by Evan Greer | Jul 24, 2026 | culture, Opinion, Science
Earlier this month, an investigative journalist revealed that buried in a trove of hacked documents from Madison Square Garden, there was a three-page dossier about … me.
It was in a folder titled “Facial Recognition Activists,” and time-stamped screenshots made it clear that someone had been keeping close tabs on me.
As a public-facing activist, this isn’t my first time being targeted by powerful people I’m trying to hold to account. But the incident should raise alarm bells, even for those who don’t spend their days tussling with CEOs and lobbyists.
Madison Square Garden’s surveillance capabilities rival those of some small countries — but there are far fewer rules governing how they can be used.
In recent weeks, several outlets have reported on Madison Square Garden owner James Dolan’s unapologetic use of high-tech surveillance, including a detailed report from Wired that his company uses the technology to track critics who visit the venue, monitor activists and celebrities, and in some cases ban attorneys from firms who have sued him or his organizations.
Seemingly undeterred by a lawsuit filed by Madison Square Garden over an earlier report that said MSG used technology to track LGBTQ+ celebrities. (The venue alleges that the outlet published “false and defamatory statements and implications”; Katie Drummond, the magazine’s global editorial director, has called the lawsuit “baseless and ridiculous.”) Wired this week published a piece reporting that MSG temporarily turned off its controversial facial recognition system during the star-studded wedding of Taylor Swift over the Fourth of July weekend. Swift did not comment on the report. When contacted for comment, a representative from Madison Square Garden said the venue is unable to comment on
by Katheryn Houghton | Jul 22, 2026 | Anthony Fauci, COVID-19, Ebola, epidemics, FBI, Federal Funding, National Institutes of Health, News, NIH, Public Health, Science, Trump Administration
HAMILTON, Mont. — The Trump administration has stepped up arrests and public condemnation of federal scientists studying viruses as the world faces one of its worst Ebola epidemics. In June, Vincent Munster, an infectious disease researcher at the National Institutes of Health, was charged with bringing biological specimens into the U.S. without proper documents. Weeks later, Sen.
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by Mike Ludwig | Jul 21, 2026 | Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, Big Oil, BP, Chevron, Climate Crisis, Disinformation, droughts, Emissions, Extreme Weather, Floods, forest fires, Fossil Fuel Industry, Fossil Fuels, Heat Waves, lawsuits, News, Pollution, Republicans, Science, Weather, Wildfires
The science used to attribute extreme weather events to climate change has advanced remarkably in recent years, allowing policy makers, judges, and the public to see clear links between disasters and the fossil fuel emissions driving climate crisis. Now, as the links become clearer, oil and gas lobbyists are scrambling to shield the industry from a wave of lawsuits and state laws seeking to hold…
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by Tara C. Smith | Jul 17, 2026 | Opinion, Science
Reports of “cyclospora,” the microscopic parasite infecting people in several states, have been multiplying. The epicenter of the diarrheal pathogen outbreak is currently in Michigan, with several other Midwest and mid-Atlantic states affected. Though the source remains unclear, lettuce and/or salad greens appear to be the leading culprit as of now, subject to confirmation from other states.
Cases of cyclospora have been mounting since late spring. So what’s taken so long to get this information? Why don’t we already know what product (or products) are making people sick? And why has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention been so quiet?
The answers are complicated and a bit messy, due to characteristics of both the pathogen and the public health response.
There are concerns that the Trump administration’s removal of cyclospora from the FoodNet surveillance system and the dissolution of the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria may have slowed detection and response.
First, federal case counts have lagged numbers reported by individual states. As of July 13, there were 1,645 cases of cyclosporiasis reported to the CDC, originating in 34 states. Astute readers will spot that number is very different from the 3,762 cases reported in Michigan alone as of July 15. This discrepancy is largely due to disconnect and delayed reporting and confirmation of cases between states and the CDC.
The CDC notes some of these cases “require further analysis to confirm the illness as domestically acquired cyclosporiasis.” Further, cases acquired months ago are less likely to be part of the current outbreak, so the national numbers alone are misleading when discussing ongoing transmission. There are concerns that the Trump administration’s removal
by Ja'han Jones | Jul 2, 2026 | Opinion, Science, White House
President Donald Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, sounded like a full-on supervillain when he essentially vowed on Tuesday to steamroll critics opposed to the construction of new data centers.
Ample evidence has shown there is broad, bipartisan opposition to data centers, which can drive up energy costs and pollute surrounding communities. I recently wrote about one such project that has garnered backlash, a proposed data center on the campus of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Wright, who has absurdly claimed that climate change is actually good, is no stranger to making unpopular and noncredible assertions. And that’s important context for his comments at an Amazon Web Services conference this week.
While discussing alternative energy sources, the former Big Oil executive told the audience that the Trump administration is going to do “intelligent things, Amazon-thinking things and data center-thinking things.” He also made the unsubstantiated claim that data centers help lower energy costs, while portraying the administration and Amazon as partners in a fight against critics.
“‘It’s going to take away your jobs and harm your communities’ — these are the things everyone is saying,” Wright said. “And right now, in the polls, they’re winning. They cannot win — and they will not win.”
The energy secretary added that “we will win this argument, just as we did with fracking,” the controversial technique for oil and gas extraction that has been criticized over its environmental impacts. He went on to encourage audience members to go out into their communities and promote the construction of data centers, telling the attendees that if they share their “pride” in data centers, “we’ll roll over the opposition to data centers
by Ja'han Jones | Jun 29, 2026 | Civil Rights, News Analysis, Science
As Americans across the nation revolt against the construction of costly, resource-reliant data centers, one budding story out of Tennessee appears to epitomize the exploitation many people have warned about.
Tennessee is just one of several states across the rural South where technology companies have looked to host their data center dreams. This thirst from Big Tech has spurred lawsuits on behalf of Tennessee residents, including one filed by the NAACP over pollution claims involving data centers operated by Elon Musk’s xAI.
And a new fight appears to be brewing over Fisk University’s plan to build a massive data center on its Nashville campus. Capital B reported that some of the project’s backers see it as a means of raising needed revenue for the university, but that rationale doesn’t seem to have assuaged concerns. Per the outlet:
Tennessee already has 60 data centers. In fact, the Fisk project is coming on the heels of another proposed data center near the Nashville Zoo, upsetting residents across the city.
In the weeks since Fisk’s announcement, students and residents have come out in droves to several public hearings opposing the data center.
On June 10, state Rep. Justin Jones stood with residents and fellow Fisk alumni to call out the potential harm the data center posed. He asked other Nashville residents to oppose the center with the same urgency they are using to oppose the one near the city’s zoo.
“If AI data centers are not good for a zoo, then it’s not good for an HBCU,” Jones said.
The NAACP has taken a stand against harmful data centers with its “Stop Dirty Data Centers” initiative. In a statement to
