The rezoning for a 23-acre site for a future self-storage facility–another one–between I-95 and Old Kings Road, and not far from the Hidden Lakes and Toscana subdivisions, drew some pointed opposition from nearby residents and people with family at a neighboring assisted living facility. The self-storage grounds would also accommodate RV’s and boats, neither of which may be parked in Palm Coast driveways.
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Sheriff Staly on Simultaneous July 4 Fireworks in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach: ‘It Will Certainly Strain Our Resources’
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly is cautioning the two cities that simultaneous July 4 fireworks will mean his agency might not be able to support Flagler Beach as it has before on that day. But a Palm Coast City Council member has now shifted position, and favors continuing July 4 and July 3 shows, giving each city July 4 in alternate years. But would Flagler Beach agree to hold its shows on July 3 every other year?
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Message Is Betrayed With Focus on ‘Dream’
Martin Luther King Jr., the “civil saint” portrayed nowadays was, by the end of his life, a social and economic radical, who argued forcefully for the necessity of economic justice in the pursuit of racial equality.
‘Boxer’ Targets Kay Jewelers for Theft, and is Taken Down Minutes Later on FPC Campus
Dominic Conte, 20, told authorities he targeted Kay Jewelers in the Target shopping center in Palm Coast because he figured it would have fewer customers and stays open later. He may have been right. But he did not figure on 24-hour policing.
Actually, Y’All, Some of Us Would Prefer Facts with Our Politics
In the first speech of his 2024 presidential campaign, not-so-cunningly disguised as the “State of the State” address, Ron DeSantis declared, We have made Florida the freest state in these United States. He just hopes you don;t look behind the syrup.
Florida Legislators Are Stealing Money from Environmentally-Sensitive Lands Pot, Without Consequences
In 2014, 75 percent of Florida voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution that said the Legislature had to spend a certain amount of money buying environmentally sensitive land. Legislators have been illegally appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars away from the intended purpose of the amendment.
Simultaneous Fireworks in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach? ‘Unworkable, Unsafe and Unsound’
Scott Spradley, chairman of the committee the Flagler Beach City Commission appointed to study how best to continue Independence Day events in the city, was sharply opposed to holding fireworks the same day as Palm Coast, as Palm Coast officials have suggested. Spradley took his stand as he delivered the final report of the committee’s work, which had not addressed the Palm Coast issue.
Flagler’s Covid Cases Near 1,500 in a Week, Shattering Record Even as Peak Is in Sight; 3 More Deaths Bring Total to 288
Like most communities across the country, Flagler County this week shattered its weekly covid-infection total, with 1,469, exceeding last week’s record of 1,166, though emergency-care clinics’ numbers suggest that the region is near or at its peak of this latest wave, driven mostly by the astonishingly infectious but less lethal omicron variant.
Sheriff Takes Over Noah Smith Murder Investigation and Sternly Warns Against Retaliatory Vigilantism
An emphatic Sheriff Rick Staly late this evening took to Facebook Live to broadcast a warning against anyone who may be planning a retaliatory hit on the perpetrator or perpetrators of the shooting death of 16-year-old Noah Smith on a Bunnell street Wednesday night.
Supreme Court Blocks Vaccine Mandates for Big Employers But Backs Mandates for Health Workers
After Florida and other states fought the plans, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a Covid-19 vaccination mandate for large employers while clearing the way for a requirement that health-care workers get shots to try to curb the virus.
FPC Student Noah Smith, 16, Is Gunned Down in Drive-By Shooting in Bunnell
Noah Smith, a 16-year-old student at Flagler Palm Coast High School and a Bunnell resident, was gunned down in a drive-by shooting late Wednesday night in Bunnell. Smith died later at the hospital.
Cops and Firefighters Discover Power of GIS in Search and Rescue Drill at Princess Place Preserve
Flagler County Fire Rescue personnel joined with Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies, Flagler County Emergency Management and the county’s IT and GIS teams this morning and into the middle of the afternoon at Princess Place Preserve for the first joint exercise in more than half a decade. Some 75 participants were involved.
Slow Way in Seminole Woods Will Not Close After All as Palm Coast Council Ends Long and Winding Slog
After voting to close Slow Way last year, the Palm Coast City Council has reversed course for good, opting to keep the tiny street open now that no-truck signs appear to have reduced traffic woes and a backlash from residents made council members reluctant to close the street.
DeSantis Scripts State of the State’ ‘Freedom’ Rhetoric With Eyes on Re-Election and Presidential Ambitions
Gov. Ron DeSantis opened the 2022 regular session of the Florida Legislature on Tuesday by crowing that he has kept Florida “the freest state in these United States” during the Covid crisis and promising to continue to oppose a “coercive biomedical apparatus.”
