Weekend Briefing: Sales Tax Holiday, Ceremonial Checks to Schools and County, AR-15’s Terrors, Favela Olympics

Weekend: Unsettled, hot, thunderstorm-ridden, highs in the low 90s. Nights with lows in the mid-70s. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 513.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: synthespian, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

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

“The Games of the XXI Olympiad end tomorrow, and not a moment too soon. Another day or so of camaraderie and good will on the fields of friendly strife and somebody would wind up with a knife between the ribs. Up to now, this sweaty carnival has run smooth as the course of true love, if you don’t county the angry withdrawal of thirty nations, cheating disqualifications, rumors of attempted bribery, political and ideological clashes, threats, bluffs, defections, charges of kidnapping and the use of forbidden steroids.”

–Red Smith in an Aug. 1, 1976 column in The New York Times.

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.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: A three-day sales tax “holiday” begins just after midnight Friday as families do back-to-school shopping. During the holiday, shoppers will be able to avoid paying sales taxes on clothing that costs $60 or less and school supplies that cost $15 or less, anywhere in Florida.

Friday: Free For All Friday with David Ayres, whose guests include Palm Coast City Manager Jim landon and Flagler Beach consultant Charlie Faulkner. Subject to change. 9 a.m., WNZF Radio.

Friday: Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Paul Renner present a ceremonial $535,892 check to the Flagler County School Board at 9 a.m., representing the restoration of state funding for the Flagler County Adults with Disabilities Program. At 1 Corporate Dr, Palm Coast. At 10:30 a.m., the legislative duo will present a ceremonial $300,000 check to the Flagler County Commission, funding for Malacompa drainage improvements, at Bing’s Landing, 5862 N. Oceanshore Blvd. The public is invited to attend both events.

Friday: Belle Terre Elementary School open house, 1 p.m.

Local News Recap:

Updated jail bookings and day and night shift incident summary reports are available here.

Belle Terre Swim Club Advisory Group Violates School Policy as It Plods Into Political Forums: The Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club, created to help save the school board-owned facility, organized three political forums at the club without board permission, used a membership list to send out invitations in violation of board policy, and is not being charged the usual rate for use of facilities.

• News-Journal: Bunnell wins state grants for parks
• News-Journal: In line to get online: Flagler students begin picking up computers
• The Record: County meth bust nabs 47
• FlaglerLive: Kangaroo on Palm Harbor Parkway Robbed at Gunpoint in Early Morning, Two Suspects Flee
• Brief: Tiffany Edwards Returns to Flagler Chamber as Events and Marketing Director

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.

Friday: The Revenue Estimating Conference will analyze tobacco taxes and the state’s legal settlement with the tobacco industry. (9 a.m.)

FRIDAY: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REPORTS DUE: State political candidates and committees face a Friday deadline for filing reports showing finance activity through July 29.

Saturday: Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark will speak during the Hillsborough County Democratic Party’s Kennedy-King Dinner. (7 p.m., DoubleTree by Hilton Tampa Airport-Westshore, 4500 West Cypress St., Tampa.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

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

♦ Aug. 8: The News-Journal hosts an election forum featuring the candidates for Flagler County sheriff, at the Buddy Taylor Middle School cafeteria, 6 p.m.
♦ Aug. 10: School resumes for all students in the Flagler County School District, two weeks earlier than last year, but with a new calendar that enables students to complete their coursework ahead of high-stakes exams, that ends quarters more logically with holidays, and that restores a full week’s holiday around Thanksgiving, Nov. 21-25. See details here.
♦ Aug. 11: Gun buy-back hosted by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Flagler County Association of Realtors building, 4101 State Road 100 in Bunnell.
♦ Aug. 11: Flagler Votes Hob Nob, the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce’s pre-election event for voters to meet candidates, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Flagler County Association of Realtors’ building, 4101 E Moody Blvd in Bunnell. Participating candidates must pay $150 a table for their space, but it’s otherwise free to attend. As part of their free admission, attendees will enjoy light snacks, great conversation and a ticket to vote in an electronic “straw poll,” the results of which will be revealed at the end of the evening. Beer, wine and water will be available for nominal cash donations.
♦ Aug. 19: The latest pre-trial hearing in the case of Florida v. Kimberle Weeks, continued from July 22, is scheduled for 3 p.m. before Circuit Judge Margaret Hudson in Courtroom 402 at the Flagler County Courthouse. Weeks now faces nine third-degree felony counts, down from 12, stemming from allegations that she illegally recorded various individuals in her capacity as supervisor of elections and in her private life. Weeks resigned that post in January 2015.
♦ Sept. 7: The Flagler Youth Orchestra holds its open house for all new or prospective students who’d like to join the county’s largest (and free) music program. The open house is at the Indian Trails Middle School cafeteria at 5:30 p.m. Any Flagler student, including homes chooled students, in grades 3-12, are eligible to enroll (must be 8 years old by Sept. 1, 2016.) Students may elect to play violin, viola, cello or doublebass. One-hour classes are held at Indian Trails Middle School Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3 to 6 p.m., with students enrolled in the hour block appropriate to their skill level and schedule. The first class for first-time students is Sept. 19. (Auditions for returning students start on Aug. 22, the first class for returning students is Aug. 31.)
♦ Sept. 10: African Art: Ancient Egypt to the Contemporary World, a pair of presentations by Bertrand Green, former chairman of African American studies at Lehman College, City University of New York. The first session is from 10 a.m. to noon, the second session from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn, Palm Coast. $20 for PCAF members, $25 for general admission. Call 386/225-4394 or email pcaf@cfl.rr.com to reserve your seat.

