WASHINGTON —

The Trump Organization has reached a deal with the investment fund CGI Merchant Group to purchase the lease for the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., for $375 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Miami group is expected to remove the Trump name from the ornate building located a short walk from the White House and is partnering with Hilton Worldwide Holdings to brand it a Waldorf Astoria, according to the person familiar. The deal is subject to approval by the General Services Administration (GSA), which will conduct a 60-day review, because the federal government owns the property.

Related video above: Trump Hotel was sued in 2020 for overcharging for events, throwing private parties using nonprofit funds

The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the deal.

The CGI Merchant Group declined to comment to CNN. CNN has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment.

Former President Donald Trump's company had been in advanced talks with CGI Merchant Group this fall to sell the lease of the hotel, CNN previously reported.

Last month, the House Oversight Committee released documents showing the D.C. property, which attracted conservative lobbyists throughout the Trump presidency, lost $70 million while he was in office. The former President had publicly claimed the hotel was making more than tens of millions of dollars.

The company has been trying to sell the property since 2019 but paused last year when the pandemic all but shuttered the hospitality industry.

The GSA, which manages federal buildings and land, awarded the lease for the Old Post Office building in 2012. Trump opened the hotel in 2016, when he was the Republican nominee for president.

Since then, the House Oversight Committee had been investigating conflicts of interest regarding GSA's management of the Trump hotel lease.

When he took office, Trump resigned from his companies but transferred his assets to a trust run by his sons, allowing him to still benefit financially from the D.C. hotel and his other businesses.

In 2019, the inspector general of the GSA said the agency "ignored the Constitution" when deciding to maintain the lease of the building to the hotel after Trump was elected to the White House.

The documents released by the Oversight Committee showed the hotel received millions from foreign governments in payments and loan deferral, which Trump did not disclose, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest during his presidency.

The disclosure marked the first time that congressional investigators had reviewed and released details of the former President's financial information, though the Trump Organization had challenged the committee's understanding of accounting and denied any wrongdoing.

NEW ALBANY, Ind. —

The Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana has relocated its white flag emergency shelter from a Jeffersonville church to a New Albany hotel.

Hampton Inn on West Spring Street has blocked off its entire fourth floor of 30 rooms for the coalition.

A white flag is called when temperatures are expected to fall 35 degrees or below for at least four hours overnight.

According to Leslea Townsend-Cronin, the executive director of the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana, the first white flag was called in November.

She said the coalition quickly realized as more people came in, there was a bigger chance of spreading COVID-19.

"So we decided we needed to look into a hotel model to kind of mitigate the spread of COVID because we've got people coming to one space that might not necessarily have contact with each other on a regular day," Townsend-Cronin said. "We wanted to make sure we kept people healthy and safe."

The first month at Hampton Inn is being supported by a $75,000 anonymous donation. The coalition has applied for another $400,000 from the state to help get through white flag season.

Townsend-Cronin said that could last through April.

On average, Townsend-Cronin said they see 15 people a night this time of year. Now they're already seeing closer to 30.

"What we're seeing is people who might not be comfortable in a congregate setting maybe out of fear, maybe they have a history of trauma, that just don't do that and would prefer to sleep out in the elements instead of being in a congregate situation. Now they're able to have their own private room," Townsend-Cronin said.

Although doors must stay open and the halls are staffed with volunteers, Townsend-Cronin hopes people get a sense of what a home might feel like.

"We're hopeful that might kind of give people the feeling of home and might be able to bridge whatever barriers might be there," Townsend-Cronin said.

She hopes to connect them to services that will then become more stably housed.

The white flag shelter at Hampton Inn is operating as it would somewhere else with curfews and in and out times.

Due to the situation, they are only serving Southern Indiana residents.

Adults over the age of 18 must show a state-issued I.D.

Dinner, breakfast, and sack lunches are provided.

Check-in is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ​You do not need to make a reservation to be admitted.

To learn more, visit the Facebook page or call the White Flag hotline (812-913-5278) at 3:30 p.m. each day to see if the shelter is open.

