Here’s what I missed from previous weeks:

1. Both Iran and North Korea launched more missile tests.
2. Our visa waiver program (VWP) with the European Union could lapse. This is actually a hangover from the Obama administration. The VWP allows us to travel throughout Europe without having to get a visa, however, the U.S. and 4 other countries excluded 4 eastern European nations and Cyprus. The other countries have completed their waivers, but the U.S. hasn’t.
3. Trump tweeted that debt went down $12 billion in his first month compared to Obama’s $200 billion increase, neglecting to take into account that in both cases, the country was still operating on the previous administration’s budget.

And here’s what happened last week.

1. House republicans release their replacement for the ACA, but without any budgetary estimates. I addressed the changes in the bill as well as reaction and analysis over the week in a separate blog, but here are some of the highlights of what the plan would do:
   • Remove the tax on high-income earners
   • Reverse the Medicaid expansion of the ACA
   • Move from subsidies to tax credits
   • Remove the mandate that everyone purchase insurance
   • Remove the requirement that employers offer coverage for full-time employees
   • Remove requirements for mental health benefits
   • Defund Planned Parenthood
2. The House introduces a bill that would allow employers require employees to undergo genetic testing or pay a fine.
3. The Senate introduces a resolution that would remove privacy requirements for internet service providers. If the bill is enacted, ISPs would not longer need to get your permission to sell your sensitive information. It would also prevent the FCC from being able to create similar rules down the line.
4. Now that they’ve rolled back what they can of environmental protection regulations, Republicans move on to targeting worker safety regulations. Both houses voted to reverse part of the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, including protections against serious safety violations and sexual harassment.
5. Both houses use Congressional Review to reverse Obama-era regulations that required federally funded teacher prep programs to be evaluated on academic outcomes, calling those regulations overreach.
6. The Georgia House passes a redistricting bill that appears to be racially biased, moving black voters out of several Republican districts and replacing them with white voters. They anticipate this will be approved by both the senate and governor. It will also likely end up in court since they haven’t been able to explain how it’s not racially motivated.
7. And since we’re talking about gerrymandering, federal judges rule that the Republican redistricting was actually racially-motivated gerrymandering.
8. The travel industry is down an estimated $185 million since the election. And businesses in Palm Beach say they’re losing $10s of thousands whenever Trump spends the weekend at Mar-a-Lago due to airport and traffic closures and enhanced security measures.
9. A poll of business economists showed that they think restricting immigration is a bad idea; they narrowly approve of the ACA, but it needs to be modified to give more choice and control; and they approve of NAFTA.
10. A poll shows Americans are mixed on Trump’s proposed budget. We like infrastructure spending and tax cuts for the middle class a lot. We don’t like expanding military spending by 10% and building a wall with Mexico. We’re lukewarm on reducing taxes for corporations.
11. Despite Trump’s claim that he inherited a mess, this was the 76th consecutive month for jobs growth, a record. SEVENTY-SIXTH. That’s over 6 straight years straight of growth, albeit somewhat slow growth.
12. And speaking of job growth, Trump spent his campaign talking about how the jobs numbers were phony, made up to make politicians look good (and I quote, “Phony, phony, phony”). With this week’s numbers, he told Sean Spicer he could quote him: “They may have been phony in the past but it’s very real now.” Uh-huh.
    
