Article:

In Cerro Gordo, a town nestled in the Inyo Mountains of California, near Death Valley, there’s a single saloon with swinging doors, two out-of-tune pianos and a mysterious bloodstain on the wall beneath three bullet holes.

 It’s one of Brent Underwood’s favorite places in the ghost town, and now that he owns it, he plans on sharing it with the world. (He’s still trying to learn the story behind the bloodstain.)

 On Friday, Mr. Underwood and his friend Jon Bier became the latest owners of Cerro Gordo, which translates to “fat hill,” after buying it for $1.4 million. They plan to restore the town while preserving its past, Mr. Underwood said, adding that they hope to attract a variety of visitors. He said they expected to spend about $1 million to get things started.

 Jake Rasmuson of Bishop Real Estate said that he received hundreds of inquiries after the sale was announced in early June. Twelve of the offers were serious, he said, noting that the original asking price was $925,000. ||||| (CNN) — It is possible to buy entire towns these days.

 A little over a month after a 19th century ghost town in California called Cerro Gordo went on sale, Brent Underwood bought it for $1.4 million, real estate agent Jake Rasmuson said. The asking price for Cerro Gordo is $925,000, according to a property listing

 The sale closed on Friday the 13th -- "in true ghost town fashion," Rasmuson quipped.

 "We really didn't expect the activity we had," he said, saying that he underestimated the amount of offers the town would receive.

 "We received about a dozen offers, Mr. Underwood's offer was appreciated by the sellers," Rasmuson said. "There were other offers, but Mr. Underwood's plan was beneficial to the preservation and public use of the property."

 Cerro Gordo has been protected from digger, looters and effects from nature, according to the real estate company. Nolan Nitschke

 Cerro Gordo, which means "fat hill," has 22 structures remaining, including an abandoned hotel, church and bunkhouse. The abandoned mining town, which occupies over 300 acres of land, had been in family hands for decades, but they felt it was the right time to sell it, Rasmuson said.

 Cerro Gordo came into existence as a small mining town after the discovery of silver in 1865. At one point, it became the largest producer of silver and lead in California, according to its website

 "In its heyday, it averaged a murder a week," Rasmuson said. "It's really part of the Wild West."

 After the fall of lead and silver prices, and other setbacks, including a fire, Cerro Gordo's silver operations slowed and eventually became deserted.

 Buildings on Cerro Gordo include a historic hotel, a bunkhouse and superintendents house. Nolan Nitschke

 So what will become of this ghost town? Ideas ranged from turning Cerro Gordo into a theme park to a marijuana town.

 But Underwood, who owns a backpacker hostel in Austin, Texas, called HK Austin , says history is the reason he was interested in the town.

 "It isn't often you're entrusted to maintain such an interesting part of American history," he said in an email to CNN. "The town is so rich in history and has impacted so many lives."

 Underwood said he and business partner Jon Bier had been looking at hospitality locations around the United States that were large enough to create a unique destination. He said a friend sent him the CNN article discussing the initial sale.

 "I knew it was the one," Underwood said.

 The asking price for Cerro Gordo is $925,000. It was sold for $1.4 million. Nolan Nitschke

 Now that he's bought Cerro Gordo, he says he plans to "renovate a select number of the existing buildings to a point we'd be comfortable hosting people for long periods of time."

 That includes bringing WiFi to the 19th century property as well, he said.

 "We're looking to create a new destination. It isn't often you're able to have such a canvas to work with. We have over 300 acres and dozens of buildings," Underwood said. "We want to maintain the historic nature of the property while introducing amenities that will allow more people to enjoy the location."

 The long-term goals for Cerro Gordo are to bring "high level programming in forms of writing retreats, music events, dining experiences, photo shoots, theater, special events, and more."

 Underwood said he wants to create an experience that's available nowhere else. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Hard Luck Castle Mine Photo 2 Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6 Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9 Photo 10 Photo 11 Photo 12 Photo 13 Photo 14 Photo 15 Photo 16 Photo 17 Photo 18 Photo 19 Photo 20 Photo 21 Photo 22 Photo 23 Photo 24 Photo 25 Photo 26 Photo 27 Photo 28 Photo 29 Photo 30 Photo 31 Photo 32 Photo 33 Photo 34 Photo 35 Photo 36 Photo 37 Photo 41 Photo 42 IMG_4752 IMG_4753 IMG_4759 IMG_4758 IMG_4763 IMG_4764 IMG_4767 IMG_4773 IMG_4783 IMG_4777 IMG_4789 IMG_4791 IMG_4799 Video Tour 1 Bonnie Clair Road, Goldfield, NV 89013

 Features: 4 Bedrooms, 3 Baths

 4 story, 22 rooms, 8,000 square feet

 Off grid power. Water trucked in. 4000 gallon tank

 Separate wood and auto/metal shops

 40 Acres on two parcels

 Dormant gold mine included

 View Listing Details Remarks:

 An amazing opportunity to own one of the most unique properties in the the United States, the Hard Luck Castle combines elements of the Wild West with a modern-day castle. Encompassing 40 acres of land and 8,000 square feet of living space in the private Nevada wilderness. This exceptional property is self-sustainable and completely off the power grid. Read below for a complete list of offerings. The Main Building - The Castle: 4 story, 22 rooms, 8,000 square feet. Constructed from 2000 to 2012 with superior engineering to last 400 to 500 years. All steel, concrete, cinder block, and glass materials with 16" thick walls. Two kitchens, 3 full baths, full wood shop, wine cellar, theater and game room, glass solarium / planetarium, fountain room, large main entrance with afternoon view deck, two 1920's pipe organs. Partially furnished with antiques. 4,000 gallon water storage with rain catchment's and a water hauling trailer. Castle has become a tourist attraction and a landmark in Esmeralda County. Out-Buildings: Work / Automotive Shop - 600 square feet (20'x30') steel fabrication and welding workshop with automotive lift, second story storage with hoist, numerous hand and power tools, and full welding arrangement. Original, but remodeled miners cabin - comfortable, historic, plumbed and electricity added. Wooden cabin that sleeps 4 cozily. Complete kitchen. Shower House - shower and toilet with modern plumbing for use by cabin occupants. Guest trailer and outdoor rustic shower stall with a view. Power House with main generator. Gold mine tunnel with small secure storage / work area and rail-car access. The Land and Mining Claims: The Hard Luck Castle is built on 40 acres of patented private land. situated 9 miles off Hwy. 267 in Esmeralda County, NV. 187 miles from Las Vegas and 325 miles from Reno, NV. Productive, but dormant gold mine included. 160 ft. Gold mine shaft in serviceable condition. Closed at the start of WWII and never reopened, but still high in Gold content! Assay available. Total privacy at 6,000 feet elevation on Gold Mt. Nearest commerce center at Gold Point 10 miles away and Beatty, 50 miles away. Esmeralda County is one of the most relaxed counties in the US with NO building codes and few intrusive laws on private land. Year-around access on regularly graded county road. Just below the snow line and not too hot in the summer (90 degrees in July). Power Sources: The Castle has complete off-grid self-sufficiency, with several power sources. Solar and wind power charged battery as main power. 3000 gallon propane tank with heaters throughout the castle. Main diesel generator Two back-up diesel / propane generators 300 gallon diesel storage tank Included Equipment: Entire Castle with accompanying and personal property to be sold! Complete wood shop and all wood working equipment and hand tools. Complete automotive and metal shop with auto hoist, hand tools, welders, ample storage, compressed air, plus much more! Cat 12 road grader for snow removal and road clearing. 800 gallon water - hauling trailer Extras not mentioned: Cellular phone service available Satellite service available Direct TV service available RV Pad with complete hookups Seller will consider financing with substantial down payment

 $950,000 Music: Quick Links » Schedule a Viewing » Request More Info » FREE Listing Updates » View Map » Satellite Photo » Search the MLS » Print Flyer » Email This Listing » Feedback » View Entire MLS » Mineral Info Jake Rasmuson

 760.873.4264 (Office)

 619.971.0544 (Cell)

 760.873.4875 (Fax)

 Contact Me

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 About Jake

 Bishop Real Estate Rasmuson & Assoc.

