Only 8.4% of the world’s population lived in a fully functioning democracy, this shift is being referred to as a “democratic recession”. The gradual erosion of democratic values and freedoms and the slide towards authoritarianism is opening up more space for China to dominate the global agenda with its values.
Flagler Schools’ Budget Is Millions Short from 10 Years Ago as District Is Forced to Shift Tax Dollars to Private Schools
Historically lower taxes it has no control over, a state funding formula that cheats it of 5 cents of every dollar it sends the state, and a state-required $6 million transfer to pay for private education vouchers have again left the Flagler County school district scrambling to balance its budget. But it’s been an annual erosion of local dollars, entirely at the expense of public education.
Daytona Lagoon Offers Free Waterpark Admission to First Responders Sept. 10-11
Daytona Lagoon welcomes all active firefighters, lifeguards, emergency medical service (EMS) professionals and law enforcement to a free day at the water park. Daytona Lagoon’s Waterpark will be open from Noon to 6:00 p.m. on both Saturday, September 10 and Sunday, September 11.
Palm Coast Will Spend $6.2 Million to Buy 69 Vehicles and Heavy Equipment Items, Including 3 Fire Trucks
In one of the largest such expenditures in the city’s history at one time, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday gave its approval for spending $6.2 million to buy 69 vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment for various departments, including three fire trucks.
DeSantis Press Conference: Bash Biden. Praise Self. Bash Biden. Campaign Shrilly. Bash Biden.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “news conferences” are heavy on campaigning and Biden-bashing and light on actual policy announcements. The governor packs these events with supporters who cheer him plus local officials and administration figures who lavish him with praise.
Less Than Half of Flagler’s 10th Graders Pass English, Worst in 11 Years; FPC Down 9 Points, to 45%
On the heels of a year and a half of a dysfunctional school board riven by ideological battles, only 49 percent of Flagler County’s 10th graders last school year were reading English at grade level, the lowest proportion in over a decade and a decline from 53 percent in 2021. Flagler’s 10th grade reading scores have declined every year since 2018.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, August 31, 2022
The Flagler Youth Orchestra holds its open house at the Flagler Auditorium for all interested participants at 5:30 p.m., John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” on its 76th anniversary, and how this is not your life.
The Problem With Virtue Signaling
Virtue signalers are often inclined to pat themselves on the back for their moral insight and courage. This refuge doesn’t work: talking about virtue is useful, but real virtue requires work. It is far more demanding and is far harder to fake.
Woody’s BBQ Now Serving Ketchup with a Cause, Benefiting Families of Fallen and Wounded Soldiers
Woody’s Bar-B-Q is proud to announce that it is teaming up with Red Gold. Through Red Gold’s national “Ketchup with a Cause” partnership with the Folds of Honor Foundation, with every case of Red Gold ketchup Woody’s Bar-B-Q purchases to stock its restaurants, the Jacksonville, Fl.-based franchise will be doing its part to benefit the families of fallen and wounded soldiers.
County Attorney Al Hadeed Addresses Florida Tax Collectors Association on Short-Term Rentals
Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed last week made a presentation about the proposed state preemption for advertising platforms for short-term rentals as part of the education forum for the Florida Tax Collectors Association. Tax collectors are responsible for collecting Tourist Development Tax – also referred to as resort tax, bed tax, local option tourist tax, or transient rental tax.
Florida Sets Limits on How Much Medical Pot Doctors May Order for Patients
The highly anticipated emergency rule sets a 70-day total supply limit of 24,500 mg of THC for non-smokable marijuana and establishes dosage caps for different routes of administration such as edibles, inhalation and tinctures.
Police Lock Down Bridgehaven Drive in Standoff With Suicidal Man
A law enforcement situation involving a person who’d barricaded himself on Bridgehaven Drive this afternoon led the Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies to close off streets in that neighborhood and divert a school bus from making its usual run and dropping off elementary age students at their regular bus stops.
On the Run from Charges for 2 DUI Crash Deaths, Randall Howard, 46, Is Arrested at Econo Lodge
Howard 46, originally from Gaston, S.C., was staying at the Econo Lodge on Kingswood Drive in Palm Coast., wanted on warrants stemming from the death of two people who were in his car when he crashed, allegedly high on meth.
Between Garfield and Reagan, Palm Coast OK’s 15% Tax Increase, Claiming It for Good of Future Residents
A 4-1 majority of the city council agreed to raise property taxes 15 percent for next year’s budget despite the highest year-over-year tax revenue increase in 16 years and the strongest growth in a decade and a half, all while claiming that the tax increase was necessary in order to lower taxes for a future generation. Mayor David Alfin bookended his argument with the peculiar evocation of Ronald Reagan and Garfield, the lazy and fat cartoon character, not the assassinated 20th president.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, August 30, 2022
The Palm Coast City Council get a presentation on the final $249 million budget proposal for 2022-23, the National Hurricane Center keeps an eye on a potential hurricane in the Atlantic, the Hellespont Swim.
