#travis goldman

[arkhelios-gameplay]

Travis was used to coming home to screaming. This time was different, however. It was Edana Darktide doing it rather than his mother. And there was a naked man in the kitchen looking confused.

"This resurrection was a scam!" Edana shouted into a telephone. "I demand to speak with your manager!"

Travis decided he would rather not know what was going on, and went upstairs to his room.

[vivianbernadetteaurora]

Very very violent death s!!!!some pictures with their killer

[dertaglichedan]

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act could end up costing taxpayers nearly $5 trillion, study says

An expensive legacy: Originally estimated to only cost about $370 billion, a new study by the Cato Institute finds that the structure of subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act means taxpayers could be on the hook for trillions of dollars over the next 25 years.

When former President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022, it did so along party lines with not a single Republican voting for it. At the time, a Senate one-pager summarized the law as costing taxpayers $369 billion, based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates. 

A new study from the Cato Institute finds that the law could cost as much as $4.67 trillion by 2050. That's roughly 12 times the stated cost. The study also concludes that the subsidies are undermining innovation and driving investments toward subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand. 

“The government should not have a hold on the economy in such a way that it can truly distort entire markets, and that's what the Inflation Reduction Act is,” Joshua Loucks, research associate with Cato Institute and co-author of the analysis, said in a video explaining the study. 

The Trump administration has been executing a series of reviews of regulations that federal agencies passed during the Biden years. Repealing some agency decisions may require congressional action. Due to the massive costs and market-impacting effects of the IRA, the study’s authors argue Congress should take a hard look at it. The law, they say, should be fully repealed, or Congress should place limitations on the subsidies, which the IRA mostly lacks. 

Fact-finding endeavor

Loucks and his co-author Travis Fisher, director of energy and environmental policy studies at the Cato Institute, explained that the impetus for doing the study was the wildly varying estimates of the costs of the IRA that came out since its passage. While the CBO pegged the figure at $369 billion, Goldman Sachs estimated in May 2023 that it would be closer to $1.2 trillion. There were other estimates as well, all coming to different conclusions. 

[benjaminobrien493]

No Ordinary Boy- Chapter Three

By the third morning, nobody was laughing anymore. Natalie and Tommy had helped the others dig the graves the previous day, and they had spent this morning carrying the bodies from the airplane to what hopefully wouldn’t be their final resting place. To everyone’s surprise, Travis had again refused to let Tommy help carry his father’s body.

  Natalie had asked Tommy if he’d had any grudge with Coach Martinez’s son, but Tommy had been just as stumped as she was.

  As they finished filling the holes in, the two of them stepped back into the circle with the others.

  Van cleared her throat. “Before we took off, I heard Rachel say that she was going to see Oasis at the Meadowlands next month.”

  Natalie looked down at Rachel Goldman’s grave, and inched a little closer to Tommy. Now was hardly the time to be breaking down, but Rachel had only been seventeen years old. Frankly, Natalie didn’t understand why more of them didn’t seem upset.

  “She was really excited”, Van sent on. “And she’s never gonna hear ‘Wonderwall’ again.”

  Oh, Jesus. Natalie choked back her tears.

  “Come on”, Laura Lee spoke up. “Let’s join hands. We’ll pray for them.”

  As Laura Lee began to lead them in prayer, Natalie took Tommy’s hand, and she felt him give it a comforting squeeze.

  She looked up at him, and squeezed back. It was terrible to think, so she had no intention of saying it out loud, but she was glad he was with them.

  She might have lost it by now if he wasn’t.

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  After the funeral, they decided the gather all the food they had together to see how much was left.

  The answer was… not much. Not much at all.

  “This is all we have?” Shauna asked, incredulously, looking down at the pitifully small pile of food they were sitting around.

  “Yeah, we gotta ration”, Van replied, handing Shauna her Swiss Army knife. “Okay, so… cut them”, she instructed, pointing towards a box of chocolate biscuits.

  “Split this water.” Van handed a bottle to Akilah.

  Goddammit, Tommy thought, looking around the forest. This place was so similar to the woods he had grown up trekking through, he could almost pretend he was on one of his family’s many hunting trips.

  I need a rifle. If I had a rifle, and just a few bullets, I could bring us all some REAL food. 

  Instead, they were in a forest probably filled with animals, and Tommy had no weapon to hunt them with.

  Up shit creek, without a paddle. 

  “Dude!” Van called out.

  Tommy looked back just in time to see Travis entering the circle, grabbing a handful of biscuits and walking straight out the other side.

  “Travis, what are you doing?!” Tommy yelled at him.

  “Maybe you didn’t notice, but we’re kind of in a situation here, Flex”, Lottie said.

  “Don’t”, Natalie said to Lottie, as Travis turned around, glaring at the group, before heading away.

  “Who died and made him king of snacks?” Lottie asked.

  “His dad, Lottie. Literally his fucking dad”, Natalie snapped back.

  Tommy winced. He was sorry about Coach Martinez, but after three days of sulking, not helping them clean up the crash site, and not even attempting to help them gather firewood, Travis was starting to get on Tommy's nerves. Even Javi had helped them dig the graves yesterday, but Travis had gone off God knows where, and hadn't reappeared until they were done. 

  Travis is gonna get a smack if he’s not careful, Tommy thought. 

  Jackie backed Natalie up. “Nat’s right. We should cut him some slack.”

  “I guess it’s fine if we all starve to death, as long as Travis’s feelings are okay”, Mari sarcastically quipped.

  “We’re not gonna starve to death. Okay?” Jackie tried to smile convincingly, but Tommy saw right through it.

  “When the rescue team gets here-”

  “If it gets here”, Van interrupted.

  “Don’t say that”, Jackie glared at the redhead.

  “I mean”, Shauna said, after a pause, “it has been three days.”

  “They’re coming”, Jackie reassured them. “They’re coming.”

  When? Tommy wanted to ask, but he held his tongue.

  He knew they had to remain hopeful, but inside he was starting to get worried. Where the hell was the rescue team?

  They had to be somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, but surely the pilots would have transmitted their location before the crash.

  Surely… 

  Then as Tommy swallowed the last of his pitifully small amount of water, Taissa came running up to them.

  “Guys”, she called out breathlessly. “Guys, there’s a lake! There’s a lake, I saw it from that hill.”

  She pointed away from them. “It looks about four or five miles away.”

  “Do you think we could hike it?” Shauna asked.

  “It’s pretty rocky, but yeah.” 

  “All right, then”, Tommy smiled at Taissa. “Lead the way-”

  “Uh”, Jackie interjected. “We can’t… we can’t just leave.”

