Montevallo in talks with potential tenants for Victory building - Shelby County Reporter - Shelby County Reporter

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By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

MONTEVALLO – Mayor Rusty Nix is set to enter into negotiations with potential restaurant tenants for a city-owned building on Main Street.

The Montevallo City Council on June 28 approved a resolution allowing Nix to negotiate with two potential tenants, City Bowls and Wasabi Juan’s, on a lease agreement to occupy space inside the former Victory Autos & Collision Center building following renovations.

“Anything out of negotiations has to come back to the council,” Nix said. “This is just a vote to let me enter negotiations. It would have to come back again to the City Council for final approval.”

The preliminary drawing of the building’s interior shows two tenant spaces, each measuring roughly 1,300 square feet, along with restrooms and a common area the tenants will share.

“The common area will be kind of like a food court,” City Clerk and Treasurer Steve Gilbert said. “The two tenants will share that area, and any common area will be under what’s called a common area management agreement, which all three tenants will agree to as to who will be responsible for keeping them clean.”

Interstellar Ginger Beer and Exploration Co., an Alabaster-based craft brewery, is the third potential tenant for the building. In October 2020, Interstellar co-owner Dr. Shane Kelly spoke to the City Council to express his interest in expanding the brewery to Montevallo.

The city purchased the building for $375,000 in 2019.

No tenants have signed a formal agreement, but they have provided non-binding letters of intent, Gilbert said.

“The final lease agreement will come to the council,” Gilbert said, adding discussions are ongoing between the city’s and potential tenants’ architects regarding the structural needs of each business. “Once all of that’s been decided and the final terms of the lease have been agreed to, we will bring that back to the council for final approval.”

Building renovations will include minor design changes to the front exterior, such as raising the awnings and uncovering the upper windows to let in more natural light.

“Regardless of what tenant gets there, we need to bring the building up to code,” Nix said. “It’s going to cost us money to do that, but with these three tenants here, I feel very confident that we’ve got a good structure of a payback plan. It’s not a historic building, but it is a contributing building to the historic district.”

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June 30, 2021 at 01:55AM
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Search for Miami collapse survivors continues with 150 people still missing - The Guardian

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Family and friends of the 150 people still missing after a Florida condominium collapsed last week faced a sixth wrenching day of waiting on Tuesday, as search and rescue crews continued to sift through the mangled remains of Champlain Towers South.

The search for survivors in the Miami suburb of Surfside went on without much cause for hope. None have been rescued since Thursday and two more bodies were recovered on Monday, putting the death toll at 11.

“We have people waiting and waiting and waiting for news,” the Miami-Dade mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, told reporters.

“We have them coping with the news that they might not have their loved ones come out alive and still hope against hope that they will. They’re learning that some of their loved ones will come out as body parts. This is the kind of information that is just excruciating for everyone.”

Officials and experienced rescuers have urged people to remain hopeful and emphasized it is still a rescue operation. Families of the missing have been invited to the site to observe and Levine Cava said authorities have been in detailed contact with them.

“Some are feeling more hopeful, some less hopeful, because we do not have definitive answers,” she said. “We give them the facts. We take them to the site.”

The White House announced on Tuesday that Joe and Jill Biden would visit Surfside on Thursday.

Late on Monday, officials identified three more victims: Marcus Joseph Guara, 52, Michael David Altman, 50 and Frank Kleiman, 55. Kleiman’s wife, Ana Ortiz, 46, and her son, Luis Bermúdez, 26, also died in the collapse.

The community held a vigil and created memorials on the beach and along fences surrounding the collapsed tower. The fences are decorated with photos, flowers and handmade signs. Rescuers have also been leaving objects such as photos and toys they find in the debris at the memorial.

Elite rescue teams are assisting with the search, including the famed Topos, a volunteer group formed in response to Mexico City’s 1985 earthquake, and members of the Israel Defense Forces.

Such efforts have been complicated by weather conditions, including heavy rain on Monday.

This is a frustration for family members of the missing, the mayor of Surfside, Charles Burkett, said at a press briefing on Tuesday. He and other officials spoke with relatives at a meeting Tuesday morning, he said.

“There was frustration, there was a little anger, there were some questions about why the work has to stop when there is thunderstorms and lightning.”

