 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Corporations are transforming shopping into a data-driven extraction system, using surveillance, pricing algorithms, and hidden fees to maximize what they can take from you. very day, companies find better, and sneakier, ways to reach deeper into our wallets. They trap us in subscriptions, bury fees until checkout, use algorithms to collude with competitors, and mine our personal data to charge us the most we’re willing to pay. With each trick and tactic, companies are reinventing the ripoff right under our noses. And, as families strain under the rising cost of living, these practices are coming for every line of the household budget. Algorithmic price fixing is one of the most powerful tools in that arsenal. Price-fixing no longer requires a smoky back room. Today, technology can do CEOs’ dirty work for them. From rent to gasoline, this algorithmic price-fixing playbook is wreaking havoc on family budgets.
The Justice Department is investigating the five major US TV networks for possible antitrust violations, opening yet another front in the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the press. The probe, which one leading First Amendment group called nonsensical, concerns the TV pool, a long-standing arrangement that was disrupted last month when President Donald Trump banned CNN from the White House grounds. The pool is a small, rotating group of journalists that provides coverage of the president and represents the larger press corps. The TV pool chair at the time said that with Trump “preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” there would be “no replacement pool put in place.”
KSNI reports… St. Cloud city staff are recommending the Planning Commission hold the line on its proposed data center rules, without a cap on water use or a wider buffer from homes. The commission takes up the city’s first-ever data center rules again Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. at St. Cloud City Hall, after postponing action in September and sending staff back with a list of questions.
A coalition of nonprofit groups and labor unions filed an emergency petition on Friday aimed at blocking the Federal Communications Commission’s recent repeal of a decades-old rule that limited consolidation among television broadcasters, a move that would allow media conglomerates to seize even more control over local news stations. The petition states that the Republican-controlled FCC’s decision—pushed by Chair Brendan Carr and approved in August in a 2-1 vote along party lines—was “plainly contrary to law and violates core administrative law principles.” The filing notes that Congress enacted the rule barring any single TV broadcaster from reaching more than 39% of US households—and only Congress can roll it back.
"The FCC simply cannot ignore the laws Congress makes just because the current agency head wants to."
A Pressing Issues conversation with Free Press’ S. Derek Turner about what comes next after the Paramount-WBD mega-merger. On Tuesday, Paramount Skydance closed its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. The combined company, now called Skydance, gives Trump-friendly billionaire David Ellison control of media properties including CBS, CNN, HBO Max, Paramount+ and two of Hollywood’s largest movie studios. The company also starts out with around $79 billion in debt. Free Press spent much of 2026 fighting to block this merger. The deal went through after a coalition of state attorneys general that had sued to stop it settled instead. Free Press and other core partners in the Block the Merger coalition filed an amicus brief urging the court to reject the settlement. A federal judge approved it anyway on Sept. 30. “Dangerous mega-mergers like this demonstrate the urgent need to enforce the antitrust laws instead of caving in,” Free Press Co-CEO Jessica J. González said after the ruling. On the merger's closing day, employees received a memo announcing layoffs, and Ellison told a company town hall that CNN and CBS News would retain their editorial independence.
Sam Altman told Vanity Fair that Elon Musk only respects people who hit back, and spoke about Artificial, the film where Andrew Garfield plays him. Sam Altman called Elon Musk a bully and said he would still work with him, in an interview with Vanity Fair. The magazine published it on 5 October with its revived New Establishment list. The OpenAI chief executive tops that list. Vanity Fair global editorial director Mark Guiducci recorded the conversation in San Francisco on 11 September, for the Fair Game podcast. It is the first of two interviews. Vanity Fair said on air that its parent company, Condé Nast, has a content deal with OpenAI. “I will work with Elon, of course”
David Zaslav's $606 million haul accounted for most of the gains, but his four top deputies also sold their shares in the deal, with payouts averaging over $100 million. The sale of Warner Bros. Discovery delivered a windfall for the C-suite of the company, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. Former WBD CEO David Zaslav sold shares worth more than $224 million in WBD on conjunction with the acquisition by Paramount, while options that were in the money netted him an additional $381 million or so. That totals over $600 million, not including any cash severance, a tax benefit or other perquisites. But his top four deputies also sold their shares in the sale, netting more than $500 million between them.
In headline after headline this year, American book publishers have appeared to be fighting back against generative AI, from suing Google for copyright infringement to canceling books by authors suspected of using LLMs. But behind the scenes, at least three of the Big Five US book publishers—HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette—have been quietly incorporating AI tools into their publishing processes without public disclosures or author consent. According to interviews with more than two dozen workers, all of whom spoke under the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their employment, publishers are now using LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT to email literary agents, write publicity and back-cover copy, design cover art, and generate marketing materials, often at the direction of their executives.
