Historic Hearings Diplomat: Trump Overheard Asking About Ukraine Probes
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FACES MILITARY COLLEGE BASKETBALL Legend is People Fort Meade families Unranked Evansville magazine’s 2019 file suit over mold in pulls off upset over Sexiest Man Alive on-base housing top-ranked Kentucky Page 18 Page 2 Back page Esper heads to South Korea for talks on intel-sharing pact » Page 3 stripes.com Volume 78, No. 151 ©SS 2019 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019 50¢/Free to Deployed Areas IMPEACHMENT Historic hearings Diplomat: Trump overheard asking about Ukraine probes BY LISA MASCARO AND MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON — For the first time a top diplomat testified Wednesday that President Donald Trump was overheard asking about “the investigations” that he wanted Ukraine to pursue that are central to the im- peachment inquiry. William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, re- vealed the new information as the House Intelligence Committee opened extraordinary hearings on whether the 45th president of the United States should be re- moved from office. Taylor said his staff recently told him they overheard Trump speaking on the phone to another diplomat, Ambassador Gordon Sondland, at a restaurant the day after Trump’s July 25 phone call with the new leader of Ukraine that sparked the impeachment inquiry. The staff could hear Trump on the phone asking about “the investigations,” and Sondland told the presi- dent the Ukrainians were ready to move forward, Tay- lor testified. SEE HEARINGS ON PAGE 10 Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor, right, and career Foreign Service officer George Kent are sworn in to testify Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. ALEX BRANDON/AP Post-9/11 wars have cost American taxpayers $6.4 trillion, study finds BY COREY DICKSTEIN The numbers reflect the toll of released Wednesday show a gen- University’s Watson Institute of In- Stars and Stripes American combat and other mili- eral decline in war costs in 2019 ternational and Public Affairs and Global War tary operations across 80 nations as U.S. troops face less combat in Boston University’s Frederick S. on Terrorism WASHINGTON — American since al-Qaida operatives attacked major war zones such as Afghani- Pardee Center — first looked at cu- taxpayers have spent $6.4 tril- the World Trade Center in New York stan, Iraq and Syria. mulative wartime costs in 2011. Memorial lion in nearly two decades of post- and the Pentagon in Washington in Still, the estimated price tag for Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, planned for 9/11 wars, which have killed about 2001, launching the United States those wars increased $500 billion the ranking Democrat on the Sen- 800,000 people worldwide, the into its longest-ever wars aimed at since November 2018, and it has ate Armed Services Committee, National Mall Cost of Wars Project announced stamping out terrorism worldwide. doubled since the Cost of Wars praised the workers involved in the Wednesday. The annual spending estimates Project — a product of Brown SEE COST ON PAGE 6 Page 6 PAGE 2 F3HIJKLM •STARS AND STRIPES• Thursday, November 14, 2019 MILITARY Fort Meade families file suit over housing issues BY ROSE L. THAYER Tuesday seeks damages “in an hiring resident-service special- Stars and Stripes amount to be proven at trial” from ists at Fort Meade to “focus 100 Corvias to cover expenses related percent on local resident needs” Ten military families filed to economic harm, medical ex- so they could speak to a “local a lawsuit Tuesday against the penses and mental anguish of the Corvias team member, down the Covington law firm company responsible for on-base 10 Fort Meade families named street, when they have a prob- housing at Fort Meade, Md., be- in the suit, as well as a class wide lem,” according to the lawsuit. According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the property management cause they were provided mold- injunction requiring Corvias to The 92-page suit outlines the company Corvias, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Derek Buitrago’s infested residences and offered arrange for independent certifi- housing conditions each family family repeatedly requested maintenance for water leaks and mold in insufficient remediation efforts, cation of safe housing and prohib- faced, the responses from Corvias places throughout their home, such as on this window frame. according to court documents. iting the company from receiving and the health conditions that the maintenance for water leaks and borhood of 112 historic homes and The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. any service members’ housing families believe were caused by mold, but workers would just wipe the commitment to construct ad- District Court for Maryland allowance for a property that has the mold in their homes. against Corvias, the private away the mold and paint over it, ditional housing on base. not