The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, Ian McEwan’s “What We Can Know,” and McEwan spends an hour with David Remnick.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
Florida Patients and Doctors Scramble As Proposed AIDS Drug Program Cuts Threaten Care And Public Health
Proposed budget cuts by the Florida Department of Health threaten the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which helps low-income residents access vital HIV medications and insurance coverage. Tightened eligibility requirements and restricted drug options could leave thousands without lifesaving treatment, likely increasing transmission rates and public health costs. Advocacy groups have filed lawsuits to block these changes while the legislature debates additional program funding options.
In Year’s Second Execution, Florida Kills Melvin Trotter, 65, For 1986 Murder Of Grocery Store Owner
Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison for the 1986 murder of Palmetto grocery store owner Virgie Langford. The Florida Supreme Court denied his stay of execution, rejecting claims about lethal injection procedures and his age. Catholic leaders unsuccessfully urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute the sentence, criticizing Florida for its accelerated pace of executions after a highly active year.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 25, 2026
The River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization meets, free tax preparation, Separation Chat, Marco Rubio’s manufactured humanitarian crisis in Cuba, images from Havana and a DeLillo snapshot.
The Supreme Court’s Unanswered Questions in Tariffs Ruling
The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s widespread use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose unilateral tariffs, ruling the practice unconstitutional. While the decision invalidates emergency tariffs on multiple nations and removes a key negotiating tool, Trump may still utilize specific provisions like Sections 232 and 301. The ruling opens the door to potential trade renegotiations and corporate tariff refund demands.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 24, 2026
The school board holds a pair of meetings, County Commissioner Kim Carney’s town hall meeting at the Wickline Center in Flagler Beach, Barack Obama’s too-controlled answer to Bryan Tyler Cohen.
From Kent State to Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Minneapolis’
The deadly 2026 shootings of protesters in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents share striking similarities with the 1970 Kent State tragedy. Public reactions to the two events diverged sharply due to modern free speech tools. Social media, ubiquitous smartphone cameras, and rapid digital song releases empowered Minneapolis protesters to firmly control the narrative, driving widespread public support and a swift retreat by the federal government.
Florida Sugarcane and Citrus Growers Face Losses of Over $3 Billion Following Two Winter Freezes
A pair of severe winter storms in early 2026 caused an estimated $3.17 billion in agricultural damage across Florida, according to preliminary state reports. The freezing temperatures devastated crops that were not yet ready for harvest, severely impacting sugarcane, citrus, strawberries, and other vital commodities. These extensive crop losses will likely disrupt future yields, prompting state officials to immediately seek necessary federal emergency assistance.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 23, 2026
Cold-weather shelter opens tonight. Community Preparedness Workshop at the Emergency Operations Center, the Bunnell City Commission meets, Thomas Mann’s “Little Lizzy” as a study in humiliation, Jacques Brel’s “Ne me quitte pas.”
Stephen Colbert, the FCC, and the Looming War on Editorial Discretion
When CBS prevented Stephen Colbert from airing an interview with a Democratic candidate over Federal Communications Commission equal time rules, Colbert broadcasted the segment on YouTube instead. Historically, the equal time provision mandates equal broadcast access for political candidates, but Congress created exemptions for news programming. Now, critics fear that FCC threats against late-night talk shows signal a growing interference with independent media editorial discretion.
Local Governments Clash With Federal Agencies Over Massive ICE Detention Centers
As the Trump administration rapidly expands immigration detention through a massive federal budget, local communities across the United States are vehemently opposing new plans to convert industrial warehouses into large holding facilities. Citing a profound lack of federal transparency, severe economic strain, and deep humanitarian concerns, city leaders are utilizing zoning laws, moratoriums, and public pressure campaigns to successfully block these highly controversial new developments.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 22, 2026
“The Colored Museum” at City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, favorites and not so favorites of Milan Cortina, what curling looked like in 1902.
