The Flagler County School District is preparing to approve a $1.38 million contract for its share of school resource deputies (SRDs) and crossing guards for the school year starting on Aug. 12, a 16 percent increase over this year’s $1.19 million contract. The increases drew questions from School Board member Colleen Conklin, who was startled by a 68 percent increase in the cost of crossing guards and the increase in deputies’ costs even though the number of guards or deputies isn’t changing.
Main Content
Daily Cartoon and Briefing
![Biden's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/biden-race.jpg?resize=474%2C324&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
![Michael Travis Stephens.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/stephens-travis.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Michael Stephens, 48, Arrested on Sex Assault and Child Abuse Charges Involving Step-Daughter
Michael Travis Stephens, a 48-year-old resident of Sedgwick Trail in Palm Coast, is at the Flagler County jail on $125,000 bond after allegedly sexually assaulting his minor stepchild while she feigned sleep. Before his arrest, Stephens allegedly threatened to law enforcement that anyone going into his house would not leave alive.
![Peter Johnson. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/peter-johnson.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Peter Johnson, Palm Coast Mayor Candidate: The Live Interview
Peter Johnson is a candidate for Palm Coast Mayor in the Aug. 20 primary. All registered voters in the city may cast a ballot in that non-partisan election regardless of party affiliation or location in Palm Coast.
![Cornelia Downing Manfre. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/manfre-cornelia.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Cornelia Downing Downing Manfre, Palm Coast Mayor Candidate: The Live Interview
Cornelia Downing Manfre is a candidate for Palm Coast Mayor in the Aug. 20 primary. All registered voters in the city may cast a ballot in that non-partisan election regardless of party affiliation or location in Palm Coast.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
![Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/david-alfin-20.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
David Alfin, Palm Coast Mayor Candidate: The Live Interview
David Alfin is a candidate for Palm Coast Mayor in the Aug. 20 primary. All registered voters in the city may cast a ballot in that non-partisan election regardless of party affiliation or location in Palm Coast.
![biden danger election](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/biden-debate.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Trump Is No Longer the Greatest Danger to the Country. Biden Is.
Biden has a choice: certain defeat and a Trump win, or stepping aside and letting Democrats take the only kind of gamble that gives them at least a competitive chance to win in November, with either California’s Gavin Newsom or Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer at the top of the ticket–and with Whitmer clearly the better of the two. If the Democratic Party allows Biden to dig in, the party loses all legitimacy going forward.
![The significant portion of Veterans Park in Flagler Beach that DC Blox, the data company, was seeking an easement for is demarcated by the sidewalk, going north toward the monument and State Road 100. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/veterans-park-4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Data Company Seeking Easements Discovers Flagler Beach Commissioners Won’t Be Cowed Into Submission
The Flagler Beach City Commission will not grant a data-center company a perpetual easement over almost a third of Veterans Park in the heart of the city as a landing point for undersea internet cables. The company was attempting to save money at the city’s expense. City commissioners explicitly called out the scheme, tabling the proposal until DC Blox returns with a feasible proposal to use South 6th Street as a landing site, without disrupting the city-owned parking lot there or compromising its future value to the city.
![Some of Airbnb's current listings in Palm Coast, from an online screenshot.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/airbnb-listings.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
DeSantis Veto of Vacation-Rental Bill Opens the Way for Palm Coast Regulations with Flagler’s as Model
Facing pressure, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed the measure a bill that deregulated local control of vacation rentals, saying the proposal would create “bureaucratic red tape” for local officials. Now, Palm Coast has another chance to write its own vacation-rental ordinance, or at least craft some city-specific regulations. City Council member Theresa Pontieri said this morning she intends to open the way for just such a proposal, with caution, as residents increasingly complain of rentals.
