The school year is officially beginning in some states and there have already been disruptions due to students and staff testing positive for Covid-19. A huge number of students will learn remotely for now, with only 6 of the nation’s 25 largest school districts saying they will do in-person teaching. Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington all have primaries today. We highlight some noteworthy races and ballot initiatives to watch out for. And in headlines: several parts of the worl...
Aug 04, 2020•17 min
Disruptions and delays to the postal service have prompted concern since so many people are planning to vote by mail this year. We break down what’s behind the delay, and how to ensure your vote is counted. Congress still can’t agree on how to structure unemployment benefits in the next relief bill. Midwestern states like Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin are emerging as coronavirus hotspots. And in headlines: NASA astronauts safely return to Earth aboard SpaceX’s shuttle, three hackers charged ...
Aug 03, 2020•17 min
The Biden campaign says they will announce his VP pick any day now. According to reports, over a dozen women are being vetted — some more seriously than others. We talk to Crooked Media’s Alyssa Mastromonaco, who helped President Obama select Joe Biden, about what goes into the process in the final days and the importance of this decision. To hear more from Alyssa, check out That’s The Ticket , her Pod Save America bonus series with Dan Pfeiffer on the VP selection process, as well as her weekly...
Jul 31, 2020•16 min
Rent is due next week, but we still don’t have a new relief bill to extend federal unemployment assistance and eviction protections. Negotiations have stalled, with Senate Republicans, the White House, and Democrats far apart in negotiations. Federal agents will withdraw from Portland after a deal was reached between Oregon’s governor and the Department of Homeland Security. When this will happen is unclear, but it’s clear that state troopers will replace them. And in headlines: retail workers a...
Jul 30, 2020•16 min
The CEO’s of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet will testify before Congress today in hearings that will examine whether their companies hurt consumers and stifle competition. The Trump administration isn't getting rid of DACA (yet) but it is trying to restrict it. And the country’s second largest teachers union says they’ll support their members if they want to strike rather than go back to schools that are unsafe. And in headlines: China suspends their extradition treaty with three countrie...
Jul 29, 2020•16 min
Pharmaceutical company Moderna entered phase three trials of its Covid-19 vaccine, and plans to test the efficacy of their drug on 30,000 healthy participants. The director of the NIH said they plan to reach out to communities that have been hardest hit by the virus to form that sample group. Major League Baseball has already announced that it’s postponing two games after players and coaches tested positive for Covid-19. Vietnam moved to evacuate 80,000 tourists from one city after a man there t...
Jul 28, 2020•16 min
Florida has now passed New York in total known coronavirus cases, making it the second worst-hit state behind California which is nearly twice its size. In Europe, the UK is imposing a two week quarantine on anyone who’s been in Spain after an uptick in virus spread there. Republicans are set to propose their bill for the next round of coronavirus relief today. As federal unemployment benefits expire, we examine how we got to $600 per week in federal aid, and why Republicans want to reduce that ...
Jul 27, 2020•16 min
The federal eviction moratorium from the CARES Act expires today, leaving up to 12 million people vulnerable to eviction if they can’t pay rent. Trump cancelled the Jacksonville portion of the RNC, after he moved the event there from North Carolina. The Justice Department’s Inspector General and the Department of Homeland Security will investigate federal law enforcement actions in Portland. This comes days after Portland’s mayor was tear gassed by federal agents along with protestors in the cit...
Jul 24, 2020•17 min
NBA games start next week with just 22 qualifying teams finishing off the season that the pandemic put on hold back in March. We interview Tania Ganguli, who covers the Lakers for the LA Times and is reporting live from the Disney World basketball “bubble” where games will be held. The world passed 15 million coronavirus cases yesterday, with the US accounting for a quarter of that total. And in headlines: Trump announced he’ll be sending more federal officers to Chicago and Albuquerque, the US ...
Jul 23, 2020•21 min
Trump signed a memo yesterday that aims to omit undocumented immigrants from the census count. It seems like a way for Trump to side-step a Supreme Court ruling that removed citizenship questions from the census, and it's unclear how or if he'd even be able to do it. Protests in Portland have only increased in response to the presence of federal agents. Democrats in the House are working to take powers away from these so-called “rapid deployment teams." And in headlines: a Michigan judge denies ...
