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A month after publicly denouncing a health care bill that the president was desperate to pass, Senator Dean Heller sat uncomfortably alongside President Donald Trump in front of rolling cameras. Holding the floor, Trump did not disappoint, addressing the awkwardness head on with a veil of humor so thin it stood no chance of obscuring anyone's view of the true threat at its heart. “Look, he wants to remain a senator doesn ’t he?” Trump said with a smirk. Heller rocked his head back and initially burst into a laugh. But, with a subtle yet significant hand on his arm, Trump let him know that the warning was not to be taken lightly. Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now “And I think the people of your state, which I know very well, I think the people are going to appreciate what you hopefully will do,” the Republican president added . [embedded content] And with that, the uneasiness of being a Republican in the era of the most unpredictable and self- serving president ...

“They’re tired of politics as usual,” Sal Albanese, the best chance the Never de Blasio movement has of electing a new mayor, said last night during the first televised debate of the Democratic primary. “It’s always tough to run as a reformer, but I think this time is different.” This time is probably not different. Albanese, a former five- term city councilmember from Brooklyn who is challenging Mayor Bill de Blasio , jabbed and scraped and lashed out at his bête noire during the debate, drawing his share of applause from a sympathetic Upper West Side audience . For watchers of the political scene, there wasn’t much to learn: De Blasio, in Albanese’s eyes, is corrupt; he’s in the pocket of big developers; he’s allowed the city to degenerate into some kind of carnival of woe, but for rich people. De Blasio, who despite his height advantage over Albanese often struggles to be the bigger man, rebutted plenty. His testy side was showing. A progressive Democrat, the first to govern this ...

Transgender North Dallas resident hopes to win the SD 8 seat Pam Curry DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer taffet@dallasvoice.com Pam Curry is one of two Democratic candidates running for the Texas Senate District 8 seat that includes Frisco, McKinney, Sachse, Plano and Richardson, as well as a small chunk of Dallas north of Forest Lane at Central Expressway. The seat is currently held by Van Taylor, a Republican who served for one term. He’s giving up the seat to make a run for Congress. Texas Sen. Don Huffines represents SD 16 , just to the south. His twin brother, Phillip Huffines , is running for the Republican nomination in SD 8. Curry has an opponent from Collin County in the Democratic primary, so just winning the primary makes this an uphill fight. “I know from the get-go, I live on the Dallas side,” she said. “It’s a long shot.” Healthcare is Curry’s primary issue. “Healthcare was crappy before the ACA, remained crappy, and unless we do something about it, it’s going to remai...

Paul Bass | New Haven Independent Democrat Marcus Paca, left, and incumbent Mayor Toni Harp . Marcus Paca promised that if he becomes mayor, he will fight gentrification, while Mayor Toni Harp argued that the burst of market-rate housing in town doesn’t constitute gentrification. Harp promised to continue New Haven’s “sanctuary city” policies even if President Trump withholds federal grants , while Paca promised to take a closer look at the issue first to avoid losing needed dollars . Those differences between the two Democratic mayoral candidates emerged Sunday afternoon at their first debate, held before a full house in the sanctuary of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue. The event was billed as a “forum,” not a “debate.” But a debate it turned out to be, from the moment the two Democrats began fielding questions from a panel of three local ministers and passionately responded to each other’s positions in a fast-paced, issues-focused back and forth. Two- term incu...

LaTisha Nixon is a mother on a mission for her son. Nixon’s son, Gemmel Moore, 26, was found dead from an apparent overdose of methamphetamine at on July 27 at the West Hollywood apartment of Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic political donor . The initial investigation by responding deputies revealed no suspicious circumstances of foul play. That was verified by the responding Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Corner investigator. “I’m asking for justice for my son,” said Nixon at a recent West Hollywood City Council meeting . “Regardless of the fact of whatever he did the meth or whatever, he was still my son. He was still a person. “I want justice. That’s it.” According to Nixon, at the time of his death, Moore was homeless and working as an escort for gay men. Since the announcement of Moore’s death, additional information has surfaced, including Moore ’s journal stating it was Buck who introduced him to methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug . “I honestly don’t...

Photo Credit: Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock In 1994, I visited the home of Donald Trump. He was a Democrat then, of sorts, and I was the party’s nominee for governor of Connecticut. He’d taken an interest in our state owing to his keen desire to lodge a casino in Bridgeport, an idea I found economically and morally dubious. I had scant hope of enlisting him, but made the trip anyway, thinking that if I convinced him I might win, he’d be less apt to bankroll my opponent. I arrived at Trump Tower in early evening, accompanied by my finance chair and an old friend and colleague. Stepping off the elevator into his apartment, we were met by a display of sterile, vulgar ostentation: all gold, silver, brass, marble; nothing soft, welcoming or warm. Trump soon appeared and we began to converse, but not really. In campaigns, we candidates do most of the talking; because we like to, and because people ask us lots of questions. Not this time. Not by a long shot. Trump talked rapidly and virtually no...

"It's the same old story. First the builder picks the property, then he gets the Planning Commission to designate it, then the people get bulldozed out of their homes." - Jane Jacobs Under Title I of the Federal Housing Act of 1949, federal funds became available to cities for demolition or rehabilitation of blighted areas, and throughout the 1950s, Robert Moses' Slum Clearance Committee lived up to its name, razing entire New York neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal. In 1960, the city's Housing and Redevelopment Board took over those duties, promising to displace residents less brusquely than had been Moses' way. But the city Planning Commission continued to support the basic tenets of urban renewal, believing that New Yorkers would ultimately be much happier in modern, less crowded housing with lots of open spaces. Jane Jacobs, a 45-year-old editor at Architectural Forum, had another opinion: Urban planners , she believed, were des...

“a shaken Spencer took to the roof to film activists while hiding his face, prompting police to guard the rear entrance of his apartment building for the rest of the night. We chanted, “We are not afraid of you!”’ On Sunday, August 13th in response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, the DC Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Mid- Atlantic General Defense Committee (GDC), and the DC Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) organized a vigil at Market Square in Alexandria, Virginia to offer space and support for those who had attended the rally the day prior, and to honor and remember the life of Heather Heyer and those injured at Charlottesville. Protestors and medics who witnessed the murder spoke about their experiences and gave detail about the police inaction in Charlottesville, and the medical response to Heather Heyer’s injuries, eventually resulting in her death. They drew connections between the many Confederate monuments and street names in Northern Virginia and Spencer...

TOLLING THE TYCOONS — Albanese calls for 'politically popular' pied-à-terre tax, by POLITICO New York’s Conor Skelding : Foreign "oligarchs" who own real estate in New York but don't live in the city should have to pay two or three times what they pay now in property taxes, Democratic mayoral candidate Sal Albanese said Wednesday. The "politically popular" new tax's revenue, which Albanese said would amount to billions, could then be put toward the development of affordable housing . "Look, there's a lot of money across the world that people want to outsource," he said during a news conference outside the gates of City Hall. "There's a lot of money there, and we can use that to build real affordable housing ." Mayor Bill de Blasio promised years ago to "take a look" at a pied-à-terre tax, but the proposal is opposed by many of the city's real estate interests . "They own Bill de Blasio , big real estat...