ICYMI: Zinke settles lawsuit over unpaid rent

In case you missed it, the Huffington Post is reporting that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has settled a lawsuit with his former landlord, Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral, over unpaid rent. The Huffington Post reported:

The church claimed the Zinkes owed more than $66,000 in unpaid rent and late fees.

The Zinkes responded with a countersuit in mid-November 2016, accusing the church of negligence and seeking damages for physical injuries and emotional distress.

The couple said they realized shortly after moving in that the property was “uninhabitable for a number of reasons,” including “uneven and severely bowed floors,” dangerous staircases, and a slippery front porch and rear entryway, according to court filings.

The Zinkes claimed that they notified the landlord of unsafe conditions starting in January 2015, the month they moved in, but that the church did little to make repairs ― with the exception of placing rubber mats on the front porch, which the Zinkes said did nothing to improve safety.

While Secretary Zinke was upset enough to sue the church for what he believed to be lax maintenance of the property, he doesn’t seem to hold the same standards for our national parks. He has repeatedly defended President Trump’s budget that leaves a gaping hole in the National Park Service budget and would increase the already sizable $11.9 billion maintenance backlog.

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