Why it matters: The Spurriers believe leaving their home of 16 years is the only way to protect their transgender son. Over 80 bills targeting trans children have been introduced so far this year.
President Biden met on Friday with the director of Israel's spy agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, and discussed Iran, a source familiar with the details tells Axios.
Virginia's minimum wage will be raised to $9.50 from $7.25 starting Saturday under a bill that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed into law last year.
Details: The rate will increase to $12 an hour by Jan. 1, 2023. The law was initially meant to take effect last July, but that was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, The Washington Post reports.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday granted a pardon of innocence to a man who had been in prison since 1995 for two murders he didn't commit.
The state of play: Darryl Anthony Howard, now 59, can file a claim with the North Carolina Industrial Commission to receive up to $750,000 in restitution, AP reports.
The Biden administration will keep the National Space Council — reestablished initially by the Trump administration — and Vice President Kamala Harris plans to chair it.
Why it matters: Many see the National Space Council as integral to policy development and inter-agency collaboration as the nation increasingly relies on space for national security and other uses.
Looking beyond the ongoing, encompassing storyline of the pandemic and vaccination efforts, the fallout from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was the dominant topic of online interest during PresidentBiden's opening months in office, according to exclusive data from NewsWhip.
The big picture: With the sitting president no longer a singular force of drama and controversy, the attention of the news world has reached beyond politics.
President Biden campaigned on a climate platform vastly stronger than any major party nominee in history, and now the White House is making its enactment a major priority.
Why it matters: It's a remarkable turn, given that Biden entered the race as a moderate and climate wasn't a top priority during his Senate career.
The biggest foreign policy surprise from President Biden’s first 100 days was his decision to act on a promise his predecessors hadn't: the full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Why it matters: Biden didn't settle on an unconditional withdrawal because he saw a path to a stable Afghanistan without U.S. troops in the country. Instead, he argued that it was clear by now that no such path existed with them there.
Axios politics editor Glen Johnson recalls that in 2001 when he was a Boston Globe congressional reporter, he approached Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden as he headed for an elevator:
I asked why the nomination for the U.S. ambassador to Ireland — a position intended for a Massachusetts resident — was being delayed. "It's going to probably take a little time, because of going over the contribution limits," Biden said — revealing the nominee had made excess campaign donations.
Seeing my eyes widen, Biden smiled and said: "I'm not sure if I was supposed to tell you that, but there you go."
White House reporters, don't get your hopes up. Biden is succeeding as president in part because he's abandoned his loquacious ways as a senator, Glen writes:
In this Axios AM Deep Dive, the Axios subject-matter experts, led by managing editor David Nather, narrate the surprises of President Biden's first 100 days — and preview the next 100.
Newsmax apologized to a Dominion Voting Systems employee for airing false allegations that he manipulated the 2020 presidential election results.
The big picture: Eric Coomer, Dominion's security director, in return dropped Newsmax from a defamation lawsuit, which he filed "after being named in false charges as a key actor in 'rigging' the election," AP writes.
Top Republicans are turning on Rep. Liz Cheney, the party’s highest-ranking woman in Congress, with one conservative leader suggesting she could be ousted from her GOP post within a month.
Why it matters: The comments by Reps. Steve Scalise, the minority whip, and Jim Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, carry weight because of their close relationship with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) — who is openly feuding with Cheney.
After a year in which murders spiked in the U.S., homicides are already trending up in many cities, presaging whatis likely to be a violent summer.
Why it matters: The rise in homicides is a public health crisis that has multiple interlocking causes, which makes solving it that much more difficult. We're still a long way from the murderous days of the 1990s, but rising gun violence is destroying lives and complicating efforts to help cities recover from COVID-19.
Curriculums in the U.S. have often left out the experiences of people of color, but more states are starting to incorporate ethnic studies courses into their classrooms.
Why it matters: Ethnic studies programs encourage a more expansive recounting of history that goes beyond European contributions to include Native Americans, Latino and Black experiences. Racial justice protests over the last year have pushed some states and school boards to rethink how history is taught.
