Tight-knit Midwest town becomes ground zero in America’s war on AI… and local politicians get swift justice

A sleepy Midwestern town has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds in America’s growing backlash against AI data centers – and voters are making their anger clear at the ballot box.

In the town of Festus, Missouri, a community of 14,000 people near St. Louis, residents have ousted four city council members who backed plans for a massive AI data center, replacing them with candidates who openly opposed the project.

The political upheaval didn’t stop there. 

At a packed City Hall meeting following the election, newly sworn-in officials were greeted with cheers – while the city’s mayor Sam Richards, who still supports the development, was met with boos and jeers from the crowd.

‘You’re next!’ one resident shouted, underscoring how heated the fight has become.

At the center of the dispute is a proposed $6 billion data center spanning roughly 360 acres, designed to support the growing demands of artificial intelligence.

Supporters say the project could transform the local economy – generating an estimated $32 million a year in tax revenue for decades, funding schools, roads, and public services.

But many locals aren’t convinced, and opponents fear the development could strain the electrical grid, push up utility bills and disrupt daily life with years of construction.

Other residents worry about environmental risks, including pollution from backup generators and wastewater systems – concerns shaped by the region’s industrial past.

In a bid to scrap the development, locals have launched a website and a Facebook group titled No Data Center in Festus, which has attracted more than 3,000 members.

The backlash quickly spilled into local politics: In the landslide election, all four incumbents who supported the data center were voted out. 

‘It was an annihilation,’ said one local campaigner. 

Since then, more than 4,000 residents have signed petitions seeking to recall the mayor and other officials still backing the plan.

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REPORT: As People Flee New York City Over Mamdani’s Policies, NYC Public School Enrollment is Going to Drop Dramatically

As New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani implements his new policies, there has been a lot of talk about wealthy people fleeing the city, but that is only part of the story.

Everything is connected on some level. As people leave the city, the number of children enrolled in their public schools is going to drop, which will have other rippling effects.

At some point, too much of the foundation is eroded away and things start to crumble. Then the real problems begin.

FOX News reports:

New York City’s declining public school enrollment projected to lose over 150K more as population declines

New York City’s public schools are projected to drop, mirroring the downward trend of its overall population since last year.

According to a “Statistical Forecasting” prepared for the New York City School Construction Authority, New York City is projected to lose thousands of students in the 2034-35 school year.

“Enrollment is projected to be 721,251 in 2034-35, which would be a decline of 153,000 students from the 2024-25 enrollment,” the outlet reported.

“Over the next ten years, enrollments are projected to decline in each of the five boroughs. Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx are projected to have the largest declines in the next ten years, losing 45,000, 43,000, and 35,000 students, respectively,” it added.

The projected shortfall was attributed to continuing falling birthrates, an exodus of residents, and an aging population. “Statistical Forecasting was retained by the New York City School Construction Authority (“SCA”) to perform enrollment projections for the New York City Public Schools for the ten-year period beginning with the 2025-26 school year and ending in 2034-35,” the document states…

New York City public schools lost 22,000 students this year from last year’s 906,248 students. According to preliminary Department of Education data, a total of 884,400 students were enrolled in the city’s traditional public schools. NYC had more than 1,002,000 students enrolled at the start of the 2019-2020 school year, meaning it has since lost more than 117,000.

New York City currently spends more per school student than any other place in the country and gets mediocre results on reading and math.

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Far-Left Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles ABRUPTLY RESIGNS Just Months After Reelection Following Tenure Marred by Brutal Light Rail Murder of Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska

Another Democrat-run city is in absolute chaos.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, the 73-year-old radical Democrat who has presided over the “Queen City” since 2017, dropped a bombshell on Thursday, announcing her immediate resignation effective June 30.

The nation’s 14th-largest city just handed Lyles another four years on the job in November 2025, but now she’s suddenly bolting for the exits, claiming she wants to spend more time with her grandchildren and “allow for new leadership.”

“Serving as Charlotte’s mayor has been the honor of my life,” Mayor Lyles said.

