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Mark Stephen Asea allegedly posted more than 100 videos exposing a woman's private information and tracked her location via GPS.

Trump Admin Proposes Rules For 1st National School Choice Program

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

The Department of the Treasury and the IRS have proposed regulations to implement a new educational scholarship tax credit program that expands school choice options for parents and students.

New students tour Nora Sterry Elementary School in Los Angeles on Jan. 15, 2025. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images

The regulations pertain to the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC) program, enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. FSTC allows individual taxpayers to claim tax credits for certain cash contributions they make to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). SGOs are entities providing scholarships to cover elementary and secondary school expenses.

The scholarships disbursed by the SGOs can be used by recipients for a wide range of education expenses, including tuition for private school, academic tutoring, books, special-needs services, supplies, computers, and other expenses related to the enrollment or attendance of a student, the IRS said in an Oct. 1 statement.

FSTC "marks a new chapter in educational freedom and opportunity by establishing America's first nationwide school choice program and empowering states to give students and families more options," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement.

"Thirty states have already opted in, and we encourage all 50 states to participate so every American student and family can benefit," Bessent said.

Individual taxpayers can get tax credits of up to $1,700 under FSTC, while married couples filing jointly can claim credits of up to $3,400, the IRS said.

Tax Credit Calculation

According to the proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on Oct. 2, a taxpayer can contribute to any SGO in any state participating in the FSTC program, provided the organization is listed on the IRS's SGO list.

The regulations clarify the calculation of tax credits when a taxpayer donates to SGOs and seeks credits from both state and federal governments.

For example, if the taxpayer lives in a state that allows a 100 percent tax credit of up to $2,000 in SGO contributions and the person makes $5,000 in such contributions for a year, the individual can get $1,700 in tax credits from the federal government and $2,000 in credits from the state government for a total of $3,700 in tax benefits, according to the regulations.

Since the FSTC tax credit is nonrefundable, it can only reduce the federal tax bill and cannot generate a refund. However, the regulations state that any unused credit for a particular year "may be carried forward for up to five years."

In its recent statement, the IRS said that the FSTC is scheduled to launch on Jan. 1, 2027. States are free to join the tax credit program and identify eligible SGOs.

The program prohibits states from imposing unnecessary restrictions on access to scholarships, including limiting the types of schools scholarship recipients can attend. According to the IRS, FSTC expands educational freedom, puts students first, strengthens parental rights, and restores power to the states.

The IRS and Treasury estimate that the FSTC program could support 600-700 SGOs by the end of this decade, with up to 2.2 million scholarships being funded annually and more than 11 million taxpayers contributing almost $26 billion every year.

In addition, roughly 96 percent of children in participating states are expected to be eligible to receive the FSTC scholarship funds, the IRS said.

The Treasury and the IRS also issued temporary regulations establishing key procedures for SGOs and states to prepare for the launch of FSTC next year.

There have been concerns that the FSTC program could be more beneficial in wealthy areas than in poorer regions.

In a Sept. 23 research report, the think tank The Brookings Institution said that children in higher-income areas could have more local FSTC money available than their poorer counterparts. The finding was based on an analysis of county median incomes.

Counties in the top 10 percent of median income were assessed as having $3,859 per pupil in potential FSTC funding. In the bottom 10 percent, this figure dropped to $2,233 per pupil, according to the report.

"Unless FSTC funds are targeted towards low-income areas outside the communities where the money is being donated, we expect the FSTC to become a regressive funding source, even where those funds go to public school students," the report said.

In July, the American Federation for Children, a policy center that advocates universal school choice, released a report stating that up to 51 million children could benefit from the FSTC program if every state signed up for the initiative.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 22:25

San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk seems to have avoided the worst after injuring his knee against the Denver Broncos.

LAS VEGAS — If you have a problem with Klint Kubiak calling his shot at halftime Sunday, all but guaranteeing the Raiders would beat the Chiefs, have at it. If you want to question his decision to take three points off the board in the third quarter, when presented with a more manageable fourth down,...

