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beardedmrbean · 3 years ago

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This Cincinnati City Council term, which began on Jan. 2, 2018, has been marred by one scandal after another. The most recent: Councilman Wendell Young was charged with tampering with records, a third-degree felony.

Nine members were sworn in on Jan. 2, 2018. Right away, there were allegations of secret texting amongst five members that resulted in a $101,000 payment to settle a taxpayer lawsuit. Throughout the term, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio David DeVillers has said there was "a culture of corruption."

Here is a timeline of Cincinnati City Hall corruption

Nov. 7, 2017: Mayor John Cranley and the nine-member Cincinnati City Council are elected. Among them: Democrats Tamaya Dennard and P.G. Sittenfeld and Republican Jeff Pastor. Pastor places ninth in a vote so close it triggers a mandatory recount. Pastor prevails.

Jan. 2, 2018: Cincinnati City Councilmembers are sworn in for a four-year term. Dennard brings a red folding chair, evoking Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, who famously said, “If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."

March 9, 2018: Cranley and his hand-picked city manager, Harry Black, have a falling out over Black’s decision to fire Assistant Police Chief Dave Bailey. Black and Cranley haven’t been getting along for months and Cranley asks Cincinnati City Council to fire Black.

March 1 - March 18, 2018: Five members of Cincinnati City Council – Dennard, Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Greg Landsman and Chris Seelbach – text among themselves about how to keep city manager Black and perhaps regain power they felt Cranley had usurped. Young, in texts which later become public, says, “Amen! We’re the new ‘gang of five.’ I pray we stay strong and continue to trust each other. We have the power to move this forward.” Young's "gang of five" comment references a former council coalition – Ken Blackwell, Steve Chabot, James Cissell, John Mirlisena and Charlie Luken – who were were often called the "gang of five."

Sittenfeld texts in response: "I'm game to make it a gang of 7 even! I know Mann and Pastor must be lonely over there!"

March 16, 2018: The five texting council members issue a joint press release saying they do not support firing Black. This catches the attention of Mark Miller, of Hyde Park, who is also treasurer of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes. Since the five seem to have reached a consensus when there hasn't yet been a public meeting regarding Black, Miller suspects the council members violated Ohio's Open Meeting Act.

April 9, 2018: Miller, acting as a citizen and not a representative of COAST, files a lawsuit in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, alleging the council members violated the Open Meetings Act. City lawyers contend text messages on personal phones are not public record and had told council members that.

April 21, 2018: Black resigns just before a hastily called Saturday morning special session of Cincinnati City Council where it is expected he will be fired.

September 2018 to February 2019: Pastor solicits and receives $55,000 in exchange for promised official action related to two projects before the City of Cincinnati, according to a federal indictment. He also travels on a private airplane to Florida with developers of the projects, but the developers are actually undercover FBI agents, according to the indictment. The allegations relate to the re-development of 435 Elm Street, a largely vacant piece of property next to the Duke Energy Convention Center, and another deal, which has not yet been named.

March 7, 2019: The City of Cincinnati, with agreement from the five councilmembers who make up the Gang of 5, settle the taxpayer lawsuit. They admit violating Ohio’s Open Meetings Act and settle for $101,000. Judge Robert Ruehlman tells the five members, whom he called to his courtroom for the settlement agreement, "You essentially lied to the people of the city. The trust is gone. I really believe the five city council members should resign and pay it back... no city voter should ever vote for them again.”

August to December 2019: Dennard tries to exchange votes for money. Prosecutors say Dennard requested between $10,000 and $15,000 from an attorney to pay for her personal expenses. In exchange, she promised a favorable vote on The Banks development.

In a Nov. 4, 2019, text message to the attorney, according to court records, Dennard says: "I could really use your help. It's kind of urgent to get it today. Happy to help you. But need yours too."

Dec. 19, 2019: Ohio Auditor Keith Faber looks at the texting case and refers the five council members for prosecution on a misdemeanor crime of dereliction of duty. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters appoints attorney Pat Hanley, a former attorney for the U.S. District Attorney’s office, to investigate the matter.

Feb. 25, 2020: Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard is arrested on federal bribery charges.

March 2, 2020: Dennard resigns.

June 29, 2020: Dennard pleads guilty to a charge of honest services wire fraud, which alleges she defrauded taxpayers. A plea agreement calls for her to spend up to 2 ½ years in prison. Sentencing is set for Nov. 24.

Sept. 28, 2020: Hanley, the special prosecutor, in a letter obtained by The Enquirer, recommends the texting councilmembers not be criminally charged with dereliction of duty. But he writes in a letter dated this day, “The investigation is on-going.”

Nov. 10, 2020: Councilman Jeff Pastor, along with an associate who is not connected to City Hall, is arrested on a 10-count federal indictment, including bribery, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy charges related to the $55,000 in alleged solicited payments. Pastor’s attorney, Ben Dusing, says his client will fight the charges.

Nov. 16, 2020: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asks the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend Pastor from Cincinnati City Council. That request is pending.

Nov. 18, 2020: Five citizens file a request with the Hamilton County Probate Court seeking to have Pastor removed from council. That request is pending.

Nov. 19, 2020: Federal agents arrest Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld on corruption charges. Sittenfeld says he is innocent. The charges: Sittenfeld orchestrated a scheme to funnel money from developers into a political action committee (PAC) that he secretly controlled. According to the indictment, the developers were actually undercover FBI agents who handed Sittenfeld checks totaling $40,000 on three different occasions in 2018 and 2019. The indictment states Sittenfeld solicited the money in exchange for his support of a plan to develop the former Convention Place Mall at 435 Elm St., which Cincinnati developer Chinedum Ndukwe, a former Bengals player, sought to develop as a hotel and office complex with sports betting. Sittenfeld, 36, did not pocket the cash himself, the indictment states, but instead funneled it into a leadership PAC.

Nov. 20, 2020: Sittenfeld releases a statement on Twitter saying he is innocent and that he intends to keep working and plans to run for mayor.

Nov. 23, 2020: Pastor agrees to the suspension.

Nov. 23, 2020: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asks the Ohio Supreme Court to suspend Sittenfeld from Cincinnati City Council.

Nov. 24, 2020: Dennard is sentenced to spend 18 months in prison on a charge of honest services wire fraud. The sentence won’t start until at least March because of the danger posed by the coronavirus, Judge Susan Dlott says.

Nov. 30, 2020: Hamilton County Probate Court Judge Ralph “Ted” Winkler selects Cincinnati attorney Steve Goodin to temporarily replace Pastor. All three are Republicans.

Dec. 7, 2020: Sittenfeld agrees to the state suspension.

April 15, 2021: A Hamilton County grand jury indicts Cincinnati Councilman Wendell Young on a felony charge of tampering with records. The charge alleges between January 3, 2018, and October 16, 2018, Young destroyed text messages that were public.

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ficsilike-reblogged · 5 years ago

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Sunshine City: Three

A/N: Thank you to everyone who read/reblogged/commented on the last chapter. You are all lovely and deserve a Whiskey of your own. This chapter still revolves around the plot of the film, so if you have any questions just let me know! I hope this little story can make you smile at least for a moment. My asks and DMs are always open.

Pairing: (Eventual) Agent Whiskey x F!Reader (No Y/N)

Word Count: 5.7k

Rating For This Chapter: T for guns, blood, injuries

Catch up on the Prologue, Chapters One, and Two here!

Y/N sat at the bar and ordered a cranberry juice.

Butterfly Guy was sitting with Eggsy, Whiskey, and a guy who insisted on being called Merlin in a booth near the window.

“Rough day, sugar?” Paula the bartender asked as she set down the cloudy glass filled with purple-red juice.

“Rough couple of days,” she muttered and handed over a handful of crumpled bills that Paula methodically straightened out before placing them in the till. Paula was basically an agent in her own right. She’d been part of the bar for nearly twenty years and since only Statesmen drank here and knew of its existence, they spoke freely about their work. She probably knew more classified intel than some junior agents.

“You sure I can’t get you anything stronger?” She asked, her bleach blonde hair swiping over her shoulders. “Something with a little more oomph?”

“Just the cranberry juice for now.” She smiled and sipped on the too-bitter drink and resisted puckering her lips at the taste. “But thank you.”

Paula nodded and cast a glance at the table where the agents sat. “You know, Whiskey keeps lookin’ over here.”

She ignored the twisting in her stomach and took a large gulp. “ ‘s just post-mission jitters.”

“Uh-huh,” Paula said with a roll of her eyes. “Sure. When a handsome man looks at me like that…” she drifted off with a raise of her eyebrows.

(But she wouldn’t deny that she noticed Whiskey looking at her a little more often. When they met up after she implanted the tracker in Clara, she noticed Whiskey kept turning away every so often, a hand tucked in his front pocket. It was a common gesture used by men to hide an erection, she knew that—she just didn’t believe he would have one at that moment. They were in the middle of a mission. There was no way he was hiding a boner. But the thought was fun.)

Thankfully, Agent Moonshine started hollering and she sighed into her drink and got up from her barstool and walked behind the bar.

Paula was watching the scene unfold like she hadn’t watched a million bar fights before and looked ready to piss herself. Sunny patted her on the shoulder and signaled for her to hide in the little cubby beneath the register.

The Butterfly Guy quickly made a fool of himself, trying to teach Moonshine and his buddies some manners and she leaned against the sticky bar to watch as Whiskey stood from his seat. It wasn’t the first time she would watch Whiskey kick Moonshine’s ass but it was always fun to witness.

And those tight jeans did wonders for his butt.

While she would never understand his affinity for his lasso or his whip, it was nice to watch him work (and to see Moonshine bleed a little).

As he finished, Moonshine and his hangers-on all unconscious or bleeding enough to keep them still, Whiskey adjusted his hat and let out a whistle. “I feel like a tornado in a trailer park.”

She snorted and finished her drink as Paula slowly came out from the cubby and gaped at the mess. “It looks like a tornado came through here, boss. I think you owe Paula another window.”

“And new glasses!” Paula said with a frown.

She patted Paula’s shoulder again with a promise that the window would be fixed within a handful of hours as the televisions switched from the football game and were overtaken by a wash of yellow and red with an obnoxious chime.

A woman draped in a horrendous yellow outfit with fiery red hair soon filled the screens. “Mr. President, my name is Poppy Adams. I believe the UN has no teeth. So I've selected you, as leader of the free world, to receive this communication. And I invite you to begin negotiations on the largest scale hostage situation in history. A few weeks ago, an engineered virus was released and contained in all varieties of my product: cannabis, cocaine, heroin, opium, ecstasy, and crystal meth.” Each line item popped up on the screen in a pretty font. Cap looked over to see Whiskey already looking at her, lips pulled into a frown. “Some of you are already infected. And this is what you can expect in the coming days. After a brief incubation period, victims present with stage one symptoms: a blue rash. Next, second stage symptoms appear: mania, as the virus enters the brain. Very distressing to the victim and those around them. Stage three: paralysis. Muscles enter a state of catastrophic seizure. And once the muscles of the thorax become affected, breathing becomes impossible.” She watched as one new victim after another was revealed on the screen until blood spurted out of the last man’s eyes and nose, dead for millions to witness. “This leads to a very nasty death within 12 hours. But I have good news to the millions already affected. It doesn't have to be this way. I have an antidote.” Poppy held up a clear vial filled with an amber liquid—and Elton John behind another glass wall.

“What have you done to me, you fucking bitch?” God bless Elton John.

Undeterred by Elton John’s outburst, Poppy continued, “100% effective and ready to ship out worldwide at a moment's notice. I will do this if the following conditions are met. First, you agree to end the war on drugs, once and for all. All classes of substance are legalized paving the way to a new marketplace in which sales are regulated and taxed just like alcohol. And second, my colleagues and I receive full legal immunity. Meet my terms. I look forward to helping you keep our beloved country great, boosting our ailing economy, and easing spending on law enforcement. Or continue this blinkered, outmoded, and, frankly, disastrous exercise in prohibition, and live with blood on your hands. Save lives. Legalize.”

The broadcast ended and the televisions screens quickly flipped back to the football game. Whiskey was at her side in a blink of an eye. His hand brushed down her back. “We gotta talk to Champ, Sunny.”

And that was how she found herself bundled in winter gear on an Italian mountainside. Clara had called Charlie, and thanks to the tracking device she had implanted at Glastonbury, they were able to pick up the conversation. Charlie told Clara (who was now covered in the blue rash) to meet him at the ski resort they’d visited last year so he could give her the antidote. The tracking device could pinpoint their exact location and everyone was betting that the Italian resort was one of the storehouses for the antidote.

But she was also wondering, once again, why she found Whiskey attractive. He was in a terrible blue and white snowsuit that had to have been made in the 1970s. And he still refused to take off his damned cowboy hat. She appreciated the dedication to his aesthetic but it still seemed…ridiculous.

And he’d been grating on her last nerve on the flight over.

Ginger had buzzed in and suggested that Cap be the one to retrieve the antidote because only Clara would recognize her as opposed to Charlie possibly recognizing Eggsy or Butterfly Man (who she was told to call either Galahad or Harry). Whiskey then laughed—loudly—and stated plainly that he would be planning the mission and Ginger should stick to her computers and gadgets. “It isn’t like ya have any experience in the field.”

She really thought about murdering her boss for the rest of the flight. Her plots to kill him only got more creative when he told her to stay at the safe-house when they landed.

She was tired. She was angry.

And that was probably why she finally snapped. “If you didn’t want me to come along, you could have just told Champ. God knows you don’t listen to anyone else.” She hefted her bag filled with her own weapons and ammo higher onto her shoulder and turned away from him, readying to hike up toward the house and stew in her lonesome until the three men returned—hopefully with the antidote in hand.

But his hand grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop before she could get very far. “That ain’t fair, Sunny.”

She pulled out of his grip with a poorly hidden snarl. “No. You’re not fair. To me. To Ginger. All because of some bullshit you think is right.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“I don’t need protection. I’ve been in this game a long time-”

“And I’ve been in it longer-”

“-and I can take care of myself. What you’re doing to Ginger is so fucking backwards I’m surprised you can see straight,” she hissed it out like a curse. “I’m tired, Whiskey. I’m so tired of watching her jump through hoops trying to get you to notice that she could outperform half the agents in the field and you want her stuck behind the desk until she dies. I’m tired of you thinking you know best in the field. Why do you even request me to go with you if you’re going to undermine me every step of the way?”

