• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
    • Marineland
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • First Amendment
    • Second Amendment
    • Third Amendment
    • Fourth Amendment
    • Fifth Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Eighth Amendment
    • 14th Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Privacy
    • Civil Rights
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local News

Flagler Beach Officer Who Wrongfully Arrested Man Outside Funky Pelican Will Serve 3 Days’ Suspension

August 8, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 35 Comments

Flagler Beach Police Sgt. Austin Yelvington in an agency Facebook picture from 2024.

An independent investigation of Flagler Beach Police Sgt. Austin Yelvington found him to have violated the city’s arrest procedures last March when he arrested a man who stood outside the Funky Pelican restaurant at the pier, holding a sign supporting homeless veterans. Yelvington is to serve a three-day suspension without pay. The other Flagler Beach police officer involved in the arrest, Emmett Luttrell, was found to have followed procedures and was not penalized. 

20-Year-Old Man Is Killed After Stepping Into Traffic on I-95 South of Palm Coast Parkway

August 8, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

The incident took place around 3 a.m. on I-95's northbound lanes, just south of the Palm Coast Parkway interchange.

A 20-year-old man on foot who may have had a medical episode was struck and killed by two cars as he stepped into northbound traffic on I-95 in Palm Coast early this morning, just south of the intersection with Palm Coast Parkway.

County and Palm Coast ‘Task Force’ Will Explore Cost of Animal Shelter Separate from Flagler Humane Society

August 8, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

Flagler County and Palm Coast governments have been dissatisfied with sheltering services at the Flagler Humane Society and are considering standing up their own operation. (© FlaglerLive)

Even as they compulsively speak of “DOGE”-dictated government efficiency and stress over limited budgets, Flagler County and Palm Coast’s governments are setting up a joint task force to study the possibility of building or operating a multi-million animal shelter separate from the Flagler Humane Society, which since 1982 been the only full-service animal shelter in the county.

Palm Coast Man and Ex-Volusia County Schools Employee Charged With Raping Neighbors’ Child in Z Section

August 7, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

Kermit Carl Booth in a photo from the Macon County jail in North Carolina, where he was briefly held before bonding out.

Kermit Carl Booth, 72, a former resident of Palm Coast and a former employee of the Volusia County school district, faces two capital felony charges of raping a girl when she was between 6 and 9, in a case dating back to 2006 to 2009 in Palm Coast’s Z Section. Booth was arrested in North Carolina last Friday and released on a startlingly low bond, prompting outrage from Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly. A Flagler County judge had set bond at $500,000 when signing the arrest warrant. 

Flagler County Government Favors Merging Animal Control with Palm Coast, Ending Humane Society Contract

August 7, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

A question of control. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County government is working toward consolidating animal control services with those of Palm Coast. That would sever the county’s $300,000 contract with the Flagler Humane Society, which currently provides those services to the county. The Flagler County Commission and the Palm Coast City Council in a joint meeting on Wednesday did not make a decision to that end, but agreed by consensus to draft a joint agreement (or ILA, an interlocal agreement) that would define the scope and cost of the services Palm Coast would provide.

Against Sharp Opposition from Hargrove Grade Businesses, Council Approves Heavy Industry Rezoning for Concrete Plant in 3-2 Vote

August 6, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

The Palm Coast Industrial and Commercial Center off Hargrove Lane is to the right. The edge of the 37 acres to be rezoned heavy industrial is around the cul de sac and beyond. (© FlaglerLive)

Facing down sharp opposition, especially from business owners on Hargrove Grade, the Palm Coast City Council in a 3-2 vote Tuesday approved on first reading the rezoning of 37 acres at the western edge of Hargrove from light industrial to heavy industrial ahead of the construction of a concrete mixing plant there. The city’s planning board rejected the rezoning in June, citing pollution that could affect businesses on Hargrove, and the negative effects the plant could have on acreage along Hargrove owned by AdventHealth: the board did not want to discourage the hospital company from building a medical park there.

