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– There's a rumble brewing in the wilds of Montana, but the unlikely parties involved aren't slinging guns so much as heading for court. The Gardiner Water and Sewer Treatment District is suing none other than the National Park Service, reports Courthouse News Service, and it's over less-than-pristine water coming from Yellowstone National Park—specifically, water it's being forced to treat that contains high levels of arsenic. The district says that dealing with its sludge ponds will cost an estimated $2 million. Per the lawsuit: An "engineer recommended that the district address this infiltration problem with the park prior to beginning any sludge removal project." Otherwise, the problem would simply return again. But as the district "cannot await the Park Service’s responses any longer, it has been compelled to file suit." Yellowstone is estimated to be contributing 95% of the arsenic present; the engineer doesn't think the arsenic is coming from wastewater, but possibly from leaky pipes or manholes within the park, reports the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Arsenic can occur naturally in geothermal areas, and it's not uncommon in Montana, notes CNS. The district—which first wrote the Park Service in March 2015, then again in December 2015, to no response—wants a court injunction to force Yellowstone to clean up its act, to compensate the district, and to monitor its sewer lines; it's also requesting a jury trial. A Yellowstone rep said only that Interior Department lawyers are "looking into it." (Meanwhile, one of our largest water sources is contaminated.)

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 BILLINGS, Mont. (CN) – In the picturesque mountains near the nation’s first national park, a small water and sewer district is taking on the National Park Service in a dispute over arsenic in wastewater coming from Yellowstone National Park that’s treated by the sewer district.

 In a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Montana, the Gardiner Water and Sewer Treatment District says that for the past few years, they’ve been trying to work with the National Park Service to resolve the matter before the district takes on an estimated $2 million sludge treatment pond replacement as part of its routine maintenance. But with no timely response from the Park Service, and under pressure from the state to replace the ponds, the district said it had no choice but to sue.

 “Given that the district has been directed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to dispose of the sludge and replace the liners in its treatment ponds and cannot await the Park Service’s responses any longer, it has been compelled to file suit,” the district said in its lawsuit. The district’s attorney Todd Shea didn’t return a telephone call seeking additional information.

 Arsenic can occur naturally in geothermal areas, and it’s not uncommon for it to be detected in Montana’s water. In February 2015, the district’s engineer reported high levels of arsenic in sewage coming from the town of Mammoth, which is home to park employees and sits just inside Yellowstone’s northern border. The engineer noted that it wasn’t coming from the park’s wastewater, but appeared to be flowing into the system from manholes or holes in underground pipes. It needed to be addressed since the Yellowstone wastewater was contributing 95 percent of the arsenic to the treatment system.

 “The engineer recommended that the district address this infiltration problem with the park prior to beginning any sludge removal project,” the lawsuit states. “Otherwise, the high level of arsenic in the district’s sewage treatment plant would return after the sludge removal project.”

 The engineer also stated the arsenic levels comply with federal drinking water standards in both the town of Gardiner, at Yellowstone’s northern entrance, and in the park itself.

 In March 2015, the district wrote a letter to the Park Service, asking the agency to locate and repair the areas of infiltration since the district couldn’t move forward until the problem was addressed. When the Park Service didn’t respond, the district sent a second letter in December 2015 noting that the arsenic levels had increased since the March letter.

 Yellowstone’s press representative is out of the office until January. But the lawsuit states the Park Service acknowledged it was causing a problem and would “make a substantial contribution” to the sludge removal project – but it didn’t mention how it would address the leaking pipes.

 The district sent a third letter in August 2016 and received a written response from the Park Service confirming that the infiltration problems were accurate and ongoing, but that money for the project probably won’t be available until 2020 at the earliest.

 The lawsuit claims the park breached an oral contract to help pay for the sludge pond replacement, and is trespassing since the damage caused by the arsenic is ongoing. The district also says Yellowstone National Park is creating a “danger to public safety” by not addressing the arsenic.

 In addition to breach of contract and trespass claims, the district is suing for public and private nuisance and negligence. It wants a judge to order the park to address its arsenic problem, to monitor its sewer lines quarterly and provide the district with reports and to help pay for the sludge removal project. ||||| Close Get email notifications on Michael Wright daily!

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Here is a news article: MANILA — The International Criminal Court said on Thursday that it was opening a preliminary investigation into accusations that President Rodrigo Duterte and other Philippine officials had committed crimes against humanity in the course of the government’s deadly crackdown on drugs.

 Fatou Bensouda, a prosecutor for the international court, said in a statement that the inquiry would gauge whether there was enough evidence to build a case. She said she would be looking at events since July 1, 2016, “in the context of the ‘war on drugs’ campaign.”

 “My office undertakes this work with full independence and impartiality,” Ms. Bensouda said. “As we do, we hope to count on the full engagement of the relevant national authorities in the Philippines.”

 Harry Roque, a spokesman for the Philippine president, said that the government’s crackdown was a “legitimate police operation” and that the president welcomed The Hague-based tribunal’s decision. ||||| The international criminal court has launched an initial inquiry into allegations of crimes against humanity committed by Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippine president, in his brutal anti-drugs crusade.

 A report submitted to the ICC last year laid out evidence that Duterte had been directly responsible for “extrajudicial executions and mass murder” over three decades since he began his war on drugs as mayor of Davao in 1988.

 Thousands dead: the Philippine president, the death squad allegations and a brutal drugs war Read more

 According to official statistics, 4,000 people have been killed by the police in anti-drug operations since Duterte became president. However, the 77-page report submitted by a Philippine lawyer, Jude Sabio, alleged the death toll was over 8,000.

 The ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement that her office would “analyse crimes allegedly committed … since at least 1 July 2016 in the context of the ‘war on drugs’ campaign”. The inquiry will be the ICC’s first preliminary examination in a south-east Asian nation.

 Gary Alejano, an opposition politician who tried to get Duterte impeached last year and submitted evidence to the ICC as part of the complaint, said the move was an affirmation that the claims against Duterte had legitimacy, and it offered “a ray of hope for the victims of his war on drugs, which is still ongoing right now”.

 He said: “In this country, people are at a loss where to go if members of your family feel victim to the war on drugs. They cannot go to police because they are involved, they cannot go to the department of justice because the secretary will say there’s no such thing as extrajudicial killing. And when we request an investigation from the House of Representatives, we can not get an impartial hearing because they are covering up for the president. There is a clear and blatant violation of the rule of law in the Philippines right now, and so the ICC are the only ones who can step in.”

 Alejano said he believed they had a “strong case, if we are given the opportunity to be heard.”

 Duterte’s spokesperson, Harry Roque, described the inquiry as a “waste of the court’s time and resources,” stressing that many of the allegations predated the Philippines signing up to the ICC in 2011, and therefore could not be considered. However, Bensouda specifically referenced killings since 1 July 2016 in her statement.

 Roque said continuing with the investigation would undermine the sovereignty of the Philippines “because the domestic courts are functioning and willing to entertain this matter … and the alleged deaths, if true, were because of a legitimate police exercise.”

 He alleged that “domestic enemies” were behind the complaint and said Duterte was prepared to go on trial and defend his actions, though he said he was confident the ICC would not proceed. “He’s sick and tried of being accused. He wants to be in court and put the prosecutor on the stand,” Roque said.

 Since securing a landslide victory in the 2016 elections on a pledge to kill tens of thousands of criminals and eradicate drugs in Philippine society, Duterte has authorised police to violently crack down on illegal drug use, urging them to kill suspects and promising to protect them from prosecution. His abrasive tongue and brutal methods have kept him popular in the Philippines, where he enjoys high approval ratings and legislative support.

 He maintains that the thousands who died were suspects who resisted arrest, but human rights groups and political opponents allege that many murders have been carried out and covered up.

 When he was mayor of Davao, Duterte’s crackdown on criminals was often carried out by vigilante groups, known as death squads, allegedly with his approval. The thousands of deaths in Davao were part of the complaint filed to the ICC.

 Duterte’s war on drugs leaves tragic legacy for Filipino families – in pictures Read more

 Duterte is notorious for his dislike of the ICC, calling it “bullshit”, “hypocritical” and “useless”, and he has threatened to withdraw his country’s membership multiple times, even daring the court to bring him to trial.

 Human Rights Watch, which has been calling for an independent international investigation into Duterte’s war on drugs, welcomed the ICC’s move. Phil Robertson, a deputy director in its Asia division, said the ICC “absolutely should initiate a full investigation into these alleged crimes because to date there has been no serious attempt to investigate them by the Philippines police or prosecutors, much less take suspected killers to court”.

 The ICC defines crimes against humanity as “serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population”. Since it was established in 2002, the court in The Hague has received more than 12,000 complaints or communications, and nine cases have gone to trial. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte welcomes a preliminary investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity now underway by the International Criminal Court, a spokesman said Thursday, marking an about-face for a man who once described the ICC as "bulls---." Duterte is "sick and tired of being accused" and is prepared to defend himself in court, though the investigation is "a waste of the court's time and resources," spokesman Harry Roque said in announcing the inquiry that is to decide whether there's evidence to build a case, report the New York Times and Guardian. Roque maintained the government crackdown that's left an estimated 12,000 people dead under Duterte's leadership—though police put the number at 4,000—is a "legitimate police operation" to weed out drugs. Duterte swore to "kill" criminals when he took office in June 2016. He has since faced accusations of mass murder while keeping up a "great relationship" with President Trump. It's those allegations that launched the ICC probe, confirmed by a prosecutor, per the Guardian. In a complaint sent to the ICC last April, a Filipino lawyer representing two men who say they were assassins for Duterte called him a "mastermind" of killings spanning the three decades since he became mayor of Davao in 1988. "Hopefully a warrant of arrest will be issued by the ICC against Duterte and his cohorts," 11 of whom are named in the complaint, the lawyer said, per the Times. Arguing the government is attempting a cover-up, Duterte political opponent Gary Alejano says ICC officials "are the only ones who can step in."


