A Family Donated Land for a Park. It Was Sold for $10M to Build a Data Center.

mt   Read Online | July 28, 2026 | E-Paper | 🎧 Listen “He who jumps for the moon and gets it not leaps higher than he who stoops for a penny in the mud.” — Howard Pyle Ivan Pentchoukov National Editor Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Here are today’s top stories. A Texas family deeded 87 acres of land to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation in 1999 for use as a park for $10. The land was eventually resold for $10 million for the construction of a data center. Deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Syrians living in the United States expired at the stroke of midnight last night. President Trump will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House today, marking the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since the start of the war with Iran in February. The war in Iran is expected to be the primary issue discussed by the leaders. A top Iranian official issued a warning to Ukraine after that country’s military attacked one of Tehran’s vessels in the Caspian Sea as the Middle Eastern conflict threatened to spill over into Europe. 🍵 Health: If you’re over 60, feeling tired all the time, have tingling in your hands and feet, and a cold you just can’t shake, it’s easy to chalk it up to getting older. But there’s a good chance the real culprit is a vitamin you may not be absorbing. Pamela Griffin stands at the site of a potential Data Center in Taylor, Texas, on July 2, 2026. (Cathlin McCullough for The Epoch Times) A Texas Family Donated Land for a Park. It Was Then Sold for $10 Million to Build a Data Center. The sun blazed down on the field stretching into the distance behind Pamela Griffin’s house in July, just as it has every summer for decades. Molasses flowed quicker than change happened in this town of about 18,000 outside of Austin—until Big Tech came calling, creating a surge in residents and development. The field evoked childhood memories for Griffin and her family, who are black. Her relatives have lived in the neighborhood since her grandmother bought the land that was outside of town. Back in the 1960s, racial minorities weren’t allowed to buy property in the city, she said. But now those memories are likely to be bulldozed. Last year, when local organizers knocked on Griffin’s door, she learned that the field bordering her property would be used for a data center. “In this neighborhood, nobody had ever heard of a data center,” she told The Epoch Times. Griffin began researching and didn’t like what she found. She felt gobsmacked. She never received notice from the city. She learned that dozens of acres where she had played and camped with her siblings as a girl were slated to be replaced by large, noisy industrial buildings. Her neighbors were surprised and scared by the development, too, she said. “A lot of them don’t have money. A lot of them are old people, handicapped people, low-income, single moms, single dads,” she said. “They can’t afford to move anywhere, and they’re upset, and they didn’t know how to fight.” According to the city, the Bland family deeded 87 acres of land to the Texas Parks and Recreation Foundation in 1999 for use as a park for $10. Eventually, the property was sold to the City of Taylor for $10. The city then transferred it to the Taylor Economic Development Corp. in 2009 in exchange for $15,000 and 39 acres elsewhere. The corporation then sold the majority of the land in 2025 for $10 million to develop a data center. The $1 billion center, to be developed by Blueprint Data Centers, is projected to bring $30 million to the city’s coffers and another $20 million to schools, according to the city. The city claims the provision stating that the property was to be held in trust for parkland was not a deed restriction—a claim that town activists and Griffin’s attorney have challenged. (More) Sponsored by Health Sciences Institute MAHA M.D. proves the “PLANDEMIC” is REAL* This MAHA doctor's viral video not only confirms the COVID pandemic was built on lies… But he's holding undeniable proof the next “PLANDEMIC” is starting now. Before it comes for your family SEE HIS MESSAGE HERE.* Watch Now ➜ U.S. President Donald Trump pumps his fist toward the audience after speaking at General Motors’ Milford Proving Grounds in Milford, Mich., on July 27, 2026. Trump is expected to address US auto manufacturing, tariffs and show support for Republican candidates ahead of the August 4 primary during the visit. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) POLITICS President Donald Trump became the first commander in chief to visit General Motors’ Milford Proving Ground outside of Detroit on Monday before telling a crowd of supporters his policies are correcting years of damage done to the American automobile industry by prior administrations. President Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift a lower court order blocking key parts of his executive order restricting voting by mail. The Epoch Times obtained a copy of the new emergency application in Trump v. State of California, in which the federal government argues that the lower courts ruled incorrectly. A federal appeals court ruled on July 27 that the Department of Justice can release audio recordings and transcripts of former President Joe Biden’s conversations that he had with a ghostwriter for his 2017 memoir. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he is undergoing physical therapy as part of an effort to get well enough to resume his Senate duties. Two small businesses have filed a lawsuit to block new tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on dozens of trading partners. Former FBI Director James Comey formally asked a federal district court in North Carolina to dismiss the indictment charging him with threatening President Donald Trump. Comey argues in the new motion to dismiss that when he posted a photo on social media with seashells arranged to read “86 47,” he was making a political statement in opposition to Trump, and not making what lawyers call a true threat against him. LATEST NEWS Cracker Barrel is replacing CEO Julie Felss Masino following an ill-fated effort to give the Southern-themed restaurant chain a modern look. A sudden loss of smell or a metallic taste in the mouth may be an underreported side effect of GLP-1 drugs, according to a recent study tracking more than 870,000 adults with Type 2 diabetes, the largest look yet at a possible link between the blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes medications and changes in smell and taste. Advertiser's Note: The Biggest AI Opportunity No One is Talking About. AI made one person capable of doing the work of ten. Nobody built them a workspace for it. Until Immersed. Immersed’s software and lightweight headset let professionals replace physical monitors with multiple virtual displays, collaborate with teammates, and work alongside an AI assistant in a virtual office they can take anywhere. 