Flagler Beach’s “Big Blue” recycling program, created by Sanitation Director Rob Smith, won the stewardship award from the Northeast Florida Regional Council.
Court Running Out of Patience With Sex-Offender Probationer Who Keeps Violating Rules
Bryan Lemus was spared prison three years ago after a plea deal that reduced charges of molesting a minor to child abuse. He was sentenced to probation, but has since violated his probation twice, the last time in December after violating a prohibition on using social media to exchange explicit images with a woman.
DOT Will Seek Public Input on More Permanent Protection for A1A, But Options Are Limited
After two months of closed-door sessions involving state, federal and local officials on how to more permanently secure State Road A1A in Flagler and Volusia counties from storm damage and rising seas, the Florida Department of Transportation will seek public input in two sessions later this month–one in Flagler Beach, one in Volusia County, and present a half dozen options or so.
Florida Democrats Seek Prison Release for Non-Violent Offenders After 65% of Time Served Instead of 85%
Calling the state’s criminal justice system “outdated,” Tampa Democratic state Rep. Dianne Hart filed a proposal this week (HB 115) that would allow non-violent offenders to reduce their mandatory time served from 85 percent to 65 percent through their successful completion of academic and other learning courses while incarcerated.
U.S. Economy Adds 223,000 Jobs in December, Easing Fears of Recession for Now
The national economy is steadily losing power even as it continues to generate enough new jobs to lower the unemployment rate: 223,000 new jobs in December. That’s the lowest total in two years, but still nowhere near recession territory.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 6, 2023
First Friday in Flagler Beach, Always, Patsy Cline, at the Flagler Auditorium, the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and democracy.
How Netanyahu’s Far-Right Government Threatens Israeli Democracy
The new Israeli government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu and sworn in on Dec. 29, 2022, is a coalition of the most extreme right-wing and religious parties in the history of the state. This government presents a major threat to Israeli democracy, and it does so on multiple fronts.
Brenan Hill Now Faces Murder Charge as Savannah Gonzalez, Victim in Microtel Shooting, Dies
Brenan Hill now faces a second-degree murder charge in the shooting of Savannah Gonzalez near the Microtel in Palm Coast in March 2021. The State Attorney’s Office today filed the new charge. Hill is scheduled for an August trial.
Ex-Palm Coast Doctor Facing Rape and Deceit Allegations Says He Was Never Served
A year and a half after a civil lawsuit was filed against him, claiming he deceived, drugged and raped a woman at a condo in Palm Coast, Dr. Gerard Abate says he was never served. A judge will decide whether Abate or a process server are telling the truth at a hearing next week.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 5, 2023
Somnolence in Flagler, the marathoner who finished the race with a bullet in the head, how writers draw empty houses at book-signings, Don DeLillo’s Somnolence in Flagler, White Noise.
Perils Ahead, No Matter Who Is Speaker of the House
The arm-twisting, dealmaking and vote hunting around Kevin McCarthy’s quest to be named House speaker have put on full display the fact that razor-thin majorities in both the House and the Senate create legislative and institutional uncertainty that has very real consequences for how Congress is run and how policy gets made.
Flagler Jail Eliminates All Hard-Copy Mail to Inmates as Scanning and Tablets Replace Paper
All hard-copy mail delivery to the Flagler County jail’s 225-some inmates has been replaced by scans of mail. It is part of a sweeping change in the handling of inmate mail across the state at least 14 other states as prisons and jails cut down on incoming materials. The switch has drawn sharp criticism from prisoner advocates and strong support by those implementing it, as in Flagler.
3 Florida Republicans–Gaetz, Luna, Donalds–Among Opponents of McCarthy for Speaker
Matt Gaetz of Fort Walton Beach, Anna Tuesday Paulina Luna of St. Petersburg, and Byron Donalds of Naples joined 17 other conservative GOP members on Tuesday, and again in today’s first round, to oppose McCarthy from taking the top job in the House.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Sleeping Beauty, Performed by the State Ballet of Ukraine at Flagler Auditorium, the Flagler County School Board meets, President Benjamin Harrison pardons Mormon’s polygamy, Jim Belushi, high school chess coach.
Inflation, Unemployment, Housing Crisis, Recession? Ahead in 2023.
With the current U.S. inflation rate at 7.1%, interest rates rising and housing costs up, many Americans are wondering if a recession is looming. The consensus view among most forecasters is that a recession is on the way.
