The Israeli government has denied international journalists access to Gaza. Its murders of Palestinian media workers fit a pattern of trying to eliminate witnesses to its heinous human rights violations. Nearly 270 journalists and media workers, the vast majority of them Palestinians, have been killed by Israel since October 7, 2023. They are not “collateral damage” — they’re being hunted.
Flagler Cares CEO Carrie Baird To Be Honored with News Service of Florida’s 2025 Above & Beyond Award
Carrie Baird, chief executive officer of Flagler Cares, is among this year’s honorees of the News Service of Florida Above & Beyond Award. The awards honor the “most influential and thought-provoking women in Florida who have demonstrated exemplary leadership in their field, combined with having made significant contributions to society.” Flagler Cares, a Palm Coast-based non-profit that just marked its 10th anniversary, connects people to benefits, direct services or resources through a “no-wrong-door” approach.
Palm Coast’s Michael Brick, 35, Killed in Collision at Crash-Prone US1 and Whiteview Parkway Intersection
Michael Brick, a 35-year-old Palm Coast business owner, was killed Friday evening when a car crashed into his motorcycle at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Whiteview Parkway. He is the fourth motorcyclist to die on Flagler County roads so far this year.
Flagler County’s and Palm Coast’s Unemployment Rates Hit 4-Year Highs, Housing Inventory at 15-Year High
Flagler County’s unemployment rate in July rose to 5 percent, from 4.8 percent the previous month, the highest jobless rate since July 2021, when it was still trending down from the Covid pandemic slowdown. Palm Coast’s unemployment rate of 4.9 percent also matches a four-year high. The housing inventory in the county–the number of houses available for sale–hit a 15-year high, according to the latest available figures.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, August 18, 2025
The Flagler County Commission meets, so does the Mosquito Control district board, the Library of America’s new volume of Hemingway, containing “A Farewell to Arms.”
‘People Are Really Good at Heart’: Anne Frank Beyond the Quote
The quote carries a universal message that good will eventually prevail. This has turned Anne’s legacy into an easily adoptable trope, serving activists and political agendas. But who, actually, was Anne Frank? And how did she differ from the “Anne Franks” that have emerged since the end of the war?
Felony Conviction for Osceola Man in Reptile Neglect Case
In November of 2023, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Captive Wildlife Investigations received a report of numerous abandoned reptiles found in an Osceola County storage unit. 41 of 111 African fat-tailed geckos were dead from neglect. The containers were filthy and none had food or water. Kelvin E. Soto, 48, pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty and will serve four years on probation.
Florida Cities and Counties Line Up to Defy New Pro-Developer State Law Known as SB 180
All over the state, local governments are pushing ahead on common-sense changes to their growth plans, wetlands protection, and impact fees. They’re doing so despite warnings from big, bad opponents that what they have in mind will violate a new pro-developer state law that limits city and county governments’ authority on new land-use or development regulations. It’s bad news for Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Legislature.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, August 17, 2025
Clay Jones on the president’s military invasion of the nation’s capital, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, the fake DC crime wave, Vicki Gray on the militarization of language.
Alaska Summit Bust, and Possibilities
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who was excluded from the Alaska summit, has maintained that Kyiv will not agree to territorial concessions. Such a move would be illegal under Ukraine’s constitution, which requires a nationwide referendum to approve changes to the country’s territorial borders.
Idi Amin’s Phony Populism
Amin was the creator of a myth that was both manifestly untrue and extraordinarily compelling: that his violent, dysfunctional regime was actually engaged in freeing people from foreign oppressors. Even his cruelest policies were framed as if they were liberatory. In August 1972, Amin announced the summary expulsion of Uganda’s Asian community. Some 50,000 people, many of whom had lived in Uganda for generations, were given a bare three months to tie up their affairs and leave the country. Amin named this the “Economic War.”
State Leaders Claim Farmers Feeding Florida Program Will Stave Off Hunger
Farmers Feeding Florida expands Florida food bank infrastructure so that fresh produce, meat and other products from the Sunshine State can end up in food banks and help feed The state’s $38 million investment with the Farmers Feeding Florida initiative that began July 1 expands Florida food bank infrastructure so that fresh produce, meat and other products from the Sunshine State can end up in food banks and help feed hungry people, they said.