  There was a shocked silence at her words.

  “We’ve got two days of water, tops”, Taissa spoke calmly, but Tommy could see the fire in her eyes as she gazed at Jackie.

  “And then what?” Taissa continued. “Just… sit around and die?”

  “What if the rescue team comes?”

  “Do you think they’re taking their time on purpose?” Taissa asked, her voice getting higher. “If they knew where we were, they would be here already.”

  “You don’t know that”, Jackie said scornfully.

  “Taissa is right”, Tommy said. Ignoring the shocked looks around him, he elaborated.

  “Human beings can survive without food for a few weeks, maybe even a month, but water? Forget it. If we don’t go to the lake... we’ll all be dead within the next few days.”

  An uncomfortable silence descended at his words.

  “How do you know that?” Natalie asked him.

  Tommy shrugged. “My dad taught me.”

  “Tommy’s right”, Misty said. “Without water, we don’t stand a chance.”

  “What do you think, Coach?” Laura Lee asked Ben.

  Tommy looked at his brother, who still seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness.

  “I don’t… I don’t know.”

  Yes, you do, Tommy wanted to scream at him. Other than Tommy, of course, out of all the people in the camp, Ben was the most knowledgeable when it came to surviving in the wild.

  “Uh, I mean…” Ben croaked out. “You’d have to leave me behind, I guess, but whatever.”

  Misty was already shaking her head, and Tommy agreed with her.

  “We’re not leaving you behind”, he scolded Ben. “We can build you a stretcher-”

  “Oh, okay”, Jackie laughed at him.

  Tommy fancied himself a pretty reasonable guy, but Jackie was starting to make his blood boil.

  “It’s not hard to build a stretcher, Jackie", he said, through gritted teeth.

  “Yeah”, Taissa said. “And if we all take turns carrying it-”

  “No!” Jackie suddenly shouted. “This- this is bullshit. I say no, okay? No way.”

  “Well, I say yes. Yes way", Tommy snapped, as he heard Natalie stand up beside him.

  “I say yes, too.”

  “You would,” Jackie said scornfully.

  “Excuse me?!” Tommy rounded on Jackie just as Natalie put a comforting hand on his arm.

  Tommy turned to her, and saw the warning in his girlfriend’s eyes.

  He started to breathe a bit more easily. Natalie calming ME down. That’s a first. 

  “Let’s put it to a vote”, Taissa suggested. “All in favour of waiting here?”

  Tommy looked around. Jackie raised her hand, of course, but precious few others did, and Tommy grinned as he realised what was coming next.

  “All in favour of the lake?”

  Tommy’s hand shot straight up, and an overwhelming majority of hands followed it.

  “Then it’s settled”, Taissa smiled. “Grab your shit.”

  With a generous amount of help from Misty, Tommy quickly instructed the others how to put a stretcher together, and they rolled Ben on to it.

  “Travis!” Tommy called out. “We need somebody strong. Can you give us a hand?”

  Travis glowered at him, but quietly picked up the front of the stretcher, while Tommy picked up the back.

  To Tommy’s surprise, Misty insisted on helping them.

  “Misty, it’s alright, you don’t have to-”

  “It’s okay, Tommy. I want to help”, Misty beamed at him.

  “Uh… okay, then.”

  As Van led the way, using a compass she’d hacked off from the plane's cockpit, Tommy couldn’t help but feel that maybe, just maybe, things were starting to turn around.

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  “What’s that smell?” Natalie heard Lottie ask her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “It’s rotting flesh”, Tommy called out from behind them both. “There must be an animal carcass nearby.”

  Sure enough, they soon spied a dead black bear, being feasted on by…

  “Is that a vulture?” Natalie asked Tommy.

  “Yeah. Probably a turkey vulture, they’re the only vultures native to Canada.”

  “And you know that how?” Jackie asked Tommy.

  “Ben and I go hunting with our dad all the time.”

  “And he’s always telling us to ‘study the prey’”, Coach Scott grinned, before hissing in pain and laying back down.

  “Woah. Sick”, Travis said, as he saw the eviscerated bear.

  “What could’ve done that?” Shauna asked the Scotts.

  “Pack of wolves, probably”, Tommy replied, so casually it took a second for Natalie’s brain to register what he'd said.

  “Wolves? They can kill a fucking bear?”

  “Yeah”, Coach Scott grunted. “Wolves can kill anything if the pack’s big enough.”

  Jesus. 

  “Let’s keep moving”, Natalie said, and the group trudged on. An hour passed, then another one.

  “This shit is way longer than four miles”, Natalie grumbled. “What if we missed it?”

  “From the angle of the sun, it looked just left of due north”, Taissa said.

  “Oh, great. ‘Left’. That’s a precise way of doing it”, Jackie whinged, as Natalie rolled her eyes.

  “I’m not a fucking cartographer”, Taissa retorted.

  “Or maybe you saw a mirage.”

  A mirage? Does this look like the desert to you-

  “Oh, shit!” Van called out, interrupting Natalie’s thoughts. “Oh, hell yeah, bitches!”

  Natalie saw what Van was looking at, and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

  The lake. Oh, thank God, she thought, as she ran at full pace towards the water.

  Van quickly stripped to her underwear and dove in, and Natalie followed suit by taking her shirt off, leaving her in her brand-new, dark-red bra. Red was Tommy’s favourite colour, so she’d intended to surprise him with it at Nationals-

  Natalie jerked her head back. Where was Tommy?

  Then she saw him bringing up the rear, carrying his brother’s stretcher, and even from a distance, she could see him smile at her.

  “Guys, come in! It feels fucking great”, Van called out.

  Natalie quickly took her trousers off, and began to wade in. It was cold, but after three straight days without a shower, it felt fantastic.

  She saw Mari and Jackie staring at Travis, who had taken his shirt off and was swimming through the water.

  “Is Travis actually… hot?” Mari giggled.

  “It’s been three days. You can’t be that desperate”, Jackie scoffed.

  Natalie looked at Travis. Not bad, but he wasn’t much compared to-

  Splash! Natalie’s head jerked around to see Tommy, wearing nothing but his underwear, charging through the water straight towards her, still smiling. Natalie grinned back, then shrieked with delight as Tommy swept her up in his arms and under the water as he dunked them both. She gasped as the cold rushed over her.

  “You asshole!” Natalie said as they resurfaced, but she was laughing as her arms wrapped around her boyfriend's neck.

  “You know you love it”, Tommy smiled, then kissed her gently as they lay in the water together. 

  “I see you’re wearing my favourite colour”, he noted, as their lips pulled apart, though he kept his arms around her.

