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Crackdown on critical tech could open Americans to a new national security threat

Crackdown on critical tech could open Americans to a new national security threat

Americans’ sensitive information could increasingly be processed overseas if restrictions on artificial intelligence data centers slow construction in the U.S., a data privacy advocate and industry executive warned. The warning comes as states and local governments weigh new restrictions on the rapidly expanding data center industry amid concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and other impacts on surrounding communities. Brittany Kaiser, CEO of Alpha Compute, said state moratoriums and restrictions on new data centers could push American companies to seek computing capacity in other countries as demand from AI continues to surge. “One of my top concerns as a top data protection and privacy advocate is that with data center moratoriums being passed in the United States that it will force Americans and American companies to send our data to be processed abroad in other countries,” Kaiser told Fox News Digital. “American companies are going to still run their AI,” she added. “They’re still going to be purchasing data center space in other countries, and it means our sensitive information will be sent abroad and shared with companies and organizations that might not have America’s best interests at heart.” FROM NETFLIX TO GPS: 10 WAYS THIS HIDDEN TECH INFRASTRUCTURE QUIETLY POWERS MODERN LIFE Data centers are large facilities filled with servers and computing equipment that process, store and transmit information behind many everyday technologies. They support everything from email, social media and internet searches to online banking, streaming services and AI platforms. As demand for AI grows, companies are building increasingly powerful data centers that require vast amounts of electricity, advanced chips and high-speed network connections. Kaiser said the facilities have become critical infrastructure for the digital economy, making decisions about where they are built and who controls the data they handle a matter of growing economic and national security concern. Artificial intelligence, however, requires significantly more computing power, fueling a rapid expansion of data center construction across the country. That growth has sparked pushback in some communities over concerns about electricity costs, water consumption, noise and environmental impacts. Kaiser acknowledged those concerns and said companies should be subject to “common sense regulation” designed to protect communities. “Not all companies are doing it [building data centers] in the same way,” she said. “Some are more responsible than others.” Kaiser said responsible developments can use closed-loop water cooling systems and generate power independently rather than increasing demand on the existing electrical grid. Alpha Compute, she said, is pursuing projects designed to operate “off-grid, behind the meter,” meaning the facilities would generate their own power rather than relying on electricity supplied through the local grid. Kaiser said that approach is intended to prevent the massive energy demands of data centers from straining existing infrastructure or contributing to higher electricity costs for nearby residents. ONE MONTHLY BILL AMERICANS CAN’T AVOID IS QUIETLY SURGING THANKS TO EMERGING INDUSTRY The company is developing a project in Pennsylvania, where Gov. Josh Shapiro recently imposed new requirements on large data center developments. Kaiser said Alpha Compute plans to comply with the regulations and welcomed provisions promoting cleaner energy. Pennsylvania is among a growing number of states confronting the rapid expansion of data centers. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has pushed data centers to provide more of their own power and shoulder infrastructure costs as development accelerates across the state. Other governors have gone further. Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul imposed a one-year moratorium on new hyperscale data centers as states grapple with concerns over electricity costs, grid reliability and the pace of development. ONE OF AMERICA’S OLDEST MANUFACTURERS SAYS AI IS CREATING JOBS — NOT REPLACING THEM But she cautioned that policies that significantly restrict domestic development could have broader consequences for America’s position in the global AI race. “Compute power has now become nearly a utility,” Kaiser said, comparing the need for domestic computing infrastructure to energy independence. “We want to have the right to compute,” she said. “We want to be able to process data within our own borders as a national security priority, but also for our own intellectual property to make sure we’re not sending our data abroad.” Kaiser has launched a campaign called “Right to Compute,” advocating for domestic data center development alongside sustainability standards and regulation. “We should have the right to both energy independence as well as compute power,” she said, “so that Americans and American companies can process all of our sensitive data within our own borders.”

