New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unveiled his new budget — and it’s every bit as ridiculous as BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales anticipated.“On another episode of ‘I told you so,’ it took less than two months for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to turn, I think, into a Batman villain,” Gonzales jokes.“You guys are going to be shocked to hear this. You’re going to be shocked to hear all of these promises of free everything, free child schools, free child care, free schools, free buses, all the free s**t, doesn’t have enough money to pay for all of the free,” she explains.“So he’s announced that he’s basically taking the entire city hostage, and if the state government doesn’t give into his demands and implement his billionaire tax, he’s going to make you pay,” she continues.“For those who have watched budget after budget, it is tempting to assume that we are engaging in the same dance as our predecessors. Let me assure you, nothing about this is typical. That’s why our solutions won’t be either. There are two paths to bridge this gap. The first is the most sustainable and the fairest path,” Mamdani explained at New York City Hall.“This is the path of ending the drain on our city and raising taxes on the richest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations. The onus for resolving this crisis should not be placed on the backs of working and middle-class New Yorkers. If we do not fix this structural imbalance and do not heed the calls of New Yorkers to raise taxes on the wealthy, this crisis will not disappear,” he continued.“It will simply return year after year, forcing harder and harsher choices each time. And if we do not go down the first path, the city will be forced down a second, more harmful path. Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes,” he added.“Oh, wow. I for one am super shocked,” Gonzales says. “Like, who could have ever predicted that a Muslim commie would go on TV and lay out a list of terroristic demands?”“Where’s the money going to come from?” she asks, before answering herself, “I know. We’re just going to tax hardworking Americans more.”Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

From render farm to red carpet?No sooner had the lights come up on Utah’s final year hosting the Sundance Film Festival than state officials announced a very different cinematic bet: artificial intelligence.'Nuovo has presented a forward-thinking approach.'According to Variety, Utah has approved a $2 million grant for a new initiative called the Nuovo Film Festival, described by the state as a “film ecosystem” built around AI-driven production. Plans reportedly include a filmmaking lab, an AI-powered soundstage, and expanded incentive programs aimed at attracting filmmakers to the state.Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance grew into one of the premier cultural and commercial forces in American film, launching independent directors, shaping awards seasons, and helping define modern indie cinema. As its contract expired and Boulder offered both financial incentives and a cultural climate seen as more aligned with the festival’s direction, Sundance chose to leave Utah after more than four decades.Nuovo organizers outlined five “pillars” in presentation materials cited by Variety.The first proposes a lab to “teach new filmmakers how to tell their story using technology and AI.” The second centers on incentive programs. The third focuses on constructing an AI soundstage — one that may require its own dedicated power source.RELATED: 'Shut the f**k up!' Actor Jamie Kennedy slams Hollywood's hypocrisy over ICE Your browser does not support the video tag. Footage by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images The cost-saving claims are ambitious. Organizers suggested a $200 million film that traditionally takes three years to complete could be produced in nine months for roughly $10 million using AI-assisted workflows. Those figures remain projections, not proven results.The fourth pillar involves collaboration with Harbor Fund, a Utah-based nonprofit. Founded in 2018, Harbor Fund describes its mission as pairing filmmakers with philanthropic capital to support "films that matter." It's website prominently features a quote from movie critic Roger Ebert: “The movies are like a machine that generates empathy."In effect, Utah’s proposed AI film hub would not only streamline production but also align itself with what organizers describe as “impact-driven filmmaking.”The fifth pillar calls for certificate programs at high schools and colleges to train students in makeup, set design, sound, staging, and editing — building a workforce tailored to AI-enabled production.“Utah would have the dedicated and trained workforce to allow filmmakers to come here and use the local workforce instead of bringing them here,” the presentation reportedly stated.RELATED: 'They can't take us all down': Actor Giancarlo Esposito declares it's 'time for a revolution' in unhinged rant Photo by: Visions of America/Joe Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Lance Soffe, director of targeted industries for the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, framed the move as forward-looking.“Traditional festivals are not generating the same impact they once did,” Soffe said. “Instead of trying to recreate an aging model, Nuovo has presented a forward-thinking approach that builds on Utah’s legacy while embracing where the industry is going.”The new Utah festival will be led by a board comprised of former MGM Television chief Mark Burnett, advertising moguls, and venture capitalists.The announcement comes as the broader film industry remains unsettled over AI.On the same day the Utah investment drew attention, AMC Theatres faced backlash over reports it would screen an AI-generated short film before previews. The short “Thanksgiving Day” won the Frame Forward AI Film Festival and was reportedly slated for wide theatrical exposure. After criticism mounted, AMC said its locations would not participate.While policymakers and investors see efficiency and reduced costs, audiences appear less certain about replacing human-driven filmmaking with algorithmic production.

