A Commons committee report blaming Britain’s membership of the European Union for the government’s failure to deport 13,000 foreign offenders was only passed on the casting vote of its chairman, Keith Vaz.

The claim that the government’s record on deporting foreign national criminals would lead the public “to question the point of Britain remaining a member of the EU” split the Commons home affairs committee down the middle, with a 4-4 deadlock broken by Vaz’s casting vote.

The committee’s endorsement of an anti-EU position on such an emotive issue was seized on by the justice minister and leave campaigner Dominic Raab, who claimed that even a leading Labour remain campaigner, Chuka Umunna, who sits on the committee, was now questioning staying in the EU. Umunna was not present when the vote was taken on the key passage in the report.

The home secretary, Theresa May, defended the government’s record and denied that Britain’s EU membership was a hindrance. “Foreign nationals who commit crimes here should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them,” she said. “Last year we removed a record number of foreign national offenders from this country, including a record number of EU criminals.

“Being in the EU gives us access to criminal records sharing and prisoner transfer agreements which help us better identify people with criminal records and, allow us to send foreign criminals back to their home countries to serve their sentences.”

The home affairs committee’s quarterly report on the immigration system also says it must “seriously question” an “extraordinary” decision by the Home Office to attempt to deport thousands of overseas students on the basis of “questionable or insufficient” evidence that they had cheated in English language tests.

Vaz said the Home Office’s “arrests, dawn raids and aggressive deportations” of students from outside the EU stood in stark contrast to the failure to remove foreign offenders.

“There are still over 13,000 foreign national offenders in the country, who could fill towns the size of Louth in Lincolnshire, Beccles in Suffolk or Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, and almost 6,000 of these are living within communities,” he said.

“The public would expect our membership of the European Union to make it easier to deport European offenders, but this is clearly not the case, and we continue to keep thousands of these criminals at great and unnecessary expense. These failures are undermining confidence in the UK’s immigration system and in the UK’s EU membership.”

Umunna accused leave campaigners of trying to hijack the committee’s report for their own political gain. “Our partnership with countries across Europe makes it easier for us to deport hundreds of foreign criminals each year. There are clearly some inefficiencies, but there is no doubt our membership of the EU is a help not a hindrance in clearing the backlog of foreign national offenders,” he told the Guardian.

“Any attempt to portray the findings of this report as a reason to leave the EU would be wrong, deeply misleading and another example of how desperate the leave campaigns have become. As leading law enforcement heads have said time and time again, Britain is stronger, safer and better off as part of Europe.”

Raab said the report showed that the EU was making it more difficult to remove dangerous criminals. He claimed that “even the in campaign’s political champion” Umunna was now questioning the point of remaining in the EU as a result of the report.

Related: Referendum voting papers sent to some EU nationals by mistake

The report highlights the fact that the two largest groups of foreign offenders in prison in England and Wales are the 983 from Poland and 764 from Ireland. About 4,000 of the 13,000 foreign national offenders are from EU countries.

The Ministry of Justice said both groups had special status and could not be sent home. No Irish prisoners, save for exceptional cases, have been sent back since a 2007 bilateral agreement that has nothing to do with the EU. There is also a block on sending prisoners back to Poland until the end of 2016 as it has an exemption under the EU prison transfer agreement because of lack of capacity in its jails.

The committee’s report says the 13,000 foreign national offenders who have not been sent home include 5,789 living in the community, more than half of them for two years or more. The number of those living in the community is the highest since 2012.

The MPs report that deportations have been steadily increasing and the 5,602 foreign offenders removed in 2015 was the highest number since 2009.

Summary: Report saying presence of 13,000 foreign offenders in UK would lead to questioning of EU membership passed by casting vote


Nobody ever accused Dal LaMagna of thinking small. As a child he wanted to be both Pope — and a millionaire. After numerous failed ventures, LaMagna (rhymes with “lasagna”) got a splinter of an idea that he built into Tweezerman, a maker of beauty tools with $50 million in annual revenues. (It’s now owned by Zwilling J.A. Henckels.) LaMagna, 67, remains engaged in policy (he ran unsuccessfully for Congress) and commerce: He’s now the CEO of IceStone, which makes countertops out of recycled glass and cement. His story:

I grew up in Queens, N.Y., in a family of five kids and went to Catholic schools. My father was a fireman and longshoreman, working two or three jobs to support us. Every year the elementary school would raffle off a donated Cadillac to raise funds. The prize for most chances sold was a Schwinn Racer. My parents couldn’t afford to buy me a bicycle, so in third grade, I sold 48 books [of raffle tickets] to get the bike, and won it. That was the start of my career.

I didn’t ever want to be a guy who’d go to work and get paid by the hour. I wanted to make a difference in the world, and I thought being a millionaire would allow me to do that. So I applied to the business schools at Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford universities and got accepted by Harvard and Columbia. My background was more in the direction of the Willy Loman school of business than an Ivy League citadel, so going to Harvard really expanded my view of things.

During my undergrad and MBA years I started more than a dozen businesses, each of which imploded. I converted drive-in movie theaters to drive-in discotheques, but it rained 11 times in a row, and the business failed. I opened a waterbed store in Harvard Square, but the landlady evicted us because she was afraid the beds would leak. When I graduated from Harvard in 1971, I wanted to be a movie producer to influence opinions in society. So I spent 10 years trying to put together a film project and ended up in Venice Beach, Calif.

It was 1979, and I was running an ice cream parlor there. One day I was sunbathing au naturel with two women who were sisters on the rooftop of their apartment building next door when one sister’s boyfriend showed up. Next thing I know, he was with her, and I ended up with the other sister on the redwood deck. When I went home, I had splinters all over my butt. Redwood doesn’t dissolve; it infects. So I went to a drugstore and asked for needle-pointed tweezers, but couldn’t find any. That gave me the idea to sell splinter tweezers.

At that point I had bounced from one business to another, and by age 32, I was $150,000 in debt and had failed at everything I’d tried. So I moved back to New York and got a minimum-wage job working for an electronics company. I saw people on the assembly line picking up diodes with needlepoint tweezers. There was my product idea! So I decided to market electronic industrial tweezers as splinter tweezers to hardware stores and lumberyards.

I started with $500, and my father, who had retired as a longshoreman, decided to invest in the idea. Over the next few years my dad lent me $180,000, and I paid him 12% interest on it. My dad also played the lottery, hoping to make $1 million one day. At some point I converted half of the $180,000 he’d lent me to stock. When I sold the company, his stock was worth $1 million, which made me really happy.

Back then I found about 20 manufacturers of tweezers in Europe. I decided on Dumont in Switzerland, which made tweezers for doctors, and persuaded them to sell to me.

Packaging was expensive, so I went to the guys who made the package molds and got 100 blister packs for free, hand-glued the blisters onto cards, and went to the lumberyards. The tweezers sold for $10, and people bought them. But it wasn’t something I could make a living with. My brother’s ex-girlfriend worked in a beauty salon and said, “If you can get me tweezers that are not pointed and not so sharp, I could sell them to my customers.”

So I found some diamond tweezers, put them in standard-size tubes, and on Saturdays went around to beauty salons on Long Island. I’d sell $150 worth a day, and at that point I had a successful business. There was no overhead. The tweezers cost $4, and they sold for $10, so there was always a profit.

The first year, the company made $80,000. The second year, we made $180,000; the third year, $350,000. After that the annual revenue steadily grew 20% a year.

In 1982, I was selling my Precision Eyebrow Tweezers in tubes to cosmetologists and thought I should put my name on them and become a grooming company. So I sold Dal LaMagna Grooming tweezers for a while, until I walked into a beauty salon and someone yelled, “Tweezerman is here!” I immediately changed the name to Tweezerman and started to hire sales representatives. By 1984, Tweezerman was grossing nearly $1 million annually, and would surpass that million-dollar mark the next year. But we still had problems with cash flow.

Back then credit card companies would send us credit cards, and I took every credit card I got. At the peak I had 45 cards. I’d use the cash advance to meet payroll and pay the bills. I ended up with $180,000 in credit card debt, and the interest rate was 12% to 16%. Around 1986, I went to Chase Manhattan Bank, and they lent me $180,000 to pay off the credit cards. Why did they give me that loan? There were times I’d make $80,000 to $90,000 on a weekend from a trade show, and I always deposited it in the bank. I never kept the cash and never lied about anything. So the banker said, “You’re competent, and you’re honest. Most people would have pocketed that cash.”

I sold similar tweezers, packaged differently, to different distribution channels. There was Tweezerman Professional for Sally Beauty Supply SBH , Spa Tweezerman for Bed, Bath & Beyond BBBY and the department stores, and Tweezerman Limited for the chain drugstores, like Walgreens WAG and CVS CVS .

The challenge for me was to be patient. I had to discipline myself to sell just tweezers before I expanded to other beauty tools. As the years passed, we made a cuticle nipper, eyelash comb, haircutting scissors — any grooming tool you can think of. We ended up with about 200 SKUs. No one could deliver the quality at the prices I was delivering it.

In 2004 we were doing $32 million in sales. I was against the war in Iraq, funding antiwar movies, and was a political activist. I had no interest in being Tweezerman for the rest of my life. I started approaching people who might be interested in buying us, with four conditions: They couldn’t lay anyone off; they couldn’t move the company, which would cause people to lose their jobs; they had to continue our practice of responsible capitalism, which meant things like paying people a living wage; and the purchase price had to be at least $40 million.

Zwilling J.A. Henckels agreed and offered $57 million. So I sold the company to them, and stayed on Tweezerman’s board until 2013. Now I’m no longer involved in the company.

