Dozens of new state laws are expanding legal cannabis use — and expunging the records of users caught up in the system. This unprecedented wave of legislative activity at the state level is yet further evidence that public consensus on cannabis legalization has undergone a seismic shift.
Commentary
Denying Voting Rights to Felons Should Be Beneath Us
Who gets to vote should be driven by citizenship, the spirit of the United States Constitution and all America stands for, not by blowhardism and dirty tricks, argues Nancy Smith.
Good News: Straight People Don’t Need a Pride Parade
Organizers of the “straight pride parade” in Boston this summer have ties to numerous far-right groups. Here are conditions that would make such a parade easier to embrace.
The Crisis Formerly Known as Climate Change: Wrong Re-Branding
The Guardian announced it was re-branding climate change, encouraging its writers and contributors to use more urgent terms like “climate crisis.” Here’s why this is very wrong.
Green New Deal Me In
The Green New Deal may have a hoaky name but at least it’s a beginning, an attempt to push back against a republic of insects and grass, inviting debate in the face of indefensible Republican inaction.
Let Prison Inmates Vote
In the era of mass incarceration, forbidding inmate voting, disenfranchising them after release, and counting them as residents where they’re imprisoned are all components of prison gerrymandering.
A Trust-Worthy Inspection of Captain’s Building at Bing’s Is Essential Before Any Decision
The Hammock Community Association is urging the County Commission to delay any decision on Captain’s BBQ at Bing’s pending a reliable inspection of the restaurant building. The association is willing to pay up to $4,000 for the inspection.
Trump Against the First Amendment
Julian Assange and Wikileaks are giving Trump a chance to challenge First Amendment freedoms of the press and get a radical ruling from his new buddies on the Supreme Court.
Judge Perkins on Flagler County’s Drug Court: Celebrating Lives Reclaimed and Empowered
More than 88 percent of Flagler County Drug Court graduates do not reoffend. Since drug court began locally, 175 participants have made it through its rigorous demands, writes Judge Perkins.
Laws Restricting Abortion Betray a Judgment: Women’s Sexuality Is Not Equal to Men’s
Men regulating women’s bodies through restrictive abortion laws is the tip of an iceberg in which women’s sexuality is stigmatized, de-legitimized, silenced, controlled, and misunderstood, even by women themselves.
Voices from the Grave:
So Proudly We Fail
In “So Proudly We Fail,” James Agee looked at war films to explain the “unutterable dislocation” between soldiers and civilians, what he described–in 1943–as a destructive “chasm” that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan describe with equal anger today even as the nation goes through the motions of marking its Veteran and Memorial days.
End This Hidden Risk to Military Families
The Feres Doctrine shields military medical providers from malpractice suits by troops — and their dependents. Military recruiters never tell the families that it applies to them, too.
The Most Dangerous Time For Women’s Rights in Decades
More than 250 bills restricting abortions have been filed in 41 states this year. At least a third have successfully passed 20-week abortion bans, based on the unfounded assertion that a fetus can feel pain 20 weeks after fertilization.
Tom Bexley: There Really Is No More Room For Sheriff’s Operations in the Courthouse
Flagler County Clerk of Court Tom Bexley, weighing in on the space issues with sheriff’s operations at the courthouse, says clerk operations would be fragmented and jeopardized if further accommodations were made.
Bethune Cookman University 2019 Consecration: “I Leave You Love”
Hubert Grimes, Bethune-Cookman University’s interim president, delivered his last message as interim to the Class of 2019 at a consecration ceremony, urging students to “overcome the lies and negativity that were unleashed over the past eighteen months about your school.”
You Don’t Get To Discriminate Just Because You’re Religious
A bill in Texas would allow professionals of all kinds — doctors, pharmacists, electricians — to deny services to LGBTQ customers on religious grounds, a consequence of a recurring misinterpretation of law.
