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Geopolitics enter the room as Thierry Carrez shows that there's more to Kubecon than AI

Kubecon  Sovereignty was a big topic was at last week's Kubecon, and Thierry Carrez, the General Manager of the OpenInfra Foundation, shared strong feelings around it that included raising the idea that tech companies might be forced by their countries' governments to deploy "kill switches."…

Community members will be celebrating Earth Day in downtown Santa Cruz along Pacific Avenue, Cooper Street and at Abbott Square Market from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 18.

The purpose of Earth Day Santa Cruz is to combine “hands-on learning opportunities for residents to learn how to properly sort waste, reduce food waste, and participate in local composting and recycling programs,” Community Development and Infrastructure spokesperson Tiffany Martinez told Lookout via phone. “That way people can come in person and have fun.”

Attendees will have the chance to connect with local organizations, explore practical ways to reduce waste and learn about programs that support environmental stewardship across Santa Cruz County.

The event will also feature live music by SambaDá, free face painting by Brenda’s Face Painting, a free photo booth from Show of Life Photobooth, a floral crown-making workshop hosted by the Santa Cruz Children’s Museum of Discovery and the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, and a children’s passport program.

“It’s a free, educational and family-friendly event,” Martinez said.

This year will mark the 56th year since Earth Day was founded in 1970. Santa Cruz has participated in each of those years.

This year, Earth Day Santa Cruz will feature two new events: a sing-along with Miss Brooke and Composting 101 workshops offered every half hour (sign up here).

It’s a rain-or-shine event, so participants are encouraged to dress for the weather. 

For more information and to learn how to get involved, visit https://earthdaysc.org/.

Have news that should be in Lookout Briefs? Send your news releases, including contact information, to news@lookoutlocal.com.

MORE LOCAL COVERAGE

The post Earth Day returns to downtown Santa Cruz appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Walled gardens make more sense when it's an AI-lligator infested swamp outside

Opinion  When the first M1 Apple Silicon systems sprouted at the end of 2020, we loved the tech but not the walled garden it grew in. Apple had complete control over all its platforms and could set its own rules, but only to become more Apple-y. There was a whole world outside that area where Apple Silicon would never tread, even if Cupertino could iterate fast enough to keep up. Plus, Apple's appliance sensibility limited its expansion options, especially with performance dependent on its own silicon. …

Whoever is elected this fall as governor and state superintendent of public instruction will face a new reality for California education.

The changing of the guard after the eight-year term limits for Gov. Gavin Newsom and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond will likely coincide with a belt-tightening period for the state budget, forcing tough choices for the next governor. 

A consolation prize, however, could be more authority over the California Department of Education. Newsom is proposing to shift control of the department’s operations to a new education commissioner appointed by the next governor — an arrangement common among states. The shift would diminish the power of the state superintendent, who’d be relieved of managing the education bureaucracy while remaining the state’s elected advocate-in-chief of education. 

Over the past six years, amid a burst of state revenue, Newsom and the Legislature enacted multibillion-dollar programs that redefined TK-12. They expanded TK-12 with transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds and lengthened the school day through expanded learning. Money for apprenticeships and career pathways created post-high school opportunities, and community schools broadened connections with parents and neighborhood health services.

But the era of large-scale programs will be Newsom’s legacy, not his successor’s. Circumstances beyond the next governor’s control — continuing declines in enrollment and revenues, probably retreating to historical levels, forcing additional school closures, with a recession looming — will temper ambitions of what more can be done for California’s students.

And then there are sounds of frustration, growing louder from the picket line to the school boardroom to the hallways of Sacramento. Districts are complaining that the rollout of ambitious programs, with accompanying reporting requirements and regulations, has diverted their attention and strained their budgets.

David Roth, superintendent of Buckeye Union School District, which serves 4,200 TK-8 students in El Dorado County, was emphatic. “We don’t need new programs,” he said. Adding more, he said, would result in continued labor strife over pay raises that many districts argue they can’t afford, and “an inability to maintain the programs we have.”

Roth’s message, reiterated by others, is that schools should get back to basics, as in base funding — the portion of the state’s funding formula intended to cover general operating expenses. They want the Legislature and the next governor to make raising base funding the No. 1 priority.

Roth established Raise the Base Coalition, a website that lays out the challenge of rising costs. Forty districts have signed up so far; they are primarily suburban districts with fewer-than-average high-needs students, and therefore receive less “supplemental” and “concentration” funding under the state’s Local Control Funding Formula and other programs with similar distributions.

