I cannot think of an industry less in need of tax incentives. AI is so problematic for so many reasons. Why would we also allow it to defund our public schools, health care, and safety? - quote by Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy

🚨NEW ANALYSIS🚨 14 states and scores of localities fail to disclose how much revenue they lose to data center tax breaks. Yet such losses are known to be soaring in states that do disclose, with three states already losing $1 billion or more per year. 🧵
goodjobsfirst.org/data-center-...

At Least 88 Profitable U.S. Corporations Paid Zero Federal Income Tax in 2025 At least 88 of the largest corporations in America paid $0 in federal income tax for 2025. Corporate tax avoidance has increased at least in part due to President Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” ...

NEW: At least 88 corporations paid $0 in federal income tax in 2025.

That's despite collectively earning more than $105 billion in U.S. income.

The list includes Tesla, Palantir, Live Nation Entertainment, Coinbase, United Airlines, Walt Disney, and more.
itep.org/88-profitabl...

"Like Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman has benefited greatly from a U.S. tech press pathologically obsessed with mythologizing terrible white men with a lot of money." - @karlbode.com:

We live in an era of “hot takes”, where being first to complain is often valued more than being right. But a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment project that could redefine Drew Park and the Dale Mabry Sports Corridor for the next half-century deserves more than a knee-jerk reaction. Let your elected officials and financial analysts do their due diligence, but demand that it be rigorous, transparent and grounded. Then let’s all sit down and determine whether a deal is truly worthy of all our trust.

Gosh, if only there was 50 years of research on this subject, which had reached a definitive conclusion that public stadiums are universally awful public investments....

Rays stadium votes pushed back to May, as questions grow about sales tax surcharge While it's way too early to say that Tampa Bay Rays owner Patrick Zalupski's plans for a new stadium on the current cite of Hillsborough College's Dale Mabry Campus are in trouble, the approval proces...

Hillsborough County previously identified $2.6B worth of roads, sewers, etc. to use Community Reinvestment Tax funds on — meaning diverting $437m to a Rays stadium could require cutting back on building actual public infrastructure.

Virginia’s sales and use tax exemption for the data centers that fuel the AI industry’s huge windfalls for billionaires are now costing the state’s public school students $212 per year.
@goodjobsfirst.org goodjobsfirst.org/virginias-da...

I have a lot to say on the positives of these mass scale peaceful protests. They can not be the only action, but they're important pillars. They're high visibility, can give us all an energy boost, can foster new connections, and are excellent entry points for people who want to start taking action.

Social Media’s Endgame Moment - The American Prospect Even users don’t like it. So when you ask juries to render verdicts, they’re inclined to punish the platforms.

-The cases found a way around Section 230
-Juries are more willing to sanction social media than judges
-the general public has soured on social media
-states are responding to this & demanding structural remedies
A big multidistrict litigation heads to trial in August.
prospect.org/2026/03/26/s...

Companies are making it exhausting to cancel, get help, or get your money. They profit when you give up. Companies are making customer service experiences more exhausting. A new report calls it the "annoyance economy" and it costs Americans $165 billion.

NEW: Our study discovers that companies boost their profits up to 200% by making it harder for you to cancel subscriptions.

Your exhaustion & frustration is what makes these companies profitable.

@julianakaplan.bsky.social breaks it down & how it's costing us $165B a year in wasted time & money.

The HIll headline: ELon Musk vows to help Flint Homes with Contaminated Water

this particular CEO routinely says all kinds of things that don't mean shit!

Now I don't pretend to be a Pulitzer winner, but I think if you're doing even baseline actual journalism you might want to include that as useful context for a reader.

Reminds me of the infuriating Boeing 737 MAX saga, in which the sole person actually prosecuted was the guy in charge of the simulators, which weren't even the problem, it was cheap, lazy engineering. Not one executive even indicted. Boeing itself got a tidy DOJ agreement.

Hired Actors, Paid Media: Big Tech Has Already Dumped $8M Into Hochul's Car Insurance Ploy - Streetsblog New York City Buckets of cash and ads with professional actors are boosting Uber and Hochul's cause.

An Uber-backed group has poured more than $8 million into supporting Gov. Hochul's insurance deregulation push.

The big cash drop includes an ad with "testimonials" by New York drivers who were mostly professional actors, Streetsblog found. nyc.streetsblog.org/2026/03/13/h...

The Preschool Teaching Assistant Shot by Border Patrol, Then Called a “Domestic Terrorist” When Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent, the D.H.S. justified it by calling her a “domestic terrorist.” In the aftermath, she’s been trying to recover her reputation and, with it, a sense of reality.

