Supporters of the bill seemed taken aback by the news, which came less than a week after Sen. Jack Latvala, the Clearwater Republican who sponsored the bill, announced that half the Senate had agreed to join him in sponsoring the measure. Latvala and Negron are locked in a battle over the Senate presidency for the session beginning after the 2016 elections.
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Raising Hope: Indian Trails Guardian Angels Lift Awareness of Teen Suicide and Depression
The Guardian Angels, one of two Indian Trails Middle School Service Learning groups doing projects in conjunction with Palm Coast’s annual Arbor Day celebration on May 3, are raising money to dedicate a walkway at the Children’s Memorial Garden in Waterfront Park.
Your Amazon Holiday Is Over: Giant Starts Collecting Sales Tax in Florida in 2 Weeks
For Floridians who are supposed to pay the taxes but haven’t, the announcement of Amazon’s entry into the state’s brick-and-mortar retail landscape could mean about $80 million a year in sales taxes, according to one business lobbying group.
Despite Parental Notification Law, Court Finds Room for Teens to Protect Privacy When Seeking Abortion
Florida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that requires parents to be notified before their minor daughters can have abortions. But an appeals court ruling released Friday shows how far teens can go to challenge the law–and preserve their privacy when seeking an abortion.
No Thanks: Bunnell Votes 4-1 to Return Old Courthouse to the County, Citing Costs and Liabilities
The stunning reversal culminates months of doubt and disappointment about the building on city officials’ part as they discovered a structure in more serious disrepair than the county had let on and tallied far more expensive bills ahead than the city could afford, if it were to keep the building.
House Balks at $2 Million-a-Year Tax Subsidy to Daytona Speedway as Other Breaks Advance
Funding for Daytona International Speedway and a temporary tax break on gym memberships could be casualties when the House and Senate meet next week on their opposing packages to complete Gov. Rick Scott’s $500 million election-year tax cuts.
Drowning Unlikely After Search Off Flagler Beach Pier, But Authorities Locate Mystery Remains
County and Flagler Beach rescue authorities spent several fruitless hours searching for a man believed to have drowned in the surf off of South 8th Street late Saturday afternoon. Authorities said that a drowning was not likely. But Flagler County Fire Chief Don Petito confirmed that the medical examiner was called in to analyze “what appears to be remains,” possibly intestinal, that may have been human.
Trap, Neuter and Return: Feral Cat Program Makes Progress in Flagler Beach, But Not in Palm Coast
The Flagler Humane Society is on pace to trap, neuter and return some 600 cats in Flagler Beach through a program that avoids killing the animals, though not without creating frictions among some residents. Attempts to to bring the TNR approach to Palm Coast continue to falter.
Rocky Mountain High or Reefer Madness? Legal Pot Comes with Risks
Legal pot is attracting new and possibly naïve users — creating risks that some don’t bargain for. Second, the public health system’s desire to protect people may be well-intentioned, but regulation and efforts to track the health effects have a ways to go.
Palm Coast Voters Lose Again: The City Of Low Turnout Gets a Spoiled Election
Even if Palm Coast and Supervisor of Elections Weeks work out their differences, as it now looks like they have, voters have already lost as this months-long manufactured controversy will become election campaign fodder for candidates who don’t have anything more substantial to offer.
Replacing Salisbury Steak With Sardines, Florida Prisons’ Kosher Option Raises Hackles
Inmates contend that the peanut butter, sardines and cabbage served up daily by the Florida Department of Corrections are designed to discourage them from signing up for the kosher meals or to punish inmates if they do, and that the chow is far from what a federal judge had in mind last year when she ordered the state to start serving kosher meals to inmates.
Mega Health Bill Favoring Nurse Practitioners, Trauma Centers and Drs. Without State License Clears House Panel
The bill would protect private for-profit trauma centers, allow for independent practice for nurse practitioners and allow out-of-state doctors to participate in telehealth without a Florida license. The Florida Medical Association opposes the latter two.
