Less than 24 hours after a Flagler County School bus was rear-ended on State Road 100, another school bus was rear-ended by a pick-up truck on Pine Lakes Parkway in Palm Coast at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, sending a teacher’s aide to a local clinic. No students were on the bus.
Judge Rejects Teachers’ Challenge to Law Tying Pay and Evaluations to Student Performance
A group of teachers, backed by the Florida Education Association, contended in the challenge that the law violated constitutionally guaranteed collective-bargaining rights and that lawmakers had given too much decision-making authority to the state Board of Education.
Flagler’s Tourism Industry Takes Its Pulse, Declares Itself Healthy, and Cheers Its “Heroes”
In Flagler County, 2,600 people work in tourist businesses, which have weathered the recession and are seeing strong, sustained activity. Flagler County’s annual Hospitality Employees Recognition of Excellent Service (or H.E.R.O.E.S.) awards lunch at the Hammock Beach Resort Thursday was an occasion for the county’s tourism industry to cheer its own.
Grinding Down: U.S. Unemployment Falls to 7.5% as 165,000 Jobs Are Created
The national unemployment rate ticked down to 7.5 percent in April, from 7.6 percent in March, as the economy added 165,000 jobs, a bit more than analysts had predicted. But job-creation figures for the two previous months were revised upward, with 332,000 jobs created in February (instead of 268,000) and 138,000 in March (instead of 88,000).
Texting While Driving Ban Passes Florida Legislature, But Scott Hasn’t Said He’ll Sign It
The Senate voted 39-1 in favor of a bill (SB 52) that makes it illegal to read or type texts or emails while actually driving, though it would remain legal to do it while stopped, such as at a red light. Drivers can;t be stopped for texting, however. They can only be cited if stopped for another offense.
Pick-Up Rams Stopped School Bus on S.R. 100; Student Aboard Is Uninjured
A GMC Sierra pick-up truck rear-ended a Flagler County school bus at 5 p.m. today (May 2) in the eastbound lanes of State Road 100, slightly injuring the pick-up truck driver. An 18-year-old girl on the bus and the bus driver were uninjured.
Church-State Separation Be Damned: Bunnell Sponsors 3rd Prayer Day, Invoking “God’s City”
Bunnell marked the national Day of Prayer for the third year with its own sponsored religious event, a distinctly Christian, evangelical-like service that features commissioners and the mayor offering prayers and pastors invoking Jesus’s name and god’s law above all others.
Attempt to Rein In FPL and Progress Energy’s Ghost Construction Fees Evaporates
The changes in the nuclear cost bill establish a series of benchmarks for a utility seeking to build a nuclear power plant to follow in order to impose pre-construction fees. But the amendment also removed a provision that would have required the companies to refund money if they halted their plans.
Gov. Scott Vetoes Bill Ending Permanent Alimony After Fierce Backlash
Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a bill that would have ended permanent alimony and limited alimony payments based on income and the length of marriage, a victory for thousands of constituents who’d urged the governor to do just that.
Human Remains Found in Flagler Estates Confirmed to Be Those of Barbara Parchem
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, following a preliminary autopsy by the medical examiner, has confirmed that the remains found ion the Flagler County side of Flagler Estates Tuesday morning are those of Barbara Parchem, the 67-year-old woman who went missing from her Vermont Heights home on April 5.