At Sevyn, the new nightclub at the Palm Coast-Bunnell line on State Road 100, live jazz, live blues, open mic nights, Latin music dancing and R&B all mix night after night with art, pool tables and chef Dan Testa’s delights.
Economy
County’s Closest Likeness to Homeless Shelter Scales Back Services and Access to Grounds
For eight years First United Methodist Church in Bunnell had been an unofficial day shelter for the homeless. The church’s new leadership is changing that as finances and a different philosophy is compelling a more restrictive approach.
Even Liberals Should Concede:
Obamacare Is Not Working
Between the rapacity of insurers, GOP assaults and its own flaws, the Affordable Care Act is failing its promise to curb costs and make insurance coverage affordable. Republicans have no alternative. But a better one already exists.
Monday Briefing: The News-Journal’s Special Report on Officer-Involved Shootings, Bunnell Reorganizes, Rotary v. Hunger
The News-Journal’s “Shots Fired” investigates the murky world of officer-involved shootings in Florida, where 249 people have been shot in two years. The Rotary needs volunteers against hunger. Bunnell government reorganizes after its manager’s resignation.
To Raise the Roof for Palm Coast Arts Foundation, A Bimbo Is “Born Yesterday”
Annie Gaybis as the sweet but ditzy Billie Dawn is at the heart of Garson Kanin’s 1946 Broadway play, “Born Yesterday,” staged for one night only as a fund-raiser for the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s Raise the Roof Campaign, on Nov. 13 in Marineland.
From Woody’s to Bull Creek to Island Grille, and Now Pit Stop Pizza for West Side
In Pit Stop Pizza Woody’s Joe Rizzo and Chris Zwirn have partnered with Trevor Tucker to give Flagler’s west side its first pizza delivery business, making it the fourth restaurant Rizzo and partners are running in the county, employing between 70 and 100.
Small Businesses to Obamacare’s SHOP Option: Not Interested
Nationally, about 85,000 people have coverage through the online marketplace known as the Small Business Health Options Program, less than a tenth of original projections.
Palm Coast City Hall Journey Ends With Inauguration of a New Day on Lake Avenue
Ex-Mayor Jim Canfield and current Mayor Jon Netts bookended the story of Palm Coast’s 15-year journey to a City Hall of its own in a grand opening ceremony that drew throngs of residents and plenty of cheers.
Businesses Rebel Against Plan to Shift Overdue Utility Bills from Tenants to Landlords
A rebellion among business owners in Bunnell stopped the city cold from implementing a controversial and unusual plan that would have allowed the city to shift the responsibility for utility bills from tenants to landlords.
Taxation’s Next Frontier: The Cloud
But as states look to tax cloud services, questions arise as to whether storage space in the cloud is a tangible “good,” subject to sales taxes, a “service,” subject to use taxes, or neither of those.
Embry-Riddle To Offer 5% Tuition Break for Florida Students as University Marks 90th Year
Tuition at Embry-Riddle this year is $33,318. With room, board and books, the cost rises to $45,100, according to the university’s estimates. The 5 percent break, a saving of $1,600, applies only to tuition.
Inequality in the Age of Uber
For fairness as well as for efficiency reasons, rights and benefits should be attached to individuals, not to companies or employment status, and should be fully portable across sectors and jobs.
In Flagler Cigar Company, Palm Coast’s Humidor Lights Up Bouquet of Ambitions
Flagler County as an East Coast Ybor City? Humidor owners Ky Ekinci, Mark Woods, Sim Taing and Neil Paisani marked the 10th year of their European Village store by rolling out a line of half a dozen cigars with their own imprint, and their eyes set on national distribution.
When Slick Adults Become Brawling Children: Reza’s “God of Carnage” Whacks City Rep
Two sophisticated couples become more like savage when they try to sort out their children’s fight in Yasmine Reza’s play, at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre starting Friday and through Nov. 8.
A Syrian Family Just Landed in Palm Coast Starts Life Over From “Less Than Zero”
Mania and Amir Saman and their four young children once lived like kings, but they can’t go home to Syria and have been reduced to bare survival as they rebuild a life in Palm Coast.
Flagler Auditorium Launching 24th Season With Disco-Fever Gala at Halifax Plantation Nov. 7
The disco-themed Nov. 7 gala fund-raiser takes place on the heels of a successful 2015 season that saw revenue top $600,000 and operating profit neat $100,000.
