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(NEW YORK) — A tentative $83 million settlement has been reached in a punitive class action lawsuit brought by victims affected by the Surfside building that partially collapsed in South Florida last June, court filings show.
The lawsuit was filed against several groups and individuals, including companies that developed and maintained the property, the company responsible for the construction of the building, and engineers and inspectors of the building.
Ninety-eight people were killed in the collapse when the South Tower suffered a “catastrophic failure,” according to court documents.
While 55 condominium units were immediately destroyed, the remainder of the building, which had 136 units, had to be demolished, documents show.
The agreement provides for an $83 million Common Fund to be paid to unit owners as compensations for condominiums and contents; in exchange, unit owners will be relieved from any liability for injury and wrongful death claims, according to court documents.
Each unit owner will be paid a proportionate share of the funds based on their ownership share of the condominium, court documents show.
Once the agreement is finalized and can no longer be appealed, the victims will receive $50 million out of the first $100 million that is recovered from groups responsible for the building. The remaining $33 million of the settlement will be paid out of the money that’s first recovered after that $100 million, according to the court filing.
“All other funds recovered will inure solely for the benefit of the wrongful death claimants,” according to a court filing.
Morabito Consultants, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, said in a statement that it “denies that it is, in any way, liable for the collapse or the resulting damages.”
“But we also firmly believe that the families who have suffered from this tragedy deserve compensation so that they may focus on healing,” it added.
In a statement Tuesday to NBC 6, Becker & Poliakoff, which represents the condo association, said it “continues to deny that it is in any way responsible for the collapse… (and) this settlement is not a finding of fault against Becker…. We are pleased this matter was quickly resolved and sincerely hope the insurance settlement will bring some relief to those impacted by this terrible tragedy.”
The court will hold a final approval hearing for the agreement on March 30. Any objections to the agreement must be submitted to the court by March 23.
The exhibition, located at the Freehold Fire Department building on Main Street, is expected to open in 2024 and will include artifacts and photographs, as well as film, concert footage and interviews from the Jersey rock legend’s life and career, according to Variety.
“Everything I learned of deep importance, I learned in this town,” said Springsteen, adding, “I had all the usual joy and heartbreak of growing up in a small town like this, and the minute the opportunity arose, I got the hell out.”
Springsteen called the firehouse “the coolest building in town,” adding that “it feels bizarre, I sat three blocks from here, came up with a few songs about things that I liked and the idea that 50 years later anybody was going to be interested in it at all, I mean what are the odds, folks? They are very small.”
Bruce, who currently lives just 15 minutes away in Colts Neck, concluded by saying, “I come to town very, very often. I’ll be sitting in Federicis or I’ll just drive through on my own — I still do all the time. So, I’m watching you. It’s been wonderful having this town as the center of my art and my life. I look forward to doing that until they put me in a box.”
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(NEW YORK) — Baseball fans will have to go yet another week without watching their favorite teams take the field.
After two days at the negotiating table, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
As a result, the league announced on Wednesday that it was scrapping a second week of games, pushing Opening Day until April 14. In total, each team will be missing out on the first four series of the regular season.
The biggest obstacle during the latest round of talks appeared to be on a proposed international draft.
“In a last-ditch effort to preserve a 162-game season, this week we have made good-faith proposals that address the specific concerns voiced by the MLBPA and would have allowed the players to return to the field immediately,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “The Clubs went to extraordinary lengths to meet the substantial demands of the MLBPA. On the key economic issues that have posed stumbling blocks, the Clubs proposed ways to bridge gaps to preserve a full schedule. Regrettably, after our second late-night bargaining session in a week, we remain without a deal.”
“Because of the logistical realities of the calendar, another two series are being removed from the schedule, meaning that Opening Day is postponed until April 14th,” Manfred continued. “We worked hard to reach an agreement and offered a fair deal with significant improvements for the players and our fans. I am saddened by this situation’s continued impact on our game and all those who are a part of it, especially our loyal fans.”
(NEW YORK) — Despite being among the first eligible for COVID-19 booster shots, many nursing homes are struggling to boost residents and staff, experts say.
Nationally, about 72% of residents are boosted in each nursing home, according to data from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
But in about one-third of U.S. states, booster rates for residents are less than the national average among nursing homes, and three states have yet to crack an average of 60% of residents boosted in each facility.
Booster shots have been shown to be more protective against omicron and other COVID-19 variants. And nursing home residents continue to be among the most vulnerable people in terms of potential for severe illness and death — nearly 151,000 people in nursing homes have died since the beginning of the pandemic, CMS data shows.
