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Editor's note: This piece originally appeared on The Free and Equal Elections Foundation's website and has been republished on IVN with permission from the authors. ‍ Last week’s showdown between the sitting U.S. President and his opponent was an exhausting production that played into the divisiveness of our country, rather than focusing on solutions. Since 2008, we have been sounding the alarm on the two party system’s control of Presidential debates, while creating alternative platforms tha

West San Ysidro Boulevard in San Diego has an extra pop of color. Creatives have added fresh street art along the high-traffic thoroughfare — less than four miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Vacant buildings, alleyways and businesses serve as canvases for a series of commissioned murals. One of the murals is the work of a self-taught cartoonist. The vibrant narrative reflects the artist’s comic strip background. It’s the first public mural created by Fifi Martinez. "It's on the abstract and o

This story was originally published by ProPublica. Monday morning, Sept. 28, California woke up sweaty, devastated, even shocked to find the state burning again. But if we’re honest, and to our great shame, no one was surprised. We’d seen this horror movie in this town. Three years ago, wildfire killed 25 people in Sonoma County. Now the Glass Fire was there, again, burning toward Santa Rosa. At 12:30 a.m., a string of seniors stood in line, many in pajamas, waiting to board an evacuation bus f

Matthew Villongco stopped by the UCLA campus to see his friends on a Thursday night during his first year of community college. An airy lounge surrounded by a glass wall, packed to the brim with students, caught his eye — The Study. He’d imagined that people would be partying. Instead, he saw collaborative studying, an atmosphere filled with chatter, not students in their own headphone-induced bubbles. That’s the scene Villongco remembered when he was accepted to UCLA as a transfer student and

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher. ‍ If the winner of the presidential election is not known on election night, it won't be an alarming surprise to most voters, a new poll shows. Only 20 percent expect the outcome will be clear the night of Nov. 3, according to polling by Politico and Morning Consult released Monday. Another 19 percent think they'll know the next day if President Trump won re-elec

Modern news consumption is frustrating. Newsrooms have been decimated. Media outlets continue to disappear. Opinion is pawned off as news. Polarized echo chambers may entertain certain factions, but they don’t serve to educate or inform. Are we entering End Days for news? I took that question to Point Loma Nazarene University professor Dean Nelson. An institution unto himself, he’s knowledgeable, thoughtful and blunt about the journalism industry. He doesn’t think the industry is broken beyo

This is Part Two of a two-part series on racism and the education system. Read Part One here. ‍ Data supporting the direct link between family income and student achievement rely mostly on test scores as the primary indicator of success. By that measure, the evidence is indisputable that schools in wealthy neighborhoods out-perform schools located in less affluent communities. In a class-based society, systemic racism in public education results in policies that serve to discriminate against t

In a dramatic move to tackle climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom today ordered state officials to ban new gasoline-powered cars within 15 years. California has for longer than half a century been a leader in driving new, cleaner car technologies with its regulations. Today, Newsom raised the stakes: On the hood of an all-electric red Ford Mustang Mach-E, he signed a new executive order that aims to eliminate new models of traditional cars and put more vehicles powered by clean technologies such a

Editor's Note: This piece originally published in the Portland Press Herald, and has been republished with permission from the author. ‍ The presidential election on Nov. 3 is nearly upon us. No matter who’s elected, it will have an immense impact on our nation. In Florida, another vote is looming that may have just as great an impact. Why? It takes the first steps toward true structural election reform. Florida, like Maine, has a closed primary. But Floridians courageously collected 1 milli

Diana Marrone felt alone and out of options. The single mother of a 5-year-old kindergartener had struggled to balance her full-time job while guiding her daughter’s remote learning. Marrone’s mother would ordinarily assist with childcare, but coronavirus exposure concerns ruled that out. Still, Marrone balked at the idea of sitting her daughter, Sienna, out for a year, worried she would fall behind academically and resent school. So Marrone, who lives in the East Bay suburb of Oakley, pulled