to reform entitlements."

But Democrats won't consider entitlement cuts until Republicans agree to increase taxes for the rich. And Republicans, who control the House, refuse to do that.

The Third Way study was written 10 months ago. Since then, partisan clashes that produced the "fiscal cliff" and the automatic cuts have made matters even worse, said the group's vice president, Jim Kessler.

"The foot is on the accelerator with entitlement programs, and it's on the brakes on investments," Kessler said. "And this country needs more investments."

Society must care for the elderly and needy, Kessler said, "but we can't do that at the expense of young people and new ideas."

With baby boomers retiring in huge numbers, total benefits for seniors are bound to grow. "But over the course of decades, Medicare and Social Security spending generally grow faster than inflation, per beneficiary," Kessler said. That squeezes nearly everything else.

According to White House budget records, discretionary spending comprised two-thirds of total federal outlays in 1968 and mandatory spending made up 27.5 percent. The estimate for 2018 has those shares nearly reversed: discretionary programs will consume 27.5 percent of total federal spending, mandatory programs will consume 62 percent and interest on the debt will take about 10 percent.

"Costs linked to the retirement of the baby boom generation," the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said in a recent report, "are a major cause of rising mandatory spending." The current trajectory of federal health care spending, the report said, "appears unsustainable and could place heavy fiscal burdens on younger generations and generations not yet born."

Congress set the sequester cuts into motion as a self-imposed prod in 2011, when the parties deadlocked on how to address deficit spending. The across-the-board cuts were supposed to be so distasteful that both parties would reach a budgetary compromise to avoid them.

It didn't happen, and the cuts began taking effect last March.

They include a $1.6 billion reduction in the $30 billion budget for the National Institutes of Health, the world's largest supporter of biomedical research. NIH Director Francis Collins said the cuts will delay the start of hundreds of medical research projects.

Those paying the price, Collins said, are "ultimately patients and families who are counting on us to find those next promising cures and treatments."

Robert Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health said medical research is popular. He said Congress eventually may find targeted ways to fund it while continuing to cut funds for other important types of research.

The bigger problem, Blendon said, is the gridlock caused by congressional Republicans' refusal to raise taxes and Democrats' refusal to consider entitlement changes without new revenues.

"This is not going to be solved before the 2014 elections," Blendon said, when all 435 House seats and a third of the Senate seats will be on the ballot.

___

Follow Charles Babington on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbabington

The report said Iowa State's two-year investigation started with the discovery of improper contacts with recruits by Keith Moore, a former Cyclones player who was working in his first year as an undergraduate student coach under Fred Hoiberg.

The report said Hoiberg ran into Moore in 2011 at one of Hoiberg's son's AAU games. Hoiberg asked why he was present at the game and whether he'd been contacting recruits. Moore acknowledged that he had been in contact with high school players that he had coached previously in AAU, the report said.

Hoiberg reported the incident to the athletics department, which removed Moore of his duties with the team and started an investigation. The basketball team also stopped recruiting two players from Moore's former AAU team, the All Iowa Attack.

Moore played at Iowa State from 1978-81. He was offered a chance to return to school as part of the athletic department's continuing education program in 2010 and assigned to work with the men's basketball team in return for Iowa State paying for his tuition, fees and books.

Moore did not respond to NCAA investigators' request for a statement on the case, and he did not immediately return an e-mail message seeking comment. A phone listing for Moore could not be found.

The report has been turned over to the NCAA's Committee on Infractions, though there's no specific timetable on when it might rule on the case.

The report says an audit of three years of telephone and text messaging by coaching staff found "a significant number of recruiting communication violations involving most of its sports programs." Moore sent 160 impermissible text messages to his former AAU players, including two that were being recruited by Iowa State at the time, the report found.

Coaches made 24 "clear-cut intentional" telephone call violations, and other employees made 55 impermissible calls, the report found. Employees failed to log another 1,400 calls that failed to connect with recruits for reasons such as no answer or dropped calls, the report said. In all, the university faulted itself for failing to monitor the calls.

The university said the improper calls were a tiny fraction of the 750,000 that were reviewed over the three-year period involving all 18 sports programs.

