Tag: American Government
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Buoyed by Jobs Report, Biden Moves to Reduce Fuel Costs
The Labor Department announced that the U.S. economy added 431,000 jobs in March continuing a streak of consecutive months with positive employment numbers. The unemployment rate decreased to 3.6 percent which was the lowest since February 2020. President Joe Biden said that the jobs report was good for fighting inflation and that the economy had […]
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A Historic Choice for the High Court
President Joe Biden announced Friday that he was nominating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the influential D.C. Circuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Jackson would make history as the first African American woman to serve on the nation’s high court and her nomination fulfills a campaign promise made by the president. Moreover, Judge Jackson […]
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Public Schools Become Political Battleground
The recent political debate over education arrived in San Francisco as voters in this famously progressive city overwhelmingly recalled three members of the city’s school board. Analysts attribute the recall to unpopular initiatives and for putting politics over the needs of children. Particularly unpopular were the board’s effort to rename a third of the schools […]
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California Joins Other States and Relaxes Pandemic Restrictions
State political leaders in California announced the relaxation of some of the country’s most restrictive COVID policies. Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state would no longer mandate masks in indoor settings for vaccinated residents. The current rules were instituted during the December omicron wave but will be allowed to expire on February 15. California […]
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A Win for President Biden: Infrastructure Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 226-208 to approve a 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill after months of internal debate and division. The bill will now head to the president’s desk for signature. Passage of the bill gives the president a much-needed political victory in the same week that Republicans made some notable electoral gains […]
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Texas Legislature Underway as State Challenges Federal Actions
The Texas Legislature started its biennial regular session in January with a robust agenda. With a growing state population and diminished tax revenues, lawmakers will have to do more with less. The pandemic will only complicate the Legislature’s ability to fully respond to the current crisis. The legislative agenda will include perennials, such as the […]
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2020 Elections & Voting and Campaigns: Division
Voting in 2020 saw some familiar divides in the electorate and some that are new. Many observed there is a “diploma divide”, as college educated voters were more likely to vote Democratic than non-college educated voters. However, the diploma divide only exists among white voters. While Joe Biden narrowly won college-educated white voters, he lost […]
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2020 Elections & The Media: Disinformation
The 2020 election showed a rise in the power of social media, as well as the problems with social media. Campaigns spent hundreds of millions of dollars advertising on social media. However, there were questions about whether social media companies were simply allowing candidates to spread false information. At the same time, foreign operatives and […]