Latest news with #SouthTexas
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas Legislature gives new city of Starbase authority to shut down local beach for SpaceX launches
Texas lawmakers agreed to give the new city of Starbase the authority to periodically close down a South Texas beach, giving more power to municipal officials with close ties to SpaceX over the objections of local activists trying to preserve access to the beach. After previous versions of the measure died earlier during the legislative session, a last-minute addition to a bill related to the Texas Space Commission successfully granted Starbase officials the authority to temporarily close down Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX launches. House Bill 5246 revises the power and duties of the Texas Space Commission and the Texas Aerospace Research and Space Economy Consortium. A conference committee report of the bill added a section that allows the Space Commission to coordinate with a city to temporarily close a highway or venue for public safety purposes. In South Texas, that will give the Starbase city commissioners the authority to approve those closures which would affect State Highway 4, a road that runs through Starbase and leads to the beach, as well as the beach itself. Rep. Greg Bonnen, a Republican from Friendswood who chaired the conference committee on the bill, said the bill would ensure Texas remained the gateway for the future in space exploration. "The future is being shaped right here in Texas,' Bonnen said. Defending the addition to the bill, Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, a Democrat from Laredo, argued that the city of Starbase would have a better idea of whether it is safe for people to be out on the beach in a similar way the Laredo manages their international bridges. However, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, along with other Democrats, pushed back against the bill, noting that previous attempts to give Starbase this authority never made it to the House floor. Martinez Fischer also argued that the county commissioners were responsible for the beach and should get to make the call on when to shut it down. 'The question is who gets to make the call and who is in the best position to have the public interest in mind in closing a public beach?' Martinez Fischer said on the floor Sunday. 'I submit to you it's not the people in the company town that's effectively a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX, and it's not the Space Commission.' Local organizations strongly opposed the measure, hosting phone banking events to urge lawmakers to vote against the bill. Their objections to the measure stemmed from concerns that the public would increasingly be shut off from Boca Chica Beach, which is affectionately known as the people's beach. It was once the most accessible beach before the Queen Isabella Causeway was built to connect Port Isabel to South Padre Island in 1954. Today, Boca Chica is beloved because it lacks the heavy commercialization of the beaches of South Padre Island. Additionally, the Esto'k Gna Tribal Nation, commonly known as the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, view the beach as part of their ancestral land. The tribal and environmental groups have also opposed the increasing space flight activity that SpaceX is conducting on the beach over fears that the company's rocket launches are damaging nearby wildlife and polluting the gulf waters. Despite their efforts, the Federal Aviation Administration gave SpaceX the green light to increase the number rocket launches from Boca Chica Beach from five to 25 times per year. This authorization came after the FAA found through an environmental assessment that there would be no significant environmental impacts. The FAA released a draft of the environmental assessment last year for public review and held public meetings in January. Critics from the environmental and indigenous groups argued that the FAA's review was not thorough and that the agency did not consult with the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe. The move to allow Starbase to close the beach shifts that authority away from Cameron County, a power that the county inherited in 2013 just as SpaceX was about to begin their spaceflight activities there. Now that authority lies with Starbase, a new city whose residents and elected officials are either SpaceX employees or have ties to the company. The mayor and city commissioners held their first public meetings this week, appointing key staff, adopting city codes, and approving a financial plan to seek a loan from SpaceX to help fund the city through the end of the fiscal year. Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Musk gives parting message to Trump as he officially quits DOGE after blasting new spending bill
Elon Musk has quit the Department of Government Efficiency and bid farewell to the White House just one day after he publicly split with President Donald Trump. The former First Buddy praised the president in an apparent effort to depart on good terms after he slammed Trump's 'big beautiful bill' and admitted he was disappointed with the treatment his DOGE team had received. 'As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President Trump for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,' he wrote on X on Wednesday night. 'The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.' Musk was due to finish up his time at the White House by May 30. His appointment as a Special Government Employee was only temporary and designed to last 130 days. And the world's richest man had been slowly phasing out of politics for weeks amid whispers of tensions with top administration officials. But the situation came to a head on Tuesday night when Musk offered several points of criticism from his South Texas Starbase ahead of his latest SpaceX launch. 'It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk bluntly told CBS of the $3.8trillion spending bill. The former First Buddy praised the president in an apparent effort to depart on good terms after he slammed Trump's 'big beautiful bill' and admitted he was disappointed with the treatment his DOGE team had received 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.' Musk - who spoke to multiple outlets about the White House betrayal - went on to decry the treatment he and his baby-faced DOGE henchmen had received. