MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press
Not long ago, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti looked like he was going places. The two-term Democrat who considered a 2020 White House run became part of Joe Biden’s inner circle, then emerged as a widely discussed possibility to join the president-elect’s Cabinet.
That isn’t going to happen.
Garcetti disclosed Thursday he had taken his name out of consideration earlier this week, saying the raging coronavirus crisis made it impossible for him to step away. “This is a time to lead, and not to leave,” he said, while also revealing he’s quarantining after his 9-year-old daughter tested positive for the coronavirus. Garcetti tested negative.
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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that he plans to remain mayor, an announcement aimed at ending speculation that he might join President-elect Joe Biden’s administration.
He also announced at a briefing Thursday that his 9-year-old daughter, Maya, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Both Garcetti and his wife, Amy Wakeland, tested negative, he said.
Garcetti said he told the Biden team this week that he wanted to remain in Los Angeles. “There were things on the table for me,” Garcetti said.
He declined to name the positions available to him. He also did not definitively rule out leaving office before his term ends in 2022.
Coronavirus Cases Are Rising Fastest in These 12 Counties
On 12/18/20 at 5:11 PM EST
As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the U.S., newly released data reveals where cases are rising the fastest.
Among the 12 counties with the highest number of cases over the past week, five are in California and three are in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The remainder are in Arizona, Illinois, Florida and Nevada. All 12 had more than 10,000 newly confirmed cases in the past seven days.
According to the data, Los Angeles County had the highest number of newly confirmed cases in the past week, with at least 91,471. Over the past month, Los Angeles has become the new epicenter of the nation s epidemic, a distinction previously held by New York City last spring. On Thursday, the county s department of health reported 14,418 newly confirmed cases, bringing the total number to over 580,000, and at least 8,664 deaths.
Police say just one hour before that, Nelson
shot and killed 31-year-old Russian skateboarder Dmitry Koltsov. Deputy Solano died in the hospital.
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FOX 11 has now confirmed that Gascon s office is seeking to dismiss all gun enhancements and special circumstances of multiple murders against Nelson. If a judge signs off on the dismissals, life without parole would be off the table for Nelson if he were to be convicted, and he could potentially be released from prison at some point in the future.
Solano s murder was deeply mourned by the Los Angeles County Sheriff s Department, and by the public:
Gascón s office confirmed to Melugin that it is seeking to remove the sentencing enhancements, and justified it by arguing that it was not in the public interest to keep an inmate in prison for life at high cost if he had been rehabilitated:
18 Dec 2020
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday evening that he had turned down an offer to join President-elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, despite speculation that he would be rewarded for his early endorsement of the former vice president with a post.
“Joe Biden has told me for the last two years that he was very interested in me coming to Washington, D.C., and there were things on the table for me,” Garcetti said.
He added: “As the administration reached out to me about serving, I let them know early this week that my city needs me now, and then I want to be here and that I need to be here.”