Tag: January 6

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This was another one of those weeks where a lot of (American) stories are slowly developing as I type this–it feels like the news is holding its breath. Here’s hoping we’re not about to get a deluge.

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 prime minister!–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!      

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

On the Election Rejection front, one ring of the circus went weirdly quiet but we’re still in full swing. Here’s what I have for you:

• Election Rejection: Jan 6 Stuff. This is by far the biggest ring this week, and the biggest news is that the House panel has officially subpoenaed garbage cheeto Donald Trump to testify under oath by November 14. Meanwhile, Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail and a $6.5K fine for his failure to testify in front of the same panel. Finally, a federal judge held that documents from Trump’s attorney have to be turned over to the panel as well.
  
• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago. This front was pretty quiet this week, but we did see one story confirming that the classified documents recovered at Mar-A-Lago included state secrets about China and Iran, shocking basically no one.  We’ll likely see follow-up on this one next week.
  
• Insurrection Update: Other Trump Cases. There was significant news this week regarding the Georgia criminal investigation into the 2020 election. At the top of the week, it sucked to be Lindsey Graham, who failed to convince an appeals court to pause his subpoena to answer questions from the prosecution.  But then Graham appealed to the Supreme Court, which has already granted an administrative pause, and I would posit that it sucked to be the rest of us–but more on that below.

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On the Biden Rebuilding front, there’s a lot going on as well for another week.  Here’s what has happened:

• Biden Miscellany. Remember last week, when I said that it was a good idea to get your application in sooner than December of next year if you had federal student loans to cancel, because there was already a lawsuit challenging it and the judge was considering an injunction?  Sadly, that injunction did go into effect before the week was even over. The Biden administration is still encouraging people to apply anyway, and it’s possible they feel emboldened because the Supreme Court opted not to hear an emergency appeal on the matter. At any rate, I’m sure I’ll have more news on that soon.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. There was a lot of news about how COVID harms the country this week. At the top of the week, the Washington Post ran a story about how COVID mortalities among white people have increased over time instead of decreasing, as they have done with other racial demographics. This was followed by a report from the GAO about how COVID has increased maternal fatalities, which were already much higher in the US than in any other wealthy country. Finally, a story broke just today about how COVID tanked math and reading scores–this past year’s results are the worst in thirty years across the whole country. So basically… COVID is not great for the country’s overall health and mental well-being. (I’m sure you’re utterly shocked by this unforeseen revelation.)

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The Bad:

• SCOTUS Interruptus. Comey Barrett may have opted to keep SCOTUS out of the student loan suit, but her colleague Justice Thomas did not opt for the same restraint. Just today, he granted an administrative stay on the 11th circuit order that compelled Graham to comply with the Georgia investigation. This administrative stay is almost certainly so that the full court can consider Graham’s request to freeze the whole thing until the final appeal is over. That said, given Thomas’s wife’s active lobbying on that very issue, the administrative stay is also a frustrating reminder of the fact that SCOTUS effectively has no enforceable code of ethics.

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The Good:

• Recent Energy Resilience.* There were a few headlines in the news this week about the first-ever lease sale to be held for offshore wind on the Pacific coast. As I understand it, this is a significant step forward in Biden’s clean energy plan. Hopefully, it’s also the second in a series of sales that will include several more off of Maine and the Gulf of New Mexico. Progress!

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So that’s all I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this frog dahlia hotel 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 recommendations of shows you like!

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The news was surprisingly merciful this week, for the most part–outside of health news, there’s way less than usual that will make you want to stare at walls. I think we all know better than to expect this to stay the norm, but we might as well enjoy a partial reprieve while it lasts. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled dystopia soon enough.

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 subpoena!–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!      

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

On the Election Rejection front, we’re back to a full-blown three ring circus again. Here’s what I have for you:

• Election Rejection: Jan 6 Stuff.  The House panel held its ninth public hearing on Thursday, which will probably also be its last one–though they did vote unanimously to subpoena Donald Trump, so who knows what will end up televised from that. In addition to the subpoena vote, they also aired several video and audio clips illustrating the severity of the day’s events, Trump’s knowledge of the election results, and premeditation to declare victory regardless of the actual election results.  It’s likely we’ll see further action on this, but it’s hard to predict what form it will take–I’ll keep folks posted.
  
• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago. A whole lot happened in this ring over the past week. Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court to consider the special master case was summarily denied, which in turn prompted the Department of Justice to ask to end the special master review. Meanwhile, a Trump lawyer admitted to the DOJ that she attested to a Mar-A-Lago search she hadn’t been around for (and which of course never actually happened). Finally, a Trump employee told the FBI that Trump ordered staff to move various boxes of records around shortly after he received a subpoena for the materials in the summer–which was then confirmed with security footage of Mar-A-Lago.
  
• Insurrection Update: Other Trump Charges. Trump also had a lot of sketchy business news this past week, much of which relates back to the New York civil fraud investigation.  The same day the lawsuit was filed, Trump’s lawyers attempted to incorporate–and I can’t believe I’m not making this up–the Trump Organization II. Needless to say, Letitia Jones was not amused, and has moved to freeze transfer of assets while her case is pending.  On top of that, just today the House Oversight and Reform Committee published a nine-page letter to the Secret Service regarding an investigation into Trump’s illegal self-dealing. More specifically, the panel noted that Trump repeatedly charged five times the government rate when forcing Secret Service agents to stay at his hotel as President. Though we’ve known about this self-dealing a long time, the public letter to Secret Service suggests the potential beginning of another formal investigation within the House.

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On the Biden Rebuilding front, there’s a lot going on as well for another week.  Here’s what has happened:

• Biden Miscellany. The Biden administration had a lot of odds and ends this week, but most of them were relatively positive. The administration announced a significant and unusual 8.7% cost of living adjustment for folks receiving Social Security benefits, which will help with the rampant inflation we are experiencing but is by no means a full fix. The administration also began implementing its federal student debt cancellation plan today, and will accept applications until December 31, 2023. That said, it’s a good idea to get your application in sooner if you think you might qualify, because there’s currently a pending lawsuit and that judge may implement an injunction.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. COVID news is very mixed this week. In the positive column, bivalent boosters are now available for children ages 5 and up. That said, this is particularly good because numbers are beginning to rise again–it’s looking likely that omicron variants have created another superstrain. If we continue to follow the trends first seen in Europe, as we have done for much of the pandemic, we’ll probably see an autumn surge similar to Delta just like last year. I’ll definitely keep folks posted on this.

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The Bad:

• Out of Adderall. This week, the FDA acknowledged a nationwide shortage of Adderall, which is a drug many Americans take to treat ADHD.  This is the second medical shortage with serious pediatric implications in the past year, and the infant formula shortage that began in February took many months to fix. Officials believe that this shortage may take months to fix as well, which will negatively impact the mental health of millions of Americans.

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The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. After a lengthy judicial process, jurors on the consolidated Alex Jones defamation cases reached Damages o’Clock this past Wednesday. It’s hard to imagine a less sympathetic defendant, but the compensatory damages awarded of nearly $1B are nonetheless truly incredible–this total does not even reflect the punitive damages, which will be awarded next month. Especially for compensatory damages, that’s a truly unprecedented amount. For contrast, the infamous “McDonald’s case” from 1994 awarded only $160,000 in compensation; even the highest tort damages that I’m aware of for a single case in American history, awarded in Anderson v. GM in 1999, totaled $107M in compensatory damages. The $1B award is definitely more money than Jones has, though how much money he actually has is an open question at the moment. It’s certainly a strong message, at any rate.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve these cuddle friends 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 recommendations of shows you like!

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Well, the news is still terrible, but at least it’s also Fat Bear Week until tomorrow, and look at all these good bears going for gold! (Honestly, no shade if you want to pause here and go vote for your favorite; we all need to take news breaks now and then.)

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 ballot measure!–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!      

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

I’m clearing some space in Election Rejection this week to begin discussing Election Day, which at this point is only a month away. Here’s what I have for you:

• Original Flavor Election Rejection.  With primaries over and Election Day four weeks away, we should probably talk about just how many official GOP candidates are 2020 election deniers.  (Spoiler: It’s 299 of them.) Though not all of these candidates are favored, by any means, obviously this has a number of potential implications for midterm elections, especially for the gubernatorial and Senate races. We’ll need to keep an eye on this, and now’s also a great time to familiarize yourself with candidates and ballot measures in your area if you haven’t already done so.
  
• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago. The big news from Mar-A-Lago this week is that the Justice Department still thinks they are missing classified White House documents in Trump’s possession. This revelation has also put more scrutiny on Trump’s lawyers, making more people notice him ordering them to lie during past interactions with the National Archives. Meanwhile, Trump is busy asking the Supreme Court to get involved in the special master mess, because he wants to undo the Eleventh Circuit’s smack down of the investigation pause from last week. As soon as that request was on the table, the appeals court agreed to expedite their final decision on the case, presumably because they don’t want to see what SCOTUS would do with the injunction. So it’s likely we’ll see a lot of updates in the next few weeks.

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On the Biden Rebuilding front, there’s a lot going on, though some of it was shunted to the Good.  Here’s what has happened:

• Response to Russia.* Biden had to field a lot of interrelated foreign affairs news this week. As the war in Ukraine continues to accelerate, with Ukraine exploding the Crimean bridge that connects Russia to the region, Biden expressed concern about the rising risk of a Russian nuclear attack on Ukraine. In the meantime, Russia responded through OPEC+ by moving to dramatically reduce oil output, which will in turn make gas prices climb again. This will likely help fund their invasion, but it seems clear that there were retributive motives at play as well. It’s a tricky thing for Biden to navigate as we head into the midterms.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. The depressing COVID news this week is that once again, the majority of Americans are failing to get their booster shots–it’s estimated that only four percent of eligible Americans have gotten the bivalent vaccine since it was released last month. Needless to say, this doesn’t bode well for a potential winter case surge, especially if we also see a new variant. About the best I can say is that scientists also believe that COVID is getting closer to the flu as it evolves. This makes it more treatable and predictable, especially with drugs like Paxlovid, although recent studies suggest that Paxlovid is underutilized too.

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The Bad:

• Political Determinants of Health.  This week really highlights the increasing trend of health access depending on local politicians. On the reproductive justice front, Arizona courts just paused the enforcement of their new (old?) near-total abortion ban, which was revived by a federal judge a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Oklahoma passed a law that predicated dispersal of federal medical funds, some of which were earmarked for cancer patients, on local hospitals ceasing all gender-affirming care to minors. In other words–and I want to be extremely clear about the medical consensus on this matter–the state will not fund life-saving measures until their hospitals stop providing other life-saving measures to kids. If, like me, that sentence makes you want to throw things out your window, I recommend donating to the Oklahoma ACLU, which has already signaled it is likely to sue.

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The Good:

• Recent Weed Resilience. Joe Biden took the noteworthy step this week of pardoning those with federal marijuana possession convictions. Though this likely won’t directly help that many people, proportionally speaking, he did signal that it was the first of many steps his administration plans to implement. The move will likely also impact the many marijuana-related referenda at play in next month’s election, which hopefully will spur meaningful change at the state level. Suffice to say, though this cannot be the end of the conversation, it’s a decent first step.

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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 party blep 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 warm socks because it’s getting cold!

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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!      

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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.

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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).

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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!

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This was another week of oddly off-kilter news–there were a lot of stories that were surreal or seemed to have disingenuous reporting. That said, some of it was also hilarious, which I don’t get to say very often. So I suppose I’ll take it.

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 an economy!–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!      

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

We appear to be watching an Election Rejection flying circus trifecta, and I suspect that may be how we roll for a while yet. At least some of it was hilarious. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago.  This was a weird week on the ole Mar-A-Lago front, I tell you what.  First Trump stunned everybody by announcing on Fox News that he could declassify documents telepathically (no, seriously). Then the Special Master that he requested went ahead and told him that he was gonna have to provide some actual facts about, y’know, literally anything he said. Meanwhile, the Eleventh Circuit pretty much immediately granted the DOJ’s appeal of the injunction on document seizure, basically reading Judge Cannon and Trump for filth in the process. Unsurprisingly, Legal Twitter was all too happy to gleefully deconstruct everything I just typed, so there are a lot of credible summaries out there for you to enjoy.
  
• Insurrection Update: Other Trump Charges. As foretold by prophecy, New York Attorney General Letitia James did indeed announce this week that she was bringing a big ole honking civil suit against pretty much all of Trumplandia. The suit names Trump, the company, the kids, and the dog as defendants.  (Just kidding, nobody trusts him with a dog. Also, nobody charged Tiffany.) Apparently the end goal, per James, is to block them from ever doing business in New York again.  Frankly, I cannot blame her.
  
