The Florida Commission on Ethics tossed out a complaint filed by four Palm Coast City Council members against Mayor Mike Norris, citing “legal insufficiency.” Norris had said as much in a social media posting last Friday and at a town hall meeting Monday, misinterpreting the order as a victory. To the council members, the ethics commission’s decision is one more reason to revise the city charter to add disciplinary clauses that would enable a council majority–or a supermajority–to deal with a rogue or derelict member.
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Daily Cartoon and Briefing
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
16 Years in Prison for Justin Maddox, 32, in Overdose Death of Jeremy Kocorowski, 40
Indicted on a capital murder charge for his role in the drug-overdose death of 40-year-old Jeremy Kocorowski of Bunnell in March 2024, Justin Maddox, 32, of Palm Coast, was sentenced today to 16 years in prison in a plea deal that reduced the charge to manslaughter. “Addiction is a disease,” the victim’s mother told the court in a statement she read after the sentencing. “But exploiting someone who’s struggling is not. it is predatory. It is lethal. And in this case, it was murder.”
On Flagler County School Board, Competing Views Underscore District Tensions Behind Vouchers and ‘Choice’
At the end of a 15-minute hearing on Tuesday to approve Flagler County schools’ tentative property tax and budget for the coming fiscal year–a budget that includes the siphoning of $17 million to subsidize private school “vouchers” for almost 2,000 students, with the district’s dollars–School Board member Janie Ruddy delivered a brief speech decrying the erosion of public dollars for public schools, and addressing its consequences. Will Furry followed with a rejoinder, illustrating district tensions at the heart of the voucher and “choice” program. Both statements follow in full.
Citing Costs, Flagler Beach Commissioners Reject Design of New ‘Beachwalk’ on and Around Pier for 2nd Time in 4 Weeks
The design of a new “Beachwalk” and “Promenade” beneath and around the Flagler Beach pier drew raves from city commissioners. But what started as a $1.5 million project has ballooned to at least $2.8 million, with several design elements that were not part of the original concept as commissioners understood it, including a covered portion of the 4,200-square-foot promenade. Commissioners have tabled the project and asked for a third redesign.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Janie Ruddy Rips Vouchers, Will Furry Defends Them as School Board Sees Erosion of Nearly 2,000 Students to Hand-Out
The Flagler County School Board in a 15-minute meeting this evening approved the tentative school property tax for the next fiscal year, a small decline from last year that continues a 20-year trend of cutting the school tax rate every year but in the three years of the Great Recession. Board member Janie Ruddy pointedly noted the discordance between falling tax rates and local needs, and between the expansion of vouchers–public funding for private education–at the public schools’ expense. Will Furry, who chairs the board, countered with a defense of vouchers.
At Mike Norris ‘Mayoral Town Hall,’ an Impressive Crowd Starring Cast of Familiar Faces, Fictions and Grievances
Palm Coast Mayor Norris’s self-vaunted, well-attended and uneventful “Mayoral Town Hall” at the VFW hall on Old Kings Road Monday evening was almost identical to a grousing public comment segment at a City Council meeting, but stretched to two hours, and with a larger audience primed by pizza, beer and wine on the mayor’s personal generosity. The two-hour event drew 154 people, based on a head count just before the halfway mark.
Mayor Norris Files for Rehearing in Lawsuit He Lost Over Gambaro Appointment and Distorts Ethics Decision
Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris through his attorney filed a motion for rehearing of his lawsuit against the city and Council member Charles Gambaro, who Norris still claims was illegally appointed despite a court order to the contrary. Separately, Norris, in a truculent social media posting replete with errors and mischaracterizations late Friday, claimed that the Florida Commission on Ethics “has officially dismissed” the complaint the City Council filed against him, and did so “due to insufficient legal standing.”
100 Cats Rescued from R-Section Home in Palm Coast Will Have Their Own Adoption Event
In a powerful show of compassion and teamwork, almost 100 cats were rescued this week from a single home in Palm Coast, thanks to a coordinated effort by city employees, local organizations, and dedicated animal lovers.
A Perplexed Flagler Beach Hears Vague County ‘Options’ to Pay for Beach Protection After Sales Tax Plan Collapse
Kim Carney, the county commissioner who played a significant role in defeating the proposed sales tax increase to finance a comprehensive beach-protection plan, went to the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday with five options from which the city could choose to protect its own beach. Four of the options would require Flagler Beach to impose a new tax or fee on its residents. The fifth would have the city supporting a 2026 referendum to raise the sales tax–the very option the County Commission could have approved, and that Carney opposed.
