California
California announced that counties could reopen houses of worship at lesser capacity — a decision that came just hours after a southern California church seeking to reopen appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court after an appeals court rejection…
Los Angeles’s reopening schedule lags behind other parts of the state as California’s most populous county battles stubbornly high numbers — so much so that the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, Deborah Birx, on Friday, 5/22, cited LA as an example of still-stricken metro areas that merit federal help” (Politico).
Yesterday “California greenlighted in-store retail to resume statewide — one of the most significant fruits so far of ameliorating numbers, though counties like LA would still need to modify their standing orders if those directives bar in-person shopping…
The Trump administration has pulled its approval of freeway-adjacent homeless shelters in Sacramento and San Francisco and warned of similar issues elsewhere in California, a blow to Gov. Gavin Newsom's plan to use vacant land near highways as a housing solution…
California hospitality businesses could delay eviction and renegotiate their leases under new legislation that passed its first committee Friday, 5/22, despite opposition from business and real estate groups…
The Republican Party has thrown its full weight behind challenging California’s move to a mail-ballot November election during the coronavirus pandemic…
Coronavirus
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said today that there would "likely" be a fifth coronavirus relief bill "in the next month or so…
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee, said there is bipartisan support for extending the current eight-week time period during which businesses must use the PPP loan money to pay employees and other expenses in order to have the loan forgiven. Below are details on three bipartisan bills that would modify elements of the Paycheck Protection Program.
Apple and Google released their COVID-19 exposure-notification tools, along with changes that will help public health authorities gather more information on who has the virus. The system - called Exposure Notification - is an app that will notify users if they have come into contact with a person who has tested positive…
A new report from Facebook and the Small Business Roundtable looks at how small and medium-sized businesses are dealing with the impact of COVID-19 — and what they need on the road to recovery. The report can be found here.
President and Administration
The Congressional Budget Office said in updated projections that the U.S. economy will shrink at an annualized rate of almost 38 percent in the second quarter of this year…
Education
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, a company hired by the Trump administration to collect and manage student loan payments, provided the wrong information on the credit reports of approximately 4.8 million student loan borrowers who got a break from their monthly payment under the coronavirus stimulus legislation…
A recent survey by the Institute of International Education found that 88 percent of colleges expect international enrollment to decrease in the coming year, and 70 percent anticipate that some international students will not be able to come to their campuses for in-person classes this fall…
Congress
The Senate is out of session this week for Memorial Day Break. The House was originally scheduled to also be out of session, but announced last week that they will be in session and hold votes tomorrow and Thursday.