Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
(InvestigateTV) — Housing digital data is changing communities nationwide. InvestigateTV+ uncovers how the warehouses can push a power grid to its breaking point, and the solutions to keep residents from paying the price. Then, we take an in-depth look at how scammers are impersonating merchants and stealing billions of taxpayer dollars that were meant to help families. Plus, after losing the ability to speak clearly, one woman creates a community of hope. Data centers continue to push Phoenix area’s power grid to the limit The Phoenix area is a hub for a new kind of high-tech business. They are called data centers, and they serve as storage facilities for online information, including photos, videos, spreadsheets, files, and nearly everything that modern humans don’t store on their own phones or computers. “All of that data that we’re using has to be stored somewhere,” said Kevin Thompson, who is the chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission. He says the speed at which data centers began popping up across the Valley and the state is alarming. “I think it took everyone by surprise,” said Thompson. Roughly 140 are operating today, with dozens more waiting in the wings. These are not ordinary “9 to 5″ businesses; they are large. Some are taking up as much acreage as entire neighborhoods. They consume large amounts of electricity and water 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Families suffer as $12 billion stolen from food assistance programs, USDA says The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suspects taxpayer dollars stolen from government food assistance accounts are severely underreported, estimating the real number reaches about $12 billion annually. Our investigators spoke with the USDA’s lead investigator for federal food assistance fraud in a rare sit-down interview. “They’re taking it to the next level every day,” said Mark Haskins, branch chief of the special investigations unit for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. Haskins said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) fraud has been increasing, but hit all-time highs since January. Rare voice disorder leaves patients struggling to speak Imagine waking up one day, opening your mouth to speak, but what you hear is an unrecognizable voice. Words that once came easily are now strained and labored, or they don’t come out at all. Known as spasmodic dysphonia, it’s a rare neurological disorder that causes involuntary spasms in the vocal cords. For decades, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has suffered from the condition. While the cause is not known and there is no cure, there are ways to help manage it. Wisconsin father, son work together to build a reputation one handcrafted instrument at a time Inside a small town woodworking shop in Hollandtown, Wis., it’s safe to say Bruce Petros has found his niche. “I’ve been doing this for 52 years,” Petros said. “We’re trying to have a lasting, lasting beauty in instrument.” Over five decades ago, while working as a tour guide in Colorado, contemplating what he would do for a career, Bruce purchased a guitar kit at a small shop. “It was like $15, and I took it back to the resort where I was living,” Bruce recalled. “Put it together and looked at it and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is really cool. I can do this!’” After starting his guitar-building career in the basements of rental homes, the Appleton-native found an opportunity to move his family to Hollandtown. “We bought this place and tore down this garage and built the shop,” Bruce said. The building and growth haven’t stopped since, with Bruce building his Petros Guitars brand into a well-known, well-oiled machine supplying both guitars and ukuleles -- an addition to the brand that started after a trip to Hawaii. “I went to Hawaii and met up with these guys at one of the biggest ukulele stores in the world and showed them these two instruments and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll sell those for you,’” Bruce explained. “He sold them the next day. He goes, ‘You got to keep sending them to us,’ so we got really busy and sort of stopped taking guitar orders because we’re just so busy making ukuleles which is really fun.” The ‘we’ Bruce is referring to is his partner in the shop and eventual heir to the Petros throne, his son, Matt. Submit story tips to our Investigators Share errors or concerns with our Digital Editors Watch full episodes of InvestigateTV+ Subscribe to the InvestigateTV YouTube Channel