been certified. When Army Col. Scott Gerber’s property management company according to the lawsuit. “We are honored and privileged spouse, Sandy, went to visit her The contract also states Corvias responsible for housing at Fort The couple maxed out their to represent these brave service mother in Texas during lung can- should uphold Maryland’s hous- Meade, and its subsidiary Meade credit cards purchasing carpet members and their families pro cer treatment, her mother had ing standards, so the 14 counts Communities, states maintenance cleaners, air purifiers and fans bono,” said Benjamin Block, a for- an acute respiratory attack from outlined in the lawsuit include a requests went ignored or received to combat the leaks themselves. mer Army officer who is leading breathing the mold spores that handful of violations of state real substandard responses that did Their electricity bills increased to estate regulations, along with not fix the underlying issues in the 10-attorney team from Cov- traveled on Gerber’s clothing. a point that Derek Buitrago took ington, an international law firm They called 911, and Gerber had violation of the Servicemembers the homes. a second job at night and donated Civil Relief Act, negligence, civil The problems cited in the with offices in Washington that to throw out everything that she’d plasma twice a week to generate filed the lawsuit. traveled with before her mother conspiracy and fraud. lawsuit filed by the Fort Meade extra income. In September, Picerne dis- families are similar to complaints The injunction would require could return home. Gerber’s moth- The family has since moved to Corvias to take court-ordered ac- er developed a fungal infection be- cussed a $325 million investment raised in another lawsuit filed two Camp Lejeune, N.C., where the at six bases, including Fort Meade. weeks ago by eight families living tions to ensure that military fami- lieved to be related to second-hand couple continues to sleep on an air lies do not endure these living mold exposure that will require He said Fort Meade has a large in base housing on an Air Force mattress because their mattress, inventory of two-bedroom homes installation in Texas managed conditions again, Block said. surgery, according to the suit. along with most of their furniture Corvias spokeswoman Kelly The Gerbers eventually hired that no longer meet the needs of by Hunt Military Communities. and their two sons’ toys, had to military families because of their In September, a San Diego jury M. Douglas said Tuesday that the their own private home inspec- be thrown away because of mold company is aware of the lawsuit. tion company to test their house size. Converting them to three- or awarded $2 million to a Marine contamination. They can’t afford four-bedroom homes is too costly, “[The lawsuit] does not reflect for mold and then paid the ex- to replace it. Corps family for mold problems so they deferred maintenance in in family housing managed by the significant resources, at- pense for other families battling Corvias, which manages mili- these homes in anticipation of re- Lincoln Military Housing, an- tention and rigor that has been mold in their homes. The Gerbers tary family housing at 15 bases in placing them. Plans to do so were other of the 14 private companies brought to assuring quality resi- found on multiple occasions that nine states, signed a 50-year con- delayed. that manages base housing. dent housing,” she said. Corvias used industrial strength tract in April 2002 to operate base Corvias has reduced the rent Another Marine Corps family The case against Corvias fol- air-filtration machines in homes housing at Fort Meade in “good also received $350,000 in a law- lows testimony by the company’s prior to air-quality testing to sway order and in a clean, safe condi- of those homes below the service suit against Lincoln in Virginia founder and CEO, John Picerne, the results, according to the suit. tion” at its expense, according to member’s basic allowance for in 2016, though it took more than before the Senate Armed Servic- Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class the lawsuit. That includes Fort housing rate, but that doesn’t do it five years to conclude the case. es Committee. He told committee Derek Buitrago and his spouse, Meade’s five neighborhoods of 500 justice, Picerne said. The 14-count complaint filed members in February that he was Sandra, repeatedly requested to 700 homes, one smaller neigh- [email protected] T O D A Y IN STRIPES American Roundup ............ 17 Business .......................... 21 Classified ................... 19, 23 Comics ............................. 22 Crossword ........................ 22 Faces ............................... 18 Opinion ............................ 20 Sports .........................25-32 Weather ........................... 21 Thursday, November 14, 2019 •STARS AND STRIPES• F3HIJKLM PAGE 3 PACIFIC Esper heads to S. Korea as deadlines loom BY KIM GAMEL cost of stationing some 28,500 U.S.