Calif. extends eviction moratorium until February 2021

 

FILE – In this July 23, 2019, file photo, Gov. Gavin Newsom talks to reporters at his Capitol office, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

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UPDATED 6:05 PM PT – Wednesday, September 2, 2020

California renters will receive additional protections through February 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 3088, which will extend the state’s eviction moratorium by another five months.

“Clearly, COVID has had a profound impact,” he stated. “Despite having some of the strongest renter protections in the nation, that has not ameliorated the stress, the anxiety that millions and millions of renters and homeowners are facing.”

Under the new bill, tenants who pay at least 25% of their rent from September 1st through the end of January will be protected from eviction. In addition, tenants must still repay their landlords for unpaid rent between March and August.

Newsom has extended the moratorium twice since the COVID-19 outbreak began. The state judicial council had previously voted to end it on Tuesday.

FILE – In this April 1, 2020, file photo, a pedestrian walks past graffiti that reads “Rent Strike” in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

To apply, renters will be required to sign a declaration of coronavirus hardship. They must resign the document in the first 15 days of each month.

Lawmakers have acknowledged this is not a permanent fix, but they are hoping it will help to ease immediate concerns.

“This bill will not prevent every eviction and foreclosure, but it will prevent many evictions and delay many others,” said California Assemblyman David Chiu. “It’s critical for renters, for our housing market, for addressing homelessness and for containing COVID-19.”

Housing advocates have expressed concerns that pausing eviction while requiring missed rent will only delay a wave of evictions in the future. They have called for additional assistance from the federal government to provide direct relief to renters.

Portland protests push mayor out of condo

 

FILE – In this Aug. 5, 2019, file photo, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler poses for a photo in Portland, Ore.  (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer, File)

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UPDATED 2:27 PM PT – Wednesday, September 2, 2020

The mayor of Portland is planning to move as soon as the riots outside his condo cease. In an email, Ted Wheeler told the other tenants of his Pearl District condo he would be vacating the space to find a new place to live.

He stated he’s making the move for his and everyone else’s “safety and peace.” The mayor has also apologized for bringing everyone into his politics.

“I want to express my sincere apologies for the damage to our home and the fear that you are experiencing due to my position,” he said. “It’s unfair to all of you who have no role in politics or in my administration.”

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Demonstrators have notably swarmed the area surrounding the building, where they continue to call for his immediate resignation.

“(I am here) because Ted Wheeler should resign. …Last night, 100 cops arrested 29 peaceful protesters. Meanwhile, down the street from my house, one family’s house was shot up. They didn’t have cops there for 17 hours because he’s so busy arresting people like me, peaceful protesters.” – Robin McAlpine, protester

Footage showed some protesters setting fires, breaking windows and even perpetrating assaults.

Campaign flashpoint: Why urban violence is more than a Democratic mess

 

The first New York mayor I remember growing up was John Lindsay, who hailed from what was called Manhattan’s Silk Stocking district.

He was also a Republican.

As, of course, was Rudy Giuliani. And Mike Bloomberg was a Republican when he succeeded Rudy.

Richard Riordan was a Republican mayor of Los Angeles. George Voinovich was a Republican mayor of Cleveland. Pete Wilson and Roger Hedgecock were Republican mayors of San Diego. Jim McConn was a Republican mayor of Houston.

Nowadays, not so much. With some exceptions, such as Miami, the Democratic Party pretty much has a lock on big-league city halls. (And even some of the Republicans--including Bloomberg and Lindsay--later became Democrats.)

This phenomenon, driven in part by demographics, is now front and center as President Trump and Joe Biden trade incendiary charges over who is to blame for a continuing wave of urban riots.

Trump, who just visited Kenosha, routinely refers to Democrat-run cities, blames the scourge of violence on such Democratic mayors as Ted Wheeler in Portland, Jenny Durkan in Seattle and Jacob Frey in Minneapolis. Biden, who goes to Kenosha today, avoids talking about these mayors while charging Trump with exploiting the violence for political gain.

Cities bear the brunt of major American problems: poverty, substandard schools, gang warfare, drug dealing, crumbling infrastructure, segregation. Many people escaped to the suburbs in recent decades, leaving behind urban cores that are poorer, blacker and, politically speaking, easier to ignore.

That’s especially true because so many cities automatically vote Democratic in presidential elections, leading Republicans mainly to focus on suburban and rural areas.

The New York Times has an intriguing take, saying “Republicans have largely given up” on the cities, and from the Trump vantage point, “rural and suburban problems in America today are national problems — but urban problems are Democratic problems.”

The article argues that Democratic mayors don’t get credit for a quarter-century decline in the crime rate (before a recent surge), while Republican county executives don’t take heat for a surge in opioid deaths. (Reality check: Bill deBlasio, Eric Garcetti, Lori Lightfoot and the rest are national figures who govern the largest populations, while suburban and small-town officials are far less known.)

The paper cites studies finding Democratic mayors tend to spend a bit more than their GOP counterparts but there is not much difference in the outcome.

