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CNN
25-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Mamdani names a new campaign manager as part of staff expansion
Zohran Mamdani is naming a new campaign manager and hiring additional staff, CNN has learned, as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor aims both to consolidate support heading into the November general election and to begin planning a potential administration. Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani's chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign, will become chief adviser, people familiar with campaign operations told CNN. Her new role reflects Mamdani's desire to begin long-term planning – not technically transition work, since he has to win in November first – and thinking through the implementation of his sweeping ideas. She will be succeeded as campaign manager by Maya Handa, who ran the mayoral primary campaign of state senator Zellnor Myrie. Handa has worked for notable local and national progressive figures including former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the locally powerful Working Families Party. Bisgaard-Church, in a statement, told CNN she's 'incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I'm excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.' Mamdani, who was largely unknown before his primary campaign took off, has held conversations with elected and community leaders whose support he is trying to win, lining up endorsements even as top New York Democrats have declined to back him. His campaign is absorbing supporters and top aides from his former rivals, part of his efforts to unite different camps of progressives and mainstream Democrats. Handa will be joined by Afua Atta-Mensah as political director and Deandra Khan as director of labor and intergovernmental affairs. Atta-Mensah is taking a leave from her position at the group Community Change. Khan was an adviser to the president of 32BJ SEIU, a union of mainly building workers that backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, arguing he was the leader the city needed to deliver for working people in the city. The union has since endorsed Mamdani. A 33-year-old who has never run a staff larger than his state assembly office, Mamdani is hoping to become the chief executive of a city of 8 million people with a nearly $116 billion annual budget and over 300,000 employees. He'll be hoping to do that while radically reworking city operations, from launching government-run grocery stores to trying to make buses free, all while managing complications like union contracts and the massive police force. The staff expansion comes while the candidate himself has been in Uganda for most of the last half of July for another celebration of his wedding. Mamdani this week also expanded his press and communications staff and shifted aides who were in top roles for the primary campaign to other spots internally. Mamdani aides argue this is part of the natural growth and maturation as the campaign moves to a bigger stage, pointing out that no one has left, only more people have joined. In something of a shift since his shocker primary victory, Mamdani himself has adapted his own approach since the primary win, with more of his public time spent standing behind a lectern at set events, while Cuomo, who is staying in the race as an independent, has taken to making low-cost videos out on the streets in the hopes of breaking back through. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has spent much of his time mocking both.
CNN
25-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Mamdani names a new campaign manager as part of staff expansion
Zohran Mamdani is naming a new campaign manager and hiring additional staff, CNN has learned, as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor aims both to consolidate support heading into the November general election and to begin planning a potential administration. Elle Bisgaard-Church, Mamdani's chief of staff in the state assembly and the manager of his primary campaign, will become chief adviser, people familiar with campaign operations told CNN. Her new role reflects Mamdani's desire to begin long-term planning – not technically transition work, since he has to win in November first – and thinking through the implementation of his sweeping ideas. She will be succeeded as campaign manager by Maya Handa, who ran the mayoral primary campaign of state senator Zellnor Myrie. Handa has worked for notable local and national progressive figures including former New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, as well as the locally powerful Working Families Party. Bisgaard-Church, in a statement, told CNN she's 'incredibly proud of the historic campaign we ran in the primary. While our focus now is singularly to ensure Zohran is elected as the next mayor of New York City, I'm excited to take on this new role and continue building toward the future.' Mamdani, who was largely unknown before his primary campaign took off, has held conversations with elected and community leaders whose support he is trying to win, lining up endorsements even as top New York Democrats have declined to back him. His campaign is absorbing supporters and top aides from his former rivals, part of his efforts to unite different camps of progressives and mainstream Democrats. Handa will be joined by Afua Atta-Mensah as political director and Deandra Khan as