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Updates from Howard Strategic Partners and across our portfolio.
Knox County Commission, June 22, 2026: A One-Year Data Center Moratorium and a Full Library Board Turnover
Nearly five hours, eighteen items, and one of the last full calendars this body will work before the September handoff. The Commission passed a one-year data center moratorium, raising the covered threshold to ten megawatts and referring the matter to the Planning Commission the same night. It filled four Library Advisory Board seats after a long round of interviews and organized public comment. It amended the Sheriff's Office merit rules, moved a stack of HUD and community-development contracts along a familiar split, and sent Commissioner Frazier off with a farewell devotional. As with May, the useful read is the pattern across the decisions, not the items one at a time.
Read articleWashington Shut Down the Most Powerful AI Model. Hype Did It.
Why the government pulled Anthropic's Fable 5 offline, why hyped new AI models are barely better than the last, and why smaller, cheaper models do most of the real work for a business.
Read articleKnox County Commission, May 18, 2026: The First Meeting After the Primary
Thirteen days after the May 5 primary, the Commission worked through a $361,000 sheriff's office construction contract, a data center resolution that arrived in one form and passed in another, an institutional landlord ordinance with a drafting problem, three failed second-reading ordinances, and a proclamation that never made it to a vote. The useful read is the pattern across the items, not the items individually.
Read articleThe Knox County Data Center Rules, and the Memphis Disaster They're Designed to Prevent
Knox County is writing new zoning rules for data centers, driven by what happened in Memphis last year. A look at the resolution before the commission, the threshold question, and where the rules should land.
Read articleCapital Without Operations Is Just a Check
Private equity has mastered financial engineering but neglected operations, a gap that becomes fatal in the lower-middle market.
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