To say that this was not a great week, news-wise, is pretty much like saying the Sahara is kind of arid. (While I pride myself on my dry delivery, that might be a bit much even for me.) It’s my hope that next week will be better–or, at the very least, that it won’t be worse. Either way, of course, I’ll keep people posted.
Standard standing reminders still apply: I guess after six years I’m conceding that I’m a journalist, but I summarize news within my areas of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a lawsuit!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news!
Cleanup in Aisle 45:
We’re still stuck in the Election Rejection flying circus trifecta, and it was much less funny this week. Here’s what I have for you:
- Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago. I know I say this every week, but this really was another truly weird week on the Mar-A-Lago front. Last week’s weird Trump telepathy announcement more-or-less forced the DOJ to clarify its list of inventory to dispute claims that they had planted things, and Trump’s attorneys seem to be split on how the prevailing legal tactic in response. Meanwhile, the judge who appointed the special master in the first place went ahead and signaled to Trump that he could ignore the special master, and the National Archives says that they still don’t have all of the missing Trump documents back. So, uh… there’s a lot to unpack there, but the short version is like so much legal precedent these days, there’s very little actual law to unpack.
- Insurrection Update: Other Trump Charges. The main news out of New York is that Attorney General Leticia Jones is trying to expedite her lawsuit against the Trumps, noting that they’re attempting to delay the process as a stall tactic. (I suppose that’s hardly surprising, given the paragraph above–when all you have is a stall technique, everything looks like a flail.) This ring of the circus might go dark for a bit as we wait for updates, but I suspect it will still pop up every so often, and it’s definitely still ongoing.
- Election Rejection: Jan 6 Stuff. As foretold by prophecy, both the beginning of the Oathkeeper trial and Ginni Thomas’s House panel interview garnered a lot of media attention this week. There was also a lot of attention understandably given to the news that a White House landline apparently called a rioter on January 6. There would likely be more news on all of this, but the final House hearing, which was originally scheduled for September 28, has been postponed as I type this. I’ll definitely let folks know what comes out of said hearing once it does occur.
On the Biden Rebuilding front, the name of the game is money for another week. Here’s what has happened:
- Economy etc. (again). In the wake of the lawsuit I mentioned last week, and a second lawsuit being brought by six random states that I guess hate college students, the Biden administration decided to scale back its original plan to forgive $20K in student loan debt. More specifically, while many residents will still qualify, about 700,000 people who hadn’t yet consolidated older loans are now being told they missed the boat on that–which has serious notice issues, so we may see another lawsuit about it. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office released a report this week announcing that the richest people in America keep getting richer while the rest of us keep getting poorer, which I could have told you for free (and do, with great frequency).
Your New Normal:
- Contagion Corner. This was perhaps a quieter COVID week than it should have been, given the fact that COVID case numbers rise again in much of the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest. That said, the CDC is ending its country-by-country travel advisories, which is probably a good thing to know if you plan to fly anywhere. Meanwhile, the CDC thinks the monkeypox vaccine probably works, probably, and the FDA has new rules about when companies are allowed to say food is “healthy.” (Short version: If it contains too much added sugar, it’s just sparkling diet food.)
The Bad:
- Climate Change Catastrophe. Hurricane Ian made landfall twice over the weekend, and left a trail of devastation in its wake both times. At the time that I type this, at least 62 people are dead from the storm; these numbers were likely exacerbated by both a delayed evacuation and how climate change is supercharging hurricanes in general. A number of places in Florida are now lacking drinking water and power, which is extra concerning because we’re apparently expecting more hurricane activity after this. I’ll keep folks posted on this front.
- Updates from Ukraine.* On Friday, Vladimir Putin announced the illegal annexation of a sizeable part of Ukraine and raised the specter of nuclear action. The announcement was anticipated, as it followed a sham vote process that was more-or-less public. As a result, Biden was already poised to announce new sanctions on Russia, and Congress also had already authorized $12.3B in aid to Ukraine. In the time since his announcement, Ukraine has reclaimed Lyman, but the situation remains very serious.
The Good:
- Recent Senate Resilience. The Senate Rules Committee drummed up the votes this week to advance a bill designed to prevent a second January 6 attack on the Capitol, largely because it would clarify that the Vice President’s role in ratification is ceremonial. Now that everybody but Ted Cruz has voted for it on the committee, it’s headed to the Senate floor–so I’ll likely have more news on it soon.
So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. Nonetheless, for making it through, you deserve this happy lab’s spa day and a more functional government. I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your favorite Tiktok videos!
National News Roundup 