Episode 49: August 15-21, 2021

August 15-21, 2021

Good afternoon, I’m Dennis Futoryan, and this is the 25th hour, helping you remember everything that happened beyond the 24/7 news cycle. Now, in this week’s ne ws for the week of August 15-21, 2021, businesses grumble but comply with checking New Yorkers’ vaccination statuses, Kathy Hochul is looking for her No. 2 as she gets ready to take over from No. 1, Tropical Storm Henri rains on New York’s COVID parade, Biden reels from the damage he’s taking from the messy Afghanistan withdrawal and green-lights boosters shots against the pandemic, and Capitol Police arrested a would-be bomber near the Capitol. Now, onto the show; things may have changed by the time you hear this.

De Blasio

• COVID
  • The amount of cops that got vaccinated only increased by 4% this past month. De Blasio enacted a new policy that would force unvaccinated cops to wear masks indoors.
  • The Staten Island Advance reported this week that despite the federal public transportation mask mandate being extended this week, up to thousands of Staten Island ferry riders are ignoring the rules.
  • A group of Staten Island and Bay Ridge business owners have sued de Blasio over his vaccine requirements in indoor restaurants, which also include gyms, theaters, and other indoor venues. The policy is an attempt at incentivizing the unvaccinated to get their shots to rejoin social life, but a minority number of businesses are decrying the onus of enforcing the policy on them, saying they’d rather avoid conflict inherent in asking for vaccine cards and don’t want to discriminate against the unvaccinated. The policy requires anyone with at least one shot to show proof of their vaccination for indoor dining, among other things, but can still sit outdoors if they haven’t gotten their shots. Although businesses have begun enforcing the vaccine requirements, the policy begins in earnest on September 13.
  • Community boards are pushing back against meeting back up in-person next month despite state law mandating open meetings, saying it’s still not safe to come back physically.
  • Following the City’s announcement of a $100 incentive for first-time shots at City-run vaccine clinics, de Blasio said that 80k New Yorkers got their money and got their shots.
  • The pandemic has increased the number of young adults who are both unemployed and out of school, according to a new report released by the job development group JobsFirstNYC.
  • Tropical Storm Henri dampened the mood on Saturday night, stopping the NYC COVID comeback concert when lightning was seen nearby. New Yorkers were warned about the serious storm this weekend, with Long Island set to take a direct hit from Henri. 
• Mayoral race
  • Brooklyn Borough President and Democratic primary nominee for Mayor Eric Adams has been spending this week trying to mend the divide between the City’s progressives and left establishment, after being the more moderate choice during the primary. Adams called for the return of policies such as Stop and Frisk and favored increased police enforcement, much to the dismay of progressives who couldn’t coalesce around one candidate until the final weeks of the race for various reasons. Adams had called himself the new face of the Democratic Party and called him a true progressive, rankling those who are watching his favored candidacy closely. Adams met this week with progressive Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Democratic nominee for Comptroller Brad Lander, planning a unity event altogether, and has told pundits that he plans to pitch a big tent for Democrats.
  • Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg is also holding a fundraiser for Adams on September 15, cementing Adams’ frontrunner status ahead of the November general election against Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. Sliwa, in the meantime, joined local Republican leaders and 300 protestors to demonstrate in Manhattan against de Blasio’s vaccine requirements for indoor venues.
  • Adams is already getting ready for his mayoral transition before the election, however, choosing Sheena Wright, the head of nonprofit United Way of NYC to spearhead the transition.
• Schools
  • De Blasio announced this week that students and coaches seeking to participate in the PSAL sports leagues will have to be vaccinated in order to be a part of the games. 
  • There is still confusion about what happens when a student or staff member gets sick with COVID and what the quarantine rules, despite classes starting back up again on September 13th. State officials aren’t helping either, with parents crying foul about what exactly they should be doing with their kids and whether they should be wearing masks. Current CDC guidance recommends every student wear a mask inside the classroom.
• Crime
  • A personal friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Ken Kurson, who was already pardoned by Trump for federal cyberstalking charges, has been charged with the same crime in NY criminal court. Pardons only apply for federal crimes. Kurson is accused of using spyware on his computer to spy on his wife from the New York Observer offices, where Kurson worked as the editor-in-chief.
  • Robert Linn, a supposedly retired labor negotiator that worked for de Blasio, is still apparently working for the Office of Labor Relations, earning $500 an hour as a consultant, while also receiving his $64k a year pension. The City Conflicts of Interest Board approved the arrangement.
• Development:
  • The MTA and the Biden administration agreed on an environmental review process for congestion pricing, the plan that would toll drivers going below 96th street in Manhattan to pay for needed subway investment. Activists are constantly pushing for the policy, saying the MTA needs more investment and incentives to oppose climate change by reducing the amount of cars entering the City’s downtown. De Blasio called an earlier 16-month review timeline ‘ridiculous.’
  • A public comment period has been initiated for the City’s first “Environmental Justice for All Report” which is expected to be released next year. The report aims to tackle how to change the City’s water, air, waste management, and green space regulations to further combat climate change.
  • The proposed buildings that could potentially block sunlight from reaching the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens might have had the final nail placed in its coffin, as City Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago said the commission will disapprove the development.
• Health:
  • De Blasio and his wife Chirlaine McCray released a third version of the controversial ThriveNYC mental health initiative called Mental Health for All, primarily being just a website and PR campaign. ThriveNYC was meant to address mental health issues in New Yorkers, but ended up flushing $1.25b down the drain with barely an explanation on how the money was used or a measurement of success.