Federal Judge Urged to Halt Law Muzzling Instruction on Gender and Sexual Orientation
The 26-page motion contends that the law, passed this year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, “was enacted with the purpose to discriminate and has the effect of discriminating against LGBTQ+ students and those with LGBTQ+ family members.”
The Greenland Ice Sheet Is Losing Ice Faster Than Forecast
Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate.
Flagler Sheriff’s Cpl. Rob Myers, Who’d Been Drinking and Driving, Demoted Following Heated Stop
Flagler County Sheriff’s Cpl. Rob Myers, a nine-year veteran of the agency, was demoted to deputy and placed on 18 months’ internal probation following an internal investigation that found he had been drinking and driving and drove alarmingly close to a deputy who was conducting an unrelated traffic stop. He was only given a warning at the traffic stop, and had a ride arranged for him to get him home.
Fundraiser Gets Handyman and Everywhere Cyclist Frank Diaz, 79, New Bike 2 Weeks After Crash
Two weeks ago Francisco “Frank” Diaz was thrown off his bike, injured and hospitalized after an SR100 crash with a car that totaled the bike. Sheriff Rick Staly had responded to the call at the time, and was instrumental in a fundraiser by The Bike Man non-profit that raised $2,300, paid for a brand new bike and left some money over for Diaz to pay his medical bills and a $166 traffic ticket.
4 Years Later, Suspected Armed Robber of Kay Jewelers Near Target Is Booked at Flagler Jail
After spending the last four years incarcerated in Georgia, Tyrone Walker, now 29, was booked at the Flagler County jail on a first-degree felony robbery with a weapon charge dating back from 2018, when he is accused of robbing Kay Jewelers in Palm Coast’s Target shopping center. An accomplice remains at large.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, August 29, 2022
The school board discusses its service union workers’ contract in a closed session, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’s vapidity of values, Michael Jackson’s thriller birthday.
Violent Conspiracies and the Convictions of Michigan Governor’s Kidnapping Plotters
The verdict in the trial of co-defendants Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. comes after a previous trial ended in acquittals for two other co-defendants, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, and mistrials for Fox and Croft. Their two other alleged accomplices, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecutions against the others.
Marco Rubio and Rick Scott Fight Phantom Commies As the World Burns
Our two upper-chamber gents aren’t merely lobbing charges of Banana Republicanism at Democrats. At the recent CPAC meeting, Rick Scott gave a rootin’ tootin’ slap-your-dog-and-arrest-your-undocumented-mama speech warning, “The militant Left has now taken control of our economy, our culture, and our country.”
In America, Cancer Patients Endure Crushing Debt on Top of Disease
Medical breakthroughs mean cancer is less likely to kill, but survival can come at an extraordinary cost as patients drain savings, declare bankruptcy, or lose their homes, an investigation finds.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, August 28, 2022
Grace Community Food Pantry, composer Peter Boyer’s Fanfare for Tomorrow, when Orwell watched a man hanged, a few more days before the open house of the Flagler Youth Orchestra.
NASA’s Artemis 1 Moon Launch and Routine Exploration Ahead
NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is poised to take a key step toward returning humans to the Moon after a half-century hiatus. The mission, scheduled to launch on Monday, Aug. 29, 2022, is a shakedown cruise – sans crew – for NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion Crew Capsule. Here’s the significance of the mission.
Ex-Public Defender Matt Shirk of Jacksonville Suspended for Year
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday approved suspending former Jacksonville-area Public Defender Matt Shirk from practicing law for one year. Justices unanimously approved a suspension recommended in April by appointed referee Kenneth James Janesk.
Crist Adds Teachers Union Leader Karla Hernandez to Gubernatorial Ticket
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist on Saturday formally announced Karla Hernandez, the teachers union president in Florida’s largest school district, as his running mate in the November election.
75-Year-Old Man Killed, Dive Team Searching for Another Victim at Head-On Crash on US1
A 75-year-old Deland man was killed and a dive team was called out to search for possibly another victim at the scene of head-on, wrong-way crash on U.S. 1 at Eagle Rock Road in Favoretta early this morning.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, August 27, 2022
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Gamble Jam, celebrating Theodore Dreiser and celebrating Hegel a little less, but with a nice long lecture.
Citing Grand Jury Report, DeSantis Suspends Broward School Board Members Over Parkland Massacre
The grand jury report, completed in April and released last week, said the targeted board members’ and Runcie’s “uninformed or even misinformed decisions, incompetent management and lack of meaningful oversight” resulted in cost overruns and delays in a $1 billion school-safety program approved by county voters in 2014.
How Trump’s Thefts May Have Compromised National Security
The most telling new information is that the FBI agent says that a review of Mar-a-Lago documents the government had already obtained by grand jury subpoena earlier this year were marked in a way that would clearly indicate national security was at risk.
Flagler Voters’ Message to Poison Peddlers
Flagler voters made damn sure that white nationalists, bigots and liars like Joe Mullins, Jill Woolbright and Janet McDonald had a short and embarrassing shelf life. If Flagler is solidly conservative, it remains sanely, moderately so for now, even for a one-party county with just three Democrats among 33 elected officials on six government boards.
