Saturday’s Flagler Pride Festival and its crowds, which by 9 p.m. had totaled between 600 and 800 people, put the lie to the county’s presumed homogeneity: Palm Coast, a city started in the late 1960s as an integrated, post-racial subdivision, is still more diverse than perhaps assumed, and if anything growing more so.
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local News
Volunteers: The Flagler Health Department’s Secret Weapon in an Epic Covid Fight
From the heady days of frantic covid testing to the headier days of vaccination drives at the Flagler County Fairgrounds, the county airport and elsewhere, a corps of over 100 volunteers have assisted the Flagler Health Department and county emergency services in pulling off an epic feat of safety and coordination. Here are the stories of three of them: Judy Mazzella, Moya Thompson, and Dr. Stephen Playe, as told by Gretchen Smith.
A Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy Is Hospitalized After Two Inmates Violently Assault Him Over a Koran at the Jail
A Flagler County Sheriff’s corrections deputy was hospitalized Friday afternoon after being assaulted and beaten by two inmates at the Flagler County jail, after attempting to search the Koran one of the two inmates was carrying. The inmate wouldn’t let him search it.
Keith Johansen’s Defense Wants to Keep Out Evidence of His Racist and Sadistic Threats Before Shooting Death of Wife Brandi Celenza
The defense for Palm Coast’s Keith Johansen, 36, facing a first-degree murder charge in the shooting death of his wife Brandi Celenza in 2018, wants to keep out of his trial surveillance video that shows him repeatedly threatening, insulting and demeaning Celenza, using racist, misogynistic and homophobic language. Today, the defense lost a bid to keep out hours of Johansen’s interviews with detectives.
Here’s Palm Coast’s Full ‘Difficult Citizens’ List, Its Origins, and the Kind of Offenses that Landed People On It
The full and controversial “Difficult Citizen List” Palm Coast government has kept since 2016 is revealed, along with its history: the city set up a task force on employee safety in 2015, resulting in guidelines for employees on how to deal with difficult customers. The list, kept largely secret, was one of the results. The city council is rethinking its approach.
Reilly Opelka Falls to No. 2 Medvedev in 3rd Round of French Open
Reilly Opelka is a huge server. But Friday he ran into one of the best serve returners on the planet in Daniil Medvedev, and the result was a straight-sets win for the Russian, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4.
Interim Palm Coast Manager Denise Bevan Signs Contract as Morton, Tenure Over, Vows to Exit Government Sector
Bevan will be paid the equivalent of $161,400 a year, plus a $400 monthly car allowance, health and other benefits. Her starting day as interim was Wednesday, the day Matt Morton exited City Hall and, according to him, government service for good.
14-Year-Old Girl Wounded in Firefight With Deputies in Volusia Was the Arsonist in Palm Coast’s B-Section in April
Nicole Jackson Maldonado, the 14-year-old girl charged in April for setting a half dozen brush fires in Palm Coast’s B Section, burglarized a home with another boy in Deltona, the two armed themselves with an AK-47, shotguns and pistols, and started firing at deputies until the girl was hit multiple times.
After Blaming Workers for Staying Home, Waste Pro Pledges to do Better, and Pay Better, in Palm Coast
Waste Pro issued its latest service-improvement plan to Palm Coast government after fines the city levies for poor service against the company increased for six successive months and the government threatened last week to end its $9 million contract with the waste hauler.
‘We are it. We’re the Ones That Lived Through This’: Matanzas and FPC Graduates Triumph Again
It was back to graduating in person and tacking stock of a year of absences, losses and sorrows, but also of resilience and triumphs as 1,036 FPC and Matanzas High school students held their graduation ceremonies at the Ocean Center in Daytona Wednesday.