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Three months after Flagler County government warned that a $25 million dune-rebuilding project for 2.6 miles of shore in Flagler Beach was in jeopardy because of just 13 property owners refusing to sign easements, the project is still hung up, with hold-outs down to 11. Some 128 easements have been signed. Easements dont alter a property owners rights. They merely allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dump sand on the property.

The county is warning that the longer the Corps waits to bid out the projectwhich should have been near completion by now, in the Corps original estimatethe greater the chance that the money will be lost and the project scrapped.

But the county is muscling its way to an eventual start date anyway. It feels confident that the County Commissions formalizing reassurances to property owners that their rights will remain intact will convince the majority of the hold-outs to sign. On Oct. 5 the commission passed a resolution that does what those owners had asked for: put in explicit writing, as a memorialized government action, that their rights stay whole.

We are not altering any of the rights of ownership except the right of Flagler County through its contractors, through Army Corps funding, to go in and restore the dune per engineered specifications, per landscape specifications, County Attorney Al Hadeed explained, summarizing the resolution. And to maintain that dune and repair that dune and particularly to perform significant repairs in the event of a presidentially declared storm. So therefore, they do not give up their right to prevent the public from crossing over their property from A1A onto the beach and vice versa. People cannot traverse across their property, as some had feared or raised as a possibility, because the language wasnt that specific.

Separately from the county, a grass-roots effort led by Flagler Beach residents Carla Cline and Craig Atack raised $60,000 in a GoFundMe effort to convince the hold-outs to sign in exchange for roughly $15,000 each. That, combined with the countys resolution, has the county bullish on a breakthrough.

We are finalizing details for these outstanding easements as we speak, Hadeed said this morning, and with a measurable change brought about by the codification of the assurances for the benefit of all property owners.

It appears that most property owners may sign easements soon. But two may not, requiring the second approach the county is taking.

Its the nuclear option in disputes between government and property owners: eminent domainthe Fifth Amendment right of a government to take ownership of private property for public use in exchange for fair payment. Its laborious, heavy handed and can be expensive, requiring litigation. But it also almost guarantees that the government initiating the proceeding will get the land in dispute, and that the property owner will lose all rights to it.

Thats the step Flagler County government said it was willing to initiate in early September against at least one of the property owners, Cynthia Dangiolini, who owns parcels in the South 24th and South 25th Street blocks. Unlike many of the other hold-outs, Dangiolini, a resident of Flagler Beach, is not represented by an attorney. She has been reclusive and shown little interest in cooperating with the county. When the commission cleared the way for eminent domain in early September, the county administration hoped it would send a message to Dangiolini, convincing her to sign or else lose her property altogether.

Dangiolini contacted the countys engineering department, which prepared a document for her showing where the dune will be, where the erosion control line will be and so on. So were hopeful that that is an indication that the individual will act in a way so that we do not have to continue to pursue eminent domain, Hadeed said, where she as a property owner runs the real risk of not having ownership of the dune remnants. But as Hadeed updated the Flagler Beach City Commission last week, he said eminent domain may be necessary with Dangiolini and one other owner.

That process would take three months. How much it will cost the county beyond legal fees is unclear. The procedure that were using irrevocably commits us to paying whatever price is determined by the judge, Hadeed said. Its an irrevocable choice. So we will get the property by initiating these proceedings. Theres no question about that. That wont be blocked.

It doesnt change the Army Corps timeline. They told us were not going to bid it until you get those two remnants in the project area, and with that, theyll accelerate completing their construction plans and putting them out to bid, Hadeed said. I cant control that end of it.

There were 140 easements to start with along the 2.6 miles of beach. The Corps will rebuild dunes reconstructed with upwards of 300,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from a borrow pit offshore. The wall of dunes is expected to provide considerable protection for State Road A1A, prolonging at least for a while the life of the road and the homes and businesses along its west side.

The Army Corps project is only the first phase of a projected 50-year project that, in todays dollars, will cost $100 million, with the federal government picking up only half that cost. The other half is Flaglers responsibilitywhether through local dollars or other grants. The county has secured money only for the first phase. Subsequent renourishment phases are expected to happen every decade or so. But if a major storm were to demolish any part of the beach, the federal government would pick up the entire bill repair costs. Thats one of the aspects of the project that convinced local officials to sign on. On the other hand, with seas inexorably rising, the 50-year timeline of the project may be overly optimistic. A1A may not survive the oceans onslaught that long.

The federal project is only a small part of Flagler County governments far more ambitious plan to do likewise on all 18 miles of county shoreline.

The federal project is the lynchpin for everything, Hadeed said. For everything were going to do on the beach, the whole 18 miles. Its only to the Army Corps that we got the offshore sand site. If somehow this project cant be done, we lose that offshore sand site, were not going to be able to do the non-federal, the rest of Flagler Beach, were not going to be able to use that sand source forwhat is itthe other 12 miles or so of the Flagler County shoreline. This is a lynchpin project.

