Grady Judd, one of the most well-known sheriffs in Florida is letting his officers know that he has their backs against people recently pardoned by President Donald Trump. And furthermore, he thinks the President messed up by getting them released from lockdown.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 26, 2025
‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, ‘Crimes of the Heart’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, the mystery of that one Willa Cather letter, and a few more thoughts on the writer from Nebraska.
Saltwater Flooding a Serious Threat to Electric Vehicles’ Batteries
Particularly when these batteries are soaked in saltwater, they can become “ticking time bombs,” in the words of Florida State Fire Marshall Jimmy Patronis. That’s because the fire doesn’t always occur immediately when the battery is flooded. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 36 EVs flooded by Hurricane Ian in Florida in 2022 caught fire, including several that were being towed after the storm on flatbed trailers.
Joan Dupray McReynolds, 1934-2025
Joan Dupray McReynolds was born August 10th, 1934, in Vista, California to Donald and Emma Dupray. Joan met and married the love of her life James “Jim” Newton McReynolds while he was stationed in California, and they remained together for 46 years until his passing. She was a proud military wife and lived in Germany through three separate deployments, with her husband and three boys while Jim was on active duty.
Should Public Money Fund Religious Charter Schools? Supreme Court Will Decide Constitutionality.
In Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, the Oklahoma Supreme Court agreed with the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, that the charter school board violated state law, the Oklahoma Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution when it allowed St. Isidore, a Catholic online school, to become a charter school.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 25, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens, coffee with Commissioner Spradley, ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, Gamble Jam, Cinderella: Youth Edition, at Athens Theatre, pining for the days when reading the press didn’t induce vomiting.
The Good and Bad of Ozempic
Today, GLP-1 drugs, including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, have become household names and key tools in the fight against obesity. GLP-1 drugs could help treat dozens of other ailments as well. But there are risks. GLP-1 drugs come with significant side effects and increase the risk of 19 health conditions, such as gastrointestinal issues, kidney stones and acute pancreatitis, in which the pancreas becomes inflamed and dysfunctional.
DeSantis Cant Wait to Get His Hands on ‘Illegal Immigration’ Legislation
Gov. Ron DeSantis used the power of his bully pulpit on Thursday to once again lean on the Florida Legislature to come together for a special legislative session next week to further restrict illegal immigration, vowing to fight like a “junkyard dog” that just won’t stop until he sees results. The governor has said repeatedly over the past couple of weeks that the Legislature must not wait until the regular session opens in March to address the newly implemented executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on reducing the number of the undocumented in Florida.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 24, 2025
Remembering Dexter Romweber, the cold-weather shelter opens, Flagler and Florida unemployment numbers released, ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, Cinderella at Athens Theatre.
Charlie Hebdo 10 Years On: Conversations About Free Speech Are Still Too Black and White
Communities’ reactions to satire are deeply influenced by factors such as religious marginalization, political exclusion and cultural tensions. The Charlie Hebdo attack was a horrific act of violence that cannot be justified. However, the discussions that followed often overlooked the ways in which the magazine’s caricatures perpetuated racist stereotypes – particularly against Muslims.
Protesters Disheartened and Disbelieving at an Abortion-Rights Rally in St. Pete: ‘Florida Is Gone’
Two months after a proposal to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion law and enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution failed to gather the 60% required for passage, more than 100 people gathered Wednesday on four street corners in downtown St. Petersburg to advocate for the cause. But it was a dispirited and disbelieving protest.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 23, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets and awards a contract to start demolition and construction of the pier, Lee Greenwood at the Fitz, a Palm Coast committee considers requests to rename two city venues, Alice Munro considered and reconsidered.
Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship
One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders relating to immigration and immigrants is a direct attack on the long-standing constitutional principle of birthright citizenship. That’s the declaration in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that anyone born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen, regardless of their parents’ nationalities or immigration status.
Florida Lawmakers Are Looking for Money, Now that Biden’s Covid Aid Has Dried Up
Florida lawmakers have started filing what are expected to be hundreds of proposals seeking money for local projects and programs — but legislative leaders are cautioning not to expect as much spending as in the past few years. As of Tuesday morning, House members had filed 40 funding proposals, while one had been filed in the Senate, according to legislative websites. Lawmakers will consider the proposals as they negotiate a budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year during the legislative session that will start March 4.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 22, 2025
A discussion on book bans at today’s Separation Chat discussion, John Lennon’s ‘Lost Weekend,’ at Ocean Art Gallery, Weekly Chess Club for Teens, reflections on the inaugural, a few words about Andrew Jackson.
Sexual Identity Is More Fluid Than Previously Thought
Nearly 16% of people changed their sexual identity over a 12-year period, according to a new study I conducted with my colleagues, involving around 35,000 residents of Stockholm County. This challenges long-held beliefs about sexual identity being largely fixed.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 21, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets, where James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice meets John McCain’s cheeky Islamophobia.
