When it comes to federal efforts to close the digital divide, Minnesota has been left behind. Program after program has promised transformational change—yet time and again, your communities are still waiting. But Minnesota has the power—and the track record—to build its own broadband future. Federal broadband programs have failed the state. They promised a feast and delivered crumbs. In the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, ISPs defaulted on 80% of  more than $400,000,000 in state RDOF funds and on 78% of the over 142,000 RDOF locations. In the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, 22,000 out of 76,000 eligible locations received no bids at all, because ten fiber providers dropped out rather than play a rigged game. Of the remaining locations in the state, just 58% will get fiber, while approximately 25% will get satellite and 17% fixed wireless. Let’s be clear: the latter two aren’t long-term solutions. Satellite is expensive, congested, and limited. Fixed wireless can’t keep up with the demands of advanced applications. And for nearly a third of BEAD-eligible Minnesota households, there is no solution. But Minnesota doesn’t need to wait. Minnesota knows how to help itself. The path forward is community broadband. Cities like Willmar. Coalitions like Southwest Broadband. Counties like Dakota and Scott. These aren’t dreams. They are models, ready to be replicated across the state. Because broadband is not just infrastructure—it’s opportunity. It’s fairness. It’s security. And it’s the foundation for the communities we dare to imagine. If Minnesota communities want to close its digital divide once and for all, they can’t wait for Washington. They have to do it for themselves. And the good news is—they can.

[Gigi Sohn is the Executive Director of the American Association for Public Broadband and the Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate.]

SpaceX recently inked a deal with EchoStar to buy $17 billion worth of AWS-4 and H-block spectrum to connect cell phones directly to satellites. Conveniently (for us), Musk appeared at the All-In Summit, which featured other business leaders like Mark Cuban, that took place in Los Angeles this week. Video of Musk's appearance was uploaded to the YouTube channel of the All-In Podcast. The spectrum purchase signifies a long-term deal, he acknowledged, as the phones that support the frequencies that SpaceX is buying likely won’t be shipping for about two years. Chipsets need to be modified to accommodate the spectrum—and the satellites that use these frequencies also need to be launched. Is his vision to—eventually—build a phone that just works anywhere and everywhere? That could be one option. “To be clear, we’re not going to put the other carriers out of business. They’re still going to be around. They own a lot of spectrum,” he said.

Tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta have spent more than $100 billion on data center construction just this summer, and data centers are expected to pass total US consumer spending as the driving force of the US economy this year. Big Tech is marketing these projects as “progress,” but a new report reveals how Southern communities are getting shorted. MediaJustice is proud to launch The People Say No: Resisting Data Centers in the South, our newest groundbreaking report revealing how tech corporations are quietly draining the South—economically and environmentally. This is the first comprehensive, regional analysis of data centers in the South, with original research and case studies from Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina.

In April 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to create new educational and workforce development opportunities for America’s youth to gain interest and expertise in AI technology from an early age and enable the U.S. to maintain global dominance in the AI revolution. Here are some of the organizations that have committed to providing resources for AI education among America’s youth: 

• Google will offer every American high school and their students, teachers and staff access to Gemini for Education for free. This includes our best AI, Gemini 2.5 Pro, plus tools like Guided Learning and Notebook LM.
• Code.org will develop and scale a new free, open-source high school course focused on AI, reaching 400,000 US high school students annually by the 2028-29 school year.
• Zoom will commit $5 million over three years in support of K–12 education through a series of multi-year grants. This initiative aims to empower the next generation of learners, educators, and workers by equipping them with critical skills for an AI-driven future.