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Top 5 US news stories

October 24 2025

Greg Loving

24 Oct 2025 • 9 min read

Surging AI Needs Turn Data Centers Into Political Flashpoints

AI Data Center Debate Scrambles Party Lines, Sparks Populist Backlash

Data Centers Questioned: Huge Energy Demands, Few Permanent Jobs

NBA Player, Coach Charged in Major Gambling Ring Tied to Mafia

Trump Escalates Economic War, Hits Key Russian Energy Firms with Sanctions

…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 24th DAY…

1. Surging AI Needs Turn Data Centers Into Political Flashpoints

For the past two decades, data centers were considered some of the most boring infrastructure in tech—big, boxy buildings that quietly stored and processed information for websites, email, and cloud computing. They rarely drew public attention, much less became a campaign issue. But the explosion of generative AI, and its massive computing needs, has turned what were once modest server farms into sprawling mega-complexes that can take up many millions of square feet, draw enough electricity to power a medium-sized city, and consume millions of gallons of water. Now AI data centers have suddenly become one of the most potent political flashpoints of 2025, igniting fierce debates over power, water, land, and jobs. Critics blame them for rising electricity bills and strained water supplies, while supporters tout their potential to spur economic growth and deliver tax windfalls to long-stagnant communities. Those debates are coming to a head this fall in Virginia and New Jersey—the only states holding gubernatorial elections this year. The two races offer early test cases for how the politics of AI infrastructure could shape campaigns nationwide in 2026 and beyond. At issue are tax incentives and infrastructure costs states are offering to attract hyperscale AI data centers; mounting concerns about electricity and water use; the limited local jobs such projects deliver compared with their enormous resource demands; and growing scrutiny of Big Tech’s political influence—all against the backdrop of a two-party scramble to control the pace and terms of the AI buildout. In Virginia, Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger, who is polling as the frontrunner, has made data centers’ outsize energy demands a central issue, calling for tech companies to pay a “fair share” for the grid infrastructure their AI operations require. Her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, supports continued data center growth while blaming Virginia’s Democratic leaders for pushing clean energy mandates too quickly, arguing that it’s their policies that threaten grid reliability and drive up costs. Similar tensions are playing out in New Jersey, where Democratic candidate Mikie Sherrill backs legislation that would require data centers to help fund grid modernization, while Republican Jack Ciattarelli is focused on attracting more facilities to “supercharge economic growth” and wants to bring new natural gas plants online to meet the soaring demand.

Fortune

2. AI Data Center Debate Scrambles Party Lines, Sparks Populist Backlash

But the political calculus is more complicated than a simple left-versus-right divide. As electricity bills climb, candidates are turning their fire on data centers in a rare populist backlash that cuts across party lines. For instance, in Virginia, dueling candidates for a local board of supervisors seat in Prince William County—Republican Patrick Harders and Democrat George Stewart—have both called for a ban on new facilities. “I think we should, personally, block all future data centers,” Harders said. Stewart agreed, decrying “the crushing and overwhelming weight of data centers” and accusing “massive companies” of forcing residents to “pay for their energy.” Even within the GOP, divisions are surfacing. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley publicly clashed this week with his own party’s state senate president pro tempore, Cindy O’Laughlin, after she wrote a letter urging him to stop raising questions about data centers and rising electricity rates. “Not a chance,” Hawley fired back on X. “These data centers are massive electricity hogs. That’s why Silicon Valley wants more transmission lines, solar farms, and windmills. Somebody has to pay for it all—and don’t believe any politician who says it won’t ultimately be you.” But both parties are also leaning into the data center boom. Some of those who subscribe to the center-left “abundance” agenda (first articulated by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson) have framed these facilities as essential building blocks of a progressive future built on universal broadband, advanced AI, and a decarbonized grid. The pro-business right, meanwhile, celebrates every new project as proof it can attract investment and fuel economic growth. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has made winning the AI race with China a central priority, and is pushing an AI Action Plan that aims to speed up data center approvals and bolster the grid to meet soaring demand. In an era where investment in AI infrastructure contributes a large and increasing portion of the nation’s economic growth, segments of both parties are competing to be the ones showing they can get things built, and quickly—and to appease the deep-pocketed tech companies that require ever more computing power. This has led to some strange bedfellows. In Pennsylvania, for example, Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro took the stage at an AI summit at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon spearheaded by the state’s Republican senator, Dave McCormick, and attended by President Donald Trump. The event came on the heels of Amazon announcing it would invest $20 billion to build data center campuses in Luzerne and Bucks counties.