Flagler County Cancels ‘Boots on the Ground’ Line Dancing Event at 11th Hour as Sheriff Blasts Permitting Flop
Flagler County government ordered the permit for a “Boots on the Ground Line Dance Competition” revoked on Friday, cancelling the event 24 hours before it was scheduled to start. The county did so after the organizer of the event “engaged in serial misrepresentation of the event, continually contradicted by his social media promotion,” according to the email by the deputy county administrator.
4 Council Members Ask DeSantis to Suspend Mayor for ‘Malfeasance, Misfeasance, Neglect of Duty, and Incompetence’
Twice charging Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris with “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, and incompetence,” the rest of the Palm Coast City Council today issued a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, asking him to suspend Norris from office and appoint an acting mayor in his place.
Flagler Beach Will Consider Moving Its Elections to Even Years to Save Money, and Alter Commissioners’ Terms
Flagler Beach will consider moving its elections from March every year to November, coinciding with general and presidential election cycles. Commissioners’ three-year terms would have to revert to two years, as had been the case two decades ago, or go to four-year terms. The change, suggested as a discussion point by City Clerk Penny Overstreet Thursday evening, would potentially save the city $18,000 per election.
School Board’s Lauren Ramirez Prevails in Conflict-of-Interest Dispute at Ethics Commission, With Help from a Familiar Face
Flagler County School Board member Lauren Ramirez’s challenge of proposed restrictions on her private business not only prevailed today before the Florida Ethics Commission, which unanimously took her side, but spurred a request by the commission that the Florida Legislature rewrite the relevant portions of law to prevent similar conflict-of-interest restrictions in the future. Ramirez all but won her challenge behind arguments to the Ethics Commission by her attorney, Theresa Pontieri, the Palm Coast City Council vice mayor.
Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy
Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion, argues Colleen Conklin, the former School Board member. And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.
3rd Arrest in 7 Years on Domestic Violence Charges for William Krivanek, 43, Who Was on Probation
William Karl Krivanek, a 43-year-old resident of Comanche Court in Palm Coast, is at the Flagler County jail on $200,000 bond following his arrest on four felony charges stemming from a domestic violence incident, including a count of aggravated assault causing bodily harm. Krivanek was on probation for a charge of felony battery. He went by the alias “Bedlam.”
The Conversation
The Smokescreen of Food Air Drops in Gaza
A third of Gazans have gone without food for several days and 90,000 women and children now require urgent care for acute malnutrition. Local health authorities have reported 147 deaths from starvation so far, 80% of whom are children. Air-dropping food supplies is considered a last resort due to the undignified and unsafe manner in which the aid is delivered. The UN has already reported civilians being injured when packages have fallen on tents. Air-dropped pallets of food are also inefficient compared with what can be delivered by road.
Florida and Beyond
DeSantis Signs 11th Death Warrant of Year: Curtis Windom, 1992 Murderer of 3
Continuing to quickly order executions, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of killing three people in 1992 in Orange County. Curtis Windom, 59, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 28 at Florida State Prison. Windom would be the 11th inmate executed this year in the state — a record-breaking pace.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Food Truck Tuesday this evening in Palm Coast’s Town Center at Central Park, Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy at Cinematique, the Yankees’ Ryan McMahon meets Bruce Dern of “The Cowboys.”
As Israel Starves Gaza
Already around 60,000 Gazans have been killed and growing numbers are now dying from hunger and malnutrition. More than 90% of the private homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Israeli officials continue to speak of moving Gazans into what has been termed a “humanitarian city” but what former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert described as a “concentration camp”. In the same interview Olmert called decision to move Gazans into the camp as “ethnic cleansing”. All the while, the world’s leaders look on. Most are apparently content to condemn – but little action has been taken.
More Florida and Beyond
Federal Judge Wants To Know ‘Who’s Running the Show’ at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
A U.S. district judge on Monday pushed state and federal officials to provide a copy of an intergovernmental agreement showing “who’s running the show” at an Everglades immigrant-detention center, calling the situation “urgent” as at least 100 detainees have been deported amid legal wrangling over the remote facility.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, July 28, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission meets, learning all about Earth Overshoot Day, or how natural resources are eroding faster than they can be restored, an echo of the same from 10,000 years ago.
Is There Any Hope for the Internet?
