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Nov 22, 2013

 Ann Wojcicki

 CEO

 23andMe, Inc.

 1390 Shoreline Way

 Mountain View, CA 94043

 Document Number: GEN1300666

 Re: Personal Genome Service (PGS)

 WARNING LETTER

 Dear Ms. Wojcicki,

 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is sending you this letter because you are marketing the 23andMe Saliva Collection Kit and Personal Genome Service (PGS) without marketing clearance or approval in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act).

 This product is a device within the meaning of section 201(h) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 321(h), because it is intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or is intended to affect the structure or function of the body. For example, your company’s website at www.23andme.com/health (most recently viewed on November 6, 2013) markets the PGS for providing “health reports on 254 diseases and conditions,” including categories such as “carrier status,” “health risks,” and “drug response,” and specifically as a “first step in prevention” that enables users to “take steps toward mitigating serious diseases” such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, and breast cancer. Most of the intended uses for PGS listed on your website, a list that has grown over time, are medical device uses under section 201(h) of the FD&C Act. Most of these uses have not been classified and thus require premarket approval or de novo classification, as FDA has explained to you on numerous occasions.

 Some of the uses for which PGS is intended are particularly concerning, such as assessments for BRCA-related genetic risk and drug responses (e.g., warfarin sensitivity, clopidogrel response, and 5-fluorouracil toxicity) because of the potential health consequences that could result from false positive or false negative assessments for high-risk indications such as these. For instance, if the BRCA-related risk assessment for breast or ovarian cancer reports a false positive, it could lead a patient to undergo prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, intensive screening, or other morbidity-inducing actions, while a false negative could result in a failure to recognize an actual risk that may exist. Assessments for drug responses carry the risks that patients relying on such tests may begin to self-manage their treatments through dose changes or even abandon certain therapies depending on the outcome of the assessment. For example, false genotype results for your warfarin drug response test could have significant unreasonable risk of illness, injury, or death to the patient due to thrombosis or bleeding events that occur from treatment with a drug at a dose that does not provide the appropriately calibrated anticoagulant effect. These risks are typically mitigated by International Normalized Ratio (INR) management under a physician’s care. The risk of serious injury or death is known to be high when patients are either non-compliant or not properly dosed; combined with the risk that a direct-to-consumer test result may be used by a patient to self-manage, serious concerns are raised if test results are not adequately understood by patients or if incorrect test results are reported.

 Your company submitted 510(k)s for PGS on July 2, 2012 and September 4, 2012, for several of these indications for use. However, to date, your company has failed to address the issues described during previous interactions with the Agency or provide the additional information identified in our September 13, 2012 letter for (b)(4) and in our November 20, 2012 letter for (b)(4), as required under 21 CFR 807.87(1). Consequently, the 510(k)s are considered withdrawn, see 21 C.F.R. 807.87(1), as we explained in our letters to you on March 12, 2013 and May 21, 2013. To date, 23andMe has failed to provide adequate information to support a determination that the PGS is substantially equivalent to a legally marketed predicate for any of the uses for which you are marketing it; no other submission for the PGS device that you are marketing has been provided under section 510(k) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360(k).

 The Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health (OIR) has a long history of working with companies to help them come into compliance with the FD&C Act. Since July of 2009, we have been diligently working to help you comply with regulatory requirements regarding safety and effectiveness and obtain marketing authorization for your PGS device. FDA has spent significant time evaluating the intended uses of the PGS to determine whether certain uses might be appropriately classified into class II, thus requiring only 510(k) clearance or de novo classification and not PMA approval, and we have proposed modifications to the device’s labeling that could mitigate risks and render certain intended uses appropriate for de novo classification. Further, we provided ample detailed feedback to 23andMe regarding the types of data it needs to submit for the intended uses of the PGS. As part of our interactions with you, including more than 14 face-to-face and teleconference meetings, hundreds of email exchanges, and dozens of written communications, we provided you with specific feedback on study protocols and clinical and analytical validation requirements, discussed potential classifications and regulatory pathways (including reasonable submission timelines), provided statistical advice, and discussed potential risk mitigation strategies. As discussed above, FDA is concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the PGS device; the main purpose of compliance with FDA’s regulatory requirements is to ensure that the tests work.

 However, even after these many interactions with 23andMe, we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated the PGS for its intended uses, which have expanded from the uses that the firm identified in its submissions. In your letter dated January 9, 2013, you stated that the firm is “completing the additional analytical and clinical validations for the tests that have been submitted” and is “planning extensive labeling studies that will take several months to complete.” Thus, months after you submitted your 510(k)s and more than 5 years after you began marketing, you still had not completed some of the studies and had not even started other studies necessary to support a marketing submission for the PGS. It is now eleven months later, and you have yet to provide FDA with any new information about these tests. You have not worked with us toward de novo classification, did not provide the additional information we requested necessary to complete review of your 510(k)s, and FDA has not received any communication from 23andMe since May. Instead, we have become aware that you have initiated new marketing campaigns, including television commercials that, together with an increasing list of indications, show that you plan to expand the PGS’s uses and consumer base without obtaining marketing authorization from FDA.

 Therefore, 23andMe must immediately discontinue marketing the PGS until such time as it receives FDA marketing authorization for the device. The PGS is in class III under section 513(f) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360c(f). Because there is no approved application for premarket approval in effect pursuant to section 515(a) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360e(a), or an approved application for an investigational device exemption (IDE) under section 520(g) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 360j(g), the PGS is adulterated under section 501(f)(1)(B) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 351(f)(1)(B). Additionally, the PGS is misbranded under section 502(o) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 352(o), because notice or other information respecting the device was not provided to FDA as required by section 510(k) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360(k).

 Please notify this office in writing within fifteen (15) working days from the date you receive this letter of the specific actions you have taken to address all issues noted above. Include documentation of the corrective actions you have taken. If your actions will occur over time, please include a timetable for implementation of those actions. If corrective actions cannot be completed within 15 working days, state the reason for the delay and the time within which the actions will be completed. Failure to take adequate corrective action may result in regulatory action being initiated by the Food and Drug Administration without further notice. These actions include, but are not limited to, seizure, injunction, and civil money penalties.

 We have assigned a unique document number that is cited above. The requested information should reference this document number and should be submitted to:

 James L. Woods, WO66-5688

 Deputy Director

 Patient Safety and Product Quality

 Office of In vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health

 10903 New Hampshire Avenue

 Silver Spring, MD 20993 ||||| The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the maker of a popular genetic-testing kit to halt sales of its heavily marketed product, saying the mail-order tests haven’t been proven effective and could dangerously mislead people about their health.

 The move came in a sharply worded letter to 23andMe, a California start-up backed by Google. The company says that its Personal Genome Service can detect more than 240 genetic conditions and traits, flagging a person’s vulnerability to heart disease, breast cancer and other illnesses. The privately held company, founded in 2006, is headed by biologist and businesswoman Anne Wojcicki, who is separated from Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

 The FDA said the company repeatedly has failed to provide the scientific data necessary to prove that its test works as advertised.

 Perhaps more significantly, the agency’s action underscores its unease about the potential consequences of direct-to-consumer genetic tests, which can provide people with detailed information but not necessarily the context necessary to interpret what it means or how they should proceed.

 It also highlighted a contentious debate that has unfolded in recent years over how and whether the government should police an individual’s access to information about his or her genes.