Article:
(CNN) Only the shallow waters of the Rio Grande and a couple of miles separated Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from American soil Saturday.

 Guzman was transferred from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a senior Mexican law enforcement source told CNN.

 "Due to the proximity (to the U.S.), it makes it easier to extradite him," the official said.

 The exact reason for the move is unclear, but it comes one month after a Mexican lawyer leading his legal defense team said his client wanted to be extradited to the United States "as soon as possible" because conditions at Altiplano were unbearable and making him seriously ill.

 Altiplano is the same lockup near Mexico City from which the drug lord escaped last July and to which he was returned after his January 8 recapture in the coastal city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state. "El Chapo" slipped out through a prison tunnel in the brazen escape, taking advantage of a blind spot in a cell security camera.

 Now the notorious Sinaloa cartel boss finds himself behind bars just across from El Paso, Texas.

 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman stands in his cell at the Altiplano Federal Prison in Mexico. Increased security measures are being used by authorities to make sure the cartel kingpin doesn't break out of prison for a third time. His most recent escape came in July, when he got out through a hole in the floor of his cell's shower stall. The images in this gallery were obtained by Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola. Hide Caption 1 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison Military vehicles and canine officers guard the Altiplano prison. Hide Caption 2 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison Guards walk down a hallway of the prison, which has installed 400 new cameras. Authorities hope to add another 600 by April. Hide Caption 3 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison An X-ray machine is guarded at the prison's entrance.

 Hide Caption 4 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison A body scan machine is also at the front entrance. Hide Caption 5 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison An officer operates the body scan machine. Hide Caption 6 of 7 Photos: 'El Chapo' in prison An officer at the entrance swabs a visitor to detect explosives. Hide Caption 7 of 7

 In a statement, Mexico's National Safety Commission said Guzman was transferred to the "CEFERESO No. 9" facility in the northern state of Chihuahua.

 "Such transfer was carried out with full respect for the human rights of the inmate," the statement said.

 Preparations for extradition?

 Mexico's government attributed Guzman's transfer to renovations intended to improve security at Altiplano.

 But the United States has been preparing for Guzman's transfer for months and have been hammering out the security details, American officials said.

 It's not immediately clear when Guzman will be turned over to U.S. custody.

 Once he is transferred, Guzman will be sent to Brooklyn, New York, to stand trial on federal charges, the officials told CNN.

 Jose Refugio Rodriguez, Guzman's lead attorney, confirmed the transfer. He said lawyers were not notified and their client may have learned of the transfer at the last minute.

 Rodriguez said his client's extradition is not imminent and will not occur "for some time." Another member of Guzman's legal team, Andres Granado, was flying to Juarez to meet with Guzman, according to Rodriguez.

 In recent weeks, Justice Department officials held a conference call with several federal prosecutors handling pending cases against Guzman.

 Top Justice Department officials decided a case largely based on a Homeland Security Department investigation would be the charges for which he would stand trial.

 The Brooklyn venue offers advantages because a federal detention center that is part of the court complex offers the appropriate level of security, according to the officials.

 In Brooklyn, Guzman and other cartel leaders were indicted in 2009 on charges of conspiring to import more than 264,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2005, according to the U.S. Justice Department. The traffickers also are accused of sharing drug transportation routes and obtaining their drugs from various Colombian drug organizations.

 The indictments allege Guzman and others cartel bosses employed "sicarios," or hit men, to carry out hundreds of acts of violence in Mexico, including murders, kidnappings, tortures and violent collections of drug debts, according to federal prosecutors.

 Rodriguez told CNN in early March that Guzman would be willing to plead guilty on drug trafficking charges in the United States as long as he's held at a medium-security prison, allowed to see family members and his attorney often, and is not kept in isolation.

 But the attorney changed his tune in a separate CNN interview last month, saying Guzman's request to be extradited was merely a tactic in response to the poor treatment his client was receiving in a Mexican prison.

 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was considered the world's most powerful drug lord until his arrest in Mexico in February 2014. He escaped from a maximum-security prison on July 11, 2015. Hide Caption 1 of 6 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape This screen grab of security video, dated July 11 and released by Mexico's National Security Commission, shows Guzman inside his cell at the Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico. He is looking at the shower floor shortly before escaping through a tunnel below, authorities said. Hide Caption 2 of 6 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape A journalist climbs a ladder to get out of the tunnel that authorities say Guzman used to escape. Hide Caption 3 of 6 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Journalists exit the tunnel on Tuesday, July 14. Hide Caption 4 of 6 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Yellow police tape surrounds the construction site where the exit of the tunnel is located. Hide Caption 5 of 6 Photos: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's 2015 escape Federal police guard a drainage pipe outside of the prison on Sunday, July 12. Hide Caption 6 of 6

 Guzman is the focus of 10 legal cases in Mexico, mainly for drug trafficking, murder and charges related to his role as a cartel leader. But he also faces charges in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and New Hampshire.

 Guzman and his lieutenants are named in U.S. indictments for alleged involvement in marijuana, cocaine and heroin trafficking, as well as racketeering, money laundering, kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder.

 Altiplano is the same prison near Mexico City from which the drug lord escaped last July and to which he was returned after his January 8 recapture in the coastal city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state.

 President Enrique Peña Nieto said in late January that he's directed his attorney general's office to "make this extradition of this highly dangerous criminal happen as soon as possible." Mexico began proceedings for the extradition that same month.

 Why hasn't he been sent to U.S.?

 In the past, Mexican authorities asserted their sovereignty to first prosecute Guzman for crimes in Mexico, despite U.S. officials' concerns the drug kingpin would escape from prison as he had done in 2001.

 Analysts have advanced various theories on why Mexico declined to extradite Guzman to the United States shortly after his arrest in 2014.

 Some said Nieto wanted to limit U.S. involvement in Mexico's drug war and felt having the United States possibly imprison Mexico's top criminal would be a blow to the country's ego and sovereignty.

 Others offered that Mexican officials feared Guzman might expose dirty dealings with the country's politicians. And former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said he disapproved of the United States cutting deals with criminals -- as it did in 2013 with Jesús Vicente "El Vicentillo" Zambada Niebla, the son of Guzman's top lieutenant -- and not sharing with Mexico any intelligence from their cooperation.

 Officially, Murillo Karam said Guzman would not be extradited until he finished serving his time in Mexico, a sentiment echoed by the ambassador to the United States, Eduardo Medina-Mora. When Guzman escaped in 2001, he had served seven years of a more than 20-year sentence, and he racked up eight more charges before being recaptured.

 Guzman -- whose nickname means "Shorty" for his 5-foot-6-inch frame -- infamously escaped in 2001 from a high-security prison in a laundry cart. He avoided capture through the years due to his enormous power to bribe corrupt local, state and federal Mexican officials.

 His drug enterprise stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia.

 The Sinaloa cartel has been blamed for its role in the bloody drug war that has plagued Mexico in recent years, leaving tens of thousands of people dead. ||||| Video grab released on January 27, 2016 by Mexican General Attorney office, showing Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in Altiplano maximum security federal prison in Almoloya de Juarez, State of Mexico (AFP Photo/PGR) More

 Mexico City (AFP) - The Mexican authorities transferred the notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the US border Saturday morning in a surprise move, officials said.

 Despite speculation, Guzman's transfer had "absolutely nothing" to do with his possible extradition or deportation to the United States -- where he faces extradition requests by courts in California and Texas for homicide and drug trafficking -- Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for the president's office, told AFP.

 The authorities said they moved Guzman to prevent any escape attempt during construction to strengthen his maximum-security prison in Altiplano, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the capital Mexico City.

 Considered one of the world's most powerful drug bosses, Guzman has staged two dramatic escapes from maximum-security prisons, including from Altiplano.

 He arrived at the airport in Ciudad Juarez at dawn, heavily guarded by some 150 federal police officers who had arrived earlier in three planes.

 Mexico did not warn the US authorities before Guzman's transfer, a US government official told AFP.

 The move "surprised everyone," he said, adding that the transfer had nothing to do with the extradition process.

 Guzman's lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez said the move is "illegal" because his defense team has launched "processes to stop him being transferred from one place to another."

 - Secure Jail -

 A helicopter transferred Guzman from the airport to a prison in the south of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

 Although not classified as a maximum-security prison, it has a section for highly dangerous prisoners that is "one of the safest," a National Security Commission source said.

 Military soldiers guard the prison, and the road leading to the facility is under especially heavy protection, Mexican media reported.

 The former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel -- one of Mexico's most powerful -- Guzman staged a spectacular jailbreak in July 2015, when he escaped through a hole in his jail cell's shower that led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading outside.

 He was captured in January after months on the run in a colorful episode involving a Mexican soap opera actress and the US film star Sean Penn, who met with the drug boss in hiding.

 In 2001, Guzman is believed to have hidden in a laundry basket when he escaped from another maximum security prison in Puente Grande in western Jalisco state, where he was imprisoned since 1993.

