Mystery drone sightings: 21 New Jersey mayors call for governor to investigate
Dozens of unidentified drones spotted in central and northern New Jersey are raising concerns among state lawmakers. At least 21 mayors are calling on New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to launch a state investigation into their origins.
In a letter, the mayors demanded that the investigation’s findings be released to state and local officials and residents.
Murphy responded to the letter on Monday, Dec. 9, telling Fox News his plan to address the mysterious drone sightings.
Murphy said he’s been working with the White House and Homeland Security to get “answers sooner rather than later.” He acknowledged residents’ frustration about the lack of answers.
The governor noted there were 49 drone sightings on Sunday, Dec. 8, and admitted he doesn’t have much in the way of answers. He said that, to his knowledge, the drones are “highly sophisticated” and “the minute you get eyes on them, they go dark.”
Murphy stressed that there is no danger to the public. However, he pleaded for more help from federal agencies to uncover the mystery behind the sightings.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently investigating the drone sightings and has asked residents for help by video and reporting any drones they spot.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented drone flight restrictions as the probe continues.
Drones are legal in New Jersey and often used by hobbyists. However, the aircraft spotted in most cases across the state by residents are reportedly larger than those drones used for recreation.
Study suggests SpaceX Starship sonic boom impacts locals, Musk responds
A study published by The New York Times suggests that the sonic boom generated by SpaceX’s Starship rocket could cause structural damage in nearby communities. However, SpaceX owner Elon Musk has already refuted the claims in the report.
Acoustics engineer Kent Gee conducted a sound test during a Starship test flight last month, measuring the noise and air pressure six miles from the South Texas launch site.
The data showed that the noise level at that distance was equivalent to standing just 200 feet from a Boeing 747 during takeoff, according to the Times.
The Starship, which is as tall as a 30-story building, is the largest and most powerful rocket ever constructed. The study focused on the sound and air pressure generated during the rocket’s flight.
According to the test data, the loudest part of the flight was not during takeoff, but about six and a half minutes later when the sonic boom occurred. The boom reached 125 decibels, the equivalent of a gunshot at close range, the report said.
The sonic boom created an “overpressure event” in the community of Port Isabel, Texas, located six miles from the launch site. The pressure exceeded 11 pounds per square foot, higher than the FAA’s projected level of 8 pounds per square foot.
The FAA notes that modest property damage, such as cracks in old windows, can occur when pressurization levels reach 10 pounds per square foot. However, it is unlikely unless levels exceed 20 pounds per square foot, according to the FAA.
Port Isabel’s city manager, Jared Hockema, expressed concern about the potential for damage to homes in the small city, which has a population of around 5,000.
“We are all for economic development and the work SpaceX is doing,” Hockema said. “We just want economic development that takes place in a manner that follows the law and does not hurt existing residents or the environment.”
Starbase is an area that experiences storms and hurricanes that are far more serious than Starship launches.
The real headline of this article is boring, because it would say “Starship Launches Cause No Damage” 😂 https://t.co/sp6bkpIDMj
Musk responded to the Times report on X, stating, “Starbase is an area that experiences storms and hurricanes that are far more serious than Starship launches. The real headline of this article is boring, because it would say ‘Starship launches cause no damage.’”
On Tuesday, Nov. 19, Starship underwent its sixth test launch, with President-elect Donald Trump in attendance. Dr. Gee and his team were on-site again, measuring noise levels during the test flight. Gee noted that weather and wind conditions could affect how sound travels, so the results of this latest test may differ from previous findings.
How unmanned helicopters are aiming to save pilots’ lives in US
An unmanned helicopter, which its creator claims will revolutionize everything from spraying crops to fighting fires all while saving lives, is taking flight. As revealed on Tuesday, Nov. 19, the so-called Sprayhawk needs no pilot. Developed by the U.S. startup Rotor, the helicopter relies on AI, sensors and communications systems, allowing a user to operate remotely from the ground.
“The most urgent need for our helicopters are places where there are lots of fatalities already, and that’s agriculture, that’s aerial firefighting, that’s offshore transport,” Hector Xu, Rotor Technologies founder and CEO, said. “What we’re able to do is to offer the same payload and capabilities that people are getting from manned aircraft with an unmanned solution, and that’s never happened before.”
Crop dusting and firefighting operations are reportedly some of the most dangerous flights for pilots. The U.S. National Transportation Board reports that 13 pilots were killed in agricultural operations from April to September 2024.
Xu says the 2,500-pound drone can “carry more than 1,000 pounds of payload.”
“We think this is going to change the world and we’re proud to be building it right here in Nashua, New Hampshire,” he said.
Rotor hopes to have as many as 20 choppers ready for the market in 2025. The company is currently working through the Federal Aviation Administration process to launch its helicopter to a larger market. The firm says it has already received federal approval to begin agricultural operations in the Midwest.
