Marine Le Pen, figurehead of France’s Rassemblement National (RN), one of the most established far-right parties in Europe, has been found guilty of embezzling funds from the European parliament. Le Pen is highly unlikely to be able to stand as a candidate in the next presidential election in 2027.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 31, 2025
Cello Studio Recital presented by the Stetson School of Music, Sara Novak and Principal Kristin Bozeman of Matanzas High School and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Angela O’Brien earn a milestone, Omar el Akkad on becoming American.
That Time Change Affects Your Body and Mind Longer Than You Realize
Your biological internal clock is controlled in a small region of the brain called the hypothalamus. It regulates hormone release, body temperature and metabolism. So if your circadian rhythm is out of kilter, those things will be disrupted too.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 30, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Karen Russell’s “Prospectors” and the Florida writer’s love of weird.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 29, 2025
Peps Art Walk, Phenomenal Women’s Event at AACS, Richard Slotkin turns Star Wars upside down, Curtis Yarvin welcomes the end of American democracy, Christopher Lasch bemoans American narcissism.
Ukraine’s Minerals Explained
Ukraine is often recognised for its vast agricultural lands and industrial heritage, but beneath its surface lies one of the world’s most remarkable geological formations, the “Ukrainian Shield”. These geological processes created favourable geological conditions for forming several mineral deposits including lithium, graphite, manganese, titanium and rare earth elements. All these are now critical for modern industries and the global green energy transition.
Florida Unemployment Rate Rises to 3.6%, Flagler’s to 4.6% as State Revises Labor Force Numbers Upward
The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday said the unemployment rate increased from 3.5 percent in January to 3.6 percent in February. Florida had a 3.4 percent jobless rate in December. The unemployment rate in Flagler County jumped to 4.6 percent after the Department of Commerce revised figures substantially–adding several thousand people to Flagler County’s labor force.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, March 28, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock, the curious retention pond in front of Flagler Beach’s coming Margaritaville Hotel.
Freedom of Expression, the Extreme Right’s New Totem
Won with great difficulty by citizens against the powers of the State and the Church in the 18th century, freedom of expression is now brandished like a totem by the bosses of social networks and by the extreme right.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, March 27, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, the Marineland Town Commission meets, Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, the eternal adolescence of Air Force One.
The Heritage Foundation’s Long War Against the Education Department
The Heritage Foundation first called for limiting the federal role in education in 1981. That’s when it issued its first Mandate for Leadership, a book offering conservative policy recommendations. It renewed the call in its Project 2025, a conservative political initiative to revamp the federal government.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Clay Jones on the Voice of America, Tyrese Patterson sentencing, Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the public library, in praise of Hooters, refuge against conversion therapy.
Bezos’s Washington Post About Face
Journalists report news to inform the public, while editors and opinion writers analyze and explain news, putting facts into a larger context to aid understanding. Jeff Bezos is throwing that model of journalism out. Opinion and analysis in the Post will limit itself to one particular apparently libertarian viewpoint: what Bezos calls personal liberties and free markets.
Florida Senate Committee Approves Ignoring Preferred Pronouns in State and Local Government
A measure (SB 440) prohibits requiring any employee to refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns if such pronouns don’t correspond to that person’s sex at birth. Job applications in public workplaces may only ask an applicant whether they are male or female and may not provide a nonbinary option.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The Flagler County School Board meets at 1 p.m. in an information workshop and again at 6 p.m., Budgeting by Values, where people are the happiest (and the least happy).
What You Should Know About What TikTok Calls News
Here are three crucial things to know about news you get on TikTok: What videos count as news, how they got to you, and what you should do when you see them. These are three of what media researchers know as the “5 C’s” of news literacy: content, circulation and consumption. While they can be applied to any kind of news use, they are especially important for TikTok, where anyone can create content, and the algorithm decides what we see.
Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Florida Law Restricting Minors on Social Media
Senior U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee dismissed a challenge against the state’s law barring Floridians younger than 14 from using social media apps with addictive features filed by industry organizations NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association representing companies including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 24, 2025
A new flag flies above the Flagler Beach Police Department, the Bunnell City Commission meets, the Flagler County Beekeepers Association, Sheldon Cooper’s fun with flags, Omar el Akkad’s fear of flags.