A trio of 14-year-old car thieves slammed a stolen vehicle into a Baltimore police officer who opened fire as he was hit — and while the teens managed to get away from the scene, police said they arrested them days later.Officer William Cole responded around 12:05 a.m. Sunday to an attempted break-in call, WBAL-TV reported.'I need a medic!'Police released Cole's body-worn camera video, which showed the officer arriving at the location on West Lombard Street; he soon encountered multiple people in a Kia sedan that backed up and struck a parked vehicle, the station said.When Cole ordered the driver to stop, the driver backed up again and struck the officer, WBAL said, citing the video.Police said Cole fired his gun once at the car as he fell, the station said, adding that the driver fled the scene and hit another vehicle as well as the officer's patrol car in the process.Video then shows an injured man approaching the officer from across the street and collapsing.The officer is heard saying on the bodycam video, "I need a medic! You good, bro? I got you. What's wrong, bro, you OK?" RELATED: 3 males — ages 8, 11, 12 — steal car, crash into house; driver, 11, says he learned how to steal cars from YouTube: Cops Police said the officer rendered aid to the 21-year-old injured man who was assaulted by multiple people before the officer's arrival at the scene, WBAL reported; the victim wasn't taken to a hospital.However, the officer at the scene injured his ankle and was treated and released from a hospital, the station said.Police told WBAL that officers found the Kia in question abandoned on South Arlington Avenue and that the vehicle was reported stolen Saturday from East Chase Street.More from WBAL:Police said detectives were able to identify two of the Kia's occupants as two 14-year-old boys who have prior charges of robbery and auto theft and were on electronic monitoring as a result. Detectives arrested the boys Monday on aggravated assault and auto theft charges. They remain detained at Juvenile Booking.Police said detectives later identified the driver of the Kia as a 14-year-old girl. During her arrest on Tuesday, police said officers learned the girl had been treated at a hospital on Sunday for a wound to her right wrist. The girl's mother told detectives that the injury may be a gunshot graze wound; police said further investigation is needed to determine the cause of the injury. The girl was taken to Juvenile Booking, where she was charged with aggravated assault and stolen auto. She was later released on electronic monitoring.Teen crime in Baltimore despite electronic monitoring is not a new phenomenon. Last summer, a 13-year-old with a GPS ankle monitor who had been arrested 18 times for felonies was charged in connection with a violent city crime spree.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Zohran Mamdani has wasted no time turning religious language into shocking political branding. This month, he invoked Muhammad while defending Democrats’ mass-migration posture. He also became the first New York City mayor to skip the installation of a Catholic archbishop.Public officials can practice any faith. They can speak openly about it. The line gets crossed when government starts treating one religion as a protected political category — especially through the criminal code.To overthrow liberal democracy, the far left needs Islam’s numbers, while Islam needs the far left’s organization.That line is about to be obliterated in Virginia.A Bangladesh-born Democrat state senator, Saddam Azlan Salim, introduced SB624, a bill aimed at writing a formal definition of “Islamophobia” into Virginia’s assault and battery laws. The bill would single out Islam for special