*By Carlo Versano*
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti mulled a 2020 presidential run in an interview on Cheddar Monday, saying the cure to America's "odious" political sickness may be found in city hall.
"I hope that even if I don't run, that mayors will think about jumping in," Garcetti said, "because I think we could cut through a lot of that partisanship right now."
Garcetti, however, hedged on whether he would leave Los Angeles, where he has served as a Democrat since 2013, for a bid at the White House.
"I love L.A," Garcetti added. "If I were to run for president it would only be by seeing that I could do more for L.A."
And many in his hometown hope he stays put. The Los Angeles Times ran an opinion [column](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-arellano-garcetti-20181024-story.html) last week urging Garcetti not to run for president, saying, "there's plenty for you to do in Los Angeles."
As part of his administration's goal of positioning L.A. as a tech-forward cradle of innovation to rival any city to the north, Garcetti unveiled the "Pledge LA" initiative to increase diversity among the city's burgeoning tech sector as well as L.A.-based companies that may not consider themselves tech players. "What isn't a tech job today?" he asked.
From Soylent and downtown food-science labs to Elon Musk's Boring Company digging tunnels under the city, to Netflix's ($NFLX) continued disruption of Hollywood, "everything is really technology."
Garcetti is asking L.A. businesses to take stock and make commitments to hire more women and people of color. He's also asking his roster of CEOs to "take that same sort of spirit of innovation and help L.A." by donating time and resources to address civic issues like homelessness and traffic.
For his part, Garcetti noted that he began a city library STEM program that is already majority female, and increased the number of women in his board and commissioner roles to more than 50 percent in six months. If slow-moving government can do that, he asks, imagine what the private sector can do for its own ranks.
"We want to make sure they don't look like the demographics from 'Mad Men'," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/l-a-mayor-eric-garcetti-on-tech-diversity-and-his-2020-plans).
Cheddar News checks in to see what to look out for Next Week on the Street as former president Donald Trump makes an appearance in federal court after being indicted. Investors will also keep an eye on the Federal Reserve meeting to see what comes out of that while earnings continue to pour in.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
It is arguably the most perilous of multiple legal threats against the former president as he seeks to reclaim the White House.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. is investing more than $100 million in the Caribbean region to crack down on weapons trafficking, help alleviate Haiti’s humanitarian crisis and support climate change initiatives.
At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.”
President Joe Biden on Thursday condemned a wave of “cruel” and “callous” state legislation curbing the rights, visibility and health care access of LGBTQ+ people, while causing the community to feel under attack for being who they are.
Pat Robertson, a religious broadcaster who turned a tiny Virginia station into the global Christian Broadcasting Network, tried a run for president and helped make religion central to Republican Party politics in America through his Christian Coalition, has died. He was 93.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a surprising 5-4 ruling in favor of Black voters in a congressional redistricting case, ordering the creation of a second district with a large Black population.
Mike Pence opened his presidential bid with an unusually forceful critique of former President Donald Trump over Jan. 6, his temperament and abortion on Wednesday as he became the first vice president in modern history to challenge his former running mate.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wasted no time going after Donald Trump while launching his presidential campaign on Tuesday, calling the former president and current Republican primary front-runner a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog" and arguing that he's the only one who can stop him.