director of labor and intergovernmental affairs. Atta-Mensah is taking a leave from her position at the group Community Change. Khan was an adviser to the president of 32BJ SEIU, a union of mainly building workers that backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary, arguing he was the leader the city needed to deliver for working people in the city. The union has since endorsed Mamdani. A 33-year-old who has never run a staff larger than his state assembly office, Mamdani is hoping to become the chief executive of a city of 8 million people with a nearly $116 billion annual budget and over 300,000 employees. He'll be hoping to do that while radically reworking city operations, from launching government-run grocery stores to trying to make buses free, all while managing complications like union contracts and the massive police force. The staff expansion comes while the candidate himself has been in Uganda for most of the last half of July for another celebration of his wedding. Mamdani this week also expanded his press and communications staff and shifted aides who were in top roles for the primary campaign to other spots internally. Mamdani aides argue this is part of the natural growth and maturation as the campaign moves to a bigger stage, pointing out that no one has left, only more people have joined. In something of a shift since his shocker primary victory, Mamdani himself has adapted his own approach since the primary win, with more of his public time spent standing behind a lectern at set events, while Cuomo, who is staying in the race as an independent, has taken to making low-cost videos out on the streets in the hopes of breaking back through. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, also running as an independent, has spent much of his time mocking both.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Yahoo
Local organization hosts annual ‘Walk 2 Reduce Recidivism'
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — People across Shelby County were wearing their orange in honor of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. The holiday may have been officially recognized on Friday, but organizations are taking the weekend to show the community they are committed to fighting crime. Rain was in the forecast on Saturday morning. While many at Shelby Farms ran to cover, one group walked for a different purpose. The Transitional Re-entry Adult Program, also known as TRAP, hosted its second annual Walk 2 Reduce Recidivism. CEO Portia Moore said rain was not going to stop them from showing the community that there are those willing to put in the work to make a change. 'As a whole, we're all trying to come together to make Memphis better,' Moore said. Memphis Pride Fest, Pride Parade canceled; postponed until 2026 TRAP is an organization that supports and provides resources to individuals navigating life after incarceration. 'So, I have a job readiness and workforce development program that we focus on,' Moore said. 'Just skilling them up so that we can adjust their mindset for more of a career path.' Two of her clients are Thaddeus Young and Nautica Moore. Young said he was recently released from federal prison after serving more than 25 years. 'I didn't know what I was going to do when I got released. I gave up. I said I was going to the streets,' Young said. 'I said I was going to just do whatever came [my] way, but when I met Ms. Portia, she changed my life around. She changed my mindset.' This event is just one of many events hosted in collaboration with the Joint Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement for National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Shelby County offers $5K retention bonus for deputy recruitment 'We want organizations who are truly committed to public safety to come together to be more than just silos, to be a joint unit,' said Tamika Williams, the Deputy Director of the Joint Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. 'How do we as a community make sure we are identifying the right individuals that need the support and making sure we're wrapping our arms around them?' Moore said that she believes providing support to people released from prison can help reduce crime. 'If you don't have the employment opportunity, how can you do better,' Moor said. 'You're going to fall into the same category that you did once before because you know that you can get some type of funding or income from that.' Young said he's thankful for the guidance and that someone believed he deserves a second chance. 'I work now. I got a job,' Young said. 'My mind strong. I got patience.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump cuts hundreds of EPA grants, leaving cities on the hook for climate resiliency
