Jelinda Montes

Selected Works

Salon.com •

Getting to the World Cup won’t be a walk in the park - Salon.com

The World Cup is fast approaching, and bigger than ever, with 104 matches spread over 16 North American cities across 39 days — all culminating in New Jersey. For the final match in the world’s largest sporting event, figuring out how to get over 80,000 people in seats has highlighted huge gaps in the public transportation infrastructure connecting New Jersey and New York.

The final match is slated to take place nine miles outside of Midtown Manhattan at MetLife Stadium (or the NYNJ Stadium, as...
Salon.com •

These states are fighting prediction markets. The Trump admin is furious - Salon.com

Many states are trying to crack down on the newest frontier in the financial wild west: prediction markets. Although best known as places for betting on sports, which the Supreme Court ruled is legal during President Donald Trump’s first term, these platforms have ballooned in usage in the past year with users betting on all manner of topics from presidential elections to warfare. The conflicts of interest and questionably moral options to bet on the misfortune of others has prompted many states...
Salon.com •

Your rewards card may be spying on you — and impacting how much you pay - Salon.com

If you’ve been anywhere online or in stores lately, you’ve likely encountered marketing buzz like “Sign-up to earn loyalty discounts” or “Become a rewards member today!”

Today’s consumers are inundated with the pleas of businesses to sign up for member clubs, loyalty programs, discount cards and more. They often offer exclusive sales, access to limited edition items and maybe even specialized discounts. It’s also commonly understood that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is — so...
Salon.com •

A 40-year-old Iran tariff quietly built America's pistachio empire - Salon.com

From Dubai chocolate to lattes, pistachios are having a moment. Of course, the nut itself has been cultivated for thousands of years in Persia, modern day Iran, where pistachios are still the country’s number one commodity crop. But the United States has only grown them commercially for 50 years. The U.S. now produces the lion’s share of pistachios globally — despite their relative newness for American farmers.

The tagline on a bag of salt and pepper pistachios in my cabinet reads, “300-year-ol...
Salon.com •

Curbing social media to protect kids online could backfire - Salon.com

Almost everyone who is glued to their phone wishes they weren’t and for many people, the problem seems to be starting earlier. Children’s access to the internet is happening at younger ages, with an entire generation growing up alongside the rapid advancement of the digital landscape, which has only intensified with the advent of artificial intelligence. Teens and adults alike can be exposed to extremist content, violence and sexual exploitation online. The internet age has had countless positiv...
Salon.com •

“Disgusting overreach”: Critics call Trump’s voter roll executive order blatantly "unlawful" - Salon.com

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday calling for the creation a nationalized voter roll.

The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to make “citizenship lists” through naturalization records, social security records and data from the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE). The SAVE program was initially created to check if individuals were citizens eligible for assistance programs, not large scale citizenship verification.

Arizona has already pledg...
Salon.com •

SCOTUS set to deal major blow to mail voting ahead of midterms - Salon.com

In the 2024 election, nearly one in three Americans voted using mail-in or absentee ballots, accounting for some 48 million votes. And despite persistent rhetoric against it, even President Donald Trump votes by mail. Nevertheless, Trump further admonished mail voting while pushing the SAVE America Act, which could radically change how people vote ahead of the midterms. “Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating,” he said to press in Memphis, Tenn., Monday. “I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to...
Salon.com •

Environmental groups and states sue EPA over Trump's emissions rollback - Salon.com

Last year, 7 million people around the world, 600,00 of them children, died from a slow-moving, silent and largely invisible killer: air pollution. In the U.S. alone, that number was 135,000 people, roughly the population of Dayton, Ohio. Poor air quality also accrues an economic cost of about $800 billion each year. And of course pollutants get trapped in the atmosphere, causing global heating and climate change that threatens to upend all life on the planet. Critics are now warning that deregu...
Salon.com •

Trump is going all in on the SAVE America Act. It could make voting harder for millions - Salon.com

President Donald Trump campaign’s to influence the midterm elections is reaching a fever pitch, from FBI raids of Georgia election centers to posting conspiracy theories across his social media and using the Department of Justice to illegally access voter rolls. Now Trump has zeroed in on Congress.

On Tuesday, the Senate opened debate on the voter ID bill known as the SAVE America Act. The bill would require Americans to register to vote in person with documentary proof of citizenship — in most...
Salon.com •

RFK Jr.’s vaccine adviser under scrutiny ahead of key vaccine meeting - Salon.com

In just over a year, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dramatically reshaped vaccines at the federal level, which has drawn considerable controversy given his lack of a medical background and his long history of attacking vaccines and pushing pseudoscience. But he hasn’t done it alone. Ahead of a key meeting on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, attention is being drawn to Retsef Levi, a top adviser who has published misleading vaccine research. Public health advocates...
Salon.com •

DHS’s REAL ID hypocrisy

Leonardo Garcia Venegas went to work on a Wednesday at a private construction site in Foley, Alabama. It was a rainy day in May, and upon returning to the site with plastic sheets to protect freshly poured concrete, ICE had trespassed onto the development. He began filming and was promptly tackled to the ground, with no verbal commands. “I am a U.S. citizen,” he repeated over and over.

