Slain U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry

The parents of a slain U.S. Border Patrol agent are seeking $25 million from the federal agency that ran Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-smuggling probe that is under investigation in Congress.

Josephine and Kent Terry on Wednesday filed a claim alleging the death of agent Brian Terry was due to negligence by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to The Arizona Daily Star newspaper of Tucson.

The 65-page claim, a legal prerequisite to a lawsuit, blames bureau negligence for allowing weapons in Operation Fast and Furious to illegally cross the border, leading to Terry's death on Dec. 14, 2010, the Daily Star said. On that day, Terry and three other border patrol agents were patrolling south of Tucson. They came across armed men, and a gunfight ensued, killing Terry.

In Operation Fast and Furious, begun in 2009, agents lost track of about 1,400 weapons that they were tracking. The guns were sold to low-level straw purchasers believed to be supplying Mexican drug gangs and other criminals. Another 700 firearms connected to suspects in the investigation have been recovered, some from crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including the scene in Nogales, Ariz., where Terry was killed.

The first so-called gun-walking probe was launched in 2006 and was known as Operation Wide Receiver. Other smaller, similar operations in which ATF agents monitored gun purchases were conducted in 2007 and 2008. 

"Brian's death could have and should have been prevented by competent law enforcement personnel if those involved had simply followed ATF policy and common sense," read the claim, according to the Daily Star.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department rejected an assertion by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that top agency officials are covering up events surrounding Fast and Furious.

Issa made the accusation in a letter threatening to seek a contempt of Congress ruling against Attorney General Eric Holder for failing to turn over congressionally subpoenaed documents that were created after problems with Fast and Furious came to light. Holder was to testify Thursday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs.

The Washington Post late Wednesday, citing the Justice Department, reported Holder was expected to testfiy that the gun-walking tactic used in Fast and Furious was "wholly unacceptable," used in a misguided way, and would not be used again.    

Deputy Attorney General James Cole, The Associate Press reported, responded to Issa's letter that the department will provide material created after Feb. 4, 2011, the day the department gave incorrect information to Congress about Fast and Furious. At the time, the department said federal agents made every effort to intercept illegally purchased weapons. Instead, agents in the Phoenix-based Fast and Furious investigation tried to track the weapons after purchase to make cases against gun-smuggling ring leaders who had long escaped prosecution.

A committee spokesman, Frederick Hill, said the department is under investigation not only for Fast and Furious but also for its response to whistleblowers and investigators who expressed concern about the operation.

"If the Justice Department cannot provide assurances that it will meet its legal obligations" and provide the documents, "the committee has no other option than moving to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt," Hill said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Competitors at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo. adorned themselves with items in rememberance of Canadian skier Sarah Burke who died from injuries she sustained in a training accident in Park City, Utah in January.

Updated at 6:20 p.m. ET: A spokesman for Monster Beverage Co. said skier Sarah Burke, one of the athletes it sponsors, did not receive insurance coverage from the company before her fatal accident in Utah.

"Sponsors in general do not provide insurance for the athletes, who are independent contractors. In many contracts if not most, the athletes sign an agreement saying they understand that it is a dangerous sport and that they are responsible for their own well-being," said Roger Pondel, from the public relations company PondelWilkinson in Los Angeles. "That is fairly standard throughout the industry."

"The company is continuing to support (Burke's) family," Pondell said, but he declined to give details, "in deference to the privacy of the family."

Original post: On Monday, msnbc.com published a story on a fund drive that had raised more than $300,000 to cover the medical costs for Sarah Burke, a 29-year-old professional skier from Canada who died after a training accident in Park City, Utah.

The story pointed out that Burke’s family was facing a disaster familiar to uninsured Americans — a mountain of medical expenses on top of personal tragedy. As a number of readers pointed out, the story raises a question: Why was a professional skier with corporate sponsors not covered by insurance?

Because Burke was Canadian, wouldn’t she have been covered by Canada’s universal health care system? The answer is yes — and no.

Had the accident occurred in Canada, Burke, who lived near the western Canadian ski mecca of Whistler, British Columbia, would have been covered for 100 percent of her medical care through public health insurance, according to Ryan Jabs, manager of media relations for the Ministry of Health in British Columbia.