 In its letter, which was dated Nov. 22 but posted online Monday, the FDA said it was concerned about 23andMe’s direct-to-consumer test “because of the potential health consequences that could result from false positive or false negative assessments,” which could lead people into unnecessary or ineffective treatments. The agency also said that the company had failed to support its claims despite “more than 14 face-to-face and teleconference meetings” with FDA officials, as well as “hundreds of e-mail exchanges” and “ample detailed feedback.”

 “Since July of 2009, we have been diligently working to help you comply with regulatory requirements,” the FDA said. “However, even after these many interactions with 23andMe, we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated the [test] for its intended uses.”

 23andMe isn’t the only firm offering direct-to-consumer genetic testing, but it’s the largest and best known. About half a million people have used the company’s DNA kit, which costs $99 online and requires customers to submit a saliva sample via mail. The company then sends recommendations, such as suggesting that a customer track the amount of gluten in his diet if his DNA shows an increased risk for celiac disease.

 In a statement Monday, 23andMe confirmed that it had received the FDA’s warning letter. “We recognize that we have not met the FDA’s expectations regarding timeline and communication regarding our submission. Our relationship with the FDA is extremely important to us and we are committed to fully engaging with them to address their concerns.”

 The company has 15 days to detail how it will go forward, or else it could face other regulatory actions such as civil fines or injunctions.

 David Kaufman, director of research at the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University, said the FDA’s scathing warning to 23andMe ultimately could be a positive development for the company and the genetic-testing industry, which until now has operated virtually without oversight.

 “In some ways, the industry has been both terrified and has been waiting for this day,” Kaufman said. “The companies want to know what they need to do. . . . It’s good that the feds are thinking about this actively.”

 He added that 23andMe had taken care not to be too specific when reporting results, but rather to explain to customers when they have an elevated risk for certain conditions based on their DNA. In addition, he said that the company’s quest for FDA approval, while clearly an effort that has been rocky, also is helping to create a regulatory structure that will govern such tests in the future.

 “There are a lot of fly-by-night operations out there, and this isn’t one, in my opinion,” Kaufman said. “I think they’re trying to do it the right way.”

 The FDA’s move toward regulating genetic tests marketed directly to consumers ramped up in 2010, when the agency sent letters to 23andMe and several other companies declaring that the tests are medical devices that must receive government approval. The agency also convened a public hearing on the matter.

 In the past, even as 23andMe sought the FDA’s blessing, Wojcicki and other company officials have spoken often about the democratization of health care and the right of people to their genetic information.

 “If you look back a few decades, people were not told about their diagnosis of cancer, and it was thought [that] we need to protect them from that information. Now, that seems ridiculous,” Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s senior director of research, told The Washington Post in 2010. “The same thing goes for genetic information. We have many, many people who are very, very curious and want to know and are capable of handling this information.”

 In interviews Monday, FDA officials said they understand how rapidly the field of genetic testing is evolving and noted that the agency has approved a range of genetic tests for everything from bladder cancer to cystic fibrosis. Last week, the FDA approved several “next generation” gene-sequencing devices that will speed up testing and allow doctors to diagnose patients more quickly.

 But the agency has tread carefully when it comes to consumers taking at-home tests and receiving complex results without the help of a medical professional.

 “We don’t have any bias against genetic testing at all,” said Elizabeth Mansfield, director of personalized medicine in the FDA’s medical-device center. “We’re just very concerned about these tests that consumers can buy themselves, and their only interpretation [of the results] may come from a company.”

 The agency might eventually approve such tests, but only after it feels confident that they are accurate and that consumers understand the limitations.

 “We do believe there is a place for this. We think people have a right to their genetic information,” said Courtney Lias, director of the FDA’s division of chemistry and toxicology devices. “But when a company is providing these types of tests where they interpret the results, we need to understand that the test actually works and the information they provide is correct. . . . The majority of genetics is not so black and white.” |||||

– The FDA has ordered 23andMe to "immediately discontinue marketing" its genetic testing kits, saying that the company has repeatedly failed to prove the product actually works. The Google-backed company offers mail-in genetic testing, which it promises can reveal your risk for various health conditions and drug allergies. In a sharply-worded warning letter addressed to co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki, the FDA says it fears false positives could cause consumers to undergo unnecessary procedures, while false negatives could make them miss actual warning signs. The FDA says it's had "more than 14 face-to-face teleconference meetings" and "hundreds of email exchanges," with the company, and provided "ample detailed feedback" on what it must do. But "we still do not have any assurance that the firm has analytically or clinically validated the [test] for its intended uses." The company has 15 days to respond, and has released a statement saying it realizes it hasn't "met the FDA's expectations regarding timeline and communication." The case is being carefully watched as a sign for how the FDA will deal with genetic testing, experts tell the Washington Post.


A generic standardized test form. (Photo: AP)

 ASHBURN, Va.(WUSA9) -- Nearly a month after some SAT tests disappeared, Loudoun County school officials say they were discovered in a cart at the same school where students took the test.

 PREVIOUS STORY: Loudoun Schools prove missing SATs were collected

 When the tests did not make it to the College Board on time, officials had they had video showing the tests were picked up by UPS.

 Monday, a spokesperson for Loudoun County Public Schools says the SAT Tests that went missing on May 2 were found at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, the school where students took the test. The tests were at the bottom of a cart in the same package they were supposed to be delivered to UPS, according to the spokesperson.

 The tests were hand-carried Monday to the College Board in Princeton, New Jersey, says the spokesperson, and it looks like they are going to be validated.

 Read or Share this story: http://on.wusa9.com/1I2kFf4 ||||| Over 200 students in Loudoun County are breathing a sigh of relief after their missing SAT tests were found Monday morning.

 Schools officials say a sealed box containing 236 answer sheets was found on the bottom shelf of a cart in the shipping area of Broad Run High School.

 The school has been searching for the tests for about a month. Wayde Byard, a spokesman for Loudoun County Public Schools, says that after the May 2 exam, the sealed box was locked in the Guidance Office at Broad Run. At 9:07 a.m., the box and four other boxes were moved to the shipping area, where they were going to be shipped to Educational Testing Services (ETS).

 School officials are not sure what happened to the tests next, but they are looking into how the box ended up on the cart.

 An ETS representative was at the school when the tests were found and will take the box to an ETS facility in Princeton, New Jersey. The school says the tests will be validated, and the affected students will not have to retake the exam. ||||| WASHINGTON — The SATs that went missing from a Loudoun County high school were located at the school Monday after administrators initially said UPS carried the tests out of the building.

 On May 2, about 300 students at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, took the SAT at the school, and the test takers learned last week that the completed exams never arrived to the College Board.

 Loudoun County Public Schools says the tests were sent off via UPS, but for some reason, the exams apparently never arrived at their destination. UPS made clear to WTOP that the shipment never entered its system.

 Last week, the school said video surveillance showed a UPS employee carrying the box — tracking number in view — containing the exams out of the building.

 That turned out not to be the case when all of the tests were located in the school’s shipping area Monday at about 11:30 a.m., says Loudoun County Public School Spokesman Wayde Byard.

 “UPS did not lose this, and we apologize profoundly to UPS,” Byard said.

 Byard says a mix up occurred when the boxes were moved from the school’s guidance office to the shipping area May 4.

 “A box that looked like the one containing the tests, went out the door at 3 p.m. that day. Some time between 9 and 3, the box with the answers some how got on another cart,” Byard says.

 Administrators though the box that left the building at 3 p.m. with UPS contained the answers, however, it stayed in the shipping area until it was located during a sweep Monday.