The mayor said officials were unable to provide a firm answer for families who asked how long people can survive such a situation.

“Nobody is giving up here. No one is stopping,” Burkett said.

The search and rescue process is necessarily slow and deliberate: crews must balance the urgency of rescue with the chance that abrupt moves could collapse voids in the debris that may be shielding survivors.

“Every time there’s an action, there’s a reaction,” Miami-Dade assistant fire chief Raide Jadallah said on Monday. “It’s not an issue of we could just attach a couple of cords to a concrete boulder and lift it and call it a day.”

Rescuers are using heavy machinery to move larger pieces of concrete.

Speculation is mounting over previous inspections reports and warnings issued about the building, but it will likely take months to determine why a portion of the tower fell suddenly around 1.30am last Thursday.

A pool contractor who visited the building 36 hours before the collapse told the Miami-Herald he saw unusual levels of standing water in the garage.

The contractor, who asked not to be named, told the paper the deepest puddle he saw was near an area of the building a 2018 inspection report identified as having a “major error” in its original design.

The 2018 report did not indicate the structure was at risk of collapse, but recommended that “concrete deterioration needs to be repaired in a timely fashion”.

The president of the Champlain Towers South condo association urged residents to back a $15m repair to the building in an April letter shared by the Wall Street Journal.

In the letter, the president of the association, Jean Wodnicki, said issues identified in the 2018 inspection could have gotten worse.

“That estimate indicated that the concrete damage observed would begin to multiply exponentially over the years, and indeed the observable damage such as in the garage has gotten significantly worse since the initial inspection,” Wodnicki wrote.

Federal, state and local agencies have been deployed to the scene and Biden said on Monday he supports an extensive investigation.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said: “We want to play any constructive role we can play with federal resources in getting to the bottom of it and preventing it from happening in the future.”

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June 29, 2021 at 08:37PM
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Search for Miami collapse survivors continues with 150 people still missing - The Guardian

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Serena Williams out of Wimbledon after slipping on Centre Court, injuring leg - ESPN

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3:11 PM ET

• D'Arcy MaineESPN.com

Serena Williams retired from her first-round match at Wimbledon on Tuesday against Aliaksandra Sasnovich with a left leg injury.

Holding a 3-1 lead in the first set, Williams slipped and needed to take an injury timeout at the game's conclusion to receive treatment. She returned to the court, but her movement was visibly limited.

Williams was serving in the fifth game at Centre Court when she lost her footing near the baseline while hitting a forehand. She winced and stepped gingerly between points, clearly troubled.

After dropping that game, she took a medical timeout and tried to continue playing. A crying Williams bit her upper lip and covered her face between points. The crowd tried to offer support and encouragement. But eventually, the 39-year-old American dropped to her knees, and the chair umpire came over to check on her.

The match ended at 3-all in the first set.

Williams, a seven-time Wimbledon singles champion, gave an emotional wave to the crowd and held her hand over her heart as she fought back tears before she exited the court.

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"Of course I'm so sad for Serena; she's a great champion," Sasnovich said. "It happens sometimes in tennis, but all the best for her and her recovery."

This marks just the second time in Williams' storied career she has retired from a match at a major. The other occurrence was in the third round at the All England Club in 1998.

Williams entered the tournament in search of her 24th major title, which would have tied her with Margaret Court for the most ever. She last won a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2017 and has made four finals since returning after giving birth, including at Wimbledon in 2018 and 2019. She made the semifinals at the Australian Open earlier this year as well as the fourth round at the French Open last month.

Her departure makes a wide-open women's draw even more so. As it was, defending champion Simona Halep and four-time major champ Naomi Osaka withdrew before the tournament started.

"Yeah, it was not easy to watch," said Coco Gauff. "Actually I turned away. I was in the gym actually stretching. I turned away because stuff like that makes me, like, really emotional.

"I mean, I wish (Serena) the best. I wish that hopefully she can have a speedy recovery. Yeah, you could tell she was really emotional. Nobody ever wants to retire, but especially at a Grand Slam, a place as special as Wimbledon after waiting two years to come back. The only thing I can do is wish her well wishes and hope she'll be back in time for the hard court season."

Williams was the second player on Centre Court on Tuesday to slip and suffer an injury. Adrian Mannarino, who was playing against Roger Federer, also was forced to retire as a result of a similar fall. Due to rain, the roof had been closed.