That national health insurance policy applies outside the country too, he said, but only pays for what the services would have cost in Canada — typically only a fraction of what the services cost in the United States.

“If someone is traveling outside Canada, we encourage them to get third-party insurance” to cover the difference, said Jabs.

Burke’s husband has not pursued insurance claims from the government so far, Jabs said, adding that he still has the option to do so. He said the University of Utah hospital where Burke was cared for had been in contact with the health ministry but he could not disclose details.

Daniel Dal Zennaro / EPA

Canada's Sarah Burke celebrating on the podium after winning the women's halfpipe freestyle FIS World Cup Grand Finals in Chiesa Valmalenc, Italy in 2008.

Burke also had $5 million in medical coverage through the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association, a largely government-funded body that fields Olympic competitors in the sport.

"It’s a really good policy — one used by most athletic associations in Canada," said Kelley Korbin, media relations manager for the association. But she said that the policy covers only sanctioned events and training where association coaches are present. “This was a private sponsored event, so none of our certified trained coaches were there."

Burke’s event — half-pipe skiing — was added as an Olympic event just last spring, said Korbin, so top half-pipe athletes like Burke had a history of performing in commercially sponsored events. Half-pipe skiers compete in a half-cylinder-shaped course dug deep into the hill. With speed gained on the slope, skiers come up over the rim of the pipe and perform acrobatic aerial tricks, winning by executing the most difficult tricks with the best form. Burke was defending champion for the women's halfpipe in the annual Winter X Games.

The Jan. 10 accident that took Burke’s life occurred during training at Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, as part of a freeskiing team sponsored by the U.S.-based Monster Energy drink company. She was rushed to the University of Utah Hospital and treated for a ruptured vertebral artery — one of four that supply blood to the brain. Surgery and subsequent care ultimately failed to save her. She died Jan. 19 because of a lack of oxygen to the brain.

Why no insurance?
The biggest unanswered question is why Monster or Burke’s agent, Michael Spencer, apparently had not arranged for insurance coverage for Burke.

"It’s hard to believe Park City would allow someone to come and do an event without proving that you have liability insurance,” said Korbin, of the Canada’s freestyle association. "For sure at Whistler (ski resort in Canada), we have to prove that each competitor there has Canadian freestyle insurance. Otherwise they don’t want to take on their liability on their hill."

California-based Monster Beverage company did not respond to phone calls about insurance coverage for Burke, who the company was sponsoring for the Winter X Games. Michael Spencer, Burke’s agent, who set up the donations page to help the family with medical costs, also did not respond to queries from msnbc.com by phone and email.  

Park City Mountain Resort had not yet responded to queries from msnbc.com about its policy on insurance coverage for events as of the writing of this article.

Patterson notes that it’s difficult to get policy underwriting for medical coverage on some sports, like mixed martial arts, for instance, where injury is virtually certain.

"To me it’s unfathomable that she wouldn’t have had someone covering this, especially competing at that level," said Derek Patterson, owner of eGlobalHealth Insurances Agency, in Springfield, Missouri, which provides specialized coverage for athletes, war-zone contractors and other clients in hazardous conditions. “Sometimes people have the assumption that they are covered, but then find out it is not the case."

"Someone didn’t put (coverage) in place," said Greg Sutton of Sutton Special Risk, a specialized insurance broker in Toronto. "The broker or the agent — someone should have recognized that there would have been a gap because the event was unsanctioned."

Addendum: In our previous story, we noted that uninsured Americans are frequently pushed to bankruptcy by the cost of medical care for catastrophic illness or accident. An email from GiveForward, a donation appeals site mentioned in the story, said that the site currently has about 1,500 pages posted by people who were struggling to raise money for health care costs.

Press reports initially estimated the cost of Burke's intensive medical care at about $500,000, though later it was revised downward, to about $200,000. A fundraising page on GiveForward.com shows that donors have contributed $305,483 to help the family cover the costs.

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MARIETTA, Ga. -- A Georgia teen who lost her entire family in a Florida interstate crash that killed 11 now faces deportation to Brazil.

Lidiane Carmo, 15, a ninth-grader at Sprayberry High School in Marietta, was part of a group of 15 from her tiny Church of the Restoration in Marietta. They were returning home after a three-day religious conference in Orlando, Fla.

