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On Monday, President of the Los Angeles City Council, Nury Martinez, resigned from her post after audio of her making repeated racist marks was leaked. In a statement, Martinez announced that she would resign effective immediately, and apologized for her off-color remarks. The leaked audio surfaced ahead of the Nov. 8 election in which several council seats are up for grabs; it was not immediately clear who recorded it.

First posted to Reddit, the audio containing Martinez’s remarks was obtained and published by the nonprofit community news platform Knock LA and the Los Angeles Times. The conversations also included council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon, as well as the president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Ron Herrera.

Martinez can be heard saying in one of the recordings, regarding Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón: “[Expletive] that guy, he’s with the Blacks,” and in another recording, Martinez appeared to say that the adopted Black son of fellow City Council member Mike Bonin, who is white, “looks like a little monkey” in Spanish.  Bonin and his husband, Sean Arian, said in a statement: “We are appalled, angry and absolutely disgusted that Nury Martinez attacked our son with horrific racist slurs, and talked about her desire to physically harm him. It’s vile, abhorrent, and utterly disgraceful.  No child should ever be subjected to such racist, mean and dehumanizing comments, especially from a public official. It is painful to know he will someday read these comments.”

Martinez served as the president of the City Council since late 2019 and is the first Latina woman to hold the position. However despite her resignation, Martinez is expected to remain on the 15-member City Council, and in her resignation statement she did not mention leaving her seat as a council member.

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The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division — the country’s third largest freight rail union — has voted down a tentative agreement brokered by the Biden administration to avert a nationwide rail strike.  The union is the first labor group to reject the offer; according to a statement released Monday, 56% of its almost 12,000 workers turned down the agreement over a lack of time off.

Union President Tony Cardwell in a statement:  “Railroaders are discouraged and upset with working conditions and compensation and hold their employer in low regardRailroaders do not feel valued. They resent the fact that management holds no regard for their quality of life, illustrated by their stubborn reluctance to provide a higher quantity of paid time off, especially for sickness.”

Since four other unions have already approved the deal, so the rejection of the agreement does not signal a strike. However, seven more are scheduled to vote through the middle of November, and if one union were to strike, others could refuse to cross the picket line.

Last month, the Biden administration brokered the tentative deal which gives union members an average 24% pay increase over five years, improved working conditions and caps on what they have to pay for healthcare. The administration worked until the final hour to avert a rail strike that threatened to sever the supply chain, by cutting 40% of long-haul U.S. cargo, and cripple the economy.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/large-rail-union-rejects-deal-renewing-strike-possibility-91298002

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Republican candidate for New York governor, and current NY congressman Lee Zeldin says his family is safe after two strangers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday.

In a statement released by his office, Zeldin said that he does not know the identities of the two people who were shot, but that they were found under his porch and in the bushes in front of his home in Shirley, New York.  The congressman and his wife were returning from a parade in the Bronx when the shooting occurred, but their teenage daughters were home and heard gunshots and screaming. Zeldin said his 16-year-old daughters locked themselves in a bathroom and called 911.

The two people who were shot were taken to local hospitals, and Zeldin said police officers were at his home investigating Sunday evening, and looking over the home’s security cameras. Said Zeldin: “My daughters are shaken, but ok. Like so many New Yorkers, crime has literally made its way to our front door. My family is grateful to all who have reached out and we will provide another update when we can.”

The Suffolk County Police Department issued a brief statement saying it was investigating the shooting, and a police spokeswoman said she had no information to release about who fired the shots or who first found the two people shot.

Zeldin is running against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she was briefed on the shooting. Hochul tweeted: “I’ve been briefed on the shooting outside of Congressman Zeldin’s home. As we await more details, I’m relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response.”

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