DeSantis Invokes Bible, Gun Analogies and Anti-Wokism in Inaugural Pitched to Ambitions
The governor vowed to “stand our ground” in defense of low taxes, parental rights in education, “law and order,” and more — although Democrats, independents, and overall progressives in Florida would likely beg to differ. The theme and tenor of the speech suggests that DeSantis spoke to a larger goal: running for president.
In Putnam, a 38-Year-Old Man Is Sentenced to Die, Again, and a 21 Year Old Will Serve Life in Prison
Timothy Wayne Fletcher, 38, was sentenced to die at the state’s hand for the murder of his stepgrandmother Helen Googe in 2009. Anthony Foxx will serve life in prison without parole with the stabbing death of his Ayana Belton, who was 16.
A Defendant Says he’s Going to Prison for Doing What His Domestic Violence Classes Told Him to Do
Leon Marcus Criswell was sentenced to 17 months in state prison in a domestic battery case, but he says his case was aggravated because he did just what his counselors in domestic violence classes taught him to do: he sped away from what he saw as trouble before it got physical.
Divided Appeals Court Rejects Protection for Transgender Bathroom Use in St. Johns School Case
After a five-year legal battle, and reversing a lower court ruling, a sharply divided federal appeals court upheld a St. Johns County School Board policy that prevented a transgender male student from using boys’ bathrooms at a high school.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Courts back in session, rediscovering The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, by Franz Werfel, on the Armenian genocide, WEB Dubois on the campaign of slander against “carpetbaggers.”
Slavery as Theme Park: How a West African Country is Making Tourism of Atrocity
Benin in West Africa hopes to market itself as a major destination for Afro-descendant tourists in the diaspora. But the latest developments are walking a fine line, balancing education and remembrance with crude commerce and rank tourism.
American Impressions 9 | South Dakota: Crazy
For the Sioux of South Dakota it’s been a tragic, unresolved legacy of exploitation in the Black Hills. The rape of the mountains by gold and uranium prospectors was followed by the carving of Mount Rushmore and, for the past 75 years, the ongoing desecration of the hills in the name of Crazy Horse–what was to be the largest sculpture in the world, but has turned into a lucrative tourist trap.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 2, 2023
New Year’s Day extra, James K. Galbraith on American Capitalism, the day Richard Nixon forced America to slow down to 55.
Myocarditis: Covid-19 is a Much Bigger Risk to the Heart than Vaccination
Perhaps the most common point of conflict concerning Covid-19 vaccines is the risk of myocarditis following immunization, particularly among young people. In Florida, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis have turned against vaccinating younger people based on that misconception.
American Impressions 8 | North Dakota: A Life in Missiles
Virginia Lillico and her family spent their life in their homestead on land in the shadow of an ICBM missile silo in North Dakota at the height of the cold war and beyond. She never took safeguards seriously, thinking it was pointless.
Man Dies in Single-Vehicle Crash on I-95, North of Palm Coast Parkway
A 29-year-old man died in a single-vehicle crash when his SUV veered into the wood-line on I-95, a mile north of Palm Coast Parkway, Sunday morning.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 1, 2023
Happy new Year. America’s Top New Year’s Resolutions for 2023, why we want the extraordinary in all things, including the impossible.
Cats in the Middle Ages
For the most part, cats were quite at home in the medieval household. And as their playful depiction in many medieval manuscripts and artwork makes clear, our medieval ancestors’ relationships with these animals were not too different from our own.
American Impressions 7 | Montana: Ghost of the Prairie
It rises from wild grasses in Montana’s Golden Triangle, at the western extremity of the Great Plains, a massive hulk of concrete that makes no sense, that is as out of place as could be, and that will be there for thousands of years. It is a ghostly monument to the follies of the nuclear age.
Collin Calvert, 21, Charged with Mobil Station Armed Robbery in Palm Coast, Plus 8 Volusia Charges
Collin Ray Calvert, a 21-year-old resident of Tropical Drive in Ormond Beach, was charged on Friday with first degree armed robbery in connection with a Dec. 19 incident at the Mobil gas station on Pine Lakes Parkway in Palm Coast. He also faces grand theft, armed burglary and other charges in Volusia County, where he is jailed.
Jacob Oliva Is Headed to Arkansas to be Gov. Huckabee’s Education Secretary
Jacob Oliva, a senior chancellor at the Florida Department of Education and a former Flagler County superintendent who maintains family ties locally, will be the next Arkansas secretary of education in incoming Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s administration.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, December 31, 2022
Reflections on ruins on the last day of the year, Loren Eiseley’s Autumn memory, Bach’s Violin Partita.
