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.

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

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.)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.”

NANCY PELOSI: ‘Thank God’ Founders Made Constitution ‘Amendable’ to ‘Expand Freedom’

This is the same Nancy Pelosi who led the House side of the Democratic effort to partially repeal the First Amendment.

FORGET IT, JAKE — IT’S CALIFORNIA: California seeks to tax rocket launches, which are already taxed.

The tax board is seeking public input from now until June 16, when it is expected to vote on the proposed tax. The federal government already has its own taxes for commercial space companies, and until now no other state has proposed taxing commercial spaceflight. In fact most other states, including places like Florida, Texas, and Georgia, offer launch providers tax incentives to move business into their areas.

Phil Larson, a former Obama White House official who now is assistant dean of the University of Colorado’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, told Ars that California is discriminating against rocket companies by doubly taxing them. He also noted that such a tax would impede California’s ability to launch climate satellites, which Governor Jerry Brown has said he would do if President Trump cuts the ability of federal scientists to study Earth’s climate.

At least they haven’t put a tax on thingy.

Chinese rival to Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 takes to the air for the first time.

Yet western experts believe it won’t put much of a dent in the market share of the dominant U.S. and European players.

Launched nine years ago and now running three years late, the C919 jet won’t enter service until 2019 or 2020.

The Airbus neo is already in service and has won more than 5,000 orders. And the Boeing MAX, which is due to enter service later this month with Malaysian carrier Malindo Air, has just over 3,700 orders.

Boeing leaders have said for years that it’s the next generation of Chinese commercial jets after the C919 that will offer real competition, likely around 2030.

It may be even longer before anyone trusts Chinese engines.

GOOD MORNING: Start it right with Liz Sheld’s Morning Brief.

PERSPECTIVE:

(Bumped, by Glenn).

BEGUN, THE BEER WARS HAVE: Craft Beer Bars Cutting Off Wicked Weed, Other AB InBev-Owned Breweries.

Falling Rock Taphouse, Euclid Hall, the Crafty Fox, Walter’s 303 Pizzeria and Publik House and First Draft Taproom — all respected Denver craft beer bars — also said they will stop serving Wicked Weed and other AB-owned brands.
…
“We will not be purchasing any more Wicked Weed beers to be sold at Freshcraft,” says Jason Forgy, who owns Freshcraft with his two brothers. “We do have a few kegs that we have already purchased squirreled away that we will tap and sell however. This is a difficult decision for myself, my brothers and our management team. The people from Wicked Weed have been great to work with and we truly wish them the best. They also have made some pretty great beer and I would think that they will continue to do so.

“We made the decision not to financially support AB InBev several years ago and this acquisition has not changed our position,” Forgy continues. “We believe that where the money that we spend when purchasing beer goes is important. We have and will continue to focus on supporting independent craft brewers.”

“AB does not need our money. We are happy for the founders of Wicked Weed, but will not support AB,” adds Drew Watson, co-owner of Hops & Pie, which will tap six remaining kegs of Wicked Weed, but none after that.

I’ll take my local brewpub over AB InBev any evening, but I suspect this move is more about posturing for their customers — with maybe also a little fear of InBev and/or jealousy of Wicked Weed’s founders for taking the Lear.

JUSTICE? ‘DaddyOFive’ Parents Who Allegedly Tortured Son on YouTube Haven’t Been Charged…Yet.

PANIC IN THE YEAR 2117! Stephen Hawking says humans must flee Earth within century.

It might be a bit premature to start packing, but the BBC’s Expedition New Earth will explore technological and scientific advances that will enable life in space or a colony on another planet, reports the Telegraph.

It will show “Hawking’s ambition isn’t as fantastical as it sounds—that science fact is closer to science fiction than we ever thought,” the BBC says, per Newsweek.

Elon Musk of SpaceX is already planning to send humans to Mars in the next decade. But while a Mars colony is a good idea, bringing new scientific discoveries, columnist Eric Mack says Hawking needs to give his head a shake if he honestly believes Mars, the moon, or anywhere else in our solar system will be more hospitable than Earth even after a host of disasters.

“Just cleaning up our own mess and starting over by rising from the rubble seems more practical” and more affordable than figuring out how to grow food or survive radiation poisoning on Mars, he writes at Forbes.

I suspect there’s quite a bit of life left in this old planet yet, but that doesn’t mean we need to stay here exclusively.

IT ISN’T A REPEAL: House approves Obamacare repeal bill.

Now, on to the Senate. Bridget Johnson has more on that.

WINNING: House panel passes Republican measure gutting Dodd-Frank reforms.

In a party line 34-to-26 vote, the panel voted to remove restrictions the Obama administration placed on banks if they agree to hold a higher level of capital.

The measure, called the Financial Choice Act, would repeal the Volcker rule that prohibited banks from speculating in the markets.

Republicans blame Dodd-Frank for the weak economy and a lack of lending to small businesses. Democrats argued that problems in the law could be improved with minor adjustments.

The measure would effectively neuter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans have opposed the agency since it was created.

Repealing the Volcker rule may or may not be wise, but taken as a whole Dodd-Frank put Washington and Wall Street into bed together like never before.