WHAT'S BREWING
CONGRESS HEADED FOR STANDOFF ON POLICE REFORM Republican senators are pushing forward with their own police reform proposal following the death of George Floyd, declaring the far-reaching legislation offered by Democrats dead on arrival in the Senate and setting up a clash with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The House version is going nowhere in the Senate. ... We have no interest in that,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. McConnell seemingly dared Democrats to oppose the bill being drafted by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.). It will need support from at least seven Democrats to advance on the floor. [HuffPost]
MORGAN STANLEY SUED FOR RACE DISCRIMINATION Marilyn Booker, Morgan Stanley’s former head of diversity, says she was fired from the bank because she pushed too hard for a plan to address systemic, firmwide racial discrimination at the storied institution. She filed suit against Morgan Stanley, CEO James Gorman and her former boss Barry Krouk, in federal court in New York on Tuesday, accusing the firm of race and sex discrimination and a longtime pattern of underpaying, underpromoting, and mistreating Black employees. [HuffPost]
AMERICANS ARE THE UNHAPPIEST THEY'VE BEEN IN 50 YEARS It’s been a rough year for the American psyche. Folks in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years. This bold — yet unsurprising — conclusion comes from the COVID Response Tracking Study, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. It finds that just 14% of American adults say they’re very happy, down from 31% who said the same in 2018. That year, 23% said they’d often or sometimes felt isolated in recent weeks. Now, 50% say that. [AP]
LOW-COST DRUG INCREASES CHANCE OF COVID SURVIVAL Researchers in England say they have the first evidence that a drug can improve COVID-19 survival: A cheap, widely available steroid called dexamethasone reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalized patients. The study is a large, strict test that randomly assigned 2,104 patients to get the drug. After 28 days, it had reduced deaths by 35% in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20% in those only needing supplemental oxygen. It did not appear to help less ill patients. [AP]
CONGRESS COULD MAKE JUNETEENTH A NATIONAL HOLIDAY Congress hasn’t created a new holiday since 1983, when it made one for Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Now some lawmakers are talking about a day commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. on June 19, known as “Juneteenth.” This Friday marks the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, the day the Union Army announced in Texas that “all slaves are free.” The Civil War was over and President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, but the news hadn’t yet reached the most remote Confederate state. [HuffPost]
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES CALL OUT 'BROKEN SYSTEM' Following the death of George Floyd last month, Indigenous communities are highlighting the ways in which they, too, have long been victims of systemic racism and police brutality. In the United States, Native American activists have been a noticeable presence at Black Lives Matter protests, while in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia, Black and Indigenous protesters have called attention to longstanding problems in their countries’ own police forces and worked to remove statues glorifying colonialists and slave traders. [HuffPost] | 
