Weekly Update 4/15/24

Appropriations

On Wednesday, 4/10, House Republicans selected Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) as chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee…

California

As California becomes the first state to publicly grapple with the complexities of reparations, a conflict has emerged between reparations advocates and some lawmakers…

Central Valley residents are more likely to avoid getting health care due to cost and have more medical debt than other Californians…

Legislation that will reduce California’s budget deficit by $17.3 billion through spending cuts, deferrals and other measures is headed for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk…

On Monday, 4/8, mayors from major cities across California were at the state Capitol to testify about the exceptionally slow recovery of downtowns across the Golden State…

President and Administration

The Federal Communications Commission plans to vote later this month on a draft order to classify "broadband Internet access service as a telecommunications service," arguing that is the best reading…

Many clinicians who work with young patients with mental health issues agree they lack enough resources to treat kids and that patients are worse off now than before the pandemic…

In a move lauded by activists as one of the most significant steps on gun regulation in decades, the Justice Department on Thursday (4/11) finalized rules aimed at closing a loophole that allowed individuals to sell guns…

Education

Seeking to shed additional light on how K–12 schools are being targeted by social media–based threats…

Teachers are routinely forced to hide in their classrooms, and most fear a shooting could unfold at their workplace…

When Steve and Jenny Balbaugh’s daughter turned 5, they were hesitant to enroll her in the Fort Wayne, Indiana, schools…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update - March 2024

Appropriations

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act provides a total discretionary allocation of $89.484 billion…

California

On Monday, 3/4, Caltrans launched an equity tool designed to help all Californians benefit from transportation projects and identify communities most negatively impacted…

Dozens of autonomous vehicle companies, business groups and disability rights organizations are opposing a California bill that would give local governments…

Train passengers traveling in Northern California and the Central Valley will be able to enjoy a more comfortable and modern ride…

Seventeen months after a third-grader was hit and killed in a crosswalk on his way to school, parents, educators and a state lawmaker gathered…

President and Administration

U.S. traffic deaths fell 3.6 percent last year, but still, almost 41,000 people were killed on the nation’s roadways…

The National League of Cities (NLC) has released a new resource, the Civic Mapping Initiative, to help local governments and transit planners…

A second federal judge has ruled that the Transportation Department overstepped when it issued a rule requiring states…

Transit agencies should continually interact with their riders and community members to ensure services meet their needs…

The Environmental Protection Agency recently issued new light- and medium-duty vehicle regulations that mandate phased-in cuts…

On March 26, the nearly 1,000-foot-long Singapore-flagged container ship Dali reportedly lost power while sailing out of Baltimore Harbor…

Congress

On Wednesday, 3/6, Rep. Rick Crawford (R-AR) rolled out his campaign for chair of the House Transportation Committee…

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…