Mayor: Fight crime by being more like NYC

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's mayor met Thursday with the parents of a Chicago girl killed just days after performing at President Barack Obama's inaugural festivities, then suggested that places interested in reducing gun violence might want to emulate the Big Apple, where studies have found teenagers are less likely to carry weapons than in any other major U.S. city.

The meeting between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the parents of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, who was killed in an apparent case of mistaken identity, came as gun control advocates have pressed Congress to pass proposals that include requiring criminal history checks for nearly all gun purchases.

Rigorous background checks for handgun sales are already the norm in New York City, along with the nation's most restrictive licensing requirements, but Bloomberg also heralded "proactive policing" and a 3 1/2 year minimum mandatory jail term for illegal possession as strategies that have deterred young people from carrying guns.

A 2011 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 2.3 percent of high school students in New York City reported having carried a gun at least once in the past 30 days. That rate was far below the national average of 5.1 percent, and the lowest among the 21 large urban school districts that participated in the survey.

Gun possession rates were highest in Washington D.C., where 7.5 percent of students reported a gun, followed by Milwaukee, Wis. and Duval County, Fla., which each had a rate of 7.1 percent. The second-lowest gun possession rate, of 3.3 percent, was found in Boston.

The survey results have been publicly available since last June, but with gun control issues high on the national agenda, Bloomberg held a news conference to discuss the findings Thursday.

In Chicago, where Hadiya was killed, 5.8 percent of students reported having carried a gun. The two men charged in her death are ages 18 and 20.

After meeting with Bloomberg at City Hall, Hadiya's mother, Cleopatra, said she was "very hopeful" Congress would pass bills that would require background checks for most private gun sales and also stiffen penalties for people who help convicted felons buy weapons.

"You know, it's my family this time, but it could be your family next time," she said.

Bloomberg is the founder of a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns that has advocated for tighter gun control. His administration has sued gun manufacturers, claiming they recklessly flood the market with cheap pistols and organized stings against out-of-state firearms dealers he claimed were fueling the city's illegal gun trade. Recently, Bloomberg has financed a $12 million ad campaign aimed at supporting tighter regulations.

Many gun owners have been incensed at suggestions that shootings sprees like the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. could be prevented by more restrictions on firearms possession. The National Rifle Association opposes the background check plan and wants other measures, like more armed guards at schools.

Bloomberg's news conference also coincided with a civil trial challenging the constitutionality of one of the city's strategies for taking guns off the street, a tactic known as "stop and frisk" in which officers have halted, questioned and often searched hundreds of thousands of mostly innocent people.

Most of the people stopped in the program have been black or Hispanic, and there are widespread complaints that the stops often amount to harassment. In 2011, police conducted more than 680,000 stops and recovered fewer than 800 guns.

In the trial, now under way in federal court, people who were detained have asked a judge to appoint a monitor for the police department.

Bloomberg said he sympathized with people upset about being stopped, but said the benefits were worth the hassle.

"Based on the crime data, there is just no question that it is working," the mayor said. "The more people we can keep from carrying guns, the more lives we can save, the more success that we'll have keeping teenagers from making a terrible decision they will regret for the rest of their lives."

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Associated Press Writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.

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Ex-Mexican mayor arrested on suspicion of helping kidnappers

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A former mayor in Mexico has been arrested on suspicion of helping a criminal gang kill two men when he ran the western town of Villa Corona last year, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

In February 2012, two men who had escaped from kidnappers in Villa Corona went to the police for help but were instead handed over to the gang by the mayor and then killed, the attorney general's office of Jalisco state said in a statement.

Investigations showed that the mayor, Jose de Jesus Ortiz, and his son Leonardo made sure the gang took the two men, whose bodies were found in May 2012 in a mass grave not far from the popular lakeside resort of Chapala, prosecutors said.

Both the mayor, 48, and his son, 24, are now in custody. Including the surrounding municipality of the same name, Villa Corona has a population of around 17,000.

Jalisco, which is home to Mexico's second-biggest city, Guadalajara, has seen a steady increase in violence since former president Felipe Calderon launched a military offensive against drug cartels shortly after taking office in late 2006.

