The Flagler Woman’s Club honors Flagler Beach police at a pancake breakfast, and you’re invited, the Palm Coast Starlight Festival is this evening in Town Center, Darlene Love at the Flagler Auditorium for a Christmas Show.
Why is Inflation So High? 3 Questions Answered.
Consumer prices jumped 6.8% in November 2021 from a year earlier – the fastest rate of increase since 1982, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics published today. Here’s what’s driving the recent increase in inflation and how it affects consumers, companies and the economy.
Before ‘Retiring,’ Bunnell Police Chief Foster Was Severely Disciplined Over Grave Breakdown of Authority, Respect and Morale
Tom Foster, who said he retired last week, had violated city policies and general orders, according a nine-page disciplinary document signed the same day he retired, including violations of rules of conduct, supervisory rules, disrespect, the spreading of false rumors and criticism of public officials, while the police department had become a fiefdom of fear under Foster and Sgt. Matt Mortimer.
Flagler Beach Commission Signs Off on Revolving Loan of Up to $17.6 Million to Rebuild Sewer Plant
The Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday unanimously approved authorization for a loan of up to $17.6 million to rebuild and expand the city’s sewer plant, a more-than $2 million difference from when the commission was first presented figures in June, when it voted to borrow up to $15 million. In 2019, the cost of the project had been pegged at $11 million.
DeSantis Pitches Election-Year Budget Just Shy of $100 Billion, With Big Subsidies from Federal Aid
Saying that Florida is “clicking on all cylinders,” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday proposed an election-year $99.7 billion budget that would funnel money to education, the environment and law-enforcement officers while giving motorists a temporary gas-tax break thanks to federal subsidies.
Embry-Riddle Student John Hagins, 19, Arrested on Allegations of Plan to Shoot Up University
An Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University student was arrested early Thursday for allegedly plotting a shooting on the campus, the Daytona Beach Police Department said. Police arrested 19-year-old John Hagins after receiving “a concerning tip” from other students.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, December 10, 2021
Michael Waltz on WNZF’s Free For All Fridays, the Choral Arts Society’s Christmas concert, Mortimer Zuckerman decries American education, in 1988, “All Things Christmas” Sale at Santa Maria Del Mar.
How the Car and Oil Industry Knowingly Poisoned You for 100 Years
When GM began selling leaded gasoline, public health experts questioned its decision. One called lead a serious menace to public health, and another called concentrated tetraethyl lead a “malicious and creeping” poison. It made no difference.
With $40,000 Award, FPC’s Dylan Long, 18, Is Flagler County’s First Leader For Life Fellow
Dylan Long, a future computer scientist in the International Baccalaureate program, is the Flagler County school district’s first-ever winner of the $40,000 Leader for Life grant award from the Delray Beach-based Asofsky Foundation. The award is administered through the state’s and the county’s Take Stock in Children program by way of the Flagler Education Foundation.
Democrats’ Failure to Protect Abortion Rights
Conservative Republicans started prioritizing a high court takeover, with the explicit aim of ending legal abortion, more than 40 years ago. Democrats and progressives stuck their heads in the sand. Women, denied autonomy over their own bodies, are poised to pay the biggest price.
How a Flagler Beach Detective Cracked the Case of a Couple’s Spree of Armed Robberies Across East Coast
Pairing evidence from a burglary on South Central Avenue in Flagler Beach with the recovery of a stolen truck in the city, Flagler Beach detective Rosanna Vinci’s investigation led to the arrests of Jesann L. Willis, 35, and Rickley Joshua Senning, 32, in Washington., D.C., last week. They were wanted for armed burglaries in several states.
SAT Re-Takes Offered at No Cost Following School Board’s Janet McDonald’s Interference At Matanzas High School
The College Board, the organization that offers college-entrance exams such as the SAT and Advanced Placement tests, is offering SAT retakes at no costs to students who took the test at Matanzas High School on Dec. 4. The re-take offer, which is voluntary, is a direct consequence of Flagler County School Board member Janet McDonald interfering with the process last Saturday, when she went to the school and urged students not to wear protective face masks, in direct violation of College Board rules.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, December 9, 2021
Flagler Beach city commissioners are expected to approve submitting a $17.6 million loan application to the State Revolving Fund to fund sewer plant repairs. The All Things Christmas sale at Santa Maria del Mar in Flagler Beach continues.