Casino Legislation Is Dead This Year, But So Is Proposal to Report Injuries and Deaths of Race Greyhounds
Florida will remain, along with Alabama, the only state that does not require require greyhound tracks to report dog injury and deaths. Also ended is a sweeping gambling overhaul that would have authorized two Las Vegas-style casinos in South Florida.
Grand Jury Declines to Indict Ex-Flagler Beach Cop Bobby MacDonald Over Wife’s Gunshot Wound, But Case May Remain Open for Years
A Flagler County grand jury found no probable cause to go forward with an indictment against Robert “Bobby” MacDonald, who brought his wife Kathy bleeding from the head, from a gunshot wound, to an ambulance in July 2012 in western Flagler County.
Open Skateboard Rinks to Scooters and Bikes? County and Flagler Beach Propose More Permissive Rules at Wadsworth
The proposal is dividing officials and parents, some of whom like the broader allowance, some of whom consider it an invitation to accidents and lawsuits. The Flagler County Commission got in on the discussion earlier this week because the park belongs to the county, though it’s been run and policed by Flagler Beach for 10 years.
Abortion Restrictions May Tighten in Florida as “Viability” Bill Diminishing Women’s Rights Moves Forward
Under current law, third-trimester abortions are allowed if they are necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life or preserve her health, The proposals would make that standard more restrictive, and would exclude a woman’s psychological health as a reason to perform an abortion.
Palm Coast Prepares to Run Its Own Elections, But Cost Would Rise and Turnout Drop
Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks and Palm Coast have been in talks to resolve their differences, but in case they don’t, Palm Coast is planning on running its own elections in 2014, with paper ballots and at a single location only, which would most likely hurt turnout significantly.
Corruption Theorem: Money as Speech and the Supreme Court’s Death Blow to Democracy
We’ve come a long way from the days of Lawton Chiles, who won his election for governor despite limiting contributions to $10 a pop. There is no longer any bidding limit on the vast auction block American politics has become since, writes Martin Dyckman.
Health Groups Oppose Bill Banning E-Cigarettes to Minors, Calling It a Stealth Favor to Big Tobacco
The American Lung Association of Florida and other groups are fighting the measure because it would also ban local efforts to restrict the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products.
My Agreement Or Else: Elections Supervisor Weeks Bluntly Rejects Palm Coast Proposals
Reaffirming a stalemate, Weeks’s refusal to conduct the Palm Coast elections on any terms but hers means the city may have to go it alone, triggering costs and confusion.
Two Conjugal Quarrels Lead to Violence and Arrests on Child Abuse Charges for Man and Woman
Two separate incidents on Thursday and Saturday involving two unrelated couples led to the arrests of a Flagler Beach man and a Palm Coast woman when each was alleged to escalate a domestic spat into violent acts involving children.
More Parents Are Defaulting on College Loans For Their Children, Costing Taxpayers
The Parent Plus program allows parents to take out essentially uncapped amounts to cover college costs, regardless of the borrower’s income or ability to repay the loan. But default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years.
Altered Space: When the Mall
Is a Refuge From Virtual Reality
With America’s slouch toward the virtual at the expense of the real and the human, it is entirely possible that we will become nostalgic for malls as lost relics of interpersonal relations, alongside the courthouse square, the barber shop and the neighborhood bar.
Third Florida Wrong-Way Crash in Two Months Kills 2 and Injures 14 as 91 Year Old Man Errs
Ernest Lee Holmes, 91, drove his Buick south in the northbound lanes of I-75 near midnight Friday, crashing with one car head-on, killing oral surgeon Peter Linek of Ormond Beach, and triggering three more crashes including a Greyhound bus carrying 42 passengers and a car carrying four children.
Scoring the Legislature at the Half-Way Mark
With the two chambers working in tandem on most issues, Gov. Rick Scott was able to sign a series of bills into law this week. They included a bill, dubbed the “Florida GI Bill,” aimed at making the state more military friendly; a package of bills aimed at keeping sexually violent predators locked up; and a bill that will roll back motor-vehicle registration fees.