As the internet has become more integrated in our daily lives, few would describe it as a place of love, compassion and cooperation. Study after study describe how social media platforms promote alienation and disconnection – in part because many algorithms reward behaviors like trolling, cyberbullying and outrage. Is the internet’s place in human history cemented as a harbinger of despair? Or is there still hope for an internet that supports collective flourishing?
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, July 27, 2025
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers State Recreation Area, Richard Beck’s new book on the war on terror at home.
The Nostalgia of Comfort Smells from Fresh-Cut Grass to Hamburgers
Triggered by sensory stimuli such as music, scents and foods, nostalgia has the power to mentally transport us back in time. This might be to important occasions, to moments of triumph and – importantly – moments revolving around close family and friends and other important people in our lives. As it turns out, this experience is good for us.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, July 26, 2025
Peps Art Walk at Beachfront Grille in Flagler Beach, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley, John Updike’s sexism and the trappings of ugliness, Bach and Francis Parkman on the Oregon Trail.
Risk and Resonance of Comparing ICE to the Gestapo
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently sparked controversy by comparing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi Germany’s notorious secret police, the Gestapo. Among other responsibilities, the Gestapo was tasked with investigating political crimes and monitoring opposition activity. It later enforced racial laws in Germany and across occupied Europe.
100 Migrants Deported from ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ So Far as Flights Ramp Up from Everglades Lock-Up
About 100 undocumented immigrants have been deported from an airstrip adjoining the detention center dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and “the cadence” of outgoing flights is increasing, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday. Speaking to reporters outside the detention complex in the Everglades, DeSantis and other state officials staunchly defended Florida’s efforts to aid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts amid litigation over the controversial site.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, July 25, 2025
The Florida Ethics Commission meets, Palm Coast Council member Ty Miller on Free For All, Acoustic Jam Circle at the Community Center In The Hammock, Ian Frazier, Casanova, Yussuf and the Great Plains.
The Marco Rubio Deep Fake Is Just the Beginning
The FBI warned in a May 15 alert about an “ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which “malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials.” The alert noted that the campaign includes “vishing” attacks. Vishing is a portmanteau of the words voice and phishing, and refers to using voice deepfakes to trick victims into giving information or money, or compromising their computer systems.
ICE Arrests in Florida of Migrants Without Criminal Records Surged 450% in June
Since the start of the second Trump administration, ICE has carried out more than 10,818 arrests in Florida, up from 3,496 in the same period last year. But in June, the largest share of arrests, 36%, were of people the federal government labeled as having no criminal history in the country, a 457% increase from June 2024.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, July 24, 2025
‘Let’s Talk Palm Coast’ Town Halls with Council Member Ty Miller, The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Model Yacht Club Races in Palm Coast’s Central Park, Israel’s genocide and its apologists.
Australia Condemns ‘Inhumane Killing’ of Palestinians as Gaza Suffering Reaches New Depths
Australia has joined 28 international partners in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a lifting of all restrictions on food and medical supplies. Gazans, including malnourished mothers denied baby formula, face impossible choices as Israel intensifies its use of starvation as a weapon of war. In Gaza, survival requires negotiating what the United Nations calls aid “death traps”.
Commentary
How QAnon Entered Mainstream Politics
Over time, what started as a baseless conspiracy on obscure platforms has migrated into the mainstream. It has influenced rhetoric and policy debates, and even reshaped the American political landscape. To some, the delay in the release of the Epstein files feels like a betrayal, or even the possibility of his wrongdoing. Others are trying to reinterpret Trump’s actions through increasingly baseless conspiracy logic.
Unlike Government Propaganda, PBS and NPR Are Generally Unbiased
Accusing the media of liberal bias has been a consistent conservative complaint since the civil rights era, when white Southerners insisted news outlets were slanting their stories against segregation. But those charges of bias rarely survive empirical scrutiny. That independence in the United States – enshrined in the press freedom clause of the First Amendment – gives journalists the ability to hold government accountable, expose abuses of power and thereby support democracy. That’s what GOP lawmakers call a liberal bias.
Why Russia Is Paying Women To Have Babies
In some parts of Russia, schoolgirls who become pregnant are being paid nearly $1,200 for giving birth and raising their babies. This new measure, introduced in the past few months across ten regions, is part of Russia’s new demographic strategy, widening the policy adopted in March 2025 which only applied to adult women. It is designed to address the dramatic decline in the country’s birthrate.