National Roundup

Iowa
Ex-Iowa players’ attorney pulls $20M demand, says he’ll sue
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The attorney representing eight Black former Iowa football players who allege racial discrimination during their time with the Hawkeyes has withdrawn his clients’ demand for a $20 million settlement and told the university he will move forward with a lawsuit.

Damario Solomon-Simmons, a civil rights attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma, laid out his plan in a letter dated Tuesday to the Iowa solicitor general and university’s general counsel.

Solomon-Simmons stated the players’ initial demands in a 21-page letter to university officials dated Oct. 5. In addition to $20 million, the players called for the firings of head football coach Kirk Ferentz, offensive line coach Brian Ferentz and athletic director Gary Barta.

The university said it would not give in to the demands  and that work had already begun to create a more welcoming environment for Black athletes.

The university in June hired an outside law firm to review the culture of the football program after dozens of former players, most of them Black, spoke out on social media to allege racial disparities and mistreatment. Their activism came as protests against racial injustice swept the nation following the death of George Floyd and after attempts to raise concerns inside the program resulted in only minor changes.

The former players who have said they were mistreated are Akrum Wadley, Aaron Mends, Jonathan Parker, Marcel Joly, Maurice Fleming, Reggie Spearman, Kevonte Martin-Manley and Andre Harris.

New Mexico
Contractor sues over work at US nuclear waste repository
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) — A contracting company is suing Nuclear Waste Partnership over allegations that the manager of the U.S. government’s nuclear waste dump breached the contract it awarded for rebuilding the repository’s air system.

Critical Applications Alliance, a Carlsbad-based joint venture between Texas-based Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries, was hired in 2018 to build the ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant for $135 million but the contract was terminated in August.

The company argues in the lawsuit that the project was troubled from the start, suffering from delays and frequent design changes resulting from Nuclear Waste Partnership’s inexperience in major construction projects.

Nuclear Waste Partnership declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The new system is intended to increase airflow at the repository so that mining operations and waste emplacement can occur at the same time. Work has been limited since 2014, when a radiation release contaminated part of the underground area and resulted in the need for additional precautions to be taken by workers.

Work on the ventilation system was supposed to be completed in September 2021, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reported. Critical Applications Alliance argued that delays were caused by Nuclear Waste Partnership’s continued changes to the project and requirements of the contract.

The lawsuit also pointed to design inadequacies, suggesting that specifications violated industry standards and that design drawings wre conflicting.

The roof panels for the ventilation building had to be redesigned, along with its foundation and the control system that would open or close ventilation dampers, causing work to drag on for more than a year, the lawsuit states.

According to the complaint, design changes made by Nuclear Waste Partnership as of Aug. 31, 2020, had delayed the project by 300 days. The contractor also claimed it had incurred millions of dollars in added costs and that Nuclear Waste Partnership refused to adequately compensate Critical Applications Alliance.

Critical Applications Alliance alleged it was given no reason for the contract’s termination and that Nuclear Waste Partnership still owed $12 million for unpaid invoices at the time of the termination.
The lawsuit demands a jury trial and says damages of no less than $32 million are in order.

New York
Syracuse coach facing lawsuit in fatal crash
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim is being sued over a fatal accident he was involved in nearly two years ago.

According to  Syracuse.com, the family of Jorge Jimenez, who was struck and killed by an SUV driven by Boeheim in February 2019, alleged the coach’s actions were “negligent, reckless and wanton.”
The four-page lawsuit was filed Monday in Onondaga County Supreme Court by attorney Terence O’Connor and seeks an unspecified settlement.

The accident occurred amid icy conditions on the night of Feb. 20, 2019, after a mid-week game in the Carrier Dome. The 51-year-old Jimenez was a passenger in a car that had skidded on the eastbound side of Interstate 690 heading out of the city and came to a stop perpendicular across two of three lanes. The victim had exited the disabled car and was struck and killed near the guardrail when Boeheim approached the scene and swerved to avoid hitting the car.

A police report said Boeheim was not driving “reckless, unreasonable or with gross negligence.” Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick concluded that Boeheim was speeding,  but the accident investigation by Syracuse police concluded that the crash could still have been deadly even if the Hall of Fame coach had been following the speed limit. There was no evidence that drugs or alcohol played a role and no charges were filed.

According to state law, the family had three years to file a lawsuit. A call from The Associated Press seeking comment from O’Connor was not immediately returned. According to Syracuse.com, Boeheim had not yet responded in court papers.

The 75-year-old coach declined comment through a university spokesman.