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Over five years after developers Tom and Keith Kovatch announced plans to open a distillery and tasting room in Clermont, the first of its kind in the area, plans for the project have been scrapped.

Back in November 2019, the pair signed on to develop the vacant six-acre site of a former steel fabrication plant at the intersection of State Road 50 and 12th Street in Clermont. They intended to partner with Heritage Distilling, an award-winning Washington state craft operation.

At the time, the Clermont City Council approved a zoning change from M-1 industrial to PUD, or Planned Unit Development, allowing the Heritage Square project to move forward with master plans calling for up to six buildings and a maximum of 60,000 square feet of space.

But the changes wrought by the COVID pandemic — and state restrictions on the amount of distilled spirits that could be produced — led developers to scuttle the original plan, Tom Kovatch said. Now they are looking to rezone the property for general commercial use, which may be a steep climb, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. read more

By Madyson Fitzgerald, Stateline.org

While on her way home from a co-working space in Denver last year, Colorado state Rep. Jenny Willford says she was sexually assaulted by her Lyft driver.

In her lawsuit filed against Lyft in January, Willford alleges she was “subjected to unwelcome, nonconsensual sexual contact, touching” and lewd comments during the ride.

Willford was picked up by a different driver than the person identified in the Lyft app, according to the suit.

Her experience — and those that other survivors shared with her after hearing her story — prompted Willford, a Democrat, to introduce legislation this year that aimed to require safety measures for both riders and drivers using ridesharing apps.

“In my mind, all of these things are very basic when it comes to safety,” Willford said. “They’re just so common sense that it’s been really disheartening and frustrating to me that Uber … threatened to leave the state if the bill becomes law.”

Her bill would have required rideshare companies to conduct more regular background checks for drivers, to create a program for passengers or drivers who want to audio or video record their rides and to develop other safety policies. read more

The tale of Spanish artist Sergio Navarro, who lives in a haunted manor where paintings come alive, will be the basis for a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights 2025 at Universal Studios, HHN creators shared.

The maze — named El Artista: A Spanish Haunting — is the third of 10 HHN houses to be revealed and the first of the year featuring original content. The reveal came during a panel discussion at a Spooky Empire event Friday. Also discussed — sometimes coyly — was an overall event theme — the use of “Five Nights at Freddy’s” — and the possibility of a stage show.

In the El Artista storyline, Navarro is having a career dip so he moves into a country manor for inspiration. It’s set in the 1880s.

“Unbeknownst to him, the manor’s grounds are infested by the spirits of artists that came before him and also moved to the manor, and there’s a deeper sense of evil rooted deep within the manor grounds that exists mostly inside the conservatory,” show director Ramon Paradoa explained. “This deep sense of evil overtakes Sergio’s mind, influencing his art, forcing him to paint these horrifying things that come to life.” read more

A federal bankruptcy judge has finally signed off on the sale of Silver Airways, which ceased operations in early June.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Peter Russin entered a signed order Thursday after conducting an emergency status hearing requested by lawyers for the buyer, an affiliate of Wexford Capital of West Palm Beach and Greenwich, Conn. Previously, one of its affiliates provided the troubled airline with debtor-in-possession financing while another — Argentum Acquisitions LLC — became a stalking horse bidder whose $5.775 million offer prevailed after Silver did not attract any qualified rival bids.

Originally, Silver management was to operate the airline while the buyer secured Federal Aviation Administration regulatory approvals. But the company retreated from the operations portion of the deal after it learned Silver had lost $1 million in revenue in late May due to a brief FAA-mandated shutdown of the airline. The issue was over a failure to update battery kits across Silver’s fleet of turbo-prop planes. read more