Florida
6 projects eyed to increase Florida space launches
TALLAHASSEE – State aerospace leaders have outlined major upgrades around Cape Canaveral as they look to build on this year’s record number of launches, which were boosted Monday by the liftoff of two Falcon 9 rockets.
Space Florida officials think six projects, ranging from an improved electrical system to replacing a bridge, need about $100 million a year through public and private investments.
Todd Romberger, Space Florida’s senior vice president of the spaceports business unit, said the work, based on industry trends, would increase the annual “tonnage” capacity of what could be launched at the cape from roughly 1,000 metric tons to 5,000 metric tons.
“That would be the equivalent of about 220 Falcon 9 launches a year, which currently we are getting up close to about 100 or so over the next, I would say, year or two,” Romberger said Thursday during a Space Florida Board of Governors meeting.
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez, who is the chairwoman of the Space Florida board, said listing the projects “really hones in on what the challenges are for our growth.”
The projects
The six projects involve upgrades to wastewater treatment facilities, improved electrical infrastructure, wharf expansion at Port Canaveral, added fuel distribution, wetland mitigation and replacement of the NASA-owned Roy D. Bridges Bridge over the Banana River, which connects the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
“This bridge has some, I’ll call it geometric constraints that will inhibit passage of large cargo over it,” Romberger said. “And so, this is an issue that we will need to solve to help relieve some of the bottleneck in moving large things around the cape.”
Replacing the bridge would cost $145 million.
Meanwhile, upgrading the electrical system across the spaceport is projected to cost $275 million. The current system is considered insufficient for certain launch operations.
Also, Space Florida estimates additional wharf space would cost $2.1 billion.
Space Florida this year released a report calling for a nearly doubling wharf space at Port Canaveral during the next decade to meet the needs of the private space industry.
The study priced the work at $42.2 million for the first phase, growing to $2.1 billion for what is outlined as a seven-phase project.
Space Florida is considering another study to determine how all of the state’s ports can be tied to the space industry.
Part of the reason for the wharf expansion is projected demand for liquid natural gas for launch vehicles. Keeping fuel on pace with expansion, separate from the wharf projects, would cost $182 million.
Another $180 million would go toward locating and restoring wetlands in exchange for at least 381 “wetland mitigation credits” at the cape over the next 10 years.
Also, Space Florida said the spaceport is at capacity for its wastewater. While it will look at on-site treatment, it would prefer new infrastructure that would be installed by Brevard County to accommodate up to 700,000 gallons a day. The estimated cost is $20 million.
“We do not expect these to all be solved solely by the state or by our partners at (the Florida Department of Transportation),” Romberger said. “But the bottom line here is that we need to work together with federal partners, with the spaceport users, to come up with creative solutions where we are, you know, as a community and as an industry contributing together to solve these problems.”
Space Florida didn’t provide a breakdown on how much will be requested from the state and federal governments.
The SpaceX rocket launches on Monday were the 77th and 78th from Florida this year, up from 72 orbital rocket launches from the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in 2023.
There were 57 launches in 2022 and 31 in 2021.
The wharf study projects 197 launches in 2028, 282 in 2033, 386 in 2043 and 1,252 in 2073.
Florida
Florida woman accused of gunning down two ex-husbands on same day
Authorities in Florida are accusing a 51-year-old woman of shooting and killing two ex-husbands on the same day this week.
Susan Erica Avalon was arrested on Thursday on charges of second degree homicide in Manatee County, where her first ex-husband lived, according to Sheriff Rick Wells.
Police in Tampa, where Avalon’s second ex-husband lived, said detectives are working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine “what charges, if any, are applicable in the case.”
It all started on Wednesday afternoon when the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office received a call to respond to a shooting in the Heritage Harbor neighborhood, according to Wells. When deputies arrived, they saw a 54-year-old man with two gunshot wounds.
He was shot in the abdomen, Wells said in a press conference Thursday. “The victim at the time is still alert and is speaking to us.”
When deputies asked him who could have done this, the man responded, “possibly my ex-wife,” Wells said.
