Jorge Salinas, Flagler County’s deputy administrator since 2020, a steadying voice of the county administration and one of the more beloved people at the Government Services Building, was killed late Sunday night in a four-vehicle hit-and-run car crash on I-4, as was his wife and an unrelated motorcyclist.
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In a Surprise, Flagler Commissioners Vote 4-1 to Indemnify Contractor of South-Side Library for Up to $1.25 Million
In one of the most unusual–if not unprecedented–moves on behalf of a building contractor, the Flagler County Commission this morning voted 4-1 to indemnify Ajax Construction for up to $1.25 million for non-structural-related contractual matters in its construction of the Nexus Center, the south-side library Ajax is building for the county.
Rampant Gaslighting About Freedom of Speech at Florida Universities
Our state government is authoritarian and proudly ignorant, hell-bent on destroying what makes universities great — freedom of expression, critical thinking, creativity, exposing students to ideas that may challenge them (or even upset them), unfettered research, scientific rigor, and advances in knowledge based on data. Why would a scholar want to pursue a career in such a fact-resistant, small-minded, censorious state?
Do ‘Conversion Therapy’ Bans Violate Free Speech?
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a challenge to Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” – treatment intended to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity – for young people. Kaley Chiles, a therapist in Colorado Springs and a practicing Christian, argues that the ban violates her right to free speech because it imposes “a gag order on counselors.” Colorado counters that the ban merely regulates the treatments that mental health professionals can provide because conversion therapy has been found to be “unsafe and ineffective.”
The Shutdown and the Battle Over Obamacare Subsidies
In the lead-up to the current shutdown, Republicans needed Democratic votes in the Senate to pass a bill that would keep funding the government at existing levels at least until November. In return for their support, Democrats sought several concessions. A major one was to extend subsidies for ACA insurance policy premiums, which were established during the COVID-19 pandemic. These subsidies addressed a shortcoming in the ACA by decreasing premiums for millions of Americans – and they played a crucial role in more than doubling enrollment in the ACA marketplaces.
Privatizing the VA Is a Disaster in the Making for Veterans
The VA MISSION Act of 2018, passed under President Trump’s first term, established a parallel private network, the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP). The VCCP now sees 60 percent of VA patients and eats up over $30 billion a year that could go to hiring more staff and improving the VA’s aging infrastructure. This year, VA Secretary Doug Collins asked Congress for a 50 percent increase in VCCP funding and — in an unprecedented move — a reduction in VA funding.
George Washington’s Lesson to Pete Hegseth
Washington’s overall vision of a military leader could not be further from Hegseth’s vision of the tough warrior. For starters, Washington would have found the concern with “fat generals” irrelevant. Some of the most capable officers in the Continental Army were famously overweight. Washington became a soldier not because he was hotheaded or drawn to the thrill of combat, but because he saw soldiering as the highest exercise of discipline, patience and composure. His “warrior ethos” was moral before it was martial.
Trump Threatens Peace in Gaza: The Good, the Bad, the Muggy
If you look past the puerility of Trump’s language there are real nuggets in the Gaza peace plan. But it exists as if history did not. Arab memory isn’t that shallow, nor that dumb. Still, Trump’s plan is the best thing to come out of the White House for the Middle East since 2001, as long as it is taken as a starting point for negotiations, not a poisoned take-it-or-leave it threat. Trump’s mobster threat that Israel will “finish the job” if Hamas doesn’t unconditionally surrender ensures failure from the outset, and continued failure of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, genocidal results aside. There is no job to finish. Only lives.
Keith Johansen, Serving Life for Murdering His Wife, Now Claims Stand Your Ground Would Have Exonerated Him
Former Palm Coast resident Keith Johansen, 43, who shot and killed his wife Brandi Celenza at their F-Section home in 2018, now claims a Stand Your Ground motion would have exonerated him and made trial unnecessary. Four years ago this month a jury found Johansen guilty of murdering Brandi, 25, in their home on Felter Lane while Brandi’s young son was in another room, waiting to go to the county fair.
Every Flagler/Palm Coast Development Past, Present and Future Now Mapped Out and Accessible Thanks to Toby Tobin
Imagine an interactive site where every housing development in Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, Bunnell and Flagler County, past, present, and future, is mapped out and available at a click. Every development’s details–number of homes, apartment units, commercial or industrial square footage–is listed, often with illustrations and links. Developers are listed. So are construction dates or projected buildouts. That map is now public and free to use, if not quite as free to its creator, who’s paying for it.
Jane Goodall Redefined What It Meant to Be Human
Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall.
