Latest news with #Bedoya
Politico
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Two FTC commissioners are turning their firings into a resistance tour
That speech marked the beginning of what has become a national political and legal campaign by Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter — an FTC commissioner Trump fired the same day — to turn their dismissals into an attack on what Trump is doing to official Washington. Since taking office, Trump has axed more than a dozen leaders of independent federal agencies, including labor, product safety and privacy oversight boards. The purge of Democratic commissioners amounts to an unprecedented effort to seize control of the federal government's watchdogs. Bedoya and Slaughter have embraced a new role as the faces of the resistance, trying to leverage the shock-and-awe quality of Trump's own moves against him. 'I definitely wouldn't have been on that stage had the president not fired me,' Bedoya told POLITICO. 'I didn't want to get fired … I wish I hadn't had the chance.' On July 17, Bedoya and Slaughter won a round of the fight: A federal judge ruled that Trump's move was illegal, reinstating Slaughter to her post. Bedoya was no longer eligible, having resigned in June to return to the private sector. Both intend to keep their campaign running, in part because the Trump administration hasn't given up the effort to shut them down. The White House plans to appeal Thursday's decision, trying to get Slaughter dismissed for good, and establish the president's right to fire agency commissioners at will. That fight could go as far as the Supreme Court. As the nation's top corporate regulator, enforcing consumer protections and antitrust policy, the FTC has been a lightning rod under both Trump and former President Joe Biden. Both Bedoya and Slaughter said they expected to be fired early in Trump's term — though he targeted other agencies first, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The two say they hope to use their firings to make a public case for the independence of agencies like the FTC. 'There are two lines of pushback: One is legal, and the other is political. And I want to win both of those arguments,' Slaughter said. 'The legal fight we're having in the court. But the political fight is in the court of public opinion.'
Business Wire
23-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
First Northern Community Bancorp Welcomes Richard A. Bedoya to Its Board of Directors
BUSINESS WIRE)--First Northern Community Bancorp (OTCQX: FNRN), the holding company of First Northern Bank, is pleased to announce that Richard A. Bedoya has joined its Board of Directors of both the Bank and holding company, effective July 17, 2025. Mr. Bedoya will also serve on the Bank's Audit, Asset/Liability, and Directors Loan Committees. He succeeds Foy McNaughton, who retired from the Board on July 20, 2025, upon reaching First Northern's mandatory retirement age for directors. Mr. McNaughton served with distinction for 25 years. Mr. Bedoya is a seasoned business leader and entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience spanning the automotive and agricultural industries. He currently serves as Owner and Partner at DuPratt Ford Auburn, where he brings decades of expertise in fixed operations, customer satisfaction, and business development. In addition, Mr. Bedoya is the Owner and CEO of Dixon Bee Company and the Owner of Bedoya Orchards, businesses that reflect his commitment to sustainable agriculture and innovation. 'Richard's extensive business acumen and deep roots in our communities make him an exceptional addition to our Board,' said Jeremiah Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Northern Community Bancorp and First Northern Bank. 'His leadership, strategic insight, and dedication to community service align perfectly with First Northern's mission of serving our customers and communities with integrity and excellence.' Throughout his career, Mr. Bedoya has earned a reputation for driving growth, fostering long-term client relationships, and building high-performing teams. He has dedicated over two decades to community service, including serving as a life member and past president of the Dixon Lions Club, and volunteering in leadership roles with Davis Little League, Dixon Dolphins Swim, Dixon Rugby, and the Dixon High School Quarterback Club. He also serves on the advisory board for automotive technology at Cosumnes River College, supporting the advancement of technical education and workforce readiness. 'I am honored to join First Northern Bank's Board of Directors,' said Mr. Bedoya. 