Biden seeks tenuous balance on school reopening and variant threats
CNN
When officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday that they were relaxing the physical distancing guidelines for many schools, White House officials hailed it as another moment when the barriers to in-person instruction were falling.
But the persistent tensions between White House officials and teachers' unions immediately resurfaced, demonstrating the difficult push-pull over the nation's safety guidelines and the continuing distrust of government that remain among the biggest obstacles to getting students back in the classroom. As states drop their Covid-19 restrictions and spring breakers flood popular venues like Miami Beach, the Biden administration is trying to strike an increasingly tenuous balance between nudging schools to reopen with an "everything will be fine" ethos and sounding the alarm about increasingly crowded public spaces, rising case numbers and the spread of more deadly and contagious variants like B.1.1.7, which Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday likely accounts for 20 to 30% of infections in this country.
Diplomatic and depressed as they have been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over how to balance the politics of pushing back on what they are expecting from President-elect Donald Trump’s next turn in the White House.
The regulars began assembling in the predawn at the McDonald’s on East Plank Road in Altoona, a Pennsylvania city of about 42,000 just off I-95 in Blair County.
Gov. Kristi Noem’s handling of several key issues in South Dakota offers a lens into how she may manage her sprawling responsibilities at the Department of Homeland Security.
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the critical defense policy bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a ban against gender-affirming care for some transgender children that has further inflamed the politics around the must-pass piece of legislation.
President Joe Biden is facing mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers and allies to extend protections to immigrants in the United States amid party fears over President-elect Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations.
Investigators are searching for a motive in the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as murder suspect Luigi Mangione fights his extradition to New York from Pennsylvania, where police detained him at a McDonald’s on Monday.
President-elect Donald Trump’s Justice Department is preparing to go on the anti-“woke” offensive against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have been a cause célèbre of the right, two sources familiar with the incoming administration’s plans told CNN.
The epicenter of Donald Trump’s transition is gradually shifting from south Florida to Washington, DC, to prepare for the president-elect’s return to the country’s seat of power, even as he prefers to bask in the afterglow of his electoral triumph from Mar-a-Lago.
Capitol Police have arrested a person who Rep. Nancy Mace said “physically accosted” her Tuesday, the South Carolina Republican said in a post on X.
The man suspected of the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was carrying a “ghost gun” — a type of untraceable, homemade firearm — when he was apprehended Monday, police said.
The Biden administration’s challenge to Idaho’s strict abortion ban divided a federal appeals court that heard arguments Tuesday in an emergency abortion care case that has already reached the Supreme Court once.