Category: Security

In Connecticut this year, 62 reports were published with the NUFORC — some of which included pictures of what the observers saw. The sightings range from a “moving red disk” seen in the skies above Montville last month to a reflective cylinder that was spinning across the sky in Glastonbury.

Last year, 72 sightings were reported to NUFORC while the most reported sightings in a single year was 156 in 2012. Since 1994, more than 2,000 reports of UFO sightings in Connecticut have been made to NUFORC.

The greater interest in UFO’s has prompted the U.S. government to be more transparent about what some of these objects could be. This year, the U.S. Department of Defense launched the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office website, which includes information from government-researched “unidentified anomalous phenomena” that have been “declassified and approved for public release.”

According to Mike Panicello, the director of the Connecticut chapter of the national Mutual UFO Network, which investigates UFO activity, there are often common objects that are misconstrued for UFO’s. “We don’t believe everything is a true UFO. Connecticut has a lot of military stuff in the air … Sometimes a UFO is called that because there isn’t enough information. UFO just means what it says, not that it’s necessarily an alien,” Panicello told Connecticut Magazine in September. “We try to use scientific methods and be as objective and as serious as possible. We do our best to try to give a witness an answer for what they saw.

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(c) 2023 Journal Inquirer

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Pro-lifers who were targeted by the National Archives and Records Administration last January and ordered to cover up or remove pro-life clothing won a major lawsuit settlement last week. After roughly 11 months since the incident occurred in Washington, D.C., the National Archives and Records Administration agreed to settle the lawsuit.

A complaint filed in federal court by American Center for Law and Justice attorneys claimed that the National Archives and Records Administration violated the pro-life plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to free speech and the Fifth Amendment guarantee to equal protection under the law.

According to CNBC News, the plaintiffs in the case were Tamara R., who filed on behalf of her 17-year-old daughter L.R., who was visiting the National Archives with a Catholic high school group; Wendilee Walpole Lassiter from Virginia; and Terrie Kallal from Illinois. The plaintiffs were in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life event in January.

CNBC News reported that National Archives and Records Administration guards told the pro-lifers that their clothing, which featured pro-life messages, would “incite” others,” was “disturbing the peace,” and was “offensive.” As a result, the pro-lifers were ordered to take off their pro-life attire or cover up the “offensive” wording.

READ MORE: FBI’s targeting of Catholics, pro-lifers exposed by House GOP

According to the complaint, L.R. was surprised by the demands of the National Archives and Records Administration guards “given her close proximity to the very documents that prohibit the government’s interference with her First Amendment right to free speech and expression and her free exercise of religion — nonetheless zipped up her jacket and removed her button for fear that she would be thrown out of the National Archives if she did not comply.”

The complaint added, “Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff L.R. and many of her classmates made their way to the gift shop inside the National Archives whereby she witnessed three different female National Archives employees confront some of her classmates still wearing pro-life clothing or attire and instruct them to remove all of it immediately.”

The complaint also claimed that L.R. observed a man and a woman “freely walking” in the National Archives while wearing “pro-choice” clothing.

In the recent settlement agreement, the National Archives and Records Administration agreed to pay each of the plaintiffs $10,000 to cover legal expenses. The agency also agreed to provide the plaintiffs with video footage of the incident.

Addressing the victory for the pro-life plaintiffs, Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, said, “This is an especially important victory, as one month from today, pro-life Americans will once again gather in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life.”

Sekulow added, “Our victory today ensures that they will be free from harassment and that their First Amendment rights will be protected should they choose to visit the National Archives and view the very documents that protect those sacred rights.”

A dormant North Korean port near the border with Russia has sprung back to life, fueling what experts say is a burgeoning trade in arms destined for the frontlines in Ukraine that is simultaneously bolstering the anemic economy managed by Kim Jong Un.

Satellite imagery of the Najin port taken from October to December shows a steady stream of ships at the facility, hundreds of shipping containers being loaded and unloaded, and rail cars ready to transport goods.

