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Featured

After A Fraud: A Tax Accountant Explains What To Do If You’re a Victim of an Unscrupulous Tax Preparer

September 13, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

The sign in the window may not be the whole story. (© FlaglerLive)

Chris Kocher, a licensed CPA since 2003 and a long-time tax accountant in Bunnell, explains how to handle the fallout from revelations that numerous clients of Robert “Bob” Newsholme’s Flagler Tax Services may have been defrauded.

A Survivor Tree Grows in Palm Coast: 9/11 Ceremony at Heroes Park Dedicates Sapling From Ground Zero

September 12, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

A sapling from the Survivor Tree at Ground Zero, now in Palm Coast's Heroes Park. It was dedicated during a 9/11 ceremony Saturday. (© FlaglerLive)

Saturday evening in Palm Coast, in a 9/11 memorial ceremony organized by Patrick Juliano and the Palm Coast Fire Department, a sapling from the Survivor Tree was dedicated at Heroes Park.

How Another President’s Vaccine Rollout Eradicated a Deadly Disease, Without Ideological Animosity

September 12, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 28 Comments

President Dwight Eisenhower with Florida Governor LeRoy Collins in 1955, the year of the polio vaccine rollout and Eisenhower's decision to put the full force of the federal government behind it. (Florida Memory)

On May 31, 1955, just weeks after the Salk polio vaccine was proved effective against the deadly and paralyzing disease, President Eisenhower outlined the benefits of universal vaccination and hinted he would use the full powers of the government to ensure inoculations. But cooperation from federal, state and local governments made that unnecessary. Polio was eradicated within a few years.

9/11: The Road Not Taken

September 11, 2021 | Pierre Tristam | 3 Comments

In Washington Square Park in Manhattan, an American flag turned emotional message board in the days after the 9/11 attacks. (© Pierre Tristam/FlaglerLive)

The military and political misuses of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were bound to have bewildering consequences for the nation’s budget and its sense of itself as a free and peaceful society, absent the prevailing of wise, more prudent choices. Those choices did not prevail.

Number of Potential Victims Up to 57 in Bob Newsholme Tax Fraud Case as Slew of Schemes Involving Big Sums Emerge

September 10, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

Flagler Tax Services' storefront office at the Bunnell Business Center near the Chicken Pantry. Robert Newsholme owns the whole center. (© FlaglerLive)

Innumerable reports by his clients pointing to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fraud paint a picture of Bob Newsholme, the long-time owner of Flagler Tax Services, as a versatile but clumsy schemer. Newsholme seemed to have boxed himself in in a Ponzi scheme of his own making, hoping to stay ahead of the inevitable reckoning by enlarging his circle of fraud. But as it began to unravel, it unraveled very quickly. But his clients are now left to pick up the pieces–and pay what they owe to the IRS.

Challenge to DeSantis’s Ban on Mask Mandates In Doubt Again as Appeals Court Reinstates Stay on Judge’s Decision

September 10, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

The First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. (Wikimedia Commons)

Pointing to “serious doubts” about the lawsuit, an appeals court Friday put on hold a circuit judge’s ruling that said Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his constitutional authority in a July 30 executive order aimed at preventing school mask mandates.

Sharp Drop in Covid Cases at Schools, Hospital and Community, But Flagler Deaths Have Nearly Doubled to 201 in 4th Wave

September 10, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

Vaccinations are still lagging in Flagler. (© FlaglerLive)

The fourth and gravest wave of the Covid pandemic has crested in Flagler County, with case loads in schools, at the hospital and in the community falling sharply, but at a heavy price: deaths from Covid-19 in Flagler have reached 201, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The county has coordinated a video PSA to push vaccinations, with the cooperation of every local government.

Federal Judge Issues Injunction Against Florida’s Protest Law, Calling It ‘Vague and Overbroad’

September 9, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

It became the largest civil rights movement in the country. (© FlaglerLive)

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Thursday blocked a controversial state law that enhances penalties and creates new crimes in protests that turn violent. Walker, who has frequently clashed with the DeSantis administration and the GOP-controlled Legislature, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking DeSantis and three sheriffs from enforcing the law.