Maybe for the first time ever, we’re seeing some real price competition affecting the largest ISPs. The big ISPs have seen competition in some markets for the last decade, but in many markets, competition really seems to be making a difference. Fierce Network recently quoted Comcast CFO Jason Armstrong as saying that he is seeing irrationally low prices from some fiber overbuilders who are selling gigabit broadband for as little as $30 – $40 per month. He says that it costs Comcast as much as several thousand dollar to convert an HFC customer to fiber, and that he can’t understand the rationale behind selling fiber broadband that cheaply
INSIDE LOOK: END TIMES TALKER — Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is sharpening his warnings about the Antichrist — which he sees as a force that could harm technological development — according to exclusive recordings obtained by Calder. His new comments come as AI races ahead and public concern over its risks grow. Thiel began a closed four-part lecture series in Nashville last week, returning to a theme he explored in San Francisco last year before taking similar talks to Paris and Rome. Nashville is emerging as a hub for the tech right.
Klickitat County stretches for more than 80 miles along the Columbia River, speckled with small towns along the waterfront and within its agricultural lands. It’s here that at least six hyperscale data centers are being proposed. The rural county, best known for wine vineyards and agriculture, has just 24,000 residents. But public records show that data center developers have asked the Bonneville Power Administration and Klickitat Utility District for access to up to 5,655.5 megawatts of power. That’s enough to power up to six million homes or about 15 cities the size of Seattle. Directly surrounding counties — Skamania, Benton, Yakima and Hood River — all unanimously approved data center moratoriums this year, but Klickitat County commissioners did not.
At an event in San Francisco, Microsoft announced features that will let Copilot read the files on a PC, take actions on the machine and run AI models locally instead of in the cloud. New PCs built around an Nvidia chip, including a $2,599 Surface laptop, start shipping Oct. 16.
“Is Ambani the real boss of India?” Elon Musk asked as he questioned why Starlink has yet to launch its satellite internet service in the country. Elon Musk has questioned the influence of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani as SpaceX struggles to launch its Starlink satellite internet service in the country. Musk’s comments, which were posted on X, escalate a dispute over regulatory delays after the Indian government rejected his claims that powerful business interests were blocking its entry. Musk accused on Wednesday unnamed “oligarchs” of blocking Starlink’s launch in India to maintain what he called their “monopolistic chokehold” on the country, without identifying them or providing evidence for his claim. He called the alleged blocking a “crime against the people of India” and argued that Starlink could bring affordable, high-speed internet to people who lack internet access. Hours later, India’s Ministry of Communications pushed back, saying its regulatory framework for satellite communications is “fair and non-discriminatory.” The ministry said in a statement that Starlink and two other licensed satellite operators are all at “broadly the same regulatory stage.” It added that all three companies are undergoing security assessments that must be completed before they can seek spectrum, the radio frequencies that satellites use to send signals.
|
Lawmakers are considering forcing data centers to shoulder new costs and restrictions while speeding up the energy infrastructure needed to power the AI boom. Why it matters: The bipartisan legislation, unveiled last week, represents the most aggressive response yet from Washington to data centers amid growing backlash over their energy and environmental impacts. Driving the news: The provisions are part of broader Senate legislation aimed at speeding up permitting for energy — but make no mistake: The data center measures are significant and would go far beyond Washington's largely voluntary efforts to date.
Faribault Daily News reports... Faribault Daily News reports... Two city planning commissioners were in agreement. They would not accept the environmental commission’s recommendation to prevent a data center from shining light on any adjoining property. Instead, commissioners suggested the wording revert to only residential properties. More about the meeting... When the Faribault City Council directed the environmental and planning commissions to work together to create standards for any data center developments coming into the city, the two bodies sat down in a work session Aug. 17. It was the only meeting where both bodies worked together.
A partnership between Starlink, the space satellite internet company from Elon Musk, and National 4-H Council is bringing broadband connectivity to rural communities, including several in Iowa. Alexa Groff, the 4-H STEM education specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, said reliable internet access in rural Iowa will help 4-H students participate in robotics programming and other science and technology focused activities that students in other parts of the state may already have access to. Groff said while people typically associate 4-H with showing animals at the county fair, “that’s just one arm of 4-H.” Groff said there are lots of students interested in robotics programs, which currently exist in Iowa for young 4-H students, but not for middle or high school age students.
