Charles Barron (Photo: Getty)

Outspoken Councilman Charles Barron is backing John Liu in the New York City mayoral election this year and he's also getting involved in races out of state. On Tuesday, Mr. Barron served on the host committee of a Soho fundraiser for Chokwe Lumumba, who is running for mayor in Jackson Mississippi. Mr. Lumumba is an attorney and City Council member whom Mr. Barron said he has known for years through their work in activist circles.

"Chokwe Lumumba is a long-time friend and freedom fighter," Mr. Barron told Politicker at a forum on stop-and-frisk last night in Brooklyn. "He got elected to the City Council in Jackson, Mississippi, which is, you know, a majority-black population town. There's seven Council Members. So it's good to see black, strong, conscious people getting involved in the electoral arena. And [when] he becomes mayor of Jackson Mississippi--that's going to be a historic moment."

Mr. Lumumba was a key member of the Republic of New Afrika movement, a group that began in the late 1960's and was dedicated to pushing for slavery reparations and the establishment of a sovereign, African-American nation located in the southeastern United States. Now, Mr. Lumumba is among a crowded field of candidates who are vying to replace incumbent Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., who's running for a second term. Mr. Lumumba has described his platform as being based on the idea "that Love plus the Power of the people equals progress."

"It's going to be great for all people to see a new kind of leadership that's a lover of human rights, effective in dealing with an objective--a locked-out, a most oppressed people in the country. He has a history of going all over the country doing that," said Mr. Barron of Mr. Lumumba.

Newark Councilman Ras Baraka was also on the host committee of Mr. Lumumba's Manhattan fundraiser and his father, the controversial poet, playwright and activist Amiri Baraka, performed at the event. The younger Mr. Baraka has declared his intention to run for mayor in Newark and Mr. Barron said he would be backing him as well as Mr. Lumumba.

"So to support Chokwe Lumumba for mayor, and looking at Ras Baraka, Amiri Baraka's son--I'm supporting him for mayor of Newark," said Mr. Barron. "Get rid of the Cory Bookers, the sell-outs, those who are afraid to speak truth to power. It's going to be beautiful day."

(Photo: Getty)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, known for single-handedly protecting constituents from burning flames, blizzard obstructions and crime, is currently attempting to live on a limited budget to better understand how food stamp recipients live their day-to-day lives. It may be the so-called "super mayor's" most difficult feat yet. Why? "Caffeine withdrawal."

"You make tough choices," Mr. Booker explained after his first day under the self-imposed budgetary restrictions. "The tough choice I have to live with this week is that I used my money to buy a lot of different things, but not caffeine. So I'm going to go this week without coffee, without Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, which is going to be the first week of my life I can ever actually remember doing that."

Mr. Booker actually made a prior attempt to go a few days without diet cola last year.

“Yes, but doesn’t ‘coke zero’ rhyme with ‘my hero’?” he tweeted at one point, for example.

This time, his caffeine-free diet began to affect him on day two.

"And today it hit me – the first stages of caffeine withdrawal," Mr.  Booker wrote on LinkedIn today. "Not being able to stop and drop a few dollars for a Venti coffee or Diet Mountain Dew is really raising my consciousness about the food choices I often take for granted."

In an interview about the experience Mr. Booker cradled his limited Mountain Dew supply and described his fear of suffering withdrawal.

"I may have to be hospitalized with caffeine withdrawal. I can look at buying coffee and making coffee at home, but I just don't know how much it costs," he said. He then cradled a bottle of Mountain Dew. "I was told to hide this because I shouldn't be endorsing products but I mean, these are my friends."

Watch Mr. Booker discuss his caffeine craving below:

Cory Booker hanging out with his hurricane houseguests. (Photo: Alice Bell/Twitter)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker opened his home yesterday to over a dozen of his neighbors who were left without power by Hurricane Sandy. Alice Bell, who took refuge after the storm at the mayor's house, talked to Politicker this morning and described the slumber party-like scene inside Mr. Booker's home and what it meant to the people who stayed there.

"It meant--I can't even explain," she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "I mean, we were--I'm still overwhelmed that he would reach out to us like that, you know, that we meant that much that he actually invited the whole block."

Ms. Bell said some residents of the neighborhood, Upper Clinton Hill, are without power, heat and water while others, like Mr. Booker, who live on different parts of the power grid are not. She has spoken to the utility company and they said they expect services to be restored tomorrow.

"His house is directly in back of mine," Ms. Bell explained. "That street, Hawthorne Avenue, that whole street has lights. We don't."

