Today is Election Day, or the final day of voting in what, thanks to a handful of candidates, has been one of the more sordid primaries in Flagler County history. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Unlike during early voting, you are required to vote at your assigned precinct.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, August 23, 2022
Election day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Coffee with Kimberli Halliday, the Kwentell Moultrie trial’s second day, the end of Brian Stelter, The Road to Wigan Pier’s answer to J.D. Vance.
Pete Young Resigns the Bunnell Commission Seat to Which He Was Appointed 2 Weeks Ago
Two weeks after the Bunnell City Commission appointed Pete Young, a former FHP investigator, to serve until next March in the seat vacated by Bob Barnes, Young resigned without serving a day. He’d discovered that his retirement rules kept him from serving.
Obesity Is Not All About Sugar: Too Much Salt, Not Enough Water
Relatively little is said about two significant pieces of the very complex obesity puzzle: lack of hydration and excessive salt intake. Both are known to contribute to obesity.
Federal Ruling Clears Way for Lawsuit Against School Officer Who Attacked Student
A panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district judge’s ruling that former Officer Mario Badia was entitled to immunity from allegations of excessive force and battery. The panel upheld immunity for Badia on a claim of false arrest.
CANCELED: Marineland Mayor and Aquaponics Entrepreneur Angela TenBroeck Speaks at AACS Water Exhibit
Angela TenBroeck, the mayor of Marineland, will present Sustainable Farming with Small Farmers on Tuesday, August 23, at the African American Cultural Society in Palm Coast from 6 to 10 p.m. as part of the museum’s Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition, “Water|Ways.”
Dune Reconstruction Project Is Set for Next June Even as 1 Property Owner Holds Out
Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Project Manager Jason Harrah told the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday evening that the now two-decade-old plan to rebuild 2.6 miles of beach south of the pier is set to begin in June.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, August 22, 2022
The Bunnell commission considers a 100-acre rezoning to accommodate a development of shops and apartments near Commerce Boulevard, the Kwentell Moultrie re-trail on a rape charge begins, American journalism in the nefarious age of Trump.
The Mediterranean’s Record Sea Temperatures Could Devastate Marine Life
The searing temperatures seen around the Mediterranean this year are indicative of rising global temperatures. Marine life is increasingly threatened. Marine heatwaves were found to be responsible for the loss of up to 80% of the population of some Mediterranean species between 2015 and 2019.
Latest Lawsuit Against Obamacare Could End Free Preventive Healthcare for 150 Million Americans
More than 150 million Americans now have access to scores of preventive health measures at no cost, sparing many from illness and catching diseases early for others. They no longer will, if the latest GOP-backed effort to undo Obamacare is successful.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, August 21, 2022
Grace Community Food Pantry. PEN America released a report on educational gag orders in which Florida figures more prominently than any other state.
The Fun Side of Pessimism
Happiness has evolved into an industry. That’s created the social expectation that we should all aspire to happiness. But this can be an obstacle to happiness. This is why if we actually want to live better lives, pessimism is the philosophical system that can help us achieve it.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, August 20, 2022
Today is the last day of early voting, the Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Is Our Ethos of the American Independent Spirit Hurting Us? On the fragility of Salman Rushdie.
College Students Are Increasingly Identifying Beyond ‘She’ and ‘He’
More than 3% of incoming college students use a different set of pronouns than “he” or “she.” It is indicative of a growing number of young people who identify outside of a gender binary – that is, they do not identify as female or male.
The Passion of The Woolbright
Enraptured in the language of white Christian nationalists, Jill Woolbright, the Flagler County School Board member, has turned her campaign for re-election into a crusade against her own, to eradicate “evil spirits” and clean house at the district of people who don’t look or pray like her, or share her pathological sexual obsessions. Academics can wait.
10,000 Square Foot Splash Pad’s Surface at Holland Park Will be Torn Up In Search for Source of Flaws
Palm Coast is attempting to reverse-engineer the problem that led to the $5.1 million splash park’s fatal malfunction, forcing it to shut down a year ago after being opened only in late spring of 2021, and for a few weeks of that summer.
ThemToo: ‘Men Painting Women’ Treads Political Minefield at Art League of Daytona Beach
The curator of the exhibit, opening at the Art League of Daytona Beach Saturday with works from Palm Coast artist Weldon Ryan and four others, is aware that “Men Painting Women” may be seen by some as politically incorrect these days. But the exhibition stems from both sublime art history and simple serendipity among his circle of friends.
