How Missouri Communities Can Keep Data Centers from Raising Utility Bills

Source: Show-Me Institute
by Avery Frank

“Missouri has already taken some action to limit ratepayer costs resulting from new data centers by requiring large data centers to pay their share of costs for connecting to the grid, such as for transmission lines. … One promising state-level solution are private electricity grids, also called consumer regulated electricity (CRE). This could create a parallel path for energy generation, and help protect ratepayers from risk, accelerate capacity buildout and innovation for both data centers and power plants, and alleviate pressure on the government to meet every aspect of this complex challenge. New Hampshire became the first state to allow it, and the U.S. Congress is considering a federal CRE policy. Similar solutions can be implemented for water usage.” (07/29/26)

https://showmeinstitute.org/article/energy/how-missouri-communities-can-keep-data-centers-from-raising-utility-bills/

The face of evil

Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton

“Despite movies and shows, Satan and his minions do not go around wearing horns with red skin and costumes. Evil is described as being a wolf in sheep’s clothing: it disguises itself as doing good. We’ve seen that to be the case with human government time and time again. ‘Hello, I am here to help you’ is the first of the lies we can expect on a visit from a government agent.” (07/29/26)

https://thepriceofliberty.org/2026/07/29/the-face-of-evil/

How does the First Amendment apply to ‘deepfakes’?

Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Tyler Tone

“The NO FAKES Act, which recently advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee with unanimous support, would offer a right to seek damages over an unauthorized digital replica of one’s likeness. The bill’s ‘one-pager’ summary points to some of the biggest examples that have inspired worry about deepfakes: an AI-generated version of Tom Hanks used for ‘advertisements for a dental plan that he never appeared in,’ for one example, and a principal at a Baltimore, Maryland, high school ‘framed as a racist by an AI-generated recording of his voice,’ for another. The bill promises to cover both. But proposals targeting deepfakes also sweep in the protected use of AI depictions for news, commentary, and, notably, parodies of public figures and elected officials.” (07/29/26)

https://www.fire.org/news/how-does-first-amendment-apply-deepfakes

Trump unveils Dulles airport overhaul

Source: Politico

“President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled plans to revamp Dulles International Airport that would create an underground train and ditch the controversial ‘people movers,’ the bus-like mobile vehicles that transport passengers arriving from international destinations. Trump has taken a keen interest in the long-discussed overhaul of the airport in Northern Virginia, while disparaging it as ‘terrible’ and ‘incorrectly designed.’ … The proposed upgrades would significantly overhaul the experience for passengers at Dulles. Expanded parking, redesigned check-in areas and more efficient security screening aimed at reducing congestion are among the proposed upgrades. The project will preserve Dulles’ legendary main terminal, which was designed by Eero Saarinen, officials said.” (07/29/26)

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/29/trump-dulles-airport-overhaul-01015447

Why student journalists are asking to remove their names from articles

Source: Expression
by Michelle Liao

“Last summer, a former student journalist asked the University of Michigan’s student paper The Michigan Daily to take down or anonymize an article they had written more than 10 years ago. The article mentioned their involvement in a movement calling for the school to divest from companies associated with the Israeli government. In the email, they explained that their partner was a green card holder, and they were about to travel abroad with their young child. They worried they would not be allowed back. … There’s a disturbing nationwide trend of student journalists making similar requests to avoid deportation or other repercussions for their protected speech.” (07/29/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/why-student-journalists-are-asking

Flock Builds the Digital Police State

Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by John Whitehead

“While Americans remain transfixed by the political circus—cheering for their preferred party, jeering at the opposition, obsessing over every manufactured outrage and waiting for the next spectacle—the Surveillance State continues its steady march forward. The government is watching. It watches where you go, whom you meet, where you worship, what medical offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, what protests you join, what books you read, what websites you visit and what causes you support. It watches through your phone, your car, your doorbell, your appliances, your purchases, your social media accounts and the cameras positioned along the roads you travel every day. This is how freedom dies in the digital police state: not always through dramatic declarations of martial law or soldiers stationed on every street corner, but through the gradual construction of a technological dragnet—an electronic concentration camp—so pervasive that privacy becomes impossible and anonymity becomes suspicious.” (07/29/26)

https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2026/07/29/flock-builds-the-digital-police-state/

A Skeptical Guide to UBI

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Conner McEleney

“Many progressives, such as Robert Reich and Kyle Kulinski, argue that the economy needs a universal basic income (UBI) to fix it. Their argument stems from the idea that UBI has no serious flaws, that many studies show success, and that it’s the moral thing to do. An example that these progressives would cite would be the Denver UBI experiment. The study had three groups of people. Group A had $1,000 per month, and Group B had $6,500 for the first month; the other months were $500. Group C had $50 a month. The study concluded that giving money improved their overall well-being. As the saying goes, it’s too good to be true; the results alone are exaggerated by UBI proponents.” (07/29/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/skeptical-guide-ubi