It’s a sad notion that administrators, school boards, human resources offices and so-called reformists have unfortunately inculcated in teachers over the years, this idea that if you want to be successful or be taken seriously, or make any sort of impact, that you must stop teaching to do so.
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How Donald Sterling’s Apologists Give Private Bigotries a Pass
If racism and intolerance are learned, it is the Donald Trumps of the world who are the teachers. Our country can only move beyond its present ugly divisions when people who have attained power and influence actively work to promote tolerance. Doing nothing is no longer acceptable.
Mayor and City Manager Rethink Red-Light Cameras’ Fate as Council Member Proposes Referendum
With City Manager Landon saying drivers are feeling harassed by red-light cameras, Mayor Netts losing faith in their original purpose and council member Bill McGuire proposing an outright referendum on the matter, the backlash against ATS’s cameras has become so strong that the council will next week discuss the possibility of eliminating them.
Federal Order Formalizes Agreement Between Flagler Sheriff and ACLU Ending Postcard-Only Mail at Jail
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre had nothing to do with a sadistic postcard-only mail policy at the Flagler County jail when he was targeted by an ACLU lawsuit charging First Amendment violations. A federal judge formalized the final settlement of that lawsuit on Thursday.
Unemployment Falls Sharply to 6.3% as Economy Adds Nearly 300,000 Jobs, But Labor Pool Shrinks
People are reentering the workforce, they’re applying for work, they’re finding jobs, with an economy in April adding more net jobs for the 50th consecutive month–ironically, one of the longest peace-time recoveries on record, following the Great Recession of 2007-08. But a huge number of people are also leaving the workforce. That has resulted in an unemployment report for April that looks very bright at first, but that dims somewhat when analyzed more closely.
Nellie, 61, World’s Oldest Dolphin in Captivity, Dies at Marineland’s Dolphin Adventure
Nellie, the oldest Atlantic bottlenose dolphin in human care, was born at Marineland’s Dolphin Adventure in 1953 and exceeded her life expectation by at least three decades and making an impact in television and stadium shows before she died on Thursday.
Flagler Seeks, Flagler Wins: Bill Restoring Vacation-Rental Regulation Authority Passes House and Heads for Scott’s Desk
The Flagler County Commission has been leading the fight to overturn a 2011 state law prohibiting the regulation of short-term rentals. Thursday morning, the Florida Senate voted 37-2 to give back some home-rule authority to local governments. The House approved the measure 90-27 on Wednesday, sealing a major victory for Flagler County.
75 MPH Speed Limit on Some Highways Nears Reality as Bill Goes to Gov. Scott
After a sometimes-emotional debate, a divided Florida House on Wednesday gave final approval to a proposal that could lead to 75 mph speed limits on some highways. The House voted 58-56 to pass the bill (SB 392), which was backed by the Senate last week.
For 2nd Time in 6 Weeks, a Flagler Judge Declares Palm Coast’s Red-Light Camera System “Improper” and Issues Stern Order
After a hearing on red-light camera citations where Palm Coast was, inappropriately, a no-show, Flagler County Judge Melissa Moore-Stens on Wednesday ordered the city to show why it was circumventing the court’s authority by telling drivers they could settle their camera citations by directly paying the city rather than follow legally required steps–and pay fines–through the court system.
Despite Scott’s Policy and PR Assault, Crist Maintains 10-Point Lead in Latest Poll
Despite two months of high-profile policy initiatives designed to boost Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign and sagging numbers against former Gov. Charlie Crist, the latest Quinnipiac University Poll shows Crist maintaining a healthy 10-point lead over the incumbent, a two-point improvement since late January, before the legislative session and Scott’s PR onslaught got under way. Crist’s lead is especially pronounced among Independents.
Hunting Camp Rape Case: Charges Against 3 Men Dropped as Defense Denounces Prosecution’s “Lies”
13 months after the alleged incident, charges were dropped against Charles Cowart and Daniel and Frank Goggans for lack of evidence that they engaged in anything but consensual sex and partying with a woman they picked up in Flagler Beach. Defense attorney Marc Dwyer accused prosecutors of pursuing a case with scant evidence and shoddy tactics. Charges against a fourth man, Kurt Benjamin, may be dropped in May.
