NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: China’s hypersonic research to get boost from satellite startup.

GOODER AND HARDER, SAN FRAN: Retail exodus: Another major chain announces store closure in San Francisco.

The loss of Nordstrom, a neighboring Saks Off 5th store and other global brands like Uniqlo, Gap and H&M hurts not only the city’s sales tax base and labor force, but also the vitality of critical downtown streets where tourists flock, helping shape San Francisco’s global reputation.

The city’s economic malaise was brought on by remote work and the pandemic, but some city officials and Nordstrom’s landlord also blamed an inadequate response to crime as a key reason for the spate of closures in the city’s chief shopping district…

Weeks of grim news have fueled a debate over public safety and how the city can best promote an economic recovery — or at least stop the bleeding of losing store after store, which feeds into fears of an economic “doom loop.”…

Nordstrom is still expanding in California despite the San Francisco closures. The company said last month it would open five new Rack stores…

And the stores that are left will everything behind plexiglass: San Francisco Target puts entire department on lockdown amid shoplifting crisis.

DEM-CONTROLLED SENATE DEFIES BIDEN IN VOTE TO RESTORE TARIFFS ON CHINESE SOLAR PANELS: Vote comes as blow for Biden, who has argued that Chinese solar tariffs would decimate green energy industry.

BREAKING: Active Shooter Situation in Midtown Atlanta, One Dead, at Least Three Injured.

UPDATE (From Ed): Suspected gunman in deadly Atlanta hospital shooting captured after hours-long search.

(Updated and bumped.)

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Nashville Shooter Manifesto Placed In Secure Crate Alongside Motive For Vegas Shooting, Epstein Client List, Ark of The Covenant.

Meanwhile, in real life:

Nashville PD: As a result of our being sued over withholding the killer's manifesto, we are going to withhold the killer's manifesto https://t.co/Nt2TmIEBmJ

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) May 3, 2023

IT’S BASICALLY FAKE: Green Energy Industry Admits It Needs Cheap Chinese Goods To Survive: Industry leaders in panic as Congress pushes to impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels.

SAD! Now Bud Light Is Giving Away Free Beer to Make Amends After Dylan Mulvaney Debacle.

RICH LOWRY: Academia’s twisted reasons for shelving the SAT. “The deeper problem with the SAT, of course, is optics; it doesn’t produce the racial outcomes that the people who run institutions of higher education, especially elite ones, want. At the end of the day, the test that has been smeared over the years as a tool of white supremacy is a conveyor belt for Asian Americans into top colleges in numbers that college administrators find embarrassing and inconvenient. . . . This is where the SAT is unwelcome in another way. As an objective measure of preparedness with hard numbers attached, it provides incontrovertible evidence of the racial bias against Asian Americans in admissions. Who wants that? With a likely loss in the Supreme Court’s big affirmative-action case looming, colleges and universes are already finding a way to finagle out of the decision.”

INTRODUCING Extra Muros:. Higher education “outside the walls” of our dying universities.

GET READY FOR SUMMER: Crocs Unisex-Adult Classic Clog. #CommissionEarned

AS ALWAYS, POLITICAL CONVENIENCE: Why Is One Dose Suddenly Enough for the mRNA COVID Vaccines? — FDA and CDC have made yet another questionable decision. “What data underlie the decisions, and how were those decisions made? The simplest answers are: None and who really knows?”

Plus: “There is literally no data on how well a single dose of a bivalent mRNA vaccine will protect anyone.”

SO TAXPAYERS CAN BAIL THEM OUT A SECOND TIME? Nearly half of college dropouts would ‘very likely’ reenroll if given student debt relief.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB: Car Makers Getting the Same Treatment Gun Makers are Used To. “The same antigun politicians who want to sue members of the firearm industry for crimes they didn’t commit are now trying to blame automakers for when the cars they make are stolen.”

HEH: Media Matters Tried To Destroy Tucker With Leaked Tapes, And It Blew Up Spectacularly. “Thank you for confirming that Tucker is a normal, down-to-earth, very funny person. Great work, as always, Media Matters, curating excellent conservative content.”

Related: Leaked Tucker Carlson Videos Are Truly Embarrassing — for the Leaker.