Bear-Kill Quota Popped 5 Days Early:
Florida Officials Reassess Before Next Hunt
Florida Fish and Wildlife officials acknowledged the agency “underestimated the hunter success for the first day,” and said a number of scenarios from the planned week-long hunt — cut down to two days — will have to be factored into future planning.
Spartan Extreme Race Re-Sets for Flagler: New Location, Same Lack of Transparency
While the Spartan race appears set at a private ranch in Flagler next March, again, serious questions of transparency and patronage are undermining tiourism chief Matt Dunn’s latest approach.
NFL’s Dolphins Want $3 Million a Year in Taxpayer Subsidies, Daytona Speedway May Be Next
The Legislature created a new funding method for professional stadiums in 2014 in an attempt to reduce the lobbying from prior years for state money.
Palm Coast’s Years in Sinai End as It Moves Into Long-Sought City Hall in Town Center
Sixteen years after the city was born, Palm Coast moved into its own roomy, $9.1 million, 40,000-square-foot City Hall at Town Center this week, with a grand opening set for Nov. 3.
Belle Terre Swim Club Has Until January to Find 400 Members or Close, Absent Savior
A divided Flagler County School Board voted 3-2 for a drop-dead date, relying on current members to build their ranks while leaving out, for now, a sports academy that sought to run the facility. But board members said such talks can continue.
Conflict Concerns Raised Over Tourism’s Matt Dunn Moonlighting at His Own Agency
Flagler government tourism chief Matt Dunn, an $82,000-a-year employee, owns a company that offers services similar to those he provides the county, raising questions of conflicts of interest.
Regulators Again Approve Billing FPL Customers For Unbuilt, Unlicensed Nuke Plants
FPL will charge customers–including most of Flagler County power customers–$34.2 million for a pair of nuclear reactors that have yet to be licensed and may not be built until the end of the 2020s.
Citing Abuse, Cigna Pulls Out of Florida Health Marketplace, Affecting 30,000 Clients
Individuals can still enroll in a Cigna plan by seeing an insurance agent. But enrollment through the Marketplace, which begins Nov. 1, is the only way to obtain tax credits that subsidize the cost of premiums.
Risks You Didn’t Know About Tylenol, Because Its Marketing Campaign Didn’t Convey Them
Internal company documents that have emerged in a New Jersey trial that ended Friday make clear that marketing for Tylenol did not convey doctors’ concerns about its risks.
Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Advisory Club Committee: Why We Should Run the Facility
The Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club Advisory Committee makes the case to run the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club, ahead of next Tuesday’s decision by the Flagler County School Board on the fate of the facility.
Professional Pathways: Why We Should Run the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club
Professional Sports Pathways, a private sports academy that runs the Center for Excellence soccer school in Palm Coast, makes the case to run the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club.
Unemployment Falls to 6% in Flagler and to Lowest Level in 7 Years in Florida
The unemployment rolls shrank by some 150 people in Flagler, bringing the total number of people out of work to 2,569. The labor force grew by about 150, but it remains lower than it was a year ago.
Palm Coast Warily Explores Buying $1 Million Yacht Club for Nature and Senior Center
Buying the Palm Coast Yacht Club would help the city avoid building a required nature center near Long Creek Preserve, but council members are skeptical about creating what would amount to a second community center so close to the first.
Palm Coast Joins Local Governments in Opposition to Utilities’ Proposed Cost-Shifting
Upending a century-long arrangement, utilities want local governments to pay for moving utility lines in public construction projects even though the lines use public right of ways at no cost to utilities.
Scott Wants Tax Cuts Larger Than Projected Surplus. Lawmakers Are More Prudent.
Scott wants a larger tax-cut package in 2016 than the $673 million he sought this year, even though the state budget surplus is projected at $635.4 million, much of it one-time revenue that won;t recur in subsequent years.
2.8 Million Floridians Still Uninsured Even as Just 20% Fall in Medicaid Gap
It’s 1.1 million fewer than in 2013, but almost a third of the uninsured are eligible for Obamacare but haven’t enrolled, 15% have chosen not to enroll in employee-provided health care, and the rest are uninsured for a variety of other reasons.
“Career in a Year”: Gov. Scott Wants $20 Million for Tech Schools’ Fast-Track Programs
Competitive grants, which would be geared toward programs that could be completed in less than 52 weeks such as licensed practical nursing, which takes 45 weeks and has 2,361 openings in Florida, and welding, a 39-week program that could offer a path to one of 583 jobs.