• Election Rejection: Jan 6 Jury Stuff. But wait, there’s more Trump news! Namely, that he’s still trying to keep people from testifying in the ongoing DOJ probe into January 6, which will likely escalate in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, Ginni Thomas finally agreed to meet with the House panel on Jan 6, which she’d been avoiding for quite some time. Finally, jury selection began today for the upcoming Oath Keepers’ sedition trial, which will almost certainly see a lot of media coverage. We’ll be back with more on that next week.

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On the Biden Rebuilding front, the name of the game this week is money.  Here’s what has happened:

• Economy etc. People remain concerned about what’s happening with the economy for another week, as the Fed raised its interest rate yet again in an attempt to stave off inflation and the Dow decisively entered a bear market (rawr). There was also a Congressional Budget Office report regarding Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, but even the outlets reporting on it concede that it’s not a fair estimate because it’s estimating changes in income stream rather than identifying potential prospective costs. And speaking of Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, he’s already being sued by the Pacific Legal Foundation, an ultra-conservative excuse for a nonprofit that somehow managed to drum up a plaintiff.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. Unsurprisingly, after Joe Biden’s opining last week, there were a lot of pieces this week about how the pandemic’s not really over–which seems like it should have been obvious, but here we are. On a related note, Pfizer and Moderna both are seeking FDA approval for an omicron vaccine for kids, which we might see rolled out as soon as mid-October. Finally, the DOJ has charged 48 people in Minnesota with embezzling over $250M in COVID relief funds, making up recipients who didn’t exist and then spending the federal money on all kinds of things.

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The Bad:

• Reproductive Justice Rough Stuff. You’re getting a double dose of reproductive justice bad news this week, I’m afraid, because I wasn’t able to fit everything in last week. First, we should probably talk about the federal 15-week abortion ban that Lindsey Graham wants to bring before Congress, even though it likely won’t get traction because most Republicans don’t exactly seem thrilled by it. There are also new and strict bans in Indiana and West Virginia, although an Ohio ban was paused temporarily and as of Thursday the Indiana ban is paused too. Meanwhile, a judge in Arizona resurrected a ban from 1864 that predates Arizona even being a state. Finally, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that four different states have referenda in November that will decide whether reproductive health remains available.

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The Good:

• Recent Paxton Schadenfreude. This isn’t good news so much as just funny, but apparently human toxic waste and Texas AG Ken Paxton tried to make a break for it because he didn’t want to be served process papers for a lawsuit. Unsurprisingly, the lawsuit involved people being pissed off about his heinously impractical and absolutely bonkers abortion bounty hunter law, and it would appear that he did eventually get served the papers despite literally trying to run away from them.

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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 these serenading pancakes 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 more hours in the day!

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The news this week feels sort of odd and unmoored–there are a lot of stories that feel contradictory or confused. That said, there’s also a lot that’s very concerning, and we definitely need to keep on top of it all. I’ll do my best to demystify where I can.

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 plane ride!–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!      

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

For yet another week, the Election Rejection flying circuses have multiplied, and we’ll likely see more of this before it starts to get better. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago. In a less-than-shocking turn of events, Special Master judge Eileen Cannon did not stay her own injunction of records review, as the DOJ requested last week.  Instead, she named a New York judge, Raymond Dearie, to be Special Master and gave him until November 30th to go through everything. For their part, also unsurprisingly, the DOJ is appealing the decision just like they said they would. Meanwhile, Trump is issuing vague threats again about what will happen if he’s indicted, and Archives isn’t even sure if all of the purloined documents have been returned.
  
• Insurrection Update: January 6 and Other Trump Charges. While all of the above is happening, the DOJ probe into January 6 is still going strong as well, and increasingly circling closer to Trump. Meanwhile, the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, has rejected a settlement offer on her civil suit against him, which may signal a plan for further lawsuits.  And if you’re having trouble keeping track of the six different investigations into Trump currently happening, the New York Times has drafted a helpful recap.
  
• Election Rejection: Candidate Edition. Perhaps the most concerning story thread this week was the news that twelve major GOP candidates in various 2022 gubernatorial and senate elections refused to confirm they would honor election results. This number underscores just how much democracy itself appears up for vote in the 2022 elections, which isn’t exactly news but it’s still really disturbing and worth revisiting every so often.

