Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Good news: “UPS and the Teamsters union reached a tentative agreement for a new five-year contract covering 340,000 workers at the nation’s largest package carrier, six days before a threatened strike that risked snarling deliveries across the country.”
* A new national monument: “President Joe Biden on Tuesday honored Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 killing helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement, and his mother with a national monument spanning two states and a call for Americans to learn the country’s full history.”
* People appear to be noticing improved inflation: “U.S. consumer confidence shot to the highest level in two years this month as inflationary pressures eased and the American economy continued to show resilience in the face of dramatically higher interest rates.”
* District court ruling: “A federal judge in San Francisco dealt a major blow to a signature piece of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy on Tuesday, calling its rule that limits who can apply for asylum at the southern border ‘both substantively and procedurally invalid.’”
* Worthwhile changes: “The Biden administration proposed new regulations Tuesday to make state and local government websites and apps for services like libraries, parking, transit and court records more accessible for people with disabilities.”
* Targeting legacy admissions: “The Education Department has opened a civil rights investigation into Harvard University’s preferences for the relatives of alumni and donors when making admissions decisions, according to lawyers for several groups that claim the practices are discriminatory.”
* Mental health care is health care: “President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced that his administration is moving forward with new rules meant to push insurance companies to increase their coverage of mental health treatments.”
* Kim Jong Un wants attention again: “North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into its eastern sea, South Korea’s military said Tuesday, adding to a recent streak in weapons testing that is apparently in protest of the U.S. sending major naval assets to South Korea in a show of force.”
* A big new hire: “Shuwanza Goff, a longtime congressional aide with strong relationships on both sides of the aisle, will become the next legislative affairs director at the White House and the first African American woman to serve in the role, President Joe Biden announced Monday.”
* The right’s approach to cancel culture on college campuses is ridiculous: “Joy Alonzo, a respected opioid expert, was in a panic. The Texas A&M University professor had just returned home from giving a routine lecture on the opioid crisis at the University of Texas Medical Branch when she learned a student had accused her of disparaging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during the talk. In the few hours it took to drive from Galveston, the complaint had made its way to her supervisors, and Alonzo’s job was suddenly at risk.” The accusation that she criticized a public official has led to her suspension.
See you tomorrow.