Palm Coast Policing Budget Will Jump 42% with 10 New Deputies, Tax Rate Will Dip a Smidge, but at Reserves’ Expense

September 9, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office's Mark Strobridge had reasons to smile--10 reasons--as he walked away from the podium after answering questions from Palm Coast City Council members this evening. The council, with some disagreement, had granted the 10 additional deputies Sheriff Rick Staly requested. The council had a harder time settling on a property tax rate. (© FlaglerLive)

The Palm Coast City Council Thursday evening ended weeks of wrangling over its budget and tax rate and voted 3-2 to approve awarding the sheriff all 10 requested additional deputies and reduce the tax rate enough to save the average homesteaded homeowner about $11, while using $530,000 from city reserves to make the numbers work.

As Tempers Flare, Attorney and Flagler School Board Members Attempt Unprecedented Ban of Meeting’s Recording

September 9, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin, standing, explaining the legalities of recordings at public meetings, an issue that caused Flagler County School Board members to stop their training workshop today for 27 minutes. Two of the board members wanted to bar recordings at the session, which would have violated open-meeting laws. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin, School Board members Janet McDonald and Jill Woolbright attempted to ban recordings by a reporter and others of today’s daylong training workshop. A lawyer with the Attorney general’s office prevented the ban after a nearly 30-minute recess of the workshop.

Realtors Abandon Ballot Initiative that Would Have Ensured Funding for Affordable Housing

September 9, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Booming. But not affordable. (© FlaglerLive)

Realtors are halting an effort to pass a constitutional amendment to ensure funding for affordable housing, saying they will work with legislative leaders to create a program to help people such as nurses, police officers and firefighters buy homes.

Rezoning Near Integra Woods and U.S. 1 Clears the Way for Up to 650-Unit Apartment Complex, or ‘Attached’ Homes

September 8, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

seminole pointe

The Palm Coast City Council approved the rezoning of 72 acres between U.S. 1 and Seminole Woods Boulevard, clearing the way for a multi-phased development of up to 650 apartments, what the developer’s attorney describes as “attached single-family home-like” apartments rather than traditional, multi-story apartment buildings.

Stay on Mask Ruling Is Lifted, Enabling Local School Boards to Impose Mandate–Until the Next Ruling

September 8, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

schools mask mandates

Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper today lifted the stay on his own ruling that declared illegal Gov. Ron DeSantis’s executive order banning mask mandates in schools. That opens the way for school districts to impose mandates if they wish–at least until the next step in the case’s legal journey.

Gov. DeSantis, in Palm Coast, Opens Federally-Funded Monoclonal Center at Daytona State College Campus

September 8, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 24 Comments

Gov. Ron DeSantis appearing at Daytona State College's Palm Coast campous this morning, with Sen. Travis Hutson, right. (© FlaglerLive via TampaBay 10)

Continuing his tour across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis this morning stopped at Daytona State College’s Palm Coast campus to announce the opening of a free monoclonal treatment center made possible by federal funds. The treatment will be open seven days a week starting Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The treatments do not require a prescription.

Palm Coast Council All in for 10 More Cops, But the Votes for a Budget and Tax Rate Aren’t Lining Up, Setting Up Showdown

September 7, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

Mayor David Alfin's honeymoon may have ended this evening. (© FlaglerLive)

The Palm Coast City Council in a disorderly special workshop meeting this evening agreed to fully fund  the Flagler County Sheriff’s request for 10 additional deputies for city policing, four more than it had originally budgeted. But that’s as far as it got in agreeing to a new budget. The rest remains a churn of conflicts, setting up a potential showdown between council members at a public hearing on Thursday.

After 2,234 Students’ Quarantines, Flagler Medical Director Urges Masking in Schools. Board Still Refuses.

September 7, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

Sr. Stephen Bickel

Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler Health Department, discussed stronger covid-safety measures with the Flagler County School Board today, but in the end a majority of the board, citing the governor’s executive banning mask mandates, showed no inclination to adopt such measures as mandatory masking.

Can There Ever Be Common Ground in Communities Torn by Polarization? A New WNZF Show Attempts an Answer.

