WASHINGTON — “Hope is on the horizon, and help is on the way,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a Rose Garden event on Friday celebrating the signing into law of the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief measure that now stands as a major early accomplishment of the Biden administration.

The unambiguous message delivered by Schumer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at Friday’s event was: Government is a force for good. In making that point, the Democratic leaders were not only touting their own achievements but trying to restore trust, which has been dropping steadily for years.

“It’s critical to demonstrate

National Review

DHS Secretary Predicts Migrant Surge Will Break 20-Year Record, Blames Trump Policies

Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned that the number of illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border could reach levels not seen in 20 years, in a Tuesday statement on the emerging border crisis. Mayorkas blamed the crisis on a confluence of poverty and violence in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries, natural disasters including November hurricanes and the coronavirus pandemic, and the Trump administration’s policies. There are currently over 4,000 unaccompanied minors detained in Border Patrol facilities, with another 9,000 in care of the Department of Health and Human Services. “The situation at the southwest border is

WASHINGTON — One day after President Biden announced that he would instruct all states to make every American adult eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by May 1, his administration announced several measures to facilitate the ambitious goal, which has required unprecedented logistical organization.

“We need to make it easier for every American to get vaccinated,” said Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, during a Friday briefing with reporters on the state of the pandemic. “May 1 is an absolute deadline,” he reiterated, though there could be days or even weeks between a person becoming eligible to receive a vaccine and actually becoming vaccinated. That is bound to be

Ever since U.S. COVID-19 cases started their precipitous post-holiday decline, Americans have been anxious about the threat of yet another hurdle on the long road to recovery: a possible “fourth wave” of infections driven by the newer, more contagious U.K. variant known as B.1.1.7. Experts, meanwhile, have been watching Florida as a bellwether — the place where a fourth wave would probably crash first.

After all, Florida has more documented B.1.1.7 cases than any other state. It’s also rolled back precautions more quickly than most. If a spike is coming, the thinking went, Florida is where it would start.

Except … it hasn’t started yet.

Awaiting a COVID-19 vaccine in North Miami,

WASHINGTON — “We all lost something,” President Biden said in his remarks to the nation on Thursday evening marking the one-year anniversary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Seeking unity in sorrow, Biden noted that the end was close, though the endgame would prove tricky.

If all went well, he said, there could be a normal Independence Day to look forward to, barbecues and fireworks and all.

Above all, he paid tribute to the 527,726 dead from COVID-19, as well as to the millions who have lost jobs, who have had their education relegated to a screen, who no longer have the simple but necessary freedoms

Last August, the man who succeeded Joe Biden in the Senate and led his transition team made a statement that troubled many on the left.

“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Ted Kaufman told the Wall Street Journal. “When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit … forget about Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re going to be limited.”

Related: What the American Rescue Plan means for you

The message to progressives seemed to be that Biden, who had spent nearly five decades in politics as a relatively moderate and cautious Democrat, would act the same way as

WASHINGTON — Having students sit 6 feet apart in classrooms, as opposed to 3, offers no greater protection against the coronavirus, according to a major new study, whose findings come as schools across the U.S. struggle to reopen amid debates over safety.

President Biden has made bringing students back into classrooms a priority. The debate over classroom spacing is complicating those efforts. With these new findings, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may come under pressure to revise its guidelines, which currently call for 6 feet of spacing in most situations.

Having desks spaced only 3 feet apart would allow a greater number of students to sit in each classroom.