Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) investigation into allegations surrounding Mayor Eric Garcetti and his former top aide found it “extremely unlikely” that Garcetti was unaware of the aide’s alleged inappropriate behavior, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The 23-page report released Tuesday concluded that Garcetti “likely knew or should have known that Rick Jacobs was sexually harassing multiple individuals and making racist comments towards others.”
“The Satanic Temple in Massachusetts is requesting that Boston fly its flag, after the Supreme Court ruled this week that the city had violated the First Amendment rights of a Christian group when it denied them flying their flag outside of City Hall,” CNN reports.
“Fort Worth, Texas, is now the first city government in the United States to mine bitcoin — and in an almost poetic devotion to the initiative, Mayor Mattie Parker oversaw the construction of a small mining farm in City Hall,” CNBC reports.
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“A special grand jury seated to hear evidence in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into the Trump Organization’s finances is set to expire at the end of the week and will not be extended,” CNN reports.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) “would not commit to making his tax returns public, breaking decades of custom with past mayors and executives throughout the country who willingly disclose their filings,” Politico reports.
“With new coronavirus cases low but rising sharply in recent days, the city of Philadelphia announced on Monday that it will reinstate an indoor mask mandate a little more than a month after lifting it, becoming the first major U.S. city to do so,” the New York Times reports.
Clark, New Jersey Mayor Sal Bonaccorso (R) is apologizing for racist and misogynist comments captured on secret recordings, saying in a video posted online that he is “embarrassed and ashamed,” NJ.com reports.
Bonaccorso’s apology follows denials that he had used racist language. He also claimed he knew nothing about the recordings and said he had many Black friends.
Every single communication from a city agency, down to notices about cherry blossoms in bloom, must be approved by City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams has instructed administration staff — warning that anyone violating his “discipline of message” would be fired, Politico reports.
A South Dakota mayoral candidate pleaded no contest to misdemeanor property damage after smashing a computer at the Brown County Auditor’s Office with a hammer bearing the words “truth” and “justice” on the handle, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean (D) spoke out about the threats and harassment she has received, the Idaho Statesman reports.
While she didn’t provide details on the nature of the threats, McLean offered some insights into how they have changed her daily routine. She said out of concern for her safety, she no longer travels around Boise without someone knowing where she is, and she now usually has a bodyguard.
A lawsuit alleges that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) “blocked a deal the Chicago Park District made with an Italian American group to allow a Christopher Columbus statue to be displayed in a parade and made obscene remarks aimed at government lawyers during a contentious meeting,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Said Lightfoot, according to the lawsuit: “You make some kind of secret agreement with Italians. You are out there stroking your dick over the Columbus statue, I am trying to keep Chicago police officers from being shot and you are trying to get them shot. My dick is bigger than yours and the Italians, I have the biggest dick in Chicago.”
A new Washington Post poll finds 75% of Washington, D.C. residents support an effort by Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) to clear homeless encampments.
The Atlantic: “Not surprisingly, interpretation of the results has depended on politics. Conservatives including Mike Pence, Bill Kristol, and the chair of the California Republican Party have claimed that the vote was another piece of evidence, on top of the Virginia gubernatorial race, that the Democratic Party is out of step not just with Republicans, but with its own constituents. Progressives rejected such conclusions, insisting that the recall was simply about competence and was driven by an only-in-San-Francisco set of circumstances.”
“The truth lies somewhere in between, but closer to the conservative view. At a minimum, the recall demonstrates that ‘woke’ racial politics have their limits, even in one of the wokest cities in the country.”
“San Francisco is so famous for its liberalism that the city has become shorthand for eccentric political sensibilities far to the left of most Americans,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“But after Tuesday’s trio of school board recalls, Democrats and Republicans alike see the city not as an outlier, but as a potential bellwether.”
The Economist: A successful school-board recall punishes left-wing excess.
“San Francisco voters overwhelmingly supported the ouster of three school board members Tuesday in the city’s first recall election in nearly 40 years,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“The landslide decision means board President Gabriela López and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga will officially be removed from office and replaced by mayoral appointments 10 days after the election is officially accepted by the Board of Supervisors.”
“In the final days of an unprecedented school board recall election in San Francisco, supporters and opponents of the effort blanketed the city with flyers, knocked on doors and rallied to make their final case to voters,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
“The battle over the possible ouster of board President Gabriela López and members Alison Collins and Faauuga Moliga has been ugly, expensive and divisive — splitting parents, teachers and elected officials — and the vote could to a large degree determine the fate of the school district.”
CNN: “The seeds of the backlash that led to the recall effort were planted early in the coronavirus pandemic, when the board considered changing the names of as many as 44 public schools in a city that was still grappling with how to safely reopen them.”
New York City officials say 1,430 unvaccinated employees were terminated, as the city instituted its first round of eliminations of municipal workers who defied the vaccine mandate, WABC reports.
Virtually all of the employees dismissed had been on unpaid leave for more than three months, so residents should not see a disruption in city services.
The Ohio mayor who suggested that allowing ice fishing shanties on a lake could lead to prostitution resigned Monday after days of being mocked and drawing national attention to the city, the AP reports.
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.