3 Strategies to Bridge the Deepening Partisan Divide
A record-high 80% of Americans believe the U.S. is greatly divided on “the most important values”. A similar percentage of Americans said they feared violence and threats to democracy. Almost half the country believes people on the other side of the political divide are “downright evil.” Some say that the vitriolic rhetoric of political leaders and social media influencers is partly to blame for the country’s state of toxic polarization. Others cite social media platforms that amplify misinformation and polarization.
“We Cannot Walk Alone… We Cannot Turn Back”
A brief history of the origins and battles of the Martin Luther King federal holiday, and of the MLK monument at the Washington Mall, with full text and video of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech.”
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 20, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens. A strange conjunction between Martin Luther King Day and the inaugural, with a very special musical special to mark the special occasion, and Trump’s Letterman nights.
David Lynch Exposed the Rot at the Heart of American Culture
Lynch’s films and TV series reflected the dark, ominous, often bizarre underbelly of American culture – one increasingly out of the shadows today. American cinema holds up a mirror to society. Lynch was a master at this. His images of corruption, violence and toxic masculinity ring all too familiar in America today.
Trump’s Coming Tax Plan: Shift Handouts from Poor to Rich
Republicans plan to give the richest Americans a fresh round of individual tax breaks, slash the corporate tax rate yet again, and cut taxes on capital gains and dividends, which would let their Wall Street friends keep even more of their winnings when they sell a stock or are showered with dividends. Then they’ll move to step two: draconian budget cuts for the programs Americans rely on.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 19, 2025
‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, ‘Crimes of the Heart’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, the tautology of “Christian fiction,” Mencken’s two cents.
RFK’s Vaccine Disinformation is Distorting Science and Threatening Public Health
Doctors, scientists and public health researchers have expressed concerns that Kennedy would turn his views into policies that could undermine public health. As a case in point, news reports have highlighted how Kennedy’s lawyer, Aaron Siri, has in recent years petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to withdraw or suspend approval of numerous vaccines over alleged safety concerns.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 18, 2025
The Martin Luther King Day celebration and parade in Bunnell, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley returns, ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, ‘Exit Laughing,’ at Daytona Playhouse, Woodrow Wilson’s racism.
Rule of Law Lost in Hush Money Sentencing of Trump
Trump won’t be able to buy a gun in some states, travel to 38 countries including Canada and Japan without a waiver, or do jury duty. Yet Trump was sentenced only to an “unconditional discharge”, meaning he will face no further penalties. Nearly half of people convicted of the same crime in the state of New York would go to prison, and Trump could have faced a fine of up to US$170,000.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 17, 2025
The great Crystal Gayle at the Fitz, ‘Every Brilliant Thing,’ at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, ‘Crimes of the Heart’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Chekhov.
2024 Was Deadliest Year on Record for Reporters
Since 7 October 2023, at least 146 journalists have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon, though the actual numbers are likely much higher, as the CPJ is investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing or detained. Meanwhile, foreign journalists are denied access to Gaza by Israeli authorities.
DeSantis Names Ashley Moody to Rubio’s Senate Seat, and James Uthmeier as Attorney General
Ahley Moody, a Republican who was first elected attorney general in 2018, has been a close ally of DeSantis in fights against the Biden administration on issues such as immigration enforcement. DeSantis also said he will appoint his chief of staff, James Uthmeier, to succeed Moody as attorney general.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 16, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens again as temperatures dip into the 30s, Marineland and Flagler County workshop a new agreement over park land, ‘Exit Laughing,’ at Daytona Playhouse, Elvis’s Aloha from Hawaii.
Panama to U.S. and China: Buzz Off
Panama is aware of the importance of its key geopolitical asset and keen to balance U.S. and Chinese interests with its own desire to run the canal without undue influence from either Washington or Beijing.
Revamped Proposal to Legalize Recreational Pot in Florida Emerges, With Tweaks to Blunt Opposition
Two months after a similar measure failed to garner enough voter support to pass, a political committee bankrolled by the state’s largest medical-marijuana company has launched a new effort to allow recreational pot in Florida. The revamped proposal, filed Tuesday at the state Division of Elections by the Smart & Safe Florida committee, would go on the 2026 ballot. It seeks to address a number of issues raised by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who led a drive to defeat last year’s proposed constitutional amendment.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 15, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens tonight, the Tourist Development Council meets, the Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board hears the site plan application for Palm Coast’s future maintenance operations center, the hottest year on record.
Beware Snowbirds: The Far Right Is Growing in Canada, Too
A book on the far right in Canada, “The Great Right North,” shows that events like the Freedom Convoy are representative of where the far right is going, how it is recruiting, how it is communicating internally and with Canadians at large, and how it is progressing in the national political discourse, with similarities with the United State’s maga movement.