City Council

• The Gotham Gazette has noted that the City Council has been largely absent from holding oversight hearings on the City’s summer school or fall semester reopening plans, despite open questions about how summer schooling has been catching up students after a year of remote learning and whether remote learning will come back as an option in the fall due to the Delta variant.
• One of Councilwoman’s Debi Rose’s staffers is in hot water for writing racist epithets about a constituent seeking to get their sidewalk repaved by the City. Constituent affairs deputy Stephanie Shavuo called the constituent a handkerchief head, apparently a slur against black people accused of catering to white people. Shavuo sent a terse reply apologizing to the constituent, and Rose said that Shavuo will undergo sensitivity training.
• Vote-counting has officially been certified in a Harlem City Council district, revealing the overthrow of incumbent Bill Perkins in favor of Democratic Socialist Kristin Richardson Jordan.

Cuomo

• COVID
  • Tenants should be receiving news about whether their rent relief applications are approved or not next week. State data has shown most of the tenant applications have been filed by women. The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance testified at a state Senate hearing this week that the state has disbursed 65% of its federal rent relief assistance money. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli released a report that said NY has only released a fraction of the billions of dollars in rent relief money to landlords, $108.8 million out of more than $2 billion to be exact. Through Aug. 9, the agency has made payments to 7,072 households.
  • One of the ways New Yorkers can prove their vaccination status, the so-called Excelsior Pass act, is reportedly costing $27m, way above original projections.
• Hochul
  • While the incoming Governor looks for a replacement Lt., Kathy Hochul expressed her support for mask mandates in schools, saying, “I need to protect the people.” Hochul also said that she is going to work with Mayor de Blasio, a change from Cuomo’s known antipathy and rivalry with the NYC leader. Hochul will officially become New York’s 57th and 1st female Governor Tuesday morning.
  • Despite saying that Hochul will get rid of any of Cuomo’s “enablers,” she said this week that she doesn’t plan on high turnover because she’s going to need all hands on deck for the transition and for continuing to handle the state’s COVID pandemic. She spent her time this week meeting with important figures, such as Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Mayor de Blasio.
  • Advocacy groups are grasping onto Cuomo’s ouster, with separate transparency and sexual survivor groups calling on the incoming Governor to strengthen open government policies and anti-harassment rules.
• Scandals
  • Even though Cuomo is moving out of the Executive Mansion, the Governor’s lawyer Rita Glavin was pressing for certain corrections to State Attorney General Letitia James’ report, although they were focused on minor details such as the employment status of one of Cuomo’s female accusers and that Cuomo only grabbed someone’s rear, and not proceeded to tap it twice... 
  • Meanwhile, Cuomo has officially filed for retirement in light of his resignation, which would pay him a $50k a year pension starting September 1st.
  • Questions about the Governor finally caught up to CNN anchor and his brother, Chris Cuomo, who said that he urged Andrew Cuomo to resign, not imagining it was ever something he’d ever have to do.
• Economy:
  • The state added almost 44k jobs and lowered its unemployment rate by .1% to 7.6%, according to new data showing a slow crawl out of the pandemic.
• Gaming:
  • Added to a list of prominent New Yorkers looking to get into online sports betting in New York since it was legalized is rapper Jay-Z, whose name appeared in applications sent over to the Gaming Commission alongside other big sports betting companies like FanDuel.
• Schools
  • The Rochester school district is forcing its workers to get vaccinated or test for COVID weekly, becoming one of the few districts in the state to implement such a policy ahead of the fall semester. 
• Environment:
  • The Long Island Power Authority taskforce has released a report on the progress PSEG is making building and putting in place a storm-response system after how it bungled the response to Tropical Storm Isaias last year, but says the utility company is still far from finishing the new systems and is relying on out of datecomputers. 
• Development:
  • The FAA has approved a $2b plan to revitalize Newark Liberty International Airport’s monorail with the passing of its environmental review. The Port Authority wants to start working on it in the middle of next year.
• Buffalo:
  • Recently victorious Democratic Buffalo mayoral primary winner and Socialist India Walton was reportedly arrested seven years ago for threatening a coworker with assault. Walton pulled an upset victory against incumbent Mayor Byron Brown, who is pulling a write-in campaign for November’s election.
• Rochester:
  • Embattled former Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, who lost her primary election and is facing criminal charges of gun possession and child endangerment, has put her house on the market and is planning to get out of dodge.
• Pardons:
  • Cuomo has pardoned 10 people this week, commuting the sentence of Nehru Gumbs, who committed manslaughter when he was 18, and has since rehabilitated himself in prison, and Cuomo granted clemency to Jon-Adrian Velasquez, a convicted cop killer who maintains his innocence, founded an anti-gun violence program called “Voices From Within,” and had actor Martin Sheen lobby for his clemency on his behalf.

State Legislature

• Cuomo:
  • A week after saying a final report wouldn’t be released, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie reversed his position and said that the Assembly impeachment committee that’s looking into Cuomo’s sexual harassment and COVID scandals would, in fact, issue a final report on their findings. Lawmakers are also accusing the Cuomo administration of spending time in his final weeks shoring up his reputation instead of managing the state’s COVID policies, such as fixing the rent relief application process.
  • Assemblyman Ron Kim, who is known to be one of the first lawmakers to push back against Cuomo’s bullying tactics, called on the state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to audit contracts between Cuomo and the PR company Kivvit, which signed $88m contracts with the state and whose former employees helped disparage Cuomo accuser Lindsay Boylan. Those same employees also used to work for Cuomo.
  • State Senator Daphne Jordan introduced a bill this week that would make Cuomo and his staff save their documents from the past two years.
• A bill introduced by state Senator Michael Gianaris and Assemblywoman Karines Reyes to convert distressed hotels to permanent housing for the homeless was signed this week by outgoing Governor Cuomo. 
• Assemblyman Victor Pichardo, Jr., officially stepped down this week, saying that he wants to focus more on his family as he couldn’t balance them and work effectively.

State Judiciary

• COVID
  • The Office of Court Administration reinstated a mask mandate in New York courts again, regardless of vaccination status. The OCA had earlier this week sent a letter to Hochul saying there is a need to adopt more stringent measures against COVID.
  • Manhattan federal judge Jed. Rakoff of the Southern District set vaccination as a bail condition for the first time, citing public safety, ordering that he had authority to require the female detainee in this case, Elouisa Pimental, to get at least one shot of the vaccine as a condition of her bail.
• Spota:
  • Suffolk County, Long Island, former DA Thomas Spota and his former aide Christopher McPartland are appealing their 5-year prison sentences after being convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and accessory charges. The charges are related to covering up the beating of a prisoner, Christopher Loeb, in 2012, by Suffolk County’s former police chief James Burke.
• NYPD:
  • In lawsuits concerning how the NYPD handled protestors at last year’s George Floyd protests, the City Law Department resisted giving up some discovery demanded by protestors’ lawyers. US Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein ruled against the City Law Department, ordering the agency to provide documents within two days in advance of officer depositions, warning of consequences if discovery isn’t turned over. 