Whiskey’s mouth opened. Then closed.

Her shoulders slumped. Harry and Eggsy both looked like they were very interested in the calibrations of their earpieces and not listening to what just happened. God this whole situation was pathetic. They were trying to save the world and she was waffling between yearning and rage for her stupid boss. She trudged away in the snow toward the safe house and barely heard Whiskey say, “what are you lookin’ at, Butterfly Guy?”

But she continued on, up the mountain and found the small shack of a house and swept the perimeter before settling in. She comm’ed in only to say she reached the safe house. Eggsy responded cheerfully but she didn’t respond when Whiskey also chimed in with a, “good work, Sunny.”

Time ticked by.

There was a commotion on the other end of the comm line when Butterfly Guy wouldn’t respond—and then all she heard was Eggsy and Whiskey screaming. She rolled her eyes. They were so dramatic. But soon, the trio was making their way toward the safe-house and she didn’t bother to open the door when she heard them outside. They all hobbled in, mid-argument.

Eggsy pulled out a small vial and showed it to her with a smile she had to reciprocate. “You got it.”

“We did. A little dicey—Charlie recognized me.”

She glanced at Whiskey who frowned in return. It didn’t matter. Ginger had been right and now he knew it.

“Can I see it, kid?” Whiskey asked with his hand outstretched as he walked toward them. But then his dark eyes tracked to the window and widened. “Get down!” Whiskey all but tackled both Eggsy and her to the dusty ground of the house as bullets started to fly. Glass shattered. Wood splintered.

She watched, unable to do anything from her pinned position, as the small vial was all but knocked from Eggsy’s hand and shattered on the ground.

“You fucking dickhead!” Eggsy hollered as he scrambled out from under Whiskey to look over the spilled antidote, almost uncaring of the bullets whizzing by.

“Fuck you, I just saved your life!” Whiskey retorted.

“Yeah, and cost millions of people theirs!”

She had to slap at Whiskey’s thigh to get him to move off her and she rolled off into the corner when he did. The rain of bullets stopped for a moment and she looked out the window. “They’re reloading.”

Whiskey nodded. “All right, I'll fix their wagons. Cover me, boys!” And then he all but bolted out of the house, guns blazing.

With a roll of her eyes, ignoring how Whiskey had told the ‘boys’ to cover him, she followed suit and ran out into the snow, pulling her guns out from their holsters. The shootout was nothing she hadn’t seen before and, while she didn’t have all the flair most of the Statesmen agents had, she could mow down people just as efficiently. (The acrobatics the Statesmen and Kingsman agents seemed so fond of really just seemed…excessive.)

Whiskey went through the left flank so she went through the unlucky men on the right.

It was easy pickings, really. Despite the heavy artillery and uneven numbers, it was almost too simple of a gunfight. But the adrenaline rush was nice. It had been too long since she had felt her heart beat this fast. Bullets were flying by her head as she dove behind a tree and then twisted to shoot down the other man. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Whiskey pull out his electric lasso and then cut a man in half who came out with a knife.

“Fucking ridiculous,” she muttered as she stood, lowering her guns and quietly thankful that Whiskey wasn’t hurt.

There was a single gunshot and she froze. A familiar cold crept up her torso and one last man stepped out from the tree line with his gun raised right in her direction. The barrel smoked. But his eyes were wide like he couldn’t quite understand that he’d actually managed to shoot her. With a snarl, she pulled her guns up again and fired twice, painting the trees and snow behind him in a spattering of red.

“Sunny!” Whiskey yelled as he spotted her.

She pressed a hand to her stomach and felt the terrible, wet warmth soak her palm. She holstered her guns again and stepped out to look at him, turning ever so slightly to hide the blossoming red from him. “We’re good.”

“You should’ve stayed in the house.”

“You needed back up!” She said, marching toward the house despite feeling her legs shake. Pressing against the wound only made bile rise in her throat.

“The kid and Butterfly Guy-”

“It’s over, boss. Let’s just-”

Whiskey suddenly grabbed at her waist and all but threw her into the house and she nearly lost her footing. She barely had time to recognize the pain suddenly roaring through her system as the adrenaline started to fade.

“Troop carrier coming in. And I’m out of ammo—whaddya got?” He asked, pointedly looking at Eggsy and Harry.

But they were both looking at Whiskey’s hand.

He slowly raised it to his face and saw it covered in blood. His head snapped to the side to look at her. “Sunny?”

Her knees finally buckled and she hit the weathered wood. She shakily caught herself with her other hand, feeling blood slip between her fingers. She coughed and watched as blood splattered against the wood.

“They’ve got Gatling guns!”

Whiskey was yelling. Bullets whizzed by. And the beat of her heart started to drown out everything else.

“Harry, no!” She barely heard Eggsy shout.

And then, in her quickly-hazing vision, she watched Whiskey’s body crumple to the floor beside hers. She reached out a bloody hand toward him without thinking, pressing crimson-colored fingers against his face as if that would stop the bleeding.

“He broke the vial on purpose, Eggsy. If we made it out of here, he was gonna kill us both!”

The world went dark.

The sterile scent of HQ’s medical wing was a welcoming aroma as her eyes opened.

“There you are.” Ginger leaned over her with a soft smile. “How ya feeling?”

“Tired.”

“No pain?” She asked as she helped Cap sit up slowly.

“A bit tender—but I know what feeling shot in the chest feels like so I would prefer this.” She pulled at the bland, cotton-blend shirt she was dressed in and saw her stomach covered in a bit of gauze and tape. Despite Ginger telling her not to, she pulled at the coverings to reveal the mostly-healed bullet wound and then pushed back into the pillows. It looked like it had already been healing for weeks instead of a day or two. Statesmen truly knew how to patch someone up. But then a thought struck her. “Where’s Whiskey?”

And Ginger’s soft, answering smile calmed her suddenly clenching heart. “He’s in the next room over, Cap. He’ll wake up soon. Eggsy gave him the Alpha Gel and it worked like it was supposed to.”

She pushed out a long breath through her nose and nodded. “Good. That’s good.”

Ginger’s watch beeped. She looked at the small screen and sighed. “I will be back. Don’t get into any trouble, okay?”

“I promise nothing.”

Ginger chuckled, having heard that answer many times before, and let herself out of the room.

She let herself stew for a moment (it was really about an hour). Her life had really gone off the rails since Vegas. It was one thing to secretly harbor amorous thoughts about your boss. It was another to scream at him, get shot, and then see him get shot after seeing him (possibly) thwart any efforts to get the antidote and save millions of people. And she had a chance to say something to Ginger. But she didn’t.

Hm.

She carefully slid off the bed and winced when a bolt of pain zig-zagged through her body as her feet touched the cold floor. Shuffling over to the door, she peered out into the hallway and then stepped out. Whiskey’s holding room was only a few footsteps away.

Should she go in? But then what would she say?

Should she just go back to her room and pretend she was unconscious the entire time and remembered exactly nothing from Italy? But what was she trying to forget anyway?

But, thankfully, Eggsy found her in the middle of the hall and broke her rambling thoughts. He pocketed his phone and looked a bit worried as he noticed her. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Better than I should be after being shot. You?”

He started to nod but then shook his head. “My girlfriend…she, uh, she’s got the blue rash.” He rubbed at his forehead.

“You care about her. Probably more than you should, right?” That was easy to see. Eggsy was a good kid, probably a little too easy to read. “Especially in this line of work.”

“You get it—Kingsmen aren’t allowed to have attachments. And I…” he tried to grasp at the words he needed, “love her.”

“Statesmen doesn’t have that rule. Probably because we’re very bad at following any sort of guideline anyway.” She shrugged and regretted the movement as it pulled at her wound. “But that means you’ve got less than 12 hours. You got a plan?”

Eggsy quickly explained that they had been able to trace Poppy’s location to Cambodia and they were heading out there now. But his eyes quickly widened as he realized he had just revealed a plan to a potentially dangerous adversary.

“Relax, Eggsy. I’m not the one you shot in the head.” She waved him on. “Go. Save the world. Look out for landmines.”

“Landmines?” Eggsy parroted, face scrunching into a confused frown.

“If Poppy’s as crazy as I think she is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she has nonsense like that. Who knows? Maybe she has a fleet of man-eating robots, too.”

“What are you on about?”

She shook her head. “I’ve seen some stuff. Don’t worry about it.”

He smiled and started to walk away. “You should come to London when this is all over. I’ll get you a drink!”

She smiled a bit and watched him disappear around a corner before her eyes once again drifted toward Whiskey’s door. “…fuck.” Against her better judgement, she walked up and let the door glide open without a sound. The room was quiet. Whiskey was motionless on the bed, face still covered by the machine to help the Alpha Gel finish its work. His vitals were steady, displayed on large screens across the wall.

He would be fine.

She slipped gingerly into a chair near the bed and resisted the urge to reach out and touch his hand. He just looked so…vulnerable. It was so unlike him. An angry, terrible twisting pulled at her chest. “I’m not sorry I yelled at you, you know.” She wasn’t sure why she was talking to him but the words kept coming anyway. “You need to let Ginger out in the field. She’d be a better agent than me. I don’t know why you’re… I don’t understand you at all, actually. I wish I did, I think. I wish I could understand you and why you do things and say things. I wish I could understand why you make me feel so stupid.”

Maybe being this close to death—again—was making her sentimental. Or maybe the pain medication was making her crazy.

Probably the second option. Hopefully, anyway.

The door opened again and Ginger stepped in. “I knew I’d find you in here.”

“How’d you figure that?”

Ginger gave her a look but didn’t answer. “It is about time we wake him up. You remember how it’s like, right?”

She nodded. She had heard stories about how most agents needed a ‘reminder’ of a traumatic event to bring them back to the present and how their minds could be a bit foggy for a few days after, but she had never seen it in person. But she basically knew what to except--right?

With a flip of a few switches, the machine receded and Whiskey’s eyes opened. He was up and off the bed with a spring in his gait that had her laughing as he gave some terrible pick-up line to Ginger. But the laugh drew his attention and his body went rigid as his eyes landed on her. “Sunny.”

She felt tension she didn’t realize she was holding leech from her shoulders as he smiled at her. “Hey, boss.”

Ginger tucked something back in her pocket and her smile seemed to reach her ears. “I’ll leave you two…alone. But I’m just outside if you need anything.” She then scurried out and left her alone with Whiskey and her hammering heart.

“Sunshine.” The new nickname was all but crushing to her heart, caving in her chest.

She waved him back to the bed and told him to rest before she curled her fingers around his hand. It was warm and calloused and, as cliché as it sounded, seemed to fit hers perfectly. “How’re you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been shot in the head.”

She almost laughed and her other hand carefully pushed his still-impeccably styled hair away from the bandage covering a small bit of his temple. “Yeah. You look great for a dead man, though.”

“That’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” But he said it with a smile and squeezed her hand. “Say it again.”

“You look great.” And her smile grew, heart a little lighter.

He huffed out a laugh but then a long silence stretched between them. She looked away from his dark eyes but didn’t pull her hand away from his, fearing he’d disappear if she did.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Sunshine?” He squeezed at her hand until she looked at him again.

“I’m okay. They fixed me up just fine. A new scar for the collection.”

His smile slowly dropped and he placed his other hand over hers, too. “I saw you drop. You were bleedin’ out and I-”

“I saw you get shot, too, you know. Butterfly Guy has an interesting way of showing he doesn’t trust someone.” She shook the thought away. Harry’s brain was scrambled, too. “I’m just happy you’re okay. Your brain might feel a bit funny for a day or two, but I’ll be here.”

“Where are they now? The Brits?”

“They’re on their way to Cambodia. They think they’ve found Poppy’s base.”

Whiskey all but yanked his hands from hers and threw his legs over the side of the bed before standing on his long legs. She quickly stood too, chair clattering backward. “We’ve gotta go. Tell Ginger to get the Silver Pony on the runway.” He started toward the door before she grabbed at his arm.

“Boss, c’mon. You need to rest-”

“I need to make sure that bitch doesn’t get what she wants.”

She was scrambling then, hands pawing up his arm to grasp at his face. Her heart was in her throat as she looked at him. His dark eyes looked so cold. Unfocused. She knew the Alpha Gel could scramble someone’s brain as it physically repaired it, pushing them into old habits and thoughts and fears. She knew Whiskey wasn’t thinking right at the moment—no matter how soft he had been with her moments ago, this wasn’t her Whiskey. Her mouth went dry. Thoughts raced by as the pit she had felt growing in her stomach expanded to an abyss. She knew what he’d been through. The death of his wife at the hands of some coked-out druggies was an open secret. And she knew her own grief, dealt with it in her own way—not all of it healthy, she knew. But she had to try. She knew the look of a man who wanted vengeance no matter the cost—and, right now, the cost was millions of lives. “Do you know why I don’t drink?”

“We don’t have time for this,” he said as he pulled out of her grip.

“Drunk driver plowed into my dad’s car. I was at the local pool with some friends and Dad piled everyone in to pick me up so we could get ice cream after. They never made it.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do you think I hold it against everyone who likes to put a little something extra in their coffee? Likes to have a little liquid courage to talk to the cute guy across the bar?”

Whiskey’s face twisted and his eyes seemed to dilate before he scrunched them shut. A shaking hand pushed through his hair.

“I work at a distillery for a man named Whiskey.”

Another silence stretched between them. She would swear he could hear her heartbeat in the quiet of the room.

A careful hand reached out to touch his wrist, too afraid to do much else. “Stay,” she whispered. “Stay with me.”

And his eyes finally opened.

Champ smiled and congratulated them on a job well done. It was a week since the entire Golden Circle situation had been handled. Tequila was well. Whiskey’s mind was clear. And their profits had never been higher.

