Day: April 3, 2024

GLENDALE—Glendale City Councilwoman Elen Asatryan was selected the City’s Mayor at the April 2^nd Council meeting. She takes over the position from outgoing Mayor Dan Brotman. This is Asatryan’s first time serving in the position of Mayor.

Asatryan was first elected to the City Council in July 2022 and is the city’s first Armenian-American woman, the first immigrant woman, and the youngest woman to serve on the Council and as Mayor.

As a civil rights activist, community advocate, and businesswoman who has dedicated her life to community and public service in Glendale, she brings to the Council and Mayorship over 24 years of local, state, and federal level experience in policy, advocacy, development, and community organizing.

Asatryan founded The Stark Group, a public affairs and political consulting firm in 2017. Prior to that, for over 11 years, she served as the Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America Glendale and later the organization’s Western Region covering 19 states west of the Mississippi.

Prior to being elected to Glendale City Council, Asatryan also spearheaded initiatives and campaigns aimed at creating opportunities for high school and college students through public policy fellowship and internship programs and established the Glendale Domestic Violence Task Force. Asatryan launched education programs to increase voter registration, resulting in over 50,000 new voters registered in Los Angeles County in a span of two years. She also played a key role in getting Armenian Genocide education curriculum adopted in California public schools, and has served on various local, regional, and state boards and committees.

Mayor Asatryan is a product of Glendale’s public schools and a graduate of UCLA, where she studied Political Science with concentrations in American Politics and International Relations.

“I look forward to working with Mayor Asatryan on her priority initiatives during her term as Mayor,” said Roubik Golanian, City Manager.

“I take this responsibility with a listening ear, an open heart, and a unifying spirit. My commitment remains unchanged: to help foster a government where marginalized voices are heard as loud as any and barriers are torn down. Let us embark on this journey together with courage, compassion, and conviction. Our differences make for a healthy debate and ultimately for better thought-out policies, our unity makes us unstoppable, and our collective vision will guide us towards a brighter tomorrow for Glendale. I would like to thank outgoing Mayor Brotman for his service and leadership during the past year and look forward to working with our residents, small businesses, my colleagues, and city staff to realize a vision in which our diverse communities thrive,” stated Asatryan.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on April 25 the former U.S. president’s arguments that he is immune from federal prosecution for trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat to President Joe Biden.  

His defense lawyers in the New York case in March asked Justice Juan Merchan to delay the trial until that review was complete, arguing it was relevant because prosecutors were seeking to present evidence of statements Trump made while he was president from 2017 to 2021.  

In a court ruling on Wednesday, Merchan said Trump had waited too long to raise the issue.  

“Defendant had myriad opportunities to raise the claim of presidential immunity well before March 7, 2024,” Merchan wrote.  

Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Trump, declined to comment. 

Trump, the Republican candidate to challenge Biden in the November 5 election, has pleaded not guilty in each of the four criminal indictments he faces.  

The New York case could be the only one to go to trial before the election.  

He is accused of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006.  

Trump denies any such encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.  

Trump also is seeking a delay on the basis that a deluge of news coverage of the case has led potential jurors to believe he is already guilty. Merchan has not yet ruled on that request.  

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which charged Trump in 2023, opposed that request in a court filing made public on Wednesday. 

They argued that Trump himself had generated much of the news coverage, and that they would be able to weed out biased jurors through the jury selection process. 

The Supreme Court’s decision to take up Trump’s appeal in the federal election interference case was a major victory for him, delaying the trial’s start by months at least.  

He also faces a state case in Georgia over his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results, as well as a federal case in Florida over his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving office in 2021. Those cases also lack firm trial dates. 

No U.S. president has ever faced a criminal trial. 

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— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) April 3, 2024