Weds - How Swede It Is! It is E-Fin' Great!

--------------
Today's Worst Joke in the World

Of course I'm an organ donor!  Who wouldn't want a piece of this?
--------------
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

We All Knew She Would Back Out.

An attorney representing Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is pushing back on a request from the House Jan. 6 committee for her testimony.

In an eight-page letter to the committee, obtained by NBC News Wednesday, Ginni Thomas' lawyer, Mark R. Paoletta, argued that he has not seen any reason for her to testify and asked the panel to provide a “better justification” for his client’s testimony.

"Mrs. Thomas is eager to clear her name and is willing to appear before the Committee to do so," he wrote in the letter, dated Tuesday. "However, based on my understanding of the communications that spurred the Committee’s request, I do not understand the need to speak with Mrs. Thomas. Before I can recommend that she meet with you, I am asking the Committee to provide a better justification for why Mrs. Thomas’s testimony is relevant to the Committee’s legislative purpose."

Paoletta said that emails between Thomas and John Eastman, the former Trump lawyer who wrote memos arguing then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election, which Eastman shared with the committee, provide “no basis” to interview Thomas.

Eastman Gives Up a Little

John Eastman, the former Trump lawyer who wrote memos arguing then-Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election, has dropped his lawsuit that tried to block the House Jan. 6 committee from getting his call logs.

Eastman's lawyers said in a filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday night that he brought this lawsuit primarily to protect the content of his communications, many of which are privileged," but the committee made clear "that they were not seeking the content" of Eastman's communications, only the call logs from his carrier, Verizon.

The decision to drop the lawsuit came after Eastman said in a separate court filing Monday that federal agents seized his phone last week.

The QOP Responds to Yesterday's Hearing

On Wednesday morning, Republicans are rushing forward with unnamed sources to claim that both Security Chief Bobby Engel and other members of Trump’s Secret Service team are ready to testify that Trump didn’t grab the wheel of the presidential limo, or assault Engel.



However, there’s absolutely no doubt that the House select committee would not have put Hutchinson’s testimony before the public if they did not already have corroboration of everything she said. Rep. Bernie Thompson would not risk the reputation of the investigation on unsupported testimony. None of the members of the committee—several of whom have ambitions that go beyond their current position—would risk their political futures on being tied to testimony that could be readily knocked down.

Hutchinson testified she was told about the events in the limo by White House Chief of Operations Anthony Ornato, and it’s a good bet that the committee already has Ornato agreeing to that story.

The more interesting thing about the Republican response to Hutchinson’s testimony is just how specific that response has been. They’ve zeroed in on just a few seconds in that limo, because that’s the only part where Hutchinson wasn’t actually present. The only part where they can bring it back to something … vague. Something with the rage and ugliness stripped away. Maybe they can get Engel or some Secret Service agents to say Trump didn’t actually put his hands on the wheel. Maybe they can find someone who will use a term other than “lunged.” Maybe they’ll say that his efforts to get to the Capitol fell short of “assault.” Maybe.

But none of those Trump apologists seem to be going after the statements that Hutchinson made concerning her own direct experience. None of them are hurrying to have House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sit down to testify about the phone call he made to Hutchinson while Trump was on stage at the rally on the Ellipse. None of them are encouraging Pat Cipollone to step forward and explain why he and so many others did not want Trump going to the Capitol. None of them are telling Mark Meadows to get up there and explain how his former aide is wrong. None of them are challenging Hutchinson about the observations she personally made, day after day, both before and after the election.



It's Not a Brilliant Question.  Lots of People Are Asking It.  And What Was He Planning on Doing If He Got There?  A Beer Hall Putsch?

Carl Bernstein, who of course helped unravel Watergate, asks a simple but brilliant question:

‘Why was Donald Trump so intent on getting to the Capitol? Why did he want to be there with all those armed people?’



Does Anyone Really Believe Previous Guy Reads Transcripts?



All In All, It's Just Another Brick in the Wall

I don’t think any new crimes were proven today, but the Committee filled in some important details. Their job is to tell the whole story, not to prove crimes.