President Enrique Pena Nieto, who replaced Calderon in December, has pledged to restore order, though gang-related violence remains widespread. Last month, the minister of tourism for Jalisco was shot dead in an ambush.

On Sunday, a shoot-out in two bars in Guadalajara claimed seven lives and left more than a dozen people injured.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Philip Barbara)

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NY state sen. arrested in alleged mayor race plot

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York state lawmaker was arrested Tuesday along with several other politicians in an alleged plot to bribe his way into the race for mayor of New York City.

Democratic state Sen. Malcolm Smith tried to pay off some of New York City's Republican party bosses to get himself on the ballot as a GOP candidate, federal prosecutors said.

New York City Councilman Dan Halloran and with four other political figures also were charged in what U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called "an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County and all the way up to Albany itself."

Smith "tried to bribe his way to a shot at Gracie Mansion," Bharara said in a statement, referring to the official mayor's residence. "Smith drew up the game plan and Councilman Halloran essentially quarterbacked that drive by finding party chairmen who were wide open to receiving bribes."

In meetings with a cooperating witness and an undercover FBI agent posing as a wealthy real estate developer, Smith agreed to bribe leaders of Republican Party county committees around New York City in an attempt to run for mayor as a Republican, even though he was a registered Democrat, the criminal complaint said.

Also charged are: Bronx County Republican Party Chairman Joseph Savino; Queens County Republican Party Vice Chairman Vincent Tabone; Spring Valley Mayor Noramie Jasmin; and Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Joseph Desmaret.

In exchange for payments to Savino and Tabone, Smith agreed to use his power as a senator to help obtain state funds for a road project in Spring Valley. That, in turn, was to benefit a real estate project that Smith believed was being built by the undercover agent's company in suburban Spring Valley, the complaint alleged.

Charges in the case include bribery, extortion, and wire and mail fraud, Bharara said.

Smith denies wrongdoing, his lawyer, Gerald L. Shargel, told The New York Times.

"Malcolm Smith is a dedicated and highly respected public servant and he steadfastly denies these charges," Shargel said.

Representatives for the other politicians did not immediately respond to comment requests.

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Trial of former New Orleans mayor delayed until October

(Reuters) - The federal public corruption trial of former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, which was scheduled to start in late April, has been delayed until October after a joint request by prosecutors and defense attorneys, a court order filed on Monday said.

Nagin, who had chided federal officials for their slow response after Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans, was accused in a grand jury indictment in January of taking kickbacks in exchange for city contracts.

The joint request for more time had said, "The nature of the present prosecution is complex and involves an extensive amount of electronic and documentary discovery."

The 21-count indictment included charges of bribery, money laundering, conspiracy and tax violations. Nagin, who now lives in Texas, pleaded not guilty to all charges in February before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan.

The trial had been scheduled to start on April 29, but was moved to October 7 under the order dated April 1 signed by U.S. District Judge Helen G. Berrigan.

Nagin was a little-known businessman when he won election in 2002 after wooing voters with promises to think outside the box and rid City Hall of patronage. He served eight years as mayor.

In 2005, after Katrina struck and several levees crumbled, Nagin's desperate plea for federal officials to "get off your asses" and help was heard worldwide. He was widely criticized after the storm for overseeing a halting recovery.

New Orleans has a history rich with political intrigue, but Nagin is the first mayor to face criminal charges.

(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

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End of the road for Boston's longest-serving mayor

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - The longest-serving mayor in Boston history plans to tell voters on Thursday that he will not seek a sixth term in office, setting the stage for the city's most competitive mayoral race in decades.

Mayor Tom Menino, 70, is expected to declare his intention not to seek reelection to the office he has held since 1993 at a Thursday afternoon event at Boston's historic Fanueil Hall, according to an official who asked not to be identified ahead of the event.

The decision comes after the mayor was hospitalized for a month last year with a virus and back pain that cut short a vacation in Italy. The Democrat told local media he was growing concerned about how much longer he would be able to keep up his grueling work schedule.

"I can work a mayor's schedule, but not a Menino schedule," the mayor told WBZ news radio on Thursday morning. "I like to work 18 hours a day."

Prior to today, only one other candidate had jumped into the race - fellow Democrat John Connolly, 39, a Boston city councilor who has focused his campaign on improving schools.

