Garcetti Distances Himself From Scandals in Confirmation Hearing

Six months ago, President Biden nominated Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles to beryllium U.S. ambassador to India. Since then, the confirmation process has been unusually slow.

That is partially due to the fact that Republicans person held up scores of the president’s nominations. But it is besides due to the fact that of turmoil successful the Garcetti medication and much mostly astatine City Hall.

On Tuesday, the politician yet testified earlier the Senate Committee connected Foreign Relations. To chopped to the chase, Garcetti denied knowing that a Los Angeles constabulary serviceman connected his information item had complained of intersexual harassment by a apical aide.

Responding to Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, the politician said helium “never witnessed” the alleged harassment, “nor was it brought to my attention.” If it had been, helium added, helium would person acted to halt it, saying that absorption to workplace abuses was “a halfway issue” for him.

The mild speech capped months of speculation implicit whether Los Angeles’s existent question of City Hall ungraded would outgo Garcetti a long-sought spot successful the Biden administration. Garcetti, who joined Biden’s interior ellipse aft ending his ain statesmanlike bid successful 2020, had astatine 1 constituent appeared to beryllium successful contention for a furniture post.

As the pandemic spiked successful Southern California, Garcetti took himself retired of the moving for a gig with the White House. He accepted the ambassadorial information successful July arsenic infections waned and the metropolis began to look up to adjacent year’s mayoral election, which helium can’t tally successful aft serving 2 terms. Since then, however, anxiousness astir homelessness and crime has risen, and City Hall has go the hub of a wider-than-usual array of corruption charges.

One City Council subordinate is successful federal prison and two more are nether indictment. A erstwhile lawman mayor is embroiled successful a bribery lawsuit and facing national charges. Garcetti’s main of unit spent respective months connected permission aft posting disparaging remarks connected a backstage Facebook leafage astir California governmental figures, including the 91-year-old labour icon Dolores Huerta. The erstwhile caput of the metropolis h2o and powerfulness section has agreed to plead blameworthy to bribery charges successful a lawsuit involving the metropolis attorney.

And past there’s the erstwhile subordinate of Garcetti’s information detail, who has sued the city, accusing the erstwhile lawman main of staff, Rick Jacobs, of intersexual harassment. Garcetti himself has not been charged successful immoderate of the cases, but the officer, Matthew Garza, has claimed that the politician knew that Jacobs, a well-known Los Angeles fund-raiser, was groping and harassing him and failed to halt it. The politician has repeatedly denied the charge.

In July, a lawyer for respective erstwhile City Hall employees wrote to the Senate committee, calling the alleged harassment “common knowledge.” By mid-fall, the mayor’s information inactive hadn’t gotten a hearing, adjacent though the committee had already precocious different perchance problematic picks — Rahm Emanuel, for example, who was politician of Chicago during a arguable constabulary shooting and is up for ambassador to Japan.

In November, a committee spokesperson confirmed that the senators were reviewing the intersexual harassment allegations “in detail.” On Tuesday, arsenic the Senate sheet convened, the erstwhile Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson tweeted that “we can’t support covering up abusive behaviour and let enablers to get distant with knowing astir it.”

But the committee, which volition ballot astatine a aboriginal date, seemed satisfied. Shaheen’s was the lone question astir the ungraded earlier the proceeding was chopped abbreviated to accommodate different votes successful progress.

Garcetti appeared with the ambassadorial nominees for Pakistan and Germany — Donald Armin Blome, a vocation diplomat, and Amy Gutmann, the president of the University of Pennsylvania — and promised to prioritize trade, greenish vigor and quality rights successful dealing with India, a captious strategical ally.

Shawn Hubler is simply a newsman for The New York Times who is based successful Sacramento.

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The remainder of the news

• Heavy rain: A almighty tempest charged south done California connected Tuesday, sweeping distant vehicles and causing evacuations.

• O.J. Simpson: The erstwhile N.F.L. prima who was famously acquitted of double-murder successful the 1990s was discharged from parole aft a robbery conviction.

• Far-right nationalists: The Proud Boys person go progressively progressive astatine school committee meetings and Town Council gatherings.

• Transgender students: A caller California instrumentality requires authorities colleges to update their records and diplomas to bespeak students’ sanction changes, CalMatters reports.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Accusations of inmate abuse: A erstwhile Orange County sheriff’s lawman is accused of pouring scalding h2o connected a mentally sick prisoner, severely burning his hands, The Associated Press reports.

• Secret recordings: In an “extraordinarily unusual” move, the authorities bugged a San Diego County courtroom’s holding country to effort to overhear incriminating evidence, The Associated Press reports.

• Lone wolf: The archetypal grey wolf to task into Southern California successful centuries could awesome a instrumentality of the species, The New Yorker reports.

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

• Kern River return: Bakersfield residents are campaigning to revive the stream from its adust state, The Los Angeles Times reports.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

• Weather warning: Snow is expected connected Wednesday successful parts of Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta, Colusa, Trinity, Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte, Lake and Plumas Counties and the Sacramento Valley.

• Tenderloin: Mayor London Breed of San Francisco called for importantly expanding the constabulary beingness successful the Tenderloin vicinity arsenic portion of a nationalist information blitz and cause crackdown, The San Francisco Chronicle reports.

• Caldor occurrence suspects: A begetter and lad charged with sparking the ample occurrence adjacent Lake Tahoe this twelvemonth were released connected bail, The Associated Press reports.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s extremity comes from the scholar Evelyn Howard:

“One of our favourite places successful California is Mono Lake and its environs connected the eastbound broadside of the Sierra Nevada — unfastened spaces, the chaotic volcanic origin, and the remnants of glacial melt from 20,000 years agone each retired successful afloat view. This country should beryllium included arsenic a portion of Yosemite National Park due to the fact that it is decidedly worthy redeeming and preserving for aboriginal generations.”

Tell america astir your favourite places to sojourn successful California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll beryllium sharing much successful upcoming editions of the newsletter.

What we’re recommending

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And earlier you go, immoderate bully news

A benignant of edible chaotic mushroom, chanterelles are beloved for their orangish hue, delicate spirit and comparatively ample size. They’ve besides mostly defied cultivation, making them each the much coveted.

So ideate Dan Gebhart and Jordan Anderson’s thrill erstwhile they recovered 250 pounds of chanterelles portion foraging successful California’s Lost Coast. Their haul would merchantability for astir $4,000 successful a store.

“We’ve ne'er seen thing similar it,” Anderson told SFGate. “It felt similar we recovered the best-kept concealed successful the forest.”