Connect with us

The Center Square

WATCH: DOJ asks judge to deny IL’s motion to dismiss migrant sanctuary lawsuit | Illinois

Published

on

www.thecentersquare.com – Greg Bishop – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-02 13:29:00

(The Center Square) – The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal district court judge to deny a motion to dismiss its challenge to Illinois’ migrant sanctuary policies. 

Arguing Illinois’ migrant sanctuary policies “allow criminal illegal aliens to move freely throughout the United States, inflicting harm on victims that would have been averted had the alien been detained,” the DOJ moved Tuesday to deny the motion to dismiss from Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois. 

The DOJ filed its lawsuit shortly after U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi was sworn into office under the Trump administration. 

Wednesday, state Sen. Javier Cervantes, D-Chicago, said the progressives in the General Assembly are going to have to continue to play defense. 

“We’re doing our best right now here to look at what’s happening and then build those policies to be on the defense, because we have to,” Cervantes said during an unrelated news conference in Springfield. “That’s what we’re here for.” 

State Sen. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said it’s a new day with the Trump administration. 

“The harder they push, they’re going to come up against a guy who is not going to be pushed around in President [Donald] Trump,” Bryant told The Center Square Wednesday at the capitol in Springfield. “We think they’re going to find out that this DOJ under this president is going to push back very hard.” 

The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal district judge to deny a motion to dismiss their challenge to Illinois’ migrant sanctuary policies. Illinois state senators from both sides of the aisle provide reaction.




In its filing, the DOJ said Illinois’ migrant sanctuary policies “work an extraordinary assault on the Federal Government’s enforcement of the immigration laws at a time when the United States is facing a ‘national emergency’ from the unprecedented ‘illegal entry of aliens’ into the country.”

Illinois’ state and local migrant sanctuary policies are preempted by the Immigration and Nationality Act, the DOJ argues, “because they stand as an obstacle to achieving the full purposes and objectives of that Act.”

In their motions to dismiss filed last month in the case, the state of Illinois said the DOJ’s lawsuit is misguided. 

“Consistent with the Tenth Amendment, federal law preserves Illinois’s sovereign right to opt out of assisting federal immigration agents with their civil immigration enforcement responsibilities,” the filing said. “That is what Illinois has done through its statutes, the TRUST Act and the Way Forward Act.”

The DOJ argued migrant sanctuary policies that prohibit state and local law enforcement cooperation “impede congressionally sanctioned and authorized federal immigration law.”

“Under the Tenth Amendment, Congress must exercise its legislative power over individuals directly and may not commandeer States into enacting a federal regulatory program,” the DOJ said. “Under the Supremacy Clause, ‘when federal and state law conflict, federal law prevails and state law is preempted.’”

Bryant said final resolution to the issue will take time. 

“We are only two months into the Trump administration,” she said. “I think the Pritzker administration is going to get smacked down hard.” 

Cervantes expects the Trump administration to “keep coming.”  

“I want the people of Illinois and our immigrant community to understand that we’re here to be on the defense as much as possible,” he said. 

The DOJ said the state’s policies have the purpose of thwarting federal law enforcement efforts to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens. 

“They deny federal immigration agents access to aliens who are in state and local custody. They prohibit state and local officers from releasing aliens, upon expiration of their state or local custody, into federal custody when federal agents present Congressionally authorized detainers and administrative warrants,” the DOJ said. “The Sanctuary Policies also prevent otherwise willing state and local officers from all communications with federal immigration agents necessary for those agents to carry out their duties.”


U.S. DOJ’s filing asking a judge to deny Illinois’ motion to dismiss sanctuary state lawsuit


The state, Cook County and the city of Chicago are set to reply to the DOJ’s filing April 29. 

 

The post WATCH: DOJ asks judge to deny IL’s motion to dismiss migrant sanctuary lawsuit | Illinois appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

The Center Square

What are data centers and why do they matter? | National

Published

on

www.thecentersquare.com – Shirleen Guerra – (The Center Square – ) 2025-09-14 09:33:00


Data centers, vital for digital activities like shopping, streaming, and AI, process immense computing power and consume vast electricity. Hyperscale data centers, operated mainly by U.S. tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, have doubled globally in five years, with the U.S. holding 54% of capacity. These facilities, akin to small cities in power use, significantly impact local grids, especially in states like Virginia, Texas, and California. The AI boom is accelerating data center growth in size and number. As digital reliance deepens, data centers remain crucial yet largely unseen infrastructure shaping technology, energy demand, and regional economies worldwide.

