BYO energy and more news from the states

Good evening. Tonight we begin with a crush of data center news: from a proposal by a major East Coast grid operator to require new large-load customers to bring their own energy, to the ways developers are using a new Kentucky zoning law to try to squelch legal challenges, and more. 

In Oregon, the state has declined to prosecute reports of federal agent misconduct reported through a public portal, while a Truth Council in Minnesota has begun parsing the full effect of an immigration enforcement surge there. Our D.C. Bureau reports about the second Trump administration’s widening efforts to implement anti-immigrant rules. 

We’ve got first-hand reporting on efforts in Washington state to fight increasingly harmful wildfires ... with fire. 

And in Kentucky, an annual breakfast ended with the traditional multi-million-dollar bid for a country ham, though there was a noticeable absence from the affair.

PJM, the regional grid operator for most of the East Coast, is asking federal regulators to approve a rule requiring new large-load customers, namely data centers, to bring their own power supply to the grid, Virginia Mercury reports. 

With Virginia among the 13 states served by PJM, the proposal filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could mean further changes to how the state regulates the growing industry. It follows calls from some Virginia lawmakers to make data centers provide their own power as utility bills continue to rise alongside demand.

Part of the new proposed rule would put data centers that have not “brought their own power” by paying directly for new energy capacity or having their capacity needs covered through backstop power purchases first in line to be moved onto back up generators or asked to reduce their loads on the hottest and coldest days of the year, when the grid is strained.

The proposal would give states responsibility for implementing policies that direct large-load users to pay for energy projects and manage reliability. It also raises concerns among environmental groups that do not want data centers using their backup diesel generators more often. 

Related coverage:

Oregon’s attorney general has closed the door on several potential criminal investigations into federal agents that were spurred by reports of alleged misconduct since last fall, Oregon Capital Chronicle reports. 

In March, Oregon Department of Justice officials released to the Capital Chronicle roughly two dozen reports of alleged federal misconduct that Oregonians submitted to the agency’s Federal Oversight and Accountability Reporting portal. But the agency at the time declined to release an additional six reports, citing a public records law shielding them from disclosure due to ongoing criminal investigation.

Five of those six now-closed reports involve concerns about federal officers indiscriminately deploying tear gas and using excessive force against protesters at the Portland Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and the other involves federal agents’ use of munitions on protesters in January outside the Eugene Federal Building. 

But the investigator reviewing the reports ultimately concluded that they do not warrant full criminal investigations, a spokesperson for the state Department of Justice said.

The agency has opened other investigations into federal agents’ use of force, including the U.S. Border Patrol’s shooting of two Venezuelan nationals in January.

Meanwhile, Christian Castro, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with shooting Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in Minneapolis in January, was released from a Texas county jail early Thursday morning, Minnesota Reformer reports. 

Castro has been the subject of a rare interstate extradition battle between Minnesota and Texas, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott refused to sign paperwork facilitating Castro’s transfer to Minnesota, where he is charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime. 

More immigration coverage: 

North Carolina: Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards is asking his colleagues to reject his censure after a House Ethics Committee report accused him of inappropriate conduct towards two young women working in his office. 

Kansas: The Trump administration announced a plan for increased enforcement measures against two state school districts for their gender-inclusive policies. 

Louisiana:  A year after an explosion at Smitty’s Supply dispersed millions of gallons of oil and chemicals, environmental officials are still investigating the disaster as the company continues cleanup efforts and seeks permission to rebuild and restart its operations.

Missouri: Lawmakers pressed state officials to explain “a number of fatalities” within the state’s foster care system, including that of a 17-year-old who died from a lack of diabetes care. 

Indiana: Prominent investment research firms are warning clients off investments in the state and its utility companies amid the disputed firing of one state regulator and discussion of lower regulator-set profits.

Alaska: Environmental groups are preparing to sue the Trump administration over its failure to bring back Endangered Species Act protections for gray whales, amid a decade of die-offs and a sharp decline in population.

