Tag: Year 5

As foretold by prophecy, I’m even more sick of the word ‘omicron’ two weeks later–unfortunate, when it’s now even more ubiquitous. But I’ll have the long and the short of the relevant news for you below, and I probably won’t even complain that much! (Where you can read it, at any rate.)

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area 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!    

Cleanup in Aisle 45:

For yet another week, there are a lot of Election Rejection updates to report.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Updates. With the news picking up again, we’re back to this section being pretty wild. Three federal judges found that all capitol riot criminal charges are constitutional–not that I’m sure why we were even debating that–and the first Proud Boy pled guilty. The House panel is issuing yet more subpoenas for stuff, and more and more, the wagons are circling around the Trumps; in addition to the House panel, the New York AG issued subpoenas for Ivanka and Don Junior today (though that’s a civil suit, not criminal). And a recent poll found a full one-third of Americans now believe that violence against the government can be justified, so that’s not terrifying at all.

In comparison, things looked distressingly quiet on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Biden’s Omicron Abiding. After weeks of administrative resistance to increasing test accessibility, the Biden administration did say they’d expand test access as we went into the holidays. But then they swerved in almost the same breath, resisting school shutdowns despite rising cases and calling Omicron a state problem. This followed with the CDC cutting quarantine time in half for people with asymptomatic infections, sending folks back out after five days without even requiring a clean test. Then Fauci eventually had to say “maybe we’ll require tests,” presumably because people criticized the administration for putting essential workers in unsafe conditions so that they could keep businesses running. (I know I’m not That Kind of Health Professional, but nonetheless I seriously cannot overstate how much it horrifies me that they didn’t at least require a negative test to end quarantine.)

Your New Normal:

• Recent Senate Dysfunction.  The Senate’s back in session and back to its nonsense this week.  We’re already back to fighting about the Build Back Better Act, which Joe Manchin of course continues to spit on, and since it hasn’t yet passed we also ended the child tax credit in the middle of a new pandemic surge.  Meanwhile, the Democrats are returning to their push to preserve voting rights, and Senate leaders have indicated that they will blow up the filibuster if they don’t move the voting act forward by January 17. 

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  Having covered the Biden stuff above, we’re mostly down to science, medicine, and data updates for this section. Unfortunately, at first blush, the data news is not great: omicron cases have skyrocketed as many places hit all-time pandemic peaks in case numbers; test supply just cannot keep up with test demand; omicron is definitely way more contagious than other variants; and antibody treatments largely don’t work against this variant. Sadly, social news isn’t a lot better; unprecedented numbers of flights have been canceled in the past week and the CDC is now contraindicating cruises. But somehow, the science news is… largely positive?  Omicron is more contagious, but research increasingly shows that infections are less severe and of shorter duration, in part because it doesn’t target the lungs, and its infection enhances neutralization for more dangerous variants. There is also good news on the medicine front; the Pfizer and Merck COVID treatment pills were both approved by the FDA, and Pfizer boosters for ages 12-15 were approved as well. 

The Good:

• Recent Administrative Wins. We had some promising legal changes in the past week. In my field, there was implementation of a new ban on surprise medical billing, which I’m pretty psyched about, and federal student loan payments got pushed back again to May. Moving from my professional neck of the woods to my geographic one, the Wampanoag tribe had a significant win in a Department of Interior decision this week, effectively reversing a Trump-era implementation that put many acres of their land in limbo.

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 this panda cub’s first snowfall as well as a more consistently improved 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 KN-95 masks!

I must have read the word ‘omicron’ a hundred times while I was compiling links this week, and I don’t mind telling you, I’m already sick of the word. But it’s going to see a lot of heavy rotation over the next few weeks, so I guess I need to get used to it.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a Joe Manchin!–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, there are a lot of Election Rejection updates to report.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Updates.  This was a bonkers week for insurrection news.  A lot of focus is still on Trump’s “paperwork coup,” which highlights the alarming communications leading up to January 6.  But this week also saw a five-year sentence for an insurrectionist who threw a fire extinguisher, which is the longest sentence to date.  The guy who plays Jimmy Pesto was fired from ‘Bob’s Burgers‘ for participating on January 6.   And after yet another judge threw out the latest Trump attempt to block his tax returns, he decided to just sue the New York Attorney General for prosecuting him.

