Poli Alert Politics & Civics

Michelle Wu has become the first woman and person of color to be elected as the mayor of Boston. In all of its 200 years of existence, the city of Boston has never had a woman or a person of color as its mayor, only white men. Just before Wu …

The Biden administration set a January 4 deadline on Thursday for employees at large companies to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly tests and mandatory mask-wearing on the job, a move that impacts 84 million private-sector workers. Seventeen million employees at health care facilities that receive federal funding …

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced 10 new judicial nominees, including 9 for the federal bench. This is President Biden’s ninth round of nominees for federal judicial positions, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 62. Biden has put forward more judicial candidates during his 287 days in …

Senate Republicans have once again blocked Democrats’ attempt to pass significant voting rights legislation, this time failing to allow debate on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The bill failed, 50-49, marking the second time Republicans have filibustered voting rights legislation in the last two weeks, and the fourth …

D.C.’s permanent Black Lives Matter Plaza is complete, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District’s Department of Transportation said in a statement last week. The monument is on 16th Street between K and H streets NW, directly across from the White House. “When we created Black Lives Matter Plaza in June …

Democrats and Republicans held onto one seat each in two U.S. House races in Ohio on Tuesday night — with the election of Shontel Brown and Mike Carey. Brown, 46, won her contest in the 11th District in the Cleveland area over Republican Laverne Gore. Brown is a member of …

On Tuesday, Congressional Democrats announced they had agreed on a plan to overhaul prescription drug pricing in the country. “Fixing prescription drug prices consistently has been a top issue for Americans year after year,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference. “We’ve heard this from people across …

Republican Glenn Youngkin has won the Virginia governor’s race, defeating Democrat Terry McAuliffe, and snapping a losing streak for GOP statewide candidates in the commonwealth. The Associated Press projected Youngkin as the race winner after midnight. “Together, we will change the trajectory of this commonwealth,” Youngkin told a crowd of …

On Tuesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that children 5 to 11 be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine.  The move clears the way for shots to be administered as soon as tomorrow, though it may be a few days before the vaccine is widely …

Philadelphia is the first city in the US to stop police from pulling over motorists for minor traffic offenses. Later this week, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney will sign two bills into law that will track and end the type of policing that has unfairly affected Black drivers for years. After …

A majority on the US Supreme Court appeared to be leaning Monday towards blocking a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks. The court fast-tracked two separate but related cases (Whole Women’s Health v. Jackson and United States v. Texas) to be heard Monday, and spent about three hours …

More than 5 million people worldwide have died after being infected with COVID, the latest tally by Johns Hopkins University showed on Monday. The grim milestone was reached as several countries attempt to curb the spread of the highly infectious delta variant. While it took just over a year for …

Southwest Airlines announced on Sunday that it is investigating an incident in which one of its pilots reportedly signed off over the intercom using a coded insult of President Joe Biden. The phrase, which was amplified through the cabin, is a well-established chant among supporters of former president Donald Trump: …

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been stonewalling the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s Ambassador nominees for months. By this point in former President Donald Trump’s administration, 22 such U.S. ambassadors had been confirmed, 17 of them by voice vote, according to data compiled by Senate Democratic leadership aides and shared …

On Monday, The United States Supreme Court will hear arguments on Texas’ six-week abortion ban. The controversial law, which took effect in September, makes it illegal for a woman to get an abortion after six weeks– a period in which women typically aren’t aware that they are pregnant. In addition, the …