Weekly Update 5/1/23

California

California Community College leaders have indicated they plan to move forward with approving bachelor’s degree programs at their institutions, despite a request from state lawmakers to pause in response to objections from the California State University system…

 According to an analysis of 30 districts statewide conducted by School Innovations & Achievement, nearly a third of public school students were chronically absent — meaning that as of late March, they had missed 10 percent or more of the school year…

The illegal marijuana trade is booming in California, seven years after the state legalized its possession, cultivation and distribution…

Recent surveys from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest 5.5 percent of California adults – roughly 1.5 million people – currently experience the ill-defined, mysterious and often debilitating collection of symptoms that make up long COVID…

President and Administration

The Biden administration as soon as this week could begin accepting requests from colleges for extra time to spend their share of federal COVID relief dollars…

On Friday, 4/28, the Department of Education issued a series of recommendations for how colleges and universities can better serve students who were previously incarcerated…

On Tuesday, 4/25, President Biden formally launched his campaign for a second term in 2024, asking voters to keep him in office and “finish the job” of an historic American recovery that started after he defeated Donald Trump in 2020…

On Wednesday, 4/26, first lady Jill Biden touted her husband’s goals for students, including a significant focus on mental health care as a national priority…

As the Biden administration prepares to restart federal student loan bills for the first time in three years, the Department of Education faces a funding shortfall that has forced it to cut customer service to borrowers…

 According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, one-in-four U.S. parents say there have been times in the past year when they could not afford food their family needed or to pay their rent or mortgage…

A sweeping series of surveys of U.S. high school students released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have an urgent message for parents and policymakers: America’s kids are in crisis…

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy revealed in an article with the New York Times that he is proposing a national framework to rebuild social connection and community in America…

This morning, First Republic Bank was taken over by federal regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase…

Congress and President Biden are running increasingly short on time to raise the debt limit…

Congress

House Republicans left Washington on Friday, 4/28, for a week after passing their massive debt bill…

A Senate committee voted along party lines on Wednesday, 4/26, to move forward with President Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Labor, marking a key milestone in the nomination process amid high-level efforts by the White House to secure Julie Su’s confirmation…

 On Wednesday, 4/26, the House Foreign Affairs committee held a hearing to markup H.R.2794…

House Republicans plan to start marking up the 12 annual spending bills later this month and wrap up committee action by mid-June, House Appropriations Chair Kay Granger (R-TX) told her colleagues…

Education

The School Superintendent Association (AASA) and The Jed Foundation announced a new initiative, called The District Comprehensive Approach, which aims to provide school districts with a framework of best practices, expert support, and data-driven guidance about how to best support students’ mental health and prevent suicide…

A revolt over how children are taught to read, steadily building for years, is now sweeping school board meetings and statehouses around the country…

According to a recent EdWeek Research Center survey, student behavioral problems that spiked with the return of in-person learning after the COVID-19 pandemic are getting even worse…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update - April 2023

California

New electric vehicles (EVs) sold in California would have to be equipped to provide battery power to the grid under a state Senate proposal…

A privately funded project to operate a nightly first-class passenger train between San Francisco and Los Angeles is underway…

Transit agencies across California are grappling with a “fiscal cliff” — a decline in revenue and the end of federal funding that has been a lifeline for the last three years…

As part of a budget proposal being unveiled in the state Senate, transit agency officials and their supporters in the Legislature are seeking “bridge funding” for transit systems throughout the state, some of whom are struggling to recover ridership after the pandemic…

Kyle Vogt, CEO and founder of GM-owned autonomous vehicle company Cruise, announced that the company’s robotaxis are now running around the clock in San Francisco…

The Air Resources Board this week is expected to approve regulations that over the next two decades would phase out gas-powered engines in school buses, trains, delivery vans, farm vehicles and the trucks that move cargo around ports…

Congress

Updates to national aviation and pipeline safety policies will dominate the upcoming schedule for the transportation panel in the U.S. House of Representatives…

Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) announced they're reintroducing the Freedom to Move Act, which would create fare-free public transportation not only in Massachusetts, but across the country. Both Sen. Markey and Rep. Pressley say free fares lead to better access to jobs, education and health care, especially in minority and low-income communities…

Republicans made several changes to its plan to increase the debt ceiling, H.R. 2811, early Wednesday morning, 4/26, ahead of potential consideration on the House floor…

President and Administration

The Biden administration on Wednesday, 4/12, announced what it called the most ambitious auto pollution rules in history, with the aim of accelerating automakers’ shift to electric vehicles…

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is asking railroads to examine how they configure freight trains, including length and car makeup, saying it has noticed similarities in recent derailments that suggest some trains aren't being built properly…