September 7, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, left, and "Common Ground" host Shelly Ragsdale, who heads the Flagler branch of the NAACP, in the radio show's first episode, which aired Sunday. (WNZF)

Flagler NAACP Branch President Shelley Ragsdale is hosting a new weekly show on Flagler Broadcasting’s WNZF called “Common Ground,” an exploration of bridge-like themes that may narrow the deep divisions cutting through communities.

Bob Newsholme, In Apparent Attempted Suicide 2 Weeks Ago, Investigated for Fraud in Tax Business

September 7, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

Bob Newsholme as the Mad Hatter in an image he posted on his Facebook page a few years ago.

Flagler Sheriff’s and IRS agents served a search warrant on Robert “Bob” Newsholme’s Flagler Tax Services business in Bunnell two weeks after Newsholme shot himself at his home in an apparent but failed suicide attempt. He faces at least a dozen investigations for fraud.

Outgunned, Outplayed and Frustrated, Reilly Opelka Is Knocked Out of U.S. Open: ‘I’m Not There Yet’

September 6, 2021 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Reilly Opelka lost his fourth-round match to South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, who was almost impossible to deal with. His service games in the final two sets flew by faster than a reality TV star’s career, while Opelka’s serve and net play deserted him.

People Don’t Want to Work? Wrong. They Just Don’t Want to Work for Your Kind of Substandard Workplace.

September 5, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 42 Comments

First hint: the workplace was never a playground. (© Pierre Tristam/FlaglerLive)

After an earth-shattering 16 months that have seen hundreds of thousands of our family members, friends, and neighbors die at the hands of an implacable and indiscriminate foe, there’s just a genuine question of whether grinding it out for 40 hours a week at a job with substandard pay, low benefits, and little work-home balance is really worth it.

How Election Deniers Are Organizing at Local Levels to Seize Control of the GOP and Reshape America’s Elections

September 5, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

election deniers local governments GOP

The stolen election myth is inspiring thousands of Trump supporters to take over the Republican Party at the local level, from city councils to school boards to county commissions, as fact-denying extremists and militants exert mounting partisan influence on how elections are run.

41 Errors and $10,000 Fine in the Bag, Reilly Opelka Still Cruises Into 1st-Ever 4th Round of U.S. Open

September 5, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

Reilly Opelka after winning one of his 106 points Saturday night in his thiord-round victory over Georgia's (© FlaglerLive)

Palm Coast’s Reilly Opelka overcame 41 unforced errors in an uneven match to still win his third-round U.S. Open match in straight sets against Nikoloz Basilashvili under the lights Saturday night, while making light of a $10,000 fine for carrying a pink tote bag with a non-regulation logo.

Defiant Florida School Districts Standing By Strict Mask Mandates as Legal Battle Continues

September 4, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

masks schools

Some school districts will continue to impose their strict mask mandates, even though a key court ruling has been appealed and the legal battle continues over who has control over mask-wearing at public schools — local boards or the DeSantis administration.

Half of Flagler’s Covid Case Load Driven by School Infections as Physicians Urge More Focus on Science and Safety

September 3, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Covid-positive cases declined for the first time in four weeks, but vaccinations have declined for the fourth consecutive week. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County’s weekly case load fell from a pandemic high of 936 last week to 789 this week, as of today, still the second-highest total of the 20-month crisis. Nearly half the total number of infections is among students and employees of Flagler County schools.

An Arsonist’s Redemption: How Daniel Da Costa Avoided 35 Years in Prison on the Strength of His Own Recovery

September 3, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

Daniel Da Costa on the stand this morning. (© FlaglerLive via court zoom)

Daniel Soares Da Costa, now 27, was facing 35 years in prison for setting fires outside a Publix off Belle Terre Parkway in Palm Coast 16 months ago. The story behind Da Costa’s act–his addiction, the loss of his father, and his recovery since his arrest all played into the prosecution’s and the judge’s leniency in a case illustrative of the judicial system’s rehabilitative side.

