“Missouri’s property tax system works best when the assessments are accurate, the tax base is wide, and the rates are low. That combination will help grow Missouri’s economy for everyone while properly funding the necessary functions of local government. However, a radical change in the system is being put before voters in St. Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin counties in April. These three counties will vote on whether to prohibit any property tax increases due to reassessments. Current law requires local governments to roll back tax rates as assessments increase, but we all know that taxes still go up, sometimes substantially.” (03/06/26)
“The U.S. economy lost jobs in February, a month marred by severe winter weather and a strike at a major health-care provider, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls fell by 92,000 for the month, compared with the estimate for 50,000 and below the downwardly revised January total of 126,000. February marked the third time in the past five months that payrolls declined, following a sharp revision showing a drop of 17,000 in December.” (03/06/26)
“Wars test nations. They test military readiness, alliance cohesion, and political resolve. But they also test something less visible and just as important: fiscal strength. Just days before the United States entered war with Iran, President Trump was arguing for a $500 billion defense spending increase. … Although the absurdity of President Trump’s arbitrary defense budget request hasn’t changed, the terms of the debate have. Whether justified or not, war places immediate pressure on defense budgets. The real question is whether the United States has put itself in a position to afford it.” (03/06/26)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Corynne McSherry & Matthew Guariglia
“After protests from both users and employees who did not sign up to support government mass surveillance — early reports show that ChaptGPT uninstalls rose nearly 300% after the company announced the deal — Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, conceded that the initial agreement was ‘opportunistic and sloppy.’ He then re-published an internal memo on social media stating that additions to the agreement made clear that ‘Consistent with applicable laws, including the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, National Security Act of 1947, [and] FISA Act of 1978, the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.’ Trouble is, the U.S. government doesn’t believe ‘consistent with applicable laws’ means ‘no domestic surveillance.'” (03/06/26)
“Trump personifies his own movement, so perhaps he has the prerogative of redefining it. But ‘regime change’ from Tehran to Moscow has little in common with non-interventionism. And if the U.S. was devoted to keeping ‘lunatics’ from enriching uranium for a nuke, North Korea and Pakistan (where Osama Bin Laden hung out) wouldn’t have one. No, this is ‘regime change,’ and whatever side you may be on and however you parse it, it’s at odds with a whole lot of Trump supporters. The only thing that those of us who harbor doubts about it can say is, ‘I hope he’s right.’ Because if he’s not, the midterms are finished — and so is America First.” (03/06/26)
“Cuban officials said they expect to restart a large thermoelectric plant on Saturday after it shut down earlier in the week, sparking a massive blackout. Felix Estrada Rodríguez, a top engineer at Cuba’s Electric Union, told state-owned Canal Caribe that the Antonio Guiteras plant should be operating by Saturday afternoon. Crews have repaired a broken boiler at the plant that caused the outage on Wednesday, leaving millions without power in the island’s western region. … Cuba’s Electric Union said in a statement Saturday that only 1,000 megawatts of power were available, less than half of the island’s current demand. It did not say how many customers remained without power. The blackout, the second such outage to affect western Cuba in three months, was blamed on a crumbling electric grid and a lack of fuel.” (03/07/26)