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he told the Washington Post. 'Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' After helping Trump win the 2024 election with outrageous financial contributions and stage-jumping endorsements, Musk earned the title of 'First Buddy' in the White House. For the first several months of Trump's second term, Musk was everywhere - briefing Trump personally, gutting federal departments and even bringing his son, X, along to crucial meetings in the Oval Office. But his arrival ruffled feathers both within the political establishment a nd among governmental employees, particularly when he set about mercilessly slashing jobs in an effort to root out wasteful spending. 'People burning Teslas,' he told the Post. 'Why would you do that?' As Tesla showrooms around the nation became the epicenters of violent protests, stock prices nosedived and reports emerged that the board was seriously considering replacing Musk. 'I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,' Musk admitted in a separate interview with ARS Technica. 'It's not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks.' Musk twisted the knife a little further with outspoken criticism of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' he said. 'My personal opinion.' The bill is estimated to add another $3.8 trillion to the national debt which currently stands at a monstrous $36 trillion. 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,' he said. 'I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.' Musk saved an estimated $160billion in what he labeled wasteful government spending by decimating or shutting down 11 federal agencies - putting about 250,000 federal employees out of work in the process. But even that number is a far cry from the $2trillion he vowed to save when DOGE was launched, and it has cost him immensely with mounting lawsuits and global protests against both he and his companies. He stepped back from his high-profile role recently to refocus on his lifelong goal of colonizing Mars amid whispers his friendship with Trump was on the rocks and that he'd made enemies within the White House. Despite all the rumors, Trump praised Musk as he revealed the billionaire had taken a step back from DOGE and said he would have been welcome to ' stay as long as you want.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
Elon Musk scales back role in Trump's DOGE
Published: Updated: Elon Musk has quit the Department of Government Efficiency and bid farewell to the White House just one day after he publicly split with President Donald Trump. The former First Buddy praised the president in an apparent effort to depart on good terms after he slammed Trump's 'big beautiful bill' and admitted he was disappointed with the treatment his DOGE team had received. But the situation came to a head on Tuesday night when Musk offered several points of criticism from his South Texas Starbase ahead of his latest SpaceX launch. 'It undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Musk bluntly told CBS of the $3.8trillion spending bill. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it.' Musk - who spoke to multiple outlets about the White House betrayal - went on to decry the treatment he and his baby-faced DOGE henchmen had received. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he told the Washington Post. 'Something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' After helping Trump win the 2024 election with outrageous financial contributions and stage-jumping endorsements, Musk earned the title of 'First Buddy' in the White House. For the first several months of Trump's second term, Musk was everywhere - briefing Trump personally, gutting federal departments and even bringing his son, X, along to crucial meetings in the Oval Office. But his arrival ruffled feathers both within the political establishment a nd among governmental employees, particularly when he set about mercilessly slashing jobs in an effort to root out wasteful spending. 'People burning Teslas,' he told the Post. 'Why would you do that?' As Tesla showrooms around the nation became the epicenters of violent protests , stock prices nosedived and reports emerged that the board was seriously considering replacing Musk. 'I think I probably did spend a bit too much time on politics,' Musk admitted in a separate interview with ARS Technica. 'It's not like I left the companies. It was just relative time allocation that probably was a little too high on the government side, and I've reduced that significantly in recent weeks.' Musk twisted the knife a little further with outspoken criticism of Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill.' 'I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don't know if it can be both,' he said. 'My personal opinion.' The bill is estimated to add another $3.8 trillion to the national debt which currently stands at a monstrous $36 trillion. 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,' he said. 'I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.' Musk saved an estimated $160billion in what he labeled wasteful government spending by decimating or shutting down 11 federal agencies - putting about 250,000 federal employees out of work in the process. But even that number is a far cry from the $2trillion he vowed to save when DOGE was launched, and it has cost him immensely with mounting lawsuits and global protests against both he and his companies. He stepped back from his high-profile role recently to refocus on his lifelong goal of colonizing Mars amid whispers his friendship with Trump was on the rocks and that he'd made enemies within the White House. Despite all the rumors, Trump praised Musk as he revealed the billionaire had taken a step back from DOGE and said he would have been welcome to 'stay as long as you want.'
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Back at SpaceX, Musk Vows to Ramp Up Launches After Explosion
By Sana Pashankar and Save The mid-flight explosion of SpaceX 's Starship — its third consecutive setback — underscores the daunting challenges Elon Musk faces in achieving his lofty space ambitions as the world's richest person pledges to scale back his political work in Washington to focus on his business empire. When SpaceX's Starship thundered off the South Texas launchpad late Tuesday, employees cheered the world's largest and most powerful rocket's ability to surpass the previous two flawed missions. But halfway into the flight, the stainless-steel rocket exploded after leaking propellant and spinning out of control.