Scaffolding Record, DeSantis Signs 12th Death Warrant of Year: David Pittman, Polk Murderer of 3
In what could be the 12th execution this year in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of killing three members of his estranged wife’s family in 1990 in Polk County. David Pittman, 63, is scheduled to be executed Sept. 17 at Florida State Prison. Florida has already set a modern-era record this year with nine executions, and two more men are scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection this month.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, August 16, 2025
To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form. Weather: Partly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely. Highs in the lower 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. Chance of rain 70 percent. Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here. Drought conditions here. (What is the […]
Glacier Melts and Floods in Alaska Point to Catastrophes Ahead
The glacial flood risks that Juneau is now experiencing each summer are becoming a growing problem in communities around the world. These and other icy regions have provided freshwater for people living downstream for centuries – almost 2 billion people rely on glaciers today. But as glaciers melt faster, they also pose potentially lethal risks.
The Truth About Flagler’s Public Libraries: Doing Far More Than You Realize, with Far Less Than Necessary
The Flagler County Public Library system remains one of the most–if not the most–efficient divisions of county government. Even with the staffing necessary at the new Bunnell library come December, the system’s personnel will have grown by just 20 percent in 20 years, while county government grew 37 percent, Palm Coast government grew 49 percent, and the county population grew by 84 percent. For all that, the library system continues to be the target of criticism without context or evidence, when it should be championed.
Flagler Beach Rotary’s Awareness Walk to Promote 988 Crisis Lifeline Set for Sept. 25 Over SR100 Bridge
The Rotary Club of Flagler Beach will host an Awareness Walk to promote the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 5:30 pm on Thursday, September 25, 2025. All are invited and participants will walk from Wadsworth Park in Flagler Beach, over the SR 100 bridge to Veterans Park where they will gather for a brief ceremony.
Amid Legal Wrangles, DeSantis Is Reopening State Prison in Baker County as Second Lock-Up for Migrants
Amid legal wrangling over a controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday said the state plans to use a shuttered prison in North Florida to boost detention of people targeted for deportation. The conversion of Baker Correctional Institution, which state corrections officials mothballed four years ago because of staffing shortages, into a second detention center in Florida will scrap a plan to house immigrant detainees at Camp Blanding west of Jacksonville.
Palm Coast Fire Department’s Eventful Patrick Juliano Is Promoted to Battalion Chief
Patrick Juliano is one of the more recognizable faces–and forces–of the Palm Coast Fire Department, often managing, aside from his regular duties, to be the department’s spokesperson, to coordinate some of the city’s most solemn events, contribute to their soundtrack with or without other musicians and percussionists, and to perform his bagpipes on innumerable occasions.
A Taylor Swift Tribute Upstages Debby Boone, Gary Puckett and Many Others at Fitz’s 2025-26 Season
For all the great acts and big names filling this season’s lineup at Palm Coast’s Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center (previously, Flagler Auditorium), it’s “Blank Space – The Taylor Swift Tribute” that gets star billing on the Fitzgerald’s home page as the organization seeks to attract a younger crowd. This season’s lineup includes tributes to a number of classic rock bands and music artists from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, August 15, 2025
Free For All Fridays with David Ayres on WNZF, going one step beyond that boundary line, Lyle Lovett’s boat, what Casanova told Diderot about fate.
The Search for Sustainable Aviation Fuels Is on Chopping Block
The federal spending law passed in early July 2025, often called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, significantly reduces federal funding for efforts to create renewable or sustainable types of fuel that can power aircraft over long distances while decreasing the damage aviation does to the global climate.
Floridians May Hunt Bears Again for 1st Time in 10 Years
Bear hunts in Florida will resume following a unanimous vote Wednesday by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The first hunt will be 23 days long during December, making it the first since 2015. The commission aims to “manage the bear population through a conservative, well-regulated bear hunt,” according to a summary on the day’s agenda.
Judge Rules Illegal a Florida Law Banning Trans Teachers’ Choice of Pronouns
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker sided with Hillsborough County teacher Katie Wood and a Lee County teacher, identified as Jane Doe, in finding that the state law discriminates in violation of what is known as Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That section bars employment discrimination because of a person’s “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” But the outcome of the issue might ultimately hinge on an appeals-court ruling in a Georgia case.
Palm Coast Mayor Norris Files Dismissal Notice of His Lawsuit Against the City, Scrapping Rehearing or Appeal
Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris today filed notice in Circuit Court through his attorney that he was voluntarily dismissing his lawsuit against the city he represents and Council member Charles Gambaro, without prejudice–meaning that it cannot be refiled. Mt. Dora attorney Anthony Sabatini filed the notice early this afternoon, soon after being served a letter by the city’s attorney, warning that the city would pursue financial sanctions against Norris if the lawsuit remained active.