Rebuffing Conservationists, Fed Officials Will Keep Manatee ‘Threatened,’ Not Endangered
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected today to publish a proposed rule that details its reasons for keeping the threatened classification. Meanwhile, the proposed rule would change the classification from threatened to endangered for what are known as Antillean manatees, which are found in Puerto Rico.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 14, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens, the Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop, the Community Traffic Safety Team meets, Matt Gaetz’s name is floating around the 2026 gubernatorial race.
Global Temperatures Passed Critical 1.5°C Milestone for First Time in 2024
2024 was the first year on record with a global average temperature exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. All continents except Australasia and Antarctica experienced their hottest year on record, with 11 months of the year exceeding the 1.5°C level. Global temperatures have been at record levels – and still rising – for several years now. The previous hottest year on record was 2023.
DeSantis Calls Special Session on Immigration, Condo Safety, Hurricane Relief and Petition-Gathering
Saying he expects a “sea change” in federal immigration policies from the incoming Trump administration, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday called the Florida Legislature into special session to deal with illegal immigration and three other issues. The session will begin on Jan. 27 and will include deliberations on condominium safety regulations, hurricane relief, and fraudulent signature-gathering petitions for constitutional amendments.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 13, 2025
The Flagler County Commission holds a pair of meetings and discusses coming budgets, a ribbon-cutting at the new tennis courts at Palm Coast’s Southern Rec Center, when the military is fetishized into an end in itself at the expense of the freedoms and the people it defends.
Police More Likely to Make Domestic Violence Arrests When Pets Are Also Abused
Animal cruelty is weaponized when an intimate partner threatens to harm, or actually harms, a pet to control their partner. This tactic is powerful. Victims of intimate partner violence regularly cite fear for the safety of their pet as a primary reason they do not leave an abusive situation.
When Democracy Dies in Broad Daylight
While Trump openly bellows whatever imperial fever dreams about Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and the Gulf of Mexico visit him in the dark of night, once proud institutional bulwarks rush to prostrate themselves before him in advance of any demand that they do so. Alas, the mainstream media is not immune to this siren-call of cowardice.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 12, 2025
Democratic Party Congressional Candidates Meet and Greet, ‘Exit Laughing,’ at Daytona Playhouse, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, remembering Dalida and Gigi l’amoroso.
How the U.S. Could Make Canada an American Territory
Every Canadian needs to pay attention to American history: In one treaty, the U.S. annexed the present-day states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming. It subsequently illegally invaded Indigenous territory in the west. Canada could be next — perhaps not immediately as the 51st state, but quite possibly as a U.S. territory that would deny Canadians any voting rights for Congress or the presidency. The constitutional architecture exists in the U.S. to make it happen.
Judge Scraps Biden’s LGBTQ Protections and Bans Requiring Teachers to Use Students’ Chosen Pronouns
A federal district court judge struck down President Joe Biden’s effort to protect transgender students and make other changes to Title IX, ruling the U.S. Department of Education violated teachers’ rights by requiring them to use transgender students’ names and pronouns. The ruling, which applies nationwide, came as a major blow to the Biden administration in its final days and to LGBTQ+ advocates. President-elect Donald Trump took aim at transgender people in a culture war-focused campaign.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 11, 2025
The cold-weather shelter opens tonight, American Association of University Women meet, Gamble Jam in the cold, The Isaacs at the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center, Bernie Sanders gets a vote for Lebanese president.
University Board Nominee Calls Career Women ‘Medicated, Meddlesome and Quarrelsome.” DeSantis Defends Him.
Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his appointment to the University of West Florida Board of Trustees of a political scientist who claims that encouraging women to prioritize their careers has led to the decline of family life. In speeches, essays, articles, and interviews Scott Yenor details his views against same-sex relationships, including that LGBTQ+ practices bring “dreaded diseases,” and labeling career-oriented women as “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome.”
Trump’s Unconditional Discharge Explained
Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, and will be the first president of the United States with a felony conviction. The sentencing brings this phase of the case to an end. Once the sentence is officially entered in a final judgment, Trump can appeal the case, as he has a legal right to do so. Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, made clear during the sentencing that Trump intends to appeal.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 10, 2025
Free For All Fridays on WNZF recaps the top stories of 2024 with a roundtable of local reporters and editors, the Friday Blue Forum, reflections on Jimmy Carter’s funeral and the Burghers of Calais.
Christian Pressure Group Pushing Lawmakers to Ban Freedom of Personal Pronouns in Local Governments
John Labriola, a lobbyist for Christian Family Coalition Florida, told Marion County lawmakers Wednesday that his organization would like to see restrictions in the 2023 education law extended to city and county governments. Labriola said he hopes the issue will be considered during this year’s legislative session, which will start March 4.
How the Santa Ana Winds Fuel California’s Deadly Fires
Thousands of homes and other structures, including several schools, had burned by Jan. 9, and at least five people had died. Officials urged more than 180,000 residents to evacuate at the height of the fires. With the winds so strong, there was little firefighters could do to control the flames. Here’s what causes extreme winds like this in Southern California, and why they create such a dangerous fire risk.