California
There were 8,259 positive COVID-19 cases on Sunday, 7/26, below both the 14-day average of 9,421 and the 10,666 reported the day before…
Coronavirus
The public will get an early look at recommendations for who should be first in line for a Covid-19 vaccine by late August or early September, the president of the National Academy of Medicine said Friday, 7/24…
President Trump’s administration on Monday , 7/20, pushed to encourage mask-wearing, explicitly endorsing a measure widely seen as crucial to stemming the coronavirus pandemic…
U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic has been better than expected so far, and it won’t be necessary to extend an emergency unemployment program that ends this month…
The Federal Reserve isn’t moving quickly enough to get loans to cash-strapped small businesses and only one state government struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis has been able to tap central bank funds, according to a panel created to monitor billions of dollars in aid approved in response to the pandemic…
President and Administration
Oregon lost a fight with the Trump administration over federal agents’ detention of anti-racism protesters in Portland…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s legal doctrine that shields public officials from liability in civil cases is getting renewed attention during the national debate over police accountability…
President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Tuesday, 7/21, that would exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in congressional districts when district lines are redrawn next year…
New York is leading a coalition of 35 U.S. states, cities and counties in suing Trump over his executive order seeking to exclude undocumented immigrants from census data used to determine congressional districts…
Congress
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is expected to release the details of the bills that make up the GOP CARES 2.0 this week…
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows kicked off negotiations on the next virus relief plan, even as Republicans are still hashing out an agreement among themselves…
Economists are warning the nation is in danger of careening off a fiscal cliff unless Congress approves a rescue package to succeed the $2 trillion Cares Act…
A growing body of research shows the $3 trillion approved by Congress since March played an enormous role in preventing the economy from sinking into a depression…
On Friday, 6/24, House lawmakers passed a package of fiscal year 2021 appropriations bills…
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said he’s introducing the bill, Preparing for the Next Pandemic Act, to provide $15 billion over the next 10 years to prepare for public health emergencies like COVID-19…
H.R. 7608, passed by the House last week, included a measure from California Democrats that would clarify language in the underlying Interior-Environment spending bill regarding a popular EPA water infrastructure loan program…
The Senate voted 51-45 along party lines to confirm Russell Vought as President Donald Trump‘s budget director, a position he has held in an acting capacity since January 2019…
Presidential Election
Joe Biden on Tuesday, 7/21, unveiled a $775 billion plan to bolster child care and care for the elderly that would be financed by taxes on real-estate investors with incomes of more than $400,000 as well increased tax compliance by high-income earners…
Education
Harvard University and the University of Southern California have advised new international students not to come to campus this fall, saying they will not be allowed to enter the U.S. to participate in remote instruction…