CHEATING? Uber Faces Federal Criminal Probe Over ‘Greyball’ Software.

Uber has said it used the technology to evade government officials seeking to identify and block Uber drivers in cities where the company faced regulatory challenges. The program, which Uber called Greyball, showed officials dummy versions of the app with fake cars trawling the streets.

The company said in March it would stop the practice of targeting government officials following media reports and a New York Times story that exposed the practice.

The investigation, described as in its early stages, is focused on how Uber used the software, according to the person with knowledge of the matter. A federal grand jury recently sent Uber a subpoena requesting records related to the software, this person said.

Uber’s management style might best be described as “psychopathic” — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“WOW” IS RIGHT: Wow! Cassini’s Bird’s-Eye View of Saturn Plunge Astonishes in New Video.

BUT REMEMBER, GOV. MOONBEAM SAYS HE’S “PRO-SCIENCE:” California seeks to tax rocket launches, which are already taxed: The tax will be based upon “mileage” traveled by that spacecraft from California.

GRACIAS: Calif. RAs Print Flyers to Avoid ‘Cultural Appropriation’ on Cinco de Mayo.

SKYNET SMILES: Demo: A Versatile Snake Robot That Masters Tough Terrain and Climbs Metal Walls.

DELTA BLUES: California Family Kicked Off Delta Flight, Threatened With Jail, Foster Care for Refusing to Give Up Tot’s Seat.

Brian and Brittany Schear, of Huntington Beach, California, told NBC News that they had already boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Maui to Los Angeles with their two infant children on April 23 when they were kicked off the plane following an argument with officials.

The Schears said they were then forced to find their own hotel, transportation and purchase new tickets for a flight the next day — all after midnight.

Brian Schear said the family had initially purchased a ticket for their teenage son on the red-eye flight, but decided to send him home early so that their 2-year-old could have a seat on the plane. The couple was also traveling with a 1-year-old.

He said they let the ticket agent know about their situation at the gate, and that the agent accommodated the family to sit together.

Brian Schear said they boarded the plane without issue, but with other passengers on the standby list for the flight, he was then told by Delta agents that the 2-year-old had to give up his seat — and then threatened with jail.

From there, things got ugly.

THIS IS A PROBLEM WHY? Bombay Sapphire Gin Recalled in Canada for Having Nearly Twice as Much Alcohol.

(Hat tip, Cletus Socrates.)

GOSH, WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT? China Is Building A Sea-Skimming Antiship Drone.

MY SOURCES SAY NO: North Korea accuses US of ‘biochemical’ attempt to assassinate Kim Jong Un.

HMM: Congress investigating taxpayer-backed school over alleged ties to Chinese military after Fox News report.

THE SINS OF THEIR FATHERS: The New Yorker, Ivanka Trump, and Chelsea Clinton.

I DOUBT WHETHER THE FRENCH ACTUALLY SEE IT THIS WAY: French presidential election becomes Trump vs. Obama proxy war.

What does one endorsement video actually mean in an election where Obama’s preferred candidate already enjoys a 20-point lead over his rival?

ISIS ADVISES: Use Fake Apartment, Job, Craigslist Ads to Lure Hostage, Murder Victims.

I THINK WE SHOULD JUST SHUT IT DOWN: Wrestling With the NFL’s Violence Problem.

Suppose you’re considering a job applicant who seems to check all the right boxes. He has the skills you’re looking for. He has accolades from experts in the field. It’s obvious that he can be of enormous help to your company. Then, in the course of your background check, you learn that he is facing accusations of sexual assault. What do you do?

If you’re an ordinary employer, you go to the next applicant on your list. If you’re the National Football League, you roll out the red carpet.

That’s at least one potential lesson from this past weekend’s NFL draft. In the first round, the Oakland Raiders drafted Gareon Conley, who has been accused of rape. In the second round, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Joe Mixon, who in a much-viewed video punches a woman so hard that she falls down unconscious. In the sixth round, the Cleveland Browns selected Caleb Brantley, who was accused of doing pretty much what Mixon did. And they are not the only drafted players who face or have faced such charges.

Of course not every accusation is true. The players might turn out to be innocent. (Well, not Mixon, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and reached a civil settlement with the victim.) But most employers would nevertheless tread warily, no matter how much talent the prospective hire might bring. Yes, there is a certain unfairness in punishing would-be employees who have been convicted of no crime. On the other hand, a business has reputation and morale to worry about.

The NFL is different.

Well, they don’t call it the National Felons’ League for nothing.

JONAH GOLDBERG: The Dangers of Empathy.

Empathy is different than sympathy or compassion. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for someone. Compassion is when you do something about it.

But empathy is something else. Researchers studying the brain can actually see how the various centers controlling certain feelings light up when we observe or imagine the experiences of others. “If you feel bad for someone who is bored, that’s sympathy,” writes Yale psychologist Paul Bloom in his brave and brilliant new book, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, “but if you feel bored, that’s empathy.”