Jul 22, 2020•16 min
Trump says he’s bringing back coronavirus briefings starting today. The largest teachers union in Florida is suing Governor Ron DeSantis for using an emergency order to compel public schools to fully reopen next month. Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program at record high rates early on in the pandemic. Food stamps were set to be gutted by the Trump administration in March, but the pandemic led Congress to expand benefits temporarily. And in headlines: State Senator ...
Jul 21, 2020•16 min
Civil rights activists Rep. John Lewis and Minister CT Vivian passed away on Friday. Democrats in Congress are urging lawmakers to honor Lewis by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020, which would restore voter protections struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013. Federal agents in camouflage are patrolling streets in Portland, Oregon,using tear gas and other violent means to control protestors. The agents reportedly came as a result of Trump’s order to have federal agencies protec...
Jul 20, 2020•18 min
The US, Canada, and Britain are alleging that Russian cyberspies are trying to steal coronavirus vaccine research. In more upbeat pharma news, the biotech company Moderna is making progress with its vaccine, which will soon undergo Phase 3 testing. Last week was the 17th week in a row that new unemployment claims have exceeded 1 million countrywide. A new study showed that high unemployment has resulted in over 5 million people losing their insurance coverage between February and May. And in hea...
Jul 17, 2020•15 min
All 5,300 plus Walmarts and Sam’s Clubs nationwide will begin requiring shoppers to wear masks next week. On the state level, half of the governors in the US have now instituted at least some kind of mask requirement in public settings. New safety recommendations from the National Academies of Science, Engineering,and Medicine say schools should prioritize younger children and children with special needs where it is safe and possible. But the committee offered no guidance on what level of infect...
Jul 16, 2020•16 min
We talk to The Atlantic’s Ed Yong about how public health workers and officials are fighting the pandemic, and what we're now learning about the potential long-lasting effects of Covid-19. The Trump administration is now asking hospitals to send data on Covid-19 patients directly to them and not the CDC. And in headlines: Joe Biden announces new climate change proposal, Trump administration backs off plan to revoke some visas from international students, and Jair Bolsonaro gets pecked by rhea....
Jul 15, 2020•19 min
California is re-closing many of its businesses as cases continue to rise. LA County and San Diego County schools have agreed to cancel in-person learning this fall in favor of going back online. White House advisors to the president have been criticizing NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci in recent days. It definitely seems like retaliation for Fauci’s refusal to back down in the face of Trump’s bad pandemic policies. And in headlines: a judge orders federal executions delayed, AMC finds a way to...
Jul 14, 2020•15 min
Arizona’s governor pushed back the start of the school year from early-August to mid-August since his state has the worst Covid-19 numbers in the nation. Teachers unions don’t think that a two-week delay is enough to keep students, staff, and faculty safe. The Biden-Sanders joint task force put out policy recommendations last week, and left-leaning members seem happy with the direction things are moving. The next step is getting these recommendations into the official Democratic party platform n...
Jul 13, 2020•18 min
Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled that much of eastern Oklahoma is Native American tribal land, and that the state of New York has the power to subpoena Trump’s financial records. The WHO has revised some past positions on coronavirus spread, and is now saying unequivocally that asymptomatic spread is possible, and coronavirus can linger and infect people in the air. And in headlines: Thailand could legalize same-sex civil partnerships, “The Bold and the Beautiful” hires husbands to kiss their w...
Jul 10, 2020•16 min
As the summer weeks go by, and the virus rages on, the big question remains: How to go back to school in the fall. Trump caused a minor crisis by criticizing the CDC’s recommendations on school reopenings and threatening to cut federal funding for schools that don’t reopen in person. The Supreme Court announced a ruling yesterday that will exempt businesses from covering birth control for employees if they have religious or moral objections. More SCOTUS decisions will come through later today. A...
Jul 09, 2020•16 min
The Trump administration officially started the process of withdrawing from the World Health Organization. “Operation Warp Speed,” the government’s program to fast-track Covid-19 vaccine development, signed its largest deal so far, allocating $1.6 billion to the pharmaceutical company Novavax. Plus, an update on testing issues in hotspots across the country. Brazilian President and prominent virus skeptic Jair Bolsanaro has Covid-19. In Israel, the health minister stepped down because officials ...