Pelé: The One and Only
Pelé, soccer’s first global superstar, was the best to have ever played the game, the symbol of soccer played with passion, gusto and a smile. He helped to forge an image of the game, which even today lots of people continue to crave.
American Impressions 6 | Montana: Backtracking Lewis and Clark
Lewis and Clark traveled the longest distances of any state in Montana. Backtracking their trail is an exercise in contrasts: Indian voices could now be heard as they couldn’t then, but so can those of Lewis and Clark, vividly, wonderfully and sometimes disturbingly, while the landscape has either been remade or remains as intact as it was then.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, December 30, 2022
Black Elk recalls the massacre at Wounded Knee, and how the New York Times reported it, a reminder on FEMA benefits for Hurricane Ian survivors, the Bach Festival.
Putin’s Unintended Boost for Clean Energy
Below the surface of almost weekly bad news, significant changes are underway that have the potential to create a more sustainable world – one in which humanity can tackle climate change, species extinction and food and energy insecurity.
American Impressions 5 | Alaska Highway
The endless Alaska Highway is a famed road shrouded in impossible isolation and amnesia, where boundaries disappear into a twilight zone of the beautiful and the bizarre. It is an endless wormhole where the unexpected and the sublime are so common that they become monotonous, where the emptiness is so complete that you can feel like the last person on earth.
Smiles Nite Club’s David Ghiloni Gets Sheriff’s Lifesaving Award for Jumping Gunman
David Ghiloni along with other bar patrons intervened when a gunman was holding a gun to a woman’s head at Smiles Nite Club in November.
GasBuddy Predicts Florida Gas Prices Will Climb Over $4.50 By Summer Before Falling Again
The Boston-based GasBuddy, in an annual outlook released Wednesday, predicted that pump prices will peak at an average of $4.25 to $4.65 a gallon in Miami, $4.15 to $4.55 in Orlando and $4.10 to $4.45 in Tampa.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, December 29, 2022
Flagler Beach pier pass refunds, H.G. Wells on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the waning days of Fantasy of Lights in Town Center.
Five Space Exploration Missions to Look Out for in 2023
From the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer to the return to Earth of an asteroid explorer to India’s first India’s private space launch, 2023 is set to be as busy a space exploration year as 2022. Here’s a preview.
American Impressions 4 | Alaska: The New Suburb
Big, brutal, poetic, a hero among states, Alaska has always been America’s national park of the imagination, a 600,000-square-mile invention colonized by a few tracts of reality. An exploration of Kodiak Island defeats a few stereotypes and reveals to what extent even Alaska is becoming a suburb of the Lower Forty-Eights.
A Driver Is Killed on I-95 as Car Goes Under Semi Near Matanzas Woods Parkway
A woman was killed this morning when she drove her car under a semi truck in the northbound lanes of I-95 just south of Matanzas Woods Parkway.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Kwanzaa Celebration at the African American Cultural Center, What the Black Man Wants, Woodrow Wilson, anti-hero.
Calling Politicians Clowns Is a Disservice to Clowns. Seriously.
Clowns have a long history of contributing positively to politics and society. They have brought disruption, subversion, comfort and joy to healthcare, education and humanitarian efforts. Politicians? Not so much.
American Impressions 3 | The Road
The Colorado National Monument, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City and Wyoming frame reflections on the romance of the road, that essentially American love affair made of myths and wanderlust, and those insufferable RVs.
Jan. 6 Attack: 3 Florida Extremist Groups Allied ‘to Work Together to Shut This Sh** Down’
The final report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol includes chilling sections about the force of extremist groups from Florida that formed an alliance, traveled to Washington, D.C., and stormed the Capitol.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Have you been to the Fantasy of Lights show in Town Center yet? The cold-weather shelter opens yet again, Anne Frank’s Christmas, Stone Mountain’s bland of inoffensive consumables.
Only the Richest Ancient Athenians Paid Taxes – and they Bragged About It
In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state’s most important national expenses – the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid.
American Impressions 2 | Heartland
America is more paradox than exception, often more invention than reality, an invention as old as 1619 and as recent as the transformation of the American “heartland” into a utopia. The contradictions of Cedar Bluff State Park in Kansas tell a different story.