Last year, studios and Hollywood labor unions lobbied hard to ensure animated movies and shows could compete for California’s expanded film and television tax credit program. The payoff came last week, when three animated movies were among the nearly 40 film projects that received a production incentive in the latest round of awards, the California … Read more
New York’s Long Island Rail Road plans to resume service at noon on Tuesday after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reached a deal with union leaders. Loading audio narration… “Tonight, the @MTA eached a fair deal with the five LIRR unions that delivers raises for workers while protecting riders and taxpayers,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul … Read more
Driverless cars haven’t always obeyed the rules of the road but, unlike vehicles with humans behind the wheel, they’ve gotten away with it. That’s about to change. A slew of statewide autonomous vehicle regulations based on Assembly Bill 1777 will go into effect July 1 — including a process for law enforcement to issue a … Read more
What does $400 million buy in Bel-Air? Thirty-nine bedrooms, 59 bathrooms, 70,000 square feet and a piece of history. The mega-mansion, which surfaced for sale this week, is seeking to be the most expensive home sale in U.S. history. The current record belongs to Ken Griffin, who paid $238 million for a New York City … Read more
Jeff Orlowski’s “The Social Dilemma” may be the most important documentary you see this year. An indictment of the tech industry, the film succinctly lays out the damage being done by companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter through their social media platforms and search engines, the how and why of what they are doing … Read more
He was never their best player. He was never their biggest star. He never won a batting title. He never scored a Gold Glove. He never signed a historic contract. It required a mass organized effort to vote him into his first All-Star Game. When his team recorded the final out of his only championship, … Read more
Across the country, the U.S. is experiencing a reading recession — a slide in the reading skills of students that predates pandemic school disruption, but there are several relative bright spots in California that include the Modesto, Compton and Los Angeles school districts, researchers say. Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth scholars analyzed state test scores from … Read more
Starbucks said Friday it’s laying off 300 corporate employees and closing some U.S. offices as part of its ongoing turnaround. No coffeehouse employees are affected, the company said. The cuts will affect employees in support functions like marketing, human resources and supply chain management. No international employees are affected for now, but Starbucks said it … Read more
CANNES, France — Cannes is technically half over and the hunt for a masterpiece continues. Critics on the Croisette are starting to resemble that classic comic-strip panel in which an explorer crawls desperately across the sand toward an oasis that’s only a mirage. This far into an underwhelming festival, good films have a way of looking like … Read more
Brandon Clarke, a former first-round draft pick who spent all seven of his NBA seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies, has died. He was 29. His agency, Priority Sports, confirmed the news Tuesday on social media. “Everyone loved BC because he was always there as the most supportive friend you could ever imagine,” the agency wrote. … Read more
My family had just moved to Brazil, and I had to beg my parents to let me go to a music festival with all of my new high school friends. It was going to be the first time I’d be going to a show without them supervising me. Loading audio narration… They were reluctant, but … Read more
California added 28,700 payroll jobs in March, lowering its unemployment rate to 5.3% despite a series of high-profile layoffs that have rocked the tech sector. The gains were driven by nearly 28,000 jobs in the health services and private education sectors, according to figures released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department. However, the growth … Read more
SAN DIEGO — Sitting in the Petco Park visiting dugout Monday afternoon, Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes would have preferred to be answering a different set of questions about the team’s rotation depth. In spring training, it was all about how many difficult decisions the Dodgers had in front of them because of the quality depth they’d … Read more
A jury on Monday found Sam Altman and OpenAI not liable in a blockbuster lawsuit Elon Musk brought against them. Loading audio narration… The jurors in an Oakland, California, courtroom cleared the OpenAI CEO, its president, Greg Brockman, and OpenAI itself of Musk’s allegations that they scammed him of early charitable contributions by operating OpenAI … Read more
NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors asked a judge Monday to dismiss criminal fraud and conspiracy charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who had been accused of duping investors in a massive solar project in India. Adani, one of the world’s richest people, was accused in 2024 of paying massive bribes to ensure the project’s success. He was … Read more