A mix of fog and smoke from a nearby brush fire made visibility difficult on six-lane Interstate 75 on Sunday when at least a dozen cars, six tractor trailers and a motorhome collided. Wreckage was so bad that it took more than two days to find the accident's 11th victim, who was in a pickup truck where two bodies were discovered earlier, officials said Wednesday.

11th victim found days after deadly Forida crash

Lidiane on Wednesday was in a Gainesville, Fla., hospital recovering from her injuries. Among those who perished in the crash were her father, Jose Carmo, a founding pastor of the church; her mother, Adriana; her 17-year-old sister; Leticia, her uncle, Edsom; and the uncle's girlfriend, Rose DaSilva.

The Carmo family moved to the U.S. from Brazil 12 years ago, NBC station WXIA reported. They were undocumented, WXIA said.

Relatives who want Lidiane to live with them in the U.S. fear she may be deported.

"I hope that she lives here with us," said Marcia Silvia, one of the crash survivors and a member of the church. "The church is her family, now. I hope that she stays here."

At a church meeting Tuesday night, Brazil's deputy consul general in Atlanta, Ana Rodrigues, offered the government's condolences, but could not promise any help or hope.

"Immigration issues are a matter of the American government," Rodrigues said.

And she was not able to say whether the Brazilian government would be able to consider the family's request for financial help to fly the bodies back to Marietta for the funerals, and to Brazil for the burials.

"I can't say yes or no, it's impossible, because I can't make this decision," she told the congregation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Faced with a spike in residential burglaries, one Missouri sheriff has pulled out an unusual crime-fighting weapon -- blinking electronic signs.

"We wanted to let the criminals know that everyone was watching out for them and talking about them in their neighborhoods," Greene County Sheriff Jim Arnott told msnbc.com on Wednesday. "We wanted the bad guys to know they had no business around here."

Arnott said deputies last week staked out three areas hit hard in this rural town of 90,000 by thefts and positioned electronic signs that flashed "Sheriff's Crime Alert. Burglaries/Thefts on the rise. Report suspicious activity."

Arnott said the signs have sparked some controversy.

"The ones who have complained have been real estate agents and homeowners who are trying to sell their homes," Arnott told msnbc.com. "It was reminders to all that you were living in an area with a high crime rate.”

Arnott said Greene County has been hit hard this year by home and vehicle burglaries. For example, 190 burglaries were reported in the last three months of 2011 -- a 32 percent jump from the same period in 2010, he said.

“We needed to address this problem and we couldn't attack the problem as efficiently as years past,” he told msnbc.com.

Officers had been handling the growing number of complaints and crimes in the rural county by working overtime, he said. But that had to come to an end, forcing the department -- a team of 41 patrol officers and 20 detectives -- to come up with a creative solution in crime prevention, he said.

Residents who live across the street from one sign shared their mixed feelings over the latest tactics with The Springfield News-Leader in Springfield, Mo., which first reported this story. “If the burglar sees the sign, maybe they will stay away,” Karen Nanninga told the News-Leader.

“It may be a bit overblown,” John Farmer de la Torre, another neighbor, said. “When something really goes bad, what’s gonna happen?”

Arnott said it will take time to see whether the latest crime-fighting tool is working for his force that patrols 670 miles in the rural Missouri county. One law enforcement official said he believes the signs have been successful.

“It’s had an impact,” Capt. David Johnson told The Springfield News-Leader. “We’ve had a number of people call in to report suspicious vehicles. We’ve received some tips and leads from citizens.”

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Christo shows 'Over The River' concepts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 8. He donated the panels to the museum.

The artist Christo calls it artwork that mimics nature, but his plan to drape nearly six miles of aluminum-coated fabric across the top of the Arkansas River has enemies in the environmental community – including two law students and a professor at the University of Denver who helped a local group file a lawsuit Wednesday against the project.

"We are planning to vanquish the giant with the help of these great lawyers from the University of Denver," Joan Anzelmo, a spokesperson for plaintiff Rags Over the Arkansas River, told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Denver where the suit was filed.

Christo, whose massive art displays often prove controversial, himself was visiting the area this week to build up support for his "Over the River" project.

