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The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

The Iran War’s Price Tag: Billions Lost While Americans Go Without

A child holding a basket full of colorfully painted eggs.

Congress Bill Spotlight: Easter Monday Act, Federal Holiday

Kristi Noem facing away with her hand up to be sworn in as she testifies.

Kristi Noem is a Criminal. They Fired Her Because She’s a Woman

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of the Cabinet in the Cabinet Room of the White House

Trump’s Troubled Appointees Face Scandals, Backlash, and Low Support

People at voting booths.

Just the Facts: Voter ID, States’ Powers, and Federal Limits

Cinderella bracket continues in Democracy Madness

Cinderella bracket continues in Democracy Madness
The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumApr 27, 2020
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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The Final Four in the Elections quarter of our Democracy Madness draw is upon us — and it turns out only one top seed has made it to the regional semifinals.

Turning redistricting over to independent commissions, our No. 2 seed, advanced by cruising past the call for congressional term limits.

The biggest upset in the weekend voting: The idea of electing several members to represent each U.S. House district, our No. 9 seed, snuck out a win over the top-seeded proposal of presidential elections simply by popular vote.

Multimember districts now face Supreme Court term limits (No. 13), while anti-gerrymandering commissions confront the No. 11 proposal, states promising to award their electoral votes to the national popular winner.

Press the Vote Now button to make your two choices. (You can click the matchups, then each label, for more on the proposals.)

We're hoping to learn what readers think is the best of 64 ideas for reforming our governing systems and putting voters back at the center of things. The money in politics "region" starts next.




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This Is What a Victory for Democracy Looks Like

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Trump’s Anti-Latino Racism is a Major Liability for Democracy

Close-up of sign reading 'Immigrants Make America Great' at a Baltimore rally.

Trump’s Anti-Latino Racism is a Major Liability for Democracy

Donald Trump’s second administration has fully clarified Latinos’ racial position in America: our ethnic group’s labor, culture, and aspirations are too much for his supporters to stomach. The Latino presence in America triggers too many uneasy questions (are they White?), too many doubts (are they really American?), and too much resentment (why are they doing better than me?).

Trump’s targeted deportations of undocumented Latinos, unwarranted arrests of Latino citizens, and heightened ICE presence in Latino neighborhoods address these worries by lumping Latinos with Black people. Simply put, we have become yet another visible population that America socially stigmatizes, economically exploits, and politically terrorizes because aggrieved White adults want to preserve their rank as our nation’s premier racial group. The cumulative impacts are serious: just yesterday, an international panel of investigators on human rights and racism, backed by the U.N., found that such actions have resulted in “grave human rights violations.”

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Posters are displayed next to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as he speaks at a news conference to unveil the Take It Down Act to protect victims against non-consensual intimate image abuse, on Capitol Hill on June 18, 2024 in Washington, DC.

A lawsuit against xAI over AI-generated deepfakes targeting teenage girls exposes a growing crisis in schools. As laws struggle to keep up, this story explores AI accountability, teen safety, and what educators and parents must do now.

Getty Images, Andrew Harnik

Deepfakes: The New Face of Cyberbullying and Why Parents, Schools, and Lawmakers Must Act

As a former teacher who worked in a high school when Snapchat was born, I witnessed the birth of sexting and its impact on teens. I recall asking a parent whether he was checking his daughter’s phone for inappropriate messages. His response was, “sometimes you just don’t want to know.” But the federal lawsuit filed last week against Elon Musk's xAI has put a national spotlight on AI-generated deepfakes and the teenage girls they target. Parents and teachers can’t ignore the crisis inside our schools.

AI Companies Built the Tool. The Grok Lawsuit Says They Own the Damage.

Whether the theory of French prosecutors–that Elon Musk deliberately allowed the sexualized image controversy to grow so that it would drive up activity on the platform and boost the company’s valuation–is true or not, when a company makes the decision to build a tool and knows that it can be weaponized but chooses to release it anyway, they are making a risk-based decision believing that they can act without consequence. The Grok lawsuit could make these types of business decisions much more costly.

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Team Trump had to start a war to learn how the global economy works

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on Monday, March 23, 2026, in West Palm Beach, Fla.

(Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images/TNS)

Team Trump had to start a war to learn how the global economy works

Early Monday morning of March 23, financial markets surged when President Donald Trump claimed there had been productive talks with Iran about ending the war. Therefore he backed off a vow to bomb Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reopened by Monday evening. Iran denies any such talks actually took place.

This is a rare moment in which reasonable people can be torn about which government is more believable.

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