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| Presented By Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen · Aug 01, 2022 |
| 🩴 Good Monday morning, and welcome to August. Smart Brevity™ count: 1,487 words ... 5½ mins. Edited by Noah Bressner. |
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| 1 big thing: Schools fight to catch up |
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| Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios |
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| After two-plus years of interrupted learning, schools are trying new ways to help students catch up, both socially and academically, Axios' Erin Doherty reports. - Why it matters: At the current rate, it may take years for some students to recover from pandemic-era learning loss, according to a report by NWEA, an education research organization.
What's happening: Schools are rolling out tutoring programs and enhanced after-school offerings, and some are considering extending the school year in an effort to remedy lost time. - Schools are boosting emotional and social support offerings after disrupted educational experiences, holding food drives for students and families and free health screenings.
🧠 Reality check: Even all these offerings may be no match for the problem. - School districts across the country are still facing widespread teaching shortages. Some are also bracing for continued staffing shortages among bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other academic support positions.
- Schools are boosting pay for teachers and bolstering teacher recruiting programs, among other tactics, to mitigate staffing challenges, but even if those efforts succeed, getting back up to speed will take time.
🔮 "Hopefully by spring of '23, teachers and administrators will have their mojo back," said Thomas Kane, a Harvard economist who has done extensive research on the pandemic achievement loss. |
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| 2. Biden on cusp of 30-year win |
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| Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images |
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| Democrats have campaigned for 30 years on promises they'd let Medicare directly negotiate the cost of prescription drugs. After all that time, they might finally be about to achieve it, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim and Caitlin Owens write. - Why it matters: The Senate's reconciliation bill would only open up negotiations for a small number of drugs — but even that is a threshold Democrats have never before been able to cross. And it opens the door to more aggressive policies in the future.
Flashback: Then-President Clinton proposed direct negotiations between drug companies and the federal government in 1993. - Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden — and even Donald Trump — each embraced the idea while in office or as candidates, only to be thwarted by arguments it would squelch new drug development or limit seniors' choices.
- Federal law has prohibited Medicare from directly negotiating how much it will pay for drugs since 2003.
Reality check: The version of price negotiations contained in the Senate's bill is much narrower than most of those ambitious campaign proposals. - "A baby step is the way I would describe this," said Zeke Emanuel, a health policy adviser to former President Obama, and chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at Penn.
🔮 What's next: If negotiations make it into law now, future administrations and Congress could expand them. The other side: The drug industry and its allies have long argued that these sorts of policies — which they say are more like price controls than price negotiations — would weaken the incentives for smaller biotech firms to take scientific risks required to develop new drugs. |
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| 3. 📈 July's improbable rally |
 Data: Factset. Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals Surging inflation. Rate hikes. Recessionary economic readings. And investors apparently loved it, Matt Phillips writes for Axios Markets. The S&P 500 jumped 9.1% in July — its best one-month performance since November 2020. - The Nasdaq soared 12.4% last month.
- The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks jumped 10.4%.
Quick take: Bad news is good news, at least for now. - Ominous economic indicators — including last week's growth data showing the U.S. is essentially in a mild recession, or headed for one — pushed interest rates sharply lower. (Axios explains: Falling rates mechanically push up market valuations.)
🥊 Weirdly, expectations of lower rates are already generating a relief rally — well ahead of any sign of actual relief. 🧠 Matt's thought bubble: This is why trying to time the market is a mug's game! If you had sold after the brutal three-month stretch between the end of March and June, you would have missed out on a solid little rally that few saw coming. |
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| A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
| FDA ignoring the law? The latest on synthetic nicotine |
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| Congress set a July 13 deadline for the FDA to protect kids from synthetic nicotine e-cigs. The FDA again failed to act. Flavored, nicotine-loaded products continue to put kids at risk. The takeaway: The FDA must enforce the law and clear the market of these unauthorized products NOW. Read more. |
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| 4. 📷 1,000 words |
| Photo: Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information via AP Speaker Pelosi meets in Singapore today with President Halimah Yacob at the Istana presidential palace. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP Former President Trump sings "God Bless America" yesterday near the 16th tee during the final round of the LIV Golf Invitational at his club in Bedminster, N.J. |
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| 5. 🏀 Bill Russell: Archetype of selflessness |
| In 1963, Bill Russell flies past Syracuse Nationals defender Johnny "Red" Kerr at Boston Garden. Photo: AP "As tall as Bill Russell stood," former President Obama tweeted, "his legacy rises far higher — both as a player and as a person." - Bill Russell — who redefined how basketball is played, then changed the way sports are viewed in a racially divided country — died at 88 with his wife, Jeannine, at his side.
