Carl Devore, 20, is sentenced for the murder of Victor James Betty in a 2016 home invasion in Palm Coast’s F Section, the Palm Coast council takes on a series of issues, a talk on freedom of thought.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
Monday Briefing: Banned Book Week, Bunnell Budget, Stamp and Coin, a 14-Year-Old Violinist Phenom, Immigrant’s Necessity
Sophie’s Choice is shown twice at the public library to mark Banned Book Week, the Bunnell commission holds its budget workshop, setting next year’s tax rate, a 14-year-old stuns you with her violin skills.
How Florida’s Failing Charter Schools Exploit Voucher Program To Stay Alive on Public Dime
Charter schools that fail two years in a row should close by law. Instead, they reopen as private schools and use publicly funded vouchers to keep operating, with the state’s blessing.
Trying To Make Up For Mistakes, Florida Health Officials Seek To Speed Up Medical Pot Licensing
The Florida Health Department had until Oct. 3 to issue 10 medical pot licenses to producers, a deadline it will almost certainly miss even as it scrambles to ease the application process.
Weekend Briefing: Walk to End Alzheimer’s, Weimar Berlin at CRT, Evita at Playhouse, Paul Renner, Free Museum, J.S. Bach
Great plays at City Repertory Theatre and the Flagler Playhouse, free museum entry at Agriculture Museum Saturday, Paul Renner visits, Alzheimer’s Walk in Flagler Beach, Andras Schiff plays Bach.
That Last-Ditch Effort By Republicans To Replace ACA: What You Need To Know
While the chances for this last-ditch measure appear iffy, many GOP senators are rallying around a proposal that would repeal most of the ACA.
Irma Insurance Claims Nearing $2 Billion, Exceed Matthew and Hermine Combined
Calculated through Sunday afternoon, Irma’s losses easily exceeded the 119,000 claims and $1.2 billion in losses for Matthew and the 19,700 claims and $139 million in losses from Hermine.
Thursday Briefing: Evita at the Playhouse, Fernando Sor, Office Hours With Nelson Aide, Flagler Budget
Andrew Lloyd Weber’s “Evita” is at the Flagler Playhouse, the County Commission holds its final budget hearing to set next year’s tax rates, Fernando Sor’s guitar.
Wednesday Briefing: New Student School Board Members, Palm Coast Budget, Senior Games
The Palm Coast City Council holds its second and final budget hearing, setting next year’s tax rates, meet the two new student school board members, undercover in the alt-right.
Irma’s Death Toll in Florida at 34 and Rising
Irma is credited with five deaths by drowning and four deaths involving carbon monoxide, including the carbon-monoxide deaths of a mother and two teenage children in Orange County.
Nursing Home Where Eight Died Wasn’t On FPL’s Priority List For Power Restoration
FPL placed nursing homes in a second tier of infrastructure — behind “critical” but ahead of residential homes. Local officials gave the Hollywood Hills home that designation using FPL guidance.
How Health Insurers Fuel Opioid Crisis By Denying Claims For Less Addictive But More Expensive Drugs
Insurers limiting access to drugs with a lower risk of addiction or dependence. Why? Opioid drugs are generally cheap while safer alternatives are often more expensive.
Monday Briefing: Welcome Back To Normal, Bunnell’s Fire Future, Alcohol Hours, Erin Vickers Trial
It’s a return to normal after a week of hell, the Bunnell City Commission votes on whether to hand over fire services to the county and extend alcohol sale hours, Erin Vickers goes on trial.
You Cannot Be Serious: Hurricane Maria Sniffs Around Irma’s Wake
Hurricane Maria is expected to become a major hurricane, with a global forecast seeing it veer away from Florida, but the more accurate European forecast seeing it come closer to the coast.
Uninsured Rate Falls To Record Low Of 8.8%, But Florida’s Rate Still 5th Highest in U.S.
Florida’s rate of uninsured would have been lower had Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature not prevented the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid.
Flagler Beach Museum Providing 100 Free Meals Thursday Evening
Beyond the meals, the museum will be a one-stop resource center for residents needing volunteer help or assistance with FEMA.
Post-Irma Daily Digest: Flagler Beach Crossovers and Pier Update, FEMA Registrations, Senior Games
Local governments’ drizzle of information releases related to post-Hurricane Irma recovery are distilled for their essentials and published in a running tally.
