Environmental advocates and residents who live near proposed data centers called for a moratorium on new hyper-scale data centers and other restrictions at a Wednesday rally at the state Capitol in St. Paul.

The call for a pause in construction across the state comes as several projects — including in Becker, North Mankato and Hampton — have halted as developers cite strenuous permitting processes in Minnesota and other states making it easier for new development. On Tuesday, in what’s believed to be a first in Minnesota, the Eagan City Council approved a one-year moratorium on new projects. And in Farmington, the mayor recently resigned following a heated public debate about a proposal there.

Some projects are still on track. A 280-acre development in Rosemount for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is under construction. Hermantown city officials recently rejected citizens’ requests for further environmental scrutiny of a 200-acre site for a data center proposal, though a lawsuit is ongoing.

As of this fall, at least 13 hyper-scale data centers had been proposed across the state — most not yet under development, and some canceled. Eleanor Dolan with “Stop the Hermantown Data Center Group” estimated that there may be up to 23 now.

“In our community, we have seen how politicians signing non-disclosure agreements, how insufficient environmental reviews and powerful corporations pushing through unwanted projects on our residents causes harm,” she said.

In the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed a standalone “data center bill” as part of a budget deal that repealed an electricity tax exemption for data centers. The bill also upgraded existing state tax exemptions on hardware and software to until 2042 or for 35 years, whichever comes “later” — instead of until 2042 or for 20 years, whichever comes earlier.

Republican lawmakers last year tried to push pro-data center legislation, such as permitting reform, but they didn’t make it out of committee.

Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, said Wednesday she will be introducing a moratorium on new data center construction that would be in place until a comprehensive study and regulatory framework on data centers is enacted.

“It is alarming to see how these giant corporations are influencing data center-related discussions and legislation in committee, but are not showing up often in person to answer our questions,” she said.

Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said she will be introducing legislation to prohibit the use of non-disclosure agreements for data centers. She said she’s also looking to end tax exemptions for big tech.

“The emergence and quick integration of AI against our will into our everyday lives is deeply problematic, and it’s deeply unpopular, and it is why these big tech corporations have to use NDAs to get their data centers, because if people knew they were happening … they would stop them,” she said.

Kathy Johnson, a resident of Farmington, spoke to the lack of transparency her city has seen on data centers.

“These companies see opportunity in small towns. They see limited state regulation. They see local governments without the technical resources to fully evaluate the utility-scale industrial projects,” she said.

Johnson said information about scale, noise, light, fuel storage, water consumption and more only emerged after the permitting process was well underway.

“That is not transparency, that is a predatory strategy at its best,” she said.

Johnson said Farmington residents have turned to legal action because “citizens are ignored, dismissed, overridden, and the democratic process has failed.”

Residents from other areas where data centers have been proposed joined the rally on Wednesday.

Rebecca Gilbertson, of Hermantown, said 17 resident parcels were rezoned as a result of the project there. Aubree Derksen, from Pine Island, said “Project Skyway” is projected to be a 482-acre project with a 3 million-square-foot data center.

Data centers, which support artificial intelligence, social media, online commerce and other digital applications, require large quantities of electricity and water to keep the systems running and cool.

There are few comprehensive studies on the environmental impact, but a 2024 report released by the Department of Energy found that data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023 and are expected to consume approximately 6.7 to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028.

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What to know about the homeland security shutdown

Let’s stop beating around the bush: Israel’s far-right government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is spitting in America’s face and telling us it’s raining. It’s not raining. Bibi is playing President Donald Trump and American Jews for fools. And if the U.S. lets him get away with it, we are fools.

While keeping Trump focused on the Iranian missile and nuclear threat — which, though reduced, is still very real and will have to be dealt with diplomatically or militarily — Bibi is fundamentally threatening broader U.S. interests in the Middle East, not to mention the security of Jews all over the world. In what way? I cannot put it any more succinctly than Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, did.

“A violent and criminal effort is underway to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank,” he wrote in an essay in Haaretz this month. “Gangs of armed settlers persecute, harm, wound and even kill Palestinians living there. The rampages include burning olive groves, houses and cars; breaking into homes; and physically assaulting people.” He continued, “The rioters, the Jewish terrorists, storm Palestinians with hate and violence with one objective: to force them to flee from their homes. All this is done in the hopes that the land will then be prepared for Jewish settlement, en route to realizing the dream of annexing all the territories.”

Morally reckless, demographically insane

Israel’s accelerating attempts toward annexation of the West Bank and to permanently remain in the Gaza Strip — and deny Palestinians political rights in both areas — are as morally reckless and demographically insane as would be the U.S. annexing Mexico.

If it were just Israelis who were going to be hurt by the crazy fantasy that some 7 million Israeli Jews can control about 7 million Palestinian Arabs in perpetuity, I might be tempted to say that if Israel’s leaders want to commit national suicide, I can’t stop them.