‘Our Darkest Hour’: Flagler County Sheriff Eulogizes Deputy Paul ‘Looch’ Luciano, ‘Invisible Hero’ Felled by Pandemic

September 3, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Deputy Paul Luciano's coffin as pallbearers approached First Baptist Church in Bunnell for this morning's service. (© FlaglerLive via FCSO video)

“This is a tough day for all of us. And, we begin this service doing the same thing we have been doing for the last 7 days, wondering why Paul lost his life serving and protecting our community.  We may never know that answer,” Sheriff Rick Staly said today in his eulogy of Corrections Deputy Paul Luciano, the jail’s first line-of-duty death in the department’s history.

Judge Issues Written Ruling Barring DeSantis from Banning Mask Mandates or Enforcing Order, But Appeal Is Imminent

September 2, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

judge masks order

Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on Thursday released a written ruling that said Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his constitutional authority in a July 30 executive order that sought to prevent school districts from requiring students to wear masks. Cooper issued an injunction barring the enforcement of DeSantis’ order.

Leaders Gather to Film Groundbreaking at AdventHealth Palm Coast’s New Hospital, Now a Larger, $145 Million Project

September 2, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

AdventHealth's top executives after filming today at the 11-acre site oif the new, $145 million hospital and medical office building on Palm Coast Parkway. From right, AdventHealth Palm Coast COO Wally de Aquino, Central Region CEO David Ottati, AdventHealth Palm Coast CEO Ron Jimenez, Chief Nursing Officer Kathy Gover, and Chief Financial Officer Mark Rathburn. (© FlaglerLive)

AdventHealth executives, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin and County Administrator Heidi Petito gathered this morning at the construction site of the new hospital, now a $145 million project on Palm Coast Parkway, to film what will be a virtual groundbreaking ceremony airing on Sept. 14. Here’s a sneak preview.

Flagler Schools Have 3rd Highest Covid Infection Rate Among 38 Florida Districts Reporting Figures; Masked Districts Fare Better

September 1, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

The Flagler County School Board when it last considered a mask mandate, on Aug. 17, after the chamber was cleared when members of the public were deemed to have broken the board's decorum rules. No decision meeting is scheduled until the third week of September unless the board holds an emergency meeting (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County school district has the third-highest rate of Covid infections among students and staff out of 38 Florida school districts that are reporting their Covid numbers since the resumption of the school year less than four weeks ago, a FlaglerLive analysis finds. There is still no “appetite” for changing course and adopting a mask mandate, according to the school board member who tried enacting one two weeks ago, though data points to a direct correlation between masks and lower infection rates in Florida districts.

Limited Public Opposition to New Fire Truck Weighs In as Flagler Beach Commission Reasserts Need and Support

September 1, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Flagler Beach Fire Captain Stephen Cox briefing the Flagler Beach City Commission and the public on the proposed purchase of a new fire truck at a special workshop Tuesday evening. (© FlaglerLive)

A town hall-like workshop to give the public a chance to weigh in on Flagler Beach’s proposed purchase of a new fire truck did not change dynamics: a commission largely supportive of the purchase, and a small minority strongly opposed.

Covid Hospitalizations in Flagler Crest, But Schools See 173 Infections in 3 Days and County Adds 10 Deaths

August 31, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Covid testing at the Flagler County Health Department on Friday. That day, the county recorded 107 positive confirmations. (Health Department)

Admissions at AdventHealth Palm Coast hospitals in central Florida, which had reached record levels in the fourth Covid wave, crested seven days ago, and have been falling each day since–slightly, but visibly. Covid deaths in Flagler and school district infections are another matter.

Just Call Him David: Palm Coast Mayor Alfin Settles In With Exuberant Focus on Growth, Town Center and the Next Manager

August 31, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin in his office at City Hall. (© FlaglerLive)

In a wide-ranging interview in his new office at City Hall, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin talked about getting a budget done, getting a permanent city manager hired, and fostering the reemergence of Town Center as an economic, educational, cultural and health care hub.

Lawmaker and Non-Profit Sue Department of Health Over Its Refusal to Release Previously Available Covid Data

August 31, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

covid data florida stopped

The Florida Center for Government Accountability and House Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat, late Monday sued the Florida Department of Health and Surgeon General Scott Rivkees over the department’s refusal to provide Covid-related statistical records it used to make public daily.