Opposition to equity is not the issue, Roth said. “Even districts with above-median funding are struggling to keep pace with rising costs.” When there is more money to cover basic expenses, he added, all districts benefit.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Last month, school board presidents and members from 10 districts, mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area, made the same point while calling for, among other things, adjustments to the funding formula to reflect regional costs.

“As those entrusted with ensuring the long-term financial viability and educational success of our public schools, we write to sound the alarm about the profound, widespread fiscal challenges districts across the state are facing,” they wrote.

At first glance, their complaints might invoke little sympathy. From 2018-19, the year preceding COVID-19, through 2024-25, funding rose 53% through Proposition 98, the formula that sets the minimum share of state revenue for TK-12 and community colleges. Per student funding from the state will rise to more than $20,000, a record.

But several factors squeezing districts’ spending will likely escalate in the coming years, demanding the next governor’s attention.

Declining enrollment: The California Department of Finance projects the nearly decade-long statewide decline in enrollment to accelerate, with an additional 10% drop by 2033-34, bringing the total to 5.2 million students. Most districts will feel it, with enrollment losses of up to 20% in some Los Angeles County districts.

Districts receive funding based on the average number of students who attend school daily over the course of a year. Adding transitional kindergarten has propped up attendance, but now that TK is fully phased in, the average daily attendance decline will bite harder in many districts.

Special education: The percentage of students with disabilities has risen from 13% in 2018-19 to 15% in 2023-24, even as overall enrollment has declined. Newsom is proposing to add $500 million next year to equalize state special education funding among districts, but the overall trend has not favored districts. The federal share of total special education funding in California, never close to the 40% share that Congress envisioned 50 years ago when passing the federal special education mandate, has fallen steadily over the past decade, as has the state’s share of dedicated funding. 

Districts will continue to be responsible for the shortfall. Districts’ share of special education costs has risen from 51% in 2014 to 63% last year, according to School Services of California, a statewide consulting company, and higher in some small districts.

Placer County Office of Education Superintendent Gayle Garbolino-Mojica said that unexpected special education costs have forced three of her districts onto the state’s financial watch list. Preschoolers are coming to school with serious special needs — autism, multiple disabilities, behavioral problems — “in numbers not seen before,” she said.

Inadequate cost-of-living adjustments: A 3% decline in a district’s attendance might not appear dramatic, but losing 3% of funding will be larger than the 2.41% cost-of-living adjustment that districts are projected to receive in 2026-27. And it’s larger than the 2.30% COLA they got this year and the 1.07% COLA in 2024-25. The state’s COLA is tied to a national formula of a basket of goods that doesn’t reflect the sharp rise in health insurance and the need to raise staff pay to retain teachers.

The state cushions the impact of a steadily declining enrollment by allowing districts to claim attendance over a three-year period. Without it, “we would be toast,” said Roth. But that’s not a long-term answer, he said. “We cannot adjust costs as quickly as we will lose revenue.” 

‘Declining enrollment dividend’

Because of Proposition 98’s funding guarantee, TK-12 and community colleges will continue to receive 40% of the state’s general revenue, yet districts collectively will receive fewer dollars as their enrollments drop. The unallotted difference, euphemistically called a “declining enrollment dividend,” could grow to $7.5 billion annually, providing a pot of discretionary funding for the Legislature and governor. How to spend it could prove one of the more contentious decisions in the coming years. Among the options:

• Switching from funding by attendance to funding by annual enrollment, a method favored especially by districts hardest hit by chronic absences.
• Adding a regional cost factor to the Local Control Funding Formula — a much-discussed idea over the years, but never adopted;
• Increasing the state’s share of special education expenses, benefiting all districts;
• Building in a permanent 4% annual COLA;
• Making permanent what has been sporadic among districts: funding professional development, starting with evidence-based instruction in early literacy and the new math framework.

Other issues

Plenty of important decisions won’t require more money. While it’s a fool’s errand to predict what future events will determine, what could crowd its way to the top of the list includes:

Restructuring the California Department of Education. If the Legislature approves Newsom’s plan as part of the next state budget, the department will fall under the authority of Newsom’s successor. That will be only the first step to untangling the current fractured system of school improvement and accountability. Like it or not, the next governor will take credit or blame for implementing programs the state superintendent of instruction had managed.

