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Webinar rewind: Preparing for potential election crises

A pandemic. Battles over millions of mailed-in ballots. The Supreme Court deciding an Electoral College dispute. The accelerated undoing of democratic norms. Dozens of legal battles over election administration and voting rights. Each would be enough to create unprecedented challenges to an election. But all are present this year, positioning Election Day 2020 and the days after to face challenges rarely as intense before. As Nov. 3 approaches, voters, government officials, candidates and the media may become overwhelmed by the many storylines, the shifting landscape and the potential outcomes. Preparation needs to start now.

The Fulcrum convened an expert panel to discuss these issues and more on June 9. Editor-in-Chief David Hawkings moderated the webinar, which also included:


  • Bryan Monroe, associate professor of practice at Temple University's Klein College of Media and Communication. Before joining Temple, Bryan was editor of CNNPolitics and Washington opinion editor for CNN; president of the National Association of Black Journalists; and editor-in-chief of Ebony & Jet magazines.
  • Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center. Trevor is a past chairman of the Federal Election Commission and was general counsel to John McCain's 2000 and 2008 presidential campaigns.

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Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Investors Gather in NYC to Strengthen Democracy and Free Enterprise

Investors and family offices from across the political spectrum will gather at the Fordham Gabelli School of Business in midtown Manhattan on September 3 for the founding meeting of Investors for a Better America, a nonpartisan conference built on the premise that free enterprise and constitutional democracy depend on many of the same conditions.

"I believe we have a fiduciary obligation to keep America investor-friendly, which means we need a strong capitalist constitutional democracy," said David Teten, cofounder of Investors for a Better America and a Partner with Orange Collective, a venture capital firm exclusively backing graduates of Y Combinator, the world’s leading tech accelerator.

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Trump and Carney standing next to American flag

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to the White House on Oct. 7, 2025 in Washington, D.C.

(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/TCA)

Trump’s war on Canada a pitiful own goal

This summer, America played host to one of the biggest international events on the planet, the World Cup, drawing millions of foreigners to our cities and towns, our stadiums and our national parks, where many of them had never been before.

The consensus was, America is awesome — visitors from Bolivia, Scotland, Uzbekistan, and everywhere in between marveled at the sheer size of our great nation, the diversity of our topography, the deliciousness of our foodstuffs, and, perhaps most importantly, the kindness of our people. (Not to mention, our eighth wonder of the world — Buc-ee’s.)

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Happy Latin American group of students studying together at the library

After a Title VI complaint from the Equal Protection Project, USC cut in-person Youth Leadership Institute programming. Students share the fallout

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A Complaint Against HSF’s Youth Leadership Institute Shows Why DEI Matters for All Students

On June 29, the Equal Protection Project (EPP), a 501(c)(3) that challenges DEI initiatives through legal action at universities across the country, filed a civil rights complaint against the University of Southern California (USC) and Loyola Marymount University (LMU).

The complaint cites the involvement of both universities in hosting the Youth Leadership Institute, a summer program that flies out upwards of 500 Hispanic rising high school seniors to Los Angeles for a five-day intensive, teaching them about the college application process, financial literacy, and expanding their networks to student mentors who previously attended the program.

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aerial view of an AI data center.

In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on August 26, 2026 in Abilene, Texas. The Stargate Oracle AI data center will span roughly 4 million square feet and will be operated by Oracle for OpenAI. The facility is the first Stargate site to go live and is expected to be fully completed by the end of 2026.

Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Why Communities Nationwide Are Halting AI Data Centers

More Americans of all political stripes are growing anxious over the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies, and a popular backlash is brewing. At university graduations, commencement speakers who have cited the alleged benefits of AI have been met with resounding boos from graduates who feel AI has displaced them from jobs. With no federal law regulating AI, all 50 state governments have proposed measures to regulate everything from employment algorithms to deepfakes to child safety.

Lately, the strongest protest has emerged in America's heartland, with one issue fueling local opposition: the rapid proliferation of massive data centers used for cloud storage and artificial intelligence computations. Across America, more than 4,400 data centers currently exist, and a University of Michigan report found that just one center can consume as much electricity as 2,000 homes. They also use large amounts of water for cooling, with a typical data center using 300,000 gallons of water each day (about the same as 1,000 households). But very large data centers can use an estimated 5 million gallons of water each day, which is similar to the daily usage of a town with 10,000 to 50,000 residents.

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