Woman Who Posed as Nurse at AdventHealth Palm Coast for 18 Months, Seeing Almost 4,500 Patients, Is Arrested

August 6, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

Autumn Marie Bardisa in a Facebook portrait.

Autumn Marie Bardisa, a 29-year-old resident of 7 Pinto Drive in Palm Coast who impersonated an emergency room nurse at AdventHealth Palm Coast’s two hospitals, was arrested on 14 felony charges on Tuesday and is being held at the Flagler County jail on $70,000 bond. Bardisa worked at the hospitals from July 3, 2023 to Jan. 22, 2025, when she was fired. During her employment, she had documented contact as a nurse with 4,486 patients, according to the investigation. 

Back from the Brink, Ray Stevens Is Running Again for the Palm Coast City Council Seat He Resigned

August 6, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

ray stevens running again

The former Palm Coast City Council member is going to run in the 2026 election to reclaim the seat he resigned when he took severely ill just weeks into his term, after winning the District 3 seat runoff with 58 percent of the vote (and making past the primary by two votes). Stevens resigned in late February, when he was in the hospital, in critical condition, and told to get his affairs in order. He plans to run to complete the two years that would remain in his term, then not run again in 2028.

Advocates Blast FPL’s Request for Nearly $10 Billion Rate Hike as ‘Greed’

August 5, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

fpl rate hikes

Consumer activists said Tuesday that the proposed $9.8 billion rate hike that Florida Power & Light (FPL) is asking for is excessive and should be rejected by state regulators. In February, FPL, the state’s largest public utility servicing approximately 12 million people, submitted a four-year request for the Public Service Commission (PSC) to set new rates once its current base rate agreement expires at the end of this year. FPL is, with rare exception, the only power provider in Flagler County and its cities.

Flagler Commission Ratifies $195,000-a-Year, Open-Ended Contract with County Attorney Michael Rodriguez

August 5, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Michael Rodriguez's clock starts next week. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County Commission unanimously approved an open-ended contract with Michael Rodriguez, the county attorney replacing Al Hadeed starting Aug. 11. One commissioner had a few quibbles but there were no changes to document Rodriguez negotiated with the administration. The commission voted to hire Rodriguez on July 17. 

Two Defendants in Disturbing Cases Get a Taste of Terence Perkins as Senior Judge: No Bond for You

August 5, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, now a senior judge, has been sitting in for Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols on occasion. (© FlaglerLive)

Retirement isn’t dulling the admonitory edge of Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in his role as senior judge. In a pair of rulings today, Perkins denied bond to two men, one accused of brutalizing his wife after she denied him sex, the other awaiting sentencing on a jury conviction for a hit-and-run crash that left the victim mangled and unable to work for months. 

Atlantic Awakens: Hurricane Center Eyes Two Weather Systems with Tropical Storm Potential

August 5, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

The National Hurricane Center is monitoring two weather systems for potential tropical development over the next seven days, including one near the southeast Atlantic coast. This system now has a 40 percent chance of tropical cyclone formation on Friday or Saturday, up from 30 percent. Another system, currently in the eastern, tropical Atlantic, has a 50 percent chance of tropical storm formation in seven days.

Sheriff Recognizes 911 Dispatcher Megan Flores and Deputies Manka and Held Who Saved 9-Year-Old Boy

August 4, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Included in the ceremony was the presentation of a Life Saving Award to deputies and a call taker who worked together to save the life of a 10-year-old boy. The boy and his family were in attendance during the ceremony.

On May 8 Flagler County 911 dispatcher Megan Flores got a call about a 9-year-old boy who wasn’t breathing. She dispatched deputies and paramedics while continuing to issue instructions to family members by phone. When Sheriff’s deputy Christopher Nguyen arrived, he immediately used his automated external defibrillator (AED) as deputies Kyle Manka and Sierra Held assisted and cared for two other children at the scene. By the time the boy was on his way to the hospital, he was conscious and breathing.