 370 W. Line St.

 Bishop, CA 93514

 760.873.4264

 © 2019 Properties Online Inc., Patent No. US 6,760,707. The above information including square footage is based on data received from the seller and/or from public sources. This information is deemed reliable but has not been independently verified and cannot be guaranteed. Prospective buyers are advised to verify information to their own satisfaction prior to purchase. By providing links to other sites Properties Online Inc. does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to the agent, brokerage, brand or Properties Online Inc.. Powered by 01401464© 2019 Properties Online Inc., Patent No. US 6,760,707. The above information including square footage is based on data received from the seller and/or from public sources. This information is deemed reliable but has not been independently verified and cannot be guaranteed. Prospective buyers are advised to verify information to their own satisfaction prior to purchase. By providing links to other sites Properties Online Inc. does not guarantee, approve or endorse the information or products available at these sites, nor does a link indicate any association with or endorsement by the linked site to the agent, brokerage, brand or Properties Online Inc.. Powered by ListingDomains.com ||||| The ghost town of Cerro Gordo is officially under new management.

 After being on the market, the sale of the abandoned mining town south of the Sierra Nevada fittingly closed on Friday the 13th. The 24,000-square-feet of buildings and more than 300 acres of patented mining claims once averaged a "murder a week" in its hey day, and was once the largest producer of silver and lead in California.

 The new owners, Brent Underwood and Jon Bier, have assembled a team of Los Angeles-based investors for the town with hopes "to continue this piece of American history."

 The new owners said prior to the finalization of the sale they met with the previous owners of Cerro Gordo and found they had a common vision for what they hoped the town could be.

 "There were offers that were quite higher than our offer," Bier said. "But to the credit of the family that sold it, they went with our offer because we were going to keep the integrity and tell the story of what makes it culturally significant."

 "Our goal is to maintain the historical nature of the property and respect the piece of history," Underwood said.

 But that's not to say some changes won't be taking place.

 Cerro Gordo doesn't have running water so in order to make the town an extended-stay destination, that problem is No. 1 on the list. Both Bier and Underwood spoke of necessary refurbishments to be done to buildings so they are structurally sound as well as adding a restaurant and bar one day.

 Underwood said there aren't immediate plans to build new structures and that the current plans primarily revolve around refurbishing the 22 original buildings left standing in the ghost town.

 The group of investors have dreams of holding group retreats, stargazing, hiking tours and hatch throwing workshops.

 However one thing that won't be changing with the new sale is longtime caretaker, Robert Desmarais.

 Desmarais has lived in Cerro Gordo for the past 21 years as a caretaker, living alone in the desolate town even after his wife left the town because of the extreme altitude and weather conditions.

 He first came to Cerro Gordo in 1997 after seeing an ad in a trade magazine about mining in the town. Ever since his first visit, he has become one of the keepers of the ghost town.

 "I've fallen in love with the history of the town," Desmarais said. "I like the adventure and I love the fact that I am preserving history."

 Desmarais said he "doesn't want to ever leave" the wild wild west town and continues to hope that more people come and experience it.

 "I just really hope that the town can stay historically correct," Desmarais added. "And that more people can come and visit the town." ||||| Historic California ghost town sells for $1.4 million on Friday the 13th

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

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 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

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 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

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 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

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 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

 The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. The 19th-century mining town of Cedro Gordo and the surrounding 300 acres outside Lone Pine, Calif., is listed for $925,000. Photo: Nolan Nitschke

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 Photo: Nolan Nitschke Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Historic California ghost town sells for $1.4 million on Friday the 13th 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

 A bidding war recently broke out over a prime piece of California real estate — and it wasn't for a tiny San Francisco condo.

 In this case, a dozen offers were made for an entire town, the 19th-century mining hub of Cerro Gordo, on 300 acres in the Inyo Mountains outside Lone Pine, Calif. It was listed for for $925,000 in June and closed on Friday the 13th for $1.4 million.

 "I would say the date was very coincidental," says listing agent Jake Rasmuson of Bishop Real Estate. "Strictly by chance but very fitting for the property."

 The seller accepted an offer from a group of Los Angeles investors who plan to preserve the relic of the American West and keep it open to the public.

 "We did have higher offers, however the sellers really liked the buyers' proposal and liked the buyers' plan," says Rasmuson.

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 In the shadow of Mount Whitney, the property includes vast acreage of sage-studded land with mineral rights and a well-preserved authentic ghost town. There are almost two dozen buildings, including a church, a saloon, a historic hotel called the Belshaw Bunkhouse, a hoist house and a superintendent's house.

 The town was protected from diggers over the years, and many artifacts from the area are housed in a museum.

 Cerro Gordo has been in the hands of the same family for decades, and though privately owned, it was open to the public for tours. The owners were hoping to sell to someone who appreciates the property's history.

 ALSO, Northern California ranch, nearly the size of San Francisco, listed for $31 million

 The buyers are Brent Underwood, who founded the youth hostel HK Austin and Jon Bier, who runs a public relations firm catering to athletes. The two teamed up with other investors to make the purchase; they include Ryan Holiday, former director of marketing at American Apparel; Tero Isokauppila, CEO/founder of superfood company Four Sigmatic; Brendan

 Gahan, CEO/founder of Epic Signal; George Rutolo, owner of The Whisky Bars; and Kelley Mooney, an en executive at Hulu.

 "We want to maintain the historic nature of the property while introducing amenities that will allow more people to enjoy this piece of American history," Underwood says. "We have spent a lot of time with the current owners and caretaker to learn the history of the place. I've read all the books I can find on the town. I can't express our excitement to be able to continue the care of this beautiful location."

 He adds that they also hope to eventually add overnight accommodations and events such as writing retreats, concerts, photo shoots, theater and more.

 Silver was first discovered in the hills of Cerro Gordo in 1865, and in the following years prospectors flocked to its rich veins of silver. It became known as the "silver thread" to Los Angeles and silver was loaded onto mule trains and taken to the city. The town population swelled to some 5,000 at its height and quickly dwindled when silver prices dropped in 1877.

 "We want to create a place that pays tribute to this historic part of American history," Underwood says. |||||
What is a summary?

– On Friday, two friends became the proud new owners of a California ghost town. Cerro Gordo, a 300-acre town nestled in the Inyo Mountains not far from Death Valley, has a "Wild West" history thanks to the discovery of silver there in 1865; within four years, mining operations made it the largest producer of silver and lead in the state, and it later became the largest producer of zinc carbonates in the entire country. But that era ended, and by 1950, Cerro Gordo was basically abandoned. The previous owners, brothers who inherited the town from their family—the property listing says the town had been owned by the same family for decades—decided to sell it while attempting to keep its history intact, and received a dozen serious offers after announcing the sale in June. The original asking price was $925,000, but Brent Underwood and Jon Bier ended up purchasing it for $1.4 million, the New York Times reports. The entrepreneurs' plan is to revive the town, developing it into a destination while preserving its history. There are nearly two dozen buildings on the property, the San Francisco Chronicle reports, including a church and theater, a general store, a museum, a two-story hotel, an eight-bed bunkhouse, and of course a saloon; in addition to its iconic swinging doors and two pianos, the saloon features a bloodstain underneath three bullet holes on one wall. (The real estate agent tells CNN the town "averaged a murder a week" at the peak of the mining era.) Its caretaker—he's been there 21 years, NBC LA reports, and is currently the only person living in the town—will stay there as buildings are restored. Underwood and Bier plan to move there in August, the Sacramento Bee reports. Among other things, they plan to build an observation deck; Mount Whitney and Death Valley National Park can be seen from parts of the town. "You very much feel like you’re back in time," Underwood says.


Write an article based on this summary:

– True Grit, the Coen brothers’ latest, updates a John Wayne classic—though it may stick closer to the original novel than the first film. Critics are impressed, with the Rotten Tomatoes score currently at 95%: In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis applauds the film’s 13-year-old star, Hailee Steinfeld, who gives a “memorably ferocious performance” as a “character whose single-minded pursuit of vengeance has unmistakable resonance.” The film is “a winning western with just a few dark eddies beneath the surface, one that features a star-making lead performance and some spectacular photography,” writes Andrew O’Hehir in Salon. Still, it “falls just short of being great.” Writing in the New York Daily News, Joe Neumaier calls the movie a “wonderfully entertaining, beautiful Western drama that lets the quirks of the genre gallop freely as it keeps a tight rein throughout.”

