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Only 3 States Passed License Plate Reader Laws This Year Despite Concerns

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Lawmakers in at least 16 states this year introduced bills to regulate the use of automated license plate readers responsible for collecting large amounts of data on drivers across the country. But just three states — Arkansas, Idaho and Virginia — enacted laws this session that establish or amend rules for law enforcement agencies using the high-tech camera systems and the manner in which license plate data should be stored. And this month, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have restricted use of such data.

László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Prize for Literature

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Awarding the Nobel prize for literature to László Krasznahorkai today, the Swedish Academy commended the author’s “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. But in itself their decision is also a commitment to the value of serious and intellectual writing in an age characterised by immediacy, the distractions of digital culture and the entertainment industry.

Florida’s 1st Public School Chaplain Is Trump Disciple at War with Church-State Wall

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Rev. Jack Martin, the state’s first public school chaplain, twice ran for Congress, wrote an ode to Charlie Kirk, preached the need to “battle alongside Trump” and defended the Jan. 6 assault on Congress as “the ratification of the theft of the presidency.”

He identifies with the Black Robe Regiment, a coalition of pastors committed to tearing down the wall of separation between church and state.

María Corina Machado’s Peace Prize

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Machado is in many ways a controversial pick, less a peace activist than a political operator willing to use some of the trade’s dark arts for the greater democratic good. Of course, many Nobel Peace Prize awards generate controversy. It has often been bestowed on great politicians over activists. And sometimes the prize’s winners can have complex pasts and very non-peaceful resumes. Past recipients include dubious choices such as Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, despite their past association with terrorism and, in Kissinger’s case, mass slaughters.

DeSantis Signs Warrant to Kill Bryan Jennings, Murderer of 6-Year-Old Girl, for 16th Execution of the Year

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Bryan Frederick Jennings, 66, is scheduled to be executed Nov. 13 and could be a record 16th inmate put to death by lethal injection this year in Florida. The state has carried out 13 executions and is slated to put to death Samuel Smithers on Tuesday and Norman Grim on Oct. 28. Jennings was convicted of murdering Rebecca Kunash on May 11, 1979, in Merritt Island.

For Trump’s Perceived Enemies, the Process May Be the Punishment

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If the case against Comey is exceedingly weak – and little more than a political prosecution – then it should result in the dismissal of charges by the judge or a not guilty verdict by the jury. But even when an individual is not convicted, the process of defending against charges can itself be a form of punishment, as renowned legal scholar Malcolm Feeley pointed out almost 50 years ago.

Florida Could Face Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Food Stamp Costs Under Trump’s ‘Beautiful’ Bill

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Currently, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits — commonly known as food stamps — distributed by the state are fully funded by the federal government. But under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” signed this summer by President Donald Trump, that could change on Oct. 1, 2027, when states could be required to contribute money based on payment error rates. The error rate isn’t based on fraud but overpayments and underpayments. Benefits are calculated based on household sizes and net monthly incomes, which can change and might not be immediately reported.

The Gaza Peace Plan’s Familiar Rings

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The latest U.S.-sponsored peace plan for the Middle East was unveiled at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025, and immediately accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal, which U.S. President Donald Trump said marked a “historic” moment that was “very close” to ending the two-year-old war in Gaza, will now go to Hamas.

Florida Has No Clue How Many Kids Have Lost Health Coverage Since DeSantis Refusal to Comply with Eligibility Rule

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In 2023. the Legislature ordered that children in families making up to 300 percent of the poverty level be eligible for KidCare, not 200 percent. The DeSantis administration has refused to comply, sticking with 200 percent, and causing enrollment to fall. But Brian Meyer, the state’s top Medicaid official, couldn’t answer a simple question: How many children have been disenrolled from the program because their families haven’t paid the premiums.

The Supreme Court Resumes Its Rightward Reel

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This year’s controversies at the Supreme Court focus on three dominant themes. One is the continuing constitutional revolution in how the justices read our basic law. The court has shifted from a living reading of the Constitution, which says the Constitution should adapt to the American people’s evolving values and the needs of contemporary society, to an original reading, which aims to enforce the constitutional principles understood by the Americans who ratified them.