In comparison, things looked distressingly quiet on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Congressional Updates. This was an uncomfortably quiet week for the Biden administration.  There was the debt ceiling bill, which passed without incident at the top of the week.  Biden also passed a new climate emissions rule.  But his protracted efforts to negotiate a final Build Back Better Act with Joe Manchin proved ultimately unfruitful for another week, as I’ll discuss below, and efforts to negotiate a voting rights deal didn’t go much better.  Congress is now on break without a vote on either package, though Chuck Schumer is saying they’ll vote in early January.

Your New Normal:

• Recent Senate Dysfunction.  As I alluded to above, this was not a great week for the Build Back Better Act.  Though Joe Manchin was in talks with the White House for most of the week, he gave an interview to Fox News on Sunday night indicating that he would not, in fact, vote for the bill. Then a follow-up story surfaced suggesting he’s refusing to follow party lines because he thinks the Child Tax Credit would be used by constituents to buy drugs.  A failed package, obviously, would have a lot of implications for climate change, and none of them are good; his stunt also flung egg on the face of an administration with a consistently-dropping approval rating.  Needless to say, nobody on the Dem side of the aisle is especially happy with him.  Nonetheless, Senate leadership is promising a vote on the bill in early January.   

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  COVID news is looking bleak, y’all.  Case numbers are definitely climbing at an alarming rate, particularly in the Northeast; New York reportedly is experiencing its highest case count of the entire pandemic.  We also surpassed 800,000 total U.S. deaths, a stunning milestone after nearly a year of vaccine access.  News also broke that this number might be so high in part because Trump deliberately undermined efforts to contain the virus for his own political gain.  But the biggest story by far is the omicron variant, which appears to be on everyone’s mind as a major driving force of yet another giant wave of infection.  The general consensus is that omicron is much more infectious than earlier variants, but the jury seems split on whether it causes milder symptoms all around or it just looks that way because many places with high infection have high rates of vaccination. This confusion is understandable, because the data suggest that two-dose vaccination alone doesn’t stop the virus from spreading, but it does prevent severe symptoms in most instances.  Nonetheless, obviously, boosters are highly recommended for everyone eligible.

The Good:

• Recent Health Policy Resilience. We did see some promising medical developments this week. The FDA announced that it will permanently lift restrictions on mailing mifepristone, a substance that can be used to terminate pregnancy for up to ten weeks post-conception. And in other pharma news, a federal judge reversed a 4.5 billion Purdue opioid settlement, finding that the bankruptcy court didn’t have authority to make the many, many pending lawsuits go away.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this dog and his emotional support ball as well as a more consistently improved 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 shows to stream you think I’d like!

Collating the news is starting to feel like staring at that whiteboard from Cabin in the Woods, y’all. I can’t say I enjoy the feeling, but at least somebody’s keeping track? (Although, just for the record, I don’t want to see the merman.)

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a House panel!–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:

Boy howdy are there a lot of Election Rejection updates to report this week.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Insurrection Updates.   Remember last week, when Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows did eventually start cooperating with Congress, and was supposed to appear before the Jan 6 panel? Yeah, after more details of his actual actions on Jan 6 went public he did a hardcore takebacksie, and now he’s not cooperating so hard that he’s held in contempt and suing the panel.  His contemporary Jeffrey Clarke, in contrast, is held in contempt for pleading the fifth after showing up, which appears to be an increasingly common tactic. The panel is responding by continuing to make it rain subpoenas. Meanwhile, Trump’s attempt to block the release of his records got pretty much laughed straight out of appeals court, so now those records will be released unless the Supreme Court intervenes.  In other lawsuit news, the Department of Justice is suing Texas over redistricting again and the DC Attorney General is suing the Proud Boys.

In comparison, things looked distressingly quiet on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s what has happened:

• Congressional Updates.  The main stories this week are about Congressional action (and lack thereof). On the plus side, apparently everybody worked together to raise the debt ceiling, so that can has been effectively kicked out to this time next year. But there’s no movement in the Senate on the Build Back Better Act, unless you count Joe Manchin loudly trashing it, because they were too busy symbolically voting to repeal testing and vaccine mandates. Your tax dollars at work, distinguished guests.