County’s Greg Hansen Accuses Kim Carney of ‘Sabotaging’ Beach Protection Plan; She Accuses Staff of Stumbling

August 4, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

Not on the same page: County Commissioners Kim Carney and Greg Hansen. (© FlaglerLive)

What started as a position statement on beach policy quickly degenerated into accusations–Commissioner Kim Carney accusing the administration of inaction, Commissioner Greg Hansen accusing Carney of “sabotage,” Commissioner Pam Richardson accusing Hansen of making things up (he wasn’t). The discussion uncovered the rifts that led to the collapse of the commission’s long-term beach-management plan, and the county with few options ahead and underscored the inescapable: Flagler County and its cities have no plan to save their beaches beyond a cluster of temporary and thinly funded stopgaps.

Palm Coast Relieves Itself 3 Years Late as Much-Needed $31 Million Sewer Plant Expansion Doubles Capacity 

August 4, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

The ribbon-cutting at Palm Coast's Waste Water Treatment Plant 2 this morning included, unusually, the mayor, and less unusually, City Council members Dave Sullican and Charles Gambaro, among others. (© FlaglerLive)

Almost three years late and 55 percent over the original budget, Palm Coast’s expansion of its Waste Water Treatment Plant Number 2 is now operational but for a punch-list, doubling the plant’s capacity to 4 million gallons per day and relieving the city’s older, overburdened WWTP1 in the Woodlands, which is getting its own expansion. When presented to the City Council in January 2020, the expansion was scheduled for completion by November 2022, for $20 million. Not including design, the project’s construction cost rose to $30.9 million.

Keep Your ICE Raids Out of Our Schools

August 2, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

ICE storm troopers in a so-called Removal Operations in Los Angeles in June. (Wikimedia Commons)

Immigration raids have escalated — often under questionable pretenses. This spring, immigration agents tried to enter two elementary schools in Los Angeles. At the door, agents said they wanted to determine students’ well-being and claimed to have authorization from the children’s caretakers. Administrators denied them entry — and when they spoke with caretakers later, they learned that agents had lied about receiving permission.

County Attorney Al Hadeed, Now a Flagler Sheriff’s Deputy, Is Regaled Into Retirement

August 1, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Maureen and Al Hadeed during a moving moment at Al's retirement party Thursday in Bunnell. (© FlaglerLive)

The sheriff’s naming of County Attorney Al Hadeed an honorary sheriff’s deputy was among the surprises at Hadeed’s retirement party Thursday evening at the Government Services Building. There were numerous local tributes, a proclamation, the dedication of a bench in Hadeed’s name at Princess Place Preserve, recognitions wrapped in gifts and held-back tears and choked-up memories and overhead screens projecting a lifetime of pictures.

Palm Coast Council’s Charles Gambaro Announces Congressional Run Against ‘Outrageous’ Randy Fine

August 1, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

Charles Gambaro, a brigadier general in the Army Reserve, speaking with Ed Fuller at last May's Memorial Day ceremony in Palm Coast, an event U.S. Rep. Randy Fine attended. (© FlaglerLive)

Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro late Thursday announced he will challenge U.S. Rep. Randy Fine in the 2026 primary for the 6th Congressional District seat Fine won in a special election last April. With Council member Dave Sullivan’s plan not to run in the 2026 election, Gambaro’s decision creates the second open seat on the council–an opening that gives the embattled mayor a chance to make a play for a majority aligned with him.

U.S. Job Creation Stalls to Lowest 3-Month Total Since Covid, Bankruptcies Spike 27% in Florida’s Middle District

August 1, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 30 Comments

Job creation over the last three years. The trend is sharply down.. (© FlaglerLive)

The national economy added 73,000 jobs in July and 106,000 in the last three months combined, the poorest quarter in job creation since the massive job losses of April 2020 as Covid shut down much of the economy. The unemployment rate edged up to 4.2. It has hovered between 4 and 4.2 percent for the past 14 months. In a related trend, personal and business bankruptcy filings rose nationally 11.5 percent in the last 12 months, and 27 percent in the Middle District of Florida that includes Flagler County, from 18,471 last year to 23,442 in the last 12 months. A bankruptcy attorney says the trend is here to stay.