 The tests have been secured and will now be shipped off to the College Board.

 The students were given the option to retake the test in June, but now can avoid retaking it.

 Byard says the school system will conduct an investigation into the loss of the tests and will review how it handles the delivery of tests.

 WTOP’s Andrew Mollenbeck and Mike Murillo contributed to this report.

 Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.

 © 2015 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A month after 236 SATs went missing, school officials in Loudoun County, Va., found the tests yesterday—and they weren't exactly in the hands of UPS as the school had initially claimed, reports NBC Washington. Rather, they were neatly boxed up sitting in a cart in Broad Run High School's shipping area—presumably a place where one would have thought to look before telling students they might face a retake. "UPS did not lose this, and we apologize profoundly to UPS," says a school rep, per WTOP. The rep says some mix-up happened when the exams were moved from the guidance office; the school had claimed it had video of a UPS employee carrying the box, but it was actually "a box that looked like the one containing the tests [that] went out the door at 3pm that day," the rep says. The tests were being hand-delivered to the College Board in Princeton, NJ, notes WUSA, and it appears they'll be validated.


- horrified that I wasn’t more aware of how this incident affected her. I was so eager to let Jeffrey know that he was supported in his attempt to learn, grow and apologize that I completely underestimated the feelings of the victim, another person I deeply love - and she was.. ||||| Based on listening to the NYT interview and hearing people’s thoughts online, I realize that I was wrong here. I sound like I’m condoning yelling at work. I do not. It sounds like I’m excusing Jeffery. I do not. It sounds like I’m insensitive to Jessica. I am not. In fact, I’m- ||||| WALTER But not like that, not like that. That was bad.

 HALE Not like that. But I’m saying we’ve worked together 15 years, there has been other points of anger coming out.

 BATEMAN Exactly. Again, there is context. What we do for a living is not normal, and therefore the process is not normal sometimes, and to expect it to be normal is to not understand what happens on set. Again, not to excuse it, Alia, but to be surprised by people having a wobbly route to their goal, their process — it’s very rarely predictable. All I can say, personally, is I have never learned more from an actor that I’ve worked with than Jeffrey Tambor. And I consider him one of my favorite, most valued people in my life.

 CROSS I agree with everybody. And I think it’s important to note — and it hasn’t been noted — that this kind of behavior that’s being described, it didn’t just come out of the blue. It wasn’t zero to 60. There is a cumulative effect sometimes.

 BATEMAN You have different people’s processes that converge and collide at times. So Jeffrey is not just popping off, coming out of his car and some unhinged guy.

 CROSS That’s what I’m trying to say.

 BATEMAN Not to say that you know, you [Walter] had it coming. But this is not in a vacuum — families come together and certain dynamics collide and clash every once in a while. And there’s all kinds of things that go into the stew so it’s a little narrow to single that one particular thing that is getting attention from our show.

 WALTER Only because you brought it up, Jeffrey, in that article! I never would have brought it up.

 BATEMAN I didn’t mean to speak for you. That was part of his process of being as contrite and as transparent as he felt like he could and should be, and wanted to at the time. ||||| Sopan Deb Підтверджений профіль @SopanDeb

 NEW: Spent an hour with the cast of Arrested Development yesterday -- with Jeffrey Tambor present. The conversation turned emotional as the subject of Tambor's on-set behavior came up. Encourage you to read the whole thing: https:// nyti.ms/2GKtefx

 Показати цей потік ||||| In his first interview since facing accusations of inappropriate behavior on set, the veteran actor — now back onscreen in 'Arrested Development' — opens up about what he did ("I was mean, I was difficult") and what he claims he didn't do ("the other stuff, absolutely not") in one of the most complex cases of the #MeToo era.

 The 10:15 to Katonah arrives from Grand Central Terminal precisely on schedule at 12:03 p.m. Standing across from the train platform on a chilly Monday in April is Jeffrey Tambor, the 73-year-old veteran actor best known for a trio of roles on groundbreaking series: The Larry Sanders Show, Arrested Development and, most recently, the critically adored and zeitgeisty family dramedy Transparent. It’s in this picturesque suburban hamlet just 47 miles north of the chaos of midtown Manhattan that Tambor and his wife, Kasia, 49, raise their four children who range in age from 8 to 13. And since being fired three months ago from Transparent, it’s here where Tambor has been exiled in what will surely go down as the darkest chapter of his four-decade career.

 Moments later, he is in a coffee shop on the town’s main street. “I love diners,” says Tambor, freshly shaven and neatly dressed in a pinstriped shirt and a zippered navy pullover. “I used to live on 100th and Second Avenue, on the Upper East Side. And I practically lived at a diner.”

 The conversation continues like this for a few minutes, a stiff exchange of pleasantries, during which Tambor twists a plastic straw, shredding its paper sleeve. He pauses. “I have to tell you something,” he says, his fingers trembling. It’s obvious before he says it: He’s nervous. “This is the first time I’ve talked about this, ever,” he says. “And possibly the last time. I used to teach acting, you know, and I’d always say, ‘Announce where you are.’ So this is me doing that.”

 Where Tambor is right now is uncharted territory. He is about to become the first high-profile subject of the sweeping #MeToo movement to sit for an in-depth interview about his alleged sexual harassment scandal. His is a dizzying tale entangled in Rashomon-like perspectives and political trip wires. And at the center of it all stand three figures: Tambor and his two accusers, Van Barnes, Tambor’s former assistant, and Trace Lysette, an actress on the series.

 That Barnes and Lysette are both transgender women is not insignificant. After all, Transparent — led by Tambor’s twice Emmy-winning performance as Maura Pfefferman — was only recently being held up as a beacon of social progressivism, lauded by activist groups like GLAAD for igniting a global transgender movement. In the blink of an eye, however, all that has changed, as Tambor — who admits to having lifelong anger issues but denies sexually harassing his accusers — watched his image go from that of LGBTQ folk hero to fugitive.

 Tambor learned that he’d been fired in a text message from Jill Soloway on Feb. 15. That was the day Amazon — still reeling from the exit four months earlier of its top content executive, Roy Price, over sexual harassment claims — announced it would not be renewing Tambor’s option after an internal investigation. Soloway, the show’s 52-year-old creator and showrunner — whose father’s transition inspired the story — followed up that text with a phone call a few minutes later. Tambor was at his local gym at the time, sweating on a recumbent stationary bicycle. “I don’t remember the whole conversation,” he says. “But I do remember her last words were: ‘Do you need help with a statement?’” He went into shock: “If you can picture a man outside a gym for forever, in his workout shorts and everything, just staring.” Tambor had been preparing himself for “a slap on the wrist” for what he says were his temperamental outbursts on the set. Never did he think his biggest career triumph would end in such unceremonious disgrace.

 The path to the firing began four months earlier, when, inspired by the #MeToo declarations she was seeing on social media, Barnes — a gregarious, 43-year-old blonde who relocated from rural Missouri to Los Angeles for the opportunity of working for Tambor — typed her own #MeToo account on her personal Facebook page. “Oh hell yeah! ME TOO!” Barnes wrote on Oct. 16, 2017. “[I was] even told [by Tambor] that ‘for that kind’a money and after all that time of working for him that I should be sleeping with him if I want a Hollywood-industry-appropriate pay grade.’”