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This was also a relatively active week on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Striking A Deal.  Biden managed to diffuse a major labor dispute this week, stepping in as freight railroad workers threatened to strike over untenable and unsafe working conditions such as excessively long hours and absolutely no sick leave, even unpaid.  Unions and management have tentatively reached a deal after over 20 straight hours of negotiations, and though it’s still subject to union ratification, it has forestalled a strike.  (Notably, the deal does involve more paid time off.)

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. The big news in Contagion Corner is definitely that Biden went on 60 Minutes on Sunday and opined that the pandemic was over. (He also noted that “no one’s wearing masks” anymore and thanks Mr. President, I hate it.) His blithe announcement sure was a choice, given that we’re still seeing 400 deaths per day, we’re still in a public health emergency his administration hasn’t ended, and he literally just asked Congress for COVID money. The comment was almost certainly an attempt to contain the damage ahead of 2020 elections. But just in case you needed the confirmation, public health officials and experts all over the country will gladly tell you that the pandemic’s not over. (And so will I, loudly and often.)

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The Bad:

• Climate Change Crisis in Puerto Rico.  While discussing bad news, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Hurricane Fiona has left the entire island of Puerto Rico without power. Adding insult to injury, the storm landed within a day of the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, though thankfully so far the death rate has been much, much lower. The island was still recovering from Maria’s devastation when Fiona hit, which will likely make needed repairs even more difficult. 
  
• Migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Speaking of news from five years ago, the esteemed governors of Texas and Florida took a page straight from the Trump DHS playbook this week, sending asylum-seeking migrants to specific blue-controlled locations as a publicity stunt.  The “resettlement” efforts seem to frequently involve misleading migrants, fabricating information, and refusing to tell authorities they are coming, all of which are pretty counter to proper protocol as well as human decency.  Both Desantis and Abbott have also been very clear that they’re doing this to punish Democrats.  Incredibly, the Washington Post reports that many of these people appear to be legally paroled, meaning that they are legally within the United States, and it’s likely many have viable asylum claims as well.  

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The Good:

• Recent Corporate (?) Resilience. The founder of the $3 billion company Patagonia made the interesting decision this week to transfer his entire company to nonprofit trust, setting up the annual profits to go towards efforts to combat climate change. He’s also not getting a tax break from the donation because the controlling entity will be a 501(c)(4), and in fact he will need to pay a $17.5 million gift tax as part of the transfer. Apparently Yvon Chouinard, the company founder, is considered kind of a corporate weirdo because he’s known for this kind of thing, but it’s still really awesome.

---

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 dancing doggo 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 tiktok videos involving cats!

---

A great deal of professional news this week focused on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, which I don’t consider to be within the purview of the National News Roundup. The remaining stories feel like something of a 45 Groundhog Day, but it’s what we’ve got to work with this week. Here’s hoping we’ll see more progress next week.

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 an envelope!–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:

At this point, I must concede that Election Rejection has become multiple separate flying circuses, and we’ve seen pretty much all of them before. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: FBI Tour of Mar-A-Lago.  After the Cannon special master decision on Monday, basically everyone and their kid sister in the legal profession had a soundbite about how openly partisan and legally iffy the decision was.  Unsurprisingly, the Department of Justice pushed back against the call–and especially the accompanying injunction–almost immediately. The DOJ asked Cannon to stay her decision, noting that classified documents aren’t Trump’s in the first place and pausing the review puts the entire country at risk. If Cannon doesn’t stay the decision by Thursday, the DOJ has signaled that they do plan to file an appeal and see what happens.  Of course, Trump’s opposing the stay of injunction, making it clear in the process that he’s going to drag all of this out as long as humanly possible.
  
• Insurrection Update: January 6 Subpoenathon.  The Department of Justice has also aggressively upped its movement on the January 6 investigation, issuing 40 subpoenas today against various high-profile entities and seizing two phones in the process.  They’re also expanding investigation to include looking into a Trump PAC that might have been funding various post-election schemes–or else just defrauding lots of people, which while not insurrection is also legally frowned upon.  Either way, it’s pretty clear we’ll have at least two threads to track, if not more, for the foreseeable future. I’ll keep folks posted on this.

