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Rhode Island Democrats seek to remove details about voters’ birthdays

Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea wants to protect voters' identities by removing birthdays from the state's voter rolls. But critics say this could lead to a pileup of redundant registrations.

This week, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would codify a decision Gorbea, a Democrat, made a few years ago. In summer 2016, she quietly changed what information is publicly available in the state's Central Voter Registration System by removing the day and month from the list of voter birth dates, The Providence Journal reported.


The bill, which so far is only supported by Democrats, would put that change into writing. While Gorbea says this will help prevent voter identity theft, the Journal reports that no such incidences of theft have been cited.

Opponents argue that keeping full birth dates on voter rolls helps parse out any repeat registrations or enrollments from people who are deceased. Rhode Island has roughly 790,000 registered voters, but past investigations by the Journal revealed there could be thousands of duplicates.

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The Sanctuary City Debate: Understanding Federal-Local Divide in Immigration Enforcement
Police car lights.
Getty Images / Oliver Helbig

The Sanctuary City Debate: Understanding Federal-Local Divide in Immigration Enforcement

Immigration is governed by a patchwork of federal laws. Within the patchwork, one notable thread of law lies in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The Act authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) programs, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to work in tandem with local agencies and law enforcement on deterrence and enforcement efforts. Like the now-discontinued Secure Communities program that encouraged information sharing between local police agencies and ICE, the law specifically authorizes ICE to work with local and federal partners to detain and deport removal-eligible immigrants from the country.

What are Sanctuary Policies?

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President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House in Washington, DC.

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump has reignited controversy surrounding the Washington Commanders football team, demanding the franchise revert to its former name, the “Redskins,” a term widely condemned as a racial slur against Native Americans.

In a series of posts on Truth Social this past weekend, Trump declared, “The Washington 'Whatever's' should IMMEDIATELY change their name back to the Washington Redskins Football Team.” He went further, threatening to block the team’s $3.7 billion stadium deal in Washington, D.C., unless the name change is reversed.

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This past spring and summer, The Fulcrum published a 30-part, nonpartisan series examining Project 2025—a sweeping policy blueprint for a potential second Trump administration. Our analysis explored the proposed reforms and their far-reaching implications across government. Now, as the 2025 administration begins to take shape, it’s time to move from speculation to reality.

In this follow-up, we turn our focus to one of the most consequential—and quietly unfolding—chapters of that blueprint: Funding cuts from NPR and PBS.

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New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

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New York City’s Ranked Choice Voting: Democracy That’s Accountable to Voters

New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

Heads turned when 33-year-old state legislator Zohran Mamdani knocked off Andrew Cuomo, a former governor from one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent families. The earliest polls for the mayoral primary this winter found Mamdani struggling to reach even 1 percent.

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