After a bipartisan coronavirus relief bill failed to pass Congress, Mitch McConnell has unveiled a slimmed down version that will be voted on this week. To discuss, we FEATURE Amanda Ballantyne. Ballantyne is the executive director of the Main Street Alliance, a national network of small business owners working to provide small businesses a voice on pressing public policy issues. Amanda joined the Main Street Alliance in the fall of 2013. She brings more than a decade of progressive organizing, policy and legal experience. She worked for several national non-profit organizations, including Public Citizen and Free Press. She has also worked as a labor organizer and policy analyst for CWA and SEIU. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, PBS Newshour, The Hill, CNN, NPR.

Celebrities are campaigning to get their fans to register to vote by offering them special prices such as signed merchandise and virtual meet and greets. To discuss, we FEATURE Maya Contreras. As a lifelong advocate, Contreras’s focus has been on Voting Rights because all paths to policy begin with access to the ballot box. On the road to equity, dominant political narratives that stem from domestic policy inhibit civic participation. Contreras deconstructs these narratives exposing their origins and purpose in order to dismantle their power for her audiences. As a political strategist, Maya bridges communication between political leaders and groups who have been deemed “hard to count” by the Census (e.g. BIPOC communities, those experiencing homelessness, low-income individuals, members of the disability community). One of Contreras’s voter outreach programs during the 2018 midterms was “Step up and Vote” which provided voter registration and voter education support to all 101 HBCUs. Media includes: Dame Magazine, PBS.

Multiple areas of California are currently experiencing wildfires with at least 22 wildfires ravaging the state. Evacuations are currently underway. To discuss, we FEATURE Rossana G. D'Antonio. D'Antonio is Deputy Director for Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the largest department of public works in the nation, with responsibility for development services and emergency management. Media includes: The Beat Radio Show, Pasadena Now 92.3 FM, The Women's Eye.

Students are going back following summer break, with many returning for online learning. To discuss, we FEATURE Jennifer De Vries. De Vries has over 25 years of experience in managing eLearning programs for companies such as IBM, Motorola, Joint Commission Resources, and Skillsoft. She is an expert in Instructional Technologies, Instructional Design and Human Performance Technology. In the eLearning industry, she is best known for her groundbreaking report about Rapid E-Learning, a methodology that improved the speed to market for eLearning course development. In 2010, Jennifer was named one of the top 20 most influential people in online learning. Media includes: Bluestreak, eLearning Deconstructed, Learning Solutions Magazine.

La’Ron D. Singletary, the police chief of Rochester, NY, has resigned following an accusation of a cover up in the Daniel Prude case. Daniel Prude was a Black man who died in police custody with a spit sock over his face. To discuss, we FEATURE Andrea M. Headley, PhD. Headley is a public management, social equity and criminal justice policy scholar. She is an Assistant Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on policing to understand how organizational, managerial, and individual level factors affect policing services and outcomes, with a keen focus on inequities and disparities. Specific examples of her past work include assessing police-community relations, analyzing dispositional outcomes in citizen complaints, evaluating the effects of race during use of force encounters, as well as evaluating body-worn cameras. Media includes: Dayton Daily News, The Conversation, NBC, PBS.

The Justice Department has intervened in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her, by moving the case from New York state court to federal court. To discuss, we FEATURE Lisalyn R. Jacobs. Jacobs is the CEO of Just Solutions: Bringing in justice to counteract injustice, and the former V.P. of Government Relations for Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense & Education Fund). She has testified before congressional committees at both the state and federal levels. She has also fought for and secured needed protections for poor women and survivors of violence in a number of key federal laws including two reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act (2005 and 2013), the 2006 reauthorization of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and the 2009 amendments to the Stimulus law. Media includes: The New York Times, The Huffington Post, NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Fox.