The agreement sets out hiring timelines that the company must also hit to receive these tax incentives: Meta can receive the highest property tax exemption as long as it hires the equivalent of 300 “full-time” jobs by 2030, 450 by 2032, 475 by 2033 and 500 by December 31, 2034.
Louisiana’s agreements ask for more than some other states’ tax subsidies. According to Good Jobs First, nearly half of state tax subsidies for data centers don’t require any new jobs to be created. But Miller has concerns that the tax breaks were not necessary at all to entice a company as large as Meta. “While everyone likes to avoid taxes, they’re not going to hire people in Richland [Parish] just because they’re going to get a tax break,” Miller says.
Louisiana had already amended a tax rebate to create an exemption for data centers in 2024 to entice Meta; in its latest iteration, it says data centers can receive a full sales tax exemption for equipment purchases in the state as long as they hire 50 full-time jobs and invest at least $200 million by July 1, 2029. A separate contract viewed by WIRED affirms that this applies to the Richland Parish data center, in addition to the PILOT agreement.
Good Jobs First says that at least 10 states have subsidies for data centers that are worth more than $100 million each, and “have suffered estimated losses of $100 million each in tax revenue for data centers,” according to its data. In total, these states forgo more than $3 billion in taxes annually for data centers. Texas revised the cost of its data center subsidy in 2025 from $130 million to $1 billion. In 2024, a pause on data center subsidies was passed in Georgia but vetoed by governor Brian Kemp.
The Franklin Farms site in Holly Ridge, the area of Richland Parish where Meta’s data center is being built, was purchased by Louisiana specifically for economic development projects. In its ground lease with Meta, Louisiana offered the 1,400-acre plot to the company for $12 million, which the lease says was the cost to the state of acquiring and maintaining the land. The lease also says Meta’s $732,000 a year “rent” is “credit toward the Base Purchase Price,” meaning the company will have paid for the property by a little over 16 years into its 30-year lease.
The price for the potential sale would be slightly higher if Meta does not reach minimum hiring and investment thresholds: As an example, the lease says if Meta only spends $4 billion in the state instead of $5 billion, the property would end up costing it $19 million. Louisiana Economic Development reserves the right to reclaim the property if Meta doesn’t invest at least $3.75 billion and hire the equivalent of 225 “full-time” jobs by 2028. When asked if Meta plans to purchase the property, Clayton said, “We’ll keep you updated on our future plans for this site.”
Meta’s presence has already caused land values to jump. A nearby tract of 4,000 acres of land in Holly Ridge is for sale for $160 million, or $40,000 per acre—more than 4.5 times the price paid by Louisiana for the data center’s site.
But there’s also a concern that Meta could delay or abandon the data center project. The PILOT agreement its subsidiary signed with the state says the company’s timeline will depend on “numerous factors outside of the control of the lessee, such as market orientation and demand, competition, availability of qualified laborers to construct and/or weather conditions.”
“My general fear is that too many data centers are being built,” Miller says. “That means some of the data centers are just going to be abandoned by the owners.”
She says in the scenario that Big Tech cuts back investments in data centers, Meta would not even be able to find another buyer. “Essentially, the state will be stuck with this warehouse full of computers,” Miller says.
Update: 9/22/2025, 12:50 PM EDT: Wired has clarified the subhead to reflect how critics perceive the data center.
Even in picturesque California, few landscapes are as stunning – or as fragile – as Big Sur. The constant storms and seismic activity that forged its dramatic cliffs and canyons also make its infrastructure a nightmare to maintain.
The primary road through the region, world-famous Highway 1, which clings to cliffs high above the Pacific Ocean in postcard worthy fashion, is almost constantly closed by landslides, isolating communities and stranding weary travelers.
Local hiking trails don’t fare much better.
The Pfeiffer Falls Trail intersects with the Valley View Trail, a lovely loop that provides gorgeous views of the state park clear out to the Pacific.
(Lisa Winner / Save the Redwoods League)
So, as if they had just taken a deep breath and crossed their fingers, California State Parks officials announced this week that one of the region’s most beloved hikes, the Pfeiffer Falls Trail, will finally reopen after a towering redwood collapsed in a 2023 storm taking out its signature pedestrian bridge.
The trail, a .75 mile stroll that cuts through Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and ends with a stunning view of a 60-foot waterfall, is one of the prime draws for a park that attracts roughly 750,000 people each year.
For such a short walk, the trail has a long history.
In 2008, the 162,818-acre Basin Complex Fire devastated much of the route and surrounding forest. It took $2 million and nearly 13 years to complete a renovation project — removing aged and damaged concrete, rerouting the trail and constructing the bridge — to finally reopen the hike in June 2021.
About 18-months later, that storm arrived and a towering redwood crashed the party.
The Pfeiffer Falls Bridge in 2023 after a giant redwood fell on part of the structure, closing the trail.
(California State Parks)
The tree splintered a 15-foot section of the bridge. Crews salvaged much of the original structure but replaced the damaged section with fiber-reinforced polymer in the hope of making the span stronger and more resilient to its unforgiving environment.
“It’s unfortunate that the trail had to close so soon after our original renovations,” said Matthew Gomez, senior parks program manager for Save the Redwoods League, a non-profit that helped with the repairs. “But our close partnership with California State Parks allowed us to rebuild the bridge better than ever.”
It is a truly spectacular hike. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Almost two years of displacement have left scars not only on infrastructure but on the very social fabric of northern Israel, and the question is no longer only how to rebuild.
The drive up the green slopes of the Upper Galilee still carries a deceptive sense of tranquility. Vineyards stretch across the hills, the valley opens into a vast plain, and villages appear nestled against the border with Lebanon. Yet behind this pastoral landscape lies a reality marked by rockets, evacuations, shuttered businesses, and mounting debts.
Almost two years of displacement have left scars not only on infrastructure but on the very social fabric of northern Israel, where the question is no longer only how to rebuild, but instead whether families will truly return and choose to rebuild.
“This is an opportunity we must come out stronger from after the war,” said Asaf Levinger, head of the Upper Galilee Regional Council. “It is a national imperative to build something different here.”
Levinger, who represents dozens of communities stretching along Israel’s northern border, speaks with both urgency and defiance. He notes that around 85% of evacuated families have returned, and insists that the focus should not be on those who left.
“There are new families joining,” he said, pointing to Kibbutz Yiftach, less than a kilometer from the border, where thirteen new families have arrived. “We even have forty sons of the kibbutz talking about coming back. In Manara, we are already placing temporary mobile homes, and there are hardly any empty houses left in many of our communities.”
A huge 35 square meters Israeli national flag is raised on the eve of Yom Kippur to remember the fallen soldiers of the 1973 Kippur War in the Golan Heights, Tel Saki Memorial Site, Golan Heights, October 11, 2024. (credit: MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90)
Resilience, though, stands alongside devastation. In Manara, nearly three-quarters of homes were damaged by Hezbollah fire. “Seventy-five percent of the houses in Manara were hit,” Levinger explained. “It will take three years to fully rebuild, some of it through evacuation and reconstruction. We have already renovated part of the houses, and people are moving in, but most of it is still ahead.” Roads and public infrastructure remain only partially repaired; a process the council chief admits is far from completion.