Chinese Pig Farmers Report Suspected Swine Fever Outbreaks As Prices Fall

Authored by Michael Zhuang via The Epoch Times,

Pig farmers in several parts of China are reporting suspected outbreaks of African swine fever that they say have killed large numbers of pigs and forced some farms to clear their herds, adding pressure on small producers already struggling with falling prices and weak demand.

Piglets drink milk from a sow at a pig farm in Yaji, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China on March 21, 2018. Thomas Suen/Reuters

Farmers in several provinces told The Epoch Times that outbreaks have been reported in their areas this year, with some farms being forced to sell or dispose of infected pigs.

China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has not publicly reported an African swine fever outbreak corresponding to the farmers' accounts. Its recent major animal disease notices have included one September case of type O foot-and-mouth disease found among pigs in Chongqing.

The discrepancy between official reports and accounts from farmers makes it difficult to independently establish the scale of any current African swine fever outbreaks. In China, the regime frequently conceals data and imposes strict information control over major social issues.

Rapid Deaths and Herd Clearances

In Rong County in Guangxi Province, farmer Lin Yongchang told The Epoch Times his area has experienced two waves of swine fever this year.

Lin said some pigs developed health problems after being vaccinated.

"Previously, I had always used a vaccine from Guangdong [Province] and there were no problems. The first time I used a vaccine from China Animal Husbandry Group [a state-owned company], there was an outbreak," he said.

He said vaccinated sows experienced miscarriages and stillbirths, while some weaned pigs also became ill.

Ruan Jiale, a farmer in Hunan, similarly said some large farms in his area had been affected despite vaccination.

"Those large farms all vaccinated their pigs, and they still went down," he told The Epoch Times.

Ruan estimated that 80 percent to 90 percent of farms in his area had been affected and cleared their herds. However, that figure could not be independently verified.

He described pigs dying within days of showing symptoms.

"The pigs' noses become dry, and they die in three days," Ruan said.

For farmers with large animals, disposing of the carcasses can be a major problem. Ruan said his pigs weighed more than 300 pounds. He said infected pigs were sometimes sold at steep discounts, while dead pigs were buried.

"Everything is losing money now. When swine fever comes, you have to get rid of them at a low price, and the losses are huge," he said.

Farmers also described informal channels for disposing of pigs after outbreaks.

Liang Jianguo, a farmer in Guangxi Province, told The Epoch Times that farms near his had recently cleared their herds after pigs began dying, but the pigs that were still alive can be collected and transported to refrigerated processing facilities.

"They're taken directly to the freezing plant for processing, for making sausages," Liang said. "Many sausages are made from diseased pigs and culled sows."

The Epoch Times is unable to independently verify Liang's claims about diseased pigs entering meat-processing channels.

Falling Prices Add to Farmers' Losses

In Gao'an, Jiangxi Province, farmer Zhang Shujuan told The Epoch Times many local farmers had sold their pigs early because buyers had become harder to find.

Zhang said the problem was particularly difficult for small-scale farmers, who have limited financial reserves and few alternative sales channels.

"Now the government doesn't provide much in the way of subsidies," she said.

Swine fever occurs every year in some parts of China, Zhang said, but she believes this year has been particularly severe in some provinces.

The farmers' accounts come as China's pig industry faces a broader profitability squeeze.

According to data cited by Chinese media National Business Daily, the national average price for three-way crossbred pigs was 10.82 yuan ($1.61) per kilogram in August, down 21.42 percent from a year earlier.

For small farmers, an outbreak can therefore create a double financial burden, since infected pigs may have little or no market value, while farmers still have to dispose of dead animals.

The reported outbreaks and vaccine concerns remain based largely on farmers' accounts, and the extent of African swine fever in the affected areas cannot be established from those reports alone.

Li Jing and Gu Xiaohua contributed to this report.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 22:10

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Trump Taps Intelligence Chief Jay Clayton As AI Czar, Brushing Off Calls To Slow Down

President Trump on Sunday named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton the White House's AI czar. Clayton will hold both jobs, keeping the DNI post while spearheading the administration's AI strategy.

