Federal regulators are preparing to fine megabank Wells Fargo about $1 billion for misbehavior in its auto and mortgage businesses, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
The settlement, which could be announced as soon as Friday, would be the most aggressive move by regulators during the Trump administration to punish a big bank. It also escalates problems at Wells Fargo, which has been under intense federal scrutiny since admitting in 2016 that it had opened millions of sham accounts that customers didn’t want.
The regulators — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — have been investigating Wells Fargo for months after it acknowledged charging thousands of customers for auto insurance they didn’t need, driving some to default on their loans and lose their cars through repossession. Wells Fargo also admitted that it had charged some customers improper fees to lock in an interest rate for a mortgage. The combined $1 billion fine would be among the largest ever levied by either regulator.
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A Wells Fargo bank in San Rafael, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The arrest of two black men sitting quietly in a Philadelphia Starbucks has set off a national discussion about whether there are any places or activities where race doesn’t color the experience. Even something as innocuous and common as waiting at Starbucks for a friend looks different when viewed through the lens of America’s ongoing race problem.
On social media, many white people expressed shock. Who hasn’t ducked into a local Starbucks to take advantage of its bathroom or internet or electrical outlets? But this simply is not the experience of many black people, myself included, who know all too well the pressure to buy something unwanted or unnecessary in order to avoid added scrutiny — a Black Tax, if you will.
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Protesters demonstrate outside a Center City Starbucks on April 15, 2018 in Philadelphia.Mark Makela / Getty Images
Barbara Bush, the widely admired wife of one president and the fiercely loyal mother of another, died Tuesday evening. She was 92.
Jim McGrath, a family spokesman, announced the death in a statement posted to Twitter..
On the office of her husband, former President George Bush, issued a statement saying that after consulting her family and her doctors, Mrs. Bush had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.”
The Bushes had celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January, making them the longest-married couple in presidential history.
Mrs. Bush had been hospitalized with pneumonia in December 2013. She underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer in 2008 and had heart surgery four months later.
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Barbara Bush in 1984. She was the widely admired wife of George Bush and the mother of George W. Bush.Credit George Tames/The New York Times
One person was killed after an engine failed and forced a Southwest Airlines flight to make an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday, federal investigators said.
Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said that at about 11:15 a.m., the Southwest flight suffered an “apparent in-flight engine failure of the left engine.”
Sumwalt, who confirmed one fatality, said NTSB will ship the engine offsite and deconstruct it to determine what went wrong.
Sumwalt said the death marks the first passenger fatality on a U.S. carrier since 2009. The NTSB declined to speculate on the cause of death. It also marks the first passenger fatality for Southwest.
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A Southwest flight made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport on April 17. One of the plane’s engines appeared to be severely damaged.(Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
BREAKING: The Internal Revenue Service’s system for accepting online tax returns is working again after being inoperational for much of the day Tuesday. IRS officials promised that people hampered by the technology failures would not be penalized for late returns, but they have not yet announced any specific exemptions to the deadline. This story will be updated.
The Internal Revenue Service’s online system for submitting tax returns experienced widespread failures on Tuesday, complicating filing for the millions of taxpayers attempting to meet the government’s midnight deadline.
“On my way over here this morning, I was told a number of systems are down at the moment,” IRS Acting Commissioner David J. Kautter told lawmakers at an oversight hearing Tuesday. “We are working to resolve the issue and taxpayers should continue to file as they normally would.”
Listen to the experts and politicians sing Israel’s praises. Made for Yom HaAtzmaut 2018 in Kohelet. None of the material is mine, I just edited it and put it together. Enjoy
The two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last week have agreed to meet with Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson.
The timing of the meeting has not been set, according to a Starbucks spokesperson. The company said it hopes the meeting will occur this week while Johnson is in Philadelphia addressing the controversy over their arrests.
A store manager called the police because the two men were sitting in the store without placing an order. They were arrested for trespassing. The customers said they were waiting for another man to arrive. That person arrived at the store as they were being arrested.
In an interview Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Johnson said he hoped to meet with the two men in person to apologize face to face.
The New York Times and The New Yorker were awarded one of America’s most prestigious prizes on Monday for reporting that put the #MeToo movement in the national spotlight.
The two publications received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s systemic abuse of women in the entertainment industry.
The Pulitzers, administered by Columbia University, are annual awards for newspaper, magazine and digital news coverage. In newsrooms like The Times and The Washington Post, the Pulitzers are considered the pinnacle of achievement.
Kendrick Lamar won the Pulitzer Prize in music for his album “Damn” on Monday afternoon. He is the first nonclassical or jazz artist to win the award.
The award is given “for distinguished musical composition by an American that has had its first performance or recording in the United States during the year,” according to the Pulitzer Prize Board.
Released on April 14, 2017, “Damn” was described by the Pulitzer committee as a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life.”
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Lamar is the first nonclassical or jazz artist to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.
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Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
A Wells Fargo bank in San Rafael, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
IRS technology meltdown
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Lamar is the first nonclassical or jazz artist to win the Pulitzer Prize in music.