But the effects will not be confined to Israel. I believe that this messianically driven endeavor will make today’s Israel permanently indistinguishable from apartheid South Africa and will have seriously detrimental implications for U.S. interests and the interests and security of Jews all over the world.

If Netanyahu’s government stays on this course, it will rip apart Jewish institutions everywhere as members of the Jewish diaspora are forced to decide whether to stand with or against an apartheid-like Israel. It will also accelerate the trend begun by Israel’s devastation of Gaza wherein growing numbers of young Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. are turning against Israel and, at the fringes, against Jews in general.

Jewish parents around the globe will soon be in a position they never dreamed of: watching their children and grandchildren learn what it’s like to be Jewish in a world where the Jewish state is a pariah state.

Iran’s a threat, but …

A poll by the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, conducted by YouGov in November, found that 51% of Republican voters younger than 45 said they preferred to support a candidate in the 2028 presidential primary who favored reducing taxpayer-funded weapon transfers to Israel. Only 27% favored a candidate who would increase or maintain weapon supplies. Democratic candidates today who do not describe Israel’s war in Gaza as a genocide face real headwinds with young progressive voters.

At the Munich Security Conference last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was asked if she thought “the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2028 elections should reevaluate military aid to Israel.” She answered, “I think that, personally, the idea of completely unconditional aid, no matter what one does, does not make sense. I think it enabled a genocide in Gaza.”

As I said when I began, Netanyahu has played Trump for a sucker, as well as the pro-Israel lobby led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and many other so-called American Jewish leaders. He has gotten them to focus on Iran and ignore the fact that everything he is doing in Gaza, in the West Bank and inside Israel will strain ties between the U.S. and its major Middle East allies, including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar.

Yes, Iran remains a reduced but very real nuclear threat after Israeli and U.S. airstrikes hit its nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile facilities in June. It has already largely rebuilt its stock of ballistic missiles that could do real physical damage to Israel if war resumes. I take that very seriously.

Assault on rule of law

But focusing exclusively on the external threat from Iran ignores the internal threat Netanyahu’s government poses to Israel and its standing as a rule-of-law democracy and unified society. Netanyahu has been engaged in a three-year effort, even during the war in Gaza, to carry out a judicial coup that would all but eliminate the separation of powers in Israel — one that enables its Supreme Court to check the excesses of the governing political party. Is Iran responsible for that? No.

Has Iran been engaged in a relentless effort to purge or disempower Israel’s courageous, independent attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara? No, but Bibi has. That attorney general, backed by the Supreme Court, is the only thing standing in the way of further assaults on a rules-based government: the dismissal of Netanyahu’s corruption trial but also Bibi’s efforts to politicize civil service appointments and a wholesale exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox Jews who keep him in power.

Has Iran blocked establishment of an independent commission of inquiry into the incredible intelligence and leadership failure before Hamas’ murderous Oct. 7, 2023, invasion? No, but Bibi has. That invasion not only happened on Netanyahu’s watch but was clearly caused in part by his efforts to prove to the world that Israel could have peace with the Arab states without making peace with the Palestinians.

Hamas grew in strength thanks to Netanyahu’s long efforts to prop up Hamas with Qatari money so the Palestinian leadership would always be divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. That way, Bibi could tell every U.S. president that he was so sorry that he had no unified Palestinian peace partner to negotiate with.

Did Iran nominate Bibi cronies with inexperienced backgrounds to run Israel’s most important security organizations — the Shin Bet and Mossad? No, Bibi did.

What prompted Trump to publicly demand that the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, pardon Netanyahu — even before a verdict — for the corruption charges he has been indicted on? It would be a terrible blow to the rule of law in Israel. It certainly was not Iran.

Here’s what’s truly crazy

And here is what is truly crazy. Israel today has never been more militarily feared and technologically admired by its Arab neighbors, because of the blows that it dealt Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. If Netanyahu engaged in negotiations for a two-state solution with the Palestinian Authority — on any reasonable terms — it would pave the way for peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

The whole neighborhood, and the whole Muslim world beyond it, would open up to Israel; Iran would be totally isolated. Israeli technology and Arab energy would create an amazing synergy for the age of artificial intelligence.

That would be a huge boon to U.S. interests. While some complications would surely persist, the Middle East would essentially be making peace under a U.S. umbrella. And the reduction in tensions between Israel and the Arab world would allow the Trump administration to do what the past several U.S. administrations have craved doing: reduce its military presence in the region and shift its focus to counterbalancing China in Asia.

Unfortunately, Bibi has other priorities.

The greatest threat

Iran is not the greatest threat to Israel as a democracy governed by the rule of law. It is not the greatest threat to U.S.-Israeli relations. It is not the greatest threat to the unity and security of Jews around the world. It is not the reason so many talented Israeli technologists, engineers and doctors are moving away. And it is not the biggest reason Israel is becoming an apartheid state not only by refusing to try anymore to create a separate Palestinian state but also by working instead to make that impossible.