China’s Electric Vehicle Dominance, Except in U.S. and Canada
In 2025, 1 in 4 new automotive vehicle sales globally are expected to be an electric vehicle – either fully electric or a plug-in hybrid. In the U.S., however, EV sales have lagged, only reaching 1 in 10 in 2024. By contrast, in China, the world’s largest car market, more than half of all new vehicle sales are electric. The International Energy Agency has reported that two-thirds of fully electric cars in China are now cheaper to buy than their gasoline equivalents. With operating and maintenance costs already cheaper than gasoline models, EVs are attractive purchases.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 21, 2026
“The Colored Museum,” at City Repertory Theatre, ‘Social Security,’ At the Daytona Playhouse, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley, The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, John Updike’s Couples and The Doors.
How Ring Doorbells Reveal the Future of Surveillance
Private companies are supplying “intelligence as a service” to government entities and others – and as the Amazon-owned Ring doorbell camera company found out when it advertised a new feature, the change is not without controversy. This broader surveillance economy that has emerged is driven by private companies, not governments.
Florida Senate Unanimously Passes Public Registry for Animal Abusers
The Florida Senate unanimously passed a bill to create a public registry for individuals convicted of animal abuse, maintained by the Department of Law Enforcement. The legislation also aims to crack down on puppy mills by introducing consumer protections, eliminating limits on recoverable veterinary costs, and establishing a voluntary best-practices program for dog breeders. A companion bill is currently advancing through the Florida State House.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, February 20, 2026
“The Colored Museum,” at City Repertory Theatre, the Flagler County Cultural Council meets, free tax preparation services, a magazine with an “intelligent, well-educated, discriminating, well-informed” readership celebrates itself, Social Security,’ At the Daytona Playhouse.
Why Mass Shootings Can’t Be Reduced to a Mental Illness Diagnosis
In the aftermath of violent tragedies like the recent mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., a common panic-fueled and grief-stricken reaction is to rush to simple, tidy explanations. Mental illness, for example, is often used to make sense of what appears to be senseless. The explanation is appealing because mass shootings feel shocking and sudden, and mental illness offers a way to wrestle with them and try to understand. But the reality is that although mental illness sometimes plays a role in violence, it’s rarely the most important factor.
Florida House Votes to End All Non-School Homestead Property Taxes, But Senate Odds Remain Slim
The Republican-controlled Florida House passed a joint resolution to ask voters to eliminate non-school property taxes for homesteaded properties by 2027. The sweeping measure faces doubtful success. The Florida Senate has not introduced companion legislation and Governor Ron DeSantis prefers a special session. Democrats heavily criticized the proposal, warning that it would bankrupt local governments and defund essential local public services.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 19, 2026
Marineland Commission meeting, Model Yacht Club in Palm Coast’s Town Center, the Olympic moment occasionally regained, when the queen of England jumped out of a helicopter, Reagan at the 1984 Olympics.
Atrocities Are Not Limited to Autocratic Countries
Thousands of people were killed by Iranian security forces in days of protests in January 2026. Meanwhile, in the same month, the killing of two protesters in Minneapolis shone a light on the use of fatal force by American law enforcement — a phenomenon that in 2025 saw the deaths of more than 1,300 people in the U.S., according to data tracking such incidents. But should one of those two sets of killings be classified as a government-involved “atrocity” and the other not? The answer may not be as simple as you think, and it revolves around how you classify atrocities.
Florida House Approves New Hurdles on Already Strict and Stingy Jobless Benefits
The Florida House passed a bill Tuesday adding strict eligibility requirements for unemployment benefits, including mandatory weekly employer contacts and interview attendance. While Republicans argue the measure is necessary to stop fraud, Democrats contend it penalizes valid claimants in a system that already offers some of the nation’s lowest benefits. The bill also mandates the Department of Commerce perform bi-weekly checks on claimants’ incarceration and employment status.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
The Tourist Development Council meets, the Palm Coast Planning Board meets, the county’s industrial development board meets, Bingo Night at Palm Coast Elks Lodge, Jesse Jackson.