The activity appears to have picked up since early October, when the U.S. accused North Korea of sending munitions to Russia. The White House provided imagery it said showed weapons later being delivered thousands of miles away to a depot in the Russian town of Tikhoretsk for use in Ukraine.

The flow of munitions that the U.S. and South Korea say have included hundreds of thousands of artillery shells could grow far greater in importance as divisions in the U.S. Congress and European Union over military aid threaten Kyiv’s ability to repel Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

“Pyongyang’s decision to deliver munitions at scale once again underscores the grave threat that North Korea poses to international security, this time feeding a conflagration on European soil that has already cost the lives of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and consumed tens of billions of dollars in Western military support,” according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute, a U.K. security think tank.

Pyongyang, which has been banned from arms sales for about 15 years, has repeatedly rejected accusations it is supplying Russia.

Analysis of the satellite data suggests otherwise. In a recent example, an image from Dec. 9 seems to show the Russian container ship Angara, sanctioned by the U.S., in Najin’s port unloading cargo while containers from North Korea await loading at an adjacent pier.

“Satellite imagery shows that round trips of cargo vessels between Najin, North Korea, and Dunay, Russia, have continued unabatedly despite additional U.S. sanctions and widespread reporting on this activity in the past few months,” said Jaewoo Shin, an analyst at the Open Nuclear Network in Vienna.

Shin said that while the nature of the cargo can’t be confirmed with available imagery, the number of round trips and transferred containers suggest a significant and ongoing exchange, possibly including weapons and other military supplies.

As the North Korea-Russia trade picks up, the flow of U.S. military aid to Kyiv has been increasingly under threat, with the Pentagon saying it will run out of money to replace weapons sent to Ukraine by Dec. 30 unless Congress approves additional funding. That’s unlikely now, with most lawmakers out of Washington for the year-end holidays.

With an effective stalemate on the battlefield, the Kremlin is increasingly confident Russia can consolidate its control over occupied regions of eastern and southern Ukraine and wait for international support for Ukraine to erode. Putin said this month that “there’ll be peace when we achieve our goals.”

For many U.S. partners, the flagging support for Ukraine is tied in part to a much-vaunted counteroffensive during the spring and summer that failed to deliver on the high expectations of allies.

While satellite imagery shows steady activity at Najin, the vessels docking there appear to have turned off international maritime transponders that give their location, effectively turning them into ghost ships as they make the relatively short trip between Najin and Dunay — also written as Dunai — about 110 miles away. The Central Intelligence Agency identified the port as a Soviet submarine base during the Cold War, according to a document obtained by RUSI, the U.K. think tank.

RUSI’s October report analyzed dozens of high-resolution images that it concluded showed a few cargo vessels repeatedly making the trip between Najin and Dunay, likely packed with North Korean arms that are then sent across Russia.

That trade appears to have continued in the time since the report was published, according to Joseph Byrne, a research fellow at RUSI and co-author of the report.

“There has been a continuation of deliveries by these vessels,” he said, adding there is “a continuation of the unloading of boxes loaded in Russia and delivered to North Korea and then the loading of containers that have seemingly comes down from rail cars from other places in North Korea to apparently be shipped back to Russian military facilities.”

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in November there had been about 10 shipments of weapons from North Korea to Russia since August, likely encompassing more than 1 million rounds of artillery. North Korea holds some of the world’s largest stores of munitions, much of it interoperable with weapons Russia has on the front lines.

“About six weeks later, I’ve seen no signs of the transfer rate slowing down — so for all we know that’s another half million shells,” said weapons expert Joost Oliemans, who co-authored the book The Armed Forces of North Korea.

Oliemans said he’s identified four types of munitions that have been a part of recent deliveries: 120 millimeter mortars, 122mm and 152 mm artillery shells and 122 mm rockets based on an analysis of what is making its way to the front lines.

“The situation on the battlefield is impacted” by those deliveries, he said. “Rather than seeing a notable change in tactics or swaths of land suddenly changing hands, it will allow Russia to keep up much higher pressure for longer on Ukrainian forces.”

