Public Safety and Justice Update: 9/27/24

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was charged this week with bribery, wire fraud, and seeking illegal campaign donations, a years-long catalogue of alleged crimes stemming from what prosecutors called his “corrupt relationships” with wealthy foreigners…

President Joe Biden has signed a new order that will restrict gun technologies, essentially making it less easy to obtain guns and improve shooting drills in schools across the country…

The school shooting in Georgia’s Apalachee High School, the worst the state has seen in its history, has led to the arrest of over 700 students, 98 of them in the state itself…

Laws that ban assault weapons do protect children from dying in mass shootings, but the same can't be said for more common types of gun restrictions and regulations, new research shows…

On 8/21, teenagers were walking in Philadelphia when they encountered another group of juveniles. The two groups exchanged angry words, someone pulled a gun, and shots were fired…

People who solicit minors for sex in California can now be charged with a felony after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on 9/26 increasing penalties for sex trafficking…

Gov. Newsom signed several gun control measures this week, including one that allows the court to consider stalking and animal cruelty as grounds to restrict access to firearms…

The campaign to pass a tough-on-crime ballot initiative in California heads into its final stretch. Proposition 36, which would strengthen criminal penalties for repeat offenders of drug and theft crimes…

Weekly Update 9/23/24

President and Administration

Americans will soon no longer need to visit a doctor or pharmacy to be vaccinated against the seasonal flu…

On Tuesday (9/17), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services delivered to Congress a progress report on the federal implementation of the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers…

On Tuesday (9/17), the Federal Communications Commission announced opening of the application window for the Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program…

he measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination rate has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, leaving tens of thousands more children without protection yearly…

The Education Department seeks to assure higher education leaders that the federal financial aid form is in far better shape than it was last year…

Congress

The House Freedom Caucus is central to every Republican spending fight…

The House passed an emergency spending bill Tuesday night (9/17) to boost veterans funding by almost $2.9 billion amid Biden administration warnings that VA benefits are at risk this month…

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday (9/18) approved legislation to protect kids' health using social media…

California’s 13th Congressional District, home to one of the nation’s closest House of Representatives races in 2022…

California

State officials denied a reservoir developer’s water quality permit application on Monday (9/16) in a minor setback for the Gov. Gavin Newsom-backed project…

California’s Insurance Department and Cal Poly Humboldt are teaming up to research how to create what would be the nation’s first public wildfire catastrophe model…

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a swath of housing legislation on Thursday (9/19), including bills to beef up enforcement against cities and counties that block new construction…

California residents have become the first in the nation to receive state-mandated discounts on property insurance to protect their homes against wildfire…

California’s carbon emissions were back in decline in 2022 after they rose in 2021 coming out of the pandemic…

Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Katie Butler as the new director of California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, his administration announced Friday (9/20)…

The California Apartment Association and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation dropped millions into their dueling ballot initiatives recently…

Education

Backers of California’s $10 billion statewide school bond measure have raised $3.7 million to pass Proposition 2 and established the campaign's architecture…

Voters have never approved a ballot initiative that paves the way for private school choice…

States and school districts have less than two weeks to plan for using the remnants of an enormous chunk of federal pandemic relief aid…

Schools in every state can now embrace competency-based education—awarding credit and diplomas based on students’ mastery of skills rather than seat time…

Black students are more than twice as likely as their white or Hispanic peers to have their writing incorrectly flagged as the work of artificial intelligence tools…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 9/20/24

The sheriff of a rural Kentucky county walked into a courthouse on Thursday afternoon and shot and killed a district judge in his chambers after an argument. Mickey Stines, 43, the sheriff in Letcher County, turned himself in after shooting Judge Kevin Mullins and was charged with first-degree murder…

The investigation continues into an apparent second "attempted assassination" of former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Secret Service agents removed Trump from the golf course in under 20 seconds after hearing gunfire…

Rep. Mike Collins’ community was rocked by the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history on Sept. 4. Two days later, the Republican representative stood before a crowd of mourners in his district and declared…

In the past three years, this model of homemade semi automatic firearms, known as an FGC-9, has appeared in the hands of paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, rebels in Myanmar and neo-Nazis in Spain…

Edward A. Caban, the New York City police commissioner, resigned this week at the request of City Hall, which had asked him to step aside after federal agents seized his phone last week as part of a criminal investigation…

Weekly Update 9/16/24

President and Administration

The Biden administration sent letters last week warning top appropriators of significant delays in Social Security benefits if Congress doesn’t include billions of dollars extra…

New data from the Census Bureau last week shows that Americans’ inflation-adjusted incomes rose four percent last year…

A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster…

Promoting diversity and gender equality in the high-tech workforce remains a challenge for employers…

The percentage of Americans who had health insurance in 2023 remained unchanged from 2022 at 92 percent…

Certain demographic factors, like access to broadband internet, health insurance coverage, and household income, are tied to suicide rates…

Federal authorities are investigating an incident at former President Donald Trump’s Florida golf club on Sunday (9/15) as an “attempted assassination,” a potential second attempt…

Millions of Americans are endangered by extreme heat due to federal policies that steer billions of dollars away from the nation’s hottest regions…

The Education Department announced Friday (9/13) that it will give colleges until Jan. 15 to meet new financial transparency rules…

Congress

Regulation of social media has become one of the few significant areas of bipartisan agreement in an election year otherwise wracked by partisan gridlock…

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is considering marking up a key telehealth bill this week…