40-Year-Old Mattie:

 (first lines) People do not give it credence that a young girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to average to her father's blood. But it did happen. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down and robbed him of his life and his horse and two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band. Chaney was a hired man and Papa had taken him up to Fort Smith to help lead back a string of Mustang ponies he'd bought. In town, Chaney had fallen to drink and cards and lost all his money. He got it into his head he was bein' cheated and went back to the boardin' house for his Henry rifle. When Papa tried intervene, Chaney shot him. Chaney fled. He could have walked his horse, for not a soul in that city could not be bothered to give chase. No doubt Chaney fancied himself scot-free. But he was wrong. You must pay for everything in this world, one way and another. There is nothin' free, except the grace of God. ||||| That old-time American religion of vengeance runs like a river through “True Grit,” a comic-serious tale about some nasty, brutish times. Beautifully adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen from the parodic western novel by Charles Portis, it turns on a 14-year-old Arkansas girl who hires a “one-eyed fat man” to hunt down her father’s killer. First published in 1968, Mr. Portis’s tall tale was brought to the screen the next year custom-fitted for John Wayne , who rode the role of that fat man, Rooster Cogburn, straight to an Oscar. Now it’s the thinner scene-stealer Jeff Bridges who sits and sometimes drunkenly slumps in the saddle.

 Much as he did in the raucously entertaining original film directed by Henry Hathaway, Rooster enters on his best behavior, seated in a courtroom amid a fog of cigar smoke and conspicuous lies. The pale, ghostly light comes courtesy of the Coens’ frequent cinematographer, Roger Deakins, while many of the twisty, funny sentences have been plucked by the filmmakers right from the novel. A deputy United States marshal, Rooster has attracted the interest of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld, in a terrific film debut), a half-pint who, with her bloodlust and severely braided hair, is an authentic American Gothic. As she listens to Rooster recount his bloody deeds and high body count, her eyes shine with a true believer’s excitement.

 Avenging her father and keeping close track of her family’s expenses are what preoccupy Mattie, a richly conceived and written eccentric, as memorable on the page as she is now on screen. Softened for the first film (in which she was played by a 21-year-old Kim Darby, in a bob), she has been toughed up again by the Coens so that she resembles the seemingly humorless if often unintentionally humorous Scripture-quoting martinet of Mr. Portis’s imagination. At times she brings to mind D. H. Lawrence’s famed formulation that “the essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer.” At other times, as when she wears her dead father’s oversize coat and hat, she looks like a foolish child left to perilous play.

 Those dangers are telegraphed early by the public hanging that occurs soon after the story opens. Mattie, along with a family worker, Yarnell (Roy Lee Jones), has traveled from her Yell County home to Fort Smith, Ark., to identify her father, who has been gunned down by another worker, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). After doing so, she sends Yarnell home and gets down to business, first by settling her father’s accounts. She then hires Rooster because she hears that he has “true grit,” a quality that mostly seems to entail a disregard for preserving the lives of his prisoners. It’s no wonder she watches the hanging with such avidity, and no wonder too that she takes off after Chaney, armed with Rooster and her father’s heavy gun.

 Their journey leads them into Indian country (with few Indians) and increasingly tense and violent encounters featuring corpses, severed fingers and a bad, bad man (Barry Pepper, spewing fear and spittle). On occasion a Texas Ranger, LaBoeuf (Matt Damon), who calls himself LaBeef, joins in the search. Wearing jangling spurs and a luxurious mustache that sits on his lip like a spoiled Persian cat, LaBoeuf hopes to bag Chaney for a large reward. Dead or alive, everyone in this story — snaggletooth thief or boardinghouse owner — has a price either on his head or in mind, usually in the form of the dollars and cents one person hopes to extract from another. “Why do you think I am paying you,” Mattie asks Rooster, “if not to have my way?” ||||| The turning point in Tony Kaye's new movie, "Detachment" -- which, despite many nameable flaws, is a wrenching and powerful achievement -- comes when Lucy Liu, playing a high school guidance counselor, suffers a major breakdown in front of a student. It's easy to be callous, she shrieks at the bored and bewildered girl in front of her, easy not to give a shit. What takes courage is actually caring about yourself and the world. Sure, you can call that a hackneyed sentiment, and some people won't get past the fact that "Detachment" is delivering a familiar message in a familiar setting. But two things redeem the scene, at least for me: 1) What Liu says is absolutely true, and it is one of the central problems in contemporary life, and 2) she's not saying it from some position of cool, removed wisdom; she's pissed off, filled with rage, and completely losing her shit at a girl whose only crime was announcing that she doesn't care about school and wants to be a model.

 "Detachment" might be the biggest conversation piece I've seen so far at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. It's a scattershot, melodramatic would-be epic set in and around a New York high school, with a tremendous cast headed by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody as a substitute teacher struggling with his own barren emotional life. (It also stars Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men," James Caan, Marcia Gay Harden, Blythe Danner and Liu.) It's an everything-including-the-kitchen-sink kind of movie with a Fellini level of ambition. Kaye blends animated sequences along with dreams, memories and fantasies, mini-interviews with real-life teachers, dogmatic lectures about the failings of our society, and quotations from Albert Camus and Edgar Allan Poe. Carl Lund's screenplay hits a lot of flat notes and the acting is uneven, but ultimately I didn't much care -- I was swept along by the spectacular visual journey and the wrenching emotional experience. People will either love "Detachment" or hate it, and either way it provides powerful testimony to the unrivaled passion and undiminished craft of director Kaye, whose notoriety in the film industry is matched by his near-total invisibility to the general public.

 If you've heard of Kaye at all, it's almost certainly because of his 1998 debut feature "American History X," which is now a revered cult film but was a historic flop on its initial release, plagued by an entertaining and highly public three-way feud between Kaye, star Edward Norton Jr. and distributor New Line Cinema. Kaye tried to get his name taken off the film and replaced with the credit "Humpty Dumpty" (even threatening to legally change his name to that effect). He reportedly suggested -- after the film was shot, edited and in the can -- commissioning a new script from Caribbean poet Derek Walcott and starting over again from scratch.

 Indeed, once you start with the Tony Kaye stories, you don't want to stop. He spent $100,000 of his own money on ads in the Hollywood trade papers abusing Norton and the film's producers, which I guess echoes the time when -- as a nearly unknown advertising director -- he bought an ad in a London broadsheet announcing that "Tony Kaye Is the Greatest English Director Since Hitchcock." He once shot more film for a 30-second Volvo commercial than Woody Allen had used in making "Hannah and Her Sisters." At the peak of his advertising success in the mid-'90s, he used to buy one of every item in the seasonal Comme des Garçons catalog. As he told a British interviewer a few years ago, "I did a lot of very insane things. A lot of very, very, very insane things."

 With his filmmaking career in ruins after the "American History X" debacle, Kaye briefly came under the wing of Marlon Brando, who hired him to film a series of seminars Brando was leading with Michael Jackson, Sean Penn and Jon Voight. (Of all the unfinished Kaye projects, that one may be the strangest.) But Kaye's penchant for showing up at Los Angeles nightclubs dressed as Osama bin Laden -- in the fall of 2001 -- succeeded in alienating even the legendarily antisocial Brando, who died before the two could manage any reconciliation. So began Kaye's period in the outer wilderness of the entertainment industry, before he began to work his way back by actually completing his memorably gruesome 2007 abortion documentary "Lake of Fire," most of which had been shot during the Clinton administration.