13. The Treasury warns that we’ll need to raise the debt ceiling again soon. Also, the Fed warns of upcoming interest rate hikes.
14. Trump issues a new, rewritten travel ban, on the heels of a DHS report concluding that citizenship in the banned countries is not a reliable threat indicator. 34 foreign policy exports denounce it as being as detrimental as the first.
15. Though the new ban is much more measured, there are still protests in DC. The state of Hawaii launches the first legal challenge to the ban and several other states follow. In Wisconsin, a judge issues a temporary restraining order on enforcing the policy for the family of a Syrian refugee who was already granted asylum.
16. The Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness says the greatest terrorism threat we face is not foreign-born, but instead is home-grown and radicalized online.
17. The CBO finds that undocumented immigrants contribute about $11 billion in state and local taxes. In addition, between 50 and 75% of them file and pay federal taxes.
18. The travel ban might hurt healthcare and hospitals due to the suspension of accelerated processing for H-1B visas. Foreign medical students (who are already here on student visas) can apply for a work visa if they work for 3 years in an under-served community. The timing for all the paperwork is tricky, and the suspension will likely mean they can’t meet their deadlines before their student visas run out.
19. As a deterrent to illegal border crossings, the DHS is looking at separating undocumented children from their parents. Currently, mothers and their children are held together. Under the proposed guidelines, mothers would be detained and children sent to live with relatives if possible.
20. Trump considers cutting the budget for Coast Guard and airport security in order to fund the wall with Mexico. This is questionable given the large number of undocumented immigrants in the country who did NOT enter over the border and the assistance given by the Coast Guard in stopping drug trafficking.
21. The administration starts receiving proposals to build the wall.
22. FIFA says the U.S. can’t hold the World Cup unless the travel ban is lifted. The World Cup would be a huge revenue generator for the country – we’ve already been losing travel revenue. The Olympic committee seems OK with it though.
23. Illegal crossings at the southern border decreased 40% in February, though it’s not clear if this is just a typical temporary reaction to new immigration policies.
24. Mayors on a panel at SxSW voice concern over what’s happening in their communities because of Trump’s “bullying” tactics at enforcing immigration.
25. This week saw another wave of bomb threats at Jewish centers.
26. The Supreme Court cancels hearings on the transgender issue, pushing it back to the lower courts, who will review the case with consideration for title IX requirements.
27. What Dr. Carson? Slaves came here with hopes of living the American dream? I don’t think so. Carson says, “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
28. Hate crimes against Indians continue, even though the perpetrators of these crimes are aiming for Muslims, Arabs, or Iranians. Over the past few weeks, a man shot and killed an Indian thinking he was Iranian, a man shot a Sikh man thinking he was Muslim (because, you know, turban), and a man targeting Arabs tried to burn down an Indian man’s store.
29. And in an ode to all this hate, Congressman Steve King (R. Iowa) tweets “We Can’t Restore Our Civilization With Somebody Else’s Babies.” At least David Duke approved of that.
30. ProPublica launches a program aimed at documenting and tracking hate crimes.
31. Rex Tillerson refuses to meet with the top U.N. official tasked with tackling global warming.
32. EPA head Scott Pruitt says CO2 is not the primary cause of climate change, despite this being one of the things most scientists can agree on. His offices are flooded with calls and emails, so much so they had to staff up. Scientists and environmental groups push back as well.
33. Pruitt starts filling positions at the EPA with climate change skeptics, and for the first time, the EPA’s mission statement does not include the word ‘science.’ Because why base environmental rules on science?
34. The WHO reports that 1 out of every 4 deaths in children under 5 is from causes related to pollution.
35. The U.S. drops from #4 to #7 in the world’s best countries rankings, the results of a survey conducted jointly by US News & World Report, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Y&R’s BAV Consulting.
36. China grants Trump an unprecedented 38 trademarks.
37. Between this week and the previous, Spicer goes 7 days without holding a televised press briefing. The entire White House goes a little press-quiet in the days following Trump’s tweet about the wiretapping.
38. If you remember, last week Trump tweeted that Obama had wiretapped his phones. The White House says Trump isn’t under investigation, which would mean that what Trump tweeted was a lie. Well, either he just lied or he just implicated himself.
39. Trump tweets that Obama released 122 vicious terrorists from Gitmo. It’s true that 122 of the 693 released did go back to terrorist activities, but 113 were released under Bush and 9 were released under Obama.
40. In what turns out to be much ado about nothing, WikiLeaks releases documents detailing the CIA’s hacking abilities, including hacking smart devices and encryption bypass methods. This information already came out a few years ago, but the FBI opens an investigation into the hacks.
41. In response to North Korea’s recent missile tests, the U.S. deploys a missile defense system (THAAD) in South Korea. In response to that, China readies countermeasures.
42. According to experts from both parties, Trump is months behind previous presidents in staffing up key positions. Though it isn’t clear if this is by design as part of deconstructing the administration.
43. Despite his claims to the contrary, it turns out that Trump met with the Russian ambassador during his campaign (though it was brief and I can see how he might not recall it).
44. According to Bloomberg, Russian hackers target U.S. progressive groups in a new wave of attacks, scouring the organizations’ emails for embarrassing details and attempting to extract hush money.
45. Comey meets with the “Gang of 8” (congressional members who have access to the most highly classified material) to discuss Russian meddling in last year’s election. Public hearings for the House Intelligence Committee on everything Russia are set to begin March 20.
46. Michael Flynn says he worked as a foreign agent for the Turkish government, being paid about a half million dollars for his work. His work included investigating Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen in the U.S. This while he was also attending intelligence briefings. It’s extraordinary that no one on the transition team knew of his foreign agent status.
47. The ACLU formally files an ethics complaint against AG Jeff Sessions over his testimony denying contact with Russian officials.
48. This week saw more marches and protests:
    • On International Women’s Day, women skip work, rally, and wear red. Also, a statue of a defiant girl appears, facing the Charging Bull statue in New York City to draw attention to an effort to get more women on board positions.
    • Pennsylvania Mennonites are now politically active and protesting.
    • There are more DAPL protests in DC.
    • Protestors gather in front of Brietbart’s California headquarters in a  protest against propaganda.
49. Legal issues continue to dog Trump. The highest court in Canada upholds a lawsuit over the Toronto Trump Tower that found investors were misled. A DC restaurant sues him for unfair competition. A Trump University student asks the courts to allow her to take her claims to trial, despite the class action settlement. Still ongoing are lawsuits around the emoluments clause and a defamation suit from last years campaign.
50. In a surprise move, the Trump administration asks all remaining Obama-era JD prosecutors to resign, the high-profile Preet Bharara included — even though he was originally asked to stay on. Bharara refused and Trump subsequently fired him. Coincidentally, this sweep came the day after Sean Hannity mentioned on his show that Trump should “purge” the Obama appointees. Trump isn’t the first to do this, though; Clinton fired 93.
51. There is speculation that the reason Bharara was included in the firings was that he received a letter requesting an investigation into potential violations of the Constitution by Trump. The letter stated “Published reports indicate that the Trump Organization and related Trump business entities have been receiving payments from foreign government sources which benefit President Trump through his ownership of the Trump Organization and related business entities.” Trump tried to contact Bharara the next day, but Bharara said it would be a breach of protocol to talk to him. The firings came the next day.
52. Sonny Perdue, one of the last Trump cabinet picks awaiting confirmation, had 13 ethics complaints filed against him and was fined while he was governor.
53. John Huntsman accepts an offer to become the new ambassador to Russia, awaiting Congressional approval.
54. The U.S. deploys 400 marines to Syria to help remove ISIS from Raqqa, their self-declared headquarters. We’re also preparing to send troops to Kuwait to fight ISIS.
55. A man climbs over the White House fence and isn’t apprehended until he is near the residence. He has 2 cans of mace in his backpack, one of Trump’s books, and a laptop.