A student group at the University of Minnesota Duluth held a town hall Wednesday evening to discuss two AI companies that are eyeing Duluth and Superior as testing grounds for autonomous aircraft, vehicles and vessels.
Students and guest speakers at the event, held by the Young Democratic Socialists of America student group at UMD, expressed outrage at Anno AI and Spear AI. They said Lake Superior and the region should not be used to enhance AI and the military.
As Northern News Now reported a year ago, the companies are working out of a warehouse in Lincoln Park.
Spear AI is using buoys in Lake Superior to gather data to train and enhance AI models.
Latitude Media covers the industry end of energy transition. They recently wrote an article about one aspect of data centers and power companies relationships. It’s a little bit of a deep cut, so this may be the start of a rabbit hole for some, and just nice to know have a general understanding for others…
Data center flexibility has become the grid’s favorite compromise. Let large loads curtail during a few hours of peak demand, the argument goes, and in exchange potentially connect to the grid years sooner.
Hyperscalers have begun to broker flexibility agreements directly. In March, Google said it had signed one gigawatt of demand response into long-term contracts with Indiana Michigan Power, TVA, Entergy Arkansas, Minnesota Power, and DTE. Every one is a bilateral deal with a utility, negotiated site by site.
Now the Southwest Power Pool has written the first version of a market policy ostensibly to encourage flexibility, but one that could instead end up complicating things. In June, federal regulators approved SPP’s conditional high impact large load service, or CHILLS. It gives data centers access to non-firm transmission — meaning SPP can cut them off whenever the transmission system is constrained or in an emergency — for up to seven years while they wait for firm service.
SPP’s conditional service won’t kill data center flexibility. Rather, it risks moving flexibility into bilateral contracts priced and dispatched out of public view, where its value isn’t discovered and its terms can’t be replicated by other loads. A CHILLS load can be cut off at any moment if needed by the grid, with no ceiling on the hours of curtailment.
So in order to avoid the unbounded risks that CHILLS present, the rational move for hyperscalers is to keep negotiating flexibility bilaterally with utilities that will write call limits into a contract — even if they have non-firm transmission.
St. Cloud residents can weigh in Monday on proposed rules for data center construction, and the city council could vote on them the same night.
The St. Cloud City Council will hold a public hearing on November 16th at 6:00 p.m. at city hall on zoning changes city staff drafted ahead of any developer proposal. In a memo to the council, Community Development Director Matt Glaesman wrote that adopting standards before a site-specific proposal comes in is the best practice.
City officials say data centers are relatively new, and the city’s planning rules haven’t caught up.
Council member Tami Calhoun told KNSI News last month, after the council set the hearing, that she had concerns about energy use, noise and what happens to a building if a data center operator leaves.
Right now, St. Cloud’s code has no data center category. A data center could fall under a broad “communication facility” use that’s allowed by right in the I3 planned industrial district, with no design standards.
The proposal would split data centers into two groups. Smaller enterprise data centers, with no more than 2,000 servers, 10,000 square feet of building space and 50 megawatts of peak power use, would be allowed in the C3 Central Business and C5 Highway Commercial districts without special approval. Larger hyperscale facilities would need a conditional use permit, could only locate in the I3 district and would have to stay at least a quarter mile from residential zoning.
Every data center would have to submit studies on noise, environmental and community impacts, backup power, sustainability and how the site would be shut down. Projects of 450,000 square feet or more would also face a state environmental review, and the city could deny a permit based on what that review finds.
The Minneapolis City Council on Thursday narrowly approved new rules for data centers, but failed to pass an outright ban.
In a 7-6 vote, the City Council passed a compromise policy that would create two downtown districts and give council members the opportunity to allow or deny development of specific data centers.
The regulations say that the facilities cannot be bigger than 150,000 square feet if it uses renewable energy, or 50,000 square feet for non-renewable energy. The data center must also operate in an existing space, and it cannot be the primary use of a building.
Council members Elliott Payne, Robin Wonsley, Soren Stevenson, Jason Chavez, Aisha Chughtai, Jamison Whiting and Aurin Chowdhury approved the regulations.
“I think it gives us the conditions to ask a developer what are the things that they’re going to put in place to ensure they’re going to be a good neighbor?” Chowdhury said.
The Council at first considered a full ban on data centers, but the measure failed to pass with six yes votes and seven no votes. Whiting voted against the ban but cast a vote in favor of the compromise policy.
The city put a five-month moratorium on data center development back in June. That pause expires on Nov. 21.
