- Travel spending in San Francisco has rebounded to nearly pre-pandemic levels. The travel group Visit California estimates that tourist spending increased 71% in 2022, which brings the annual tourist spend to $12.2 billion, not far from 2019’s pre-pandemic total of $14.2 billion. [Examiner]
- But Lake Tahoe tourism will be taking a hit this Memorial Day weekend, as several Tahoe-area state campgrounds will be closed the holiday weekend over “Big Melt” concerns. Five state parks in the region still have huge snow drifts and “melt ponds” in their roadways, and state park officials aren’t comfortable letting mobs of campers come in on the three-day weekend. [KPIX]
- Prominent UC Berkeley anthropology professor Elizabeth Hoover has publicly admitted that she’s been falsely claiming Native American heritage, a claim she’s ridden to numerous grants, fellowships, and academic papers. Hoover made the admission in a “Letter of Apology” on her personal website, though says she won’t resign, and the school is not currently planning on removing her. [Hoodline]
- Former SF Fire commissioner Don Carmignani is now officially under SFPD investigation over his alleged bear-spraying of an unhoused person who was originally arrested for assaulting Carmignani, as police suspect Carmignani of other bear-spray attacks on unsheltered people. [Chronicle]
- W. Kamau Bell’s new documentary 1000% Me: Growing Up Mixed has arrived on HBO, and KGO spoke to Bell about his film about Bay Area mixed-race children like his own. [KGO]
- There’s a new Bruce Lee exhibition that just opened at the Chinese Historical Society of America in Chinatown, and admission is free this Saturday. [KRON4]
Image: National Park Service
