California
Robert Rivas, the incoming Assembly speaker, has drawn campaign donations and endorsements from charter interests and surrounded himself with allies who’ve done the same…
On Thursday, 6/29, a California task force presented its first-in-the-nation attempt to address the legacy of slavery to lawmakers who must decide whether to pursue a wide range of proposed remedies, including payments to descendants of enslaved people…
After a very slow start, fire season may be heating up in the United States. Meteorologists are warning of a potential jump in fire activity as heat waves combine with increased ignitions during the July Fourth holiday…
California is already being forced to update its strategy to tackle opioids in response to the emerging threat of the street drug tranq — just months after Governor Gavin Newsom released a comprehensive plan to combat the overdose crisis…
As the number of unhoused students in California’s public schools continues to rise to pre-pandemic levels, experts and educators fear that today’s economy paired with the state’s unrelenting housing crisis will lead to unprecedented rates of homeless youth…
On Wednesday, 7/5, California Democrats advanced some of the country’s most aggressive penalties for schools that restrict curriculum…
Governor Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta called on the Justice Department to investigate the Florida program responsible for transporting migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Sacramento…
The latest CalAIM reform, which went into effect July 1, is a revamp of the way behavioral health providers — those who treat people who struggle with mental illness or substance abuse — are paid…
President and Administration
The Biden administration is planning a massive investment to help improve Puerto Rico’s electric grid, but critics say the expenditure could upend the transition to clean energy on the island…
On Thursday, 6/29, the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action in higher education, striking down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina…
A federal judge in Louisiana ruled on Tuesday, 7/4, that the Biden administration’s efforts to influence social media posts about COVID-19 likely violated the first amendment…
Substance use disorders among the older population, such as baby boomers, have climbed steeply…
Some of the most powerful conservative judges in the United States took collective aim at the idea that homeless people with nowhere else to go have a right to sleep in public, excoriating their liberal colleagues for ruling as much…
SAMHSA’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health found in 2021 that 70 percent of adults (or 21 million Americans) who had had a substance use condition identified as being in recovery…
Student Debt Relief Plan
On Friday, 6/30, the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s plan to cancel up to $20,000 of student debt for tens of millions of Americans, thwarting a major domestic priority of the president as he seeks reelection…
The Secretary of Education initiated a rulemaking process aimed at opening an alternative path to debt relief for working and middle-class borrowers…
Congress
On Thursday, the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the FY2024 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies spending bill (as-yet-unnumbered)…
In a Dear Colleague letter yesterday, 7/9, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) highlighted fiscal 2024 appropriations, the fiscal 2024 NDAA, AI-centered national security briefings and judicial confirmations as the four pillars of the Senate’s planned July business…
Education
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, 6/26, declined to take up a case that could have upended the long-held view that charter schools are public, throwing into doubt — for now — a controversial effort to publicly finance religious schools…