SpaceX to launch new rocket
CAPECANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is bucking decades of launch tradition for the first test flight of its new megarocket.
The Falcon Heavy is set to become the world’s most powerful rocket in use today when it blasts off from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. None of the usual, no-big-dealif-it’s-destroyed launch ballast — like steel or concrete slabs, or mundane experiments — for this curtain raiser.
Instead, the rocket will be hauling a red sports convertible with a spacesuited dummy at the wheel and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the soundtrack. It’s the inspiration of Elon Musk, the high-tech, science fictionloving maverick who heads SpaceX and electric carmaker Tesla.
On the eve of the launch, Mr. Musk said he’s at peace with whatever happens, be it a successful test flight or an explosive failure.
Bump stock ban
In the immediate aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, there was a fevered pitch to ban bump stocks, the device that allowed the shooter’s semi-automatic rifles to mimic the rapid fire of machine guns.
With that push stalled at the federal level, a handful of states and cities are moving ahead with bans of their own.
Massachusetts and New Jersey — two states at the time led by Republican governors — as well as the cities of Denver and Columbia, S.C., have enacted laws prohibiting the sale and possession of the devices, which were attached to a half-dozen of the long guns found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas shooter who in October killed 58 people and injured hundreds more attending a nearby outdoor concert. A little over a dozen other states are also considering bans on bump stocks.
CFPB backlash
Democratic lawmakers lashed out at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday amid a report that the agency was backing off an investigation into a massive data breach at Equifax last year that exposed sensitive data about millions of people.
Reuters, citing former officials familiar with the probe, reported that the CFPB has not taken routine steps to move forward with an investigation into the incident, including ordering subpoenas or seeking sworn testimony from Equifax executives.
The report stirred an immediate backlash from Democratic lawmakers, who have feared that President Donald Trump’s pick to temporarily lead the agency, Mick Mulvaney, was weakening the consumer watchdog.
The CFPB did not immediately return a request for comment from The Washington Post but told Reuters that it was not permitted to acknowledge an open investigation.
Also in the nation...
Chicago man Terrell Washington, 37, shot a 30year-old acquaintance during an argument that began because he thought she was being too loud, prosecutors said Sunday and is charged with attempted first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm after the victim identified him as her shooter, according to court records.