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine Raises County’s Hope to Federalize More Beaches and Secure $10 Million for Dune-Rebuild
If U.S. Rep. Randy Fine kept at arm’s length Palm Coast officials’ hopes for federal financial help with the city’s utility infrastructure on Wednesday, he left county officials much more hopeful that he will help them with beach-management and beach-funding possibilities. The county had two major asks. Fine said he’d help with both: clearing $10 million in FEMA money due from Hurricane Milton, and moving forward on a $4 million study, the first step in federalizing the rest of the county’s beaches.
Ex-Gang Member Michael Gilbert Back in Prison for 5 Years, Risking Another 5 Rather Than Settle
Sometimes, defendants’ self-defeating math puzzles everyone in court, prosecutors and judges included. But the defendants’ misfortune is not entirely of their own doing, especially when they are on probation, a system as if cynically designed to make probationers fail. Michael D’Angelo Gilbert is one such defendant.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, August 14, 2025
Heat index up to 110, Michael Gilbert, an old accomplice of Brandon Washington, returns to court to decide whether to serve five more years or life, the Flagler Beach City Commission meets, grandparents’ serenity of Sannin, and a little Mozart.
The Dark History of Forced Starvation as a Weapon of War
More than 500,000 Palestinians, one-fourth of Gaza’s population, are experiencing famine, the U.N. stated. And all 320,000 children under age 5 are “at risk of acute malnutrition, with serious lifelong physical and mental health consequences.” U.N. experts have accused Israel of using starvation “as a savage weapon of war and constitutes crime under international law.” Countries – including the United States and Canada – have used starvation to conquer Indigenous peoples and acquire their land.
Bethune-Cookman University Concert Chorale at Palm Coast United Methodist Church Aug. 24
Palm Coast United Methodist Church welcomes back the Bethune-Cookman University Concert Chorale for its 30th annual visit. The Chorale’s inspiring music will fill the church sanctuary with joy and harmony, and Palm Coast United Methodist Church looks forward to sharing in this cherished tradition once again.
Federal Judge Rules Unconstitutional Part of Florida Law That Led to Book Purges from School Libraries
Siding with publishers and authors, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that a key part of a 2023 Florida law that has led to books being removed from school library shelves is “overbroad and unconstitutional.” U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza issued a 50-page decision in a First Amendment lawsuit filed last year against members of the State Board of Education and the school boards in Orange and Volusia counties.
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine Tells Palm Coast During Sewer Plant Visit: Utility Infrastructure Is Primarily Your Responsibility
U.S. Rep Randy Fine, on a whirlwind tour of Flagler County that included an ATV trip along its battered beaches and an afternoon meet-and-greet at the Chamber of Commerce, this morning visited what has become a necessary stop in Palm Coast’s infrastructure calvary: the sloshing tanks and purifying basins of Waste Water Treatment 1. Costly as the expansion and modernization of the plant is to Palm Coast, he said utility infrastructure is primarily the city’s responsibility, not the federal government’s.
Jeani Duarte, a Council Candidate, Says Palm Coast’s Utility Plants Will Make Cannibals of Residents
Jeani Duarte, a candidate for the Palm Coast City Council in the 2026 election, on Tuesday evening accused the city of planning a sewer infrastructure that will turn residents into cannibals. Duarte often addresses the council at its workshops and meetings, often several times a meeting, often to make statements that are either inaccurate or “nonsensical,” as Circuit Judge Chris France twice termed a civil action she attempted against the city, before France tossed it.
A Disaster Expo at the Palm Coast Community Center Highlights Community’s Prepared Resilience
Flagler Cares, the social services non-profit and coordinating agency, secured a $143,000 Long-Term Recovery Grant from the American Red Cross for Flagler Volunteer Services as part of the recovery efforts following Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, enabling a “disaster preparedness breakfast and expo” at the Palm Coast Community Center Tuesday that drew a full house.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
U.S. Rep. Randy “Starve-Away” Fine finally makes good on his visit to Palm Coast’s oldest sewer plant, Separation Chat, Open Discussion, WNEW’s Make Believe Ballroom, and that other ballroom planned for the White House.
What Is Uranium Enrichment?
When most people hear the word uranium, they think of mushroom clouds, Cold War standoffs or the glowing green rods from science fiction. But uranium isn’t just fuel for apocalyptic fears. It’s also a surprisingly common element that plays a crucial role in modern energy, medicine and geopolitics. Many headlines have mentioned Iran’s 60% enrichment of uranium, but what does that really mean?
The Eugenics of the Big Beautiful Bill
Withdrawing or making Medicaid and Affordable Care Act coverage more restrictive will cost 51,000 lives a year by 2034. It’s one way to reduce the government’s liability for lives on the dole. It is eugenics by other means.
