The Minnesota Timberwolves ownership dispute is moving into mediation.

The first session toward determining whether Glen Taylor will remain controlling owner or cede to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez has been scheduled for May 1, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the details were not being publicized. ESPN first reported the news.

The 82-year-old Taylor announced March 28 that he was exercising his right to pull out of the last part of the unusually structured deal because Lore and Rodriguez did not meet the deadline for the final payment — about $600 million — that was to transfer an additional 40% stake of the club.

Lore and Rodriguez vehemently disagreed. The pair said they were waiting on NBA approval for the paperwork they’d submitted by the March 27 deadline that entitled them, per the contract, to a 90-day extension. They accused Taylor of simply having seller’s remorse because the value of the Timberwolves has increased since the agreement, mirroring a continued spike in NBA revenues.

Taylor acknowledged his change of heart last month but said that was because of the good vibes around the organization during a 56-26 season that went down as the second-best in franchise history.

“We’ve got a really good team, we’ve got a lot of good things going for us, I enjoy it and I’m healthy enough to do this,” Taylor said in an interview with the AP after his announcement. “I don’t need the money, so I think I’ll just keep running it and enjoy it. I like my coach. I like my staff. This way everybody gets to keep their jobs, and I’ll be happy.”

Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month that the league likely would not have a reason to intervene in the dispute.

Lore, an e-commerce entrepreneur, and Rodriguez, the former Major League Baseball star, struck an agreement with Taylor in 2021 to buy the Timberwolves and the Minnesota Lynx WNBA franchise for $1.5 billion. Taylor, who bought the team in 1994 for $88 million, set up the deal in phases so he could serve as a mentor of sorts to the newcomers as they learned the league, the organization and the Twin Cities community. Lore and Rodriguez together own 36% of the club.

Silver said the dispute might prompt the NBA to change its rules around such transactions so as to avoid future conflicts.

Taylor, Lore and Rodriguez were seen speaking cordially Saturday in a side hallway at Target Center after Minnesota beat Phoenix in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series.

Taylor sat next to his wife in their usual seats Tuesday next to the Timberwolves bench for Game 2. Lore and Rodriguez were seated with their guests directly across the court.

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By EDITH M. LEDERER (Associated Press)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations called Tuesday for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.

Credible investigators must have access to the sites, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, and added that more journalists need to be able to work safely in Gaza to report on the facts.

Earlier Tuesday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Shifa medical center in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as well as the reported discovery of mass graves in and around the facilities after the Israelis left.

He called for independent and transparent investigations into the deaths, saying that “given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators.”

“Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law,” Türk said. “And the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are ‘hors de combat’ (incapable of engaging in combat) is a war crime.”

U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel on Tuesday called the reports of mass graves at the hospitals “incredibly troubling” and said U.S. officials have asked the Israeli government for information.

The Israeli military said its forces exhumed bodies that Palestinians had buried earlier as part of its search for the remains of hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war. The military said bodies were examined in a respectful manner and those not belonging to Israeli hostages were returned to their place.

The Israeli military says it killed or detained hundreds of terrorists who had taken shelter inside the two hospital complexes, claims that could not be independently verified. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and EU.

The Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip said Monday that it had uncovered 283 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside the main hospital in Khan Younis that was built when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month. At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard, the group said.

The civil defense said some of the bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege. Others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital.

Palestinian health officials say the hospital raids have destroyed Gaza’s health sector as it tries to cope with the mounting toll from over six months of war.

The issue of who could or should conduct an investigation remains in question.

For the United Nations to conduct an investigation, one of its major bodies would have to authorize it, Dujarric said.

“I think it’s not for anyone to prejudge the results or who would do it,” he said. “I think it needs to be an investigation where there is access and there is credibility.”

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said after visiting Israel and the West Bank in December that a probe by the court into possible crimes by Hamas fighters and Israeli forces “is a priority for my office.”

The discovery of the graves “is another reason why we need a cease-fire, why we need to see an end to this conflict, why we need to see greater access for humanitarians, for humanitarian goods, greater protection for hospitals” and for the release of Israeli hostages, Dujarric said Monday.

In the Hamas attack that launched the war, terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages. Israel says Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.

In response, Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza, aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities, created a humanitarian crisis and led around 80% of the territory’s population to flee to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.

Katelyn Stalboerger and Isaac Nelson had everything planned for their upcoming May 4 wedding.

Following their 2 p.m. ceremony at the Church of Saint Paul in Ham Lake, their 185 guests would make their way north to Circle B Weddings and Event Venue in Isanti for a reception, dinner and dance.

But, according to a tearful TikTok video posted by Stalboerger on Monday, the couple got an email Sunday saying that Circle B would be “closing effective immediately.”

The subject line read: “Circle B Permanently Closed.”

“It is no longer possible to maintain the business in the current economic environment, the change in the economy, proliferation of new wedding venues in the market and most importantly increased costs have forced the management to make the difficult decision to close this historic venue,” the email states.

The owners of the venue, Wayne and Angela Butt, who also own the Historic John P. Furber Farm wedding venue in Cottage Grove, could not be reached for comment.

“For those of you that have upcoming weddings, we are truly sorry, but unfortunately we will be unable to accommodate your special event,” the email states. “We understand that this news will not only be disheartening to many of you and your families, but for many of you this will be devastating for your plans, for that we are truly sorry.”

The email ends with this note: “Nobody is available to take calls or emails.”

In her TikTok video, Stalboerger asked for help finding another venue with less than two weeks of notice:

@katelynstalboerger

PLEASE HELP our wedding venue just told us they are closed effective immediately and we have no where to go and are out all of the money. We were supposed to get married in Isanti, MN. Our church is in Ham Lake, MN.

♬ original sound – Katelyn Stalboerger

“We have nowhere to go, and we are not getting our money back,” she said. “If anyone knows of anything in the Isanti, Minnesota, in that area — because our church is in Ham Lake — please let us know. We are just trying to figure out what to do.”

In a follow-up TikTok posted on Monday, Stalboerger said attempts to reach Circle B staff have been unsuccessful because the venue’s phone number has been disconnected:

@katelynstalboerger

Thank y’all SO much for the support. We are trying to get through this stressful time and hopefully we will hear back from Circle B at some point.

♬ original sound – Katelyn Stalboerger

“They deleted their website. It’s completely gone,” she said. “Their social media has been deleted, so there’s no trace of them anymore.”

Stalboerger said she learned that other couples who had planned to celebrate their wedding day at Circle B never received an email informing them of the closure. They found out, they told Stalboerger, from her TikTok post.

Wayne and Angela Butt, doing business as Lakeside Events, were named in 2022 as the defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in Washington County over the cutting of trees at a different property in Cottage Grove, according to court documents.

Their attorney in that matter, Ryan Kaess, said he could not comment.

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