POLITICO Tech

For the third time in 10 years, California is in the middle of the national vaccine wars. On Monday, State Sen. Richard Pan unveiled legislation to eliminate the personal belief exemption for the impending Covid-19 vaccine mandate for K-12 students in California.California Playbook co-author Jeremy B. White reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two weeks ago, the first round of diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Russia took place. Last week, another round of diplomatic talks took place. And now, Russia has mobilized about 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine. Alex Ward reports on the U.S.'s strategy to contain Russian aggression and possible outcomes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After failures to advance two high profile bills — the Build Back Better spending plan and voting rights — Democrats return to the drawing board.  Anthony Adragna reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Four big companies dominate the meat processing market — but the Biden administration has considered breaking them up for a long time. Meanwhile, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has been on a multi-state tour talking about new cash programs from the Biden administration and strengthening local meat supply chains — but it could take billions of dollars and years of building up for smaller producers to reach a scale that would threaten the larger companies. Ximena Bustillo reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After more than a month of surging case numbers due to the Omicron variant, the Biden administration is responding with more testing and masking. On Wednesday, it launched covidtests.gov, a website that allows users to request four free at-home covid test and this week also unveiled a plan to distribute hundreds of millions of free N-95 masks through pharmacies and community sites. Adam Cancryn reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5G, more like 5 o-m-g! Amid concerns that AT&T's and Verizon's 5G rollout could cause thousands of flight cancellations and disruptions, the wireless companies agreed to heed the warnings of the aviation industry and scale back their rollout. How'd this get to be such a mess in the first place? Oriana Pawlyk reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, voting rights legislation hit a brick wall when Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) announced they would not support changing Senate rules to get around a potential filibuster. Today, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer still plans to allow debate on voting rights — despite its almost certain failure. Playbook’s Eugene Daniels looks at what's next for the Biden administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s a saying that Southern Oregon has more trees than people, but recently, the area has been overrun by international cartels and gun-toting outlaw farmers. What’s happening there represents one of the paradoxes of the legalized marijuana movement: states with large legal markets are also dealing with rampant illegal production. Natalie Fertig reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we round into the third year of Covid-19 and a surging wave of cases, Democrats and Republicans alike raised sharp questions and complaints on the state of the pandemic response in the most recent oversight hearing in Congress. Alice Miranda Ollstein reports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday night, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a deal to bring students back to the classroom after a five-day standoff. But even after coming to an agreement, the relationship between the union and Mayor remains strained. Illinois Playbook author Shia Kapos explains how it unfolded and what this says about the future of schools in the Covid-19 era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices