California
Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in California this week to rally Democrats against recalling Gov. Gavin Newsom…
Two California voters are challenging the legality of the state’s recall system less than a month before the election…
Beginning 9/20, all attendees at indoor events in California with more than 1,000 people in attendance will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of the event…
On Friday, 8/20, a California judge said the November ballot measure that allowed Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to continue treating their drivers as independent contractors is unenforceable and unconstitutional…
California will soon pay up to $2,500 in grants for workers laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic to help them go to college or train for a new job…
Coronavirus
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine this morning, 8/23…
On Wednesday, 8/18, the country's top health officials announced that people 18 years and older who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines will be eligible for a booster dose eight months after their second dose…
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents has yet to be authorized by federal health officials in part because they are investigating emerging reports that the shots may be associated with a higher risk of myocarditis, a heart condition, in younger adults than previously believed…
Last week, President Biden's administration confirmed that it plans to extend requirements for travelers to wear masks on airplanes, trains and buses and at airports and train stations through 1/18/22 to address ongoing COVID-19 risks…
A new large study out of Canada does not resolve an ongoing debate over whether infected children are as contagious as adults, and it does not suggest that toddlers are driving the pandemic…
The Biden administration said in a letter to lawmakers Thursday, 8/19, that it’s “appropriate” for expanded unemployment benefits to expire as scheduled in two weeks, but that states and local governments can use pandemic-relief funds for added help beyond the deadline amid the surge of the delta variant…
President and Administration
Property owners and real estate groups on Friday, 8/20, asked the Supreme Court to halt the Biden administration's new eviction moratorium hours after a federal appeals court let it stay in effect…
President Biden ordered Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Wednesday, 8/18, to take action against governors who have banned universal masking in public schools, taking a tough stand against those who he said are trying to “block and intimidate” local schools officials…
The Biden administration has revised the nutrition standards of the food stamp program and prompted the largest permanent increase to benefits in the program’s history, a move that will give poor people more power to fill their grocery carts but add billions of dollars to the cost of a program that feeds one in eight Americans…
Congress
President Biden’s $4.1 trillion economic agenda, after early progress in the Senate, now faces a crucial test this week in the House, which has Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fighting to keep tension between progressives and centrists among her narrow majority from derailing the strategy that she, Biden, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have crafted for moving the president’s two-part project through Congress…
Education
Nearly half of American students with learning barriers cited increasing amounts of stress, depression and anxiety as the leading obstacle in the 2020-21 school year…
Last week, the Departments of Education and Labor launched an initiative to help connect millions of unemployed Americans to postsecondary education, especially those displaced from their employment during the pandemic…
Interest on student loans has been retroactively waived by the Office of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education for more than 47,000 current and former active-duty service members…
Student loan borrowers with a total and permanent disability will now have their loans automatically discharged under a new regulation announced Thursday, 8/20, by the Education Department, continuing the Biden administration’s focus on targeted student debt relief…
On 8/10, President Biden nominated Amy Loyd to be the Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the Department of Education…