Americans Still Believe They Live in a Compassionate Country
A new study on the state of compassion in America by the Muhammad Ali Center, which the late boxer co-founded 20 years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, to advance social justice, found that the desire to help others still animates many Americans despite the nation’s current polarization and divisive politics. Cities with high compassion scores have more community engagement and civic participation than those with low scores.
Lawless Persecution of Mahmoud Khalil Is a Threat to Free Speech Everywhere
Without a warrant or charges, plainclothes Department of Homeland Security agents forced their way into Columbia University’s student housing and detained Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil, who had demonstrated against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. They then shipped him to an immigration jail in Louisiana, impeding his access to attorneys and visits from family. Khalil is a lawful U.S. permanent resident who hasn’t been charged with any crime. Khalil’s fate — and the larger battle over the First Amendment — concerns all of us.
Can Democrats Get Their Act Together Before Its Too Late?
For more than a century, Democrats were the party of slavery, states’ rights, and Jim Crow, but, gradually and imperfectly, became the party of civil rights, voting rights, and workers’ rights, switching places with Republicans, who once had a strong streak of social progressivism. For 30 years, Florida elected New South governors such as Reubin Askew, Bob Graham, and Lawton Chiles, leaders who believed in education, open government, protecting the environment — crazy stuff like that. Where are they now?
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 23, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, “Warbirds Over Flagler” fly-in at the Flagler Executive Airport, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, a conjunction between David Copperfield and Willie Nelson.
The Hidden Epidemic of Violence Against Nurses
An alarming 8 in 10 nurses face violence at work. As a result, health care workers are more than four times as likely to be injured by workplace violence than workers in all other industries combined. Despite these staggering numbers, the full extent of this epidemic may not be fully understood because nurses and other health care workers chronically underreport violent encounters.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 22, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, “Warbirds Over Flagler” fly-in at the Flagler Executive Airport, Gamble Jam, The Flagler Wellness Expo, George Hanns’s one-liners are still sharp.
Why Forecasting A Tornado’s Strike Zone Is Still Elusive
Pinpointing exactly where a tornado will touch down – like those that hit states including Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama on March 14 and 15 – still relies heavily on seeing the storms developing on radar.
Edward James Is Killed by Lethal Injection for Murders of Betty Dick and her Granddaughter, Toni Neuner in 1993
More than three decades after he murdered a Seminole County woman and her 8-year-old granddaughter, Edward James was put to death by lethal injection Thursday night at Florida State Prison. James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8:15 p.m. and became the second person executed in Florida this year. Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected attempts by James’ attorney to halt the execution.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, March 21, 2025
‘Violet’ the musical opens at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, J.S. Bach is 340 years old and we celebrate with the Art of Fugue, the Friday Blue Forum and Free For All.
President’s Defiance of Court Order Fuels a Constitutional Crisis
The president is flouting U.S. District Court Judge James Bloasberg’s order that planes carrying deportees must return to the United States. The subsequent legal back-and-forth, which is still going on, intensified so quickly and dramatically that many legal scholars say the U.S. is past the point of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration appears to be defying a federal court order, for which Boasberg may hold the government in contempt.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Shawn Peter Cona on trial over written threats, Town of Marineland commission meeting, The Bronx Wanderers at the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center, following the logic of going childless as an ethical choice.
Israeli Politics Kill Gaza Ceasefire
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to blame Hamas for the resumption of fighting that killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18 – “only the beginning,” Netanyahu warned – the truth is the seeds of the renewed violence are to be found in Israeli domestic politics.
Flu Deaths Near 7-Year High As Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Spreads
Flu-related deaths hit a seven-year high in January and February, the two months that usually account for the height of flu season, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal statistics. There were about 9,800 deaths across the country, up from 5,000 in the same period last year and the most since 2018, when there were about 10,800.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
The Palm Coast Planning Board meets, the Palm Coast administration and members of the council break ground on a new maintenance facility, the William McKinley tariffs in a very different era.
Anti-DEI Rules Are Gutting Educators’ Free Speech Rights
The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion have continued in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education to educational institutions – from preschools through colleges and universities.. The directive the letter infringes on free speech, misunderstands the law and undermines education.
