Forever Chemicals, Supply Chain Problems, Rainy Day Funds and More

Posted on October 20, 2021

Protections from Forever Chemicals Act: A family of chemicals known as PFAS, often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment, are used in many household products and have been linked to cancers. The Protections from Forever Chemicals Act, based on newly-enacted California legislation, would ban their use in children’s products and disposable food packaging.

The education tragedy you haven’t heard about: Last week, the Department of Education reported that, for the first time since testing began in the 1970s, scores dropped on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Long-Term Trends (LTT) test. Comparing 2020 before schools closed with 2012, both math and reading scores declined for 13-year-olds and 9-year-olds. For details, read the latest IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

Why the supply chain problems and what to do: The breakdowns in supply chains for consumer products is hard to address because they’re almost all private operations. This National Public Radio podcast explains the problem and interviews Pete Buttigieg about solutions.

Trump voters fear they will suffer personally, socially, culturally and economically because of immigration: Obviously, this means immigrants of color. Read the eye-opening poll and analysis from Larry Sabato and the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

State rainy day funds swell to new record in the wake of pandemic downturn: Twenty-eight states grew their rainy day funds in the past fiscal year, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. Interestingly, jurisdictions with the strongest and weakest reserve funds do not at all break down by red and blue states.

New York enacts a PLI model: While hundreds of bills are introduced every year from PLI models, that is (understandably) rarely mentioned. But recently, New York Governor Kathy Hochul acknowledged that PLI helped with a newly-enacted law.

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