What do you call it when the government finally outlaws lynching and proposes an increase the police budget in the same week? A mess. A uniquely American mess.
The Skinny on COVID
The latest in numbers: 80M total cases & 980K total deaths (+192K & +5K from last week) in the US.
The headlines:
“Variants are like buses. Miss one, next 15 one coming,” or whatever Gucci Mane said. Omicron BA.2 is now the most dominant strain in the US.
Also, it’s official: a second round of booster shots are approved for the immunocompromised & those over the age of 50.
Also, in the latest edition of “Doing the Most,” this man got 90 vaccine doses in order to sell vaccine cards with real batch numbers on them.
Title 42, the CDC rule that allowed the Trump & Biden administrations to use COVID as an excuse to turn migrants away at the border, will end on May 23.
Keeping Up with Biden & Harris
After more than 100 years and 200 failed attempts, President Biden finally signed a bill outlawing lynching at the federal level, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Read more about how the DOJ has defined the act of lynching to ensure isn’t considered a thing of the past & how they claim they’ll use the law when proper prosecution fails at the state level.
Y’alls POTUS released a new budget and he said he wants $45B for climate change, $32B for police, & more military spending in 2023.
The latest jobs report was received well by economists, but it’s still not enough to help Joe Biden.
A federal probe into the business dealings of Hunter Biden is moving forward.
In a recent interview, VP Harris tries to do damage control on her boss’ very candid remarks about Vladimir Putin.
Congress, What’s Good?
Last week, the House passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana by removing it from the federal government's list of controlled substances. Despite the House Progressives calling the law a “racial, economic & criminal justice victory,” the bill is not expected to pass in the evenly-split Senate.
Susan Collins, a Senate Republican from Maine is the first of her party to confirm her YES vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson. The vote on Jackson’s appointment to the Supreme Court is still expected to happen by the end of the week.
Here are the committee meetings happening before Congress takes a 2 week break:
Tribal communities’ struggle with opioids
The impact of these high ass gas prices & corporate profiteering
Financial institutions and their role in the slave trade
Book bans in the misunderstood name of CRT.
Election Watch: 2022 Midterms
Are Democrats really the underdogs in the midterm elections? Some experts are thinking they may actually have a chance.
Curious about what Republicans’ policy agenda is going into the fall? Mike Pence has got the answers.
What? Democrats were caught gerrymandering? Yup. This week, judges in Maryland & New York rejected district maps redrawn by Democrats citing bias against Republican candidates.
Social Justice Round Up
In an extremely close vote, California’s reparations task force decided that residents descending from free & enslaved Black folks living in the US before the year 1900 should be those eligible for restitution. The ensuing conversations raised one intense question: Is that fair to other Black people?
Amazon employees in Staten Island, led by a brotha who was fired for protesting unsafe COVID measures, became the first of the company's workforce to unionize.
Organizers who’ve been working to address community & police violence feel insulted by Biden’s new budget that seeks to give police more money.
Around the Diaspora
Fighting between rebel groups and the Congolese government has displaced nearly 50K people in a week.
Not willing to miss carnival for a 3rd consecutive year, Jamaica will celebrate in July 2022.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley received an award from the World Health Organization for her leadership on the global stage.
Getting to the Money
We came across a couple job alerts from Black people who want to see more melanin in their offices:
Buying Black
Are you part of the deep conditioning gang? Are you in so deep that you only deep condition your hair with heat? If so, consider the Afro Steam Cap, that helps your hair absorb your products even more, ultimately leading to healthier hair. If you’re not deep conditioning your hair with heat, get it together. It’s life changing.
Culture that Pops
And the Blackity Black winners at this year’s Grammy Awards are…check out the list here.
Whoa. There will be a “Bridgerton” spinoff focusing on a younger Queen Charlotte. Are you ready or are you over it??
Clark University has received $12M to teach its students & faculty the ins and outs of the metaverse.