But six current and former coaches in men's basketball and football were named in the report for acknowledging personal involvement and could face further discipline.

The university said it agreed with NCAA's enforcement staff that the findings "constitute a major infractions case," given the number and frequency of telephone call violations and the volume of messages sent by Moore.

The university has asked the NCAA to accept its findings and issue a punishment of two years of probation, retroactive to November of 2011.

But six current and former coaches in men's basketball and football were named in the report for acknowledging personal involvement and could face further discipline.

"We've been committed to being as transparent as possible throughout this entire process, which has been challenging given it has been an ongoing investigation and we did not receive the final report until this week," Jamie Pollard, the Iowa State athletic director, said in a statement.

Iowa State spokesman Steve Malchow told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Pollard was out of his office and unavailable for further comment, adding that the NCAA discourages school officials to publicly comment on ongoing cases.

The school said that it has already self-imposed numerous penalties. Each of its teams forfeited a week of recruiting calls, and the school will spend $82,000 over the next three years in compliance and recruiting software to simplify the recording and monitoring of calls and text messages.

The Cyclones also said they've already taken a wide range of punitive actions against each of the coaches named in the report.

The university hired The Compliance Group, based in Lanexa, Kan., to assist in the investigation. Records released to The Associated Press on Wednesday show the firm billed the school more than $30,000 for its services.

This is the second major infractions case Iowa State has been involved with.

In 1986, the Cyclones were put on two years of probation because of violations within the football program.

Called the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), the program encompasses a series of monitoring stations that will measure the health of ecosystems by taking snapshots from strategically chosen locations across the country analogous to the way an EKG monitors the health of the heart, said Lily Whiteman, a spokeswoman for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which funds NEON.

Scientists say the monitoring effort is essential because so many factors are influencing Earth's ecosystems. To truly understand the impact of these factors, researchers need a way to watch these effects over time. Understanding the impacts will help inform policies dealing with issues ranging from global warming to urban planning.

"Earth's living systems are experiencing the greatest rates of change in history, due to land-use changes,and climate change," said Elizabeth Blood, the NSF program director for NEON, during a teleconference on April 19. "Many of these changes will be abrupt and unpredictable."

NEON will help understand these changes, and avoid negative effects on species as much as possible, she said. "Our understanding of life's living systems doesn't match that of the [Earth and its geology] or the atmosphere."

NEON is beginning to come online and will begin providing data later this year, Blood said. The network will be fully operational by 2017 and is expected to continue its research for 30 years, giving scientists a vital long-term data set to understand how humans are impacting the environment, Blood said.

The program will record data from 106 different spots throughout the country 60 on land and 46 at sea, Blood said. Each site will be outfitted with various sensors to record data, as well as stations where scientists can identify and quantify species, and conduct other types of research.

The project also includes an aircraft with a variety of instruments to measure what types of plants are present and what land-use changes (like development or agricultural activities) have occurred since the last time the area was examined.

The aircraft, which will travel among the various sites in the network, has already begun to examine the effects of the , a huge blaze that occurred last summer near Fort Collins, Colo. Its baseline readings will help understand how much erosion the fire created, and how quickly forests can come back from such events, Tom Kampe, a researcher with NEON, said during the teleconference.

Researchers say it is important to fund this project because ecology underlies many aspects of the economy: The food we eat, for example, depends on good growing conditions just one small way humans are affected by the environment.

"A number of the questions [NEON seeks to answer] are significant as significant as many of the economic issues we face," Blood said. "It's designed to study majorand fires, in which we need basic science information to better understand how to manage them, both before and after."

Email or follow him . Follow us, or . Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican signed an agreement with the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday to exchange financial information as part of its efforts to comply with international anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms.

It's the fourth such agreement inked by the Holy See as it seeks to improve its reputation in global financial circles following a series of scandals at its bank and a money laundering investigation launched in 2010 by Rome prosecutors.

The agreement was signed Tuesday in Washington by Rene Bruelhart, director of the Vatican's financial watchdog agency, and Jennifer Shasky Calvery, head of the Treasury Department's financial crimes enforcement network, the Vatican said in a statement.

Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 created Bruelhart's agency, the Financial Intelligence Authority, and issued new laws to fight money laundering and terrorist financing in a bid to shed the Vatican bank's image as a tax haven that for decades had been mired in secrecy and scandal.

The Holy See also submitted itself to the Council of Europe's Moneyval evaluation process, which assesses countries' compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing norms established by the Financial Action Task Force, the Paris-based policymaking body.

The Vatican in July passed Moneyval's first evaluation, but received poor or failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank.

In its report, Moneyval noted that the Vatican was limited in its ability to share financial information with other countries by requiring bilateral agreements to be in place beforehand such as the one signed Tuesday.

The Holy See insists on the requirement largely because it fears Italy would make unreasonable demands for financial information from the Vatican bank, where Vatican officials, dioceses and members of religious congregations hold accounts. The Bank of Italy suspects Italians are hiding taxable income in the bank.

The Holy See wanted to make sure that if it gave such information to Italy, a reciprocity agreement would require Italy to share similar information with the Holy See.

So far, the Vatican has entered into information-sharing agreements with Belgium, Spain, Slovenia and now the U.S. In a statement Tuesday, the Vatican said 20 more such agreements are in the pipeline.

In a statement, Bruelhart said the agreement was proof that the Vatican takes its responsibilities to fight money laundering seriously. "The Vatican has shown that it is a credible partner internationally and has made a clear commitment in the exchange of information in this fight," he said.

The Vatican in July must submit a progress report on its compliance with the Financial Action Task Force norms.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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In 1993, the bank began a strategy of concentrating on packaging subprime mortgages into securities. At first, the bank flourished. But regulators later discovered accounting irregularities that overstated the value of its assets. The bank was forced to write down huge losses, leaving it without adequate capital in the spring of 2001.

In May 2001, Pritzker assured employees her family's wealth would be used to saved the bank, but just two months later, the bank was closed.

Coldhearted plutocrat moment

Labor unions have been critical of the Hyatt's treatment of housekeepers for years. In 2010 and 2011,reports, "complaints about alleged Hyatt worker-safety violations poured into the offices" of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA investigated for 18 months, did not find ergonomic risk violations, but some minor violations. In 2011, Hyatt fired 100 housepeekers who worked at Boston hotels, and hired contractors to work in their place for a lower wage. Unions flew a worker who'd lost her job to .

In the 1990s, Bain Capital bought the . Workers were told to build a 30-foot stage. A few days later, Bain executives got on the stage, and told them they were all fired. This incident was one the Priorities USA super PACin a campaign ad.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of police to use a trained dog to sniff around the outside of a home for illegal drugs that might be inside.

By a 5-4 vote, the court said the use by law enforcement authorities of trained police dogs to investigate a home and its immediate surroundings was a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and required a warrant.

"A police officer not armed with a warrant may approach a home and knock, precisely because that is no more than any private citizen might do," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

"But introducing a trained police dog to explore the area around the home in hopes of discovering incriminating evidence is something else," he added. "There is no customary invitation to do that."

For purposes of the Fourth Amendment, Scalia said, "the home is first among equals."

The decision upheld a 2011 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court suppressing evidence uncovered at Joelis Jardines' home with the help of Franky, a chocolate Labrador retriever with a strong record of sniffing out drug stashes.

Howard Blumberg, a public defender who argued Jardines' appeal, said he was pleased with the decision.

"It's a very important decision for all citizens, because it helps ensure their right of privacy in the places where they live," he said in a phone interview.

TWO DOG SNIFF CASES

Franky's handler, Detective Douglas Bartelt, had let the dog smell near the base of the front door of the home near Miami after receiving an anonymous tip about marijuana growing inside.

Only after the dog sat down, signaling an "alert" that something was amiss, did the police obtain a warrant to search inside.

The tip proved accurate and more than 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) of marijuana were found inside, leading to Jardines' arrest.

Blumberg said Jardines is now in a Florida state prison on unrelated charges, but that Tuesday's decision ends the case stemming from the dog's search.