 I'm not Tony Kaye's shrink and I'm not sure it's worth speculating about why he did all the crazy things he did; when I interviewed him at the time "Lake of Fire" was released, he explained it all as a kind of act, in emulation of idols like Erich von Stroheim or Francis Ford Coppola. "All the work of the directors I really liked," he said, "those directors seemed to be tyrannical, egotistical, arrogant, mad. They were my gods, so I thought, 'Well, I'd better be like that.' I'm not really like that." That sounds like clear-sighted rearview analysis, but I'm not sure it's adequate. When I ran into Kaye the other day in the Tribeca press room, I didn't recognize him. When we met in 2007 he was bald, but he now has a Rasputin beard and non-haircut, and was approaching journalists with a hand-lettered paper sign that read, "I HAVE A SPEECH PROBLEM. MY NAME IS TONY KAYE ('American History X'). I WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT MY MOVIE 'DETACHMENT.'" (Kaye did have a speech impediment in childhood and says he avoids talking on the phone, but you'd never notice it in ordinary conversation.)

 Yes, it would be great if we could talk about "Detachment," because the other side of the Tony Kaye story is that he's such an intriguing and irresistible character that he throws his own movies into the shade, and that's not serving his interests or anybody else's. The thing is, in announcing himself as the greatest English director since Hitchcock back in 1980-whatever, Kaye was being an arrogant jackass, but his insight into his own potential wasn't necessarily wrong. In some alternate universe a few ticks away from ours, things went a little differently before or during or after "American History X" and Kaye is now widely seen as one of the greatest living filmmakers, along with Scorsese and the Coens and Darren Aronofsky and whomever else you'd like to nominate.

 But that universe isn't this one, and it's anybody's guess how much of a comeback Tony Kaye can mount at age 58, with the manner of a 19th-century European anarchist and a heavily allegorical high school drama that's going to sound, the more I describe it to you, like about seven (or 17) other movies you've already seen. It's got a terrific central performance from Brody, maybe his best since "The Pianist," but many of the other elements -- the sympathetic fellow teacher he starts dating (Hendricks), the hardass but well-meaning principal (Harden), the teen hooker he adopts off the street (newcomer Sami Gayle) -- seem like stock archetypes, at least until you actually sit down and watch the film.

 Some distributor is going to have to take a chance on "Detachment" and endure a certain amount of critical derision. It's probably worth it, partly because Tony Kaye still has cinematic talent to burn, but even more because of what he can do with it, even in a highly imperfect movie that uses the pointless but noble struggle of high school to stand in for lots of other pointless and noble forms of struggle, like making movies and being alive. What I take away from Tony Kaye's struggle is that he may have been a difficult personality -- and may still be one -- and expended way too much energy early in his career on behaving like an asshole, but he has never, ever, surrendered to cynicism or callousness. He cares passionately and prodigiously about everything he's ever done, arguably too much. If he has thrown away a once-promising career as a result, then his failure is better than most people's success. ||||| True Grit

 'True Grit' review: Coen brothers' reboot is a wonderfully entertaining, beautiful Western

 Sebastian/AP Jeff Bridges and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld star in Joel and Ethan Coen's 'True Grit.'

 A one-eyed marshal helps a girl find her father"s killer. With Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon. Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen (1:50). PG-13: Violence. At area theaters.

 Joel and Ethan Coen are rare cinematic originals, which masks how carefully distilled their films are. No matter the source — gangster noirs, cultural footnotes, Homeric journeys, Looney Tunes — they bolster new ideas with classic structure, and make the seasoned seem fresh.

 Their latest, "True Grit," adapted religiously from Charles Portis' 1968 pulp novel, is a wonderfully entertaining, beautiful Western drama that lets the quirks of the genre gallop freely as it keeps a tight rein throughout.

 John Wayne won an Oscar for his own version of quirky in the 1969 original, as U.S. Marshal Reuben (Rooster) Cogburn, a drunkard who called a mangy cat his relative and wore an eyepatch.

 In the Coens' fable of 1870s retribution, Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) is not a sideshow but a serious man. When 14-year-old Mattie Ross (newcomer Hailee Steinfeld) hires him to find her father's killer, Cogburn heads with her from Arkansas to the Indian territory that would one day be Oklahoma. For part of the way, a preening Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (Matt Damon) rides with them.

 Their adventure brings them to Chaney (Josh Brolin) and a scarred thug named Lucky Ned (Barry Pepper). The story builds slowly and is filled with character, and the Coens and their longtime cinematographer, Roger Deakins, make every run-in and frontier snowfall feel haunted and poetic.

 Damon is sly and Steinfeld is sturdy, yet the big question for most viewers — does Bridges sit tall in Wayne's saddle? — is really like comparing a rifle and a six-shooter.

 The onetime Big Lebowski is always a delight and lets Rooster reveal himself to be (a bit) softer at first, until he slowly pulls out the toughness. (Wayne, the same age in the first movie as Bridges is now, did it flinty, then tender.)

 Bridges has moments in which Rooster's croaky monologues are as full of nuance as the one eye he's left to work with. His sole peeper darts around, closes in exhaustion and earns our affection, while "True Grit" proves to be as funny and heroic as any other legend, and tells an expert tale to boot.

 jneumaier@nydailynews.com |||||


Summarize this article:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Thursday named David M. Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer aligned with the Israeli far right, as his nominee for ambassador to Israel, elevating a campaign adviser who has questioned the need for a two-state solution and has likened left-leaning Jews in America to the Jews who aided the Nazis in the Holocaust.

 Mr. Friedman, whose outspoken views stand in stark contrast to decades of American policy toward Israel, did not wait long on Thursday to signal his intention to upend the American approach. In a statement from the Trump transition team announcing his nomination, he said he looked forward to doing the job “from the U.S. embassy in Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem.”

 Through decades of Republican and Democratic administrations, the embassy has been in Tel Aviv, as the State Department insists that the status of Jerusalem — which both Israel and the Palestinians see as their rightful capital — can be determined only through negotiations as part of an overall peace deal.

 Mr. Friedman, who has no diplomatic experience, has said that he does not believe it would be illegal for Israel to annex the occupied West Bank and he supports building new settlements there, which Washington has long condemned as illegitimate and an obstacle to peace. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate attorney David Friedman as U.S. ambassador to Israel, selecting an envoy who supports Israeli settlements and other changes to U.S. policies in the region. Friedman said he looked forward to carrying out his duties from "the U.S. embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem," even though the embassy is in Tel Aviv.

 Like some of his predecessors, Trump has vowed to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem as part of their sovereign territory. The move would also distance the U.S. from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world.

 The president-elect said Friedman would "maintain the special relationship" between the U.S. and Israel.

 But the announcement sparked anger from liberal Jewish groups. Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, called nominating Friedman "reckless," citing his support for settlements and his questioning of a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

 The statement doesn't detail how Friedman could work in Jerusalem. However, Trump advisers have insisted in recent days that the president-elect will follow through on his call for moving the embassy.

 "He has made that promise," Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters Thursday. "I can guarantee you, just generally, he's a man who is going to accomplish many things very quickly."

 One option Trump allies have discussed would involve Friedman, if confirmed by the Senate, working out of an existing U.S. consulate in Jerusalem. According to a person who has discussed the plan with Trump advisers, the administration would essentially deem the facility the American embassy by virtue of the ambassador working there.

 It's unclear how far those discussions have gotten or whether Trump himself has been briefed on the proposal. Trump's transition team did not respond to questions about the matter.

 Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush promised to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, but backed away from the idea once in office.

 Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move that is not internationally recognized. It claims the entire city as its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem, home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, as the capital of their future state.

 Virtually all embassies to Israel are located in or around Tel Aviv.

 Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat told The Associated Press this week that he has been in touch with Trump's staff about the embassy issue. Barkat said his conversations have led him to believe that Trump is serious about making the move.

 _

 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC |||||

– Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate attorney David Friedman as US ambassador to Israel, selecting an envoy who supports Israeli settlements and other changes to US policies in the region, reports the AP. Friedman says he looks forward to carrying out his duties from "the US embassy in Israel's eternal capital, Jerusalem," even though the embassy is in Tel Aviv. Like some of his predecessors, Trump has vowed to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem as part of their sovereign territory. The move would also distance the US from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world. The president-elect says Friedman will "maintain the special relationship" between the US and Israel. But the announcement sparked anger from liberal Jewish groups, with the president of J Street calling Friedman's nomination "reckless," citing his support for settlements and his questioning of a two-state solution with the Palestinians. (Friedman has previously likened liberal Jews in the US to Jews who aided the Nazis during World War II, notes the New York Times.) The statement doesn't detail how Friedman could work in Jerusalem. One option would involve Friedman, if confirmed by the Senate, working out of an existing US consulate in Jerusalem. The administration would essentially deem the facility the American embassy by virtue of the ambassador working there.


Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| President-elect Donald Trump Donald TrumpOvernight Healthcare: GOP governors defend Medicaid expansion Trump poised to reinstate 'global gag rule' on Roe v. Wade anniversary: report Cheney calls for DeVos to be confirmed ‘promptly’ MORE tweeted Sunday night about outgoing CIA Director John Brennan, questioning if he’s the “leaker of Fake News?”

 Trump’s first tweet quoted a Fox News headline that read, “CIA's Brennan warns Trump, says he doesn't 'fully understand' Russia threat” and added commentary of his own.

 “Oh really, couldn’t do … much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?

 .@FoxNews "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017

 much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017

 ADVERTISEMENT

 The president-elect last week blasted intelligence agencies after it was reported that Trump had been briefed on an unverified dossier alleging Russia had compromising information on him.

 Brennan said Sunday that the president-elect needs to be disciplined about what he says publicly and criticized Trump for likening the actions of the intelligence community to those of Nazis. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Soon-to-be-former CIA Director John Brennan strongly criticized Donald Trump on Sunday for reckless tweeting and for failing to understand the threat from Russia—and the president-elect took to his communication medium of choice to react. "'Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand,'" Trump tweeted, quoting a Fox headline. "Oh really, couldn't do much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?" Trump wondered. In an earlier tweet about the Russia dossier, Trump said intelligence chiefs and the media should "APOLOGIZE" for making "a mistake." Brennan had told Fox News Sunday that Trump needs to be a lot more disciplined about his "talking and tweeting" when he becomes president, the Hill reports. "Spontaneity is not something that protects national security interests and so therefore when he speaks or when he reacts, just make sure he understands that the implications and impact on the United States could be profound," he said. Brennan—who leaves office Friday, along with other Obama administration officials—also warned Trump against "absolving Russia of various actions that it's taken in the past number of years" and said it was "outrageous" that Trump had compared the intelligence community to Nazi Germany, the BBC reports. (Trump also tweeted criticism of Saturday Night Live after the "really bad" show's latest portrayal of him.)


News article:

LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May survived a confidence vote from her Conservative party on Wednesday, but more than a third of her lawmakers said she was no longer the right leader to implement Britain’s exit from the European Union.

 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London, Britain, December 12, 2018. Parliament TV handout via REUTERS

 Britain’s March 29 exit has been plunged into crisis by parliamentary opposition to the divorce deal she struck with the EU last month, which has opened up possibilities including a delay to Brexit or even another referendum on membership.

 May on Monday cancelled a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, designed to maintain close future ties with the bloc and agreed after two years of negotiations, after it became clear she would lose it badly.

 Eurosceptic critics of the deal within her own party triggered a no-confidence vote in her leadership hours after she returned from talks with European leaders aimed at winning additional assurances about her deal.

 After two hours of voting in Committee Room 14 in the House of Commons, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, said 200 Conservative lawmakers had voted in support of May as leader, and 117 against, indicating her party was bitterly divided over the direction of Brexit.

 Supporters said the result showed the party should now get behind her. But the hardline Brexit supporters who triggered the vote because they saw her deal as a betrayal of the 2016 referendum said she should now quit.

 “It is a terrible result for the prime minister,” Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of a hard Brexit faction in the party, told BBC Television. “The prime minister must realise that, under all constitutional norms, she ought to go and see the queen urgently and resign.”

 But May loyalist Chris Grayling, her transport minister, said the party had endorsed her “comfortably”.

 ENDANGERING BREXIT?

 May, who voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum, had warned opponents of her withdrawal deal - struck after two years of negotiations - that if they toppled her, Brexit would be delayed or stopped.

 Shortly before the vote, May sought to win over wavering lawmakers by promising to step down before the 2022 election.

 Brexit is Britain’s most significant political and economic decision since World War Two. Pro-Europeans fear the departure will weaken the West as it grapples with the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and growing assertiveness from Russia and China.

 The outcome will shape Britain’s $2.8 trillion economy, have far-reaching consequences for the unity of the kingdom and determine whether London keeps its place as one of the top two global financial centres.

 Supporters of Brexit admit there may be some short-term pain for Britain’s $2.9 trillion economy, but say it will prosper in the long term when cut free from the EU, which they cast as a failing German-dominated experiment in European integration.

 May, 62, won the top job in the turmoil that followed the 2016 EU referendum, where Britons decided by 52 percent to 48 to leave the EU. She promised to implement Brexit while keeping close ties to the bloc, to heal a divided nation.

 Sterling jumped as high as $1.2672 GBP=D3 as the result came in but then fell to $1.2605, still up 1 percent on the day, after it emerged that the number of lawmakers who had voted against May was higher than many in the markets had expected. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa May smiles at gathered journalists as she awaits the result

 Theresa May is awaiting the result of a vote by Conservative MPs on whether they want to keep her as their leader.

 The UK prime minister made a last-minute appeal for support at an emotional meeting of backbench MPs.

 She told them she will not lead the party into the next scheduled election in 2022 - but wants to stay on to deliver her Brexit deal, MPs said.

 She faces a vote of confidence in her leadership after 48 Conservative MPs called for one to be held.

 The majority of Conservative MPs have publicly said they will support the PM but it is a secret ballot and there were signs of nerves among party managers ahead of the vote in Committee Room 14 at the Palace of Westminster.

 Voting finished at 20:00 with the result expected within the next hour.

 The prime minister was greeted with applause, and the traditional banging of desks, as she went in to the committee room to address her MPs. Some of them were reported to be in tears.

 She is understood to have promised not to call a "snap general election" and told MPs that in her heart she would have liked to have led them into the next scheduled election, partly because of what had happened at last year's election, when she lost her majority.

 But, she added: "I realise that the party would like a different leader to take them into that election."

 Cabinet minister Amber Rudd said "she was very clear that she wont be taking the general election in 2022".

 But Jacob Rees-Mogg, a key figure in the campaign to oust Mrs May, said she had received a "half-hearted" reception from MPs.

 She had said it was not her "intention" to fight the next election, added Mr Rees-Mogg, which he said was a "politician's word".

 Marcus Fysh, who also submitted a no confidence letter, said Mrs May "didn't really have anything new to say" about Brexit.

 She vowed to involve more people in developing policy, the MP told BBC News, but he did not think that would happen.

 And he predicted that the prime minister would face a no-confidence vote of all MPs - not just Conservative ones - when she tried to get her Brexit deal through the Commons.

 "Whatever happens tonight I don't think she will be able to command the confidence of the House for the type of Brexit she is trying to pursue."

 Minister Margot James said she was "proud" to have voted for the PM, tweeting a picture of her ballot paper.

 Conservative Party rules say that if she wins tonight she can stay on as leader, undisturbed, for another 12 months.

 That takes one uncertainty off the table. But she would be weaker - lonelier - and with less authority to drive her Brexit compromise through.

 Already, cabinet ministers are speculating about which way she can tack.

 The parliamentary sums don't change on her current planned agreement with the EU. The cabinet, let alone the rest of the Commons, won't give their backing.

 Read Laura's blog

 Can she survive the confidence vote?

 Immediate statements of loyalty for the prime minister were issued by every member of her cabinet, including several who have been touted as possible successors.

 Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Mrs May was "the best person to make sure we actually leave the EU on March 29", while Chancellor Philip Hammond suggested the vote would "flush out the extremists" in his party whose Brexit agenda was "not in the interests of the British people".

 So far, 174 Tory MPs have publicly said they will vote for her, with 34 publicly against, according to BBC research. She needs to secure the votes of 159 MPs to survive.

 If Mrs May wins the confidence vote she cannot be challenged as Conservative leader for at least another year.

