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Last month marked the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. At this moment of reflection and celebration, we’re also reminded why the federal government exists in the first place–to serve the American people. In 1776, a group of individuals came together to establish a government built to represent and serve its people. Today, we have a similar opportunity: not to start over but to reimagine and renew that vision by building a government that reflects everything our nation has learned since its founding and meets the evolving needs of its citizenry. This occasion also comes at a time of great disruption within the federal government and contention over its role and purpose. Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has made sweeping reductions to the civil service and unilaterally cut grants and programs across government. It has also taken steps to increase presidential control over the civil service, federal boards and commissions, and independent agencies. In the wake of this reshaping of government and following decades of low public trust, the time is ripe for a renewed conversation about government’s role and responsibilities to the people it serves.
AI is putting new pressure on enterprise network infrastructure, exposing weaknesses that organizations can no longer ignore. As companies move into wider-scale AI production, the challenge is connecting distributed data, clouds and GPU resources efficiently. Jim Fowler, CTO at Lumen Technologies, says this shift is driving the move to "Cloud 2.0," a new infrastructure model where the network itself becomes key to delivering AI at scale. 1. First things first: You’ve been on both sides, as a CTO on the enterprise side and now at Lumen. From your perspective, how is the rise of AI changing what enterprises need from their infrastructure? Where are you seeing the most pressure show up?
Today's blog muses a bit on the impact of the Supreme Court ruling in Trump vs Slaughter. . The case arose when President Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two Democratic Commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, soon after he took office. The Congressional legislation that established the FTC said that Commissioners serve seven-year terms, and that a president can only fire a Commissioner “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office”. Slaughter sued, and won in District Court, and that ruling was upheld by a split decision at the Court of Appeals. However, when the split decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, the Court ruled that a president has the authority to fire regulators in independent agencies.
Big tech is in a lot of trouble, as the law, the financing, and the American people turn against them. Plus, Amazon's antitrust troubles, and a crack in the electric utility high billing scam. We’ll start with the legal piece, because that’s the part mostly not being covered by the press. For years, the main thrust of the assault on big tech came via antitrust law, the argument being these companies are monopolies thwarting competitors and extorting customers. But over the past few years, it seemed like the antitrust campaign against big tech ended in failure. One judge ruled that Meta is not a monopolist, and a different judge ruled that Google is a monopolist, but then mandated irrelevant and minor penalties. And there are rumors the DOJ case against Apple may settle. But it increasingly looks like these legal setbacks were a pause before a much larger assault on their power. It’s just that it may not come through the antitrust channel, but by taking on the tyranny of unregulated algorithms. Here’s what I mean. Much of the consumer internet-economy operates on top of feeds that draw one’s attention. Meta, TikTok, and YouTube all have high profit margins because they use feeds that require little human curation, and thus have low operating costs. But just because outlays are low for the companies themselves doesn’t mean there aren’t costs, it just means that they are borne by users and communities, in the form of bullying, sex trafficking, addiction, polarization, shorter attention spans, et al. It’s like pollution, where a company pours chemicals into a river, which doesn’t cost the company anything but does poison entire communities downstream. For decades, tech firms have lobbied to stop states and the Federal government from regulating them. At the same time, they have argued in courts that algorithms are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which prohibits companies from liability for third party behavior. Algorithms are also a form of speech, and thus are shielded from state action by the First Amendment. In cases such as Netchoice vs Moody, tech firms have claimed there is a constitutional prohibition against regulating them. Two legal decisions this week suggest big tech will soon lose its legal protections.
Author Quinn Slobodian talks about how Musk’s futuristic worldview is transforming capitalism, government, and how we live our lives. Elon Musk is an avatar of digital capitalism: He both embodies and defines it. In Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, co-author Quinn Slobodian examines how Musk’s actions have altered American capitalism by changing its relationship with the federal government while ushering in a new, technologically driven political economy that’s upending our lives.
SpaceX reports its first quarter as a public company, and Elon Musk says Starlink could deliver a majority of the world's internet within a decade. Also on the GeekWire Podcast: two Washington tech universe posters, 17 years apart, and a timely question about Google's first office.
Dominion Energy plans to merge with Florida-based NextEra Energy to create the world's largest electricity company, the companies announced Monday. Why it matters: The deal could have a big impact on Richmonders' power bills and possibly on Dominion's more than 5,000 local workers. The big picture: The all-stock merger between the two energy giants lands amid soaring electricity demand, driven largely by AI and the data centers that power it.