When I sold Tweezerman, I started to invest in businesses that would have an impact in the world. I gave $50,000 to IceStone, a company that makes countertops out of recycled glass and cement, which are both green and beautiful. Over the last few years I put more money in, and I am now IceStone’s president, CEO, and COO. I’ve gone from being a guy who wanted to turn the company around and sell it to being the guy who wants to turn IceStone into a green building-products company and build it, like I did with Tweezerman.

It took a lot of failures to get to success. I think anyone can be a millionaire if you set your mind to it. It takes focus, perseverance, and collaboration. You get more from collaborating with people than competing with them. If you’re only in business to make money, you’ll lead a very hollow life.

Don’t fear failure. Fear success — because when you succeed, you’re going to be living your dream 24 hours a day. So make sure it’s what you really want.

Empower employees. I created an employee stock-ownership plan. After Hurricane Sandy flooded every piece of equipment at IceStone, employees took it upon themselves to repair everything instead of replacing it. We saved $4 million.

Invest in what matters to employees. I told folks, “Anything you can find that the company doesn’t need, I’ll put that savings toward health care.” People gave up their company-owned cellphones, and now people who make more pay proportionately more for health care, which ranges from $40 a month for the factory workers to $140 a month for managers, and everyone has coverage.

This story is from the January 13, 2014 issue of Fortune.

Summary: Inspired by an unlikely episode, Dal LaMagna built his company from the bottom up.


Youth unemployment today is roughly 3 times the national unemployment rate. The reason: too few US high school students graduate with marketable skills. The erosion of vocational education, apprenticeships and traineeships in the nation's secondary schools has practically guaranteed this tragic situation.

Read MoreMillennials lazy? Ask the 'Three Little Pigs'

Other economically healthy nations place far more emphasis on vocational education, apprenticeships an dtraineeships, with low youth unemployment one reward. Switzerland, for example, has around 3 percent unemployed young people. Germany has about 6 percent. Among northern and central European countries, vocational training is part of mainstream education; between 40 percent and 70 percent of high-school students opt for vocational education, which combines both classroom and on-the-job learning over three years. On completion, they have a qualification that carries real weight in the labor market and a pathway to even higher levels of education and earnings.

Fortunately, the occupation-oriented associate degrees offered by the nation's community and technical colleges have opened doors of opportunity to millions of young people who never had the benefit of "voc ed." Millions more should follow their lead. So, too, should the 53 percent of recent college grads who are either unemployed or underemployed. Let's face it: A four-year degree in history, English, or sociology might not be a winning ticket in today's job market. But couple that baccalaureate with an associate degree in radiation therapy, robotics, dental hygiene, nursing, or information system, and you have a winning skillset needed in today's economy.

Summary: Youth unemployment today is roughly 3 times the national unemployment rate. America, it's time to skill up!


Android users haven't been this excited in a while.

Periscope, the Twitter-owned live streaming app, just launched for Android devices on Tuesday after having only been available on iOS for two months. But Android users aren't acting bitter.

Periscope CEO and co-founder Kayvon Beykpour said Thursday that the uptake from Android users in under 48 hours has been fascinating.

Read MoreHow Meerkat's fighting against Periscope: Apps

"It's been unbelievable to see," he told CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "What's really exciting for us about Android is it gives us exposure to markets that we don't have as much penetration on with iOS." Asia in particular remains a big opportunity for Periscope, where Android devices have performed better relative to other markets. Beykpour noted Turkey as a good example, now one of Periscope's top five countries by users.

But as more users have Periscope made available to them, the more piracy concerns could grow as well. Just last month Periscope came under fire after users live streamed the pay-per-view fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. But Beykpour says he isn't concerned, as media companies start to see the appeal of partnering with Periscope.

Read More Mayweather-Pacquiao: Periscope 'won by knockout'

"We tried to make it clear that piracy doesn't excite us in any way," he said. "What we are legitimately excited about is working with our partners like these media companies—like CBS, HBO, Showtime—to actually create compelling new original content."

Summary: Periscope has created some huge waves since launching, but that was just with iOS. Now Android users are making waves, too.


Banco Espirito Santo's collapse came after it unveiled losses on loans made to an assortment of companies run by its founding family. The broader Espirito Santo group, which included tourism, health and agriculture companies, sought bankruptcy protection and began liquidating last year. Portuguese prosecutors have since launched an investigation into the company's collapse. New management put in place at Banco Espirito Santo by the central bank has said they suspect the lender engaged in illegal behavior.

Goldman officials believed that the Oak Finance loan would be protected in the new structure, in part because a senior Bank of Portugal official said so in writing, Goldman spokeswoman Fiona Laffan said. But on Dec. 23, Novo Banco said in a regulatory filing that the Bank of Portugal decided not to transfer the Goldman-backed loan to the new entity.

Read MoreBove:Banks are now like tobacco, asbesto firms

As a result, the prospects of Goldman and its clients being repaid have dimmed and Goldman's finance staff had to write down the value of the loan.

It could not be learned how much of the $835 million loan came directly from Goldman Sachs, how big the writedown was, or how much bonuses would be affected. Laffan declined to provide those details, as did other sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

It's not clear who at Goldman Sachs had chief responsibility for originating and structuring the loan to Banco Espirito Santo, though such a commitment typically has to move through the firmwide capital committee, which includes senior executives like Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz and Chief Risk Officer Craig Broderick.

Those involved with the loan at Goldman came from the securities division, as well as the financing group, which sits within the investment banking division. The securities business is overseen by co-heads Isabelle Ealet, Pablo Salame and Ashok Varadhan, while the financing business is overseen by co-heads Jim Esposito and Marc Nachmann.

Vice Chairman Michael Sherwood and Co-Head of Investment Banking Richard Gnodde, who together run Goldman Sachs International, were also apprised of developments regarding the Banco Espirito Santo loan.

Summary: Goldman Sachs had to write down its loan to Banco Espirito Santo, cutting profit and some bonuses, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.


04/07/2016 AT 01:00 PM EDT

recently poked fun at her single status tweeting; "Hi, I'm Anna, I'm alone tonight and I'm looking for a strapping man to come over because butternut squash is hard to dice."

At Wednesday's New York premiere of her new film

she explained the meaning behind her mysterious tweet.

"I just thought it would be funny to start a tweet really sexual and end it on something really practical," the actress told PEOPLE.

Hi, I'm Anna, I'm alone tonight and I'm looking for a strapping muscular man to come over because butternut squash is hard to dice.

Kendrick, 30, also admitted that she hasn't always had the best luck in the dating game.

"I've had a couple of crazy experiences," she tells PEOPLE. "I don't think you can be a female and reach the age of 25 without having the guy that you're, like, 'Oh, I'm going to carry mace around for a little while.' And you break up with him, and you're like, 'Okay, I'm going to lock my doors at night, because the dude is crazy.' "

How would Kendrick describe her real life Mr. Right? "Somebody capable!" she says. "You'd be amazed what women are willing to settle for if the guy is just capable, can take care of himself and isn't a cry baby. Just a nice guy who can manage his own life."

, also recalled a high school date that quickly went from good to bad, and ended with his date being sick. "That was pretty intense," he says. "Too many wine coolers."

In their new romantic comedy in theaters Friday, Kendrick and Rockwell show off some dance moves and Kendrick says she was really impressed by Rockwell.

"I'm much more controlled and OCD and Sam really likes to wing it," Kendrick says. "But once we started, Sam is so great, all I had to do was kind of let him lead. Sam could be on

Summary: Anna Kendrick discusses disastrous dates from her past


Hometown: K'Ville, GeorgiaOccupation: Car dealership salesmanStarting Weight: 339

When Colby Wright was 22, his father committed suicide. Six weeks later, his younger brother was killed in a car accident. Those tragedies early in his life caused him to grow up fast and also contributed to his weight gain, as he turned to food and a poor diet to cope with sadness and stress. Colby was born and raised in Screven, Georgia, and attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. He has been team roping since he was 14, and has been a cowboy and a farrier (someone who shoes horses) for the last 10 years. He is no longer able to rope and ride due to his size, so instead he works as an announcer at rodeos and as a DJ. Colby, who is married to his teammate Hope, is 31 years old and 339 pounds. The turning point for Colby was when he was no longer able to buy a pair of jeans at a regular store and had to go to a specialty store. Once he loses the weight, he looks forward to shopping at regular clothing stores and being able to rodeo again.

Summary: Meet COLBY WRIGHT on NBC.com.


For most of the 2016 election cycle, the bile on display in the Republican Party has made the Democratic race look like a tame college seminar. The latest war of words between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, though, has changed all that.

In a speech on Wednesday evening, Sanders said that Clinton was “unqualified” to be president. He again alluded to payments she received for speeches she delivered to big banks and the fact that she is supported by a Super PAC, arguing that these items made her unqualified to be president.

Sanders’ comments came in response to an interview Clinton gave to MSNBC’s Morning Joe that some in the press interpreted as an argument that Sanders was the unqualified one. Clinton didn’t say that, though. She did say she felt Sanders “hadn’t done his homework and he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood,” a reference to Sanders’ interview with the editorial board of the New York Daily News in which he stumbled over questions about breaking up big banks, a central plank in his platform.

Related: Bernie Sanders Can’t Explain How He’d Break up the Banks

On the surface, Sanders’ claim that Clinton is unqualified is ridiculous — she served as a U.S. Senator for eight years and Secretary of State for four, not to mention being First Lady for eight years.

Right now, though, the race isn’t strictly about who will be president — it’s about who will be the Democratic nominee. Many of the Democrats who vote in the party’s primaries are progressives. For months, Sanders has tried to argue that Clinton is not qualified to represent those voters, given her close relationship with the financial industry and her generally hawkish approach to foreign policy.

Viewed through that lens, this latest line of attack is merely a continuation of the case Sanders has been making for months, though with much harsher language.

Last week, Clinton campaign officials complained about the tone the Sanders campaign had recently adopted, criticizing him for going negative. Well, now he is actually going negative. The voters in New York, Pennsylvania, California, and other states still waiting to make their choices will ultimately show if it was a good move.