"I do feel it feels a tad more slippery maybe under the roof," Federer said after his match. "I don't know if it's just a gut feeling. You do have to move very, very carefully out there. If you push too hard in the wrong moments, you do go down. ...

"This is obviously terrible that it's back-to-back matches and it hits Serena as well. Oh, my God, I can't believe it."

Top-seeded men's player Novak Djokovic fell twice in the first set of his first-round victory Monday in the main stadium, too.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Wisconsin G.O.P. Wrestles With Just How Much to Indulge Trump - The New York Times

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Few Republicans in the country swung harder and faster for Mr. Trump than those in Wisconsin. In the 2016 presidential primary, Scott Walker, the state’s governor at the time — whose own campaign ended after 71 days with a warning against nominating Mr. Trump — organized the party’s entire political and local media apparatus behind Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in what amounted to a last-ditch effort to stop Mr. Trump.

Mr. Cruz won the state, the last one he’d carry before ending his campaign a month later. Most, but not all, Wisconsin Republicans quickly got on board with Mr. Trump. Representative Paul D. Ryan, then the House speaker, dragged his feet on endorsing Mr. Trump. Charlie Sykes, at the time the most influential conservative talk radio host in the state, never did, and quit his job to become a Never-Trump commentator.

Now, as they have in Georgia and Arizona, Mr. Trump’s false claims that he won Wisconsin’s presidential contest threaten to split Republicans. At the party convention on Saturday, Mr. Trump delivered a prerecorded message reiterating the lie that he won the state — though he didn’t mention any of the legislative leaders he had attacked in his statement the night before.

“We had actually great results in Wisconsin,” Mr. Trump said. “As you know, in 2016 we won, and as you also know, in 2020 we won, but that hasn’t been so adjudged yet.”

Shae Sortwell, a conservative state assemblyman who was one of 15 Wisconsin Republican state lawmakers to sign a Jan. 5 letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging him not to certify the presidential election results the next day, argued that it had “been proven” that some Wisconsin election administrators broke state law.

“I hope that they find the truth as to whether there was collusion between Democratic operatives to violate election law,” he said of Mr. Vos’s investigators. “That’s what I want to find.”

Mr. Vos has advanced legislation to make absentee voting harder and forbidden the mass collecting of early votes that the city clerk in Madison, the liberal state capital, engaged in last fall. But he has so far resisted, while not ruling out, calls to subpoena large numbers of 2020 votes and embark on an Arizona-style audit.

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Supreme Court to close term with rulings on voting rights, donor disclosure - CNBC

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A view of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

The Supreme Court term is coming to an end.

On Thursday morning, the justices are set to hand down the last opinions of their current session. After a flurry of rulings were issued in recent days, only two cases are left to be decided: closely watched disputes over the Voting Rights Act and California's nonprofit donor disclosure rules.

In typical years, the court decides the most high-profile cases when the term ends, in late June or July. This year, the most notable rulings — including in cases over Obamacare and LGBT rights — were handed down a few weeks earlier.

The end of the term marks a close to one of the most transformative Supreme Court terms in memory. That's because it was the first to take place after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her succession by the conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appointed by former President Donald Trump.

Despite that change in membership, though — or perhaps as a result of it — the court's docket was relatively muted. The court's lack of major decisions featuring its new 6-3 conservative majority came amid calls from some Democrats to expand the bench or otherwise overhaul the judicial body.

Democrats had warned that Barrett's confirmation to the bench would spell doom for both Obamacare and the court's reproductive rights precedents, including Roe v. Wade. In her first term, neither of those outcomes came to pass, though. The court preserved the health-care legislation and did not weigh in on abortion.

Next term, however, is expected to be more explosive, as the court has already agreed to hear an abortion case that seems teed up to roll back Roe's protections, in addition to a major Second Amendment battle over open-carry laws. The court will start hearing arguments again in October, with decisions expected around late June 2022.

One area where Barrett's addition to the bench did seem to sway the law was with regard to Covid-19 regulations on religious groups.

While the court, with Ginsburg, largely approved state-imposed restrictions on religious gatherings that were challenged at the top court, that came to an end once Barrett was sworn in. In November, Barrett formed part of a 5-4 majority striking down rules in New York that limited attendance at religious gatherings. The court's three Democratic appointees and Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, dissented in that case.