Hires of Palm Coast Utility and Development Directors Termed Capstones of Mark Strobridge’s Brief Tenure

July 31, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

The civilian clothes will soon have to give way to the sheriff's uniform again for Mark Strobridge, who is concluding his tenure as assistant city manager on loan in Palm Coast.

Flagler County Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge considers the long-needed appointments of directors to two of Palm Coast government’s most important departments–utilities and growth management–as the capstone to his unusual tenure as an assistant city manager on loan to Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston. The city on Wednesday announced the appointments of Brian Roche as director of the Utility Department, and John Zobler as Community Development Director, a position vacant since Jason DeLorenzo was named chief of staff in September 2022. DeLorenzo left the city earlier this month. 

Two Turtle Nests Halt Flagler Beach Pier Construction Until September as Workarounds Prove Impractical

July 31, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 26 Comments

turtle nests pier construction

The Flagler Beach pier demolition and reconstruction project is coming to a halt next Wednesday. Two new turtle nests burrowed in the path of the large trestle under construction are stopping work on the $16 million project. It will resume in about two months, after the turtles have hatched. The due date for the newest turtle nest is not before Sept. 10.

Committee’s 15-13 Vote Sends School Board’s Derek Barrs Nomination for Transportation Post to Full Senate

July 31, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Flagler County School Board member Derek Barrs is a step closer to resigning the seat and leaving Flagler County to become the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Wednesday voted 15-13, strictly along party lines, to send the nomination to the full Senate, where Barrs is expected to be confirmed. 

As Mayor Norris Misrepresents Ethics Complaint Dismissal, Council Focuses on Charter and Governor Action

July 30, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

Mike Norris with a copy of the ethics complaint against him as he addressed his town hall crowd about it on Monday, saying it had been dismissed. (© FlaglerLive)

The Florida Commission on Ethics tossed out a complaint filed by four Palm Coast City Council members against Mayor Mike Norris, citing “legal insufficiency.” Norris had said as much in a social media posting last Friday and at a town hall meeting Monday, misinterpreting the order as a victory. To the council members, the ethics commission’s decision is one more reason to revise the city charter to add disciplinary clauses that would enable a council majority–or a supermajority–to deal with a rogue or derelict member. 

16 Years in Prison for Justin Maddox, 32, in Overdose Death of Jeremy Kocorowski, 40

July 30, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Justin Maddox first degree murder

Indicted on a capital murder charge for his role in the drug-overdose death of 40-year-old Jeremy Kocorowski of Bunnell in March 2024, Justin Maddox, 32, of Palm Coast, was sentenced today to 16 years in prison in a plea deal that reduced the charge to manslaughter. “Addiction is a disease,” the victim’s mother told the court in a statement she read after the sentencing. “But exploiting someone who’s struggling is not.  it is predatory. It is lethal. And in this case, it was murder.”

On Flagler County School Board, Competing Views Underscore District Tensions Behind Vouchers and ‘Choice’

July 30, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

School Board Chair Will Furry in an orientation session with Janie Ruddy, after her election to the board but before she was seated, last October. The two are at polar opposites when it comes to vouchers. (© FlaglerLive)

At the end of a 15-minute hearing on Tuesday to approve Flagler County schools’ tentative property tax and budget for the coming fiscal year–a budget that includes the siphoning of $17 million to subsidize private school “vouchers” for almost 2,000 students, with the district’s dollars–School Board member Janie Ruddy delivered a brief speech decrying the erosion of public dollars for public schools, and addressing its consequences. Will Furry followed with a rejoinder, illustrating district tensions at the heart of the voucher and “choice” program. Both statements follow in full.

Citing Costs, Flagler Beach Commissioners Reject Design of New ‘Beachwalk’ on and Around Pier for 2nd Time in 4 Weeks

July 29, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

A rendering of Flagler Beach's Beachwalk project, which failed to win city commissioners' approval for the second time in five weeks.