Michigan: Following a flurry of developments surrounding the Line 5 pipeline project, tribal leaders and environmental advocates rallied and described the next steps in their yearslong fight to have the pipeline decommissioned. 

Nebraska: A state judge dismissed an effort from the loser of the Democratic U.S. Senate primary, who tried to force the state Democratic Party to replace its nominee who dropped out.

Advantage Services employees Max Loveridge, Anthony Tarchick and Trevor Howell, left to right, drop off a trailer of garbage at the landfill in Salt Lake City on Aug. 25. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Since it was formed more than 34 years ago in 1992, Advantage Services has employed people who are disadvantaged, whether they have disabilities, are currently or formerly homeless, leaving jail or prison, are refugees, or are living in poverty. 

The nonprofit doesn’t function like a typical employer, but rather provides “supportive employment,” offering job coaching, mentoring, and other resources to help meet employees’ needs so they can not only work, but thrive.

But that work is now under threat as the organization struggles financially, in large part due to a contract dispute with its biggest customer, Salt Lake City.

Read more from Utah News Dispatch.

In the small town of Roslyn, Washington, local leaders have embraced prescribed burns as a tool to protect their community from wildfires, Stateline reports. They’re part of a growing effort across the West to empower residents to lead burns on private lands. 

After the Jolly Mountain Fire threatened the town in 2017, the idyllic mountain community of 950 with a rich coal mining history began undertaking efforts to fortify against future fires — including coordinating prescribed burns on more than 500 acres of land and thinning out trees and brush elsewhere. 

Plenty of other towns face a predicament like Roslyn’s. More than 1,800 communities in the Western United States are threatened by wildfire, federal research warns. 

Nationwide, nearly 72 million homes sit in areas with some wildfire risk, the climate research company First Street has found. As climate change dries the landscape in the coming decades, the risk will only expand.

Washington leaders hope Roslyn can be a model to help other communities learn to live with fire. They’re seeing growing interest from towns that have faced close calls of their own.

This story is part of a series. Read more from Stateline:

In President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, he has employed a governmentwide approach to fulfilling his immigration agenda that includes not only the central campaign promise of mass deportations, but also widening the scope of anti-immigrant policy to an expanding number of agencies, States Newsroom’s D.C. Bureau reports. 

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s recent proposed regulation to limit refunds for certain tax credits based on immigration status is the latest move by the Trump administration to restrict noncitizens’ access to what few federal benefits some immigrants had. 

Previous presidents generally restricted management of immigration to the departments of Homeland Security, State or Justice. But in Trump’s second term, several unrelated federal agencies have undertaken initiatives meant to disadvantage immigrants.

Those actions include pushing out foreign-born workers from the trucking industry, barring noncitizens from accessing government-subsidized housing even for families that include U.S. citizens, and pressuring banks to restrict immigrants' access to opening accounts or borrowing money.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington over laws that allow immigrants in the country without legal status to pay in-state college tuition in the states where they live, the Bureau reports. 

More national headlines:

Americans may be getting used to increased food costs, but a country ham in Kentucky sold for more than a pretty penny. 

In what’s become a tradition for them, Republican megadonors Joe and Kelly Craft joined Central Bank in buying the ham for $10 million Thursday morning, Kentucky Lantern reports. 

At the end of the Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast, attendees have a chance to bid on the Kentucky State Fair Grand Champion Country Ham, though the Crafts and Central Bank have outbid everyone else for a few years. The breakfast typically brings together Kentucky politicians with farmers from across the state. 

The money from the auction will go to organizations around Kentucky, including the Boys & Girls Club of Glasgow-Barren County, multiple FFA chapters and University of Kentucky Athletics, among others. 

However, it turns out the “bidding” is more like a year-long pledge.

In a Facebook post, Central Bank said individuals and companies “enter ‘bids’ on the ham based on the amount of their existing charitable giving for that year.”

Kelly Craft, a former U.S. ambassador, said her family plans to get the ham sliced thin and serve it with biscuits to share with others. 

Notably absent at the breakfast was Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who continues to be absent from public life after he was hospitalized in June.