As part of its annual support to transit systems nationwide, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today published details about the formula funding that helps communities maintain and operate the trains, buses, and ferries that provide more than half a million transit trips every month…

First News had a chance to get Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s views on President Joe Biden’s budget proposal…

Weekly Update 4/24/23

California

California launched the CalAIM initiative in early 2022 , which is a five-year, $12 billion social experiment that Governor Gavin Newsom is betting will eventually cut soaring health care spending in Medi-Cal…

California has spent billions of dollars on homelessness in recent years and a bipartisan group of California legislators is calling for a first-of-its kind, large-scale audit of the state’s homelessness spending…

The latest push for education savings accounts – a type of school choice voucher that would give parents money to finance their children’s non-public schooling – was defeated in a 5-2 vote in California’s senate education committee earlier this week…

Congress

According to Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), House Republicans are taking the first step forward in the appropriations process and will likely deem a top-line spending number of $1.47 trillion, which is in line with the cap outlined in the Republican debt-limit bill…

House Republicans plan to pass their proposal to raise the debt ceiling this week…

On Thursday, 4/20, House Republicans passed a bill that would amend a landmark federal civil rights law to bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports…

House lawmakers backed by a wide array of industries think they have a solution to Medicare’s approaching insolvency: moving more care from the hospital to the home…

On Thursday, 4/20,  Emergent BioSolutions said that it planned to charge “less than $50” for a two-pack of the nonprescription version of its opioid overdose reversal nasal spray…

President and Administration

On Thursday, 4/20, residential solar company Sunnova Energy International said the U.S. government would provide a partial loan guarantee of up to $3 billion to back financing for its rooftop solar systems…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisers chided the Federal Drug Administration’s (FDA) new bivalent-only plan for vaccinating children against COVID-19, saying that the schedule for kids five and under is too complicated and leaves some immunocompromised groups without coverage…

Education

Obama-era guidance from 2014 warned districts that racial gaps in suspension rates could indicate discrimination, but the Trump administration rescinded the document in 2018 amid fears of school shootings…

Missouri is one of 19 remaining states that legally allow the physical disciplinary method…

According to a new poll, Black parents say they play a much more active role in their children’s education than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic…

Weekly Update 4/17/23

California

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the state will get the largest portion of a multistate settlement with Juul, an e-cigarette company that will pay out $462 million to seven jurisdictions for “deceptive and misleading marketing”…

Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) says she is trying to be a bridge builder between South Korea and the U.S., but as one of only two Korean American Republicans in Congress, she also is facing challenges educating her own party…

President and Administration

On Thursday, 4/13, President Biden announced efforts to expand federal health care to immigrants who came to the United States as children but do not qualify for government insurance plans…

House Republicans are working on a plan to suspend the debt ceiling…

According to the Education Department, schools can hire more cops and install more security systems on campus using federal money distributed after last year’s attack at Robb Elementary…

Education

The question of whether Oklahoma will approve the nation’s first explicitly religious charter school will continue to remain open for now…

The business of selling and buying undergraduate educations is a tricky one, and college shoppers are increasingly seeking more price predictability and granular data to assess the offers students get…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 4/14/23

On Monday, 4/7, just one week after six were killed in a Nashville school shooting, a 23-year-old bank employee shot and killed five colleagues and wounded nine at his workplace in Louisville, all while livestreaming the attack on social media, police said…

The police have not yet determined a motive in last month’s shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville that killed six, including three children…

Gun violence has touched most American households, including two Governors from two recent mass shootings in Nashville and Louisville…

There were 131 incidents classified as mass shootings in the first three months of the year, according to the Gun Violence Archive…

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Thursday aimed at preventing gun violence in Michigan by expanding background checks and establishing penalties for those who fail to keep firearms out of the hands of children…

A California bill to regulate law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology cleared its first policy committee hearing Tuesday — but with heavy backlash…

National Public Safety Telecommunications Week is a chance to recognize the important work of people on the other side of a 911 call…

Confidential reports that provided the basis for the firing of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong were internally inconsistent and relied on thin evidence to unfairly tarnish his reputation…

Contra Costa County Judge Clare Maier released the names of 17 city police officers that allegedly used racial slurs,jokes, and memes in text messages this week…

San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata made his first public statement following the arrest and firing of the San Jose Police Officers Association’s (SJPOA) Executive Director Joanne Marian Segovia…

At least 80 people, including police officers, allege they were shot by their SIG Sauer P320 pistols…

Thousands of protesters marched toward the State Capitol in the days after the shooting…