'I look forward to contributing my experience and passion to help guide the Bank's continued growth and its commitment to increasing shareholder value.' The other nine members of First Northern Bank's Board of Directors include: Sean P. Quinn of Fairfield (Chairman), Richard M. Martinez of Dixon (Vice Chairman), Patrick R. Brady of Roseville, John M. Carbahal of Winters, Gregory DuPratt of Dixon, Barbara A. Hayes of Sacramento, Richard M. Martinez and Jeremiah Z. Smith of West Sacramento, and Louise A. Walker of Dixon. About First Northern Bank First Northern Bank is an independent community bank that specializes in relationship banking. The Bank, headquartered in Solano County since 1910, serves Solano, Yolo, Sacramento, Placer, Colusa, and Glenn counties, as well as the west slope of El Dorado County. Experts are available in small business, commercial, real estate, and agribusiness lending, as well as mortgage loans. The Bank is an SBA Preferred Lender. Real estate mortgage and small-business loan officers are available by appointment at any of the Bank's 14 branches, including Dixon, Davis, West Sacramento, Fairfield, Vacaville, Winters, Woodland, Sacramento, Roseville, Auburn, Rancho Cordova, Colusa, Willows, and Orland. Non-FDIC insured Investment and Brokerage Services are also available at every branch location. First Northern Bank is rated as a Veribanc 'Green-3 Star Blue Ribbon' Bank and a '5-Star Superior' Bank by Bauer Financial for the earnings period ended March 31, 2025 ( and ( For additional information, please visit or call (707) 678-7742. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. Forward-Looking Statements This press release and other public statements may include certain 'forward-looking statements' about First Northern Community Bancorp and its subsidiaries (the 'Company'). These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations, including but not limited to statements about the Company's performance and strategic initiatives, and focus on improving shareholder value, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to changes in global political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory factors. More detailed information about these risk factors is contained in the Company's most recent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, each as it may be amended from time to time, which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. The financial information contained in this release should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company's most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q, and any reports on Form 8-K. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which they are made. For further information regarding the Company, please read the Company's reports filed with the SEC and available at
San Francisco Chronicle
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland eliminates top arts position to save $300K. Critics say it's a mistake
Oakland has the drag splendour of Oaklash, the sprawling art party of Oakland First Fridays, the form-breaking plays of Oakland Theater Project, the wall dancers of Bandaloop, the hip-hop extravaganza of Hiero Day, the fire-wielding performers of the Crucible and various community arts groups celebrating a medley of races and cultures. What it doesn't have is an arts leader in city government. The Oakland City Council passed a budget on June 11 that eliminated its Cultural Affairs Manager position, citing budgetary concerns. But critics say money-saving justifications haven't been made in good faith. Until autumn, Lex Leifheit will serve in the role in an interim capacity. Her predecessor, Roberto Bedoya, departed in October after seven years on the job. The fate of the department's four remaining staffers remains unclear. 'How can you have a city and not have an individual in charge of promoting its cultural assets?' Bedoya told the Chronicle, noting he had no indication of the city's plans when he retired at age 72. 'It burns me.' Oakland has used various arts leadership structures over the past 30 years, a representative for the city administrator's office told the Chronicle, noting that Bedoya's role gave the arts the highest position in the city's hierarchy since 2003. Oakland City Council Member Janani Ramachandran, the most senior member of the committee that revised the mayor's first draft of the budget, said the Cultural Affairs Manager position — which costs the city $300,000 annually in salary and benefits — was one of 300 open roles the council eliminated to close a $265 million budget deficit without laying off active employees. While Ramachandran said she had nothing against Bedoya, she described the position as a 'figurehead.' 