And they are raising important questions for prosecutors to ask. What did Cipollone mean when he said going to the Capitol would result in criminal charges? Why did Meadows seem unsurprised by the weapons and Trump’s refusal to call off the mob? Why did Trump want to go there?

And don’t be distracted by the controversy over whether Trump did or did not grab the steering wheel. Just like throwing his food, it Is a juicy fact, but not important to the plot line.

DOJ can put all these people in the grand jury and grant immunity where necessary to find out whether Trump was coordinating with Proud Boys or Oath Keepers to use force to stop the count. If so, it may be possible to charge him with seditious conspiracy.

But even if not, there already appears to be strong evidence of conspiracy to defraud the United States or obstruction of an official proceeding based on Trump’s acts toward Pence and Raffensperger.

As a former boss used to say, a brick is not a wall. That is, no one piece of evidence makes the whole case. And therefore, one piece of evidence should not be discounted for failing to make the whole case. Each brick is important to the whole. J6C added another brick today.





--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

Best Invention in the World or the Worst?  I Think the Benefits FAR Outweigh the Negatives

It was 15 years ago today that Apple released the most successful product in the history of technology. It is not an overstatement to say that the iPhone changed the world. It changed the way we interact with each other, how we work, how we play, and how we entertain ourselves. That doesn't mean it doesn't have a big problem, however. We'll get to that in a minute.

Good for the Pocket Book

An Uber driver said she ditched her Toyota for a Tesla because her Camry cost $600 a week to fuel compared with $450 for renting and charging a Model 3.

Heidi Barnes, 34, told Bloomberg her Model 3 cost $450 a week once charging costs were added to the $344-a-week lease deal, representing a $150-a-week saving on the Camry's fuel costs alone.

Fuel prices have been rising globally, in part due to the war in Ukraine, and US prices have also been impacted by falling levels of domestic oil production. The average price of gas surged above $5 a gallon in June, according to the American Automobile Association.

Barnes told Bloomberg that a full tank of gas for her Camry had shot up from $60 to $100. She added: "It was a huge push to get in a Tesla sooner rather than later."

The number of Uber drivers using Teslas rose by 186% between June 2021 and May 2022, Bloomberg reported, citing statistics from Gridwise.

Uber drivers who have completed more than 150 trips and have a rating of at least 4.7 out of 5 can lease a Tesla for $334 a week, including insurance, maintenance, and unlimited miles, as part of a deal the firm signed with the rental company Hertz in October 2021.

And Good for the Environment

Following protracted, hard-fought talks, the European Union's 27 countries reached a deal Wednesday to back stricter climate rules that would eliminate carbon emissions from new cars by 2035.

The EU member nations came to an agreement on draft legislation aimed at slashing the bloc's greenhouse gases by at least 55% in 2030 compared with 1990 levels, rather than by a previously agreed 40%.

“A long but good day for climate action: The council’s decisions on Fitfor55 are a big step towards delivering the EU Green Deal," Frans Timmermans, the European Commission vice president in charge of the Green Deal, said after the meeting of environment ministers in Luxembourg.

The agreement on the five laws proposed by the EU's executive arm last year paves the way for final negotiations with the European Parliament. EU lawmakers are backing ambitious bloc-wide targets. Final approval of the legislative package requires the EU-wide parliament to resolve differences with the bloc’s national governments over various details.

“The council is now ready to negotiate with the European Parliament on concluding the package, thereby placing the European Union more than ever in the vanguard of fighting climate change," said Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the French minister for energy transition.

The decision to introduce a 100% CO2 emissions reduction target by 2035 for new cars and vans would in effect prohibit the sale in the 27-nation bloc of new cars powered by gasoline or diesel.
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences

Day 126

Fighting

A Russian missile strike killed three people and injured five in the port city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday morning, local authorities said, a day after strikes killed three people including a six-year-old girl in nearby Ochakiv.

