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Weather: Sunny. Not as cool with highs in the mid 80s. South winds 5 to 10 mph, increasing to around 15 mph in the afternoon. Friday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening, then mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Not as cool with lows in the lower 60s. South winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Today at a Glance:
In court: At 3:30 p.m., Perkins holds a hearing in the case of Louis Gaskin, the man convicted of three murders in Palm Coast in 1986 and 1989 and scheduled to be killed by the state on April 12. Gaskins’s attorneys are contesting the state’s use of Etomidate, an anesthetic that wears off quickly and may leave the inmate vulnerable to pain and suffering during the execution. The attorneys are seeking a series of public records involving previous executions. See: “Louis Gaskin, Convicted for 2 Murders in R-Section in 1990, to Be 1st-Ever Execution of Flagler Resident.”
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. Today: Rep. Paul Renner and Sen. Travis Hutson. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM and 1550 AM.
The Blue 22 Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center. (On Oct. 14 only, it is meeting at the 2nd floor conference room at the Katz and Green Building, 1 Florida Park Drive, Palm Coast.) Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
“Scapino,” at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite B207 (City Marketplace). The 1974 play is an adaptation of Moliere, set in modern-day Naples, and features a quick-thinking rascal (Scapino) who cleverly manipulates and cajoles everyone into doing exactly what he wants. There will be tall tales, bad impersonations, ridiculous chase scenes, disgruntled waiters, lovable panhandlers, melodic macaroni, and misbehaving sausages. Tickers are $15 to $20. March 17-19 and March 24-26, Friday and Saturday performances at 7:30 p.m., Sunday performances at 3 p.m. Book tickets here.
Lewis and Clark Circus at Palm Coast’s Florida Agricultural Museum, 7900 Old Kings Road N. Palm Coast. This is your chance to witness one of the last traditional tent shows left in America. Their mission is to provide children of all ages with the opportunity to experience the magic of the circus. Combining old time circus traditions with modern innovations, their show will leave you on the edge of your seat. Their show features world-class aerialists, acrobats, magicians and more under our custom built big top. Join us in a place where the audience forgets about the outside world for 90 minutes during non-stop circus action. Tickets are from $5 to $20. 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Book here.
In Coming Days:
Michael Butler at AAUW: What is Academic Freedom and Why Does It Matter? American Association of University Women Flagler’s April 1 meeting is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Cypress Knoll Golf and Country Club, 53 East Hampton, Palm Coast. The guest is Dr. Michael Butler, Professor of History
Chair of Humanities, Flagler College. The presentation is $5 to attend, $25 with lunch. Please check the website for more information. “It’s easy to ridicule Florida, or cite ‘Florida Man.’ But the Florida of today is the America of tomorrow,” Butler told Vanity Fair in an article about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s assaults on academic freedom. “If you put these culture wars into context, there’s always a bigger issue at play. This time, it’s 2024, and Florida is being used as a laboratory for policies and practices concerning higher education that will be unveiled at the national level.”
Editorial Notebook: It’s been fascinating to watch the French parliament and presidency haggle on Friday over whether to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, a preview of what’s to come in the United States if Social Security and Medicare are to have a chance to make it through the middle of the century unscathed, though we’ve already had a version of France’s attempted recalibration. We have the same minimum eligibility threshold, but it was set when life expectancy was considerably less than it is today. A bump of a couple of years doesn’t seem so onerous, especially if it’s phased in–to apply to the next generation, rather than to the retirees of the next 10 or 15 years. Congress changed eligibility in 1983, when small-government Reagan needed Social Security money to pay for the largest expansion of government and deficits to date, and when he saw the payroll tax as a fine pot to raid. Full benefit eligibility has been rising since, from 65 to 66 and two months currently, rising to 67 for those born in 1960 or later, while early retirement benefits have been lessened some. The National Academy of Social Insurance reports: “There is a financial bonus for delayed retirement. An individual reaching the full-benefit age in 2017 (66 years and 2 months old) receives a monthly benefit that is 8 percent higher for each year he or she delays collecting benefits until the latest claiming age of 70, at which point benefits are 132% of what they would have been at the normal retirement age. (When the full benefit age reaches 67, benefits claimed at age 70 will be 24 percent higher because of that delay.) The maximum retirement benefit in 2017 for someone who waits until age 70 to collect benefits is $3,538 a month.”
Now this: Russell Baker on Charlie Rose:
Flagler Beach Webcam:
The Live Calendar is a compendium 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.
May 2025
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Nar-Anon Family Group
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
For the full calendar, go here.
