North and central Florida comprise one of the largest concentrations of freshwater springs in the world. Many of these springs provide a home to a variety of wild animals and plants. But they are also canaries in the coal mine for Florida’s groundwater system, because they draw upon the same groundwater that many Floridians depend on for drinking water, farm irrigation and industrial use. Right now, many Florida springs suffer from reduced flow and habitat loss, as well as excessive algae and heavy pressure from human use.
Archives for November 14, 2025
The U.S. Citizenship Test Shouldn’t Be Like Trivia Night at Tortugas
The new citizenship test “for aspiring Americans” is out. It is supposedly longer and harder than its predecessor. In fact, it’s not a civics test. It’s certainly not a citizenship test. It’s the sort of questions Jay Scherr baritones between nachos at his weekly trivia night at Tortugas, and it is riddled with errors while projecting an unrecognizably chauvinist America.
State Kills Bryan Jennings, 66, For Kidnapping, Rape and Murder of Rebecca Kunash, 6, in 1979
More than 46 years after he kidnapped, raped and murdered a 6-year-old girl in Brevard County, Bryan Frederick Jennings was put to death by lethal injection Thursday evening at Florida State Prison. Jennings was convicted of murdering Rebecca Kunash on May 11, 1979, in Merritt Island. A 1986 sentencing order said Jennings in the early morning hours went to the window of the child’s bedroom and saw her asleep.
Flagler Beach a Putt Away from Selling Off Golf Course, But Ethics Complaint Takes Beaver Pelt to 3-2 Vote
Ocean Palm Golf Course, for 12 years a Flagler Beach city property and a quarry of millstones around commissioners’ necks, is one ordinance reading away from returning to private ownership. The 3-2 vote was marred by the report of a pending ethics complaint against City Manager Dale Martin alleging that he negotiated the sale out of public view. The state Ethics Commission is unlikely to find probable cause of wrongdoing.
A 5-Minute Survey to Help Flagler County Update Its Transit Plan
Flagler County Public Transportation is updating its Transit Development Plan and is asking residents to take a short survey to share insights. The survey should take about five minutes to complete. The TDP is designed to identify transit needs and guide transit improvements over the next 10 years.
Flagler Beach Takes Momentous Step to Annexing Veranda Bay as Developer Pledges Protections for Bulow Creek
In a momentous step that would reconfigure the city’s boundaries, character and political center of gravity, the Flagler Beach City Commission on Thursday evening voted 4-1 to approve on first reading the annexation of 514 acres on the west side of John Anderson Highway, a segment of the Veranda Bay development that’s been rebranded Summertown. The annexation would enlarge Flagler Beach’s current acreage of 2,291 by more than a fifth while the population of the annexed land at build-out at 2,400 homes, a few decades in the future, would more than double Flagler Beach’s current population of 5,500.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, November 14, 2021
‘Around the World in 80 Days’ at City Rep Theatre, Flagler Schools College and Career Fair, Flagler Outreach Brings Social Service Providers to Cattleman’s Hall, Long Island City then and now.
