A growing number of Americans struggle with what is known as energy poverty, including the inability to afford utilities to heat or cool a home. Households that spend more than 6% of their income on energy bills are energy-poor. Energy poverty can increase one’s exposure to extreme heat or cold, which raises the risk of developing numerous health conditions. The burden falls disproportionately on households in communities of color, which experience it at a rate 60% greater than those in white communities.
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Daily Cartoon and Briefing
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, September 9, 2024
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Kidnapping, Child Abuse, Aggravated Battery: 2 Men Face Charges in Separate Domestic Incidents That Spiraled
Justin John Peralta, a 40-year-old resident of Richmond Drive in Palm Coast, and Steven McSwain, 47, of Cranberry Avenue in Bunnell’s Mondex, are at the Flagler County jail on grave charges resulting from unrelated domestic violence incidents that spiraled out of control just before the weekend.
Ron DeSantis Is Getting Angrier, and He’s Taking It Out on Florida
DeSantis was always a rage-hampered homunculus, but now that he’s been humiliated on the national stage and his presidential aspirations squashed like a palmetto bug, he’s only gotten angrier. And he’s taking it out on Florida.
Palm Coast Council Seat Vacated by Heighter Draws 9 Applicants for Appointment, 5 Days to Deadline
Nine candidates have applied so far in hopes of appointment to the Palm Coast City Council seat Cathy Heighter resigned last month, two of whom have previously been appointed to local elected boards–including one who served on the City Council–and two who served on government advisory boards. The application deadline is Sept. 11, so additional applicants are likely.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Fringe in Check, Palm Coast Approves More Expansive Budget with Slightly Lower Tax Rate, No Rollback
Palm Coast City Manager Lauren Johnston’s proposed budget and tax rate for the year starting Oct. 1 survived almost intact Thursday evening as the council, keeping its swaggering fringe in check, approved in a series of 3-1 votes a $61.2 million general fund budget with a $5.3 million increase and a slightly lower tax rate, but nowhere near the so-called rolled-back rate.
Fewer Problems at Bulow RV Park, But Evictions and Code Violations Loom as Deadline Approaches
The conflict between residents of the Bulow RV Park off Old Kings Road is not as intense as it was last year. Numerous issues have been resolved. But some problems persist, with more than a dozen residents still out of compliance with county and park rules, and with water pressure and water cleanliness issues now coming to the fore. The county continues to attempt to mediate a solution, with limited success. In the assistant county attorney’s characterization, the matter can be “intractable.”
Joseph Horovsky, 21, Is Charged with a Life Felony on Accusations of Molestation of a 10-Year-Old Relative
Joseph Horovsky, a 21-year-old resident of 11 Wasserman Drive, was arrested Wednesday and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation, and today, in a filing by the State Attorney’s Office, was charged with molestation of a child younger than 12, a felony punishable by up to life ion prison. He was placed under arrest at his home and booked at the Flagler County jail on no bond.
Palm Coast Tries to Police Short-Term Rentals, Balancing Property Rights Against Residents’ Aggravations
Responding to a surge of vacation rentals in certain parts of the city, especially the C-Section, and complaints from permanent residents around the rentals, the Palm Coast City Council will soon adopt regulations limiting occupancy, setting registration fees and restricting the parking of recreational trailers or boats. But the city continues to face competing tensions from permanent residents aggravated by the disruptions of vacation rentals and operators of the same rentals, who say the city is jeopardizing their livelihood.
Free EKG Could Save a Student Athlete’s Life. School Board’s Furry, Hunt and Chong Oppose Mandating It With Physical.
To play sports in Flagler County, high school students must pass a physical. A 10-minute ECG or EKG is an option regularly provided by AdventHealth, but not a requirement. The Flagler County School Board’s Colleen Conklin wants to make it part of the physical. Fellow-Board members Will Furry, Christy Chon and Sally Hunt are opposed, saying that should be a parent’s decision. The board is voting on the options later this month.
Palm Coast Council’s Pontieri’s ‘Warning Shot’: Why Are Taxpayers Paying for Infrastructure Benefiting Landowner?