 The post, which never mentions Tambor by name, referred to an employer who gave her “butt pats,” made “‘why aren’t I taking care of him sexually’ comments” and subjected her to “listening to his porno.” Wrote Barnes: “I was depressed and thought about suicide when I left that job.” The post rapidly circulated among the transgender community and beyond. On Nov. 8, 2017, Amazon Studios confirmed that an investigation into Barnes’ claims was in its “early stages.” Tambor released a statement that day dismissing Barnes as a “former disgruntled assistant ... I am appalled and distressed at this baseless allegation.”

 One person who read Barnes’ post with interest was Lysette. A striking brunette with fair skin and aquamarine eyes, Lysette, who prefers not to disclose her age, grew up in Dayton, Ohio — she choreographed a dance routine for her high school cheerleading squad — then moved to New York City, where she began transitioning to female. She later found work at a Manhattan strip club, where she never let on to the clientele that she was transgender. After a bad breakup led to a suicide attempt — she slit her wrists on a side street walking home from the strip club one night — Lysette was admitted to Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric ward. After her release, inspired by the success of the transgender actress Laverne Cox on Orange Is the New Black, she continued to pursue her acting dreams. By 2013, she was flying to Los Angeles to audition for the role of Davina on Transparent, a trans woman who takes Maura under her wing. “We met with many, many trans actresses and writers in our outreach,” says Soloway of that early hiring sweep. (Since creating Transparent, Soloway has started self-identifying as “gender non-binary”; the pronoun “they” is preferred instead of “she.”) The part ended up going to another actress, Alexandra Billings, but Lysette impressed Soloway enough to have her own character written into the show — a yoga teacher and stripper named Shea.

 According to Lysette, then a Hollywood neophyte, the unsolicited advances from Tambor started early on. “They began as flirtation — kisses on the forehead, which was awkward,” she tells THR. “But part of me was like, ‘OK, maybe he just thinks of me as a daughter figure or something.’" Lysette says the unwanted affection spilled onto red carpets. “I would kiss him on the cheek and it would land on my lips,” she recalls.

 It wasn’t until the filming of the third episode of season two, “New World Coming,” that Lysette felt Tambor had crossed a clear line. While shooting a breakfast scene in skimpy pajamas, Lysette says she was told by Tambor, “My God, Trace, I want to attack you sexually.” (Billings, who was also in the scene, confirms her account to THR). Recalls Lysette, “We were like, ‘What? Who says that?’” A few minutes later, she says, Tambor “waddled over to me in his pajamas and put his feet on top of mine, and started these little, like, thrusts on my hip. They were discreet and insidious and creepy. I felt his genitals on me. And I pushed him off.”

 On Nov. 16, Lysette detailed that incident in a statement to THR. “Given the circumstances of my life,” she wrote, “I was used to being treated as a sexual object by men — this one just happened to be famous.” She went on to express her hope that Amazon would “find good in this, and use this as an opportunity to re-center the other trans characters in this show. Don’t let the trans community suffer for the actions of one cis male actor. Remove the problem and let the show go on.”

 That Tambor is cisgender, or identifies as his birth sex, was a sticking point for many in the trans community from the start. At a season one screening at the Directors Guild of America, an audience member said Tambor’s performance was “like watching blackface” and that he should be replaced by a trans actress. The suggestion mortified Tambor, literally. “I just made like a possum and played dead,” he recalls. “I remember turning to my right and Jill was in tears.” As the show grew in popularity and acclaim, so did the “elephant in the room,” as Tambor puts it. “Because the revolution got bigger. So the very thing we were doing, the awakening to this movement, made the disparity [of my non-transness] more apparent.”

 After Lysette’s claims went public, Tambor convened an emergency meeting with his wife, Poland-born actress Kasia Ostlun, and his reps, including Gersh’s Leslie Siebert, his agent of 30 years. “My advice to him was be truthful,” Siebert recalls. “Tell people your understanding and your truth. That’s all you can do.”

 They crafted a second statement, this one taking on a measure of culpability. “I find myself accused of behavior that any civilized person would condemn unreservedly,” it read. “I know I haven’t always been the easiest person to work with. I can be volatile and ill-tempered, and too often I express my opinions harshly and without tact. But I have never been a predator — ever.”

 The following day, Tambor received an email from Faith Soloway, 54, Jill’s older sister and a writing producer on Transparent. “I can quote it verbatim because I’ve looked at it for five months,” Tambor insists. He would not show the email to THR, but a source confirms its content. “It said, ‘We are in a coup. You are fucking fantastic. You have changed the world. We have changed the world. We will get through this. Love, love, love, Faith.'”

 Faith Soloway confirms having sent the email. "Things were happening so quickly, with people being accused and held accountable by the #MeToo movement," she says. "In the moment I felt that Jill and Jeffrey were under attack. I knew that some people disapproved of Jeffrey, a cisgender actor, playing Maura and I was upset that Jill, as the show's creator, hadn't had the opportunity to address the issue privately [before it went public]. As the story broke, I also sent messages of support to Trace and Van, and after the allegations were presented, I never disbelieved them. I still, hope everyone can learn and heal from this.”

 The message sent a “shock wave” through him because it led him to believe that “something was up, over and above me. Some dots were not connecting.” Suspecting he was being set up to be ousted because he is cisgender, Tambor released a third, more pointed statement on Nov. 19. “What has become clear over the past weeks,” he wrote, “is that this is no longer the job I signed up for four years ago ... Given the politicized atmosphere that seems to have afflicted our set, I don’t see how I can return to Transparent.”

 Despite having been widely interpreted as such, the statement was never meant to be a definitive resignation letter, Tambor maintains, adding he “chose those words exactly to be a little abstract.” That evening, he says, he received an email from Jill Soloway (which Soloway confirms she sent). “She wrote these words: ‘They have been after Maura from the beginning.’”

 Soloway responds: “While much of the trans community immediately embraced the show, some vocally opposed the casting of a cis man, Jeffrey, in the lead role. This sentiment has persisted in parts of the community — coming up again on social media in the wake of these allegations. It was a text I wrote in frustration after pouring my heart into this show for years. I wanted to tell a story that brought power and visibility to trans people, and to my own family’s journey into understanding, acceptance, and pride.”

 Over the phone, they discussed how to proceed, which for Tambor would be “one of the top-five difficult phone calls of my life.”

 In it, Soloway — frantic and highly emotional over the beloved series’ implosion — asked Tambor if he would be “open to a third way.” Soloway suggested that, going forward, Tambor appear in the series only in flashback, as Mort Pfefferman, Maura’s pre-transition self. It was a not ideal but potentially workable concession to those who felt Tambor’s performance was an offensive example of “transface,” as some critics referred to it. Of course, the plan did nothing to address the Pandora’s box of sexual misconduct allegations that had just spilled into headlines. For the sake of the show, Tambor tentatively agreed to play the pre-trans character, just as soon as he was cleared by Amazon of the more ominous charges.

 But that would not happen. Tambor was interviewed for nearly 10 hours during the inquiry, in two marathon sessions. “My lawyer was present,” he says, obviously reluctant to get into the details. “They asked me questions, and I responded to the questions. And that’s pretty much what I want to say about that.” Others were interviewed, as well. Staffers were asked whether Tambor had ever kissed them on the lips — which was something he often felt comfortable enough to do in their cozy work environment. “It’s a really loose set,” says one high-ranking producer who asked not to be identified. “Everybody behaves in a sensual manner because it’s a show about sex. Everyone says things like, ‘You’re so hot, oh my God. I had a dream about you last night.’” As Jay Duplass, who plays Maura’s music producer son, Josh, on the show, once put it, “Your job as an actor is to be emotionally present ... Or in the case of Transparent, have a ton of sex.”

