American Community Media

06/13/2025

ACoM News Briefing | Behind the Resurging Crypto Craze—Huge Profits, Risks & Scams

Since Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, cryptocurrencies have been hailed as a new frontier for building wealth and exchanging value outside the traditional financial system.

Supporters argue that crypto can empower individuals, particularly in minority communities that have long been underserved by banks, by offering new paths to financial inclusion and economic agency. Some advocates even see it as a tool to challenge and reform the entrenched U.S. financial structure.

But critics warn of serious pitfalls: extreme volatility, lack of oversight, and a pattern of targeting vulnerable populations with high-risk promises. Add to that an uptick in scams, environmental concerns over energy use, and ethically murky endorsement, even from members of the First Family, and the picture becomes far more complicated.

Our panel will unpack the hype, the hope, and the hazards of crypto with expert insight.

Guest Speakers
- Tyrone Ross, CEO & Co-founder of Turnqey Labs and Principal at 401 Financial
- Cantrell Dumas, Director of Derivatives Policy, Better Markets
- Elizabeth Kwok, Managing Director, FTI Consulting

06/12/2025

is emerging as the spearhead of both civil and governmental resistance to Trump’s war on and ethnic communities. Via Península 360 Press

California is emerging as the spearhead of both civil and governmental resistance to Trump’s war on immigrants and ethnic communities.

06/10/2025

A diverse crowd of some 2000 gathered June 9 in the heart of San Francisco's Latino community to denounce the Trump Administration’s militarized mass deportation efforts.

A diverse crowd of some 2000 gathered June 9 to denounce the Trump Administration’s militarized mass deportation efforts.

06/10/2025

Tucked into the 1,000+ pages of Congress’ spending package is a 3.5% tax on , essentially a double taxation that would cripple many of the poorest people in the world.

Critics of Trump’s proposed 3.5% tax on remittances say it essentially amounts to double taxation, crippling the poorest people in the world.

06/09/2025

Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles, a move that would grant him "unlimited discretion to use the military as a domestic police force."

Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell immigration protests in LA, giving him "unlimited discretion to use the military as a domestic police force."

06/06/2025

Immigrant groups are suing over a law that says non-citizens can't participate in the state's amendment process. Advocates say the law is "anti-democratic on its face" and puts a "target on immigrants' backs."
Demos Poder Latinx LatinoJustice PRLDEF

Supporters of Medicaid expansion in Florida are gathering signatures for the 2026 ballot. A new law makes it illegal for non-citizens to participate in that process.

06/06/2025

ACoM News Briefing | Taxing Remittances—A New Assault in the War on Immigrants

The US is the largest source of global remittances, a key source of income for many developing countries. In 2024, people residing in the US sent over $160 billion to families and friends in Latin America. Mexico is the largest recipient of US remittances, while India is the top recipient of remittances from around the world.

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which passed the House last month, includes a 3.5% tax on remittances. Experts believe this tax would not only hurt economies abroad, but could also impact consumer spending levels in the US.

Guest Speakers
- Helen Dempster, Policy Fellow and Assistant Director for the Migration, Displacement, and Humanitarian Policy Program at the Center for Global Development
- Dr. Manuel Orozco, Director of the Migration, Remittances, and Development Program at the Inter-American Dialogue, and Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Development
- Ariel Ruiz Soto, Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute
- Ana Valdez, President and CEO of the Latino Donor Collaborative

06/05/2025

American Community Media is partnering with HydeFM internet radio station to present SoundOnSight - a bimonthly community news program exploring how policy changes affect daily lives. Hosted by Cal Local News Fellow Christopher Alam, we share stories from those directly impacted in order to cut through the discourse and bring today's issues into focus.

Check out our first episode (and all future episodes) here:

06/02/2025

Won Tak Jung of Memphis drove 6 hours to Atlanta, Ga, to vote in the . “I’ve lived in the US for 40 years, but I’ve always voted in Korean elections. This election is about protecting . I felt I am obligated to vote.”

South Korea will hold presidential elections on June 3 as the country seeks to replace impeached former conservative President Yoon Seok Yeol.

05/30/2025

ACoM News Briefing | The Resurgence of Preventable Diseases

Numerous US states are reporting outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases, such as measles and whooping cough. Meanwhile, new protocols have been established for the development and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine: far fewer people will have access to this preventive tool this fall.

There is no vaccine as yet for HIV/AIDS, but the illness can be managed by antiretroviral therapy. However, the fate of a critical program — the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — remains uncertain.

Speakers this week will discuss the factors behind the rise in , the shuttering of global distribution programs, vaccine hesitancy, and how to keep our families safe.

Guest Speakers
- Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases Program, University of California, San Francisco
- Dr. Benjamin Neuman, Professor of Biology, Texas A&M University
- Dr. Jirair Ratevosian, Associate Research Scientist, Yale University
- Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

05/30/2025

’s upcoming popular referendum on offers important lessons for the birthright citizenship debate in the United States, write Camilla Hawthorne and Angelica Pesarini.

Italy’s upcoming popular referendum on citizenship offers important lessons for the birthright citizenship debate in the United States.

05/29/2025

Complying with the bevvy of new immigration-related pronouncements out of the Trump White House can seem an impossible task. Instructions are either contradictory, legally incorrect or just plain confusing. More alarming, the orders and implementing regulations raise serious concerns over privacy for citizen and non-citizen alike.

New immigration-related orders from the Trump administration are confusing and contradictory, and threaten to invade the privacy of all Americans.