Steve Coffin, a lawyer for Christo, told msnbc.com that Christo's team was confident the project "will withstand legal scrutiny."

In a video describing the project, Christo says he expects "the fabric moving with the wind. It will be unbelievable to see that. The fabric will start to move like surf in the ocean."

A project website, overtheriverinfo.com, states that plans are to display the fabric for two weeks, possibly by August 2014. Christo estimates it will cost $50 million and he intends to pay for it through the sale of original artwork tied to the exhibition.

The lawsuit targets the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which manages the Arkansas River and approved the project. Christo intends to hang 5.9 miles of fabric in pieces over a 42-mile stretch of the river in Colorado.

DOCUMENT: The lawsuit filed in court

The students were assisted by Michael Harris, head of the law school's environmental law clinic, who told reporters that, while the artwork will only be displayed for two weeks, the work to prepare it is akin to an industrial operation that will scar the river and canyon area around it.

"Christo has been able to work the system. He's been able to convince people that this is just a two-week period that will be so beneficial for the people of Colorado," Harris said. "For two years they're going to be in this canyonland, drilling holes, 9,100 holes, sometimes 30 feet deep to place anchors to hold all this in place."

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NBC News

Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras, who was 18 at the time of her fatal crash.

A Southern California family that couldn't even visit the mangled body of a daughter killed in a car wreck has received $2.37 million in a lawsuit settlement over gruesome online photos of what became known as the "Porsche Girl," the Los Angeles Times has reported.

The suit was filed against the California Highway Patrol, whose investigators took the pictures, the Times reported. Two Highway Patrol dispatchers leaked the photos,  the newspaper said.

The incident stemmed from a Halloween 2006 crash involving Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras, 18, who officials said took her father's Porsche, drove it over 100 mph on an Orange County toll road, clipped another car and swerved into a toll booth, the Times said.

The family was not allowed to view the disfigured body.

Comments accompanying the online reproductions of the crash scene mocked the girl, and her family received taunting messages, the Times said.

In announcing the settlement, the CHP said, "No amount of money can compensate for the pain the Catsouras family has suffered" but the settlement could bring "some closure," the Times reported.

Read the Times' story here. 

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PETA

Various airlines ship monkeys to testing labs around the world. PETA says these boxes contained monkeys being shipped via air to Shin Nippon in Edmonds, Wash.

A daylong bombardment of emails, social media posts and phone calls led Air France to cancel a planned shipment Wednesday of monkeys to a testing lab in the U.S., People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claimed in a campaign aimed at getting all airlines to ban the practice.

Air France declined to comment on the specific shipment of 60 monkeys from Mauritius, but PETA provided msnbc.com with a copy of an email purportedly sent by an Air France cargo official in Chicago, Ill., to PETA that states: "Our colleagues overseas have confirmed that this scheduled shipment of monkeys has been cancelled."

The campaign follows PETA allegations of abuses at the U.S. branch of a Japanese testing lab. Several airlines were targeted at the time, and PETA followed up with a daylong bombardment earlier this week.

"We don't know whether they will accept future shipments of primates destined for laboratories but are strongly urging them not to and will be monitoring the situation closely like we have been," Justin Goodman, PETA's associate director for lab investigations, told msnbc.com.

"We have written to Air France officials to urge them to adopt a formal policy against transporting primates destined for laboratories as nearly every other major airline in the world already does, including Air France’s partner airlines Delta and Alitalia," he added. "We have not yet received a response."

Goodman noted that "we are in touch with all of the remaining major airlines that do not yet prohibit shipping primates to laboratories, and are making progress with several of them."

He identified them as: Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, TAM Airlines, Continental Airlines, Philippine Airlines, and Vietnam Airlines. 

"Air Canada also does not yet prohibit this practice but is currently going to great lengths to get the required permission from the Canadian government to create such a companywide ban," he added.

While not commenting on a specific shipment, Air France spokeswoman Brigitte Barrand did tell msnbc.com that:

"Air France Cargo refuses to transport laboratory animals destined for any use other than medical" research.

"In addition, Air France Cargo ensures that all biomedical research involving the use of animals in laboratories with which the airline works is fully in line with current legislation and the regulations drawn up by scientific organizations specializing in animal welfare.