Resolving Miliani Rodriguez v. State of California. That’s the lawsuit the public interest law firm Public Advocates filed on behalf of 14 students, parents, and teachers in six school districts, challenging the first-come, first-served state formula for distributing billions of dollars to repair school facilities. If Newsom doesn’t settle what he has acknowledged favors wealthy districts, then the decision to defend or negotiate an end to an inequitable system falls to his successor.

Taking the lead on artificial intelligence. AI is a big, amorphous subject, enticing and forbidding, that has been left to districts to decipher and deal with vendors. The next California governor can call for all students to be AI-literate, said Chris Agnew, director of Generative AI for Education Hub at Stanford University, and ask fundamental questions like, “What are the core capacities we want to build in California students, and what are the research-backed learning experiences that build these capacities?”

Redesigning high schools. High schools face a challenge. Only 55% of California students report feeling connected to high school. In 2025, the Legislature budgeted $10 million for a Secondary School Redesign Pilot Program to establish 14 networks for high schools and middle schools in 57 districts. Some have been experimenting for years, while others are launching different models with team teaching, small-group learning to strengthen student relationships, and nontraditional scheduling to accommodate apprenticeships.

A seven-period day, driven by college course requirements and seat time regulations, is hard to change. But if, as State Board President Linda Darling-Hammond hopes, the results show “what it takes for students to be engaged and purposeful in a rapidly changing world,” the next governor should scale up the project, she said.

Getting serious about the achievement gap. Newsom’s big bets on improving students’ well-being and academic progress could bear fruit long term. But the California School Boards Association is demanding full attention now to narrowing persistent disparities in achievement between low-income and well-off students, and among racial and ethnic groups.

CSBA is pushing bills that would hold state agencies accountable for providing the annual metrics that they use to track how they are closing the achievement gap. A separate commission would weed out regulations and duplicate programs, and give a thumbs-down on new programs that would divert resources and energy from addressing the achievement gap.

The bills might not pass, at least as written, but the message is clear: A governor with a different agenda might be out of sync with the times. 

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post California’s next governor to face tough choices for education as state budget tightens appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Ofcom finds social media participation dropping as skepticism about digital life grows

British adults are now less active on social media, according to Ofcom, with just half of users actively posting, and fewer now believe the benefits outweigh the risks of being online.…

Rocket's new AI platform combines strategy, product building, and competitive intelligence, aiming to move beyond code generation.

The program invites creators to create original content with Picsart tools for a specific campaign, share it on their social channels, and earn revenue based on how their audience engages.

Customizations are causing pain so new cloud will stick to upstream cuts of the open source stack

LY Corporation, the Japanese web giant that dominates messaging, e-commerce and payments in many Asian countries, has revealed it is replacing a heavily-customized OpenStack cloud with a more conventional cut of the open source cloud stack – and making massive consolidations along the way.…

Broadcom's building the silicon and is chuffed about that, but also notes Anthropic remains a risk

Broadcom has announced that Google has asked it to build next-generation AI and datacenter networking chips, and that Anthropic plans to consume 3.5GW worth of the accelerators it delivers to the ads and search giant.…

Justin Moore, the second victim in the stabbing that occurred at the clocktower plaza in downtown Santa Cruz on March 21, died over the weekend, according to his mother, Terri Jekot. Moore, 42, had been on life support at Stanford University Medical Center for about two weeks until he was taken off this past weekend.

Justin Moore, 42, in the late 2000s after moving to California. Credit: Via Terri Jekot

“He was a very generous, caring, loving, giving person,” said Jekot, who recently returned to her Florida home. She said Moore left his home in Okeechobee for California around 2006, and had a goal to help the unhoused community.

“I got a couple of messages from a couple of young ladies that are homeless,” she said, “and they told me that when they became homeless as teenagers, he kept them safe.”

Moore was one of two victims stabbed near the clocktower plaza during the weekly meal distribution by nonprofit Food Not Bombs. Jekot said she has since stayed in touch with Santa Cruz police and a victim advocate.

Eyewitnesses told Lookout that they saw the two people stabbed by a man, who allegedly started the altercation. A Food Not Bombs volunteer said the confrontation began when the stabbing suspect, who was arrested and identified as 32-year-old Robert David Worel, cut the food line, angering the person behind him. A fistfight allegedly broke out shortly after, leading to Worel pulling a knife. 

It is unclear if Moore was the person behind Worel. The other victim, another man in his 40s, was released from the hospital several days after the incident.