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta's NPR station. Thomasville, Georgia, has a water problem. Its treatment system is far out of date, posing serious health and environmental risks. 'We have wastewater infrastructure that is old,' said Sheryl Sealy, the assistant city manager for this city of 18,881 near the Florida border, about 45 minutes from Tallahassee. 'It's critical that we do the work to replace this.' But it's expensive to replace. The system is especially bad in underserved parts of the city, Sealy said. In September, Thomasville applied to get some help from the federal government, and just under four months later, the city and its partners were awarded a nearly $20 million Community Change grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to make the long-overdue wastewater improvements, build a resilience hub and health clinic, and upgrade homes in several historic neighborhoods. 'The grant itself was really a godsend for us,' Sealy said. In early April, as the EPA canceled grants for similar projects across the country, federal officials assured Thomasville that their funding was on track. Then on May 1, the city received a termination notice. 'We felt, you know, a little taken off guard when the bottom did let out for us,' said Sealy. Thomasville isn't alone. Under the Trump administration, the EPA has canceled or interrupted hundreds of grants aimed at improving health and severe weather preparedness because the agency 'determined that the grant applications no longer support administration priorities,' according to an emailed statement to Grist. The cuts are part of a broader gutting of federal programs aimed at furthering environmental justice, an umbrella term for the effort to help communities that have been hardest hit by pollution and other environmental issues, which often include low-income communities and communities of color. In Thomasville's case, the city has a history of heavy industry that has led to poor air quality. Air pollution, health concerns, and high poverty qualified the surrounding county for the Biden administration's Justice40 initiative, which prioritized funding for disadvantaged communities. Thomasville has some of the highest exposure risks in Georgia to toxic air pollutants that can cause respiratory, reproductive, and developmental health problems, according to the Environmental Defense Fund's Climate Vulnerability Index. The city's wastewater woes don't only mean the potential for sewage backups in homes and spills into local waterways but also the risk of upper respiratory problems, according to Zealan Hoover, a former Biden administration EPA official who is now advising the advocacy groups Environmental Protection Network and Lawyers for Good Government. 'These projects were selected because they have a really clear path to alleviating the health challenges facing this community,' he said. Critics argue there's a disconnect between the Trump administration's attack on the concept of environmental justice and the realities of what the funds are paying for. 'What is it about building a new health clinic and upgrading wastewater infrastructure … that's inconsistent with administration policy?' Democratic Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff asked EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin at a recent hearing. Zeldin repeatedly responded by discussing the agency's review process intended to comply with President Donald Trump's executive orders, particularly those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, but Ossoff cut him off, pushing for a specific answer about Thomasville's grant. 'Is a new health clinic for Thomasville, Georgia, woke?' he asked. Thomasville's Sealy said she understands that the federal government has to make hard funding decisions — that's true locally too — but losing this grant has left her city in the lurch. In addition to the planned work on the wastewater collection system, the city needs to update its treatment plant to meet EPA standards. That overhaul will likely cost $60 million to $70 million, she said. 'How do you fund that?' Sealy asked. 'You can't fund that on the backs of the people who pay our rates.' The funding cuts have left cities across Georgia — including Athens, Norcross, and Savannah — as well as nonprofit groups, in a state of uncertainty: some grants terminated, some suspended then reinstated, some still unclear. This puts city officials in an impossible position, unable to wait or to move forward, according to Athens-Clarke County Sustainability Director Mike Wharton. 'Do you commit to new programs? Do you commit to services?' he said. 'Here you are sitting in limbo for months.' Like Thomasville, Athens was also awarded a nearly $20 million Community Change grant. The city was going to use the money for backup generators, solar power, and battery storage at its public safety complex — ensuring 911, police, the jail, a domestic violence shelter, and other services could all operate during a power outage. That grant has been terminated. The problem, Wharton said, goes beyond that money not coming in; the city had already spent time, resources, and money to get the grant. 'We spent $60,000 in local funding hiring people to write the grants,' he said. 'Over a period of 14 months we invested over 700 hours of local personnel time. So we diverted our services to focus on these things.' These frustrations are playing out for grant recipients throughout the state and country, according to Hoover. He said it's not just confusing — it's expensive. 'They are causing project costs to skyrocket because they keep freezing and unfreezing and refreezing projects,' he said. 'One of the big drivers of cost overruns in any infrastructure project, public or private, is having to demobilize and remobilize your teams.' Thomasville and Athens officials both said they're appealing their grant terminations, which require them to submit a formal letter outlining the reasons for their appeal and requesting the agency reconsider the decision. They're also reaching out to their elected officials, hoping that pressure from their senators and members of Congress can get them the federal money they were promised. Other cities and nonprofits, as well as a group of Democratic state attorneys general, have sued, arguing that terminating their grants without following proper procedures is illegal. But that's a difficult step for many localities to take. 'Suing the federal government to assert your legal rights is very daunting, even if the law is on your side,' Hoover said. This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump cuts hundreds of EPA grants, leaving cities on the hook for climate resiliency on Jun 2, 2025.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contra Costa County's $19-million EPA grant abruptly canceled by Trump administration