'We don't have the luxury of having some of these roles that are morale-boosting to some people but don't serve the needs of the everyday struggling, starving artists that are in my community,' she explained, noting her artistic endeavors. (She sings with her partner in the R&B duo Wish U Were Us, in addition to producing events such as Oakland's Finest: Hip Hop Meets Gospel and Oakland's Diwali celebration, as well as performing with Woodminster Summer Musicals and the Laurel StreetFair World Music Festival.) But others revere Bedoya, including Archana Nagraj, executive director of Destiny Arts Center, a longtime Cultural Affairs Commission grantee. The notion that he was a mere figurehead is 'absolutely not true,' she contends, citing millions of dollars he raised for the city as well as the way he brought arts leaders together. Raquel Iglesias, who left her staff position in the Cultural Affairs Commission in May, also sang her former boss' praises. 'When I tell people I'm from Oakland, they're like, 'Oh my God, I have (Bedoya's) cultural plan on my desk. I look at it all the time,'' she said, referring to her experiences attending national convening on behalf of the city. When she accompanied him to these events, she added, 'I feel like I'm a celebrity's assistant.' Oakland reaped dividends from Bedoya's national renown, Iglesias continued, referring to outside money he brought to the city during his tenure: $7,775,000 from sources including the Mellon Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Bay Area Creative Corps, the National Endowment for the Arts and the CARES Act. 'Most private foundations do not want to give money directly to local municipalities,' Iglesias said, noting that Bedoya used his connections, expertise and creative problem solving to find pass-through intermediaries those foundations could accept. 'He had the relationships.' Vanessa Whang, who chairs the volunteer segment of the Cultural Affairs Commission, explained that other benefits of the manager's work, while less direct, are nonetheless meaningful. 'Anything that is positive about Oakland (in the national media) is about its culture,' she said. Ramachandran discounted those wins. Whang and Iglesias, in a joint interview with the Chronicle, expressed worry that Ramachandran might harbor longstanding ill feeling against the Cultural Affairs Commission, possibly leading her to target its leader. They cited a February 2024 city council meeting in which Ramachandran said, 'I have many concerns about what appears to be gatekeeping to all our commissions and boards in this city and those that use their power to quiet certain voices,' going on to name the Cultural Affairs Commission specifically. Ramachandran cited applicants to the advisory board whom she felt faced unnecessary barriers, including the DJ, consultant, entrepreneur and event and festival producer Ebodaghe Esoimeme, whose commission application was eventually accepted in March 2024 after an ethics review about his part-time employment with her. In a separate interview with the Chronicle, Esoimeme confirmed his frustration with the process. But Ramachandran firmly denied that her staffer's experience influenced her and fellow council members' decision to eliminate the cultural affairs position from the city budget. 'There's nothing personal,' she said, citing how the budget eliminates positions in sectors from the early childhood education program Head Start to efforts to combat homelessness. 'Everyone is mad at us for cutting something.' She argued that the alternative — keeping positions and services now only to run out of money midyear and axe them suddenly — is 'not fair to anyone.' She also noted that the role's elimination isn't permanent; Oakland can always reinstate it if finances improve. Whang, Iglesias and their allies are hoping they can persuade city leaders to amend the budget, possibly with funds from one of the areas that got an increase, to keep the Cultural Affairs Manager position. They hope to secure it before Leifheit, who most recently worked in San Francisco's Office of Economic & Workforce Development, departs in early November. (She told the Chronicle she's still considering her options for what's next but plans to stay local.) Yglesias and Whang homed in on a $1.4 million budget allocation for sideshow prevention. 'When you talk about public safety, a lot of the time, you need productive things for young people to do to keep them from getting into nonsense,' Whang said, positing art as a wonderful alternative. Nagraj, whose organization reaches 6,000 young people per year, agreed. 'If we are pitching fire stations versus the arts, that kind of an argument is really challenging,' she said. 'We need both.'