There is a real possibility Russia’s missile that hit a crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk and killed at least 18 people was intended for a nearby target, the British defence ministry said.

Russia-installed officials in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region said their security forces had arrested Kherson city mayor Ihor Kolykhayev on Tuesday after he refused to follow Moscow’s orders, while a Kherson local official said the mayor was abducted.

A referendum for the mostly occupied Donetsk region to be absorbed into Russia will be held on September 11, the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol said.

Diplomacy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is a “terrorist” and called for Russia to be expelled from the United Nations.

Western sanctions against Russia will only end when Putin accepts that his plans in Ukraine will not succeed, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

Turkey has lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the Western alliance after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Russia could not be allowed to win the war and Western powers will support Kyiv for as long as necessary.

Economy

The Group of Seven economic powers agreed to explore measures to impose a price cap on Russian oil imports.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has added five companies in China to a trade blacklist for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defence industrial base.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan will provide an additional $100m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Canada will provide an additional 151.7 million Canadian dollars ($118m) to Ukraine for humanitarian, development and security support, according to a statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.

How Swede It Is! It is E-Fin' Great!

Turkey has lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, ending a weeks-long dispute that tested the unity of the alliance against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The breakthrough on Tuesday came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid, and allows the gathering of 30 leaders in the Spanish capital to show a united front against Moscow, and start the process of Finland and Sweden’s inclusion in the alliance in earnest.

The announcement of an agreement cements the biggest shift in European security in decades, as the Nordic countries abandon their decades-long neutrality to enter the military alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the terms of the deal involved Sweden intensifying work on Turkish extradition requests of suspected fighters and amending Swedish and Finnish law to toughen their approach to them.

Stoltenberg also said that Sweden and Finland would lift their restrictions on selling weapons to Turkey.

Closing the Circle



With an 830-mile border with Russia, Finland nearly completes NATO’s encirclement of western Russia. It, along with Sweden, boasts some of the most capable air and ground forces in Europe. Russia blustered and threatened, but in the end, what can it do? In fact, all that empty blustering just further underscores how pathetic Russia has become.

All that is already catastrophically bad for Russia, but it gets even worse.

After 50 years of “negotiations” over Russia’s occupation of the Kuril Islands, those efforts were abandoned at the start of the war (and they were going so well!). After decades of trying to play nice, Japan declared the islands “illegally occupied” and is ramping up anti-Russian rhetoric. With Russia’s military depleted in Ukraine, Russia now has to worry about an angry neighbor on its Pacific flank. Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea are both attending the NATO summit in Madrid this week—a sign of greater integration between the Western alliance and Asia’s most economically powerful democracies. For Japan, particularly, this is a watershed moment given its constitutionally mandated pacifism. And while a NATO with Japan in it is unlikely for various reasons, even tighter integration has to be driving Putin crazy.

Lysychansk

Meanwhile, back in Ukraine, rumors abound that Ukraine will be abandoning Lysychansk for more defensible positions to the west. It makes military sense:

Lysychansk is squeezed into a little pocket with sketchy supply lines. Its location deep into a salient limits artillery support. But if Ukraine withdraws to the well-prepared defensive line between Sivers’k and Bakhmut (marked on the map by the red line), artillery (inducing HIMARS rocket artillery) can roam relatively safely right behind those lines, striking Russian artillery and ammo depots deep behind Russian lines. It also forces Russia to begin extending its supply lines, something it still struggles to do. Look at that Izyum salient northwest of Slovyansk—it has barely budged in months.

Indeed, if some Russian sources could be believed (like the infamous Igor Gerkin), Russia may call a pause after claiming Lysychansk, and with it, the entire Luhansk oblast. Putin gets a propaganda victory to wave at the home crowd while giving his exhausted forces time to catch their breath and reconstitute.

A Lysychansk withdrawal would be unfortunate since it is a very defensible city, but it serves little strategic value.

Another Russian Ammunition Depot Blows.



How Do You Cheer About Blowing Up a Shopping Mall?  Not Even Abercrombie & Fitch Deserve That.