The Accelerating Broadband Permits Act of 2026 (S.4448) is a short bill that would amend three different federal laws. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) introduced the bill on April 30, 2026, with Sens. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and John Barrasso (R-WY) as cosponsors. On July 22, 2026, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Senate Commerce Committee) approved the bill by voice vote, adopting an amendment in the nature of a substitute offered by Senators Thune and Luján. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published its cost estimate of the committee-approved bill on October 16, 2026. The bill now awaits action by the full Senate.
The bill has three goals:
make more information about the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program public;
help BEAD-funded projects track the federal permits they need; and
push federal agencies to meet an existing deadline for deciding on applications to place communications facilities on federal property.
A fourth provision would open a federal permitting-coordination program to far smaller broadband projects than are eligible today.
Below, we examine how S.4448 would amend current law, how the Senate Commerce Committee changed the bill, and what the bill would do if enacted in its current form.
Sometimes I run across a library tool that I just have to share, such as the News Literacy for Teen Health and Wellness. It’s designed for teachers, so feel free to share it with a teacher, but I think it’s helpful for anyone. Here’s a blurb and a video sneak peek from the website…
From nutrition trends and miracle “cures” to pseudoscience movements, these types of dubious viral content can have real-world consequences.
But teaching news literacy skills like evaluating claims, understanding data, spotting bias and navigating algorithms and artificial intelligence can empower young people to resist harmful rumors and make confident decisions based on facts. News literacy education is about more than academics… it’s about supporting students’ health and wellness in the age of AI, and during a time when social media use is near ubiquitous among teens.
After being asked 100 questions by Owatonna, Northfield and Pine Island residents about data centers, the Owatonna Planning Commission moved forward with recommending its proposed ordinance amendments, including defining and regulating data centers.
“It’s a 0.001% area of what we’re doing,” Community Development Manager Greg Kruschke said about data centers during the open house before Tuesday’s planning commission meeting. “The code was last updated in the ‘80s. There’s been updates through there, but the last major overhaul (was in the 1980s).”
Changes to the Zoning Ordinance include cutting about 50 pages, updating zoning districts, adding a shoreland ordinance and modernizing home occupation standards, among others. …
During the open house, Planning Specialist Emma Bransford said Owatonna updated its comprehensive plan a few years ago, and with that comes updating the Zoning Ordinance.
The public chimed in…
The public hearing on the ordinance amendments during the meeting lasted over an hour.
“While you have a definition, which is substantially more than what Pine Island had, the definition in and of itself is insufficient and incomplete for a data center ordinance and will not provide the layer of protection that’s actually needed,” Aubree Derksen of Pine Island said. “You need to also remember that whatever is in front of you has exponential impacts that you might have no control over.”
Derksen and six others read the planning commission a list of 100 questions to ask before a data center comes in, which the city needs “solid answers for.” If officials didn’t have answers to the questions, Derksen said a moratorium was needed “so you have time to figure them out.”
“After living the last 13 months in a lawsuit dealing with Google, … I don’t recommend it. The burden that has been placed on residents has been immense and completely unfair,” she said. “You also have to take into account the stress, the mental health impacts on the residents when they have to do all the due diligence that wasn’t done first.”
The complete list of questions is available at stopthepineislanddatacenter.org/blog-1/request-a-moratorium, and spanned topics like understanding what a data center is, vetting the developer, legal preparedness, fiscal analysis/financial risk, infrastructure/utilities, public safety/emergency preparedness, zoning/land use/code readiness, construction impacts, end of life and decommissioning, transparency/process integrity, readiness/due diligence, tribal governments/ecological knowledge and water sustainability.
A substantial Texas land agreement has given Zone Frontier (NYSEAMERICAN:ZONE) another piece of its planned artificial intelligence infrastructure network. The company is pursuing large data-centre campuses in Texas and Minnesota following a strategic change in direction from its former cleaning-products activities.
Here’s what’s happening in Minnesota…
The company has also disclosed a Minnesota data-centre project with an executed tenancy arrangement involving Cerebras Systems. Its plans include approximately 55 MW of utility power and 40 MW of critical IT load, with Revenue expected to begin in 2027 subject to project progress. Management described a ten-year initial tenancy commitment valued at more than USD 800 mn, with extensions providing possible additional value. The potential extension amounts are conditional and are not present revenue.
