John Washington

Project Blue data center pushes ahead in Pima County promising new low-water cooling tech - AZ Luminaria Data center developer Beale Infrastructure says it is moving forward with Project Blue, this time promising a greener, slimmer proposal that will use a new low-water air-cooling technology.  The compa...

Breaking:
Massive Amazon data center is back in development in Pima County after a fierce fight this summer, in which the greater Tucson community pushed back hard against the developers.

Latest, along with @yanak.bsky.social for @azluminaria.org azluminaria.org/2025/09/17/p...

Pima County's jail healthcare provider has been in consistent violation of certain performance indicators over the past year, @jwashing.bsky.social reports

azluminaria.org/2025/09/11/s...

great. i hadn't seen this. thank you!

I'm writing a new book for @haymarketbooks.org, and I'm writing it fast, so help is most welcome.

More here: johnwashington.substack.com/p/how-to-clo...

Plan B for Project Blue: Records reveal 3 other sites considered for controversial data center - AZ Luminaria While Tucson City Council seems to have closed the door on the proposed Project Blue data center, the questions about resource use in the desert that consumed elected officials, experts and community ...

More on Project Blue, the proposed and (for now) scuttled mega data center project in Tucson.

We're releasing some of the early planning docs, obtained via public records requests, which list alternate sites.

Latest from @azluminaria.org

azluminaria.org/2025/08/15/p...

disappointing, even depressing. that mag was so influential on me when i was a kid

complicated, but basically there was no water hookups on the land, so city would have to annex to be able to provide the water to the site.

Tucson City Council rejects Project Blue data center amid intense community pressure - AZ Luminaria The Tucson city council voted unanimously Wednesday against bringing the massive and water-devouring Project Blue data center — tied to tech giant Amazon — into city limits. After weeks of escalating ...

Responding to vehement opposition and public service journalism, Tucson's mayor/council unanimously vote to reject a mega data center project from Amazon.

Tucson ain't Eddington.

Read @yanak.bsky.social‬'s latest from city hall.
azluminaria.org/2025/08/06/t...

Project Blue data center inevitable says Tucson council member Nikki Lee - AZ Luminaria Council member Nikki Lee said Tuesday that the Project Blue data center may be built no matter what the Tucson City Council decides.

Tucson City council member Nikki Lee says controversial Amazon-run data center project is inevitable.

“Project Blue has multiple paths to build here, and every intention to do so,” Lee wrote in her newsletter today, “regardless of what the City of Tucson decides.”
azluminaria.org/2025/08/05/t...

📽️ WATCH: “The U.S. sent us to El Salvador so that El Salvador could do the dirty work that the U.S. couldn’t.”

Hear from Juan José Ramos Ramos, Andry Omar Blanco Bonilla and Wilmer José Vega Sandia — three of 230+ Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to CECOT — in their own words:

ICE GOONS draw guns on humanitarian aid workers

City annexation filing reveals next steps for Project Blue data center - AZ Luminaria Even before its first public meeting on a controversial and long-secretive 290-acre data center project, the city of Tucson had already filed a petition with the Pima County Recorder’s Office to begin...

More on Tucson's Project Blue, the Amazon data center project cloaked in secrecy for years.

@yanak.bsky.social and I pieced together more of the timeline, finding that City of Tucson officials moved to annex the land BEFORE the first public hearing on the project.

azluminaria.org/2025/07/28/c...

Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets

This is the moment we're in:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I responded to @markskrikorian.bsky.social's review and misapprehension of my book, The Case for Open Borders.

My latest newsletter.
johnwashington.substack.com/p/case-count...

Local immigrant rights activist Dora Rodriguez, on surviving a border crossing — and her new memoir - AZ Luminaria In the summer of 1980, Dora Rodriguez almost died in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Along with a group of 30 people, most of them having fled violence and the beginnings of a gruesome civil war ...