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Fox News Is Officially Dying Without Tucker Carlson.

Plus:

• In the Navy?
• Everybody needs to talk about Oakland Fight Club.
• Vigilantism is going to be the new normal.

So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: DOE Set To Award $200M Grant to Battery Maker Run by Chinese ‘Talent Program’ Recruit.

The founder of a lithium battery company poised to receive a $200 million grant from the Biden administration was once brought to China through a Chinese Communist Party program that the FBI warns is used for economic espionage.

The founder and chief executive officer of Microvast, Wu Yang, in 2000 was recruited to move back to China from the United States as part of a Chinese government-sponsored “talent program.” The grant to Microvast could conflict with the stated policy of the Department of Energy, which plans to boost the company with the massive green energy grant. A DOE official said in February that the department is “prohibited” from funding people who are involved in foreign talent programs.

Previously: The U.S. Government Should Register as a Foreign Agent.

SAME: Australia wants a laser weapon powerful enough to stop a tank.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: AI’s chaotic rollout in big US hospitals detailed in anonymous quotes.

COLORADO: When Is a Fee Not a Fee?

A month ago, I commented on Colorado Senate Bill 213, which would allow the state to give major cities housing targets that they would have to meet and require cities to rezone single-family neighborhoods to allow for more density. Some of the worst features of the bill have been deleted, but the bill is still bad.

The reason why the rezoning requirement was dropped from the bill was that the cities themselves opposed it — not because they opposed density but because they said they were already imposing density on their residents and didn’t need to be told to do so by the state. Many cities in the Denver metro area are landlocked, so the only way for them to meet state housing targets would be to densify anyway.

The bill also includes more funding for “affordable housing.” Some of that funding is supposed to come from a “fee” on new housing, thus making that housing (and all housing that competes with it) more expensive. But how is this a fee and not a tax?

Under Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), a constitutional amendment, the state can’t increase taxes without voter approval. But it can increase fees, so the legislature is redefining many taxes as fees so they can raise them without having to go to the voters.

At the start of the year, Denver imposed a statewide “fee” of 10 cents per shopping bag you didn’t bring yourself. That’s clearly a tax on shopping bags, and not a fee you’d pay in exchange for something like access to a state park. But at the rate Colorado is going, I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a few years, Democrats were imposing “fees” on pretty much everything.

WELL, GOOD: Study offers fresh hope for people living with chronic back pain.

MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: You’ll Want to Hire These PJ Media VIP Supporters to Teach at Your Local High School. “I ask our VIP readers for a favor, and do you fine folks ever deliver.”

MAYBE THE LAST HALF-CENTURY OF UNDERMINING FAMILIES, FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS, CHURCHES, ETC. WAS A BAD IDEA: Surgeon general: Epidemic of loneliness can cause major health issues.

Plus, this takes chutzpah post-lockdown: “At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we gained a greater appreciation for how crucial relationships are to our well-being.”

THE VIRTUAL DOCTOR IS IN: ChatGPT found to give better medical advice than real doctors in blind study.

First, the researchers asked them to judge the quality of the information in the message.

When assessing quality, there are multiple attributes to consider, Ayers said. “It could be accuracy, readability, comprehensiveness or responsiveness,” he told Fox News Digital.

Next, the researchers were asked to judge empathy.

“It’s not just what you say, but how you say it,” Ayers said. “Does the response have empathy and make patients feel that their voice is heard?”

“Doctors have resource constraints, so … they often zero in on the most probable response and move on.”

ChatGPT was three times more likely to give a response that was very good or good compared to physicians, he told Fox News Digital. The chatbot was 10 times more likely to give a response that was either empathetic or very empathetic compared to physicians.

It’s not that the doctors don’t have empathy for their patients, Ayers said — it’s that they’re overburdened with messages and don’t always have the time to communicate it.

Does fake empathy feel real when patients know it’s fake?

DEAL OF THE DAY: FRONTLINE Plus for Dogs Flea and Tick Treatment. #CommissionEarned

WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF?

Since Tucker's show was taken off the air, there has been what could reasonably be called a collapse in ratings – especially among young viewers – on Fox's other shows. I don't know if this is a strategy to win back viewers or what but it seems odd:https://t.co/ksUpLQn74l

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 3, 2023