April showers appear to be bringing May… showers, at least where I live. But they also bring gloomy news updates! Hooray, spring in 2024.
Standard standing reminders still apply: I may be starting my eighth year of journalism, 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 criminal trial!–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:
The theme of the Election Et Cetera stories this cycle is both Trump Court Cases and Trump’s Horrifying Stumping. Here’s what has happened since last time:
- It’s A Wonderful Cannibal. We have yet another cycle full of news from Trump’s first criminal trial, where Stormy Daniels and then Michael Cohen testified for several days straight. Along the way, Trump was fined a grand and threatened with jail time for violating his gag order a billion times, and roasted for falling asleep during his own trial. Meanwhile, Trump’s pretty much just straight-up telling reporters that he won’t accept 2024 election results if Biden wins, and also took a moment to praise Hannibal Lecter as “a wonderful man” in the middle of a rant against immigrants. And just for maximum “the rules are made up and the laws don’t matter,” Trump’s pet judge in Florida also made the classified document case go away.
In contrast, the Capitol Hill Dales stories were relatively minor. Here’s what I have for you:
- Capital Hill Infighting. The news in pettiness from Capitol Hill this cycle is that Marjorie Taylor Greene again attempted to oust Speaker Johnson, and again failed to get the votes – in part because the Democrats supported him again. Johnson, meanwhile, scolded the Oversight Committee this week after Greene blew up a hearing by insulting a Dem’s visage on the record and then saying she “would never apologize.” He smoothed things over with the press by saying “we’re going to maintain decorum,” making one wonder if he has ever met his colleagues. There was, of course, also some jockeying about Israel, but we’ll discuss that more below.
Your New Normal:
- Marijuana and Misoprostol. The biggest news in the health world is that the Department of Justice announced that they are reclassifying marijuana, moving it from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance. The change will not cause decriminalization in entirety, but is a first step down that path. In seemingly direct contrast, Louisiana legislators moved this cycle to make abortifacients a scheduled substance for the first time in history. (If that’s not an apt metaphor for American health politics at the moment, I don’t know what is.)
The Bad:
- Ongoing Conflict in Gaza. The ongoing war in Gaza continues to have implications for American politics. Though Biden attempted to negotiate away from a full-scale invasion of Rafah, Netanyahu pressed forward with a full invasion and closed down Al-Jazeera while he was at it. This move, along with a report that Israel may be committing war crimes using U.S. resources, prompted Biden to threaten to withhold weapons – which of course immediately drew Republican ire. As I type this, the death of Iran’s president, as well as the International Criminal Court’s decision to seek an arrest warrant for Netanyahu alongside Hamas, make the entire situation even more unpredictable.
The Good:
- Recent Market Resilience. This cycle in “good news that wouldn’t even be news in a normal timeline,” the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the Fed’s authority to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau celebrated by moving forward on its efforts to crack down on predatory payday loans.
So that’s what I have for you, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For still reading these roundups, you deserve this gentle cat suggestion and a more functional government. I’ll be back next time 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 more time to take naps!
National News Roundup 