While significantly higher than the 44% of Americans who have received a booster, experts say levels in nursing homes are lower than they’d like to see. Ideally, they should match the rate of vaccination — currently 87% of residents fully vaccinated per facility.
When it comes to booster uptake among nursing home staff members, the numbers are even lower than residents.
Only about 39% of staff members per facility have received booster shots, the CMS data shows, and more than half of states have rates below the national average of nursing homes.
“People may feel like, ‘Well, you got two shots and there’s no value’ or even ‘You had two shots and you had COVID already,'” Dr. Cindy Prins, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, told ABC News. “I think we need to remember that our immunity can wane, especially in our older folks, and they need to keep getting that renewed protection and the booster will give them that.”
In three states, less than 60% of nursing residents are boosted on average
It’s well known that nursing home residents are among the highest at risk for severe COVID-19 complications due to their ages, likelihood of underlying conditions and the fact that they live in congregate settings.
“The other caveat to understand is that, in those that are over the age 65, sometimes it’s a little more difficult for them to develop responses to vaccines,” so getting a booster helps them mount an immune response, Dr. Katherine Baumgarten, medical director for infection prevention at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, told ABC News.
Yet some nursing homes have been struggling to boost their residents. In three states — Florida, Arizona and Nevada — not even 60% of residents per facility on average have been boosted.
Florida has the lowest rate in the country at about 55%. By comparison, South Dakota has the highest rate at 87.56%.
The Florida Department of Health did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment on why rates are low.
“It’s absolutely something to be concerned about. That’s unacceptable,” Dr. David Grabowski, a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News. “With omicron and with potential new variants, having the most vulnerable individuals — these residents in nursing homes that have been the hardest hit by the pandemic — to have them not fully protected is really unfortunate.”
A February 2022 preprint study from France found nursing home residents who received a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had high levels of neutralizing antibodies against infection from the delta and omicron variants for at least three months.
Prins said she believes part of the reason booster uptake is low among the resident population in some states is because boosters were not promoted as much as the initial vaccines.
“In Florida, the initial vaccines were very much promoted for our older population,” she said. “It was very strongly put out there that seniors were first and they were going to get vaccinated.”
Prins continued, “But I didn’t see that same messaging with the booster. We haven’t placed the same emphasis on it at the state level that we did with that initial vaccine campaign for seniors.”
There are other theories for why the booster rate among nursing homes residents is lower than public health experts would like it to be.
Grabowski said the initial vaccine rollout was centralized, with the federal government partnering with CVS and Walgreens to distribute the shots to nursing homes.
“When it came time to do the booster rollout, this was really left up to the nursing homes to handle the booster clinics,” he said. “They do a flu vaccine every year for staff and residents and there was some thought that they could do this. Some did but there was also some really slow rollout that highlighted the haves and have nots across nursing homes.”
Grabowski continued, “Nursing homes were dealing with a lot during that period, and this was not something that was prioritized in those facilities and we’ve seen those low rates.”
Booster rollout has been slow among staff
Experts say it’s not just the elderly population in nursing homes who have been slow to get boosted — it’s also staff members.
According to CMS data, 12 states don’t even have an average of 30% of staff with boosters per facility. Florida is once again the state with the lowest rate at 24.52% while California has the highest rate at 68.58%.
Prins said it is possible the low booster rates for nursing home staff are partially due to many being ineligible for a third dose because they completed their vaccine series less than five months ago.
But she believes “that does not cover the extent of that lower booster rate” and said the low numbers are “concerning.”
“When you have this kind of facility, the virus gets brought in obviously, and it’s coming in with the people who are most mobile and most often there and that’s going to be your staff members,” Prins said. “[The low number] is absolutely a worry because that puts residents at high risk.”
Since the omicron wave, weekly cases and deaths in nursing homes have declined drastically. However, during the week ending Feb. 20, 2022, there were 620 resident deaths, the highest number since the week ending Jan. 2.
Mandates may be the only way to increase booster rates
The experts say there are a few ways to try and drive booster rates up in nursing homes.
Grabowski said for residents, it would help for the booster rollout to be more centralized with clinics set up by the federal government rather than left up to individual facilities.
However, he believes it will take mandates for booster rates among staff to rise dramatically. As of Tuesday, five states require COVID boosters for nursing home workers: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico and New York.
“The mandates are important here,” he said. ‘I think with boosters, with staff, it’s probably going to take mandates to make sure they go forward with the booster.”
The doctors add that, in addition, it could help to do sit-downs with small groups of nursing home staff to address their concerns and explain why boosters are beneficial. Baumgarten suggested this could include dispelling the ideas that boosters are ineffective or that they don’t reduce the risk of breakthrough infections.