 Lysette never wavered on her story, telling investigators that she reported the thrusting incident promptly and that no action was taken. "I told plenty of people," she says. "I told people outside of Transparent, I told people inside Transparent.” One of those people was her roommate, Zackary Drucker, a 35-year-old producer on the show, who is also a trans woman. Drucker did not pass on the information.

 “Trace and I shared many, many conversations during our time as roommates,” says Drucker. “Since I don’t have a clear memory of this conversation, it didn’t register to me as something I was meant to, or needed to, report in the context of our professional relationship.”

 Barnes, meanwhile, had been laying low from the press; she’d signed a nondisclosure agreement with Tambor as part of her employment. But, on Feb. 26, a few weeks after Tambor was fired, Barnes’ lawyer told her the NDA was no longer in effect, and she gave an interview to THR. “I was barely at minimum wage, which was a clear abuse,” Barnes said, claiming she had to endure Tambor’s severe mood swings and round-the-clock demands. Despite Barnes’ reputation for having a raunchy sense of humor — “She’s the dirtiest fucking talker in the world,” is how one staffer puts it — Tambor’s alleged offensive talk and occasional “butt pats” made Barnes increasingly uncomfortable. “Toward the end, he had proposed to me that I be his mistress,” she said. “His actions have jeopardized many people’s jobs, especially many transgender people struggling to find work in Hollywood. ... He has done this to himself.”

 Barnes continued speaking out on March 7, when she appeared on Megyn Kelly Today to add a startling new detail to her accusation: that Tambor had once watched her sleeping naked. She said it happened, bizarrely, when Barnes, Lysette and Tambor were living together under the same roof in Drucker’s parents’ home in Highland Park, northeast of downtown L.A., where Barnes was house-sitting over the summer. Lysette, still based in New York at the time, was occupying one of the bedrooms. Before production on the second season began, there was a two-week window until Tambor’s Pacific Palisades rental home would be ready. “He said, ‘You’re house-sitting, aren’t you? Do you mind if I stay with you?’” Barnes recalls. “I thought it was really weird. Here’s a guy of means, but he can’t afford a hotel for two weeks?”

 Tambor confirms sharing living quarters with Barnes and Lysette — “My arrangements hadn’t come together. In retrospect, I should not have stayed there and just waited for my house to become ready” — but insists Barnes’ claims that he observed her sleeping naked are completely fabricated. Asked to address other specific allegations, including the propositioning and physical touching, he grows reticent. “I don’t want to characterize them,” he says. “What I said was that she was a disgruntled assistant. I think that was generous of me. I dispute her account. I did raise my voice at times, I was moody at times, there were times when I was tactless. But as for the other stuff, absolutely not.”

 Siebert admits to having been aware of her client’s mercurial reputation. “He’s guilty of being an asshole at times, and being, you know, temperamental and moody,” she says. “And he feels awful about it and apologizes, and he’s working on himself. But in the 30 years I’ve worked with him, I’ve never been told about any behavior like what these women are accusing him of.” Tambor acknowledges the occasional outburst on previous shows — he references one “blowup” with actress Jessica Walter on Arrested Development for which he later “profusely apologized” (a rep for Walter says, “Jessica does not wish to talk about Jeffrey Tambor”) — but that something about Maura, his obsessive determination to make her as authentic as possible, brought out the worst in him.

 “I drove myself and my castmates crazy,” he says. “Lines got blurred. I was difficult. I was mean. I yelled at Jill — she told me recently she was afraid of me. I yelled at the wonderful [executive producer] Bridget Bedard in front of everybody. I made her cry. And I apologized and everything, but still, I yelled at her. The assistant directors. I was rude to my assistant. I was moody. Sometimes I didn’t talk at all. And this is where the reader says, ‘So what?’ You know? ‘You’re coming in from the Palisades, you drive in, you get a good paycheck, you get to play one of the best roles in the world. So. What.’” He stares down at his barely touched lunch, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich propping up a pile of french fries. “But I was scared, because I was a cisgender male playing Maura Pfefferman. And my whole thing was, ‘Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right? Am I doing it right?’ To the point that I worried myself to death.”

 Soloway and Tambor have not spoken since Feb. 15. That’s the day Soloway issued a statement expressing “great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on Transparent is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires.” Tambor issued his own rebuttal, saying he was “profoundly disappointed” in the “deeply flawed and biased” investigation’s outcome and “even more disappointed in Jill Soloway’s unfair characterization of me as someone who would ever cause harm to my fellow castmates.”

 Tambor is still wounded by what he characterizes as his abandonment by Soloway. “I said to her, ‘Since you know the truth, would you make a public statement on my behalf?’ It’s my biggest disappointment that she hasn’t.” To that, Soloway responds: “I never told him I was going to accuse Van or Trace of being liars. He knew that nobody could do that. And I was really working with him to help him understand that a simple apology would go a really long way. I was hoping to get him there.”

 Soloway’s own thinking on Tambor has evolved since the controversy broke. “I was hoping, in those early days, before Trace’s initial statement came out, that it all could have been a big misinterpretation — that one person’s harassment is another person’s dirty joke.” Eventually, Soloway realized the #MeToo movement was a “global tsunami — there’s nothing I could have done to stop it.” As for the allegations, Soloway contends that “it’s not a simple case of did he do it or didn’t he do it. Nobody said he was a predator — they said he sexually harassed people. He made enemies, and I don’t think he realized he was making enemies. You have to be very, very careful if you’re a person in power and treat people very appropriately.”

 As for the future of Transparent, Soloway has begun to feel “a tiny bit like we are going to be OK.” The writing staff has begun discussions on how to tackle the show’s fifth — and, Soloway reveals, final — season. “Hopefully it sets the Pfeffermans up with some sort of beautiful reclaiming,” Soloway says. “I think we’re going to get there with some time.”

 Since going public, Lysette and Barnes have taken different paths: Lysette is still pursuing acting in L.A. and has become politically active, speaking at events like the Las Vegas Women’s March and attending Time’s Up meetings. Barnes has returned to Missouri and enrolled in cosmetology school. “I have turned a new leaf!” Barnes wrote in an April 26 Facebook post. “This did not come with any assistance from my previous employer Transparent, nor Amazon or the fake feminist Jill Soloway, who found reason to fire our perpetrator, & instead of offering me financial reparations to upright myself again, offered me a Go Fund Me.”

 As for Tambor, he has only just begun to emerge from what he calls a “fugue state.” When speaking about Maura, he almost exclusively uses the terminology of death and grieving. He’s currently reading two books on the subject, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully and The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying. He breaks down in tears five separate times over the course of this interview, making note of it each time he does. “She was like a friend,” he says of Maura. “That may trigger eye rolls, but she was very real to me. And I think in many ways much more awake than I.” He says he still has regular conversations out loud with Maura and is deeply disappointed that she won’t ever get “to find her significant other.”

 Despite his troubles, he still has a job on Arrested Development, the Netflix comedy in which Tambor plays the patriarch of another dysfunctional California clan, the Bluths. Its fifth season premieres on the streaming service May 29 in order to qualify it for the Emmy voting window. The scandal provided an unwelcome distraction during the final months of production, which began in August 2017 and wrapped in December. Nevertheless, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos tells THR that it was a smooth shoot and Tambor will be in attendance at upcoming media appearances, including a May 17 premiere event in Hollywood. “In making and promoting seasons four and five of Arrested Development,” Sarandos says, “Jeffrey has always been totally professional.” So far, Tambor has earned support from fellow castmember David Cross (“A number of us stand behind him, ... and I am one of them,” Cross told amNew York in an interview) while another, Alia Shawkat, who also appeared on Transparent, told IndieWire she was “surprised” by the allegations but “supports the voice of the victims.”