Merlin, Harry, and Eggsy were standing at the end of the table and each held a glass of amber liquid as everyone raised a toast. Whiskey was sitting across from his Sunny, golden glasses perched on the edge of his nose. He probably should have been listening to what was Champ was saying but all he could see was how she licked her lips after taking a sip of her cranberry juice.

Statesmen, knowing an ally when they saw one, had purchased a distillery in Scotland. It was the perfect guise to help Kingsman rebuild and keep their money looking “clean.” Yes, he should have listened.

Because the Kid opened his mouth and said Kingsman needed more agents.

“I think Ginger would be a great Kingsman,” Sunny said with a smile.

Ginger, tucked into a corner a drink of her own, smiled in return. “I…”

“Agreed,” Whiskey heard himself saying. And he quickly realized that he meant it.

Ginger’s eyes went wide and she nearly sloshed the entirety of her drink across her shirt.

Champ laughed. “Alrighty then. Ginger Ale, well, I guess you’ll get a new code name, won’t ya?”

But the Kid’s smile widened. “And I was thinking Cap could come, too.” He turned to her and shrugged a shoulder. “Whaddya say, Cap? I’ll show you the real London.”

Whiskey looked at her, feeling like someone had shoved their fist down his throat. Don’t go. Don’t leave.

“I always wanted to be a knight of the round table.”

The men at the end of the table cheered again and Ginger walked over to knock their glasses together.

And while everyone continued to pat themselves on the back for completing the mission, all he could feel was cold.

The revelry eventually died down and Whiskey found himself the last one seated at the table. Everyone else filtered out to ready for the next mission—or the move to London. It was just him and Champ. The older man plopped down in the seat beside him and refilled his empty glass.

“London is only a few hours by plane from New York.”

He took a long pull from his glass.

“I’ve never known you to wait for something you wanted, Whiskey. But sure seemed to drag your ass on this one.”

“What are you talkin’ about, Champ?” He finally asked after another large gulp of alcohol.

But Champ just shook his head with a throaty chuckle. “You two are a mess.”

Royal weddings were…an event, she was finding.

After nearly losing Princess Tilde to the Golden Circle, Eggsy actually proposed. And with Harry now known as Arthur and presiding over Kingsman, the rules changed. Attachments were allowed. And because Tilde knew his fellow Kingsman were like Eggsy’s family, they were invited to the wedding. A handful of Statesmen, too. It had been a year since Poppy’s demise in Cambodia and the world was (mostly) at peace. Kingsman managed to salvage quite a bit from the wreckage of their former bases and Statesmen funded the rest of their necessary rebuilds. It was slow-going, and a handful of new agents were still finding their footing after graduating from the selection process.

“Please tell me Tequila is not wearing jeans,” she muttered.

Ginger, now known as Agent Percival, rolled her eyes with an affectionate smile as she spotted the jean-clad man amid the rest of the American crowd. “I could but that would be a lie.” She paused. “But Whiskey certainly dressed for the occasion.”

She leaned forward just the slightest bit to see Whiskey dressed in a fine tuxedo. “Is that one of ours?”

Ginger hummed. “He came in a few days ago for a fitting.”

She swallowed the saliva filling her mouth and turned back to watch Eggsy nervously fidget with his cufflinks at the end of the aisle. “Looks good.”

The ceremony finished after the vows and a bit of perfunctory reading and singing before the guests were all chauffeured over to the reception space at the royal palace. “You know, Merlin told me that you and Whiskey are quite fond of using emojis in your emails,” Ginger said as dinner was cleared away and dessert started to be served.

Her glass of water nearly slipped from her grip as embarrassment washed over her. “I was told those were private.”

“Nothing’s private in our line of work,” Ginger said with a pat to her hand. “But you haven’t really explained what is going on between you two.”

She rubbed at her temples. How could she possibly explain that she knew Whiskey, while his brain was still scrambled, wanted to let everyone infected with the Blue Rash die? How could she explain that she, despite all that, missed his smile and stupid mustache? Missed how he had terrible pick-up lines that always made her roll her eyes? Missed how she always seemed a little lighter whenever he would waltz into her office in New York?

Their constant contact devolved away from work and missions and into their private lives. He would ask after Bela and she would ask him to tell her about the view from his office window. It was now a strange sort of friendship that she treasured and protected despite how they hadn’t seen each other in person in over a year. She had taken the position at Kingsman, took the code name Agent Mordred, moved to London. It should have been a clean break. She could have kept their communications purely professional. But she didn’t. She just couldn’t truly let him go.

But on the outside, she shrugged as her hands dropped away from her face.

“It looks like I’ll be able to see for myself because he’s on his way over here.”

Her head snapped up at the sound of Ginger’s smug tone and, sure enough, Whiskey was on his way over, walking through the dancing crowd and wandering guests, right toward their table.

“But oh no. Would you look at that, I need more champagne.” Ginger then scampered off and left her alone.

Whiskey easily took Ginger’s vacated seat and smiled at her. “Hey, Sunshine.”

“Hey, bos-Whiskey.”

He chuckled at her slip. His head tilted to the side as he looked at her, eyes trailing down her form and she resisted a shiver like a teenaged girl but was silently thankful for the designer dress that fit her like a glove in a soft blue silk. “You look good.”

“You too.” And he did. The tuxedo was impeccably cut and the darkest black. A pristine white shirt was held back with a matching cummerbund and a black bowtie was slightly crooked around his neck. She reached out and straightened it.

He reached up to keep her hand pressed against his chest with a small smile. “I miss you.” It was whispered like a secret.

“We talk every day.” But she didn’t pull her hand away.

“ ‘s not the same and you know it.” He squeezed her hand. “Dance with me?” Wordlessly, he led her out onto the dance floor and pulled her close.

His expensive cologne made her mind swim but she resisted the urge to rest her cheek against his shoulder despite every nerve in her body telling her to do so. The music was slow, soft, and romantic. The lighting was low and accentuated by flickering candles that danced across the golden walls of the royal ballroom. If she could let herself remember anything—it would be this moment. Held in the arms of the man she loved even if it was just for a tiny sliver of time.

“I never thanked you, you know.”

“For what?”

“Saving me. My head was a mess—even before Butterfly Guy put a bullet in it. It took me a while but I…” He shook his head. “You’ve given me a second chance.”

She cocked her head to the side with a smile. “To save the world?”

Whiskey’s smile was small and his cheeks reddened the slightest bit but his dark eyes never left her face. His grip on her hand and waist tightened the slightest bit. “A second chance at everything.”

She chuckled and ignored how her chest tightened. Reading into it would only make it hurt.

A/N: Thank you for reading!

Beautiful people who asked to be tagged: @spookyold-saintjm @honestlystop @paryl @fioccodineveautunnale @lackofhonor

#agent whiskey x reader #agent whiskey imagine #jack daniels x reader #jack daniels imagine #agent whiskey #kingsman the golden circle

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somegentlegiant · 6 years ago

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Magic in Sorcery Valley

(Original Prompt)

Picture for me, a world of magic. What does your mind conjure up? Gandalf and Harry Potter? Dungeons and Dragons style spell slinging and ritual casting? Necromancers summoning armies of undead, and old, wise wizards reading ancient tome after tome?

You'd be right about all of it, but your mind is likely putting too much emphasis on the fantasy aspect. The world of magic is far more mundane than people think, and it exists throughout the entire world. You've probably witnessed it at least a handful of times in your life without realizing it. Perhaps you've had a sick pet that was on it's deathbed, only for you to take it to a new vet and have it make a full recovery. You can thank modern medicine, but you can also thank magic.

Magic is far more normal than you realize. We are your plumbers, your electricians, your doctors, your employment agents and your mailman. Yes we fulfill higher purposes in the wizarding world, but figures like that you will never meet in your life. We swear an ancient oath of secrecy, bound by powerful magic. Why am I able to speak about it now? The loophole is that we are allowed to discuss it only when people would never believe it to be true. So, here I am now, telling you my story.

I graduated with my Master's in Wizardry, a six year program, from a well renowned school that I'm not allowed to disclose. Most people go for a full 10 years, but I wanted to get into the job market as quickly as possible. It would've been one of the worst decisions of my life, if it hadn't ended well. Agencies weren't looking to hire people without a full 10-year. I tried everything from a grand archivist to a potions assistant, nothing I applied for stuck.

It wasn't until I decided I wanted to travel that I came across my ticket to greatness. A small town in far east USA known as Sorcery Valley (I know, coincidental name for a wizard to travel to). The property there was cheap, and the taxes even cheaper. I could buy some property and start up my own business, perhaps selling it to the townsfolk without them realizing the magic involved.

I bought a garage for $10k and had portal services send my belongings. My new life began here.

What I hadn't accounted for was the culture of smalltown USA. I tried opening up a supplement shop as a cover to sell my potions, but no one was buying. I debated opening a gym that promised results, but people didn't need to work out when they spent all day working outside.

I was ready to surrender to humility and ask my parents if I could move back in, until I came home one day to a black jeep parked in front of my garage.

"Excuse me buddy," said the frail old man, "I see you bought the old Smith's garage there. I know you ain't open for business no more, but do they have any spare batteries in there? My jeep won't start, and I think the batteries fried."

"Sure," I said, "I'll check for you." I knew there was nothing inside, but I felt too bad not to check. Of course, there was nothing.

"I'm sorry sir, but, I couldn't find anything." His face drooped down into an expression of pure stress, and my heart sank. "er, but," I stumbled over my words, "I could take a look at it for you." I walked over without waiting for a reply and began putting my magic to work.

"I appreciate that mister but you ain't gonna be able to fix 'er, she's been shot for days. I've just been lucky enough-" his widened eyes looked at the once dead car now purring healthily.

"H-here, for your troubles." He palmed me a Benjamin, but I refused. "No, please, I insist," stammered the man. I shook my head, "I was only being helpful, I'm just glad I was able to get it working again."

"Well then," he said, "you should consider opening up this ol' garage again. The townsfolk miss it, I know it surely, and you'd have one hell of a regular customer on your hands." With a wave, he was off.

Two weeks later, the Wizard of Auto garage was open for business. I began to meet every face across town. Miss May, the town librarian. Uncle Glenn, the town drunk with a soft heart. Jewel and Johnny, the couple that ran an old antique shop down the road. Sorcery Valley was so pure and friendly it was as if it came straight out of a book.

Sometimes, the world of magic really is magical. Perhaps, then, your mind wasn't putting too much emphasis on the fantasy part after all.

#writing prompts #2 #short stories

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newstfionline · 3 years ago

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Sunday, October 3, 2021

Biden’s approval slumps after a slew of crises: AP-NORC poll (AP) President Joe Biden’s popularity has slumped after a slew of challenges in recent weeks at home and abroad for the leader who pledged to bring the country together and restore competence in government, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Fifty percent now say they approve of Biden, while 49% disapprove. The results come as Americans process the harried and deadly evacuation from Afghanistan, mounted border patrol agents charging at Haitian refugees, the unshakable threat of the coronavirus with its delta variant and the legislative drama of Biden trying to negotiate his economic, infrastructure and tax policies through Congress. Since July, Biden’s approval rating has dipped slightly among Democrats (from 92% to 85%) and among independents who don’t lean toward either party (from 62% to 38%). Just 11% of Republicans approve of the president, which is similar to July.

US hits 700,000 COVID deaths just as cases begin to fall (AP) The United States reached its latest heartbreaking pandemic milestone Friday, eclipsing 700,000 deaths from COVID-19 just as the surge from the delta variant is starting to slow down and give overwhelmed hospitals some relief. It took 3 ½ months for the U.S. to go from 600,000 to 700,000 deaths, driven by the variant’s rampant spread through unvaccinated Americans. The death toll is larger than the population of Boston. Nationwide, the number of people now in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen to somewhere around 75,000 from over 93,000 in early September. New cases are on the downswing at about 112,000 per day on average, a drop of about one-third over the past 2 1/2 weeks. Deaths, too, appear to be declining.

Yes, the Stock Market May Very Well Be Rigged (Bloomberg) Most Americans believe the stock market is rigged, and they just may be right. Investments by insiders—a senior executive, board member, or shareholder who owns 10% or more of a company—tend to significantly and consistently outperform benchmark indexes. U.S. trading rules make it illegal for insiders to trade on nonpublic information, but it’s long been an open secret that insiders trade on what they know. And no one seems to care.

California to require COVID-19 vaccines for schoolchildren (AP) California will become the first U.S. state to require COVID-19 vaccinations for children to attend public and private schools in person in a mandate that could effect millions of students. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the coronavirus shot will be added to 10 other immunizations already required for school kids, including those for measles and mumps. Exemptions would be granted for medical reasons or because of religious or personal beliefs but the exemption rules haven’t been written yet pending public comment. Any student without an exemption who refuses to get the vaccine would be forced to do independent study at home.

Flooded Tennessee town wrestles with how, where to rebuild (AP) In the 100 years that Jim Traylor’s family had lived in his house in rural Waverly, Tennessee, it hadn’t once flooded. The normally shallow Trace Creek where he had fished and swam as a kid had never crossed the one-lane road that separated it from his home. That changed on Aug. 21, when more than 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain just upstream transformed the usually placid waterway into a roiling river that rushed into his house and devastated the town, killing 20 people before it receded. The water was already halfway up his tires by the time the 79-year-old decided to flee. A hundred years ago, the massive flood would have been seen as a fluke of nature, a once-in-a-lifetime event. Residents could have built back without fear. But today, climate change is making the type of flood-producing rainfall that inundated Waverly more common, experts say. And so now, the roughly 4,000 people who live there face a dilemma. With more than 500 homes and 50 businesses damaged, Waverly will likely see massive losses in property and sales tax revenue even as it prepares to spend millions on debris removal and infrastructure repairs. If those homes and businesses don’t return, the town could slowly die. But if they build back along the creek, are they risking another disaster?

With gas pumps still dry, Britain brings in the army (Reuters) Britain will from Monday deploy military tanker drivers to deliver fuel to gas stations, many of which were still dry on Friday after a chaotic week that has seen panic-buying, fights at the pumps and drivers hoarding petrol in water bottles. With an acute shortage of truck drivers straining supply chains to breaking point the government said on Friday 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of which are drivers, will complete their training over the weekend and start deliveries on Monday. Shortages of workers in the wake of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have sown disarray through some sectors of the economy, disrupting deliveries of fuel and medicines and leaving more than 100,000 pigs backed up on farms. Retailers said more than 2,000 gas stations were dry and Reuters reporters across London and southern England said dozens of pumps were still closed.

