Daily Briefing: Trump's federal spending pause is frozen

A Trump administration memo pausing federal grants and loans is facing immediate legal scrutiny. It's the Year of the Snake. New national test scores show a bleak picture of American education in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Would you use AI-generated notification summaries on your smart phone?

Judge temporarily blocks Trump policy that aimed at freezing federal grant funding

The fate of trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans continue to hang in the balance on Wednesday after a federal judge temporarily blocked a Trump administration policy that aimed to pause the spending.

What happened: In a sweeping order that surpasses the scope of dozens of executive orders Trump has signed, his top budget office directed agencies to pause federal grants on Tuesday so the administration can review them for whether they fit the president’s priorities. A memo listed these priorities, including making the country safer, ending "wokeness," and promoting government efficiency in its argument for the change.

• But right away came the the legal fight. A coalition of advocacy groups asked the court to block the policy to avoid “catastrophic” harm. The lawsuit challenging the policy hit the docket less than 24 hours after news of the policy became public.
• What the judge said: U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan said her temporary ruling was intended to "maintain the status quo." It does not block the Trump administration from freezing funding to new programs, or require it to restart funding that has already ended. She ordered the Trump administration not to halt grant funding until at least Feb. 3, when another hearing will be held on the dispute.
• What kind of funding was stalled: This federal spending is far reaching, from cancer research to housing and food assistance, domestic violence and homeless shelters as well as suicide hotlines, among other programs.

Related: Distribution of HIV drugs around the world stopped as Trump stalled foreign aid.

Welcome to the Year of the Snake

For billions of people around the world who celebrate the Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, festivities are about to begin on Wednesday. The 15-day festival lasts until the following full moon on Feb. 12. The holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. The Lunar New Year marks the transition from one animal signifier to another. People born in the Year of the Snake are seen as charismatic, intelligent and artistic, they are also often considered cunning and mysterious. Read more

More news to know now

• OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Gov, an artificial intelligence chatbot for government agencies.
• Residents finally were allowed to return to see damage to their homes weeks after the deadly Palisades Fire.
• Why is Jim Acosta leaving CNN?
• Trump offered eight-month buyouts to all federal employees.
• Oklahoma's education board approved a rule to ask the immigration status of students and their parents.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Caroline Kennedy calls her cousin a 'predator'

“I have known Bobby my whole life. We grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator."

~ Caroline Kennedy, the only living child of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in a video posted on social media Tuesday. She read aloud a letter in which she called her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump's pick for secretary of Health and Human Services, "unqualified" for the role. Confirmation hearings for Kennedy begin on Wednesday.

Student reading scores decline again

Fourth and eighth graders' literacy skills dipped – once again – on the U.S. Department of Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress, illuminating how temporary pandemic-related academic setbacks like school closures and remote classes continue to affect students' ability to learn nationwide. Lower performing readers are more likely to be absent at school, the new dataset shows, which could also be contributing to the literacy slide for that group of kids, experts said. Read more

Today's talkers

• Online support poured for Selena Gomez, a third-generation Mexican American, for her comments on immigration.
• Meet the "Love is Blind" Season 8 cast.
• Bill Gates says called his divorce a "mistake."
• These are the chilling revelations from "The Fall of Diddy."
• Trans, nonbinary Americans' passports remain in limbo.

Don't fall for 'shrimp fraud'

Restaurants throughout the Gulf Coast are serving imported shrimp but telling their customers they're feasting on fresh crustaceans fished in the Gulf of Mexico, new research found. SeaD Consulting, a food safety technology company, tested shrimp from randomly chosen restaurants in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Galveston, Texas; and Tampa Bay, Florida. Researchers found a significant number of the restaurants were passing off their shrimp as locally sourced, even though they were grown on foreign farms and imported to the U.S. This hurts local fishermen struggling to compete with the low cost of imported shrimp from countries like India, Vietnam and Ecuador. Read more

Photo of the day: The youngest White House press secretary

The White House's youngest press secretary Karoline Leavitt made her debut in the briefing room on Tuesday. Leavitt said she plans to hold briefings frequently and said that Trump and the White House would be available to all media outlets as well as "new media voices who produce related content" such as "independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators."

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.