Big Oil, Big Tobacco, Big Lies
Exxon’s scientists knew by the early 1980s that human causes of global warming could be catastrophic, but quashed the findings and peddled junk science instead. It’s time to get Big Oil out of the policymaking process altogether, write Bill McKibben and Kelle Louaillier.
Targeted Attack on Sea Ray Boats Results In Damage to 50 Employees’ Vehicle Tires
One or more individuals blanketed a section of Sea Ray Drive with roofing nails early the morning of Oct. 6, damaging tires on 50 Sea Ray Boats employees’ vehicles.
Flagler Fish Company Celebrates Ten Years in Business
Flagler Fish Company was opened by Chris and Carolyn Casper in 2005 in Flagler Beach. The restaurant offers a wide selection of fresh fish and shellfish, choice meats, appetizers and dinner specials in an indoor-outdoors environment.
Jesus as Clown, Disciples as Dirty Stinking Hippies: City Rep Returns With “Godpsell”
City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast’s only daring troupe, opens its 5th season with the rather surpriring and popular “Godspell,” with laughs and sentiment to boot.
11 Bands for 11th Creekside Festival at Princess Place This Weekend
The Creekside Festival is an annual tradition that celebrates the natural beauty of Northeast Florida with live bluegrass music, a delicious variety of food, arts and craft vendors, historic re-enactors, family friendly activities, and of course every politician running for office this side of the Suwanee River.
Florida Lawmakers Consider Dumping Property Tax and More Than Doubling Sales Tax
If the state eliminated all property taxes, committee records indicate the state’s sales tax would have to go from 6 percent to 12.72 percent to cover existing state, local, school and special district expenses.
Belle Terre Swim Club Pulled From Brink as School Board Turns to Community Group
In a remarkable turn-around for club supporters, the Flagler school board agreed to extend the life of the Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Club by turning over membership responsibilities to a community group and shortening hours of operation.
Yet Another Sales Tax “Holiday” Proposal, For Two Months, This Time for Military Veterans
The military veteran sales tax break would last from Nov. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2016, just in time for the holidays, but competes with other breaks.
Palm Coast International Festival Saturday at Town Center
The Palm Coast International Festival is rich in food, wine, beers, various cultures, entertainment, games, and a parade of nations, at Town Center Saturday from noon to 9 p.m.
Growers Defend Annual Burning of Sugarcane Fields as Environmentalists Prepare to Sue
The burns, regulated by the Florida Forest Service, are intended to make it easier for harvest machines to cut down and collect the stalks, but they emit pollutants such as benzene and formaldehyde.
The Big Pharma Mafia:
Your Money Or Your Life
Hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli’s decision to raise the price of the lifesaving drug Daraprim from $18 to $750 per pill is emblematic of America’s pharmaceutical industry, where price-gouging is the norm.
Rick Scott, Who Made Millions as Hospital CEO, Now Faults Hospital Costs
The proposals are the latest in a series of moves by Scott, who made millions as CEO of HCA/Columbia, to revamp the hospital industry. The Legislature will have to enact his proposals.
Fearing Costs of Long and Losing Battle, Flagler Beach Surrenders to Sea Ray
Flagler Beach government approved a settlement agreement, 3-2, that ends its challenge of Sea Ray’s parking lot plans and the county’s land use changes.
Commissioners Ax Planning Board Chairman Who’d Opposed Controversial Developments, Replace Him With a Developer
The Flagler County Commission booted off Russ Reinke who’d long chaired the planning board and replaced him with developer Art Barr after Reinke had opposed several recent controversial developments.
“Be Prepared,” 10 Potential Candidates for Office Are Told in Chamber’s Grooming Class
Most of the 10 candidates who made it through the grooming for office–6 Republicans, 2 Democrats and 2 Independents–are familiar names in local politics and on advisory boards.
At Belle Terre Swim and Racquet Fundraiser, It Felt Like the 1980s Again. That’s The Problem.
Even though a sizable crowd turned up for the fundraiser Sunday, the effort still falls significantly short of keeping the club going or convincing the school board that the group leading the effort can lease the property and make it work as a club again.
Palm Coast Parkway Pizza Hut Employees Robbed at Gunpoint and Penned in Cooler
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an armed robbery late Saturday night at the Pizza Hut on Palm Coast Parkway and Belle Terre Parkway. No one was hurt.