She Really Didn't Care

Stephanie Grisham, who was Melania Trump’s chief of staff at the time, revealed a text message exchange she allegedly had with Melania Trump that day:



Jim Jordan Replies to the Coup Hearing and Gets a Lesson in Hearsay












Cancun Cruz Gets Into It With a Puppet --- AGAIN!

Young Muppet Elmo proudly got his coronavirus vaccine, weeks after the United States made the shots widely available for children under 5.

The furry red Sesame Street resident, who has been 3½ years old since 1984, acknowledged in his signature falsetto voice that there was “a little pinch, but it was okay.” His Muppet father, Louie, told Elmo, who was wearing a green bandage on his arm, that he was “super-duper” while getting his shot.

“I had a lot of questions about Elmo getting the covid vaccine. Was it safe? Was it the right decision? I talked to our pediatrician so I could make the right choice,” Louie says to the camera in a clip shared online Tuesday. “I learned that Elmo getting vaccinated is the best way to keep himself, our friends, neighbors and everyone else healthy and enjoying the things they love,” he adds, before hugging Elmo.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) shared the clip on Twitter — and blasted the popular PBS/HBO children’s show for allowing Elmo to “aggressively advocate for vaccinating children UNDER 5.” He added: “You cite ZERO scientific evidence for this.”

This isn’t the first time Cruz has had a run-in with a high-profile Sesame Street star. He criticized Big Bird last year, when the yellow-feathered creature got his coronavirus shot — a rift that led to a “Saturday Night Live” parody.

“My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy,” Big Bird, age 6, said after his shot. Cruz tweeted that the act was “government propaganda.”  (Actually I Agree With Cruz.  There is No Scientific Evidence That Vaccinating Puppets Protects Them From COVID.)

Always the Low Morals.  Always.

Walmart let criminals use its money transfer services to scam consumers out of hundreds of millions of dollars while collecting fees on the transactions, the Federal Trade Commission alleged Tuesday in filing a lawsuit against the nation's biggest retailer.

Walmart for years turned a blind eye while scammers exploited its failure to properly secure the money transfer services offered at the company's stores, the agency said in announcing the suit. The company did not adequately train its employees, failed to warn customers and used procedures that allowed fraudsters to cash out at its stores, the FTC said in its complaint.

Previous law enforcement investigations have found that Walmart money transfers are a common vehicle for criminals to cash out in a range of telemarketing schemes, according to the civil complaint. From 2013 to 2018, more than $197 million in payments that were the subject of fraud complaints were sent or received at Walmart, with more than $1.3 billion in related payments possibly connected to the fraud, said the FTC, citing data from MoneyGram, Western Union and Ria.

The FTC is asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and to impose civil penalties for the violations.

"While scammers used its money transfer services to make off with cash, Walmart looked the other way and pocketed millions in fees," Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "Consumers have lost hundreds of millions, and the commission is holding Walmart accountable for letting fraudsters fleece its customers."
--------------
If You Want to Rock and Roll All Night and Party Every Day, Don't Do It At An Airbnb

Airbnb has permanently banned parties and events at homes on its platform, after a temporary measure during the pandemic proved popular with hosts.

The firm says the rule has become "much more than a public health measure" since it was introduced in August 2020.

"It developed into a bedrock community policy to support our hosts and their neighbours," the San Francisco-headquartered firm said.

However, it also removed a limit on how many people can stay at homes.

Airbnb said in a statement that the number of complaints about parties dropped by 44% since the measure was first introduced.

Exceptions to the global ban may be made for "specialty and traditional hospitality venues" in the future, it added.


--------------
I Thought I Was Old

Fossilised remains belonging to some of humanity's oldest ancestors are far older than scientists had originally thought, new research says.

The fossils, including one belonging to ancient cave woman Mrs Ples, were buried for millennia in South African caves known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Modern testing methods now suggest the group of early humans roamed the earth between 3.4 and 3.7 million years ago.

This new timeline could reshape common understandings of human evolution.

