Former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder sexually harassed a team employee and oversaw team executives who deliberately withheld millions of dollars in revenue from other clubs, and he has agreed to pay a $60 million fine, the league announced Thursday.
The NFL released a 23-page report detailing the findings of an independent investigation into Snyder’s conduct just minutes after its owners unanimously approved the sale of the Commanders to Josh Harris.
The investigation was led by former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White and conducted by her law firm, Debevoise & Plimpton. The league had pledged to make the findings of the probe public.
Investigators concluded that Washington withheld $11 million in revenue that should have been shared with other teams, an amount the report suggests may have been far greater. White’s firm was unable to reach a conclusion about tens of millions of additional dollars that may have been withheld in part because Snyder and the team did not cooperate fully with the investigation, according to the report.
The report concluded that Snyder sexually harassed former team employee Tiffani Johnston, allegations that Johnston first made last year in front of a House committee. Snyder placed his hand on Johnston’s thigh at a team dinner and pushed her toward his car as they were leaving the restaurant, the report said.
“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values.”
Snyder has denied Johnston’s allegations and repeated that denial in an interview with White’s investigators. He only agreed to speak with investigators for one hour, the report said.
Investigators spoke with Johnston several times and “found her to be highly credible,” the report said, and her account was corroborated by witnesses and other evidence.
The firm did not conclude whether Snyder was personally aware of the financial improprieties, but witnesses told investigators that Snyder repeatedly pressured team employees to improve its financial performance, telling them, “every dollar matters.” Documents detailing how the team moved revenue into accounts that shielded the money from other teams were shared with Snyder on at least one occasion, the report said.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (AP) — NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the Washington Commanders on Thursday from Dan Snyder to a group led by Josh Harris and including Magic Johnson for a record $6.05 billion.
All 32 team owners voted for the sale, which is the highest price paid for a North American professional sports team. After the finance committee approved the agreement with the new ownership group, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, a special league meeting was called to consider and vote on it before the 2023 season begins.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones beamed as he walked off an escalator and headed toward the meeting room, granting a brief interview with reporters about the impending sale of his team’s division rival.
“It’s a hallmark day,” Jones said. “I’m excited about the prospects of going into Washington and giving them some capital punishment.”
Snyder had owned his favorite boyhood team since 1999, when he bought it for $800 million. Success was fleeting, both on and off the field. With Snyder in charge, the team made the playoffs just six times in 24 years, only twice won a postseason game and went 166-226-2 overall. The franchise has lost a significant amount of luster from the glory days under coach Joe Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls in his 12-year run from 1981-92.
Then there were the problems outside of football, from a feud with minority owners that led Snyder to buy out their shares of the team to allegations of sexual harassment by former employees, which prompted a series of investigations into workplace misconduct. Over and over again, Snyder said he would never sell the team.
The tide began to shift on that front last October when Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said there was “merit to remove” Snyder, an ouster that would have required votes from at least 24 of the other 31 clubs. Two weeks later, Snyder and his wife Tanya hired a firm to begin exploring a sale of part or all of one of the NFL’s oldest franchises — one that has called the nation’s capital home since 1937.
Ultimately, that process led to a group chaired by Harris. His investment crew also includes David Blitzer, with whom he co-owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, Washington-area businessman Mitchell Rales and more than a dozen others. The unusually large ownership group needed and received league finance approval for a deal that shattered the $4.35 billion Walmart heir Rob Walton paid last year for the Denver Broncos.
The special meeting for the Commanders sale was conducted at the same hotel adjacent to the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis where Walton’s group gained formal control of the Broncos.
Their biggest immediate challenge for the long-term future of the organization is a new stadium to replace FedEx Field, the rushed-to-completion home of the team since 1997 in Landover, Maryland, that has not aged well. Virginia abandoned a stadium bill more than a year ago, a consequence of the number of off-field controversies swirling around the team.
Bringing the fans back is a major priority after Washington ranked last in the league in attendance in 2022 and second-to-last in 2021. The team rebranded last year as the Commanders after dropping the name Redskins in 2020 and generically going by the Washington Football Team for two seasons.
Snyder’s attorneys attended the meeting. He did not.
Owners also received an in-person update at the meeting from former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White on her investigation for the NFL into the Commanders that began 1½ years ago. That was launched in light of the congressional review into workplace misconduct that also included a referral to the Federal Trade Commission for potential business improprieties by Snyder.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has pledged to make White’s report public when it’s completed.
The Galápagos Islands are a bucket-list destination for many travelers, bird lovers and nature enthusiasts, and it’s no wonder why: The biodiverse region of the world has been famous for centuries as a natural paradise.
Like all destinations, the islands offer a unique list of requirements and considerations for travelers heading to the destination.