Summary: This is the same attack, just harsher.


TMZ has obtained the 911 call made last week when

's mother, Alla, was arrested and charged with

As TMZ previously reported, Alla's five-year-old son -- who is Anna's half-brother -- fell out of a window after allegedly being left home alone. In the 911 call, you can hear the kid say he jumped.

Summary: TMZ has obtained the 911 call made last week when Anna Kournikova's mother, Alla, was arrested and charged with child neglect.As TMZ previously reported,…


09/06/2016 AT 09:00 PM EDT

is in love and she isn't afraid to show it.

, a few of the Duggar children are out in the middle of nowhere (Missouri) trying to learn wilderness survival skills at a training camp. Yet, all Jinger can think about is trying to get cell service in order to call/text

"I didn't know exactly how long we were going to be out there without cell service," she said during the episode. "I should have told him I was going to be gone all day."

Throughout the show, Jinger would stop and take selfies and document as much of her trip as possible, all so she could send it to her soon-to-be-fiancée. It got to the point where she wasn't even paying attention to anything but her text messages.

"I don't think I'm driving people nuts with it," the 22-year-old said during her interview. "I think when you're in love everybody knows about it. I think everybody will understand when they get to that place themselves."

"When Jill and Jessa were in their relationships, I did notice that they would talk a lot on the phone," she continued. "Sometimes I would mention something and they wouldn't quite catch it ... I was like 'Oh, wow. They've changed quite a bit,' and I thought I am a little bit of that type of person and I could see how I would do that, but probably not that much. I was wrong."

"Now that I've seen her, and how drastic she's gone ... I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and not say anything," Joy-Anna told the cameras. "I'll be the worst of them all probably."

Jinger's younger brother was also starting to get a bit bothered with how much she was on her phone.

"All of my siblings when they're interested in somebody just like can't think or concentrate," said 20-year-old Josiah. "Sometimes you feel like breaking their phone ... lets put it away for awhile. You realize everyone is going to go through this phase in life so just deal with it because everyone is going to have to deal with you someday."

Later on in the episode, all the girls were spending the night camping out in huts, when Jinger received a call from Vuolo which ultimately annoyed her sisters.

"Jinger, we are supposed to be out in the wild trying to survive and you have your phone," Joy-Anna, 18, told her.

Jinger then got up and sprinted out their survival hut just to talk with Vuolo on the phone in peace inside the RV.

"It was good having you for a whole two minutes!" Joy yelled out to her.

airs Tuesdays (8 p.m. ET) on TLC.

Summary: Jinger Duggar has no time for survival camp on this week's episode of Counting On


WINNING a third term is a remarkable achievement for any political party. New Zealand’s centre-right National Party did so on September 20th, carried to victory, as expected, by its popular leader and the country’s current prime minister, John Key (pictured). But securing an increased majority over its first and second terms, as National did on Saturday, is astounding: it raked in 48.1% of the vote.

Based on figures from election night, the party will also have enough members to form a government without the need for supporting parties—the first time this has happened since the introduction of the mixed-member proportional voting system in 1996. And even if special votes (yet to be counted) mean that National will not have an absolute majority of 61 in the 121-seat unicameral house, Mr Key is unconcerned: support from the United Future Party, the ACT Party and the Maori Party, which have all supported National Party-led governments in the last two terms, would give the National Party a comfortable majority.

The results revealed a clear swing to the centre-right. Labour got 24.7% of the vote, giving it 32 seats—a disastrous result. The Greens, who had been counting on 15% of the vote, got just 10%. Parties get representation in parliament either by winning an electorate seat or by getting 5% of the party vote. National asked its supporters in the true-blue National seat of Epsom to vote for the ACT party candidate, thereby ensuring that ACT would be represented in parliament and be able to support National. Epsom voters obliged in sufficient numbers.

Winston Peters, leader of the populist NZ First, who has served as a minister in both National-led and Labour-led governments, was expected to play kingmaker. He is now not likely to be needed. He achieved 8.9% of the vote. He wants immigration to New Zealand reduced and cuts to foreign investment; he believes that the National Party called the election early because it expects the economy to slump later this year.

The National Party campaigned on stability, sound economic management and educational changes which would give more weight to charter schools (which are privately run) and improve teacher quality. It favours changes to the employment law, to make it easier for employers to take on and dismiss staff. National says it will help first-home buyers and, in the long-term, promises only very minor tax cuts.

The election campaign that brought National to power was unprecedented in New Zealand. The National Party managed to deflect criticism raised by “Dirty Politics”, a book based on hacked e-mails involving senior members of the National Party and a blogger. It also managed to survive an attack launched by Kim Dotcom, a German internet entrepreneur with criminal copyright charges against him in America. He poured millions into the Internet Party, which he founded, and a companion party, the Mana Party. Five days before the election, Mr Dotcom arranged a major public meeting addressed by Edward Snowden, a former employee of America's National Security Agency, who revealed the extent of mass surveillance by the agency, and Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks (both spoke via video link). Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist, appeared in person. They argued that New Zealand’s government had conducted or assisted mass-surveillance programmes.

The meeting was promoted as the "Moment of Truth". But although there was great interest in the event, it was not a game-changer for the election. In fact, National got a boost in the polls. New Zealanders seemed averse to having their electoral system manipulated by Mr Dotcom's money. The dirty politics incident and the focus on Mr Dotcom diverted attention away from the policies outlined by other parties. So instead of helping to undermine the National Party, this reinforced its position.

That may not be enough to explain the poor performance of the Labour Party. The outstanding popularity of Mr Key was undoubtedly the major cause of the National Party's success. It will take a long time for the Labour Party to recover. Mr Key is already speaking of a fourth term.

Summary: The National Party wins a third term, despite allegations of dirty politics


Plus, Emma Stone calls out sexism in Hollywood, and says there have been times when her own jokes have been given to her male co-stars.

"La La Land" earned the best picture prize at the Critics Choice Awards, which kicked off awards show season a bit earlier than usual Sunday night.

Nicole Kidman has admitted she had to beg for her role in 1995’s "To Die For," a movie that helped skyrocket her career.

Matt Lauer is reportedly staying put at “Today.”

Taylor Swift is about to become a lot more available.

Felicity Jones is joining the ongoing discussion of of unequal pay for women in Hollywood.

Scripps Network, the company behind channels like HGTV, Food Network and the Cooking Channel, reported higher-than-expected third quarter earnings.

Tucker Carlson will take over as host of the 7:00 pm ET hour on FOX News Channel.

Mila Kunis has called out sexism in the workplace with a powerful essay detailing what happened to her when she refused to pose semi-naked for a men's magazine to promote a movie.

Summary: Entertainment Industry news from Foxnews.com's Entertainment section.  Entertainment Industry articles and videos.


If you've been living under a rock for the past week (ie. ignoring Twitter completely) then you might have missed the craze that is Spymaster, a new Twitter-based interactive game that resembles popular games like Mob Wars.

Chances are that you've either become incredibly annoyed by #spymaster tweets, totally addicted to the intricate game play, or confused and overwhelmed by the game. Regardless of your ability or familiarity with the game, we thought it would be advantageous to break down the elements that make up this trending Twitter game with inside details on how it came to be, game play strategies, and semi-secret tricks and hints that only advance players have managed to uncover.

If you're an up-and-coming Spymaster, you might wonder what makes yours truly qualified to write a guide to Spymaster. After all, I'm nowhere near the top ranks of Spymasters who have reached the pinnacle at level 30 (for the time being). What you'll read here, however, is the result of a combination of my own stealth spy activities, communication with other knowledgeable Spymasters, and a top secret exchange with the Directorate.

With a name like Eston Bond, it's hard not to believe that iList's Design Director hasn't uttered the phrase, the name is Bond, Eston Bond. But speculation and surnames aside, we thought that we'd chat up Bond to discover how the heck a classifieds site — iList — decided to get into the business of Twitter games.

Bond told us, "We've been building a lot of systems on Twitter for about a year now, starting with iList and then iList Micro. We found that we had some pretty useful ways to leverage Twitter, so in a brainstorming meeting some weeks ago I said we should leverage the technology to build a spy game. I was watching a bunch of James Bond movies at the time and thought it'd be a lot of fun. Everyone else thought this was also a good idea, so I just kind of holed up and wrote up a full spec. The whole storyline, the branding identity, the way we were going to communicate (all of this Directorate speak), all of our items and basic game mechanics."

We want to note that Spymaster is in closed beta at the moment, although our sources inform us that beta may not last much longer.

You can certainly try your hand at being a Spymaster with little to no knowledge of the game, but understanding some of these terms will be helpful to your pursuits as a spy.

Directorate: The omniscient and omnipotent rulers of game play. They hold the answers to all your questions, and provide some helpful information through their communication utilities: Twitter (@playspymaster) and Get Satisfaction. Chris heads up the CIA, Eston oversees the MI6, and if you're in the FSB you'll report to Ben and Albert.

Spies: Spies are your Twitter followers that have yet to become Spymasters. They're important to your overall Spy Ring, but nowhere near as powerful as Spymasters. Work to convert these to Spymasters and you'll have a huge advantage regardless of the level you're at.

Spymasters: These are your Twitter followers that are also playing the game. The more Spymasters you have, the more powerful your Spy Ring becomes and the easier it will be for you to complete tasks and wound or assassinate opponents. If you have a smaller Twitter network, you'll want to diligently work to convert spies to Spymasters.

Spy Ring: This is the sum of your connections on Spymaster and it's based entirely off your Twitter network and your followers. Your Spy Ring has more power if you have active Spymasters helping your secret intelligence mission.

