Cook County erases medical debt. Your weekly non political political stories.

Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1978, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it would no longer only give female names to hurricanes.

The big idea

Your weekly non political political stories.

Cook County erases millions in medical debt. Vermont has a fight on its hands over free school meals. South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) orders a shift away from requiring college degrees. And we feature modern homesteaders. These are your weekly non political but political stories.

The Daily 202 generally focuses on national politics and foreign policy. But as passionate believers in local news, and in redefining “politics” as something that hits closer to home than Beltway “Senator X Hates Senator Y” stories, we try to bring you a weekly mix of pieces with significant local, national or international importance.

Please keep sending your links to news coverage of political stories that are getting overlooked. They don’t have to be from this week! The submission link is right under this column. Make sure to say whether I can use your first name, last initial and location. Anonymous is okay, too, as long as you give a location.

RIP Medical Debt plus Cook County equals relief

Cook County has partnered with nonprofit RIP Medical Debt (The Daily 202 has flagged their work before) to erase money owed by some 73,000 people, Kristen Schorsch reported recently for WBEZ.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle “announced that so far the county in partnership with national nonprofit RIP Medical Debt has acquired nearly $80 million in debt. Of that, around $25 million of the debt was sold and erased in February. Another $54 million in debt is set to be abolished imminently,” Schorsch wrote.

• The county and the charity are tapping $12 million in federal pandemic relief. RIP Medical Debt generally estimates that a $1 donation will wipe out as much as $100 in medical debt.

“The debt erased in Cook County comes from Sinai Chicago, a health system that largely treats low-income patients of color on the West and Southwest Sides, and Vituity, a physician-owned organization that provides contracted doctors and physician assistants at hospitals across the U.S.,” Schorsch reported.

Over at WGN9, Mike Lowe and Peter Curi noted that, to qualify, medical debt must be at least 5% of a person’s income, and individuals must not make more than $55,000 annually. And you don’t apply for this relief, RIP decides.

The politics: Elected officials giving their constituents a new lease on life.

A Vermont fight over school lunches

Over at Seven Days VT, Alison Novak reported that the legislature in my home state of Vermont passed legislation to make school breakfasts and lunches permanently free for all public school students — but Gov. Phil Scott (R) may not sign it.

“[T]he money for the universal meals program would come from the state Education Fund, which gets its money, in part, from property taxes. A surplus in the Education Fund would pay for the program this year, but it’s uncertain how long that money will last,” Novak reported.

“Since 2020, school meals in Vermont have been free for students, initially due to federal pandemic relief funds. State legislation passed in 2022 extended the program for one year,” according to Novak.

The politics: Trade-offs, sustainable spending, what about very well off public-school students? All kinds of political questions here.

No college, no problem

It’s time for another installment in the bipartisan, state-by-state experiment in making some public sector jobs open to “skills-based” hiring — considering a candidate’s work or life experience rather than requiring a college degree.

Austin Goss at Dakota News Now reported on Noem signing an executive order to do just that.

“In essence, the executive order requires executive agencies to consider other relevant work and life experiences when looking at applicants during the hiring process. The commissioner of the state’s Bureau of Human Resources, currently Darin Seeley, will review all current and future job postings to evaluate whether or not they should require a bachelor’s degree based on the requirements of the job,” Goss reported.

The politics: Expanded opportunities could help fill public-sector jobs with the best candidate, not just the most credentialed.

The New Homesteading

Check out my colleague Chris Moody’s piece on “modern-day homesteaders who have traded contemporary conveniences such as Uber Eats deliveries and a reliable internet connection to grow much of their own food and — as much as possible — live off the land in rural Appalachia.”

The politics: One of the homesteaders in Moody’s piece runs a homesteading education center where the phone rang off the hook during the pandemic, as people sought advice on gardening. But look at the cooperation among homesteaders and farmers to overcome challenges. It’s pretty essential politics as they organize to manage resources that are finite, or even scarce.

Politics-but-not

See an important political story that doesn’t quite fit traditional politics coverage? Flag it for us here.

What’s happening now

China, ever so tentatively, signals willingness to talk to U.S. again

“In previously unannounced talks on Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, spoke for more than eight hours in Vienna. They had ‘candid, substantive, and constructive discussions’ on key issues including the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, according to a readout from the White House,” Lily Kuo reports.

Elon Musk picks NBC’s Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO

“Elon Musk has selected NBCUniversal’s chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships Linda Yaccarino to be the new CEO of Twitter, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations,” Faiz Siddiqui and Sarah Ellison report.

Daniel Penny surrenders to police in Jordan Neely’s subway chokehold death

“Daniel Penny turned himself in to New York City authorities on Friday on a charge of second-degree manslaughter after he was filmed placing Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a subway train earlier this month,” Timothy Bella and Andrea Salcedo report.

Monkeypox, now known as mpox, showing signs of return

“It’s time for gay and bisexual men to pay attention to mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, again. That’s the message from public health authorities and LGBT health providers as cases rise in some countries and small clusters of infections in vaccinated people have been detected in Chicago and France,” Fenit Nirappil reports.

