Southeast
NASA confirms object that struck Florida home came from pallet of batteries intended to burn up in atmosphere
NASA confirmed on Monday that an object that crashed into a Naples, Florida, home last month was a piece of hardware from the International Space Station that was supposed to burn up on re-entry before reaching the surface of Earth.
Alejandro Otero said a piece of equipment from the International Space Station hit his Naples home, posting photos of the object on X in response to an astronomer who was tracking where and when the equipment would enter the Earth’s atmosphere.
Otero told the astronomer it looked like one of the pieces had missed Fort Myers, and landed inside his home.
“Tore through the roof and went thru 2 floors,” he posted on X, adding that it almost hit his son.
FLORIDA MAN SAYS SPACE OBJECT CRASHED INTO HIS HOUSE. WHY NASA IS TAKING HIM SERIOUSLY
Other posts by Otero included Nest security video footage of the mid-afternoon crash in addition to photos of the cylindrical object.
“It didn’t look like anything I had ever seen before,” Otero told Fox News. “It looked like it had been burned up and scraped, and it was a heavy piece for its size.”
NASA was contacted about the object and launched an investigation into identifying it and determining the cause of the crash.
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The space agency previously noted that in March 2021, ground controllers used the International Space Station’s robotic arm to release a cargo pallet that contained aging nickel hydride batteries from the space station after new lithium-ion batteries had been delivered and installed as part of power upgrades to the orbital outpost.
NASA said the total mass of the released hardware was about 5,800 pounds, and it was expected to fully burn up as it entered Earth’s atmosphere March 8.
But the object Otero discovered in his home was part of the cargo and survived re-entry to Earth, NASA found.
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NASA said the investigation found the debris was a stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount batteries on the cargo pallet.
The object, NASA added, is made of metal alloy Inconel, is about 4 inches long and 1.6 inches in diameter, and weighs 1.6 pounds.
The space agency plans to conduct a further investigation into how the object survived re-entry. The study will include looking at engineering models to estimate how objects heat up and break apart on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
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NASA did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital on the matter.
Still, NASA turned to its website to release a statement on the investigation.
“NASA remains committed to responsibly operating in low Earth orbit, and mitigating as much risk as possible to protect people on Earth when space hardware must be released,” the statement read.
Megan Myers of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to Trump case, court rules
A Georgia judge has ruled that state lawmakers can subpoena Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as part of an inquiry into whether she engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.
In his Dec. 23 order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram gave Willis until Jan. 13 to file a list of claimed privileges and objections to anything that has been subpoenaed.
Willis plans to appeal the decision.
“We believe the ruling is wrong and will appeal,” former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who is representing Willis in the case, wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
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Earlier this month, an appeals court removed Willis from the Georgia election interference case against Trump and others, citing an “appearance of impropriety.” The panel also cited the romantic relationship between Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
“This is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings,” the court said.
At the time, Trump called the case a “disgrace to justice.”
“It was started by the Biden DOJ as an attack on his political opponent, Donald Trump,” he said, “They used anyone and anybody, and she has been disqualified, and her boyfriend has been disqualified, and they stole funds and went on trips.”
In August, the Republican-led Senate committee sent subpoenas to Willis seeking to compel her to testify in September. She skipped a hearing that month when lawmakers hoped to question her.
The committee was formed to examine misconduct allegations against Willis during her prosecution of Trump over efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
FANI WILLIS WAS ‘TERRIFIED’ BECAUSE HER CASE AGAINST TRUMP WAS ‘WEAK,’ ATTORNEY SAYS
Barnes, Willis’ attorney, argued the subpoenas were overly broad and not related to a legitimate legislative need and that the Senate committee didn’t have the power to subpoena her in the first place.
One issue raised is that the Georgia legislative term will end when lawmakers are sworn in for their new term on Jan. 13. Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal said last week that he plans to file legislation to re-establish the committee at the beginning of the 2025 legislative session.
“The law is clear, and the ruling confirms what we knew all along,” Dolezal wrote in a text Friday. “Judge Ingram rejected every argument made by Willis in her attempt to dodge providing testimony to the committee under oath. I look forward to D.A. Willis honoring the subpoena and providing documents and testimony to our committee.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
South Carolina AG leads legal battle over gender pronoun rules in school districts
South Carolina’s attorney general is leading a legal battle over gender pronoun rules in the U.S.’s public school districts.
AG Alan Wilson appeared on “The Faulkner Focus” on Friday to explain how some gender pronoun rules in school districts threaten free speech.