The basics
The Galápagos Islands are located off the coast of Ecuador and are accessible by plane from Quito or Guayaquil. Many travelers visit one of these cities for a day or two prior to flying into Baltra or San Cristobal, where the two main airports are located in the island chain.
Travelers staying on the mainland for a few days can explore the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Ecuadorian Andes or, in Quito, can discover Latin America’s best-preserved 16th-century historic center and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
San Cristobal Island, Santa Cruz Island, Isabela Island and Floreana Islands are the main islands that comprise the Galápagos Islands.
The best time to visit the islands is from June to December, when it’s their dry season. The peak tourist seasons are during the Christmas and New Year holidays, as well as from mid-June to September.
While the islands are a part of Ecuador, the U.S. dollar is the main currency used, making it easy for American travelers.
“The Galápagos Islands are a unique and fragile place in terms of their ecosystem,” said Damon Corkin, founder and Travel Director for Andean Discovery, which also offers trips to the islands. “It is important to respect the rules and restrictions established to preserve the flora and fauna of the islands. Have a distance of 6 feet from the animals.”
Required documents
Travelers are required to bring their passports and must be pre-approved prior to visiting the islands for a Galápagos immigration card. Some travelers may also be required to be vaccinated against yellow fever, though most Americans traveling to Quito and the islands will not need to be vaccinated for the disease. Check out Ecuador Travel to read the latest travel requirements.
As with all other international travel, travelers should also bring their COVID-19 vaccine cards with them.
“To preserve the natural balance of the archipelago, it is forbidden to introduce plants, animals, or any other type of biological material to the Galápagos Islands,” said Corkin. “Be sure to check your belongings before traveling and avoid bringing seeds, fruits, insects, or any other objects that may endanger the biodiversity of the place.”
Travel methods
Travelers can choose to visit the islands with a land-based tour or on a cruise.
Many cruise lines offer itineraries to the region on purpose-built ships that are smaller due to the nature of the island chain, such as Lindblad Expeditions or the luxury cruise line Silversea. There’s also a wide price range for these trips, making it easy for travelers of many price ranges to find the best fit for them.
Travelers who are worried about transiting between the islands by boat or who want more flexibility in their trip can choose to take a land-based tour, sleeping on-island and transiting between a few of them to visit key attractions with a private guide.
Andean Discovery, Damon Corkin, Galapagos
Many travelers will also wonder: Can children visit the islands, too? The answer is yes! Children will always come with different considerations, though many cruise lines and tours offer kid-friendly accommodations (though some will have age limits). Infants and younger children will find it harder to participate in some of the most rigorous excursion opportunities, it’s possible to visit the islands with children — and have an incredible family experience, too.
What to pack
Travelers should make sure to pack for a warm-weather trip, with coral reef-safe sunscreen, a brimmed hat, at least two swimming suits and water shoes to protect them from any coral or rocky underwater terrain. Travelers should also pack hiking boots for any land-based hiking excursion.
Land and cruise-based travelers should also consider bringing along something to help with seasickness, such as Sea-Bands or anti-nausea patches or pills that they can take in case they feel sick during transit or while onboard their cruise.
Any traveler visiting the islands during its wet season should also bring along waterproof shoes or boots, as well as a waterproof jacket.
Travelers should also bring along a camera to document their bucket-list vacation. It could be an adequate one inside of a phone, or travelers can splurge for a physical camera with an enhanced zoom lens to get better photos of far-off animals.
By LISA MASCARO and ALI SWENSON (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. worked to defend himself Thursday against accusations that he traffics in racist and hateful online conspiracy theories, testifying at a House hearing on government censorship despite requests from outside groups to disinvite the Democratic presidential candidate after his recent antisemitic remarks.
The Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is amplifying GOP claims that conservatives and others are being unfairly targeted by technology companies that routinely work with the government to try to stem the spread of disinformation online. Democrats argued that free speech comes with responsibilities not to spread misinformation, particularly when it fans violence.
In opening remarks, Kennedy invoked his famous family’s legacy in decrying the complaints of racism and antisemitism against him.
“This is an attempt to censor a censorship hearing,” said Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and the nephew of President John F. Kennedy.
Growing animated at times, Kennedy defended his statements, which have delved into race, vaccine safety and other issues, as neither “racist or antisemitic.” He said his family has long believed in the First Amendment right to free speech.
“The First Amendment was not written for easy speech,” Kennedy said. “It was written for the speech that nobody likes you for.”
Republicans are eager to elevate Kennedy after he announced in April he was mounting a long-shot Democratic primary challenge to President Joe Biden. Kennedy’s presidential campaign chairman, Dennis Kucinich, the former congressman and past presidential contender, sat in the front row behind him during the more-than-three-hours hearing.
The Big Tech companies have adamantly denied the GOP assertions and say they enforce their rules impartially for everyone regardless of ideology or political affiliation. And researchers have not found widespread evidence that social media companies are biased against conservative news, posts or materials.