“I am proud of our record navigating various challenges, strengthening our economy, investing in our neighborhoods, and building a foundation for Charlotte’s continued success during a time of rapid growth. Now, it is time for the next phase of my life, to spend more time with my grandchildren and for someone new to lead us forward.”

“I am very proud of my record as mayor, but I also firmly believe that true leadership includes knowing when it is time to let the next generation of leaders take over,” she said.

“By leaving early, the voters will have more time to learn about their candidates. Our city is strong, our trajectory is positive, and now is the right moment for someone else to build on our progress from the past few years.”

“As in all things politics, I am sure there will be speculation as to why I am making this decision now. Simply put, I am going to spend time with my grandchildren. Like many of us, I have missed some moments with them and intend to not miss anymore!”

Sure, Vi. Or maybe it’s the mounting pressure from the horrific crime scandals, the backlash over her handling of the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, and the reality that her far-left leadership has turned Charlotte into yet another failing blue-city disaster under Democrat rule.

In September 2025, the innocent Ukrainian refugee was viciously stabbed to death in broad daylight on a Charlotte light rail platform by a repeat-offender vagrant with a lengthy criminal record.

The graphic video of the attack was initially suppressed by local media, with Lyles herself publicly thanking outlets for not releasing the footage “out of respect for the family.”

Once the video inevitably surfaced online, the public outrage was explosive, forcing the Democrat mayor to backtrack as residents demanded accountability for the soft-on-crime policies that let dangerous transients roam free.

Lyles’ response? More excuses about “mental health” and “court system failures” instead of cracking down on the vagrants and criminals terrorizing her city. It’s the same Democrat playbook that’s destroyed cities from San Francisco to Chicago, and Charlotte under Lyles has been no exception.

Just months later, we reported how federal agents under President Trump flooded Charlotte to round up illegal immigrants, only for Lyles and her fellow radical Democrats to whine about “unnecessary fear” and cry that residents just wanted to “go about their lives.” Of course they did, the lives of law-abiding citizens who are sick of the chaos their leaders created.

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Soviet Style Trial in Michigan for Criticizing a Politician – A Horrifying True Story

There is an ongoing case in Michigan that should terrify everyone. Marc Aisen was arrested near his home in December of 2023, extradited to Michigan, and has been held pretrial for over two and a half years.

Most Americans don’t believe the system can be weaponized against ordinary citizens. Judges and prosecutors are given the presumption of innocence and good faith, while criminal defendants are given the presumption of guilt because, “if the government went after them, they must have done something wrong.”

The case of The People of Michigan v. Marc Aisen demonstrates just how far the system can crush a person with the process.

Marc Aisen was gainfully employed and lived independently in Massachusetts. In his spare time, he did what countless Americans have done for generations: he wrote messages to politicians, nonprofit boards, and charity officials, on behalf of himself and others, calling them out for what he sincerely believed was complicity in crimes, immorality, and threats to public safety. He volunteered with various organizations within his religious community and the parents’ rights movement to advocate for policies.

On July 26, 2023, from his apartment in Massachusetts, Aisen sent an email to Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Treasurer Michael Schostak. The subject line was: “Michael Schostak Covered Up Child Sexual Exploitation in Jewish Nonprofit.”  The email was not posted on social media. It was sent directly to 56 email addresses, including 23 official local government emails, 14 officials from community boards and homeowners associations, and 19 private individuals. Here is the full text of that July 26 email:

Michael Schostak’s pedophile buddies are recommending child sex “change” experiments to kids and their parents, bespoking their tiny bodies with genital mutilation to make them more sexually appealing to the gay predators they are introducing them to. Michael Schostak is personally complicit in this evil scheme through his role at the “Secure Communities Network”. He doesn’t deny it. They advertise it on the JewishBoston.com website. “Jewish?” No. Faggotry is against the Jewish religion and this is precisely why.

Schostak received the email and forwarded it to Bloomfield Township Police Chief James Gallagher with the message: “Another email this morning. What are my options here?”

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Alabama Asks Supreme Court to Let It Throw Out Current Rigged Congressional Map

Alabama on Friday filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court asking the high court to allow it to throw out its current rigged congressional map.

