Election and Weekly Update 11/9/20

Election Update:

With votes still being counted, turnout in the 2020 presidential election has hit a 50-year high, exceeding the record set by the 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama — an extraordinary engagement in what amounted to a referendum on President Donald Trump’s leadership...

As the Trump campaign continued to pursue long-shot legal challenges and top Republicans remained split on whether to congratulate President-elect Biden on his projected victory, Democrats took steps on Sunday, 11/8, toward planning for a Biden administration…

President-elect Joe Biden is planning to quickly sign a series of executive orders after being sworn into office on Jan. 20, immediately forecasting that the country’s politics have shifted and that his presidency will be guided by radically different priorities...

Although the Democrats will hold a narrowed majority in the House, the final makeup of the Senate is not yet clear…

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has served as the Democratic leader since 2002 and letters sent to her colleagues on Friday morning, 11/6, demonstrate her desire for two more years of leadership…

California

Gov. Gavin Newsom exceeded his authority by ordering elections officials to mail all California voters ballots, a judge said Monday, 11/2, in a tentative ruling that could shape the limits of gubernatorial powers but did not affect last week’s election…

A new law (AB 1460) requiring an ethnic studies class in order to graduate from the California State University (CSU) will likely have far-reaching implications for the state’s 115 degree-granting community colleges…

California voters rejected Proposition 16, a major blow to Democrats and social justice advocates who hoped a national reckoning on racial inequality following the police killing of George Floyd would translate into a long-sought repeal of the state’s affirmative action ban…

Launching Kamala Harris into the White House as vice president come January has officially kicked off one of Gov. Newsom's biggest political decisions: appointing California's next U.S. senator…

Coronavirus

A weekend of record-breaking numbers has pushed the US to the brink of 10 million coronavirus infections. And the pace keeps accelerating…

Today, 11/9, drug-maker Pfizer said that an early look at data from its coronavirus vaccine shows it is more than 90 percent effective - a much better than expected efficacy if the trend continues…

President and Administration

LGBT advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate President Trump's September executive order banning the government from working with contractors that conduct “any form of race or sex stereotyping,” including diversity training…

President Trump today, 11/9, fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper via tweet…

Education

President Trump tried to bully schools into opening their buildings, a hard-edge pandemic tactic that succeeded in places and backfired elsewhere…

Congress

Senate Majority Leader McConnell said that Congress needed to approve a new coronavirus relief bill before the end of this year…

House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) wants Congress to take back its Constitutional powers next year…

Weekly Update 11/2/20

California

Three Western states announced Tuesday, 10/27, that they would join California's workgroup set to independently review any COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…

On Tuesday, 10/27, California assembly members demanded more specific statewide guidelines for school reopening, emphasizing that equity gaps will otherwise grow as some students return to classrooms faster than others…

School districts around the Bay Area are reporting sharp increases in failing grades - in some cases up almost 50 percent - during a term that has largely been taught online…

President and Administration

The Trump administration is fighting in federal court to block states from giving billions of dollars in emergency food stamps to the lowest-income Americans during the COVID-19 crisis..

The Trump administration’s new public charge rule, expanding the definition of immigrants who are inadmissible to the U.S. because of their finances, was vacated by a federal court in Illinois Monday…

Education

On Tuesday, 10/27, House Democrats introduced the Save Education Jobs Act of 2020, a proposal that would authorize $261 billion to states and school districts over 10 years to protect jobs at K-12 schools, an education priority for the post-election session and next Congress…

In a sharply worded letter to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, key Democrats on the House Education Committee lambasted the Education Department for its investigations of Princeton University and the University of California, Los Angeles, for racial bias, as well as the administration's prohibition on institutions using federal funds for diversity training…

Seventy-seven advocacy groups wrote Education Secretary DeVos on Wednesday, 10/28, asking her to extend the moratorium on borrowers having to repay their federal student loans until at least next September…

On Monday,10/26, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and five other Democratic senators urged Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to do more to hold the owners of for-profit colleges personally financially liable for the cost to the federal government if the colleges are found to have defrauded their students and then closed…

Congress

The House and Senate will return to DC next week, with the COVID-19 stimulus and FY21 appropriations on the agenda…

Presidential Election

Closed college campuses, a decline in enrollment, and obstacles for first-time voters could depress the student-age vote in Tuesday’s election, possibly depriving Democrat Joe Biden of votes from shuttered college towns in battleground states…

In swing states around the country, Republicans are already gearing up legal challenges to the election results…

Weekly Update 10/26/20

California

Near the end of September, with COVID-19 cases falling and more schools and businesses reopening, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration urged restraint, citing a statistical model that predicted a startling 89% increase in virus hospitalizations in the next month…