 The authorities began the process of deporting him to the United States shortly after his capture in January.

 President Enrique Pena Nieto has said the extradition would take place "as soon as possible."

 Guzman fought the process until March, when he asked his lawyers to stop their efforts because conditions at his prison were intolerable.

 He is willing to plead guilty to charges in the United States in return for a lighter sentence and confinement at a medium-security prison, his lawyer Rodriguez said.

 Earlier this year, Guzman's lawyers said he was being held incommunicado and that guards were preventing him from sleeping more than two hours at a time, but said more recently that conditions had markedly improved.

 The prison authorities in Altiplano had already made improvements at the facility, reinforcing points of access and perimeter security, adding cameras and monitoring command centers and prison conditions.

 Guzman is accused of crimes including smuggling tons of drugs into the United States by boat, submarine, airplane and an extensive network of tunnels under the border.

 A number of US jurisdictions, including New York, are vying to prosecute him.

 Mexican officials have said the extradition process may take a year or more. |||||Summary:

– Notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was transferred Saturday from the Altiplano maximum-security prison outside Mexico City to a prison just south of the Texas border, AFP reports. El Chapo arrived in Ciudad Juarez along with 150 federal police officers aboard three planes and was taken from the airport to the prison by helicopter. CNN quotes Mexican authorities who say the move "was carried out with full respect for the human rights of the inmate." Government sources say El Chapo's new prison is "one of the safest" despite not being maximum security. The former head of the Sinaloa drug cartel has broken out of maximum-security prisons twice in the past. It's unclear exactly why El Chapo was moved to a new prison. "I can't say what the government is thinking," one of his lawyers, who says the defense team wasn't notified, tells the AP. CNN quotes a Mexican official as saying the transfer to a prison closer to the border "makes it easier to extradite him" to the US. But the Mexican government has said that process is still a year or so away from being complete. Other authorities say Altiplano needed security renovations. But AFP quotes an official who says the transfer was routine and done "solely by security protocols as part of a rotation of prisoners." Authorities say they've rotated more than 7,400 prisoners since last September.


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Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie have officially tied the knot. The 22-year-old actress and Canadian hockey player married Saturday during an intimate ceremony in Santa Barbara, Calif., PEOPLE reports. Duff wanted a quiet affair and kept the wedding as small as possible. Among the guests who made the guest list were Duff's sister Haylie, who served as her maid of honor.Comrie popped the question back in February while the pair were vacationing in Hawaii. "After having been together for over two years, they are very excited to share this happy news," her rep said. "They are thankful for all of your warm wishes." ||||| Congratulations to newlyweds Hilary Duff and Mike Comrie!

 A rep for the 22-year-old singer-actress confirms exclusively to OK! that the couple were wed on Saturday in Santa Barbara, California.

 Hilary, in a mermaid gown by Vera Wang, and NHL hockey player Mike Comrie, 29, said their “I do’s” in front of a breathtaking sunset and 100 of their closest family and friends.

 HILARY DUFF RAPIDLY RUNS ERRANDS

 Hilary was escorted down the aisle by her mother Susan Duff, who was dressed in Badgley Mischka.

 HILARY DUFF DRESSES BOYISHLY BUT RUNS GIRLY ERRANDS

 Sister Haylie Duff acted as maid of honor with four additional bridesmaids.

 Be sure to check out the new issue of OK! — the only place for all the photos and inside details from the wedding and reception — on sale everywhere Thursday!

 Photo Source: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images |||||

– Hilary Duff is officially off the market. The 22-year-old married Canadian hockey player Mike Comrie yesterday in Santa Barbara, Calif. The bride wore a mermaid gown by Vera Wang, and tied the knot in front of 100 friends and family members—including mom Susan, who walked her down the aisle, and sister Haylie, her maid of honor, reports OK! The pair began dating in 2007, after meeting at a resort in Idaho. Click here for more wedding tidbits.


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– Ryan Gosling is getting a lot of love for his Golden Globes acceptance speech, in which he delivered an emotional tribute to "sweetheart" Eva Mendes. Gosling, who won Best Actor in a Comedy Film for his performance in La La Land, joked about being mistaken for Ryan Reynolds and then got serious, USA Today reports. "You don’t get to be up here without standing on the shoulders of a mountain of people," he said. "While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one the best experiences I've ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer." "If she hadn't taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today," Gosling continued. "Sweetheart, thank you." He dedicated his prize to the memory of Mendes' brother, who died of cancer in April last year at the age of 53. Time reports that admirers swooned over the real-life version of the Feminist Ryan Gosling meme. "Ryan Gosling just made my heart burst into a million little love pieces with the speech," tweeted Jade Tolbert. "What a great man and hubby!" (A lot of other Twitter users were busy mocking Michael Keaton's unfortunate mix-up.)

As I finish my master’s thesis and prepare to move to another part of the world to start my Ph.D. work, I believe it is time to end this glorious project.

 There are so many people to thank, and the experience of running this site has shaped my life and work in unexpectedly delightful ways. I am grateful to all of you for reading, and for sharing in the fun. The Feminist Ryan Gosling book is still for sale and the site will stay up, so you can always carry a little bit of FRG with you. If you’re curious about keeping up with my personal projects, you can always find me at my website.

 Goodbye, girl, and thank you. ||||| Ryan Gosling's Golden Globes acceptance speech melted hearts everywhere after he thanked his wife, Eva Mendes, for holding down the fort while he worked on La La Land .

 “I just would like to try and thank one person properly, and say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” Gosling said in his speech. “If she hadn’t taken all that on so that I could have this experience, would surely be someone else up here other than me to today. Sweetheart, thank you.”

 People online swooned over the real-life Feminist Ryan Gosling , with some drawing comparisons to his romantic role in The Notebook .

 Ryan Gosling's speech just blew me away. Attractive, smart & so generous to his partner. What a man. #GoldenGlobes - Maria Shriver (@mariashriver) January 9, 2017

 I just got pregnant listening to Ryan Gosling? - Sam Grittner (@SamGrittner) January 9, 2017

 Ryan Gosling just made my heart explode. #GoldenGlobes - Steacy Curry 💎 (@SteacyC) January 9, 2017

 Ryan Gosling just made my heart burst into a million little love pieces with that speech. 😍😍😍😍 What a great man and hubby! - Jade Tolbert (@jadelizroper) January 9, 2017

 Okay fine I'm a Ryan Gosling girl now I get it I get it I'm IN - Lauren Elizabeth (@LaurenElizabeth) January 9, 2017

 My remaining ovary may have exploded. Thanks Ryan Gosling.#GoldenGlobes

 Guess I need to see #lalaland - Green Hellion (@GreenHellion) January 9, 2017

 Just heard Ryan Gosling's speech. I'm not crying, you're crying. #GoldenGlobes - Brianna (@HeyBriannaShea) January 9, 2017 ||||| Ryan Gosling thanks ‘sweetheart’ Eva Mendes in touching Golden Globes speech

 CLOSE At Sunday night's 2017 Golden Globes, Ryan Gosling scored a best actor award for his work in La La Land. After accepting his trophy, the actor said, "I would like to try to thank one person properly and say while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I've ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer." USA TODAY

 Hey girls, and guys. Ryan Gosling has a Golden Globe statue for best performance by an actor in a motion picture - musical or comedy and a poignant way of words.

 The La La Land star began his acceptance speech with the signature wit, which we swoon over him for.

 “This isn’t the first time I’ve been mistaken for (fellow nominee) Ryan Reynolds, but it’s getting out of hand,” Gosling said. “Ryan, obviously there’s been some kind of mistake, but I’m up here so if you don’t mind? Okay.”

 Congrats to @RyanGosling, who won #GoldenGlobes Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy! pic.twitter.com/KQUy719r5P — Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) January 9, 2017

 The actor’s speech then became more sincere as he articulated his gratitude to his partner, Eva Mendes, who dealt with numerous challenges while Gosling was filming, proving she is quite the Superwoman.

 “You don’t get to be up here without standing on the shoulders of a mountain of people,” he said, “and there’s just no time to thank everyone I just would like to try and thank one person properly and say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer. If she hadn’t have taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So, sweetheart, thank you. To my daughters, Amada and Esmeralda, I love you and if I may I’d like to dedicate this to the memory of her brother, Juan Carlos Mendez.”

 Mendez died last April at the age of 53, Entertainment Tonight and People report.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jj2tUq |||||


– America is positively freaking out over the state of Japan’s nuclear reactors, with some calling for a halt to the development of new nuclear plants. But that’s a wild overreaction, opines a Wall Street Journal editorial. The media’s done a poor job of putting the tragedy in Japan in proportion: The quake killed hundreds, and released a thousand times more energy than the nuclear explosion at Hiroshima. “In simple human terms, the natural destruction of Earth and sea have far surpassed any errors committed by man.” In a separate piece, William Tucker breaks down the technical workings of the reactors, and concludes that there’s little danger. “None of this amounts to ‘another Chernobyl,’” he says. Chernobyl had massive design flaws that these Generation II reactors don’t; their containment structures have held. “If a meltdown does occur,” he concludes, “it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company, but not for the general public.” For another (paywall-free) dose of realism, click here.

Expand this summary.

Washington state Health Department

 The reactors on all the plants scrammed, shut off immediately as they were designed to do.

 Control rods were properly lowered into the uranium-filled pools to stop the nuclear reaction that generates the heat and steam that move huge turbines that generate the power.

