by Maximillian Alvarez | Jul 15, 2026 | AI, Economy, Economy and Inequality, Podcast, Politics and Movements: US, Working People
In so-called “red states” and “blue states” around the US, from rural areas to urban centers, the explosion of new data center projects is impacting residents in poor, working-class, and middle-class communities alike. In this episode of Working People, we speak with a diverse panel of residents fighting new and proposed data center projects in Texas and Maryland about what it means for you and your community when one of these loud, polluting, energy- and water-guzzling behemoths comes to your town—and how to fight back.
Panelists include: Cheryl Shadden, a registered nurse anesthetist who lives right next to the site of a Marathon bitcoin mine in Granbury, Texas; Karen Pearson, a licensed professional counselor and a resident of Granbury who also lives right next to the Marathon bitcoin mine; Dr. Shannon Wolf, Precinct Chair in Hood County, who lives three miles from the Marathon bitcoin mine; Craig Jackson, a resident of Granbury who lives 300 feet from the site of a new proposed data center, and who is also a plaintiff in a current lawsuit residents have filed against the city of Granbury; Micaiah Lloyd, a grassroots organizer and resident of Charles County, Maryland, who lives near the site of a proposed data center; Hillary Gonzalez, an eco-poet, author, founder of Sacred Parks & Waterways, and a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, who lives right next to the site of Johns Hopkins University’s future Data Science and Artificial Intelligence complex.
Additional links/info:
Protect Hood County website and Facebook page
Sacred Parks & Waterways website and Instagram
Viral MS Now clip featuring Cheryl Shadden of Granbury, Texas
Maximillian Alvarez, Working People / TRNN, “A bitcoin mine in Texas
by Melissa Manno | Jul 14, 2026 | AI, education technology, Native Americans, New York, News, reservations, robotic human, Technology in classrooms
When students return to school this fall in the Salamanca City Central School District in Western New York, a new kind of teacher will be ready to greet them. The small, rural district located on the Seneca Nation reservation is set to be one of the first in the country to put a humanoid robot in a classroom. It will not replace the classroom teacher, but is programmed to provide learning support…
Source
by Derek Seidman | Jul 12, 2026 | AI, Data Center, data centers, Dominion Energy, electricity, Energy, Florida, merger, mergers, News Analysis, NextEra Energy, North Carolina, Resistance, South Carolina, Trump Administration, utilities, Virginia, Wall Street
Millions of people across the U.S. are angry at their utilities. Electricity costs are rising while CEOs and Wall Street investors salivate over the booming energy demand from data centers. Now, we could be entering a new and ominous stage of utility power: the rise of the corporate mega-utility. On May 18, Florida-based NextEra Energy, owner of the largest electric utility in the U.S.
Source
by Evan Simon | Jul 11, 2026 | AI, data centers, News, Pollution, Texas
Omaira Garcia didn’t realize life on her small ranch in Abilene, Texas, was about to change forever until clouds of dust — kicked up by a mysterious project next door — began to engulf her home. The Air Force veteran said she found out about OpenAI’s plans to build its flagship Stargate data center directly beside her property only after construction began in the summer of 2024. Today…
Source
by Mike Ludwig | Jul 10, 2026 | AI, big tech, cellphone, Flock Safety, Fourth Amendment, geo-fence, license plate readers, News, Organizing, Policing, Privacy, Supreme Court, Surveillance
Civil rights attorneys say a recent Supreme Court ruling in a landmark digital privacy case could put “wind in the sails” of local organizers challenging police deployment of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). However, those organizers in cities large and small still face both a powerful industry and police departments determined to outfit their forces with the latest tech. It will take more…
Source
by Michael Arria | Jul 10, 2026 | AI, labor, News, Surveillance, USDA, workers rights
In March, The Lever reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had hired the infamous software company Palantir to implement its controversial return-to-office directive, warning that the contract could bring surveillance technology — commonly referred to as “Bossware” — to the federal workforce. Days later, those suspicions were confirmed. A published disclosure reveals that the…
Source