FC3, Flagler’s Cultural Council, Marks 3rd Year With Grant Showcase and Hopes Still Brighter Than Achievements
The Flagler County Cultural Council, the volunteer organization known as FC3 and designated local arts agency, marked its third year since that designation at its annual meeting Wednesday evening at the Palm Coast Community Center by featuring grant recipients, selecting winners of a high school photo contest and installing a new slate of officers. The fledgling council is still finding its footing, its “pillars” lifting more aspirations than achievements for now.
Flagler County Home Builders Sue Palm Coast Over Impact Fees, Seeking Immediate Invalidation of Sharp Increases
The Flagler County Home Builders Association (HBA), five local builders and an individual jointly filed the 69-page, four-count suit in Flagler County Circuit Court late Wednesday afternoon. The suit challenges the City Council’s unanimous adoption last June of sharply higher impact fees for fire services, parks and transportation. The lawsuit is not seeking damages, monetary or otherwise. It is seeking the immediate and permanent invalidation of the ordinances that enacted the higher impact fees. It is an extraordinary challenge. It is neither unprecedented nor unheeded, though with extreme rarity.
Open-Carry Leaves Flagler County’s Government Attorneys Grappling with Ruling’s Application to Public Spaces
A Sept. 10 appeals court ruling that made it legal to openly carrying guns in Florida has created some confusion for Flagler County’s local government attorneys on the law’s applicability in certain public places such as government buildings and parks in light of a loophole in law that appears to leave long guns unregulated, and the permissibility of carrying guns in certain public spaces unclear.
Creekside Music and Arts Festival Set for Weekend Is Postponed to February as Precaution Against Storms
The Creekside Music and Arts Festival scheduled for this weekend–Oct. 4 and 5–at Princess Place Preserve in Flagler County is being rescheduled to February due to an inclement forecast of lightning and storms ahead. The festival, the largest cultural festival on the county’s calendar, both in attendance and vendors, is rescheduled to February 7 and 8. It is the second time in eight years that the festival has had to be postponed due to weather. In 2017, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, it was moved to November.
FWC Employee Fired Over Charlie Kirk Instagram Post Sues Accuses Agency of 1st Amendment Violation in Lawsuit
A biologist has filed a federal lawsuit challenging her firing by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission because of a post on a personal social-media account after the murder of Charlie Kirk. Brittney Brown, who worked for the commission studying shorebirds and seabirds in the area of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Panhandle, alleges in the lawsuit that her firing on Sept. 15 — five days after Kirk was shot during an appearance at a Utah university — violated her First Amendment rights.
A Safe Haven Baby Box Is Blessed at Palm Coast Fire Station 25 as Door to Hope, Mercy and Second Chance
Some 90 people stood in diluvian rain outside of Palm Coast’s Fire Station 25 this afternoon for the blessing of the city’s first Safe Haven Baby Box, a $41,000 gift to the city from the local Knights of Columbus, the Palm Coast Kiwanis Club and others who worked nearly two years toward the installation of the box. “It’s a tangible reminder that in moments of crisis, that there is hope,” Palm Coast Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said. The founder Monica Kelsey, was also among the speakers.
At 1st Public Input Session on Palm Coast Charter Review, a Small But Engaged Crowd Makes Half a Dozen Suggestions
The first of four workshops designed to let Palm Coast residents describe how they want to see the city’s charter changed drew just 17 people Monday evening, 13 if you didn’t count four of the five members of the Charter Review Committee who attended, and a few less if you didn’t count the alternates picked for the committee. But the two-hour discussion was generally thoughtful and informed, engaged, varied, and–with occasional exceptions–free of the strident polemics and mistrust that routinely fill public-comment segments before the City Council.
Flagler Beach Approves Flat Tax Rate and $87 Million Budget, But Not Before 2 Commissioners Kill Engineer’s Job
The Flagler Beach City Commission last week approved its tax rate and $87 million budget for the coming year. The commission approved both items at its second and final budget hearing last Thursday, though not before two of the four commissioners at the meeting–Rick Belhumeur and John Cunningham–risked leaving the city without a budget if the city manager didn’t scrap his plan to hire a second city engineer. That second city engineer position was scrapped.
Three Months Later, Flagler Beach Commissioners Finally Agree on Design of $2.6 Million ‘Beachwalk’ by Pier
After twice rejecting the design for the rebuilding of the Flagler Beach boardwalk and the structures under the A-frame at the pier, the Flagler Beach City Commission approved the preliminary drawings for both in what will be a $2.6 million reconstruction, with new concrete pilings beneath and a large deck and breezeway above. If the cost remains close to $2.6 million, it will be a surprise.
