THE NEW SPACE RACE: FAA grounds Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket until failure investigation is complete.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is requiring an investigation into Alpha’s latest flight, an April 29 launch from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base that ended in failure.

“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency wrote in an update the day of the mishap. “In addition, Firefly may need to request and receive approval from the FAA to modify its license that incorporates any corrective actions and meet all other licensing requirements.”

The April 29 mission, which Firefly called “Message in a Booster,” was the sixth to date for the two-stage, 96.7-foot-tall (29.6-meter-tall) Alpha. The rocket was supposed to deliver a prototype version of Lockheed Martin’s LM 400 multi-mission satellite bus to low Earth orbit, but that didn’t happen.

Just after its two stages separated, Alpha suffered a mishap “that led to the loss of the Lightning engine nozzle extension, substantially reducing the engine’s thrust,” Firefly wrote in a post-launch update. (Alpha’s upper stage is powered by a single Lightning engine.)

Better luck next time, fellas.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: ‘Maryland Dad’ Is Such a Scumbag Dems Will Probably Run Him in ’28. “The only way that the Democrats will move on from Kilmar Abrego Garcia is if they can swap him out for another criminal lowlife who is fresher in the news cycle. It’s almost riot season in the cold weather Dem-run cities, and you know they’re casting their eyes about for their next George Floyd.”

THIS WAS INEVITABLE: Google is quietly testing ads in AI chatbots.

A report from Bloomberg describes how Google began working on a plan in 2024 to adapt AdSense ads to a chatbot experience. Usually, AdSense ads appear in search results and are scattered around websites. Google ran a small test of chatbot ads late last year, partnering with select AI startups, including AI search apps iAsk and Liner.

The testing must have gone well because Google is now allowing more chatbot makers to sign up for AdSense. “AdSense for Search is available for websites that want to show relevant ads in their conversational AI experiences,” said a Google spokesperson.

If people continue shifting to using AI chatbots to find information, this expansion of AdSense could help prop up profits. There’s no hint of advertising in Google’s own Gemini chatbot or AI Mode search, but the day may be coming when you won’t get the clean, ad-free experience at no cost.

It’s a sure thing that advertisers would pay dearly to tailor ads to the privacy-busting data made available by LLM queries and chatbots.

WHY DID THE SCORPION STING THE FROG? Who Are the Maudes, and Why Did Biden Try to Ruin Their Lives? “If you watched Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday, you may have seen Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hold up a photo of the Maude family of South Dakota. I’d heard a little bit about the fifth-generation ranching family before that, but I decided to learn more because I couldn’t believe the story Rollins told about how the Joe Biden administration treated them. It’s unbelievable. Or maybe it’s not, given all we’re learning about the last four years.”

2026 PREVIEW: Kemp neck and neck with Ossoff in possible Georgia Senate matchup. “Kemp has not announced whether he will enter the race to unseat Ossoff, but he is facing unyielding pressure from Republican leaders who see him as their strongest shot.”

I’M CONVINCED, THEY DON’T HAVE TO KEEP PROVING IT: California Democrats Prove Again That They Care More About Perverts Than Kids.

THAT’S (D)IFFERENT BECAUSE SHUT UP:

🚨 LMAO! A reporter just EMBARRASSED Chuck Schumer after Chuck claimed Trump’s poll numbers were bad

REPORTER: “There's a poll out today that has your approval rating lower than any other Congressional leader at 17%…”

SCHUMER: “POLLS COME AND GO!”

🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/z0EgsFOkth

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 1, 2025

SAD NEWS: Dennis Prager Suffers a ‘Setback’ in His Recovery.

FASTER? PLEASE! ‘Son of Blackbird’: US secret hypersonic jet may unleash 4,000 mph speed in 2025.

IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: We’re All Pandas Now.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Amber Ruffin’s Trump Derangement Spikes in ‘View’ Tirade.

It must be comforting to get an invitation to “The View.”

The far-Left showcase spews nonsense on a daily basis. Facts are few and far between. Conspiracy theories run wild. And no one in the Legacy Media will hold you accountable.

It’s the fuel that keeps the long-running show afloat in 2025.

From that perspective, comic Amber Ruffin is a perfect “View” guest.

The former late-night host was slated to anchor last Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association gala, but the WHCA pulled her invitation at the last minute.

The official excuse? The evening was meant to be a healing, inclusive affair.

The real answer? The assembled reporters wanted to pretend that missing the story of the decade – President Joe Biden’s dementia-like condition – wasn’t their fault.

It was. Of course.

Having Ruffin torch President Donald Trump while ignoring Democrats would have made the event look even more partisan than it was.

Ruffin complained about the cancellation to “The View’s” hosts, but she placed the blame in the wrong spot. President Trump didn’t cancel her appearance. The WHCA did.

That’s not all she got wrong.

What’s most wrong is that there are enough viewers to justify the impressive salaries of angry, mal-informed “View” hosts and their guests.

