In recent years, the real progress against climate change has been outside the rooms where the official U.N. negotiations are held, not inside. In these meetings, the leaders of states and provinces talk about what they are doing to reduce greenhouse gases and prepare for worsening climate disasters. Many bilateral and multilateral agreements have sprung up like mushrooms from these side conversations.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
The River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) meets, a “spicy level warning” at Thai and I triggers recollections of budget motels past, “Baghdad Cafe,” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Lost City.
The Euro Could Replace the Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency
A global reserve currency is one that is extensively held by foreign Central Banks. Since the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement this position has been occupied by the US dollar and it still holds true – according to IMF data from late 2024, the dollar represented 54% of global official reserves, while the euro came in a distant second at 19%. That’s not set in stone.
By Law, $10 Million Hope Florida Deal Should Have Been Audited. It Wasn’t.
The Florida statute that governs money owed to the state requires the CFO to audit the “accounts of all the officers of the state” in regard to transactions like last year’s controversial settlement with Medicaid contractor Centene Corp. that saw $10 million in public proceeds funneled through the Casey DeSantis-affiliated Hope Florida Foundation to attack a referendum staunchly opposed by her husband, Gov. Ron DeSantis, to legalize cannabis. No such review or audit was conducted.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, May 27, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop to discuss coming increases in development impact fees, the Flagler School Board meets in the evening, William Faulkner’s “That Evening Sun” and primitive fears.
Why You Fall for Fake Health Information
Although there is a fire hose of health-related content online, not all of it is factual. In fact, much of it is inaccurate or misleading, raising a serious health communication problem: Fake health information – whether shared unknowingly and innocently, or deliberately to mislead or cause harm – can be far more captivating than accurate information. This makes it difficult for people to know which sources to trust and which content is worthy of sharing.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 26, 2025
Memorial Day ceremonies today at 8 a.m. in Palm Coast, 10 a.m. at Bunnell’s county government building, and 1 p.m. in veterans’ Park in Flagler Beach, Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, behind the words: tear down this wall.”
How Ronald Reagan Made Disney a Patriotic Site
Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World, near Orlando have become two of the most important spaces for the celebration and creation of American identity. One of the reasons for this is the legitimization a presidential visit bestows on a site. Forty years ago this month, Walt Disney World received a very special visitor: Ronald Reagan.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, May 25, 2025
SunBros Cafe Celebrates the Life of Travis Sundell, Clay Jones on Kristi Noem’s corpulent ignorance, Gamble Jam, André Gide on what gratefulness he owes his creator, Brian Greene on God’s choice.
No, Race Is Not a ‘Biological Reality’
Scientists reject the idea that race is biologically real. The claim that race is a “biological reality” cuts against modern scientific knowledge. Anyone trying to pound a nail with a screwdriver soon realizes that tools are good for tasks they were designed for and useless for anything else. Genetic populations are tools for specific biological uses, not for classifying people into “real” groups by race.
Why the Far Right Fabricated the Myth of a Migrant ‘Invasion’
The current administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 24, 2025
Peps Art Walk, near Beachfront Grille in Flagler Beach with makers, crafters, artists, of all kinds, the Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, fanaticism and sexual repression and the rage of the incels.
The Supreme Court Hands a Temporary Defeat to Religious Charter Schools
Critics of funding religious charter schools warned a faith-based charter would be an unconstitutional breach of the “establishment clause,” which forbids the government from establishing an official religion or promoting particular faiths over others. In an anticlimatic outcome, the Supreme Court issued a brief order in a 4-4 outcome that leaves a lower court judgment in place that prevented St. Isidore’s from opening – but did not explain why.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 23, 2025
School Board member Janie Ruddy is on Free For All Fridays, the Scenic A1A Pride Committee meets, Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock, Carlos Lozada’s 73 percent solution, André Aciman on non-fiction.