Because of the situation, Mr. Booker invited residents of one of the affected blocks, Homestead Park, into his home. He reached out to them on Twitter.

"His house is like three stories, so he opened up the whole floor to us," Ms. Bell said. "We had a kitchen, bathroom. We had the whole first floor."

Ms. Bell and others also went around the neighborhood making sure people knew they were welcome at the mayor's home.

"I went around knocking doors and said the mayor offered ... Everybody, they were shocked, like, 'Really, he said I could come?' So, we felt kind of special."

Because of the mayor's invite, Ms. Bell said people have been coming in and out of his house "constantly."

"I haven't been over there this morning, but yesterday, it was a steady flow of people there in and out, people just stopping by to charge phones and, you know, get something to eat, warm up a little bit," said Ms. Bell. "They've been back and forth constantly."

Mr. Booker has also stopped by to bring supplies.

"He brought us DVDs, he's bringing in food ... he came by brought us popcorn and then brought us trick-or-treat candy. He's been back and forth checking on us and calling ... You know, 'There's beds, get in the beds, bring your covers.' Everybody wanted to camp out that's what we were doing and, you know, we slept over last night," Ms. Bell said.

Along with popcorn, the menu at Mr. Booker's house consisted of chicken, fish, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, corn bread and candied yams from King's Family Restaurant. According to Ms. Bell, "we ate good." The DVD selection focused on movies for the mayor's younger house guests.

"There were kids, so everything was age appropriate. We watched Spiderman, we watched Kung Fu Panda, Happy Feet," Ms. Bell said. "And he brought--the kids had Play-Doh, and coloring books and stuff--supplies. We kept each other entertained, trying to keep each other's spirits up."

Though Ms. Bell said Mr. Booker allowed his guests to sleep at his house, she's not sure the mayor got any rest himself.

"He's still out running about, doing his thing, picking up prescriptions for medication for people, delivering Pampers, and he's in and out constantly," she said. "He came in for maybe--I don't know if he slept or not. He was in and out."

We reached out to Mr. Booker to ask why he decided to open his home and if he managed to get any rest. As of this writing, we haven't received a response.

For her part, Ms. Bell said she wasn't surprised by the mayor's generosity. Since being elected in 2006, Mr. Booker has earned a reputation as a "supermayor" for taking to Twitter to personally help Newark residents with their problems and an incident last April where he rushed into a burning building to save a woman from a fire.

"I'm not too surprised, you know, he's--I wouldn't expect anything less from him,  you know, that's just him," Ms. Bell said. "I wasn't surprised. The same way when people ask me about how surprised I was that he ran into the building behind that lady. I wasn't surprised."

Ms. Bell left Mr. Booker's house this morning to check on her pets, but she said she and others plan on returning again today.

"In fact, I'm getting ready to go back over there to take a shower right now," said Ms. Bell.

Cory Booker (Photo: YouTube)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker has earned the nickname "supermayor" for rushing into a burning building to save a woman from a fire last April and regularly using Twitter to personally solve the problems of his constituents. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Booker is living up to this reputation by allowing at least one person affected from the storm to take refuge in his home and enjoy his power outlets and "working DVD player."

This morning, a Twitter user with the handle @my_serenelove who identifies herself as a "Newark native" on the site sent a message to Mayor Booker complaining about her situation in the aftermath of the storm.

"I live around the corner from u on homestead. Why don't we have our power back. Half of my block does," she wrote.

Mayor Booker replied by inviting her over to his house to use the electricity, "relax" and watch DVD's.

"There is someone at my house now (Eric). I've got space u can relax in, charge devices & even a working DVD player. Come by," he wrote.

A few hours later, @my_serenelove tweeted that she was "at @CoryBooker house. Charging everything up."

"Thx," she added.

Update (2:44 p.m.): Apparently, @my_serenelove isn't the only Sandy refugee crashing at Mayor Booker's house. He later tweeted that he was "having lunch delivered for the 12 or so of you hanging at my place."

Perhaps Mayor Bloomberg will consider letting people who are still without power in Lower Manhattan come crash at his Upper East Side townhouse.

As of this writing, neither Mayor Booker or @my_serenelove has responded to a request for comment on this story.

Mark Zuckerberg (Photo: Facebook)

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave a $100 million grant to the public school system in 2010. Now, according to CBS News, officials are considering using some of that cash on buyouts to get rid of poorly performing teachers. 

Newark's public schools are currently dealing with a financial crisis and the city estimates the school system currently has 300 more teachers than it needs because the number of students has declined.

