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Commentary

Ancient Greeks Did Not Share Your Love of the Beach

August 20, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Unlike today, Early Europeans, and especially the ancient Greeks, thought the beach was a place of hardship and death. (© FlaglerLive)

Beach vacations only became popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries as part of the lifestyle of the wealthy in Western countries. Early Europeans, and especially the ancient Greeks, thought the beach was a place of hardship and death. As a seafaring people, they mostly lived on the coastline, yet they feared the sea and thought that an agricultural lifestyle was safer and more respectable.

As US Folds on Climate, China’s Leadership Steps In

August 19, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva meet in Beijing in May 2025.

While it’s still too early to fully assess the long-term impact of the United States’ political shift when it comes to global cooperation on climate change, there are signs that a new set of leaders is rising to the occasion. China and the European Union issued a joint statement vowing to strengthen their climate targets and meet them. They alluded to the U.S., referring to “the fluid and turbulent international situation today” in saying that “the major economies … must step up efforts to address climate change.”

4 Years of Repressive Taliban Rule, But the World Looks Elsewhere

August 18, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Taliban soldiers patrolling Kabul in 2021. (Wikimedia Commons)

Despite promises of moderation and inclusion, four years later, the Taliban has established a repressive, exclusionary regime – one that has dismantled institutions of law, justice and civil rights with ruthless efficiency. As the Taliban regime has tightened its grip, international attention has waned. Crises elsewhere dominate the global agenda, pushing Afghanistan out of the spotlight. With the Taliban seeking to end its isolation and gain legitimacy, can the international community find the will now to exert real pressure?

Israel’s Murderous Targeting of Journalists in Gaza

August 18, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Al Jazeera's Gaza crew and other journalists out on the street following concerns that their media building could be hit by the Israeli military--in 2008. Then as now, journalists' fears have been justified. (Wikimedia Commons)

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.

‘People Are Really Good at Heart’: Anne Frank Beyond the Quote

August 17, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Anne Frank in December 1941.

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?

Florida Cities and Counties Line Up to Defy New Pro-Developer State Law Known as SB 180

August 17, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

One of the proposals would have given homeowners a tax break if they reinforced their home against flooding, by not counting the improvements as part of the value of their home assessed for tax purposes. (© FlaglerLive)

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.

Alaska Summit Bust, and Possibilities

August 16, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 38 Comments

Trump channels his LBJ against Putin in a moment caught by the White House photographer in Alaska.

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

August 16, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Idi Amin at the United Nations. (Wikimedia Commons)

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.”

Glacier Melts and Floods in Alaska Point to Catastrophes Ahead

August 15, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

U.S. Geological Survey staff check monitoring equipment in Suicide Basin in June 2025. By August, the basin had filled with meltwater. Jeff Conaway/U.S. Geological Survey

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

August 15, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

It's taken a great deal of strategy to keep a healthy Flagler County Public Library system going. (© FlaglerLive)

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.

The Search for Sustainable Aviation Fuels Is on Chopping Block

August 14, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

Researchers are working to make aviation fuel more environmentally friendly.

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.

The Dark History of Forced Starvation as a Weapon of War

August 13, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Yazan Abu Ful, a 2-year-old malnourished child, sitting in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on July 23, 2025.

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.

What Is Uranium Enrichment?

August 12, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

Yellowcake is a concentrated form of mined and processed uranium. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, CC BY

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

August 12, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Fifth Avenue in New York, the president's killing field. (Wikimedia Commons)

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.

Zohran Mamdani and the Upton Sinclair Effect

August 11, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, right, and Attorney General of New York Letitia James walk in the NYC Pride March on June 29, 2025, in New York. AP Photo/Olga Fedorova

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.

How GOP’s Gerrymandering Power Grab May Backfire

August 10, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

gerrymandering redistricting

There are a few factors that make redistricting more complicated than just grabbing a few House seats. They may even make Republicans regret their hardball gerrymandering tactics, if the party ends up with districts that political scientists call “dummymandered.”

A Nuclear Reactors on the Moon?

