In a letter to her membership, Elisabeth Dias, president of the Flagler County Education Foundation, the teachers union, calls attention to what she terms the potential “wrongful termination” without due process of School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin, which would set a precedent and pose “a serious threat to the rights and well-being of our members, as well as the financial stability of our school district.”
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local News
It’s Not a Good Idea to Spit at the Court Ahead of Your Sentencing. Dacotah Clarke Now Faces Up to 17.5 Years.
Dacotah Wren Clark, 27, left a plea hearing and a pending prison sentence of 2.5 years by slamming the courtroom door and spitting in the elevator. He was then re-arrested days later on a dozen new charges. After a dressing down by Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, Clarke now faces up to 17.5 years in prison, without penalties for the spitting and door-slamming.
Captain’s BBQ and Flagler County Reach Tentative Settlement in Lawsuit Entering 5th Year
Captain’s BBQ and its landlord, Flagler County government, have reached a “tentative settlement” in Captain’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against the county, now entering its fifth year. The settlement was reached at an Oct. 27 mediation. But it’s not over. The County Commission must approve it, and will discuss it in a closed-door session next week. A previous proposed settlement, in 2020, failed.
Latest FHP Chase in Flagler Ends with Death of Alleged Carjacker in Rear-End Crash on I-95
A one-mile stretch of I-95 from the State road 100 bridge south turned into a crash zone during a 90-minute period around midday, resulting in overturned vehicles but no injuries in the first crash and the death of a man who was allegedly fleeing in a chase yet again triggered either in Duval or St. Johns County and involving the Florida Highway Patrol. The fleeing man is alleged to have committed a carjacking.
Drone Footage Shows Extent of Flagler Playhouse Fire’s Irreparable Devastation; Likely an Electrical Cause
Drone footage of the aftermath of the Flagler Playhouse fire shows annihilating damage you cannot see from street level, with the entirety of the theater–the main building–as if systematically bombed through its nave. The multilayered roof of metal, asphalt shingles and wood has collapsed, melted from within. The iconic spire somehow kept standing at the front of the building, held up by metal trusses, though it’s a matter of time before it is removed.
Brendan Depa Tenders Open Plea in Beating of Matanzas High Staffer, Leaving Sentence Up to Judge
Brendan Depa, the 18-year-old special education student facing up to 30 years in prison for the merciless beating of a Matanzas High School teacher aide last February, pleaded to the first-degree felony charge today before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. He will be sentenced in January.
Two Crashes Kill Three People In Deadliest Day This Year on Flagler Roads
In the deadliest day on Flagler County roads this year, three people died in two unrelated vehicle crashes barely two hours apart on Sunday in Palm Coast.
Flagler Playhouse Burns, Demolishing Home of County’s Oldest Theater Troupe and a City Landmark
The Flagler Playhouse, for 46 years a mainstay of the performing arts in the county, lost the rustic theater it has occupied and packed with audiences since 2006 in Bunnell as a fire destroyed it Sunday night into early Monday. Flagler County Fire Chief Michael Tucker said the building was irreparable.
DeSantis’s Censorship University System Is Causing a Brain Drain
DeSantis is obsessed with remaking education according to his authoritarian tendencies, doing his damnedest to wreck K-12 with his army of book-banning harpies in “Moms for Liberty” and his Scared Karens legislation, and forbidding honest discussion of slavery and racism so as to never make white kids feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.”
The Big Reveal
Riding Brightline: The Great, the Brash and the Ugly
Earlier this month FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam and his son took a 24-hour round-trip from Orlando to Miami aboard Brightline’s new high-speed line, discovering what may be–what ought to be–the future of rail travel in Florida with all its pleasures, possibilities and limitations. Here’s the story of the trip and a review of the travel experience.