Flagler Access Center for Mental Health and Substance Disorders Opens as Glimmer of Help in Crisis
Flagler Access will provide guidance and services to people with mental health or substance disorders through a partnership involving SMA Healthcare and Flagler Health+, and mostly state funds, operating from the building that used to house the Bunnell Branch Library and Sally’s Safe Haven on State Road 100 and U.S. 1.
‘You Had Me at 8-Inch Shells’: Palm Coast Would Shift Fireworks to Airport, But on July 4, Clashing With Flagler Beach
While the Palm Coast City Council is fine with moving Independence Day fireworks to the county airport, three council members want to see fireworks only on July 4, which would clash with Flagler Beach’s iconic show and create coordination problems that the city and the Sheriff’s Office may not have the resources to provide simultaneously.
In Ultimatum, US Army Corps Tells Flagler It May Lose $17 Million for Now If Dunes Impasse Isn’t Resolved
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told Flagler County that it is at risk of losing $17.5 million in federal funds earmarked for a 2.6-mile dunes restoration project in Flagler Beach if the county doesn’t show by early February that it has either acquired three remaining holdouts’ easements or that it will take the owners to court to acquire the easements.
Flagler District Rescinds Letter of Reprimand in Case of Wadsworth Teacher Who Told Story About ‘Black Boy’
The Flagler County school district has rescinded a letter of reprimand to Wadsworth Elementary teacher Stacey Smith after Smith appealed the penalty. It had resulted from Smith telling her fifth grade students during Math class about an experience she had with “a beautiful Black boy” or “poor little Black boy” while teaching in Chicago at the beginning of her career.
Prosecution Drops Felony Fraud Case Against Terry McManus of Flagler Beach’s Ocean Palms Golf Club
Terry McManus, whose company runs the Flagler Beach city-owned Ocean Palms Golf Course, was convicted on a DUI charge and sentenced to four years in prison last fall. He was scheduled to go on trial on a felony fraud charge this morning. The prosecution dropped it in exchange for his plea to a misdemeanor charge. He claimed the state did not have the evidence to convict him on the fraud charge.
Why We Are Appealing Flagler Court’s Decision Clearing the Way for Development of The Gardens on John Anderson
John Tanner, the lawyer representing Preserve Flagler Beach and Bulow Creek, the organization opposing the 335-home Gardens development on John Anderson Highway, explains why the organization appealed a circuit judge’s decision clearing the way for the development. The appeal is pending at the Fifth District Court of Appeal.
I Saw Firsthand What It Takes to Keep Covid Out of Hong Kong. It Felt Like a Different Planet.
On a visit to Hong Kong, reporter Caroline Chen encountered a 21-day quarantine, a bevy of Covid tests, universal masking and, finally, a fear-free family holiday. Hong Kong’s quarantine procedures are among the strictest in the world. The city is committed to a “zero-Covid” policy, which means it will take every possible measure to prevent a single case.
The Party of January 6
Trumpism, which started out as a simple-minded rejection of the status quo, has become something else: a thorough rejection of democratic procedures and a darkly conspiratorial hatred of federal power. This corrosive ideology is now orthodoxy within the Republican Party, and that party remains just popular enough to win back Congress this year and, potentially, the White House in 2024.
Palm Coast Man Who ‘Tortured’ His Child Draws Character Letter from NFL’s Emmitt Smith, and 20 Years in Prison
Deviaun Toler, the 30-year-old former Palm Coast resident a jury found guilty of burning his infant son’s arm with boiling water, leaving him black and blue with marks from whippings and breaking his skull in brutal beatings over “weeks of abuse,” as the prosecutor described it, was sentenced to 20years in prison today, followed by 10 years on probation.
Jimaya Baker, Ringleader in Armed Robberies and Shooting that Left a Man Paralyzed, Is Sentenced to 15 Years
Jimaya Baker, 20, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the maximum prosecutors asked for, in her role as ringleader of two armed robberies in Palm Coast, in 2018 and 2019, one of them leaving an 18-year-old man half paralyzed and an invalid for the rest of his life. She was one of six co-conspirators in the two robberies. All have pleaded to prison time.
DeSantis and Guthrie Admit to Expiration of Between 800,000 and 1 Million Covid Test Kits
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, acknowledged Thursday that 800,000 to a million Covid tests had expired in a state stockpile, with the omicron variant spreading and residents facing long lines for testing.