Alabama’s request to toss out its racist, gerrymandered congressional map comes after the Supreme Court last month declared Louisiana’s newly-drawn Congressional map an unconstitutional gerrymander.

The case, State of Louisiana v. Phillip Callais (and the related Press Robinson v. Phillip Callais), stems from Louisiana’s woke lawmakers caving to left-wing judges and creating a second “majority-minority” congressional district.

Louisiana delayed its May 16 House primaries last Thursday after the Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling.

Alabama petitioned the Supreme Court on Friday amid the gerrymander wars.

Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ordered a response by Monday evening.

CNN reported:

Alabama filed an emergency appeal at the US Supreme Court on Friday asking the justices to allow the state to revert to a congressional map with one majority-Black district, setting up a potentially thorny question for the high court as the justices have openly sparred over whether partisanship has played a role in its redistricting decisions.

State officials rushed up to the court late Friday asking it to halt a lower court ruling that has blocked it from using a map it enacted in 2023. It did so based on a blockbuster decision last week on Louisiana’s congressional map that severely weakened the scope of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The appeal, which is seeking an answer by May 14, came hours after Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation allowing for new US House primaries if courts allow the state to use different congressional districts in this year’s elections.

“Alabama’s case mirrors Louisiana’s, and they should end the same way: with this year’s elections run with districts based on lawful policy goals, not race,” the state told the Supreme Court in its emergency appeal.

On Thursday, Tennessee became the ninth state to approve a new congressional map amid the redistricting wars.

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Councilwoman Slammed for Calling Pride Flag ‘More Relatable’ Than American Flag

A left-wing local official in Washington has found herself in hot water after dismissing the American flag as “not relatable” and suggesting that a pride flag would better represent her city, as reported by Fox News.

Lynnwood City Councilwoman Isabel Mata sparked outrage after arguing that 27 American flags displayed in a local park should be swapped out for “commemorative” or “inclusive” ones—because certain versions of Old Glory represent “parts of American history that, frankly, are not great.”

Mata’s comments came during a recent city council meeting, where she lamented the presence of multiple iterations of the U.S. flag flown in Wilcox Park, affectionately known as “Flag Park.”

Her remarks, suggesting the American flag was less meaningful than the LGBTQ pride flag, quickly spread across social media and drew fierce criticism from locals, veterans, and conservatives who saw her statements as yet another symptom of the Left’s ongoing crusade against patriotism.

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Ironic: Tennessee’s New “Racist” 9th District Will Likely Have Black Woman Replace a 76-Year-Old White Democrat

While Democrat activists occupied the Tennessee state Capitol yesterday after a vote to redraw the congressional maps following the historic Supreme Court decision in Louisanna v. Callais, a key point of irony stands out.

Yesterday, The Gateway Pundit reported on the vote that sparked pandemonium on the floor of the capitol building yesterday, as a radicalized state representative belittled State Troopers maintaining order, calling him “BOY!” and “mother f*****”, while others burned Confederate flags in the halls of the building.  But one likely outcome of the redrawn map cannot be ignored:

The 9th District will now potentially see Rep. Steve Cohen, a white Democrat, likely replaced by Charlotte Bergmann, a black female Republican.

Bergmann has previously run against Cohen in several elections dating back to 2014; however, with the new map being implemented, she has a much higher likelihood of winning the district that had previously been drawn to comply with a now-unconstitutional Voting Rights Act provision.

Bergmann is facing two GOP opponents in the primary election on August 6.

The NAACP has already filed an emergency petition to attempt to block the redistricting in hopes of keeping the white man in his seat over a black woman.  What a script!

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AOC’s Comments About Black Americans Reminds Us Why Nobody Should Take Progressives Seriously

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) made a series of silly comments during a Thursday appearance on comedian Ilana Glazer’s podcast.

But one of the most egregious statements she made came when she said black Americans created democracy.

“There are— there are very few, like, real archetypes of, in my opinion, truly what America is all about,” she said. “I think about the civil rights and voting rights movement and how Black Americans really created democracy in this country. That’s right. That’s exactly right. How they literally made something from nothing.”