FPL Wants to Raise Base Rates by $1.71 Billion in Next 2 Years, Blasting Consumers’ Counter-Proposal of $1.27 Billion
Florida Power & Light on Friday fired back at a renewed request for state regulators to consider a “counter proposal” to a proposed settlement that would increase the utility’s base electric rates. Opponents of the proposed settlement, including the state Office of Public Counsel, which is designated by law to represent utility customers, want the Florida Public Service Commission to consider the counter proposal. Commission Chairman Mike La Rosa on Sept. 12 denied the request, but the Office of Public Counsel and its allies are seeking reconsideration of that decision.
Republican Push for Snitching on Charlie Kirk Posts Drives Unprecedented Purge of Public Workers
An ongoing purge of public employees is driven in part by Republican elected officials who are encouraging Americans to report co-workers, their children’s teachers and others who make comments seen as crossing the line. They have been egged on by the Trump administration, with Vice President JD Vance urging listeners of Kirk’s podcast to call the employer of anyone “celebrating” his killing.
At Least in France They Imprison Their Felon Ex-Presidents
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy. Sentenced to five years in prison, he is due to appear in court on 13 October to learn the date of his incarceration. The unprecedented ruling enshrines the Republican principle of full and complete equality of citizens before the law.
As He DOGE-Targets Blue Governments for ‘Fraud,’ Florida CFO Ingoglia Wants $600,000 for His Own Bureaucracy
In a state Legislative Budget Request filed last week, Blaise Ingoglia, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ hand-picked new Chief Financial Officer, is seeking more than $600,000 and six full time employees to permanently establish a new “Florida Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Office,” with the provocative acronym “FAFO.” Its mission is to review local government data and “uncover the truth about how these government entities are using taxpayer funds, especially property taxes,” according to the budget request.
It Is Happening Here
Where would America be without hyperbole? From the chutzpah of the City Upon a Hill speech aboard the Arbella to the skirmish-turned Boston “massacre” to American Carnage a few years ago to the ongoing beatification of Charlie Kirk, it’s fair to say that without hyperbole, America would be more like a sprawly humble Saskatchewan than the Galactic Empire it’s become. But America’s slouch toward fascism is no hyperbole. Sinclair Lewis once mused that it can happen here. Today, it is happening here.
Flagler County Government Prepares to Settle 4-Year-Old Lawsuit Over Sears Building, But Won’t Recover All Losses
Flagler County government is nearing a final settlement of a four-year-old lawsuit it filed against several parties after its ill-fated $1.125 million purchase of what was then known as the Sears building on Palm Coast Parkway. The county previously settled with two of the four parties, recouping $900,000 (or $843,000, depending on which document you consult). The pending settlement would recoup an additional $125,000, netting a loss of $100,000 (or $157,000).
In Marineland, Boyfriend-Girlfriend Are Now Majority of Town Commission, and Team Up to Appoint Mayor (Boyfriend)
After a two-vote election put Joseph Pinder on the Marineland Town Commission, his girlfriend and Commissioner Jessica Finch nominated him mayor in place of Dewey Dew, and the nomination carried by the couple’s two votes. While perfectly legal, the situation is still unprecedented, and it underscores the strange status of a town hanging to its designation as a town by a thread and a $192,000 budget overwhelmingly dependent on one taxpayer’s money–Jim Jacoby, who is the mayor’s uncle.
Looking Beyond the Turning Point of Charlie Kirk’s Death to the Soil We’re Tilling for the Next Generation
Charlie Kirk’s assassination feels like more than another entry in America’s long and tragic list of political violence. It feels like a hinge point, writes former School Board member Colleen Conklin. But history suggests scars can be the beginning of strength. If the pattern holds, today’s youth may yet rise to become the next Greatest Generation. Now is the time to cultivate compassion stronger than ideology, courage rooted in empathy, the ability to separate people from their ideas. What then grows could astonish us.
Snubbing Near-Unanimous Public Opposition, Bunnell Commission Approves Rezoning 1,259 Acres to Industrial
Snubbing near-unanimous public opposition just as it had snubbed it when approving a mammoth 6,100-home development last month, the Bunnell City Commission on Monday approved on a 4-1 vote the first reading of an ordinance that will rezone 1,259 acres just east and south of the city’s core from agricultural to industrial, including heavy industrial, in what could potentially change the complexion of the city. Commissioner John Rogers was the lone dissenter.