Florida Shellshock: Blanket Outages, Floodwaters, and This: Irma Could Cost “Billions Upon Billions”
Millions of people continued to lack electricity as cleanup work expected to reach into the billions of dollars began in the wake of deadly Hurricane Irma.
Hurricane Irma Closures and Re-Openings in Palm Coast and Across Flagler
Hurricane Irma-related notices of closures, business reopenings and other related notices from government, hospitals, schools and colleges and businesses.
FPL Projects 4.1 Million Could Lose Power in Coming Days; Time Runs Out To Flee Irma
FPL has pre-positioned more than 13,500 recovery workers from its staff and other states at 20 staging areas, including a new bunker-like facility in Palm Coast.
Trump’s Decision To End Dreamers’ Amnesty Creates Dilemma For Florida GOP
Florida is home to at least 30,000 people who could be affected and is the base for exponentially more Hispanic voters who could be critical to next year’s elections.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Bill of Rights: For Workers
At the end of his last State of the Union message to Congress in 1944, Franklin Delano Roosevelt outlined an ambition plan for a “Second Bill of Rights” to ensure “”economic security and independence.”
Unemployment Ticks Up to 4.4% as Job Creation Slows to 156,000 and Wages Lag
Where it matters most, in wages, workers are not seeing improvements even as the economy recorded its 83rd straight month of job growth. Corporate profits remain healthy.
Labor Day Weekend Briefing: Last Days Of Summer, Espanola Road Work, Judy Taylor’s Labor History, Antifa
A blessedly quiet, uneventful Labor Day weekend in Flagler, Judy Taylor’s great mural, a few words for woeking people, Dreamers on the edge, media’s antifa trap.
Supreme Court Backs Scott, 5-2, In Death Penalty Battle With State Attorney Ayala
Scott removed Ayala from handling capital cases earlier this year, shortly after she announced her office would not pursue the death penalty for defendants.
Development and Disasters: A Deadly Combination Well Beyond Houston
Scientists warn of more and expanding “bull’s-eyes” as Americans build in parts of the country at ever greater risk because of climate change and severe weather.
Thursday Briefing: Rymfire Open House, Overdose Awareness at Veterans Park, Rescue Training at Old Food Lion, Orhan Pamuk
An Overdose Awareness event at Flagler Beach’s Veterans Park includes a memorial service, firefighters are training in the old Food Lion shopping center, Orhan Pamuk talks about his latest novel.
The Brutality Behind Trump’s Arpaio Pardon
The president called Joe Arpaio, a man who chronically violated people’s constitutional rights, a “patriot.” What does that make his victims?
Michael Thomas, 2nd in Command at FHP, Resigns Over Ticket-Quota Inquiry
It is the latest fallout from an ongoing investigation into whether troopers were told to meet a traffic-ticket quota, Lt. Col. Michael Thomas was a 30-year veteran and deputy director for the FHP.
Wednesday Briefing: Heat Index to 105, Senior Focus Group, Friends of A1A, FWC in Houston, Millicent Fenwick
ElderSource facilitates a senior focus group to figure out what senior needs there are in Palm Coast and Flagler, Florida’s Fish and Wildlife officers are providing big rescue help in Houston.
White Supremacists Joked About Using Cars To Run Over Opponents Before Charlottesville
Leaked chat room conversations by white supremacists reveal expectations of violence — along with detailed planning and intelligence gathering on left-wing adversaries.
Tuesday Briefing: Scams, Skims and Cons, Going Solar in Palm Coast, Snelgrove Status, Houston 1st and Last
The Palm Coast council talks about what it learned from Hurricane Matthew and installs solar devices, it’s still about Houston, convicted murderer David Snelgrove back in court.
Millionaire John Goodman, Battling DUI Manslaughter Conviction, Disputes Blood Tests
Justices will hear arguments about whether the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has adequate rules to ensure that blood-alcohol tests conducted in DUI cases provide accurate results.
Monday Briefing: County’s Eyes On Bunnell Fire Department, Medical Pot Dispensaries in Bunnell, Dwayne Taylor Trial, Houston
Flagler County and Bunnell governments talk about Bunnell ceding its fire operations to the county, Bunnell talks medical pot dispensaries, which it will likely ban, how to Help Houston flood victims.
