Mayor Cory Booker… Hero!

New reports this morning that Mayor Cory Booker of Newark ran into a burning house to rescue a woman trapped in a bedroom.

Kudos Mr. Mayor!

Newark mayor rescues neighbor from burning house, is treated at hospital for smoke inhalation

The mayor of New Jersey’s largest city said Friday he thought he might die when he dashed through a burning, smoky kitchen to find and rescue a neighbor from her second-floor bedroom.

“I felt fear. I really didn’t think we were going to get out of there,” Mayor Cory Booker, his burned right hand still bandaged, told a news conference in front of the boarded-up home.

The 42-year-old mayor said it was very difficult to breathe as he looked for the woman, Zina Hodge, 47, whose mother had screamed she was still trapped inside the burning house.

As he got to the bedroom, Booker said he could hear, “I’m here, I’m here, help I’m here.”

The mayor, who was coughing heavily after the rescue, was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation and second-degree burns after the rescue late Thursday night.

Booker downplayed his actions, saying he just did what any neighbor would do, “which is jump into action to help a friend.”

“I didn’t feel bravery, I felt terror,” he said. “It was a moment I felt very religious, let me put it that way.”

Hodge remains in stable condition at a hospital, suffering from second-degree burns.

“I think he’s a super mayor — and should become president,” said her mother, Jacqualine Williams.

Fire officials said she and the mayor were apparently burned as embers fell from the ceiling, with the woman slung over the mayor’s shoulder. The officials said the fire likely started in the kitchen.

Two members of the mayor’s security detail had already taken several members of the family from the home when the mayor arrived and heard the mother screaming that her daughter was still inside.

His security detail tried to drag him away, but Booker told them that the woman was going to die, Detective Alex Rodriguez said.

“Without thinking twice, he ran into the flames and rescued this young lady,” Rodriguez said in an interview earlier in the day with “CBS This Morning.”

Booker, an up-and-coming Democratic politician who has been mentioned as a possible future candidate for statewide office, said Rodriquez also helped him take Hodge down the stairwell. Once they were outside, “we both just collapsed,” he said.

“I had my proverbial come-to-Jesus moment in my life,” he said.

The mayor said he did not feel heroic. “It all happened very, very quickly,” he said.

He planned to go take a nap after the news conference.

Booker, who is 6-foot-3, was a tight end for the varsity football team at Stanford University, where he got his undergraduate and master’s degrees. He got a law degree from Yale University and as a Rhodes scholar also got a degree from Oxford.

Despite his past as an athlete, he said is now “somewhat out of shape.”

The mayor said he now has an even more profound respect for firefighters.

Booker is known for his hands-on assistance to his constituents, even shoveling snow during a blizzard that snarled his city and the Northeast in 2010.

A prolific social media user, he tweeted late Thursday that he was fine and thanked his followers for their well-wishes.

“Thanks 2 all who are concerned. Just suffering smoke inhalation,” Booker tweeted. “We got the woman out of the house. We are both off to hospital. I will b ok.”

He then posted a tweet early Friday morning that read: “Thanks everyone, my injuries were relatively minor. Thanks to Det. Alex Rodriguez who helped get all of the people out of the house.”

Meet Mayor Johnny DuPree, of Mississippi – Now Running For Governor

Governor candidate makes history in Mississippi

Mayor Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, won the Democratic runoff for governor on Tuesday (August 23), setting the stage for a fall general election against Phil Bryant, Mississippi’s Republican lieutenant governor. DuPree becomes the first African-American in state history to clinch the gubernatorial nomination for either party, The Hattiesburg American reports.

DuPree defeated Clarksdale, Mississippi, businessman Bill Luckett, gathering 55 percent of the vote. The three-term mayor enjoyed the support of “some of the state’s political heavy hitters,” including two of his former Democratic primary opponents and U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, The American reports.

But DuPree faces a big challenge in November. Bryant has consolidated his support among Mississippi Republicans, and the lieutenant governor has a major fundraising advantage. He has already spent $3.1 million to introduce himself to voters, more than twice the amount spent by DuPree and Luckett combined.

