If religious organizations in Manatee County paid property taxes, they would add $8.5 million to the tax revenue of the county annually, or 1.1% of the total, enough to cover, in just one year, the building of three newly proposed emergency medical services stations in the county, along with upgrades of EMS equipment and its 911 service.
My Kids’ School Won’t Reinstate Masks Despite the Covid Surge. Here’s What I Chose to Do.
“It’s disappointing that the districts are not implementing the strategies recommended by the CDC to keep these kids safe when there is moderate to high transmission,” said Elizabeth Stuart, a biostatistician at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in reference to districts that are not requiring masks. “It puts families into these really challenging situations.”
AdventHealth Physician Sounds Alert to Increase of Children in Hospital for Covid, Renewing Call for School Masks
AdventHealth Palm Coast had 82 patients admitted with covid, while the AdventHealth Central Florida division was reporting 12 children admitted as evidence continues to pile up: vaccines are an overwhelming buffer against hospitalizations, and masks are an effective buffer against infections, including in schools.
Palm Coast and Flagler at Risk of Overfunding Police
Policing in Flagler has never been at risk of “defunding,” nor have relations between police and the community lacked for cohesion and respect. But Sheriff Staly’s request for 25 additional deputies from Palm Coast and the county overplay a hand, while both governments are teetering on going along with what would be overfunding police, at the expense of other needs.
Closing Investigation of Ex-Belle Terre Principal Culver, FDLE Found Numerous Problems But No Crimes
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s investigation of former Belle Terre Elementary Principal Terence Culver found financial and ethical problems with his running of the school’s PTO but but nothing criminal to pursue, and closed its investigation.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, July 12, 2021
No Flagler Beach City Commission meeting this evening as a couple of commissioners and the city manager are attending the annual conference of the Flagler League of Cities in Orlando through Saturday. Tropical Storm Fred is threading its way across the northern coast of Cuba.
Don’t Be Too Quick to Claim Voter Suppression
Classifying a law as a voter suppression, as a voting restriction or as a tightening of a rule for voting involves judgment. It anticipates the future effect of a law, and it concludes that the law will have a negative effect. Some new laws do that. But many are ordinary rules of election administration that simply don’t merit those labels and likely have no discernible effect, much less a negative effect, on the right to vote.
Opponents Call Approval of ‘Marinas’ Along Scenic A1A an Orwellian Ploy to Let Massive Boat-Storage Facility Rise
The Flagler County Planning Board on Tuesday determined that marinas are an allowable use in the Scenic A1A corridor. But Hammock residents say it’s an Orwellian word game intended to clear the way for a 240-dry-boat storage facility called Hammock Harbour, whose development was twice rebuffed by courts.
Palm Coast Man Accused of Shooting Into a Neighbor’s House Wants to Go Home. Judge Swiftly Says No.
The swiftness of Circuit Judge Terence Perkins’s decision, paired with the brief but wrenching testimony of one of the victims, was a passing illustration of how the casualness of gun wielding in a county where almost a fifth of adult residents have a concealed weapon permit at times results in severe consequences–and potentially deadly incidents, with continuing ramifications for all involved.
Man Who Killed Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Sease in 2003 Wants Clemency, Half-Way of 35-Year Prison Sentence
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and State Attorney R.J. Larizza have written the state clemency board stern letters opposing any commutation of sentence for Bruce Grove, the now-46-year-old former Palm Coast resident serving 35 years in prison for the killing of Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy Charles “Chuck” Sease in 2003 as Grove was eluding other deputies in a chase.