---

This was, in contrast, a fairly quiet week on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Recent Biden Resilience. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Biden Administration’s interesting potshots at the current Supreme Court this week, which appear to be part of the fall campaign strategy for 2022. That said, I also want to draw attention to the DHS’s recent public charge revision, which will effectively bring us back to how things worked in the 1990s. It leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s still better than the Trump era rules–as you might imagine, most things are.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. Probably the biggest COVID news this week is that experts anticipate a COVID booster every year moving forward, just like the flu shot. They’re also saying that you shouldn’t get your COVID booster with your flu shot, as September may be too early for maximum efficacy on the latter. Meanwhile, New York has declared a state of emergency because not enough people have gotten their polio shots, so I guess we’re adding that one to Contagion Corner as well.

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The Bad:

• Concerning Texas Caselaw. Gender-affirming care and civil rights in healthcare are always on my mind, especially as I draft Section 1557 comments–they’re due October 3, by the way, and we can always use more support of trans rights in healthcare! But even with these things always on my brain, I want to draw attention to a case out of Texas that I think merits our attention; it may forecast resurgence of a bigger fight in healthcare.  The case in question, Braidwood v Becerra, is a pretty sketchy challenge to paying for preventative services based on religious objections to gay people. The opinion was issued by a guy who is notorious for hating the ACA–and from a legal perspective, it’s probably not the most bananapants decision that this particular judge has ever issued. It’s nonetheless really scary though, because he decided to strike coverage of PReP, which is a medication that inhibits HIV transmission and can be literally life-saving.  Many professionals in the field, myself included, also are concerned that the legal arguments used may herald much broader attacks on needed coverage for many types of preventative services. So basically, it’s a pretty “yay death” stance from the conservative corner and we need to keep an eye on this.

---

The Good:

• Senate Next Steps? Against the discrimination backdrop above, it’s promising to read that Schumer plans to advance a vote on a same sex marriage protection bill in the near future. It’s even more promising to see Susan Collins signal that she probably hopes to use the bill as her centrist rep rehabilitation plan. As with all things involving Collins, her vote is worth a thousand words, but it’s nonetheless an interesting thing to track.

---

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 dancing doggo 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 tiktok videos involving cats!

---

For yet another week, most of the news cycle features The Ongoing Espionage of Cool Ranch Mussolini. Though there were more court developments today on the special master matter–despite it being Labor Day–I’ve opted to keep the NNR on its ordinary schedule, simply because I doubt there’s an end in sight this week. We all have to come up for air sometime, y’all, and it might as well be now.

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 floor!–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:

For yet another week, Election Rejection was an entire flying circus. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: Fights in Florida. There was a lot of movement on the FBI Tour of Mar-a-Lago front this week, shocking no one except maybe Trump. First, only an hour after last week’s NNR went out (not that I’m bitter), the FBI filed a response to Trump’s very special Special Master request.  Included in the materials as an appendix was a now-famous photograph of the floor at Mar-A-Lago, which featured many classified documents just kind of hanging out in disarray; the memo notes that these are among over 100 files that were sensitive in nature were found that day. Eventually this was followed up with a full inventory list of said documents on Friday morning, which is when we learned that they also found forty-eight empty folders which used to contain top-secret information. All of this backdrop, of course, just makes it even more frustrating that Judge Cannon went ahead and paused everything except the national security review until a special master can review it all, which will take who even knows how long. But on the plus side, Biden has issued opinions on the topic also, which I’ll talk more about below.

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This was a quieter week on the Biden Rebuilding front, and most of it comes back to MAGA in some way.  Here’s what has happened:

• Recent Biden Resilience.  At the top of the week, Ted Cruz announced his intentions to sue over Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which will be an interesting standing conversation if nothing else I guess. But the big Biden news of the week was his speech in front of Independence Hall on Thursday night, where he point-blank announced that he believes MAGA Republicans are a threat to our Republic.  (Which, to be fair, is extremely true, but welcome to the party, pal.) Meanwhile, as if to prove his point, on the same day Trump was in the news for promising pardons to insurrectionists if re-elected. Both sides, amirite?

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. The biggest news in contagion land is, of course, the fact that omicron boosters were greenlit by the FDA and the CDC, and will become available most places in the near future. But this development comes alongside news about multiple long-term COVID problems–namely, that student test scores have plummeted during the pandemic and so did the national life expectancy. We also saw what appears to be the first U.S. death from monkey pox complications, and there are new concerns about the monkey pox vaccine’s efficacy. So this was a pretty rough contagion week in many ways, despite the welcome booster news.