According to Rotor, technology still needs to be perfected, noting that the semi-autonomous aircraft could potentially pose a danger to pilots in areas with heavy air traffic, but the company said the initial plan is to stay in rural areas, minimizing that danger.
The company also has safeguards, including a button that shuts off the helicopter’s engine and initiates a controlled landing in case of an emergency.
On Wednesday, Nov. 20, Rotor reportedly plans to perform its first public flight tests with the Sprayhawk at an aviation trade show in Texas.
UN resuming Haiti aid flights nearly a week after 3 planes hit by gunfire
The United Nations announced on Monday, Nov. 18, it will resume aid flights to Hait on Wednesday, Nov. 20. This comes about a week after three commercial planes were hit by gang gunfire that led to a pause in commercial flights to the island nation.
As Straight Arrow News reported last week, the United States announced a pause to all flights into Haiti for at least 30 days after bullets hit three commercial flights.
Armed gangs also reportedly opened fire on a U.N. helicopter and U.S. Embassy truck in Haiti last month.
Despite certain flights resuming, most parts of Port-au-Prince remain under gang control, as criminal organizations gain ground in the capital.
The rising violence has dealt a blow to a U.N.-backed international mission to reestablish control of the capital and ease delays of U.N. aid.
The agency says only 20% of the capital is accessible to aid workers and estimated on Sunday, Nov. 17, that more than 20,000 Haitians were displaced over four days. Half of the 20,000 displaced were children and many now face disease and hunger.
The U.N. warns that without more international support “the suffering will worsen exponentially” for Haitians.
FAA bans all US flights to Haiti after 2 commercial jets hit by gunfire
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced a ban on all U.S. flights to Haiti for at least 30 days on Tuesday, Nov. 12. The announcement follows two U.S. commercial airline jets being hit by gunfire on Monday, Nov. 11, from gangs in Port-au-Prince.
In separate incidents, a Spirit Airlines jet and JetBlue flight were struck by bullets at Haiti’s international airport in Port-au-Prince. Both of the flights were diverted, and no passengers were hurt in the incidents. However, a flight attendant did reportedly suffer minor injuries on the Spirit Airlines flight.
In the wake of the violence, JetBlue canceled all flights to Haiti on Monday until Dec. 2, and Spirit Airlines announced it was suspending flights to Haiti pending an “evaluation” of the incident.
Spirit did arrange a return flight to the United States for the crew after the plane landed safely in the Dominican Republic.
Tuesday’s FAA order applies to all operators of aircrafts registered in the United States except when the operator of the flight is a foreign air carrier. Exceptions will only be made for emergencies and flights permitted by the U.S. government or agency and approved by the FAA.
With ongoing gang violence in Haiti, the U.S. State Department has rated the country as a level four “do not travel” destination, calling the security situation in the Haiti “unpredictable and dangerous.”
Harris, Trump speak on importance of election with 13 days to go
With less than two weeks until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris got some help on the campaign trail from a former president and a famous rapper, while former President Donald Trump targeted a certain voting block. And one of McDonald’s famous burgers has been linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak. These stories and more highlight your Unbiased Updates for Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024.
Harris, Trump speak on importance of election with 13 days to go
With less than two weeks to go until the next U.S. president is chosen, both candidates are highlighting the importance of this year’s election as they make their final pushes to sway undecided voters on the campaign trail.
During an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Oct. 22, Vice President Kamala Harris once again addressed how her presidency would be different than that of President Joe Biden.
“Let me be very clear, mine will not be a continuation of the Biden administration,” she said. “I bring my own experiences, my own ideas to it, and it has informed a number of my areas of focus, most of which are on to your point, lowering costs. The voters know it, I know it.”
During the interview, Harris was asked about why she is reluctant to talk about the historic nature of her candidacy. If she were to win, she would become the first female U.S. president.
“Well, I’m clearly a woman, I don’t need to point that out to anyone. The point that most people really care about is, can you do the job, and do you have a plan to actually focus on them?” she said. “My challenge is the challenge of making sure I can talk with and listen to as many voters as possible and earn their vote. And I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race. Instead, that that leader needs to earn the vote based on substance and what they will do to address challenges.”
In Detroit, a rally was held in support of the vice president featuring rapper Eminem and former President Barack Obama.
“I also think that people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinions, and I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution, or what people will do if you make your opinion known,” Eminem told rallygoers. “I think Vice President Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.”
“We’re not going to play games because we’re going to lose our country, our country is failing,” Trump said. “We don’t know what we’re doing. We’re laughed at all over the world. [Chinese] President Xi [Xinping] thinks we’re stupid. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin thinks we’re stupid. That would have never happened if I were president. Putin would have never ever got into Ukraine.”