Court could further limit reach of Voting Rights Act

One of the two outstanding decisions remaining involves a Democratic challenge to two voting laws in Arizona. A ruling in the case could effectively curtail the reach of the Voting Rights Act, which the court already watered down in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder.

Read more: Supreme Court justices consider extent of voting-rights protections for minorities

The dispute is over Arizona rules that ban out-of-precinct voting as well as third-party ballot collection, which critics call ballot harvesting. The Democratic National Committee challenged the laws in 2016 on the basis that they disproportionately impacted minority voters, allegedly in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires elections to be "equally open" to those of all races.

In the Shelby County case, the top court ended the longstanding requirement that certain localities with histories of racist voter suppression receive federal clearance before implementing new election laws. Voting rights activists and Democrats have said that the Shelby County decision has made Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act even more important, as it is one of the few remaining avenues for ensuring that minorities aren't excluded from the polls.

Republicans, including Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, have said that they are defending sensible election rules that exist in dozens of states. Brnovich has warned that striking down Arizona's laws could undermine public trust in elections.

Brnovich won at the district court level but the DNC managed to overturn that ruling at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Justices to say whether California can require nonprofits to disclose their donors

The other case expected to be resolved on Thursday involves a rule in California that requires nonprofit groups to disclose certain donors to the state attorney general's office.

Two conservative groups, the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the Thomas More Legal Center, challenged the rule on the basis that it violated their First Amendment rights. While the disclosure forms are supposed to be confidential, the groups cited an instance in which 1,800 were leaked online and argued that such mishaps meant their donors could be subject to harassment, boycotting or violence.

On the other hand, California has argued that the disclosure requirement is necessary for regulating nonprofits. Xavier Becerra, now the Biden administration's secretary of health and human services, wrote in a brief submitted while he was California's attorney general that relying on subpoenas or other methods of obtaining donor information "would compromise the State's ability to effectively protect the public."

A district court sided with the nonprofits, but that decision was reversed by the 9th Circuit.

The case also features a controversy over Barrett. In April, three Democratic senators called on the former law school professor to recuse herself from the case, citing Americans for Prosperity's push to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court. The group claimed to have spent seven figures on its Barrett campaign. Barrett has not said she will recuse herself and is expected to cast a vote.

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Monty Williams says 'desperation has to be there' for Phoenix Suns to close out LA Clippers in Game 6 - ESPN

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3:09 AM ET

PHOENIX -- The Suns have waited 28 years since their last NBA Finals berth, and now they'll have to wait two more days -- at least.

Phoenix was thoroughly outplayed in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Monday, losing to the LA Clippers 116-102 to cut the Suns' series lead to 3-2.

In a game that felt like a complete reversal from Game 4 -- when the Suns went into Staples Center, jumped out to an early lead and never trailed -- Phoenix found itself playing from behind virtually all night. The Clippers jumped out to a 20-5 advantage in the first five minutes, as Marcus Morris Sr. couldn't miss, starting things off 6-for-6 from the field.

"It's just unacceptable the way we started the game," Suns coach Monty Williams said. "It was a big hole for us. It's pretty obvious that we can't play with a show-up mentality. We showed up in the first quarter, and they played with desperation -- simple and plain."

Led by Devin Booker (31 points) and Chris Paul (22 points and eight assists), the Suns surged back on several occasions but never could take control. They cut the deficit to four points in the first quarter and to two points in the second quarter, before briefly taking the lead at 62-61 on a Paul jumper with 8:27 remaining in the third quarter. Phoenix again got as close as four points with 6:58 remaining in the fourth quarter.

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"We've got to close quarters better," Paul said. "Like that's been a problem for us all series long. Closing quarters, that last 2½, three minutes of quarters. We took the lead and then maybe cut it to one or two, and then they get a bucket and go on a run."

Indeed, the Clippers finished the third quarter on a 30-16 push after the Suns held their only lead of the game for an all-too-brief 20 seconds. And then in the fourth, after Torrey Craig missed a free throw that could have cut the Suns' deficit to three points with just less than seven minutes left, the Clips reeled off a 10-2 flurry to build the lead back to a dozen points.

