DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Quixote Studios Lays Off 70, Winds Down L.A. Locations Amid Production Slump.

Hudson Pacific Properties bought the company in 2022 for $360 million, but has since had to write down the entire value of its Quixote unit due to heavy operating losses.

“Obviously, clearly it was not the best deal we’ve ever done, but if you compare that to everything else we’ve done, then we’re doing okay,” said Victor Coleman, the chairman and CEO of Hudson Pacific, at an investor conference in March. “We think that we have multiple alternatives with that asset that we can make it zero or at least flat at the end of the year.”

Quixote is kind of a big deal in L.A., where film and TV production jobs are down something like 40% from post-COVID highs.

Previously: Hollywood Is Sick — but It’s L.A. That’s Dying.

IT’S (D)IFFERENT WHEN THEY DO IT:

You literally drew this atrocity. https://t.co/FGUbaFwYCZ pic.twitter.com/LbWhhphyrW

— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) April 29, 2026

AARON HANSCOM: 2026’s Non-Carlsons: Prominent Non-Jews Who Stand With Jews and Israel.

NYC Mayor Mamdani’s latest pitch to tax the rich “not happening,” Gov. Kathy Hochul says.

The budget battle between New York City and New York state lawmakers is intensifying.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julie Menin are calling for a new way to tax the rich. They want the state to reduce something called the Pass-Through Equity Tax credit, aka PTET.

“The PTET is essentially a loophole that allows high-income earners to reduce their federal tax burden,” Mamdani said.

Menin joined the mayor in calling for the new revenue stream, which could mean another $1 billion to help close the city’s budget gap.

Gov. Kathy Hochul slammed the door on their proposal.

“That’s not happening,” Hochul said. “We are not changing PTET.”

Hochul seems smarter than Mamdani in that she knows when the sheep won’t take any more fleecing.

WHEN THEY TELL YOU WHO THEY ARE…:

Devastating compliation of Democrats talking exactly like the WHCD shooter pic.twitter.com/QEsr3b14tP

— Kira (@Kiradavis) April 29, 2026

CHRIS QUEEN: Brendan Sorsby’s Gambling Trouble Is a Warning That College Sports Can’t Ignore.

HMM: United flight from SFO disrupted by ‘possible drone strike.’ “The pilots aboard United flight 1980 reported the strike prior to arriving at San Diego International Airport around 8:30 a.m. The airline said the flight landed safely and the 48 passengers deplaned without interference. A maintenance check found no damage on the aircraft.”

OPENAI BATTLE:

🚨 Musk's lawyers just showed the jury the most damaging document in evidence on Brockman:

November 2017 Brockman writes in his private diary:

>"the true answer is that we want [musk] out… if three months later we're doing b-corp then it was a lie"
>“can’t see us turning this… pic.twitter.com/qqoXCDReut

— NIK (@ns123abc) April 29, 2026

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: The Democrats’ Gerrymander Gloating Hits a Brick Wall. “Democrats have been operating ‘under the cover of civil rights law’ to racially gerrymander themselves into Congress. Our new junior senator from Arizona — Ruben Gallego — got his start in Washington by being elected to the House of Representatives from one such district. SCOTUS righted a wrong, and the Dems are apoplectic. Expect the progressive ‘pack the court’ talk to get louder now.”

WELL, GOOD: Biden-Era ‘Gun Dealer’ Rule Dead.

Decisions by decision, the Trump47 Administration is sweeping away un-American Biden regulatory overreach. A lot of us may be frustrated by the pace of change, with things that should have been overturned in 2025 still lingering on into this year. But the aircraft carrier of state can take quite a while to turn.

Case in point: A Biden-era ATF proposal to make ordinary American citizens register as gun dealers if they want to sell a single gun, a rule the Department of Justice finally stopped trying to defend.

The administration doesn’t always start off on the right foot on gun policy, but they usually come around.

CORN, POPPED:

🚨 HOLY CRAP! No WONDER Gavin Newsom is suing to block Trump's executive order requiring barcode tracking for mail-in ballots

CA vote fraudster Shakir Khan had 71 NAMES and 41 COMPLETED MAIL-IN BALLOTS at his single house

They want to protect fraud. pic.twitter.com/9eUmr2UEwQ

— Pascal Najadi (USSF)🇺🇸 (@JfkPascalNajadX) April 29, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Sanctuary Oregon Releases Newlyweds’ Killer and ICE Seeks Custody of Machete Attacker.

THE LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES REIGNS SUPREME: How U.S. Electric Vehicle Industrial Policy Created A New ‘Rust Belt.’

The United States once viewed the electric vehicle (EV) industry as a pivotal lever for both a manufacturing renaissance and a green transition. The Biden administration promoted it, where an intensive series of policies centered on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were rolled out in an attempt to fulfill the dual political promises of energy transformation and industrial reshoring within a condensed timeframe. However, since the beginning of 2025, this highly anticipated industry has shown clear signs of cooling or even stagnation across multiple regions. Progress on several projects has been obstructed, the pace of investment has decelerated, and employment expectations have fallen short, effectively creating an “EV Rust Belt.”