 If she does not win the vote there would then be a Conservative leadership contest in which she could not stand.

 If Mrs May won - but not overwhelmingly - she may decide to stand down as party leader and trigger a leadership contest in which she could not stand.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sir Graham Brady says he phoned the prime minister to advise her the threshold of 48 letters had been reached

 What has Theresa May said?

 In her statement delivered early on Wednesday morning, Mrs May said: "A leadership election would not change the fundamentals of the negotiation or the Parliamentary arithmetic.

 "Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart will only create more division just as we should be standing together to serve our country. None of that would be in the national interest."

 She said she was making progress in her talks with EU leaders and vowed to "deliver on the referendum vote and seize the opportunities that lie ahead".

 The Conservatives had to build a "country that works for everyone" and deliver "the Brexit people voted for".

 "I have devoted myself unsparingly to these tasks ever since I became prime minister and I stand ready to finish the job."

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "I stand ready to finish the job" - Theresa May

 Will there be a new prime minister if she loses the vote?

 Not immediately. She would be expected to stay on as a caretaker prime minister until a new Conservative leader is selected by the party, a process that could take up to six weeks.

 If there are multiple candidates, Conservative MPs hold a series of votes to choose two to go forward to a vote of party members.

 As leader of the largest party in the Commons, the new Conservative leader would then be expected to be asked to form a government and become prime minister, without a general election.

 It's Wednesday, so... Prime Minister's Questions

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jeremy Corbyn criticises Theresa May at PMQs

 Mrs May faced repeated calls from Labour MPs for her to quit - or hold another EU referendum - at a rowdy Prime Minister's Questions.

 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: "The time for dithering and delay is over. The prime minister has negotiated her deal. She has told us it is the best and only deal available.

 "There can be no more excuses, no more running away. Put it before Parliament and let's have the vote."

 Mrs May said the vote will take place, and as Labour MPs shouted "when?" at her she said: "We've had a meaningful vote, we had it in in the referendum in 2016."

 The PM added: "And if he wants a meaningful date I'll give him one; 29 March 2019 when we leave the European Union."

 Veteran pro-European MP Ken Clarke called the prospect of a leadership contest "unhelpful, irrelevant and irresponsible", prompting loud cheers from the Tory benches.

 But the SNP's leader at Westminster Ian Blackford called on Mrs May to stand down, saying her government was "an embarrassment".

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'The inconstant gardener' - May's PMQs swipe at Labour

 Who is trying to oust Mrs May?

 Image copyright PA Image caption Jacob Rees-Mogg: In the national interest, she must go

 The challenge has been brought by Conservative MPs who think Mrs May has watered down the Brexit voters were promised in the 2016 referendum.

 The PM thought she had seen off an attempt by this group of Brexiteers to get rid of her last month.

 But her decision to cancel Tuesday's Parliamentary vote on her deal at the last minute proved to be the final straw for many who had previously given her the benefit of the doubt.

 There needed to be 48 MPs calling for her to go - out of 317 Conservative MPs - to trigger a confidence vote and this threshold was reached on Tuesday.

 Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has led backbench calls for her to go, said: "Theresa May's plan would bring down the government if carried forward. But our party will rightly not tolerate it.

 "Conservatives must now answer whether they wish to draw ever closer to an election under Mrs May's leadership. In the national interest, she must go."

 And Bernard Jenkin said the survival of the Conservative government depended on the support of the Democratic Unionists, who he said had lost faith in Mrs May.

 Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, who is campaigning for a further referendum, told BBC Radio 2 she hoped Mr Rees-Mogg's group would "get a kicking" in the vote and that their "pompous gesturing" will be exposed.

 Why are they trying to get rid of her?

 They don't like the deal she has struck with the EU, which they say will keep the UK tied to the EU indefinitely with no say over its rules and unable to strike trade deals around the world.

 Anger has focused on the so-called "backstop" to prevent the return of a physical border in Northern Ireland.

 Mrs May has said she is seeking guarantees that this clause will be "temporary" but the Democratic Unionist Party, which she relies on to win key votes, wants the backstop to be ditched altogether.

 And her Conservative critics think she will not be able to get anything more than cosmetic changes to her withdrawal deal because EU leaders say it can not be renegotiated.

 Who are the frontrunners to lead the party if she loses?

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid and Amber Rudd

 There are many names being floated, with Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd among cabinet ministers rated by the bookmakers.

 Former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, ex-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and ex-Brexit Secretary David Davis are the ex-cabinet ministers also judged to be in the running.

 But, as BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg says, the field of hopefuls could be much larger and, initially at least, resemble the start of a Grand National.

 What does it mean for Brexit?

 Whatever the outcome of the vote, Mrs May is still likely to represent the UK at Thursday's summit of EU leaders, although that might change if she loses the Tory leadership.

 She has been invited to update her 27 counterparts on the state of Brexit before they meet to "adopt relevant conclusions".

 European Council President Donald Tusk has said the "seriousness" of the situation in the UK means the EU must accelerate its no-deal planning.

 Mrs May met Germany's Angela Merkel and top EU officials on Tuesday as part of efforts to get changes to her EU deal to get it through the UK Parliament.

 But she was forced to call off talks with Irish premier Leo Varadkar, among others, on Wednesday to fight for her leadership.

 Mrs May says any new Conservative leader would have to delay Brexit to renegotiate a deal with the EU while she has also suggested a leadership contest will effectively hand control of the Brexit process to MPs - many of whom either back leaving without a deal or having another referendum.

 Many of those calling for her to go say they would be happy for the UK to leave the EU on World Trade Organization terms, without a deal. They say warnings of economic doom are exaggerated. ||||| 19:29

 What about the ‘meaningful vote’?

 The result clearly highlights May’s essential Brexit problem. The number of rebels at 117 is eyecatchingly similar to the 100 or so MPs who were planning to vote against her Brexit deal before she postponed the vote a day before its scheduled date of Tuesday.

 It is a blocking minority preventing the current deal, or anything like it, from being ratified by parliament. To win round that amount of rebels, May has to make dramatic progress in her talks with Brussels and persuade the right of her party that she can “bin the backstop”.

 However, the European Union has made it repeatedly clear that the legally binding 585-page withdrawal agreement – which contains the Northern Irish backstop – is not up for renegotiation. And without renegotiation, the backstop will endure and Tory rebels will almost certainly not vote for it.

 No 10 has promised that the vote will happen before 21 January, which in negotiating terms is very little time at all. So the Brexit fundamentals at Westminster remain, for now, unchanged. ||||| Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street, London, confirming there will be a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party, Wednesday Dec. 12, 2018. The... (Associated Press)

 LONDON (AP) — The Latest on political turmoil in Britain (all times local):

 5:35 p.m.

 Prime Minister Theresa May is speaking to dozens of Conservative lawmakers, less than half an hour before a no-confidence vote among them that will decide her fate.

 May was greeted by table banging as she entered a room in the House of Commons to address backbenchers.

 That is a customary sign of approval, but May faces a tough crowd that includes rivals such as former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and ex-Brexit Secretary David Davis.

 Both are among critics of May's Brexit deal with the European Union.

 Tory Brexiteers are hoping to topple May in Wednesday evening's vote. She is making a last-minute appeal, saying ditching her now would plunge the country into even more uncertainty.

 One lawmaker who attended, James Cleverly, said May "made it very clear that there is a job of work to be done (on Brexit) and this is a delay and a distraction."

 ___

 4:25 p.m.

 British bookmakers William Hill say they've suspended betting on the question of whether Prime Minister Theresa May will win a confidence vote by her party.

 William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams says that the odds favored May from the beginning of the day, and did nothing but improve as Wednesday night's vote neared. Before betting was suspended, people putting money on a May win had to wager 10 pounds to win one pound.

 Adams says the firm suspended betting because "we're 100 percent certain she's going to win."

 ___

 4 p.m.

 Some Londoners are reacting with sympathy at the news that Prime Minister Theresa May faces a confidence vote that may remove her from power.

 Abby Handbridge, a trader at Chapel Market in north London, said Wednesday that the spectacle was "embarrassing" for Britain in the eyes of the world.

