Updated

Updated · KOMO News · Nov 11

SS United States Begins 990-Foot Final Voyage to Florida Seafloor as Sinking Moves Up

Updated

Updated · KOMO News · Nov 11

SS United States Begins 990-Foot Final Voyage to Florida Seafloor as Sinking Moves Up

Q: What specific legislative missteps led the state Supreme Court to invalidate the recent redistricting effort?

The Virginia Supreme Court invalidated the redistricting effort because lawmakers did not follow the state constitution’s required amendment process, not because the court barred mid-decade redistricting itself. The core problem was the timing of the General Assembly’s two approvals of the constitutional amendment. Under Virginia’s constitution, an amendment must pass in two separate legislative sessions with an intervening House of Delegates election between them. The court found that requirement was not properly met because lawmakers acted after the 2025 election process had already begun. The justices said early voting counts as part of the election, so the legislature had missed the constitutional window when it gave the amendment its initial approval. Lower-court rulings in the same litigation also identified other procedural defects that fed into the challenge. Those included findings that the 2024 special session did not comply with the legislature’s own procedural rules, that the ballot language presented to voters was misleading, and that the referendum was scheduled too quickly because early voting began less than 90 days after the amendment’s final legislative passage. In short, the amendment was struck down for procedural flaws: lawmakers mis-timed the two required legislative approvals, failed to satisfy the required intervening-election sequence, and faced additional findings that the ballot wording and referendum timing did not meet constitutional standards.

3 articles · Updated · KOMO News · Nov 11

Deployment operations for the 990-foot SS United States are set to begin at 1 p.m. Central on Wednesday, starting its controlled sinking off Florida’s Gulf Coast.
High-wind forecasts pushed the timetable forward, while crews in Mobile prepared the liner by removing its funnels for a museum and cutting hull openings to speed flooding.
The former ocean liner set an unbeaten transatlantic speed record on its 1952 maiden voyage at more than 40 mph and later carried presidents and celebrities before leaving service in 1969.
Once on the seafloor, the ship is expected to become the world’s largest artificial reef off Destin-Fort Walton Beach, adding marine habitat and a new diving and fishing site.