At Trump rallies, data centers take back seat to butts

WASHINGTON — The backsides of Ohio GOP Sen. Jon Husted, rapper Nicki Minaj, even former Rep. Mike Rogers. As the midterm campaign enters its home stretch, President Donald Trump has talked up what he claims are the benefits of increasingly unpopular data centers, at the same time that he has made headlines taking about the physiques of Husted and others.

After being an outspoken proponent of the technology facilities for months, Trump has shifted to putting the onus on local jurisdictions to extract economic value. At a Saturday night rally in Perry, Ga., he said: “Tell them to pay you $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 for everybody that lives in the community — they’ll do it. You just got to ask.”

At the same time, he continues to discuss the literal bodies politic: During a Friday rally in Florida, he credited 72-year-old Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for having, “the body of a 30 year old.” At the Georgia weekend rally, the president focused on Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, calling him “a guy that looked very much to me like Pee-Wee Herman.”

There was plenty of time Tuesday night in Greenville, N.C., to make his pitch for data centers, which have become a big issue this election cycle. Trump set a new record for his second term, speaking for 1 hour and 51 minutes, besting his Feb. 24 State of the Union Address by 3 minutes and 14 seconds, according to Roll Call’s Factba.se. But Trump, a self-described data center true believer, didn’t bring up the sprawling, power-needy facilities.

—CQ-Roll Call

Trump administration investigates 3 California school districts over ‘Wheel of Privilege’ survey

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The U.S. Department of Education opened investigations into Palo Alto, San Francisco and North Monterey County school districts Monday for allegedly violating parental rights laws by requiring students to participate in “Wheel of Power/Privilege” and “Mapping my Identities” activities.

The districts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The department’s probe alleges that the districts required students to reveal “intimate” details about themselves and their families in ethnic studies courses — a class examining the history of race and ethnicity in the United States with an emphasis on the experiences of people of color.

The course has been highly controversial throughout the state, with California initially requiring schools to offer a course in ethnic studies beginning in the 2025-26 year. But due to a lack of state funding for the requirement — and amid curriculum clashes in districts throughout the state over the mandate — the requirement has not yet been enforced.

—The Mercury News

Climate change nearly tripled size of Boundary Waters wildfires, study suggests

MINNEAPOLIS — Global warming likely intensified the wildfires that raged for months this summer in the Boundary Waters and Canada, according to new research from the University of California, Merced. The intensity, in turn, made the smoke more hazardous to breathe. The findings shed new light on a devastating summer in Minnesota.

State officials in July shut down the Boundary Waters for the second time in five years after historic wildfires, worsened by drought and a blistering heat wave, scorched an estimated 64,000 acres. The smoke from the fires stretched from the Midwest to New England and triggered air quality index numbers previously unseen in the state.

The study’s authors examined the four days the wildfires burned most intensely, from July 13 to July 16. During that time, the fires scorched nearly three times more land than they would have without the effects of global warming, the study concluded. Because the fires burned more land, the study added, the smoke released contained especially high levels of fine particulate matter pollution, or PM2.5.

That type of pollution is a byproduct of any fire, including the combustion taking place in a car engine. The particles are so small that when they’re breathed into the lungs, they can pass into the bloodstream, potentially causing cardiovascular and lung diseases or a host of other health conditions.

—The Minnesota Star Tribune

Iran divides Netanyahu and challenger Eisenkot before vote

For months, Israeli opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot has pitched himself as a modest alternative to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, campaigning more on reliability than a markedly different approach to the country’s myriad security challenges.

But in the final days of the election campaign, the question of Iran – and of Israel’s future approach to it – is widening the policy gap between the two. Netanyahu is pledging to topple Tehran’s regime – with U.S. President Donald Trump’s backing – casting himself at a rally last week as the only leader capable of waging such an existential battle.

On Sunday, Netanyahu posted an AI-generated image of an Iranian nuclear bomb detonating on Tel Aviv, hours before Trump issued a second endorsement of the Israeli prime minister, saying the two leaders needed to “finish the job” in Iran.

Eisenkot is advocating narrower goals. He says Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped, militarily if necessary, but he told Army Radio this month that regime change in Tehran is “not an achievable goal.” While he’s spent his life as a hawk, he says he wants more focus on diplomacy.

—Bloomberg News