All I Want For Mother’s Day Is Equality For My Transgender Child
She wasn’t allowed to use the girls’ bathroom. She had shoes thrown at her head when she wore leggings and lacy tops. She endured public school teachers making the sign of the cross and running off when she walked between classes.
The Real Threat To Free Speech On Campus
Conservatives complain when student protest hate speech, while progressive professors are the ones losing their jobs for speaking out as people of color and other marginalized demographics are demonized.
Time is Running Out to Save Right Whales
The North Atlantic right whale is the most endangered whale in U.S. Atlantic waters, and entanglement in crab and lobster roping gear remains the biggest threat to the species’ survival.
Abolish the Electoral College
Abolishing the Electoral College would level the playing field. It would ensure that people, not parties or mechanisms, determine who leads the country. Is that so bad? If you’re a Republican, yes.
Seawalls and the Tyranny of Small Decisions
The seawall-construction project in Flagler Beach is problematic. Building living shorelines rather than concrete walls, is going to give us the best chance at ensuring a healthy beach for generations to come.
Time for $15 an Hour and a Union
After years of idling lawmakers, the idea now has more traction in Congress thanks to the recently introduced Raise the Wage Act, which would set a national minimum pay of $15 an hour by 2024.
Felons’ Right To Vote and Paul Renner’s Cynical End Run Around Amendment 4
Paul Renner, Flagler’s GOP representative and future Speaker of the House, is being dishonest and disingenuous in his defense of a bill that would make felons’ right to vote dependent on paying back all financial obligations.
Mayor Milissa Holland’s 2019 State of the City Address: ‘We Are One Palm Coast’
The full text of Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland’s State of the City Address, presented at the Palm Coast Community Center Friday. The theme of the address is “One Palm Coast.”
Palm Coast’s Disappearing Canopy
Development in Palm Coast is back at a pace not seen since before the Great Recession. Lots are getting leveled, canopies lost. New homes are great., but must 11,000 square foot lots be entirely leveled to make room for 2,000 square foot homes? It’s not either or.
The Familiar Face of White Supremacy
The fad of not naming mass killers is deceptive and self-defeating, an act of cowardice that hides more than it wants to acknowledge. Brenton Tarrant, the killer of Christchurch, is an all–too familiar face.
The Case of an Allegedly Illegal Use of Seclusion On a Non-Verbal, Autistic 4th Grader at Belle Terre Elementary
The parent of a 4th grader used a recording device affixed to the child to capture what the child’s advocate claims are disturbing measures carried out and comments spoken by school staff. The case is headed for litigation.
Two Reasons Why I Won’t Report My Child Abuse
“It always amazes me,” the author writes, “how people will call 911 simply because someone parked in the wrong spot or put the garbage out on the wrong night, yet they won’t get “involved” in possibly saving a child’s life or at a minimum their childhood.”
Bring Back Eisenhower Socialism
Today’s Republicans might call “socialist” Dwight Eisenhower “Red Ike.” After all, during Eisenhower’s two terms to 1960, the wealthy paid a top tax rate of 91 percent on incomes over the equivalent of $1.7 million for an individual and $3.4 million for a couple.
Palm Coast’s Illusion of Affordable Housing
Simply put, the housing stock in Flagler County and Palm Coast is inadequate to suit the needs of the bottom half of the earnings ladder, and that bottom half has nothing to do with “Section 8,” argues Toby Tobin.
Jerry Cameron, There Are Better Ways To Save Face Than Blaming Media Over The County’s Homeless Blunder
Interim Flagler County Administrator Jerry Cameron said the media “interjected” themselves in the controversy over the order to vacate the homeless from around the library before the matter was “ripe.” FlaglerLive’s editor disagrees.
Silencing Home Rule: Sen. Travis Hutson’s Wrong Way On Single-Use Plastic Straws
The fact that the bill prohibits local governments from banning plastic straws will allow a serious and completely unnecessary pollutant to continue to injure sea life, litter beaches and infiltrate land and water.
What National Emergency?
