With half of all renter households now spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, millions are one emergency away from homelessness. Punishing people for our country’s failure to ensure adequate housing for all is inherently “cruel and unusual.” Widespread homelessness directly violates the human right to housing under international law, which must be recognized in the United States.
Guest Columns
Florida Is Sitting on $198 Million in Federal EV Money That Could Provide More Chargers
Florida is one of 15 states that won’t allow any companies to apply for $198 million in federal money the state is receiving over the next five years the Biden Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. The state is doing so on purpose, citing a laundry list of culture-war complaints, such as “Covid tyranny,” as well as criticism of electric vehicles.
Libraries Are Cornerstones of Our Communities. They Need Our Help.
In the ongoing culture war, conservative politicians have been taking drastic measures to stop the distribution of “age-inappropriate books,” which primarily target children’s books by and about LGBTQ+ individuals and people of color. These measures ignore the crucial role that libraries serve in their communities in combating the effects of economic inequality by providing essential resources to those in need.
Banning Asylum Is No Way to an Immigration Fix
Under both U.S. and international law, anyone fleeing persecution in another country has a right to request asylum and have their claim assessed. But both the Trump and Biden administrations have dramatically undermined these protections. Most recently, Biden’s executive order and accompanying federal rule on “Securing the Border” — which effectively closed the U.S.-Mexico border this June — all but suspended the right to asylum altogether.
Sea Level Rise Make Florida’s ‘Beach Renourishments’ More Frequent, Expensive and Vain
The barrier islands keep moving, which foolish humans label “beach erosion” as they keep trying to bend nature to their will by trucking or dredging in lots of sand from somewhere else for millions of dollars. The Corps of Engineers, the government agency in charge of playing in such big sandboxes, always claims they’re “saving” the beach from disappearing. They aren’t. They’re just saving a lot of people’s investments as “fiscal conservatives” spend tax money on beaches sure washed away in the next storm.
After All the Battles to Keep Belle Terre Swim Club Open, Here’s the Public’s Chance to Still Have Access
The Belle Terre Swim Club’s Advisory Committee is soliciting $20-a-month memberships that would enable members to use the facility on an hourly and daily basis. But at least 120 members are needed to open the club one hour a day. The committee’s goal is to build up to enough members to open the facility several hours a day, six days a week.
Bluelining: How Home Insurers Are Spurning Entire Communities
Bluelining is an insidious practice with similarities to redlining — the notorious government-sanctioned practice of financial institutions denying mortgages and credit to Black and brown communities, which were often marked by red lines on map. These days, financial institutions are now drawing “blue lines” around many of these same communities, restricting services like insurance based on environmental risks.
Governor Ron Wants to Pay High School Athletes. But Not At Your School.
Former Flagler Palm Coast High School Head Football Coach Caesar Campana takes on a proposal by the Florida High School Athletic Association to allow student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness under what is commonly known as an NIL policy. But while the policy has a place in college sports, it will further divide high school sports between the haves and the have-nots, particularly favoring private schools and leaving public schools behind.
I Run a Food Pantry. Without Food Stamps, It’s Not Enough.
Pantries are a critical piece of the anti-hunger puzzle, but they’re filler pieces. Government nutrition programs — with the infrastructure and funding to get the job done — should be the centerpiece. SNAP is the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program, feeding nearly a quarter of all U.S. children. But the end of a Covid-era boost in benefits is leaving nearly 13 percent of the population experiencing food insecurity.
Fund Mass Transit, Not Maddening Highways
For too long, policymakers have sold us the false choice that we must fund highways above all else. They continue to waste billions of our tax dollars on highway expansion projects that pollute our air and increase traffic, instead of funding sidewalks, safe biking routes, and robust public transportation options. This has resulted in a system where most people must drive for every trip to meet their daily needs. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Chief Engert: How Flagler County Jail Stepped Up to Ensure Brendan Depa’s Continuing Education
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and its jail were not responsible for the education of Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School student arrested over a year ago on a charge of aggravated battery of a school employee. Nevertheless, the jail, under the supervision of Chief Daniel Engert, has ensured that a team of volunteers and professionals have continued Depa’s education, with notable and continued successes.
Why Do Your Groceries Cost So Much? Price-Gouging, Not Inflation.
According to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission, the largest grocery retailers — which include Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon, which owns Whole Foods — used the pandemic as an excuse to raise prices across the board. The same is true for big agribusinesses like Tyson Foods and DuPont, which sell the lion’s share of meat products and seeds. These giant companies wrote themselves a blank check during Covid, which they now expect us to pay for.