Routine Palm Coast Meeting Turns Into Tense Clash Over Tax Rate as Gambaro Seeks ‘Rollback’ at 11th Hour
Sounding like former Palm Coast City Council member Ed Danko, Charles Gambaro in the final budget hearing Wednesday asked his colleagues to adopt the so-called rolled-back property tax rate rather than the rate proposed, which was already lower than this year’s. Gambaro’s proposal would have equated to a saving of $13 for the homesteaded owner of a $200,000 house, but would have required an immediate $1 million cut in the general fund. That led to a clash with Council member Theresa Pontieri, and the rest of the council held to the original proposal in a 4-1 vote.
Ex-Flagler County Paramedic Facing Rape Charge Claims Penetrating Patient Was ‘Medically Necessary’
James Melady, the former Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedic facing a rape charge involving an unconscious patient in his care during an ambulance ride, claimed today through his attorney that what he was doing to the patient was medically necessary, and therefore not actionable under Florida law. Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols was skeptical, and pressed him to seek a plea or potentially face up to life in prison.
Palm Coast Appears Ready to Loosen Some Prohibitions on Commercial Vehicles in Residential Driveways
Palm Coast government is moving toward relaxing prohibitions on commercial vehicles parked in residential driveways while still maintaining relatively strict regulations. In sum, small work trucks and vans typically used for services such as air conditioning, painting, pest control, plumbing and the like will be allowed to park in driveways, uncovered. So will trucks with racks, as long as the racks are modest and part of the truck’s tools. Only one truck would be allowed in a driveway.
County and City Leaders Push Back Against DeSantis Claims of ‘Waste, Fraud and Abuse’ in Property Tax
After months of financial abuse allegations lobbed by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration against local governments, city leaders pushed back Tuesday in a Florida House meeting focused on cutting property taxes. “Waste is in the eye of the beholder,” said Casey Cook, the Florida League of Cities’ chief of legislative affairs. “Nobody likes paying taxes, but safe isn’t free. Clean isn’t free.”
Nothing To See Here, Risk-Assessment Analysts Tell Palm Coast Council as ‘Forensic Audit’ Delirium Fizzles
A top-to-bottom “entity-wide risk assessment” of Palm Coast government, including its utility department, conducted in response to two-year-old calls for a “forensic audit,” yielded nothing more than a few issues commonly faced by most, if not all, municipalities. The assessment cost $50,000.
18-Year-Old Motorcyclist Dies on SR100 After Deer Strike Throws Him Off the Bike, and a Car Hits Him
An 18-year-old Palm Coast motorcyclist was killed Monday night after he was thrown from his Motorcycle in a collision with a deer, then was run over by a car on State Road 100 just west of Belle Terre Parkway.
Florida Is Misleadingly Invoking Slavery as It Readies to Kill All Vaccine Mandates in Schools
On Sept. 3, 2025, Florida announced its plans to be the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates for its citizens, including those for children to attend school. Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general and a professor of medicine at the University of Florida, has stated that “every last one” of these decades-old vaccine requirements “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” He is wrong.
30 New Laws Go In Effect Next Week, Including Steeper Penalties for Several Crimes and End of Business Rent Tax
The elimination of the business rent tax is projected to collectively save businesses–and cost the state–nearly $1.15 billion during the current fiscal year, which will run through June 30. That amount is projected to increase to $1.53 billion next fiscal year. Other laws include harsher penalties for people who flee police, harass utility workers and kill someone while driving drunk.
Contrition, Grimness and Encouragement from Flagler County’s Lawmakers Ahead of Another Messy, Miserly Session
Florida Sen. Tom Leek spoke contritely, then grimly, then encouragingly at Friday’s annual Flagler County legislative delegation meeting, ahead of the legislative session in January. The contrition was for the misbehavior of the legislature in the last session, the grimness was about another year of tight budgets, and therefore few legislative appropriations for local governments, and the encouragement was for local officials to make their pitches anyway, as long as they matched that with commitment of their own.
Flagler County’s Unemployment Rate Rises Again, to 5.4%, Highest Level in 4 Years; Florida’s Ticks Up to 3.8%
Flagler County’s unemployment rate rose for the third straight month and hasn’t declined since March, reaching 5.4 percent in August, the highest unemployment rate since June 2021, when it was 5.4 percent. Palm Coast’s unemployment was also 5.4 percent in August, according to figures released by the state’s Commerce Department Friday.