Biden

Domestic

• COVID
  • The FDA is set to grant Pfizer’s vaccine full authorization next week, becoming the first vaccine to do so and having been cleared since December. The agency hopes full authorization will convince more Americans to get vaccinated, as some have expressed concerns about the vaccines not getting the rubber stamp from the FDA and CDC. Moderna still has some to submit some data, but they’re most likely the next to go, and Johnson & Johnson said they’re going to apply for authorization by the end of the year.
  • Biden also announced this week that the US is set to offer booster shots for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines starting in September, with the public health guidance stating that Americans should receive a booster shot 8 months after their second dose. The boosters have been shown to increase protection against COVID, especially the more viral Delta variant, as vaccines are showing waning protections over time. There is still no guidance for those that received one-dose vaccines like J&J. Immunocompromised Americans should already receive their third dose, according to the CDC.
  • A week after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona asked Texas and Florida to reverse their mask bans in schools, professing support for schools that defy the ban, Biden said that his Education Department will openly counter states that implement bans on masks in school, which the CDC recommends everyone wear.
  • The TSA said they’re planning to push their mask mandates to January from September when they are originally supposed to expire, facing the reality of the Delta variant. Airport workers unions supported the move.
  • The CDC issued a warning for older adults and travelers in high-risk groups not take cruises even if they’re vaccinated, as COVID spreads easily in that kind of environment. 
  • Biden said that he isn’t going to seek an extension into the enhanced unemployment benefits of $300 a week for those who lost their jobs and livelihoods during the pandemic, which ends on September 6th. The President urged states to use their federal COVID relief funds to provide their own unemployment benefits.
  • Nursing homes have to vaccinate their staff in order to keep Medicare and Medicaid funds, according to Biden administration officials. Nursing homes took a huge hit at the outset of the pandemic as their vulnerable population got sick with COVID.
• Economy:
  • Jobless claims continue to hit pandemic lows and hiring continues to strengthen. Labor Department data showed that last week, jobless claims clocked in at 348k, 29k lower than the week before, and the four-week average of claims also fell to 378k, 19k lower than the average before.
• Welfare:
  • Biden’s administration is expanding food stamp benefits in one of the program’s largest permanent increases in years. Food stamp recipients will now receive from $36 to $121 monthly per person, a more than 25 percent increase that doesn’t need Congress for the change.
• Student loans:
  • 300k disabled student loan borrowers can potentially see their $5.8b in student loans wiped out, with Biden using a federal program to do so. Borrowers that can’t maintain substantial, gainful employment if they have a physical or psychological health issue can fill out an application to get their student loans wiped clean, although it could be made very difficult for those who suffer from the most challenging disabilities. 
• Environmental:
  • The US Bureau of Reclamation, which is in charge of managing water rights, declared that the Colorado River has a water shortage for the first time. Climate change effects have made Lake Mead 35% full, kicking in water conservation policies in Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico.
  • The EPA is going to ban a pesticide used on fruits and vegetables from being used on crops due to newly-surfaced links of health problems in children. The Trump administration was going to use one of the pesticides, chlorpyrifos, in use, but Biden is reversing that plan. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier ordered the EPA to stop using the pesticide unless it could prove its safety, but instead reversed course. The change can take 6 months to implement.
• Cars:
  • The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said they’re launching an investigation into Tesla’s auto-pilot functions in their electric cars after reports found the cars have a hard time discerning double-parked emergency vehicles. There are only 11 accidents stemming from the self-driving function.
• Antitrust:
  • The Federal Trade Commission refiled a lawsuit against Facebook, taking aim at what the agency calls Facebook’s monopoly on social media, after a judge originally dismissed the first complaint for failing to state a case.
• Polling:
  • Polling has shown Biden taking a direct hit this week, going below 50 for the first time to 49%. Support on Biden’s COVID handling has dropped by 16 points to 53%, and 60% disapprove of the way Biden handled the Afghanistan withdrawal, which we will go over shortly. 47% approve the way Biden is handling the economy. 61% of Americans say that the way in Afghanistan wasn’t worth it. Only 29% of Americans think the country is heading in the right direction, and there’s a direct 88% split between Democrats that think Biden’s doing a good job and Republicans who think Biden’s doing a bad job.