An Emergency Room Nurse Pleads from the Darkness of Covid’s Front Lines: ‘Start Supporting, Stop Fighting’

August 31, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

Megan Dunaway, the assistant nursing manager at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's Northeast Emergency Center. (Facebook)

“Stop fighting over what is real or not. Stop fighting over whether you should get the vaccine or not. Stop fighting over whether to wear a mask or not,” Megan Dunaway, an ER nurse manager, writes, pleading against covid denialism and for more support for hospital staff. “We, as a community, are in crisis.”

Federal Judge Tangles with DeSantis Administration Lawyer Over ‘Rabbit Hole’ Protest Law

August 30, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Who is Florida's protest law aimed at?

The Dream Defenders, the Florida State Conference of the NAACP and other organizations allege in a lawsuit that the measure, approved by Republican legislators and signed by DeSantis this spring, is unconstitutionally vague, has a “chilling” effect on First Amendment rights and gives local police too much power.

Family Dollar Arsonist Pleads to Probation, New Sentencing Trial for Death-Row Inmate Cornelius Baker in Spring

August 30, 2021 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Tonya Bennett had faced up to 30 years in prison fora first-degree felony arson charge. She will serve 10 years' probation if the judge agrees to the plea terms to be submitted Thursday. (© FlaglerLive via Flagler court TV)

Tonya Bennett had faced up to 30 years in prison fora first-degree felony arson charge. She will serve 10 years’ probation if the judge agrees to the plea terms. Cornelius Baker, sentenced to die for the murder of Elizabeth Uptagrafft in 2007, will get a new sentencing-phase trial sometime in spring.

$2.3 Billion in Federal School Aid Still Sits Unused Because Florida Hasn’t Sent In Spending Plan

August 30, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

The countywide Back to School Jam at FPC on Aug. 7. (© FlaglerLive)

Florida is one of only five states that has not submitted a state plan for Covid relief to the U.S. Department of Education, holding up billions in federal funds to help the Florida education system recover from the impacts of Covid-19 in schools.

Palm Coast Council Has Votes to Increase Deputies By More than 6 and Lower Tax Rate Symbolically

August 30, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Mayor David Alfin, left, and Council member Eddie Branquinho see funding policing and and the tax rate differently this year. (© FlaglerLive)

The Palm Coast City Council is in a 3-2 split that would approve lowering the property tax rate symbolically and increase the number of deputies the sheriff is requesting to police the city by more than the six the administration had been prepared to award.

Hey, GOP: There’s a Museum Up in Montgomery Y’All Really Ought to See

August 29, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

You walk out of the fierce summer sun into a shadowy forest of rectangular steel columns, row upon row of them, six or seven feet tall, covered in rust the color of dried blood. (© Pierre Tristam/FlaglerLive)

Diane Roberts reports from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala., a silent but devastating testimony to how Americans terrorized and murdered other Americans for wanting to live as full citizens of this country. The Equal Justice Initiative is here to remind us that Jim Crow isn’t gone. Our history still warps our present.

Those Disappearing Covid Stats: It’s Not Just Florida

August 29, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

florida covid stats blackout

Florida has been accused of being less than transparent with covid health data. Newspapers have sued or threatened to sue the state several times for medical examiner reports, long-term care data, prison data and weekly covid reports the state received from the White House.

Fallen Deputy’s Daughter’s Anguish: ‘This Virus Has Come Home, It’s Everywhere and It’s Killing the People We Love’

August 28, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

Flagler County Sheriff's Corrections Deputy Paul Luciano, who died Thursday, with his daughter Tina Luciano last June. (Facebook)

Tina Luciano, the 30-year-old daughter of Paul Luciano, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Corrections Deputy who died on Thursday of covid complications, had written of witnessing her father’s struggle three weeks ago, and wrote again after losing him on Thursday, both times voicing her grief–and both times urging people to get vaccinated.

UNF Launches 2021 MedNexus Innovation Challenge for Palm Coast Area High School Students

August 28, 2021 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

It's almost like last year's hackathon, but this time high school students alone are the competitors. (© FlaglerLive)

The Mednexus Innovation Challenge is a competition that encourages high school students to participate in designing ideas for the future of healthcare through purpose-driven education and to apply innovation, science and technology to solve real state/local healthcare challenges.