The top Democrat on the House panel, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, said the Republican majority was giving a platform to Kennedy and others to promote conspiracy theories and a rallying cry for “bigotry and hate.”
“This is not the kind of free speech I know,” Plaskett said.
Plaskett warned against misinformation from Russia and other U.S. adversaries who have interfered in American elections and are expected to meddle again in the 2024 election.
Often emotional and heated, Thursday’s hearing came as subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, portrayed what he claimed were examples of censorship, including a White House request to Twitter to remove a race-based post from Kennedy about COVID-19 vaccines.
“It’s why Mr. Kennedy is running for president — it’s to stop, to help us expose and stop what’s going on,” Jordan said.
A watchdog group asked Jordan to drop the invitation to Kennedy after he suggested COVID-19 could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
In those filmed remarks first published by The New York Post, Kennedy said “there is an argument” that COVID-19 “is ethnically targeted” and that it “attacks certain races disproportionately.”
After the video was made public, Kennedy posted on Twitter that his words were twisted and denied ever suggesting that COVID-19 was deliberately engineered to spare Jewish people. He called for the Post’s article to be retracted.
A clip from the video was aired at the hearing.
Kennedy has a history of comparing vaccines — widely credited with saving millions of lives — with the genocide of the Holocaust during Nazi Germany, comments for which he has sometimes apologized.
In heated exchanges, Democrats implored Kennedy and Republicans to consider the fallout from their words and actions — and noted that one of the posts Republicans had singled out at the hearing was not removed by any censors.
“Hate speech has consequences,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who made reference to the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, among others. He called the hearing Orwellian.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, said she received a death threat after the last hearing of the Weaponization panel.
When Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., read aloud Kennedy’s postings and questioned his intent, Kennedy interjected that she was “slandering me” and claimed what the congresswoman was saying was a lie.
An organization that Kennedy founded, Children’s Health Defense, currently has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines.
Ahead of the hearing, Jordan said that while he disagreed with Kennedy’s remarks, he was not about to drop him from the panel. Speaker Kevin McCarthy took a similar view, saying he did not want to censor Kennedy.
The panel wants to probe the way the federal government works with technology companies to flag postings that contain false information or downright lies. Hanging over the debate is part of federal communications law, Section 230, which shields technology companies like Twitter and Facebook from liability over what’s said on their platforms.
Lawmakers on the panel were also hearing testimony from Emma-Jo Morris, journalist at Breitbart News, who has reported extensively on Biden’s son, Hunter Biden; and D. John Sauer, a former Solicitor General in Missouri who is now a special Assistant Attorney General at the Louisiana Department of Justice involved in the lawsuit against the Biden administration.
Morris tweeted part of her opening remarks in which she described an “elaborate censorship conspiracy” that she claimed sought to halt her reporting of Hunter Biden.
A witness called by Democrats, Maya Wiley, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, implored the lawmakers to consider the platforms where Americans share views — but also “how deeply vital that they be based in fact, not fiction.”
The U.S. has been hesitant to regulate the social media giants, even as outside groups warn of the rise of hate speech and misinformation that can be erosive to civil society.
___ The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The star of “The Matrix” and “John Wick” is coming to Norfolk with his band.
Yep, that’s right: Keanu Reeves will be jamming in Hampton Roads.
(“Excellent.”)
The actor’s band, Dogstar, will perform at The NorVa on Dec. 16. Tickets for the show go on sale 10 a.m. Friday.
Dogstar, a Southern California storytelling rock band, is expected to play songs off its new album “Between the Power Lines and Palm Trees” that will debut Oct. 6.
Reeves, who’s starred in a multitude of Hollywood films including as Ted in the 1988 comedy “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” plays bass for Dogstar.
The band formed in 1991 as a group of friends who like to play music together. Bret Domrose sings and plays guitar, and Robert Mailhouse rocks out on drums.
NORFOLK — The mother of a woman who died from an overdose after a man drugged her and took her to his Ocean View apartment is suing the city, claiming her daughter’s death could have been prevented if police had properly investigated a similar death at the same apartment months earlier.
Kathy Paton, mother of Kelsey Paton, filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. Listed as defendants are the city of Norfolk and an unnamed police officer. Paton is seeking $7.5 million in damages.
The lawsuit also alleges the mother of Michael Ebong — the man a jury determined was responsible for Kelsey Paton’s death — used her “influence” as an employee of the Norfolk Police Department to interfere with investigations involving her son. Ebong’s mother, Maravia Reid, worked in various administrative positions for the department for 27 years before retiring last year, according to a city spokesperson. She is not named as a defendant in the complaint and couldn’t be reached for comment.
“The City of Norfolk is aware of the lawsuit and will respond appropriately through court filings when and if it is served,” spokesman Chris Jones wrote in an email to The Virginian-Pilot. “While the City sympathizes with the Paton family, it denies that NPD obstructed justice and it will defend the lawsuit accordingly.”