An extra one million shells means about 2,700 rounds more per day Russia could fire at Ukraine, which is already having trouble procuring artillery and may face more difficulty if aid from the U.S. isn’t secured.

“How much exactly North Korea will be able to deliver is anyone’s guess,” Oliemans said, adding that deliveries will likely slow down once inventories become depleted, with North Korea’s manufacturing capabilities insufficient to keep up with the pace of demand.

Russia’s importance to North Korea had waned after the end of the Cold War, with China becoming Pyongyang’s biggest benefactor. Trade between Russia and North Korea slowed to a trickle when Kim shut the borders at the start of the pandemic.

But as COVID protections eased, and international sanctions hung over Moscow and Pyongyang, the two rekindled ties, finding they each had something the other wanted and could trade without real repercussions from the outside world.

The assistance Kim receives from Russia is easing the pressure of years of sanctions over his increasing nuclear arsenal and potentially making the already-tense situation on the Korean Peninsula worse.

“With both Kim and Putin recognizing the utility and benefits of partnership, cooperation is likely to continue between North Korea and Russia into next year,” said Soo Kim, a former Korea analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, who now works at U.S.-based management consulting firm LMI.

“The give-and-take between the two countries is unlikely to be stopped so long as the international consequences — sanctions, reputational shaming — remain symbolic and largely insufficient to deter bad behavior,” she said.

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© 2023 Bloomberg L.P

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

When the investigators came, operators of a Southern California poultry processor allegedly hid child workers in bathrooms and closets and hurried them out the back door, according to a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit.

In two poultry plants in La Puente and City of Industry owned by Tony Bran, federal authorities alleged, kids as young as 14 were illegally working dangerous jobs, deboning chicken and operating heavy machinery. Eventually, the chicken ended up at major supermarkets and distributors like Ralphs, Aldi, Grocery Outlet and Sysco, officials said.

The workers came primarily from Indigenous communities in Guatemala and spoke Q’eqchi’, K’iche’ and Mam. Instead of going to school, the child laborers worked so many hours they were owed overtime pay. Children worked long hours alongside adults, and Bran was allegedly cheating them all out of wages, the federal lawsuit said.

After the investigators left Bran’s Los Angeles-area plants, the workers told authorities, he corralled them.

“[He] told us that he doesn’t care about us, we mean nothing to him and that we should leave if we do not like how he is paying us or treating us,” one worker said in a translated court filing related to the Department of Labor lawsuit.

Last month, Bran settled with the federal government and agreed to pay nearly $3.8 million to workers. Earlier this year, he settled a separate wage-theft lawsuit with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office, agreeing to pay $1.47 million in unpaid wages and penalties. The fines follow a Sept. 28 search by agents from the Labor Department who were accompanied by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Bran did not respond to an interview request or detailed questions about either case.

In court filings, he has denied all allegations against him.

“The Exclusive Poultry maintained business relationships with various companies to provide labor services,” Bran’s attorney, Anthony K. McClaren, said in a statement. “It was unaware of the Department of Labor allegations during the times they were alleged to have occurred.”

The Department of Labor said that Bran set up “front companies” — Meza Poultry, Valtierra Poultry, Sullon Poultry and Nollus’s Poultry — to employ workers. As part of a consent judgment, Bran and his company, the Exclusive Poultry, admitted they employed all of the workers at the poultry plants. Meza, Valtierra, Sullon, Nollus and their listed owners admitted to violations of labor law in separate judgments, but Bran has not acknowledged any such violations.

The conditions at the plants, and the use of child labor for products sold at major shopping chains in the heart of Southern California, generated headlines. But community advocates and experts said they were not surprised by the labor abuses, noting it points to widespread problems. Child labor, along with wage theft and retaliation, have long been the realities faced by many vulnerable workers, particularly immigrants.

“For us, this is not a new thing,” said Odilia Romero, co-founder of Comunidades Indígenas en Liderazgo, or CIELO, which helps migrant Indigenous communities in Los Angeles. “Within L.A. city, in the restaurant industry and the garment industry and construction industry, there’s kids working.”

