Gov. Ron DeSantis traveled to Texas last week to stand in front of a couple of noisy oil wells and a friendly crowd of oil field workers to issue a clarion call for coping with climate change by burning more fossil fuels. He pledged to make it easier for oil industry to drill and said he would replace references to “climate change” with “energy dominance.”
Guest Columns
When Sisco Deen Reconnected Descendants to the Local Legacies of General Hernández, Bings and MalaCompra
The late Sisco Deen and his wife Gloria played a central role in exhuming history and reconnecting descendants and state historians with the local legacy of General Joseph Hernández, who owned a plantation residence in what became Bings Landing Park and was the first Hispanic in Congress.
Academic Freedom Greatly Bothers the GOP
The last few years have witnessed a number of disturbing and blunt challenges to academic freedom, mostly from right-wing legislators in GOP-controlled state legislatures. For a sizable segment of the Republican party, so-called “divisive concepts” represent the belief by historians that the institutions of the United States were established to maintain racial and gender hierarchies in addition to maintaining the supremacy of White Americans.
Don’t Blame Us Seniors for the Affordability Crisis. Blame Developers.
A Hammock resident rejects the claim that Palm Coast’s and Flagler County’s seniors “contribute least” as they buy up homes, or that they are to blame for the housing affordability crisis. Rather, developers convince your fearless leaders that they cannot make any money unless they cram in as many houses on a property as possible. They convince commissioners to change zoning frequently, for profit.
‘Savannah Asked Me To Never Be Silent.’ A Survivor of Brenan Hill’s Violence Speaks.
Brenan Hill was convicted on Friday for the murder of Savannah Gonzalez, 22. Shanell Torchia was a previous victim of Hill’s violence, and the mother of his child: he was a fugitive from justice, and the charges she had filed, when he shot Gonzalez. Torchia speaks out about her experience, her friendship with Savannah, and the dangerous leeway granted abusers.
Florida Under DeSantis Is Ground Zero of Voter Disenfranchisement
DeSantis and the malleable Florida Legislature have cracked down on political protest, asylum seekers, the LGBTQ community, and women and trans men who might need abortions, among others. In elections litigation alone, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition sued the state in federal court in Miami alleging the state has erected barriers to felons hoping to regain their voting rights under 2018’s Amendment 4, which the organization sponsored.
An Even Application of Justice Would Be Appreciated
We need, for example, to believe that someone who is rioting in the streets of Philadelphia, smashing store windows and stealing flat-screen TVs under the guise of social justice, is going to be charged with a crime. We are not asking that they receive 17-year prison sentences. We are not asking that they be kept in solitary confinement. We are not calling them traitors to the state. We just want them to, at the very least, have a criminal record that can later be expunged if they stop acting like vandals.
Nikki Haley’s Fascist-Flirting Flip-Flops
Haley won pundit praise for her recent GOP debate performance – at times she sounded saner and smarter than some of her rivals (an admittedly low bar). But then she hit the wall. She described Inmate #P01135809 as “the most disliked politician in America,” someone who would not be electable in 2024 – but she signaled, by raising her hand, that she’d still support Trump as the party’s nominee, even if he were criminally convicted prior to the election.
Hating Trump Is Corrupting Liberal Media
The left’s partisan journalists are still so fixated on hating Donald Trump and making sure he never returns to power that they will never cover the blunders, failures and crimes of the Bidens. The liberal media’s response – “We don’t care. We hate Trump.”
Time for Flagler County Government To Appoint a Citizen Advisory Group
As Flagler County government appears to flail between budget shortfalls and a call for a new tax, it may be time for the county to do what St. Lucie County has been doing for years: appoint a citizen advisory group of resident volunteers with business experience to review future budgets and advise the commissioners.