“Nursing homes are a vulnerable population and we want to protect those who are vulnerable,” she said. “Everything that we can do to prevent them from being exposed or at risk for developing COVID important for us to do. If it’s simple enough to get a booster — which it is, they’re readily available, side effects are minimal — we should do that to help protect those around us.”
(NEW YORK) — Jack Petocz, a student activist in Florida, led his peers on a school walkout last week in protest of what many call the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which was passed by the state legislature on Tuesday.
The Florida bill would limit what educators in the state can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity inside some classrooms.
Under this legislation, these lessons “may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” The bill is now headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.
“Queer people aren’t inherently not age-appropriate,” Petocz told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “Our existence fosters a more inclusive environment.”
What started as a peaceful way for young people to rally against the bill turned into a school suspension for Petocz. He said that just before the protest was about to start, he was pulled to the side by administrators voicing their opposition against students waving the pride flags that Petocz had purchased on his own for the event.
“My school district tried to prevent us from giving out pride flags and distributing them,” Petocz said. “I resisted, and I told students to not give up their pride flags, because they’re a symbol of our identity. They’re a symbol of acceptance and embrace of our queerness.”
Petocz said at least a dozen schools participated in walk-outs. Protests have also taken place across the state in the form of written letter campaigns, petitions and rallies.
Activists across the state and nation are making final pleas to DeSantis before he decides whether or not to sign the bill into law.
DeSantis has signaled his support for the bill but has not yet said whether he will sign it. Supporters of the bill say they want parents to have more control over what is being taught in the classroom.
“I call on Gov. DeSantis to have a meeting with me before he signs this into law to hear a firsthand account of how this bill will affect my community,” Petocz said.
Rep. Joe Harding, the bill’s sponsor, told ABC News, “Families are families. Let the families be families. The school district doesn’t need to insert themselves at that point when children are still learning how to read and do basic math.”
But for many of these students, political measures like these are personal attacks, according to Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). Over 21% of Generation Z identifies with the LGBTQ community, a recent Gallup poll found.
“It’s becoming a war zone for them,” Ellis said in an interview with ABC News Live on Wednesday morning.
“Why are we even discussing this?” Ellis asked. “What this does at the end of the day is politicize LGBTQ people who just want to go to school, learn how to read and write, and every now and then want to see their families represented as well.”
Ellis, who is gay, is a mother to young children and told ABC News that children’s books with two moms were her children’s favorite stories to read growing up. She said that this bill would prevent children with LGBTQ parents from being able to relate lessons to their own lives at home.
She pointed to other anti-LGBTQ bills that have been proposed this year, calling it a “coordinated effort” by conservative legislators. Bills targeting the community have popped up in other iterations — including bans against gender-affirming care for trans youth being proposed in Idaho and Alabama and bans on trans participation in women’s sports in Iowa and Indiana.
“These politicians are taking this opportunity to raise money for themselves and using our children and classrooms to create divisions,” Ellis said.
Equality Florida, a local organization that has been organizing many of the protests against the bill, said that it will “not allow this bill to harm LGBTQ Floridians.” The organization argues that removing LGBTQ content from classrooms creates an environment of exclusion and oppression against queer youth.
“Lawmakers rejected the voices of tens of thousands who sent emails and made phone calls asking for them to put a stop to this bill, thousands of courageous students who walked out of class, hundreds of people who testified before their bodies, dozens of child welfare organizations and leaders who spoke up to name the harms of the bill and their own Republican colleagues who refused to support it,” the organization said in a statement.
“Instead, they locked arms with the angry mobs hurling anti-LGBTQ slurs at those asking for nothing more than a safe place to go to school without having to hide who they are,” the statement read. “Our fight for full equality continues.”
Carrie Underwood is 39 and feeling fine. The singer celebrated her birthday on Thursday surrounded by her family, husband Mike Fisher and sons Jacob and Isaiah.
For Mike, it wasn’t too hard to top his birthday present to his wife from last year: He flexed his dad humor for her 38th birthday, giving her a t-shirt that read “I Don’t Need Google, My Husband Knows Everything.”
Unsurprisingly, Carrie hasn’t been spotted on any red carpets wearing the shirt, but she did pose for a birthday photo in it, smiling for the camera.
Mike did a little better for Carrie’s 29th birthday back in 2012, when he threw her an ‘80s-themed party to celebrate her birth year: 1983. But when she turned 30, Carrie decided against moving into a new decade: Instead, she joked to CMT, it was “the first anniversary of her 29th birthday.”
