News briefs

Tribune News Service on Sep 8, 2025

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Adams formally picks ‘Safe and Affordable’ line for NYC mayoral ballot, dumps ‘EndAntiSemitism’ column

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams has abandoned his effort to appear on two ballot lines — “EndAntiSemitism” and “Safe & Affordable”— in November’s mayoral election, opting to only run on the latter.

For months, the city’s Board of Elections told Adams he couldn’t as an independent candidate appear on more than one line on November’s ballot. Adams’ campaign contended the board was wrong and that he could appear on both columns, even saying the mayor was exploring legal action to try to force the panel to let him lock in the two lines.

However, in a previously undisclosed Aug. 22 letter to the board, Adams campaign attorney Vito Pitta wrote the mayor — who made combating antisemitism and support for Israel early focuses of his longshot reelection bid — is settling for the “Safe & Affordable” line in order to comply with the board’s determination.

“Please let this letter confirm that Mayor Adams has chosen to be identified as the nominee of the ‘Safe & Affordable’ independent body on the ‘Safe & Affordable’ ballot line and wishes to appear under a ‘Safe & Affordable’ column,” Pitta wrote in the missive, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Daily News.

—New York Daily News

A Florida area may crack down on kratom. What to know about the designer drug

MIAMI — Manatee could become the second county in Florida to ban kratom and other designer drugs.

Sarasota County approved a ban in 2014. While kratom was already restricted to adults over 21, an emergency statewide order last month banned one of the chemical compounds found in kratom.

Last Tuesday, Manatee Commissioner Amanda Ballard proposed that county staff research a similar ordinance to Sarasota County’s and return with more information, including a draft ordinance. The motion passed 4-3 with commissioners George Kruse, Bob McCann and Jason Bearden dissenting.

Ballard suggested the county pursue an ordinance completely banning kratom and other designer drugs, like synthetic cannabis. Including “designer drugs” creates a broader ban on these types of substances and different types of kratom.

—Miami Herald

Denver Public Schools defies Trump administration deadline for removing all-gender bathrooms

DENVER — Denver Public Schools has not complied with the Trump administration’s request that the district convert all multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms in its schools into separate facilities for female and male students by the agency’s Monday deadline.

In a five-page response dated Sunday, DPS general counsel Kristin Bailey accused the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights of “intransigence,” a failure to adequately communicate and a “startling” lack of clarity surrounding the alleged Title IX violation levied against the school district.

“We write to rebut the stated presumption that the District and the Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) are at an impasse,” Bailey wrote. “We are not. In fact, as the District has shared throughout this Directed Investigation, we want to discuss resolution options with OCR, and at this stage, the District remains interested in doing so.”

Education Department representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Denver Post on Monday.

—The Denver Post

Milei sticks to plan after landslide defeat in Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s President Javier Milei vowed no changes to his free-market economic program after a resounding defeat on Sunday to the center-left Peronist opposition in the province of Buenos Aires.

The Peronist opposition came in first in the provincial election, winning about 47% of the ballots compared with 34% for Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party, with 91% of votes counted.

The vote in Buenos Aires province, the country’s largest and for decades a Peronist bastion, is seen as a bellwether for national midterms next month where Milei aims to boost his party’s current minority status in Congress to further curb inflation and shrink government spending.

“Today we suffered a clear defeat,” Milei said, speaking from his party’s campaign headquarters just outside the provincial capital of La Plata. “We had an electoral setback and we have to accept it.”

—Bloomberg News