Hundreds of Franklin County, Missouri residents filled a high school gymnasium to oppose rezoning agricultural land for two proposed data center campuses, with local trades union representatives countering that the projects would bring thousands of union jobs paying over $100,000 a year while a planning commission recommendation still awaits final county commission approval.

Virginia lawmakers are divided over whether to eliminate a data center sales tax exemption that cost the state an estimated $1.9 billion last fiscal year, with teachers and fiscal advocates calling for repeal while IBEW Local 26 and other trades unions rallied to preserve the incentive they say drives well paying union construction jobs in the Commonwealth.

Lowell City Council voted 10 to 0 for a one-year data center moratorium after IBEW members and neighbors clashed over a Markley expansion, illustrating the broader political squeeze facing Gov. Healey as consumer anger over high energy costs collides with her AI driven economic agenda and a stalled data center tax exemption that remains unfinalized 16 months after she signed it into law.

IBEW Local 271 Business Manager Jeimeson Saudino pushed back against claims circulating at a packed Sedgwick County town hall, saying modern data centers use closed loop cooling systems rather than millions of gallons of water daily and pointing to projects in Oklahoma and Kansas where data center development reduced local property taxes.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced a formal partnership with North America Building Trades Unions at a BlackRock infrastructure summit, committing $1.5 million over five years to support NABTU training and recruitment as the company projects it will need 20 percent more skilled tradespeople than currently exist to hit its 10 gigawatt compute target by 2030.

Profile of Nscale founder Josh Payne, Australian former coal miner who raised $2 billion at $14.6B valuation for AI data center company, with Sheryl Sandberg joining board amid infrastructure boom

IBEW International Vice President Michael Monahan urges Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to stop promoting Gov. Janet Mills over Graham Platner in Maine Senate primary, citing Mills' fraught labor record