DuPree also has tough demographic trends to overcome. The Associated Press notes that Mississippi’s population is 37 percent African-American, and that the state has more black elected officials than any other. But the wire service also notes that the trend does not extend to statewide office: Mississippi has not elected a black statewide representative since Reconstruction.

Appeals Court Declares Rahm Emanuel Ineligible for Mayor

Let me get this straight…By serving his country he is no longer a “resident”?

Wouldn’t that apply to every single Congressman and Senator…As well as Armed Services Member serving overseas?

This one stinks!

Appeals court orders Rahm Emanuel off Chicago ballot

An appeals court has ordered former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel off the ballot for mayor of Chicago, saying he does not meet the residency requirement for candidates.

Attorney Burt Odelson, who represents clients challenging Emanuel’s residency, told the Associated Press about the 2-1 ruling from the Illinois appeals court.

Odelson’s clients say Emanuel is not eligible because he spent much of the past two years living in Washington as President Obama’s top aide.

Kevin Forde, Emanuel’s lawyer, told the Chicago Sun-Timesthat the 2-1 ruling is “a surprise.”

Michael Dorf, an Illinois election lawyer not involved in the case, said the dispute is “absolutely headed for the state Supreme Court.”

Dorf told USA TODAY’s Judy Keen that he listened to the appellate court arguments last week and “thought Emanuel’s side had the better piece of it.”

“Common sense clearly works in Emanuel’s favor,” Dorf said.

The ruling can be read here.

Emanuel, a hard-charging congressman before Obama tapped him for White Hosue duty, is leading polls conducted by theChicago Tribune and various unions for the mayor’s job. Emanuel, a former top fundraiser and aide to President Bill Clinton, also leads in fundraising with $11.7 million in receipts.

The election is on Feb. 22 and the winner will succeed Richard M. Daley, the city’s longest-serving mayor.

Earlier this month, an Illinois judge upheld the ruling of a Chicago elections board that Emanuel meets the residency requirement. The legal challenge arose because Emanuel rented out his Chicago house while serving as White House chief of staff.

 

 

 

Cory Booker – The Twitter King!

Cory Booker is one of the new generation of black politicians who is going places. And he is doing it the old fashioned way by working – sometimes with shovel in hand – for his constituents.

Notice to other Mayors – “Don’t try this in your city – these are trained Tweeting professionals!”

Hizzoner On the Job!

Cory Booker: The Mayor of Twitter and Superhero of the Blizzard

 

If you’re a mayor of a northeastern U.S. city, you probably despise Cory Booker right now, because the tweeting mayor of Newark, N.J., is now a social-media superhero, able to move towering snowbanks in a single push — or by sending the shovels and plows your way.

After a blizzard started blanketing the Northeast on Dec. 26, an event that earned the Twitter hashtag #snowpocalypse, Booker turned the microblogging site into a public-service tool. Residents of the city, which has a population of around 280,000, swarmed Booker’s account (@CoryBooker) with requests for help, and the mayor responded. He and his staff have bounced around Newark shoveling streets and sending plows to areas where residents said they were still snowed in. “Just doug [sic] a car out on Springfield Ave and broke the cardinal rule: ‘Lift with your Knees!!’ I think I left part of my back back there,” he reported in one message. One person let Booker know, via Twitter, that the snowy streets were preventing his sister from buying diapers. About an hour later, Booker was at the sister’s door, diapers in hand.

Orange Jumpsuit Award – Entire City Council of Bell, California

This one is staggering in it’s audacity. Hope these guys get a long time to contemplate how they screwed over their neighbors and community.

Rizzo faces 53 counts; Bell was ‘corruption on steroids,’ D.A. Cooley says [Updated]

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley filed charges against eight current and former Bell officials Tuesday, alleging that they misappropriated $5.5 million in public funds. Robert Rizzo, Bell’s former city manager, has been charged with 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.

The charges come after a dramatic morning in which authorities swept through Bell and other cities, arresting former and current Bell officials.

