By Walt Hickey

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Pizza

The Cleveland Browns have achieved what had long been considered impossible for the franchise: a solid win the week of the NFL Draft. This win took place in the Court of Appeals of Ohio, which held that a pizzeria must in fact pay for a sponsorship agreement with the Browns that it never authorized. The situation in and of itself is somewhat hilarious, and hinges on two brothers who own separate pizzerias, both of which are known as Antonio’s. In 2019, the Browns and Antonio’s cut a deal allowing Antonio’s to use the Browns’ sponsorship for $156,560 per year. The issue comes in the contract: According to Vincent LoSchiavo of La Famiglia Management & Distribution Inc., owner of Antonio’s Pizza, he meant to sign for that restaurant. Instead, the contract was signed for Antonio’s, which is owned by Antonio’s Pizza Inc., and incidentally owned by his brother, Joe. The Browns seemed to pull the business from the Ohio Secretary of State and didn’t verify, but the contract is a contract, and the mandatory arbitration clause ordered Antonio’s to pay $104,153 to the Browns, which after a bunch of court work was upheld. I know this is confusing, but still the biggest mystery of all is unaddressed — namely, why would anyone want the Browns to sponsor anything?

Michael McCann, Sportico

Donors

There’s a lot of money piling up in donor-advised funds, a somewhat recent trend in charity that has become popular among the ultra wealthy as a way to enjoy an immediate tax benefit on a yet-unmade donation to an eventual recipient. The IRS is kicking off a plan to regulate donor-advised funds, sensing room for abuse and a current lack of enforcement measures. Among the proposed rules would be a 20 percent excise tax on donations that provide significant benefit to the donor, a persistent worry. There’s about $230 billion in DAFs across 2 million accounts.

Stephanie Beasley, The Chronicle of Philanthropy

A City of Marvels

Come one, come all, for the latest accomplishment to grace here fair Gotham, the hemispheric metropolis of New York, the greatest of cities, jewel of municipalities, the great Empire City! Gaze upon the newest marvel of engineering to beguile our streets, the bleeding edge of technology and infrastructure that makes this place — this pearl of cosmopolitan life, this city of tomorrow — what it is. The city fathers have cried a momentous announcement that will shake this city to its very schist and granitic firmament, a feat of engineering that will make the Tower of Babel itself feel ashamed: Yes, after eight years of effort, we are just one year away from the successful installation of a new water pipe along East 61st and 63rd streets. After a decade of construction, they assure us, we will have successfully installed 500 feet of sewer and water lines on two whole city blocks! And at a cost of just $22.3 million on an original budget of $8.5 million. Your move, Ozymandias!

Rosemary Misdary, Gothamist

NoVa

Northern Virginia is a hotbed of data centers, with over 300 facilities processing about 70 percent of the world’s digital information. Amazon Web Services alone claims 85 data centers in the region. That has an impact on the region’s water supply: Data centers serviced by the Loudoun water utility increased usage of drinking water by 250 percent between 2019 and 2023 to feed into the cooling systems of the facilities. Google and Amazon are continuing to plow money into northern Virginia to build new facilities, and given that large data centers could use as much as 5 million gallons of water per day, that does start to add up.

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey, Grist

War. War Never Changes.

As the battle drags on and skirmishes between the combatants continue, the ongoing beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake nearing its seventh week of hostilities, we are beginning to see one side gain the upper hand. Even setting aside the diss tracks that have galvanized the nation (and also Canada), Kendrick Lamar’s catalog earned 50.62 million streams from May 3-6, up 49 percent compared to the previous period, while Drake’s catalog listens were in fact down 4.9 percent week over week, from 105.86 million to 100.69 million over the period. We’re seeing the momentum shift happen in real time, and while Drake was more popular than Kendrick, that momentum will be one to watch.

Jason Lipshutz, Billboard

Water

California’s water supply is back to doing just fine. This year the snowpack in the northern Sierra was 123 percent of what’s typical at its peak, and we’re seeing that reflected in the reservoir levels. Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California, is filled to 899 feet of elevation, containing 3.52 million acre-feet of water, and has 28 percent more water than it historically does on this date. Shasta Lake, which is the federally-managed largest reservoir in California, was 97 percent full on Monday, which is 15 percent higher than average.

Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle

House Always Wins

The combat sport and “combat” “sport” business is a good one, as TKO Group Holdings reported that it projects to make $2.68 billion in revenue this year. Even despite a $335 million UFC fighter pay settlement, the company that controls both the UFC and the WWE is doing splendidly well, reporting higher than anticipated revenue of $629.7 million. Of that, WWE was responsible for $316.7 million and UFC was responsible for $313 million.

Alex Weprin, The Hollywood Reporter

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