Afrikaners are South African Opportunists, Not Refugees
South Africans are wearily attuned to governments’ Orwellian misuse of language. So perhaps they should not be unduly surprised that the government of the US has imported 49 Afrikaners and labelled them as “refugees”. The claim is that they are escaping from the persecution of Afrikaners – and white people more broadly – in South Africa today. But there is no evidence whatsoever that Afrikaners or white people more generally are subject to genocide.
Federal Judge Hears Challenge to Florida’s Law Sharply Restricting Ballot Initiatives
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker listened to about three hours of testimony on Florida Decides Healthcare’s and Smart & Safe Florida’s request that he block certain provisions of the law while the legal challenge moves ahead — including a requirement that sponsors turn in completed petitions within 10 days after the voter signs the petition, as well as stepped up fines and criminal penalties.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, May 22, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets this evening, and will ask permission of itself to serve alcohol at a centennial event in veterans Park, Model Yacht Club Races, the tipping point in media.
Israel’s Catastrophic Starvation of Gaza’s Millions
After 18 months of punishing airstrikes, raids and an increasingly restrictive siege in Gaza, the United Nations on May 20, 2025, issued one of its most urgent warnings yet about the ongoing humanitarian crisis: an estimated 14,000 babies were at risk of death without an immediate influx of substantial aid, especially food. Aid delivery continues to be inconsistent and well below what was necessary for the population, culminating in a dire warning by U.N. experts in early May that “the annihilation of the Palestinian population in Gaza” was possible without an immediate end to the violence.
Maga’s Fearful War on Universities
Ron DeSantis has been trying for years to regulate speech in colleges and universities, impose restrictions on what teachers can teach in schools, and decree which books the state of Florida finds “acceptable.” DeSantis, nothing if not energetic in his rage, is now determined to shield our precious college students from Dangerous Thoughts. He’s the model for someone else in charge.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, May 21, 2025
The Flagler County Contractor Review Board meets, the Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee meets, the Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board meets, and we remember Joe Isuzu, emblem of the lying 80s.
AI Is Changing How Students Write
A writing professor sees artificial intelligence as more of an opportunity for students, rather than a threat. That sets her apart from some of her colleagues, who fear that AI is accelerating a glut of superficial content, impeding critical thinking and hindering creative expression. They worry that students are simply using it out of sheer laziness or, worse, to cheat. Perhaps that’s why so many students are afraid to admit that they use ChatGPT.
State Attorney Investigating Records Linked to Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida
Records related to a state House probe of a nonprofit linked to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ signature Hope Florida assistance program are part of an “open” investigation, Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell’s office said Tuesday. House Health Care Budget Chairman Alex Andrade, R-Pensacola, submitted records to Campbell’s office late last month after concluding a House inquiry into the Hope Florida Foundation, a nonprofit linked to the Hope Florida program.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m. but without a mayor (he’s on vacation), Food Truck Tuesdays in Central Park, the Library of America’s new volume by and on Hellen Keller.
The Trouble with Gluten-Free Foods
U.S. consumers often pay more for gluten-free products, yet these items typically provide less protein and more sugar and calories compared with gluten-containing alternatives. That is the key finding of a new study, published in the journal Plant Foods for Human Nutrition.
Federal Judge Orders Florida to Follow Series of Steps to Protect and Feed Manatees
A federal judge Monday ordered the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to take a series of steps aimed at protecting manatees in the northern Indian River Lagoon, including requiring it to go through a federal permitting process and temporarily preventing new septic tanks in the area. U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza also ordered establishment of programs to conduct biomedical-health assessments and supplemental feeding for manatees.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 19, 2025
A Flagler County Commission workshop takes on beach-management yet again, along with a few other issues, the Gershwin’s “Someone to Watch Over Me,” and Michel Houellebecq on nostalgia.