Florida Attorney General Threatens Removal of City Council Members Who Blocked Cooperation with ICE
Attorney General James Uthmeier is threatening three Fort Myers city council members with removal from office after they refused Monday to deputize police officers to participate in immigration enforcement. Uthmeier, who became the attorney general a month ago, warned the council that Gov. Ron DeSantis could remove them from office if they didn’t allow the city police to question people about their immigration status and detain those subject to deportation.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m., with an expected pro-Mayor Norris rally preceding it, Random Acts of Insanity at Cinematique, how the Washington Post is dying at Jeff Bezos’s hands.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 17, 2025
The Flagler County Commission meets in the evening, the East Flagler Mosquito Control District meets in the morning, and the histories and pleasures of Calvados, drink of the gods on Mont-Saint-Michel.
Corporations Are DEI’s Great Hope
Whether the many attacks on DEI – first from right-wing bloggers, then from the Supreme Court, and then from the president – will affect the makeup of Fortune-level boards in 2025 and beyond remains to be seen. But so far, these boards are diversifying and seeing the value in DEI.
The Sun Is Setting on Government Transparency in Florida
Florida, the “Sunshine State,” once known as a beacon of government transparency, is growing ever darker, and the clouds are spreading throughout the United States. Legislators have passed more than 1,100 exemptions to the Florida Sunshine Law, and growing.
Florida Law Banning Kids off Some Social Media Prevails as Judge Refuses to Block It
A federal judge has rejected a request to block a 2024 Florida law aimed at keeping children off some social-media platforms, ruling that industry groups did not show they had legal standing to challenge the measure.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 16, 2025
‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Farmer’s market at European Village, the pandemic of backing in, how parking lots have ruined the urban landscape.
The Women Behind the Babylonian Captivity
The church may not have seen women as equals, but nevertheless, their work was key to the workings and finances of the papal court and its surroundings. The fact is made obvious in the archives by simply following the money. It was hardly glamorous work but necessary for the functioning of the papal court.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 15, 2025
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meeting, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley, ‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre.
In Red and Blue States, a Surge of Laws to Protect Teen on Social Media
In 2024, approximately half of all U.S. states passed at least 50 bills that make it harder for children and teens to spend time online without any supervision. Research shows that adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media have an increased risk of anxiety and depression. Almost half of teens have faced online bullying or harassment, with older teen girls most likely to have experienced this. Social media use has been linked to self-harm in some cases.
Norman Mugford, Alarmpro Owner and Longtime Member of Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board, Dies at 76
The City of Palm Coast honors the memory and celebrates the life of Norman Mugford, who passed away on Monday, March 3, 2025, at the age of 76. Norman was a dedicated public servant whose tireless commitment significantly shaped Palm Coast, particularly through his extensive service on the Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, March 14, 2025
Flagler Outreach Brings Social Service Providers to Cattleman’s Hall, ‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, the misfortunes of the phrase “leader of the free world.”
Even Florida’s Naturalized Citizens Are Fearful of State’s New Anti-Immigrant Laws
Nearly two-thirds of non-U.S. citizens and one-third of U.S. citizens who responded to a survey, said they hesitated to seek medical care in the year after Florida’s anti-immigration law, SB 1718, was enacted. Laws like SB 1718 amplify preexisting racial and structural inequities. Structural inequities are systemic barriers within institutions — such as health care and employment — that restrict access to essential resources based on one’s race, legal or economic status.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, March 13, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, the Bunnell City Commission and its planning board hold a joint workshop on the 8,000-home development of the Reserve at Haw Creek, Christopher Lasch and tariffs.
Brain-Training to Stave Off Dementia Is Unproven. Here’s What Might Help.
People can make changes throughout adulthood that can help prevent or delay cognitive decline and even reduce their risk of dementia. These include quitting smoking and properly managing blood pressure. Brain-training games, which claim to optimize your brain’s efficiency and capacity at any age, are unproven.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Flagler County, Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, Bunnell and Beverly Beach governments hold a joint meeting to discuss a beach-management plan, Michael Jennelle’s trial, day 3, the risibility of Palestinian-Israeli prisoner exchanges.
American Imperialism Is Back
Embracing traditional U.S. imperialism would upend the rules that have kept the globe relatively stable since World War II. That would unleash fear, chaos – and possibly nuclear war.