The man’s 15-year-old daughter was at the home and heard the shots, according to Wells. When she looked out the window, the teen spotted someone wearing a gray sweatshirt and a mask getting into a silver Honda Odyssey and driving off.”
“I want you to understand how traumatized she is,” Wells said of the 15-year-old, who is also Avalon’s daughter.
The 54-year-old man was taken to a local hospital, where he died of his injuries Wednesday night, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. Before dying, the man told authorities he was shot upon answering the door to his home.
Authorities believe Avalon showed up at the victim’s home posing as a food delivery driver, Wells said.
Court records from the Manatee County Clerk’s Office show Avalon and the 54-year-old man had been divorced for nearly a decade and had long been dealing with issues of child custody as well as child support disputes.
On Wednesday, investigators later located Avalon in her home in Citrus County, where they saw her wiping the silver Honda Odyssey vehicle with cleaning rags and bleach, Wells said.
When investigators told her they are there to speak to her about her ex-husband, she responded, “which one?” Wells said.
Investigators then began digging into Avalon’s second ex-husband, who lived in Tampa. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office requested the help of the Tampa Police Department to check on the man and found he had been shot and killed in his home.
In a news release Thursday, the Tampa police said they believe the incident is related to “an ongoing homicide investigation being conducted by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.”
“Investigators are working to determine a motive, but it’s believed the shooter and victim are known to one another,” the news release reads.
Authorities believe Avalon first went to Tampa to kill her second ex-husband before heading to Manatee County and shooting her first ex-husband, the 54-year-old man, Wells said.
Avalon was arrested on Thursday by sheriff’s deputies in Citrus County, where she lives, on an out-of-county warrant, jail records show.
NBC News could not find an attorney listed for Avalon as of Saturday.
Wells said his office’s ongoing investigation is focused on finding the murder weapon and searching Avalon’s vehicle for evidence.
“That’s our goal right now,” he said.
Florida
Florida divorcee, 48, accused of gunning down both of her ex-husbands in same-day fatal shootings
A crazed Florida divorcee was thrown behind bars after allegedly gunning down both of her ex-husbands in separate broad-daylight shootings on the same day, police said.
Susan Avalon, 48, was cuffed Wednesday and slapped with murder charges after blasting one ex-hubby with bullets in Tampa, then traveling more than 50 miles to Manatee County to fatally shoot the other later that day around 3 p.m., according to Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells.
Investigators said Avalon was embroiled in bitter custody battles with her former spouses, which they believe may have sparked the cold-blooded killings.
“It doesn’t get anymore brazen than this,” Wells told reporters at a press conference Thursday.
“We believe this was premeditated. She knew what she was doing, it was planned and she came here to kill her ex-husband.”
Police said the alleged murderess targeted her first husband — a 54-year-old man she divorced roughly 11 years ago — at his Manatee County home around 2:55 p.m., luring him to open his front door with stolen food from a Panera Bread before shooting him twice.
The unidentified man was rushed to a nearby hospital, but succumbed to his injuries later that day.
Surveillance footage captured Avalon walking into the nearby bread eatery and swiping food from the delivery pickup shelf without paying before heading to her ex-husband’s home, authorities said.
Her live-in boyfriend allegedly told police she had recently tracked down her ex-hubby’s address.
The ex’s reportedly had ongoing custody disputes and about $4,000 in unpaid child support, with Avalon facing a looming deadline to pay $200 or lose her driver’s license.
Investigators tracked her silver Honda Odyssey back to her Citrus County home after the shooting and found her scrubbing the minivan with bleach and rags. But when asked by police about her ex-husband, she chillingly replied, “Which one?”
“We only know of one,” Wells said.
“We start to dig into this second ex-husband that we know nothing about, and we find she was married again after the marriage to our victim, and that this ex-husband lives in Tampa.”
Wells said investigators alerted Tampa authorities, who conducted a welfare check at the second husband’s Frierson Avenue home and found him dead inside with multiple gunshot wounds. The back door was also damaged, suggesting forced entry, he added.
Officials have not disclosed the second victim’s name or age, but believe Avalon allegedly killed him first.