For more information on White Flag, click here.

CNN —

An upscale hotel in South Korea has issued an apology for a mistake that may have enabled outsiders to see into their sauna.

The Grand Josun, a new five-star property on the popular resort island of Jeju, issued a statement on their website after a local blog reported that the sauna's blinds had been up for part of the day, making it possible for people to see into the women's sauna area from the street.

"We're deeply sorry for causing any inconveniences to our customers in using some facilities at the women's sauna at the Grand Josun Jeju Hill suite for missing mirror coating for some windows and [problems in] operating the blinds," read the statement, which was posted on Feb. 18.

"The sauna's operation has been suspended and we're closely checking deficiencies and taking immediate action to correct them."

The hotel explained that the special coating makes it impossible for people to see into the sauna during the day, but doesn't work the same way at night, which is why the blinds are supposed to come down as soon as it's dark.

A Korean blogger wrote about his experience staying at the hotel, which went viral after it was posted on Feb. 15.

"I went on my honeymoon to Jeju Island and stayed at a suite room at a newly opened five-star hotel but my honeymoon turned out to be the worst memory of my life," wrote the blogger, explaining that he and his wife had enjoyed using the pool and sauna facilities.

He adds: "On my last day I went for a walk but as I looked at the windows of the sauna I found out that I was able to see inside the sauna from outside. I could see the thermometer inside the sauna through the windows. We could see the inside of the showers and bathrooms from outside, from the hotel entrance, walk path, car park and from even hotel room balconies.

"My wife and I were shocked to find this out. The thought that we might have used bathrooms and showers in front of many people gives me chills and we're getting therapy treatment."

According to Korea's Yonhap News Agency, the local Seogwipo police were called when guests began complaining to the hotel staff. The hotel's manager was out of town for the Lunar New Year holiday, the blogger claimed.

The police are now going through CCTV footage to determine if anyone was exposed while using the facilities or if anyone was taking illicit pictures or video from outside.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, steam and dry sauna rooms have been shut, but general tubs have been open with capacity limits. As the country's borders remain closed to non-residents and quarantine laws are in place, many Koreans have opted for domestic holidays this year.

Video above: Doctor reflects on Hyatt Skywalk collapse 40 years later

On a balmy Missouri evening in 1981, this was one of the hottest places to be.

More than 1,500 revelers had gathered on the first floor of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency for a popular tea dance party hosted by the swanky 1-year-old hotel.

As musicians performed big band hits, couples swing-danced under long, novel skywalks spanning the second and fourth floors that seemed to float in the sky, historians have recalled.

Then, as the orchestra was said to be playing Duke Ellington's "Satin Doll," the fourth-floor skywalk collapsed onto the second-floor skywalk directly beneath it. Both walkways then crashed onto the ground floor, killing 114 people and injuring more than 200 others.

The catastrophe on July 17, 1981, is one of the deadliest structural collapses in U.S. history. That same year, the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida, was completed — only to meet a similar, disastrous fate this June, when it partially collapsed killing at least 97 people.

Forty years after the Kansas City disaster, the memories are still vivid. And the lessons learned from it are as relevant as ever — not just for engineers and architects but for everyone, several people close to the tragedy told CNN.

Here's what they want Americans to remember:

Don't rush to judgment, and don't ignore the details

Bill Quatman was a 23-year-old architect just starting his career in Kansas City. He wasn't involved in the design of the skywalks, but he marveled at the way they seemed to float in the air — an unusual sight at the time, he said.

He and his wife had dined at the hotel a week before the collapse and had noticed another spectacle:

"A few thousand people were enjoying themselves at a tea dance, listening to big band music from an orchestra, dancing and laughing to tunes of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington," Quatman said.

"We saw this tea dance going on (and thought), 'That looks like fun; we should come back sometime.'"

But on the evening of July 17, they had other plans. That night — after the skywalks fell — a friend told Quatman about the tragedy but mistakenly said the hotel's roof had fallen in.