House Republicans advanced a school choice tax bill backed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos…

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on Wednesday (9/11) introduced comprehensive legislation to overhaul federal housing programs to bring down costs…

California

California’s oil czar told Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders Friday (9/13) that another gasoline price spike is in the works in California…

California’s prison population has been slowly declining for years as the state has implemented criminal justice reforms and shut prisons…

California is considering a first-in-the-nation proposal granting some undocumented immigrants access to a government-run phone bill discount program…

Trump on Friday (9/13) threatened to withhold federal disaster response funding from California over Gov. Gavin Newsom's position on water deliveries to farmers…

Education

Higher summer temperatures, driven by climate change, are pushing more school districts nationwide to start the school year later…

A new report has found a continuing trend of students leaving four-year colleges compared to two-year programs — with experts pointing to a successful advising model…

In this opinion article by Tenelle Porter, Jon Valant, & Robin Bayes, the authors argued for the importance of teaching intellectual humility in schools…

Knox County Schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, significantly reduced teacher vacancies through a strategic recruitment campaign…

A slew of pandemic-era emergency aid for children—including universal school meals and Medicaid expansions in many states—led to the lowest child poverty rate on record…

The U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX regulation is getting a ton of attention lately, with lawsuits…

This article by Education Week explores why efforts to abolish the U.S. Department of Education have consistently failed since its creation in 1979…

Weekly Update 9/9/24

Appropriations

The Senate approved its bipartisan Water Resources Development Act Thursday afternoon (8/1)…

President and Administration

The Biden Administration requires raises for some of the nation’s early childhood educators, but teachers may not see the pay bump for several years…

States and districts with spending extensions have an extra 14 months beyond the spending deadline to liquidate their allocations…

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris floated expanding the child tax credit Friday (8/16) as part of her first stab at crystallizing her economic vision…

JD Vance has floated the idea of more than doubling the child tax credit…

New preliminary data from major U.S. cities shows a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year — more than 25 percent in some communities — as the COVID-era crime wave recedes…

Since 2008, Congress, with bipartisan support, has spent billions on rental aid for unhoused veterans…

The White House is taking new steps to fight lead contamination in school drinking water…

The Biden Administration is finalizing a sweeping expansion of regulations that require insurers to cover mental health and addiction care on the same terms as other care…

The Administration announced new actions to improve student academic success…

The Biden Administration in August released results of the first Medicare drug price negotiations…

The FDA on Thursday (8/22) approved and authorized messenger RNA Covid vaccines to target a specific virus strain as the fall respiratory illness season approaches…

American parents need a bailout….

The Supreme Court in August denied the Biden Administration’s request to allow its new Title IX rule to be partially implemented in 10 states…

With kids back in school, there is promising news about teen mental health: Girls seem to be feeling a little better…

A study in JAMA found that a tailored text messaging intervention program aimed at youth using e-cigarettes successfully got more than a third of users to quit…

Social media’s effects on the mental health of young people are not well understood…

The Texas Attorney General’s Office sent a letter in August (8/10) urging the Supreme Court to weigh in on a lawsuit regarding the Biden Administration's loan repayment plan, known as SAVE…

Depression and suicidal activity have decreased slightly for teens since 2021…

The 988 mental health crisis hotline is seeing steadily increasing usage two years after its launch despite low public awareness of the service…

Tim Walz gave his nod of approval to CBS News’ invitation to debate JD VANCE on Oct. 1 in New York City in a post on X Wednesday (8/14) afternoon…

Cannabis use among young adults remains near all-time highs recorded in 2021 and 2022…'

Youth vaping in the U.S. hit its lowest level in a decade this year, the FDA and CDC said…

On Wednesday, 9/4, a 14-year-old used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia…

Congress

The Senate killed a once-promising $78 billion tax package (8/1) in the chamber’s last vote before lawmakers headed out of Washington for the August recess…

California

California state superintendent Tony Thurmond is pushing school districts to build affordable housing for teachers as well as the students they enroll…

With the fentanyl crisis continuing to spiral across California and the nation, Gov. Newsom and state lawmakers want to stop another potent drug before it reaches a similar trajectory…

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is hedging its bets on how it cooperates with the federal government on water ahead of a potential second Trump term…

California put hundreds of millions of homelessness dollars at risk because of its “disorganized” and “chaotic” anti-fraud policies…

A 2022 law signed by Newsom aimed at protecting young people online likely violates the First Amendment of the Constitution…

The California Assembly sent legislation to Newsom to ban legacy admissions at private universities…

Newsom vetoed a bill on Friday (9/6) that would have made some undocumented immigrants eligible for up to $150,000 in state-backed home loans…

California public school enrollment reached 6.4 million students in 2004…

Two key California reparations proposals will not receive Assembly votes on the final day of the state’s legislative session…

A California bill that attempted to penalize social media companies for harming young users is dead for the year…

Education

In the interview hosted by the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research,  Starlee Coleman…

English language learners in four major school districts in California are now more likely to be chronically absent than their peers…

Amid the ongoing youth mental health crisis and rising rates of chronic absenteeism…

An early look at new special education datasets reveals massive inconsistencies in how states identify children as needing services…

Three in 10 LGBTQ youth have at least one formal disability diagnosis, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign…

A contract founding the nation’s first religious charter school is now void, but it could be reestablished if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the school…

A new study of charter schools in Massachusetts has identified strikingly positive academic results…

In this special summer episode, Michael and Diane are joined by David Yeager…