Ebong, 45, was convicted last year of two counts of manslaughter for the overdose deaths of Paton in July 2021, and Sheena West in November 2020. The jury also found him guilty of sexually assaulting another woman who was drugged and brought back to his apartment in the months between the other two women’s deaths. That woman survived the ordeal and testified at Ebong’s trial. The Pilot is not naming her because she was the victim of a sexual assault.
Ebong was supposed to have been sentenced in December, but the hearing was postponed after he became disruptive in court. He was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation after his public defenders told the judge he’d become increasingly delusional since being found guilty.
Michael Ebong (Provided by Norfolk Sheriff’s Office)
The first of the incidents Ebong was found guilty of at trial last year involved West, who was with friends at Central Shore, a bar and restaurant in Virginia Beach, when she suddenly disappeared without taking her wallet, coat or phone with her. Ebong called police the next day to report an unresponsive woman in his apartment, and West was pronounced dead at the scene. The medical examiner initially determined she died of an accidental overdose after finding heroin and fentanyl in her system.
The next happened six months later in May 2021. The victim testified at trial she’d gone to Seaside Raw Bar at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront with friends and woke up the next day naked and feeling drugged in a strange man’s apartment. She eventually persuaded the man, who she identified in court as Ebong, to take her home. She didn’t report the crime until after she learned about West’s and Paton’s deaths.
The last incident occurred two months after the second, and also began at Seaside Raw Bar. Like West, Paton was out with friends when she suddenly disappeared. And just as in the West case, Ebong called 911 the next morning to report an unresponsive woman in his apartment who was later pronounced dead. Paton’s death also was initially ruled an accidental overdose after an autopsy showed she had heroin and fentanyl in her system.
Prosecutors argued at trial Ebong drugged the women after seeing them at bars and then took them home to sexually assault them. He was charged with second-degree murder in West’s and Paton’s deaths, but the jury chose to convict him of the lesser charge of manslaughter in both cases. The panel found him guilty of rape and object sexual penetration in the incident involving the surviving victim.
Kathy Paton’s lawsuit claims Norfolk police “obstructed justice” by not properly investigating West’s and Paton’s deaths, and concealing and failing to preserve evidence. The complaint also alleges the failures were due to the “instruction” of Reid, who “held a position of influence” with the department. The document doesn’t, however, state any specific actions Reid or the unnamed officer, who’s listed as “John Doe,” may have taken to obstruct the investigation.
The lawsuit also alleges that if police had investigated Ebong after West’s death, they would have discovered he had prior charges for sexual offenses against women. No details about the crimes were listed in the document, but a 2021 investigation by The Virginian-Pilot showed he’d been charged in two cases in Virginia Beach and one in Norfolk.
The first was in 2010 and involved a woman who claimed Ebong put his hands under her clothes and brandished a gun at her. Those charges were later withdrawn. The second involved an exotic dancer who told police Ebong demanded sex from her after hiring her, then stole money from her when she refused. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and felony theft. The third case accused Ebong of slapping a woman on the behind at a thrift store. Those charges were later withdrawn.
“By obstructing Ebong’s prosecution for (West’s death), the Norfolk Police Department enabled him to remain at-large in the Hampton Roads community to continue his modus operandi of drugging women at bars, removing them from the bars, taking them to his home, raping them, and sometimes killing them of an overdose from the chemicals he drugged them with,” the lawsuit said.
“The Norfolk Police Department shockingly failed to recognize that Ebong had previously called in the overdose of West and unceremoniously sent Kelsey Paton’s body to the medical examiner without recognizing the pattern of behavior and without preserving the evidence at the scene of her death.”
As a result of those failures, prosecutors were not able to obtain the evidence needed to convict Ebong of murder, and instead had to settle for a manslaughter verdict, the complaint said.
Sure, you’re probably not using paper checks for most things. But are you returning payments to medical providers and insurance companies in the mail? Paying by check for the random parking ticket or your child’s piano lessons? Now is a good time to stop: Check fraud tied to mail theft is up nationwide, according to a February alert from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. And letter carrier robberies are also on the rise.
This is partially due to the effects of the pandemic, when thieves targeted government relief checks in the mail. “Fraudsters just went back to tried-and-true potential attack factors that seemed to be working,” says Michael Bruemmer, head of global data breach resolution for Experian.
The U.S. Postal Service is vulnerable, and thieves who can access your checks can change the amount and ferret those funds right out of your bank account. And then it can take weeks to get the funds back.
“It’s absolutely a life disruption event when you mail a check and it’s been intercepted,” says Mary Ann Miller, fraud and cybercrime executive advisor and vice president of client experience at consumer identity company Prove. “That can take all the money out of your account at once.”