(The Center Square) – Data centers may not be visible to most Americans, but they are shaping everything from electricity use to how communities grow.

These facilities house the servers that process nearly all digital activity, from online shopping and streaming to banking and health care. As the backbone of artificial intelligence and cloud computing, they have expanded at a pace few other industries can match.

Research from Synergy Research Group shows the number of hyperscale data centers worldwide doubled in just five years, reaching 1,136 by the end of 2024. The U.S. now accounts for 54% of that total capacity, more than China and Europe combined. Northern Virginia and the Beijing metro area together make up about 20% of the global market.

John Dinsdale, chief analyst with Synergy Research, said in an email to The Center Square that a simple way to describe data centers is to think of them as part of a food chain.

“At the bottom of the food chain, you’re sitting at your desk with a desktop PC or laptop. All the computing power is on your device,” Dinsdale said.

The next step up is a small office server room, which provides shared storage and applications for employees.

“Next up the chain, you can go two different directions (or use a mix),” he explained.

One option is a colocation data center, where companies lease space instead of running their own physical facilities. That model can support a multitude of customers from a single operator, such as Equinix.

The other option is to move to public cloud computing.

“You buy access to computing resources only when you need them, and you only pay for what you use,” Dinsdale said.

Providers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google run massive data centers that support tens of thousands of servers. From the customer perspective, it may feel like having a private system, but in reality, these servers are shared resources supporting many organizations.

Cloud providers now operate at a scale that was “unthinkable ten years ago” and are referred to in the industry as hyperscale, Dinsdale added. These global networks of data centers support millions of customers and users.

“The advent of AI is pushing those data centers to the next level — way more sophisticated technology, and data centers that need to become a lot more powerful,” he said.

What is a data center?

At its simplest, a data center is a secure building filled with rows of servers that store, process and move information across the internet. Almost every digital action passes through them.

“A data center is like a library of server computers that both stores and processes a lot of internet and cloud data we use every day,” said Dr. Ali Mehrizi-Sani, director of the Power and Energy Center at Virginia Tech told The Center Square. “Imagine having thousands of high-performance computers working nonstop doing heavy calculations with their fans on. That will need a lot of power.”

Some are small enough to serve a hospital or university. Others, known as hyperscale facilities, belong to companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta, with footprints large enough to be measured in megawatts of electricity use.

How big is the industry?

Synergy’s analysis shows how dominant the U.S. has become. Fourteen of the world’s top 20 hyperscale data center markets are in the U.S., including Northern Virginia, Dallas and Silicon Valley. Other global hotspots include Greater Beijing, Dublin and Singapore.

In 2024 alone, 137 new hyperscale centers came online, continuing a steady pace of growth. Average facility size is also climbing. Synergy forecasts that total capacity could double again in less than four years, with 130 to 140 new hyperscale centers added annually.

The world’s largest operators are American technology giants. Amazon, Microsoft and Google together account for 59% of hyperscale capacity, followed by Meta, Apple, and companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance.

How much power do they use?

Large data centers run by the top firms typically require 30 to 100 megawatts of power. To put that into perspective, one megawatt can power about 750 homes. That means a 50-70 megawatt facility consumes as much electricity as a small city.

“Building one data center is like adding an entirely new town to the grid,” Mehrizi-Sani said. “In fact, in Virginia, data centers already consume about 25% of the electricity in the state. In the United States, that number is about 3 to 4%.”

That demand requires extensive coordination with utilities.

“Data centers connect to the power grid much like other large loads, like factories and even towns do,” Mehrizi-Sani said. “Because they need so much electric power, utilities have to upgrade substations, lines and transformers to support them. Utilities also have to upgrade their control and protection equipment to accommodate the consumption of data centers.”

If not planned carefully, he added, new facilities can strain local power delivery and generation capacity. That is why every major project must undergo engineering reviews before connecting to the grid.