Among those arrested were Rizzo; Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager; Mayor Oscar Hernandez; councilmembers George Mirabal, Teresa Jacobo and Luis Artiga; and former councilmembers George Cole and Victor Bello.

“This is corruption on steroids,” Cooley said.

[Updated at 11:28 a.m.: Cooley said officials used the city's tax dollars "as their own piggy bank that they then looted at will."

He said that councilmembers, who earned salaries of nearly $100,000, received $1.2 million for "phantom meetings" -- many which never occurred or lasted only a minute or two.

Police Chief Randy Adams, who also stepped down after The Times reported he was earning $457,000, was not arrested.

"Being paid excessive amounts is not a crime," Cooley said, noting that the investigation is ongoing.

Bail for Rizzo has been set at $3.2 million. Bail for the others ranges from $130,000 to $377,500.]

Rizzo, whose high salary sparked the outrage that led to the investigations of the city, was among those arrested in the sweep. At 10 a.m., officials emerged from Rizzo’s luxury home in Huntington Beach. Rizzo, handcuffed, was escorted into a black SUV.

In Bell, a neighbor of Hernandez said authorities used a battering ram on his front door after he failed to answer the door.

“They broke the door down,” said the neighbor, who only gave his name as Jose. “They knocked down the door and they brought him out in cuffs.”

The city of Bell released a statement about the arrests, calling it a “sad day” for the city.

“Given the sheer volume of charges levied against former Bell Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo and former Assistant CAO Angela Spaccia by the district attorney, it is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the City of Bell. Also, it is a sad day for Bell that four current and two former members of the council also have been arrested. I am prepared to double down our efforts to continue to restore order, establish good government reforms, and to ensure that Bell is providing needed services to its residents,” said Pedro Carrillo, interim city manager.

Outside City Hall, about two dozen residents gathered as news of the arrests spread. One man used a bullhorn to broadcast the Queen song, “Another One Bites the Dust.” Members of the crowd laughed and applauded, happy to see arrests in the scandal.

For two months, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and state and federal authorities have investigated Bell, where high salaries earned by Rizzo and other top officials have sparked widespread outrage. The Times reported last month that Rizzo was set to earn more than $1.5 million in 2010. Additionally, he gave loans totaling $1.6 million to more than 50 city officials, including himself.

Group Jumpsuit Award for former city officials of Bell, California...

DC Mayor Adrian Fenty Loses Democrat Primary…Wins Republican Primary!

Democrat DC Mayor Adrian Fenty wins Republican write in vote!

Geez – if he runs there might actually be the single Republican in the entire country worth voting for –  unlike the Scumbags in sheeps clothing who fooled the electorate to get elected in Virginia as Governor and Attorney General.

Although I don’t live in DC (and thus can’t vote) – I think Fenty’s loss was a giant step backward for the city.

Fenty wins! (As a GOP write-in)

D.C. Democrats may have rejected Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s bid for a second term at the polls on Tuesday, but the city’s tiny Republican minority doesn’t want to see him go.

A whopping 822 Republicans penned in Fenty’s name on the write-in spot on the GOP ballot, according to unofficial results released Friday morning by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics. With no declared Republican candidate competing for the mayoral nomination in the primary, that’s enough to put Fenty–a lifelong Democrat–on November’s ballot as a Republican.

But don’t hold your breath. Fenty has endorsed Democratic nominee Vincent C. Gray in the general election and has said publicly and repeatedly that he has no interest in running as a Republican or independent. He said Wednesday that he would not accept the nomination no matter how many registered Republicans wrote him in.

Were he interested in facing Gray in November, Fenty–who won 45 percent of the Democratic vote Tuesday compared to 54 percent for Gray–would have to register as a Republican and affirm the write-in candidacy by 4:45 p.m. today, the third day after the election. Again, don’t count on it.

DC Mayor Fenty Loses

DC Mayor Apparent - Vincent Gray

Not sure this was a good thing in terms of the direction of the City… But it is done. Quite frankly, as an outside observer -  I think this sets DC Schools back 10 years.