"On the court," Obama added, "he was the greatest champion in basketball history. Off of it, he was a civil rights trailblazer — marching with Dr. King and standing with Muhammad Ali." - "For decades, Bill endured insults and vandalism, but never let it stop him from speaking up for what's right. I learned so much from the way he played, the way he coached, and the way he lived his life."
Russell, the sport's most decorated champion, was the centerpiece of the Boston Celtics dynasty that won 11 championships in 13 years. He earned his last two NBA titles as a player-coach — the first Black coach in any major U.S. sport, AP writes. - Russell in 1980 was voted greatest player in NBA history by basketball writers.
💡 He was an archetype of selflessness who won with defense and rebounding while others racked up gaudy scoring totals. |
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| 6. 🖖 Remembering Nichelle Nichols |
| In 1967, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura in the "Arena" episode of "Star Trek: The Original Series." Photo: CBS via Getty Images Nichelle Nichols — whose portrayal of starship communications officer Lt. Uhura in "Star Trek" and subsequent movies broke color barriers and helped redefine roles for Black actors — died at 89. - Why she mattered: The 1960s sci-fi series shattered stereotypes common on U.S. TV at the time by casting minority actors in high-profile roles, Reuters reports.
Nichols had planned to quit "Star Trek" after one season. But the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to stay because it was so revolutionary to have a Black woman playing a senior crew member, at a time when Black people were fighting for equality in American society. - She helped break color barriers at NASA, whose leaders were "Star Trek" fans. After she criticized the space agency for failing to pick qualified women and minorities as astronauts, Nichols was hired in the 1970s to help recruit.
NASA tweeted that Nichols "symbolized to so many what was possible ... and inspired generations to reach for the stars." Displayed at a Star Trek exhibit in Seattle in 2016. Photo: Elaine Thompson/AP Nichols' fans included a young Barack Obama. She posed with the president in the Oval Office in 2012 (above). |
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| 7. 📚 Preorder "Smart Brevity" |
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| Cover: Workman |
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| The three Axios co-founders — Jim VandeHei, Roy Schwartz and me — will be out in September with our first book, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less. - Why it matters: Our tips & tricks show you, step by step, how to use our innovative communication style to cut through the noise ... and get people to pay attention to you.
💭 I'm super-appreciative for the testimonials from Axios fans who read early copies of Smart Brevity. A taste of their comments: - Tory Burch writes: "This is essential reading for anyone looking to refine their messaging, boost their efficiency and create the best corporate culture for their company."
- Jamie Dimon says Smart Brevity is a roadmap "to radically rethink how to communicate in a clear, concise and compelling way."
- Lisa Osborne Ross, U.S. CEO of Edelman: "The Axios founders have once again proven themselves as authorities in how we can write, speak and lead in ways that resonate — and preserve our most precious resource: our time."
- Mika Brzezinski says: "I love this tangible, incredibly useful guidebook."
- Snap CEO Evan Spiegel calls Smart Brevity "a critical tool for effective communication that empowers everyone to make their voices heard."
- Arianna Huffington calls it "the Strunk & White of the digital age."
📱 See for yourself ... Preorder on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org and many other bookstores. |
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| 8. Sprite ditches green bottles |
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| Photos: Sprite |
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| Sprite will shift all plastic bottles from green to clear beginning today, to increase the chance they'll be remade into new bottles. How it works: Although Sprite's signature green plastic is recyclable, "the recycled material is more often converted into single-use items like clothing and carpeting that cannot be recycled into new" bottles, a release says. - During sorting, green and other colored plastic is separated from clear to avoid discoloring recycled food-grade packaging, which is required for new bottles.
So this move will help build a "circular economy for plastic packaging." |
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| A message from Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids |
| FDA leaves kids at risk with synthetic nicotine e-cigs |
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| Congress set a July 13 deadline for the FDA to protect kids from synthetic nicotine e-cigs. But the FDA missed another deadline. Every day these flavored, nicotine-loaded products are sold, our kids stay at risk. FDA: Enforce the law. Clear the market of unauthorized synthetic nicotine products. |
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