According to reporting from Reuters, on March 30, 2026, General Motors’ Detroit-based electric vehicle plant Factory Zero announced an extension of its production halt until April 13, with the plant manager citing aligning with “market dynamics” and initiating temporary layoffs for approximately 1,300 workers. Furthermore, in December 2025, Ford Motor Company announced a USD 19.5 billion capital impairment charge related to its electric vehicle operations and cut roughly 1,600 jobs at its BlueOval SK battery plant in Kentucky. Ford simultaneously announced it would cease production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning and abandon its production plans for the next-generation T3 electric pickup and electric vans. Media reports also indicate that Magna’s factory in St. Clair, Michigan, a supplier of EV components to General Motors, now sits nearly vacant; as the automotive industry recalibrates its electric vehicle investments, the plant has suffered a significant blow and is essentially in a state of shutdown or large-scale dormancy.

What once was heralded as the “hope for revival” of the American automotive industry is now facing a rapid decline.

Stop. Helping.

THAT’S NOT LEGAL:

NEW: Blue jurisdictions are rationing homeless services based on race.

In Portland, a non-white, non-native English speaker who is LGBT would get priority over a domestic violence survivor with a 6 yr old child who's been homeless for 12+ months.

The policies are shocking.🧵 pic.twitter.com/pgd9HyF2PW

— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) April 29, 2026

Must-read thread, but this part stands out:

Let’s start with Multnomah County, OR, home of deep blue Portland, where deaths of homeless people quadrupled between 2019 and 2023. The county’s screening tool for housing services is designed to “prioritize … BIPOC households, LGBTQIA2S+, [and] people with disabilities.”

Read the whole thing.

WELL, GOOD — BUT IT LOOKS LIKE WE MIGHT NEED TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION: Texas Attorney General Sues Chinese ‘Birth Tourism’ Center.

NAH, OBAMA LIES IN HIS SLEEP:

Must be exhausting to be for gerrymandering one week and against it the next. https://t.co/W5sAMbkj0n

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) April 29, 2026

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED… AND MAYBE HELP GIVE THE DEMS A LITTLE SHOVE:

If nothing else, the Louisiana v. Callais decision demonstrates just how much Democrat Party power in America has become an artificial construct.

They gain power through counting illegals in the census, diluting election security rules, and forcing Red States to draw…

— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) April 29, 2026

I LIKE THE CONTENT OF HIS CHARACTER:

I'm a black Republican who currently represents a majority-white district in the Ohio State House and is running to represent a majority-white district in Congress.

The idea that black Americans need special districts carved out just for them is complete nonsense. It's a… https://t.co/BQXXnzYXCo

— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) April 29, 2026

KRISTOL IS CONSUMED BY HATE:

And here I thought it was because you had lost your mind. Like half the electorate. Unable to accept the results of an election. And in your case, turned your back on everything you ever believed in. https://t.co/0MOV0mStax

— Northern Barbarian (@xnoesbueno) April 29, 2026

MEET THE NEW GUN-GRABBERS, SAME AS THE OLD GUN-GRABBERS: Federal Gun Control Fraud: The ‘Virginia Plan’ is the California Plan…is the Bloomberg Plan…

CRUEL BUT FAIR:

Opinion: What are YOUR thoughts on Jewish run ambulances in Jewish neighborhoods? pic.twitter.com/zwp8GPUC4h

— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) April 29, 2026

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The scourge of left-wing violence isn’t new. It’s only going to get worse.

There have now been three major attempts to murder the Republican president. Not long ago, Charlie Kirk, one of the most popular conservative voices in the nation, was assassinated. Before that, Brian Thompson, the CEO of the largest insurance company in the country, was murdered on the street. Before that, a leftist showed up with a Glock, zip ties, and duct tape to assassinate a Supreme Court justice. Before that, a Bernie Sanders fan attempted to eliminate the entire Republican House leadership on a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia.

That’s not even to mention the “free Palestine” activists who show up at protests with firebombs or murder Israeli Embassy workers on the streets of Washington. Or the fire-bombings of Tesla dealerships. Or the antifa fire-bombings and attacks on police stations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. Or the attacks on pregnancy centers after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Or the Black Lives Matter riots, the most destructive in American history.

When a would-be terrorist shows up at the Capitol with Molotov cocktails to kill Republican officials, we barely even talk about it.

That’s a pattern. That’s a big problem.

Read the whole thing.

FEATURE, NOT A BUG: Colleges Are Making Political Violence Worse.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

So Justice Kagan is reported in Molly Hemingway's new book on Justice Alito as having urged liberal members of the Court to slow-walk their dissents in the Dobbs case for months after Justice Alito had finished his majority decision, presumably with the "hope" that the…

— Shipwreckedcrew (@shipwreckedcrew) April 29, 2026

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: London memorial for victims of Iran regime, Oct. 7 targeted in suspected arson attack.