The decision is the court's second this term addressing whether law enforcement complied with the Fourth Amendment in obtaining drug evidence based on a sniffer dog's "alert."

On February 19, in another Florida case, the court unanimously allowed a search of Clayton Harris' pickup truck, saying the handler of a dog that signaled the presence of drug ingredients inside could reasonably believe that the dog was reliable.

A spokeswoman for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said her office is disappointed with the Jardines decision, but that the Harris decision allows police in other cases to rely on dogs to alert them to the presence of illegal drugs and to arrest people who possess them.

IDEOLOGICAL DIVIDE BREACHED

Tuesday's vote did not follow the Supreme Court's usual ideological divide.

Joining Scalia's opinion were Justice Clarence Thomas, who is one of the more conservative justices, and the more liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

In a concurring opinion, Kagan, joined by Ginsburg and Sotomayor, wrote that the search violated Jardines' reasonable expectation of privacy, an issue Scalia did not reach.

The search dog Franky "was not your neighbor's pet," Kagan wrote.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Justice Stephen Breyer.

The latter is part of the court's more liberal wing, but sometimes votes more conservatively in criminal cases.

Alito noted that law-enforcement authorities have employed dogs' acute sense of smell for centuries and the use of Franky was not a trespass and did not violate Jardines' privacy rights.

"A reasonable person understands that odors emanating from a house may be detected from locations that are open to the public," Alito wrote. "A reasonable person will not count on the strength of those odors remaining within the range that, while detectible by a dog, cannot be smelled by a human."

Scalia said using the dog was no different from using thermal imaging technology from afar to peer inside homes without a warrant, which the court voided in a 2001 decision he also wrote.

"The antiquity of the tools that they bring along is irrelevant," Scalia wrote, referring to police.

Scalia also wrote a 2012 decision that limited the police's use of GPS vehicle-tracking devices.

The case is Florida v. Jardines, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-564.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Christopher Wilson)

I work in the field of social services. Every day I am confronted with families who struggle with more children than they can care for and with behavioral and emotional problems. Frankly, it has turned me off. I am terrified of all the "what ifs."

I can't talk to my family because I don't want to tell them they have created part of my problem. My in-laws can't understand why we don't have children yet.

My husband keeps insisting "everything will be fine." I love him deeply and he would make an amazing father. My heart wants this, but my head isn't sure. I can't picture our future without children, but the fear of actually having them brings me to tears. Can you help me? -- SCARED TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP

DEAR SCARED: Children don't come with 100 percent, money-back guarantees. What they need in order to thrive is parents who love each other and them, and who are willing to put forth the time and energy to raise them. I don't know what went wrong in your siblings' marriages, but it appears their kids have been used as pawns rather than having their own interests put first. If both parents cooperated in the interests of the children there would be no battles.

Please do not allow the dysfunction you have seen in your work to influence your decision. You and your husband will not be having more children than you can afford, and I assume you are approaching the idea of parenthood in a mature fashion. I would caution you about one thing, however. Having a child because of pressure from your in-laws would be a poor reason to embark upon parenthood.

DEAR ABBY: I'm at a crossroads. I have been married for 15 years and have two children. I love my wife and have been content with this life for a long time. However, for years I have felt like something was missing.

I recently become close friends with a man who is in the same situation. One day he confided that he is gay and has known it for more than 10 years. He told me he, too, had been content with his life but had grown increasingly depressed before we met.

As our friendship has developed I have come to realize that I'm gay as well. It was a struggle to finally admit this to myself, but I accept that it's the truth. My friend and I have been exploring our sexuality together, and he says he is happier than he has been in years.

Both of us love our wives and children; however, we desperately need to fulfill our own needs as well. Do you have any advice on the best way to move forward that will have minimal impact on everyone involved? -- IN A DIFFICULT SITUATION

DEAR IN: You say you have known for years that something was missing. Well, it is possible that your wives have felt the same way, and may have blamed themselves for it. That's why it is important for you and your friend to explain everything to them honestly.

