Your Curated Morning (#225)for January 29, 2026 is Here!
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Welcome to Curated Morning. A compendium of news, information, and stories that economic development professionals, community development leaders and elected officials read every week to stay in touch with what is happening in our economy. The Main Thing:I was almost kicked out of sixth grade. I, along with a few of my other classmates, tormented our sixth-grade teacher to the point where she had had enough. I misbehaved, but in my defense, it was nothing serious, at least in my mind. I settled down and managed to get myself to high school by quieting down in middle school, simply being an unfocused student, and avoiding the vice-principals and the paddle (yes, they handed out corporal punishment in the 70s). In high school, I found my mojo: Football and Student Council. It saved me. By the time I graduated with the “Most Outstanding High School Student” award at my high school, the local newspaper, the Rockford Register Star, published an Editorial about me. I am not flexing here to show you how important I am; after all, this all occurred forty-seven years ago. Yikes! That is a big number…No, my point is that the local paper paid attention to the little things, like a student who made things happen in his school. My tenure as a student leader in high school taught me many things. It taught me how to organize projects and activities, and it showed me how alliances and relationships can make or break your goals or desires. Leadership, organizing, alliance and relationship building, understanding power structures, and comprehending how decisions are made by those in power were all part of my early lessons on leadership. Understanding these concepts and the accountability the media offers, particularly local journalism, is important to the fabric of our culture and can impact your economic development efforts. At least it once did. I believe we have lost that knowledge and accountability. My blog post this week explores why this matters and what we can do to reclaim it. As for my sixth-grade teacher, after the editorial appeared extolling my accomplishments, the teacher sent me a nice card. In the card, she basically said she would never have believed it had someone told her this is where she ended up… she was seriously expecting I would end up in Juvinele hall or worse. AnnouncementStarting in February, Curated Morning will revert to a twice a month newsletter. New editions will be sent on the second and fourth Thursday of every month. For 225 weeks I have sent out this newsletter without but its time to change the pace. I appreciate the loyal readers and know that your time is valuable, therefore the change will provide the same amount of information but condensed into twice a month. Thank You, the Management Focus On AIFocus on AI Federal Showdown: States Dig In on AI Rules Despite Trump's Preemption Push President Trump signed an executive order in mid-December attempting to override state artificial intelligence laws, arguing that a patchwork of differing regulations threatens American dominance in the global AI race. The order establishes an AI Litigation Task Force to bring court challenges against states with AI-related laws and directs the Commerce Department to notify states that they could lose federal broadband funding under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program if their regulations conflict with national AI priorities. It’s the playbook this administration has repeatedly tried to use: Follow our mandates and agree with us, or lose funding that's already been approved and appropriated. However, state lawmakers from both parties are pushing back hard, continuing to file AI legislation for the 2026 sessions and arguing that the president lacks constitutional authority to supersede state law. States including California, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and South Dakota, which have already enacted comprehensive AI frameworks addressing consumer protection, workplace impacts, and algorithmic bias, show no signs of backing down despite the federal threats. Legal experts widely expect the order to face successful court challenges, calling it "hot air" without actual preemptive authority unless Congress passes legislation restricting state action. Why This Matters: This escalating federal-state conflict creates immediate complications for economic development professionals navigating AI infrastructure opportunities and technology sector recruitment. The regulatory uncertainty affects data center site selection decisions, with developers hesitating to commit to locations where AI regulations might face federal litigation or where states might lose critical broadband infrastructure funding. Communities that positioned themselves as AI-friendly jurisdictions by avoiding state-level regulations now face potential competitive advantages, while those in states with comprehensive AI laws must contend with both compliance frameworks and the possibility that those frameworks could be invalidated or trigger federal funding losses. The BEAD funding threat is particularly significant. States like Texas could lose access to $3.3 billion in broadband expansion funds if federal officials deem their AI laws "onerous." For economic developers in a state like Texas, this creates a dual challenge: maintaining credibility with AI companies while protecting billions in federal infrastructure investments that undergird broader economic competitiveness. The tension also signals that AI regulation will remain unsettled for years, requiring economic development strategies that can adapt to evolving federal-state dynamics rather than betting on any single regulatory outcome. Take Action: Here are several things that you might consider doing:
Read States will keep pushing AI laws despite Trump’s efforts to stop them by Madyson Fitzgerald | RouteFifty. More Articles on AI: Department of Commerce approves Nvidia H200 chip exports to China by Rebecca Szkutak | TechCrunch -- Advanced Nvidia AI chips can head back to China after all. The Department of Commerce will allow Nvidia to ship H200 chips to China, as originally reported by Semafor, to approved customers in the country. The U.S. will take a 25% cut of these sales, CNBC reported. Other Articles of Interest this week:Data Centers -- Data center ‘gold rush’ pits local officials’ hunt for new revenue against residents’ concerns by Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder | RouteFifty -- Without state regulations to guide them, Georgia counties are taking vastly different approaches to managing the surge in data center proposals. Green Economy -- How Apple is moving its Supply Chain Toward Clean Energy by Heather Clancy | Trellis -- So far, the tech giant has helped eight companies move toward solar and wind power. The latest commitment, by Jabil, represents the largest pledge yet. Technology-- The future of affordable EVs: Breakthroughs in battery pack costs by Clemens Cepnik and Martin Linder with