Weekly Update 4/8/24

2024 Election Watch

On Tuesday, 3/26, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. came to Oakland to name tech attorney Nicole Shanahan his pick for vice president…

California

On Wednesday, 3/27, California lawmakers urged the state’s public universities to further delay college decision day as federal aid glitches continue to loom over the college admissions cycle…

On Thursday, 4/4, Governor Newsom and state legislative leaders said they have agreed to a $17 billion package of spending cuts…

California’s water supplies are in good shape heading into spring and summer, Governor Newsom said on Tuesday, 4/2, with statewide snowpack levels at 105 percent of average…

Across California and the nation, developers moved to start fewer homes in 2023, a decline some experts say could eventually send home prices and rents even higher as supply shortages worsen…

A push for reparations in Palm Springs could set the tone for California’s reckoning with its racist past….

President and Administration

The Biden administration is making a second attempt at a large-scale student loan forgiveness proposal…

Dr. Nora Volkow, who has led the National Institute on Drug Abuse for more than two decades, said she is convinced America will overcome the ongoing drug overdose…

On Thursday, 3/28, the U.S. Department of Education, in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)…

This year the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) launched a new, free tool called Direct File…

About one-third of 12th graders across the country reported using marijuana over the past year, according to a study released March 12…

Congress

In January 2024, the House passed a $78 billion bipartisan tax package that would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore a number of business tax benefits…

House Republicans will send articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on Wednesday (4/10)…

Education

In the four years since the pandemic closed schools, U.S. education has struggled to recover on a number of fronts, from learning loss, to enrollment, to student behavior…

Research shows that exposing students to STEM between grades one and three provides them with a foundation to enter many STEM-related careers…

Beth Kelly was reading a classroom aide’s notes to prepare for a meeting about her 8-year-old autistic son’s special education plan in early November 2022 when…

 On Tuesday, 4/2, the Oklahoma Supreme Court weighed a potentially groundbreaking case as it took up the state attorney general’s request that it undo a contract…

On Wednesday, 3/20, Gov. Greg Abbott urged school voucher supporters to make the final push in the May primary runoff elections…

A Los Angeles school district policy limiting charter schools’ ability to share school buildings violates state law…

Lack of math help often starts with the states…

Weekly Update 3/25/24

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have agreed to a deal that would cut between $12 billion and $18 billion from the state’s massive budget shortfall before final budget negotiations this summer…

California voters have agreed to rewrite the state’s decades-old mental health law and borrow $6.4 billion for new facilities to house and treat the most severe cases — a top priority for Gov. Newsom…

Despite back-to-back wet winters, California’s water regulator is working to finalize permanent rules for urban water conservation first imposed by legislation during the height of the drought in 2018…

New legislation announced by Bay Area lawmakers Monday, 3/18, could provide billions in revenue to the region’s struggling public transit agencies…

Social media companies could face enormous financial penalties for harming kids under a California bill that marks the state’s latest attempt to rein in homegrown tech titans…

Many factors have contributed to California’s housing crisis, and one lawmaker is pinning some of the blame on investors…

President and Administration

Roughly 200,000 of the 1.5 million federal student aid records sent to schools now need to be reprocessed by the Education Department…

The Supreme Court was skeptical Monday, 3/18, of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the Biden administration from urging social media companies to take down disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and election fraud…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants schools and providers to urge students to get their measles shot if their vaccinations aren’t up to date…

The Biden administration is doling out another $6 billion in student loan relief for public service workers, bringing the total amount of student debt approved for discharge under President Biden to $144 billion for nearly 4 million Americans…

On Wednesday, 3/20, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final national pollution standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032 and beyond…

Congress

Both the House and Senate are out for the next two weeks on recess. 

Education

The Kentucky Senate on Friday, 3/15, joined the House in passing legislation for a constitutional amendment…

Voucher use in Ohio has grown more than 400 percent in the last 10 years, from 30,000 students in 2013-14 to more than 120,000 today…

Following five years of unsuccessful attempts by Georgia Republican lawmakers to expand the state’s school voucher program…

Weekly Update 3/18/24

California

On Thursday, 3/14, the Insurance Department released draft rules allowing property insurers to use forward-looking models to set rates…

California is moving toward extending the application deadline for state financial aid because of the trouble-plagued rollout of the new federal student aid application…

On Thursday, 3/14, State Senate leaders said they’ll take early action to cut the state’s yawning budget deficit by $17 billion…