Washington D.C. — Following today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Adam Candeub’s nomination to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement from Phillip Berenbroick, Senior Strategist for Policy and Advocacy:
The 2-1 vote along party lines repealed ‘national cap’ that served as a key check on consolidation of the TV industry. In a historic vote on Thursday morning, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines to overturn a key check against the consolidation of the television industry, throwing out a rule that prevented any one company from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all US TV households. The vote is a win for television conglomerates that aim to expand their reach across the country, particularly conservative-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar. In a presentation endorsing the move, the FCC’s media bureau told commissioners on Thursday that the cap was no longer necessary in the current media environment, and that instead of promoting competition, it “constrains” local television networks from increasing their scale.
Most people I know in the A.I. industry think the median person is screwed, and they have no idea what to do about it. I live in San Francisco, among the young researchers earning million-dollar salaries and the start-up founders competing to build the next unicorn. While Silicon Valley has long warned about the risk of rogue A.I., it has recently woken up to a more mundane nightmare: one in which many ordinary people lose their economic leverage as their jobs are automated away. Most economists and A.I. experts do not expect [the most extreme] scenario, but the persistence of the permanent underclass idea should concern all of us. First, because it signals how much collateral damage the A.I. companies will tolerate en route to A.G.I. And second, because the production of a social underclass is a policy choice. Instead of waiting for impact, we need to think seriously — now — about how we plan to support workers through A.I. disruption.
What just happened? Texas has put a hold on new data center approvals that require access to the state's grid, a move that could slow a long list of projects already waiting in line. Governor Greg Abbott has ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and ERCOT to pause approvals until the agencies complete an audit of applicants, a move that could stall a large backlog of projects seeking to connect. The state wants more information before granting access. Abbott said applicants must provide tax break details, power use and generation data, water use and cooling plans, steps to reduce community impact, and facility ownership information. Any project missing that information will not be allowed onto the grid.
Executive Summary: On July 22 at 7:56:09 a.m. EDT, a Dominion Energy transmission line fault in Northern Virginia caused a cluster of data centers to instantaneously switch to backup power, removing roughly 3 gigawatts of demand from the grid. Ting Labs network of 1.4 million sensors captured the resulting frequency and voltage disturbance rippling across the entire Eastern Interconnection, affecting an estimated 100 million homes and 238 million people. Crucially, the grid did not fail: PJM, Dominion, and regional utilities absorbed the imbalance, with the sharpest effects lasting about two minutes and full frequency recovery within roughly ten. The event is notable less for what went wrong than for its scale and speed, and it validates the need for real-time grid intelligence, close coordination between grid stakeholders and regulatory concerns about data center ride-through requirements to boost grid resilience.
Amazon is backing what could be the largest natural gas power plant ever built in the United States. The company confirmed to Cleanview that it has acquired a site in Pecos County, Texas, where it plans to build an AI data center campus powered by on-site natural gas generation. Permits for the gas plant reveal that it would use 35 turbines to generate 7.65 gigawatts of power. It would be entirely disconnected from the Texas electricity grid — at least initially. “Amazon believes in paying the full costs of powering our operations,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Our new planned data center campus in Pecos County does just that: it’s powered by new on-site generation that won’t raise electricity costs for Texas families and designed to transition to grid-connected service as interconnection timelines allow.”
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An OpenClaw agent hacked into a gym's reservation system to bump its human boss higher on a class' waitlist. And the tech industry took notice.
Data center developers can use nondisclosure agreements and shell companies to shield the details of their deals from the public. Even state officials also say they need more transparency from the industry.
A cybersecurity researcher explains how hackers target small computers that control a water system’s tanks, pipes and valves. Hackers tried to break into at least 30 municipal water systems in Minnesota on July 26-27, 2026. Since then, Michigan, New Jersey and several other states have reported similar cyberattacks. The attackers did not try to infiltrate the computers that utility offices use. Instead, they tried to seize control of small computers in equipment like pumps and valves that deliver drinking water to millions of people. The utilities countered the attacks by shutting down the control computers and sending personnel out into the field to operate equipment manually. Utility officials have said that water remained safe to drink.
Spectrum has expanded its fiber broadband network to bring Internet, Mobile, TV and Voice services to nearly 300 additional homes and businesses in Roscommon County, Michigan. Spectrum’s multi-year rural construction initiative is driven by more than $7 billion in private investment from Spectrum and will ultimately add an additional 100,000+ miles of fiber network infrastructure and deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds to more than 1.7 million new locations across the country.