Donald Trump’s New McCarthyism
A modern-day political inquisition is unfolding in “digital town squares” across the United States. The slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk has become a focal point for a coordinated campaign of silencing critics that chillingly echoes one of the darkest chapters in American history. This is far-right “cancel culture”, the likes of which the US hasn’t seen since the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
Condemning the Kirk Assassination, and Condemning What Kirk Stood For
It is possible to condemn the assassination of Charlie Kirk and still condemn the ideas he stood for, to decry the flags at half-mast for so-called values hardly distinguishable from those of Proud Boys. A glean of the successful agenda Kirk pushed shows to what extent nationalist Christian extremism has been re-normalized, with Kirk playing an essential role in that latest of Great Awakenings. It was not a healing voice.
Hell No: Boston Whaler Should Not Be Allowed to Exit Without a Fight from Flagler County’s Leadership
We cheered when Brunswick returned after closing once before, investing taxpayer resources and community goodwill in welcoming them back. Now, once again, we are faced with the prospect of a shuttered plant and broken promises. At what point do we as a community stand behind our leaders and say hell no, you can’t go?
Commissioners Dismayed Over County’s Impotence as They Write Off $10 Million in Seemingly Unpaid Ambulance Bills
Since 2018, the county has accrued on average $1.7 million a year in what the county considers to be uncollected bills, or $10.3 million through February 2024. It’s happened for years, if not quite by those amounts. For years, the County Commission has periodically written off the loss. But it’s not all unpaid bills: the majority of that “loss” is the difference between what Medicaid and Medicare reimburse, as opposed to what the county bills.
At Charlie Kirk Vigil on Courthouse Steps, Calls for Unity and Healing ‘Deep Divide in Our Country’
Well over a thousand people gathered in Bunnell on Wednesday to attend a candlelight vigil for the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The event was held outside the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center, with attendance high enough that sheriff’s deputies had to direct traffic in and out. Sheriff Rick Staly called for healing wounds, grief and “the deep divide in our country.”
It’s a World of Fraud and You’d Better Be Vigilant, Ex-US Prosecutor Roger Handberg Tells Flagler Tiger Bay
When Roger Handberg asked the capacity crowd at Flagler Tiger Bay Club’s season-opening lunch Wednesday for a show of hands from those who’ve been victims of a fraud or who knew someone who had, almost every hand went up. That was his point. “These schemes are all over the place,” he said. They indiscriminately target the vulnerable and those who think they’re untouchable. Handberg, until recently the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, gave the audience a tutorial on the psychology and variety of fraudsters, and on how to try to stay a step ahead of them.
Despite Rezoning for New Commercial Strip Near BJ’s, Live Local Act Could Still Bring Apartments There
The Palm Coast Planning Board on Wednesday recommended approval of a pair of land-use changes that will eliminate the potential for apartment buildings on 39 acres just west of the B.J.’s Wholesale shopping center on State Road 100. That land is slated for another retail-commercial strip similar to Airport Commons further west. Because of the Live Local Act that overrides local regulations, the zoning change doesn’t mean apartments couldn’t still be built there.
Four Years After Reopening, Boston Whaler Will Close Palm Coast Plant by Next Year, Affecting 300 Workers
The Brunswick Corporation announced late this afternoon that it was shutting down the Boston Whaler boat manufacturing plant it had reopened in Palm Coast/Flagler Beach just four years ago, dealing a severe blow to the city’s and county’s largest manufacturer and their local economy. Brunswick is consolidating the Palm Coast plant with the manufacturing facility in Edgewater by next February.
Man Fleeing Deputies Charged with Murder for Death of Woman in Collision; Sheriff Staly Vows Full Review of Chase
Stevens Brian Charles, 40, faces a second-degree murder charge, among at least 10 felony charges, in the death of a 71-year-old Ormond Beach woman Tuesday in a head-on crash on an I-95 exit on which Charles was intentionally driving the wrong way, fleeing from Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies. Sheriff Rick Staly has ordered a top-to-bottom review of the entire incident, the agency’s chase policy, and whether all procedures were followed.
Flagler Beach Kills Backyard Chickens Proposal as Commissioner Who Suggested It Joins Opposition
Flagler Beach will not allow backyard chickens after all. Commissioner Rick Belhumeur proposed the idea in July at a constituent’s suggestion, causing the city attorney to draft an ordinance. Belhumeur wasn’t alone in killing the proposal last week (it was unanimous), but he gave it the coup de grâce.
Palm Coast Scraps Ebike Speed Limit and Lowers Age Allowance to 11 as Council Refines Rules and Seeks More Input
Palm Coast will eliminate what had been a proposed speed limit for ebikes, the allowable age limit for riders was further reduced to 11 (it had started at 15 two weeks ago), and student IDs would be a permissible form of identification for riders, as opposed to government-issued IDs, according to the latest version of an ordinance the Palm Coast City Council is crafting.