 Later that afternoon, after mixing with the locals at a nearby bookstore cafe — he offers one young man, an aspiring actor, some advice about an upcoming audition — Tambor turns back to the matter at hand, pledging the lessons he needed to learn have been learned. “People change,” he insists. “It’s already changed my behavior on set. Just walking in here today, into this cafe, I hadn’t seen the owner in a long time. I mean, do you hug? Do you not hug? When you see fans ...” He trails off. “You know what I do feel? More present. Everything’s just clearer to me.”

 Tambor spends as much time as he can with his children, whom he’s attempted to shield from his ordeal. His favorite activity is reading bedtime stories to his 8-year-old twins Hugo and Eli. “I know Goodnight Moon pretty well,” he says. “And there’s this other book about a bear hunt. I’ve read it to every generation of child. They go on a bear hunt and they say, ‘Uh-oh, there’s mud! You can’t go over it, you can’t go under it. Got to go through it.’ And I can’t think of anything more typical in my life right now.”

 May 7, 3:45 p.m. Updated to clarify that Trace Lysette was not a member of her high school cheerleading squad, but did choreograph a dance with the team for a halftime show.

 This story also appears in the May 2 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe. ||||| ... sitting right there! I’m incredibly embarrassed and deeply sorry to have done that to Jessica. This is a big learning moment for me. I shouldn’t have tried so hard to mansplain, or fix a fight, or make everything okay. I should’ve focused more on what the most important... ||||| CLOSE At the premiere of season five of 'Arrested Development,' the cast talked about what to expect. New episodes begin streaming on Netflix May 29. AP

 Jeffrey Tambor in New York Monday to promote the new season of "Arrested Development." (Photo: Cindy Ord, Getty Images for SiriusXM)

 NEW YORK – Jeffrey Tambor is back in the spotlight, three months after he was fired from Amazon's Transparent following allegations of sexual harassment.

 The two-time Emmy winner is on a promotional tour for Season 5 of Netflix's Arrested Development (streaming May 29), which wrapped production last fall, just after his Transparent co-stars Van Barnes and Trace Lysette came forward with accusations of inappropriate and abusive behavior. Tambor has repeatedly denied the allegations, most recently in The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month.

 Sitting down with his Arrested co-stars Monday, the actor told USA TODAY that he was sad to leave the role of transgender matriarch Maura Pfefferman on Transparent, which will end with a fifth and final season (and without Tambor).

 "I'll miss her terribly," Tambor says. "I just send my love to that cast and that wonderful crew," but "I couldn't be happier" to be a part of Arrested again.

 Tambor will not return to the role of Maura Pfefferman for the fifth and final season of Amazon's "Transparent." (Photo: Jennifer Clasen, Amazon)

 Tambor, who plays the shifty real-estate developer George Bluth Sr. on Arrested, has confirmed occasional outbursts on both sets, telling THR, "I was difficult. I was mean."

 Asked whether there's anything he wishes he'd done differently, Tambor says, "Absolutely. The death of Maura has been like a death. It’s like a grief, but in grief you learn. And I’ve learned that I need to be more patient. I need to be more of a gentleman in how I interact with my castmates and not lose my temper. It has been a real wake-up and I’m, in a way, grateful for that. It’s informing my life right now."

 RELATED: Jeffrey Tambor tells his side of the story on 'Transparent' firing

 MORE: Remix can't save 'Arrested Development' Season 4 from itself

 Tambor's Arrested co-stars have stood by him since allegations surfaced last November, with Jason Bateman calling him an "absolute joy" to work with. But Alia Shawkat, who plays George Sr.'s granddaughter Maeby Fünke, says she supports both the actor and alleged victims, which can be "difficult."

 The Me Too movement "is more powerful than anything I could say and I would never stand against it," Shawkat says. "I know people who are victims of sexual harassment, and it’s important that their voices are heard. ... Because we're entertainers, (the media) want us to choose these very black-and-white sides, and sexual harassment isn't black and white. There's a huge gray area that's never discussed; it's not just about bashing and dragging people through the mud."

 Lucille (Jessica Walter, left), Gob (Will Arnett) and George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) present themselves a "Family of the Year" award in Season 5 of Netflix's "Arrested Development." (Photo: Saeed Adyani/Netflix)

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2IEcnRL |||||

Write a summary.

– Jason Bateman is apologizing a day after an emotional interview with the cast of Arrested Development was published by the New York Times ahead of the show's fifth season. It touched upon allegations of sexual misconduct against star Jeffrey Tambor, as well as his admission earlier this month, via the Hollywood Reporter, of a "blowup" with TV wife Jessica Walter. "In like almost 60 years of working, I've never had anybody yell at me like that on a set. And it's hard to deal with," 77-year-old Walter, who described the incident as verbal harassment, eventually revealed through tears. But first, her male co-stars jumped to Tambor's defense. David Cross stressed it was "important to remember" Tambor "learned from the experience." "Not to say that ... [Walter] had it coming," added Bateman. But "families come together and certain dynamics collide and clash every once in a while." With critics pointing out how Walter's male co-stars interrupted her while trying to "mansplain her situation," per the Washington Post—Alia Shawkat, the only other female cast member present, defended Walter—Bateman took to Twitter Thursday to say he was "incredibly embarrassed and deeply sorry" for his comments. "I was so eager to let Jeffrey know that he was supported in his attempt to learn, grow and apologize that I completely underestimated the feelings of the victim," he wrote. "This is a big learning moment for me." Tambor previously told THR he had "profusely apologized" to Walter. "I was difficult. I was mean" on sets, he said, but he claimed his firing from Transparent was "a real wake-up," per USA Today. "I've learned that I need to be more patient," he continued. "I need to be more of a gentleman in how I interact with my castmates and not lose my temper."


Write a summary based on this article:

 Photo by PoPville flickr user Mylar Bono

 Dear PoPville,

 I was refused service at Chinatown Coffee Co. in DC, a neighborhood establishment that I frequent quite often. Why? I ordered three shots of espresso over ice. What I didn’t realize is that espresso and ice is a huge controversy among coffee critics. Where there is no disagreement, however, is that customers are still king – even in an indie/hipster coffee shop. It was disappointing, to say the least, the barista, refused my business and then insulted me on the way out the door. A similar encounter is offered in this blog post about Murky Coffee in Arlington.

 Here is the play-by-play in my Yelp review:

 Here’s the play-by-play for anyone who’s interested (including the management):

 Him: “Hi. What can I get for you?”

 Me: “I’d like 3 shots of espresso over a cup of ice to go.”

 Him: “I can’t do that. I could make you an americano instead. I has water in it.”

 Me: “No thanks. I’d like a cup with ice with 3 shots of espresso poured over it.”

 Him: “We don’t do that because it will ruin it. We make the best espresso in the city and putting it over ice will shock it.”

 Me: [long pause] “Really?”

 Him: “Aww… did I just ruin your day?”

 Me: “So you can’t make this drink?”

 Him: “No.”

 Before I had even said another word, he had already walked away. ||||| Flickr: BenjaminThompson

 WASHINGTON -- In a coffeeshop, do customers have a right to bad taste?