See the Truth, America, Biden Urges as he Blasts Trump’s ‘Dagger at the Throat of Democracy’
Biden’s speech of Jan. 6, 2022, is of interest not only because of the circumstances that led to its being necessary, but also because of the visual language it employed. The speech expressed a powerful faith in the plain truth. It asked Americans to believe their own eyes. That reflects a long philosophical tradition in Western culture equating sight or light with the truth.
Flagler Covid Deaths Increase by 8 Since Christmas as Omicron Surges and Health Experts Warn: It’s Not a Cold
The coronavirus’s omicron variant is far more infectious and less virulent than its predecessors, but it is not the common cold. The Flagler Health Department is reporting covid outbreaks in all sectors–schools, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and the Flagler County jail, and a significant increase in covid-attributed deaths in Flagler County since Christmas. As of Dec. 24, 277 Flagler County residents had died of Covid-19. As of today, 285 have.
Incumbents a Crowd as Qualifying Soon Closes in Flagler Beach, Bunnell and Beverly Beach for March Elections
For an off-year, 2022 will not be short of elections in Flagler County, starting with elections in Flagler Beach, Bunnell and Beverly Beach on March 8. A combined seven incumbents in the three municipalities are making a play to keep their seats, and absent additional candidates filing to run, Bunnell and Beverly Beach could end up with uncontested elections.
Abortion, CRT, Elections Police, School Boards: 10 Issues to Watch in 2022 Legislative Session
With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing and fall elections looming, Florida lawmakers will start the annual 60-day legislative session Tuesday, with major issues including potential abortion restrictions, a $100 billion budget, prohibitions on teaching critical race theory, more elections policing, and other ideological issues that may give the session a retro feel.
School Board’s Woolbright Objects to Citing “Hate Groups” in Statement Denouncing Hate, and Blames “All Groups”
Flagler County School Board member on Tuesday objected to including the words “hate group” in a denunciation of hate against students, and in a stunning equivalence, said she witnessed “poor behavior” from “all groups,” in essence equating students protesting book bans in November with a group of adults who turned out to taunt, insult and hurl threats at them.
In Contrast With Last Year, Legislative Session Will Open Next Week Without Covid-Safety Restrictions
During the 2021 session, the Senate sharply restricted public access to try to prevent spread of Covid-19. For example, people who wanted to speak before Senate committees had to go to the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, a few blocks west of the Capitol at Florida State University, and appear through a livestream feed.
Ex-Lake Helen Police Chief Michael Walker Takes Over a Bunnell Police Department in Turmoil After Rapid Search
Michael Anthony Walker, 57, Lake Helen’s police chief for 11 years, today was named Bunnell police chief, replacing Tom Foster in a department buffeted by low morale and the loss of its top three highest-ranked officers in a matter of weeks. Brannon Snead, the interim chief since Foster’s departure in early December, was not among the five applicants for the top job.
Town of Beverly Beach Makes Unprecedented $10,000 Donation to Flagler County Health Department
Beverly Beach, which brands itself a “small town with a good heart,” donated $10,000, or 5 percent of its American Rescue Plan allocation, to the Flagler Health Department, with Bob Snyder at the commission meeting to accept the donation Monday evening. The money will be spent on diabetes and other public health initiatives.
Military Career Over, Ex-Palm Coast Airman Isaac Becker Is Sentenced to 8 Years in Prison Over Rape of Minor
If he’d gone to trial and been convicted, Isaac Becker faced up to 90 years in prison for raping a girl he had a familial relationship with, starting when she was 13 and ending when she was 15. This afternoon, Circuit Judge Terence Perkins sentenced Becker, 22, to eight years in prison, followed by 10 years’ probation and a lifetime designation as a sexual predator.
Private Universities Switch to Remote Learning as Covid Surges, But Florida’s Public Universities Will Not
Several private colleges and universities such as Harvard, Howard, Stanford, Syracuse and Northwestern plan to resume classes in a virtual setting for at least part of the spring semester. So far, none of Florida’s public universities are making that transition, despite concerns from faculty union leaders that officials aren’t making the right decisions to protect campus communities throughout Florida.
Sheriff Confirms Zaire Roberts, 23, Was Killed in Regent Lane Shootout, and Another Man Wounded
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office today confirmed what it had not for several days after the Dec. 29 shooting that left a man dead and another wounded at 8 Regent Lane in Palm Coast: that the man who was killed was 23-year-old Zaire Roberts, who had been released from prison just weeks earlier.
