Evening Wrap

The election matters, of course, but maybe not as definitively as you might expect. Trump could lose and disappear from public life forever, and we’d still spend the next decade grappling with the aftershocks of his ascent. There is no kill switch. There is only triage.

Six years and one week ago, 14 teenagers were killed in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. On Tuesday, parents of two of the victims stood in Utah State Capitol with a warning: It could just as easily happen here.

K-12 education is, in general, the second largest expense for states, behind public welfare, according to the Urban Institute, averaging about 21% of the budget. Add in higher education, at almost 10%, and education becomes the single most expensive thing states do.

Speaking of presidents, perhaps you’ve heard that we’re picking one this year? Not like we’re picking a NEW president, of course. Mostly it’s shaping up to be a warmed-up leftovers election, choosing between one guy who is president now and the other guy who was president once before.

Since at least the Watergate Era, the main question politicians don’t like to have to answer is “What did you know?” Followed closely in unpopularity by “And when did you know it?”

In the same vein: Roe v. Wade was settled precedent, until it wasn’t. And returning the issue “to the states” did not end the abortion war — it just diffused it into a thousand smaller battles. (One in three women of reproductive age now reside in states where abortion is illegal. Fourteen states ban the procedure entirely, and seven more impose restrictions that would have been unconstitutional under Roe.) We’re still in the same trenches. There are just more of them now.

U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by a single vote, obliterating yet another political precedent in service of partisan posturing that solves nothing and helps no one other than Donald Trump. Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure, which marks the first-ever impeachment of a sitting cabinet secretary, our D.C. bureau reported.

Last week, Oregon state Sen. Lew Frederick introduced a seemingly innocuous bill: A proposal to prevent school districts from banning textbooks or library materials solely because they depict people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities or any other group protected from discrimination. The bill does not change the procurement process for reading materials or restrict parents’ ability to monitor what their children read; it also offers no punitive measures for violations, most of which are already covered under existing state law. Mostly, it just acknowledges a host of books that already sit on library shelves in schools across the state, Frederick said.

Typically, the stumbles are rooted in good intentions. Since the end of December, college students across the country have struggled to access federal financial aid forms as the U.S. Department of Education enacts changes designed, somewhat ironically, to simplify the process and expand eligibility. The glitches have affected every part of the aid process, forcing colleges to delay submission deadlines and making it impossible for millions of students to apply for funds at all.

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday launched a last-minute bid for the United States Senate, an unexpected about-face that follows years of denying any interest in serving in the United States Senate, Maryland Matters reported. In a video posted online hours before the filing deadline, Hogan seemed more resigned than enthusiastic about the prospect, casting himself as part of “the exhausted majority of Marylanders” fed up with “the toxic politics that divide our nation.”

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday officially joined our collective nightmare, hearing arguments in a case that could upend American politics by determining whether Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election should disqualify him from appearing on the ballot in 2024, Colorado Newsline reported. 

We may as well start with the most substantive bill of the bunch — a Virginia proposal that would require school boards to send annual safe storage reminders to parents who own guns. The proposal, approved Tuesday by the Senate, is one of several measures aimed at curbing gun violence, a renewed interest for Democrats after a 2023 shooting at an elementary school in Newport News, where a 6-year-old shot his teacher using a firearm from home, per the Virginia Mercury.