Florida Lawmakers to Review Law Targeting Injured Undocumented Workers
A top Florida lawmaker and a national insurance fraud group criticized a law used by insurers to turn in injured undocumented workers and avoid paying workers’ comp benefits.
Weekend Briefing: Child Safety, Scenic A1A Land Use Concerns, National Parks Birthday, FYO Tour, Birch Bayh
The Scenic A1A Pride Committee is worried about potential land use changes in the Hammock, a sheriff’s demonstration to keep children safe in cars, CPR class, Willie Nelson’s guitar.
Mark James Asay Is Executed for 1987 Jacksonville Murders, 24th on Scott’s Watch
Asay is the first Florida inmate to be put to death in more than 19 months and the first execution under a lethal injection procedure never used before in Florida or any other state.
Thursday Briefing: Tager Breakfast, Execution Vigil Bus, Weldon Ryan, Flagler Beach Budget, Repairing Willie’s Guitar
Superintendent James Tager headlines Common Ground Breakfast, Weldon Ryan at European Village, a vigil bus picks up in Palm Coast before heading to latest execution in Starke, a reading list for every state.
Wednesday Briefing: Heat Index to 105, Construction Update, Johnston Trifecta, Losing Afghanistan
School Board member Colleen Conklin, Homebuilder Association’s Jason DeLorenzo speaks to economic board, Citizens insurance rate at issue, losing in Afghanistan.
Florida Supreme Court Admits to Mistake But Clears Record 24th Execution on Scott’s Watch
Lawyers for Mark James Asay, convicted of killing Robert Booker and Robert McDowell in 1987, asked for a new hearing after the Florida Supreme Court issued a rare mea culpa for mistaking one of the victims as black.
Tuesday Briefing: Eric Floyd Trial, iPad Distribution at Rymfire, Orchids, Chamber Orientation, Self-Playing Violins
Palm Coast’s Eric Floyd goes on trial on four charges of raping a teen girl in his charge, iPads distributed to 4th and 6th graders at Rymfire, Merkel’s fame, an IPA with pot.
Proposal To Replace Statue of Confederate Gen. Smith With One of Mary McLeod Bethune
State Sen. Perry Thurston proposed a resolution to have Bethune replace Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith as one of Florida’s two representatives in the National Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C.
Monday Briefing: Eclipse Starts At 1:18, Peaks at 2:49 PM, Mosquito Control Eclipse at 10 AM
It’s all about the eclipse today, but it’s also about the troubled Mosquito Control board meeting, and the Flagler County Commission considering a take-over of Bunnell’s fire department.
Confederate Monuments’ Phony History
The irony of the debate over removal of Confederate monuments is that it supposes a removal of history when the monuments themselves were intended to re-write it.
Mitt Romney: “There May Commence An Unraveling of Our National Fabric”
In forceful terms, the former GOP p[residential nominee calls on Donald Trump to apologize and denounce white supremacists and other racists without equivocation or equivalencies.
Weekend Briefing: Home and Garden Show, DSC Enrollment Day, Surfers For Autism, GOP Kickoff
Surfers For Autism all day Saturday in Flagler Beach, enrollment day at Daytona State, Flagler Republicans kick off their 2018 campaign, Steinbeck on Florida, Vermeer and the 19th Amendment.
Embroiled In Supremacist Controversy, Trump Reaches For Scott As Lunch Buddy
Scott had lunch with Trump at a New Jersey golf resort, as the president continued to draw criticism for comments about a white nationalist rally.
How One City Took Down Its Confederate Monuments: A Stealth History Lesson
After Charlottesville, Baltimore’s removal of Confederate statues in the dead of night was the city’s latest attempt to make peace with the ghosts of the Civil War. Other cities may be taking note.
Thursday Briefing: The Inspired Mic at Europa, Brice Wright, Heat Index to 107, Band Instruments, DSC Trustees
The Inspired Mic is another night at the improvs at European Village’s New Europa, the Daytona State trustees meet, band instrument distribution at Buddy Taylor, plus another scorcher.
“I Didn’t Serve To Defend Neo-Nazis,” Gov. Scott Says, Distancing Himself From Trump
Pam Bondi, meanwhile, endorsed UF President Kent Fuchs’s denial of a request to allow white nationalist leader Richard Spencer to speak on campus next month.