Sick of weeds and trash piles, Rome to elect new mayor (AP) Curbside weeds in Rome grow so tall, they cover car door handles, giving new meaning to the term urban jungle. With sidewalks impassable because of piles of uncollected trash, people resort to pushing baby strollers down the middle of pothole-pocked streets. Overflowing garbage bins attract wild boars, terrifying passersby. As for mass transit, some subway stations in the commercial heart of the city, awaiting sorely needed escalator repairs, have been closed for months. Rome’s first populist mayor, Virginia Raggi is running for a second term in an election Sunday and Monday, and the sorry state of basic municipal services such as trash pickup and street maintenance is a major issue in this city of ruins, just as it was the first time around. When Romans elected Raggi, they had taken to cleaning up Rome themselves, neighborhood by neighborhood, park by park, bagging trash, filling potholes and passing the hat to pay gardening businesses to pull weeds in playgrounds. Some say things are worse now.

Taiwan angered after largest ever incursion by Chinese air force (Reuters) Taiwan sharply criticised China on Saturday after Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China with the largest ever incursion by the Chinese air force into the island’s air defence zone. Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. Taiwanese fighters scrambled against 38 Chinese aircraft in two waves on Friday, the Taiwan Defence Ministry said. It said Taiwan sent combat aircraft to warn away the Chinese aircraft, while missile systems were deployed to monitor them.

Philippine leader Duterte announces retirement from politics (AP) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday announced he was retiring from politics and dropping plans to run for vice president in next year’s elections when his term ends, avoiding a legal battle with opponents who question such a move. Speaking before reporters, Duterte said many Filipinos have expressed their opposition to his vice-presidential bid in surveys and public forums. “The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipino is that I’m not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution,” Duterte said. “In obedience to the will of the people ... I will follow what you wish and today I announce my retirement from politics.” The 76-year-old leader, known for his deadly anti-drugs crackdown, brash rhetoric and unorthodox political style, earlier accepted the ruling party’s nomination for him to seek the vice presidency in the May 9 elections. The decision outraged many of his opponents.

Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks (Yahoo) In 2017, as Julian Assange began his fifth year holed up in Ecuador’s embassy in London, the CIA plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder. Some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration even discussed killing Assange, going so far as to request “sketches” or “options” for how to assassinate him. Discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred “at the highest levels” of the Trump administration, said a former senior counterintelligence official. “There seemed to be no boundaries.” In late 2017, in the midst of the debate over kidnapping and other extreme measures, the agency’s plans were upended when U.S. officials picked up what they viewed as alarming reports that Russian intelligence operatives were preparing to sneak Assange out of the United Kingdom and spirit him away to Moscow. In response, the CIA and the White House began preparing for a number of scenarios to foil Assange’s Russian departure plans, according to three former officials. Those included potential gun battles with Kremlin operatives on the streets of London, crashing a car into a Russian diplomatic vehicle transporting Assange and then grabbing him, and shooting out the tires of a Russian plane carrying Assange before it could take off for Moscow. The intrigue over a potential Assange escape set off a wild scramble among rival spy services in London. American, British and Russian agencies, among others, stationed undercover operatives around the Ecuadorian Embassy. In the Russians’ case, it was to facilitate a breakout. For the U.S. and allied services, it was to block such an escape. “It was beyond comical,” said the former senior official. “It got to the point where every human being in a three-block radius was working for one of the intelligence services—whether they were street sweepers or police officers or security guards.” Eventually, the threat of direct action gave way to court action. On April 11, 2019, after Ecuador’s new government revoked his asylum and evicted him, British police carried the WikiLeaks founder out of the embassy and arrested him for failing to surrender to the court over a warrant issued in 2012.

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asataxation · 8 months ago

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Navigating Taxes with Ease: The Role of a Tax Agent in Harris Park

In the bustling suburb of Harris Park, nestled within the vibrant city of Parramatta, lies a crucial ally for individuals and businesses alike in the realm of finance: the tax agent. Harris Park, known for its multicultural community and thriving businesses, benefits significantly from the expertise and guidance provided by these professionals.

Expertise in Taxation Matters

Taxation can be a labyrinthine landscape for the uninitiated, with its myriad laws, regulations, and deadlines. This is where a tax agent steps in as a knowledgeable navigator, equipped with the latest insights and understanding of Australian tax laws. Whether it's filing personal income tax returns, managing corporate taxes, or navigating GST requirements, a tax agent in Harris Park plays a pivotal role in ensuring compliance and maximizing financial efficiency.

Tailored Advice and Support

One of the key advantages of engaging a tax agent is the personalized service they offer. Unlike generic online tax platforms, a local tax agent in Harris Park provides tailored advice that takes into account the specific needs and circumstances of each client. This bespoke approach not only ensures accurate tax filings but also helps in strategizing for future financial goals, such as investments, property acquisitions, or business expansions.

Keeping Abreast of Changes

Taxation laws are not static—they evolve. A proficient tax agent stays updated with these changes, ensuring that their clients are informed and prepared. Whether it's amendments in tax rates, new deductions, or alterations in compliance requirements, a tax agent in Harris Park remains vigilant, offering proactive advice to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.

Supporting Small Businesses

In Harris Park, a thriving hub for small businesses ranging from local eateries to boutique stores, tax agents serve as indispensable partners. They assist entrepreneurs in navigating the complexities of business tax structures, payroll obligations, and BAS lodgments. By shouldering the burden of tax compliance, these professionals empower business owners to focus on what they do best growing their enterprises and serving the community.

Building Long-Term Relationships

Beyond mere transactions, tax agents in Harris Park prioritize building enduring relationships with their clients. By fostering trust and reliability, these professionals become integral members of their clients' financial journey. Whether it's a young professional navigating their first tax return or an established business seeking strategic tax planning, the guidance provided by a tax agent extends far beyond the annual tax season.

Conclusion

In essence, the role of a tax agent in Harris Park transcends mere number crunching. It embodies a commitment to excellence, integrity, and proactive financial stewardship. As individuals and businesses continue to navigate the complexities of taxation in a dynamic economic landscape, the expertise and personalized service offered by tax agents remain invaluable. They stand not only as advisors but as partners in financial success, ensuring that Harris Park remains a thriving community where financial clarity and compliance go hand in hand.

#tax agent harris park

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kingsman-fam · 7 years ago

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The Littlest Kingsman [ 1 ]

Merlin & Child!Reader (with Harry and Eggsy)

[ Part 1 - 2 ]

Words: 1,261

Warnings: None ! Just fluffy flufferson!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingsman!

A/N: Hi everyone! So I finally plucked up the courage to post this story on Tumblr! I’d written it when the first movie came out and posted it on DA, but it’s since been on hiatus! After watching the latest movie, however, I was an emotional wreck! I plan to continue the series to deal with this massive resurgence of Kingsman feels!

This fic is a bit AU, set after Kingsman TSS but with Harry alive and well as the new Arthur! I do intend to incorporate TGC into future chapters tho!

I hope you all like it! Please let me know what you think! Without further ado, enjoy! \ (^ u ^) /

Being Kingsman was nothing short of being a hero.

The agents had dedicated their very existence to the task of keeping the evils of the world at bay - rarely sparing a moment for rest in the fear of losing momentum. They would traverse the flames of hell day in and day out (on their well polished oxfords, of course) to afford the world the luxury of ignorance.

Never thanked. Never acknowledged.

But for them, to see those they loved safe and sound was reward enough.

You see, each of them had something they fought for. Something that spurred them to stand after a bullet-wound to the shoulder and/or a stab wound to the leg.

For most of them, it was their families: their spouses and children. For Eggsy Unwin, it was his mother his precious little sister, Daisy - and quite recently - his girlfriend, Tilde.

And for Merlin and Harry Hart, their motivation came in the form of a little six-year-old girl named (Name), whose first meeting with Eggsy is the beginning of our tale.

Eggsy didn’t know the Kingsmen had a day-off.

Of course, there were breaks in between missions; and if you were lucky you could spend it at home with your family and not in the medical ward (this was a seldom occurrence). But the proper no-work-at-all-do-what-you-like-day-off? It was a nothing more than a myth as far as the new knights were concerned.

But when Harry - the new Arthur - had declared that they could all finally put the events of a particularly nasty mission behind them - that there were no loose ends left to be tied - he had also deemed it wise to give the agents a hard-earned break. After all, the operation had taxed most all of them. Even the most eager of knights weren’t foolish enough to object.

And so here he was: taking an unnervingly normal walk in the park as the autumn breeze lashed at his shins and ruffled his hair.

He felt a bit lost, if he was honest. Like a child during the first days of summer not knowing how to react to the fact there was no homework anymore.

Still… it was a nice change of pace, Eggsy thought, as he paused in his walk and smirked at the scene before him.

A couple sat on the freshly-trimmed grass with a picnic basket between the them, both laughing at some random joke or another. Farther away, a small pug nearly tripped over his own feet as he hurried to return a well-worn tennis ball to his waiting master. A group of children gathered leaves into a huge pile (most likely to jump into afterwards) and today, even the skies decided to cooperate for once and agreed not to release their usual downpour.

All very picturesque and cliche if you asked Eggsy. Not that he was complaining; it was comforting to see such peace and normalcy after being witness to so much turmoil.

A very loud, excited squeal, however, pulled him out of his thoughts rather sharply. His head snapped towards the source of the sound - muscles coiling as if ready to spring to into action at a moment’s notice if necessary.

Turns out it wasn’t really needed, as the source of the sound revealed itself to be of a young girl - no older than six, he was sure - clutching a bottle cap triumphantly in her hands as if it were a winning lottery ticket.

The (Hair Color)-haired girl brushed off the dirt on her jeans (which really didn’t do much as the fabric was still obviously stained) and quickly shot off towards the benches - most likely to her parents to show them her prize.

Eggsy laughed to himself, and was about to continue his stroll when he heard a very familiar Scottish lilt.

“(Name), for ‘eaven’s sake stop running before you trip on yer own two feet!”

Eggsy froze.

He recognized that voice.

Of course he did; it was beyond a doubt the same one he heard in his ear at each and every mission.

He turned back to the scene, and sure enough, there stood Merlin - towering over the little girl and looking thoroughly displeased.

Eggsy had seen that stern look in Merlin’s eyes far too many times as a trainee, and many young knights had buckled under the gaze. The little girl, however, simply smiled and met the older man’s eyes with mirthful (Eye Color)s, as if immune to the gaze.

“(Name),” Merlin began reprovingly. “What did I say about running too fast?”

“I know you said not to, but this important!” the child exclaimed, then held up the dirty little bottle cap excitedly. “I finally found it!”

“What ‘ave y’ got there?” Merlin asked curiously, hard gaze replaced by one much softer as he squatted down to the little girl’s level.

Eggsy decided to move closer to get a better view of the scene. He had never seen the usually serious quartermaster so… paternal (if the word could even apply).

The young girl - “(Name)” apparently - eagerly dropped the little token into his waiting palm.

“It’s for you!”

Eggsy didn’t know what to expect.

Merlin was a neat and tidy person - his desk at headquarters often clean and spotless. Eggsy had no idea how he would react to being given a dirt-covered piece of - let’s face it - garbage.

For some reason invested into the unfolding event, Eggsy felt worried that Merlin would reject the small gift. True, it was nothing more than a piece of trash, but judging by the amount of dirt on the child’s jeans - not to mention her joy at finally finding the piece of plastic - the young agent suspected that (Name) had been searching for it for quite some time.

He just hoped that if Merlin rejected the present, he would at least do it gently.

His worries, however, were completely unnecessary.

Eggsy realized this with his jaw partially hanging open, as Merlin smiled (actually smiled. Not that smug smirk which Eggsy thought was as far as it went) and placed the bottle cap in his trousers’ pocket.

“Thank you,” he said gratefully - as if he had been given something far more valuable than a plastic cap. Perhaps the older agent hadn’t been as blind to the young girl’s efforts as Eggsy had believed.

Knowing her manners, (Name) smiled and gave the older man a cheerful “You’re welcome!” - obviously pleased that her gift had been accepted and appreciated.

Merlin, however, leaned in closer to the girl as if he had something to add.

“As grateful as I am, (Name), I think a certain someone will be very jealous if ‘e didn’t get a bottle cap as well.”

The young girl’s eyes widened as the realization that certainly did not dawn on Eggsy, dawned on her.

“I need to find another one!” she exclaimed.

She surveyed the grassy expanse of the park then quickly turned back to Merlin, eyes imploring as if asking for permission.

With a nod of confirmation from the older man, (Name) ran as fast as her small legs could carry her to the place where she had found the first bottle cap, in the hopes of finding another.

Merlin opened his mouth - most likely to remind the girl about the dangers of running too quickly - but the reprimand died on his lips. Perhaps he had guessed as Eggsy had that the warning would go unheeded. The Scott sighed resignedly and made his way back to the benches.

In turn, Eggsy made his way towards the older agent.

As far as the young man was concerned, Merlin had a lot of explaining to do

#merlin x reader #kingsman #eggsy unwin #harry hart #merlin

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megacircuit9universe · 4 years ago

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Lemons

THU AUG 20, 2020

I never thought I would write these words, but Joe Biden delivered a nomination speech at the Democratic Convention tonight, that made me cry.

For a virtual convention, the Democrats had been knocking it out of the park with the speeches all week, especially from Michelle and Barack Obama, and it seemed like maybe they’d done enough to set the tone and keep Joe’s lead in the polls from slipping away...

... but man! Joe himself really brought it tonight! If this is what he brings to the final nine weeks of the campaign... I do believe he’ll unseat Trump in a decisive victory, on November 3rd, and become our 46th President!

This is a strange thing to see myself write, because... in the world we always knew... the one with no President Trump, and no Covid 19... a Joe Biden Presidency had always seemed laughably impossible.