Foreign

• Afghanistan
  • The chaos continues in Afghanistan. As Biden seeks to downplay the severity of how the withdrawal was handled after Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, fell so quickly, thousands of Americans are scrambling to flee the country, whether they were aid workers or embassy employees. Biden promised in an address late this week that any American that wants to leave, can, under an agreement struck with the Taliban to let anyone with a US passport through checkpoints, although reports are conflicting as to whether the Tablian are truly holding up their end of the bargain. 13k Americans have already been airlifted out of the country, as scenes show desperate Afghans at the perimeter of Kabul’s airport lifting their babies over barbed-wire fences for soldiers to take. The Pentagon said 17k people were evacuated in one week. Anywhere from 10-15k Americans are still in the country, with Biden saying the military will stay as long as possible to evacuate all of them, even if they have to stay past the August 31st due date to leave. The Pentagon also announced that the US ordered six airlines to give up planes to help fly Americans and Afghans evacuating from Afghanistan at other airbases, activating its Civil Reserve Air Fleet. The fundamentalist Islamic group claimed they weren’t the same Taliban of the 90s that executed people on the streets, and yet women are almost nowhere to be seen anymore in public and Afghans were publicly beaten on the street for protesting or even for just carrying the Afghanistan flag. Biden’s address at the start of the week were the first words the President spoke about the situation after three days of disorder, defending his position to withdraw from Afghanistan and saying that the chaos was inevitable, although questions remain about the extent Biden ignored his own intelligence reports warning Afghanistan could potentially fall as soon as the Afghan Army collapsed, instead relying on reports that the Afghan Army was going to put up a fight. A new security alert came out of the US Embassy in Kabul warning Americans about going to the airport where evacuations are taking place about potential security threats, such as from a splinter ISIS group reportedly targeting the area.
  • In reporting that represents high hopes, a resistance movement has already formed and apparently retaken 3 districts away from the Taliban. Civilians and former Afghan service members claimed they killed as many as 30 Taliban fighters and captured 20 others, but it’s still too early to tell if the movement has momentum.
• China:
  • In a reversal from traditionally nominating politicians as Ambassadors to China, Biden this week announced the nomination of career foreign service officer Nicholas Burns to the post, choosing to go with someone that has diplomatic experience. Although he’s not considered a China specialist, Burns was the former Ambassador to the UN and Greece.
• Japan:
  • And former Mayor of Chicago and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been tapped to become the next Ambassador to Japan. Progressives are probably going to pound on Emanuel, as they’re not big fans of his tenure as Chicago mayor.
• Singapore & Vietnam:
  • Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris was on a foreign trip this week to Singapore and Vietnam to shore up the US’ partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region.

Congress

• Bomb threat:
  • A North Carolina man parked his car in front of the Library of Congress on Thursday claiming he had a bomb, streaming on Facebook Live that Trump had actually won the election. The Capitol Police negotiated the man down and luckily no one got hurt. It doesn’t seem that there was actually a bomb anywhere in the car. 

House

• Stefanik:
  • Upstate New York Republican and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik is the subject of news stories about her highlighting the guest appearance of Scott Presler at a voter registration rally in Saratoga County, NY. Presler used to be a so-called top strategist of an anti-Muslim group, ACT for America, which the Souvern Poverty Law Center has identified as a key organizer of marches that include neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and anti-governemnt extremists. Stefanik called Presler an American patriot while marketing the event.
• Stock trade:
  • Continuing our series of members of Congress failing to disclose their stock purchases on time, Republican Representative Diana Harshbarger failed to disclose her 700 stock trades that could be worth as much as almost $11m. Harshbarger’s office blamed the oversight on her financial adviser.

