For those who’re recent here: The Every day 202 generally focuses on national politics and foreign policy. But as passionate believers in local news, and in redefining “politics” as something that hits closer to home than Beltway “Senator X Hates Senator Y” stories, we attempt to bring you a weekly mixture of pieces with significant local, national or international import.
Please keep sending your links to news coverage of political stories which might be getting neglected. They don’t should be from this week! The submission link is true under this column. Make sure that to say whether I can use your first name, last initial and site. Anonymous is okay, too, with location.
Surveillance at Anchorage City Hall
Reader John D. in Albany, N.Y., flagged this story.
Within the Anchorage Every day News, reporters Emily Goodykoontz and Kyle Hopkins have a chunk about accusations that Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson has been downloading city hall surveillance videos to see who’s been going to talk over with town’s ombudsman.
“‘Employees have stated that they’re hesitant to go to our office because they’re afraid that access to our office is being monitored. The workers perceive the alleged statements by the chief to be an try and intimidate them to not contact the Ombudsman’s Office,’ [Ombudsman Darrel] Hess said in a memo,” they reported.
“The ombudsman is an independent office under town’s charter, and in accordance with its website, ‘Investigates complaints against agencies, departments and employees of the Municipality and the School District,’ amongst other duties.”
The politics: Think probably the most powerful politician in your city or state is unimpeachably ethical and never makes mistakes? How about the most important employer? Then you definitely don’t need local news. Otherwise …
Shuttered juvenile justice
Reader Cathy W. in Pittsburgh pointed us within the direction of a juvenile justice center, the Shuman Center, that was closed a few years ago. It was where under-18-year-olds accused of great crimes would go to await trial.
Andy Sheehan of Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate KDKA reported on this back in October, citing complaints from officials within the justice system about rampant recidivism, notably regarding those accused of gun crimes. Nevertheless it looks like there’s no quick fix.
“There have been talks to ascertain a recent juvenile penal complex. For months, they’ve been that … just talks. The county shouldn’t be all in favour of running Shuman again, and the State Department of Human Services tells KDKA it is not within the juvenile detention business,” Sheehan reported.
The politics: Again. Local media, local government.
Hat-tip to Trip Gabriel of the Latest York Times, who tweeted out this piece about Virginia lawmakers who’re “considering giving travelers the chance to explore the routes and places present in the Green Book after the House of Delegates passed laws on Tuesday to allow the position of historical signs at those sites.”
What’s the Green Book? Nathaniel Cline of the Virginia Mercury explains: “A long time before people could rely on the web for hotel or restaurant suggestions, Black Americans traveling across the country in the course of the Jim Crow era relied on a guidebook of amenities to maintain protected in segregated parts of the country.”
“[T]he Green Book noted places throughout the U.S. where Black travelers could safely eat, stay and refill their cars with gas,” Cline wrote.
The politics: In case you’ve someway missed the previous couple of news cycles out of Florida, how we teach and experience history is enormously political.
Tipping war or tipping point?
I sit at a weird cultural crossroads for this next one. In France, tipping is commonly seen as debasing, an exploitative fix to not paying a living wage. In America, it’s mostly seen because the logical reward for good service. So I discovered Haleluya Hadero’s Associated Press piece on whether tipping has gone too far to be extremely interesting.
“As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are robotically being prompted to depart a gratuity — over and over as high as 30% — at places they normally wouldn’t. And a few say it has turn into more frustrating as the value of things has skyrocketed attributable to inflation, which eased to six.5% in December but still stays painfully high.”
“A number of the requests may come from odd places. Clarissa Moore, a 35-year-old who works as a supervisor at a utility company in Pennsylvania, said even her mortgage company has been asking for suggestions currently. Typically, she’s comfortable to depart a gratuity at restaurants, and sometimes at coffee shops and other fast-food places when the service is nice. But, Moore said she believes consumers shouldn’t be asked to tip nearly in all places they go — and it shouldn’t be something that’s expected of them.”
The politics: That is as much about social and economic forces as politics, writ large. But just ask living-wage advocates whether that is political.
Half Moon Bay suspect admits to shooting rampage, says he was bullied
“The agricultural employee suspected of killing seven people in a shooting rampage at two farms around Half Moon Bay, Calif., this week admitted that he committed the attack in a jailhouse interview with local media on Thursday, saying he regretted going through with the act,” Timothy Bella reports.
Biden confirms he has tapped Zients as chief of staff
“Biden said the White House would host an ‘official transition event’ next week to thank [Ron] Klain for his work and welcome [Jeff] Zients back to the White House in his recent role,” John Wagner and Mariana Alfaro report.
RNC chair seeks to quell revolt, divisions ahead of tense Friday election
“A contentious battle over the longer term of the GOP will likely be decided Friday when Republican National Committee members vote on whether to maintain Ronna McDaniel as chair for 2 more years or replace her after a disappointing election that many have blamed on former president Donald Trump, who first elevated her to the position,” Isaac Arnsdorf, Dylan Wells and Josh Dawsey report.
Lunchtime reads from The Post
Half Moon Bay shooting unmasks poor living conditions for farmworkers
“At California Terra Garden, staff and their families lived in trailers on the property, cooked outdoors in makeshift kitchens, used portable toilets, and had their rent deducted from their paychecks, officials said. Yet though aid groups had recurrently visited the farm, sometimes multiple times per week, it took a rampaging gunman to reveal more broadly the squalor that farmworkers can face even in considered one of the wealthier communities within the country,” Joshua Partlow and Lisa Bonos report.
