California
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego ruled on Friday, 6/4, that the state’s definition of illegal military-style rifles unlawfully deprives law-abiding Californians of weapons commonly allowed in most other states and by the U.S. Supreme Court, overturning a three-decade-old ban on assault weapons…
A lawsuit charging that California has failed to offer equal education to low-income students of color during the pandemic got its first hearing in state Superior Court on Friday, 6/4…
On Wednesday, 6/2, California’s highest court wrestled with whether juries must decide unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt to condemn a defendant to death, a question whose answer could overturn the sentences of hundreds of inmates sitting on death row…
California is beginning a historic study of reparations for African Americans…
Gov. Newsom will maintain an official state of emergency after Tuesday, 6/15, sustaining a designation from March 2020 that empowers him to flex his executive muscles…
Last week, California’s Legislature was on overdrive, meeting daily to work through hundreds of bills…
Coronavirus
A new analysis of Census Bureau surveys offers the fullest look at hardship reduction under the recent stimulus aid…
Federal health officials have started a new study exploring whether mixing different COVID-19 vaccines can prolong immunity and better protect people from concerning variants of the virus…
Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the “last mile” of the COVID-19 immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening President Joe Biden’s goal of getting shots to at least 70 percent of adults by 7/4…
After weeks of internal deliberations, the Biden administration announced on Thursday, 6/3, which countries will share in the first COVID-19 vaccine doses donated by the U.S. to help end the pandemic…
The U.S. is one of the small number of countries where COVID-19 vaccinations are widely available…
Anthony Fauci’s correspondence from March and April 2020, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, offers a peek into his world during the frantic early days of the COVID-19 crisis…
President and Administration
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of electronic cigarettes and vape pens, turning away an opportunity to put broad new restrictions on the power of federal administrative agencies…
Bipartisan talks on a U.S. stimulus bill are headed for a “big week” and there’s no firm deadline yet for a deal…
Last week, the Biden administration unveiled new actions to take on discrimination in the U.S. housing market, including addressing the issues of home appraisals, as part of its effort to reduce the racial wealth gap…
President Joe Biden has tapped Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the administration’s push for voting rights legislation…
The U.S. government’s nationwide prohibition on evictions may remain in effect, a federal appeals court said…
President Biden’s $6 trillion budget request proposes record spending to reduce historical disparities in underserved communities, following his campaign pledge to promote racial equity as an inseparable part of rebuilding the economy…
Last week, the Biden administration suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, unspooling a signature achievement of the Trump presidency and delivering on a promise by President Biden to protect the fragile Alaskan tundra from fossil fuel extraction…
Last week Eric Lander was confirmed, on a voice vote by the Senate, to become head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy…
Congress
President Biden was more blunt about racism than perhaps any president before him in his remarks commemorating 100 years since the Tulsa Race Massacre last week…
Over nearly a decade, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has painstakingly cobbled together a bipartisan Senate majority for legislation that would overhaul the way the military handles sexual assault and other serious crimes, a shift that many experts say is long overdue…
Education
The Biden administration is taking the first steps this week to unravel former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial policies that critics say had a chilling effect on victims of sexual assault on college campuses…
For millions of Americans, there’s an unwelcome side of the return to business-as-usual after the pandemic: They’ll have to start repaying their student loans again…
The Education Department has released a COVID-19 resource guide to provide information for higher education institutions about how to safely reopen for in-person instruction…
More than a year after the pandemic first disrupted higher education, transfer enrollment rates among community colleges have continued to decline, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center…
The State Department is continuing to prioritize applications for student visas, but department officials do not expect to return to full capacity quickly…
An accreditor that came under scrutiny following the collapse of two college chains is a step closer to termination, after a top Education Department official withdrew federal recognition…
The U.S. Senate is poised to pass Short-Term Pell as part of the US Innovation and Competition Act (USICA)…
After districts suffer school shootings, student enrollment plummets over the long term as wealthy families move away, according to the new report…