The county has some money to do likewise on the miles of beach beyond the Army Corps project (roughly five miles in Flagler Beach is paid for) and FEMA funding is pending for the northern 12 miles. No dollar numbers have been finalized as of this moment, Hadeed said. (An earlier version of this article had incorrectly stated that the county had none of the funds necessary to accomplish dune reconstruction beyond the Army Corps project.) The county is so strapped for money that it is considering a new sales surtax to generate new dollars.

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County Mixes Reassurances and Threat of Eminent Domain to Convince 11 Hold-Outs to Sign Off on Flagler Beach Dunes Project - FlaglerLive.com

A viral video claims that one can use the Fifth Amendment to get out of completing the census. This is false.

Is a viral video claiming that the Fifth Amendment can be used to get out of doing the Census legit?

No. The Fifth Amendment protects people from incriminating themselves. However, the information provided in a census form would not incriminate someone. For that reason, the Fifth Amendment doesn't apply, according to legal experts.

Peter J. Smith, The George Washington University Law School

A viral video, published in 2010, has popped up yet again as people fill out their 2020 census forms. In the video, the narrator claims that people can choose not to answer questions on the census, simply by writing Fifth Amendment instead.

"As you can see here," the narrator said. "I've actually written in Fifth Amendment as each answer."

The Verify team turned to legal expert Peter J. Smith, a law professor at The George Washington University, to get his response to this viral video.

"I think the answer is no," Smith said.

Smith pointed out that the Fifth Amendment protects people from self incriminating, something which doesn't relate to the Census questions.

"Writing Fifth Amendment isn't some sort of magic solution," he said. "That would avoid having to answer questions that the government calls mandatory."

Michael C. Cook Sr. from the Census Bureau agreed, adding that filling out the census is important because it can decide voting power and funding for the next decade.

"I'm talking about funding for schools," he said. "Funding for roads, funding for health care."

For more information on the census, visit here.

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VERIFY: No, the Fifth Amendment can't be used to opt-out of the census - KENS5.com

When he started on June 1 as the new CEO of TikTok, former Disney executive Kevin Mayer said he was thrilled to join the company and vowed to further lead the apps global expansion. Less than three months later, Mayer is out.

In a letter sent to employees explaining his resignation yesterday, Mayer said he chose to join TikTok because ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, is utterly unique and changing the global internet landscape, according to CNBC, which published the internal memo. Mayer was also the COO of ByteDance.

He continued: In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up forI understand that the role that I signed up forincluding running TikTok globallywill look very different as a result of the US Administrations action to push for a sell off of the US business. Vanessa Pappas, general manager of TikTok in North America, will be the interim global head of the company.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said the company appreciates that the political dynamics of the last few months have significantly changed what the scope of Mayers role would be going forward.

Indeed, Mayer faced an uphill battle as soon as he joined TikTok, which ostensibly hired him in a bid to distance itself from the companys Chinese roots as it faced rising scrutiny from US lawmakers and users. Among his first challenges were addressing concerns that the app was suppressing videos linked to police brutality protests in the US, and also that it censored content deemed unsuitable by the Chinese government. Amid the worsening US-China relationship, however, even Mayer probably couldnt have predicted that US president Donald Trump would take the drastic step of declaring TikTok a threat to national security, and sign an executive order banning unspecified transactions with ByteDance unless the app can find a US buyer for its American business. The order takes effect on Sep. 21.

The resignation of Mayer is a major setback for TikTok, which has become one of the focal points of the US-China relationship. Mayers departure will not only hurt TikToks efforts to prove that it is a global rather than Chinese company, but will also add uncertainty to the potential sale of the apps US business. Trump has given Nov. 12 as the new deadline for the app to find a US buyer or be shut down, over Washingtons concerns that users could be exposed to spying by Beijing, a claim that TikTok rejects.

TikTok has challenged the US government, and this week filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of violating the fifth amendment by issuing the executive order banning the service in the US without obeying due process.

Read more here:
Ex-Disney executive Kevin Mayer quits TikTok after three months - Quartz

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday that alleges federal agents used excessive force and illegal detentions after they were deployed by President Donald Trump's administration to protect a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon.

The plaintiffs in the suit include three military veterans and other protestors who asserted that the federal officers in Portland used overly aggressive tactics that denied demonstrators their freedom of speech and assembly.

Protests against police brutality took place for at least 90 days in Portland after the death of George Floyd on May 25. In July, federal law-enforcement agents were deployed in Portland to deal with the protests. Videos and images of the protests showed federal agents using military tactics and putting protestors into unmarked vans.

The lawsuit, which is the third filed by ACLU in Portland, alleges that federal law-enforcement agents "heavily armed and clad in military-type camouflage or dark uniforms," violated protesters' First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights with their use of excessive force and illegal detentions of protestors.