As Florida House Opens Schools to Guns, Lawmaker Declares Gun-Free Zones “The Most Dangerous Places in America”
In a debate that showed sharp divisions about how best to protect children and teachers, the Florida House on Monday approved a bill, 71-44, that could lead to some public-school employees or volunteers carrying guns on campus.
Pit Bull That Killed 3 Dogs Last Week Attacks a Cat, Then a Cop, Before Being Shot
David LaBrie Jr., a Palm Coast resident, is a two-tour veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a seven-year veteran of the Ormond Beach Police Department. His very brief encounter with a pit bull early this morning went less well than his tours, and ended with LaBrie sustaining several bites and the dog dead from two gunshots.
Wings Over Flagler Leader and Bunnell Director Arrested on Drunk Driving Charges Over the Weekend
Bill Mills, a lead organizer, with WNZF, of Wings Over Flagler since the event’s inception four years ago and its rejuvenation this past weekend, was arrested just before midnight on Friday night on the Flagler Beach Bridge. Mick Cuthbertson, Bunnell’s community development director, was arrested early Sunday morning after going against traffic on U.S. 1 and crashing into a car.
Late-Night Session Nears Agreement on $75 Billion Budget, Including Increase in Student Funding
After two days of what appeared to be faltering negotiations the deals were a sign that lawmakers could finish the budget and have it on lawmakers’ desks by Tuesday. The legislative session is scheduled to end Friday, and lawmakers are required to wait 72 hours before voting on the completed budget.
Wings Over Flagler: Rockin’ the Runways Edition Flies In For Weekend of Roars
Some 30 plans and a half dozen musical acts will highlight the revived and renamed Wings Over Flagler event at Flagler County Airport Friday and Saturday. The event wasn’t held last year, but a new partnership between WNZF, the county and Wings organizers ensured that returned this spring.
Disturbance Call Leads Cops to Trove of Thefts in Flagler Beach, Including a Palm Coast Solar Panel
Hunter S. Watson, 24, of 1636 South Daytona Avenue in Flagler Beach was arrested and charged with grand theft and burglary Thursday in connection with a series of thefts that allegedly included a golf cart and a solar panel that belongs to the city of Palm Coast.
Jacksonville Symphony Returns for Sunday Picnics and Pops Concert, With a Prayer to the Rain Gods
Last year’s Picnics and Pops concert in Palm Coast’s Central Park had to be cancelled because of rain. The Jacksonville Symphony is bringing essentially the same program that was rained out, under the direction of Morihiko Nakahara.
Matanzas High School Junior Kathryn Perez Named Runner-Up in New York Times Editorial Writing Contest
Kathryn Perez, a witty, self-assured 16-year-old junior who started writing when she was about 5, caught the attention of the New York Times judges with a counterintuitive editorial celebrating Barbie’s feminist virtues.
250-Mile, Coast-to-Coast Bike Trail
Across Central Florida Nears Reality
Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, thanked House members for supporting his Coast-to-Coast bike-trail connector, which was vetoed last year by Gov. Rick Scott when lawmakers backed the project as a $50 million item.
In Clearest Pro-Immigrant Shift Yet, Gov. Scott Demands a Senate Vote on In-State Tuition for Undocumented
The governor, who originally came to office threatening to crack down on undocumented immigrants, said Tuesday that his opinion on the issue was shaped by stories he’s heard from students who grew up in Florida and would benefit from being able to pay the cheaper, in-state tuition rates.
Latest Beer-Sale Proposal Protects Big Distributors as Craft Brewers Are Limited to 2,000 Off-Site Kegs
A Senate proposal that would allow small craft brewers to directly sell beer in bottles and cans, as long as they limit to 2,000 kegs how much beer is made for off-site sales, continues to leave a bad taste for the growing industry.
A Film Studio Grows in Palm Coast: 10th Voyage Nurtures Zombies and Ambitions
Operating from a plain-looking office complex in Palm Coast’s Hargrove Grade, 10th Voyage Studio is the creation of three young men–Patrick Appolonia, Scott Nance, and Lenny Mosco–who believe that the days of bigness in film-making are over: they’re poised to make technology and versatility pay in a city with little competition.
0-For-5: In latest Blow to Scott, U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeal on Drug-Testing State Workers
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case means that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stands: Drug tests can’t be justified constitutionally for many of the 85,000 workers who would have been subject to Scott’s policy. The two sides continue to carry out a painstaking process of looking at different categories of workers to determine whether some could be subject to drug testing — a process stemming from the appeals court ruling.