Zone Frontier adopted its present name after moving toward AI infrastructure during 2026. It announced the sale of its legacy cleaning-products business in October as part of this shift. Its October 30 Shareholder update addressed Minnesota execution, Debt Financing progress and the Texas project. The company’s immediate tasks involve advancing project funding, tenants and construction schedules. Subsequent updates will show which proposed capacity reaches operation rather than remaining a development target.
Zone Frontier shares traded at USD 3.31 on November 11, 2026, advancing 21.25% during the session.
And…
Q: What Else Is Important for Its Business?
A: The company identified a Minnesota campus expected to support 55 MW of utility power and 40 MW of IT load.
This sounds very much like a CleanCore venture I wrote about in July but some names have changed.
The MN Task Force heard from Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance, which is a group of local government work who are working on getting better broadband. Each member has its own solution; they have learned a lot on the road that’s useful for other communities, policymakers and providers. There was also a big update on BEAD, which was mostly an explanation of where we are, where Minnesota has run into hiccups and what we expect in the future. December 7 is the next expected deadline.
The committees met in small groups to discuss their portions of the annual report. I listened to the Mapping, Policy, and Funding group until they were done; then joined the group I was recording, Affordability Economic Opportunity, and Workforce Development. Where they were talking about recommendations for education-related anchor tenants and about permitting.
10:00 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. – Welcome from Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and approval of minutes from October Task Force meeting.
10:05 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. – Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance presentation and overview of work.
Questions:
Looking at challenges ahead – how can the Task Force help?
We found out there was limited oversight for broadband with RDOF. There isn’t a clear regulatory agency in MN. We need one for things like ground station satellite permits in MN or RDOF.
Could we replicate programs where the state can work with the townships as counties are running out of money? We need more 0 interest payback loans over 10 years.
In your report – can you make others aware of the Alliance? We are happy for members and questions. We have expertise to share.
Is the ask that the state create a low interest loan program for townships to support broadband infrastructure construction?
Would be nice to have the state offer a zero interest loan – possibly to act as a border to boarder match.
Dep of Ag has a low interest loan. So there is a model for it.
10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. – Office of Broadband Development (OBD) overview and updates from Bree Maki (Executive Director, OBD) and Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment updates from Jennifer Frost (State/Federal Programs and Compliance Manager, OBD).
OBD attends Alliance meetings regularly and finds it helpful
Economic Development, led my Kevin McKinnon and found out
People was reliable and continuous broadband coverage. Seems to be lacking
Need better coordination between infrastructure and housing – especially new housing and multi-unit dwellings
Local communities need local champions – like Blandin had
Need an alternative to Starlink for businesses
Questions Economic Development they had for OBD
Looking for more data on outages
Take rates
How do businesses escalate their need for broadband
Served communities forget about unserved areas – but the unserved areas feel it daily
Pew did research on locates – it’s a national issue but MN got cited for legislative work on the topic
Thinking about upcoming legislative changes. Expecting changes in the Ag committee.
Update on Border to Border
Closed 7 more projects
84 currently active projects – 33 are completing
51 projects still in the mix – most Line Extension and should be done by end of 2026
Treasury extended deadlines due to desk review – but hope to be done by end of June 2027
BEAD – still waiting on updates and changes. Providers are running into other issues.
We are a county-based system and that’s an issue when it comes to getting county participation meshing with federal policies and procedures.
Minnesota and Federal speeds goals are different and OBD is trying to work with that.
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Task Force updates and discussion on progress on the 2026 annual report including:
Share-out from subgroup leads, Melissa Wolf and Marc Johnson on where recommendations are at and other discussion from the meetings
Discussion on Task Force wide recommendation around speed goals and other items to include for “long term” goals for the report (i.e. Data centers, AI, etc.)
Notes from Mapping, Policy, and Funding Subcommittee:
Text shared:
Invest in mapping – Support data-driven and inclusive broadband deployment by continuing to invest in Minnesota ‘s broadband mapping efforts. Accurate, transparent data and continually updated broadband data are essential to inform policy decisions, identify remaining service gaps, and target investments where they are needed most. As federal and state broadband deployment programs advance and projects are completed, mapping and data collection are critical to evaluating broadband availability, service levels, adoption trends, and progress toward the state’s broadband goals. This information is necessary to assess the impact of deployment efforts, inform strategies that align with community needs, prioritize unserved and underserved areas, strengthen coordination among state, local (is this to imply the ISPs, or should they be specifically listed?), community, and nonprofit partners. Ongoing investment in broadband mapping and data collection is a critical need to provide policymakers, internet service providers, and communities with the reliable information necessary to assess progress, identify areas requiring additional attention, and guide future broadband planning and funding decisions.
