California
The California Department of Housing and Community Development didn’t properly distribute the $316 million of federal relief funds meant to help homeless residents during the COVID-19 pandemic, auditors said last week in a report…
Frustrated by out-of-control increases in drug overdose deaths, California’s leaders are trying something radical: They want the state to be the first to pay people to stay sober…
A group of California lawmakers is considering whether to introduce a proposal to require all residents to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to patronize hotels, indoor restaurants, gyms, theaters and other establishments - and compel in-state employers to require their workers to get vaccinated…
The 44-16 passage of CA SB9 was a major victory for Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and for housing advocates who have pushed, often unsuccessfully, to streamline the construction of more housing density…
The National Republican Congressional Committee is running digital ads targeting frontline Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA) by citing the rising cost of school supplies as kids head back to class…
Coronavirus
The U.S. program to help tenants and landlords struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is still moving at a slow pace and has delivered a fraction of the promised aid, data released by the Treasury Department on Wednesday, 8/25, show…
A divided Supreme Court lifted the Biden administration’s moratorium on evictions, ending protections for millions of people who have fallen behind on their rent during the COVID-19 pandemic…
Last week, Biden pressed businesses and public leaders to implement vaccine mandates after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine for people 16 and older earlier in the day…
Last week, Moderna said it had completed the application process for full approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., putting the company on course to obtain the second such clearance from federal regulators…
Pfizer-BioNTech are officially seeking full U.S. approval for a COVID-19 booster shot for people 16 and older, asking regulators to sign off on a third dose to quell a rise in infections among vaccinated people…
As COVID-19 cases surge around the country, a majority of Americans say they support mask mandates for students and teachers in K-12 schools, according to a new poll, but their views are sharply divided along political lines…
National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins predicted that the FDA will likely not authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 until the end 2021…
Reported data shows that recipients who received a J&J booster dose generated virus-fighting antibodies “ninefold higher” than those seen four weeks after a single dose…
A new CDC study finds that hospitalization rates in late July were 29 times higher among unvaccinated people in Los Angeles County than among the fully vaccinated…
President and Administration
For the first time in decades, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - the nation's top public health agency - is speaking out forcefully about gun violence in America, calling it a "serious public health threat”…
Biden’s approval rating has slipped to the lowest point of his presidency…
Congress
Democratic lawmakers and the White House scrambled Friday, 8/27, to shore up safeguards for millions of tenants facing a housing crisis after the Supreme Court blocked an eviction ban imposed by the Biden administration…
The House passed a $3.5 trillion budget framework last Tuesday, 8/24, capping off several days of furious negotiating, with all House Democrats voting in favor of it…
Moderate and progressive Democrats are on a collision course over how to pay for President Biden’s $3.5 trillion economic agenda, a disagreement that has the potential to stall the legislation or sink it entirely…
More than 100 House Democrats, led by Ways and Means Committee members Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Don Beyer (D-VA), are seeking to expand a federal subsidy for affordable housing in the chamber’s forthcoming spending bill…
The Defense Department would receive $549 million more than Biden requested to cleanup per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) under the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Bill, which the House committee will mark up on Wednesday, 9/1…
Education
School districts applied for more than $5.1 billion to buy laptops, Wi-Fi hotspots, routers, and other devices to help students connect to the internet from home ahead of an 8/13 deadline, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said last week…
Today, 8/30, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened directed investigations in five states - Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah - exploring whether statewide prohibitions on universal indoor masking discriminate against students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from COVID-19 by preventing them from safely accessing in-person education…
The FDA’s announcement of its full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine last week opened the door for colleges and universities that have been hesitant to require vaccines for students to begin instituting mandates, especially since other FDA-approved vaccinations - such as for tuberculosis or hepatitis B - are already required on most campuses…
Last week, the Education Department said that it will immediately cease enforcement of a part of the Trump-era Title IX regulations that prohibits decision makers in sexual misconduct investigations from considering evidence by parties or witnesses if they don’t participate in cross-examination…
Financial aid offers could be better designed to be clearer and more accessible to students, according to a recent report which offers 10 recommendations to improve financial aid offers…
The Education Department will now presume that borrowers with approved borrower defense to repayment claims should be awarded full relief, unless evidence is presented that states otherwise…
Funding/Support Opportunities
Nothing of note.