A court this week ordered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to respond to a petition filed by the Media and Democracy (MAD) Project over a long-pending challenge to the broadcast license of a Fox-owned TV station. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued its order in response to a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by MAD Project earlier this year, which is seeking to revive its effort to challenge and cancel the broadcast license of WTXF (Channel 29) in Philadelphia. The FCC has 30 days to respond to the MAD Project's request for relief in a matter concerning the broadcast license of a Fox-owned TV station.
SpaceX's 800 MHz move is not about fixing indoor D2D. It is about building the coverage layer of a much bigger hybrid mobile network. That was Elon Musk’s reaction after SpaceX agreed to acquire Grain Management’s nationwide 800 MHz spectrum portfolio in the United States. The portfolio includes up to 14 MHz of paired low-band spectrum, subject to FCC approval, and SpaceX was unusually explicit about what it wants to do with it: combine its satellite-to-mobile constellation with an “advanced terrestrial deployment.” SpaceX also described its existing 2 GHz spectrum as the higher-bandwidth capacity layer and 800 MHz as the coverage layer. That is already the outline of a layered mobile network, and that is why this deal matters far beyond one low-band acquisition. What surprised me more was the response from some telcos. AT&T CEO John Stankey has argued that SpaceX’s mobile strategy is not viable, pointing to the difficulty of penetrating buildings and replicating the engineered indoor coverage operators have built in stadiums, hospitals, and high-rises.
The OpenAI/Hugging Face incident was a game changer. Globally, it sparked calls for stricter AI regulation, particularly around AI safety standards, kill-switch-like mechanisms, and enforcing liability laws. It also led many AI governance professionals to question their assumptions about the current state of AI, emerging risks, and the difference between sci-fi and reality. The incident also changed how companies view practical AI governance: the levels of scrutiny, oversight, and control implemented during AI deployment must reflect a rising threat level that many had previously treated as hypothetical. On this topic, the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI released a thematic brief titled “AI Agents, Misalignment and the Risk of Losing Human Control: Evidence from the OpenAI-Hugging Face Incident.” The brief states:
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2026 – Three former commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission have passionately affirmed the necessity of $2.4 billion E-Rate program. At the annual AnchorNets 2026 conference, hosted by the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, former commissioners attested to the importance E-Rate has for schools, children, and rural communities. Currently, the FCC is reviewing whether to limit, change, or sunset E-Rate, a federally funded program that provides up to 90% discounts on basic internet access for eligible schools and public libraries. As of now, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has claimed that the E-Rate program is exacerbating children's increasing screen time, resulting in more distractions and significant learning loss. However, critics argue that Carr’s approach will instead lead to schools making cuts elsewhere in attempts to preserve what little connectivity they can afford, especially for communities in rural and low-income areas.
Surveillance camera maker Flock is cutting its workforce as the company faces ongoing and growing backlash to its license plate readers and people-tracking technology. News of the staff cuts comes from Reuters, which reported that Flock is reducing its staff by 18%, or around 270 employees, across the board. The publication said the employees are leaving at the end of October following a voluntary buyout program. Wired reported last month that Flock was asking some of its employees to leave, citing the need to shrink its staff to avoid mandatory layoffs. Flock would not say if CEO Garrett Langley would take a pay cut following the reduction in workforce.
Elon Musk remains one of the more powerful and controversial figures in business, science, tech and politics. He played a central role in the early days of the second Trump administration. Now, a new documentary is chronicling Musk's rise to power and embrace of right-wing politics.
Real-time crime-center software is a sometimes overlooked but powerful tool allowing police to aggregate immense amounts of data, significantly expanding their surveillance reach.
WALLA WALLA, Wash. — More than four hundred Washingtonians across 19 locations took to the streets Sunday to demand a statewide moratorium on data centers. In Walla Walla, where a $4.8 billion Amazon data center project is planned, the tension among opponents and local officials was palpable. “Some of you standing here today have been called extremists and communists for standing with us,” Ben Mattice, co-founder of the Walla Walla Anti-Data Center League said to a crowd of about 60. “You are not extremists for wanting transparency. You are not extremists for wanting clean drinking water.” The state, home to 130 data centers, offers tax breaks on labor and new computer equipment for data center operators. Washington ranks 10th in the country for the number of data centers in operation. “It is our job to call on officials … to protect our communities and to, at the very least, put a pause on hyperscale data centers,” Mattice said.
The Labor Department suspended Microsoft from the federal program it uses to help foreign workers stay in the U.S. permanently, and won't process the company's pending applications. The announcement came hours before President Trump was scheduled to give Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
|