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The Bad:

• Climate Change Struggles. There was a lot of news this week regarding consequences of climate change. Many outlets touched on the heat wave on the West Coast, which included a wildfire in California as anticipated and near-125 degree temperature in Death Valley. On a related note, a report from NOAA indicates that 2021 was one of the hottest years in recorded history. Meanwhile, more information was published on the ways climate change contributed to the current Jackson water crisis, and virologists speculate that climate change is making contagions worse too.

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The Good:

• Ranked Choice Victory. In Alaska, a ranked choice special election last week had some interesting results. The process elected Mary Peltola, who is the first Alaska Native ever elected to the House and the first Democrat elected in half a century. This is a big deal both because of the representation it entails and because of the ranked choice voting that it has pioneered–only Maine and Alaska currently have it in place for Congressional elections. It is worth noting, incidentally, that Peltola also won the first count as well–which means that ranked choice voting did not particularly steal victory away from the other candidates, no matter what Sarah Palin tells you.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it was more than enough. Nonetheless, for making it through, you deserve this hamster platformer 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 links to your favorite tunes!

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Have you noticed how a quiet week is always followed by a completely bananas week, news-wise? This week is no exception–there’s a lot going on (again), and many things are definitely still developing as I type this. But if you’re trying to follow, the NNR has your back. (Or at least, it has your news.)

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 special master!–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:

For yet another week, Election Rejection was an entire flying circus. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: Mar-A-Lago Motions.  There are still a few different ongoing stories to track here, but most of them tie back to the FBI Tour of Mar-a-Lago front in some way.  First, on Monday, Trump requested that everything stop until an independent special master could be appointed to review the documents for executive privilege. But only a few days after the judge signaled openness to the idea, the DOJ announced that they had already finished reviewing them through an independent filter team, so now it’s anybody’s guess what that judge will do with this at the next court date on Thursday. Meanwhile, we ended up hearing more from the National Archives directly about their ongoing saga with Trump, when Trump’s team more-or-less forced them to publish a May letter they sent to Trump’s liaison.  That said, I have no idea why this was the press strategy, as the letter shows that over 700 pages of sensitive documents had already been recovered from Mar-A-Lago before a bunch more turned up in the August search. Then, as foretold by prophecy, the redacted affidavit in support of the search warrant was released on Friday. Though many sections are indeed heavily redacted, there’s enough there to clearly identify the possibility of obstruction charges against Trump, so naturally now the right is threatening to riot if charges happen. We almost certainly will have even more updates on all of this by the end of the week.

---

This was also something of a frenetic week on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Recent Biden Resilience. The big Biden news this week is definitely his announcement that $10,000 of federal student loans would be forgiven for all qualifying borrowers under a certain income bracket, and an additional $10,000 would be forgiven for recipients of Pell grants.  Needless to say, everybody has an opinion on this, with some opinions being more hypocritical than others. The applications won’t be ready until October at the earliest, so everybody’s stuck kind of guessing about how they are likely to work–but this is likely to be a first step at best for addressing a major national concern. As one last federal student loan note, he also extended the payment pause again, so now federal loans won’t become due again until December 31.

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. This was a weird week for Contagion Corner. The Biden administration says we’ll have a new booster campaign shortly after Labor Day, but officials are cautioning that we don’t have the funding to distribute them effectively. The administration also announced this week that they’re suspending their free testing campaign for lack of funds, so this appears to be a common theme. Meanwhile, the new monkeypox vaccine plan is already struggling, but cases appear to be falling anyway. And Moderna is now suing Pfizer over the mRNA patent for their vaccine, arguing that Pfizer stole Moderna’s technology. Murrica, y’all.

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The Bad:

• Reproductive Justice Struggles.  This was another bad week for reproductive justice news, as another three states implemented trigger bans and Texas just made abortion services a life sentence.  That brings the new total up to twelve states with full bans and another two with six-week bans.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that one of those states, Mississippi, also has been fielding a water crisis in its capital city for the last month, which increases risk of pregnancy complications considerably.  This is a legitimate public health crisis; I’ll be looking into the best way to support the city and will report back on that.  That said, I do have one spot of good news from Idaho, where a preliminary injunction was granted for part of their trigger law because it doesn’t allow abortion to prevent health risk. (This is particularly exciting because it signals that this judge may agree that EMTALA preempts abortion laws, which has many additional implications.)