Trump announced the move on Truth Social, saying the new "Super Intelligence Force" will "ensure that America continues to lead the World in Super Intelligence." Its vice chairs are FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, OPM Director Scott Kupor and Pentagon Chief Technology Officer Emil Michael. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also sit on it, and it reports to Trump and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.

The force has 120 days to report on the risks and opportunities of the technology and to recommend ways to strengthen the government's response. Its charter, according to Implicator, calls for "preventing overregulation and regulatory capture that would stifle innovation and competition."

Clayton takes a job last held by David Sacks, who stepped down as White House AI and crypto czar in March and now co-chairs the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sacks is one of two outside advisers to the force, along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bessent had been mentioned for the job until Trump ruled it out on Sept. 25. "Scott Bessent will not be going to be Super Intelligence (SI) Czar," Trump wrote. "Number One, he doesn't want to. Number Two, he's doing such a great job at Treasury, and that's where I want to keep him! Why would I ever make such a change? Just more Fake News!" Axios reported Friday that Trump was expected to pick Clayton instead, and Trump has described Clayton as "a good man" for the role.

*TRUMP WARMS TO JAY CLAYTON AS AI CZAR: AXIOS

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 29, 2026

The pick comes three weeks after a run of statements on AI safety. On Sept. 12, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay titled "We Must Pace the Frontier" that proposed embedded third-party evaluators inside AI labs. The next day, Obama urged Democrats to have a "clear plan" for AI safeguards, and Sacks backed a self-imposed slowdown by the labs while rejecting a "cartel" framework for it, according to the Washington Examiner.

Trump responded on Sept. 14 with a Truth Social post: "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!" He also took aim at Amodei by name:

"The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel' and will continue to do so!" He added: "We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!"

Ten days later, Trump rebranded AI as "super intelligence" at the UN General Assembly and rejected "any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control" it. Four days after that, he hosted Amodei for dinner at the White House. The next day, Amodei, Elon Musk, Google's Sundar Pichai, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia's Jensen Huang and OpenAI's Greg Brockman were among the signers of a voluntary accord pledging "robust" controls on their models and independent audits. Trump called it "morally binding."

Clayton, who sidestepped questions about taking the job in a CNBC interview on Sept. 30, called super intelligence "a national security issue" and questioned what an AI pause would even mean while other countries keep building. At his July 15 confirmation hearing, the former SEC chairman and US attorney for the Southern District of New York said AI "is not only an opportunity but a threat." He added: "When something is both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it."

 

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 22:00

HBO's Green Lantern show ended with one heck of a red herring.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw took a verbal shot at Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton following their heated sideline exchange.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Brazil’s incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off in a runoff Oct. 25 for the top job of Latin America’s powerhouse economy after neither won a majority in Sunday’s vote. The country’s electoral court in Brasilia said...

SAN FRANCISCO — Gabby Williams had 25 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, Kiah Stokes added 14 rebounds and three blocked shots, and the Valkyries took Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals by beating the defending champion Aces 71-60 on Sunday. A’ja Wilson scored 24 points and Chelsea Gray contributed 16 points for Las Vegas,...

The knockdown happened when Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon II shoved the linebacker on a third-down play that was blown dead because of an offsides penalty.

They are the first-place Giants. Read that again. They are the first-place Giants, 36-24 winners over the Cardinals.

"Deeply Flawed": Biggest US Grid Scraps Emergency Data Center Power Auction One Day After FERC Smackdown

We have been documenting the slow-motion collision between the AI capex fantasy and the laws of physics since late 2025, when we noted that some of Oracle's OpenAI data centers were being pushed back to 2028 (Dec 12, 2025). Since then the delays have gone from anecdote to trend: in April we reported that half of US data centers scheduled to start in 2026 will be canceled or delayed (Apr 13), in August that more than two-thirds of the power sought for US data centers will never materialize (Aug 14), and just last week the two flagship Stargate campuses hit the wall within 24 hours of each other, with SB Energy delaying the IPO meant to fund the world's largest data center (Sept 23) and Oracle's Project Jupiter declaring force majeure (Sept 24).

Now we can add the US electrical grid itself to the list of things that won't arrive on time.

