We'll tell you about a deal in Congress to improve roads, the internet, the electric grid, and a lot more. How much it's expected to cost and what has to happen next before it becomes law.
Also, more employers are requiring COVID-19 vaccines for their workers before they can return to the office.
Plus, a big protest at a popular video game company, more history-making wins for Team USA at the Olympics, and the end of an era in children's TV.
This year's Olympics is like no other, taking place in the midst of a pandemic, and in a city under a state of emergency in response to rising COVID-19 cases. We talked to The Washington Post's Ava Wallace about what it's like to report on the games this year, but also, the overall experience for her, for athletes, and for Tokyo residents at-large.
Democratic donor Ed Buck was convicted in federal court on Tuesday in connection with the death-by-overdose of two Black gay men who he injected with methamphetamine. We discuss the significance of the conviction, and what the long road to accountability says about the way our justice system treats Black gay men.
And in headlines: Tunisia’s president seizes judicial power, Activision Blizzard employees stage a walkout, and Hobby Lobby’s $1.6M Gilgamesh tablet is confiscated by the government.
Democrats are trying to push both a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and a $3.5 trillion reconciliation package through Congress.
While the former provides funding for traditional infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, the larger latter package provides trillions of dollars for a laundry list of left-wing priorities, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., says.
“They have fudged on other numbers within it, so it's probably more like [a] $5.5 trillion [bill],” Lummis says of the larger spending package. “It is the Green New Deal. It is new entitlement programs, and it really is a terrifying, inflation-causing, big government-motivated spending bill.”
If the American government does not stop spending at such a rampant pace, the “best-case scenario is that our dollars will go less far,” Lummis says, adding that the “worst-case scenario is that we put the dollar at risk as the world reserve currency.”
Lummis joins the show to explain what you need to know about the two spending bills. She also share a bit about her journey to public office and what it’s like to be the first female senator from Wyoming.
Also on today's show, Doug Blair talks with Tom Jones, co-founder of American Accountability Foundation. They discuss President Biden's radical cabinet nominees and wasteful government spending.
We also cover these stories:
About 50,000 illegal immigrants have been released into America without a court date, according to an exclusive report from Axios.
Republican and Democratic senators have reached tentative agreement on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.
The House of Representatives is reinstating a mask mandate for House members.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance on wearing masks. Short Wave co-host Maddie Sofia and NPR health correspondent Allison Aubrey explain what's changed and why. Plus, the latest on the Delta variant, a highly transmissible strain of the coronavirus.
Four police officers offered harrowing testimony of their experiences protecting the U.S. Capitol on January 6th during the first hearing for a new Democrat-led House Select Committee investigating the attacks.
The committee was proposed as a bi-partisan effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi but after she rejected two nominees from Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the hearings have begun without support from Republican leaders.
Since January 6th the Justice Department has arrested hundreds of people who were at the Capitol. NPR Investigations Correspondent Dina Temple-Raston reports that while those cases initially seemed like they'd be a slam dunk, the process of bringing them to trial has proved more difficult than anyone could have imagined.
On this episode of “The Breakdown,” NLW addresses the recent wave of increased regulatory scrutiny, one that has prompted the crypto industry to prepare itself for the possibility of legislation. The discussion includes:
A distinction of regulatory categories
Exchanges altering leveraged trading rules
Uniswap’s token removal decision
The increased regulatory scrutiny is a culmination of a number of factors, including the most recent bull run and institutional adoption. As policymakers discuss crypto more frequently it becomes helpful to separate such discussions into categories: implemented legislation, regulatory narrative battles and crypto self-regulation.
Leveraged bets, an inherently risky venture, only become riskier with the addition of crypto’s volatility. Last weekend, exchanges FTX and Binance announced a cap on leverage at 20 times. Was this voluntary action an attempt by the exchanges to get ahead of possible incoming legislation?
Uniswap labs announced an upcoming removal of over 100 tokens from its interface, including tokenized stocks, mirror stocks, options and derivatives. This decision seems to hail from a SEC statement that tokenized versions of securities are still securities. The specifics of the decision aside, the community finds itself asking: Does Uniswap’s ability to make a decision of this nature violate the principles of decentralization?
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for Bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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The Breakdown is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Razor Red” by Sam Barsh. Image credit: http://www.fotogestoeber.de/iStock/Getty Images, modified by CoinDesk.
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says the long-term changes to business many expect to come in the wake of the pandemic may be overstated. He discusses how the grocery chain has dealt with the pandemic, and how it's stressed labor markets and supply chains.