I have been apologized to by Richard Nixon. I have seen Adlai Stevenson, would-be President of the United States, shake hands with a department-store dummy in Florida. I have been summoned on a Saturday morning to the Capitol of the United States to meet with Lyndon Johnson, clad in pajamas and urgently needing my advice on how to break a civil-rights filibuster. I have often been played for a fool like this by other interesting men and, on occasion, equally interesting women. Pope John XXIII included me in an audience he granted the press group en route to Turkey, Iran and points east with President Eisenhower. The Pope’s feet barely reached the floor and seemed to dance as he spoke. Newspapers took me to Westminster Abbey in a rental white tie and topper to see Queen Elizabeth crowned and to Versailles in another rental white-tie-and-tails rig to share a theater evening with the de Gaulles and the John F. Kennedys. […] In Iran I have ridden in a press bus over several miles of Oriental carpets with which the Shah had ordered the street covered between airport and town to honor the visiting Eisenhower, a man who, during a White House news conference which I attended in shirtsleeves, once identified me as “that man that’s got the shirt on.” I could go on and on, and probably will somewhere sometime, but the time for this enterprise is up. Thanks for listening for the past three million words.
–From “A Few Words at the End,” Russell Baker’s last column for The New York Times, December 25, 1998.
Pogo says
@FlaglerLive
His Majesty Carlin described my affliction as brain dripping.
I read today’s quote, and I heard my late father’s voice whisper: Pogo stand up, Mr. Baker is passing. I thought I saw Art Buchwald too.
Did anyone else notice that the ides came and went without any good news?
William Shakespeare used more than 20,000 words in his plays and poems, and his works provide the first recorded use of over 1,700 words in the English language.
https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-words/
And still, it is Women’s History Month. Thank you, for everything, mother. Where ever you’ve gone, I know it’s better than where you were, and where we are.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ascent+of+women+10000+years
don miller says
here’s the problem. Joe sent Harris to represent us in the beginning . All we got from that was that NATO “said” they were truly united on this. ie…. propaganda. Then the truly uniteds were too little to late with aid. Ad a result both sides are entrenched and grinding out death. Ukraine is not a member of NATO. This was NATOs fight. This should have been a united effort under the UN. The UN is apparently worthless. The USA is by far and away the largest provide of military aid to Ukr right out of our pocket book. Again, we obviously were not truly united with equal fair shares. . Now anyone that is not a member of NATO and not ever paying dues can get a bailout from the USA. So why join?? Solution:: let Europe and the UN handle it all . It is in Europe’s backyard and in their interests to foot the bill, provide the aid and send the troops. Europe nations have nukes so they can create their own no nuke stand off. You would think that after afghan and vietnam we’d learn. No, instead of troops we just send endless money until a big incident happens . Always we are saving Europe. Sell the equipment to Europe and let them decide to to save Ukr or bolster themselves. We should not be DIRECTLY involved at all. Since the USA’s founding, we have handled our backyard and Europe should handle theirs.
Bob says
Actually, if we had a PRESIDENT this war may have been already over. I’m not talking militarily. Why waste thousands of lives .
Laurel says
Don Miller: With your way of thinking, I hope Europe saves us some day.
Laurel says
Bob: We had a *PRESIDENT* who invited the Russians into the White House, letting only Russian reporters in. We had a *PRESIDENT* who publicly stated he believed Putin over our own intelligence. We have an EX PRESIDENT whose suggestion is to let Russia have some of Ukraine, just give it away. This is after seeing Russia invade and bomb homes and apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, neighborhoods and many, many civilians, often torturing and executing them as well. You know the guy, right, who doesn’t have much use for the Constitution since it doesn’t suit his needs? Y’all have short, little memory spans, don’t you?
Sherry says
Adding to Laurel’s excellent statement . . . We had a traitorous president who was the first in history to be IMPEACHED TWICE! His first impeachment was for withholding Congressionally approved funds from from Ukraine at a time when this entire war could have possibly been avoided. AND, he did it by trying to “bribe” the Ukrainian President in to investigating his political opponent .
His second Impeachment was for inciting a violent, lethal insurrection against our country!!!
Tell me, is that the President you desire? Really????
Pogo says
@FlaglerLive
An update related to the cartoon:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility…”
“…“Biden offers food, water, medicine, shelter, payouts of pension and social services to Ukraine! Ohio first! Offer and deliver to Ohio!” posted one of the pro-Moscow accounts, which boasts 25,000 followers and features an anonymous location and a profile photo of a dog. Twitter awarded the account a blue check mark in January.”
https://apnews.com/article/ohio-train-derailment-russia-disinformation-twitter-musk-49af27699727d6f4157a5d6d5f35819b
Thanks, Elon, for nothing.
The most gullible among us are often the most cynical, too. 2024 is upon us.