A tech billionaire drew a rebuke from the National Transportation Safety Board on Monday after using the federal safety organization’s logo in an anti-Tesla Super Bowl ad without permission.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings branded it a “conflict” for the county’s own lobbyist to draft a bill restricting its ability to cut the funding of the Visit Orlando tourism agency, and said there may be consequences for the advocate’s secretive actions.
In a heated reaction to revelations published Sunday in the Orlando Sentinel, Demings said lobbyist Chris Carmody’s actions could lead the county to sever its relationship with his employer, GrayRobinson, and may trigger a Florida Bar complaint.
“Whether we get there or not, we’ll certainly explore it,” said Demings, who shared his ire in a lengthy conversation Sunday with the Sentinel. “That may be the consequence of all this.”
The Sentinel’s story showed that Senate Bill 1594 — filed last month by Orlando Democrat Linda Stewart at a time county commissioners were eyeing cuts to Visit Orlando’s $100 million county subsidy — was actually written by Carmody, not the lawmaker. The bill would have required a supermajority of five of the seven commissioners to make such cuts.
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — A SpaceX launch this week carrying commercial company Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander is bringing along for a free ride a special camera cooked up by students at Daytona Beach’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Called EagleCam, named after the school’s mascot, it’s one of 12 payloads flying on the IM-1 mission’s Nova-C lander named Odysseus that’s trying to become the first commercial lander on the moon. It’s set for liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A at 12:57 a.m. Wednesday. The target lunar landing is on Feb. 22.
Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus, who cofounded the Houston-based company in 2013, graduated from ERAU’s Daytona campus in 1987. He was honored with a distinguished alumni award in 2019 by the university.
“And so I offered them a gift of appreciation to fly 3 kg (6.6 pounds) of payload to the surface of the moon. And, you know, typically, that would be about $3 million,” he said Monday during an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “I said I’d like to work on a project with the faculty and students, and you guys build the payload. And we’ll fly it for free.”
Every year, companies hope their Super Bowl ad gets attention. But this year, prominent Orlando attorney Dan Newlin might not be getting the kind of attention he wants.
Newlin faced criticism Monday for the red “Make America Great Again” hat he wore in one of his law firm’s commercials that aired in the Orlando market before Sunday’s game. It’s a signature slogan of former President Donald Trump’s campaigns.
“Hi, I’m Dan Newlin,” he said, also wearing a “USA” T-shirt. “As we get ready for the big game, it’s important that we remember and recognize our veterans. Thank you for your courageous service. You are the true heroes. Now let’s get ready to enjoy the game.”
In an email Monday, Newlin said “the decision to include political elements in the ad was a personal one and not endorsed by my law firm,” Dan Newlin Injury Attorneys, where he is the CEO. He cited immigration and border issues as reasons for his support of Trump.
The move was a rare insertion of partisanship into the trial lawyer ads that have blanketed the airwaves and highways in Central Florida for years.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge has ordered Elon Musk to testify for a third time as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now called X, in 2022.
Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued an order Saturday giving Musk, his team and the SEC a week to agree on a date and location for Musk’s testimony. In a court hearing last December, Beeler said she would issue an order if the two sides couldn’t agree on when and where the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would testify.
“The parties, at least initially, agreed to a date but ultimately the respondent did not appear and resists the subpoena on the grounds that the SEC’s investigation is baseless and harassing and seeks irrelevant information,” Beeler wrote in the order in federal court in Northern California.
“Also, he contends that the subpoena — issued by an SEC staff member appointed by the SEC’s Director of Enforcement — exceeds the SEC’s authority because it was not issued by an officer appointed by the President, a court, or the head of a department,” as required by the U.S. Constitution, she added.