‘We have not slowed down’: Minnesota not out of the woods on massive fraud scandal, expert warns

‘We have not slowed down’: Minnesota not out of the woods on massive fraud scandal, expert warns

Despite Minnesota’s fraud scandal exploding onto the national scene and costing taxpayers billions, there are growing concerns that the state has still not done what’s necessary to root out the problem. “We have not slowed down, there is no sense in which the fraud has been stopped in Minnesota,” Bill Glahn, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News Digital. Glahn has been warning on social media that Minnesota’s rapid growth in provisional assisted-living licenses, most for small facilities, may be outpacing state oversight. In a recent article, Glahn explained the state’s licensing database showed 364 new facilities with provisional licenses popping up over the past year and called for a 90-day moratorium on new licenses while officials investigate. “We have something along the order of 2,500 of these licensed across the state, but about 20% of them, around three, 400 of them have just been started in the last year,” Glahn explained. FINAL WALZ FRAUD REPORT RIPS ‘CULTURE OF TOLERANCE’ AS MINNESOTA TAXPAYERS FACE BILLIONS IN ALLEGED LOSSES “I’m not sure if there’s a real underlying driver in the demographics or the demand for these facilities, but it’s odd that we have these assisted living facilities linked to Medicaid fraud, at the same time, the Minnesota Department of Health is approving more than one a day. More than one new facility gets approved every single day, 365 days a year. And I don’t think anybody is really giving any thought to, hey, maybe some of this is not on the up and up.” Glahn also pointed to a recent criminal complaint filed by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office against Salman Ahmed Elmi, who was charged Aug. 17 with eight felony theft offenses tied to alleged Medicaid billing fraud, as evidence that fraud is still taking place. The criminal complaint also details alleged ties among the Medicaid-funded businesses, properties previously used to provide commercial sex services and people investigators say were part of a sex-trafficking organization. FAILED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WINS DEM PRIMARY FOR MIDWEST GOVERNOR AMID FRAUD SCANDAL FALLOUT “This is two scandals in one,” Glahn said. “You have a commercial sex operation, actual brothels, housed in what were later licensed as assisted-living facilities under the Medicaid program.” Elmi previously received an award from the state for being an “Outstanding Refugee.” “Elmi’s case alone makes clear that this is not old news,” Glahn said. “This particular fraud was going on just a couple of months ago.” Glahn argued that the latest allegations point to a deeper problem within the state agencies responsible for vetting providers and monitoring taxpayer-funded programs which haven’t been properly addressed. “Personnel is policy,” Glahn said. “There isn’t a regulatory mindset under the Walz administration. There isn’t the mindset that we need to trust but verify.” While Minnesota officials and lawmakers have taken some fraud-prevention steps since the fraud scandal erupted onto the national scene, Glahn stressed that the reforms do not address what he sees as the central issue: a lack of accountability for those who failed to identify the schemes earlier “Walz has never cleaned house, he’s never fired anybody for not detecting the fraud or not prosecuting the fraud,” Glahn said. “It’s the same people doing the same thing, and that culture has never changed.” For Glahn, the messaging should start at the top. “They’re just operating as business as usual,” Glahn said. “We don’t have anybody who’s currently in office, currently in charge of state government, at least in the executive branch, who’s doing anything substantive to address the fraud. It’s just amazing how we see these reports every day, and we have Tim Walz traveling the country, traveling elsewhere. He’s a lame duck. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in closing out this chapter of his legacy with any kind of victory on the fraud front.” MILLION-DOLLAR SNAP FOOD STAMP FRAUD SCHEME IN WALZ’S BACKYARD SPARKS OUTRAGE: ‘CRUEL JOKE’ In addition to the perception that not enough accountability has been taken for the scandal, Walz’s Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is running for Senate while Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar is running for governor despite both being in positions of power during the duration of time the fraud scandal festered. “Amy Klobuchar has come out with her multi-point plan of how she’s gonna fight fraud once she gets in office, if she gets elected in November,” Glahn explained. “I don’t know why we couldn’t implement this stuff today. She’s called for a top-to-bottom audit of state government. She’s got another few data points that perhaps were legislative proposals that didn’t get passed. Tim Walz could call a special session. We could be in session on Monday, passing an anti-fraud agenda, but there’s nothing. So I guess he just fundamentally doesn’t have an interest in the subject.” Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office, Klobuchar’s campaign and the Minnesota Department of Health for comment but did not receive a response. The Minnesota Department of Human Services told Fox News Digital in a statement that it has rolled out a series of anti-fraud reforms since the fall of 2024, including identifying 14 high-risk services and freezing the enrollment of new providers in those programs. The agency also said it discontinued the Housing Stabilization Services program, began auditing autism-service providers through onsite visits, instituted licensure requirements for autism centers and disenrolled inactive providers. DHS said it has also expanded pre-payment reviews for providers in 13 high-risk fee-for-service programs and completed revalidation determinations for high-risk providers by the end of May. Since the beginning of 2025, the department said it has stopped payments to 747 Medicaid providers over what it described as credible allegations of fraud and made 824 referrals to law enforcement.