"It's on all of us," Booker said. "They came out, they punched us in the face to start the game. And I think we showed it at spots tonight and certain times, but they're not going to go away easily, so we have to be locked in from beginning to end."

Suns reserve Cameron Johnson, who saw his best game of the series go for naught as he chipped in 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting off the bench, was asked how Phoenix was processing the missed opportunity.

"Well, it's the realization that it's not going to be easy," he replied. "That's what the playoffs is about, and it's tough and that's what everybody said it would be and you can't expect a team to just roll over. They brought it today, and they gave us a tough time. So, we just have to bring it next game."

After outscoring the Clippers by 58 points in the paint through the first four games of the series, the Suns were the ones dominated near the basket on Monday. Phoenix was outscored 58-32 in the paint for the night, even though LA was without starting center Ivica Zubac, sidelined with a sprained right MCL.

"That's not something you would have expected, especially with them not having Zubac tonight," Williams said. "So, we will be better in the next game.

"Paramount on my mind right now is we got to play with way more force and competitive edge, and we've got to guard the ball."

The Clippers shot 54.8% as a team, led by Paul George, who scored a playoff career-high 41 points on 15-for-20 shooting.

"He got it going," Paul said. "He was getting to his spots, making shots. ... We got to make it tougher on him."

Some of those defensive woes could be attributed to Booker. The Clippers went 10-of-14 on possessions when Booker was the primary defender, scoring 23 points, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. The 10 field goals were the most he has let up in a game these playoffs.

"I think we'll be ready to go for Game 6," Booker said, looking ahead to Wednesday's Game 6. "That's a tough loss for us at home, with a chance to clinch to go to the NBA Finals, so we're going to be ready."

Williams said the Suns have to summon the same type of spirit that carried the Clippers in Game 5 when Phoenix gets a second chance to close things out in two days.

"The desperation has to be there. That's the deal," the coach said. "Just because you have a lead in the series doesn't mean you can show up and they're going to give it to you. We have to understand that, and I think we do now. We will be better when we show up the next time we play."

Williams was asked how he can make sure his group can tap into that desperation the next time it takes the court.

"Getting your butt kicked like that should turn it on," he said.

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Monty Williams says 'desperation has to be there' for Phoenix Suns to close out LA Clippers in Game 6 - ESPN

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Trump Organization Lawyers Meet With Manhattan Prosecutors - The New York Times

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In recent weeks, the investigation has focused largely on the perks Mr. Trump and the company awarded Mr. Weisselberg and other executives, including tens of thousands of dollars in private school tuition for one of Mr. Weisselberg’s grandchildren, as well as rents on apartments and car leases for him and his wife. If Mr. Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on those benefits, he may have violated the law, providing the prosecutors with leverage over him as they seek his cooperation with their broader investigation into the Trump Organization.

The prosecutors, who for months have pressured Mr. Weisselberg to turn on his longtime employer, have examined whether the Trump Organization misstated those benefits in the company’s ledgers and failed to pay payroll taxes on what should have been taxable income. In general, those types of benefits are taxable, although there are some exceptions, and the rules can be murky.

A lawyer for Mr. Weisselberg, Mary E. Mulligan, has declined to comment on the investigation.

Mr. Weisselberg was not the only senior company executive to receive perks. Until 2018, when the company reined in the benefits, the company provided a number of employees with Mercedes-Benz vehicles, according to people familiar with the practice.

Lawyers for Mr. Trump and his company are already preparing to argue that a judge dismiss any indictment, and plan to say that there is no evidence that any employee’s failure to pay taxes benefited the company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

It is unclear whether Mr. Trump will eventually face charges himself. The ongoing investigation into the former president has examined whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of its properties to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits, people with knowledge of the matter have said.

The meeting on Monday was not the first Mr. Trump’s lawyers have had with Mr. Vance’s office in recent days. On Thursday, the lawyers met with senior prosecutors in hopes of halting any plan to charge the company, according to several people familiar with the meeting. That meeting was arranged by Ronald P. Fischetti, a personal lawyer for Mr. Trump. He is a former law partner of Mark F. Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor and defense lawyer whom the district attorney’s office enlisted to help lead the inquiry into Mr. Trump and his business.

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Trump Organization Lawyers Meet With Manhattan Prosecutors - The New York Times

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