A Day After Blocking Diverting Emergency Money to Migrant Enforcement, House Backs Down
The Florida House on Tuesday backed down from its proposal to block emergency funds from being used on illegal immigration enforcement following harsh criticism from the DeSantis administration. This represents a massive pivot from the GOP-dominated House’s original proposal to exclusively use the Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund on natural disasters, an idea blasted as “moronic” by the state Attorney General James Uthmeier, a former aide to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
What Jesse Jackson Accomplished
Jesse Jackson expanded the size and diversity of the electorate and inspired a generation of African Americans to seek office. His political rise coincided with and likely encouraged the exodus of racially conservative white voters out of the Democratic Party. Today, some political thinkers question whether a distinct “Southern politics” continues to exist. The life and career of Jesse Jackson reflect that place still matters – even for people who have left that region for colder pastures.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 17, 2026
The Palm Coast City Council meets, Adam Shatz’s Another Country, a worrisome power shift between job openings and the unemployed.
Deep Reading Is Your Best Tool Against Misinformation
The average American checks their phone over 140 times a day, clocking an average of 4.5 hours of daily use, with 57% of people admitting they’re “addicted” to their phone. Tech companies, influencers and other content creators compete for all that attention, which has incentivized the rise of misinformation. Deep reading can be an effective way to counter misinformation as well as reduce stress and loneliness. It can be tough to go deeper than a speedy skim, but there are strategies you can use to strengthen important reading skills.
House Plan Shifts USF’s Sarasota Campus Under Control of Right-Winged New College
This year’s budget negotiations will entail negotiating the future of University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus. The Florida House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee Monday approved transferring the campus to New College of Florida on a party line vote, in line with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget proposal. The Senate is not on the same page, leaving such a swap completely out of its initial budget documents.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 16, 2026
Today is Presidents’ Day. Schools, courts, and some government offices are closed. John Updike’s thrill at Obama’s election and his warning about what it took, and what was ahead, plus memories of Grant Park and Patricia Lockwood.
The Extremism Behind Christian Reconstructionism
Christian Reconstructionism is a theological and political movement within conservative Protestantism that argues society should be governed by biblical principles, including the application of biblical law to both personal and public life. It was born from the ideas of theologian R. J. Rushdoony, who argued that Old Testament laws should still apply to modern society. He supported the death penalty not only for murder but also for offenses listed in the text such as adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality, witchcraft and idolatry.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 15, 2026
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,’ At Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine, ‘Social Security,’ At the Daytona Playhouse, getting to know Margaret Fuller.
Why the Moon Is Getting Tired of Earth
The Moon is getting 1½ inches (3.8 centimeters) farther away from the Earth every year. The motions of the Earth and Moon have many interesting consequences, and studying how they move over time can help researchers better understand how each has changed over the 4½ billion years since the Earth and Moon formed.
Bill Would Ban Local Governments From Requiring Lot Sizes Larger Than 1,200 Square Feet
A proposal by a Port Charlotte Republican to ease local zoning rules to spur construction of smaller, more affordable homes has cleared its first House Committee. The House Intergovernmental Affairs Subcommittee advanced HB 1143, titled the “Florida Starter Homes Act,” on a 14-2 vote following debate over local control, infrastructure capacity and housing affordability.
Saturday in Byblos:
Raja Shehadeh’s Vanishing Palestine
Florida’s House Bill 31 seeks to rename the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” erasing Palestinian history and rights to their land and violating international law. Raja Shehadeh’s “Palestinian Walks,” originally published in 2007, explores the systematic expropriation of Palestinian land through legal chicanery, balkanization, theft and settler vigilantism. But it does so through six walks that, for all the politics and bitter history, also have the transcendent feel of inner discovery of the soul through nature or reverence for the deep roots of genealogy through places as ordinary as a hillside.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 14, 2026
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, ‘Social Security,’ At the Daytona Playhouse, Gamble Jam, Israel’s continuing land grabs in the West Bank.
Don’t Be So Quick to Fall for That ‘Love Languages’ Gimmickry
Introduced by Gary Chapman, an American Baptist pastor, author and marriage counsellor, in his 1992 book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts, the idea is now a dominant framework in modern relationship advice. While incredibly popular and often used as a “go-to” tool on first dates, recent research suggests that the idea lacks strong scientific evidence for its central claims. Love languages function like a culturally appealing system that individualizes relational strain, obscures power and substitutes a checklist for the harder work of understanding how relationships actually function over time.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, February 13, 2026
Free tax preparation services by volunteers should you need them, the Friday Blue Forum, opening night for “Social Security” at the Daytona Playhouse, Cheryl’s birthday, a Thoreau poem flies us to the moon.
