Utility CEO pay surges amid higher profits, customer struggles Investor-owned utilities paid their CEOs $622 million in 2025, lowering the bar for bonuses while customers struggled to afford bills.

Electricity bills are rising, customers are struggling, but guess who is doing just fine?

F.B.I. Said to Have Investigated Times Reporter After Article on Patel’s Girlfriend

Yesterday, we learn of the Trump regime's criminal probe of Southern Poverty Law Center, today it's a criminal probe of a NYT reporter. Since when does the FBI investigate whether reporting might amount to stalking? When it exposes embarassing behavior of the FBI director & his girlfriend.

If the last couple of decades is any indication, Republicans are likely to leave the US economy in shambles. I hope Democrats are strategizing now about how to handle bailout requests by tech oligopolies should that contingency arise.

New Gas-Powered Data Centers Could Emit More Greenhouse Gases Than Entire Nations A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI shows they could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year.

New gas-powered data center projects linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI could emit more greenhouse gases than entire nations, according to a @wired.com investigation from @mollytaft.com --

happy earth day, don't miss this one!

ADOBE: welcome to photoshop. what would you like to do. here is an AI tool
ME: i would like to draw a rectangle. i am selecting the rectangle tool
ADOBE: did you say AI?
ME: rectangle please
ADOBE: sorry but i can only do that in an insane way now. here is a new layer and a vector for some reason

A raging case of the flu famously makes soldiers better on the battlefield. You can't argue with history.

Trump's price spikes may well endure into next heating season, causing real pain for home heating. Helping households get off oil/propane heat *this spring/summer*, before heat demand picks up again in fall, should be a high priority. Big benefits for affordability, air quality/health, and climate.

Year-end surge: electric trucks outsell diesel for the first time in China - electrive.com In December 2025, 45,300 fully and partially electrified heavy-duty trucks were newly registered in China—accounting for 54 percent of total heavy-duty truck

Large BEV commercial trucks are now outselling diesel commercial trucks in China for the first time. While the world electrifies, the US is squandering resources to fight over expensive, dwindling, polluting, fossil fuels. 🧪💡🔌 ☀️💨💧🔋 www.electrive.com/2026/01/23/y...

The insider trading suspicions looming over Trump's presidency The BBC has found a pattern of spikes in trades ahead of public announcements by the US president.

"The insider trading suspicions looming over Trump's presidency"
www.bbc.com/news/article...

New Documents Undermine Trump Administration’s Claims About Offshore Wind Deal There was no new investment required from TotalEnergies, according to newly disclosed terms.

The US government paid $1 billion to kill a wind farm just because. Just absolute idiocy in every direction heatmap.news/energy/total...

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

This is both

(1) some of the most important SCOTUS reporting ever, and

(2) far too generous to the Republican justices in framing of many pieces and omissions of Trump-era developments

Read that again. This Louisiana bill forces homeless people to choose between jail and "treatment"—and if they can't pay for the latter, they will be forced to perform unpaid labor.

The historical precedents are clear: convict leasing, Black Codes, debtor's prison.

Oregon has a clear roadmap to a more affordable, reliable energy future. Will we take it? • Oregon Capital Chronicle For the health of our climate, our economy, and our communities, embracing the clean energy transition is the path forward.

Clean energy is the economy. Fossil fuels are a liability.
On every count: affordability, health, security, job growth, and climate stability, clean energy has the advantage. It's true today and becomes more true the further you look into the future. Oregon has a roadmap. Let's go!

NPR receives $113 million in charitable gifts "My hope is that this commitment provides the stability and the spark NPR needs to innovate boldly and strengthen its national network," says Connie Ballmer, who gave $80 million of the $113 million.

"My hope is that this commitment provides the stability and the spark NPR needs to innovate boldly and strengthen its national network," says Connie Ballmer, who gave $80 million of the $113 million. n.pr/4tRK4RR

Inside TurboTax’s 20-Year Fight to Stop Americans From Filing Their Taxes for Free Using lobbying, the revolving door and “dark pattern” customer tricks, Intuit fended off the government’s attempts to make tax filing free and easy, and created its multi-billion-dollar franchise.