Attack Sum: This is calculated based on the number of weapons you possess. Each weapon you buy has a number associated with it. This number will be multiplied by the quantity you buy, and the Spymasters equipped with these weapons. The total is your Attack Sum (eg. my sum is 7,740 which reflects all the weapons I own and how many Spymasters and Spies in my Spy Ring can be using them). The higher the sum, the more likely you are to be able to hold your own when you attack an enemy.

Defense Sum: Similar to the Attack Sum, your Defense Sum is an accumulation of the defensive items you own and the Spymasters in your Spy Ring holding them. The key here is to outfit all your Spymasters with defensive equipment. You'll notice that your sum will increase if you do this successfully, which means you'll be poised to withstand assassination plots.

Energy: To complete tasks and attack other Spymasters, you'll need to make sure you have the required energy levels. Of course, all these activities also consume energy, and since it comes in limited supply be careful not to overextend yourself, or you could find yourself pretty inept. Patience will yield a replenishment of more energy; the regeneration time for energy is 5 minutes.

Health: You need your health to stay alive. Whenever you get wounded in an assassination attempt, you'll lose health. The more powerful your enemy, the more health you'll lose. Watch this number closely, because it's directly associated with your survival. If you're assassinated, the regeneration time is 15 minutes.

When you first get invited by a Spymaster to join the game, you have to choose between joining the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), or the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Each agency essentially includes the same gameplay, but there are a few subtle differences.

The big differences come by way of currency and bonus earnings of either money, energy, or health. As a member of the CIA, you'll accrue 10% more money, which can afford you more weapons and defense, or help you build up a nice chunk of change to put in your Swiss Bank account. You might also opt for the CIA to make up for the money you won't accrue if you have notifications turned off (see below).

If you're looking to level up quickly, then you'll want to opt for the MI6 because you'll earn 10% more energy. Energy is required for completing tasks, and becoming proficient at tasks will help you advance to the next level. The more energy you have, the faster you can level up.

On the flip side, the FSB offers 10% more health which will come in handy if you're the attacking type. Since you need health to avoid getting assassinated in battles, accruing health at a higher rate is key for staying alive.

Inside spies at the Directorate tell us that the MI6 currently dominates the other two agencies in Spymasters. We have reason to believe it's because we all secretly want to be James Bond.

Although not a huge factor just yet, currency will become an important part of game play as it matures. Right now you'll notice that Russians deal in rubles, Americans in dollars, and the Brits in pounds. Currencies are linked to their real-world exchange rates. In the future, the game will have a flux economy of its own, so you'll need to watch real-world markets to find the best times to do wire transfers to Spymasters in other agencies.

Notifications are probably the most controversial part of this Twitter-based game, especially for Twitterers that aren't Spymasters. The game offers eight different ways to auto-update Twitter with your not so top secret activity. You can send a notification every time you assassinate another user, wire money, secure a safe house, level up, perform a task, fail to assassinate a user, deposit money, or buy new items on the Black Market.

Based on our game playing experience, we think enabling too many of these notifications will not only fill your stream with incessant updates, but get you unfollowed pretty quickly. So why bother, right? Well there's a huge financial incentive for notifications because each checked option will net you an additional 1% money increase, and money is pretty key to building up your arsenal of attack and defense weapons, which are necessary for tasks and assassinations.

We recommend adjusting these notification settings when you first join and on an ongoing basis. Assassinations are pretty difficult, so keeping this checked won't damage your Twitter credibility too much. In the same vein, leveling up is also pretty tricky (after level one), so it might not hurt to keep that checked. Pay special attention to the task, failing to assassinate, and Black Market options though. If you play aggressively, these will be the most tweet intensive.

Once you've selected your agency and adjusted your settings, it's time to start immersing yourself in the spy life and begin completing tasks. Though the game itself is incredibly intricate, the actions you can take are pretty simple.

To start you can do one of a few things: shop on the Black Market, complete a task, attempt to assassinate other spies, or convert spies to spymasters. As you advance, you'll also be able to buy Safe Houses and deposit money in a Swiss bank account.

The Black Market is a place to use your cash flow to buy goods to protect yourself or attack enemies. The weapons and defense items available will become more powerful as you level up, they also come at a pretty penny. As a level one user, however, you'll want to equip yourself to withstand an assassination attempt. Do stock up, and don't be cheap.

Completing tasks are the primary way for you to earn some more dough and advance to higher levels. You'll start off with two very basic tasks that you can complete with a low risk of failure. The more you complete a task the more experience and proficiency you'll gain. You'll earn revenue for every successfully completed mission. Should you fail, you're still likely to gain experience, but you'll notice that you'll get dinged on your health vitals (you need health to stay alive).

As you level up, more complicated tasks will start to become available. These tasks will require more energy, more weapons, and involve a higher level of risk. You'll notice though that your successful attempts at riskier business are substantially better for your bank account. They're also going to help you reach the next level a lot faster than the easier tasks.

If you're ready to attempt to assassinate another Spymaster, you can certainly attack anyone of your choosing, regardless of their level. Keep in mind, though, that levels aren't all that important in assassination plots (ie. as a level 6 Spymaster I've wounded players as high as level 25). The user's Spy Ring, Attack Sum, and Defense Sum are more likely to influence the outcome of an assassination attempt. You should also know that as a solo Spymaster with a small Twitter network, your assassination attempts are likely to fail. Choose wisely but remember that higher risk equates to higher gain.

If you wound or kill a Spymaster you're likely to acquire a combination of experience, assets, Attack Sum, and Defense Sum. Attacking weak Spymasters is a futile effort because your gain will be minimal. Should you attack a worthy opponent with a medium to high risk, you'll be rewarded handsomely when you succeed in wounding or killing them. Want to increase your chances of assassinating a Spymaster? Concoct ways to rally the troops against an enemy.

Converting spies to spymasters is another important element of the game. The more spymasters you have in your spy ring, the more powerful you'll be. Twitterers with large Twitter networks have a huge advantage here. By default, every one of your followers that's a part of Spymaster is considered a Spymaster in your Spy Ring. The more followers you have on Twitter, the more likely you are to have active Spymasters in your network. You can use the application to recruit followers to become Spymasters in your ring.

Currently there are 30 levels in the game, though this number promises to increase as the game continues to evolve. For each level you complete, you'll be rewarded with more unlocked tasks to complete (that pay more) and more sophisticated weaponry options.

As described above, completing tasks is the key to advancing to a higher level. Each level, however, becomes trickier to complete, so you'll notice that tasks get riskier and require more energy, weapons, and Spymasters. Yes, you'll have more tasks and weaponry available, but you'll be forced to have more patience as you actively try to continue to advance to the next level.

The Black Market is an important component to the game. This marketplace is where you can purchase weapons and defense in bulk. You need these items to not only build up your strength, but the strength of your whole spy ring. It is the strength of this ring that will determine whether or not you win or lose assassination plots. Keep in mind that when you go into battle, you bring your Spy Ring with you.

You start with a base attack score and that's basically comprised of your Spymasters going into battle with their fists fighting. When you add a weapon to a Spymaster, you add the power of that weapon, multiplied against the value of who's holding the weapon (more power is given to Spymasters over spies), and this increases your Attack Sum by what the game calls multipliers. The same logic holds true for your Defense Sum.

Right now the highest weapon available is the M107 Sniper Rifle, so if you've managed to achieve that, you can rest assured knowing you've reached the top of the food chain — for now. The Directorate has confirmed to us that this is just temporary. More weapons and defense will be added to the game soon enough.

The Swiss Bank is just like a real bank, so you'll use it to deposit and withdraw money (wire transfers have been disabled, but they will come back). As with other games of this variety, the reason to deposit funds is for safe keeping. The more money you have in your possession, the more likely you are to lose chunks of it in attacks. Keep it safe in your bank account while you attack your opponents.

Simple right? But there are a few catches. First you need to have 560K (or the equivalent in rubles or pounds) in liquid assets before you can open a Swiss Bank account. This is no easy feat for newer members, so it might be best not to take an attack strategy until you can protect some of your funds. Secondly, in exchange for guarding your funds, you'll be charged a 10% transaction fee for every deposit. This might make you think before you withdraw funds for weapons and defense purchases, and then redeposit for financial protection.

Safe Houses are a way to generate fixed revenue. Safe Houses can be purchased at varying prices and come with an associated risk level and revenue earning opportunity. A risky Safe House will yield more revenue...if you're lucky.

There's a catch here too. Safe Houses accrue revenue based on regeneration periods. So for each regeneration period, which is a fixed time period usually about an hour long, there is the possibility that your Safe House will not pay you the revenue you're expecting. The higher the risk, the less likely you'll get paid, but the more dough you'll earn when you do.

Take a few risks: Spymaster was engineered to reward risky behavior. You won't gain a thing if you continue to do low risk tasks or only attack weak opponents. Sure you're bound to fail in a high risk assassination plot, but if you succeed you'll gain necessary experience, a large sum of liquid assets, and add to your Attack and Defense Sums.

Don't attempt assassinations on low health: This one seems obvious in hindsight, but if you go on a killing spree, you might stop paying attention to your overall health. So watch that number like a hawk, and be leery of making attacks when your health is lower than 30 or 40, because you could die. It's been known to happen.

Equip all Spymasters with weapons and defense: You will see your success in battle increase exponentially if you ensure that the weapons and defense items in your possession reflect the overall number of Spymasters in your Spy Ring. Buy in bulk to support them and you'll be effectively increasing the power of your network.

Save time during assassination plots: You'll notice that as you attempt to assassinate more and more Spymasters, you continually have to wait while the virtual battle ensues. If you're impatient and just want to get right to the results, you can. Check out the URL during the assassination, it reads http://playspymaster.com/assassination/progress/XXXX. To hurry up the process, just replace "progress" with "results." Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Create #spymaster alliances: Your followers may hate the #spymaster Twitter notifications, but there is an advantage to those auto-tweets and it comes by way of being able to expand your Spy Ring. So, as explained above, your ring's strength increases as you're followed by more active Spymasters.