Armando Gudino, executive director of the Los Angeles Worker Center Network, called L.A. “the wage-theft capital of the nation.”

More than half the Latino workers in Los Angeles get paid less than minimum wage, a report published earlier this year by the Los Angeles Worker Center Network found.

“ Child labor is going to be the attention-grabbing issue, but the truth is that wage theft, retaliation and all kinds of labor abuses are prevalent in the entire immigrant population,” said Yunuen Trujillo, worker rights and labor legal services managing attorney at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.

Violations of child labor laws are on the rise in the U.S., according to a report earlier this year by the Economic Policy Institute. The number of minors employed in violation of child labor laws increased 37% in the last year, the report found, with a 283% increase since 2015.

“We’ve seen a lot more of it in the last two years,” said Victor Narro, a UCLA professor of labor studies. “The laws to protect workers are very weak, and then you throw children into it.”

Nationally, industry groups are working to roll back child labor protections via state legislation, according to the Economic Policy Institute report. The main proponents are business groups and their state affiliates, particularly the National Federation of Independent Business, the Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Assn., the report found.

A number of these bills have become law. For example, in Iowa, children as young as 16 are allowed to work in occupations such as roofing and demolition, and teens can work six-hour nightly shifts during the school year.

In the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 28, the Department of Labor executed search warrants at Bran’s poultry plants, accompanied by agents from the U.S. Marshals Service, who helped ensure the investigators’ safety. The federal agency was joined by a large team from government organizations and community groups, which sprang into action to provide services for workers. L.A. County chartered buses to transport employees to a recreation center that served as a staging area.

“We’ve done a lot of these take-down operations,” said Chanchanit “Chancee” Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center, which partnered with Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office and the Los Angeles County Office of Immigrant Affairs. For decades, Martorell’s organization has helped provide social services to vulnerable workers in and outside the Thai community, often partnering with local and federal agencies.

Attorneys from the Thai Community Development Center helped screen the employees, provided legal services and worked to determine whether immigration relief was warranted.

Some of the workers were already subject to deportation proceedings, Martorell said, noting there were about 200 workers at Bran’s poultry factories, most of whom appeared to be undocumented. Some of the children were unaccompanied minors, and some came here to join family, she said.

CIELO staffers provided interpretation in each worker’s Indigenous language.

“One of the things that I really noticed was that there was a distrust there,” said Aurora Pedro of CIELO. “When speaking with the workers, they were really hesitant to speak.”

Indigenous people are often given interpreters in Spanish, which leads to confusion and mistrust, Pedro said. The group sees access to an interpreter as a human right, not solely a service.

Getting help meant overcoming significant hurdles. Bran allegedly threatened and retaliated against the people who worked for him, trying to prevent them from participating in the Department of Labor investigation, according to the federal lawsuit. Authorities also contend that Bran told workers the government wanted to deport them, allegations Bran has denied.

When he discovered that workers were cooperating with investigators, Bran reduced their pay and told them it was “because we had opened our mouths to the Department of Labor,” investigators found.

In a separate $1.47-million wage theft lawsuit Bran settled with the California Labor Commissioner’s Office earlier this year, authorities found he violated minimum wage laws and failed to pay employees for all hours worked, including overtime. Authorities alleged in the suit that the business owner fraudulently transferred real estate to his daughter and then-wife to avoid paying for his legal liabilities, although he has denied those charges.

In addition to paying fines, the recent judgment also requires Bran and the Exclusive Poultry to be monitored for three years to ensure compliance, and workers who were fired will get preferential hiring for any open positions, the Department of Labor said.

“It should be noted that, as a result of these allegations and this resolution, the Exclusive Poultry has been effectively put out of business, resulting in a loss of economy and jobs to the region that it previously provided for several years,” McClaren said in a statement.

Federal authorities disputed the attorney’s characterization, saying the Labor Department worked with the Exclusive Poultry to ensure it can stay open — but in a manner that complies with labor laws.