Nobody even questioned why Joe didn’t run in 2016. We assumed he just knew there wouldn’t be a point... and had to be told that no... his son had died of cancer, and that that’s the only reason he sat that race out.

Had he not, neither Hillary, nor Bernie Sanders would’ve have gotten any traction at all in the primaries against a sitting VP.

As it was, Sanders came so close to nabbing the nomination that he forced the Democratic Party onto a more progressive path, which they are still on today... even if they once again snubbed him as the nominee.

The problem for Sanders in 2016, was that Hillary still had a valid, “it’s her turn,” card to play, and so the DNC made sure to honor it.

As I’ve looked at in past entries, it turned out that her, “it’s her turn,” card was radioactive... thanks to the impeachment of her husband back in the 1990s... because impeachment by the House is always radioactive and destroys the political careers of all Presidents, and those close to them... even though they’re never actually removed by the Senate.

Sanders’ problem in 2020 was... as I looked at in a more recent entry during the primaries... Obama had spent four years developing a master plan to defeat Trump.

Biden was dead in the water... I called him the walking dead... it seemed like Bernie would have the nomination in the bag... until!... Obama made some phone calls, got all the other Dem contenders to drop out, and pulled off the miracle of reanimatig the corpse of Joe’s campaign.

A clever mastermind... capable of performing miracles... and I complained that he’d better damn well be able to follow that up with even bigger miracles in November, or Obama had just damned the nation to a Trump dicatorship for life.

Since then, we’ve had the big pandemic... which has been the thing that’s really fucked Trump more than anything else... and given the lead to Biden more than anything else.

While I refuse to believe Obama or any other human agent, or agency conspired to create the pandemic... It does seem plausible for Obama to have anticipated that something would come along to screw Trump in 2020... because he’s been neglecting so much, and coasting for so long.

And anybody who’s been President of the United States for eight years would know, a global pandemic could easily be on such a list of somethings... that would fuck the economy hard enough to give Biden a fighting chance.

The impeachment, last January... was another factor, already set in stone. Trump was already radioactive before the primaries began in 2020... which must have figured into Obama’s calculations.

Now, however, in late August of 2020, we’re finally beginning to see this election the way Obama must have forseen it... with huge hunks of the Republican party jumping on board for Biden, because they so loathe Trump, and can stomach Joe (because he’s conservative enough)... and then BAM... Joe actually exceeds expectations with a rousing, lucid, heartfelt, perfectly timed speech to show us he’s not just NOT Trump... but the honest embodiment of everything both parties used to hold dear, before this whole nighmare began...

...not just some place holder, but a principled guy with the merits... the hard won merits... to lead our great nation.

And Biden’s acceptance speech really took away whatever onus there was on Kamala Harris as his VP pick. Because she looks amazing, being both a woman, and a person of color...

...but that could have been a bit too much if there were any credibility to the fear that Kamala would assume the Presidency three weeks in, after Joe caved to dementia. That would’ve made this race, Kamala V Trump... which would have been a much tougher sell to the weird new coalition between leftists, centrists, and never-Trump conservatives.

As things are tonight... those fears have been put to bed.

And with that... Harris is a safely brilliant VP pick.

As a VP... who won’t be running the nation tomorrow... she’s conservative enough for the right wing of the coalition to feel comfortable... because she was a cop after all. And we gotta back the blue!

Politics is a very complex game... but Obama is better at it than Trump... especially when Trump’s already been President for four years and really shown the planet the true horror of his criminality, stupidity, misleadership, and willingness to destroy both the constitution and the planet.

In my last few entries, Trump was trying to send in a rag-tag force of paramilitary Federal thugs, to terrorize protesters... and promising to ban TikTok... before relenting on both those horrifying plots.

Since then, he attempted to destroy the US Post Office, appointing a sycophant as Postmaster General, who immediately began a campaign of removing post boxes, shutting down sorting machines, and generally defunding the fuck out of every aspect of USPS operations, in a desperate attempt to suppress mail-in votes this November... when they would be more important than ever, due to the pandemic.

The PMG even warned the public that due to the slow downs, he could not guarantee any mail in votes would get in on time, and Trump ran with that ball and began raising the specter that the results of our next election could be in limbo for months or years!

Blatantly attempting to soften the ground for a claim to stay in office past the election... seemingly unaware that his term constitutionally ends on January 20th, 2021, election or no... and also that the Post Office is a constitutionally established entity, overseen by Congress.

And Congress reconvened early from their August Recess solely for the purpose of calling in this new Postmaster General for questioning... which has not yet happened, but was enough to weaken his knees and have him roll back all the draconian changes he’d made... saying he’ll do those budget cuts later after the election.

Score another one for Pelosi. And hopefully they will grill the fuck out of the new PMG, under oath, facing criminal charges... and make his backpedalling stick until after November... if he doesn’t go straight to prison.

And in today’s news, a different branch of the post office we did not know existed... which investigates crimes, and can arrest people... arrested Steve Bannon on mail fraud charges, for defrauding idiot Trump supporters who donated to a fraudulent, “build the wall,” fund.

That, and an appeal Judge also said today that Trump must turn over his tax returns.

It’s all coming up lemons for Trump right now, on the old slot machine... just before the RNC convention... and just as Biden is about to get a huge bump from the DNC convention.

September and October are the gauntlet and the crucible for this, most critical Presidential election in American history.

We’ll see how it plays out.

But at the moment, things are looking up.

And with that... it is most definitely time for bed.

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blackkudos · 8 years ago

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Gary Coleman

Gary Wayne Coleman (February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010) was an American actor and comedian, best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986) and for his small stature as an adult. He was described in the 1980s as "one of television's most promising stars". After a successful childhood acting career, Coleman struggled financially later in life. In 1989, he successfully sued his parents and business adviser over misappropriation of his assets, only to declare bankruptcy a decade later.

On May 28, 2010, Coleman died of epidural hematoma at age 42.

Early life

Coleman was born Gary Wayne Coleman in Zion, Illinois, outside Chicago, on February 8, 1968. He was adopted by W. G. Coleman, a fork-lift operator, and Edmonia Sue, a nurse practitioner. He suffered from focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, an autoimmune kidney disease. Because of his chronic illness, combined with the corticosteroids and other medications used to treat it, his growth was limited to 4 ft 8 in (1.42 m), and his face retained a childlike appearance well into adulthood. He underwent two unsuccessful kidney transplants in 1973 and 1984, and required daily dialysis.

Career

In 1974, Coleman's career began when he appeared in a commercial for Harris Bank. His line (after the announcer said, "You should have a Harris banker.") was "You should have a Hubert doll." "Hubert" was a stuffed lion representing the Harris bank logo. The same year, he appeared in an episode of Medical Center.

While best known for his role on Diff'rent Strokes, Coleman had appeared earlier on television, on The Jeffersons as Raymond, George Jefferson's nephew, and on Good Times as Penny's friend Gary. He also appeared in a 1977 pilot for a revival of The Little Rascals as Stymie. VH1 rated Coleman first on a list of "100 Greatest Child Stars" on television.

Diff'rent Strokes

Coleman was cast in the role of Arnold Jackson in Diff'rent Strokes, portraying one of two black brothers from Harlem adopted by a wealthy white widower in Manhattan. The series was broadcast from 1978 to 1986.

He became the most popular fixture of the series, enhanced by his character's catchphrase "What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?". At the height of his fame on Diff'rent Strokes, he earned $100,000 per episode. A Biography Channel documentary estimated he was left with a quarter of the original amount after paying his parents, advisers, lawyers, and taxes. He later successfully sued his parents and his former advisers for misappropriation of his finances and was awarded $1.3 million. According to Todd Bridges' autobiography Killing Willis, Coleman was made to work long hours on the set of Diff'rent Strokes, despite his age and health problems and this contributed to his being unhappy and separating himself from the cast.

Later character appearances

Coleman became a popular figure, starring in a number of feature films and television films, including On the Right Track and The Kid with the Broken Halo. The latter eventually served as the basis for The Gary Coleman Show in 1982. He also made video game appearances in The Curse of Monkey Island (1997) and Postal 2 (2003). In 2005, Coleman appeared in John Cena's music video for his single "Bad, Bad Man" (from the album You Can't See Me), Coleman played himself as a villain taking Michael Jackson and Madonna hostage. The video was a spoof of 80s culture, focusing on The A-Team.

Candidacy for Governor of California

In the 2003 California recall election, Coleman was a candidate for governor. This campaign was sponsored by the free newsweekly East Bay Express as a satirical comment on the recall. After Arnold Schwarzenegger declared his candidacy, Coleman announced that he would vote for Schwarzenegger. He placed 8th in a field of 135 candidates, receiving 14,242 votes.

Avenue Q

Coleman is parodied in Avenue Q, which won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical. A character presented as Coleman works as the superintendent of the apartment complex where the musical takes place. In the song "It Sucks to Be Me", he laments his fate. On Broadway, the role was originally portrayed by Natalie Venetia Belcon.

The show's creators Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez have said that the Coleman character is a personification of one of Avenue Q's central themes: that as children we are told we are "special", but upon entering adulthood we discover that life is not nearly as easy as we have been led to believe. They added that their original intent was for Coleman himself to play the Gary Coleman role, and he expressed interest in accepting it, but never showed up for a meeting scheduled to discuss it.

In 2005, Coleman announced his intention to sue the producers of Avenue Q for their depiction of him, although the lawsuit never materialized. At the 2007 New York Comic Con, Coleman said, "I wish there was a lawyer on Earth that would sue them for me."

Personal life

In a 1993 television interview, Coleman said he had twice attempted suicide by overdosing on pills. Around the same time he was living in Denver, Colorado, where he hosted a Sunday night show on local radio station KHIH titled Gary Coleman's Colorado High, in which he played light jazz and new-age music. He gave part of his salary to the Colorado Kidney Foundation.

In 2005, Coleman moved from Los Angeles to Santaquin, a small town about 50 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah, where he lived for the remainder of his life. In early 2007 he met Shannon Price, 22, on the set of the film Church Ball, where she was working as an extra. Price and Coleman married several months later. On May 1 and 2, 2008, they made a well-publicized appearance on the show Divorce Court to air their differences in an attempt to save their marriage. Nevertheless, they divorced in August 2008, citing irreconcilable differences and Coleman was granted an ex parte restraining order against Price to prevent her from living in his home when he was hospitalized after their divorce. According to a court petition later filed by Price, she and Coleman continued to live together in a common law marriage until his death. However, a judge ultimately ruled against Price after hearing evidence that she carried on affairs with other men during the time she claimed to be with Coleman, and moreover "physically abused Coleman in public, led him around by the hand like a child [and] displayed no physical affection toward him in front of anyone."

Financial struggles

In August 1999, Coleman filed for bankruptcy protection. Multiple people, he said, were responsible for his insolvency, "... from me, to accountants, to my adoptive parents, to agents, to lawyers, and back to me again."

Ongoing medical expenses contributed significantly to Coleman's chronic financial problems, and compelled him, at times, to resort to unusual fundraising activities. In 2008, for example, he auctioned an autographed pair of his trousers on eBay to help pay his medical bills. The auction attracted considerable attention, including fake bids up to $400,000. The trousers were eventually bought for $500 by comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who hung them from the rafters of his television studio.

Legal troubles

In 1989, Coleman sued his adoptive parents and former business advisor for $3.8 million over misappropriation of his trust fund, and won a $1,280,000 judgment in 1993.

In 1998, Coleman was charged with assault while he was working as a security guard. Tracy Fields, a Los Angeles bus driver and fan of Coleman's work on Diff'rent Strokes, approached him and requested his autograph while he was shopping for a bulletproof vest in a California mall. Coleman refused to give her an autograph, an argument ensued, and Fields reportedly mocked Coleman's lackluster career as an actor. Coleman punched Fields in the face several times in front of witnesses. He was arrested and later testified in court that she threatened him and he defended himself. "She wouldn't leave me alone. I was getting scared, and she was getting ugly," he said. Coleman pleaded no contest to one count of assault, received a suspended jail sentence, and was ordered to pay Fields' $1,665 hospital bill, as well as take anger management classes.

In 2007, Coleman was cited for misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Provo, Utah after a "heated discussion" in public with his wife.

In 2008, Coleman was involved in a car accident after an altercation at a Payson, Utah bowling alley which began when Colt Rushton, age 24, photographed Coleman without his permission; the two men argued, according to witnesses. In the parking lot, Coleman allegedly backed his truck into Rushton, striking his knee and pulling him under the vehicle, before hitting another car. Rushton was treated at a local hospital for minor injuries and released. Coleman later pleaded no contest to charges of disorderly conduct and reckless driving, and was fined $100. In 2010, he settled a civil suit related to the incident for an undisclosed amount.

In 2009, Coleman and Price were involved in a domestic dispute, after which his ex-wife was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, and both parties were cited for disorderly conduct.

In January 2010, months before his death, he was arrested on an outstanding domestic assault warrant in Santaquin, booked into the Utah County Jail, and released the following day.

Trains and model railroading

Coleman was an avid railfan, model railroader, and supporter of Amtrak. He became interested in trains sometime before the age of 5 during his frequent train trips to Chicago in support of his burgeoning acting career. Fans often saw him at stores specializing in model trains in areas in which he lived, and he worked part-time at Denver-area, Tucson-area, and California hobby stores to be around his hobby. Coleman built and maintained miniature railroads in his homes in several states. One of his train layouts appears in the September 1990 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Coleman is photographed on the front cover, with his "Rio Grande" layout. He preferred to model in HO scale, but modeled in other scales as well. One such model railroad was over 800 square-feet in size. Currently, at least one of Coleman's model railroads is being preserved in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Death and memorial

Very few details of Coleman's medical history have been made public. His short stature (4 feet, 8 inches or 1.42 meters) stemmed from congenital autoimmune kidney disease and its treatment. He underwent at least two kidney transplants early in his life and required frequent dialysis, which he preferred not to discuss. In 2009, Coleman underwent heart surgery, details of which were never made public, but he was known to have developed pneumonia postoperatively. In January 2010, Coleman was hospitalized after a seizure in Los Angeles, and in February he suffered another seizure on the set of The Insider television program.