A Bittersweet Arab American Heritage Month
April is National Arab American Heritage Month. It should be a time to celebrate the contributions of the over 3.5 million Arab Americans who strengthen our proud nation. But right now, it’s impossible to feel celebratory as Palestinian-Americans reel from the immense pain and horror of an unfolding genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians of Gaza, as Israel’s unrelenting bombardment and mass starvation of civilians continues. Adding insult to injury, Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons to commit these atrocities.
Bob Graham Was Among the Rare Dissenters to Dare Resist Bush’s Iraq War Lies and Follies
War fever was rampant in October of 2002 – 9/11 was still raw – and Team Bush was busy smearing anyone who voiced any qualms about kicking butt. Dissent was deemed “unpatriotic.” But Bob Graham had qualms and refused to knuckle under.
The Dis-Education of Brendan Depa
Brendan Depa, the now 18-year-old former Matanzas High School student to be sentenced on May 1 on a first-degree felony count of assaulting a teacher’s aide, is alone being punished for what in fact amounts to a systematic and catastrophic failure, on the part of Matanzas High School and district officials, to follow Depa’s Individualized Education Program, which set out guidelines and requirements on how to contend with his mental health issues.
For the Homeless, Housing Works, Not Handcuffs
Too many communities are responding to rising homelessness by criminalizing the unhoused. It’s more humane and effective to house people. According to the National Homelessness Law Center, almost every state restricts the conduct of people experiencing homelessness. In Missouri, sleeping on state land is a crime. A new law in Florida bans people from sleeping on public property — and requires local governments without bed space for unhoused people to set up camps far away from public services.
Gaslighting Greed: Uber Overcharges Riders and Underpays Drivers
That higher driver pay would force big fare hikes is one of Uber and Lyft’s favorite scare tactics. As drivers across the country have protested poverty wages and organized for better pay, the rideshare giants have trotted out this line again and again. It’s false. The companies are reaping billions at drivers’ and riders’ expense, especially where no protections are in place.
Cash Bail: Unfair, and a Violation of Due Process
When arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, everyone in the United States has the right to due process and to defend themselves in court. But in a cash bail system, when judges set bail amounts, those who cannot pay the full amount remain jailed indefinitely — a clear violation of their due process rights — while the rich can pay their way out of jail.
As Supreme Court Takes on Florida Law Forcing Social Media’s Hand, Maybe It’s Time to Reinterpret the First Amendment
Florida is in the middle of an epic legal battle over concepts of free speech, press freedom and unimpeded commerce. It’s a clash between internet publishers, who want the government to leave them alone, and Republican leaders who insist that social media platforms are too powerful to be run by giant, faceless corporations that can — and do — impose their tastes on all of us.
DeSantis Thinks He’s Abolishing the Homeless by Banning Them from Sight. He’s Wrong.
DeSantis and lawmakers are likely reacting to a shift in the way communities across the U.S. view homelessness from compassion to penalties and restrictions. Unfortunately, but true to form, DeSantis didn’t offer a palette of humane solutions to the homelessness problem. Instead, he spoke of the issue in stark, unsympathetic, self-absorbed terms characterizing homelessness in purely negative terms, blaming them for contributing to the erosion of the quality of life of others lucky to not be sleeping on the street.
Andy Dance Responds: ‘School Resource Deputies Are Not Leaving School Campuses.’
In a detailed response to FlaglerLive reporting and an opinion piece on the county’s plan to “defund” its portion of school sheriff’s deputies, County Commission Chair Andy Dance refutes the claim as inflammatory and out of context, and lays out a history of county attempts going back to 2022 to initiate a conversation about school and county funding for school deputies, in hopes of realigning those responsibilities. If that proves unfeasible, Dance pledges, than the shared responsibility will continue.
The Rent Is Still Too High
Housing prices are spiraling alongside homelessness. Last year, homelessness hit an all-time national high of 653,100 people. To solve this crisis, we need to recognize housing as a human right.
The Controversial Concept of ‘Fetal Personhood’ Is Creeping Up on Florida
If fetuses have legal personhood, abortion-rights activists argue it would infringe the rights of pregnant women and have serious implications for medical procedures like in vitro fertilization and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. For all practical matters, the Florida Constitution is silent on the issue of fetal personhood, despite Chief Justice Muniz’s suggestion that fetal personhood rights might already exist.
Trump Wants to Bring Kremlin Values to the White House
Trump is Putin’s lapdog; that’s been obvious since at least 2016, and his fealty now threatens NATO and the international order. Trump dares not defend our American values, much less question a political murder. There once was a time when Republicans stood steadfast against Russian abuse of human rights, but that abiding party principle has gone the way of the videocassette.