It would be helpful for everyone who will be affected to seek counseling and receive the emotional support they will need through this life-changing transition. You and your lover should go online and find the nearest gay and lesbian community center. (Visit www.lgbtcenters.org for a complete list.) Your wives should contact the Straight Spouse Network, which has been mentioned in my column many times. It can be reached at www.straightspouse.org.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Good advice for everyone -- teens to seniors -- is in "The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It." To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) -- Striking teachers in Mexico's Guerrero state attacked the offices of four political parties and a building of the state's education department Wednesday after the legislature approved an education reform without meeting their demands.

Dozens of teachers carrying sticks and stones smashed windows, spray-painted insults at President Enrique Pena Nieto on walls and destroyed computers and furniture. They set fire to the state headquarters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and another building.

No injuries were reported as the teachers, some masked, ran wild after a protest march in the state capital of Chilpancingo.

Minervino Moran, a spokesman for the strikers, said the attacks were in response to the approval by Guerrero's legislators of legislation similar to a recently adopted federal education law that requires teachers to be evaluated and that seeks to remove control over hiring and firing from the teachers' union.

"We as leaders and as a movement endorse these actions because there is a lot of anger, a lot of outrage with the decision the (state) congress made," said Moran, a spokesman for Guerrero state's Education Workers Union.

The 20,000-member group went on strike in Guerrero state, where the resort city of Acapulco is located, shortly after Pena Nieto signed into law the sweeping education reform two months ago. Its members have since staged increasingly disruptive protests, including blocking the main highway connecting Mexico City to Acapulco.

Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre said in a tweet that prosecutors had issued arrest warrants for Moran and another union leader because they were the "masterminds of the acts of vandalism that took place today."

Television footage showed teachers trashing each of the buildings without the intervention of authorities.

Aguirre told Radio Formula that police didn't try to stop the attacks because officers were busy guarding the government palace and legislature building.

The national education law was seen as Pena Nieto's first major legislative victory after taking office Dec. 1. The constitutional amendment eliminates Mexico's decades-old practice of allowing the buying and selling of teaching jobs, and replaces it with a standardized national teaching test.

That's heresy to a radical splinter union of elementary and high school teachers in Guerrero, one of the country's poorest and worst-educated states. The teachers claim the test is a plot to fire them all as a step toward privatizing education, although there is little evidence the government plans that.

Nils recently commented to me that he would like it if his father could come and see him practice. I took it upon myself, as I usually do, to call my ex, "John," and suggest he make an appearance because it would make our son happy.

My husband, who has been a wonderful stepdad to Nils for 13 years now, told me I should leave it alone. He said if John was a "real" father, he would just show up without being asked.

When things like this happen, should I leave it alone, or should I ask John to be involved more than he tries to be? I tell my ex about all of our son's activities and sometimes he just doesn't show. -- TRYING TO BE A GOOD MOM

DEAR TRYING: Not knowing your former husband, I can't guess his reason for not coming to your son's practices, particularly if he said he was going to attend. John may be irresponsible, or he may have unforeseen scheduling conflicts. By telling him about your son's activities and letting him know his presence is wanted, you have done your job as a conscientious mother. At 14, Nils is old enough to also call his father and invite him. The rest is up to your ex.

DEAR ABBY: In reference to the letter from the man who was constantly setting off "gaydar" alarms in females (March 10), I would like to share my experience.

I dated and then married a man who incorrectly set off my "gaydar." It had nothing to do with his mannerisms, his speech or appearance. It was his extreme personal insecurity regarding dating and making friends. In addition, "Mr. Not-Gay" could neither read nor write, which caused even more emotional insecurity.

After we had been married 10 years he became physically disabled and we had to move. No one in our new city took him for gay, even without me and without a wedding ring on him. He divorced me at 62 because the 30-something home-care aides looked better, but that's another story. -- MARCIA IN PENNSYLVANIA

DEAR MARCIA: I hope you will write again and tell us the rest of the story, as I'm sure I'm not the only person who would be interested in reading it. I agree that individuals who are uncomfortable with themselves sometimes emit vibes that make others uncomfortable because I have experienced it. But this subject does highlight the absurdity of gay stereotypes. Because a man is slight, soft-spoken and a meticulous dresser does not mean he is gay, any more than it means a man who is fat, sloppy and loud is straight.