treatment. No other religion would receive the same statutory carve-out.The bill defines Islamophobia as “malicious prejudice or hatred directed toward Islam or Muslims.” The definition applies “regardless of whether the victim is actually a practitioner of Islam, provided that the perpetrator targeted such victim based on a perceived adherence to such faith.”Is it Islamophobic to walk a dog or eat bacon or spread the gospel in the presence of a devout Muslim? If not, why not? And do we really want to test it?People use Islamophobia as a cudgel to silence legitimate criticism of doctrine, immigration policy, and jihadism at home and abroad. A vague, politically loaded term does not belong in criminal law. It invites selective enforcement. It chills speech. It hands politicians a ready-made pretext to jail dissenters.Call it what it is: one more step toward a blasphemy-style speech regime, enforced by the state.In a world in which leftists — and even some conservatives — believe “hate speech isn’t free speech,” Salim’s bill should set off alarm bells for any civil liberties group that claims to defend the freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.And yet the American Civil Liberties Union has remained resolutely silent.The ACLU’s “Religious Liberty” page claims it exists “to safeguard the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty by ensuring that laws and governmental practices neither promote religion nor interfere with its free exercise.”Given that Islam commands the erasure any kind of secular and sectarian division, you’d think the ACLU’s rabid dogs would be on guard against its encroachment.Instead, the ACLU maintains a page dedicated to opposing “anti-Muslim discrimination,” while boasting of its opposition to a Jewish charter school in Oklahoma.RELATED: Free speech in Britain is worse than you think Photo by Lab Ky Mo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesThe “red-green alliance” between domestic communists and Muslim invaders is the greatest threat currently facing Western countries today.In a talk at Oxford University’s Student Union, Peter Thiel laid out the stark choice between the West continuing to flounder under the illusion that clean energy policies would drive global prosperity and the Islamic worldview, which prioritizes domination.To overthrow liberal democracy, the far left needs Islam’s numbers, while Islam needs the far left’s organization. They have a common enemy — conservatives defending the countries their ancestors built for them — but without that enemy, these groups should actually despise each other.The same day Mamdani invoked the name of the warlord Muhammad in the cause of open borders, the ACLU’s Instagram page shared a post about how hard it is to be “a queer teen in Idaho!” (Strangely enough, no mention about how hard it is to be a queer teen in any of the more than 50 countries that have been enslaved by Islam.)This year we will mark the 10th anniversary of the Pulse Night Club shooting, when Omar Mateen — a Muslim Democrat — murdered 49 gay people and wounded 50 more. But in the ACLU’s response, the organization refused to mention Mateen’s name and indeed warned that his massacre of sexual minorities fit a “more politically convenient narrative fed by anti-Muslim fear and hate.”What a reassuring thing to say to all the affected families in Orlando!The ACLU is not an organization that subscribes to any kind of moral code. At best, it is a drive-by lawsuit factory. At worst, it is a legal arm of terrorists that openly welcomes foreign donations, which undermines American sovereignty. All the ACLU cares about is power — which, come to think of it, is something the group truly has in common with jihadists.

