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New York Democrats announced Thursday that they reached a tentative agreement to tax multimillion-dollar second homes. The tax on these properties, which are known as pieds-à-terre, is meant to address affordability issues in New York City, which have been exacerbated by the weakening economy under President Donald Trump. The plan is to raise $500 million in additional revenue from…

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A cartoon by Jack Ohman. Related | Florida voters sue over ‘extreme’ new House map…

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Perplexity's Personal Computer brings AI agents to your Mac, and is now open to everyone.

Kevin O’Leary is best known as “Mr. Wonderful” on Shark Tank, or maybe as the bad guy from Marty Supreme. On Shark Tank, he invests in—or crushes the spirits of—small business owners. He describes himself as an “investor, chef, sommelier, collector, photographer, and musician.” But he might soon be able to add “AI infrastructure kingpin” to that list of titles, as he pushes forward with a massive data center project in northern Utah. 

Other celebrities have dabbled in AI. Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures put $30 million into OpenAI, an investment that’s now worth over a billion dollars. Ben Affleck’s AI post-production company InterPositive was recently acquired by Netflix for about $600 million.

Others have simply cut advertisements for AI companies, like Ryan Reynolds’ OpenAI/Mint Mobile TV spot two years ago. But O’Leary stands out for his evident commitment to the game of bringing star appeal to the decidedly unsexy subject of hyperscale computing infrastructure. 

He’s the primary investor backing a giant data center project called Stratos in Utah. Stratos, which would be about two-and-a-half times the size of Manhattan, would be 100-percent powered by gas generators, one of the developers told the Salt Lake Tribune. This single project could increase Utah’s net greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50 percent, one University of Utah professor estimated. It’s backed by Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority, which has granted the project significant tax breaks. 

On Shark Tank, O’Leary once said, “The market has spoken, and it’s basically telling you people hate this product.” He said this regarding a line of toddler pants with built-in squeakers in the knees. While the market, such as it is, may be more excited about data centers than noisy pants, there are certainly plenty of locals in Utah who seem to hate O’Leary’s new product. 

I’m the only developer of data centers on earth that graduated from environmental studies. I'm pretty aware of what these concerns are. They are around air, water use, heat, noise pollution. So sustainability is at the heart of what we do in terms of all these proposals. We… pic.twitter.com/Qvob70uEmh

— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) May 5, 2026

Hundreds of people came out to protest O’Leary’s plan Monday evening at a meeting of the commissioners of Box Elder County, where the data center will be located. They were not allowed to speak, instead forced to hold signs in the back of the room as the county commissioners approved a permit for the billion-dollar data center. Roughly 3,700 additional people have filed protests asking the Utah Division of Water Rights to reject the data center’s permit. O’Leary claimed after the meeting that the protesters were “professionals” bused in from out of state. 

“I’m the only developer of data centers on earth that graduated from environmental studies,” O’Leary said in a video posted to X. “We think over 90% of the protesters are actually not people who live in Utah…I don’t think it’s going to work out for them.” 

This isn’t O’Leary’s only AI-oriented investment. He’s also backing Bitzero, a company that produces “data centers for a greener, more sustainable world.” (His non-AI investments include a cat DNA testing company and a company that mails you potatoes as a gag gift.) Another data center campus O’Leary is backing, in Canada, has been stalled for the past year. 

In Santa Cruz County, there’s a new approach that prioritizes community support to help families, led by the Child, Youth & Family Well-Being Partnership. 

The Child Youth & Family Well-Being Partnership brings together County agencies and nonprofits to provide coordinated mental health, social and family support services with a focus on preventing crises, supporting education and strengthening families. Historically, state and federal child welfare mandates have required agency and nonprofit staff who are concerned about a child’s well-being, to take a “report-first” approach about concerns. The partnership is collaborating on a shift from this historic “mandated reporting” model to include a more prevention-focused “community supporting” approach.

This shift focuses on prevention to provide a more compassionate and effective system for everyone involved. It can help families access resources such as housing, food or childcare before intervention becomes necessary. The initiative aims to reduce fear, shame and stigma associated with asking for help, all while building trust and making resources more accessible. 

A Spanish version is available here.

In Santa Cruz County and across California, over half of reports made to the child welfare hotline do not meet the legal threshold for abuse or neglect. However, many at-risk families still need support. 

