Friday Executive News Summary
Uvalde attack details, Biden to cancel $10K in student loan debt, unprecedented SCOTUS leak damaged collegiality, and more.
Top of the Fold
What took so long? As details emerge regarding what transpired during the attack on Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, it is becoming clear that much of the early reporting was inaccurate. For one, the claim that a school resource officer confronted the attacker and failed to stop him from entering the school is false. There was no armed resource officer at the school, and the attacker was not confronted by anyone prior to entry. Then there’s the fact that the attacker began firing his weapon outside of the school, aiming across the street at a funeral home, and was doing so for 12 minutes before he entered the school. During those 12 minutes, why was the school unable to get fully locked down? The attacker was still able to gain access to the school through an unlocked door. And most troubling of all was the apparent length of time from when the police arrived on the scene to their entering the school to take on the attacker, which was almost a full hour. During this time span, parents who had arrived at the school were seen pleading with the police to act. More will become known in the coming days.
Biden to cancel $10K in loan debt per student: Joe Biden has long been floating a student loan debt cancellation policy and is reportedly in the final stages of enacting his program. Biden had initially planned to announce his debt forgiveness plan this past Tuesday, though following the school massacre that announcement was put on hold. Biden’s plan would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individual Americans who earned less than $150,000 last year and for married couples who jointly earned less than $300,000. Canceling $10,000 in debt per student would cost an estimated $230 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Of course, this debt will have to be paid by taxpayers, many of whom have either already paid off their student loan debt or never took on student loans in the first place. But that inherent unfairness seemingly matters little to Biden; he and the Democrats see this as a winning issue politically. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has continued to maintain the pandemic-induced pause on student loan repayments that was initiated in early 2020.
Unprecedented Supreme Court leak damaged justices’ collegiality: Following the unprecedented leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — a decision that likely signals the Court’s intention to overturn Roe v. Wade — the trust among the justices has been broken. While Chief Justice John Roberts immediately declared that the Court would discover who was responsible for breaking the Court’s trust, no individual has yet been publicly identified. This lack of exposing the leaker sends the message that there are no consequences for this wrong and damaging behavior. But the damage to the Court may be irreversible. Justice Clarence Thomas recently observed: “I wonder how long we are going to have these institutions at the rate we are undermining them. You begin to look over your shoulder.” A former clerk to Justice Neil Gorsuch noted: “The Supreme Court is a family. A rogue clerk, likely, attempted to destroy this for their own political ends.” Law professor Jonathan Turley said that he was “astonished” that the FBI wasn’t brought in to investigate: “Assuming that this is a relatively bright individual, it is not difficult to conceal one’s tracks on such a leak. It will require considerable expertise and inquiry to pick up this trail.” The Court is expected to hand down its Dobbs decision by the end of June.
Headlines
The faces of the 19 children and two teachers slain in Texas elementary school (Fox News)
Chuck Schumer blocks GOP school safety bill (Fox News)
MLB teams go political over gun control on social media accounts (Hot Air)
First-quarter GDP declined 1.5%, worse than thought (CNBC)
CBO forecasts an economic nightmare for all Americans (Daily Signal)
Appeals court rules Trump must testify in New York probe (The Hill)
Ex-FBI agents who dropped the ball in USA Gymnastics molestation case won’t be charged (Daily Wire)
Libs of TikTok suspended from Instagram (Daily Wire)
Princeton prepares to axe star professor who raised hell over woke lunacy (Free Beacon)
San Francisco Unified School District is dropping the word “chief” from job titles because of its connection to Native Americans (Spoiler: The word is French) (Not the Bee)
Policy: Fight inflation with energy (City Journal)
Humor: Study finds 100% of kids suffer from severe dehydration as soon as it’s time for bed (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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