The alleged killer, who was previously arrested on child abuse charges in Virginia in 2004, was charged with second-degree homicide in Manatee County. Wells said he is working with prosecutors to have that charge upgraded to first-degree murder and the death penalty.
Avalon, who reportedly has five children between both slain ex-husband’s, also faced two other child abuse cases in Tampa and Pasco County that were later dropped.
She has not yet been charged in the Tampa shooting as police continue their investigation.
Avalon is currently being held at Citrus County Detention Facility in Lecanto.
Florida
Pope names pro-immigrant pastor bishop of Florida diocese where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is located
Pope Leo XIV on Friday named the Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, currently pastor of a predominantly Hispanic church in the Queens borough of New York City, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.
The diocese is home to the Mar-a-Lago estate of President Donald Trump, whose get-tough immigration policies have drawn objections from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Rodriguez has been a staunch advocate for migrants, which make up most of his 17,000 congregants at the Our Lady of Sorrows church — the largest parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also oversees churches in Queens.
“I never, never, never expected anything even close to this,” Rodriguez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday from Palm Beach, where he was visiting a homeless shelter.
“I’m even a little bit scared. But I trust in God’s assistance,” he said. “One thing I can tell you is that this diocese is a diocese of hard-working priests and hard-working people, and I’m here to help.”
The Diocese of Palm Beach comprises about 260,000 Catholics and 54 parishes and missions. On its website, the diocese said that Rodriguez will be ordained and installed at a future date during a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola.
A Dominican native
Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and ordained to the priesthood in 2004, in the capital, Santo Domingo. He led the Our Lady of Sorrows parish in the mostly Latino Corona neighborhood of Queens when more than 100 of its parishioners died from COVID-19.
Earlier this year, Rodriguez joined numerous faith leaders across the U.S. expressing their concern about how the immigration crackdown launched by Trump’s administration had sown fear within their migrant-friendly congregations.
In his new assignment, he will lead the diocese where Mar-a-Lago — Trump’s vast south Florida estate — is located. Trump has called the resort the “Center of the Universe.”
“The president is doing really good things, not only for the United States, but for the world. But when it comes to the migrant, the immigration policy, we want to help,” Rodriguez said. “We want to assist the president as a church because we believe that we can do better … than the way we’re doing this right now.”
Some church leaders have condemned Trump’s immigration crackdown, saying it targets parishioners without a criminal record who are now too scared to leave home to attend Mass, buy food or seek medical care.
At many immigrant parishes, U.S.-born children have parents in the country illegally. Some of these parents have signed caregiver affidavits, which designate a legal guardian, in hopes their children stay out of foster care in case they are detained.
“When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime. So, we’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said he’s in line with the Catholic Church, which staunchly defends the rights of migrants, even as it acknowledges the rights of nations to control their borders.
“The Church’s position about this important and urgent matter has been made crystal clear by the bishops of the United States,” he said.
Immigration a challenging issue for Catholic bishops
The Vatican announced Rodríguez’s appointment the day after it shared that Pope Leo had accepted the resignation of conservative Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan who led the New York archdiocese and also had ties to Trump, including praying at his inauguration earlier this year and being appointed to his Religious Liberty Commission.
On some issues, such as greater inclusion for LGBTQ+ people, U.S. bishops are divided. But on immigration, even conservative Catholic leaders stand on the side of migrants.
During their general assembly earlier this year, U.S. bishops issued a rare “special message” criticizing the Trump administration’s mass deportation of migrants and their “vilification” in the current migration debate. It also lamented the fear and anxiety immigration raids have sown in communities, and the denial of pastoral care to migrants in detention centers.
U.S. Catholic bishops shuttered their longstanding refugee resettlement program after the Trump administration halted federal funding for resettlement aid.
Rodriguez said the church will always be ready to defend the dignity of poor people and migrants, who over generations, “have contributed to the growth of the United States.”
“Migrants are not to be demonized … Good migrant people that are here to work hard for their families — they share many of our core values,” he said. “They’re to be not to be rejected and treated harshly but instead, they’re to be treated respectfully and with dignity. So, that’s the idea, and Pope Leo is backing us up in this.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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