![Thursday's Flagler Tioger Bay Meet and Greet at the Palm Coast Community Center drew some 300 people and almost every candidate on the local Aug. 20 primary ballot. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/tiger-bay-meet.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Tiger Bay Straw Poll: Richardson Trounces Danko; Derek Barrs and Lauren Ramirez Take Schools, Alfin Hangs On
Thursday’s Flagler Tiger Bay Meet and Greet at the Palm Coast Community Center drew some 300 people and almost every local election candidate on the Aug. 20 primary ballot. A straw poll consisting of some 225 votes yielded a few arresting results, such as County Commission candidate Pam Richardson’s trouncing of an absent Ed Danko, and a not-too surprising tight race for mayor in Palm Coast.
![Abbey Cooke at a Flagler Pride event in Palm Coast in 2021. She was fired the next year. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/cooke-settlement.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Two Years Later, Star Teacher Fired Over a TikTok Second Signs Settlement and Hopes to Resume Career
Two years after Flagler County schools ended her stellar 12-year teaching career over a 15-second TikTok video of her dancing with some of her sixth-grade students to the sound of Lizzo and an errant, barely audible four-letter word that many students sing or mouth a dozen times a day, Abbey Cooke has signed a settlement agreement with the state, neither admitting nor denying guilt, and preserving her teaching license.
![DC Blox, a company planning to build a data center in Palm Coast, wants an easement over the northern segment of Veterans Park in Flagler Beach, beneath which it would "land" undersea internet cables. The city has issues both with the company's terms and its opaque methods. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/veterans-park-dcblox.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Secretive Data Company Getting Stiff Resistance from Flagler Beach Over Perpetual Easement at Veterans Park
DC Blox, the Atlanta-based data company working with Palm Coast to open a data center there, is about to face stiff resistance from some Flagler Beach City Commissioners as it seeks a permanent easement through Veterans Park, one of the city’s iconic treasures. Officials are not happy with the choice they’re being given at Veterans Park, the paltry, one-time compensation the city is being offered–$100,000 per cable landing–or the way DC Blox has attempted to keep negotiations out of the public eye, especially about money.
![july 4 palm coast 2024](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/fireworks-7.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
July 4 Celebration from Flagler Beach Parade to Palm Coast Fireworks at County Airport
Flagler County Government and the Cities of Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, and Bunnell invite all Flagler County residents and visitors to the United Flagler 4th Community Celebration on Thursday, July 4, starting with the Independence Day Parade in Flagler Beah and culminating with a 15-16 minute firework show featuring 3,300 shells at the county airport. All events are free.
![Flagler Tiger Bay's meet-and-greet featuring almost all the local candidates in the August primary election follows in the tradition of similar events, like the former Chamber of Commerce's hob knob of 2018, above, at the Palm Coast Community Center. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/tiger-bay-3.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Flagler Tiger Bay Prepares for Largest Candidate Meet-and-Greet of Primary, Waving Off Fret Over Straw Poll
As of Monday some 40 local and state candidates had confirmed attendance at Thursday’s Tiger Bay Meet and Greet, what is expected to be the largest election gathering of the sort for Flagler County and Palm Coast politics ahead of the Aug. 20 primary. The three-hour free event starting at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Palm Coast Community Center will include a voter-registration drive organized by the Supervisor of Elections’ office, and a straw poll, which one candidate is criticizing as a “sham.” He appears isolated.
![Mayor David Alfin at a town hall style meeting at Panera Bread in April. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/alfin-tiwn-hall.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Palm Coast Mayor Alfin’s Sudden Spate of City-Aided ‘Town Halls,’ 2 Months from Election, Raises Red Flag
Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin’s decision to hold weekly “Share with the Mayor” gatherings at the City Hall flagpole is drawing criticism from an opponent in the mayoral race and a request by the council as a whole for a legal opinion on the legality of city aided town hall style meetings in proximity to an election. Alfin defends the practice, saying he is continuing the practice of “Share with the Mayor,” in effect throughout his term, by other means.
