McMinnville, Tennessee, is exactly the kind of small town the data center industry expects to roll over.
The industry has been dropping data centers into small towns, betting that quick tax revenue will smother any local objection. McMinnville’s board would not take the bait. Instead of rubber-stamping a permit, it called an 18-month time-out to study what the project would do to the water, the grid, and the air, and write real rules first. Coffee County next door did it too that day, and local governments across the country are making the same unglamorous but smart choice.
In times this dark, it is easy to miss the government that quietly does right by you, especially the local agencies that shape your daily life far more than Washington usually does. That is why I built a new category into GovBrief this week. It is called Good Government, and it marks the nights a government, somewhere, delivers. McMinnville’s turn in the spotlight is tonight.
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White House officials fear New York Times reporters obtained Situation Room recordings for a forthcoming book that quotes top-secret meetings verbatim.
Today’s GovBrief News
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Source: NBC News
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Source: CBS News
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Source: Healthbeat
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers demands the National Science Foundation halt the dismantling of a $386 million ocean observatory network, accusing it of skipping legally required notice to Congress.
Source: The Associated Press
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The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve falls to its lowest level since 1983, months after the Trump administration ordered a 172 million-barrel drawdown.
Source: The Hill
June 15, 2026
A B-52 bomber crashes on takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base during a routine radar-modernization test, killing all eight aboard.
Source: KABC Los Angeles
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California Governor Newsom says Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate him and his wife as he weighs a 2028 presidential run.
Source: Newsweek
June 15, 2026
The Supreme Court declines to revive Carter Page's lawsuit against former FBI director Comey over the 2016 Russia-probe surveillance, after the administration paid Page $1.25 million in April.
Source: UPI
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Federal prosecutors charge the Dali's chief engineer with failing to warn the Coast Guard about dangerous pump conditions before the ship destroyed Baltimore's Key Bridge in 2024.
Source: The Baltimore Banner
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Iran's World Cup coach says the team was ordered out of the country hours after its opening match, with staff denied U.S. visas.
Source: The Associated Press
June 15, 2026
National Park Service crews scrub algae from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool days after a $15 million no-bid renovation painted it blue.
Source: WUSA Washington
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Trump declares Washington's federally funded July 4 celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary "the most spectacular Trump rally of them all."
Source: Axios
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Two rural Tennessee communities pause data center development to write grid, water, and pollution rules first, after the industry targeted them expecting little local resistance.
Source: Route Fifty
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Preservation groups sue to block Trump's planned 250-statue National Garden of American Heroes in West Potomac Park, citing a congressional ban on new monuments in the Mall's core.
Source: ABC News
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