President and Administration
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo held a call Thursday, 2/17, with lawmakers key to developing a compromise bill to spur domestic semiconductor chip production and combat the rise of China’s high-tech industry…
Biden administration officials told lawmakers last week that they plan to seek $30 billion in new spending to combat the COVID-19 pandemic - which includes $18 billion for medical countermeasures like antivirals and vaccines, $5 billion for testing, $3 billion to treat the uninsured and $4 billion to prepare for future variants…
The Biden administration is debating whether to overhaul a major Trump-era program tied to Medicare as soon as this week in the face of rising pressure from prominent progressive Democrats…
Last week the Senate confirmed Robert Califf to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a 50-46 vote…
The White House and Federal Communications Commission announced more than 10 million households are enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program…
President Joe Biden is actively looking for Republican support for his Supreme Court nominee…
Dr. Francis Collins, who stepped down as the head of the National Institutes of Health, will succeed Eric Lander as White House science adviser…
Russian troops and military equipment have begun to move into the eastern parts of Ukraine following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision yesterday, 2/22, to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – controlled by Russian-backed separatists – as independent states…
Congress
President Biden on Friday, 2/18, signed the Senate-passed a short-term funding bill to head off a government shutdown, after Democrats bent to Republican demands for controversial votes on vaccine mandates…
The Senate’s top GOP appropriator, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) was fairly optimistic Thursday, 2/17, about the ability to reach agreement on a massive 12-bill spending package by the new mid-March deadline…
Vulnerable Senate Democrats are attempting a bold strategy: Running for reelection as the real tax-cutters in Congress, even if it pits them against some of their caucus colleagues…
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is concerned that Republican attacks on the Democrats' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic have "alarming credibility”…
Rep. Eric Swalwell can pursue his lawsuit to hold former President Trump accountable for the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a judge held in a scathing ruling delivered Friday, 2/18…
Education
Inside Higher Ed released a print-on-demand compilation, entitled “Recruiting International Students in a New Era”…
A new report from Sallie Mae documents what families don’t know about paying for college…
Mid-year data from Amplify, a curriculum and assessment provider, shows that while the so-called “COVID cohort” of students in kindergarten, first, and second grade are making progress, they haven’t caught up to where students in those grade levels were performing before schools shut down in March 2020…
Most students who attend college earn more 10 years down the road than those who don’t…
Private school students were almost twice as likely as their public school counterparts to have real-time contact with their teachers during the early months of the pandemic, an advantage that could be attributed to better home internet, according to a new report released today, 2/22, by the National Center for Education Statistics, which compiled data collected from the 2020-21 National Teacher and Principal Survey…
During the pandemic, a nationwide crisis of isolation and anxiety has fallen particularly hard on young people - and more and more, those young people are turning to each other for help…
Nearly 16,000 borrowers will receive $415 million in borrower defense to repayment discharges following the approval of four new findings…
Catholic schools experienced their first enrollment increase in 20 years after decades of declines and school closures prior to the pandemic…
Climate Change
Days when large damaging wildfires are possible could nearly double in Southern California by the end of the century if climate change continues unchecked, according to a study released Thursday, 2/17…
Oil refineries, utilities, and other companies that must pay to emit greenhouse gasses in California have saved up so many credits allowing them to pollute that it may jeopardize the state’s ability to reach its ambitious climate goals, according to a report by the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, a group of five experts appointed by lawmakers and the governor…
Sea levels along U.S. coasts will rise by as much as a foot in the next 30 years as climate change accelerates, leading to a “dramatic increase” in millions of Americans’ exposure to flooding, scientists warned in a federal report published last week…
Biden is indefinitely freezing decisions about new federal oil and gas drilling as part of a legal brawl with 10 Republican-led states that could significantly impact Biden’s plans to tackle climate change…