Metronet’s Bill Gilliam Will Head Palm Coast and Florida Markets
Metronet, the nation’s largest independently owned, 100 percent fiber optic provider, announced that Bill Gilliam will serve as the first Vice President and General Manager of Metronet’s Florida Market.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, August 19, 2022
Next-to-last day of early voting for the Aug. 23 primary, Boutique at Emmanuel’s Closet Sidewalk Fundraiser, Celebrate National Senior Citizens Day at the Library, Willie Nelson ’till the day I die.
Federal Judge Blocks Parts of DeSantis Anti-‘Woke’ Law Muzzling Race-Sensitivity Training at Work
The employment-related part of the law lists eight race-related concepts and says that a required training program or other activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.”
The Joyous Revelations of Gay Rodeos in Rural America
Queer people have always belonged in rural places and have always participated in rural traditions. The unashamed presentation of queer, rural rodeoers refutes the lazy dichotomy of the urban queer progressive versus the rural homophobic conservative.
Applications are Open for the Palm Coast Cultural Arts Grant
As funding is expected to become available for Fiscal Year 2023 for events or programs taking place between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2023, the City is looking for grantees.
DeSantis Touts Arrests of 0.000001% of Voters for Fraud in 2020
The general election drew 11.145 million voters, the primary drew 3.896 million, for a combined total of 15.041 million votes cast. The 17 arrests means that Florida had an astoundingly low rate of fraud of precisely 0.000001%.
Do Some Flagler Churches Lack Faith?
Over the weekend pastors at at least two Flagler County churches, New Way Church and Parkview Church, explicitly endorsed three candidates for the Flagler County School Board. Rabbi Merrill Shapiro questions why they have broken their contract with the federal government.
Flagler Beach Commission Gives City Manager William Whitson A Mediocre Evaluation, and a Few Pointers
As an evaluation for the chief executive of a local government, that of City Manager William Whitson, his first since his arrival here in May 2021, is not a triumph. It evokes words like middling, mediocre, passable, decent, tolerable. In the exact words of the evaluations themselves, they average out to the low end of “Meets the Job Standards.”
False Active Shooter Alarm Triggers Massive Response at Matanzas High School
Matanzas High School went into lockdown, deputies swarmed toward the school, as did rescues, shortly after 11 this morning when a signal intended to alarm the school to the presence of an active shooter or assailant went off.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, August 18, 2022
More theorizing about Joe Mulins’s amazing technicolor drug bust on Drug Court day before Circuit Judge Perkins, a few words from Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses.
Easy Access to Guns Contributes to America’s Youth Suicide Problem
Between 2011 and 2020, the most recent decade for which data is available, 14,763 children ages 5-17 died by suicide in the U.S. – a rate of approximately four deaths every day. Over 40% of these suicides involved a firearm. The great majority of guns involved in youth suicides come from the victim’s home or the home of a relative.
DSC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Classroom/Lab Building on Deltona Campus
The facility, scheduled to open in Spring 2024, will be home to the college’s nursing, sonography and high-tech CNC Machining programs, supporting up to 120 nursing students, up to 40 CNC training students and up to 100 students in a new sonography program.
In Latest Attack on Students, All LGBTQ Support Documents Are Ordered Out of Florida Schools
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. on Wednesday gave his staff the go-ahead to “pull” LGBTQ support documents at all school districts, after a State Board of Education member asserted that some could violate a controversial new law.
Flagler Beach Rotary Will Host Wellness Retreat to Benefit Project Share
The Rotary Club of Flagler Beach is pleased to announce that the club will host a Good Health for Life Wellness Retreat to benefit Project Share on Saturday, October 15, 2022, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Rotary’s Project Share, now in its 24th year, provides Christmas toys for more than 1000 children annually.
School Board’s Massaro and Conklin Denounce Woolbright ‘s ‘Disgusting and Despicable’ Zealotry
At the end of Tuesday’s Flagler County School Board meeting, Cheryl Massaro and Colleen Conklin, without naming her, sharply denounced fellow-Board member Jill Woolbright characterizing them and district staffers as “evil” in one of three campaign speeches she delivered at churches last weekend.
Arming School Staffers on Flagler’s Campuses Raises Questions of Cost, Training and Numbers
The Flagler County School Board is considering whether to add armed civilians, possibly school staffers, on school campuses, but a workshop on the issue raised almost as many questions as it answered, with numerous issues still undecided–if the board were to go that way. That, too, is uncertain for now.
Goodwill Opens Larger Palm Coast Store, Expecting $35,000 in Business Per Week
Goodwill’s 16,000 square foot store on Palm Coast Parkway is about 5,000 square feet larger than the previous location. It employs 28 people, is expected to cater to 280 to 300 customers a day and generate $35,000 in sales per week.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Goodwill opens its newest retail store, the Palm Coast Planning Board takes on three self-storage facilities, Flagler Undercover, a few words about hands, and of course Django Reinhardt.