AOC continued, touting the achievements of Native Americans and immigrants. “It is just beyond me. I think about how, like, Native people have survived and preserved and treasured their culture,” she said. “I think about— and I think many of us think about immigrants, which, if you aren’t from one of those first two populations, you are certainly from largely the third. And so many of us, like, have our story of our parents, our grandparents, our great-great-grandparents, and so on and so forth, and who, like, come and make something from nothing. And I think that’s a big part of also the most inspiring elements of what America is all about.”

Here’s a question: What do you get when you cross historical ignorance with virtue signaling? That’s right, folks, you get someone like AOC.

For starters, America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Our government has democratic elements in that we elect our leaders, but it’s not a direct democracy.

But that’s not the real issue here. The problem with AOC’s comments is that black people weren’t involved in the establishment of American “democracy.” However, they were involved in forcing the country to live up to the Democratic ideals it claimed to champion. 

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PRIDE GOETH BEFORE THE FALL: Hakeem Jeffries’s Big Mouth Comes Back to Bite Him After Virginia’s 10-1 Democrat Gerrymander Gets Nuked

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries learned the hard way that it’s a bad idea to shoot your mouth off before the process has concluded after Democrats suffered a devastating redistricting setback today.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Virginia Supreme Court has overturned the Democrat Party’s rigged gerrymandering referendum today in a 4-3 decision, ruling the entire sleazy process to sneak it onto the ballot was unconstitutional from the start.

This is the latest devastating blow to radical Democrats’ blatant attempt to rewrite Virginia’s congressional maps mid-decade and hand themselves a super-majority in the U.S. House by turning the state from a competitive 6-5 split into a laughably unfair 10 Democrats to 1 Republican slaughter.

Virginia voters previously approved the state legislature and Governor Abigail Spanberger’s wicked power grab in a narrow vote last month.

The day after the vote, Jeffries strutted to the podium to spike the football:

“Our message to Florida Republicans is ‘F around and find out,’ Jeffries gloated. “If they go down the road of a DeSantis dummymander, Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans!”

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Obama Slammed for ‘Disgusting’ Decision to Speak at Event Organized by Man with Troubling Past

Former President Barack Obama is under fire for his decision to speak at an upcoming event in Napa Valley, California.

According to Politico, the former president will deliver remarks to an audience of CEOs brought together by Declan Kelly, former chairman and chief executive of the consulting firm Teneo, who resigned from that position after reportedly getting drunk and groping a number of women at a high-powered charity event in 2021.

“It’s disgusting to have a president who has championed women speak at an event hosted by someone with this type of track record of treating women,” a female former employee said, speaking on condition of anonymity, according to Politico.

Another anonymous former Teneo employee agreed.

“President Obama should not be in the business of rehabbing the reputation and accepting money from someone accused of groping multiple people at a charity event. Some red lines are not meant to be crossed,” the second former employee said, according to Politico.

According to a report at the time from the New York Post’s Page Six, the 2021 charity event was the VIP party that followed the Vax Live concert organized by the organization Global Citizen.

Vax Live billed itself as “a global broadcast special celebrating COVID-19 vaccines.” It was chaired by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, and featured messages from the now-deceased Pope Francis and then-President Joe Biden.

“One source told Page Six that Kelly was extremely drunk and acted inappropriately with as many as six women at the party in front of other guests,” the column reported.

Kelly resigned from Teneo less than two months later, according to a CNBC report.

“Since the event two months ago Mr. Kelly immediately committed to sobriety, is undertaking ongoing counselling from healthcare professionals, and has temporarily reduced his work responsibilities,” a representative of Kelly told The Wall Street Journal at the time.

Meanwhile, Kelly’s connections to powerful figures in the Democratic Party go beyond Obama.

From 2009 through 2011, Kelly served as special economic envoy to Northern Ireland under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Likewise, a co-founder of Teneo, the company Kelly led, was Doug Band, a one-time counselor to former President Bill Clinton who was credited in a 2020 Vanity Fair as having “virtually invented Clinton’s postpresidential life.”

Now, Kelly serves as founder, chairman, and CEO of the investment company Consello. Senior management at the company includes former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Consello organized the event where Obama will speak.

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