Mint
13-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Trump Eyes Nominating FTC Commissioner for Utah US Attorney
President Donald Trump is preparing to nominate Melissa Holyoak, a Republican on the Federal Trade Commission, to be the US Attorney for Utah, according to people with knowledge of the matter. An announcement could be made in the coming weeks but the exact timing is unclear, said the people, who asked for anonymity to discussing personnel plans. Holyoak's departure would leave the antitrust and consumer protection agency with just two commissioners, Chairman Andrew Ferguson and his fellow Republican Mark Meador. The five-member, traditionally bipartisan body was thrown into upheaval earlier this year when Trump fired its two Democrats, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. The pair maintain their firings were illegal and are currently challenging their removal in court, though Bedoya formally resigned this week in order to take another job. The FTC can typically conduct official agency business with just two commissioners. However, if a court were to rule that Slaughter and Bedoya were illegally fired, that could affect the ability for the commission to have a quorum with just two members. The decision to nominate Holyoak is not final until an announcement has been made, the people said. Holyoak, the White House and the FTC did not respond to requests for comment. Holyoak and Ferguson were first nominated by former President Joe Biden and they joined the FTC last year as minority commissioners. Before that she served as the solicitor general of Utah, where her cases included leading a group of states suing Alphabet Inc.'s Google for alleged antitrust violations involving its app store. Since joining the FTC, Holyoak has pushed for the agency to study how tech platforms and financial institutions engage in practices like deplatforming, in which a company suspends or deletes user accounts because of what they post. She was also opposed to Biden's FTC Chair Lina Khan's rulemaking on banning non-compete clauses in employment contracts, making it easier to cancel recurring subscriptions and increasing required notifications when an individual's health information is exposed. Before becoming Utah's top appellate lawyer, Holyoak worked for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a corporate-funded think tank whose donors include Google and Meta Platforms Inc. as well as the Charles Koch Institute and The 85 Fund, a charitable organization run by influential conservative activist Leonard Leo. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Democratic FTC Commissioner Quits—But That Doesn't Mean He's Dropping His Lawsuit
Alvaro Bedoya, former commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), formally resigned on Monday after he and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the other Democrat-appointed commissioner, were fired by President Donald Trump in March. Bedoya and Slaughter have challenged the president in court, with Slaughter arguing that the firings violated "the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent." Although Bedoya and Slaughter will continue pursuing their legal challenge to the firings, Bedoya's pressured resignation represents a major blow to the security of independent agency executives. The Supreme Court precedent invoked by Bedoya and Slaughter is Humphrey's Executor v. U.S. (1935), which was prompted by then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's attempted firing of FTC Commissioner William E. Humphrey, who former President Herbert Hoover had appointed to serve a second, seven-year term on the commission in 1931. The Court unanimously ruled against Roosevelt, finding that the president is not free to fire officers of those "quasi legislative or quasi judicial agencies" created by Congress without cause. The president's ability to fire such officers at will "threatens the independence of a commission…as an agency of the legislative and judicial departments," thereby undermining the separation of powers codified in the Constitution. (The existence of executive agencies that simultaneously wield legislative and judicial powers is itself a blatant violation of this principle.) On Monday, Bedoya filed a supplemental declaration to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (the court hearing his and Slaughter's case against the Trump administration) providing his reasons for formally resigning. Bedoya explained that he has been denied his wages as FTC commissioner following his firing and that, to comply with rules and regulations, he has not accepted other employment opportunities. Since Bedoya can "no longer afford to go without any source of income for [his] family," he resigned "out of an abundance" to pursue paid employment outside the agency. Former FTC Chair Lina Khan credited Bedoya with reviving the Robinson-Patman Act, which outlaws price discrimination, and thanked him for "his remarkable tenure" as an FTC commissioner and "his outstanding public service." She described Bedoya's resignation as "a huge loss." FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Commissioner Melissa Holyoak—both of whom are named as defendants in Bedoya and Slaughter's lawsuit—have not yet spoken publicly about Bedoya's resignation, nor has the more recently appointed commissioner, Mark Meador. The partisan divisions between FTC commissioners belie claims of the very independence that the Supreme Court regarded as "essential [so] that the commission should not be open to the suspicion of partisan direction" in Humphrey's Executor. Regardless of the partisanship of the FTC and the constitutionality of Humphrey's Executor, the now-resigned commissioner is "still suing the President! Not dropping out of the lawsuit," Bedoya emphasized on X. The post Democratic FTC Commissioner Quits—But That Doesn't Mean He's Dropping His Lawsuit appeared first on
