Larry Cavallaro pleads out his first-degree felony rape charge, free meals for kids at Bunnell’s Housing Authority and FPC, the Bunnell City Commission meets, Malcolm McDowell, Anthony Burgess and A Clockwork Orange.
Florida & Beyond, and All Opinions
Did the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban Diminish Mass Shootings? Yes.
The risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the period in which the assault weapons ban was active. The proportion of overall gun homicides resulting from mass shootings was also down, with nine fewer mass-shooting-related fatalities per 10,000 shooting deaths.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 12, 2022
Flagler Pride Weekend 2022 concludes, Grace Community Food Pantry, Loving v. Virginia, Ronald Reagan’s Tear Down This Wall speech and a Brandenburg.
Crowded Primaries Are Good for Extremists, Bad for Voters
Each additional candidate who gets votes lowers the number of votes needed to secure a nomination. The outcomes of primaries with many candidates are unpredictable and may result in extreme, inexperienced or controversial nominees who may not truly represent a majority of voters. And a fringe candidate winning the primary and advancing to the general election can mean a risky candidate for their party.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 11, 2022
It’s Flagler Pride Weekend 2022 at Palm Coast’s Town center, with music, food and all sorts of fun, and who doesn’t miss red-capped Jacques Cousteau, and a word from Bernard Rustin.
To Get Safe Schools, Mental Health Resources Are Critical
School violence prevention requires professionals – counselors, psychologists and social workers – who know how to create an emotionally safe environment, which research shows is critical to safe schools. There is a critical shortage of such employees.
Prison ‘Gain Time’ Case Roils Court as Sexual Offender Is Deemed Eligible for Early Release
Rejecting longstanding legal precedent, a state appeals court said Friday that a man convicted of attempted sexual battery on a child is eligible to be considered for early release from prison.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, June 10, 2022
Travis Smith sentencing, Portugal Day Flag Raising Ceremony at City Hall, Saul Bellow and his “Silver Dish” and an excerpt from The Adventures of Augie March.
Antarctica’s Riskiest Glacier Is Losing Its Grip
Antarctica is a continent comprising several large islands, one of them the size of Australia, all buried under a 10,000-foot-thick layer of ice. The ice holds enough fresh water to raise sea level by nearly 200 feet. You don’t want its glaciers melting. They are.
DeSantis Scraps Another Cabinet Meeting, Canceling State Business; Fried Calls It ‘Insult’ to Floridians
Gov. Ron DeSantis has cancelled a meeting of the Florida Cabinet again, prompting complaints from Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried that the governor is evading oversight under Florida’s unique executive branch mechanism.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, June 9, 2022
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, talks sewer plant again, and fireworks (again), it’s Donald Duck’s birthday, and the question is asked: Who killed journalist Shireen abu Akleh?
The Legal Age to Buy Assault Weapons Doesn’t Make Sense
Considering someone an adult once they turn 18 is a relatively recent trend, and it’s not clear that it can stand up to public scrutiny as a meaningful threshold for legally purchasing firearms.
Fourth Grade Survivor of Uvalde Shooting Tells Congress: ‘I Don’t Want It to Happen Again’
11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, a fourth grader who survived the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting where 19 students and two teachers were murdered told lawmakers Wednesday that she is afraid to go back to school.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, June 8, 2022
The Blue 22 Forum, the anniversary of George Orwell’s 1984, what scared David Brooks in Orlando, the Supreme Court’s conflicting decisions on discrimination.
Meh Confidence: What It Means for Boris Johnson and Conservatives
The history of such confidence votes in Conservative leaders tells us that they almost always end up damaging both the leader and the party even when they support the incumbent. We have seen this happening on three successive occasions over the past 32 years.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 7, 2022
The Palm Coast City Council hears from Jonathan Lord and considers approving a big apartment complex in Town Center, the school board meets, it’s the Sun King’s birthday, but Ellen has a phone call with another god.
Why the NRA Is So Successful at Stopping Gun-Safety Legislation
NRA has vigorously rejected any charge that its policies contribute to America’s gun problem, instead advancing proposals such as improving mental health responses, “hardening” schools with increased security, and potentially even arming teachers, which leaders claim, without evidence and against educators’ wishes, can serve as a deterrent.