But observers expected more local leaders to enter the race now that they know they will not be facing a powerful incumbent.

"Boston mayors are rarely defeated for reelection, so if you are going to make a run for it, this is the time to do it," said Peter Ubertaccio, chairman of the political science department at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, south of Boston. "The city councilors are going to be jockeying for this position."

Menino had a formidable campaign organization that he has used both for himself and fellow Democrats - his supporters played a key role in Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's successful 2012 campaign to unseat Republican Scott Brown.

He has declined to endorse either of the Democratic Congressmen, Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, currently vying to fill the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate that became available when John Kerry was named Secretary of State.

Voters will go to the polls in that special election on June 25, a little more than four months before November's mayoral race, making for one of Boston's most lively political calendars in recent years.

On the national stage, Menino has stood out as an advocate for gun control and gay rights, often working alongside New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Menino became mayor in July 1993, after predecessor Raymond Flynn resigned to become U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

His fellow politicians were quick to offer praise.

"Tom Menino said yes for 20 years to economic inclusion, immigrant entrepreneurship, social and economic justice for all," said state Treasurer Steven Grossman. "We will miss his leadership at City Hall."

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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End of the road for Boston's longest-serving mayor

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - The longest-serving mayor in Boston history plans to tell voters on Thursday that he will not seek a sixth term in office, setting the stage for the city's most competitive mayoral race in decades.

Mayor Tom Menino, 70, is expected to declare his intention not to seek reelection to the office he has held since 1993 at a Thursday afternoon event at Boston's historic Fanueil Hall, according to an official who asked not to be identified ahead of the event.

The decision comes after the mayor was hospitalized for a month last year with a virus and back pain that cut short a vacation in Italy. The Democrat told local media he was growing concerned about how much longer he would be able to keep up his grueling work schedule.

"I can work a mayor's schedule, but not a Menino schedule," the mayor told WBZ news radio on Thursday morning. "I like to work 18 hours a day."

Prior to today, only one other candidate had jumped into the race - fellow Democrat John Connolly, 39, a Boston city councilor who has focused his campaign on improving schools.

But observers expected more local leaders to enter the race now that they know they will not be facing a powerful incumbent.

"Boston mayors are rarely defeated for reelection, so if you are going to make a run for it, this is the time to do it," said Peter Ubertaccio, chairman of the political science department at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts, south of Boston. "The city councilors are going to be jockeying for this position."

Menino had a formidable campaign organization that he has used both for himself and fellow Democrats - his supporters played a key role in Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's successful 2012 campaign to unseat Republican Scott Brown.

He has declined to endorse either of the Democratic Congressmen, Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, currently vying to fill the Massachusetts seat in the U.S. Senate that became available when John Kerry was named Secretary of State.

Voters will go to the polls in that special election on June 25, a little more than four months before November's mayoral race, making for one of Boston's most lively political calendars in recent years.

On the national stage, Menino has stood out as an advocate for gun control and gay rights, often working alongside New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Menino became mayor in July 1993, after predecessor Raymond Flynn resigned to become U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

His fellow politicians were quick to offer praise.

"Tom Menino said yes for 20 years to economic inclusion, immigrant entrepreneurship, social and economic justice for all," said state Treasurer Steven Grossman. "We will miss his leadership at City Hall."

(Reporting by Scott Malone; Editing by Paul Thomasch)

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NY Mayor Bloomberg predicts success for expanded gun checks

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg predicted on Sunday that pressure from the American public would eventually force the Congress to expand background checks for gun buyers, even though the measure faces an uncertain fate in the Senate.

As Bloomberg launched a $12 million national advertising campaign aimed at prodding members of the Senate to support expanded background checks, he said the measure's widespread popularity would trump gun-rights groups like the powerful National Rifle Association that oppose it.

"If 90 percent of the public wants something and their representatives vote against that, common sense says they are going to have a price to pay for that," Bloomberg said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

A top NRA executive predicted that the self-made billionaire' s efforts would change few minds. "He can't buy America," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said on the same program.