Fortune

3. Data Centers Questioned: Huge Energy Demands, Few Permanent Jobs

When it comes to economic development, AI data centers operate differently from, say, auto plants: For one thing, data centers aren’t major long-term job engines once construction ends. The build-out phase can deliver a construction boom—in Abilene, Texas, for example, several thousand people are working on OpenAI’s flagship “Stargate” complex—but the permanent workforce is expected to be only around 1,700, and it’s unclear how many of those jobs will be full-time. At other AI data centers the numbers are even smaller: Meta’s $10 billion, 4-million-square-foot facility on a former farm site in Northeast Louisiana, expects to offer only 300-500 permanent jobs after construction. This has raised questions about whether the huge tax incentives and infrastructure investments these sites demand from state and municipal governments (such as power stations, transmission lines, water supply upgrades, and roads) will pay off for local communities. The electricity question in particular has struck a nerve. Grid operators are warning of steep increases in electricity demand for the first time in decades, leading utilities to race to expand capacity by reviving plans for natural-gas plants or building new ones, and, in some regions, even extending the life of deteriorating coal facilities. (The wind and solar industries that had been expected to grow and absorb some of this demand took a heavy blow in the accelerated phase-out of federal tax credits for renewable energy projects in this summer’s Republican-backed spending bill.)

Fortune

4. NBA Player, Coach Charged in Major Gambling Ring Tied to Mafia

On March 23, 2023, an N.B.A. player left a game in New Orleans after playing just 10 minutes. His team said the player, Terry Rozier, was experiencing “foot discomfort.” But according to federal prosecutors, Mr. Rozier’s departure was a key moment in an insider-trading scheme. Before the game, they say, Mr. Rozier had informed his childhood friend Deniro Laster that he would be exiting the game early, so that Mr. Laster and others could bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on his underperformance for the Charlotte Hornets. On Thursday morning, Mr. Rozier was arrested in Orlando, Fla., and charged with wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. He was one of dozens of people — including Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers — named in two indictments aimed at illegal gambling. The charges spanned the worlds of professional sports, Mafia families and online betting, pairing traditional smoky-room card cheating with corruption enabled by today’s ubiquitous betting apps and smartphones. Each indictment described schemes that the authorities said had defrauded gamblers; one cast doubt on the integrity of N.B.A. games. The insider-trading indictment accuses Mr. Rozier and five other defendants of using nonpublic information about N.B.A. athletes and teams to set up fraudulent bets between December 2022 and March 2024. The authorities said the bets had netted gamblers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The second indictment, with 31 defendants, accuses Mr. Billups of participating in illegal poker games organized by Mafia families that defrauded victims of at least $7 million. Mr. Rozier, 31, is in his 11th N.B.A. season and is now with the Miami Heat. He did not play in the Heat’s season opener Wednesday night in Orlando. Mr. Billups, 49, is in his fifth season as a coach in Portland. He made five All-Star Games and led the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 N.B.A. title, when he was named the most valuable player of the finals. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last year.

Chauncey Billups, the coach of the Portland Trail Blazers

NYT

5. Trump Escalates Economic War, Hits Key Russian Energy Firms with Sanctions

President Trump ratcheted America’s economic war with Russia to a higher level on Wednesday by moving to cut off its two largest oil companies from the global financial system, signaling a new willingness by the United States to cripple the Russian energy sector despite the risk of higher oil prices. The decision to impose sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft went beyond previous efforts to hamper Russia’s economy and demonstrate the extent of Mr. Trump’s frustration with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin after months of failed talks to end the war in Ukraine. Although the sanctions hit just two companies, they have the potential — if strictly enforced — to strike a major blow to the Russian economy by sapping it of energy revenues. The move represents a striking shift in strategy from Mr. Trump, who has largely refrained from punishing Russia and has questioned the effectiveness of sanctions. After the Biden administration imposed sanctions on about 5,000 Russian targets from 2022 to 2024, Mr. Trump until this week had imposed none.

NYT

October 24 1861: Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line

On October 24, 1861, workers of the Western Union Telegraph Company link the eastern and western telegraph networks of the nation at Salt Lake City, Utah, completing a transcontinental line that for the first time allows instantaneous communication between Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Stephen J. Field, chief justice of California, sent the first transcontinental telegram to President Abraham Lincoln, predicting that the new communication link would help ensure the loyalty of the western states to the Union during the Civil War.

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