More Perfect Union

The first page of the draft reads: “It has been determined that a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio.”

Ohio EPA weighs allowing data centers to dump wastewater into rivers COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency released a draft for a new permit that would allow data centers across the state to release untreated wastewater and stormwater dire…

The Ohio EPA released a draft for a new permit that would allow data centers to release untreated wastewater directly into rivers and streams.

www.nbc4i.com/news/local-n...

Homeland security awarded $250,000 contract to Trump-aligned consulting firm Exclusive: DHS chose firm with ties to Corey Lewandowski after demanding partisan loyalty, in departure from federal procurement guidelines

DHS has awarded a $250,000 contract to American Made Media Company, managed by former Trump campaign officials, to provide “strategic counsel” to top officials.

AMMC will draft branch negotiations and secure preferred media outlets to cover Kristi Noem’s press conferences.

Maryland AG Anthony Brown has filed a federal lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s “unlawful decision” to convert a warehouse into a massive immigration detention center to hold 1,500 people.

Workers decry Whirlpool’s job cuts amid offshoring, praise of Trump’s tariffs The US has lost factory jobs amid promises of a tariff-led renaissance

Whirlpool is enacting another round of layoffs at an Iowa plant, while moving work to Mexico, all while continuing to praise Trump's tariffs that cost the company $300 million last year
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Households With 2 Kids Need to Earn Average of $402,708 to Comfortably Afford Child Care Families don’t make enough on average to afford child care for two children, according to government benchmarks.

"Families don’t make enough on average to afford child care for two children, according to government benchmarks. The average annual cost of child care for an infant and a 4-year-old across the U.S. is $28,190."

A two-child household must earn $400,000 a year for childcare to be affordable, according to a new study.

Private equity behind majority of 2025’s largest bankruptcies PESP finds private equity-backed companies drove 54% of the largest U.S. bankruptcies in 2025, including 71% of major retail failures and 60% of major manufacturing bankruptcies

Private equity was behind a majority of 2025’s largest bankruptcies, according to a new report.

PE firms had a hand in 54% of the largest US corporate bankruptcies last year, per @pestakeholder.bsky.social.

These were cases involving $1 billion or more in liabilities at the time of filing.

Atlanta has the worst eviction rates in the country.

The metro area is less than a third the size of the NYC metro area, but Atlanta still has more evictions.

Atlanta also has the highest rate of mega-investor owned housing in the country.

Burger King will use AI to check if employees say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ Have it your way?

Burger King is launching an AI chatbot that will assess workers' "friendliness" and will be trained to recognize certain words and phrases like “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.”

The AI will be programmed into workers' headsets, according to @theverge.com.

BREAKING: JD Vance announces that the Trump administration has decided to “temporarily halt” some Medicaid funding to the state of Minnesota.

“Forever chemicals” are in the public drinking water systems of at least 151 million people — roughly half of all Americans who rely on these utilities for clean water.

This is according to the latest EPA data.

Merrimack town manager Paul Micali said the issue weighed heavily on residents' minds over the past few months.

“To say I'm ecstatic is an understatement,” he said.

Merrimack officials, residents say they’re relieved DHS is ditching its plan for a detention facility Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will not move forward with a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Merrimack.

DHS has scrapped plans for an immigrant detention facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

After major community protest, and pushback against the Trump admin from Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte, the plans to buy a warehouse for use by ICE have been tossed out.

www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2026...

Over 1,400 people stepped up to shovel snow in New York City as the city was hit by a major blizzard.

Zohran bumped pay from $19 to $30 — and got nearly 3x the number of emergency shovelers compared to the last big storm in January.

" I didn't like the speech because he did not talk about what he was doing to make our lives better... He talked about the healthcare plan. Where is his healthcare plan? People's health insurance premiums are going up. What is he doing for that? What is he doing for our seniors?"

Attorney General Bonta Exposes Amazon Price Fixing Scheme Driving Up Costs for Americans, Asks Court to Immediately Halt Illegal Conduct New evidence shows Amazon, its vendors, and competing retailers are price fixing, hiking up prices for consumer products and making Amazon richer and richer OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob B...

California’s Attorney General says they have uncovered evidence of Amazon and its competitors engaging in coordinated price fixing to raise prices and boost Amazon’s profits.

oag.ca.gov/news/press-r...

Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable after crypto's latest downward turn, analyst says Bitcoin briefly sank below $63,000 on Tuesday, dragging down its miners alongside it.

Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable after crypto’s latest downturn, according to a new analysis.

www.cnbc.com/2026/02/24/b...

Denver mayor announces moratorium on new data centers Denver leaders announced a moratorium on new data centers.

Denver is about to have a moratorium on data centers.

Mayor Mike Johnston and members of City Council are filing a moratorium that is expected to last several months.

During that time the city will review and strengthen regulations around data centers.

www.9news.com/article/news...

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is trying to expand the state’s already massive tax breaks for data centers.

Data center companies are already saving nearly $500,000,000 in local property taxes this year in Oregon.

Now the Governor wants to double key tax breaks from 5 years to 10.

Discord has announced that it's cutting ties with Persona, the AI software company backed by Peter Thiel used for age and identity verification.

Dude makes the most out of his 30sec of fame. ♥️
#affordablehousing

A beautiful moment in the socialist republic of New York

This guy gets it.

Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ explores stablecoin for Gaza Proposal to launch cryptocurrency pegged to US dollar comes after cash supply was decimated during Israeli offensive

Officials advising Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” are exploring a US dollar-backed crypto stablecoin for Gaza.

According to the Financial Times, this crypto concept is in an exploratory phase, but it could spell the rebuilding of Gaza being tied to a crypto experiment.

www.ft.com/content/cf4f...

The New York City Department of Sanitation says that the starting pay for emergency shovelers during this blizzard is now $30/hr.

2025: Big Insurance’s $1.7 Trillion Year America’s big seven health insurers raked in $54 billion in profits in 2025 — as they covered fewer people, raised prices and steered patients into their own subsidiaries and taxpayer-funded programs.

In 2025 the seven biggest health insurance conglomerates made more than $54 billion in profit, despite covering 10 million fewer people than in 2024.

These corporate giant collected almost $1.7 trillion in revenue, $175 billion more than in 2024.

healthcareuncovered.substack.com/p/2025-big-i...

A federal judge in San Francisco is having trouble seating a jury in Elon Musk’s upcoming class action trial, reportedly due to "hate" toward the billionaire.

From a pool of 93, only 9 jurors were selected after questioning about if they could put aside opinions about Musk.

At the end of 2025 there were more than 4,000 data centers in the US, and nearly 3,000 more planned or under construction.

trump: As President, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of Tariffs. It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago! They were also just reaffirmed by the ridiculous and poorly crafted supreme court decision! President DJT

BREAKING: Trump claims he doesn't need to go to Congress for tariff approval, even after the Supreme Court struck down his approach to tariffs.