California
A number of new laws will significantly help community college students transfer into both Cal State and UC campuses, and boost financial aid and housing assistance as part of a $47.1-billion higher education package signed by Gov. Newsom on Wednesday, 10/6…
On Wednesday, 10/6, Gov. Newsom signed two bills to boost universal transitional kindergarten by 2025 and create college savings accounts for 3.7 million kids…
The national guard has been deployed to hospitals in rural north and central California, where short-staffed hospitals have been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients…
In recent years, fentanyl, which is exponentially stronger and more lethal than heroin but cheaper to produce, has saturated the region’s drug market and driven up the rate of opioid-related deaths…
Jobless claims in California stay far above normal levels despite one-week improvement…
Coronavirus
Last week, a top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official said that updated data might make a strong case in support of everyone 18 and older being eligible for COVID-19 vaccine boosters, but the agency will have to see whether its outside advisers agree…
Last week, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) asked the FDA to grant emergency use authorization for a booster dose of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 and older, making it the final vaccine used in the United States for which permission is being sought for an extra shot…
The White House announced Wednesday, 10/6, an additional $1 billion purchase of rapid, at-home COVID-19 tests as some public health officials worry the U.S. could get hit with another wave of infections this winter…
President and Administration
President Joe Biden‘s push to get legal help to tenants and billions in pandemic rent relief aid to landlords is cloaking a dilemma that existed long before COVID-19: how millions of low-income tenants will be able to make rent in the long run without help…
The Biden administration began defining its China trade policy last week, saying it aims to launch new talks with Beijing but will keep existing tariffs in place, while also restoring the ability of U.S. importers to seek exemptions from those levies…
Last week, the Supreme Court returned after a pandemic-induced absence of more than 18 months, starting a new term that will include major cases on abortion, gun rights, and religious school choice…
Congress
The Senate passed a short-term extension of the debt limit on Thursday, 10/7, by a 50-48 party line vote, staving off a potential fiscal and economic crisis until at least 12/3…
Congressional Democrats are beginning to discuss how to pare down their sweeping social-spending bill…
Congress has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) every year since 1961…
Other
At least 85 percent of the global population has experienced weather events made worse by climate change, according to research published yesterday, 10/12, in the journal Nature Climate Change…
Education
In a memorandum, Attorney General Merrick Garland called on federal agencies to meet with local law enforcement in the next month to create a plan to combat the “disturbing spike” in violence toward school leaders…
During a press call Thursday, 10/7, leaders with Everytown for Gun Safety, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association bemoaned a return to campus gun violence after a year without mass school shootings…
A Long Beach school security officer was fired Wednesday, 10/6, a week after he fatally shot an 18-year-old woman a block from campus…
Changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program were announced last Wednesday, 10/6…
A group of House members, led by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) sent the White House a letter on Friday, 10/8, demanding “the release to the public by October 22, 2021 the memo that the President requested from the Department of Education to determine the extent of the administration’s authority to broadly cancel student debt through administrative action…
Students, sexual assault survivors and their advocates gathered outside the Education Department Wednesday, 10/6, and delivered a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling for an immediate rollback of Trump administration policies governing how colleges handle sexual misconduct on campus…
On Friday, 10/8, the Education Department announced the establishment of an Office of Enforcement within Federal Student Aid (FSA)…
Congressional Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending plan is expected to face substantial cuts in the coming weeks, as moderates in the Senate say they don’t support the legislation’s high price tag…
More than 1,775 U.S. colleges and universities - three-quarters of the four-year institutions in the United States - are either test optional or test blind this year, according to a list published by FairTest: the National Center for Fair and Open Testing…
Last week, the Senate confirmed Lisa Brown, as General Counsel, Roberto Rodríguez, in the role of Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, and Gwen Graham as Assistant Secretary for Legislation and Congressional Affairs…
The Senate voted 50 to 49 Thursday, 10/7, to discharge Catherine Lhamon’s nomination for assistant secretary of civil rights at the Department of Education from committee…