Census 2020 – ends October 5 despite court orders

On September 28, 2020, the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced a target date of October 5, 2020, to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations. The Commerce Department announced the speedup last month, two weeks after President Trump took a second swing at the problem of counting noncitizens, ordering the department to compile state-by-state estimates of unauthorized immigrants to exclude them from reapportionment calculations.

‘Working to Save Democracy’: Postal Service Reaffirms Policy of Delivering Mail-In Ballots Even Without Postage

The United States Postal Service (USPS) has been hit hard by the decline in mail volume resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, and the Postmaster General, Megan Brennan, warned lawmakers earlier this month that USPS could collapse within the next several months if Congress doesn’t quickly provide funding.

Playing Games with American Lives

National Rifle Association Chief Executive, Wayne LaPierre, met with Donald Trump to discuss ways in which the NRA could support Trump in his fight against impeachment and his bid for 2020 re-election. In the course of this conversation, LaPierre reportedly asked that Trump “stop the games” in exchange for the organization’s full throated backing. Exactly what “games” was LaPierre alluding to?

Beyond Thoughts and Prayers

Advance editor-in-chief Susan J. Demas rounded up the gun control legislation that the Michigan State Legislature could take up in the wake of last weekend’s shootings in El Paso and Dayton, including roughly a dozen bills that would do things from toughening background checks to restricting gun sales from purchasers with a high risk of committing violence. But, we have some people standing in the way of pushing forward, it seems.