Use the hashtag to search for more active spymasters and follow those who you think will follow you in return. You can take this to the extreme and create group alliances where all members follow each other, thereby exponentially increasing the strength of your Spy Ring.

Take a defensive strategy: You can do quite fine in Spymaster if you take to protecting your army over the more aggressive route. The key here is to level up through tasks and buy tons and tons of defense, which will keep you safe from attacks. If you do adopt this strategy, you're probably best served not trying to instigate any assassinations.

Challenge opponents ahead of you: It may seem like an obvious tactic to pick off newbie members from your dashboard and attempt to assassinate away. Yours truly picked on the little guys and though it was great fun, it wasn't great for the bottom line. You'll gain more experience and assets if you attack Spymasters where there's a higher risk of losing. You'll have the most success in these riskier endeavors if you build up your Spy Ring, Attack Sum, and Defense Sum.

The power of teams: A little known secret of the game is that if you want to actually kill your opponents, instead of just wounding them, you need to combine forces with other Spymasters. To do this, you'll need to identify a target, and collaborate with three to four other Spymasters to attempt a barrage of assassination plots at the same time. Though the game doesn't support this type of interaction at this time, it is definitely encouraged to plan attacks via Twitter Direct Messages. Should your orchestrated attacks prove fruitful and you assassinate your target, they'll be out of commission for a full 15 minutes.

Encrypted codes: For those of you up to the challenge, the Directorate releases company updates to Spymasters via their Get Satisfaction page. At the end of each update there is an encrypted code that contains information on upcoming changes for players that are up to the challenge of doing cipher decoding.

Our inside sources tell us that the cipher changes with each update, and that a majority of the messages are all variants of the Shift Cipher, though one message used the Vigenère Cipher, and a more recent update was a Running Key Cipher (which is oh so tricky).

Encrypted messages look something like this:

A HCBXE TFE WHX XGMYLGGHFF AW TFR DTJS YHFBWSS EIMF COI USEIMEXBVRV QE ZCKWFUL EYMK VBWCUXUUEF RG QPUNY MS PGW O YCVXR WHT PT HXP DIIGZBK KLGZGMY PATGA GAHZD MJJZUUI AFNK HGD CWBPVD E NLZMNUA TUH QVRQ OSTE HSUI JIQHJNBS WKVWW FXD EWICOPZ AAJ HAJEEGV WEPUF CWFE XM ZVQAZ VYG WLHS EHVBA NAMO E JIDHLNTGW KN ESV KBMPS GCWD ZXRMUTMJM NNW QT NDJ YHIE OYNS XETXGKSV KAFEBFCF QCN SLC PZZPH BSTYTT YSQLU TZVW OMCN IE FCMR TO XPVY AT ELX HLQJ KRHWZ VKHVVC INXZF BG EIP B WYIYL AOO ORALM EUUJWFW SSKR GH CHB CTGUWL WMOD XY FKKNLLIIY NK XHWKLT

A BONUS FOR OUR SPYMASTERS WE ARE ALSO WORKING WITH OUR CONNECTIONS IN VARIOUS ARMS INDUSTRIES TO BRING TO YOU A LARGE SET OF NEW WEAPONS SHORTLY WHICH SHALL INCLUDE MANY NEW RIFLES A SHOTGUN AND EVEN SOME MORE HANDGUNS THESE NEW WEAPONS AND DEFENCE ITEMS WILL BE GOING OUT SOON ALONG WITH A REBALANCE OF THE GAMES TASK STRUCTURE AND IF ALL GOES WELL EXTENDED GAMEPLAY FOR OUR LEVEL THIRTY USERS

Summary: If you've been living under a rock for the past week (ie. ignoring Twitter completely) then you might have missed the craze that is Spymaster, a new Twitter-based interactive ga...


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WATCH: In an interview with the UFC Unfiltered podcast, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said that production on season seven will be delayed in order to capture the true essence of winter.

Winter is going to be late next year.

In spite of Sansa Stark's announcing that winter is here in the final episode of season 6, devoted fans of the HBO fantasy drama "Game of Thrones" will be disappointed to learn, because of the weather, season 7 may be delayed.

In an interview with the "UFC Unfiltered" podcast, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said that production on season 7 will be delayed in order to capture the true essence of winter.

When asked if the series will return in April, as it has done almost every year since it debuted in 2011, the producers said it was unlikely. “No … we don’t have an airdate yet, but this year it’ll probably be a bit later, ’cause we’re starting a bit later because at the end of this season, winter is here, and that means that sunny weather doesn’t really serve our purposes anymore. So we kind of pushed everything down the line so we could get some grim, gray weather, even in the sunnier places that we shoot.”

Winter is essential to the climax of the storyline as it brings the White Walkers, who threaten the existence of every living thing. So far, however, only the Night’s Watch has been preparing for their arrival.

HBO has yet to comment on an airdate for season 7. Season 6 premiered on April 24 and recently concluded.

Fans were already disappointed to learn that the next two seasons — the last ones planned for the beloved show — may include fewer episodes than the 10 in each of the first six seasons.

Summary: The showrunners want to be able to capture the true essence of winter.


Here’s something the IRS probably doesn’t want you to know: Our entire tax code mostly works on the honor system. The much-feared agency only audited 0.86% of individual tax returns in 2014, the lowest percentage since 2004, Bloomberg reports. Among households with incomes greater than $1 million, 7.5% were audited.

The auditing rate is falling because the IRS is bleeding employees. By 2014, the number of revenue agents had declined 16% from its 2010 peak, to 11,629. It’s a trend that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen called “deeply disturbing” in a Tuesday speech.

At its peak efficiency, the IRS was auditing about 1.11% of individual returns back in 2011. Even if those figures seem small, getting caught committing tax fraud can result in heavy fines or jail time—which seems to be enough to keep most citizens honest.

Summary: But fines and jail time still await tax frauds


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Summary: Vargas said her parents, sister and brother all took time out of their lives to try to stop her from drinking.


Child safety advocates are horrified convicted child molester Barry Dangerfield won't spend a day behind bars despite pleading guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy.

Dangerfield, 83, pleaded guilty in Brisbane District Court to 11 offences, which occured in the 1960s.

Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnson said the fact Dangerfield won't spend time behind bars because of his age was "grotesquely insufficient."

"As far as I'm aware as long as he's still breathing he's still an ongoing risk to the community," Ms Johnson told AAP.

She was disappointed at the news, saying the lack of punishment for child sex offenders was a continuing frustration.

Ms Johnson plans to speak to Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath to encourage her to appeal against the sentencing.

Dangerfield's lawyer on Thursday argued his client had rehabilitated during the 50-year delay between the offences and the charges.

He said the "spiritual man" had shown himself to be a devoted husband a community leader.

Chief Judge Kerry O'Brien agreed the defendant had lived an "exemplary life" and said the main feature of his sentence ought to be public denunciation of the conduct.

Summary: Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnson has bemoaned the "grotesquely insufficient" punishment convicted sex offender Barry Dangerfield received on Thursday.


Authorities in Georgia have confirmed remains discovered earlier this week by hunters are those of missing mother Heather McDonald, who vanished in September.

Few details were available to be released, but the investigation into Heather's death remains ongoing. Several organizations are assisting in the case, including the FBI.

An autopsy is scheduled for later this week.

A person of interest was named Wednesday in connection with the mother-of-three's disappearance. Richard Harden, 57, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshal's service on October 7 on an outstanding warrant for a sex offender registry violation, according to NBC affiliate 11Alive.

The Marshals told 11Alive Wednesday that during the course of their investigation, they were notified that Harden is a person of interest in Heather's September disappearance.

The Cartersville Police Department, which is leading the investigation into Heather's disappearance, would not confirm that Harden was being held in connection with the case.

Harden, an acquaintance of Heather's family. was reportedly on a list of people Heather's husband, Stefan, thought police should talk to regarding the case, according to 11Alive. However, family members told the station they did not believe he had anything to do with her disappearance.

Related: Weeks Pass with No Answers Since Disappearance of Young Mother Heather McDonald

Heather, 27, was last heard from on the night of September 18. She had spent the prior few days with a friend who lived one town over from her family's home in Cartersville, Georgia. The following day, a police officer discovered her rented red Jeep Wrangler in the parking lot of the Courtesy Inn off US-411 near White, Georgia. The Jeep was unlocked, and Heather's belongings were inside. Police notified Heather's husband Stefan, who then reported her missing. The couple has been together for more than ten years and has three young daughters.

"We just want her home safely," Stefan told Dateline earlier this week. "Someone out there knows something. Whatever happened, someone knows."

Several different organizations, including the FBI, are assisting in the case. Earlier this week, the FBI doubled their reward to $20,000 for information leading to Heather and/or the conviction of anyone responsible in her disappearance. There is also a $4,000 reward being offered by Heather's family for her safe return.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Cartersville Police Department at (770) 607-6227.


Boston Medical Center said it fired a transcription service after a health care provider reported the records of about 15,000 patients at the hospital were posted without password protection on the vendor’s website used by physicians.

The records contained patients’ names, addresses, and medical information, including what drugs they were taking, but did not include Social Security numbers or financial information, said Jenni Watson, the hospital’s chief of staff.

Watson said Boston Medical Center sent letters to the patients notifying them of the data breach on the website operated by MDF Transcription Services and its subcontractors. She said the hospital had no reason to believe the information was viewed by outsiders or misused.

“We have no evidence that any unauthorized individuals actually looked at the records,” Watson said. “But we wanted to notify the patients involved.”

A representative of MDF did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In a statement, Boston Medical Center said doctors’ notes typically posted on the vendor’s site with password protection “could have potentially been accessed by non-authorized individuals.”

