What happened
Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) has died after nearly five decades in elected politics, his office announced yesterday. The 80-year-old had recently filed to run for a 13th term and voted in the House as recently as Tuesday. Scott’s death widens the Republicans’ narrow majority in Congress ahead of November’s midterms. He was the fifth House member to die in office this Congress, and four were Democrats. 

Who said what
Scott, the first Black lawmaker to chair the House Agriculture Committee, was “once a leading voice for Democrats” on farm and food aid policy, The Associated Press said, but he “faced criticism and concerns in recent years because of declining health.” In his district, Scott sponsored “annual job and health fairs so popular they almost guaranteed his reelection every two years,” even as “age and physical ailments” limited his visibility, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said. 

What next?
Scott had been facing “strong challenges from well-funded Democrats” in his May primary, the Journal-Constitution said. Under Georgia law, the governor “has 10 days to call a special election to fill Scott’s seat,” with the election held “at least 30 days after that,” The Washington Post said.

What happened
The FBI started investigating a New York Times journalist last month after she reported in January that Kash Patel had assigned an around-the-clock FBI SWAT team to protect and escort his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, the Times said yesterday, citing a person briefed on the matter. FBI agents “recommended moving forward” to determine whether the reporter “broke federal stalking laws,” the Times said, but Justice Department officials shut down the inquiry, viewing it as legally baseless “retaliation” for the article.

Who said what
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson did not dispute the SWAT detail report. Investigators were “concerned” that the Times journalist’s “aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking,” he said yesterday, but “no further action” was “ever pursued by the FBI.”

Patel “hasn’t been reluctant to fight back against reporting that displeases him,” The Associated Press said. A federal judge in Texas yesterday dismissed a defamation suit filed by Patel against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi for saying on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than” at FBI headquarters.

What next?
It’s “not clear whether the Times has any recourse other than asking a federal inspector general to review” the FBI’s actions, the AP said.

Companies want to fly you to the moon and let you stay among the stars. Four startups are developing and launching commercial space stations to prime locations, from low Earth orbit to the moon and maybe even Mars. 

Voyager Technologies in Colorado is readying its space hotel for 2029. The first few visitors will likely be government-sponsored astronauts and researchers. “Instead of ‘luxury,’ ‘modern’ or ‘advanced’ is a better word,” CEO Dylan Taylor told Scientific American.

Galactic Resource Utilization (GRU) Space wants to go beyond Earth’s orbit. It will run its first mission in 2029 and operate a lunar hotel in 2032, according to its website. GRU Space is engineering the “infrastructure required to harness resources and sustain on new worlds, ultimately creating a self-sufficient industrial autonomy on the moon, Mars and beyond,” the company said in a white paper. 

Those “interested in a berth” just have to “plunk down a deposit between $250,000 and $1 million,” said Ars Technica. The hotel’s clients are “expected to be participants of previous commercial space flights and rich, adventurous newlyweds looking for an out-of-this-world honeymoon experience,” said Space.com (a sister site of The Week). 

“We live during an inflection point where we can actually become interplanetary before we die,” GRU Space founder Skyler Chan said in a statement. “If we succeed, billions of human lives will be born on the moon and Mars and be able to experience the beauty of lunar and Martian life.” 

But “maintaining a comfortable, clean atmosphere, much less a five-star experience, on a functioning spaceship will present all kinds of hurdles,” said Scientific American. The first space hotel is set to launch next year.