There’s nothing terribly bad about the July unemployment report, released this morning. There’s nothing terribly good about it, either: the economy added just 162,000 jobs, and the 7.4 percent unemployment rate is the lowest since December 2008, but improvements are at a crawl.
Sold: County Commission Votes 4-1 To Buy $1.23 Million Hospital in Bunnell for Sheriff
After some anguish, a lot of analysis and, on Thursday, a pair of meetings adding up to nearly five hours, the Flagler County Commission approved buying the old 60,000 square foot Memorial hospital, ending four years of wrangling over where, when and how to move the sheriff to a more central location.
The NSA’s Total Recall, Detroit Matters Less Than Colombia, Cutting Off 5 Million Food Stamp Recipients
The NSA’s X-Keyscore program allows electronic snooping of anyone, anywhere, any time, the GOP plan to cut off more than 5 million food stamps recipients, Fox’s embarrassing interview with Reza Aslan, and Universal’s big investments in Orlando.
James McDevitt Pleads Not Guilty in Flagler Beach Rape Allegation and Gets Public Defender
James McDevitt, the 21-year-old Palm Coast resident accused of raping a 38-year-old woman in an empty lot on South 12th Street in Flagler Beach on June 18, pleaded not guilty to the first-degree felony charge in a brief appearance before Flagler County Circuit Court Judge J. David Walsh. He was assigned assistant public defender Bill Partington.
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett Is Resigning Over Favoritism Scandal
Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is announcing his resignation today a year to the day after his predecessor, Gerard Robinson, resigned amid another controversy over school grades. The two resignations underscore the flammability of school grades resulting from high-stakes testing–a flammability opponents of such testing say belie the credibility of the testing and system.
Palm Coast Council Again Warms to City Hall Scheme That Would Snub Voter Permission
City Manager Jim Landon is proposing a refurbished $6.8 million plan that would use general fund dollars to build a new city hall without raising taxes, even though $5.8 million of that–a repayment from the Town Center taxing district–could be used to lower property taxes or build other capital projects with broader public uses. Residents had roundly rejected a similar plan in 2010 and 2011, when the building would have cost $10 million.
We’re the Most Educated Young Adults in American History, Yet Many of Us Can’t Find Work
What happens when we can’t find work and can’t pay our loans, asks Colleen Teubner. We invest about four years of our lives and up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in our education, and then spend the next decade trying to get out of ever-increasing debt.
Ethics Commission Clears Palm Coast’s Tony Capela of Corruption or Favoritism in City Work
Ex-employee Terry Geigert had made six allegations against Tony Capella, Palm Coast’s public works superintendent, charging he favored RoadTek, a friend’s company, in no-bid contracts, sold his house for cash to the company owner, and fired Geigert in retaliation for whistleblowing.
Jesse Jackson Calls Capitol Sit-In “The Selma of Our Time.” Scott Calls It an “Insult” to Floridians.
Calling Florida “an apartheid state,” Jackson spoke ahead of an overnight visit with the Dream Defenders that has staged a sit-in at Scott’s office to demand a special legislative session to consider changes to the state’s self-defense laws, initiatives to end racial profiling and an end to zero-tolerance discipline policies in schools.
Meanwhile, Back in the Trenches: Flagler Beach Firefighter Saves Kitten From Deep In a 300-Foot Drain
Tuesday evening, Morgan Walden—one of three firefighters who answered a distress call, for a kitten, at the Flagler Beach Publix on State Road 100—crawled half-way into a narrow, suffocating stormwater drain and rescued an 8-week-old kitten that had been howling in there loud enough for a Publix customer to hear it.