How the fight over US datacenters is scrambling this state’s politics: ‘We don’t want it’

<p>Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s governor, squares off with state lawmakers over the facilities powering an AI boom</p><p>A controversial haunted house near Philadelphia, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>, taps into its <a href="https://www.thebeliever.net/the-haunting-of-pennhurst/">dark history</a> every fall to scare tens of thousands of visitors. In 1968, a local news station <a href="http://www.preservepennhurst.org/default.aspx?pg=26">documented</a> appalling conditions for disabled people in the red brick buildings on the banks of Schuylkill River. Residents were found naked and emaciated at what was then known as the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/10/29/130840594/haunted-house-has-painful-past-as-asylum">Pennhurst state school and hospital</a>. The institution shut its doors permanently in 1987 after a lawsuit over inhumane conditions.</p><p>By 2010, a Halloween attraction stood in its place, and Pennhurst asylum’s previous owner suggested during its early years that he wanted to spook guests by <a href="https://www.hauntworld.com/featured-article/haunted-house-in-philadelphia-pennsylvania-pennhurst-asylum">repurposing</a> the hospital’s surgical lights and medical cabinets to use as props.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/16/pennsylvania-datacenters-debate-politicians">Continue reading...</a>