user: World Trade Center Spire Being Held ‘Ransom’ in Contract Dispute

World Trade Center officials are suing to get the last piece of the Freedom Tower delivered amid a payment dispute with its manufacturer.

The moon rises behind the skyline of New York's Lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center as people stand along the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey, October 1, 2012.

A Canadian steel manufacturing company has the final piece of the new World Trade Center, and it’s not letting go, critics say, unless its demands are met. A contractual dispute has left the 450-foot steel spire — the finishing piece to what will become the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere — stuck in Terrebonne, Quebec.

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ADF Group Inc., the company that fabricated the Freedom Tower’s last component, has three separate World Trade Center steel contracts worth about $100 million. The company says it won’t ship the antenna until the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey pays an outstanding debt on $6 million pertaining to one of the other contracts.

The Port Authority filed suit in New York Friday, trying to force the shipment of $10 million worth of steel components, including the spire. “ADF refuses to ship this antenna steel unless and until it receives approximately $6 million allegedly owed under another contract for another project, as ransom,” the lawsuit claims, according to the New York Post. The Port Authority doesn’t deny it owes money to ADF — the two companies have agreed on an installment plan — but it does claim that the settlement contract specifically states that the dispute won’t affect the shipment of the steel spire.

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Jean Paschini, chairman and chief executive officer of ADF, told Canada’s National Post he just wants his money. “I know I’m not making friends right now but at the end of the day, money is money and business is business,” he told the paper. “I’m not holding it hostage, it’s here in my backyard … Pay me and then you get your antenna… Let’s resolve everything, then you get your nice antenna so you can put it up.”

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The issue needs to be resolved quickly: the parts will need to be delivered via barge, and once the St. Lawrence River freezes for the winter there will be no way to finish the construction job until next year. The port says the delay in shipping the steel needed for the spire’s mast, antenna ring and roof nodes, originally scheduled to leave Quebec on Sept. 24, threatens to hold up the entire project, force the layoff of 100 iron workers and potentially jeopardize the move-in dates of tenants.

“Due to the iconic character of 1 WTC Tower and the enormous complexities surrounding its erection, leasing and opening, money damages cannot adequately compensate for the harm ADF is causing with every passing day that it refuses to deliver the antenna steel,” the Port Authority claims in the lawsuit.

ADF representatives are currently in New York City negotiating with the Port Authority; the Manhattan Supreme Court will hear arguments on Oct. 26, if no deal is reached, on why the steel should be shipped immediately as part of a preliminary injunction.

When completed, the new tower will rise 1,776 feet.

PHOTOS: The World Trade Center Steel Program

Summary: World Trade Center officials are suing to get the last piece of the Freedom Tower delivered amid a payment dispute with its manufacturer.


Light quake jolts Calif central coast overnight

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Authorities along California's central coast say they've received no reports of serious damage or injury following a magnitude-4.5 earthquake that struck overnight.

The temblor jolted Monterey and San Benito counties at 12:51 a.m. Wednesday. It was centered near the city of San Juan Bautista and about 45 miles south of San Jose.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a number of aftershocks, including one that measured a magnitude-3.4.

The shaking was felt within a 90-mile radius, as far north as San Francisco and as far south as Paso Robles. Residents described it as a jolting motion that lasted just a few seconds.

A USGS geophysicist says the quake was on the San Andreas fault system and does not appear to be related to a magnitude-4.1 quake that hit San Jose last week.

Summary: Authorities along California's central coast say they've received no reports of serious damage or injury following a magnitude-4.5 earthquake that struck overnight.


Cosby's lawyers file defamation suit against Beverly Johnson

It's no joke: Bill Cosby's legal team filed a defamation lawsuit against supermodel Beverly Johnson, one of the highest-profile cases of the more than 50 women who have accused the disgraced comedian of sexual assault.

The now 62-year-old model claims that Cosby assaulted her during a fake "audition" in the mid-80s, a charge she recounted in her recent memoir, "The Face That Changed It All," and in several magazine and television interviews.

Calling Johnson's account "false, malicious, opportunistic, and defamatory," the former JELL-O pudding pitchman's team filed the suit in Superior Court of California in Los Angeles on Monday. Cosby, 78, is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages, as well as a public apology and a removal of the offending chapter of her autobiography from all unsold copies of the book.

BILL COSBY SUES GROUP OF ACCUSERS, ALLEGING THEY MADE UP ASSAULT CLAIMS AND TRIED TO DESTROY HIS 'HONORABLE LEGACY'

"Seeing an opportunity to thrust herself back into the spotlight and attempt to revive her flagging career as a model, actress, and public personality, in December 2014, Defendant joined the campaign to assassinate Mr. Cosby’s reputation and character by willfully, maliciously, and falsely accusing Mr. Cosby of drugging her at his home in New York, and suggesting he did so in an effort to have sex with Defendant," charges the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News.

"Defendant’s false allegations against Mr. Cosby have been the centerpiece of her attempted resurgence and she has played them to the hilt, repeatedly and maliciously publishing the false accusations in articles, interviews and television appearances. She has recently published a memoir, which makes the same false statements, and has used those false allegations as a basis to generate interest in, and promote sales of, her book."

Though dozens of women have stepped forward to accuse Cosby of drugging and raping them in incidents that date back as far as the '60s, he has yet to be charged criminally.

The latest legal maneuver comes just one week after Cosby's team fired off a similar strategy against eight other accusers in a Massachusetts court.

That 89-page filing claiming Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and Angela Leslie of fabricated their accounts came as a reaction to those women's previous lawsuit accusing Cosby of defaming them by calling them liars last year.

"As a result of their false, opportunistic and malicious accusations, Mr. Cosby's reputation has been irretrievably damaged, and his planned reemergence to network television destroyed as they intended," that lawsuit stated.

Summary:

assistant: It's no joke: Bill Cosby's legal team filed a defamation lawsuit against supermodel Beverly Johnson.