Debt and Debate: House speaker Kevin McCarthy left negotiations yesterday saying he’s encouraged that a deal can be reached on the debt ceiling and spending by the looming June 1^st deadline for possible disaster.

  “It is possible to get a deal by the end of the week. It’s not that difficult to get to an agreement,” McCarthy said.

  Biden said, “Default is not an option. America pays its debts, pays its bills.”

  Despite vows to keep the debt limit and spending separate, the Democrats appear to be doing the opposite, discussing spending cuts in order to get the Republican vote to raise the ceiling, enabling the federal government to pay its bills. And the Democrats may have to agree to even greater cuts if they want a longer extension on the debt ceiling.  

  Republicans also are pushing for requirements for physically able people on federal programs like food stamps to work.  But some Senate Democrats, including John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, say that’ll happen over their dead bodies.

  President Biden is leaving for Asia today, but said he’ll cut his trip short to come back and oversee the financial negotiations.

Real Intelligence: The CEO of the company that runs the artificial intelligence program ChatGPTtestified before Congress yesterday that he fears AI could be misused and run out of control without government intervention.  OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the development of artificial intelligence as a “printing press moment” but also said, “We think that regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful models.”

  He said, “I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”

  Altman in his remarks before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee laid out  a three-point safety plan that raises frightening possibilities he thinks need to be defended against.

• Form a government agency charged with licensing large AI models and making them adhere to government standards. 
• Set of safety standards for AI models, including, for instance,  making sure they can’t “self-replicate” and “exfiltrate into the wild.” 
• Require independent audits of AI performance.

  As Hal famously said, “I’m sorry Dave, I don’t think I can do that.”

The War Room: The chair of Ukraine’s Supreme Court has been accused of receiving a $2.7 million bribe and removed from office. “This is a dark day in the history of the court,” the court’s judges said in a joint statement. “

  The now former chairman, Vsevolod Knyazev, is accused  of taking the  bribe for ruling in favor of the Finance and Credit financial group, which is owned by a prominent businessman.

The Shooting Gallery: An 18-year-old gunman firing  indiscriminately in a residential neighborhood Monday in Farmington, New Mexico, killed three people, including a 97-year-old woman and her daughter, was killed after exchanging as many as 100 rounds with the police.  Six other people, including two cops, were wounded.

  The shooter was identified as Beau Wilson, a student at Farmington High School. Wilson went on his spree with three guns, including an assault rifle. Three officers engaged him without body armor when the shooting started on their way to lunch, the authorities said.

  And in Texas, a 12-year-old boy has been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of an employee at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant. 

The Spin Rack: The Republican majority of the North Carolina legislature voted to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that now bans abortion in that state after 12 weeks of pregnancy. — The Secret Service is investigating how an intruder in April got into the home of US national security adviser Jake Sullivan without being stopped or even seen by Secret Service agents guarding the home. ABC News correspondent Pierre Thomas said the man entered through an unlocked door at “3 AM in the morning” in an evident appeal to a broader viewing demographic. — California Democrat Robert Garcia introduced a one-sentence resolution in the House of Representatives to expel the lying and criminally charged New York Republican George Santos. Garcia expects the Republicans to embarrass themselves by voting it down. — Colorado’s gun lovin’ and family values Rep. Lauren Boebert has had her husband of 18 years served with divorce papers. She joins Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene in “family values” divorce. — The Internal Revenue Service announced that it’s going to launch a free tax filing option next year, ultimately leading to a complete IRS filing system that would compete with private tax preparers. It’s part of an $80 billion effort over 10 years for the IRS to beef up enforcement, modernize its technology, improve service ,and rebuild its workforce. — In an indication that the pandemic era home improvement binge is over, Home Depot announced a significant drop in sales. 

Below the Fold: Dancers at a North Hollywood, California topless bar have successfully voted to become the only strippers in the US to have union recognition.  The ladies join the ranks of the Actors’ Equity Assn. and will negotiate a contract with the Star Garden club that likely will not have a dress code.

-30-