Lawmakers are scaling back President Barack Obama's ambitions for sweeping gun control measures, which took on a new urgency after the December 14 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 children and six adults.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid effectively ruled out an assault weapons ban last week, and limits on high-capacity ammunition clips also are likely to fall short.

Gun-control advocates say a system of expanded background checks would be the single most effective way to reduce gun violence across the country. Opinion polls show that more than 90 percent of all American voters and 85 percent of gun owners support it.

While such a measure could pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, it faces long odds in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold the majority.

"I don't think their bill will pass the Senate and even if it does it won't pass the House," Republican Senator Tom Coburn said on C-SPAN.

The NRA argues that expanding existing background checks to cover the 40 percent of gun sales that are now exempt would only create more hurdles for law abiding citizens and do little to deter criminal purchases. The NRA instead wants the federal government to step up prosecutions under existing gun laws and boost security in schools.

Bloomberg acknowledged that a national ban on assault weapons is less popular with the public and is unlikely to succeed in Congress.

Several states, including New York, have passed assault-weapons bans of their own but others like Colorado, which tightened its gun laws recently, have not restricted the military-style rifles that are popular with gun owners.

"I think the feeling right now around assault weapons, at least in Colorado, is that it's so hard to define what an assault weapon is," Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper said on CNN's "State of the Nation."

"There's a lot of questions whether the 10-year federal ban that existed made a difference," Hickenlooper said. "It's a tough sell."

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Toni Clarke. Editing by Christopher Wilson)

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Tech-savvy Newark Mayor Booker: Government flunking social media

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Cory Booker, the constantly tweeting mayor of Newark, New Jersey, who intends to run for the U.S. Senate, said on Sunday that the federal government needs to reinvent the often overly formal way it uses social media.

"It's just using it as an announcement system, like you used to listen to in class: ‘The cafeteria will be serving roast beef, and I will be at this place or that place'," Booker told Reuters after an appearance at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. "But that's not interaction, that's not collaboration."

Booker, 43, a rising star in the Democratic Party who has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter, told the Austin audience that he can't be a mayor who sits behind a desk and waits for the world to come to him.

Last year, the Newark mayor was hailed as a hero for inviting into his home neighbors who, he learned on Twitter, lost power because of Superstorm Sandy.

He also uses Twitter to give city phone numbers to constituents, share inspirational quotes, declare his love for the TV series Star Trek and answer questions from local students while admonishing them not to tweet in class.

"On it," he replied to a resident who complained recently of a broken street light.

Booker, who made a failed run for Newark mayor in 2002 before winning the job in 2006, said he's been hooked on Twitter since actor Ashton Kutcher called and told him why he should dive into the micro-blogging site.

'TELLING YOUR TRUTH'

Booker said it was important to be himself on social media - and that this would still be true if he were in the Senate.

"Life is about telling your truth and being who you are, 100 percent," he said. "This world desperately needs authenticity, people who have the courage to tell their truth every single day, and I would not stop being who I am just because of the title that's before my name."

One of his Twitter followers, Shuronda Robinson of Austin, said she took her 12- and 13-year-old sons to his appearance at South by Southwest and made sure he shook the boys' hands.

"I was so inspired," she said after Booker's remarks to an audience that didn't fill a large auditorium. "I wanted my boys to see someone living with purpose."

Newark, eight miles from Manhattan and New Jersey's largest city, was once a thriving manufacturing center but for the last half century has battled political corruption, urban blight and high crime.

Booker, a former Rhodes Scholar, has made reducing crime a major priority. In March 2010, Newark experienced its first murder-free month since 1944.

While Booker's national profile is rising, some Newark residents have criticized him for being absent from the city as he travels around the country, appears on TV programs and meets business leaders.

Booker said that traveling has helped him secure benefits to Newark, such as a $100 million gift to its schools from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

"He didn't come to Newark to say, ‘Hey, I want to give you $100 million,'" Booker said. "We were at a conference together."

Booker has filed papers to run for the Senate in 2014. Senator Frank Lautenberg, 89, a long-serving New Jersey Democrat, has said he will not seek re-election. Booker has been leading in New Jersey polls for the seat.

"It is even my intention to run, but I'm not going to come to any conclusions until after November," Booker told Reuters.

(Reporting by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Philip; Barbara)

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