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S at u r d ay, J u n e 13, 2026
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Gwynne Shotwell, center, president and COO of SpaceX, celebrates with colleagues during a bell-ringing ceremony for the IPO of SpaceX at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New york on Friday.
SpaceX stock soars
Success of IPO makes Musk world’s first trillionaire BY BERNARD CONDON
AP business writer
NEW YORK — Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after shares of his rocket company SpaceX soared in Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering of stock. Shares in SpaceX jumped more than 19% after opening for trading at noon Friday, a sign that investors are looking past the billions the company is losing and instead betting that its massive investments in satellites, orbital data centers and artificial intelligence will pay off in
the future. SpaceX opened at $150 a share, then rose to around $168, before finishing the day just below $161. That price gave the company a market value of $2.1 trillion, making it the Musk sixth largest public U.S. company — larger even than its founder and CEO’s other big business, the electric vehicle maker Tesla. Between his holdings in SpaceX
and Tesla, where he is also CEO, Musk is now worth an estimated $1.1 trillion, according to Forbes. Musk says SpaceX, founded in 2002, is going public now because it needs money to fund its ambitions of putting satellites and data centers in space and eventually establishing a colony of people on Mars. He marked the opening of trading on Nasdaq by joining a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the South Texas home of SpaceX. He reiterated his lofty goals “to
ä See SPACEX, page 4A
Library tax on June 27 ballot Similar proposal was
defeated in November BY CLAIRE GRUNEWALD Staff writer
An East Baton Rouge Parish Library tax is back on the ballot this month after voters shot down a city-parish tax rededication initiative in November. On the June 27 ballot, voters will be asked whether to approve or reject a property tax continuation of 9.5 mills for the next 10 years, estimated to raise around $59.6 million annually to fund all library operations. The library system’s previous tax millage, which expired at the end of 2025, was set at 9.89 mills. A mill represents $1 of tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The balloting comes after voters last fall rejected Proposition 1, which would have funded the system through an 11.1 mill annual tax, with
ä See LIBRARY, page 4A
SpaceX’s Starship rocket lifts off during a test flight from Starbase, Texas, on May 22.
Cottonport fire chief facing misconduct charges
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO By ERIC GAy
BY JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
As Louisiana broiled in August 2023, the state fire marshal issued a burn ban, leaving it to local officials to grant exceptions if needed. Chris Lemoine, chief of the volunteer Cottonport Fire Department, in Avoyelles Parish, approved one for himself a few weeks later that he would come to regret. The “controlled” burn that Lemoine admits lighting on Aug. 20, 2023, didn’t stay that way long, after he and a fire captain got to drinking beers down the street, according to the Louisiana Judiciary Commission. The blaze just outside of town ended up
ä See CHARGES, page 4A
Two bills before Congress would change college athletics Measures would rein in sports spending, restrict transfers
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — The push in Congress to revamp college athletics — including a “Lane Kiffin rule” to keep coaches from switching schools midseason — now involves two bills, with one championed by
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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise competing against another out of the Senate. Both would rein in college sports spending and restrict unlimited use of the transfer portal — trends that have upended century-old traditions of amateur student-athletes playing for their schools on scholarships. President Donald Trump has weighed in, urging lawmakers to reach a compromise, which would fall heavily on the Louisiana-dominated Republican House leader-
ship. “President Trump wants the House and Senate to work through this to fix the problem,” said Scalise, R-Jefferson. In charge of the effort in the House is Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton. “We got to work it out. It’s so important for college athletics,” Johnson said Wednesday while visiting announcers at a congressional charity baseball game.
ä See ATHLETICS, page 5A
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Former LSU and Alabama football coach Nick Saban testifies before a Senate committee on June 3. ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA
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