D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser is to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg during a joint appearance Thursday afternoon in the District, according to the Bloomberg campaign.

Bloomberg, New York’s former three-term mayor, is to deliver a speech outlining his plan to create affordable housing and ease the homeless crisis that is posing challenges for large cities across the country, including the nation’s capital.

Bowser is scheduled to appear with Bloomberg when he speaks at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE, a gentrifying corridor that illustrates the challenges cities face in balancing economic development and the needs of the poor.

The second-term mayor is choosing the billionaire businessman from a crowded field of candidates that includes former vice president Joe Biden, who worked closely with the District during the Obama administration and whom she has praised in the past.

National Interest

In an unusual turn, this has pitted anti-F-35 activists in opposition to both of Vermont’s left-leaning senators, independent Bernie Sanders and Democrat Patrick Leahy, who have supported the F-35’s deployment in Burlington. For example, this September 6, activists planned a “Weekend at Bernie's” rally at Leahy and Sander’s Burlington offices opposing the F-35’s imminent arrival.

Supporters of the anti-F-35 campaign “Save our Skies” have included retired Air Force colonel Rosanne Greco who was formerly involved nuclear arms negotiations; Pierre Sprey, an influential weapons analyst in the 1970s and a longtime F-35 critic; and Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company who has provided financing.

South Burlingtonians living near the airport were already reportedly unhappy with the noise produced by the now-retired F-16s. In response, the airport actively purchased and razed over 200 adjacent homes to reduce the affected population. Opponents to F-35 basing particularly cite studies showing that children growing up near noisy airports tend to suffer adverse health and educational attainment outcomes.

In 2013, the National Guard also released an Environmental Impact Statement that asserted that the additional noise impact would be minimal. However, locals have questioned the assessment model.

It was eventually revealed that Burlington was the least well-rated of four sites evaluated by the Environmental Impact Statement, and its selection may have been pushed specifically by Senator Leahy. Furthermore, leaked emails revealed the National Guard had developed a new noise model (Karnes 3) over the objections of the Air Force with the intention of favorably tweaking the noise assessment.

Bloomberg

F-35’s List of Flaws Includes a Gun That Can’t Shoot Straight

Add a gun that can’t shoot straight to the problems that dog Lockheed Martin Corp.’s $428 billion F-35 program, including more than 800 software flaws.

The 25mm gun on Air Force models of the Joint Strike Fighter has “unacceptable” accuracy in hitting ground targets and is mounted in housing that’s cracking, the Pentagon’s test office said in its latest assessment of the costliest U.S. weapons system.

The annual assessment by Robert Behler, the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation, doesn’t disclose any major new failings in the plane’s flying capabilities. But it flags a long list of issues that his office said should be resolved -- including 13 described as Category 1 “must-fix” items that affect safety or combat capability -- before the F-35’s upcoming $22 billion Block 4 phase.


The number of software deficiencies totaled 873 as of November, according to the report obtained by Bloomberg News in advance of its release as soon as Friday. That’s down from 917 in September 2018, when the jet entered the intense combat testing required before full production, including 15 Category 1 items. What was to be a year of testing has now been extended another year until at least October.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s allies are growing anxious about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, believing he will siphon off Biden’s centrist support on Super Tuesday and pave the way for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to win the nomination.

Biden’s allies believe he’s best positioned to go one on one with Sanders and that he’ll have earned that right if he posts strong showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he’s currently battling former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to be the party’s centrist standard bearer.

But some in Biden World are growing frustrated that Bloomberg will be waiting for him on the other side.

Bloomberg is skipping the early-voting states and instead pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into staff and advertisements in the Super Tuesday states that will vote on March 3, when about one-third of all the delegates will be allocated.

Shaun Donovan, a former official in the Obama administration, is planning to run for mayor of New York and is approaching a formal announcement, sources familiar with his decision-making process told POLITICO.

Donovan served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Barack Obama and was later appointed his director of the Office of Management and Budget. Prior to his work in the Obama administration, Donovan was the commissioner of housing preservation and development under former Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

Political consultant Bill Hyers, who worked on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign in 2013, is rumored to be working on Donovan’s mayoral bid. He didn’t return POLITICO’s request for comment.

Donovan will join a crowded field of candidates running for mayor in 2021. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Speaker Corey Johnson are all likely mayoral contenders.

Bernie Sanders had a cold. The presidential candidate was sitting in the Senate chamber last week listening to Adam Schiff explain why Donald Trump should be removed from office and he retrieved a crumpled tissue from his pocket to wipe his runny nose. It didn’t help that it’s chilly inside the cavernous room. Sanders frequently rubbed his hands together and at one point tucked them under his sweater. (Elizabeth Warren used a hand warmer.)

I watched Sanders and his colleagues from the press gallery, the rim of the fishbowl the Senate has been turned into, for hours over the course of several days. And what was most striking was the contrast between presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the man who is one of perhaps just two or three people most likely to be the next leader of the Democratic Party, and Senator Bernie Sanders, a famous loner in the upper chamber who rarely interacted with his colleagues during days of trial presentations.

On Wednesday I was back in Iowa for the final days before the caucuses. With four of his rivals presiding at Trump’s trial, Joe Biden had the state almost to himself and the contrast with Sanders was telling. While In Washington I watched Sanders struggle to generate excitement among his Senate colleagues, in Iowa I watched Joe Biden, the candidate with the most Senate endorsements, struggle to generate enthusiasm among a small group of voters in Council Bluffs, on the Nebraska border.


Biden is a creature of the Senate. Sanders is a creature of the campaign trail. Observing them back to back in these two settings helped clarify the choice before voters.

DES MOINES — After the dazzle and pop of Jennifer Lopez and Shakira’s Super Bowl halftime show this Sunday, Michael R. Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is hoping to “stop people in their tracks” with an emotional ad featuring a mother who lost her son to gun violence.

In the minute-long ad, which the campaign released on Thursday, Calandrian Kemp tells the story of her son, George Kemp Jr., as the camera pans across childhood pictures of George in football gear. He was shot and killed in 2013 during an altercation while he was at college; he was 20.

“I just kept saying, you cannot tell me that the child I gave birth to is no longer here,” Ms. Kemp says, her voice breaking. The screen then shows white text on a black background: “2,900 children die from gun violence every year.”

That figure has been cited by Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group primarily financed by Mr. Bloomberg.