U.S. Supreme Court Sides With Florida Government Agency Against Family in Medicaid Dispute
Justices, in a 7-2 opinion, sided with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in a case that drew attention from officials across the country. They ruled that the agency could claim $300,000 of an $800,000 settlement a company paid a family after a 13-year-old girl was permanently injured bya company truck.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 6, 2022
A busy meeting of the Flagler County Commission, with platting of The Gardens (now Veranda Bay), a new south-side library construction contract and more on the agenda, plus a special meeting of the Flagler Beach City Commission on its sewer plant, Pushkin, Harvey Firestein.
‘Napalm Girl’ at 50: How Media Myths Distort an Image’s Reality and Exaggerate Its Impact
The Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm Girl” photograph by Nick Ut of terror-stricken Vietnamese children fleeing an aerial attack on their village, taken 50 years ago this month, has rightly been called “a picture that doesn’t rest.” But the image formally known as “The Terror of War” has also given rise to tenacious media-driven myths.
Trial Diary: A Journalist Sits on a Baltimore Jury
Could 12 strangers agree on justice in Baltimore, a city riddled with killings and distrust of the police, in a shooting case where the victim was an actor on the legendary drama “The Wire”?
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 5, 2022
Grace Community Food Pantry, the day the CDC noted the AIDS pandemic for the first time, Jamil Jan Kochai’s Occupational Hazards.
‘Severance’ and the Folly of the Work-Life Balance
Imagining work as separate from home life has its roots in the Anglo-American suburban model: drive along newly built highways to the downtown office in the morning and retreat home to family in the suburban idyll. But the TV show Severance’s dystopian message mimics today’s all-encompassing digital capitalism: there is no escape.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 4, 2022
First Saturday Creative Bazaar Arts and Craft Market, Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone, Grace Community Food Pantry, the United Nation’s International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression.
How Assault-Style Rifles and Ammunition Kill and Maim
The AR-15 usually fires a version of the ammunition used by many NATO soldiers to kill enemy troops. As shown in Texas, and many other mass shootings, that ammunition is also extremely effective at harming civilians. The Texas killer purchased 1,600 rounds of the ammunition.
Florida’s Relatively New Red-Flag Law Emerging as Model for Other States in Gun Debate
As a national debate rages over gun laws after last month’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school, proponents of “red-flag” policies point to a Florida law as a model for states seeking to strip deadly weapons from people who could cause harm.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, June 3, 2022
First Friday in Flagler Beach, Jonathan Lord on Free for All Fridays, Mohsin Hamid’s Face in the Mirror, Allen Ginsburg, the first woman rabbi in the United States.
Overcoming the Distorted Narrative of Christian Nationalism
I grew up in a church community that pitted people against each other and called it “Christianity.” As a pastor now myself, I know there’s another way. We work to transform systems of inequality rather than blame people for struggles outside of their control, the author writes.
Québec’s Dangerous Bill 32 on ‘Academic Freedom’
In addition to undermining the autonomy of universities and faculty, and creating myriad implementation problems, the bill blurs the important distinctions between free expression and academic freedom. Most troubling, it signals that politicians are turning academic freedom into a political weapon.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, June 2, 2022
The Palm Coast Democratic Club meets at AACS, a child teaches what to do in case of an active shooter, Flagler Beach webcam makes its Briefing debut, Johnny Weissmuller, Queen Elizabeth, Ted Koppel on gun show loopholes.
Why Are So Many Americans Fixated on England’s Monarchy?
In America, Elizabeth retains approval ratings that would leave most political leaders envious. No royal family from any other nation has induced the same level of scrutiny or celebration. But British royals have been eliciting similar responses on American shores for the past 150 years.
Florida Healthcare Providers Sue the State Over 15-Week Abortion Law that Starts July 1
The law has caused an upset among reproductive rights activists, and the lawsuit claims that HB 5, the piece of legislation that was approved this spring by the Legislature, violates protections under the Florida Constitution.
U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Florida-Like Texas Law Limiting Content Moderation by Social Media
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked a Texas law similar to one in Florida that prohibits large social media companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, from banning or removing users’ posts based on political viewpoints. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week ruled that Florida’s law unconstitutionally restricts free speech.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Code enforcement board meeting, the Beatles’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, the Second Amendment as the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence interpreted it, Penny Lane.
