By Jackie Wattles, CNN

(CNN) — NASA’s new chief is reshaping the space agency’s goals, unveiling at an event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday an ambitious vision that includes revamped plans for a moon base.

While the space agency has long had its sights set on creating a settlement on the moon for astronauts to live and work more permanently, Tuesday marked the first time NASA has revealed a timeline and road map for such efforts.

“The moon base will not appear overnight,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said at the event, called Ignition. “We will invest approximately $20 billion over the next seven years and build it through dozens of missions.”

It was not immediately clear how much of the $20 billion NASA could divert from other projects or how much new funding would be required.

Some other projects announced Tuesday by Isaacman, who took office in December, would have much tighter deadlines, most notably a brand-new nuclear-powered Mars vehicle the agency hopes to launch by 2028 — a lightning-fast timeline in the world of space travel.

The pathway to funding these innovations and bringing them to fruition is largely unclear and not without friction. But they offer key insights into the transformative plans mapped out by Isaacman, who aims to inject a sense of urgency into NASA’s scientific and human spaceflight pursuits.

Shelving a lunar space station

Since stepping into his role, Isaacman has been working to implement bold changes — from announcing a push to hire workers and bolster NASA’s “core competencies” to setting up a new mission that’s effectively a precursor to the next astronaut moon landing. And he has struck a notably more aspirational and transformative tone than many of his predecessors.

Tuesday marked his most extensive effort yet to convey that enterprising vision.

“If we concentrate NASA’s extraordinary resources on the objectives of the National Space Policy, clear away needless obstacles that impede progress, and unleash the workforce and industrial might of our nation and partners,” Isaacman said, “then returning to the moon and building a base will seem pale in comparison to what we will be capable of accomplishing in the years ahead.”

Among the flurry of announcements Isaacman made Tuesday was the revelation that NASA will pause plans to work with international partners to develop a space station to orbit the moon, called Gateway.

Envisioned as a means of supporting trips to the lunar surface as well as missions to farther destinations, the Gateway space station would have served a stop-off point in the moon’s orbit to coordinate trips for cargo and people.

The agency will instead put existing Gateway resources to use in other ways, including building the lunar base.

“Significant parts of exiting Gateway hardware and facilities can be directly repurposed to support near-term exploration objectives along with those orbital elements needed to support a surface-focused mission,” according to Carlos Garcia-Galan, NASA’s Moon Base program executive.

Isaacman has said NASA will also work to drastically increase the number of robotic landers carrying cargo and science instruments to the moon — aiming to make landings a monthly occurrence. For context, NASA and its commercial partners have sent four landers toward the moon since January 2024 with varying degrees of success.

Ramped-up robotic missions would work in tandem with the crewed missions of NASA’s Artemis program, the effort to return astronauts to the moon’s surface for the first time in half a century, to lay the groundwork for a lunar settlement.

The first crewed mission of the Artemis prog

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, told a judge this month that his office didn’t have evidence of any crimes by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in a costly renovation of the central bank’s headquarters – despite subpoenas over the matter, which the judge later quashed.

At a high-stakes hearing on March 3, the prosecutor, George A. Massucco-LaTaif, was asked, “What evidence is there of fraud or criminal misconduct in relation to the renovations?”

“We do not know at this time,” Massucco-LaTaif responded, according to a now-unsealed transcript of the court proceedings. “However, there are 1.2 billion reasons for us to look into it.”

The Department of Justice’s criminal investigation into Powell in January came after months of railing by President Donald Trump against Powell for not lowering interest rates faster. Trump’s complaints ranged from personal insults against the banker to accusations of impropriety and incompetence in cost overruns in the $2.5 billion Fed renovation.

The DOJ probe heightened fears that the administration wants to erode the Fed’s independence, which could leave the door open for political interference in setting interest rates for the world’s largest economy.

Massucco-LaTaif pushed back strongly on March 3 when Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama, asked whether prosecutors could submit such evidence of a crime to him under seal. Massucco-LaTaif argued such a move was unnecessary because “you don’t need this grand suspicion of illegal activity,” according to the court transcript.

“It can be something as simple as a tip or a rumor or something that just doesn’t seem right,” he said, adding later: “I would submit to the Court that a $1.2 billion overrun of cost… doesn’t seem right.”

Massucco-LaTaif told Boasberg: “$1.2 billion, that’s the GDP of some smaller countries, yet we are going to overlook it as, oh, it’s just overrun because it’s a historical building? That doesn’t seem right.”

“And are we prohibited from looking into it? That would seem to, you know, put a chilling effect on any investigation the government ever did,” he added, according to the transcript.

