City plans to tear down standing portion of Miami condo – National & International News – FRI 2Jul2021

Update on Miami condo collapse. Supreme Court upholds AZ voting restrictions. Worry over China’s Area 51 and ‘incredible’ nuclear expansion. 

NATIONAL NEWS

Standing portion of Miami condo will likely be demolished

Rescue work at the collapsed Miami condo had to be paused for several hours yesterday over fears the rest of the building might collapse. The pause coincided with a visit from President Biden. Engineers on-site had noticed some movement in the concrete slabs still supporting the upstanding portion of the building. City officials are now weighing plans to demolish the rest of the building safely with a minimum impact on the ongoing rescue effort.

The death toll now stands at 20, and no survivors have emerged from the debris since the hours after the collapse last Thursday. 128 people are still unaccounted for. 

Explanations abound 

While we will likely have to wait months or even a year for a definitive answer, more and more information has emerged this week about what caused the collapse. Earlier this week, the husband of a still-missing woman said she called him minutes before the collapse to tell him part of the pool deck had collapsed, leaving a massive sinkhole. Their call was cut off seconds later.

The 2018 engineering report from Morabito Consultants identified flaws in the building’s construction. These included a flat, rather than sloped, concrete footing that caused water to pool on the surface rather than draining away. Making matters worse, the concrete’s waterproofing was in poor shape. This allowed water to seep into the levels below, including the parking garage. The water rusted the rebar in the supports, causing visible “spalling” (or cracks) in the concrete.

In 2019, residents complained that the construction of a high-rise block next door caused the Champlain South Tower to shake violently.

Condo board faces lawsuits, receivership

Records show that the Champlain Towers South Condo Association had been sparring with residents for months over the price of the repairs. In 2018, Morabito Consultants had estimated a total cost of around $9 million. By 2021, this had ballooned to $12 million. This was in part due to rising construction prices, but also reflects the progressive deterioration of the building. The board wanted to take out a $15 million line of credit. This meant condo owners would have to put up about $100,000 each for the repairs.

As the discussions went on, the damage accelerated. In April 2021, condo board president Jean Wodnicki warned residents in a letter that the situation was becoming serious. At the time of the collapse, the board and residents had finally agreed to begin repairs.

The condo board has now entered receivership. A judge appointed an independent party to oversee the board’s financial matters. Five lawsuits have already been filed against the board and more are expected.

Supreme Court upholds AZ voting restrictions, further weakens Voting Rights Act

In a 6-3 vote along ideological lines, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling which barred restrictive Arizona voting laws. Arizona passed the law in question in 2016. The law bans anyone apart from family members or caregivers from delivering ballots from homebound people. Previously, both Democrat and Republican operatives in the state engaged in what is called “ballot harvesting”. But Democratic activists were far more successful at it. The other core provision requires poll workers to discard votes cast in the wrong district.

Neither of these laws at first glance may appear to be overly burdensome. But a federal appeals court had previously found that the restrictions disproportionately affected access to the ballot in minority communities. The second provision is particularly problematic, because polling places tend to shift around more frequently in poor and minority communities, creating confusion among voters.

However, the implications of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling are even more far reaching. The ruling further weakens the Voting Rights Act by raising the bar on what constitutes discriminatory voting legislation. According to Prof. Rick Hasen of UC Irvine, “Minority groups will now have to meet a much higher standard beyond showing that a change presents a burden to voting. It puts a thumb on the scale for the states”. This new precedent will unquestionably make it more difficult to challenge post-2020 voter restriction laws in red states.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Chinese desert military constructions raise alarm

At celebrations of the Chinese Communist Party’s 100th anniversary this week, Premier Xi Jinping sounded a warning to the West. Xi warned that any country seeking to “bully” China “will have their heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel forged by 1.4 billion people”. He continued, “We have never bullied, oppressed, or subjugated the people of any other country, and we never will. By the same token, we will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us”.

This bit of saber rattling aside, China is increasingly eager to flex its military muscle on land, at sea, in the air and even in space. China’s increasingly militant posture has caused concern both among its neighbors and in the West.

This week, satellite imagery has surfaced showing about 100 missile silos under construction in a remote Chinese desert. The “silos” are in the vicinity of a rapidly constructed complex that includes underground bunkers, cable trenches, roads and a small military base. The installation of the silos seems to indicate what experts have deemed an “incredible” expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities.

China’s Area 51

Another set of satellite images shows new construction around a three-mile long runway, which first sprang up “overnight” in 2016. The new construction includes about a dozen large concrete buildings. The site has drawn comparisons with “Area 51” in the US, since experts speculate that China is experimenting with top-secret space planes here. 

No images of these planes have ever surfaced. However, astronomer Jonathan McDowell says these may be similar to shuttles used in the NASA space program, but are probably much smaller. “It’s certainly not, I would say, big enough to fly people,” McDowell said.

It’s not clear from current reporting whether the two facilities mentioned are part of the same complex, or whether they are adjacent to one another. They are both said to be near to China’s old nuclear testing grounds between the Gansu and Xinjiang provices.