Amtrak on Wednesday named veteran executive Stephen Gardner as its next chief executive.

Gardner, who has served as the passenger railroad’s president for the past year, will take over the top job at Amtrak on Jan. 17. He will replace William J. Flynn, who has served as Amtrak’s top executive since April 2020.

Flynn, who led the company through the coronavirus pandemic slump and the recovery efforts, will remain at the company as a senior adviser to Gardner through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year. The change is the latest at the railroad as it tries to recover from a pandemic ridership slump while planning for the infusion of billions of dollars from the federal infrastructure package.

“With the Biden administration and Congress just having made a transformational investment in intercity passenger rail, this is the right time to transition the leadership of the company for the long-term to help guide Amtrak’s promising future,” Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia said in announcing the transition. “Stephen has the business skills, industry knowledge and vision to improve and modernize service for the next generation of Amtrak’s customers.”

Dr. Val Arkoosh is the Pennsylvania Senate candidate who is often an afterthought compared to the two front-running Democrats, John Fetterman and Conor Lamb.

But a couple big recent developments — the chance of the Supreme Court sweeping away Roe v. Wade and the entry of Dr. Mehmet Oz into the race’s Republican primary — may give her underdog campaign new momentum.

Dr. Arkoosh, a physician in obstetric anesthesiology and a top elected official in Montgomery County in the Philadelphia suburbs, is trying to pitch herself as a kind of anti-Dr. Oz.

“It really does take a doctor to stand up to a doctor,” Dr. Arkoosh told me. “I don’t even know how he still has a license, with some of the stuff that comes out his mouth,” she said of his promotion of unproved Covid-19 treatments early in the pandemic.

Congressman Alan Lowenthal (CA-47) today issued the following statement to his constituents:

“Almost 30 years ago to the day, I made the decision to run for the Long Beach City Council because I felt that my councilmember didn’t listen to me or my neighbors. Every day since, over three decades of public service, I have recommitted myself to listening to you, to serving your interests, and doing my best for you.

This journey has taken me from Long Beach City Hall, to the California State Capitol, and to our nation’s capital. During my time as a public servant, I have met some of the most incredible people, received the counsel of wise leaders, and had the honor of working with some of the most dedicated public servants.

However, throughout this journey, sharing moments with the people I serve have always been some of the high points of my career. I have been deeply touched by your support over so many years just as I am deeply honored by the trust and faith you have placed in me to represent you.

My first experience in politics was as a teenager working on the campaign of Adlai Stevenson. I have often reflected on him saying that the job of a public servant is to “do justly” and “to walk humbly.” I have tried to live up to this throughout my journey.

But just as every journey has a beginning, so too does it have an end.

I am announcing today that I will not be running for reelection to Congress in 2022.

It is time to pass the baton. It is time to rest and surround myself with the benefits of a life well lived and earned honorably in the service of my fellow citizens.

During this journey, I have had the pleasure of raising two fine sons who have blessed me with four grandchildren who I adore. I now look forward to spending my time with them and watching them grow and flourish into wonderful people like their parents.

It is also a chance for me and my wife, Debbie, who has been my rock throughout this journey and who has been by my side despite her own sacrifices, to even more deeply enjoy our lives together.

But this is not the end. I will be your champion in Washington for another year, and I am determined to make the most of that time. After that, there are certainly other pages left to write in my life and other challenges I would like to take on beyond the halls of government.

As Robert Frost wrote, there are miles to go before I sleep.

I believe deeply in the innate goodness of our nation and our people. I have seen us live up to that potential so many times, and in doing so, move our nation and the world forward. But progress must be earned. It remains up to each of us to continue that struggle.

While I am stepping aside from the front lines of that struggle, I will continue to be at your side, fighting for what is right, for what is just, and for what makes us better as both a people and a nation.

It has been a distinct honor and a true privilege to serve you and all of the people of Los Angeles and Orange counties in the 47th District during my time in Congress.”

Democrat Jeff Jackson dropped out of the North Carolina Senate race on Thursday, endorsing his primary opponent, former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley.

"Pat McCrory and Ted Budd are gearing up to spend millions of dollars attacking each other in order to be the Republican nominee. If we're going to flip this seat, we can't do that," Jackson said in a video released on Thursday morning. "A costly and divisive primary will sink this whole thing. We need to unite right now and we need to unite behind Cheri."

"We all saw what happened with the election in Virginia last month. We are headed into a tough one," he added, citing Democrats' loss in the blue-leaning state last November.

Jackson, a state senator who faced a difficult primary in which he trailed in fundraising, called donors to inform them of his decision on Wednesday, according to three people familiar with those calls. POLITICO reported Jackson's plans to drop out on Wednesday evening.

Senate Democrats are scrambling to find a way to pass in the coming weeks voting rights legislation they have portrayed as necessary to protect democracy amid increasing pressure to counter Republican changes to election laws in key states and as progress on the domestic policy bill they have made their top legislative priority for months has stalled.

Several lawmakers said Wednesday they are optimistic the new push could succeed where previous efforts have failed because of growing support for changing the Senate’s filibuster rule that has allowed Republicans to block previous attempts to pass voting rights legislation.

But it remained far from certain that the rules changes under consideration would ultimately go beyond nibbling around the edges of the filibuster’s 60-vote supermajority requirement for most legislation, leaving the party once again facing the seemingly intractable predicament of how to deliver on a campaign promise they say is needed to deal with an existential crisis for the country.

“If we can get the congressional voting rights done, we should do it. If we can’t, we’ve got to keep going,” President Biden said Wednesday while visiting storm-ravaged Kentucky. “There’s nothing domestically more important than voting rights.”

Representatives of the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection interviewed current and former employees of the Georgia Secretary of State's office Wednesday about former President Donald Trump's extensive attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

According to an official briefed on the conversations but not authorized to speak publicly, at least two current or former officials from the office sat for hours with representatives of the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Trump faces a criminal investigation into his attempts to overturn Georgia's election results, with reports that the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is likely to impanel a special grand jury to review potential election interference, including an infamous call with Trump asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes."

Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system implementation manager and vocal critic of Trump's attacks on election integrity, discussed Georgia's election infrastructure and disinformation that plagued the state, according to the official. The conversation included discussions about conspiracies surrounding vote counting in State Farm Arena, Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani making false claims to state lawmakers in several hearings and persistent attacks on election results in Fulton County, the state's most populous.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention in San Francisco’s crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood Tuesday, targeting a pipeline of illegal drugs that has been fueling a surge in gun violence and deadly fentanyl overdoses.

Breed’s anger and frustration over the crime surge in the city were on full display at her noon news conference.

“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” she said. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerate of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.”

On Tuesday afternoon, the SFPD’s Tenderloin Station Twitter account posted information on police activity in the neighborhood over just the past week, including the seizure of nearly a kilo of drugs — more than half of which (over 600 grams) was fentanyl — and the arrests of 17 suspected drug dealers.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A leading Democrat vying for North Carolina's soon-to-be-open U.S. Senate seat plans to leave the race, people familiar with the matter told WRAL News on Wednesday.

Sen. Jeff Jackson, D-Mecklenburg, was expected to announce his plan to drop out as soon as Thursday morning, according to four sources familiar with his plans. Two sources said Jackson was calling donors to inform them of his decision.

Jackson and his campaign spokesman did not return multiple WRAL calls or texts Wednesday evening, including texts specifically asking about his plans to leave the race. North Carolina Democratic Party officials also didn't return calls or texts.

Jackson has been considered one of the top candidates to win the Democratic primary in a race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr, whose seat will come open next year.