On Wednesday, PJM Interconnection, operator of the largest US grid stretching from Illinois to DC serving 67 million customers across 13 states, and home to Virginia's Data Center Alley, suspended the one-time "backstop" auction it was about to launch to plug a 6.8 gigawatt hole in its supply stack, less than a day after FERC ordered it back to the drawing board. The procurement, which was supposed to open for offers on Sept 30 and run through Oct 21 with selections by early December, now has, in the words of a PJM spokesman, a launch date that is "yet to be determined."

For those keeping score, that is a power auction for data centers... delayed. You can't make this up.

How We Got Here

Recall that in July, PJM's base capacity auction for 2028/29 came up 6.8GW short of its reliability requirement, the first time in PJM's history that the entire RTO fell short, and only the price cap kept the clearing price at roughly $325/MW-day. As we tweeted that night, without the ceiling, PJM capacity prices would have been 70% higher at $554.72. A few hours later we added that "PJM is already below the critical reliability threshold."

Capacity prices went from $28.92 to the cap in two auctions, and the cap is the only thing keeping 2028/29 from $554.72.

Who is paying for this? Mostly people who have never heard of a hyperscaler. According to PJM's own market monitor, data centers accounted for $6.3BN, or 38%, of the $16.4BN in charges from the latest auction, and $29.4BN, or 46%, of the $63.6BN tab across the last four auctions (Jul 22). That's the "nearly $30 billion" Bloomberg references today, and it lands on the bills of 67 million people across 13 states and DC.

Said otherwise, nearly half of four years of capacity costs trace back to data centers.

Hence the backstop: a one-time, 15-year procurement for new capacity, with costs meant to fall on the data centers driving demand. FERC Chairman Laura Swett had warned in July that FERC would impose reforms if PJM didn't adopt changes by September (Jul 28). PJM filed its Reliability Backstop Procurement (RBP) on July 31. And on Tuesday, FERC delivered its verdict.

"Deeply Flawed, Eleventh-Hour"

FERC accepted parts of the plan but suspended the framework for five months, with Swett saying the commission "will not be forced into accepting a deeply flawed, eleventh-hour procurement." The key objections center on cost allocation, the rules for transmission owners exiting the arrangement, and collateral requirements for load-serving entities. On that last one, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative alone would have had to post roughly $2BN in collateral. The offer cap in the procurement, incidentally, was $555/MW-day, or almost exactly the uncapped price the July auction would have cleared at.

As Bloomberg notes, the bigger issue is that even a working backstop only covers part of the gap. PJM's independent market monitor, Joseph Bowring, pointed out that the current proposal addresses only some of the shortfall, and that rapid data center growth will require even more capacity. Which is a polite way of echoing what we said in July - and in the year before - namely that the 6.8GW hole is the floor, not the ceiling. Back in February PJM itself said the shortfall could grow to 60GW over the next decade without action, to which we responded that the "capex spending plans will be scrapped since there is not enough juice to power the DCs." Seven months later, here we are, scrambling to find the juice to power up the trillions in capex... 

Goldman: Net Bearish For The IPPs, And The Real Fight Is IRAS

Goldman utilities analyst Carly Davenport was quick to weigh in (note available to pro subscribers). The key detail: FERC's order makes the RBP effective February 28, 2027. PJM can either sit through a paper hearing or bypass it by submitting a new Section 205 filing within 30 days, which could accelerate final approval.

Goldman's verdict is that the suspension is "net bearish but mixed" for independent power producers to wit:

"...lack of clarity around the finalized framework could lengthen the regulatory overhang on the stocks and dampen data center customer appetite to sign long term PPAs, though [we] continue to point to higher pricing and tight markets in PJM in the absence of line of sight to new capacity."

Translation: fewer hyperscaler contracts in the near term, but the shortage that makes existing generation so valuable isn't going anywhere. Goldman sees Buy-rated Talen (TLN) and Neutral-rated Constellation (CEG) as most exposed given their PJM leverage, with Vistra (VST) and NRG somewhat more insulated. The group trades at an average 7.4x EV/EBITDA and a ~12% FCF yield on 2027 estimates (ex-CEG), which is what a "significant discount" looks like when nobody knows what the rules will be.

More importantly, Goldman thinks the backstop may matter less than the other PJM filing pending at FERC: the Interim Resource Adequacy Service (IRAS), the framework for large loads that want to connect without bringing their own capacity, in exchange for being curtailable. As Davenport wrote when PJM filed it in August, IRAS lets data centers waive curtailment compensation, excludes new large load from the capacity demand curve to shield residential customers, and asked FERC to rule by October 12 so bilateral data center contracts could move forward, even though it wouldn't take effect until June 2027. Since many developers and customers prefer bilateral deals, a constructive IRAS ruling "could limit the need of the RBP." In other words, the next two weeks matter more for the IPPs than anything PJM said last week.

Meanwhile, The Market Isn't Waiting

While regulators argue about collateral, power traders have done their own math. According to Goldman's commodities desk (see Isabel Blaze's latest "US Power Biweekly" report), PJM has "seen substantial repricing across the curve over the past month."

September peak cash is set to clear at $128/MWh, up 47% from where it traded entering the month, thanks to an unusual heat pattern and scheduled transmission outages. October pinned above $100 at yesterday's options expiry, and the Cal27 through Cal29 strips are all trading above $90, with load-serving entities stepping up hedging of their intermediate-term commitments. Goldman's summary: "a market that has repriced meaningfully higher across both cash and forward tenors." In simple terms: even higher bills are coming.

Of course, none of this comes cheap for households. In the first installment of its new Affordability series, published Monday (see "Inside Customer Affordability: An Introduction to the Electric Utility Bill"), Goldman found that the "most prominent affordability impact" in the country is on PJM customers, "where capacity prices have reflected the tightening supply and demand in the market." The bank forecasts utility bill inflation of 3.7% a year on average through 2029 (narrator: it will be much higher).

Source: Goldman

Last week, after hosting Exelon's VP of federal regulatory affairs, Goldman reported that the utility doesn't believe PJM's current capacity market construct is adequate to incentivize new supply, and sees heightened scrutiny of data centers and bill inflation persisting beyond the November midterms. It's almost as if voters in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have noticed.

Bring Your Own Power Plant

None of this is surprising to regular readers. Last November, as electric bills began their vertical ascent, we said that every state has to follow the Texas example and require each data center to have its own "behind the meter" onsite generation. A month later we put it more succinctly: Make "behind the meter" mandatory (Dec 23).

Wall Street is catching up. Last week Goldman raised its 2030 global outlook for behind-the-meter generation by 68%, to 67GW from 40GW, with gas turbines and fuel cells each expected to capture a quarter or more of incremental deployments, and as we detailed on Monday, the bank now sees BTM powering 25% of all data centers by 2030. Longer term, we continue to believe small modular reactors are the only real solution, although the path there remains, let's say, bumpy: just days ago FERC sided with PJM and kicked Oklo's 750MW Virginia hybrid project out of the interconnection queue, which Oklo warned will delay development by "more than a year."

So to recap: the data centers are delayed, the financing is delayed, the IPO is delayed, the power plants are delayed, and now the auction to pay for the power plants is delayed until at least the end of February. The only thing arriving on schedule is the electric bill.

Tyler Durden Sun, 10/04/2026 - 21:35

The New York Liberty fell 92–82 to the Atlanta Dream in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals. Did Atlanta impose its will, or did New York get in its own way? Dexter Henry and Madeline Kenney break down the Liberty’s costly turnovers, the defensive challenges posed by Jordin Canada and DeWanna Bonner, and what New...

Line judge Jeff Seeman appeared to curse at Trey McBride after the Cardinals player was arguing his case on a call.

It’s a twist worthy of famed director M. Night Shyamalan — President Donald Trump saves Hollywood, the community that thinks he’s Adolf Hitler (or worse).

One episode into Season 2, we've already got a major character death.

Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani's wife Mamiko joined fellow WAGs for a stylish group photo ahead of NLDS Game 2.

On a Friday night in Los Angeles, I ask my friend who lives in Silver Lake to come to a bar in West Hollywood. Except I know what she is going to say.