August 10, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Moon to Trump: have you thought this through? (© FlaglerLive)

A lunar nuclear reactor may sound dramatic, but its neither illegal nor unprecedented. If deployed responsibly, it could allow countries to peacefully explore the Moon, fuel their economic growth and test out technologies for deeper space missions. But with China and the United States now racing to build nuclear reactors on the Moon, it also raises critical questions about access and power.

Israel’s Genocide in Gaza: Beyond Rhetoric

August 9, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

gaza genocide

The key question is not to determine whether the conditions have been met to judge specific perpetrators of specific acts of violence as genocidal, but rather to understand the logic behind the practices. A conviction for genocide or crimes against humanity does not save lives, but the very consideration that genocide is being committed or has been committed carries profound political implications.

Due Process Owed Migrants

August 8, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

florida lawyers disciplined disbarred

The meaning and application of due process has become a crucial issue in the U.S., most often with respect to the Trump administration’s migrant deportation efforts. Seemingly contradictory rulings on migrant issues recently not only make it unclear when due process applies but probably leave many asking what the term “due process of law” even means and how it works.

Trump’s Orwellian Firing of America’s Chief Statistician

August 7, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

Do government programs work? It’s impossible to find out with no data.

President Donald Trump’s firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Aug. 1, 2025, after an unfavorable unemployment report has been drawing criticism for its potential to undercut the agency’s credibility. But it’s not the first time that his administration has taken steps that could weaken the integrity of some government data.

The Muslim World’s Pathetic Inaction on Gaza

August 6, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

Arab ad Muslim nations have bee indifferent. (Wikimedia Commons)

When it comes to dealing with two of the biggest current crises in the Muslim world – the devastation of Gaza and the Taliban’s draconian rule in Afghanistan – Arab and Muslim states have been staggeringly ineffective. Their chief body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in particular, has been strong on rhetoric but very short on serious, tangible action.

Hiroshima Survivors, 80 Years On

August 5, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Hiroshima after the bombing. (Wikimedia Commons)

The 16-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima at 8.15am by a US B-29 bomber was codenamed “Little Boy” by the Americans. The scars of the bomb remained untreated, for generations. The US occupation – which lasted until the San Francisco treaty was signed on April 28 1952 – established an extensive Civil Censorship Department (the CCD) which monitored not only all newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books, films and plays but also radio broadcasts, personal mail, as well as telephone and telegraph communications.

How Tariffs Are Hurting America’s 35 Million Small Businesses

August 4, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

Smaller businesses have fewer resources to weather big policy changes.

More than 70% of small-business owners say constant shifts in trade policy create a “whiplash effect” that makes it difficult to plan, a recent national survey showed. Unlike larger organizations with teams of analysts to inform their decision-making, small-business owners are often on their own. In an all-hands-on-deck operation, every hour spent focusing on trade policy news or filling out additional paperwork means precious time away from day-to-day, core operations. That means rapid trade policy shifts leave small businesses especially at a disadvantage.

When Nazis Stole a Fragment of the Great Bayeux Tapestry

August 3, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Bishop Odo rallying Duke William's army during the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (Wikimedia Commons)

In March, it was reported that a fragment of the Bayeux tapestry had been discovered in Germany in the Schleswig-Holstein state archives. It has often been observed that art seems to have been of disproportionate concern to the Nazis. However, their manipulation of visual and material culture should be understood as central to – not separate from – Hitler’s genocidal regime and its efforts towards global domination.

Britain and France Are on Brink of Recognizing Palestinian Statehood

August 2, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Visible in this image is an artist's recreation of the West Bank apartheid wall which guests of the encampment are invited to draw on. In the background are buildings belonging to Reuben College and the Bodleian Library's Radcliffe Science Library.

The UK will formally recognize the state of Palestine in September unless Israel acts to end the “appalling situation” in Gaza. The UK’s decision follows a pledge by French president Emmanuel Macron on July 24 to formally recognise Palestinian statehood in September. If this is acted upon, France and the UK would be the first G7 members and the first members of the UN security council to recognize the state of Palestine.