Senate

• COVID:
  • Three Senators have tested positive for COVID this past week, despite being fully vaccinated. Angus King (I-Maine), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) tested positive, with King saying that he would’ve felt much worse without the vaccine. The Senators join Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, who was one of the first Senators to be infected despite full vaccination.

Federal Judiciary

• Immigration:
  • Biden is receiving some pushback from judges about his immigration policy. This week, Judge Drew Tipton of the Southern District of Texas ruled against the Biden administration, saying that new guidelines for ICE agents to deprioritize pregnant migrants, and only detain undocumented migrants with more serious criminal history.
  • Likewise, Northern District Texas Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled against Biden’s attempt to scrap Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forced asylum seekers to the US to remain in the country from where they’ve applied for asylum. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling, but Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees the geographic area, agreed that the ruling should be stayed and referred the matter to the full Supreme Court while putting all litigation on hold.
• Pipeline:
  • Alaska District Judge Sharon Gleason blocked approval of an oil pipeline approved by both the Trump and Biden administrations that would extract oil from Alaska’s North Slope, saying the Bureau of Land Management and the US Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t properly conduct an environmental assessment of the pipeline, including how it would harm polar bears. The pipeline would pump 160k barrels of oil a day.
• Eviction moratorium:
  • Biden’s new and improved temporary eviction moratorium, barring evictions in high-transmitted COVID areas of the country until October, is staying in place for now. A three judge panel at the DC Circuit Court declined to strike down the policy in the face of a challenge by landlords and realtors, who pointed to an earlier Supreme Court decision that put the moratorium on shaky legal ground by allowing it to expire. The decision sets up a full Supreme Court showdown.
• Abortion:
  • The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can proceed to ban a standard second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation, saying that plaintiffs didn’t prove a law passed in 2017 banning the procedure unduly burdened women in the state seeking an abortion. Doctors said banning the procedure would force women to find more dangerous alternatives.
• ISIS:
  • A three-judge panel at the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan threw out what it called a shockingly low 4 year prison sentence for an ISIS supporter, reversing the late Judge Weinstein’s sentence against Sinmyah Amera Ceasar. The resentencing goes back down to the trial level.
• 4th Amendment:
  • A separate case decided by the total 2nd Circuit bench dealt with pat downs after car stops, with a majority of 2nd Circuit judges ruling that a police officer did not violate the 4th Amendment when he patted down Calvin Weaver in 2016 and found cocaine and a loaded semiautomatic handgun. The cops pulled Weaver over after Weaver looked at their squad car, tugged his pants up, got in his car, pushed his pelvic area down during a stop, and then when Weaver was pulled over for not showing his turn signal 100 feet before making a turn, Weaver refused to take his pelvis off his car, saying the ground was slippery. The majority said that a police officer’s subjective intent is irrelevant under Supreme Court precedent and that the judges had to look at the totality of the circumstances of the stop. The dissent decried the broad ruling, grasping onto the vague details that the officers pointed to justifying the search above, with Judge Guido Calabresi saying, “Our ordinary observer might then stop and wonder: wait, is that all it takes?”