The hospital had been doing business with the vendor for about 10 years but it was not clear how long the physicians’ notes had been left unprotected on the site.

When the hospital discovered the breach on March 4, the statement said, “We immediately informed MDF and its subcontractors of this error and the website was removed from the Internet on the same day.”

The statement also said, “We take our responsibility to maintain our patients’ privacy very seriously and have notified all individuals who were affected by this vendor error. . . . As a result of this incident, we have terminated our relationship with MDF.”

Summary: Boston Medical Center said it has fired a transcription service after a health care provider reported that the medical records of about 15,000 patients at the hospital were posted without password protection on the vendor’s website used by physicians. The records contained patients’ names, addresses, and medical information, including what drugs they were taking, but did not include Social Security numbers or financial information, said Jenni Watson, the hospital’s chief of staff. Watson said Boston Medical Center sent letters to the patients notifying them of the data breach on the website operated by MDF Transcription Services and its subcontractors. She said the hospital had no reason to believe the information was viewed by outsiders or misused.


In the end, 57 House Democrats voted for the bill, including two of the party's top three leaders. Democrats argued that there was too much good in the bill to scuttle it and get a worse deal next year when Republicans seize control of the Senate.

"Hold your nose and make this a better world," Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., said.

The measure would fund nearly every Cabinet agency through September 2015, awarding increases for health research, securities regulation, processing a backlog of rape kits and foreign aid. Republicans won cuts to the IRS and the Environmental Protection Agency. The 1,764-page bill is thick with carefully negotiated trade-offs on spending and policy "riders" on the environment, abortion and the lead content of ammunition. Democrats succeeded in getting the most politically toxic riders off the legislation.

Reid said he hopes the measure will clear the Senate for Obama's signature on Friday, though a vote may not come until the weekend.

Hours before the vote, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California delivered a rare public rebuke to Obama, saying she was "enormously disappointed" he had decided to embrace legislation that she described as an attempt at blackmail by Republicans. But Pelosi never lobbied Democrats to kill the bill, and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and No. 3 Democrat Jim Clyburn of South Carolina were a steadying force in support of the measure.

Republicans, meanwhile, limited their defections to 67, mostly conservatives seeking an immediate confrontation with Obama over his moves to relax enforcement of immigration laws. Others simply refuse to vote for spending bills.

Read MoreCongress in no mood for pension bailout

But Republicans scored many wins in the legislation, seizing on new leverage gained after their sweep in last month's midterm elections.

One provision particularly galling to many Democrats would relax new bank regulations that force riskier trades in financial instruments known as derivatives into separate affiliates unprotected by deposit insurance.

The White House stated its own objections to the bank-related proposal and other portions of the bill in a written statement. Even so, officials said Obama and Vice President Joe Biden both telephoned Democrats to secure the votes needed for passage, and the president stepped away from a White House Christmas party reception line to make last-minute calls.

Summary: It's now up to the Senate to pass the huge $1.1 trillion spending bill - but not before a battle between veterans and freshmen.


So here's the story line -- a small, plain man, face scarred from burns as a child, a Jewish immigrant from Estonia, grows up poor in an industrial neighborhood of Philadelphia, attends the University of Pennsylvania on scholarship, and becomes one of the greatest architects of the 20th century. He marries, works, travels, teaches, achieves guru-like status with his students and much of the architectural world, builds masterpieces in the U.S., India and Bangladesh, has a heart attack and dies alone and broke in a men's room in New York's Pennsylvania Station, lying in the city morgue for three days until his body is identified and claimed. Horatio Alger story, with a final tragic twist. The money men won't exactly fall all over it.

But wait. The family that finds him is one of three; he is living a triple life. One wife and one child are listed in the New York Times obituary; two other women and two illegitimate children, a boy and a girl, appear for the funeral service, seated in the rear; the widow had let them know that they would not be welcome. The three families have carefully stayed apart; they are together in the same place, for the first time. Skip to 30 years later. The illegitimate son goes on a journey to find the father he never really knew. Too over the top?

The film is "My Architect," the architect is Louis I. Kahn, the filmmaker is Louis Kahn's out-of-wedlock son, Nathaniel Kahn, and the documentary has been nominated for an Academy Award. This is Nathaniel Kahn's first feature-length film and it has had an astounding success. Financed with predictable difficulty, screened privately for press and professionals, its word-of-mouth popularity achieved something no one ever dreamed of -- commercial distribution in multiplexes with the top Oscar-nominated movies. It was released back in November, but there are still long lines waiting to see it.

"My Architect" is a wonderful film, not just for its engrossing and surprisingly scandalous story, but for its remarkable personal mission. With co-producer Susan Behr, and photographer Bob Richman, Nathaniel Kahn set out to learn all he could about the father he loved and saw so seldom, the man whose clandestine visits during his childhood would be followed by long absences and loneliness. The journey took him to the places and buildings of Louis Kahn's career, and to the people who knew and worked with him.

Seated in Kahn's Assembly Building in Dacca, Bangladesh, a professor of architecture, Shamsul Wares, tells Nathaniel that his father "was no ordinary man," and gives a passionate recital of how the architect's vision conjured great buildings out of desolate, empty land. The owner of one of Kahn's more eccentric ventures, a concrete boat designed as a music barge in the 1960s and still in operation, was stunned to be visited by the child he had met so long ago, and dissolved into a tearful embrace. The usual famous talking heads pay earnest homage. But it is the people Nathaniel Kahn finds, the things they say, and the sensitivity and drama of the architectural photography that make this film so richly evocative, its emotional impact matched by its visual beauty.

Did he find the father he was looking for? I think the answer is in the title, "My Architect." The man he discovered in this intimate and intensely revealing inquiry was, first, an architect, and, incidentally and inadequately, a family man, no matter how many families he acquired. He had enough love to go around, just not nearly enough time. The professional always took precedence over the personal, and secrecy was easier than trying to resolve the unsolvable. He lived for his work, worked to excess, and went wherever his work took him. He was a nomad, and often slept on the office floor. The only address on his passport was his office, and he was found dead on a Sunday, when the building was closed, so no one could be reached.

The father is always elusive; it is the architect Nathaniel Kahn finally possesses. What he learned about Louis Kahn as a person and an artist is that the two are inseparable. We learn that, too, from the unusually fine photography; the architect's soul and spirit are unmistakably present in these strong, beautiful buildings.

Louis Kahn was one of the most talented and respected architects of our time. The iconic Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif., is a scientific research center with an identity of almost mystical toughness; the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, is admired internationally for its timeless serenity and elegance; the monumental symbolism of the educational and government buildings in India and Bangladesh suggests ancient civilizations. When he died in that men's room in Penn Station, 30 years ago, he was on his way back from Dacca.

I wonder if Nathaniel Kahn captured these buildings so perfectly -- the way the water channel splits the wide, flat stone plaza of the Salk Center in a straight, narrow line to the Pacific Ocean to engage the sea; the power and grace of the abstract geometry of the capitol of Bangladesh -- because he grew to understand them so well. It may have been the depth of his feelings, as much as his exploring eye, that makes the architecture so affecting and alive.

What Louis Kahn lacked in looks, he made up in charisma. He could speak like a prophet or an oracle, endowing buildings with anthropomorphic qualities. "What does the brick want to be?" he would ask, rhetorically and mysteriously. "It wants to be an arch," he would reply, making the brick's structural logic and expressive potential immediately and magically clear to anyone who heard him. He never wore clothes of his own design or adopted any of the stratagems of The Architect as Master of the Universe; he was rumpled and always on the run. He was such a bad businessman that when he died, he was several hundred thousand dollars in debt.

The film's press release tells us, in appropriate movie language, that Kahn led a life of secrets and broken promises. It would be safe to say that it was out of control. Nathaniel's mother always insisted that he had assured her that he was going to divorce his wife and come to live with them, and one of the more disturbing sequences is the son's interview with his mother, in which he questions her as she tearfully clings to her story. This must have been hard for them both.

Using pictures from his childhood, he recalls his father's secret visits and the games they played, and how both parents would put him to bed after dinner, awakening him later to take him, still in his pajamas, while they drove back to Philadelphia from Chestnut Hill. They would stop a block from his father's house and watch him walk home.

Neither affair was a passing fancy. Both women were professionals who worked in Kahn's office -- Anne Tyng was an architect, who had a daughter, Alexandra, and Nathaniel's mother, Harriet Pattison, was a landscape architect. There are poignant interviews with them all, and by film's end, Nathaniel has assembled them in a house designed by their father. It is not closure, that solipsism that Americans use to replace grief; there is too much remembered pain. The willingness to be together and move on is clearly restricted to the younger generation; this will never be one happy family.

There hasn't been a movie about architecture with this much popular appeal since that masterpiece of Hollywood kitsch, "The Fountainhead," in which Gary Cooper played Howard Roark, the terminally romantic, fictional architect-hero of Ayn Rand's novel. "My Architect" is reality -- a moving, bittersweet and marvelously touching film about an anti-hero who loved not wisely but too well, and generally made a mess of it, but left a brilliant body of magnificent work and a son who found himself, and his father, through it.

Ms. Huxtable is the Journal's architecture critic. She last wrote on the preservation of 2 Columbus Circle.

Summary: When Louis Kahn died, a triple life was revealed.  By Ada Louise Huxtable


CAMBRIDGE – Brian Carpenter is a slippery fellow. Since arriving here in 2000, he has been one of the Boston area’s most kaleidoscopic musicians, known for his work as a composer, arranger, and ringleader of disparate bands.

They’ve all been highly stylized ensembles that have put virtuosic spins on age-old art forms, from the carnival-esque revelry and improvisation of Beat Circus to Ghost Train Orchestra’s explorations of 1920s jazz from Chicago and Harlem. In each project, there has been a tradition to honor even as Carpenter blazes his own trail within it.