It means there are now more possible ways by which our ancestors could have evolved into early humans.

For years scientists believed the Australopithecus africanus species, whose fossils were discovered in the Sterkfontein caves near Johannesburg, had been less than 2.6 million years old.
--------------
Roe and Islam

Sumayyah Waheed describes her current mindset as one of “grim determination”.

That is a change from the sense of devastation that Waheed, senior policy counsel at US civil rights group Muslim Advocates, says she felt when the United States Supreme Court last week ended the constitutionally-protected right to abortion in the country.

“This ruling empowers the religious right to continue to pursue policies that basically establish their religious positions into law,” Waheed told Al Jazeera. “That is a complete violation of anyone who doesn’t feel that way, particularly religious minorities.”

There is no single stance on the issue of abortion in Islam. Islamic law and Islamic scholars offer a range of perspectives, from prohibition unless the health of a mother is at risk to allowing abortion up to 120 days of pregnancy.

“These different rules come from varying interpretations of Quranic verses describing the divine ensoulment of a fetus. This is not unusual. Varying opinions exist on nearly every Islamic legal rule and Muslims are accustomed to this diversity,” Asifa Quraishi-Landes, a professor of modern Islamic constitutional theory at the University of Wisconsin Law School, recently explained.

“Because there is no Islamic ‘church’ or even formal clergy, Muslims simply select whichever Sharia school of thought they want to follow. That means it is normal for some Muslims to oppose abortion while others insist on its legitimacy,” said Quraishi-Landes, who is also an interim co-executive director of Muslim Advocates.
--------------
When Growlers Attack, the Cruise Ship Industry Can't Catch a Break.  

The cruise ship Norwegian Sun hit a piece of an iceberg on Saturday, sustaining damage to its starboard bow, according to a statement from the US Coast Guard (USCG).

A member from the Coast Guard Sector Juneau Prevention Team and contracted divers assessed damage to the right front side and determined the ship was seaworthy to go back to Seattle, its home port, for repairs, the release states.

There were no injuries, according to the USCG.

The ship was making its way to the Hubbard Glacier in Alaska when it hit a "growler," according to a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL).

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says an iceberg has to be greater than 16 feet above sea level and 98 to 164 feet thick -- the smaller pieces of floating ice are considered "growlers" or "bergy bits."

After impact, the ship sailed to Juneau, the capital of Alaska, to be further assessed. The decision was made to shorten the current voyage and cancel the cruise scheduled to begin on June 30 so repairs could be made, NCL said.

The ship was cleared to return at a reduced speed to Seattle where all guests that are on board will disembark as planned, NCL added.
--------------
If People Get Depressed in a Depression, Do They Get Recessed in a Recession?

The US economy shrank at a slightly faster rate than previously estimated during the first quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Wednesday.

With one quarter of negative economic growth in the books, the data adds to fears that a recession may be looming.

Real gross domestic product declined at an annualized rate of 1.6% from January to March, according to the BEA’s third and final revisions for the quarter.

Previously, the advance estimate released in April showed a contraction of 1.4%. Last month, that was revised to a decrease of 1.5%.

The first quarter GDP performance, which the BEA noted includes some unquantified effects from the pandemic and the Omicron variant surge, stood in contrast to the fourth quarter of 2021, when the economy grew at a rate of 6.9% from the prior quarter.

The first quarter of 2022, however, marked the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which sent economic shockwaves throughout the global supply chain, as well as the food, finance and energy markets.
--------------
Can Congress Do Anything About Out-Of-Control SCOTUS?  Yes.  

Congress may define the jurisdiction of the judiciary through the simultaneous use of two powers.  First, Congress holds the power to create (and, implicitly, to define the jurisdiction of) federal courts inferior to the Supreme Court (i.e. Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and various other Article I and Article III tribunals). This court-creating power is granted both in the congressional powers clause (Art. I, § 8, Cl. 9) and in the judicial vesting clause (Art. III, § 1). Second, Congress has the power to make exceptions to and regulations of the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. This court-limiting power is granted in the Exceptions Clause (Art. III, § 2). By exercising these powers in concert, Congress may effectively eliminate any judicial review of certain federal legislative or executive actions and of certain state actions, or alternatively transfer the judicial review responsibility to state courts by "knocking [federal courts] out of the game."