The effort to support families began decades ago. Since 2000, California’s statewide child welfare system has shifted from responding after harm occurs to providing early intervention so children can remain safely at home whenever possible. This approach uses data, accountability and a stronger focus on family-based care. More recently, the emphasis has expanded to prevention, equity and community-based resources that address basic needs, mental health, and connection before crises occur. 

There are tangible and clearly beneficial impacts. By investing in early, family-centered support and preventing unnecessary family separation, the County has seen foster care numbers steadily decline — from 198 children in 2000–2001 to just 43 in 2024–2025. Locally, the movement is intended to build trust, reduce stigma and strengthen community support networks across Santa Cruz County. This enhanced focus on prevention and early connection centers the work by the County of Santa Cruz Human Services Department’s Family & Children’s Division to help families access the resources they need before challenges become crisis.

And this is just the beginning. 

Child, Youth & Family Well-Being Partners is working to connect families with community-based support services such as housing, food, childcare and mental health resources. A key goal is to keep families together by linking them to the right resources at the right time. To help deliver the message that “needing help is OK,” The Child, Youth & Family Well-Being Partners initiative encourages trained professionals to connect families with United Way Santa Cruz County’s 2-1-1 program for support services.

Instead of automatically launching an investigation when abuse or neglect is suspected, trained professionals are encouraged to explore supportive options, when appropriate, that address the root causes of family stress — many of which stem from poverty and limited access to basic needs.

Even when a report is not required, families may need help. The 2-1-1 program is available to connect families to services such as:

• Food banks and meal programs
• Housing resources
• Parenting support and education
• Substance use and mental health services
• School and community-based resources

Learn more at https://211santacruzcounty.org/ 

Join us in making a difference in children and families lives. Support early. Care when it matters most. Access materials, learn more and get help at https://santacruzhumanservices.org/FamilyChildren/ChildWelfareServices.

The post Families sometimes need extra support — and asking for help shouldn’t feel scary appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy tried and failed to calm Americans’ concerns about summer vacations becoming unaffordable as President Donald Trump’s war-not-war in Iran sends gas prices through the roof. “I think you’ve seen a president who is willing to address a nuclear Iran,” he said. “Here’s the problem with the premise—some Democrats will do this as well—they’re complaining about…

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Another summer moviegoing season is almost upon us, and the Minions are hitting theater screens again. The adorable lil’ yellow guys, who are the breakout icons of the Despicable Me franchise, are returning for another new outing on the big screen in Minions & Monsters. This is yet another prequel, this time set in the 1920s, during the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the trailer, they introduce us to a new sure-to-be-beloved character, who looks like a cute Lovecraftian monster. You can watch the final trailer for Minions & Monsters right here:

And here’s the official synopsis for Minions & Monsters from Illumination Entertainment:

This is the rambunctious, ridiculous and totally true story of how the Minions conquered Hollywood, became movie stars, lost everything, unleashed monsters onto the world, and then banded together to try and save the planet from the mayhem they had just created. 

Illumination/Universal Pictures

On paper, this movie, directed once again by Pierre Coffin and written by Coffin and Brian Lynch, sounds beyond bizarre. The Minions use arcane sorcery to summon a Lovecraftian monster from beyond the depths, and it’s a cute little Cthulhu-looking guy? Sure, why not? After seven installments overall since 2010, you might as well let them summon demons and let wackiness ensue. Pierre Coffin directed the first three Despicable Me films as well as the first Minions, and he returns for Minions & Monsters as well. As usual, he voices them all.

Illumination/Universal Pictures

The voice cast for Minions & Monsters also includes Allison Janney, Christoph Waltz, Jeff Bridges, Jesse Eisenberg, Zoey Deutch, and South Park co-creator Trey Parker. The cast also includes Saturday Night Live alum Bobby Moynihan and Phil LaMarr. We’re sure this latest installment will produce many new Minions memes that your grandma will share on Facebook. Minions & Monsters lands in theaters on July 1.

The post MINIONS & MONSTERS Trailer Takes Us Back to the 1920s appeared first on Nerdist.

Can Sam Altman—or any CEO—be trusted with super intelligence?

With the weekend nearly here, check out things to do around Santa Cruz County with a recommendation from Lily Belli and a specially curated list from Lookout’s BOLO events calendar.

"We are going to be saying goodbye to the swipe," CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd said.

Built on the back of the sizable and influential BookTok community -- creators who discuss and review books on TikTok -- the app offered readers a place to chronicle and rate their books, get recommendations, and even add photos of things like favorite quotes or memes, or share playlists that match the book's vibes.