Funding, he stresses, is the bottleneck. Under the current model, municipalities must finance projects upfront and only later request reimbursement from the state. “Most of the money we received so far was for direct compensation to residents and some initial infrastructure repairs in evacuated communities,” he said.
“The rest has not arrived. Some of it has been approved in government decisions but not transferred, and in some cases, there is not even a government decision yet. We opened the school year, but the decision on special education programs for evacuated children hasn’t even been made.”
The result is a patchwork of unfinished reconstruction, with local councils forced to take loans and businesses left in limbo. “The biggest challenge is restarting the economy and making this region attractive again,” Levinger insisted.
“Tourism, which should be flourishing, is empty. Cafés and small businesses cannot find workers. We are missing thousands of students from the local college, which has not returned. That is 5,000 students who are not living here, not consuming, not sustaining the local economy.”
For Levinger, the crisis also exposes a long-standing neglect. “The Eastern Galilee is disconnected. We are not connected to the national railway, not connected to the national water carrier. This detachment is visible: fewer children came back here compared to the Western Galilee,” he said.
“There is enormous potential here, but without connectivity, without investment, families will not stay. We do not have full government support. It is not zero, but it is not complete. With the right backing, we can build a different reality.”
That “different reality,” in his view, would combine world-class education, agricultural research, and cultural life with a revival of tourism and hi-tech. “We want to turn the local college into a university,” he explained.
“We want to attract companies, connect hi-tech with agri-tech, and create a unique community that people will choose not only for the air and the landscapes, but for opportunities. The Galilee can be an example for Israel in food security and social resilience. But it requires decisions now.”
With no government transfers, donations or loans are the only answer
Inbar Bezek, CEO of the Upper Galilee Economic Development Company and a former member of the Israeli parliament, describes the same reality from the ground level of construction and bureaucracy. “We were promised 15 million shekels to build 55 safe rooms in kindergartens and schools. We started in January, we finished half of them, and until today we have not received even one shekel,” she said.
“Municipalities have to raise donations or go to the bank and pay interest. Strong councils can borrow, but weaker ones cannot. And then small contractors get stuck without payment. Everyone suffers because the government does not transfer the money.”
Her frustration is palpable. “They promise billions on paper, but when you look for the money on the ground, it is not there. We cannot start new neighborhoods if we don’t know when or if the state will reimburse us,” she explained. In her view, the government has “given up the periphery” and is prioritizing coalition politics over reconstruction.
“Living in the north means you earn less, you receive less, and your quality of life is lower. Yet we return because we were born here, because this is the most beautiful and green area in Israel. But for years, the state has invested only in the center. It is in Israel’s national interest to strengthen the north, yet everything pushes young families toward Tel Aviv instead.”
Bezek also points to the social dimension. With Kiryat Shmona closed for nearly two years, restaurants, shops, and cultural activities disappeared, widening the gap with central Israel. “About 50% of the restaurants we had have not reopened. Some relocated permanently. People who lived for two years in Haifa or Tiberias discovered a better quality of life. Why would they come back to closed shops and buses every two hours?” she asked.
The economic toll extends beyond services to the fields themselves. Ofer Barnea, CEO of the Upper Galilee Agriculture Company, describes a landscape of destruction and waiting. “About 3,000 dunams of orchards near the border were destroyed, mainly apple groves,” he said. “Farmers have not received compensation. Bureaucracy is slow, it takes months and years. Unlike the south, where support programs are functioning, here in the north nothing has arrived. They talk, they appoint committees, they change project managers, but on the ground, nothing reaches us.”
During the war, he explained, no foreign workers or labor contractors could enter. Harvests were lost, irrigation systems burned, and orchards uprooted. “The labor force has returned now, but the damage is long term. When an orchard burns, it takes years to replace. Egg and poultry farms were badly hit, and this affects the entire country, not just the north. Food security is a national issue,” he stressed.
Barnea, like Levinger, insists the crisis could be an opening. “If funds arrive, recovery will be quick. This is the opportunity to provide planting grants for new orchards, to finally build water reservoirs. After war and drought, we need strategic water infrastructure. The plans exist. Everything is approved. The money has not arrived. That is the opportunity.”
The sense of neglect runs deep across these conversations. Levinger does not hide his frustration. “Haifa and Yokne’am receive the same benefits as the Upper Galilee. So for a business, why would they come here, where everything is harder? Good air and flowing streams are not enough. We need to create an added value, a unique community. Otherwise, companies will always choose elsewhere,” he said.
And yet he insists on hope. “It is amazing to see the embrace from communities abroad, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, during and after the war. This warmth gives us strength,” he said. “We must emerge stronger. It is the moment to build something different.”
The words echo a choice Israel has faced many times: whether its periphery will remain a frontier of sacrifice or become a frontier of opportunity. In the Upper Galilee, leaders are warning that time is running out, and that the promises on paper must finally reach the ground.
A barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate, medical staff reported Saturday.The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.In recent days, Israel has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings and accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.On Saturday, the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave as part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, struggling under conditions of famine.One of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children, said health officials. The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes, along with 14 members of his family. Images showed the strikes hitting followed by plumes of smoke.Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.Hostages’ relatives rally in IsraelMeanwhile, relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a deal to release their loved ones and criticized what they said was a counterproductive approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in securing a resolution.Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, described Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar this week as a “spectacular failure.”“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone. But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, as families, to bring our loved ones home,” Zangauker said.Some Palestinians are leaving Gaza City, but many are stuckIn the wake of escalating hostilities and calls to evacuate the city, the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, according to aid workers. However, many families remain stuck due to the cost of finding transportation and housing, while others have been displaced too many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the enclave is safe.In a message on social media Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to leave “immediately” and move south to what it’s calling a humanitarian zone. Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than a quarter of a million people had left Gaza City — from an estimated 1 million who live in the area of north Gaza around the city.The United Nations, however, put the number of people who have left at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September. The U.N. and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are overcrowded, according to the U.N., and it can cost money to move, which many people do not have.An initiative headed by the U.N. to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.The bombardment Friday night across Gaza City came days after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.Families of the hostages still held in Gaza are pleading with Israel to halt the offensive, worried it will kill their relatives. There are 48 hostages still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed, and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip —
A barrage of airstrikes killed at least 32 people across Gaza City as Israel ramps up its offensive there and urges Palestinians to evacuate, medical staff reported Saturday.
The dead included 12 children, according to the morgue in Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
In recent days, Israel has intensified strikes across Gaza City, destroying multiple high-rise buildings and accusing Hamas of putting surveillance equipment in them.
On Saturday, the army said it struck another high-rise used by Hamas in the area of Gaza City. It has ordered residents to leave as part of an offensive aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which it says is Hamas’ last stronghold. Hundreds of thousands of people remain there, struggling under conditions of famine.
One of the strikes overnight and into early morning Saturday hit a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, killing a family of 10, including a mother and her three children, said health officials. The Palestinian Football Association said a player for the Al-Helal Sporting Club, Mohammed Ramez Sultan, was killed in the strikes, along with 14 members of his family. Images showed the strikes hitting followed by plumes of smoke.