Lookout has asked the Santa Cruz Police Department about how Worel’s case might change given Moore’s death, such as additional charges being filed. Department spokesperson Katie Lee said that no new information was immediately available, but that she would provide an update this week.

Jekot said her son suffered several serious health crises while on life support, including heart attacks and a seizure.

She said that she and Moore had grown apart after he left Florida. She said that Moore had run into some legal troubles over the years, mostly related to drugs and alcohol. Over time, she grew frustrated that Moore appeared to fall in with the wrong crowd.

“I’ll support you any way I can,” she said, “but once you go into jail, I’m sorry, that’s on you.” She added, however, that Moore did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the hospital.

Despite his troubles, Jekot said her son was a good person. 

“His goal was to keep young people safe from the harm of living on the street,” she said. “He was a good guy … into martial arts, surfing, skateboarding, and he just loved life.”

Have news that should be in Lookout Briefs? Send your news releases, including contact information, to news@lookoutlocal.com.

MORE LOCAL COVERAGE

The post One of two victims in clocktower stabbing dies after two weeks on life support appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

CUPS server shown spilling out remote code execution and root access

In the latest chapter on leaky CUPS, a security researcher and his band of bug-hunting agents have found two flaws that can be chained to allow an unauthenticated attacker to remotely execute code and achieve root file overwrite on the network.…

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Esta traducción fue generada utilizando inteligencia artificial y ha sido revisada por un hablante nativo de español; si bien nos esforzamos por lograr precisión, pueden ocurrir algunos errores de traducción. Para leer el artículo en inglés, haga clic aquí.

El Club de Mujeres Demócratas del Condado de Santa Cruz (DWC) respaldó a Ryan Coonerty para alcalde de Santa Cruz y a Scott Newsome y Renee Golder para el concejo municipal de los Distritos 4 y 6, respectivamente, durante el fin de semana tras un foro de candidatos en Capitola.

El foro abarcó todas las contiendas disputadas en el condado: alcalde de Santa Cruz, concejo municipal de los Distritos 4 y 6, y supervisor del condado del Distrito 4.

Sin embargo, el grupo no respaldó a un candidato para la contienda de supervisor del condado del Distrito 4, ya que el titular Felipe Hernandez y uno de sus contrincantes, Elias Gonzales, no estuvieron presentes en el foro del sábado por la mañana. Tony Nuñez, el tercer candidato para esta contienda, no fue considerado ya que no declaró una preferencia partidaria.

Parte de la razón por la que no se emitió un respaldo para la contienda de supervisor, según la presidenta del DWC Peggy Flynn, fue que los candidatos no asistieron, por lo que los miembros con derecho a voto no pudieron escuchar sus plataformas. Añadió que el foro de candidatos del sábado fue la única oportunidad para que Hernandez y Gonzales buscaran un respaldo del grupo.

Un candidato debe recibir el 50% más uno — una mayoría simple — de los miembros con derecho a voto presentes en el foro y de aquellos que se conectaron a través de Zoom. Parecía haber alrededor de 30 asistentes en persona y casi 30 asistentes en línea.

En la concurrida contienda por la alcaldía de Santa Cruz, quienes buscan reemplazar a Fred Keeley, quien no busca la reelección, son: la ex candidata a supervisora y cofundadora de Get The Flock Out Ami Chen Mills; la activista y ex candidata a la alcaldía y al concejo municipal Joy Schendledecker; el ex concejal y alcalde Chris Krohn; la defensora ambiental Gillian Greensite; y el ex alcalde, concejal y supervisor del condado Ryan Coonerty.

El concejo municipal de Santa Cruz del Distrito 4 ve al titular Scott Newsome defendiendo su escaño contra el activista comunitario Hector Marin, quien también se postuló contra Newsome en 2022. El Distrito 6 tiene a la titular Renee Golder enfrentándose a la estudiante de último año de UC Santa Cruz Gabriella Noack.

Contienda por la alcaldía de Santa Cruz

Los candidatos de las tres contiendas recibieron dos minutos para presentaciones y para discutir algunas de sus prioridades si son elegidos, seguidos de preguntas de Flynn y del público.

Coonerty fue el único candidato a la alcaldía que no estuvo presente el sábado por la mañana. Los miembros del público se centraron principalmente en la vivienda y el desarrollo — principalmente en el área del centro de Santa Cruz.

