| Welcome to The Daily 202! Tell your friends to sign up here. On this day in 1492, Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella — "Los Reyes CatΓ³licos" — expelled Jews who refused to convert to Christianity from Spanish soil. | | |  | The big idea | | Narcan to market. What's real Italian food? Your weekly nonpolitical political stories. | A drug user in San Francisco looks at the package of Narcan on Feb. 3. (Nick Otto for the Washington Post) | | | Overdose antidote Narcan goes mass market. Congress crowds the box on name, image, likeness. Goodbye to daily hotel cleanings? And an amazing corrective to "authentic" Italian food. These are your weekly nonpolitical yet political stories. If you're new here: The Daily 202 generally focuses on national politics and foreign policy. But as passionate believers in local news, and in redefining "politics" as something that hits closer to home than Beltway "Senator X Hates Senator Y" stories, we try to bring you a weekly mix of pieces with significant local, national or international importance. Please keep sending your links to news coverage of political stories that are getting overlooked. They don't have to be from this week! The submission link is right under this column. Make sure to say whether I can use your first name, last initial and location. Anonymous is okay, too, as long as you give a location. | Narcan gets the OTC greenlight | | This may be the most important political story of the week. A literal lifesaver. From my colleague David Ovalle: "Narcan, the lifesaving nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, has been approved for purchase without a prescription, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Wednesday." | | But its long-term impact will "depend on the price set for the spray by its manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions, and also retailers' willingness to stock it on store shelves," David noted. The politics: The opioid crisis has stymied policymakers looking for a solution to the deadly epidemic, or at least a way to bring down the estimated 100,000 deadly overdoses per year. The money question remains a difficult one, but overall this is an encouraging step. | | There's no excuse for reducing "covering sports" to box scores and chummy halftime interviews. It's a huge political, social and, yes, economic phenomenon, and each of those dimensions deserves scrutiny (as we do here at The Washington Post). Over at Deadspin, Jane McManus, the executive director of Seton Hall's Center for Sports Media, watched this week's congressional hearing on college athletes getting paid for name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights. She has a provocative take, so you don't have to. "[C]ollege players are the only ones expected to be amateurs these days. None of those NCAA schools are trying to give back the money from team sponsorships, boosters, and broadcast deals in the name of amateurism. They aren't fighting to keep sports betting away from college games. In fact, some schools have even partnered with sports betting operators," she wrote. The politics: As McManus writes "[t]he NCAA wants protection from the winds of change, and it sounds like it is finding champions." Should players get some share of the billions of dollars pouring into "amateur" sports? Under what circumstances? Should Congress be involved at all? | Goodbye, daily hotel cleanings? | | The pandemic disrupted many routines, and automatic daily hotel cleanings were one thing that got scarce, Danielle Braff notes over at the New York Times. "Now, with travel largely having rebounded, and with occupancy levels projected to reach 64 percent this year — just 2 percentage points shy of prepandemic levels, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association, daily cleaning, like the five-day office workweek for many people and printed menus at restaurants, seems to have become a thing of the past," Braff wrote. | | Some hotel chains are offering tiered options, with different levels of housekeeping at different rates. (What are they, airlines?) The politics: Sure, "sustainability" has historically played a role. But read down in Braff's piece and you see unions that represent hospitality workers upset about billions in lost wages, and some cities passing legislation to mandate daily cleanings. | Is it Italian food or "Italian" food? | | I love everything about this Financial Times piece by Marianna Giusti: "Everything I, an Italian, thought I knew about Italian food is wrong." The gist: Many of the foods you think are "authentic" or historic Italian fare are not. It turns on the work of Alberto Grandi, whom Giusti describes as "Marxist academic, reluctant podcast celebrity and judge at this year's Tiramisu World Cup in Treviso." He's the author of "Invented Designation of Origin." (You know that concept best as "Champagne has to come from the Champagne region of France.") Among the nuggets here: Carbonara is an American recipe. Most Italians didn't know about pizza until the 1950s. Panettone is an abomination. (Okay, that last one is my editorializing.) Read the whole thing. The politics: Food and drink is huge global business. Designation of origin isn't just cultural pride and authenticity, it's also a protectionist tactic. If you can't label your cheese "parmesan" because you're in Wisconsin, not northern Italy, people looking for parmesan may not buy your product. | | |  | Politics-but-not | | | Click through to submit ideas for potential inclusion in our weekly roundup of stories you might not find in other political newsletters. Read more » | | | | | |  | What's happening now | | Trump plans to turn himself in for arraignment Tuesday | DOJ sues Norfolk Southern over toxic train derailment in Ohio | | "The Justice Department filed a major civil suit Friday against Norfolk Southern Railway after one of its trains carrying toxic chemicals derailed near the Ohio town of East Palestine on Feb. 3 and burst into flames," Steven Mufson reports. | Millions poised to lose Medicaid as pandemic coverage protections end | | "At the end of this week, states will begin to sever an anticipated 15 million low-income Americans from Medicaid rolls that ballooned to record heights because of a pandemic-era promise that people with the health insurance could keep it — a federal promise that is going away," Amy Goldstein reports. | Taiwan's leader, in U.S., stresses security for her island | | |  | Lunchtime reads from The Post | | Trump indictment follows 50 years of investigation on many fronts | Former president Donald Trump boards his airplane, known as Trump Force One, en route to Iowa at Palm Beach International Airport on March 13. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | "For a half-century, Donald Trump has portrayed himself as the consummate dealmaker — and the ultimate escape artist, a serial entrepreneur turned politician who managed to avoid major consequences despite having been investigated in every decade of his adult life by federal and state agencies, by bankers and casino regulators, by legions of prosecutors and competitors," Marc Fisher reports. | - "He's been investigated over matters small and huge: over alleged lobbying violations in New York state and whether he played a role in the Russian government's effort to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He was the only president to be impeached twice, yet he was acquitted both times."