Israel’s army did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes.
Hostages’ relatives rally in Israel
Meanwhile, relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday to demand a deal to release their loved ones and criticized what they said was a counterproductive approach by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in securing a resolution.
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, described Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar this week as a “spectacular failure.”
“President Trump said yesterday that every time there is progress in the negotiations, Netanyahu bombs someone. But it wasn’t Hamas leaders he tried to bomb — it was our chance, as families, to bring our loved ones home,” Zangauker said.
Some Palestinians are leaving Gaza City, but many are stuck
In the wake of escalating hostilities and calls to evacuate the city, the number of people leaving has spiked in recent weeks, according to aid workers. However, many families remain stuck due to the cost of finding transportation and housing, while others have been displaced too many times and do not want to move again, not trusting that anywhere in the enclave is safe.
In a message on social media Saturday, Israel’s army told the remaining Palestinians in Gaza City to leave “immediately” and move south to what it’s calling a humanitarian zone. Army spokesman Avichay Adraee said that more than a quarter of a million people had left Gaza City — from an estimated 1 million who live in the area of north Gaza around the city.
The United Nations, however, put the number of people who have left at around 100,000 between mid-August and mid-September. The U.N. and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate the dire humanitarian crisis. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are overcrowded, according to the U.N., and it can cost money to move, which many people do not have.
An initiative headed by the U.N. to bring temporary shelters into Gaza said more than 86,000 tents and other supplies were still awaiting clearance to enter Gaza as of last week.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that seven people, including children, died from malnutrition-related causes over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 420, including 145 children, since the war began.
The bombardment Friday night across Gaza City came days after Israel launched a strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, intensifying its campaign against the militant group and endangering negotiations over ending the war in Gaza.
Families of the hostages still held in Gaza are pleading with Israel to halt the offensive, worried it will kill their relatives. There are 48 hostages still inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,803 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of those killed were women and children. Large parts of major cities have been completely destroyed, and around 90% of some 2 million Palestinians have been displaced.
From the Rio Grande to Lake Travis, from the Ogallala Aquifer to the Red River, Texas’ water supply is under duress. The state’s rapidly expanding population, deteriorating infrastructure, and warming climate threaten its water supply — and by extension, its economy and way of life. The state’s regional diversity and patchwork of governments complicate matters further.
To understand the threat each region faces, Texas Tribune journalists traveled across the state and closely followed the legislative debate in Austin. This special report presents their ongoing work.
Texas voters will be asked this fall to approve a $10 billion package to protect the state’s water supply. The proposal — which was approved by lawmakers earlier this year — calls for 50% to be spent on improving the state’s water infrastructure. The other half will be spent on finding new water supply, like cleaning salty groundwater. Voters previously approved a similar, but much smaller package, in 2023. While it might sound like a lot of money — and it is — the $10 billion is just a fraction of what some experts believe the state needs to invest going forward.
Below, you’ll find guides explaining the problem and possible solutions, an AI-powered chatbot answering questions about the state’s water supply and a tool for local water supply data, and our best reporting from across the state. The Tribune will have full coverage of the election this fall.
Join us Oct. 8 in Longview or online to discuss the state’s water crisis and the November election.
Water gushes from Rick Bradbury’s truck to Shannon Montague’s reservoir as the Bradbury’s make a delivery Saturday, March 16, 2024 in Terlingua.
The state’s water supply faces numerous threats. And by one estimate, the state’s municipal supply will not meet demand by 2030 if there’s a severe drought and no water solutions are implemented Read more
Understanding water lingo
The secondary clarifier at the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion in El Paso on March 5, 2025.
Water is complex. So are the terms used to describe it. Get to know the language as Texas debates how to save its water supply. Read more
How the state is trying to save its water supply
Treated water at the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 in Austin, TX. The treatment plant will undergo a billion dollar expansion starting this summer to meet the increasing demand due to the growth the city has faced. Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune
State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. These are some of the ways the state could spend the money. Read more
Shape the future of Texas at the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin! We bring together Texas’ most inspiring thinkers, leaders and innovators to discuss the issues that matter to you. Get tickets now and join us this November.
DANVERS — Municipal leaders from various North Shore communities met Wednesday for the North Shore Chamber of Commerce’s annual State of the Region discussion that was dominated by housing and infrastructure issues.
The breakfast meeting at Essex North Shore Agricultural & Technical School featured updates about the projects and initiatives underway in each community
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BOSTON — Cities and towns will have access to a new pool of state money to rope in federal infrastructure funds for fixing crumbling roads and bridges and redeveloping downtowns.
A pair of new grant programs rolled out this week by the Healey administration will provide funding and technical assistance for local governments to go after federal infrastructure dollars, with nearly $5 million in competitive and formula funding available over the next two fiscal years.
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NEWBURYPORT — Support for new projects addressing combined sewage overflows and updates on ongoing ones were discussed by dozens of local and state officials during Thursday’s meeting at the Newburyport Senior/Community Center.
The Southern Company didn’t need this pilot to sell it on EVs. The firm—which operates Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Mississippi Power, as well as other subsidiaries across six southern and midwestern states—has been using Ford electric vehicles since 2023. Its fleet now includes more than 200 F-150 Lightning trucks and 150 Ford Pro chargers. The company at one point aimed to electrify half of its fleet by 2030; it now says it is no longer pursuing that goal, but will continue to transition its vehicles.1
Now it wanted to see if it could use Ford Pro’s charging software to ramp down its vehicles’ and chargers’ energy consumption during periods of high demand. (Ford Pro is the commercial fleet arm of the US automaker.) Such “managed charging” programs save fleet owners money by scheduling charging for times when utilities are charging less for electricity, and put less stress on the electric grid. Southern Company is particularly aware of that last point: With the AI boom, data centers are flooding into the US southeast.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can save every kilowatt-hour that is out there to be saved, because we’ll have a more constrained system in the future,” says Lea Clanton, who directs business development and innovation for Southern Company New Ventures.
The utility invested in over 200 F-150 Lightning trucks and 150 Ford Pro chargers for its fleet operations.
Courtesy of Southern Company
Ironically, the experiment’s most exciting moments came when the two companies worked together to shut down all their chargers. By turning off the chargers for 30 minutes—something that might be suddenly necessary during very hot or cold days, or during an emergency—Southern Company and Ford say they were able to reduce the demand on the grid by 0.5 megawatts, immediately freeing up an amount of electricity equivalent to what’s needed to power between 200 and 450 homes for a year.
One day, EV fleets like those operated by the Southern Company might use this sort of software to save money and electricity. But Clanton says the utility firm needs more information before it’s ready to hook its EVs up to smarter chargers. It needs to guarantee that its drivers—especially those responding to electricity emergencies—always have charge when the unexpected happens.
“If we were to adopt something more permanent, we would need to take some time to better understand where our drivers need to be, how often they charge, and make sure that it’s not going to impact our delivery of clean, safe, reliable, affordable energy to customers at all, 24 hours a day,” says Clanton.
1Update, September 4 at 3 pm: This story was updated to correct details around Southern Company’s efforts to electrify its fleet.