The design of a new “Beachwalk” and “Promenade” beneath and around the Flagler Beach pier drew raves from city commissioners. But what started as a $1.5 million project has ballooned to at least $2.8 million, with several design elements that were not part of the original concept as commissioners understood it, including a covered portion of the 4,200-square-foot promenade. Commissioners have tabled the project and asked for a third redesign.

Janie Ruddy Rips Vouchers, Will Furry Defends Them as School Board Sees Erosion of Nearly 2,000 Students to Hand-Out

July 29, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

Starving the schools: the trend continues. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County School Board in a 15-minute meeting this evening approved the tentative school property tax for the next fiscal year, a small decline from last year that continues a 20-year trend of cutting the school tax rate every year but in the three years of the Great Recession. Board member Janie Ruddy pointedly noted the discordance between falling tax rates and local needs, and between the expansion of vouchers–public funding for private education–at the public schools’ expense. Will Furry, who chairs the board, countered with a defense of vouchers.

At Mike Norris ‘Mayoral Town Hall,’ an Impressive Crowd Starring Cast of Familiar Faces, Fictions and Grievances

July 29, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 23 Comments

Mike Norris was relaxed and relatively self-controlled if unfocused at his two-hour mayoral town hall Monday evening at the VFW hall in Palm Coast. (© FlaglerLive)

Palm Coast Mayor Norris’s self-vaunted, well-attended and uneventful “Mayoral Town Hall” at the VFW hall on Old Kings Road Monday evening was almost identical to a grousing public comment segment at a City Council meeting, but stretched to two hours, and with a larger audience primed by pizza, beer and wine on the mayor’s personal generosity. The two-hour event drew 154 people, based on a head count just before the halfway mark.

Mayor Norris Files for Rehearing in Lawsuit He Lost Over Gambaro Appointment and Distorts Ethics Decision

July 28, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

Attorney Anthony Sabatini, center, is representing Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris. (© FlaglerLive)

Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris through his attorney filed a motion for rehearing of his lawsuit against the city and Council member Charles Gambaro, who Norris still claims was illegally appointed despite a court order to the contrary. Separately, Norris, in a truculent social media posting replete with errors and mischaracterizations late Friday, claimed that the Florida Commission on Ethics “has officially dismissed” the complaint the City Council filed against him, and did so “due to insufficient legal standing.” 

100 Cats Rescued from R-Section Home in Palm Coast Will Have Their Own Adoption Event

July 28, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

About half the cats in a collage by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.

In a powerful show of compassion and teamwork, almost 100 cats were rescued this week from a single home in Palm Coast, thanks to a coordinated effort by city employees, local organizations, and dedicated animal lovers.

A Perplexed Flagler Beach Hears Vague County ‘Options’ to Pay for Beach Protection After Sales Tax Plan Collapse

July 28, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 29 Comments

A rebuilt beach at the south end of Flagler Beach. (© FlaglerLive)

Kim Carney, the county commissioner who played a significant role in defeating the proposed sales tax increase to finance a comprehensive beach-protection plan, went to the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday with five options from which the city could choose to protect its own beach. Four of the options would require Flagler Beach to impose a new tax or fee on its residents. The fifth would have the city supporting a 2026 referendum to raise the sales tax–the very option the County Commission could have approved, and that Carney opposed. 

Flagler County Cancels ‘Boots on the Ground’ Line Dancing Event at 11th Hour as Sheriff Blasts Permitting Flop

July 26, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 39 Comments

A road sign on County Road 13 just ahead of the Fairgrounds this afternoon, on the cancelled "Boots on the Ground" event. The actual wording does not look chancy to drivers: that's only the shutter's doing. (© FlaglerLive)

Flagler County government ordered the permit for a “Boots on the Ground Line Dance Competition” revoked on Friday, cancelling the event 24 hours before it was scheduled to start. The county did so after the organizer of the event “engaged in serial misrepresentation of the event, continually contradicted by his social media promotion,” according to the email by the deputy county administrator.