Who Wants to Be Ron DeSantis’s Surgeon General? No Easy Answers.

August 28, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

Scott Rivkees is resigning as surgeon general. (© FlaglerLive via Florida Channel)

Scott Rivkees announced he will leave his post as surgeon general and secretary of the Florida Department of Health next month. But the move comes amid a surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Combine that with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ antagonism to federal health authorities and mask mandates, and it might make it difficult to find a replacement.

Will More School Districts Impose Mask Mandates Following Leon Court Ruling on Mask Policies?

August 27, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

A court ruling vindicated the mask policies of 10 Florida school districts that have mandated masks in schools without parental opt-outs. Now, the court ruling, in a verbal format, could lead to other districts adopting similar policies because the court determined that these kinds of mask mandates are legal, according to the judge.

Covid’s Casualties: Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Luciano Dies in Flagler, Circuit Judge Steven Henderson Dies in Volusia

August 27, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

The Flagler County Sheriff's Paul Luciano, left, and Circuit Judge Steve Henderson.

Flagler County Sheriff’s Correction Deputy Paul Luciano was 60. Volusia County Circuit Judge Steven Henderson was 49. Both were still in their prime, at work as professionals and at home as family men. Neither fit the profile of Covid casualties, at least not of previous covid waves. Henderson died of the disease on Thursday at a hospital in Volusia County. Luciano died the same day at AdventHealth Palm Coast.

Judge Rules DeSantis Had No Authority to Ban School Mask Mandates or Punish School Boards That Adopt Masking

August 27, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 36 Comments

The judge issued his ruling in a zoom hearing today. (© FlaglerLive via Florida Channel)

Judge John Cooper of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida ruled today that Gov. Ron DeSantis had no legal authority under the recently-enacted Parental Bill of Rights to prohibit local school boards from adopting mask mandates that did not include opt-out provisions. The judge found DeSantis’s order “capricious” and not based in evidence, but rather based on an incomplete reading of the Bill of Rights.

Flagler Schools Covid Cases in 3 Weeks Exceed All of Last Year’s; County Shatters Weekly Record; Florida Adds 1,727 Deaths

August 27, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

Flagler County shattered its record of weekly cases this week, with 936 confirmed cases. Click on the graph for larger view. (© FlaglerLive)

The county recorded 936 confirmed cases of covid in the week ending today, breaking last week’s record by over 200 cases. The health department is unable to conduct systematic contact tracing because it’s overwhelmed by the numbers. As of Thursday, 155 Flagler County residents had died of covid since the beginning of the pandemic, 41 of them in the last four weeks.

Half of Florida’s Students Now in Districts Defying DeSantis Ban on Mask Mandates as Judge Readies to Rule

August 26, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

It was not a jury trial, but most of the state will jury Circuit Judge John Cooper's decision when he hands it down Friday morning. (© FlaglerLive)

Circuit Judge John Cooper said he was “still wrestling” with the “sophisticated legal issues” presented in the case and promised to issue a verbal decision at 10 a.m. Friday. DeSantis on Thursday promised to appeal if Cooper does not side with the state.

Florida House Rep. Sabatini Threatens Flagler School Board of Legal Action in Letter Laced in Fabrications Over Covid Rules

August 25, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

His colleagues know to be masked. (Florida House)

Florida House Rep. Anthony Sabatini wrote a letter to Flagler Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt and the school board today falsely claiming Indian Trails Middle School students are “being deprived of their right to a public school education,” and building on fabrications about the illegal quarantining of a child at Indian Trails Middle School that began pinballing around local social media pages last week.

Florida Ethics Commission Advocate Recommends $1,000 Fine For Milissa Holland’s Email Lapse

August 25, 2021 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Milissa Holland, right, with County Commissioner Dave Sullivan, at her last public event as mayor, at Palm Coast's newly opened splash pad in mid-May. (© FlaglerLive)

The Florida Commission on Ethics’ advocate and former Mayor Milissa Holland have agreed to a $1,000 fine Holland would pay over the commission’s finding that she violated the state’s ethics rules when she sent three private-business solicitation emails from her public, mayoral email account in 2018.

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