Evening Wrap

President Joe Biden made a bold case for a second term in a barnstorming State of the Union address Thursday night, framing himself as a bipartisan dealmaker and defender of democracy while painting Donald Trump as a threat to freedom, individual rights and the fabric of the republic itself, our D.C. bureau reported.

Once upon a time, vouchers were just stand-ins for gift certificates or coupons, like the ones they give you at the grocery store when the Diet Coke is on sale but out of stock. Today, “voucher” is just another code word, co-opted to advance a right-wing plan to funnel public education money to private and religious schools. At some point, we will be using entirely separate dictionaries.

 I have returned to mark my triumphant recovery from a heinous stomach virus by recapping the results of Super Tuesday. Sometimes, the jokes write themselves.

News coverage tends to focus on national issues (Trump vs. Biden. Congress vs. itself, and so on) but in many ways the real action is in the states. And that’s where States Newsroom comes in. So let’s visit some states today.

 Happy almost Super Tuesday, everyone. Let’s see what’s in the news for this most super of Mondays.

 Today I learned that the human skull is very close to the surface of the skin. (Technically I guess I already knew this, but I had never had to think about it before.) And that is why I have nothing else to say to you here!

A nonprofit organization that facilitates Bible-based lessons for students during school hours will be in more than a quarter of Ohio’s school districts by next year, prompting pushback from critics who say the classes amount to state-sanctioned indoctrination, the Ohio Capital Journal reported. 

The march continued toward its inevitable conclusion Tuesday in Michigan, where Trump notched a 42-point victory over Haley in the GOP primary, the Michigan Advance reported. President Joe Biden roughly doubled that in the Democratic primary, scoring 81% of the vote in a win over a protest campaignthat urged Democrats to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots to protest his unwillingness to call for a full cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war. The dual blowouts were the clearest sign yet that we’re headed for a 2020 rematch. But the numbers offered other signs, too.

 The theme of today’s newsletter was obvious to me from the moment I opened my laptop this morning and laid eyes on the headlines.

“I’m sorry, they’re doing what?” I said. 

No one answered me, because I work from home and my pets can’t talk. But that's OK. Once you read it, you’ll understand.

 We are 252 days out from the 2024 election, but the election drama is already out in full force.

Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters on Thursday urged members of the public to refrain from “rushing to opinion” or “passing judgment” until police conclude an investigation into the death of a 16-year-old nonbinary student, the Oklahoma Voice reported. Until then, just thoughts and prayers, please.

The election matters, of course, but maybe not as definitively as you might expect. Trump could lose and disappear from public life forever, and we’d still spend the next decade grappling with the aftershocks of his ascent. There is no kill switch. There is only triage.