 "I feel really sorry for Theresa May," she said. "She's being battered by everybody and Boris Johnson has just come out with a haircut and weight loss so we know what he is looking for."

 Another trader, 61-year-old David White, compared May's Conservative Party challengers to "rats deserting a sinking ship."

 "I don't think it should have come to this," he said of the formal challenge to May.

 Support was hardly unanimous, though, with some traders saying May is power hungry.

 Lawmakers casting their votes of confidence in a secret ballot later Wednesday.

 ___

 1:45 p.m.

 Germany's Cabinet has approved legislation to protect British residents' rights in the country in the event of a no-deal Brexit and to make the country a more attractive location for banks seeking to relocate.

 Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said ministers have approved a bill safeguarding the German health insurance, unemployment insurance and pension status of British citizens living in Germany and German citizens living in Britain at the time of Brexit.

 The future status of those citizens affected by the Brexit process remains especially uncertain following the news earlier that Prime Minister Theresa May will face a no-confidence vote later from lawmakers in her own party. A withdrawal agreement ahead of Britain's exit from the European Union in March has yet to be voted on by the British Parliament.

 Another German bill foresees loosening the requirement for banks to justify why they're ending a contract with a highly paid employee deemed to be a "bearer of risk," such as heads of department or high-volume traders.

 Germany has much more restrictive rules on dismissing workers than Britain, which is seen as a disincentive for Britain-based banks to shift operations to Frankfurt.

 ___

 12:25 p.m.

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel is underlining the European Union's insistence on sticking to the Brexit agreement as it stands, but stressing that she remains committed to an orderly British withdrawal.

 Merkel, who met Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May, noted that "things are in flux" in London.

 She said that "we do not have any intention of changing the withdrawal agreement" but otherwise didn't go into detail.

 Merkel said that Germany remains committed to securing an orderly British withdrawal, and said that "we don't have much time, but we still have time."

 ___

 10:55 a.m.

 Business figures have expressed alarm about the political uncertainty in the U.K. ahead of a Conservative Party confidence vote on Prime Minister Theresa May later.

 Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said politicians should understand the impact of their "high stakes gambles" with Britain's economy.

 "At one of the most pivotal moments for the U.K. economy in decades, it is unacceptable that Westminster politicians have chosen to focus on themselves, rather than on the needs of the country," he said after the Conservative Party said there would a vote on May's leadership.

 He said there was "utter dismay" among businesses about the vote on Wednesday evening.

 Federation of Small Businesses chairman Mike Cherry said the current turmoil is "weighing heavy" on entrepreneurs.

 ___

 9 a.m.

 British Prime Minister Theresa May says a change of national leader would result in Britain's departure from the European Union being delayed or stopped, as she vowed to fight to stay in power.

 May made the defiant statement outside Downing Street on Wednesday, arguing that stepping aside at a time of crisis would "put our country's future at risk and create uncertainty when we can least afford it."

 The U.K. leader is facing a no-confidence vote that will see her removed as party and government leader if she loses.

 ___

 8:50 a.m.

 U.K. leader Theresa May is vowing to fight a no-confidence vote "with everything I've got," appealing to party colleagues to support her leadership.

 The announcement of the challenge to May's leadership throws Britain's already rocky path out of the European Union, which it is due to leave in March, into further chaos.

 Many Tory lawmakers have been growing angry with May over her handling of Brexit, and the challenge comes days after she postponed a vote to approve a divorce deal with the EU to avoid all but certain defeat.

 If she loses Wednesday's vote, May must step down and there will be a contest to choose a new leader. She will remain leader, and prime minister, until the successor is picked. If she wins, she can't be challenged again for a year.

 ___

 7:55 a.m.

 A British Conservative Party official says Prime Minister Theresa May will face a no-confidence vote from party lawmakers.

 Graham Brady says the threshold of 48 letters from lawmakers needed to trigger a leadership vote has been reached. Brady chairs the party committee that oversees leadership contests.

 Many lawmakers have been growing angry with May over her handling of Brexit.

 If she loses the vote of party legislators, taking place on Wednesday evening, May must step down. If she wins, she can't be challenged again for a year. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– When Prime Minister Theresa May entered a room in the House of Commons to speak to Conservative lawmakers ahead of a no-confidence vote Wednesday, she was greeted by table banging—a customary sign of approval, reports the AP. It ended up being a prescient gesture: The BBC reports she needed the votes of 159 MPs to remain the Conservative leader, and she crossed that threshold, winning the confidence vote 200 votes to 117, reports the Guardian. It adds that after the words "does have confidence in..." were announced, it could not hear the rest due to the eruption of cheers. But Reuters reports May won't be in it for the long haul. In her pre-vote comments, she pledged to step down in advance of the 2022 parliamentary election. "She did say she wouldn't be fighting the next general election," one minister was quoted as saying. "It was quite emotional the way she put it, she said in my heart I wanted to do that but now I recognize that I am not going to."


Write a summary based on this article:

A reigning beauty queen and her sister went missing just days before she was scheduled to fly to London for the Miss World competition.

 Miss Honduras, María José Alvarado, 19, and her sister, Sofia Trinidad, vanished after attending a friend’s birthday party late Thursday night near their hometown of Santa Barbara, according to several reports.

 Police initially said the disappearance was not being treated as a crime but later confirmed that four people had been arrested and were under questioning, the Telegraph reported.

 “They include the owner of the party venue and Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend. They are being investigated,” Police Chief Jose Coello said, according to the British news site.

 Pageant director Eduardo Zablah told told CNN affiliate Televicentro that the young women were last seen stepping into a vehicle after the party.

 Alvarado had been spending a few days with her parents before setting off for the United Kingdom.

 "Open your hearts and understand my pain," her mother pleaded Sunday night, the Telegraph reported. "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything, and I hope you set them free."

 Alvarado was crowned Miss Honduras on April 26 in San Pedro Sula after defeating 18 other contestants.

 Her Miss World profile says she is a student who aspires to work as a diplomat for her country and enjoys playing sports in her spare time.

 The Miss World contest is slated to start on Thursday and culminate in the crowning of a new winner on Dec. 14.

  ||||| TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran authorities are holding four people for questioning about the disappearance of Maria Jose Alvarado, Miss Honduras 2014, and her sister four days ago in a city near the Guatemala border.

 Police spokesman Lt. Joseph Coello says one of the detained, Plutarco Ruiz, is the boyfriend of Alvarado's sister, Sofia, who is also missing.

 The two women were last seen in a spa in Santa Barbara, about 240 miles (400 kilometers) west of Tegucigalpa, where they had gone to celebrate Ruiz's birthday. Coello said Monday the case is being treated as a disappearance. There has been no ransom request.

 Alvarado, 19, was crowned Miss Honduras in April and is expected to compete in the Miss World Pageant in London next month. She was supposed to leave for London on Sunday. ||||| Police in Honduras are hunting for a missing beauty queen due to fly to London later this week for Miss World 2014.

 Reigning Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, vanished with her sister, Sofia Trinidad, after a party last Thursday.

 The pair had been celebrating a friend's birthday near their home town of Santa Barbara, where student Alvarado, 19, was spending time with her parents before flying to Britain to represent her country.

 The missing women were last seen getting into a vehicle as they left the party.

 Police chief Jose Coello originally said they were not treating the pair's disappearance as a crime.

 But it emerged on Monday four people including Trinidad's boyfriend had been arrested and were being questioned as the last-known people to see them alive.

 Mr Coello confirmed: "Four people are under arrest. They include the owner of the party venue and Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend. They are being investigated."

 The case has caused consternation in the notoriously violent central American country, home to the most dangerous city on the planet.

 San Pedro Sula, just over 30 miles from Santa Barbara, is the murder capital of the world with more than 1,200 killings a year among its nearly one million inhabitants.

 Its murder rate of 169 per 100,000 people far surpasses anything in North America or much larger cities like Lagos or Sao Paulo.

 Alvarado describes herself on a Miss World website profile as an aspiring diplomat who enjoys playing volleyball and football in her spare time.

 She beat 18 contestants to win the Miss Honduras crown in April.