Andreas Haunreiter and Luca Buscaglione | McKinsey & Company Center for Future Mobilty - The shift from internal combustion engines to battery electric vehicles is currently challenged. Achieving cost parity through battery pack cost reduction is key to continuing exponential growth. Housing -- New Jersey towns hit another wall in fight against state’s affordable housing mandate by Ryan Kushner | SmartCitiesDive -- A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit a coalition of 27 localities filed over New Jersey’s affordable housing law. The towns vow to keep fighting. Leadership Lessons:How to BUILD Team Spirit Look, I know what you're thinking: "Not another Cubs reference, Martin." But hear me out—the 2016 World Series champions taught us something about leadership that has nothing to do with breaking curses or goat-related superstitions. Occasionally, I come across a video post of the last inning of the Cubs' win in game seven against Cleveland. I always get emotional. (Then I ask myself, why do I get so verklempt watching 20-year-old-something millionaires throw a little hardball around? Will cover that in another newsletter edition, when I figure it out.) When the Cubs were in contention, they adopted a simple ritual: celebrate each win for 30 minutes, mourn each loss for 30 minutes, then focus on the next game. That's it. No extended victory laps. No dwelling in defeat. Just enough time to feel the moment, learn from it, and move forward together. As someone who still gets emotional thinking about that Game 7, I can tell you this wasn't about baseball—it was about building the psychological glue that holds any high-performing team together. And that's exactly what Leigh Thompson explores in her Psyche guide on building team spirit. Thompson, a professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, makes a crucial distinction: team spirit isn't some mystical quality that certain groups just happen to have. It's trust. It's the belief that your contributions matter and your teammates have your back. And like physical fitness, you can lose it if you ignore it, but you can rebuild it with the right practices. Here's what caught my attention for economic development professionals: Start with a team charter. Thompson recommends answering three questions: What's our goal? Who's doing what? How will we work together? She worked with a product-launch team that was missing deadlines and duplicating work. Within hours of creating a charter, they were back on track. Sound familiar? How many of your projects suffer from unclear goals or duplicated efforts? The second concept that resonates is encouraging healthy conflict. Thompson calls it the "boxing ring and campfire" approach. Set aside time for team members to debate ideas openly (the boxing ring), then follow it with a few minutes to reaffirm shared purpose (the campfire). Healthy conflict focuses on ideas, not identities. We need more of this in our field, where political sensitivities often keep us from having the hard conversations. And then there's that Cubs ritual, what Thompson calls "celebrating the wins and mourning the losses together." Economic development work is full of both. We land a major project or we lose a company to another state. We secure funding or watch it evaporate. The teams that bounce back are the ones that acknowledge both emotions, learn from them, and redirect their energy toward what's ahead. The underlying message is simple: team spirit is aall about building mutual trust and respect that makes people care about the work and about one another. it isn't about forced bonding exercises or muffling disagreement. Read How to Build Team Spirit by Leigh Thompson in Psyche to understand how to transform your group of individuals into a team that's connected, motivated, and proud of what they accomplish together. And yes, Go Cubs Go. Always. Overheard:“The real question is, when will we draft an artificial intelligence bill of rights? What will that consist of? And who will get to decide that?”
—Gray Scott
The Rabbit Hole:Four-hundred million. No, four hundred million isn’t the latest free agency salary for your favorite baseball player. It’s not Elon Musk’s 2025 bonus either; his was much bigger. And it’s not the number of stars in the universe. That last line was made up. For context, astronomers estimate that there are about 1 septillion (10^24) stars in the observable universe. This huge number comes from multiplying the 100 billion estimated galaxies by their hundreds of billions of stars. The total is so vast, it rivals or even exceeds all the grains of sand on Earth. As telescopes improve, these estimates keep changing. Actually, four hundred million is the number of metric tons of plastic produced worldwide each year. So, where does all that plastic end up? Plastics are everywhere in our daily lives. My keyboard and headphones are made of plastic. Looking at my wooden desk, I’d guess that 80 to 90 percent of what’s on it is plastic. The main problem is that plastics often can’t be recycled effectively, and microplastics are becoming more common. Are we doomed? Maybe, but there is still some hope. This video from The Hustle (by Hubspot Media) might make you squirm, but it also offers some hope. There are some truly innovative companies and efforts working to solve the plastics problem. From new bio-plastics that can be recycled more easily to the 'break/block build' approach, we get a look at what the world is doing about the 400 million tons of plastic produced each year. Companies like Carbios (enzymatic recycling), Ioniqa (PET upcycling), Ocean Cleanup (marine debris removal), CLEANR (microplastic filtration), Polymateria (biodegradable plastics), and others are developing new ways to help. But, as with most things, these solutions need to be scaled up and supported by the right incentives. Try everything twice by Hannah Seo | Psych -- Are you set in your ways? Did you give that restaurant with bad service a second chance the first time you went there? Did you try reading that book by the author you claim you didn’t like? This short essay might give pause to your stubbornness. Thanks for Subscribing and Reading If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter, please feel free to share it with them. If someone forwarded this to you and you would like to subscribe, you can do so by clicking below. All the cool people are doing it!
Let's work together!With over three decades of experience in economic development, public administration, and small business, I can now bring my expertise to benefit you. What are the issues facing your community? What obstacles are you facing in growing your business? Let's work on this together. While I am experienced in a wide variety of sectors and issues, here is where my interests lie, and thus where I can benefit you most:
If you have any thoughts or comments regarding any articles in this newsletter please feel free to contact me through email at martin@martinkarlconsulting.com. You can review my services and offerings at www.martinkarlconsulting.com |