"Air France Cargo refuses transportation if the testing protocols do not conform to these regulations and visits all customers to make sure this is the case. Air France Cargo also monitors the supplier, who must comply with the breeding rules in force."

Goodman countered that the U.S. lab in question, Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, has been repeatedly fined for violating U.S. animal welfare laws.

He also questioned Air France's claim that it only ships animals to labs for "medical" testing. "SNBL is a contract organization, which means that they test whatever anyone pays them to test, including drugs, chemicals, pesticides and cosmetics," Goodman said. "So unless Air France is asking SNBL for documentation for specifically how each and every monkey is being used at the lab, it is impossible for Air France — and the public — to know whether their policy is being adhered to or not."

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Mike Blake / Reuters

The San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station sits on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in San Diego County, Calif.

Updated at 9:25 p.m. ET: In a statement Wednesday evening, Southern California Edison said it was still working on plans for repair of the leak in a steam generator tube that had prompted the shutdown of a reactor in the San Onofre nuclear plant. The statement said that monitoring instruments showed no change in radiation levels that would be detectable outside the plant.

The statement said operators shut down the plant Tuesday "and isolated the component that contained the leaking tube within four hours of detecting the indications."

More from the statement:

Currently, operators are cooling down Unit 3 and reducing pressure in the plant, which is the method to stop the tube from leaking. They are meticulously following prescribed procedures written specifically for addressing a tube leak condition.

"There was no threat then, nor is there now any danger to the public or to plant workers," said Pete Dietrich, senior vice president and Chief Nuclear Officer for Southern California Edison.

"Our operators performed exactly as they are trained to perform and took prompt action to ensure we did not create a situation involving any challenge to the health and safety of the public," Dietrich said.

Original post: An "extremely small" amount of radiation could have escaped into the atmosphere from a Southern California nuclear power plant after a water leak prompted operators to shut down the reactor, a utility spokesman said Wednesday.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Victor Dricks echoed that, saying a small amount of radioactive gas "could have" escaped the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on the northern San Diego Coast.

Southern California Edison spokesman Gil Alexander said the amount would have been "extremely small" and possibly not detectable by monitors.

The company and federal regulators say the release would not have posed a safety risk for the public.

A reactor at the plant was shut down Tuesday night after a possible leak was detected in one of the unit's steam generator tubes.

Southern California Edison on Tuesday said in a statement that "a precautionary shutdown of Unit 3" at the electricity generating plant was under way, but that there had been no release of radiation to the atmosphere and there was no danger to employees or the public.

The San Onofre plant is on the Pacific Ocean coast near San Clemente north of San Diego. It consists of two units, No. 2 and No. 3. No. 1 was shut down permanently in 1992. It is one of two nuclear plants that generate electricity in Southern California; the other is the Diablo Canyon plant in San Luis Obispo County.

Unit No. 2 at San Onofre was already offline for maintenance and refueling, but Southern California Edison said the shutdown of No. 3 would not affect the supply of electricity to customers.

In September, the failure of a major tranmission line between Arizona and California caused the Onofre reactors to go offline automatically.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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LOS ANGELES -- There was never any outward indication that anything was wrong in Mark Berndt's classroom at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles. School officials and law enforcement authorities say they never received any complaints about the third-grade teacher, who is accused of blindfolding students, putting tape on their mouths and taking photos of them with live cockroaches or a spoon full of semen.

The photographs, brought to the attention of authorities last January by a film processor, eventually led to Berndt's arrest on Monday on charges that he committed lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010.

The 61-year-old made his first court appearance on Wednesday. His bail was raised to $23 million from $2.3 million. His arraignment was scheduled for Feb. 21. 

"If it wasn't for the film processor, this could still be continuing today," sheriff's Lt. Carlos Marquez told the Associated Press.

Damian Dovarganes / AP

Students are escorted to a waiting bus as they leave Miramonte Elementary school after classes Tuesday.

Five more children have contacted sheriff's investigators since Berndt's arrest, which could lead to additional charges, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy told msnbc.com on Tuesday that there was nothing in Berndt’s 30-year record with the school district to indicate a problem. “Not so much as a single complaint,” he said.

"I am disgusted beyond belief,"  Deasy said. "I'm a dad as well as a superintendent and it's horrifying." 