‘It’s Stressful to Kill Somebody’: Health Workers Behind Assisted Dying
New legislation in Britain laying groundwork for legalizing assisted dying are part of a wider international movement towards formally allowing some form of assisted dying. That means addressing how and whether healthcare professionals will be involved in facilitating assisted dying, and the effect this may have on them.
Voters Approved Nonpartisan School Boards 23 Years Ago. GOP Lawmakers Want That to Change.
Florida’s local school boards, which oversee public school districts in 67 counties, are currently nonpartisan. That goes back more than 20 years, following a ballot initiative in November 1998. At that time, voters approved allowing school board members to be nonpartisan. GOP lawmakers are pushing to overhaul those boards by requiring elections to be partisan.
The GOP Normalizes Islamophobia
Rep. Lauren Boebert insinuating that Rep. Ilhan Omar could have been a suicide bomber isn’t just about an unhinged Congresswoman stoking the extreme fringe of the Republican base. The real issue is the ongoing normalization of Islamophobia in America, which has soared to frightening new heights since 9/11.
Covid Cases Creeping Back Up, Hospitalizations and 1st Death in Weeks Has Flagler Health Officials on Guard
Concerning indicators in Flagler County point to covid case counts creeping back up slowly but steadily, a tripling of covid hospitalizations in the last week, to 10, and the first covid-related death in weeks, to a 76-year-old man, bringing the total number of covid deaths in Flagler to a staggering 277 since the first death was reported in April 2020.
Palm Coast Woman, 39, Accused of Attempting to Set Ex-Boyfriend on Fire and Burn His Home Down
Melanie Botts, 39, of Palm Coast, faces a first-degree felony arson charge in the alleged attempt to burn her ex-boyfriend’s B-Section home down and set him on fire. The incident is the latest in a series of domestic violence incident involving the couple, and the latest in a list of charges Botts has faced, and been convicted on, since 2016.
Reflecting Dismal Results of Its Own Search, Palm Coast Council Renews Quest for Manager with Independent Firm
Following Nick Klufas’s lead, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday opted to hire a search firm to conduct a new search for city manager. It will interview candidates resulting from that search in addition to the three remaining on the short-list from its own search, among them former Sheriff Jim Manfre.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, December 8, 2021
“Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories,” at the Main Library in St. Augustine this morning, the Flagler Tiger Bay Club’s guest this evening is CNN’s Alice Stewart.
Sondheim’s ‘Assassins’ and the Bizarre Role of Guns in American Culture
Stephen Sondheim, who died on Nov. 26, 2021, had a knack for using stage and song to explore America’s dark, violent underbelly. “Assassins” is a collective biography of the historical figures who attempted to assassinate U.S. presidents, four of them successfully.
Typical FPL Bill Will Rise $7 a Month as Panel Approves Increase Due to Fuel Costs
FPL and other utilities, which are heavily dependent on natural gas, have grappled in recent months with higher fuel costs. Utilities pass along such costs to consumers and are not supposed to earn profits on them.
‘Equity’ Returns to Flagler Schools’ Goals After Dubious Exile. Just Call It ‘Educational Equity.’
After a brief, confusing exile for reasons never entirely explained, Equity is back in the Flagler County school district’s proposed strategic plan, or core goals. The school board at a workshop today agreed to restore the word, which had been replaced with “student support,” and set aside the controversy that had surrounded the word’s use only recently.
Banning LGBTQ-Themed Books From Flagler Schools Is an Attempt to Erase Students Like Me. We Will Not Stand For It.
Linking the vile and threatening language his student-led demonstration drew outside a school board meeting in November to the superintendent’s decision to ban an LGBTQ-themed book for now, Jack Petocz, a student at Flagler Palm Coast High School, calls on the superintendent to reconsider the decision and consider its consequences.