Keep Your ICE Raids Out of Our Schools

August 2, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

ICE storm troopers in a so-called Removal Operations in Los Angeles in June. (Wikimedia Commons)

Immigration raids have escalated — often under questionable pretenses. This spring, immigration agents tried to enter two elementary schools in Los Angeles. At the door, agents said they wanted to determine students’ well-being and claimed to have authorization from the children’s caretakers. Administrators denied them entry — and when they spoke with caretakers later, they learned that agents had lied about receiving permission.

The Catholic Clergy Takes a Stand on Immigration

August 1, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

Catholic bishops invited by Mark Seitz, center, the bishop of El Paso, Texas, lead a march in solidarity with migrants on March 24, 2025, in downtown El Paso.

Catholic priests across the U.S. discuss immigration with their congregations more than leaders in many other faith traditions. Catholic priests also said they discussed immigration more than nearly all other political issues, including hunger in their communities, capital punishment, health care and the environment. Abortion was the only one priests discussed slightly more often.

Supreme Court Justices’ Political Leanings

July 31, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Reporters used to treat the Supreme Court as a nonpolitical institution, but not anymore.

Politics has a much stronger presence in articles about the U.S. Supreme Court today than in years past, with a notable increase beginning in 2016. Across the five major newspapers, reporting about the court has gradually become more political over time. That isn’t surprising: America has been gradually polarizing since the 1980s as well, and the changes in news media coverage reflect that polarization.

Ring of Fire: What the Strongest Earthquakes Ever Recorded Have in Common

July 30, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Kamchatka Krai earthquake location. USGS

The Pacific region is highly prone to powerful earthquakes and resulting tsunamis because it’s located in the so-called Ring of Fire, a region of heightened seismic and volcanic activity. All ten most powerful earthquakes recorded in modern history were located on the Ring of Fire.Here’s why the underlying structure of our planet makes this part of the world so volatile.

On Flagler County School Board, Competing Views Underscore District Tensions Behind Vouchers and ‘Choice’

July 30, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

School Board Chair Will Furry in an orientation session with Janie Ruddy, after her election to the board but before she was seated, last October. The two are at polar opposites when it comes to vouchers. (© FlaglerLive)

At the end of a 15-minute hearing on Tuesday to approve Flagler County schools’ tentative property tax and budget for the coming fiscal year–a budget that includes the siphoning of $17 million to subsidize private school “vouchers” for almost 2,000 students, with the district’s dollars–School Board member Janie Ruddy delivered a brief speech decrying the erosion of public dollars for public schools, and addressing its consequences. Will Furry followed with a rejoinder, illustrating district tensions at the heart of the voucher and “choice” program. Both statements follow in full.

The Smokescreen of Food Air Drops in Gaza

July 29, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

A Gaza girl in search of food. (Wikimedia Commons)

A third of Gazans have gone without food for several days and 90,000 women and children now require urgent care for acute malnutrition. Local health authorities have reported 147 deaths from starvation so far, 80% of whom are children. Air-dropping food supplies is considered a last resort due to the undignified and unsafe manner in which the aid is delivered. The UN has already reported civilians being injured when packages have fallen on tents. Air-dropped pallets of food are also inefficient compared with what can be delivered by road.

As Israel Starves Gaza

July 28, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

A 4-year-old Palestinian girl, lost her life due to malnutrition and lack of treatment due to the war on Gaza. (Wikimedia Commons

Already around 60,000 Gazans have been killed and growing numbers are now dying from hunger and malnutrition. More than 90% of the private homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. Israeli officials continue to speak of moving Gazans into what has been termed a “humanitarian city” but what former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert described as a “concentration camp”. In the same interview Olmert called decision to move Gazans into the camp as “ethnic cleansing”. All the while, the world’s leaders look on. Most are apparently content to condemn – but little action has been taken.

Is There Any Hope for the Internet?

July 27, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Hate and mental illness fester online because love and healing seem to be incompatible with profits.

As the internet has become more integrated in our daily lives, few would describe it as a place of love, compassion and cooperation. Study after study describe how social media platforms promote alienation and disconnection – in part because many algorithms reward behaviors like trolling, cyberbullying and outrage. Is the internet’s place in human history cemented as a harbinger of despair? Or is there still hope for an internet that supports collective flourishing?