The GOP’s Embrace of Violent Message-Laundering
Just as money laundering enabled mobsters to disguise their ill-gotten gain as the profits of a legitimate business, message laundering presents dishonest and dangerous speech as credible, innocuous or persuasive.
School Board’s Jill Woolbright Says She’s in ‘Satanic Warfare’ Against ‘Evil Spirits’ at School District
Flagler County School Board incumbent Jill Woolbright, who is in a non-partisan race against Sally Hunt to be decided in the Aug. 23 election, says God placed her on the school board, that she is involved in “satanic warfare,” and that, in a reference to others on the school board and at the district office, she has “felt the evil spirits around me.”
DeSantis Would Expand Teaching Corps to Retired Cops and Firefighters
DeSantis teased legislation aimed at recruiting to teaching jobs retired law-enforcement officers, emergency-medical technicians, paramedics and firefighters who have bachelor’s degrees. They’d be eligible for $4,000 bonuses and would not have to pay for the state teacher-certification exam.
Woman Who Started Small Fire Outside Larry’s Guns Was Seeking Police Attention
Bunnell police is investigating an incident that took place early Tuesday morning in front of Larry’s Guns, the store near the corner of State Road 100 and U.S. 1, as a woman was burning belongings in a small fire she had started. She told police she wanted to catch their attention because her car had broken down.
Sheriff and County Administrator Duel Over Policing Budget Before Commissioners Nod Staly’s Way
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and County Administrator Heidi Petito dueled in front of a standing-room-only meeting room Monday night over the sheriff’s claim that the county was underfunding him, and the county’s counter that it has increased the sheriff’s budget by 48 percent since 2018, not including spending on facilities like the new Sheriff’s Operations center. But in the end, Petito’s bosses showed readiness to go Staly’s way.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, August 16, 2022
The Palm Coast City Council considers Ryan’s Landing, the Flagler County School Board holds a pair of meetings, Food Truck Tuesday, the last day of Elvis Presley.
Why It’s Important to Be Honest About It: Monkey Pox Affects Mainly Gay and Bisexual Men
It’s important that people know that sexual and gender minority men are the primary victims of this monkeypox outbreak. This knowledge will help us end the outbreak before it bridges into other communities.
Exorbitant Costs to Save Beaches, and Doing Nothing is Not an Option, Flagler Commissioners Are Told
The county commission this morning heard the results of the $250,000 beach management study it commissioned last year, and was left with two certainties: doing nothing is not an option. Starting to do something is unaffordable for now, even with six options presented by Olsen Associates, the Tampa-based consultants the county hired for the study.
Joe Mullins Says Drug Dealer Sought to Sell Him Cocaine, So He Turned Him In. The Public Sneers.
Mullins says someone randomly contacted by by text and offered to sell him an “eight-ball” of cocaine. Mullins reported the attempt, leading to the arrest of the 18-year-old alleged dealer, a glowing release issued by the Sheriff’s Office, and a cascade of sneering, doubting reactions about Mullins from the public.
Sheriff Plans Show of Force, and Threatens Appeal to Governor, Over Budget Stalemate With County
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and the Police Benevolent Association, the union representing deputies, are organizing a show of force that would pack the county commission’s chambers this evening in hopes of swaying commissioners to give the sheriff more than the additional $4.45 million they are so far providing for next year’s budget.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, August 15, 2022
The County Commission talks beach calamities and repairs, the sheriff asks for a raise for his troops, a candidate forum at Cattleman’s Hall, the coming California Megastorm, how Bassam al-Sheikh Hussain became a rare Lebanese hero.
How Seized Documents Show Trump May Have Violated Espionage Act
The FBI recovered confidential and top-secret items from Mar-a-Lago during its Aug. 8, 2022, search of the estate – pointing to former President Donald Trump’s potential violation of several federal laws. The unsealed documents seem to indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice believes Trump may have violated the Espionage Act, as well as other criminal laws relating to the handling of public records.
Mothers Behind Book-Banning Campaign Claim Their First Amendment Rights Are Being Violated
The self-dubbed Mama Bears filed a federal lawsuit alleging that by not being allowed to read sexually explicit material aloud at school board meetings, they themselves are being censored.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, August 14, 2022
Flagler’s LGBTQ youths rally for school board candidates, Grace Community Food Pantry, reflections on the stabbing of Salman Rushdie and the shock of the crime’s increasing ordinariness.
Behind Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’
The book, “Satanic Verses,” goes to the heart of Muslim religious beliefs when Rushdie, in dream sequences, challenges and sometimes seems to mock some of its most sensitive tenets.