The case started with a school district outside Columbus, Ohio, that adopted policies requiring everyone to use a student’s preferred pronouns, which parental rights groups challenged and lost in both the district and appeals courts. Now, Ohio and South Carolina are leading 23 states in a legal battle, claiming the action “reflects the unusually egregious government action here” and, “The First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the student’s values.”
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Wilson, who is co-leading the legal fight, said local school districts across the country, like the one in Ohio, are compelling students “to lie to violate their own personal viewpoints.”
“That is something that we cannot abide in Ohio, South Carolina or any state in this country,” he said. “Yes, the lawsuit has gotten struck down, or we have lost at the district court and the court of appeals level, but this is one of those cases that I think is best served by going to the US Supreme Court.”
Wilson pointed out that in 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that teachers and students don’t shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate, but argues that the school district in Ohio is trying to force all students to say things that many might not believe in.
VIRGINIA TEACHER SAYS ‘A LOT’ OF STAFF DISAGREED, SOME QUIT OVER MANDATE TO USE STUDENTS’ PREFERRED PRONOUNS
“Parental rights groups are doing what I think groups around the country are all doing, and it’s trying to protect their children from being compelled to not only violate their First Amendment rights inside the schoolhouse, but this policy, the one in Ohio in particular, would do the same thing outside of school,” he said.
“If you were at a mall on a Saturday or you were texting a friend or putting something on X or Twitter or whatever, you could be penalized when you showed up at school on Monday morning for using the wrong pronoun that someone found offensive,” he added.
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Southeast
Sylvester Stallone axes $35 million mansion sea barrier plans after angering Palm Beach neighbors
Sylvester Stallone is standing down on his initial plan to build an underwater barrier near his Palm Beach home.
After he angered several neighbors in his affluent, waterfront community, Stallone made a plea during the Town Council meeting in Palm Beach on Thursday.
Stallone previously addressed concerns about marine life and water quality on the Palm Beach shore near his $35 million mansion.
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“We wanted to bring back this, it’s almost a sanctuary,” Stallone, 78, pleaded, according to The Palm Beach Post.
“You’re great neighbors and you’ve been here a long time… we respect your work and the way you see this,” Stallone said, adding that his plan for the barrier “was not just a vanity thing.”
While the “Rocky” star attended the Town Council meeting with his wife Jennifer Flavin Stallone, neighbors continued to be angered by his message and dismissed his plea.
“If you’re out there in the channel … and a big boat comes, you have to get out of the way quickly,” a former U.S. Army major general argued to the council and explained how the barrier would create a safety issue.
“A barrier like this would merely trap the trash and push it farther down the line,” a lifelong resident echoed.
Council President Bobbie Lindsay joked and told Stallone, “It’s tough being so famous.”
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“I think today we’re being asked by our residents, and you can see where this is heading, to not support this particular application,” she said. “And I would hope that when we do that … that we also at the same time invite you to please work with us to go after some of these injustices that are happening in our waterway.”
The meeting concluded with Stallone agreeing to withdraw his application.
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Reps for Stallone did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Stallone’s plans to build the underwater barrier in the Intracostal Waterway near his massive Palm Beach home stemmed from an application he previously submitted that neighbors were reportedly blindsided by, according to the outlet.
What appears to be billed as an environmental project needed to keep out debris and seaweed from the waterway, “the overall project purpose is to exclude boaters” from being near the property, a public notice from the Army Corps stated. Seaweed is listed as a secondary concern.
The proposal request from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection stated Stallone’s surrounding neighbors have until 5 p.m. on Christmas Day to comment on the actor’s project, according to the outlet.
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The “Tulsa King” star’s application also included a request for a lease of state land due to the positioning of the barrier which is owned by the state, according to records.
Records indicated the barrier application was submitted in January 2023, with plans received by the Army Corps in August. A month-long public comment period began on Oct. 24, where one question was submitted regarding manatees becoming entangled, and the proposed project’s effects on seagrasses.
“He bought a beautiful property,” Stallone’s neighbor Bradford Gary told the outlet, calling the home “one of the nicest West Indies houses” in the North End. “I can see why you’d want to protect it. But you can’t just kind of stake your claim and think you own the water.”
In 2021, Stallone was confirmed as the buyer of a sprawling $35 million home, which sits on approximately 1.5 lakefront acres, facing over 250 feet of beach with a dock.
The total living space – including a main house, a guest house and a pool pavilion near the keyhole-shaped pool in the backyard – is over 13,000 square feet. Between the main and guest spaces, the property has seven bedrooms and 12 baths.
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this report.
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