On May 26, 2010, Coleman was admitted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, in critical condition after falling down the stairs at his home in Santaquin and hitting his head, possibly after another seizure, and suffering an epidural hematoma. According to a hospital spokesman, Coleman was conscious and lucid the next morning, but his condition subsequently worsened. By mid-afternoon on May 27, he was unconscious and on life support. He died at 12:05 pm MDT (18:05 UTC) on May 28 at the age of 42.

The casts of the Off Broadway production of Avenue Q in New York City and the Avenue Q National Tour in Dallas dedicated their May 28 performances to his memory, and the actors playing the part of Coleman paid tribute to him from the stage at the performances' conclusions. (The Coleman character remained in the show after modifications were made to relevant dialogue.)

The weekend after Coleman's death, a scheduled funeral was postponed and later canceled due to a dispute regarding the disposition of his estate and remains between Coleman's adoptive parents, Price, and former business associate Anna Gray. Coleman's former manager Dion Mial was involved initially, but withdrew after Coleman's 1999 will, which named Mial as executor and directed that his wake be "...conducted by those with no financial ties to me and can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Colemen [sic]", turned out to be superseded by a later one replacing Mial with Gray, and directing "...that there be no funeral service, wake, or other ceremony memorializing my passing."

Questions were also raised as to whether Price, who approved discontinuing Coleman's life support, was legally authorized to do so. The controversy was exacerbated by a photograph published on the front page of the tabloid newspaper The Globe depicting Price posed next to a comatose, intubated Coleman, under the headline, "It Was Murder!"

The hospital later issued a statement confirming that Coleman had completed an advance health care directive granting Price permission to make medical decisions on his behalf. An investigation by Santaquin police was closed on October 5, 2010, after the medical examiner ruled Coleman's death "accidental", and no evidence of wrongdoing could be demonstrated.

In June, Coleman's remains were cremated, in accordance with his wishes, after a Utah judge agreed that there was no dispute regarding that issue; but disposition of the ashes was delayed pending a judicial decision on permanent control of the estate. While Coleman's final will, signed in 2005, named Gray as executor and awarded his entire estate to her, Coleman and Price married in 2007. Although they divorced in 2008, Price claimed in a court petition that she remained Coleman's common-law wife, sharing bank accounts and presenting themselves publicly as husband and wife, until his death; an assertion that, if validated by the court, would make her the lawful heir.

In May 2012 Judge James Taylor ruled that while Price had indeed lived in Coleman's home after their marriage ended, their relationship at the time of his death failed to meet Utah's standard for a common-law marriage. The disposition of his ashes remains unreported. Price said that were she granted disposition, she would scatter the ashes at the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah as a tribute to Coleman's lifelong love of trains.

Wikipedia

#Gary Coleman

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cathrynstreich · 5 years ago

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The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View

In high-end real estate, life goes on.

A six-acre Southampton compound just a two-hour drive from New York City sold for $57.5 million in April, and Tyler Perry’s old 35,000-square-foot mansion on the banks of Atlanta’s Chattahoochee River sold for $15 million in May.

In less rarified but still pricey destinations, such as Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a $5.5 million co-op stalled mid-transaction amid early pandemic fears but sold at a slightly adjusted price in June. Some Florida mansions that languished for more than 1,200 days on market pre-pandemic are now seeing multiple offers as the wealthy seek spaces large enough to house their multi-generational families.

Diane Hartley, ILHM

“Early in the COVID-19 crisis the affluent, like most people, hit the pause button on real estate, opting essentially to stay safe by staying put,” says Diane Hartley, president of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing (ILHM).

Hartley notes, however, that the high-end market is a want market, not a need market—after weeks or months of sheltering in place, wish lists began to emerge.

Mike Miedler, Century 21

“The pandemic had people at every level spending more time within their walls and re-evaluating, ‘what home means to me,'” says Mike Miedler, president and CEO of Century 21 Real Estate. “As their priorities shifted, the wealthy began to pursue what they wanted—more space, more privacy and more at-home amenities: a home gym, his-and-her offices, a private dock or helipad, even space to homeschool their children if it came to that.”

For high earners with workplace flexibility, there was an instant surge of interest in homes outside crowded urban areas.

Paul Boomsma, LeadingRE

“Bedroom communities on trainlines into urban destinations are seeing renewed popularity, especially larger homes with tennis courts and swimming pools, which were previously waning in popularity,” notes Paul Boomsma, president and CEO, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® (LeadingRE). “In many of the nation’s most desirable destinations, the market today is outperforming last year’s numbers, with second or third home purchases also on the rise.”

REALTORS® contemplating a dormant spring were more than pleasantly surprised.

Chris Kelly, Ebby Halliday, REALTORS®

“If demand in the upper tier in March and April were at a veritable standstill, May lit a match under it,” says Chris Kelly, president, Ebby Halliday, REALTORS® in Dallas, Texas. “Unlike the last recession, when real estate lost value, affluent consumers today see real estate as the answer to privacy, on-site amenities, a safe place for the family and a stable place to park their cash.”

With inventory low as demand continues to surge, most high-end properties are selling for more than 90 percent of their list price, Kelly says, and multiple offers are becoming more commonplace, especially for homes in move-in condition.

That’s a statistic from the July ILHM report, which shows the inventory level of single-family homes in greater Dallas’ Collin County region in June down by 58 percent—barely changed from May figures. But the number of sales is up 22 percent from a year ago and 60 percent over the prior 30 days.

Leianne Messina, Coldwell Banker

Numbers like these come as no surprise to Atlanta agent Leianne Messina, a top producer with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate who specializes in the upscale market.

“The clients I serve are at the top echelons,” Messina says. “They can afford to live wherever they wish and fly private planes where they need to go—and they are flocking to the lake areas of greater Atlanta from states like New York, New Jersey and Florida, where prices for similar properties are much higher.”

Just a weekend ago, she says, she fielded 25 offers on a $1 million-plus property that sold for well over the asking price.

Messina says she is also assisting investors who are flush with cash, or who are taking advantage of rock bottom interest rates to buy tired properties, have them renovated and reap huge profits turning them over to buyers for whom price is not a concern.

Lennox Scott, John L. Scott Real Estate

“The luxury market is definitely back,” says Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO, John L. Scott Real Estate, serving four Northwest states. “For Seattle homes listed at $1 million and above, where there is a shortage of inventory and surging interest, we are seeing intense activity—perhaps the highest in our history—and we expect that trend to continue as travel restrictions ease and buyers feel safer coming in from other states.”

June figures for the Seattle area, reports ILHM, show inventory levels down by 25 percent, but sales up by 43 percent over the last year and as much as 73 percent over May’s sales.

“Other hot spots are emerging across the nation,” says Hartley. “In Palm Beach, Fla., June sales were up 18 percent over a year ago and 87 percent over May. In the most active price band—between $4.5 million and $5 million—sales might have been higher had there been more available inventory. The same could be said of some areas in Arizona, California and in the wide-open spaces of Idaho and Montana.”

Mark Pessin, ONE Luxe

REALTORS® specializing in upper-tier properties were ready to meet the delayed spring surge, says Mark Pessin, chief learning officer for Realty ONE Group’s new ONE Luxe upscale division and designated broker for the group’s San Diego offices in California.

“In many ways,” Pessin says, “the luxury market was better prepared for COVID-19 than other sectors because high-end agents have been using 3D video tours and similar technologies with great success for some time—and the wealthy often depend on long-standing relationships with trusted real estate advisors to guide them toward the properties that best meet their needs without expending a lot of time or energy.

In today’s environment, he notes, when seeking the right property is more of a health concern for wealthy buyers than an economic concern, brokers who have developed such relationships and mastered the art of the virtual sale have been more than ready to meet the challenge.

Bess Freedman, Brown Harris Stevens

“In the New York City market, summer rentals in the Hamptons are always brisk,” says Bess Freedman, chief executive officer, Brown Harris Stevens, which serves the Manhattan, Hamptons, Palm Beach and Miami markets, and recently folded Halstead Real Estate into its ranks. “This year, those summer rentals filled up faster and earlier because of COVID-19, and the competition was super-heated.”

With changing tax strategies that impact the wealthy making it problematic for New Yorkers to change permanent residence, Freedman says, interest has increased in finding the perfect second home within easy reach of the city.

“Not all square footage is created equally,” she says. “Buyers today are looking for privacy and updated luxury in a location that offers peace of mind, and our tech-savvy brokers are using virtual means to help clients find what will suit them.”

Price is often no object, says Freedman, although as sellers who took their homes off the market early in the pandemic slowly come back, most properties are fairly priced.

“Our index confirms that the higher the price point, the slower the turnover,” notes Hartley. “And while changing priorities are fueling interest, a $20 million home is not flying off the market or met with the same buyer frenzy as homes at lower price points.”

The basic principles still apply, she notes, especially in a low-inventory environment: A renovated, well-priced house in a desirable location will sell at close to asking price.

As fall approaches, valid concerns make it difficult to predict the path forward: school re-openings; stock market volatility; new surges of coronavirus cases and/or the emergence of a vaccine; and, not least, the state-by-state patchwork of rules, restrictions, regulations and requirements that make relocating a challenge.

“Many months into this pandemic, we are still trying to get a handle on what the new normal will be like,” says Kelly. “But if present demand is an indication, luxury real estate will see a strong second half and momentum going into the New Year.”

Barbara Pronin is a contributing editor to RISMedia.

The post The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View appeared first on RISMedia.

The Luxury Market Mid-Pandemic: A Bird’s Eye View published first on https://thegardenresidences.tumblr.com/

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walterfrodriguez · 5 years ago

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Staying on the sunny side: South Florida resi brokers see upside in coronavirus

A photo illustration of 620 Arvida Parkway (Credit: Compass, iStock)

As the rest of the country was shutting down in March, South Florida’s top brokers were getting phone calls from wealthy out-of-towners looking for high-end homes they could rent — preferably with a pool and spacious backyard, and possibly a tennis court.

The majority of inquiries came from New York, though some also came from other states hit hard by the pandemic, including Michigan and Illinois.

Another unexpected source of rental and broker fee income? Those already living in South Florida condos were looking for space where their kids could run around, away from common areas and elevators. At least two condo dwellers requested and rented the backyards of homes with pools, for $25,000 and $30,000 a month. One family requested to rent an empty lot for sale in Miami Beach, so their children could use it as a playground while parks were closed.

During the first weeks of the pandemic, luxury brokers closed on rentals ranging from $15,000 a month up to $85,000 a month for waterfront homes in Miami Beach and in other high-end markets such as Palm Beach.

“The lease part of the business has definitely picked up,” said Danny Hertzberg, part of the Jills Zeder Group at Coldwell Banker. “There was anticipation that the luxury rentals were going to pull way back. The inventory has never been more limited, and prices are higher than at the start of the year.”

Brokers who normally handle tens of millions of dollars in residential sales a year have shifted their focus to leasing single-family homes, as closings — regardless of price — dropped significantly in April. Though leases are harder to track, brokers are reporting an uptick in rentals and hoping those clients will eventually turn into buyers.

In April, sales of luxury condos in Miami-Dade County plummeted 53 percent to 46 closings, according to MLS data provided by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty. In the same period, 53 single-family homes in Miami-Dade County priced at $1 million and up sold, marking a 35 percent annual decline.

Peter Zalewski, a principal at Condo Vultures and founder of CraneSpotters, is predicting condo pricing will fall.

“The day of reckoning is coming,” he said during a recent TRD Talks Live webinar. “You’ve got a bunch of people looking to take down stuff,” Zalewski added, “and they’re not going to be nice, and they’re not going to pay you what you think it’s worth.”

Extended getaways?

Dora Puig, a broker and owner of Luxe Living Realty, said she closed six rental contracts in the first few weeks of the pandemic. She secured a three-month extension on a $20,000-plus a month rental on the Venetian Islands, and another extension for a rental unit at the Four Seasons Residences at the Surf Club in Surfside, for more than $28,000 a month.

One Sotheby’s International Realty agents Albert Justo and George Burns, top producers at the Miami-based brokerage, received calls from renters looking for homes asking between $15,000 and $70,000 a month.

“We already had a steady traffic of New Yorkers coming down, but more so during this crisis,” Justo said. “Certain tenants are already renting, and they extended their leases.”

Some notable sales have also closed in the past two months. In late March, David and Victoria Beckham closed on a $19.8 million unit at the One Thousand Museum condo tower in downtown Miami designed by the late Zaha Hadid.

But the pace of sales doesn’t compare to before the pandemic, and the South Florida market is still grappling with a glut of condos. In April, condo inventory in Miami-Dade more than doubled compared to the same period in 2019. For units priced below $1 million, there were nearly 20 months of supply as of last month, up about 100 percent year-over-year.

Ron Shuffield, president and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty, said pending sales rose in the first week of May compared to the first week of April, when South Florida was on lockdown. The supply surge is also temporary, he noted.

It doesn’t help that many condo buildings have shut down their amenities and restricted move-in and move-outs during the lockdown, in many cases halting showings and slowing down the approval process for renters and buyers. That has led to single-family home sales outpacing condo sales for the first time since 2003, though Shuffield said that it’s “way too early” to tell if the trend will continue.

International buyers, who have been having a difficult time traveling to South Florida, are noticeably absent from the market, as well.

Though brokerages and agents were quick to flex their remote marketing skills, pushing out e-blasts with virtual tours and open houses, many high-end buyers won’t pull the trigger on a purchase without walking the property themselves, Hertzberg noted. He added that the shift toward video will likely lead to potential buyers touring fewer properties in person.

“A lot of people are really trying to buy,” Hertzberg said. “It’s very challenging to live in New York City right now.”

For now, many are predicting, and hoping, that renters who signed six- to 12-month leases will make offers on the properties they’re leasing or look to purchase other homes nearby. Unlike the Hamptons, where the temperature can dip into the 20s in the winter, South Florida brokers maintain, Miami is a desirable destination year-round.

“People are now realizing how … doable it is, to work from home,” argued Phil Gutman, president of Brown Harris Stevens Miami. “Why go back? South Florida will be a huge beneficiary from the coronavirus pandemic.”