Jul 08, 2020•17 min
Emergency unemployment benefits included in the CARES Act are set to expire at the end of the month. With that deadline looming, and the health crisis raging, we look at what the next potential aid package might include. Some colleges and universities have announced their back-to-Zoom plans for classes in the fall. The faculty at Georgia Tech are currently pushing back against a plan to resume in-person classes, while Harvard will make all classes remote while charging full-price for tuition, an...
Jul 07, 2020•16 min
Scientists worldwide want the World Health Organization to take a stronger stance on airborne transmission of COVID-19. In the US, records were set last week for the highest number of daily cases, with hotspots that led some governors to halt re-openings or begin re-closings. Trump gave some hall-of-fame dumb speeches this week, stoking division by focusing on “cancel culture”, then adding to the confusion around coronavirus by downplaying the disease’s severity. And in headlines: new opinions t...
Jul 06, 2020•16 min
New antibody data from the CDC indicates that only 1 in 10 COVID-19 cases in the country have been identified. That still means more than 90 percent of the country hasn’t had the virus. Incidences of police brutality continue to be reported around the country. Three officers resigned and the police chief offered his resignation in Tucson, where Carlos Ingram-Lopez died in police custody. In New York, an NYPD officer was charged with using an illegal chokehold. And in headlines: the Supreme Court...
Jun 26, 2020•17 min
Democrats in the Senate blocked a Republican police reform bill yesterday, and Democrats in the House are expected to bring their police reform bill to the floor today. In Colorado, millions are calling for a new investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, who was killed in police custody last year. The country hit its single-day high in new confirmed coronavirus cases yesterday. A new trend is emerging of local jurisdictions making their own calls in the absence of state and federal leaders...
Jun 25, 2020•16 min
An estimated 25,000 cases of COVID-19 are tied to U.S. meatpacking plants, where employees work in close quarters and enclosed spaces. We speak with a Smithfield Foods employee out of South Dakota about what it's been like at her facility. Dr. Fauci says the US is experiencing a “disturbing surge” of infections after states reopened too quickly. But he’s cautiously optimistic about a vaccine, suggesting that one could be available as soon as the end of this year. And in headlines: federal prosec...
Jun 24, 2020•16 min
Trump signed a new executive order yesterday temporarily barring new foreign workers from coming to the US until the end of the year. The tech industry has warned that this order hinders their ability to recruit top talent. In Minneapolis, a city council pledge to dismantle the police department could be harder to implement than expected. And one county jail is facing criticism for allegedly blocking non-white correctional officers from guarding former police officer Derek Chauvin. And in headli...
Jun 23, 2020•16 min
New York, Virginia, and Kentucky have primaries on Tuesday. We speak with two progressive candidates for congress: Jamaal Bowman, who’s running against incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel for New York’s 16th congressional district, and Charles Booker, who’s running against Amy McGrath, for senate in Kentucky. COVID-19 is still happening in the US, whether government officials recognize it or not. New daily cases have hit record highs in 12 states, with about 30,000 new daily cases countrywide. And in hea...
Jun 22, 2020•18 min
The Supreme Court ruled that Trump can’ t immediately end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, because his administration’s reasons for ending it are not sufficient. We explain what comes next. Today is Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. We discuss the day’s significance and why this year’s Juneteenth feels different than others. And in headlines: Seattle’s largest labor group votes to expel the police union, California’s mask law, and a high-...
Jun 19, 2020•19 min
COVID-19 cases have plateaued in the US at around 20,000 a day as some states are seeing outbreaks grow. That hasn’t stopped Texas governor Greg Abbot from enforcing his executive order that bans cities from making face coverings mandatory. The police officer who killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia is now facing 11 charges including felony murder. Contact tracers are working around the country to cut off chains of coronavirus transmission. We interview one of them, Alexander Miamen, about...
Jun 18, 2020•17 min
Trump signed a fairly inconsequential executive order yesterday that is supposed to incentivize police departments to adopt reforms. Across the country, local officials are continuing to respond to protests against police brutality and systemic racism—some making more impactful moves than others. We interview Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley about federal legislation on policing, and why ending qualified immunity is a central goal. And in headlines: violent clashes along China and India’s bord...
Jun 17, 2020•20 min
