News Roundup: San Francisco Mayor Says School Board ‘Neglected Primary Responsibility’ to Children

BY JACK CROWE

February 21, 2022

Good morning and welcome to the News Editor's Roundup, a weekly newsletter that will ensure you're up to date on the developments in politics, business, and culture that will shape the week's news cycle — as well as those that might escape mainstream attention.

San Francisco Mayor Says School Board 'Neglected Primary Responsibility' to Children

Responding to the recall of three progressive members from her city's school board, San Francisco mayor London Breed said the voter backlash shows the panel lost sight of its main priority: educating children.

"In this particular case, the board neglected their primary responsibility to focus on other things, other things that are important, but not as significant as what they were there to do and that is to educate children," Breed said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Parents had grown frustrated with the board's preoccupation with its political agenda over its students, such its push to rename 44 schools in the district to be more social justice friendly, while schools still remained closed to in-person learning. Schools only resumed classroom teaching full-time last August.

BLM Co-Founder to Give Speech to L.A. Students Pushing to Defund School Police

Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors is scheduled to speak at an event this Saturday organized by Los Angeles Unified School District students who are pushing to defund the district police force.

Cullors will deliver a speech to the Police Free LAUSD Coalition at a Los Angeles church, according to the event description.

As a result of student activism, the LAUSD Board of Education unanimously approved a plan in February 2021 to cut one-third of the Los Angeles School Police Department's current officers, as well as ban the use of pepper spray on students.

Russian Troops Have Orders to Launch Ukraine Invasion: Report

The U.S. has obtained intelligence that Russian officers have received orders to launch an invasion into Ukraine.

The intelligence suggests that Russian commanders are making military preparations and "doing everything that American commanders would do once they got the order to proceed," CBS News national security correspondent David Martin said during an appearance on Face the Nation Sunday.

Earlier Sunday, both the State department and Pentagon said the U.S. was still pulling all the diplomatic stops to attempt to de-escalate the Russia-Ukraine crisis as an incursion becomes increasingly probable.

Trudeau Government Moves to Make Expanded Surveillance Powers over Financial Transactions 'Permanent'

As all eyes were trained on the aggressive police sweep of the Ottawa trucker convoy this week, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau's administration was quietly moving to implement a sweeping expansion of surveillance power at the federal level.

The Trudeau government's financial war against the truckers has been covered at length. But one underreported aspect of this broader assault on Canadian civil liberties is the effort to bring crowdfunding and payment service providers — two of the most prominent routes for financial transactions on the Internet — under the permanent control of a centralized government authority.

Transgender Swimmers Cap Dominant Performances at Ivy League Women's Championships

Boston — Lia Thomas, the transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer competing on the women's team after competing on the men's team in years past, and Iszac Henig, the transgender Yale swimmer, capped off dominant individual performances at the Ivy League Championships on Saturday.

Thomas and Henig both competed in the 100-yard freestyle, Thomas after collecting wins in the 500- and 200-yard freestyles earlier in the week, setting pool records in both as well as a meet record in the latter. Thomas prevailed in the 100-yard freestyle finals with a time of 47.63 seconds — a pool and meet record — while Henig came in second with a time of 47.82 seconds.

On Saturday morning, Thomas finished second in the preliminary heats for the event, behind only Henig, who is transitioning from female to male and has undergone surgical, but not hormonal, treatments to aid that transition. Henig also took first place in the 50-yard freestyle on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Calls for 'Honest' Response on E.U., NATO Membership Bid

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called for an "honest" response to his country's attempts to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Zelensky spoke amid reports of shelling in Eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists have urged residents to evacuate ahead of potential fighting. Russia has stationed between 169,000-190,000 troops on Ukraine's borders ahead of a potential invasion, according to the U.S.

Zelensky on Saturday lamented that Ukraine's bid to join the E.U. has been stalled for several years.

"Why do we avoid this question? Doesn't Ukraine deserve direct, honest answers?" Zelensky said. "This also applies to NATO. We are told the door is open. But for now, no outsiders are allowed in."

Zelensky added, "If not all members are willing to see us, or all members do not want to see us there, be honest about it. Open doors are good, but we need open answers."

Modeling Agent Suspected of Procuring Girls for Jeffrey Epstein Found Dead in Paris Prison

A French modeling agent investigated over suspicions he procured girls for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in Paris, prosecutors confirmed on Saturday morning.

Jean-Luc Brunel, 75, was initially arrested in December 2020 before boarding a flight to Dakar, Senegal. Paris prosecutors said at the time that Brunel was arrested on suspicion of "rapes, sexual assaults, the rape and sexual assault of a minor aged 15, the rape and sexual assault of a minor over 15 years, sexual harassment, association with criminals and the trafficking and exploitation of minors."

Prosecutors also said Brunel was arrested as part of a probe into "events of a sexual nature thought to have been committed by Jeffrey Epstein and other accomplices."

Brunel was reportedly found hanged, according to The Guardian.

Former CNN Executive Discussed Interview Topics in Advance with Governor Cuomo: Reports

Former CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust resigned after an internal investigation found that she had discussed interview topics with former New York governor Andrew Cuomo before a March 2020 appearance on the network, according to multiple reports.

Cuomo floated potential interview topics to Gollust, who then passed the topics on to CNN producers prior to the former governor's appearance on air, people familiar with the matter told the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

An investigation by CNN parent company WarnerMedia found additional communications between Gollust and Cuomo, according to the reports. Gollust worked as Cuomo's communications director for several months in 2012, before joining CNN.