Your New Normal:

• Climate Change and Working Conditions.  This one touches on a number of different dystopian themes at once, so we’ll go through them one at a time.  An unprecedented spate of severe tornadoes caused over 80 deaths and left over 100 people unaccounted for this weekend.  The tornadoes hit across six states, though the lion’s share of the damage occurred in Kentucky.  This would be a national tragedy all by itself, and the unusual weather pattern is almost certainly caused by climate change.  But as people began to ponder the fatality rate in the aftermath, stories started to focus on the 14 deaths that occurred at two specific work sites: an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, IL and a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, both of which were completely destroyed. Workers at the Mayfield candle factory reported that they were told they would be fired if they left ahead of the storm; several of the workers present were also inmates on a work-release program. Amazon workers also expressed concern about plans to resume banning cell phones on the floor in light of the role mobile phones played for the Illinois workers.  These deaths are tragic, and they highlight the increasingly-common domestic exploitation that has caused so many factory worker strikes across the country.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19. We’re still waiting for consensus about what’s going on with omicron, but Pfizer says its booster is effective against the variant and preliminary studies suggest less fatality in general.  Meanwhile, SCOTUS refused to block a vaccine mandate for workers in New York.  And the good folks at Listerine would like us to know that it does not prevent COVID, no matter what the GOP tells you.

The Good:

• Recent LGBT Resilience. We had some pretty good international LGBTQA+ news this week. Chile legalized same-sex marriage after a lengthy legal dispute. And Canada joined a growing number of countries that have banned conversion therapy of minors, a psychologically dangerous and medically contraindicated practice which is already banned in 20 states here and frankly should just be banned everywhere.

• Organizing Updates. In light of the story above, I thought I would also share some bright points regarding labor organization from the past week. The Kellogg’s strike, which has been ongoing since October 5, gained some support in the face of the company’s plan to permanently replace striking employees when Zoomers began a campaign to spam their application site with fake applications. Meanwhile, a Starbucks in Buffalo became the first-ever to unionize after months of organizing efforts, which is honestly really cool to see.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this cat workplace saga as well as a more consistently improved 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 sachets of Cold 9-1-1 tea!

It was a bit of a quieter week, all things considered, but the news is still here and so are we. And we’ll likely see increased chaos as things start to churn again, so this is a great time to keep your eyes open.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a guilty plea!–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:

There’s more Election Rejection to report this week, and it’s still all over the map.  Here’s what happened this week:

• Insurrection Updates.  In the few days leading into the holiday, we managed to see a lot of activity regarding January 6.  Several more subpoenas have gone out, largely to organized groups like the Proud Boys and more high-profile Trump aides like Roger Stone. The House panel is also looking into law enforcement failures that exacerbated the Jan 6 attack and considering holding more Trump aides in contempt. Meanwhile, Trump is still trying to block the release of his records, but it’s looking increasingly likely that they will be released. 

All things told, this was a pretty quiet week on the Biden Rebuilding front.  Here’s all I have for you:

• Biden Administration Updates.  After months of needling from Democrats, Biden began discussing inflation this week, likely because this month’s unprecedented price hikes will impact holiday commerce. Biden did also take an opportunity to discuss the Omicron variant, which has occupied the public consciousness for much of the week–but more on that below.

Your New Normal:

• Shifting Political Landscape.  With Congress in recess all of last week, this seems like a good time to talk a bit more about the redistricting occurring across the country. The process occurs after every census, but for the first time in many decades it’s occurring with a gutted Voting Rights Act and more permissive redistricting rules. Unsurprisingly, this is leading to massive amounts of gerrymandering for both state and federal districts, to say nothing of the mess naturally created by population movement.  Overall, it seems clear that Republican districts are growing and competitive districts are shrinking, and increasingly districts will not reflect the actual ideology of the majority of voters. In a time when we’re already seeing so much challenge to democracy, obviously, this is very concerning.  It’s also a fine reason to urge your representatives to support pending voting legislation in the House and Senate.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  The main COVID news this week is the Omicron variant, which has everybody justifiably very concerned.  It’s a new mutation first identified in South Africa that has been found in several countries, including Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Israel, and Italy–but, notably, not the U.S. at the time that I write this. Scientists believe it represents an increased risk of reinfection, due to the high number of spike protein mutations, and increased transmissibility in general as well. Travel bans are now in effect in many places, including the U.S., particularly regarding flights from South Africa.  The DOW also dropped dramatically in anticipation of further market upheaval. The news is particularly unpleasant because infection rates in the U.S. are already rising again, despite the lack of Omicron COVID here.  Needless to say, everybody eligible is urged to get their booster shot as soon as possible. 