THIS IS WHY WASHINGTON KEEPS TRYING TO FORCE HIM OUT: Hegseth Orders ‘Comprehensive Transformation’ of U.S. Army.

ALLIES: US shares Chinese military’s space secrets with Britain.

The US has begun sharing some of its most sensitive intelligence on Chinese and Russian space operations with Britain and other Five Eyes nations in a move described as “momentous”.

Until this month, the activity of Space Delta 9, a unit focused on America’s orbital warfare, was largely deemed “US eyes only”, meant only for Americans with top-secret security clearance.

However, US military chiefs have taken the unprecedented step of allowing UK military leaders to observe their work at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, in light of mounting concern about China’s militarisation of space.

Developing…

OR MAYBE YOU WILL: You Won’t Believe What Rubio Found In Biden’s State Department Files.

THIS HAS TAKEN ENTIRELY TOO LONG: U.S. Senate Commerce Committee advances Isaacman’s nomination for NASA administrator to full Senate. “On Wednesday, by a vote of 19-9, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee chose to advance the nomination of Jared Isaacman to the full Senate. That vote will come at a later date, which has not yet been scheduled.”

AND YET THEY STILL RESIST CHANGE: Harvard Reluctantly Admits that Woke Politics Have Destroyed the School.

NO-BRAINER, INDEED:

Worse than I thought it would be. If Bob Jones U deserved to lose its tax-exempt status, doing the same to Harvard—and every other school that so baldly fails to uphold its civil-rights obligations—is a no-brainer. https://t.co/3v3gpBzt9W

— Ilya Shapiro (@ishapiro) April 30, 2025

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP TRACK OF ALL THE NEW TRENDS KIDS GET INTO THESE DAYS: The Intrepid New York Times Tries to Get to the Bottom of Why People Wear Crosses.

MONEY WELL SPENT? Federal ‘Job Corps’ Spends Up To $764K Per Graduate. Participants Go On To Earn $17K Annually.

A Labor Department program designed to train 16- to 24-year-olds to join the workforce spends more per person annually than Ivy League colleges, but participants wind up making minimum wage on average — raising questions about whether it should continue to exist.

The Job Corps pays teenage runaways, high school dropouts, and twentysomething ex-cons to live in dormitories and receive their GEDs and vocational training. The national cost per graduate was $188,000, with the average graduate staying 13.5 months. Of more than 110 campuses, the 10 least efficient averaged a cost of $385,000 per graduate. Job Corps participants earn $16,695 per year on average after leaving the program, according to new government data.

Nearly $2 billion in federal taxpayer money is spent annually on residential Job Corps campuses, a boon for the for-profit contractors who run them. But the dismal statistics about the program’s efficacy have never been fully public until the Trump administration released a “Transparency Report” last week.

Maybe there’s something that could be done to help those folks, but Washington is much more about helping contractors than anyone who actually needs it.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

With very few exceptions, Republicans in Congress don’t seem interested in doing anything other than being in Congress. As our country teeters on collapse, the most powerful branch in our government is run by do-nothings who are terrified of using their power to save the country,… https://t.co/5n7lopKwwA

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 30, 2025

I noted a few weeks back that Congress is no longer a place for legislating, but for gaining access to sweet insider trades and launching lucrative social media accounts.

RELIGION OF PEACE UPDATE: Islamic Attacks on Nigerian Christians Escalate.

BREAKING: Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy to leave posts in White House.

I GUESS WE’LL KNOW FOR SURE SOMETIME TODAY OR TOMORROW: Pakistan Warns It Has ‘Credible Intelligence’ India Will Attack Within 36 Hours. “Gunfire has already been exchanged between the nuclear-armed rivals over the last several days, with neither side reporting any casualties or major incidents.”

CATHERINE SALGADO: Economic News Good, Bad, and Optimistic.

SLUSH FUNDS: Environmental ideologues enjoying the Colorado taxpayer dime.

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) describes itself as “…an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit that transforms global energy systems through market-driven solutions to secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all.”

Anyone that is familiar with their work would not dispute their claim to working towards a zero-carbon future, but as someone who’s looked into what they are doing in Colorado, I can tell you that the “market-driven” and “nonpartisan” claims are a real stretch to say the least.

I say that because RMI sure seems to have a cozy relationship with Governor Polis, and the things they are all working on are decidedly more government mandate than free market. In fact, of the approximately $718,000 tax dollars the state has paid RMI, the vast majority ($706K) has flowed to them just since Polis was elected. Further, the money has mostly funneled through the Colorado Energy Office (CEO), a division within the governor’s office.

A CORA request to see the contracts with RMI since Polis took office returned 15 files, and reading through them provides an intriguing look at how Gov. Polis is putting this supposedly free market, nonpartisan group to work.

Much more at the link.

I’d just add that Polis sure seems to enjoy those public-private “partnerships” an awful lot for a so-called libertarian Democrat.