Why now?

The rapid rise of AI has supercharged an already fast-growing sector. Training models and running cloud services requires enormous computing power, which means facilities are being built faster and larger.

“AI and cloud drive the need to data centers,” Mehrizi-Sani said. “Training AI models and running cloud services require massive computing power, which means new data centers have to be built faster and larger than before.”

Dinsdale noted in a report that the industry’s scale has shifted sharply.

“The big difference now is the increased scale of growth. Historically the average size of new data centers was increasing gradually, but this trend has become supercharged in the last few quarters as companies build out AI-oriented infrastructure,” he said.

Why certain states lead the market

Different states and regions offer different advantages. According to a July 2025 report by Synergy Energy Group, Virginia became the leading hub because of relatively low electricity costs when the industry was expanding, availability of land in the early years and proximity to federal agencies and contractors.

Texas and California are also major markets, for reasons ranging from abundant energy to the presence of technology companies.

Internationally, Synergy’s analysis shows that China and Europe each account for about a third of the remaining capacity. Analysts expect growth to spread to other U.S. regions, including the South and Midwest, while markets in India, Australia, Spain and Saudi Arabia increase their share globally.

What is at stake?

For most Americans, data centers are invisible but indispensable. Almost everything digital depends on them.

“Streaming movies, online banking, virtual meetings and classes, weather forecasts, navigation apps, social media like Instagram, online storage and even some healthcare services” all run through data centers, Mehrizi-Sani said.

Synergy’s forecast suggests the trend is unlikely to slow.

“It is also very clear that the United States will continue to dwarf all other countries and regions as the main home for hyperscale infrastructure,” Dinsdale said.

This story is the first in a Center Square series examining how data centers are reshaping electricity demand, costs, tax incentives, the environment and national security.

The post What are data centers and why do they matter? | National appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article provides an informative overview of the growth and significance of data centers, focusing on their technological, economic, and infrastructural impact without adopting an ideological stance. It reports on facts, expert opinions, and industry data in a straightforward manner, avoiding language or framing that promotes a particular political viewpoint. While the article touches on regional advantages and economic aspects, it does so neutrally, presenting multiple perspectives and emphasizing the broad importance of data centers across sectors without advocating for specific policies or partisan positions. This indicates an adherence to neutral, factual reporting rather than promoting or aligning with any political ideology.

Continue Reading

News from the South - North Carolina News Feed

Federal hate crime charge sought in Charlotte stabbing | North Carolina

Published

on

www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-09-11 08:05:00


Decarlos Brown Jr. faces federal and state charges for the August 22 killing of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail. The North Carolina chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has urged federal prosecutors to classify the murder as a hate crime, citing video footage allegedly showing Brown making racist remarks. Brown, arrested 15 times previously, is charged with first-degree murder and a federal charge related to mass transportation. The case has sparked viral attention, legislative proposals, and a state audit of transit safety. CAIR condemns the murder and warns against using the crime to promote racial bias.

(The Center Square) – When a federal charge was levied this week against Decarlos Brown Jr. in the killing of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail, authorities said more charges were possible.

North Carolina’s chapter of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the nation has formally requested federal prosecutors charge Brown with a hate crime.

“We join calls for the U.S. attorney to investigate the murder of Iryna Zarutska as a possible hate crime given video footage that appears to show the perpetrator commenting on her race and gender after brutally attacking her,” the North Carolina chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement. “Whenever someone commits similar acts of violence while engaging in racist or bigoted rhetoric, law enforcement should automatically investigate a bias motive.”

Zarutska, 23, was killed while aboard the Lynx Blue Line light rail train about 10 p.m. Aug. 22 alongside Camden Road near the East/West station, according to the Charlotte Area Transit System video. Brown, arrested a 15th time in as many years, is charged with first-degree murder on the state level and charged on the federal level with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

While in the local news immediately, the story went viral over the weekend and into this week when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police released video from the transit system. Congressional proposals are in the works; state Republicans in the U.S. House have requested the chief judge in the district remove the magistrate signing off on cashless bail for Brown in January; and a probe of safety and budget for the transit system is underway by the state auditor.