The Nostalgia of Comfort Smells from Fresh-Cut Grass to Hamburgers

July 26, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

The foods and scents we associate with our childhoods can provide a meaningful source of comfort and connection.

Triggered by sensory stimuli such as music, scents and foods, nostalgia has the power to mentally transport us back in time. This might be to important occasions, to moments of triumph and – importantly – moments revolving around close family and friends and other important people in our lives. As it turns out, this experience is good for us.

Risk and Resonance of Comparing ICE to the Gestapo

July 25, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gather for a briefing before an enforcement operation on Jan. 27, 2025, in Silver Spring, Md.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently sparked controversy by comparing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi Germany’s notorious secret police, the Gestapo. Among other responsibilities, the Gestapo was tasked with investigating political crimes and monitoring opposition activity. It later enforced racial laws in Germany and across occupied Europe.

The Marco Rubio Deep Fake Is Just the Beginning

July 24, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Several people received voice messages that claimed to be from – and sounded like – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The FBI warned in a May 15 alert about an “ongoing malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which “malicious actors have impersonated senior US officials.” The alert noted that the campaign includes “vishing” attacks. Vishing is a portmanteau of the words voice and phishing, and refers to using voice deepfakes to trick victims into giving information or money, or compromising their computer systems.

Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy

July 24, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

Florida's voucher scheme is undermining the fabric of America's public education, essential to the democratic fabric, while eroding accountability for taxpayer dollars. (© FlaglerLive)

Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion, argues Colleen Conklin, the former School Board member. And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.

Australia Condemns ‘Inhumane Killing’ of Palestinians as Gaza Suffering Reaches New Depths

July 23, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

A mother cries for her 4-year-old daughter, who lost her life due to malnutrition and lack of treatment due to the war on Gaza. (Wikimedia Commons)

Australia has joined 28 international partners in calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and a lifting of all restrictions on food and medical supplies. Gazans, including malnourished mothers denied baby formula, face impossible choices as Israel intensifies its use of starvation as a weapon of war. In Gaza, survival requires negotiating what the United Nations calls aid “death traps”.

How QAnon Entered Mainstream Politics

July 22, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

QAnon supporters wait for Donald Trump to speak at a campaign rally at Atlantic Aviation on September 22, 2020, in Moon Township, Pennsylvania.

Over time, what started as a baseless conspiracy on obscure platforms has migrated into the mainstream. It has influenced rhetoric and policy debates, and even reshaped the American political landscape. To some, the delay in the release of the Epstein files feels like a betrayal, or even the possibility of his wrongdoing. Others are trying to reinterpret Trump’s actions through increasingly baseless conspiracy logic.

Unlike Government Propaganda, PBS and NPR Are Generally Unbiased

July 21, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

Congress’ cuts to public broadcasting will diminish the range and volume of the free press and the independent reporting it provides. MicroStockHub-iStock/Getty Images Plus

Accusing the media of liberal bias has been a consistent conservative complaint since the civil rights era, when white Southerners insisted news outlets were slanting their stories against segregation. But those charges of bias rarely survive empirical scrutiny. That independence in the United States – enshrined in the press freedom clause of the First Amendment – gives journalists the ability to hold government accountable, expose abuses of power and thereby support democracy. That’s what GOP lawmakers call a liberal bias.

Why Russia Is Paying Women To Have Babies

July 20, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

russia babies

In some parts of Russia, schoolgirls who become pregnant are being paid nearly $1,200 for giving birth and raising their babies. This new measure, introduced in the past few months across ten regions, is part of Russia’s new demographic strategy, widening the policy adopted in March 2025 which only applied to adult women. It is designed to address the dramatic decline in the country’s birthrate.

Everglades Concentration Camp Boosts Depravity for DeSantis & Co.