DEAR ABBY: I have been seeing "Duane" for two months. He's kind, good-looking, successful, smart and fun. He's also apparently quite proud of his astonishingly hairy chest because he always wears his shirts unbuttoned nearly to his navel. When we're in public, you can see people react. Sometimes they point and whisper.

I gently raised the issue, but he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. I like him, but I'm embarrassed sometimes. Any thoughts? -- BLUSHING IN SAN FRANCISCO

DEAR BLUSHING: Yes. Your friend is suffering from overexposure. When strangers point and whisper, what they're saying is usually no compliment. Because Duane's decolletage embarrasses you, give him a choice: Button up or mow the "lawn."

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

Two strokes off the pace going into a weather-disrupted final round, Horschel took advantage of rain-softened conditions and preferred lies at the TPC Louisiana as he sealed his long-awaited breakthrough victory with an eight-under-par 64.

The slim 26-year-old, who had recorded top-10s in his three previous starts on the U.S. circuit, stunningly drained a 26-foot birdie putt at the par-five last to post a 20-under total of 268.

Horschel repeatedly pumped his right fist in delight after his ball disappeared into the cup for his ninth birdie of the day, then removed his cap to acknowledge loud cheers from the gallery packed around the 18th green.

"Oh man, it's something I have worked so hard for and there are so many people I need to thank. And they all know who they are," an emotional Horschel told Golf Channel after coping with two weather delays during the final round.

"And for that putt to go in ... I hadn't made a long one all week and I said, 'I am due for a long one, I am due for a long one. Just commit to it.'

"It came off the putter so good and I am so happy it went in. This is unbelievable right now."

Fellow American D.A. Points, playing with Horschel, had been tied for the lead with three holes remaining but settled for second place after closing with a seven-birdie 65.

Overnight leader and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, bidding for his fourth PGA Tour victory, fell back with an early bogey on the way to a 71 and a tie for fourth at 15 under.

Glover began the day two strokes in front and he parred the first five holes before play was suspended for about three hours as the first wave of thunderstorms rolled into the area.

At that point, his lead had shrunk to just.

THREE-WAY TIE

Soon after play resumed, Points and Horschel briefly moved into a three-way tie at the top as they each birdied the par-five seventh before Jimmy Walker sank a 26-foot eagle putt at the same hole to edge a stroke in front.

Glover slid back with a bogey at the seventh after overshooting the green and hitting a poor chip coming back.

Former Walker Cup amateur Horschel also birdied the eighth and ninth to move one ahead at 16 under before being joined by Walker, who rolled in a 10-footer to birdie the par-four eighth.

While Walker stumbled with a double-bogey at the par-three ninth, where his bump-and-run from below the green failed to crest the slope and rolled back to his feet, red-hot Horschel kept charging forward.

He sank a 14-footer to birdie the 10th and a six-footer at the par-five 11th to get to 18 under, two ahead of Points.

Both players picked up a shot at the par-four 12th, Horschel sinking a 15-footer there to tie the PGA Tour record this season of six consecutive birdies.

Horschel, speeding up in his play, bogeyed the 15th after finding the right rough off the tee and missing the green with his approach.

That dropped him into a tie with Points, who had recorded his sixth birdie of the day at the 13th.

Horschel rebounded with a birdie at the par-four 16th after hitting an exquisite approach to four feet to regain a one-stroke cushion.

Play was again suspended, for just under an hour, due to the threat of lightning shortly after Horschel drove into the left rough off the 18th tee.

On resumption, he wisely laid up in two, then struck a wedge approach to 26 feet short of the hole before sinking the birdie putt to clinch an emotional victory.

British world number four Justin Rose, the highest-ranked player in the field, closed with a 69 to tie for 15th at 12 under, level with 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson (66) and four-times major winner Ernie Els (68).

China's 14-year-old Guan Tianlang, after making his second consecutive cut on the PGA Tour, signed off with a two-over 74 to finish at four-over 292, stone last in the 71-strong field.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Gene Cherry)