Weekly Update 6/17/24

President and Administration

As more states require schools to out transgender students to their families, a new study links involuntary disclosure of sexual orientation or gender identity to heightened rates of depression and anxiety…

Poverty and child poverty rose in 2022 by the largest amounts on record in data back to 1967, a sharp retreat from the historic progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Better Response report features effective policy solutions states can adopt to ensure that people experiencing a mental health emergency receive the appropriate care they need…

According to a study published in the Journal of Urban Economics, DACA recipients are more likely than migrants without deportation safeguards to ask the police for help…

Over 60 national care organizations sent a letter to President Biden last week, urging the president to take action for undocumented care workers and family caregivers…

Violent crime dropped significantly in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same time last year…

The Supreme Court on Thursday (6/13) maintained access to the abortion pill mifepristone, rebuffing attempts from abortion opponents to roll back policies that have made it easier to obtain the widely used drug…

President Biden could unveil new protections for some undocumented immigrants as soon as this week…

The federal government is laying the groundwork for a potentially major change to the nation’s largest rental assistance program…

Property insurers across the U.S. are raising rates and fleeing climate vulnerable areas in response to development in risky areas…

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal deficit climbed to $1.2 trillion for the first eight months of this fiscal year, up $38 billion from the shortfall recorded during the same period last year…

The Federal Reserve is set to hold interest rates steady on Wednesday (6/12), with a persistent drumbeat of data showing the U.S. economy is still chugging along…

Congress

Conservative and liberal lawmakers lambasted the FDA and the Justice Department at a Senate hearing Wednesday (6/12) for what they said is inadequate oversight of illegal e-cigarettes sales…

California

Chinese-made bicycles are about to get more expensive in the U.S…

As the Legislature works on a budget agreement with the governor, the airport industry is requesting $5.8 million in state matching funds to secure federal grants for airport improvement projects…

A Democratic lawmaker is pulling her support from a pair of bipartisan California retail theft bills following planned amendments that would revoke the laws…

Governor Newsom is more than doubling the number of California National Guard service members deployed statewide to stem transnational trade of illegal narcotics…

Californians are sour on government spending and borrowing, according to a statewide survey released late Thursday (6/13)…

Legislative Democrats passed initial budget bills on Thursday (6/13) ahead of a June 15 deadline, but the real action is coming soon…

Education

 At the nation’s first religious charter school — an Oklahoma virtual K-12 named for the patron saint of the internet — student registration and staff recruitment are in full swing for an August opening…

In many states and districts, post-pandemic learning recovery began with literacy…

A philanthropic initiative launched in 2022 to get students back on track from COVID learning loss is returning promising results…

Every school day, police respond to thousands of calls from schools across California…

Weekly Update 6/10/24

President and Administration

The federal government is prepared to respond to disasters more quickly ahead of the upcoming hurricane season, saying it can now deploy personnel and resources earlier in the response process…

On Tuesday (6/4), President Biden issued long-expected executive actions to clamp down on migrants seeking asylum, and in doing so set the stage for the U.S. border with Mexico to be shut down between ports of entry…

More than nine in 10 adult members of Generation Z say housing affordability is an important factor in how they will vote in this year’s presidential election…

In long-term care facilities, residents sometimes yell at or threaten one another, lob insults, invade fellow residents’ personal or living space, rummage through others’ possessions and take them…

An FDA advisory committee dealt a blow to psychedelic therapy Tuesday (6/4) with a determination that the drug ecstasy, when combined with therapy, is not an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder…

Congress

House and Senate appropriators are headed for another funding clash over the nondefense spending limits…

A bill to protect Americans’ access to birth control failed in the Senate on Wednesday (6/5)…

California

The Assembly Higher Education Committee is considering a bill that aims to help fill California’s nursing shortage by strengthening community colleges as an alternative to selective public or expensive private programs…

Education

During the 2022-2023 school year, California’s two preschool programs together enrolled 209,081 children, an increase of 27,467 from the prior year…

Weekly Update 6/3/24

President and Administration

On Tuesday (5/28), the White House announced steps to modernize a major roadblock to the clean energy transformation: America’s aging electrical infrastructure…

On Thursday (5/30), the Department of Health and Human Services released a framework for its eventual best practices…

The Biden administration is insisting that small and rural nursing homes, which have struggled to hire staff for years, have nothing to fear from a new mandate…

