California
Orange County Supervisors will keep the COVID-19 state of emergency and continue moving forward with a digital service that provides proof of vaccination that some businesses will require, but the city will not mandate so-called vaccine passports…
Last week, California election officials confirmed that recall proponents collected enough valid signatures for a special gubernatorial contest this year, making it all but certain that voters will decide Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate this fall…
According to a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, CA voters overwhelmingly approve (59-40) of how Newsom has handled the reopening issue…
California health officials announced Tuesday, 4/27, that the state plans to follow new federal guidelines and allow fully vaccinated individuals to no longer wear masks outdoors…
On Thursday, 4/29, the Big City Mayors, comprising mayors from CA’s 13 largest cities, held a virtual presser asking Gov. Newsom and the Legislature to allocate $16 billion to house nearly every Californian who entered a homeless shelter in 2020…
Last week, the California Department of Public Health announced that the state would cover any school district’s or charter school’s cost of rapid diagnostic COVID-19 testing of students and staff through the summer and likely into the fall…
Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert will challenge California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a prominent test of the state’s criminal justice trajectory…
Last week, California lawmakers advanced a bill to send unconditional monthly cash payments of $1,000 to California residents…
Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to authorize use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 years old by early next week opening up the nation’s vaccination campaign to millions more Americans…
Widely circulating COVID-19 variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal of herd immunity out of reach…
A group of Republican doctors and health care providers in Congress, led by Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, launched a public service campaign last week to encourage COVID-19 vaccine participation among constituents…
President and Administration
President Biden held a follow-up call with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) on Thursday, 4/29, as lawmakers continue to seek a bipartisan infrastructure deal, despite some Democrats’ doubts…
A growing number of retirement advocacy groups are clamoring for President Biden to augment his $1.8 trillion family-focused social spending plan with provisions designed to encourage long-term savings and shore-up investments sapped by the pandemic...
On Thursday, 4/29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moved to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes, citing their disproportionate effect on the health of African Americans…
Last week, President Biden signed an executive order to create a task force that would aim to make it easier for workers to unionize…
President Biden’s plan to raise the capital gains tax rate could make one of the most generous breaks enacted by Donald Trump even more lucrative - if investors can stomach the uncertainty…
President Biden’s higher education proposal in the American Families Plan would make two years of community college free to students across the country and revives a 2015 proposal from then-President Barack Obama…
President Biden’s $45 billion proposal to expand school nutrition aid and promote healthy eating in his American Family Plan is opening a new front for partisan skirmishes over how much the government should spend as the nation recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic…
Political power in the U.S. will continue to shift south this decade, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau…
Last week, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that the country can meet its goal to slash carbon emissions in half by 2030 even if Congress does not pass Biden’s infrastructure package…
President Biden will require federal contractors to pay workers at least $15 an hour in an executive order designed to leverage government purchasing power to boost working conditions for lower-earners employed via taxpayer funds…
Congress
Senate Appropriations Chairman Leahy (D-VT) officially announced that the Senate will include earmarks in the FY22 appropriations bills…
A group of congressional Democrats and some Republicans are pushing to lift the $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) as negotiations begin on President Biden’s infrastructure and economic plans…
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are making a push to improve mental and behavioral health services for students by introducing new legislation dubbed the “Behavioral Intervention Guidelines (BIG) Act”…
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richie Neal (D-MA) unveiled a new proposal last week called the “Building an Economy for Families Act”…
On Thursday, 4/29, the Senate passed a bipartisan drinking water and wastewater infrastructure bill (S. 914) on a 89-2 vote that would authorize $35 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects, one component of the larger infrastructure effort being negotiated by lawmakers…
Student loan payments would be entitled to earn “matching” 401k retirement contributions from employers under a bill introduced Thursday, 4/29, by Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR)…
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) offered a bipartisan bill to enhance electric grid security by incentivizing utility companies to invest in cybersecurity…
Education
The State Department announced on Tuesday, 4/27, that students enrolled in academic programs starting 8/1 or later will be eligible for exemptions from all regional COVID-19 travel restrictions currently in place, including restrictions limiting travel from Brazil, China, Iran and South Africa…
Last week, The Digital Learning Pulse released a survey that included responses from 772 teaching faculty, 514 academic administrators and 1,413 students who were registered at a U.S. higher education institution for both the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters…
TRIO programs provide personal mentoring and advising, academic support, and financial counseling to help first-generation and low-income students, as well as students with disabilities, military veterans and other underrepresented students to prepare for, enroll in, and graduate from college…
Spring undergraduate enrollment fell 5.9 percent compared to this time last year, the largest drop since the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to the latest data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center…
The American College Health Association is recommending that colleges require vaccination against COVID-19 for all students coming to campuses this fall…
The future of students’ First Amendment rights is on the line after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L, which is about a profane Snapchat post that could define schools’ authority to regulate off-campus speech - an issue that’s taken on particular relevance in the social media era…
On Friday, 4/30, the Department of Education (ED) launched the Safer Schools and Campuses Best Practices Clearinghouse (the Clearinghouse), a website that highlights the innovative work underway nationwide in continuing to reopen K-12 schools, early childhood centers and postsecondary institutions…
President Biden has only one of his Department of Education nominees confirmed by the Senate - Education Secretary Miguel Cardona - leaving 15 positions vacant and likely delaying his higher education agenda…
Roberto Rodriguez to be the Education Department’s assistant secretary of planning, evaluation and policy development…
An overview from the US Department of Education on it’s accomplishments and focuses for the past 100 days include…