The Good:

• Black Lives Still Matter. After the slow-motion mockery of the Rittenhouse trial, it is a modest comfort, but comfort nonetheless, to report that all three defendants in the Ahmaud Arbery trial were convicted of murder this week. It’s another case with major racial implications, and given the response in Congress to the Rittenhouse trial, it’s pretty evident that there are political ramifications to mishandling these trials. On a related note, we’re increasingly seeing courts all over the country revisit wrongful convictions that were based on racial animus from years past. It’s a trend that highlights very old systemic bias in this country, and it’s my hope that we’ll continue to see systemic reform.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry that slow news is not good news. For making it through, you deserve this happily digging doggo as well as a more consistently improved 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 hot cocoa recipe!

This past week looks an awful lot like the previous week–a lot of back-and-forth; a lot of doubling down; a lot of mess. We did see progress in a few areas, but there was an awful lot of rough news to swallow as well. I recommend washing it down with ice cream.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a guilty plea!–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:

There’s more Election Rejection to report this week, and it’s still all over the map.  Here’s what happened this week:

• Insurrection Updates.  This week was just… more of everything. Trump aide Steve Bannon, who was officially indicted for contempt of Congress and turned himself in on Monday, has pleaded not guilty to illegal Congressional dickitude. And speaking of pleading, more people accepted plea bargains for their role on January 6. The media remains particularly focused on that one guy they keep calling ‘the QAnon Shaman’ like that’s a thing–he got 41 months, by the way. Trump is still trying to block a bunch of his records from reaching Congressional committee hands. And said committee is still making it rain subpoenas. 

This was also a strange week for Biden Rebuilding news, as the reconciliation and infrastructure situation has had several twists and turns.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Biden Bill Updates.  As I mentioned last week, a deal was brokered for potentially voting on the Building Back Better Act sometime in the next few weeks, but after the initial procedural vote there wasn’t been much movement–the party experienced a lot of gridlock, and Manchin began citing our massive and unprecedented pandemic inflation problem as his new reason he won’t vote for it. But that changed on Friday, when the House passed the Build Back Better Act in a 220 to 213 vote despite eight straight hours of overnight GOP nonsense. This complements the final version of the infrastructure bill, which Biden signed into law on Monday. Of course, implementation of the bill will be its own process, especially with Biden struggling to address related supply chain issues and several provisions of the bill potentially tied to the reconciliation package, which still needs to pass in the Senate. And speaking of the Senate, somewhere in there, Senate Republicans yet again blocked debate on passing voter protection laws, which makes the third or fourth time in the past month.  

Your New Normal:

• The Political Role of Violence (cont).  After Rep Paul Gosar took it upon himself to tweet a video that depicted him murdering fellow congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez last week, the House formally issued a censure in a 222-208 vote and removed him from his committees. (Notably, two members of the GOP did vote to censure him, though no Democrats voted against.) Predictably, and highlighting the role that menace plays in the current Republican party, Trump endorsed Gosar because of the whole thing. Meanwhile, in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, after nearly thirty hours of deliberation Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges. Many people, including myself, believe this to be a reflection of our system’s inherent bias against accountability for white supremacist action, and protests occurred in several cities following the acquittal. With the conclusion of the Rittenhouse case, eyes now turn to the Ahmaud Arbery case, another high-profile murder case with obvious racial underpinnings.  

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  As of this week, boosters are now available and recommended for all adults over 18.  This is unfortunately timely, as infection rates are rising again and several states are identifying a new substrain of Delta.  But on the plus side, both Merck and Pfizer have made strides towards a form of effective pill-based treatment for COVID, and there wasa lotof news this week about Pfizer seeking emergency authorization for its pill. So our ability to respond to the virus is increasing at least a bit as well.

