Southern Californians out on Saturday night for Valentine’s Day took a break from staring longingly into each other’s eyes to gaze at something else: a SpaceX rocket blazing across the early evening Southland sky.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket carried 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit, according to the company.

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet provider, has launched about 11,000 Starlink broadband satellites into space since 2019, using its workhorse Falcon 9.

At 7:03 p.m., SpaceX posted to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the 24 Starlink satellites had successfully been deployed.

SpaceX said on its launch page that residents in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties might experience one or more sonic booms during the launch, a phenomenon that has long upset residents and raised concerns about the booms’ effect on nearby endangered species.

SpaceX has three more launches scheduled from Vandenberg this month, the next expected to take place Wednesday, according to the company’s site.

This was the fourth SpaceX Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg this month.

The Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket. After its stage separation process Saturday night, the rocket’s first stage will land on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean, according to the company.

“Love is in the air,” one X user quipped, “and so is Falcon 9.”

Times staff writer Laurence Darmiento contributed to this report.

Authorities are investigating the sudden deaths of a Central Coast couple who pioneered California’s coffee-growing movement from their Santa Barbara County farm.

Jay and Kristen Ruskey, owners of Good Land Organics and co-founders of Frinj Coffee, died Sunday at a home in Cambria, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Friday.

Authorities have not released how the couple died. Autopsies were performed Thursday and toxicology results are expected in a few weeks, said Tony Cipolla, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Department.

“At this time, the deaths do not appear to be suspicious,” Cipolla said.

A GoFundMe created to support the Ruskey family members with funeral costs, memorial arrangements and other expenses had raised more than $133,000 as of Friday afternoon. The couple has three children: Kasurina, 19, Sean, 16 and Aiden, 16, according to the fundraiser.

The Ruskeys helped develop more than 65 coffee farms from Santa Barbara to north of San Diego that grow 14 varieties of coffee. Jay Ruskey was lauded as the first farmer to sell locally grown coffee in California.

Jay Ruskey established Good Land Organics in the early 1990s, growing exotic fruit at a farm in Goleta. The couple launched their coffee brand, Frinj, in 2017.

The couple’s coffee venture took off after Jay Ruskey tried several times to plant coffee trees in 2002 with a goal of learning the best practices for growing coffee in Southern California.

“I have always been passionate about crop adaptation,” Ruskey told The Times in 2024. “I was working with the UC Cooperative Extension Service to plant lychee and longans when Dr. Mark Gaskell, a small berry crop expert, gave me 40 coffee plants and encouraged me to try planting them side by side with other plants.”

In 2024, Frinj Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming about $215,000 in assets while listing more than $1.8 million in liabilities, the Santa Barbara Independent reported. The company regained its footing at the start of the year and, in January, it was the first California-based coffee grower to ever compete in the Dubai Coffee Auction.

A California man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking group that operated in Baltimore, according to the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office. 

In 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began investigating a group in Baltimore that was selling large amounts of cocaine, according to court documents. 

Investigators determined that Mario Valencia-Birruetta, 35, of Corning, California, was a member of the group. He was placed on a flight watch list, court records show.  

Drug trafficking investigation 

In August 2023, a commercial airline notified investigators that Valencia-Birruetta was flying to Baltimore. On Aug. 15, 2023, investigators began tracking his movements as he stayed at a Hamilton Residence hotel in Baltimore, according to court records. 

Between Aug. 15 and Aug. 24, investigators watched as Valencia-Birruetta met with multiple drug traffickers. According to court documents, they arrived at the hotel with bags. 

In one case, investigators saw Valencia-Birruetta carrying large amounts of money in his hand. He went to the bank and appeared to make a deposit, court documents show. 

On Aug. 24, 2023, Valencia-Birruetta left Baltimore. A week later, investigators were notified that he planned to travel back to Baltimore, according to court documents. 

On Aug. 30, 2023, investigators watched as Valencia-Birruetta arrived at BWI Airport, picked up a rental car and drove to the Hamilton Residence hotel, court documents show. 

At the same time, another group of investigators was surveilling a stash house in Baltimore County where co-conspirators were seen carrying bags into the location. 

Investigators learned that a co-conspirator had picked up Valencia-Birruetta from the hotel and traveled to National Harbor, Maryland, where they met another co-conspirator. After the meeting, Valencia-Birruetta and the co-conspirator drove back to the stash house, court documents show. 

When Valencia-Birruetta and the co-conspirator got out of the vehicle and removed duffel bags, investigators approached and saw that one of the bags had a large hole. 

According to court documents, the investigators were able to see kilogram packages of drugs in the bag. 

Officials detained Valencia-Birruetta and the co-conspirator and seized the bags. They recovered 43 kilogram packages of cocaine and discovered another bag inside the stash house that contained 32 kilogram packages of cocaine, according to court documents. 

Investigators also recovered bags of marijuana, three firearms and equipment to process large amounts of drugs, court documents show.