“We’re not here to shut anybody down,” Department of Labor attorney Nisha Parekh said. “If an employer responds to our enforcement actions by shutting down, that’s their choice and out of our control.”

When contacted by The Times for comment, a man answered a cellphone registered to Bran and identified himself as his brother, Jhon Bran.

“It’s too bad for him to lose what he loves. The whole thing isn’t even his fault,” Jhon Bran said, adding that he sometimes worked with his brother.

“The chicken business, Tony knows it like the palm of his hand,” the man said. “Twenty-five years doing what he does. He knows something that we don’t know. And he did it pretty good.”

Parekh lauded the workers who came forward against Bran in the federal investigation — especially the children.

“It takes a lot of courage when you’re an underage worker, a migrant worker, and you’ve got a boss who’s threatening you,” Parekh said. “We would love children to know that they can come to us and we will fight for them.”

Several of the companies identified by the Department of Labor as having received poultry products originating from Bran’s facilities have since tried to distance themselves from the case.

Grocery Outlet told The Times that it has never used the Exclusive Poultry or related companies as a supplier. Similarly, a spokesperson for Aldi said the Exclusive Poultry “has never been an Aldi supplier,” adding, “we have stringent processes for identifying vendors and suppliers to ensure all business partners are compliant with all legal and regulatory requirements.”

“Sysco has conducted an internal investigation into this matter and has found no evidence of direct purchases from Exclusive Poultry” or related companies, a spokesperson said in a statement. “Sysco has zero tolerance for child labor, discrimination, or unsafe working conditions for anyone working in our facilities or the facilities of those with whom we do business.”

But Labor investigators found that Grocery Outlet, Aldi and Sysco had all bought poultry from distributors who purchased products from Bran’s companies.

While “it may be correct that they’re not going to the Exclusive and buying this chicken directly,” Parekh said, “they’re kind of fudging it.”

She explained the firm’s role in the supply chain. In short: Bran’s company got the chicken; workers processed it into a particular cut — for example, deboned or deboned and diced; and then the processed chicken was sold to another company, which could either package it and sell it to a grocery store or process the chicken further into things like patties or nuggets.

“From the point where chicken leaves the Exclusive, it could stop two or three or four or five times before it ends up at an Aldi or a Ralphs,” Parekh said.

Ralphs, along with Nestle Purina and Royal Canin U.S.A., which also were identified in the federal probe as purchasers of products originating from the Exclusive Poultry, did not respond to requests for comment. Rancho Foods, which was identified as the largest purchaser, also did not respond.

Any products made with child labor or in violation of wage and hour laws are called “ hot goods” and can’t be shipped.

“The goods become contraband if they’re made in violation of labor law,” Parekh said. “Any downstream purchaser is potentially liable.”

Last month, one of Bran’s customers, Sterling Pacific Meat Co., sued the Exclusive Poultry for breach of contract, saying it had to “red-tag” 90,000 pounds of “tainted product” it legally couldn’t sell because of the findings of the Labor Department probe.

The company alleged that Bran still sent a bill for more than $180,000. Bran didn’t respond to a request for comment on that case.

In late October, a month after the early-morning raid at the poultry plants, the Thai Community Development Center helped organize another event for workers, this time at a Latter-day Saints church in El Monte, where many of them live. They got legal aid, help signing up for public assistance, personal protective equipment, food boxes from Labor Community Services and attended a workshop on labor rights by Bet Tzedek Legal Services.

Currently, the Labor Department is tracking down workers and calculating how much each is owed. The department hopes to start cutting the first checks in January.

Pedro, the interpreter from CIELO, said the money will make a huge difference in workers’ lives. Many of the Guatemalan employees came from Izabal, Alta Verapaz and Petén, areas where Indigenous people are being pushed out by multinational corporations, according to environmental and human rights groups.

“Having some cushion and some safety net means so much — not just for the workers, but also their family members,” Pedro said. “A lot of us send back money to our families.”

