The $24,000 July bill from City Attorney Lonnie Groot and his firm amounts to almost half the city’s entire annual budget for legal services. Groot and commissioners said the fee is the result of several high-profile cases, but commissioners and staff alone rang up $7,363 in billable hours.
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Tallahassee For Sale: Six Lobbying Firms Collect More Than $1 Million Each
Bolstered by huge paydays from some clients, at least six lobbying firms, including the Southern Strategy Group, collected $1 million or more in legislative lobbying fees between April 1 and June 30.
Three Occupants Pulled from 41-Foot Hatteras Yacht Sinking in Intracoastal in Flagler Beach
A 41-foot Hatteras yacht carrying three people began sinking in the Intracoastal Waterway after 10 a.m. Saturday. The boat was listing severely, but was still afloat around noon, with several people in and out of it, trying to salvage it. No one was injured.
James Wolfe, Popular English Teacher and Coach at Matanzas, Accused of Sex With a Student
James Wolfe, a successful cross country coach at Matanzas, was arrested and charged with seven counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor, whom he allegedly drugged, based on allegations dating back to between August 2010 and May 2011, when the alleged victim was 16.
Kevin Spearmon Leads Police on Yet Another Chase, Ending With Taser, Jail and No Bond
Kevin Spearmon of Palm Coast has repeatedly been arrested–and served a prison sentence–for fleeing police and doing drugs. He was arrested again for the same reasons Thursday, when he was in the company of a 16-year-old girl, and was subdued after another chase in the P-Section and a Taser shot to the back before being taken to jail where he’s being held without bond.
After 31 Days, Dream Defenders
End Their Protest at the Florida Capitol
Dream Defender leaders said they’ll carry their campaign against the “stand your ground” self-defense law and what they consider other forms of racial bias to the polls, trying to defeat the elected officials who opposed their demands, including Gov. Rick Scott, who is up for re-election next year.
Palm Coast’s Landon Digs In Heels Against Elections Supervisor “Demands” For Early Voting Arrangement
The Palm Coast City Council is backing City Manager Jim Landon’s decision to charge the elections supervisor for early voting use of the Community Center on Palm Coast Parkway, while the supervisor shows equal intransigeance as she refuses to accept a smaller room Landon is ready to make available for the 13 days of early voting at the center.
Not Enough Votes for a Special Session on Stand Your Grounds, But Protest Continues
Republicans have returned enough “no” votes in a poll of legislators to quash the idea of a special session to address the state’s stand your ground law, yet the Dream Defenders, a group of protesters whose around-the-clock sit-in at the Capitol stretched to a 30th day on Wednesday, are not quitting.
Battle of the Trees: Palm Coast Slams Lawsuit’s “Inaccuracies” By Citing Inaccuracies of Its Own
In an unusually long and defensive press release, Palm Coast counters an attempted injunction by Dennis McDonald–to stop the cutting of trees around Palm Harbor–by calling his claims “inaccurate” and “misleading,” even as the city itself makes flatly inaccurate claims about the age of trees it is about to remove, among other issues.
Severe Weather Alert for Palm Coast and Rest of Flagler Until 7 PM
The National Weather Service issued a significant weather advisory for the county and , along with southeastern Putnam and northeastern Marion, in effect until 7 p.m. as Flagler emergency dispatchers have summoned all district volunteer firefighters to their stations to assist with numerous issues such as downed power lines and trees.