CAIR-North Carolina said, “Video footage from the incident reportedly shows the alleged attacker, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., pacing through the train and twice saying, ‘I got that white girl.’”

The Center Square has not confirmed the comments. Video released by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police is from cameras aboard the Charlotte Area Transit System light rail train.

General Assembly leaders planned a noon press conference connected to the stabbing.

CAIR-North Carolina said, “As we condemn Ms. Zarutska’s horrific murder and call for a hate crime probe, we also condemn those using this crime to resurrect racist talking points about the Black community. This selective outrage is dangerous, hypocritical, and racially motivated, especially given that white supremacists fall silent about other stabbings, mass shootings, hate crimes, financial crimes, rapes, and various other misconduct committed by people of all races and backgrounds. Our society must secure justice for victims of crimes, not turn them into pawns for extremists.”

The post Federal hate crime charge sought in Charlotte stabbing | North Carolina appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article presents a factual overview of the incident and related responses without adopting or promoting a distinct ideological stance. It reports on the victim’s killing, the ongoing legal actions, and the call from the North Carolina chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for hate crime charges. The article quotes CAIR’s statements, which include both a call for investigation and a critique of racial double standards, but it does so without endorsing or challenging these views. It also mentions political actions from state Republicans and other official responses, maintaining a neutral tone throughout. The language is primarily descriptive, focusing on reporting events and stated positions rather than framing them in a way that suggests bias. Thus, the content adheres to neutral, factual reporting rather than expressing an ideological perspective.

Continue Reading

The Center Square

Weapon recovered as manhunt continues in Kirk assassination investigation | National

Published

on

www.thecentersquare.com – Sarah Roderick-Fitch – (The Center Square – ) 2025-09-11 09:15:00


A high-powered bolt-action rifle believed to be used in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been recovered near Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The suspect, thought to be college-aged and blending in with the campus, remains at large. Investigators tracked the shooter’s movements from arrival at 11:52 a.m., through the campus and rooftop shooting location, to fleeing into a nearby neighborhood. Kirk was shot in the neck before 12:30 p.m. MDT during a campus event. The FBI and Utah Department of Public Safety are leading the investigation, which includes collected evidence like footwear and palm prints.

(The Center Square) – The weapon believed to have been used in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been recovered; however, a manhunt remains underway for the suspected shooter.

Investigators held a briefing Thursday morning indicating that investigators recovered a “high-powered bolt action rifle” into a wooded area near the shooting site. Investigators say the “suspect blended in well with a college institution,” believing the suspect to be college aged. They say they have “images of the suspect.”

Investigators say they have made progress overnight in tracking the movements of the suspect before and after the shooting.

“We were able to track the movements of the shooter; starting at 11:52 a.m. the subject arrived on campus, shortly away from campus. We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through the stairwells up to the roof, across the roof to a shooting location. After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building and fled off of the campus and into a neighborhood,” according to the commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, Beau Mason.

The suspected rifle used in the shooting is being sent off to an FBI laboratory for analysis. In addition to the recovered weapon, investigators say they collected footwear impressions, a palm print and forearm imprints; however, they didn’t indicate where they were collected.

Kirk was shot in the neck before 12:30 p.m. MDT Wednesday during a campus event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Two individuals were briefly detained and questioned in relation to the shooting, but were later released, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Videos circulating show a shadowy figure, appearing to be dressed in black clothing, can be seen on a rooftop approximately 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking. The figure can be seen running shortly after the shooting.

The FBI, along with the Utah Department of Public Safety, is leading the investigation.

This is a developing story.

The post Weapon recovered as manhunt continues in Kirk assassination investigation | National appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article primarily reports on the facts surrounding the shooting of a conservative activist, focusing on the investigation details, law enforcement statements, and evidence recovery without inserting opinion or ideological commentary. It presents information about the incident in a straightforward manner, using neutral language and avoiding any framing that would suggest bias toward or against any political viewpoint. Although the victim’s political affiliation is mentioned (conservative), this inclusion is relevant to identifying the individual rather than promoting an ideological stance. Hence, the content adheres to neutral, factual reporting rather than expressing a discernible ideological perspective.

Continue Reading

Trending