The Times has a valid point that those who run cities are often boxed in: “Mayors are constrained in their ability to execute ideological agendas. Cities can’t run deficits. States limit their authority to raise taxes and enact laws on many issues. And cities lack the power the federal government has to shape labor laws, or immigration policies that can affect their population growth.”

Finger-pointing between presidents and mayors is nothing new in American politics. After Katrina, liberals blamed George W. Bush for the catastrophe and conservatives heaped scorn on New Orleans’ Democratic mayor and Louisiana’s Democratic governor. And Trump last year called Baltimore “a disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess” when he was feuding with a congressman from the city.

The reality today is that mayors, whatever their limited powers, have primary responsibility for keeping their streets safe. If their police departments are overwhelmed, they can ask for the National Guard or other federal help--though that is increasingly intertwined with politics.

When New York and Washington were struck on 9/11, no one said that was an issue for those cities; it was an attack on the United States. Urban problems are in fact, American problems, and once the election is over, Republicans as well as Democrats have a responsibility to help those who live there.

Diversity Trainer Cartoons

 

Chris Rufo calls on Trump to end critical race theory 'cult indoctrination' in federal government

 

President Trump should end the widespread practice of indoctrinating federal employees with left-wing ideas, Discovery Institute Research Fellow Chris Rufo argued on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday.

"It's absolutely astonishing how critical race theory has pervaded every institution in the federal government," Rufo told host Tucker Carlson. "What I have discovered is that critical race theory has become, in essence, the default ideology of the federal bureaucracy and is now being weaponized against the American people."

Rufo said he has undertaken several investigations that show "the kind of depth of this critical race theory, cult indoctrination, and the danger and destruction it can wreak."

For example, Rufo claimed, the Treasury Department recently hired a diversity trainer who said the U.S. was a fundamentally White supremacist country, and that White people upheld the system of racism in the nation. In another case, which Rufo discussed with Carlson last month, Sandia National Laboratories, which designs nuclear weapons, sent its white male executives to a mandatory training in which they wrote letters apologizing to women and people of color.

The matter is so serious, Rufo added, that Trump should "immediately issue" an "executive order and stamp out this destructive, divisive, pseudoscientific ideology at its root.

"I think that it's something that he has denounced, this kind of Black Lives Matter and neo-Marxist rhetoric in places like Portland and Seattle, but it's time to take action and destroy it within his own administration," he said.

Rufo's comments came after complaints about other government-led initiatives that chided people on race. For example, NASA recently announced it would stop using the phrases "Eskimo Nebula" and "Siamese Twins Galaxy." The National Museum of African American History and Culture also came under fire when it released a graphic linking things like the nuclear family and self-reliance to whiteness.

Portland mayor says he’ll move soon, after protests at his condo building (You harvest what you plant)

Portland, Ore., Mayor Ted Wheeler says he’s looking for a new place to live.

Wheeler’s disclosure came Tuesday in an email to other residents of the high-rise condominium building in the city’s Pearl District where he resides, which has been a frequent site of protests in recent months, OregonLive.com reported.

“I want to express my sincere apologies for the damage to our home and the fear that you are experiencing due to my position,” Wheeler wrote, according to an image of the email that was sent to the news outlet.

Incidents at the 16-story building have included a violent clash Monday that saw crowd members breaking windows and setting fires near the property, OregonLive.com reported.

The building has 114 units plus retail space on the ground floor, according to the report.

Wheeler purchased a two-bedroom unit in 2017, paying $840,000, Multnomah County property records show.

On Monday, Wheeler received a letter from Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, urging him to request federal assistance in quelling the protests and riots that have been held in the city for more than 90 consecutive days.

“I urge you to prioritize public safety and to request federal assistance to restore law and order in Portland,” Wolf wrote in the letter dated Aug. 31. “We are standing by to support Portland. At the same time, President Trump has made it abundantly clear that there will come a point when state and local officials fail to protect its citizens from violence, the federal government will have no choice but to protect our American citizens.”

During weeks of unrest across the U.S., other public officials have also seen protesters gather outside their homes, including outgoing Seattle police Chief Carmen Best and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this story.

Trump administration slams proposal to alter historical DC monuments, says mayor should be ‘ashamed’

 

The White House flatly rejected calls Tuesday by a Washington D.C. city committee to “remove, relocate or contextualize” historical statues and memorials, including some of the city's best-known tourist attractions.

A working group tasked by Mayor Muriel Bowser identified dozens of schools, parks, monuments, statues and buildings named after historical figures that they believe represent an oppressive or racist history.

The list of historical figures they identified included former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.

The list also included other key American figures like Founding Fathers Benjamin Franklin and George Mason, inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell and composer of the national anthem Francis Scott Key.

“By publishing a plan that recommends potentially removing the Washington Monument, Christopher Columbus Statue, Andrew Jackson Statue, and Jefferson Memorial—among many other ludicrous recommendations—the radically liberal mayor of Washington, D.C., is repeating the same left-wing narrative used to incite dangerous riots: demolishing our history and destroying our great heritage,” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement Tuesday.

“Our Nation’s capital is rightly filled with countless markers, memorials, and statues to honor and respect the men and women who built this country,” she added.

