Trump taps Brogan for education post
Two months after Frank Brogan stepped down as chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, President Donald Trump has named him assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education.
Mr. Brogan retired from the state system after four years as fiscal and enrollment troubles mounted, and now will serve as a key policy maker as Secretary Betsy DeVos works to reform K-12 education with changes that promote school choice and shift power to the states.
Mr. Brogan, 64, is a former Florida lieutenant governor who served under Mr. Trump’s primary rival Jeb Bush from 1999 to 2003.
He is a former superintendent of Martin County schools in Florida, having worked his way up from fifth-grade teacher to dean of students, assistant principal and principal.
He also served as Florida’s commissioner of education, president of Florida Atlantic University and chancellor of Florida’s public university system.
Probing the prosecutors
WASHINGTON— Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III isn’t done with his investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s presidential election, but Republicans increasingly are trying to stack up reasons for the American public to doubt whatever he concludes.
On Tuesday, President Trump’s legal team joined a growing chorus of Republicans who want to investigate the prosecutors investigating the White House, calling for another special counsel to examine decisions and personnel at the Department of Justice.
Jay Sekulow, one of Mr. Trump’s personal lawyers, cited reports that Bruce G. Ohr, a senior official at the Justice Department, had a previously undisclosed meeting with Fusion GPS, a private research firm that compiled unverified allegations about Mr. Trump and his aides in a now-infamous dossier that emerged last year.
Mr. Ohr’s wife apparently worked for the firm, although it’s unclear if her work overlapped with last year’s campaign.
Tax rate changes
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans on Tuesday rushed toward a deal on a massive tax package that would reduce the top tax rate for wealthy Americans to 37 percent and slash the corporate rate to a level slightly higher than what businesses and conservatives wanted.
In a flurry of last-minute changes that could profoundly affect the pocketbooks of millions of Americans, House and Senate negotiators agreed to expand a deduction for state and local taxes to allow individuals to deduct income taxes, as well as property taxes.
The deduction is valuable to residents in high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California.
New S.F. mayor
SANFRANCISCO — San Francisco native London Breed became the city’s acting mayor Tuesday following the sudden death of Mayor Ed Lee, and is the first African-American woman to lead the city in the midst of a seemingly endless technology driven economic boom.
Ms. Breed, 43, is a lifelong San Francisco resident who was raised by her grandmother in the city’s predominantly black and lower-income Western Addition neighborhood, part of the same district she now represents as a city supervisor. She said she and Mr. Lee bonded over their shared experience of growing up in public housing.