How a small Wisconsin city scuttled a secretive $1.6bn datacenter project

Residents of Menomonie mounted a successful protest against a huge campus in the city as national resistance to the AI boom growsIn the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin.Weeks into the new job, she was invited to a meeting with consultants pitchin…