Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Democracy in Action: May Retrospective

Democracy in Action: May Retrospective
woman holding signboard
Photo by Fred Moon on Unsplash

Welcome to Democracy in Action, where you will find insights and a discussion with the Fulcrum's collaborators about some of the most talked-about topics.

Consistent with the Fulcrum's mission, this program strives to share many perspectives to widen our readers' viewpoints.


I spoke with these Fulcrum columnists:

Beau Breslin, the Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. Chair in Government at Skidmore College.

Vanessa Castro, a Public Voices fellow of the OpEd Project, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, and the Every Page Foundation.

Reverend Wesley Bridges, the CEO of Clergy For Prison Reform.

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Beau spoke about a new series he's leading in the Fulcrum called “Following Jefferson: Promoting Inter-generational Understanding through Constitution-making.” "Thomas Jefferson thought that constitutions should be rewritten every generation," said Beau. "Which for him meant every 19 years, we ought to metaphorically go back to Philadelphia and rewrite the Constitution."

"For Jefferson, generations represented important markers. And they were distinct," writes Beau in his introductory column. "Let each present people shape the national destiny in their own image, he (Jefferson) argued."

Each month, starting in June, the series will contrast a different element or component of seven constitutions, utilizing ChatGPT, each reflecting the priorities, beliefs, values, positions, and actions of a distinct generation.

In the column, Eliminating HIV Prevention Is a Public Health Crisis,” Vanessa wrote that the Trump administration is planning to eliminate the CDC Division of HIV Prevention, and what the collapse of HIV prevention will mean to thousands of people in the U.S. who will acquire HIV in the next five years.

"HIV isn't an isolated issue. It's something that impacts all of us," she said. We have 1.2 million people in the US living with HIV currently, and with the elimination of the HIV Prevention Division, we're going to see the ramifications in a variety of areas."

Vanessa also said that HIV is still an epidemic, and that the communities most disproportionately impacted are Black and Latin/a LGBTQ communities.

In Democracy on the Edge: Take Action Now To Maintain the Constitution,” Reverend Wesley Bridges wrote: Democracy is in danger. Voter suppression efforts are once again on the rise, most recently embodied in the reintroduction of the “SAVE Act.”

"Democracy is yet again under attack, "Reverend Bridges said. "There's no accountability when it comes to seeking absolute power. And that's what this bill is about."

The bill calls for the elimination of the use of driver’s licenses and state IDs and requires birth certificates instead.

Check out the April round table discussion:

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network and an accredited Solutions Journalism and Complicating the Narratives trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.

Read More

Did Putin Play Trump?

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during the New Ideas For New Times Forum at the Russia National Center, July 3, 2025, in Moscow, Russia.

(Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

Did Putin Play Trump?

President Donald Trump issued a warning to Russia this week. He demanded that Russian leader Vladimir Putin end the Ukraine war in 50 days, or else. But does anyone care?

“Putin played Trump” has resurfaced with renewed intensity as political analysts, former aides, and media commentators dissect the evolving dynamic between the two leaders. What was once a murmur has become a chorus, with even conservative voices acknowledging that Trump may have misjudged the Russian president’s intentions.

Keep ReadingShow less
American Democracy as a Young Brown, Low-Income Queer Woman
File:Signing of the Declaration of Independence 4K.jpg - Wikimedia ...

American Democracy as a Young Brown, Low-Income Queer Woman

The Fulcrum is committed to nurturing the next generation of journalists. To learn about the many NextGen initiatives we are leading, click HERE.

We asked Maria Jose Arango Torres, a student at Northwestern University and an intern with the Latino News Network, to share her thoughts on what democracy means to her and her perspective on its current health.

Keep ReadingShow less
Community-Driven Support Helps Refugees Thrive

Illustration of silhouette refugees walking in line over American flag

Getty Images I stock illustration

Community-Driven Support Helps Refugees Thrive

Ali’s name has been changed to protect his identity and ensure the safety of his family, who remain in Afghanistan. The name of the Colorado nonprofit featured in this story has also been withheld out of concern for the potential danger to the refugee clients it serves.

Ali knew it was time to flee on August 15, 2021. The day the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, he and his family became a vulnerable minority overnight. Fearing for their safety, they fled – first to Iran, then Qatar, then Japan – before ultimately resettling in Colorado in 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rock Stars of American Science May Soon Take Their Expertise Abroad. That Should Alarm All Americans.
person in blue shirt writing on white paper
Photo by UX Indonesia on Unsplash

Rock Stars of American Science May Soon Take Their Expertise Abroad. That Should Alarm All Americans.

Recently, I attended a West Coast conference on the latest research findings in cosmology and found myself sitting in a faculty dining hall with colleagues from around the country. If it had taken place a few months earlier, our conversation would have been filled with debates on the morning’s presentations, but now everything had changed. Against the backdrop of the Trump administration’s attacks on universities and research funding, the question we struggled with was: “When is it time to leave the U.S. and establish our research programs elsewhere?”

One colleague planned to enroll their children in an international school to learn French in case the family had to leave the country in the next few years. Another, whose home institution has been under particularly fierce attacks by the government, said they would stay and fight to support their students, but only so long as their family remained safe. At the same meeting, I heard from a Canadian researcher whose institution was compiling a list of American scientists now considered vulnerable.

Keep ReadingShow less