 Enormous, high-volume pumps kicked in to send cooling water through the intricately designed, uranium-235-filled fuel rods, to prevent them from melting.

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 Radiation is terrifying to most people. And the less you actually know about it, the more frightening it can be.Watching what looked like an endless Hollywood production of carnage in the coastal communities of northeastern Japan as they were inundated by earthquakes and 30-foot-tall, tsunami-driven waves was bad enough. But then the fires of disbelief were stoked anew as panting cable news crews ticked off details of six separate nuclear reactors that had completely or partially melted down or were soon expected to.Older TV viewers might recall being terrified, along with the rest of the world, as they watched the nuclear-disaster-that-could-never-happen at Three Mile Island unit 2 along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa., in 1979. Or the even more disastrous explosion seven years later at Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 in the Ukraine.These earth-shaking events involved a single reactor, not the six that are now focusing the world's attention on the Fukushima I and Fukushima II nuclear complexes 150 miles north of Tokyo.Nuclear event and emergency-response experts huddled over the weekend in command centers from the White House to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to state governments in California, Oregon and Washington. They watched the latest news unfold half a world away on big screens and shared information on dedicated, confidential government hot lines.They saw Japan's multiple-redundant nuclear safeguards work, at first.All worked according to much-practiced plans. But then, suddenly, a flood of information from the Japanese government described a cascade of almost unbelievable reports.The power running the pumps died. The locomotive-sized diesel backup generators were destroyed by the flooding from the tsunamis. Neutron-absorbing boron and seawater -- a combination so corrosive that it was a death sentence for the reactors -- was pumped in, in a final effort to avoid a nuclear meltdown.Then, like scenes from "The China Syndrome" or from the pages of "The Night We Almost Lost Detroit," an explosion ripped off the outer wall and roof of the building holding the 41-year-old General Electric reactor. Late Sunday night, a second building blew into pieces. In both explosions, the reactors were not yet breached.But several of the reactors were spewing a deadly cocktail of assorted radioisotopes, including iodine-131, cesium-137, xenon and krypton carried aloft with the radioactive steam.Almost instantly, postings on thousands of websites and blogs pontificated on the importance of every shred of information, real or imagined.Some presumed experts talked of curies, rads, becquerels, sieverts, mrems and other terms describing the escaping radiation, using measurement terms that haven't been used in years or had absolutely no relevance to a leaking reactor. Rarely did they explain what these numbers meant.Some postings were criminally absurd and flat-out wrong.One map that went viral showed color-coded plumes of radiation moving eastward across the Pacific and the prediction that radiation levels measuring 3,000 rads would reach the Aleutian Island chain in three days. Levels of 1,500 rads will hit the northern coast of British Columbia within a week and western North American "from Alaska to the Baja tip in 10 days, with radiation levels of 750 rads,'' the posting warned.These numbers, which would kill or sicken quickly, have absolutely no basis in fact at all. And, according to a radiation expert at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they are more typical of the levels that might occur after a nuclear attack.In fact, Japanese nuclear officials have said repeatedly that they're dealing with "a minimal level of radiation that does not harm human health."It is good to sometimes be skeptical of government claims. During Three Mile Island, a hydrogen bubble in the damaged reactor was poised to destroy the unit, yet power company and state and federal officials denied the existence of the destructive bubble for days.Some companies were quick to take advantage of such skepticism about the Japanese reports.The Web was bristling with links from stories on the disaster taking readers to sites selling "Five Person Deluxe Survival Kits," "life-saving" potassium iodide pills, Swiss Army knifes, tools to turn off leaking gas lines and Geiger counters of all sizes. One site promised, "Your order can be overnighted to you before the lethal cloud arrives."These are ads that are automatically placed by computers and are not set there by the writers or editors.Leading the silliness parade were bloggers who were linking to Cold War civil defense ads from the 1950s showing Tommy the Turtle hiding from a nuclear blast and children being taught to "duck and cover" under their school desks.As real facts flowing from Japan fell to a trickle, the vacuum was filled with speculation.For example, meteorologists and their websites argued over the prevailing-wind currents and surface currents from Japan. Some said the winds would quickly carry the radioactive debris to the West Coast in days. Other forecasters, using the same charts, said the wind patterns would widely distribute and dilute any plume of radioactive material before it reached the U.S.Bad information was coming from even trusted sites. The respected Incident and Emergency Center of the International Atomic Energy Agency says it incorrectly reported that four of the damaged reactors were venting.The U.S. government's watchdog of nuclear power plants isn't doing all it can to keep the public calm.At a White House briefing this morning, Gregory Jaczko, the head of the NRC, said power plants in the U.S. are designed to handle all " significant phenomena," including tsunamis, floods and earthquakes. He was asked several times what size quakes U.S. plants are designed to withstand. But each time he flipped the question back to the Japanese crisis, avoiding answering what he was asked.AOL News called the NRC press office and was told that each site is built to a different seismic activity standard. But when we requested a list of the earthquake design limits for each plant under NRC control, that information isn't available, was the official reply.Asked what the range of protective limits was, he said he didn't think that information was available.What makes this information important is that the Japanese plants that are in crisis were designed to withstand a 7.9 quake, not the 8.9 monster that hit them. Government officials in the U.S. were doing their best to downplay the imminent danger on this side of the Pacific.Rumors spread wildly on the availability and shipments of potassium iodide tablets, which is pretty much the only preventive medication to neutralize the effect of radioactive poisoning that targets the thyroid gland and could eventually cause cancer.When AOL News questioned the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security on Saturday, spokesmen said that none of the medication -- also called KI -- has been shipped anywhere because there is "no apparent need." Officials questioned on the West Coast said the same.Oregon and Washington state health officials told AOL News that if it were needed, the radiation-blocking agent could quickly be shipped in from strategic stockpiles maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.An official in California echoed the comments but added that there were already quantities of KI in the state because there are four operating power stations at two sites.The federal agencies said that they "continue to work to assess what is a very serious and fluid situation" but insisted that no one expected any "meaningful effects on the U.S. homeland.''Oregon and Washington say they continue to use continuous-reading Environmental Protection Agency radiation detectors to monitor levels. This is the same EPA system that first detected radiation from the Chernobyl accident at ground level on the West Coast one week after the meltdown in Ukraine.State officials said risks to residents of both states are minimal given the current size of the release from the Japanese reactors and the distance from the West Coast. But they will continue to closely watch the radiation detectors until the Japanese reactors are shut down. ||||| After a once-in-300-years earthquake, the Japanese have been keeping cool amid the chaos, organizing an enormous relief and rescue operation, and generally earning the world's admiration. We wish we could say the same for the reaction in the U.S., where the troubles at Japan's nuclear reactors have produced an overreaction about the risks of modern life and technology.

 Part of the problem is the lack of media proportion about the disaster itself. The quake and tsunami have killed hundreds, and probably thousands, with tens of billions of dollars in damage. The energy released by the quake off Sendei is equivalent to about 336 megatons of TNT, or 100 more megatons than last year's quake in Chile and thousands of times the yield of the nuclear explosion at Hiroshima. The scale of the tragedy is epic.

 Yet the bulk of U.S. media coverage has focused on a nuclear accident whose damage has so far been limited and contained to the plant sites. In simple human terms, the natural destruction of Earth and sea have far surpassed any errors committed by man.

 Editorial Board Member Mary Kissel explains the Japanese response to the quake.

 Given the incomplete news reports, it is impossible to say how much worse the nuclear damage will be. Unlike the Soviets at Chernobyl, the Japanese have been taking sensible precautions like evacuating people near the plants and handing out iodine pills even if they may never be needed. These precautions increase public worry, but better to take them even if they prove to be unnecessary.

 We will have plenty of time to dissect events at the reactors and the safety lessons going forward. William Tucker provides some useful context nearby, and one crucial point is that the containment walls seem to have held. These walls are designed to withstand quakes and explosions, and it is good news if they have done so. The crisis seems to have been triggered by the failure of diesel generators that provided electricity to cool the reactors once they were shut down. Mr. Tucker explains that this weakness has been corrected in new nuclear plant designs.

 We have no special brief for nuclear power over any other energy source. Our view is that it should compete with other sources on a market basis, without subsidies or government loan guarantees. Every energy source has risks and economic externalities, whether they are noise and bird kills (wind), huge land requirements (solar), rig explosions and tanker spills (oil), or mining accidents (coal).

 But more than other energy sources, nuclear plants have had their costs increased by artificial political obstacles and delay. The U.S. hasn't built a new nuclear plant since 1979, after the Three Mile Island meltdown, even as older nuclear plants continue to provide 20% of the nation's electricity.

 Enlarge Image Close JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images An aerial photo shows the quake-damaged Fukushima Dai-Ni nuclear power plant.

 The Tennessee Valley Authority is a couple of years away from completing a reactor at Watts Bar after years of effort. Proposals for 20 new reactors to be built over the next 15 to 20 years are in various stages of review in the multiyear approval process at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with two each in Georgia and South Carolina at the front of the line. But the much-ballyhooed "nuclear renaissance" is a long way off, and it will be longer after events in Japan.

 Our larger point is less about nuclear power than how we react as a society to inevitable disasters, both natural and man-made. Because a plane crashes, we don't stop flying. Because an oil rig explodes in the Gulf, we don't (or at least we shouldn't) stop drilling for oil. And because the Challenger space shuttle blew up, we didn't stop shuttle flights—though we do seem to have lost much of our national will for further manned space exploration. We should learn from the Japanese nuclear crisis, not let it feed a political panic over nuclear power in general.