That title goes to the government of messianic zealots, Arab-hating nationalists and anti-modern ultra-Orthodox Israelis put together by Netanyahu to keep himself in power.

Thomas Friedman writes a column for the New York Times.

Thank you, Minnesota.

In a moment of darkness, you stood for us. When fear gripped our community and many of us were hiding, you walked, stood in the cold, braved the chill of winter nights and cloudy days without the warmth of the sun. You showed up in large numbers to protest, to grieve and to call for accountability. You took the bullets for us as true friends, friends closer than brothers.

When federal enforcement operations in Minneapolis escalated into tragedy, including the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, our hearts were broken and our spirits shaken. Renée and Alex died for our common humanity.

We wept in private for you, while your blood spilled in the streets. Minnesota, you mourned in the streets, in parks, in prayer vigils, on sidewalks and around kitchen tables with neighbors. You prayed, protested and held space for our grief. When words failed, your presence spoke. When sorrow threatened silence, you raised your voice.

They say they came for criminals, but they threatened us all. They were ruthless, but you were fearless, Minnesota. Our children asked why they were not going to school and parents not going to work. Locked behind closed doors, they requested to go to the parks; parents found the excuse – it is too cold outside. Can I go sledding then, they inquired, and the mother slurred in response. Mommy, there is no food in the house, they cried. Our neighbors are coming, they will deliver food to us, Daddy answered. Why can’t we go out to buy our own food like we’ve always done, the children insisted. Go in your rooms and play your games, the parents ordered, knowing they couldn’t win.

They were inhumane toward us, but you showed humanity toward us. You welcomed grieving family members, supported memorials, organized vigils and demanded accountability, not just from law enforcement, but from all of us as a community. In doing so, you demonstrated what it means to love your neighbor, even when that neighbor is being ignored, misunderstood or overlooked.

America is a nation of immigrants. Some families arrived generations ago; others like mine are first-generation newcomers still finding their footing. Yet we all share one story: We came here because we believed in a promise, a promise of opportunity, of dignity, of safety, and of hope. We left our native homelands to seek greener pastures on the strength of America’s ideals and the generosity of its people. Whether that journey took place a century ago or just a few years back, we all assemble here in our diversity, and that is what makes this country great.

Many of us work at the foundation to give some others a great life at the top. We are teachers, caretakers, nurses, doctors, cab drivers, restaurant workers and neighbors. We are contributors to the greatness of America, and what happened in Minnesota reminded us that when we are threatened, we are not alone.
Your courage in facing long lines of federal officers, your willingness to shout in our name, and your refusal to hide your grief and anger, all of this will not be forgotten. You protected us not with weapons, but with witness; not with force, but with faith in our shared humanity.

We honor the memories of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Their deaths shook this state and the nation. Good, remembered for her love and community engagement. Pretti, described by his parents as “exceptionally kind,” a 37-year-old ICU nurse whose last acts were of care and compassion, simply protecting another person, but he lost his life.

For many of us, their names will be etched in our hearts forever. We wept for you in private spaces, and we mourned together in public. Your blood flowed in the streets, and our collective tears flowed for you. You were young. You had many years ahead. Yet you stood up for those who were running and hiding. That is courage. That is Minnesota.

Thank you, Minnesota. Thank you for walking with us, for speaking with us and for standing with us when it mattered most. Your witness will long be remembered, not just for what you opposed, but for what you affirmed: our worth, our dignity, and our place in this community.

Kenety S. Gee is an ordained minister, a global health professional, author and public speaker.  He works as a Global Workforce Strategist.  He lives in Coon Rapids with his family.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — Online seller eBay wants a bigger share of the Gen Z market.

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The online seller has agreed to purchase secondhand fashion marketplace Depop from Etsy for about $1.2 billion in cash, the companies said Wednesday.

The deal comes at a time when used clothing has become increasingly popular, sought out by shoppers searching for unique items that cost less than new ones and keep the old stuff from heading to the landfill.

In a statement, eBay’s CEO Jamie Ianonne said that the acquisition is an opportunity to capture a younger demographic.

“We are confident that as part of eBay, Depop will be even more well-positioned for long-term growth, benefiting from our scale, complementary offerings, and operational capabilities,” Ianonne said.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, Depop’s marketplace had 7 million active buyers, nearly 90% of which are under the age of 34, and more than 3 million active sellers, the joint release said.

The deal comes five years after Etsy bought Depop for $1.6 billion. The app was founded in 2011.

EBay, based in San Jose, California, said it intends to pay cash. Etsy, based in Brooklyn, New York, plans to utilize the proceeds for general corporate purposes, continued share repurchases and investment in its core marketplace, according to the release.

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by eBay’s and Etsy’s boards, is currently expected to close in the second quarter, the companies said.

Depop is expected to retain its name, brand, platform, and its culture, the companies said.

EBay’s shares rose more than 7%, while Etsy’s share soared close to 15% in after-hours trading when the news was announced.