Here are some steps to keep yourself safe from check fraud — and what to do if you’re a victim.
Use payment alternatives
Look for ways to pay your bills that don’t require using the mail. Check your statement for online payment instructions, for example. “We are beginning to see more online options,” Miller says. “In fact, some medical providers, like One Medical, have a very nice option to pay from a mobile app along with all of your medical information. I find it super helpful and modern.”
If you’re paying individuals, ask if they’ll accept electronic payment through PayPal, Venmo, Zelle or another cash app. “There’s really no need to be writing checks today,” Bruemmer says.
Working with a vendor that doesn’t offer an easy way to pay online? Call and ask if you can pay over the phone. “Paying by phone via the IVR — interactive voice response — or a live customer service representative is definitely a preferred option,” Miller says. “Just make sure you are calling the correct number for the utility or medical provider.”
And in general, experts recommend using credit cards to transact, whenever possible. “You have a lot more protection globally with a credit card, if you’re traveling internationally, or if you’re buying things online,” says Derek Miser, an investment advisor and CEO at Miser Wealth Partners in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Send checks safely
If you must send a check, take steps to lower the chances of financial mayhem. If it’s a big payment, consider using a shipper like UPS or FedEx. “They do accept checks and provide a tracking number,” Miller says.
If you’re using the U.S. Postal Service, send your payment in a security envelope and take it directly to the post office, bypassing mailboxes and mail carriers. You can also write your checks using a black gel ink pen to make it harder for criminals to wash your checks (the ink soaks into the paper).
If you’re sending a check to someone, ask them to let you know once they receive it. That way, if too much time has passed and the recipient hasn’t gotten the check, you can place a stop payment, Miller suggests.
One last safeguard: Keep enough funds in your checking account to pay the bills, but put the rest elsewhere, such as a linked savings account. The smaller your checking account balance, the less money that can be accessed by someone forging a check against your account.
Take action if a check goes awry
If you suspect a check has fallen into the wrong hands, call your bank right away. Then file a police report and contact the person or business that was meant to receive the check. If you were making a payment, you may have to make arrangements to make another payment to prevent late fees or interest.
Be forewarned: Processes for returning fraudulently lost money to bank accounts vary by institution, and some timelines are lengthy. “The customer generally is made whole, but that could be months,” Miller says.
In the meantime, consider putting a fraud alert on your credit reports in case someone tries to open credit in your name, and go over your bank statements and credit reports with an eagle eye. Note that you’re eligible for a free credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies each year at AnnualCreditReport.com.
You can also set up check monitoring at some banks, from which you’ll receive text messages or alerts when transactions over a certain amount are cashed.
“I would say now that just about every bank has some sort of monitoring,” Bruemmer says. “Take advantage of that free alerting that comes from being a member of a financial institution.”
This article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by The Associated Press.
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Kate Ashford, CSA® writes for NerdWallet. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @kateashford.
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — A recent Saturday evening Mass at Sagrada Familia parish had all the hallmarks of a neighborhood worship service, from prayers for ill and deceased members to name-day wishes for two congregants in the pews.
But it also featured security checks to get in and curious tourists peering down to take photos of the worshippers from above. The regular Mass is held in the crypt of modernist architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece church, one of Europe’s most visited monuments.
With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic records in Barcelona and across southern Europe, iconic sacred sites are struggling to accommodate the faithful who come to pray and the millions of visitors who often pay to view the art and architecture.
“We’re working to get ahead of this, so that we don’t get to a collapse,” said the Rev. Josep Maria Turull, rector at Sagrada Familia and the Barcelona archdiocese’s director for tourism, pilgrimage and sanctuaries.
An increasingly popular strategy is to have visitors and the faithful go separate ways — with services held in discrete places, visits barred at worship times, or altogether different entry queues.
This spring, the Vatican opened a separate “pathway” starting outside St. Peter’s Basilica for those who want to enter to pray or attend Mass, so they wouldn’t be discouraged by sometimes hours-long lines for the average of 55,000 daily visitors, said Basilica spokesperson Roberta Leone.
But the challenge remains: how to balance the churches’ competing roles amid the tourism surge without sacrificing their spiritual purpose.
“It’s just really hard because you also want people to experience your faith,” said Daniel Olsen, a Brigham Young University professor who researches religious tourism. With an estimated 330 million people visiting religious sites yearly around the world, it’s one of the tourism market’s largest segments.
Worshippers, who often come because celebrated churches tend to have more services than regular parishes, need free access even as tourists often pay fees that are crucial to maintaining the sites.
“The temple needs to be a place for services and not a theme park,” said Joan Albaiges after Mass in the Sagrada Familia crypt, which he’s attended regularly for six decades.
