Turner Broadcasting System

Federal prosecutors have charged Fort Bend County, Texas tax assessor-collector Carmen Turner, deputy tax clerk Shemerrylyn Fields, and Victor Ewing—father of Turner's adult son—with running a payroll fraud scheme from September 2023 to September 2025. The Department of Justice alleges Turner used the tax office payroll to pay Fields to care for her elderly mother and installed Ewing in a fabricated "department coordinator" role, despite his working full-time at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. Investigators say Ewing clocked in remotely while on duty at the airport and funneled kickback payments to Turner via bank transfers and Cash App. A fourth co-conspirator is reportedly cooperating with federal investigators.

Onondaga County, New York officials are getting ahead of possible data center development, even as a statewide one-year moratorium on such projects remains in effect. County Executive Ryan McMahon said Central New York's available water, power, and land make it attractive to data center developers, and he wants local communities prepared with the right questions before deals are struck.

At the New York State Association of Counties' fall forum, McMahon consulted with Michael Turner, an official from Loudoun County, Virginia—home to the nation's largest cluster of data centers. Turner urged county leaders to set clear standards around six key impact areas: noise, power, water use, emissions, setback, and appearance, and to negotiate tax structures and community benefit agreements before approving projects. County officials are compiling a study on data center impacts, expected to be released publicly in about four months. McMahon said the county's primary economic development focus remains high-tech manufacturing, particularly the Micron Technology project, but officials are not ignoring the broader data center boom reshaping communities nationwide.