Will They? No.
--------------
There is a Simple Explanation of What Is Going on With Crypto.  This Isn't It.

In early June, Celsius Network, one of the largest cryptocurrency lenders, paused its withdrawals and soon faced rumors of bankruptcy. After, reports concerning the weakness of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) followed, fueling fears of contagion and systemic risk. Though the crypto market has started to recover somewhat since then, questions remain about how the fallout will shape the future of the space.

But one thing is certain: The price instability of a token called stETH had a cascading effect on big players already impacted by the market downturn, including Celsius Network and 3AC, according to a new report from the leading blockchain analytics firm Nansen.

Token stETH represents staked Ether in Lido Finance, a platform that allows users to start staking on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake chain before the network’s highly anticipated “merge” upgrade.

Up until the demise of the Terra ecosystem, the price of stETH has mostly traded with that of Ether (ETH). Though it isn’t technically pegged, the price stability between stETH and ETH is considered as such to many in the crypto space, and its consistency is important for investors trading and leveraging stETH.

On decentralized exchanges and platforms, investors can stake their ETH for stETH, or swap their ETH for stETH; borrow ETH by using stETH as collateral; lend their stETH for high yield; sell their ETH for stETH; and continue in a loop to attempt to earn maximum rewards and return. But this process can be risky: If the price of stETH declines too much in comparison to ETH, high leverage positions can be liquidated. With enough selling pressure from big fish, this can tank the price of stETH, causing others to sell their stETH to cover their investments, and set off a domino effect within the market.

To a degree, this is seemingly what happened over the course of the last month with both Celsius and 3AC, Nansen found.

There is "active, trackable contagion in the markets. 3AC was a victim of this contagion. They sold their stETH position at the peak of the depeg panic, taking a significant haircut,” Nansen wrote. And while Nansen reports that Celsius’ on-chain positions appear to have stabilized and are now healthier, the platform was “very much at risk during the depeg incident” as well.
--------------
They Sure Gave Up Quickly

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States in Qatar's capital to narrow remaining gaps for revival of a 2015 nuclear agreement have ended without result, Iran's Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.

The talks started on Tuesday with EU's envoy Enrique Mora as the coordinator, shuttling between the two sides. They aimed to end a months-long impasse that stalled 11 months of negotiations between Tehran and world powers in Vienna to reinstate the pact.

Tehran and Washington have yet to comment on whether the talks have ended in Doha.
--------------
Bruces Get a Little Justice

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to return ownership of prime California beachfront property to descendants of a Black couple who built a resort for African Americans but were stripped of the land in the 1920s.

The board voted 5-0 on a motion to complete the transfer of parcels in an area once known as Bruce’s Beach in the fashionable city of Manhattan Beach that is now the site of the county’s lifeguard training headquarters and its parking lot.

Board chair Holly J. Mitchell, co-author of the motion, immediately signed the documents which allow the county to lease back the property with an option to purchase it for millions of dollars.

The land was purchased in 1912 by Willa and Charles Bruce, who built the first West Coast resort for Black people at a time when many beaches were segregated.

They suffered racist harassment from white neighbors and in the 1920s the Manhattan Beach City Council took the land through eminent domain. The city did nothing with the property and it was transferred to the state of California in 1948.

In 1995, the state transferred it to the county, with restrictions on further transfers.

Supervisor Janice Hahn launched the complex process of returning the property to heirs of the Bruces in April 2021. A key hurdle was overcome when the state Legislature passed a bill removing the restriction on transfer of the property.

The transfer includes an agreement for the property to be leased back to the county for 24 months, with an annual rent of $413,000 plus all operation and maintenance costs, and the county’s right to purchase the land for up to $20 million.
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------
--------------