SOUTH BEND, IN -- Today, the Pete Buttigieg campaign formally announced that Congressman Anthony G. Brown, Congressman Don Beyer, Congresswoman Annie Kuster, civil rights leader Lamell McMorris, Mayor Nan Whaley, and South Bend Councilwoman Sharon McBride will serve as its campaign national co-chairs.

“I am thrilled to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these inspiring leaders who reflect the boldness and strength of our country,” said Buttigieg. “I admire all that they have done to bridge the gap between Americans of both parties in order to tackle the urgent issues that have grown worse under this president: getting health care costs down, tackling climate change, and ending gun violence. I’m honored to have their support and look forward to working with them to turn the page to the day after Donald Trump and work together to usher in a new era of belonging.”

The campaign co-chairs will be instrumental parts of our campaign structure as surrogates traveling across the country to help share Pete’s message and vision for the future of our country as President. The co-chairs have already helped shape the trajectory of the campaign. The campaign and co-chairs will continue to work in tandem to ensure that Pete secures the nomination and defeats Donald Trump in November.

“As I’ve been traveling the country with Pete, I’ve seen firsthand the hunger Americans have for a president who can bring Americans together so that we heal our divides and restore decency to our nation’s highest office,” said Rep. Brown. “As his campaign co-chair, I'm committed to working to put a veteran in the White House in this urgent, historic moment. We need someone who, unlike our current president, will keep us safe and understands the sacrifice we ask of our troops and their families when critical decisions are made in the Oval Office.”

“Pete caught my attention early on in this election,” said Rep. Beyer. “He reminded me so much of another candidate who started out as a long shot, but offered a renewed sense of hope and belonging for our country as President. I’m thrilled to continue working to elect Pete any way I can as his campaign co-chair, from sharing his message with my colleagues in Congress to knocking on doors in Iowa.”

“The people of New Hampshire are looking for a presidential candidate with a new approach who has the energy, the ideas, and the integrity to bring the country together and move us forward,” said Rep. Kuster. “Pete has been inspiring Americans with his vision for the future and I am honored to serve as his campaign co-chair. I believe Pete is the candidate to lift our country up with a strong coalition of diverse interests and ideas, and I’m confident that he has what it takes to come out of the first primary in the nation with the momentum needed to secure the Democratic nomination.”

“When I met Pete in Atlanta, I found him to be not only brilliant but also a genuine, authentic leader who values honesty and transparency and who works to build consensus,” said McMorris. “America needs a leader who can rally citizens to unite and tackle our mounting challenges. Pete has proven himself to be the leader that we need with the plan we need. His comprehensive Douglass Plan for Black America will further extend political freedom, economic parity, and justice to more Americans in our country.”

“I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Pete for many years, and I know that his type of steady leadership is what our country needs right now,” said Mayor Whaley. “As we face unprecedented challenges, America requires a leader who can get things done but also be a visionary in what can be accomplished. Pete helped transform South Bend, and he now is offering our country the leadership that is needed to usher in a brighter future.”

“I have seen on the campaign trail that many Americans are still getting to know Pete, and I've been honored to share with others what I know to be true about him from our work together in South Bend. Although much work remains, I am proud of the great strides that we have made to strengthen South Bend, and I know what my mayor will be able to accomplish nationwide," said Councilwoman McBride. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve with him in the capacity of campaign co-chair as we continue sharing South Bend's story and why Pete's leadership is what we need to meet this critical moment for our country.”

More about each co-chair’s bio is below:

Congressman Anthony G. Brown
Rep. Anthony Brown is a former Colonel of the United States Army Reserve and while Lt. Governor was one of the highest ranking public officials to have served in Iraq and earned the Bronze Star. He is currently in his third term representing Maryland’s 4th District. Brown currently serves as the Vice Chair of the House Armed Services Committee. During his time as Lt. Governor of Maryland, Brown worked to increase employment opportunities and health services to veterans. Brown is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Congressman Don Beyer
Congressman Don Beyer is serving his third term as the U.S. Representative from Virginia’s 8th District. He serves on the House Committees on Ways and Means and Science Space and Technology, and is a Co-Chair of the New Democrat Coalition's Climate Change Task Force. He was the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1998, and was Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein under President Obama.