  “I wanted to surprise you”, Natalie said shyly, winding her legs around him.

  “Well then, Miss Scatorccio… mission accomplished”, Tommy whispered, as he cupped her chin with one hand and kissed her again.

  “Could you guys get a room?” Natalie heard Jackie say behind them. But all Tommy did was lean further into Natalie, deepening their kiss, and she responded with everything she had, wishing they could stay like this forever, and dreading the moment when she would have to pull away.  

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  “Got you, Shipman!” Tommy heard Natalie say above him, as Shauna went crashing down into the water off Van’s shoulders.

  “You lose, Palmer”, Tommy grinned at Van as he bent down to let Natalie off.

  “Fuck you, Tom!” Van flipped him off with both hands, but she was laughing, despite losing their game of Chicken.

  “Guys!” Lottie’s voice rang out over the lake. “Look!”

  She pointed, and Tommy saw it. At the hill next to them, there was… something… reflecting off it.

  “Guys, there’s something on the hill!” Van called out. “Come on, let’s go!”

  Everybody scrambled out of the water, and began to dress. Tommy quickly pulled his clothes on, grimacing at wearing wet underwear beneath them, then headed over to Ben.

  “You good?” Ben asked him. “I know you’re tired-”

  “I’m fine”, Tommy replied, as Travis joined them.

  “We good to go?” He asked Tommy.

  “Yeah”, Tommy nodded, and Travis nodded back. Tommy didn’t think there was any love lost between them, but Travis at least seemed to understand the value of working together to carry the stretcher.

  Tommy’s arms were burning as they carried Ben up the track. Just a little bit further… just a bit more…

  Then he saw it, and he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

  A cabin? Are we... did we find PEOPLE? 

  Then Tommy’s hopes sank as he saw the cobwebs hanging all over the place, and he knew.

  Nobody’s been here in years.

  Setting Ben down on the cabin porch, Tommy and Travis walked inside, just as Van produced what looked like a stack of magazines, and set them down on a table with a loud crash.

  “Well, hello!” The redhead grinned. “Don’t worry, guys. We might be stuck in the middle of nowhere, but hey.” Her grin widened. “At least there’s porn.”

  “You’re kidding”, Tommy laughed, as the group gathered around the table.

  “Hey, this guy kind of looks like you, Flex”, Mari said, lightly teasing Travis.

  “If only any of you actually looked like her”, Travis said, looking at a girl in another magazine.

  “Okay, yeah. Very funny”, Van snarked.

  “Do guys like, actually jerk off to this stuff?” Akilah asked Travis.

  Travis’s eyes flicked towards Tommy. “Nah, we- we hate that shit. You know, you can’t even tell what her favourite book is.”

  “What?” Tommy snorted with laughter, then stopped as he saw Natalie looking at him, realising she was waiting for an answer.

  He cleared his throat. “I haven’t looked at magazines like that since I started dating Natalie.”

  “Good boy”, Natalie smirked, kissing him on the cheek.

  “Before, though-”

  Natalie smacked his arm. “Not funny”, she growled, as the other girls laughed, while Travis walked back outside.

  “Seriously, though, what do you think of her?” Van produced a photo of a naked woman lying on a four-poster bed to Tommy.

  “Okay, we’re done here,” Tommy said. “I’m gonna go check on Ben.”

  “Chickenshit!” Van called out as Tommy headed out the door, Natalie following behind him.

  But once they got outside, Tommy saw something that made the blood rush to his ears; Travis had Javi in a headlock, as the younger boy squirmed in his grip, his face turning red.

  “HEY!” Tommy bellowed, sprinting full pace towards the boys. “GET OFF HIM!”

  Travis saw him coming, and let Javi go, turning to face Tommy, but the bigger boy was already on him. Tommy hit Travis in a full-force tackle, driving him into the ground.

  Travis gasped on the forest floor, clearly winded as he clutched his stomach.

  “You alright?” Tommy asked Javi.

  “Yeah, I’m fine”, the young boy gasped, clutching at his throat, as Travis slowly rose to his feet. He looked like he wanted to retaliate, but as Tommy glared at him, he seemed to think better of it, and walked away.

  Tommy walked Javi into the cabin, passing by Natalie.

  “You alright?”

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  “Y-yeah”, Natalie stammered out. She wasn’t, though, and she knew she wasn’t doing a good job of hiding it.

  “Just a bit shaken.”

  “Hey”, Tommy took her hands in his. “What is it? Did I-”

  Then she saw his face drop. “Did I scare you?”

  “No!” Natalie blurted out. “No, you didn’t scare me.”

  He’d surprised her, though. In four years of attending school together, she’d never known Tommy could move that fast, and there was no denying that, despite his lean build, he’d slammed Travis into the dirt like he was nothing.

“I'm just… surprised, that's all”, she whispered, as Mari came out.

“What happened?”

“Uh… Travis was being a dick, but I took care of it”, Tommy said.

 “Oh”, Mari replied, just as they heard a loud crash on the other side of the cabin.

  “FUUUUCCKK! GOD!”

  “Ben?” Tommy called out, as they hurried towards the sound.

  “FUCK, FUCK, FUUUUUCK!”

  Then as they drew closer, they saw what had happened. Coach Scott had fallen onto the ground, and looked for all the world like he wanted to sink into it.

  “Why?! Goddamn it. Fuck you”, he cursed, as Natalie realised he was crying.

  Oh, Coach. 

  “FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!” he screamed, as Natalie saw he was talking to the stump of his leg.

  “Goddammit! What the fuck do you want?!” Coach Scott bellowed, as he realised the group was gathering around him.

  Misty bent down to him. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s-”

  “What the- get the fuck away from me, Misty!” The older man lashed out, and a gasp went around the group as he struck Misty across the face.

  Misty fell down onto the cabin porch, but to everyone’s surprise, Misty slowly got back up, and drew the Coach into her arms, making low shushing noises.

  “It’s alright. It’s alright”, Natalie heard Misty whisper as she cradled him.

  “I can’t just…”, Coach Scott sniffled. “I can’t just be like this now.”

  He paused. “Why couldn’t I have died?”

  “Don’t SAY that!” Tommy suddenly yelled, making Natalie jump, but as she turned to her boyfriend, she was shocked to see the tears in his eyes as he looked at his brother.

  Natalie instantly felt awful. His brother. Coach Scott might just be 'Coach Scott' to her and the rest of the team, but to Tommy, he was his big brother, who he’d known all his life. It must have been killing him to see Coach Scott like this.

  Jesus. There I go again, calling my boyfriend’s brother 'Coach Scott'. How bad of a girlfriend am I? 