Short-Listed for Chief 9 Years Ago, Brannon Snead Is Bunnell’s Interim Police Chief as Tom Foster Retires Suddenly
Brannon Snead, who spent the majority of his career with the Florida Highway Patrol, was named Bunnell’s interim police chief today as Tom Foster, who’d led the police department for eight years, retired. Snead said his priority is to get the Bunnell department accredited.
Superintendent’s Decision: ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ Banned for Now, Other Books Return to Library Shelves
Following the challenges of four titles by Flagler School Board member Jill Woolbright and a review by a book-challenge committee, the superintendent decided to return three of the four titles to their shelves but withhold a fourth pending new protocols that could still provide access.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, December 7, 2021
A neighborhood meeting regarding the development of Eagle Lake on Old Kings Road is scheduled for this evening. The School Board meets in workshop and will discuss “equity.” The Palm Coast City Council meets. Jack Kemp when he called American football capitalism and European soccer socialism.
Modern-Day Culture Wars Are Playing Out on Historic Tours of Slaveholding Plantations
Discussions during plantation tours among visitors can often turn into visceral debates over whose history should be told or ignored. These tensions are part of an ever-growing work of criticism directed at sites that continue to omit the history of the enslaved community. Of the 600 plantations scattered throughout the South, only one, the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, focuses entirely on the experiences of the enslaved.
Intoxicated Man Arrested for Child Neglect at Flagler Beach Bar After Refusing Numerous and Insistent Offers of a Ride
A 34-year-old man was repeatedly given the opportunity by a cop–Flagler Beach Police officer Evan Scherr–to be driven home by a rideshare service, a taxi or a friend, warned that if he were to drive himself home he’d be endangering himself, his young daughter and others, and was arrested. The State Attorney’s Office dropped the charge.
Boxed in Between Flagler School Board and Builders, County Corrects the Record on Impact Fees
The Flagler County administration issued a tightly argued and at times caustic memo that draws a line between facts and polemics and between legal and speculative arguments in the ongoing debate over school impact fees,. While it corrects the school district in no uncertain terms on several points of law–or math–it also comes close to ridiculing the Flagler Home Builders Association’s arguments as simplistic. It also appears to forge a way out of the impasse for the County Commission.
Violating Facilities and College Board Agreements, School Board’s McDonald Peddles More Masking Falsehoods at SAT Testing Site
Flagler County School Board member Janet McDonald stood guard at a Matanzas High School SAT testing site Saturday, where she had no jurisdiction and was not authorized to be, countering College Board requirements that students must wear masks while testing. The College Board is investigating.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, December 6, 2021
Flagler County commissioners are set to approve a new, expanded agreement with the East Flagler Mosquito Control District and approve their own new schedule of impact fees.
CNN’s Cuomo Ethics Problems
How CNN’s Chris Cuomo avoid conflicts of interest while pitching softball questions to his brother during the pandemic, much less by providing behind-the-scenes advice on how to deal with the sexual harassment scandal?
Divided Federal Court Denies DeSantis Request for Injunction in Health Care Vaccination Fight
Sunday’s decision, however, did not mean the Biden administration can move forward with the health-care worker vaccination requirement Monday, as originally planned. That is because a Louisiana federal judge last week issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the Biden administration rule.
Liberals Must See Past the No-Exit Calvinism of Critical Race Theory
Reactionaries have effectively fabricated a crisis over critical race theory. But on its own terms, CRT can be problematic. It rests on a deterministic view of human beings that should make anyone who believes in individual freedom uncomfortable. Liberals have yet to grasp that reactionary anger has a point, though CRT can still show the way out.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, December 5, 2021
Craig Flagler Palms’s 18th annual Candlelight Service of Remembrance, Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit”, Holiday Concert, Stetson University Concert Band, U.S. Sen. Henry Kuchel, R-Calif., decries self-styled “I am a better American than you are” organizations.
‘Schitt’s Creek’ Holiday Special: Johnny’s Menorah, Still Lit in Diaspora
“Merry Christmas, Johnny Rose” demonstrates how the omnipresence of Christmas has offered American Jews a variety of non-exclusive options for handling the holiday season: Ignore or distance themselves from Christmas, embrace (at least) its more secular aspects and bond with other non-Christian groups who may also feel like outsiders.