Of course, there were some parts of her birthday that she didn’t mind hanging onto. “I’ll still, like, blow out candles and stuff, because I want my wish, but it’s not a birthday,” Carrie added.
By that logic, it’s a pretty safe bet that Carrie is enjoying a birthday cake this year. Over the course of her recent birthdays, she seems to have warmed up to the idea of being in her 30s. All bets are off for next year, though, when the country star will turn the big 4-0.
Yungblud‘s “Funeral” is looking to be pretty metal.
Earlier this week, the U.K. rocker announced he’d be releasing a new song called “The Funeral” this Friday, March 11. Now, in an Instagram post, Yungblud is teasing the track’s video, which will apparently feature the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.
The post includes a clip of Yungblud palling around with Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne during the video shoot. In the caption, Yungblud writes, “Bringin some mates to my funeral,” while tagging Ozzy and Sharon, as well as their daughter, Kelly Osbourne.
“The Funeral” follows Yungblud’s 2021 single “Fleabag,” which currently sits in the top 10 on Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart. Yungblud’s most recent album is his 2020 sophomore effort, Weird!
Johnny Nunez/2021 BET Hip Hop Awards/Getty Images for BET
NOTE LANGUAGE) In honor of the upcoming South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival on March 17, Billboard featured Atlanta duo Young Thug and Gunna on the cover of its March 12 issue.
The rap duo is set to perform at the entertainment festival and after recently collaborating on one of the hottest hip-hop anthems of today, “Pushin P,” the upcoming performance seems to fall right in line with the crazy success the two have had.
Since meeting in 2015, the dynamic duo has been almost inseparable. Young Thug says it was the fact that Gunna wasn’t really star-struck upon meeting him, that made him sign the College Park rapper to his Young Stoner Life label.
“He was quiet, cool, a chill n**** that wasn’t trying to do too much. Just chilling back and relaxing. That’s how we really got super close, though: It just took nights in the studio…” Thug said.
Elsewhere in the interview, the rappers conversed with Billboard about fatherhood, fashion, Atlanta hip-hop culture, the “Pushin P” movement and more.
“We were ‘Pushin P’ before the song got made. Atlanta was already ‘Pushin P’ before the song came out,” Gunna said.
The cultural phrase can be interpreted as a lifestyle, as Gunna previously told Vibe: “It’s like anything you’re doing that’s positive or just player…or just anything you can just think of that’s cool.”
While both Gunna and Young Thug are currently at the top of the music game, Young Thug hints he may already be thinking of retirement. “I got kids that gonna need more attention from me in 10 years,” the father of six said.
“I don’t want him to stop no time soon,” Gunna emphasized.
Lady Gaga and her Born This Way Foundation have launched a new resource for young people on their mental health journey.
Gaga and Born This Way have teamed up with Canadian charity Jack.org to offer the Be There Certificate, a free online mental health course for youth and youth advocates. The course is designed to teach people how to recognize when someone might be struggling and learn ways to be a support.
In a video message announcing the course on social media, Gaga laid out the “five golden rules of how to safely be there for someone.”
“Number one: Say what you see. Number two: Show you care. Number three: Hear them out. Number four: Know your role. Number five: Connect to help, kindly and safely,” Gaga says.
HARDY accepted his Songwriter of the Year trophy at the ACM Awards on Monday night, and he made sure to thank all the artists who’ve helped him get to where he is today: Dierks Bentley, Morgan Wallen and Thomas Rhett, to name a few.
“There have been so many,” HARDY emphasized. But the very first people to take a chance on him were Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, as country duo Florida Georgia Line.
“I was nobody then, I truly was. I had nothing going on,” he remembers. “I was writing songs, but they were the ones who were like, ‘You’re doing something cool.’”
But it was another sentiment HARDY had to share about FGL that made press do a double take backstage at the ACMs: “It started with FGL. RIP,” he said.
Sure, the superstar duo announced recently that they’re taking a break, but “RIP”? They haven’t shared anything that final about their status as a group with the public. Of course, it’s possible HARDY could have just been making an offhand comment about their break — but it could also be the case that he knows something we don’t about FGL’s plans, or lack thereof, for an eventual return.
After all, as HARDY says, he and the guys from FGL are close. He’s written many songs for them and is a guest vocalist on “Y’all Boys,” off their 2019 Can’t Say I Ain’t Country album.
Whatever might be in the future for FGL, it seems likely that HARDY’s star will continue to rise. Not only is he an increasingly hot artist himself, he’s also continued to write for other country stars’ projects, and has become so in-demand that it feels “surreal,” he says.
HARDY released his full-length debut, A Rock, in September 2020.