The U.S. State Department issued an advisory on Sunday instructing Americans in Jalisco State as well as in several other Mexican states to "shelter in place until further notice" following the elimination of Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, Mexico's most-wanted cartel boss.With firefights breaking out across the country, radicals blocking key roads, and flights being canceled, many tourists really had no other option than to hunker down.Mexican Army special forces, aided by the nation's air force and national guard, launched a military operation on Sunday aimed at capturing Oseguera Cervantes in Tapalpa, Jalisco.'The United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice.'Under Oseguera Cervantes, 59, the Jalisco New Generation cartel became one of the most formidable criminal enterprises south of the border.The State Department noted that the CJNG, which the Trump administration designated a terrorist organization last February, "has been assessed to have the highest cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine trafficking capacity in Mexico, and over the past few years, includes the trafficking of fentanyl into the United States."In addition to trafficking deadly drugs, the savage and allegedly cannibalistic CJNG developed a reputation for murdering Mexican police and rival drug traffickers. The cartel was also allegedly involved in several assassination attempts against Mexican government officials. Mexican National Guard outside Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime on Feb. 22. Photo by Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu/Getty ImagesWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that the U.S. provided intelligence support to ensure the success of Sunday's operation. Mexican officials confirmed that "complementary information was provided by U.S. authorities within the framework of bilateral coordination and cooperation with the United States.""'El Mencho' was a was a top target for the Mexican and United States government [sic] as one of the top traffickers of fentanyl into our homeland. Last year, President Trump rightfully designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization — because that’s exactly what it is," Leavitt said in a statement."President Trump has been very clear — the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved," added Leavitt.RELATED: What will replace the old world order? Photo by Yilmaz Yucel/Anadolu/Getty ImagesMexico's Secretariat of National Defense indicated that while attacked during the operation, Mexican military personnel "repelled the aggression," resulting in "four members of the 'CJNG' criminal group dying at the scene and three others being severely wounded, who lost their lives during their airlift to Mexico City."Oseguera Cervantes was among those wounded in the operation who apparently perished in transit.Although Mexican and U.S. officials reported that Oseguera Cervantes was eliminated during the operation, the Mexican Secretariat of National Defense said that a forensic evaluation will nevertheless be undertaken to confirm that the cartel terrorist is dead.In the wake of the operation, in which officials seized numerous armored cartel vehicles and rocket launchers, Mexican Army and National Guard troops mobilized to Jalisco and neighboring states to maintain a modicum of order.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — whose party has numerous members accused of being in bed with the cartels — underscored that "we must remain informed and calm."'The good guys are stronger than the bad guys.'Authorities in Jalisco, Michoacan, and Guanajuato indicated that seven Mexican National Guard troops were killed on Sunday along with seven others, reported the Associated Press.Just before midnight on Sunday, the U.S. Dept. of State Bureau of Consular Affairs reiterated the need for American citizens to shelter in place, noting that "while no airports have been closed, roadblocks have impacted airline operations — most domestic & int’l flights are cancelled in Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta."Consular Affairs noted further that all rideshares are suspended in Puerto Vallarta and toll roads in various parts of the country are temporarily suspended.One tourist claiming to be in Puerto Vallarta captured footage of thick columns of smoke billowing up on either side of his resort. Footage reportedly taken by a Canadian tourist stranded in Puerto Vallarta shows smoke-filled streets caused in one instance by a flaming bus.David Miranda, a Chicagoan whose vacation in Puerto Vallarta has evidently gone off the rails, told WSB-TV, "There's blockages, there's cars on fires, there's buses blocking the roads. So nobody can take an Uber, can take a taxi, can take a bus. Everything is blocked.""We don't know how we're going to get food, because it's Airbnbs," said Miranda. "So everything is closed, the corner stores — everything is closed."Lefty Karkazis of San Francisco also found himself trapped in Puerto Vallarta."We were supposed to fly out of here at 2 p.m. So local time, at approximately 10 o'clock, we came downstairs, trying to get a taxi to go to the airport," Karkazis told KPIX-TV. "And [the hotel staff] told us that nothing is moving, all the roads are blocked because there's apparently a cartel operation that is affecting all the flights in and out."His United Airlines flight was reportedly canceled."The next flight out for San Francisco from United is on Thursday. So we might end up staying until Thursday. I don't know," continued Karkazis. "We're just going to go from there. And the worst-case scenario, like I told my wife, we're just going to rent a car and start driving north."The Trump administration commended the Mexican military on a job well done.Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said that the slaying of "one of the bloodiest and most ruthless drug kingpins" is a "great development for Mexico, the US, Latin America, and the world.""The good guys are stronger than the bad guys," added Landau.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!