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© 2023 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Pakistan on Wednesday conducted a successful flight test of Fatah-II, the military’s media affairs wing said.

According to the ISPR, Fatah-II is equipped with state-of-the-art avionics, sophisticated navigation system and unique flight trajectory.

“The weapon system is capable of engaging targets with high precision up to a range of 400 kilometres,” it said.

The ISPR said that the flight test was witnessed by “senior officers from tri-services and dedicated scientists and engineers”.

It further said that President Dr Arif Alvi, interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza and Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir congratulated participating troops and scientists on successfully conducting the flight test.

In October, Pakistan had conducted a successful flight test of the Ababeel Weapon System. The ISPR said the missile system was “aimed at strengthening deterrence and enhancing strategic stability in the region through the operationalisation of Full Spectrum Deterrence in the overall construct of Credible Minimum Deterrence”.

In August 2021, Pakistan had conducted a successful test of “indigenously developed” Fatah-1 guided multi-launch rocket system (MLRS). At the time, the ISPR said the extended-range rocket system was capable of delivering a conventional warhead.

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(c) 2023 the Asia News Network

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A U.S. ship on Wednesday salvaged what is believed to be part of the CV-22 Osprey which crashed near Yakushima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture on Nov. 29.

The wreckage, confirmed to have been taken aboard the salvage ship by Wednesday morning, is believed to be the part of the aircraft’s fuselage where the crew was seated, sources said. The wreckage was covered with a sheet, and part of what appeared to be a rotor blade was identified.

Of the eight crew members who were on board the Osprey, seven bodies have already been recovered. There were none in the wreckage, the sources said.

The U.S. military is expected to continue salvage operation since there is still wreckage in the sea.

The Osprey belonging to the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo crashed off the eastern coast of the island on the afternoon of Nov. 29. It left the U.S. Marine Corps’ Air Station Iwakuni in Yamaguchi Prefecture and was heading for the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture.

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First it was weather, then something went awry on the ground, but SpaceX and the Space Force are set to once again try to send up the powerhouse Falcon Heavy rocket with the secretive X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle on board Thursday night. And if all goes well, SpaceX could follow up with a Falcon 9 launch just hours later.

Flying for only the ninth time ever, but fifth time this year alone, the Falcon Heavy on the USSF-52 mission is aiming for an 8:07 p.m. liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A during a four-hour window that runs 7-11 p.m. with a backup opportunity at 8:06 p.m. Friday during the same window.

Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts an 80% chance for good conditions, which improved to 95% in the event of a 24-hour delay.

Launch fans were out in force with about a mile backup leading into Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center by 3 p.m. where visitors who paid extra get a chance to view liftoff from the Apollo/Saturn V Center at the Banana Creek viewing site about three miles from the launch pad.

The two side boosters are making their fifth flight and will attempt a recovery landing at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Landing Zones 1 and 2. Their return after liftoff will bring the signature double sonic booms for each booster for many along the Space Coast, although the house-rumbling sound could be heard deeper into Central Florida as well.

The launch comes more than two weeks since poor weather, and then what SpaceX reported was a “ground side issue” found less than an hour before liftoff forced delays.

The launch is the third time Falcon Heavy has flown for the Space Force, but it’s the first time the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle made by Boeing is getting such a powerful ride. Its six previous launches, the first of which came in 2010, were all on either United Launch Alliance Atlas V or SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

Falcon Heavy can send the spacecraft with its top-secret payloads to higher orbits, though, with its 5.1 million pounds of thrust on liftoff, the most powerful rocket available for regular launches. A Space Force press release said the X-37B would be heading to “new orbital regimes” as part over the spacecraft’s “experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform.”

The X-37B’s missions have all been classified, with each mission lasting for longer durations. Its sixth trip that concluded last November with a touchdown at the former Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC lasted nearly 909 days. To date, the spacecraft has traveled more than 1.3 billion miles and spent more than 3,774 days in space.