Some parents picking up their students at the school on Tuesday complained that school officials should have notified them when the photos were discovered last year. Berndt was fired immediately after the investigation began, and placed under surveillance, but parents didn't learn why until this week.    

"My concern is why, if the principal knew this in advance, why didn't he inform us?" Gloria Polanco, the mother of a second- and a third-grader, said to the Associated Press. "How long has he been doing this?"

Deborah Harmon, whose 7-year-old granddaughter goes to the elementary, was also upset about the length of time it took school administrators to notify parents of the allegations.

"It’s a sense of violation and betrayal because you think that your children are safe when you send them to school but they’re not safe," Harmon told NBCLosAngeles.com.

The photographs uncovered reveal disturbing images. Some allegedly show Berndt with his arm around the children or with his hand over their mouths, according to a statement by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In addition, authorities say the images depict girls with a blue plastic spoon filled with a substance, later determined to be semen. There were also photos of children with large, live Madagascar-type cockroaches on their faces and mouths.

Early in the investigation, Special Victims Bureau detectives say they recovered a blue plastic spoon and an empty container from the trash in Bernd't classroom. The recovered items tested positive for semen, authorities said, and the suspect's DNA matched the DNA profile found on the spoon and container.

"We ended up finding out through DNA that the white substance was bodily fluids from our suspect," Marquez told NBCLosAngeles.com.

A search warrant served by detectives on Berndt's home also led to the discovery of more than 100 similar photographs depicting children, authorities aid. Also found was a DVD depicting adult sexual "bondage" activity. The adults in that DVD are not identified, according to detectives.

Investigators are still working to identify 10 of the child victims in the 390 photos uncovered.

Authorities are recommending the children be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, the Associated Press reported.

The Associated Press contribued to this story.

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President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to approve a $5 billion to $10 billion effort to help U.S. homeowners refinance as part of a wider package of proposals to shore up the depressed housing market.

Obama had sketched out the proposals in his State of the Union address last week, including a tax on banks to pay for the plan that Republicans quickly rejected.

The White House offered more details on Wednesday ahead of a speech by Obama to expand on his initiative, which some Republicans have derided as an election-year ploy.

Nearly 11 million Americans are underwater on their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their homes are worth. Millions more have lost homes to repossession in states that will be up for grabs in 2012.

"While the government cannot fix the housing market on its own, the president believes that responsible homeowners should not have to sit and wait for the market to hit bottom to get relief," the White House said in a statement.

The White House is seeking to contrast Obama's stance with that of Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney, who has said U.S. foreclosures should be allowed to run their course.

The next contest in the state-by-state battle for the Republican nomination is in Nevada, the state with the highest rate of foreclosure filings for the past five years.

Pool / Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House January 31, 2012 in Washington, DC. Obama has recently been discussing his efforts at job creation as the Republican presidential candidates vie in the Florida primary today.

The White House said the refinance program would be run by the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA has already been hard hit by rising defaults on mortgages it had insured, and its cash reserves reached a record low last year.

Many Republicans are likely to resist a larger role for the agency out of concerns taxpayers could be left on the hook for losses.

Obama's proposal, which needs congressional approval, would be open to borrowers who have been current on their payments for the last six months and have no more than one missed payment in the prior six months.

The administration also wants to broaden its Home Affordable Refinance Program, which seeks to provide refinancing options to underwater borrowers who have no equity in their homes.

The White House said the housing regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has exhausted its efforts to make HARP more widely accessible to lenders and borrowers, and now it will ask Congress to make changes. Among those requested changes, it will seek to eliminate the costs of appraisals.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveils the company's new location services feature called "Places" during a news conference with staff at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., , in August 2010.

Updated 6:50 p.m. ET: Facebook filed papers Wednesday to raise $5 billion in its initial public offering of stock. Facebook said it will apply to have its shares listed with the symbol "FB," suggesting it will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO could be the biggest ever for an Internet company.

Original story:
What will a new generation of Facebook millionaires do with their wealth?

It’s a good bet that many will splurge on a fancy new car, purchase a new home or perhaps even plan a trip to space. But it's also likely that they’ll be giving some of it away to charity.