"The first 48 hours, nobody really knew the cause, but there was speculation — just like there is today with the Surfside condos," Quatman said. "All sorts of theories floating around, and nobody knows ... I think one of the similarities is the rush to judgment."

Video below: Hyatt survivor says collapse forever changed him, changed Kansas City

The cause of the Surfside collapse is still under investigation.

One popular myth following the Kansas City disaster was that the song playing at the time of the collapse — Ellington's "Satin Doll" — somehow contributed to the skywalks falling, he said.

The theory was "harmonic vibrations from the band music caused the steel to oscillate," Quatman said. But experts and courts later determined there were fatal engineering design errors.

The original design had called for the second-floor and fourth-floor skywalks to both be supported with a set of steel hanger rods connected to the ceiling. But a design change was made over the phone between the steel fabricator and the structural engineer, Quatman said.

"They hung the second-floor bridge from the fourth-floor bridge and doubled the load on that connection, which was ultimately a fatal design change," he said.

The resulting design was "capable of withstanding only an estimated 30 percent of the mandated minimum," according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. A series of miscommunications and failures to double-check calculations and plans led to the collapse.

In the decades since, Quatman has spent much of his career as both an architect and lawyer speaking to engineering and architecture students to help prevent such catastrophic mistakes in the future.

"I always end my talks by saying you cannot ignore the small details," Quatman said. "The (connection) that failed was about 8 inches wide."

Don't take the 'simple things' for granted

Brent Wright was just 17 years old when he lost his mother and stepfather. Since then, every anniversary of the collapse has been challenging.

"Even though it's been 40 years, those memories come flooding back," said Wright, now 57. "It's emotional. All these years later, I still miss my mother and stepfather."

Karen and Gene Jeter had gotten married just 16 days before the skywalks collapsed. The newlyweds spent their final moments doing what Karen loved — dancing.

It was a skill she insisted her son learn — for the sake of his future dating life.

"When I was growing up, my mom said, 'Look, you need to learn how to dance. All the girls will love it if you actually know how to dance.' So she taught me how to dance," Wright said.

Footage of the Hyatt Regency's dance party showed his mother and stepfather having a glorious time, Wright said. The event was so popular, his father and future stepmother were also there.

But Wright didn't know that — or about the tragedy that would change his life — until the following day. On the night of the collapse, he was working the loading dock at a Macy's store to earn money for college.

"I had the radio turned on on the dock and heard something come over the radio about some accident. It wasn't clear what the details were," Wright recalled.

"I called my mom because I was going to ask her about it. Nobody answered."

Wright, who lived with his father at the time, came home that night and went right back to work early the next morning. Then his dad called him and told him to come home immediately.

"My dad just looked at us and said, 'I don't know any way to tell you this, but your mom and Gene were killed at the Hyatt collapse,'" Wright said. "It was absolutely awful."

The Jeters never got to see Wright and his younger sister Shelly become adults and have children of their own.

"They've missed so many things through the years," Wright said. "They missed me going to college, graduating from college, graduating from law school, getting married, having children. All those things, all those milestones in our lives. It's difficult, even 40 years later."

Over the years, he's learned to cope with grief — a process he knows families of the Surfside victims are just beginning.

"You try not to forget the past but also try not to let all the grief or the difficulties from the past hold you back from going forward," he said. "I know my mom wanted that. She would have said, 'Go ahead and live your life and be happy. But don't forget me.' So we don't."

To ensure his mother, stepfather and 112 other victims are never forgotten, Wright became president of the Skywalk Memorial Foundation. It led efforts to create the Skywalk Memorial, which features a modern design evoking two people dancing, along with the names of those lost. It also honors the hundreds injured and the rescuers.

"Even all these years later, none of (the rescuers) have ever been able to forget what they saw, what they did, which was selfless," Wright said.

This anniversary, Wright is also remembering the dozens of lives lost in the collapse at the Surfside condo building.

"All those people in Florida, my heart breaks for them. I want them to know that there are people everywhere who are thinking about them, praying for them," he said.

"I hope that they get help from mental health professionals because it's not something you can do on your own."

And there's a lesson everyone can take away from such tragedies.