Dem candidate erupts in profane defense of Hasan Piker as party figures distance themselves

Dem candidate erupts in profane defense of Hasan Piker as party figures distance themselves

The socialist Democrat primed to represent much of America’s birthplace in Congress profanely erupted Thursday at Democrats distancing themselves from far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who once suggested the U.S. deserved the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Pennsylvania state Rep. Chris Rabb, D-Northwest Philadelphia, is one of several democratic socialists running in November as some prominent Democrats condemn or distance themselves from Piker over his radical left-wing positions and controversial comments. “This is what the institutionalists are focusing their efforts on now: Disavowing Hasan Piker,” Rabb tweeted Friday. WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS “Not White Christian nationalists? Not the broligarchs? Not the AI overlords? Nope, the guy encouraging young people to use their collective political power for good,” Rabb wrote. “F— that noise.” SOCIALIST HOUSE NOMINEE’S RADICAL LAW-AND-ORDER VISION: ‘WHAT ARE ILLEGALS?’ In a test of Philadelphia’s socialist-progressive versus establishment divide, Rabb won a four-way primary that included state Sen. Sharif Street, D-North Philadelphia, the son of a former mayor who was endorsed by several mainstream Democrats. Rabb had already embraced his association with Piker during the primary, appearing with the streamer at an event in West Philadelphia in April. He told Piker at the time that he would be “slammed for even talking to you” and called such criticism a “double standard because as a Black progressive, I can’t do this: I’m part of the problem or whatever,” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Fox News Digital reached out to Rabb and Piker for comment. Rabb’s defense puts him at odds with a growing list of prominent Democrats who have condemned Piker. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called Piker’s comments about American Jews “dangerous and anti-Semitic.” ANTISEMITIC STREAMER FINALLY MAKES DEM LEADER SNAP WITH RARE REBUKE: ‘MALICIOUS’ When pressed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who is Jewish, Jeffries said, “I’ve just addressed Hasan Piker’s comments as it relates to the Jewish community as forcefully as I can, and I will continue to do that.” On Tuesday, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., called for a vote on a bipartisan resolution condemning Piker and conservative podcaster Candace Owens. ELISSA SLOTKIN CALLS OUT HASAN PIKER FOR BLAMING JEWISH AMERICANS TARGETED OVER THEIR ISRAEL VIEWS “Hatred is hatred, period. I said it months ago with Rep. Lawler, and Piker has proved it again,” Gottheimer said in a statement. “Telling millions of followers that Jewish Americans are bringing violence on themselves is blatantly antisemitic and one of the oldest tropes in the book,” Gottheimer added. EL-SAYED DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM HASAN PIKER AFTER DISTURBING REMARKS ABOUT JEWISH AMERICANS Gottheimer declared that anyone campaigning with Piker is “complicit” with him. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., also accused Piker this week of “victim-blaming” American Jews and reiterated his earlier description of the streamer as an “unapologetic antisemite.” Schneider warned Democrats risk losing credibility when they condemn controversial figures on the right while “platforming those who espouse hate of any kind” on their own side. Schneider also took a shot at another socialist-aligned candidate running for high office, saying Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed has “refused” to condemn Piker. El-Sayed appeared to distance himself from Piker, telling the Michigan Advance that “nobody speaks for this campaign besides me and my campaign spokespeople” as he faced criticism over his association with the Twitch streamer. SIGN UP TO GET THE POLITICS NEWSLETTER Rabb faces only independent Dennis Mahoney in November in Pennsylvania’s heavily Democratic 3rd Congressional District and is strongly favored to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Pa.