Weekly Update 2/27/23

California

Sonya Christian will serve as the new leader of the California Community Colleges as the system confronts plunging enrollment around the state…

President and Administration

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a new advisory on “Cannabidiol (CBD) - Potential Harms, Side Effects, and Unknowns”…

The Biden administration will make its case before the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow, 2/28, that the ongoing financial hardship caused by the pandemic continues to necessitate a one-time student loan forgiveness plan…

Four e-cigarette manufacturers are the first to get civil monetary penalties from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products for selling unauthorized products…

The Department of Education (ED) wants to roll back part of the so-called free inquiry rule, which required public colleges and universities to uphold the First Amendment, among other provisions…

Finalized regulations from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) taking effect in 2024 will require a broader swath of taxpayers to electronically file their returns (such as partnership returns, corporate income tax returns and others) — and in the process dramatically reduce the number of paper forms mailed to the agency each year…

This first national primary care scorecard finds a chronic lack of adequate support for the implementation of high-quality primary care in the U.S. across all measures, although performance varies across states…

Recently, attention to anxiety has increased because of a draft recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force, an independent expert panel that reviews research on preventive measures…

On Friday, 2/24, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) authorized emergency use of the first over-the-counter test that can detect both COVID-19 and the flu…

Education

The U.S. Department of Education has announced an expansion of its interpretation of federal regulations that appears to put a large swath of colleges’ ed-tech vendors on the hook for following more rules, and place the vendors under closer scrutiny…

Twenty-one states, along with Washington, D.C., and Guam, have legalized the sale, use and production of marijuana; 27 states have decriminalized it, and research data shows an increase in cannabis use on college campuses even as alcohol consumption declined…

According to new benchmark data, the percentage of third graders on track in reading hasn’t changed since this time last year…