Flagler Beach’s Christmas Parade Lights Up in Fiery End Amid Holiday Throngs. No One Hurt.
A 1930s Jaguar replica caught fire at Flagler Beach’s Holiday Parade, ending the festivities three quarters of the way through. No one was hurt as firefighters, some of them who’d been part of the parade, jumped into the fray and quickly controlled the scene.
Four More Children Dead, and a Nation Shrugs. Again.
After every one of these shootings, we ask ourselves: How could this happen again? It is our national shame that we have become as accepting of it as we have. Lawmakers who refuse to act should be required to personally explain their inaction to the families of the dead. It is hard to see any other way for that cold-hearted resistance to crumble.
With Bells, Santa and Starry Nights, First Friday Returns in Flagler Beach After Nearly 2-Year Absence
First Friday returned in Flagler Beach Friday evening for the first time since the Covid pandemic sent the monthly festival on hiatus in the spring of 2020. Friday’s return event coincided with the second-year edition of the launch of Starry Nights, the city’s newest addition to its Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan and Christmas celebrations as the Flagler Beach pier, many other city landmarks, businesses and homes light up in unison.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, December 4, 2021
Flagler Beach’s Holiday Parade is back, the Creative Bazaar is in Town Center, City Repertory Theatre stages Noel Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit,’ the Jacksonville Symphony performs Mozart’s Dream, and in a Bob Cuff special, a codfish theft case from Old Bailey.
Plastics Trashing Oceans Have Their Biggest Source in US
On a per capita basis, the U.S. produces an order of magnitude more plastic waste than China – a nation often vilified over pollution-related issues.And only a small fraction of plastic in U.S. household waste streams is recycled.
UF Board Chairman Mori Hosseini Blasts Professors Testifying Against New Election Law
During a meeting Friday, UF Board of Trustees chairman Mori Hosseini led the charge in sharply criticizing the professors and rallying around university President Kent Fuchs, though Hosseini appeared to misunderstand the scope of professors’ academic freedom.
Matanzas High School Student Who Assaulted Teacher Is Found Incompetent to Stand Trial
An 18-year-old student in a Matanzas High School class class for behaviorally challenged students, facing a felony charge after assaulting a teacher, was found incompetent to stand trial–and not qualified to be sent to a state psychiatric hospital while awaiting a return to competency.
Boat Parade Honors Memory of Jon Netts, Former Mayor and Intrepid Boater
The 2021 Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade scheduled for Dec. 18 is dedicated to the memory of Jon Netts, former Palm Coast mayor, intrepid boater and cheerleader of all things Christmas.
Judy Blume Among 20 Writers Exploring Depictions of Desire at Annual Key West Literary Seminar
More than 20 leading American and international writers are to explore literary depictions of desire, from the profound to the profane, during the 39th annual Key West Literary Seminar. The acclaimed gathering for literature fans is set for Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 6-9.
Erin Vickers, Serving Life in Prison in Ghastly Case, Loses Latest Attempt to Lower Punishment
Erin Vickers is serving life in prison on numerous counts involving the rapes, video recordings and transmissions of the acts, which involved her then-1-year-old daughter. She argued today that her lawyer was deficient. She lost.
In Latest Salvo Against Biden, DeSantis Seeks to Revive ‘Florida State Guard’
The proposal was fully in keeping with DeSantis’ ongoing sparring with President Joe Biden over border policies, the response to Covid, even a suggestion that the FBI investigate threats of violence to school board members trying to enforce mandatory masking by schoolchildren.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday December 3, 2021
First Friday is back in Flagler Beach, Noel Coward at CRT, A busy day starting hearings in court featuring perennials suspects or convicts, a Christmas sale at Santa Maria del Mar, Mozart’s Dream at the Jacksonville Symphony.
Committee Reviewing Books 2 Board Members Want Banned Completes Its Work as District Sounds Out Librarians
The findings of a committee judging the appropriateness of four books for school libraries are expected imminently, as new book challenges have been filed and the Flagler district’s eight librarians were interviewed by district staff about their practices.