Lunchtime reads from The Post

U.S. sees record migration influx as pandemic border restrictions lift

“Illegal border crossings have topped 10,000 per day this week, the highest levels ever, as the Title 42 border policy expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday. Thousands of migrants forded the Rio Grande into the Brownsville, Tex., area, or arrived elsewhere, including more than 800 miles away on the dusty strip of U.S. land between the riverbanks and the border wall east of downtown El Paso,” Reyes Mata III and Nick Miroff report.

Tax credit for clean energy raises concern from some U.S. industries

“As the Biden administration pushes the solar and wind power industries to move their manufacturing back to the United States, a soon-to-be-enacted tax incentive is touching off heated debate over who should get the credit for making products here,” Evan Halper reports.

18-to-20-year-olds can’t be barred from buying handguns, judge rules

“A federal judge in Virginia has declared unconstitutional a set of laws and regulations that prohibit federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to 18-to-20-year-olds, finding that the measures violated the Second Amendment,” Salvador Rizzo reports.

… and beyond

Legal pot is more potent than ever — and still largely unregulated

“Marijuana and other products containing THC, the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient, have grown more potent and more dangerous as legalization has made them more widely available. Although decades ago the THC content of weed was commonly less than 1.5%, some products on the market today are more than 90% THC,” David Hilzenrath reports for KFF News.

• “The federal government has generally taken a hands-off approach. It still bans marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance — as a drug with no accepted medical use and a high chance of abuse — under the Controlled Substances Act. But when it comes to cannabis sales, which many states have legalized, the federal government does not regulate attributes like purity or potency.”

Under fire, CIA moves to overhaul its handling of sexual assault

“The CIA is hiring an expert on sexual assault prevention and announcing a number of new other steps as it attempts to address allegations of mishandling sexual assault and misconduct in its workforce,” Politico’s Daniel Lippman reports.

• “Several female CIA employees have said in recent years that their cases of being sexually assaulted while working at the agency were mishandled. They went to Congress earlier this year to say that the agency was discouraging women from making sexual misconduct complaints and making it difficult for alleged victims to speak to law enforcement.”

The Biden agenda

Biden announces two historic nominations to Fed board

“The White House would elevate Philip Jefferson, who became a Fed governor last year, to the No. 2 role. Biden also nominated Adriana D. Kugler, now the U.S. executive director of the World Bank, to a seat as governor. Those moves would fill the Fed’s remaining vacancy after former vice chair Lael Brainard moved to the White House,” Rachel Siegel reports.

Biden administration hunts for high-value Russians for potential prisoner swap

“The Biden administration is scouring the globe for offers that could entice Russia to release two wrongfully detained Americans, Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The US does not currently have any high-level Russian spies in its custody, current and former US officials say, driving the need to turn to allies for help,” CNN’s Kylie Atwood and Matthew Chance report.

Biden cuts time for migrants to get lawyers, echoing Trump policy as Title 42 expires

“The Biden administration, desperate to limit border crossings after a key pandemic-era measure expired late Thursday, slashed the amount of time asylum seekers have to find lawyers before their crucial first interviews with immigration officials. The Trump administration issued a similar policy in 2019, but that effort was later blocked by a federal court,” the Los Angeles Times’s Hamed Aleaziz reports.

The U.S.’s migration surge, visualized

“After the expiration of Title 42 and the number of people in custody skyrocketing, the Biden administration has put new policies in place to try to limit how many people cross the border illegally,” Adrian Blanco, Samuel Granados, Hannah Dormido, Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti report.

Hot on the left

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is back at work but needs a lot of helping hands

“Feinstein, who has already announced she won’t run for reelection in 2024, has the financial means for the best home care in the world. But lawmakers become accustomed to life with doting assistants and aides who schedule their lives in 15-minute increments, write their speeches and often drive them to meetings and events. Some even use interns to walk their dogs,” Benjamin Oreskes and Noah Bierman report for the L.A. Times. 

• “New senators and those running for reelection often need the help even when they are in their physical prime. A senator’s life can be exhausting, given the imperative to attend hearings, fundraisers and constituent events all while crisscrossing the country,” Benjamin Oreskes and Noah Bierman report for the L.A. Times.

Hot on the right

DeSantis wanted to rewrite press laws. Conservative media helped kill the effort.

“When it came to backing what First Amendment experts and journalists called a radical rewriting of press freedom laws, DeSantis-friendly outlets responded with a rare show of resistance from media companies that by and large support the governor’s agenda,” Lori Rozsa and Elahe Izadi report.

• “The rare defeat for DeSantis (R) comes as donors, activists and supporters have voiced concern in recent weeks that he has embraced extreme positions that could hurt him in a general election. They point to a recently passed abortion ban and his war against Disney. The defamation bill’s defeat appears to offer yet more evidence there are limits on how far supporters will go in backing some of the more controversial culture wars-driven targets.”

Today in Washington

At 2 p.m., Biden will meet with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

In closing

Think you can tame the national debt? Play our budget game.

“Everyone in Washington seems to think the national debt is too big. They just can’t agree on what to do about it. Maybe you can help!” Szu Yu Chen, Chris Alcantara and Jeff Stein write.

“How would you raise and spend money if you ran the federal government? Would you fund universal preschool? Lower the corporate tax rate? Boost Social Security payments? Extend the 2017 tax cuts? We made a game that lets you make the decisions — and shows you what kind of budgeter you are.”

Play here!

Thanks for reading. See you next week.