The Brief EPA suspends $19-million-dollar grant to Contra Costa County and community partners in North Richmond One project was already laying the foundation of an environmental health center, when funds were canceled Congressional Representatives Garamendi and DeSaulnier issued letter to EPA director RICHMOND, Calif. - The Trump administration has abruptly canceled more than 100 EPA Community Change grants nationwide, including a $19.1 million grant to Contra Costa County for community projects that were already approved by the EPA in January. What we know The grant awarded to Contra Costa County was slated to fund some eight projects as part of the North Richmond Community Resilience Initiative (NRCRI), to transform the area into a model for climate resilience. Those projects include: adding shade trees and gardening for students at Verde K-8 school, converting abandoned Las Deltas public housing into livable, green affordable homes, energy-efficient home improvements, e-bike lending, Wildcat Creek trail flood prevention, a North Richmond Urban Tilth farm disaster response center, and watershed tree-trimming and flood mitigation. Construction crews have already started laying the foundation of the new center at the Urban Tilth Farm at 323 Brookside Drive. Now, however, with the EPA grant funds frozen, there is concern the building might not be completed. What they're saying "The community resiliency enter essentially is designed to provide four days of care and shelter, HVAC system, solar-powered," Adam Boisvert, the Urban Tilth Education Coordinator said, noting the center would help residents who live next to the Chevron refinery and are often subjected to poor air quality during wildfires, hot weather, and proximity to industrial areas. "They're going to finish the foundation, and we're going to try and figure out what to do next," Boisvert said. Contra Costa County officials say the EPA website showed the grant was suspended in March, but Contra Costa County received no notice and requests to the EPA for clarification have remained unanswered. "We were never officially notified by the EPA that the grant was canceled," Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said." We only found out it was canceled from Congressman John Garamendi's office." Now Rep. Garamendi and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier have sent a letter to EPA director Lee Zeldin calling for a reinstatement of the grant so the projects can be completed. Contra Costa County's coalition of non-profit partners include Urban Tilth, Community Housing Development Corporation (CHDC), The Watershed Project, Richmond LAND, and Rich City Rides. "There is now a court decision which has basically ruled that these grants and there are 100 of them across the country were illegally canceled," Gioia said. UC Berkeley Environmental Law Professor Dan Farber says canceling the EPA grants is just one of many changes the Trump administration is making, to reverse decades of environmental regulations and policies. "It has an enormous practical effect, because there are all kinds of projects going that are just getting halted where they are," Farber said. On Sunday, EPA director Zeldin announced 280 EPA employees will be laid off as of July 31. The layoffs will be in the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and regional environmental justice divisions. Zeldin said the layoffs are "necessary to align our workforce with the agency's current and future needs and to ensure the efficient and effective operation of our programs." Farber noted that the EPA director has suggested there could be up to 30-40% cuts in EPA staff, which Farber says would make it difficult for the agency to function. The White House put out an Earth Day statement Tuesday, saying it is reforming the EPA, cutting down on wind farms, opening more federal land to oil, natural gas, and mineral extraction, and making other changes. Farber says changing laws is difficult and slow, requiring passage through Congress, so the administration has been moving to roll back a wide range of regulations by adding expiration clauses or claiming without going through the courts that some regulations are illegal. "They've looked at a large range of regulations, not just those EPA regulations relating to pollution," Farber said. "It's an enormous challenge for the environmental movement, because so many things are being changed, you know, all at the same time." Community groups say they are hoping Congressional representatives can help secure the EPA grant funding, as Contra Costa County considers whether to file a legal challenge. Jana Katsuyama is a reporter for KTVU. Email Jana at Call her at 510-326-5529. Or follow her on Twitter @JanaKTVU and read her other reports on her bio page.
