Senate confirms former LA Mayor Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as U.S. ambassador to India on Wednesday, ending a nearly two-year fight over his nomination.
Senators voted 52-42 to confirm Garcetti to the post. He lost the votes of three Democrats but convinced seven Republicans to cross the aisle, winning him the job.
The outcome was anything but guaranteed. Democratic defections had mounted Wednesday morning, with several senators citing lingering questions about whether Garcetti knew or should have known about a former top aide’s alleged sexual harassment of colleagues.
Six senators were absent from Capitol Hill on Wednesday, further complicating the vote counting.
But Garcetti’s nomination was rescued by the Republican senators who broke ranks to support him: Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Steve Daines of Montana, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee and Todd Young of Indiana.
The White House and Garcetti had strongly pushed for a vote to be held, regardless of the outcome.
—Los Angeles Times
Exiled Chinese business tycoon arrested in NYC on fraud charges
NEW YORK — Manhattan federal prosecutors on Wednesday busted exiled Chinese tycoon Guo Wengui — whose yacht ex- White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested aboard in 2020 — for a staggering billion-dollar fraud scheme.
In a curious plot twist, a fire broke in Guo’s $32.5 million apartment in the Sherry-Netherland hotel in Midtown around noon, fire officials said, hours after FBI agents arrested the businessman.
Sources at the scene told the Daily News that agents were in the apartment when the two-alarm electric fire broke out.
“An investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of today’s fire,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney spokesman Nick Biase said.
Guo — whose real name is Ho Wan Kwok and also goes by Miles Guo — is accused of carrying out a “sprawling” conspiracy that saw him solicit investments for bogus ventures from his online followers and spend the money on a $37 million yacht, 50,000 square foot mansion, a $3.5 million Ferrari for his kid, two mattresses costing $36,000 a piece, and other luxury purchases.
The indictment unsealed in Manhattan Federal Court charges his U.K.-based financier Kin Ming Je, who goes by William Je, with being the scheme’s financial architect and chief money launderer.
—New York Daily News
California bill would require schools to notify parents if child is transgender
LOS ANGELES — A new bill would force California school districts to notify parents that their child is gender-nonconforming or transgender, sparking backlash from LGBTQ activists and organizations.
The bill, Assembly Bill 1314, would require school districts to notify parents in writing within three days after learning a student is identifying as a gender that doesn't align with official records or their birth certificate.
"Parents play a critical role in nurturing and supporting children and they cannot be removed from the equation," Assemblyman Bill Essayli, a Riverside Republican, who sponsored the bill, said during a Monday news conference outside Jurupa Valley High School.
Jessica Tapia, a former teacher at Jurupa Valley High School, said she was fired after refusing to follow the law that bars educators from disclosing students' gender identities to their parents without their consent.
"I said, 'Are you asking me to lie?' And they said, 'Yes. It's the law and it's for the student's privacy,'" Tapia said during the news conference. "I can't understand how the school system seems to think that we ought to act as though we are the parent."
Tapia is planning on suing the Jurupa Unified School District for wrongful termination.
—Los Angeles Times
Iran’s police arrest 110 people over poisonings at girls schools
Iranian authorities arrested 110 people on suspicion of being linked to suspected poisonings at girls schools that have hospitalized hundreds of students since November.
Saeed Montazeralmahdi, a spokesman for Iran’s police command, said the arrests were the result of an increase in police foot patrols around affected institutions, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday.
A spate of mass illnesses has spread through hundreds of Iranian schools over the past few months, with teachers and students reporting the presence of noxious gas and smells that have caused vomiting and nausea. That’s coincided with the biggest popular uprising against the Islamic Republic’s theocratic leadership since it was founded after the 1979 revolution — with women and girls playing a central role.
The protests followed the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly flouting Islamic dress codes.
Schoolgirls have staged classroom protests rebuking the male clerics that run the country. Several teenage girls have been beaten to death by security forces, according to the United Nations and several rights groups.
Montazeralmahdi didn’t give details about the people arrested or if the police had determined the chemicals used. He said “stink bombs” had been deployed in some cases and that a number of cases were the result of “psychological factors” rather than poisoning.
—Bloomberg News
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