At Khan Academy, our summer internships aren’t about coffee runs or sitting on the sidelines. They’re about giving talented students real ownership of projects that help advance our mission of free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. This year, engineering intern Anastasia Dunca spent her summer tackling a challenge that directly supports teachers: making it easier to search and find the documents they’ve created with Khanmigo, our AI-powered teacher assistant.
We sat down with Anastasia to learn what her internship was like, from the early days of mentor matching to the moment her code earned an official “LGTM” (Looks Good to Me) from her team.
Q: How did your internship start?
Before the summer starts, we go through a mentor-matching process where we share our interests and passions with the coordinator team. They match us with a team that will push us and give us a fun, exciting project. Once mentors are matched, laptops arrive, and my home setup is ready—it’s time for onboarding and diving into tasks.
Q: What project did you work on?
My project this summer was making teacher documents searchable. Khan Academy has AI tools that let teachers create everything from lesson plans to class poems. These documents are saved so teachers can revisit and reuse them, but we wanted to make them easier to find. My work involved learning backend, OpenAI API, Golang, and more to integrate these documents into our search experience.
Q: How did you approach building the feature?
I started with a “naive stage” to get something working quickly—just correct, not perfect. Then I moved to a “precision stage,” improving speed and accuracy. Finally, I worked on iterations to fix bugs and polish the user experience. We tested by running prompts through a tool called the component runner to see if results matched expectations.
Q: What were some challenges and wins?
Permissions issues took some troubleshooting, but getting end-to-end search working was a big win. I was excited when the team gave me an “LGTM” on my work.
Q: How did you wrap up the project?
We decided to deploy behind a feature flag so a select group could test it without affecting production. I’m finishing my internship still working on that rollout.
Q: What’s your biggest takeaway from this summer?
As a Khan Academy intern, I got to apply my own research process to my project, learn new technologies, and truly own my work. I’m so thankful for my supportive team who kept me motivated, and I’m leaving with skills and confidence I didn’t have before.
Looking ahead
Anastasia’s summer project is just one example of how interns at Khan Academy make a direct impact on tools that teachers, students, and parents use every day. From learning new coding languages to contributing to real features in development, our interns experience what it’s like to be part of a mission-driven engineering team.
Want to be a Khan Academy intern?
Check out our Careers page to learn more about our internship program and future opportunities.
BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey and other state leaders are blasting the Trump administration for clawing back $33.8 million in federal funding for a Salem project to support offshore wind development, saying the move jeopardizes hundreds of jobs and the state’s climate change goals.
The U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday canceled $679 million in federal funding for a dozen infrastructure projects that would support offshore wind, saying the plans “were not aligned with the goals and priorities of the administration.”
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SALEM — The city of Salem in partnership with Waste Management Inc. recently awarded a scholarship to three Salem students for their essays on how Salem can be a more sustainable city.
The annual scholarship program, announced in April, awards the 2025 City of Salem and Waste Management Scholarship to Salem residents pursuing undergraduate or graduate-level studies in preparation for a career in environmental sustainability.
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Across the United States, more than 121,000 dams quietly shape daily life by supplying water, generating hydropower and providing flood control. But according to the National Performance of Dams Program, on average about 10 dams fail each year.Sometimes these failures have devastating, even deadly consequences. Many are aging, high-hazard structures in need of costly repairs, and the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found money is scarce and owners are often left footing the bill.Behind a locked gate and up a winding road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the nearly 100-year-old McClure Dam. It supplies up to half of Santa Fe’s drinking water and is owned by the city. “This is a high hazard dam,” John Del Mar said as he looked out at the dam. Del Mar is an Engineering Section Supervisor with the City of Santa Fe Water Division. “The current rated condition from the state engineer’s office is poor for this dam,” Del Mar said. “That stemmed from some analysis that was done back in 2018.”Because this dam was built 100 years ago, there’s uncertainty in how it was built, so the dam was given the rating of “poor condition.” It’s also high hazard, meaning lives and property would be at risk if it failed. “We have to manage them as a public asset, part of our utility system, and once we know of problems, we’re obligated to fix them. So that’s what sets us on the course of this kind of a repair,” Del Mar said.Del Mar said the dam could cost $20-$30 million to repair. The city of Santa Fe is already in the midst of repairing the Nichols Dam downstream as well. That project costs roughly $20 million. To fund the projects, Santa Fe is dipping into funds they have, proposing raising utility rates and tapping into state funding—options many owners don’t have.Private dam owners struggle to get repair funds Just north of Santa Fe lies Las Vegas, New Mexico. There, Storrie Lake is known to locals as a place to camp, boat and fish. But for cattle rancher Michael Quintana, the lake is more important to him.”We’re in the business of capturing as much water in our lake as we can so we can use it for agriculture purposes,” Quintana said.Quintana is one of the owners of the Storrie Lake Dam, a crucial part of the state highway.”If we were to lose our dam, it would be a huge inconvenience for people to try to get to the Northern part of the state,” Quintana said.But he recently received unfortunate news from state dam officials.”They downrated our dam. Right now, it’s in poor condition,” Quintana said.Roughly 62% of U.S. dams are privately owned, leaving many owners like Quintana responsible for repairs.”There’s a lot of fear in having that ownership for the fact that we lack a lot of ability to fund the maintenance on a dam,” Quintana said. Estimated repairs are about $75 million—far beyond what the owners can afford. Looking for outside sources, the owners are reaching out for help securing funding through sources like local lawmakers.They have sought state help and applied to FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program as well. National funding gap remains largeUsing FEMA’s online money allocation data, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has discovered that since 2019, New Mexico has received about $3.7 million from FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program.”Money is always limited and there is often not enough to go around,” said Sushil Chaudhary, chief of the Dam Safety Program in New Mexico.Nationwide, FEMA has allocated roughly $304 million over six years across all 50 states. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated in their 2025 report that it will take $165 billion to fix the nation’s non-federal dams.Chaudhary expressed another problem he feels his department and many around the country deal with: small staff sizes. In New Mexico, 10 staff members, seven of whom are inspectors, oversee about 300 non-federal dams. They have the third-best ratio of dams to staff of any state.Nationwide, roughly 530 state dam officials monitor more than 117,000 non-federally owned dams. Inspection responsibilities fall upon the federal government for the other 3% of dams that are federally owned.Working with the Hearst Television Data Team, the National Investigative Unit found that 25% of high hazard dams have not been inspected in the past five years or do not have record of a last inspection date. A high hazard dam would cause loss of life if it were to fail.Right now, there are roughly 2,600 high hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the country. Dams in poor condition have a safety deficiency, and dams in unsatisfactory condition require immediate or emergency repair.But that could be an undercount. The most up-to-date records gathered by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit and Hearst Television Data Team indicate that 67% of dams don’t have a condition rating. Of those, 4,000 are high hazard dams.Chaudhary said they get behind on inspections at times because they have other responsibilities.”We also need to perform the analysis that we need for regulatory purposes,” Chaudhary said. “We cannot rely on dam owners to do the analysis all the time. So we have to do our own.”Chaudhary circled back on the statistic that about 10 dams fail every year.”If you look at that data, the failure is not slowing down. So failure will keep happening. The dams are getting older. With that, various components of the dams deteriorate. While we cannot prevent failure of the dams, we can manage risk. We can save lives. We can do things that allow us to save lives and property,” Chaudhary said.Dams near youCurious if any of these dams with late inspections are near you? The Hearst Television data team has built a tool that allows you to see all of the dams in your area and learn whether any are in unsatisfactory or poor condition. Simply search your address or town name in the box below, and the map will populate with any dams near you, their latest condition rating and when they were last inspected.This story was shot and edited by Hearst National Investigative Photojournalist Reid Bolton.PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=
SANTA FE, N.M. —
Across the United States, more than 121,000 dams quietly shape daily life by supplying water, generating hydropower and providing flood control. But according to the National Performance of Dams Program, on average about 10 dams fail each year.