A Rabbi, a Priest and a Bible Walk Into a Seminar: An Interfaith Class in Palm Coast Delivers Weekly Punchlines
Every week since December at St. Thomas Church in Palm Coast, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro and Rev. Robert Elfvin have led an interfaith seminar, open to all, on the Bible as it is read through Jewish and Christian eyes. No ideas are out of bounds and some are off the wall, but participants find it bracing, eye-opening and overdue. Ezra Salkin reports.
Florida State University’s Rape Problem: Football First, Morals Later
The Jameis Winston revelations are one more reminder of just how far universities and their apologists are willing to go to protect the multibillion-dollar enterprise that we call “college sports.” What is the cost to the women at Florida State—and the parents who send them there–who surely can have no illusions about what will happen if they dare to cry rape?
Dream Act’s Florida Push Dies as Senate Panel Kills Proposal to Give In-State Tuition to Undocumented Immigrants
Supporters of the bill seemed taken aback by the news, which came less than a week after Sen. Jack Latvala, the Clearwater Republican who sponsored the bill, announced that half the Senate had agreed to join him in sponsoring the measure. Latvala and Negron are locked in a battle over the Senate presidency for the session beginning after the 2016 elections.
Raising Hope: Indian Trails Guardian Angels Lift Awareness of Teen Suicide and Depression
The Guardian Angels, one of two Indian Trails Middle School Service Learning groups doing projects in conjunction with Palm Coast’s annual Arbor Day celebration on May 3, are raising money to dedicate a walkway at the Children’s Memorial Garden in Waterfront Park.
Your Amazon Holiday Is Over: Giant Starts Collecting Sales Tax in Florida in 2 Weeks
For Floridians who are supposed to pay the taxes but haven’t, the announcement of Amazon’s entry into the state’s brick-and-mortar retail landscape could mean about $80 million a year in sales taxes, according to one business lobbying group.
Despite Parental Notification Law, Court Finds Room for Teens to Protect Privacy When Seeking Abortion
Florida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that requires parents to be notified before their minor daughters can have abortions. But an appeals court ruling released Friday shows how far teens can go to challenge the law–and preserve their privacy when seeking an abortion.
No Thanks: Bunnell Votes 4-1 to Return Old Courthouse to the County, Citing Costs and Liabilities
The stunning reversal culminates months of doubt and disappointment about the building on city officials’ part as they discovered a structure in more serious disrepair than the county had let on and tallied far more expensive bills ahead than the city could afford, if it were to keep the building.
House Balks at $2 Million-a-Year Tax Subsidy to Daytona Speedway as Other Breaks Advance
Funding for Daytona International Speedway and a temporary tax break on gym memberships could be casualties when the House and Senate meet next week on their opposing packages to complete Gov. Rick Scott’s $500 million election-year tax cuts.
Trap, Neuter and Return: Feral Cat Program Makes Progress in Flagler Beach, But Not in Palm Coast
The Flagler Humane Society is on pace to trap, neuter and return some 600 cats in Flagler Beach through a program that avoids killing the animals, though not without creating frictions among some residents. Attempts to to bring the TNR approach to Palm Coast continue to falter.
Rocky Mountain High or Reefer Madness? Legal Pot Comes with Risks
Legal pot is attracting new and possibly naïve users — creating risks that some don’t bargain for. Second, the public health system’s desire to protect people may be well-intentioned, but regulation and efforts to track the health effects have a ways to go.
Palm Coast Voters Lose Again: The City Of Low Turnout Gets a Spoiled Election
Even if Palm Coast and Supervisor of Elections Weeks work out their differences, as it now looks like they have, voters have already lost as this months-long manufactured controversy will become election campaign fodder for candidates who don’t have anything more substantial to offer.
Replacing Salisbury Steak With Sardines, Florida Prisons’ Kosher Option Raises Hackles
Inmates contend that the peanut butter, sardines and cabbage served up daily by the Florida Department of Corrections are designed to discourage them from signing up for the kosher meals or to punish inmates if they do, and that the chow is far from what a federal judge had in mind last year when she ordered the state to start serving kosher meals to inmates.