D.C. Mayor Fenty loses to Gray in Democratic primary

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty fell to challenger Vincent Gray in a grueling Democratic primary that left candidates and voters waiting until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday before definitive unofficial results were announced.

If Mr. Gray’s lead holds and Mr. Gray wins in November, it will mark the first time in the city’s history that a council chairman becomes mayor.

With 128 of 143 precincts counted, Mr. Gray had 53 percent of the votes compared to Mr. Fenty’s 46 percent.

Mr. Fenty did not concede defeat when he appeared about 1:15 a.m. at a rally at his campaign headquarters, where scores of well-wishers, including his parents, waited for returns.

Mr. Fenty campaigned hard on a record of school reform. He received an endorsement from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and sought but failed to get one from President Obama.

At his victory party at the Washington Court Hotel near Union Station, Mr. Gray readily urged his supporters to applaud Mr. Fenty for waging a “hard fought and spirited” campaign and he said the mayor was “gracious in offering his support moving forward.”

Mr. Fenty has said he would not challenge Mr. Gray as a Republican or independent in the November general election. That bodes well for Mr. Gray since the Democrat who wins the primary is practically assured victory in the general election in the overwhelming Democratic city.

Early returns showed several other Democrats were cruising to victory, including D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was leading her closest challenger, Doug Sloan, with 90 percent of the vote.

In the race for council chairman, the seat vacated by Mr. Gray, council member Kwame Brown was leading his former colleague Vincent Orange with 56 percent to 39 percent, according to the preliminary tallies. If Mr. Brown wins, the D.C. Democratic Party will appoint a successor to Mr. Brown, and a special election will be slated for the spring.

In other down-ticket races, four unopposed Republicans will be challenging Democrats in four ward races in November.

First Black Politician Elected in Russia!

Administrator (Mayor) Jean Gregoire Sagbo

A Russian milestone: 1st black elected to office

People in this Russian town used to stare at Jean Gregoire Sagbo because they had never seen a black man. Now they say they see in him something equally rare — an honest politician.

Sagbo last month became the first black to be elected to office in Russia.

In a country where racism is entrenched and often violent, Sagbo’s election as one of Novozavidovo’s 10 municipal councilors is a milestone. But among the town’s 10,000 people, the 48-year-old from the West African country of Benin is viewed simply a Russian who cares about his hometown.

He promises to revive the impoverished, garbage-strewn town where he has lived for 21 years and raised a family. His plans include reducing rampant drug addiction, cleaning up a polluted lake and delivering heating to homes.

“Novozavidovo is dying,” Sagbo said in an interview in the ramshackle municipal building. “This is my home, my town. We can’t live like this.”

“His skin is black but he is Russian inside,” said Vyacheslav Arakelov, the mayor. “The way he cares about this place, only a Russian can care.”

Sagbo isn’t the first black in Russian politics. Another West African, Joaquin Crima of Guinea-Bissau, ran for head of a southern Russian district a year ago but was heavily defeated.

Crima was dubbed by the media “Russia’s Obama.” Now they’ve shifted the title to Sagbo, much to his annoyance.

“My name is not Obama. It’s sensationalism,” he said. “He is black and I am black, but it’s a totally different situation.”

Inspired by communist ideology, Sagbo came to Soviet Russia in 1982 to study economics in Moscow. There he met his wife, a Novozavidovo native. He moved to the town about 100 kilometers (65 miles) north of Moscow in 1989 to be close to his in-laws.

Today he is a father of two, and negotiates real estate sales for a Moscow conglomerate. His council job is unpaid.

Sagbo says neither he nor his wife wanted him to get into politics, viewing it as a dirty, dangerous business, but the town council and residents persuaded him to run for office.

They already knew him as a man of strong civic impulse. He had cleaned the entrance to his apartment building, planted flowers and spent his own money on street improvements. Ten years ago he organized volunteers and started what became an annual day of collecting garbage.

He said he feels no racism in the town. “I am one of them. I am home here,” Sagbo said.