  Natalie took Tommy’s hand and led him into the cabin. They managed to find a small space, away from the others’ view.

  Natalie looked into Tommy’s eyes, which were still full of unshed tears.

  “Natalie, what-”

  “Ssshhh”, she whispered, as she placed a finger to his lips. “It’s okay. Let it out.”

  Tommy hesitated, then pressed his head into her shoulder, and she held him there as he began to cry.

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  As the day progressed, the group made themselves busy cleaning the place up. There were a lot of cobwebs to dust off… and quite a few spiders in said cobwebs, though Tommy made short work of them.

  “Oh, my God!” Shauna jumped as Tommy squashed yet another arachnid with a book he had found on a nearby shelf.

  “Would you prefer they crawled across your face in the middle of the night?” Tommy asked.

  Shauna didn’t push the subject, and before long the room was… well, not spotless, exactly, but definitely in a lot better condition than when they'd found it.

  “Has anybody looked in the attic yet?” Tommy asked the group.

  Everybody shook their heads.

  “Alright, I’ll go check it out.”

  “I’ll come with you”, Natalie offered.

  “Me too”, Taissa added.

  The three of them came to a room with a stepladder, with shelves all around them.

  There was a lantern on one of the shelves, which Tommy picked up.

  “Nat, do you have your-”

  “Yeah”, Natalie answered, producing her lighter and flicking it on. Once the lantern was lit, Tommy carried it up the ladder, the girls following behind him.

   Tommy stepped into the attic, and was disappointed to see… Well, nothing really, just a bunch of old sacks. He swung the lantern around the room. Nope, just more sacks.

  “You guys see anything-”

  Then Tommy stopped talking as he saw what was in the corner. Or rather, who was in the corner.

  “Oh, God!” Natalie gasped, as Taissa clapped a hand to her mouth.

  Illuminated by the lantern was a human skeleton, sitting in a chair- and judging by the cobwebs, it had been sitting there for a long, long time.

  Jesus, Tommy thought. Guess now we know what happened to the owner.

[whiteteeth-blacklight]

Evangeline "Evan" Lim played by Arden Cho and Sandra Oh.

[using teen wolf for a fc isn't my finest moment but she fits]

"And so i process grief by running from it, until it finds me in the middle of the street on a beautiful summer's day,"

Evangeline "Evan" Lim is the Steady to Juliette's Brash. She plays defensive midfielder at number 13, while not untalented she's hardly the star of the team. unofficial theme songs - Mythological beauty- Big Thief, Circle - Mitski, Halah- Mazzy star, Speed trials- Elliot smith

Despite being the youngest of three, Evan had rather little company growing up, both her siblings being significantly older than herself.

After her parents divorced when she was fourteen she moved from Down-town Detroit to Wiskayok where the slower, calmer, way of life threw off the generally Energetic teenage Evangeline.

Trying out for soccer was a matter of making friends and getting to know people because, while athletic, Evan's a tennis player at heart and it shows in her playing. though she's a good runner which is something that only soccer grants her access to.

It worked as well as it could've, despite being in the year above she befriends Rachel Goldman and Akilah and is at the very least friendly with some of the other girls.

Academically she's high achieving, her schedule is cluttered with AP classes and an early admission acceptance to NYU sits proudly on her mantle back home.

Wilderness Evan-

Evan is energetic and she's practical. She only just loses out to Travis in the hunting competition which is a point of contention between the two.

She, like many of the others, mainly completes various chores but she occasionally gets called to help carry things. She's strong and she's quick, enabling her to cut the time it would take to carry a deer or some wood down significantly.

When it comes to the Wilderness she's initially suspicious. She was not raised religious though she was curious. after joining Taissa's rescue mission and seeing what happened to Van, however, she's just scared enough to believe.

In the winter she attends Lottie's morning prayers pretty much every day though she's generally against Lottie's cultier behaviors. In regards to the cannibalism she's generally for it but it doesn't stop the guilt that comes with it. She's against Javi's death, not deeming it necessary.

Where allegiances are concerned, she falls, for the most part, with Natalie, who she respects as a friend and as a leader.

In the summer she becomes the hunter (along with Gen, who, if she had a tendency to follow Evan around, wouldn't admit it). Evan loves it. The tracking and stalking intrigues her the most but there's an odd thrill that comes with staring down the barrel of the gun.

When the scientists come into camp she starts crying, much like Van she believed they were about to be rescued. When Lottie kills Edwin, Evan leads the hunt for Hannah, personally aiming to capture her rather than kill.

Post Rescue Evangeline-

Upon rescue, Evangeline returns home to Wiskayok before leaving for NYU the following year obtaining a master's in Psychology. After completing the degree she moved back to New Jersey with Juliette who ended up flunking out of Rutgers and opening a book shop with settlement and inheritance money.

Juliette Foster and Evangeline Lim married early 2014, basically as soon as it was legal. In late 2016 they welcomed Beatrice Mary Foster-Lim, a Healthy baby girl. At just over two years old she died of sepsis. it wasn't peaceful and the death caused a rift between Juliette and Evangeline who split shortly after.

In the following years she throws herself into her work as a clinical psychiatrist, it pays well and allows her to live in a classy apartment in the town center.

Adult timeline Evangeline:

She's Initially polite to Jessica Roberts, offering her a cup of tea. Though, when Jessica starts to push the issue Evangeline tenses up, quietly fuming.

Upon receiving the postcard in the mail her first move is to call Juliette who doesn't pick up. She decides to leave the issue after this, pushing it aside to focus on her job and the stray cat she finds lingering around her apartment.

When she receives the ransom messages she begrudgingly offers to pay for the group, realizing she had no real reason not to.

Juliette dies midseason one, it's ruled a suicide. Evangeline spends some of season two cleaning through her stuff, it's awfully easy, Juliette foster wasn't a sentimental person.

Evangeline drives herself up Lottie's cult after Misty calls her. She arrives shortly before Taissa and Van who she's distinctly shocked to see together.

She's the first to suggest that Lottie should be committed and distinctly against the hunt. Natalie's death shocks her perhaps even more than Juliette's.

During the time between S2 and S3 her car manages to get crashed into by none other than Saoirse Price, Travis Martinez' seventeen year old daughter. Saoirse promptly takes over Evangeline's guest room. As much as the intrusion initially irritates her she finds herself endeared by Saoirse's nature.

animal symbolism:

Evan is a foxhound, sweet-tempered and intelligent. they're bred to hunt foxes by scent. they do best when in environments with room to run.