![Laura Boehmer and Oscar Anderson of Southern Group, Palm Coast's lobbying firm, in a screen capture from one of the firm's videos. Boehmer and Anderson appeared before the Palm Coast City Council this morning.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/southern-group.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Palm Coast Reels Back Talk of Firing Its Lobbyists as Southern Group’s Emissaries Deliver Veto-Proof Defense
A presentation to the Palm Coast City Council today by its Southern Group lobbyists was a response to an inquisition, albeit an inquisition that, by the time the pair of lobbyists had sat down in person in front of the council, had already been sharply dialed down to a sort of Marriage Encounter session. The council critics’ aim was no longer to criticize or threaten dissolution but to learn, recalibrate and grow, especially as the lobbyists twice reminded them of Palm Coast’s record appropriation hauls of the last two years.
The Conversation
![supreme court homeless criminal](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/homeless-supremes.jpg?resize=474%2C324&ssl=1)
For the Homeless, ‘Stay Awake or Be Arrested’
In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that criminalizing sleeping in public by those with nowhere to go violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The decision, disappointing but not surprising, will not lead to any reduction in homelessness, and will certainly result in more litigation.
Florida and Beyond
![first amendment social media](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/domore.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Law Still Blurry as Supreme Court Punts on Florida’s Social Media Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated appeals court decisions involving Florida and Texas laws designed to restrict the power of social media companies to curb content that those platforms consider objectionable, sending Florida’s case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Texas case to the Fifth Circuit.
![November Election by Bob Englehart, PoliticalCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/world.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, July 1, 2024
The Beverly Beach Town Commission meets in workshop at 5 p.m. with Surfside Estates to discuss revisions to the mobile home code, felony court is off the rest of the week, the nuclear march of folly.
![capitol riot](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/insurrection-5.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Supreme Court Makes It More Difficult to Prosecute Trump and Insurrectionists
The indictments – and in some cases, the convictions – of hundreds of people charged with participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, will have to be reconsidered, and possibly dropped, because of a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 28, 2024. Among those charged using a broad interpretation of the obstruction law now narrowed by the high court: former President Donald Trump.
Briefs and Releases
Hurricane Beryl No Threat to Flagler, But Stay Prepared, Emergency Management Director Says
DeSantis to Farmworkers’ Need for Housing: Drop Dead
DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Release of Balloons Into the Air
Dr. Andrew Weinfeld Appointed Chief Clinical Officer for AdventHealth East Florida Division
Supreme Court Reprimands 7th Judicial Circuit Judge Casey Woolsey Over Misleading Posts
More Florida and Beyond
![A work by Sheila Goloborotko on exhibit at the Orlando Museum of Art, part of the 2024 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art Exhibit.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/you-me.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Gov. DeSantis’s War on the Arts
Some people are ignorant and proud of it. Ron DeSantis is one of those people. The man just vetoed almost every pitiful penny of arts and culture funding in the state budget. Museums, music, youth programs, local treasures, historic houses, Black heritage centers, performing arts spaces, dance companies, kids’ music programs, even renowned institutions such as the Ringling Museum of Art. With his characteristic eloquence, DeSantis snarled, “Some of the stuff I don’t think was appropriate for state tax dollars.”
![The Debate by Dick Wright, PoliticalCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/burnt-toast.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 30, 2024
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, the free St. Augustine Music Festival in its last day, V.S. Naipaul among the believers, Philip Roth’s Sabbath on the news.
![U.S. President Joe Biden and Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate on June 27, 2024.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/debate-biden.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Biden Crashes, Trump Lies
The earliest-ever general election debate featured a lot of bitter personal attacks. Joe Biden’s universally acknowledged poor performance surprised and even panicked Democrats; Donald Trump gave a more forceful – if not truthful – performance.
![Sen. Geraldine Thompson chairs the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force but dissented Friday.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/geraldine-thompson.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Panel Moves Forward on Black History Museum in St. Johns County,
Facing a Monday deadline, members of a state task force Friday voted to submit a report to the governor and the Legislature that outlines suggestions on how to build, market, operate and eventually make self-sufficient a Black history museum proposed for St. Johns County.