Palm Coast City Council member Theresa Pontieri said the $105 million the city received in state appropriations for road construction west of U.S. 1 is money subsidizing “the current multi-billion dollar landowner,” a reference to Rayonier, the timber and land management company that owns most of the land in the expansion area. She cited development documents that require the developer to build a sports complex and road extensions that the city is currently scrambling to pay for.
Attempt to Delay Borrowing Referendum Fails in 2-2 Vote as Council Splinters and Public Rebels
The Palm Coast City Council is at war with itself over a proposed referendum that would remove borrowing limits the city has had to comply with for 25 years. If the city is hoping for a successful outcome in November, this is not the way to go about it, especially for a mostly lame-duck council, three of whose members were rejected by voters and a fourth who just resigned. For all the grim writing on the wall, an attempt to remove the proposed referendum from the Nov. 5 ballot and let the new council rewrite it more clearly and with additional guardrails failed in a 2-2 vote Tuesday evening.
15 Years in Prison for Joseph Siano, Who Killed Lee-Ann Daley Driving Wrong Way on US1, His 3rd DUI in 9 Years
Joseph Siano, 65, today was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the drunk driving killing of Lee-Ann Daley, the 46-year-old mother of three, as Siano drove the wrong way on U.S. 1 a few days before Christmas in 2022. He had cataracts, and his blood-alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit.
County Bans Smoking, Vaping and Toking In Parks and Public Recreation Areas, With an Exception for Cigars
Mirroring Flagler Beach, which passed a similar ordinance two years ago, the Flagler County Commission today approved on first reading a prohibition on smoking or vaping in any public park or public recreation area, with a notable exception: unfiltered cigars. While the ban applies to county-owned portions of the beach, it does not apply in most portions.
Father Who Secretly Took Video of 12-Year-Old Daughter in Bathroom Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison, 8 on Probation
Tyler Jon Habdas, the 31-year-old former Palm Coast resident who’d secretly taken video of his 12-year-old step-daughter in the bathroom over six months, was sentenced to five years in prison and eight years on sex-offender probation today. A jury found him guilty of video voyeurism and other charges in a July trial.
You May No Longer Pay Bills at Palm Coast’s Utility Drive Lobby After Oct. 18
Palm Coast government’s Customer Service Utility lobby at 2 Utility Drive will be permanently closing on October 18. The move will help the city free up customer service representatives to serve people on the phones to cut down on hold times, which has significantly increased in recent years, a city spokesperson said.
The Conversation
Gift Card Scams and Failing Regulations
An estimated US$8 billion is stolen annually from seniors age 60 and older through stranger-perpetrated frauds, according to AARP. Increasingly, gift cards are a leading fraud payment method reported by older adults, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Florida and Beyond
Low Wage Work Hurts Employees–And Customers
A business that’s focused on exploiting employees to make those at the top even richer isn’t just bad for workers, but for customers as well. And anyone who’s worked for one of these low-wage companies can tell you those businesses are hardly unique. If we want a strong economy, we need to do more to make sure all workers can make a decent living and feel safe and respected in their workplace.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, September 8, 2024
‘The Great American Trailer Park Musical’ at Daytona Playhouse, Modern Jewish Food Festival at Jacksonville Beach’s Margaritaville Hotel, On Graphomania and the comment section, Joseph Brodsky remembered, a few lines from “Watermark.”
Why Still a Gap Between Public Opinion and Scientific Consensus on Climate Change?
At least 97% of scientists agree that humanity contributes to climate change, but the same cannot be said for society at large. In the United States, where only 12% of citizens are aware of the scientific community’s near-total unanimity. This is a result of, among other things, disinformation, media portrayals, and cognitive bias.
More Florida and Beyond
How Illegal Short-Term Rentals Hide in Plain Sight on Booking Sites
In the midst of an ongoing housing emergency, the city of Los Angeles has struggled to keep rent-controlled housing, which includes some of the city’s most affordable dwelling units, from turning into short-term rentals. Even though a 2018 law prohibits such conversions, enforcement has been lax.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, September 7, 2024
Flagler Woman’s Club’s Casino Night at the Italian-American Club, ‘The Great American Trailer Park Musical’ at Daytona Playhouse, Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone, a rainbow over Ponce de Leon.
The Longest Journey: When the Jews of Rhodes Were Deported to Auschwitz
In the Old Town of Rhodesa marble obelisk commemorates the deportation of the island’s small but vibrant Sephardic Jewish community to Auschwitz-Birkenau on July 23, 1944. The 1,700 Jews of Rhodes had the misfortune not only of experiencing deportation late in the war, when Allied victory was almost in sight, but also of enduring the longest journey of any Jewish community sent to Auschwitz — a treacherous voyage that lasted 24 days.
Legislative Analysts Warn Florida’s Surpluses Could Turn to Billion-Dollar Deficits as Federal Aid Dries Up
While there are numerous caveats, the picture could go from a $2.09 billion surplus during the upcoming 2025-2026 fiscal year to a potential deficit of $2.826 billion in the 2026-2027 fiscal year and a potential deficit of $6.941 billion in the 2027-2028 fiscal year.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, September 6, 2024
a Margaritaville Hotel photographic update, Tyrese Patterson Sentencing, First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, First Friday in Flagler Beach, , Jackie Gleason, an excerpt from VS Pritchett’s “The Evils of Spain.”
Charisma Drives Trump’s Die-Hard Support
Of all the questions confronting voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, few are as puzzling as the seemingly unwavering support for Donald Trump even though he is deeply mired in embarrassing sex scandals and criminal business practices. Part of the reason may be explained by Max Weber, an early 20th century German sociologist and social theorist. At the center of Weber’s thinking about political authority was the word “charisma.”
Abortions Down 13% in First 8 Months After Florida’s Restrictions Became Law
The number of abortions reported in Florida during the first eight months of this year was nearly 13 percent lower than during the same period in 2022 and 2023, as a law preventing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has led to fewer procedures.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, September 5, 2024
The demise of New York City’s great WCBS 880 Newsradio, Rally for Women’s Reproductive Rights at the northwest corner of Belle Terre and Pine Lake Parkways in Palm Coast, Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library.
Reviewing 28 Years of Research Debunks Link Between Cell Phones and Brain Cancer
A systematic review into the potential health effects from radio wave exposure has shown mobile phones are not linked to brain cancer. The review was commissioned by the World Health Organization and is published today in the journal Environment International.
Florida College Students Return to Campuses Bristling with Restrictions on Protests
Florida’s college and university students are starting the academic year greeted by friends and professors — and by warnings from administrators and Attorney General Ashley Moody about how to express their views on campus. The directives follow nationwide protests over Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza. While the scale of protests has varied nationwide, some led to arrests, including at the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of South Florida, and the University of North Florida.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
The Flagler County Commission holds the first of two public hearings to approve its budget and next year’s property tax rate, pretending that Mike Waltz cares about climate change, Separation Chat, Open Discussion.
France Debates Le Wokisme
From the Republican party to the far-right National Rally, politicians throughout the conservative spectrum in France and elsewhere have described the opening ceremony’s scenes as “insults to the nation” and largely approached the event as a Trojan horse for the “woke ideology”.
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Decision Blocking Christian School’s Pre-Game Prayer Over Loudspeakers
A federal appeals court Tuesday said the Florida High School Athletic Association did not violate First Amendment rights when it blocked a Tampa Christian school from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a 2015 high-school football championship game. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2022 ruling by U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell in the lawsuit filed by Cambridge Christian School.
Commentary
This Supreme Court Has Redefined the Meaning of Corruption
The U.S. Supreme Court is deregulating corruption, with arguably grim consequences for American democracy. Since John Roberts became its chief justice in 2006, the court has made prosecuting corruption, especially at the state and local level, nearly impossible for federal prosecutors.
‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Is Finally Streaming
“Homicide: Life on the Street” featured cops, but you couldn’t always tell whether they were the good guys or the bad guys; its writers played with traditional episode formats; and its scenes were shot on location with handheld cameras in order to give the show a realistic feel. The show has finally been made available for streaming on Peacock. Its groundbreaking visuals and courageous scripting set the template for the television shows of the 21st century, a golden era of programming sometimes called Platinum TV or Peak TV.
Here’s How You Fix Your Florida Parks Problem, Gov. DeSantis
Gov. DeSantis’s super-sneaky plan to build a trio of golf courses, two 350-room hotels, and several sport facilities in nine state parks turned out about as well as his school board endorsements. Here’s a way to fix the mess.