The 2019 ProPublica TurboTax investigation never gets old

Thursday's GUARDIAN: War windfall: big oil makes extra $30m every hour during conflict
#TomorrowsPapersToday

Sports Betting Industry Spends $41 Million to Influence Elections With a well-funded super PAC, the betting platforms DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics are aiming to shape future regulation of their rapidly growing industry.

Some sports betting platforms — including DraftKings, FanDuel and Fanatics — are pooling tens of millions of dollars into a new super PAC that is expected to focus primarily on state legislative races.

She reportedly parted ways with Bezos with a jaw-dropping $38.3 billion in Amazon stock. Their divorce settlement included a 4 % stake in the online retail giant or 19.7 million shares. Under the agreement, Bezos kept 75% of the couple's Amazon stock, along with voting control of her shares. Jan 11, 2023

MacKenzie Scott has given away over $19 billion in the last 5 years and experts say she's 'changed entire fie... MacKenzie Scott acknowledged another $2 billion in donations as 2024 comes to a close.

MacKenzie Scott, worth $41.1 billion, is on a philanthropic tear and has donated an estimated 46% of her net worth.

Just to give a sense of the insane scale of billions of dollars…MacKenzie Scott got about $38 billion after divorcing Bezos in 2019. She has become the world’s most generous philanthropist, giving away over $19 billion…and she’s currently wealthier than she started.

Just. Tax. Them.

Bar chart of polling data from Data For Progress. Title: 7 in 10 Voters Think Economic Policy Can Both Lower Costs and Reduce Emissions. Description: Which approach comes closer to your view? Response Options: A) Economic policy can lower costs while directly reducing emissions. B) Don't know C) Economic policy cannot lower costs while directly reducing emissions. All likely voters — 70% chose A, 10% chose B, 19% chose C Democrat — 78% chose A, 8% chose B, 14% chose C Independent / Third party — 65% chose A, 16% chose B, 19% chose C Republican — 65% chose A, 10% chose B, 25% chose C February 20–24, 2026 survey of 1,122 U.S. likely voters.

NEW with @cplusc.bsky.social:

Sixty-one percent of voters say that climate change is impacting the rising cost of living.

And a strong majority of voters (70%) think it is possible to both lower costs and directly reduce emissions.

www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2026/4/...

We're hiring! 💧 OEC is seeking a Water and Rural Lands Program Director to advance policies that ensure clean, plentiful water for Oregonians and the state we love. Find all the info and apply at the link below! ✨

https://oeconline.org/ruralwater/

France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot with more than 80 spaces.

Equals 10 nuclear reactors
Reduces heat island, shades cars

The US -- 800 million parking spaces. Most of them are uncovered asphalt sitting in direct sunlight.

Why aren't we doing this?

"The Pope is incorrect on matters of theology" is excommunication time.

H/t @jumulojimbus.bsky.social

How many people does heat actually kill? It depends on how you count it

"For Texas, this comes out to roughly 900 additional deaths per year due to climate change that occurred since the 1950s, equal to 1.7% of summertime deaths. Using a typical value of a statistical life of $10 million, this corresponds to a value of $9 billion per year due to climate change."

I know it’s crazy, but as an alternative, White House staffers could simply choose not to commit any crimes.

Link to the story:

A screenshot of an NPR News story with the headline "Trump administration rolls back fuel economy standards" from December 2025. Photo shows cars and trucks on a congested highway with six lanes of traffic.

Constant chaos clears headlines pretty quickly. Remember this?

Next time you're standing at the gas pump (or in the voting booth), think about how Trump and Republicans made it so cars and trucks burn more fuel and cost you more money.
Their oil corporation donors thank you for your business.

Boston University removed Pride flags. Backlash forced its president to back off President Melissa Gilliam called it a “pause,” not a reversal, after backlash spread across campus.

NEW: Raised voices by the community brought back Pride flags at Boston University, for now.

The people have the power!

www.advocate.com/politics/sta...

In the Klamath Basin, farmers brace for another tight water year An extremely dry winter will leave farmers in the Klamath Basin with less water than they need.

Last year, farmers received enough water to meet their needs for the first time in six years, but this year's abysmally low snowpack levels — about 4% of average for this time of year — means water for irrigation will be much lower than needed.

"This is what you get when you elect Republicans."

Every Dem within 100 feet of a camera needs to be saying this repeatedly.

Every time we elect Republicans, we get dumbass wars, tax cuts for rich people, and financial crises. Every time.

Fucking say it!