Arizona Republicans exempt lawmakers from the state’s open-records law
“The brand new rules will greatly limit the general public release of lawmakers’ communications. State senators is not going to should disclose any text messages sent on personal devices, even when coping with state business. For lawmakers in each the Senate and the House, emails and other documents will likely be destroyed after 90 days — in lots of cases, well before members of the general public know to ask for them,” Patrick Marley and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez report.
FDA to ease blood donation ban on gay men, allow monogamous to offer
“Gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships will now not be forced to abstain from sex to donate blood under federal guidelines to be proposed in coming days, ending a vestige of the earliest days of the AIDS crisis,” Laurie McGinley, Teddy Amenabar and Fenit Nirappil report.
Because the Colorado River shrinks, Washington prepares to spread the pain
“The seven states that depend on water from the shrinking Colorado River are unlikely to conform to voluntarily make deep reductions of their water use, negotiators say, which might force the federal government to impose cuts for the primary time within the water supply for 40 million Americans,” the Latest York Times’s Christopher Flavelle and Mira Rojanasakul report.
Capitol Police boost security preparations ahead of Tyre Nichols footage release
“The Capitol’s law enforcement entity is anticipated to extend its security posture as departments across the country gird for protests over the weekend related to the Nichols arrest footage, in accordance with two people aware of the situation who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Security boosts ahead of anticipated protest activity generally mean longer hours for officers. The Capitol Police said Friday morning that they’re being cautious, like other departments across the country,” Politico’s Nicholas Wu, Sarah Ferris and Katherine Tully-McManus report.
How Barr’s quest to search out flaws within the Russia inquiry unraveled
“[Attorney General William P. Barr] and [prosecutor John H. Durham] never disclosed that their inquiry expanded in the autumn of 2019, based on a tip from Italian officials, to incorporate a criminal investigation into suspicious financial dealings related to Mr. Trump. The specifics of the tip and the way they handled the investigation remain unclear, but Mr. Durham brought no charges over it,” the NYT’s Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman and Katie Benner report.
Two years in, Biden has prioritized nominating women of color as judges
“Of the judges appointed by Biden prior to now two years, 75 percent are women, 47 percent are women of color and 67 percent are people of color. This stands in stark contrast to his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, who two years into his presidency had appointed 85 judges, 92 percent of whom were White, 23 percent were women and a pair of percent were women of color, in accordance with evaluation by The nineteenth. Biden has also prioritized nominating lawyers from skilled backgrounds which might be underrepresented within the federal judiciary,” the nineteenth’s Candice Norwood and Jasmine Mithani report.
Biden’s nominees confirmed at slower rate than his predecessors’
“It has taken a median of nearly 145 days for Biden’s political appointees to receive Senate confirmation — a jump from other recent presidents at this point of their terms, Axios’s Stef W. Kight reports. (Trump’s average was 119 days, in accordance with a report by the Center for Presidential Transition.
Biden blasts House GOP for attempting to ‘destroy’ economy over debt ceiling
“President Biden sharply rebuked House Republicans on Thursday for attempting to slash seniors’ retirement advantages and hold hostage the nation’s funds, stressing that the brand new majority’s agenda — and its staunch demands for spending cuts — threatened to plunge the US into an economic crisis,” Tony Romm reports.
The evolution of George Santos’s lies, visualized
“What’s Santos saying about himself now? Here’s a take a look at how Santos defined and redefined himself in his biography on his campaign website. Below is an evaluation of how that biography was rewritten from 2020 through 2023,” Azi Paybarah, Luis Melgar and Tyler Remmel report.
The parable of Jeffrey Zients
“Zients was a pacesetter in implementing most of the Obama administration’s most pro-corporate policies. Zients owes his entire public-policy profession to his corporate worldview and connections, which have remained strikingly consistent for over a decade—exactly consistent with his pre-government history,” Max Moran writes for the American Prospect.
“The White House chief of staff isn’t just an office manager; they often select who gets face time with the president and which policy options make it to the Resolute desk. This implies they should filter out what political ideas aren’t well worth the president’s time, which implies they need strong political judgment of their very own.”
Trump’s return to Facebook, Instagram raises hopes of fundraising windfall
“Meta’s decision Wednesday to permit Trump back onto the networks clears the approach to effectively reopen the financial partnership that proved crucial to Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, allowing him to mine the American public for individuals who could also be willing to offer him money and buy his merchandise. Many of the ads Trump and his groups post on Facebook include links to pages where voters can donate or hand over their contact information,” Michael Scherer, Josh Dawsey and Isaac Stanley-Becker report.
At 5:30 p.m., Biden will leave the White House for Camp David.
They quoted Taylor Swift in a Senate hearing — but who’s the highest Swiftie?
“The Washington Post spoke to the 4 speakers who dropped Swift’s lyrics to see who had help crafting their shout-outs and who was a large enough fan to ad-lib the references on their very own,” María Luisa Paúl and Daniel Wu report.
“[Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)], a longtime Swift fan … was on the hunt for the proper Swift song, one that will allow him to ‘pay tribute to her and in addition connect along with her fans, who’re the victims here,’ he told The Post.”
Thanks for reading. See you next week.