4 Council Members Ask DeSantis to Suspend Mayor for ‘Malfeasance, Misfeasance, Neglect of Duty, and Incompetence’

July 25, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 25 Comments

Mike Norris in court on July 3, among supporters, before Circuit Judge Chris France's ruling against Norris's lawsuit. (© FlaglerLive)

Twice charging Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris with “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, and incompetence,” the rest of the Palm Coast City Council today issued a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, asking him to suspend Norris from office and appoint an acting mayor in his place. 

Flagler Beach Will Consider Moving Its Elections to Even Years to Save Money, and Alter Commissioners’ Terms

July 25, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

A scene from last March's election in Flagler Beach.

Flagler Beach will consider moving its elections from March every year to November, coinciding with general and presidential election cycles. Commissioners’ three-year terms would have to revert to two years, as had been the case two decades ago, or go to four-year terms. The change, suggested as a discussion point by City Clerk Penny Overstreet Thursday evening, would potentially save the city $18,000 per election. 

School Board’s Lauren Ramirez Prevails in Conflict-of-Interest Dispute at Ethics Commission, With Help from a Familiar Face

July 25, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Theresa Pontieri, the Palm Coast City Council member, represented Flagler County School Board member Lauren Ramirez (slightly to the right) in Pontieri's capacity as an attorney today before the Florida Ethics Commission in Tallahassee. (© FlaglerLive via Florida Channel)

Flagler County School Board member Lauren Ramirez’s challenge of proposed restrictions on her private business not only prevailed today before the Florida Ethics Commission, which unanimously took her side, but spurred a request by the commission that the Florida Legislature rewrite the relevant portions of law to prevent similar conflict-of-interest restrictions in the future. Ramirez all but won her challenge behind arguments to the Ethics Commission by her attorney, Theresa Pontieri, the Palm Coast City Council vice mayor. 

Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy

July 24, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

Florida's voucher scheme is undermining the fabric of America's public education, essential to the democratic fabric, while eroding accountability for taxpayer dollars. (© FlaglerLive)

Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion, argues Colleen Conklin, the former School Board member. And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.

3rd Arrest in 7 Years on Domestic Violence Charges for William Krivanek, 43, Who Was on Probation

July 24, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 9 Comments

William Karl Krivanek

William Karl Krivanek, a 43-year-old resident of Comanche Court in Palm Coast, is at the Flagler County jail on $200,000 bond following his arrest on four felony charges stemming from a domestic violence incident, including a count of aggravated assault causing bodily harm. Krivanek was on probation for a charge of felony battery. He went by the alias “Bedlam.” 

School Board Fails Math as It Adds Deputy Despite Increased Costs in Lean Times and No Increased Safety

July 24, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

One of the Flagler County Sheriff's School Resource Deputy patrol cars. (© FlaglerLive)

Just hours after the Flagler County School Board bemoaned sharply leaner times as enrollment drops, state dollars drop with it and federal dollars are being withheld, the board voted to  add one more school resource deputy to its ranks even though the deputy will not improve school safety and the cost-benefit data is not in favor of adding one. 

University of Miami Under Investigation for Scholarships to Undocumented Students

July 23, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

The investigation focuses on the University of Miami's "U Dreamers Program.”

The University of Miami is one of five universities being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for allegedly violating federal civil rights laws in awarding scholarships to academically eligible students lacking permanent legal status.

Flagler Beach Pier Contractor Strikes Power Line, Causing Minor Fire and Shutting Down Funky Pelican and Surf 97.3 Radio

July 23, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

The scene of the incident south of the pier this afternoon soon after the beam struck a power line. Vern Shank, the Flagler Beach DJ, was on the air when power went off and he ran outside, taking that picture soon after. “That’s kind of like the ail end of the smoke coming out," he said.

For the third time in two months in Flagler Beach a contractor struck an underground utility line today, this time near the Flagler Beach pier, causing triggering a fire, shutting down traffic on State Road A1A, and cutting off power to both the Funky Pelican and Surf 97.3, Flagler Beach’s radio station, which operates from the pier. 