Sheriff Staly to County: ‘Defunding School Resources Deputies Is Fundamentally Wrong’
When the the County Commission first raised the possibility of ending its contribution to the Flagler County school district’s school resource deputy program a year ago, Sheriff Rick Staly wrote the commission chairman a four-page letter sharply criticizing the possibility and explaining why. Now that the County Commission is pushing that possibility further, Staly’s letter is relevant again, and presented here in full.
Sabotage of Biden’s Compromise Border Bill Proves It: GOP Wants Chaos, Not Solutions
Right-wing Republicans have squawked since forever that the only way to save this country from being overrun by non-white immigrants is to enact tough enforcement at the southern border. But now that they’ve finally gotten what they’ve always professed to want – a bipartisan Senate bill, with President Biden moving rightward in the spirit of compromise – Johnson and the rest of his MAGA misfits are decreeing that the whole package is DOA in the House.
This Hyper Talk of a Border ‘Invasion’ Is an Old American Playbook
With persecution, poverty, and climate change driving large numbers of migrants to the southern border, some in politics and the media are again pushing the panic button and purposely but inaccurately using words like “invasion” to describe problems at the border.
The Child Tax Credit Changed My Life. Bring It Back.
A myth exists in America that financial well-being follows if we just work hard and make good choices. But it’s not that simple. At some point, most of us face unforeseen obstacles — from physical or mental health challenges to lost jobs, economic downturns, and natural disasters. Along with low wages and other structural causes of poverty, that puts financial well-being out of reach for about 140 million people in this country.
Stop the LGBTQ Cheap Shots
There are some feel-good bills and cheap shots that require no courage to vote for and bring the political bonus of being difficult for an opponent to argue against this summer, when most legislators will be back home running for re-election. And no topic makes for easier demagoguery than sex, specifically any activity that makes strait-laced Republicans a little squeamish.
Proposed Building Moratorium Addressing Flooding Concerns: An Exchange Between Home Builders and Pontieri
Members of the Flagler Home Builders Association have been writing Palm Coast City Council members to urge them to vote No on a construction moratorium City Council member Theresa Pontieri has proposed for 60 to 90 days on so-called “infill” lots in the city’s sections platted by ITT. What follows is an exchange that took place today between a home builder and Pontieri on the proposal. The council meets Tuesday and may take up the issue then, depending on other developments.
The Check MLK Wanted Cashed for the ‘Riches of Freedom and the Security of Justice’ Is Still Bouncing
The African American community is experiencing record low unemployment, record highs in income and educational attainment, and has seen a massive decline in income poverty since the 1960s. Despite all that, the check for racial economic equality is still bouncing. Without intervention, it will take centuries for Black wealth to catch up with white wealth in this country.
The Brendan Depa I Have Come To Know
Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School special education student who pleaded guilty to the beating of Joan Naydich, his paraprofessional, last February, will be sentenced on Jan. 31. Gene Lopes is a retired special education teacher who has spent the last several months tutoring Depa at the Flagler County jail. Here’s his experience.
A Colorado Justice’s Dissent on Insurrectionists Signals Trouble or Democracy
Chief Justice Brian Boatright’s opinion in the Colorado Supreme Court case excluding Donald Trump from the ballot encapsulates a misunderstanding of — or refusal to accept — Section 3 of the 14th Amendment even among some of the nation’s highest ranking jurists, and it reflects the unfolding failure of U.S. institutions to sustain constitutional order in the face of an existential threat.
Can We Still Find Common Ground?
Many Americans today worry that our nation is losing its national identity. Some claim loudly that the core of that identity requires better policing of our borders and preventing other races or religions or ethnicities from supplanting white Christian America. But that is not what defines our national identity. It’s the ideals we share, the good we hold in common.
Migrants Ace Their Citizenship Tests Routinely. Could You?
At least 9 out of 10 applicants for legal immigration routinely pass a rigorous citizenship test, but an alarmingly high percentage of native-born Americans experience difficulty listing the three branches of government (“Lather, rinse, repeat?”) or remembering the name of their state legislator.
Night of the Pies: Christmas Eve, 1967
My after-school job my senior year of high school was in a bakery attached to a supermarket in my home town, a sort of Jurassic Publix setup. On the night before Christmas Eve, we had orders for a little over 400 pies. The baker asked if I would work with him through the night and, needing the money for my college fund, being locked in an empty supermarket to bake 400 pies for twelve hours at overtime rates seemed like a wonderful idea.
Guadalcanal Memories: Remembering the Mosquito Bowl on Christmas Eve, 1944
No football game ever played, or ever to be played, will exceed the drama surrounding the Mosquito Bowl, played on insect-infested Guadalcanal in 1944. The 4th and 29th U.S. Marine Corp regiments faced off before their next stop, Okinawa.