Flagler’s Omicron-Led Covid Infections Surge Toward Record as DeSantis Sees Schools and Business as Usual
Infection numbers are surging across Florida, but in a 50-minute news conference this morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo not only projected a business-as-usual approach, but said testing protocols will be revised toward less testing, with testing and treatment focused on higher-risk patients, while schools are to remain open and operating under previously relaxed guidelines that de-emphasize quarantines, masking and distancing.
Florida’s 1st Time Unemployment Claims Now at Pre-Pandemic Levels
If unchanged, the estimate would be the fewest number of claims for a single week since another holiday-shortened week in late December 2019 and would put the average of new claims over the past four weeks at 5,347.
Americanisms: Sinclair Lewis’s Main Street and Babbitt
Today we read the Sinclair Lewis of “Main Street,” “Babbitt,” “Elmer Gantry” and “It Can’t Happen Here” not for literary value but the way Margaret Mead studied the Balinese character–for ethnographic insights. Lewis’s novels are a window into an America not nearly as dated as his reputation.
Is the CDC Inflating Vaccination Rates?
The CDC as of Dec. 5 has recorded more seniors at least partly vaccinated — 55.4 million — than there are people in that age group — 54.1 million, according to the latest census data from 2019. The CDC’s vaccination rate for residents 65 and older is also significantly higher than the 89% vaccination rate found in a poll conducted in November.
Eulogy for Nature: Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire,” published in January 1968, worthy of any top-100 list of the best books of the last hundred years and an essential read–and re-read-today, is a meditation, a polemic, a manifesto, a provocation, a valentine and an elegy to the red desert and to American wilderness.
Time to Treat Environmental Crime as a Crime Against Humanity
Environmental crime is still regarded a “white collar crime,” subject mostly to civil charges and accompanied by fines, when the reality on the state of the planet mandates that environmental destruction be conceptualized as a crime against humanity.
God’s Plagues: Philip Roth’s Nemesis
Philip Roth’s “Nemesis” is the story of an unsuspecting Everyman who becomes a polio superspreader and turns on his fiancee, God and life. Written in 2010, the novel can be read in the age of the coronavirus as a study in grief and loss and the limits of personal, or divine, responsibility.
Adieu, 2021: Sadness, Anger and Gratitude in a Year of Miscarriages
“I am awash with emotions today–everything from sadness to anger to gratitude at this year end,” writes Chris Goodfellow as he bids farewell to 2021. “We have learned nothing in terms of our choices, behaviors and most critically our capacity for unity in face of a threat.”
A Motorcyclist Is Killed on I-95, Crashing Into Guardrail; 6 of 9 Fatalities This Year Were Motorcyclists or Cyclists
A man was killed in a motorcycle crash on I-95 this morning shortly after sunup, just south of the intersection with Palm Coast Parkway. No other vehicles were involved, based on preliminary indications. The fatality is the ninth on Flagler roads this year–the lowest yearly tally in 27 years.
Trump Troll Chronicles: Bob Woodward’s Peril
Bob Woodward’s and Robert Costa’s “Peril,” third in the trilogy of Woodward’s books on the Trump administration, isn’t history. It’s most revealing in what it does not say. It’s tragicomedy. It’s a chronicle of trash foretold. And it’s prediction. The worst is ahead.
Two Men Are Shot in Confrontation on Regent Lane in Palm Coast, One of Them Just Out of Prison
A shootout at 8 Regent Lane in Palm Coast Wednesday evening sent two men to the hospital, one of them airlifted, and triggered an elaborate and ongoing investigation by the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. No one is in custody for now. One of the men is 23, the other is 20. Others, possibly several others, may have been involved.
Proposal Would Lead to Surveillance Cameras in Every Classroom, and Teachers to Wear Microphones
School districts could adopt policies that lead to installing cameras in classrooms and requiring teachers in the classrooms to wear microphones, under a Florida House proposal filed this week. Local school boards would have to vote on the proposal–and pay for it.
Call DCF: Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s The Discomfort of Evening
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, who now goes by the pronouns they/them, won the International Booker Prize for “The Discomfort of Evening,” an autobiographical novel about a 10-year-old girl who thinks she willed the death of her brother, and who watches her family and her bearings collapse after his death. The book caused a controversy due to themes of adolescent sexuality and animal torture.
Liberal Flagellant: George Packer’s Last Best Hope
George Packer’s “The Last best Hope,” published in June, attempts to explain how the United States devolved into the furies of Donald Trump’s last year–the pandemic, the BLM marches, the Jan. 6 insurrection–by diagnosing four separate Americas that no longer communicate. It’s a dour, guilt-ridden book by a liberal looking for penance in all the wrong places.