Sometimes these failures have devastating, even deadly consequences. Many are aging, high-hazard structures in need of costly repairs, and the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found money is scarce and owners are often left footing the bill.
Behind a locked gate and up a winding road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the nearly 100-year-old McClure Dam. It supplies up to half of Santa Fe’s drinking water and is owned by the city.
“This is a high hazard dam,” John Del Mar said as he looked out at the dam.
Del Mar is an Engineering Section Supervisor with the City of Santa Fe Water Division.
“The current rated condition from the state engineer’s office is poor for this dam,” Del Mar said. “That stemmed from some analysis that was done back in 2018.”
Because this dam was built 100 years ago, there’s uncertainty in how it was built, so the dam was given the rating of “poor condition.” It’s also high hazard, meaning lives and property would be at risk if it failed.
“We have to manage them as a public asset, part of our utility system, and once we know of problems, we’re obligated to fix them. So that’s what sets us on the course of this kind of a repair,” Del Mar said.
Del Mar said the dam could cost $20-$30 million to repair.
The city of Santa Fe is already in the midst of repairing the Nichols Dam downstream as well. That project costs roughly $20 million. To fund the projects, Santa Fe is dipping into funds they have, proposing raising utility rates and tapping into state funding—options many owners don’t have.
Private dam owners struggle to get repair funds
Just north of Santa Fe lies Las Vegas, New Mexico. There, Storrie Lake is known to locals as a place to camp, boat and fish. But for cattle rancher Michael Quintana, the lake is more important to him.
“We’re in the business of capturing as much water in our lake as we can so we can use it for agriculture purposes,” Quintana said.
Quintana is one of the owners of the Storrie Lake Dam, a crucial part of the state highway.
“If we were to lose our dam, it would be a huge inconvenience for people to try to get to the Northern part of the state,” Quintana said.
But he recently received unfortunate news from state dam officials.
“They downrated our dam. Right now, it’s in poor condition,” Quintana said.
Roughly 62% of U.S. dams are privately owned, leaving many owners like Quintana responsible for repairs.
“There’s a lot of fear in having that ownership for the fact that we lack a lot of ability to fund the maintenance on a dam,” Quintana said. Estimated repairs are about $75 million—far beyond what the owners can afford. Looking for outside sources, the owners are reaching out for help securing funding through sources like local lawmakers.
They have sought state help and applied to FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program as well.
National funding gap remains large
Using FEMA’s online money allocation data, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has discovered that since 2019, New Mexico has received about $3.7 million from FEMA’s National Dam Safety Program.
“Money is always limited and there is often not enough to go around,” said Sushil Chaudhary, chief of the Dam Safety Program in New Mexico.
Nationwide, FEMA has allocated roughly $304 million over six years across all 50 states. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimated in their 2025 report that it will take $165 billion to fix the nation’s non-federal dams.
Chaudhary expressed another problem he feels his department and many around the country deal with: small staff sizes. In New Mexico,10 staff members, seven of whom are inspectors, oversee about 300 non-federal dams. They have the third-best ratio of dams to staff of any state.
Nationwide, roughly 530 state dam officials monitor more than 117,000 non-federally owned dams. Inspection responsibilities fall upon the federal government for the other 3% of dams that are federally owned.
Working with the Hearst Television Data Team, the National Investigative Unit found that 25% of high hazard dams have not been inspected in the past five years or do not have record of a last inspection date. A high hazard dam would cause loss of life if it were to fail.
Right now, there are roughly2,600 high hazard dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition across the country. Dams in poor condition have a safety deficiency, and dams in unsatisfactory condition require immediate or emergency repair.
But that could be an undercount. The most up-to-date records gathered by the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit and Hearst Television Data Team indicate that 67% of dams don’t have a condition rating. Of those, 4,000 are high hazard dams.
Chaudhary said they get behind on inspections at times because they have other responsibilities.
“We also need to perform the analysis that we need for regulatory purposes,” Chaudhary said. “We cannot rely on dam owners to do the analysis all the time. So we have to do our own.”
Chaudhary circled back on the statistic that about 10 dams fail every year.
“If you look at that data, the failure is not slowing down. So failure will keep happening. The dams are getting older. With that, various components of the dams deteriorate. While we cannot prevent failure of the dams, we can manage risk. We can save lives. We can do things that allow us to save lives and property,” Chaudhary said.
Dams near you
Curious if any of these dams with late inspections are near you? The Hearst Television data team has built a tool that allows you to see all of the dams in your area and learn whether any are in unsatisfactory or poor condition.
Simply search your address or town name in the box below, and the map will populate with any dams near you, their latest condition rating and when they were last inspected.
This story was shot and edited by Hearst National Investigative Photojournalist Reid Bolton.
Long Island airports awarded over $8.7M in federal funding
Part of $66M statewide funding for airport improvements
MacArthur Airport receives largest share for security and taxiway upgrades
Upgrades aim to enhance safety, tourism and economic activity
More than $8.7 million in federal funding is going to Long Island airports to upgrade facilities and equipment, supporting commerce and tourism, officials said.
The funding is part of $66 in funding for 22 airports across New York State. It was awarded through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program and Airport Infrastructure Grant Program.
“New York’s airports are a gateway for commerce and our tourism industry, and vital connectors for residents and visitors,” U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said in a news release about the funding.
“This $66+ million in federal funding will help our airports invest in key safety upgrades and modernization efforts,” he added.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said that the airports also brought opportunity to airports across the state.
The funding, she said in the news release, would “help airports across our state provide a safe, reliable, and comfortable passenger experience for everyone traveling through New York.”
Local airports are key to economic activity by enabling business travel, cargo transport and access to national and international markets, while also providing direct employment opportunities, experts say. Airports contribute to the tourism sector by serving as entry points for travelers, driving spending on accommodations, dining and entertainment, and supporting tax revenue generation.
Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma is receiving more than $3.8 million for perimeter fence reconstruction and other security enhancements. The airport is receiving more than $2 million for taxiway reconstruction, and more than $351,000 for glycol treatment system reconstruction.
Elizabeth Field Airport on Fishers Island is getting more than $924,000 for runway lighting and signage reconstruction and $277,000 for runway precision approach path indicator renovation.
Republic Airport in Farmingdale is receiving more than $829,000 to construct a new aircraft rescue and firefighting building.
