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DNC's Proposed RCV Ban Sparks Debate Over 2028 Presidential Primaries

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ALS Doesn't Wait. Our Health Care System Still Does.

Defense Secretary Hegseth Testifies Before Senate Appropriations Committee

Can We Fire Hegseth Yet?

Six Undeclared Wars Reveal Fatal Costs and Failed Oversight

Six Undeclared Wars Reveal Fatal Costs and Failed Oversight

Missouri Drew a Gerrymander. Now Its Secretary of State Says Voters Can’t Say No.

Missouri Drew a Gerrymander. Now Its Secretary of State Says Voters Can’t Say No.

HR 1 Would Complicate McConnell’s Re-election

The Fulcrum
By The FulcrumFeb 04, 2019
The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum staff.
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Enacting the House Democrats' political overhaul package would make Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's 2020 re-election bid more problematic.

Kentucky is one of only three states where convicted felons are forever barred from voting. Last week the League of Women Voters of Kentucky estimated that more than 312,000 people in the state fall under this prohibition, a 67 percent increase over a similar study in 2006.


The House bill, dubbed HR 1, would allow felons to vote in federal elections after they're out of prison. And it's a reasonable supposition this would benefit Democrats because those new voters tend to be disproportionately poor and non-white.

McConnell, who says he'll seek a seventh term next year, "is reinforcing his ideological position on something he has a personal interest in," Nicole Porter, director of advocacy for The Sentencing Project, which advocates for lifting felony bans, told McClatchy's Washington bureau.


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American Democracy Needs a Mathematical Revolution

The GOP isn’t always the best party for conservatives
Ethics & Leadership

The GOP isn’t always the best party for conservatives

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Electoral Reforms

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Gynecologist doing ultrasound of pregnant woman in hospital.

Rural hospital labor and delivery closures are creating maternity care deserts—and costing communities physicians, jobs, families, and economic investment.

Maskot/Getty Images

No Doctor, No Delivery, No Future

Today, less than half of rural hospitals in the U.S. still offer labor and delivery services, and since 2020, 139 of them have stopped delivering babies altogether. That's usually treated as public health statistic. It's also an economic one. Each closure doesn't just push expectant mothers into longer drives to the hospital, it pushes out physicians, jobs, young families, and the investment that follows them. So, what happens to a town after it loses its only labor and delivery unit?

The answer, it turns out, is a lot more than a longer drive to the hospital. More than a third of U.S. counties, 35.1 percent by the most recent national count, are now what researchers call maternity care deserts: places with no hospital or birth center offering obstetric care and no obstetric clinicians at all. Since the end of 2020, 139 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies, and today less than half of rural hospitals nationwide still offer labor and delivery services.

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A New Standard for Ethical Immigration Reporting
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Photo by Frank Kastle on Unsplash

A New Standard for Ethical Immigration Reporting

Seven months ago, I attended the first day of my Reporting on Race class at USC. Taught by journalist and immigration reporting expert Jean Guerrero, the course offered growth I hadn’t yet imagined, showing me how much I could evolve as a journalist in just one semester.

For the next five months, I researched and reported on an immigration story of my choosing. I wrote about how educators in Los Angeles protect and advocate for students and communities living in fear of ICE deportations. These educators organized community street patrols to keep their neighborhoods safe. Finding sources and producing the final draft took months, but it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my journalism studies so far.

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How Utah’s H.B. 222 Set the Stage for State-level Climate Liability Shields
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Photo by Anthony Maw on Unsplash

How Utah’s H.B. 222 Set the Stage for State-level Climate Liability Shields

This nonpartisan policy brief, written by an ACE fellow, is republished by The Fulcrum as part of our partnership with the Alliance for Civic Engagement and our NextGen initiative — elevating student voices, strengthening civic education, and helping readers better understand democracy and public policy.

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