FAA to fine SpaceX $633,000 for alleged safety violations
SpaceX faces $633,000 in fines for alleged safety violations during two Florida launches last year.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it’s proposing the civil penalties because of the company's alleged failure to follow licensing requirements.
During a satellite launch in June 2023, SpaceX used a new launch control room without prior approval and did not conduct the required readiness poll two hours in advance, according to the FAA.
One month later, SpaceX launched another communication satellite using a new rocket fuel facility yet to be approved, said federal regulators.
“Safety drives everything we do at the FAA" including oversight of commercial space, FAA's Marc Nichols said in a statement. “Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences.”
SpaceX has 30 days to respond to the FAA. It did not immediately return a request for comment.
Home listing prices drop in Brevard, but sales prices rise.
The listing prices for homes in Brevard dropped last month, but the sales prices rose. WFIT’s Rick Glasby explains:
The median home in Brevard County listed for $390,000 in August. That’s down over $8,000 from the previous month. That’s on homes that are listed for sale, not sales prices. August saw homes sell for higher than July, with a median price of $350,000. But they sat on the market for over two months before changing hands. Throughout the United States, the median home price was $430,000.
Florida Democratic Party endorses Amendments 3 and 4, not the others
The Florida Democratic Party is endorsing Amendments 3 and 4 – adult use of recreational marijuana and access to abortion until fetal viability. The party is opposing the other four amendments.
FDP Chair Nikki Fried says she’s concerned about how the Legislature would implement the recreational marijuana amendment—amendment 3--if it achieves the necessary 60 percent of the vote.
Fried says the Legislature should release everyone in jail on simple pot charges and give access to growing and selling licenses to everyone. She’s also calling for an end to testing for pot in the workplace and to direct money earned through taxes on recreational marijuana to the education system.
The FDP also opposes four of the six proposed amendments on the November ballot: making school board races partisan again…preserving hunting and fishing…tying a portion of homestead property tax exemptions to inflation rates…and ending public funding for state office races.
Florida physicians say abortion restrictions delayed necessary care
According to a report from the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights, Florida’s six-week abortion ban, despite its medical exceptions, has led physicians and other health care providers to delay treatment for patients facing life-threatening complications.
The threat of being charged with a third-degree felony punishable with up to five years in prison, a $5,000 fine, and loss of their medical license looms over providers, who said they are afraid that performing an abortion could ruin their lives.
The report concludes: “Florida’s extreme abortion ban has created an unworkable legal landscape that endangers both patients and clinicians. The ban violates individual reproductive freedom, leads to preventable suffering, and compels clinicians to deviate from established standards of care and medical ethics.”
The state law restricting abortion outlines exceptions, but the healthcare providers in the report said those exceptions create grey areas, forcing them into lengthy discussions with hospital lawyers and administrators while patients’ health worsens.
WWW.floridatoday.com