Powell had stayed mostly mum in the face of Trump’s attacks, but just a few days after he was served with a subpoena in early January, the Fed chief released a remarkable video calling the investigation part of political pressure campaign.

The week after Massucco-LaTaif’s remarks, Boasberg quashed the subpoenas. In a stinging ruling, he said the government “produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”

“Indeed, its justifications are so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual,” he wrote.

Powell’s term as chair expires in May, and Trump in January nominated former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh to run the central bank. But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, a key vote on the Senate Banking Committee that would confirm the nomination, has said the committee should not consider a vote until the criminal probe of Powell is resolved.

The Washington Post first reported the prosecutors’ remarks from a court transcript Tuesday.

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The post SBART Press Luncheon: Lucy Dessert and Andy Keenan Receive Athlete of the Week Awards appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Temperatures will cool Wednesday into the 70s.

The marine layer will help keep beach areas cooler than valleys.

Santa Lucia winds are weaking in San Luis Obispo County bringing some relief to the Central Coast with heat advisories ending on Tuesday evening.

Despite the cooling trend, temperatures will remain warm and above normal through this weekend with partial cloud coverage and coastal fog.

Rain chances are rising for next Tuesday and Wednesday, April 1st. About one half to one inch expected in our area.

The post Cooling Wednesday, tracking rain chances appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN en Español

La Fiscalía de Colombia ordenó este martes la captura de siete jefes de la Segunda Marquetalia, la disidencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) que lidera alias Iván Márquez, por su presunta participación en el atentado por el que murió el senador y precandidato presidencial Miguel Uribe Turbay hace menos de un año.

La fiscal general de Colombia, Luz Adriana Camargo Garzón, señaló en un comunicado que el atentado “no fue un acto aislado, sino el resultado de una operación criminal estructurada”, que habría involucrado tanto a una red delictiva urbana como a la Segunda Marquetalia.

Entre los requeridos figuran Kendry Téllez Álvarez, alias Yako, señalado por la Fiscalía como el principal articulador, junto a varios altos mandos del grupo armado, incluido Luciano Marín Arango, alias Iván Márquez, quien fue uno de los principales negociadores en los diálogos con el Gobierno de Colombia que condujeron al acuerdo de paz de 2016. En 2019 retomó las armas y el liderazgo de las disidencias de ese grupo armado.

Las autoridades ofrecen una recompensa de hasta 5.000 millones de pesos (US$ 1,25 millones) por información que permita ubicar a alias Iván Márquez, dijo el director de la Policía, William Oswaldo Rincón Zambrano, en conferencia de prensa. Y 5000 millones de pesos (unos US$ 125.000) por Téllez Álvarez.

Además, ofrecen hasta 4.000 millones de pesos (aproximdamente US$ 1,07 millones) por información que conduzca a la captura de Géner García Molina, alias Jhon 40, y José Manuel Sierra Sabogal, alias Zarco Aldinever, también señalados como líderes del grupo armado.

Otros jefes del grupo con orden de captura son Jhon Jairo Bedoya Arias, alias Rusbel o Rumba; Alberto Cruz Lobo, conocido como Enrique Marulanda; y Diógenes Medina Hernández, alias Gonzalo, por quienes se ofrecen hasta 2.000 millones de pesos (unos US$ 500.000) por información que permita su captura.

La Fiscalía les atribuye a los siete señalados los delitos de homicidio agravado, concierto para delinquir agravado; y fabricación, tráfico, porte o tenencia de armas de fuego, accesorios, partes o municiones.

Uribe Turbay, de 39 años y miembro del partido Centro Democrático, murió el 11 de agosto de 2025, dos meses después de sufrir un atentado en Bogotá durante un evento de campaña, el 7 de junio.

De acuerdo con la pesquisa, Téllez Álvarez habría sido el encargado de planear, coordinar y financiar el ataque. La Fiscalía sostiene que a comienzos de 2025 contactó a un intermediario que facilitó reuniones con miembros del grupo armado, incluso en la frontera con Venezuela, donde se habría definido el objetivo y un pago de hasta 1.000 millones de pesos por el homicidio.

La Fiscalía también concluyó que el crimen tuvo motivaciones políticas. “El asesinato (…) fue motivado por razones político-instrumentales vinculadas al ejercicio de sus funciones”, explicó Camargo, quien señaló que el caso “reúne todos los criterios para definirse como un magnicidio”.

En nueve meses de investigación, las autoridades han capturado a nueve personas por el caso. Cuatro de ellas ya fueron condenadas, incluido el adolescente que disparó contra el senador.

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