National

• COVID
  • Johns Hopkins University data shows record high COVID case numbers in 5 US states this week, including Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii, Oregon, and Mississippi. Louisiana had 126 cases per 100,000 at the start of the week, 3x the national average, and Mississippi and Florida had 110 and 101 cases per 100,000, respectively. 
  • Continuing the fight over mask mandates in schools in Republican states, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that schools can keep ignoring the ban on masks in schools instituted by Governor Greg Abbott, who has himself tested positive for COVID and says that he is doing okay and treating himself with Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, a treatment former President Trump took when he got infected with COVID, although the difference here is that Abbott was already vaccinated. The Court did not rule on the merits of Abbott’s mask ban, but said that the issue has to be fully litigated in the appellate courts, which had put what’s called a stay on the ban. 58 school districts and 8 Texan counties have put their own mask mandates in place in defiance of the ban.
  • The University of Virginia has disenrolled almost 240 students for not complying with new COVID vaccine requirements, continuing a trend of colleges mandating vaccinations for students who want to return in-person in the fall semester. The University said that the number is closer to 49 as the rest of the students had not enrolled in classes, and the compliance rate with the new policy is 99%.
• Texas voting restrictions:
  • And speaking of Texas, it looks like the state Republicans’ proposal to restrict voting is going forward, as some state Democrats that originally fled the state to prevent a quorum enough to pass legislation in the Texas House eventually returned. After plans to pass the legislation were originally announced and the state Democrats fled, Abbott kept calling special sessions and threatening their salaries until they returned. Some state Democrats are still staying out of state as a way to boycott Abbott’s COVID policies. The bill would give stronger protections to poll watchers observing ballot counters, put new ID requirements in place, ban drive-thru voting, which was popular for the 2020 election due to COVID, regulate early-voting hours and ban 24-hour voting, ban mail-in ballot application distribution, and much more.
• Hurricanes:
  • While the West continues battling wildfires, the Southern and Eastern coast of the US are getting ready for some hurricanes. Hurricane Henri was the first to come this week, battering an already weak Haiti after experiencing a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and 5-magnitude tremors, bringing their death toll to nearly 2200 people and overwhelming hospitals. Henri is projected to move up the Eastern seaboard, with tropical storm warnings in effect for New England for the weekend.
  • Meanwhile, Hurricane Grace, which had already formed, hit Mexico once, and then weakened to a tropical storm, regained hurricane-level strength and battered central Mexico as a Category 3 as of the time of this recording. Remnants of Hurricane Fred had even launched the first tornado warnings in Long Island in years.
• Wildfires:
  • The Caldor Fire in California grew exponentially, expanding to almost 63k acres as of the time of this recording, having started just this past weekend. The largest blaze, the Dixie Fire, has burned 635k acres so far.
• Chuck Close:
  • Prominent painter Chuck Close died this week at the age of 81 due to congestive heart failure. He was suffering from dementia since 2015 and was also accused by several women of sexual harassment between 2005 and 2013, which Close had apologized for. Close’s paintings were known for being lifesize portraits with large pixels contained within.
• California Prop 22:
  • Alameda County, California, Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch held that the state’s gig-worker law Prop 22, which was approved by voters last year to keep Uber and Lyft drivers as independent contractors instead of full-blown employees, is unconstitutional. Judge Roesch said that the referendum limits the power of the legislature from defining standards in the workplace.
• Jeopardy:
  • Just a week after announcing Jeopardy executive producer Mike Richards was one of the new hosts to replace the late Alex Trebek, Richards said that he’s stepping down from the role due to controversy associated with his prior involvement with the show and derogatory comments he made on a podcast several years ago. Richards said his presence would be a distraction, and that along with actress Mayim Bialik, the show would bring back guest hosts.
• GM:
  • General Motors announced they’re recalling Chevy Bolt electric vehicles in order to address risks of battery fires, bringing the total number of vehicles it's recalling to about 150k. It’s not the first time the company recalled the vehicle to address potential battery fires, and GM will have to spend $1b on fixing the issue.
• R. Kelly:
  • A trial is underway regarding a child sex criminal enterprise involving R&B singer R. Kelly, who is accused of grooming young women to have sex with him and do whatever he said. R. Kelly denies all of the accusations and went after the credibility of his accusers, with witnesses testifying this week that, among other things, R. Kelly forged papers in order to marry a 15-year old singer Aaliyah at the time.

And that’s it for this week’s show of THE 25TH HOUR, helping you stay on top of the 24/7 news cycle. Don’t forget to rate us on Apple Podcasts, share us with your friends, and subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. You can email your tips and suggestions at the25thhournews@gmail.com and become a Patron today for as low as $2 a month to support the show at patreon.com/the25thhournews! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.