Lawmakers Poised to Kill Florida KidCare Expansion for 25,000 Children of Legal Immigrants
The proposal (HB 7 and SB 282) would eliminate a five-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrants to be eligible for KidCare, a subsidized insurance program that serves children from low- and moderate-income families. Senate President Don Gaetz would vote against it.
Senate Approves Proposed Constitutional Amendment Giving Scott Court-Packing Power
The proposal, passed by the Senate in a 26-14 vote, would give the next governor the ability to pack the courts and is intended to give incumbent Gov. Rick Scott, who is seeking re-election, the ability to reshape the Florida Supreme Court.
Man Wanted for Home Invasion Arrested in Palm Coast After Chase and Wreck of FHP Car
A high-speed chase for Aaaron Butler of Jacksonville man that started somewhere on I-95 south of Palm Coast ended at Palm Coast Parkway and Club House Drive earlier this afternoon with Butler’s arrest–and the wreck of a Florida Highway Patrol cruiser.
As Baker Acting of Children Soars, Flagler School Board Grapples With Perceptions of “Outrage”
Baker Acts involving children in schools has reached 32 so far this year, three times more than last year, prompting one school board member to call herself “outraged” at the police-led manner in which most such Baker Acts are carried out, even with teens and younger children.
Internet Café Crackdown: Gambling Task Force Serves Search Warrants in 5 Counties as Businesses Skirt Ban
The Legislature essentially banned such businesses last year, but some continue to operate under different guises. At one point at least seven of the gambling parlors had been operating in Palm Coast, but none in Flagler Beach or the unincorporated part of Flagler County.
Sweeping Child-Welfare Reform Bill Calls For “Moral Outrage” and More Money
The legislation got its start last fall, after media reports about a wave of child deaths from abuse and neglect — and gained momentum as it became clear that many of the victims were already known to the Florida Department of Children and Families, which had failed to protect them.
The Ten Tenors Renew Their Vows With Flagler in Two Broadway-Themed Shows at the Auditorium Saturday
The Ten Tenors have been coming to the Flagler Auditorium for a dozen years, ever since they sprung out of Australia to set out on what’s become an increasingly popular, worldwide phenomenon.
Single-Family Home Permits Up 29% in 1st Quarter as Construction in Palm Coast Churns
Some 126 construction permits were issued for single-family homes in Flagler County in the first three months of the year, 88 of them in Palm Coast and 34 in the unincorporated part of the county.
Federal Appeals Court Declares Scott Administration’s 2012 Voter Purge Illegal
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Rick Scott’s administration that the effort to remove suspected non-citizens from the voting rolls did not violate a federal law barring wide-ranging efforts to cleanse those rolls within 90 days of an election.
Pitching Two Proposals Back to Elections Supervisor, Palm Coast May Call on State to Resolve Conflict
The Palm Coast City Council approved two separate agreements calling on Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks to run the 2014 city elections, asking her to pick one, though Weeks has been unwilling to negotiate. The city may call on Secretary of State Ken Detzner to resolve the issue, should a stalemate persist.
Lifelong Republican Turned independent: Howard Holley Launches All-Business Bid For County Commission
Howard Holley, a Hammock business executive, would face Flagler County Commissioner Frank Meeker in November if Meeker doesn’t have a primary opponent, no black candidate and no independent candidate has ever won a county commission seat.
Obamacare Tally: Florida Subsidies Average $3,000, But Some Families Complain of Costly Exclusion
And yet only one in four Floridians who qualifies for a subsidy had enrolled in a plan by March 1, leaving 1 million eligible residents uninsured. A mother describes how the law’s employee-insurance provision barred her family from subsidies.
Rick Scott’s Dilemma: Helping Undocumented-Immigrant Students Or Sticking to His Base
While Scott has repeatedly said he supports a proposal to end annual 15 percent tuition hikes, he’s remained mum about the portion of the bill that would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, or Dreamers.
