Monday, April 21

· The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of student athletes and against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the governing body for intercollegiate sports, in its bid to limit non-cash compensation to college athletes related to education like computers, musical instruments and lab equipment. The court found that this effort is anticompetitive under the Sherman Antitrust Act.

· The Washington Post reported that an upcoming book from two of its journalists claims that in February 2020 former President Donald Trump considered sending United States citizens infected with the coronavirus to Guantanamo Bay.

· President Joe Biden’s administration revealed its allocation plans for 55 million coronavirus vaccination doses worldwide — a major commitment that nevertheless appears to fall short of Biden’s stated goal of shipping out 80 million doses by the end of June.

· The U.S. special envoy to North Korea, Sung Kim, offered to meet North Korean officials “anywhere, anytime without preconditions” in an effort to bring back talks to persuade the country to drop its nuclear weapons program.

· A federal judge dismissed claims filed by activists and civil liberties groups who accused the Trump administration of conspiring to violate protestors’ civil rights last June when they were forcibly removed from a park near the White House as Trump walked to a church for a photo op.

Tuesday, April 22

· Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco announced the Justice Department launched a strike force to crack down on illegal firearms trafficking to reduce violent crime in several major American cities.

· Senate Republicans blocked debate on a piece of election reform legislation titled the For the People Act brought forward by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The move required 60 senators to agree, and all Republicans in the equally party-divided Senate voted against opening debate.

· Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of such institutions, which forcibly took children away from their families to be “reeducated” and wipe out Native tribal identity and culture.

Wednesday, April 23

· The Justice Department seized 33 Iranian government-affiliated media websites that it said violated sanctions because they are hosted on U.S.-owned domains. Iran’s foreign ministry called the seizure part of a “systematic effort to distort freedom of speech on a global level and silence independent voices in media.”

· Senator James Risch (R-Idaho) blocked $50 million in economic assistance to Palestine promised by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and already approved by Congress, using a 2018 law called the Taylor Force Act that allows legislators to cut off aid if there is reason to believe funds could go to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.

· The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania teenager who sued her school district after her vulgar social media post resulted in her removal from her high school’s cheerleading squad. The justices ruled 8-1, with Justice Clarence Thomas dissenting, that the decision violated the teen’s free speech rights.

· Graydon Young, a 54-year-old member of the right-wing extremist group the Oath Keepers, became the first of the group to plead guilty to conspiracy charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. Young also pleaded guilty to a second count of obstruction of an official proceeding.

· Biden announced new gun safety measures and redirected about $350 billion in COVID-19 funds to address crime, taking a “zero tolerance” policy toward gun dealers.

· The Department of Commerce sanctioned five Chinese firms, including producers of polysilicon for the solar panel industry, for their alleged implication in human rights violations against Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.

Thursday, April 24

· Pentagon translator Mariam Thompson was sentenced to 23 years in prison for giving the names of U.S. informants in Iraq to a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese individual.

· House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she is creating a special committee to investigation the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, saying that it is “imperative that we seek the truth” even though a bipartisan congressional committee was earlier blocked by Senate Republicans.

· Biden announced he had struck a deal with a bipartisan group of Senators on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, saying “There’s nothing our nation can’t do when we decide to do it together, do it as one nation.”

· The Biden administration extended the nationwide eviction moratorium for a month, explaining this would be the final extension.

· The Justice Department announced it had arrested the 500th person in relation to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Friday, April 25

· The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that about $533 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds intended for tribal governments can go to specially created corporations for Indigenous Alaskans even if they are not officially recognized as tribal governments. The justices didn’t rule along ideological lines, with liberals and conservatives on both sides of the decision.

· Vice President Kamala Harris visited a border patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, to meet with migrants in an effort to quell criticism from the right that she has been slow to visit the region and address the roots of the immigration crisis.

· Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department filed a lawsuit on civil rights grounds against a new restrictive election law in the state of Georgia, as many changes will negatively impact the ability of the state’s Black constituency to vote.

· Biden met with Afghan leaders Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah to pledge his continued support for the country and his commitment to withdraw all U.S. troops. “Our troops are going to be leaving, but our support for Afghanistan is not ending,” Biden said.

· A federal government report on UFOs found defense and intelligence analysts had insufficient data to determine the origins and nature of 143 out of 144 flying objects reported by military pilots dating back to 2004.

· The Food and Drug Administration added warnings about the risk of heart inflammation to the fact sheets for both the Moderna and Pfitzer COVID-19 vaccines following a review of information by the Centers for Disease Control’s advisory committee on immunization practices earlier in the week.

· Vice President Harris said immigration “cannot be reduced to a political issue” in a press conference at the U.S.-Mexico border, calling for an end to political “rhetoric” and “finger pointing” on this issue that Republicans have weaponized against her.

Saturday, April 26

· Following a rally at which Trump continued to spread misinformation about the 2020 election, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said in response, “The election is over. It was fair.”

Sunday, April 27

· No news to report.