Schendledecker dijo que cree que hay una escasez de vivienda y que Santa Cruz ha estado “subconstruida durante tanto tiempo”. Dijo que la ciudad está atrapada entre la preferencia de la comunidad por menos construcción y las leyes estatales de vivienda, que exigen que se construya más vivienda. Schendledecker dijo que le preocupan los espacios comerciales vacíos en muchos de los desarrollos de vivienda más nuevos.

Chen Mills coincidió con el comentario de su oponente sobre una escasez continua de vivienda. Dijo que los funcionarios locales deben educar al público sobre los esfuerzos para cumplir con las cifras estatales de vivienda. Añadió que la ciudad necesita tener estándares objetivos cuando se trata de vivienda y definir qué tipos de edificios le gustaría ver.

Krohn dijo que, más que una crisis de vivienda, hay una crisis de asequibilidad en Santa Cruz. Criticó la falta de unidades asequibles en algunos de los nuevos apartamentos que se construyen en el centro.

Greensite dijo que al aprobar tantos proyectos, la ciudad está causando un desarrollo excesivo. Dijo que los ingresos medios deben aumentar porque las personas con mayores recursos están adquiriendo estas unidades. Añadió que podría ser el momento de que la ciudad “haga una pausa” en la aprobación de desarrollos de vivienda.

Concejo Municipal de Santa Cruz

Los candidatos de ambas contiendas participaron en el segundo foro. El candidato del Distrito 4, Marin, fue el único ausente. Miembros del público y Flynn preguntaron a los candidatos qué proyectos o temas les gustaría abordar y cómo planean oponerse al gobierno federal en temas como la inmigración y la perforación petrolera en alta mar.

Los tres candidatos dijeron que apoyan políticas que prohíben a los funcionarios federales de inmigración utilizar propiedades de la ciudad para fines de aplicación de la ley, como las aprobadas recientemente a nivel del condado y en Watsonville. Golder mencionó que algunos de sus colegas en el concejo municipal están comenzando a trabajar en legislación relacionada con la inmigración.

From left to right: Santa Cruz City Council District 6 incumbent Renee Golder, District 4 incumbent Scott Newsome and District 6 challenger Gabriella Noack. Credit: Tania Ortiz / Lookout Santa Cruz

Noack dijo que quiere priorizar la creación de una economía local sostenible a largo plazo, además de ayudar a agilizar el proceso de permisos para propietarios de negocios locales que buscan abrir tiendas físicas. Dijo que una de las razones por las que podría haber espacios vacíos en los nuevos desarrollos es que el proceso de permisos es demasiado largo y complicado.

Golder dijo que continuará enfocándose en la vivienda para la fuerza laboral y le gustaría ver más proyectos de este tipo en la comunidad. Dijo que también le gustaría explorar la conversión de edificios más antiguos en condominios para crear oportunidades de propiedad de vivienda para los residentes.

Newsome también dijo que le gustaría continuar impulsando más vivienda asequible y prestar más atención a la infraestructura local para hacer que las carreteras sean más seguras para peatones y ciclistas.

¿Tiene algo que decir? Lookout da la bienvenida a cartas al editor, dentro de nuestras políticas, de los lectores. Pautas aquí.

The post El Club de Mujeres Demócratas respalda a Coonerty, Golder y Newsome para las contiendas municipales de SC; sin respaldo para la contienda de supervisor del condado del Distrito 4 appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Zero Shot, a new venture capital fund with deep ties to OpenAI, is aiming to raise $100 million for its first fund. It has already written some checks.

The most recent electric vehicle sales data provided a grim picture — at least for new EVs. Used EVs are moving in the opposite direction.

The animals have had enough. Derived from George Orwell’s incendiary 1945 novella of the same name comes a reimagined cautionary tale—one in animated form. The final trailer for Andy Serkis’ Animal Farm shows a legion of farm animals as they fight back against a corrupt hierarchy.

The Animal Farm trailer begins with what I can only imagine to be every farm animal’s worst nightmare: a trip to the slaughterhouse. After busting free from the truck, the animals set out to build a new world. A better one. They work together to create a new society in which “every animal is equal.” That dream is short-lived. The farm descends into a dictatorship as the pigs climb for power and leadership. “Every animal is equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The only way to take power back is by inciting a revolution. Gaten Matarazzo voices Lucky, the pig responsible for leading that revolution.