Weeks Against the World: Elections Supervisor Holds Out on Palm Coast Elections Despite Secretary of State’s Admonition
The only higher official who hasn’t yet told Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks to move beyond her feud with the Palm Coast City Council over the city’s 2014 elections is Gov. Rick Scott. Sill, Weeks remains obstinate as time runs short for Palm Coast to decide who will run its 2014 elections.
News-Journal’s Mark Lane, Chronicler of the Darwinian, Will Try to Explain Florida In Library Talk Friday
Lane will be bringing his wit, observation and histories to the Flagler County Public Library in Palm Coast on Friday, April 4, at 2 p.m., for a talk entitled, “Trying to Explain Florida in Print.” The free talk is hosted by the Friends of the Library of Flagler County.
Farewell To Bookstores:
Why I Won’t Miss Books-A-Million
The closure of Books-A-Million is not as bad as it sounds: the chain bookstore was not living up to its billing as a cultural hub, and bookstores these days are becoming irrelevant thanks to Amazon, audio books and Google, which make the world’s libraries immediately accessible at a click.
Chris Christie’s Hormonal Problem
Would someone please call Chris Christie and tell him that if he thinks he could be President of the United States, he doesn’t have a prayer. By insinuating that the lane closings were the handiwork of a woman suffering from a romantic setback, Christie’s lawyers have ensured that he will be scorned by every woman who has had to endure the canard that women are ruled by their hormones and their feelings.
“Opportunity Scholarships”: Lawmakers Revive Vast Expansion of School Vouchers By Riding Coattails of Students With Disabilities
The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee voted 8-4 to introduce the measure, which would bind together a program aimed at students with disabilities and the voucher expansion. Senate leaders last week pulled their counterpart to the House voucher bill, but the measure for students with disabilities remains alive.
Palm Coast’s Stephen Newberry, 25, Is Killed in Motorcycle Wreck on U.S. 1
Stephen C. Newberry, a 25-year-old resident of Palm Coast, was killed Saturday morning as he rode his motorcycle on U.S. 1 just north of the Flagler-St. Johns County line, when an elderly driver broke his right of way.
Flagler-Palm Coast Under Tornado Watch Until 5 PM Saturday
The National Weather Service placed Palm Coast and Flagler County under a tornado watch Saturday through 5 p.m., along with five other counties along a broad southwest to northeast band of severe storm activity.
In “I Do! I Do!” a Half-Century of Marriage to the Tune of Four Bedposts at Palm Coast’s City Rep Theatre
“I Do! I Do!,” the Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt musical, traces a couple’s marriage over 50 years through thick and song, and will be staged at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre over three weekends through April 6.
Jacksonville Zoo Mourns Loss of 1-Day Old Gorilla Born to First-Time Mother Madini
It is with great sadness that Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens announces the passing of a gorilla infant born Thursday night (March 27). The infant was born to first-time mother, Madini, and first-time father, Lash.
For Pizza and Chicken Wings: Matanzas Football Star and 3 Teens Accused of Robbing Delivery Woman in F-Section
Al’kwazi J. Spencer, a star player on the Matanzas High School football team, and two teens, were arrested early this morning and charged with robbing a pizza delivery woman in Palm Coast’s F Section just after midnight. The boys had allegedly taken the pizza and chicken wings to a house near where the alleged robbery took place and ate the goods with other friends, minus the crust.
Bomb Threat Phoned In Forces Evacuation of Flagler County Courthouse; All-Clear at 4:30p
A bomb threat called in around 12:30 this afternoon forced the evacuation of the Flagler County Courthouse. The building remains evacuated at the moment, with personnel either in the Government Services Building or in the parking lot of the building.
Flagler Unemployment Creeps Up Again, to 9.4%, But Labor Force and Net Jobs Grow
Flagler County’s unemployment rate again rose in February, to 9.4 percent, a decimal-point increase over the previous month and some 80 more people went on unemployment. But The county’s overall employment went up sharply, by 364 (for a total of 31,976), and the county’s labor force went up even more, by 442–both signs of growing strength in the local economy as more workers seem encouraged to join the labor force, and more workers are actually finding jobs.