1.5M+ users on the platform, and 75,000+ people have joined the waitlist for Visor. Less than 72 hours left to invest before the round closes on July 30.** Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham (L) walks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (R) at a naval base in Portsmouth, England, on July 27, 2026. (Aaron Chown/POOL/AFP/Getty Images) WORLD Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the UK on July 27 for talks with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, becoming the first foreign leader to visit the country since Burnham took office a week ago. Newly appointed British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said on July 26 that Europe will one day thank U.S. President Donald Trump for “shaking us out of our complacency” on defense spending. The investigation of former China Securities Regulatory Commission Vice Chairman Fang Xinghai is fueling speculation that Beijing’s latest anti-corruption campaign is increasingly targeting technocrats whose market-oriented views diverge from Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s political priorities. A 31-year-old man armed with two knives stabbed three women in northwestern Paris on the morning of July 27, the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Local French media have reposted a social media video showing the alleged suspect, pinned to the ground and appearing disoriented, quietly saying: “It is Allah who ordered me.” Brazil recalled its ambassador from Buenos Aires on July 26, a day after Argentinian President Javier Milei insulted the country’s leader at a São Paulo rally. Speaking at the Liberal Party conference on July 25, to officially launch Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy for president, Milei indirectly referred to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a “thief” and called his administration “socialist trash.” The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was fired from his post on July 24 after member states voted to remove him for “serious misconduct and serious breach of duty.” IRAN WAR President Donald Trump touted on Monday successes in the war against Iran, saying that the United States was having “good talks” with the country but warned strikes could easily resume. Iran said on Monday that the regime did not ask to resume peace talks with the United States and reiterated it maintained control of the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump paused a series of military strikes. Commercial traffic through the Bab el Mandeb Strait fell to its lowest level in months on July 26, shipping data showed, as Yemen’s Houthi forces continued attacks and threats against Saudi-linked shipping despite a pause in U.S.–Iran military strikes.   OPINION Fentanyl’s Deadly Successor Emerges—by Paul J. Larkin (Read) Remembering R. James Woolsey: An American Statesman—by Lamont Colucci (Read) Polls Say China Is More Popular, but the World Still Chooses America—by Antonio Graceffo (Read) The Permitting Problem Blocking America’s Industrial Comeback—by William Ford (Read) The Lessons the World Never Stops Teaching—by Armstrong Williams (Read) The Case Against the Garbage Disposal—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read) Would We Still Climb Into the Wagon?—by Mollie Engelhart (Read) Cropped image of the the bell-tower of Rostov Kremlin, 1682-1689, Rostov Veliky, Yarioslavl oblast. Rachmaninoff's opening chords of his Prelude mimic church bells tolling. (Ludvig14/CC BY-SA 4.0) 🎵 Music: Rachmaninoff’s most popular work reveals his staunch dedication to Romanticism. (Read & Listen) 🎙️ China Watch: A sacked Chinese hydroelectric executive. A leaked analysis of what a full collapse of the Three Gorges Dam would look like. One key number is missing. (Listen) 🎙️ Podcast: On the Ground in Post-Maduro Venezuela | Marcos Schotgues (Listen) ⏰ (Sponsored) Less than 72 hours to invest in Immersed at $0.79 before the round closes on July 30. 10,000+ investors in, including previous Intel CEO and SailPoint Founder & CEO. Partners include Google, Samsung, and Meta. Last call to invest.** ARTS & CULTURE The largest and most opulent of Newport's Gilded Age mansions, The Breakers, sits on 13 acres overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. (The Preservation Society of Newport County) The Breakers: Grace and Grandeur At the pinnacle of American society’s Gilded Age, few figures embodied the duality and competing impulses of the era more vividly than two sisters-in-law. While Alva Vanderbilt Belmont wielded wealth as an instrument of power, Alice Vanderbilt could not have been more different. Alice was, in many ways, the conscience of the Gilded Age Vanderbilts. Born into a prominent but modest Cincinnati family with roots stretching back to early colonial America, she brought to the Vanderbilt dynasty something no amount of money could buy: genuine grace. As her sister-in-law Alva Vanderbilt maneuvered for headlines, Alice remained deliberately apart from it all, known to the press not for spectacle but for generosity and devotion to family. Her charitable work was considerable: She donated generously to the YMCA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and several New York churches. Faith shaped Alice’s life from early on. It was while teaching Sunday school at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church that she first met Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the man she would marry and stand beside as matriarch of America’s most powerful family for over six decades. Alice oversaw the construction of grand estates, including The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island. When Alva and William Kissam Vanderbilt commissioned Richard Morris Hunt to design Marble House, the result was a marble palace reminiscent of the White House, built over four years. The mortar had barely dried on its completion when Alice and Cornelius, president and chairman of the New York Central Railroad, hired Hunt for an even grander undertaking. (More) Today's Recipe 🎲 Games Spot the Difference is our readers’ favorite. Play it here. Play Spot the Difference Play more games at Epoch Fun ➞ Play Word Wipe Play Sweet Shuffle Play Freecell Play Blossom Word Play Today’s Hurdle Play Hidden Object ♥️ Support our mission and donate. 🎧 Prefer to listen? 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