A man reads a sign explaining how to enter St. Peter’s Basilica for praying or for a touristic visit at The Vatican, Wednesday, July 12, 2023. With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic levels across Southern Europe this summer, iconic sacred sites struggle to find ways to accommodate both the faithful who come to pray and millions of increasingly secular visitors attracted by art and architecture. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
He praised the move in recent years to celebrate one multilingual Sunday Mass at the main altar in the soaring, color-filled basilica. There’s such demand for the 800 free tickets, however, that several hundred people queueing routinely don’t get in, Turull said.
Lay and religious leaders say the histories of the sacred sites should be presented to visitors, who are increasingly unfamiliar with faith traditions in rapidly secularizing countries where lesser-known churches are emptying out or being repurposed.
“Some people go to the cathedral, and they don’t realize they’re in a church. It’s a situation that’s developing in nations that were majority Christian, and now faith is cooling off,” said José Fernández Lago, rector of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Filled with masterpieces from Romanesque sculpture to lavish Baroque decorations, Santiago’s cathedral attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and pilgrims who since the Middle Ages have traveled along the Camino routes to venerate St. James’s tomb.
To preserve its role as a revered pilgrims’ church, Lago said, the cathedral doesn’t charge entry fees, cap visitor numbers or require a dress code. On a hot early summer morning, a steady stream of pilgrims ducked each other’s selfie sticks in front of the jewel-encrusted St. James statue, some still in tight cycling shorts or sweat-stained hiking shirts.
But visits aren’t allowed during the four daily Masses celebrated at the main altar, and priests as well as security guards constantly ask visitors to lower their voices to allow others to pray.
“It keeps getting harder,” said Juan Sexto, who in 10 years working security at the cathedral has noticed a change in how many visitors behave.
As crowds surged before the always-packed noon pilgrims’ Mass, he kept stepping to the main microphone asking for silence — which lasted a minute or so before enthusiastic visitors resumed chatting.
Sexto had a supporter in the second pew. Waiting for Mass to start, pilgrim Miguel Angel Ariño said the church did well to allow only the faithful during worship times, while leaving the cathedral open long hours for cultural visits.
“As people, we need the transcendent. Leisure and rest, and time with God, are not incompatible,” Ariño said.
Without some strategy, however, they can become so. Co-existence between worshippers and tourists has been controversial at Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. Built as a landmark cathedral in the Byzantine era, turned into a mosque by the conquering Ottoman empire in the 1400s, and open as a museum for the last century, it was converted back into a functioning mosque in 2020 by Turkey’s Islamic-oriented government.
Now visitors can tour the structure for free outside of prayer hours. In Hagia Sophia’s main section where prayers are held, the vast mosaics depicting Christian figures are hidden behind drapes and most of the marble floor is covered with carpeting.
“We would like it to be a museum again,” said Ricardo Bravo, a tourist from Mexico visiting the monument with his family. “We would like to see more things to understand more, to appreciate more Turkish culture.”
At many of Spain’s most-visited churches, the balance was often off-kilter in the opposite direction. So many visitors thronged the vast Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza on a mid-June Saturday that it was nearly impossible to hear the midday Mass celebrated in the small chapel where a statue of Our Lady of the Pillar is venerated.
With some 2.5 million annual visitors, Barcelona Cathedral was also close to a breaking point before its council revolutionized the worship vs. tours balance over the last few years.
“It was like being in a market,” recalled Anna Vilanova, who directs the cathedral’s tourism strategy. “We had to put some order.”
Worshippers attend a Mass in the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, July 9, 2023. With tourism reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic levels across Southern Europe this summer, iconic sacred sites struggle to find ways to accommodate both the faithful who come to pray and millions of increasingly secular visitors attracted by art and architecture. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The cathedral instituted caps on visitor numbers, required tour groups to use wireless audio guides to reduce noise, and added staffers to explain the new policies to visitors and those coming for daily Mass or confession, held in a side chapel with crystal doors to preserve silence.
“The point comes when tourism is so massive that it occupies the worship space,” said Xavier Monjo, who oversees the cathedral’s publications. “The cathedral is alive, it’s not a museum.”
The visitor guides included with the entry fee seek to prioritize the church’s role as an active place of worship.
The nave description in the “unmissable” list, for example, starts by stating that “this cathedral has been and is a space dedicated to prayer” before describing its stunning Catalan Gothic architecture. The entry for the rooftop terraces explains that this is where the blessing of the city happens each May on the feast of the Holy Cross.
“As tourism has been growing, it’s also an opportunity — not to proselytize, but to discover the deep meaning of what they can see,” Turull said. “All those who enter like tourists can leave like pilgrims, can have a spiritual experience.”
While 3.7 million tourists explored the Sagrada Familia’s arresting architecture and mesmerizing stained glass windows last year, Fenelon Mendez remains focused on the parish activity literally underneath.
Originally from Venezuela, he’s lived in the neighborhood with his family for a decade and often serves as sacristan and altar server. There are ministry programs for single moms and for migrants, and regular food distributions, he said.