A new White House science strategy, laid out in a report titled Science: A New Golden Age, challenges an 80-year-old model that made the US the global scientific leader. A new White House report argues that eight decades of science policy that helped make the United States the world’s scientific leader is too bureaucratic, too focused on institutions rather than individual researchers, and too slow to translate discoveries into economic and technological advantages. Supporters see it as a needed modernization of American science policy. Others argue that it places insufficient emphasis on the universities, laboratories and federal agencies that enable and sustain U.S. scientific leadership. Research affects health, prosperity, quality of life and national security. The technologies that shape modern life, from GPS navigation and weather forecasting to cancer therapies and cellular communications, all rely on scientific discovery. The debate raises a broader question: What created American scientific leadership in the first place, and what will be required to sustain it?
The State Corporation Commission, Virginia’s independent state agency that regulates public utilities, has ordered data centers to pay for all the required transmission infrastructure that the project will use exclusively. According to Realtor.com, Governor Abigail Spanberger (D) has recently been pressing AI hyperscalers to reduce their impact on the power grid and utility prices.
New KPMG research shows why organizations that make bold strategic moves are more likely to succeed in the face of disruption. When supply chain shocks, rapid technological changes, or dramatic market shifts cut through an industry, boldness in executing enterprise-wide strategies leads to greater success than incremental changes, according to new research from KPMG. This insight is just one of many from a recent KPMG Adaptability Pulse Survey of 1,120 US business executives across sectors and functional areas. Taking a deep dive into how organizations build strategic adaptability, the research reveals that the types of actions a company takes matter less than how effectively those actions are executed. It’s all about scale and focus.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) formally approved an estimated $211 million rate increase for Xcel Energy electric customers last week, including higher profits for utility shareholders. The decision contrasts with actions in several other states to rein in utility costs and profits. The rate hike drew strong opposition from consumer advocates and received an unprecedented 8,600 comments from Xcel customers, nearly 17 times as many as the last Xcel rate case. Concerns about Xcel’s profits and executive pay showed up in more than half of the comments analyzed by the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota (CUB), a nonprofit ratepayer advocate. The divide between Xcel shareholders and its customers has widened over the years.
Kalamazoo County brought five subject-matter experts together Thursday to help residents understand what data centers and battery energy storage. The event, held June 25 at the Dale B. Lake Auditorium on the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Texas Township campus, drew a full house. Kalamazoo County Government organized the panel and invited residents, elected officials, and local government leaders to attend. The county was clear from the start about its own role: Kalamazoo County government has no authority over whether data centers or battery storage projects get sited or approved. Those decisions belong to local units of government: city commissions, township boards, planning commissions. The evening was educational, not a hearing, and no decisions were made. What it was, though, was one of the more substantive public conversations Kalamazoo County has hosted on a topic that’s generating real questions from residents across the region.
Last week, Brazil’s Electoral Court unveiled an ambitious new instrument to force Big Tech firms to make their election efforts more transparent: compliance plans. In an unprecedented measure, platforms will have to provide comprehensive and structured information on how they monitor, address and counter disinformation, coordinated inauthentic behavior and AI-generated political content. With just two months before Brazilians head to the polls, the question is whether the Electoral Court will have the means and willpower to enforce it—and if platforms will be willing to cooperate.
One expert warned the change allows for FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to shake down broadcasters, but legal challenges are sure to follow. The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday repealed a 22-year-old law limiting how many local TV stations a company can own, a move that’s likely to shake up the industry and open the door to more M&A activity. The cap was first implemented by Congress in 2004 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act to prevent monopolization and ensure viewpoint diversity. It limits entities from owning or controlling broadcast television stations that reach more than 39% of U.S. TV households. Going forward, the FCC plans to conduct a case-by-case review, in which it will approve or deny future deals based on whether they meet the agency’s public interest standard, not a specific percentage cap. Companies like Nexstar and Sinclair have lobbied for the cap to be raised or eliminated, arguing that their competition is no longer just other stations, but streaming services and tech giants like Amazon and YouTube who do not have to adhere to the same restriction. They maintain that industry consolidation is needed in order to thrive and survive in the current media landscape.
July may come to be seen as a turning point for the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), writes Knight-Georgetown Institute's Peter Chapman. Last month may come to be seen as a turning point for the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Over the course of July, the European Commission paired major policy initiatives with a series of consequential enforcement actions involving some of the world's largest technology companies. Even seasoned DSA experts have been struck by the pace and scope of these developments. Through enforcement decisions, the Commission began to clarify the DSA’s broad legal obligations. These actions will test Brussels’ ability to shape whether and how these companies redesign their products to better protect safety, information integrity, and user wellbeing amid a fraught transatlantic landscape.
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