California
Starting on April 3, California will drop masking requirements in health care facilities and prisons and lift its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers along with a requirement that hospitals accept transfer patients from facilities with crowded ICUs…
Following two high-profile mass shootings in California, the majority of voters surveyed in a new statewide poll said they worry that gun violence will affect them or someone close to them…
California lawmakers will soon weigh legislation that would extend the nation’s largest foster care system by five years for some youth, making it the first state in the nation to offer housing, financial and caseworker support to young adults through age 26…
Under a new bill, more people in California could be detained against their will because of a mental illness…
According to a new report, more homeless people in Orange County are dying each year, and accidental drug overdoses involving fentanyl are a leading reason why…
California is on track to break a snowpack record set 40 years ago, signaling relief for a state that has grown desperately dry in recent years…
A new state audit found that community colleges, specifically at four community college districts (Foothill–De Anza, Kern, Los Rios, and San Diego), overall fell short of its goal that 75 percent of community college classes be taught by full-time professors…
According to a new report by the California Student Aid Commission, only 29 percent of undocumented students in California who applied for financial aid through the California Dream Act Application during the 2021–22 academic year enrolled in college and received aid, and only 14 percent of the estimated undocumented student population in postsecondary education received financial aid…
A new select committee in the California Legislature will explore ways the state can reconnect neighborhoods that decades ago were torn apart by interstates and highways…
Assembly Budget Subcommittee Chair Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) said afterschool programs won't be on the chopping block as the California Legislature looks for ways to offset a projected $22.5 billion deficit…
Nearly two years into the California reparations task force’s work, the group still has yet to make key decisions that will be at the heart of its final report recommending how the state should apologize and compensate Black residents for the harms caused by slavery and discrimination…
President and Administration
On March 9, President Biden will travel to Philadelphia to release his budget for FY’24, which begins on October 1…
On Tuesday, 2/28, a majority of justices appeared dubious about the Biden administration’s pandemic-related legal justification for the sweeping student debt relief program…
Just weeks after President Biden used his State of the Union to call for crackdowns on insulin prices and “junk fees,” a handful of companies are starting to comply on their own…
According to a new study by the Dallas Federal Reserve, the expanded Child Tax Credit may have increased employment for some families with at least one out-of-work parent…
Tens of millions of low-income families lost additional food stamp benefits on Wednesday, 3/1, after the expiration of a pandemic-era policy that had increased the amount they received…
SAMHSA released a new report that discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on behavioral health, specifically the psychiatric symptoms associated with Long COVID, potential long-term implications, and suggestions for future directions for recovery…
Eli Lilly, an American pharmaceutical company, announced a series of price cuts that would lower the price of the most commonly used forms of its insulin by 70 percent and said it will automatically cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 for people who have private insurance and use participating pharmacies starting May 1…
Congress
House Republicans are banning earmarks in the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education measure…
The top Senate appropriators are planning to start spending bill markups in May…
Senate appropriators have agreed to start negotiating top-line spending levels for their FY’24 bills, with the goal of a bipartisan agreement on the framework, followed by markups starting in May…
Rep. Katie Porter introduced a bill that would get rid of the $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes, allowing full SALT deductions for anyone making under $400,000 per year, and then implementing a $60,000 limit that would shrink with income…
Republicans and Democrats in Congress are criticizing a Biden administration proposal to make it more difficult for patients to access some controlled substances and other drugs by scaling back rules that facilitated prescribing by telehealth during the pandemic…
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) introduced the Parental Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 5), which is a revival of a legislative proposal Republicans pitched in 2021 to elevate the role of parental control in public schools across the country…
Education
Measures that the U.S. implemented to combat the COVID-19 pandemic may have potentially created long-lasting effects on young children…
According to a Chalkbeat analysis of data from eight states, more teachers than usual exited the classroom after last school year, confirming long standing fears that pandemic-era stresses would prompt an outflow of educators…
Oklahoma was poised next month to be the first state to allow a religious charter school…
A new survey of low-income and first-generation high school students and those who are people of color reveals that concerns about preparedness, the ability to meet their basic needs and academic costs are impacting their future education and career plans, making them less likely to believe more education is necessary…