![Ocean pollution by Guy Parsons, PoliticalCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/oceans.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 29, 2024
Peps Art Walk in the Hammock, coffee with Flagler Beach Commissioner Scott Spradley, how American comedy has become too safe on TV, the menace of George Wallace type politics.
![cricket and baseball](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/cricket.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Should We Care About Cricket?
In what has been dubbed “one of the biggest shocks in cricket history”, the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup co-hosts USA beat Pakistan in a pulsating game on June 6. With seven runs needed off the last ball of a “super over” tiebreaker, Pakistan could only manage a single. Cricket is also hardly a mainstream sport in the US. Indeed, the New York Times suggested that many Americans were “oblivious to the magnitude” of the victory.
![Louisiana Schools by Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/guns-commandments.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, June 28, 2024
Talking July 4 festivities on Free For All Fridays, an update in pictures from the renourishment project, Acoustic Jam Circle at the Community Center In The Hammock.
![Since the mid-20th century, a handful of white journalists have tried to understand the complexity of the Black experience through donning a costume.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/blackface-journalism.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Strange History of Journalistic Blackface
A peculiar desire seems to still haunt some white people: “I wish I knew what it was like to be Black.” This is a presumptive, racially imaginative desire, one that covets not just the rhythm of Black life, but also its blues. Canadian-American journalist Sam Forster is one of those white people.
![The bipartisan measure (HB 133) sponsored by Miami-Dade Democrat Kevin Chambliss and Seminole County Republican Rachel Plakon, would have reduced the time from five years to three years that the Barbers’ Board and Board of Cosmetology could use a criminal conviction as grounds to deny licenses.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/barber-shops.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
DeSantis Vetoes Occupational License Reform Bill Aimed at Broadening Opportunities and Reducing Recidivism
The bipartisan measure (HB 133) sponsored by Miami-Dade Democrat Kevin Chambliss and Seminole County Republican Rachel Plakon, would have reduced the time from five years to three years that the Barbers’ Board and Board of Cosmetology could use a criminal conviction as grounds to deny licenses.
![Trump Biden Debate Prep by Rick McKee, CagleCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/debate-prep-1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, June 27, 2024
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Candidate Meet and Greet at the Palm Coast Community Center, with a straw poll, the first Kennedy-Nixon debate, Calvin Coolidge on the kind of America he saw.
![protesters gather near Columbia University on April 30, 2024.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/columbia-protests.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
At Columbia, You May Not Criticize Israel Without Getting Punished
After Editors of Columbia Law Review, a prominent journal run by students from the prestigious university’s law school, published an article critical of Israel, the board, which includes Columbia Law School faculty members and alumni, had the law review’s website taken down. The board soon relented and allowed the website back online on June 6, including the article in question. But it issued a statement accusing the student editors of failing to properly review the article prior to publication.
The Live Calendar
The Live Calendar is Flagler County’s most complete list of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Commentary
![](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/macron-elysee.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1)
France’s Snap-Election Dare to Right-Wingers: What’s At Stake
French president Emmanuel Macron told French citizens he had “decided to give [them] back the choice of our parliamentary future through the vote”. These words, pronounced in reaction to the historic surge of the far-right National Rally at the European elections, triggered the dissolution of France’s parliament and snap elections on 30 June and 7 July.
![If your data was used to train an AI, it might – or might not – be safe from prying eyes.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/privacy-1.jpg?fit=300%2C169&ssl=1)
How Machine Learning Can Violate Your Privacy
Machine learning has pushed the boundaries in several fields, including personalized medicine, self-driving cars and customized advertisements. Research has shown, however, that these systems memorize aspects of the data they were trained with in order to learn patterns, which raises concerns for privacy.
![Pygmy blue whale subspecies.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/blue-whales.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1)
Blue Whales Beyond the Mysteries
Blue whales are fascinating animals. At 24-30 metres in length (longer than a basketball court) they are the largest creatures on Earth. They are also among the rarest. Estimates suggest that there are only around 5,000 to 15,000 blue whales left in the world.