Here’s What Makes the Most Dynamic and Sustainable Cities
The top 10 cities in 2025 were London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, Washington DC, Copenhagen, Oslo, Singapore and San Francisco. The top three all do particularly well in human capital, which includes features like educational and cultural institutions. They also score highly on international profile, which looks at indicators of global interest, such as the number of airport passengers and hotels.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, May 18, 2025
Troop 472 Summer Camp Car Show and Fundraiser in Central Park, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, NYU withholds a student’s diploma for speaking out about the Gaza genocide at his graduation.
America’s Cancer Research, Best in the World, Is in Jeopardy
The United States has long led the world in cancer research. It has spent more on cancer research than any other country, including more than US$7.2 billion annually through the National Cancer Institute alone. But that legacy is under threat. Funding delays, political shifts and instability across sectors have created an environment where basic research into the fundamentals of cancer biology is struggling to keep traction and the drug development pipeline is showing signs of stress.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 17, 2025
The third annual Hang 8 Dog Surfing Competition in Flagler Beach, swing Through the Years Dinner Dance Benefit for St. Thomas Episcopal Church, The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, when Ronald Reagan was shot and John Hinkley unwittingly helped pass the biggest tax cut in history until then.
How Florida’s Wildlife Corridor Aims to Save Panthers and Black Bears
The Florida Wildlife Corridor is a statewide system of interconnected wildlife habitat that turns 15 this year. It is built on conservation efforts that date back to the 1980s and 1990s, when researchers from the University of Florida created maps of existing and proposed conservation areas that interlinked across the state. Today, the Florida Wildlife Corridor spans 18 million acres – about half of the state. Ten million of these acres are protected from development.
Two Florida congressional Democrats Want Hope Florida Investigated
Two Florida congressional Democrats have asked federal officials to investigate allegations that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) and Hope Florida Foundation inappropriately diverted Medicaid funds to two unrelated political committees last year.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 16, 2025
Buddy Taylor Middle School’s annual “Night at the Museum” features works created by sixth grade students, the ethics of the Times voyeuristic report on the death of Virginia Giuffre, Life Magazine on a picture of three dead Americans.
Don’t Bet on Hydrogen Cars Just Yet
Hydrogen will play a significant role in achieving net zero carbon emissions by replacing natural gas in industrial and domestic heating. But it remains difficult to see how hydrogen can compete with electric vehicles, as the bulk of the car, bus and light-truck market looks set to adopt battery electric technology, which are a cheaper solution than fuel cells.
Broward County Circuit Judge Gary Farmer Indefinitely Suspended Over ‘Pervasive’ Behavior Unfit for the Bench
The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday indefinitely suspended Broward County Circuit Judge Gary Farmer, a former Senate Democratic leader, after an investigative panel accused him of “pervasive and extensive” behavior demonstrating “unfitness to hold office.” Farmer was elected as a judge in Broward County’s 17th Judicial Circuit in 2022 after six years in the Florida Senate. He served as minority leader during the 2021 legislative session but was ousted after a vote of no confidence by fellow Democrats.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, May 15, 2025
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board hears an appeal from a solicitor who was denied a permit, the Marineland Commission meets, yachts race in Central Park, Medicaid cuts move ahead to facilitate a tax cut for the rich, and what Ted Kennedy said about that sort of crime in 1980.
Supreme Court Hears the Challenge to Birthright Citizenship
For more than 150 years, almost all people who were born within U.S. territory automatically received citizenship – regardless of their parents’ immigration status. President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order on birthright citizenship – stating that children born in the U.S. to parents who are not in the country legally, or who are not permanent residents, cannot receive citizenship – threatens to upend this precedent. The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on the case on May 15.
Florida University System Leaders Plead with Court To Restore Discriminatory Restrictions on Chinese Students
Saying Florida is trying to protect against “nefarious foreign-government influence,” higher-education leaders this week asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that blocked part of a 2023 law restricting ties between state universities and colleges and China. The March 28 injunction ruling focused on the students, who are from China and say the law has prevented them from working as graduate teaching assistants, positions that carry stipends and other benefits.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, May 14, 2025
The River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee meets, Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Mother’s Day in Gaza and the eradication of a population the size of Palm Coast’s.