The Good:

• Trans Progress. It was modest progress, but there were some positive stories about trans-affirming policies this week. The Olympics are beginning to revise their guidelines with an eye towards encouraging fairer practices for trans and intersex athletes. Meanwhile, in France, the descriptive French dictionary Le Robert has added a nonbinary personal subject pronoun, ‘iel‘ (a combination of ‘il’ and ‘elle’), to its online dictionary.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this baby bear’s trip to Prague as well as a more consistently improved 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!

The news this week contains a lot of doubling down on all sides, and I honestly can’t decide whether that’s good or bad. But whatever it is, I’m here to summarize it for you, and I’m also here if anybody needs anything.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a Hatch Act!–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:

There’s a huge amount of Election Rejection to report this week, and it’s all over the map.  Here’s what happened this week:

• Insurrection Updates.  Basically everybody doubled down on the ongoing January 6 fights this week. In the court case about whether Trump’s documents must be turned over, the obviously-annoyed district court judge issued an opinion stating that Trump et al had to fork everything over. But that decision was immediately appealed, and the circuit court panel issued a stay on releasing the documents while the appeal is pending. Meanwhile, the House January 6 panel, increasingly done with all the obstruction nonsense being shoveled their way, continued to just make it rain subpoenas. Former Trump aide Steve Bannon was officially indicted for contempt of Congress as well, and turned himself in earlier today. Also on the criminal side, the first person to plead guilty to assaulting a police officer on Jan 6 was sentenced to 41 months of incarceration. More information was also released about Mike Pence’s precarious situation that day, which Trump immediately downplayed with characteristic surrealist garbage. And speaking of Trump, a recent report noted that 13 of his officials committed Hatch Act violations by campaigning for him while serving as federal officials, though it’s unclear whether there will be any consequences for it. All told, there’s a lot to watch right now.    

This was also a strange week for Biden Rebuilding news, as the reconciliation and infrastructure situation has had several twists and turns.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Biden Bill Updates.   As I mentioned last week, a deal was brokered for potentially voting on the Building Back Better Act sometime in the next few weeks, but after the initial procedural vote there hasn’t been much movement–the party is still gridlocked, and Manchin is now citing our massive and unprecedented pandemic inflation problem as his new reason he won’t vote for it. There has been movement on the infrastructure bill that the House passed last Friday night, though; Biden signed it into law today and disgruntled and violent Republicans continue to fling death threats at the thirteen GOP members that voted yea. Of course, implementation of the bill will be its own process, especially with Biden struggling to address related supply chain issues and several provisions of the bill potentially tied to the reconciliation package. Needless to say, it’s a good idea to follow up with your congresspeople to make sure the vote on the Building Back Better Act does happen soon.

Your New Normal:

• The Political Role of Violence.  This week, we’re seeing a lot of news about political discourse including threats of violence.  In addition to the death threats addressed to bipartisan GOP voters that I referenced above, Rep Paul Gosar was in the news for tweeting a video that depicted him murdering fellow congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  (Nancy Pelosi is calling for an investigation, House Democrats are calling for a censure, and AOC took it as an opportunity to talk about workplace violence.) Meanwhile, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial over the past week highlights the role political contexts play in protest-related violence. While we’re discussing the Rittenhouse trial, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that the prosecutor, the judge and the defense on that case have all displayed an appalling lack of professionalism that I believe is probably motivated by its own political context.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  For a second week, the biggest COVID news is the implementation of the pediatric vaccine, which began this week and has vaccinated over a million children as I type this. Nonetheless, protective vaccines remain extremely partisan in this country, and we saw a lot of stories that reflect this. On the vaccine mandate front, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion on Friday which affirms a district court decision, published less than a week before, to pause the OSHA vaccine mandate for work environments.  (Given the flurry of decisions here, I really do want to stress the fact that this mandate creates exemptions for medical and religious reasons and almost certainly is constitutional under existing law, no matter what garbage decisions are issued otherwise.) In Oklahoma, the head of the National Guard elected to ignore the vaccine mandate ordered by the Pentagon for armed service members. In Florida, the governor has called a special legislative session purely to challenge vaccine and mask mandates. Meanwhile, infection rates are rising again and several states are identifying a new substrain of Delta.