His latest, however, feels like his most revealing. Brian Carpenter & the Confessions pull back the curtain on Carpenter as a songwriter and vocalist. Recorded in 2011 but not released until this October, their new debut album is called “The Far End of the World.”

Befitting that title, the songs are brittle ruminations on separation and longing, on regret and redemption, on love and losing it. (Along with Ghost Train Orchestra’s new “Hot Town,” it’s the second album Carpenter has released this year. He and the band will perform selections from “The Far End of the World” at Great Scott on Wednesday, with opening sets from Thalia Zedek Band and the Wrong Shapes.)

“The big thing with this record and this band was to center it around the voice and the words, and to have no narratives,” Carpenter says recently at a Harvard Square cafe, not far from the Arlington home he shares with his wife and their young son. “In other words, you should be able to change the order of the verses and the songs still work.”

Carpenter calls them fragile. But the music surrounding them is evocative in the way it conjures a dusky mood that’s been described as desert noir. A high-lonesome sound snakes throughout the recordings, swathed in elegant string arrangements and female backing vocals. It’s Americana by way of David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.”

After recording with Rafi Sofer at Q Division in Somerville, Carpenter enlisted Craig Schumacher to mix the album. Schumacher is revered for his production work with Calexico, Tom Russell, DeVotchKa, and Neko Case (whose “Blacklisted” was an early sonic touchstone for Carpenter’s latest).

At Schumacher’s studio in Tucson, they mixed the songs so that Carpenter’s baritone, as arid as the Arizona desert, is up front. He relays these tales with the gravitas of an Old Testament prophet.

“They’re mostly low-tempo ballads. The voice is unadorned. And you have to be really confident about the words and the vocals,” he says. “That wasn’t an issue, but 10 years ago I wouldn’t have been confident enough to do that. But by the time we recorded this album, I had already found my voice.”

Carpenter was especially attuned to mood and imagery and to conveying a sense of place. It made perfect sense when he scouted Amboy, Calif., a dusty ghost town with a population in the single digits, as the location for the video for “Savior of Love.” (Amid its premise of carnal desire and forbidden passion, Carpenter makes a brief cameo with a harmonica solo.)

He was also careful not to overarrange the songs, giving them enough space to unfurl. That was a new challenge; his work with Beat Circus is often about maximal arrangement, with each song having a beginning, middle, and end. For the new album, though, “anything you don’t need, take it out” was the guiding principle.

“The key was to get something direct, and to render a particular experience so that it’s universal,” Carpenter says, adding that the album title felt like the perfect summation of its overall theme.

“It came out of a feeling of separation,” he says. “The songs are coming out of a personal experience, but I’m trying to do it in a way where it’s not so much about story, but more about imagery. I think these are non-narratives, but you could argue every song has a story.”

The Confessions are a six-piece ensemble of local players Carpenter put together. The current lineup, most of whom played on the album and will be performing at Great Scott, includes Jen Kenneally, Georgia Young, Andrew Stern, Gavin McCarthy, Tony Leva, and Jonathan LaMaster.

Carpenter gives particular credit to Stern, the guitarist who has worked with him for nearly nine years, first as part of Beat Circus. Stern, who introduced Carpenter to Schumacher’s production work, says Carpenter’s latest reveals another facet of his artistry.

“This new album is really a personal leap for him, and I think it’s pretty courageous,” Stern says. “It’s not easy to do that, but Brian has always been such an interesting guy. His mind is always moving at a fast clip, and he’s usually thinking of his next album when he’s in the middle of his current one. But I think we’re on to something good here.”

BRIAN CARPENTER & THE CONFESSIONS

With Thalia Zedek Band and the Wrong Shapes at Great Scott on Wednesday, 9 p.m. Tickets $10. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com

Summary: With “The Far End of the World,” the Boston-based Brian Carpenter & the Confessions pull back the curtain on Carpenter as a songwriter and vocalist.


As Rangers coach Alain Vigneault remains coy about injury updates, here is one thing that seemingly has become clear: No matter who might come into the lineup, rookie defenseman Brady Skjei is unlikely to come out.

Skjei has been a steadying influence for the Blueshirts in the first three games of their opening-round series against the Penguins, which resumes with Game 4 on Thursday night at the Garden. The Penguins hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

As left-handed captain Ryan McDonagh surprisingly returned for Game 3, it seems righty Dan Girardi is nearing a return. He practiced lightly again with the team on Wednesday, but Vigneault stuck with his status only as “day-to-day.”

As for the 22-year-old Skjei, who has excelled both on the right and left side, Vigneault’s gave about as ringing a postseason endorsement as you’ll hear.

“I think he’s played extremely well for a young man that’s been put in playoff hockey with very little relative experience,” Vigneault said. “I’ve said this many times — talent has no age. For the most part, other than a couple of decisions with the puck, I think his overall game has been very solid. Whether you’re a coach or a teammate, you feel pretty good and pretty confident when he’s on the ice.”

Skjei is not short on confidence, no matter the side he’s playing on. With his skating ability, it’s not hard to see why.

“I like the left side because I’ve played it more, but I don’t mind the right side at all,” Skjei said, having started Game 3 on the right side with McDonagh on the left. “I’m just as confident on that side as I am on the left. I felt like I was skating the puck and made the play that was there.”

Did he imagine he would be here, when just a month ago he was in AHL Hartford and had all of four NHL games under his belt? Skjei just smiled and shook his head.

“I mean — I’d hoped so. But no,” he said. “It’s an awesome opportunity for me, and I’m trying to be as confident as I can and play my game, and I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of that.”

The Rangers are losing the special-teams battle, going 1-for-12 on the power play — the one goal coming 5-on-3 — and giving up four goals on 13 man-advantages against through the first three games of this series. Vigneault saw it as a result of execution as well as effort.

“We talked about that [Wednesday] morning with our group, a couple areas we believe we can be a lot better,” Vigneault said. “Execution is a big part of this, but there is also will and there is also compete level that goes along with execution, and those puck battles, whether it be 5-on-5, 5-on-4, 4-on-5, that you need to get to first.”

The Rangers called up their taxi squad from AHL Hartford on Wednesday, bringing up forwards Chris Brown, Nicklas Jensen, Jayson Megna, and Daniel Paille, along with defensemen Mat Bodie, Ryan Graves, and Chris Summers.

Summary: As Rangers coach Alain Vigneault remains coy about injury updates, here is one thing that seemingly has become clear: No matter who might come into the lineup, rookie defenseman Brady Skjei is unli…


FORTUNE — What seems brilliant today can come back to bite you in the butt tomorrow when the world changes. That’s my major takeaway from the fiscal cliff soap opera.

It’s a lesson that Republican tax-cutting zealots are now learning, painfully, as their crusade to minimize taxes for the ultrawealthy teeters on the brink of failure. As we’ll see, this lesson applies to both parties: What’s happening to the tax-cut zealots today could happen down the road to the Democratic zealots who insist that Social Security doesn’t need to be fixed.

Taxes first. The reason we’ve got a fiscal cliff is that back in the early aughts, when people like Alan Greenspan were worried that federal budget surpluses would become excessive (you can snicker now), President George W. Bush came up with a seemingly brilliant strategy to force through enormous tax cuts. Rather than compromise with Senate Democrats to get substantial permanent cuts, the Bushies used a legislative process called “reconciliation” to push through mega-cuts with the narrow Senate majority they held, avoiding the need for 60 votes to overturn a filibuster (had the forces of fiscal sanity decided to mount one).

MORE: Why Republicans need to help Obama

Because of the way reconciliation works, the 2001 Bush cuts had to expire in 10 years (eight years for the huge 2003 cut in rates on investment income). But hey. At some point, the zealots figured, they’d get the votes to make the cuts permanent. And even if they didn’t, by the end of 2010 no one would dare let the cuts lapse. We would be in an economic boom, thanks to lower taxes. Life would be grand, especially for the mega-upper-classes, with no estate tax and the lowest taxes in the modern era on investment income.

Well, that didn’t quite work out, did it? The eight Bush years were an economic and fiscal sinkhole, and the first two Barack Obama years weren’t exactly robust. When the Bush cuts expired at the end of 2010, Republicans bought a two-year extension by agreeing to support extended unemployment benefits, and payroll tax cuts. But now the day of reckoning has come.

The biggest cuts for the biggest incomes seem certain to disappear. What’s more, rates for those folks are likely to be higher than they would have been if deals had been made in 2001 and 2003.

MORE: How Tim Geithner can dodge the next debt crisis

We’d have no cliff drama at all had Bush done a truly bipartisan tax cut with the likes of Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a fiscal conservative who’s one of my favorite politicians. Make that former politician — he’s leaving the Senate soon.

Says Conrad, who opposed the Bush cuts’ excesses: “They bet the farm, and we all lost. It’s coming back on them, and it’s coming back on the country.” How does he feel about having been proved right? “I take no joy in it at all,” he said. See why I like him?

I now fear that Democrats, currently feeling as empowered as the Bushies felt a dozen years ago, will make the same mistake with Social Security that the Bushies made with taxes.

Just as Bushies used ridiculous numbers to justify tax cuts, the official Democratic position uses ridiculous math to claim that Social Security doesn’t need fixing. The logic, such as it is: Social Security isn’t a problem because it shows a federal budget surplus. (I don’t know if there’s a different, unofficial position. I sure hope so.)

MORE: Medicaid – the next entitlement crisis

But our country’s real fiscal problem isn’t the federal budget deficit. It’s the huge increase in debt our country is incurring to pay our bills. In the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the Treasury had to borrow $160 billion (including $112 billion for the payroll tax holiday) to cover Social Security’s bills, even though the program showed a $65 billion budget surplus. (I explain the math below.)