RELATED ARTICLE

Trailer for Andy Serkis’ Animated ANIMAL FARM Is So Wrong

Orwell’s original 1945 novella, which I’m sure most of us were required to read sometime during school, is a powerful political commentary on the dangers of communism. From director Andy Serkis, that tale is reshaped to fit today’s climate and reach a younger audience. Honestly, we’re still not sure exactly what to make of it. The first Animal Farm trailer was met with a heap of mixed reviews, though the second may have won a couple of points back. Regardless, the animated retelling does boast a pretty remarkable cast. Seth Rogen is the pig famously known as Napoleon. Joining him is Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons and Andy Serkis.

The official synopsis for the movie is as follows: “A satirical allegory of revolution and power. Animal Farm traces how a movement for equality is systematically corrupted. As the pigs consolidate control, truth is erased, dissent is crushed, and the farm descends into a ruthless dictatorship—fulfilling Orwell’s warning about the dangers of communism.”

Angel Studios

Who would’ve imagined 2026 would be the year we would get an animated feature film of Animal Farm—one targeted toward kids, nonetheless. I still find it very interesting, but I guess we won’t really know until we see it. The story received an animated version once before in 1954. Nearly 75 years later, the message rings just as powerful as ever. If you want to pick up the book in preparation for the movie, you can do so here.

Animal Farm rolls into theaters on May 1, 2026.

The post Andy Serkis’ ANIMAL FARM Final Trailer: Animals Incite Revolution appeared first on Nerdist.

President Donald Trump has endorsed Republican Steve Hilton for California governor, reordering a crowded, wide-open race to lead the nation’s most populous state.

Trump posted late Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that he has known Hilton for years and called the conservative commentator “a truly fine man” who could turn around a state beset with notoriously high taxes. California, Trump wrote, “has gone to hell.”

“With Federal help, and a Great Governor, like Steve Hilton, California can be better than ever before!” Trump added.

The endorsement — coming about a month before mail ballots go to voters in advance of the June 2 primary — will help Hilton coalesce conservative support in a race with no clear leader. However, Trump is widely unpopular in heavily Democratic California outside his conservative base and Trump’s backing would become a liability if Hilton faces a Democrat in the November election.

With a large field, Democrats have been fearful that a quirk in the state’s unusual “top two” primary system could allow only two Republicans to reach the November general election ballot — Hilton and GOP rival Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. Trump’s decision — a strong signal to undecided conservative voters — will make that outcome less likely by helping Hilton lure additional support.

Democratic consultant Paul Mitchell called Trump’s decision “the safe bet” for Republicans. Rather than cling to a long shot hope that both Republicans reach the November ballot — or risk that both Hilton and Bianco fall short — Trump’s blessing should consolidate support behind Hilton and allow him to emerge from a large primary field and reach November.

“Having a Republican on the top of the ticket is essential” to drive turnout in critical down-ballot races, with control of the U.S. House in play,” Mitchell added. In an unpredictable, wide-open race, the smart play for the GOP is to “get one Republican on the ballot.”

There are more than 50 candidates on the ballot — including eight established Democrats and along with Hilton and Bianco, the two leading Republicans. An all-GOP general election is possible in California, which puts all candidates on one primary ballot and only the top two vote-getters advance to November, regardless of party.

Polling in early February by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found the field had broken into two distinct groups, with Bianco, Hilton and three Democrats — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer — in close competition, with other candidates trailing.

In a statement, Hilton thanked Trump for his support and promised to grow jobs and bring down the state’s punishing cost of living. “Together we can turn things around,” Hilton said.

Republicans have not won a statewide election in California in two decades. Registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in the state by nearly 2-to-1.

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post Trump endorses Republican Steven Hilton for California governor, reordering wide-open race appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The Boys stars Jack Quaid (Hughie Campbell), Erin Moriarty (Starlight/Annie January), Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy), Antony Starr (Homelander), Susan Heyward (Sister Sage), Valorie Curry (Firecracker), Colby Minifie (Ashley Barrett), Nathan Mitchell (Black Noir), Jessie T. Usher (A-Train), Karen Fukuhara (Kimiko Miyashiro), Karl Urban (Billy Butcher), Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk) & showrunner Eric Kripke sit down with Nerdist’s Michael Walsh to talk the show’s final season, what the cast will miss most, and what they hope fans will take away from the ending.

The post The Boys Cast Say Goodbye to the Show appeared first on Nerdist.

'Claude cannot be trusted to perform complex engineering tasks' according to GitHub ticket

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