Big-ticket sales

In April, Leon Medical Centers founder Benjamin Leon Jr. sold his waterfront mansion at 620 Arvida Parkway in Gables Estates for $49 million — marking the second most expensive single-family home sale ever in Miami-Dade.

That same month, Pharrell Williams also paid $30 million for a waterfront home at 700 Casuarina Concourse in the same gated community, reportedly rushing to close so he could stay there during the quarantine.

620 Arvida Parkway

The same is happening in Palm Beach. Broker Jim McCann, of Premier Estate Properties, has gotten daily inquiries primarily from the Big Apple. Initially, callers wanted to rent houses, but now people are focusing more on buying properties and relocating — fueling a long-term trend driven by Florida’s favorable weather and lack of personal income tax.

In May, Douglas Elliman agent Cyril Matz sold a unit on Fisher Island for $13 million, including $800,000 for the furniture. The buyer, a businessman from Ohio, only toured the unit once, prior to the state shutting down. Matz said the contract went hard on March 10, and he thought the buyer would cancel, but the deal went through.

23 Tahiti Beach Island Road

Though some agents experienced a freeze in business, that is now starting to trickle back in as cities and counties roll out their reopening plans.

Nelson Gonzalez, a top broker in Miami Beach with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM, said his requests for rentals have started to shift back to homes for purchase. He had four deals under contract prior to the pandemic, and while three claimed force majeure, Gonzalez said he has two new buyers.

“We’re showing with masks and gloves and booties,” he said, “but we’re doing showings.”

Shuffield said the data for April only shows a snapshot of the full year, and he is optimistic that South Florida will bounce back faster than other major U.S. markets. He called the pandemic a health crisis, not a financial crisis, but still acknowledged the pain that many agents and brokerages are experiencing.

“April is going to be a month people are not going to like,” Shuffield said, referring to when the final data is reported. “For the last six months, we’ve been on the trajectory for a fabulous 2020, and we may still have a fabulous 2020.”

The post Staying on the sunny side: South Florida resi brokers see upside in coronavirus appeared first on The Real Deal Miami.

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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$600,000 Homes in Ohio, Vermont and Virginia

Cincinnati | $599,000

A 1908 Greek and Renaissance Revival house with seven bedrooms, two full bathrooms and three half bathrooms, on a 0.72-acre lot

Designed for Frank Herschede, a clock manufacturer, this sandstone-clad Beaux-Arts house is the best-known work of Samuel S. Godley, a Cincinnati architect. It was the Herschede family manse until 1954, then a funeral home and then a law office. In the 1980s, Dale Schlanser, a Packard automobile salesman and collector, converted the property back to a private residence and expanded the garage.

It is on Reading Road, a major thoroughfare in the historic North Avondale neighborhood, five miles northeast of downtown and two and a half miles northeast of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.

Size: 8,502 square feet

Price per square foot: $70

Indoors: Ascending an exterior flight of concrete steps, you pass through an ornate wrought-iron grate into a marble vestibule, and then through mahogany double doors into a grand entrance that culminates in a double-winged staircase.

Mahogany pocket doors open to front parlors on either side. On the left is the more feminine room, with red-striped silk wall coverings framed by white-painted carved wood panels; the working gas fireplace (one of six in the home) and ceiling have gilded details. On the right, the more masculine parlor is trimmed in polished mahogany and the wall silk is cream. It opens to a solarium with mosaic floor tile.

Beyond this room is a 19-by-20-foot dining room with hand-tooled leather wall panels flanked by mahogany pilasters, a marble fireplace, gilded plaster ceiling molding and two sets of French doors with etched glass and transom lights leading to the solarium. (A second sun porch is off the back of this room.)

Across the hallway is the kitchen; it was renovated in the 1980s with floor-to-ceiling wood cabinetry and connects to an eat-in butler’s pantry with a wall of built-ins for storing china and other tableware.

The staircase has a bronze railing and is ornamented with a three-panel leaded-green-glass window. At the top is a parlor with hand-painted walls and Art Nouveau-style French doors opening to a balcony.

A room used as a library is at the center of the floor, and four bedrooms are at the corners. Two of the bedrooms, with matching French doors and balconies, flank the parlor. Like many rooms in the home, they have oak floors with boards laid in concentric rectangles. Both also have fireplaces. The bathroom off the room used as the master has a pedestal sink and a stall shower. The two rear bedrooms are set up as offices.

The original 18-by-47-foot ballroom is on the third floor, reached by a back staircase. That level also includes three bedrooms and a full bathroom.

Finally, there is an enormous basement with a laundry room.

Outdoor space: A driveway passes under a portico and continues to a large paved area in the back. The original two-bay garage was expanded to hold five vehicles. Upstairs is a one-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, a full bath and two additional rooms.

Taxes: $13,367 (2018, based on a tax assessment of $542,220)

Contact: Adam Sanregret, Cincinnati Historic Homes, Coldwell Banker West Shell, 513-259-3001; coldwellbanker.com

Landgrove, Vt. | $589,000

A 1991 post-and-beam house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, on a 19.1-acre lot

This Cape Cod-style house was built as a year-round residence for the owner, who later used it as a vacation home. It is in a rural town about 15 miles northeast of Manchester and the same distance southwest of Ludlow. Landgrove lacks a business district, but shops, restaurants and galleries can be found in the surrounding communities of Londonderry, Peru and Weston, all within five miles. The Bromley Mountain and Magic Mountain ski areas are less than 15 minutes away. The Stratton Mountain and Okemo Mountain resorts are within 25 minutes. Boston is about three hours southeast, and New York City is about three and a half hours southwest.

Size: 2,778 square feet

Price per square foot: $212

Indoors: A marble-tiled foyer leads to a room with hardwood floors and a white-painted timber ceiling with open beams. A Rumford fireplace is on one side, and an open kitchen with maple cabinets and Vermont marble countertops is on the other. In between are seating and dining areas illuminated by six-over-six sash windows. A glass door opens to the back.

A windowed coatroom with built-ins for clothing and gear is immediately to the right of the front door, and there is a small study with built-in bookshelves off the living room. The main floor has a bathroom with marble floor tile and a shower.

The three bedrooms on the second floor include a master with maple built-in bookshelves and a vaulted ceiling pierced with windows. The hall bathroom has a marble floor and a combined tub and shower.

There is a bonus room under the roof gable on the third floor, and a walkout basement that includes a playroom with a wood-burning stove.

Outdoor space: Cross-country skiing trails, stone walls, specimen trees and perennial gardens are features of the rolling property. There is also a storage shed.

Taxes: $11,696

Contact: Claudia Harris, Mary Mitchell Miller Real Estate, 802-379-0347; mmmrealestate.com

Richmond, Va. | $599,000

A 1907 brick house with four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, on a 0.09-acre lot

This house is in a historic neighborhood known as the Fan district, because of its shape. It is a block from West Broad Street, a business-lined artery leading directly to downtown, two miles southeast. Virginia Commonwealth University’s campus is a mile east. The owner is Alyse Auernheimer, one of the listing agents.

Size: 2,986 square feet

Price per square foot: $201

Indoors: An original glass front door opens to a hallway divided by a row of Corinthian columns from a pair of connected parlors to the right. These rooms have nine-foot ceilings, white-painted floors and exposed-brick fireplaces with mirrored overmantels (the fireplaces are currently not in use).

They are followed by the original dining room, now used as a family room, with parquet floors and a fireplace. This room leads into a kitchen with wood floors, white cabinets and a commercial range with six burners, a griddle and two ovens. The top of the breakfast bar slides to one side to reveal stairs that descend into the basement.

Three of the upstairs bedrooms include decorative fireplaces, and the fourth has large windows and was used as a painting studio. The master faces the street and includes three closets and a private bathroom with a claw-foot tub.

Outdoor space: The home has a picturesque, columned front porch and a large deck off the kitchen on the side. The backyard is fenced. There is off-street parking for two cars.

Taxes: $6,588

Contact: Kathryn Oti or Alyse Auernheimer, Scott Garnett Team at One South Realty Group, 804-467-8901; forsale.onesouthrealty.com

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

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thisdaynews · 5 years ago

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The 7 Big Bets that will decide who wins the White House in 2020

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-7-big-bets-that-will-decide-who-wins-the-white-house-in-2020/

The 7 Big Bets that will decide who wins the White House in 2020

Some of 2020’s Big Bets are obvious. Joe Biden is betting that the support of African-Americans and labor will compensate for the diverse vulnerabilities of his campaign. Donald Trump is betting that the economy stays robust for another year and that he emerges from a likely House impeachment, paradoxically, with his supporters energized and his reelection prospects brightened.

But many of the most important wagers shaping 2020 strategies are not as visible to the naked eye. At the end of last week, we assembled a small group of POLITICO campaign reporters to illuminate the issue. One theme runs through their answers: There is a dividing line between candidates betting that old rules of presidential politics will reassert themselves at last, against those who believe that the United States is in a transformational moment in its politics manifested in ways that go far beyond Trump.

Here’s a rundown of seven big bets on the 2020 table:

The Big Bet: The campaign in 2019 was mostly B.S.

The debates, Twitter, endless cable chatter, all those POLITICO stories: It’s possible they amount to very little.

The person with the biggest bet on this scenario is Joe Biden.

Yes, it looks for now like the party has moved leftward and is hungering for innovation and inspiration in ways that don’t look promising for a prosaic, steady-as-she-goes moderate who first came to Washington in 1972.

Biden’s bet, said Chicago-based reporter Natasha Korecki, who has spent much of the past year reporting on Iowa, is that “the primary electorate is really looking for a moderate, that the moderates are the ones who are really going to show up, the sort of older-sector of the Democratic Party, they’re the ones that are going to come to the polls and that are going to caucus.”

This is the same bet, with considerably longer odds, being waged by other moderates like Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, or Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

The Big Bet: The DNC knows what it is doing

Historically, the great winnowing agent of presidential politics is small, cold, rural states. Iowa and New Hampshire voters are the wolves who thin weak cattle from the herd before most Americans get to pass judgment. Not fair, necessarily, but someone’s got to do it.

This year, party operatives in Washington decided they wanted to start this lupine function early. The thinking: there was no coherent way to have a nominating contest with two-dozen candidates still in contention by the end of 2019. The way to thin the herd was to make candidates clear steadily rising thresholds for support in polls and in total number of contributors.

By appearances so far, this approach has created incentives for candidates to move leftward, since this is more likely to generate small-dollar contributions from activists nationally, and also to pulse national polling numbers. It has also given openings to candidates like tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who in earlier times might have been shooed from the race as a novelty candidate but this year has earned a spot on the debate stage, as well as ample publicity.

There’s no way to know whether the DNC’s bet pays off til a year from now, when we see what happens in the general election. The person with the biggest bet that the DNC has screwed up is Donald Trump, whose team is hoping Democrats pick a nominee who they can portray as too liberal or too out-of-touch with the values of swing state voters.

So far, said reporter Alex Thompson, “Despite a lot of grumbling from the campaigns, voters haven’t seemed [to care]—there hasn’t been an outcry to let Steve Bullock on the stage. It seems so far that the bet may have paid off.”

The Big Bet: Iowa is feeling young at heart

Earlier this year, it was common to hear candidates prattling about how times have changed, that the early states wouldn’t matter as much as in past elections, that this time it would truly be a national nominating contest.

As reporter Elena Schneider notes, there were good reasons for saying this, or even authentically believing it: The DNC rules mentioned above produced incentives to try to generate national enthusiasm rather than for candidates to simply park themselves in Des Moines and Manchester.

The candidates have almost uniformly abandoned this talk. They are counting on winning or beating expectations by a wide margin in the Iowa caucus on Feb. 3, New Hampshire primary on Feb. 11, and, with luck, still being serious contenders for the Nevada caucuses on Feb. 22 and the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29.

The biggest possibility of a major race-altering event is if Iowa voters decide to snub three of the oldest presidential candidates in history: Biden (who will turn 77 later this month), Sen. Bernie Sanders (who turned 78 in September) and Warren (who turned 70 in June).

“Not to put this too crassly,” said reporter Chris Cadelago, “but [younger candidates] are betting that Iowa is going to look at this field and look to the next generation of candidates and not necessarily promote or elevate one of these 70-somethings.”

Especially if Biden is knocked out, the generational argument would have ideological repercussions, since it would allow a younger candidate like Pete Buttigieg (38) or Kamala Harris (54) with more centrist views to gain momentum.

The Big Bet: Bob Dylan is right again

“You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a’changin,” the poet laureate of the 1960s cultural revolutions sang (if you can call it that) in the fall of 1963, 21 years after Biden was born and 19 years before Buttigieg was.

Several candidates in the race, in their positions on expanding health care, decriminalizing illegal border crossings, providing reparations to descendants of slavery, and so on are betting that the ideological pendulum of American politics has swung left in decisive ways.

This may be the most consequential strategic divide of the Democratic race. Biden has spent most of his five decades in politics believing that the key for a successful progressive politician is to play defense — to avoid being caricatured as too liberal, to provide reassurance to voters concerned that the party has drifted ideologically and culturally away from its working-class roots.

Warren, the greatest disrupter of Democratic politics this year, is a former Republican who believes the opposite: It is time for progressives to play a much more aggressive and undiluted brand of offense.

This is fundamentally a wager on the nature of the times, which are being shaped by a younger and more diverse electorate eager to use politics as a leveling instrument to attack entrenched power in government and corporate America alike.

“Some are more moderate, some are more to the left, but almost every single candidate is running to the left of where Barack Obama was in 2007, 2008,” noted Thompson. “There is an implicit bet that the country has, if not moved to the left, then at least voters will not be repulsed by some of these positions that are further to the left and they’ll be united in their desire to oust Trump from the Oval Office.”

The Big Bet: Elizabeth Warren has a plan … to not be flattened by her own plan

“I’ve got a plan for that,” the Massachusetts senator says, a mantra supported by detailed proposals articulated in crisp, clear, and emphatic words.