Right now, Democrats are riding high. But if they don’t work out relatively modest, bipartisan cuts of future Social Security benefits now, in a decade or two the political climate may have changed, Social Security’s problems will be worse, and cuts will be bigger and nastier than if they’re made now.

Repeat after me: What goes around, comes around. Always has, and always will.

This story is from the January 14, 2013 issue of Fortune.

Summary: It seemed like a great idea at the time: sweeping tax cuts that would never go away because of an endless economic boom. The day of reckoning has come.


Last season, the Celebrity Series of Boston got more than 100 locals of all ages strutting their stuff in Copley Square Park with “Le Grand Continental.” This season, they head to the Rose Kennedy Greenway with a five-day festival inviting folks to join in the fun of dancing to live music. Celebrity Series says “Let’s Dance Boston” will be the largest free outdoor dance and music party Boston has ever seen.

For Celebrity Series executive director Gary Dunning, it’s not just about dance and music, but about community engagement. He likens it to old-fashioned dances in a town square. “It’s a good way to participate collectively and realize you’re not alone,” he says. “It invites Boston audiences to participate instead of just observe.”

Dance Complex director Peter DiMuro, who helped connect Celebrity Series with dance teachers and will emcee most of the events, says, “I think its pretty damn amazing. He has this vision that arts should be for everybody, and if people aren’t coming in to see it, [Celebrity Series] is going to go out to them.”

Activities will take place on a 60-foot-by-60-foot dance floor on the lawn of Greenway’s Wharf District Parks, at Atlantic Avenue and High Street. Each night features a different dance style, starting at 6 p.m. with 45 minutes of instruction followed by 90 minutes of open dancing to live music. Wednesday night features a Latin groove with Eguie Castrillo & His Orchestra, Roomful of Blues taps into swing music of the 1940s and ’50s on Thursday, the Loser’s Lounge brings on disco hustle on Friday, and Saturday night is a salsa party with New York-based Orquesta SCC. Sunday afternoon, starting at 3 p.m., harks back to the swing of the Roaring Twenties and ’30s with Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks.

Dunning envisions three kinds of participants: social-dancing enthusiasts who want to show their moves, people who want to learn a new dance form, and those turning out to watch and listen to the music.

DiMuro is most excited about the opportunity for people to dance to live music — “Like a wedding, but without all the drama,” he says with a laugh. “Dancing is a great way to offset all the negativity with something that uplifts our spirit.”

For Dunning, a sense of connection is key. “I envision a Boston where the performing arts are a lifelong shared, valued experience, seen as essential for a rich fulfilled cultural life,” he says. “Anyone can be an artist. Maybe not a world-class artist, but everyone can participate and get value from it and enjoy it.”

Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Rose Kennedy Greenway (Atlantic Ave. and High St.), Sept. 16-20. Free. 617-482-2595, www.celebrityseries.org

Summary: Celebrity Series of Boston says “Let’s Dance Boston” will be the largest free outdoor dance and music party Boston has ever seen.


The once bare-bones structure, hidden in a courtyard behind an upscale apartment building in Helsinki, Finland, was likely used in the past to shelter horses and store coal.

But Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu and his partner, business-school professor Pekka Mattila, saw the spot as a luxury refuge. They paid €1.2 million, or about $1.3 million, for the space.

Early last year, the couple gave up their high-end rental in the Kaivopuisto neighborhood, which hosts many embassies, to buy the cavernous carriage house in the hipster enclave of Punavuori, behind the tree-lined, tram-traveled Bulevardi.

They were able to negotiate on the sales price somewhat “because this is weird,” says Mr. Lintu, referring to the placement of the structure. The sellers were a family in western Finland who had been using it as a pied-à-terre and makeshift office.

“In this city,” says Mr. Lintu, “if you pay €1.5 million or €2 million, you want a sea view.”

The couple does without such views, and a limited amount of natural light on the ground floor, but feel rewarded by the quietness and privacy that only an entire house can offer.

The three-story, 2,150-square-foot structure, dating back to the late 19th century, would have been used to service the lavish apartments in front—likely providing residents with stables, coal and a staffed kitchen.

The previous owners had a three-bedroom configuration. The couple knocked down a bedroom wall to create a big second-floor study, and converted a smaller bedroom into a walk-in closet. Now the home is a spacious one-bedroom, with two full bathrooms, two powder rooms and a sauna.

The soaring ground-floor ceilings provide ample space for the couple’s extensive library, and the study allows room for the baby-grand piano and many musical scores belonging to Mr. Lintu, the 47-year-old chief conductor of Helsinki’s Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Prof. Mattila, 37, is on the marketing faculty of greater Helsinki’s Aalto University.

Cities such as New York and London have often preserved their old carriage houses as exclusive residences. But in pragmatic Helsinki such structures were typically treated as obsolete after World War II and so were torn down before they could be transformed into modern homes.

In the couple’s previous apartment in a 19th-century building shared with the Turkish Embassy, Mr. Lintu had to forgo late-night music making in deference to Finland’s residential rule that restricts apartment noise after 10 p.m.

“Now,” he says, referring to his 1 or 2 a.m. bedtimes, “I can play the piano whenever I want. He adds: “I hadn’t realized how much I missed that.”

The two men have busy schedules and travel extensively—Mr. Lintu’s recent engagements have included appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo’s New Japan Philharmonic. Arranging a moving date took some precise planning. After choosing a January day last year, and setting aside two weeks, the couple had to postpone the move until March. A leaky radiator had caused some ground-floor water damage.

They condensed the unpacking and arranging to a matter of days, then took a few more months to settle in. A decade-old renovation by the previous owners, who were seldom there, meant that little work needed to be done by the new owners. By July, says Mr. Lintu, it felt like home.

He says plans for entertaining prodded the couple to get things done. “It helps to invite people” right after a move, he adds.

The hardest part of the move, he says, was dealing with all the books and musical scores. Mr. Lintu insisted on packing his fragile scores himself. The couple was able to take along the living room’s massive bookshelves, but they bought a new Italian sofa for the second-floor study—now Mr. Lintu’s go-to spot.

Unlike many other Finnish homeowners, who are drawn to the cool white look of Nordic minimalism, the couple prefer something livelier.

“I have never been a huge friend of the simple Scandinavian style,” Mr. Lintu says. “I have seen beautiful places like that, but I need to have colors.” The interior features bold rugs bought in Marrakesh and color-rich art.

Right now, the couple is content with two floors, but they have their eye on the unused attic. “The third floor is interesting,” Mr. Lintu says, “but we haven’t decided what do to with it.”

One day, “we may want to build an entirely new study there,” he adds. “Or we may just put in a cross-trainer.”

Summary: In Helsinki, a conductor and his partner choose an unusual home in a courtyard; playing piano at 1 a.m.


Fuller House is moving forward without one very important member of the Tanner family.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen will not reprise the role they shared as Michelle in the upcoming Netflix revival of the beloved ABC sitcom, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

“Although Ashley and Mary-Kate will not be a part of Fuller House, I know how much Full House has meant to them and they are still very much considered family,” executive producer Robert L. Boyett said in a statement. “It has been exciting to see how they have built their professional careers, and I support their choice to focus on their fashion brands and various business endeavors. I appreciate their support and good wishes towards Fuller House.”

The new incarnation will star original cast members Candace Cameron-Bure (D.J.), her on-screen younger sister, Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie), and Andrea Barber, who played her best friend, Kimmy Gibbler. John Stamos will produce and reprise his role as Uncle Jesse in a guest role.Dave Coulier will also return as Uncle Joey. Talks are under way to bring back fellow original stars Bob Sagetand Lori Loughlin.

Although much of the original cast is set to return, the Olsen twins’ participation had long been in question. Days after the revival was officially announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in late April, they said they had not been made aware of the plan to bring the show back. However, Stamos subsequently called their claim “bullshit” in a tweet that has since been deleted.

The actresses got their start on Full House when they were just nine months old. They quickly turned their notoriety on the show into an empire of direct-to-video movies and specials under their company, Dualstar Entertainment, which was formed in 1993. After Full House ended in 1995, they starred on two other TV short-lived series, Two of a Kind and So Little Time. In recent years, the Olsens have turned their attention to their two fashion lines, The Row and Elizabeth and James.

Ashley has not acted since an uncredited appearance in 2010’s I’m Still Here, and Mary-Kate has not acted since 2011’s Beastly.

Premiering on Netflix in 2016, the series finds D.J. Tanner-Fuller employed as a vet, pregnant and recently widowed, and living in San Francisco. Stephanie, now an aspiring musician, and single mother Kimmy — along with Kimmy’s feisty teenage daughter, Ramona — all move in to help take care of D.J.’s two boys — the rebellious 12-year-old J.D. and neurotic 7-year-old Max — and her soon-to-arrive baby.

The multicamera comedy hails from Warner Horizon Television, Miller-Boyett Productions and Jeff Franklin Productions. Full House creator Jeff Franklin will return to oversee Fuller House alongside exec producers Boyett and Thomas L. Miller. The series originally aired on ABC from 1987 to 1995.

This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter

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Summary: The actresses will not reprise the role they shared as Michelle Tanner on the upcoming Netflix series 'Fuller House'


Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

05/06/2015 AT 06:55 PM EDT

are bidding adieu to their New Orleans home.

for $6.5 million, the historic 1830s mansion in the French Quarter features five bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, an elevator, chef's gourmet kitchen and a separate two-story guest house.

"It's beautiful [and has] off-street parking," listing agent Nycholas Hynes of Latter & Blum says of the property, while declining to identify the current owners. "That's a real gem in the French Quarter."

Last year, Pitt and pal

After realizing they lived across the street from one another, Pitt went inside his home to grab a beer and lobbed it over to McConaughey, who popped it right open for a sip.

Summary: The couple listed their French Quarter mansion on Tuesday