Bowser tasked the District of Columbia Facilities and Commemorative Expressions (DCFACES) with identifying statues and memorials in the nation’s capital that are “inconsistent with DC values and in some way encouraged the oppression of African Americans and other communities of color or contributed to our long history of systemic racism.”

The D.C. mayor said she would review and advance the recommendations made by the committee.

U.S. Secretary of Interior, David Bernhardt, echoed McEnany’s statement taking to twitter Tuesday to say, “Not on my watch. Never going to happen.”

Other GOP government officials took to Twitter to voice their frustrations or confusion on the latest effort to address racial inequality in the U.S.

“I'm not even sure what relocating the Washington Monument would entail,” wrote the White House Communications Director, Alyssa Farah.

Several historical figures such as Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee have come under scrutiny for years due to historical injustices they incurred on Native Americans and Blacks in the U.S.

But new figures that many revere as honored historical figures, like the first president George Washington, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin and Constitutional author James Madison, have become targets as well.

“President Donald J. Trump believes these places should be preserved, not torn down; respected, not hated; and passed on for generations to come,” McEnany said Tuesday.

“As long as President Trump is in the White House, the mayor’s irresponsible recommendations will go absolutely nowhere, and as the mayor of our Nation's capital city—a city that belongs to the American people—she ought to be ashamed for even suggesting them for consideration,” she  added.

Fox News' Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Pelosi used shuttered San Francisco hair salon for blow-out, owner calls it 'slap in the face'

 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited a San Francisco hair salon on Monday afternoon for a wash and blow-out, despite local ordinances keeping salons closed amid the coronavirus pandemic, Fox News had learned.

In security footage obtained by Fox News, and timestamped Monday at 3:08 p.m. Pacific Time, the California powerhouse is seen walking through eSalon in San Francisco with wet hair, and without a mask over her mouth or nose.

The stylist doing her hair can be seen following her wearing a black face mask.

Salons in San Francisco had been closed since March and were only notified they could reopen on Sept. 1 for outdoor hairstyling services only.

'I am sharing this because of what everyone in my industry and my city ... is going through right now.'

— Salon owner Erica Kious

Salon owner Erica Kious, in a phone interview with Fox News on Tuesday, shared details of Pelosi’s visit. Kious explained she has independent stylists working for her who rent chairs in her salon.

“One of the stylists who rents a chair from me contacted me Sunday night,” Kious said.

A screengrab of the text message she received from one of her stylists, and obtained by Fox News, said: “I’ll be there at 2:45 tomorrow. Pelosi assistant just messaged me to do her hair.”

Kious replied: “Pelosi?”

A text message from a hairstylist to Erica Kious, salon owner, that he would open the salon to provide House Speaker Nancy Pelosi services.

“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen? What do I do?” Kious told Fox News, while noting that she "can’t control” what her stylists do if they rent chairs from her, as “they’re not paying” at this time.

Kious cast Pelosi’s visit as a double standard.

“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News, adding that she “can’t believe” the speaker didn’t have a mask on. (From the footage, it appears Pelosi had some kind of covering around her neck.)

“We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right?” Kious said. “It is just disturbing.”

Asked for comment, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill maintained that the speaker was following the rules as presented to her.

“The Speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements. This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business. The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment,” he said.

But the owner pushed back.

Kious said Pelosi received a wash and a blow-dry, but told Fox News that “you’re not supposed to blow dry hair” according to coronavirus safety precautions for hair salons.

“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t – it’s a feeling – a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down,” Kious said.

“I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen,” she explained. “I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income.”

She added: “The fact that they did this, and she came in, it’s like a slap in the face.”

Kious told Fox News that she had expected to be able to reopen her salon in July, and prepared her space in accordance with local guidelines.

“There were rules and regulations to go by to safely reopen, which I did, but I was still not allowed to open my business,” she said, noting that she installed plexiglass partitions between sinks and seating areas, and ensured that all salon chairs were six feet apart, along with proper air circulation from open windows.

“They never let us open,” she said, while adding that she is unable to reopen outside because her salon specializes in hair color, and using chemicals outside is prohibited.

But Kious said she is not alone in the hardships she has faced amid closures during the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is for everybody,” she said. “I am sharing this because of what everyone in my industry, and my city, what every small business is going through right now.”

Kious told Fox News that she was a recipient of a $12,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan, which was created to help small businesses stay afloat amid the pandemic under the bipartisan CARES Act (which Pelosi backed), but still is forced to shut down her salon for good within the next 30 to 60 days.

“No one can last anymore,” she said. “I have also lost 60 percent of my clientele because everyone is fleeing the city.”

Kious said that the area where her salon is located has turned into “a third world country,” saying that “every other storefront is completely vacant and shut down and boarded up.”

“And because of the shutdown, and the store closures, we’ve lost people, my clients, and my employees, and that is due to the politics in San Francisco,” she said, adding that the homeless population is “everywhere” and “defecating” all over the city.

“It has gotten so extreme,” she said. “It is so night and day from what it was a year ago, that everyone is fleeing.”