Flagler County’s Industrial Development Authority Holds Inaugural Meeting and Has Its 1st Interested Client

July 23, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan schools the new Indusrial Authority members on the Sunshine law, open records and ethics rules. (© FlaglerLive)

The Flagler County Industrial Development Authority Board met for the first time today to learn its purpose and limitations as an advisory board to the County Commission. The authority’s primary responsibility is to recommend the issuance of tax-exempt bonds to industry or developers as a spur to economic development. To the group’s happy surprise, its first interested parties were in the slim audience of three: RJ Santore and Rick Gil of Ralph Santore & Sons, the pyrotechnics manufacturer in West Flagler.

Flagler School Board Wrestles with Smoke and Mirrors Budget as $17 Million in Vouchers and Trump Cuts Hit Home

July 23, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 14 Comments

The majority of the Flagler County School Board are unquestioning supporters of Gov. DeSantis and President Trump. That majority withheld criticism even as it contended with potentially devastating cuts to the district's budget directly caused by the two leaders' policies and orders. (© FlaglerLive)

If Flagler County School Board members aren’t panicking over next year’s budget, they’re either putting on a good act or not fully grasping the breadth of the rapidly changing financial landscape and disappearing dollars that district staff outlined for them at a meeting Tuesday. Large parts of the budget are cloaked in smoke and mirrors–not because district staff is playing with the numbers, but because the federal and state governments are requiring the district to bank on dollars it will never see, or dollars that may never materialize, even though the dollars have to be included in the budget. 

Man Accused of Carjacking Woman at Palm Coast RaceTrac Extradited to Flagler 5 Years After Incident

July 22, 2025 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

Chad Langlois in his Georgia State Prison photo.

Chad David Langlois, the 45-year-old man accused of carjacking a woman at the Palm Coast RaceTrac on State Road 100 five years ago, was extradited from Georgia, where he had been imprisoned on separate charges, to face charges in Flagler County. He could face up to 65 years in prison locally. He was serving 15 in Georgia.

Flagler School Board Isn’t Dancing About YMCA’s Request for $3 Million for Palm Coast Y in Town Center

July 22, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

A rendering of the Palm Coast YMCA in Town Center, seen from above. Don't raise the roof yet.

Volusia Flagler YMCA officials made their pitch to the Flagler County School Board for a $3 million contribution to help pay for the $16 million Y planned for Palm Coast’s Town Center. The same officials made the same request of Palm Coast government in April. Palm Coast is almost in. The School Board was much cooler. It shut down the possibility that any cash would be made available unless the district were to sell property–not just because the district’s reserves of around $6 million are limited, but because of restrictions on how the district may spend the money it has.

Palm Coast’s Policing Budget Set to Increase 24%, with 9 New Deputies; Sheriff Proposes Strict E-Bike Ordinance

July 22, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

A screen capture from a chase by a Flagler County Sheriff's deputy of an e-bike rider who was eventually arrested. Sheriff Rick Staly showed the video, a news item on Spectrum News, during his budget presentation today, when he discussed a proposed e-bike ordinance.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly submitted a policing budget for Palm Coast that would increase the number of deputies patrolling the city from 57 to 66 and increase the city’s policing budget 24 percent, from $9 million to $11.18 million. In 2022, the budget was $5.74 million.  Also, responding to what he says is increasing complaints from pedestrians and people on regular bikes and others who’ve had close calls with electric bikes, Staly is proposing an ordinance to regulate e-bikes in Palm Coast.

Any Hope of Stricter Development Regulations in Palm Coast, Bunnell or Flagler County ‘Dead in the Water’ Until 2027

July 21, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

All clear: Senate Bill 180, now law, is giving developers a far freer hand from regulations until late 2027. (© FlaglerLive)

Forget a building moratorium of any kind. A For the next three years, something closer to a moratorium on regulations is in effect in Flagler County, its cities and across Florida, thanks to a provision in a new state law–what emerged from the Legislature as Senate Bill 180–that local governments are only now beginning to understand. The law ties the hands of local land use regulators, prohibiting any “burdensome” restrictions on developers, while giving anyone the right to sue a local government that appears to violate the law. 