The basilica provides a unique experience, so the faithful should continue to get full access to it, Mendez said. But the crypt where regular worshippers gather is the true core where many like him feel at home.
“You could take the basilica to New York, but we are here,” he said in the sacristy, long after the day’s tourists had stopped wandering above.
Associated Press journalists Francisco Seco in Istanbul and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
Armada Hoffler, the real estate company and notable mixed-use developer of Town Center of Virginia Beach, is celebrating 20 years headquartered in the coastal city.
Founded in 1979 by Portsmouth native Daniel Hoffler, the company spent its first years headquartered in Greenbrier in Chesapeake, and in 2003, it made the move to Virginia Beach.
Soon after signing on to develop Town Center as a partnership with the city, Armada Hoffler soon recognized it would be the company’s largest investment to date, said Lou Haddad, the company’s president and CEO.
“And so, we wanted to put our headquarters in concert with our largest investment,” he said.
Along with $108 million in public funds, Armada Hoffler reports investing around $500 million into Town Center over the years, and the area has continued to grow.
“We’re very proud of the fact that Armada Hoffler is part of our family in Virginia Beach and has made magnificent contributions to making Virginia Beach one of the most livable cities in the country,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said.
Prior to the development, the land that now houses Town Center was relatively barren, Haddad said. Now, it contains around 620,000 square feet of retail space, 800,000 square feet of office space and 760 apartments in the city’s central business district. Town Center spans 17 blocks and 25 acres midway between downtown Norfolk and the Oceanfront.
Town Center bustles with daily activity from its over 160 commercial tenants and around 1,500 residents. Of those business tenants, about 90 of the companies were new to Virginia Beach, Haddad said.
Early building stages of Town Center of Virginia Beach (Courtesy of Armada Hoffler)
“That huge influx of corporate activity that’s come and settled here, that’s the primary impact,” Haddad said. “And then, on a more pedestrian level, we’ve created something that is home for a lot of people. This is where the town square is. This is a local gathering place.”
The 23-story Armada Hoffler Tower looms over the urban district. The company uses three floors to house its construction, development, finance and asset management groups and accountants. Six of the other office tenants inside the building are original tenants from 2003.
Armada Hoffler’s agreement to build its headquarters at Town Center was just as important as anything else, said Gerald Divaris, CEO and chairman of Divaris Real Estate and the Divaris Group. Divaris Real Estate also maintains its headquarters in Town Center, where it provides management and leasing.
In the mid-1980s, Divaris envisioned that the Pembroke area could become the city’s downtown, but he said it wouldn’t have happened without Armada Hoffler.
“With the active support, financial backing and enterprising energy of Lou Haddad and his team, and the enthusiasm of Dan Hoffler, the Town Center of Virginia Beach became a reality,” Divaris said.
The company established an ecosystem where the apartments, office buildings, stores and restaurants work together “because people want to be where the activity is,” said Shawn Tibbetts, the company’s chief operating officer.
In 2022, The Pilot reported that Town Center office space had reached 99% capacity, even as more people were working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The 23-story Armada Hoffler Tower looms over the urban district. The company uses three floors to house its construction, development, finance and asset management groups and accountants. (Courtesy of Armada Hoffler)
Town Center also created a stimulus for development and apartments in the surrounding area, particularly because the business district is where they’re working and younger people want to live where they work, said David Burton, an attorney at the Williams Mullen office in Armada Hoffler Tower.
The centralized location makes it easy for clients to meet with their lawyers or other professionals, he said.
“For our lawyers and our staff, it has provided a work-lifestyle balance that has been very attractive to people because of the restaurants and shops being in proximity with where people work,” Burton said. “It’s made it easy for them in that way.”
Haddad said Armada Hoffler hopes to announce new Town Center tenants by the end of the year. In 2022, Old Dominion University announced plans for a new data science facility to open in Town Center by this fall.
The company is expanding its footprint further into the Southeast, with a presence in seven states and cities such as Baltimore, Atlanta and Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina. Armada Hoffler now has over 760 commercial tenants, nearly 2,500 residential units and about 6.5 million square feet of commercial space nationwide.
The company has “deep roots” in Virginia Beach, Haddad said, but the future for its headquarters is unclear. Today, the company has larger investments outside Hampton Roads than within the region as it has grown primarily across the mid-Atlantic and Southeast, he said. And so, there are opportunities to move to a higher growth area.
“But ultimately, the decision of where the company is located is going to be based on what brings the most value to our shareholders,” Haddad said.
The developer helped architecture firm Clark Nexsen establish its headquarters in Town Center in the 15-story Main Street Tower in 2014. The firm noted Armada Hoffler has made a direct, everyday impact on the people who work and live in Virginia Beach.
