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- The Hound | July 6
The Hound | July 6
Virginia struck a sweet deal for data centers, prediction markets offer bets on wildfires, and more.
Hi there,
It’s Monday and we hope you enjoyed the July 4th weekend! Virginia just struck a budget deal that preserved a $2 billion annual sales tax exemption for data centers — some of the most profitable companies on earth — while ordinary Virginians pay sales tax on everything they buy and watch their electricity bills climb. One developer announced a major new project almost immediately after the deal passed, which tells you everything about how threatening the industry found it.
🖊️ Sign the petition to call on the media to cover Virginia's data center budget compromise not as a wonky tax policy story, but as a clear-cut accountability story about corporate power winning over constituent will.
Voters in Utah just ousted a state Senate president over a data center deal. New York passed a statewide moratorium. Virginia's lawmakers are next on the ballot in 2027 — and the public deserves reporting that makes that connection explicit.
In addition, prediction markets are under fire for offering bets on the spread of wildfires. Also, Trump continued one of his favorites lies — those about crowd size — inflating the numbers of those who attended the July 4th celebrations in DC.
Read about this, and more, with today’s stories:
Data Centers Win-Lose in Virginia (The American Prospect)
How Unions Can Save Higher Education—and Democracy (The New Republic)
Dam Removal Efforts Lead to a Stunning Comeback for Maine’s Alewives (Inside Climate News)
These Immigrant Kids Were Once Protected. Under Trump, Their Deportations Have Tripled. (ProPublica)
Until next time,
Harry from The Hound
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