"We all have to remember not to take those day-to-day, simple things (like) family for granted. You just don't know when you may never have another chance to see them again," he said.

"It's a good reminder, and it's something I've tried to do as I live my life is to try not to take those things for granted."

The mental health needs of first responders are crucial

Vince Ortega, then 26, was the first Kansas City police officer dispatched to the scene.

On the police radio, "The way it came out was (an) elderly lady had fallen off the escalator," said Ortega, now 66.

More calls quickly followed, but nothing prepared him for what he saw when he arrived at the hotel.

"People were running out, bleeding from the head," he said.

"When I went in, I saw a dead body right away. The rubble had flattened the body out. I could tell it was a woman because she had a dress on."

Ortega had no idea what had collapsed. So fearing another imminent collapse, he tried to rush as many injured survivors as he could outside to safety.

"You're just helpless because you're bringing out just a few at a time, and there's a whole lobby full of people," he said.

"Then water started coming out of the walls."

The collapse of the skywalks broke the sprinkler system, flooding the floor with several inches of water, Ortega said.

No amount of academy training can fully prepare a first responder for such a mass tragedy, he said.

"There was this one gentleman who was underneath the rubble ... 'I need help! I need help!' And he had his arm sticking out from the rubble," Ortega said.

"So my (officer) friend grabbed his hand and started to pull him out, and his arm just came off. And my friend just dropped it and walked out the door. He actually never came back -- he never returned to the police department."

Such overwhelming trauma highlights the need for first responders to have adequate mental health support, Ortega said.

"Back then they didn't really offer the mental health assistance" needed, he said.

That changed after other officers who had responded to the collapse started leaving the force.

"They did it after people started not showing up for work. And they figured out nobody wanted to admit they got affected by it."

Ortega said he's lucky to come from a family of first responders — including two firefighter brothers and a nurse mother — who helped him cope with the trauma.

But some emergency workers can be haunted by feelings of inadequacy despite their most valiant efforts.

"You always wish you could have done a little more," Ortega said.

He now thinks about the first responders in Surfside, who have been digging through tons of rubble for weeks trying to find those still missing from the condo collapse. Digging through the wreckage, one Florida rescuer said, has also meant "emotionally digging for more strength to continue."

Ortega hopes the Surfside teams can benefit from the lessons learned 40 years ago in Kansas City.

"Once it's done, please seek counseling," Ortega said. "Over the years, I've seen people leave the job with mental health issues because of the overwhelming tragedy that they see over time."

"Everybody is vulnerable," he said. "I was just fortunate."

CINCINNATI — Three people are facing felony charges after an alleged assault on a 1-year-old child that resulted in an hour-long standoff with police in Queensgate.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters said in a news release Friday that 34-year-old Robert Fogle faces one count of child endangering and one count of felonious assault, which, if convicted, could mean up to eight years in prison.

Deters said two others -- the child's mother, Kayla Dragston, 32, and Mary Hensley, 32 -- also face child endangering charges along with drug charges. If convicted, Hensley could spend three years in jail, and Dragston could get up to six.

On March 19, Cincinnati police said Dragston left the infant with Fogle and Hensley in a room at the Quality Inn & Suites on West Eighth Street. At one point, Hensley left the room and, when she returned, found the child had suffered a severe injury.

When officers responded to the scene, they removed the child from the room and Fogle barricaded himself inside. A SWAT team later extracted him after incapacitating Fogle with a flash-bang.

The standoff brought traffic to a standstill on busy Eighth Street that Friday afternoon.

Shortly after the incident, Cincinnati police spokesman Lt. Steve Saunders said the relationship between the child, Fogle and Hensley was not clear, but he added that Fogle was not the infant's father.

"I can think of no greater evil in this world than seriously injuring an innocent little kid," Deters said in Friday's news release. "I am thankful that law enforcement was able to intervene before something even worse happened. We are praying for the victim in this case and will do all we can to get justice for her."

Information on the child's condition was not immediately available Friday afternoon. Police said she was hospitalized after the March 19 standoff.