Marimar Martinez was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent. Her lawyer believes that her case should be studied as a “playbook” for D.H.S. violence. “She’s one of the few people who has survived the bullets and can speak out,” he said. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/j0manC

it's quite surreal how we've completely normalized the fact that a good 70% of our business, political, and tech press exists exclusively to blow smoke up the ass of the wealthy, creating elaborate mythologies for otherwise unremarkable people

Raise Taxes on the Rich? These Rich New Yorkers Are All for It.

The truth is, modest tax increases on millionaires won’t change their lifestyles. But the revenue can make a real difference for working families who rely on public services every day.

Fair taxes help build rich, free, & stable communities and economies. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/n...

Do higher taxes cause millionaires to flee? Patriotic Millionaire Craig Kaplan doesn't think so.⬇️

“I can’t imagine anybody who has that kind of income would leave New York over a $20,000 tax increase. It would mean absolutely nothing for me.”

A recent industry piece in @pilotonline.com argues Virginia must preserve its data center tax breaks to protect its “competitive edge.” But if lawmakers stop subsidizing some of the world’s richest companies, will data center companies really flee?
The tl;dr: No.
goodjobsfirst.org/virginias-da...

Imagine the reaction in the US if ~175 schoolgirls had been killed by a targeted Iranian missile. (Or anyone's missile.)

This is an atrocity.

Excellent point, Utah resident Lionel Trepanier:

“This is real. This is people’s lives. The choices are being made between, what? Childhood and maternity care and giving a subsidy to the biggest oil producer in Utah?”
www.utahinvestigative.org/tax-credit-f...

Kristi Noem Fast-Tracked Millions in Disaster Aid to Florida Tourist Attraction After Campaign Donor Intervened The DHS chief has been widely criticized for slowing down FEMA’s response after natural disasters. Texts and emails obtained by ProPublica point to an effective way to get help faster: have one of Noe...

Remember that Kristi Noem created a bottleneck at FEMA by demanding personal approval of large contracts, but fast-tracked relief for a Florida tourist attraction after a contributor to her campaign made a call.

Please: LLMs do not 'hallucinate'. They provide incorrect information. They produce erroneous outputs. They don't have any intentionality, or consciousness. This metaphor is becoming increasingly unhelpful.

I'm moderating a panel at NICAR this week! Come hear @allanlasser.com, @elizabethrenter.bsky.social, @arlenemartinez.bsky.social and I talk about careers and finding your niche in news or news-adjacent roles. Stop by, say hi and bring your questions! schedules.ire.org/nicar-2026/#...

You paid more for a water at the airport than Southwest Airlines paid in federal income taxes last year.

Because they paid $0.

What it's like to see ICE tear gas kids Attendees at a Portland, OR protest describe a vicious, unprovoked and sudden attack

Everything moves so fast now. It's impossible to give every event the care and attention it deserves, especially when the bar is "at least no one died."

But what happened in Portland outside the ICE building was evidence of yet another escalation—and a terrifying harbinger of things to come.

Author of ‘Don’t Say Abolish ICE’ Memo Is a Corporate Consultant - The American Prospect Blas Nuñez-Neto is a senior adviser to WestExec, a shadow lobbyist for defense and tech firms.

ICYMI yesterday, the author of Searchlight's "Don't say abolish ICE" memo is a senior advisor to Tony Blinken's WestExec, a corporate shadow lobbyist. He works for companies that are immigration contractors.
prospect.org/2026/01/19/a...

JB: I don't care if it's 20 below. I don't care. We'll dress for it. We'll be here. This is way more important than a little chill air.

This NPR story also contains the most Minnesota lady shit I've ever seen in my life. The feels like tomorrow is -30F (not a typo) and JB does. not. care. about that "little chill air."
www.npr.org/2026/01/21/n...

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, Big Tech is lobbying to roll back digital regulations across the globe. 🌍

Our new map tracks 200+ policies in 60+ jurisdictions that Big Tech lobbyists have asked Trump to attack. See it for yourself ⬇️

People get surprised when they hear Amazon, Meta, Google, Tesla, and other global giants get huge discounts on energy AND also pass off their infrastructure costs to the rest of us AND pay no taxes.

Minneapolis schools cancel classes after Border Patrol clash disrupts dismissal at Roosevelt Minneapolis schools closed for the week citing safety concerns after an encounter involving armed Border Patrol agents near Roosevelt High School.

Minneapolis public schools canceled classes officials after Roosevelt High School said armed Border Patrol officers came on school property during dismissal Wednesday and began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders
www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Opinion | Everyone is talking about affordability – and making the same mistake "As lawmakers grapple with the cost of living, they need to remind Americans – again and again – that pay is a policy choice," Heidi Shierholz writes.

@hshierholz.bsky.social nails it: "Today’s affordability debate, however, focuses almost entirely on prices...(but) The roots of today’s affordability crisis actually lie not in recent price spikes, but in the long-term suppression of workers’ pay."
www.ms.now/opinion/infl...