 ***

 The paradox of material and technological progress is that we seem to become more risk-averse the safer it makes us. The more comfortable we become, the less eager we are to take the risks that are the only route to future progress. The irony is that one reason Japan has survived this catastrophic event as well as it has is its great material development and wealth.

 Modern civilization is in the daily business of measuring and mitigating risk, but its advance requires that we continue to take risk. It would compound Japan's tragedy if the lesson America learns is that we should pursue the illusory and counterproductive goal of eliminating all risk. ||||| Even while thousands of people are reported dead or missing, whole neighborhoods lie in ruins, and gas and oil fires rage out of control, press coverage of the Japanese earthquake has quickly settled on the troubles at two nuclear reactors as the center of the catastrophe.

 Rep. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), a longtime opponent of nuclear power, has warned of "another Chernobyl" and predicted "the same thing could happen here." In response, he has called for an immediate suspension of licensing procedures for the Westinghouse AP1000, a "Generation III" reactor that has been laboring through design review at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for seven years.

 Author William Tucker explains why the danger is limited at Japan's nuclear reactors.

 Before we respond with such panic, though, it would be useful to review exactly what is happening in Japan and what we have to fear from it.

 The core of a nuclear reactor operates at about 550 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the temperature of a coal furnace and only slightly hotter than a kitchen oven. If anything unusual occurs, the control rods immediately drop, shutting off the nuclear reaction. You can't have a "runaway reactor," nor can a reactor explode like a nuclear bomb. A commercial reactor is to a bomb what Vaseline is to napalm. Although both are made from petroleum jelly, only one of them has potentially explosive material.

 Once the reactor has shut down, there remains "decay heat" from traces of other radioactive isotopes. This can take more than a week to cool down, and the rods must be continually bathed in cooling waters to keep them from overheating.

 On all Generation II reactors—the ones currently in operation—the cooling water is circulated by electric pumps. The new Generation III reactors such as the AP1000 have a simplified "passive" cooling system where the water circulates by natural convection with no pumping required.

 If the pumps are knocked out in a Generation II reactor—as they were at Fukushima Daiichi by the tsunami—the water in the cooling system can overheat and evaporate. The resulting steam increases internal pressure that must be vented. There was a small release of radioactive steam at Three Mile Island in 1979, and there have also been a few releases at Fukushima Daiichi. These produce radiation at about the level of one dental X-ray in the immediate vicinity and quickly dissipate.

 Editorial Board Member Mary Kissel explains the Japanese response to the quake.

 If the coolant continues to evaporate, the water level can fall below the level of the fuel rods, exposing them. This will cause a meltdown, meaning the fuel rods melt to the bottom of the steel pressure vessel.

 Early speculation was that in a case like this the fuel might continue melting right through the steel and perhaps even through the concrete containment structure—the so-called China syndrome, where the fuel would melt all the way to China. But Three Mile Island proved this doesn't happen. The melted fuel rods simply aren't hot enough to melt steel or concrete.

 The decay heat must still be absorbed, however, and as a last-ditch effort the emergency core cooling system can be activated to flood the entire containment structure with water. This will do considerable damage to the reactor but will prevent any further steam releases. The Japanese have now reportedly done this using seawater in at least two of the troubled reactors. These reactors will never be restarted.

 None of this amounts to "another Chernobyl." The Chernobyl reactor had two crucial design flaws. First, it used graphite (carbon) instead of water to "moderate" the neutrons, which makes possible the nuclear reaction. The graphite caught fire in April 1986 and burned for four days. Water does not catch fire.

 Second, Chernobyl had no containment structure. When the graphite caught fire, it spouted a plume of radioactive smoke that spread across the globe. A containment structure would have both smothered the fire and contained the radioactivity.

 If a meltdown does occur in Japan, it will be a disaster for the Tokyo Electric Power Company but not for the general public. Whatever steam releases occur will have a negligible impact. Researchers have spent 30 years trying to find health effects from the steam releases at Three Mile Island and have come up with nothing. With all the death, devastation and disease now threatening tens of thousands in Japan, it is trivializing and almost obscene to spend so much time worrying about damage to a nuclear reactor.

 What the Japanese earthquake has proved is that even the oldest containment structures can withstand the impact of one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history. The problem has been with the electrical pumps required to operate the cooling system. It would be tragic if the result of the Japanese accident were to prevent development of Generation III reactors, which eliminate this design flaw.

 Mr. Tucker is author of "Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey" (Bartleby Press, 2010). |||||


Here is a news article: VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The driver of a tractor-trailer that went over the side of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) Thursday afternoon died after being rescued. CBBT spokesman Tom Anderson confirmed the driver died when he was on the way to the hospital.

 Authorities identified the driver as 47-year-old Joseph Chen, of Greenville, North Carolina. Chen was hauling a load of seafood for Evans Transports, which is based out of Washington, North Carolina.

 The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Chen’s death to be accidental. The cause was drowning and hypothermia.

 A relative of Chen’s in Greenville says Chen is a father and husband, WAVY affiliate WITN reports, as well as the founder and president of Turn-N-Burn Motorcycle Club.

 The tractor-trailer went into the water on the southbound side of the CBBT at mile marker 15 around 12:30 p.m. Navy spokesman Cmdr. Dave Hecht said a crew with HSC 2 out of Norfolk was in the area training when police called for help. That crew responded in an MH-60 Sierra and pulled the driver out of the water. WAVY’s Erin Kelly tweeted that officials said the driver was standing on top of the vehicle before he was hoisted into the helicopter.

 Video of the scene from Chopper 10 shows a large section of damaged guardrail on the side of the bridge.

 CBBT officials tweeted Thursday afternoon that the bridge was closed on both sides due to an incident. Both sides of the bridge-tunnel were reopened before 2 p.m.

 Bridge officials issued Level 2 wind restrictions Thursday, with winds exceeding 47 mph. There was a Level 1 restriction at the time of the accident.

 The CBBT is currently operating with Level 2 wind restrictions. Winds are in excess of 47 mph. #Caution — CBBT (@FollowTheGulls) February 9, 2017

 Under a Level 2 restriction, tractor-trailers must be hauling a gross payload of 30,000 pounds, in addition to the weight of the rig.

 Charles Lattimore, of Chesapeake, said he and about 30 other truck drivers on the Eastern Shore were cleared to cross before he learned of the crash on the radio. He was headed to Norfolk, but pulled over about a mile north of the bridge-tunnel, worried his own truck would be too light.

 “When I knew he had went over, I knew I wasn’t heavy enough, so I didn’t take the chance,” Lattimore said.

 He said he crosses the bridge-tunnel about twice a week.

 “On a windy day, you can feel it, and you’ll be pushing your trailer and your tractor to the left or the right, whichever way the wind is blowing. You can actually feel it; it’s a hurting feeling and you know of course I said a prayer for him and that was before I heard that he died. I was hoping that he was going to make it.”

 Super Doppler 10 Meteorologist Ashley Baylor says the water temperature was 45 degrees with a wave height between five and seven feet at the time of the accident.

 The Virginia Trucking Association issued this statement:

 We take safety very seriously. It is certainly a tragedy any time we lose someone. Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family, friends, and fellow employees of the victim.” – Dale Bennett, President & CEO, Virginia Trucking Association

 WAVY News has covered previous incidents of tractor-trailers going overboard while traveling on the CBBT. The most recent accident was in January of 2016. That driver was rescued and survived.

 In May 2014, a tractor-trailer went into the water after it hit a maintenance truck on the bridge; that driver died.

 Stay with WAVY.com for updates to this developing news. ||||| Close Get email notifications on Ryan Murphy daily!

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A summary of this is?

– A blustery day on a Virginia bridge led to a truck driver's death Thursday, the AP reports. Joseph Chen, a 47-year-old employee of Evans Transport, was crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel in his tractor-trailer around 12:30pm, shortly after weather reports had indicated a Level 1 wind advisory, meaning winds were clocking in at over 40mph, the Virginian-Pilot reports. The North Carolina man was driving his truck southbound when his vehicle went over the side and into the 45-degree Chesapeake Bay. As his truck began to sink, Chen was spotted standing atop it, offering hope he'd survive the freak accident. But after a Navy chopper pulled him from the water, he died en route to the hospital. Just 30 minutes after Chen's truck was swept off the bridge, the wind advisory was raised to a Level 2, which means winds had crept up past 47mph. Between 1964 and 2011, 10 vehicles driving over that bridge have met similar fates, with only one survivor out of the bunch, per Virginian-Pilot records. A truck driver who crosses the bridge a couple of times a week tells WAVY "on a windy day, you can feel it" and that his truck will sway from left to right, depending on the wind's direction. Meanwhile, Chen's wife, Billie Jo, tells the Virginian-Pilot her husband "was off the chain." They would've marked their 10-year anniversary in April. She added her husband, whom she said was "awesome," had two kids from a previous marriage. (A truck fell from the sky in San Diego.)


Here is a news article: SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has detained a U.S. university student, the third western citizen known to be held in the isolated state, for committing a “hostile act” and wanting to “destroy the country’s unity”, it said on Friday.

 Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, of the University of Virginia, was in North Korea for a five-day New Year trip and was detained at Pyongyang airport on Jan. 2 ahead of a flight back to China, said Gareth Johnson of Young Pioneer Tours, which organized the visit.