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Back at SpaceX, Musk says in interview DOGE became D.C.'s ‘whipping boy'
STARBASE, Tex. — He's back in his natural habitat, far from the searing glare of Trump's Washington, again lording over this remote spit of marsh under the sweltering South Texas sun that SpaceX transformed into the world's most unlikely launch site. This is Elon Musk's true domain, a place removed from the controversy of the D.C. Beltway, where his attempts to reshape the federal bureaucracy ran into fierce institutional resistance and spawned lawsuits, backlash from voters and consumers, derision from Democrats, and the ignominious realization that politics can be just as difficult as rocket science — perhaps even more so. Eager to demonstrate that his attention is now rededicated to his companies, Musk returned here ahead of the next test flight of Starship, the world's most powerful rocket and a key part of NASA's plan to return to the moon and Musk's quest to send people to Mars. In an interview overlooking the sprawling factory floor, he said: 'I'm physically here. This is the focus, and especially around launch. Everything comes together at the moment of launch.' Gone was the Dark MAGA cap, the black blazer, the belligerence toward his perceived foes in Congress and the Washington press corps. For now, there will be no more Cabinet meetings or unsuccessful forays into political races. The most meaningful political race in this corner of South Texas was the one held by residents who voted overwhelmingly this month to incorporate Starbase as a city with elected municipal officials, though the real leader of this factory town, everyone knows, is the richest man in the world. Projecting the intensity of a wartime general and wearing an 'Occupy Mars' T-shirt, Musk said he had a 'maniacal sense of urgency. I'm just wired that way, and that's the kind of mindset that I've kind of instilled in the people at SpaceX. You have got to drive hard, and not everyone is cut out for that. Like, people want to have the chill vibes, and SpaceX is sort of ultra hardcore. But if we're not ultra hardcore, how are we going to get to Mars? You're not going to get to Mars in 40 hours a week.' Even so, he vowed that his work with the U.S. DOGE Service was not done. He said he plans to focus DOGE's efforts on improving the federal bureaucracy's computer systems, a less-controversial goal than taking a chainsaw to the workforce. 'There's, like, so many situations where the computers are so broken,' he said, 'even in the intelligence world,' where in order to transfer 'data from one computer to another, you have to print it out and then type it into the next computer. And this is just literally a thing that was brought to my attention.' 'The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,' he said. 'I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.' He said repercussions over DOGE cuts had been severe. 'DOGE is just becoming the whipping boy for everything,' he said. 'So, like, something bad would happen anywhere, and we would get blamed for it even if we had nothing to do with it.' He lamented the hit his companies took: 'People were burning Teslas. Why would you do that? That's really uncool.' The effort will now be focused 'a bit more like tackling projects with the highest gain for the pain, which still means a lot of good things in terms of reducing waste and fraud.' Still, Musk's claims about finding massive savings and slashing waste in government have been shown to be exaggerated. As he scales back his presence in Washington, it is clear he did not achieve as much as he wanted. And after several months grappling with Congress, Democrats and entrenched interests in the capital, he was eager, he said, to return to his many other ventures — especially SpaceX, since the last two Starship test flights ended up with the spacecraft exploding. SpaceX's quest since its founding was to get people to Mars and build a city on the Red Planet to make humanity a 'multi-planet species,' as Musk has said. In 2016, he vowed to send the first crew to Mars by 2024. In 2017 he called for the development of a moon base. Neither has happened. But SpaceX has pulled off one triumphant feat after another. As a start-up with little chance of succeeding — indeed, it nearly failed before ever taking off — SpaceX upended an industry that for decades had been dominated by large defense contractors with few incentives to innovate. SpaceX proved that rockets could be reused and fly again, almost like airplanes, a development that has dramatically lowered the cost of spaceflight. It single-handedly replaced the space shuttle, which retired in 2011, first flying cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA, then becoming NASA's only way to fly humans there. It launches national security payloads for the Pentagon and intelligence community, and satellites for commercial companies. And it out-launches every competitor, even China, by a wide margin. But now the company is at an inflection point. NASA is eager to return astronauts to the moon under its Artemis program. Musk, ever impatient, wants to fulfill his quest to send people to Mars. Starship is the key to both — and to the future of SpaceX. 'I think the primary goal should be Mars,' Musk said, repeating his desire to make humanity 'a multi-planetary' species. 'We could perhaps go back to the moon along the way. But the primary goal should be Mars, because that's really the next great leap beyond Apollo.' NASA's 'current Artemis program is kind of like a remake of a great movie from the '60s,' he said. 'It's just never as good as the original. You want to go for something that's far beyond that.' But first, he said, he was hoping for a test flight launch 'where hopefully things don't explode. The last few times it exploded. This is a very real concern. Big rockets, don't explode: Goal. I mean, there's so much energy in the rocket, it desperately wants to explode at any given point in time.'