Invest in state broadband programs – Invest (are we asking for a certain dollar amount? Should it be listed as to what the investment should be?) in Minnesota’s state broadband programs, including the Line Extension Program, which has demonstrated success in helping connect unserved households. Although the BEAD program is expected to expand broadband access throughout Minnesota, federal funding alone is not expected to address all remaining connectivity needs. As implementation progresses and federal funding is exhausted, gaps may emerge that require additional attention and investment. Ongoing state broadband funding is essential to addressing remaining unserved locations, respond to future connectivity challenges, and ensure continued progress toward universal access to reliable broadband service for households and businesses across the state.
Questions
We don’t have a dollar amount to suggest for mapping or programs – but that seems OK since the funding hasn’t been approved yet.
The Institute for Local Self Reliance is hosting a free, webinar on the FCC federal broadband data…
Next Wednesday, November 18th, the Broadband Data and Policy Forum – a coalition of policy researchers, data scientists, and academics – is hosting a conversation about what it’s like to work with this data that connects hundreds of millions of places with the providers that claim to serve them.
At 3pm ET, the two-part webinar begins. Led by ILSR’s Christine Parker and Washington State University’s Nick Pappin, they’ll talk about what we can know, what we can’t, and what happens when the data goes blind altogether.
The second half of the hour will feature a Q & A, so bring your questions!
Join us for the conversation next Wednesday, November 18th, for free, by registering here.
Are you a Spectrum customer? Did you experience any issues with your service your yesterday? You weren’t alone. The Sunday Guardian reports…
Spectrum outage today: Downdetector reports 345+ complaints as US customers experience slow internet, connectivity failures and service disruptions.
The latest figure represents approximately 3.35 times the normal reporting level, suggesting increased customer frustration. Reports from several US states indicate that the disruption may be affecting different regions.
· Meeting ID and Pass Code: 254 733 753 476 50 and V8hn3kW2
· Dial in by phone: +1 651-395-7448,,135225071# United States, Minneapolis · Join on a video conferencing device: Tenant key: mn@m.webex.com and Video ID: 117 416 054 4
Meeting Agenda
10:00 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. – Welcome from Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and approval of minutes from October Task Force meeting.
10:05 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. – Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance presentation and overview of work.
10:50 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. – Office of Broadband Development (OBD) overview and updates from Bree Maki (Executive Director, OBD) and Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment updates from Jennifer Frost (State/Federal Programs and Compliance Manager, OBD).
11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. – Task Force updates and discussion on progress on the 2026 annual report including:
· Share-out from subgroup leads, Melissa Wolf and Marc Johnson on where recommendations are at and other discussion from the meetings
· Discussion on Task Force wide recommendation around speed goals and other items to include for “long term” goals for the report (i.e. Data centers, AI, etc.)
11:30 a.m. – 11:35 a.m. – Open the floor to other business, December’s meeting plans, and meeting wrap-up.
11:35 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. – Subgroup breakout, work time until the end.
The agenda item for Monday’s vote says the impact data centers have on public health and welfare is “not fully understood or known at this time.”
The listed potential impact areas include planning functions, public utilities, and the environment. Rochester’s Unified Development Code does not have specific regulations regarding data centers, according to the agenda item.
Staff is recommending the elected leaders enact a moratorium on data centers to allow for adequate time to allow for what the agenda item describes as a “meaningful study” to help learn more about data center impacts and to determine rules and regulations.
After months of debate, mounting opposition and unanswered questions, Monticello’s proposed data center moved another step closer to approval Monday night.
But the final decision will have to wait.
Following four hours of testimony, presentations and discussion Nov. 9, the City Council voted 3-1 to direct staff to prepare approval documents for the controversial 547-acre development. The council will consider them at a special meeting Nov. 30, just eight days before a state-imposed deadline.
The votes did not approve the data center or authorize construction. Instead, they directed staff to prepare approvals for annexation, a preliminary plat, rezoning and a conditional use permit.
The Harmony City Council tabled a proposed data center ordinance Tuesday over the wording of its sound regulations. KTTC confirmed this information with Harmony Mayor-elect Kerry Kingsley.
The council will take up the proposal at its next regularly scheduled meeting.
The draft would allow data centers, data center campuses and cryptocurrency mining facilities only in an Industrial Technology zoning district. Each would require a conditional use permit.
The proposal calls for noise studies before and after construction, as well as annual and quarterly studies during operation. Facilities would also have to comply with Minnesota noise standards and use sound mitigation measures.