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

Submissions for books about books :

Assistant to the Villain (Hannah Nicole)

A Month of Sundays (Liz Byrski)

The Grandest Bookshop in the World (Amelia Mellor)

Lirael (Garth Nix)

Inkheart series (Cornelia Funke)

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Satoshi Yagisawa)

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (Italo Calvino)

The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafón)

The Eyre Affair (Jasper Fforde)

House Of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)

Book Lovers (Emily Henry)

Beach Read (Emily Henry)

The Jane Austen Book Club (Karen Joy Fowler)

The Neverending Story (Michael Ende)

Secret Identity (Alex Segura)

The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)

Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr)

Possession (A.S. Byatt)

Long Live Evil (Sarah Rees Brennan)

Afterworlds (Scott Westerfeld)

Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore (Robin Sloan)

The Sentence (Louise Erdrich)

The Bromance Book Club (Lyssa Kay Adams)

Stoner (John Williams)

Bookshops and Bonedust (Travis Baldree)

Parnassus on Wheels (Christopher Morley)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows)

The Well of Ascension (Book 2 of Mistborn series) (Brandon Sanderson)

The List (Patricia Forde)

The Book of Lies (James Molonet)

Princess Bride (William Goldman)

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)

Matilda (Roald Dahl)

The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern)

The Labyrinth House Murders (Yukito Ayatsuji)

The Prague Cemetery (Umberto Eco)

Foucault's Pendulum (Umberto Eco)

The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)

Ink Blood Sister Scribe (Emma Torzs)

The Book Eaters (Sunyi Dean)

Magpie Murders (Anthony Horowitz)

Ban This Book (Alan Gratz)

Between the Lines (Jodi Picoult, Samantha van Leer)

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (Garth Nix)

The Library of the Unwritten (A. J. Hackwith)

The Cat Who Saved Books (Sōsuke Natsukawa)

Suggested Reading (Dave Connis)

The Truth about the Harry Québert Affair (Joël Dicker)

Hygiène de l’Assassin (Amélie Nothomb)

[cosmicgrapevine]

They stopped at school first; every teacher except Miss Vernon had loaded them down with spring break homework, and Melanie wanted to plead her case to Mr. Hansen. It was past 4:30 and the halls were nearly empty. Just as she was ready to knock on the dean’s door, someone inside smashed their fist against it, hard enough to rattle the handle. Melanie flinched and stepped back, staying away from the windows.

“Fuckin’ hell, Gary, what’s gonna change your mind, huh?” It was Travis. Goddammit. “Dead body? Is that what’ll sway ya? ‘Cause it’s comin’, believe me.”

“Mm…nah.” That was Mr. Hansen, who sounded utterly unworried. “Sure, I had my doubts at first. But he’s been a perfect student, and practically gone native already.” They were talking about Lynd. “All he needs is to make a few friends outside the LKPC. I gave Nate Goldman a nudge; said he should teach Lynd some ball. We do need an infielder.”

“Friends? He’s a Markstepper, Gary, a born and bred killer. They don’t have ‘friends’. And he’s the second one to turn up here this year, in the heart of Warden territory, and rumors are flyin’ about Equinox too. The Marksteppers are plottin’ something, and that boy’s a part of it, and y’all are buyin’ his ‘Oh, I just want a hooome’ bullshit like he’s your long-lost son. Just gimme a chance to prove it—”

“I said no.” Mr. Hansen’s voice had changed, now simmering with contempt. “You’ve always been an asshole, Travis. When you were fifteen, I thought hey, he’ll grow out of it. But now you’re twenty-four and even worse, ‘cause the old man spoiled you rotten all those years. Now you’re on his bad side for once, after that stunt you pulled with the mirror, and you can’t handle it.”

“So in you crawl, trying to get me to go behind Mr. C’s back with you, and you think the best way to do that is threatening one of my students?” He chuckled. “Tell you what, if I hear you went through with it anyway, I will personally flash-fry all the fat out of your vicious little brain, and you know that’s not a metaphor, pal. Now get lost.”

Melanie didn’t have time to react before Travis slammed the door open. He did a double-take upon seeing her, and for a second Melanie flinched, worried that she’d be the literal punching bag for Travis’ frustration, but instead he simply snapped “What the fuck are you doing here?”

“I j-just had a question for Mr. Hansen…”

“You didn’t hear a fuckin’ thing, got it? Not a fuckin’ thing."

Melanie eagerly nodded. She just wanted him to go away. And he did, his stomps echoing down the stairwell.

Mr. Hansen approached her, shaking his head. “I’m sorry you had to hear that, Melanie,” he said.

“What’s he want with Lynd?”

“Oh…” Mr. Hansen shook his head. “Just the usual Warden chest-thumping. Can’t handle being shown up by a Markstepper. But I promise you, he won’t hurt anyone. I’ll see to that.”

“Why do you guys keep that psycho around?” She said bitterly. “How can you trust him?”

Mr. Hansen leaned in. “If it was up to me, he’d be out on his ass, for exactly that reason. But it’s not up to me, and I think you know who’s calling the shots here. Travis and the old man, they have a history. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can say. Now, what did you need?”

“I’ll ask later,” Melanie said. She just wanted to get out. When she was in fifth grade, and her dad was neck-deep in chasing down mobsters, she’d learned about made men. Mafiosos who had the blessing of the boss to do whatever they pleased, who answered only to him. That was Travis. He could do anything, hurt anyone, and Florentino would cover for him. He was in Florentino’s doghouse now, apparently, but who knew how long that would last?

No, there was no justice in Warden-land. There was only power. Mr. Hansen could lie to her—and himself—but he knew it too. He knew Travis wouldn’t respond to reason, only violence, and he knew he could deliver that violence, in the form of some horrific literal-brain-melting magic, if he had to. She didn’t trust him either. She didn’t trust any of them deep down. Not even her parents.

Of course, in her dad’s mafia tales, there was one level between the boss and his made men: his actual family. Like her. She wondered what Travis would have done otherwise.

[sarkos]

After weeks of local speculation, the purchasers of 55,000 acres of northern California land have been revealed. The group Flannery Associates – backed by a cohort of Silicon Valley investors – has quietly purchased $800m worth of agricultural and empty land, the New York Times has reported. Their goal is to build a utopian new town that will offer its thousands of residents reliable public transportation and urban living, all of which would operate using clean energy. The project was spearheaded by Jan Sramek, a 36-year-old former trader for the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, and is backed by prominent Silicon Valley investors including Michael Moritz, a venture capitalist; Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of Linkedin; Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the philanthropic group Emerson Collective and wife of Steve Jobs; Marc Andreessen, an investor and software developer; Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment processor Stripe; and the entrepreneurs Daniel Gross and Nat Friedman, the Times reported. Though Flannery has been purchasing farmland and empty plots over the past five years it has only recently started interacting with local officials and residents, according to the Times and local reports. Flannery has purchased land from farmers for several times more than the market value and become the biggest landowners in Solano county, an area 60 miles north-west of San Francisco. The land bought by the firm encircles Travis air force base in Fairfield, a city of about 120,000 residents and home to the Anheuser-Busch Co brewery and the Jelly Belly jelly bean factory.