Sometimes, the spacecraft brings along partners for the ride including the second time NASA has flown a seed-based experiment to study how exposed plant seeds fare on long-duration spaceflight while subjected to harsher radiation than at lower orbits. This helps NASA inform its Artemis program missions its plans for deep space including trying to land a human on Mars by 2040.

Just like the sixth trip into space, the latest version of the X-37B, features a service module that allows for hosted experiments with partner agencies. It previously carried NASA’s first go at a seed experiment, the Naval Research Laboratory’s Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module experiment, and was able to deploy the FalconSat-8 satellite developed by the U.S. Air Force Academy.

“The X-37B government and Boeing teams have worked together to produce a more responsive, flexible, and adaptive experimentation platform,” said the director of the Department of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, William D. Bailey in a press release. “The work they’ve done to streamline processes and adapt evolving technologies will help our nation learn a tremendous amount about operating in and returning from a space environment.”

As far as Falcon Heavy goes, its settling in to a mix of commercial and military launches as well as having flown its first-ever launch for NASA this year.

The rocket first flew in 2018 sending up Elon Musk’s Tesla on a trip out past Mars. It only flew two more times in 2019 before taking more than a three-year break, but then began launching regularly beginning with SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy mission for the Space Force last fall.

For this fifth flight of 2023, the head of the Space Force’s Assured Access to Space program, Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, who is based at Patrick Space Force Base and is also in charge of Space Launch Delta 45 and the Eastern Range, said teams have been resilient with the higher cadence of launches.

“Our team has done amazing work to prepare for this critical launch, and we’re doing even more behind the scenes,” she said. “We are honing our processes to make our launch capabilities even more responsive to national security needs. We are also making our spaceports more resilient to ensure that our ability to place capabilities into orbit never falters.”

The business of the Space Coast was apparent during the first go-round to launch Falcon Heavy, as rockets were on the pad at three launch sites. SpaceX also had a Falcon 9 awaiting launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 and United Launch Alliance had rolled its new Vulcan Centaur back out to Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 for a wet dress rehearsal ahead of its upcoming launch.

Since then, SpaceX has managed two more Cape Canaveral launches of Falcon 9 rockets on Starlink missions, but ULA won’t fly its Vulcan Centaur until at least Jan. 8.

If Falcon Heavy flies, it will mark the Space Coast’s 71st launch of the year with SpaceX responsible for all but four of them.

Coming up right after, though, is what could be launch No. 72, another Starlink launch from SLC 40.

That Falcon 9 is slated to fly at 11:01 p.m. during a four-hour window that runs through 2:59 a.m. Friday, and could set a record between SpaceX launches between Space Coast pads. The previous record was on Oct. 13 when the Falcon Heavy Psyche launch for NASA from KSC preceded a Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral by 8 hours and 42 minutes.

The first-stage booster for the flight is making its 12 launch and SpaceX is aiming for a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas in the Atlantic Ocean.

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© 2023 Orlando Sentinel

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Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced on Thursday that former President Donald Trump would be removed from the state’s 2024 primary ballot.

Bellows insisted Trump’s candidacy is invalid, accusing the former president of violating the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause due to his actions on Jan. 6, 2021.

In her ruling, Bellows, a Democrat, said she decided to remove the top Republican presidential candidate because “Democracy is sacred.”

“I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment,” Bellows said before once again accusing Trump of engaging in “insurrection.”

On Jan. 6, 2021, before the Capitol breach, Trump said, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Trump also urged protesters to go home after the breach erupted, saying in a video posted to Twitter at the time: “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side, but you have to go home now, we have to have peace.”

“We love you. You’re very special,” he said. “Go home in peace.”

Bellows’ ruling comes shortly after Colorado briefly removed Trump from its 2024 ballot before pausing its decision until the Supreme Court weighs in.

“BIDEN SHOULD DROP ALL OF THESE FAKE POLITICAL INDICTMENTS AGAINST ME, BOTH CRIMINAL & CIVIL. EVERY CASE I AM FIGHTING IS THE WORK OF THE DOJ & WHITE HOUSE. NO SUCH THING HAS EVER HAPPENED IN OUR COUNTRY BEFORE. BANANA REPUBLIC??? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social at the time.