Consequences of Repealing Section 230, the ‘Law That Built the Internet’
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act, has become a political lightning rod in recent years. The law shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content while allowing moderation in good faith. Lawmakers including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., now seek to sunset Section 230 by 2027 in order to spur a renegotiation of its provisions.
Children May Attend Drag Shows, Court Rules, Striking Down Florida Law
Describing the law as “substantially overbroad,” a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a preliminary injunction blocking a 2023 Florida law aimed at preventing children from attending drag shows. The 2-1 majority opinion said that “by providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the act (the law) wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most.” The decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the Central Florida venue Hamburger Mary’s in a First Amendment challenge to the law.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Clay Jones on the grifting of a 747, the Palm Coast City Council talks dredging and commercial vehicles in driveways, the Community Traffic Safety Team meets, Alastair Horn on Napoleonic corruption, Robert Caro on Robert Moses’ corruption.
Your Text Abbreviations Send the Wrong Message
The mere inclusion of abbreviations, although seemingly benign, start feeling like a brush-off. In other words, whenever a texter chops words down to their bare consonants, recipients sense a lack of effort, which causes them to disengage. It’s a subtle but pervasive phenomenon that most people don’t intuit.
DeSantis Passes on ‘Dog and Pony’ Budget Summit to End Impasse
After negotiations over the state budget between the GOP House and Senate leadership broke down Friday, the Florida Republican Party of Florida stepped in, proposing to host a summit between Gov. Ron DeSantis, Speaker Daniel Perez, and Senate President Ben Albritton. The talks would include senior staff and leadership teams in a bid for a common path forward as the two chambers remain billions of dollars apart due to competing tax cut proposals. But DeSantis said Monday that he’s not interested.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 12, 2025
The Flagler County Land Acquisition Committee meets, as does the Library Board of Trustees, the romance with radio and its darker wavelengths from Father Coughlin to the podcast age, a few words from Alexander Theroux.
Threatening Diversity Threatens Growth
Dramatic shifts in US policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) carry deep economic consequences. Beyond the immediate harm to trans individuals, these policies pose threats to multinational companies that have long defended inclusive workplace values. Their leaders must now navigate a cultural minefield where staying silent risks public backlash, while openly supporting trans employees can invite legal and political complications. The business repercussions of this moral issue could affect everything from brand reputation to talent retention.
To Protect Florida’s Environment, Conservation Is Cheaper Than Restoration
Restoration projects are a major industry all over Florida. The biggest example is the Everglades, which has become the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project in human history. The Everglades were once regarded as an obstacle to progress, development, and farming, all of which conspired to get rid of it. Then we learned our lesson: the Everglades are a vital natural habitat. Despite the clear lesson of the Everglades, our shortsighted leaders keep allowing the same damage or destruction of other precious parcels of Florida’s ecosystems.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, May 11, 2025
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, last day for RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre, the ongoing demolition of 2 million Gazans.
Getting to Know Pope Leo XIV
Pope Leo XIV’s choice of a papal name could indicate a point of view. Pope Leo XIII wrote a groundbreaking encyclical in 1891, “Rerum Novarum,” subtitled “On Dignity and Labor.” In this he stressed the rights of workers to unionize and criticized the conditions in which they worked and lived. He also championed other rights the ordinary worker deserved from their bosses and from their government.
Florida Republicans Devour Their Own
Florida’s elected representatives are fighting like weasels in a sack. The Senate versus the House; the House versus the governor; the governor versus everybody. Senate President Ben Albritton politely insists he won’t pass massive tax cuts “at the expense of the long-term financial stability of our state.” Such tax cuts would pretty much ensure county and municipal governments — police, firefighters, parks, roads, libraries — would take an enormous hit.