Silicon Valley elites revealed as buyers of $800m of land to build utopian city | California | The Guardian

[thevoyagein]

Should I disguise myself as a somber old-fashioned girl, gawky Mlle Humbert, and put up my tent on the outskirts of Camp Q, in the hope that its russet nymphets would clamor: "Let us adopt that deep-voiced D.P.," and drag the sad, shyly smiling Berthe au Grand Pied to their rustic hearth. Berthe will sleep with Dolores Haze!

—Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

#Andrew Miller #Jeffrey Willsea #Ronald Jensen #Adam Laboucan #Nathan O'Brien #Mark Childers #Laverne Travis Waskahat #William McClain #Kendall Stephens #Randy Emillion Goodreau #Aaron Blaze Clark #Harvey Marcelin #David Griffiths #Danielle Edney #Joseph Matthew Smith #Rachel Queen Burton #Synthia China Blast #Ross Florida #Synthia Koopman #Allison Woolbert #Tanner Young #Paula Witherspoon #Lennea Elizabeth Stevens #Ronny Edward Darnell #David Megarry Jr #Osareen Omoruyi #Dominic Risden #William Nicholas Horner #Matthew Harks #Samantha Norris #Alberto Garza #Joshua Cooper #Dwight Evan Chisholm #Lennon Dolatowski #Adam Hetke #Solomon Galligan #Janiel Verainer #Robert William Perry II #Clayton William Solberg #Vanessa Emma Goldman #Michelle Blessent #Jukka Torsten Lindholm #Kris Tyson #Patipat Naknoi #Supalak Chumphan #Pierre John Parsons #Andrew Easton #Owen May #Alex Ray Scott #Elijah Thomas Berryman #Sean Windingland #Robert Maurice Herzing #Joshua Freyermuth #Sasha Yates #Julie Marshall #Krystel Lauzon #Anthony Peers #Daniel Patrick Benz #Christopher Scott Williams #Autumn Tulip Harper #Carolina Juárez #Daniel Ariel Araya Segura #Maddison Wilson #Bex McCullgh #Bunny Autumn Colasimone

[jxrm]