 That's been a hot topic of discussion in the nation's capital this week after a barista refused to make an espresso-over-ice drink for a customer who ordered one.

 Him: “We don’t do that because it will ruin it. We make the best espresso in the city and putting it over ice will shock it.” Me: [long pause] “Really?” Him: “Aww… did I just ruin your day?” Me: “So you can’t make this drink?” Him: “No.”

 From Prince of Petworth, which published a play-by-play rundown of the incident at Chinatown Coffee Co.

 It's certainly not the first time espresso-over-ice has sparked a fiery debate online in the nation's capital.

 Back in 2008, then-D.C. resident Jeff Simmermon, tried to order the drink at the Clarendon location of the now-closed Murky Coffee, where a barista expressed hesitation in making it. Simmermon took to his blog and documented the incident for the whole world to see.

 I interrupted. “You’re goddamned right you can’t stop me,” I said. “I happen to have a personal policy that prohibits me from indulging stupid bullshit like this — and another personal policy of doing what I want with the products I pay for.” Then I looked him right in his big wide eyes and poured the espresso onto the ice.

 His rant went viral and thrusted the fiery debate into the national spotlight.

 No modifications to the Classic Cappuccino. No questions will be answered about the $5 Hot Chocolate (during the months we offer it). No espresso in a to-go cup. No espresso over ice. These are our policies. We have our reasons, and we're happy to share them.

 Murky Coffee detailed additional house rules in an open letter to Simmermon

 As The Washington Post wrote of the "bitter" incident: "Who knew a cup of coffee could create such a tempest in a teapot?"

 What do you think? |||||

– A barista in Washington, DC, has unintentionally raised a philosophical quandary by rejecting the idea that the customer is always right. When a guy asked for espresso on ice, the barista flat out refused, the Huffington Post reports via a Prince of Petworth transcript. "We don’t do that because it will ruin it. We make the best espresso in the city and putting it over ice will shock it," the barista at Chinatown Coffee Co. reportedly said. When the customer seemed befuddled, the barista replied, "Aw, did I just ruin your day?" HuffPo notes that a few years back, a disgruntled customer blogged about another coffee shop's rejection of his request for the same drink. As the post gathered traction, the shop released a statement of its rules, including: "No espresso in a to-go cup. No espresso over ice. These are our policies. We have our reasons, and we're happy to share them."


Article:
FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel... (Associated Press)

 FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel Prizes begins Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, with the award for medicine or physiology, honoring research... (Associated Press)

 FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel Prizes begins Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, with the award for medicine or physiology, honoring research... (Associated Press) FILE- In this April 17, 2015, file photo a national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, Colombia. This year’s round of Nobel... (Associated Press)

 STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Latest on the awarding of the Nobel Prizes (all times local):

 11:45 a.m.

 Three scientists from the United States, France and Canada have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for advances in laser physics.

 The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded half the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize to Arthur Ashkin of the United States and the other half will be shared by Gerard Mourou of France and Canada's Donna Strickland.

 The academy says Ashkin developed "optical tweezers" that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them.

 Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses that have broad industrial and medical applications.

 ___

 7:15 a.m.

 The Nobel Prize for physics honors researchers for discoveries in phenomena as enormous as The Big Bang and as tiny as single particles of light.

 This year's award will be announced Tuesday.

 The 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize, which can be shared by as many as three people, is decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

 Last year's physics prize went to three Americans who used abstruse theory and ingenious equipment design to detect the faint ripples in the universe called gravitational waves.

 On Monday, American James Allison and Japan's Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel medicine prize for groundbreaking work in fighting cancer with the body's own immune system.

 The Nobel chemistry prize comes Wednesday, followed by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize, which is not technically a Nobel, will be announced Oct. 8. ||||| Image copyright Uni Waterloo Image caption Dr Strickland shared the prize for discoveries in laser physics

 The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to a woman for the first time in 55 years.

 Donna Strickland, from Canada, is only the third woman winner of the award, along with Marie Curie, who won in 1903, and Maria Goeppert-Mayer, who was awarded the prize in 1963.

 Dr Strickland shares this year's prize with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France.

 It recognises their discoveries in the field of laser physics.

 Dr Ashkin developed a laser technique described as optical tweezers, which is used to study biological systems.

 Drs Mourou and Strickland paved the way for the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created. They developed a technique called Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA). It has found uses in laser therapy targeting cancer and in the millions of corrective laser eye surgeries which are performed each year.

 Speaking to the BBC, Dr Strickland said it was "surprising" it had been such a long time since a woman had won the award.

 However, she stressed that she had "always been treated as an equal", and that "two men also won it with me, and they deserve this prize as much if not more than me".

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Arthur Ashkin and Gerard Mourou were honoured for their contributions to the field

 The award comes a few days after a physicist gave a "highly offensive" lecture at the Cern particle physics laboratory in Geneva in which he said that physics had been "built by men" and that male scientists were being discriminated against.

 He has since been suspended by the research centre.

 Dr Strickland called the physicist's remarks "silly" and said she never took such comments "personally".

 The last woman to win the physics prize, German-born American physicist Maria Goeppert-Mayer, took the award for her discoveries about the nuclei of atoms.

 Polish-born physicist Marie Curie shared the 1903 award with her husband Pierre Curie and Antoine Henri Becquerel for their research into radioactivity.

 The award is worth a total of nine million Swedish kronor (£770,686; $998,618).

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre Curie

 Reacting to her win, Dr Strickland, who is based at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: "First of all you have to think it's crazy, so that was my first thought. And you do always wonder if it's real.

 "As far as sharing it with Gerard, of course he was my supervisor and mentor and he has taken CPA to great heights so he definitely deserves this award. And I'm so happy Art Ashkin also won."

 She added: "I think that he made so many discoveries early on that other people have done great things with that it's fantastic that he is finally recognised."

 In a statement, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) offered its congratulations to all the winners, adding: "The countless applications made possible by their work, like laser eye surgery, high-power pettawat lasers, and the ability to trap and study individual viruses and bacteria, only promise to increase going forward.

 "It is also a personal delight to see Dr Strickland break the 55-year hiatus since a woman has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, making this year's award all the more historic."

 Image copyright SPL Image caption Mourou and Strickland's technique has found several applications, including in laser eye surgery

 What is the work that has won a Nobel?

 Before Dr Strickland and Dr Mourou's pioneering work, the peak power of laser pulses was limited because, when cranked up to high intensities, they would destroy the material used for amplifying its energy.

 To get round this, the researchers first stretched the laser pulses in time to reduce their peak power, then amplified them and finally compressed them.

 When a laser pulse is compressed in time and becomes shorter, more light is packed into a small space. This dramatically increases the intensity of the pulse.

 Dr Strickland and Dr Mourou's technique, called chirped pulse amplification (CPA), became standard for high intensity lasers.

 Arthur Ashkin realised an old dream in science fiction - using the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects. In doing so, he invented the optical tweezers that are today used to grab particles, atoms, viruses and living cells with their laser-based pincers.

 He first worked on getting laser light to push small particles towards the centre of the beam and hold them there.

 Then, in 1987, he used the tweezers to capture living bacteria without harming them. The technique is now used widely to study the machinery of life.

 Follow Paul on Twitter.

 Previous winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics

 Image copyright S.Ossokine/A.Buonanno (MPI Gravitational Physics) Image caption A computer simulation of gravitational waves radiating from two merging black holes

 2017 - Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish earned the award for the detection of gravitational waves.