“Armada Hoffler’s impact in Virginia Beach has been incredible,” Clark Nexsen said in a statement. “Not only do they have the vision and ability to dream big, but they also have the tenacity to make those dreams come to fruition and flourish.”
By LARRY LAGE and CLAIRE SAVAGE (Associated Press)
CHICAGO (AP) — Allegations of hazing in Northwestern’s athletic programs broadened Wednesday as attorneys said male and female athletes reported misconduct within two other sports and suggested sexual abuse and racial discrimination within the football program was so rampant that coaches knew it was happening.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said he and other attorneys have received disturbing details from former baseball and softball players at the university, in addition to growing complaints of abuse in the football program, which players described as widespread and devastating.
“This is a civil rights issue for me,” said Crump, who said 50 former Northwestern athletes — male and female — have spoken to the Levin & Perconti law firm. “I think these players have the right to be respected and valued and not hazed, intimidated and retaliated.”
Black football players appeared to have faced an additional layer of abuse.
A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses fired football coach Pat Fitzgerald of enabling a culture of racism, including forcing players of color to cut their hair and behave differently to be more in line with the “Wildcat Way.”
“The abusive culture was especially devastating for many players of color,” said former Northwestern quarterback and receiver Lloyd Yates, who is Black.
Crump and Chicago-based attorney Steven Levin said they have not filed a lawsuit yet on behalf of any athletes. The attorneys represent 15 people, including Yates, and have been in touch with dozens of former athletes. Crump said the majority of those are football players.
Warren Miles Long, a running back on Northwestern’s football team starting in 2013, said players were put into a culture where sexual violence and hazing was “rampant.” He said new recruits had no sense of whether it was normal or limited to Northwestern.
The attorneys declined to detail the former athletes’ complaints about the baseball or softball programs.
The Evanston, Illinois-based private school fired baseball coach Jim Foster amid allegations of misconduct last week, three days after Fitzgerald was dismissed.
Northwestern has been added to a long list of American universities to face a scandal in athletics and may eventually join the trend of making large payouts following allegations of sexual abuse.
A former Wildcats football player filed the first lawsuit against Fitzgerald and members of the school’s leadership Tuesday, seeking damages stemming from the hazing scandal.
More lawsuits, filed by multiple law firms, are expected to follow from former football and baseball players as well as from student-athletes who played other sports for the private school.
Yates said every member of the team were victims, “no matter what our role was at the time,” and lamented the school and team’s lack of leadership.
“The university and football program let us down and that’s why we are here today,” Yates said, surrounded by some teammates who have also retained the Crump-led team of attorneys.
In a letter to Northwestern’s faculty and staff, University President Michael Schill wrote that an outside firm will be hired to evaluate how the school detects threats to student-athletes’ welfare and to examine the athletics culture in Evanston, Illinois, and its relationship to academics at the prestigious institution.
Northwestern fired Fitzgerald last week after a university investigation found allegations of hazing by 11 current or former players, including “forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature,” Schill wrote.
After the school initially suspended Fitzgerald, The Daily Northwestern published an article including allegations from a former player who described specific instances of hazing and abuse and suggested he may have been aware.
Fitzgerald, who led Northwestern for 17 seasons and was a star linebacker for the Wildcats, has maintained he had no knowledge of the hazing. Fitzgerald said after being fired that he was working with his agent, Bryan Harlan, and his lawyer, Dan Webb, to “protect my rights in accordance with the law.”
An emailed statement Wednesday from Fitzgerald’s defense team quoted Webb responding to allegations, saying: “no arguments were made that would present any substantive, detailed, factual allegations, let alone evidence, about Coach Fitzgerald’s conduct,” and that Fitzgerald’s legal team “will aggressively defend against these and any other allegations with facts and evidence.” Webb, a former U.S. attorney, has been one of the most sought-after private lawyers in the country for decades.
The former Northwestern football player, identified in the Tuesday lawsuit as John Doe, alleged Fitzgerald, Schill, the board of trustees and athletic director Derrick Gragg enabled and concealed sexual misconduct and racial discrimination. The player, who was on the football team from 2018 to 2022, had his filing submitted by the Chicago-based Salvi Law Firm.
A second lawsuit was filed Wednesday on behalf of another former Northwestern athlete who was on the football team during the same period, identified as John Doe 2. It named Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner James J. Phillips, Northwestern’s athletic director until 2021, as a defendant. Phillips did not immediately respond to a text request for comment.
“It wasn’t just confined to one bad actor,” said attorney Parker Stinar, adding that he expects to file several more related lawsuits.
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This story has been corrected to fix a misspelling in Lloyd Yates’ first name.
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Lage reported from Ann Arbor, Michigan. AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm, Associated Press writer Mike Householder and AP College Football Writer Ralph D. Russo contributed to this report. Savage is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Follow Larry Lage on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larrylage
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AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25