The US Edges Closer to War Footing with Venezuela

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For many in Venezuela, the question is no longer whether tensions with Washington will reach a boiling point – they already have. Rather, the big unknown now is whether the U.S. will follow up on threats and the sinking of drug boats with something more drastic: direct military engagement or even regime change.

Do ‘Conversion Therapy’ Bans Violate Free Speech?

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The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a challenge to Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” – treatment intended to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity – for young people. Kaley Chiles, a therapist in Colorado Springs and a practicing Christian, argues that the ban violates her right to free speech because it imposes “a gag order on counselors.” Colorado counters that the ban merely regulates the treatments that mental health professionals can provide because conversion therapy has been found to be “unsafe and ineffective.”

The Shutdown and the Battle Over Obamacare Subsidies

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In the lead-up to the current shutdown, Republicans needed Democratic votes in the Senate to pass a bill that would keep funding the government at existing levels at least until November. In return for their support, Democrats sought several concessions. A major one was to extend subsidies for ACA insurance policy premiums, which were established during the COVID-19 pandemic. These subsidies addressed a shortcoming in the ACA by decreasing premiums for millions of Americans – and they played a crucial role in more than doubling enrollment in the ACA marketplaces.

Privatizing the VA Is a Disaster in the Making for Veterans

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The VA MISSION Act of 2018, passed under President Trump’s first term, established a parallel private network, the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP). The VCCP now sees 60 percent of VA patients and eats up over $30 billion a year that could go to hiring more staff and improving the VA’s aging infrastructure. This year, VA Secretary Doug Collins asked Congress for a 50 percent increase in VCCP funding and — in an unprecedented move — a reduction in VA funding.

George Washington’s Lesson to Pete Hegseth

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Washington’s overall vision of a military leader could not be further from Hegseth’s vision of the tough warrior. For starters, Washington would have found the concern with “fat generals” irrelevant. Some of the most capable officers in the Continental Army were famously overweight. Washington became a soldier not because he was hotheaded or drawn to the thrill of combat, but because he saw soldiering as the highest exercise of discipline, patience and composure. His “warrior ethos” was moral before it was martial.

Loving Penguins Lose as Federal Judge Backs School Board’s Ban of ‘And Tango Makes Three’

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A federal judge this week rejected a challenge to a 2023 decision by the Escambia County School Board to remove the book “And Tango Makes Three” from school libraries, ruling the move did not violate First Amendment rights. “And Tango Makes Three,” which tells the story of two male penguins who raised a penguin chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo, has become a prominent part of a debate in recent years about removing or restricting access to books at Florida schools. The Escambia County lawsuit alleged the book was targeted for its depictions of same-sex parents raising a child.

What the 1st Amendment Protects, and What It Doesn’t

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What the First Amendment makes clear is that it does not just protect the rights of speakers who say things with which Americans agree. Or, as the Supreme Court said in a separate decision it issued one year after the case involving the funeral protesters: “The Nation well knows that one of the costs of the First Amendment is that it protects the speech we detest as well as the speech we embrace.” But free speech is not absolute.

Cops May No Longer Search Your Car Based on Pot Smell Alone, Court Rules

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Florida’s 2nd District Court of Appeal’s main opinion said that for “generations, cannabis was illegal in all forms — thereby rendering its distinct odor immediately indicative of criminal activity.” But the opinion said legislative changes have “fundamentally changed its definition and regulation” and made cannabis legal to possess in multiple forms.

The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, October 1, 2025

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The Flagler County Cultural Council (FC3) annual meeting, The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets, the Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting, Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the county library, reflections on the horrors of classical music at a young age and Bach’s Orchestral Suite in B Minor.

Militarism for Show

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The president’s and the defense secretary’s campaign-like pair of bombastic speeches to hundreds of generals summoned to Quantico, Va., signals an escalation in the administration’s embrace of a militaristic mindset that, as long ago as 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address, and that the nation’s founders deliberately aimed to constrain.

About 750,000 Federal Workers Will Be Furloughed in Shutdown

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A government shutdown could have significant economic consequences, though an analysis released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it’s difficult to pinpoint ramifications without knowing the length of a funding lapse or how exactly the Trump administration will try to reshape the federal workforce. Director Phillip L. Swagel wrote in a four-page letter the agency projects about 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed, leading to a $400 million impact per day. 

Charlie Kirk, AI-Generated Martyr

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An AI-generated image of Charlie Kirk embracing Jesus. Another of Kirk posing with angel wings and halo. Then there’s the one of Kirk standing with George Floyd at the gates of heaven. When prominent political or cultural figures die in the U.S., the remembrance of their life often veers into hagiography. And that’s what’s been happening since the gruesome killing of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.

FPL Wants to Raise Base Rates by $1.71 Billion in Next 2 Years, Blasting Consumers’ Counter-Proposal of $1.27 Billion

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Florida Power & Light on Friday fired back at a renewed request for state regulators to consider a “counter proposal” to a proposed settlement that would increase the utility’s base electric rates. Opponents of the proposed settlement, including the state Office of Public Counsel, which is designated by law to represent utility customers, want the Florida Public Service Commission to consider the counter proposal. Commission Chairman Mike La Rosa on Sept. 12 denied the request, but the Office of Public Counsel and its allies are seeking reconsideration of that decision.

How Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ Speaks to America’s Psyche

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Bruce Springsteen’s1975 “Born to Run” album was shaped by the times, particularly the malaise of the post-Vietnam and post-Watergate American landscape. There was an energy crisis, and it wasn’t only oil that was in short supply. These lyrical, operatic songs about freedom and fate, triumph and tragedy, still resonate, even though today’s music is more likely to emphasize beats, samples and software than extended guitar and saxophone solos.

Republican Push for Snitching on Charlie Kirk Posts Drives Unprecedented Purge of Public Workers

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An ongoing purge of public employees is driven in part by Republican elected officials who are encouraging Americans to report co-workers, their children’s teachers and others who make comments seen as crossing the line. They have been egged on by the Trump administration, with Vice President JD Vance urging listeners of Kirk’s podcast to call the employer of anyone “celebrating” his killing.

At Least in France They Imprison Their Felon Ex-Presidents

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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy. Sentenced to five years in prison, he is due to appear in court on 13 October to learn the date of his incarceration. The unprecedented ruling enshrines the Republican principle of full and complete equality of citizens before the law.

As He DOGE-Targets Blue Governments for ‘Fraud,’ Florida CFO Ingoglia Wants $600,000 for His Own Bureaucracy

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In a state Legislative Budget Request filed last week, Blaise Ingoglia, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked new Chief Financial Officer, is seeking more than $600,000 and six full time employees to permanently establish a new “Florida Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Office,” with the provocative acronym “FAFO.” Its mission is to review local government data and “uncover the truth about how these government entities are using taxpayer funds, especially property taxes,” according to the budget request.

Trump’s Targeting of ‘Enemies’ Like Comey Echoes Grimmest History

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At the Department of Justice, a “Weaponization Working Group” has a long list of Trump’s perceived enemies to investigate. It marks the first time since J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year reign as FBI director that the FBI has targeted massive numbers of people perceived to be political enemies. The recent statements from both Trump and top aide Miller suggest the FBI’s independence, and broader constitutional requirements that the administration remain faithful to the law, are meaningless to them. They suggest that, like Hoover, they would criminalize dissent.

US Passport Is Best Defense Against ICE False Arrest as Supreme Court Approves Profiling in Mass Detentions

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The aggressive drive to carry out mass deportations of people without legal status already has led to U.S. citizens being swept up in raids and detained, according to news reports from around the country as well as immigration experts. Such detainments now will increase, experts predict. Once in detention, it can take time to verify citizenship. A passport is considered the gold standard for proof that an individual is a citizen, but fewer than half of Americans hold passports, according to the State Department’s most recent data from 2024. Even fewer are likely to carry the bulky document around.