Venegas was detained for over an hour after showing his ID, according to the complaint from a lawsuit filed in...
Salon.com •

Social media age verification is full of risks and unclear rewards

Politicians across the aisle want social media users to submit themselves to biometric scans, increased account monitoring and share their IDs — all in the name of children’s safety online. Bipartisan bills in Congress, like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and laws across the country are attempting to bar children from social media by requiring age verification to many, if not all users.

Social media apps like Instagram and TikTok have long come under fire for potential harms to children and...
Salon.com •

GOP resists call to “nationalize voting” — but Trump's trying it anyway - Salon.com

In recent days, President Donald Trump has called for Republican lawmakers to “nationalize” elections, but his actions outside Congress have sown the seeds to control federal elections long ago. On Monday, Trump joined former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino on his podcast where he suggested Republicans should say “‘We wanna take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.”

The specifics of this plan aren’t yet clear, but it...
Uncloseted Media •

Nancy Pelosi's LGBTQ Legacy: A Complete Look

On November 6, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced that she would be retiring after 38 years serving as the representative for the district that encompasses San Francisco. Since she was first elected in 1987, Pelosi has been one of the most consistent voices in support of LGBTQ rights, speaking out about the AIDS crisis and marching for gay rights during a period of heightened stigma and supporting gay marriage long before the majority of her party. In recent years, as increasing...
Uncloseted Media •

The Latest Attacks On Queer Rights Put Democracy In Peril

“Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go,” protestors chanted in the middle of Times Square, among a sea of signs that read “love reigns not kings,” “gays against faux-king Trump,” “we stand with … our trans family” and “the future is coming.”On Saturday, independent analysts estimated that the No Kings March drew between 5 and 8 million people, and organizers say over 7 million people attended 2,700 events across all 50 states. The event, which was organized to push against the rise of autho...
The Nation •

How High School Voters Can Impact the 2024 Election

In 2016, Jahnavi Rao realized her civic voice was underestimated, even ignored. So, as a high school student in Pennsylvania, she founded New Voters, a school club that aimed to register high school students to vote and amplify their voices in elections.

“I wanted to be heard and I wanted my friends to be heard,” Rao said. “And as New Voters grew, I realized that high school was just such an untapped group of people in these elections.” As the president of the organization, Rao, now 23, has hel...

Staff Editorial: AU’s protest ban targets and silences student organizations — just as planned - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
American University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was placed on disciplinary probation for alleged violations of the indoor protest ban directive issued on Jan. 25. A Feb. 8 silent protest of around 30 demonstrators walking through buildings was e...

Staff Editorial: Restricting student speech on AU’s campus suppresses its ‘changemakers’ - The Eagle

The Eagle’s editorial board is comprised of its staff but does not represent every individual staffer’s views. Rather, it provides an insight into how The Eagle, as an editorially-independent institution, responds to issues on campus. 
See a photo gallery of indoor protests at AU over the years, including two from the Fall 2023 semester.



On Jan. 25, American University announced a ban on indoor protests, mandated student organizations welcome al...

Becoming an Educator in the Age of Banned Books | NEA

Extremist politicians are intentionally fueling fear and dividing citizens by banning books that represent marginalized people. It is no accident that most of the challenged titles feature LGBTQ+ voices and People of Color. 
Often a single parent’s challenge is enough to ban a book from school shelves indefinitely. According to PEN America, a nonprofit that defends free expression, over 1,550 individual titles were banned across more than 33 states during the 2022–2023 school year. 
Which states...

A Field Guide to Union Advocacy | NEA

These Aspiring Educators hasten to places where policy is made, determined to have a word with the leaders who make decisions about public schools. 
Skilled guides. With NEA support and training, these future educators share their expertise on what students and educators need to succeed. 
Bridge-builders. These members do not avoid problems. When they get time to advocate for students, they make the most of it.  
Ever since her sophomore year ​ at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, Pr...
The American Prospect •

Food Businesses Step Up to Curb Food Waste

Bullfrog Bagels’ five Washington locations serve up thousands of fresh bagels every day. Customers often clamor for “everything” bagels, so the cinnamon raisin display starts to look a bit neglected. On weekends, the goods usually sell out long before the shops close—but on a slow weekday, even the most popular bagels and sandwiches barely move. In the past, sometimes volunteer groups picked up a day’s worth of leftover bagels to donate to shelters and food pantries. But more often than not, Bul...

Advocating for Humane Prisons | NEA

Her father became incarcerated when she was 2 years old. Her family lost their sole breadwinner and were thrust into poverty and homelessness. 
“I did my very best to cover up that shame by being the very best person I could be, being the best student, trying to excel in everything, and thought that would hide it all,” Collins says. “I didn’t have to really face it until my own son became incarcerated.”
Collins and her husband, who live in Wilton, Maine, adopted their son when he was 8 years old...
Load More