“For decades, the decennial census sent to each household hasn’t included a

citizenship question (it’s instead asked on surveys), and for good reason. Latino residents – legal or illegal – tend to resist such questions out of an (unfounded) fear the government might use the information against them or their relatives. Census Bureau research has projected a drop of at least 5.1 percent from noncitizen households if the question is added, part of an estimated undercount of 6.5 million people.”

“The U.S. military has ended its long-running assessments of how much territory in Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban,

[…]

John Sopko, the U.S. inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told the Times the move was “like turning off the scoreboard at a football game and saying scoring a touchdown or field goal isn’t important.

[…]

A new round of talks between the U.S. and the Taliban began today in Qatar. They’re aimed at securing a peace agreement, but have been criticized by Afghan officials who are wary of being left out of negotiations over the country’s future.”

“Pompeo’s order to cut the U.S.’s largest diplomatic mission in Kabul comes roughly a year earlier than expected amidst faltering talks with the Taliban,

[…]

A U.S. official told Reuters that cuts should be seen as part of a global redistribution of U.S. diplomats required by the Trump administration’s national security strategy shift toward Russia and China.

Some are worried that the reduction could strain relations with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s government. Ghani “would see this as another step in a betrayal,” Thomas Lynch, a U.S. National Defense University fellow focused on Afghanistan and former adviser to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Reuters.”

“After eight years tussling with the Obama administration, the Chamber hoped a business-friendly administration would help reanimate its power. But Mr. Trump’s populism has refashioned the GOP agenda, and that has cut against priorities of various chamber constituencies that oppose tariffs and view immigration as a useful labor supply.

“I feel they are not much of a force anymore,” said U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R., Mich.), a conservative Republican who has been at odds with the chamber. “I believe in free markets and am against cronyism and corporate welfare, and they support those things.” The chamber said in a statement: “Today, we are stronger than ever with the influence, expertise, partnerships, and long-term vision to drive our members’ agenda in every political environment and well into the future.” The group has found little refuge across the aisle. “The chamber dug themselves into a deep, deep hole when they decided to become an arm of the Republican Party and even oppose moderate Democrats,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, of New York, the top Democrat in the Senate.

[…]

Mr. Donohue has long avoided talk of retirement, though senior chamber officials and members of the board have pressed him about it. Several times over the past year, chamber officials approached former House Speaker Paul Ryan about the job. He declined, his spokesman said.”

“(a) In General.—The retail list price in the United States for a drug approved under subsection (c) or (j) of section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355) or a biological product licensed under subsection (a) or (k) of section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 262)” may not exceed the lowest retail list price for the drug among Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, or Germany. ”

“At last month’s St. Patrick’s Day lunch in the Capitol, President Trump told Richard Neal, the powerful Democratic chairman of the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, that he wants to spend close to $2 trillion on infrastructure, according to two sources to whom Neal recounted his conversation.

[…]

The dirty secret —which multiple senior White House officials have confirmed to me— is that Trump hates the infrastructure plan his own White House released last year. In private, he has referred to it dismissively as “Gary’s plan,” a shot at his former top economic adviser Gary Cohn.

The heart of “Gary’s plan” was to build infrastructure through “public-private

partnerships” — leveraging a modest amount of government spending to stimulate private investment in projects around the country.

What’s next? Nobody will come into the Tuesday meeting with an infrastructure plan, according to White House, administration and Democratic leadership sources who’ve discussed the meeting plans with me. And there are no plans to present even a top-line figure or a list of ways to offset new spending. “The whole thing comes under the heading of an ongoing discussion,” a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the plans for Tuesday’s meeting told me. “Nobody wants to lay down specific markers. Nobody wants to rule in; nobody wants to rule out.”

“White privilege lessons are sometimes used to increase awareness of racism.

However, little research has investigated the consequences of these lessons. Across 2 studies (N = 1,189), we hypothesized that White privilege lessons may both highlight structural privilege based on race, and simultaneously decrease sympathy for other challenges some White people endure (e.g., poverty)—especially among social liberals who may be particularly receptive to structural explanations of inequality.

Indeed, both studies revealed that while social liberals were overall more sympathetic to poor people than social conservatives, reading about White privilege decreased their sympathy for a poor White (vs. Black) person. Moreover, these shifts in sympathy were associated with greater punishment/blame and fewer external attributions for a poor White person’s plight. We conclude that, among social liberals, White privilege lessons may increase beliefs that poor White people have failed to take advantage of their racial privilege—leading to negative social evaluations.”