Mass Shootings Are a Boon to Firearms Stocks
A week on, and the market rally of gun stocks following the latest mass shooting hasn’t subsided. That’s been the case with recent mass shootings–but it contrasts with shootings a decade or more ago, when gun companies’ share prices would fall.
Florida Teacher Union Declares Backing of Charlie Crist in Governor’s Race
Local educator unions across the state also showed support for Crist, a former Republican governor, Attorney General and, notably, the state’s former Education Commissioner in Florida.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, May 31, 2022
An uneventful day-after- memorial Day in Flagler County. It is the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Linda Greenhouse on abortion and the 13th Amendment.
Memorial Day’s Forgotten History
Memorial Day was born in the former Confederate States in 1866 and adopted by the United States in 1868. Cities and towns across America have for more than a century claimed to be the holiday’s birthplace, but we have sifted through the myths and half-truths and uncovered the authentic story of how this holiday came into being.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 30, 2022
Memorial Day commemorations in Palm Coast at 8, at the county in Bunnell at 10, in Flagler Breach at 1 p.m., and all about Voltaire’s complete works, finally completed.
Roadside Safety Messages Distract Drivers and Increase Crashes
A study showed there were two to three per cent more crashes within one to 10 kilometres downstream of each dynamic message sign during the week fatality messages were shown. This suggests that this specific behavioral intervention backfired.
Our National Pathology Over Guns Is Inhuman
Insanity, as has been famously remarked, is doing the same thing over and over again, and hoping for a different result. And that is the story of our lawmakers’ ongoing inability to pass even the simplest of gun violence reduction measures. And, then, under our very noses, we’re hit with another Sandy Hook.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, May 29, 2022
Grace Community Food Pantry, Houston’s divide over guns, Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul, G.K. Chesterton’s Catholic obsession, Palatka’s Blue Crab Festival has its last day.
Arming Teachers: Risks and a False Sense of Security
There are documented incidents of school staff using their firearm to neutralize a shooter. However, researchers have not found evidence that arming teachers increases school safety. Rather, arming teachers may contribute to a false sense of security for teachers, students and the community, when even highly trained police in gunfights hit their target only 18% of the time.
DeSantis Appoints Ex-Education Commissioner Corcoran to University System’s Board of Governors
The Board of Governors oversees Florida’s 12 state universities and is tasked with such responsibilities as adopting regulations designed to carry out state laws related to higher education. Corcoran, a former Republican House speaker, served three years as the state’s top education official overseeing Florida’s public-school and college systems.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, May 28, 2022
Flagler-Palm Coast High School and Matanzas High’s graduations, LGBTQ+ ice cream social at Sally’s Ice Cream, the NRA’s unconscionable conventions, the guillotine, Amnesty International.
Yes, Muslims Are Portrayed Negatively in American Media
The warm welcome Americans and Europeans have given Ukrainians in 2022 contrasts sharply with the uneven – and frequently hostile – policies toward Syrian refugees in the mid-2010s. Negative opinions on Muslims were mostly influenced by what they heard and read in the media, which projects “stereotypic beliefs, negative emotions and support for harmful policies” toward Muslim Americans.
5th District’s Judge Meredith Sasso Among Applicants to Florida Supreme Court Vacancy
After reshaping the Florida Supreme Court to reflect his legal and political ideology, Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to pick a new justice who will give him four appointees on the state’s highest court. Judge Sasso is a member of the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network and the ultra-conservative Federalist Society, whose faculty advisors included Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 27, 2022
A vigil in memory of the Buffalo and Uvalde massacre victims, Rachel Carson and Silent Spring, and if you want to go a bit west, it’s Palatka’s annual Blue Crab Festival.
The NRA’s Evolution from Gun-Control Advocacy to Anti-Restriction Zealotry
Despite the proximity in time and location to the Texas shooting, the NRA is proceeding with its plans to hold its annual convention in Houston on May 27-29, 2022. The featured speakers include former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican.
Voluble on All Things National and Ideological, DeSantis Is Mum on Robb Elementary Massacre
About the mass murder this week in Uvalde, Texas — where an 18-year-old shot to death 19 small kids and two teachers — Gov. Ron DeSantis has uttered not a peep beyond ordering flags at state and local facilities flown at half staff — and it was President Joe Biden’s proclamation.