Brookhaven Airport in Shirley is receiving more than $416,000 for runway renovations.
As the nation reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, California lawmakers are raising concerns about the state’s flood preparedness and advocating for increased federal funding for essential flood protection projects.The Army Corps of Engineers is actively working along the Sacramento River to double the size of a weir, one of many flood protection projects deemed vital by officials. “The city of Sacramento is one of the most at-risk regions in the entire nation for catastrophic flooding,” said Greg Trible from the Army Corps of Engineers. It’s one of several projects that experts say is part of a large network of flood protection measures in the state. Despite the ongoing work, federal funding for four other projects is at risk.Representative Josh Harder and other Democratic California Representatives are pushing for $126 million to be reinstated in the President’s latest construction budget, warning that without it, construction updates necessary to protect Stockton, Lodi, and Manteca could halt.”We’re going to see hammers stop mid-stroke, we’re going to see money taken away from some of the needed construction updates to keep Stockton and Lodi and Manteca safe,” Harder said, attributing the situation to political games.RELATED | Do you live near an unsafe dam? See interactive mapHarder, along with other members of Congress, signed a letter in June urging the House to increase what they called “seriously insufficient” funding. Among the proposed cuts are repairs to levees in West Sacramento and Natomas, as well as increased flood protection in Watsonville and the San Joaquin River Basin. “San Joaquin County is one of the most densely populated floodplains anywhere in the United States,” Harder said, emphasizing the need for flood protection.Todd Bernardy from the California Department of Water Resources highlighted the state’s perspective, saying, “We need to improve and create better resiliency for our infrastructure.” He noted that 300 miles of levee improvements are needed in the Central Valley, equating to about $12 billion total. Trible stressed the importance of proactive measures. “It’s about protecting our people, our friends, and neighbors here in Sacramento families. That’s why we’re doing the work that we’re doing,” he said. Harder echoed this sentiment. “It’s so much cheaper to build a levee to prevent a flood than to rebuild after a natural disaster,” he said.Bernardy also acknowledged the ongoing risk. “You’re never going to get your risk down to zero,” he said. “There’s always going to be residual risk, and the infrastructure is part of reducing that risk.”The Trump administration’s budget requested approximately $1.5 billion for construction, with the House-passed version adding substantial funding, including for California projects. The Senate has yet to release its version, but the situation continues to be closely monitored.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
As the nation reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, California lawmakers are raising concerns about the state’s flood preparedness and advocating for increased federal funding for essential flood protection projects.
The Army Corps of Engineers is actively working along the Sacramento River to double the size of a weir, one of many flood protection projects deemed vital by officials.
“The city of Sacramento is one of the most at-risk regions in the entire nation for catastrophic flooding,” said Greg Trible from the Army Corps of Engineers.
It’s one of several projects that experts say is part of a large network of flood protection measures in the state. Despite the ongoing work, federal funding for four other projects is at risk.
Representative Josh Harder and other Democratic California Representatives are pushing for $126 million to be reinstated in the President’s latest construction budget, warning that without it, construction updates necessary to protect Stockton, Lodi, and Manteca could halt.
“We’re going to see hammers stop mid-stroke, we’re going to see money taken away from some of the needed construction updates to keep Stockton and Lodi and Manteca safe,” Harder said, attributing the situation to political games.
Harder, along with other members of Congress, signed a letter in June urging the House to increase what they called “seriously insufficient” funding. Among the proposed cuts are repairs to levees in West Sacramento and Natomas, as well as increased flood protection in Watsonville and the San Joaquin River Basin.
“San Joaquin County is one of the most densely populated floodplains anywhere in the United States,” Harder said, emphasizing the need for flood protection.
Todd Bernardy from the California Department of Water Resources highlighted the state’s perspective, saying, “We need to improve and create better resiliency for our infrastructure.”
He noted that 300 miles of levee improvements are needed in the Central Valley, equating to about $12 billion total.
Trible stressed the importance of proactive measures.
“It’s about protecting our people, our friends, and neighbors here in Sacramento families. That’s why we’re doing the work that we’re doing,” he said.
Harder echoed this sentiment.
“It’s so much cheaper to build a levee to prevent a flood than to rebuild after a natural disaster,” he said.
Bernardy also acknowledged the ongoing risk.
“You’re never going to get your risk down to zero,” he said. “There’s always going to be residual risk, and the infrastructure is part of reducing that risk.”
The Trump administration’s budget requested approximately $1.5 billion for construction, with the House-passed version adding substantial funding, including for California projects. The Senate has yet to release its version, but the situation continues to be closely monitored.
A new pay to park program is underway in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, just blocks away from the Minnesota State Fair.
Back in May, the city of Falcon Heights approved a plan to require drivers to pay to park on streets east of Snelling Avenue.
The measure assigns approximately 1,000 Falcon Heights parking spots near the fairground as parking zones. The program will charge a flat fee of $25 per day for vehicles to park between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. during the 12 days of the Minnesota State Fair.
So far, reviews from residents WCCO spoke with are mixed.
“People seem willing to pay to park here and it’s great for us because now we have a permit,” explained Dan Grewe, a 20-year resident of the area. “I can always get a spot for myself and in past years, I had a difficult time finding any parking as a homeowner.”
Grewe called it a win-win and believes this program will establish a safe environment for both drivers and residents. He feels the cost will not be ‘too burdensome’ for fairgoers, though neighbor Lisa Lampi disagrees.
“I think public streets should be free for the public to park on,” said Lampi, who has lived in Falcon Heights for a few decades.
Lampi and a few others have posted signs in their yards stating their opposition to the program.
“One of my cousins, that’s actually the difference between her coming [to the fair] and not so she’s not coming this year,” Lampi said of the cost. “If you’re a family with young kids that might mean the difference of the kids being able to ride a ride or have a special treat.”
Parking ambassadors roam the area to help drivers. They’re also looking for cars that are not in compliance. St. Anthony Police are tasked with ticketing those parking illegally. During the fair, fines double and can cost $100 dollars.
Neighbor Chris Moody says he’s still weighing the pros and cons. One of his concerns is the cost, including those fines.
“Obviously, people still have to walk from here and it’s a little bit of a ways so I think maybe closer to 15 bucks,” Moody said. “That might be fairer.”
The city estimates parking fees could bring in more than $100,000, which would cover expenses and says remaining revenue would be invested into roads and infrastructure.
“There will be, of course, some expenses but anything extra will go into the general fund to help with construction projects going forward,” explained City Council member Paula Mielke.
Miekle admits there may be challenges during this period and there’s a chances to make improvements going forward.
The Midwest has relatively good high-speed rail connections compared to the rest of the country, but activists are calling for the region to expand its infrastructure.
The Midwest has been described as a “gateway” for rail connections to the rest of the country because of the railways between Chicago and the East Coast, and proposals for new tracks, particularly in Illinois and Indiana, could double down on that status.
Why It Matters
Proponents of high-speed rail see the technology as an economic no-brainer; it’s clean, fast, and provides a huge boom to productivity and access for millions of travelers. However, the infrastructure requires a huge amount of time, money and political capital to build, which is why the few high-speed rail projects that are active in the U.S. have been fraught with funding difficulties and skepticism.
