Weekly Update 9/16/24

President and Administration

The Biden administration sent letters last week warning top appropriators of significant delays in Social Security benefits if Congress doesn’t include billions of dollars extra…

New data from the Census Bureau last week shows that Americans’ inflation-adjusted incomes rose four percent last year…

A study of adolescent brain development that tested children before and after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in the United States found that girls’ brains aged far faster…

Promoting diversity and gender equality in the high-tech workforce remains a challenge for employers…

The percentage of Americans who had health insurance in 2023 remained unchanged from 2022 at 92 percent…

Certain demographic factors, like access to broadband internet, health insurance coverage, and household income, are tied to suicide rates…

Federal authorities are investigating an incident at former President Donald Trump’s Florida golf club on Sunday (9/15) as an “attempted assassination,” a potential second attempt…

Millions of Americans are endangered by extreme heat due to federal policies that steer billions of dollars away from the nation’s hottest regions…

The Education Department announced Friday (9/13) that it will give colleges until Jan. 15 to meet new financial transparency rules…

Congress

Regulation of social media has become one of the few significant areas of bipartisan agreement in an election year otherwise wracked by partisan gridlock…

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is considering marking up a key telehealth bill this week…

House Republicans advanced a school choice tax bill backed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos…

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on Wednesday (9/11) introduced comprehensive legislation to overhaul federal housing programs to bring down costs…

California

California’s oil czar told Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders Friday (9/13) that another gasoline price spike is in the works in California…

California’s prison population has been slowly declining for years as the state has implemented criminal justice reforms and shut prisons…

California is considering a first-in-the-nation proposal granting some undocumented immigrants access to a government-run phone bill discount program…

Trump on Friday (9/13) threatened to withhold federal disaster response funding from California over Gov. Gavin Newsom's position on water deliveries to farmers…

Education

Higher summer temperatures, driven by climate change, are pushing more school districts nationwide to start the school year later…

A new report has found a continuing trend of students leaving four-year colleges compared to two-year programs — with experts pointing to a successful advising model…

In this opinion article by Tenelle Porter, Jon Valant, & Robin Bayes, the authors argued for the importance of teaching intellectual humility in schools…

Knox County Schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, significantly reduced teacher vacancies through a strategic recruitment campaign…

A slew of pandemic-era emergency aid for children—including universal school meals and Medicaid expansions in many states—led to the lowest child poverty rate on record…

The U.S. Department of Education’s new Title IX regulation is getting a ton of attention lately, with lawsuits…

This article by Education Week explores why efforts to abolish the U.S. Department of Education have consistently failed since its creation in 1979…

Weekly Update 9/9/24

Appropriations

The Senate approved its bipartisan Water Resources Development Act Thursday afternoon (8/1)…

President and Administration

The Biden Administration requires raises for some of the nation’s early childhood educators, but teachers may not see the pay bump for several years…

States and districts with spending extensions have an extra 14 months beyond the spending deadline to liquidate their allocations…

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris floated expanding the child tax credit Friday (8/16) as part of her first stab at crystallizing her economic vision…

JD Vance has floated the idea of more than doubling the child tax credit…

New preliminary data from major U.S. cities shows a sharp drop in violent crime in the first half of the year — more than 25 percent in some communities — as the COVID-era crime wave recedes…

Since 2008, Congress, with bipartisan support, has spent billions on rental aid for unhoused veterans…

The White House is taking new steps to fight lead contamination in school drinking water…

The Biden Administration is finalizing a sweeping expansion of regulations that require insurers to cover mental health and addiction care on the same terms as other care…

The Administration announced new actions to improve student academic success…

The Biden Administration in August released results of the first Medicare drug price negotiations…

The FDA on Thursday (8/22) approved and authorized messenger RNA Covid vaccines to target a specific virus strain as the fall respiratory illness season approaches…

American parents need a bailout….

The Supreme Court in August denied the Biden Administration’s request to allow its new Title IX rule to be partially implemented in 10 states…

With kids back in school, there is promising news about teen mental health: Girls seem to be feeling a little better…

A study in JAMA found that a tailored text messaging intervention program aimed at youth using e-cigarettes successfully got more than a third of users to quit…

Social media’s effects on the mental health of young people are not well understood…

The Texas Attorney General’s Office sent a letter in August (8/10) urging the Supreme Court to weigh in on a lawsuit regarding the Biden Administration's loan repayment plan, known as SAVE…

Depression and suicidal activity have decreased slightly for teens since 2021…

The 988 mental health crisis hotline is seeing steadily increasing usage two years after its launch despite low public awareness of the service…

Tim Walz gave his nod of approval to CBS News’ invitation to debate JD VANCE on Oct. 1 in New York City in a post on X Wednesday (8/14) afternoon…

Cannabis use among young adults remains near all-time highs recorded in 2021 and 2022…'

Youth vaping in the U.S. hit its lowest level in a decade this year, the FDA and CDC said…

On Wednesday, 9/4, a 14-year-old used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia…

Congress

The Senate killed a once-promising $78 billion tax package (8/1) in the chamber’s last vote before lawmakers headed out of Washington for the August recess…

California

California state superintendent Tony Thurmond is pushing school districts to build affordable housing for teachers as well as the students they enroll…

