Weekly Update 5/28/24

President and Administration

Federal weather forecasters predicted a record hurricane season in the Atlantic this summer, likely driven by a La Niña weather pattern…

The Biden administration announced $81 million in funding Tuesday (5/21) for a major new drought deal for California's San Joaquin Valley aimed at heading off brawls over scarce water resources…

City governments are adopting electric vehicles faster than individual car buyers…

White adults who say they have poor or fair mental health are more likely to say they’ve received mental health services in the past three years, compared with Black and Hispanic adults…

For years, discussions about America’s substance-abuse crisis have focused almost exclusively on the narrative that it is white, middle-age adults who face the greatest risk of dying from drug overdoses…

The Education Department says it has now processed more than 10 million 2024-25 federal student aid forms…

On Wednesday, 5/22, the Biden administration announced another series of student loan cancellations, wiping out debt for 166,000 borrowers…

Daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of drinking in the U.S….

Congress

House Republican leaders hope to pass all 12 FY25 appropriations bills on the floor before the August recess…

On Thursday, 3/23, bipartisan members launched the Congressional Preventive Health and Wellness Caucus…

California

The Stanislaus County Public Defender’s Office was one of, if not the, most underfunded and overworked defense offices in the Central Valley…

On Thursday, 5/22, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new funding opportunity that advances a key next step in bringing an HBCU campus to the City of San Francisco…

California lawmakers are steaming ahead with a plan to approve Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes, where patrons can have a hot meal, sip on coffee and watch a show while smoking their joints…

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s largest teachers union have reached a deal that would provide California schools billions more in future funding…

Education

Soon after she had gone to jail for trying to get her children a better education, Kelley Williams-Bolar’s teenage daughter Jada confronted her mother with an accusation that will stick with her forever…

Teachers’ unions, long defenders of the teaching profession, are now putting their own spin on an often-criticized component: teacher preparation…

It’s not often that statehouse elections in rural Texas steer the national conversation about school choice…

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice…