A rural Arkansas school district was hemorrhaging $250,000 a year and couldn't keep teachers. So residents voted to take out a $5.4 million bond, upgrade every building in the district, and install 1,400 solar panels.
Three years later, the deficit flipped to a $1.8 million surplus.
The project wasn't just solar. Energy efficiency upgrades across all six schools, new lighting, HVAC systems, windows, and thermostats cut energy consumption by 1.6 million kilowatts annually.
The panels, some installed as a canopy at the school entrance and some on unused district land, generated enough excess electricity that the district started selling it back to the grid. Monthly utility bills dropped from $17,000 to $4,000.
The school board voted to put the savings into paychecks. Teachers saw raises averaging $2,000 to $3,000 a year, with some receiving up to $15,000 depending on tenure.
Batesville went from one of the lowest-paying districts in Arkansas to one of the highest-paying in its county. Resignations slowed and applications went up.
Taxpayers funded the upfront cost through the bond. The savings paid it back and then some. "Batesville has reduced the checks they write to utilities," said the energy company that managed the project, "and increased the checks they write to teachers."
At least 20 nearby districts have since copied the model. Nine thousand schools across the US now run on solar. Batesville was the first to route the savings directly into teacher salaries.
Sony is currently charging $70 for God of War Ragnarok digitally. It is $32 at Wal-Mart. The game is 4 years old.
People will no longer have options after 2028 and will HAVE to go directly to Sony’s digital storefront and pay whatever PlayStation says.
Can everyone just step back and realize how insane it is that the US Supreme Court had to rule on the constitutionality of the US CONSTITUTION and the vote to uphold the Constitution wasn't unanimous!!!
They will NOT make a billionaire contribute to the basic needs of the community BUT they will make the whole community bear the electrical, water, and building costs of a data center owned by a billionaire.
We are PRIVATE citizens, the government should know very little if anything about us at all.
They are PUBLIC officials, we should know damn near everything about what they are doing.
The cameras are pointed the wrong way.
Police secretly call ICE on U.S. citizen during traffic stop—for having a suspicious "dark-skinned" passenger.
Officer told woman to drive to secluded highway exit—then ICE agents surround car guns drawn.
"You can hear an agent yell 'gun!'" she said.
"They wanted to kill us."
"We have no weapons, not even a small knife."
Agents then take her phone out of her hands and throw it away—while threatening more violence.
Police claim the woman driving had a suspended license—and told her she had to exit the highway and park.
Incident occurred at exit 26 off the I-10 in Salome, Arizona.
D. Quintana doesn't have an account on this platform—so posting first credited video here to help her raise awareness.
DEA agents in New Mexico let major fentanyl shipments go unseized and allowed the pills to stay in circulation to build cases for years.
A whistleblower says that at least 1.8 million pills went unseized during one investigation.
That's an insane amount.
The DEA says its decisions were "lawful" and "consistent" with Justice Department guidance.
It's "lawful" and "consistent" of them to accept risks to vulnerable communities as collateral damage so they can build bigger prosecutions, and then they'll cite the crisis to justify more police funding and more police militarization.
James Robison
What Joyce Carol Oates wrote to Elon Musk on Twitter. I am told it rattled him. I love it.
“So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates – scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the ‘most wealthy person in the world.’”
They never found a single Haitian immigrant eating cats and dogs.
They never identified the two pilots who were supposedly shot down and rescued.
They never produced the evidence that the 2020 election was stolen.
And they’re never going to find the Reflecting Pool slasher.
MAGA is a bunch of fucking idiots who will literally believe anything.
Both these headlines are from Texas this month.
Texas sentenced anti-ICE protestors to 100 years in prison, but a serial pedophile to only 30 days. This is MAGA exemplified.
Delivered by C‑section from her dead mother's body. 23 years old. 'israel' bombed and killed her. Buried them under rubble. The baby girl was named after her. Doctors gave her a 50/50 chance of survival. She died 5 days later and was buried next to her mum.
Check the date.
#BREAKING: Legendary #Maddow: “In Surprise Arizona…you’re going to think I’m making this up, but I’m not making this up. The people in Surprise, Arizona who are fighting the potential Trump prison camp they want to put there. Those folks are SO ANNOYED with their city council not helping them stop this thing, that those local residents are now advancing an effort to literally DISSOLVE THE CITY of Surprise, Arizona, to unincorporate the city specifically so there won’t be a city council anymore, so the city council won’t be in their way as they continue to fight the Trump prison camp and therefore they can fight this thing harder.” 😳😂
Morty: Capitalism gives everyone a chance to get rich if they just work hard enough.
Rick: Oh my god, Morty! Capitalism doesn't work if everyone wins. It needs poverty to function. Someone has to take the low-paying jobs so the profits keep flowing upward. If everyone had real financial security, no one would take those positions and the system would collapse.
Morty: But Rick, that's just how the market works. Some people earn more because they provide more value.
Rick: Tell that to the kid assembling your iPhone overseas for pennies while some CEO makes millions off it. Capitalism doesn't reward work, it rewards ownership. You don't climb the ladder by working hard, you climb it by owning the ladder. The workers collectively produce infinitely more value than some shareholder living in the Bahamas.
Morty: Okay, but isn't it about freedom People can still move up if they make good choices. Look at people who came from nothing and became successful, like entrepreneurs or celebrities.
Rick: Those are exceptions, idiot. That's why they're on TV. For every one person who makes it out, millions stay stuck because they never had the same luck, connections, or safety nets. The system needs those stories so people believe it's fair.