book log - 2023

the librarianist by patrick dewitt

same time next year by tessa bailey

did you hear about kitty karr? by crystal smith paul

lore olympus: volume one by rachel smythe

a court if thorns and roses by sarah j. mass

summer sisters by judy blume

the demigod files by rick riordan

mistletoe and mayhem by carly winter

you shouldn’t have come here by jeneva rose

a house with good bones by t. kingfisher

christmas presents by lisa unger

z: a novel of zelda fitzgerald

the storm runner by j.c. cervantes

just another missing person by gillian mcallister

take me home by beth moran

blood sugar by sascha rothchild

a court of mist and fury by sarah j. mass

the christmas orphans club by becca freeman

under her care by lucinda berry

paris: the memoir by paris hilton

our wives under the sea by julie armfield

the celebrants by steven rowley

keep it in the family by john marrs

housemoms by jen lancaster

the woman in me by britney spears

just like home by sarah gailey

trespasses by louise kennedy

silence for the dead by simone st. james

a good family by matt goldman

the fire keeper by j.c. cervantes

dead silence by s.a. barnes

sunshine nails by mai nguyen

lore olympus: volume one by rachel smythe

the mystery guest by nita prose

her little flowers by shannon morgan

woke up like this by amy lea

legendary children by tom fitzgerald

midnight is the darkest hour by ashley winstead

the leftover women by jean kwok

everyone here is lying by shari lapena

mother-daughter murder night by nina simon

you may now kill the bride by r.l. stone

the man i never met by elle cook

hold my girl by charlene carr

legends & lattes by travis baldree

the golden spoon by jessa maxwell

bright young women by jessica kroll

suddenly a murder by lauren munoz

the only one left by riley sager

zero days by ruth ware

good bad girl by alice feeney

the christmas wager by holly cassidy

fortune by elle won steil

theme music by t. marie vandelly

close to home by cara hunter

the true love experiment by christina lauren

penelope in retrograde by brooke abrams

everyone in my family has killed someone by benjamin stevenson

the modern girl’s guide to magic by lindsay hall

i feed her to the beast and the beast is me by jamison shea

hello stranger by katherine center

the unlikely pilgrimage of harold fry by rachel joyce

gone tonight by sarah pekkanen

the library of the dead by t.l. huchu

what never happened by rachel howzell hall

look out for the little guy by scott lang

the christmas mourner by marian mccarthy

every little breath by keri beevis

this might hurt by stephanie wrobel

the last word by taylor adams

a court of wings and ruin by sarah j. mass

forth wing by rebecca yaros

hello beautiful by ann napolitano

summer rental by rektok ross

the house across the lake by riley sager

a cursed covenant by leigh ferguson

her rebel highness by diana ma

stone heart by katee robert

the perfect match by dandy smith

camp zero by michelle min sterling

one by one by frieda mcfadden

the wishing game by meg shaffer

a court of frost and starlight by sarah j. mass

that summer feeling by bridget morissey

to die for by lisa grey

the wrong family by tarryn fisher

heiress apparently by diana ma

the school for good mothers by jessamine chin

tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by gabrielle zevin

she started it by sian gilbert

best friends forever by shannon hollinger

the housekeepers by alex hay

secluded cabin sleeps six by lisa unger

lore olympus: volume two by rachel smythe

of women and salt by gabriela garcia

kismet by amina akhtar

the devil wears scrubs by frieda mcfadden

girl, forgotten by karin slaughter

come closer by sara gran

the exorcist’s house by nick roberts

august blue by deborah levy

hang the moon by jeannette walls

the thursday murder club by richard osman

a whole new world by liz braswell

run on red by noelle w. ihli

the last thing he told me by laura dave

lore olympus: volume three by rachel smythe

how to sell a haunted house by grady hendrix

the dead romantics by ashley poston

cassandra in reverse by holly smale

i used to be fun by melanie summers

the showrunner by kim moritsugu

runaway groomsman by meghan quinn

i want to die but i want to eat tteokpokki by baek she-hee

the whispers by ashley audrain

e. aster bunnymund and the warrior eggs at the earth’s core! by william joyce

allergies: poems on grieving and loving by maggie bowyer

hermione granger and the philosopher’s stone by sara baines-miller

the summer house by keri beevis

exiles by jane harper

just the nicest couple by mary kubica

the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna

have you seen her by catherine mckenzie

the shallows by holly craig

a love letter to whiskey by kandi steiner

hermione granger and the chamber of secrets by sara baines-miller

the coworker by frieda mcfadden

tiny beautiful things by cheryl strayed

you’re not supposed to die tonight by kalynn bayron

the little old lady who broke all the rules by catharina ingelman-sundberg

hermione granger and the prisoner of azkaban by sara baines-miller

the blonde identity by ally carter

nicolas st. north and the battle of the nightmare king by william joyce

women in white coats by olivia campbell

the ex talk by rachel lynn solomon

hermione granger and the goblet of fire by sara baines-miller

the wife before by shanora williams

gone again by minka kent

know my name by chanel miller

in the lives of puppets by t.j. klune

the homewreckers by mary kay andrews

going dark by melissa de la cruz

all the dangerous things by stacy willingham

counterfit by kirsten chen

the rewind by allison winn scotch

have i told you this already? by lauren graham

beyond the wand by tom felton

jana goes wild by farah heron

the perfect son by frieda mcfadden

america’s next reality star by laura heffernan

the new mother by nora murphy

georgie, all along by kate clayborn

the storied life of a.j. fikry by gabrielle zevin

a flicker in the dark by stacy willingham

the villa by rachel hawkins

device free weekend by sean doolittle

what the neighbors saw by melissa adelman

the library of lost and found by phaedra patrick

motherthing by ainslie hogarth

the block party by jamie day

tanqueray by stephanie johnston

the ex hex by erin sterling

rock paper scissors by alice feeney

the kiss curse by erin sterling

it ends with us - colleen hoover

the summer of broken rules by k.l. walther

the wife stalker by liv constantine

in my dreams i hold a knife by ashley winstead

the family remains by lisa jewell

my secret sister by lauren westwood

the engagement by samantha hayes

if we were villains by m.l. rio

the sleepover by keri beevis

twenty years later by charlie donlea

the doctor’s wife by daniel hurst

[news4usonline]

SB LVIII: A tight end master class

Tight ends are some of the most unique players on a football field, and having top-tier talent at the position creates matchup nightmares for a defense. Super Bowl LVIII features two of the best tight ends in the NFL. What makes these talented pass-catchers unique is that they value their team’s success far more than their own. Travis Kelce and George Kittle have 11 combined All-Pro team appearances, but both players will tell you that they would rather see their team win trophies instead of individual awards.

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) caught 65 passes for 1,020 yards and six touchdowns during the 2023 NFL regular season. Photo credit: Mark Hammond/News4usonline “I used to lose sleep over the lack of success I had early on,” said Kelce. “I used to have the desire to say I want to be the best; I want to be known as the one who had the most yards, the one that had the most catches, the most touchdowns, and the most Super Bowls.” “I have rechanneled that to just being the best teammate I possibly can be day in and day out, and at the end of the year, let the chips fall where they may and see who is the best team out there. I enjoy having team success a lot more than I enjoy having my individual success week to week,” the tight end went on to say. Kelce has put up numbers that have allowed him to be labeled one of the best, but sitting out the last game of the season for the betterment of the team and missing out on an eighth consecutive 1000-yard season by 16 yards shows his maturity as a player. While Kittle does not get the same amount of attention from the media or fans as his counterpart in this game, he is equally as important to winning. Kittle is a ferocious blocker in the run game and is one of the toughest players in the league. Taking him down to the ground is no easy task. “I think that what I am asked to do in my offense, I do at a very high level," said Kittle. “All I really care about is that the eye in the sky doesn’t lie; that is the film. It doesn’t matter what anyone else says about you; all that matters is that tape, your effort, your attitude, your play style, and the respect of your peers around the league.”

BALTIMORE, MD - JANUARY 28: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (87) celebrates the win following the Kansas City Chiefs game versus the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game on January 28, 2024 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD. (Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire) Kittle does a little bit of everything for his team on the field and is one of the most important leaders in the locker room. When the best players are also the best leaders, it allows the rest of the team to follow suit. With both embracing their roles the way they do, it makes sense that the 49ers and Chiefs are in the Super Bowl. The position has become even more important with the passing game being what it is now, and these teams have two of the elite at the position. “I think teams have seen that the last six or seven years if you have a really good tight end, you have a higher chance of being in the Super Bowl. If you look back at all of the Super Bowls, there are really talented tight ends playing in all of them. So, invest in a tight end, feed your tight end, and you have an opportunity to win games,” said Kittle. Top Photo: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on Super Bowl LVIII Opening Night Kickoff ceremony on Feb. 5, 2024. Photo credit: Dennis J. Freeman/News4usonline Read the full article

[jay-in-the-notebook]

Found my new reading list

From the site:

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham

Brian Jacques: the Redwall series

Diana Wynne Jones: Howl’s Moving Castle, Dark Lord of Derkholm, Year of the Griffin

Neil Gaiman: Stardust

William Goldman: The Princess Bride (the good parts)

J.K. Rowling: the Harry Potter series (mainly the first three books)

Travis Baldree: Legends & Lattes

Phyllis Ann Karr: At Amberleaf Fair

Katherine Arden: The Bear and the Nightingale

T.J. Klune: The House in the Cerulean Sea

Naomi Novak: Uprooted

Katherine Addison: The Goblin Emperor

Peter S. Beagle: The Last Unicorn

T. Kingfisher: Swordheart

Lois McMaster Bujold: the Sharing Knife series

Jody Lynn Nye: An Unexpected Apprentice

Travis Biddle: Balam, Spring

Nathan Lowell: the Tanyth Fairport Adventures series

Julie E. Czerneda: A Turn of Light

[dertaglichedan]

Billionaire-backed tech group says it’s bought all the land it needs for utopian city

A Silicon Valley group backed by billionaires said it’s acquired all the land it needs to build a utopian city in Northern California, after quietly buying more properties in the past month.

Flannery Associates LLC, the company behind the California Forever project, acquired at least seven more land parcels totaling about 814 acres in Solano County in October, according to county records. The company now owns more than 53,000 acres in the area — after some parcels traded hands — where it plans to create a walkable, green community they say would generate thousands of jobs.

“With regards to future purchases, except for a few remaining properties that Flannery has under contract and will close on in the coming weeks, Flannery has assembled all the land it needs and does not anticipate making any additional purchases,” the company said in a statement.

The investor group is led by Jan Sramek, a former Goldman Sachs trader, and backed by tech moguls like former Sequoia Capital Chairman Mike Moritz, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.