Trump Borrows Hitler Language in Anti-Immigration Speech in New Hampshire
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in next year’s election, said that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.” He pledged to toughen immigration laws, including by reinstating a travel ban from “terror-plagued countries” and requiring “strong ideological screening” for immigrants in the country without authorization. Hitler used similar language about Jews “poison[ing] the blood of others,” in “Mein Kampf,” his 1925 manifesto.
When Trump Says He’ll be a Dictator, Believe Him
The twice-impeached Trump has made it clear he is still seething about being voted out during the 2020 election. The emotions Trump harbors toward his Republican rivals are volcanic levels of seething anger. His dictatorial impulses–and ambitions–have to be taken seriously.
The End of the Republican Party
Talk of political parties facing impending doom is nothing new. Similar rhetoric was levied toward the Democratic Party in the mid-1980s after it had endured consecutive losses at the presidential level, including a massive 49-state rout in 1984. But the Republican Party seems to be engaging in a level of infighting and dysfunction that has even the most cynical observers stepping back and taking notice.
In Florida, Voter-Suppression Is Essential to GOP’s Edge
Republicans in 2023 are on a campaign to emulate what occurred during Reconstruction by disenfranchising African Americans, engaging in severe gerrymandering so that the odds are turn in their favor in 2024. Their harsh and uncompromising position on abortion is costing them support and has led to losses in primaries. But the GOP’s political strategy is explained by former President Donald Trump, who has said the quiet part out loud: Republicans will never again win elections if democratic reforms make voting easier.
Bridging Our Divides From a World Away
For all the polarization of America, there are still ways to bridge divides and engage in meaningful conversations, and seeing perspectives from the other side of the river–or the other side of the Atlantic, as does Christine Flowers.
Should Biden Reconsider His Bid for a 2nd Term?
Stung by a succession of high profile polls showing President Joe Biden trailing former president Donald Trump among crucial swing state voters, the White House and its allies in Congress have scrambled to calm jittery nerves and reassure donors and establishment leaders all is well and under control. Many aren’t buying it.
Florida Lawmakers Put Developers’ Interests Ahead of Residents’ Hurricane Safety
In a bill to supply aid to the victims of Hurricane Ian and Idalia, lawmakers told local governments in counties hammered by the storm that they were not allowed to make “burdensome” changes to their land-use or growth plan regulations for three years. No learning from their mistakes and trying to avoid repeating them.
By God: Why Matt Gaetz Is In Love With Mike Johnson
That Matt Gaetz is so deliriously happy should tell you quite a bit about Mike Johnson, the latest speaker of the House: he is the most unabashedly Christian nationalist speaker in history.
How a Reckless FHP Chase Almost Caused a Catastrophic Crash in Seminole Woods
On Oct. 26, Palm Coast resident Kendall Clark and her husband were driving in a residential Seminole Woods neighborhood to visit family when they were almost in a severe crash with a Florida Highway Patrol trooper chasing an alleged suspect who had committed no violent crime nor was wanted on a warrant.
Americans Need to Hear More Palestinian Voices
The absence of Palestinians and their advocates from news coverage isn’t just unfair. Sarah Gertler, a Jewish American, argues it is harmful, silencing criticism of Israel and making news media complicit in war atrocities.
Teachers Union Blisters School Board Over ‘Fiscal Irresponsibility’ and ‘Unjust Actions’ in Attorney’s Pending Firing
In a letter to her membership, Elisabeth Dias, president of the Flagler County Education Foundation, the teachers union, calls attention to what she terms the potential “wrongful termination” without due process of School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin, which would set a precedent and pose “a serious threat to the rights and well-being of our members, as well as the financial stability of our school district.”
How a School Superintendent in Maine Addressed the War in Gaza with Students and the Community
Jim Tager, a former superintendent of schools in Flagler, describes himself “privileged and inadequate to fully grasp the experiences of people in the Middle East,” but seeing his district through its prism of diversity and tolerance, he urges students and colleagues to form the kind of friendships across boundaries that enrich local and global communities.
Hailey Lulgjuraj Ended Chemo a Week Ago. She Is Hosting a Benefit for Breast Cancer Patients and Survivors Saturday.
Hailey Lulgjuraj has just ended treatment after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. She never stopped working. She decided to channel her gratitude toward the first annual “Tides of Hope” benefit for breast cancer patients and survivors at Oceanside Beach Bar & Grill, the Flagler Beach restaurant her husband co-owns with her brother in law. She tells the story behind the benefit.