In Re-Trial, Kwentel Moultrie Is Found Guilty of Raping a 16-Year-Old Girl and Faces Up to 30 Years
The trial of Kwentel Moultrie, 23, had hinged on whether he’d had consensual sex or raped a 16-year-old girl who’d invited him in when he was 20 at a P-Section house in Palm Coast. An April jury couldn’t reach a verdict. A jury today found him guilty at the end of a five-day trial, but it may have erred on its interpretation of law.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, August 26, 2022
The final day of Kwentrel Moultrie’s trial, a canvassing board meeting, Christopher Isherwood reflects on anti-fascism in another time and place, Julio Cortazar reflects on the meaning of Life (magazine).
Chautauqua’s Place in Free Speech and Learning
Chautauqua has never been immune from larger national tensions and sometimes failed to live up to the inclusive vision it proclaimed. But its founding values are those that Salman Rushdie’s supporters were seeking to defend when he was attacked there on Aug. 12.
Anti-Abortion Extremism Is Scaring Voters. It Should.
Our country may be divided on the issue of abortion. But when it comes down to it, most Americans believe that it’s a pregnant person’s right to decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy. That’s not only a blue-state attitude — it’s just as true in conservative states like Kansas.
Almost No Florida University Students Responded to New ‘Intellectual Freedom’ Survey
Florida’s public university students seemed reluctant to fill out a controversial survey on so-called “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” that was prompted by the Legislature, as about 8,800 of some 368,000 students bothered to submit responses.
David Weis Named President and CEO for AdventHealth Daytona Beach
AdventHealth has named David Weis president and CEO for AdventHealth Daytona Beach and the East Volusia market, effective Aug. 28. He will report to Audrey Gregory, PhD, president/CEO for the organization’s Central Florida Division – North Region.
Jevante Hamilton Guilty of Manslaughter In 1st Ever Flagler Trial on Drug Overdose Murder Charge
After deliberating three hours today, a Flagler County jury found Jevante Tyquan Hamilton guilty of manslaughter, not first degree murder, for selling the drugs that resulted in the overdose death of Timothy Davidson in August 2019.
Palm Coast’s Jonathan Rockholt Arrested on 3 Federal Charges in Jan. 6 Attack on Congress
Jonathan Rockholt, a 38-year-old Palm Coast resident who described himself as a member of the Three Percenters militia, was arrested on three federal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, where he confronted and attempted to overcome police.
Brooke Lorenzen, 20, Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for DUI Crash Causing Death of Mario Bizier, 56
Truck driver Mario Bizier’s family and friends forgave Broke Lorenzen for causing Bizier’s death on I-95 in 2020 in an emotional sentencing hearing this morning. Lorenzen was also sentenced to 12 years on probation, will no longer have the right to drive, and will have to give 100 hours of presentations to youths about the dangers of drunk driving.
Palm Coast Seeks Proposals to Replace Green Lion Cafe at Palm Harbor, Rent and Utilities at $3,000 a Month
After its falling out with the Green Lion Cafe earlier this summer, Palm Coast government this week formally launched its next step in possibly replacing the popular restaurant at Palm Harbor Golf Club with a new company.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, August 25, 2022
Brooke Anna Lorenzen is sentenced, The Kwentel Moultrie trial is in its fourth day, Meriwether Lewis reflects on his 31st year, the National park Service marks its 106th anniversary.
The Impact of Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan
The plan would offer up to US$10,000 in forgiveness for people who earn less than $125,000 – $250,000 for couples – and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Three experts explain the decision and its impact.
Beleaguered Crist Begs National Democratic Party: Don’t Abandon Us
Democrats fear needed money won’t come their way, what with concerns over Gov. Ron DeSantis’ massive campaign war chest, the GOP eclipse of Democrats in party registration, and shifts among the state’s Hispanic population toward the Republicans.
Nightmare Over
As we reflect on Flagler County’s resounding rejection of the bigotry, lies and posturing of its County Commission Chairman Joe Mullins, Steve Robinson—a board member of FlaglerLive—weighs in on FlaglerLive’s coverage of this man.
County Resists Sheriff’s Request for Additional $700,000 in Surprise 3-2 Vote, Heralding Shift
With Joe Mullins’s surprise vote providing the majority, the Flagler County Commission this afternoon resisted Sheriff Rick Staly’s request for an additional $700,000, opting instead to hope for “savings” during the coming year, either on the sheriff’s side or on the county’s side of the ledger, that could fill that gap.
6th Grade Switch to Middle School Suddenly Makes 10 Year Old Ineligible for Bus Ride, Forcing 2-Mile Walk
When the Flagler County School Board switched 6th graders to middle school starting this month, it meant the same 6th graders who would have previously been eligible for bus rides to school no longer are, creating a dilemma–and a safety concern–for the parent of a 10-year-old child in Palm Coast’s B-Section.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, August 24, 2022
Flagler Cares Help Night for all people in need, the Kwentel Moultrie trial’s third day, Fingerprinting available at the Flagler Beach Police Department, Wittgenstein’s certainty.