 According to the North’s official KCNA news agency, Warmbier entered North Korea as a tourist and “was caught committing a hostile act against the state”, which it said was “tolerated and manipulated by the U.S. government”.

 The U.S. State Department, in a statement, said it was aware of reports that a U.S. citizen had been detained in North Korea but gave no other details, citing privacy concerns.

 U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, whose district includes the area where Warmbier went to high school, tweeted on Friday that his office was asking the State Department “to assist however possible in getting Mr. Warmbier home.”

 Further official comment was not immediately available as U.S. government offices were closed ahead of an impending blizzard.

 Johnson said China-based Young Pioneer Tours was in contact with Warmbier’s family and U.S. officials.

 “We are in touch with Otto’s family, the U.S. State Department and the Embassy of Sweden in Pyongyang and doing all we can to secure his release,” Johnson told Reuters.

 The Swedish Embassy represents U.S. interests in North Korea.

 KCNA said Warmbier had entered the country with an “aim to destroy the country’s unity”. It did not elaborate.

 According to his social media profiles, Warmbier is from Cincinnati and is an Echols Scholar, awarded to the top 7 percent of incoming first-year students at the University of Virginia, where he majors in economics with a minor in global sustainability.

 Warmbier has also visited Cuba, Ireland and Israel, according to his Facebook profile.

 Warmbier was detained four days before North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in violation of UN sanctions, which drew condemnation from its neighbors and the United States.

 A friend and former high-school classmate of Warmbier, who wished to remain anonymous, told Reuters: “Otto is a wonderful, warm person who should never have to go through anything like this. ... The idea that any of this happened is crazy.”

 Calls to the Warmbier home in Cincinnati, Ohio, were not immediately answered on Friday and nobody answered when a Reuters reporter knocked on the door of the house.

 South Korea warned that the United States and its allies were working on further sanctions to inflict “bone-numbing pain” on North Korea after its latest nuclear test, and urged China to do its part to rein in its neighbor.

 North Korea has a long history of detaining foreigners, and the U.S. and Canadian governments advise against travel there.

 Pyongyang has in the past used detained U.S. citizens to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.

 While the vast majority of tourists to North Korea are from China, roughly 6,000 westerners visit the country annually. Most are adventure-seekers curious about life behind the last sliver of the iron curtain, and ignore critics who say their dollars prop up a repressive regime.

 Warmbier was on Young Pioneer’s “New Year’s Party Tour,” which, according to the itinerary on the company’s website, was to include watching fireworks in Kim Il Sung Square in the heart of Pyongyang, and an optional helicopter ride.

 A South Korean-born Canadian pastor was arrested in North Korea last year and given a life sentence for subversion. This month, a Korean-American told CNN in Pyongyang he was being held by the state for spying.

 In 2014, Pyongyang released three detained Americans. Last October, it freed a South Korean national with a U.S. green card after holding him for six months. ||||| Image copyright Facebook

 North Korea says it has arrested a US student accused of committing a "hostile act" against the state.

 State news agency KCNA identified him as University of Virginia student Otto Frederick Warmbier.

 He had entered North Korea as a tourist with the intention "to destroy the country's unity", said KCNA, which added that the US government had "tolerated and manipulated" him.

 It did not give further details, but said he was now under investigation.

 The US State Department is "aware of media reports that a US citizen was detained in North Korea" and is working with its protecting power, the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner said.

 He said that no further information would be shared at this time due to privacy concerns.

 North Korea sometimes uses the detention of foreigners as a means of exerting pressure on its adversaries.

 Image copyright AP Image caption The incident follows escalating tensions with rivals including the US and South Korea

 Detained on tour

 China-based tour agency Young Pioneer Tours released a statement confirming that Mr Warmbier had been detained while on one of their tours in Pyongyang, and said his family had been informed.

 It had earlier told Reuters that Mr Warmbier was arrested on 2 January.

 "We are in contact with the Swedish Embassy... who are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address the case. We are also assisting the US Department of State closely with regards to the situation," it said in the statement.

 "In the meantime we would appreciate Otto's and his family's privacy being respected and we hope his release can be secured as soon as possible."

 Sweden represents US interests in North Korea as Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.

 Image copyright KNS/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim is also being held by North Korea

 Mr Warmbier, listed by the University of Virginia's directory as an undergraduate commerce student, is the third Westerner known to be held in North Korea.

 Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian pastor of South Korean origin, was sentenced to life imprisonment in December for an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

 A Korean-American is also thought to be in North Korean detention on charges of spying.

 The latest incident comes amid escalating tensions, after the North said it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The claim has not yet been confirmed.

 South Korea has resumed propaganda broadcasts over the border, while the North has been dropping propaganda leaflets on the South.

 The United States is leading calls for new UN economic penalties against the North in the wake of the nuclear test.

 The state department strongly advises Americans against travelling to North Korea.

 In 2014, North Korea released three Americans it was holding in detention - Matthew Todd Miller, Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle. ||||| Story highlights Detained student was a high school salutatorian, CNN affiliate reports

 Otto Frederick Warmbier is a student at the University of Virginia

 A Chinese travel company says Warmbier was detained January 2 in in Pyongyang

 (CNN) A University of Virginia college student from Cincinnati has been detained in North Korea after being accused of a "hostile act" against the government there.

 Otto Frederick Warmbier was detained January 2 in Pyongyang, according to Young Pioneer Tours, the China-based travel company that organized his trip.

 He was detained at Pyongyang Airport as he was going through customs, the tour company said.

 The company's website says it "provides budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from."

 North Korean state media said Warmbier, who reportedly entered North Korea on a tourist visa, is accused of carrying out "a hostile act against the DPRK," referring to the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea. |||||
A summary of this is?

– North Korea says it has detained an American student from the University of Virginia who visited the country as part of a "New Year's Party Tour." A rep for Chinese travel company Young Pioneer Tours says undergraduate commerce student Otto Frederick Warmbier, 21, was arrested at Pyongyang airport on Jan. 2 after a five-day tourist trip. North Korea's official news agency says he visited with the "aim to destroy the country's unity" and "was caught committing a hostile act against the state," which was "tolerated and manipulated by the US government," per Reuters. The US Embassy in Seoul says it's aware of Warmbier's arrest, per CNN. The tour group says it's working with the State Department and the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which represents US interests there. "We would appreciate Otto's and his family's privacy being respected and we hope his release can be secured as soon as possible," a rep tells the BBC. Reuters notes about 6,000 westerners travel to North Korea each year; the "New Year's Party Tour" Warmbier was participating in promised a fireworks display in Kim Il Sung Square. One other American citizen is being held in North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, who says he's a naturalized US citizen who used to live in Virginia, was arrested in October.


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  ||||| WASHINGTON -- Some progressive organizations have been making a push in recent days for incoming congressional Republicans to drop their government-sponsored health care on the grounds that keeping the plans would be hypocritical.

 The incident started after incoming Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) complained loudly during freshmen orientation that his coverage wouldn't start immediately upon taking office. It took a new turn when Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Penn) and Bobby Schilling (R-Ill.) both said they would, in fact, forgo the coverage. It escalated even further when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called out Harris for the "irony," and the municipal workers union AFSCME applied a similar charge to the whole GOP shortly thereafter.

 "These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans," said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee. "If they enroll in the taxpayer-funded health care system provided to members of Congress, they deserve to be denounced as hypocrites."

 There is an apparent double standard with respect to lawmakers trying to reduce health care for American workers while taking a subsidy for health care for themselves. And in a Public Policy Poll released on Tuesday, a full 53 percent of respondents (and 58 percent of Republicans) said that if a congressman is opposed to the president's health care reform law, he or she should decline to participate in government-sponsored health care.

 But another cudgel sits there on the sidelines waiting to be used by trouble-making Democrats. If the incoming Republican Congress is so concerned about the use of taxpayer funds, it could start by foregoing taxpayer-funded health care. How much money that would save is impossible to pinpoint with great accuracy. But it's possible to make some reliable estimates.

 According to the Los Angeles Times, "the plan most favored by federal workers is Blue Cross Blue Shield, which covers a family for about $1,030 a month." Of that total, "taxpayers kick in $700." So far there are 242 Republicans set to be seated in the incoming House of Representatives (that could only go higher) and 47 Republicans in the Senate. The taxpayer bill for insuring all those members over the course of a single year comes to just over $2.4 million ($700 X 12 months X 289 members).

 Chump change? Yes, it is. That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made a big issue over the fact that $1 million was being appropriated for a Woodstock museum in upstate New York.

 UPDATE: Pete Sepp, the Executive Vice President of National Taxpayers Union -- one of the ultimate penny-pinching organizations in the D.C. area -- calls opting out of health care a "symbolic and not insignificant" gesture for congressional Republicans.

 "If lawmakers are looking for ways to say that they feel solidarity with the American people this might be one way to do it," said Sepp. "And, again, if you are looking at dollar amounts that's equivalent or a little more of equivalent to [congressmembers] taking a pay cut of about five percent. And, again, we have heard a lot of pledges to reduce the overall budget of Congress by ten percent. So opting out of health care coverage is one place to start." ||||| One of the country’s largest labor unions has demanded Republican lawmakers skip congressional health insurance because the party voted against the health-care overhaul.

 The argument: If you don’t support government health care, you shouldn’t enroll in government health care, says the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

 “These Republicans want to repeal health reform, putting the insurance companies back in charge and putting affordable coverage out of reach of millions of Americans,” AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said in a statement.

 It’s a bit more complicated than that. The debate over the health overhaul largely centered over how much Washington should get involved in health insurance for those employed in the private sector.