- "Now, 50 years after federal officials first accused Trump and his father of violating laws that barred racial discrimination in apartment rentals, the former president has been indicted, according to multiple people briefed on the matter."
| | More indictment coverage: | 'We're not going to fix it': The GOP response after Nashville shooting | 'O.J. Simpson on steroids': Team Trump preps for a post-indictment frenzy | Former president Donald Trump arrives for a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport in Waco, Tex., on March 25. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | "For most people, getting indicted is a setback. From Donald Trump's team, it's viewed as an opportunity," Politico's Alex Isenstadt and Meridith McGraw report. "Aides to the former president moved aggressively on Thursday to capitalize politically on news that a Manhattan grand jury had charged Trump — using it to fill their fundraising coffers, mobilize loyalists and further solidify his hold on his base of supporters in the GOP presidential primary." | Conspiracy theorists online grasp for explanation behind indictment | | |  | The Biden agenda | | Biden would veto measure to block D.C. policing bill, White House says | President Biden walks in front of Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post) | | Why Biden has to stay quiet about the biggest news story in politics | | "If he gloats or opines, Biden could be viewed as interfering in the legal system or using it for political purposes against a former and potential future rival — exhibiting an approach to law enforcement that Biden promised to reverse when running for president. His words could also backfire on him, as they have in the past," Nicole Gaudiano writes for Business Insider. | Lobbyists begin chipping away at Biden's $80 billion IRS overhaul | | "The Biden administration's $80 billion overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service is facing a new line of attack, this time from lobbyists representing tax preparers who fear that the agency's growing power will cripple their businesses and infringe upon taxpayer privacy," the NYT's Alan Rappeport reports. | | |  | What happens next for Trump, visualized | | | "Trump posted on social media on March 18 that he would be arrested, but that won't happen if he voluntarily turns himself in," Perry Stein reports. "A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney said Thursday evening that the office had contacted Trump's attorney to coordinate his surrender. A person familiar with the matter — speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been publicly announced — said the former president is expect to appear in court for an arraignment on Tuesday, April 4, at 2:15 p.m." | | |  | Hot on the left | | Newsom forms new group to fight 'rising authoritarianism' in red states | California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is starting a political organization that will help support Democratic activists in red states. (Philip Cheung for The Washington Post) | | | "California Gov. Gavin Newsom is launching a new political organization that will take the Democrat to red states across the country as he pushes back against restrictive abortion laws, loosened gun regulations, curriculum restrictions and other initiatives Republican elected officials are spearheading," Maeve Reston reports. | - "Newsom, who is widely viewed as a potential future Democratic White House contender, plans to travel to 'states where freedom is most under attack,' he says in a video, to meet with like-minded activists, students, candidates and elected officials who he said are often fighting a lonely battle in places Democrats don't typically visit. He is setting out on his first trip this weekend to Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama to meet with local activists with his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and his children in tow."
| | |  | Hot on the right | | Republican rivals, leaders rally around Donald Trump after indictment | Former president Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Fort Washington, Md., on March 4. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) | | | "The decision to rally around the former president and current polling leader for the GOP nomination reflects clear polling patterns that have been internalized by Republican election consultants," Michael Scherer reports. | - "A Quinnipiac University poll conducted this week found that 93 percent of Republicans, and 62 percent of all Americans, believe the case by [Manhattan District Attorney Alvin] Bragg is motivated mainly by politics, not law. Only 1 in 4 Republicans think charges against Trump should disqualify him from running in 2024, compared with 57 percent of all Americans."
| | |  | Today in Washington | | | At 12:25 p.m., the Bidens will get a briefing by state, local and federal officials in Rolling Fork, Miss. The Bidens will meet with community leaders and local residents at 1:55 p.m. At 2:25 p.m., Biden will speak about his "commitment to supporting the people of Mississippi as they recover and rebuild from the devastating storms." The Bidens will leave Mississippi for Philadelphia at 4 p.m., where they are scheduled to land at 7 p.m. At 7:10 p.m., the Bidens will arrive in New Castle, Del. | | |  | In closing | | | Thanks for reading. See you next week. | | |
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