Mega Health Bill Favoring Nurse Practitioners, Trauma Centers and Drs. Without State License Clears House Panel
The bill would protect private for-profit trauma centers, allow for independent practice for nurse practitioners and allow out-of-state doctors to participate in telehealth without a Florida license. The Florida Medical Association opposes the latter two.
Casino Legislation Is Dead This Year, But So Is Proposal to Report Injuries and Deaths of Race Greyhounds
Florida will remain, along with Alabama, the only state that does not require require greyhound tracks to report dog injury and deaths. Also ended is a sweeping gambling overhaul that would have authorized two Las Vegas-style casinos in South Florida.
Grand Jury Declines to Indict Ex-Flagler Beach Cop Bobby MacDonald Over Wife’s Gunshot Wound, But Case May Remain Open for Years
A Flagler County grand jury found no probable cause to go forward with an indictment against Robert “Bobby” MacDonald, who brought his wife Kathy bleeding from the head, from a gunshot wound, to an ambulance in July 2012 in western Flagler County.
Open Skateboard Rinks to Scooters and Bikes? County and Flagler Beach Propose More Permissive Rules at Wadsworth
The proposal is dividing officials and parents, some of whom like the broader allowance, some of whom consider it an invitation to accidents and lawsuits. The Flagler County Commission got in on the discussion earlier this week because the park belongs to the county, though it’s been run and policed by Flagler Beach for 10 years.
Abortion Restrictions May Tighten in Florida as “Viability” Bill Diminishing Women’s Rights Moves Forward
Under current law, third-trimester abortions are allowed if they are necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life or preserve her health, The proposals would make that standard more restrictive, and would exclude a woman’s psychological health as a reason to perform an abortion.
Palm Coast Prepares to Run Its Own Elections, But Cost Would Rise and Turnout Drop
Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks and Palm Coast have been in talks to resolve their differences, but in case they don’t, Palm Coast is planning on running its own elections in 2014, with paper ballots and at a single location only, which would most likely hurt turnout significantly.
Health Groups Oppose Bill Banning E-Cigarettes to Minors, Calling It a Stealth Favor to Big Tobacco
The American Lung Association of Florida and other groups are fighting the measure because it would also ban local efforts to restrict the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products.
My Agreement Or Else: Elections Supervisor Weeks Bluntly Rejects Palm Coast Proposals
Reaffirming a stalemate, Weeks’s refusal to conduct the Palm Coast elections on any terms but hers means the city may have to go it alone, triggering costs and confusion.
More Parents Are Defaulting on College Loans For Their Children, Costing Taxpayers
The Parent Plus program allows parents to take out essentially uncapped amounts to cover college costs, regardless of the borrower’s income or ability to repay the loan. But default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years.
Altered Space: When the Mall
Is a Refuge From Virtual Reality
With America’s slouch toward the virtual at the expense of the real and the human, it is entirely possible that we will become nostalgic for malls as lost relics of interpersonal relations, alongside the courthouse square, the barber shop and the neighborhood bar.
Third Florida Wrong-Way Crash in Two Months Kills 2 and Injures 14 as 91 Year Old Man Errs
Ernest Lee Holmes, 91, drove his Buick south in the northbound lanes of I-75 near midnight Friday, crashing with one car head-on, killing oral surgeon Peter Linek of Ormond Beach, and triggering three more crashes including a Greyhound bus carrying 42 passengers and a car carrying four children.
Scoring the Legislature at the Half-Way Mark
With the two chambers working in tandem on most issues, Gov. Rick Scott was able to sign a series of bills into law this week. They included a bill, dubbed the “Florida GI Bill,” aimed at making the state more military friendly; a package of bills aimed at keeping sexually violent predators locked up; and a bill that will roll back motor-vehicle registration fees.
Lawmakers Poised to Kill Florida KidCare Expansion for 25,000 Children of Legal Immigrants
The proposal (HB 7 and SB 282) would eliminate a five-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrants to be eligible for KidCare, a subsidized insurance program that serves children from low- and moderate-income families. Senate President Don Gaetz would vote against it.
Senate Approves Proposed Constitutional Amendment Giving Scott Court-Packing Power
The proposal, passed by the Senate in a 26-14 vote, would give the next governor the ability to pack the courts and is intended to give incumbent Gov. Rick Scott, who is seeking re-election, the ability to reshape the Florida Supreme Court.