Columbus
The Groundtruth Project
An assault against a cornerstone of democracy
It was the kind of brutal, authoritarian tactics we usually hear about in Russia under Putin or Afghanistan under the Taliban or perhaps the strong arm of the military juntas in Myanmar or Egypt: A police raid on a newspaper, seizing property and effectively shutting it down in an effort to silence journalists trying to hold officials accountable.
Lack of outreach may be cutting older Latinos off from senior services
MANCHESTER, NH — Flerida Moriel, 79, lives in an apartment complex in Manchester just two houses down from her daughter, Mirla Cabrera. They chat over Dominican coffee and listen to music in Flerida’s kitchen almost every night. But during the day, Moriel is alone in her apartment, with little to occupy her besides occasionally taking care of her grandchildren.
Lack of translation services and trust leave out voices in Stockton
STOCKTON, CA — In February, Griselda Juarez left her work early at Premier Finishing, a company that specializes in painting auto parts for various car makers, and rushed through making dinner for her family so she could attend a quarterly neighborhood meeting with the Stockton Police Department. Juarez, 50,...
How Multilingual teachers bridge the language gap
WALLINGFORD, CONN — Magdali Cordova realized that her kids were learning English in school differently. She had moved from Ecuador in the spring of 2021 and enrolled her son Gabriel in third grade at Parker Farms Elementary School. However, Cordova noticed that her son was not doing as well as his sister Victoria, a seventh-grader at Moran Middle School.
The woman making tax season less intimidating for migrants
HARRISBURG, PA — Esmirna Jiménez immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 2016, bringing with her degrees in business administration and accounting, and years of experience as a supply chain manager for a supermarket. But in the U.S., she had to start over. She worked...
After a fire exposed language barriers in emergencies, Winston-Salem reacted
WINSTON-SALEM, NC – The first hours and days of the Weaver fertilizer plant fire were terrifying for many people that lived in the vicinity. And many of those residents were Spanish speakers who had little to no access to critical information. Just weeks after the fire, over 100 residents...
Another barrier: The language challenges for disabled Latinos
Charlotte, NC – When Ana Beatriz López González went into labor on September 21, 2022, she was rushed to Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center by her family. López González, who is deaf-mute and has trouble communicating because she doesn’t know American or Spanish sign language and doesn’t know how to read or write, was assigned to the maternity ward on the eighth floor of the hospital. Her sister, Jessy López, accompanied her during the registration process and her brother Nelson stayed with her until 11:00 p.m., when the security guards asked him to leave.
Confusion over English learning models leaves students behind
RENO, NV — Clayton Middle School seventh grader Rossie Copado Reyes recalls a dream she had two years ago. She dreamed that she was taking a proficiency test as a part of her English language development program. At the time she had the dream, she’d already been out of the program for a year. The dream reminded her and her mom of the stress of that time.
Yakima Valley's holistic approach to interpretation
YAKIMA, Washington – When Maria Guadalupe Diaz-Lisaola and her husband, Refugio Cepeda, go to a medical appointment, it’s usually a businesslike affair. Over the years, Diaz and Cepeda have faced organ failures and transplants, cancer and open-heart surgery. This appointment is different. Inside their specialist’s office, conversations muffled...
California's challenge: overcoming the trust barrier
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Jana Beldelcy Valiente spends her Wednesdays volunteering at a community food bank, and has a lot in common with the dollie-towing residents to whom she hands out milk or eggs: She’s undocumented, has no job and no health insurance. However, the 58-year-old Guatemalan figured...
The inequity roadblock to California's bilingual plans
SAN DIEGO — San Diego Unified has a lot of work to do to help meet the state’s goal of making the majority of California students bilingual. State officials want half of California’s K-12 students to be working toward proficiency in at least two languages by 2030, and for every three out of four graduates to be considered bilingual by 2040.
Working through language barriers in healthcare
MERIDEN, CT – Maria Canales was her family’s English-to-Spanish translator growing up. She began going with her parents to medical appointments when she was nine. Her family had recently moved to Connecticut from Puerto Rico and her parents struggled to learn English. In addition, Canales was “the baby” of the family, so she was always with one of her parents.
How Latina providers support gender violence survivors
DEKALB, ILL — Domestic violence affects all communities, crossing racial, economic and social lines. As the Latino population in northern Illinois grows, some Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities face language and cultural barriers to accessing care. At domestic violence crisis centers, it’s often Latina staff members who are front and...
What the biggest global heatwave in history tells us about our progress against climate change
Across three continents, the harsh new realities of what we’ve done to our planet are clear like never before, as scientists confirmed this week that we’re experiencing the greatest global heatwave in modern history. With the searing temperatures across America, Europe and Asia have come record-breaking wildfires, including...
What a climate of extremes means for low-income, rural California residents
WILLITS, CA — One windy night in March, Steffanie Darr and her son had finally settled into their new home at a Lake County mobile home park. The steps up to the trailer were damaged beyond use during their move, but inside still felt familiar. To keep the elements out, the Darrs used bricks to hold down a tarp over the trailer’s leaky roof. But in that night’s atmospheric river storm, one of more than a dozen that swept California this year, the bricks went flying and broke the trailer’s awning.
As new journalists join Report for America, a call for more diverse local news
It’s one of the greatest days of the year for us when we deploy new Report for America reporters out into their host newsrooms to serve local communities. This week, 60 new Report for America corps members began their onboarding and orientation in new positions in newsrooms in every corner of the country, joining the ranks of the more than 600 reporters who we’ve placed in more than 300 newsrooms since GroundTruth launched the program in the fall of 2017.
Independence and freedom through the eyes of Report for America
On this Fourth of July, there is a growing consensus that American democracy is in peril. A new poll by Suffolk University in partnership with USA Today found that 7 out of 10 Americans agree with the statement that American democracy is “imperiled” and the concerns cut evenly across partisan lines.
Physical & online security: A proactive approach
Journalists often find themselves in challenging and high-risk situations, but there are ways to put safety first and do your job accurately. Chris Post, executive director of International Media Security Group, photojournalist and former first responder shared a few tips and tricks for journalists to work better and safer as they navigate through their assignments, emphasizing the need to be proactive instead of reactive.
Remembering Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon whistleblower, through reboot of GroundTruth podcast
Daniel Ellsberg, the political activist and former military analyst best known as the whistleblower behind the release of the Pentagon Papers that exposed a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, passed away today after a battle with pancreatic cancer. In memoriam, The GroundTruth...
Goodbye to Daniel Ellsberg, seeker of truth
BOSTON – It is rare in life that you get to know one of your heroes. Daniel Ellsberg gave me that opportunity, and for the last four years I have had the great privilege to get to know Dan and his wife Patricia and to tell their story in our podcast, “The Whistleblower: Truth, Dissent and the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg.”
The Groundtruth Project
577+
Posts
417K+
Views
Our mission is to restore journalism from the ground up by supporting the next generation of journalists through field reporting that serves under-covered corners of the United States and the world.
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.