American leader not only genuflecting to autocrats from Turkey to Russia to Saudi Arabia, but behaving like them is a more serious national emergency than what few migrants are still crossing the border illegally.
That Homeless Camp Behind the Public Library: A Palm Coast Problem Requiring Immediate Action
After taking a walk through the homeless camp near the library and speaking with its residents, Palm Coast Council member Jack Howell calls for creating a committee to address the issue from various angles.
Let Marijuana Help Fight Opioid Abuse
It’s time for lawmakers and health officials to recognize the well-established power of medical marijuana to treat chronic pain — and to acknowledge its emerging role in combating the opioid abuse crisis.
Take It From Me: Addiction Doesn’t Start At the Border
As the sister of a brother lost to an opioid overdose, Trump’s claim that we need a border wall in order to keep drugs out is offensive to me on multiple levels. We should treat the root causes of addiction instead.
Anthony Fennick’s Death and The Sheriff’s Green Roof Inn Smear
Much is unknown in the death of inmate Anthony Fennick, but much is known, including the sheriff’s responsibility for hiring trouble-ridden Armor Health–and for showing inmates contempt from the outset with his “Green Roof Inn” sign.
Trump Said He Would Protect Families, Then Deported My Husband
A year ago, my husband Jorge was torn from our family and deported to Mexico after living peacefully in the United States for nearly 30 years, working and raising a family with me in suburban Detroit, the author writes.
Flagler’s AAUW Branch Marks 35 Years of Advancing ‘Equity for Women and Girls’
What began with an organizational meeting of the Flagler Beach of the American Association of University Women is now an organization 50-member strong.
Medicare for All: No Country for “Can’t”
Medicare for all could be the most efficient, cheapest, and provider-friendly—but not perfect—part of what could be a health system that promotes health, saves lives, and creates a sense of social solidarity.
Starbucks’s Howard Schultz: Another Billionaire Presidential Candidate Who Doesn’t Get It
Privileged candidates from Donald Trump to Howard Schultz don’t have any idea what life is really like for a single parent raising two kids while working and attending night classes.
DeSantis Rewards Friends With Appointments. Experience Must Wait.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’s appointments are a pile of mismatches in critical state agencies so far, reflecting a normal if immoral right of passage in Tallahassee, writes Nancy Smith.
Trump’s Fabulous Wall Fables
We’re in a post-factual presidency where alternative facts are the equivalent of papal bulls. It’s about belief, not reality. For the sake of appearances though, let’s argue the facts about the wall for a moment.
Transgender Ban in Military Is About Bigotry and Distraction, Not Readiness or Cost
Trump is using the ban purely to provoke the left, throw red meat to his base, and distract us all from the real issues in our nation, like the government shutdown.
MLK’s Dream Of Economic Justice Deferred By Increasing Inequalities
King foreshadowed that if we maintain our exploitative economic and political systems, then we’d get not only racial apartheid, but economic apartheid as well.
Sheriff’s Sick Building: How To Hire A Savior
To break out of its leadership lethargy on the future of the Sheriff’s Operations Center, Flagler County government should find an obsessively independent project manager untainted by local politics or current administrations.
Democrats Are Afraid Of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Too. That’s A Good Thing.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is upsetting fellow Democrats over her support for progressive primary challenges against centrist Democrats. But it’s a sound idea for the party of alleged change.
Democratic Leaders Fail Their First Test on Climate
Youth activists who occupied the offices of Democratic leaders to demand a special congressional committee to plan for a Green New Deal were appeased and brushed off.
Flagler Firefighters’ Union Members Vote For Firing Their Boss, Administrator Craig Coffey
The firefighters’ union’s vote was expected but significant in that its membership’s contract is dependent on negotiations with Coffey’s management team, and vulnerable to retaliation.
Let Craig Coffey Resign. With Severance.
Craig Coffey’s loss of credibility has been painful. It doesn’t need to be cruel. Rather than a public flogging on Jan. 14, he should be allowed to resign with a measure of dignity–and severance.