Tuesday Briefing: Hurricane Irma After-Action, Nathan Shimmel Pre-Trial, A.O. Wilson on Limits of Atheism, Connect Bus

Today: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs in the mid 70s. East winds 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog. Lows around 60. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Today’s document from the National Archives and the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Drought Index12
The OED’s Word of the Day: freak flag, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

• First Light
• In Flagler and Palm Coast
• Flagler Jail Bookings and Sheriff’s Crime Reports
• Announcements
• In State Government
• In Coming Days in Flagler, Palm Coast and Beyond
• The Day’s Best Reads
• Editor’s Tweets
• Fact-Checking the Knaves
• Palm Coast Construction and Development
• Local Road and Interstate Construction
• Cultural Coda

“In fact, I’m not an atheist—I’m a scientist. Atheism is the belief that there is no god, and you declare there is no god: ‘Come, my fellow atheists, let us march together and conquer those idiots who think there is a god—all these other tribes. We’re going to prevail.’ I would even say I’m agnostic because I’m a scientist. Being an agnostic means saying, dogmatically, that we will never be able to know, so give it up. The important thing is that it appears that humans, as a species, share a religious impulse. You can call it theological, you can call it spiritual, but humans everywhere have a strong tendency to wonder about whether they’re being looked over by a god or not. Practically every person ponders whether they’re going to have another life. These are the things that unite humanity.”

–E.O. Wilson, in a February 2015 interview with Slate.

Previously:

Ponce de Leon | Bill Kristol’s liberalism | Life’s evening | Male friendships | Solzhenitsyn’s power | Voltaire on tolerance | McMurtry on Hemingway | Under arrest | LBJ’s white trash | Lewd plant names | Nabokov’s trains | Mass shootings | Schubert | Carbon atoms | Moynihan on liberals | Ruzickova on Bach | Mexican Fiestas | Epitaphs | Einstein’s Bach | Updike’s Lebanese | Age of Religion | States’ Rights | Bette Davis | Cleaning toilets | Mistakes and leadership | Kind leadership | Tough Hadeed | Two-Minute Hate | Joseph Smith | Get Shorty | No prodigy | Truthiness | Xenophobia | Conan on Vegas | Einstein’s Socialism | Trump’s Puerto Rico | Substitute |

In Flagler and Palm Coast:

Note: all government meetings noticed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated. Many can be heard or seen live through each agency’s website.

The Sheriff’s daily incident reports and jail bookings are posted here.

In Court: Nathaniel Shimmel, the 22-year-old Palm Coast man who faces a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of his mother, Michele Shimmel, 60, in August, has a pre-trial before Circuit Court Judge Dennis Craig at 9 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Shimmel is represented by Ray Warren. Also on the docket is a pre-trial for Bruce Haughton, who faces a negligent homicide charge in the suicidal death of his girlfriend, Katherine Goddard, in Palm Coast’s R Section in August.

The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop at 9 a.m. at City Hall in Town Center. The council was originally scheduled to discuss the charter-review process, which included four public meetings over the past two months. The discussion has been postponed to early January. Council members are scheduled to discuss the Hurricane Irma after-action report, and discuss park impact fees.

The Flagler Education Foundation’s Connect Bus is at Ameris Bank at 10:30 a.m. at 181 Cypress Point Pkwy, Palm Coast.

Blood Donations: The Big Red Bus will be at the following locations this week:

• Tuesday: Moe’s Southwest Grill, 250 Palm Coast Parkway NE, noon to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: Palm Coast Post Office, 2 Pine Cone Drive, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
• Friday: Walmart, 174 Cypress Point Parkway Palm Coast, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Announcements:

Online version of National Citizen Survey now open to Palm Coast residents: The City of Palm Coast invites all residents to take the City’s comprehensive citizen survey between now and Dec. 9. The online survey went live on Nov. 24. You can access the survey here. The online option is in addition to the regular mail-in survey conducted for the City by National Citizen Survey every other year. Earlier this fall, 1,500 surveys from the National Citizen Survey were mailed to randomly selected residents, with representation from each of the City’s four districts. Both survey processes are anonymous. The City of Palm Coast has been participating in the NCS since 2002. Currently, the City conducts the NCS every other year, with the City conducting separate surveying on its own in the off years. The City uses all survey results to improve city services. With the National Citizen Survey, Palm Coast’s results are compared to more than 500 other local governments across the United States. The feedback received from residents is presented to the Palm Coast City Council and is used for strategic planning and to help City leaders set priorities for the next fiscal year. To review past years’ National Citizen Survey results, visit www.PalmCoastGov.com/about/citizen-survey.