 Lawmakers, by contrast, take home a salary from the federal government. Most House members get $174,000 a year.

 “This has nothing to with ObamaCare,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for presumptive House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). “Boehner, like Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi, Sen. [Harry] Reid and tens of millions of Americans, receives health coverage through his employer.”

 Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists after GOP Congressman-elect Andy Harris, a doctor from Maryland, complained he would have to wait four weeks until his new insurance took effect. The White House got involved this week when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Mr. Harris faces a “particularly interesting dilemma.”

 Incoming GOP Rep. Bobby Schilling of Illinois said during his campaign he wouldn’t take health insurance as a congressman in an effort to save taxpayers money. His son and spokesman, Terry Schilling, said the decision had nothing to do with the health-care law. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Progressives are issuing a challenge to incoming Republican House members: If they are so dead-set on repealing health care reform, they shouldn't accept the taxpayer-funded congressional health plan. The fracas started when newly elected Rep. Andy Harris made a fuss during an orientation because his coverage didn't begin right away, notes the Huffington Post. If all Congressional Republicans declined, it would save an estimated $2.4 million. "Chump change? Yes, it is," writes Sam Stein at HuffPo. "That said, chump change seems to always at the heart of the most provocative political battles." Others: The issue may be opening for Democrats to "create tension between the newly elected officials and the Tea Partiers who put them there by highlighting the disconnect between the freshmen Republicans' rhetoric and their actions," writes Tom Jensen for Public Policy Polling. Republicans, however, say Democrats are distorting the issue—they want employer-based coverage to be the dominant system, and members of Congress are employed by the government, notes the Wall Street Journal. "Still, the issue has become a rallying cry for liberal activists," writes Danny Yadron.


Summarize this article:

Ladies rock outer space!

 Women have played critical roles throughout the history of the U.S. space program, a.k.a. NASA or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Yet in many cases, their contributions are unknown or under-appreciated — especially as women have historically struggled to gain acceptance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

 This proposed set celebrates five notable NASA pioneers and provides an educational building experience to help young ones and adults alike learn about the history of women in STEM. The five Women of NASA are: ||||| For years, Maia Weinstock, the deputy editor of MIT News, has been creating miniature LEGO figurines to honor and promote such scientists and engineers as MIT Institute Professor Emerita Mildred Dresselhaus, Vice President for Research Maria T. Zuber, and Department of Chemical Engineering head Paula Hammond, the David H. Koch Chair Professor in Engineering. The figures are Weinstock’s playful way of boosting the visibility of scientists, in particular the work of female scientists.

 Now, a set of LEGOs Weinstock created celebrating the history of women at NASA is about to blast off. On Tuesday, LEGO announced that Weinstock’s project, which spotlights five women who made historic contributions to the U.S. space program, has been selected to become an official LEGO set.

 “What a wonderful way to celebrate the scientific achievements of these five pioneering women,�? says Zuber, the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and the first woman to lead a NASA planetary mission. “And I’m thrilled with the message that these LEGOs will send to girls — that they, too, can pursue their passions in science, technology, engineering, and math, and help make a better world.�?

 Last summer Weinstock submitted her concept, dubbed the Women of NASA, to LEGO Ideas, a platform that allows people around the world to propose new ideas for LEGO concepts. After a public voting period, during which Weinstock’s set received 10,000 votes in 15 days, her project underwent an official LEGO review.

 Weinstock was inspired to create the set by her love of space and NASA, and her desire to showcase the contributions that women have made over the years to the field of space exploration. Above all, she hopes the set will help encourage more young girls to pursue STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math).

 “I hope that ‘Women of NASA’ will be one little extra brick in the wall of trying to improve how women are perceived and shown in books, toys, and family programming,�? Weinstock explains. “Anything I can do to help make sure girls understand that they can and should be interested in the sciences, engineering, and math, that is my goal. At the end of the day, that’s why I am doing this.�?

 The set depicts five trailblazers in NASA’s history: Margaret Hamilton, a computer scientist who led the development of software for the Apollo missions while at MIT; Mae Jemison, who became the first African-American woman in space in 1992; Katherine Johnson, known for calculating and verifying trajectories for the Mercury and Apollo programs; Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space in 1983; and astronomer Nancy Grace Roman, one of the first female executives at NASA, who was instrumental in the planning of the Hubble Space Telescope.

 Weinstock explains that she wanted the set to feature “a very diverse group of women in terms of what they did, in terms of their fields at NASA, in terms of their cultural backgrounds, and also in terms of their age. Some are shown as younger, but I made sure I had one shown as older. Also, most of the women in the set are known for their work in the space flight program at NASA, but I wanted to give a shout out to the astronomy program as well.�?

 Weinstock began creating LEGO figures back in 2009, when she constructed a LEGO likeness for her friend Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist known for her imaging work on the Voyager and Cassini missions. After sharing an image of Porco’s LEGO figurine on Twitter, Weinstock received an outpouring of positive feedback and was inspired to create more figures in an effort to help promote the work of living scientists.

 Since she built her first figurine, Weinstock has created LEGOs for a number of celebrated scientists and engineers, including primatologist Jane Goodall, oceanographer Sylvia Earle, physicist Stephen Hawking, and a number of MIT faculty members such as Ernest Moniz, professor of physics and special advisor to the president, and Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.

 “Being immortalized in LEGO is probably the coolest thing that has ever happened to me,�? Bhatia says. “I hope it makes lots of little tinkerers dream about being engineers at MIT someday.�?

 Weinstock explains that she chose LEGOs as her medium as she feels “there is a childlike wonder to playing with a toy that you can make in people’s likeness.�?

 “One major goal for me is to get the public to recognize the history of women in the STEM fields. I’m hopeful that with this set more people will come to know these women,�? Weinstock says. “Part of it is knowing these specific five women, but also part of it is setting an example. It’s really important to set an example for girls, as well as for boys, to normalize and make plain that women are expected to be in these fields and that it’s not strange or unusual.�? |||||

– Mathematician Katherine Johnson was one of the women of NASA depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figures, and now she's about to get her own Lego figure. Per MIT News, Johnson and four other women involved with the space agency over the years—Margaret Hamilton (computer scientist), Mae Jemison (first African-American woman in space in 1992), Nancy Grace Roman (pioneering NASA female exec and astronomer), and Sally Ride (the first US woman in space in 1983)—are set to be part of Maia Weinstock's "Women of NASA" Lego prototype, which was chosen from the Lego ideas submission website to be made into an actual set. Concepts for potential sets can be posted on the site, and after the public votes (Weinstock, the deputy editor of MIT News, got 10,000 votes for her idea), Lego then reviews eligible projects. Weinstock says she not only wanted to give a nod to the history of women in STEM, but also to "set an example" for both girls and boys that it isn't "strange or unusual" for there to be females working as astronauts, computer programmers, or any other science or technology expert. Lego says more details on Weinstock's set, including how much it will cost and its release date, should be out later this year or in early 2018. (Cambridge is offering a Lego professorship.)


Write an article based on this summary:

– John Stumpf, the Wells Fargo CEO slammed for his "gutless leadership" by Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week, is going to have to tighten his belt a little this year: He will forfeit his bonus, part of his salary, and $41 million in stock awards over the fake-account scandal that saw the sacking of 5,300 employees, CNN reports. In addition, Stumpf will work for free while the company conducts an investigation. The bank's board of directors also says Carrie Tolstedt, who headed the retail division where workers created the phony accounts, will forfeit at least $19 million of the $125 million she was going to leave the company with at the end of the year, and will not receive severance or a bonus for 2016. The announcement comes as Wells Fargo is set to go before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday. The board says it is launching an independent investigation into how millions of accounts were created without the permission of customers, the BBC reports. Wells Fargo was fined $185 million over the scandal and the Washington Post describes the board's cash clawback as "by far the most aggressive and public effort" since the 2008 financial crisis to punish bank chiefs for misconduct—although Stumpf still has the estimated $161 million he received in bonuses over the five years the scam took place, and Tolstedt received $60 million over the same period. (Wells Fargo whistleblowers say they were fired for speaking out.)

Image copyright AFP

 Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf will forfeit $41m (£31.5m) in bonuses as the bank tries to deal with a scandal over its sales practices.

 The bank is investigating how two million accounts were opened without customers' permission.

 It said Mr Stumpf, who was paid $19.3m last year, would not receive a salary during the inquiry.

 The former head of retail operations, Carrie Tolstedt, will forfeit $19m of bonuses and left without a payoff.

 California, meanwhile. announced it was dropping Wells Fargo as its bond underwriter and broker-dealer because of the scandal.

 The US state's sanctions against the bank will take effect immediately and remain in place for a year, said its officials.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Elizabeth Warren mauls 'gutless' Wells Fargo boss

 "Wells Fargo's fleecing of its customers by opening fraudulent accounts for the purpose of extracting millions in illegal fees demonstrates, at best, a reckless lack of institutional control and, at worst, a culture which actively promotes wanton greed," said California treasurer John Chiang.

 The announcement comes ahead of Mr Stump's appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, scheduled for Thursday.

 He is expected to face another tough questioning similar to his appearance before the Senate Banking Committee last week.

 The bank said forfeiting bonuses and payoff did not mean there might not be more salary clawbacks from Mr Stumpf or Ms Tolstedt, depending on the results of the investigation.

