recovering

Los Angeles officials have reached a tentative agreement with organizers of the 2028 Olympic Games laying out the process for reimbursing the city for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in public services.

The agreement, which still needs approval from Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council, would require the privately run Olympic organizing committee LA28 to provide the city with funding in advance to cover services that are ineligible for reimbursement from the federal government, such as traffic control and trash pickup.

The two parties would take a somewhat different approach for police protection at high-security venues. Under the proposed arrangement, the city would seek reimbursement from the federal government for security costs at those locations, said City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, the city’s top negotiator.

If the federal government does not provide full reimbursement for those security costs, the city would seek to tap LA28’s contingency funds to cover the difference, Szabo said.

“This deal ensures the 2028 Games will have the City services needed to be safe and successful, while protecting the taxpayers from footing the bill,” he said in a statement.

Paul Krekorian, executive director for Bass’ Office of Major Events, praised the agreement.

“Mayor Bass’ priority is that the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games be fiscally responsible, protect taxpayers, and benefit Angelenos for decades to come,” he said. “This agreement helps deliver that commitment.”

Negotiations between the city and LA28 have played out behind closed doors over the last year, even as critics have grown increasingly vocal about the potential for taxpayers to be saddled with huge payouts if the Games fail to generate a profit. If organizers experience significant losses, the city would be on the hook for the first $270 million and possibly more after that.

Szabo acknowledged that under that scenario, the city would be far less likely to recoup all of its security costs if the federal government failed to provide full reimbursement.

Under an agreement finalized in 2021, the organizing committee must reimburse the city for any services that go beyond what would be provided on a normal day at a variety of locations, including parts of downtown L.A., Exposition Park, Venice and elsewhere.

President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” included $1 billion for security, planning and other costs associated with the Olympics. Nevertheless, some elected officials have voiced fears that money might not materialize once the Games are over, or that the city’s security expenses could exceed that amount.

The tentative deal, known as an Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement, goes before the council’s ad hoc committee on the Olympic Games on Tuesday, then to the full council.

Even with the agreement, many of the details surrounding taxpayer services during the Olympics and Paralympics will remain unresolved for at least a year.

The two sides still have to finalize agreements spelling out the services that will be provided at each venue by July 2027. They also must agree on the cost of those services by Oct. 31 of the same year.

According to a summary of the agreement released by the city Friday, Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power would need to enter into their own service agreements with LA28.

LA28 and the city were supposed to have a tentative agreement in place last fall. The negotiations dragged out for an additional nine months, in large part because of the “inherent complexity of the 2028 Games,” Szabo said in a memo he co-wrote with Sharon Tso, the city’s chief legislative analyst.

Under the terms of the 2021 agreement, LA28 must create a $270-million contingency fund that can be distributed as a surplus if the Games make money, or be used to cover any losses in the event of a shortfall.

The proposal unveiled Friday calls for the five-year-old agreement to be amended to ensure that those contingency funds can be used to cover the city’s costs in the event that other revenue is not enough to pay for certain city services provided during the Games.

The money from that contingency fund would be distributed to the city only after LA28 covers its own costs, according to the city’s summary.

If LA28 does make money, it would not be allowed to distribute its surplus funds to any other organization until after it has covered its financial obligations to the city, according to the tentative agreement.

Jacie Prieto Lopez, LA28’s vice president of communications and public affairs, said in a statement that her organization is pleased to forward the agreement to the council for consideration.

“We proudly stand behind this agreement which delivers on our commitment to execute a safe, secure, and fiscally responsible Games that benefits Los Angeles for decades to come,” she said.

Olympic medallist Jenny Simpson is making “encouraging improvement” in hospital after collapsing at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The 39-year-old American was pacing a mile group at a Sir Walter Miler pop-up event on Tuesday when she reportedly collapsed and needed CPR.

Her employer Fleet Feet says she is recovering well.

They said, external: “Jenny received immediate medical attention and was transported to a nearby hospital. Fleet Feet CEO Joey Pointer was also at the event, and stayed with Jenny at the hospital throughout the night as her family traveled to be with her early Wednesday morning.

“While Jenny remains under medical care, she has shown encouraging improvement and continues to exhibit the strength and resilience that have long defined her.

“True to form, she has already asked about her mile time and whether she won.”

Simpson, who retired from competitive running at the end of the 2024 season, won gold in the 1500m at the 2011 World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Simpson also won silver medals in the 1500m at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships.

May 4 (UPI) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is breathing on his own and recovering from pneumonia in Florida after he was hospitalized over the weekend.

Giuliani was hospitalized with the infection on Sunday where he was in critical but stable condition because of difficulty breathing but has improved over the last 24 hours, his spokesman said on Monday afternoon.

The mayor’s spokesman, Ted Goodman, said that he remains in critical but stable condition but he has improved markedly since his hospitalization, is now breathing on his own and has his family by his side.

On Sunday, Goodman had said that Giuliani was hospitalized but had not reported why he was in the hospital, nor did he offer any details.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is recovering from pneumonia,” Goodman said in a post on X.

Giuliani, he said, “is the ultimate fighter — as he has demonstrated throughout his life — and he is winning the battle. His family deeply appreciated the outpouring of love and support … Please keep the prayers coming.”

Goodman said that Giuliani was diagnosed with restrictive airway disease after the days he spent in lower Manhattan breathing dust-filled air after the destruction of the World Trade Center by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, which included asbestos that had been used in the construction of the buildings in the 1970s.

The condition, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, is a decrease in the total volume of air the lungs can hold because of a decrease in the organs’ elasticity or issues linked to chest wall expansion when a person inhales.

Pneumonia can be caused by bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that can enter the lungs while breathing and, depending on the overall health of the person, can be deadly.

Pneumonia is a respiratory infection and, helped by the Sept. 11-linked condition, it overwhelmed his body and required mechanical ventilation in order to stabilize his overall condition.

“He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side,” Goodman said.