Then the former president returned to North Carolina for a rally where he criticized the vice president for not having any campaign events so close to Election Day.
THANK YOU, NORTH CAROLINA! This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of incompetence, failure, and disaster—or whether we will begin the FOUR GREATEST YEARS in the HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! pic.twitter.com/JJhJsJcOHk
“You know what she did?” he said. “She took a day off. How do you take a day off 14 days — you don’t take days off, right? I’ve gone 52 days, now, I got 14 more. We don’t take days off we got to win this thing if we don’t win it our country is in big trouble.”
Next up on the campaign trail, Vice President Harris will visit Pennsylvania Wednesday and then on Thursday, Oct. 24, hold a rally in Atlanta alongside Bruce Springsteen. Former President Trump will visit Georgia Wednesday and will record an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Friday, Oct. 25.
The Georgia Supreme Court said it will not step in to reinstate Republican-backed new election rules ahead of Election Day. Seven of the rules, put in place by the State Election Board after the 2020 election, were declared “illegal, unconstitutional, and void,” by a lower-level judge last week.
On Tuesday, Georgia’s supreme court rejected the Republican-led effort to put the rules, which include one requiring ballots be hand-counted and two related to certifying results, back in place and declined to consider an expedited appeal.
Israel says it killed man next in line to lead Hezbollah
Israel said it has killed the man who was next in line to take over as the leader of the militant group Hezbollah. Israeli officials say an air strike in Beiruit, Lebanon killed Hashem Safieddine a few weeks ago, along with other commanders of the Iran-backed militant group.
Hezbollah has not confirmed Israel’s claim that Safeiddine is dead.
🔴 Hashem Safieddine, Head of the Hezbollah Executive Council and Ali Hussein Hazima, Commander of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters, were eliminated during a strike on Hezbollah’s main intelligence HQ in Dahieh approx. 3 weeks ago.
This comes as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East looking to broker a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas in the wake of the the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and bring more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Israeli leaders told Blinken it’s not Israel’s policy to isolate northern Gaza, despite recent United Nations claims that Israeli authorities have denied efforts to bring more aid to the area, according to an NBC News report.
In a letter this month, Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave Israel 30 days to increase basic humanitarian aid to Gaza or risk restrictions on U.S. military assistance, as required under U.S. law. Israeli officials said they have taken actions in response to the letter, and while Blinken acknowledged progress has been made, he said it is not sufficient.
McDonald’s Quarter Pounders linked to multi-state E. coli outbreak
The CDC has issued a safety alert over a McDonald’s staple: the fast-food chain’s iconic Quarter Pounder. Health officials say McDonald’s Quarter Pounders have been linked to E. coli outbreaks in at least ten states.
E. COLI OUTBREAK: CDC is investigating 49 illnesses in 10 states linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers. If you ate a Quarter Pounder hamburger from McDonald’s and have severe symptoms of E. coli, contact your healthcare provider. https://t.co/g87itkupCQpic.twitter.com/gHzUKCnTi9
The CDC says, so far, it appears the onions used as a topping on the burgers are the likeliest source of the outbreak. McDonald’s has now stopped using the onions and is not serving the Quarter Pounder in affected states.
In a statement, the company said it believes the onions came from a single supplier.
Denny’s closing 150 restaurants, including 50 by end of 2024
It seems Denny’s hasn’t been such a grand slam for Americans lately. The diner chain, known for its Grand Slam breakfast, is closing 150 of its restaurants.
Denny’s, which has been in business for more than 70 years, says the focus is on closing locations that are too old to remodel, as well as some in unprofitable areas. It has not yet specified which locations are shutting down.
FAA finalizes rule for electric air taxis to enter service
We might soon be riding around in flying vehicles called electric air taxis after the Federal Aviation Administration released what its say is the “final piece of the puzzle.”
An extraordinary moment for aviation! Our rule for training and certificating pilots to fly powered lift is the final piece of the puzzle to get these revolutionary aircraft flying safely in our skies. https://t.co/96Q7TQZfkMpic.twitter.com/7RvSqbdGT8
The FAA issued its new rules Tuesday regarding the planes — 880 pages of special regulations including training protocols for pilots and operational requirements for the half-airplane, half-helicopter air taxis. The planes act like a helicopter during takeoff then change modes to be more like an airplane during flight, before switching back for the landing.
The FAA calls it the introduction to “a new category of aircraft.” The first electric air taxi could be operational by sometime next year.
Boeing lays off 10% of workforce as strike enters fifth week
A month into the strike of 33,000 Boeing machinists with no end in sight, Boeing’s issues are piling on. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg announced Friday, Oct. 11, the company will lay off 17,000 employees, which accounts for roughly 10% of its staff.
“Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” Ortberg wrote in a memo. “Beyond navigating our current environment, restoring our company requires tough decisions and we will have to make structural changes to ensure we can stay competitive and deliver for our customers over the long term.”
Ortberg, who took over the position in August, said the layoffs will include executives, managers and employees. He added the layoffs will take effect in the coming months.
On the same day, Boeing announced preliminary results for the third quarter of 2024. Those preliminary estimates included write-downs of $2.6 billion due to the delay of the 777x, $400 million on the 767, and $2 billion related to defense and space programs.
Boeing explored the option of raising $10 billion by selling new stock to make up for the losses, according to a Bloomberg report earlier this month. It’s not expected Boeing would make a move until the strike is resolved.
Analysis from S&P has further bad news for the company, saying that the ongoing strike could cost Boeing more than $1 billion per month. Jon Holden, the chief union negotiator for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the workers are in it for the “long haul.“
Meanwhile, Boeing continues to face regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Aviation Administration after a panel blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. At the same time, relatives of the 346 people who died in the 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 asked a federal judge on Friday to throw out a proposed settlement from the company.
Boeing would pay a fine of up to $487.2 million as part of the proposal, but it would be cut in half with credit from a 2021 $2.5 billion settlement that allowed the company to avoid prosecution, which the Justice Department has since said it violated.
Frontier Airlines plane catches fire while landing in Las Vegas
Scary moments were caught on video as a Frontier Airlines plane caught fire while landing at a Las Vegas airport over the weekend. The airline released a statement saying the pilots detected smoke while the plane was in the process of landing Saturday, Oct. 5.
Frontier said all 190 passengers and seven crew members on board were evacuated and no injuries were reported. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Boeing is bleeding cash. Will $10 billion do the trick?
Boeing is bleeding cash and looking for a way to plug the wound. Will $10 billion do the trick?
According to a Bloomberg report from Tuesday, Oct. 1, the troubled company is considering raising $10 billion by selling new stock. It’s not a done deal and sources said it likely would not happen until after the strike is resolved if it happens at all.
It’s expected that Boeing will have already burned through more than that amount of cash through the third quarter of this year.
“They are way behind in aircraft deliveries and losing market share fast to Airbus, and a lot of their customers are deeply aggrieved, understandably by this,” aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Straight Arrow News. “And of course, there are doubts about their core product line in terms of, shall we say, the reliability of the manufacturing process. So to have a strike come on top of all of this is not good.“
The machinist strike is into its third week after the union refused to vote on what was supposedly Boeing’s “best and final” offer by Friday, Sept. 27. More than 30,000 machinists walked off the job in September. It’s the company’s first work stoppage since 2008.
The strike is preventing production of the best-selling 737 MAX and other jets at a time when the company is already struggling to meet deliveries. Boeing put in hiring freezes, furloughs, leadership pay cuts and more to plug the hole, but still the first two weeks of the strike cost the company, workers and shareholders $1.4 billion, according to Anderson Economic Group.
“The company’s large backlog of orders, and the fact that it is losing both current production and future parts and service business, mean that Boeing shareholders are effectively incurring losses every day this strike continues,” AEG CEO Patrick Anderson said. “Boeing workers on strike are also losing, and as the strike goes on, more of Boeing’s suppliers will be forced to cut wages and hours.”
Boeing’s stock is down about 40% in 2024. It’s putting Boeing on track for its worst annual performance since the financial crisis of 2008. While a new stock sale would dilute current shareholders, analysts say it could help the company keep its investment-grade rating.
Moody’s Ratings put Boeing’s ratings on review for downgrade following the strike, while Fitch Ratings said, “an extended strike could have a meaningful operational and financial impact, increasing the risk of a downgrade.”
Striking union president Jon Holden told Seattle’s KUOW the union does not have any scheduled talks with Boeing this week. The last offer they received is the one they rejected last week. Holden said 80% of members say it didn’t meet their needs, while Boeing said they’re prepared to meet at any time.
“Our membership is tired of being impacted negatively by the decisions of upper leadership who have forgotten what the production system is all about and how it works and that the foundation of our production system is the most important thing,” Holden said. “Now, this company needs to be profitable, and they need to ensure that their stocks are successful, but they also have to take care of the workers that build that profit.”
The strike is far from the only dark cloud hanging over Boeing. Safety issues continue to come up, with the National Transportation Safety Board issuing an urgent safety recommendation Friday, Sept. 27, warning the rudder control component on some 737 models could get jammed in cold weather. Then, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, the NTSB scolded the Federal Aviation Administration in a letter, accusing it of not taking its warnings seriously.
To get the full picture of Boeing’s financial, cultural and safety problems, watch this interview.