They’ve spent more than $800 million scooping up land for the project, a buying spree done extremely discreetly over several years which was first revealed in late August by the media. The project has since faced criticism from local officials and residents who fear the impact of their plans on the environment, local agricultural economy and for the security of the nearby Travis Air Force Base.

Adding to the tensions, Flannery is suing a group of Solano landowners for allegedly colluding to inflate the values of their property by $170 million. Flannery is seeking at least $510 million in damages, or triple the amount allegedly inflated by price fixing. The landowners deny the claim and are seeking to dismiss the suit.

Some of the parcels that Flannery bought in the last month were owned by Barnes Family Ranch Associates, Lambie Ranch Associates and Kirby Hill Associates, three of the defendants named in the lawsuit that the company filed in May in Sacramento federal court.

[msclaritea]

Turmoil At Location Ventures’ Coral Gables Condo Project

Flannery Associates, the mystery company behind $800 million in farmland purchases around Travis Air Force Base, is backed by a who’s who of billionaires from Silicon Valley.

The Folsom-based company with plans to construct a utopian city with “tens of thousands of new homes” in Solano County is spearheaded by Jan Sramek, 36, a former Goldman Sachs trader who has quietly courted some of the tech industry’s biggest names, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

The company’s pitch: Take a patch of brown hills split by a two-lane road between farms and suburbs, then turn it into a city with tens of thousands of residents, clean energy, public transportation and dense urban life.

The pitch, whose five-year, stealth campaign was unveiled during a recent poll of residents 60 miles northeast of San Francisco, was swallowed by some of Silicon Valley’s richest residents.

Each had become enraptured enough with the idea of building a new city atop former cow pastures to fork out millions to buy up 140 properties spanning “tens of thousands of acres,” according to Catherine Moy, mayor of nearby Fairfield.

They include Michael Moritz, the billionaire venture capitalist, who scribbled a note to one potential investor asking, “Let me know if this tickles your fancy.”

They include Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn co-founder, venture capitalist and Democratic donor. Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, investors at the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm. Patrick and John Collison, the sibling co-founders of the payment technology company Stripe.

They include Laurene Powell Jobs, the billionaire widow of Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple.

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And they include Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, entrepreneurs-turned-investors, according to the Times. Andreessen Horowitz is also a backer. It’s not clear how much each has invested.

Rep. John Garamendi, D-California, who along with Rep. Mike Thompson represents the surrounding region in Congress, said he’s been trying to figure out the company’s identity for four years.

“I couldn’t find out anything,” he said.

Brian Brokaw, a representative for the investor group, said in a statement that the group was made up of “Californians who believe that Solano County’s and California’s best days are ahead.” 

He said Flannery planned to start working with Solano County residents and elected officials, as well as with Travis Air Force Base, next week.

Flannery AssociatesFlannery HoldingsChris DixonJan SramekLaurene Powell JobsMarc AndreessenMichael MoritzNat Friedman and Daniel GrossPatrick and John CollisonReid Hoffman

Turmoil hits Location Ventures’ Coral Gables condo project

Contractors claim $7M in unpaid work at Villa Valencia, while officials scramble for certificate of occupancy

AUG 25, 2023, 5:30 PM

A year after completing Villa Valencia in Coral Gables, Location Ventures failed to secure a final certificate of occupancy for the 13-story boutique condominium. And since last month, 10 contractors, including project manager Winmar Construction, have filed 23 construction liens totaling nearly $7 million against the building’s development entity, records show.

It’s the latest batch of trouble for the beleaguered Coral Gables-based development firm previously led by Rishi Kapoor, a once rising star in South Florida’s real estate scene who’s now a target of local and federal investigations examining his management of Location Ventures.

Kapoor resigned last month as CEO and former Miami-Dade Judge Alan Fine took over as the company’s manager. Investors who bankrolled Location Ventures gave Fine a mandate to liquidate the firm’s assets to pay back creditors without having to file for bankruptcy protection. 

The city of Coral Gables recently extended a temporary certificate of occupancy for Villa Valencia, a 39-unit mid-rise that generated more than $100 million in closings. The developer hasn’t completed minor punch list items and some public infrastructure components, such as a new drain, pedestrian traffic signals and underground electrical lines, according to city manager Peter Iglesias.

Villa Valencia owners raise concerns

On Tuesday, Iglesias briefed the Coral Gables City Commission about the Villa Valencia situation during the elected body’s regular meeting. The discussion was brought up by Coral Gables Commissioner Ariel Fernandez, who told The Real Deal he received calls from Villa Valencia unit owners who are concerned the building still doesn’t have a final certificate of occupancy. 

“It’s really an unfortunate situation,” Fernandez said. “The developer is nowhere in sight to take care of this. It puts the city in a tough spot to get this done.” 

Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago abstained from the discussion and walked off the dais. Lago explained that he could not participate since a Location Ventures entity leases a storefront inside a building in the city that he partially owns, according to video of the city commission meeting.

“I have to recuse myself,” Lago told his colleagues. “The owner of this project is a tenant of mine.” 

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Unit owners can still reside at Villa Valencia during the extension of the temporary certificate of occupancy, and the city can use funds from a construction bond posted by Location Ventures to pay for the unfinished work, Iglesias informed city commissioners. He also said contractors are willing to complete the punch list items and public infrastructure components. 

“We will not release the funds until those are done,” Iglesias said. “These are not building safety issues.” 

City Attorney Christina Suárez told city commissioners that she and her staff met with Fine, who relayed Location Ventures has a “cash flow issue,” and that he is onboard with the city utilizing the construction bond to pay for the uncompleted work. Fine did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Contractors claim nonpayment for work

Meanwhile, between July 3 and Aug. 2, 10 companies that performed construction work at Villa Valencia filed 23 liens claiming nonpayment of a combined $6.9 million. 

Winmar Construction, the Miami-based general contractor managing Villa Valencia’s construction, represented the largest claim; filing three liens totalling $5.6 million, records show. 

Miami-based millwork manufacturer AWM Group had the second biggest claim, filing two liens for a combined $730,189. 

The smallest claim was filed by Pronto Waste Services, a Miami-based construction dumpster provider. Pronto’s lien is for $5,904. 

On other fronts, lenders are suing Location Ventures entities for allegedly not paying back a combined $17 million in mortgages tied to co-living projects in Coral Gables and Miami Beach. The firm is also being sued by investors of a Coconut Grove co-living project, as well as a married couple that placed $45 million in Location Ventures and two projects. 

This sounds like a really bad idea. Laurene Powell Jobs is involved.