Palm Coast Couple Face Felony Child Neglect Charges After Leaving Infant in Car While Drinking at a Bar

July 21, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

The parking lot a Smiles and other businesses on Palm Harbor Way.

Norman E. Finnegan Jr., 60, and Clarisse Finnegan, 28, both of Coral Reef Court in Palm Coast, were booked at the Flagler County jail shortly after midnight Saturday, each on a charge of felony child neglect after their infant child was left in the backseat of their car while the couple had drinks at a bar. 

Mary Ethel Matson, September 29, 1943-July 17, 2025

July 21, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Mary Ethel Matson.

Mary Ethel Matson, 81, who spent many of her final years in Flagler Beach, passed away on the 17th day of July, 2025, at Azalea Gardens Assisted Living and Memory Care in Tallahassee, Fla., after an extended period of illness. Mary was an elementary school teacher for seven years before transitioning to work in the family construction business for over 20 years. Survivors include her husband, Edward Matson of Flagler Beach.

Everglades Concentration Camp Boosts Depravity for DeSantis & Co.

July 20, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 32 Comments

alligator alcatraz

Do you think concentration camps are cool? Does your heart fill with mean-spirited joy at the thought of human beings stuffed into tents and FEMA trailers parked on a disused airstrip in the heart of the Everglades in the middle of a Florida summer? Do you get off on the idea of alligators and snakes killing people and admire bully capitalism hawking camo beverage coolers, stickers, and T-shirts with grinning reptiles proclaiming, “Nowhere to Run; Nowhere to Hide”?

America(n) Unbecoming

July 18, 2025 | Pierre Tristam | 19 Comments

The Freedom Tower in Manhattan, seen through a window of the Great Hall on Ellis Island. (© Pierre Tristam)

If the president can threaten citizenship revocation even for U.S.-born citizens, as he did this week, and just for holding opinions he doesn’t like, the rest of us certainly aren’t safe. For migrants, every night–every day–is Kristallnacht as ICE carries out its pogroms. A majority of Americans are either applauding or indifferent, while protesters are branded enemies and invaders to be crushed by militarized goonery. This is not the America any of us have known, or should tolerate.

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 237
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • TR on At Celebration of Life for Jorge and Nancy Salinas, a Couple’s Forever ‘Spirit and Joy’ Counter Brutality of Loss
  • Kyoshin on DeSantis Signs Warrant to Kill Bryan Jennings, Murderer of 6-Year-Old Girl, for 16th Execution of the Year
  • Dennis C Rthsam on Palm Coast’s Message to Flagler Humane Society: Help Us Help You
  • Jim on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 13, 2025
  • JimboXYZ on At Celebration of Life for Jorge and Nancy Salinas, a Couple’s Forever ‘Spirit and Joy’ Counter Brutality of Loss
  • Janet Sullivan on At Celebration of Life for Jorge and Nancy Salinas, a Couple’s Forever ‘Spirit and Joy’ Counter Brutality of Loss
  • Ray W. on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 13, 2025
  • Jay Tomm on Hutson Companies, Major Housing Developer, Bids $3.5 Million for Bankrupt Marineland Dolphin Adventure
  • Ray W. on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 13, 2025
  • Jay Tomm on At Celebration of Life for Jorge and Nancy Salinas, a Couple’s Forever ‘Spirit and Joy’ Counter Brutality of Loss
  • Gary Kunnas on The Palm Coast City Manager Candidates In Their Own Words: Videos and Vision Papers
  • Samuel L. Bronkowitz on Florida’s 1st Public School Chaplain Is Trump Disciple at War with Church-State Wall
  • Ray W. on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 13, 2025
  • Ray W. on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, October 10, 2025
  • Annette on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 13, 2025
  • E.A.D. on DeSantis Signs Warrant to Kill Bryan Jennings, Murderer of 6-Year-Old Girl, for 16th Execution of the Year

Log in