 "We will proceed with a sense of urgency but will take the time we need to conduct a thorough investigation," Stephen Sanger, Wells Fargo's lead independent director, said in a statement.

 Earlier this month, Wells Fargo was fined $185m and accused of "widespread illegal practice" by the regulators.

 Wells Fargo has fired more than 5,000 staff in response to the scandal. Mr Stumpf has so far ignored calls for him to step down.

 'Deeply sorry'

 During the hearing by a panel of US senators on 20 September, Mr Stumpf said he was "deeply sorry" for that and failing to act quickly.

 "There is no question with some of our customers we violated trust," he said. "We never directed nor wanted our team members to provide products and services to our customers that they didn't want.

 "That said, I accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices," he added.

 Image copyright Getty Images

 During the questioning, Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has long been a critic of the US banking industry, was unmoved by his apology.

 "You squeezed your employees to the breaking point so they would cheat customers,'' she said.

 "You should resign. You should give back the money you took while the scam was going on," she added.

 Record fine

 Wells Fargo said it would be contacting every deposit customer across the country to see if their accounts were properly authorised.

 It will also contact hundreds of thousands of customers with open credit cards to see if they want or need those cards.

 In the future, confirmation emails will be sent to customers within one hour of the opening of a new deposit account.

 The fine imposed on the bank by the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was the largest ever imposed by the regulator. ||||| Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf will forfeit much of his 2016 salary -- including his bonus and $41 million in stock awards -- as the bank launches a probe into its phony accounts scandal.

 The fallout from the controversy has also resulted in its first major executive departure. Carrie Tolstedt, who headed the division that created the fake accounts, has left the company ahead of her scheduled retirement at year end.

 Wells Fargo, under pressure from lawmakers and shareholders to take action, said Tolstedt will not receive a bonus or severance, and that she'll forfeit all of her $19 million worth of unvested stock awards. Wells Fargo also said Tolstedt has agreed not to exercise some $34 million in stock options, the bank's independent directors announced Tuesday.

 However, Tolstedt could still be walking away with a fortune despite running the retail bank during the entire time the unauthorized accounts were opened.

 Tolstedt owns roughly $43.3 million in stock outright that she accumulated during her career with the bank, according to a letter Wells Fargo sent to Senator Elizabeth Warren. That means if she is allowed to keep her stock options, Tolstedt could leave Wells Fargo with stocks and options valued today at roughly $77 million.

 Related: Wells Fargo fake accounts head could still walk with $77 million

 Wells Fargo's board of directors also said Tuesday that it's launching an independent investigation into the company's sales practice. The new probe comes as employees told CNNMoney that the practice of opening fake accounts began years earlier than Wells Fargo has previously acknowledged.

 During the company's investigation, Stumpf will work for free.

 Stephen Sanger, the board's lead independent director, said the executives could face further penalties, depending on the results of the investigation.

 He said in a statement that the board may claw back additional compensation or take "other employment-related actions." It's not clear if that could include forcing out Stumpf, who Warren and others have demanded should resign.

 If they're cleared of wrongdoing, both Stumpf and Tolstedt may end up taking home some of their hefty pay packages.

 The decision to "claw back" Stumpf's and Tolstedt's compensation comes just before Thursday's big Wells Farg (WFC)hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee and amid a string of embarrassing headlines about the opening of unauthorized accounts.

 Wells Fargo paid Stumpf $19.3 million in total compensation for 2015, in part as a reward for the bank's growing number of accounts. Millions of those accounts, as it's been since revealed, were fake. An intense focus from top management on adding new accounts, former employees say, led to a pressure-cooker atmosphere at Wells Fargo.

 Related: Fired Wells Fargo workers fight back with lawsuit

 Last year, Stumpf was awarded with $4 million for various factors that included growing "primary consumer, small business and banking checking customers." Wells Fargo also rewarded Stumpf last year for his success in "reinforcing a culture of risk management and accountability across the company."

 That bonus led Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, an authority on corporate governance at Yale University, to say that "without a doubt" some of Stumpf's pay should be clawed back. "He should be docked," Sonnenfeld said.

 A CNNMoney analysis, conducted prior to the clawbacks, showed that if he were to leave, Stumpf could leave Wells Fargo with about $200 million of cash, Wells Fargo stock and options.

 Last week, Warren slammed Stumpf for "gutless" leadership, in part for his refusal to cut compensation for Tolstedt, who led Wells Fargo's community banking division during the entire time fake accounts were created.

 Warren also came down heavy on Stumpf on his own pay: When it all blew up, you kept your job, you kept your multimillion dollar bonuses, and you went on television to blame thousands of $12-an-hour employees who were just trying to meet cross-sell quotas that made you rich." ||||| The longtime chief executive of Wells Fargo agreed on Tuesday to forfeit $41 million in performance pay three weeks after the bank acknowledged that for at least five years, thousands of low-level employees set up sham accounts to meet sales quotas.

 The San Francisco-based bank has repeatedly apologized for the scheme and said it had fired 5,300 employees for misconduct and put in place more stringent internal controls. But that has not been enough for lawmakers, who have been pushing for the company’s top leaders to give back the millions of dollars in bonuses they earned while the irregularities were occurring.

 The independent directors of the Wells Fargo board announced Tuesday that they were launching an investigation into the bank’s retail business.

 “We are deeply concerned by these matters, and we are committed to ensuring that all aspects of the Company’s business are conducted with integrity, transparency, and oversight,” Stephen Sanger, the lead independent director, said in a statement. Sanger, who has been a member of Wells Fargo’s board since 2003, is the former chairman of General Mills, the packaged-food company.

 John Stumpf, the chief executive, will forfeit unvested stock awards worth about $41 million, will not receive a salary while the investigation is underway and will not be eligible for a 2016 bonus, the committee said in a statement. Carrie Tolstedt, the former head of Wells Fargo’s community banking unit, where the misconduct took place, will give up $19 million in unvested stock awards and not be eligible for a 2016 bonus. Tolstedt had announced her retirement in July but had initially planned to stay at the bank until the end of the year.

 In a tense exchange, Senator Elizabeth Warren badgered Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on why he had not offered to give up any of his compensation or to resign in the wake of the fake accounts controversy. (Reuters)

 Stumpf and Tolstedt still have millions of dollars in stock and other compensation from Wells Fargo. Stumpf, for example, was awarded $161 million in bonuses and performance awards between 2011 and 2015, the period in which the misconduct took place, according to Equilar, a research firm. Tolstedt was awarded more than $60 million in bonuses in the same period.

 But this action by the bank’s board is, by far, the most aggressive and public effort by a bank since the 2008 financial crisis to show that top executives will be held responsible for their companies’ misdeeds.

 In early September, Wells Fargo was fined $185 million by regulators after it discovered that thousands of employees were setting up unauthorized accounts, including credit cards and checking accounts, that customers had not requested. In some cases, the customers were charged various fees for accounts they did not know existed.

 The case has sparked a national outcry, with lawmakers pummeling Stumpf before the Senate Banking Committee last week, with one even calling on him to resign. He is to be the only witness before the House Financial Services Committee when he attends a hearing this week, and the move to take back financial awards could help head off some of the inevitable anger of lawmakers.

 The debate comes as regulators try to finalize rules called for by the 2010 financial-reform bill, known as Dodd Frank, to overhaul the way Wall Street executives are paid and to address years of complaints that excessive bonuses helped lead to the 2008 financial crisis.

 The long-awaited rules were aimed at stopping executives from making risky financial bets to boost their pay and then collecting large bonuses before the consequences of their actions are clear. But the banking industry is mounting a counterattack against the rules, which critics say do not allow enough flexibility. Some employees would be subject to claw-backs for up to 11 years after being awarded bonuses, much longer than the current industry standard of three to five years, industry officials have said.

 In July, Wells Fargo joined the debate, saying it was concerned that the rules may have unintended consequences. “We have worked, and are continuing to work, diligently . . . to improve and evolve our incentive-based compensation practices,” Hope Hardison, Wells Fargo’s director of human resources, said in a letter to regulators.

 But the rules would “create an un-level playing field, driving high-quality talent” away from big banks subject to the rules, she wrote.

 The controversy surrounding Wells Fargo is likely to make it more difficult for banks to mount efforts to weaken the rules, industry officials say.

 Stumpf is expected to face tough questioning when he appears before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday. In addition to questions about executive compensation, he is likely to face questions about a recently launched Labor Department inquiry into the bank.

 The Labor Department says it is conducting a “top-to-bottom review” of Wells Fargo after lawmakers complained that the bank’s workers were forced into a hypercompetitive environment that led thousands of them to set up the sham accounts to meet aggressive sales goals.

 Some former employees allege that they were unfairly fired when they did not cut corners to meet Wells Fargo’s aggressive sales targets.

 That could violate federal rules, according to lawmakers and some labor experts. Last week, former Wells Fargo employees who say they were fired for following the law filed a $2.6 billion lawsuit against the bank. They are seeking class-action status.

 The Labor Department said it has set up a working group to expedite a review of the issue.

 “Given the serious nature of the allegations . . . I have directed enforcement agencies within the Department to conduct a top-to-bottom review of cases, complaints, or violations concerning Wells Fargo over the last several years,” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in a letter released Tuesday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who had asked the agency to look into the matter.

 “We take the concerns raised . . . very seriously,” Perez wrote.

 A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment on the Labor Department review.

 It is just the latest sign that San Francisco-based bank will be grappling with the fallout from this case for some time. Federal prosecutors are considering civil or criminal charges against the bank. |||||