Stockholm-based vibe coding platform Lovable it is offering employees an automatic 10% raise as a way to sidestep classic corporate politics.

Texas Republicans are once again sounding alarm bells about the state’s U.S. Senate seat, saying that if Republicans nominate state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the May 26 primary runoff, it will create a drag on the entire Texas GOP ticket. A polling memo commissioned by a super PAC backing Republican Sen. John Cornyn in the runoff said that nominating Paxton would be catastrophic…

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An unknown group of hackers is breaking into systems previously breached by the cybercrime group TeamPCP. Once inside, the hackers immediately kick out TeamPCP and remove its hacking tools from the victims’ systems.

As the creator of Noirvember, the first few trailers and making-of videos for Spider-Noir, the new live-action series starring Nicolas Cage, made my noir senses immediately start to tingle. Inspired in part by the pulp crime novels of the 1930s by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, series executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have also spoken about the heavy influence of 1940s and 1950s film noir on the look and feel of the show.

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Although the show will be released in both “True-Hue,” a riff on Technicolor inspired by the early Dick Tracy comics, and traditional black-and-white, the influence of film noir is apparent any way you decide to watch the show. Here are the classic noir film references I’ve sussed out so far in Spider-Noir. 

The Maltese Falcon (1941) Warner Bros. Pictures/Prime Video

The second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel of the same name, this San Francisco set John Huston flick starring Humphrey Bogart as the iconic gumshoe Sam Spade is largely considered a bridge between the more action based crime films of the 1930s and the psychologically darker films that would become known film noir. It also was a major influence on the series.

Nicolas Cage told Esquire that his performance as Ben Reilly/The Spider is “70 percent Humphrey Bogart, and 30 percent Bugs Bunny.” Showrunner Oren Uziel also shared that Reilly’s secretary Janet (Karen Rodriguez) was inspired by Spade’s secretary Effie, played by Lee Patrick. Another fun connection: Jack Huston, who plays baddie Flint Marko / Sandman, is director John Huston’s grandson.

Murder, My Sweet (1944) RKO Radio Pictures/Prime Video

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, this 1944 noir is the first film to feature Raymond Chandler’s iconic hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe. The character appeared in seven novels penned by the author. Although many readers may remember Bogart’s performance as the world-weary private eye in Howard Hawks’ 1946 adaptation of The Big Sleep, for many this film’s star, Dick Powell, is the ultimate filmic embodiment of Marlowe. Murder, My Sweet, which is an adaptation of Chandler’s 1940 novel “Farewell, My Lovely,” finds Marlowe mixed up in a convoluted plot that includes eccentric rich people, night clubs, and even a trip to the sanatorium. 

Crime Wave (1954)Warner Bros. Pictures/Prime Video

Although Brendan Gleeson’s Silvermane is an classic Irish mob boss, his character as portrayed in the teasers visually riff on several different kinds of film noir motifs. In this shot he is framed inside a moving car just like Sterling Hayden in Andre de Toth’s Crime Wave (1954). In the film Hayden plays Detective Lieutenant Sims, a hard-nosed detective on the haunt for escaped convicts who have broken out of San Quentin. The film directed by Andre de Toth is notable for its many location shots in and around Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale in Southern California. 

Laura (1944) 20th Century Fox/Prime Video

In one shot of a Spider-Noir teaser, a portrait of Silvermane goes up in flames. The portrait’s gilt frame bares a striking resemblance to the most haunting portrait in all of film noir—Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) in Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944). An adaptation of Vera Caspary’s 1943 novel of the same name, Laura tells the story of a young woman who is presumed murdered. It follows the detective (Dana Andrews) who, while tasked with solving her murder, grows obsessed with her portrait, and the two men (Clifton Webb, Vincent Price) who each think they know her best. Otto Preminger’s film was also a major inspiration for David Lynch and Mark Frost’s landmark television series Twin Peaks. 

Gilda (1946)Columbia Pictures/Prime Video

Describing Spider-Noir‘s requisite femme fatale Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), Uziel has said that Rita Hayworth was a major inspiration, along with Lauren Bacall, Anna May Wong, and Kim Basinger from Curtis Hanson’s  L.A. Confidential. Hayworth played the titular femme fatale in Charles Vidor’s Gilda, one of the silver screen’s greatest bad romances.