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The Good:

• Recent Climate Resilience. This has proven to be a rough week for climate change consequence news, with another heatwave and risk of an extended fire season on the west coast. Against that backdrop, I’m glad to share that the west coast also saw really significant move in combatting climate change this week, when California issued a new rule that will phase out the sale of gasoline powered cars by 2035. It’s the first rule of its kind I’m aware of, but it’s likely to be joined by others in the near future. It’s also a promising start to a longer conversation about dependence on fossil fuels.

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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 sleeping otter 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 interesting types of black tea!

---

We had a much quieter week than I expected–but then again, with all of the whirlwind last week, a calmer clip was probably inevitable. That said, there are indeed some updates on last week’s stories, especially regarding Election Rejection. A quieter week doesn’t mean an uneventful one! Nonetheless, it certainly has been less frenetic, and it’s nice to have a split second to breathe.

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 text!–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:

For yet another week, Election Rejection was an entire flying circus. Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Update: Tracking the Threads.  There are a lot of threads of ongoing stories to track here, but I’ll do my best to braid them for you. On the FBI Tour of Mar-a-Lago front, a federal judge has ordered the unsealing of the affidavit in support of the search warrant released last week, though the DOJ will be heavily redacting it so we might not learn much. Meanwhile, in the Atlanta 2020 election crimes case, though Lindsey Graham was originally compelled to testify in front of the Atlanta grand jury, he instead was given a stay by the 11th Circuit at the eleventh hour. In Trump Organization Crime news, CFO and local pancake man Allen Wesselberg did agree to testify at the upcoming larger trial in October as part of his plea deal this week–but sadly, this is unlikely to involve Trump personally. Finally, in Original Flavor Election Rejection news, Wyoming rep and GOP House panel participant Liz Cheney was voted out of office in her primary on Tuesday due to said involvement in the January 6 House panel.  She’s now organizing new opposition to Trump, and is apparently considering a Presidential run in response.

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In contrast, the Biden Rebuilding front was pretty quiet.  Here’s what has happened:

• Recent Biden Resilience.* We’ve already talked about the biggest Biden-related news this week, which is that he signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law last Tuesday.  That said, I have a few other bits and bobs for you!  Partially due to Biden’s urging, the FDA cleared the way this week for over-the-counter hearing aids, which should reduce their overall average cost of the medical by over $2,000.  Additionally, the Fifth Circuit reached a favorable decision about whether the administration was allowed to pause offshore drilling, which would have been promising, except that the same District Court judge just reissued an injunction again the next day.  So this marks the fourth Reverse Uno on off-shore drilling, for those of you playing the home game, because: 1) The Biden administration tried to block offshore drilling, but then 2) a District Court judge blocked their blocking, resulting in 3) the Fifth Circuit blocking the District Court decision that blocked the administration’s blocking of drilling, except that this lobbed the whole thing back down to the District Court, which just 4) blocked the blocking drilling all over again. Lawyers, amirite?

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Your New Normal:

• Contagion Corner. A large-scale study on post-COVID symptoms was published this week, and unsurprisingly found that COVID creates significant risk of longstanding neurological conditions such as brain fog, increased anxiety, depression, and dementia. The study also found that this risk can persist for up to two years, and overall, the risk is higher in adults than it is in children. Against this serious backdrop, perhaps it is unsurprising that CDC head Rochelle Walensky announced that the entire agency was reorganizing. Walensky cited major missteps in its COVID response as the main motivation and says that they’ll be aiming to change the agency’s underlying culture. Finally, though it’s unclear whether this is related to the previous announcement or not, news also broke today that long-term Head COVID Guy Anthony Fauci is retiring at the end of the year.

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The Bad:

• Reproductive Justice Struggles.  The continuous steady stream of states losing reproductive rights trickles on, as several more states enacted trigger laws this week.  The Washington Post estimates that one in three people capable of pregnancy is now living in a state without access, which is a pretty horrifying statistic. We can expect that number to keep going up, unfortunately, as states where advocates are suing reach resolution of their court cases.  I’ll definitely continue to keep folks posted.

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The Good:

• Recent Trans Resilience. With all the rough things going on right now, particularly regarding increased transphobia nationally, it’s edifying to share some small successes. In Utah, a new law that banned trans girls from competing in sports was enjoined by a state judge, allowing girls to compete in the coming school year while the larger court case is decided. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania became the 27th state to ban conversion therapy by executive order, which hopefully signals likely movement in other states as well.

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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 dogs going down twisty slides 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 ice cream flavor!