Flagler County recorded just over 200 covid cases in the week ending today, the lowest total since early summer, but vaccinations have plummeted to a new low since after the initial rollouts. While school cases have also dropped, the Flagler school district is struggling through significant teacher and other staffing shortages.
Flagler
Anti-Maskers Turn Another Flagler School Board Meeting Into Virulent, at Times Bigoted and Threatening Spectacle
Even though there was no chance of a mask mandate, the Flagler County School Board meeting Tuesday evening again devolved into an ugly spectacle of anti-mask militancy that at times turned threatening, homophobic, Islamophobic and covid-denying, and required the meeting again to be briefly recessed and board members sent to a safe room.
Flagler District Prepares to Re-Zone Schools for the First Time in Over a Decade in Face of Some Sharp Objections
The Flagler County School Board will vote on a rezoning plan in December, and on Tuesday will hear an updated, phased-in approach that will focus on the two middle schools first, where sixth graders will be shifted starting next year. Localized but intense opposition to rezoning plans compelled the administration to propose a more phased-in approach than a county-wide rezoning.
Covid Numbers Fall Across the Board in Flagler and Florida, Now Matching Winter Peak; Experts Stress Continued Caution
The covid numbers are falling across the board: in the community, in schools, in hospitals locally and across Central Florida, but with a caveat: the numbers today, while falling, are at the exact point where they were at the height of the winter wave–the third and until then most severe wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
School District’s Request to Double Impact Fees Turns Into Hostile Inquisition by County Commission and Builders
In an unexpected turn, what the Flagler County school district thought was a mere formality before the County Commission turned into a 90-minute grilling by commissioners and a parade of doubt by builders who consider the district’s request to double impact fees ill-thought and ill-timed.
The Gardens Development Wins Key Battle as Court Finds County Commission Acted Properly in Clearing Project
Preserve Flagler Beach, the grass-roots group opposing The Gardens development on John Anderson highway, had sued the county commission and the developer, charging that the commission’s Nov. 16 decision clearing the way for the development was illegal. Circuit Judge Terence Perkins disagreed.
Number of Potential Victims Up to 57 in Bob Newsholme Tax Fraud Case as Slew of Schemes Involving Big Sums Emerge
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.
Sharp Drop in Covid Cases at Schools, Hospital and Community, But Flagler Deaths Have Nearly Doubled to 201 in 4th Wave
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.
Gov. DeSantis, in Palm Coast, Opens Federally-Funded Monoclonal Center at Daytona State College Campus
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.
Can There Ever Be Common Ground in Communities Torn by Polarization? A New WNZF Show Attempts an Answer.
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.