In the film, Hayworth plays a sensual chanteuse and wife of a casino owner (George Macready) in Buenos Aires, Argentina whose murky past comes back to haunt her after her husband hires her old lover Johnny (Glenn Ford). Hayworth’s introduction, in which she flips her hair and coyly replies “who me?” when asked if she’s decent took on a whole new level of cultural cache when it was used in a pivotal scene in Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption.

Road House (1948)20th Century Fox/Prime Video

While not mentioned by Uziel, I noticed an homage to another of the era’s great femme fatales: Ida Lupino. Along with being a pioneering filmmaker in her own right (you must watch her 1953 desert noir The Hitch-Hiker), Lupino carved a space as a brassy leading lady in a plethora of noir. Her turn as a torch singer caught in a love triangle between the owner of a bowling alley (Richard Widmark) and his boyhood friend (Cornel Wilde) which escalates towards attempted murder in Jean Negulesco’s melodramatic noir Road House is one of her best, most underrated performances.

The Lady From Shanghai (1947)Columbia Pictures/Prime Video

One of the most overt homages amongst the earlier teaser material is this shot in which the frame itself appears to be broken glass, which is a nod to Orson Welles’ The Lady From Shanghai. In that film, Welles stars opposite his then-wife Rita Hayworth, as an Irish sailor named Michael O’Hara who is hired by her much-older husband Arthur Bannister (Everett Sloane) to man their yacht as they cruise from New York City to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.

O’Hara soon finds himself set up as a patsy when Bannister suggests he help him fake his own death. Like many of Welles’ films made in Hollywood, the film was butchered by the studio before its initial release. However, despite the studio’s interference, it remains one of the bleakest, and most dreamlike films of its era. 

Dark Passage (1947)Warner Bros. Pictures/Prime Video

Getting back into the world of Bogart noir, Spider-Noir is also rife with homages to Delmer Daves’ surreal San Francisco set noir Dark Passage. Adapted from the book of the same name by David Goodis, the first few scenes of the film are from POV of Bogart’s character, Vincent Parry, a convicted wife-killer who has escaped from San Quentin Prison in order to prove his innocence.

After being helped by a wealthy dilettante (Lauren Bacall), Parry makes his way to San Francisco where he undergoes plastic surgery in order to alter his appearance so he can continue to search for his wife’s true killer. 

The Naked City (1948) / The Woman on Pier 13 (1949) / Pickup On South Street (1953)Universal-International/Prime Video

The shot where Reilly waits on a doc had me thinking of several noir films that utilize the waterfront. Jules Dassin’s The Naked City was filmed almost completely on location in and around New York City, including in an evocative early sequence where two men who have just murdered a woman in her bathtub get into a tussle when one of them becomes conscience-stricken while drunk ending with the other throwing him into the East River.

In Robert Stevenson’s The Woman on Pier 13, the docks of San Francisco prove to be the location of a secret Communist headquarters. Lastly, in Samuel Fuller’s Pickup On South Street, small-time crook Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark), who lives out on the docks, finds himself caught up in a Communist plot involving stolen microfilm after he steals a wallet from a woman named Candy (Jean Peters).

Phantom Lady (1944)Universal Pictures/Prime Video

This shot of a horn player is framed almost exactly like an identical shot in Robert Siodmak’s Phantom Lady, which was an adaptation of a novel by prolific writer Cornell Woolrich (published under the pseudonyms William Irish). The film stars Alan Curtis as a man named Scott, who finds himself accused of murdering his wife. When he cannot produce the “phantom lady” he picked up in a bar to prove his alibi, he is sentenced to death.

That’s when his loyal secretary Carol (Ella Raines) sets out to prove his innocence, joined by his buddy Jack (Franchot Tone), who has just returned from South America. Along with including one of the great – and strangest – supporting turns from noir staple Elisha Cook, Jr., this Manhattan set mystery is also notable for being produced by Joan Harrison. She was one of the few female producers working during the classic Hollywood studio era. 

White Heat (1949)Warner Bros Pictures/Prime Video

I don’t know why this character is on fire, but I do know this is most definitely an homage to the final sequence in Raoul Walsh’s White Heat. In the film James Cagney stars as psychotic criminal Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, who is extremely close to his mother (Margaret Wycherly). After evading the law for most of the film, Cody eventually finds himself locked up. While in prison, his mother passes away, his violent outbreak gets him transferred to an asylum, where he soon escapes.