 She missed an appointment on Sunday evening to try on the dress she hopes to win Miss World with.

 The women's mother Teresa de Jesus pleaded last night: "Open your hearts and understand my pain.

 "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything and I hope you set them free."

 Miss World is due to start on Thursday, with 120 contestants competing for the crown.

 The grand finale takes place on December 14 at ExCeL London.

 Swiss-born medical student Carina Tyrrell, 24, a qualified ski instructor and competition level gymnast, is representing England.

 Scotland is represented by media and marketing student Ellie McKeating, 20, from Glasgow.

 Ireland's representative is business studies student Jessica Hayes, 20, from Cork. |||||

– Honduran police have apprehended four people in the case of a beauty queen who went missing mere weeks before she was supposed to compete for the Miss World title, the Telegraph reports. Maria Jose Alvarado, the reigning Miss Honduras, hasn't been seen since attending a party in Honduras on Thursday. She went with her sister, Sofia, to celebrate the birthday of her sister's boyfriend at a spa near the town of Santa Barbara, the AP reports. The two women reportedly got in a vehicle afterward and disappeared. Among those under arrest are the sister's boyfriend, Plutarco Ruiz, and the owner of the venue where the party was held. "They are being investigated," says a police chief. The vanishing is a hot topic in Honduras, which the Telegraph calls "notoriously violent" and "home to the most dangerous city on the planet." That city is San Pedro Sula, which logs more than 1,200 murders annually among a population of 1 million. It's also about 30 miles away from Santa Barbara. "Open your hearts and understand my pain," says Alvarado's mother. "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything and I hope you set them free." Alvarado, who was supposed to fly to London Sunday and try on her Miss World dress, says on her pageant profile that she likes playing sports and hopes to be a Honduran diplomat one day, Yahoo reports. (This beauty queen was accused of stealing a $100,000 crown.)


Summarize this article:

BOSTON (Reuters) - A Boston-area man accused of threatening to blow up an airplane allegedly had all the materials needed to build a pressure-cooker bomb before this kind of weapon was used in the Boston Marathon attack in April, according to comments made by the man’s mother in a recently unsealed police affidavit.

 Flowers lay on the sidewalk at the site of the first explosion as people walk along Boylston Street after the street reopened to the public for the first time since the Boston Marathon bombings in Boston, Massachusetts April 24, 2013. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi

 While investigators working with the FBI are looking to see if there are any links between the two cases, they have drawn no conclusions, according to two law enforcement sources. Prosecutors and the FBI declined to comment.

 The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force said it is investigating 27-year-old Daniel Morley after police in the small town of Topsfield, Massachusetts found a cache of weapons and bomb-making materials in his home on June 9.

 According to a police affidavit dated June 19, Morley told his mother that his best friend had bragged about knowing Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the two Chechen brothers suspected of detonating pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line on April 15. Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police after the attack.

 No one else has been charged in the Topsfield case, a spokeswoman for the Essex County District Attorney said.

 The 25-page police affidavit details the allegations that served as the basis for the criminal charges against Morley. He is accused of assaulting his mother and her boyfriend and making a threat to hijack an airplane or ship.

 Morley’s defense attorney, Robert LeBlanc, did not return calls asking for comment. The person described by Morley’s mother as his best friend was named in the affidavit. Reuters could not reach him for comment.

 Topsfield police said they found in Morley’s bedroom closet a large, stainless steel pressure cooker and a black duffel bag. He also had materials to make a shrapnel bomb, such as black powder, igniters and pieces of metal that included ball bearings. In addition, he had a large assault rifle and a handgun, the affidavit shows.

 Morley’s mother told police that her son had the pressure cooker and the other materials before the Boston Marathon attacks, according to the affidavit.

 AMMUNITION AND A DRAWING

 Police said they also found several hundred rounds of ammunition and a drawing of what appeared to be the Boston skyline, with an airplane in the left hand corner and a figure of a man with a blue heart in his chest, holding a red heart in his hand.

 “While very stylized, the image does seem to match up with a portion of the Boston skyline,” the affidavit quoted anti-terrorism expert Clairissa Breen, who is part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, as saying. “This could mean that something in that area is a target, or it could be artistic license.”

 The allegations outlined in the affidavit prompted the Topsfield police to contact the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. One focus of the FBI’s investigation is determining whether Morley was being influenced by others when he made the alleged airplane threat, according to the affidavit.

 Police also said they found a shoe box with the head of a decapitated bird, dismantled cell phones, flex cuff restraints, black gun powder, and a burnt green stuffed animal that had been stabbed repeatedly. Other items included a bucket with aluminum foil and steel containers with concealment cutouts.

 Police said they discovered all of the items last month after Morley told his mother and her boyfriend that he planned to burn down their house. Morley had moved in with them after being hit by a car while riding his bike in Boston.

 “It’s all been a big shock. I can’t really help you,” said Morley’s mother, Glenda Duckworth, when contacted by Reuters.

 Morley was placed in custody on June 9 after a nearly four-hour standoff that closed Topsfield’s picturesque town center.

 He is described by his mother in the search warrant affidavit as very bright, but troubled. After being arrested, police said he apologized to them for not taking his medications, which were not detailed in the affidavit.

 Morley is undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital, according to his criminal case file put together by prosecutors. His next court appearance is set for Thursday at Ipswich District Court in Newburyport.

 “Morley advised his mother that he separated from (his best friend) because he was attempting to have him do something really bad, but Daniel did not want to do,” according to the police affidavit. ||||| UPDATE: Topsfield man arrested after bomb scare; Pressure cooker found in home.

 A Topsfield man was arrested on bomb scare charges early Sunday morning, June 9 after a domestic disturbance call led the police to his Washington Street home where they found a pressure cooker in his possession.

 Police say Daniel P. Morley, 27, made threats that the pressure cooker was explosive, which led them to call in the state police Special Tactical Operations (STOP) team. Middleton, Wenham and a couple other police departments and ambulance personnel also responded to the scene.

 Topsfield Police Chief Evan Haglund said that the device was ultimately found to be non-explosive.

 Morley also threatened to burn down the residence.

 He was charged with communicating a bomb scare, threatening to commit arson and two counts of domestic assault and battery.

 Police were initially called to the residence at 2:46 a.m. on Sunday morning when family members reported that Morley assaulted and threatened them. Officers investigated the residence and found a loaded bolt-action rifle, handgun, ammunition and knives in the suspect’s bedroom, according to police. Police then found the pressure cooker, which is when they called the STOP team.

 Once STOP confirmed that the device was non-explosive, custody of Morley was returned to the Topsfield police.

 Topsfield police sent out a Nixle alert to subscribing residents at 7:36 a.m. on Sunday saying that Washington and Main streets were closed due to a public safety emergency. Police sent out another alert at 9:30 a.m. saying the roads were reopened.

 Morley was taken to Bridgewater State Hospital on Sunday night and was scheduled for arraignment on Monday at Ipswich District Court in Newburyport as long as his health permits.

 The case remains under investigation and additional charges may be forthcoming. |||||

– A man who was arrested June 9 in the Boston area had the necessary materials for building a pressure-cooker bomb like the kind used in the marathon attacks, according to recently unsealed police documents. And according to Daniel Morley's mother, he'd had the materials prior to the April marathon bombings. Now the FBI is investigating him and any possible links between the two cases, Reuters reports. Wicked Local reports that the 27-year-old was taken into custody after police responded to a domestic disturbance; Reuters reports he allegedly assaulted his mother and her boyfriend and threatened to blow up a plane. After Morley's arrest, police found weapons including an assault rifle and a handgun, a pressure cooker and other bomb materials, several hundred rounds of ammo, a black duffel bag, and some even weirder items (a bird's head in a shoebox, a burned and stabbed stuffed animal, a drawing of what appears to be the Boston skyline and a plane) in his home. Morley's mother also said her son told her that his best friend boasted of knowing Tamerlan Tsarnaev. And according to the affidavit, that friend "was attempting to have him do something really bad, but Daniel did not want to do," or so Morley told his mother. Morley is currently at a state hospital undergoing psychiatric evaluation.