Superintendent Cami Anderson doesn't want to lay off teachers because tenure rules would require her to fire the least senior staff rather than the poorest performers. Mayor Cory Booker described the situation on Friday at a meeting of the Education Writers Association in Philadelphia.

"If we could fire the 300 or 400 lowest-performing teachers, she wouldn't have a financial crisis," Mr. Booker said of Ms. Anderson's situation. "But her crisis right now is based on the fact that she can't get rid of teachers that way."

As of this writing, neither Mr. Zuckerberg or Mr. Booker have responded to requests for comment on this story.

Donald Payne (Photo: Wikimedia)

The sad news emerged this morning that Newark Congressman Donald Payne passed away, and Brooklyn Congressman Ed Towns, who served alongside him for more than two decades, announced his sadness regarding his friend's passing.

“It is with profound sorrow that I express my deepest sympathy to the family and friends of my dear friend and colleague Donald M. Payne with whom I was privileged to serve in the United States House of Representatives for the 23 years he proudly and marvelously represented New Jersey’s residents," he said in a statement.

"He was one the most honorable and compassionate people I have known in my life. He was a champion for the less fortunate here in the United States, in Africa, and throughout the world. His presence will be sorely missed.”

According to The Star-Ledger, Mr. Payne "was known as a tireless advocate for his constituents, a champion of education and a de facto ambassador to Africa."

Mr. Payne was the first African-American Congressman to represent New Jersey.

Update: Congresswoman Yvette Clark reacted as well with her own statement.

(Photo: Getty)

Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't see eye to eye with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on how much information New Jersey is getting from the New York City Police Department.

Yesterday, Governor Christie indicated his state was receiving very little information. "9/11 was not prevented because law enforcement agencies weren't talking to each other, they were being selfish, they were being provincial, they were being paranoid, they were being arrogant," he warned. "I do not want to return to those days."

While on John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mr. Bloomberg was asked if he was surprised by Mr. Christie's or Newark Mayor Cory Booker's criticisms of the NYPD's controversial surveillance of the Garden State's Muslim community in particular.

"Well, I haven't talked to either one about it," Mr. Bloobmerg began. "We have an agreement with the State of New Jersey, signed I think by Governor Codey, in terms of helping them -- because it's a regional problem -- prevent terrorism."

"And also, in the case of, I think it's Newark, they've assigned one of their police officers to work with the NYPD. So we've certainly been keeping them informed," he added, soon repeating again that "we share the information with New Jersey."

Mr. Bloomberg concluded by saying the focus shouldn't be on the disagreements between himself and the New Jersey officials.

"What we've got to do is just work together. We'll do as good of a job as we can to keep everbody informed. Sometimes there's nothing to inform them, sometimes you inform people and they don't listen," he said. "I think we should find things the things we can work together [on] with Governor Christie and Mayor Booker rather than spend our time trying to find differences."

(Photo: Wikimedia)

After a recently leaked New York Police Department document revealed extensive surveillance operations of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in Newark, New Jersey, critics pounced. However, on John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg argued the attacks of September 11th proved the need to monitor the Garden State.

"You've got to remember, an awful lot of 9/11 hijackers stayed in New Jersey for an extended periods of time, training, planning their attacks," he said. "Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the attacks, often met with others in Newark to coordinate and plan the attacks, including selecting which flights to hijack. There's a reason to take a look at Newark here."

"The people of Newark New Jersey, the people of New Jersey, are protected as well," he added. "The NYPD is trying to stop terrorism in the entire region. If we knew about at threat in Newark, we wouldn't say, 'Oh, that's yours. You worry about it.' Quite the contrary."

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is among the NYPD's harshest critics of this new report. "The Newark Police Department was not involved in joint operations with the New York Police Department as was described in the disclosed NYPD report," he said Wednesday, adding that placing "large segments of a religious community under surveillance with no legitimate cause or provocation clearly crosses a line" and is "deeply offensive."

Mr. Bloomberg addressed Mr. Booker directly in his interview. "You talk about the criticism from people in New Jersey," Mr. Bloomberg said. "We did brief the Newark Police Department. We did not, to the best of my knowledge, brief Mayor Booker. So Mayor Booker says he did not know, he's telling the truth."

Because the leaked report was from 2007, Mr. Gambling also pressed also Mr. Bloomberg on whether the NYPD is still conducting these sorts of operations today.

"Let me be careful how I phrase it," he answered, pausing for a second. "We have not let down our guard. We take the threats today just as seriously as the threats of September 12th, 2011. We have not forgotten the lesson of that terrible day on 9/11."