The Good:

• Tiktok Hand Signals. A missing teen was rescued this week because she made, and an onlooker recognized, an aid-seeking hand gesture popularized on Tiktok from the window of a moving car. The gesture is designed to signal a need for help relating to intimate partner violence or risk of abuse, and it hopefully will remain a useful tool for people who need it.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these catfrens being fed as well as a more consistently improved 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 pictures of your pet!

Well, Election Day came and went, and… uh… it had a lot of concerning attributes. It’s likely that we’re starting to see voter suppression tactics play out on the ground, and wouldn’t you know it, suddenly the GOP trusts the election process more. We have a lot of work to do, folks.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a reconciliation package!–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:

Though it’s a bit better than the previous week, the Election Rejection front is still quite a battleground.  Here’s what happened this week:

• Election Rejection Eruption.  In light of Trump and company’s repeated attempts to block subpoenas regarding the January 6 insurrection, the January 6 panel is obviously losing patience–given the circumstances, it’s hardly surprising that they’re starting to really make it rain subpoenas.  This is, of course, in addition to the Biden administration’s lawsuit regarding the new Texas voting law, which was also filed this week, and the Georgia grand jury regarding potential Trump era criminal election interference charges. All told, there’s a lot to watch right now.

This was also a strange week for Biden Rebuilding news, as the reconciliation and infrastructure situation has had several twists and turns.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Infrastructure Updates.   It was a busy week, particularly in the House, regarding the joint legislative package. First several provisions of the Building Back Better Act got added back in as part of ongoing negotiations, such as some family and medical leave and a provision that lowers prescription prices. Then, after several setbacks for scheduling a vote, eventually a deal was brokered for potentially voting on the Building Back Better Act sometime in the next few weeks. As a result, the House passed a final version of the infrastructure bill on Friday night as a result. Six members of the Progressive Caucus voted against the bill, mistrusting that there would be a vote on the other bill, but thirteen GOP members voted yea and the bill passed anyway. Not coincidentally, now several rabid Republicans are tweeting that their colleagues’ vote to fix crumbling infrastructure makes them ‘traitor’ ‘communists,’ because we live in a garbage timeline. Also, somewhere in there, Senate Republicans yet again blocked debate on passing voter protection laws, which makes the third or fourth time in the past month.

Your New Normal:

• Election Day 2021.  Election results this year were a mixed bag, to say the least. Virginia’s gubernatorial race went to the racist dogwhistle man instead of the Democrat incumbent, despite the state going to Biden only a year ago by a comfortable margin.  New Jersey, in contrast, squeaked out a narrow Democrat win in its own gubernatorial race.  In Minneapolis, a referendum for creating an alternate public health crisis response did not fare well, though I think the media’s claims that this heralds “the demise of defunding the police” are a bit premature.  Here in Boston, we elected our first mayoral woman of color, which I’m pretty excited about.  And in Atlanta, the mayoral race is going to a runoff.   

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.   By far, the biggest news this week is the pediatric vaccine–after the Pfizer vaccine was officially approved by the FDA last Friday, it got the okay from the CDC by the following Wednesday. This cleared the way for implementation of the pediatric vaccine to begin this week. Most people I know consider this extremely positive news, but it somehow still resulted in Ted Cruz getting into a fight with Big Bird, because protective vaccines remain partisan in this garbage timeline even when we’re discussing children. On a related note, a federal judge has stayed the federal vaccine mandate for work environments, despite the fact that it creates exemptions for medical and religious reasons and almost certainly is constitutional. But there are some other bright spots as well; travel bans are being lifted for vaccinated travelers from many countries as of today, and both Merck and Pfizer have made strides towards a form of effective pill-based treatment for COVID.

The Good:

• Same Sex Survivor Social Security. The Biden Administration announced this week that it will be abandoning defense of a Trump-era policy barring survivors from receiving social security benefits if our history of marriage inequality barred them from meeting the formal requirements. This is a much bigger deal than might be obvious, because social security policy looks at federal definitions of marriage, which have only included same-sex couples for about six years. In fact, the plaintiff in Obergefell, the court case that resulted in full marriage equality in the U.S., was denied survivor benefits because his spouse died only three months later. This policy was likely leaving a lot of people behind.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this ecstatic digging puppo as well as a more consistently improved 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 sunlight because I already miss it!