I spoke with Dora Rodriguez, Tucson-based immigrant activist who nearly died crossing the desert in 1980, about her memoir.

Latest for @azluminaria.org
azluminaria.org/2025/07/23/l...

thank you for the support! really appreciate it.

Amazon Web Services is company behind Tucson’s Project Blue, according to 2023 county memo - AZ Luminaria Amazon Web Services is revealed to be the company behind the Project Blue data center proposed for Tucson.

🚨Scoop🚨
The mysterious giant data center planned for Tucson is named in a 2023 doc we obtained from Pima County: Amazon Web Services.

The data center—H20 and electricity intensive—has sparked fierce public pushback

Latest w/ @yanak.bsky.social for @azluminaria.org
azluminaria.org/2025/07/21/a...

Ah, Im humbled. Thanks Alex.

Episode 1846: Deep Background on Bukele's Gulags in El Salvador / John Washington Bukele's Gulags

NEW EPISODE: Award-winning journalist @azluminaria.org's @jwashing.bsky.social on his writing at @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social, “The Roots of Bukele’s Gulag.”

Support our work at patreon.com/thisishell

thisishell.com/episodes/1846

Deep Background on Bukele's Gulags in El Salvador / John Washington John Washington joins us to discuss his recent piece in the New York Review of Books, "The Roots of Bukele’s Gulag." An all new "Rotten History" and "The Moment of Truth" segments follow the interview...

Enjoyed this in-depth convo w/ @chuckmertz.bsky.social on This Is Hell!.

We discussed deep context of US-Salvadoran relations and Trump admins test-case deportation policies, following my recent work for @nybooks.com
thisishell.com/interviews/1...
www.nybooks.com/online/2025/...

RIP, Fanny.

She was a brilliant torchlight of a writer.

Also a friend.

Read her work.

Open Borders - 99% Invisible A border is an idea so powerful that we never even have to see it to believe it. Or believe in it. Global borders can be sites of peace and conflict, violence and celebration, opportunity and confinem...

Imagine people migrating freely and negotiating a niche in their new communities.

This 34-min. podcast is an excellent summary of ideas from @jwashing.bsky.social’s humane book.

99percentinvisible.org/episode/633-...

Open Borders - 99% Invisible A border is an idea so powerful that we never even have to see it to believe it. Or believe in it. Global borders can be sites of peace and conflict, violence and celebration, opportunity and confinem...

Honored for the dedicated episode from @99pi.org about my book and open borders.

Give it a listen here: 99percentinvisible.org/episode/633-...
Special thanks to producer Lasha Madan.
@haymarketbooks.org

Pretty solid list!

LA and the omnicrisis from the front lines of Los Angeles, and the world through the lens of Virgil

Learned a new word —

reboant: (adjective) marked by reverberation; resounding loudly

From the excellent newsletter of @jwashing.bsky.social, which you should subscribe to

johnwashington.substack.com/p/la-and-the...

Thanks for the plug, brother! 🙏

Thanks for reading, Jim. 🙏
And appreciate the note!

Before you vote: The border politics of each candidate in Arizona’s special election - AZ Luminaria In Arizona’s 7th Congressional District — stretching from Tucson, brushing parts of outer Phoenix and running through border towns like Douglas, Nogales and Yuma — border policy is more than a talking...

I spoke to 11 of 12 candidates vying to fill the seat of late progressive champion Raúl Grijalva & represent CD7 in Arizona, which includes almost all of Arizona's borderlands.

Where does each of them stand on border/immigration politics?
Latest for @azluminaria.org
azluminaria.org/2025/06/18/b...

I wrote about the standoff in LA, what's pushed people into the streets, and how law enforcement is illegally shooting at protesters.

My latest newsletter: johnwashington.substack.com/p/la-and-the...

“I am writing to detail my deep concerns about the inhumane conditions” in the Eloy immigration detention center, @repyassansari.bsky.social writes in a letter to DHS.

ansari.house.gov/imo/media/do...