He felt that during his first year in the town, when his 4-year-old son Maxim came home in tears, saying a teenage boy spat at him. Sagbo ran outside in a rage, demanding that the spitter explain himself. Women sitting nearby also berated the teenager. Then the whole street joined in.

Russia’s black population hasn’t been officially counted but some studies estimate about 40,000 “Afro-Russians.” Many are attracted by universities that are less costly than in the West. Scores of them suffer racially motivated attacks every year — 49 in Moscow alone in 2009, according to the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy Task Force on Racial Violence and Harassment, an advocacy group.

Orange Jumpsuit Award – Kilpatrick Headed to Prison

Ex Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick At Sentencing

Kilpatrick Headed to Prison

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is heading to prison…

Wayne County Judge David Groner sentenced him to one-and-half to five years.

Kilpatrick was escorted out of the courtroom in handcuffs and will be transported to Jackson where he will be processed and soon learn which prison will become his new home.

Before the sentencing, Groner spent more than twenty minutes discussing what led them to this court hearing in the first place.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon Steps Down

Baltimore mayor defiant after plea, resignation

Ex-Baltimore Mayor, Shiela Dixon

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon is refusing to back down from her claims that she was forced from office.

Dixon is resigning under a plea deal that will keep her out of prison. She was convicted in December of misdemeanor embezzlement and entered an Alford plea to charge of perjury on Wednesday.

Plea Bargained Out of an Orange Jumpsuit Award

Dixon tells The Associated Press on Thursday that the earlier conviction was not accurate and that jurors were confused.

She says she takes responsibility for failing to disclose gifts from her ex-boyfriend, a developer. That lack of disclosure was the basis of the perjury charges she faced.

Dixon says prosecutors got many details wrong and that Lipscomb didn’t give her nearly as much as alleged. She says she has “a lot of enemies” who spread misinformation.

Baltimore’s new Mayor – Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake has announced transition plan -

Kasim Reed Sworn In as Atlanta’s 59th Mayor

After a close race, and recount – Kasim Reed is sworn in as Atlanta’s 59th Mayor -

First Black Elected Mayor in Utah

Mia B.  Love became the first black Mayor elected in Utah, November 3rd.

Congrats to Mayor Love!

Hat Tip – NewsOne

Cory Booker Slams Conan O’Brien With No-Fly Penalty!

Fortunately for Conan, he’s in LA…

I think Booker has a sense of humor, as well…

Mississippi Rising

First Black Mayor in City Known for Klan Killings

Mayor James A. Young

Congrats to Mayor James A. Young. Mayor Young is the first black mayor to be elected in the city of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

The city of Philadelphia, Miss., where members of the Ku Klux Klan killed three civil rights workers in 1964 in one of the era’s most infamous acts, on Tuesday elected its first black mayor.

James A. Young, a Pentecostal minister and former county supervisor, was elected mayor of Philadelphia, Miss. on Tuesday.

James A. Young, a Pentecostal minister and former county supervisor, narrowly beat the incumbent, Rayburn Waddell, in the Democratic primary. There is no Republican challenger.

The results, announced Wednesday night, were a turning point for a mostly white city of 7,300 people in east-central Mississippi still haunted by the killings, which captured front-page headlines across the nation and were featured in the 1988 film “Mississippi Burning.”

“This shows a complete change of attitude and a desire to move forward,” said Mr. Young, 53, a Philadelphia native who integrated the local elementary school as the only black student in his sixth-grade class in the mid-1960s. “When I campaigned, the signs on the doors said, ‘Welcome,’ and I actually felt welcome.”

Mississippi has the largest number of black elected officials in the country, but they rarely come from majority-white electorates, said Joseph Crespino, an expert in Mississippi history at Emory University. Mr. Crespino called Mr. Young’s victory “remarkable.”

“I think this speaks well to the town of Philadelphia,” he said. “Residents there have lived with the memory and the trauma of the killings for many decades.”

The city is 56 percent white, 40 percent black and 2 percent American Indian, according to the Census Bureau.