Except … Warren was murky for months in 2019 about whether her support of “Medicare for All” was actually an endorsement of Sanders’ plan to essentially blow up Obamacare and abolish private health insurance. Eventually, and eager to leave no daylight between her agenda and the demands of many liberal activists, she clarified that this was indeed the case — without matching Sanders’ concession that this expensive dream would require raising taxes for the middle class.

In recent days, she has tried to fill in that gap. And, in doing so, she has ignited fears among many in the Democratic operative class that she has needlessly put herself to the left of the general electorate and created a big vulnerability that could be exploited by Trump.

Warren’s bet, in the eyes of several POLITICO reporters who have watched her closely, is that this unconventional politician believes she has a conventional skill: The ability to turn on the Fog Machine when needed.

Cadelago notes that Warren has signaled that she has several priorities, and so Medicare for All wouldn’t necessarily be the first thing she pushes for. Korecki predicted that as a general election nominee Warren might wiggle out of her primary position and say it was merely an aspirational goal. Reporter Holly Otterbein, on the other hand, noted recent New York Times-Siena College polling that showed Medicare for All has the support of 73 percent of likely Iowa caucus voters, and that Democratic consultants might be wrong in warning her current stance is “totally crazy.”

The Big Bet: The 2020 primary electorate really will be different

One candidate who actually could survive middling performances in the early states likely is Sanders. He attracts roughly 15 percent support in polls, and this support looks durable. His most ardent backers regard him as different, not just a politician but the leader of a movement.

Sanders’ big bet is that this movement has the capacity to grow, and to appeal to voters who have not previously participated in Democratic contests. If true, this could give him staying power in the race even if he has yet to score big victories by spring. From early on, Sanders has demonstrated strength with younger voters, with Hispanics, and with working-class voters.

Otterbein notes the obvious risk: Lots of candidates historically have pledged to expand the electorate and not many have been successful. “On the other hand,” she observes, “there was evidence in 2018 that some of these groups actually did see a real big boost in turnout. Latinos — their voter turnout increased more than any other ethnic group. And the younger generations outvoted the Boomers and older generations.”

The Big Bet: No one cares what we think

The “we” in this instance is not just a bunch of POLITICO reporters. It is the larger community we are part of, including other news organizations, the professional operatives and analysts who tend to be our sources, the embedded assumptions that tend to inform our work.

It is a large group of candidates that hopes this bet comes true, including any Democrat who is not currently in what is now regarded as the top tier (Biden, Warren, Sanders, and, barely, Buttigieg) and is laboring against media presumptions that they have only the faintest and most implausible chance of being president. (Bennet, Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, among others, have all been forced to take this bet.)

But two people in particular are organizing their candidacies around the proposition that a media-operative class is simply incapable of understanding the radical and disruptive character of the times.

On the Democratic side, the person who is the most vivid example of this is Andrew Yang, whose “big bet,” said Schneider, “is, basically, we all don’t get it.” His de facto slogan, she added, could be this year’s new derisive phrase, “OK, boomer.”

But, above all, the person whose fate hangs on this bet is Trump.

The media-operative class believes: You know, on balance, it might not be a great idea to promiscuously shred norms about how presidents are supposed to comport themselves, to gratuitously insult people who don’t support you and even some who do, to lurch daily from outrage to uproar to scandal, all culminating in a likely impeachment trial in the winter before your reelection campaign.

Trump says: I don’t care.

His big bet, concluded Thompson, was highlighted in his recent television ad that said, “He’s no Mr. Nice Guy, but sometimes it take a Donald Trump to change Washington.” The wager is that “his projection of strength and willingness to throw elbows and jabs will end up being more appealing, despite all the controversy.”

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airsoftreview · 6 years ago

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The Guide to Denver Real Estate (for the Design-Obsessed)

Illustration by Claire Rollet

Most home-buyers call their real estate agent with a “must” list at the ready—a catalog of wants and whims ranging from the number of bathrooms needed to retain familial sanity to walkability to the newest hipster bar. But the aesthetes among us are on the hunt for even more: a bona fide architectural gem—an antidote to the soulless new builds popping up around town. “There’s this shift happening in that people are wanting homes with more detail and charm, and not just a blank slate,” says real estate agent Heidi Cox of Distinct Real Estate.

To help you find those homes, we’ve created the following rundown of where to look for architectural beauties in and around Denver, the drawbacks and benefits of six common styles, how to maximize your MLS search, what to know about historic designations, and much more. Whether you’re dreaming of waking up each morning in a classic Denver Square, or you’ve already furnished a mid-mod ranch in your mind (Eames forever!), there’s help for you here.

Our panel of real estate experts:

Ron Buss, Realtor at Coldwell Banker Dee Chirafisi, broker and founder of Kentwood City Properties Heidi Cox, Realtor at Distinct Real Estate Lane Walsh, broker and owner of Dwell Denver Real Estate

By the Numbers: So, What’s It Going to Cost You? A renovated Victorian in Congress Park. Photo by Raul Garcia. Styling by Kerri Cole.

Short answer: It varies, but be prepared to pay more for less. For example, “midcentury moderns usually don’t have basements, which means they’re typically lower square footage,” says Realtor Lane Walsh of Dwell Denver Real Estate. “And architectural styles with smaller floor plans sell for a higher price per square foot simply because of the math. If a 900-square-foot bungalow in West Highland sells for $530,000, the price per square foot is about $588. If a 2,000-square-foot Denver Square in Park Hill sells for $900,000, the price per square foot is $450. So even though the Denver Square is more expensive, the bungalow has a higher price per square foot.” Ultimately, says Realtor Dee Chirafisi of Kentwood City Properties, the cost of a historical property is often determined by how much it has been renovated: “A Victorian with original electrical, plumbing, and kitchen is likely going to be much less expensive than an [updated] midcentury modern.”

Know the Lingo: Denver Architecture 101

Presenting six historical home styles that are iconic to Denver—plus where to find them and what pitfalls to expect.

Queen Anne Victorian Queen Anne Victorian. Photo credit: Getty Images.

Leave it to an architectural style named for a royal to be ornate. From 1880 to 1910, these amped-up Victorians were the ne plus ultra in modern living, with scalloped shingles to draw eyes up to gables, turned spindles zhushing up porches, and interiors so cinematic you’d think you were on a movie set.

Expert Intel: “Victorians can have very challenging floor plans,” Realtor Lane Walsh says. Kentwood City Properties’ Dee Chirafisi agrees: “It’s difficult to do any kind of main-floor master suite because they just weren’t laid out that way—although a lot of people do really lovely additions on the back.”

Where to Look: Baker, City Park West, City Park South, Curtis Park, Sloan’s Lake, Washington Park West

Denver Square Denver Square. Photo by Emily Minton Redfield.

As the 20th century got rolling, Foursquares (known locally as Denver Squares) were the hot home type: two stories and generous porches all contained in the form of a—you guessed it—square. This grand home style’s distinct rooms are the opposite of open-plan living, and that’s just how homeowners liked it.

Expert Intel: “One drawback of these homes is that they have a central staircase that tends to break up the floor plan,” Chirafisi says.

Where to Look: Baker, Capitol Hill, Cheesman Park, City Park West, City Park South, Five Points, Highland, Washington Park

Craftsman Bungalow Craftsman Bungalow. Photo by Emily Minton Redfield.

These charming odes to the Arts and Crafts movement flourished in Denver between 1900 and 1930 and are best known for their clapboard or brick exteriors, gable rooflines with exposed rafter tails, and wide porches perfect for whiling away an afternoon. Interior layouts are cozy as can be (read: often cramped).

Expert Intel: “Since they’re typically one-level [floor plans], there’s a bed and bath on the main floor, which can be a plus,” Chirafisi says. “The drawback is that some people think they’re dark because they have large overhanging roofs, which were done intentionally to create shade and keep living spaces cooler.”

Where to Look: City Park, Congress Park, Platt Park, West Highland, Washington Park

Tudor Revival Tudor Revival House. Photo courtesy of zsiteportal.

Hansel and Gretel would feel at home in a Tudor, thanks to the straight-out-of-a-fairytale decorative wood—called half-timbering—that adds interest to the brick, stucco, or stone facades. A coveted style in the 1920s, Tudors are also known for their hipped and gable roofs and decorated chimneys. Inside? Details galore, including arched doorways.

Expert Intel: “The upstairs is often not a true second floor, because the roofline is not dormered—so a tall person can stand in the middle of a room, but might hit his head on the ceiling if he moves four feet in either direction,” Walsh says. “Also, [Tudors] don’t have the open floor plan that many buyers these days are looking for.”

Where to Look: Belcaro, Bonnie Brae, Mayfair, Montclair, Park Hill, Washington Park

Mediterranean Revival Mediterranean Revival. Photo credit: TheWBBA

Silver Screen aficionados obsess over these tile-roofed gems, which call to mind the artful architectural wonders of Old Hollywood. Trendy in Colorado in the 1920s, the beauties are known to feature white stucco facades, low pitched gable roofs, and arcaded entry porches.

Expert Intel: “Mediterranean Revivals tend to be modest in size, around 1,200 square feet,” Walsh says. “Those tile roofs can be a pain to replace—the average replacement cost of a regular asphalt shingle roof is about $10,000-$20,000, and a tile roof is $35,000-$40,000, depending on whether you choose clay or concrete. However, tile roofs can last up to 100 years! So I guess, in the long run, the price evens out.”

Where to Look: South Park Hill and Sloan’s Lake

Midcentury Ranch Midcentury Ranch. Photo by Daniel O’Connor.

You can thank California for this oh-so-popular style. Single-story midcentury ranches have been beloved since the postwar boom for good reasons: stair-free ease of living, open floor plans, and—key for Denver—attached garages.

Expert Intel: “Midcentury-modern homes have flat or slightly slanted roofs, and as such have very little insulation between the ceiling and roof,” says Ron Buss, Realtor for Coldwell Banker. “They also tend to have larger, single-pane windows; unless they’ve been replaced, they can lose heat in the winter.”

Where to Look: Arapahoe Acres (Englewood), Arapaho Hills (Littleton), Bel Aire (Wheat Ridge), Bonnie Brae, Harvey Park, Hilltop, Krisana Park, Lynwood, Montclair, and South Dahlia Lane

Find Your Dream Home Style

Not quite sure which architectural style is for you? Check out our fun key to find your home-design soul mate.

You might like a Queen Anne Victorian if … Queen Elizabeth II is your favorite royal and your idea of bling is an Art Deco emerald-cut diamond ring.

You might like a Denver Square if … you imagine making conversation with Prince William while trimming your rose bushes (and picking a few to put inside).

You might like a Craftsman Bungalow if … your jaw drops at the sight of a Patek Philippe pocket watch on Antiques Roadshow and Seattle is your dream vacation destination.

You might like a Tudor Revival if … Kate Middleton is your favorite royal, you dream of a long trip to Cheshire, England, and your idea of comfortable seating is a tufted chaise.

You might like a Mediterranean Revival if … you prefer succulents over roses, recently booked a trip to Seville, Spain, and want an Alexander Calder mobile in your home.

You might like a Midcentury Modern if … you want to kick back in a Scandi recliner next to a shelf of succulents with Prince Harry and Megan for company.

Q&A: What’s the Deal with Historic Designations?

To suss out whether historic designations might be worth the work to a homeowner, we asked Tom Hart. The architect behind Hart Studio is also on the board of trustees at Historic Denver, a nonprofit, urban historic preservation organization whose first major win was saving the Molly Brown House from the wrecking ball in the 1970s.

Popular architect William Quayle designed the H.H. Thomas House in the 1870s. Photo courtesy of Historic Denver, Inc.

5280 Home: OK, tell us the truth. Is a historic designation a smart thing for a homeowner to apply for? Tom Hart: It’s certainly worth doing. Part of it is intangible: These old buildings are what make Denver Denver. Our neighborhoods each have a different character, and that’s why people like them. I don’t want to slam suburbs, but they all just look the same.

How old does a house have to be to qualify? The general rule of thumb in the historic-preservation community is 50 years, but some homes are younger.

Is there a financial upside? There are Colorado preservation tax credits you can get if a building is individually landmarked or part of a neighborhood that’s landmarked. You’ll be able to recoup 20 percent of any qualified renovation costs up to $50,000. There’s an application process with the Landmark Preservation Commission, which is part of Denver’s Community Planning and Development department. The forms can be daunting to the layperson; the proposed landmark needs to meet certain criteria regarding history, architecture, or geography. There are a couple of hearings, and it takes several months. A large percentage of the applications go through on the first try.

That doesn’t sound too bad. What’s the catch? Can I still paint my house Hermès orange? You can paint your house whatever color you want. You can gut the inside if you want to, too. [A historic designation] only affects the exterior architecture of the building. Things that need to be reviewed are roof modifications; window, roof, and door replacements; additions; changes to siding; retaining walls in landscaping; and solar panels. You’re allowed to add storm windows and security doors without approval, however.

Old Homes, But New

If you love the idea of an old house but could do without the creaking floors and miniature closets, hire these builders whose new homes look just like the historical homes we all know and love.

“My specialty back in the day was creating ‘revival new old houses,’ and some of what we’re doing today is part of that same recipe,” says John Mattingly, principal of this Denver architecture, design, and construction firm. Because people are drawn to older homes for their durability, he notes, his team’s designs emphasize time-tested architectural ideas, like thick interior walls and dropped beams and coffering. 720-473-5498, chaletcolorado.com

Prairie-style homes inspire the designs created by this Denver-based firm. “We put our modern touch on [historical styles] while still being timeless,” says principal Bryan Bozeman. One secret to an age-old vibe in new construction: reclaimed wood from barns and old houses and/or recycled antique brick for a touch of true history. 720-722-4040, stonecloudco.com

How to Maximize Your Search Online

Unfortunately, searching by architectural style on the MLS (Zillow, Redfin, and the like) might lead you astray. “On the MLS, Realtors are inputting the information, so it’s often inaccurate,” Cox says. So Chirafisi recommends plugging in the years when your dream home would have been built. “For example, you can search for the years 1890 to 1910 and get a lot of Victorians,” she says. And then, in this real estate market, hope that your dream home doesn’t get snapped up before you can make an offer.

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