July 20, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

alligator alcatraz

Do you think concentration camps are cool? Does your heart fill with mean-spirited joy at the thought of human beings stuffed into tents and FEMA trailers parked on a disused airstrip in the heart of the Everglades in the middle of a Florida summer? Do you get off on the idea of alligators and snakes killing people and admire bully capitalism hawking camo beverage coolers, stickers, and T-shirts with grinning reptiles proclaiming, “Nowhere to Run; Nowhere to Hide”?

What You Can Do To Keep Your Data Privacy from Slipping Away

July 19, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Multifactor authentication is a key step in protecting your data privacy.

In 2024, the Identity Theft Resource Center reported that companies sent out 1.3 billion notifications to the victims of data breaches. That’s more than triple the notices sent out the year before. It’s clear that despite growing efforts, personal data breaches are not only continuing, but accelerating. What can you do about this situation? Here are some options.

Charitable Giving Grew to $593B in 2024, 2nd Best Year Ever

July 18, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Paul Newman, the late actor and philanthropist, co-founded Camp Boggy Creek, which children with serious illnesses and their families attend for free.

U.S. charitable giving increased 3.3% to US$593 billion in 2024, lifted by the strength of the economy. The annual report from the Giving USA Foundation, produced in partnership with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, found that this was the second-highest level on record after adjusting for inflation.

America(n) Unbecoming

July 18, 2025 | Pierre Tristam | 19 Comments

The Freedom Tower in Manhattan, seen through a window of the Great Hall on Ellis Island. (© Pierre Tristam)

If the president can threaten citizenship revocation even for U.S.-born citizens, as he did this week, and just for holding opinions he doesn’t like, the rest of us certainly aren’t safe. For migrants, every night–every day–is Kristallnacht as ICE carries out its pogroms. A majority of Americans are either applauding or indifferent, while protesters are branded enemies and invaders to be crushed by militarized goonery. This is not the America any of us have known, or should tolerate.

Is the End of Carbon Capture an Unexpected Benefit?

July 17, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

carbon capture technology breakthroughs

The appeal of carbon capture and storage, in theory, was that it could be bolted on to an existing factory with minimal changes to the core process and the carbon pollution would go away. Without the expectation that carbon capture will help them meet regulations, this may create space to focus on materials breakthroughs that could revolutionize manufacturing while solving industries’ emissions problems.

Florida Fronts $450 Million for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Amid Scarce Information on Prisoners

July 16, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 27 Comments

alligator alcatraz

While touring Alligator Alcatraz, the president said, “This facility will house some of the menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” But new reporting from the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reveals that of more than 700 detainees, only a third have criminal convictions.

Supreme Court Redefines Education Opt-Outs Along Religious Lines

July 15, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

The parents who brought the case had requested that their children be excused when books with LGBTQ+ characters were used in class

An interfaith coalition of Muslim, Orthodox Christian and Catholic parents in Montgomery County, Maryland – including Tamer Mahmoud, for whom the case is named – questioned the school board’s refusal to allow them to opt their young children out of lessons using picture books with LGBTQ+ characters. Ruling in favor of the parents, the court found that the board violated their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion by requiring their children to sit through lessons with materials inconsistent with their faiths.

The Meaning of ABC’s and CBS’s Surrender

July 14, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

network executives surrender

It’s not certain what the ABC and CBS settlements portend, but many are predicting they will produce a “chilling effect” within the network news divisions. Such an outcome would arise from fear of new litigation, and it would install a form of internal self-censorship that would influence network journalists when deciding whether the pursuit of investigative stories involving the Trump administration would be worth the risk.

Making Ignorance Great Again

July 14, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

The Plaza of the Americas on University of Florida’s Gainesville campus. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)

Most Americans once celebrated our heterogeneity, our pluralism, and our tendency to expand freedoms. We valued knowledge and tried to foster understanding; we welcomed the new. Not so much these days, not here in Florida. This state now has statutes forbidding teaching the truth about slavery and Jim Crow, threatening educators who discuss gender, sexuality, systemic racism, and other disfavored topics. Universities are scrubbing their websites of words like “women,” “Black,” “colonialism,” and “diversity” — even if it’s “biodiversity” — anything seen as threatening to white, male Christian hegemony.

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