Florida’s Attorney General Defies Long Guns Ban for Under-21
James Uthmeier, appointed to serve as the state’s attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year, announced in March that he and the governor believe the law is unconstitutional, saying that if “the NRA decides to seek further review at SCOTUS, I am directing my office not to defend this law.”
Hurricane-Bound Erin, 1st Major Storm of Season, Not Expected to Affect Florida
Tropical Storm Erin, still churning closer to the African coast than the American or Caribbean, is expected to become a major hurricane by the weekend as it moves west. It is not expected to pose a danger to the Florida Peninsula, Flagler County included, Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said today. But he added a word of caution: Erin is too far to rule out a more onerous turn.
Flagler County School Board’s Will Furry Says God Is Calling Him to Run for Congress Against Randy Fine
Will Furry, a Realtor in his first term on the Flagler County School Board, said he is running for the congressional seat held by Randy Fine. Furry will continue serving on the School Board until the end of his term in November. He cannot run for both seats. His fate will be decided in the Aug. 18, 2026 primary, when he would be one of a slew of Republicans challenging Fine.
Flagler Beach City Attorney Recommends New Ordinance Limiting Trespassing Authority in Public Spaces
Flagler Beach’s city attorney is recommending that the city adopt an ordinance clarifying when, where and why police may trespass an individual from public property, on the very rare occasions when they may, how much restraint police must exercise when interfering with a person’s speech (a lot), and what due process must be afforded the individual targeted.
Trespassing Persons on Public Property and Best Practices Dealing with Protestors: Flagler Beach City Attorney’s Memo
The full text of the memo written by Flagler Beach City Attorney Drew Smith and attorney Abby Osborne-Liborioon on Aug.6, in response to Flagler Beach Police Chief Matt Doughney’s request for clarity on the city’s authority to trespass individuals from public spaces.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
The Community Traffic Safety Team meets, the Palm Coast City Council meets, so do the School Board and the county’s planning board, the American passport is no longer most favored, Simone de Beauvoir on America’s idea of its own freedoms.
Zohran Mamdani and the Upton Sinclair Effect
Mamdani’s win surprised nearly everyone. Not just because he beat the heavily favored former governor Andrew Cuomo, but because he did so by a large margin. Because he did so with a unique coalition, and because his Muslim identity and membership in the Democratic Socialists of America should have, in conventional political thinking, made victory impossible. Upton Sinclair, the famous author and a socialist for most of his life, ran for governor in California in 1934 and won the Democratic primary election with a radical plan that he called End Poverty in California, or EPIC. He lost.
State Regulators Put On Hold Case Over FPL’s $2.5 Billion Rate Increase in Light of ‘Settlement’
State regulators Monday paused a closely watched case about increasing Florida Power & Light’s base electric rates after the utility and numerous parties announced Friday they had reached a “settlement in principle.” Details of the potential settlement have not been released, and some parties in the case — including the state Office of Public Counsel, which is designated by law to represent consumers — have not signed on.
ICE-Bound Russian National Arrested for Credit Card Fraud in Palm Coast
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Friday arrested Mikhail Vasilev, 43, of Palm Coast, on two warrants for credit card fraud following two separate investigations conducted by FCSO detectives. Vasilev obtained customer credit cards to purchase construction material for residential home repairs and later used the cards for unauthorized, personal transactions.
With Cuts at Palm Coast Branch, County Pledges to Revisit Library Budget 3 Months After Bunnell Branch Opens
With Palm Coast officials worried that a planned 23 percent cut in library hours and a significant cut in staffing at the Palm Coast branch will hurt patrons and programming once the Bunnell branch opens in December, Flagler County officials are pledging that staffing will be adjusted next spring should usage figures show a need.
Veteran Who Robbed and Killed a Man at Graham Swamp in 2006 Seeks Full Release from Supervision
Brian Wothers, the 43-year-old military veteran who robbed and killed 26-year-old Jeffrey David Maxwell at Graham Swamp after partying with him earlier that night in 2006, is seeking release from all state supervision 17 years after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and committed to a state hospital. A circuit judge is not ready to grant that step just yet.
At Flagler Cares, A Play Therapy Room That Allows Children to Express the Unspeakable
Imagine a 5 or 6-year-old child, maybe an abused child or one who’s just endured unspeakable trauma. The child has been incapable of expressing feelings as other children might. The child’s parents have been unable to connect. Play therapy enables the child to express those feelings as nothing else might. That’s the purpose of the play therapy room at Flagler Cares, “a place to play, a place to heal,” as the plaque outside the room put it.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, August 11, 2025
What if Immanuel Kant and Madonna had a baby, the Flagler County Library Board of Trustees meets, the Bunnell City Commission meets, Isaiah Berlin explains the inexplicable.