The National Slavery Museum, which was spearheaded by former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, never paid Pei for the architectural work. Pei says it is owed more than $6 million, money that the firm hopes to recoup in an eventual sale of the 38 acres.

The slavery museum organization now owes more than $300,000 in delinquent real estate taxes to Fredericksburg. The city has begun the lengthy legal process of selling the land at auction to recoup the back taxes. — news.fredericksburg.com

This morning a magnitude 5.8 earthquake shook the East Coast. The quake was felt from Virginia to Boston, even prompting the evacuation of the Pentagon and Capitol Building in Washington, and New York City Hall. Seismologists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have stated that once every 100 years, an earthquake of at least a magnitude of 5.0 rocks NYC. — Inhabitat NYC