Experts expect charitable causes and nonprofits to be among the side beneficiaries of the minting of 1,000 or more new millionaires from Facebook’s impending initial stock offering.

“When wealth is created like that and folks are holding highly appreciating assets, it’s a great opportunity to start a philanthropic legacy,” says Rob Mitchell, CEO of Atlas of Giving, a company that tracks and forecasts charitable donations across America.

Facebook, founded in 2004, has reportedly supplemented employee salaries with stock incentives over the years. The Silicon Valley-based social media company now has more than 3,000 employees, and many of them will be able to cash in on their stock after Facebook goes public -- typically after a lockup period expires.

"With an IPO you create a liquidity event. These people in theory are just as wealthy today as they were before filing the IPO. But liquidity helps in terms of philanthropy," noted Patrick Rooney, executive director of The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

He said studies have shown that entrepreneurs are about twice as generous as people who inherit their wealth, and people who are millionaires tend to give a higher share of their income and assets than those who are not.

“Will all the new thousand millionaires give? Absolutely not. But one of things we saw in 2011 was the fact that wealthy people were again interested in donating appreciated assets and specifically stock,” Mitchell said. “One of best ways to give is to give appreciated assets because you can avoid capital gains tax.”

A cue from Zuckerberg
People who track such things can’t recall ever seeing such an immediate influx of wealth in Silicon Valley -- or beyond. The closest similar scenario was when Google went public in August 2004; by some estimates more than 900 employees became instant millionaires, at least on paper.

To lessen their tax burdens, the new Facebook millionaires could contribute some of their stock to a donor-advised fund, a type of public charity that serves as an umbrella giving vehicle. They could also set up a "charitable remainder trust," whereby a chunk of money goes to a charity after a specified time – like upon death – but the donor receives income or interest off the donated assets. In both cases, the donor can avoid capital gains tax and might also be eligible for an income tax deduction.

Employees could take a cue from Facebook’s 27-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, whose net worth pre-IPO has been estimated at more than $17 billion. Zuckerberg, one of the youngest billionaires in the world, has signed on to The Giving Pledge, a campaign launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to get America’s superwealthy to pledge to give at least half their fortune to charity. Zuckerberg also donated $100 million to Newark, N.J., schools in 2010.

"People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" Zuckerberg said at the time. "With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts."

Zuckerberg isn’t the only wealthy person who believes the rich should give more to charity.

PNC Wealth Management recently surveyed 555 millionaires and found 70 percent believe they bear a special responsibility in society to help the less fortunate. Sixty-four percent believe they should give substantial sums to charities to improve society.

• Related: Facebook's IPO matters to Facebook, not the market

Facebook didn’t reply to an email request for comment on this story.

Too young to give?
But Robert Frank, who writes about culture and the economy of the wealthy in his The Wealth Report blogin The Wall Street Journal, doesn’t think charities will see an immediate significant impact on charitable giving by Facebook employees.

“Many are still very young so they are still in an accumulation phase of life as opposed to a distribution/legacy phase,” Frank says. ”These are people who, for now, want to change the world through their company rather than through philanthropy.”

Frank says it’s likely that some of the accumulated stock wealth will be funneled into foundations for tax purposes. But that money won’t trickle out to actual groups or grants for many years – or even generations.

“The money will be going to mansions before you see it going to funding for villages in Africa,” he says.

But for charities that do benefit, Rooney says the trend of fewer people attending Mass or other religious services means that the newest generation of millionaires is more likely to give to secular causes than to churches and other religious organizations.

Mitchell and Frank agree that any charities that do reap Facebook dollars are likely to be more niche-focused and mission-oriented. Frank cites education and scientific research in areas such as space, alternative energy and food supply as among the causes technology-driven wealthy people are drawn to.

Indeed, one former employee told Reuters he’s is looking into booking a trip to space once he’s able to cash in on his Facebook shares.

Which is why Frank thinks there will be a “long delay” in Facebook philanthropy.

“People typically don’t start thinking about this stuff (philanthropy) until they’re in ‘50s or ‘60s,” Frank says.

Facebook employees “are going buy a lot of stuff and they’re not going to give away a lot of stuff for a long  time. Part of that is where they are in the wealth spectrum and timeline of life.”

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