Chicago Metro trains on the loop shown from an elevated point in January 2023. Chicago Metro trains on the loop shown from an elevated point in January 2023. Getty Images
What To Know
At the core of expansion efforts is the Federal Railroad Administration’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan, which would see the steady expansion of new routes out from Chicago.
The Windy City has long been the regional hub for rail travel, with consistent trains running from Chicago through to New York.
Further, many Amtrak services from states like California and Texas make their way to Chicago rather than directly to New York, making Illinois and the Midwest one of the most important regions for future rail expansion.
The FRA’s plan centers on high-speed “pillar corridors” with endpoints in Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit, Indianapolis and St. Louis.
These corridors would not only increase capacity on high-traffic routes but also unlock viability for secondary routes, such as Milwaukee to St. Louis or Indianapolis to Minneapolis, that would struggle to justify investment as standalone projects.
What the Federal Railroad Administration’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan would look like once completed. What the Federal Railroad Administration’s Midwest Regional Rail Plan would look like once completed. High-Speed Rail Alliance
The keystone of the network is a new 186-mph line connecting Chicago to Minneapolis-St. Paul via Milwaukee and Madison in Wisconsin. The plan forecasts that nearly 30 percent of all ridership in the region would pass through Chicago, with Minneapolis-St. Paul serving as the second-largest hub at more than 11 percent of projected trips.
If implemented fully, the Midwest rail network could drive ripple effects far beyond its own borders. For example, the Chicago-Indianapolis corridor may lead to future links southward to Louisville, Nashville and eventually Atlanta. This aligns with broader plans under consideration for high-speed rail from Atlanta to Charlotte and Dallas.
The 12 states included in the plan—Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin—represent nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population.
What People Are Saying
Railway engineer and industry expert Gareth Dennis: “If you have large, long-distance infrastructure or services, then yes, a pan-state or federal organization needs to oversee those. But much of the railroad infrastructure and many services really need to be managed at the state level.
“Of course, people’s movements often cross state boundaries. They travel left, right and center. But if you centralize too much at the federal level, the whole system becomes slow and sluggish. It simply takes too long to respond to challenges. There’s too much decision-making happening at too high a level, where it’s harder to make agile, localized choices about how everything fits together.
What Happens Next
The active high-speed rail projects continue to make progress. Their success or failure will likely define how future projects approach scale and financing.
I second Russell Hancock’s recent call for bold regional leadership in this period of “federal ruckus.” As climate impacts intensify, California must act now to build climate resilience for tomorrow — and for future generations.
Coyote Valley, just south of San José, offers a model for how conservation and stewardship of nature can do that. Here, protected natural and working lands provide a buffer from catastrophic wildfires, floodplains recharge groundwater, wetlands soak up rains to prevent downstream flooding, farmlands grow our food and open space connects over one million acres of critical wildlife corridors. These aren’t just ecological perks. This is essential infrastructure.
Nature-based solutions to climate impacts are cost-effective, scalable and rooted in equity, protecting all communities while enhancing public health and biodiversity.
As Hancock wrote, let’s “put ourselves back in charge.” We can start by investing in the most powerful tool we have: nature.
Andrea Mackenzie General manager, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority San Jose
“Yes! California’s high-speed rail should continue,” is my answer to your question of Aug. 17.
I am a transplant from New England. California had many things of which to be proud. It is never a time to create things of which to be ashamed. All the reasons to attempt this project are still valid. We still need to wean ourselves off intrastate car and plane travel, or at least, provide a good alternative. This is still the environmentally friendly thing to do.
I believe the state must aggressively attempt to remove and mitigate obstacles and unnecessary burdens to the project, to seek greater efficiencies, and continue to fight for federal funding. I also support continued state funding of $1 billion+ a year until the project is complete, even in this time of escalating Trumponomics.
I always want California to be the “Can Do” state.
Bob Greene Mountain View
State’s redistricting plan is a necessary antidote
California’s redistricting (on the Nov. 4 ballot) may be criticized as a “partisan ploy.” However, that ignores the existential threat to our democracy underway by Donald Trump.
The threat is far beyond partisan politics. At stake: whether we’ll have fair elections ever again, in this country.
Trump already attempted a violent coup d’état (after trying other illegal ways to overturn the 2020 election). Upon returning in 2025, he pardoned the convicted felons of Jan. 6, and he has a green light to commit any other crimes, thanks to the Supreme Court that he stacked in his first term.
Now he’s blatantly rigging the 2026 election. What will be left of our democracy by 2028?
Newsom’s proposed redistricting is a necessary, and temporary, antidote to the Trump coup.
I always thought the term “gerrymandering” came from the 80s when Gov. Jerry Brown started using it in California.
However, consulting with Webster’s dictionary, it came from the early 1800s when Declaration signer Elbridge Gerry was governor of Massachusetts, and later vice president under James Madison. One of the carved-up voting districts he created looked like the head, tail and four legs of a salamander. Another legislator coined the new word, gerrymander, instead.
In any case, gerrymandering is nothing new.
Ron Knapp Saratoga
Democrats, GOP must pause rivalry and lead
The Democratic and Republican parties lack the characteristics needed to work together and to govern our nation effectively. Their inability to lead and cooperate has caused chaos, division and devastation.
Texas and California are taking steps to redraw their congressional districts in an effort to shift power in Congress. As our country’s name clearly implies, the states that make up the United States must be united. The reality is that the states are divided based on the party that controls each state. Ditto the Congress and Senate. As a result, our nation has achieved ill will, division and hostility.
To build unity and foster national peace and harmony, our state and national leaders must end their rivalries and their false belief that anyone from a different political party is the enemy. Our leaders must work together — regardless of party — to govern and unite this country. There is no other way.
Nick Dellaporta Santa Clara
We must keep our heads in chaotic times
Every day, the newspaper is crammed with absurdities, making us wonder if we are living in a Franz Kafka novel.
From Donald Trump’s demand for $1 billion from the California taxpayer-supported UCLA to the crackdown on the Smithsonian Museum to the declaration of a public safety emergency in Washington, D.C., after the robbery of a DOGE employee, the list never ends.
It’s normal to feel despair under crazy circumstances. We must, however, be hopeful and do our best to resist. For example, let’s continue to keep ourselves informed, volunteer to help with voter registration and join peaceful rallies. Taking all these actions doesn’t guarantee change, especially in the short run, but if we don’t do anything, things will certainly go from bad to worse.
According to Denver’s Department of Transportation & Infrastructure, there are six bridges in the city in need of repair or full replacement.
Beneath the new and old Monaco Street Parkway bridges over the Cherry Creek, as the old one is being phased out. July 9, 2025.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The Monaco Street bridge over Cherry Creek has been cut in half.
One side of the bridge is under heavy construction. Workers in helmets and protective gear walk by, and the sound of welding sneaks in between car horns. The other side is filled with traffic and the occasional pedestrian jumping as a car zooms by the tiny sidewalk.
The $12.7 million replacement project began in October to address steel fatigue, water degradation and overall aging. The Monaco Street bridge was built 60 years ago with steel girders that aren’t so easy to maintain or repair now.