More than a dozen internet providers agreed to continue offering discounted internet plans to lower-income households through the end of the year…

Through a partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, HunterCare is deploying telehealth technology to all Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) in Oklahoma…

This issue brief by SAMHSA offers valuable information to State Mental Health Authorities (SMHA) about the benefits of peer support and inclusion of the peer workforce…

U.S. adults have the highest rate of suicide and significantly higher mental health needs than adults in nine other high-income countries…

On Thursday (5/30), the IRS said it will make permanent the free electronic tax return filing system that it experimented with this year…

President Biden is expected to sign an executive order tomorrow allowing him to temporarily seal the U.S. border with Mexico…

The criminal trial of Donald Trump concluded Thursday afternoon (5/30) with a jury finding him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business…

Congress

Congress is headed for a perilous spending pileup in early 2025 — with crisis points on the debt ceiling…

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said his chamber will vote Wednesday (6/5) on legislation aimed at ensuring a women's right to obtain birth control…

California

A coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union released a report Wednesday (5/29) showing a drop in Black K-12 student enrollment…

California firefighters made significant progress Sunday (6/2) to tame a wind-driven wildfire that scorched thousands of acres…

On Wednesday (5/30), California’s legislative leaders reached a budget deal that dismisses many of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed cuts…

There are growing signs of an uptick in COVID-19 in California thanks to the new FLiRT sub variants…

Education

In a breakthrough win for Gov. Greg Abbott and school choice activists around the country…

In August, New Orleans Public Schools will open a district-operated school named for Leah Chase…

Infrastructure and Transportation Update - May 2024

President and Administration

On Monday (5/13), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced $1.7 million in research funding for a Climate Change and Transportation Research Center at the University of California, Davis…

In May, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced over $63 million in grants from the Infrastructure Law for the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program…

City governments are adopting electric vehicles faster than individual car buyers…

As part of its ambitious goals to slash emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, California is pushing an array of first-in-the-nation policies to go electric…

A new study found that replacing a seven year-old diesel school bus with electric would result in $84,200 in health and climate benefits…

California

Last month Oakland became the first school district nationwide to have a fully electric fleet of school buses…

In a fast-changing natural world, there are some things California fire officials can reliably count on…

California’s already high gas prices could see an additional spike of almost 50 cents a gallon tucked inside a little-known draft report…

Weekly Update 5/28/24

President and Administration

Federal weather forecasters predicted a record hurricane season in the Atlantic this summer, likely driven by a La Niña weather pattern…

The Biden administration announced $81 million in funding Tuesday (5/21) for a major new drought deal for California's San Joaquin Valley aimed at heading off brawls over scarce water resources…

City governments are adopting electric vehicles faster than individual car buyers…

White adults who say they have poor or fair mental health are more likely to say they’ve received mental health services in the past three years, compared with Black and Hispanic adults…

For years, discussions about America’s substance-abuse crisis have focused almost exclusively on the narrative that it is white, middle-age adults who face the greatest risk of dying from drug overdoses…

The Education Department says it has now processed more than 10 million 2024-25 federal student aid forms…

On Wednesday, 5/22, the Biden administration announced another series of student loan cancellations, wiping out debt for 166,000 borrowers…

Daily and near-daily marijuana use is now more common than similar levels of drinking in the U.S….

Congress

House Republican leaders hope to pass all 12 FY25 appropriations bills on the floor before the August recess…

On Thursday, 3/23, bipartisan members launched the Congressional Preventive Health and Wellness Caucus…

California

The Stanislaus County Public Defender’s Office was one of, if not the, most underfunded and overworked defense offices in the Central Valley…

On Thursday, 5/22, San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced a new funding opportunity that advances a key next step in bringing an HBCU campus to the City of San Francisco…

California lawmakers are steaming ahead with a plan to approve Amsterdam-style cannabis cafes, where patrons can have a hot meal, sip on coffee and watch a show while smoking their joints…

Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state’s largest teachers union have reached a deal that would provide California schools billions more in future funding…

Education

Soon after she had gone to jail for trying to get her children a better education, Kelley Williams-Bolar’s teenage daughter Jada confronted her mother with an accusation that will stick with her forever…

Teachers’ unions, long defenders of the teaching profession, are now putting their own spin on an often-criticized component: teacher preparation…

It’s not often that statehouse elections in rural Texas steer the national conversation about school choice…

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have spent years aggressively turning the state into a haven for school choice…