On Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning, a wildfire ran through Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas–one of the largest nature reserves protecting migratory birds in the Rio Grande Valley.
Events are moving at a breakneck pace since Friday, April 14, when the FAA issued SpaceX its first ever license to launch the full Starship/Superheavy stack from its Starbase facility on Boca Chica Beach. Here’s a recap of events so far.
Emma Guevara has published a 25-tweet thread on the eve of what could be the first full launch of Starbase/Superheavy, and RGV Twitter has given the post thousands of impressions as of late Wednesday night, with hundreds of retweets and likes.
SpaceX will continue its push to make their plans a reality, and environmental advocates continue to criticize what they believe is a lack of oversight by federal agencies to protect something more valuable in the Rio Grande Valley than venture capital.
Soon after Rebekah Hinojosa’s arrest, the Mayor of Brownsville took to social media to “dox”, or personally identify, Hinojosa by name. The mayor went as far as including her place of employment and her involvement with the Sierra Club. A petition in the Rio Grande Valley is calling for Brownsville to drop those charges, and investigate Mendez for civil rights violations.
Pablo De La Rosa is a freelance journalist in the Rio Grande Valley reporting statewide and nationally, including with Texas Public Radio and NPR. You can follow him on Twitter.