Bloom, a liberal transplant from Canada, distrusts empathy because empathy is like a drug. It distorts our perspective, causing us to get all worked up about an individual or group. He compares it to a spotlight that illuminates a specific person or group, plunging everything and everyone else into darkness.

And:

Which brings me back to Jimmy Kimmel. His story about his son aroused a riot of empathy across the nation. And he used that response to make an argument about health-care policy that was largely devoid of any consideration of the facts, trade-offs, or costs of what is the best way to deal with people, including babies, who have pre-existing medical conditions.

Read the whole thing.

AXIS OF EVIL: Pentagon eyes Iran-North Korea military connection.

According to U.S. defense officials, Iran was attempting to launch a Jask-2 cruise missile underwater for the first time, but the launch failed. Nonproliferation experts have long suspected North Korea and Iran are sharing expertise when it comes to their rogue missile programs.

“The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. “Over the years, we’ve seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other’s countries, and we’ve seen all kinds of common hardware.”

When Iran tested a ballistic missile in late January, the Pentagon said it was based on a North Korean design. Last summer, Iran conducted another missile launch similar to a North Korean Musudan, the most advanced missile Pyongyang has successful tested to date.

Defense analysts say North Korea’s Taepodong missile looks almost identical to Iran’s Shahab.

I’m old enough to remember when a military/terror connection between Tehran and Pyongyang was a Dick Cheney lie sold by George W. Bush to rush the country into war.

WHY ARE LEFTY MEDIA SUCH CESSPITS OF PEDOPHILIA? It’s Time New York Times CEO Mark Thompson Told the Truth About this Sex Scandal.

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NO SMOKE, NO FIRE: Diane Feinstein Sees No Evidence of Russian Collusion With Trump Campaign at This Time.

COLBERT STILL TRYING TO BACK AWAY FROM LAME “COCK HOLSTER” SLUR: “Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons—a gay man—was trotted out” to ask Stephen Colbert “Are you feeling homophobic?” Note, however, the way the industry is trying to protect him. People on the right never get this, even from right-leaning media.

HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE:

Here’s the part Guy was talking about:

The media template for covering the 115th Congress apparently goes like this: When Republicans fail to pass a bill, they’re doomed. But when they succeed, they’re also doomed. Thus the same media sages who said the House could never repeal ObamaCare are now saying that the replacement the House passed Thursday can’t pass the Senate.

It wouldn’t be so bothersome — the press is supposed to be hostile to politicians, or at least highly suspect of them — if the skepticism was directed at both parties.

However, ObamaCare’s rocky passage was presented as “historic victory” for Democrats generally, and even more uncritically as a huge win for Barack Obama specifically. And long before Politifact finally conceded that ObamaCare’s sales pitch was the “Lie of the Year,” they originally gave that “award” to the GOP for opposing it.

The AHCA, whatever its virtues or flaws, has received and will receive no such treatment — which is as it should be. But there might not be such an expensive wreck of an “affordability” act to try and fix today had the press applied the same critical eye to ObamaCare and its proponents in 2009-10.

MICHAEL BARONE: Cultural appropriation: A modest proposal.

“Cultural appropriation” has become the latest evil denounced by soi-disant Social Justice Warriors, on campus and off. Examples:

“I was taught that white people shouldn’t listen to rap music because it’s cultural appropriation and could be offensive to my classmates,” writes Pomona College student Steven Glick in the Washington Post.

Young women wearing bindis (Hindu forehead adornments) and feathered headdresses at the Coachella Festival should be ashamed: that’s cultural appropriation, declares Teen Vogue.

Yoga, as you may be relieved to learn from the Huffington Post, is not necessarily cultural appropriation. “But it’s complicated,” the writer adds. “It is really important to honor and appreciate where a practice comes from, or we risk appropriating it.” Got that? Really important.

Sometimes individuals take it into their own hands to punish cultural appropriation, like the Hampshire College student who interrupted a women’s basketball game to insist that a Central Maine College player remove the braids from her hair.

Another transgressive bit of cultural appropriation, according to a Pitzer College assistant professor of Chicano-Latino Studies: white students (presumably female) wearing hooped earrings.

A reasonably sane, decent adult may be puzzled by all this. But consult Google and you find 482,000 hits for “cultural appropriation.” That’s not (to risk committing an offense) chopped liver. It’s defined as “the adoption or use of one culture by members of another culture.”

Attentive readers will notice that “culture” is a euphemism. The objection is not to participating in a culture but to doing so when you’re not of the right genetic ancestry.

People who talk about cultural appropriation un-ironically are self-identifying as idiots. They should be mocked and ridiculed mercilessly.

VIDEO: Venezuelan tanks plow through crowds as 2-month protest continues.

Laura Rangel, a journalist who captured the moment on film, told Reuters three protesters were injured, one of them seriously.

At least one person was caught underneath a vehicle, NBC News confirmed.

Pedro Michelle Yammine Escobar, 22, is in serious condition at the intensive care unit of a hospital after suffering a rib fracture and internal bleeding following the tank collision, Rangel told Reuters.

You can also file this one under “Late Stage Socialism.”