“A SAD DAY IN AMERICA!!!” the former president added in a separate post.

President Joe Biden unveiled an executive order last week that will give federal government employees the largest pay increase since former President Jimmy Carter’s administration.

According to The Government Executive, Biden’s recent executive order, which gives federal employees an average pay increase of 5.2% in 2024, marks the largest bureaucrat pay increase since Carter increased federal worker salaries in 1980 by 9.1%.

The Daily Caller reported that Biden’s salary increase for federal government employees comes as American citizens are blaming increased government spending for soaring inflation that has led to a poor U.S. economy.

A poll conducted by CBS News and YouGov earlier this month showed that 76% of Americans said their income is not matching the current rate of inflation. Additionally, the poll showed that 56% of Americans believe that increased government spending is directly tied to inflation.

According to The Daily Caller, federal government employees will receive a 4.7% pay increase across the nation. Federal employees will also receive an average 0.5% increase based on their work location. A new salary table by the United States Office of Personnel Management shows that federal government employees based in the San Francisco region will receive an additional 0.9% pay increase.

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“This is a well-deserved increase for our country’s federal workforce,” National Treasury Employees Union President Doreen Greenwald said in a press release. “The data shows that federal salaries fell further behind the private sector in the last year, so the average 5.2 percent pay hike is a welcome step forward.”

In addition to the average 5.2% pay raise for federal employees, military members will also receive an average 5.2% increase in 2024 under the National Defense Authorization Act. The Daily Caller noted that the pay increase for military members was approved by both the House and Senate, while the increase for federal government workers was announced as an executive order by Biden.

“The Federal government is the nation’s largest employer and must ensure it has the talent to meet the needs of the American people,” a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement to The Daily Caller.

The spokesperson added, “Executing on the President’s 5.2 percent pay increase for both military and civilian workers recognizes the Federal workforce’s dedication and service to the American people and positions the Federal Government to better compete in the labor market to attract and retain a well-qualified workforce.”

A United States Navy guided-missile destroyer shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile and a drone launched by Houthi terrorists on Thursday in the Red Sea as the Iran-backed group continues to launch attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Following the missile and drone attack, U.S. Central Command released a statement on X, formerly Twitter, detailing the latest incident involving the Houthis in the Red Sea.

“The USS MASON (DDG 87) shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis between 5:45 – 6: 10 p.m. (Sanaa time) on Dec. 28,” U.S. Central Command wrote. “There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries. This is the 22nd attempted attack by Houthis on international shipping since Oct. 19.”

The USS MASON (DDG 87) shot down one drone and one anti-ship ballistic missile in the Southern Red Sea that were fired by the Houthis between 5:45 – 6: 10 p.m. (Sanaa time) on Dec. 28. There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries. This is the 22nd… pic.twitter.com/Y4JRS22850

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 29, 2023

Thursday’s attack in the Red Sea comes two days after the USS Laboon and F/A-18 Super Hornets from the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group shot down two land attack cruise missiles, three anti-ship ballistic missiles, and 12 attack drones as part of a 10-hour Houthi attack against U.S. forces in the Red Sea.

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Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder addressed the string of Red Sea attacks earlier this month during a press briefing.

“We’re continuing to take the situation in the Red Sea extremely seriously, there should be no doubt about that,” Ryder stated. “The actions that we’ve seen from these Houthi forces are destabilizing, they’re dangerous, and clearly a flagrant violation of international law. And so this is an international problem that requires an international solution.”

As part of the “international solution,” the United States and its allies also announced a multinational task force that is expected to take steps to address the repeated Houthi attacks launched from Yemen against ships in the Red Sea.

“The recent escalation in reckless Houthi attacks originating from Yemen threatens the free flow of commerce, endangers innocent mariners, and violates international law,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at the time. “The Red Sea is a critical waterway that has been essential to freedom of navigation and a major commercial corridor that facilitates international trade.”