A Sacramento judge refused Wednesday, 10/21, to order the California Republican Party to disclose information about its ballot drop box program to state officials, rejecting an argument by AG Xavier Becerra that the investigation was essential to ensuring ballots are being properly handled…

Coronavirus

At least five people in Vice President Mike Pence's orbit have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days, including chief of staff Marc Short, close aide Zach Bauer and outside adviser Marty Obst…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gilead Sciences Inc.’s antiviral therapy Remdesivir on Thursday, 10/22, granting broad clearance for the coronavirus treatment…

U.S. vaccine advisers questioned whether safety and efficacy standards set by FDA officials were high enough to warrant emergency authorization of a shot…

The Social Security trust fund could be depleted by 2030, five years earlier than the official government estimate before the coronavirus hit, because of the recession and long-term near-zero interest rates triggered by the pandemic…

President and Administration

A U.S. Labor Department official said “white privilege” or “white fragility” training for employees of federal contractors is outlawed by a Trump executive order that’s already triggered the filing of more than 100 complaints to the agency over allegedly unlawful diversity training…

The Labor Department (DOL) has declined to extend a shortened, 30-day window for the public to weigh in on its high-stakes proposal, released 9/22, which would make it easier for employers to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees who are owed minimum wage and overtime protections…

Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday, 10/20, from the American Civil Liberties Union…

Education

The U.S. Department of Education released a new Parent and Family Digital Learning Guide on Friday, 10/23, a resource to help parents and guardians understand how digital tools can provide tailored learning opportunities, engage students with course materials, encourage creative expression, and enrich the educational experience…

Colleges joined with major business and industry groups in filing a lawsuit challenging new Trump administration rules that would narrow the eligibility requirements for H-1B skilled worker visas and increase the wages employers would have to pay visa holders…

Congress

On Sunday, 10/25, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she's still “optimistic” about Congress passing a coronavirus relief package before Nov. 3. Pelosi told CNN she sent Mnuchin a list of concerns on Friday, 10/23, with the understanding that he was reviewing them over the weekend and will provide some answers today, 10/26…

The Senate is set to vote this evening, 10/26, to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court. On Sunday, 10/25, Senate Republicans voted 51-48 to limit debate on the Supreme Court nomination of Barrett, setting up a vote on her confirmation for this evening…

Presidential Election

With eight days before Election Day, there have been a total of 58.6 million ballots cast so far, more than the 58 million that The Associated Press logged as being cast through the mail or at in-person early voting sites in 2016…

Weekly Update 10/19/20

California

On Monday, 10/12, California's secretary of state and attorney general sent a cease-and-desist order to the California GOP and several county party offices, ordering they remove unauthorized boxes to collect ballots, some of which were labeled "official”…

President Trump has agreed to reverse his administration's decision to deny federal cleanup funding for six California wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday, 10/16…

In the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Californians bought new guns and changed the way they stored their firearms in a bid to counter the unrest, government crackdowns and societal disintegration they feared would be unleashed by the public health emergency, a new survey by UC Davis researchers has found…

President and Administration

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Trump’s administration to end the census count more than two weeks early, dealing a setback to civil rights groups that said minorities will be undercounted as a result…

Education

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s latest fall 2020 enrollment report continues to show downward trajectories nearly across the board in higher education…

Congress

The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote to advance the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday, 10/22, setting up her confirmation by the end of the month…

The fate of additional stimulus for the U.S. economy before next month’s election could be decided this week, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi setting a Tuesday (10/20) deadline to reach an agreement with the White House -- though it remains doubtful that the Republican-controlled Senate will accept any deal they strike…

Presidential Election

The Commission on Presidential debates have announced the six topics for the second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden set to take place on Thursday, 10/22…

Weekly Update 10/12/20

California

According to an EdSource survey of 834 registered voters, a majority of voters as well as parents feel that the state’s schools are not prepared to offer high quality distance learning, although they are more positive about their own local schools…

Ahead of the holiday season, the California Department of Public Health released strict new rules about private gatherings, limiting them to outdoors and instructing attendees to wear masks and maintain physical distance…

President and Administration

A U.S. appeals court upheld an order on Wednesday, 10/7, requiring Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and his department to continue the census count through October…

Microsoft Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co., which have both pledged to double their ranks of Black leaders, received letters from the U.S. Labor Department asking how their efforts comply with laws limiting the consideration of race in employment…

Education

Colleges have begun halting diversity efforts in relation to the White House’s recent executive order against “divisive concepts” in federally funded programs…

Congress

The White House again pivoted its approach to stimulus negotiations on Sunday, 10/11, with the president’s aides pushing for immediate action on a narrow measure after the administration’s $1.8 trillion proposal was rebuffed by members of both parties…

Today, 10/12, the Senate Judiciary Committee begins up to four days of hearings on President Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court…