In the news today: A federal shutdown was avoided as Congress agreed to keep the government funded until December, but the debt ceiling fight still looms. Meanwhile, it’s Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema versus Democrats (and global weather patterns), yet again. The House Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection blasted out nearly a dozen new subpoenas focused on how Trump’s mob of violent deplorables assembled.

Congress is close to passing the historic and popular Build Back Better Act, but two Senate Democrats are standing in the way: Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema  and West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. 

Manchin has at least been specific about some of his concerns, and represents a deep-red state where the politics are more difficult. But Sinema has been infuriatingly vague, and represents a state that voted for Joe Biden and is trending blue. She really has no excuse.

At this point in facing the novel coronavirus pandemic, it sometimes feels like nothing enrages parents like mask-wearing requirements for students. Given that classrooms are generally inside, most students are too young to get vaccinated, and teachers may be immunocompromised or otherwise unable to get vaccinated themselves, it makes perfect sense that if you want your child or teenager to attend in-person school, they need to mask up.

The Biden administration has announced a new policy that is set to provide government-funded legal help to vulnerable asylum-seeking children in a number of U.S. cities, BuzzFeed News reports. This is a significant initiative: Unlike in criminal court, people in immigration court aren’t guaranteed an attorney. This includes most unaccompanied children, who have had to appear in court alone.

Two mothers with children at the same Chicago Public Schools site have died of COVID-19 after 11 of 17 of the classrooms at Jensen Elementary School were in quarantine due to reported cases of the virus, according to the Chicago Teachers Union.

“Both mothers had children sent home from quarantined Jensen classrooms,” the union wrote on its website Tuesday. “One mother complained bitterly on social media that she was never contacted by a contact tracer.