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel. Most legislative proceedings can be followed through the Senate or House websites.

ELECTIONS COMMISSION MEETS: The Florida Elections Commission is scheduled to meet. (Tuesday, 8:30 a.m., 412 Knott Building, the Capitol.)

BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETS: The State Board of Education will take up a series of issues, including “turnaround option plans” for schools in Bradford, Duval and Escambia counties. (Tuesday, 9 a.m., Lake-Sumter State College, Everett A. Kelly Convocation Center, 9501 U.S. 441, Leesburg.)

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER AT ISSUE: The Executive Committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission will take up a proposal (P68) that would revamp the duties of the state chief financial officer. (Tuesday, 9 a.m., 401 Senate Office Building, the Capitol.)

JUDICIAL TERMS CONSIDERED: The Judicial Committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission will take up proposals that would increase the mandatory retirement age for judges to 75, up from the current 70. (Tuesday, 1 p.m., 301 Senate Office Building, the Capitol.)

E-VERIFY ON TABLE: The General Provisions Committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission will consider a series of proposals, including a measure (P29) that would require Florida businesses to use the federal E-verify system to prevent the hiring of undocumented immigrants. (Tuesday, 1:30 p.m., 401 Senate Office Building, the Capitol.)

UNF TRUSTEES TAKE UP BARGAINING AGREEMENT: The University of North Florida Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting to discuss a collective-bargaining agreement with the Police Benevolent Association. (Tuesday, 2 p.m., University of North Florida, J.J. Daniel Hall, Jacksonville.)

—-Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast, Flagler and the Occasional Beyond:

The Day’s Best Reads:

Editor’s Tweets

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

Updates of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast usually run here, along with a link to the city’s Week in Review. But the Week in Review, under the guise of being modernized, has become flashier and power-point like while becoming less substantive and dumbed down. We may or may not link to it in future. Here’s a summary of the latest developments as of Oct. 6

Road and Interstate Construction:

• Florida Department of Transportation Road Project List

Cultural Coda

Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto Performed on Sax by Amy Dixon

Previous Codas:

• Maria João Pires Performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K 453
• When Mickey Mouse Jammed Out Carmen and Other Favorites
• Heinrich von Herzogenberg’s Trio for Piano, Oboe and Horn, Op. 61
• The Sublime Valses Poéticos by Enrique Granados, Performed By Albert Flotats
• Complete Performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique: Leonard Bernstein, Orchestre National de France
• Yeol Eum Son Performs Charles Valentin Alkan
• A Crazy Encore by Yuja Wang at Carnegie Hall
• Phillip Sear Performs a Waltz By Neapolitan Composer Franco Alfano
• “Stranger Things” Cello Medley – Nicholas Yee
• Discover the Great Daniil Trifonov
• Afro-Venezuelan Shostakovich
• Bill Murray’s Mark Twain Prize: The Full Monty
• Norwegian Ice Festival
• Beethoven Flash
• Worlds Collide: Jan Vogler and Bill Murray
• Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat major: Robert Levin and the Transylvania Philharmonic
• Mozart: Piano Quartet No. 1, KV 478
• Eleanor Rigby, performed by Sirius Quartet
• Mozart: Tamiri’s aria from Il re pastore: Elina Shimkus & Sinfonietta Riga
• Mariko M on the Cello, Mariko Terashita, violin, Perform Limerock
• Bohuslav Martinu: First Sonata for Flute and Piano
• Andras Schiff Performs All Six of Bach’s French Suites
• Paul Lewis plays Schubert’s Piano Sonata No. 20 in A Major, Andantino
• 14-Year-Old María Dueñas Fernández Performs Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at 2017 Competition
• Andras Schiff Performs the whole of Bach’s Overture in the French Style in B minor, BWV 831
• Alexander Dunn plays Studies by Fernando Sor
• Fandango, by Antonio Soler
• Frescobaldi: Toccata in G, Magdalena Baczewska, harpsichord
• Willie Nelson: Full Concert, Woodstock, 1999
• How playing an instrument benefits your brain
• Mozart’s Requiem: Camerata Salzburg, Arsys Bourgogne, Cond.
• Repairing Willie Nelson’s guitar