A standalone school facilities bond would likely pass in California but may not be as popular as an August survey suggested, according to new polling from an education advocacy organization…

A coalition opposed to Gov. Newsom's effort to overhaul California's mental health system conceded defeat Tuesday, 3/12…

President and Administration

The state judge presiding over Donald Trump’s criminal case in Georgia has thrown out six of the indictment’s 41 charges…

President Biden has expressed concern to aides that the high cost of housing is undermining his economic pitch to voters…

President Biden is hearing warnings from Democratic strategists and White House allies that a potential TikTok ban could have serious consequences for youth engagement this fall…

More than two in five voters - 43 percent - now say immigration is one of their top issues, falling only behind inflation…

Education

In a major development for student privacy and school safety observers, the Department of Justice recently announced it reached a settlement with the Pasco County, Florida, school district after an investigation…

President Biden's budget includes an $8 billion academic recovery proposal that could help schools pay for tutoring and other programs…

Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) plan to introduce legislation tomorrow that would establish a new Department of Justice grant for after-school programs…

Young students have made less progress in reading this year than they did earlier in the post-pandemic period, according to new data…

School board members can block constituents on social media only if they’re commenting on issues completely outside of their authority or sharing personal information…

Dozens of civil rights and education groups are demanding the Biden administration address a rapid expansion of artificial intelligence and big data technology in K-12 schools…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update - February 2024

California

Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday, 2/15, proposed ending federal subsidies for oil and gas production, offering federal wildfire insurance and requiring insurance companies to disclose their fossil fuel investments…

Excessive speed is a factor in over 12,000 annual deaths in the US, or roughly a third of all crash fatalities…

A couple of blocks from the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Electrify America is about to open an indoor charging station that lets drivers relax in a lounge while their electric vehicle batteries are being filled up…

Visibility will soon improve at California’s intersections once enforcement begins on the state’s new "daylighting" law…

A Bay Area lawmaker is proposing a new bill aimed at ensuring that bridges throughout the state remain toll-free for pedestrians and cyclists…

President and Administration

Cities with vibrant biking scenes often boast safer streets for everyone…

A key selling point of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law was that it would help create jobs for more Americans…

The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and clean power could save infants’ lives and help millions of children breathe easier, according to new research from the American Lung Association…

Weekly Update 3/11/24

2024 Election Watch

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, a former Los Angeles Dodgers star, will advance to the November runoff election…

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Wednesday, 3/6, that she is exiting the Republican presidential race…

California

Permitting of new oil wells will remain paused in Kern County after a state appellate court ruled Thursday, 3/7, that the county still hasn’t met California Environmental Quality Act requirements…

Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a brief Monday, 3/4, in a U.S. Supreme Court case that could determine how California addresses urban homelessness encampments…

California lacks anywhere near enough homeless shelters for everyone living on the street…

California lawmakers are looking for simple ways to stem a rising crisis in electricity affordability, and they’re not finding them…

On Thursday, 3/7, California regulators approved a program to help ride-booking drivers purchase electric vehicles, despite pushback from industry and labor groups over who should administer the fund and how much it should pay out…

Five firefighters were hospitalized Saturday, 3/9, after a massive fire broke out at a two-story downtown commercial building that was housing an illegal cannabis operation, authorities said…

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has recommended ending a pilot program that sends mental health workers to non-emergency calls, saying it didn’t actually free up first responders and hospital emergency rooms…

Weeks after announcing a plan to address retail theft in California, Assembly Democrats on Thursday, 3/7, unveiled the bill specifics…

President and Administration

This report includes innovative ways to use braided funding for substance use disorder (SUD) services to help optimize resources, improve patient outcomes, promote funding sustainability, and address service gaps…

President Biden turned his 2024 State of the Union address into a fiery argument for his second term, hitting his campaign highlights…

President Biden released his annual budget request today, outlining his funding ambitions for the fiscal year set to kick off on October 1…

On Tuesday, 3/5, President Biden established a new Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing co-chaired by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)…

Congress

The Senate’s top Republican tax writer said Thursday, 3/7, that he’s unsure whether a long-sought tax deal now before lawmakers will pass Congress…

Education

More than 40 education advocacy organizations have teamed up to fight longstanding residency requirements that tie children to their local public schools — rather than letting them transfer to places that might serve them better…

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of students with disabilities who are chronically absent from Minneapolis Public Schools has doubled or nearly doubled in more than a third of schools…