The Day’s Best Reads:

How the AK-47 and AR-15 evolved into rifles of choice for mass killers https://t.co/47Op8fbXGi pic.twitter.com/ilfqwfisqG

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 4, 2016

A tuition-free college plan could cause tuition to go up, says RAND's Trey Miller: https://t.co/01su08wf2L pic.twitter.com/fw1Ra2j7Ir

— RAND (@RANDCorporation) August 4, 2016

Why hasn’t Obama’s clemency initiative helped more nonviolent drug offenders? https://t.co/RpOGSP4Tl7 pic.twitter.com/JsyMZ670TX

— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 4, 2016

A wonderful primer of content to come, here is an exhaustive timeline of Hiroshima & Nagasaki via @AtomicHeritage. https://t.co/A9otqMpTAk

— Federation of American Scientists🔬 (@scientistsorg) August 4, 2016

Technology unearths #WWII mass graves and an escape route for holocaust victims https://t.co/50Pa3aORAW. pic.twitter.com/x9aLjsYe08

— ProQuest (@ProQuest) August 4, 2016

Why Stephen Colbert can't be Stephen Colbert anymore https://t.co/bwApCScz0P pic.twitter.com/x5QfJIYniP

— The Christian Science Monitor (@csmonitor) August 4, 2016

 

Fact-Checking the Knaves:

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through July 15 (the city administration’s full week in review is here):

Click to access week-in-review-july1.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction:

• Florida Department of Transportation Road Project List

Cultural Coda:

Arthur Rubenstein Performs Brahms’s Piano Concerto in D Minor with the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink, Cond.

Previous Codas:

• The Last Bookstore
• Agustin Barrios: La Catedral, III
• Mabuhay Singers-Planting Rice-Magtanim Hindi Biro
• Ray Bradbury on Violence, Laughter and Sadness
• Bill Evans Live, ’64, ’75
• Leonard Bernstein Conducts the Boston Symphony in Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
• The Minnesota Orchestra in Cuba
• Partita No. 6 in E minor, BWV 830, Edward Neeman, Piano
• Festival Next Generation 2015: Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante
• James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)
• Philadelphia Orchestra Performs La Marseillaise
• J.S.Bach’s Concerto for Three Violins, BWV 1064, Julia Fischer Leading
• Cremaine Booker Performs Barber’s Adagio for Strings, By Himself in a Four-Cello Arrangement
• Juan Diego Florez: Besame Mucho
• Valentina Lisitsa plays Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
• Aaron Copland Conducts His Own Fanfare For The Common Man, After Leonard Bernstein Gives a Brief Lecture on American Music
• President Warren G. Harding’s Erotica
• Anaïs Nin Reads from her Diary
• Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54, Murray Perahia, Piano
• Carl Maria von Weber: Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E flat major, op. 74. Anna Paulová at the Clarinet
• Charles Dickens in 10 Minutes
• Pergolesi: Stabat Mater, for Soprano and Alto, With Les Talens Lyriques
• Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson, Together, Live, in 1972
• J.S.Bach’s Fantasia and Fuge in G Minor BWV 542, John Scott at the Organ
• Schubert’s Piano Sonata No 20 D 959 in A major Performed by Alfred Brendel
• Gabriel Faure’s Requiem, Orchestre de Paris, Chen Reiss, Matthias Coerne
• Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, Moscow Virtuosi
• Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, K 450, Robert Levin, cond.
• How Disney Cartoons Were Made
• Chopin’s Piano Concerto Nr. 2, Rosalía Gómez Lasheras at the Piano
• Edward MacDowell: To a Wild Rose
• Hilary Hahn plays Ernst’ s Grand Caprice on Schubert’s Der Erlkönig, Op. 26
• Telemann’s Fantasia for Solo Violin in B-Flat Major, Cynthia Freivogel on the Baroque Violin
• John Field: Nocturne No. 10 in E Minor
• Respighi’s Pines of Rome
• Schostakovich’s Best Waltz, for Guitars
• Happy Birthday Ray Charles: Georgia On My Mind
• Eugen d’Albert: Klavierstücke op. 5, Performed by Koji Attwood
• Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light, a Movie on his 93rd Birthday (He Died in 2004)
• Wilhelm Kempff, Schumann’s Papillons Op. 2 Parts 1 and 2
• Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Performed by Evgeni Koroliov
• Mozart at His Most Bach-Like: The Piano Suite in C Major, K 399
• Bach’s Keyboard Partita No.1 in B flat major, BWV 825, Performed by Daniel de Borah