Through the Excluded Workers Fund, New York agreed to give payments to thousands of undocumented immigrants who were excluded from unemployment benefits and stimulus payments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The $2.1 billion fund, approved by lawmakers and Cuomo as part of the state budget in April, provides payments of $15,600 or $3,200 (depending on the criteria they meet) to those who lost work during the pandemic but were ineligible for the stimulus and unemployment.

To sum up the bill, here are some examples of what it does :

HB 3653 was the result of years of work by community advocates, lawmakers, and members of law enforcement.

The legislation was an initiative of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus and the culmination of nine public hearings, 30 hours of testimony, and countless meetings with law enforcement, community members, and advocates.

Senator Fowler stated, “This bill is a dangerous proposal that makes it easier for offenders to commit violent crimes, eliminates cash bail and endangers the safety of our citizens."

The reform bill also requires all police officers to use body cameras, to go through additional training, prohibit choke holds, require the maintenance of police misconduct records and require the use of special prosecutors in officer-involved deaths.

The order marked a victory for Gavin Grimm, a transgender student from Virginia who sued the Gloucester County School Board in 2015 after school officials told him he had to use a unisex bathroom or the restroom that corresponded with the gender assigned to him at birth, which was female.

It also solidified legal precedent established by the lower court protecting the rights of transgender students — including in North Carolina.

The article states that "over 23,000 people visit the island almost every day" which is a major problem because more than likely half of the people coming to Hawaii are not vaccinated or not participating in wear face coverings.

If you factor in tourism and Hawaii is a small chain of islands, the impact of the covid-19 virus change to live of all of the residents and their economy. "according to a study from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders account for 40% of the positive coronavirus cases on the islands, but they only make up 25% of Hawaii's population." These numbers are trouble and since the vaccine has been out the number of vaccinated populous has not increased. 

The residents of Hawaii are outraged because the government is hardly doing anything to keep the number of tourists under control, while also needing to increase the number of vaccinated citizens.

The Black Lives Matter movement has helped bring contentious discussions about race to the forefront of American discourse, and classrooms have become a battleground. Supporters contend that federal law has preserved the unequal treatment of people on the basis of race and that the country was founded on the theft of land and labor.

 
Opponents of critical race theory say schoolchildren should not be taught that America is fundamentally racist. Governors and legislatures in Republican-led states around the country are considering or have signed into law bills that would limit how teachers can frame American history. The new rules say classroom instruction “must be factual and objective and may not suppress or distort significant historical events.” It goes on to mention the Holocaust, slavery and the Civil War, as well as the civil rights movement and the contributions of Blacks, Hispanics and women to the country.

 
During his brief appearance Thursday, DeSantis called it “outrageous” how some instructors are deviating from what he and others consider the fundamentals of history.

“Some of this stuff is, I think, really toxic,” DeSantis told the school board. “I think it’s going to cause a lot of divisions. I think it’ll cause people to think of themselves more as a member of a particular race based on skin color, rather than based on the content of their character and based on their hard work and what they’re trying to accomplish in life.”

 

In the 2017 legislative session, opponents of the new aid in dying law introduced HB 1368, a bill that would amend the Act to allow, rather than require, the attending physician or hospice medical director to sign the death certificate of someone who used an aid-in-dying medication. The bill died in committee.

A state senator has dropped a bid to change Louisiana’s unique jungle primary system for congressional races in favor of closed party primaries, shelving an issue that has created sharp public divisions between some of the state’s leading Republicans.

State Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, pulled her bill to change the state’s primary system Wednesday, saying more study is warranted.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of stress. We’re in a state that’s had a jungle primary for a very, very long time,” Hewitt said. “I don’t think we’re really at that place yet in our state.”

Currently, Louisiana has a unusual election system where all candidates appear on the same primary ballot, regardless of party. If one candidate gets over 50%, they win. If not, the top two candidates move to a runoff. Louisiana is one of a handful of states that puts all candidates on the same ballot regardless of party.

The Louisiana Republican Party, with the support of key GOP leaders like Attorney General Jeff Landry and U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, has pushed for the Legislature to move Louisiana to closed party primaries. Scalise said his main aim is to hold elections for Congress earlier, which would send the winner to D.C. in November as other states do, instead of holding December runoffs. But the timing can’t be changed without altering the election system, because incumbents often win outright in the primary, and the state can’t elect its members of Congress before November.

Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, pushed forward another idea Wednesday: Holding the primaries for congressional races in September, with November runoffs, and if a candidate wins outright in the primary, the state would hold off on declaring the winner until November. That would address Scalise's issue, he said. The proposal – House Bill 557 – was advanced by the House and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday. 

But the proposal to do away with open primaries entirely drew intense pushback from some other Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser. Nungesser went to a meeting of the Republican State Central Committee last month to argue the move would produce “extreme candidates.” 

Nungesser, who has shown a willingness to work with Democrats, said he will likely run for governor in 2023. Landry is considered a potential candidate as well, and Nungesser suggested the attorney general couldn't win that race unless the state were to move to closed primaries.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, both Republicans from Baton Rouge, have also come out against the proposed change, arguing candidates should try to appeal to the entire state instead of only people registered with a specific party.

Some of the state’s more conservative Republicans make the opposite argument: They believe if candidates have to first win a nomination by only registered Republicans, it will produce more conservative candidates, which they see as a good thing. That idea gained steam following Cassidy’s vote to convict former President Donald Trump on charges of incitement of insurrection, a decision that drew fury from many Louisiana Trump supporters.

Louisiana is a heavily Republican state in voting patterns, with every statewide office besides governor currently held by a Republican, and seven of eight congressional seats held by the GOP. But the state still has more registered Democrats than Republicans because of a large contingency of people who registered as Democrats when that was the dominant party in Louisiana but now regularly vote for Republicans. Some GOP officials have said closing the party primaries would help change that idiosyncrasy.

Hewitt’s bill was the result of a task force that studied the idea of moving to closed party primaries. Ahead of the legislative session, the task force -- which included Democrats -- recommended the state change to closed party primaries for Congressional races, while leaving the open primary in place for other elections. Hewitt’s bill would have made the change in law.