With the fentanyl crisis continuing to spiral across California and the nation, Gov. Newsom and state lawmakers want to stop another potent drug before it reaches a similar trajectory…

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is hedging its bets on how it cooperates with the federal government on water ahead of a potential second Trump term…

California put hundreds of millions of homelessness dollars at risk because of its “disorganized” and “chaotic” anti-fraud policies…

A 2022 law signed by Newsom aimed at protecting young people online likely violates the First Amendment of the Constitution…

The California Assembly sent legislation to Newsom to ban legacy admissions at private universities…

Newsom vetoed a bill on Friday (9/6) that would have made some undocumented immigrants eligible for up to $150,000 in state-backed home loans…

California public school enrollment reached 6.4 million students in 2004…

Two key California reparations proposals will not receive Assembly votes on the final day of the state’s legislative session…

A California bill that attempted to penalize social media companies for harming young users is dead for the year…

Education

In the interview hosted by the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research,  Starlee Coleman…

English language learners in four major school districts in California are now more likely to be chronically absent than their peers…

Amid the ongoing youth mental health crisis and rising rates of chronic absenteeism…

An early look at new special education datasets reveals massive inconsistencies in how states identify children as needing services…

Three in 10 LGBTQ youth have at least one formal disability diagnosis, according to a new report from the Human Rights Campaign…

A contract founding the nation’s first religious charter school is now void, but it could be reestablished if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the school…

A new study of charter schools in Massachusetts has identified strikingly positive academic results…

In this special summer episode, Michael and Diane are joined by David Yeager…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 9/6/24

On Wednesday, 9/4, a 14-year-old used an AR-15-style semi automatic rifle to kill two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Georgia…

In the aftermath of America’s latest deadly school shooting, President Joe Biden renewed calls for stronger gun laws…

The 14-year-old arrested after the mass shooting at Apalachee High School had been “begging for months” for mental health help before he allegedly carried out the deadly attack Wednesday, according to his aunt…

America’s high rate of fatal fentanyl overdoses could be halved if users were treated with another opioid, Biden administration officials and a bipartisan group of senators believe…

Youth vaping in the U.S. hit its lowest level in a decade this year, the FDA and CDC said…

A federal appellate court has rejected qualified immunity for a San Jose police officer who infamously shot an activist with a projectile during George Floyd-related protests four years ago, allowing an excessive force lawsuit to resume…

Community backlash over a Santa Clara County proposal to purchase a San Jose-owned interim housing site for a jail diversion program has left officials looking for options to assuage residents’ mounting public safety concerns…

Public Safety and Justice Update: 8/23/24

The final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, 8/22, included a lineup of lawmakers and others who have long advocated for gun safety and have dealt with the aftermath of gun violence in their communities…

On August 15, 2024, the Justice Department announced that it issued a letter to state and local police departments and governments about programs that may violate federal housing protections…

Despite the growth and evolution of data in policing over the past several decades, calls for better data continue to grow. RAND and the Police Executive Research Forum…

The California Department of Justice (DOJ) releases its latest crime data every year at the beginning of July…

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last week a package of bills intended to crack down on retail, property, and auto thefts, legislation he requested in January in a city whose mayor publicly backs a November ballot measure the governor opposes to further crackdown on the crimes (Prop 36)…

California Assemblymember Chris Holden dropped his second attempt in recent years to restrict the state’s use of solitary confinement in prisons, jails, and immigrant detention facilities…

Weekly Update 7/29/24

Appropriations

Senate appropriators are scheduled to mark up their remaining fiscal 2025 bills this week, taking up the Energy-Water, Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Homeland Security and Financial Services measures on Thursday (9/1) before the upper chamber adjourns for recess…

President and Administration

In 2022, most U.S. smokers wanted to quit, but only half tried and few were actually successful, according to a CDC report out Thursday (7/25)…

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office released new projections on the effects of the U.S. immigration surge on the federal budget and economy…

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she had secured enough verbal commitments from delegates to the Democratic National Convention to clinch the party’s presidential nomination…

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned last week after a contentious hearing with lawmakers, in which members on both sides of the aisle ripped into her for her agency’s failure to prevent the shooting of Donald Trump…

Congress

House easily passed its 2024 Water Resources Development Act last week as lawmakers push to enact the biennial infrastructure legislation before election-year politics grind legislative work to a halt…

House Ways and Means Committee member Adrian Smith (R-NE) and Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) introduced a bill last week that would block the IRS from continuing its Direct File program…

This week, the Senate is expected to pass a combined bill on children's privacy and safety online…

California

In an executive order issued Thursday (7/25), Gov. Newsom ordered state agencies to begin sweeping homeless encampments on public property that pose a risk to “life, health and safety…”

The California Supreme Court on Thursday (7/25) upheld Proposition 22, the voter initiative that allows Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies to classify drivers for their ride-hailing and delivery services as independent contractors…

The organizers of California Forever, a tech billionaire-backed plan to build a new city near San Francisco…

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is making a second run for California governor, a 2026 comeback bid in which the Democrat is staking out a pragmatic lane, contending the state needs someone willing to make difficult…

Education

About two-thirds of K-12 schools were hit by ransomware in the last year, according to a new report by the cybersecurity company Sophos…

Eighth graders remain a full school year behind pre-pandemic levels in math and reading…