"Our clients are individuals and organizations that gathered peacefully in downtown Portland to support Black Lives Matter after the killing of George Floyd and so many others at the hands of the police," ACLU attorney Jeremy Sacks said in a statement on the suit to the Associated Press. "But they were met by violence from the federal police forces intent on squelching the protesters message and their Constitutional rights all in aid of the president's political agenda."

Several of the plaintiffs claimed that they incurred physical injuries from police actions, including getting hit by tear gas cans, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and other chemicals, the lawsuit said. One man alleged that he was snatched off the streets by unidentified federal agents while protesting.

"I still haven't fully come to terms with what it means that I was kidnapped by my government," Mark Pettibone, a 29-year-old demonstrator involved in the Portland protests, said in a statement reported by the AP. "People need to know what happened to me and the government needs to be held accountable so that what happened to me doesn't happen to someone else."

In the lawsuit, the ACLU also alleges that Chad Wolf, the acting director of the US Department of Homeland Security, did not have the authority to send more than 100 agents to Portland.

The Department of Homeland Security, Wolf, and President Trump were all reportedly named in the lawsuit. The DHS did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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The ACLU filed a lawsuit over excessive force by federal agents in clashes at Portland protests - Insider - INSIDER

It is important that I give you my perspective on recent incidents involving our city of Beachwood Police Department, more specifically the release of the video dated June 27, 2019.

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States proclaims that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, uses the same exact words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states. The standard of due process applies not only to criminal law, but has become an essential part of civil actions and even administrative proceedings regarding employee, student or membership disputes. However, with the advent of social media, this vital Constitutional right is being violated by both sides of the political spectrum.

Recently, here in the city of Beachwood, for the first time in our citys history, Mayor Martin S. Horwitz made the decision to release the unredacted meaning the raw version of the videotape of a police incident, despite the fact that the incident is still under investigation. While this may be the mayors prerogative for our city, I, as chairperson of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, similarly have oversight of a law enforcement agency whose officers are also routinely recorded, albeit mostly via private surveillance systems, rather than agency-issued dash or body cameras.

These recordings often prove instrumental in the prosecution of criminal, civil and administrative matters. Our agency has consistently found these recordings are one piece of evidence in a much larger investigative process. That is, without the full context of an investigation, a particular recording may unjustly prejudice one or more parties involved, including officers and civilians. Accordingly, I believe that releasing evidence before an investigation is complete poses a substantial risk to the fundamental fairness of the adjudication process, including potentially tainting any reviewing body, such as grand juries, petit juries and the public.

City council does not have authority over the administrative policies of the police department, including the use of body cams, hiring and firing, the release of footage, paid administrative leave, etc. The police department is unionized and functions as a department within the city of Beachwood. The mayor is also the safety director. Therefore, the chief of police reports directly to the mayor. This structure is common in many cities in Ohio. In order for council to encourage or influence policy, the process dictates that council should financially support the policy. Ultimately, there are layers council, mayor, the police department and an umbrella of laws, civil service rules and collective bargaining laws all in place so that no entity can interfere or insert themselves into areas that are not their responsibility.

For this reason, police reform and any desired structural changes are very challenging to pursue or alter in a short amount of time. This is not to say that there should not be a movement toward change, my point is that the existing structure makes change very hard and slow to occur.

The system is not nimble and malleable. The investigation of the June 27, 2019, incident is under criminal review with the Special Prosecutions Section of the Ohio Attorney Generals Office and there is no time limit on investigations. It is in our best interest to wait for a complete and thorough investigation. It is not best to rush an investigation. It is essential that we let it go the distance to cover all bases.

In spite of these inherent challenges, please remember that we all want fairness. Members of the law enforcement community are first and foremost citizens of this nation and deserve the same rights, such as due process, reserved for all Americans.

We are living in unprecedented times. As a result, everyone is operating in a new zone, and we see the results of this stress ranging in higher suicide rates, increased food and alcohol consumption, as well as the need for mental health counseling and financial distress assistance.

By this commentary, I am in no way endorsing the use of unreasonable force. I believe that most of the officers serving Beachwood do so with respect, pride and courage on behalf of the community. I am, however, unwilling to rush to justice without giving that officer or any other citizen of the community their rights as Americans, including the important right of due process.

I am here to serve the community at large, which includes both our citizens and our employees; I am not and will not serve as a rubber stamp for one faction or another.

June E. Taylor is chair of the Ohio Casino Control Commission having been appointed by former Gov. John Kasich in 2011, and reappointed by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2018. She served on the city of Beachwood charter review committee in 2016 and was appointed to the Beachwood City Council in January 2018. She was elected to serve on Beachwood City Council in November 2019. She is the first African-American to serve on Beachwood City Council. She and her family have resided in Beachwood for more than 20 years and are members of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood.

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Beachwood Councilwoman: I will not be a rubber stamp - Cleveland Jewish News