Denver’s new Monaco Street Parkway bridge over the Cherry Creek (left) and the old one that’s on its way out. July 9, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“ [Steel fatigue] is a small stress that’s repeated over and over and over again can cause cracking. When that crack propagates, it can happen very suddenly,” said Patrick Bergman, senior engineer with DOTI’s bridge group. The issue, he said, is with the “detailing” of the bridge’s steel components — the way they are designed and connected.
“Steel, if it’s not detailed properly or it’s a detail that was popular in the 1960s that has been improved upon since then, is difficult to retrofit. It’s difficult to do anything about it in place,” Bergman said.
Patrick Bergman, senior engineer with Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, stands beneath the new Monaco Street Parkway bridge over the Cherry Creek. July 9, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The project, which also includes an expanded sidewalk, is slated to wrap up next summer.
It’s one of the local Department of Transportation and Infrastructure’s biggest bridge replacement projects, but hardly the last one.
In June, the department released a report that identified six bridges in need of repair or replacement. Three of them — the 6th Avenue and Lincoln Street bridges over Cherry Creek, and the Smith Road bridge over Quebec Street — will require full bridge replacements.
The Quebec Street over Airlawn Road bridge also needs to be removed, and the 6th and 8th avenue viaducts are slated for modifications.
Each one was built over 50 years ago.
The city report found about 14 percent of the city’s vehicular bridges are “structurally deficient,” a rate higher than the national average of 9 percent. Close to 80 of the 642 bridges in the city require some form of modification, monitoring or replacement.
Discoloration on the underside of the Monaco Street Parkway bridge, over the Cherry Creek, is an indication that water has gotten into the structure. July 9, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Discoloration on the underside of the Monaco Street Parkway bridge, over the Cherry Creek, is an indication that water has gotten into the structure. July 9, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“Structurally deficient” means that one of the bridge’s main components — deck, superstructure, substructure or culvert — was rated in poor condition. This assessment is performed by city engineers following guidelines set by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Bridge Inspection Standards (NBIS).
Bergman clarified that a “structurally deficient” rating does not mean the bridges are about to fall down or are “unsafe to operate.” Rather, it’s a call for closer monitoring and assessment to determine which bridges might need rehabilitation or replacement. Some bridges could even be “load posted,” with the city placing weight limits for vehicles on the structure.
A number of factors can contribute to bridge degradation and poor condition: age of the bridge, exposure to natural elements like flooding and traffic patterns. There are also considerations about when the bridge was built and what materials were used at the time.
“The term ‘structurally deficient’ was defined to encompass more than just the structural condition of a bridge, and so it is possible that you can have a bridge in good condition, but it was designed to an older code,” Bergman said. “So it wasn’t designed for the vehicles that it’s seeing nowadays.”
Identifying these projects is just the first step. Paying for them is a different story.
While DOTI currently receives $7 million each year from Capital Improvement Funding for bridge work, city officials say they would need another $22 million per year for bridge work. The city funded the Monaco Street bridge work with the Elevate Denver bond package, which voters approved in 2017.
Denver’s new Monaco Street Parkway bridge over the Cherry Creek (right) and the old one that’s on its way out. July 9, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Now, the proposed Vibrant Denver bond includes nearly $170 million for four of DOTI’s priority projects — the 6th and 8th avenue viaducts and the Cherry Creek bridges. The Quebec Street bridge was included in an initial project list, but was cut out of the final proposal.
Replacement of the Smith Road bridge over Quebec Street was not included.
Voters will choose whether to approve that money — and hundreds of millions for other projects — in November.
Esports programs are continuing to grow in popularity, as evidenced by the widespread adoption by schools across the country. In fact, the global esports market is projected to grow to $4.8 billion by 2030. While esports programs are more commonly found on college and university campuses, high schools and even middle schools have started launching programs.
Participating in esports can help students develop teamwork and leadership skills, and may even lead to scholarship opportunities at certain colleges and universities, according to Scholarships.com. Technology serves as the underlying foundation for any scholastic esports program; however, organizers don’t need to have robust internal IT teams–the expertise of a technology partner can help get students into the esports arena.
Bringing an esports program to life
A modern digital infrastructure is the critical foundation for a successful esports program. In the world of online gaming, a few milliseconds can make the difference between a win or loss–with school pride, prizes, and potentially scholarships on the line. Latency or lag time in a school’s internet connection can significantly impact the outcome of a competition. Using a dedicated wired connection can provide optimal reliability and minimize latency. It is also helpful to consider service-level agreements (SLAs) from providers that not only guarantee reliability, but also include strong metrics for performance indicators such as latency. As the esports program grows, the digital infrastructure should be able to easily scale. The increased bandwidth required by adding more players and playing increasingly high-resolution games shouldn’t risk affecting other school operations on the network.
The Cannon School, a K-12 school in Concord, North Carolina, has created a successful esports program that serves both as a recreational league and a competitive varsity sport. The school opted for a co-managed system where its service partner installed fiber connectivity and manages the security of the network–unified threat management that includes a firewall, advanced malware protection, and intrusion prevention–while Cannon School’s internal IT team manages the content filtering to ensure that students are accessing only age-appropriate websites.
Approximately 60 students joined Cannon School’s esports program in its first two years of operating and about half compete on the varsity team. Tram Tran, the school’s Manager of Information Technology, credits its popularity to the simple fact that young people love computer gaming. Tran expects the school’s esports program to see a surge in participants over the next several years, and the implemented IT solution can easily scale to address the greater number of users on the system, as well as the ever-increasing data-intensive video games.
“With our esports program, we are building this pathway from high school to college and then from college to the pros,” Tran said.
Securing technology as the foundation for esports
Understanding and implementing the technology foundation necessary may be daunting for schools with limited internal IT resources, but working with an experienced technology partner can help. Technology partners not only offer the expertise and guidance needed for implementing an esports program, but also can provide ongoing support–through managed network services–to ensure that network operations are continually monitored and that competitions have the bandwidth needed to run smoothly.
According to the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) on the 2023 State of EdTech Leadership, nearly half of respondents (45 percent) felt inadequately staffed to plan and implement new technology. Managed network services can offer schools peace of mind by monitoring for network performance and cybersecurity issues 24/7, freeing IT staff from day-to-day troubleshooting. Beyond supplementing staffing resources, managed services also offer the benefit of no upfront hardware ownership costs, and the fixed, regular expense offers predictability for schools’ budgets.
Next steps
For schools thinking about launching an esports program, a conversation with a potential technology solutions partner is a good place to start. An experienced partner can evaluate a school’s current IT network services, help identify what is required, and determine a realistic plan and timeline to establish a program. Schools equipped with a robust digital infrastructure can offer students unique opportunities to compete, collaborate, and thrive in the realm of esports, and leveraging managed network services for help with the technology performance can make things easier for the employees who are focused on the program’s execution and success.
Mark Kornegay, Spectrum Enterprise
Mark Kornegay is Group Vice President, Vertical Markets, for Spectrum Enterprise. A part of Charter Communications, Inc., Spectrum Enterprise is a national provider of scalable, fiber technology solutions serving many of America’s largest businesses and communications service providers.
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