Congresswoman Annie Kuster
Rep. Kuster was first elected to the House of Representatives in November 2012 to serve the New Hampshire’s 2nd District. Prior to taking office, she served as a longtime community activist and adoption attorney. Kuster is the daughter of a WWII veteran and prisoner of war. She is currently a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where she is working to improve access to affordable, quality health care, address climate change, protect our environment, and expand access to broadband internet.

Lamell McMorris
Lamell McMorris is a civil rights leader, a successful entrepreneur, and actively involved in critical Black institutions, such as the NAACP, NAN, National Urban League, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and three leading HBCUs. He is the founder and CEO of the Perennial Strategy Group.

Mayor Nan Whaley
Mayor Nan Whaley was elected Mayor of Dayton, Ohio in 2013. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the U.S. Conference of Mayors as well as the Chair of the International Committee for the Conference. She also served as Ohio Chair of the College Democrats. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of the National Conference of Democratic Mayors. Additionally, she is a four-time delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Councilwoman Sharon McBride
Sharon McBride represents South Bend's third district on the City's Common Council. A South Bend native, McBride was a 2014 recipient of the Martin Luther King Foundation of St. Joseph County Community Service Award, and she also received the Dismas House of Michiana Appreciation Award. She also is the Executive Administrator of the Second Baptist Church in South Bend.

An Italian man spent 30 years living in Switzerland, starting his own successful ice cream business and raising two sons.

But when he tried to become a Swiss citizen in 2015, he was rejected. The reason? He didn’t know that bears and wolves shared an enclosure at the zoo.

That decision — which authorities said pointed to the man’s failure to integrate socially — was overturned on Monday, when the Swiss Federal Tribunal, the country’s supreme court, deemed it to be unreasonable and arbitrary. According to newspapers Le Matin and 20 Minutes, a panel of judges ordered that the man be granted citizenship immediately,

A news release from the Federal Tribunal this week did not name the man, described only as an Italian national in his 50s.

Several high-profile cases have brought international attention to the peculiarities of Swiss immigration law in recent years — from a Muslim couple who were denied citizenship for refusing a handshake to an animal rights activist deemed too annoying for naturalization. While the federal government decides who gets to become a citizen in most countries, applications for naturalization in Switzerland are handled at the local level. Some rural communities even still hold public meetings in which the town’s inhabitants vote on each applicant with a show of hands.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/29/switzerland-citizenship-bears-wolves/

In a major divergence from national polling, former New York City Mayor and billionaire philanthropist Mike Bloomberg is sitting in the No. 2 spot in Florida’s Democratic presidential primary.

A St. Pete Polls survey conducted Sunday and Monday among 2,590 Democratic voters from across the state showed former Vice President Joe Biden with a commanding 41% lead. But Bloomberg, not Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, landed in second place with 17% support.

The poll was commissioned by Florida Politics.

The results released Tuesday show a staunch contrast to another national Quinnipiac University poll out the same day showing Bloomberg in fourth place with 8% support, though that’s still an improvement from where he had been.

Though the results only represent Florida voters, they are still significant. Not only is Florida a major swing state and a big pick up in the primary, St. Pete Polls was the first polling outfit to publicly forecast Trump winning Florida’s GOP presidential primary and one of the first to publicly predict Gov. Ron DeSantis beating former Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in 2018.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) says she's received no explanation or response from CNN regarding not being invited to a series of town halls the network is hosting in New Hampshire days before a crucial primary there in February.

Gabbard is currently polling 4.8 percent in the RealClearPolitics index of polls in New Hampshire, ahead of tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang, businessman Tom Steyer and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.

Yang, Steyer and Patrick, along with former Vice President Joe Biden, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, all received invites to participate in the two-night event.

“We have reached out, I think, more than once, and we received no explanation," Gabbard told Fox News on Tuesday.