Friday, June 24th, 2022
Gun Law Changes, Juul Banned & NBA Draft
All the news you need in around 10 min:
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Story Summaries
All the news stories mentioned in today's episode are listed with links below, so you can spend as much -- or as little -- time as you want reading the latest happenings...
Senate Passes Gun Safety Bill
The full U.S. Senate passed a bill on one of the most contentious topics in American politics: guns. This is the compromise that includes enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, incentives for states to implement red flag laws, funding for mental health, school safety, violence prevention, and more. The final vote came down 65-33, with more than a dozen Republicans joining all the Democrats in voting ‘yes’. Lawmakers in the U.S. House say they plan to start working on the bill this morning. Soon, it’s expected to pass there, and President Biden says he plans to sign it.
Read More: NBC News, WSJ, AP, CBS News
SCOTUS Expands Gun Rights
The U.S. Supreme Court made its first major gun decision in more than a decade, expanding the right of Americans to carry guns in public. In a 6-3 decision, the justices struck down a New York law. That state law said people must prove they have a need for carrying a weapon in public before they could get a concealed carry license. Most justices said that rule violated the second amendment right to bear arms. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have laws similar to New York’s, so those laws are expected to be challenged soon, too.
Read More: SCOTUS, AP, NPR, WSJ, NY Times, Reuters
Fifth Jan 6th Hearing Recap
In the latest public hearing, a few former Justice Department officials testified that they analyzed former President Trump’s allegations of election fraud, but they found there was none. Still, they say Trump refused to believe them. They say the former president wanted them to take action like seize voting machines, file a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, hold a news conference announcing a formal investigation, and more. However, they wouldn’t do that. The committee is trying to show how far Trump and his allies went to overturn the 2020 election, efforts they say directly led to the Capitol attack on January 6th. Trump says he did nothing to incite the riot.
Read More: Jan. 6th Cmte, Reuters, AP, WSJ, NY Times, WaPo
Title IX Expansion Plans
The federal government is proposing an expansion to Title IX, the law that bans schools and certain programs from discriminating against anyone because of their sex. The updated policy would cover allegations of pregnancy-related harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Also, Title IX would apply to any conduct that might create a hostile environment, not just conduct that’s so severe that it limits someone’s ability to participate. It would also include reports of incidents that happen off-campus and more. Before the framework goes into effect, it has to go through two months of public comment.
Read More: Education Dept, NPR, NY Times, ESPN, WSJ, Politico, AP
Gov’t Cancels Another $6B in Student Debt
For the second time this month, the U.S. government is forgiving $6 billion of student debt. The Biden administration is canceling loans for about 200,000 students who went to one of more than 150 schools and say they were victims of fraud. Many of their schools are for-profit colleges and vocational programs that have since gone out of business. The settlement still has to be approved by a federal judge.
Read More: CNBC, Axios, The Hill, WSJ, Education Dept.
FDA Bans Juul E-Cigarettes
The FDA has ordered the e-cigarette company Juul Labs to take all of its products off the market in the U.S. The FDA says Juul has not submitted enough evidence that its devices are safe. Juul plans to fight back with an appeal. The company argues it has provided evidence that its e-cigarettes are a better alternative to traditional cigarettes. However, after a two-year review, the FDA says the data was insufficient and conflicting. The agency is telling retailers to take Juul products off store shelves and consumers to look for alternatives.
Read More: FDA, Juul Labs, WSJ, Bloomberg, Fox Business, NY Times
Instagram Tests AI Age Verification
Instagram is testing a tool that uses a video selfie and artificial intelligence to help estimate a user’s age. When teenagers try to edit their birthday to show themselves as 18 or older, they’re asked to verify their age. They can send in ID cards. Now, Instagram is testing two more options. They could ask a few adult Instagram friends to vouch for their ages, or they could submit a video selfie to be analyzed. Instagram will share an image from that video with another company, Yoti, which has tech that looks at facial features to estimate how old the user is. Both companies say they delete the data sent.
Read More: Meta, The Verge, WaPo, WSJ, CNBC
NBA Draft
NBA teams have picked their newest star basketball players to go to the pros. The NBA draft happened last night in Brooklyn, the first in-person draft in three years. The Orlando Magic was the first pick of the night, and the team went with 19-year-old Paolo Banchero from Duke University. He was considered a surprise No. 1 pick since most mock drafts expected Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren or Auburn’s Jabari Smith to go first. They weren’t too far off. Holmgren went second to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Houston Rockets picked Smith at No. 3. The next NBA season starts this October.
Read More: NBA, ESPN, AP, USA Today, CBS Sports
Pride Parades this Weekend
It’s the final weekend of Pride Month, and that means three days of celebrating the LGBTQ community all around the country. New York City is holding the biggest Pride parade in North America on Sunday. That event typically attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of spectators. This weekend, there will also be other events in New York City like a street fair called Pride Fest and a two-day music festival called Pride Island. Other big pride parades, festivals, and parties are happening this weekend, too, in places like San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Houston, and Chicago.
Read More: PIX11, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, KRON
Feel Good Friday: ‘Eco Mermaid’ Sets Record
One champion swimmer recently set a Guinness World Record, and she did it while raising awareness and collecting trash along the way. Merle Liivand is also known as the Eco Mermaid. She set the record for the farthest swim while wearing a monofin. She swam 26.2 miles with it over 11 hours and 54 minutes off the coast of Florida. During her record-breaking swim, Liivand picked up pieces of trash from the water and threw them into a kayak that was paddling alongside her. Now, she hopes her swim raises awareness about environmental pollution, especially plastics in the ocean.
Read More: Guinness World Records, People, CNN, UPI