 2016 - David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz shared the award for their work on rare phases of matter.

 2015 - Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald were awarded the prize the discovery that neutrinos switch between different "flavours".

 2014 - Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura won the physics Nobel for developing the first blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

 2013 - Francois Englert and Peter Higgs shared the spoils for formulating the theory of the Higgs boson particle.

 2012 - Serge Haroche and David J Wineland were awarded the prize for their work with light and matter. ||||| 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 ||||| This collection contains official Pacific Union College websites, particularly those associated with the domain name puc.edu. The purpose of this collection is to maintain a record of digitally published information that is necessary to preserve the history of Pacific Union College. |||||Summary:

– Three scientists from the United States, France, and Canada have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for advances in laser physics, including the first woman to take home the prize in 55 years. The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded half the $1.01 million prize to Arthur Ashkin of the United States, and the other half will be shared by Gerard Mourou of France and Donna Strickland of Canada, per the AP. Strickland is the third female laureate in physics, but the first in more than half a century, reports the BBC. The academy says Ashkin developed "optical tweezers" that can grab tiny particles such as viruses without damaging them. As the Guardian notes, "this means scientists can hold even living cells in place, allowing them to probe their inner workings." Strickland and Mourou helped develop short and intense laser pulses that have broad industrial and medical applications. The Nobel panel's explanation: "Ultra-sharp laser beams make it possible to cut or drill holes in various materials extremely precisely—even in living matter. Millions of eye operations are performed every year with the sharpest of laser beams." (A CERN scientist just got suspended for saying physics was built by men.)


Article:

The Web can be full of pranks and pitfalls any day of the year, but the temptation for mischief on April Fools’ Day can lead to trouble, even for news organizations. This seems to be what happened with Forbes.com on Sunday when it declared Mitt Romney had exited the Republican presidential race.

 An April Fools’ prank at Forbes went awry when a blog claimed Mitt Romney, right, had stepped down and backed former senator Rick Santorum as the GOP presidential nominee. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

 Contributor Len Burman wrote and published a blog on the news organization’s Web site headlined “Romney drops out of race, endorses Santorum,” about 10:40 Sunday morning. Editors pulled it down about a half-hour later, but not before the “news” spread on Twitter and claimed the top spot on Google News, albeit briefly.

 Burman, an economics professor at Syracuse University and Forbes blogger for 10 months, says his piece was intended as obvious satire.

 “It’s kind of baffling,” he said in a phone interview. “It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. Nobody in the party would have said those things.”

 Those “things” included faux quotes from the former Massachusetts governor saying that he has “no chance” to win the general election in December and that a Santorum candidacy would be in the “best interest of the party.”

 Burman continued with Romney saying: “I don’t want to wait until 2020 to get my party back. I’m all about efficiency. Let’s get our butts kicked now and move on.”

 News reports have Romney inching ever close to securing the GOP presidential nomination.

 Defending his piece, Burman says it was intended as satire, to call out “some real issues with the right wing of the Republican Party. I was basically just trying to make a point about that.”

 Shortly after the post was taken down, Burman published an explanation, saying Forbes pulled the entry down, “because of an unannounced ban on April Fool’s Day humor.” Editors have since taken down that post as well.

 Burman says he writes, edits and publishes articles to the Forbes Web site, which are then back-read by editors. This was the first time he can remember editors taking down his content.

 The editor responsible for removing Burman’s blogs, Executive Producer for Content Development Coates Bateman, did not immediately respond to messages left at his office.

 Forbes.com doesn’t have a clear distinction among articles, blogs and columns, but to make his satirical intentions clear, Burman says he put the date — April 1, 2012 — at the bottom of the article.

 Up to this point, he says, “I really thought the blog was my blog and as long as I didn’t do anything grossly irresponsible — and I don’t consider this to be in that category — I could do what I wanted with it.”

 While his piece lives on in a personal blog he started this morning, Burman says he has learned an important lesson about the Web and social media.

 “It’s the way the Internet works. The headline gets transmitted and nothing else,” he says. “I was hoping it would go viral, and I guess it has.”

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 April Fool’s Day: The history of pranks (Video) ||||| TheWashingtonPost Mitt Romney caught off guard by staff’s April Fools’ Day prank

 MILWAUKEE — There was a time when Mitt Romney was known for pranks. When a schoolyard crush married someone else, he painted the groom’s leather shoes with pink nail polish so when he knelt at the altar it would show. Then there was the time he dressed up as a police officer, put a flashing red light on the roof of his car and chased after two buddies while they were on a double date.

 Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) jokes with Rep Paul Ryan (C) (R-Wis.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) during a pancake brunch at Bluemound Gardens on April 1, 2012 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Justin Sullivan - GETTY IMAGES)

 But when his aides orchestrated an elaborate prank for him on Sunday, Romney was befuddled. He had forgotten it was April Fools’ Day. And on this morning, as he recounted to a crowd here, “they turned me into the April fool!” Luckily, the scene was caught on video.

 The Republican presidential front-runner was all set to deliver a stump speech at a pancake breakfast in Milwaukee. He was ushered into a ballroom. He waited backstage behind a black curtain. Arrows on the floor showed him where to walk.

 An aide warned Romney that, for whatever reason, turnout was low but that he would have to power through the event. “It’s really small,” one aide said, “but it will be okay.”

 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) went out first to introduce Romney, “the next president of the United States!” Romney could hear applause, and when his intro music, Kid Rock’s “Born Free,” blared from the speakers, he and Sen. Ronald H. Johnson (R-Wis.) walked out from behind the black curtain.

 “It’s completely empty!” Romney said, save for a handful of aides. “There’s nobody there. I thought, ‘Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you.’ ”

 It turned out that Ryan and Johnson were in on the prank, which Romney’s traveling aides had hatched up late Saturday night. They had built a fake set for a Romney event. The applause was really a soundtrack played through a set of speakers.

 “So not only did they do that, but they caught it on camera,” Romney said. “You guys — this is known as ‘forgive but remember,’ I’ll tell ya. We’re gonna remember this.”

 After aides shouted “April fools!” at him, the former Massachusetts governor made his way to the real ballroom, where he addressed an overflow crowd of several hundred supporters and served them pancakes. |||||
What is a summary?

– One of yesterday's April Fools' Day pranks apparently fooled a few too many people: A Forbes contributor posted a blog on Forbes.com claiming that Mitt Romney had dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Rick Santorum. Despite the fact that editors took it down after just half an hour, the news quickly went viral on Twitter and was, for a short time, the No. 1 story on Google News. The uproar is "kind of baffling," contributor Len Burman tells the Washington Post. "It was April Fools’ Day, and it was completely implausible. Nobody in the party would have said those things." Among Burman's "implausible" quotes from the original blog: Romney claiming he has "no chance" to win the general election and saying that Republicans should "get our butts kicked now and move on." The entire post is available on Burman's personal blog. Meanwhile, Romney also found himself the butt of an April Fools' Day prank dreamed up by his aides, the Post notes. Paul Ryan introduced Romney, set to give a stump speech at a Milwaukee pancake breakfast yesterday, but when the candidate emerged he was faced with an empty room. "I thought, 'Oh, boy, this is gonna look really bad on the evening news, let me tell you,'" says Romney, who had forgotten the date. After hearing cries of "April fools" he laughed it off and was taken to the real room, where several hundred supporters were gathered. The whole thing was caught on video, of course.