Václav Havel’s ‘The Power of the Powerless’ Is as Relevant as Ever
When Czech political dissident, playwright and poet Václav Havel wrote The Power of the Powerless in October 1978, he set out to analyse a distinctive form of domination that did not rely primarily on terror, spectacle or charismatic authority, but on routine compliance and the internalisation of untruth. His central claim was disarmingly simple. Systems of coercive power endure not only because of police power or elite control, but because ordinary people participate in them by acting as if they believe what they know to be false. They live, as Havel put it, “within a lie”.
Bill Would Ban Local Governments from Adopting Climate Change Policies
Local governments would be severely restricted from implementing measures to reduce the effects of climate change under a bill approved Thursday by a Florida House committee. The measure (HB 1217) comes nearly two years Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation declaring that the state would no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 12, 2026
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series explores conservation bright spots, AI reduces some of the great works of literature to haikus, a hoot of a top-10 list.
When Students Are Informants: The Threat to Academic Freedom
A 2023 study found that 75% of college students feel free to report their professors if they say something objectionable. Self-identified liberal students were more likely than conservative students to report their professors to the administration. Law professor Stanley Fish has argued, freedom of speech – meaning the right to express oneself without restraint – has no place in college classrooms. To him, college classrooms are about the pursuit of truth.
Florida Kills Ronald Heath by Lethal Injection in First State Execution of 2026
Ronald Heath, 64, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday at Florida State Prison for the 1989 murder of Michael Sheridan. This marks Florida’s first execution of 2026, following a record-setting year of 19 executions under Governor Ron DeSantis. The U.S. Supreme Court denied final appeals regarding the case, which involved a robbery and stabbing detailed graphically in court records.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Free tax preparation services in Flagler County, the husband who does the grocery shopping, Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen,” Neil Postman’s technopoly.
Florida Emergency Management Spent $405 Million in 7 Months Chasing Migrants, Meals and Badges
Records show that the Florida Division of Emergency Management used the state’s emergency respond fund to spend $405.6 million from August through February on 83 contracts with private vendors. That figure includes expenditures like $479,000 to one private jet firm for staff flights to and from the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz” detention center and to support evacuation of Americans during the Israel-Hamas war; thousands spent at 55 restaurants; and a $203.72 purchase at “Awards4U,” a company that lets customers create their own badges, trophies, or awards.
Infusing Asphalt with Plastic Could Help Roads Last Longer
A technology mixes small amounts of recycled plastic with asphalt – the black, sticky material used to make roads and parking lots. The result is a stronger road that lasts longer and keeps some used plastic out of the environment. This process is like adding rebar to concrete: The plastic adds flexibility and strength. Roads with this mix can better handle extreme temperatures and heavy traffic. In hot places, that means fewer cracks and potholes.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
The school boar, the county planning board and the traffic safety team all meet (separately), the weekly Chess Club for Teens meets at the library, where the ICE detention facilities are located, Darin Strauss.
The Supreme Court Is About to Undo Generations of Political Gains for Blacks
In a case known as Louisiana v. Callais, the court appears ready to rule against Louisiana and its Black voters. In doing so, the court may well abolish Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision that prohibits any discriminatory voting practice or election rule that results in less opportunity for political clout for minority groups.
David Jolly Blasts Other Gubernatorial Candidates for Not Calling Out Trump on Obama Post
Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly wants to know why no other candidate for governor of Florida has condemned President Donald Trump for the video he posted on his Truth Social account depicting former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 9, 2026
The Bunnell City Commission meets, the library board meets, free tax preparation services in Flagler County, the Washington Post dies in darkness, Conrad Aiken’s Three Star Final.
Anti-ICE Protesters’ Nonviolent Playbook Mirrors That of People in War Zones Across the World
From coast to coast, groups of people are springing up to protect members of their communities as Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents threaten them with violent enforcement. The resistance mirrors nonviolent movements in war zones from Colombia to the Philippines to Syria, which teach lessons about surviving in the midst of danger that Americans have been discovering instinctively over the past year.




















