When the law finally catches up with him again, he climbs to the top of a Horton sphere, which is set on fire after being shot by the police. As the flames begin to engulf him, he shouts “Made it, Ma! Top of the world!” In 2005, Cagney’s iconic delivery of this line was voted to the 18th spot in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)United Artists/Prime Video

One of the great big bads from all of the classic noir era actually came towards its end: Burt Lancaster as sadistic columnist J. J. Hunsecker in Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success, adapted from a novelette by Ernest Lehman. One of the most powerful men in not just New York City, but the whole United States, Hunsecker wields the power of his column to get whatever it is he wants, controlling the lives of everyone around him, including his kid sister (Susan Harrison) and rat bastard press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis).

Largely shot on location, the neon lights of New York City never looked better than it does when warmed in the warm glow of James Wong Howe’s luminous black-and-white cinematography. 

Sunset Boulevard (1950) Paramount Pictures/Prime Video

Lastly, this image The Spider floating face down in water is a direct reference to the opening sequence of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard, in which down-and-out screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) narrates the story of his own death after he’s found face down in the pool of reclusive silent film star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). Along with Swanson’s Oscar-nominated performance, the film features cameos from several silent era luminaries, including director Cecil B. DeMille, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and actors Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner, and Anna Q. Nilsson.

One of the strangest and most unique entries from the classic noir era, this is a deliciously nasty poison pen letter to an industry (Hollywood) that pulls people in, uses them up, and then spits them back out without any mercy or grace. 

The post Every Classic Noir Film Reference in SPIDER-NOIR appeared first on Nerdist.

Prediction market startup Kalshi has raised a $1 billion Series F round led by Coatue.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that the $1 billion Republicans want taxpayers to fork over for President Donald Trump’s so-called “privately funded” ballroom is actually for a drone defense system. “The Secret Service cannot take private funding, because they also look over embezzlement,” Mullin explained. “One of the biggest…

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A few weeks ago, I got to play about two hours of Warner Bros. Games’ long-awaited LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight. As a huge fan of the Traveller’s Tales LEGO series, plus a mega-huge fan of Batman, my anticipation was at an all-time high. I was absolutely not disappointed. The game offers something for every variety of Batman fan as it melds together all the most important and memorable characters and moments from comics, movies, TV, and more into a single narrative.

With just about two weeks until the game’s official launch, we got the latest trailer. It showcases moments from movies like Batman (1989), Batman Begins, and The Batman. We see all this set to a remix of Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” from Batman Forever. Take a look!

The game simplifies a few elements from the movies to make it all cohere. For example, Jack Napier, the gangster who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents in Burton’s Batman, does go on to become the Joker. However, instead of working for Carl Grissom, like in that movie, Napier works for Carmine Falcone. This Falcone operates out of the Iceberg Lounge from The Batman. Napier becomes the Red Hood before becoming the Joker, like in the comics. Cool, right?

Similarly, instead of a mysterious man who calls himself Henri Ducard recruiting Bruce to join the League of Assassins, it’s straight-up Ra’s al Ghul. That’s who he really was in Batman Begins anyway. I love this kind of narrative blending. In the sections of the game that I got to play, Batman and Commissioner Gordon capture Falcone from the Iceberg Lounge and turn him over to Harvey Dent. Then later, Bruce attends the circus from Batman Forever in which a child Dick Grayson and his parents, the Flying Graysons, must contend with the Tommy Lee Jones-style Two-Face.

WB Games

Bringing together so much Batman lore and iconography along with the LEGO games’ trademark humor and gameplay has me even more excited to see what comes next. I played two hours and that only encompassed three missions. So, surely we’ll get loads and loads more. If you’re a fan of the Arkham games—and who isn’t?—you’ll recognize the combat, traversal, and open world Gotham City from them. And the trailer above even shows a Mr. Freeze boss battle from the oft-derided Gotham Knights game.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight will be available May 22 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

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The post LEGO BATMAN Launch Trailer Gives You a ‘Kiss From a Rose’ appeared first on Nerdist.

The head of Bezos' family office appears to have stepped down at some point in the last few months, around the time Bezos became increasingly in his robotics firm Project Prometheus.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s health is improving, but he’s still the same horrible, grasping, avaricious person he’s always been. Giuliani was diagnosed with pneumonia and initially needed to be intubated, but he’s now breathing on his own. But—as is inevitably the case with Giuliani—there’s much more to the story, and it’s very stupid. According to Giuliani’s lawyer…

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